UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OK THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 Class 
 
• » • • 
 
IRational lEbition 
 
 The Writings of 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Edited by 
 
 Arthur Brooks Lapsley 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt 
 
 Together with 
 
 The Essay on Lincoln, by Carl Schurz 
 
 The Address on Lincoln, by Joseph H. Choate 
 
 and The Life of Lincoln, by Noah Brooks 
 
 Volurrie»0jid \; , V:' 
 
 The Lamb Publishing Company 
 
 New York 
 
Copyright, 1905 
 
 BY 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 0)1 
 
 r be fmtcfterbocliet press, flew X2otP. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 IMMEDIATELY after Lincoln's re-election to the 
 Presidency, in an off-hand speech, delivered in 
 response to a serenade by some of his admirers on 
 the evening of November 10, 1864, he spoke as 
 follows : 
 
 "It has long been a grave question whether any gov- 
 ernment not too strong for the liberties of its people can 
 be strong enough to maintain its existence in great 
 emergencies. On this point, the present rebellion 
 brought our republic to a severe test, and the Presidential 
 election, occurring in regular course during the rebellion, 
 added not a little to the strain. . . . The strife of 
 the election is but human nature practically applied to 
 the facts in the case. What has occurred in this case 
 must ever occur in similar cases. Human nature will 
 not change. In any future great national trial, com- 
 pared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and 
 as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. 
 Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy 
 to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be 
 avenged. . . . Now that the election is over, may 
 not all having a common interest reunite in a common 
 effort to save our common country? For my own part, 
 
 iii 
 
 226465 
 
iv Introductory 
 
 / have striven and shall strive to avoid placing any 
 obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I 
 have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. 
 While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of 
 a re-election and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty 
 God for having directed my countrymen to a right con- 
 clusion, as I think for their own good, it adds nothing 
 to my satisfaction that any other man may be disap- 
 pointed or pained by the result." 
 
 This speech has not attracted much general atten- 
 tion, yet it is in a peculiar degree both illustrative 
 and typical of the great statesman who made it, alike 
 in its strong common-sense and in its lofty standard 
 of morality. Lincoln's life, Lincoln's deeds and 
 words, are not only of consuming interest to the his- 
 torian, but should be intimately known to every man 
 engaged in the hard practical work of American po- 
 litical life. It is difficult to overstate how much it 
 means to a nation to have as the two foremost figures 
 in its history men like Washington and Lincoln. It 
 is good for every man in any way concerned in public 
 life to feel that the highest ambition any American 
 can possibly have will be gratified just in proportion 
 as he raises himself toward the standards set by 
 these two men. 
 
 It is a very poor thing, whether for nations or 
 individuals, to advance the history of great deeds 
 
Introductory v 
 
 done in the past as an excuse for doing poorly in 
 the present; but it is an excellent thing to study 
 the history of the great deeds of the past, and of the 
 great men who did them, with an earnest desire to 
 profit thereby so as to render better service in the 
 present. In their essentials, the men of the present 
 day are much like the men of the past, and the live 
 issues of the present can be faced to better advan- 
 tage by men who have in good faith studied how the 
 leaders of the nation faced the dead issues of the past. 
 Such a study of Lincoln's life will enable us to avoid 
 the twin gulfs of immorality and inefficiency — the 
 gulfs which always lie one on each side of the careers 
 alike of man and of nation. It helps nothing to have 
 avoided one if shipwreck is encountered in the other. 
 The fanatic, the well-meaning moralist of unbalanced 
 mind, the parlor critic who condemns others but has 
 no power himself to do good and but little power to 
 do ill — all these were as alien to Lincoln as the vicious 
 and unpatriotic themselves. His life teaches our 
 people that they must act with wisdom, because 
 otherwise adherence to right will be mere sound and 
 fury without substance ; and that they must also act 
 high-mindedly, or else what seems to be wisdom will 
 in the end turn out to be the most destructive kind 
 of folly. 
 
 Throughout his entire life, and especially after he 
 rose to leadership in his party, Lincoln was stirred 
 
vi Introductory 
 
 to his depths by the sense of fealty to a lofty ideal; 
 but throughout his entire life, he also accepted human 
 nature as it is, and worked with keen, practical good 
 sense to achieve results with the instruments at hand. 
 It is impossible to conceive of a man farther removed 
 from baseness, farther removed from corruption, 
 from mere self-seeking; but it is also impossible to 
 conceive of a man of more sane and healthy mind — 
 a man less under the influence of that fantastic and 
 diseased morality (so fantastic and diseased as to be 
 in reality profoundly immoral) which makes a man 
 in this work-a-day world refuse to do what is possible 
 because he cannot accomplish the impossible. 
 
 In the fifth volume of Lecky's History of England, 
 the historian draws an interesting distinction be- 
 tween the qualities needed for a successful political 
 career in modern society and those which lead to 
 eminence in the spheres of pure intellect or pure 
 moral effort. He says: 
 
 " — the moral qualities that are required in the higher 
 spheres of statesmanship [are not] those of a hero or 
 a saint. Passionate earnestness and self-devotion, 
 complete concentration of every faculty on an unselfish 
 aim, uncalculating daring, a delicacy of conscience 
 and a loftiness of aim far exceeding those of the aver- 
 age of men, are here likely to prove rather a hindrance 
 than an assistance. The politician deals very largely 
 
Introductory vii 
 
 with the superficial and the commonplace ; his art is in 
 a great measure that of skilful compromise, and in the 
 conditions of modern life, the statesman is likely to 
 succeed best who possesses secondary qualities to an 
 unusual degree, who is in the closest intellectual and 
 moral sympathy with the average of the intelligent men 
 of his time, and who pursues common ideals with 
 more than common ability. . . . Tact, business 
 talent, knowledge of men, resolution, promptitude and 
 sagacity in dealing with immediate emergencies, a 
 character which lends itself easily to conciliation, 
 diminishes friction and inspires confidence, are espe- 
 cially needed, and they are more likely to be found 
 among shrewd and enlightened men of the world than 
 among men of great original genius or of an heroic type 
 of character." * 
 
 The American people should feel profoundly 
 grateful that the greatest American statesman since 
 Washington, the statesman who in this absolutely 
 democratic republic succeeded best, was the very 
 man who actually combined the two sets of qualities 
 which the historian thus puts in antithesis. Abraham 
 Lincoln, the rail-splitter, the Western country lawyer, 
 was one of the shrewdest and most enlightened men 
 of the world, and he had all the practical qualities 
 which enable such a man to guide his countrymen; 
 and yet he was also a genius of the heroic type, a 
 
Vlll 
 
 Introductory 
 
 leader who rose level to the greatest crisis through 
 which this nation or any other nation had to pass in 
 l?he nineteenth century. 
 
 Sagamore Hill, 
 
 Oyster Bay, N. Y., 
 September 22, 1905. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction. Theodore Roosevelt in 
 
 Editor's Preface xv 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. An Essay. Carl Schurz . . i 
 Abraham Lincoln. Memorial Address. Joseph H. 
 
 Choate 77 
 
 1832 
 Address to the People of Sangamon County, March 9th . 123 
 
 To E. C. Blankenship, August 10th . . . .129 
 To Mr. Spears . 130 
 
 1836 
 
 Announcement of Political Views, June 13th . .131 
 
 To Robert Allen, June 21st 132 
 
 To Miss Mary Owens, December 13th . . . .133 
 
 1837 
 
 Speech in Illinois Legislature, January [? ] . . . 135 
 Address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Spring- 
 field, Illinois^ January 27th 148 
 
 Protest in the Illinois Legislature on the Subject of 
 
 SI- very, March 3d (Stone and Lincoln) . . .161 
 
 To Miss Mary Owens, May 7th 162 
 
 To John Bennett, August 5th 163 
 
 To Miss Mary Owens, August 16th . . . .164 
 To the People, August 19th 166 
 
x Contents 
 
 PACK 
 
 Reply to Gen. Adams, October 28th (Lincoln and 
 
 Talbott) 171 
 
 To the Public, October 28th 180 
 
 1838 
 
 To Mrs. O. H. Browning, April 1st . . . .189 
 
 1839 
 
 Remarks in the Illinois Legislature, January 17th . 194 
 
 To Row, June nth 195 
 
 Speech at a Political Discussion in the Hall of the 
 House of Representatives at Springfield, Illinois, 
 
 December [20th ?] 196 
 
 To John T. Stuart, December 23d .... 228 
 
 1840 
 
 Circular from Whig Committee, January [1st ?] 
 Resolution in the Illinois Legislature, November 28th 
 Resolution in the Illinois Legislature, December 2d 
 Remarks in the Illinois Legislature, December 4th 
 Remarks in the Illinois Legislature, December 4th 
 
 1841 
 
 229 
 232 
 232 
 
 *33 
 234 
 
 To John T. Stuart, January 23d 235 
 
 Remarks in the Illinois Legislature, January 23d . . 235 
 Circular from Whig Committee, February 9th . .236 
 Extract from a Protest in the Illinois Legislature 
 against the Reorganization of the Judiciary, Feb- 
 ruary 26th (Lincoln and others) . . . .242 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, June 19th 243 
 
 Statement about Harry Wilton, June 25th (Edwards 
 
 and Lincoln) 248 
 
 To Miss Mary Speed, September 27th .... 250 
 
Contents xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Call for Whig State Convention, October 20th (Whig 
 
 State Central Committee) 252 
 
 1842 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, January [3d ?] 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, February 3d 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, February 13 th 
 
 To G. B. Sheledy, February 16th 
 
 To George E. Pickett, February 2 2d 
 
 Address before the Springfield Washingtonian Temper 
 ance Society, February 2 2d . 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, Feburary 25th 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, February 25th 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, March 27th . 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, July 4th .... 
 
 A Letter from the Lost Townships, August 27th . 
 
 Invitation to Henry Clay, August 29th (Executive 
 Committee "Clay Club") .... 
 
 Correspondence about the Lincoln-Shields Duel, Sep tern 
 ber 17th (Lincoln and Shields) 
 
 Memorandum of Instruction to E. H. Merryman, Lin- 
 coln's Second, September 19th 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, October [4th ?] . 
 
 1843 
 Resolutions at a Whig Meeting at Springfield, Illinois 
 
 March 1st 
 
 Circular from Whig Committee, March 4th 
 
 To John Bennett, March 7th 
 
 To Joshua F. Speed, March 24th . 
 
 To Martin M. Morris, March 26th 
 
 To Gen. J. J. Hardin, May nth . 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 " I HAVE endured,' ' wrote Lincoln not long before 
 * his death, "a great deal of ridicule without 
 much malice, and have received a great deal of 
 kindness not quite free from ridicule.' ' On Easter 
 Day, 1865, the world knew how little this ridicule, 
 how much this kindness, had really signified. There- 
 after, Lincoln the man became Lincoln the hero, 
 year by year more heroic, until to-day, with the 
 swift passing of those who knew him, his figure 
 grows ever dimmer, less real. This should not be. 
 For Lincoln the man, patient, wise, set in a high 
 resolve, is worth far more than Lincoln the hero, 
 vaguely glorious. Invaluable is the example of the 
 man, intangible that of the hero. 
 
 And, though it is not for us, as for those who in 
 awed stillness listened at Gettysburg with inspired 
 perception, to know Abraham Lincoln, yet there is 
 for us another way whereby we may attain such 
 knowledge — through his words — uttered in all sin- 
 cerity to those who loved or hated him. Cold, 
 unsatisfying they may seem, these printed words, 
 while we can yet speak with those who knew him, 
 and look into eyes that once looked into his. But 
 in truth it is here that we find his simple greatness,! 
 his great simplicity, and though no man tried less 
 so to show his power, no man has so shown it more 
 clearly. 
 
 XV 
 
xvi Introductory Note 
 
 Thus these writings of Abraham Lincoln are 
 associated with those of Washington, Hamilton, 
 Franklin, and of the other "Founders of the Re- 
 public," not that Lincoln should become still more 
 of the past, but, rather, that he with them should 
 become still more of the present. However faint 
 and mythical may grow the story of that Great 
 Struggle, the leader, Lincoln, at least should remain 
 a real, living American. No matter how clearly, 
 how directly, Lincoln has shown himself in his 
 writings, we yet should not forget those men whose 
 minds, from their various view-points, have illumined 
 for us his character. As this nation owes a great 
 debt to Lincoln, so, also, Lincoln's memory owes a 
 great debt to a nation which, as no other nation 
 could have done, has been able to appreciate his 
 full worth. Among the many who have brought 
 about this appreciation, those only whose estimates 
 have been placed in these volumes may be mentioned 
 here. To President Roosevelt, to Mr. Schurz and 
 to Mr. Choate, the editor, for himself, for the pub- 
 lishers, and on behalf of the readers, wishes to offer 
 his sincere acknowledgments. 
 
 Thanks are also due, for valuable and sympa- 
 thetic assistance rendered in the preparation of this 
 work, to Mr. Gilbert A. Tracy, of Putnam, Conn., 
 Major William H. Lambert, of Philadelphia, and Mr. 
 C. F. Gunther, of Chicago, to the Chicago Historical 
 Association and personally to its capable Secretary, 
 Miss Mcllvaine, to Major Henry S. Burrage, of Port- 
 land, M£., and to General Thomas J. Henderson, of 
 Illinois. 
 
Introductory Note xvii 
 
 For various courtesies received, the editor is 
 furthermore indebted to the Librarian of the Library 
 of Congress; to Messrs. McClure, Phillips & Co., D. 
 Appleton & Co., Macmillan & Co., Dodd, Mead & Co., 
 and Harper Brothers, of New York; to Houghton, 
 Mifflin & Co., Dana, Estes & Co., and L. C. Page & 
 Co., of Boston; to A. C. McClurg & Co., of Chicago; 
 to The Robert Clarke Co., of Cincinnati, and to the 
 J. B. Lippincott Co., of Philadelphia. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to add that every effort has 
 been made by the editor to bring into these volumes 
 whatever material may there properly belong, 
 material much of which is widely scattered in public 
 libraries and in private collections. He has been 
 fortunate in securing certain interesting correspond- 
 ence and papers which had not before come into 
 print in book form. Information concerning some 
 of these papers had reached him too late to enable 
 the papers to find place in their proper chronological 
 order in the set. Rather, however, than not to 
 present these papers to the readers they have been 
 included in the seventh volume of the set, which 
 concludes the " Writings.' ' 
 
 A. B. L. 
 
 October, 1905. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: AN ESSAY 
 
 By CARL SCHURZ 
 
 VOL. I.— I. 
 
Copyright, 1891 
 
 By Carl Schurz 
 
 and 
 
 Houghton, Mifflin 4 Co 3 
 
This Essay is included in the set with the courteous permission 
 of the author and of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 JVTO American can study the character and career of 
 A ^ Abraham Lincoln without being carried away 
 by sentimental emotions. We are always inclined to 
 idealize that which we love, — a state of mind very 
 unfavorable to the exercise of sober critical judgment. 
 It is therefore not surprising that most of those who 
 have written or spoken on that extraordinary man, 
 even while conscientiously endeavoring to draw a 
 lifelike portraiture of his being, and to form a just 
 estimate of his public conduct, should have drifted 
 into more or less indiscriminating eulogy, painting 
 his great features in the most glowing colors, and 
 covering with tender shadings whatever might look 
 like a blemish. 
 
 But his standing before posterity will not be 
 exalted by mere praise of his virtues and abilities, 
 nor by any concealment of his limitations and faults. 
 The stature of the great man, one of whose peculiar 
 charms consisted in his being so unlike all other great 
 men, will rather lose than gain by the idealization 
 which so easily runs into the cpmmonplace. For 
 it was distinctly the weird mixture of qualities and 
 forces in him, of the lofty with the common, the ideal 
 with the uncouth, of that which he had become with 
 that which he had not ceased to be, that made him so 
 fascinating a character among his fellow-men, gave 
 him his singular power over their minds and hearts, 
 
6 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 and fitted him to be the greatest leader in the 
 greatest crisis of our national life. 
 
 His was indeed a marvellous growth. The states- 
 man or the military hero born and reared in a log 
 cabin is a familiar figure in American history ; but we 
 may search in vain among our celebrities for one 
 whose origin and early life equalled Abraham Lin- 
 coln's in wretchedness. He first saw the light in a 
 miserable hovel in Kentucky, on a farm consisting 
 of a few barren acres in a dreary neighborhood ; his 
 father a typical "poor Southern white," shiftless and 
 improvident, without ambition for himself or his 
 children, constantly looking for a new piece of land 
 on which he might make a living without much work ; 
 his mother, in her youth handsome and bright, grown 
 prematurely coarse in feature and soured in mind by 
 daily toil and care; the whole household squalid, 
 cheerless, and utterly void of elevating inspirations. 
 Only when the family had "moved" into the 
 malarious backwoods of Indiana, the mother had 
 died, and a stepmother, a woman of thrift and energy, 
 had taken charge of the children, the shaggy-headed, 
 ragged, barefooted, forlorn boy, then seven years old, 
 "began to feel like a human being." Hard work 
 was his early lot. When a mere boy he had to help 
 in supporting the family, either on his father's clear- 
 ing, or hired out to other farmers to plough, or dig 
 ditches, or chop wood, or drive ox teams; occa- 
 sionally also to "tend the baby," when the farmer's 
 wife was otherwise engaged. He could regard it as 
 an advancement to a higher sphere of activity when 
 he obtained work in a "crossroads store," where he 
 
Carl Schurz 7 
 
 amused the customers by his talk over the counter; 
 for he soon distinguished himself among the back- 
 woods folk as one who had something to say worth 
 listening to. To win that distinction, he had to 
 draw mainly upon his wits ; for, while his thirst for 
 knowledge was great, his opportunities for satisfy- 
 ing that thirst were wofully slender. 
 
 In the log schoolhouse, which he could visit but 
 little, he was taught only reading, writing, and 
 elementary arithmetic. Among the people of the 
 settlement, bush farmers and small tradesmen, he 
 found none of uncommon intelligence or education; 
 but some of them had a few books, which he bor- 
 rowed eagerly. Thus he read and reread JEsop's 
 Fables, learning to tell stories with a point and to 
 argue by parables; he read Robinson Crusoe, The 
 Pilgrim's Progress, a short history of the United 
 States, and Weems's Life of Washington. To the 
 town constable's he went to read the Revised 
 Statutes of Indiana. Every printed page that fell 
 into his hands he would greedily devour, and his 
 family and friends watched him with wonder, as the 
 uncouth boy, after his daily work, crouched in a 
 corner of the log cabin or outside under a tree, ab- 
 sorbed in a book while munching his supper of corn 
 bread. In this manner he began to gather some 
 knowledge, and sometimes he would astonish the 
 girls with such startling remarks as that the earth 
 was moving around the sun, and not the sun around 
 the earth, and they marvelled where "Abe" could 
 have got such queer notions. Soon he also felt the 
 impulse to write; not only making extracts from 
 
8 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 books he wished to remember, but also composing 
 little essays of his own. First he sketched these with 
 charcoal on a wooden shovel scraped white with a 
 drawing-knife, or on basswood shingles. Then he 
 transferred them to paper, which was a scarce com- 
 modity in the Lincoln household ; taking care to cut 
 his expressions close, so that they might not cover 
 too much space, — a style-forming method greatly to 
 be commended. Seeing boys put a burning coal on 
 the back of a wood turtle, he was moved to write on 
 cruelty to animals. Seeing men intoxicated with 
 whiskey, he wrote on temperance. In verse-making, 
 too, he tried himself, and in satire on persons offen- 
 sive to him or others, — satire the rustic wit of which 
 was not always fit for ears polite. Also political 
 thoughts he put upon paper, and some of his pieces 
 were even deemed good enough for publication in 
 the county weekly. 
 
 Thus he won a neighborhood reputation as a clever 
 young man, which he increased by his performances 
 as a speaker, not seldom drawing upon himself the 
 dissatisfaction of his employers by mounting a stump 
 in the field, and keeping the farm hands from their 
 work by little speeches in a jocose and sometimes 
 also a serious vein. At the rude social frolics of the 
 settlement he became an important person, telling 
 funny stories, mimicking the itinerant preachers 
 who had happened to pass by, and making his mark 
 at wrestling matches, too ; for at the age of seventeen 
 he had attained his full height, six feet four inches 
 in his stockings, if he had any, and a terribly mus- 
 cular clodhopper he was. But he was known never 
 
Carl Schurz 9 
 
 to use his extraordinary strength to the injury or 
 humiliation of others; rather to do them a kindly 
 turn, or to enforce justice and fair dealing between 
 them. All this made him a favorite in backwoods 
 society, although in some things he appeared a little 
 odd to his friends. Far more than any of them, he 
 was given not only to reading, but to fits of abstrac- 
 tion, to quiet musing with himself, and also to strange 
 spells of melancholy, from which he often would pass 
 in a moment to rollicking outbursts of droll humor. 
 But on the whole he was one of the people among 
 whom he lived; in appearance perhaps even a little 
 more uncouth than most of them, — a very tall, raw- 
 boned youth, with large features, dark, shrivelled 
 skin, and rebellious hair ; his arms and legs long, out 
 of proportion ; clad in deerskin trousers, which from 
 frequent exposure to the rain had shrunk so as to sit 
 tightly on his limbs, leaving several inches of bluish 
 shin exposed between their lower end and the heavy 
 tan-colored shoes; the nether garment held usually 
 by only one suspender, that was strung over a coarse 
 home-made shirt ; the head covered in winter with a 
 coonskin cap, in summer with a rough straw hat of 
 uncertain shape, without a band. 
 
 It is doubtful whether he felt himself much 
 superior to his surroundings, although he confessed 
 to a yearning for some knowledge of the world out- 
 side of the circle in which he lived. This wish was 
 gratified ; but how ? At the age of nineteen he went 
 down the Mississippi to New Orleans as a flatboat 
 hand, temporarily joining a trade many members of 
 which at that time still took pride in being called 
 
io Abraham Lincoln 
 
 ' 'half horse and half alligator." After his return he 
 worked and lived in the old way until the spring of 
 1830, when his father "moved again," this time to 
 Illinois; and on the journey of fifteen days "Abe" 
 had to drive the ox wagon which carried the house- 
 hold goods. Another log cabin was built, and then, 
 fencing a field, Abraham Lincoln split those historic 
 rails which were destined to play so picturesque a 
 part in the Presidential campaign twenty-eight years 
 later. 
 
 Having come of age, Lincoln left the family, and 
 "struck out for himself." He had to "take jobs 
 whenever he could get them." The first of these 
 carried him again as a flatboat hand to New Orleans. 
 There something happened that made a lasting im- 
 pression upon his soul: he witnessed a slave auction. 
 "His heart bled," wrote one of his companions; 
 " said nothing much ; was silent; looked bad. lean 
 say, knowing it, that it was on this trip that he 
 formed his opinion on slavery. It run its iron in 
 him then and there, May, 1831. I have heard him 
 say so often." Then he lived several years at New 
 Salem, in Illinois, a small mushroom village, with a 
 mill, some "stores" and whiskey shops, that rose 
 quickly, and soon disappeared again. It was a 
 desolate, disjointed, half -working and half -loitering 
 life, without any other aim than to gain food and 
 shelter from day to day. He served as pilot on a 
 steamboat trip, then as clerk in a store and a mill; 
 business failing, he was adrift for some time. Being 
 compelled to measure his strength with the chief 
 bully of the neighborhood, and overcoming him, he 
 
Carl Schurz n 
 
 became a noted person in that muscular community, 
 and won the esteem and friendship of the ruling gang 
 of ruffians to such a degree that, when the Black 
 Hawk war broke out, they elected him, a young man 
 of twenty-three, captain of a volunteer company, 
 composed mainly of roughs of their kind. He took 
 the field, and his most noteworthy deed of valor 
 consisted, not in killing an Indian, but in protecting 
 against his own men, at the peril of his own life, the 
 life of an old savage who had strayed into his camp. 
 
 The Black Hawk war over, he turned to politics. 
 The step from the captaincy of a volunteer company 
 to a candidacy for a seat in the Legislature seemed 
 a natural one. But his popularity, although great 
 in New Salem, had not spread far enough over the 
 district, and he was defeated. Then the wretched 
 hand-to-mouth struggle began again. He "set up 
 in store-business" with a dissolute partner, who 
 drank whiskey while Lincoln was reading books. 
 The result was a disastrous failure and a load of debt. 
 Thereupon he became a deputy surveyor, and was 
 appointed postmaster of New Salem, the business of 
 the post-office being so small that he could carry the 
 incoming and outgoing mail in his hat. All this could 
 not lift him from poverty, and his surveying instru- 
 ments and horse and saddle were sold by the sheriff 
 for debt. 
 
 But while all this misery was upon him his 
 ambition rose to higher aims. He walked many 
 miles to borrow from a schoolmaster a grammar with 
 which to improve his language. A lawyer lent him 
 a copy of Blackstone, and he began to study law. 
 
12 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 People would look wonderingly at the grotesque 
 figure lying in the grass, "with his feet up a tree," 
 or sitting on a fence, as, absorbed in a book, he 
 learned to construct correct sentences and made him- 
 self a jurist. At once he gained a little practice, 
 pettifogging before a justice of the peace for friends, 
 without expecting a fee. Judicial functions, too, 
 were thrust upon him, but only at horse-races or 
 wrestling matches, where his acknowledged honesty 
 and fairness gave his verdicts undisputed authority. 
 His popularity grew apace, and soon he could be a 
 candidate for the Legislature again. Although he 
 called himself a Whig, an ardent admirer of Henry 
 Clay, his clever stump speeches won him the election 
 in the strongly Democratic district. Then for the 
 first time, perhaps, he thought seriously of his out- 
 ward appearance. So far he had been content with 
 a garb of "Kentucky jeans," not seldom ragged, 
 usually patched, and always shabby. Now, he 
 borrowed some money from a friend to buy a new 
 suit of clothes — "store clothes" — fit for a Sangamon 
 County statesman ; and thus adorned he set out for 
 the state capital, Vandalia, to take his seat among 
 the lawmakers. 
 
 His legislative career, which stretched over several 
 sessions — for he was thrice re-elected, in 1836,' 1838, 
 and 1840 — was not remarkably brilliant. He did, 
 indeed, not lack ambition. He dreamed even of 
 making himself "the De Witt Clinton of Illinois," 
 and he actually distinguished himself by zealous and 
 effective work in those "log-rolling" operations by 
 which the young State received "a general system 
 
Carl Schurz 13 
 
 of internal improvements " in the shape of railroads, 
 canals, and banks, — a reckless policy, burdening the 
 State with debt, and producing the usual crop of 
 political demoralization, but a policy characteristic 
 of the time and the impatiently enterprising spirit of 
 the Western people. Lincoln, no doubt with the 
 best intentions, but with little knowledge of the sub- 
 ject, simply followed the popular current. The 
 achievement in which, perhaps, he gloried most was 
 the removal of the State government from Vandalia 
 to Springfield; one of those triumphs of political 
 management which are apt to be the pride of the 
 small politician's statesmanship. One thing, how- 
 ever, he did in which his true nature asserted itself, 
 and which gave distinct promise of the future pur- 
 suit of high aims. Against an overwhelming pre- 
 ponderance of sentiment in the Legislature, followed 
 by only one other member, he recorded his protest 
 against a proslavery resolution, — that protest de- 
 claring "the institution of slavery to be founded on 
 both injustice and bad policy." This was not only 
 the irrepressible voice of his conscience ; it was true 
 moral valor, too ; for at that time, in many parts of 
 the West, an abolitionist was regarded as little better 
 than a horse-thief, and even "Abe Lincoln" would 
 hardly have been forgiven his antislavery princi- 
 ples, had he not been known as such an "uncommon 
 good fellow." But here, in obedience to the great 
 conviction of his life, he manifested his courage to 
 stand alone, — that courage which is the first requisite 
 of leadership in a great cause. 
 
 Together with his reputation and influence as a 
 
14 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 politician grew his law practice, especially after he 
 had removed from New Salem to Springfield, and 
 associated himself with a practitioner of good stand- 
 ing. He had now at last won a fixed position in 
 society. He became a successful lawyer, less, in- 
 deed, by his learning as a jurist than by his effective- 
 ness as an advocate and by the striking uprightness 
 of his character; and it may truly be said that his 
 vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do with 
 his effectiveness as an advocate. He would refuse 
 to act as the attorney even of personal friends when 
 he saw the right on the other side. He would 
 abandon cases, even during trial, when the testimony 
 convinced him that his client was in the wrong. He 
 would dissuade those who sought his service from 
 pursuing an obtainable advantage when their claims 
 seemed to him unfair. Presenting his very first case 
 in the United States Circuit Court, the only question 
 being one of authority, he declared that, upon care- 
 ful examination, he found all the authorities on the 
 other side, and none on his. Persons accused of 
 crime, when he thought them guilty, he would not 
 defend at all, or, attempting their defence, he was 
 unable to put forth his powers. One notable excep- 
 tion is on record, when his personal sympathies had 
 been strongly aroused. But when he felt himself to 
 be the protector of innocence, the defender of justice, 
 or the prosecutor of wrong, he frequently disclosed 
 such unexpected resources of reasoning, such depth 
 of feeling, and rose to such fervor of appeal as to 
 astonish and overwhelm his hearers, and make him 
 fairly irresistible. Even an ordinary law argument, 
 
Carl Schurz 15 
 
 coming from him, seldom failed to produce the im- 
 pression that he was profoundly convinced of the 
 soundness of his position. It is not surprising that 
 the mere appearance of so conscientious an attorney 
 in any case should have carried, not only to juries, 
 but even to judges, almost a presumption of right on 
 his side, and that the people began to call him, 
 sincerely meaning it, " honest Abe Lincoln.' ' 
 
 In the meantime he had private sorrows and trials 
 of a painfully afflicting nature. He had loved and 
 been loved by a fair and estimable girl, Ann Rutledge, 
 who died in the flower of her youth and beauty, and 
 he mourned her loss with such intensity of grief that 
 his friends feared for his reason. Recovering from 
 his morbid depression, he bestowed what he thought 
 a new affection upon another lady, who refused him. 
 And finally, moderately prosperous in his worldly 
 affairs, and having prospects of political distinction 
 before him, he paid his addresses to Mary Todd, of 
 Kentucky, and was accepted. But then tormenting 
 doubts of the genuineness of his own affection for her, 
 of the compatibility of their characters, and of their 
 future happiness came upon him. His distress was 
 so great that he felt himself in danger of suicide, and 
 feared to carry a pocket-knife with him ; and he gave 
 mortal offence to his bride by not appearing on the 
 appointed wedding day. Now the torturing con- 
 sciousness of the wrong he had done her grew unen- 
 durable. He won back her affection, ended the 
 agony by marrying her, and became a faithful and 
 patient husband and a good father. But it was no 
 secret to those who knew the family well that his 
 
1 6 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 domestic life was full of trials. The erratic temper 
 of his wife not seldom put the gentleness of his 
 nature to the severest tests; and these troubles and 
 struggles, which accompanied him through all the 
 vicissitudes of his life from the modest home in 
 Springfield to the White House at Washington, 
 adding untold private heartburnings to his public 
 cares, and sometimes precipitating upon him incredi- 
 ble embarrassments in the discharge of his public 
 duties, form one of the most pathetic features of his 
 career. 
 
 He continued to "ride the circuit," read books 
 while travelling in his buggy, told funny stories to 
 his fellow-lawyers in the tavern, chatted familiarly 
 with his neighbors around the stove in the store and 
 at the post-office, had his hours of melancholy brood- 
 ing as of old, and became more and more widely 
 known and trusted and beloved among the people of 
 his State for his ability as a lawyer and politician, 
 for the uprightness of his character and the ever- 
 flowing spring of sympathetic kindness in his heart. 
 His main ambition was confessedly that of political 
 distinction; but hardly any one would at that time 
 have seen in him the man destined to lead the nation 
 through the greatest crisis of the century. 
 
 His time had not yet come when, in 1846, he was, 
 elected to Congress. In a clever speech in the House 
 of Representatives he denounced President Polk for 
 having unjustly forced war upon Mexico, and he 
 amused the Committee of the Whole by a witty 
 attack upon General Cass. More important was the 
 expression he gave to his antislavery impulses by 
 
Carl Schurz 17 
 
 offering a bill looking to the emancipation of the 
 slaves in the District of Columbia, and by his re- 
 peated votes for the famous Wilmot Proviso, in- 
 tended to exclude slavery from the Territories 
 acquired from Mexico. But when, at the expiration 
 of his term, in March, 1849, ne left n ^ s seat » ne 
 gloomily despaired of ever seeing the day when the 
 cause nearest to his heart would be rightly grasped 
 by the people, and when he would be able to render 
 any service to his country in solving the great 
 problem. Nor had his career as a member. of Con- 
 gress in any sense been such as to gratify his ambi- 
 tion. Indeed, if he ever had any belief in a great 
 destiny for himself, it must have been weak at that 
 period; for he actually sought to obtain from the 
 new Whig President, General Taylor, the place of 
 Commissioner of the General Land Office, willing to 
 bury himself in one of the administrative bureaus of 
 the government. Fortunately for the country, he 
 failed; and no less fortunately, when, later, the ter- 
 ritorial governorship of Oregon was offered to him, 
 Mrs. Lincoln's protest induced him to decline it. 
 Returning to Springfield, he gave himself with re- 
 newed zest to his law practice, acquiesced in the 
 Compromise of 1850 with reluctance and a mental re- 
 servation, supported in the Presidential campaign of 
 1852 the Whig candidate in some spiritless speeches, 
 and took but a languid interest in the politics of the 
 day. But just then his time was drawing near. 
 
 The peace promised, and apparently inaugurated, 
 by the Compromise of 1850 was rudely broken by the 
 introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854. 
 
1 8 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the 
 Territories of the United States, the heritage of 
 coming generations, to the invasion of slavery, sud- 
 denly revealed the whole significance of the slavery 
 question to the people of the free States, and thrust 
 itself into the politics of the country as the par- 
 amount issue. Something like an electric shock 
 flashed through the North. Men who but a short 
 time before had been absorbed by their business pur- 
 suits, and deprecated all political agitation, were 
 startled out of their security by a sudden alarm, 
 and excitedly took sides. That restless trouble of 
 conscience about slavery, which even in times of 
 apparent repose had secretly disturbed the souls 
 of Northern people, broke forth in an utterance 
 louder than ever. The bonds of accustomed party 
 allegiance gave way. Antislavery Democrats and 
 antislavery Whigs felt themselves drawn together 
 by a common overpowering sentiment, and soon they 
 began to rally in a new organization. The Republi- 
 can party sprang into being to meet the overruling 
 call of the hour. Then Abraham Lincoln's time was 
 come. He rapidly advanced to a position of conspicu- 
 ous championship in the struggle. This, however, 
 was not owing to his virtues and abilities alone. 
 Indeed, the slavery question stirred his soul in its 
 profoundest depths; it was, as one of his intimate 
 friends said, " the only one on which he would become 
 excited"; it called forth all his faculties and ener- 
 gies. Yet there were many others who, having long 
 and arduously fought the antislavery battle in the 
 popular assembly, or in the press, or in the halls of 
 
Carl Schurz 19 
 
 Congress, far surpassed him in prestige, and com- 
 pared with whom he was still an obscure and untried 
 man. His reputation, although highly honorable 
 and well earned, had so far been essentially local. 
 As a stump-speaker in Whig canvasses outside of his 
 State he had attracted comparatively little attention ; 
 but in Illinois he had been recognized as one of the 
 foremost men of the Whig party. Among the 
 opponents of the Nebraska Bill he occupied in his 
 State so important a position, that in 1854 he was 
 the choice of a large majority of the " Anti-Nebraska 
 men " in the Legislature for a seat in the Senate of the 
 United States which then became vacant ; and when 
 he, an old Whig, could not obtain the votes of the 
 Anti-Nebraska Democrats necessary to make a ma- 
 jority, he generously urged his friends to transfer 
 their votes to Lyman Trumbull, who was then 
 elected. Two years later, in the first national con- 
 vention of the Republican party, the delegation from 
 Illinois brought him forward as a candidate for the 
 vice-presidency, and he received respectable sup- 
 port. Still, the name of Abraham Lincoln was not 
 widely known beyond the boundaries of his own 
 State. But now it was this local prominence in 
 Illinois that put him in a position of peculiar advan- 
 tage on the battlefield of national politics. In the 
 assault on the Missouri Compromise which broke 
 down all legal barriers to the spread of slavery 
 Stephen Arnold Douglas was the ostensible leader 
 and central figure ; and Douglas was a Senator from 
 Illinois, Lincoln's State. Douglas's national theatre 
 of action was the Senate, but in his constituency 
 
20 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 in Illinois were the roots of his official position and 
 power. What he did in the Senate he had to justify- 
 before the people of Illinois, in order to maintain 
 himself in place; and in Illinois all eyes turned to 
 Lincoln as Douglas's natural antagonist. 
 
 As very young men they had come to Illinois, 
 Lincoln from Indiana, Douglas from Vermont, and 
 had grown up together in public life, Douglas as a 
 Democrat, Lincoln as a Whig. They had met first 
 in Vandalia, in 1834, when Lincoln was in the 
 Legislature and Douglas in the lobby; and again in 
 1836, both as members of the Legislature. Douglas, 
 a very able politician, of the agile, combative, 
 audacious, " pushing' ' sort, rose in political dis- 
 tinction with remarkable rapidity. In quick suc- 
 cession he became a member of the Legislature, a 
 State's attorney, secretary of state, a judge on the 
 supreme bench of Illinois, three times a Representa- 
 tive in Congress, and a Senator of the United States 
 when only thirty-nine years old. In the National 
 Democratic convention of 1852 he appeared even 
 as an aspirant to the nomination for the Presidency, 
 as the favorite of ''young America," and received a 
 respectable vote. He had far outstripped Lincoln 
 in what is commonly called political success and in 
 reputation. But it had frequently happened that 
 in political campaigns Lincoln felt himself impelled, 
 or was selected by his Whig friends, to answer 
 Douglas's speeches; and thus the two were looked 
 upon, in a large part of the State at least, as the 
 representative combatants of their respective parties 
 in the debates before popular meetings. As soon, 
 
Carl Schurz 21 
 
 therefore, as, after the passage of his Kansas-Ne- 
 braska Bill, Douglas returned to Illinois to defend 
 his cause before his constituents, Lincoln, obeying 
 not only his own impulse, but also general expecta- 
 tion, stepped forward as his principal opponent. 
 Thus the struggle about the principles involved in 
 the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, or, in a broader sense, 
 the struggle between freedom and slavery, assumed 
 in Illinois the outward form of a personal contest 
 between Lincoln and Douglas; and, as it continued 
 and became more animated, that personal contest 
 in Illinois was watched with constantly increasing 
 interest by the whole country. When, in 1858, 
 Douglas's senatorial term being about to expire, 
 Lincoln was formally designated by the Republican 
 convention of Illinois as their candidate for the 
 Senate, to take Douglas's place, and the two con- 
 testants agreed to debate the questions at issue face 
 to face in a series of public meetings, the eyes of the 
 whole American people were turned eagerly to that 
 one point: and the spectacle reminded one of those 
 lays of ancient times telling of two armies, in bat- 
 tle array, standing still to see their two principal 
 champions fight out the contested cause between 
 the lines in single combat. 
 
 Lincoln had then reached the full maturity of his J 
 powers. His equipment as a statesman did not^ 
 embrace a comprehensive knowledge of public affairs. 
 What he had studied he had indeed made his own, j 
 with the eager craving and that zealous tenacity I 
 characteristic of superior minds learning under / 
 difficulties. But his narrow opportunities and the 
 
22 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 unsteady life he had led during his younger years 
 had not permitted the accumulation of large stores 
 in his mind. It is true, in political campaigns he had 
 occasionally spoken on the ostensible issues between 
 the Whigs and the Democrats, the tariff, internal 
 improvements, banks, and so on, but only in a per- 
 functory manner. Had he ever given much serious 
 thought and study to these subjects, it is safe to 
 assume that a mind so prolific of original conceits as 
 his would certainly have produced some utterance 
 upon them worth remembering. His soul had evi- 
 dently never been deeply stirred by such topics. 
 But when his moral nature was aroused, his brain 
 developed an untiring activity until it had mastered 
 all the knowledge within reach. As soon as the 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise had thrust the 
 slavery question into politics as the paramount 
 issue, Lincoln plunged into an arduous study of all 
 its legal, historical, and moral aspects, and then his 
 mind became a complete arsenal of argument. His 
 rich natural gifts, trained by long and varied 
 practice, had made him an orator of rare persuasive- 
 ness. In his immature days, he had pleased himself 
 for a short period with that inflated, high-flown 
 style which, among the uncultivated, passes for 
 1 'beautiful speaking." His inborn truthfulness and 
 his artistic instinct soon overcame that aberration 
 and revealed to him the noble beauty and strength 
 of simplicity. He possessed an uncommon power of 
 clear and compact statement, which might have re- 
 minded those who knew the story of his early youth 
 of the efforts of the poor boy, when he copied his 
 
Carl Schurz 23 
 
 compositions from the scraped wooden shovel, care- 
 fully to trim his expressions in order to save paper. 
 His language had the energy of honest directness 
 and he was a master of logical lucidity. He loved 
 to point and enliven his reasoning by humorous 
 illustrations, usually anecdotes of Western life, of 
 which he had an inexhaustible store at his command. 
 These anecdotes had not seldom a flavor of rustic 
 robustness about them, but he used them with great 
 effect, while amusing the audience, to give life to 
 an abstraction, to explode an absurdity, to clinch 
 an argument, to drive home an admonition. The 
 natural kindliness of his tone, softening prejudice 
 and disarming partisan rancor, would often open to 
 his reasoning a way into minds most unwilling to 
 receive it. \ 
 
 Yet his greatest power consisted in the charm 
 of his individuality. That charm did not, in the 
 ordinary way, appeal to the ear or to the eye. His 
 voice was not melodious ; rather shrill and piercing, 
 especially when it rose to its high treble in moments 
 of great animation. His figure was unhandsome, 
 and the action of his unwieldy limbs awkward. He 
 commanded none of the outward graces of oratory 
 as they are commonly understood. His charm was 
 of a different kind. It flowed from the rare depth 
 and genuineness of his convictions and his sym- 
 pathetic feelings. Sympathy was the strongest 
 element in his nature. One of his biographers, who 
 knew him before he became President, says: "Lin- 
 coln's compassion might be stirred deeply by an 
 object present, but never by an object absent and 
 
24 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 unseen. In the former case he would most likely 
 extend relief, with little inquiry into the merits of 
 the case, because, as he expressed it himself, it ' took 
 a pain out of his own heart.'" Only half of this 
 is correct. It is certainly true that he could not 
 witness any individual distress or oppression, or any 
 kind of suffering, without feeling a pang of pain him- 
 self, and that by relieving as much as he could the 
 suffering of others he put an end to his own. This 
 compassionate impulse to help he felt not only for 
 human beings, but for every living creature. As in 
 his boyhood he angrily reproved the boys who 
 tormented a wood turtle by putting a burning coal 
 on its back, so, we are told, he would, when a mature 
 man, on a journey, dismount from his buggy and 
 wade waist-deep in mire to rescue a pig struggling in 
 a swamp. Indeed, appeals to his compassion were so 
 irresistible to him, and he felt it so difficult to refuse 
 anything when his refusal could give pain, that he 
 himself sometimes spoke of his inability to say "no" 
 as a positive weakness. But that certainly does not 
 prove that his compassionate feeling was confined to 
 individual cases of suffering witnessed with his own 
 eyes. As the boy was moved by the aspect of the 
 tortured wood turtle to compose an essay against 
 cruelty to animals in general, so the aspect of other 
 cases of suffering and wrong wrought up his moral 
 nature, and set his mind to work against cruelty, 
 injustice, and oppression in general. 
 
 As his sympathy went forth to others, it attracted 
 others to him. Especially those whom he called the 
 "plain people" felt themselves drawn to him by the 
 
Carl Schurz 25 
 
 instinctive feeling that he understood, esteemed, 
 and appreciated them. He had grown up among 
 the poor, the lowly, the ignorant. He never ceased 
 to remember the good souls he had met among them, 
 and the many kindnesses they had done him. Al- 
 though in his mental development he had risen far 
 above them, he never looked down upon them. How 
 they felt and how they reasoned he knew, for so he 
 had once felt and reasoned himself. How they could 
 be moved he knew, for so he had once been moved 
 himself and practised moving others. His mind 
 was much larger than theirs, but it thoroughly com- 
 prehended theirs; and while he thought much 
 farther than they, their thoughts were ever present 
 to him. Nor had the visible distance between them 
 grown as wide as his rise in the world would seem to 
 have warranted. Much of his backwoods speech 
 and manners still clung to him. Although he had 
 become "Mr. Lincoln" to his later acquaintances, 
 he was still "Abe" to the "Nats" and "Billys" and 
 "Daves" of his youth; and their familiarity neither 
 appeared unnatural to them, nor was it in the least 
 awkward to him. He still told and enjoyed stories 
 similar to those he had told and enjoyed in the 
 Indiana settlement and at New Salem. His wants 
 remained as modest as they had ever been ; his do- 
 mestic habits had by no means completely accom- 
 modated themselves to those of his more highborn 
 wife ; and though the "Kentucky jeans " apparel had 
 long been dropped, his clothes of better material and 
 better make would sit ill sorted on his gigantic limbs. 
 His cotton umbrella, without a handle, and tied 
 
26 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 together with a coarse string to keep it from flapping, 
 which he carried on his circuit rides, is said to be 
 remembered still by some of his surviving neighbors. 
 This rusticity of habit was utterly free from that 
 affected contempt of refinement and comfort which 
 self-made men sometimes carry into their more 
 affluent circumstances. To Abraham Lincoln it was 
 entirely natural, and all those who came into con- 
 tact with him knew it to be so. In his ways of 
 thinking and feeling he had become a gentleman in 
 the highest sense, but the refining process had 
 polished but little the outward form. The plain 
 people, therefore, still considered " honest Abe 
 Lincoln" one of themselves; and when they felt, 
 which they no doubt frequently did, that his thoughts 
 and aspirations moved in a sphere above their own, 
 they were all the more proud of him, without any 
 diminution of fellow-feeling. It was this relation of 
 mutual sympathy and understanding between Lin- 
 coln and the plain people that gave him his peculiar 
 power as a public man, and singularly fitted him, as 
 we shall see, for that leadership which was pre- 
 eminently required in the great crisis then coming 
 on, — the leadership which indeed thinks and moves 
 ahead of the masses, but always remains within sight 
 and sympathetic touch of them. 
 
 He entered upon the campaign of 1858 better 
 equipped than he had ever been before. He not 
 only instinctively felt, but he had convinced himself 
 by arduous study, that in this struggle against the 
 spread of slavery he had right, justice, philosophy, 
 the enlightened opinion of mankind, history, the 
 
Carl Schurz 27 
 
 Constitution, and good policy on his side. It was 
 observed that after he began to discuss the slavery- 
 question his speeches were pitched in a much loftier 
 key than his former oratorical efforts. While he 
 remained fond of telling funny stories in private con- 
 versation, they disappeared more and more from his 
 public discourse. He would still now and then point 
 his argument with expressions of inimitable quaint - 
 ness, and flash out rays of kindly humor and witty 
 irony; but his general tone was serious, and rose 
 sometimes to genuine solemnity. His masterly 
 skill in dialectical thrust and parry, his wealth of 
 knowledge, his power of reasoning and elevation of 
 sentiment, disclosed in language of rare precision, 
 strength, and beauty, not seldom astonished his old 
 friends. 
 
 Neither of the two champions could have found a 
 more formidable antagonist than each now met in 
 the other. Douglas was by far the most conspicu- 
 ous member of his party. His admirers had dubbed 
 him "the Little Giant," contrasting in that nick- 
 name the greatness of his mind with the smallness 
 of his body. But though of low stature, his broad- 
 shouldered figure appeared uncommonly sturdy, and 
 there was something lionlike in the squareness of his 
 brow and jaw, and in the defiant shake of his long 
 hair. His loud and persistent advocacy of territorial 
 expansion, in the name of patriotism and "manifest 
 destiny," had given him an enthusiastic following 
 among the young and ardent. Great natural parts, 
 a highly combative temperament, and long training 
 had made him a debater unsurpassed in a Senate 
 
28 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 filled with able men. He could be as forceful in his 
 appeals to patriotic feelings as he was fierce in de- 
 nunciation and thoroughly skilled in all the baser 
 tricks of parliamentary pugilism. While genial and 
 rollicking in his social intercourse — the idol of the 
 "boys" — he felt himself one of the most renowned 
 statesmen of his time, and would frequently meet 
 his opponents with an overbearing haughtiness, as 
 persons more to be pitied than to be feared. In his 
 speech opening the campaign of 1858, he spoke of 
 Lincoln, whom the Republicans had dared to ad- 
 vance as their candidate for ' ' his " place in the Senate, 
 with an air of patronizing if not contemptuous con- 
 descension, as "a kind, amiable, and intelligent 
 gentleman and a good citizen." The Little Giant 
 would have been pleased to pass off his antagonist as 
 a tall dwarf. He knew Lincoln too well, however, 
 to indulge himself seriously in such a delusion. But 
 the political situation was at that moment in a 
 curious tangle, and Douglas could expect to de- 
 rive from the confusion great advantage over his 
 opponent. 
 
 By the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, open- 
 ing the Territories to the ingress of slavery, Douglas 
 had pleased the South, but greatly alarmed the 
 North. He had sought to conciliate Northern senti- 
 ment by appending to his Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 the declaration that its intent was "not to legislate 
 slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it 
 therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
 free to form and regulate their institutions in their 
 own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
 
Carl Schurz 29 
 
 United States." This he called "the great principle 
 of popular sovereignty." When asked whether, 
 under this act, the people of a Territory, before its 
 admission as a State, would have the right to ex- 
 clude slavery, he answered, "That is a question for 
 the courts to decide. ' ' Then came the famous ' ' Dred 
 Scott decision," in which the Supreme Court held 
 substantially that the right to hold slaves as prop- 
 erty existed in the Territories by virtue of the Federal 
 Constitution, and that this right could not be denied 
 by any act of a territorial government. This, of 
 course, denied the right of the people of any Terri- 
 tory to exclude slavery while they were in a territorial 
 condition, and it alarmed the Northern people still 
 more. Douglas recognized the binding force of the 
 decision of the Supreme Court, at the same time 
 maintaining, most illogically, that his great principle 
 of popular sovereignty remained in force neverthe- 
 less. Meanwhile, the proslavery people of western 
 Missouri, the so-called "border ruffians," had invaded 
 Kansas, set up a constitutional convention, made a 
 constitution of an extreme proslavery type, the "Le- 
 compton Constitution," refused to submit it fairly to 
 a vote of the people of Kansas, and then referred it 
 to Congress for acceptance, — seeking thus to accom- 
 plish the admission of Kansas as a slave State. Had 
 Douglas supported such a scheme, he would have 
 lost all foothood in the North. In the name of 
 popular sovereignty he loudly declared his opposi- 
 tion to the acceptance of any constitution not 
 sanctioned by a formal popular vote. He "did not 
 care," he said, "whether slavery be voted up or 
 
30 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 down," but there must be a fair vote of the people. 
 Thus he drew upon himself the hostility of the 
 Buchanan administration, which was controlled by 
 the proslavery interest, but he saved his Northern 
 following. More than this, not only did his Demo- 
 cratic admirers now call him "the true champion of 
 freedom/' but even some Republicans of large in- 
 fluence, prominent among them Horace Greeley, 
 sympathizing with Douglas in his fight against the 
 Lecompton Constitution, and hoping to detach him 
 permanently from the proslavery interest and to 
 force a lasting breach in the Democratic party, 
 seriously advised the Republicans of Illinois to give 
 up their opposition to Douglas, and to help re-elect 
 him to the Senate. Lincoln was not of that opinion. 
 He believed that great popular movements can 
 succeed only when guided by their faithful friends, 
 and that the antislavery cause could not safely be 
 entrusted to the keeping of one who "did not care 
 whether slavery be voted up or down." This opin- 
 ion prevailed in Illinois; but the influences within 
 the Republican party over which it prevailed 
 yielded only a reluctant acquiescence, if they ac- 
 quiesced at all, after having materially strengthened 
 Douglas's position. Such was the situation of things 
 when the campaign of 1858 between Lincoln and 
 Douglas began. 
 
 Lincoln opened the campaign on his side at the 
 convention which nominated him as the Republican 
 candidate for the senatorship, with a memorable 
 saying which sounded like a shout from the watch- 
 tower of history: "A house divided against itself 
 
Carl Schurz 31 
 
 cannot stand. I believe this government cannot 
 endure permanently half slave and half free. I do 
 not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not 
 expect the house to fall, but I expect it will cease to 
 be divided. It will become all one thing or all the 
 other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest 
 the further spread of it, and place it where the public 
 mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of 
 ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it 
 forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the 
 States, — old as well as new, North as well as South." 
 Then he proceeded to point out that the Nebraska 
 doctrine combined with the Dred Scott decision 
 worked in the direction of making the nation "all 
 slave. ' ' Here was the ' ' irrepressible conflict ' ' spoken 
 of by Seward a short time later, in a speech made 
 famous mainly by that phrase. If there was any 
 new discovery in it, the right of priority was Lincoln's. 
 This utterance proved not only his statesmanlike 
 conception of the issue, but also, in his situation as a 
 candidate, the firmness of his moral courage. The 
 friends to whom he had read the draught of this 
 speech before he delivered it warned him anxiously 
 that its delivery might be fatal to his success in the 
 election. This was shrewd advice, in the ordinary 
 sense. While a slaveholder could threaten disunion 
 with impunity, the mere suggestion that the exist- 
 ence of slavery was incompatible with freedom in the 
 Union would hazard the political chances of any 
 public man in the North. But Lincoln was in- 
 flexible. "It is true," said he, "and I will deliver 
 it as written. ... I would rather be defeated 
 
32 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 with these expressions in my speech held up and dis- 
 cussed before the people than be victorious without 
 them." The statesman was right in his far-seeing 
 judgment and his conscientious statement of the 
 truth, but the practical politicians were also right in 
 their prediction of the immediate effect. Douglas 
 instantly seized upon the declaration that a house 
 divided against itself cannot stand as the main 
 objective point of his attack, interpreting it as an 
 incitement to a "relentless sectional war," and there 
 is no doubt that the persistent reiteration of this 
 charge served to frighten not a few timid souls. 
 
 Lincoln constantly endeavored to bring the moral 
 and philosophical side of the subject to the fore- 
 ground. "Slavery is wrong" was the keynote of all 
 his speeches. To Douglas's glittering sophism that 
 the right of the people of a Territory to have slavery 
 or not, as they might desire, was in accordance with 
 the principle of true popular sovereignty, he made 
 the pointed answer : ' ' Then true popular sovereignty, 
 according to Senator Douglas, means that, when one 
 man makes another man his slave, no third man shall 
 be allowed to object." To Douglas's argument that 
 the principle which demanded that the people of a 
 Territory should be permitted to choose whether 
 they would have slavery or not "originated when 
 God made man, and placed good and evil before 
 him, allowing him to choose upon his own responsi- 
 bility," Lincoln solemnly replied: "No; God did 
 not place good and evil before man, telling him to 
 make his choice. On the contrary, God did tell him 
 there was one tree of the fruit of which he should not 
 
Carl Schurz 33 
 
 eat, upon pain of death." He did not, however, 
 place himself on the most advanced ground taken 
 by the radical antislavery men. He admitted that, 
 under the Constitution, ''the Southern people were 
 entitled to a Congressional fugitive slave law," 
 although he did not approve the fugitive slave law 
 then existing. He declared also that, if slavery were 
 kept out of the Territories during their territorial 
 existence, as it should be, and if then the people of 
 any Territory, having a fair chance and a clear field, 
 should do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a 
 slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual pres- 
 ence of the institution among them, he saw no alter- 
 native but to admit such a Territory into the Union. 
 He declared further that, while he should be exceed- 
 ingly glad to see slavery abolished in the District of 
 Columbia, he would, as a member of Congress, with 
 his present views, not endeavor to bring on that 
 abolition except on condition that emancipation be 
 gradual, that it be approved by the decision of a 
 majority of voters in the District, and that com- 
 pensation be made to unwilling owners. On every 
 available occasion, he pronounced himself in favor of 
 the deportation and colonization of the blacks, of 
 course with their consent. He repeatedly disavowed 
 any wish on his part to have social and political 
 equality established between whites and blacks. On 
 this point he summed up his views in a reply to 
 Douglas's assertion that the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, in speaking of all men as being created equal, 
 did not include the negroes, saying : ' * I do not under- 
 stand the Declaration of Independence to mean that 
 
 VOL. I.— 3. 
 
34 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 all men were created equal in all respects. They 
 are not equal in color. But I believe that it does 
 mean to declare that all men are equal in some 
 respects ; they are equal in their right to life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness." 
 
 With regard to some of these subjects Lincoln 
 modified his position at a later period, and it has 
 been suggested that he would have professed more 
 advanced principles in his debates with Douglas, 
 had he not feared thereby to lose votes. This view 
 can hardly be sustained. Lincoln had the courage 
 of his opinions, -but he was not a radical. The man 
 who risked his election by delivering, against the 
 urgent protest of his friends, the speech about "the 
 house divided against itself" would not have shrunk 
 from the expression of more extreme views, had he 
 really entertained them. It is only fair to assume 
 that he said what at the time he really thought, and 
 that if, subsequently, his opinions changed, it was 
 owing to new conceptions of good policy and of duty 
 brought forth by an entirely new set of circum- 
 stances and exigencies. It is characteristic that he 
 continued to adhere to the impracticable coloniza- 
 tion plan even after the Emancipation Proclamation 
 had already been issued. 
 
 But in this contest Lincoln proved himself not 
 only a debater, but also a political strategist of the 
 first order. The "kind, amiable, and intelligent 
 gentleman," as Douglas had been pleased to call him, 
 was by no means as harmless as a dove. He pos- 
 sessed an uncommon share of that worldly shrewd- 
 ness which not seldom goes with genuine simplicity 
 
Carl Schurz 35 
 
 of character; and the political experience gathered 
 in the Legislature and in Congress, and in many 
 election campaigns, added to his keen intuitions, 
 had made him as far-sighted a judge of the probable 
 effects of a public man's sayings or doings upon the 
 popular mind, and as accurate a calculator in esti- 
 mating political chances and forecasting results, as 
 could be found among the party managers in Illinois. 
 And now he perceived keenly the ugly dilemma in 
 which Douglas found himself, between the Dred 
 Scott decision, which declared the right to hold slaves 
 to exist in the Territories by virtue of the Federal 
 Constitution, and his ''great principle of popular 
 sovereignty," according to which the people of a 
 Territory, if they saw fit, w T ere to have the right to 
 exclude slavery therefrom. Douglas was twisting 
 and squirming to the best of his ability to avoid the 
 admission that the two were incompatible. The 
 question then presented itself if it would be good 
 policy for Lincoln to force Douglas to a clear expres- 
 sion of his opinion as to whether, the Dred Scott 
 decision notwithstanding, "the people of a Terri- 
 tory could in any lawful way exclude slavery from 
 its limits prior to the formation of a State constitu- 
 tion." Lincoln foresaw and predicted what Douglas 
 would answer: that slavery could not exist in a 
 Territory unless the people desired it and gave it pro- 
 tection by territorial legislation. In an improvised 
 caucus the policy of pressing the interrogatory on 
 Douglas was discussed. Lincoln's friends unani- 
 mously advised against it, because the answer fore- 
 seen would sufficiently commend Douglas to the 
 
36 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 people of Illinois to insure his re-election to the Senate. 
 But Lincoln persisted. "I am after larger game," 
 said he. "If Douglas so answers, he can never be 
 President, and the battle of i860 is worth a hundred 
 of this." The interrogatory was pressed upon Doug- 
 las, and Douglas did answer that, no matter what 
 the decision of the Supreme Court might be on the 
 abstract question, the people of a Territory had the 
 lawful means to introduce or exclude slavery by 
 territorial legislation friendly or unfriendly to the 
 institution. Lincoln found it easy to show the 
 absurdity of the proposition that, if slavery were 
 admitted to exist of right in the Territories by virtue 
 of the supreme law, the Federal Constitution, it 
 could be kept out or expelled by an inferior law, 
 one made by a territorial Legislature. Again the 
 judgment of the politicians, having only the nearest 
 object in view, proved correct: Douglas was re- 
 elected to the Senate. But Lincoln's judgment 
 proved correct also: Douglas, by resorting to the 
 expedient of his "unfriendly legislation doctrine," 
 forfeited his last chance of becoming President of the 
 United States. He might have hoped to win, by 
 sufficient atonement, his pardon from the South for 
 his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution; but 
 that he taught the people of the Territories a trick 
 by which they could defeat what the proslavery 
 men considered a constitutional right, and that he 
 called that trick lawful, — this the slave power would 
 never forgive. The breach between the Southern 
 and the Northern Democracy was thenceforth ir- 
 remediable and fatal. 
 
Carl Schurz 37 
 
 The Presidential election of i860 approached. 
 The struggle in Kansas, and the debates in Congress 
 which accompanied it, and which not unfrequently 
 provoked violent outbursts, continually stirred the 
 popular excitement. Within the Democratic party 
 raged the war of factions. The national Demo- 
 cratic convention met at Charleston on the 23d 
 of April, i860. After a struggle of ten days be- 
 tween the adherents and the opponents of Douglas, 
 during which the delegates from the cotton States 
 had withdrawn, the convention adjourned without 
 having nominated any candidates, to meet again 
 in Baltimore on the 18th of June. There was no 
 prospect, however, of reconciling the hostile ele- 
 ments. It appeared very probable that the Balti- 
 more convention would nominate Douglas, while 
 the seceding Southern Democrats would set up a 
 candidate of their own, representing extreme pro- 
 slavery principles. 
 
 Meanwhile, the national Republican convention 
 assembled at Chicago on the 16th of May, full of 
 enthusiasm and hope. The situation was easily 
 understood. The Democrats would have the South. 
 In order to succeed in the election, the Republicans 
 had to win, in addition to the States carried by 
 Fremont in 1856, those that were classed as "doubt- 
 ful," — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, or 
 Illinois in the place of either New Jersey or Indiana. 
 The most eminent Republican statesmen and leaders 
 of the time thought of for the Presidency were 
 Seward and Chase, both regarded as belonging to the 
 more advanced order of antislavery men. Of the 
 
38 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 two, Seward had the largest following, mainly from 
 New York, New England, and the Northwest. 
 Cautious politicians doubted seriously whether Sew- 
 ard, to whom some phrases in his speeches had 
 undeservedly given the reputation of a reckless 
 radical, would be able to command the whole Re- 
 publican vote in the doubtful States. Besides, 
 during his long public career he had made enemies. 
 It was evident that those who thought Seward's 
 nomination too hazardous an experiment would 
 consider Chase unavailable for the same reason, 
 They would then look round for an " available" 
 man; and among the "available" men Abraham 
 Lincoln was easily discovered to stand foremost. 
 His great debate with Douglas had given him a 
 national reputation. The people of the East being 
 eager to see the hero of so dramatic a contest, he had 
 been induced to visit several Eastern cities, and had 
 astonished and delighted large and distinguished 
 audiences with speeches of singular power and 
 originality. An address delivered by him in the 
 Cooper Institute in New York, before an audience 
 containing a large number of important persons, 
 was then, and has ever since been, especially praised 
 as one of the most logical and convincing political 
 speeches ever made in this country. The people of 
 the West had grown proud of him as a distinctively 
 Western great man, and his popularity at home had 
 some peculiar features which could be expected to 
 exercise a potent charm. Nor was Lincoln's name 
 as that of an available candidate left to the chance 
 of accidental discovery. It is indeed not probable 
 
Carl Schurz 39 
 
 that he thought of himself as a Presidential possi- 
 bility, during his contest with Douglas for the 
 senatorship. As late as April, 1859, he had written 
 to a friend who had approached him on the subject 
 that he did not think himself fit for the Presidency. 
 The Vice-Presidency was then the limit of his ambi- 
 tion. But some of his friends in Illinois took the 
 matter seriously in hand, and Lincoln, after some 
 hesitation, then formally authorized "the use of his 
 name." The matter was managed with such energy 
 and excellent judgment that, in the convention, he 
 had not only the whole vote of Illinois to start with, 
 but won votes on all sides without offending any 
 rival. A large majority of the opponents of Seward 
 went over to Abraham Lincoln, and gave him the 
 nomination on the third ballot. As had been fore- 
 seen, Douglas was nominated by one wing of the 
 Democratic party at Baltimore, while the extreme 
 proslavery wing put Breckinridge into the field as 
 its candidate. After a campaign conducted with 
 the energy of genuine enthusiasm on the antislavery 
 side the united Republicans defeated the divided 
 Democrats, and Lincoln was elected President by a 
 majority of fifty-seven votes in the electoral colleges. 
 The result of the election had hardly been declared 
 when the disunion movement in the South, long 
 threatened and carefully planned and prepared, 
 broke out in the shape of open revolt, and nearly a 
 month before Lincoln could be inaugurated as 
 President of the United States seven Southern 
 States had adopted ordinances of secession, formed 
 an independent confederacy, framed a constitution 
 
40 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 for it, and elected Jefferson Davis its president, 
 expecting the other slaveholding States soon to join 
 them. On the nth of February, 1861, Lincoln left 
 Springfield for Washington ; having, with character- 
 istic simplicity, asked his law partner not to change 
 the sign of the firm "Lincoln and Herndon" during 
 the four years' unavoidable absence of the senior 
 partner, and having taken an affectionate and 
 touching leave of his neighbors. 
 
 The situation which confronted the new President 
 was appalling: the larger part of the South in open 
 rebellion, the rest of the slaveholding States wavering 
 preparing to follow; the revolt guided by deter- 
 mined, daring, and skilful leaders; the Southern 
 people, apparently full of enthusiasm and military 
 spirit, rushing to arms, some of the forts and arsenals 
 already in their possession; the government of the 
 Union, before the accession of the new President, 
 in the hands of men some of whom actively sym- 
 pathized with the revolt, while others were hampered 
 by their traditional doctrines in dealing with it, and 
 really gave it aid and comfort by their irresolute 
 attitude; all the departments full of "Southern 
 sympathizers" and honey-combed with disloyalty; 
 the treasury empty, and the public credit at the 
 lowest ebb; the arsenals ill supplied with arms, if 
 not emptied by treacherous practices; the regular 
 army of insignificant strength, dispersed over an 
 immense surface, and deprived of some of its best 
 officers by defection ; the navy small and antiquated. 
 But that was not all. The threat of disunion had so 
 often been resorted to by the slave power in years 
 
Carl Schurz 4 1 
 
 gone by that most Northern people had ceased to 
 believe in its seriousness. But, when disunion 
 actually appeared as a stern reality, something like 
 a chill swept through the whole Northern country. 
 A cry for union and peace at any price rose on all 
 sides. Democratic partisanship reiterated this cry 
 with vociferous vehemence, and even many Republi- 
 cans grew afraid of the victory they had just achieved 
 at the ballot-box, and spoke of compromise. The 
 country fairly resounded with the noise of ''anti- 
 coercion meetings." Expressions of firm resolution 
 from determined antislavery men were indeed not 
 wanting, but they were for a while almost drowned 
 by a bewildering confusion of discordant voices. 
 Even this was not all. Potent influences in Europe, 
 with an ill-concealed desire for the permanent dis- 
 ruption of the American Union, eagerly espoused 
 the cause of the Southern seceders, and the two 
 principal maritime powers of the Old World seemed 
 only to be waiting for a favorable opportunity to 
 lend them a helping hand. 
 
 This was the state of things to be mastered by 
 "honest Abe Lincoln" when he took his seat in the 
 Presidential chair, — "honest Abe Lincoln," who was 
 so good-natured that he could not say "no"; the 
 greatest achievement in whose life had been a debate 
 on the slavery question ; who had never been in any 
 position of power; who was without the slightest 
 experience of high executive duties, and who had 
 only a speaking acquaintance with the men upon 
 whose counsel and co-operation he was to de- 
 pend. Nor was his accession to power under such 
 
42 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 circumstances greeted with general confidence even 
 by the members of his party. While he had indeed 
 won much popularity, many Republicans, especially 
 among those who had advocated Seward's nomina- 
 tion for the Presidency, saw the simple " Illinois 
 lawyer ' ' take the reins of government with a feeling 
 little short of dismay. The orators and journals 
 of the opposition were ridiculing and lampooning 
 him without measure. Many people actually won- 
 dered how such a man could dare to undertake a 
 task which, as he himself had said to his neighbors 
 in his parting speech, was "more difficult than that of 
 Washington himself had been." 
 
 But Lincoln brought to that task, aside from 
 other uncommon qualities, the first requisite, — an 
 intuitive comprehension of its nature. While he 
 did not indulge in the delusion that the Union could 
 be maintained or restored without a conflict of arms, 
 he could indeed not foresee all the problems he would 
 have to solve. He instinctively understood, how- 
 ever, by what means that conflict would have to be 
 conducted by the government of a democracy. He 
 knew that the impending war, whether great or 
 small, would not be like a foreign war, exciting a 
 united national enthusiasm, but a civil war, likely 
 to fan to uncommon heat the animosities of party 
 even in the localities controlled by the government; 
 that this war would have to be carried on not by 
 means of a ready-made machinery, ruled by an un- 
 disputed, absolute will, but by means to be furnished 
 by the voluntary action of the people: — armies to 
 be formed by voluntary enlistments ; large sums of 
 
Carl Schurz 43 
 
 money to be raised by the people, through repre- 
 sentatives, voluntarily taxing themselves; trust of 
 extraordinary power to be voluntarily granted ; and 
 war measures, not seldom restricting the rights 
 and liberties to which the citizen was accustomed, 
 to be voluntarily accepted and submitted to by 
 the people, or at least a large majority of them; — 
 and that this would have to be kept up not merely 
 during a short period of enthusiastic excitement, 
 but possibly through weary years of alternating 
 success and disaster, hope and despondency. He 
 knew that in order to steer this government by 
 public opinion successfully through all the con- 
 fusion created by the prejudices and doubts and dif- 
 ferences of sentiment distracting the popular mind, 
 and so to propitiate, inspire, mould, organize, unite, 
 and guide the popular will that it might give forth 
 all the means required for the performance of his 
 great task, he would have to take into account all 
 the influences strongly affecting the current of popu- 
 lar thought and feeling, and to direct while appearing 
 to obey. 
 
 This was the kind of leadership he intuitively 
 conceived to be needed when a free people were to be 
 led forward en masse to overcome a great common 
 danger under circumstances of appalling difficulty, 
 — the leadership which does not dash ahead with 
 brilliant daring, no matter who follows, but which is 
 intent upon rallying all the available forces, gather- 
 ing in the stragglers, closing up the column, so that 
 the front may advance well supported. For this 
 leadership Abraham Lincoln was admirably fitted, 
 
44 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 — better than any other American statesman of his 
 day; for he understood the plain people, with all 
 their loves and hates, their prejudices and their noble 
 impulses, their weaknesses and their strength, as 
 he understood himself, and his sympathetic nature 
 was apt to draw their sympathy to him. 
 
 His inaugural address foreshadowed his official 
 course in characteristic manner. Although yielding 
 nothing in point of principle, it was by no means a 
 flaming antislavery manifesto, such as would have 
 pleased the more ardent Republicans. It was 
 rather the entreaty of a sorrowing father speaking to 
 his wayward children. In the kindliest language 
 he pointed out to the secessionists how ill advised 
 their attempt at disunion was, and why, for their 
 own sakes, they should desist. Almost plaintively, 
 he told them that, while it was not their duty to de- 
 stroy the Union, it was his sworn duty to preserve it; 
 that the least he could do, under the obligations of 
 his oath, was to possess and hold the property of the 
 United States; that he hoped to do this peaceably; 
 that he abhorred war for any purpose, and that they 
 would have none unless they themselves were the 
 aggressors. It was a masterpiece of persuasiveness, 
 and while Lincoln had accepted many valuable 
 amendments suggested by Seward, it was essentially 
 his own. Probably Lincoln himself did not expect 
 his inaugural address to have any effect upon the 
 secessionists, for he must have known them to be 
 resolved upon disunion at any cost. But it was an 
 appeal to the wavering minds in the North, and upon 
 them it made a profound impression. Every candid 
 
Carl Schurz 45 
 
 man, however timid and halting, had to admit that 
 the President was bound by his oath to do his duty ; 
 that under that oath he could do no less than he said 
 he would do; that if the secessionists resisted such 
 an appeal as the President had made, they were bent 
 upon mischief, and that the government must be 
 supported against them. The partisan sympathy 
 with the Southern insurrection which still existed 
 in the North did indeed not disappear, but it di- 
 minished perceptibly under the influence of such 
 reasoning. Those who still resisted it did so at the 
 risk of appearing unpatriotic. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that Lincoln 
 at once succeeded in pleasing everybody, even 
 among his friends, — even among those nearest to 
 him. In selecting his cabinet, which he did sub- 
 stantially before he left Springfield for Washington, 
 he thought it wise to call to his assistance the strong 
 men of his party, especially those who had given 
 evidence of the support they commanded as his 
 competitors in the Chicago convention. In them he 
 found at the same time representatives of the differ- 
 ent shades of opinion within the party, and of the 
 different elements — former Whigs and former Demo- 
 crats — from which the party had recruited itself. 
 This was sound policy under the circumstances. It 
 might indeed have been foreseen that among the 
 members of a cabinet so composed, troublesome 
 disagreements and rivalries would break out. But 
 it was better for the President to have these strong 
 and ambitious men near him as his co-operators than 
 to have them as his critics in Congress, where their 
 
46 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 differences might have been composed in a common 
 opposition to him. As members of his cabinet he 
 could hope to control them, and to keep them 
 busily employed in the service of a common purpose, 
 if he had the strength to do so. Whether he did 
 possess this strength was soon tested by a singularly 
 rude trial. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the foremost members 
 of his cabinet, Seward and Chase, the most eminent 
 Republican statesmen, had felt themselves wronged 
 by their party when in its national convention it 
 preferred to them for the Presidency a man whom, 
 not unnaturally, they thought greatly their inferior 
 in ability and experience as well as in service. The 
 soreness of that disappointment was intensified 
 when they saw this Western man in the White House, 
 with so much of rustic manner and speech as still 
 clung to him, meeting his fellow-citizens, high and 
 low, on a footing of equality, with the simplicity of 
 his good nature unburdened by any conventional 
 dignity of deportment, and dealing with the great 
 business of state in an easy-going, unmethodical, 
 and apparently somewhat irreverent way. They 
 did not understand such a man. Especially Seward, 
 who, as Secretary of State, considered himself next 
 to the Chief Executive, and who quickly accustomed 
 himself to giving orders and making arrangements 
 upon his own motion, thought it necessary that he 
 should rescue the direction of public affairs from 
 hands so unskilled, and take full charge of them 
 himself. At the end of the first month of the admin- 
 istration he submitted a "memorandum" to Presi- 
 
Carl Schurz 47 
 
 dent Lincoln, which has been first brought to light 
 by Nicolay and Hay, and is one of their most 
 valuable contributions to the history of those days. 
 In that paper Seward actually told the President that 
 at the end of a month's administration the govern- 
 ment was still without a policy, either domestic or 
 foreign; that the slavery question should be elimi- 
 nated from the struggle about the Union; that the 
 matter of the maintenance of the forts and other 
 possessions in the South should be decided with 
 that view; that explanations should be demanded 
 categorically from the governments of Spain and 
 France, which were then preparing, one for the an- 
 nexation of San Domingo, and both for the invasion 
 of Mexico ; that if no satisfactory explanations were 
 received war should be declared against Spain and 
 France by the United States; that explanations 
 should also be sought from Russia and Great Britain, 
 and a vigorous continental spirit of independence 
 against European intervention be aroused all over 
 the American continent; that this policy should be 
 incessantly pursued and directed by somebody; 
 that either the President should devote himself en- 
 tirely to it, or devolve the direction on some member 
 of his cabinet, whereupon all debate on this policy 
 must end. 
 
 This could be understood only as a formal demand 
 that the President should acknowledge his own 
 incompetency to perform his duties, content himself 
 with the amusement of distributing post-offices, and 
 resign his power as to all important affairs into the 
 hands of his Secretary of State. It seems to-day 
 
48 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 incomprehensible how a statesman of Seward's call* 
 bre could at that period conceive a plan of policy- in 
 which the slavery question had no place; a policy 
 which rested upon the utterly delusive assumption 
 that the secessionists, who had already formed their 
 Southern Confederacy and were with stern resolu- 
 tion preparing to fight for its independence, could 
 be hoodwinked back into the Union by some senti- 
 mental demonstration against European interfer- 
 ence; a policy which, at that critical moment, would 
 have involved the Union in a foreign war, thus 
 inviting foreign intervention in favor of the Southern 
 Confederacy, and increasing tenfold its chances in 
 the struggle for independence. But it is equally in- 
 comprehensible how Seward could fail to see that this 
 demand of an unconditional surrender was a mortal 
 insult to the head of the government, and that by 
 putting his proposition on paper he delivered himself 
 into the hands of the very man he had insulted ; for, 
 had Lincoln, as most Presidents would have done, 
 instantly dismissed Seward, and published the true 
 reason for that dismissal, it would inevitably have 
 been the end of Seward's career. But Lincoln did 
 what not many of the noblest and greatest men in 
 history would have been noble and great enough to 
 do. He considered that Seward was still capable of 
 rendering great service to his country in the place 
 in which he was, if rightly controlled. He ignored 
 the insult, but firmly established his superiority. 
 In his reply, which he forthwith despatched, he told 
 Seward that the administration had a domestic policy 
 as laid down in the inaugural address with Seward's 
 
Carl Schurz 49 
 
 approval; that it had a foreign policy as traced in 
 Seward's despatches with the President's approval; 
 that if any policy was to be maintained or changed, 
 he, the President, was to direct that on his responsi- 
 bility; and that in performing that duty the Presi- 
 dent had a right to the advice of his secretaries. 
 Seward's fantastic schemes of foreign war and con- 
 tinental policies Lincoln brushed aside by passing 
 them over in silence. Nothing more was said. 
 Seward must have felt that he was at the mercy of a 
 superior man; that his offensive proposition had 
 been generously pardoned as a temporary aberration 
 of a great mind, and that he could atone for it only 
 by devoted personal loyalty. This he did. He was 
 thoroughly subdued, and thenceforth submitted to 
 Lincoln his despatches for revision and amendment 
 without a murmur. The war with European na- 
 tions was no longer thought of ; the slavery question 
 found in due time its proper place in the struggle 
 for the Union ; and when, at a later period, the dis- 
 missal of Seward was demanded by dissatisfied 
 senators, who attributed to him the shortcomings of 
 the administration, Lincoln stood stoutly by his 
 faithful Secretary of State. 
 
 Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man of 
 superb presence, of eminent ability and ardent 
 patriotism, of great natural dignity and a certain 
 outward coldness of manner, which made him ap- 
 pear more difficult of approach than he really was, 
 did not permit his disappointment to burst out in 
 such extravagant demonstrations. But Lincoln's 
 ways were so essentially different from his that they 
 
50 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 never became quite intelligible, and certainly not 
 congenial to him. It might, perhaps, have been 
 better had there been, at the beginning of the ad- 
 ministration, some decided clash between Lincoln 
 and Chase, as there was between Lincoln and 
 Seward, to bring on a full mutual explanation, and 
 to make Chase appreciate the real seriousness of 
 Lincoln's nature. But, as it was, their relations 
 always remained somewhat formal, and Chase never 
 felt quite at ease under a chief whom he could not 
 understand, and whose character and powers he 
 never learned to esteem at their true value. At the 
 same time, he devoted himself zealously to the 
 duties of his department, and did the country 
 arduous service under circumstances of extreme 
 difficulty. Nobody recognized this more heartily 
 than Lincoln himself, and they managed to work 
 together until near the end of Lincoln's first Presi- 
 dential term, when Chase, after some disagreements 
 concerning appointments to office, resigned from the 
 treasury; and, after Taney's death, the President 
 made him Chief Justice. 
 
 The rest of the cabinet consisted of men of less 
 eminence, who subordinated themselves more easily. 
 In January, 1862, Lincoln found it necessary to bow 
 Cameron out of the war office, and to put in his place 
 Edwin M. Stanton, a man of intensely practical 
 mind, vehement impulses, fierce positiveness, ruth- 
 less energy, immense working power, lofty patriot- 
 ism, and severest devotion to duty. He accepted the 
 war office not as a partisan, for he had never been a 
 Republican, but only to do all he could in "helping 
 
Carl Schurz 51 
 
 to save the country." The manner in which Lin- 
 coln succeeded in taming this lion to his will, by 
 frankly recognizing his great qualities, by giving him 
 the most generous confidence, by aiding him in his 
 work to the full of his power, by kindly concession or 
 affectionate persuasiveness in cases of differing opin- 
 ions, or, when it was necessary, by firm assertions 
 of superior authority, bears the highest testimony 
 to his skill in the management of men. Stanton, 
 who had entered the service with rather a mean 
 opinion of Lincoln's character and capacity, became 
 one of his warmest, most devoted, and most admir- 
 ing friends, and with none of his secretaries was 
 Lincoln's intercourse more intimate. To take advice 
 with candid readiness, and to weigh it without any 
 pride of his own opinion, was one of Lincoln's pre- 
 eminent virtues; but he had not long presided over., 
 his cabinet council when his was felt by all itsr mem- 
 bers to be the ruling mind. 
 
 The cautious policy foreshadowed in his inaugu- 
 ral address, and pursued during the first period of 
 the civil war, was far from satisfying all his party 
 friends. The ardent spirits among the Union men 
 thought that, the whole North, should at once be 
 called to arms, to crush the rebellion by one power- 
 ful blow. The "ardent spirits '• among the anti- 
 slavery men insisted 'that, slavery having brought 
 forth the rebellion, this powerful blow should at 
 once be aimed at slavery. Both complained that the 
 administration was spiritless, undecided, and lament- 
 ably slow in its proceedings. Lincoln reasoned 
 otherwise. The ways of thinking and feeling of the 
 
52 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 masses, of the plain people, were constantly present 
 to his mind. The masses, the plain people, had to 
 furnish the men for the fighting, if fighting was to be 
 done. He believed that the plain people would be 
 ready to fight when it clearly appeared necessary, 
 and that they would feel that necessity when they 
 felt themselves attacked. He therefore waited until 
 the enemies of the Union struck the first blow. As 
 soon as, on the 12th of April, 1861, the first gun was 
 fired in Charleston harbor on the Union flag upon 
 Fort Sumter, the call was sounded, and the Northern 
 people rushed to arms. 
 
 Lincoln knew that the plain people were now 
 indeed ready to fight in defence of the Union, but 
 not yet ready to fight for the destruction of slavery. 
 He declared openly that he had a right to summon 
 the people to fight for the Union, but not to summon 
 them to fight for the abolition of slavery as a primary 
 object; and this declaration gave him numberless 
 soldiers for the Union who at that period would have 
 hesitated to do battle against the institution of 
 slavery. For a time he succeeded in rendering 
 harmless the cry of the partisan opposition that the 
 Republican administration were perverting the war 
 for the Union into an "abolition war." But when 
 he went so far as to countermand the acts of some 
 generals in the field, looking to the emancipation of 
 the slaves in the districts covered by their commands, 
 loud complaints arose from earnest antislavery 
 men, who accused the President of turning his back 
 upon the antislavery cause. Many of these anti- 
 slavery men will now, after a calm retrospect, be 
 
Carl Schurz 53 
 
 willing to admit that it would have been a hazardous 
 policy to endanger, by precipitating a demonstrative 
 fight against slavery, the success of the struggle for 
 the Union. 
 
 Lincoln's views and feelings concerning slavery 
 had not changed. Those who conversed with him 
 intimately upon the subject at that period know 
 that he did not expect slavery long to survive the 
 triumph of the Union, even if it were not immedi- 
 ately destroyed by the war. In this he was right. 
 Had the Union armies achieved a decisive victory in 
 an early period of the conflict, and had the seceded 
 States been received back with slavery, the ''slave 
 power" would then have been a defeated power, — 
 defeated in an attempt to carry out its most effect- 
 ive threat. It would have lost its prestige. Its 
 menaces would have been hollow sound, and ceased 
 to make any one afraid. It could no longer have 
 hoped to expand, to maintain an equilibrium in any 
 branch of Congress, and to control the government. 
 The victorious free States would have largely over- 
 balanced it. It would no longer have been able to 
 withstand the onset of a hostile age. It could no 
 longer have ruled, — and slavery had to rule in order 
 to live. It would have lingered for a while, but it 
 would surely have been "in the course of ultimate 
 extinction.' ' A prolonged war precipitated the 
 destruction of slavery ; a short war might only have 
 prolonged its death struggle. Lincoln saw this 
 clearly; but he saw also that, in a protracted death 
 struggle, it might still have kept disloyal sentiments 
 alive, bred distracting commotions, and caused great 
 
54 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 mischief to the country. He therefore hoped that 
 slavery would not survive the war. 
 
 But the question how he could rightfully employ 
 his power to bring on its speedy destruction was to 
 him not a question of mere sentiment. He himself 
 set forth his reasoning upon it, at a later period, in 
 one of his inimitable letters. ' ' I am naturally anti- 
 slavery," said he. " If slavery is not wrong, nothing 
 is wrong. I cannot remember the time when I did 
 not so think and feel. And yet I have never under- 
 stood that the Presidency conferred upon me an 
 unrestricted right to act upon that judgment and 
 feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to 
 the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend 
 the Constitution of the United States. I could not 
 take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it 
 my view that I might take an oath to get power, and 
 break the oath in using that power. I understood, 
 too, that, in ordinary civil administration, this oath 
 even forbade me practically to indulge my private 
 abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. 
 I did understand, however, also, that my oath im- 
 posed upon me the duty of preserving, to the best 
 of my ability, by every indispensable means, that 
 government, that nation, of which the Constitution 
 was the organic law. I could not feel that, to the 
 best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the 
 Constitution if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, 
 I should permit the wreck of government, country, 
 and Constitution all together." In other words, if 
 the salvation of the government, the Constitution, 
 and the Union demanded the destruction of slavery, 
 
Carl Schurz 55 
 
 he felt it to be not only his right, but his sworn duty 
 to destroy it. Its destruction became a necessity of 
 the war for the Union. 
 
 As the war dragged on and disaster followed 
 disaster, the sense of that necessity steadily grew 
 upon him. Early in 1862, as some of his friends 
 well remember, he saw, what Seward seemed not to 
 see, that to give the war for the Union an anti- 
 slavery character was the surest means to prevent 
 the recognition of the Southern Confederacy as an 
 independent nation by European powers; that, 
 slavery being abhorred by the moral sense of civilized 
 mankind, no European government would dare to 
 offer so gross an insult to the public opinion of its 
 people as openly to favor the creation of a state 
 founded upon slavery to the prejudice of an existing 
 nation fighting against slavery. He saw also that 
 slavery untouched was to the rebellion an element of 
 power, and that in order to overcome that power it 
 was necessary to turn it into an element of weakness. 
 Still, he felt no assurance that the plain people were 
 prepared for so radical a measure as the emancipa- 
 tion of the slaves by act of the government, and he 
 anxiously considered that, if they were not, this great 
 step might, by exciting dissension at the North, 
 injure the cause of the Union in one quarter more 
 than it would help it in another. He heartily 
 welcomed an effort made in New York to mould and 
 stimulate public sentiment on the slavery question 
 by public meetings boldly pronouncing for emanci- 
 pation. At the same time he himself cautiously 
 advanced with a recommendation, expressed in a 
 
56 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 special message to Congress, that the United States 
 should co-operate with any State which might adopt 
 the gradual abolishment of slavery, giving such 
 State pecuniary aid to compensate the former 
 owners of emanicipated slaves. The discussion 
 was started, and spread rapidly. Congress adopted 
 the resolution recommended, and soon went a step 
 farther in passing a bill to abolish slavery in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. The plain people began to look 
 at emancipation on a larger scale as a thing to be 
 considered seriously by patriotic citizens; and soon 
 Lincoln thought that the time was ripe, and that 
 the edict of freedom could be ventured upon without 
 danger of serious confusion in the Union ranks. 
 
 The failure of McClellan's movement upon Rich- 
 mond increased immensely the prestige of the enemy. 
 The need of some great act to stimulate the vital- 
 ity of the Union cause seemed to grow daily more 
 pressing. On July 21, 1862, Lincoln surprised his 
 cabinet with the draught of a proclamation declaring 
 free the slaves in all the States that should be still 
 in rebellion against the United States on the 1st of 
 January, 1 863 . As to the matter itself he announced 
 that he had fully made up his mind; he invited ad- 
 vice only concerning the form and the time of publi- 
 cation. Seward suggested that the proclamation, 
 if then brought out, amidst disaster and distress, 
 would sound like the last shriek of a perishing cause. 
 Lincoln accepted the suggestion, and the proclama- 
 tion was postponed. Another defeat followed, the 
 second at Bull Run. But when, after that battle, 
 the Confederate army, under Lee, crossed the 
 
Carl Schurz 57 
 
 Potomac and invaded Maryland, Lincoln vowed in 
 his heart that, if the Union army were now blessed 
 with success, the decree of freedom should surely 
 be issued. The victory of Antietam was won on 
 September 17, and the preliminary Emancipation 
 Proclamation came forth on the 2 2d. It was Lin- 
 coln's own resolution and act; but practically it 
 bound the nation, and permitted no step backward. 
 In spite of its limitations, it was the actual abolition 
 of slavery. Thus he wrote his name upon the books 
 of history with the title dearest/ to his heart, — the 
 liberator of the slave. 
 
 It is true, the great proclamation, which stamped 
 the war as one for " union and freedom," did not 
 at once mark the turning of the tide on the field 
 of military operations. There were more disasters, 
 — Fredericksburg and Chancellors ville. But with 
 Gettysburg and Vicksburg the whole aspect of the 
 war changed. Step by step, now more slowly, then 
 more rapidly, but with increasing steadiness, the 
 flag of the Union advanced from field to field toward 
 the final consummation. The decree of emancipa- 
 tion was naturally followed by the enlistment of 
 emancipated negroes in the Union armies. This 
 measure had a farther reaching effect than merely 
 giving the Union armies an increased supply of men. 
 The laboring force of the rebellion was hopelessly 
 disorganized. The war became like a problem of 
 arithmetic. As the Union armies pushed forward, 
 the area from which the Southern Confederacy 
 could draw recruits and supplies constantly grew 
 smaller, while the area from which the Union 
 
58 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 recruited its strength constantly grew larger; and 
 everywhere, even within the Southern lines, the 
 Union had its allies. The fate of the rebellion was 
 then virtually decided; but it still required much 
 bloody work to convince the brave warriors who 
 fought for it that they were really beaten. 
 
 Neither did the Emancipation Proclamation forth- 
 with command universal assent among the people 
 who were loyal to the Union. There were even signs 
 of a reaction against the administration in the fall 
 elections of 1862, seemingly justifying the opinion, 
 entertained by many, that the President had really 
 anticipated the development of popular feeling. 
 The cry that the war for the Union had been turned 
 into an "abolition war" was raised again by the 
 opposition, and more loudly than ever. But the 
 good sense and patriotic instincts of the plain people 
 gradually marshalled themselves on Lincoln's side, 
 and he lost no opportunity to help on this process by 
 personal argument and admonition. There never 
 has been a President in such constant and active con- 
 tact with the public opinion of the country, as there 
 never has been a President who, while at the head of 
 the government, remained so near to the people. 
 Beyond the circle of those who had long known him 
 the feeling steadily grew that the man in the White 
 House was "honest Abe Lincoln" still, and that 
 every citizen might approach him with complaint, 
 expostulation, or advice, without danger of meeting a 
 rebuff from power-proud authority, or humiliating 
 condescension; and this privilege was used by so 
 many and with such unsparing freedom that only 
 
Carl Schurz 59 
 
 superhuman patience could have endured it all. 
 There are men now living who would to-day read 
 with amazement, if not regret, what they ventured 
 to say or write to him. But Lincoln repelled no 
 one whom he believed to speak to him in good faith 
 and with patriotic purpose. No good advice would 
 go unheeded. No candid criticism would offend him. 
 No honest opposition, while it might pain him, 
 would produce a lasting alienation of feeling between 
 him and the opponent. It may truly be said that 
 few men in power have ever been exposed to more 
 daring attempts to direct their course, to severer 
 censure of their acts, and to more cruel misrepre- 
 sentation of their motives. And all this he met 
 with that good-natured humor peculiarly his own, 
 and with untiring effort to see the right and to im- 
 press it upon those who differed from him. The con- 
 versations he had and the correspondence he carried 
 on upon matters of public interest, not only with men 
 in official position, but with private citizens, were 
 almost unceasing, and in a large number of public 
 letters, written ostensibly to meetings, or committees, 
 or persons of importance, he addressed himself di- I 
 rectly to the popular mind. Most of these letters ' 
 stand among the finest monuments of our political 
 literature. Thus he presented the singular spectacle 
 of a President who, in the midst of a great civil war, 
 with unprecedented duties weighing upon him, was 
 constantly in person debating the great features of 
 his policy with the people. 
 
 While in this manner he exercised an ever-in- 
 creasing influence upon the popular understanding, 
 
60 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 his sympathetic nature endeared him more and more 
 to the popular heart. In vain did journals and 
 speakers of the opposition represent him as a light- 
 minded trifler, who amused himself with frivolous 
 story-telling and coarse jokes, while the blood of the 
 people was flowing in streams. The people knew 
 that the man at the head of affairs, on whose hag- 
 gard face the twinkle of humor so frequently changed 
 into an expression of profoundest sadness, was more 
 than any other deeply distressed by the suffering he 
 witnessed; that he felt the pain of every wound 
 that was inflicted on the battlefield, and the anguish 
 of every woman or child who had lost husband or 
 father; that whenever he could he was eager to 
 alleviate sorrow, and that his mercy was never im- 
 plored in vain. They looked to him as one who was 
 with them and of them in all their hopes and fears, 
 their joys and sorrows, — who laughed with them 
 and wept with them ; and as his heart was theirs, so 
 their hearts turned to him. His popularity was 
 far different from that of Washington, who was 
 revered with awe, or that of Jackson, the uncon- 
 querable hero, for whom party enthusiasm never 
 grew weary of shouting. To Abraham Lincoln the 
 people became bound by a genuine sentimental 
 attachment. It was not a matter of respect, or 
 confidence, or party pride, for this feeling spread far 
 beyond the boundary lines of his party ; it was an 
 affair of the heart, independent of mere reasoning. 
 When the soldiers in the field or their folks at home 
 spoke of "Father Abraham,' ' there was no cant in 
 it. They felt that their President was really caring 
 
Carl Schurz 61 
 
 for them as a father would, and that they could go 
 to him, every one of them, as they would go to a 
 father, and talk to him of what troubled them, sure 
 to find a willing ear and tender sympathy. Thus, 
 their President, and his cause, and his endeavors, and 
 his success gradually became to them almost matters 
 of family concern. And this popularity carried him 
 triumphantly through the Presidential election of 
 1864, in spite of an opposition within his own party 
 which at first seemed very formidable. 
 
 Many of the radical antislavery men were never 
 quite satisfied with Lincoln's ways of meeting the 
 problems of the time. They were very earnest and 
 mostly very able men, who had positive ideas as to 
 1 'how this rebellion should be put down." They 
 would not recognize the necessity of measuring the 
 steps of the government according to the progress 
 of opinion among the plain people. They criticised 
 Lincoln's cautious management as irresolute, halt- 
 ing, lacking in definite purpose and in energy; he 
 should not have delayed emancipation so long; he 
 should not have confided important commands to 
 men of doubtful views as to slavery ; he should have 
 authorized military commanders to set the slaves 
 free as they went on ; he dealt too leniently with un- 
 successful generals; he should have put down all 
 factious opposition with a strong hand instead of 
 trying to pacify it ; he should have given the people 
 accomplished facts instead of arguing with them, 
 and so on. It is true, these criticisms were not 
 always entirely unfounded. Lincoln's policy had, 
 with the virtues of democratic government, some of 
 
62 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 its weaknesses, which in the presence of pressing 
 exigencies were apt to deprive governmental action 
 of the necessary vigor; and his kindness of heart, 
 his disposition always to respect the feelings of 
 others, frequently made him recoil from anything 
 like severity, even when severity was urgently called 
 for. But many of his radical critics have since then 
 revised their judgment sufficiently to admit that 
 Lincoln's policy was, on the whole, the wisest and 
 safest ; that a policy of heroic methods, while it has 
 sometimes accomplished great results, could in a 
 democracy like ours be maintained only by constant 
 success; that it would have quickly broken down 
 under the weight of disaster; that it might have been 
 successful from the start, had the Union, at the 
 beginning of the conflict, had its Grants and Sher- 
 mans and Sheridans, its Farraguts and Porters, 
 fully matured at the head of its forces; but that, 
 as the great commanders had to be evolved slowly 
 from the developments of the war, constant suc- 
 cess could not be counted upon, and it was best to 
 follow a policy which was in friendly contact with the 
 popular force, and therefore more fit to stand trial 
 of misfortune on the battlefield. But at that period 
 they thought differently, and their dissatisfaction with 
 Lincoln's doings was greatly increased by the steps 
 he took toward the reconstruction of rebel States 
 then partially in possession of the Union forces. 
 
 In December, 1863, Lincoln issued an amnesty 
 proclamation, offering pardon to all implicated in the 
 rebellion, with certain specified exceptions, on con- 
 dition of their taking and maintaining an oath to 
 
Carl Schurz 63 
 
 support the Constitution and obey the laws of the 
 United States and the proclamations of the Presi- 
 dent with regard to slaves; and also promising that 
 when, in any of the rebel States, a number of citi- 
 zens equal to one tenth of the voters in i860 should 
 re-establish a state government in conformity with 
 the oath above mentioned, such should be recog- 
 nized by the Executive as the true government of the 
 State. The proclamation seemed at first to be re- 
 ceived with general favor. But soon another scheme 
 of reconstruction, much more stringent in its pro- 
 visions, was put forward in the House of Represent- 
 atives by Henry Winter Davis. Benjamin Wade 
 championed it in the Senate. It passed in the clos- 
 ing moments of the session in July, 1864, and Lin- 
 coln, instead of making it a law by his signature, 
 embodied the text of it in a proclamation as a plan of 
 reconstruction worthy of being earnestly considered. 
 The differences of opinion concerning this subject 
 had only intensified the feeling against Lincoln which 
 had long been nursed among the radicals, and some 
 of them openly declared their purpose of resisting 
 his re-election to the Presidency. Similar sentiments 
 were manifested by the advanced antislavery men 
 of Missouri, who, in their hot faction-fight with the 
 " conservatives" of that State, had not received 
 from Lincoln the active support they demanded. 
 Still another class of Union men, mainly in the East, 
 gravely shook their heads when considering the ques- 
 tion whether Lincoln should be re-elected. They 
 were those who cherished in their minds an ideal of 
 statesmanship and of personal bearing in high office 
 
64 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 with which, in their opinion, Lincoln's individuality 
 was much out of accord. They were shocked when 
 they heard him cap an argument upon grave affairs 
 of state with a story about ' ' a man out in Sanga- 
 mon County," — a story, to be sure, strikingly 
 clinching his point, but sadly lacking in dignity. 
 They could not understand the man who was capa- 
 ble, in opening a cabinet meeting, of reading to 
 his secretaries a funny chapter from a recent book 
 of Artemus Ward, with which in an unoccupied 
 moment he had relieved his care-burdened mind, 
 and who then solemnly informed the executive 
 council that he had vowed in his heart to issue a 
 proclamation emancipating the slaves as soon as 
 God blessed the Union arms with another victory. 
 They were alarmed at the weakness of a President 
 who would indeed resist the urgent remonstrances 
 of statesmen against his policy, but could not resist 
 the prayer of an old woman for the pardon of a sol- 
 dier who was sentenced to be shot for desertion. 
 Such men, mostly sincere and ardent patriots, not 
 only wished, but earnestly set to work, to prevent 
 Lincoln's renomination. Not a few of them actually 
 believed, in 1863, that, if the national convention 
 of the Union party were held then, Lincoln would 
 not be supported by the delegation of a single 
 State. But when the convention met at Baltimore, 
 in June, 1864, the voice of the people was heard. 
 On the first ballot Lincoln received the votes of the 
 delegations from all the States except Missouri ; and 
 even the Missourians turned over their votes to 
 him before the result of the ballot was declared. 
 
Carl Schurz 65 
 
 But even after his renomination the opposition 
 to Lincoln within the ranks of the Union party did 
 not subside. A convention, called by the dissatis- 
 fied radicals in Missouri, and favored by men of a 
 similar way of thinking in other States, had been 
 held already in May, and had nominated as its candi- 
 date for the Presidency General Fremont. He, 
 indeed, did not attract a strong following, but oppo- 
 sition movements from different quarters appeared 
 more formidable. Henry Winter Davis and Ben- 
 jamin Wade assailed Lincoln in a flaming mani- 
 festo. Other Union men, of undoubted patriotism 
 and high standing, persuaded themselves, and 
 sought to persuade the people, that Lincoln's re- 
 nomination was ill advised and dangerous to the 
 Union cause. As the Democrats had put off their 
 convention until the 29th of August, the Union 
 party had, during the larger part of the summer, 
 no opposing candidate and platform to attack, 
 and the political campaign languished. Neither 
 were the tidings from the theatre of war of a cheer- 
 ing character. The terrible losses suffered by 
 Grant's army in the battles of the Wilderness 
 spread general gloom. Sherman seemed for a while 
 to be in a precarious position before Atlanta. The 
 opposition to Lincoln within the Union party grew 
 louder in its complaints and discouraging predic- 
 tions. Earnest demands were heard that his candi- 
 dacy should be withdrawn. Lincoln himself, not 
 knowing how strongly the masses were attached to 
 him, was haunted by dark forebodings of defeat. 
 Then the scene suddenly changed as if by magic. 
 
 VOL. I.— 5. 
 
66 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 The Democrats, in their national convention, de- 
 clared the war a failure, demanded, substantially, 
 peace at any price, and nominated on such a plat- 
 form General McClellan as their candidate. Their 
 convention had hardly adjourned when the capture 
 of Atlanta gave a new aspect to the military situa- 
 tion. It was like a sun-ray bursting through a 
 dark cloud. The rank and file of the Union party 
 rose with rapidly growing enthusiasm. The song 
 " We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred 
 thousand strong,' ' resounded all over the land. Long 
 before the decisive day arrived, the result was be- 
 yond doubt, and Lincoln was re-elected President 
 by overwhelming majorities. The election over 
 even his severest critics found themselves forced to 
 admit that Lincoln was the only possible candidate 
 for the Union party in 1864, and that neither politi- 
 cal combinations nor campaign speeches, nor even 
 victories in the field, were needed to insure his suc- 
 cess. The plain people had all the while been satis- 
 fied with Abraham Lincoln: they confided in him; 
 they loved him; they felt themselves near to him; 
 they saw personified in him the cause of Union and 
 freedom; and they went to the ballot-box for him in 
 their strength. 
 
 The hour of triumph called out the characteristic 
 impulses of his nature. The opposition within the 
 Union party had stung him to the quick. Now he 
 had his opponents before him, baffled and humili- 
 ated. Not a moment did he lose to stretch out the 
 hand of friendship to all. " Now that the election is 
 over," he said, in response to a serenade, "may not 
 
Carl Schurz 67 
 
 all, having a common interest, reunite in a common 
 effort to save our common country? For my own 
 part, I have striven, and will strive, to place no 
 obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here 
 I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's 
 bosom. While I am deeply sensible to the high 
 compliment of a re-election, it adds nothing to my 
 satisfaction that any other man may be pained or 
 disappointed by the result. May I ask those who 
 were with me to join with me in the same spirit 
 toward those who were against me?" This was 
 Abraham Lincoln's character as tested in the fur- 
 nace of prosperity. 
 
 The war was virtually decided, but not yet ended. 
 Sherman was irresistibly carrying the Union flag 
 through the South. Grant had his iron hand upon 
 the ramparts of Richmond. The days of the Con- 
 federacy were evidently numbered. Only the last 
 blow remained to be struck. Then Lincoln's second 
 inauguration came, and with it his second inaugural 
 address. Lincoln's famous "Gettysburg speech'' 
 has been much and justly admired. But far 
 greater, as well as far more characteristic, was 
 that inaugural in which he poured out the whole 
 devotion and tenderness of his great soul. It had 
 all the solemnity of a father's last admonition and 
 blessing to his children before he lay down to die. 
 These were its closing words: "Fondly do we hope, 
 fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war 
 may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it 
 continue until all the wealth piled up by the bond- 
 man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil 
 
68 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn 
 with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with 
 the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so 
 still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord 
 are true and righteous altogether.' With malice 
 toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in 
 the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 
 to finish the work we are in ; to bind up the nation's 
 wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the 
 battle, and for his widow and his orphan; to do all 
 which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting 
 peace among ourselves and with all nations." 
 
 This was like a sacred poem. No American 
 President had ever spoken words like these to the 
 American people. America never had a President 
 who found such words in the depth of his heart. 
 
 Now followed the closing scenes of the war. The 
 Southern armies fought bravely to the last, but all in 
 vain. Richmond fell. Lincoln himself entered the 
 city on foot, accompanied only by a few officers and 
 a squad of sailors who had rowed him ashore from the 
 flotilla in the James River, a negro picked up on the 
 way serving as a guide. Never had the world seen 
 a more modest conqueror and a more characteristic 
 triumphal procession, — no army with banners and 
 drums, only a throng of those who had been slaves, 
 hastily run together, escorting the victorious chief 
 into the capital of the vanquished foe. We are told 
 that they pressed around him, kissed his hands 
 and his garments, and shouted and danced for joy, 
 while tears ran down the President's care-furrowed 
 cheeks. 
 
Carl Schurz 69 
 
 A few days more brought the surrender of Lee's 
 army, and peace was assured. The people of the 
 North were wild with joy. Everywhere festive guns 
 were booming, bells pealing, the churches ringing 
 with thanksgivings, and jubilant multitudes throng- 
 ing the thoroughfares, when suddenly the news 
 flashed over the land that Abraham Lincoln had been 
 murdered. The people were stunned by the blow. 
 Then a wail of sorrow went up such as America had 
 never heard before. Thousands of Northern house- 
 holds grieved as if they had lost their dearest mem- 
 ber. Many a Southern man cried out in his heart 
 that his people had been robbed of their best friend 
 in their humiliation and distress, when Abraham 
 Lincoln was struck down. It was as if the tender 
 affection which his countrymen bore him had in- 
 spired all nations with a common sentiment. All 
 civilized mankind stood mourning around the coffin 
 of the dead President. Many of those, here and 
 abroad, who not long before had ridiculed and 
 reviled him were among the first to hasten on with 
 their flowers of eulogy, and in that universal chorus 
 of lamentation and praise there was not a voice that 
 did not tremble with genuine emotion. Never since 
 Washington's death had there been such unanimity 
 of judgment as to a man's virtues and greatness; 
 and even Washington's death, although his name 
 was held in greater reverence, did not touch so 
 sympathetic a chord in the people's hearts. 
 
 Nor can it be said that this was owing to the tragic 
 character of Lincoln's end. It is true, the death of 
 this gentlest and most merciful of rulers by the hand 
 
70 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 of a mad fanatic was well apt to exalt him beyond 
 his merits in the estimation of those who loved him, 
 and to make his renown the object of peculiarly 
 tender solicitude. But it is also true that the verdict 
 pronounced upon him in those days has been affected 
 little by time, and that historical inquiry has served 
 rather to increase than to lessen the appreciation 
 of his virtues, his abilities, his services. Giving the 
 fullest measure of credit to his great ministers, — to 
 Seward for his conduct of foreign affairs, to Chase 
 for the management of the finances under terrible 
 difficulties, to Stanton for the performance of his 
 tremendous task as war secretary, — and readily 
 acknowledging that without the skill and fortitude 
 of the great commanders, and the heroism of the 
 soldiers and sailors under them, success could not 
 have been achieved, the historian still finds that 
 ^Lincoln's judgment and will were by no means 
 {governed by those around him; that the most im- 
 J'portant steps were owing to his initiative; that his 
 was the deciding and directing mind ; and that it was 
 pre-eminently he whose sagacity and whose character 
 enlisted for the administration in its struggles the 
 countenance, the sympathy, and the support of the 
 people. It is found, even, that his judgment on 
 military matters was astonishingly acute, and that 
 the advice and instructions he gave to the generals 
 commanding in the field would not seldom have done 
 honor to the ablest of them. History, therefore, 
 without overlooking, or palliating, or excusing any 
 of his shortcomings or mistakes, continues to place 
 him foremost among the saviours of the Union and 
 
Carl Schurz 71 
 
 the liberators of the slave. More than that, it 
 awards to him the merit of having accomplished 
 what but few political philosophers would have 
 recognized as possible, — of leading the republic 
 through four years of furious civil conflict without 
 any serious detriment to its free institutions. 
 
 He was, indeed, while President, violently de- 
 nounced by the opposition as a tyrant and a usurper, 
 for having gone beyond his constitutional powers in 
 authorizing or permitting the temporary suppression 
 of newspapers, and in wantonly suspending the writ 
 of habeas corpus and resorting to arbitrary arrests. 
 Nobody should be blamed who, when such things 
 are done, in good faith and from patriotic motives 
 protests against them. In a republic, arbitrary 
 stretches of power, even when demanded by neces- 
 sity, should never be permitted to pass without a 
 protest on the one hand, and without an apology on 
 the other. It is well they did not so pass during our 
 civil war. That arbitrary measures were resorted 
 to is true. That they were resorted to most spar- 
 ingly, and only when the government thought them 
 absolutely required by the safety of the republic, 
 will now hardly be denied. But certain it is that 
 the history of the world does not furnish a single ex- 
 ample of a government passing through so tremen- 
 dous a crisis as our civil war was with so small a record 
 of arbitrary acts, and so little interference with the 
 ordinary course of law outside the field of military 
 operations. No American President ever wielded 
 such power as that which was thrust into Lincoln's 
 hands. It is to be hoped that no American Presi- 
 
72 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 dent ever will have to be entrusted with such power 
 again. But no man was ever entrusted with it to 
 whom its seductions were less dangerous than they 
 proved to be to Abraham Lincoln. With scrupu- 
 lous care he endeavored, even under the most trying 
 circumstances, to remain strictly within the con- 
 stitutional limitations of his authority; and when- 
 ever the boundary became indistinct, or when the 
 dangers of the situation forced him to cross it, he 
 was equally careful to mark his acts as exceptional 
 measures, justifiable only by the imperative neces- 
 sities of the civil war, so that they might not pass into 
 history as precedents for similar acts in time of peace. 
 It is an unquestionable fact that during the recon- 
 struction period which followed the war, more things 
 were done capable of serving as dangerous pre- 
 cedents than during the war itself. Thus it may 
 truly be said of him not only that under his guidance 
 the republic was saved from disruption and the 
 country was purified of the blot of slavery, but that, 
 during the stormiest and most perilous crisis in our 
 history, he so conducted the government and so 
 wielded his almost dictatorial power as to leave 
 essentially intact our free institutions in all things 
 that concern the rights and liberties of the citizens. 
 He understood well the nature of the problem. In 
 his first message to Congress he defined it in admir- 
 ably pointed language: "Must a government be of 
 necessity too strong for the liberties of its own people, 
 or too weak to maintain its own existence ? Is there 
 in all republics this inherent weakness ? " This ques- 
 tion he answered in the name of the great American 
 
Carl Schurz 73 
 
 republic, as no man could have answered it better, 
 with a triumphant "No." 
 
 It has been said that Abraham Lincoln died at the 
 right moment for his fame. However that may be, 
 he had, at the time of his death, certainly not ex- 
 hausted his usefulness to his country. He was proba- 
 bly the only man who could have guided the nation 
 through the perplexities of the reconstruction period 
 in such a manner as to prevent in the work of peace 
 the revival of the passions of the war. He would in- 
 deed not have escaped serious controversy as to 
 details of policy; but he could have weathered it 
 far better than any other statesman of his time, for 
 his prestige with the active politicians had been 
 immensely strengthened by his triumphant re-elec- 
 tion; and, what is more important, he would have 
 been supported by the confidence of the victorious 
 Northern people that he would do all to secure the 
 safety of the Union and the rights of the emancipated 
 negro, and at the same time by the confidence of 
 the defeated Southern people that nothing would be 
 done by him from motives of vindictiveness, or of 
 unreasoning fanaticism, or of a selfish party spirit. 
 "With malice toward none, with charity for all," 
 the foremost of the victors would have personified 
 in himself the genius of reconciliation. 
 
 He might have rendered the country a great service 
 in another direction. A few days after the fall of 
 Richmond, he pointed out to a friend the crowd of 
 office-seekers besieging his door. "Look at that," 
 said he. "Now we have conquered the rebellion, 
 but here you see something that may become more 
 
74 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 dangerous to this republic than the rebellion itself." 
 It is true, Lincoln as President did not profess what 
 we now call civil service reform principles. He used 
 the patronage of the government in many cases 
 avowedly to reward party work, in many others to 
 form combinations and to produce political effects 
 advantageous to the Union cause, and in still others 
 simply to put the right man into the right place. 
 But in his endeavors to strengthen the Union cause, 
 and in his search for able and useful men for public 
 duties, he frequently went beyond the limits of his 
 party, and gradually accustomed himself to the 
 thought that, while party service had its value, 
 considerations of the public interest were, as to 
 appointments to office, of far greater consequence. 
 Moreover, there had been such a mingling of dif- 
 ferent political elements in support of the Union 
 during the civil war that Lincoln, standing at the head 
 of that temporarily united motley mass, hardly felt 
 himself, in the narrow sense of the term, a party 
 man. And as he became strongly impressed with 
 the dangers brought upon the republic by the use of 
 public offices as party spoils, it is by no means im- 
 probable that, had he survived the all-absorbing 
 crisis and found time to turn to other objects, one of 
 the most important reforms of later days would have 
 been pioneered by his powerful authority. , This was 
 not to be. But the measure of his achievements was 
 full enough for immortality. 
 
 To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has 
 already become a half -mythical figure, which, in the 
 haze of historic distance, grows to more and more 
 
Carl Schurz 75 
 
 heroic proportions, but also lbses in distinctness of 
 outline and feature. This is indeed the common lot 
 of popular heroes; but the Lincoln legend will be 
 more than ordinarily apt to become fanciful, as 
 his individuality, assembling seemingly incongruous 
 qualities and forces in a character at the same time 
 grand and most lovable, was so unique, and his 
 career so abounding in startling contrasts. As the 
 state of society in which Abraham Lincoln grew up 
 passes away, the world will read with increasing 
 wonder of the man who, not only of the humblest 
 origin, but remaining the simplest and most un- 
 pretending of citizens, was raised to a position of 
 power unprecedented in our history; who was the 
 gentlest and most peace-loving of mortals, unable to 
 see any creature suffer without a pang in his own 
 breast, and suddenly found himself called to con- 
 duct the greatest and bloodiest of our wars; who 
 wielded the power of government when stern resolu- 
 tion and relentless force were the order of the day 
 and then won and ruled the popular mind and heart 
 by the tender sympathies of his nature; who was a 
 cautious conservative by temperament and mental 
 habit, and led the most sudden and sweeping social 
 revolution of our time; who, preserving his homely 
 speech and rustic manner even in the most conspicu- 
 ous position of that period, drew upon himself the 
 scoffs of polite society, and then thrilled the soul 
 of mankind with utterances of wonderful beauty 
 and grandeur; who, in his heart the best friend of 
 the defeated South, was murdered because a crazy 
 fanatic took him for its most cruel enemy; who, 
 
76 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and 
 maligned by sectional passion and an excited party 
 spirit, and around whose bier friend and foe gathered 
 to praise him — which they have since never ceased 
 to do — as one of the greatest of Americans and the 
 best of men. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 By JOSEPH H. CHOATE 
 
 77 
 
Copyright, 1 901 
 B v Thomas Y. Crowell & Company 
 
 7o 
 
This Address was delivered before the Edinburgh Philo- 
 sophical Institution, November 13, igoo. It is included in 
 this set with the courteous permission of the author and of 
 Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell &- Company. 
 
 79 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 WHEN you asked me to deliver the Inaugural 
 Address on this occasion, I recognized that 
 I owed this compliment to the fact that I was the 
 official representative of America, and in selecting a 
 subject I ventured to think that I might interest you 
 for an hour in a brief study in popular government, 
 as illustrated by the life of the most American of all 
 Americans. I therefore offer no apology for asking 
 your attention to Abraham Lincoln — to his unique 
 character and the part he bore in two important 
 achievements of modern history: the preservation 
 of the integrity of the American Union and the 
 emancipation of the colored race. 
 
 During his brief term of power he was probably 
 the object of more abuse, vilification, and ridicule 
 than any other man in the world; but when he fell 
 by the hand of an assassin, at the very moment of 
 his stupendous victory, all the nations of the earth 
 vied with one another in paying homage to his char- 
 acter, and the thirty-five years that have since 
 elapsed have established his place in history as one 
 of the great benefactors not of his own country alone, 
 but of the human race. 
 
 One of many noble utterances upon the occasion 
 of his death was that in which Punch made its 
 
 VOL. I. — 6. 
 
 8x 
 
82 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 magnanimous recantation of the spirit with which it 
 had pursued him: 
 
 " Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet 
 The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew, 
 Between the mourners at his head and feet, 
 Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? 
 
 " Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, 
 To lame my pencil, and confute my pen — 
 To make me own this hind — of princes peer, 
 This rail-splitter — a true born king of men." 
 
 Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of his 
 life, and biography will be searched in vain for such 
 startling vicissitudes of fortune, so great power and 
 glory won out of such humble beginnings and ad- 
 verse circumstances. 
 
 Doubtless you are all familiar with the salient 
 points of his extraordinary career. In the zenith of 
 his fame he was the wise, patient, courageous, suc- 
 cessful ruler of men ; exercising more power than any 
 monarch of his time, not for himself, but for the good 
 of the people who had placed it in his hands; com- 
 mander-in-chief of a vast military power, which 
 waged with ultimate success the greatest war of 
 the century; the triumphant champion of popular 
 government, the deliverer of four millions of his 
 fellow-men from bondage; honored by mankind as 
 Statesman, President, and Liberator. 
 
 Let us glance now at the first half of the brief life 
 of which this was the glorious and happy consum- 
 
Joseph H. Choate 83 
 
 mation. Nothing could be more squalid and mis- 
 erable than the home in which Abraham Lincoln was 
 born — a one-roomed cabin without floor or window 
 in what was then the wilderness of Kentucky, in the 
 heart of that frontier life which swiftly moved west- 
 ward from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, always 
 in advance of schools and churches, of books and 
 money, of railroads and newspapers, of all things 
 which are generally regarded as the comforts and 
 even necessaries of life. His father, ignorant, needy, 
 and thriftless, content if he could keep soul and 
 body together for himself and his family, was ever 
 seeking, without success, to better his unhappy 
 condition by moving on from one such scene of 
 dreary desolation to another. The rude society 
 which surrounded them was not much better. The 
 struggle for existence was hard, and absorbed all 
 their energies. They were fighting the forest, the 
 wild beast, and the retreating savage. From the 
 time when he could barely handle tools until he 
 attained his majority, Lincoln's life was that of a 
 simple farm laborer, poorly clad, housed, and fed, at 
 work either on his father's wretched farm or hired 
 out to neighboring farmers. But in spite, or per- 
 haps by means, of this rude environment, he grew to 
 be a stalwart giant, reaching six feet four at nineteen, 
 and fabulous stories are told of his feats of strength. 
 With the growth of this mighty frame began that 
 strange education which in his ripening years was to 
 qualify him for the great destiny that awaited him, 
 and the development of those mental faculties and 
 moral endowments which, by the time he reached 
 
84 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 middle life, were to make him the sagacious, patient, 
 and triumphant leader of a great nation in the crisis 
 of its fate. His whole schooling, obtained during 
 such odd times as could be spared from grinding 
 labor, did not amount in ail to as much as one year, 
 and the quality of the teaching was of the lowest 
 possible grade, including only the elements of read- 
 ing, writing, and ciphering. But out of these simple 
 elements, when rightly used by the right man, edu- 
 cation is achieved, and Lincoln knew how to use 
 them. As so often happens, he seemed to take 
 warning from his father's unfortunate example. 
 Untiring industry, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, 
 and an ever-growing desire to rise above his sur- 
 roundings, were early manifestations of his character. 
 Books were almost unknown in that community, 
 but the Bible was in every house, and somehow or 
 other Pilgrim's Progress, JEsop's Fables, a History of 
 the United States, and a Life of Washington fell into 
 his hands. He trudged on foot many miles through 
 the wilderness to borrow an English Grammar, and 
 is said to have devoured greedily the contents of the 
 Statutes of Indiana that fell in his way. These few 
 volumes he read and reread — and his power of 
 assimilation was great. To be shut in with a few 
 books and to master them thoroughly sometimes 
 does more for the development of character than free- 
 dom to range at large, in a cursory and indiscrimi- 
 nate way, through wide domains of literature. This 
 youth's mind, at any rate, was thoroughly saturated 
 with Biblical knowledge and Biblical language, 
 which, in after life, he used with great readiness and 
 
Joseph H. Choate 85 
 
 effect. But it was the constant use of the little 
 knowledge which he had that developed and exer- 
 cised his mental powers. After the hard day's work 
 was done, while others slept, he toiled on, always 
 reading or writing. From an early age he did his 
 own thinking and made up his own mind — invalu- 
 able traits in the future President. Paper was such 
 a scarce commodity that, by the evening firelight, 
 he would write and cipher on the back of a wooden 
 shovel, and then shave it off to make room for more. 
 By and by, as he approached manhood, he began 
 speaking in the rude gatherings of the neighborhood, 
 and so laid the foundation of that art of persuad- 
 ing his fellow-men which was one rich result of his 
 education, and one great secret of his subsequent 
 success. 
 
 Accustomed as we are in these days of steam and 
 telegraphs to have every intelligent boy survey the 
 whole world each morning before breakfast, and 
 inform himself as to what is going on in every nation, 
 it is hardly possible to conceive how benighted and 
 isolated was the condition of the community at 
 Pigeon Creek in Indiana, of which the family of 
 Lincoln's father formed a part, or how eagerly an 
 ambitious and high-spirited boy, such as he, must 
 have yearned to escape. The first glimpse that he 
 ever got of any world beyond the narrow confines of 
 his home was in 1828, at the age of nineteen, when 
 a neighbor employed him to accompany his son 
 down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a flat- 
 boat of produce — a commission which he discharged 
 with great success. 
 
86 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Shortly after his return from this his first excur- 
 sion into the outer world, his father, tired of failure in 
 Indiana, packed his family and all his worldly goods 
 into a single wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, and 
 after a fourteen days' tramp through the wilderness, 
 pitched his camp once more, in Illinois. Here 
 Abraham, having come of age and being now his own 
 master, rendered the last service of his minority by 
 ploughing the fifteen-acre lot and splitting from the 
 tall walnut trees of the primeval forest enough rails 
 to surround the little clearing with a fence. Such 
 was the meagre outfit of this coming leader of men, 
 at the age when the future British Prime Minister or 
 statesman emerges from the university as a double 
 first or senior wrangler, with every advantage that 
 high training and broad culture and association with 
 the wisest and the best of men and women can give, 
 and enters upon some form of public service on the 
 road to usefulness and honor, the University course 
 being only the first stage of the public training. So 
 Lincoln, at twenty-one, had just begun his prepara- 
 tion for the public life to which he soon began to 
 aspire. For some years yet he must continue to 
 earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, 
 having absolutely no means, no home, no friend to 
 consult. More farm work as a hired hand, a clerk- 
 ship in a village store, the running of a mill, another 
 trip to New Orleans on a flatboat of his own con- 
 triving, a pilot's berth on the river — these were the 
 means by which he subsisted until, in the summer of 
 1832, when he was twenty-three years of age, an 
 event occurred which gave him public recognition. 
 
Joseph H. Choate 87 
 
 The Black Hawk war broke out, and, the Gover- 
 nor of Illinois calling for volunteers to repel the band 
 of savages whose leader bore that name, Lincoln 
 enlisted and was elected captain by his comrades, 
 among whom he had already established his supre- 
 macy by signal feats of strength and more than one 
 successful single combat. During the brief hostili- 
 ties he was engaged in no battle and won no military 
 glory, but his local leadership was established. The 
 same year he offered himself as a candidate for the 
 Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. Yet 
 his vast popularity with those who knew him was 
 manifest. The district consisted of several counties, 
 but the unanimous vote of the people of his own 
 county was for Lincoln. Another unsuccessful at- 
 tempt at store-keeping was followed by better luck 
 at surveying, until his horse and instruments were 
 levied upon under execution for the debts of his 
 business adventure. 
 
 I have been thus detailed in sketching his early 
 years because upon these strange foundations the 
 structure of his great fame and service was built. 
 In the place of a school and university training 
 fortune substituted these trials, hardships, and 
 struggles as a preparation for the great work which 
 he had to do. It turned out to be exactly what the 
 emergency required. Ten years instead at the 
 public school and the university certainly never 
 could have fitted this man for the unique work which 
 was to be thrown upon him. Some other Moses 
 would have had to lead us to our Jordan, to the sight 
 of our promised land of liberty. 
 
88 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 At the age of twenty-five he became a member of 
 the Legislature of Illinois, and so continued for eight 
 years, and, in the meantime, qualified himself by 
 reading such law books as he could borrow at ran- 
 dom — for he was too poor to buy any — to be called 
 to the Bar. For his second quarter of a century — 
 during which a single term in Congress introduced 
 him into the arena of national questions — he gave 
 himself up to law and politics. In spite of his soaring 
 ambition, his two years in Congress gave him no 
 premonition of the great destiny that awaited him, 
 and at its close, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful 
 applicant to the President for appointment as Com- 
 missioner of the General Land Office — a purely ad- 
 ministrative bureau; a fortunate escape for himself 
 and for his country. Year by year his knowledge 
 and power, his experience and reputation ex- 
 tended, and his mental faculties seemed to grow by 
 what they fed on. His power of persuasion, which 
 had always been marked, was developed to an extra- 
 ordinary degree, now that he became engaged in 
 congenial questions and subjects. Little by little he 
 rose to prominence at the Bar, and became the most 
 effective public speaker in the West. Not that he 
 possessed any of the graces of the orator; but his 
 logic was invincible, and his clearness and force of 
 statement impressed upon his hearers the convic- 
 tions of his honest mind, while his broad sympathies 
 and sparkling and genial humor made him a uni- 
 versal favorite as far and as fast as his acquaintance 
 extended. 
 
 These twenty years that elapsed from the time of 
 
Joseph H. Choate 89 
 
 his establishment as a lawyer and legislator in Spring- 
 field, the new capital of Illinois, furnished a fitting 
 theatre for the development and display of his great 
 faculties, and, with his new and enlarged oppor- 
 tunities, he obviously grew in mental stature in this 
 second period of his career, as if to compensate for 
 the absolute lack of advantages under which he had 
 suffered in youth. As his powers enlarged, his repu- 
 tation extended, for he was always before the people, 
 felt a warm sympathy with all that concerned them, 
 took a zealous part in the discussion of every public 
 question, and made his personal influence ever more 
 widely and deeply felt. 
 
 My brethren of the legal profession will naturally 
 ask me, how could this rough backwoodsman, whose 
 youth had been spent in the forest or on the farm 
 and the flatboat, without culture or training, edu- 
 cation or study, by the random reading, on the wing, 
 of a few miscellaneous law books, become a learned 
 and accomplished lawyer? Well, he never did. He 
 never would have earned his salt as a Writer for the 
 Signet, nor have won a place as advocate in the 
 Court of Session, where the technique of the profes- 
 sion has reached its highest prefection, and centuries 
 of learning and precedent are involved in the equip- 
 ment of a lawyer. Dr. Holmes, when asked by an 
 anxious young mother, ' ' When should the education 
 of a child begin?" replied, "Madam, at least two 
 centuries before it is born!" and so I am sure it is 
 with the Scots lawyer. 
 
 But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between 1830 and 
 1880 its population increased twenty-fold, and when 
 
90 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Lincoln began practising law in Springfield in 1837, 
 life in Illinois was very crude and simple, and so were 
 the courts and the administration of justice. Books 
 and libraries were scarce. But the people loved 
 justice, upheld the law, and followed the courts, 
 and soon found their favorites among the advocates. 
 The fundamental principles of the common law, as 
 set forth by Blackstone and Chitty, were not so 
 difficult to acquire ; and brains, common sense, force 
 of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and 
 power of speech did the rest, and supplied all the 
 deficiencies of learning. 
 
 The lawsuits of those days were extremely simple, 
 and the principles of natural justice were mainly 
 relied on to dispose of them at the Bar and on the 
 Bench, without resort to technical learning. Rail- 
 roads, corporations absorbing the chief business of 
 the community, combined and inherited wealth, 
 with all the subtle and intricate questions they breed, 
 had not yet come in — and so the professional agents 
 and the equipment which they require were not 
 needed. But there were many highly educated 
 and powerful men at the Bar of Illinois, even in those 
 early days, whom the spirit of enterprise had car- 
 ried there in search of fame and fortune. It was by 
 constant contact and conflict with these that Lincoln 
 acquired professional strength and skill. Every 
 community and every age creates its own Bar, 
 entirely adequate for its present uses and necessities. 
 So in Illinois, as the population and wealth of the 
 State kept on doubling and quadrupling, its Bar 
 presented a growing abundance of learning and 
 
Joseph H. Choate 9 1 
 
 science and technical skill. The early practitioners 
 grew with its growth and mastered the requisite 
 knowledge. Chicago soon grew to be one of the 
 largest and richest and certainly the most intensely 
 active city on the continent, and if any of my pro- 
 fessional friends here had gone there in Lincoln's 
 later years, to try or argue a cause, or transact other 
 business, with any idea that Edinburgh or Lon- 
 don had a monopoly of legal learning, science, or 
 subtlety, they would certainly have found their 
 mistake. 
 
 In those early days in the West, every lawyer, 
 especially every court lawyer, was necessarily a 
 politician, constantly engaged in the public discus- 
 sion of the many questions evolved from the rapid 
 development of town, county, State, and Federal 
 affairs. Then and there, in this regard, public 
 discussion supplied the place which the universal 
 activity of the press has since monopolized, and the 
 public speaker who, by clearness, force, earnestness, 
 and wit, could make himself felt on the questions 
 of the day would rapidly come to the front. In the 
 absence of that immense variety of popular enter- 
 tainments which now feed the public taste and 
 appetite, the people found their chief amusement 
 in frequenting the courts and public and political 
 assemblies. In either place, he who impressed, 
 entertained, and amused them most was the hero of 
 the hour. They did not discriminate very carefully 
 between the eloquence of the forum and the elo- 
 quence of the hustings. Human nature ruled in 
 both alike, and he who was the most effective 
 
92 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 speaker in a political harangue was often retained 
 as most likely to win in a cause to be tried or argued. 
 And I have no doubt in this way many retainers 
 came to Lincoln. Fees, money in any form, had no 
 charms for him — in his eager pursuit of fame he 
 could not afford to make money. He was ambi- 
 tious to distinguish himself by some great service to 
 mankind, and this ambition for fame and real public 
 service left no room for avarice in his composition. 
 However much he earned, he seems to have ended 
 every year hardly richer than he began it, and yet, 
 as the years passed, fees came to him freely. One 
 of £1,000 is recorded — a very large professional fee 
 at that time, even in any part of America, the para- 
 dise of lawyers. I lay great stress on Lincoln's 
 career as a lawyer — much more than his biographers 
 do — because in America a state of things exists 
 wholly different from that which prevails in Great 
 Britain. The profession of the law always has been 
 — and is to this day — the principal avenue to public 
 life; and I am sure that his training and experience 
 in the courts had much to do with the development 
 of those forces of intellect and character which he 
 soon displayed on a broader arena. 
 
 It was in political controversy, of course, that he 
 acquired his wide reputation, and made his deep and 
 lasting impression upon the people of what had now 
 become the powerful State of Illinois, and upon the 
 people of the Great West, to whom the political 
 power and control of the United States were already 
 surely and swiftly passing from the older Eastern 
 States. It was this reputation and this impression, 
 
Joseph H. Choate 93 
 
 and the familiar knowledge of his character which 
 had come to them from his local leadership, that 
 happily inspired the people of the West to present 
 him as their candidate, and to press him upon the 
 Republican convention of i860 as the fit and neces- 
 sary leader in the struggle for life which was before 
 the nation. 
 
 That struggle, as you all know, arose out of the 
 terrible question of slavery — and I must trust to 
 your general knowledge of the history of that ques- 
 tion to make intelligible the attitude and leadership 
 of Lincoln as the champion of the hosts of freedom 
 in the final contest. Negro slavery had been firmly 
 established in the Southern States from an early 
 period of their history. In 1619, the year before 
 the Mayflower landed our Pilgrim Fathers upon 
 Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship had discharged a 
 cargo of African slaves at Jamestown in Virginia. 
 All through the colonial period their importation 
 had continued. A few had found their way into the 
 Northern States, but none of them in sufficient num- 
 bers to constitute danger or to afford a basis for 
 political power. At the time of the adoption of the 
 Federal Constitution, there is no doubt that the prin- 
 cipal members of the convention not only condemned 
 slavery as a moral, social, and political evil, but be- 
 lieved that by the suppression of the slave trade it 
 was in the course of gradual extinction in the South, 
 as it certainly was in the North. Washington, in his 
 will, provided for the emancipation of his own slaves, 
 and said to Jefferson that it "was among his first 
 wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery 
 
94 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 in his country might be abolished." Jefferson said, 
 referring to the institution: "I tremble for my 
 country when I think that God is just; that His 
 justice cannot sleep forever," — and Franklin, Adams, 
 Hamilton, and Patrick Henry were all utterly op- 
 posed to it. But it was made the subject of a fatal 
 compromise in the Federal Constitution, whereby 
 its existence was recognized in the States as a basis 
 of representation, the prohibition of the. importa- 
 tion of slaves was postponed for twenty years, and 
 the return of fugitive slaves provided for. But no 
 imminent danger was apprehended from it till, by the 
 invention of the cotton gin in 1792, cotton culture by 
 negro labor became at once and forever the leading 
 industry of the South, and gave a new impetus to 
 the importation of slaves, so that in 1808, when the 
 constitutional prohibition took effect, their numbers 
 had vastly increased. From that time forward 
 slavery became the basis of a great political power, 
 and the Southern States, under all circumstances and 
 at every opportunity, carried on a brave and un- 
 relenting struggle for its maintenance and extension. 
 The conscience of the North was slow to rise 
 against it, though bitter controversies from time to 
 time took place. The Southern leaders threatened 
 disunion if their demands were not complied with. 
 To save the Union, compromise after compromise 
 was made, but each one in the end was broken. 
 The Missouri Compromise, made in 1820 upon the 
 occasion of the admission of Missouri into the Union 
 as a slave State, — whereby, in consideration of such 
 admission, slavery was forever excluded from the 
 
Joseph H. Choate 95 
 
 Northwest Territory, — was ruthlessly repealed in 
 1854, by a Congress elected in the interests of the 
 slave power, the intent being to force slavery into 
 that vast territory which had so long been dedicated 
 to freedom. This challenge at last aroused the 
 slumbering conscience and passion of the North, and 
 led to the formation of the Republican party for the 
 avowed purpose of preventing, by constitutional 
 methods, the further extension of slavery. 
 
 In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to 
 elect its candidates, it received a surprising vote and 
 carried many of the States. No one could any longer 
 doubt that the North had made up its mind that no 
 threats of disunion should deter it from pressing its 
 cherished purpose and performing its long neglected 
 duty. From the outset, Lincoln was one of the most 
 active and effective leaders and speakers of the new 
 party, and the great debates between Lincoln and 
 Douglas in 1858, as the respective champions of the 
 restriction and extension of slavery, attracted the 
 attention of the whole country. Lincoln's powerful 
 arguments carried conviction everywhere. His moral 
 nature was thoroughly aroused — his conscience was 
 stirred to the quick. Unless slavery was wrong, 
 nothing was wrong. Was each man, of whatever 
 color, entitled to the fruits of his own labor, or could 
 one man live in idle luxury by the sweat of another's 
 brow, whose skin was darker? He was an implicit 
 believer in that principle of the Declaration of In- 
 dependence that all men are vested with certain 
 inalienable rights — the equal rights to life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness. On this doctrine he 
 
96 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 staked his case and carried it. We have time only 
 for one or two sentences in which he struck the 
 keynote of the contest : 
 
 "The real issue in this country is the eternal 
 struggle between these two principles — right and 
 wrong — throughout the world. They are the two 
 principles that have stood face to face from the 
 beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. 
 The one is the common right of humanity, and the 
 other the divine right of kings. It is the same 
 principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is 
 the same spirit that says, 'You work and toil and 
 earn bread and I '11 eat it.'" 
 
 He foresaw with unerring vision that the conflict 
 was inevitable and irrepressible — that one or the 
 other, the right or the wrong, freedom or slavery, 
 must ultimately prevail and wholly prevail, through- 
 out the country; and this was the principle that 
 carried the war, once begun, to a finish. 
 
 One sentence of his is immortal : 
 
 " Under the operation of the policy of compromise, 
 the slavery agitation has not only not ceased, but 
 has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will 
 not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and 
 passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot 
 stand.' I believe this government cannot endure 
 permanently half slave and half free. I do not ex- 
 pect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the 
 house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be 
 divided. It will become all one thing or all the 
 other; either the opponents of slavery will arrest the 
 further spread of it, and place it where the public 
 
Joseph H. Choate 97 
 
 mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course 
 of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it 
 forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the 
 States, old as well as new, North as well as South." 
 During the entire decade from 1850 to i860 the 
 agitation of the slavery question was at the boiling 
 point, and events which have become historical 
 continually indicated the near approach of the over- 
 whelming storm. No sooner had the Compromise 
 Acts of 1850 resulted in a temporary peace, which 
 everybody said must be final and perpetual, than 
 new outbreaks came. The forcible carrying away 
 of fugitive slaves by Federal troops from Boston 
 agitated that ancient stronghold of freedom to its 
 foundations. The publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 
 which truly exposed the frightful possibilities of the 
 slave system; the reckless attempts by force and 
 fraud to establish it in Kansas against the will of the 
 vast majority of the settlers ; the beating of Sumner 
 in the Senate Chamber for words spoken in debate; 
 the Dred Scott decision in the Supreme Court, which 
 made the nation realize that the slave power had at 
 last reached the fountain of Federal justice; and 
 finally the execution of John Brown, for his wild raid 
 into Virginia, to invite the slaves to rally to the 
 standard of freedom which he unfurled: — all these 
 events tend to illustrate and confirm Lincoln's con- 
 tention that the nation could not permanently con- 
 tinue half slave and half free, but must become all 
 one thing or all the other. When John Brown lay 
 under sentence of death he declared that now he 
 was sure that slavery must be wiped out in blood; 
 
 VOL. I. — 7 
 
98 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 but neither he nor his executioners dreamt that 
 within four years a million soldiers would be march- 
 ing across the country for its final extirpation, to the 
 music of the war-song of the great conflict : 
 
 " John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the graven 
 But his soul is marching on." 
 
 And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of the 
 wilderness, this farm laborer, rail-splitter, flatboat- 
 man, this surveyor, lawyer, orator, statesman, and 
 patriot, found himself elected by the great party 
 which was pledged to prevent at all hazards the 
 further extension of slavery, as the chief magistrate 
 of the Republic, bound to carry out that purpose, to 
 be the leader and ruler of the nation in its most try- 
 ing hour. 
 
 Those who believe that there is a living Provi- 
 dence that overrules and conducts the affairs of 
 nations, find in the elevation of this plain man to 
 this extraordinary fortune and to this great duty, 
 which he so fitly discharged, a signal vindication of 
 their faith. Perhaps to this philosophical institu- 
 tion the judgment of our philosopher Emerson will 
 commend itself as a just estimate of Lincoln's his- 
 torical place : 
 
 1 ' His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of 
 the good sense of mankind and of the public con- 
 science. He grew according to the need; his mind 
 mastered the problem of the day: and as the prob- 
 lem grew, so did his comprehension of it. In the 
 war there was no place for holiday magistrate, nor 
 fair-weather sailor. The new pilot was hurried to 
 
Joseph H. Choate 99 
 
 the helm in a tornado. In four years — four years 
 of battle days — his endurance, his fertility of re- 
 source, his magnanimity, were sorely tried, and 
 never found wanting. There, by his courage, his 
 justice, his even temper, his fertile counsel, his 
 humanity, he stood a heroic figure in the centre of a 
 heroic epoch. He is the true history of the Ameri- 
 can people in his time, the true representative of this 
 continent — father of his country, the pulse of twenty 
 millions throbbing in his heart, the thought of their 
 mind articulated in his tongue." 
 
 He was born great, as distinguished from those 
 who achieve greatness or have it thrust upon them, 
 and his inherent capacity, mental, moral, and 
 physical, having been recognized by the educated 
 intelligence of a free people, they happily chose him 
 for their ruler in a day of deadly peril. 
 
 It is now forty years since I first saw and heard 
 Abraham Lincoln, but the impression which he left 
 on my mind is ineffaceable. After his great suc- 
 cesses in the West he came to New York to make 
 a political address. He appeared in every sense of 
 the word like one of the plain people among whom 
 he loved to be counted. At first sight there was 
 nothing impressive or imposing about him — except 
 that his great stature singled him out from the crowd : 
 his clothes hung awkwardly on his giant frame ; his 
 face was of a dark pallor, without the slightest tinge 
 of color; his seamed and rugged features bore the 
 furrows of hardship and struggle; his deep-set eyes 
 looked sad and anxious; his countenance in repose 
 gave little evidence of that brain power which had 
 
ioo Abraham Lincoln 
 
 raised him from the lowest to the highest station 
 among his countrymen; as he talked to me before 
 the meeting, he seemed ill at ease, with that sort of 
 apprehension which a young man might feel before 
 presenting himself to a new and strange audience, 
 whose critical disposition he dreaded. It was a 
 great audience, including all the noted men — all the 
 learned and cultured — of his party in New York: 
 editors, clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, merchants, 
 critics. They were all very curious to hear him. 
 His fame as a powerful speaker had preceded him, 
 and exaggerated rumor of his wit — the worst fore- 
 runner of an orator — had reached the East. When 
 Mr. Bryant presented him, on the high platform of 
 the Cooper Institute, a vast sea of eager upturned 
 faces greeted him, full of intense curiosity to see 
 what this rude child of the people was like. He was 
 equal to the occasion. When he spoke he was trans- 
 formed; his eye kindled, his voice rang, his face 
 shone and seemed to light up the whole assembly. 
 For an hour and a half he held his audience in the 
 hollow of his hand. His style of speech and manner 
 of delivery were severely simple. What Lowell 
 called "the grand simplicities of the Bible," with 
 which he was so familiar, were reflected in his dis- 
 course. With no attempt at ornament or rhetoric, 
 without parade or pretence, he spoke straight to the 
 point. If any came expecting the turgid eloquence 
 or the ribaldry of the frontier, they must have been 
 startled at the earnest and sincere purity of his 
 utterances. It was marvellous to see how this 
 untutored man, by mere self -discipline and the 
 
Joseph H. Choate 101 
 
 chastening of his own spirit, had outgrown all 
 meretricious arts, and found his own way to the 
 grandeur and strength of absolute simplicity. 
 
 He spoke upon the theme which he had mastered 
 so thoroughly. He demonstrated by copious his- 
 torical proofs and masterly logic that the fathers 
 who created the Constitution in order to form a 
 more perfect union, to establish justice, and to secure 
 the blessings of liberty to themselves and their 
 posterity, intended to empower the Federal Govern- 
 ment to exclude slavery from the Territories. In the 
 kindliest spirit he protested against the avowed 
 threat of the Southern States to destroy the Union if, 
 in order to secure freedom in those vast regions out 
 of which future States were to be carved, a Republi- 
 can President were elected. He closed with an ap- 
 peal to his audience, spoken with all the fire of his 
 aroused and kindling conscience, with a full outpour- 
 ing of his love of justice and liberty, to maintain their 
 political purpose on that lofty and unassailable issue 
 of right and wrong which alone could justify it, and 
 not to be intimidated from their high resolve and 
 sacred duty by any threats of destruction to the 
 government or of ruin to themselves. He concluded 
 with this telling sentence, which drove the whole 
 argument home to all our hearts: ''Let us have 
 faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us 
 to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." 
 That night the great hall, and the next day the 
 whole city, rang with delighted applause and con- 
 gratulations, and he who had come as a stranger 
 departed with the laurels of great triumph. 
 
io2 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Alas! in five years from that exulting night I saw 
 him again, for the last time, in the same city, borne in 
 his coffin through its draped streets. With tears and 
 lamentations a heart-broken people accompanied 
 him from Washington, the scene of his martyrdom, 
 to his last resting-place in the young city of the West 
 where he had worked his way to fame. 
 
 Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight 
 than Lincoln when he entered office on the fourth of 
 March, 1861, four months after his election, and took 
 his oath to support the Constitution and the Union. 
 The intervening time had been busily employed by 
 the Southern States in carrying out their threat of 
 disunion in the event of his election. As soon as the 
 fact was ascertained, seven of them had seceded and 
 had seized upon the forts, arsenals, navy yards, and 
 other public property of the United States within 
 their boundaries, and were making every prepara- 
 tion for war. In the meantime the retiring Presi- 
 dent, who had been elected by the slave power, and 
 who thought the seceding States could not lawfully 
 be coerced, had done absolutely nothing. Lincoln 
 found himself, by the Constitution, Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, 
 but with only a remnant of either at hand. Each 
 was to be created on a great scale out of the un- 
 known resources of a nation untried in war. 
 
 In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, 
 while appealing to the seceding States to return to 
 their allegiance, he avowed his purpose to keep the 
 solemn oath he had taken that day, to see that the 
 laws of the Union were faithfully executed, and to 
 
Joseph H. Choate 103 
 
 use the troops to recover the forts, navy yards, and 
 other property belonging to the government. It is 
 probable, however, that neither side actually realized 
 that war was inevitable, and that the other was 
 determined to fight, until the assault on Fort Sumter 
 presented the South as the first aggressor and roused 
 the North to use every possible resource to main- 
 tain the government and the imperilled Union, and to 
 vindicate the supremacy of the flag over every inch 
 of the territory of the United States. The fact that 
 Lincoln's first proclamation called for only 75,000 
 troops, to serve for three months, shows how inade- 
 quate was even his idea of what the future had in 
 store. But from that moment Lincoln and his loyal 
 supporters never faltered in their purpose. They 
 knew they could win, that it was their duty to win, 
 and that for America the whole hope of the future 
 depended upon their winning ; for now by the acts 
 of the seceding States the issue of the election — to 
 secure or prevent the extension of slavery — stood 
 transformed into a struggle to preserve or to destroy 
 the Union. 
 
 We cannot follow this contest. You know its 
 gigantic proportions ; that it lasted four years instead 
 of three months; that in its progress, instead of 
 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000 were enrolled on 
 the side of the government alone; that the aggre- 
 gate cost and loss to the nation approximated to 
 1,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that not less 
 than 300,000 brave and precious lives were sacrificed 
 on each side. History has recorded how Lincoln 
 bore himself during these four frightful years; that 
 
104 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 he was the real President, the responsible and actual 
 head of the government, through it all; that he 
 listened to all advice, heard all parties, and then, 
 always realizing his responsibility to God and the 
 nation, decided every great executive question for 
 himself. His absolute honesty had become pro- 
 verbial long before he was President. "Honest Abe 
 Lincoln " was the name by which he had been known 
 for years. His every act attested it. 
 
 In all the grandeur of the vast power that he 
 wielded, he never ceased to be one of the plain people, 
 as he always called them, never lost or impaired his 
 perfect sympathy with them, was always in perfect 
 touch with them and open to their appeals ; and here 
 lay the very secret of his personality and of his power, 
 for the people in turn gave him their absolute con- 
 fidence. His courage, his fortitude, his patience, his 
 hopefulness, were sorely tried but never exhausted. 
 
 He was true as steel to his generals, but had fre- 
 quent occasion to change them, as he found them in- 
 adequate. This serious and painful duty rested 
 wholly upon him, and was perhaps his most import- 
 ant function as Commander-in-Chief; but when, at 
 last, he recognized in General Grant the master of 
 the situation, the man who could and would bring 
 the war to a triumphant end, he gave it all over to 
 him and upheld him with all his might. Amid all 
 the pressure and distress that the burdens of office 
 brought upon him, his unfailing sense of humor 
 saved him; probably it made it possible for him to 
 live under the burden. He had always been the 
 great story-teller of the West, and he used and culti- 
 
Joseph H. Choate 105 
 
 vated this faculty to relieve the weight of the load 
 he bore. 
 
 It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of 
 never having lost his temper, no matter what agony- 
 he had to bear. A whole night might be spent in 
 recounting the stories of his wit, humor, and harm- 
 less sarcasm. But I will recall only two of his say- 
 ings, both about General Grant, who always found 
 plenty of enemies and critics to urge the President 
 to oust him from his command. One, I am sure, 
 will interest all Scotchmen. They repeated with 
 malicious intent the gossip that Grant drank. 
 ' ' What does he drink ? ' ' asked Lincoln. ' ' Whiskey, ' ' 
 was, of course, the answer; doubtless you can guess 
 the brand. "Well," said the President, "just find 
 out what particular kind he uses and I '11 send a 
 barrel to each of my other generals." The other 
 must be as pleasing to the British as to the American 
 ear. When pressed again on other grounds to get 
 rid of Grant, he declared, "I can't spare that man, 
 he fights!" 
 
 He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never could 
 resist the appeals of wives and mothers of soldiers 
 who had got into trouble and were under sentence 
 of death for their offences. His Secretary of War 
 and other officials complained that they never could 
 get deserters shot. As surely as the women of the 
 culprit's family could get at him he always gave way. 
 Certainly you will all appreciate his exquisite sym- 
 pathy with the suffering relatives of those who had 
 fallen in battle. His heart bled with theirs. Never 
 was there a more gentle and tender utterance than 
 
io6 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 his letter to a mother who had given all her sons to 
 her country, written at a time when the angel of 
 death had visited almost every household in the land, 
 and was already hovering over him. 
 
 "I have been shown," he says, "in the files of 
 the War Department a statement that you are the 
 mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the 
 field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must 
 be any words of mine which should attempt to be- 
 guile you from your grief for a loss so overwhelming 
 — but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the 
 consolation which may be found in the thanks of 
 the Republic they died to save. I pray that our 
 Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your 
 bereavement and leave you only the cherished 
 memory of the loved and the lost, and the solemn 
 pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a 
 sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." 
 
 Hardly could your illustrious sovereign, from the 
 depths of her queenly and womanly heart, have 
 spoken words more touching and tender to soothe 
 the stricken mothers of her own soldiers. 
 
 The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Mr. 
 Lincoln delighted the country and the world on the 
 first of January, 1863, will doubtless secure for him 
 a foremost place in history among the philanthro- 
 pists and benefactors of the race, as it rescued, from 
 hopeless and degrading slavery, so many millions 
 of his fellow-beings described in the law and exist- 
 ing in fact as "chattels-personal, in the hands of 
 their owners and possessors, to all intents, construc- 
 tions, and purposes whatsoever." Rarely does the 
 
Joseph H. Choate 107 
 
 happy fortune come to one man to render such a ser- 
 vice to his kind — to proclaim liberty throughout the 
 land unto all the inhabitants thereof. 
 
 Ideas rule the world, and never was there a more 
 signal instance of this triumph of an idea than here. 
 William Lloyd Garrison, who thirty years before 
 had begun his crusade for the abolition of slavery, 
 and had lived to see this glorious and unexpected 
 consummation of the hopeless cause to which he had 
 devoted his life, well described the proclamation as 
 a "great historic event, sublime in its magnitude, 
 momentous and beneficent in its far-reaching con- 
 sequences, and eminently just and right alike to the 
 oppressor and the oppressed." 
 
 Lincoln had always been heart and soul opposed 
 to slavery. Tradition says that on the trip on the 
 flatboat to New Orleans he formed his first and last 
 opinion of slavery at the sight of negroes chained 
 and scourged, and that then and there the iron en- 
 tered into his soul. No boy could grow to man- 
 hood in those days as a poor white in Kentucky 
 and Indiana, in close contact with slavery or in its 
 neighborhood, without a growing consciousness of its 
 blighting effects on free labor, as well as of its frightful 
 injustice and cruelty. In the Legislature of Illinois, 
 where the public sentiment was all for upholding the 
 institution and violently against every movement 
 for its abolition or restriction, upon the passage of 
 resolutions to that effect he had the courage with one 
 companion to put on record his protest, "believing 
 that the institution of slavery is founded both in 
 injustice and bad policy.' ' No great demonstration 
 
108 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 of courage, you will say ; but that was at a time when 
 Garrison, for his abolition utterances, had been 
 dragged by an angry mob through the streets of 
 Boston with a rope around his body, and in the very 
 year that Lovejoy in the same State of Illinois was 
 slain by rioters while defending his press, from which 
 he had printed antislavery appeals. 
 
 In Congress he brought in a bill for gradual aboli- 
 tion in the District of Columbia, with compensation 
 to the owners, — for until they raised treasonable 
 hands against the life of the nation he always main- 
 tained that the property of the slaveholders, into 
 which they had come by two centuries of descent, 
 without fault on their part, ought not to be taken 
 away from them without just compensation. He 
 used to say that, one way or another, he had voted 
 forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, which Mr. 
 Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved as an addition to 
 every bill which affected United States territory, — 
 "that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude 
 shall ever exist in any part of the said territory,' ' — 
 and it is evident that his condemnation of the system, 
 on moral grounds as a crime against the human race, 
 and on political grounds as a cancer that was sapping 
 the vitals of the nation, and must master its whole 
 being or be itself extirpated, grew steadily upon him 
 until it culminated in his great speeches in the 
 Illinois debate. 
 
 By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presidency, 
 the further extension of slavery into the Territories 
 was rendered forever impossible — Vox populi, vox 
 Dei. Revolutions never go backward, and when 
 
Joseph H. Choate i°9 
 
 founded on a great moral sentiment stirring the 
 heart of an indignant people their edicts are irresist- 
 ible and final. Had the slave power acquiesced in 
 that election, had the Southern States remained 
 under the Constitution and within the Union, and 
 relied upon their constitutional and legal rights, their 
 favorite institution, immoral as it was, blighting and 
 fatal as it was, might have endured for another 
 century. The great party that had elected him, 
 unalterably determined against its extension, was 
 nevertheless pledged not to interfere with its con- 
 tinuance in the States where it already existed. Of 
 course, when new regions were forever closed against 
 it, from its very nature it must have begun to shrink 
 and to dwindle; and probably gradual and com- 
 pensated emancipation, which appealed very strongly 
 to the new President's sense of justice and expedi- 
 ency, would, in the progress of time, by a reversion 
 to the ideas of the founders of the Republic, have 
 found a safe outlet for both masters and slaves. 
 But whom the gods wish to destroy they first make 
 mad, and when seven States, afterwards increased 
 to eleven, openly seceded from the Union, when they 
 declared and began the war upon the nation, and 
 challenged its mighty power to the desperate and 
 protracted struggle for its life, and for the main- 
 tenance of its authority as a nation over its territory, 
 they gave to Lincoln and to freedom the sublime 
 opportunity of history. 
 
 In his first inaugural address, when as yet not a 
 drop of precious blood had been shed, while he held 
 out to them the olive branch in one hand, in the 
 
no Abraham Lincoln 
 
 other he presented the guarantees of the Constitu- 
 tion, and after reciting the emphatic resolution of 
 the convention that nominated him, that the main- 
 tenance inviolate of the "rights of the States, and 
 especially the right of each State to order and control 
 its own domestic institutions according to its own 
 judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of 
 power on which the perfection and endurance of our 
 political fabric depend," he reiterated this sentiment, 
 and declared, with no mental reservation, "that all 
 the protection which, consistently with the Constitu- 
 tion and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully 
 given to all the States when lawfully demanded for 
 whatever cause — as cheerfully to one section as to 
 another." 
 
 When, however, these magnanimous overtures for 
 peace and reunion were rejected ; when the seceding 
 States defied the Constitution and every clause and 
 principle of it ; when they persisted in staying out of 
 the Union from which they had seceded, and pro- 
 ceeded to carve out of its territory a new and hostile 
 empire based on slavery; when they flew at the 
 throat of the nation and plunged it into the bloodiest 
 war of the nineteenth century — the tables were 
 turned, and the belief gradually came to the mind 
 of the President that if the Rebellion was not soon 
 subdued by force of arms, if the war must be fought 
 out to the bitter end, then to reach that end the 
 salvation of the nation itself might require the 
 destruction of slavery wherever it existed; that if 
 the war was to continue on one side for Disunion, 
 for no other purpose than to preserve slavery, it must 
 
Joseph H. Choate in 
 
 continue on the other side for the Union, to destroy 
 slavery. 
 
 As he said, " Events control me; I cannot control 
 events," and as the dreadful war progressed and 
 became more deadly and dangerous, the unalterable 
 conviction was forced upon him that, in order that 
 the frightful sacrifice of life and treasure on both 
 sides might not be all in vain, it had become his duty 
 as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, as a necessary 
 war measure, to strike a blow at the Rebellion which, 
 all others failing, would inevitably lead to its anni- 
 hilation, by annihilating the very thing for which it 
 was contending. His own words are the best : 
 
 "I understood that my oath to preserve the Con- 
 stitution to the best of my ability imposed upon me 
 the duty of preserving by every indispensable means 
 that government — that nation — of which that Con- 
 stitution was the organic law. Was it possible to 
 lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution? 
 By general law, life and limb must be protected, 
 yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; 
 but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I 
 felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional might 
 become lawful by becoming indispensable to the pre- 
 servation of the Constitution through the preserva- 
 tion of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this 
 ground and now avow it. I could not feel that to 
 the best of my ability I had ever tried to preserve 
 the Constitution if to save slavery or any minor 
 matter I should permit the wreck of government, 
 country, and Constitution all together." 
 
 And so, at last, when in his judgment the indis- 
 
ii2 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 pensable necessity had come, he struck the fatal 
 blow, and signed the proclamation which has made 
 his name immortal. By it, the President, as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief in time of actual armed rebellion, 
 and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppress- 
 ing the rebellion, proclaimed all persons held as 
 slaves in the States and parts of States then in 
 rebellion to be thenceforward free, and declared 
 that the executive, with the army and navy, would 
 recognize and maintain their freedom. 
 
 In the other great steps of the government, which 
 led to the triumphant prosecution of the war, he 
 necessarily shared the responsibility and the credit 
 with the great statesmen who stayed up his hands in 
 his cabinet, — with Seward, Chase and Stanton, and 
 the rest, — and with his generals and admirals, his 
 soldiers and sailors, but this great act was abso- 
 lutely his own. The conception and execution were 
 exclusively his. He laid it before his cabinet as a 
 measure on which his mind was made up and could 
 not be changed, asking them only for suggestions 
 as to details. He chose the time and the circum- 
 stances under which the Emancipation should be 
 proclaimed and when it should take effect. 
 
 It came not an hour too soon ; but public opinion 
 in the North would not have sustained it earlier. 
 In the first eighteen months of the war its ravages 
 had extended from the Atlantic to beyond the 
 Mississippi. Many victories in the West had been 
 balanced and paralyzed by inaction and disasters in 
 Virginia, only partially redeemed by the bloody and 
 indecisive battle of Antietam; a reaction had set in 
 
Joseph H. Choate 113 
 
 from the general enthusiasm which had swept the 
 Northern States after the assault upon Sumter. It 
 could not truly be said that they had lost heart, but 
 faction was raising its head. Heard through the 
 land like the blast of a bugle, the proclamation 
 rallied the patriotism of the country to fresh sacri- 
 fices and renewed ardor. It was a step that could 
 not be revoked. It relieved the conscience of the 
 nation from an incubus that had oppressed it from 
 its birth. The United States were rescued from the 
 false predicament in which they had been from the 
 beginning, and the great popular heart leaped with 
 new enthusiasm for " Liberty and Union, hence- 
 forth and forever, one and inseparable." It brought 
 not only moral but material support to the cause of 
 the government, for within two years 120,000 colored 
 troops were enlisted in the military service and fol- 
 lowing the national flag, supported by all the loyalty 
 of the North, and led by its choicest spirits. One 
 mother said, when her son was offered the command 
 of the first colored regiment, " If he accepts it I shall 
 be as proud as if I had heard that he was shot." He 
 was shot heading a gallant charge of his regiment. 
 The Confederates replied to a request of his friends 
 for his body that they had "buried him under a 
 layer of his niggers"; but that mother has lived to 
 enjoy thirty-six years of his glory, and Boston has 
 erected its noblest monument to his memory. 
 
 The effect of the proclamation upon the actual 
 progress of the war was not immediate, but wherever 
 the Federal armies advanced they carried freedom 
 with them, and when the summer came round the 
 
ii4 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 new spirit and force which had animated the heart of 
 the government and people were manifest. In the 
 first week of July the decisive battle of Gettysburg 
 turned the tide of war, and the fall of Vicksburg made 
 the great river free from its source to the Gulf. 
 
 On foreign nations the influence of the proclama- 
 tion and of these new victories was of great im- 
 portance. In those days, when there was no cable, 
 it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciate 
 what was really going on ; they could not see clearly 
 the true state of affairs, as in the last year of the 
 nineteenth century we have been able, by our new 
 electric vision, to watch every event at the antipodes 
 and observe its effect. The Rebel emissaries, sent 
 over to solicit intervention, spared no pains to im- 
 press upon the minds of public and private men and 
 upon the press their own views of the character of 
 the contest. The prospects of the Confederacy were 
 always better abroad than at home. The stock 
 markets of the world gambled upon its chances, and 
 its bonds at one time were high in favor. 
 
 Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the 
 North was fighting for empire and the South for in- 
 dependence; that the Southern States, instead of 
 being the grossest oligarchies, essentially despotisms, 
 founded on the right of one man to appropriate the 
 fruit of other men's toil and to exclude them from 
 equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure 
 than their Northern rivals, but representing the same 
 idea of freedom, and that the mighty strength of the 
 nation was being put forth to crush them; that 
 Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders had created 
 
Joseph H. Choate 115 
 
 a nation ; that the republican experiment had failed 
 and the Union had ceased to exist. But the crown- 
 ing argument to foreign minds was that it was an 
 utter impossibility for the government to win in the 
 contest ; that the success of the Southern States, so 
 far as separation was concerned, was as certain as any 
 event yet future and contingent could be; that the 
 subjugation of the South by the North, even if it 
 could be accomplished, would prove a calamity to 
 the United States and the world, and especially 
 calamitous to the negro race; and that such a 
 victory would necessarily leave the people of the 
 South for many generations cherishing deadly 
 hostility against the government and the North, and 
 plotting always to recover their independence. 
 
 When Lincoln issued his proclamation he knew 
 that all these ideas were founded in error; that the 
 national resources were inexhaustible; that the 
 government could and would win, and that if slavery 
 were once finally disposed of, the only cause of 
 difference being out of the way, the North and South 
 would come together again, and by and by be as 
 good friends as ever. In many quarters abroad the 
 proclamation was welcomed with enthusiasm by the 
 friends of America; but I think the demonstrations 
 in its favor that brought more gladness to Lincoln's 
 heart than any other were the meetings held in the 
 manufacturing centres, by the very operatives upon 
 whom the war bore the hardest, expressing the most 
 enthusiastic sympathy with the proclamation, while 
 they bore with heroic fortitude the grievous pri- 
 vations which the war entailed upon them. Mr. 
 
u6 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Lincoln's expectation when he announced to the 
 world th&t all slaves in all States then in rebellion were 
 set free must have been that the avowed position of 
 his government, that the continuance of the war now 
 meant the annihilation of slavery, would make inter- 
 vention impossible for any foreign nation whose peo- 
 ple were lovers of liberty — and so the result proved. 
 The growth and development of Lincoln's mental 
 power and moral force, of his intense and magnetic 
 personality, after the vast responsibilities of govern- 
 ment were thrown upon him at the age of fifty-two, 
 furnish a rare and striking illustration of the marvel- 
 lous capacity and adaptability of the human intellect 
 — of the sound mind in the sound body. He came 
 to the discharge of the great duties of the Presidency 
 with absolutely no experience in the administration 
 of government, or of the vastly varied and compli- 
 cated questions of foreign and domestic policy which 
 immediately arose, and continued to press upon him 
 during the rest of his life; but he mastered each as 
 it came, apparently with the facility of a trained and 
 experienced ruler. As Clarendon said of Cromwell, 
 "His parts seemed to be raised by the demands of 
 great station/ ' His life through it all was one of 
 intense labor, anxiety, and distress, without one hour 
 of peaceful repose from first to last. But he rose to 
 every occasion. He led public opinion, but did not 
 march so far in advance of it as to fail of its effective 
 support in every great emergency. He knew the 
 heart and thought of the people, as no man not in 
 constant and absolute sympathy with them could 
 have known it, and so holding their confidence, he 
 
Joseph H. Choate 117 
 
 triumphed through and with them. Not only was 
 there this steady growth of intellect, but the infinite 
 delicacy of his nature and its capacity for refinement 
 developed also, as exhibited in the purity and per- 
 fection of his language and style of speech. The 
 rough backwoodsman, who had never seen the inside 
 of a university, became in the end, by self -training 
 and the exercise of his own powers of mind, heart, 
 and soul, a master of style, and some of his utterances 
 will rank with the best, the most perfectly adapted 
 to the occasion which produced them. 
 
 Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech 
 at Gettysburg, at the dedication of the Soldiers' 
 Cemetery ? His whole soul was in it : 
 
 "Four score and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth on this continent a new nation, con- 
 ceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition 
 that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged 
 in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or 
 any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long 
 endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that 
 war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that 
 field as a final resting-place for those who here gave 
 their lives that that nation might live. It is al- 
 together fitting and proper that we should do this. 
 But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate — we cannot 
 consecrate — we cannot hallow this ground. The 
 brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have 
 consecrated it far above our poor power to add or 
 detract. The world will little note, nor long remem- 
 ber, what we say here — but it can never forget what 
 they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be 
 
u8 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 dedicated here to the unfinished work which they 
 who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 
 It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great 
 task remaining before us — that from these honored 
 dead we take increased devotion to that cause for 
 which they gave the last full measure of devotion — 
 that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not 
 have died in vain — that this nation under God shall 
 have a new birth of freedom — and that government 
 of the people, by the people, and for the people shall 
 not perish from the earth." 
 
 He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelm- 
 ing majority of his countrymen. In his second in- 
 augural address, pronounced just forty days before 
 his death, there is a single passage which well dis- 
 plays his indomitable will and at the same time his 
 deep religious feeling, his sublime charity to the 
 enemies of his country, and his broad and catholic 
 humanity : 
 
 "If we shall suppose that American slavery is one 
 of those offences which in the Providence of God 
 must needs come, but which, having continued 
 through the appointed time, He now wills to remove, 
 and that He gives to both North and South this 
 terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the 
 offence came, shall we discern therein any departure 
 from those divine attributes which the believers in a 
 living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we 
 hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge 
 of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills 
 that it continue until all the wealth piled by the 
 bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unre- 
 
Joseph H. Choate 119 
 
 quited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
 blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another 
 drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand 
 years ago, so still it must be said, 'the judgments of 
 the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 
 
 "With malice toward none, with charity for all, 
 with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the 
 right — let us strive on to finish the work we are in: 
 to bind up the nation's wounds ; to care for him who 
 shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his 
 orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
 just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all 
 nations." 
 
 His prayer was answered. The forty days of life 
 that remained to him were crowned with great 
 historic events. He lived to see his Proclamation of 
 Emancipation embodied in an amendment of the 
 Constitution, adopted by Congress, and submitted to 
 the States for ratification. The mighty scourge of 
 war did speedily pass away, for it was given him to 
 witness the surrender of the Rebel army and the fall 
 of their capital, and the starry flag that he loved 
 waving in triumph over the national soil. When 
 he died by the madman's hand in the supreme hour 
 of victory, the vanquished lost their best friend, and 
 the human race one of its noblest examples ; and all 
 the friends of freedom and justice, in whose cause he 
 lived and died, joined hands as mourners at his grave. 
 
THE WRITINGS OF 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 1832-1843 
 
 121 
 
THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY. 
 
 March 9, 1832. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens :— Having become a candidate for 
 the honorable office of one of your Representatives 
 in the next General Assembly of this State, in accord- 
 ance with an established custom and the principles 
 of true Republicanism it becomes my duty to make 
 known to you, the people whom I propose to repre- 
 sent, my sentiments with regard to local affairs. 
 
 Time and experience have verified to a demonstra- 
 tion the public utility of internal improvements. 
 That the poorest and most thinly populated coun- 
 tries would be greatly benefited by the opening of 
 good roads, and in the clearing of navigable streams 
 within their limits, is what no person will deny. 
 Yet it is folly to undertake works of this or any other 
 kind without first knowing that we are able to finish 
 them, — as half -finished work generally proves to be 
 labor lost. There cannot justly be any objection to 
 having railroads and canals, any more than to other 
 good things, provided they cost nothing. The only 
 objection is to paying for them; and the objection 
 arises from the want of ability to pay. 
 
 With respect to the County of Sangamon, some 
 
 123 
 
124 The Writings of 
 
 more easy means of communication than it now 
 possesses, for the purpose of facilitating the task of 
 exporting the surplus products of its fertile soil, and 
 importing necessary articles from abroad, are in- 
 dispensably necessary. A meeting has been held of 
 the citizens of Jacksonville and the adjacent country, 
 for the purpose of deliberating and inquiring into the 
 expediency of constructing a railroad from some 
 eligible point on the Illinois River, through the town 
 of Jacksonville, in Morgan County, to the town of 
 Springfield, in Sangamon County. This is, indeed, 
 a very desirable object. No other improvement 
 that reason will justify us in hoping for can equal in 
 utility the railroad. It is a never-failing source of 
 communication between places of business remotely 
 situated from each other. Upon the railroad the 
 regular progress of commercial intercourse is not 
 interrupted by either high or low water, or freezing 
 weather, which are the principal difficulties that 
 render our future hopes of water communication 
 precarious and uncertain. 
 
 Yet, however desirable an object the construction 
 of a railroad through our country may be, however 
 high our imaginations may be heated at thoughts of 
 it, — there is always a heart-appalling shock accom- 
 panying the amount of its cost, which forces us to 
 shrink from our pleasing anticipations. The prob- 
 able cost of this contemplated railroad is estimated 
 at $290,000; the bare statement of which, in my 
 opinion, is sufficient to justify the belief that the 
 improvement of the Sangamon River is an object 
 much better suited to our infant resources. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 125 
 
 Respecting this view, I think I may say, without 
 the fear of being contradicted, that its navigation 
 may be rendered completely practicable as high as 
 the mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, 
 to vessels of from twenty-five to thirty tons burden, 
 for at least one half of all common years, and to 
 vessels of much greater burden a part of the time. 
 From my peculiar circumstances, it is probable that 
 for the last twelve months I have given as particular 
 attention to the stage of the water in this river as 
 any other person in the country. In the month of 
 March, 1831, in company with others, I commenced 
 the building of a flatboat on the Sangamon, and 
 finished and took her out in the course of the spring. 
 Since that time I have been concerned in the mill 
 at New Salem. These circumstances are sufficient 
 evidence that I have not been very inattentive to the 
 stages of the water. The time at which we crossed 
 the mill-dam being in the last days of April, the 
 water was lower than it had been since the breaking 
 of winter in February, or than it was for several 
 weeks after. The principal difficulties we encoun- 
 tered in descending the river were from the drifted 
 timber, which obstructions all know are not difficult 
 to be removed. Knowing almost precisely the height 
 of water at that time, I believe I am safe in saying 
 that it has as often been higher as lower since. 
 
 From this view of the subject it appears that my 
 calculations with regard to the navigation of the 
 Sangamon cannot but be founded in reason; but, 
 whatever may be its natural advantages, certain it 
 is that it never can be practically useful to any great 
 
126 The Writings of 
 
 extent without being greatly improved by art. The 
 drifted timber, as I have before mentioned, is the 
 most formidable barrier to this object. Of all parts 
 of this river, none will require so much labor in pro- 
 portion to make it navigable as the last thirty or 
 thirty-five miles; and going with the meanderings 
 of the channel, when we are this distance above its 
 mouth we are only between twelve and eighteen 
 miles above Beardstown in something near a straight 
 direction ; and this route is upon such low ground as 
 to retain water in many places during the season, 
 and in all parts such as to draw two thirds or three 
 fourths of the river water at all high stages. 
 
 This route is on prairie-land the whole distance, 
 so that it appears to me, by removing the turf a 
 sufficient width, and damming up the old channel, 
 the whole river in a short time would wash its way 
 through, thereby curtailing the distance and increas- 
 ing the velocity of the current very considerably, 
 while there would be no timber on the banks to ob- 
 struct its navigation in future; and being nearly 
 straight, the timber which might float in at the head 
 would be apt to go clear through. There are also 
 many places above this where the river, in its zigzag 
 course, forms such complete peninsulas as to be 
 easier to cut at the necks than to remove the obstruc- 
 tions from the bends, which, if done, would also lessen 
 the distance. 
 
 What the cost of this work would be, I am unable 
 to say. It is probable, however, that it would not 
 be greater than is common to streams of the same 
 length. Finally, I believe the improvement of the 
 
Abraham Lincoln 127 
 
 Sangamon River to be vastly important and highly 
 desirable to the people of the county ; and, if elected, 
 any measure in the Legislature having this for its 
 object, which may appear judicious, will meet my 
 approbation and receive my support. 
 
 It appears that the practice of loaning money at 
 exorbitant rates of interest has already been opened 
 as a field for discussion; so I suppose I may enter 
 upon it without claiming the honor or risking the 
 danger which may await its first explorer. , It seems 
 as though we are never to have an end to this baneful 
 and corroding system, acting almost as prejudicially 
 to the general interests of the community as a direct 
 tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on 
 each county for the benefit of a few individuals only, 
 unless there be a law made fixing the limits of usury. 
 A law for this purpose, I am of opinion, may be 
 made without materially injuring any class of people. 
 In cases of extreme necessity, there could always be 
 means found to cheat the law; while in all other 
 cases it would have its intended effect. I would 
 favor the passage of a law on this subject which 
 might not be very easily evaded. Let it be such 
 that the labor and difficulty of evading it could only 
 be justified in cases of greatest necessity. 
 
 Upon the subject of education, not presuming to 
 dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only 
 say that I view it as the most important subject 
 which we as a people can be engaged in. That 
 every man may receive at least a moderate educa- 
 tion, and thereby be enabled to read the histories of 
 his own and other countries, by which he may duly 
 
128 The Writings of 
 
 appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears 
 to be an object of vital importance, even on this 
 account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and 
 satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read 
 the Scriptures, and other works both of a religious 
 and moral nature, for themselves. 
 
 For my part, I desire to see the time when educa- 
 tion — and by its means, morality, sobriety, enter- 
 prise, and industry — shall become much more 
 general than at present, and should be gratified to 
 have it in my power to contribute something to the 
 advancement of any measure which might have a 
 tendency to accelerate that happy period. 
 
 With regard to existing laws, some alterations are 
 thought to be necessary. Many respectable men 
 have suggested that our estray laws, the law respect- 
 ing the issuing of executions, the road law, and some 
 others, are deficient in their present form, and re- 
 quire alterations. But, considering the great prob- 
 ability that the framers of those laws were wiser 
 than myself, I should prefer not meddling with them, 
 unless they were first attacked by others; in which 
 case I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to 
 take that stand which, in my view, might tend most 
 to the advancement of justice. 
 
 But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Consider- 
 ing the great degree of modesty which should always 
 attend youth, it is probable I have already been 
 more presuming than becomes me. However, upon 
 the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken 
 as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any 
 or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it 
 
Abraham Lincoln 129 
 
 is better only sometimes to be right than at all times 
 to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be 
 erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them. 
 
 Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. 
 Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I 
 have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed 
 of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of 
 their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying 
 this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, 
 and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have 
 ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I 
 have no wealthy or popular relations or friends to 
 recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon 
 the independent voters of the county ; and, if elected, 
 they will have conferred a favor upon me for which 
 I shall be unremitting in my labors to compensate. 
 But, if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to 
 keep me in the background, I have been too familiar 
 with disappointments to be very much chagrined. 
 Your friend and fellow-citizen, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 New Salem, March 9, 1832. 
 
 TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. 
 
 New Salem, Aug. 10, 1833. 
 
 E. C. Blankenship. 
 
 Dear Sir: — In regard to the time David Rankin 
 served the enclosed discharge shows correctly — as 
 well as I can recollect — having no writing to refer. 
 The transfer of Rankin from my company occurred 
 as follows : Rankin having lost his horse at Dixon's 
 
130 The Writings of 
 
 ferry and having acquaintance in one of the foot 
 companies who were going down the river was de- 
 sirous to go with them, and one Galishen being an 
 acquaintance of mine and belonging to the company 
 in which Rankin wished to go wished to leave it and 
 join mine, this being the case it was agreed that they 
 should exchange places and answer to each other's 
 names — as it was expected we all would be dis- 
 charged in very few days. As to a blanket — I have 
 no knowledge of Rankin ever getting any. The 
 above embraces all the facts now in my recollection 
 which are pertinent to the case. 
 
 I shall take pleasure in giving any further informa- 
 tion in my power should you call on me. 
 
 Your friend, 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 (Original owned by DeWitt C. Sprague, Washing* 
 ton, D. C.) 
 
 to mr. spears. 
 
 Mr. Spears: 
 
 At your request I send you a receipt for the postage 
 on your paper. I am somewhat surprised at your 
 request. I will, however, comply with it. The law 
 requires newspaper postage to be paid in advance, 
 and now that I have waited a full year you choose to 
 wound my feelings by insinuating that unless you 
 get a receipt I will probably make you pay it again. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 13 1 
 
 ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. 
 
 New Salem, June 13, 1836. 
 
 To the Editor of the "Journal": — In your 
 paper of last Saturday I see a communication, over 
 the signature of "Many Voters," in which the candi- 
 dates who are announced in the Journal are called 
 upon to "show their hands." Agreed. Here's 
 mine. 
 
 I go for all sharing the privileges of the, govern- 
 ment who assist in bearing its burdens. Conse- 
 quently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of 
 suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means 
 excluding females). 
 
 If elected, I shall consider the whole people of 
 Sangamon my constituents, as well those that oppose 
 as those that support me. 
 
 While acting as their representative, I shall be 
 governed by their will on all subjects upon which I 
 have the means of knowing what their will is; and 
 upon all others I shall do what my own judgment 
 teaches me will best advance their interests. Whether 
 elected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of 
 the sales of the public lands to the several States, 
 to enable our State, in common with others, to dig 
 canals and construct railroads without borrowing 
 money and paying the interest on it. 
 
 If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall 
 vote for Hugh L. White for President. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
13 2 The Writings of 
 
 TO ROBERT ALLEN. 
 
 New Salem, June 21, 1836. 
 
 Dear Colonel : — I am told that during my absence 
 last week you passed through this place, and stated 
 publicly that you were in possession of a fact or facts 
 which, if known to the public, would entirely destroy 
 the prospects of N. W. Edwards and myself at the 
 ensuing election ; but that, through favor to us, you 
 should forbear to divulge them. No one has needed 
 favors more than I, and, generally, few have been 
 less unwilling to accept them ; but in this case favor 
 to me would be injustice to the public, and therefore 
 I must beg your pardon for declining it. That I 
 once had the confidence of the people of Sangamon, is 
 sufficiently evident; and if I have since done any- 
 thing, either by design or misadventure, which if 
 known would subject me to a forfeiture of that con- 
 fidence, he that knows of that thing, and conceals it, 
 is a traitor to his country's interest. 
 
 I find myself wholly unable to form any conjecture 
 of what fact or facts, real or supposed, you spoke; 
 but my opinion of your veracity will not permit me 
 for a moment to doubt that you at least believed 
 what you said. I am flattered with the personal 
 regard you manifested for me; but I do hope that, 
 on more mature reflection, you will view the public 
 interest as a paramount consideration, and there- 
 fore determine to let the worst come. I here assure 
 you that the candid statement of facts on your part, 
 however low it may sink me, shall never break the 
 tie of personal friendship between us. I wish an 
 
Abraham Lincoln 133 
 
 answer to this, and you are at liberty to publish both, 
 if you choose. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 Col. Robert Allen. A. Lincoln. 
 
 TO MISS MARY OWENS. 
 
 Vandalia, December 13, 1836. 
 
 Mary: — I have been sick ever since my arrival, 
 or I should have written sooner. It is but little 
 difference, however, as I have very little even yet to 
 write. And more, the longer I can avoid the morti- 
 fication of looking in the post-office for your letter 
 and not finding it, the better. You see I am mad 
 about that old letter yet. I don't like very well to 
 risk you again. I '11 try you once more, anyhow. 
 
 The new State House is not yet finished, and con- 
 sequently the Legislature is doing little or nothing. 
 The governor delivered an inflammatory political 
 message, and it is expected there will be some spar- 
 ring between the parties about it as soon as the two 
 Houses get to business. Taylor delivered up his 
 petition for the new county to one of our members 
 this morning. I am told he despairs of its success, 
 on account of all the members from Morgan County 
 opposing it. There are names enough pn the 
 petition, I think, to justify the members from our 
 county in going for it; but if the members from 
 Morgan oppose it, which they say they will, the 
 chance will be bad. 
 
 Our chance to take the seat of government CO 
 
134 The Writings of 
 
 Springfield is better than I expected. An internal- 
 improvement convention was held here since we 
 met, which recommended a loan of several millions 
 of dollars, on the faith of the State, to construct rail- 
 roads. Some of the Legislature are for it, and some 
 against it; which has the majority I cannot tell. 
 There is great strife and struggling for the office of 
 the United States Senator here at this time. It is 
 probable we shall ease their pains in a few days. 
 The opposition men have no candidate of their own, 
 and consequently they will smile as complacently at 
 the angry snarl of the contending Van Buren candi- 
 dates and their respective friends as the Christian 
 does at Satan's rage. You recollect that I mentioned 
 at the outset of this letter that I had been unwell. 
 That is the fact, though I believe I am about well 
 now; but that, with other things I cannot account 
 for, have conspired, and have gotten my spirits so 
 low that I feel that I would rather be any place in 
 the world than here. I really cannot endure the 
 thought of staying here ten weeks. Write back as 
 soon as you get this, and, if possible, say something 
 that will please me, for really I have not been pleased 
 since I left you. This letter is so dry and stupid 
 that I am ashamed to send it, but with my present 
 feelings I cannot do any better. 
 
 Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and 
 family. 
 
 Your friend, 
 Lincoln. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 135 
 
 SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 January [?], 1837. 
 
 Mr. Chairman: — Lest I should fall into the too 
 common error of being mistaken in regard to which 
 side I design to be upon, I shall make it my first care 
 to remove all doubt on that point, by declaring that 
 I am opposed to the resolution under consideration, 
 in toto. Before I proceed to the body of the subject, 
 I will further remark, that it is not without a con- 
 siderable degree of apprehension that I venture to 
 cross the track of the gentleman from Coles [Mr. 
 Linder]. Indeed, I do not believe I could muster 
 a sufficiency of courage to come in contact with that 
 gentleman, were it not for the fact that he, some 
 days since, most graciously condescended to assure 
 us that he would never be found wasting ammunition 
 on small game. On the same fortunate occasion, he 
 further gave us to understand, that he regarded 
 himself as being decidedly the superior of our common 
 friend from Randolph [Mr. Shields] ; and feeling, as 
 I really do, that I, to say the most of myself, am 
 nothing more than the peer of our friend from 
 Randolph, I shall regard the gentleman from Coles 
 as decidedly my superior also, and consequently, in 
 the course of what I shall have to say, whenever I 
 shall have occasion to allude to that gentleman, I 
 shall endeavor to adopt that kind of court language 
 which I understand to be due to decided superiority. 
 In one faculty, at least, there can be no dispute of the 
 gentleman's superiority over me and most other men, 
 and that is, the faculty of entangling a subject, so 
 
13 6 The Writings of 
 
 that neither himself, or any other man, can find head 
 or tail to it. Here he has introduced a resolution, 
 embracing ninety-nine printed lines across common 
 writing paper, and yet more than one half of his 
 opening speech has been made upon subjects about 
 which there is not one word said in his resolution. 
 
 Though his resolution embraces nothing in regard 
 to the constitutionality of the Bank, much of what 
 he has said has been with a view to make the im- 
 pression that it was unconstitutional in its inception. 
 Now, although I am satisfied that an ample field 
 may be found within the pale of the resolution, at 
 least for small game, yet, as the gentleman has 
 travelled out of it, I feel that I may, with all due 
 humility, venture to follow him. The gentleman has 
 discovered that some gentleman at Washington city 
 has been upon the very eve of deciding our Bank 
 unconstitutional, and that he would probably have 
 completed his very authentic decision, had not some 
 one of the Bank officers placed his hand upon his 
 mouth, and begged him to withhold it. The fact 
 that the individuals composing our Supreme Court 
 have, in an official capacity, decided in favor of the 
 constitutionality of the Bank, would, in my mind, 
 seem a sufficient answer to this. It is a fact known 
 to all, that the members of the Supreme Court, 
 together with the Governor, form a Council of Re- 
 vision, and that this Council approved this Bank 
 charter. I ask, then, if the extra-judicial decision — 
 not quite but almost made by the gentleman at 
 Washington, before whom, by the way, the question 
 of the constitutionality of our Bank never has, nor 
 
Abraham Lincoln 137 
 
 never can come — is to be taken as paramount to a 
 decision officially made by that tribunal, by which, 
 and which alone, the constitutionality of the Bank 
 can ever be settled? But, aside from this view of 
 the subject, I would ask, if the committee which this 
 resolution proposes to appoint are to examine into 
 the constitutionality of the Bank? Are they to be 
 clothed with power to send for persons and papers, 
 for this object ? And after they have found the bank 
 to be unconstitutional, and decided it so, how are 
 they to enforce their decision? What will their 
 decision amount to? They cannot compel the Bank 
 to cease operations, or to change the course of its 
 operations. What good, then, can their labors result 
 in ? Certainly none. 
 
 The gentleman asks, if we, without an examina- 
 tion, shall, by giving the State deposits to the Bank, 
 and by taking the stock reserved for the State, 
 legalize its former misconduct. Now I do not pre- 
 tend to possess sufficient legal knowledge to decide 
 whether a legislative enactment proposing to, and 
 accepting from, the Bank, certain terms, would 
 have the effect to legalize or wipe out its former 
 errors, or not ; but I can assure the gentleman, if such 
 should be the effect, he has already got behind the 
 settlement of accounts; for it is well known to all, 
 that the Legislature, at its last session, passed a 
 supplemental Bank charter, which the Bank has 
 since accepted, and which, according to his doctrine, 
 has legalized all the alleged violations of its original 
 charter in the distribution of its stock. 
 
 I now proceed to the resolution. By examination 
 
138 The Writings of 
 
 it will be found that the first thirty-three lines, 
 being precisely one third of the whole, relate exclu- 
 sively to the distribution of the stock by the com- 
 missioners appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is 
 clear that no question can arise on this portion of the 
 resolution, except a question between capitalists in 
 regard to the ownership of stock. Some gentlemen 
 have their stock in their hands, while others, who have 
 more money than they know what to do with, want 
 it; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle 
 which we are called on to squander thousands of the 
 people's money. What interest, let me ask, have 
 the people in the settlement of this question? 
 What difference is it to them whether the stock is 
 owned by Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins? If any 
 gentleman be entitled to stock in the Bank, which 
 he is kept out of possession of by others, let him 
 assert his right in the Supreme Court, and let him 
 or his antagonist, whichever may be found in the 
 wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim, 
 and a very sound one, that he that dances should 
 always pay the fiddler. Now, Sir, in the present 
 case, if any gentlemen, whose nxmey is a burden to 
 them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly op- 
 posed to the people's money being used to pay the 
 fiddler. No one can doubt that the examination 
 proposed by this resolution must cost the State 
 some ten or twelve thousand dollars ; and all this to 
 settle a question in which the people have no interest, 
 and about which they care nothing. These capital- 
 ists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to 
 fleece the people, and now that they have got into a 
 
Abraham Lincoln 139 
 
 quarrel with themselves we are called upon to ap- 
 propriate the people's money to settle the quarrel. 
 
 I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to 
 the remainder. It will be found that no charge in 
 the remaining part of the resolution, if true, amounts 
 to the violation of the Bank charter, except one, 
 which I will notice in due time. It might seem quite 
 sufficient to say no more upon any of these charges 
 or insinuations than enough to show they are not 
 violations of the charter; yet, as they are ingen- 
 iously framed and handled, with a view to deceive 
 and mislead, I will notice in their order all the most 
 prominent of them. The first of these is in relation 
 to a connection between our Bank and several bank- 
 ing institutions in other States. Admitting this con- 
 nection to exist, I should like to see the gentleman 
 from Coles, or any other gentleman, undertake to 
 show that there is any harm in it. What can there 
 be in such a connection, that the people of Illinois 
 are willing to pay their money to get a peep into? 
 By a reference to the tenth section of the Bank 
 charter, any gentleman can see that the framers of 
 the act contemplated the holding of stock in the 
 institutions of other corporations. Why, then, is it, 
 when neither law nor justice forbids it, that we are 
 asked to spend our time and money in inquiring into 
 its truth? 
 
 The next charge, in the order of time, is, that some 
 officer, director, clerk or servant of the Bank, has 
 been required to take an oath of secrecy in relation to 
 the affairs of said Bank. Now, I do not know 
 whether this be true or false — neither do I believe 
 
140 The Writings of 
 
 any honest man cares. I know that the seventh 
 section of the charter expressly guarantees to the 
 Bank the right of making, under certain restrictions, 
 such by-laws as it may think fit ; and I further know 
 that the requiring an oath of secrecy would not 
 transcend those restrictions. What, then, if the 
 Bank has chosen to exercise this right ? Whom can it 
 injure? Does not every merchant have his secret 
 mark ? and who is ever silly enough to complain of it ? 
 I presume if the Bank does require any such oath of 
 secrecy, it is done through a motive of delicacy to 
 those individuals who deal with it. Why, Sir, not 
 many days since, one gentleman upon this floor, 
 who, by the way, I have no doubt is now ready to 
 join this hue and cry against the Bank, indulged in a 
 philippic against one of the Bank officials, because, 
 as he said, he had divulged a secret. 
 
 Immediately following this last charge, there are 
 several insinuations in the resolution, which are too 
 silly to require any sort of notice, were it not for 
 the fact that they conclude by saying, "to the great 
 injury of the people at large." In answer to this I 
 would say that it is strange enough, that the peo- 
 ple are suffering these "great injuries," and yet are 
 not sensible of it! Singular indeed that the people 
 should be writhing under oppression and injury, and 
 yet not one among them to be found to raise the 
 voice of complaint. If the Bank be inflicting injury 
 upon the people, why is it that not a single petition 
 is presented to this body on the subject? If the 
 Bank really be a grievance, why is it that no one of 
 the real people is found to ask redress of it? The 
 
Abraham Lincoln 141 
 
 truth is, no such oppression exists. If it did, our 
 people would groan with memorials and petitions, 
 and we would not be permitted to rest day or night, 
 till we had put it down. The people know their 
 rights, and they are never slow to assert and main- 
 tain them, when they are invaded. Let them call 
 for an investigation, and I shall ever stand ready to 
 respond to the call. But they have made no such 
 call. I make the assertion boldly, and without fear 
 of contradiction, that no man, who does not hold an 
 office, or does not aspire to one, has ever found any 
 fault of the Bank. It has doubled the prices of the 
 products of their farms, and filled their pockets with 
 a sound circulating medium, and they are all well 
 pleased with its operations. No, Sir, it is the poli- 
 tician who is the first to sound the alarm (which, by 
 the way, is a false one.) It is he, who, by these 
 unholy means, is endeavoring to blow up a storm that 
 he may ride upon and direct. It is he, and he alone, 
 that here proposes to spend thousands of the people's 
 public treasure, for no other advantage to them 
 than to make valueless in their pockets the reward 
 of their industry. Mr. Chairman, this work is ex- 
 clusively the work of politicians; a set of men 
 who have interests aside from the interests of the 
 people, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken 
 as a mass, at least one long step removed from 
 honest men. I say this with the greater freedom, 
 because, being a politician myself, none can regard 
 it as personal. 
 
 Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that 
 officers of the Bank have loaned money at usurious 
 
142 The Writings of 
 
 rates of interest. Suppose this to be true, are we to 
 send a committee of this House to inquire into it? 
 Suppose the committee should find it true, can they 
 redress the injured individuals? Assuredly not. 
 If any individual had been injured in this way, is 
 there not an ample remedy to be found in the laws 
 of the land ? Does the gentleman from Coles know 
 that there is a statute standing in full force making 
 it highly penal for an individual to loan money at a 
 higher rate of interest than twelve per cent? If he 
 does not he is too ignorant to be placed at the head 
 of the committee which his resolution purposes ; 
 and if he does, his neglect to mention it shows him 
 to be too uncandid to merit the respect or con- 
 fidence of any one. 
 
 But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from 
 existence, could not the owners of the capital still 
 loan it usuriously, as well as now? Whatever the 
 Bank, or its officers, may have done, I know that 
 usurious transactions were much more frequent and 
 enormous before the commencement of its opera- 
 tions than they have ever been since. 
 
 The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused 
 specie payments. This, if true is a violation of the 
 charter. But there is not the least probability of 
 its truth ; because, if such had been the fact, the 
 individual to whom payment was refused would 
 have had an interest in making it public, by suing 
 for the damages to which the charter entitles him. 
 Yet no such thing has been done; and the strong 
 presumption is, that the insinuation is false and 
 groundless. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 143 
 
 From this to the end of the resolution, there is 
 nothing that merits attention — I therefore drop the 
 particular examination of it. 
 
 By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen 
 that a principal object of the committee is to ex- 
 amine into, and ferret out, a mass of corruption sup- 
 posed to have been committed by the commissioners 
 who apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believe 
 it is universally understood and acknowledged that 
 all men will ever act correctly unless they have a 
 motive to do otherwise. If this be true, we can only 
 suppose that the commissioners acted corruptly by 
 also supposing that they were bribed to do so. 
 Taking this view of the subject, I would ask if the 
 Bank is likely to find it more difficult to bribe the 
 committee of seven, which we are about to appoint, 
 than it may have found it to bribe the commis- 
 sioners ? 
 
 (Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair 
 decided that Mr. Lincoln was not out of order. Mr. 
 Linder appealed to the House, but, before the ques- 
 tion was put, withdrew his appeal, saying he pre- 
 ferred to let the gentleman go on; he thought he 
 would break his own neck. Mr. Lincoln proceeded :) 
 
 Another gracious condescension! I acknowledge it 
 with gratitude. I know I was not out of order ; and 
 I know every sensible man in the House knows it. I 
 was not saying that the gentleman from Coles could 
 be bribed, nor, on the other hand, will I say he could 
 not. In that particular I leave him where I found 
 him. I was only endeavoring to show that there 
 was at least as great a probability of any seven 
 
H4 The Writings of 
 
 members that could be selected from this House 
 being bribed to act corruptly, as there was that the 
 twenty-four commissioners had been so bribed. 
 By a reference to the ninth section of the Bank 
 charter, it will be seen that those commissioners were 
 John Tilson, Robert K. McLaughlin, Daniel Wann, 
 A. G. S. Wight, John C. Riley, W. H. Davidson, 
 Edward M. Wilson, Edward L. Pierson, Robert R. 
 Green, Ezra Baker, Aquilla Wren, John Taylor, 
 Samuel C. Christy, Edmund Roberts, Benjamin 
 Godfrey, Thomas Mather, A. M. Jenkins, W. Linn, 
 W. S. Gilman, Charles Prentice, Richard I. Hamilton, 
 A. H. Buckner, W. F. Thornton, and Edmund D. 
 Taylor. 
 
 These are twenty-four of the most respectable 
 men in the State. Probably no twenty-four men 
 could be selected in the State with whom the peo- 
 ple are better acquainted, or in whose honor and 
 integrity they would more readily place confidence. 
 And I now repeat, that there is less probability that 
 those men have been bribed and corrupted, than that 
 any seven men, or rather any six men, that could be 
 selected from the members of this House, might be so 
 bribed and corrupted, even though they were headed 
 and led on by "decided superiority" himself. 
 
 In all seriousness, I ask every reasonable man, if 
 an issue be joined by these twenty-four commis- 
 sioners, on the one part, and any other seven men, 
 on the other part, and the whole depend upon the 
 honor and integrity of the contending parties, to 
 which party would the greatest degree of credit be 
 due? Again: Another consideration is, that we 
 
Abraham Lincoln 145 
 
 have no right to make the examination. What I 
 shall say upon this head I design exclusively for 
 the law-loving and law-abiding part of the House. 
 To those who claim omnipotence for the Legislature, 
 and who in the plenitude of their assumed powers 
 are disposed to disregard the Constitution, law, good 
 faith, moral right, and everything else, I have not a 
 word to say. But to the law-abiding part I say, 
 examine the Bank charter, go examine the Constitu- 
 tion, go examine the acts that the General Assembly 
 of this State has passed, and you will find just as 
 much authority given in each and every of them to 
 compel the Bank to bring its coffers to this hall and 
 to pour their contents upon this floor, as to compel it 
 to submit to this examination which this resolution 
 proposes. Why, Sir, the gentleman from Coles, the 
 mover of this resolution, very lately denied on this 
 floor that the Legislature had any right to repeal or 
 otherwise meddle with its own acts, when those acts 
 were made in the nature of contracts, and had been 
 accepted and acted on by other parties. Now I ask 
 if this resolution does not propose, for this House 
 alone, to do what he, but the other day, denied the 
 right of the whole Legislature to do ? He must either 
 abandon the position he then took, or he must now 
 vote against his own resolution. It is no difference 
 to me, and I presume but little to any one else, which 
 he does. 
 
 I am by no means the special advocate of the Bank. 
 I have long thought that it would be well for it to 
 report its condition to the General Assembly, and 
 that cases might occur, when it might be proper to 
 
 VOL.1. — 10. 
 
146 The Writings of 
 
 make an examination of its affairs by a committee. 
 Accordingly, during the last session, while a bill 
 supplemental to the Bank charter was pending be- 
 fore the House, I offered an amendment to the same, 
 in these words: "The said corporation shall, at the 
 next session of the General Assembly, and at each 
 subsequent General Session, during the existence of 
 its charter, report to the same the amount of debts 
 due from said corporation ; the amount of debts due 
 to the same ; the amount of specie in its vaults, and 
 an account of all lands then owned by the same, 
 and the amount for which such lands have been taken ; 
 and moreover, if said corporation shall at any time 
 neglect or refuse to submit its books, papers, and all 
 and everything necessary for a full and fair exami- 
 nation of its affairs, to any person or persons ap- 
 pointed by the General Assembly, for the purpose of 
 making such examination, the said corporation shall 
 forfeit its charter." 
 
 This amendment was negatived by a vote of 34 to 
 15. Eleven of the 34 who voted against it are now 
 members of this House ; and though it would be out 
 of order to call their names, I hope they will all 
 recollect themselves, and not vote for this examina- 
 tion to be made without authority, inasmuch as 
 they refused to receive the authority when it was in 
 their power to do so. 
 
 I have said that cases might occur, when an 
 examination might be proper; but I do not believe 
 any such case has now occurred; and if it has, I 
 should still be opposed to making an examination 
 without legal authority. I am opposed to encourag- 
 
Abraham Lincoln 147 
 
 ing that lawless and mobocratic spirit, whether in 
 relation to the Bank or anything else, which is 
 already abroad in the land and is spreading with 
 rapid and fearful impetuosity, to the ultimate over- 
 throw of every institution, of every moral principle, 
 in which persons and property have hitherto found 
 security. 
 
 But supposing we had the authority, I would ask 
 what good can result from the examination? Can 
 we declare the Bank unconstitutional, and compel 
 it to desist from the abuses of its power, provided we 
 find such abuses to exist ? Can we repair the injuries 
 which it may have done to individuals? Most 
 certainly we can do none of these things. Why then 
 shall we spend the public money in such employment ? 
 Oh, say the examiners, we can injure the credit of the 
 Bank, if nothing else. Please tell me, gentlemen, 
 who will suffer most by that? You cannot injure, 
 to any extent, the stockholders. They are men of 
 wealth — of large capital; and consequently, beyond 
 the power of malice. But by injuring the credit of 
 the Bank, you will depreciate the value of its paper 
 in the hands of the honest and unsuspecting farmer 
 and mechanic, and that is all you can do. But sup- 
 pose you could effect your whole purpose ; suppose 
 you could wipe the Bank from existence, which is the 
 grand ultimatum of the project, what would be the 
 consequence? Why, Sir, we should spend several 
 thousand dollars of the public treasure in the opera- 
 tion, annihilate the currency of the State, render 
 valueless in the hands of our people that reward of 
 their former labors, and finally be once more under 
 
148 The Writings of 
 
 the comfortable- obligation of paying the Wiggins 
 loan, principal and interest. 
 
 ADDRESS BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S LYCEUM OF 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. 
 
 January 27, 1837. 
 
 As a subject for the remarks of the evening, 
 "The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions" is 
 selected. 
 
 In the great journal of things happening under the 
 sun, we, the American people, find our account run- 
 ning under date of the nineteenth century of the 
 Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful 
 possession of the fairest portion of the earth as 
 regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and 
 salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the 
 government of a system of political institutions con- 
 ducing more essentially to the ends of civil and re- 
 ligious liberty than any of which the history of 
 former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage 
 of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of 
 these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the 
 acquirement or establishment of them; they are 
 a legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and 
 patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of 
 ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they 
 performed it) to possess themselves, and through 
 themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear 
 upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of 
 liberty and equal rights ; 't is ours only to transmit 
 
Abraham Lincoln 149 
 
 these; — the former unprofaned by the foot of an 
 invader, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time 
 and untorn by usurpation — to the latest generation 
 that fate shall permit the world to know. This4:ask 
 gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to 
 posterity, and love for our species in general, all 
 imperatively require us faithfully to perform. 
 
 How then shall we perform it? At what point 
 shall we expect the approach of danger? By what 
 means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect 
 some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean 
 and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the 
 treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their 
 military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, 
 could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or 
 make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a 
 thousand years. 
 
 At what point then is the approach of danger to be 
 expected? I answer, If it ever reach us it must 
 spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. 
 If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its 
 author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we 
 must live through all time, or die by suicide. 
 
 I hope I am over-wary; but if I am not, there is 
 even now something of ill omen amongst us. I 
 mean the increasing disregard for law which per- 
 vades the country — the growing disposition to sub- 
 stitute the wild and furious passions in lieu of the 
 sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage 
 mobs for the executive ministers of justice. This 
 disposition is awfully fearful in any community; 
 
150 The Writings of 
 
 and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our 
 feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth 
 and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts 
 of outrages committed by mobs form the every-day 
 news of the times. They have pervaded the country 
 from New England to Louisiana; they are neither 
 peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor the 
 burning suns of the latter; they are not the creature 
 of climate, neither are they confined to the slave- 
 holding or the non-slaveholding States. Alike they 
 spring up among the pleasure-hunting masters of 
 Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens of the 
 land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause 
 may be, it is common to the whole country. 
 
 It would be tedious as well as useless to recount 
 the horrors of all of them. Those happening in the 
 State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are perhaps the 
 most dangerous in example and revolting to human- 
 ity. In the Mississippi case they first commenced 
 by hanging the regular gamblers — a set of men 
 certainly not following for a livelihood a very useful 
 or very honest occupation, but one which, so far 
 from being forbidden by the laws, was actually 
 licensed by an act of the Legislature passed but a 
 single year before. Next, negroes suspected of con- 
 spiring to raise an insurrection were caught up and 
 hanged in all parts of the State; then, white men 
 supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and 
 finally, strangers from neighboring States, going 
 thither on business, were in many instances subjected 
 to the same fate. Thus went on this process of 
 hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to 
 
Abraham Lincoln 151 
 
 white citizens, and from these to strangers, till dead 
 men were seen literally dangling from the boughs of 
 trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost 
 sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the 
 country as a drapery of the forest. 
 
 Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. 
 Louis. A single victim only was sacrificed there. 
 This story is very short, and is perhaps the most 
 highly tragic of anything of its length that has ever 
 been witnessed in real life. A mulatto man by the 
 name of Mcintosh was seized in the street, dragged 
 to the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and 
 actually burned to death; and all within a single 
 hour from the time he had been a freeman attending 
 to his own business and at peace with the world. 
 
 Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the 
 scenes becoming more and more frequent in this land 
 so lately famed for love of law and order, and the 
 stories of which have even now grown too familiar 
 to attract anything more than an idle remark. 
 
 But you are perhaps ready to ask, "What has this 
 to do with the perpetuation of our political institu- 
 tions?" I answer, It has much to do with it. Its 
 direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, 
 but a small evil, and much of its danger consists iii 
 the proneness of our minds to regard its direct as 
 its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the 
 hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg was of but 
 little consequence. They constitute a portion of 
 population that is worse than useless in any com- 
 munity; and their death, if no pernicious example 
 be set by it, is never matter of reasonable regret 
 
152 The Writings of 
 
 with any one. If they were annually swept from 
 the stage of existence by the plague or smallpox, 
 honest men would perhaps be much profited by the 
 operation. Similar too is the correct reasoning in 
 regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. He 
 had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an out- 
 rageous murder upon one of the most worthy and 
 respectable citizens of the city, and had he not died 
 as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the 
 law in a very short time afterwards. As to him 
 alone, it was as well the way it was as it could other- 
 wise have been. But the example in either case was 
 fearful. When men take it in their heads to-day 
 to hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should 
 recollect that in the confusion usually attending such 
 transactions they will be as likely to hang or burn 
 some one who is neither a gambler nor a murderer 
 as one who is, and that, acting upon the example 
 they set, the mob of to-morrow may, and probably 
 will, hang or burn some of them by the very same 
 mistake. And not only so: the innocent, those who 
 have ever set their faces against violations of law in 
 every shape, alike with the guilty fall victims to the 
 ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by 
 step, till all the walls erected for the defence of the 
 persons and property of individuals are trodden down 
 and disregarded. But all this, even, is not the full 
 extent of the evil. By such examples, by instances 
 of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, 
 the lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless 
 in practice ; and having been used to no restraint but 
 dread of punishment, they thus become absolutely 
 
Abraham Lincoln 153 
 
 unrestrained. Having ever regarded government as 
 their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the sus- 
 pension of its operations, and pray for nothing so 
 much as its total annihilation. While, on the other 
 hand, good men, men who love tranquillity, who de- 
 sire to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, 
 who would gladly spill their blood in the defence of 
 their country, seeing their property destroyed, their 
 families insulted, and their lives endangered, their 
 persons injured, and seeing nothing in prospect that 
 forebodes a change for the better, become tired of 
 and disgusted with a government that offers them 
 no protection, and are not much averse to a change 
 in which they imagine they have nothing to lose. 
 Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic 
 spirit which all must admit is now abroad in the land, 
 the strongest bulwark of any government, and 
 particularly of those constituted like ours, may 
 effectually be broken down and destroyed — I mean 
 the attachment of the people. Whenever this effect 
 shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious 
 portion of population shall be permitted to gather in 
 bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, 
 ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing- 
 presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn 
 obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, 
 depend on it, this government cannot last. By 
 such things the feelings of the best citizens will 
 become more or less alienated from it, and thus it 
 will be left without friends, or with too few, and those 
 few too weak to make their friendship effectual. At 
 such a time, and under such circumstances, men of 
 
154 The Writings of 
 
 sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to 
 seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn 
 that fair fabric which for the last half century has 
 been the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom 
 throughout the world. 
 
 I know the American people are much attached to 
 their government ; I know they would suffer much 
 for its sake; I know they would endure evils long 
 and patiently before they would ever think of ex- 
 changing it for another, — yet, notwithstanding all 
 this, if the laws be continually despised and disre- 
 garded, if their rights to be secure in their persons 
 and property are held by no better tenure than the 
 caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections 
 from the government is the natural consequence; 
 and to that, sooner or later, it must come. 
 
 Here, then, is one point at which danger may be 
 expected. 
 
 The question recurs, How shall we fortify against 
 it? The answer is simple. Let every American, 
 every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his pos- 
 terity swear by the blood of the Revolution never 
 to violate in the least particular the laws of the 
 country, and never to tolerate their violation by 
 others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the 
 support of the Declaration of Independence, so to 
 the support of the Constitution and laws let every 
 American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred 
 honor. Let every man remember that to violate the 
 law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to 
 tear the charter of his own and his children's liberty. 
 Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every 
 
Abraham Lincoln 155 
 
 American mother to the lisping babe that prattles 
 on her lap ; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, 
 and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling- 
 books, and in almanacs ; let it be preached from the 
 pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced 
 in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the 
 political religion of the nation ; and let the old and 
 the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the 
 gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and condi- 
 tions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. 
 
 While ever a state of feeling such as this shall 
 universally or even very generally prevail through- 
 out the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruit- 
 less every attempt, to subvert our national freedom. 
 
 When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all 
 the laws, let me not be understood as saying there 
 are no bad laws, or that grievances may not arise 
 for the redress of which no legal provisions have been 
 made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do 
 mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, 
 should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while 
 they continue in force, for the sake of example they 
 should be religiously observed. So also in unpro- 
 vided cases. If such arise, let proper legal pro- 
 visions be made for them with the least possible 
 delay, but till then let them, if not too intolerable, be 
 borne with. 
 
 There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress 
 by mob law. In any case that may arise, as, for in- 
 stance, the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two 
 positions is necessarily true — that is, the thing is right 
 within itself, and therefore deserves the protection 
 
156 The Writings of 
 
 of all law and all good citizens, or it is wrong, and 
 therefore proper to be prohibited by legal enact- 
 ments ; and in neither case is the interposition of mob 
 law either necessary, justifiable, or excusable. 
 
 But it may be asked, Why suppose danger to our 
 political institutions ? Have we not preserved them 
 for more than fifty years ? And why may we not for 
 fifty times as long? 
 
 We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope 
 all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that 
 no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely 
 dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, 
 many causes, dangerous in their tendency, which 
 have not existed heretofore, and which are not too 
 insignificant to merit attention. That our govern- 
 ment should have been maintained in its original 
 form, from its establishment until now, is not much 
 to be wondered at. It had many props to support 
 it through that period, which now are decayed and 
 crumbled away. Through that period it was felt 
 by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is 
 understood to be a successful one. Then, all that 
 sought celebrity and fame and distinction expected 
 to find them in the success of that experiment. Their 
 all was staked upon it ; their destiny was inseparably 
 linked with it. Their ambition aspired to display 
 before an admiring world a practical demonstration 
 of the truth of a proposition which had hitherto 
 been considered at best no better than problematical 
 — namely, the capability of a people to govern them- 
 selves. If they succeeded they were to be im- 
 mortalized; their names were to be transferred to 
 
Abraham Lincoln 157 
 
 counties, and cities, and rivers, and mountains; 
 and to be revered and sung, toasted through all time. 
 If they failed, they were to be called knaves, and. 
 fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink 
 and be forgotten. They succeeded. The experi- 
 ment is successful, and thousands have won their 
 deathless names in making it so. But the game is 
 caught ; and I believe it is true that with the catch- 
 ing end the pleasures of the chase. This field of 
 glory is harvested, and the crop is already appro- 
 priated. But new reapers will arise, and they too 
 will seek a field. It is to deny what the history of 
 the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of 
 ambition and talents will not continue to spring up 
 amongst us. And when they do, they will as natur- 
 ally seek the gratification of their ruling passion as 
 others have done before them. The question then is, 
 Can that gratification be found in supporting and 
 maintaining an edifice that has been erected by 
 others? Most certainly it cannot, i Many great and 
 good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they 
 should undertake, may ever be found whose ambi- 
 tion would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Con- 
 gress, a Gubernatorial or a Presidential chair; but 
 such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe 
 of the eagle. What! think you these places would 
 satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? 
 Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. 
 It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no 
 distinction in adding story to story upon the monu- 
 ments of fame erected to the memory of others. It 
 denies that it is glory enough to serve under any 
 
158 The Writings of 
 
 chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any 
 predecessor, ' however illustrious. It thirsts and 
 burns for distinction ; and if possible, it will have it, 
 whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or 
 enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable, then, to 
 expect that some man possessed of the loftiest 
 genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to 
 its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up 
 among us? And when such an one does it will 
 require the people to be united with each other, 
 attached to the government and laws, and generally 
 intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs. 
 
 Distinction will be his paramount object, and 
 although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, 
 acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that opportu- 
 nity being past, and nothing left to be done in the 
 way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of 
 pulling down. 
 
 Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and 
 such an one as could not have well existed heretofore. 
 
 Another reason which once was, but which, to the 
 same extent, is now no more, has done much in 
 maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the 
 powerful influence which the interesting scenes of 
 the Revolution had upon the passions of the people 
 as distinguished from their judgment. By this in- 
 fluence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice incident to 
 our nature, and so common to a state of peace, 
 prosperity, and conscious strength, were for the time 
 in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, 
 while the deep-rooted principles of hate, and the 
 powerful motive of revenge, instead of being turned 
 
Abraham Lincoln 159 
 
 against each other, were directed exclusively against 
 the British nation. And thus, from the force of 
 circumstances, the basest principles of our nature 
 were either made to lie dormant, or to become the 
 active agents in the advancement of the noblest of 
 causes — that of establishing and maintaining civil 
 and religious liberty. 
 
 But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has 
 faded, with the circumstances that produced it. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolu- 
 tion are now or ever will be entirely forgotten, but 
 that, like everything else, they must fade upon the 
 memory of the world, and grow more and more dim 
 by the lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will 
 be read of, and recounted, so long as the Bible shall 
 be read; but even granting that they will, their 
 influence cannot be what it heretofore has been. 
 Even then they cannot be so universally known nor 
 so vividly felt as they were by the generation just 
 gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly 
 every adult male had been a participator in some 
 of its scenes. The consequence was that of those 
 scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son, or a 
 brother, a living history was to be found in every 
 family — a history bearing the indubitable testimonies 
 of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the 
 scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very 
 scenes related — a history, too, that could be read and 
 understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, 
 the learned and the unlearned. But those histo- 
 ries are gone. They can be read no more forever. 
 They were a fortress of strength ; but what invading 
 
160 The Writings of 
 
 f oeman could never do the silent artillery of time has 
 done — the levelling of its walls. They are gone. 
 They were a forest of giant oaks ; but the all-restless 
 hurricane has swept over them, and left only here 
 and there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, 
 shorn of its foliage, unshading and unshaded, to 
 murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to com- 
 bat with its multilated limbs a few more ruder 
 storms, then to sink and be no more. 
 
 They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and 
 now that they have crumbled away that temple must 
 fall unless we, their descendants, supply their places 
 with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of 
 sober reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so 
 no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason — 
 cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason — must fur- 
 nish all the materials for our future support and 
 defence. Let those materials be moulded into 
 general intelligence, sound morality, and in particu- 
 lar, a reverence for the Constitution and laws ; and 
 that we improved to the last, that we remained free 
 to the last, that we revered his name to the last, that 
 during his long sleep we permitted no hostile 
 foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place, 
 shall be that which to learn the last trump shall 
 awaken our Washington. 
 
 Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, 
 as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been 
 said of the only greater institution, "the gates of 
 hell shall not prevail against it." 
 
Abraham Lincoln 161 
 
 PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE 
 SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. 
 
 March 3, 1837. 
 
 The following protest was presented to the House, 
 which was read and ordered to be spread on the 
 journals, to wit : 
 
 "Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery- 
 having passed both branches of the General Assem- 
 bly at its present session, the undersigned hereby 
 protest against the passage of the same. 
 
 "They believe that the institution of slavery is 
 founded on both injustice and bad policy, but that 
 the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather 
 to increase than abate its evils. 
 
 "They believe that the Congress of the United 
 States has no power under the Constitution to 
 interfere with the institution of slavery in the 
 different States. 
 
 "They believe that the Congress of the United 
 States has the power, under the Constitution, to 
 abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but 
 that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at 
 the request of the people of the District. 
 
 " The difference between these opinions and those 
 contained in the said resolutions is their reason 
 for entering this protest. 
 
 "Dan Stone, 
 "A. Lincoln, 
 
 " Representatives from the County of Sangamon. " 
 
 VOL. I.— It. 
 
1 62 The Writings of 
 
 TO MISS MARY OWENS. 
 
 Springfield, May 7, 1837. 
 
 Miss Mary S. Owens. 
 
 Friend Mary: — I have commenced two letters 
 to send you before this, both of which displeased me 
 before I got half done, and so I tore them up. The 
 first I thought was not serious enough, and the sec- 
 ond was on the other extreme. I shall send this, 
 turn out as it may. 
 
 This thing of living in Springfield is rather a 
 dull business, after all ; at least it is so to me. I am 
 quite as lonesome here as I ever was anywhere in 
 my life. I have been spoken to by but one woman 
 since I have been here, and should not have been by 
 her if she could have avoided it. I 've never been 
 to church yet, and probably shall not be soon. I 
 stay away because I am conscious I should not 
 know how to behave myself. 
 
 I am often thinking of what we said about your 
 coming to live at Springfield. I am afraid you 
 would not be satisfied. There is a great deal of 
 flourishing about in carriages here, which it would 
 be your doom to see without sharing it. You 
 would have to be poor, without the means of hiding 
 your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that 
 patiently? Whatever woman may cast her lot 
 with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention 
 to do all in my power to make her happy and con- 
 tented; and there is nothing I can imagine that 
 would make me more unhappy than to fail in the 
 effort. I know I should be much happier with you 
 than the way I am, provided I saw no signs of dis- 
 
Abraham Lincoln 163 
 
 content in you. What you have said to me may 
 have been in the way of jest, or I may have mis- 
 understood you. If so, then let it be forgotten; 
 if otherwise, I much wish you would think seriously 
 before you decide. What I have said I will most 
 positively abide by, provided you wish it. My 
 opinion is that you had better not do it. You have 
 not been accustomed to hardship, and it may be 
 more severe than you now imagine. I know you 
 are capable of thinking correctly on any subject, and 
 if you deliberate maturely upon this subject before 
 you decide, then I am willing to abide your decision. 
 You must write me a good long letter after 
 you get this. You have nothing else to do, and 
 though it might not seem interesting to you after 
 you had written it, it would be a good deal of com- 
 pany to me in this "busy wilderness." Tell your 
 sister I don't want to hear any more about selling 
 out and moving. That gives me the ' ' hypo ' ' when- 
 ever I think of it. Yours, etc., Lincoln 
 
 TO JOHN BENNETT. 
 
 Springfield, III., Aug. 5, 1837. 
 
 John Bennett, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir: — Mr. Edwards tells me you wish to 
 know whether the act to which your own incorpora- 
 tion provision was attached passed into a law. It 
 did. You can organize under the general incorpora- 
 tion law as soon as you choose. 
 
 I also tacked a provision onto a fellow's bill to 
 authorize the relocation of the road from Salem 
 
1 64 The Writings of 
 
 down to your town, but I am not certain whether or 
 not the bill passed, neither do I suppose I can ascer- 
 tain before the law will be published, if it is a law. 
 Bowling Greene, Bennette Abe? and yourself are 
 appointed to make the change. No news. No 
 excitement except a little about the election of 
 Monday next. 
 
 I suppose, of course, our friend Dr. Heney stands 
 no chance in your diggings. 
 
 Your friend and humble servant, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 TO MARY OWENS. 
 
 Springfield, Aug. 16, 1837. 
 
 Friend Mary: 
 
 You will no doubt think it rather strange that I 
 should write you a letter on the same day on which 
 we parted, and I can only account for it by supposing 
 that seeing you lately makes me think of you more 
 than usual; while at our late meeting we had but 
 few expressions of thoughts. You must know that I 
 cannot see you, or think of you, with entire indiffer- 
 ence; and yet it may be that you are mistaken in 
 regard to what my real feelings toward you are. 
 
 If I knew you were not, I should not have troubled 
 you with this letter. Perhaps any other man would 
 know enough without information; but I consider 
 it my peculiar right to plead ignorance, and your 
 bounden duty to allow the plea. 
 
 I want in all cases to do right ; and most particu- 
 larly so in all cases with women. 
 
 I want, at this particular time, more than any- 
 
Abraham Lincoln 165 
 
 thing else to do right with you; and if I knew it 
 would be doing right, as I rather suspect it would, to 
 let you alone I would do it. And, for the purpose of 
 making the matter as plain as possible, I now say 
 that you can drop the subject, dismiss your thoughts 
 (if you ever had any) from me for ever and leave 
 this letter unanswered without calling forth one 
 accusing murmur from me. , And I will even go 
 further and say that, if it will add anything to your 
 comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere 
 wish that you should. Do not understand by this 
 that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I mean 
 no such thing. What I do wish is that our further 
 acquaintance shall depend upon yourself. If such 
 further acquaintance would contribute nothing to 
 your happiness, I am sure it would not to mine. If 
 you feel yourself in any degree bound to me, I am 
 now willing to release you, provided you wish it; 
 while on the other hand I am willing and even 
 anxious to bind you faster if I can be convinced that 
 it will, in any considerable degree, add to your 
 happiness. This, indeed, is the whole question with 
 me. Nothing would make me more miserable than 
 to believe you miserable, nothing more happy than 
 to know you were so. 
 
 In what I have now said, I think I cannot be mis- 
 understood; and to make myself understood is the 
 only object of this letter. 
 
 If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. 
 A long life and a merry one attend you. But, if 
 you conclude to write back, speak as plainly as I do. 
 There can neither be harm nor danger in saying to 
 
1 66 The Writings of 
 
 me anything you think, just in the manner you think 
 it. My respects to your sister. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE. 
 "Sangamon Journal," Springfield, III., Aug. 19, 1837. 
 
 In accordance with our determination, as expressed 
 last week, we present to the reader the articles which 
 were published in hand-bill form, in reference to 
 the case of the heirs of Joseph Anderson vs. James 
 Adams. These articles can now be read unin- 
 fluenced by personal or party feeling, and with the 
 sole motive of learning the truth. When that is 
 done, the reader can pass his own judgment on the 
 matters at issue. 
 
 We only regret in this case, that the publications 
 were not made some weeks before the election. Such 
 a course might have prevented the expressions of 
 regret, which have often been heard since, from 
 different individuals, on account of the disposition 
 they made of their votes. 
 
 To the Public. 
 
 It is well known to most of you, that there is 
 existing at this time considerable excitement in 
 regard to Gen. Adams's titles to certain tracts of land, 
 and the manner in which he acquired them. As I 
 understand, the Gen. charges that the whole has 
 been gotten up by a knot of lawyers to injure his 
 election; and as I am one of the knot to which 
 he refers, and as I happen to be in possession of 
 facts connected with the. matter, I will, in as brief 
 
Abraham Lincoln 167 
 
 a manner as possible, make a statement of them, 
 together with the means by which I arrived at the 
 knowledge of them. 
 
 Sometime in May or June last, a widow woman, 
 by the name of Anderson, and her son, who resides 
 in Fulton county, came to Springfield, for the purpose 
 as they said of selling a ten acre lot of ground lying 
 near town, which they claimed as the property of the 
 deceased husband and father. 
 
 When they reached town they found the land was 
 claimed by Gen. Adams. John T. Stuart and my- 
 self were employed to look into the matter, and if it 
 was thought we could do so with any prospect of 
 success, to commence a suit for the land. I went 
 immediately to the recorder's office to examine 
 Adams's title, and found that the land had been 
 entered by one Dixon, deeded by Dixon to Thomas, 
 by Thomas to one Miller, and by Miller to Gen. 
 Adams. The oldest of these three deeds was about 
 ten or eleven years old, and the latest more than five, 
 all recorded at the same time, and that within less 
 than one year. This I thought a suspicious circum- 
 stance, and I was thereby induced to examine the 
 deeds very closely, with a view to the discovery of 
 some defect by which to overturn the title, being 
 almost convinced then it was founded in fraud. I 
 finally discovered that in the deed from Thomas to 
 Miller, although Miller's name stood in a sort of 
 marginal note on the record book, it was nowhere 
 in the deed itself. I told the fact to Talbott, the 
 recorder, and proposed to him that he should go to 
 Gen. Adams's and get the original deed, and compare 
 it with the record, and thereby ascertain whether the 
 
1 68 
 
 The Writings of 
 
 defect was in the original or there was merely an 
 error in the recording. As Talbott afterwards told 
 me, he went to the General's, but not finding him 
 at home, got the deed from his son, which, when 
 compared with the record, proved what we had dis- 
 covered was merely an error of the recorder. After 
 Mr. Talbott corrected the record, be brought the 
 original to our office, as I then thought and think yet, 
 to show us that it was right. When he came into 
 the room he handed the deed to me, remarking that 
 the fault was all his own. On opening it, another 
 paper fell out of it, which on examination proved to 
 be an assignment of a judgment in the Circuit Court 
 of Sangamon County from Joseph Anderson, the late 
 husband of the widow above named, to James 
 Adams, the judgment being in favor of said Ander- 
 son against one Joseph Miller. Knowing that this 
 judgment had some connection with the land affair, 
 I immediately took a copy of it, which is word for 
 word, letter for letter and cross for cross as follows : 
 
 Joseph Anderson, 
 
 vs. 
 
 Joseph Miller. 
 
 May ioth, 1827. 
 
 Judgment in Sangamon Cir- 
 cuit Court against Joseph 
 Miller obtained on a note 
 originally 25 dolls and inter- 
 est thereon accrued. 
 
 I assign all my right, title 
 and interest to James Adams 
 which is in consideration of a 
 debt I owe said Adams. 
 
 his 
 Joseph X Anderson. 
 mark." 
 
Abraham Lincoln 169 
 
 As the copy shows, it bore date May 10, 1827; 
 although the judgment assigned by it was not 
 obtained until the October afterwards, as may be 
 seen by any one on the records of the Circuit Court. 
 Two other strange circumstances attended it which 
 cannot be represented by a copy. One of them was, 
 that the date "1827" had first been made "1837" 
 and, without the figure "3" being fully obliterated, 
 the figure " 2 " had afterwards been made on top of it ; 
 the other was that, although the date was ten years 
 old, the writing on it, from the freshness of its ap- 
 pearance, was thought by many, and I believe by all 
 who saw it, not to be more than a week old. The 
 paper on which it was written had a very old appear- 
 ance; and there were some old figures on the back 
 of it which made the freshness of the writing on the 
 face of it much more striking than I suppose it other- 
 wise might have been. The reader's curiosity is no 
 doubt excited to know what connection this assign- 
 ment had with the land in question. The story is 
 this: Dixon sold and deeded the land to Thomas; 
 Thomas sold it to Anderson ; but before he gave a 
 deed, Anderson sold it to Miller, and took Miller's 
 note for the purchase money. When this note 
 became due, Anderson sued Miller on it, and Miller 
 procured an injunction from the Court of Chancery to 
 stay the collection of the money until he should get a 
 deed for the land. Gen. Adams was employed as an 
 attorney by Anderson in this chancery suit, and at 
 the October term, 1827, the injunction was dissolved, 
 and a judgment given in favor of Anderson against 
 Miller; and it was provided that Thomas was to 
 
170 The Writings of 
 
 execute a deed for the land in favor of Miller and 
 deliver it to Gen. Adams, to be held up by him till 
 Miller paid the judgment, and then to deliver it to him. 
 Miller left the county without paying the judgment. 
 Anderson moved to Fulton county, where he has 
 since died. When the widow came to Springfield last 
 May or June, as before mentioned, and found the 
 land deeded to Gen. Adams by Miller, she was natur- 
 ally led to inquire why the money due upon the 
 judgment had not been sent to them, inasmuch as he, 
 Gen. Adams, had no authority to deliver Thomas's 
 deed to Miller until the money was paid. Then it 
 was the General told her, or perhaps her son, who 
 came with her, that Anderson, in his lifetime, had 
 assigned the judgment to him, Gen. Adams. I am now 
 told that the General is exhibiting an assignment of 
 the same judgment bearing date "1828" and in 
 other respects differing from the one described ; and 
 that he is asserting that no such assignment as the 
 one copied by me ever existed ; or if there did, it was 
 forged between Talbott and the lawyers, and slipped 
 into his papers for the purpose of injuring him. 
 Now, I can only say that I know precisely such a 
 one did exist, and that Ben. Talbott, Wm. Butler, C. 
 R. Matheny, John T. Stuart, Judge Logan, Robert 
 Irwin, P. C. Canedy and S. M. Tinsley, all saw and 
 examined it, and that at least one half of them will 
 swear that IT WAS IN GENERAL ADAMS'S 
 HANDWRITING ! ! And further, I know that 
 Talbott will swear that he got it out of the General's 
 possession, and returned it into his possession again. 
 The assignment which the General is now exhibiting 
 
Abraham Lincoln 171 
 
 purports to have been by Anderson in writing. The 
 one I copied was signed with a cross. 
 
 I am told that Gen. Neale says that he will swear 
 that he heard Gen. Adams tell young Anderson that 
 the assignment made by his father was signed with a 
 cross. 
 
 The above are facts, as stated. I leave them 
 without comment. I have given the names of 
 persons who have knowledge of these facts, in order 
 that any one who chooses may call on them and 
 ascertain how far they will corroborate my state- 
 ments. I have only made these statements because 
 I am known by many to be one of the individuals 
 against whom the charge of forging the assignment 
 and slipping it into the General's papers has been 
 made, and because our silence might be construed 
 into a confession of its truth. I shall not subscribe 
 my name ; but I hereby authorize the editor of the 
 Journal to give it up to any one that may call for it. ' ' 1 
 
 Messrs. Lincoln and Talbott in Reply to Gen. Adams. 
 
 "Sangamon Journal," Springfield, III., Oct. 28, 1837. 
 
 In the Republican of this morning a publication of 
 Gen. Adams's appears, in which my name is used 
 quite unreservedly. For this I thank the General. 
 I thank him because it gives me an opportunity, 
 without appearing obtrusive, of explaining a part of 
 a former publication of mine, which appears to me 
 to have been misunderstood by many. 
 
 In the former publication alluded to, I stated, in 
 
 1 It was subsequently acknowledged that Lincoln was the author of 
 this ** hand-bill." 
 
172 The Writings of 
 
 substance, that Mr. Talbott got a deed from a son of 
 Gen. Adams's for the purpose of correcting a mis- 
 take that had occurred on the record of the said deed 
 in the recorder's office ; that he corrected the record, 
 and brought the deed and handed it to me, and that 
 on opening the deed, another paper, being the as- 
 signment of a judgment, fell out of it. This state- 
 ment Gen. Adams and the editor of the Republican 
 have seized upon as a most palpable evidence of 
 fabrication and falsehood. They set themselves 
 gravely about proving that the assignment could not 
 have been in the deed when Talbott got it from 
 young Adams, as he, Talbott, would have seen it 
 when he opened the deed to correct the record. 
 Now, the truth is, Talbott did see the assignment 
 when he opened the deed, or at least he told me he 
 did on the same day ; and I only omitted to say so, 
 in my former publication, because it was a matter 
 of such palpable and necessary inference. I had 
 stated that Talbott had corrected the record by the 
 deed; and of course he must have opened it; and, 
 just as the General and his friends argue, must have 
 seen the assignment. I omitted to state the fact of 
 Talbott 's seeing the assignment, because its existence 
 was so necessarily connected with other facts which 
 I did state, that I thought the greatest dunce could 
 not but understand it. Did I say Talbott had not 
 seen it? Did I say anything that was inconsistent 
 with his having seen it before ? Most certainly I did 
 neither; and if I did not, what becomes of the argu- 
 ment ? These logical gentlemen cannot sustain their 
 argument only by assuming that I did say negatively 
 
Abraham Lincoln 173 
 
 everything that I did not say affirmatively ; and upon 
 the same assumption, we may expect to find the 
 General, if a little harder pressed for argument, 
 saying that I said Talbott came to our office with his 
 head downward, not that I actually said so, but 
 because I omitted to say he came feet downward. 
 
 In his publication to-day, the General produces 
 the affidavit of Reuben Radford, in which it is said 
 that Talbott told Radford that he did not find the 
 assignment in the deed, in the recording of which the 
 error was committed, but that he found it wrapped 
 in another paper in the recorder's office, upon which 
 statement the Genl. comments as follows, to wit: 
 "If it be true as stated by Talbott to Radford, that 
 he found the assignment wrapped up in another 
 paper at his office, that contradicts the statement of 
 Lincoln that it fell out of the deed." 
 
 Is common sense to be abused with such sophistry ? 
 Did I say what Talbott found it in? If Talbott did 
 find it in another paper at his office, is that any 
 reason why he could not have folded it in a deed and 
 brought it to my office ? Can any one be so far duped 
 as to be made believe that what may have happened 
 at Talbott' s office at one time is inconsistent with 
 what happened at my office at another time ? 
 
 Now Talbott' s statement of the case as he makes 
 it to me is this, that he got a bunch of deeds from 
 young Adams, and that he knows he found the 
 assignment in the bunch, but he is not certain which 
 particular deed it was in, nor is he certain whether it 
 was folded in the same deed out of which it was 
 taken, or another one, when it was brought to my 
 
174 The Writings of 
 
 office. Is this a mysterious story ? Is there anything 
 suspicious about it? 
 
 "But it is useless to dwell longer on this point. 
 Any man who is not wilfully blind can see at a flash, 
 that there is no discrepancy, and Lincoln has shown 
 that they are not only inconsistent with truth, but 
 each other" — I can only say, that I have shown that 
 he has done no such thing; and if the reader is 
 disposed to require any other evidence than the 
 General's assertion, he will be of my opinion. 
 
 Excepting the General's most flimsy attempt at 
 mystification, in regard to a discrepance between 
 Talbott and myself, he has not denied a single state- 
 ment that I made in my hand-bill. Every material 
 statement that I made has been sworn to by men 
 who, in former times, were thought as respectable as 
 General Adams. I stated that an assignment of a 
 judgment, a copy of which I gave, had existed — 
 Benj. Talbott, C. R. Matheny, Wm. Butler, and 
 Judge Logan swore to its existence. I stated that it 
 was said to be in Gen. Adams's handwriting — the 
 same men swore it was in his handwriting. I stated 
 that Talbott would swear that he got it out of Gen. 
 Adams's possession — Talbott came forward and did 
 swear it. 
 
 Bidding adieu to the former publication, I now 
 propose to examine the General's last gigantic pro- 
 duction. I now propose to point out some discrep- 
 ancies in the General's address ; and such, too, as he 
 shall not be able to escape from. Speaking of the 
 famous assignment, the General says: "This last 
 charge, which was their last resort, their dying effort 
 
Abraham Lincoln 175 
 
 to render my character infamous among my fellow- 
 citizens, was manufactured at a certain lawyer's 
 office in the town, printed at the office of the Sanga- 
 mon Journal, and found its way into the world some 
 time between two days just before the last election. 1 y 
 Now turn to Mr. Keys' s affidavit, in which you will 
 find the following, viz. : "I certify that some time 
 in May or the early part of June, 1837, I saw at 
 Williams's corner a paper purporting to be an as- 
 signment from Joseph Anderson to James Adams, 
 which assignment was signed by a mark to Ander- 
 son's name," etc. Now mark, if Keys saw the 
 assignment on the last of May or first of June, Gen. 
 Adams tells a falsehood when he says it was manu- 
 factured just before the election, which was on the 
 7th of August; and if it was manufactured just 
 before the election, Keys tells a falsehood when he 
 says he saw it on the last of May or first of June. 
 Either Keys or the General is irretrievably in for it ; 
 and in the General's very condescending language, I 
 say "let them settle it between them." 
 
 Now again, let the reader, bearing in mind that 
 General Adams has unequivocally said, in one part 
 of his address, that the charge in relation to the 
 assignment was manufactured just before the election, 
 turn to the affidavit of Peter S. Weber, where the fol- 
 lowing will be found viz.: "I, Peter S. Weber, do 
 certify that from the best of my recollection, on the 
 day or day after Gen. Adams started for the Illinois 
 Rapids, in May last, that I was at the house of Gen. 
 Adams, sitting in the kitchen, situated on the back 
 part of the house, it being in the afternoon, and that 
 
176 The Writings of 
 
 Benjamin Talbott came around the house, back into 
 the kitchen, and appeared wild and confused, and 
 that he laid a package of papers on the kitchen table 
 and requested that they should be handed to Lucian. 
 He made no apology for coming to the kitchen, nor 
 for not handing them to Lucian himself, but showed 
 the token of being frightened and confused both in 
 demeanor and speech and for what cause I could not 
 apprehend." 
 
 Commenting on Weber's affidavit, Gen. Adams 
 asks, "Why this fright and confusion?" I reply 
 that this is a question for the General himself. 
 Weber says that it was in May, and if so, it is most 
 clear that Talbott was not frightened on account of 
 the assignment, unless the General lies when he says 
 the assignment charge was manufactured just before 
 the election. Is it not a strong evidence, that the 
 General is not travelling with the pole-star of truth 
 in his front, to see him in one part of his address 
 roundly asserting that the assignment was manu- 
 factured just before the election , and then, forgetting 
 that position, procuring Weber's most foolish affi- 
 davit, to prove that Talbott had been engaged in 
 manufacturing it two months before f 
 
 In another part of his address, Gen. Adams says: 
 "That I hold an assignment of said judgment, dated 
 the 20th of May, 1828, and signed by said Anderson, 
 I have never pretended to deny or conceal, but 
 stated that fact in one of my circulars previous to 
 the election, and also in answer to a bill in chancery." 
 Now I pronounce this statement unqualifiedly false, 
 and shall not rely on the word or oath of any man 
 
Abraham Lintoln 177 
 
 to sustain me in what I say; but will let the whole 
 be decided by reference to the circular and answer 
 in chancery of which the General speaks. In his 
 circular he did speak of an assignment; but he did 
 not say it bore date 20th of May, 1828; nor did he 
 say it bore any date. In his answer in chancery, 
 he did say that he had an assignment ; but he did not 
 say that it bore date the 20th May, 1828; but so far 
 from it, he said on oath (for he swore to the answer) 
 that as well as recollected, he obtained it in 1827. 
 If any one doubts, let him examine the circular and 
 answer for himself. They are both accessible. 
 
 It will readily be observed that the principal part 
 of Adams's defence rests upon the argument that 
 if he had been base enough to forge an assignment 
 he would not have been fool enough to forge one that 
 would not cover the case. This argument he used 
 in his circular before the election. The Republican 
 has used it at least once, since then; and Adams 
 uses it again in his publication of to-day. Now I 
 pledge myself to show that he is just such a fool 
 that he and his friends have contended it was im- 
 possible for him to be. Recollect — he says he has a 
 genuine assignment; and that he got Joseph Klein's 
 affidavit, stating that he had seen it, and that he 
 believed the signature to have been executed by the 
 same hand that signed Anderson's name to the 
 answer in chancery. Luckily Klein took a copy of 
 this genuine assignment, which I have been permitted 
 to see; and hence I know it does not cover the case. 
 In the first place it is headed " Joseph Anderson 
 vs. Joseph Miller," and heads off "Judgment in 
 
178 The Writings of 
 
 Sangamon Circuit Court." Now, mark, there never 
 was a case in Sangamon Circuit Court entitled Joseph 
 Anderson vs. Joseph Miller. The case mentioned in 
 my former publication, and the only one between 
 these parties that ever existed in the Circuit Court, 
 was entitled Joseph Miller vs. Joseph Anderson, 
 Miller being the plaintiff. What then becomes of all 
 their sophistry about Adams not being fool enough to 
 forge an assignment that would not cover the case? 
 It is certain that the present one does not cover the 
 case; and if he got it honestly, it is still clear that 
 he was fool enough to pay for an assignment that 
 does not cover the case. 
 
 The General asks for the proof of disinterested 
 witnesses. Whom does he consider disinterested? 
 None can be more so than those who have already 
 testified against him. No one of them had the least 
 interest on earth, so far as I can learn, to injure him. 
 True, he says they had conspired against him; but 
 if the testimony of an angel from Heaven were in- 
 troduced against him, he would make the same 
 charge of conspiracy. And now I put the question to 
 every reflecting man, Do you believe that Benjamin 
 Talbott, Chas. R. Matheny, William Butler and 
 Stephen T. Logan, all sustaining high and spotless 
 characters, and justly proud of them, would deliber- 
 ately perjure themselves, without any motive what- 
 ever, except to injure a man's election; and that, 
 too, a man who had been a candidate, time out of 
 mind, and yet who had never been elected to any 
 office? 
 
 Adams's assurance, in demanding disinterested 
 
Abraham Lincoln 179 
 
 testimony, is surpassing. He brings in the affidavit 
 of his own son, and even of Peter S. Weber, with 
 whom I am not acquainted, but who, I suppose, is 
 some black or mulatto boy, from his being kept in the 
 kitchen, to prove his points ; but when such a man as 
 Talbott, a man who, but two years ago, ran against 
 Gen. Adams for the office of Recorder and beat him 
 more than four votes to one, is introduced against 
 him, he asks the community, with all the consequence 
 of a lord, to reject his testimony. 
 
 I might easily write a volume, pointing out incon- 
 sistencies between the statements in Adams's last 
 address with one another, and with other known 
 facts; but I am aware the reader must already be 
 tired with the length of this article. His opening 
 statements, that he was first accused of being a tory, 
 and that he refuted that; that then the Sampson's 
 ghost story was got up, and he refuted that ; that as 
 a last resort, a dying effort, the assignment charge 
 was got up — is all as false as hell, as all this commun- 
 ity must know. Sampson's ghost first made its ap- 
 pearance in print, and that, too, after Keys swears 
 he saw the assignment, as any one may see by 
 reference to the files of papers; and Gen. Adams 
 himself, in reply to the Sampson's ghost story, was 
 the first man that raised the cry of toryism, and it was 
 only by way of set-off, and never in seriousness, that 
 it was bandied back at him. His effort is to make 
 the impression that his enemies first made the charge 
 of toryism and he drove them from that, then 
 Sampson's ghost, he drove them from that, then 
 finally the assignment charge was manufactured 
 
180 The Writings of 
 
 just before election. Now, the only general reply he 
 ever made to the Sampson's ghost and tory charges 
 he made at one and the same time, and not in succes- 
 sion as he states; and the date of that reply will 
 show, that it was made at least a month after the 
 date on which Keys swears he saw the Anderson 
 assignment. But enough. In conclusion I will only 
 say that I have a character to defend as well as Gen. 
 Adams, but I disdain to whine about it as he does. 
 It is true I have no children nor kitchen boys; and 
 if I had, I should scorn to lug them in to make 
 affidavits for me. 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 September 6, 1837. 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 "Sangamon Journal," Springfield, 111., Oct. 28, 1837. 
 
 Such is the turn which things have taken lately, 
 that when Gen. Adams writes a book, I am expected 
 to write a commentary on it. In the Republican of 
 this morning he has presented the world with a new 
 work of six columns in length; in consequence of 
 which I must beg the room of one column in the 
 Journal. It is obvious that a minute reply cannot 
 be made in one column to everything that can be 
 said in six; and, consequently, I hope that ex- 
 pectation will be answered if I reply to such parts of 
 the General's publication as are worth replying to. 
 
 It may not be improper to remind the reader that 
 in his publication of Sept. 6th General Adams said 
 that the assignment charge was manufactured just 
 before the election; and that in reply I proved that 
 
Abraham Lincoln 181 
 
 statement to be false by Keys, his own witness. 
 Now, without attempting to explain, he furnishes me 
 with another witness (Tinsley) by which the same 
 thing is proved, to wit, that the assignment was not 
 manufactured just before the election; but that it was 
 some weeks before. Let it be borne in mind that 
 Adams made this statement — has himself furnished 
 two witnesses to prove its falsehood, and does not 
 attempt to deny or explain it. Before going farther, 
 let a pin be stuck here, labelled "One lie proved and 
 confessed. ' ' On the 6th of September he said he had 
 before stated in the hand-bill that he held an assign- 
 ment dated May 20th, 1828, which in reply I pro- 
 nounced to be false, and referred to the hand-bill for 
 the truth of what I said. This week he forgets to 
 make any explanation of this. Let another pin be 
 stuck here, labelled as before. I mention these things 
 because, if, when I convict him in one falsehood, he is 
 permitted to shift his ground and pass it by in silence, 
 there can be no end to this controversy. 
 
 The first thing that attracts my attention in the 
 General's present production is the information he 
 is pleased to give to "those who are made to suffer 
 at his (my) hands." 
 
 Under present circumstances, this cannot apply to 
 me, for I am not a widow nor an orphan: nor have I a 
 wife or children who might by possibility become 
 such. Such, however, I have no doubt, have been, 
 and will again be made to suffer at his hands I 
 Hands! Yes, they are the mischievous agents. 
 The next thing I shall notice is his favorite expres- 
 sion, "not of lawyers, doctors and others," which he 
 
1 82 The Writings of 
 
 is so fond of applying to all who dare expose his 
 rascality. Now, let it be remembered that when he 
 first came to this country he attempted to impose 
 himself upon the community as a lawyer, and actually 
 carried the attempt so far as to induce a man who 
 was under a charge of murder to entrust the defence 
 of his life in his hands, and finally took his money 
 and got him hanged. Is this the man that is to 
 raise a breeze in his favor by abusing lawyers? If 
 he is not himself a lawyer, it is for the lack of sense, 
 and not of inclination. If he is not a lawyer, he is 
 a liar, for he proclaimed himself a lawyer, and got a 
 man hanged by depending on him. 
 
 Passing over such parts of the article as have 
 neither fact nor argument in them, I come to the 
 question asked by Adams whether any person ever 
 saw the assignment in his possession. This is an 
 insult to common sense. Talbott has sworn once and 
 repeated time and again, that he got it out of Adams's 
 possession and returned it into the same posses- 
 sion. Still, as though he was addressing fools, he 
 has assurance to ask if any person ever saw it in his 
 possession. 
 
 Next I quote a sentence, "Now my son Lucian 
 swears that when Talbott called for the deed, that he, 
 Talbott, opened it and pointed out the error." True. 
 His son Lucian did swear as he says ; and in doing so, 
 he swore what I will prove by his own affidavit to be 
 a falsehood. Turn to Lucian's affidavit, and you 
 will there see that Talbott called for the deed by 
 which to correct an error on the record. Thus it ap- 
 pears that the error in question was on the record, 
 
Abraham Lincoln 183 
 
 and not in the deed. How then could Talbott open 
 the deed and point out the error? Where a thing is 
 not, it cannot be pointed out. The error was not in 
 the deed, and of course could not be pointed out there. 
 This does not merely prove that the error could not 
 be pointed out, as Lucian swore it was ; but it proves, 
 too, that the deed was not opened in his presence 
 with a speical view to the error, for if it had been, he 
 could not have failed to see that there was no error 
 in it. It is easy enough to see why Lucian swore this. 
 His object was to prove that the assignment was not 
 in the deed when Talbott got it: but it was dis- 
 covered he could not swear this safely, without first 
 swearing the deed was opened — and if he swore it was 
 opened, he must show a motive for opening it, and 
 the conclusion with him and his father was that 
 the pointing out the error would appear the most 
 plausible. 
 
 For the purpose of showing that the assignment 
 was not in the bundle when Talbott got it, is the story 
 introduced into Lucian 's affidavit that the deeds 
 were counted. It is a remarkable fact, and one that 
 should stand as a warning to all liars and fabricat- 
 ors, that in this short affidavit of Lucian 's he only 
 attempted to depart from the truth, so far as I have 
 the means of knowing, in two points, to wit, in the 
 opening the deed and pointing out the error and the 
 counting of the deeds, — and in both of these he caught 
 himself. About the counting, he caught himself 
 thus — after saying the bundle contained five deeds 
 and a lease, he proceeds, "and I saw no other papers 
 than the said deed and lease." First he has six 
 
1 84 The Writings of 
 
 papers, and then he saw none but two; for "my son 
 Lucian's" benefit, let a pin be stuck here. 
 
 Adams again adduces the argument, that he could 
 not have forged the assignment, for the reason that 
 he could have had no motive for it. With those that 
 know the facts there is no absence of motive. Ad- 
 mitting the paper which he has filed in the suit to be 
 genuine, it is clear that it cannot answer the pur- 
 pose for which he designs it. Hence his motive 
 for making one that he supposed would answer is 
 obvious. His making the date too old is also easily 
 enough accounted for. The records were not in his 
 hands, and then, there being some considerable talk 
 upon this particular subject, he knew he could not 
 examine the records to ascertain the precise dates 
 without subjecting himself to suspicion; and hence 
 he concluded to try it by guess, and, as it turned out, 
 missed it a little. About Miller's deposition I have 
 a word to say. In the first place, Miller's answer to 
 the first question shows upon its face that he had 
 been tampered with, and the answer dictated to him. 
 He was asked if he knew Joel Wright and James 
 Adams; and above three fourths of his answer con- 
 sists of what he knew about Joseph Anderson, a man 
 about whom nothing had been asked, nor a word 
 said in the question — a fact that can only be ac- 
 counted for upon the supposition that Adams had 
 secretly told him what he wished him to swear to. 
 
 Another of Miller's answers I will prove both by 
 common sense and the Court of Record is untrue. 
 To one question he answers, "Anderson brought a 
 suit against me before James Adams, then an acting 
 
Abraham Lincoln 185 
 
 justice of the peace in Sangamon County, before 
 whom he obtained a judgment. 
 
 1 ' Q. — Did you remove the same by injunction to the 
 Sangamon Circuit Court? Ans. — I did remove it." 
 
 Now mark — it is said he removed it by injunction. 
 The word "injunction" in common language im- 
 ports a command that some person or thing shall not 
 move or be removed; in law it has the same meaning. 
 An injunction issuing out of chancery to a justice of 
 the peace is a command to him to stop all proceed- 
 ings in a named case until further orders. It is not 
 an order to remove but to stop or stay something that 
 is already moving. Besides this, the records of the 
 Sangamon Circuit Court show that the judgment of 
 which Miller swore was never removed into said 
 Court by injunction or otherwise. 
 
 I have now to take notice of a part of Adams's 
 address which in the order of time should have been 
 noticed before. It is in these words: "I have now 
 shown, in the opinion of two competent judges, that 
 the handwriting of the forged assignment differed 
 from mine, and by one of them that it could not be 
 mistaken for mine." That is false. Tinsley no 
 doubt is the judge referred to; and by reference to 
 his certificate it will be seen that he did not say 
 the handwriting of the assignment could not be 
 mistaken for Adams's — nor did he use any other ex- 
 pression substantially, or anything near substantially, 
 the same. But if Tinsley had said the handwriting 
 could not be mistaken for Adams's, it would have 
 been equally unfortunate for Adams: for it then 
 would have contradicted Keys, who says, "I looked 
 
1 86 The Writings of 
 
 at the writing and judged it the said Adams's or a 
 good imitation." 
 
 Adams speaks with much apparent confidence of 
 his success on attending lawsuits, and the ultimate 
 maintenance of his title to the land in question. With- 
 out wishing to disturb the pleasure of his dream, I 
 would say to him that it is not impossible that he 
 may yet be taught to sing a different song in relation 
 to the matter. 
 
 At the end of Miller's deposition, Adams asks, 
 "Will Mr. Lincoln now say that he is almost con- 
 vinced my title to this ten acre tract of land is 
 founded in fraud?" I answer, I will not. I will 
 now change the phraseology so as to make it run 
 — I am quite convinced, &c. I cannot pass in silence 
 Adams's assertion that he has proved that the forged 
 assignment was not in the deed when it came from 
 his house by Talbott, the recorder. In this, al- 
 though Talbott has sworn that the assignment was 
 in the bundle of deeds when it came from his house, 
 Adams has the unaccountable assurance to say that 
 he has proved the contrary by Talbott. Let him 
 or his friends attempt to show wherein he proved 
 any such thing by Talbott. 
 
 In his publication of the 6th of September he 
 hinted to Talbott, that he might be mistaken. In his 
 present, speaking of Talbott and me he says "They 
 may have been imposed upon." Can any man of the 
 least penetration fail to see the object of this ? After 
 he has stormed and raged till he hopes and imagines 
 he has got us a little scared he wishes to softly 
 whisper in our ears, "If you'll quit I will." If he 
 
Abraham Lincoln 187 
 
 could get us to say that some unknown, undefined 
 being had slipped the assignment into our hands 
 without our knowledge, not a doubt remains but that 
 he would immediately discover that we were the 
 purest men on earth. This is the ground he evidently 
 wishes us to understand he is willing to compromise 
 upon. But we ask no such charity at his hands. 
 We are neither mistaken nor imposed upon. We have 
 made the statements we have because we know them 
 to be true and we choose to live or die by them. 
 
 Esq. Carter, who is Adams's friend, personal and 
 political, will recollect, that, on the 5th of this month, 
 he (Adams), with a great affectation of modesty, 
 declared that he would never introduce his own 
 child as a witness. Notwithstanding this affectation 
 of modesty, he has in his present publication intro- 
 duced his child as witness; and as if to show with 
 how much contempt he could treat his own declara- 
 tion, he has had this same Esq. Carter to administer 
 the oath to him. And so important a witness does 
 he consider him, and so entirely does the whole of 
 his entire present production depend upon the testi- 
 mony of his child, that in it he has mentioned "my 
 son," "my son Lucian," "Lucian, my son," and the 
 like expressions no less than fifteen different times. 
 Let it be remembered here, that I have shown the 
 affidavit of "my darling son Lucian" to be false by 
 the evidence apparent on its own face; and I now 
 ask, if that affidavit be taken away what foundation 
 will the fabric have left to stand upon ? 
 
 General Adams's publications and out-door ma- 
 noeuvring, taken in connection with the editorial 
 
1 88 The Writings of 
 
 articles of the Republican, are not more foolish and 
 contradictory than they are ludicrous and amusing. 
 One week the Republican notifies the public that 
 Gen. Adams is preparing an instrument that will 
 tear, rend, split, rive, blow up, confound, overwhelm, 
 annihilate, extinguish, exterminate, burst asunder, 
 and grind to powder all its slanderers, and particu- 
 larly Talbott and Lincoln — all of which is to be done 
 in due time. 
 
 Then for two or three weeks all is calm — not a 
 word said. Again the Republican comes forth with 
 a mere passing remark that " public" opinion has 
 decided in favor of Gen. Adams, and intimates that 
 he will give himself no more trouble about the matter. 
 In the meantime Adams himself is prowling about 
 and, as Burns says of the devil, "For prey, and holes 
 and corners tryin'," and in one instance goes so 
 far as to take an old acquaintance of mine several 
 steps from a crowd and, apparently weighed down 
 with the importance of his business, gravely and 
 solemnly asks him if "he ever heard Lincoln say he 
 was a deist." 
 
 Anon the Republican comes again : " We invite the 
 attention of the public to General Adams's com- 
 munication,' ' &c. ' ' The victory is a great one, the tri- 
 umph is overwhelming. ' ' I really believe the editor 
 of the Illinois Republican is fool enough to think 
 General Adams leads off — "Authors most egregiously 
 mistaken, &c. Most wofully shall their presumption 
 be punished" &c. (Lord have mercy on us.) " The 
 hour is yet to come, yea, nigh at hand — (how long 
 first do you reckon ?) — when the Journal and its junto 
 
Abraham Lincoln 189 
 
 shall say, I have appeared too early." " Their infamy 
 shall be laid bare to the public gaze." Suddenly the 
 General appears to relent at the severity with which 
 he is treating us and he exclaims: "The condem- 
 nation of my enemies is the inevitable result of my own 
 defense" For your health's sake, dear Gen., do not 
 permit your tenderness of heart to afflict you so 
 much on our account. For some reason (perhaps 
 because we are killed so quickly) we shall never be 
 sensible of our suffering. 
 
 Farewell, General. I will see you again at court if 
 not before — when and where we will settle the ques- 
 tion whether you or the widow shall have the land. 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 October 18, 1837. 
 
 TO MRS. O. H. BROWNING. 
 
 Springfield, April 1, 1838. 
 
 Dear Madam: — Without apologizing for being 
 egotistical, I shall make the history of so much of my 
 life as has elapsed since I saw you the subject of this 
 letter. And, by the way, I now discover that, in 
 order to give a full and intelligible account of the 
 things I have done and suffered since I saw you, I 
 shall necessarily have to relate some that happened 
 before. 
 
 It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 that a married 
 lady of my acquaintance, and who was a great friend 
 of mine, being about to pay a visit to her father and 
 other relatives residing in Kentucky, proposed to me 
 
190 The Writings of 
 
 that on her return she would bring a sister of hers 
 with her on condition that I would engage to become 
 her brother-in-law with all convenient despatch. 
 I, of course, accepted the proposal, for you know I 
 could not have done otherwise had I really been 
 averse to it; but privately, between you and me, I 
 was most confoundedly well pleased with the pro- 
 ject. I had seen the said sister some three years 
 before, thought her intelligent and agreeable, and 
 saw no good objection to plodding life through hand 
 in hand with her. Time passed on ; the lady took 
 her journey and in due time returned, sister in com- 
 pany, sure enough. This astonished me a little, for 
 it appeared to me that her coming so readily showed 
 that she was a trifle too willing, but on reflection it 
 occurred to me that she might have been prevailed 
 on by her married sister to come without anything 
 concerning me ever having been mentioned to her, 
 and so I concluded that if no other objection pre- 
 sented itself, I would consent to waive this. All 
 this occurred to me on hearing of her arrival in 
 the neighborhood — for, be it remembered, I had not 
 yet seen her, except about three years previous, as 
 above mentioned. In a few days we had an inter- 
 view, and, although I had seen her before, she did 
 not look as my imagination had pictured her. I 
 knew she was over-size, but she now appeared a fair 
 match for Falstaff. I knew she was called an "old 
 maid," and I felt no doubt of the truth of at least 
 half of the appellation, but now, when I beheld her, 
 I could not for my life avoid thinking of my mother; 
 and this, not from withered features, — for her skin 
 
Abraham Lincoln 191 
 
 was too full of fat to permit of its contracting into 
 wrinkles, — but from her want of teeth, weather- 
 beaten appearance in general, and from a kind of 
 notion that ran in my head that nothing could have 
 commenced at the size of infancy and reached her 
 present bulk in less than thirty-five or forty years; 
 and, in short, I was not at all pleased with her. But 
 what could I do ? I had told her sister that I would 
 take her for better or for worse, and I made a point 
 of honor and conscience in all things to stick to my 
 word, especially if others had been induced to act 
 on it, which in this case I had no doubt they had, for 
 I was now fairly convinced that no other man 
 on earth would have her, and hence the conclusion 
 that they were bent on holding me to my bargain. 
 "Well," thought I, "I have said it, and, be the con- 
 sequences what they may, it shall not be my fault if I 
 fail to do it." At once I determined to consider her 
 my wife ; and, this done, all my powers of discovery 
 were put to work in search of perfections in her which 
 might be fairly set off against her defects. I tried to 
 imagine her handsome, which, but for her unfortu- 
 nate corpulency, was actually true. Exclusive of 
 this, no woman that I have ever seen has a finer face. 
 I also tried to convince myself that the mind was 
 much more to be valued than the person; and in this 
 she was not inferior, as I could discover, to any with 
 whom I had been acquainted. 
 
 Shortly after this, without coming to any posi- 
 tive understanding with her, I set out for Vandalia, 
 when and where you first saw me. During my stay 
 there I had letters from her which did not change 
 
192 The Writings of 
 
 my opinion of either her intellect or intention, but 
 on the contrary confirmed it in both. 
 
 All this while, although I was fixed, "firm as 
 the surge-repelling rock," in my resolution, I found 
 I was continually repenting the rashness which had 
 led me to make it. Through life, I have been in 
 no bondage, either real or imaginary, from the thral- 
 dom of which I so much desired to be free. After 
 my return home, I saw nothing to change my opin- 
 ions of her in any particular. She was the same, 
 and so was I. I now spent my time in planning how 
 I might get along through life after my contem- 
 plated change of circumstances should have taken 
 place, and how I might procrastinate the evil day 
 for a time, which I really dreaded as much, perhaps 
 more, than an Irishman does the halter. 
 
 After all my suffering upon this deeply interest- 
 ing subject, here I am, wholly, unexpectedly, com- 
 pletely, out of the "scrape"; and now I want to 
 know if you can guess how I got out of it — out, 
 clear, in every sense of the term; no violation of 
 word, honor, or conscience. I don't believe you can 
 guess, and so I might as well tell you at once. As 
 the lawyer says, it was done in the manner follow- 
 ing, to wit: After I had delayed the matter as long 
 as I thought I could in honor do (which, by the 
 way, had brought me round into the last fall), I 
 concluded I might as well bring it to a consumma- 
 tion without further delay; and so I mustered my 
 resolution, and made the proposal to her direct; 
 but, shocking to relate, she answered, No. At first 
 I supposed she did it through an affectation of 
 
Abraham Lincoln 193 
 
 modesty, which I thought but ill became her under 
 the peculiar circumstances of her case; but on my 
 renewal of the charge, I found she repelled it with 
 greater firmness than before. I tried it again and 
 again, but with the same success, or rather with the 
 same want of success. 
 
 I finally was forced to give it up; at which I 
 very unexpectedly found myself mortified almost 
 beyond endurance. I was mortified, it seemed to 
 me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was 
 deeply wounded by the reflection that I had been too 
 stupid to discover her intentions, and at the same 
 time never doubting that I understood them perfect- 
 ly, and also that she, whom I had taught myself 
 to believe nobody else would have, had actually 
 rejected me with all my fancied greatness. And, to 
 cap the whole, I then for the first time began to 
 suspect that I was really a little in love with her. 
 But let it all go. I '11 try and outlive it. Others 
 have been made fools of by the girls, but this can 
 never with truth be said of me. I most emphati- 
 cally, in this instance, made a fool of myself. I have 
 now come to the conclusion never again to think of 
 marrying, and for this reason : I can never be satisfied 
 with any one who would be blockhead enough to 
 have me. 
 
 When you receive this, write me a long yarn 
 about something to amuse me. Give my respects to 
 Mr. Browning. 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 Vok. r. — 13. 
 
194 The Writings of 
 
 REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 In the House of Representatives, January 17, 1839. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, from Committee on Finance, to 
 which the subject was referred, made a report on the 
 subject of purchasing of the United States all the 
 unsold lands lying within the limits of the State of 
 Illinois, accompanied by resolutions that this State 
 propose to purchase all unsold lands at twenty-five 
 cents per acre, and pledging the faith of the State to 
 carry the proposal into effect if the government 
 accept the same within two years. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln thought the resolutions ought to be 
 seriously considered. In reply to the gentleman 
 from Adams, he said that it was not to enrich the 
 State. The price of the lands may be raised, it was 
 thought by some; by others, that it would be re- 
 duced. The conclusion in his mind was that the 
 representatives in this Legislature from the country 
 in which the lands lie would be opposed to raising 
 the price, because it would operate against the settle- 
 ment of the lands. He referred to the lands in the 
 military tract. They had fallen into the hands of 
 large speculators in consequence of the low price. 
 He was opposed to a low price of land. He thought 
 it was adverse to the interests of the poor settler, 
 because speculators buy them up. He was opposed 
 to a reduction of the price of public lands. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln referred to some official documents 
 emanating from Indiana, and compared the pro- 
 gressive population of the two States. Illinois had 
 
Abraham Lincoln 195 
 
 gained upon that State under the public land system 
 as it is. His conclusion was that ten years from this 
 time Illinois would have no more public land unsold 
 than Indiana now has. He referred also to Ohio. 
 That State had sold nearly all her public lands. 
 She was but twenty years ahead of us, and as our 
 lands were equally salable — more so, as he main- 
 tained — we should have no more twenty years from 
 now than she has at present. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln referred to the canal lands, and sup- 
 posed that the policy of the State would be different 
 in regard to them, if the representatives from that sec- 
 tion of country could themselves choose the policy; 
 but the representatives from other parts of the State 
 had a veto upon it, and regulated the policy. He 
 thought that if the State had all the lands, the policy 
 of the Legislature would be more liberal to all sections. 
 
 He referred to the policy of the General Govern- 
 ment. He thought that if the national debt had not 
 been paid, the expenses of the government would 
 not have doubled, as they had done since that debt 
 was paid. 
 
 to ROW. 
 
 Springfield, June n, 1839. 
 
 Dear Row: 
 
 Mr. Redman informs me that you wish me to 
 write you the particulars of a conversation between 
 Dr. Felix and myself relative to you. The Dr. 
 overtook me between Rushville and Beardstown. 
 
 He, after learning that I had lived at Springfield, 
 
19 6 The Writings of 
 
 asked if I was acquainted with you. I told him I was. 
 He said you had lately been elected constable in 
 Adams, but that you never would be again. I asked 
 him why. He said the people there had found out 
 that you had been sheriff or deputy sheriff in 
 Sangamon County, and that you came off and left 
 your securities to suffer. He then asked me if I did 
 not know such to be the fact. I told him I did not 
 think you had ever been sheriff or deputy sheriff in 
 Sangamon, but that I thought you had been con- 
 stable. I further told him that if you had left your 
 securities to suffer in that or any other case, I had 
 never heard of it, and that if it had been so, I thought 
 I would have heard of it. 
 
 If the Dr. is telling that I told him anything against 
 you whatever, I authorize you to contradict it flatly. 
 We have no news here. 
 
 Your friend, as ever, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 SPEECH AT A POLITICAL DISCUSSION IN THE HALL OF 
 
 THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AT 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. 
 
 December [20?], 1839. 
 
 (From a pamphlet copy in possession of Hon. T. J. 
 Henderson, Illinois.) 
 
 Fellow-Citizens: — It is peculiarly embarrassing 
 to me to attempt a continuance of the discussion, on 
 this evening, which has been conducted in this hall 
 on several preceding ones. It is so because on each 
 
Abraham Lincoln 197 
 
 of those evenings there was a much fuller attendance 
 than now, without any reason for its being so, except 
 the greater interest the community feel in the 
 speakers who addressed them then than they do in 
 him who is to do so now. I am, indeed, apprehen- 
 sive that the few who have attended have done so 
 more to spare me mortification than in the hope of 
 being interested in anything I may be able to say. 
 This circumstance casts a damp upon my spirits, 
 which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome dur- 
 ing the evening. But enough of preface. 
 
 The subject heretofore and now to be discussed 
 is the subtreasury scheme of the present administra- 
 tion, as a means of collecting, safe-keeping, transfer- 
 ring, and disbursing, the revenues of the nation, as 
 contrasted with a national bank for the same pur- 
 poses. Mr. Douglas has said that we (the Whigs) 
 have not dared to meet them (the Locos) in argument 
 on this question. I protest against this assertion. 
 I assert that we have again and again, during this 
 discussion, urged facts and arguments against the 
 subtreasury which they have neither dared to deny 
 nor attempted to answer. But lest some may be led 
 to believe that we really wish to avoid the question, 
 I now propose, in my humble way, to urge those 
 arguments again; at the same time begging the 
 audience to mark well the positions I shall take and 
 the proof I shall offer to sustain them, and that they 
 will not again permit Mr. Douglas or his friends to 
 escape the force of them by a round and groundless 
 assertion that we ''dare not meet them in argument." 
 
 Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a 
 
i9 8 The Writings of 
 
 national bank for the before-enumerated purposes, 
 I lay down the following propositions, to wit: (i) 
 It will injuriously affect the community by its opera- 
 tion on the circulating medium. (2) It will be a 
 more expensive fiscal agent. (3) It will be a less 
 secure depository of the public money. To show 
 the truth of the first proposition, let us take a short 
 review of our condition under the operation of a 
 national bank. It was the depository of the public 
 revenues. Between the collection of those revenues 
 and the disbursement of them by the government, 
 the bank was permitted to and did actually loan 
 them out to individuals, and hence the large amount 
 of money actually collected for revenue purposes, 
 which by any other plan would have been idle a 
 great portion of the time, was kept almost constantly 
 in circulation. Any person who will reflect that 
 money is only valuable while in circulation will 
 readily perceive that any device which will keep the 
 government revenues in constant circulation, instead 
 of being locked up in idleness, is no inconsiderable 
 advantage. By the subtreasury the revenue is to be 
 collected and kept in iron boxes until the govern- 
 ment wants it for disbursement; thus robbing the 
 people of the use of it, while the government does not 
 itself need it, and while the money is performing no 
 nobler office than that of rusting in iron boxes. 
 The natural effect of this change of policy, every one 
 will see, is to reduce the quantity of money in circu- 
 lation. But, again, by the subtreasury scheme the 
 revenue is to be collected in specie. I anticipate 
 that this will be disputed. I expect to hear it said 
 
Abraham Lincoln 199 
 
 that it is not the policy of the administration to 
 collect the revenue in specie. If it shall, I reply that 
 Mr. Van Buren, in his message recommending the 
 subtreasury, expended nearly a column of that 
 document in an attempt to persuade Congress to 
 provide for the collection of the revenue in specie 
 exclusively; and he concludes with these words: 
 "It may be safely assumed that no motive of con- 
 venience to the citizens requires the reception of 
 bank paper." In addition to this, Mr. Silas Wright, 
 Senator from New York, and the political, personal 
 and confidential friend of Mr. Van Buren, drafted 
 and introduced into the Senate the first subtreasury 
 bill, and that bill provided for ultimately collecting 
 the revenue in specie. It is true, I know, that that 
 clause was stricken from the bill, but it was done by 
 the votes of the Whigs, aided by a portion only of 
 the Van Buren senators. No subtreasury bill has 
 yet become a law, though two or three have been 
 considered by Congress, some with and some without 
 the specie clause; so that I admit there is room for 
 quibbling upon the question of whether the admin- 
 istration favor the exclusive specie doctrine or not; 
 but I take it that the fact that the President at 
 first urged the specie doctrine, and that under his 
 recommendation the first bill introduced embraced it, 
 warrants us in charging it as the policy of the party 
 until their head as publicly recants it as he at first 
 espoused it. I repeat, then, that by the subtreasury 
 the revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark 
 what the effect of this must be. By all estimates 
 ever made there are but between sixty and eighty 
 
200 The Writings of 
 
 millions of specie in the United States. The ex- 
 penditures of the Government for the year 1838 — 
 the last for which we have had the report — were 
 forty millions. Thus it is seen that if the whole 
 revenue be collected in specie, it will take more than 
 half of all the specie in the nation to do it. By this 
 means more than half of all the specie belonging to 
 the fifteen millions of souls who compose the whole 
 population of the country is thrown into the hands 
 of the public office-holders, and other public creditors 
 comprising in number perhaps not more than one 
 quarter of a million, leaving the other fourteen 
 millions and three quarters to get along as they best 
 can, with less than one half of the specie of the 
 country, and whatever rags and shinplasters they 
 may be able to put, and keep, in circulation. By 
 this means, every office-holder and other public 
 creditor may, and most likely will, set up shaver; 
 and a most glorious harvest will the specie-men have 
 of it, — each specie-man, upon a fair division, having 
 to his share the fleecing of about fifty-nine rag-men. 
 In all candor let me ask, was such a system for 
 benefiting the few at the expense of the many ever 
 before devised? And was the sacred name of 
 Democracy ever before made to indorse such an 
 enormity against the rights of the people ? 
 
 I have already said that the subtreasury will 
 reduce the quantity of money in circulation. This 
 position is strengthened by the recollection that the 
 revenue is to be collected in specie, so that the mere 
 amount of revenue is not all that is withdrawn, 
 but the amount of paper circulation that the forty 
 
Abraham Lincoln 201 
 
 millions would serve as a basis to is withdrawn, which 
 would be in a sound state at least one hundred 
 millions. When one hundred millions, or more, of 
 the circulation we now have shall be withdrawn, 
 who can contemplate without terror the distress, 
 ruin, bankruptcy, and beggary that must follow? 
 The man who has purchased any article — say a 
 horse — on credit, at one hundred dollars, when there 
 are two hundred millions circulating in the country, 
 if the quantity be reduced to on^ hundred millions 
 by the arrival of pay-day, will find the horse but 
 sufficient to pay half the debt; and the other half 
 must either be paid out of his other means, and 
 thereby become a clear loss to him, or go unpaid, 
 and thereby become a clear loss to his creditor. 
 What I have here said of a single case of the purchase 
 of a horse will hold good in every case of a debt 
 existing at the time a reduction in the quantity of 
 money occurs, by whomsoever, and for whatsoever, 
 it may have been contracted. It may be said that 
 what the debtor loses the creditor gains by this 
 operation; but on examination this will be found 
 true only to a very limited extent. It is more 
 generally true that all lose by it — the creditor by 
 losing more of his debts than he gains by the in- 
 creased value of those he collects; the debtor by 
 either parting with more of his property to pay his 
 debts than he received in contracting them, or by 
 entirely breaking up his business, and thereby being 
 thrown upon the world in idleness. 
 
 The general distress thus created will, to be sure, 
 be temporary, because, whatever change may occur 
 
202 The Writings of 
 
 in the quantity of money in any community, time 
 will adjust the derangement produced; but while 
 that adjustment is progressing, all suffer more or 
 less, and very many lose everything that renders 
 life desirable. Why, then, shall we suffer a severe 
 difficulty, even though it be but temporary, unless 
 we receive some equivalent for it ? 
 
 What I have been saying as to the effect produced 
 by a reduction of the quantity of money relates to the 
 whole country. I now propose to show that it would 
 produce a peculiar and permanent hardship upon the 
 citizens of those States and Territories in which the 
 public lands lie. The land-offices in those States and 
 Territories, as all know, form the great gulf by which 
 all, or nearly all, the money in them is swallowed up. 
 When the quantity of money shall be reduced, and 
 consequently everything under individual control 
 brought down in proportion, the price of those lands, 
 being fixed by law, will remain as now. Of necessity 
 it will follow that the produce or labor that now 
 raises money sufficient to purchase eighty acres will 
 then raise but sufficient to purchase forty, or perhaps 
 not that much ; and this difficulty and hardship will 
 last as long, in some degree, as any portion of these 
 lands shall remain undisposed of. Knowing, as I 
 well do, the difficulty that poor people now encounter 
 in procuring homes, I hesitate not to say that when 
 the price of the public lands shall be doubled or 
 trebled, or, which is the same thing, produce and 
 labor cut down to one half or one third of their 
 present prices, it will be little less than impossible 
 for them to procure those homes at all. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 203 
 
 In answer to what I have said as to the effect the 
 subtreasury would have upon the currency, it is 
 often urged that the money collected for revenue 
 purposes will not lie idle in the vaults ot the treasury ; 
 and, farther, that a national bank produces greater 
 derangement in the currency, by a system of con- 
 tractions and expansions, than the subtreasury 
 would produce in any way. In reply, I need only 
 show that experience proves the contrary of both 
 these propositions. It is an undisputed fact that the 
 late Bank of the United States paid the government 
 $75,000 annually for the privilege of using the public 
 money between the times of its collection and dis- 
 bursement. Can any man suppose that the bank 
 would have paid this sum annually for twenty years, 
 and then offered to renew its obligations to do so, if 
 in reality there was no time intervening between the 
 collection and disbursement of the revenue, and con- 
 sequently no privilege of using the money extended 
 to it? Again, as to the contractions and expansions 
 of a national bank, I need only point to the period 
 intervening between the time that the late bank got 
 into successful operation and that at which the 
 government commenced war upon it, to show that 
 during that period no such contractions or expan- 
 sions took place. If, before or after that period, 
 derangement occurred in the currency, it proves 
 nothing. The bank could not be expected to regu- 
 late the currency either before it got into successful 
 operation or after it was crippled and thrown into 
 death convulsions, by the removal of the deposits from 
 it, and other hostile measures of the government 
 
204 The Writings of 
 
 against it. We do not pretend that a national bank 
 can establish and maintain a sound and uniform 
 state of currency in the country, in spite of the 
 National Government; but we do say that it has 
 established and maintained such a currency, and can 
 do so again, by the aid of that government; and we 
 further say that no duty is more imperative on that 
 government than the duty it owes the people of 
 furnishing them a sound and uniform currency. 
 
 I now leave the proposition as to the effect of the 
 subtreasury upon the currency of the country, and 
 pass to that relative to the additional expense which 
 must be incurred by it over that incurred by a 
 national bank as a fiscal agent of the government. 
 By the late national bank we had the public revenue 
 received, safely kept, transferred, and disbursed, 
 not only without expense, but we actually received 
 of the bank $75,000 annually for its privileges while 
 rendering us those services. By the subtreasury, 
 according to the estimate of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, who is the warm advocate of the system 
 (and which estimate is the lowest made by any one), 
 the same services are to cost $60,000. Mr. Rives, 
 who, to say the least, is equally talented and honest, 
 estimates that these services, under the subtreasury 
 system, cannot cost less than $600,000. For the sake 
 of liberality, let us suppose that the estimates of the 
 secretary and Mr. Rives are the two extremes, and 
 that their mean is about the true estimate, and we 
 shall then find that when to that sum is added the 
 $75,000 which the bank paid us, the difference 
 between the two systems, in favor of the bank and 
 
Abraham Lincoln 205 
 
 against the subtreasury, is $405,000 a year. This 
 sum, though small when compared to the many 
 millions annually expended by the General Govern- 
 ment, is, when viewed by itself, very large; and 
 much too large, when viewed in any light, to be 
 thrown away once a year for nothing. It is sufficient 
 to pay the pensions of more than four thousand 
 Revolutionary soldiers, or to purchase a forty-acre 
 tract of government land for each one of more than 
 eight thousand poor families. ' . 
 
 To the argument against the subtreasury on the 
 score of additional expense, its friends, so far as I 
 know, attempt no answer. They choose, so far as I 
 can learn, to treat the throwing away of $405,000 
 once a year as a matter entirely too small to merit 
 their Democratic notice. 
 
 I now come to the proposition that it would be less 
 secure than a national bank as a depository of the 
 public money. The experience of the past, I think, 
 proves the truth of this. And here, inasmuch as I 
 rely chiefly upon experience to establish it, let me 
 ask how is it that we know anything — that any 
 event will occur, that any combination of circum- 
 stances will produce a certain result — except by 
 the analogies of past experience? What has once 
 happened will invariably happen again when the 
 same circumstances which combined to produce it 
 shall again combine in the same way. We all feel 
 that we know that a blast of wind would extinguish 
 the flame of the candle that stands by me. How do 
 we know it? We have never seen this flame thus 
 extinguished. We know it because we have seen 
 
206 The Writings of 
 
 through all our lives that a blast of wind extinguishes 
 the flame of a candle whenever it is thrown fully upon 
 it. Again, we all feel to know that we have to die. 
 How? We have never died yet. We know it be- 
 cause we know, or at least think we know, that of all 
 the beings, just like ourselves, who have been coming 
 into the world for six thousand years, not one is now 
 living who was here two hundred years ago. I 
 repeat, then, that we know nothing of what will 
 happen in future, but by the analogy of experience, 
 and that the fair analogy of past experience fully 
 proves that the subtreasury would be a less safe 
 depository of the public money than a national bank. 
 Examine it. By the subtreasury scheme the public 
 money is to be kept, between the times of its collec- 
 tion and disbursement, by treasurers of the mint, 
 custom-house officers, land officers, and some new 
 officers to be appointed in the same way that those 
 first enumerated are. Has a year passed, since the 
 organization of the government, that numerous 
 defalcations have not occurred among this class of 
 officers? Look at Swartwout with his $1,200,000, 
 Price with his $75,000, Harris with his $109,000, 
 Hawkins with his $100,000, Linn with his $55,000, 
 together with some twenty-five hundred lesser lights. 
 Place the public money again in these same hands, 
 and will it not again go the same way? Most as- 
 suredly it will. But turn to the history of the 
 national banks in this country, and we shall there 
 see that those banks performed the fiscal operations 
 of the government through a period of forty years, 
 received, safely kept, transferred, disbursed an 
 
Abraham Lincoln 207 
 
 aggregate of nearly five hundred millions of dollars; 
 and that, in all this time, and with all that money, 
 not one dollar, nor one cent, did the government lose 
 by them. Place the public money again in a similar 
 depository, and will it not again be safe? But, con- 
 clusive as the experience of fifty years is that indi- 
 viduals are unsafe depositories of the public money, 
 and of forty years that national banks are safe de- 
 positories, we are not left to rely solely upon that 
 experience for the truth of those propositions. If 
 experience were silent upon the subject, conclusive 
 reasons could be shown for the truth of them. 
 
 It is often urged that to say the public money will 
 be more secure in a* national bank than in the hands 
 of individuals, as proposed in the subtreasury, is to 
 say that bank directors and bank officers are more 
 honest than sworn officers of the government. Not 
 so. We insist on no such thing. We say that public 
 officers, selected with reference to their capacity and 
 honesty (which, by the way, we deny is the practice 
 in these days), stand an equal chance, precisely, of 
 being capable and honest with bank officers selected 
 by the same rule. We further say that, with how- 
 ever much care selections may be made, there will be 
 some unfaithful and dishonest in both classes. The 
 experience of the whole world, in all bygone times, 
 proves this true. The Saviour of the world chose 
 twelve disciples, and even one of that small number, 
 selected by superhuman wisdom, turned out a traitor 
 and a devil. And it may not be improper here to add 
 that Judas carried the bag — was the subtreasurer of 
 the Saviour and His disciples. We, then, do not say 
 
208 The Writings of 
 
 — nor need we say to maintain our proposition — 
 that bank officers are more honest than government 
 officers selected by the same rule. What we do say 
 is that the interest of the subtreasurer is against his 
 duty, while the interest of the bank is on the side of 
 its duty. Take instances : A subtreasurer has in his 
 hands one hundred thousand dollars of public money ; 
 his duty says, " You ought to pay this money over," 
 but his interest says, " You ought to run away with 
 this sum, and be a nabob the balance of your life." 
 And who that knows anything of human nature 
 doubts that in many instances interest will prevail 
 over duty, and that the subtreasurer will prefer 
 opulent knavery in a foreign land to honest poverty 
 at home? But how different is it with a bank. 
 Besides the government money deposited with it, 
 it is doing business upon a large capital of its own. 
 If it proves faithful to the government, it continues 
 its business; if unfaithful, it forfeits its charter, 
 breaks up its business, and thereby loses more than 
 all it can make by seizing upon the government 
 funds in its possession. Its interest, therefore, is on 
 the side of its duty — is to be faithful to the govern- 
 ment — and consequently even the dishonest amongst 
 its managers have no temptation to be faithless to 
 it. Even if robberies happen in the bank, the losses 
 are borne by the bank, and the government loses 
 nothing. It is for this reason, then, that we say a 
 bank is the more secure. It is because of that 
 admirable feature in the bank system which places 
 the interest and the duty of the depository both on 
 one side; whereas that feature can never enter into 
 
Abraham Lincoln 209 
 
 the subtreasury system. By the latter the interest 
 of the individuals keeping the public money will 
 wage an eternal war with their duty, and in very 
 many instances must be victorious. In answer to 
 the argument drawn from the fact that individual 
 depositories of public money have always proved 
 unsafe, it is urged that, even if we had a national 
 bank, the money has to pass through the same 
 individual hands that it will under the subtreasury. 
 This is only partially true in fact, and wholly fal- 
 lacious in argument. It is only partially true in fact, 
 because by the subtreasury bill four receivers -general 
 are to be appointed by the President and Senate. 
 These are new officers, and consequently it cannot 
 be true that the money, or any portion of it, has 
 heretofore passed through their hands. These four 
 new officers are to be located at New York, Boston, 
 Charleston, and St. Louis, and consequently are to be 
 depositories of all the money collected at or near 
 those points ; so that more than three fourths of the 
 public money will fall into the keeping of these four 
 new officers, who did not exist as officers under the 
 national-bank system. It is only partially true, 
 then, that the money passes through the same hands, 
 under a national bank, as it would do under the 
 subtreasury. It is true that under either system 
 individuals must be employed as collectors of the 
 customs, receivers at the land-offices, etc., but the 
 difference is that under the bank system the receivers 
 of all sorts receive the money and pay it over to the 
 bank once a week when the collections are large, and 
 once a month when they are small ; whereas by the 
 
 VOL. I. — 14. 
 
210 The Writings of 
 
 subtreasury system individuals are not only to col- 
 lect the money, but they are to keep it also, or pay it 
 over to other individuals equally unsafe as them- 
 selves, to be by them kept until it is wanted for dis- 
 bursement. It is during the time that it is thus lying 
 idle in their hands that opportunity is afforded and 
 temptation held out to them to embezzle and escape 
 with it. By the bank system each collector or re- 
 ceiver is to deposit in bank all the money in his 
 hands at the end of each month at most, and to send 
 the bank certificates of deposit to the Secretary of 
 the Treasury. Whenever that certificate of deposit 
 fails to arrive at the proper time, the secretary knows 
 that the officer thus failing is acting the knave ; and, 
 if he is himself disposed to do his duty, he has him 
 immediately removed from office, and thereby cuts 
 him off from the possibility of embezzling but little 
 more than the receipts of a single month. But by the 
 subtreasury system the money is to lie month after 
 month in the hands of individuals; larger amounts 
 are to accumulate in the hands of the receivers-general 
 and some others, by perhaps ten to one, than ever 
 accumulated in the hands of individuals before ; yet 
 during all this time, in relation to this great stake, 
 the Secretary of the Treasury can comparatively 
 know nothing. Reports, to be sure, he will have; 
 but reports are often false, and always false when 
 made by a knave to cloak his knavery. Long ex- 
 perience has shown that nothing short of an actual 
 demand of the money will expose an adroit peculator. 
 Ask him for reports, and he will give them to your 
 heart's content ; send agents to examine and count 
 
Abraham Lincoln 211 
 
 the money in his hands, and he will borrow of a friend, 
 merely to be counted and then returned, a sufficient 
 sum to make the sum square. Try what you will, it 
 will all fail till you demand the money; then, and 
 not till then, the truth will come. 
 
 The sum of the whole matter I take to be this: 
 Under the bank system, while sums of money, by the 
 law, were permitted to lie in the hands of individuals 
 for very short periods only, many and very large 
 defalcations occurred by those individuals. Under 
 the subtreasury system much larger sums are to lie 
 in the hands of individuals for much longer periods, 
 thereby multiplying temptation in proportion as the 
 sums are larger, and multiplying opportunity in pro- 
 portion as the periods are longer to and for those 
 individuals to embezzle and escape with the public 
 treasure; and therefore, just in the proportion that 
 the temptation and the opportunity are greater under 
 the subtreasury than the bank system, will the pecu- 
 lations and defalcations be greater under the former 
 than they have been under the latter. The truth of 
 this, independent of actual experience, is but little 
 less than self-evident. I therefore leave it. 
 
 But it is said, and truly too, that there is to be a 
 penitentiary department to the subtreasury. This, 
 the advocates of the system will have it, will be a 
 1 'king cure-all." Before I go farther, may I not ask 
 if the penitentiary department is not itself an ad- 
 mission that they expect the public money to be 
 stolen ? Why build the cage if they expect to catch 
 no birds? But as to the question how effectual the 
 penitentiary will be in preventing defalcations: 
 
212 The Writings of 
 
 How effectual have penitentiaries heretofore been 
 in preventing the crimes they were established to 
 suppress? Has not confinement in them long been 
 the legal penalty of larceny, forgery, robbery, and 
 many other crimes, in almost all the States? And 
 yet are not those crimes committed weekly, daily, — 
 nay, and even hourly, — in every one of those States? 
 Again, the gallows has long been the penalty of 
 murder, and yet we scarcely open a newspaper that 
 does not relate a new case of that crime. If, then, 
 the penitentiary has ever heretofore failed to prevent 
 larceny, forgery, and robbery, and the gallows and 
 halter have likewise failed to prevent murder, by 
 what process of reasoning, I ask, is it that we are to 
 conclude the penitentiary will hereafter prevent the 
 stealing of the public money? But our opponents 
 seem to think they answer the charge that the money 
 will be stolen fully if they can show that they will 
 bring the offenders to punishment. Not so. Will 
 the punishment of the thief bring back the stolen 
 money ? No more so than the hanging of a murderer 
 restores his victim to life. What is the object 
 desired? Certainly not the greatest number of 
 thieves we can catch, but that the money may not be 
 stolen. If, then, any plan can be devised for deposit- 
 ing the public treasure where it will never be stolen, 
 never embezzled, is not that the plan to be adopted ? 
 Turn, then, to a national bank, and you have that 
 plan, fully and completely successful, as tested by 
 the experience of forty years. 
 
 I have now done with the three propositions that 
 the subtreasury would injuriously affect the currency 
 
Abraham Lincoln 213 
 
 and would be more expensive and less secure as a 
 depository of the public money than a national bank. 
 How far I have succeeded in establishing their truth, 
 is for others to judge. Omitting, for want of time, 
 what I had intended to say as to the effect of the sub- 
 treasury to bring the public money under the more 
 immediate control of the President than it has ever 
 heretofore been, I now ask the audience, when Mr. 
 Calhoun shall answer me, to hold him to the ques- 
 tions. Permit him not to escape them. Require 
 him either to show that the subtreasury would not 
 injuriously affect the currency, or that we should in 
 some way receive an equivalent for that injurious 
 effect. Require him either to show that the sub- 
 treasury would not be more expensive as a fiscal 
 agent than a bank, or that we should in some way 
 be compensated for that additional expense. And 
 particularly require him to show that the public 
 money would be as secure in the subtreasury as in 
 a national bank, or that the additional insecurity 
 would be overbalanced by some good result of the 
 proposed change. 
 
 No one of them, in my humble judgment, will he 
 be able to do ; and I venture the prediction, and ask 
 that it may be especially noted, that he will not 
 attempt to answer the proposition that the sub- 
 treasury would be more expensive than a national 
 bank as a fiscal agent of the government. 
 
 As a sweeping objection to a national bank, and 
 consequently an argument in favor of the subtreas- 
 ury as a substitute for it, it often has been urged, 
 and doubtless will be again, that such a bank is 
 
214 The Writings of 
 
 unconstitutional. We have often heretofore shown, 
 and therefore need not in detail do so again, that a 
 majority of the Revolutionary patriarchs, who ever 
 acted officially upon the question, commencing with 
 General Washington, and embracing General Jack- 
 son, the larger number of the signers of the Declara- 
 tion, and of the framers of the Constitution, who 
 were in the Congress of 1 791, have decided upon their 
 oaths that such a bank is constitutional. We have 
 also shown that the votes of Congress have more 
 often been in favor of than against its constitution- 
 ality. In addition to all this, we have shown that 
 the Supreme Court — that tribunal which the Con- 
 stitution has itself established to decide constitu- 
 tional questions — has solemnly decided that such a 
 bank is constitutional. Protesting that these au- 
 thorities ought to settle the question, — ought to be 
 conclusive, — I will not urge them further now. I 
 now propose to take a view of the question which I 
 have not known to be taken by any one before. It 
 is that whatever objection ever has or ever can be 
 made to the constitutionality of a bank will apply 
 with equal force, in its whole length, breadth, and 
 proportions, to the subtreasury. Our opponents say 
 there is no express authority in the Constitution to 
 establish a bank, and therefore a bank is uncon- 
 stitutional; but we with equal truth may say there 
 is no express authority in the Constitution to estab- 
 lish a subtreasury, and therefore a subtreasury is 
 unconstitutional. Who, then, has the advantage of 
 this "express authority' ' argument? Does it not 
 cut equally both ways ? Does it not wound them as 
 
Abraham Lincoln 215 
 
 deeply and as deadly as it does us? Our position 
 is that both are constitutional. The Constitution 
 enumerates expressly several powers which Congress 
 may exercise, superadded to which is a general 
 authority "to make all laws necessary and proper' ' 
 for carrying into effect all the powers vested by the 
 Constitution in the Government of the United States. 
 One of the express powers given Congress is " to lay 
 and collect taxes, duties, imports, and excises; to 
 pay the debts and provide for the common defense 
 and general welfare of the United States." Now, 
 Congress is expressly authorized to make all laws 
 necessary and proper for carrying this power into 
 execution. To carry it into execution it is indis- 
 pensably necessary to collect, safely keep, transfer, 
 and disburse a revenue. To do this, a bank is 
 * ' necessary and proper. ' ' But, say our opponents, to 
 authorize the making of a bank, the necessity must 
 be so great that the power just recited would be 
 nugatory without it; and that that necessity is 
 expressly negatived by the fact that they have got 
 along ten whole years without such a bank. Im- 
 mediately we turn on them, and say that that sort of 
 necessity for a subtreasury does not exist, because 
 we have got along forty whole years without one. 
 And this time it may be observed that we are not 
 merely equal with them in the argument, but we 
 beat them forty to ten, or, which is the same thing, 
 four to one. On examination, it will be found that 
 the absurd rule which prescribes that before we can 
 constitutionally adopt a national bank as a fiscal 
 agent, we must show an indispensable necessity for 
 
216 The Writings of 
 
 it, will exclude every sort of fiscal agent that the 
 mind of man can conceive. A bank is not indis- 
 pensable, because we can take the subtreasury; the 
 subtreasury is not indispensable, because we can take 
 the bank. The rule is too absurd to need further 
 comment. Upon the phrase ' 'necessary and proper " 
 in the Constitution, it seems to me more reasonable 
 to say that some fiscal agent is indispensably neces- 
 sary; but inasmuch as no particular sort of agent is 
 thus indispensable, because some other sort might 
 be adopted, we are left to choose that sort of agent 
 which may be most ' ' proper ' ' on grounds of expedi- 
 ency. But it is said the Constitution gives no power 
 to Congress to pass acts of incorporation. Indeed! 
 What is the passing an act of incorporation but the 
 making of a law? Is any one wise enough to tell? 
 The Constitution expressly gives Congress power 
 "to pass all laws necessary and proper," etc. If, 
 then, the passing of a bank charter be the "making a 
 law necessary and proper" is it not clearly within the 
 constitutional power of Congress to do so? 
 
 I now leave the bank and the subtreasury to try 
 to answer, in a brief way, some of the arguments 
 which on previous evenings here have been urged 
 by Messrs. Lamborn and Douglas. Mr. Lamborn 
 admits that "errors," as he charitably calls them, 
 have occurred under the present and late administra- 
 tions; but he insists that as great "errors" have 
 occurred under all administrations. This we re- 
 spectfully deny. We admit that errors may have 
 occurred under all administrations, but . we insist 
 that there is no parallel between them and those 
 
Abraham Lincoln 217 
 
 of the two last. If they can show that their 
 errors are no greater in number and magnitude than 
 those of former times, we call off the dogs. But 
 they can do no such thing. To be brief, I will 
 now attempt a contrast of the "errors" of the two 
 latter with those of former administrations, in rela- 
 tion to the public expenditures only. What I am 
 now about to say as to the expenditures will be, in 
 all cases, exclusive of payments on the national debt. 
 By an examination of authentic public documents, 
 consisting of the regular series of annual reports 
 made by all the secretaries of the treasury from the 
 establishment of the government down to the close of 
 the year 1 83 8, the following contrasts will be presented : 
 
 (1) The last ten years under General Jackson and 
 Mr. Van Buren cost more money than the first 
 twenty-seven did (including the heavy expenses of 
 the late British war) under Washington, Adams, 
 Jefferson, and Madison. 
 
 (2) The last year of J. Q. Adams's administration 
 cost, in round numbers, thirteen millions, being about 
 one dollar to each soul in the nation; the last (1838) 
 of Mr. Van Buren's cost forty millions, being about 
 two dollars and fifty cents to each soul, and being 
 larger than the expenditure of Mr. Adams in the 
 proportion of five to two. 
 
 (3) The highest annual expenditure during the late 
 British war — being in 18 14, and while we had in 
 actual service rising 188,000 militia, together with 
 the whole regular army, swelling the number to 
 greatly over 200,000, and they to be clad, fed, and 
 transported from point to point, with great rapidity 
 
218 The Writings of 
 
 and corresponding expense, and to be furnished with 
 arms and ammunition, and they to be transported in 
 like manner, and at like expense — was no more in 
 round numbers than thirty millions; whereas the 
 annual expenditure of 1838, under Mr. Van Buren, 
 and while we were at peace with every government 
 in the world, was forty millions; being over the 
 highest year of the late and very expensive war in 
 the proportion of four to three. 
 
 (4) General Washington administered the govern- 
 ment eight years for sixteen millions; Mr. Van 
 Buren administered it one year (1838) for forty 
 millions ; so that Mr. Van Buren expended twice and 
 a half as much in one year as General Washington did 
 in eight, and being in the proportion of twenty to one ; 
 or in other words, had General Washington admin- 
 istered the government twenty years at the same 
 average expense that he did for eight, he would have 
 carried us through the whole twenty for no more 
 money than Mr. Van Buren has expended in getting 
 us through the single one of 1838. Other facts 
 equally astounding might be presented from the 
 same authentic documents; but I deem the fore- 
 going abundantly sufficient to establish the pro- 
 position that there is no parallel between the "errors" 
 of the present and late administrations and those of 
 former times, and that Mr. Van Buren is wholly out 
 of the line of all precedents. 
 
 But Mr. Douglas, seeing that the enormous ex- 
 penditure of 1838 has no parallel in the olden times, 
 comes in with a long list of excuses for it. This list 
 of excuses I will rapidly examine, and show, as I 
 
Abraham Lincoln 219 
 
 think, that the few of them which are true prove 
 nothing, and that the majority of them are wholly 
 untrue in fact. He first says that the expenditures 
 of that one year were made under the appropriations 
 of Congress — one branch of which was a Whig body. 
 It is true that those expenditures were made under 
 the appropriations of Congress ; but it is untrue that 
 either branch of Congress was a Whig body. The 
 Senate had fallen into the hands of the administra- 
 tion more than a year before, as proven by the pas- 
 sage of the Expunging Resolution, and at the time 
 those appropriations were made there were too few 
 Whigs in that body to make a respectable struggle, 
 in point of numbers, upon any question. This is 
 notorious to all. The House of Representatives that 
 voted those appropriations was the same that first 
 assembled at the called session of September, 1838. 
 Although it refused to pass the subtreasury bill, a 
 majority of its members were elected as friends of the 
 administration, and proved their adherence to it by 
 the election of a Van Buren speaker, and two Van 
 Buren clerks. It is clear, then, that both branches 
 of the Congress that passed those appropriations 
 were in the hands of Mr. Van Buren 's friends, so that 
 the Whigs had no power to arrest them, as Mr. 
 Douglas would insist. And is not the charge of 
 extravagant expenditures equally well sustained, if 
 shown to have been made by a Van Buren Congress, 
 as if shown to have been made in any other way? 
 A Van Buren Congress passed the bills, and Mr. Van 
 Buren himself approved them, and consequently the 
 party are wholly responsible for them, 
 
220 The Writings of 
 
 Mr. Douglas next says that a portion of the ex- 
 penditures of that year was made for the purchase of 
 public lands from the Indians. Now it happens that 
 no such purchase was made during that year. It is 
 true that some money was paid that year in pur- 
 suance of Indian treaties ; but no more, or rather not 
 as much as had been paid on the same account in 
 each of several preceding years. 
 
 Next he says that the Florida war created many 
 millions of this year's expenditure. This is true, 
 and it is also true that during that and every other 
 year that that war has existed, it has cost three or 
 four times as much as it would have done under an 
 honest and judicious administration of the govern- 
 ment. The large sums foolishly, not to say cor- 
 ruptly, thrown away in that war constitute one of the 
 just causes of complaint against the administration. 
 Take a single instance. The agents of the govern- 
 ment in connection with that war needed a certain 
 steamboat; the owner proposed to sell it for ten 
 thousand dollars; the agents refused to give that 
 sum, but hired the boat at one hundred dollars per 
 day, and kept it at that hire till it amounted to 
 ninety-two thousand dollars. This fact is not found 
 in the public reports, but depends, with me, on 
 the verbal statement of an officer of the navy, who 
 says he knows it to be true. That the adminis- 
 tration ought to be credited for the reasonable ex- 
 penses of the Florida war, we have never denied. 
 Those reasonable charges, we say, could not exceed 
 one or two millions a year. Deduct such a sum 
 from the forty-million expenditure of 1838, and the 
 
Abraham Lincoln 221 
 
 remainder will still be without a parallel as an annual 
 expenditure. 
 
 Again, Mr. Douglas says that the removal of the 
 Indians to the country west of the Mississippi 
 created much of the expenditure of 1838. I have 
 examined the public documents in relation to this 
 matter, and find that less was paid for the removal of 
 Indians in that than in some former years. The 
 whole sum expended on that account in that year did 
 not much exceed one quarter of a million. For this 
 small sum, although we do not think the administra- 
 tion entitled to credit because large sums have been 
 expended in the same way in former years, we con- 
 sent it may take one and make the most of it. 
 
 Next, Mr. Douglas says that five millions of the 
 expenditures of 1838 consisted of the payment of the 
 French indemnity money to its individual claimants. 
 I have carefully examined the public documents, and 
 thereby find this statement to be wholly untrue. 
 Of the forty millions of dollars expended in 1838, I 
 am enabled to say positively that not one dollar 
 consisted of payments on the French indemnities. 
 So much for that excuse. 
 
 Next comes the post-office. He says that five 
 millions were expended during that year to sustain 
 that department. By a like examination of public 
 documents, I find this also wholly untrue. Of the so 
 often mentioned forty millions, not one dollar went 
 to the post-office. I am glad, however, that the 
 post-office has been referred to, because it warrants 
 me in digressing a little to inquire how it is that that 
 department of the government has become a charge 
 
222 The Writings of 
 
 upon the treasury, whereas under Mr. Adams and 
 the Presidents before him it not only, to use a homely 
 phrase, cut its own fodder, but actually threw a 
 surplus into the treasury. Although nothing of the 
 forty millions was paid on that account in 1838, it is 
 true that five millions are appropriated to be so ex- 
 pended in 1839; showing clearly that the depart- 
 ment has become a charge upon the treasury. How 
 has this happened? I account for it in this way: 
 The chief expense of the Post-office Department 
 consists of the payments of contractors for carrying 
 the mail. Contracts for carrying the mails are by law 
 let to the lowest bidders, after advertisement. This 
 plan introduces competition, and insures the trans- 
 portation of the mails at fair prices, so long as it 
 is faithfully adhered to. It has ever been adhered 
 to until Mr. Barry was made Postmaster-General. 
 When he came into office, he formed the purpose of 
 throwing the mail contracts into the hands of his 
 friends, to the exclusion of his opponents. To effect 
 this, the plan of letting to the lowest bidder must be 
 evaded, and it must be done in this way : the favor- 
 ite bid less by perhaps three or four hundred per 
 cent, than the contract could be performed for, and 
 consequently, shutting out all honest competition, 
 became the contractor. The Postmaster-General 
 would immediately add some slight additional duty 
 to the contract, and under the pretense of extra 
 allowance for extra services run the contract to 
 double, triple, and often quadruple what honest and 
 fair bidders had proposed to take it at. In 1834 the 
 finances of the department had become so deranged 
 
Abraham Lincoln 223 
 
 that total concealment was not longer possible, and 
 consequently a committee of the Senate were directed 
 to make a thorough investigation of its affairs. 
 Their report is found in the Senate Documents of 
 1833-4, Vol. V., Doc. 422; which documents may be 
 seen at the secretary's office, and I presume elsewhere 
 in the State. The report shows numerous cases of 
 similar import, of one of which I give the substance. 
 The contract for carrying the mail upon a certain 
 route had expired, and of course was to be let again. 
 The old contractor offered to take it for $300 a year, 
 the mail to be transported thereon three times a week, 
 or for $600 transported daily. One James Reeside 
 bid $40 for three times a week, or $99 daily, and of 
 course received the contract. On the examination 
 of the committee, it was discovered that Reeside had 
 received for the service on this route, which he had 
 contracted to render for less than $100, the enormous 
 sum of $1999! This is but a single case. Many 
 similar ones, covering some ten or twenty pages of a 
 large volume, are given in that report. The depart- 
 ment was found to be insolvent to the amount of half 
 a million, and to have been so grossly mismanaged, 
 or rather so corruptly managed, in almost every 
 particular, that the best friends of the Postmaster- 
 General made no defence of his administration of it. 
 They admitted that he was wholly unqualified for 
 that office ; but still he was retained in it by the Presi- 
 dent until he resigned it voluntarily about a year 
 afterward. And when he resigned it, what do you 
 think became of him ? Why, he sunk into obscurity 
 and disgrace, to be sure, you will say. No such thing. 
 
224 The Writings of 
 
 Well, then, what did become of him? Why, the 
 President immediately expressed his high disappro- 
 bation of his almost unequalled incapacity and cor- 
 ruption by appointing him to a foreign mission, with 
 a salary and outfit of $18,000 a year! The party 
 now attempt to throw Barry off, and to avoid the 
 responsibility of his sins. Did not the President 
 indorse those sins when, on the very heel of their 
 commission, he appointed their author to the very 
 highest and most honorable office in his gift, and 
 which is but a single step behind the very goal of 
 American political ambition ? 
 
 I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the 
 expenditures of 1838, at the same time announcing 
 the pleasing intelligence that this is the last one. 
 He says that ten millions of that year's expenditure 
 was a contingent appropriation, to prosecute an 
 anticipated war with Great Britain on the Maine 
 boundary question. Few words will settle this. 
 First, that the ten millions appropriated was not 
 made till 1839, and consequently could not have 
 been expended in 1838; second, although it was 
 appropriated, it has never been expended at all. 
 Those who heard Mr. Douglas recollect that he in- 
 dulged himself in a contemptuous expression of pity 
 for me. "Now he's got me," thought I. But 
 when he went on to say that five millions of the 
 expenditure of 1838 were payments of the French 
 indemnities, which I knew to be untrue; that five 
 millions had been for the post-office, which I knew 
 to be untrue; that ten millions had been for the 
 Maine boundary war, which I not only knew to be 
 
Abraham Lincoln 225 
 
 untrue, but supremely ridiculous also; and when I 
 saw that he was stupid enough to hope that I would 
 permit such groundless and audacious assertions 
 to go unexposed, — I readily consented that, on the 
 score both of veracity and sagacity, the audience 
 should judge whether he or I were the more deserving 
 of the world's contempt. 
 
 Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between 
 the Van Buren party and the Whigs is that, although 
 the former sometimes err in practice, they are always 
 correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in 
 principle; and, better to impress this proposition, 
 he uses a figurative expression in these words : ' ' The 
 Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but they are 
 sound in the head and the heart." The first branch 
 of the figure — that is, that the Democrats are vul- 
 nerable in the heel — I admit is not merely fig- 
 uratively, but literally true. Who that looks but for 
 a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their 
 Harringtons, and their hundreds of others, scamper- 
 ing away with the public money to Texas, to Europe, 
 and to every spot of the earth where a villain may 
 hope to find refuge from justice, can at all doubt that 
 they are most distressingly affected in their heels 
 with a species of ''running itch" ? It seems that this 
 malady of their heels operates on these sound-headed 
 and honest -hearted creatures very much like the 
 cork leg in the comic song did on its owner: which, 
 when he had once got started on it, the more he 
 tried to stop it, the more it would run away. At the 
 hazard of wearing this point threadbare, I will relate 
 an anecdote which seems too strikingly in point to 
 
 VOL. I. — 15. 
 
226 The Writings of 
 
 be omitted. A witty Irish soldier, who was always 
 boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but 
 who invariably retreated without orders at the first 
 charge of an engagement, being asked by his captain 
 why he did so, replied: "Captain, I have as brave a 
 heart as Julius Caesar ever had; but, somehow or 
 other, whenever danger approaches, my cowardly 
 legs will run away with it." So with Mr. Lamborn's 
 party. They take the public money into their hand 
 for the most laudable purpose that wise heads and 
 honest hearts can dictate; but before they can 
 possibly get it out again, their rascally "vulnerable 
 heels ' ' will run away with them. 
 
 Seriously this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is 
 nothing more or less than a request that his party 
 may be tried by their professions instead of their 
 practices. Perhaps no position that the party as- 
 sumes is more liable to or more deserving of ex- 
 posure than this very modest request; and nothing 
 but the unwarrantable length to which I have already 
 extended these remarks forbids me now attempting 
 to expose it. For the reason given, I pass it by. 
 
 I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lam- 
 born refers to the late elections in the States, and 
 from their results confidently predicts that every 
 State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at 
 the next Presidential election. Address that argu- 
 ment to cowards and to knaves; with the free and 
 the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if 
 it must, let it. Many free countries have lost their 
 liberty, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be 
 it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to 
 
Abraham Lincoln 227 
 
 desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that 
 the great volcano at Washington, aroused and di- 
 rected by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belch- 
 ing forth the lava of political corruption in a current 
 broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful 
 velocity over the whole length and breadth of the 
 land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot 
 or living thing; while on its bosom are riding, like 
 demons on the waves of hell, the imps of that evil 
 spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist 
 its destroying course with the hopelessness of their 
 effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that all 
 may be swept away. Broken by it I, too, may be; 
 bow to it I never will. The probability that we may 
 fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the sup- 
 port of a cause we believe to be just ; it shall not deter 
 me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and 
 expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy 
 of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate 
 the cause of my country deserted by all the world 
 beside, and I standing up boldly and alone, and 
 hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, 
 without contemplating consequences, before high 
 heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal 
 fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land 
 of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who that 
 thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath 
 that I take ? Let none falter who thinks he is right, 
 and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, 
 be it so. We still shall have the proud consolation 
 of saying to our consciences, and to the departed 
 shade of our country's freedom, that the cause 
 
228 The Writings of 
 
 approved of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, 
 in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never 
 faltered in defending. 
 
 TO JOHN T. STUART. 
 
 Springfield, December 23, 1839. 
 
 Dear Stuart : 
 
 Dr. Henry will write you all the political news. I 
 write this about some little matters of business. 
 You recollect you told me you had drawn the 
 Chicago Masark money, and sent it to the claimants. 
 A hawk-billed Yankee is here besetting me at every 
 turn I take, saying that Robert Kinzie never re- 
 ceived the eighty dollars to which he was entitled. 
 Can you tell me anything about the matter? Again, 
 old Mr. Wright, who lives up South Fork somewhere, 
 is teasing me continually about some deeds which he 
 says he left with you, but which I can find nothing of. 
 Can you tell me where they are ? The Legislature is 
 in session and has suffered the bank to forfeit its 
 charter without benefit of clergy. There seems to 
 be little disposition to resuscitate it. 
 
 Whenever a letter comes from you to Mrs. , 
 
 I carry it to her, and then I see Betty ; she is a toler- 
 able nice ''fellow" now. Maybe I will write again 
 when I get more time. 
 
 Your friend as ever, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 P. S. — The Democratic giant is here, but he is 
 
 not much worth talking about. 
 
 A. L. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 229 
 
 CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. 
 
 January [ 1?], 1840. 
 
 Confidential. 
 
 To Messrs. . 
 
 Gentlemen : — In obedience to a resolution of the 
 Whig State convention, we have appointed you the 
 Central Whig Committee of your county. The trust 
 confided to you will be one of watchfulness and labor ; 
 but we hope the glory of having contributed to the 
 overthrow of the corrupt powers that now control 
 our beloved country will be a sufficient reward for 
 the time and labor you will devote to it. Our Whig 
 brethren throughout the Union have met in conven- 
 tion, and after due deliberation and mutual conces- 
 sions have elected candidates for the Presidency and 
 Vice-Presidency not only worthy of our cause, but 
 worthy of the support of every true patriot who 
 would have our country redeemed, and her institu- 
 tions honestly and faithfully administered. To 
 overthrow the trained bands that are opposed to us 
 whose salaried officers are ever on the watch, and 
 whose misguided followers are ever ready to obey 
 their smallest commands, every Whig must not only 
 know his duty, but must firmly resolve, whatever 
 of time and labor it may cost, boldly and faithfully 
 to do it. Our intention is to organize the whole 
 State, so that every Whig can be brought to the 
 polls in the coming Presidential contest. We cannot 
 do this, however, without your co-operation ; and as 
 we do our duty, so we shall expect you to do yours. 
 After due deliberation, the following is the plan of 
 
230 The Writings of 
 
 organization, and the duties required of each county 
 committee : 
 
 (i) To divide their county into small districts, 
 and to appoint in each a subcommittee, whose duty 
 it shall be to make a perfect list of all the voters in 
 their respective districts, and to ascertain with cer- 
 tainty for whom they will vote. If they meet with 
 men who are doubtful as to the man they will sup- 
 port, such voters should be designated in separate 
 lines, with the name of the man they will probably 
 support. 
 
 (2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to 
 keep a constant watch on the doubtful voters, and 
 from time to time have them talked to by those in 
 whom they have the most confidence, and also to 
 place in their hands such documents as will enlighten 
 and influence them. 
 
 (3) It will also be their duty to report to you, at 
 least once a month, the progress they are making, 
 and on election days see that every Whig is brought 
 to the polls. 
 
 (4) The subcommittees should be appointed im- 
 mediately; and by the last of April, at least, they 
 should make their first report. 
 
 (5) On the first of each month hereafter we shall 
 expect to hear from you. After the first report of 
 your subcommittees, unless there should be found a 
 great many doubtful voters, you can tell pretty 
 accurately the manner in which your county will 
 vote. In each of your letters to us, you will state 
 the number of certain votes both for and against 
 us, as well as the number of doubtful votes, with 
 
Abraham Lincoln 231 
 
 your opinion of the manner in which they will be 
 cast. 
 
 (6) When we have heard from all the counties, we 
 shall be able to tell with similar accuracy the political 
 complexion of the State. This information will be 
 forwarded to you as soon as received. 
 
 (7) Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be 
 continued until after the Presidential election. It 
 will be superintended by ourselves, and every Whig 
 in the State must take it. It will be published so 
 low that every one can afford it. You must raise a 
 fund and forward us for extra copies, — every county 
 ought to send fifty or one hundred dollars, — and 
 the copies will be forwarded to you for distribution 
 among our political opponents. The paper will be 
 devoted exclusively to the great cause in which we 
 are engaged. Procure subscriptions, and forward 
 them to us immediately. 
 
 (8) Immediately after any election in your county, 
 you must inform us of its results; and as early as 
 possible after any general election we will give you 
 the like information. 
 
 (9) A senator in Congress is to be elected by our 
 next Legislature. Let no local interests divide you, 
 but select candidates that can succeed. 
 
 (10) Our plan of operations will of course be con- 
 cealed from every one except our good friends who 
 of right ought to know them. 
 
 Trusting much in our good cause, the strength of 
 our candidates, and the determination of the Whigs 
 everywhere to do their duty, we go to the work of 
 organization in this State confident of success. We 
 
232 The Writings of 
 
 £>■ 
 
 have the numbers, and if properly organized and 
 exerted, with the gallant Harrison at our head, we 
 shall meet our foes and conquer them in all parts of 
 the Union. 
 
 Address your letters to Dr. A. G. Henry, R. F. 
 Barrett, A. Lincoln, E. D. Baker, J. F. Speed. 
 
 RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 November 28, 1840. 
 
 In the Illinois House of Representatives, Novem- 
 ber 28, 1840, Mr. Lincoln offered the following: 
 
 Resolved, That so much of the governor's message 
 as relates to fraudulent voting, and other fraudulent 
 practices at elections, be referred to the Committee 
 on Elections, with instructions to said committee to 
 prepare and report to the House a bill for such an act 
 as may in their judgment afford the greatest possible 
 protection of the elective franchise against all frauds 
 of all sorts whatever. 
 
 RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 December 2, 1840. 
 
 Resolved, That the Committee on Education be 
 instructed to inquire into the expediency of pro- 
 viding by law for the examination as to the qualifica- 
 tion of persons offering themselves as school teachers, 
 that no teacher shall receive any part of the public 
 school fund who shall not have successfully passed 
 such examination, and that they report by bill or 
 otherwise. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 233 
 
 REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 December 4, 1840. 
 
 In the House of Representatives, Illinois, Decem- 
 ber 4, 1840, on presentation of a report respecting 
 petition of H. N. Purple, claiming the seat of Mr. 
 Phelps from Peoria, Mr. Lincoln moved that the 
 House resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on 
 the question, and take it up immediately. Mr. 
 Lincoln considered the question of the highest 
 importance whether an individual had a right to sit 
 in this House or not. The course he should propose 
 would be to take up the evidence and decide upon 
 the facts seriatim. 
 
 Mr. Drummond wanted time; they could not 
 decide in the heat of debate, etc. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln thought that the question had better 
 be gone into now. In courts of law jurors were re- 
 quired to decide on evidence, without previous study 
 or examination. They were required to know 
 nothing of the subject until the evidence was laid 
 before them for their immediate decision. He 
 thought that the heat of party would be augmented 
 by delay. 
 
 The Speaker called Mr. Lincoln to order as being 
 irrelevant ; no mention had been made of party heat. 
 
 Mr. Drummond said he had only spoken of debate. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln asked what caused the heat, if it was 
 not party? Mr. Lincoln concluded by urging that 
 the question would be decided now better than here- 
 after, and he thought with less heat and excitement. 
 
 (Further debate, in which Lincoln participated.) 
 
234 The Writings of 
 
 REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 December 4, 1840. 
 
 In the Illinois House of Representatives, Decem- 
 ber 4, 1840, — House in Committee of the Whole on 
 the bill providing for payment of interest on the 
 State debt, — Mr. Lincoln moved to strike out the 
 body and amendments of the bill, and insert in lieu 
 thereof an amendment which in substance was that 
 the governor be authorized to issue bonds for the 
 payment of the interest; that these be called 
 "interest bonds"; that the taxes accruing on Con- 
 gress lands as they become taxable be irrevocably 
 set aside and devoted as a. fund to the payment of 
 the interest bonds. Mr. Lincoln went into the 
 reasons which appeared to him to render this plan 
 preferable to that of hypothecating the State bonds. 
 By this course we could get along till the next meet- 
 ing of the Legislature, which was of great importance. 
 To the objection which might be urged that these 
 interest bonds could not be cashed, he replied that 
 if our other bonds could, much more could these, 
 which offered a perfect security, a fund being irre- 
 vocably set aside to provide for their redemption. 
 To another objection, that we should be paying com- 
 pound interest, he would reply that the rapid growth 
 and increase of our resources was in so great a ratio 
 as to outstrip the difficulty; that his object was to 
 do the best that could be done in the present emer- 
 gency. All agreed that the faith of the State must 
 be preserved; this plan appeared to him preferable 
 to a hypothecation of bonds, which would have to be 
 
Abraham Lincoln 235 
 
 redeemed and the interest paid. How this was to be 
 done, he could not see ; therefore he had, after turn- 
 ing the matter over in every way, devised this meas- 
 ure, which would carry us on till the next Legislature. 
 
 (Mr. Lincoln spoke at some length, advocating his 
 measure.) 
 
 Lincoln advocated his measure, December 1 1 , 1 840. 
 
 December 12, 1840, he had thought some per- 
 manent provision ought to be made for the bonds 
 to be hypothecated, but was satisfied taxation and 
 revenue could not be connected with it now. 
 
 Dear Stuart: 
 
 TO JOHN T. STUART. 
 
 Springfield, Jan. 23, 1841. 
 
 I am now the most miserable man living. If what 
 I feel were equally distributed to the whole human 
 family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. 
 Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I 
 awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is 
 impossible. I must die or be better, as it appears to 
 me. . . . I fear I shall be unable to attend any 
 business here, and a change of scene might help me. 
 If I could be myself, I would rather remain at home 
 with Judge Logan. I can write no more. 
 
 REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 January 23, 1841. 
 
 In the House of Representatives January 23, 1841, 
 while discussing the continuation of the Illinois and 
 
236 The Writings of 
 
 Michigan Canal, Mr. Moore was afraid the holders 
 of the " scrip" would lose. 
 
 Mr. Napier thought there was no danger of that; 
 and Mr. Lincoln said he had not examined to see 
 what amount of scrip would probably be needed. 
 The principal point in his mind was this, that nobody 
 was obliged to take these certificates. It is alto- 
 gether voluntary on their part, and if they appre- 
 hend it will fall in their hands they will not take it. 
 Further the loss, if any there be, will fall on the 
 citizens of that section of the country. 
 
 This scrip is not going to circulate over an exten- 
 sive range of country, but will be confined chiefly to 
 the vicinity of the canal. Now, we find the repre- 
 sentatives of that section of the country are all in 
 favor of the bill. 
 
 When we propose to protect their interests, they 
 say to us : Leave us to take care of ourselves ; we are 
 willing to run the risk. And this is reasonable; we 
 must suppose they are competent to protect their 
 own interests, and it is only fair to let them do it. 
 
 CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. 
 
 February 9, 1841. 
 
 Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : — When the General Assembly, 
 now about adjourning, assembled in November last, 
 from the bankrupt state of the public treasury, the 
 pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every de- 
 partment of society, the dilapidated state of the 
 public works, and the impending danger of the 
 
Abraham Lincoln 237 
 
 degradation of the State, you had a right to expect 
 that your representatives would lose no time in 
 devising and adopting measures to avert threatened 
 calamities, alleviate the distresses of the people, and 
 allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the 
 future prosperity of the State. It was not expected 
 by you that the spirit of party would take the lead in 
 the councils of the State, and make every interest 
 bend to its demands. Nor was it expected that any 
 party would assume to itself the entire control of 
 legislation, and convert the means and offices of the 
 State, and the substance of the people, into aliment 
 for party subsistence. Neither could it have been 
 expected by you that party spirit, however strong its 
 desires and unreasonable its demands, would have 
 passed the sanctuary of the Constitution, and entered 
 with its unhallowed and hideous form into the forma- 
 tion of the judiciary system. 
 
 At the early period of the session, measures were 
 adopted by the dominant party to take possession of 
 the State, to fill all public offices with party men, 
 and make every measure affecting the interests of the 
 people and the credit of the State operate in further- 
 ance of their party views. The merits of men and 
 measures therefore became the subject of discussion 
 in caucus, instead of the halls of legislation, and 
 decisions there made by a minority of the Legislature 
 have been executed and carried into effect by the 
 force of party discipline, without any regard what- 
 ever to the rights of the people or the interests of 
 the State. The Supreme Court of the State was 
 organized, and judges appointed, according to the 
 
238 The Writings 01 
 
 provisions of the Constitution, in 1824. The people 
 have never complained of the organization of that 
 court; no attempt has ever before been made to 
 change that department. Respect for public opin- 
 ion, and regard for the rights and liberties of the 
 people, have hitherto restrained the spirit of party 
 from attacks upon the independence and integrity of 
 the judiciary. The same judges have continued in 
 office since 1824; their decisions have not been the 
 subject of complaint among the people ; the integrity 
 and honesty of the court have not been questioned, 
 and it has never been supposed that the court has 
 ever permitted party prejudice or party considera- 
 tions to operate upon their decisions. The court 
 was made to consist of four judges, and by the Con- 
 stitution two form a quorum for the transaction of 
 business. With this tribunal, thus constituted, the 
 people have been satisfied for near sixteen years. 
 The same law which organized the Supreme Court in 
 1824 also established and organized circuit courts to 
 be held in each county in the State, and five circuit 
 judges were appointed to hold those courts. In 
 1826 the Legislature abolished these circuit courts, 
 repealed the judges out of office, and required the 
 judges of the Supreme Court to hold the circuit courts. 
 The reasons assigned for this change were, first, that 
 the business of the country could be better attended 
 to by the four judges of the Supreme Court than by 
 the two sets of judges ; and, second, the state of the 
 public treasury forbade the employment of unneces- 
 sary officers. In 1828 a circuit was established 
 north of the Illinois River, in order to meet the 
 
Abraham Lincoln 239 
 
 wants of the people, and a circuit judge was ap- 
 pointed to hold the courts in that circuit. 
 
 In 1834 the circuit-court system was again estab- 
 lished throughout the State, circuit judges appointed 
 to hold the courts, and the judges of the Supreme 
 Court were relieved from the performance of circuit- 
 court duties. The change was recommended by the 
 then acting governor of the State, General W. L. D. 
 Ewing, in the following terms : 
 
 " The augmented population of the State, the 
 multiplied number of organized counties, as well as 
 the increase of business in all, has long since con- 
 vinced every one conversant with this department of 
 our government of the indispensable necessity of an 
 alteration in our judiciary system, and the subject is 
 therefore recommended to the earnest patriotic con- 
 sideration of the Legislature. The present system 
 has never been exempt from serious and weighty 
 objections. The idea of appealing from the circuit 
 court to the same judges in the Supreme Court is 
 recommended by little hopes of redress to the injured 
 party below. The duties of the circuit, too, it may 
 be added, consume one half of the year, leaving a 
 small and inadequate portion of time (when that 
 required for domestic purposes is deducted) to erect, 
 in the decisions of the Supreme Court, a judicial 
 monument of legal learning and research, which the 
 talent and ability of the court might otherwise be 
 entirely competent to." 
 
 With this organization of circuit courts the people 
 have never complained. The only complaints which 
 we have heard have come from circuits which were 
 
240 The Writings of 
 
 so large that the judges could not dispose of the 
 business, and the circuits in which Judges Pearson 
 and Ralston lately presided. 
 
 Whilst the honor and credit of the State demanded 
 legislation upon the subject of the public debt, the 
 canal, the unfinished public works, and the embar- 
 rassments of the people, the judiciary stood upon a 
 basis which required no change — no legislative action. 
 Yet the party in power, neglecting every interest 
 requiring legislative action, and wholly disregarding 
 the rights, wishes, and interests of the people, has, 
 for the unholy purpose of providing places for its 
 partisans and supplying them with large salaries, 
 disorganized that department of the government. 
 Provision is made for the election of five party judges 
 of the Supreme Court, the proscription of four circuit 
 judges, and the appointment of party clerks in more 
 than half the counties of the State. Men professing 
 respect for public opinion, and acknowledged to be 
 leaders of the party, have avowed in the halls of 
 legislation that the change in the judiciary was in- 
 tended to produce political results favorable to their 
 party and party friends. The immutable principles 
 of justice are to make way for party interests, and 
 the bonds of social order are to be rent in twain, in 
 order that a desperate faction may be sustained at 
 the expense of the people. The change proposed in 
 the judiciary was supported upon grounds so de- 
 structive to the institutions of the country, and so 
 entirely at war with the rights and liberties of the 
 people, that the party could not secure entire 
 unanimity in its support, — three Democrats of the 
 
Abraham Lincoln 241 
 
 Senate and five of the House voting against the 
 measure. They were unwilling to see the temples of 
 justice and the seats of independent judges occupied 
 by the tools of faction. The declarations of the 
 party leaders, the selection of party men for judges, 
 and the total disregard for the public will in the 
 adoption of the measure, prove conclusively that 
 the object has been not reform, but destruction ; not 
 the advancement of the highest interests of the 
 State, but the predominance of party. 
 
 We cannot in this manner undertake to point out 
 all the objections to this party measure ; we present 
 you with those stated by the Council of Revision 
 upon returning the bill, and we ask for them a candid 
 consideration. 
 
 Believing that the independence of the judiciary 
 has been destroyed, that hereafter our courts will be 
 independent of the people, and entirely dependent 
 upon the Legislature; that our rights of property 
 and liberty of conscience can no longer be regarded as 
 safe from the encroachments of unconstitutional 
 legislation; and knowing of no other remedy which 
 can be adopted consistently with the peace and good 
 order of society, we call upon you to avail yourselves 
 of the opportunity afforded, and, at the next general 
 election, vote for a convention of the people. 
 
 S. H. Little, 
 
 E. D. Baker, 
 
 J. J. Hardin, I Committee on behalf of the 
 
 E. B. Webb, | Whig members of the Legislature. 
 
 A. Lincoln, 
 
 J. Gillespie 
 
 VOL. I. — 16. 
 
 J 
 
242 The Writings of 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLA- 
 TURE AGAINST THE REORGANIZATION OF THE 
 JUDICIARY. 
 
 February 26, 1841. 
 
 For the reasons thus presented, and for others no 
 less apparent, the undersigned cannot assent to the 
 passage of the bill, or permit it to become a law, 
 without this evidence of their disapprobation; and 
 they now protest against the reorganization of the 
 judiciary, because — (i) It violates the great princi- 
 ples of free government by subjecting the judiciary 
 to the Legislature. (2) It is a fatal blow at the 
 independence of the judges and the constitutional 
 term of their office. (3) It is a measure not asked 
 for, or wished for, by the people. (4) It will greatly 
 increase the expense of our courts, or else greatly 
 diminish their utility. (5) It will give our courts a 
 political and partisan character, thereby impairing 
 public confidence in their decisions. (6) It will 
 impair our standing with other States and the world. 
 (7) It is a party measure for party purposes, from 
 which no practical good to the people can possibly 
 arise, but which may be the source of immeasurable 
 evils. 
 
 The undersigned are well aware that this protest 
 will be altogether unavailing w T ith the majority of 
 this body. The blow has already fallen, and we are 
 compelled to stand by, the mournful spectators of 
 the ruin it will cause. 
 
 [Signed by 3 5 members, among whom was Abraham 
 Lincoln.] 
 
Abraham Lincoln 243 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 Springfield, June 19, 1841. 
 
 Dear Speed: — We have had the highest state of 
 excitement here for a week past that our community 
 has ever witnessed ; and, although the public feeling 
 is somewhat allayed, the curious affair which aroused 
 it is very far from being even yet cleared of mystery. 
 It would take a quire of paper to give you anything 
 like a full account of it, and I therefore only propose 
 a brief outline. The chief personages in the drama 
 are Archibald Fisher, supposed to be murdered, 
 and Archibald Trailor, Henry Trailor, and William 
 Trailor, supposed to have murdered him. The three 
 Trailors are brothers: the first, Arch., as you know, 
 lives in town; the second, Henry, in Clary's Grove; 
 and the third, William, in Warren County; and 
 Fisher, the supposed murdered, being without a 
 family, had made his home with William. On 
 Saturday evening, being the 29th of May, Fisher and 
 William came to Henry's in a one-horse dearborn, 
 and there stayed over Sunday; and on Monday all 
 three came to Springfield (Henry on horseback) 
 and joined Archibald at Myers's, the Dutch carpenter. 
 That evening at supper Fisher was missing, and so 
 next morning some ineffectual search was made for 
 him; and on Tuesday, at one o'clock p.m., William 
 and Henry started home without him. In a day or 
 two Henry and one or two of his Clary-Grove 
 neighbors came back for him again, and advertised 
 his disappearance in the papers. The knowledge of 
 the matter thus far had not been general, and here it 
 
244 The Writings of 
 
 dropped entirely, till about the ioth instant, when 
 Keys received a letter from the postmaster in Warren 
 County, that William had arrived at home, and was 
 telling a very mysterious and improbable story about 
 the disappearance of Fisher, which induced the com- 
 munity there to suppose he had been disposed of 
 unfairly. Keys made this letter public, which im- 
 mediately set the whole town and adjoining county 
 agog. And so it has continued until yesterday. 
 The mass of the people commenced a systematic 
 search for the dead body, while Wickersham was 
 despatched to arrest Henry Trailor at the Grove, 
 and Jim Maxcy to Warren to arrest William. On 
 Monday last, Henry was brought in, and showed an 
 evident inclination to insinuate that he knew Fisher 
 to be dead, and that Arch, and William had killed 
 him. He said he guessed the body could be found 
 in Spring Creek, between the Beardstown road and 
 Hickox's mill. Away the people swept like a herd 
 of buffalo, and cut down Hickox's mill-dam nolens 
 volens f to draw the water out of the pond, and then 
 went up and down and down and up the creek, 
 fishing and raking, and raking and ducking and 
 diving for two days, and, after all, no dead body 
 found. 
 
 In the meantime a sort of scuffling-ground had 
 been found in the brush in the angle, or point, where 
 the road leading into the woods past the brewery 
 and the one leading in past the brick-yard meet. 
 From the scuffle-ground was the sign of something 
 about the size of a man having been dragged to the 
 edge of the thicket, where it joined the track of some 
 
Abraham Lincoln 245 
 
 small-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse, as shown 
 by the road-tracks. The carriage-track led off 
 toward Spring Creek. Near this drag-trail Dr. 
 Merryman found two hairs, which, after a long 
 scientific examination, he pronounced to be triangu- 
 lar human hairs, which term, he says, includes within 
 it the whiskers, the hair growing under the arms and 
 on other parts of the body ; and he judged that these 
 two were of the whiskers, because the ends were cut, 
 showing that they had flourished in the neighborhood 
 of the razor's operations. On Thursday last Jim 
 Maxcy brought in William Trailor from Warren. On 
 the same day Arch, was arrested and put in jail. 
 Yesterday (Friday) William was put upon his exam- 
 ining trial before May and Lovely. Archibald and 
 Henry were both present. Lamborn prosecuted, 
 and Logan, Baker, and your humble servant de- 
 fended. A great many witnesses were introduced 
 and examined, but I shall only mention those whose 
 testimony seemed most important. The first of 
 these was Captain Ransdell. He swore that when 
 William and Henry left Springfield for home on 
 Tuesday before mentioned they did not take the 
 direct route, — which, you know, leads by the butcher 
 shop, — but that they followed the street north until 
 they got opposite, or nearly opposite, May's new 
 house, after which he could not see them from where 
 he stood ; and it was afterwards proved that in about 
 an hour after they started, they came into the street 
 by the butcher shop from toward the brick-yard. 
 Dr. Merryman and others swore to what is stated 
 about the scuffle-ground, drag-trail, whiskers, and 
 
246 The Writings of 
 
 carriage-tracks. Henry was then introduced by the 
 prosecution. He swore that when they started for 
 home they went out north, as Ransdell stated, and 
 turned down west by the brick-yard into the woods, 
 and there met Archibald; that they proceeded a 
 small distance farther, when he was placed as a 
 sentinel to watch for and announce the approach of 
 any one that might happen that way; that William 
 and Arch, took the dearborn out of the road a small 
 distance to the edge of the thicket, where they 
 stopped, and he saw them lift the body of a man into 
 it ; that they then moved off with the carriage in the 
 direction of Hickox's mill, and he loitered about for 
 something like an hour, when William returned with 
 the carriage, but without Arch., and said they had 
 put him in a safe place ; that they went somehow — 
 he did not know exactly how — into the road close to 
 the brewery, and proceeded on to Clary's Grove. 
 He also stated that some time during the day William 
 told him that he and Arch, had killed Fisher the 
 evening before; that the way they did it was by 
 him (William) knocking him down with a club, and 
 Arch, then choking him to death. 
 
 An old man from Warren, called Dr. Gilmore, was 
 then introduced on the part of the defence. He 
 swore that he had known Fisher for several years; 
 that Fisher had resided at his house a long time at 
 each of two different spells — once while he built a 
 barn for him, and once while he was doctored for 
 some chronic disease; that two or three years ago 
 Fisher had a serious hurt in his head by the bursting 
 of a gun, since which he had been subject to continued 
 
Abraham Lincoln 247 
 
 bad health and occasional aberration of mind. He 
 also stated that on last Tuesday, being the same day 
 that Maxcy arrested William Trailor, he (the doctor) 
 was from home in the early part of the day, and on 
 his return, about eleven o'clock, found Fisher at his 
 house in bed, and apparently very unwell; that he 
 asked him how he came from Springfield ; that 
 Fisher said he had come by Peoria, and also told of 
 several other places he had been at more in the direc- 
 tion of Peoria, which showed that he at the' time of 
 speaking did not know where he had been wandering 
 about in a state of derangement. He further stated 
 that in about two hours he received a note from one 
 of Trailor's friends, advising him of his arrest, and 
 requesting him to go on to Springfield as a witness, 
 to testify as to the state of Fisher's health in former 
 times; that he immediately set off, calling up two 
 of his neighbors as company, and, riding all even- 
 ing and all night, overtook Maxcy and William at 
 Lewiston in Fulton County ; that Maxcy refusing to 
 discharge Trailor upon his statement, his two neigh- 
 bors returned and he came on to Springfield. Some 
 question being made as to whether the doctor's 
 story was not a fabrication, several acquaintances of 
 his (among whom was the same postmaster who 
 wrote Keys, as before mentioned) were introduced as 
 sort of compurgators, who swore that they knew the 
 doctor to be of good character for truth and veracity, 
 and generally of good character in every way. 
 Here the testimony ended, and the Trailors were dis- 
 charged, Arch, and William expressing both in word 
 and manner their entire confidence that Fisher would 
 
248 The Writings of 
 
 be found alive at the doctor's by Galloway, Mallory, 
 and Myers, who a day before had been despatched 
 for that purpose; while Henry still protested that 
 no power on earth could ever show Fisher alive. 
 Thus stands this curious affair. When the doctor's 
 story was first made public, it was amusing to scan 
 and contemplate the countenances and hear the 
 remarks of those who had been actively in search for 
 the dead body: some looked quizzical, some melan- 
 choly, and some furiously angry. Porter, who had 
 been very active, swore he always knew the man was 
 not dead, and that he had not stirred an inch to 
 hunt for him; Langford, who had taken the lead in 
 cutting down Hickox's mill-dam, and wanted to hang 
 Hickox for objecting, looked most awfully woe- 
 begone : he seemed the ' ' victim of unrequited affec- 
 tion," as represented in the comic almanacs we used 
 to laugh over; and Hart, the little drayman that 
 hauled Molly home once, said it was too damned bad 
 to have so much trouble, and no hanging after all. 
 
 I commenced this letter on yesterday, since which 
 I received yours of the 13th. I stick to my promise 
 to come to Louisville. Nothing new here except 
 
 what I have written. I have not seen since my 
 
 last trip, and I am going out there as soon as I mail 
 this letter. Yours forever, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. 
 
 June 25, 1841. 
 
 It having been charged in some of the public prints 
 that Harry Wilton, late United States marshal for 
 
Abraham Lincoln 249 
 
 the district of Illinois, had used his office for political 
 effect, in the appointment of deputies for the taking 
 of the census for the year 1840,. we, the undersigned, 
 were called upon by Mr. Wilton to examine the 
 papers in his possession relative to these appoint- 
 ments, and to ascertain therefrom the correctness 
 or incorrectness of such charge. We accompanied 
 Mr. Wilton to a room, and examined the matter as 
 fully as we could with the means afforded us. The 
 only sources of information bearing on the subject 
 which were submitted to us were the letters, etc., 
 recommending and opposing the various appoint- 
 ments made, and Mr. Wilton's verbal statements 
 concerning the same. From these letters, etc., it 
 appears that in some instances appointments were 
 made in accordance with the recommendations of 
 leading Whigs, and in opposition to those of leading 
 Democrats; among which instances the appoint- 
 ments at Scott, Wayne, Madison, and Lawrence are 
 the strongest. According to Mr. Wilton's statement 
 of the seventy-six appointments we examined, fifty- 
 four were of Democrats, eleven of Whigs, and eleven 
 of unknown politics. 
 
 The chief ground of complaint against Mr. Wilton, 
 as we had understood it, was because of his appoint- 
 ment of so many Democratic candidates for the 
 Legislature, thus giving them a decided advantage 
 over their Whig opponents; and consequently our 
 attention was directed rather particularly to that 
 point. We found that there were many such ap- 
 pointments, among which were those in Tazewell, 
 McLean, Iroquois, Coles, Menard, Wayne, Washington, 
 
250 The Writings of 
 
 ton, Fayette, etc. ; and we did not learn that there 
 was one instance in which a Whig candidate for the 
 Legislature had been appointed. There was no 
 written evidence before us showing us at what time 
 those appointments were made; but Mr. Wilton 
 stated that they all with one exception were made 
 before those appointed became candidates for the 
 Legislature, and the letters, etc., recommending them 
 all bear date before, and most of them long before, 
 those appointed were publicly announced candidates. 
 We give the foregoing naked facts and draw no 
 conclusions from them. 
 
 Benj. S. Edwards, 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 TO MISS MARY SPEED. 
 
 Bloomington, III., September 27, 1841. 
 
 Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. 
 My Friend: 
 
 By the way, a fine example was presented on board 
 the boat for contemplating the effect of condition 
 upon human happiness. A gentleman had pur- 
 chased twelve negroes in different parts of Kentucky, 
 and was taking them to a farm in the South. They 
 were chained six and six together. A small iron 
 clevis was around the left wrist of each, and this 
 fastened to the main chain by a shorter one, at a 
 convenient distance from the others, so that the 
 negroes were strung together precisely like so many 
 fish upon a trot-line. In this condition they were 
 
Abraham Lincoln 251 
 
 being separated forever from the scenes of their 
 childhood, their friends, their fathers and mothers, 
 and brothers and sisters, and many of them from 
 their wives and children, and going into perpetual 
 slavery where the lash of the master is proverbially 
 more ruthless and unrelenting than any other where ; 
 and yet amid all these distressing circumstances, as 
 we would think them, they were the most cheerful 
 and apparently happy creatures on board. One, 
 whose offence for which he had been sold was an over- 
 fondness for his wife, played the fiddle almost con- 
 tinually, and the others danced, sang, cracked jokes, 
 and played various games with cards from day to 
 day. How true it is that ' God tempers the wind to 
 the shorn lamb,' or in other words, that he renders 
 the worst of human conditions tolerable, while he 
 permits the best to be nothing better than tolerable. 
 To return to the narrative: When we reached 
 Springfield I stayed but one day, when I started on 
 this tedious circuit where I now am. Do you re- 
 member my going to the city, while I was in Ken- 
 tucky, to have a tooth extracted, and making a 
 failure of it? Well, that same old tooth got to 
 paining me so much that about a week since I had it 
 torn out, bringing with it a bit of the jawbone, the 
 consequence of which is that my mouth is now so 
 sore that I can neither talk nor eat. 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
252 The Writings of 
 
 CALL FOR WHIG STATE CONVENTION. 
 
 The undersigned, acting, as is believed, in accord- 
 ance with the wishes of the Whig party, and in 
 compliance with their duties as the Whig Central 
 Committee of this State, appoint the third Monday 
 of December next for the meeting of a Whig State 
 convention, at Springfield, for the purpose of nomi- 
 nating candidates for the offices of Governor and 
 Lieutenant-Governor of this State for the coming 
 election. 
 
 It is recommended that the number of delegates to 
 the convention shall conform to the number of repre- 
 sentatives entitled under the new apportionment; 
 but that in all cases every county shall be entitled 
 to one delegate. 
 
 We would urge upon our political friends in the 
 different counties to call meetings immediately for 
 the election of delegates. 
 
 It is ardently hoped that the counties will be fully 
 represented, in order that the will of the people may 
 be expressed in the selection of candidates. 
 
 A. G. Henry, J. F. Speed, A. Lincoln, 
 E. D. Baker, Wm. L. May, 
 
 Whig State Central Committee. 
 
 Springfield, Oct. 20, 1841. 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 January [3?], 1842. 
 
 My dear Speed : — Feeling, as you know I do, the 
 deepest solicitude for the success of the enterprise you 
 
Abraham Lincoln 253 
 
 are engaged in, I adopt this as the last method I can 
 adopt to aid you, in case (which God forbid!) you 
 shall need any aid. I do not place what I am going 
 to say on paper because I can say it better that way 
 than I could by word of mouth, but, were I to say it 
 orally before we part, most likely you would forget 
 it at the very time when it might do you some good. 
 As I think it reasonable that you will feel very badly 
 some time between this and the final consummation 
 of your purpose, it is intended that you shall read 
 this just at such a time. Why I say it is reasonable 
 that you will feel very badly yet, is because of three 
 special causes added to the general one which I shall 
 mention. 
 
 The general cause is, that you are naturally of a 
 nervous temperament; and this I say from what I 
 have seen of you personally, and what you have told 
 me concerning your mother at various times, and 
 concerning your brother William at the time his 
 wife died. The first special cause is your exposure 
 to bad weather on your journey, which my experience 
 clearly proves to be very severe on defective nerves. 
 The second is the absence of all business and conver- 
 sation of friends, which might divert your mind, give 
 it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which 
 will sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare 
 and turn it to the bitterness of death. The third is 
 the rapid and near approach of that crisis on which 
 all your thoughts and feelings concentrate. 
 
 If from all these causes you shall escape and 
 go through triumphantly, without another " twinge 
 of the soul," I shall be most happily but most 
 
254 The Writings of 
 
 egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, you shall, 
 as I expect you will at sometime, be agonized and dis- 
 tressed, let me, who have some reason to speak with 
 judgment on such a subject, beseech you to ascribe 
 it to the causes I have mentioned, and not to some 
 false and ruinous suggestion of the Devil. 
 
 ''But," you will say, "do not your causes apply to 
 every one engaged in a like undertaking?" By no 
 means. The particular causes, to a greater or less 
 extent, perhaps do apply in all cases ; but the general 
 one, — nervous debility, which is the key and con- 
 ductor of all the particular ones, and without which 
 they would be utterly harmless, — though it does per- 
 tain to you, does not pertain to one in a thousand. 
 It is out of this that the painful difference between 
 you and the mass of the world springs. 
 
 I know what the painful point with you is at all 
 times when you are unhappy ; it is an apprehension 
 that you do not love her as you should. What 
 nonsense! How came you to court her? Was it 
 because you thought she deserved it, and that you 
 had given her reason to expect it ? If it was for that 
 why did not the same reason make you court Ann 
 Todd, and at least twenty others of whom you can 
 think, and to whom it would apply with greater 
 force than to her ? Did you court her for her wealth ? 
 Why, you know she had none. But you say you 
 reasoned yourself into it. What do you mean by 
 that ? Was it not that you found yourself unable to 
 reason yourself out of it? Did you not think, and 
 partly form the purpose, of courting her the first 
 time you ever saw her or heard of her? What had 
 
Abraham Lincoln 255 
 
 reason to do with it at that early stage ? There was 
 nothing at that time for reason to work upon. 
 Whether she was moral, amiable, sensible, or even of 
 good character, you did not, nor could then know, 
 except, perhaps, you might infer the last from the 
 company you found her in. 
 
 All you then did or could know of her was her 
 personal appearance and deportment; and these, if 
 they impress at all, impress the heart, and not the 
 head. 
 
 Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes 
 the whole basis of all your early reasoning on the 
 subject? After you and I had once been at the ' 
 residence, did you not go and take me all the way to 
 Lexington and back, for no other purpose but to get 
 to see her again, on our return on that evening to 
 take a trip for that express object? What earthly 
 consideration would you take to find her scouting and 
 despising you, and giving herself up to another? 
 But of this you have no apprehension ; and therefore 
 you cannot bring it home to your feelings. 
 
 I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want 
 you to write by every mail. Your friend, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, February 3, 1842. 
 
 Dear Speed: — Your letter of the 25th January 
 came to hand to-day. You well knew that I do not 
 feel my own sorrows much more keenly than I do 
 yours, when I know of them; and yet I assure you I 
 
256 The Writings of 
 
 was not much hurt by what you wrote me of your 
 excessively bad feeling at the time you wrote. Not 
 that I am less capable of sympathizing with you now 
 than ever, not that I am less your friend than ever, 
 but because I hope and believe that your present 
 anxiety and distress about her health and her life 
 must and will forever banish those horrid doubts 
 which I know you sometimes felt as to the truth of 
 your affection for her. If they can once and forever 
 be removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that 
 the Almighty has sent your present affliction ex- 
 pressly for that object), surely nothing can come in 
 their stead to fill their immeasurable measure of 
 misery. The death-scenes of those we love are surely 
 painful enough; but these we are prepared for and 
 expect to see : they happen to all, and all know they 
 must happen. Painful as they are, they are not an 
 unlooked-for sorrow. Should she, as you fear, be 
 destined to an early grave, it is indeed a great con- 
 solation to know that she is so well prepared to meet 
 it. Her religion, which you once disliked so much, I 
 will venture you now prize most highly. But I hope 
 your melancholy bodings as to her early death are not 
 well founded. I even hope that ere this reaches you 
 she will have returned with improved and still im- 
 proving health, and that you will have met her, and 
 forgotten the sorrows of the past in the enjoyments 
 of the present. I would say more if I could, but it 
 seems that I have said enough. It really appears to 
 me that you yourself ought to rejoice, and not sorrow, 
 at this indubitable evidence of your undying affec- 
 tion for her. Why, Speed, if you did not love her, 
 
Abraham Lincoln 257 
 
 although you might not wish her death, you would 
 most certainly be resigned to it. Perhaps this point 
 is no longer a question with you, and my pertinacious 
 dwelling upon it is a rude intrusion upon your feel- 
 ings. If so, you must pardon me. You know the 
 hell I have suffered on that point, and how tender I 
 am upon it. You know I do not mean wrong. I 
 have been quite clear of "hypo" since you left, 
 even better than I was along in the fall. I have seen 
 
 but once. She seemed very cheerful, and so I 
 
 said nothing to her about what we spoke of. 
 
 Old Uncle Billy Herndon is dead, and it is said this 
 evening that Uncle Ben Ferguson will not live. 
 This, I believe, is all the news, and enough at that 
 unless it were better. Write me immediately on the 
 receipt of this. Your friend, as ever, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, February 13, 1842. 
 
 Dear Speed: — Yours of the ist instant came to 
 hand three or four days ago. When this shall reach 
 you, you will have been Fanny's husband several 
 days. You know my desire to befriend you is ever- 
 lasting ; that I will never cease while I know how to 
 do anything. But you will always hereafter be on 
 ground that I have never occupied, and consequently, 
 if advice were needed, I might advise wrong. I do 
 fondly hope, however, that you will never again need 
 any comfort from abroad. But should I be mistaken 
 in this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied 
 
 VOL.1. — 17. 
 
258 The Writings of 
 
 with a painful counterpart at times, still let me urge 
 you, as I have ever done, to remember, in the depth 
 and even agony of despondency, that very shortly 
 you are to feel well again. I am now fully convinced 
 that you love her as ardently as you are capable of 
 loving. Your ever being happy in her presence, and 
 your intense anxiety about her health, if there were 
 nothing else, would place this beyond all dispute in 
 my mind. I incline to think it probable that your 
 nerves will fail you occasionally for a while; but 
 once you get them firmly guarded now that trouble 
 is over forever. I think, if I were you, in case my 
 mind were not exactly right, I would avoid being idle. 
 I would immediately engage in some business, or go 
 to making preparations for it, which would be the 
 same thing. If you went through the ceremony 
 calmly, or even with sufficient composure not to 
 excite alarm in any present, you are safe beyond 
 question, and in two or three months, to say the 
 most, will be the happiest of men. 
 
 I would desire you to give my particular respects 
 to Fanny ; but perhaps you will not wish her to know 
 you have received this, lest she should desire to see it. 
 Make her write me an answer to my last letter to 
 her ; at any rate I would set great value upon a note 
 or letter from her. Write me whenever you have 
 leisure. 
 
 Yours forever, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 P. S. — I have been quite a man since you left. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 259 
 
 TO G. B. SHELEDY. 
 
 Springfield, III., Feby. 16, 1842. 
 
 G. B. Sheledy, Esq. : 
 
 Yours of the ioth is duly received. Judge Logan 
 and myself are doing business together now, and we 
 are willing to attend to your cases as you propose. 
 As to the terms, we are willing to attend each 
 case you prepare and send us for $10 (when there 
 shall be no opposition) to be sent in advance, or you 
 to know that it is safe. It takes $5.75 of cost to 
 start upon, that is, $1.75 to clerk, and $2 to each of 
 two publishers of papers. Judge Logan thinks it will 
 take the balance of $20 to carry a case through. This 
 must be advanced from time to time as the services 
 are performed, as the officers will not act without. I 
 do not know whether you can be admitted an attorney 
 of the Federal court in your absence or not ; nor is 
 it material, as the business can be done in our names. 
 
 Thinking it may aid you a little, I send you one 
 of our blank forms of Petitions. It, you will see, is 
 framed to be sworn to before the Federal court clerk, 
 and, in your cases, will have [to] be so far changed 
 as to be sworn to before the clerk of your circuit 
 court ; and his certificate must be accompanied with 
 his official seal. The schedules, too, must be attended 
 to. Be sure that they contain the creditors' names, 
 their residences, the amounts due each, the debtors' 
 names, their residences, and the amounts they owe, 
 also all property and where located. 
 
 Also be sure that the schedules are all signed by 
 the applicants as well as the Petition. 
 
260 The Writings of 
 
 Publication will have to be made here in one paper, 
 and in one nearest the residence of the applicant. 
 Write us in each case where the last advertisement 
 is to be sent, whether to you or to what paper. 
 
 I believe I have now said everything that can be of 
 any advantage. 
 
 Your friend as ever, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 TO GEORGE E. PICKETT. 
 
 February 22, 1842. 
 
 I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially 
 if you have got a bad memory, is the worst enemy a 
 fellow can have. The fact is truth is your truest 
 friend, no matter what the circumstances are. Not- 
 withstanding this copy-book preamble, my boy, I 
 am inclined to suggest a little prudence on your part. 
 You see I have a congenital aversion to failure, and 
 the sudden announcement to your Uncle Andrew of 
 the success of your "lamp rubbing" might possibly 
 prevent your passing the severe physical examina- 
 tion to which you will be subjected in order to enter 
 the Military Academy. You see I should like to 
 have a perfect soldier credited 1 o dear old Illinois — 
 no broken bones, scalp wounds, etc. So I think it 
 might be wise to hand this letter from me in to your 
 good uncle through his room-window after he has had 
 a comfortable dinner, and watch its effect from the top 
 of the pigeon-house. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 261 
 
 I have just told the folks here in Springfield on 
 this 1 nth anniversary of the birth of him whose 
 name, mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still 
 mightiest in the cause of moral reformation, we 
 mention in solemn awe, in naked, deathless splendor, 
 that the one victory we can ever call complete will be 
 that one which proclaims that there is not one slave 
 or one drunkard on the face of God's green earth. 
 Recruit for this victory. 
 
 Now, boy, on your march, don't you go and forget 
 the old maxim that ' ' one drop of honey catches more 
 flies than a half -gallon of gall." Load your musket 
 with this maxim, and smoke it in your pipe. 
 
 ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN 
 TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 22, 1842. 
 
 Although the temperance cause has been in pro- 
 gress for near twenty years, it is apparent to all that 
 it is just now being crowned with a degree of suc- 
 cess hitherto unparalleled. 
 
 The list of its friends is daily swelled by the addi- 
 tions of fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands. The 
 cause itself seems suddenly transformed from a cold 
 abstract theory to a living, breathing, active, and 
 powerful chieftain, going forth "conquering and to 
 conquer." The citadels of his great adversary 
 are daily being stormed and dismantled ; his temple 
 and his altars, where the rites of his idolatrous wor- 
 ship have long been performed, and where human 
 
262 The Writings of 
 
 sacrifices have long been wont to be made, are 
 daily desecrated and deserted. The triumph of the 
 conqueror's fame is sounding from hill to hill, from 
 sea to sea, and from land to land, and calling millions 
 to his standard at a blast. 
 
 For this new and splendid success we heartily re- 
 joice. That that success is so much greater now than 
 heretofore is doubtless owing to rational causes ; and 
 if we would have it continue, we shall do well to 
 inquire what those causes are. 
 
 The warfare heretofore waged against the demon 
 intemperance has somehow or other been erroneous. 
 Either the champions engaged or the tactics they 
 adopted have not been the most proper. These 
 champions for the most part have been preachers, 
 lawyers, and hired agents. Between these and the 
 mass of mankind there is a want of approachability, 
 if the term be admissible, partially, at least, fatal to 
 their success. They are supposed to have no sym- 
 pathy of feeling or interest with those very persons 
 whom it is their object to convince and persuade. 
 
 And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe 
 motives to men of these classes other than those they 
 profess to act upon. The preacher, it is said, ad- 
 vocates temperance because he is a fanatic, and 
 desires a union of the Church and State; the lawyer 
 from his pride and vanity of hearing himself speak; 
 and the hired agent for his salary. But when one 
 who has long been known as a victim of intemperance 
 bursts the fetters that have bound him, and appears 
 before his neighbors "clothed and in his right mind," 
 a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and 
 
Abraham Lincoln 263 
 
 stands up, with tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to 
 tell of the miseries once endured, now to be endured 
 no more forever; of his once naked and starving 
 children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife 
 long weighed down with woe, weeping, and a broken 
 heart, now restored to health, happiness, and a 
 renewed affection ; and how easily it is all done, once 
 it is resolved to be done ; how simple his language ! — 
 there is a logic and an eloquence in it that few with 
 human feelings can resist. They cannot say that he 
 desires a union of Church and State, for he is not a 
 church member ; they cannot say he is vain of hearing 
 himself speak, for his whole demeanor shows he would 
 gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot say he 
 speaks for pay, for he receives none, and asks for 
 none. Nor can his sincerity in any way be doubted, 
 or his sympathy for those he would persuade to 
 imitate his example be denied. 
 
 In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new 
 class of champions that our late success is greatly, 
 perhaps chiefly, owing. But, had the old-school 
 champions themselves been of the most wise select- 
 ing, was their system of tactics the most judicious? 
 It seems to me it was not. Too much denunciation 
 against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers was indulged 
 in. This I think was both impolitic and unjust. It 
 was impolitic, because it is not much in the nature of 
 man to be driven to anything; still less to be driven 
 about that which is exclusively his own business; 
 and least of all where such driving is to be submitted 
 to at the expense of pecuniary interest or burning 
 appetite. When the dram-seller and drinker were 
 
264 The Writings of 
 
 incessantly told — not in accents of entreaty and per- 
 suasion, diffidently addressed by erring man to an 
 erring brother, but in the thundering tones of 
 anathema and denunciation with which the lordly 
 judge often groups together all the crimes of the 
 felon's life, and thrusts them in his face just ere he 
 passes sentence of death upon him — that they were 
 the authors of all the vice and misery and crime in 
 the land; that they were the manufacturers and 
 material of all the thieves and robbers and murderers 
 that infest the earth; that their houses were the 
 workshops of the devil ; and that their persons should 
 be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as moral 
 pestilences — I say, when they were told all this, and 
 in this way, it is not wonderful that they were slow 
 to acknowledge the truth of such denunciations, and 
 to join the ranks of their denouncers in a hue and 
 cry against themselves. 
 
 To have expected them to do otherwise than they 
 did — to have expected them not to meet denuncia- 
 tion with denunciation, crimination with crimina- 
 tion, and anathema with anathema — was to expect 
 a reversal of human nature, which is God's decree 
 and can never be reversed. 
 
 When the conduct of men is designed to be influ- 
 enced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, 
 should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true 
 maxim that ' ' a drop of honey catches more flies than 
 a gallon of gall." So with men. If you would win 
 a man to your cause, first convince him that you are 
 his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that 
 catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the 
 
Abraham Lincoln 265 
 
 great highroad to his reason, and which, when once 
 gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing 
 his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed 
 that cause really be a just one. On the contrary, 
 assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command 
 his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and 
 despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all 
 the avenues to his head and his heart; and though 
 your cause be naked truth itself, transformed to the 
 heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper than 
 steel can be made, and though you throw it with 
 more than herculean force and precision, you shall be 
 no more able to pierce him than to penetrate the hard 
 shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and 
 so must he be understood by those who would lead 
 him, even to his own best interests. 
 
 On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel 
 the temperance advocates of former times. Those 
 whom they desire to convince and persuade are their 
 old friends and companions. They know they are 
 not demons, nor even the worst of men ; they know 
 that generally they are kind, generous, and charitable 
 even beyond the example of their more staid and 
 sober neighbors. They are practical philanthro- 
 pists ; and they glow with a generous and brotherly 
 zeal that mere theorizers are incapable of feeling. 
 Benevolence and charity possess their hearts entirely ; 
 and out of the abundance of their hearts their tongues 
 give utterance; "love through all their actions 
 runs, and all their words are mild." In this spirit 
 they speak and act, and in the same they are heard 
 and regarded. And when such is the temper of the 
 
266 The Writings of 
 
 advocate, and such of the audience, no good cause 
 can be unsuccessful. But I have said that denuncia- 
 tions against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers are 
 unjust, as well as impolitic. Let us see. I have not 
 inquired at what period of time the use of intoxicat- 
 ing liquors commenced ; nor is it important to know. 
 It is sufficient that, to all of us who now inhabit the 
 world, the practice of drinking them is just as old as 
 the world itself — that is, we have seen the one just as 
 long as we have seen the other. When all such of us 
 as have now reached the years of maturity first 
 opened our eyes upon the stage of existence, we 
 found intoxicating liquor recognized by everybody, 
 used by everybody, repudiated by nobody. It com- 
 monly entered into the first draught of the infant 
 and the last draught of the dying man. From the 
 sideboard of the parson down to the ragged pocket 
 of the houseless loafer, it was constantly found. 
 Physicians prescribed it in this, that, and the other 
 disease; government provided it for soldiers and 
 sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking 
 or "hoedown," anywhere about without it was posi- 
 tively insufferable. So, too, it was everywhere a 
 respectable article of manufacture and merchandise. 
 The making of it was regarded as an honorable liveli- 
 hood, and he who could make most was the most 
 enterprising and respectable. Large and small man- 
 ufactories of it were everywhere erected, in which 
 all the earthly goods of their owners were invested. 
 Wagons drew it from town to town; boats bore it 
 from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from 
 nation to nation ; and merchants bought and sold it, 
 
Abraham Lincoln 267 
 
 by wholesale and retail, with precisely the same 
 feelings on the part of the seller, buyer, and bystander 
 as are felt at the selling and buying of ploughs, beef, 
 bacon, or any other of the real necessaries of life. 
 Universal public opinion not only tolerated but 
 recognized and adopted its use. 
 
 It is true that even then it was known and ac- 
 knowledged that many were greatly injured by it; 
 but none seemed to think the injury arose from the 
 use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very good 
 thing. The victims of it were to be pitied and com- 
 passionated, just as are the heirs of consumption and 
 other hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated 
 as a misfortune, and not as a crime, or even as a dis- 
 grace. If, then, what I have been saying is true, 
 is it wonderful that some should think and act now 
 as all thought and acted twenty years ago ? and is it 
 just to assail, condemn, or despise them for doing so ? 
 The universal sense of mankind on any subject is an 
 argument, or at least an influence, not easily over- 
 come.' The success of the argument in favor of the 
 existence of an overruling Providence mainly de- 
 pends upon that sense ; and men ought not in justice 
 to be denounced for yielding to it in any case, or 
 giving it up slowly, especially when they are backed 
 by interest, fixed habits, or burning appetites. 
 
 Another error, as it seems to me, into which the 
 old reformers fell, was the position that all habitual 
 drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and therefore 
 must be turned adrift and damned without remedy 
 in order that the grace of temperance might abound, 
 to the temperate then, and to all mankind some 
 
268 The Writings of 
 
 hundreds of years thereafter. There is in this some- 
 thing so repugnant to humanity, so uncharitable, so 
 cold-blooded and feelingless, that it never did nor 
 ever can enlist the enthusiasm of a popular cause. 
 We could not love the man who taught it — we could 
 not hear him with patience. The heart could not 
 throw open its portals to it, the generous man could 
 not adopt it — it could not mix with his blood. It 
 looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing fathers 
 and brothers overboard to lighten the boat for our 
 security, that the noble-minded shrank from the 
 manifest meanness of the thing. And besides this, 
 the benefits of a reformation to be effected by such 
 a system were too remote in point of time to warmly 
 engage many in its behalf. Few can be induced to 
 labor exclusively for posterity, and none will do it 
 enthusiastically. Posterity has done nothing for us ; 
 and, theorize on it as we may, practically we shall do 
 very little for it, unless we are made to think we are 
 at the same time doing something for ourselves. 
 
 What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit 
 to ask or to expect a whole community to rise up and 
 labor for the temporal happiness of others, after 
 themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a majority 
 of which community take no pains whatever to 
 secure their own eternal welfare at no more distant 
 day! Great distance in either time or space has 
 wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the 
 human mind. Pleasures to be enjoyed, or pains to 
 be endured, after we shall be dead and gone are but 
 little regarded even in our own cases, and much less 
 in the cases of others. Still, in addition to this there 
 
Abraham Lincoln 269 
 
 is something so ludicrous in promises of good or 
 threats of evil a great way off as to render the whole 
 subject with which they are connected easily turned 
 into ridicule. " Better lay down that spade you are 
 stealing, Paddy; if you don't you '11 pay for it at the 
 day of judgment.' ' "Be the powers, if ye '11 credit 
 me so long I '11 take another jist." 
 
 By the Washingtonians this system of consigning 
 the habitual drunkard to hopeless ruin is repudiated. 
 They adopt a more enlarged philanthropy; they go 
 for present as well as future good. They labor for 
 all now living, as well as hereafter to live. They 
 teach hope to all — despair to none. As applying to 
 their cause, they deny the doctrine of unpardonable 
 sin; as in Christianity it is taught, so in this they 
 teach — " While the lamp holds out to burn, The 
 vilest sinner may return." And, what is a matter 
 of more profound congratulation, they, by experi- 
 ment upon experiment and example upon example, 
 prove the maxim to be no less true in the one case 
 than in the other. On every hand we behold those 
 who but yesterday were the chief of sinners, now the 
 chief apostles of the cause. Drunken devils are cast 
 out by ones, by sevens, by legions ; and their unfortu- 
 nate victims, like the poor possessed who were re- 
 deemed from their long and lonely wanderings in 
 the tombs, are publishing to the ends of the earth 
 how great things have been done for them. 
 
 To these new champions and this new system of 
 tactics our late success is mainly owing, and to them 
 we must mainly look for the final consummation. 
 The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and none are so 
 
270 The Writings of 
 
 able as they to increase its speed and its bulk, to add 
 to its momentum and its magnitude — even though 
 unlearned in letters, for this task none are so well 
 educated. To fit them for this work they have been 
 taught in the true school. They have been in that 
 gulf from which they would teach others the means 
 of escape. They have passed that prison wall 
 which others have long declared impassable; and 
 who that has not shall dare to weigh dpinions with 
 them as to the mode of passing ? 
 
 But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who 
 have suffered by intemperance personally, and have 
 reformed, are the most powerful and efficient instru- 
 ments to push the reformation to ultimate success, it 
 does not follow that those who have not suffered 
 have no part left them to perform. Whether or not 
 the world would be vastly benefited by a total and 
 final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks 
 seems to me not now an open question. Three 
 fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their 
 tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in 
 their hearts. 
 
 Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what 
 good the good of the whole demands ? Shall he who 
 cannot do much be for that reason excused if he do 
 nothing? "But," says one, "what good can I do by 
 signing the pledge? I never drank, even without 
 signing." This question has already been asked and 
 answered more than a million of times. Let it be 
 answered once more. For the man suddenly or in 
 any other way to break off from the use of drams, 
 who has indulged in them for a long course of years 
 
Abraham Lincoln 271 
 
 and until his appetite for them has grown ten- or a 
 hundred-fold stronger and more craving than any- 
 natural appetite can be, requires a most powerful 
 moral effort. In such an undertaking he needs every 
 moral support and influence that can possibly be 
 brought to his aid and thrown around him. And not 
 only so, but every moral prop should be taken from 
 whatever argument might rise in his mind to lure 
 him to his backsliding. When he casts his eyes 
 around him, he should be able to see all , that he 
 respects, all that he admires, all that he loves, kind- 
 ly and anxiously pointing him onward, and none 
 beckoning him back to his former miserable "wal- 
 lowing in the mire." 
 
 But it is said by some that men will think and act 
 for themselves; that none will disuse spirits or 
 anything else because his neighbors do; and that 
 moral influence is not that powerful engine contended 
 for. Let us examine this. Let me ask the man 
 who could maintain this position most stiffly, what 
 compensation he will accept to go to church some 
 Sunday and sit during the sermon with his wife's 
 bonnet upon his head? Not a trifle, I '11 venture. 
 And why not? There would be nothing irreligious 
 in it, nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable — 
 then why not? Is it not because there would be 
 something egregiously unfashionable in it? Then 
 it is the influence of fashion ; and what is the influ- 
 ence of fashion but the influence that other people's 
 actions have on our actions — the strong inclina- 
 tion each of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors 
 do ? Nor is the influence of fashion confined to any 
 
272 The Writings of 
 
 particular thing or class of things ; it is just as strong 
 on one subject as another. Let us make it as un- 
 fashionable to withhold our names from the temper- 
 ance cause as for husbands to wear their wives' 
 bonnets to church, and instances will be just as rare 
 in the one case as the other. 
 
 "But," say some, "we are no drunkards, and we 
 shall not acknowledge ourselves such by joining a 
 reformed drunkard's society, whatever our influence 
 might be." Surely no Christian will adhere to this 
 objection. If they believe as they profess, that 
 Omnipotence condescended to take on himself the 
 form of sinful man, and as such to die an ignominious 
 death for their sakes, surely they will not refuse sub- 
 mission to the infinitely lesser condescension, for the 
 temporal, and perhaps eternal, salvation of a large, 
 erring, and unfortunate class of their fellow-creatures. 
 Nor is the condescension very great. In my judg- 
 ment such of us as have never fallen victims have 
 been spared more by the absence of appetite than 
 from any mental or moral superiority over those who 
 have. Indeed, I believe if we take habitual drunk- 
 ards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear 
 an advantageous comparison with those of any other 
 class. There seems ever to have been a proneness in 
 the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice — 
 the demon of intemperance ever seems to have de- 
 lighted in sucking the blood of genius and of gen- 
 erosity. What one of us but can call to mind some 
 relative, more promising in youth than all his fellows, 
 who has fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity? He ever 
 seems to have gone forth like the Egyptian angel 
 
Abraham Lincoln 273 
 
 of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the 
 fairest born of every family. Shall he now be ar- 
 rested in his desolating career? In that arrest all 
 can give aid that will ; and who shall be excused that 
 can and will not ? Far around as human breath has 
 ever blown he keeps our fathers, our brothers, our 
 sons, and our friends prostrate in the chains of moral 
 death. To all the living everywhere we cry, "Come 
 sound the moral trump, that these may rise and 
 stand up an exceeding great army." "Come from 
 the four winds, O breath! and breathe upon these 
 slain that they may live." If the relative grandeur 
 of revolutions shall be estimated by the great amount 
 of human misery they alleviate, and the small 
 amount they inflict, then indeed will this be the 
 grandest the world shall ever have seen. 
 
 Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly 
 proud. It has given us a degree of political free- 
 dom far exceeding that of any other nation of the 
 earth. In it the world has found a solution of the 
 long-mooted problem as to the capability of man to 
 govern himself. In it was the germ which has 
 vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the 
 universal liberty of mankind. But, with all these 
 glorious results, past, present, and to come, it had its 
 evils too. It breathed forth famine, swam in blood, 
 and rode in fire ; and long, long after, the orphan's cry 
 and the widow's wail continued to break the sad 
 silence that ensued. These were the price, the in- 
 evitable price, paid for the blessings it bought. 
 
 Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it 
 we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler 
 
274 The Writings of 
 
 slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed ; in it, 
 more of want supplied, more disease healed, more 
 sorrow assuaged. By it no orphans starving, no 
 widows weeping. By it none wounded in feeling, 
 none injured in interest; even the dram-maker and 
 dram-seller will have glided into other occupations 
 so gradually as never to have felt the change, and will 
 stand ready to join all others in the universal song of 
 gladness. And what a noble ally this to the cause of 
 political freedom ; with such an aid its march cannot 
 fail to be on and on, till every son of earth shall drink 
 in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching draughts of 
 perfect liberty. Happy day when — all appetites 
 controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter sub- 
 jected — mind, all-conquering mind, shall live and 
 move, the monarch of the world. Glorious consum- 
 mation! Hail, fall of fury! Reign of reason, all 
 hail! 
 
 And when the victory shall be complete, — when 
 there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the 
 earth, — how proud the title of that land which may 
 truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both 
 those revolutions that shall have ended in that 
 victory. How nobly distinguished that people who 
 shall have planted and nurtured to maturity both the 
 political and moral freedom of their species. 
 
 This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of 
 the birthday of Washington; we are met to cele- 
 brate this day. Washington is the mightiest name 
 of earth — long since mightiest in the cause of civil 
 liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On 
 that name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To 
 
Abraham Lincoln 275 
 
 add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of 
 Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt 
 it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its 
 naked deathless splendor leave it shining on. 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 Springfield, February 25, 1842. 
 
 Dear Speed : — Yours of the 16th instant, announc- 
 ing that Miss Fanny and you are "no more twain, 
 but one flesh," reached me this morning. I have 
 no way of telling you how much happiness I wish 
 you both, though I believe you both can conceive it. 
 I feel somewhat jealous of both of you now: you will 
 be so exclusively concerned for one another, that I 
 shall be forgotten entirely. My acquaintance with 
 Miss Fanny (I call her this, lest you should think I 
 am speaking of your mother) was too short for me 
 to reasonably hope to long be remembered by her; 
 and still I am sure I shall not forget her soon. Try 
 if you cannot remind her of that debt she owes me — 
 and be sure you do not interfere to prevent her 
 paying it. 
 
 I regret to learn that you have resolved to not 
 return to Illinois. I shall be very lonesome without 
 you. How miserably things seem to be arranged in 
 this world! If we have no friends, we have no pleas- 
 ure ; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, 
 and be doubly pained by the loss. I did hope she 
 and you would make your home here; but I own I 
 have no right to insist. You owe obligations to her 
 
276 The Writings of 
 
 ten thousand times more sacred than you can owe 
 to others, and in that light let them be respected and 
 observed. It is natural that she should desire to 
 remain with her relatives and friends. As to friends, 
 however, she could not need them anywhere: she 
 would have them in abundance here. 
 
 Give my kind remembrance to Mr. Williamson and 
 his family, particularly Miss Elizabeth ; also to your 
 mother, brother, and sisters. Ask little Eliza Davis 
 if she will ride to town with me if I come there again. 
 And finally, give Fanny a double reciprocation of all 
 the love she sent me. Write me often, and believe 
 me 
 
 Yours forever, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 P. S. — Poor Easthouse is gone at last. He died 
 awhile before day this morning. They say he was 
 very loath to die. . . . 
 
 L. 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 Springfield, February 25, 1842. 
 
 Dear Speed : — I received yours of the 1 2th written 
 the day you went down to William's place, some days 
 since, but delayed answering it till I should receive 
 the promised one of the 16th, which came last night. 
 I opened the letter with intense anxiety and trepida- 
 tion; so much so, that, although it turned out better 
 than I expected, I have hardly yet, at a distance of 
 ten hours, become calm. 
 
 I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you 
 
Abraham Lincoln 277 
 
 and I are peculiar) are all the worst sort of nonsense. 
 I fancied, from the time I received your letter of 
 Saturday, that the one of Wednesday was never to 
 come, and yet it did come, and what is more, it is per- 
 fectly clear, both from its tone and handwriting, that 
 you were much happier, or, if you think the term pre- 
 ferable, less miserable, when you wrote it than when 
 you wrote the last one before. You had so obviously 
 improved at the very time I so much fancied you 
 would have grown worse. You say that something 
 indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. 
 You will not say that three months from now, I will 
 venture. When your nerves once get steady now, 
 the whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should 
 you become impatient at their being even very slow 
 in becoming steady. Again you say, you much fear 
 that that Elysium of which you have dreamed so 
 much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, 
 I dare swear it will not be the fault of her who is now 
 your wife. I now have no doubt that it is the 
 peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream 
 dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything 
 earthly can realize. Far short of your dreams as 
 you may be, no woman could do more to realize them 
 than that same black-eyed Fanny. If you could but 
 contemplate her through my imagination, it would 
 appear ridiculous to you that any one should for a 
 moment think of being unhappy with her. My old 
 father used to have a saying that "If you make a bad 
 bargain, hug it all the tighter" ; and it occurs to me 
 that if the bargain you have just closed can possibly 
 be called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant 
 
278 The Writings of 
 
 one for applying that maxim to which my fancy can 
 by any effort picture. 
 
 I write another letter, inclosing this, which you 
 can show her, if she desires it. I do this because 
 she would think strangely, perhaps, should you tell 
 her that you received no letters from me, or, telling 
 her you do, refuse to let her see them. I close this, 
 entertaining the confident hope that every successive 
 letter I shall have from you (which I here pray may 
 not be few, nor far between) may show you possess- 
 ing a more steady hand and cheerful heart than the 
 last preceding it. 
 
 As ever, your friend, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 Springfield, March 27, 1842. 
 
 Dear Speed: — Yours of the ioth instant was re- 
 ceived three or four days since. You know I am 
 sincere when I tell you the pleasure its contents gave 
 me was, and is, inexpressible. As to your farm 
 matter, I have no sympathy with you. I have no 
 farm, nor ever expect to have, and consequently 
 have not studied the subject enough to be much 
 interested with it. I can only say that I am glad 
 you are satisfied and pleased with it. But on that 
 other subject, to me of the most intense interest 
 whether in joy or sorrow, I never had the power to 
 withhold my sympathy from you. It cannot be told 
 how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say you are 
 "far happier than you ever expected to be." That 
 
Abraham Lincoln 279 
 
 much I know is enough. I know you too well to 
 suppose your expectations were not, at least, some- 
 times extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them 
 all, I say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going 
 beyond the truth when I tell you that the short space 
 it took me to read your last letter gave me more 
 pleasure than the total sum of all I have enjoyed 
 since the fatal 1st of January, 1841. Since then it 
 seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but 
 for the never-absent idea that there is one still 
 unhappy whom I have contributed to make so. 
 That still kills my soul. I cannot but reproach 
 myself for even wishing to be happy while she is 
 otherwise. She accompanied a large party on the 
 railroad cars to Jacksonville last Monday, and on her 
 return spoke, so that I heard of it, of having enjoyed 
 the trip exceedingly. God be praised for that. 
 
 You know with what sleepless vigilance I have 
 watched you ever since the commencement of your 
 affair ; and although I am almost confident it is use- 
 less, I cannot forbear once more to say that I think 
 it is even yet possible for your spirits to flag down 
 and leave you miserable. If they should, don't fail 
 to remember that they cannot long remain so. One 
 thing I can tell you which I know you will be glad to 
 
 hear, and that is that I have seen and scrutinized 
 
 her feelings as well as I could, and am fully convinced 
 she is far happier now than she has been for the last 
 fifteen months past. 
 
 You will see by the last Sangamon Journal that I 
 made a temperance speech on the 2 2d of February, 
 which I claim that Fanny and you shall read as an 
 
280 The Writings of 
 
 act of charity to me ; for I cannot learn that anybody 
 else has read it, or is likely to. Fortunately it is not 
 very long, and I shall deem it a sufficient compliance 
 with my request if one of you listens while the other 
 reads it. 
 
 As to your Lockridge matter, it is only necessary 
 to say that there has been no court since you left, and 
 that the next commences to-morrow morning, during 
 which I suppose we cannot fail to get a judgment. 
 
 I wish you would learn of Everett what he would 
 take, over and above a discharge for all the trouble 
 we have been at, to take his business out of our 
 hands and give it to somebody else. It is impos- 
 sible to collect money on that or any other claim 
 here now; and although you know I am not a very 
 petulant man, I declare I am almost out of patience 
 with Mr. Everett's importunity. It seems like he 
 not only writes all the letters he can himself, but gets 
 everybody else in Louisville and vicinity to be con- 
 stantly writing to us about his claim. I have always 
 said that Mr. Everett is a very clever fellow, and I 
 am very sorry he cannot be obliged ; but it does seem 
 to me he ought to know we are interested to collect 
 his claim, and therefore would do it if we could. 
 
 I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we 
 would thank him to transfer his business to some 
 other, without any compensation for what we have 
 done, provided he will see the court cost paid, for 
 which we are security. 
 
 The sweet violet you inclosed came safely to hand, 
 but it was so dry, and mashed so flat, that it crum- 
 bled to dust at the first attempt to handle it. The 
 
Abraham Lincoln 281 
 
 juice that mashed out of it stained a place in the 
 letter, which I mean to preserve and cherish for the 
 sake of her who procured it to be sent. My renewed 
 good wishes to her in particular, and generally to all 
 such of your relations who know me. 
 
 As ever, 
 Lincoln. 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, July 4, 1842. 
 
 Dear Speed : — Yours of the 1 6th June was received 
 only a day or two since. It was not mailed at Louis- 
 ville till the 25th. You speak of the great time that 
 has elapsed since I wrote you. Let me explain that. 
 Your letter reached here a day or two after I 
 started on the circuit. I was gone five or six weeks, 
 so that I got the letters only a few weeks before 
 Butler started to your country. I thought it 
 scarcely worth while to write you the news which he 
 could and would tell you more in detail. On his 
 return he told me you would write me soon, and so I 
 waited for your letter. As to my having been dis- 
 pleased with your advice, surely you know better 
 than that. I know you do, and therefore will not 
 labor to convince you. True, that subject is painful 
 to me ; but it is not your silence, or the silence of all 
 the world, that can make me forget it. I acknow- 
 ledge the correctness of your advice too ; but before I 
 resolve to do the one thing or the other, I must gain 
 my confidence in my own ability to keep my resolves 
 
282 The Writings of 
 
 when they are made. In that ability you know I 
 once prided myself as the only or chief gem of my 
 character ; that gem I lost — how and where you know 
 too well. I have not yet regained it ; and until I do, 
 I cannot trust myself in any matter of much import- 
 ance. I believe now that had you understood my 
 case at the time as well as I understand yours after- 
 ward, by the aid you would have given me I should 
 have sailed through clear, but that does not now 
 afford me sufficient confidence to begin that or the 
 like of that again. 
 
 You make a kind acknowledgment of your obliga- 
 tions to me for your present happiness. I am pleased 
 with that acknowledgment. But a thousand times 
 more am I pleased to know that you enjoy- a degree 
 of happiness worthy of an acknowledgment. The 
 truth is, I am not sure that there was any merit with 
 me in the part I took in your difficulty ; I was drawn 
 to it by a fate. If I would I could not have done less 
 than I did. I always was superstitious; I believe 
 God made me one of the instruments of bringing 
 your Fanny and you together, which union I have no 
 doubt He had fore-ordained. Whatever He designs 
 He will do for me yet. "Stand still, and see the 
 salvation of the Lord" is my text just now. If, 
 as you say, you have told Fanny all, I should have 
 no objection to her seeing this letter, but for its 
 reference to our friend here : let her seeing it depend 
 upon whether she has ever known anything of my 
 affairs; and if she has not, do not let her. 
 
 I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. 
 I am so poor and make so little headway in the 
 
Abraham Lincoln 283 
 
 world, that I drop back in a month of idleness as 
 much as I gain in a year's sowing. I should like to 
 visit you again. I should like to see that "sis" of 
 yours that was absent when I was there, though I 
 suppose she would run away again if she were to hear 
 I was coming. 
 
 My respects and esteem to all your friends there, 
 and, by your permission, my love to your Fanny. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 Lincoln. 
 
 A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS. 1 
 
 Lost Townships, August 27, 1842. 
 
 Dear Mr. Printer: 
 
 I see you printed that long letter I sent you a 
 spell ago. I'm quite encouraged by it, and can't 
 keep from writing again. I think the printing of 
 my letters will be a good thing all round — it will 
 give me the benefit of being known by the world, 
 and give the world the advantage of knowing what 's 
 going on in the Lost Townships, and give your 
 paper respectability besides. So here comes another. 
 Yesterday afternoon I hurried through cleaning up 
 
 the dinner dishes and stepped over to neighbor S 
 
 to see if his wife Peggy was as well as mout be 
 
 * Article written by Lincoln for the Sangamon Journal in ridicule 
 of James Shields, who, as State Auditor, had declined to receive State 
 Bank notes in payment of taxes. The above letter purported to come 
 from a poor widow who, though supplied with State Bank paper, could 
 not obtain a receipt for her tax bill. This, and another subsequent 
 letter by Mary Todd, brought about the "Lincoln-Shields Duel." 
 
284 The Writings of 
 
 expected, and hear what they called the baby. 
 Well, when I got there and just turned round the 
 corner of his log cabin, there he was, setting on the 
 doorstep reading a newspaper. "How are you, 
 Jeff?" says I. He sorter started when he heard me, 
 for he hadn't seen me before. "Why," says he, 
 "I'm mad as the devil, Aunt 'Becca!" "What 
 about?" says I; "ain't its hair the right color? 
 None of that nonsense, Jeff; there ain't an honester 
 woman in the Lost Townships than ' ' — ' ' Than who ? ' ' 
 says he; "what the mischief are you about?" I 
 began to see I was running the wrong trail, and so 
 says I, "Oh! nothing: I guess I was mistaken a little, 
 that 's all. But what is it you 're mad about?" 
 
 "Why," says he, "I 've been tugging ever since 
 harvest, getting out wheat and hauling it to the 
 river to raise State Bank paper enough to pay my 
 tax this year and a little school debt I owe; and 
 now, just as I Ve got it, here I open this infernal 
 Extra Register, expecting to find it full of 'Glo- 
 rious Democratic Victories' and 'High Comb'd 
 Cocks,' when, lo and behold! I find a set of fellows, 
 calling themselves officers of the State, have forbid- 
 den the tax collectors and school commissioners to 
 receive State paper at all; and so here it is dead on 
 my hands. I don't now believe all the plunder I 've 
 got will fetch ready cash enough to pay my taxes 
 and that school debt." 
 
 I was a good deal thunderstruck myself; for that 
 was the first I had heard of the proclamation, and 
 my old man was pretty much in the same fix with 
 Jeff. We both stood a moment staring at one 
 
Abraham Lincoln 285 
 
 another without knowing what to say. At last says 
 
 I, "Mr. S , let me look at that paper." He 
 
 handed it to me, when I read the proclamation 
 over. 
 
 "There now," says he, "did you ever see such a 
 piece of impudence and imposition as that?" I 
 saw Jeff was in a good tune for saying some ill- 
 natured things, and so I tho't I would just argue a 
 little on the contrary side, and make him rant a 
 spell if I could. "Why," says I, looking as digni- 
 fied and thoughtful as I could, "it seems pretty 
 tough, to be sure, to have to raise silver where 
 there 's none to be raised; but then, you see, 'there 
 will be danger of loss' if it ain't done." 
 
 "Loss! damnation!" says he. "I defy Daniel 
 Webster, I defy King Solomon, I defy the world — 
 I defy — I defy — yes, I defy even you, Aunt 'Becca, 
 to show how the people can lose anything by pay- 
 ing their taxes in State paper." 
 
 "Well," says I, "you see what the officers of State 
 say about it, and they are a desarnin' set of men. 
 But," says I, "I guess you 're mistaken about what 
 the proclamation says. It don't say the people will 
 lose anything by the paper money being taken for 
 taxes. It only says 'there will be danger of loss'; 
 and though it is tolerable plain that the people can't 
 lose by paying their taxes in something they can 
 get easier than silver, instead of having to pay sil- 
 ver; and though it's just as plain that the State 
 can't lose by taking State Bank paper, however low 
 it may be, while she owes the bank more than the 
 whole revenue, and can pay that paper over on her 
 
286 The Writings of 
 
 debt, dollar for dollar; — still there is danger of loss 
 to the 'officers of State'; and you know, Jeff, we 
 can't get along without officers of State." 
 
 "Damn officers of State!" says he; "that's what 
 Whigs are always hurrahing for." 
 
 "Now, don't swear so, Jeff," says I, "you know 
 I belong to the meetin', and swearin' hurts my 
 feelings." 
 
 "Beg pardon, Aunt 'Becca," says he; "but I do 
 say it 's' enough to make Dr. Goddard swear, to have 
 tax to pay in silver, for nothing only that Ford 
 may get his two thousand a year, and Shields his 
 twenty-four hundred a year, and Carpenter his six- 
 teen hundred a year, and all without ' danger of loss ' 
 by taking it in State paper. Yes, yes: it's plain 
 enough now what these officers of State mean by 
 'danger of loss.' Wash, I s'pose, actually lost fifteen 
 hundred dollars out of the three thousand that two 
 of these 'officers of State' let him steal from the 
 treasury, by being compelled to take it in State 
 paper. Wonder if we don't have a proclamation be- 
 fore long, commanding us to make up this loss to 
 Wash in silver. ' ' 
 
 And so he went on till his breath run out, and he 
 had to stop. I couldn't think of anything to say 
 just then, and so I begun to look over the paper 
 again. "Ay! here's another proclamation, or some- 
 thing like it." 
 
 "Another?" says Jeff; "and whose egg is it, 
 pray?" 
 
 I looked to the bottom of it, and read aloud, 
 "Your obedient servant, James Shields, Auditor." 
 
Abraham Lincoln 287 
 
 - 'Aha!" says Jeff, "one of them same three fel- 
 lows again. Well, read it, and let's hear what of 
 it." . 
 
 I read on till I came to where it says, "The object 
 of this measure is to suspend the collection of the 
 revenue for the current year." 
 
 "Now stop, now stop!" says he; "that's a lie 
 a'ready, and I don't want to hear of it." 
 
 "Oh, maybe not," says I. 
 
 "I say it — is — a — lie. Suspend the collection, 
 indeed! Will the collectors, that have taken their 
 oaths to make the collection, dare to suspend it? 
 Is there anything in law requiring them to perjure 
 themselves at the bidding of James Shields ? ' 
 
 1 ' Will the greedy gullet of the penitentiary be sat- 
 isfied with swallowing him instead of all of them, if 
 they should venture to obey him? And would he 
 not discover some ' danger of loss, ' and be off about 
 the time it came to taking their places ? 
 
 "And suppose the people attempt to suspend, 
 by refusing to pay; what then? The collectors 
 would just jerk up their horses and cows, and 
 the like, and sell them to the highest bidder for 
 silver in hand, without valuation or redemption. 
 Why, Shields didn't believe that story himself; it 
 was never meant for the truth. If it was true, why 
 was it not writ till five days after the pr clamation ? 
 Why did n't Carlin and Carpenter sign it as well as 
 Shields? Answer me that, Aunt 'Becca. I say it's 
 a lie, and not a well told one at that. It grins out 
 like a copper dollar. Shields is a fool as well as a 
 liar. With him truth is out of the question; and 
 
288 The Writings of 
 
 as for getting a good, bright, passable lie out of 
 him, you might as well try to strike fire from a cake 
 of tallow. I stick to it, it's all an infernal Whig 
 lie!" 
 
 1 ' A Whig lie ! Highty tighty ! " 
 
 "Yes, a Whig lie; and it's just like everything 
 the cursed British Whigs do. First they '11 do some 
 divilment, and then they '11 tell a lie to hide it. 
 And they don't care how plain a lie it is; they 
 think they can cram any sort of a one down the 
 throats of the ignorant Locofocos, as they call the 
 Democrats." 
 
 "Why, Jeff, you 're crazy: you don't mean to say 
 Shields is a Whig!" 
 
 "Yes, I do." 
 
 "Why, look here! the proclamation is in your 
 own Democratic paper, as you call it." 
 
 1 ' I know it ; and what of that ? They only printed 
 it to let us Democrats see the deviltry the Whigs 
 are at." 
 
 "Well, but Shields is the auditor of this Loco — 
 I mean this Democratic State." 
 
 "So he is, and Tyler appointed him to office." 
 
 "Tyler appointed him?" 
 
 "Yes (if you must chaw it over), Tyler appointed 
 him; or, if it was n't him, it was old Granny Harri- 
 son, and that's all one. I tell you, Aunt 'Becca, 
 there 's no mistake about his being a Whig. Why, 
 his very looks shows it ; everything about him shows 
 it: if I was deaf and blind, I could tell him by the 
 smell. I seed him when I was down in Springfield 
 last winter. They had a sort of a gatherin' there one 
 
Abraham Lincoln 289 
 
 night among the grandees, they called a fair. All 
 the gals about town was there, and all the handsome 
 widows and married women, finickin' about trying 
 to look like gals, tied as tight in the middle, and 
 puffed out at both ends, like bundles of fodder that 
 had n't been stacked yet, but wanted stackin' pretty 
 bad. And then they had tables all around the 
 house kivered over with [ ] caps and pincush- 
 
 ions and ten thousand such little knick-knacks, tryin' 
 to sell 'em to the fellows that were bowin', and 
 scrapin' and kungeerin' about 'em. They would n't 
 let no Democrats in, for fear they'd disgust the 
 ladies, or scare the little gals, or dirty the floor. I 
 looked in at the window, and there was this same 
 fellow Shields floatin' about on the air, without heft 
 or earthly substances, just like a lock of cat fur 
 where cats had been fighting. 
 
 "He was paying his money to this one, and that 
 one, and t' other one, and sufferin' great loss because 
 it was n't silver instead of State paper ; and the 
 sweet distress he seemed to be in, — his very feat- 
 ures, in the ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly 
 and distinctly, 'Dear girls, it is distressing, but I 
 cannot marry you all. Too well I know how much 
 you suffer; but do, do remember, it is not my fault 
 that I am so handsome and so interesting.' 
 
 "As this last was expressed by a most exquisite 
 contortion of his face, he seized hold of one of their 
 hands, and squeezed, and held on to it about a quar- 
 ter of an hour. 'Oh, my good fellow!' says I to 
 myself, 'if that was one of our Democratic gals in 
 the Lost Townships, the way you'd get a brass pin 
 
290 The Writings of 
 
 let into you would be about up to the head.' He 
 a Democrat! Fiddlesticks! I tell you, Aunt 'Becca, 
 he 's a Whig, and no mistake; nobody but a Whig 
 could make such a conceity dunce of himself.' ' 
 
 "Well," says I, "maybe he is; but, if he is, I 'm 
 mistaken the worst sort. Maybe so, maybe so; 
 but, if I am, I '11 suffer by it; I '11 be a Democrat if 
 it turns out that Shields is a Whig, considerin' you 
 shall be a Whig if he turns out a Democrat/ ' 
 
 "A bargain, by jingoes!" says he; "but how 
 will we find out?" 
 
 "Why," says I, "we'll just write and ax the 
 printer. ' ' 
 
 " Agreed again!" says he; "and by thunder! if 
 it does turn out that Shields is a Democrat, I never 
 will" 
 
 1 ' Jefferson ! Jefferson ! ' ' 
 
 "What do you want, Peggy?" 
 
 "Do get through your everlasting clatter some 
 time, and bring me a gourd of water; the child 's 
 been crying for a drink this livelong hour." 
 
 "Let it die, then; it may as well die for water as 
 to be taxed to death to fatten officers of State." 
 
 Jeff run off to get the water, though, just like he 
 had n't been saying anything spiteful, for he 's a 
 raal good-hearted fellow, after all, once you get at 
 the foundation of him. 
 
 I walked into the house, and, "Why, Peggy," says 
 I, "I declare we like to forgot you altogether." 
 
 "Oh, yes," says she, "when a body can't help 
 themselves, everybody soon forgets 'em; but, thank 
 God! by day after to-morrow I shall be well enough 
 
Abraham Lincoln 291 
 
 to milk the cows, and pen the calves, and wring the 
 contrary ones' tails for 'em, and no thanks to 
 nobody.' ' 
 
 "Good evening, Peggy," says I, and so I sloped, 
 for I seed she was mad at me for making Jeff neg- 
 lect her so long. 
 
 And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us 
 know in your next paper whether this Shields is a 
 Whig or a Democrat? I don't care about it for my- 
 self, for I know well enough how it is already; but 
 I want to convince Jeff. It may do some good to let 
 him, and others like him, know who and what these 
 officers of State are. It may help to send the pres- 
 ent hypocritical set to where they belong, and to fill 
 the places they now disgrace with men who will do 
 more work for less pay, and take fewer airs while 
 they are doing it. It ain't sensible to think that the 
 same men who get us in trouble will change their 
 course; and yet it 's pretty plain if some change 
 for the better is not made, it 's not long that either 
 Peggy or I or any of us will have a cow left to milk, 
 or a calf's tail to wring. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Rebecca . 
 
 INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Springfield, III., Aug 29, 1842. 
 
 Hon. Henry Clay, Lexington, Ky. 
 
 Dear Sir: — We hear you are to visit Indianap- 
 olis, Indiana, on the 5th of October next. If our 
 
292 The Writings of 
 
 information in this is correct we hope you will not 
 deny us the pleasure of seeing you in our State. We 
 are aware of the toil necessarily incident to a journey 
 by one circumstanced as you are ; but once you have 
 embarked, as you have already determined to do, 
 the toil would not be greatly augmented by extend- 
 ing the journey to our capital. The season of the 
 year will be most favorable for good roads, and 
 pleasant weather; and although we cannot but 
 believe you w T ould be highly gratified with such a 
 visit to the prairie-land, the pleasure it would give 
 us and thousands such as we is beyond all question. 
 You have never visited Illinois, or at least this 
 portion of it; and should you now yield to our 
 request, we promise you such a reception as shall 
 be worthy of the man on whom are now turned the 
 fondest hopes of a great and suffering nation. 
 
 Please inform us at the earliest convenience 
 whether we may expect you. 
 
 Very respectfully your obedient servants, 
 A. G. Henry, A. T. Bledsoe, 
 
 C. Birchall, A. Lincoln, 
 
 G. M. Cabanniss, Rob't Irwin, 
 P. A. Saunders, J. M. Allen, 
 F. N. Francis. 
 Executive Committee "Clay Club." 
 
 (Clay's answer, September 6, 1842, declines with 
 thanks.) 
 
Abraham Lincoln 293 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. 
 
 Tremont, September 17, 1842. 
 
 A. Lincoln, Esq. : — I regret that my absence on 
 public business compelled me to postpone a matter of 
 private consideration a little longer than I could have 
 desired. It will only be necessary, however, to ac- 
 count for it by informing you that I have been to 
 Quincy on business that would not admit of delay. 
 I will now state briefly the reasons of my troubling 
 you with this communication, the disagreeable na- 
 ture of which I regret, as I had hoped to avoid 
 any difficulty with any one in Springfield while 
 residing there, by endeavoring to conduct myself in 
 such a way amongst both my political friends and 
 opponents as to escape the necessity of any. Whilst 
 thus abstaining from giving provocation, I have 
 become the object of slander, vituperation, and 
 personal abuse, which were I capable of submitting 
 to, I would prove myself worthy of the whole of it. 
 
 In two or three of the last numbers of the Sanga- 
 mon Journal, articles of the most personal nature 
 and calculated to degrade me have made their ap- 
 pearance. On inquiring, I was informed by the 
 editor of that paper, through the medium of my 
 friend General Whitesides, that you are the author 
 of those articles. This information satisfies me that 
 I have become by some means or other the object of 
 your secret hostility. I will not take the trouble of 
 inquiring into the reason of all this; but I will take 
 the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and absolute 
 retraction of all offensive allusions used by you in 
 
294 The Writings of 
 
 these communications, in relation to my private 
 character and standing as a man, as an apology for 
 the insults conveyed in them. 
 
 This may prevent consequences which no one will 
 regret more than myself. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Jas. Shields. 
 To J. Shields. 
 
 Tremont, September 17, 1842. 
 
 Jas. Shields, Esq.: — Your note of to-day was 
 handed me by General Whitesides. In that note 
 you say you have been informed, through the 
 medium of the editor of the Journal, that I am the 
 author of certain articles in that paper which you 
 deem personally abusive of you; and without stop- 
 ping to inquire whether I really am the author, or to 
 point out what is offensive in them, you demand an 
 unqualified retraction of all that is offensive, and 
 then proceed to hint at consequences. 
 
 Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of 
 facts and so much of menace as to consequences, that 
 I cannot submit to answer that note any further 
 than I have, and to add that the consequences to 
 which I suppose you allude would be matter of as 
 great regret to me as it possibly could to you. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 To A. Lincoln. 
 
 Tremont, September 17, 1842. 
 
 A. Lincoln, Esq. : — In reply to my note of this 
 date, you intimate that I assume facts and menace 
 
Abraham Lincoln 295 
 
 consequences, and that you cannot submit to an- 
 swer it further. As now, sir, you desire it, I will be a 
 little more particular. The editor of the Sangamon 
 Journal gave me to understand that you are the 
 author of an article which appeared, I think, in that 
 paper of the 2d September instant, headed ''The 
 Lost Townships," and signed Rebecca or 'Becca. I 
 would therefore take the liberty of asking whether 
 you are the author of said article, or any other over 
 the same signature which has appeared in any of the 
 late numbers of that paper. If so, I repeat my 
 request of an absolute retraction of all offensive 
 allusions contained therein in relation to my private 
 character and standing. If you are not the author 
 of any of these articles, your denial will be sufficient. 
 I will say further, it is not my intention to menace, 
 but to do myself justice. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Jas. Shields. 
 
 Memorandum of Instructions to E. H. Merryman, 
 Lincoln's Second, September iq, 1842. 
 
 In case Whitesides shall signify a wish to adjust 
 this affair without further difficulty, let him know 
 that if the present papers be withdrawn, and a note 
 from Mr. Shields asking to know if I am the author 
 of the articles of which he complains, and asking 
 that I shall make him gentlemanly satisfaction if I 
 am the author, and this without menace, or dictation 
 as to what that satisfaction shall be, a pledge is 
 made that the following answer shall be given : 
 
 "I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which 
 
296 The Writings of 
 
 appeared in the Journal of the 2d instant, but had no 
 participation in any form in any other article allud- 
 ing to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect — 
 I had no intention of injuring your personal or private 
 character or standing as a man or a gentleman ; and 
 I did not then think, and do not now think, that that 
 article could produce or has produced that effect 
 against you; and had I anticipated such an effect I 
 would have forborne to write it. And I will add 
 that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had 
 always been gentlemanly ; and that I had no personal 
 pique against you, and no cause for any." 
 
 If this should be done, I leave it with you to 
 arrange what shall and what shall not be published. 
 If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of the 
 fight are to be — 
 
 First. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the 
 largest size, precisely equal in all respects, and such 
 as now used by the cavalry company at Jacksonville. 
 
 Second. Position: A plank ten feet long, and 
 from nine to twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed 
 on edge, on the ground, as the line between us, which 
 neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life. 
 Next a line drawn on the ground on either side of 
 said plank and parallel with it, each at the distance 
 of the whole length of the sword and three feet 
 additional from the plank; and the passing of his 
 own such line by either party during the fight shall 
 be deemed a surrender of the contest. 
 
 Third. Time : On Thursday evening at five o'clock, 
 if you can get it so ; but in no case to be at a greater 
 distance of time than Friday evening at five o'clock. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 297 
 
 Fourth. Place : Within three miles of Alton, on the 
 opposite side of the river, the particular spot to be 
 agreed on by you. 
 
 Any preliminary details coming within the above 
 rules you are at liberty to make at your discretion ; 
 but you are in no case to swerve from these rules, or 
 to pass beyond their limits. 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 Springfield, October [4?], 1842. 
 
 Dear Speed : — You have heard of my duel with 
 Shields, and I have now to inform you that the 
 duelling business still rages in this city. Day before 
 yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, 
 and proposed fighting next morning at sunrise in 
 Bob Allen's meadow, one hundred yards' distance, 
 with rifles. To this Whitesides, Shields's second, 
 said "No," because of the law. Thus ended duel 
 No. 2. Yesterday Whitesides chose to consider 
 himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a 
 kind of quasi-challenge, inviting him to meet him at 
 the Planter's House in St. Louis on the next Friday, 
 to settle their difficulty. Merryman made me his 
 friend, and sent Whitesides a note, inquiring to 
 know if he meant his note as a challenge, and if so, 
 that he would, according to the law in such case 
 made and provided, prescribe the terms of the 
 meeting. Whitesides returned for answer that if 
 Merryman would meet him at the Planter's House 
 as desired, he would challenge him. Merryman 
 
298 The Writings of 
 
 replied in a note that he denied Whitesides's right 
 to dictate time and place, but that he (Merry man) 
 would waive the question of time, and meet him at 
 Louisiana, Missouri. Upon my presenting this note 
 to Whitesides and stating verbally its contents, he 
 declined receiving it, saying he had business in St. 
 Louis, and it was as near as Louisiana. Merryman 
 then directed me to notify Whitesides that he should 
 publish the correspondence between them, with such 
 comments as he thought fit. This I did. Thus it 
 stood at bedtime last night. This morning White- 
 sides, by his friend Shields, is praying for a new trial, 
 on the ground that he was mistaken in Merry man's 
 proposition to meet him at Louisiana, Missouri, 
 thinking it was the State of Louisiana. This Merry- 
 man hoots at, and is preparing his publication; 
 while the town is in a ferment, and a street fight 
 somewhat anticipated. 
 
 But I began this letter not for what I have been 
 writing, but to say something on that subject which 
 you know to be of such infinite solicitude to me. 
 The immense sufferings you endured from the first 
 days of September till the middle of February you 
 never tried to conceal from me, and I well understood. 
 You have now been the husband of a lovely woman 
 nearly eight months. That you are happier now 
 than the day you married her I well know, for with- 
 out you could not be living. But I have your word 
 for it, too, and the returning elasticity of spirits 
 which is manifested in your letters. But I want to 
 ask a close question, "Are you now in feeling as well 
 as judgment glad that you are married as you are?" 
 
Abraham Lincoln 299 
 
 From anybody but me this would be an impudent 
 question, not to be tolerated; but I know you will 
 pardon it in me. Please answer it quickly, as I am 
 impatient to know. I have sent my love to your 
 Fanny so often, I fear she is getting tired of it. 
 However, I venture to tender it again. 
 
 Yours forever, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, 
 ILLINOIS, MARCH I, 1843. 
 
 The object of the meeting was stated by Mr. 
 Lincoln of Springfield, who offered the following reso- 
 lutions, which were unanimously adopted: 
 
 Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods, 
 producing sufficient revenue for the payment of the 
 necessary expenditures of the National Government, 
 and so adjusted as to protect American industry, 
 is indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the 
 American people. 
 
 Resolved, That we are opposed to direct taxation 
 for the support of the National Government. 
 
 Resolved, That a national bank, properly restricted, 
 is highly necessary and proper to the establishment 
 and maintenance of a sound currency, and for the 
 cheap and safe collection, keeping, and disbursing of 
 the public revenue. 
 
 Resolved, That the distribution of the proceeds of 
 the sales of the public lands, upon the principles 
 of Mr. Clay's bill, accords with the best interests of 
 
300 The Writings of 
 
 the nation, and particularly with those of the State of 
 Illinois. 
 
 Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each 
 Congressional district of the State to nominate and 
 support at the approaching election a candidate of 
 their own principles, regardless of the chances of 
 success. 
 
 Resolved, That we recommend to tin Whigs of all 
 portions of the State to adopt and rigidly adhere to 
 the convention system of nominating candidates. 
 
 Resolved, That we recomi end to the Whigs of 
 each Congressional district to hold a district conven- 
 tion on or before the first Monday of May next, to be 
 composed of a number of delegates from each county 
 equal to double the n mber of its representatives 
 in the General Assembly, provided, each county shall 
 have at least one delegate. Said delegates to be 
 chosen by primary meetings of the Whigs, at such 
 times and places as they in their respective counties 
 may see fit. Said district conventions each to 
 nominate one candidate for Congress, and one dele- 
 gate to a national convention for the purpose of 
 nominating candidates for President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the United States. The seven delegates so 
 nominated to a national convention to have power to 
 add two delegates to their own number, and to fill all 
 vacancies. 
 
 Resolved, That A. T. Bledsoe, S. T. Logan, and A. 
 Lincoln be appointed a committee to prepare an 
 address to the people of the State. 
 
 Resolved, That N. W. Edwards, A. G. Henry, 
 James H, Matheny, John C, Doremus, and James C, 
 
Abraham Lincoln 301 
 
 Conkling be appointed a Whig Central State Com- 
 mittee, with authority to fill any vacancy that may 
 occur in the committee. 
 
 CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. 
 
 Address to the People of Illinois. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : — By a resolution of a meeting 
 of such of the Whigs of the State as are now at 
 Springfield, we, the undersigned, were appointed to 
 prepare an address to you. The performance of 
 that task we now undertake. 
 
 Several resolutions were adopted by the meeting; 
 and the chief object of this address is to show briefly 
 the reasons for their adoption. 
 
 The first of those resolutions declares a tariff of 
 duties upon foreign importations, producing sufficient 
 revenue for the support of th3 General Gcvernm3nt, 
 and so adjusted as to protect American industry, to 
 be indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the 
 American people; and the second declares direct 
 taxation for a national revenue to be improper. 
 Those two resolutions are kindred in their nature, 
 and therefore proper and convenient to be considered 
 together. The question of protection is a subject 
 entirely too broad to be crowded into a few pages 
 only, together with several other subjects. On that 
 point we therefore content ourselves with giving the 
 following extracts from the writings of Mr. Jefferson, 
 General Jackson, and the speech of Mr. Calhoun : 
 
 ' 'To be independent for the comforts of life, we 
 must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place 
 
302 The Writings of 
 
 the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturalist. 
 The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make our own 
 comforts, or g( without them at the will of a foreign 
 nation ? He, therefore, who is now against domestic 
 manufactures must be for reducing us either to 
 dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed 
 in skins and to live like wild beasts in dens and 
 caverns. I am not one of those; experience has 
 taught me that manufactures are now as necessary 
 to our independence as to our comfort." — Letter of 
 Mr. Jefferson to Benjamin Austin. 
 
 " I ask, What is the real situation of the agricultu- 
 ralist? Where has the American farmer a market 
 for his surplus produce ? Except for cotton, he has 
 neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not this 
 clearly prove, when there is no market at home or 
 abroad, that there [is] too much labor employed in 
 agriculture? Common sense at once points out the 
 remedy. Take from agriculture six hundred thou- 
 sand men, women, and children, and you will at once 
 give a market for more breadstuffs than all Europe 
 now furnishes. In short, we have been too long 
 subject to the policy of British merchants. It is 
 time we should become a little more Americanized, 
 and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of 
 England, feed our own; or else in a short time, by 
 continuing our present policy, we shall all be rendered 
 paupers •ourselves/ ' — General Jackson's Letter to Dr. 
 Coleman. 
 
 1 ' When our manufactures are grown to a certain 
 perfection, as they soon will be, under the fostering 
 care of government, the farmer will find a ready 
 
Abraham Lincoln 303 
 
 market for his surplus produce, and — what is of 
 equal consequence — a certain and cheap supply of all 
 he wants; his prosperity will diffuse itself to every 
 class of the community/ ' — Speech of Hon. J. C. 
 Calhoun on the Tariff. 
 
 The question of revenue we will now briefly con- 
 sider. For several years past the revenues of the 
 government have been unequal to its expenditures, 
 and consequently loan after loan, sometimes direct 
 and sometimes indirect in form, has been resorted to. 
 By this means a new national debt has been created, 
 and is still growing on us with a rapidity fearful 
 to contemplate — a rapidity only reasonably to be 
 expected in time of war. This state of things has 
 been produced by a prevailing unwillingness either 
 to increase the tariff or resort to direct taxation. 
 But the one or the other must come. Coming 
 expenditures must be met, and the present debt 
 must be paid ; and money cannot always be borrowed 
 for these objects. The system of loans is but tem- 
 porary in its nature, and must soon explode. It is a 
 system not only ruinous while it lasts, but one that 
 must soon fail and leave us destitute. As an in- 
 dividual who undertakes to live by borrowing soon 
 finds his original means devoured by interest, and, 
 next, no one left to borrow from, so must it be with a 
 government. 
 
 We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, 
 or a direct tax, must soon be resorted to ; and, indeed, 
 we believe this alternative is now denied by no one. 
 But which system shall be adopted? Some of our 
 
3<H The Writings of 
 
 opponents, in theory, admit the propriety of a tariff 
 sufficient for a revenue, but even they will not in 
 practice vote for such a tariff; while others boldly 
 advocate direct taxation. Inasmuch, therefore, as 
 some of them boldly advocate direct taxation, and 
 all the rest — or so nearly all as to make exceptions 
 needless — refuse to adopt the tariff, we think it is 
 doing them no injustice to class them all as advo- 
 cates of direct taxation. Indeed, we believe they 
 are only delaying an open avowal of the system till 
 they can assure themselves that the people will 
 tolerate it. Let us, then, briefly compare the two 
 systems. The tariff is the cheaper system, because 
 the duties, being collected in large parcels at a few 
 commercial points, will require comparatively few 
 officers in their collection; while by the direct-tax 
 system the land must be literally covered with 
 assessors and collectors, going forth like swarms of 
 Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and 
 other green thing. And, again, by the tariff system 
 the whole revenue is paid by the consumers of foreign 
 goods, and those chiefly the luxuries, and not the 
 necessaries, of life. By this system the man w T ho 
 contents himself to live upon the products of his own 
 country pays nothing at all. And surely that coun- 
 try is extensive enough, and its products abundant 
 and varied enough, to answer all the real wants of its 
 people. In short, by this system the burthen of 
 revenue falls almost entirely on the wealthy and 
 luxurious few, while the substantial and laboring 
 many who live at home, and upon home products, 
 go entirely free. By the direct -tax system none can 
 
Abraham Lincoln 305 
 
 escape. However strictly the citizen may exclude 
 from his premises all foreign luxuries, — fine cloths, 
 fine silks, rich wines, golden chains, and diamond 
 rings, — still, for the possession of his house, his barn, 
 and his homespun, he is to be perpetually haunted 
 and harassed by the tax-gatherer. With these views 
 we leave it to be determined whether we or our op- 
 ponents are the more truly democratic on the 
 subject. 
 
 The third resolution declares the necessity and 
 propriety of a national bank. During the last fifty 
 years so much has been said and written both as to 
 the constitutionality and expediency of such an in- 
 stitution, that we could not hope to improve in the 
 least on former discussions of the subject, were we to 
 undertake it. We, therefore, upon the question of 
 constitutionality content ourselves with remarking 
 the facts that the first national bank was established 
 chiefly by the same men who formed the Constitu- 
 tion, at a time when that instrument was but two 
 years old, and receiving the sanction, as President, of 
 the immortal Washington ; that the second received 
 the sanction, as President, of Mr. Madison, to whom 
 common consent has awarded the proud title of 
 "Father of the Constitution"; and subsequently 
 the sanction of the Supreme Court, the most en- 
 lightened judicial tribunal in the world. Upon the 
 question of expediency, we only ask you to examine 
 the history of the times during the existence of the 
 two banks, and compare those times with the miser- 
 able present. 
 
 The fourth resolution declares the expediency of 
 
306 The Writings of 
 
 Mr. Clay's land bill. Much incomprehensible jar- 
 gon is often used against the constitutionality of this 
 measure. We forbear, in this place, attempting an 
 answer to it, simply because, in our opinion, those 
 who urge it are through party zeal resolved not to 
 see or acknowledge the truth. The question of ex- 
 pediency, at least so far as Illinois is concerned, 
 seems to us the clearest imaginable. By the bill 
 we are to receive annually a large sum of money, no 
 part of which we otherwise receive. The precise 
 annual sum cannot be known in advance; it doubt- 
 less will vary in different years. Still it is something 
 to know that in the last year — a year of almost un- 
 paralleled pecuniary pressure — it amounted to more 
 than forty thousand dollars. This annual income, in 
 the midst of our almost insupportable difficulties, in 
 the days of our severest necessity, our political op- 
 ponents are furiously resolving to take and keep from 
 us. And for what? Many silly reasons are given, 
 as is usual in cases where a single good one is not to 
 be found. One is that by giving us the proceeds of 
 the lands we impoverish the national treasury, and 
 thereby render necessary an increase of the tariff. 
 This may be true ; but if so, the amount of it only is 
 that those whose pride, whose abundance of means, 
 prompt them to spurn the manufactures of our 
 country, and to strut in British cloaks and coats and 
 pantaloons, may have to pay a few cents more on 
 the yard for the cloth that makes them. A terrible 
 evil, truly, to the Illinois farmer, who never wore, 
 nor ever expects to wear, a single yard of British 
 goods in his whole life. Another of their reasons is 
 
Abraham Lincoln 3°7 
 
 that by the passage and continuance of Mr. Clay's 
 bill, we prevent the passage of a bill which would 
 give us more. This, if it were sound in itself, is 
 waging destructive war with the former position; 
 for if Mr. Clay's bill impoverishes the treasury too 
 much, what shall be said of one that impoverishes it 
 still more? But it is not sound in itself. It is not 
 true that Mr. Clay's bill prevents the passage of one 
 more favorable to us of the new States. Considering 
 the strength and opposite interest of the old States, 
 the wonder is that they ever permitted one to pass 
 so favorable as Mr. Clay's. The last twenty-odd 
 years' efforts to reduce the price of the lands, and to 
 pass graduation bills and cession bills, prove the 
 assertion to be true ; and if there were no experience 
 in support of it, the reason itself is plain. The States 
 in which none, or few, of the public lands lie, and 
 those consequently interested against parting with 
 them except for the best price, are the majority; 
 and a moment's reflection will show that they must 
 ever continue the majority, because by the time one 
 of the original new States (Ohio, for example) be- 
 comes populous and gets weight in Congress, the 
 public lands in her limits are so nearly sold out that 
 in every point material to this question she becomes 
 an old State. She does not wish the price reduced, 
 because there is none left for her citizens to buy; 
 she does not wish them ceded to the States in which 
 they lie, because they no longer lie in her limits, and 
 she will get nothing by the cession. In the nature of 
 things, the States interested in the reduction of 
 price, in graduation, in cession, and in all similar 
 
308 The Writings of 
 
 projects, never can be the majority. Nor is there 
 reason to hope that any of them can ever succeed as 
 a Democratic party measure, because we have here- 
 tofore seen that party in full power, year after year, 
 with many of their leaders making loud professions 
 in favor of these projects, and yet doing nothing. 
 What reason, then, is there to believe they will here- 
 after do better ? In every light in which we can view 
 this question, it amounts simply to this: Shall we 
 accept our share of the proceeds under Mr. Clay's bill, 
 or shall we rather reject that and get nothing? 
 
 The fifth resolution recommends that a Whig 
 candidate for Congress be run in every district, 
 regardless of the chances of success. We are aware 
 that it is sometimes a temporary gratification, when 
 a friend cannot succeed, to be able to choose between 
 opponents; but we believe that that gratification is 
 the seed-time which never fails to be followed by a 
 most abundant harvest of bitterness. By this policy 
 we entangle ourselves. By voting for our opponents, 
 such of us as do it in some measure estop ourselves 
 to complain of their acts, however glaringly wrong 
 we may believe them to be. By this policy no one 
 portion of our friends can ever be certain as to what 
 course another portion may adopt; and by this 
 want of mutual and perfect understanding our 
 political identity is partially frittered away and lost. 
 And, again, those who are thus elected by our aid 
 ever become our bitterest persecutors. Take a few 
 prominent examples. In 1830 Reynolds was elected 
 Governor; in 1835 we exerted our whole strength to 
 elect Judge Young to the United States Senate, which 
 
Abraham Lincoln 309 
 
 effort, though failing, gave him the prominence that 
 subsequently elected him; in 1836 General Ewing 
 was so elected to the United States Senate ; and yet 
 let us ask what three men have been more persever- 
 ingly vindictive in their assaults upon all our men 
 and measures than they? During the last summer 
 the whole State was covered with pamphlet editions 
 of misrepresentations against us, methodized into 
 chapters and verses, written by twoof these samemen, 
 — Reynolds and Young, — in which they did not stop at 
 charging us with error merely, but roundly denounced 
 us as the designing enemies of human liberty itself. 
 If it be the will of Heaven that such men shall po- 
 litically live, be it so ; but never, never again permit 
 them to draw a particle of their sustenance from us. 
 The sixth resolution recommends the adoption of 
 the convention system for the nomination of candi- 
 dates. This we believe to be of the very first import- 
 ance. Whether the system is right in itself we do 
 not stop to inquire ; contenting ourselves with trying 
 to show that, while our opponents use it, it is madness 
 in us not to defend ourselves with it. Experience 
 has shown that we cannot successfully defend our- 
 selves without it. For examples, look at the elec- 
 tions of last year. Our candidate for governor, with 
 the approbation of a large portion of the party, took 
 the field without a nomination, and in open opposi- 
 tion to the system. Wherever in the counties the 
 Whigs had held conventions and nominated candi- 
 dates for the Legislature, the aspirants who were 
 not nominated were induced to rebel against the 
 nominations, and to become candidates, as is said, 
 
310 The Writings of 
 
 "on their own hook." And, go where you would 
 into a large Whig county, you were sure to find the 
 Whigs not contending shoulder to shoulder against 
 the common enemy, but divided into factions, and 
 fighting furiously with one another. The election 
 came, and what was the result? The governor 
 beaten — the Whig vote being decreased many thou- 
 sands since 1840, although the Democratic vote had 
 not increased any. Beaten almost everywhere for 
 members of the Legislature, — Tazewell, with her four 
 hundred Whig majority, sending a delegation half 
 Democratic ; Vermillion, with her five hundred, doing 
 the same ; Coles, with her four hundred, sending two 
 out of three ; and Morgan, with her two hundred and 
 fifty, sending three out of four, — and this to say no- 
 thing of the numerous other less glaring examples ; 
 the whole winding up with the aggregate number of 
 twenty-seven Democratic representatives sent from 
 Whig counties. As to the senators, too, the result 
 was of the same character. And it is most worthy to 
 be remembered that of all the Whigs in the State who 
 ran against the regular nominees, a single one only 
 was elected. Although they succeeded in defeating 
 the nominees almost by scores, they too were 
 defeated, and the spoils chucklingly borne off by the 
 common enemy. 
 
 We do not mention the fact of many of the Whigs 
 opposing the convention system heretofore for the 
 purpose of censuring them. Far from it. We 
 expressly protest against such a conclusion. We 
 know they were generally, perhaps universally, as 
 good and true Whigs as we ourselves claim to be. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 311 
 
 We mention it merely to draw attention to the 
 disastrous result it produced, as an example forever 
 hereafter to be avoided. That " union is strength" 
 is a truth that has been known, illustrated, and 
 declared in various ways and forms in all ages of the 
 world. That great fabulist and philosopher ^Esop 
 illustrated it by his fable of the bundle of sticks; 
 and he whose wisdom surpasses that of all philoso- 
 phers has declared that "a house divided against 
 itself cannot stand." It is to induce our friends to 
 act upon this important and universally acknow- 
 ledged truth that we urge the adoption of the con- 
 vention system. Reflection will prove that there is 
 no other way of practically applying it. In its ap- 
 plication we know there will be incidents temporarily 
 painful; but, after all, those incidents will be fewer 
 and less intense with than without the system. If 
 two friends aspire to the same office it is certain that 
 both cannot succeed. Would it not, then, be much 
 less painful to have the question decided by mutual 
 friends some time before, than to snarl and quarrel 
 until the day of election, and then both be beaten 
 by the common enemy? 
 
 Before leaving this subject, we think proper to 
 remark that we do not understand the resolution as 
 intended to recommend the application of the con- 
 vention system to the nomination of candidates for 
 the small offices no way connected with politics; 
 though we must say we do not perceive that such an 
 application of it would be wrong. 
 
 The seventh resolution recommends the holding of 
 district conventions in May next, for the purpose of 
 
3 12 The Writings of 
 
 nominating candidates for Congress. The propriety 
 of this rests upon the same reasons with that of the 
 sixth, and therefore needs no further discussion. 
 
 The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the 
 practical application of the foregoing, and therefore 
 need no discussion. 
 
 Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections 
 on the present condition and future prospects of the 
 Whig party. In almost all the States we have fallen 
 into the minority, and despondency seems to prevail 
 universally among us. Is there just cause for this? 
 In 1840 we carried the nation by more than a hun- 
 dred and forty thousand majority. Our opponents 
 charged that we did it by fraudulent voting; but 
 whatever they may have believed, we know the 
 charge to be untrue. Where, now, is that mighty 
 host? Have they gone over to the enemy? Let 
 the results of the late elections answer. Every 
 State which has fallen off from the Whig cause since 
 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic 
 votes than they did then, but by giving fewer Whig. 
 Bouck, who was elected Democratic Governor of 
 New York last fall by more than 15,000 majority, 
 had not then as many votes as he had in 1840, when 
 he was beaten by seven or eight thousand. And so 
 has it been in all the other States which have fallen 
 away from our cause. From this it is evident that 
 tens of thousands in the late elections have not voted 
 at all. Who and what are they? is an important 
 question, as respects the future. They can come 
 forward and give us the victory again. That all, or 
 nearly all, of them are Whigs is most apparent. Our 
 
Abraham Lincoln 313 
 
 opponents, stung to madness by the defeat of 1840, 
 have ever since rallied with more than their usual 
 unanimity. It has not been they that have been 
 kept from the polls. These facts show what the 
 result must be, once the people again rally in their 
 entire strength. Proclaim these facts, and predict 
 this result ; and although unthinking opponents may 
 smile at us, the sagacious ones will ''believe and 
 tremble." And why shall the Whigs not all rally 
 again? Are their principles less dear now than in 
 1840? Have any of their doctrines since then been 
 discovered to be untrue? It is true, the victory of 
 1 840 did not produce the happy results anticipated ; 
 but it is equally true, as we believe, that the unfortu- 
 nate death of General Harrison was the cause of the 
 failure. It was not the election of General Harrison 
 that was expected to produce happy effects, but the 
 measures to be adopted by his administration. By 
 means of his death, and the unexpected course of his 
 successor, those measures were never adopted. How 
 could the fruits follow ? The consequences we always 
 predicted would follow the failure of those measures 
 have followed, and are now upon us in all their 
 horrors. By the course of Mr. Tyler the policy of 
 our opponents has continued in operation, still leav- 
 ing them with the advantage of charging all its evils 
 upon us as the results of a Whig administration. 
 Let none be deceived by this somewhat plausible, 
 though entirely false charge. If they ask us for the 
 sufficient and sound currency we promised, let them 
 be answered that we only promised it through the 
 medium of a national bank, which they, aided by 
 
3H The Writings of 
 
 Mr. Tyler, prevented our establishing. And let them 
 be reminded, too, that their own policy in relation to 
 the currency has all the time been, and still is, in 
 full operation. Let us then again come forth in our 
 might, and by a second victory accomplish that 
 which death prevented in the first. We can do it. 
 When did the Whigs ever fail if they were fully 
 aroused and united? Even in single States, under 
 such circumstances, defeat seldom overtakes them. 
 Call to mind the contested elections within the last 
 few years, and particularly those of Moore and 
 Letcher from Kentucky, Newland and Graham from 
 North Carolina, and the famous New Jersey case. 
 In all these districts Locofocoism had stalked 
 omnipotent before ; but when the whole people were 
 aroused by its enormities on those occasions, they 
 put it down, never to rise again. 
 
 We declare it to be our solemn conviction, that 
 the Whigs are always a majority of this nation; 
 and that to make them always successful needs but 
 to get them all to the polls and to vote unitedly. 
 This is the great desideratum. Let us make every 
 effort to attain it. At every election, let every 
 Whig act as though he knew the result to depend 
 upon his action. In the great contest of 1840 some 
 more than twenty one hundred thousand votes were 
 cast, and so surely as there shall be that many, with 
 the ordinary increase added, cast in 1 844 that surely 
 will a Whig be elected President of the United States. 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 S. T. Logan. 
 
 March 4, 1843. A. T. BLEDSOE. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 315 
 
 TO JOHN BENNETT. 
 
 Springfield, March 7, 1843. 
 
 Friend Bennett: 
 
 Your letter of this day was handed me by Mr. 
 Miles. It is too late now to effect the object you 
 desire. On yesterday morning the most of the Whig 
 members from this district got together and agreed 
 to hold the convention at Tremont in Tazewell 
 County. I am sorry to hear that any of the Whigs 
 of your county, or indeed of any county, should 
 longer be against conventions. On last Wednesday 
 evening a meeting of all the Whigs then here from 
 all parts of the State was held, and the question of 
 the propriety of conventions was brought up and 
 fully discussed, and at the end of the discussion 
 a resolution recommending the system of conven- 
 tions to all the Whigs of the State was unanimously 
 adopted. Other resolutions were also passed, all of 
 which will appear in the next Journal. The meeting 
 also appointed a committee to draft an address to 
 the people of the State, which address will also 
 appear in the next Journal. 
 
 In it you will find a brief argument in favor of 
 conventions — and although I wrote it myself I. will 
 say to you that it is conclusive upon the point and 
 can not be reasonably answered. The right way for 
 you to do is hold your meeting and appoint delegates 
 any how, and if there be any who will not take part, 
 let it be so. The matter will work so well this time 
 that even they who now oppose will come in next 
 time. 
 
316 The Writings of 
 
 The convention is to be held at Tremont on the 
 5th of April and according to the rule we have 
 adopted your county is to have delegates — being 
 double the number of your representation. 
 
 If there be any good Whig who is disposed to stick 
 out against conventions get him at least to read the 
 argument in their favor in the address. 
 
 Yours as ever, 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 Springfield, March 24, 1843. 
 
 Dear Speed: — We had a meeting of the Whigs of 
 the county here on last Monday to appoint delegates 
 to a district convention ; and Baker beat me, and got 
 the delegation instructed to go for him. The meet- 
 ing, in spite of my attempt to decline it, appointed 
 me one of the delegates ; so that in getting Baker the 
 nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow 
 who is made a groomsman to a man that has cut him 
 out and is marrying his own dear "gal." About the 
 prospects of your having a namesake at our town, 
 can't say exactly yet. 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. 
 
 Springfield, III., March 26, 1843. 
 
 Friend Morris: 
 
 Your letter of the 23d, was received on yesterday 
 morning, and for which (instead of an excuse, which 
 you thought proper to ask) I tender you my sincere 
 
Abraham Lincoln 317 
 
 thanks. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that, 
 while the people of Sangamon have cast me off, my 
 old friends of Menard, who have known me longest 
 and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not 
 amuse, the older citizens to learn that I (a stranger, 
 friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a 
 flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put 
 down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and 
 aristocratic family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it 
 was. There was, too, the strangest combination of 
 church influence against me. Baker is a Campbell- 
 ite ; and therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions 
 got all that church. My wife has some relations in 
 the Presbyterian churches, and some with the 
 Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it 
 would tell, I was set down as either the one or the 
 other, while it was everywhere contended that no 
 Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to 
 no church, was suspected of being a deist, and had 
 talked about fighting a duel. With all these things, 
 Baker, of course, had nothing to do. Nor do I 
 complain of them. As to his own church going for 
 him, I think that was right enough, and as to the 
 influences I have spoken of in the other, though they 
 were very strong, it would be grossly untrue and 
 unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body 
 or were very near so. I only mean that those influ- 
 ences levied a tax of a considerable per cent, upon 
 my strength throughout the religious controversy. 
 But enough of this. 
 
 You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress 
 you have an equal right with Sangamon, and in this 
 
3*8 The Writings of 
 
 you are undoubtedly correct. In agreeing to with- 
 draw if the Whigs of Sangamon should go against me, 
 I did not mean that they alone were worth consulting, 
 but that if she, with her heavy delegation, should be 
 against me, it would be impossible for me to succeed, 
 and therefore I had as well decline. And in relation 
 to Menard having rights, permit me fully to recognize 
 them, and to express the opinion that, if she and 
 Mason act circumspectly, they will in the convention 
 be able so far to enforce their rights as to decide 
 absolutely which one of the candidates shall be 
 successful. Let me show the reason of this. Har- 
 din, or some other Morgan candidate, will get Put- 
 nam, Marshall, Woodford, Tazewell, and Logan — 
 making sixteen. Then you and Mason, having 
 three, can give the victory to either side. 
 
 You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, 
 unless I object. I certainly shall not object. That 
 would be too pleasant a compliment for me to tread 
 in the dust. And besides, if anything should happen 
 (which, however, is not probable) by which Baker 
 should be thrown out of the fight, I would be at lib- 
 erty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, 
 however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any 
 way from getting the nomination. I should despise 
 myself were I to attempt it. I think, then, it would 
 be proper for your meeting to appoint three delegates 
 and to instruct them to go for some one as the first 
 choice, some one else as a second, and perhaps some 
 one as a third; and if in those instructions I were 
 named as the first choice, it would gratify me very 
 much. If you wish to hold the balance of power, 
 
Abraham Lincoln 319 
 
 it is important for you to attend to and secure the 
 
 vote of Mason also. You should be sure to have 
 
 men appointed delegates that you know you can 
 
 safely confide in. If yourself and James Short were 
 
 appointed from your county, all would be safe ; but 
 
 whether Jim's woman affair a year ago might not be 
 
 in the way of his appointment is a question. I don't 
 
 know whether you know it, but I know him to be as 
 
 honorable a man as there is in the world. You have 
 
 my permission, and even request, to show this letter 
 
 to Short; but to no one else, unless it be a very 
 
 particular friend who you know will not speak of it. 
 
 Yours as ever, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 P. S. — Will you write me again? 
 
 TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. 
 
 Springfield, May n, 1843. 
 
 Friend Hardin: 
 
 Butler informs me that he received a letter from 
 you, in which you expressed some doubt whether the 
 Whigs of Sangamon will support you cordially. You 
 may, at once, dismiss all fears on that subject. We 
 have already resolved to make a particular effort to 
 give you the very largest majority possible in our 
 county. From this, no Whig of the county dissents. 
 We have many objects for doing it. We make it a 
 matter of honor and pride to do it ; we do it because 
 we love the Whig cause ; we do it because we like you 
 personally ; and last, we wish to convince you that 
 
320 Writings of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 we do not bear that hatred to Morgan County that 
 you people have so long seemed to imagine. You 
 will see by the journals of this week that we propose, 
 upon pain of losing a barbecue, to give you twice as 
 great a majority in this county as you shall receive 
 in your own. I got up the proposal. 
 
 Who of the five appointed is to write the district 
 address ? I did the labor of writing one address this 
 year, and got thunder for my reward. Nothing new 
 
 here. 
 
 Yours as ever, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 P. S. — I wish you would measure one of the largest 
 
 of those swords we took to Alton and write me the 
 
 length of it, from tip of the point to tip of the hilt, 
 
 in feet and inches. I have a dispute about the 
 
 length. 
 
 A. L. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 

 £*T7 
 
 . si 
 
 Kl