973.7L63 B2Se4L Selby, Paul Lincoln's Life Stories and Speeches. ''tfUtltt ii ■sM i U 1 9 iiti ) Rciarn to •">r. i \I^^ Cincoln's Cife Stories »«« Speeches ^^yi^^-y't'^-^i^(^h^P>m'i>^}^dl^>dl^£Si,,rPtyTf^ I I i BY Pawl i>Hbg <4ssocia(« Editor of the Encyclopedia of Illinois. LETTERS AND SPEECHES CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED ILLUSTRATED S?^, ^bompeon & Ebomas . Cbtcaao 1- Copyright 1902 Thompson & Thomat JW- PREFACE. In presenting this volume to the public the aim of its publishers has been to give the reader in a limited space the most interesting, entertaining, and concise work ever published on Lincoln. The biography contained in this work was written by the Hon. Paul Selby, a personal friend of Lincoln, and for many years Editor of the State Journal at Springfield, 111., Lincoln's home. The Stories, Anecdotes, and Yarns of Lincoln have been compiled from the most reliable sources, and are herein presented in an attractive form. The Great Speeches of Lincoln, which cannot fail to arouse the patriotism of the reader, are arranged in chronological order. CONTENTS. PAGE LIFE OF LINCOLN 13-44 CHAPTER I. His Birth and Ancestry — His Autobiography 13-18 CHAPTER XL Life in Kentucky and Indiana i8-2J CHAPTER IIL Removal to Illinois — A second Flat-boat Voyage to New Orleans 21-24 CHAPTER IV. Enters Politics — Begins the Study of Law .'. 24-29 CHAPTER V. As a Lawyer and Political Leader 29-31 CHAPTER VL Organization of the Republican Party 31-34 CHAPTER VII. House Divided against Itself Speech — The Lincoln-Douglas Debate of 1858 34-38 CHAPTER VIII. Election to the Presidency — Administration — Death 38-44 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE 45-83 Abe's Rebuke 46 A Flat-boat Incident Illustrating Lincoln's Ready Ingenuity 63 An Incident from Lincoln's Experience on a Mississippi Flat-boat 59 An Unsuccessful Venture as a Merchant in New Salem 71 A Wrestling Match 64 Books Read by Lincoln in His Early Life 45 i 6 CONTENTS. Cool Under Difficulties , 79 "Honest Abe" as Village Postmaster 61 How Lincoln Became a Captain in the Black Hawk War 72 How Lincoln Earned His First Dollar 52 How Lincoln Obtained the Name of "Honest Abe" 50 How Lincoln Thrashed a Bully and Made a Life-long Friend 58 Incident in the Black Hawk War 79 Lincoln Applies for a Patent 74 Lincoln Carries a Drunkard Eighty Rods on His Back 51 Lincoln's Entrance into Public Life 75 Lincoln's Name Good for a Bed 68 Lincoln's Lizard Story 47 Lincoln's Prophecy 57 Lincoln the Tallest of the Long Nine 74 No Vices — Few Virtues 57 "Thank you, I Never Drink" 80 The First Meeting of a Future President and Governor 67 The Lincoln-Shields Duel 80 Young Lincoln Narrowly Escapes Dearth 54 Young Lincoln Pulls Fodder Two Days for Damaged Books.. 53 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER 83-135 "Adam's Ale," Lincoln's Only Beverage 125 A Distinction with a Difference 83 Advice to a Young Lawyer 90 A Noted Horse Trade in which Lincoln Confessed that He Got the Worst of It 99 A Pathetic Storj' of Lincoln's Disappointment in Failing to Secure the Support of the Springfield Ministry 100 A Visit to the Five Points of Industry in New York 129 Colonel Baker Defended by Lincoln 110 Considerations Shown to Relatives 09 Crocodile and Negro , 115 Defeated by a Still-Hunt 107 First Echoes from Chiacgo Convention 123 "Hold On, Breeze" no "Honest Old Abe" 133 How Lincoln Invested His First Five Hundred Dollars for the Benefit of His Step-Mother 87 CONTENTS. 7 How Lincoln Won the Nomination for Congress 107 How Mrs. Lincoln Surprised Her Husband 98 "I Am Not Fit for the Presidency" 128 Incidents of Lincoln's Home Life 104 Lincoln and Finance 93 Lincoln as a Lawyer 91 Lincoln Defends a Widowed Pensioner with Success 97 Lincoln Defends the Son of an Old Friend Indicted for Murder 94 Lincoln's Knowledge of Human Nature 93 Lincoln's Last Interview with Douglas 116 Lincoln Rescues a Pig from a Bad Predicament 84 Lincoln, the Student 83 Mr. Lincoln's Vision -.. 123 "Nothing to Wear" 104 Pen Picture of Lincoln, and His Speech in New York City... 116 Remarks Uttered by Lincoln, 1858 119 Six-Foot-Three Committee Man 128 Slavery 120 Stanton's First Impression of Lincoln 126 That Stage-coach Ride 89 The House Divided Against Itself 120 The Old Sign, "Lincoln and Herndon" 133 The Ugliest Man - 130 Trent Affair 119 "Trusted Till Britchen Broke" 115 Two Entertaining Anecdotes Illustrating Lincoln's Good Nature 126 "Well, Speed, I'm Moved" 83 "Whole Hog Jackson Man" 113 INCIDENTS FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL CAREER OF LINCOLN 135-167 An Incident in Lincoln's Second Inauguration 165 A Petitioner's Sudden Change of Mind 151 Cabinet Reconstruction , 162 Death of Lincoln's Favorite Son 159 General Fiske's Story of the "Swearing Driver" 142 Hearty Welcome of Dennis Hanks at the White House 147 "He's All Right, but a Chronic Squealer" 163 8 CONTENTS. How Young Daniel Webster Escapes a Flogging, as Related by Lincoln i6o Kindness of Heart i66 Lincoln's Hair 153 Lincoln's Modesty 165 Lincoln's Unconventionality in Receiving Old Friends at the White House 140 "Mother, He's Just the Same Old Abe" 161 Lincoln's Great Love for Little Tad 155 Mr. Lincoln's Tact 152 "Oh, Pa, He Isn't Ugly" 153 Remarkable Memory of Lincoln 141 Secretary Stanton's Uncomplimentary Opinion 164 Simplicity 154 The Hardest Trial of Lincoln's Life 156 The Inauguration, March 4, 1861 135 The Interviews 148 The Presidency Not a Bed of Roses 149 The President's Mind Wandered 144 The President Wields an Ax at the Washington Navy Yard.. 150 The Old Lady and the Pair of Stockings 150 Thorough 152 "Time Lost Don't Count" 162 Unhealthy Group of Office Seekers 150 STORIES OF THE WAR..... 168-218 A Case Where Lincoln Thought Shooting Would Do No Good 176 Advises an Angry Officer 191 Among the Wounded 175 A Story Illustrating Lincoln's Impatience at McClellan's Slow Movements 190 A Touching Song Influences Lincoln to Pardon a Rebel Prisoner 169 3ailing Out the Potomac River 182 Brigadier Generals More Plentiful than Horses 202 Burnside Safe 19Q Dangers of Assassination 217 Fright a Cure for Boils 203 "Grant's Whisky" the Right Kind 199 CONTENTS. 9 Hardtack Wanted, not Generals i68 "Help Me Let This Hog Go" 196 How Lincoln Pacified Disappointed Office Seekers 207 Incident in Lincoln's Last Speech 218 "Let Jeff Escape, I Don't Want Him" 213 "Let the Elephant Escape" .... 201 Lincoln and Little Tad 200 Lincoln and Tad 185 Lincoln Fulfills His Vow 212 Lincoln Defends His Use of the Word "Sugar-coated" in a Public Document 181 Lincoln's Glimpse of War 210 Lincoln's High Compliment to the Women of America 172 Lincoln's Influence with the Administration 179 Lincoln's Last Afternoon 218 Lincoln's Love of Soldier Humor 191 Lincoln's Plan of War 172 Lincoln Refuses Pardon to a Slave Stealer 178 Lincoln's Summing Up of McClellan 190 Lincoln's Tenderness 206 "Making a Fizzle, Anyhow" 189 "Massa Linkun" Worshiped by the Negroes 203 Mr. Lincoln as Historian 186 Mr. Lincoln's Military Talent 188 New Instructions to Generals I77 Righteous Indignation 171 Tad, the Commissioned Officer , 186 That Savage Dog 195 The Biter Bit 205 The Colored People's New Year's Reception.. 214 The Colored People of Richmond Honor Lincoln 204 The Hon. Frederick Douglass Tells of an Interview with Lincoln 183 The Little Drummer Boy 176 The Millionaires Who Wanted a Gun-boat 173 The President and Fighting Joe 187 The President and the Monitor 19a The President Making Generals iC( The President Obeying Orders i73 lo CONTENTS. The President Refuses to Sign Twenty-four Death Warrants 174 The Son of Lincoln Displaj'S a Rebel Flag 211 Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Passes to Richmond 211 Whipped and Then Ran 169 Why Mr. Lincoln Hesitated before Signing the Emancipa- tion Proclamation 188 MISCELLANEOUS STORIES AND INCIDENTS 219-253 Autobiography of Lincoln in a Single Paragraph 220 Concerning Mr. Lincoln's Religious Views 222 Death of Lincoln's Mother 221 Henry J. Raymond's Reminiscences of Lincoln 228 Important Letter from J. Wilkes Booth 232 Indictment of the Conspirators — Charges and Specifications.. 245 Lincoln's Definition of Biography 224 Lincoln's Favorite Poem 225 Lincoln's Religion 224 Lincoln's Religious Belief 221 Reward Offered by Secretary Stanton 244 Song Composed by Abraham Lincoln 219 Walt Whitman's Vivid Description of Lincoln's Assassination 238 LINCOLN'S LETTERS 254-273 Affectionate Son 254 Instructions to Major Robert Anderson 262 Letter to August Belmont 264 Letter to Colfax 261 Letter to Gen. Duff Green 259 Letter to Maj.-Gen. Hooker 267 Letter to Mrs. Armstrong 254 Letter to Mrs. Gurney, Wife of Eminent English Preacher, of the Society of Friends 271 Letter to Seward 262 Lincoln's First Letter of Acceptance 258 Lincoln's Idea of the Slavery Conflict, in 1855 255 Lincoln Writes to His Step-Mother 255 Mr. Lincoln's First Public Letter after His Election 260 Mr. Lincoln's Reply to the Poet Bryant 259 Partial Reply to Censure on the Arrest of Vallandigham, June, 1863 267 CONTENTS. II Presentation of a Gold Medal to Lieut. -Gen. Grant by Presi- dent Lincoln 271 The President's Letter to Hon. Jas. C. Conklin, August 16, 1863 268 The President on the Negro Question 265 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES 273-469 A Great Congressional Speech 281 A Humorous Speech — Lincoln in the Black Hawk War 332 A Proclamation 446 A Proclamation 448 A Proclamation 449 Douglas's Seven Questions — Lincoln's Position Defined on the Questions of the Day 327 Emancipation Proclamation 450 Extracts Upon which Seward Based His "Irrepressible Con- flict Platform" 447 First Speech after His Nomination 415 First Talk after His Nomination 422 Joint Debate Between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln 333 Lmcoln's First Political Speech 273 Lincoln's First Inaugural Address 425 Lincoln's First Speech in the Senatorial Campaign — The House Divided Against Itself Speech 315 Lincoln's Speech at Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 13th, 1861 520 Lincoln's Speech at Indianapolis, Feb. 12th, 1861 417 Lincoln's Speech at Washington, Feb. 27th, 1861 421 Lincoln's Temperance Speech 298 Lincoln's Second Inaugural Speech 458 Mr. Douglas's Reply 374 Mr. Lincoln's Reply 350 National Bank vs. Sub. Treasury 277 President Lincoln's Adieu to Springfield 416 President Lincoln's Last Speech 462 Proclamation by the President 420 Reply to the Committee from the Virginia Convention, April 20, 1861 43S Response to Serenade from Marylanders, Washingti/n, Nov., 1864 458 12 ILLUSTRATIONS. Second Nomination 457 Speech Delivered at Cincinnati, Feb. 12th, 1861 417 The Ballot vs. the Bullet 312 The Emancipation Question in Missouri 445 The Perpetuity of Our Free Institutions 273 The President to Lieutenant-General Grant 456 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE A. Lincoln The Early Home of Abraham Lincoln 17 President Lincoln and his Family in i 861 33 A. Lincoln 50 Lincoln as a Rail SpliUer 55 Lincoln's First Home in Illinois 77 Lincoln's Home in Springfield, Illinois. ... - 77 S. A. Douglass 85 Lincoln getting the worst of a Horse Trade ^ 105 Parlor in Lincoln's Home, Springfield, Illinois Ill State House in Springfield, 111., now Court House 117 President Lincoln in Richmond 121 Campaign Badges of 1 860 .... 1 22 The Chicago Wigwam where Republican Convention of 1860 was held. . 137 Leaders of the Rebellion 154 Lincoln and his Son Tad 157 First Reading of Emancipation Proclamation Sept. 20th 1 862 1 86 Colored People's Reception, New Years, 1 865 215 First Reading of Emancipatioii Proclamation, Sept. 20th 1862.. .... 219 Lincoln and the Slave 250 President Lincoln and his Cabinet 282 First Battle of Bull Run 312 Naval Conflict between the Monitor and Merrimac 3^6 Death of Abraham Lincoln 378 Remains lying in State at Chicago 410 Reception given by Lincoln 423 We mourn a Nation'* Loss 443 Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln 459 Abraham Lincoln. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. I. HIS BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. A perennial charm attaches to the name and memory of Abraham Lincoln. Among those who knew him personally in the intimacy of private life, his simplicity and geniality of character, his intense humanity, and an absolute confidence in his personal integrity won him friends; with the nation — including many who had been his bitterest political foes — his exalted patriotism and the part which he played in the preser- vation of his country and the emancipation of a race commanded respect and admiration ; with the world at large, all these characteristics, and the place which he filled with such unswerving uprightness, ability, and success, during one of the most perilous and dramatic crises in all history, made him the most important and conspicuously historic figure of his time. While the lineage of such a man may be a matter of comparative indifference, in the light of what he accomplished for 13 14 LIFE OF LINCOLN. his country and mankind, his life-history becomes of the most absorbing interest not only to his own countrymen, but in all lands where the virtues of per- sonal integrity, unselfish patriotism and far-reaching political sagacity are appreciated and held in proper esteem — a fact attested by the avidity with which each new volume dealing with his public or private career, and every incident, event, or anecdote connected with his life, is caught up and absorbed by those of whom he was accustomed to speak as "the plain common people. " There could be no more appropriate place than this to introduce what Mr. Lincoln himself had to say of his own and his family history, in a letter to his friend, the Hon. Jesse W. Fell, of Bloomington, 111., under date of December 20, 1859 — the year preceding his election to the Presidency, and about the time his friends were beginning to think seriously of his nomi- nation for that office. He then said: HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY. "I was born, February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families — second families, perhaps I should say. M)'' mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams and others in Macon County, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Ken- tucky, about 1781 or 1782, where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when lie was laboring to open a farm in the forest. LIFE OF LINCOLN. 15 His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them with the New England family of the same name ended in nothing more than a simi- larity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like. "My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and he grew up literally without educa- tion. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union (1816). It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond 'readin', writin', and cipherin' ' to the Rule of Three. If a straggler, supposed to understand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age, I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three, but that was all I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity. "I was raised to farm- work, which I continued until I was twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois and passed the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk War, i6 LIFE OF LINCOLN. and I was elected a captain of volunteers — a success which gave me more pleasure than anj^ I have had since. I went through the campaign, was elated, ran for the Legislature in the same year (1832), and was beaten — the only time I have ever been beaten by the people. The next, and three succeeding biennial elec- tions, I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterwards. During this legislative period, I had studied law and removed to Springfield to prac- tice it. In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress, but was not a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in pol- itics, and generally on the Whig electoral ticket mak- ing active canvasses. I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known. "If any personal description of me is thought desir- able, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and gray eyes. No othei marks or brands recollected. "Yours truly, "A. Lincoln." Soon after his nomination for the Presidency in i860, Mr. Lincoln wrote out a somewhat more elaborate sketch of his life for the use of his friends in preparing a campaign biography for the canvass of that year, but it contained little or nothing in reference to his early w V*, ' THE EARLY HOME OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WHERE HE LIVED UNTIL HE WAS SEVEN YEARS OF AGE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 17 life in addition to what is supplied, with such char- acteristic modesty and frankness, mingled with quaint humor in its closing paragraph, in the sketch just quoted. It would be difficult to comprise within smaller space what was then known of his genealogy and early life. As he himself said, "My early life is characterized in a single line of Gray's Elegy: 'The short and simple annals of the poor.' " Yet subse- quent research seems to have settled the fact beyond a doubt, that Abraham Lincoln belonged to a historic family of which Samuel Lincoln, who came from Eng- land about 1637, settling first at Salem and afterwards at Hingham, Mass., was the American progenitor. To the same source has been traced the ancestry of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, of Revolutionary fame, who received the sword of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781; two early Governors of Massachusetts (both named Levi Lincoln) ; Gov. Enoch Lincoln of Maine, besides others of national reputation. Mordecai Lin- coln, the son of Samuel, lived and died in Scituate, near Hingham, Mass. ; Mordecai II., his son, emi- grated first to New Jersey and then to what after- wards became Berks County, Pennsylvania, as early as 1720 to 1725. John, his son, removed to Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1758; his son Abraham, the father of Thomas (who was the father of the subject of this sketch), settled in Kentucky about 1781 or 1782, where he was killed by Indians in 1784, leaving Thomas, the father of the future President, a child of the age of six years. This will account for the hard- ships which the family of Thomas Lincoln endured in that frontier region, in the latter part of the last and the beginning of the present century, and the modesty i8 LIFE OF LINCOLN. of the surroundings amid which Abraham Lincoln was born. IL LIFE IN KENTUCKY AND INDIANA. Miss Tarbell, in her "Early Life of Abraham Lin- coln," has presented conclusive documentary proofs ot the marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks in Washington County, Kentucky, June 12, 1806. Born the second child of this marriage (a younger brother died in infancy), his early life was, undoubtedly, sim- ilar to that of other children of that region and period. There is reason to believe that there has been a dispo- sition on the part of two classes of writers to exag- gerate the picture of the squalor and wretchedness about the early Lincoln home — on the one hand, by those who had an object in seeking to magnify the popular impression regarding the meanness of his origin; on the other hand, by those who sought to elevate him in public estimation by contrasting the modesty of his early beginnings with the exalted posi- tion to which he finally attained. While the former is unjust to his memory, the latter is unnecessary to a true estimate of his character. As a rule, the pioneers of Kentucky, as in other portions of the West, at that time, and even at a later date, usually lived in a log- cabin of one room but scantily furnished. Those who had two or more rooms were considered fortunate, if not absolutely wealthy. At that time Abraham's father lived in what is now La Rue (then a part of LIFE OF LINCOLN. 19 Hardin) County. Here Abraham spent his childhood until he had passed his seventh year. He went to school a little, but the total could not have been over a few months. Few stories are told of his life in Ken- tucky, because, by the time he had achieved a national reputation, there were few associates of his early child- hood to tell them. When Abraham was in his eighth year (1816), his father removed with his family to what is now Spencer County, Indiana. Here there is reason to believe their mode of life was ruder even than it was in Kentucky, as the country was newer and they settled in an unbroken forest. Mr. Lincoln himself says, in the paper already referred to as having been prepared as the basis for a campaign biography, in i860, that "this removal was partly on account of slavery, but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land-titles in Kentucky." For a time the family are said to have lived in a sort of camp or cabin built of logs on three sides and open at one end, which served as both door and windows. A story told by Lincoln himself about his life here gives his first, if not his only, experience as a hunter. "A few days before the completion of his eighth year, in the absence of his father, a flock of wild turkeys approached the new log-cabin, and Abraham, with a rifle gun, standing inside, shot through a crack and killed one of them. He has never since pulled a trigger on any larger game.'* Another story connected with his life in Indiana ig that told by Austin Gollaher, a school- and play-mate of Abraham's — though somewhat older — who claims to have rescued the future President from drowning in consequence of his falling into a stream which they 20 LIFE OF LINCOLN. were crossing on a log, while hunting partridges neat Gollaher's home. The same claim of having saved Lincoln's life has been set up by Dennis Hanks, both presumably referring to the same event. In his own sketches, Mr. Lincoln makes no reference to this inci- dent, though there is believed to have been some basis of truth in the story, as told so graphically and circum- stantially by Gollaher. Here Abraham again went to school for a short time, but, according to his own statement, "the aggregate of all his schooling did not amount to one year." Accord- ing to the statement of his friend Gollaher, he "was an unusually bright boy at school, and made splendid progress in his studies. Indeed, he learned faster than any one of his schoolmates. Though so young, he studied very hard. He would get spice-wood brushes, hack them up on a log, and burn them two or three together, for the purpose of giving light by which he might pursue his studies." An ax was early put into his hands, and he soon became an important factor in clearing away the forest about the Lincoln home. Two years after the arrival in Indiana, Abraham's mother died, and a little over a year later his father married Mrs. Sarah Johnston, whom he had known in Kentucky. Her advent brought many improvements into the Lincoln home, as she possessed some property and was a woman of strong character. Between her and her step-son sprang up a warm friendship which lasted through life. His devotion to her illustrated one of the strong points in Mr. Lincoln's character. Id 1826, at the age of seventeen years, Mr. Lincoln spent several months as a ferryman at the mouth of Anderson Creek, where it enters the Ohio. According LIFE OF LINCOLN. 21 10 a story told by him to Mr. Seward in Washington, after he became President, it was here he earned his first dollar by taking two travelers, with their bag- gage, to a passing steamer in the Ohio. It was here, too, probably, that he acquired that taste for river life which led, at the age of nineteen, to his taking his first trip to New Orleans as a hired hand on board a flat- boat loaded with produce, belonging to a Mr, Gentry, a business man of Gentryville, Ind., for which he received eight dollars per month and his passage home again. An almost tragic incident connected with this trip, told by Mr. Lincoln himself, was an attack made upon the boat and its crew by seven negroes for the purpose of robbery, and possibly murder, one night while the boat was tied to the shore along "the coast" on the lower Mississippi. The intended robbers were beaten off, but not until some of the crew had been wounded in the assault. in. REMOVAL TO ILLINOIS— A SECOND FLATBOAT VOYAGE TO NEW ORLEANS. In March, 1830, Abraham Lincoln — having just reached his majority — removed with his father's family to Illinois, thus becoming identified with the State to which his name has given such luster. This removal was brought about largely through the influence of John Hanks, who had married one of Abraham's step- sisters, and had preceded the family to Illinois by two years. The first location was made on the banks ol 22 LIFE OF LINCOLN. the Sangamon River, near the present village of Harristown, in the western part of Macon County. Here he set to work assisting his father to build their first home in Illinois and open a farm, splitting some of the rails which aroused so much enthusiasm when exhibited in the State Convention at Decatur, which preceded his nomination for the Presidency in i860. A year later we find him engaging himself, in con- junction with John Hanks and one or two others, to build a flatboat, on the Sangamon River near Spring- field, for Daniel Offutt, which he accompanied to New Orleans with a load of produce. During a stay of one month in the "Crescent City," he had his first oppor- tunity of seeing the horrible side of the institution of slavery, and there is reason to believe that he then became imbued with those sentiments which bore such vast results for the country and a race a generation later. According to the testimony of his friend Hern- don, "he saw 'negroes in chains — whipped and scourged.' Against this inhumanity his sense of right and justice rebelled, and his mind and conscience were awakened to a realization of what he had often heard and read. No doubt, as one of his companions has said, 'Slavery ran the iron into him then and there.* One morning, in their rambles over the city, they passed a slave auction. A vigorous and comely mulatto girl was being sold. She underwent a thorough examination at the hands of the bidders ; they pinched her flesh and made her trot up and down the room like a horse to show how she moved, as the auctioneer said, that 'bidders might satisfy themselves ' whether the article they were offering to buy was sound or not. The whole thing was so revolting that LIFE OF LINCOLN. 23 Lincoln moved away from the scene with a deep feel- ing of 'unconquerable hate.' Bidding his companions follow him, he said : • Boys, let's get away from this. If ever I get a chance to hit that thing' (mean- ing slavery), 'I'll hit it hard.'" Mr. Herndon says this incident was not only furnished to him by John Hanks, but that he heard Mr. Lincoln refer to it him- self. After his return from New Orleans, he entered the service of Offutt as clerk in a store at New Salem, then in Sangamon County, but now in the county of Menard, a few miles from Petersburg. While thus employed, he began in earnest the work of trying to educate himself, using a borrowed " Kirkham's Gram- mar" and other books, under the guidance of Mentor Graham, the village school-teacher. Later, with Graham's assistance, he studied surveying in order to fit himself for the position of a deputy to the County Surveyor. How well he applied himself to the study of the English language is evidenced by the clearness and accuracy with which he was accustomed to express himself, in after years, on great national and inter- national questions — as he had no opportunity of study in the schools after coming to Illinois. The year after locating at New Salem came the Black Hawk War, when he enlisted and was elected captain of his company — a result of which, previous to his election to the Presidency, he said, he had not since had any success in life which gave him so much satisfaction. His company having been disbanded, he again enlisted as a private under Captain Elijah lies. He remained in the service three months, but participated in no battle. 24 LIFE OF LINCOLN. The early part of this year was made memorable iii the history of Central Illinois by the arrival of the steamer "Talisman" from Cincinnati, in the Sangamon River, which it ascended to the vicinity of Springtield. The event produced the wildest enthusiasm through that region, as it was the first steamer to attempt the ascent of that stream, and was regarded as demonstrat- ing its navigability. Mr. Lincoln and Rowan Herndon piloted the vessel out of the river, and it never attempted a second trip, nor has any other tried the experiment. After returning from the Black Hawk War, Mr. Lin- coln made his first entry into business for himself as the partner of one Berry in the purchase of a stock of goods, to which they added two others by buying out local dealers on credit. To this, for a time, he added the office of Postmaster. In less than a year, they sold out their store on credit to other parties, who failed and absconded, leaving a burden of debt on Lincoln's shoulders which lasted until his retirement from Congress in 1849. It was during his stay at New Salem that occured the romance connecting the names of Lincoln and the amiable but short-lived Anne Rutledge, destined to end in her early death, which has furnished so touch- ing a theme for his biographers IV. ENTERS POLITICS— BEGINS THE STUDY OF LAW. The year of the Black Hawk War (1832) saw Lin- coln's entrance into politics as a candidate for Repre- LIFE OF LINCOLN. 25 sensative in the General Assembly from Sangamon County, in opposition to Col. E. D. Taylor, who after- wards became Receiver of Public Moneys at Chicago by appointment of President Jackson, and died there in 1891, at the age of nearly ninety years. Taylor was elected, Lincoln then sustaining the only defeat of his life as a candidate for office directly at the hands of the people. He took a just and natural pride in the fact that, although he was an avowed supporter of Henry Clay, and General Jackson, a few months later, carried the New Salem precinct by a majority of 115 votes, he received 277 out of the 284 votes cast at his home precinct at the earlier election. Lincoln was then in his twenty-fourth year, uncouth in dress and unpolished in manners, but with a basis of sound sense and sterling honesty which commanded the respect and confidence of all who knew him. He also had a fund of humor and drollery, which, in spite of a melancholy temperament, found expression in sallies of wit and the relation of amusing stories, and led him to enter with spirit into any sort of amusement or practical jokes so customary at that time; yet those who knew him best say that he "never drank intoxi- cating liquors," nor "even, in those days, did he smoke or chew tobacco." After his disastrous experience as a merchant at New Salem, and a period of service as Deputy County Sur- veyor, in 1834 he again became a candidate for the Legislature and was elected. During the succeeding session at Vandalia, he was thrown much into the company of his colleague, Maj. John T. Stuart, whose acquaintance he had made during the Black Hawk War, and through whose advice, and the offer of 26 LIFE OF LINCOLN. books, he was induced to enter upon the study of law. Again, in 1836, he was re-elected to the Legislature. His growing popularity was indicated by the fact that, at this election, he received the highest vote cast for any candidate on the legislative ticket from Sangamon County. In the Legislature chosen at this time, Sangamon County was represented by the famous "Long Nine" — two being members of the Senate and Seven of the House — of whom Lincoln was the tallest. This Legislature was made memorable in State history by the fact that it was the one which passed the act removing the State capital from Vandalia to Spring- fiield, and set on foot the ill-fated "internal improve- ment scheme," in both of which Lincoln bore a prominent part, but the last of which he lived to regret on account of the burdensome debt which it imposed upon the State without beneficial results. It was also conspicuous for the large number of its members who afterwards became distinguished in state or national history. Among them we find such names as Edward D. Baker, afterwards Congressman from the Spring- field and Galena districts, United States Senator from Oregon, and killed at Ball's Bluff during the Civil War; Orville H. Browning, who became United States Senator and Attorney-General of the United States; four others — Stephen A. Douglas, James Semple, James Shields, and William A Richardson — became United States Senators; four — John J. Hardin, John A. McClernand, William A. Richardson, and Robert Smith — occupied seats in the lower House of Congress; three became Attorney-Generals; four. State Treas- urers; three, Lieutenant-Governors, and one (Augus- tus C. French), Governor. Re-elected to the House in LIFE OF LINCOLN. 27 tS^8, and again in 1840, we find him the associate of such men as Dr. John Logan, the father of Gen. John A. Logan; William H. Bissell, afterwards Congress- man and Governor ; Lyman Trumbull, afterwards a Justice of the Supreme Court and United States Sen- ator; Thomas Drummond, who became Judge of the United States District Court; Joseph Gillespie, Ebenezer Peck, and many more who became his life-long friends. His prominence at this time is shown by the fact that, at both of these sessions — 1838 and 1840 — he was the choice of his party (the Whig) for Speaker of the House, but defeated by the candidate of the Democracy, who were in the majority. On his return from the Legislature of 1836-37, he entered upon the practice of law, for which he had been preparing, as the necessity of making a livelihood would permit, for the past two years, entering into partnership with his preceptor and legislative col- league, Hon. John T. Stuart. The story of his removal, as told by his friend, Joshua F. Speed, then a merchant of Springfield, whose invitation to share his room Lincoln finally accepted, is so graphic, and, withal, tinged with such a mixture of frankness, humor, and pathos, as to be worthy of reproduction here. Mr. Speed says: "He had ridden into town on a borrowed horse, and engaged from the only cabinet-maker in the village a single bedstead. He came into my store, set his sad- dle-bags on the counter, and inquired what the furni- ture for a single bedstead would cost. I took slate and pencil, made a calculation, and found the sum for furniture, complete, would amount to seventeen dollars in all. Said he : 'It is probably cheap enough; but I 28 LIFE OF LINCOLN. want to say that, cheap as it is, I have not the money to pay. But if you will credit me until Christmas, and my experiment as a lawyer here is a success, I will pay you then. If I fail in that, I will probably never pay you at all.' The tone of his voice was so melancholy that 1 felt for him. I looked at him, and I thought then, as I think now, that I never saw so gloomy and melancholy a face in my life. I said to him, ' So small a debt seems to effect you so deeply, I think I can sug- gest a plan by which you will be able to attain your end without any debt. I have a very large room, and a very large double-bed in it, which you are perfectly welcome to share with me if you choose.' 'Where is your room?' he asked. 'Upstairs,' said I, pointing to the stairs leading from the store to my room. With- out saying a word, he took his saddle-bags on his arm, went upstairs, set them down on the floor, came down again, and, with a face beaming with pleasure and smiles, exclaimed, 'Well, Speed, I'm moved.'" The friendship between Lincoln and Speed, which began in, and was cemented by this generous act of the latter, was of the most devoted character, and, although Mr. Speed returned to his native State of Kentucky a few years later, it was continued through life. During the Civil War, he was intrusted by Mr. Lincoln with many delicate and important duties in the interest of the Government. His brother, James Speed, was appointed by Mr. Lincoln Attorney-Gen- eral in 1864, but resigned after the accession of Presi- dent Johnson. LIFE OF LINCOLN. AS LAWYER AND POLITICAL LEADER. After 1840 Mr. Lincoln declined a re-election to the Legislature. His prominence as a political leader was indicated by the appearance of his name on the Whig electoral ticket of that year, as it did again in 1844 and in 1852, and on the Republican ticket for the State-at- Large in 1856. Except while in the Legislature, from 1837 he gave his attention to the practice of his profession, first as the partner of Maj. John T. Stuart, then of Judge Stephen T. Logan, and finally of Wil- liam H. Herndon, the latter partnership continuing, at least nominally, until his death. His life as a lawyer upon "the circuit" was much to his liking, as it brought him in contact with many congenial minds. Friendships were formed during this period which lasted through life. Next to those among the lawyers about his home at Springfield — the Edwardses, Judge Logan, John T. Stuart, J. C. Conkling, and others of an earlier and later period — probably none was stronger than that entertained for David Davis, of Blooming- ton, who was one of the most earnest supporters of his nomination for the Presidency in i860, and afterwards received at his hands an appointment on the Supreme Bench of the United States. In an address before the Young Men's Lyceum at Springfield, in January, 1837, on "The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions," Mr. Lincoln gave out what may be construed as one of his earliest public utter- ances on the subject of slavery. His theme was sug- gested by numerous lynchings and mob outrages which '.lad been taking place in a number of the Southern 3© LIFE OF LINCOLN. States — especially in Mississippi — and by the recent burning of a negro in St. Louis charged with the com- mission of a murder. The argument, as a whole, was a warning against the danger of mob law to the prin- ciples of civil liberty enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, and a cautious plea for the right of free speech. In it he said : There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily true — that the thing is right within itself, and therefore deserves protection of all law and all good citizens ; or it is wrong, and, therefore, proper to be prohibited by legal enactments ; and in neither case is the interposition of mob law either necessary, justifiable, or excus- able." While there are some crudities in this early effort, and an absence of that logical clearness, directness, and force which distinguished Mr. Lincoln's later pro- ductions, it indicates the bent of his mind at that time on this subject. This was shown, possibly, with still greater emphasis and distinctness during the session of the Legislature in March of the same year, when, in conjunction with one other member — his colleague, Dan Stone — he entered upon the House Journal his protest against a series of pro-slavery resolutions which had been adopted by that body. In that document the protestants expressed their belief "that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy," and that, while Congress had "no power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery xn the different States," it had the power to abolish LIFE OF LINCOLN. 31 it in the District of Columbia, but ought not to exercise it except at the request of the people of the District." On November 4, 1842, Mr. Lincoln was married to Miss Mary Todd, but held no office until his election in 1846 as Representative in Congress for the Springfield District. He made several speeches during his term, the most noteworthy being one in which, in his char- acteristic style, he took ground in opposition to the position of the administration in reference to the Mex- ican War — on that subject agreeing with the famous Tom Corwin. His attitude on the slavery question is indicated by his statement that, while in Congress, he voted in favor of the Wilmot Proviso forty-two times, and supported a bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, with the consent of the voters of the District and with compensation to the owners. This was his uniform position with reference to slavery up to the time when the slave-holders forfeited their right to be protected by engaging in rebellion, and when its abolition became a "war measure." VI. ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUPLICAN PARTY. Impelled by the necessity of providing for his family, during the five years following his retirement from Congress in 1849, Mr. Lincoln gave his time to the practice of his profession more industriously than ever before. The passage, in May, 1854, of the so-called 32 LIFE OF LINCOLN. Kansas-Nebraska bill, repealing the Missouri Compro- mise and opening the way for the admission of slavery into territory which had been "dedicated to freedom," again called him into the political arena, and marked a new era hi his career. Although neither holding an office nor a candidate for one, he almost immediately became one of the leaders of the opposition to that measure. During the early days of October, 1854, the "State Fair being in progress. Senator Douglas came to Springfield to enter upon a defense of his action. In Mr. Lincoln and Lyman Trumbull he found his chief and ablest critics and antagonists. Two weeks later, Mr. Lincoln delivered, at Peoria, probably the most exhaustive argument that had, so far, been delivered on this question. .At this time, Mr. Lincoln had strong hopes that the Whig party would align itself in opposi- tion to the Nebraska bill, and refused to identify him- self with any scheme for the organization of a new party. At the November election, he and Judge Stephen T. Logan — confessedly the two ablest men of the party in Sangamon County — were taken up and elected to the Legislature. Lincoln, recognizing that his name was to come before the Legislature at the coming session, as a candidate for the United States Senate, as a successor to General Shields, declined to accept his Certificate of election, thereby leaving a vacancy to be filled by a special election. By the device popularly known as a "still hunt," a Democrat was chosen to fill the vacancy. When the Legislature met on January i, 1855, the Anti-Nebraska Whigs and Anti-Nebraska Democrats still had a small majority. The Senatorial election came on February 8. Lincoln became the caucus nominee of the Whigs, Shields ot LIFE OF LINCOLN. 33 the straight-out Democrats, while Lyman Trumbull received the support of the Anti-Nebraska Democrats. On the first ballot Lincoln received his full vote of forty-five members, while Trumbull received five, which, combined with the Lincoln vote, would have been sufficient to elect — all other candidates receiving forty-nine votes. Trumbull's supporters stood by him, while a portion of Lincoln's fell off. Before reaching the tenth ballot it was evident that a combi- nation would have to be effected in order to prevent the election of a Democrat. By Lincoln's advice, his friend^ went to Trumbull, and he was elected. While Lincoln frankly acknowledged his disappointment at the result, he never displayed his characteristic magnanimity and unselfishness, for the geod of the cause which he represented and the welfare of the country, more conspicuously than he did in this in- stance. A year later, realizing the utter hopelessness of the attempt to inspire the Whig party with new life, he entered with zeal into the work of organizing a new party. He attended the conference of a dozen Anti- Nebraska editors held at Decatur on the 2 2d of Feb- ruary, 1856, for the purpose of agreeing on a line of policy to be pursued in opposition to the effort to carry slavery into the new Territories under the Kansas- Nebraska Act. He consulted with the Committee on Resolutions, with the result • that a platform was adopted clearly embodying the principles finally enunciated by the Republican party. A resolution was also adopted appointing a State Convention to be held at Bloomington on May 29, following, with a State Central Committee to carry this program into effect. 34 LIFE OF LINCOLN. At a banquet given in the evening to the members of the conference at the St. Nicholas Hotel, by the citizens of Decatur, while discountenancing the use of his own name as a candidate for Governor, he favored the nomination of Col.^ William H. Bissell, as that of an Anti-Nebraska Democrat who would unite all the ele- ments opposed to the Nebraska bill in his support. The convention was held at the time and place named; Mr, Lincoln made before it one of the ablest and most inspiring speeches of his life ; the Republican party, so far as Illinois was concerned, was brought into exist- ence; the program proposed by him at Decatur, for the nomination of Bissell for Governor, was carried into effect by acclamation, and its wisdom demon- strated by the election of the entire State ticket in November following. In the first National Conven- tion of the Republican party, held at Philadolphia on June 17, he was a leading candidate for the nomination for the Vice-Presidency on the Fremont ticket, receiv- ing no v'Otes, and coming next to William L. DaytOHj who-was nominated. In the canvass of that year, he made over fifty speeches "in different parts of the State, though not a candidate for any office except as the head of the electoral ticket. VIL HOUSE-DIVIDED-AGAINST-ITSELF SPEECH— THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE OF 185S. With the exception of a speech before his neighbors at Springfield, in reply to one by Judge Douglas, in LIFE OF LINCOLN. 35 June, 1857, Mr. Lincoln gave little time to politics between 1856 and 1858, devoting his attention chiefly to his profession. As the date of the State Conven- tions of the latter year approached, the political ele- ments .began to seethe and bubble. That of the Republicans met June i6th. After naming candidates for the State offices -a resolution was unanimously adopted declaring Abraham Lincoln its "first and only choice for United States Senator, to fill the yacancy about to be created by the expiration of Mr. Douglas' term of office." In the evening, Mr. Lincoln delivered .an address in response to this reso- lution. This meeting was held in the Hall of Repre- sentatives in the old State capitol. His speech was, in large part, a reiteration of the sentiments expressed at the Bloomington Convention of two years before, carried out to their logical conclusions. As it was written out, there is no doubt of the accuracy of the report given to the public. This has been universally recognized as one of the most important utterances of his life, scarcely second in importance to his two inaugural addresses. Its most striking passage is comprised in the following paragraph : •'A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the 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 course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in 36 LIFE OF LINCOLN. all the States — old as well as new, North as well as South." While he recognized that there was a "tendency to the latter condition," in the removal of the last obstacle to the introduction of slavery in the new Territories by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, he evi- dently hoped for a different result, as shown by the encouraging words with which he closed this historical •address: •'The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but sooner or later the victory is sure to come." The effect of this speech was startling. While it provoked the bitter criticism of his opponents — who, without justification, denounced it as a plea for dis- union — it was regarded by many of his friends as ill- advised. Yet its far-reaching sagacity and foresight, which now seem to have been prompted by a species of inspired prophecy, were demonstrated by the events of less than five years later, in which he was a prin- cipal factor. The Springfield speech was followed, a few months later, by the series of joint debates with Senator Douglas, in which Lincoln was the challenging party, Douglas naming the conditions. Seven meetings were held, as follows : Ottawa, August 2 1 ; Freeport, Au- gust 27; Jonesboro, September 15; Charleston, Sep- tember 18; Galesburg, October 7; Quincy, October 13; Alton, October 15 — Douglas opening and closing at four and Lincoln at three. They not only aroused the interest of both parties throughout the State, but attracted the attention of the whole country. A fea- LIFE_QF LINCOLN. 37 ture of this debate was the seven questions submitted to Douglas by Lincoln, four of which were propounded at Freeport and the other three at subsequent dates. These were a sort of offset to an equal number of questions propounded to Lincoln by Douglas at their first debate at Ottawa. The answers made by Douglas involved him in inconsistencies and apparent contra- dictions, which weakened him in the South and con- •tributed to his defeat as a candidate for the Presidency in i860. At the election in November, 1858 — although the Republicans elected their State ticket by nearly 4,000 plurality — the friends of Judge Douglas secured a majority in the Legislature, thus a second time defeat- ing Mr. Lincoln's aspirations to the United States Senate. This debate served as a sort- of school for Mr. Lin- coln, in which he studied, with the deepest intensity, those questions affecting human rights and the per- manent welfare of the nation ; and, while proving the capacity which he ever manifested to rise to every demand of the occasion, qualified him for the problems which he was called to face a few years later. The national reputation thus won for him was still further enhanced by his speeches in Ohio in September, 1859, still later in Kansas, and early in i860 in the East — that delivered at Cooper Institute, New York, on Feb- ruary 27, i860, being the most memorable. The latter, by their sound sentiment, convincing logic, and lofty patriotism, evoked the admiration of Eastern Republicans and prepared the way for what was to come at Chicago in May following. 38 LIFE OF LINCOLN. vin. ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY— ADMINISTRA-. TION— DEATH. The National Republican Convention met at Chi- cago, May 1 6, iS6o. The Republicans of Illinois haxi already been stirred to enthusiasm by the scenes wit- nessed in the State Convention at Decatur, a week earlier, and this was sustained in the National Conven- tion by the presence of such men, on the floor or in the audience, as David Davis, Norman B. Judd, Bur- ton C. Cook, Stephen T. Logan, O. H. Browning, Leonard Swett, R. J. Oglesby, Joseph Gillespie, and large delegations of Mr. Lincoln's personal friends from all parts of Illinois, to say nothing of those from other States. The work of nominating a candidate for President was taken up on the third day — May 18. On the first ballot, William H. Seward led Lincoln by 53)^ votes, on the second by only sH ! ^^ ^^^ third, Lincoln received 231 ^/^ votes to 180 for Seward — all others receiving 531^ votes. Before the result was announced, Lincoln's vote had increased to 354, and he was finally nominated unanimously amid the wildest e'nthusiasm, Lincoln received the announcement of his nomination in the editorial room of "The State Journal" at Springfield, and, after receiving the congratulations of his friends, withdrew to inform his wife of the result. The succeeding campaign was one of great earnest- ness and enthusiasm on the part of his political friends in all the Northern States, and one of intense bitter- ness' on the part of his enemies, especially in the LIFE OF LINCOLN. 39 South, He was described in the partisan press as rude, ignorant, and uncultivated to the last degree, and pictured as a "baboon," and even painted as a sot and drunkard after his election, in spite of his abstemi- ous habits. The election in November gave him a plurality of the popular v.te and 180 electoral votes out of 303, although not a single vote was returned for him from. ten Southern States. From this point the history of his life is the history of his country. On the morning of February 11, 1861, he left his home at Springfield to assume the duties of his office at Washington. Standing on the rear plat- form of the train at the depot of the Great Western (now the Wabash) Railroad, he addressed his friends and neighbors, who had asserhbled to witness his departure : "My Friends; No one not in my position can realize the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. I go to assume a task more difficult than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine blessing which sus- tained him; and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support. And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which suc- cess is certain. Again, I bid you an affectionate fare- well." 40 LIFE OF LINCOLN. No man ever spoke with profounder earnestness, or from a conscience stirred to deeper feeling by the bur- den of responsibility which had been placed upon his shoulders by the choice of the people. His route on the \yay to the National Capital lay through the States of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- vania, and, at nearly every important station, immense throngs were gathered to greet him and bid him God- speed in the cause he had undertaken. The discovery of a plot to assassinate him in Baltimore led to a change of the program of his journey at Harrisburg, and he passed through Baltimore at night in company with Ward H. Lamon and Allan Pinkerton, the detective, arriving at Washington in safety on the morning of February 23. At that time the National Capital was full of leaders of secession, and unrest and mutual suspicion pre- vailed everywhere. Already seven States had adopted ordinances of secession, and four more soon followed their example. Mr. Lincoln's inaugural address was a touching appeal to stand by the Union, but, so far as the great bulk of the Southe'm people were concerned, it fell upon deaf ears. Then 'came- four years of civil war with all its horrors. These were years of the deepest gloom and anxiety for Mr. Lincoln, but he never swerved from the duty he had assumed on the day of his inauguration, to "preserve, protect, and defend" the Union, The fall of Fort Sumter, the disaster at Bull Run, the reverses at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and the long wait of McClellan at Manassas and in the Valley of the James— though counterbalanced by the LIFE OF LINCOLN. 41 Union victories in the West, especially at Fort Donel- son and Vicksburg, and the check to rebel invasion at Antietam and Gettysburg— tried the patience and faith of the President greatly, but he never lost confidence in the ultimate success of the Union cause. Then, too, he was the subject of bitter criticism on the part of political enemies, as well as.a class of political friends — by the former, because he consented to the appeal to arms at all in defense of the Union; by the latter, because the wat was not pushed with sufficient energy, and especially on his tardiness in striking at the insti- tution of slavery, which was regarded as the cause of the war. And yet, as to the latter, it is the universal judgment of impartial historians of that period, that he chose the right juncture for the issue of the Emancipa- tion Proclamation of January i, 1S63. That document — now universally regarded, next to the preservation of the Union itself, as the crowning- feature of his administration — preceded by the prelim- inary proclamation of September 22, 1862, was issued as a "war measure" after months of anxious delibera- tion. It is well known that Mr. Lincoln, while determined to resist the further extension of slavery into free territory, and desirous of its "ultimate extinc- tion," still believed that the supremacy of the laws and the Constitution should be respected, on this question as well as all others. For this reason, he urged upon the few loyal members who still remained in Congress from the Southern States the acceptance of emancipa- tion with compensation — which, if accepted by the South as a solution of the controversy between the two sections, would have resulted in immense saving of life and treasure. But this was not to be, and the 42 LIFE OF LINCOLN. blow came, forced as a "war measure," immediately upon the heels of the victory at Antietam. If it had come earlier, there is reason to believe that it would have cost the Union some of its ablest but more con- servative supporters. Mr. Lincoln never evinced his remarkable political sagacity more strikingly than in the time and manner of its issue, and it was accepted by the people and the army, as a rule, without protest — often with enthusiastic approval as time proved its wisdom. And thus was verified the prophecy which he had made in his "house-divided-against-itself" speech less than five- years before — and he had been the chief instrument in its accomplishment. The re-election of Mr. Lincoln in 1864, followed by the triumph of Thomas and Sherman in the' West, and of Grant before Richmond, determined the fate of the Union. On April 3, 1865, the Union forces entered the city of Richmond, and, the day following. Presi- dent Lincoln visited the Rebel capital, receiving an enthusiastic welcome, the most unique feature of which was .the .thanks of the members of the race whom he had emancipated. On the nth — two days after the surrender of Lee to Grant — ^he arrived in Washington. Three days later (April 14), the fourth anniversary of the fall of Fort Sumter, the people in the principal cities of the country celebrated the fall of Richmond, the surrender of Lee, and the end of the rebellion. On the evening of that day, Mr. Lincoln, accom- panied by his wife, attended Ford's Theatre in Wash- ington, and, about half past nine, was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a fanatical champion of secession. His death occurred at 7:22 o'clock the next morning. The nation, which had been rejoicing the day befor LIFE OF LINCOLN. 43 over a restored Union, was cast beneath a pall of the deepest gloom. His public funeral occurred on the 19th, after which his remains lay in state in the rotunda of the National Capitol. On the 21st, the funeral cortege started on its sorrowful journey lo Springfield, stopping at the principal cities en route, and arriving at 'its destination on the morning of May 3d. No such evidence of national sorrow has been witnessed in this country or elsewhere. His remains lay in state in the Hall of Representatives — the theater of some of his most brilliant oratorical triumphs — until the 4th, when the final obsequies took place in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist Church, delivering the funeral address. Here a stately monument, including a statue of the martyred Presi- dent, has been erected to his memory, which was dedi- cated, October 15, 1874, the late Governor Oglesby delivering the principal address. Among other distin- guished men present, and who delivered addresses, were Gen. U. S. Grant (then President), Vice-President Henry Wilson, Gen. William T. Sherman, Hon. Wil- liam E. Forster, M.P., of England, and Hon. Schuyler Colfax. Nothing could more strikingly illustrate Mr. Lin- coln's high ideal and firmness for the right, his intense humanity, his deep symnpathy and his broad charity for all — friends and foes alike — than the closing paragraph of his last inaugural address — his last important public utterance: "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 44 LIFE OF LINCOLN. have borne the battle, and for his wfclow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." Stories of Lincoln's Early Life. BOOKS READ BY LINCOLN IN HIS EARLY LIFE. The books which Abraham had the early privilege of reading were the Bible, much of which he could repeat, ^sop's Fables, all of which he could repeat, Pilgrim's Progress, Weem's Life of Washington, and a Life of Henry Clay, which his mother had managed to purchase for him. Subsequently he read the Life of Franklin and Ramsey's Life of Washington. In these books, read and re-read, he found meat for his hungry mind. The Holy Bible, .^sop and John Bunyan — could three better books have been chosen for him from the richest library? For those who have witnessed the dissipating efifects of many books upon the minds of modern children, it is not hard to believe that Abraham's poverty of books was the wealth of his life. These three books did much to perfect that which his mother's teaching had begun, and to form a character which, for quaint sim- plicity, earnestness, truthfulness and purity, has never 45 46 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. been surpassed among the historic personages of the world. The Life of Washington, while it gave him a lofty example of patriotism, incidentally conveyed to his mind a general knowledge of Anierican history; and the Life of Henry Clay spoke to him of a living man who had risen to political and professional eminence from circum.stances almost as humble as his own. The latter book undoubtedljj/did much, to excite his taste for politics, to kindle his ambition, and to make him a warm admirer and partisan of Heniy Clay. Abraham must have been, very young when he read Weem's Life of Washington, and we catch a glimpse of his precocity in the thoughts which it excited, as revealed by himself in the speech made to the New Jersey Senate, while on his way to Washing- ton to assume the duties of the Presidency. Alluding to his early reading of this book, he says: "I remember all the accounts there given of the battle- fields and struggles for the liberty of the country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. I recollect thinking then, a boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for." Even at this age, he Was not only an interested reader of the story, but a student of motives. ABE'S REBUKE. *'The first time I ever remember seeing Abe Lin- coln," is the testimony of one of his neighbors, "w^s when I was a small boy and had gone with my father to attend some kind of an election. One of the neigh- STORIES OF LINCOLNS EARLY LIFE 49 bors, James Larkins, was there. Larkins was a great hand to brag on anything he owned. This time it was his horse. He stepped up before Abe, who was in a crowd, and commenced talking to him, boasting all the while of his animal. '* 'I have got the best horse in the country,' he shouted to his young listener. *! ran him nine miles m exactly three minutes, and he never fetched a long breath. * " 'I presume,' said Abe, rather dryly, 'he fetched a good many short ones, though.' " LINCOLN'S LIZARD STORY. A country meeting-house, that was used once a month, was quite a distance from any other house. The preacher, an old-line Baptist, was dressed in coarse linen pantaloons, and shirt of the same material. The pants, manufactured after the old fashion, with baggy legs and a flap in the front, were made to attach to his frame without the aid of suspenders. A single bution held his shirt in position, and that was at the collar. He rose up in the pulpit, and with a loud voice announced his text thus: "I am the Christ whom I shall represent to-day." About this time a little blue lizard ran up his roomy pantaloons. The old preacher, not wishing to inter- rupt the steady flow of his sermon, slapped away on his leg, expecting to arrest the intruder; but his efforts were unavailing, and the little fellow kept on ascend- ing higher and higher. Continuing the sermon, the preacher loosened the central button which graced the 5° STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. waistband of his pantaloons, and with a kick off came that easy fitting garment. But, meanwhile, Mr. Lizard had passed the equatorial line of the waistband, and was calmly exploring that part of the preacher's anatomy which lay underneath the back of his shirt. Things were now growing interesting, but the sermon was still grinding on. The next movement on the preacher's part was fo** the collar button, and with one sweep of his arm off came the tow linen shirt. The congregation sat for an instant as if dazed; at length one old lady in the rear part of the room rose up, and glancing at the excited object in the pulpit, shouted at the top of her voice, *'If you represent Christ, then I'm done with the Bible." HOW LINCOLN OBTAINED THE NAME OF "HONEST ABE." During the year that Lincoln was in Denton Offutt's store, that gentleman, whose business was somewhat widely and unwisely spread about the country, ceased to prosper in his finances, and finally failed. The store was shut up, the mill was closed, and Abraham Lincoln was out of business. The year had been one of great advance, in many respects. He had made new and valuable acquaintances, read many books, mastered the grammar of his own tongue, won multi- tudes of friends, and became ready for a step still further in advance. Those who could appreciate brains respected him, and those whose ideas of a man related to his muscles were devoted to him. It was while he was performing the work of the store that he STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 5' acquired the sobriquet "Honest Abe" — a characteriza- tion that he never dishonored, and an abbreviation that he never outgrew. He was judge, arbitrator, referee, umpire, authority, in all disputes, games and matches of man-flesh, horse-flesh, a pacificator in all quarrels; everybody's friend; the best-natured, the most sen- sible, the best-informed, the most modest and unassum- ing, the kindest, gentlest, roughest, strongest, best fellow in all New Salem and the region round about. LINCOLN CARRIES A DRUNKARD EIGHTY RODS ON HIS BACK. An instance of young Lincoln's practical humanity at an early period of his life is recorded as follows: One evening, while returning from a "raising" in his wide neighborhood, with a number of companions, he discovered a stray horse, with saddle and bridle upon him. The horse was recognized as belonging to a man who was accustomed to excess in drink, and it was sus- pected at once that the owner was not far off. A short search only was necessary to confirm the suspicion of the men. The poor drunkard was found in a perfectly helpless condition, upon the chilly ground. Abraham's com- panions urged the cowardly policy of leaving him to his fate, but young Lincoln would not hear to the proposition. At his request, the miserable sot was lifted on his shoulders, and he actually carried him eighty rods to the nearest house. Sending word to his father that he should not be back that night, with the reason for his absence, he attended and nursed the 52 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. man until the morning, and had the pleasure of believ- ing that he had saved his life. HOW LINCOLN EARNED HIS FIRST DOLLAR. The following interesting story was told by Mr. Lin- coln to Mr. Seward and a few friends one evening in the Executive Mansion at Washington. The Presi- dent said: "Seward, you never heard, did you, how I earned my first dollar?" "No,*' rejoined Mr. Seward. "Well," continued Mr. Lincoln, "I belonged, you know, to what they called down South the 'scrubs.' We had succeeded in raising, chiefly by my labor, sufficient produce, as I thought, to justify me in tak- ing it down the river to sell. "After much persuasion, I got the consent of mother to go, and constructed a little flatboat, large enough to take a barrel or two of things that we had gathered, with myself and little bundle, down to the Southern market. A steamer was coming down the river. V/e have, you know, no wharves on the Western streams ; and the custom was, if passengers were at any. of the landings, for them to go out in a boat, the steamer stopping and taking them on board "I was contemplating my new flatboat, and wonder- ing whether I could make it strong or improve it in any particular, when two men came down to the shore in carriages with trunks, and looking at the different boats singled out mine, and asked, 'Who owns this?' I answered, soinewhat modestly, 'I do.' 'Will you,' said one of them, 'take us and our trunks out to the STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 53 steamer?' 'Certainly,' said I. I was very glad to have the chance of earning something. I supposed that each of them would give me one or two or three bits. The trunks were put on my flatboat, the passengers seated themselves on the trunks, and I sculled them out to the steamboat. "They got on board, and I lifted up their heavy trunks, and put them on deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out that they had forgotten to pay me. Each of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar, and threw it on the floor of my boat. I could scarcely believe my eyes when I picked up the money. Gentlemen, you may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me a trifle; but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit, that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a more hopeful and confident being from that time. ' ' YOUNG LINCOLN " PULLS:F0DDER" TWO DAYS FOR A DAMAGED BOOK. The following incident, illustrating several traits already developed in the early boyhood of Lincoln, is vouched for by a citizen of Evansville, Ind,, who knew him in the days referred to : In his eagerness to acquire knowledge, young Lin- coln had borrowed of Mr. Crawford, a neighboring farmer, a copy of Weem's Life of Washington — the only one known to be in existence in that region of the country. Before he had finished reading the book, it 54 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. had been left, by a not unnatural oversight, in a win- dow. Meantime, a rain storm came on and the book was so thoroughly wet as to make it nearly worthless. This mishap caused him much pain; but he went, in all honesty, to Mr. Crawford with the ruined book, explained the calamity that had happened through his neglect, and offered, not having sufficient money, to "work out" the value of the book. "Well, Abe," said Mr. Crawford, after due delibera- tion, "as i*^'s you, I won't be hard on you. Just come over and pull fodder for me two days, and we will call our accounts even." The offer was readily accepted, and the engagement literally fulfilled. As a boy, no less than since, Abra- ham had an honorable conscientiousness, integrity, honesty, and an ardent love of knowledge. YOUNG LINCOLN NARROWLY ESCAPES DEATH. A little incident occurred while young Lincoln lived in Indiana, which illustrates the early hardships and surroundings to which he was subjected. On one occa- sion he was obliged to take his grist upon the back of his father's horse, and go fifty miles to get it ground. The mill itself was very rude, and driven by horse- power, the customers were obliged to wait their "turn," without reference to their distance from home, and then used their own horse to propel the machinery. On this occasion, Abraham, having arrived at his turn, fastened his mare to the lever, and was following her closely upon her rounds, when, iirging her with the switch, and "clucking" to her in the usual way, he I LINCOLN AS A RAIL SPLITTER, STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 57 received a kick from her which prostrated him, and made him insensible. With the first instant of return- ing consciousness, he finished the cluck, which he had commenced when he received the kick (a fact for the psychologist), and with the next he probably thought about getting home, where he arrived at last, battered, but ready for further service. NO VICES— FEW VIRTUES. Riding at one time in the stage, with an old Ken- tuckian who was returning from Missouri, Lincoln excited the old gentleman's surprise by refusing to accept either of tobacco or French brandy. When they separated that afternoon, the Kentuckian to take another stage bound for Louisville, he shook hands warmly with Lincoln, and said good-humoredly, "See here, stranger, you're a clever but strange com- panion. I may never see you again, and I don't want to offend you, but I want to say this: My experience has taught me that a man who has no vices has d d few virtues. Good-day." Lincoln enjoyed this reminiscence of his journey, and took great pleasure in relating it. LINCOLN'S PROPHECY. An old copy-book of Lincoln's has the following, written when he was fourteen years old: " 'Tis Abraham Lincoln holds the pen, He will be good, but God knows when!" 58 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. HOW LINCOLN THRASHED A BULLY AND MADE A LIFELONG FRIEND. While showing goods to two or three women in Offutt's store one day, a bully came in and began to talk in an offensive manner, using much profanity, and evidently wishing to provoke a quarrel. Lincoln leaned over the counter, and begged him, as ladies were present, not to indulge in such talk. The bully retorted that the opportunity had come for which he had long sought, and he would like to see the man who could hinder him from saying anything he might choose to say. Lincoln, still cool, told him that if he would wait until the ladies had retired he would hear what he had to say, and give him any satisfaction he desired. As soon as the women were gone, the man became furious. Lincoln heard his boasts and abuse for a time, and, finding he was not to be put off without a fight, said: "Well, if you must be whipped, I suppose I may as well whip you as any other man. " This was just what the bully had been seeking, he said, so out of doors they went, and Lincoln made short work of him. He threw him upon the ground, held him there as if he had been a child, and gathering some "smart- weed" which grew upon the spot, rubbed it into his face and eyes, until the fellow bellowed with pain. Lincoln did all this without a particle of anger, and, v^hen the job was finished, went immediately for water, washed his victim's face, and did everything he could to alleviate his distress. The upshot of the matter was that the man became his fast and lifelong friend, and was a better man from that day. It was STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 59 impossible then, and it always remained, for Lincoln to cherish resentment and revenge. AN INCIDENT FROM LINCOLN'S EXPERIENCE ON A MISSISSIPPI FLATBOAT. At the age of nineteen, Abraham made his second essay in navigation, and at this time caught something more than a glimpse of the great world in which he was destined to play so important a part. A trading neighbor applied to him to take charge of a flatboat and its cargo, and, in company with his own son, to take it to the sugar plantations near New Orleans. The entire business of the trip was placed in Abra- ham's hands. The fact tells its own story touching the young man's reputation for capacity and integrity. He had never made the trip, knew nothing of the journey, was unaccustomed to business transactions, had never been much upon the river; but his tact, ability and honesty were so trusted that the trader was willing to risk his cargo and his son in Lincoln's care. The incidents of a trip like this were not likely to be exciting, but there were many social chats with the settlers and hunters along the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and there was much hailing of similar craft afloat. Arriving at a sugar plantation some- where between Natchez and New Orleans, the boat was pulled in, and tied to the shore for purposes of trade; and here an incident occurred which was sufficiently exciting, and one which, in the memory of recent events, reads somewhat strangely. Here seven negroes attempted the life of the future liberator of the race, and it is not improbable that some of them 6o STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. have lived to be emancipated by his proclamation. Night had fallen, and the two tired voyagers had lain down on their hard bed for sleep. Hearing a noise on shore, Abraham shouted: "Who's there?" The noise continuing and no one replying, he sprang to his feet and saw seven negroes, evidently bent on plunder. Abraham guessed the errand at once, and seizing a hand-spike, rushed towards them, and knocked one into the water the moment he touched the boat. The second, third, and fourth who leaped on board were served in the same rough way. Seeing that they were not likely to make headway in their thieving enter- prise, the remainder turned to flee. Abraham and his companion, growing excited and warm with their work, leaped on shore, and followed them. Both were too swift on foot for the negroes, and all of them received a severe pounding. They returned to their boat just as the others escaped from the water, but the latter fled into the darkness as fast as their legs could carry them. Abraham and his fellow in the fight were both injured, but not disabled. Not being armed, and unwilling to wait until the negroes had received reinforcements, they cut adrift, and floated down a mile or two, tied up to the bank again, and watched and waited for the morning. The trip was brought at length to a successful end. The cargo, "load," as they called it, was all disposed of for money, the boat itself sold for lumber, and the young men retraced the passage, partly, at least, on shore and on foot, occupying several weeks in the difficult and tedious journey. STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 61 "HONEST ABE" AS A COUNTRY STOREKEEPER. Lincoln could not rest for an instant under the con- sciousness that he had, even unwittingly, defrauded anybody. On one occasion, while clerking in Offutt's store, at New Salem, 111., he sold a woman a little bale of goods, amounting in value by the reckoning to two dollars and twenty cents. He received the money, and the woman went away. On adding the items of the bill again to make himself sure of correctness, he found that he had taken six and a quarter cents too much. It was night, and, closing and locking the store, he started out on foot, a distance of two or three miles, for the house of his defrauded customer, and, delivering over to her the sum whose possession had so much troubled him, went home satisfied. On another occasion, just as he was closing the store for the night, a woman entered, and asked for a half pound of tea. The tea was weighed out and paid for, and the store was left for the night. The next morn- ing Lincoln entered to begin the duties of the day, when he discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He saw at once that he had made a mistake, and, shutting the store, he took a long walk before break- fast to deliver the remainder of the tea. These are very humble incidents, but they illustrate the man's perfect conscientiousness — his sensitive honesty — better, perhaps, than they would if they were of greater moment. "HONEST ABE" AS VILLAGE POSTMASTER. Mr. Lincoln was appointed postmaster by President Jackson. The office was too insignificant to be con- 62 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. sidered politically, and it was given to the young man because everybody liked him, and because he was the only man who was willing to take it who could make out the returns. He was exceedingly pleased with the appointment, because it gave him a chance to read every newspaper that was taken in the vicinity. He had never been able to get half the newspapers he wanted before, and the office gave him the prospect of a constant feast. Not wishing to be tied to the office, as it yielded him no revenue that would reward him for the confinement, he made a post-office of his hat. Whenever he went out the letters were placed in his hat. When an anxious looker for a letter found the postmaster, he had found his office; and the public officer, taking off his hat, looked over his mail wher- ever the public might find him. He kept the office until it was discontinued, or removed to Petersburg. One of the most beautiful exhibitions of Mr. Lin- coln's rigid honesty occurred in connection with the settlement of his accounts with the Post-office Depart- ment, several years afterward. It was after he had become a lawyer, and had been a legislator. He had passed through a period of great poverty, had acquired his education in the law in tlie midst of many perplexities, inconveniences, and hard- ships, and had met with temptations such as few men could resist, to make a temporary use of any money he might have in his hands. One day, seated in the law office of his partner, the agent of the Post-office Department entered, and inquired if Abraham Lincoln was within. Mr. Lincoln responded to his name, and was informed that the agent had called to collect the balance due the Department since the discontinuance STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 6^ of the New Salem office. A shade of perplexity passed over Mr. Lincoln's face, which did not escape the notice of friends present. One of them said at once: ••Lincoln, if you are in want of money, let us help you." He made no reply, but suddenly rose, and pulled out from a pile of books a little old trunk, and, returning to the table, asked the agent how much the amount of his debt was. The sum was named, and then Mr. Lincoln opened the trunk, pulled out a little package of coin wrapped in a cotton rag, and counted out the exact sum, amounting to something more than seven- teen dollars. After the agent had left the room, he remarked quietly that he had never used any man's money but his own. Although this sum had been in his hands during all these years, he had never regarded it as available, even for any temporary use of his own. A. FLATBOAT INCIDENT ILLUSTRATING LINCOLN'S READY INGENUITY. Governor Yates, of Illinois, in a speech at Spring- field, quoted one of Mr. Lincoln's early friends — W. T. Green — as having said that the first time he ever saw Mr. Lincoln, he was in the Sangamon River with his trousers rolled up five feet, more or less, trying to pilot a flatboat over a mill-dam. The boat was so full of water that it was hard to manage. Lincoln got the prow over, and then, instead of waiting to bail the water out, bored a hole through the projecting part and let it run out; affording a forcible illustration of the ready ingenuity of the future President in the quick invention of moral expedients. 64 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. A WRESTLING MATCH. There lived, at the time young Lincoln resided at New Salem, 111., in and around the village, a band of rollicking fellows, or, more properly, roistering rowdies, known as the "Clary's Grove Boys." The special tie that united them was physical courage and prowess. These fellows, although they embraced in their number many men who have since become respectable and influential, were wild and rough beyond toleration in any community not made up like that which produced them. They pretended to be "regu- lators," and were the terror of all who did not acknowl- edge their rule ; and their mode of securing allegiance was by flogging every man who failed to acknowledge it. They took it upon themselves to try the mettle of every new-comer, and to learn the sort of stuff he was made of. Some of their number was appointed to fight, wrestle, or run a foot-race with each incoming stranger. Of course, Abraham Lincoln was obliged to pass the ordeal. Perceiving that he was a man who would not easily be floored, they selected their champion, Jack Arm- strong, and imposed upon him the task of laying Lin- coln upon his back. There is no evidence that Lincoln was an unwilling party to the sport, for it was what he had always been accustomed to. The bout was entered upon, but Armstrong soon discovered that he had met more than his match. The boys were looking on, and seeing that their champion was likely to get the worst of it, did after STORIES OP LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 67 the manner of such irresponsible bands. They gath- ered around Lincoln, struck and disabled him, and then Armstrong, by "legging" him, got him down. Most men would have been indignant, not to say furiously angry, under such foui treatment as this; but if Lincoln was either, he did not show it. Getting up in perfect good humor, he fell to laughing over his dis- comfiture, and joking about it. They had all calcu- lated on making him angry, and they intended, with ihj amiable spirit which characterized the "Clary's Grove Boys," to give him a terrible drubbing. They were disappointed, and, in their admiration of him, immediately invited him to become one of the com- pany. THE FIRST MEETING OF A FUTURE PRESIDENT AND GOVERNOR. Lincoln was a marked and a peculiar young man. People talked about him. His studious habits, his greed for information, his thorough mastery of the difficulties of every new position in which he was placed, his intelligence touching all matters of public concern, his unwearying good-nature, his skill in tell- ing a story, his great athletic power, his quaint, odd ways, his uncouth appearance, all tended to bring him in sharp contrast with the dull mediocrity by which he was surrounded. Denton Offutt, his old employer in the store, said, after having had a conver- sation with Lincoln, that the young man "had talent enough in him to make a President." In every circle in which he found himself, whether refined or coarse, he was always the center of attraction. 68 STORIES OP LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. William G. Greene says that when he (Greene) wah a member of the Illinois College, he brought home with him, on a vacation, Richard Yates, afterwards Governor of the State, and some other boys, and, in order to entertain them, took them up to see Lincoln. He found him in his usual position and at his usual occupation. He was flat on his back, on a cellar door, reading a newspaper. This was the manner in which a President of the United States and a Governor of Illinois became acquainted with each other. Mr. Greene says that Lincoln then repeated the whole of Burns, and was a devoted student of Shakespeare. So the rough backwoodsman, self-educated, enter- tained the college boys, and was invited to dine with them on bread and milk. How he managed to upset his bowl of milk is not a matter of history, but the fact that he did so, as is the further fact that Greene's mother, who loved Lincoln, tried to smooth over the accident and to relieve the young man's embarrass- ment. LINCOLN'S NAME GOOD FOR A BED. In the year 1855 or 1856, George B. Lincoln, Esq., of Brooklyn, was traveling through the west in connec- tion with a large New York dry-goods establishment. He found himself one night in a town on the Illinois River, by the name of Naples. The only tavern of the place had evidently been constructed with reference to business on a small scale. Poor as the prospect seemed. Mr. Lincoln had no alternative but to put up at the place. STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 69 The supper-room was also used as a lodging-room. Mr. Lincoln told his host that he thought he would "go to bed." "Bed!" echoed the landlord. "There is no bed foi you in this house unless you sleep with that man yon- der. He has the only one we have to spare." "Well," returned Mr. Lincoln, "the gentleman has possession, and perhaps would not like a bed-fellow.' Upon this a grizzly head appeared out of the pillows, and said: "What is your name?" "They call me Lincoln at home," was the reply. "Lincoln!" repeated the stranger; "any connection of our Illinois Abraham?" "No," replied Mr. Lincoln. "I fear not." "Well," said the old gentleman, "I will let any man by the name of 'Lincoln' sleep with me, just for the sake of the name. You have heard of Abe?" he inquired. "Oh, yes, very often," replied Mr. Lincoln. "No man could travel far in this State without hearing of him, and I would be very glad to claim connection if I could do so honestly. ' ' "Well," said the old gentleman, "my name is Sim- mons. 'Abe' and I used to live and work together when young men. Many a job of wood-cutting and rail-splitting have I done up with him. Abe Lincoln was the likeliest boy in God's world. He would work all day as hard as any of us — and study by firelight in the log-house half the night ; and in this way he made himself a thorough, practical surveyor. Once, during those days, I was in the upper part of the State, and I met General Ewing, whom President Jackson had sent 70 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. to the Northwest to make surveys. I told him about Abe Lincoln, what a student he was, and that I wanted he should give me a job. He looked over his memo- randum, and, holding out a paper, said: ' 'There is County must be surveyed; if your friend can do the work properly, I shall be glad to have him undertake it — the compensation will be six hun- dred dollars. ' "Pleased as I could be, I hastened to Abe, after I got home, with an account of what I had secured for him. He was sitting before the fire in the log-cabin when I told him; and what do you think was his answer? When I finished, he looked up very quietly, and said: " 'Mr. Simmons, I thank you very sincerely for your kindness, but I don't think I will undertake the job.' " 'In the name of wonder,' said I, 'why? Six hun- dred does not grow upon every bush out here in Illinois. ' " 'I know that,' said Abe, 'and I need the money bad enough, Simmons, as you know ; but I have never been under obligation to a Democratic Administration, and I never intend to be so long as I can get my living another way. General Ewing must find another man to do his work.' " Mr. Carpenter related this story to the President one day, and asked him if it were true. "Pollard Simmons!" said Lincoln. "Well do I remember him. It is correct about our working together, but the old man must have stretched the facts somewhat about the survey of the County. I think I should have been very glad of the job at the time, no matter what Administration was in power." STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 71 Notwithstanding this, however, Mr. Carpenter was inch'ned to believe Mr. Simmons was not far out of the way, and thought this seemed verj'' characteristic of what Abraham Lincoln may be supposed to have been at twenty-three or twenty-five years of age. AN UNSUCCESSFUL VENTURE AS A MERCHANT IN NEW SALEM. It is interesting to recall the fact that at one time Mr. Lincoln seriously took into consideration the project of learning the blacksmith's trade. He was without means, and felt the immediate necessity of undertaking some business that would give him bread. It was while he was entertaining this project that an event occurred which in his undetermined state of mind seemed to open a way to success in another quarter. A man named Reuben Radford, the keeper of a small store in the village of New Salem, had somehow incurred the displeasure of the Clary's Grove Boys, who had exercised their "regulating" derogatives by irregularly breaking his windows. William G. Greene, a friend of young Lincoln, riding by Radford's store soon afterward, was hailed by him, and told that he intended to sell out. Mr. Greene went into the store, and offered him at random four hundred dollars for his stock. The offer was immediately accepted. Lincoln happening in the next day, and being familiar with the value of the goods, Mr. Greene pro- posed to him to take an inventory of the stock, and see what sort of a bargain he had made. This he did, and 7* STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. it was found that the goods were worth six hundred dollars. Lincoln then made him an offer of a hundred and twenty-five dollars for his bargain, with the propo- sition that he and a man named Berry, as his partner, should take his (Greene's) place in the notes given to Radford. Mr. Greene agreed to the arrangement, but Radford declined it, except on condition that Greene would be their security, and this he at last assented to. Berry proved to be a dissipated, trifling man, and the business soon became a wreck. Mr. Greene was obliged to go in and help Mr. Lincoln close it up, and not only do this but pay Radford's notes. All that young Lincoln won from the store was some very valu- able experience, and the burden of a debt to Greene which, in conversations with the latter, he always spoke of as the national debt. But this national debt, unlike the majority of those which bear the title, was paid to the utmost farthing in after years. Six years afterwards, Mr. Greene, who knew nothing of the law in such cases, and had not troubled himself to inquire about it, and who had in the meantime removed to Tennessee, received notice from Mr. Lin- coln that he was ready to pay him what he paid for Berry— he (Lincoln) being legally bound to pay the liabilities of his partner. HOW LINCOLN BECAME A CAPTAIN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR. In the threatening aspect of the Black Hawk War, Governor Reynolds issued a call for volunteers, and among the companies that immediately responded was I STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 73 one from Menard County, Illinois, Many of the volunteers were from New Salem and Clary's Grove, and Lincoln, being out of business, was first to enlist. The company being full, they held a meeting at Rich- land for the election of officers. Lincoln had won many hearts, and they told him that he must be their captain. It was an office that he did not aspire to, and one for which he felt that he had no special fitness; but he consented to be a candidate. There was but one other candidate for the office (a Mr. Kirkpatrick), and he was one of the most influential men of the County. Previously, Kirkpatrick had been an em- ployer of Lincoln, and was so overbearing in his treat- ment of the young man that the latter left him. The simple mode of their electing their captain, adopted by the company, was by placing the candi- dates apart, and telling the men to go and stand with the one they preferred. Lincoln and his competitor took their positions, and then the word was given. At least three out of every four went to Lincoln at once. When it was seen by those who had arranged them- selves with the other candidate that Lincoln was the choice of the majority of the company, they left their places, one by one, and came over to the successful side, until Lincoln's opponent in the friendly strife was left standing almost alone. "I felt badly to see him cut so," says a witness of the scene. Here was an opportunity for revenge. The humble laborer was his employer's captain, but the oppor- tunity was never improved. Mr. Lincoln frequently confessed that no subsequent success of his life had given him half the satisfaction that this election did. 74 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. He had achieved public recognition; and to one so humbly bred, the distinction was inexpressibly delight- ful. LINCOLN APPLIES FOR A PATENT. That he had enough mechanical genius to make him a good mechanic there is no doubt. With such rude tools as were at his command he had made cabins and flatboats; and after his mind had become absorbed in public and professional affairs, he often recurred to his mechanical dreams for amusement. One of his dreams took form, and he endeavored to make a practical matter of it. He had had experience in the early navigation of the Western rivers. One of the most serious hindrances to this navigation was low water, and the lodgment of the various craft on the shifting shoals and bars with which these rivers abound. He undertook to contrive an apparatus which, folded to the hull of the boat like a bellows, might be inflated on occasions, and, by its levity, lifted over any obstruction upon which it might rest. On this contrivance, illustrated by a model whittled out by himself, and now preserved in the Patent Office in Washington, he secured letters patent; but it is cer- tain that the navigation of the Western rivers was not revolutionized by it. LINCOLN THE TALLEST OF THE "LONG NINE." The Sangamon County delegation to the Illinois Legislature, in 1834, of which Lincoln was a member, consisting of nine representatives, was so remarkable for the physical altitude of its members that they were STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 75 known as "The Long Nine." Not a member of the number was less than six feet high, and Lincoln was the tallest of the nine, as he was the leading man intellectually in and out the House. Among those who composed the House were Gen. John A. McClernand, afterward a member of Con- gress; Jesse K. DeBois, afterwards Auditor of the State; James Semple, afterwards twice the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and subsequently- United States Senator; Robert Smith, afterwards member of Congress ; John Hogan, afterwards a mem- ber of Congress from St. Louis; Gen. James Shields, afterwards United States Senator (who died recently) ; John Dement, who has since been Treasurer of the State ; Stephen A. Douglas, whose subsequent career is familiar to all ; Newton Cloud, President of the Con- vention which framed the present State Constitution of Illinois; John J. Hardin, who fell at Buena Vista; John Moore, afterward Lieutenant-Governor of the State; William A. Richardson, subsequently United States Senator, and William McMurtry, who has since been Lieutenant-Governor of the State. This list does not embrace all who had then, or who have since been distinguished, but it is large enough to show that Lincoln was, during the term of this Legis- lature, thrown into association and often into antag- onism, with the brightest men of the new State. LINCOLN'S ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE. In 1834, Lincoln was a candidate for the Legislature, and was elected by the highest vote cast for any candi- date. Major John T. Stuart, an ofSficer in the Black 76 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. Hawk War, and whose acquaintance Lincoln made at Beardstown, was also elected. Major Stuart had already conceived the highest opinion of the young man, and seeing much of him during the canvass for the election, privately advised him to study law. Stuart was himself engaged in a large and lucrative practice at Springfield. Lincoln said he was poor — that he had no money to buy books, or to live where books might be borrowed or used. Major Stuart offered to lend him all he needed, and he decided to take the kind lawyer's advice, and accept his offer. At the close of the can- vass which resulted in his election, he walked to Spring- field, borrowed "a load" of books of Stuart, and took them home with him to New Salem. Here he began the study of law in good earnest, though with no preceptor. He studied while he had bread, and then started out on a surveying tour to win the money that would buy more. One who remembers his habits during this period says that he went, day after day, for weeks, and sat under an oak tree near New Salem and read, moving around to keep in the shade as the sun moved. He was so much absorbed that some people thought and said he was crazy. Not unfrequently he met and passed his best friends without noticing them. The truth was that he had found the pursuit of his life, and had become very much in earnest. During Lincoln's campaign he possessed and rode a horse, to procure which he had quite likely sold his compass and chain, for, as soon as the canvass had closed, he sold the horse and bought these instruments. LINCOLN'S FIRST HOME IN ILLINOIS. LINCOLN'S HOME IN SPRINGFIELD, ILL. STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 79 indispensable to him in the only pursuit by which he could make his living. When the time for the assembly of the Legislature had arrived Lincoln dropped his law books, shouldered his pack, and, on foot, trudged to Vandalia, then the Capital of the State, about a hundred miles, to make his entrance into public life. INCIDENT IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR. An old Indian strayed, hungry and helpless, into the camp one day. The soldiers were conspiring to kill him as a spy. A letter from General Cass, recommending him, for his past kind and faithful service to the whites, the trembling old savage drew from beneath the folds of his blankets; but failed in any degree to appease the wrath of the men who confronted him. "Make an example of him," they exclaimed; "the letter is a forgery, and he is a spy." They might have put their threats into execution had not the tall form of their captain, his face swarthy with resolution and rage, interposed itself between them and their defenseless victim. Lincoln's determined look and demand that it must not be done were enough. They sullenly desisted, and the Indian, unmolested, continued on his way. COOL UNDER DIFFICULTIES. At one time Major Hill charged Lincoln with mak> ing defamatory remarks about his wife. 8o STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. Hill was insulting in his language to Lincoln, who never lost his temper. When he saw his chance to edge a word in, Lincoln denied emphatically using the language or anything like that attributed to him. He entertained, he insisted, a high regard for Mrs. Hill, and the only thing he knew to her discredit was the fact that she was Major Hill's wife. "THANK YOU. I NEVER DRINK." When Lincoln was in the Black Hawk War as cap- tain, the volunteer soldiers drank in with delight the jests and stories of the tall captain, .^sop's Fables were given a new dress, and the tales of the wild adventures that he had brought from Kentucky and Indiana were many, but his inspiration was never stimulated by recourse to the whisky jug. When his grateful and delighLed auditors pressed this on him he had one reply: "Thank you, I never drink it." THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. The late General Shields was Auditor of the State of Illinois in 1839. While he occupied this important office he was involved in an "affair of honor" with a Springfield lawyer — no less a personage than Abra- ham Lincoln. At this time, " J ames Shields, Auditor, ' ' was the pride c* the young Democracy, and was con- sidered a dashing fellow by all, the ladies included. In the summer of 1842, the Springfield Journal con- tained some letters from the "Lost Township," by a STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 8i contributor whose nom de plume was "Aunt Becca," which held up the gallant young Auditor as "a ball- room dandy, floatin' about on the earth without heft or substance, just like a lot of cat fur where cats had been fightin'." These letters caused intense excitement in the town. Nobody knew or guessed their authorship. Shields swore it would be coffee and pistols for two if he should find out who had been lampooning him so unmerci- fully. Thereupon "Aunt Becca" wrote another letter, which made the furnace of his wrath seven times hotter than before, in which she made a very humble apology, and offered to let him squeeze her hand for satisfaction, adding: "If this should not answer, there is one thing more I would rather do than get a lickin', I have all along expected to die a widow; but, as Mr, Shields is rather good-looking than otherwise, I must say I don't care if we compromise the matter by — really, Mr. Printer, I can't help blushing — but I must come out — I — but widowed modesty — well, if I must, I must — wouldn't he — maybe sorter let the old grudge drap if I was to consent to be — be — his wife? I know he is a fightin' man, and would rather fight than eat; but isn't marryin' better than fightin', though it does sometimes run into it? And I don't think, upon the whole, I'd be sich a bad match neither; I'm not over sixty, and am just four feet three in my bare feet, and not much more around the girth; and for color, I wouldn't turn my back to nary a girl in the Lost Townships. But, after all, maybe I'm counting my chickens before they're hatched, and dreamin' of matrimonial bliss when the only alternative reserved for me may be a lickin'. Jeff 82 STORIES OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. tells me the way these fire-eaters do is to give the challenged party the choice of weapons, which being the case, I tell you in confidence, I never fight with anything but broomsticks or hot water, or a shovelful of coals, or some such thing; the former of which, being somewhat like a shillelah, may not be so very objectionable to him. I will give him a choice, how- ever, in one thing, and that is whether, when we fight, I shall wear breeches or he petticoats, for I presume this change is sufficient to place us on an equality." Of course, some one had to shoulder the responsi- bility of these letters after such a shot. The real author was none other than Miss Mary Todd, after- ward the wife of Abraham Lincoln, to whom she was engaged, and who was in honor bound to assume, for belligerent purposes, the responsibility of her sharp pen-thrusts. Mr. Lincoln accepted the situation. Not long after, the two men, with their seconds, were on their way to the field of honor. But the affair was fixed up without any fighting, and thus ended in a fizzle the Lincoln-Shields duel of the Lost Township. Stories of Lincoln as a Lawyer. LINCOLN THE STUDENT. That Lincoln's attempt to make a lawyer of himself under the adverse and unpromising circumstances ex- cited comment is not to be wondered at. Russell Goodby, an old man who still survives, told the following: He had often employed Lincoln to do farm work for him, and was surprised to find him one day, sitting barefoot on the summit of a woodpile, and attentively reading a book. "This being an unusual thing for farm hands at that early date to do, I asked him," relates Goodby, "what he was reading. "He answered, 'I'm studying. " 'Studying what?' I inquired. " 'Law, sir,' was the emphatic response. It was really too much for me, as I looked at him sitting there proud as Cicero. ' ' "WELL, SPEED, I'M MOVED." Speed, who was a prosperous young merchant, reports that Lincoln's personal effects consisted of a pair of saddle-bags, containing two or three lawbooks. 83 84 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. and a few pieces of clothing. Riding on a borrowed horse, he thus made his appearance in Springfield. When he discovered that a single bedstead would cost seventeen dollars, he said, "It is probably cheap enough, but I have not money enough to pay for it." When Speed offered to trust him, he said: "If I fail here as a lawyer, I will probably never pay you at all. ' ' Then Speed offered to share a large double bed with him. "Where is your room?" Lincoln asked. "Upstairs," said Speed, pointing from the store lead- ing to his room. Without saying a word, he took his saddle-bags on his arm, went upstairs, set them down on the floor, came down again, and with a face beaming with pleas- ure and smiles, exclaimed: "Well, Speed, I'm moved." LINCOLN RESCUES A PIG FROM A BAD PREDICAMENT. An amusing incident occurred in connection with "riding the circuit," which gives a pleasant glimpse into the good lawyer's heart. He was riding by a deep slough, in which, t6 his exceeding pain, he saw a pig struggling, and with such faint efforts that it was evi- dent that he could not extricate himself from the mud. Mr. Lincoln looked at the pig and the mud which enveloped him, and then looked at some new clothes with which he had but a short time before enveloped himself. Deciding against the claims of the pig, he rode on, but he could not get rid of the vision of the poor brute, and, at last, after riding two miles, he turned back, determined to rescue the animal at the ^^^^' STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 87 expense of his new clothes. Arrived at the spot, he tied his horse, and coolly went to work to build of old rails a passage to the bottom of the hole. Descending on these rails, he seized the pig and dragged him out, but not without serious damage to the clothes he wore. Washing his hands in the nearest brook, and wiping them on the grass, he mounted his gig and rode along. He then fell to examining the motive that sent him back to the release of the pig. At the first thought it seemed to be pure benevolence, but, at length, he came to the conclusion that it was selfish- ness, for he certainly went to the pig's relief in order (as he said to the friend to whom he related the inci- dent), "to take a pain out of his own mind." This is certainly a new view of the nature of sympathy; and one which it will be well for the casuist to examine. HOW LINCOLN INVESTED HIS FIRST FIVE HUN- DRED DOLLARS FOR THE BENEFIT OF HIS STEP-MOTHER. Soon after Mr. Lincoln entered upon his profession at Springfield, he was engaged in a criminal case in which it was thought there was little chance of suc- cess. Throwing all his powers into it, he came off victorious, and promptly received for his services five hundred dollars. A legal friend calling upon him the next morning found him sitting before a table, upon which his money was spread out, counting it over and over. "Look here. Judge," said he. "See what a heap of money I've got from the case. Did you ever see anything like it? Why, I never had so much money in 88 STORIES OP LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. my life before, put it all together." Then, crossing his arms upon the table, his manner sobering down, he added: "I have got just five hundred dollars; if it were only seven hundred and fifty, I would go directly and purchase a quarter section of land, and settle it upon my old step-mother." His friend said that if the deficiency was all he needed, he would loan him the amount, taking his note, to which Mr. Lincoln instantly acceded. His friend then said : ''Lincoln, I would not do just what you have indi- cated. Your step-mother is getting old, and will not probably live many years. I would settle the property upon her for her use during her lifetime, to revert to you upon her death." With much feeling, Mr. Lincoln replied: "I shall do no such thing. It is a poor return at best for all the good woman's devotion and fidelity to me, and there is not going to be any half-way business about it." And so saying, he gathered up his money and proceeded forthwith to carry his long-cherished purpose into execution. A DISTINCTION WITH A DIFFERENCE. Lincoln had assisted in the prosecution of a man who had appropriated some of his neighbor's hen roosts. Jogging home along the highway with the foreman of the jury, who had convicted the hen stealer, he was complimented by Lincoln on the zeal and ability of the prosecution, and remarked: "Why, when the country was young, and I was stronger than I am STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 89 now, I didn't mind packing off a sheep now and again, but stealing hens!" The good man's scorn could not find words to express his opinion of a man who would steal hens. THAT STAGE-COACH RIDE. Thomas H. Nelson, of Terre Haute, Ind., who was appointed minister to Chili by Lincoln, when he was President, relates the following: Judge Abram Hammond, afterwards Governor of Indiana, and myself, arranged to go from Terre Haute to Indianapolis in the stage-coach. As we stepped in we discovered that the entire back seat was occupied by a long, lank individual, whose head seemed to protrude from one end of the coach and his feet from the other. He was the sole occu- pant, and was sleeping soundly. Hammond slapped him familiarly on the shoulder, and asked him if he had chartered the coach that day. "Certainly not," and he at once took the front seat, politely surrendering to us the place of honor and comfort. An odd-looking fellow he was, with a twenty-five cent hat, without vest or cravat. Regard- ing him as a good subject for merriment, we perpe- trated several jokes. He took them all with utmost innocence and good nature, and joined in the laugh, although at his own expense. We amazed him with words of length and thunder- ing sound. After an astounding display of wordy pyrotechnics, the daired and bewildered stranger asked, "What will be the upshot of this comet business?" 90 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. Late in the evening we reached Indianapolis, and hurried to Browning's hotel, losing sight of the stranger altogether. We retired to our room to brush our clothes. In a few minutes I descended to the portico, and there descried our long, gloomy fellow traveler in the cen> ter of an admiring group of lawyers, among whom were Judges McLean and Huntington, Albert S, White, and Richard W. Thompson, who seemed to be amused and interested in a story he was telling. I inquired of Browning, the landlord, who he was. "Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, a member of Con- gress," was his response. I was thunderstruck at the announcement. I has- tened upstairs and told Hammond the startling news, and together we emerged from the hotel by a back door, and went down an alley to another house, thus avoiding further contact with our distinguished fellow traveler. Years afterward, when the President-elect was on his way to Washington, I was in the same hotel looking over the distinguished party, when a long arm reached to my shoulder, and a shrill voice exclaimed, "Hello, Nelson! do you think, after all, the whole world is going to follow the darned thing off?" The words were my own in answer to his question in the stage- coach. The speaker was Abraham Lincoln. ADVICE TO A YOUNG LAWYER. "Billy, don't shoot too high— aim lower, and the common people will understand you. STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 91 "They are the ones you want to reach — at least, they are the ones you ought to reach. "The educated and refined people will understand you, anyway. If you aim too high, your idea will go over the heads of the masses, and only hit those who need no hitting." LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. Two things were essential to his success in managing a case. One was time ; the other was a feeling of con- fidence in the justice of the cause he represented. He used to say: "If I can free this case from techni- calities and get it properly swung to the jury, I'll win it." When asked why he went so far back, on a cer- tain occasion, in legal history, when he should have presumed that the court knew enough history, he replied: "There's where you are mistaken. I dared not trust the case on the presumption that the court knew anything; in fact, I argued it on the presump- tion that the court did not know anything." A state- ment that may not be as extravagant as one would at first suppose. When told by a friend that he should speak with more vim, and arouse the jury, talk faster and keep them awake, he replied: "Give me your little penknife with its short blade, and hand me that old jackknife, lying on the table." Opening the blade of the pen- knife he said: "You see this blade on the point travels rapidly, but only through a small portion of space till it stops, while the long blade of the jackknife moves no faster but through a much greater space than the small one. Just so with the long-labored movements 92 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. of the mind. I cannot emit ideas as rapidly as otliers because I am compelled by nature to speak slowly, but when I do throw off a thought it comes with some effort, it has force to cut its own way and travels a greater distance. ' ' The above was said to his partner in their private office, and was not said boastingly. When Lincoln attacked meanness, fraud or vice, he was powerful, merciless in his castigation. The following are Lincoln's notes for the argument of a case where an attempt was being made to defraud a soldier's widow, with her little babe, of her pension: "No contract, — Not professional services, — Unreas- onable charge, — Money retained by Def,, not given by Pl'ff, — Revolutionary War, — Describe Valley Forge privations, — Ice, — Soldiers' Bleeding Feet, — Pl'ff hus- band, — Soldier leaving home for Army, — Skin Deft, —Close." Judgment was made in her behalf, and no charges made. The following reply was overheard in Lincoln's office, where he was in conversation with a man who appeared to have a case that Lincoln did not desire : "Yes," he said, "we can doubtless gain your case for you; we can set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads; we can distress a widowed mother and her six father- less children, and thereby get for you six hundred dol- lars to which you seem to have a legal claim, but which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much to the woman and children as it does to you. You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right. We shall not take your case, but will give you a little advice for which we will charge you nothing. You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man ; STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 93 we would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars in some other way." LINCOLN'S KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE. Once, pleading a cause, the opposing lawyer had all the advantage of the law in the case; the weather was warm, and his opponent, as was admissible in frontier courts, pulled off his coat and vest as he grew warm in the argument. At that time, shirts with the buttons behind were unusual. Lincoln took in the situation at once. Know- ing the prejudices of the primitive people against pre- tension of all sorts, or any affectation of superior social rank, arising, he said: "Gentlemen of the jury, having justice on my side, I don't think you will be at all influenced by the gentleman's pretended knowledge of the law, when you see he does not even know which side of his shirt should be in front." There was a general laugh, and Lincoln's case was won. LINCOLN AND FINANCES. Lincoln paid but little attention to the fees and money matters of the firm — he usually left all such matters to his partner. He never entered an item in the account book. If anybody paid money to him which belonged to the firm, on arriving at the office he divided it with his partner, and if he was not there, he would wrap up his share in a piece of paper and place it in his partner's drawer — marking it with a pencil. Case of Roe vs. Doe — Herndon's half. " 94 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. LINCOLN DEFENDS THE SON OF AN OLD FRIEND, INDICTED FOR MURDER. Jack Armstrong, the leader of the "Clary Grove Boys," with whom Lincoln early in life had a scuffle which "Jack" agreed to call "a drawn battle," in con- sequence of his own foul play, afterward became a life- long, warm friend of Mr. Lincoln. Later in life the rising lawyer would stop at Jack's cabin home, and here Mrs. Armstrong, a most womanly person, learned to respect Mr. Lincoln. There was no service to which she did not make her guest abundantly welcome, and he never ceased to feel the tenderest gratitude for her kindness. At length her husband died, and she became depend- ent upon her sons. The oldest of these, while in attendance upon a camp meeting, found himself involved in a mel6e, which resulted in the death of a j'oung man, and young Armstrong was charged by one of his associates with striking the fatal blow. He was examined, and imprisoned to await his trial. The public mind was in a blaze of excitement, and inter- ested parties fed the flame. Mr. Lincoln knew nothing of the merits of this case, that is certain. He only knew that his old friend, Mrs. Armstrong, was in sore trouble ; and he sat down at once, and volunteered by letter to defend her son. His first act was to secure the postponement, and a change of the place of trial. There was too much fever in the minds of the immediate public to permit of fair treatment. When the trial came on, the case looked very hopeless to all but Mr. Lincoln, who had assured himself that the yoimg man was not guilty. The evidence on behalf of the State being all in, and STORIES OF LINCOLlv* AS A LAWYER. 97 looking like a solid and consistent mass of testimony against the prisoner, Mr. Lincoln undertook the task of analyzing it, and destroying it, which he did in a manner that surprised every one. The principal wit- ness testified that "by the aid of the brightly shining moon he saw the prisoner inflict the death blow with a slung shot." Mr. Lincoln proved by the almanac that there was no moon shining at that time. The mass of testimony against the prisoner melted away, until "not guilty" was the verdict of every man present in the crowded court-room. There is, of course, no record of the plea made on this occasion, but it is remembered as one in which Mr. Lincoln made an appeal to the sympathies of the jury, which quite surpassed his usual efforts of the kind, and melted all to tears. The jury were out but half an hour, when they returned with their verdict of "not guilty." The widow fainted in the arms of her son, who divided his attention between his services to her and his thanks to his deliverer. And thus the kind woman who cared for the poor young man, and showed herself a mother to him in his need, received the life of a son, saved from a cruel conspiracy, as her reward, from the hands of her grateful beneficiary. LINCOLN DEFENDS A WIDOWED PENSIONER WITH SUCCESS. An old woman of seventy years, the widow of a Revolutionary pensioner, came tottering into his law office, one day, and, taking a seat, told him that a certain pension agent had charged her the exorbitant 98 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. fee of $200 for collecting her claim. Mr. Lincoln was satisfied by her representations that she had been swindled, and, finding that she was not a resident of the town, and that she was poor, gave her money, and set about the work of procuring restitution. He immediately entered suit against the agent to recover a portion of his ill-gotten money. The suit was entirely successful, and Mr. Lincoln's address to the jury, before which the case was tried, is remembered to have been peculiarly touching, by allusions to the poverty of the widow, and the patriotism of the husband she had sacrificed to secure the nation's independence. He had the gratification of paying back to her $100, and sent her home rejoicing. HOW MRS. LINCOLN SURPRISED HER HUSBAND. A funny story is told of how Mrs. Lincoln made a little surprise for her husband. In the early days it was customary for lawyers to go from one county to another on horseback, a journey which often required several weeks. On returning from one of these jaunts, late one night, Mr. Lincoln dismounted from his horse at the familiar corner and then turned to go into the house, but stopped ; a per- fectly unknown structure was before him. Surprised, and thinking there must be some mistake, he went across the way and knocked at a neighbor's door. The family had retired, and so called out : "Who's there?" . "Abe Lincoln," was the reply. "I am looking for my house. I thought it was across the way, but when STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 99 I went away a few weeks ago, there was only a one- story house there, and now there is two. I think I must be lost." The neighbors then explained that Mrs. Lincoln had added another story during his absence. And Mr. Lincoln laughed and went to his remodeled house. A NOTED HORSE TRADE IN WHICH LINCOLN CON- FESSED HE GOT THE WORST OF IT. When Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer in Illinois, he and a certain judge once got to bantering one another about trading horses; and it was agreed that the next morning at nine o'clock they should make a trade, the horses to be unseen up to that hour, and no backing out, under a forfeiture of $25. At the hour appointed, the Judge came up, leading the sorriest-looking specimen of a horse ever seen in those parts. In a few minutes Mr. Lincoln was seen approaching with a wooden saw-horse upon his shoul- ders. Great were the shouts and laughter of the crowd, and both were greatly increased when Mr. Lincoln, on surveying the Judge's animal, set down his saw-horse, and exclaimed: "Well, Judge, this is the first time I ever got the worst of it in a horse trade.'" CONSIDERATIONS SHOWN TO RELATIVES. One of the most beautiful traits of Mr. Lincoln was his considerate regard for the poor and obscure rela- tives he had left, plodding along in their humble ways of life. Wherever upon his circuit he found them, he loo STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. always went to their dwellings, ate with them, and, when convenient, made their houses his home. He never assumed in their presence the slightest superiority to them, in the facts and conditions of his life. He gave them money when they needed and he possessed it. Countless times he was known to leave his com- panions at the village hotel, after a hard day's work in the court-room, and spend the evening with these old friends and companions of his humbler days. On one occasion, when urged not to go, he replied, "Why, Aunt's heart would be broken if I should leave town without calling upon her" ; yet, he was obliged to walk several miles to make the call. A PATHETIC STORY OF LINCOLN'S DISAPPOINTMENT IN FAILING TO SECURE THE SUPPORT OF THE SPRINGFIELD MINISTERS. At the time of Lincoln's nomination, at Chicago, Mr. Newton Bateman, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Illinois, occupied a room adjoining and opening into the Executive Chamber at Springfield. Frequently this door was open during Mr. Lincoln's receptions, and throughout the seven months or more of his occupation, he saw him nearly every day. Often, when Mr. Lincoln was tired, he closed the door against all intruders and called Mr. Bateman into his room for a quiet talk. On one of these occasions, Mr. Lincoln took up a book containing canvass of the city of Springfield, in which he lived, showing the candidate for whom each citizen had declared it his intention to vote in the approaching election. Mr. Lincoln's friends had. doubtless at his STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. loi own request, placed the result of the canvass in his hands. This was towards the close of October, and only a few days before election. Calling Mr. Bateman to a seat by his side, having previously locked all the doors, he said: "Let us look over this book; I wish particularly to see how the ministers of Springfield are going to vote." The leaves were turned, one by one, and as the names were examined Mr. Lincoln frequently asked if this one and that one was not a minister, or an elder, or a member of such and such a church, and sadly expressed his surprise on receiving an affirmative answer. In that manner he went through the book, and then he closed it, and sat silently for some minutes regarding a memorandum in pencil which lay before him. At length he turned to Mr. Bateman, with a face full of sadness, and said: "Here are twenty-three ministers of different denominations, and all of them are against me but three, and here are a great many prominent members of churches, a very large majority are against me. Mr. Bateman, I am not a Christian, — God knows I would be one, — but I have carefully read the Bible, and I do not so understand this book," and he drew forth a pocket New Testament. "These men well know," he continued, "that I am for freedom in the Territories, freedom everywhere, as free as the Constitution and the laws will permit, and that my opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, with this book in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against me; I do not understand it at all." I02 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. Here Mr. Lincoln paused — paused for long minutey, his features surcharged with emotion. Then he rose and walked up and down the reception-room in the effort to retain or regain his self-possession. Stopping at last, he said, with a trembling voice and cheeks wet with tears : "I know there is a God, and that he hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me, and I think He has, I believe I am ready. I am noth- ing, but Truth is everything. I know I am right, because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told them that a house divided against itself cannot stand; and Christ and Reason say the same ; and they will find it so. "Douglas don't care whether slavery is voted up or down, but God cares, and humanity cares, and I care ; and with God's help I shall not fail. I may not see the end; but it will come, and I shall be vindicated; and these men will find they have not read their Bible right." Much of this was uttered as if he were speaking to himself,- and with a sad, earnest solemnity of manner impossible to be described. After a pause he re- sumed: "Doesn't it seem strange that men can ignore the moral aspect of this contest? No revelation could make it plainer to me that slavery or the Government must be destroyed. The future would be something awful, as 1 look at it, but for this rock on which I stand" (alluding to the Testament which he still held in his hand), "especially with the knowledge of how these ministers are going to vote. It seems as if God STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 103 had borne with this thing (slavery) until the teachers of religion have come to defend it from the Bible, and to claim for it a divine character and sanction ; and now the cup of iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will be poured out." Everything he said was of a peculiarly deep, tender, and religious tone, and all was tinged with a touching melancholy. He repeatedly referred to his conviction that the day of wrath was at hand, and that he was to be an actor in the terrible struggle which would issue in the overthrow of slavery, although he might not live to see the end. After further reference to a belief in the Divine Providence and the fact of God in history, the con- versation turned upon prayer. He freely stated his belief in the duty, privilege, and efficacy of prayer, and intimated, in no unmistakable terms, that he had sought in that way Divine guidance and favor. The effect of this conversation upon the mind of Mr. Bate- man, a Christian gentleman whom Mr. Lincoln pro- foundly respected, was to convince him that Mr. Lincoln had, in a quiet way, found a path to the Christian standpoint — that he had found God, and rested on the eternal truth of God, As the two men were about to separate, Mr. Bateman remarked : "I have not supposed that you were accustomed to think so much upon this class of subjects; certainly your friends generally are ignorant of the sentiments you have expressed to me." He replied quickly: "I know they are, but I think more on these subjects than upon all others, and I have done so for years ; and I am willing you should know it." 104 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. INCIDENTS OF LINCOLN'S HOME LIFE. A lady relative who lived for two years with the Lin- colns, told me that Mr. Lincoln was in the habit of lying on the floor with the back of a chair for a pillow when he read. One evening-, when in this position in the hall, a knock was heard at the front door, and, although in his shirt sleeves, he ansM'ered the call. Two ladies were at the door, whom he invited into the parlor, notifying- them in his open, familiar way, that he would "trot the women folks out." Mrs. Lincoln, from an adjoin- ing room, witnessed the ladies' entrance, and, over- hearing her husband's jocose expression, her indig- nation was so instantaneous she made the situation exceedingly interesting for him, and he was glad to retreat from the mansion. He did not return till very late at night, and then slipped quietly in at a rear door. "NOTHING TO WEAR." A lady reader or elocutionist came to Springfield in 1857, A large crowd greeted her. Among othei things she recited "Nothing to Wear," a piece in which is described the perplexities that beset "Miss Flora McFlimsey" in her efforts to appear fashionable. In the midst of one stanza in which no effort is made to say anything particularly amusing, and during the reading of which the audience manifested the most respectful silence and attention, some one in the rear seats burst out with a loud, coarse laugh, a sudden and explosive guffaw. It startled the speaker and audience, and kindled a storm of unsuppressed laughter and applause. Everybody looked back to ascertain w Pi o X o a o H M O o u STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 107 the cause of the demonstration, and were greatly sur- prised to find that it was Mr. Lincoln, He blushed and squirmed with the awkward diffi- dence of a schoolboy. What caused him to laugh, no one was able to explain. He was doubtless wrapped up in a brown study, and recalling some amusing epi- sode, indulged laughter without realizing his surround- ings. The experience mortified him greatly. DEFEATED BY A STILL-HUNT. Lincoln was a candidate of the Know Nothings for the State Legislature, the party was overconfident, the Democrats pursued a still-hunt. Lincoln was defeated. He compared the situation to one of the camp follow- ers of General Taylor's army who had secured a barrel of cider, erected a tent, and commenced dealing it out to the thirsty soldiers at twenty-five cents a drink, but he had sold but little before another sharp one set up a tent at his back, and tapped the barrel so as to flow on his side, and peddled out No. i cider at five cents a drink! of course, getting the latter's trade entire on the borrowed capital. "The Democrats," said Mr. Lincoln, "had played Knownothing on a cheaper scale than had the real devotees of Sam, and had raked down his pile with his own cider!" HOW LINCOLN WON THE NOMINATION FOR CONGRESS. Old-time politicians, says a correspondent, will readily recall the heated political campaign of 1843, ir the neighboring: State of Illimois. io8 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. The chief interest of the campaign lay in the race for Congress in the Capital district, which was between Hardin — fiery, eloquent, and impetuous Democrat — and Lincoln — plain, practical, and ennobled Whig. The world knows the result. Lincoln was elected. It is not so much his election as the manner in which he secured his nomination with which we have to deal. Before that ever-memorable spring, Lin- coln vacillated between the courts of Springfield, rated as a plain, honest, logical Whig, with no ambition higher politically than to occupy some good home office. Late in the fall of 1842 his name began to be mentioned in connection with Congressional aspira- tions, which fact greatly annoyed the leaders of his political party, who had already selected as the Whig candidate one Baker, afterward the gallant Colonel who fell so bravely and died such an honorable death on the battlefield of Ball's Bluff in 1862. Despite all efforts of his opponents within his party, the name of the "gaunt rail-splitter" was hailed with acclaim by the masses, to whom he had endeared himself by his witti- cisms, honest tongue, and quaint philosophy when on the stump, or mingling with them in their homes. The convention, which met in early spring, in the city of Springfield, was to be composed of the usual number of delegates. The contest for the nomination was spirited and exciting. A few weeks before the meeting of the convention the fact was found by the leaders that the advantage lay with Lincoln, and that unless they pulled some very fine wires nothing could save Baker. They attempted to play the game that has so often won, by "convincing" delegates under instructions for STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 109 Lincoln, to violate them, and vote for Baker. They had apparently succeeded. "The plans of mice and men aft gang aglee. " So it was in this case. Two days before the convention, Lincoln received an intimation of this, and, late at night, indited the following letter. The letter was addressed to Martin Morris, who resides at Petersburg, an intimate friend of his, and by him circulated among those who were instructed for him at the county convention. It had the desired effect. The convention met, the scheme of the conspirators miscarried, Lincoln was nominated, made a vigorous canvass, and was triumph- antly elected, thus paving the way for his more extended and brilliant conquests. This letter, Lincoln had often told his friends, gave him ultimately the Chief Magistracy of the nation. He has also said, that, had he been beaten before the convention he would have been forever obscured. The following is a verbatim copy of the epistle : '♦April 14, 1843. "Friend Morris: I have heard it intimated that Baker is trying to get you or Miles, or both of you, to violate the instructions of the meeting that appointed you, and to go for him. I have insisted, and still insist, that this cannot be true. "Sure Baker would not do the like. As well might Hardin ask me to vote for him in the convention. "Again, it is said there will be an attempt to get instructions in your county requiring you to go for Baker. This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, why might I not fly from the decision against me at Sanga- no STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. mon and get up instructions to their delegates to go for me. There are at least 1,200 Whigs in the county that took no part, and yet I would as soon stick my head in the fire as attempt it. "Besides, if anyone should get the nomination by such extraordinary means, all harmony in the district would inevitably be lost. Honest Whigs (and very nearly all of them are honest) would not quietly abide such enormities. "I repeat, such an attempt on Baker's part cannot be true. Write me at Springfield how the matter is. Don't show or speak of this letter. "A. Lincoln." Mr. Morris did show the letter, and Mr. Lincoln always thanked his stars that he did. "HOLD ON, BREESEl" Judge Breese, of the Supreme bench, — one of the most distinguished of American jurists, and a man of great personal dignity, — was about to open court at Springfield, when Lincoln called out in his hearty way, "Hold on, Breese! Don't open court yet! Here's Bob Blackwell just going to tell a story!" The Judge passed on without replying, evidently regarding it as beneath the dignity of the Supreme Court to delay proceedings for the sake of a story. COLONEL BAKER DEFENDED BY LINCOLN. On one occasion. Colonel Baker was speaking in a courthouse, which had been a storehouse, and, on Q a t-t b O g w" S o IS o o o o STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 113 making some remarks that were offensive to certain political rowdies in the crowd, they cried: "Take him off the stand!" Immediate confusion ensued, and there was an attempt to carry the demand into execu- tion. Directly over the speaker's head was an old scuttle, at which it appeared Mr. Lincoln had been listening- to the speech. In an instant, Mr. Lincoln's feet came through the scuttle, followed by his tall and sinewy frame, and he was standing by Colonel Baker's side. He raised his hand, and the assembly subsided into silence. "Gentlemen," said Mr. Lincoln, "let us not disgrace the age and country in which we live. This is a land where freedom of speech is guaranteed. Mr. Baker has a right to speak, and ought to be permitted to do so. I am here to protect him, and no man shall take him from this stand if I can prevent it." The suddenness of his appearance, his perfect calm- ness and fairness, and the knowledge that he would do what he had promised to do, quieted all disturbance, and the speaker concluded his remarks without diflSculty. "WHOLE HOG JACKSON MAN." When Lincoln was working for the nomination for the Legislature the second time, he was on a certain occasion pitted against one George Forquer, who had been a leading Whig, but was now a "Whole Hog Jackson Man," and his reward was a good office. Forquer devoted himself to taking down the young 114 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. man from New Salem. He ridiculed his dress, man- ners and rough personal appearance, and with much pomposity derided him as an uncouth youngster. Lin- coln had noticed, on coming into Springfield, Forquer's fine house, on which was a lightning rod, then a great novelty in those parts. Lincoln, on rising to reply, stood for a moment with flashing eyes, and pale cheeks, betraying his inward but unspoken wrath. He began by discussing very briefly this ungenerous attack. He said: "I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks of the trade of the politician; but, live long, or die young, I would rather die now, than, like that gentleman, change my politics, and with the change receive an ofiice worth three thousand dollars a year, and then feel obliged to erect a lightning rod over my house to protect my guilty conscience from an offended God." The effect upon the simple audience, gathered there in the open air, was electrical. At another time, Lincoln replied to Col. Richard Taylor, a self-conceited, dandified man who wore a gold chain and ruffled shirt. His party at that time were posing as the hardworking, bone and sinew of the land, while the Whigs were stigmatized as aristocrats, ruffled-shirt gentry. Taylor making a sweeping gesture, his overcoat became torn open, displaying his finery. Lincoln in reply said, laying his hand on his jeans-clad breast: "Here is your aristocrat, one of your silk-stocking gentry, at your service." Then, spreading out his hands, bronzed and gaunt with toil : "Here is your rag-basin with lily-white hands. Yes, I suppose, according to my friend Taylor, I am a bloated aristocrat." STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 115 HARK FROM THE TOMBS. "Fellow-citizens: My friend, Mr. Douglas, made the startling announcement to-day that the Whigs are all dead. "If that be so, fellow citizens, you will now experi- ence the novelty of hearing a speech from a dead man ; and I suppose you might properly say, in the language of the old hymn : " 'Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound.* " TRUSTED TILL THE "BRITCHEN" BROKE. In the campaign of 1852, Lincoln, in reply to Douglas' speech, wherein he speaks of confidence in Providence, replied: "Let us stand by our candidate (General Scott) as faithfully as he has always stood by our country, and I much doubt if we do not perceive a slight abatement of Judge Douglas's confidence in Providence as well as the people. I suspect that con- fidence is not more firmly fixed with the Judge than it was with the old woman whose horse ran away with her in a buggy. She said she 'trusted in Providence till the britchen broke,' and then she 'didn't know what in airth to do. ' "The chance is, the Judge will see the britchen broke, and then he can, at his leisure, bewail the fate of Locofocism as the victim of misplaced confidence." CROCODILE AND NEGRO. Douglas made use in one of his brief tours of the following figure of speech: "As between the crocodile ii6 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. and the negro, I take the side of the negro; but as between the negro and the white man — I would go for the white man every time." Lincoln, at home, noted that; and afterwards, when he had occasion to refer to the remark, he said: "I believe that this is a sort of proposition in proportion, which may be stated thus: "As the negro is to the white man, so is the crocodile to the negro; and as the negro may rightfully treat the crocodile as a beast or reptile, so the white man may rightfully treat the negro as a beast or reptile." LINCOLN'S LAST INTERVIEW WITH DOUGLAS. *'One day Douglas came rushing in," he related, "and said he had just got a telegraph dispatch from some friends in Illinois urging him to come out and help set things right in Egypt, and that he would go, or stay in Washington, just where I thought he could do the most good. "I told him to do as he chose, but that probably he could do best in Illinois. Upon that he shook hands with me, and hurried away to catch the next train. I never saw him again, ' ' PEN PICTURE OF LINCOLN, AND HIS SPEECH IN NEW YORK CITY. "When Lincoln rose to speak, I was greatly disap- pointed. He was tall, tall, oh, so tall, and so angular and awkward that I had f'^' n instant a feeling of pity for so ungainly a man. He began in a low tone of voice, as if he were used to speaking out of doors, and was afraid of speaking too loud. 1 STORIES OP LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 119 "He said 'Mr. Cheerman,' instead of 'Mr. Chair- man, ' and employed many other words with an old- fashioned pronunciation. I said to myself, 'Old fellow, you won't do; it is all very well for the Wild West, but this will never go down in New York. ' But pretty soon he began to get into the subject; he straightened up, made regular and graceful gestures ; his face lighted as with an inward fire ; the whole man was transfigured. I forgot the clothing, his personal appearance, and his individual peculiarities. Pres- ently, forgetting myself, I was on my feet with the rest, yelling like a wild Indian, cheering the wonder- ful man. In the close parts of his argument, you could hear the gentle sizzling of the gas burners. "When he reached a climax, the thunders of applause were terrific. It was a great speech. When I came out of the hall my face was glowing with excitement and my frame all a-quiver. A friend, with his eyes aglow, asked me what I thought of Abe Lincoln, the rail-splitter. I said, 'He's the greatest man since St. Paul.' And I think so yet." REMARKS UTTERED BY LINCOLN, 1858. "Though I now sink out of view, I believe I have made some mark which will tell for the cause of liberty long after I am gone. ' ' TRENT AFFAIR. Through Minister Adams he said to angry England : "It is unnecessary to remind your lordship that this means war. ' ' I20 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. SLAVERY. He said of slavery in '55 : **I bite my lips and keep quiet." A while later, in indignation: "Gentlemen, I'll make the ground of this country too hot for the feet of slaves." "THE HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF." Lincoln read the speech, containing the above, to many of his friends, before he delivered it in the con- test for the United States Senate against Douglas. Some condemned, some indorsed, characterized it as "fool utterances, ahead of its time"; another said, "Lincoln, deliver that speech as read, and it will make you President." Lincoln answered all their objec- tions, substantially as follows: "Friends, this thing has been retarded long enough. The time has come when these sentiments should be uttered; and if it is decreed that I should go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to the truth — let me die in the advocacy of what is just and right." To one complainant who followed into his office he said proudly: "If I had to draw a pen across my record, and erase my whole life from sight, and I had one poor gift or choice left as to what I should save from the wreck, I should choose that speech and leave it to the world unerased. " This was Lincoln's position in the Lincoln-Douglas debate. His opening speech at Springfield contained this memorable sentence. In a letter to a friend, August 22, 1858, Lincoln said: "Douglas and I, for the first time during this canvass, crossed swords here yesterday. The fire flew some, and I am glad to know I am yet alive." Q o z _I o u z _1 H z UJ 9 UJ Qi CU CAMPAIGN CLUB. (REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES For President, OF ILLINOIS. OF MAINE. CAMPAIGN BADGES OF 1860. STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 123 FIRST ECHOES FROM CHICAGO CONVENTION. Mr. Volk, the artist, relates that, being in Spring- field when the nomination was announced, he called upon Mr. Lincoln, whom he found looking radiant. "I exclaimed, 'I am the first man from Chicago, I believe, who has had the honor of congratulating you on your nomination for President.' Then those two great hands took both of mine with a grasp never to be forgotten, and while shaking, I said, 'Now that you will doubtless be the next President of the United States, I want to make a statue of you, and shall try my best to do you justice. ' *'Said he, *I don't doubt it, for I have come to the conclusion that you are an honest man, ' and with that greeting, I thought my hands in a fair way of being crushed. "On the Sunday following, by agreement, I called to make a cast of Mr. Lincoln's hands. I asked him to hold something in his hands, and told him a stick would do. Thereupon he went to the woodshed, and I heard the saw go, and he soon returned to the dining- room, whittling off the end of a piece of broom handle. I remarked to him that he need not whittle off the edges. 'Oh, well,' said he, 'I thought I would like to have it nice. * ' ' MR. LINCOLN'S VISION. Mr. Lincoln, after hearing of his nomination at Chi- cago for the Presidency, returned home, and, feeling somewhat weary, went upstairs to his wife's sitting- room, and lay down upon a couch in the room directly opposite a bureau, upon which was a looking-glass. 124 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. "As I reclined," said he, "my eye fell upon the glass, and I saw distinctly two images of myself, exactly alike, except that one was a little paler than the other. I arose and lay down again with the same result. It made me quite uncomfortable for a few minutes, but, some friends coming in, the matter passed out of my mind. The next day, while walking in the street, I was suddenly reminded of the circumstance, and the disagreeable sensation produced by it returned. I had never seen anything of the kind before, and did not know what to make of it. I determined to go home and place myself in the same position, and, if the same effect was produced, I would make up my mind that it was the natural result of some principle of refraction or optics, which I did not understand, and dismiss it. I tried the experiment, with the same result ; and, as I had said to myself, accounted for it on some principle unknown to me, and it then ceased to trouble me. But the God who works through the laws of Nature, might surely give a sign to me, if one of His chosen servants, even through the operation of a principle in optics." Mr. Lincoln remarked to Mr. Noah Brookes, one of his most intimate personal friends: "I should be the most presumptuous blockhead upon this footstool if I for one day thought that I could discharge the duties which have come upon me, since I came to this place, without the aid and enlightenment of One who is stronger and wiser than all others." He said on another occasion: "I am very sure that if I do not go away from here a wiser man, I shall go away a better man, from having learned here what a very poor sort of a man I am." STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 125 "ADAM'S ALE," LINCOLN'S ONLY BEVERAGE. Immediately after Mr. Lincoln's nomination for President at the Chicago Convention, a committee, of which Governor Morgan, of New York, was Chairman, visited him in Springfield, 111., where he was officially informed of his nomination. After this ceremony had passed, Mr. Lincoln remarked to the company that as an appropriate con- clusion to an interview so important and interesting as that which had just transpired, he supposed good man- ners would require that he should treat the committee with something to drink ; and opening the door that led into the rear, he called out, "Mary! Mary!" A girl responded to the call, to whom Mr. Lincoln spoke a few words in an undertone, and, closing the door, returned again and conversed with his guests. In a few minutes the maiden entered, bearing a large waiter, containing several glass tumblers, and a large pitcher in the midst, and placed it upon the center- table. Mr. Lincoln arose, and gravely addressing the company, said: "Gentlemen, we must pledge our mutual health in the most healthy beverage that God has given to man — it is the only bever- age I have ever used or allowed my family to use, and I cannot conscientiously depart from it on the present occasion. It is pure Adam's ale from the spring;" and, taking the tumbler, he touched it to his lips, and pledged them his highest respects in a cup of cold water. Of course, all his guests were constrained to admire his consistency, and to join in \iis example. 126 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. STANTON'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF LINCOLN. He made no secret of his disgust of that "long, lank creature from Illinois," and declared if "that giraffe" was permitted to appear in the case he would throw up his brief and leave it. Mr. Lincoln keenly felt the affront, but recognizing Stanton's ability beneath his brusque exterior, he afterwards, for the public good, appointed him to a seat in his Cabinet. TWO ENTERTAINING ANECDOTES ILLUSTRATING LINCOLN'S GOOD NATURE. Soon after Mr. Lincoln's nomination for the Presi- dency, the Executive Chamber, a large, fine room in the State House at Springfield, was set apart for him, where he met the public until after his election. As illustrative of the nature of many of his calls, the following brace of incidents were related to Mr. Hol- land by an eye-witness: "Mr. Lincoln being in con- versation with a gentleman one day, two raw, plainly-dressed young 'Suckers' entered the room, and bashfully lingered near the door. As soon as he observed them, and apprehended their embarrassment, he rose and walked to them, saying: 'How do you do, my good fellows? What can I do for you? Will you sit down?' The spokesman of the pair, the shorter of the two, declined to sit, and explained the object of the call thus: He had had a talk about the relative height of Mr. Lincoln and his companion, and had asserted his belief that they were of exactly the same height. He had come in to verify his judgment. Mr. Lincoln I STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 12/ smiled, went and got his cane, and, placing the end of it upon the wall, said : " 'Here, young man, come under here. "The young man came under the cane as Mr. Lin- coln held it, and when it was perfectly adjusted to his height, Mr. Lincoln said : " 'Now, come out, and hold the cane.' "This he did, while Mr. Lincoln stood under. Rubbing his head back and forth to see that it worked easily under the measurement, he stepped out, and declared to the sagacious fellow who was curiously looking on, that he had guessed with remarkable accuracy — that he and the young man were exactly the same height. Then he shook hands with them and sent them on their way. Mr. Lincoln would just as soon have thought of cutting off his right hand as he would have thought of turning those boys away with the im- pression that they had in any way insulted his dignity. "They had hardly disappeared when an old and modestly dressed woman made her appearance. She knew Mr. Lincoln, but Mr. Lincoln did not at first recognize her. Then she undertook to recall to his memory certain incidents connected with his ride upon the circuit — especially his dining at her house upon the road at different times. Then he remembered her and her home. Having fixed her own place in his recollection, she tried to recall to him a certain scanty dinner of bread and milk that he once ate at her house. He could not remember it — on the contrary, he only remembered that he had always fared well at her house. " 'Well,' said she, 'one day you came along after we had got through dinner, and we had eaten up every- thing, and I could give you nothing but a bowl of 128 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. bread and milk, and you ate it; and when you got up you said it was good enough for the President of the United States!' "The good woman had come in from the country, making a journey of eight or ten miles, to relate to Mr. Lincoln this incident, which, in her mind, had doubtless taken the form of a prophecy. Mr. Lincoln placed the honest creature at her ease, chatted with her of old times, and dismissed her in the most happy and complacent frame of mind." "I AM NOT FIT FOR THE PRESIDENCY." The opening of the year i860 found Mr. Lincoln's name freely mentioned in connection with the Repub- lican nomination for the Presidency. To be classed with Seward, Chase, McLean, and other celebrities was enough to stimulate any Illinois lawyer's pride; but in Mr. Lincoln's case, if it had any such effect, he was most artful in concealing it. Now and then, some ardent friend, an editor, for example, would run his name up to the masthead, but in all cases he discour- aged the attempt. "In regard to the matter you spoke of," he answered one man who proposed his name, "I beg you will not give it a further mention. Seriously, I do not think I am fit for the Presidency." SIX FOOT THREE COMMITTEE MAN. Tall Judge KeHy, of Pennsyh^ania, who was one of the committee to inform Mr. Lincoln of his nomiaa- STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 129 tion at Chicago Convention, had been eyeing Mr. Lincohi's lofty form with a mixture of admiration, and very likely jealousy. This had not escaped Mr. Lin- coln, and as he shook hands with the Judge he inquired: "What is your height?" "Six feet three; what is yours, Mr. Lincoln?" "Six feet four." "Then," said the Judge, "Pennsylvania bows to Illi- nois. My dear sir, for years my heart has been aching for a President that I could look up to, and I've found him at last in the land where we thought there were none but little giants." A VISIT TO THE "FIVE POINTS HOUSE OF IN- DUSTRY" IN NEW YORK. When Mr, Lincoln visited New York in i860, he felt a great interest in many of the institutions for reform- ing criminals and saving the young from a life of crime. Among others, he visited, unattended, the Five Points House of Industry, and the superinten- dent of the Sabbath school there gave the following account of the event: "One Sunday morning I saw a tall, remarkable- looking man enter the room and take a seat among us. He listened with fixed attention to our exercises, and his countenance expressed such genuine interest that I approached him and suggested that he might be willing to say something to the children. He accepted the invitation with evident pleasure, and coming for- ward began a simple address, which at once fascinated every little hearer and hushed the room into silence. I30 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. His language was strikingly beautiful, and his tones musical with intense feeling. The little faces would droop into sad conviction when he uttered sentences of warning, and would brighten into sunshine as he spoke cheerful words of promise. Once or twice he attempted to close his remarks, but the imperative shout of, 'Go on! Oh, do go on 1' would compel him to resume. "As I looked upon the gaunt and sinewy frame of the stranger, and marked his powerful head and determined features, now touched into softness by the impressions of the moment, I felt an irrepressible curiosity to learn something more about him, and while he was quietly leaving the room, I begged to know his name. He courteously replied: 'Tt is Abra- ham Lincoln, from Illinois.' " THE UGLIEST MAN. Mr. Lincoln enjoyed a joke at his own expense. Said he: "In the days when I used to be in the circuit, I was accosted in the cars by a stranger, who said, 'Excuse me, sir, but I have an article in my possession which belongs to you.' 'How is that?' I asked, con- siderably astonished. "The stranger took a jackknife from his pocket. 'This knife,' said he, 'was placed in my hands some years ago, with the injunction that I was to keep it until I had found a man uglier than myself. I have carried it from that time to this. Allow me to say, sir, that I think you are fairly entitled to he prop- erty.' " SPRiyGFIEt P aU NOIg ■■MiagpiH^m^BB^iV*''^-*— •■•— ■•^^— iiaai-'^ia (Fromtlw Dally Jonnat at the 9Ui.] A Political Earthquake! THE PRAIRIES ON FIRE FOR LINCOLN! THB BIGGEST DEMONSTRATION JEVEB HELD IN THE WEST! 79fi00 BCPUDIilCANS IN COUNCIL! IMMENSE PROCESSION/ Speftlung llrom Five Stands by TrnmbnUy PooliUle, Kellogg, Palmer, Broivuiogy Gillespie, etc., etc* iKAOmTICEKTTOROIILIOBT FROCBeslONATKIQBi: TUSSTWOa AT TBS WW WAX AND TBS USt» BBStfNTATJVBS ItAlU STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 133 THE OLD SIGN, "LINCOLN AND HERNDON." Enduring friendship and love of old associations were prominent characteristics of President Lincoln. When about to leave for Washington, he went to the dingy little law office which had sheltered his saddest hours. He sat down on the couch, and said to his law partner, Herndon, "Billy, you and I have been together for more than twenty years, and have never passed a word. Will you let my name stay on the old sign until I come back from Washington?" The tears started to Mr. Herndon's eyes. He put out his hand. "Mr. Lincoln," said he, 'T never will have any other partner while you live" ; and to the day of assassina- tion, all the doings of the firm were in the name of "Lincoln & Herndon." "HONEST OLD ABE." "An old man hailing from Mississippi, dressed in plain homespun, came to our city Saturday. He mingled freely with the Republican Represntatives, got their news, and seemed to think we are not quite so black as we are represented. "He called on Mr. Lincoln, talked freely with him, and heard the President-elect express his sentiments and intentions. He learned that Mr. Lincoln enter- tained none but the kindest feelings towards the peo- ple of the South, and that he would protect the South in her just rights. "He had a long conversation, and went away delighted. He left the office of Mr. Lincoln in com- pany with a friend, who communicated this to us, and 134 STORIES OF LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. when outside the door he remarked, while the tears stole down his furrowed cheeks: 'Oh! if tiie people of the South could hear what I have heard, they would love and not hate Mr. Lincoln. I will tell my friends at home ; but,' he added sorrowfully, 'they will not believe me.' He said that he did wish that every man in the South could be personally acquainted with Mr Lincoln." Incidents from the Presidential Career of Lincoln. THE INAUGURATION— MARCH 4, 1861. The procession set out from the Executive Mansion President Buchanan there entered the carriage, which, drawn by four horses, and preceded by the Mar- shal of the District, with his aids, on horseback, moved out of the grounds to the avenue. In front of Willard's Hotel a halt was made. Mr. Lincoln walked out through the crowd, which civilly opened a lane to permit him to pass, and entered the carriage. Upon arrival at the Capitol building the party pro- ceeded at once to the platform, when Senator Baker, of Oregon, spoke with his silvery voice the simple words, "Fellow citizens, I introduce to you Abraham Lincoln, the President-elect of the United States of America." The Rail-splitter, as he was popularly known, held the vast multitude spellbound. The sentiments of the President-elect could not be mistaken : "The Union must be, should be, preserved." "1 hold that in the 135 136 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitu- tion, the Union of the United States is perpetual!" "I shall take care, as the Constitution expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States !" "The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government." 'T am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection." Lincln controlled the audience at his will, and clos- ing with these memorable words, he prepared to take the oath of office: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriotic grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be." The Chief Justice of the United States now came forward. His venerable appearance gave, to what might have been a mere matter of form, great dignity and impressed significance. He extended an open Bible, upon v/hich Mr. Lincoln laid his left hand, and uplifting his right arm, he slowly repeated after the Chief Justice the words of the Constitution : "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God !" The ceremony ended. Then those upon the plat- a < s 00 M fa o 2: o O O ca D H » » o 8 g a PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 139 form rose and remained standing- as the President and his party passed back into the building. The procession reformed in the same order as before, and returned, leaving at the White House as President of the United States the private citizen it had escorted from the hotel. Wihin an hour, another carriage, in which there was a single occupant, was driven down the avenue to the only railroad station then in Washington. It contained Ex-President Buchanan, returning as a private citizen to his PennsvlVania home. "I'LL TRY TO STEER HER THROUGH." Gen. John A. Logan and Mr. Lovejoy, of Illinois, called upon Mr. Lincoln at Willard's Hotel, Wash- ington, February 23, the morning of his arrival, and urged a vigorous, firm policy. Patiently listening, the President replied seriously but cheerfully, "As the country has placed me at the helm of the ship, I'll try to steer her through." ONE CONCEPTION OF THE NEW PRESIDENT. Soon after Mr. Lincoln began his Administration, a distinguished South Carolina lady, the widow of a Northern scholar, called upon him out of curiosity. She was very proud and aristocratic and was anxious to see this monstrosity, as he had been represented. Upon being presented she hissed in the President's ear: "I am a South Carolinian." The President, 140 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. taking in the situation, was at once courteous and dig- nified. After a pleasant conversation, she said : "Why, Mr. Lincoln, you look, act. and speak like a kind, good- hearted, generous man." "And did you expect to meet a savage?" said he. "Certainly I did, or even something worse. I am glad I have met you, and now the best way to preserve peace is for you to go to Charleston, and show the people what you are, and tell the people you have no intention of injuring them." The lady attended the first levee after the inauguration. LINCOLN'S UNCONVENTIONALITY IN RECEIVING OLD FRIENDS AT THE WHITE HOUSE. Mr. Lincoln's habits at the White House were as simple as they were at his old home in Illinois. He never alluded to himself as "President," or as occu- pying "the Presidency." His office he always disig- nated as "the place." "Call me Lincoln," said he to a friend; "Mr. President" had become so very tiresome to him. "If you see a newsboy down the street, send him up this way," said he to a passenger, as he stood waiting for the morning news at his gate. Friends cautioned him about exposing himself so openly in the midst of enemies ; but he never heeded them. He frequently walked the streets at night, entirely unpro- tected ; and felt any check upon his movements a great annoyance. He delighted to see his familiar Western friends ; and he gave them always a cordial welcome. He met them on the old footing, and fell at once into the accustomed habits of talk and story-telling. V PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 141 An old acquaintance, with his wife, visited Washing- on. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln proposed to these friends a ride in the Presidential carriage. It should be stated in advance that the two men had probably never seen each other with gloves on in their lives, unless when they were used as protection from the cold. The question of each — Mr. Lincoln at the White House, and his friend at the hotel — was whether he should wear gloves. Of course the ladies urged gloves ; but Mr. Lincoln only put his in his pocket, to be used or not, according to the circumstances. When the Presidential party arrived at the hotel, to take in their friends, they found the gentleman, over- come by his wife's persuasions, very handsomely gloved. The moment he took his seat he began to draw off the clinging kids, while Mr. Lincoln began to draw his on ! "No! no! no!" protested his friend, tugging at his gloves. "It is none of my doings ; put up your gloves, Mr. Lincoln." So the two old friends were on even and easy terms, and had their ride after their old fashion. REMARKABLE MEMORY OF LINCOLN. Mr. Lincoln's memory was very remarkable. At one of the afternoon receptions at the White House a stranger shook hands with him, and, as he did so, remarked casually, that he was elected to Congress about the time Mr. Lincoln's term as representative expired, which happened many years before. "Yes," said the President, "you are from " 142 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. (mentioning the State). "I remember reading of your election in a newspaper one morning on a steamboat going down to Mount Vernon." At another time a gentleman addressed him, saying, "I presume, Mr. President, you have forgotten me " "No," was the prompt reply; "your name is Flood. I saw you last twelve years ago at " (naming the place and the occasion). "I am glad to see," he con- tinued, "that the Flood goes on." Subsequent to his re-election a deputation of bankers from various sections were introduced one day by the Secretary of the Treasury. After a few moments of general conversation, Mr. Lincoln turned to one of them and said : "Your district did not give me so strong a vote at the last election as it did in i860." "I think, sir, that you must be mistaken," replied the banker. "I have the impression that your ma- jority was considerably increased at the last elec- tion." "No," rejoined the President, "you fell off ab6ut six hundred votes." Then taking down from the book- case the official canvass of i860 and 1864, he referred to the vote of the district named, and proved to be quite right in his assertion. GENERAL FISK'S STORY OF THE "SWEARING DRIVER." General Fisk, attending the reception at the White House on one occasion, saw, waiting in the ante-room, a poor old man from Tennessee. Sitting down beside him, he inquired his errand, and learned that he had PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 143 been waiting three or four days to get an audience, and that on his seeing Mr. Lincoln probably depended the life of his son, who was under the sentence of death for some military ofifense. General Fisk wrote his case in outline on a card and sent it in, with a special request that the President would see the man. In a moment the order came; and past senators, governors, and generals, waiting impatiently, the old man went into the President's presence. He showed Mr. Lincoln his papers, and he, on tak- ing them, said he would look into the case and give him the result on the following day. The old man, in an agony of apprehension, looked up into the President's sympathetic face, and actually cried out : "To-morrow may be too late ! My son is under sen- tence of death ! The decision ought to be made now !" and the streaming tears told how much he was moved. "Come," said Mr. Lincoln, "wait a bit, and I'll tell you a story." And then he told the old man General Fisk's story about the swearing driver, as follows: The General had begun his military life as a colonel, and, when he raised his regiment in Missouri, he pro- posed to his men that he should do all the swearing of the regiment. They assented ; and for months no instance was known of the violation of the promise. The Colonel had a teamster named John Todd, who, as roads were not always best, had some difficulty in commanding his temper and his tongue. John hap- pened to be driving a mule team through a series of mud-holes a little worse than usual, when, unable to restrain himself any longer, he burst /brth into a vol- 144 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. ley of energetic oaths. The Colonel took notice of the offense, and brought him to an account. "John," said he, "didn't you promise to let me do all the swearing of the regiment?" "Yes, I did, Colonel," he replied, "but the fact was, the swearing had to be done then, or not at all, and you weren't there to do it." As he told the story, the old man forgot his boy, and both the President and his listener had a hearty laugh together at its conclusion. Then he wrote a few words which the old man read, and in which he found new occasion for tears ; but the tears were tears of joy, for the words saved the life of his son. THE PRESIDENT'S MIND WANDERED. An amusing, yet touching, instance of the Presi- dent's preoccupation of mind occurred at one of his levees when he was shaking hands with a host of vis- itors passing him in a continuous stream. An intimate acquaintance received the usual conventional hand- shake and salutation, but perceiving that he was not recognized, kept his ground instead of moving on, and spoke again ; when the President, roused to a dim con- sciousness that something unusual had happened, per- ceived who stood before him, and, seizing his friend's hand, shook it again heartily, saying: "How do you do? How do you do? Excuse me for not noticing you. I was thinking of a man down South." He afterwards privately acknowledged that the "man down South" was Sherman, then on his march to the sea. LISTENING Bl'T NOT CONVINCED. PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 147 HEARTY WELCOME OF DENNIS HANKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE. Dennis Hanks was once asked to visit Washington to secure the pardon of certain persons in jail for partici- pation in copperheadism. Dennis went and arrived in Washington, and instead of going, as he said, to a "tavern," he went to the White House. There was a porter on guard, and he asked : "Is Abe in?" "Do you mean Mr. Lincoln?" asked the porter. "Yes; is he in there?" and brushing the porter aside he strode into the room and said, "Hello, Abe; how are you?" And Abe said, "Well!" and just gathered him up in his arms and talked of the days gone by. Oh, the days gone by! They talked of their boy- hood days, and by and by Lincoln said : "What brings you here all the way from Illinois?" And then Dennis told him his mission, and Lincoln replied : "I will grant it, Dennis, for old-times' sake. I will send for Mr, Stanton. It is his business." Stanton came into the room, and strolled up and down, and said that the men ought to be punished more than they were. Mr. Lincoln sat quietly in his chair and waited for the tempest to subside, and then quietly said to Stanton he would like to have the papers next day. When he had gone Dennis said: "Abe, if I was as big and as ugly as you are, I would take him over my knee and spank him." Lincoln replied : "No, Stanton is an able and valu- 148 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. able man for this nation, and I am glad to bear his anger for the service he can give this nation." THE INTERVIEWS. Modesty and obscurity are mingled with arrogance of pride and distinction in the interviews that the Chief Executive of the nation is forced to endure. One day an attractively and handsomely-dressed woman called to procure the release from prison of a relation in whom she professed the deepest interest. She was a good talker, and her winning ways seemed to be making a deep impression on the President. After listening to her story, he wrote a few words on a card: "This woman, dear Stanton, is a little smarter than she looks to be," enclosed it in an envelope and directed her to take it to the Secretary of War. On the same day another woman called, more hum- ble in appearance, more plainly clad. It was the old story. Father and son both in the army, the former in prison. Could not the latter be discharged from the army and sent home to help his mother? A few strokes of the pen, a gentle nod of the head, and the little woman, her eyes filling with tears and expressing a grateful acknowledgment her tongue could not utter, passed out. A lady so thankful for the release of her husband was in the act of kneeling in thankfulness. "Get up," he said, "don't kneel to me, but thank God and go." An old lady for the same reason came forward with tears in her eyes to express her gratitude. "Good- bye, Mr. Lincoln," said she; "I shall probably never PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 149 see you again till we meet in heaven." She had the President's hand in hers, and he was deeply moved. He instantly took her right hand in both of his, and following her to the door, said, "I am afraid with all my troubles I shall never get to the resting-place you speak of; but if I do, I am sure I shall find you. That you wish me to get there is, I believe, the best wish you could make for me. Good-bye." Then the President remarked to a friend, "It is more than many can often say, that in doing right one has made two people happy in one day. Speed, die when I may, I want it said of me by those who know me best, that I have always plucked a thistle and planted a flower when I thought a flower would grow." THE PRESIDENCY NOT A BED OF ROSES. An old and intimate friend from Springfield called on the President and found him much depressed. The President was reclining on a sofa, but rising suddenly, he said to his friend: "You know better than any man living that from my boyhood up my ambition was to be President. I am President of one part of this divided country at least ; but look at me! Oh, I wish I had never been born! I've a white elephant on my hands, one hard to manage. With a fire in my front and rear to contend with, the jealousies of the military commanders, and not receiv- ing that cordial co-operative support from Congress that could reasonably be expected with an active and formidable enemy in the field threatening the very life-blood of the Government, my position is anything but a bed of roses." ISO PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. UNHEALTHY GROUP OF OFFICE SEEKERS. A delegation was pressing the claims of a gentleman as commissioner to the Sandwich Islands. Among the many points urged was that the applicant was in poor health. The President closed the interview with the good-natured remark: "Gentlemen, I am sorry to say that there are eight other applicants for that place, and they are all sicker than your man." THE OLD LADY AND THE PAIR OF STOCKINGS. An old lady from the country called on the Presi- dent, her tanned face peering out from the interior of a huge sunbonnet. Her errand was to present Mr. Lincoln a pair of stockings of her own make a yard long. Kind tears came to his eyes as she spoke to him, and then, holding the stockings one in each hand, dangling wide apart for general inspection, he assured her that he should take them with him to Washington, where (and here his eyes twinkled) he was sure he should not be able to find any like them. The amusement of the company was not at all diminished by Mr. BoutwelVs remark, that the lady had evidently made a very cor- rect estimate of Mr. Lincoln's latitude and longitude. THE PRESIDENT WIELDS AN AX AT THE WASHING- TON NAVY YARDS. One afternoon during the summer of 1862, the Presi- dent accompanied several gentlemen to the Washing- ton Navy Yard to witness some experiments with a PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 151 newly-invented gun. Subsequently the party went aboard one of the steamers lying at the wharf. A dis- cussion was going on as to the merits of the invention, in the midst of which Mr. Lincoln caught sight of some axes hanging up outside of the cabin. Leaving the group, he quietly went forward, and taking one down, returned with it, and said: "Gentlemen, you may talk about your 'Raphael repeaters' and 'eleven-inch Dahlgrens,' but here is an institution which I giiess I understand better than either of you." With that he held the ax out at arm's length by the end of the handle, or "helve," as the wood-cutters call it — a feat not another person in the party could perform, though all made the attempt. In such acts as this, showing that he neither forgot nor was ashamed of his humble origin, the good Presi- dent exhibited his true nobility of character. He was a favorite illustration of his favorite poet's words: "The rank is but the guinea's stamp, The man's the gold, for a' that!" A PETITIONER'S SUDDEN CHANGE OF MIND. The President was feeling indisposed, and had sent for his physician, who upon his arrival informed the President that his trouble was either varioloid, or mild smallpox. "They're all over me. Is it contagious?" said Mr. Lincoln. "Yes," answered the Doctor, "very contagious, indeed." "Well," said a visitor, "I can't stop. I just called to see you." 152 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. "Oh, don't be in a hurry, sir," placidly said the President. "Thank you, sir; I'll call again," retreating abruptly. "Some people," said the Executive, looking after him, "said they could not take very well to my procla- mation, but now, I am happy to say, I have something that everybody can take. " •THOROUGH." Some one came to the President with a story about a plot to accomplish some mischief in the Government. Lincoln listened to what was a very superficial and ill- formed story, and then said: "There is one thing that I have learned, and that you have not. It is only one word — 'thorough.'" Then, bringing his hand down on the table with a thump to emphasize his meaning, he added, "thorough." MR. LINCOLN'S TACT. Two young men called on the President from Spring- field, 111. Mr. Lincoln shook hands with them, and asked about the crops, the weather, etc. Finally one of the young men said, "Mother is not well, and she sent me up to inquire of you how the suit about the Wells property is getting on. ' ' Mr. Lincoln, in the same even tone with which he had asked the question, said: "Give my best wishes and respects to your mother, and tell her that I have so many outside mat- ters to attend to now, that I have put that case, and PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 153 others, in the hands of a lawyer friend of mine, and if you will call on him" (giving name and address), "he will give you the information you want." After they had gone, I said: "Mr. Lincoln, you did not seem to know the young men?" He laughed and said: "No, I had never seen them before, and I had to beat around the bush until I found who they were. It was uphill work, but I topped it at last." LINCOLN'S HAIR. "By the way," said Mr. Lincoln to Colonel Cannon, "I can tell you a good story about my hair. When I was nominated at Chicago, an enterprising fellow thought that a great many people would like to see how Abe Lincoln looked, and, as I had not long before sat for a photograph, the fellow, having seen it, rushed over and bought the negative. "He at once got no end of wood-cuts, and so active was their circulation they were soon selling in all parts of the country. "Soon after they reached Springfield. I heard a boy crying them for sale on the streets. 'Here's your likeness of Abe Lincoln!' he shouted. 'Buy one, price only two shillings! Will look a great deal better when he gets his hair combed!' " "OH. PAI HE ISN'T UGLY!" Lincoln's gfreat love for children easily won their confidence. A little girl, who had been told that the President 154 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. was very homely, was taken by her father to see the President at the White House. Mr. Lincoln took her upon his knee and chatted with her for a moment in his merry way, when she turned to her father and exclaimed: "Oh, Pa! he isn't ugly at all; he's beau- tiful!" SIMPLICITY. Mr. Jeriah Bonham describes a visit that he paid Mr. Lincoln at his room in the State House, where he found him quite alone except that two of his children, one of whom was Tad, were with him. The door was open. We walked in and were at once recognized and seated — the two boys still continuing their play about the room. Tad was spinning his top; and Mr. Lin- coln, as we entered, had just finished adjusting the string for him so as to give the top the greatest degree of force. He remarked that he was having a little fun with the boys. At another time, at Lincoln's residence. Tad came into the room, and putting his hand to his mouth, and his mouth to his father's ear, said in a boy's whisper, "Ma says come to supper." All heard the announcement, and Mr. Lincoln, per- ceiving this, said: "You have heard, gentlemen, the announcement concerning the interesting state of things in the dining-room. It will never do for me, if elected, to make this young man a member of my cabinet, for it is plain he cannot be trusted with secrets of state." PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 155 MR. LINCOLN'S GREAT LOVE FOR LITTLE TAD. No matter who was with the President, or how intently absorbed, his little son Tad was always wel- come. He almost always accompanied his father. Once, on the way to Fortress Monroe, he became very troublesome. The President was much engag-ed in conversation with the party who accompanied him, and he at length said : "Tad, if you will be a good boy, and not disturb me any more until we get to Fortress Monroe, I will give you a dollar." The hope of reward was effectual for a while in securing silence, but, boy-like. Tad soon forgot his promise, and was as noisy as ever. Upon reaching their destination, however, he said, very promptly, "Father, I want my dollar." Mr. Lincoln looked at him half-reproachfully for an instant, and then taking from his pocketbook a dollar note, he said: "Well, my son, at any rate, I will keep my part of the bargain." While paying a visit to Commodore Porter, of Fort- ress Monroe, on one occasion, an incident occurred, subsequently related by Lieutenant Braine, one of the officers on board the flag-ship, to the Rev. Dr. Ewer, of New York. Noticing that the banks of the river were dotted with spring blossoms, the Presi- dent said, with the manner of one asking a special favor: "Commodore, Tad is very fond of flowers; won't you let a couple of your men take a boat and go with him for an hour or two along the shore, and gather a few? It will be a great gratification to him. " 156 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. THE HARDEST TRIAL OF LINCOLN'S LIFE. In February, 1862, Mr. Lincoln was visited by a severe affliction in the death of his beautiful son, Willie, and the extreme illness of his son Thomas, familiarly called "Tad." This was a new burden, and the visitation which, in his firm faith in Providence, he regarded as providential, was also inexplicable. A Christian lady from Massachusetts, who was officiating as nurse in one of the hospitals at the time, came to attend the sick children. She reports that Mr. Lincoln watched with her about the bedside of the sick ones, and that he often walked the room, saying sadly : "This is the hardest trial of my life; why is it? Why is it?" In the course of conversation with her, he ques- tioned her concerning his situation. She told him that she was a widow, and that her husband and two chil- dren were in heaven ; and added that she saw the hand of God in it all, and that she had never loved him so much before as she had since her affliction. "How is that brought about?" inquired Mr. Lincoln. "Simply by trusting in God and feeling that he does all things well, ' ' she replied. "Did you submit fully under the first loss?" he asked. "No," she answered, "not wholly; but, as blow came upon blow, and all were taken, I could and did submit, and was very happy." He responded: "I am glad to hear you say that. Your experience will help me to bear my affliction." On being assured that many Christians were praying for him on the morning of the funeral, he wiped away the tears that sprang in his eyes, and said : 1^'^;'-^';>. LINCOLN AND HIS SON "TAD.' PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 159 "I am glad to hear that. I want them to pray for me. I need their prayers." , As he was going out to the burial, the good lady expressed her sympathy with him. He thanked her gently, and said: 'T will try to go to God with my sorrows." A few days afterward she asked him if he could trust God. He replied: "I think I can, and will try. I wish I had that childlike faith you speak of, and I trust he will give it to me." And then he spoke of his mother, whom so many years before he had committted to the dust among the wilds of Indiana. In this hour of his great trial the memory of her who had held him upon her bosom, and soothed his childish griefs, came back to him with tenderest recollections. "I remembered her prayers," said he, "and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life." DEATH OF LINCOLN'S FAVORITE SON. Mr. Lincoln regarded the death of his favorite son as the turning-point in his spiritual history. He said, "That blow overwhelmed me. It showed me my weakness as I had never felt it before." Again, in 1862, at Fortress Monroe, after having read the discusson between Hamlet and his courtiers, and the soliloquy in which conscience debates of a future state, also where Constance bewails her impris- / oned lost boy ; then, closing the book, and recalling the words, "And, Father Cardinal,, I have heard you say, that we shall see and know our friends in heaven." "If i6o PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. that be true, I shall see my boy again," Mr. Lincoln said: "Colonel [Cannon], did you ever dream of a lost friend, and feel that you were holding sweet com- munion with that friend, and yet have a sad con- sciousness that it was not a reality? Just so I dream of my boy Willie." Overcome with emotion, he dropped his head on his Bible, and sobbed aloud. HOW YOUNG DANIEL WEBSTER ESCAPES A FLOG- GING, AS RELATED BY LINCOLN. Mr. Lincoln, on one occasion, narrated to Hon. Mr. Odell and others, with much zest, the following story about young Daniel Webster: When quite young, at school, Daniel was one day guilty of a gross violation of the rules. He was detected in the act, and called up by the teacher for punishment. This was to be the old-fashioned "feruling" of the hand. His hands happened to be very dirty. Knowing this, on the way to the teacher's desk, he spit upon the palm of his right hand, wiping it oiif upon the side of his pantaloons. "Give me your hand, sir," said the teacher, very sternly. Out went the right hand, partly cleansed. The teacher looked at it a moment, and said : "Daniel, if you will find another hand in this schoolroom as filthy as that, I will let you off this time." Instantly from behind the back came the left hand. "Here it is, sir," was the ready reply. "That will do," said the teacher, "for this time ; you can take your seat, sir." PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. i6i "MOTHER, HE'S JUST THE SAME OLD ABE." "It was during the dark days of 1863," says Schuyler Colfax, "on the evening of a public reception given at the White House. The foreign legations were there gathered about the President. A young English nobleman was just being presented to the President. Inside the door, evidently overawed by the splendid assemblage, was an honest-faced old farmer, who shrank from the passing crowd until he and the plain-faced old lady clinging to his arm were pressed back to the wall. The President, tall, and, in a measure, stately in his personal presence, looking over the heads of the assembly, said to the English nobleman: "Excuse me, my Lord, there's an old friend of mine." Passing backward to the door, Mr. Lincoln said, as he grasped the old farmer's hand: "Why, John, I'm glad to see you. I haven't seen you since you and I made rails for old Mrs. , in Sangamon County, in 1837. How are you?" The old man turned to his wife with quivering lip, and without replying to the President's salutation, said : "Mother, he's just the same old Abe!" "Mr. Lincoln," he said finally, "you know we had three boys; they all enlisted in the same company; John was killed in the 'seven days' fight'; Sara was taken prisoner and starved to death, and Henry is in the hospital. We had a little money, an' I said, 'Mother, we'll go to Washington and see him. An' while we were here,' I said, 'we'll go up and see the President.' " Mr. Lincoln's eyes grew dim, and across his rugged, i62 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. homely, tender face swept the wave of sadness his friends had learned to know, and he said: "John, we all hope this miserable war will soon be over. I must see all these folks here for an hour or so, and I want to talk with you." The old lady and her husband were hustled into a private room, in spite of their protests. "TIME LOST DON'T COUNT." Mr. Weed, the veteran journalist and politician, relates how, when he was opposing the claims of Montgomery Blair, who aspired to a cabinet appoint- ment, when Mr. Lincoln inquired of Mr. Weed whom he would recommend, "Henry Winter Davis," was the response. "David Davis, I see, has been posting you up on this question," retorted Lincoln. "He has Davis on the brain. I think Maryland must be a good State to move from. " The President then told a story of a witness in court in a neighboring county, who, on being asked his age, replied, "Sixty." Being satisfied he was much older the question was repeated, and on receiving the same answer the court admonished the witness, saying, "The court knows you to be much older than sixt)^" "Oh, I understand now," was there joinder, "you're thinking of those ten years I spent on the eastern shore of Maryland; that was so much time lost, and didn't count. ' ' CABINET RECONSTRUCTION. The President had decided to select a new war min- ister, and the leading Republican Senators thought the PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 163 occasion was opportune to change the whole seven Cabinet ministers. They, therefore, earnestly advised him to make a clean sweep, and select seven new men, and so restore the waning confidence of the country. The President listened with patient courtesy, and when the Senators had concluded he said, with a character- istic gleam of humor in his eye : "Gentlemen, your request for a change of the whole Cabinet because I have made one change, reminds me of a story I once heard in Illinois, of a farmer who was much troubled by skunks. His wife insisted on his trying to get rid of them. He loaded his shotgun one moonlight night and awaited developments. After some time the wife heard the shotgun go off, and, in a few minutes, the farmer entered the house. 'What luck have you?' said she. 'I hid myself behind the wood-pile,' said the old man, 'with the shotgun pointed towards the hen roost, and before long there appeared not one skunk, but seven. I took aim, blazed away, killed one, and he raised such a fearful smell that I con- cluded it was best to let the other six go.' " The Senators laughed and retired. HE'S ALL RIGHT; BUT A CHRONIC SQUEALER. One of the Northern Governors was able, earnest, and untiring in aiding the administration, but always complaining. After reading all his papers, the Presi- dent said, in a cheerful and reassuring tone: "Never mind, never mind; those dispatches don't mean anything. Just go right ahead. The Governor is like a boy I saw once at a launching. When every- i64 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. thing was ready, they picked out a boy and sent him under the ship to knock away the trigger and let her go. At the critical moment everything depended on the boy. He had to do the job well by a direct, vigorous blow, and then lie flat and keep still while the boat slid over him. "The boy did everything right, but he yelled as if he were being murdered from the time he got under the keel until he got out. I thought the hide was all scraped off his back; but he wasn't hurt at all. "The master of the yard told me that this boy was always chosen for that job, that he did his work well, that he never had been hurt, but that he always squealed in that way. That's just the way with Governor . Make up your mind that he is not hurt, and that he is doing the work right, and pay no attention to his squealing. He only wants to make you understand how hard his task is, and that he is on hand performing it. ' ' SECRETARY STANTON'S UNCOMPLIMENTARY OPINION. Mr. Lovejoy, heading a committee of western men, discussed an important scheme with the President, and was then directed to explain it to Secretary Stanton. Upon presenting themselves to the Secretary, and showing the President's order, the Secretary said, "Did Lincoln give you an order of that kind?" "He did, sir." "Then he is a d d fool," said the angry Secretary. "Do you mean to say that the President is ad d fool?" asked Lovejoy, in amazement. "Yes, sir, if he gave you such an order as that." PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 165 The bewildered Illinoisan betook himself at once to the President and related the result of the conference. "Did Stanton say I was a d d fool?" asked Lincoln, at the close of the recital. "He did, sir, and repeated it." After a moment's pause, and looking up, the President said: "If Stanton said I was a d d fool, then I must be one, for he is nearly always right, and generally says what he means. I will slip over and see him." LINCOLN'S MODESTY. Secretary Chase, when Secretary of the Treasury, had a disagreement, and the Secretary had resigned. The President was urged not to accept it, as "Secre- tary Chase is to-day a national necessity, ' ' his advisers said. "How mistaken you are!" he quietly observed. "Yet it is not strange; I used to have similar notions. No! if we should all be turned out to-morrow, and could come back here in a week, we should find our places filled by a lot of fellows doing just as well as we did, and in many instances better. "As the Irishman said, 'In this country one man is as good as another; and, for the matter of that, very often a great deal better. ' No ; this Government does not depend upon the life of any man." AN INCIDENT IN LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGU- RATION. Noah Brooks, in his "Reminiscences," relates the following incident: While the ceremonies of the second inauguration were in progress, just as Lincoln stepped forward to i66 PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. take the oath of office, the sun, which had been obscured by rain-clouds, burst in splendor. In con- versation the next day, the President asked: "Did you notice that sun-burst? It made my heart jump." Later in the month. Miss Anna Dickinson, in a lec- ture delivered in the hall of the House of Represent- atives, eloquently alluded to the sun-burst as a happy omen. The President sat directly in front of the speaker, and from the reporters' gallery, behind her, I had caught his eye, soon after he sat down. When Miss Dickinson referred to the sunbeam, he looked up to me, involuntarily, and I thought his eyes were suffused with moisture. Perhaps they were ; but the next day he said: "I wonder if Miss Dickinson saw me wink at you?" KINDNESS OF HEART. An old acquaintance of the President visited him in Washington. Lincoln desired to give him a place. Thus encouraged, the visitor, who was an honest man, but wholly inexperienced in public affairs or business, asked for a high office. Superintendent of the Mint. The President was aghast, and said: "Good gracious! Why didn't he ask to be Secretary of the Treasury, and have done with it?" Afterwards, he said: "Well, now, I never thought Mr. had anything more than average ability, when we were young men together. But, then, I suppose he thought the same thing about me, and — here I am!" PRESIDENTIAL INCIDENTS. 167 Lincoln was censured for appointing one that had zealously opposed his second term. He replied: "Well, I suppose Judge E., having been disappointed before, did behave pretty ugly, but that wouldn't make him any less fit for the place; and I think I have Scriptural authority for appointing him. You remember when the Lord was on Mount Sinai getting out a commission for Aaron, that same Aaron was at the foot of the mountain making a false god for the people to worship. Yet Aaron got his commis- sion, you know." Stories of the War. THE PRESIDENT "MAKING GENERALS." H, C. Whitney wrote in 1866: "I was in Washing- ton in the Indian service for a few days before August, 1 86 1, and I merely said to Lincoln, one day, 'Every- thing is drifting into the war, and I guess you will have to put me in the army. ' The President looked up from his work and said, good-humoredly, 'I'm making generals now, in a few days I will be making quartermasters, and then I'll fix you.' " HARDTACK WANTED, NOT GENERALS. Secretary Stanton told the President the following that greatly amused him, as he was especially fond of a joke at the expense of some high military or civil dignity. When Stanton was making a trip up the Broad river in North Carolina, in a tub boat, a Federal picket yelled out, "What have you got on board of that tug?" The severe and dignified answer was, "The Secretary of War and Major-General Foster." Instantly the picket roared back, "We've got Major- Generals enough up here. Why don't you bring us up some hardtack?" 168 STORIES OP THE WAR. 169 WHIPPED AND THEN RAN. Three or four days after the battle of Bull Run, some gentlemen who had been on the field called upon him. He inquired very minutely regarding all the cir- cumstances of the affair, and after listening with the utmost attention, said, with a touch of humor: "So it is your notion that we whipped the rebels and then ran away from them ! ' ' A TOUCHING SONG INFLUENCES LINCOLN TO PARDON A REBEL PRISONER. The following interesting particulars connected with the early life of Abraham Lincoln, are from the Virginia (111.) Enquirer, of date of March i, 1879: "John McNamer was buried last Sunday, near Petersburg, Menard County. A long while ago he was Assessor and Treasurer of the County for several successive terms. Mr. McNamer was an early settler in that section, and before the town of Petersburg was laid out, in business in Old Salem, a village that existed many years ago two miles south of the present site of Petersburg. Abe Lincoln was then postmaster of the place and sold whisky to its inhabitants. There are old-timers yet living in Menard who bought many a jug of corn-juice from Old Abe when he lived at Salem. It was here that Annie Rutledge dwelt, and in whose grave Lincoln wrote that his heart was buried. As the story runs, the fair and gentle Annie was originally John McNamer' s sweetheart, but Abe 17© STORIES OF THE WAR. took a 'shine* to the young lady, and succeeded in heading off McNamer and won her affections. But Annie Rutledge died, and Lincoln went to Springfield, where he some time afterwards married, "It is related that during the war a lady belonging to a prominent Kentucky family visited Washington to beg for her son's pardon, who was then in prison under sentence of death for belonging to a band of guerrillas who had committed many murders and outrages. With the mother was her daughter, a beautiful young lady, who was an accomplished musician. Mr. Lincoln received the visitors in his usual kind manner, and the mother made known the object of her visit, accompany- ing her plea with tears and sobs and all the customary romantic incidents. "There were probably extenuating circumstances in favor of the young rebel prisoner, and while the President seemed to be deeply pondering, the young lady moved to a piano near by and taking a seat commenced to sing 'Gentle Annie,' a very sweet and pathetic ballad which, before the war, was a familiar song in almost every household in the Union, and is not yet entirely forgotten, for that matter. It is to be presumed that the young lady sang the song with more plaintiveness and effect than Old Abe had ever heard it in Springfield. During its rendition, he arose from his seat, crossed the room to a window in the westward, through which he gazed for several minutes with a 'sad, far-away look,' which has so often been noted as one of his peculiarities. His memory, no doubt, went back to the days of his humble life on the Sangamon, and with visions of Old Salem and its rustic people, who once gathered in his primitive store, I STORIES OF THE WAR. 171 came a picture of the 'Gentle Annie' of his youth, whose ashes had rested for many long years under the wild flowers and brambles of the old rural bury- ing-ground, but whose spirit then, perhaps, guided him to the side of mercy. Be that as it may, Mr. Lincoln drew a large red silk handkerchief from his coat-pocket, with which he wiped his face vigorously. Then he turned, advanced quickly to his desk, wrote a brief note, which he handed to the lady, and informed her that it was the pardon she sought. The scene was no doubt touching in a great degree and proves that a nice song, well sung, has often a powerful influence in recalling tender recollections. It proves, also, that Abraham Lincoln was a man of fine feelings, and that, if the occurrence was a put-up job on the lady's part it accomplished the purpose all the same," RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION. A cashiered officer, seeking to be restored through the power of the executive, became insolent, because the President, who believed the man guilty, would not accede to his repeated requests, at last said, "Well, Mr. President, I see you are fully determined not to do me justice!" This was too aggravating even for Mr. Lincoln; rising he suddenly seized the disgraced officer by the coat collar, and marched him forcibly to the door, saying as he ejected him into the passage: "Sir, I give you fair warning never to show your face in this room again. I can bear censure, but not insult. I never wish to see your face again." 172 STORIES OF THE WAR. LINCOLN'S HIGH COMPLIMENT TO THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. A fair for the benefit of the soldiers, held at the Patent Office, Washington, called out Mr. Lincoln as an interested visitor; and he was not permitted to retire without giving a word to those in attendance. •'In this extraordinary war," said he, "extraordinary developments have manifested themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars ; and among these manifestations nothing has been more remarkable than these fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families. And the chief agent in these fairs are the women of America. I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy ; I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women ; but I must say that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world, in praise of women, were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during the war. I will close by saying, God bless the women of America!" LINCOLN'S PLAN OF WAR. The President explained to Mr. Whitney the theory of the Rebellion by the aid of the maps before him. Running his long fore-finger down the map, he stopped at Virginia. "We must drive them away from here" (Manassas Gap), he said, " and clear them out of this part of the State so that they cannot threaten us here (Washington) and get into Maryland. "We must keep up a good and thorough blockade of their ports. We must march an army into East STORIES OF THE WAR. 173 Tennessee and liberate the Union sentiment there. Finally we must rely on the people growing tired and saying to their leaders, 'We have had enough of this thing, we will bear it no longer.' " Such was Mr. Lincoln's plan for heading off the Rebellion in the summer of 1861. How it enlarged as the war pro- gressed, from a call for seventy thousand volunteers to one for five hundred thousand men and five hundred millions of dollars is a matter of well-known history. THE PRESIDENT'S OBEYING ORDERS. The President was at the battle of Fort Stevens, and standing in a very exposed position, he apparently had been recognized by the enemy. A young colonel of artillery, who appeared to be the officer of the day, finally decided to insist on the President removing to a safer location. He walked to where the President was looking over the parapet, and said, "Mr. President, you are standing within range of four hundred rebel rifles. Please come down to a safer place. If you do not, it will be my duty to call a file of men, and make you." "And you would do quite right, my boy!" said the President, coming down at once. "You are in com- mand of the fort. I should be the last man to set an example of disobedience!" THE MILLIONAIRES WHO WANTED A GUNBOAT. A delegation of New York millionaires in 1862 waited on President Lincoln to request that he furnish a gunboat for the protection of New York harbor. 174 STORIES OF THE WAR. Mr. Lincoln, after listening patiently, said, "Gentle- men : The credit of the Government is at a very low ebb ; greenbacks are not worth more than forty or fifty cents on the dollar; it is impossible for me, in the present condition of things, to furnish you a gunboat, and, in this condition of things, if I was worth half as much as you, gentlemen, are represented to be, and as badly frightened as you seem to be, I would build a gunboat and give it to the Government." They went away, sadder but wiser men. THE PRESIDENT REFUSES TO SIGN TWENTY-FOUR DEATH WARRANTS. A personal friend of President Lincoln says: "I called on him one day in the early part of the war. He had just written a pardon for a young man who had been sentenced to be shot, for sleeping at his post, as a sentinel. He remarked as he read it to me: *' 'I could not think of going into eternity with the blood of the poor young man on my skirts. ' Then he added: 'It is not to be wondered at that a boy, raised on a farm, probably in the habit of going to bed at dark, should, when required to watch, fall asleep; and I cannot consent to shoot him for such an act.' " This story, with its moral, is made complete by Rev. Newman Hall, of London, who, in a sermon preached after and upon Mr. Lincoln's death, says that the dead body of this youth was found among the slain on the field of Fredericksburg, wearing next his heart a photograph of his preserver, beneath which the grate- ful fellow had written, "God bless President Lincoln!" /rom the same sermon another anecdote is gleaned, STORIES OF THE WAR. 175 of a similar character, which is evidently authentic. An officer of the army, in conversation with the preacher, said: "The first week of my command there were twenty- four deserters sentenced by court martial to be shot, and the warrants for their execution were sent to the President to be signed. He refused. I went to Washington and had an interview. I said: " 'Mr. President, unless these men are made an example of, the army itself is in danger. Mercy to the few is cruelty to the many. ' "He replied: *Mr. General, there are already too many weeping widows in the United States. For God's sake, don't ask me to add to the number, for I won't do it' " AMONG THE WOUNDED. As one stretcher was passing Mr. Lincoln, he heard the voice of a lad calling to his mother in agonizing tones. His great heart filled. He forgot the crisis of the hour. Stopping the carriers he knelt, and bend- ing over him asked: "What can I do for you, my poor child?" "Oh, you will do nothing for me," he replied. "You are a Yankee. I cannot hope that my message to my mother will ever reach her." Mr. Lincoln in tears, his voice full of tenderest love, convinced the boy of his sincerity, and he gave his good-bye words without reserve. The President directed them copied, and ordered that they be sent that night, with a flag of truce, into the enemy's lines. 176 STORIES OF THE WAR. THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY. The President noticed a small, pale, delicate looking boy, about thirteen years old, among- the number in the ante-chamber. The President saw him standing there, looking so feeble and faint, and said: "Come here, my boy, and tell me what you want." The boy advanced, placed his hand on the arm of the President's chair, and with a bowed head and timid accents said: "Mr. President, I have been a drummer boy in a regiment for two years, and my colonel got angry with me and turned me off. I was taken sick and have been a long time in the hospital." The President discovered that the boy had no home, no father — he had died in the army — no mother. "I have no father, no mother, no brothers, no sisters, and," bursting into tears, "no friends — nobody cares for me." Mr. Lincoln's eyes filled with tears, and the boy's heart was soon made glad by a request to certain officials "to care for this poor boy." A CASE WHERE LINCOLN THOUGHT SHOOTING WOULD DO NO GOOD. The Hon. Mr. Kellogg, representative from Essex County, N. Y., received a dispatch one evening from the army to the effect that a young townsman who had been induced to enlist through his instrumentality had, for a serious demeanor, been convicted by a court- martial and was to be shot the next day. Greatly agitated, Mr. Kellogg went to the Secretary of War and urged, in the strongest manner, a reprieve. Stanton was inexorable. STORIES OF THE WAR. 177 "Too many cases of this kind had been let off," said he, "and it was time an example was made." Exhausting his eloquence in vain, Mr. Kellogg said: "Well, Mr. Secretary, the boy is not going to be shot, of that I give you fair warning!" Leaving the War Department, he went directly to the White House, although the hour was late. The sentinel on duty told him that special orders had been given to admit no one whatever that night. After a long parley, by pledging himself to assume the responsibility of the act, the Congressman passed in. Mr. Lincoln had retired, but indifferent to etiquette or ceremony. Judge Kellogg pressed his way through all obstacles to his sleeping apartment. In an excited manner he stated that the dispatch announc- ing the hour of execution had just reached him. "This man must not be shot, Mr. President," said he. "I can't help what he may have done. Why, he is an old neighbor of mine; I can't allow him to be shot!" Mr. Lincoln had remained in bed, quietly listening to the protestations of his old friend (they were in Congress together). He at length said: "Well, I don't believe shooting will do him any good. Give me that pen." And so saying, "red tape" was unceremoniously cut, and another poor fellow's life was indefinitely extended. NEW INSTRUCTIONS TO GENERALS. •'War Department, Washington, July 22, '62. "First ordered that military commanders within the States of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, 178 STORIES OF THE WAR. Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, in an orderly manner, seize and use any property, real or personal, which may be necessary or convenient for their several commands, for supplies, or for other military purposes ; and that while property may be all stored for proper military objects, none shall be destroyed in wantonness nor malice. "Second: That military and naval commanders shall employ as laborers within and from said states, so many persons of African descent as can be advanta- geously used for military or naval purposes, giving them reasonable wages for their labor. "Third: That as to both property and persons of African descent, accounts shall be kept sufficiently accurate and in detail to show quantities and amounts, and from whom both property and such persons shall have come, as a basis upon which compensation can be made in proper cases; and the several departments of this Government shall attend to and perform their appropriate parts towards the execution of these orders. By order of the President." LINCOLN REFUSES PARDON TO A SLAVE-STEALER. Hon. John B. Alley, of Linn, Massachusetts, was made the bearer to the President of a petition for pardon, by a person confined in the Newburyport jail for being engaged in the slave trade. He had been sentenced to five years* imprisonment, and the pay- ment of a fine of one thousand dollars. The petition was accompanied by a letter to Mr. Alley, in which the prisoner acknowledged his guilt and the justice of his STORIES OF THE WAR. 179 sentence. He was very penitent— at least on paper — and had received the full measure of his punishment, so far as it related to the term of his imprisonment, but he was still held because he could not pay his fine. Mr. Alley read the letter to the President, who was much moved by its pathetic appeals ; and when he had himself read the petition he looked up and said: "My friend, that is a very touching appeal to our feelings. You know my weakness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals for mercy, and if this man were guilty of the foulest murder that the arm of man could perpetrate I might forgive him on such an appeal ; but the man who could go to Africa, and rob her of her children, and sell them into interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer, that he can never receive pardon at my hands. No! he may rot in jail before he shall have liberty by any act of mine." A sudden crime, committed under strong temptation, was venial in his eyes, on evidence of repentance; but the calculat- ing, mercenary crime of man-stealing and man-selling, with all the cruelties that are essential accompaniments to the business, could win from him, as an officer of the people, no pardon. LINCOLN'S INFLUENCE WITH THE ADMINISTRATION. Many smiles have been caused by the quaint remark of the President, "My dear sir, I have not much influ- ence with the administration." Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, once replied to an i8o STORIES OF THE WAR. order from the President, to give a colonel a com- mission in place of the resigning brigadier: "I shan't do it, sir. I shan't do it! It isn't the way to do it, sir, and I shan't do it. I don't propose to argue the question with you, sir." A few days after the friend of the applicant that presented the order to Stanton called upon the Presi- dent and related his reception. "A look of vexation came over the face of the President, and he seemed unwilling to talk of it, and desired me to see him another day. I did so, when he gave me a positive order for the promotion. I told him I would not speak to Stanton again until he apologized. 'Oh,' said the President, 'Stanton has gone to Fortress Monroe, and Dana is acting. He will attend to it for you. ' This he said with a manner of relief, as if it was a piece of good luck to find a man there who would obey his orders. The nomination was sent to the Senate and confirmed." Lincoln was the actual head of the administration, and whenever he chose to do so he controlled Stanton as well as the other Cabinet ministers. One instance will suffice : Stanton on one occasion said: "Now, Mr. President, those are the facts and you must see that your order cannot be executed." Lincoln replied in a somewhat positive tone: "Mr. Secretary, I reckon you'll have to execute the order." Stanton replied with vigor: "Mr. President, I cannot do it. This order is an improper one, and I cannot execute it. ' ' Lincoln fixed his eyes upon Stanton, and in a firm voice and accent that clearly showed his determination, he said: "Mr. Secretary, it will have to be done." STORIES OF THE WAR. i8i LINCOLN DEFENDS HIS USE OF THE WORD "SUGAR-COATED" IN A PUBLIC DOCUMENT. Mr. Defrees, the Government printer, states that, when one of the President's messages was being printed, he was a good deal disturbed by the use of the term "sugar-coated," and finally went to Mr. Lincoln about it. Their relations to each other being of the most intimate character, he told the President frankly that he ought to remember that a message to Congress was a different affair from a speech at a mass meeting in Illinois; that the messages became a part of history, and should be written accordingly. "What is the matter now?" inquired the President. "Why," said Mr. Defrees, "you have used an undignified expression in the message"; and then, reading the paragraph aloud, he added, "I would alter the structure of that if I were you." "Defrees," replied Mr. Lincoln, "that word expresses exactly my idea, and I am not going to change it. The time will come in this country, when people won't know exactly what 'sugar-coated' means." On a subsequent occasion, Mr. Defrees states that a certain sentence of another message was very awk- wardly constructed. Calling the President's attention to it in the proof copy, the latter acknowledged the force of the objection raised, and said, "Go home, Defrees, and see if you can better it." The next day Mr. Defrees took him his amendment. Mr. Lincoln met him by saying: "Seward found the same fault that you did, and he has been rewriting the paragraph also." Then, read- ing Mr. Defrees' version, he said, "I believe you have i82 STORIES OF THE WAR. beaten Seward; but, *I jings,' I think I can beat you both. " Then, taking up his pen, he wrote the sentence as it was finally printed. BAILING OUT THE POTOMAC RIVER. An obscure officer persisted in telling and re-telling his troubles to the President on a summer afternoon when the President was tired and careworn. After listening patiently, he finally turned upon the man, and looking wearily out upon the broad Potomac in the distance, said in a peremptory tone that ended the interview: "Now, my man, go away, go away, I cannot meddle in your case. I could as easily bail out the Potomac River with a teaspoon as attend to all the details of the army. ' ' And thus one after another had to be disposed of, day after day. At another time, Governor went to the office of the War Department in a towering rage. I said to the President: "I suppose you found it necessary to make large concessions to him, as he returned from you perfectly satisfied." "Oh, no," he replied, "I did not concede anything. You have heard how that Illinois farmer got rid of a big log that was too big to haul out, too knotty to split, and too wet and soggy to burn. 'Well, now,' said he, in response to the inquiries of his neighbors one Sunday, as to how he got rid of it; 'Well, now, boys, if you won't divulge the secret, I'll tell you how I got rid of it — I ploughed around it. ' Now," said Lincoln, "don't tell anybody, but that's STORIES OF THE WAR. 183 the way I got rid of Governor . I ploughed around him, but it took me three mortal hours to do it, and I was afraid every minute he'd see what I was at. ' ' THE HON. FREDERICK DOUGLASS TELLS OF AN INTERVIEW WITH LINCOLN. The well-known Frederick Douglass, in the North Western Advocate, says: "I saw and conversed with this great man for the first time in the darkest hours of the military situation when the armies of the rebellion seemed more con- fident, defiant and aggressive than ever. "I had never before had an interview with a Presi- dent of the United States, and though I felt that I had something important to say, considering his exalted position and my lowly origin and the people whose cause I came to plead, I approached him with trep- idation as to how this great man might receive me; but one word and look from him banished all my fears and set me perfectly at ease. I have often said since that meeting that it was much easier to see and con- verse with a great man than it was with a small man. "On that occasion he said: " 'Douglass, you need not tell me who you are, Mr. Seward has told me all about you. ' "I then saw that there was no reason to tell him my personal story, however interesting it might be to myself or others, so I told him at once the object of my visit. It was to get some expression from him upon three points: "i. Equal pay to colored soldiers. iS4 STORIES OF THE WAR. *'2. Their promotion when they had earned it on the battle-field. "3. Should they be taken prisoners and enslaved or hanged, as Jefferson Davis had threatened, an equal number of Confederate prisoners should be executed within our lines. "A declaration to that effect I thought would pre- vent the execution of the rebel threat. To all but the last President Lincoln assented. He argued, however, that neither equal pay nor promotion could be granted at once. He said that in view of existing prejudices it was a great step forward to employ colored troops at all ; that it was necessary to avoid everything that would offend this prejudice and increase opposition to the measure. "He detailed the steps by which white soldiers were reconciled to the employment of colored troops; how these were first employed as laborers; how it was thought they should not be armed or uniformed like white soldiers ; how they should only be made to wear a peculiar uniform ; how they should be employed to hold forts and arsenals in sickly locations, and not enter the field like other soldiers. "With all these restrictions and limitations he easily made me see that much would be gained when the colored man loomed before the country as a full- fledged United States soldier to fight, flourish or fall in defense of the united republic. The great soul of Lincoln halted only when he came to the point of retaliation. "The thought of hanging men in cold blood, even though the rebels should murder a few of the colored prisoners, was a horror from which he shrank. STORIES OP THE WAR. 185 " 'Oh, Douglass! I cannot do that. If I could get hold of the actual murderers of colored prisoners, I would retaliate; but to hang those who have no hand in such murders, I cannot.' "The contemplation of such an act brought to his countenance such an expression of sadness and pity that it made it hard for me to press my point, though I told him it would tend to save rather than destroy life. He, however, insisted that this work of blood, once begun, would be hard to stop — that such violence would beget violence. He argued more like a disciple of Christ than a commander-in-chief of the army and navy of a warlike nation already involved in a terrible war. "How sad and strange the fate of this great and good man, the savior of his country, the embodiment of human charity, whose heart, though strong, was as tender as a heart of childhood; who always tempered justice with mercy; who sought to supplant the sword with counsel of reason, to suppress passion by kindness and moderation; who had a sigh for every human grief and a tear for every human woe, should at last perish by the hand of a desperate assassin, against whom no thought of malice had ever entered his heart ! ' ' LINCOLN AND TAD. Amid the cheering of the men at Chancellorsville, one of the volunteers lustily called out to the Presi- dent, "Send along more greenbacks." Lincoln was greatly amused by the incident and explained to Tad that the men had not been paid. Tad thought for a i86 STORIES OF THE WAR. moment, then said with great innocence, "Why didn't Governor Chase print some more greenbacks?" TAD THE COMMISSIONED OFFICER. Tad, having been sportively commissioned a lieuten- ant in the United States Army by Secretary Stanton, procured several muskets and drilled the men-servants of the house in the manual of arms without attracting the attention of his father. And one night, to his con- sternation, he put them all on duty, and relieved the regular sentries, who, seeing the lad in full uniform, or perhaps appreciating the joke, gladly went to their quarters. His brother objected; but Tad insisted upon his rights as an officer. The President laughed but declined to interfere, but when the lad had lost his little authority in his boyish sleep, the Commander- in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States went down and personally discharged the sentries his son had put on the post. MR. LINCOLN AS HISTORIAN. Jefferson Davis, it appears, insisted on being recog- nized as commander or President in the regular nego- tiation with the government. This Mr. Lincoln would not consent to. Mr. Hunter hereupon referred to the correspondence between King Charles the First and his Parliament as a precedent for a negotiation between a constitutional ruler and rebels. Mr. Lincoln's face then wore that indescribable expression which generally preceded his hardest hits, and he remarked: "Upon questions of history, I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is FIRST READING OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION BEFORE THE CABINET SEPTEMBER 20, 1862 STORIES OP THE WAR. 187 posted in such things, and I don't profess to be; but my only distinct recollection of the matter is, that Charles lost his head." THE PRESIDENT AND "FIGHTING JOE." General Joe Hooker, the fourth commander of the noble but unfortunate Army of the Potomac, was appointed to that position by President Lincoln, in January, 1863. General Scott, for some reason, dis- liked Hooker and would not appoint him. Hooker, after some months of discouraging waiting, decided to return to California, and called to pay his respects to Mr. Lincoln. He was introduced as Captain Hooker, and to the surprise of the President began the follow- ing speech: "Mr. President, my friend makes a mistake. I am not Captain Hooker, but was once Lieutenant-Colonel Hooker of the regular army. I was lately a farmer in California, but since the rebellion broke out I have been trying to get into service, but I find I am not wanted. ' ' I am about to return home ; but before going, I was anxious to pay my respects to you, and express my wishes for your personal welfare and success in quelling this rebellion. And I want to say to you a word more. "I was at Bull Run the other day, Mr. President, and it is no vanity in me to say, I am a d — d sight better general than you had on the field." This was said, not in the tone of a braggart, but of a man who knew what he was talking about. Hooker did not return to California, but in a few weeks Captain Hooker was Brigadier-General Hooker, and i88 STORIES OP THE WAR. •'Fighting Joe" was regarded as one of the most vigorous and efficient Generals of the Union Army. MR. LINCOLN'S MILITARY TALENT. To Hooker on the 5th of June, 1863: He warns Hooker not to run any risk of being entangled on the Rappahannock "like an ox jumped half over a fence and liable to be torn by dogs, front and rear, without a fair chance to give one way or kick the other." On the loth he warns Hooker not to go south of the Rappahannock upon Lee's moving north of it. "I think Lee's army and not Richmond is your true objective power. If he comes toward the upper Potomac, follow on his flank, and on the inside track, shortening your lines while he lengthens his. Fight him, too, when opportunity offers. If he stay where he is, fret him, and fret him." On the 14th again he says: "So far as we can make out here, the enemy have Milroy surrounded at Winchester, and Tyler at Martinsburg. If they could hold out for a few days, could you help them? If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg, and the tail of it on the flank road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere ; could you not break him?" WHY MR. LINCOLN HESITATED BEFORE SIGNING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. The roll containing the Emancipation Proclamation was taken to Mr. Lincoln at noon on the first day of January, 1863, by Secretary Seward and his son Frederick. As it lay unrolled before him, Mr. Lincoln STORIES OF THE WAR. 189 took a pen, dipped it in the ink, moved his hand to the place for the signature, held it a moment, then removed his hand and dropped the pen. After a little hesitation he again took up the pen and went through the same movement as before. Mr. Lincoln then turned to Mr. Seward, and said : •'I have been shaking hands since nine o'clock this morning, and my right arm is almost paralyzed. If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the Proclamation, all who examine the document hereafter will say, 'He hesitated.* " He then turned to the table, took up the pen again, and slowly, firmly wrote "Abraham Lincoln," with which the whole world is now familiar. He then looked up, smiled, and said, "That will do!" "MAKING A FIZZLE ANYHOW." The President, in company with General Grant, was inspecting the Dutch Gap Canal at City Point. His opinion of the success of the enterprise he made known to General Grant in his usual manner. "Grant, do you know what this reminds me of? Out in Springfield, 111., there was a blacksmith named . One day, not having much to do, he took a piece of soft iron, and attempted to weld it into an agricultural implement, but discovered that the iron would not hold out; then he concluded it would make a claw hammer ; but having too much iron attempted to make an ax, but decided after working a while that there was not enough iron left. Finally, becoming dis- I90 STORIES OF THE WAR. gusted, he filled the forge full of coal and brought the iron to a white heat; then with his tongs he lifted it from the bed of coals, and thrusting it into a tub of water near by, exclaimed with an oath, 'Well, if I can't make anything else of you, I will make a fizzle anyhow.' I was afraid that was about what we had done with the Dutch Gap Canal." A STORY ILLUSTRATING LINCOLN'S IMPATIENCE AT McCLELLAN'S SLOW MOVEMENTS. "On a certain occasion the President said to a friend that he was in great distress; he had been to General McClellan's house and the General did not ask to see him ; and as he must talk to somebody he had sent for General Franklin and myself, to obtain our opinions as to the possibility of soon commencing operations with the Army of the Potomac. To use his own expression, if something was not done soon the bottom would fall out of the whole affair; and if General McClellan did not want to use the army, he would like to borrow it, provided he could see how it could be made to do something." LINCOLN'S SUMMING UP OF McCLELLAN. "If General McClellan does not want to use the army for some days, I should like to borrow it and see if it cannot be made to do something." Mr. Lincoln said, McClellan's tardiness reminded him of a man who knew a few law phrases but whose lawyer lacked aggressiveness. The man finally lost STORIES OF THE WAR. 191 all patience and springing- to his feet said: "Why don't you go at him with a fifa, a demurrer, a capias, a surrebutter, or a ne exeat, or something; or a nundam pactum or a non est?" Lincoln at another time said: "General McClellan is a pleasant and scholarly gentleman. "He is an admirable engineer, but he seems to have a special talent for a stationary engine." ADVISES AN ANGRY OFFICER. An officer, having had some trouble with General Sherman, being very angry, presented himself before Mr. Lincoln, who was visiting the camp, and said, "Mr. President, I have a cause of grievance. This morning I went to Colonel Sherman and he threatened to shoot me." "Threatened to shoot you?" said Mr. Lincoln. "Well, (in a stage whisper) if I were you and he threatens to shoot, I would not trust him, for I believe he would do it." LINCOLN'S LOVE OF SOLDIER HUMOR. Lincoln loved anything that savored of wit or humor among the soldiers in their deprivations and sufferings. He used to relate these two stories often to show, he said, that neither death nor danger could quench the grim humcr of the American soldier : "A soldier of the Army of the Potomac was being carried to the rear of battle with both legs shot off, who, seeing a pie- woman hovering about, asked. 'Say. old lady, are them Dies sewed or pegged?' 192 STORIES OF THE WAR. "And there was another one of the soldiers at the battle of Chancellorsville, whose regiment, waiting to be called into the fight, was taking coffee. The hero of the story put to his lips a crockery mug which he had carried, with infinite care, through several campaigns. A stray bullet, just missing the drinker's head, dashed the mug into fragments and left only the handle on his finger. Turning his head in that direction, he scowled, 'Johnny, you can't do that again.' " THE PRESIDENT AND THE MONITOR. The President expressed his belief in the Monitor, to Captain Fox, the adviser of Captain Ericsson, who constructed the Monitor. "I am not prepared for disastrous results, why should I be? We have three of the most effective vessels in Hampton Roads, and any number of small craft that will hang on the stern of the Merrimac like small dogs on the haunches of a bear. They may not be able to tear her down, but they will interfere with the comfort of her voyage. Her trial trip will not be a pleasure trip, I am certain. "We have had a big share of bad luck already, but I do not believe the future has any such misfortunes in store for us as you anticipate." Said Captain Fox: "If the Merrimac does not sink our ships, who is to prevent her from dropping her anchor in the Potomac, where that steamer lies," pointing to a steamer at anchor below the long bridge, "and throwing her hundred-pound shells into this room, or battering down the walls of the Capitol?" "The Almighty, Captain," answered the President, STORIES OF THE WAR. 193 excitedly, but without the least affectation. "I expect set-backs, defeats ; we have had them and shall have them. They are common to all wars. But I have not the slightest fear of any result which shall fatally impair our military and naval strength, or give other powers any right to interfere in our quarrel. The destruction of the Capitol would do both. "I do not fear it, for this is God's fight, and He will win it in His own good time. He will take care that our enemies will not push us too far." "Speaking of iron-clads, " said the President, "you do not seem to take the little Monitor into account. I believe in the Monitor and her commander. it Captain Worden does not give a good account of the Monitor and of himself, I shall have made a mistake in following my judgment for the first time since I have been here, Captain. I have not made a mistake in following my clear judgment of men since this war began. I followed that judgment when I gave Worden the command of the Monitor. I would make the appointment over again to-day. The Monitor should be in Hampton Roads now. She left New York eight days ago." After the captain had again presented what he considered the possibilities of failure, the President replied, "No, no. Captain, I respect your judgment, as you have reason to know, but this time you are all wrong, "The Monitor was one of my inspirations; I believed in her firmly when that energetic contractor first showed me Ericsson's plans. Captain Ericsson's plain but rather enthusiastic demonstration, made my con- version permanent. It was called a floating battery then; I called it a raft. I caught some of the inventor's 194 STORIES OF THE WAR. enthusiasm and it has been growing upon me, I thought then, and I am confident now, it is just what we want. I am sure that the Monitor is still afloat, and that she will yet give a good account of herself. Sometimes I think she may be the veritable sling with a stone that will yet smite the Merrimac Philistine in the forehead. ' ' Soon was the President's judgment verified, for the "Fight of the Monitor and Merrimac" changed all the conditions of naval warfare. After the victory was gained, the presiding Captain Fox and others went on board the Monitor, and Captain Worden was requested by the President to narrate the history of the encounter. Captain Worden did so in a modest manner, and apologized for not being able better to provide for his guests. The President smilingly responded: "Some uncharitable people say that old Bourbon is an indispensable element in the fighting qualities of some of our generals in the field, but. Captain, after the account that we have heard to-day, no one will say that any Dutch courage is needed on board the Monitor," "It never has been, sir," modestly observed the captain. Captain Fox then gave a description of what he saw of the engagement and described it as indescribably grand. Then, turning to the President, he continued, "Now, standing here on the deck of this battle-scarred vessel, the first genuine iron-clad — the victor in the first fight of iron-clads — let me make a confession, and perform an act of simple justice. "I never fully believed in armored vessels until 2 saw this battle. STORIES OF THE WAR. 195 "I know all the facts which united to give us the Monitor. I withhold no credit from Captain Ericsson, her inventor, but I know that the country is principally indebted for the construction of the vessel to President Lincoln, and for the success of her trial to Captain Worden, her commander. ' ' THAT SAVAGE DOG. When Hood's army had been scattered into frag- ments, Lincoln, elated by the defeat of what had so long been a menacing force on the borders of Tenn- essee, was reminded by its collapse of the fate of a savage dog belonging to one of his neighbors in the frontier settlements in which he lived in his youth. "The dog," he said, "was the terror of the neighbor- hood, and its owner, a churlish and quarrelsome fellow, took pleasure in the brute's forcible attitude. Finally, all ether means having failed to subdue the creature, a man loaded a lump of meat with a charge of powder, to which was attached a slow fuse ; this was dropped where the dreaded dog would find it, and the animal gulped down the tempting bit. There was a dull rumbling, a muffled explosion, and fragments of the dog were seen flying in every direction. The grieved owner, picking up the shattered remains of his cruel favorite, said: *He was a good dog, but as a dog, his days of usefulness are over.' Hood's army was a good army," said Lincoln, by way of comment, "and we were all afraid of it, but as an army, its usefulness is gone. * ' I9& STORIES OF THE WAR. "HELP ME LET THIS HOG GO." The terrible butchery at the battle of Fredericks- burg, made Lincoln almost broken-hearted. Governor Custer, of Pennsylvania, expressed his regrets that his description had so sadly affected the President. He remarked: "I would give all I possess to know how to rescue you from this terrible war." Then Mr. Lincoln's wonderful recuperative powers asserted themselves and this marvelous man was himself. Lincoln's whole aspect suddenly changed, and he relieved his mind by telling a story. "This reminds me, Governor," he said, "of an old farmer out in Illinois that I used to know. "He took it into his head to go into hog-raising. He sent out to Europe and imported the finest breed of hogs he could buy. "The prize hog was put in a pen, and the farmer's two mischievous boys, James and John, were told to be sure not to let it out. But James, the worst of the two, let the brute out the next day. The hog went straight for the boys, and drove John up a tree, then the hog went for the seat of James' trousers, and the only way the boy could save himself was by holding on to the hog's tail. "The hog would not give up his hunt, nor the boy his hold ! After they had made a good many circles around the tree, the boy's courage began to give out, and he shouted to his brother, 'I say, John, come down, quick, and help me let go this hog!' "Now, Governor, that is exactly my case. I wish some one would come and help me to let the hog go." THE FRETTING QUESTIONS OF EVEN A GREAT WAR SEEMED TO PERISH UNTIL "TAD" HAD COMPLETED HIS ROMP. STORIES OF THE WAR. 199 "GRANT'S WHISKY" THE RIGHT KIND. Just previous to the fall of Vicksburg a self-con- stituted committee, solicitous for the morals of out armies, took it upon themselves to visit the President and urge the removal of General Grant. In some surprise Mr. Lincoln inquired, "For what reason?" "Why," replied the spokesman, "he drinks too much whisky. ' ' "Ah!" rejoined Mr. Lincoln, dropping his lower lip, "by the way, gentlemen, can either of you tell me where General Grant procures his whisky? Because, if I can find out, I will send every general in the field a barrel of it!" BURNSIDE SAFEl Burnside was shut up in Knoxville, Tennessee, for a time, and there was great solicitude all over the country on his account, as his communications with the North were temporarily cut off. One day Washing- ton was startled. The long silence concerning Burn- side's movements was broken by an urgent call from him for succor. Lincoln, relieved by the news that Burnside was safe, at least, said that he was reminded of a woman who lived in a forest clearing in Indiana, her cabin surrounded by hazel bushes, in which some of her numerous flock of children were continually being lost; when she heard a squall from one of these in the distance, although she knew that the child was in danger, perhaps frightened by a rattlesnake, she would say, "Thank God! there's one ot my young ones that isn't lost." 200 STORIES OF THE WAR. LINCOLN AND LITTLE "TAD. 1 1( 'The day after the review of Burnside's division some photographers," says Mr. Carpenter, "came up to the White House to make some stereoscopic studies for me of the President's office. They requested a dark closet in which to develop the pictures, and with- out a thought that I was infringing upon anybody's rights, I took them to an unoccupied room of which little 'Tad' had taken possession a few days before, and with the aid of a couple of servants had fitted up a miniature theater, with stage, curtains, orchestra, stalls, parquet te and all. Knowing that the use required would interfere with none of his arrange- ments, I led the way to this apartment. "Everything went on well, and one or two pictures had been taken, when suddenly there was an uproar. The operator came back to the office and said that 'Tad' had taken great offense at the occupation of his room without his consent, and had locked the door, refusing all admission. "The chemicals had been taken inside, and there was no way of getting at them, he having carried off the key. In the midst of this conversation 'Tad' burst in, in a fearful passion. He laid all the blame upon me — said that I had no right to use his room, and the men should not go in even to get their things. He had locked the door and they should not go there again — 'they had no business in his room!' "Mr. Lincoln was sitting for a photograph, and was still in the chair. He said, very mildly, 'Tad, go and unlock the door. ' Tad went off muttering into his mother's room, refusing to obey. I followed him into STORIES OF THE WAR. 201 the oa:-' age, but no coaxing would pacify him. Upon niy" urn to the President I found him still patiently in the chair, from which he had not risen. He said : 'Has not the boy opened the door?' I replied that we . Jo nothing with him — he had gone off in a great ;^Ci. Mr. Lincoln's lips came together firmly, and ••^en, suddenly rising, he strode across the passage v/ith the air of one bent on punishment, and disap- peared in the domestic apartments. Directly he returned with the key to the theater, which he unlocked himself. " 'Tad,' said he, half apologetically, 'is a peculiar child. He was violently excited when I went to him. I said, "Tad, do you know that you are making your father a great deal of trouble?" He burst into tears, instantly giving me up the key.' " LET THE ELEPHANT ESCAPE. Mr. Dana relates the following: A certain Thomp- son had been giving the Government considerable trouble. Dana received information that Thompson was about to escape to Liverpool. Calling upon Stanton, Dana was referred to Mr. Lincoln. "The President was at the White House, business hours were over, Lincoln was washing his hands. 'Hallo, Dana,' said he, as I opened the door, 'what is it now?' 'Well, sir,* I said, 'here is the Provost Marshal of Portland, who reports that Jacob Thomp- son is to be in town to-night, and inquires what orders we have to give.' 'What does Stanton say?' he asked. 'Arrest him,' I replied. 'Well,' he continued, drawl- 202 STORIES OF THE WAR. ing his words, 'I rather guess not. When you have an elephant on your hands, and he wants to run away, better let him run.' " FRIGHT A CURE FOR BOILS. "Blair," said the President to his Postmaster- General, "did you ever know that fright has sometimes proven a cure for boils?" "No, Mr. President, how is that?" "I'll tell you. Not long ago, when Colonel , with his cavalry, was at the front, and the Rebs were making things rather lively for us, the colonel was ordered out to a reconnoissance. He was troubled at the time with a big boil where it made horseback riding decidedly uncomfortable. He finally dis- mounted and ordered the troops forward without him. Soon he was startled by the rapid reports of pistols, and the helter-skelter approach of his troops in full retreat before a yelling rebel force. He forgot every- thing but the yells, sprang into his saddle, and made capital time over the fences and ditches till safe within the lines. "The pain from his boil was gone, and the boil too, and the colonel swore that there was no cure for boils so sure as fright from rebel yells." BRIGADIER GENERALS MORE PLENTIFUL THAN HORSES. When Pesident Lincoln heard of the rebel raid at Fairfax, in which a brigadier-general and a number ot valuable horses were captured, he gravely observed: STORIES OF THE WAR. 203 "Well, I am sorry for the horses." "Sorry for the horses, Mr. President!" exclaimed the Secretary of War, raising his spectacles, and throwing himself back in his chair in astonishment. "Yes," replied Mr. Lincoln, "I can make a brigadier-general in five minutes, but it is not easy to replace a hundred and ten horses." "MASSA LINKUM" WORSHIPED BY THE NEGROES. In 1863, Colonel McKaye, of New York, with Robert Dale Owen and one or two other gentlemen, were associated as a committee to investigate the condition of the freedmen on the coast of North Carolina. Upon their return from Hilton Head they reported to the President, and in the course of the interview, Colonel McKaye related the following incident: He had been speaking of the ideas of power enter- tained by these people. He said they had an idea of God, as the Almighty, and they had realized in their former position the power of their masters. Up to the time of the arrival among them of the Union forces, they had no knowledge of any other power. Their masters fled upon the approach of our soldiers, and this gave the slaves a conception of a power greater than that exercised by them. This power they called * ' Massa Linkum. ' ' Colonel McKaye said their place of worship was a large building which they called "the praise house" ; and the leader of the meeting, a venerable black man, was known as "the praise man." On a certain day, when there was quite a large gathering of the people, 204 STORIES OP THE WAR. considerable confusion was created by different parsons attempting to tell who and what "Massa Linkum" was. In the midst of the excitement, the white-headed leader commanded silence. "Brederin," said he, "you don't know nosen' what you'se talkin' about. Now, you just listen to me. Massa Linkum, he eberywhar. He know eberyting." Then, solemnly looking up, he added, "He walk de earf like de Lord!" Colonel McKaye said that Mr. Lincoln seemed much affected by this account. He did not smile, as another man might have done, but got up from his chair and walked in silence two or three times across the floor. As he resumed his seat, he said, very impressively, "It is a momentous thing to be the instrument, under Providence, of the liberation of a race." THE COLORED PEOPLE OF RICHMOND HONOR LINCOLN. G. F. Shepley gives the following interesting reminiscence : "After Mr. Lincoln's interview with Judge Campbell, the President being about to return to the Wabash, I took him and Admiral Porter in my carriage. An immense concourse of colored people thronged the streets, accompanied and followed the carriage, calling upon the President with the wildest exclamations of gratitude and delight. "He was the Moses, the Messiah, to the slaves of the South. Hundreds of colored women tossed their hands high in the air and then bent down to the ground, weeping for joy. Some shouted songs of STORIES OF THE WAR. 205 deliverance, and sang the old plantation refrains, which prophesied the coming of a deliverer from bondage. 'God bless you, Father Abraham!' went up from a thousand throats. "Those only who have seen the paroxysmal enthu- siasm of a religious meeting of slaves can form an adequate conception of the way in which tears and smiles, and shouts of the emancipated people evinced the frenzy of their gratitude to their deliverer. He looked at all attentively, with a face expressive only of a sort of pathetic wonder. "Occasionally its sadness would alternate with one of his peculiar smiles, and he would remark on the great proportion of those whose color indicated a mixed lineage from the white master and the black slave; and that reminded him of some little story of his life in Kentucky, which he would smilingly tell ; and then his face would relapse again into that sad expression which all will remember who saw him during the last few weeks of the Rebellion. Perhaps it was a presenti- ment of his impending fate. "I accompanied him to the ship, bade him farewell and left him, to see his face no more. Not long after, the bullet of the assassin arrested the beatings of one of the kindest hearts that ever throbbed in human bosom. THE BITER BIT. The Governor-General, with some of his principal officers, visited Lincoln in the summer of 1864. They had been very troublesome in harboring blockade runners, and they were said to have carried on a large trade from their ports with the Confederates. 2o6 STORIES OF THE WAR. Lincoln treated his guests with great courtesy. After a pleasant interview, the Governor, alluding to the coming Presidential election, said jokingly, but with a grain of sarcasm, "I understand, Mr. President, that everybody votes in this country. If we remain imtil November, can we vote?" "You remind me," replied the President, "of a countryman of yours, a green emigrant from Ireland. Pat arrived on election day, and perhaps was as eager as your Excellency to vote and to vote early, and late and often. "So, upon landing at Castle Garden, he hastened to the nearest voting place, and, as he approached, the judge who received the ballots inquired, 'Who do you want to vote for? On which side are you?' Poor Pat was embarrassed, he did not know who were the candidates. He stopped, scratched his head, then, with the readiness of his countrymen, he said: " 'I am foment the Government, anyhow. Tell me, if your Honor plases, which is the rebellion side, and I'll tell you how I want to vote. In ould Ireland, I was always on the rebellion side, and, by Saint Patrick, I'll do that same in America.' Your Excellency," said Mr. Lincoln, "would, I should think, not be at all at a loss on which side to vote!" LINCOLN'S TENDERNESS. When Lincoln was on his way to the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, an old gentleman told him that his only son fell on Little Round Top at Gettys- burg, and he was going to look at the spot. STORIES OF THE WAR. 207 Mr. Lincoln replied: "You have been called on to make a terrible sacrifice for the Union, and a visit to that spot, I fear, will open your wounds afresh. "But, oh, my dear sir, if we had reached the end of such sacrifices, and had nothing left for us to do but to place garlands on the graves of those who have already fallen, we could give thanks even amidst our tears ; but when I think of the sacrifices of life yet to be offered, and the hearts and homes yet to be made desolate before this dreadful war is over, my heart is like lead within me, and I feel at times like hiding in deep darkness." At one of the stopping places of the train, a very beautiful little child, having a bunch of rosebuds in her hand, was lifted up to an open window of the President's car. "Floweth for the President." The President stepped to the window, took the rosebuds, bent down and kissed the child, saying: "You are a sweet little rosebud yourself. I hope your life will open into perpetual beauty and goodness." HOW LINCOLN PACIFIED DISAPPOINTED OFFICE SEEKERS. A gentleman states in a Chicago journal: "In the winter of 1864, after serving three years in the Union Army, and being honorably discharged, I made application for the post sutlership at Point Lookout. My father being interested, we made application to Mr. Stanton, then Secretary of War. "We obtained an audience, and were ushered into the presence of the most pompous man I ever met. As I entered he waved his hand for me to stop at a 2o8 STORIES OF THE WAR. given distance from him, and then put these questions, viz. : " 'Did you serve three years in the army?* "'I did, sir.' " 'Were you honorably discharged?* " 'I was, sir.' " 'Let me see your discharge.' "I gave it to him. He looked it over, then said: " 'Were you ever wounded?' "I told him yes, at the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1861. "He then said: *I think we can give this position to a soldier v/ho has lost an arm or leg, he being more deserving' ; and he then said I looked hearty and healthy enough to serve three years more. He would not give me a chance to argue my case. "The audience was at an end. He waved his hand to me. I was then dismissed from the august presence of the Honorable Secretary of War. "My father was waiting for me in the hallway, who saw by my countenance that I was not successful. I said to my father : " 'Let us go over to Mr. Lincoln; he may give us more satisfaction. ' "He said it would do me no good, but we went over. Mr. Lincoln's reception room was full of ladies and gentlemen when we entered, and the scene was one I shall never forget. "On her knees was a woman in the agonies of despair, with tears rolling down her cheeks, imploring for the life of her son, who had deserted and had been condemned to be shot. I heard Mr. Lincoln say : " 'Madam, do not act in this way, it is agony to me; STORIES OF THE WAR. 209 I would pardon your son if it was in my power, but there must be an example made or I will have no army. * "At this speech the woman fainted. Lincoln motioned to his attendant, who picked the woman up and carried her out. All in the room were in tears. "But now, changing the scene from the sublime to the ridiculous, the next applicant for favor was a big, buxom Irish woman, who stood before the President, with arms akimbo, saying: " 'Mr. Lincoln, can't I sell apples on the railroad?' "Lincoln said: 'Certainly, madam, you can sell all you wish.' "But she said: 'You must give me a pass, or the soldiers will not let me.' "Lincoln then wrote a few lines and gave it to her, who said: " 'Thank you, sir; God bless you.' "This shows how quick and clear were all this man's decisions. "I stood and watched him for two hours, and he dismissed each case as quickly as the above, with satisfaction to all. "My turn soon came. Lincoln turned to my father and said: " 'Now, gentlemen, be pleased to be as quick as possible with your business, as it is growing late. ' "My father then stepped up to Lincoln and intro- duced me to him. Lincoln then said: " 'Take a seat, gentlemen, and state your business as quickly as possible. ' "There was but one chair by Lincoln, so he motioned my father to sit, while I stood. My father stated the business to him as stated above. He then said : 2IO STORIES OF THE WAR. *' 'Have you seen Mr. Stanton?' "We told him yes, that he had refused. He (Mr. Lincoln) then said : " 'Gentlemen, this is Mr. Stanton's business; I can- not interfere with him; he attends to all these matters and I am sorry I cannot help you.' "He saw that we were disappointed, and did his best to revive our spirits. He succeeded well with my father, who was a Lincoln man, and who was a staunch Republican. "Mr. Lincoln then said: " 'Now, gentlemen, I will tell you what it is; I have thousands of applications like this every day, but we cannot satisfy all for this reason, that these positions are like office seekers — there are too many pigs for the tits. ' "The ladies who were listening to the conversation placed their handkerchiefs to their faces and turned away. But the joke of Old Abe put us all in a good humor. We then left the presence of the greatest and most just man who ever lived to fill the Presidential chair." LINCOLN'S GLIMPSE OF WAR. When Lincoln was in the White House he told this story : The only time he ever saw blood in this campaign, was one morning when, marching up a little valley that makes into the Rock River bottom, to reinforce a squad of outposts that were thought to be in danger, they came upon the tent occupied by the other party just at sunrise. The men had neglected to place any STORIES OF THE WAR. 211 guard at night, and had been slaughtered in their sleep. As the reinforcing party came up the slope on which the camp had been made, Lincoln saw them all lying with their heads towards the rising sun, and the round red spot that marked where they had been scalped gleamed more redly yet in the ruddy light of the sun. This scene years afterwards he recalled with a shudder. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND PASSES TO RICHMOND. A gentleman called upon President Lincoln before the fall of Richmond and solicited a pass for that place. "I should be very happy to oblige you," said the President, "if my passes were respected; but the fact is, I have, within the past two years, given passes to two hundred and fifty thousand men to go to Richmond and not one has got there yet. " THE SON OF LINCOLN DISPLAYS A REBEL FLAG. "One of the prettiest incidents in the closing days of the Civil War occurred when the troops 'marching home again' passed in grand form, if with well-worn uniforms and tattered bunting, before the White House," says Harper's Young People. "Naturally, an immense crowd had assembled on the streets, the lawns, porches, balconies, and windows, even those of the executive mansion itself being crowded to excess. A central figure was that of the President, Abraham Lincoln, who, with bared head, unfurled and waved our nation's flag in the midst of lusty cheers. ' ' But suddenly there was an unexpected sight. 212 STORIES OF THE WAR. *'A small boy leaned forward and sent streaming to the air the banner of the boys in gray. It was an old flag which had been captured from the Confederates, and which the urchin, the President's second son, Tad, had obtained possession of and considered an additional triumph to unfurl on this all-important day. "Vainly did the servant who had followed him to the window plead with him to desist. No, Master Tad, Pet of the White House, was not to be prevented from adding to the loyal demonstration of the hour. "To his surprise, however, the crowd viewed it differently. Had it floated from any other window in the capital that day, no doubt it would have been the target of contempt and abuse; but when the Presi- dent, understanding what had happened, turned, with a smile on his grand, plain face, and showed his approval by a gesture and expression, cheer after cheer rent the air. "It was, surely enough, the expression of peace and good-will which, of all our commanders, none was better pleased to promote than our commander-in- chief." LINCOLN FULFILLS HIS VOW. The following incident, remarkable for its significant facts, is related by Mr. Carpenter, the artist: "Mr. Chase," said Mr. Carpenter, "told me that at the Cabinet meeting immediately after the battle of Antietam and just prior to the issue of the Proclama- tion, the President entered upon the business before them, saying: " 'The time for the annunciation of the emancipa- STORIES OF THE WAR. 213 don proclamation could be no longer delayed. Public sentiment would sustain it— many of his warmest friends and supporters demanded it — and he had promised his God he would do it!' "The last part of this was uttered in a low tone, and appeared to be heard by no one but Secretary Chase, who was sitting near him. He asked the President if he correctly understood him. Mr. Lincoln replied: " 'I made a solemn vow before God that if General Lee was driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the Declaration of freedom to the slaves. ' "In February, 1865, a few days after the constitu- tional amendment, I went to Washington and was received by Mr. Lincoln with the kindness and famil- iarity which had characterized our previous intercourse. "I said to him at this time that I was very proud to have been the artist to have first conceived the design of painting a picture commemorative of the Act of the Emancipation; that subsequent occurrences had only confirmed my first judgment of that act as the most sublime moral event in our history. " 'Yes,' said he — and never do I remember to have noticed in him more earnestness of expression or manner — 'as affairs have turned, it is the central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century. ' ' ' "LET JEFF. ESCAPE, I DON'T WANT HIM." When Grant saw that Lee must soon capitulate, Grant asked the President whether he should try to capture Jeff. Davis, or let him escape from the country if he would. The President said : ai4 STORIES OF THE WAR. "About that, I told him the story of an Irishman, who had the pledge of Father Matthew. He became terribly thirsty, and applied to the bartender for a lemonade, and while it was being- prepared he whispered to him, 'And couldn't ye put a little brandy in it all unbeknown to myself?' I told Grant if he could let Jeff. Davis escape all unbeknown to him- self, to let him go, I didn't want him." THE COLORED PEOPLE'S NEW YEAR'S RECEPTION. The Presidential reception on New Year's day, 1865, was the occasion of a remarkable spectacle for Wash- ington, in the appearance of the colored people at the White House. They waited around until the crowd of white visitors diminished, when they made bold to enter the hall. Some of them were richly dressed, while others wore the garb of poverty; but alike intent on seeing the man who had set their nation free, they pressed forward, though with hesitation, into the presence of the President. Says an eye-witness: "For nearly two hours, Mr. Lincoln had been shaking hands with the 'sovereigns' and had become excessively weary and his grasp became languid; but here his nerves rallied at the unwonted sight, and he welcomed this motley crowd with a heartiness that made them wild with exceeding joy. They laughed and wept, and wept and laughed — exclaiming through their blinding tears, 'God bless you! God bless Abraham Lincoln! God bless Massa Linkum!' " STORIES OF THE WAR. 21/ DANGERS OF ASSASSINATION. The President said philosophically, "I long ago made up my mind that if anybody wants to kill me, he will do it. Besides, in this case, it seems to me, the man who would succeed me, would be just as objectionable to my enemies — if I have any. One dark night, as he was going out with a friend, he took along a heavy cane, remarking good-naturedly: "'Mother' (Mrs. Lincoln) has got a notion into her head that I shall be assassin- ated, and to please her I take a cane when 1 go over to the War Department at night — when I don't forget it." Mr. Nichols relates this thrilling incident: "One night I was doing sentinel duty, at the entrance to the Soldier's Home. This was about the middle of August, 1864. About eleven o'clock I heard a rifle shot, in the direction of the city, and shortly after- wards I heard approaching hoof beats. In two or three minutes a horse came dashing up. I recognized the belated President. The President was bareheaded. The President simply thought that his horse had taken fright at the discharge of the firearms. "On going back to the place where the shot had been heard, we found the President's hat. It was a plain silk hat, and upon examination we discovered a bullet hole through the crown. "The next day, upon receiving the hat, the Pres- ident remarked that it was made by some foolish marksman, and was not intended for him; but added, that he wished nothing said about the matter. ' ' ^i? STORIES OF THE WAR. INCIDENT IN LINCOLN'S LAST SPEECH. Edward, the conservative but dignified butler of the White House, was seen struggling with Tad and trying to drag him back from the window from which was waving a Confederate flag captured in some fight and given to the boy. Edward conquered and Tad, rush- ing to find his father, met him coming forward to make, as it proved, his last speech. The speech began with these words, "We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart." Having his speech written in loose leaves, and being compelled to hold a candle in the other hand, he would let the loose leaves drop to the floor one by one. Tad picked them up as they fell, and impatiently called for more as they fell from his father's hand. LINCOLN'S LAST AFTERNOON. During the afternoon the President signed a pardon for a soldier sentenced to be shot for desertion, remarking as he did so, "Well, I think the boy can do us more good above ground than under ground." He also approved an application for the discharge on taking the oath of allegiance, of a rebel prisoner, in whose petition he wrote, "Let it be done." This act of mercy was his last official order. FIRST READING OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION BEFORE THE CABINET SEPTEMBER 20. 1862 Miscellaneous Stories and Incidents. SONG COMPOSED BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Read in honor of his sister's wedding, and sung at that time by the Lincoln family : ADAM AND EVE's WEDDING SONG. When Adam was created, He dwelt in Eden's shade, As Moses has recorded, And soon a bride was made. Ten thousand times ten thousand Of creatures swarmed around Before a bride was formed. And yet no mate was found. The Lord then was not willing That man should be alone. And caused a sleep upon him, And from him took a bone. And closed the flesh instead thereof, And then he took the same 219 220 STORIES AND INCIDENTS And of it made a woman, And brought her to the man. Then Adam he rejoiced To see his loving bride, A part of his own body, The product of his side. The woman was not taken From Adam's feet, we see, So he must not abuse her. The meaning seems to be. The woman was not taken From Adam's head, we know, To show she must not rule him — 'Tis evidently so. The woman, she was taken From under Adam's arm. So she must be protected From injuries and harm. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LINCOLN IN A SINGLE PARAGRAPH. The compiler of the "Dictionary of Congress" states that, while preparing the work for publication in 1858, he sent to Mr. Lincoln the usual request for a sketch of his life, and received the following reply: "Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Ky. Education defective. Profession, a lawyer. Have STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 221 been ^ Captain of Volunteers in Black Hawk War. Postmaster at a very small office. Four times a mem- ber of the Illinois Legislature, and was a member of the Lower House of Congress." DEATH OF LINCOLN'S MOTHER. "A great man," says J. G. Holland, "never drew his infant life from a purer or more womanly bosom than her own ; and Mr. Lincoln always looked back to her with unspeakable alTection. Long after her sensitive heart and weary hand had crumbled into dust, and had climbed to life again in forest flowers, he said to a friend, with tears in his eyes: 'All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother — blessings on her memory!' " She was five feet and five inches high, a slender, a pale, sad, and sensitive woman, with much in her nature that was truly heroic, and much that shrank from the rude life around her. Her death occurred in 18 18, scarcely two years from her removal from Kentucky to Indiana, and when Abraham was in his tenth year. They laid her to rest under the trees near her cabin home, and, sitting on her grave, the little boy wept his irreparable loss. LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS BELIEF. Abraham Lincoln, says David P. Thompson, had the good fortune to be trained by a godly mother and step-mother. The two books which made the most impression on his character were the Bible and Weeni's "Life of Washington. " The former he read with such diligence that he knew it almost by heart, and the 222 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. words of Scripture became so much a part of his nature that he rarely made a speech or wrote a paper of any length without quoting its language or teachings. One of Mr. Lincoln's notable religious utterances was his reply to a deputation of colored people at Baltimore who presented him a Bible. He said: "In regard to the great book, I have only to say it is the best gift which God has ever given man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book. But for this book we could not know right from wrong. All those things desirable to man are contained in it. " Colonel Rusling overheard the following conversa- tion between President Lincoln and General Sickles, just after the victory of Gettysburg: "The fact is, General," said the President, "in the stress and pinch of the campaign there, I went to my room, and got down on my knees and prayed God Almighty for vic- tory at Gettysburg. I told Him that this was His country, and the war was His war, but that we really couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellors- ville. And then and there I made a solemn vow with my Maker that if He would stand by you, boys, at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him. And He did, and I will ! And after this I felt that God Almighty had taken the whole thing into His hands." Mr. Lincoln said all this with great solemnity. CONCERNING MR. LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS VIEWS. The Rev. Mr. Willets, of Brooklyn, gives an account of a conversation with Mr. Lincoln, on the part of a lady of his acquaintance connected with the "Christian STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 223 Commission," who, in the prosecution of her duties, had several interviews with him. The President, it seemed, had been much impressed v/ith the devotion and earnestness of purpose mani- fested by the lady, and on one occasion, after she had discharged the object of her visit, he said to her: "Mrs. , I have formed a high opinion of your Christian character, and now, as we are alone, I have a mind to ask you to give me in brief your idea of what constitutes a true religious experience." The lady replied at some length, stating that, in her judgment, it consisted of a conviction of one's own sinfulness and weakness, and a personal need of the Savior for strength and support ; that views of mere doctrine might and would differ, but when one was really brought to feel his need of divine help, and to seek the aid of the Holy Spirit for strength and guid- ance, it was satisfactory evidence of his having been born again. This was the substance of her reply. When she had concluded Mr. Lincoln was very thoughtful for a few moments. He at length said, very earnestly: "If what you have told me is really a correct view of this great subject, I think I can say with sincerity that I hope I am a Christian. I had lived," he continued, "until my boy Willie died with- out fully realizing these things. That blow over- whelmed me. It showed me my weakness as I had never felt it before, and if I can take what you have stated as a test, I think I can safely say that I know something of that change of which you speak ; and I will further add, that it has been my intention for some time, at a suitable opportunity, to make a public religious profession." i24 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. LINCOLN'S RELIGION. He once remarked to a friend that his religion was like that of an old man named Glenn, in Indiana, whom he heard speak at a church meeting, and wno said, "When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad; and that's my religion." Mrs. Lincoln herself has said that Mr. Lincoln had no faith — no faith, in the usual acceptance of those words. "He never joined a church; but still, as I believe, he was a religious man by nature. He first seemed to think about the subject when our boy Willie died, and then more than ever about the time he went to Gettysburg; but it was a kind of poetry in his nature, and he never was a technical Christian." LINCOLN'S DEFINITION OF BIOGRAPHY. Lincoln had been reading a few pages of the life of Edmund Burke, when, throwing it on the table, he exclaimed, "No, sir, I've read enough of it. It's like all the others. Biographies as generally written are not only misleading, but false. "The author of that Life of Burke makes a wonder- ful hero out of his subject. He magnifies his perfec- tions, and suppresses his imperfections. He is so faithful in his zeal, and so lavish in his praise of his every act, that one is almost driven to believe that Burke never made a mistake or failure in his life." He lapsed into a brown study, but presently broke out again: "Bill}% I've wondered why book publishers and merchants don't have blank biographies on their shelves, always ready for an emergency ; so that if a STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 225 man happens to die, his heirs or his friends, if they wish to perpetuate his memory, can purchase one already written, but with blanks. These blanks they can fill up at their pleasure with rosy sentences full of high-sounding praise. In most instances they com- memorate a lie, and cheat posterity out of the truth." This emphatic avowal of sentiment from Mr. Lin- coln not only fixes his estimate of ordinary biography, but was his vindication in advance, when assailed for telling the truth. LINCOLN'S FAVORITE POEM. oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? "The evening of March 22d, 1864," says F. B. Car- penter, "was a most interesting one to me. I was with the President alone in his office for several hours. Busy with pen and papers when I went in, he presently threw them aside and commenced talking to me of Shakespeare, of whom he was very fond. Little 'Tad,' his son, coming in, he sent to the library for a copy of the plays, and then read to me several of his favorite passages. Relapsing into a sadder strain, he laid the book aside, and, leaning back in his chair, said: " 'There is a poem which has been a great favorite with me for years, which was first shown to me when a young man by a friend, and which I afterward saw and cut from a newspaper and learned by heart. I would,' he continued, 'give a great deal to know who wrote it, but I have never been able to ascertain.' Then, half-closing his eyes, he repeated the verses to me, as follows: 226 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. "Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?— Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave. He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. "The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, Be scattered around, and together be laid ; And the young and the old, and the low and the high. Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie. "The infant a mother attended and loved; The mother, that infant's affection who proved. The husband, that mother and infant who blessed — Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. "The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye, Shone beauty and pleasure — her triumphs are by ; And the memory of those who loved her and praised, Are alike from the minds of the living erased. "The hand of the king, that the sceptre hath borne, The brow of the priest, that the mitre hath worn. The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave. Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. "The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap, The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep. The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread. Have faded away like the grass that we tread. STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 227 "The saint, who enjoyed the communion of heaven, The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven, The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. ' * So the multitude goes — like the flower or the weed, That withers away to let others succeed ; So the multitude comes — even those we behold, To repeat every tale that has often been told: *'For we are the same our fathers have been; We see the same sights our fathers have seen ; We drink the same stream, we view the same sun. And run the same course our fathers have run. "The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think ; From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink ; To the life we are clinging, they also would cling — But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing. "They loved — but the story we cannot unfold; They scorned — but the heart of the haughty is cold; They grieved — but no wail from their slumber will come; They joyed — but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. "They died — aye, they died — and we things that are now, That walk on the turf that lies o'er their brow, And make in their dwellings a transient abode. Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. 328 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. "Yea! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, Are mingled together in sunshine and rain ; And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge. Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. " 'Tis the wink of an eye, — 'tis the draught of a breath ; From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud : — Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" (This poem was written by Wm. Knox, a Scotch- man.) HENRY J. RAYMOND'S REMINISCENCES OF LINCOLN. HIS HUMOR, SHREWDNESS AND SENTIMENT. It has been well said by a profound critic of Shakes- peare, and it occurs to me as very appropriate in this connection, that "the spirit which held the woe of Lear and the tragedy of Hamlet would have broken had it not also had the humor of the Merry Wives of Windsor and the merriment of the Midsummer Night's Dream. " This is as true of Mr. Lincoln as it was of Shakespeare. The capacity to tell and enjoy a good anecdote no doubt prolonged his life. I have often heard this asserted by one of his most intimate friends. And the public impression of his fecundity in this respect was not exaggerated. Mr. Beecher once observed to me of his own wealth of illustration, that he "thought in figures," or, in other words, that an argument habitu- STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 229 ally took on that form in his mind. This was pre- eminently true of Mr. Lincoln. The "points" of his argument were driven home in this way as they could be in no other. In the social circle this characteristic had full play. I never knew him to sit down with a friend for a five minutes' chat, without being "reminded" of one or more incidents about somebody alluded to in the course of the conversation. In a corner of his desk he kept a copy of the latest humor- ous work; and it was frequently his habit, when greatly fatigued, annoyed, or depressed, to take this up and read a chapter, with great relief. The Saturday evening before he left Washington to go to the front, just previous to the capture of Rich- mond, I was with him from seven o'clock till nearly twelve. It had been one of his most trying days. The pressure of office-seekers was greater at this juncture than I ever knew it to be, and he was almost worn out. Among the callers that evening was a party composed of two senators, a representative, an ex-lieutenant- governor of a Western State, and several private citizens. They had business of great importance, involving the necessity of the President's examination of voluminous documents. Pushing everything aside, he said to one of the party: "Have you seen the Nasby papers?" "No, I have not," was the reply; "who is Nasby?" "There is a chap out in Ohio," returned the Presi- dent, "who has been writing a series of letters in the newspapers over the signature of Petroleum V. Nasby. Some one sent me a pamphlet collection of them the other day. I am going to write to 'Petroleum' to come down here, and I intend to tell him if he will com- 230 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. municate his talent to me, I will swap places with him!" Thereupon he arose, went to a drawer in his desk, and, taking out the "Letters," sat down and read one to the company, finding in their enjoyment of it the temporary excitement and relief which another man would have found in a glass of wine. The instant he had ceased, the book was thrown aside, his countenance relapsed into its habitual serious expression, and the business was entered upon with the utmost earnest- ness. Just here, I may say with propriety, and I feel that it is due to Mr, Lincoln's memory to state, that, dur- ing the entire period of my sta}^ in Washington, after witnessing his intercourse with almost all classes of people, including governors, senators, members of Con- gress, officers of the army, and familiar friends, I can- not recollect to have ever heard him relate a circumstance to any one of them all that would have been out of place uttered in a ladies' drawing-room ! I am aware that a different impression prevails, founded, it may be, in some instances upon facts; but where there is one fact of the kind I am persuaded that there are forty falsehoods, at least. At any rate, what I have stated is voluntary testimony, from a standpoint, I submit, entitled to respectful considera- tion. Among his stories freshest in my mind, one which he related to me shortly after its occurrence belongs to the history of the famous interview on boai"d the River Queen, at Hampton Roads, between himself and Secretary Seward, and the rebel Peace Commis- sioners. It was reported at the time that the President STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 231 told a "little story" on that occasion, and the inquiry- went around among" the newspapers, "What was it?" The New York Herald published what purported to be a version of it, but the "point" was entirely lost, and it attracted no attention. Being in Washington a few days subsequent to the interview with the Commis- sioners (my previous sojourn there having terminated about the first of last August), I asked Mr. Lincoln, one day, if it was true that he told Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell a story. "Why, yes," he replied, mani- festing some surprise, "but has it leaked out? I was in hopes nothing would be said about it, lest some oversensitive people should imagine there was a degree of levity in the intercourse between us." He then went on to relate the circumstances which called it out. "You see," said he, "we had reached and were dis- cussing the slavery question. Mr. Hunter said, sub- stantially, that the slaves, always accustomed to an overseer, and to work upon compulsion, suddenly freed, as they would be if the South should consent to peace on the basis of the 'Emancipation Proclama- tion,' would precipitate not only themselves, but the entire Southern society, into irremediable ruin. No work would be done, nothing would be cultivated, and both blacks and whites would starve!" Said the President: "I waited for Seward to answer that argument, but as he was silent, I at length said : 'Mr. Hunter, you ought to know a great deal better about this argument than I, for you have always lived under the slave system. I can only say, in reply to your statement of the case, that it reminds me of a man out in Illinois, by the name of Case, who under- 232 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. took, a few years ago, to raise a very large herd of hogs. It was a great trouble to feed them, and how to get around this was a puzzle to him. At length he hit on the plan of planting an immense field of potatoes, and, when they were sufficiently grown, he turned the whole herd into the field, and let them have full swing, thus saving not only the labor of feeding the hogs, but also that of digging the potatoes! Charmed with his sagacity, he stood one day leaning against the fence, counting his hogs, when a neighbor came along. "Well, well," said he; "Mr. Case, this is all very fine. Your hogs are doing very well just now, but you know out here in Illinois the frost comes early, and the ground freezes for a foot deep. Then what are you going to do?" This was a view of the matter which Mr. Case had not taken into account. Butchering-time for hogs was 'way on in December or January! He scratched his head, and at length stammered, "Well, it may come pretty hard on their snouts, but I don't see but that it will be 'root, hog, or die' !" ' " IMPORTANT LETTER FROM J. WILKES BOOTH. His original purpose was to take Mr. Lincoln prisoner. — His reasons for his action. {From the Philadelphia Press, April ig.) We have just received the following letter, written by John Wilkes Booth, and placed by him in the hands of his brother-in-law, J. S. Clark. It was written by him in November last, and left with J. S. Clark in a sealed envelope, and addressed to himself in his own STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 233 handwriting. In the same envelope were some United States bonds and oil stocks. This letter was opened by Mr. Clark for the first time on Monday last, and immediately handed by him to Marshall Milward, who has kindly placed it in our hands. Most unmistakably it proves that he must for many months have contem- plated seizing the person of the late President. It is, however, doubtful whether he imagined the black deed which has plunged the nation into the deepest gloom, and at the same time awakened it to a just and righteous indignation: , , 1864. My Dear Sir : You may use this as you think best. But as some may wish to know when, who, and why, and as I do not know how to direct it, I give it (in the words of your master) : "to whom it may concern." Right or wrong, God judge me, not man. For be my motive good or bad, of one thing I am sure, the lasting condemnation of the North. I love peace more than life. Have loved the Union beyond expression. For four years I have waited, hoped, and prayed for the dark clouds to break, and for a restoration of our former sunshine. To wait longer would be a crime. All hope for peace is dead. My prayers have proved as idle as my hopes. I go to see and share the bitter end. I have ever held that the South were right. The very nomination of Abraham Lincoln, four years ago, spoke plainly war — war upon the Southern rights and institutions. His election proved it. "Await an 234 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. overt act." Yes; till you are bound and plundered What folly! The South were wise. Who thinks o't argument or patience when the finger of his enemy presses on the trigger? In a foreign war, I, too, could say, "Country, right or wrong." But in a struggle such as ours (where the brother tries to pierce the brother's heart), for God's sake choose the right. When a country like this spurns justice from her side, she forfeits the allegiance of every honest freeman, and should leave him, untrammelled by any fealty soever, to act as his conscience may approve. People of the North, to hate tyranny, to love liberty and justice, to strike at wrong and oppression, was the teaching of our fathers. The study of our early history will not let me forget it, and may it never. This country was formed for the white, not for the black man. And, looking upon African slavery from the same standpoint held by the noble framers of our Constitution, I, for one, have ever considered it one of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us) that God ever bestowed upon a favored nation. Witness heretofore our wealth and power; witness their eleva tion and enlightenment above their race elsewhere I have lived among it most of my life, and have seen less harsh treatment from master to man than I have beheld in the North from father to son. Yet, heaven knows, no one would be willing to do more for the negro race than I, could I but see a way to still better their condition. But Lincoln's policy is only preparing the way for their total annihilation. The South are not, nor have they been, fighting for the continuance of slavery. STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 235 The first battle of Bull Run did away with that idea. Their causes since for war have been as noble and greater far than those that urged our fathers on. Even should we allow that they were wrong they now become the right, and they stand (before the wonder and admiration of the world) as a noble band of patriotic heroes. Hereafter, reading of their deeds, Thermopylae will be forgotten. When I aided in the capture and execution of John Brown (who was a murderer on our western border, and who was fairly tried and convicted, before an impartial judge and jury, of treason, and who, by-the- way, has since been made a god), I was proud of my little share in the transaction, for I deemed it my duty, and that I was helping our common country to per- form an act of justice. But what was a crime in poor John Brown is now considered (by themselves) as the greatest and only virtue of the whole Republican party. Strange transmigration! Vice to become a virtue simply because more indulge in it! I thought then, as now, that the Abolitionists were the only traitors in the land, and that the entire party deserved the same fate as poor old Brown ; not because they wish to abolish slavery, but on account of the means they have ever endeavored to use to effect that abolition. If Brown were living, I doubt whether he himself would set slavery against the Union. Most, or many in the North do, and openly curse the Union if the South are to return and retain a single right guaranteed to them by every tie which we once revered as sacred. The South can make no choice. It is either extermination or slavery for themselves (worse than death) to draw from. I know my choice. 236 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. I have also studied hard to discover upon what grounds the right of a State to secede has been denied, when our very name, United States, and the Declara- tion of Independence, both provide for secession. But there is no time for words. I write in haste. I know how foolish I shall be deemed for undertaking such a step as this, where, on one side, I have many friends and everything to make me happy, where my profes- sion alone has gained me an income of more than twenty thousand dollars a year, and where my great personal ambition in my profession has such a great field for labor. On the other hand, the South has never bestowed upon me one kind word ; a place now where I have no friends, except beneath the sod; a place where I must either become a private soldier or a beggar. To give up all of the former for the latter, besides my mother and sisters, whom I love so dearly (although they so widely differ from me in opinion), seems insane; but God is my judge. I love justice more than I do a country that disowns it ; more than fame and wealth; more, (Heaven pardon me if wrong), more than a happy home. I have never been upon a battle-field; but oh! my countrymen, could you all but see the reality or effects of this horrid war as I have seen them (in every State, save Virginia), I know you would think, like me, and would pray the Almighty to create in the Northern mind a sense of right and justice (even should it possess no seasoning of mercy), and that He would dry up this sea of blood between us, which is daily growing wider. Alas, poor country! is she to meet her threatened doom? Four years ago I would have given a thousand lives to see her remain (as 1 had always known her) powerful and unbroken. STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 237 And even now I would hold my life as naught to see her what she was. Oh, my friends, if the fearful scenes of the past four years had never been enacted, or if what has been had been but a frightful dream, from which we could now awake, with what overflow- ing hearts we could bless our God and pray for His con- tinued favor ! How I have loved the old flag can never now be known. A few years since, and the entire world could boast of none so pure and spotless. But I have of late been seeing and hearing of the bloody deeds of which she has been made the emblem, and would shudder to think how changed she had grown. Oh, how I have longed to see her break from the mist of blood and death that circles round her folds, spoil- ing her beauty and tarnishing her honor! But, no, day by day has she been dragged deeper and deeper into cruelty and oppression, till now (in my eyes) her once bright red stripes look like bloody gashes on the face of heaven. I look now upon my early admiration of her glories as a dream. My love (as things stand to-day) is for the South alone. Nor do I deem it a dis- honor in attempting to make for her a prisoner of this man, to whom she owes so much of misery. If suc- cess attend me, I go penniless to her side. They say she has found that "last ditch" which the North have so long derided and been endeavoring to force her in, forgetting they are our brothers, and that it is impoli- tic to goad an enemy to madness. Should I reach her in safety, and find it true, I will proudly beg permis- sion to triumph or die in that same "ditch" by her side. A Confederate doing duty upon his own responsi- bility, J. Wilkes Booth. ajS STORIES AND INCIDENTS. WALT WHITMAN'S VIVID DESCRIPTION OF LIN- COLN'S ASSASSINATION. The day (April 14, 1865) seems to have been a pleasant one throughout the whole land — the moral atmosphere pleasant, too — the long storm, so dark, so fratricidal, full of blood and doubt and gloom, over and ended at last by the sunrise of such an absolute national victory, and utter breaking down of secession- ism — we almost doubted our senses! Lee had capitu- lated, beneath the apple tree at Appomattox. The other armies, the flanges of the revolt, swiftly followed. And could it really be, then? Out of all the affairs of this world of woe and passion, of failure and disor- der and dismay, was there really come the confirmed, unerring sign of peace, like a shaft of pure light — of rightful rule — of God? But I must not dwell on accessories. The deed hastens. The popular afternoon paper, the little Evening Star, had scattered all over its third page, divided among the advertisements in a sensational manner in a hundred different places: "The President and his lady will be at the theater this evening." Lincoln was fond of the theater. I have myself seen him there several times. I remember thinking how funny it was that he, the leading actor in the greatest and stormiest drama known to real history's stage, through centuries, should sit there and be so com- pletely interested in those human jackstraws, moving about with their silly little gestures, foreign spirit, and flatulent text. So the day, as I say, was propitious. Early herbage, early flowers, were out. I remember where I was STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 239 stopping at the time, the season being advanced, there were many lilacs in full bloom. By one of those caprices that enter and give tinge to events without being a part of them, I find myself always reminded of the great tragedy of this day by the sight and odor of these blossoms. It never fails. HOUSE IN WHICH LINCOLN DIED, WASHINGTON, D, C, On this occasion the theater was crowded, many ladies in rich and gay costumes, officers in their uni- forms, many well-known citizens, young folks, the usual cluster of gas lights, the usual magnetism of so many people, cheerful with perfumes, music of violins and flutes — and over all, that saturating, that vast, vague wonder. Victory, the nation's victory, the triumph of the Union, filling the air, the thought, the sense, with exhilaration more than all the perfumes 240 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. The President came betimes, and, with his wife, witnessed the play from the large stage boxes of the second tier, two thrown into one, and profusely draped with the national flag. The acts and scenes of the piece — one of those singularly witless compositions which have at the least the merit of giving entire relief to an audience engaged in mental action or busi- ness excitements and cares during the day, as it makes not the slightest call on either the moral, emotional, esthetic or spiritual nature — a piece ("Our American Cousin") in which, among other characters so called, a Yankee, certainly such a one as was never seen, or at least like it ever seen in North America, is introduced in England, with a varied fol-de-rol of talk, plot, scenery, and such phantasmagoria as goes to make up a modern popular drama — had progressed perhaps through a couple of its acts, when, in the midst of this comedy, or tragedy, or non-such, or whatever it is to be called, and to offset it, or finish it out, as if in Nature's and the Great Muse's mockery of these poor mimics, comes interpolated that scene, not really or exactly to be described at all (for on the many hundreds who were there it seems to this hour to have left little but a passing blur, a dream, a blotch) — and yet partially described as I now proceed to give it: There is a scene in the play, representing the mod- ern parlor, in which two unprecedented ladies are informed by the unprecedented and impossible Yankee that he is not a man of fortune, and therefore undesir- able for marriage-catching purposes ; after which, the comments being finished, the dramatic trio make exit, leaving the stage clear for a moment. STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 241 There was a pause, a hush, as it were. At this period came the death of Abraham Lincoln. Great as that was, with all its manifold train circling around it, and stretching into the future for many a century, in the politics, history, art, etc., of the New World, in point of fact, the main thing, the actual murder, transpired with the quiet and simplicity of any commonest occurrence — the bursting of a bud or pod in the growth of vegetation, for instance. Through the general hum following the stage pause, with the change of positions, etc., came the muffled sound of a pistol shot, which not one-hundredth part of the audience heard at the time — and yet a moment's hush — somehow, surely a vague, startled thrill — and then, through the ornamented, draperied, starred and striped space-way of the President's box, a sudden figure, a man, raises himself with hands and feet, stands a moment on the railing, leaps below to the stage (a distance, perhaps, of fourteen or fifteen feet), falls out of position, catching his boot-heel in the copious drapery (the American flag), falls on one knee, quickly recovers himself, rises as if nothing had hap- pened (he really sprains his ankle, unfelt then) — and the figure. Booth, the murderer, dressed in plain black broadcloth, bareheaded, with a full head of glossy, raven hair, and his eyes, like some mad animal's, flash- ing with light and resolution, yet with a certain strange calmness, holds aloft in one hand a large knife — walks along not much back of the footlights — turns fully towards the audience his face of statuesque beauty, lit by those basilisk eyes, flashing with desperation, per- haps insanity — launches oiit in a firm and steady voice the words, "Sic semper tyrannis" — and then walks 242 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. with neither slow nor very rapid pace diagonally across to the back of the stage, and disappears. (Had not all this terrible scene — making the mimic ones preposterous — had it not all been rehearsed, in blank, by Booth, beforehand?) A moment's hush, incredulous — a scream — a cry of murder — Mrs. Lincoln leaning out of the box, with LINCOLN'S DEATH. ashy cheeks and lips, with involuntary cry, pointing to the retreating figure, "He has killed the President!" And still a moment's strange, incredulous suspense — and then the deluge! — then that mixture of horror, noises, imcertainty — the sound, somewhere back, of a horse's hoofs clattering with speed — the people burst through chairs and railings, and break them up — that noise adds to the queerness of the scene — there is STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 243 inextricable confusion and terror — women faint — quite feeble persons fall, and are trampled on — many cries of agony are heard — the broad stage suddenly fills to suffocation with a dense and motley crowd, like some horrible carnival — the audience rush generally upon it — at least the strong men do — the actors and actresses are there in their play costumes and painted faces, with mortal fright showing through the rouge — some trembling, some in tears — the screams and calls, con- fused talk — redoubled, trebled — two or three manage to pass up water from the stage to the President's box, others try to clamber up, etc., etc. In the midst of all this the soldiers of the President's Guard, with others, suddenly drawn to the scene, burst in — some 200 altogether — they storm the house, through all the tiers, especially the upper ones — inflamed with fury, literally charging the audience with fixed bayonets, muskets and pistols, shouting, "Clear out! clear out! you sons of b !" Such a wild scene, or a suggestion of it rather, inside the playhouse that night! Outside, too, in the atmosphere of shock and craze, crowds of people filled with frenzy, ready to seize any outlet for it, came near committing murder several times on innocent individuals. One such case was particularly exciting. The infuriated crowd, through some chance, got started against one man, either for words he uttered, or per- haps without any cause at all, and were proceeding to hang him at once to a neighboring lamp-post, when he was rescued by a few heroic policemen, who placed him in their midst and fought their way slowly and amid great peril toward the station-house. 244 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. It was a fitting episode of the whole affair. The crowd rushing and eddying to and fro, the night, the yells, the pale faces, many frightened people trying in vain to extricate themselves, the attacked man, not yet freed from the jaws of death, looking like a corpse; the silent, resolute half-dozen policemen, with no weapons but their little clubs; yet stern and steady through all those eddying swarms; made, indeed, a fitting side scene to the grand tragedy of the murder. They gained the station-house with the protected man, whom they placed in security for the night, and dis- charged in the morning. And in the midst of that night pandemonium of senseless hate, infuriated soldiers, the audience and the crowd — the stage, and all its actors and actresses, its paint pots, spangles, gas-light — the life-blood from those veins, the best and sweetest of the land, drips slowly down, and death's ooze already begins its little bubbles on the lips. Such, hurriedly sketched, were the accompaniments of the death of President Lincoln. So suddenly, and in murder and horror unsurpassed, he was taken from us. But his death was painless. REWARD OFFERED BY SECRETARY STANTON. War Department, Washington, April 20, 1865. Maj.-Gen. John A. Dix, New York: The murderer of our late beloved President, Abra- ham Lincoln, is still at large. Fifty thousand dollars reward will be paid by this Department for his appre- hension in addition to any reward offered by municipal authorities or State Executives. STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 245 Twenty-five thousand dollars reward will be paid for the apprehension of G, A. Atzerodt, sometimes called "Port Tobacco, " one of Booth's accomplices. Twenty- five thousand dollars reward will be paid for the appre- hension of David C. Harold, another of Booth's accomplices. A liberal reward will be paid for any information that shall conduce to the arrest of either the above-named criminals or their accomplices. All persons harboring or secreting the said persons, or either of them, or aiding or assisting their concealment or escape, will be treated as accomplices in the murder of the President and the attempted assassination of the Secretary of State, and shall be subject to trial before a military commission, and the punishment of death. Let the stain of innocent blood be removed from the land by the arrest and punishment of the murderers. All good citizens are exhorted to aid public justice on this occasion. Every man should consider his own conscience charged with this solemn duty, and rest neither night nor day until it be accomplished. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. INDICTMENT OF THE CONSPIRATORS— CHARGES AND SPECIFICATIONS. The following is a copy of the charges and specifica- tions against David E. Harold, George A, Atzerodt, Lewis Payne, Michael O'Laughlin, John H. Surratt, Edward Spangler, Samuel Arnold, Mary E. Surratt, and Samuel Mudd: Charge ist. — For maliciously, unlawfully, and traitor- ously, and in aid of the existing armed rebellion against 246 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. the United States of America, on or before the 6th day of March, A. D. 1865, and on divers other days between that day and the 15th day of April, 1865, com- bining, confederating, and conspiring together witli one John H. Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, Jefferson Davis, George N. Saunders, Beverley Tucker, Jacob Thompson, William C. Cleary, Clement C. Clay, George Harper, George Young, and others unknown, to kill and murder within the Military Department of Washington, and within the fortified and intrenched lines thereof, Abraham Lincoln, who, at the time of said combining, confederating, and conspiring, was President of the United States of America and Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy thereof; Andrew Johnson, now Vice-President of the United States as aforesaid, William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States aforesaid, and Ulysses S. Grant, Lieutenant-General of the Army of the United States aforesaid, then in command of the armies of the United States, under the direction of the said Abraham Lincoln, and in pursuance of, and in prosecuting said malicious,unlawful, and traitorous conspiracy aforesaid, and in aid of said rebellion, afterwards, to-wit : On the 14th day of April, 1865, within the Military Department of Washington aforesaid, and within the fortified and intrenched lines of said Military Department, together with said John Wilkes Booth and John H. Surratt, maliciously, unlawfully, and traitorously murdering the said Abraham Lincoln, then President of the United States, and Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, as aforesaid, and ma- liciously, unlawfully, and traitorously assaulting, with intent to kill and murder, the said William H. Seward, STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 247 then Secretary of State of the United States as afore- said, and lying in wait with intent, maUciously, unlaw- fully, and traitorously, to kill and murder the said Andrew Johnson, then being Vice-President of the United States, and the said Ulysses S. Grant, then being Lieutenant-General and in command of the armies of the United States aforesaid. Specification ist. — In this that they, the said David E. Harold, Edward Spangler, Lewis Payne, John H. Surratt, Michael O'Laughlin, Samuel Arnold, Mary E. Surratt, George A. Atzerodt, and Samuel A. Mudd, incited and encouraged thereunto by Jefferson Davis, George N. Saunders, Beverley Tucker, Jacob Thomp- son, William C. Cleary, Clement C. Clay, George Harper, George Young, and others unknown, citizens of the United States aforesaid, and who were then engaged in armed rebellion against the United States of America, within the limits thereof, did, in aid of said armed rebellion, on or before the 6th day of March, A. D. 1865, and on divers other days and times between that day and the 15th day of April, A. D. 1865, combine, confederate, and conspire together at Washington City, within the Military Department of Washington, and within the intrenched fortifications and military lines of the said United States, there being, imlawfully, maliciously, and traitorously, to kill and murder Abraham Lincoln, then President of the United States aforesaid, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, and unlawfully, maliciously, and traitorously, to kill and murder Andrew Johnson, now Vice-President of the said United States, upon whom, on the death of said Abraham Lincoln, after the 4th day of March, 248 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. A. D. 1865, the office of President of the said United States, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, would devolve, and to unlawfully, maliciously, and traitorously kill and murder Ulysses S. Grant, then Lieutenant-General, and under the direction of the said Abraham Lincoln, in command of the armies of the United States aforesaid, and unlaw- fully, maliciously, and traitorously to kill and murder William H. Seward, then Secretary of State of the United States aforesaid, whose duty it was by law, upon the death of said President and Vice-President of the United States aforesaid, to cause an election to be held for electors of President of the United States; the conspirators aforesaid designing and intending by the killing and murder of the said Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and William H. Seward as aforesaid, to deprive the Army and Navy of the said United States of a Constitutional Commander- in-Chief, and to deprive the armies of the United States of their lawful commander, and to prevent a lawful election of President and Vice-President of the United States, aforesaid ; and by the means aforesaid to aid and comfort the insurgents engaged in armed rebellion against the said United States as aforesaid, and thereby aid in the subversion and overthrow of the Constitution and the laws of the United States; and being so com- bined, confederated, and conspiring together in the pros- ecution of said unlawful and traitorous conspiracy on the night of the 14th day of April, A. D. 1865, at the hour of about ten o'clock and fifteen minutes p. m., at Ford's Theater, on Tenth Street, in the City of Wash- ington, and within the Military Department and mili- tary lines aforesaid, John Wilkes Booth, one of the STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 249 conspirators aforesaid, in pursuance of said unlawful and traitorous conspiracy, did then and there, un- lawfully, maliciously, and traitorously, and with intent to kill and murder the said Abraham Lincoln, discharge a pistol then held in the hands of him, the said Booth, the same being then loaded with powder and leaden ball, against and upon the left and posterior side of the head of the said Abraham Lincoln, and did thereby then and there inflict upon him, the said Abraham Lincoln, then President of the said United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, a mortal wound, whereof afterwards, to-wit: on the 15th day of April, A, D. 1865, at Washington City aforesaid, the said Abraham Lincoln died, and thereby then and there, and in pursuance of said conspiracy, the said defend- ant and the said John Wilkes Booth did unlaw- fully, traitorously, and maliciously, with the intent to aid the rebellion, as aforesaid, kill and murder the said Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, as aforesaid, and in further prosecution of the unlawful and traitorous conspiracy afore- said, and of the murderous and traitorous intent of said conspiracy, the said Edward Spangler, on the said 14th day of April, A. D. 1865, at about the same hour of that day, as aforesaid, within said Mili- tary Department and military lines aforesaid, did aid and assist the said John Wilkes Booth to obtain an entrance to the box in the said theater in which the said Abraham Lincoln was sitting at the time he was assaulted and shot as aforesaid by John Wilkes Booth ; and also did then and there aid said Booth in barring and obstructing the door of the box of said theater so 250 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. as to hinder and prevent any assistance to or rescue of the said Abraham Lincoln, against the murderous assault of the said John Wilkes Booth, and did aid and abet him in making his escape after the said Abraham Lincoln had been murdered in the manner aforesaid: and in further prosecution of said unlawful, murder- ous, and traitorous conspiracy, and in pursuance there- of and with the intent as aforesaid, the said David E. Harold did, on the 14th day of April, A. D. 1865, within the Military Department and military lines aforesaid, aid and abet, and assist the said John Wilkes Booth in the killing and murder of the said Abraham Lincoln, and did then and there aid and abet and assist him, the said John Wilkes Booth, in attempting to escape through the military lines aforesaid, and did accompany and assist the said John Wilkes Booth in attempting to conceal himself and escape from justice after killing and murdering the said Abraham Lincoln aforesaid; and in further prosecution of said unlawful and traitorous conspiracy, and of the intent thereof as aforesaid, the said Lewis Payne did, on the same night of the 14th day of April, 1865, about the same hour of ten o'clock, fifteen minutes p. m., at the City of Washington, and within the Military Depart- ment and the military lines aforesaid, unlawfully and maliciously make an assault upon the said William H. Seward, Secretary of State as aforesaid, in the dwelling house and bed-chamber of him, the said William H. Seward, and the said Payne did then and there, with a large knife held in his hand, unlawfully, traitorously, and in pursuance of said conspiracy, strike, stab, cut, and attempt to kill and murder the said William PI. Seward, and did thereby tlien and there and with the LINCOLN AND THE SLAVE STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 251 intent aforesaid, with said knife, inflict upon the face and throat of William H. Seward divers grievous wounds; and said Lewis Payne, in further prosecution of said conspiracy, at the same time and place last aforesaid, did attempt, with the knife aforesaid, and a pistol, held in his hand, to kill and murder Frederick W. Seward, Augustus H. Seward, Emrick W. Hansel, and George F. Robinson, who were then striving to pro- tect and rescue the said William H. Seward from being murdered by the said Lewis Payne, and did then and there, with the said knife and pistols held in his hands, inflict upon the head of said Frederick W. Seward, and upon the persons of said Augustus H. Seward, Emrick W. Hansel, and George F. Robinson, divers grievous and dangerous wounds, and with intent then and there to kill and murder the said Frederick W. Seward, Augustus H. Seward, Emrick W, Hansel, and George F. Robinson. And in further prosecution of said conspiracy, and its traitorous and murderous designs, the said George A. Atzerodt did, on the night of the 14th of April, A. D, 1865, and about the same hour aforesaid, within the Military Department and military lines aforesaid, lie in wait for Andrew Johnson, then Vice-President of the United States, aforesaid, with the intent unlaw- fully and maliciously to kill and murder him, the said Andrew Johnson. And in further prosecution of the conspiracy afore- said, and of its murderous and treasonable purpose aforesaid, on the nights of the 13th and 14th of April, A. D. 1865, at Washington City, and within the mili- tary department and military lines aforesaid, the said Michael O'Laughlin did then and there lie in wait for 252 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. j>Ulysses S. Grant, then Lieutenant-General and Com- jjnander of the armies of the United States as afore- said, with intent then and there to kill and murder the said Ulysses S. Grant. J, And in further prosecution of said conspiracy, the -said Samuel Arnold did, within the Military Depart- ment and military lines aforesaid, on or before the 6th day of March, A. D. 1865, and on divers other days and times between that day and the 15th day of April, 1)JL D. 1865, combine, conspire with, and aid, counsel, abet, comfort, and support the said John Wilkes Booth, jLewis Payne, George A. Atzerodt, Michael O'Laugh- lin, and their confederates, in said unlawful, murder- ous, and traitorous conspiracy, and in the execution of , as aforesaid. ■J And, in further prosecution of the said conspiracy, Mary E. Surratt did at Washington City, and within the Military Department and military lines aforesaid, on or before the 6th day of March, A. D. 1865, and on divers other days and times between that day and the 30th day of April, A, D. 1865, receive, entertain, har- bor and conceal, aid and assist the said John Wilkes Booth, David E. Harold, Lewis Payne, John H. Sur- ratt, Michael O'Laughlin, George A. Atzerodt, Samuel Arnold, and their confederates, with knowledge of the murderous and traitorous conspiracy aforesaid, and with intent to aid, abet, and assist them in the execu* -otion thereof, and in escaping from justice after the y^urder of the said Abraham Lincoln, as aforesaid; and in further prosecution of said conspiracy, the said ..iSamuel A. Mudd did, at Washington City, and within fjjthe Military Department and military lines aforesaid, -Tjj^n or before the 6th day of March, A. D. 1865, and on STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 253 divers other days and times between that day and the 20th day of April, A. D. 1865, advise, encourage, receive, entertain, harbor, and conceal, aid, and assist the said John Wilkes Booth, David E. Harold, Lewis Payne, John H. Surratt, Michael O'Laughlin, George A. Atzerodt, Mary E, Surratt, and Samuel Arnold, and their confederates, with knowledge of the murder- ous and traitorous conspiracy aforesaid, and with intent to aid, abet, and assist them in the execution thereof, and in escaping from justice after the murder of the said Abraham Lincoln, in pursuance of said conspiracy in manner aforesaid. By order of the President of the United States. J. Holt, Judge-Advocate-General. Lincoln's Letters. LETTER TO MRS. ARMSTRONG. Springfield, 111., Sept. — , i8 — . Dear Mrs. Armstrong: I have just heard of your deep affliction, and the arrest of your son for murder. I can hardly believe that he can be guilty of the crime alleged against him. It does not seem possible. I am anxious that he should have a fair trial, at any rate ; and gratitude for your long-continued kindness to me in adverse circum- stances prompts me to offer my humble services gratu- itously in his behalf. It v^^ill afford me an opportunity to requite, in a small degree, the favors I received at your hand, and that of your lamented husband, when your roof afforded me grateful shelter, without money and without price. Yours truly, A. Lincoln. AFFECTIONATE SON. Lincoln wrote the following at the close of a letter to his step-brother, John Johnston, regarding his father, Mr. Lincoln, the poor ne'er-do-well, who was ill: "I sincerely hope father may yet recover his health; but at all events, tell him to remember to call upon, 254 LINCOLN'S LETTERS. 255 and con».Je in, our great and good merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. "He notes the fall of the sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads, and He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him. "Say to him that, if we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant, but that if it is his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyful meeting with loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us, through the mercy of God, hope ere long to join them." LINCOLN WRITES HIS STEP-MOTHER. Lincoln's love for his second mother was most filial and affectionate. In a letter of November 4, 185 1, just after the death of his father, he writes to her as follows : "Dear Mother: Chapman tells me that he wants you to go and live with him. If I were you, I would try it a while. If you get tired of it (as I think you will not), you can return to your own home. Chapman feels very kindly to you, and I have no doubt he will make your situation very pleasant. "Sincerely your son, "A. Lincoln." LINCOLN'S IDEA OF THE SLAVERY CONFLICT IN 1855. Springfield, 111., August 15, 1855. Hon. George Robertson, Lexington, Ky. My Dear Sir: The volume you left for me has been received. I am really grateful for the honor of your kind remembrance, as well as for the book. 256 LINCOLN'S LETTERS The partial reading I have already given it has afforded me much of both pleasure and instruction. It was new to me that the exact question which led to the Missouri Compromise had arisen before it arose in regard to Missouri, and that you had taken so prom- inent a part in it. Your short but able and patriotic speech on that occasion has not been improved upon since by those holding the same views; and with all the light you then had, the views you took appear to me as very reasonable. You are not a friend of slavery in the abstract. In that speech you spoke of the "peaceful extinction of slavery," and used other expressions indicating your belief that the thing was, at some time, to have an end. Since then we have had thirty-six years of experience; and this experience has demonstrated, I think, that there is no peaceful extinction of slavery in prospect for us. The signal failure of Henry Clay and other good and great men, in 1849, to effect anything in favor of a gradual emancipation in Kentucky, together with a thousand other signs, extinguished that hope utterly. On the question of liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been. When we were the political slaves of King George, and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that "all men are created equal" a self-evident truth, but now, when we have grown fat, and, have lost all dread of being slaves ourselves, we have become so greedy to be masters that we call the same maxim a "self-evident lie. " The Fourth of July has not quite dwindled away; it is still a great day for burning firecrackers! That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of LINCOLN'S LETTERS. 257 slavery has itself become extinct with the occasion and the men of the Revolution. Under the impulse of that occasion, nearly half the States adopted systems of emancipation at once ; and it is a significant fact that not a single State has done the like since. '" So far as peaceful, voluntary emancipation is con^ cerned, the condition of the negro slave in America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free mind^ is now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better as that of the lost souls of the finally impenitent. The Autocrat of all the Russians will resign his crown and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves; Our political problem now is, "Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently — forever — half slave and half free?" The problem is too mighty for me. May God, in His mercy, superintend the solution. Your much obliged friend, and humble servant, A. Lincoln. " Springfield, III., April 6, 1859. Gentlemen : Your kind note inviting me to attend a festival in Boston on the 13th instant, in honor of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, was duly received. My engagements are such that I cannot attend. The Democracy of to-day hold the liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with another man's right of property. Republicans, on the contrary, are both for the man and the dollar, but, in case of conflict, the man before the dollar. '^' I remember once being much amused at seeing two partially intoxicated men engaged in a fight with their 258 LINCOLN'S LETTERS. great-coats on, which fight, after a long and rather harmless contest, ended in each having fought himself out of his own coat, and into that of the other. If the two leading parties of this day are really identical with the two in the days of Jefferson and Adams, they have performed the same feat as the two drunken men. But, soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. . . . This is a world of compensations ; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. All honor to Jefferson ; to a man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and stumbling-block to the harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression. Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. Messrs. H. L. Pierce, and others, etc. LINCOLN'S FIRST LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. Springfield, 111., May 25, i860. Hon. George Ashman, President of the Republican National Convention. Sir: I accept the nomination tendered me by the Convention over which you preside, and of which I am ■formally apprised in the letter of yourself and others, LINCOLN'S LETTERS. 259 acting as a committee of the Convention for that pur- pose. The declaration of principles and sentiments, which accompanies your letter, meets my approval; and it shall be my care not to violate or disregard it in any part. Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the Convention ; to the rights of all the States and Territories and people of the nation' to the inviolability of the Constitution; and the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of all, I am now happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles declared by the Convention. Your obliged friend, and fellow citizen, A. Lincoln. MR. LINCOLN'S REPLY TO THE POET, BRYANT. Springfield, 111., June 28, i860. Please accept my thanks for the honor done me by your kind letter of the i6th. I appreciate the danger against which you would guard me; nor am I wanting in the purpose to avoid it. I thank you for the addi- tional strength your words give me to maintain that purpose. Your friend and servant, A. Lincoln. LETTER TO GENERAL DUFF GREEN. Springfield, 111., Dec. 28, i860. Gen. Duff Green. My Dear Sir : I do not desire any amendment of the Constitution. Recognizing, however, that questions of such amendment rightfully belong to the American people, I should not feel justified nor inclined to with- 26o LINCOLN'S LETTERS. hold from them, if I could, a fair opportunity of expressing their will thereon through either of the modes prescribed in the instrument. In addition, I declare that the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State, to order and control its own domestic insti- tutions, according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to the balance of powers on which the per- f ection and endurance of our political fabric depend ; and I denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what protest, as the gravest of crimes. I am greatly averse to writing anything for the pub- lic at this time ; and I consent to the publication of this only upon the condition that six of the twelve United States Senators for the States of Georgia, Ala- bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas shall sign their names to what is written on this sheet, below my name, and allow the whole to be published together- Yours truly, A. Lincoln. MR. LINCOLN'S FIRST PUBLIC LETTER AFTER HIS ELECTION. Springfield, 111., Jan. 28, 1861. Messrs. R. A. Cameron, Walter Marsh, and D. C. Branham, Committee, Gentlemen: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt by your hands of a copy of a joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of the State of Indiana, on the 15th instant, inviting me to visit that honorable body on my way to the Federal Capital. LINCOLN'S LETTERS. 261 Expressing my profound gratitude for the flattering testimonial of their regards and esteem, be pleased to bear to them my acceptance of their kind invitation, and inform them, I will comply in accordance with their expressed desire, on the 12th day of February next. With feelings of high consideration, I remain your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. LINCOLN TO COLFAX. Executive Mansion, March 8, 1861. Hon. Schuyler Colfax. My Dear Sir: Your letter of the 6th has just been handed me by Mr. Baker, of Minnesota. When I said to you the other day that I wished to write you a letter, I had reference, of course, to my not having offered you a Cabinet appointment. I meant to say, and now do say, you are most honor- ably and amply recommended; and a tender of the appointment was not withheld, in any part, because of anything happening in 1858, Indeed, I should have decided as I did easier than I did had that matter never existed. I had partly made up my mind in favor of Mr. Smith — not conclusively, of course — before your name was mentioned in that connection. When you were brought forward, I said, "Colfax is a young man, is already in position, is running a brilliant career, and is sure of a bright future in any event — with Smith it is now or never." I considered either abundantly competent, and decided on the ground I stated, I now have to beg that you will not do me the 26a LINCOLN'S LETTERS. injustice to suppose for a moment that I remember anything against you in malice. Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. LINCOLN TO SEWARD. The Secretary of State considered it his duty to urge the President to more energetic action, April, '6i, and presented his ideas under the following head, "Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration, April i, i86i" "First, we are at the end of a month's administra- tion, and yet without a policy, either domestic, foreign," etc., etc. The President sent his reply the same day. Only the "hand of iron in the glove of velvet" could have written the answer. It was irresistible logic, faultless in tact, kind but positively firm. The President concludes: "I remark (regarding an energetic policy) that if this must be done, I must do it. When a general line of policy is adopted I appre- hend there is no danger of its being changed without good reason or continuing to be a subject of unneces- sary debate. Still, on points arising in its progress, I wish, and suppose I am entitled to have, the advice of all the Cabinet. Your ob't serv't, "A. Lincoln." INSTRUCTIONS TO MAJOR ROBERT ANDERSON. War Department, Washington, April 4, 1861. Sir: Your letter of the ist instant occasions some anxiety to the President. On the information of Captain Fox, he had sup- LINCOLN'S LETTERS. 263 posed you could hold out till the 15th instant without any great inconvenience, and had prepared an expedi- tion to relieve you before that period. Hoping still that you will be able to sustain your- self till the nth or 12th instant, and he has entire confidence that you will act as becomes a patriot and a soldier under all circumstances. Whenever, if at all, in your judgment, to save your- self and your command, a capitulation becomes a necessity, you are authorized to make it. Respectfully, Simon Cameron, Secretary of War To Major Robt. Anderson, United States Army. The above was drafted by President Lincoln and signed by the Secretary of War. Washington, Feb. 3, 1862. General McClellan. My Dear Sir: You and I have distinct and different plans for a movement of the Army of the Potomac — yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the Rappahan- nock to Urbana and across land to the terminus of the railroad on the York River; mine to move directly to the point on the railroads southwest of Manassas. If you will give me satisfactory answers to the fol- lowing questions, I shall gladly yield my plan to yours: First: Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of time and money than mine? Second : Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine? Third : Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine? 26j LINCOLN'S LETTERS. Fourth: In fact, would it not be less valuable in this, that it would break no greater line of the enemies' communication, than mine would? Fifth: In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more difficult by your plan than by mine? Yours truly, A. Lincoln. LETTER TO AUGUST BELMONT. July 31, 1862. August Belmont, Esq. Dear Sir : You send to Mr. W an extract from a letter written at New Orleans the 9th instant, which is shown to me. You do not give the writer's name ; but plainly he is a man of ability and probably of some note. He says, "The time has arrived when Mr. Lincoln must take a decisive course. "Trying to please everybody, he will satisfy nobody. "A vacillating policy in matters of importance is the very worst. Now is the time, if ever, for honest men who love their country to rally to its support. "Why will not the North say officially that it wishes for the restoration of the Union as it was?'* And so it seems, this is the point in which the writer thinks I have no policy. Why will he not read and understand what I have said? The substance of the very subject he desires is in the two inaugurals, in each of the two regular messages sent to Congress, and in many, if not all, of the minor documents issued by the Executive since the inauguration. Broken eggs cannot be mended ; but Louisiana has LINCOLN'S LETTERS. 265 nothing- to do now but to take her place in the Union as it was, barring the already broken eggs. The sooner she does so, the smaller will be the amount of that which is past mending. This Government cannot much longer play a game in which it stakes all, and its enemies stake nothing. Those enemies must understand that they cannot experiment for ten years trying to destroy the Govern- ment, and, if they fail, still come back into the Union unhurt If they expect, in any contingency, to ever have the Union as it was, I join with the writer in saying, "Now is the time." How much better it would have been for the writer to have gone at this under the protection of the Army at New Orleans, than to have sat in a closet writing complaining letters northward ! Yours truly, A. Lincoln. THE PRESIDENT ON THE NEGRO QUESTION. Executive Mansion, Washington, August 22, 1862, Hon. Horace Greeley: I have just read yours of the 19th addressed to myself through the New York Tribune. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert it. If there be in it any inference which I believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue against it. If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dic- tatorial tone, I waive it, in deference to an old friend, whose heart I hav, always supposed to be right. 266 LINCOLN'S LETTERS. As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing." as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if I could save it by free- ing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe it helps to save the Union. And what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less when- ever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause; and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every- where should be free. Yours, A. Lincoln. LINCOLN'S LETTERS. 367 PARTIAL REPLY TO CENSURE ON THE ARREST OF VALLANDIGHAM, JUNE, 1863. "Mr. Vallandigham avows his hostility to the war on the part of the Union ; and his arrest was made because he was laboring, with some effect, to prevent the rais- ing of troops, to encourage desertions from the army, and to leave the rebellion without an adequate military force to suppress it. "He was not arrested because he was damaging the political prospects of the administration, or the per- sonal interests of the Commanding General, but because he was damaging the army, upon the exist- ence and vigor of which the life of the nation depends. "He was warring upon the military, and this gave the military the Constitutional jurisdiction to lay hands upon him. A. Lincoln." LETTER TO MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER. Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Jan. 26, 1863. Major-General Hooker. General: I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course, I have done this upon what appears to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, which, of course, I like, I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not indispensable, quality. You are ambitious. 268 LINCOLN'S LETTERS. which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm. But I think that, during General Burn- side's command of the Army, you have taken counsel of your ambitions, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong, both to the country, and a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the Govern- ment needed a dictator. Of course, it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you a command. Only those generals who gain success can set up as dictators. What I ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit that you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising their commander, and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of rashness! Beware of rashness! But, with energy and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victories. Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. THE PRESIDENT'S LETTER TO HON. JAMES C. CONK- LIN, AUGUST i6, 1863. "I do not believe that any compromise embracing the maintenance of the Union is now possible. "The strength of the rebellion is in the army. That LINCOLN'S LETTERS. 269 army dominates all the country and all the people within its range. Any offer of terms made by any man or men within that range, in opposition to that army, is simply nothing for the present, because such man or men have no power whatever to enforce their side of a compromise, if one were made with them. No word or intimation from the rebel army, or from any of the men controlling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever come to my knowledge or belief. "You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps would have it retracted. You say it is uncon- stitutional. I think differently. I think the Constitu- tion invests the Commander-in-Chief with the law of war in time of war. The most that can be said is, that slaves are property. "Is there any question that, by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed; and is it not needed whenever taking it helps us to hurt the enemy? "If the Proclamation is not valid in law, it needs no retraction; if it is valid, it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. "There was more than a year and a half of trial to suppress the rebellion before the Proclamation was issued, the last one hundred days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was coming unless it was averted by those in revolt returning to their allegiance. The war has certainly progressed as favorably for us since the issue of the Proclamation as before. Some of the commanders of our armies in the field who have given us our most important victories believe that the Emancipation Proclamation policy, and the aid of colored troops, constitute the heaviest blows yet dealt 270 LINCOLN'S LETTERS. to the rebellion ; and that at least one of those impor- tant successes could not have been achieved when it was but for the aid of black soldiers. "Whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. But negroes, like other people, act upon notions. Why should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us there must be the strongest motive — even the promise of their freedom. And the promise being made must be kept. "The signs look better. The Father of Waters goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it. "Nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jer- sey, hewing their way right and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors than one, also lent a hand. On the spot their part of the history was jotted down in black and white. The job was a great national one, and let none be banned who bore an honorable part in it. "Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will soon come, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth keeping in all future time. And then there will be some black men who can remember that they helped Mankind on to this great consum.mation, while I fear that there will be some white men unable to forget that they have striven to hinder it. "Still let us be ever sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God in His own good time will give us the rightful results. "Your friend, A. Lincoln." LINCOLN'S LETTERS. 271 PRESENTATION OF A GOLD MEDAL* TO LIEUTEN- ANT-GENERAL GRANT BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN. Executive Mansion, March 7, 1865. Lieutenant-General Grant: In accordance with a joint resolution of Congress approved December 16, 1863, I now have the honor of transmitting and presenting to you, in the name of the people of the United States of America, a copy of said resolutions engrossed on parchment together with the gold medal therein ordered and directed. Please accept for yourself and all under your com- mand the renewed expression of my gratitude for your and their arduous and well-performed public service. Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. LETTER TO MRS. GURNEY, WIFE OF EMINENT ENGLISH PREACHER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. My Esteemed Friend: I have not forgotten — prob- ably never shall forget — the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on a Sabbath forenoon, two years ago; nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year later, ever been forgotten. In all it has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers and consola- tions, and to no one more than to yourself. The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must *'^he cost of medal was $6,000. 272 LINCOLN'S LETTERS. prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accur- ately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wis- dom, and our own error therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in the best lights He gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely, He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make, and no mortal could stay. Your people, the Friends, have had, and are having, a very great trial. On principle and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard dilemma, some have chosen one horn, and some the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the law. That you believe this I doubt not, and believing it I shall still receive for our country and myself your earnest prayers to our Father in heaven. Your sincere friend, A. Lincoln. Lincoln's Great Speeches, LINCOLN'S FIRST POLITICAL SPEECH. Mr. Lincoln made his first political speech in 1832, at the age of twenty-three, when he was a candidate for the Illinois Legislature. His opponent had wearied the audience by a long speech, leaving him but a short time in which to present his views. He condensed all he had to say into a few words, as follows : ''Gentlemen, Fellow-Citizens: I presume you know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics can be briefly stated. I am in favor of the Internal Improvement System, and a high Protective Tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be thank- ful. If not, it will be all the same." THE PERPETUITY OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS. Delivered before the Springfield, 111., Lyceum, in January, 1837, when twenty-eight years of age. Com- ing, as he did upon this occasion, before a literary society, Mr. Lincoln's Websterian diction is more observable. 273 374 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. i( ' 'Ladies and Gentlemen: In the great journal of thing's happening tinder the sun, we, the American people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find our- selves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility c f soil, and salubrity of climate. "We find ourselves under the government of a sys- tem of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which 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 acquisition or estab- lishment of them ; they are a legacy bequeathed to us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race, of ancestors. "Theirfe was the task (and nobly did they perform it) to possess themselves, us, of this goodly land, to uprear upon its hills and valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours to transmit these — the former unprofaned by the foot of an intruder, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation — to the generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task, gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity — all imperatively require us faithfully to perform. "How, then, shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall we expect some trans- Atlantic 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 treasures of the earth (our own LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 275 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 this approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if ever it 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 not over- wary; but, if I am not, there is even now something of ill-omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country, the disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the executive min- isters of justice. "This disposition is awfully fearful in »any com- munity, and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit it, it would be a violation of truth and an insult 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 sun of the latter. "They are not the creatures of climate, neither are they confined to the slave-holding or non-slave-holding States. Alike they spring up among the pleasure-hunt- ing 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. 276 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they may undertake, may ever be found, whose ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or 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 Csesar, or a Napoleon? Never! Tower- ing genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. "It seeks no distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footpaths of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction, and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating the slaves or enslaving freemen. "Another reason which once was, but which to the same extent is now no more, has done much in main- taining our institutions thus far. I mean the power- ful influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution had upon the passions of the people, as dis- tinguished from their judgment. "But these histories are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength. But what the invading foeman could never do, the silent artillery of time has done, — the levelling of the walls. They were a forest of giant oaks, but the all-resisting hurricane swept over them and left only here and there a lone trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes and to combat with its mutilated LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 277 limbs a few more rude storms, then to sink and be no more. They were the pillars of the temple of liberty, and now that they have crumbled away, that temple must fall, unless we, the descendants, supply the places with pillars hewn from the same solid quarry of sober reason. "Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. "Reason — cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason — must furnish all the materials for our support and defense. Let those materials be molded into general intelligence, sound morality, and, in particular, a reverence for the Constitution and the laws; and then our country shall continue to improve, and our nation, revering his name, and permitting no hostile foot to pass or desecrate his resting-place, shall be the first to hear the last trump that shall awaken our Washington. "Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest as the rock of its basis, and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, 'the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ' " NATIONAL BANK VS. SUB-TREASURY. Delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois, and published in the Sangamon Journal, March 6, 1840. The debaters on the ques- tion were Messrs. Logan, Baker, Browning and Lincoln, against Douglas, Calhoun, Lamborn and Thomas. "Fellow-citizens: It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt a continuance of the discussion, on this ayS LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. evening, which has been conducted in this hall on several preceding ones. "It is so, because on each of these evenings there was a much fuller attendance than now, without any reason for its being so except the greater interest the community feel in the speaker who addressed them then than they do in him who addresses them now. "I am, indeed, apprehensive that the few who have attended have done so more to spare me mortifica- tion than in the hope of being interested in anything I may be able to say. "This circumstance casts a damp upon my spirits which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome during the evening. "The subject heretofore and now to be discussed is the sub-treasury scheme of the present administration, as a means of collecting, safe-keeping, transferring and disbursing the revenues of the nation as contrasted with a national bank for the same purpose. "Mr. Douglas has said that we (the Whigs) have not dared to meet them (the Locos) in argument on this question. "I protest against this assertion. I say we have again and again during this discussion urged facts and arguments against the sub-treasury which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted to answer. "But lest some may be led to believe that we really wish to avoid the question, I now propose, in my humble way, to urge these arguments again, at the same time begging the audience to mark well the positions I shall take and the proof I shall offer to sustain them, and that they will not allow Mr. Douglas or his friends to escape the force of them by a round ( 1 1 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 279 of groundless assertions that we dare not meet them in argument. "First. It will injuriously affect the community by its operation on the circulating medium. 'Second. It will be a more expensive fiscal agent. 'Third. It will be a less secure depository for the public money. "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 iu principle; and the 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 heart and head. ' "The first branch of the figure — that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel — I admit is not merely figurative, but literally true. Who that looks for a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Har- ringtons, and their hundreds of others scampering away with the public money to Texas, to Europe, and to every spot on earth where a 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 this malady of the heels operates on the 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 is too strikingly in point to be omitted: 28o LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "A witty Irish soldier who was always boasting of his braver}'- when no danger was near, who invariably retreated without orders at the first charge of the engagement, being asked by the captain why he did so, replied, 'Captain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had, but somehow or other, when danger approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with it!' "So with Mr. Lamborn's party. "They take the public money into their own hands for the most laudable purposes that wise heads and willing hearts can dictate; but, before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally vulnerable heels will run away with them. "Mr. Lamborn refers to the late elections in the States, and from the result predicts that every State :n the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next Presidential election. "Address that argument to cowards and knaves; with the free and the brave it will affect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. "I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused by the civil spirits that reign there, is belching forth the laws of political corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing; while on its bosom are riding, like demons on the wave of hell, the imps of that evil spirit fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course with hopelessness of their efforts; and. knowing this, I LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 281 cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it, I, too, may be ; bow to it, I never will. "The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a course we believe to be just. It shall not deter me. "If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions, not wholly unworthy of its Almighty architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly alone, hurling defiance at her victorious opposers. "Here, without contemplating the consequences, before heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fealty to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love. "And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt that oath that I take? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we may fail, be it so; we shall still have the proud consolation of saying to our conscience, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment and adored of our hearts in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending." A GREAT CONGRESSIONAL SPEECH. Abraham Lincoln on the Presidency and general politics. Delivered in the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C, July 27, 1848. "Mr. Speaker: Our Democratic friends seem to be in great distress because they think our candidate for 282 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. the Presidency don't suit us. Most of them cannot find out that General Taylor has any principles at all, some, however, have discovered that he has one, but that one is entirely wrong. This one principle is hii position on the veto power. "The gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Stanton), who has just taken his seat, indeed, has said there is very little if any difference on this question between General Taylor and all the Presidents; and he seems to think it sufficient detraction from General Taylor's position on it, that it has nothing new in it. But all others, whom I have heard speak, assail it furiously. "A new member from Kentucky (Mr. Clarke), of very considerable ability, was in particular concern about it. He thought it altogether novel and unprec- edented for a President, or a Presidential candidate, to think of approving bills whose Constitutionality may not be entirely clear to his own mind. He thinks the ark of our safety is gone, unless Presidents shall always veto such bills as, in their judgment, may be of doubtful Constitutionality. However clear Congress may be of their authority to pass any particular act, the gentleman from Kentucky thinks the President must veto if he has doubts about it. "Now, T have neither time nor inclination to argue with the gentleman on the veto power as an original question ; but I wish to show that General Taylor, and not he, agrees with the earliest statesmen on this question. When the bill chartering the first Bank of the United States passed Congress, its Constitution- ality was questioned; Mr. Madison, then in the House of Representatives, as well as others, opposed it on that ground. General Washington, as President, was LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 2S3 called on to approve or reject it. He sought and obtained, on the Constitutional question, the separate written opinion of Jefferson, Hamilton and Edmund Randolph, they then being respectively vSecretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney- General. Hamilton's opinion was for the power; while Randolph's and Jefferson's were both against it. Mr. Jefferson, after giving his opinion decidedly against the Constitutionality of that bill, closed his letter with the paragraph I now read: " 'It must be admitted, however, that unless tha President's mind, on a view of everything which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably clear that it is unauthorized by the Constitution; if the pro and the con hang so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect for the wisdom of the Legislature would naturally decide the balance in favor of their opinion ; it is chiefly for cases where they are clearly misled by ei ror, ambition or interest, that the Constitution has placed a check in the negative of the President. " 'Thomas Jefferson. " 'February 15, 1791.' "General Taylor's opinion, as expressed in his Allison letter, is as I now read: " 'The power given by the veto is a high conserva- tive power; but, in my opinion, should never be ei.ercised, except in cases of clear violation of the Constitution, or manifest haste and want of considera- tion by Congress. ' "It is here seen that, in Mr. Jefferson's opinion, if on the Constitutionality of any given bill, the President doubts, he is not to veto it, as the gentleman from iU LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. Kentucky would have him to do, but is to defer to Congress and approve it. And if we compare the opinions of Jefferson and Taylor, as expressed in these paragraphs, we shall find them more exactly alike than we can often find any two expressions havnng any literal difference. None but interested fault-finders can discover any substantial variation. "But gentlemen on the other side are unanimously agreed that General Taylor has no other principle. They are in utter darkness as to his opinions on any of the questions of policy which occupy the public attention. But is there any doubt as to what he will do on the prominent questions, if elected? Not the least. It is not possible to know what he will, or would do in every imaginable case; because many questions have passed away, and others doubtless will arise which none of us have yet thought of; but on the prominent questions of currency, tariff, internal improvements, and Wilmot proviso, General Taylor's course is at least as well defined as is General Cass'. Why, in their eagerness to get at General Taylor, several Democratic members here have desired to know whether, in case of his election, a bankrupt law is to be established. Can they tell us General Cass* opinion on this question? (Some member an- swered: 'He is against it.') Aye, how do you know he is? There is nothing about it in the platform, or elsewhere, that I have seen. If the gentleman knows anything which I do not, he can show it. But to return: General Taylor, in his Allison letter, says: " 'Upon the subject of the tariff, the currency, the improvement of our great highways, rivers, lakes, and harbors, the will of the people, as expressed LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 285 through their Representatives in Congress, ought to be respected and carried out by the Executive. ' "Now, this is the whole matter — in substance it is this: The people say to General Taylor: " 'If you are elected, shall we have a National Bank?' "He answers: 'Your will, gentlemen, not mine.' " 'What about the tariff?' " 'Say yourselves.' " 'Shall our rivers and harbors be improved?* " 'Just as you please. If you desire a bank, an alteration of the tariff, internal improvements, any or all, I will not hinder you. Send up your members to Congress from the various districts, with opinions according to your own, and if they are for these measures, or any of them, I shall have nothing to oppose ; if they are not for them, I shall not, by any appliance whatever, attempt to dragoon them into their adoption. ' "Now, can there be any difficulty in understanding this? To you. Democrats, it may not seem like prin- ciple ; but surely you cannot fail to perceive the position plainly enough. The distinction between it and the position of your candidate is broad and obvious, and I admit you have a clear right to show it is wrong, if you can ; but you have no right to pretend you cannot see it at all. We see it, and to us it appears like prin- ciple, and the best sort of principle at that — the principle of allowing the people to do as they please with their own business. "My friend from Indiana (Mr. C. B. Smith) has aptly asked: 'Are you willing to trust the people?' Some of you answered, substantially: 'We are willing 286 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. to trust the people ; but the President is as much the representative of the people as Congress. ' In a certain sense, and to a certain extent, he is the representative of the people. He is elected by them, as well as Congress is. But can he, in the nature of things, know the wants of the people as well as three hundred other men coming from the various localities of the nation? If so, where is the propriety of having a Congress? That the Constitution gives the President a negative on legislation all know; but that this nega- tive should be so combined with platforms and other appliances as to enable him, and in fact, almost compel him, to take the whole of legislation into his own hands, is what we object to — is what General Taylor objects to — and is what constitutes the broad dis- tinction between you and us. To thus transfer legisla- tion is clearly to take it from those who understand with minuteness the interest of the people, and give it to one who does not and cannot so well understand it. "I understand your idea, that if a Presidential candidate avow his opinion upon a given question, or rather upon all questions, and the people, with full knowledge of this, elect him, they thereby distinctly approve all those opinions. This, though plausible, is a most pernicious deception. By means of it measures are adopted or rejected, contrary to the vdshes of the whole of one party, and often nearly half of the other. The process is this: Three, four, or a half-dozen questions are prominent at a given time; the party selects its candidate, and he takes his position on each of these questions. All but one of his positions have already been indorsed at former elections, and his party fully committed to them; but that one is LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 287 new, and a large portion of them are against it. But what are they to do? The whole are strung- together, and they must take all or reject all. They cannot take what they like and leave the rest. What they are already committed to, being the majority, they shut their eyes and gulp the whole. Next election still another is introduced in the same way. "If we run our eyes along the line of the past, we shall see that almost, if not quite, all the articles of the present Democratic creed have been at first forced upon the party in this very way. And just now, and just so, opposition to internal improvements is to be established if General Cass shall be elected. Almost half the Democrats here are for improvements, but they will vote for Cass, and if he succeeds, their votes will have aided in closing the doors against improve- ments. Now, this is a process which we think is wrong. We prefer a candidate who, like General Tay- lor, will allow the people to have their own way regardless of his private opinion; and I should think the internal improvement Democrats at least, ought to prefer such a candidate. He would force nothing on them which they don't want, and he would allow them to have improvements, which their own candidate, if elected, will not. "Mr. Speaker, I have said that General Taylor's position is as well defined as is that of General Cass. In saying this, I admit I do not certainly know what he would do on the Wilmot Proviso. I am a Northern man, or rather a Western free State man, with a con- stituency I believe to be, and with personal feelings I know to be, against the extension of slavery. As such, and with what information I have. I hope, and 288 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. believe, General Taylor, if elected, would not veto the proviso, but I do not know it. Yet, if I knew he would I still would vote for him. I should do so, because in my judgment his election alone can defeat General Cass; and because should slavery thereby go into the territory we now have, just so much will certainly happen by the election of Cass; and in addition, a course of policy leading to new wars, new acquisitions of territory, and still further extension of slavery. One of the two is to be President; which is preferable? "But there is as much doubt of Cass on im- provements as there is of Taylor on the proviso. I have no doubt of General Cass on this question, but I know the Democrats differ among themselves as to his position. My internal improvement colleague (Mr. Wentworth) stated on this floor the other day, that he was satisfied Cass was for improvements, because he had voted for all the bills that he (Mr. W.) had. So far so good. But Mr. Polk vetoed some of these very bills ; the Baltimore Convention passed a set of resolutions, among other things, approving these vetoes, and Cass declares in his letter accepting the nomination, that he has carefully read these resolu- tions, and that he adheres to them as firmly as he approves them cordially. In other words, General Cass voted for the bills, and thinks the President did right to veto them ; and his friends here are amiable enough to consider him as being on one side or the other, just as one or the other may correspond with their own respective inclinations. *'My colleague admits that the platform declares against the Constitutionality of a general system of improvements, and that General Cass indorses the LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 289 olatform ; but he still thinks General Cass is in favor of some sort of improvements. Well, what are they? As he is against general objects, those he is for must be particular and local. Now, this is taking the sub- ject precisely by the wrong end. Particularity — expending the money of the whole people for an object which will benefit only a portion of them, is the greatest objection to improvements, and has been so held by General Jackson, Mr. Polk, and all others, I believe, till now. But now behold, the objects most general, nearest free from this objection, are to be rejected, while those most liable to it are to be embraced. To return : I cannot help believing that General Cass, when he wrote his letter of acceptance, well understood he was to be claimed by the advocates of both sides of this question, and that he then closed the doors against all further expressions of opinion, purposely to retain the benefits of that double position. His subsequent equivocation at Cleveland, to my mind, proves such to have been the case. "One word more, and I shall have done with this branch of the subject. You Democrats, and your candidate, in the main, are in favor of laying down, in advance, a platform — a set of party positions, as a unit; and then of enforcing the people, by every sort of appliance, to ratify them, however unpalatable some of them may be. We, and our candidate, are in favor of making Presidential elections and the legislation of the country distinct matters; so that the people can elect whom they please, and afterward legislate just as they please, without any hindrance, save only so much as may guard against infractions of the Constitu- tion, undue haste, and want of consideration. 290 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "The difference between us is as clear as noon-day. That we are right we cannot doubt. We hold the true Republican position. In leaving the people's business in their hands, we cannot be wrong. We are willing, and even anxious, to go to the people on this issue. "But I suppose I cannot reasonably hope to convince you that we have any principles. The most I can expect is, to assure you that we think we have, and are quite contented with them. "The other day, one of the gentlemen from Georgia (Mr. Iverson), an eloquent man, and a man of learn- ing, so far as I can judge, not being learned myself, came down upon us astonishingly. He spoke in what the Baltimore American calls the 'scathing and wither- ing style. ' At the end of his second severe flash I was struck blind, and found myself feeling with my fingers for an assurance of my continued physical existence. A little of the bone was left, and I gradually revived. He eulogized Mr. Clay in high and beautiful terms, and then declared that we had deserted all our prin- ciples, and had turned Henry Clay out, like an old horse, to root. This is terribly severe. It cannot be answered by argument; at least I cannot so answer it. "I merely wish to ask the gentleman if the Whigs are the only party he can think of who sometimes turn old horses out to root ! Is not a certain Martin Van Buren an old horse, which your party turned out to root? and is he not rooting to your discomfort about now? But in not nominating Mr. Clay, we deserted our principles, you say. Ah! in what? Tell us, ye men of principle, what principle we violated? We say you did violate principle in discarding Martin Van Buren, and we can tell you how. You violated the LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 291 primary, the cardinal, the one great living principle of all Democratic representative government — the prin- ciple that the representative is bound to carry out the known will of his constituents. "A large majority of the Baltimore Convention of 1844 were, by their constituents, instructed to procure Van Buren's nomination if they could. In violation, in utter, glaring contempt of this, you rejected him — rejected him, as the gentleman from New York (Mr. Birdsall), the other day, expressly admitted, for availability — that same 'general availability' which you charge on us, and daily chew over here, as something exceedingly odious and unprincipled. "But the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Iverson), gave us a second speech yesterday, all well considered and put down in writing, in which Van Buren was scathed and withered a 'few' for his present position and movements. I can not remember the gentleman's precise language, but I do remember he put Van Buren down, down, till he got him where he was finally to 'sink' and 'rot.' "By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of General Cass' career, reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass to Hull's surrender; and like him, I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break ; but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is, he broke it in desperation ; I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking whortleberries, I guess I 292 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. surpassed him in charges upon wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry, "Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to dofiE whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade Federalism about me, and, there- upon, they should take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest they shall not make fun of me as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero. "While I have General Cass in hand, I wish to say a word about his political principles. As a specimen, I take the record of his progress on the Wilmot Proviso. In the Washington Union, of March 2, 1847, there is a report of the speech of General Cass, made the day before in the Senate, on the Wilmot Proviso, during the delivery of which Mr. Miller, of New Jersey, is reported to have interrupted him as follows, to- wit: " 'Mr. Miller expressed his great surprise at the change in the sentiments of the Senator from Michi- gan, who had been regarded as the great champion of freedom in the Northwest, of which he was a distin- guished ornament. Last year the Senator from Mich- igan was understood to be decidedly in favor of the Wilmot Proviso ; and, as no reason had been stated for the change, he (Mr. Miller) could not refrain from the expression of his extreme surprise. ' "To this General Cass is reported to have replied as follows, to-wit: "Mr. Cass said that the course of the Senator from New Jersey was most extraordinary. Last year he LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 293 (Mr. Cass) should have voted for the proposition had it come up. But circumstances had altogether changed. The honorable Senator then read several passages from the remarks given above, which he had committed to writing in order to refute such a charge as that of the Senator from New Jersey. "In the 'remarks above committed to writing,' is one numbered 4, as follows, to-wit: " '4th. Legislation would now be wholly imperative, because no territory hereafter to be acquired can be governed without an act of Congress providing for its government. And such an act, on its passage, would open the whole subject, and leave the Congress, called on to pass it, free to exercise its own discretion, entirely uncontrolled by any declaration found in the statute book.' "In Niles' Register, vol. 73, page 293, there is a letter of General Cass to A. O, P. Nicholson, of Nash- ville, Tennessee, dated December 25, 1847, from which the following are correct extracts : *' 'The Wilmot Proviso has been before the country some time. It has been repeatedly discussed in Congress, and by the public press. I am strongly impressed with the opinion that a great change has been going on in the public mind upon this subject — in my own as well as others; and that doubts are resolving themselves into convictions, that the prin- ciple it involves should be kept out of the National Legislature, and left to the people of the Confederacy in their respective local governments. " 'Briefly, then, I am opposed to the exercise of any jurisdiction by Congress over this matter; and I am in favor of leaving the people of any territory which may 294 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. be hereafter acquired, the right to regulate it them- selves, under the general principles of the Constitution. Because: " 'I do not see in the Constitution any grant of the requisite power to Congress ; and I am not disposed to extend a doubtful precedent beyond its necessity — the establishment of territorial governments when needed — leaving to the inhabitants all the rights compatible with the relations they bear to the Confederation. ' "These extracts show, in 1846, General Cass was for the Proviso at once; that, in March, 1847, he was still for it but not just then; and that, in December, 1847, against it altogether. This is a true index to the whole man. When the question was raised in 1846, he was in a blustering hurry to take ground for it. He sought to be in advance, and to avoid the uninter- esting position of a mere follower; but soon he began to see a glimpse of the great Democratic ox-gad wav- ing in his face, and to hear indistinctly a voice saying, 'Back, back, sir; back a little.' He shakes his head and bats his eyes, and blunders back to his position of March, 1847; and still the gad waves and the voice grows more distinct, and sharper still — 'Back, sir! back, I say! further back!' and back he goes to the position of December, 1847; at which the gad is still, and the voice soothingly says, 'So! stand still at that.* "Have no fears, gentlemen, of your candidate, he exactly suits you, and we congratulate you upon it. However much you may be distressed about our candi- date you have all cause to be contented and happy with your own. If elected he may not maintain all, or even any of his positions previously taken; but he will be sure to do whatever the party exigency, for LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 295 the time being, may require; and that is precisely what you want. He and Van Buren are the same 'manner of men'; and like Van Buren, he will never desert you till you first desert him. "But I have introduced General Cass' accounts here, chiefly to show the wonderful physical capacities of the man. They show that he not only did the labor of several men at the same time, but that he often did it at several places many hundred miles apart, at the same time. And at eating, too, his capacities are shown to be quite as wonderful. From October, 1821,. to May, 1822, he ate ten rations a day in Michigan, ten rations a day here in Washington, and near five dollars' worth a day besides, partly on the road between the two places. "And then there is an important discovery in his example — the art of being paid for what one eats, instead of having to pay for it. Hereafter, if any nice man shall owe a bill which he cannot pay in any other way, he can just board it out. "Mr. Speaker, we have all heard of the animal stand- ing in doubt between two stacks of hay, and starving to death; the like of that would never happen to General Cass. Place the stacks a thousand miles apart, he would stand stock-still, midway between them, and eat both at once ; and the green grass along the line would be apt to suffer some, too, at the same time. By all means, make him President, gentlemen. He will feed you bounteously — if — if there is any left after he shall have helped himself. "But as General Taylor is, par excellence, the hero of the Mexican war; and, as you Democrats say we Whigs have always opposed the war, you think it must 296 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. be very awkward and embarrassing for us to go for General Taylor. "The declaration that we have always opposed the war is true or false according as one may understand the term, 'opposing the war.' If to say 'the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced, by the President' be opposing the war, then the Whigs have very generally opposed it. Whenever they have spoken at all they have said this ; and they have said it on what has appeared good reason to them: The marching of an army into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement, frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growing crops and other property to destruction, to you may appear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does not appear so to us. So to call such an act, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent absurdity; and we speak of it accordingly. But if, when the war had begun, and become the cause of the country, the giving of our money and our blood, in common with yours, was support of the war, then it is not true that we have always opposed the war. With few individual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here for all the necessary supplies. "And, more than this, you have had the services, the blood, and the lives of our political brethren in every trial and on every field. The beardless boy and the mature man — the humble and the distinguished, you have had them. Through suffering and death, b}' disease, and in battle they have endured, and fought, and fallen with you. Clay and Webster each gave a son, never to be returned. "From the State of my own residence, besides other LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 29. worthy but less known Whig names, we sent Marshall, Morrison, Baker, and Hardin; they all fought, and one fell, and in the fall of that one, we lost our best Whig man. Nor were the Whigs few in number, or laggard in the day of danger. In that fearful, bloody, breathless struggle at Buena Vista, where each man's hard task was to beat back five foes, or die himself, of the five high officers who perished, four were Whigs. "In speaking of this, I mean no odious comparison between the lion-hearted Whigs and Democrats who fought there. On other occasions, I doubt not the proportion was different. I wish to do justice to all. I think of all those brave men as Americans, in whose proud fame, as an American, I, too, have a share. Many of them, Whigs and Democrats, are my con- stituents and personal friends; and I thank them — more than thank them — one and all, for the high, imperishable honor they have conferred on our common State. "But the distinction between the cause of the Presi- dent in beginning the war, and the cause of the country after it was begun, is a distinction which you cannot perceive. To you, the President and the coun- try seem to be all one. You are interested to see no distinction between them; and I venture to suggest that possibly your interest blinds you a little. "We see the distinction, as we think, clearly enough ; and our friends, who have fought in the war, have no difficulty in seeing it also. What those who have fallen would say, were they alive and here, of course we can never know; but with those who have returned there is no difficulty. "Colonel Haskell and Major Gaines, members here, 298 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. both fought in the war; and one of them underwent extraordinary perils and hardships; still they, like all other Whigs here, vote on the record that the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President. "And even General Taylor himself, the noblest Roman of them all, has declared that, as a citizen, and particularly as a soldier, it was sufficient for him to know that his country was at war with a foreign nation, to do all in his power to bring it to a speedy and honorable termination, by the most vigorous and energetic operations, without inquiring about its justice, or anything else connected with it. "Mr. Speaker, let our Democratic friends be com- forted with the assurance that we are content with our position, content with our company, and content with our candidate; and that although they, in their gen erous sympathy, think we ought to be miserable, we really are not, and that they may dismiss the great anxiety they have on our account. " LINCOLN'S TEMPERANCE SPEECH. Originally printed as "An address by Abraham Lincoln, Esq." Delivered before the Springfield Washingtonian Temperance Society, at the Second Presbyterian Church, on the 2 2d day of February, 1842 : "Although the temperance cause has been in prog- ress for nearly twenty years, it is apparent to all that it is just now being crowned with a degree of success hitherto unparalleled. "The list of its friends is daily swelled by the addi- LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 299 tion of fifties, hundreds, and thousands. The cause itself seems suddenly transformed from a cold, abstract theory to a living, breathing, active, and powerful chief thing, going forth 'conquering and to conquer.' The citadels of his great adversary are daily being stormed and dismantled; his temples and his altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been performed, and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be made, are daily desecrated and deserted. The tramp of the conqueror's fame is sounding from hill to hill, from sea to sea, from land to land, and calling millions to his standard at a blast. "For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. 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 enquire 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 have adopted have not been the most proper. These cham- pions, for the most part, have been teachers, lawyers, and hired agents; between these and a mass of man- kind there is a want of approachability, if the term be admissible, partial, fatal to their success. They are supposed to have no sympathy of feeling or interest with those very persons whom it is their object to con- vince and persuade. "And, again, it is so easy and so common to ascribe motives to men of these classes other than those they profess to act upon. The preacher, it is said, advo- cates temperance because he is a fanatic, and desires a union of the Church and State ; the lawyer, from his 300 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. pride and vanity of hearing himself speak; and the hired agent, for his salary. "But when one who has long been known as the vic- tim of intemperance burst the fetters that have bound him and appears before his neighbors 'clothed, in his right mind,' a redeemed specimen of long lost humanity, and stands up with tears of joy trembling in his eyes to tell the miseries once endured, now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and starv- ing children, now fed and clad 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 resolved to be done; how simple his language; there is a logic and eloquence in it that few with human feelings can resist. "They cannot say that he desired 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. 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 our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, owing. But had the old school champions themselves been of the most wise selecting? 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 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 301 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 incessantly told, not in the accents of entreaty and persuasion, diffidently addressed by erring men 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 rob- bers 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, very slow, to acknowledge the truth of such denunciation, 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 denunciation with denunciation, crimination with crimination, and anathema with anathema — was to expect a reversal of liuman 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 true maxim that. 302 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. *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 con- vince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is the drop of honey that catches his heart ; which, do what he will, is the great road 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 be really a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to com- mand 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 the 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 interest. "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 the more staid and sober neigh- bors. They are practical philanthropists; and they glow with a generous and brotherly zeal, that mere theorizers are incapable of feeling. Benevolence and charity possess their heart entirely; and out of the abundance of their heart their tongues give utterance : LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 303 '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 advocate, and such of the audience, no good cause can be unsuccessful. But I have said that denunciations 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 intoxicating 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 of us, who have now reached the years of maturity, first opened our eyes upon the stage of existence, we found intoxicatino- liquors recognized by everybody, used by everybody, repudiated by nobody. It commonly entered into the first draught of the infant and the last of the dying man. * ' From the sideboard of the parson down to the ragged pocket of the homeless loafer, it was constantly found. Physicians prescribed it in this, that, and the other disease ; Government provided it for soldiers and sail- ors ; and to have a rolling or a raising, a husking, or hoe-down anywhere about without it, was positively insufferable. "So, too, it was everywhere a respectable article of manufacture and merchandise. The making of it was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he who could make most was the most enterprising and respectable. Manufactories of it were everywhere erected, in which all the earthly goods of their owners were invested. 304 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 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 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 plows, 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 acknowledged that many were greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think that the injury arose from the use of a bad thing, but from the use 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. The failing was treated as a misfortune, and not as a crime. "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 overcome. "The success of the argument in favor of the exist- ence of an overruling Providence mainly depends 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 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 305 the temperate, then, and to all mankind some hundreds of years thereafter. "There is in this, something so repugnant to human- ity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded, and feelingless, that it never did, nor never 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 gener- ous 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 pos- terity, 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 some- thing for ourselves. "What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit to ask or expect a whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal happiness of others, after them- selves shall be consigned to the dust, when a majority of this community take no pains whatever to secure their own eternal welfare! 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 case of others. 3o6 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "Still, in addition to this, there 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 to ridicule. 'Better lay down that spade you're stealing, Paddy — if you don't you'll pay for it at the day of judgment.' 'By the powers, if ye '11 credit me so long, I'll 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 for 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, that which is a matter of most profound con- gratulation, is the fact that they, by experiment 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 yes- terday 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 unfortunate victims, like the poor possessed who was redeemed from his long and lonely wandering in the tomb, are publishing to the ends of the earth how great things have been done for them. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 30? **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 able as they to increase its speed and its bulk, to add to its momentum and 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 opinions 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 total and final ban- ishment 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 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 drink, even without signing.' This question has already been asked and answered more than a million times. Let it be answered once more. 3o8 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 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, and until his appetite 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 ever}'- moral support and influence that can pos- sibly 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, kindly and anxiously pointing him onward and none beckoning him back to his former miserable 'wallowing in the mire.' "But it is said by some that men will think and act for themselves; that none will disuse spirits or any- thing 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 would 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'll 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 fash- ion; and what is the influence of fashion but the influ- ence that other people's actions have on our own actions — the strong inclination each of us feels to do as we see all of our neighbors do? Nor is the influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or class of LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 305 things. It is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us make it as unfashionable to withhold our names from the temperance pledge as for husbands to wear their wives' bonnets to church, and the instances will be just as rare in the one case as the other. " 'But,* some say, 'we are no drunkards, and we shall not acknowledge ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkards' 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 submission to the infinitely lesser condescension for the temporal and perhaps eternal salvation of a large, erring, and unfor- tunate class of their fellow creatures. Nor is the con- descension very great. In my judgment such of us as have never fallen victims have been spared more from the absence of appetites than from any mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. "There seems to have ever been a proneness in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice — the demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and generosity. 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 of death, commis- 3IO LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. sioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest bom of every family. Shall he now be arrested 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 pros- trate 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 hum.an misery they alleviate, and the small amount they inflict, then, indeed, will this be the grandest the world has ever seen. "Of our political revolution of 1776, we are all justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom 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 that 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 has its evils. It breathed forth famine, swam in blood, and rode in fire; and long, and long after, the orphan's cry and the widow's wail continued to break the sad silence that ensued. These were the price, the inevitable price, paid for the blessing it bought. "Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed — in it, more of want ?upplied, more disease healed, more sorrow LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. ixt assuaged. By it, no orphans starving, no widows weeping; by it, none wounded in feeling, none injured in interest. Even the dram-maker and 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 feeling; 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 appetite controlled, all passion subdued, all matter subjugated, mind, all-conquering mind, shall live and move, the monarch of the world ! Glor- ious consummation! 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 celebrate 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 a eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To 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." 312 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. THE BALLOT VS. THE BULLET. Delivered to a delegation at Springfield, 111., that proposed to visit Kansas Territory in the phj sical defense of freedom, in 1856. Hon. W. H. Herndon was in this delegation: "Friends: I agree with you in Providence. I believe in the providence of most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon. You are in the minority — in a sad minority; and you can't hope to succeed, reason- ing from all human experience. You would rebel against the Government, and redden your hands in the blood of your countrymen. If you are in the minority, as you are, you can't succeed. I say again and again, against the Government, with a gieat majority of its best citizens backing it, and when they have the most men, the longest purse, and the biggest cannon, you can't succeed. If you have the majority, as some say you have, you can succeed with the ballot, throwing away the bullet. You can peaceably then redeem the Government, and preserve the liberties of mankind, through your votes and voice and moral influence. "Let there be peace. In a democracy, where a majority rule by the ballot through the forms of law, these physical rebellions and bloody resistances are radically wrong, unconstitutional, and are treason. Better bear the ills you have than to fly to those you know not of. Our own Declaration of Independence says that the government long established, for trivial causes should not be resisted. Revolutionize through the ballot-box, and restore the government once more to the affections and hearts of men, by making it express, as it was intended to do, the highest spirit of iustice and liberty. "and couldn't ye put a little brandy in all unbeknown to MYSELF?" I LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 315 "Your attempt, if there be such, to resist the laws of Kansas by force, is criminal and wicked; and all your feeble attempts will be follies, and end in bring- mg sorrow on your heads, and ruin the cause you would freely die to preserve." LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH IN THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN— ••THE HOUSE-DIVIDED-AGAINST- ITSELF SPEECH." Delivered at Springfield, 111., June 6, 1858, before the Republican State Convention. It is known as one of Lincoln's greatest speeches: "Gentlemen of the Convention: If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has 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 expect the Union to b*i 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 3i6 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 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. "Have we no tendency to the latter condition? "Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination — piece of machinery, so to speak — compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. Let him con- sider not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted; but also let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidence of design and concert of action among its chief architects, from the beginning. A FEW IMPORTANT FACTS. "The year of 1844 found slavery excluded from more than half the States by State Constitutions, and from most of the national territory by Congressional prohi- bition. Four days later commenced the struggle which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition. This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained. "But, so far, Congress had acted; and an indorse- ment by the people, real or apparent, was indispen- sable, to save the point already gained, and give chance for more. "This necessity had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of 'squatter sovereignty,' otherwise called LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 317 'sacred right of self-government,' which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so peiveited in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: "That, if any one man choose to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object. That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows: " 'It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.' "Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of 'squatter sovereignty,' and 'sacred right of self- government.' 'But,' said opposition members, 'let us amend the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the territory may exclude slavery.' 'Not we,' said the friends of the measure; and down they voted the amendment. "While the Nebraska bill was passing through Con- gress, a law case involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free State and then into a Terri- tory covered by the Congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave for a long time in each, was passing through the United States District Court for the district of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and law suit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854 The negro's name was 'Dred Scott,' which name now designates the decision finally made in the case. "Before the then next Presidential election, the case 3i8 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. came to, and was argued in, the Supreme Court of the United States, but the decision of it was deferred until after the election. "Still, before the election, Mr. Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the leading advocate of the Nebraska Bill to state his opinion whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude slav- ery from their limits; and the latter answers: 'That is a question for the Supreme Court. ' "The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the endorsement, such as it was, secured. That was the second point gained. The endorsement, how- ever, fell short of a clear popular majority of nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The out- going President, in the last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon the people the weight and authority of the endorsement. The Supreme Court met again; did not announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument. The next Presi- dential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; but the incoming President in his inaugural address fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a few days, came the decision. "The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at this capital indors- ing the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently denounc- ing all opposition to it. The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Sillman letter to indorse and strongly commend that decision, and to express his astonishment that any different view had ever been entertained. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 319 VOTING IT UP OR DOWN. "At length a squabble sprang up between the Presi- dent and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question of fact, whether the Lecompton Constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; and in that quarrel the latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or up. I do not understand his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or up to be intended by him other than an apt definition of the policy he would impress upon the public mind — the principle for which he declares he has suffered so much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parental feelings, well may he cling to it. That principle is the only shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. "Under the Dred Scott decision squatter sover- eignty squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding — like the mould at the foundry, served through one blast and fell back into loose sand — helped to carry an election and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle with the Repub- licans, against the Lecompton Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point — the right of the people to make their own constitution — upon which he and the Republicans have never differed. "The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Douglas' care-not policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of advancement. This was the third point gained. 320 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. WORKING POINTS. "The working points of that machinery are: "First. That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no descendant of Piich slave, can ever be a citizen of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States. This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of that provision of the United States Constitution which declares that 'the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.' "Secondly. That, 'subject to the Constitution of the United States,' neither Congress nor a Territorial Leg- islature can exclude slavery from any United States territory. This point is made in order that individual men may fill up the Territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency to the institutions through all the future. "Thirdly. That, whether the holding of the negro in actual slavery in a free State makes him free, as against the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave State the negro may be forced into by the master, "This point is made, not to be pressed immediately, but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then, to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand slaves, in any other free State. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES 321 "Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand vvith it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mold public opinion, at least northern public opinion, not to care whether slavery is voted down or up. This shows exactly where we now are; and partially, also, whither we are tending. A STRING OF HISTORICAL FACTS. "It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back and run the mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several things will now appear less dark and mysterious than they did when they were transpiring. The people were to be left 'perfectly free, ' subject only to the Constitution. "What the Constitution had to do with it outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough, now, it was an exactly fitted niche, for the Dred Scott decision to afterward come in, and declare the perfect freedom of the people to be just no freedom at all. Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people, voted down? Plain enough now; the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision. Why was the court decision held up. Why even a Senator's individual opinion withheld, till after the presidential election? Plainly enough now; the speaking out then would have damaged the perfectly free argument upon which the election was to be carried. Why the outgoing President's felicitation on the indorsement? Why the delay of a re-argument? Why the incoming President's advance exhortation in favor of the decision? These things look like the 322 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 4 cautious patting and petting of a spirited horse preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of the decision by the President and others? "We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places by different workmen — Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance — and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly adapted, and all the lengths and pro- portions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few — not omitting even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame, exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such a piece in — in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all under- stood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn before the first blow was struck. POWER OF A STATE. "It should not be overlooked, that, by the Nebraska bill, the people of a State as well as Territory, were to be left 'perfectly free, subject only to the Constitution.' Why mention a State? They were legislating for Terri- tories, and not for or about States. "Certainly, the people of a State are, or ought to be, subject to the Constitution of the United States; but LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 323 why is mention of this lugged into this merely terri- torial law? But why are the people of a Territory and the people of a State therein lumped together, and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the same? While the opinions of the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither permits Congress nor a Territorial Legis- lature to exclude slavery from any United States Ter- ritory, they all omit to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a State, or the people of a State, to exclude it. "Possibly, that is a mere omission; but who can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a State to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a Territory, into the Nebraska bill; I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not have been voted down in the one case as it has been in the other? "The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State over slavery, is made by Judge Nel- son. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea and almost the language, too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion, his exact language is, 'Except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its juris- diction.' "In what cases the power of the States is so restrained by the United States Constitution is left an 324 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. open question, precisely as the same question as to the restraint on the power of the Territories was left open in the Nebraska act. Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a State to exclude slavery from its limits. And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of 'care not whether slavery be voted down or up' shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when made. "Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States. Welcome or unwelcome, such a decision is probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the very verge of making their State free, and we shall wake to the reality instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State. To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would prevent that con- summation. That is what we have to do. How can we best do it? "A LIVING DOG IS BETTER THAN A DEAD LION." "There are those who denounce us openly to their friends, and yet whisper us softly that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument there is with which to effect that object. They wish us to infer all from the fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dynasty ; and that he has regularly voted with LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 325 us on a single point, upon which he and we have never differed. They remind us that he is a great man, and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be granted. But 'a living dog is better than a dead lion,' for this work, is, at least, a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the 'public heart' to care nothing about it. "A leading Douglas Democratic newspaper, treating upon this subject, thinks Douglas's superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he really think so? But, if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into the new Terri- tories. Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought the cheap- est? And unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa than Virginia. He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property; and, as such, how can he oppose the foreign slave trade — how can he refuse that trade in that 'property' shall be 'perfectly free' — unless he does it as a protection to the home production? And as the home producers will probably not ask the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition. DOUGLAS IS NOT WITH US. "Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday — that 326 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. he may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong. But can we, for that reason, run ahead; and infer that he will make any particular change of which he him- self has given no intimation? Can we safely base our actions upon any such vague reference? Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas's position, question his motives, or do aught that can be personally offensive to him. Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on principle so that our cause may have assistance from his great ability, I hope to have inter- posed no adventitious obstacle. But, clearly, he is not now with us — he does not pretend to be — he does not pretend ever to be. BUT WE SHALL NOT FAIL; THE VICTORY IS SURE. "Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and con- ducted by, its own undoubted friends — those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work — who do care for the result. Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and fornled and fought the battle through, under the con- stant hot fire of a disciplined, proud and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then, to falter nowi* now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but^ sooner or later, the victory is sure to come. ' * LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 327 DOUGLAS'S SEVEN QUESTIONS — LINCOLN'S POSI- TION DEFINED ON THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. Delivered at Freeport, 111., July, 1858: "Ladies and Gentlemen: On Saturday last, Judge Douglas and mysel:' first met in public discussion. He spoke an hour, I an hour and a half, and he replied for half an hour. The order is now reversed. I am to speak an hour, he an hour and a half, and then I an> to reply for half an hour. I propose to devote myself during the first hour to the scope of what was brought within the range of his half-hour's speech at Ottawa. Of course, there was brought within the scope of that half-hour's speech something of his own opening speech. In the course of that opening argument Judge Douglas proposed to me seven different interrog- atories. "In my speech of an hour and a half, I attended to some other parts of his speech ; and incidentally, as I thought, answered one of the interrogatories then. I then distinctly intimated to him that I would answer the rest of his interrogatories on condition only that he should agree to answer as many for me. He made no intimation at the time of the proposition, nor did he in his reply allude at all to that suggestion of mine. I do him no injustice in saying that he occupied at least half of his reply in dealing with me as though I had refused to answer his interrogatories. I now propose that I will answer any of the interrogatories upon con- dition that he will answer questions from me not exceeding the same number. I give him an oppor- tunity to respond. I now say that I will answer his interrogatories whether he answers mine or not 328 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. [applause] ; and that after I have done so, I will pro- pound mine to him. [Applause.] "I have supposed myself, since the organization of the Republican party at Bloomington, in May, 1856, bound as a party man of the platform of the party, then and since. If in any interrogatories which I shall answer I go beyond the scope of what is in these platforms, it will be perceived that no one is respon- sible but myself. "Having said this much, I will take up the Judge's interrogatories as I find them in the Chicago Times, and answer them seriatim. In order that there may be no mistake about it, I have copied the interroga- tories in writing, and also my answers to them. The first one of these interrogatories is in these words : "Q. I. 'I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law?' "A. I do not now, nor never did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. "Q. 2. 'I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against any more slave States coming into the Union, even if the people want them?' "A. I do not now, nor never did, stand pledged against the admission of any more slave States into the Union. "Q. 3. 'I want to know whether he stands pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make?' "A. I do not stand against the admission of a new LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 329 Stale into the Union with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make. "Q. 4. 'I want to know whether he stands to-day- pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia?' "A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. "Q. 5. 'I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the prohibition of the slave trade between the different States?' "A. I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave trade between the different States. "Q. 6. 'I desire to know whether he stands pledged to piohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, North as well as South of the Missouri Com- promise line?' "A. I am impliedly, if not expressedly, pledged to a belief in the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in the United States Territories. [Great applause.] "Q. 7. 'I desire to know whether he is opposed to the acquisition of any new territory unless slavery is first prohibited therein?' "A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of territory ; and, in any given case, I would or would not oppose such acquisition, accordingly as I might think such acquisition would or would not agitate the slavery question among ourselves. "Now, my friends, it will be perceived upon exam- ination of these questions and answers, that so far I have only answered that I was not pledged to that or the other thing. The Judge has not framed his inter- rogatories to ask me anything more than this, and I 330 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. have answered in strict accordance with his inter- rogatories, and have answered truly that I am not pledged at all upon any of the points to which I have answered. But I am not disposed to hang upon the exact form of his interrogatory. I am rather disposed to take up at least some of these questions, and state what I really think upon them. LINCOLN'S POSITION MORE FULLY DEFINED. "As to the first one, in regard to the Fugitive Slave Law, 1 have never hesitated to say, that I think, under the Constitution of the United States, the people o^ the Southern States are entitled to a Congressional slave law. Having said that, I have nothing to say in regard to the existing Fugitive Slave Law, farther than that I think it should have been framed so as to be free from some of the objections that pertain to it, without lessening its efficiency. And, inasmuch, as we are not in agitation upon the general question of slavery. "In regard to the other question, of whether I am pledged to the admission of any more slave States into the Union, I state to you frankly that I would be exceedingly sorry ever to be put in a position of hav- ing to pass upon that question. I should be exceed- ingly glad to know that there would never be another slave State admitted into the Union ; but I must add, that if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories dur- ing the Territorial existence of any one given Terri- tory, and then the people shall, having a fair chance in a clear field, when they come to adopt the Constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt the Consti- tution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution among them, I see no alternative, if we own LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 331 the country, but to admit them into the Union. [Ap- plause.] "The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to the second, it being,as I conceive, the same as the second. "The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slav- ery in the District of Columbia. In relation to that, I have my mind very distinctly made up. I should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the Dis- trict of Columbia. I believe that Congress has Con- stitutional power to abolish it. Yet, as a member of Congress, I should not with my present views be in favor of endeavoring to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, unless it would be upon these conditions. First, that the abolition should be gradual; second, that it should be on a vote of the majority of qualified voters of the District; and third, that a compensa- tion should be made to unwilling owners. With these three conditions, I confess that I would be exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and, in the language of Henry Clay, 'sweep from our Capital that foul blot upon our Nation. ' "In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say, that, as to the question of abolition of the slave trade between the different States, I can truly answer, as I have, that I am pledged to nothing about it. It is a subject to which I have not given that mature consideration that would make me feel authorized to state a position so as to hold myself entirely bound by it. In other words, that question has never been prominently enough before me to induce me to investigate whether we really have the constitutional power to do it. I could investigate if I had sufificient time to bring myself to a conclusion upon that subject; but I have not done so^ 332 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. and I say so frankly to you here, and to Judge Douglas. I must say, however, that if I should be of the opinion that Congress does possess the Constitutional power to abolish slave trading among the different States, I should not still be in favor of that power unless upon some conservative principle, as I conceive it, akin to what I have said in relation to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. "My answer as to whether I desire that slavery should be prohibited in all Territories of the United States, is full and explicit within itself, and cannot be made clearer by any comment of mine. So I suppose, in regard to the question whether I am opposed to the acquisition of any more territory unless slavery is abolished, is such that I could add nothing by way of illustration, or making myself better understood, than the answer which I have placed in writing. "Now, in all this, the Judge has me, and he has me on the record. I suppose he had flattered himself that I was really entertaining one set of opinions for one place and another set for another place — that I was afraid to say at one time what I uttered at another. What I am saying here I suppose I say to a vast audi- ence in the State of Illinois, and I believe I am saj ing that which, if it would be offensive to any persons and render them enemies to myself, would be offensive to persons in this audience." A HUMOROUS SPEECH — LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR. The friends of General Cass, when that gentleman was a candidate for the Presidency, endeavored to LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 333 endow him with a military reputation. Mr. Lincohi, at that time a representative in Congress, delivered a speech before the House, which, in its allusion to Mr. Cass, was exquisitely sarcastic and irresistibly humor- ous: "By the way, Mr. Speaker," said Mr. Lincoln, "do you know I am a military hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk War, I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of General Cass's career reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass to Hull's surrender; and like him I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. ... If General Cass went in advance of me picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charging upon the wild onion. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say that I was often very hungry. ' ' Mr. Lincoln concluded by saying that if he ever turned Democrat and should run for the Presidency, he hoped they would not make fun of him by attempt- ing to make him a military hero ! JOINT DEBATE BETWEEN MR. DOUGLAS AND MR. LINCOLN. First Joint Debate at Ottawa, August ^/, 1838. MR. DOUGLAS'S SPEECH. "Ladies and Gentlemen: I appear before you to-day for the purpose of discussing the leading political topics which now agitate the public mind. 334 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "By an arrangement between Mr. Lincoln and myself, we are present here to-day for the purpose of having a joint discussion, as the representatives of the two great parties of the State and Union, upon the principles in issue between these parties ; and this vast concourse of people shows the deep feeling which per- vades the public mind in regard to the questions divid- ing us. "Prior to 1854 this country was divided into two great political parties known as the Whig and Democratic parties. Both were national and patriotic, advocated principles that were universal in their application. "An old-line Whig could proclaim his principles in Louisiana and Massachusetts alike. Whig principles had no boundary sectional line — they were not limited by the Ohio River, nor by the Potomac, nor by the line of the free and slave States, but applied and were proclaimed wherever the Constitution ruled, or the American flag waved over the American soil. So it was, and so it is with the great Democratic party, which, from the days of Jefferson until this period, has proved itself to be the historic party of this nation. "While the Whig and Democratic parties differed in regard to a bank, the tariff distribution, the specie circular and the sub-treasury, they agreed on the great slavery question, which now agitates the Union. "I say that the Whig party and the Democratic party agreed on this slavery question, while they differed on those matters of expediency to which I have referred. "The Whig party and the Democratic party adopted the Compromise measures of 1850 as the basis of a proper and just solution of the slavery question in all its forms. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 335 '*Clay was the great leader, with Webster on his right and Cass on his left, and sustained by the patriots in the Whig and Democratic ranks, who had devised and enacted the Compromise measure of 1850. "In 1 85 1 the Whig party and the Democratic party united in Illinois in adopting resolutions indorsing and approving the principles of the Compromise measure of 1850 as the proper adjustment of that question, "In 1852, when the Whig party assembled in conven- tion in Baltimore for the purpose of nominating a can- didate for the Presidency, the first thing it did was to declare the Compromise measure of 1850, in substance and in principle, a suitable adjustment of that ques- tion. [Applause.] My friends, silence will be more acceptable to me in the discussion of these questions than applause. I desire to address myself to your judgment, your understanding, and your consciences, and not to your passion or your enthusiasm. "When the Democratic Convention assembled in Baltimore in the same year, for the purpose of nomi- nating a Democratic candidate for the Presidency, it also adopted the Compromise measure of 1850 as the basis of Democratic action. Thus you see, that up to 1853-54, the Whig party and the Democratic party both stood on the same platform with regard to the slavery question. That platform was the right of the people of each State and each Territory to decide their local and domestic institutions for themselves, subject only to the Federal Constitution. During the session of Congress of 1853-54, I introduced into the Senate of the United States a bill to organize the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska on that principle which had been adopted in the Compromise measure of 1850, approved 336 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. by the Whig party and the Democratic party in Illinois in 1 85 1, and endorsed by the Whig party and the Democratic party in National Convention in 1852. In order that there might be no misunderstanding in rela- tion to the principle involved in the Kansas and Nebraska bill, I put forth the true intent and meaning of the act in these words: *It is the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any State or Territory, or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject to the Federal Constitution.' "Thus, you see, that in 1854, when the Kansas and Nebraska bill was brought into Congress for the pur- pose of carrying over the principles which both parties had up to that time endorsed and approved, there had been no division in this country in regard to that prin- ciple except the opposition of the Abolitionists. In the House of Representatives of the Illinois Legis- lature, upon a resolution asserting that principle, every Whig and every Democrat in the House voted in the affirmative, and only four men voted against it, and those four were old-line Abolitionists. . "In 1854, Mr. Abraham Lincoln and Mr. Trumbull entered into an arrangement, one with the other, and each with his respective friends, to dissolve the old Whig party on the one hand, and to dissolve the old Democratic party on the other, and to connect the members of both into an abolition party, under the name and disguise of the Republican party. "The terms of that arrangement between Mr. Lin- coln and Mr. Trumbull have been published to the world by Mr. Lincoln's special friend, H. Matheny, LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 337 Esq., and they were that Lincoln should have Shield's place in the United States Senate, which was then about to become vacant, and that Mr, Trumbull would have my seat when my term expired. "Lincoln went to work to abolish the old Whig party all over the State, pretending that he was then as good a Whig as ever ; and Trumbull went to work in his part of the State preaching abolitionism in its milder and lighter form, and trying to abolitionize the Democratic party and bring old Democrats handcuffed and bound hand and foot into the abolition camp. "In pursuance of this arrangement, the parties met at Springfield in October, 1854, and proclaimed their new platform. "Lincoln was to bring into the abolition camp the old-line Whigs, and transfer them over to Giddings, Chase, Fred Douglass, and Parson Lovejoy, who were ready to receive them and christen them in their new party faith. He laid down on that occasion a platform for their new Republican party, which was to be thus constructed. I have their resolutions of the State Convention then held, which was the First mass State Convention ever held in Illinois by the Black Repub- lican party, and I now hold them in my hands, and will read a part of them, and cause the others to be printed. Here are the most important and material resolutions of this abolition platform : [Reading]. Now, Gentle- men, your Black Republicans have cheered every one of those propositions, and yet I venture to say that you cannot get Mr. Lincoln to come out and say that he is now in favor of each one of them. "That these propositions, one and all, constitute the platform of the Black Republican party of this day, I 338 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. have no doubt ; and when you were not aware for what purpose I was reading them, your Black Republicans cheered them as good Black Republican doctrines, "My object in reading these resolutions, was to put the question to Abraham Lincoln this day, whether he now stands and will stand by each article in that creed, and carry it out. "I desire to know whether Mr. Lincoln to-day stands as he did in 1854, in favor of unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. "I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the people want them. I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the prohibition of the slave trade between the different States. "I desire to know whether he stands pledged to pro- hibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, North as well as South of the Missouri Compromise line. "I desire him to answer whether he is opposed to the acquisition of any more territory unless slavery is prohibited therein. I want his answers to these ques- tions. Your affirmative cheers in favor of the abolition platform are not satisfactory. I ask Abraham Lincoln to answer these questions in order that when I trot him down to lower Egypt I may put the same questions to him. "My principles are the same everywhere. "I can proclaim them alike in the North, the South, the East, and the West. My principles will apply LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 339 wherever the Constitution prevails and the American flag waves. I desire to know whether Mr. Lincoln's principles will bear transplanting from Ottawa to Jonesboro? I put these questions to him to-day dis- tinctly, and ask an answer. I have a right to an answer, for I quote from the platform of the Repub- lican party, made by himself and others at the time that party was formed, and the bargain made by Lincoln to dissolve and kill the old Whig party and transfer its members bound hand and foot to the abolition party, under the direction of Giddings and Fred Douglass. "In the remarks I have made on this platform, and the position of Mr. Lincoln upon it, I mean nothing personally disrespectful or unkind to any gentleman. I have known him for nearly twenty-five years. There were many points of sympathy between us when we first got acquainted. "We were both comparatively boys, and both strug- gling with poverty in a strange land. "I was a schoolteacher in the town of Winchester, and he a flourishing grocery-keeper in the town of Salem. "He was more successful in his occupation than I was in mine, and hence more fortunate in this world's goods. "Lincoln is one of those peculiar men who perform with admirable skill everything which they undertake. "I made as good a schoolteacher as I possibly could, and when a cabinet-maker I made a good bedstead and tables, although my old boss said I succeeded better with bureaus and secretaries than with anything else; but I believe that Lincoln was always more successful 340 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. in business than I, for his business enabled him to get into the Legislature. "I met him there, however, and had a sympathy with him, because of the up-hill struggle we both had in life. "He was then just as good at telling an anecdote as now. He could beat any of the boys wrestling, or run- ning a foot race, in pitching quoits, or tossing a copper ; could ruin more liquor than all the boys in the town together, and the dignity and impartiality with which he presided at a horse race or fist fight, excited the admiration and won the praise of everybody that was present and participated. I sympathized with him, because he was struggling with difficulties, and so was 1. "Mr. Lincoln served with me in the Legislature in 1836, when we both retired and he subsided; or became submerged, and he was lost sight of as a pub- lic man for several years. "In 1846, when Wilmot introduced his celebrated process, and the abolition tornado swept over the country, Lincoln again turned up as a member of Con- gress from the Sangamon District. I was then in the Senate of the United States, and was glad to welcome my old friend and companion. While in Congress he distinguished himself by his opposition to the Mexican War, taking the side of the common enemy against his own country; and when he returned home he found that the indignation of the people followed him every- where, and he was again submerged or obliged to retire into private life, forgotten by his former friends. "He came up again in 1854, just in time to make this Abolition or Black Republican platform, in company LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 341 with Giddings, Lovejoy, Chase, and Fred Douglass, for the Republican party to stand upon. "Trumbull, too, was one of our own contemporaries. He was born and raised in old Connecticut, was bred a Federalist, but removing to Georgia turned nullifier, when nullification was popular, and as soon as he dis- posed of his clocks and wound up his business, migrated to Illinois, turned politician, and became noted as the author of the scheme to repudiate a large portion of the State debt of Illinois, which, if successful, would have brought infamy and disgrace upon the fair escutcheon of our glorious State. The odium attached to that measure consigned him to oblivion for a time. I helped to do it. I walked to a public meeting in the hall of the House of Representatives, and replied to his repudiating speeches, and resolutions were carried over his head denouncing repudiation, and asserting the moral and legal obligation of Illinois to pay every dollar of the debt she owed and every bond that bore her seal. "Trumbull's malignity has followed me since I thus defeated his nefarious schemes. These two men, hav- ing formed this combination to abolitionize the old Whig party and the old Democratic party, and put themselves into the Senate of the United States, in pursuance of their bargain are now cari;ying out that arrangement. "Matheny states that Trumbull broke faith; that the bargain was, that Lincoln should be the Senator in Shields' place, and Trumbull was to wait for mine; and the story goes, that Trumbull cheated Lincoln, having control of four or five abolitionized Democrats who were holding over in the Senate ; he would not 342 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. let them vote for Lincoln, and which obliged the rest of the Abolitionists to support him in order to secure an abolition Senator. There are a number of author- ities for the truth of this besides Matheny, and I sup- pose that even Mr. Lincoln will not deny it. "Mr. Lincoln demands that he shall have the place intended for Mr. Trumbull, as Trumbull cheated him, and got his, and Trumbull is stumping the State traducing me for the purpose of securing the position for Lincoln, in order to quiet him. It was in conse- quence of this arrangement that the Republican Con- vention was impaneled to instruct for Lincoln and nobody else, and it was on this account that they passed resolutions that he was their first, their last, and their only choice. Archy Williams was nowhere, Browning was nobody, Wentworth was not to be con- sidered; they had no man in the Republican party for the place except Lincoln, for the reason that he demanded that they should carry out the arrange- ments. Having formed this new party for the benefit of deserters from Whiggery, and deserters from Democracy, and having laid down the abolition plat- form which I have read, Lincoln now takes his stand and proclaims his abolition doctrine. "Let me read a part of them. In his speech at Springfield to the Convention, which nominated him for the Senate, he said: [Reads extracts.] [Applause and "good."] I am delighted to hear you Black Republicans say "good." I have no doubt that doc- trine expresses your sentiments, and I will prove to you now, if you will listen to me, that it is revolution- ary and destructive of the existence of this Govern- ment. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 343 "Mr. Lincoln, in the extract from which I have read, says that the Government cannot endure permanently by the same principles and in the same relative condi- tion in which our fathers made it. Why can it not exist divided into free and slave States? Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Jay, and the great men of that day, made this Government divided into free States and slave States, and left each State perfectly free to do as it pleased on the subject of slavery. Why can it not exist on the same principles on which our fathers made it? They knew when they framed the Constitution that in a country as wide and broad as this, with such a variety of climate, produc- tions and interest, the people necessarily required different laws and institutions in different localities. "They knew that the laws and regulations which would suit the granite hills of New Hampshire would be unsuited to the rice plantations of South Carolina, and they, therefore, provided that each State should retain its own Legislature and its own sovereignty, with the full and complete power to do as it pleased within its own limits, in all that was local and not national. "One of the reserved rights of the States was the right to regulate the relations between master and servant on the slavery question. "At the time the Constitution was framed, there were thirteen States in the Union, twelve of which were slave-holding States, and one a free State. Sup- pose this doctrine of uniformity preached by Mr. Lin- coln, that the States should all be free or all slave, had prevailed, and what would have been the result? Of course, the twelve slave-holding States would have 344 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. overruled the one free State, and slavery would have been fastened by a Constitutional provision on every inch of the American Republic, instead of being left as our fathers wisely left it, to each State to decide for itself. "Here I assent that uniformity in the local laws and institutions of the different States is neither possible nor desirable. "If uniformity had been adopted when the Govern- ment was established, it must inevitably have been the uniformity of slavery everywhere, or else the uni- formity of negro citizenship and negro equality every- where. We are told by Lincoln, that he is utterly opposed to the Dred Scott decision, and will not submit to it, for the reason that he says it deprives the negro of the rights and privileges of citizenship. "That is the first and main reason which he assigns for the warfare on the Supreme Court of the United States and its decision. "I ask you, are you in favor of conferring upon the negro the rights and privileges of citizenship? Do you desire to strike out of our State Constitution that clause which keeps slaves and free negroes out of the State, and allow the free negroes to flow in, and cover your prairies with black settlements? "Do you desire to turn this beautiful State into a free negro colony, in order that when Missouri abolishes slavery she can send one hundred thousand emancipated slaves into Illinois, to become citizens and voters on an equality with ourselves? "If you desire negro citizenship, if you desire them to vote on an equality with yourselves, and to make them eligible to office, to serve on juries and to adjudge LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 345 our rights, then support Mr. Lincoln and the Black Republican party, who are in favor of the citizenship of the negro. "For one, I am opposed to negro citizenship in any and every form. I believe this Government was made on the white basis. "I believe it was made by white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and I am in favor of conferring citizenship to white men, men of European birth and descent, instead of conferring it upon negroes, Indians, and other inferior races. "Mr. Lincoln, following the example and lead of all the little abolition orators, who go around and lecture in the basements of schools and churches, read from the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal, and then asks, how can you deprive a negro of that equality which God and the Declaration of Independence award to him? He and they maintain that negro equality is guaranteed by the laws of God, and that it is asserted in the Declaration of Independ- ence. "If they think so, of course, they have a right to say so, and so vote. I do not question Mr. Lincoln's con- scientious belief that the negro was made his equal, and hence is his brother, but for my own part, I do not regard the negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother or any kin to me whatever. Lincoln has evidently learned by heart Parson Lovejoy's cate- chism. He can repeat as well as Farnsworth, and he is worthy of a medal from Father Giddings and Fred Douglass for his abolitionism. He holds that the negro was born his equal and yours, and that he was endowed with equality by the Almighty, and that no human law 346 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. can deprive him of these rights which were guaranteed to him by the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. Now, I do not believe that the Almighty ever intended the negro to be the equal of the white man. If he did, he has been a long time demonstrating the fact. For thousands of years the negro has been a race upon the earth, and during all that time, in all latitudes and climates, wherever he has wandered or been taken, he has been inferior to the race which he has there met. He belongs to an inferior race, and must always occupy an inferior position. "I do not hold that because the negro is our inferior that therefore he ought to be a slave. By no means can such a conclusion be drawn from what I have said. On the contrary, I hold that humanity and Christianity both require that the negro shall have and enjoy every right, every privilege, and every immunity consistent with the safety of the society in which he lives. "On that point, I presume, there can be no diversity of opinion. "You and I are bound to extend to our inferior and dependent beings every right, every privilege, every facility and immunity consistent with the public good. "The question then arises, what rights and privileges are consistent with the public good? "This is a question which each State and each Ter- ritory must decide for itself — Illinois has decided it for herself. We have provided that the negro shall not be a slave, and we have also provided that he shall not be a citizen, but we protect him in his civil rights, in his life, his person, and his property, only depriving him of all political rights whatsoever, and refusing to put him on an equality with the white man. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 34? "That policy of Illinois is satisfactory to the Demo- cratic party and to me, and if it were to the Repub- licans, there would be no question upon the subject. "But the Republicans say he ought to be made a citizen, and when he becomes a citizen, he becomes youi equal, with all your rights and privileges. "They assert the Dred Scott decision to be monstrous because it denies that the negro is or can be a citizen under the Constitution. "Now, I hold that Illinois has a right to abolish and prohibit slavery, as she did, and I hold that Kentucky has the same right to continue and protect slavery that Illinois had to abolish it. I hold that New York had as much right to abolish slavery as Virginia has to con- tinue it, and that each and every State of this Union is a sovereign power, with the right to do as it pleases on this question of slavery, and upon all its domestic insti- tutions. "Slavery is not the only question that comes up in this controversy. There is a far more important one to you, and that is, what shall be done with the free negro? "We have settled the slavery question, so far as we are concerned; we have prohibited it in Illinois for- ever, and in doing so, I think we have done wisely, and there is no man in the State who would be more strenuous in his opposition to the introduction of slav- ery than I would; but when we have settled it for our- selves, we exhausted all our power over that subject. We have done our whole duty, and can do no more. "We must leave each and every other State to decide for itself the same question. In relation to the policy to be pursued toward the free negroes, we have 34S LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. said that they shall not vote; whilst Maine, on the other hand, has said that they shall vote. Maine is a sovereign State, and has the power to regulate the qualifications of voters within her limits. I would never consent to confer the right of voting and of citizenship upon a negro, but still I am not going to quarrel with Maine for differing with me in opinion. Let Maine take care of her own negroes and fix the qualifications of her own voters to suit herself, without interfering with Illinois, and Illinois will not interfere with Maine. So with the State of New York. She allows the negro to vote provided he owns two hundred and fifty dollars* worth of property, but not otherwise. "While I should not make any distinction, whatever, between a negro who held property and one who did not, yet, if the sovereign State of New York chooses to make that distinction, it is her business and not mine, and I will not quarrel with her for it. She can do as she pleases on this question if she minds her own business, and we will do the same thing. "Now, my friends, if we will only act conscientiously and rigidly upon this great question of popular sover- eignty, which guarantees to each State and Territory the right to do as it pleases on all things local, and domestic, instead of Congress interfering, we will continue at peace one with another. "Why should Illinois be at war with Missouri, or Kentucky with Ohio, or Virginia with New York, merely because their institutions differ. They knew that the North and the South, having different cli- mates, productions and interests, required different institutions. "This doctrine of Mr. Lincoln's, of uniformity among LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 349 the institutions of the different States, is a new doc- trine never dreamed of by Washington, Madison, or the framers of this Government. Mr. Lincoln and the ■ Republican party set themselves up as wiser than these men who made the Government, which has flouri-^ihed for seventy years under the principle of popular sovereignty, recognizing the right of each State to do ns it pleased. Under that principle we have grown Irom a nation of about thirty millions of people. We have crossed the Alleghany Mountains, and filled up the whole Northwest, turning the prairie into a gar- den, and building up churches and schools, thus spreading civilization and Christianity where before there was nothing but savage barbarism. Under that principle we have become, from a feeble nation, the most powerful on the face of the earth, and if we only adhere to that principle, we can go forward increasing in territory, in power, in strength, and in glory until the Republic of America shall be the North Star that shall guide the friends of freedom throughout the civilized world, "A-iid why can we not adhere to the great principle of self-government, upon which our institutions were originally based? I believe that the new doctrine preached by Mr. Lincoln and his party will dissolve the Union if it siicceeds. "They are trying to array all the Northern States in one body against the South, to excite a sectional war between the free States and the slave States, in order that one or the other may be driven to the wall. "I am told that my time is out. Mr. Lincoln will now address you for an hour and a half, and I will then occupy a half hour in replying to hfm. " 350 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. MR. Lincoln's reply. **My Fellow-Citizens: When a man hears himself somewhat misrepresented, it provokes him — at least I find it so with myself, but when misrepresentation becomes very gross and palpable, it is more apt to amuse me. "The first thing I see fit to notice is the fact that Judge Douglas alleges, after running through the his- tory of the old Democratic and the old Whig parties, that Judge Trumbull and myself made arrangement in 1854, by which I was to have the place of General Shields in the United States Senate, and Judge Trum- bull was to have the place of Judge Douglas. "Now, all that I have to say upon that subject is, that I think no man, not even Judge Douglas, cvi prove this, because it is not true. I have no doubt he is conscientious in saying it. As to those resolutions that he took such a length of time to resd, as being the platform of the Republican party in T854, I say, I never had anything to do with them. "I believe this is true about those resolutions: There was a call for a convention to form a Repub- lican party at Springfield, and I think that my friend, Mr. Lovejoy, who is here upon this stand, had a hand in it. I think this is true, and I think, if he will remember accurately, he will be able to recollect that he tried to get me into it, and I would not go in. "I believe that it is also true that I went away from Springfield when the Convention was in session to attend court in Tazewell Count}^ It is true that th.jy did place my name, though without authority, upon the Committee, and afterward wrote me to attend the tweeting of the Committee, but I refused to do so, and LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 351 I never had anything to do with that organization. This is the plain truth about all that matter of the resolution. "Now, about that story that Judge Douglas tells of Trumbull bargaining to sell out the old Democratic party, and Lincoln agreeing to sell out the old Whig party, I have the means of knowing about that that Judge Douglas cannot have, and I know there is no substance to it whatever. Yet I have no doubt he is 'conscientious' about it. I know that after Mr. Lovejoy got into the Legislature that winter, he com- plained of me that I had told all the old Whigs of his district that the old Whig party was good enough for them, and some of them voted against him because I told them so. Now, I have no means of totally dis- proving such charges as this which the Judge makes. "A man cannot prove a negative, but he has a right to claim that when a man makes an affirmative charge, he must offer some proof to show the truth of what he says. I certainly cannot introduce testimony to show the negative about things, but I have a right to claim that if a man says he knows a thing, then he must show how he knows it. I always have a right to claim this, and it is not satisfactory to me that he may be conscientious on the subject. "Now, gentlemen, I hate to waste my time on such things, but in regard to that general abolition tilt that Judge Douglas makes, when he says that I was engaged at that time in selling out and abolitionizing the old Whig party, I hope you will permit me to read a part of a printed speech that I made then at Peoria, which will show altogether a different view of the position I took in that contest of 1854: 352 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. " 'This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The foregoing history may not be precisely accurate in every particular, but I presume it is sufficiently so for all the uses I shall attempt to make of it, and in it we have before us the chief material enabling us to cor- rectly judge whether the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise is right or wrong. I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong; wrong in its direct effects, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, and wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide world, wheie men can be found inclined to take it. This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert zeal, for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself — I hate it because it deprives our Republican example of its just influence in the world — enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites — causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerit)'', and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty — criticising the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self- interest. " 'Before proceeding, lei me say, I think I have no prejudice against the Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not exist among them, they would not introduce it; if it did now exist among us, we should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses, north and south. Doubtless there are individuals on both sides who would not hold the slaves under any circumstances, and LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 353 others who would gladly introduce slavery anew, if it were out of existence. " 'We know that some Southern men do free their slaves, go north and become tip-top Abolitionists, while some northern ones go south and become most cruel slave masters. " 'When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery than we, I acknowledge the iact When it is said that the insti- tution exists and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appre- ciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If all earthly powers were given me, I should not know what to do as to the existing institution. " 'My first impulse would be to free all the slaves and send them to Liberia — to their own native land. But a moment's reflection would convince me that what- ever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is impos- sible. " 'If they were all landed there in a day, they would all perish there in the next ten days — and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough in the world to carry them there in many times ten days. What then? Free them all, and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their condition? I think I would not hold them in slavery at any rate, yet the point is not clear enough to me to denounce people upon. What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know that the great mass of white people will 354 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judgment is not the sole question, if, indeed, it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be safely disregarded. We can- not, then, make them equals. It does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their tardiness, I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the South; they remind us of their Constitutional rights; I acknowledge them, not grudg- ingly, but fully and fairly, and I would give them any legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives, which should not, in its stringency, be more likely to carry a free man into slavery than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang an innocent one. "But all this, to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse for permitting slavery to go into our own free territory, than it would for revising the African slave- trade by law. The law which forbids the bringing of slaves from Africa, and that which has so long forbid the taking of them to Nebraska, can hardly be dis- tinguished on any moral principle; and the repeal of the former could find quite as plausible excuses as that of the latter, ' "I have reason to know that Judge Douglas knows that I said this; I think he has the answer here to one of his questions he puts to me; I do not mean to allow him to catechise me unless he pays me back in kind. I will not answer questions one after another, unless he reciprocates, but as he has made this inquiry, and I have answered it before, he has got it without my get- ting anything in return. He has got my answer on the Fugitive Slave Law. "Now, gentlemen. I don't want to read at any LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 355 greater length, but this is the true complexion of all I have ever said in regard to the institution of slavery and the black race. "This is the whole of it, and anything that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro is but a specious and fantastic arrange- ment of words by which men can prove a horsechest- nut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no law- ful right to do so; I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and, inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. "I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Inde- pendence, the right to life, liberty^ and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas, he is not my equal in any respect, certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowments, but in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of an)''- body else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of any living man. 356 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. *'Now, I pass on to consider one or two more of these little follies. The Judge is woefully at fault about his early friend Lincoln being a grocery-keeper. I don't know as it would be a great sin, if I had been, but he is mistaken, Lincoln never kept a grocery any- where in the world ; it is true that Lincoln did work the latter part of one winter in a little still-house up at the head of the hollow. And so, I think, my friend, the Judge, is equally at fault when he charges me at the time when I was in Congress of having opposed our soldiers who were fighting in the Mexican War. The Judge did not make his charge very distinctly but I can tell you how you can prove it, by referring to the record. You remember I was an old Whig, and whenever the Democratic party tried to get me to vote that the war had been righteously made by the Presi- dent, I would not do it, but whenever they asked for money or land warrants, or anything to pay the sol- diers there, during all that time, I gave the same vote that Judge Douglas did. You can think as you please as to whether that was consistent. Such is the truth, and the Judge has the right to make all he can out of it. But when he, by a general statement, conveys the idea that I withheld supplies from the soldiers, he is, to say the least, grossly and altogether mistaken, as a consultation of the records will prove to him. "As I have not used up so much of my time as I had supposed, I will dwell a little longer upon one or two of these minor topics upon which the Judge has spoken. He has read from my speech in Springfield, in which I said that 'a house divided against itself cannot stand.' Does the Judge say it can stand? I don't know whether he does or not. The Judge does LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 357 not seem to be attending to me just now, but I would like to know if it is nis opinion that a house divided against itself can stand. If he does, then there is a question of veracity, not between him and me, but between the Judge and an authority of a somewhat higher character. "Now, my friends, I ask your attention to this matter for the purpose of saying something seriously. I know that the Judge may readily enough agree with me that the maxim which was put forth by the Savior is true, but he may allege that I misapply it; and the Judge has a right to urge that, in my application, I do misapply it, and then I have a right to show that I do not misapply it. When he undertakes to say that because I think this nation, so far as the question is concerned, will all become one thing or all the other, I am in favor of bringing about a dead uniformity in the various States in all their institutions, he argues erroneously. The great variety of the local institu- tions in the States, springing from differences in the soil, differences in the face of the country, and in th climate, are bonds of union. They do not make a house divided against itself, but they make a house united. **If they produce in one section of the country what is called for by the wants of another section, and this other section can supply the wants of the first, they are not matters of discord, but bonds of union, true bonds of imion. But can this question of slavery be consid- ered as among these varieties in the institutions of the country? I leave it to you to say whether in the his- tory of our Government this institution of slavery has not always failed to be a bond of union, and, on the 358 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. contrary, been an apple of discord, and an elemert of division in the house. 'I ask you to consider whether, so long as the moral constitution of men's minds shall continue to be the same, after this generation and assemblage shall sink into the grave, and another race shall arise, with the same moral and intellectual development we have, whether, if that institution is standing in the irritating position in which it now is, it will not continue an element of division? If so, then I have a right to say that, in regard to this question, the Union is a house divided against itself; and when the Judge reminds me that I have often said to him that the institution of slavery has existed for eighty years in some States, and yet it does not exist in some others, I agree to the fact, and I account for it by looking at the position in which our fathers originally placed it, — restricting it from the new Territories where it had not gone, and legis- lating to cut off its source by the abrogation of the slave-leader, thus putting the seal of legislation against its spread, "The public mind did rest in the belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. But lately, I think — and in this I charge nothing on the Judge's motives — lately, I think that he, and those acting with him, have placed that institution on a new basis, which looks to the perpetuity and nationalization of slavery. And while it is placed upon this new basis, I say, and have said, that I believe we shall not have peace upon the question until the opponents of slavery 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, on the other hand, that its LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 359 advocates will push it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South. "Now, I believe if we could arrest the spread, and place it where Washington and Jefferson and Madison placed it, it would be in the course of ultimate extinc- tion. The crisis would be past, and the institution might be left alone for a hundred years, if it should live so long in the States where it exists, yet it would be going out of existence in the way best for both the black and the white races. "[A voice — 'Then do you repudiate Popular Sover- eignty?'] What is Popular Sovereignty? Is it the right of the people to have slavery or not have it, as they see fit, in the Territories? I will state — and I have an able man to match me — my understanding is that Pop- ular Sovereignty, as now applied to the question of slavery, does allow the people of a Territory to have slavery if they want to, but allows them not to have it if they do not want it. I do not mean that if this vast concourse of people were in a Territory of the United States, any one of them would be obliged to have a slave if he did not want one; but I do say that, as I understand the Dred Scott decision, if any one man wants slaves, all the rest have no way of keeping that one man from holding them. "When I made my speech at Springfield, of which the Judge complains and from which he quotes, I really was not thinking of the things which he ascribes to me at all. I had no thought in the world that I was doing anything to bring about a war between the free and slave States. "I had no thought in the world that I was doing any- s6o LINCOLN'S GR^AT SPEECHES. thing to bring about a political and social equality of the black and white races. "It never occurred to me that 1 was doing anything or favoring anything to reduce to a dead uniformity all the local institutions of the various States. "But I must say, in all fairness to him, if he thinks I am doing something that leads to these bad results, it is none the better that I did not mean it. "It is just as fatal to the country, if I had any influ- ence in producing it, whether I intended to or not. "But can it be true, that placing this institution upon the original basis — the basis upon which our fathers placed it — can have any tendency to set the Northern and Southern States at war with one another, or that it can have any tendency to make the people of Vermont raise sugarcane, because they raise it in Louisiana, or that it can compel the people of Illinois to cut pine logs on the Grand Prairie, where they will not grow, because they cut pine logs in Maine, where they do grow? The Judge says this is a new principle started in regard to this question. Does the Judge claim that he is working on the plan of the founder of Government? "I think he says in some of his speeches — indeed, I have one here now — that he saw evidence of a policy to allow slavery to be south of a certain line, while north of it it should be excluded, and he saw an indis- position on the part of the country to stand upon that policy, and therefore he set about studying the subject upon original principles, and upon original principles he got up the Nebraska bill ! I am fighting it upon these 'original principles' — fighting it in the Jeffer- sonian, Washingtonian and Madisonian fashion. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 361 "Now, my friends, I wish you to attend for a little while to one or two other things in that Springfield speech. My main object was to show, so far as my humble ability was capable of showing to the people of this country, what I believe was the truth, that there was a tendency, if not a conspiracy among those who have engineered this slavery question for the last four or five years, to make slavery perpetual and universal in this nation. "Having made that speech principally for that object, after arranging the evidences that I thought tended to prove my proposition, I concluded with this bit of comment: [Reads from Springfield speech]. "When my friend Judge Douglas came to Chicago, on the 9th of July, this speech having been delivered on the 1 6th of June, he made a harangue there, in which he took hold of the speech of mine, showing that he had carefully read it; and while he paid no atten- tion to this matter at all, but complimented me as being a 'kind, amiable, and intelligent gentleman,' notwithstanding I had said this, he goes on and elim- inates, or draws out, from my speech this tendency of mine to set the States at war with one another, to make all the institutions uniform, and set the niggers and white people to marrying together. "Then, as the Judge had complimented me with these pleasant titles (I must confess to my weakness), I was a little 'taken,' for it came from a great man, "I was not very much accustomed to flattery, and it came the sweeter to me. "I was rather like the Hoosier with the gingerbread, when he said he loved it better than any other man and got less of it. As the Judge had so flattered me, I 362 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. could not make up rti)'- mind that he meant to deal unfairly with me, so I went to work to show him that he misunderstood the whole scope of my speech, and that I really never intended to set the people at war with one another. "As an illustration, the next time I met him, which was at Springfield, I used this expression, that I claimed no right under the Constitution, nor had I any inclination, to enter into the slave States and inter- fere with the institution of slavery. "He says upon that: 'Lincoln will not enter into the slave States, but will go to the banks of the Ohio, on this side; and shoot over.' He runs on, step by step, in the horsechestnut style of argument, until in the Springfield speech he says, ' Unless he shall be success- ful in firing his batteries, until he shall have extin- guished slavery in all the States, the Union shall be dissolved.' Now, I don't think that was exactly the way to treat a 'kind, amiable, intelligent gentleman.' I know if I had asked the Judge to show when and where it was I had said that, if I didn't succeed in fir- ing into the slave States until slavery should be extin- guished, the Union should be dissolved, he could not have shown it. "I understand what he would do. He would say. 'I don't mean to quote from you, but this was the result of what you say. * "But I have the right to ask, and I ask now. Did you not put it in such a form that an ordinaiy reader or listener would take it as an expression from me? "In a speech at Springfield, on the night of the 17th, I thought I might as well attend to my own business a little, and I recalled his attention to the fact that he LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 363 had acknowledged in my hearing twice that he had carefully read the speech, and still had put in no plea or answer. I took a default on him. I insisted that I had a right then to renew that charge of conspiracy. Ten days afterward I met the Judge at Clinton — that is to say, I was on the ground, but not in the discus- sion — I heard him make a speech. "Then he comes in with his plea to this charge, for the first time, and his plea as put in, as well as I can recollect it, amounted to this : That he never had any talk with Judge Taney or the President of the United States with regard to the Dred Scott decision before it was made. I (Lincoln) ought to know that the man who makes a charge without knowing it to be true, falsifies as much as he who knowingly tells a falsehood ; and lastly that he would pronounce the whole thing a falsehood ; but he would make no personal application of the charge of falsehood, not because of any regard for the 'kind, amiable, intelligent gentleman,' but because of his own personal respect. I have understood since then — but [turning to Judge Douglas] will not hold the Judge to it if he is not willing — that he has broken through the 'self-respect,' and has got to saying the things out. The Judge nods to me that it is so. "It is fortunate for me that I can keep as good- humored as I do, when the Judge acknowledged that he has been trying to make a question of veracity with me. I know the Judge is a great man, while I am only a small man, but I feel that I have got him, I demur to that plea. I waive all objections that it was not filed till after default was taken, and demur to it upon the merits. What if Judge Douglas never did talk with Chief Justice Taney and the President before 364 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. the Dred Scott decision was made, does it follow that he could not have had as perfect an understanding without talking as with it? "I am not disposed to stand upon my legal advan- tages. I am disposed to take his denial as being like an answer in chancery, that he neither had any knowl- edge, information nor belief in the existence of such a conspiracy. "I am disposed to take his answer as being as broad as though he had put it in these words. And now, I ask, even if he had done so, have not I a right to prove it on him, and to offer the evidences of more than two witnesses, by whom to prove it; and if the evidence proves the existence of the conspiracy, does his broad answer denying all knowledge, information or belief, disturb the fact? It can only show that he was used by conspirators, and was not a leader of them. "Now, in regard to reminding me of the moral rule that persons who tell what they do not know to be true falsify as much as those who knowingly tell falsehoods, I remember the rule, and it must be borne in mind that in what I have to read to you I do not say that I know such a conspiracy to exist. To that I reply, I believe it. If the Judge says that I do not believe it, then he says what he does not know, and falls within his own rule, that he who asserts a thing which he does not know to be true, falsifies as much as he who know- ingly tells a falsehood. I want to call your attention to a little discussion on that branch of the case, and the evidence brought my mind to the conclusion which I expressed as my belief. "If, in'arraying that evidence, I had stated anything that was false or erroneous, it needed but that Judge LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 365 Douglas should point it out, and I would have taken it back with all the kindness in the world. "I do not deal in that way. If I have brought for- ward anything not a fact, if he will point it out, it will not even ruffle me to take it back. "But if he will not point out anything erroneous in the evidence, is it not rather for him to show by a com- parison of the evidence, that I have reasoned falsely, than to call the 'kind, amiable gentleman' a liar? "If I have reasoned to a false conclusion, it is the vocation of an able debater to show by argument that I have wandered to an erroneous conclusion. "I want to ask your attention to a portion of the Nebraska bill which Judge Douglas has quoted: *It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom ; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Con- stitution of the United States.* "Thereupon Judge Douglas and others began to argue in favor of 'Popular Sovereignty' — the right of the people to have slaves if they wanted them, and to exclude slavery if they did not want them. " 'But,* said in substance a Senator from Ohio (Mr. Chase, I believe), 'we more than suspect that you do not mean to allow the people to exclude slavery, if they wish to, and if you do not mean it, accept an amendment which I propose, expressly authorizing the people to exclude slavery.* "I believe I have the amendment before me, which was offered, and under which the people of the Terri- tory, through their proper representatives, might, if 366 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. they saw fit, prohibit the existence of slavery therein. And now I state it as a fact, to be taken back if there is any mistake about it, that Judge Douglas and those acting with him voted that amendment down. I now think that those men who voted it down had a real reason for doing so. "They know what that reason was. It looks to us, since we have seen the Dred Scott decision pronounced, holding that 'under the Constitution' the people cannot exclude slavery — I say it looks to outsiders, poor, sim- ple, 'amiable, intelligent gentlemen,' as though the niche was left as a place to put that Dred Scott decision in — a niche which would have been spoiled by adopting the amendment. "And now, I say again, if this was not the reason, it will avail the Judge much more to calmly and good- humoredly point out to these people what that other reason was for voting the amendment down, than, swelling himself up, to vociferate that he may be pro- voked to call somebody a liar. "Again, there is in that same quotation from the Nebraska bill this clause: 'It being the true intent and meaning of this bill not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State. ' "I have always been puzzled to know what business the word 'State' had in that connection. Judge Douglas knows. He put it there. He knows what he put it there for. We outsiders cannot say what he put it there for. The law that they were passing was not about States, and was not making provisions for States. What was it placed there for? "After seeing the Dred Scott decision, which holds that the people cannot exclude slavery from a Terri- LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 367 tory, if another Dred Scott shall come, holding that they cannot exclude it from a State, we shall discover that when the word was originally put there, it was in view of something that was to come in due time, we shall see that it was the other half of something. I now say again, if there is any different reason for put- ting it there, Judge Douglas, in a good-humored way, without calling anybody a liar, can tell what the reason was. "Quoting from Douglas's speech, 'When I saw that article in the Union on the 17th of November, and this clause in the Constitution asserting the doctrine that a State has no right to exclude slavery within its limits, I saw that there was a fatal blow being struck at the sovereignty of the States of this Union.' I stop the quotation there, again requesting that it may all be read. "I have read all of the portion that I desire to com- ment upon. "What is this charge that the Judge thinks I must have a very corrupt heart to make? "It was the purpose on the part of certain high functionaries to make it impossible for the people of one State to prohibit the people of any other State from entering it with their 'property,' so called, and making it a slave State. "In other words, it was a charge implying a design to make the institution of slavery national, "And now I ask your attention to what Judge Douglas has himself done here. I know he made that part of the speech as a reason why he had refused to vote for a certain man for public printer, but when we get at it, the charge itself is the very one I made 368 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES against him, that he thinks I am so corrupt for utter- ing. "Now, whom does he make that charge against? Does he make it against that newspaper editor merely? No ; he says it is identical in spirit with the Lecomp- ston Constitution, and so the framers of that Constitu- tion are brought in with the editor of the newspaper in that 'fatal blow being struck.' "He did not call it a 'conspiracy.' In his language it is a 'fatal blow being struck.* "And, if the words carry the meaning better when changed from a 'conspiracy' into a 'fatal blow being struck, ' I will change my expression and change it to a 'fatal blow being struck.' "We see the charge made not merely against the editor of the Union, but all the framers of the Lecomp- ston Constitution, and not only so, but the article was an authoritative article. By whose authority? "Is there any question but he means it was by the authority of the President and his Cabinet — the administration? "Is there any sort of question but he means to make that charge? Then there are the editors of the Union, the framers of the Lecompston Constitiition, the Presi- dent of the United States and his Cabinet, and all the supporters of the Lecompston Constitution, in Con- gress and out of Congress, who are all involved in this 'fatal blow being struck.' "I commend to Judge Douglas's consideration the question of how corrupt a man's heart must be to make such a charge ! "Now, my friends, I have but one branch of the subject, in the little time I have left, to which to call LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 369 your attention, and as I shall come to a close at the end of that branch, it is probable that I shall not occupy all the time allotted to me. Although on these ques- tions I would like to talk twice as long as I have, I could not enter upon another head and discuss it prop- erly without running over my time. "I ask the attention of the people here assembled and elsewhere, to the course that Judge Douglas is pursuing every day as bearing upon this question of making slavery national. Not going back to the records, but taking the speeches he makes, the speeches he made yesterday and the day before, and makes constantly all over the country — T ask your attention to them. In the first place, what is neces- sary to make the institution national? Not war. There is no danger that the people of Kentucky will shoulder their muskets, and, with a young nigger stuck on every bayonet, march to Illinois and force them upon us. "There is no danger of our going over there and making war upon them. Then what is necessary for the nationalization of slavery? "It is simply the next Dred Scott decision. It is merely for the Supreme Court to decide that no State under the Constitution can exclude it, just as they have already decided that under the Constitution neither Congress nor the Territorial Legislature can do it. When that is decided and acquiesced in, the whole thing is done. This being true, and this being the way, as I think, that slavery is to be made national, let us consider what Judge Douglas is doing every day to that end. "In the first place, let us see what influence he is 370 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. exerting on public sentiment. In this and like com- munities, public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail, without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public senti- ment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pro- nounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed. This must be borne in mind, as also the additional fact that Judge Douglas is a man of vast influence, so great that it is enough for many men to profess to believe anything when they once find out that Judge Douglas professes to believe it. Consider also the attitude he occupies at the head of a large party — a party which he claims has a majority of all the votes in the country. This man sticks to a decision, which forbids the people of a territory from excluding slavery, and he does so not because he says it is right in itself — he does not give any opinion on that — but because it has been decided by the court, and being decided by the court, he is, and you are, bound to take it in your political action as law — not that he judges at all of its merits, but because a decision of the court is to him a 'Thus saith the Lord. ' "He places it on that ground alone, and you will bear in mind that, thus committing himself unreserv- edly to this decision, he commits himself to the next one just as firmly as to this. He did not commit himself on account of the merit or demerit of the decision, but it is a 'Thus saith the Lord.' The next decision, as much as this, will be a 'Thus saith the Lord.' "There is nothing that can divert or turn him away from this decision. It is nothing that I point out to him that his great prototype, General Jackson, did not LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 371 so believe in the binding force of decisions. It is nothing that Jefferson did not so believe. I have said that I have often heard him approve of Jackson's course in disregarding the decision of the Supreme Court pronouncing a National Bank constitutional. "He says I did not hear him say so. He denies the accuracy of my recollections. I say he ought to know better than I, but I will make no question about this thing, though it still seems to me that I heard him say it twenty times. "I will tell him, though, that he now claims to stand on the Cincinnati platform, which affirms that Congress cannot charter a National Bank in the teeth of that old-standing decision that Congress can charter a bank. And I remind him of another piece of history on the question of respect for judicial decisions, and it is a piece of Illinois history, belonging to a time when the large party to which Judge Douglas belonged were displeased with a decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, because they had decided that a Governor could not remove a Secretary of State. You will find the whole story in Ford's History of Illinois, and I know that Judge Douglas will not deny that he was then in favor of overruling that decision by the mode of adding five new Judges, so as to vote down the four old ones. Not only so, but it ended in the Judge sit- ting down on that very bench as one of the five new Judges to break down the four old ones. "It was in this way precisely that he got his title of Judge. Now, when the Judge tells me that men appointed conditionally to sit as members of a court will have to be catechised beforehand upon some sub- ject, I say, *You know, Judge; you have tried it.' 372 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "When he says a court of this kind will lose the con- fidence of all men, will be prostituted and disgraced by such a proceeding, I say, 'You know best, Judge; you have been through the mill.' But I cannot shake Judge Douglas's teeth loose from the Dred Scott Decision. "Like some obstinate animal (I mean no disrespect) that will hang on when he has once got his teeth fixed, you may cut off a leg, or you may tear away an arm, still he will not relax his hold. And so I may point out to the Judge, and say that he is bespattered all over, from the beginning of his political life to the present time, with attacks upon judicial decisions — I may cut o£E limb after limb of his public record, and strive to wrench him from a single dictum of the court — yet I cannot divert him from it. He hangs, to the last, to the Dred Scott decision. These things show there is a purpose strong as death and eternity, for which he adheres to this decision, and for which he will adhere to all other decisions of the same court." A Hibernian — "Give us something teside Dred Scott." Mr. Lincoln— "Yes; no doubt you want to hear something that don't hurt. Now, having spoken of the Dred Scott decision, one more word and I am done. "Henry Clay, my beau-ideal of a statesman, the man for whom I fought all my humble life — Henry Clay once said of a class of men who would repress all tend- encies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, that they must, if they would do this, go back to the era of our ^dependence, and muzzle the cannon which thunders LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 373 its annual joyous return; they must blow out the moral lights around us; they must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate thence the love of liberty ; and then, and not until then, could they perpetuate slavery in this country! To my thinking, Judge Douglas is, by his example and vast influence, doing that very thing in this vast community, when he says that the negro has nothing in the Declaration of Inde- pendence. "Henry Clay plainly understood to the contrary. Judge Douglas is going back to the era of our Revolu- tion, and, to the extent of his ability, muzzling the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return. When he invites any people, willing to have slavery, to establish it, he is blowing out the moral lights around us. When he says he 'cares not whether slav- ery is voted down or voted up'— rthat it is a sacred right of self-government — he is, in my judgment, penetrating the human soul and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty in this American people. And now I will only say that when, by all these means and appliances. Judge Douglas shall suc- ceed in bringing public sentiment to an exact accord- ance with his own views — when these vast assemblages shall echo back all these sentiment.; — when they shall come to repeat his views and to avow his principles, and to say all that he says on these mighty questions — then it needs only the formality of the second Dred Scott decision, which he indorses in advance, to make slavery alike lawful in all the States — old as well as new. North as well as South. "My friends, that ends the chapter. The Judge can take his half hour. ' ' 374 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. MR. DOUGLAS'S REPLY. (August 21, 1858.) •'Fellow Citizens: "I will now occupy the half-houi allotted to me in replying to Mr, Lincoln. The first point to which I will call your attention is, to what I said about the organization of the Republican party in 1854, and the platform that was formed on the 5th of October of that year, and I will then put the same question to Mr. Lincoln whether or not he approves of each article in that platform, and ask for a specific answer. I did not charge him with being a member of the Committee which reported that platform. "I charged that that platform was the platform of the Republican party adopted by them. "The fact that it was the platform of the Republican party is not denied, but Mr. Lincoln now says, that although his name was on the Committee which reported it, he does not think he was there, but thinks he was in Tazewell, holding court. "Now I want to remind Mr. Lincoln, that he was at Springfield when that Convention was held and those resolutions adopted. "The point I am going to remind Mr. Lincoln of is this: That after I had made my speech in 1854, during the fair, he gave me notice that he was going to reply to me the next day. I was sick at the time, but I stayed over in Springfield to hear his reply and to reply to him. "On that day this very Convention, the resolutions iidopted, which I have read, was to meet in the Senate Chamber, He spoke in the hall of the House; and when he got through his speech — my recollection is distinct, and I shall never forget it — Mr. Codding LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 375 walked in as I took the stand to reply, and gave notice that the Republican State Convention would meet instantly in the Senate Chamber, and called upon the Republicans to retire there and go into this very Con- vention, instead of remaining and listening to me. "In the first place, Mr. Lincoln was selected by the \ ery men who made the Republican organization, on that day, to reply to me. "He spoke for them and for that party, and he was the leader of the party; and on the very day he made his speech in reply to me, preaching upon this same doctrine of negro equality, under the Declaration of Independence, this Republican party met in Conven- tion, "Another evidence that he was acting in concert with them is to be found in the fact that that Conven- tion waited an hour after its time of meeting to hear Lincoln's speech, and Codding, one of their leading men, marched in the moment Lincoln got through, and gave notice that they did not want to hear me, and would proceed with the business of the Convention. "Still another fact. I have here a newspaper printed at Springfield, Mr. Lincoln's own town, in October, 1854, a few days after the publishing of these resolutions, charging Mr. Lincoln with entertaining these sentiments, and trying to prove that they were also the sentiments of Mr. Yates, then candidate for Congress. "This has been published on Mr. Lincoln over and over again, and never before has he denied it. But, my friends, this denial of his that he did not act on the committee, is a miserable quibble to avoid the main issue, which is, that this Republican platform declares 376 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. Has Mr. Lincoln answered whether he indorsed that or not? I called his attention to it when I first addressed you, and asked him for an answer, and then I predicted that he would not answer. How does he answer? Why, that he was not on the Committee that wrote the resolutions. "I then repeated the next proposition contained in the resolutions, which was to restrict slavery in those States in which it exists, and asked him whether he indorsed it. Does he answer yes or no? He says in reply, 'I was not on the Committee at the time; I was up in Tazewell. ' "The next question I put to him was, whether he was in favor of prohibiting the admission of any more slave States into the Union. *'I put the question to him distinctly, whether, if the people of the Territory, when they had sufficient popu- lation to make a State, should form their Constitution recognizing slavery, he would vote for or against its admission. He is a candidate for the United States Senate, and it is possible, if he should be elected, that he would have to vote to admit a State into the Union, with slavery or without it, as its own people might choose. He did not answer that question. He dodges that question also, under the cover that he was not on the Committee at the time, that he was not present when the platform was made. '*I want to know, if he should happen to be in the Senate when a State applied for admission, with a Constitution acceptable to her own people, he would vote to admit that State, if slavery was one of its insti- tutions. He avoids the answer. It is true, he gives LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 377 the Abolitionists to understand by a hint that he would not vote to admit such a State. And why? He goes on to say that the man who would talk about giving each State the right to have slavery, or not, as it pleased, was akin to the man who would muzzle the guns which thundered forth the annual joyous return of the day of our independence. "He says that that kind of talk is casting a blight on the glory of the country. What is the meaning of that? That he is not in favor of each State to have the right of doing as it pleases on the slavery question. I will put the questions to him again and again, and I intend to force it out of him. "Then again, this platform which was made at Springfield by his own party, when he was its acknowl- edged head, provides that 'Republicans will insist on the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia,* and I asked Lincoln specifically whether he agreed with them in that. ["Did you get an answer?"] He is afraid to answer it. He knows that I will trot him down to Egypt. I intend to make him answer there, or I will show the people of Illinois that he does not intend to answer these questions. "The Convention to which I have been alluding goes a little further, and pledges itself to exclude slavery from all the Territories over which the General Gov- ernment has exclusive jurisdiction north of 36 degrees 30 minutes, as well as south. "Now I want to know whether he approves that pro- vision. I want him to answer, and when he does, I want to know his opinion on another point, which is, whether he will redeem the pledge of the platform and resist the acquirement of any more territory, unless 37S LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. slavery therein shall be forever prohibited. I want him to answer the last question. Each of the ques- tions I have put to him are practical questions, ques- tions based upon the fundamental principles of the Black Republican party, and I want to know whether he is the first, last, and only choice of a party with whom he does not agree in principle. "He does not deny but that that principle was unanimously adopted by the Republican party; he does not deny that the whole Republican party is pledged to it; he does not deny that a man who is not faithful to it is faithless to the Republican party; and I now want to know whether that party is unanimously in favor of a man who does not adopt that creed and agree with them in their principles. I want to know whether the man who does not agree with them, and who is afraid to avow his differences, and who dodges the issue, is the first, last, and only choice of the Repub- lican party." A voice — "How about the conspiracy?" Mr. Douglas — "Never mind, I will come to that soon enough. But the plot from which I have read to you not only lays down these principles, but it adds: " 'Resolved, That in furtherance of these principles we will use such Constitutional and lawful means as shall seem best adapted to their accomplishment, and that we will support no man for office, under the general or State Government, who is not positively and fully committed to the support of these principles, and whose personal character and conduct is not a guaranty that he is reliable, and who shall not have abjured old party allegiance and ties." "The Black Republican party stands pledged that LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 379 they would never support Lincoln until he has pledged himself to that platform, but he cannot devise his answer; he has not made up his mind whether he will or not. "He talked about everything else he could think of to occupy his hour and a half, and when he could not think of anything more to say, without an excuse for refusing to answer these questions, he sat down long before his time was out. In relation to Mr. Lincoln's charge of conspiracy against me, I have a word to say. "In his speech to-day he quotes a playful part of his speech at Springfield, about Stephen and James, and Franklin and Roger, and says that I did not take exception to it. I did not answer it, and he repeats it again. I did not take exception to this figure of his. "He has a right to be as playful as he pleases in tlirowmg his arguments together, and I will not object; bat I did take exception to his second Springfield soeech, in which he stated that he intended his first speech as a charge of corruption or conspiracy against the Supreme Court of the United States, President Buchanan, and myself. That gave the offensive char- acter to the charge. He then said that when he made it he did not know whether it was true or not, but inas- much as Judge Douglas had not denied it, although he had replied to the other parts of his speech three times, he repeated it as a charge of conspiracy against me, thus charging me with moral turpitude. When he put it in that form, I did say, that inasmuch as he repeated the charge simply because I had not denied it, I would deprive him of the opportunity of ever repeat- ing it again, by declaring that it was in all its bearings 38o LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. an infamous lie. He says he will repeat it until 1 answer his folly and nonsense about Stephen and Roger, and Bob and James. He studied that out — prepared that one sentence with the greatest care, committed it to memory, and put it in his first Spring- field speech, and now he carries that speech around and reads that sentence to show how pretty it is. "His vanity is wounded because I will not go into that beautiful figure of his about the building of a house. All I have to say is, that I am not green enough to let him make a charge which he acknowl- edges he does not know to be true, and then take up my time in answering it, when I know it to be false and nobody else knows it to be true. I have not brought a charge of moral turpitude against him. When he, or any other man, brings one against me, instead of disproving it, I will say that it is a lie, and let him prove it if he can. I have lived twenty-five years in Illinois. I have served you with all the fidelity and ability which I possess, and Mr. Lincoln is at liberty to attack my public action, my votes, and my conduct ; but when he dares to attack my moral integ- rity, by a charge of conspiracy between myself, Chief- Justice Taney, and the Supreme Court, and two Presidents of the United States, I will repel it. "Mr. Lincoln has not character enough for integrity and truth, merely on his ipse dixit, to arraign Presi- dent Buchanan, President Pierce, and nine Judges of the Supreme Court, not one of whom would be com- plimented by being put on an equality with him. "There is an unpardonable presumption in a man putting himself up before thousands of people, and pretendLig that his ipse dixit, without proof, without LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 381 fact, and without truth, is enough to bring down and destroy the purest and best of living men. "Fellow-citizens, my time is fast expiring; I must pass on. Mr. Lincoln wants to know why I voted against Mr. Chase's amendment to the Nebraska bill. I will tell him. In the first place, the bill already con- ferred all the power which Congress had, by giving the people the whole power over the subject. Chase offered a proviso that they might abolish slavery, which, by implication, would convey the idea that they could prohibit slavery by not introducing that institu- tion. "General Cass asked him to modify his amendment, so as to provide that the people might either prohibit or introduce slavery, and thus make it fair and equal. "Chase refused to so modify his proviso, and then General Cass and all the rest of us voted it down. Those facts appear on the journals and debates of Congress, where Mr. Lincoln found the charge, and if he had told the whole truth, there would have been no necessity for me to occupy your time in explaining the matter. "Mr. Lincoln wants to know why the word 'State* as well as 'Territory' was put in the Nebraska bill. "I will tell him. It was put there to meet just such false arguments as he has been adducing. "That, first, not only the people of the Territories should do as they pleased, but that when they came to be admitted as States, they should come into the Union with or without slavery, as the people deter- mined. I meant to knock in the head the abolition doc- trine of Mr. Lincoln's that there shall be no more slave States, even if the people want them. And it does no<- 382 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. do for him to say, or for any other Black Republican to say, that there is nobody in favor of the doctrine of no more slave States, and that nobody wants to inter- fere with the right of the people to do as they please. "What was the origin of the Missouri difficulty and the Missouri Compromise? The people of Missouri formed a Constitution as a slave State, and asked admission into the Union, but the Free Soil party of the North, being in a majority, refused to admit her because she had slavery as one of her institutions. "Hence this first slavery agitation arose upon a State and not upon a Territory, and yet Mr. Lincoln does not know why the word State was placed in the Kansas- Nebraska bill. The whole abolition agitation arose on that doctrine of prohibiting a State from coming in with slavery or not, as it pleased, and that same doc- trine is here in this Republican platform of 1854; it has never been repealed; and every Black Republican stands pledged by that platform never to vote for any man who is not in favor of it. Yet Mr. Lincoln does not know that there is a man in the world who is in favor of preventing a State from coming in as it pleases, notwithstanding the Springfield platform says that they, the Republican party, will not allow a State to come in under such circumstances. He is an ignorant man. "Now you see that upon these very points I am as far from bringing Mr. Lincoln up to the line as I ever was before. He does not want to avow his principles, T do want to avow mine, as clear as sunshine in mid- day. Democracy is founded upon the eternal principle of right. The plainer these principles are avowed before the people, the stronger will be the support ^ ^^.m/' '^>-\ LISTENING BUT NOT CONVINCED. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 38:; which they will receive. I only wish I had the power to make them so clear that they would shine in the heavens for every man, woman, and child to read. "The first of those principles that I would proclaim would be in opposition to Mr. Lincoln's doctrine of uniformity between the different States, and I would declare instead the sovereign right of each State to decide the slavery question as well as all other domes- tic questions for themselves, without interference from any other State or power whatsoever. "When that principle is recognized you will have peace and harmony and fraternal feeling between all the States of this Union ; until you do recognize that doctrine there will be sectional warfare agitating and distracting the country. What does Mr. Lincoln pro- pose? He says that the Union cannot exist divided into free and slave States. If it cannot endure thus divided, then he must strive to make them all free or all slave, which will inevitably bring about the dissolu- tion of the Union. "Gentlemen, I am told that my time is out, and I am obliged to stop. ' ' LINCOLN'S GREAT COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. Delivered at Cooper Institute, New York City, Feb- ruary 27, i860. This speech, more than any other one, is supposed to have secured Lincoln the nomination for the Presidency. "Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens of New York: The facts with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new ir» 386 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. the general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the references and observations following that presentation. OUR FATHERS AND THE CONSTITUTION. "In his speech last autumn at Columbus, Ohio, as reported in the New York Times, Senator Douglas said: " 'Our fathers, when they framed the Government under which we live, understood this question just as well and even better than we do now. ' **I fully endorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this discourse. I so adopt it because it furnishes a precise and agreed starting point for a discussion between Republicans and that wing of Democracy headed by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry: 'What was the understanding those fathers had of the ques- tion mentioned? What is the frame of government under which we live?' "The answer must be; 'The Constitution of the United States.' "That Constitution consists of the original, framed in 1787 (and under which the present Government first went into operation), and twelve subsequently framed amendments, the first ten of which were framed in 1789. "Who were our fathers who framed the Constitution? I suppose the 'thirty-nine' who signed the original instrument may be fairly called our fathers who framed that part of our present Government. It is almost exactly true to say they framed it, and it is altogether LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 387 true to say they fairly represented the opinion and sentiment of the whole nation at that time. Their names, being familiar to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, need not be repeated. "I take these 'thirty-nine,' for the present, as being 'our fathers who framed the Government under which we live.' "What is the question which, according to the text, those fathers understood just as well and even better than we do now? THE GREAT ISSUE. 4C ' 'It is this: Does the proper division of local from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, forbid our Federal Government to control us as to slav- ery in our Federal Territories? •'Upon this Douglas holds the affirmative, and Republicans the negative. This affirmative and denial form an issue ; and this issue — this question — is pre- cisely what the text declares our fathers understood better than we. "In 1784 — three years before the Constitution — the United States then owning the Northwestern Terri- tory, and no other — the Congress of the Confederation had before them the question of prohibiting slavery in that Territory; and four of the 'thirty-nine' who after- ward framed the Constitution were in that Congress, and voted on that question. "Of these, Roger Sherman, Thomas Miffiin, and Hugh Williamson voted for the prohibition — thus showing that, in their understanding, no line divided 388 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. local from Federal authority, nor anything else prop. erly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. "The other of the four — James McHenry — voted against the prohibition, showing that, for some cause^ he thought it improper to vote for it. ORDINANCE OF 1787. «»i 'In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the Convention was in session framing it, and while the Northwest Territory was the only territory owned by the United States, the same question of prohibiting slavery in the territory again came before the Congress of the Confederation, and three more of the 'thirty- nine' who afterward signed the Constitution were in that Congress, and voted on that question. "They were: William Blount, William Few, and Abraham Baldwin, and they all voted for the prohibi- tion — thus showing that, in their understanding, no line divided local from Federal authority, nor anything else properly forbade the Federal Government to con- trol as to slavery in Federal territory. This time the prohibition became a law, being a part of what is now known as the ordinance of '87. "The question of Federal control of slavery in the Territories seems not to have been directly before the convention which framed the original Constitution; and hence it is not recorded that the 'thirty-nine,' or any of them, while engaged on that instrument, expressed any opinion on that precise question. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 389 THE FIRST CONGRESS. "In 1789, by the tirst Congress which sat under the Constitution, an act was passed to enforce the ordi- nance of '87, including the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory. The bill for this act was reported by one of the 'thirty-nine,' Thomas Fitzsim- mons, then a member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. "It went through all its stages without a word of opposition, and finally passed both branches without yeas or nays, which is equivalent to a unanimous pas- sage. In this Congress there were sixteen of the 'thirty-nine' fathers who framed the original Constitu- tion. "They were: John Langdon, Nicholas Oilman, Wil- liam S. Johnson, Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Oeorge Clymer, William Few, Abraham Baldwin, Rufus King, William Patterson, Richard Bassett, Oeorge Read, Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll, James Madison, Thomas Fitzsimmons. "This shows that in their understanding no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, properly forbade Congress to prohibit slavery in the Federal territory, else both their fidelity to correct principle and their oath to support the Con- stitution would have constrained them to oppose the prohibition. GEORGE WASHINGTON. "Again, Oeorge Washington, another of the 'thirty- nine, ' was then President of the United States, and, as such, approved and signed the bill, thus completing its validity as a law, and thus showing that, in his under- 390 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. standing, no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control slavery in the Federal territory THE FIRST TERRITORIES. "No great while after the adoption of the original Constitution, North Carolina ceded to the Federal Government the country now constituting the State of Tennessee, and a few years later Georgia ceded that which now constitutes the States of Mississippi and Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was made a con- dition by the ceding States that the Federal Govern- ment should not prohibit slavery in the ceded country. Besides this, slavery was already in the ceded country. Under these circumstances. Congress, on taking charge of these countries, did not absolutely prohibit slavery within them. But they did interfere with it, take control of it, even there, to a certain extent. "In 1798, Congress organized the Territory of Mis- sissippi. In the act of organization the)'- prohibited the bringing of slaves into the Territories from any place without the United States, by fine, and giving freedom to slaves so brought. "This act passed both branches of Congress without yeas and nays. In that Congress -were three of the 'thirty-nine' who framed the original Constitution. They were John Langdon, George Read, and Abraham Baldwin. "They all, probably, voted for it. Certainly they would have placed their opposition to it upon the record if, in their understanding, any line dividing the LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 391 local from Federal authority, or anything- in the Con- stitution, properly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. THE LOUISIANA COUNTRY. "In 1803, the Federal Government purchased the Louisiana country. Our former territorial acquisitions came from certain of our own States; but this Louis- iana country was acquired from a foreign nation. In 1804, Congress gave a territorial organization to that part of it which now constitutes the State of Louisiana. New Orleans, lying within that part, was an old and comparatively large city. "There were other considerable towns and settle- ments, and slavery was extensively and thoroughly intermingled with the people. Congress did not, in the territorial act, prohibit slavery; but they did inter- fere with it — take control of it — in a more marked and extensive way than they did in the case of Mississippi. The substance of the provision therein made, in rela- tion to slaves, was : "First: That no slaves should be imported into the Territory from foreign parts. "Second: That no slaves should be carried into it who had been imported into the United States since the first day of May, 1798. "Third: That no slave should be carried into it, except by the owner, and for his own use as a settler ; the penalty in all the cases being a fine upon the violator of the law, and freedom to the slave. "This act, also, was passed without yeas and nays.] 392 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. In the Congress which passed it there were two of the 'thirty-nine.' They were Abraham Baldwin and Jonathan Dayton. As stated in the case of Mississippi, it is probable they both voted for it; they would not have allowed it to pass without recording their opposi- tion to it, if, in their understanding, it violated either the line properly dividing local from Federal authority, or any provision of the Constitution. THE MISSOURI QUESTION. "In 1819-20 came, and passed, the Missouri question. Many votes were taken by yeas and nays, in both branches of Congress, upon the various phases of the general question. "Two of the 'thirty-nine' — Rufus King and Charles Pinckney — were members of that Congress. Mr. King steadily voted for slavery prohibition and against all compromises. By this Mr. King showed that, in his understanding, no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, was violated by Congress prohibiting slavery in Federal territory; while Mr. Pinckney, by his votes, showed that, in his understanding, there was some different reason for opposing such prohibition in the case. "The cases I have already mentioned are the only acts of the 'thirty-nine,' or any of them, upon the direct issue which I have been able to discover. "To enumerate the persons who thus acted, as being four in 1784, three in 1787, seventeen in 1789, three in T798, two in 1804, and two in 1819-20, — there would be LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 393 thirty-one of them. But this would be counting John Langdon, Roger Sherman, William Few, Rufus King, and George Read, each twice, and Abraham Baldwin three times. "The true number of those of the 'thirty-nine' whom I have shown to have acted upon the question, which, by the text, they understood better than we, is twenty- three, leaving sixteen not shown to have acted upon it in any way. "Here, then, we have twenty-three of our 'thirty- nine' fathers who framed the Government under which we live, who have, upon their official responsibility and their corporal oaths, acted upon the very question which the text affirms they 'understood just as well, and even better than we do now' ; and twenty-one of them — a clear majority of the whole 'thirty-nine' — so acting upon it as to make them guilty of a gross political impropriety and willful perjury, if, in their understanding, any proper division between local and Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution they had made themselves and sworn to support, forbade the Federal Government to control, as to slavery, in the Federal Territories. Thus the twenty-one acted; and, as actions speak louder than words, so actions under such responsibility speak still louder. "Two of the twenty-three voted against Congres- sional prohibition of slavery in the Federal Territories, in the instances in which thej' acted upon the question. But for what reasons they so voted is not known. They may have done so because they thought a proper division of local from Federal authority, or some pro- vision or principle of the Constitution, stood in the way; or they may, without any such question, have 394 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. voted against the prohibition on what appeared to them to be sufficient grounds of inexpediency. "No one who has sworn to support the Constitution can conscientiously vote for what he imderstands to be an unconstitutional measure, however expedient he may think it; but one may and ought to vote against a measure which he deems constitutional, if, at the same time, he deems it inexpedient. "It, therefore, would be unsafe to set down even the two who voted against the prohibition, as having done so, because, in their understanding, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to con- trol as to slavery in Federal Territory. "The remaining sixteen of the 'thirty-nine,' so far as I have discovered, have left no record of their understanding upon the direct question of Federal con- trol of slavery in the Federal Territories. But there is much reason to believe that their understanding upon that question would not have appeared different from that of their twenty-three compeers, had it been mani- fested at all. "For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I have purposely omitted whatever understanding may have been manifested by any person, however dis- tinguished, other than the 'thirty-nine' fathers who framed the original Constitution; and, for the same reason, I have also omitted whatever understanding may have been manifested by any of the 'thirty-nine,' even on any other phase of the general question ot slavery. If we should look into their acts and declara- tions on these other phases, as the foreign slave trade, and the morality and policy of slavery generally, it LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES, 395 would appear to us that on the direct question of Federal control of slavery in Federal Territories, the sixteen, if they had acted at all, would probably have acted just as the twenty-three did. Among that six- teen were several of the most noted anti-slavery men of the times — as Dr. Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Gouverneur Morris — while there is not one now known to have been otherwise, unless it may have been John Rutledge, of South Carolina. SUMMARY. "The sum of the whole is, that of our 'thirty-nine' fathers who framed the original Constitution, twenty- one — a clear majority of the whole — certainly under- stood that no proper division of local from Federal authority, nor any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control slavery in the Federal Territories; while all the rest probably had the same understanding. Such, unquestionably, was the understanding of our fathers who framed the orig- inal Constitution; and the text affirms that they understood the question better than we. AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION "But, so far, I have been considering the under- standing of the question manifested by the framers of the original Constitution. In and by the original instrument, a mode was provided for amending it ; and, as I have already stated, the present frame of Govern- ment under which we live consists of that original and twelve amendatory articles framed and adopted since. 396 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "Those who now insist that Federal control of slav- ery in Federal Territories violates the Constitution, point us to the provisions which they suppose it thus violates; and, as I understand, they all fix upon pro- visions in these amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument. The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, plant themselv^es upon the fifth amendment, which provides that 'no person shall be deprived of property without due process of law' ; while Senator Douglas and his peculiar adherents plant themselves upon the tenth amendment, providing that 'the powers granted by the Constitution are reserved to the States respectively, and to the people. ' "Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by the first Congress which sat under the Con- stitution — the identical Congress which passed the act already mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory. Not only was it the same Congress, but they were the identical, same indi- vidual men who, at the same session, and at the same time within the session, had under consideration, and in progress toward maturity, these constitutional amendments and this act prohibiting slavery in all the territory the nation then owned. The constitutional amendments were introduced before and passed after the act enforcing the ordinance of 1787, so that dur- ing the whole pendency of the act to enforce the ordi- nance, the constitutional amendments were also pending. "That Congress, consisting of all the seventy-six members, including sixteen of the framers of the orig- inal Constitution, as before stated, were pre-eminently our fathers who framed that part of the Government LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 397 under which we live, which is now claimed as forbid- ding the Federal Government to control slavery in the Federal Territories. "Is it not a little presumptuous in any one at this day to affirm that the two things which that Congress deliberately framed, and carried to maturity at the same time, are absolutely inconsistent with each other? And does not such affirmation become impudently absurd with the other affirmation from the same mouth, that those who did the two things alleged to be incon- sistent, understood whether they really were incon- sistent better than we — better than he who affirms that they are inconsistent? "It is surely safe to assume that the 'thirty-nine' framers of the original Constitution, and the seventy- six members of the Congress which framed the amend- ments thereto, taken together, do certainly include those who may be fairly called our fathers who framed the Government under which we live. And so assum- ing, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever in his whole life declared that, in his understanding, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Gov- ernment to control slavery in the Federal territories. I GO A STEP FARTHER. "I go a step farther. I defy any one to show that any living man in the whole world ever did, prior to the beginning of the present century (and I might almost say prior to the beginning of the last half of the present century), declare that, in his understanding, 398 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories. "To those who now so declare, I give, not only 'our fathers who framed the Government under which we live,' but with them all other living men within the century in which it was framed, among whom to search, and they shall not be able to find the evidence of a single man agreeing with them. LET THERE BE NO MISUNDERSTANDING. "Now, and here, let me guard a little against being misunderstood. I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so would be to discard all the lights of current experi- ences — to reject all progress — all improvement. What I do say is, that if we would supplant the opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their great authority, fairly considered and weighed, cannot stand, and most surely not in a case whereof we ourselves declare they understood the ques- tion better than we. "If any man, at this day, sincerely believes that a proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Govern ment to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories, he is right to say so, and to enforce his position by all truthful evidence and fair argument which he can. "But he has no right to mislead others, who have LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 399 less access to history and less leisure to study it, into the false belief that 'our fathers who framed the Government under which we live' were of the same opinion — thus substituting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument. "If any man at this day sincerely believes 'our fathers who framed the Government under which we live* used and applied principles, in other cases, which ought to have led them to understand that a proper division of local from Federal authority, or some part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to control slavery in the Federal Territories, he is right to do so. "But he should, at the same time, brave the responsi- bility of declaring that, in his opinion, he understands their principles better than they did themselves ; and especially should he not shirk that responsibility by asserting that they 'understood the question just as well, and even better, than we do now.' "But enough. Let all who believe that 'our fathers who framed the Government under which we live, understood this question just as well, and even better than we do now, ' speak as they spoke, and act as they acted upon it. This is all Republicans ask — all Repub- licans desire — in relation to slavery. As those fathers marked it, so let it again be marked, as an evil not to be extended, but to be tolerated and protected only because of and so far as, its actual presence among us makes that toleration and protection a necessity. Let all the guarantees those fathers gave it, be, not grudgingly, but fully and fairly, maintained. For this Republicans contend, and with this, so far as I know or believe, they will be content. 400 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. A FEW WORDS FROM MR. LINCOLN TO THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. "And now, if they would listen — as I suppose they will not — I would address a few words to the Southern people. "I would say to them: You consider yourselves a reasonable and just people, and I consider that in the general qualities of reason and justice you are not inferior to any other people. Still, when you speak of us Republicans you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to 'Black Republicans.* In all your contentions with one another, each of you deems an unconditional condemnation of 'Black Republicanism' as the first thing to be attended to. Indeed, such con- demnation of us seems to be an indispensable pre- requisite — license, so to speak — among you, to be admitted or permitted to speak at all. "Now, can you, or not, be prevailed upon to pause and consider whether this is quite just to us, or even to yourselves? "BRING FORWARD YOUR CHARGES " "Bring forward your charges and specifications, and then be patient long enough to hear us deny or justify. "You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an issue; and the burden of the proof is upon you. You produce your proof ; and what is it? Why, that our party has no existence in your section — gets no votes in your section. The fact is substantially true ; but does it prove the issue? If it does, then, in LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 401 case we should, without change of principle, begin to get votes in your section, we should thereby cease to be sectional. "You cannot escape this conclusion; and yet, are vou willing- to abide by it? If you are, you will prob- ably soon find that we have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes in your section this very year. You will then begin to discover, as the truth plainly is, that your proof does not touch the issue. "The fact that we get no votes in your section, is a fact of your own making, and not of ours; but this brings you to where you ought to have started — to a discussion of the right or wrong of our principle. If our principle, put in practice, would wrong your sec- tion for the benefit of ours, or for any other object, then our principle, and we with it, are sectional, and are justly exposed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the question of whether our principle, put in practice, would wrong your section ; and so meet it as if it were possible that something may be said on our side. "Do you accept the challenge? No? Then you really believe the principle which 'our fathers who framed the Government under which we live, ' thought so clearly right as to adopt it and indorse it again and again, upon their official oaths, is, in fact, so clearly wrong as to demand your condemnation without a moment's consideration. COULD WASHINGTON SPEAK, WHAT WOULD HE SAY? "Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against sectional parties eiven bv Washington 403 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. in his Farewell Address, Less than eight years before Washington gave that warning, he had, as President of the United States, approved and signed an act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory, which act embodied the policy of the Government upon that subject, up to and at, the very moment he penned that warning ; and about one year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he considered that prohibition a wise measure, expressing, in the same connection, his hope that we should at some time have a Confederacy of free States. "Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since arisen on this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your hands against us, or in our hands against you? Could Washington himself speak, would he cast that blame of sectionalism upon us, who sus- tain his policy, or upon you, who repudiate it? We respect that warning of Washington, and we commend it to you, together with his example pointing to the right application of it. WHAT IS CONSERVATISM? "But you say you are conservative — eminently con- servative — while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy, on the point of controversy, which was adopted by our fathers who framed the Government under which we live ; while you, with one accord, reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 403 substituting something new. True, you disagree among yourselves as to what that substitute shall be. You have considerable variety of new propositions and plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denounc- ing the old policy of the fathers. "Some of you are for reviving the foreign slave trade ; some for a Congressional slave code for the Ter- ritories ; some for Congress forbidding the Territories to prohibit slavery within their limits ; some for main- taining slavery in the Territories through the judi- ciary; some for the 'gur-reat pur-rinciple' that 'if one man should enslave another, no third man should object,' fantastically called 'Popular Sovereignty'; but never a man among you in favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in Federal Territories, according to the practice of our fathers who framed the Government under which we live. ' ' Not one of all your various plans can show a prec- edent or an advocate in the century within which our Government originated. Consider, then, whether your claim of conservatism for yourselves and your charge of destructiveness against us, are based on the most clear and stable foundations. WE DENY IT. "Again, you say we have made the slavery question more prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that it is more prominent, but we deny that we made it so. It was not we, but you, who discarded the old policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still resist, your innovation, and thence comes the greater 404 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. Drominence of the question. Would you have that question reduced to its former proportions? Go back to that old policy. What has been will be again, under the same conditions. If you would have the peace of the old times, readopt the precepts and policy of the old times. You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. We deny it; and what is your proof? Harper's Ferry! John Brown! John Brown was no Republican ; and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enterprise. "If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, you know it or you do not know it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable to not designate the man and prove the fact. If you do not know it, you are inex- cusable to assert it, and especially to persist in the assertion after you have tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be told that persisting in a charge which one does not know to be true is simply malicious slander. "WE DO NOT BELIEVE IT." "Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair, but still insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such results. We do not believe it. We know we hold to no doctrines and make no declarations which were not held to and made by our fathers who framed the Government under which we live. You never dealt fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it occurred, some important State elections were near at hand, and you were in evident glee with the belief that by charging the blame upon us you could LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 405 get an advantage of us in those elections. The elec- tions came, and your expectations were not fulfilled. Every Republican man knew that, as to himself at least, your charge was a slander, and he was not much inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor. Repub- lican doctrines and declarations are accompanied with a continual protest against any interference whatever with your slaves, or with you about your slaves. "Surely this does not encourage them to revolt. True, we do, in common with our fathers who framed the Government under which we live, declare our belief that slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear us declare even this. For anything we say or do the slaves would scarcely know that there was a Repub- lican party. I believe they would not, in fact, gener- ally know it but for your misrepresentations of us in their hearing. In your political contests among your- selves, each faction charges the other with sympathy with Black Republicanism ; and then, to give point to the charge, defines Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, blood and thunder among the slaves. INSURRECTION IMPOSSIBLE. "Slave insurrections are no more common now than they were before the Republican party was organized. What induced the Southampton insurrection, twenty- eight years ago, in which at least three times as many lives were lost as at Harper's Ferry? You can scarcely stretch your very elastic fancy to the conclusion that Southampton was got up by Black Republicanism. In the present state of things in the United States, I do not think a general or even a very extensive slave 4o6 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. insurrection is possible. The indispensable concert of action cannot be attained. The slaves have no means of rapid communication; nor can incendiary free men, black or white, supply it. The explosive materials are everywhere in parcels; but there neither are, nor can be supplied, the indispensable connecting trains. "Much is said by Southern people about the affec- tion of slaves for their masters and mistresses; and a part of it, at least, is true. A plot for an uprising could scarcely be devised and communicated to twenty individuals before some one of them, to save the life of a favorite master or mistress, would divulge it. This is the rule ; and a slave revolution in Hayti was not an exception to it, but a case occurring under peculiar cir- cumstances. The gunpowder plot of British history, though not connected with slaves, was more in point. In that case only about twenty were admitted to the secret; and yet one of them, in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that friend, and, by conse- quence, averted the calamity. "Occasional poisonings from the kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations in the field, and local revolt extended to a score or so, will continue to occur as the natural results of slavery, but no general insurrection of slaves, as I think, can happen in this country for a long time. Whoever much fears, or much hopes, for such an event, will be alike disappointed. "In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, 'It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation and deportation peaceably, and in such slow degrees, as that the evil will wear off insensibly; and their places be, pari passu, filled up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 407 force itself on, human nature must shudder at the pros- pect held up. ' "Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that the power of emancipation is in the Federal Govern- ment. He spoke of Virginia, and, as to the power of emancipation, I speak of the slave-holding States only. "The Federal Government, however, as we insist, has the power of restraining the extension of the institution — the power to insure that a slave insurrec- tion shall never occur on any American soil which is now free from slavery. JOHN BROWN. "John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insurrection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough that it could not succeed. That affair, in its philos- ophy, corresponds with the many attempts related in history, at the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself comm.issioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the attempt, which ends in little else than in his own execution. "Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry, were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. The eagerness to cast blame on old England in the one case, and on New England in the other, does not disprove the sameness of the two things. 4o8 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "And how much would it avail you if you could, by the use of John Brown, Helper's Book, and the like, break up the Republican organization? Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There is a judgment and a feeling against slavery in this nation, which cast at least a mil- lion and a half votes! You cannot destroy that judg- ment and feeling — that sentiment — by breaking up the political organization which rallies around it. "You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which has been formed into order in the face of your heaviest fire; but if you could, how much would you gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peaceful channel of the ballot-box into some other channel? What would that other channel probably be? Would the number of John Browns be lessened or enlarged by the operation? "RULE OR RUIN." "But you will break up the Union, rather than sub- mit to a denial of your Constitutional rights. "That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some right, plainly written down in the Constitution. Rut we are proposing no such thing. "When you make these declarations, you have a specific and well-understood allusion to an assumed Constitutional right of yours, to take slaves into the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as prop- erty. But no such right is specifically written in the LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 409 Constitution. That instrument is literally silent about any such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such a right has any existence in the Constitution, even by implication. "Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is, that you will destroy the Government unless you be allowed to con- strue and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all the points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. This, plainly stated, is your language to us. "NOT QUITE SO." **Perhaps you will say the Supreme Court has decided the disputed constitutional question in your favor. Not quite so. But, waiving the lawyer's dis- tinction between dictum and decision, the court has decided the question for you in a sort of way. The court has substantially said it is your Constitutional right to take slaves into the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as property. "When I say the decision was made in a sort of way, I mean it was made in a divided court, by a bare majority of the judges, and they not quite agreeing with one another; that its avowed supporters disagree with one another about its meaning; and that it was mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact — the statement in the opinion that 'the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Con- stitution.' "An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave is not distinctly and expressly affirmed in it. Bear in mind, the judges do 410 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. not pledge their judicial opinion that such right is implicitly affirmed in the Constitution; but they pledge their veracity that it is distinctly and expressly affirmed there — 'distinctly' — that is, not mingled with anything else — 'expressly' — that is, in words meaning just that, without the aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other meaning. "If they had only pledged their judicial opinion, that such right is affirmed in the instrument by implication, it would be open to others to show that, neither the word 'slave,' nor 'slavery,' is to be found in the Consti- tution, nor the word 'property' even, in any connection with language alluding to the things slave or slavery, and that wherever, in that instrument, the slave is alluded to, he is called 'a person,' and wherever his master's legal right in relation to him is alluded to, it is spoken of as 'service or labor due,' as a 'debt' pay- able in service or labor. "Also, it would be open to show, by contemporaneous history, that this mode of alluding to slaves and slav- ery, instead of speaking of them, was employed on purpose to exclude from the Constitution the idea that there could be property in man. "To show all this is easy and certain. "When the obvious mistake of the judges shall be brought to their notice, is it not reasonable to expect that they will withdraw the mistaken statement, and reconsider the conclusion based upon it? "And then it is to be remembered that 'our fathers who framed the Government under which we live' — the men who made the Constitution — decided this same Constitutional question in our favor, long ago — decided it without a division among themselves about the LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 4" meaning of it after it was made, so far as any evidence IS left, without basing it upon any mistaken statements of facts. "Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourself justified to break up this Government, unless such a court decision as yours is shall be at once sub- mitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action? "But you will not abide the election of a Republican President! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union ; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us? "This is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, 'Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!' "To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money — was my own, and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own ; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in prin- ciple. A FEW WORDS TO THE REPUBLICANS. "A few words now to Republicans. It is exceed- ingly desirable that all parts of this great Confed- eracy shall be at peace, and in harmony, with one another. Let us Republicans do our part to have it so, Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and ill-temper. Even though the Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their demand, and yield to them if, in our 412 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. "Will they be satisfied if the Territories be uncondi- tionally surrendered to them? We know they will not. In all their present complaints against us, the Terri- tories are scarcely mentioned. Invasions and insur- rections are the rage now. Will it satisfy them if, in the future, we have nothing to do with invasions and insurrections? We know it will not. We so know because we know we never had anything to do with invasions and insurrections; and yet this total abstain- ing does not exempt us from the charge and the denunciation. "The question recurs, what will satisfy them? Sim- ply this: We must not only let them alone, but we must, somehow, convince them that we do let them alone. This we know by experience is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no suc- cess. In all our platform and speeches, we have con- stantly protested our purpose to let them alone ; but this had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavail- ing to convince them is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them. "These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince them? This, and this only: Cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as words. Silence will not be tolerated — we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Doug- las's new sedition law must be enacted, and enforced, LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 413 suppressing all declarations that slaver)^ is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our Free State Constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us. "I am quite aware they do not state their case pre- cisely in this way. Most of them would probably say to us, 'Let us alone, do nothing to us, and say what you please about slavery.' But we do let them alone — have never disturbed them — so that, after all, it is what we say which dissatisfies them. They will continue to accuse us of doing until we cease saying. ' ' I am also aware they have not, as yet, in terms, demanded the overthrow of our Free State Constitu- tions. Yet those constitutions declare the wrong of slavery with more solemn emphasis than do all other sayings against it; and when all other sayings shall have been silenced, the overthrow of these constitu- tions will be demanded, and nothing be left to resist the demand. It is nothing to the contrary that they do not demand the whole of this just now. Demanding what they do, and for the reason they do, they can voluntarily stop nowhere short of this consummation. Holding, as they do, that slavery is morally and socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand a full national recognition of it, as a legal right and a social blessing. "Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground, save our conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery 414 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. is right, all words, acts, laws, and Constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to its nationality — its universality; if it is wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension — its enlarge- ment. All they ask we could readily grant, if we thought slavery right ; all we ask they could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. "Their thinking it right, and our thinking it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the whole con- troversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame for desiring its full recognition, as being right; but thinking it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them? Can we cast our votes with their view and against our own? In view of our moral, social, and political responsibility, can we do this? "Wrong as we may think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation ; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to overrun us here in these free States? "If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances, such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man — such as a policy of "don't care" on a question about which all true men do care — such as Union appeals, beseech- ing true Union men to yield to disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 415 righteous to repentance — such as invocations of Wash- ington — imploring men to unsay what Washington said — and undo what Washington did. "Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. "Let us have faith that Right makes Might; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it. " FIRST SPEECH AFTER HIS NOMINATION. (To the Committee, Springfield, 111., May 19, i860.) "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: I tender to you, and through you, to the Republican National Convention, and all the people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor done me, which you now formally announce. Deeply and even painfully sensible of the great responsibility which I could wish had fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and experienced statesmen whose dis- tinguished names were before the Convention, I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the Convention denominated the platform, and, with- out unnecessary and unreasonable delay, respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found satisfactory and the nomination gratefully accepted. And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of you, by the hand." 4i6 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ADIEU TO SPRINGFIELD. On Monday, February ii, 1861, at 8 a. m., President Lincoln left Springfield. After exchanging a parting salutation with his wife, he took his stand on the plat- form, removed his hat, and, asking silence, spoke as follows to the multitude that sood in respectful silence and with their heads uncovered: "My Friends: No one, not in my position, can appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century, here my children were bom, and here one of them lies buried. "I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me, which is, perhaps, greater than has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. "He never could have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him; and in the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance without which I cannot succeed, but with which, success is certain. "Again, I bid you all an affectionate farewell." (Loud applause and cries of, "We will pray for you.") Towards the conclusion of the remarks, himself and audience were moved to tears. His exhortation to pray elicited choked exclamations of, "We will do it, we will do it!" As he turned to enter the cars, three cheers were given, and a few seconds afterward the train moved slowly out of the sight of the silent gathering. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 417 SPEECH DELIVERED AT CINCINNATI, FEBRUARY 12, 1861. "I have spoken but once, before this, in Cincinnati. That was a year previous to the great Presidential election. On that occasion, in a playful manner, but with sincere words, I addressed much of what I said to the Kentuckians. I gave my opinion, that we, as Republicans, would ultimately beat them as Demo- crats, but that they could postpone that result longer by nominating Senator Douglas for the Presidency than they could in any other way. They did not in any true sense of the word nominate Mr. Douglas, and the result has come certainly as soon as ever I expected. "I also told them how I expected they would be treated after they should have been beaten ; and now I wish to call their attention to what I then said upon the subject. I then said: 'When we do as we say, beat you, you perhaps want to know what we will do with you. I will tell you, as far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your institutions; to abide by all and every com- promise of the Constitution, and, in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat you so far as degenerate men, if we have degenerated, may accord- ing to the example of those noble fathers, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. " 'We mean to remember that you are as good as we; that there is no difference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you 4i8 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and treat you accordingly. ' Fel- low citizens of Kentucky — friends and brethren, may I call you in your new position? — I see no occasion and feel no inclination to retract a word of this. If it shall not be made good, be assured the fault shall not be mine. ' * LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS, FEBRUARY 12, 1861. "Fellow Citizens of the State of Indiana: I am here to thank you very much for the magnificent welcome, and still more for the generous support given by your State to that political cause which I think is the true and just cause of the whole country and the whole world. "Solomon says there is a time to keep silence, and when men wrangle by the month, with no certainty that they mean the same thing while using the same word, it perhaps were as well if they would keep silence. "The words coercion and invasion are much used in these days and often with some temper and hot blood. "Let us make sure, if we can, that we do not mis- understand the meaning of those who use them. Let us get the exact definition of the words, not from the dictionaries, but from the men themselves, who cer- tainly deprecate the things they would represent by the use of the words. What, then, is coercion? What is invasion? Would the marching of an army into South Carolina, without the consent of her people and with hostile iritent towards them, be invasion? I certainly think it would ; and it would be coercion also if the South Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the United States should merely hold and retain its own forts and LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 419 other property, and collect the duty on foreign im- portations, or even withhold the mails from places where they were habitually violated — would any or all these things be 'invasion' or 'coercion'? "Do our professed lovers of the Union, but who spitefully resolve that they will resist coercion and . invasion, understand that such things as these, on the part of the United States, would be coercion or invasion of a State? If so, their ideas of means to preserve the object of their great affection would seem to be exceed- ingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the homeopathist would be much too large for it to swal- low. In their view, the Union, as a family relation, would seem to be no regular marriage, but rather a sort of free love arrangement to be maintained on passionate attraction. "By the way, in what consists the special sacredness of a State? I speak not of the position assigned to the State in the Union by the Constitution, for that, by the bond, we all recognize. "That position, however, a State cannot carry out of the Union with it. "I speak of that assumed primary right of a State to rule all which is less than itself, and to ruin all that is larger than itself. "If a State and a county, in a given case, should be equal in extent of territory, and equal in number of inhabitants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the State better than the county? Would an exchange of names be an exchange of rights upon principles? On what rightful principle, may a State, being not more than one-fiftieth part of the nation in soil and popu- lation, break up the nation, and then coerce a propor- 420 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. tionally larger subdivision of itself, in the most arbitrary way? What mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on a district of country with its people by merely calling it a State? Fellow-citizens, I am not asserting anything. I am merely asking questions for you to consider, and now allow me to bid you farewell, " LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT COLUMBUS, OHIO, ON THIR- TEENTH OF FEBRUARY, 1861. He thus spoke to the Legislature and public : "Mr. President, and Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the General Assembly: It is true, as has been said by the President of the Senate, that a verv *^^|L great responsibility ""^ rests upon me in the position to which the votes of the American people have called me. "I am deeply sensible of that weighty respon- sibility. I cannot but know what you all know, that without a name, perhaps without LINCOLN AND HAMLIN. ^ rcason why I should REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES FOR PREsi- havc z. namc, thcrc has DENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT. ^^^X^^ ^p^^ ^^ ^ ^^Sk such as did not rest even upon the Father of his Country; and so feeling, I cannot but turn and look for that support without which it will be impossible LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 421 for me to perform that great task. I turn, then, and look to the American people, and to that God who has never forsaken them. Allusions have been made to the interest felt in relation to the policy of the new Administration. In this I have received from some a degree of credit for having kept silence and from others deprecation. I still think I was right. In the varying and repeatedly shifting scenes of the present, and without a precedent which could enable me to judge by the past, it has seemed fit- ting, that, before speaking upon the difficulties of the country, I should have gained a view of the whole field, so as to be sure, after all — at liberty to modify and change the course of policy, as future events may make a change necessary. I have not maintained silence from any want of real anxiety. It is a good thing that there is no more than anxiety, for there is nothing going wrong. It is a consoling cir- cumstance that when we look out there is nothing that really hurts anybody. We entertain different views upon political questions, but nobody is suffering in anything. This is a most consoling circumstance, and from it we may conclude that all we want is time, patience, and a reliance on that God who has never forsaken this people. "Fellow-citizens, what I have said, I have said extemporaneously, and will now come to a close." LINCOLN'S SPEECH IN WASHINGTON. Delivered Wednesday, February 27, 1861, at his hotel. On Wednesday, the 27th, the Mayor and Com- mon Council of the city waited upon Mr. Lincoln and 422 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. tendered him a welcome. He replied to them as fol- lows: "Mr. Mayor: I thank you, and through you the municipal authorities of this city who accompany you, for this welcome. And as it is the first time in my life since the present phase of politics has presented itself in this country, that I have said anything publicly within a region of country where the institution of slavery exists, I will take this occasion to say that I think very much of the ill feeling that has existed and still exists between the people in the sections from which I came and the people here, is dependent upon a misunderstanding of one another. I therefore avail myself of this opportunity to assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentlemen present, that I have not now, and never have had, any other than as kindly feelings towards you as the people of my own section. I have not now, and never have had, any disposition to treat you in any respect otherwise than as my own neigh- bors. I have not now any purpose to withhold from you any of the benefits of the Constitution, imder any circumstances, that I would not feel myself con- strained to withhold from my own neighbors; and I hope, in a word, that when we shall become better acquainted — and I say it with great confidence — we shall like each other the more. I thank you for the kindness of this reception." FIRST TALK AFTER HIS NOMINATION. The telegram was received in the Journal office at Springfield. Immediately everybody wanted to shake his hand; and so long as he was willing, they continued to congratulate him. RECEPTION GIVEN BY LINCOLN i LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 425 "Gentlemen [with a twinkle in his eye]: You had better come up and shake my hand while you can; honors elevate some men, you know. . . . Well, gentlemen, there is a little woman at our house who is probably more interested in this dispatch than I am; and if you will excuse me, I will take it up to her and let her read it." LINCOLN'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. Delivered March 4, 1861, at Washington: "Fellow Citizens of the United States: In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before he enters on the execution of his office. POSITION STATED. "I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehen- sion seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that, by the accession of a Republican adminis- tration, their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I declare that 'I have no pur- 426 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. pose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the insti- tution of slavery in the States where it exists.' I believe I have no lawful right to do so. Those who nominated and elected me did so with the full knowl- edge that I had made this, and made many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And, more than this, they placed in the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: " 'Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the right of the States, and especially the right of each State, to order and control its own domestic institu- tions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfec- tion and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. ' "I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming administra- tion. "I add, too, that all the protection, which, consist- ently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause, as cheerfully to one section as to another. "There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions : LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 427 " 'No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis- charged from such service or labor, but shall be deliv- ered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. ' "It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves ; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. "All the members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution — to this provision as well as any other. "To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause, 'shall be delivered up,' their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath? "There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by national or by State authority; but surely that difference is not a very material one. "If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is done ; and should any one, in any case, be content that this oath shall go unkept on a mere inconse- quential controversy as to how it shall be kept? "Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law 428 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that 'the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States'? NO MENTAL RESERVATION. "I take the official oath to-day with no mental reser- vations, and with no purpose to construe the Consti- tution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Con- gress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. "It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our national Constitution. Dur- ing that period fifteen different and very distinguished citizens have in succession administered the executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief Constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulties. , I HOLD THE UNION OF THESE STATES IS PERPETUAL. "A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in the contemplation of universal law and of the Constitu- tion, the Union of these States is perpetual. Per- petuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 429 law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national Con- stitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy except by some action not pro- vided for in the instrument itself, "Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of a contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it — break it, so to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. "The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued in the Declara- tion of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of the Confederation in 1778; andj finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was 'to form a more per- fect union. ' But if destruction of the Union by one, or by a part only of the States, be lawfully possible, the union is less perfect than before, the Constitution hav- ing lost the vital element of perpetuity. "It follows from these views, that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or 43© LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circum- stances. "I, therefore, consider that, in view of the Constitu- tion and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitu- tion itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this, which I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly perform it, so far as is prac- ticable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisition, or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. "I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. "In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence ; and there shall be none unless it is forced upon the national authority. WHAT SHALL BE DONE? "The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. "Where hostility to the United States shall be so great and so universal as to prevent the competent resident citizens from holding federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 431 these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritat- ing, and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it best to forego, for the time, the uses of such offices. "The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be fur- nished in all parts of the Union. "So far as possible, the people everywhere shall Have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. "The course here indicated will be followed, unless current events and experience shall show a modifica- tion or change to be proper; and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised accord- ing to the circumstances actually existing, and with a view and hope of a peaceable solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. "That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny. But if there be such, I need address no word to them. A WORD TO THOSE WHO LOVE THE UNION. "To those, however, who love the Union, may I not speak, before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories and its hopes? Would it not be well to ascertain why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step, while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from — will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? All pro- 432 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. fess to be content in the Union, if all Constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the Constitution, has been denied? I think not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. "Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly-written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly- written Constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution; it certainly would, if such a right were a vital one. But such is not our case. "All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and prohibitions in the Constitu- tion, that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length con- tain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by State authorities? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. From questions of this class spring all our Constitu- tional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. THE MAJORITIES VS. THE MINORITIES. "If the minority did not acquiesce, the majoritv must, or the Government must cease. There is no LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 433 alternative for continuing the Government acquiescence on the one side or the other. If a minority in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent, which, in time, will ruin and divide them, for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such a perfect identity of inter- ests among the States to compose a new Union as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. "A majority held in check by Constitutional check limitation, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or despotism. Una- nimity is impossible ; the rule of a minority, as a per- manent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible. So that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism, in some form, is all that is left. . "I do not forget the position assumed by some, that Constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit, while they are also entitled to a very high respect and con- sideration in all parallel cases by all the other depart- ments of the Government; and while it is obviously possible that such a decision may be erroneous in any 434 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. given case, still, the evil following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled, and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. "At the same time, the candid citizen must confess • hat, if the policy of the Government upon the vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably •ixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court the instant they are made, as in ordinary litigation between parties in personal action, the people will have ceased to be their own masters, unless having to that extent prac- tically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. "Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink, to decide cases properly brought before them; and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes that it is wrong, and ought not to be extended ; and this is the only sub- stantial dispute ; and the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression of the slave trade are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obliga- tion in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and it would be worse, in both cases, after the separation of the sec- tions than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 435 without restriction in one section ; while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surren- dered at all by the other. WE CANNOT SEPARATE. ** Physically speaking, we cannot separate; v/e can- not remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They can but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it pos- sible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Sup- pose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. THE PEOPLE. •'This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolu- tionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the national Constitu- tion amended. While I make no recommendation of amendment, I fully recognize the full authority of the 436 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself, and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add, that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions orig- inated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or refuse. I understand that a proposed amendment to the Constitution (which amendment, however, I have not seen) has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amend- ments, so far as to say, that, holding such a provision now to be implied Constitutional law, T have no objec- tions to its being made express and irrevocable. THE ULTIMATE JUSTICE OF THE PEOPLE. **The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation of the States. The people, themselves, also, can do this if they choose; but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not be a LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 437 patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American people. By the frame of the Government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme wicked- ness or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years. MY COUNTRYMEN, ONE AND ALL. "My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. "If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deliber- ately, that object will be frustrated by taking time ; but no good can be frustrated by it. "Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. "If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there is still no single 438 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance upon Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still com- petent to adjust, in the best way, all our present diffi- culty. "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. "You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government; while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it. "I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. "The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." REPLY TO THE COMMITTEE FROM THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION, APRIL 20, 1861. "To Hon. Messrs. Preston, Stuart, and Randolph. — Gentlemen: Asa Committee of the Virginia Conven- tion, now in session, you present me a preamble and resolution in these words: " 'Whereas, In the opinion of this Convention, the uncertainty which prevails in the public mind as to the policy which the Federal Executive intends to pursue towards the seceded States, is extremely injurious to LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 439 the industrial and commercial interests of the country, as it tends to keep up an excitement which is unfavorable to the adjustment of the pending difficulties, and threatens a disturbance of the public peace: Therefore, Resolved, That a committee of three delegates be appointed to wait on the President of the United States, present to him this preamble, and respectfully ask him to com- municate to this Convention the policy which the Federal Executive intends to pursue in regard to the Confederate States,' "In answer, I have to say that, having, at the begin- ning of my official term, expressed my intended policy as plainly as I was able, it is with deep regret and mortification I now learn there is great and injurious uncertainty in the public mind as to what the policy is, and what course I intend to pursue. "Not having as yet seen occasion to change, it is now my purpose to pursue the course marked out in the Inaugural Address. I commend a careful considera- tion of the whole document as the best expression I can give to my purposes. "As I then and therein said, I now repeat, the power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy and possess property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the duties and imports; but beyond what is necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. "By the words property and places belonging to the Government, I chiefly allude to the military posts and property which were in possession of the Government when it came into my hands. But if, as now appears to be true, in pursuit of a purpose to drive the United States authority from those places, an unprovoked 440 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. assault has been made upon Fort Sumter, I shall hold myself at liberty to repossess it if I can, like places which had been seized before the Government was devolved upon me, and in any event I shall, to the best of my ability, repel force by force. In case it proves true that Fort Sumter has been assaulted as is reported, I shall, perhaps, cause the United States mails to be withdrawn from all the States which claim to have seceded, believing that commencement uf actual war against the Government justifijes and pos- sibly demands it. I scarcely need to say that I con- sider the military posts and property situated withm the States which claim to have seceded, as yet belong- ing to the Government of the United States as much as they did before the supposed secession, "Whatever else I may do for the purpose, I shall not attempt to collect the duties and imposts by any armed invasion of any part of the country; not meaning by this, however, that I may not land a force deemed necessary to relieve a fort upon the border of the country. From the fact that I have (quoted a part of the Inaugural Address, it must not be inferred that I repudiate any other part, the whole of which I re-affirm, except so far as what I now say of the mails may be regarded as a modification." PROCLAMATION BY THE PRESIDENT. Washington, August i6, 1861. By the President of the United States of America. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas, on the fifteenth day of April, the Presi- dent of the United States, in view of an insurrection LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 443 against the laws, Constitution, and the Government of the United States, which had broken out within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and in pursuance of the provision of the act entitled an act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions, and to repeal the act now in force for that purpose, approved February 28, 1795, did call forth the militia to suppress said insurrection and cause the laws of the Union to be duly executed, and the insurgents have failed to disperse by the time directed by the President ; and whereas such insurrection has since broken out and yet exists within the States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas; and whereas the insurgents in all the said States claim to act under authority thereof, and such claim is not disclaimed or repudiated by the person exercising the functions of government, in such States or in the part or parts thereof, in which combinations exist, nor has such insurrection been sup- pressed by said States. Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in pursuance of an act of Congress, passed July 18, 1861, do hereby declare that the inhabitants of the said States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida (except the inhabitants of that part of Virginia lying west of the Alleghany Moun- tains, and of such other parts of that State, and the other States herein before named, as may maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union and the Constitution, or may be from, time to time occupied and controlled by the forces engaged in the dispersion of said insurgents) 444 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that all commercial intercourse between the same and the inhabitants thereof, with the exception afore- said, and the citizens of other States and other parts of the United States is unlawful and will remain unlawful until such insurrection shall cease or has been suppressed; that all goods and chattels, wares and merchandise coming from any of said States, with the exception aforesaid, unto other parts of the United States, without the special license and permission of the President through the Secretary of the Treasury, or proceeding to any of said States, with the exceptions aforesaid, by land or water, together with the vessel or vehicle carrying the same, or conveying persons to or from said States; with said exceptions, will be forfeited to the United States, and that from and after fifteen days from the issuing of this proclamation, all ships and vessels belonging in whole or in part to any citizen or inhabitant of any of said States, with said exceptions, found at sea or in any port of the United States, will be forfeited to the United States, and I hereby enjoin upon all District At- torneys, Marshals, and officers of the revenue, and of the military and naval forces of the United States, to be vigilant in the execution of said act, and in the enforcement of the penalties and forfeitures imposed or declared by it, leaving any party who may think himself aggrieved thereby to his application to the Secretary of the Treasury, for the remission of any penalty or for forfeiture, which the said Secretary is authorized by law to grant, if, in his judgment, the special circumstances of any case shall require such remission. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 445 In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done in the city of Washington, this i6th day ot August, in the year of our Lord 186 1, and of the Inde- pendence of the United States eighty-sixth. Abraham Lincoln. By the President. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. THE EMANCIPATION QUESTION IN MISSOURI. The following is a letter from the President to Gen- eral Fremont: Washington, D. C, Sept. 11, 1861. Maj.-Gen. John C. Fremont. Sir: Yours of the 8th instant, in answer to mine of the 2d instant, was just received. Assured that you, upon the ground, could better judge of the necessities of your position, than I could at this distance, on see- ing your proclamation of August 30th, I perceived no general objection to it; the particular clause, however, in relation to the confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves appeared to me objectionable in its non-conformity to the act of Congress, passed the 6th of last August, upon the same subjects, and hence I wrote you expressing my wish that that clause should be modified accordingly. Your answer just received expresses the preference on your part that I should make an open order for the modification, which I very cheerfully do. It is, therefore, ordered that the said 446 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. clause of said proclamation be so modified, held, and construed as to conform with, and not to transcend, the provisions on the same subject contained in the act of Congress entitled, "An Act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes, " approved August 6, 1 86 1, and that said Act be published at length with this order. Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. A PROCLAMATION. By the President of the United States of America. In pursuance of the sixth section of the act of Con- gress entitled, "An Act to Suppress Insurrection, to Punish Treason and Rebellion, to Seize and Confiscate the Property of Rebels, and for other purposes," approved July 17, 1862, and which act and the joint resolution explanatory therein, are herewith published, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim to, and warn all persons within the contemplation of said sixth section, to cease participat- ing in, aiding, countenancing, or abetting the existing rebellion, or any rebellion against the Government of the United States, and to return to their allegiance to the United States, on pain of the forfeitures and seiz- ures as within and by said sixth section provided In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 25th day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 447 and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. By the President. A. Lincoln. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. EXTRACTS UPON WHICH SEWARD BASED HIS "IRRE- PRESSIBLE-CONFLICT PLATFORM." "In my opinion, it [the slavery agitation] will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." "I believe the government cannot remain perma- nently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the 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. ' ' (< - 'I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any Abolitionist. I have been an old-line Whig. I have always hated it, and I always believed it in the course of ultimate extinction. "If I were in Congress and a vote should come up whether slavery should be prohibited in a new Terri- tory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it should " 448 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "I nevertheless did not mean to go to the banks of the Ohio and throw missiles into Kentucky, to disturb them in their domestic institutions. "I believe that the right of property in a slave is not distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution." A PROCLAMATION. By the President of the United States of America: Whereas, It has become necessary to call into service, not only volunteers, but also portions of the military of the States by draft, in order to suppress the insurrec- tion existing in the United States, and disloyal persons are not adeqviately restrained by the ordinary processes of law from hindering these measures, and from giv- ing aid and comfort in various ways to the insurrection, and as a necessary measure for suppressing the same, all rebels and insurgents, their aiders and abettors within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting military drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice affording aid and com- fort to the rebels against the authority of the United States, shall be subject to martial law, and liable to trial and punishment by courts-martial or military com- mission. Second, That the writ of habeas corpus is suspended in respect to all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter, during the rebellion, shall be, imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military prison, or other places of confinement, by any militar}' confinement, or by the sentence of any court-martial or military commission. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 449 Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thou- sand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Inde- pendence of the United States the eighty-seventh. By the President. Abraham Lincoln. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, A PROCLAMATION. On the sixth day of March last, by a special message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint resolution, to be substantially as follows : "Resolved, That the United States ought to co-oper- ate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolish- ment of slavery, giving to such a State, in its discretion, compensation for the inconvenience, public and private, provided by such change of system." The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large majorities in both branches of Con- gress, and now stands an authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the States and people most immediately interested in the subject matter. To the people of the States I now most earnestly appeal. I do not argue, I beseech you to mak*^ the argument for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged considera- tion of their import, ranging, if it ma"'^ be, far above personal and partisan politics. This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any 450 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it contem- plates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been done by one effort in all past times, as in the Providence of God it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have rejected it. By the President. Abraham Lincoln. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, May 19, 1862. EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. Issued by President Lincoln, January i, 1863, at Washington. Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the Presi- dent of the United States, containing among other things, the following, to wit: "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people Avhereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free, and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they ma}' make for their actual freedom. "That the Executive will, on the first day of January LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 451 aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith rep- resented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto, at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of a strong counter- vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States." Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- three, and in accordance with m)'- purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate, as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to- wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Marie, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, Ala- bama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Caro- lina and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties 452 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be, free ; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said per- sons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in neces- sary self-defense ; and I recommend to them, that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for reason- able wages. And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon mili- tary necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of the Almighty God. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 453 [L. S.] thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. By the President. Abraham Lincoln. William H. Seward, Secretary of State. LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG. Delivered at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on the Gettysburg battle-field, November 19, 1863: "Ladies and Gentlemen: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived 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 battle-field 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 altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. "But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we can- not consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, or long remember, what we say here ; but it can never forget what they did here. "It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased d54 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the Government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." THE RIGHTS OF LABOR (EXTRACT), APRIL, 1864. "To New York Workmen's Association: The most notable feature of the disturbance in your city last summer was the hanging of some working people by other working people. "It should never be so. The strongest bond of human sympathy outside of the family relation should be one uniting all working people of all nations, tongues, and kindreds, nor should this lead to a war on property or owners of property. "Property is the fruit of labor. Property is desir- able — is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enter- prise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring himself that his own shall be safe from violence when built." RESPONSE TO SERENADE FROM MARYLANDERS, WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER, 1S64. "I am notified that this is a compliment paid me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this district. "I infer that the adoption of the new Constitution LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES 455 for the State furnishes the occasion ; and that in your view the extirpation of slavery constitutes the chief merit of the new Constitution. Most heartily do I congratulate you and Maryland, and the nation, and the world, upon the event. I regret that it did not occur two years sooner, which, I am sure, would have saved the nation more money than would have met all the private loss incident to the measure ; but it has come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that its opponents may, by its effect, be agreeably and profitably disappointed. A word upon another subject: "Something said by the Secretary of State in his recent speech at Auburn has been construed by some into a threat that, if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between then and the end of my Constitutional term, do what I may be able to ruin the Government. "Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not sine die, but to meet again, if called to do so, by a particular individual, as the ultimatum of a purpose that if the nominee shall be elected he will at once seize control of the Government. I hope the good people will not allow themselves to suffer any uneasiness on either point. I am struggling to main- tain the Government, not to overthrow it. I therefore say that, if I shall live, I shall remain President until the 4th of next March. And whoever shall be consti- tutionally elected therefor in November, shall be duly installed as President on the 4th of March, and that in the interval I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall start with the best possible chance to save the ship. 456 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. "This is due to the people, both in principle and under the Constitution. Their will, constitutionally- expressed, is the ultimate law of all. "If they should deliberately resolve to have imme- diate peace, even at the loss of their country, and their liberties, I know not the power or the right to resist them. "It is their own business, and they must do as they please with their own. I believe, however, they are all resolved to preserve their country and their liberty; and in this, in office or out of it, I am resolved to stand by them. I may add, that in this purpose to save the country and its liberties, no class of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the field and the seamen afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? Who should quail when they do not? God bless the soldiers and seamen and all their brave com- manders. "Abraham Lincoln." THE PRESIDENT TO LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. Executive Mansion, Washington, April 30, 1864. Lieutenant-General Grant: Not expecting to see you before the spring cam- paign opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plan I neither know, nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any restraints or constraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster, or capture of our men in great num- LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 457 bers, shall be avoided, I know that these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would be mine. If there be anything wanting, which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you. Yours very truly, Abraham Lincoln. SECOND NOMINATION. Executive Mansion, Washington, June 27, 1864. Hon. William Dennison and Others, a Committee of the National Union Convention. Gentlemen: Your letter of the 14th instant, formally notifying me that I have been nominated by the Con- vention you represent for the Presidency of the United States for four years from the 4th of March next, has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as the Resolutions of the Convention — called the plat- form — are heartily approved. While the resolution in regard to supplanting of Republican government upon the Western continent is fully concurred in, there might be some misunderstand- ing were I not to say that the position of the Govern- ment in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed through the State Department and endorsed by the Convention, among the measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully maintained so long as the state of facts shall leave that position permanent and applicable. I am especially gratified that the soldier and the sea- man were not forgotten by the Convention, as they 458 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. forever must and will be remembered by the grateful country for whose salvation they devoted their lives. Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the Convention, I subscribe myself, Your obedient servant, Abraham Lincoln. LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL. Delivered March 4, 1865, at Washington. WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE, WITH CHARITY FOR ALL. "Fellow-Countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then, a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. "The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. "On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impend- ing civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to save the Union with- SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 461 out war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish ; and the war came. "One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves con- stituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest, was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlarge- ment of it. •'Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself would cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. *Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American 462 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. slavery is one of these offenses, which in the Provi- dence of God must needs come, but which, having con- tinued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unre- quited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, that 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. ' "With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us 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 orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S LAST SPEECH. A carefully worded, wise and memorable production, delivered Tuesday evening, April 11, 1865, in response to a serenade at the White House: "Fellow Citizens: We meet this evening not in sor- row, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 463 Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with the others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor, for plan or execution, is mine. To General Grant, his skillful officers and brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part. "By these recent successes, the re-inauguration of the national authority, reconstruction, which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike the case of a war between independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with. No man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with and mold from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner and means of reconstruction. "As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be pro- voked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured from some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain 404 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. the new State Government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much, and no more than, the pub- lic knows. In the annual message of December, 1863, and accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction (as the phrase goes) which I prom- ised, if adopted by any State, should be acceptable to, and sustained by, the Executive Government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might possibly be acceptable ; and I also distinctly protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. This plan was, in advance, submitted to the then Cabinet, and dis- tinctly approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then, and in that connection, apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the heretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I should omit the protest against my own power, in regard to the admission of members of Congress, but even he approved every part and par- cel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the actions of Louisiana. "The new Constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole State, practically applies the proclamation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship to freed people, and it is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members of Congress. So that, as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Con- gress, and I received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal ; and not a single objection to it, LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 465 from any professed emancipationist, came to my knowl- edge, until after the news reached Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 1862, I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be interested, seek- ing a reconstruction of a State Government for Louisi- ana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote me he was confident that the people, with his military co-operation, would reconstruct substantially on that plan. I wrote him, and some of them, to try it. They tried it, and the result is known. Such only has been my agency in getting up the Louisiana Government. As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. "But, as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break it, when- ever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest. But I have not yet been so con- vinced. "I have been shown a letter on this subject, sup- posed to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the seceded States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It would, per- haps, add astonishment to his regret to learn that, since I have found professed Union men endeavoring to make that question, I have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. "As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that 466 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. question is bad, as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all — a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper relation to the Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, in regard to those States, is to again get them into their proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but, in fact, easier to do this without deciding, or even considering, whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical rela- tions between these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it. "The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana Government rests would be more satisfactory to all if it contained fifty, thirty, or even twenty thousand, as it really does. It is also unsatis- factory to some that the election franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent and those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana Government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, 'Will it be wiser to take it as it is, or to reject and dis- perse it?' "Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical rela- tion with the Union sooner by sustaining or discarding the new State Government? LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 467 "Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore Slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a State Govern- ment, adopted a Free State constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering the Legislature to confer elective franchise upon the colored man. The Legislature has already voted to ratify the Constitutional amendment passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom in the States— committed to the very things, and nearly all the things, the nation wants — and they ask the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good that committal. "Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white men: 'You are worthless, or worse; we will neither help you, nor be helped by you.' To the blacks we say: 'This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where and how. ' If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have, so far, been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recog- nize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. "We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue 468 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. for it, and proselyte for it, fight for it, and feed it, and grow it and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring the same end. Grant that he desires elective franchise, will he not obtain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only as to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. [Laughter.] "Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the National Constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those States which have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this, further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure to be persistently questioned, while ratification by three- fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. "I repeat the question: 'Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State Govern- ment?* What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. And yet so great peculiar- ities pertain to each State, and such important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and, withal, so new and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new entangle- LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES. 469 ment. Important principles may, and must be, flex- ible. •'In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may- be my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied that action will be proper." ^^'"-T^^m