ABRAHAM 
 
 INCOLN 
 
 ?n« 
 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
<^jT W**«~ 
 
 JUd^oCcXAf j 'VtVA+jL Ul>lGL>ut, JtstKSX !ji4+i*e*>t*L, -AsL^t* 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolneaOOshor 
 
Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Early Days In Illinois 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 DIFFERENT PERSONS 
 
 WHO BECAME 
 
 EMINENT IN 
 
 AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 By I. M. SHORT 
 
 SIMPSON PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 Kansas City, Missouri 
 1927 
 
Copyright, 1927 by 
 
 Simpson Publishing Company 
 
 Kansas City, Missouri 
 
 Printed and Bound in U. S. A. 
 
I 
 
 C4 
 
 
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 To Mr. John Richard Weber, now a resident 
 of Cedar Rapids, Iowa — one who has spoken and 
 written not a little on the life and character of 
 Abraham Lincoln — this volume is respectfully dedi- 
 cated. 
 
 The plentitude of his gray hairs furnish but 
 a scant reminder of the little boy, who at one time 
 during the summer of the year 1860, sat on the 
 knee of the, great man to whose memory we are 
 proud to pay tribute in this modest little volume. 
 
A WORD ABOUT OUR AUTHOR 
 
 The author is a native of the State of Ohio, be- 
 ing born September 5, 1839, not many miles away 
 from Columbus, and here was spent the earliest 
 part of his childhood. When seven years old, his 
 father moved with his family to Sangamon County, 
 Illinois, settling again on a farm near Springfield, 
 then the new capital of the State. Here he grew up 
 almost to young manhood, receiving the earliest part 
 of his education in the common schools of the State. 
 Later on, he was sent to the academy of a small 
 town where he pursued some of the higher branches 
 of an English education such as are usually taught 
 in such schools. Later on he attended in the State 
 of New York, taking an elective course of study at 
 the Collegiate Institute at Fort Edward, pursuing 
 some of the higher branches such as higher Mathe- 
 matics, chemistry, and mental philosophy, and still 
 others such as required of teachers in the common 
 schools of most states, including natural history, 
 botany, geology and astronomy. But he came to 
 understand his deficiency, and to become more am- 
 bitious in the way of education, and that to be pro- 
 ficient as a teacher, he must know at least some- 
 thing of Greek and Latin. So he changed schools, 
 putting himself under the care of a teacher of a 
 classical school who made a specialty of those 
 languages, and took a course in those two languages 
 alone of a length of two years, after which he enter- 
 ed the regular course of study at Dickinson College 
 at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was there attending 
 
school the time of the civil war, but when Lee's 
 army came up through the Cumberland valley, and 
 as far as Carlisle, he went home to Springfield, 
 Illinois. Here he remained for a time teaching in 
 this vicinity, and never went back to Dickinson to 
 finish his course of study; but took up a course of 
 architectural drawing, self-taught, and the study of 
 French as a means to help out in the profession 
 which he thought would be more lucrative than the 
 profession of teaching. He formed the idea of go- 
 ing to France in order to familiarize himself with 
 the twist of the French tongue, and went to Paris 
 in 1868, enrolling himself as a learner with the 
 Association Internationale de Professeurs at Rue 
 332 St. Honore, Paris. When he returned to the 
 States, he followed teaching in the public schools 
 for the period of ten years before dropping that pro- 
 fession, and taking up the other for his life's work. 
 
 Our Author has now reached the ripe old age of 
 eighty-eight years, is active physically, and mentally 
 has a rich store of knowledge of life, and experiences 
 covering all these years. It is a joy to know and 
 associate with such a man. 
 
 He has led a consistent Christian life, having 
 taken up the banner of the Lowly Nazarene in early 
 manhood. 
 
 The Publishers. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
LINES AND PRAYER 
 
 By the Author 
 
 O Illinois, O Illinois, 
 
 The land of grown up men, 
 
 Whose hands and feet they did employ 
 
 In busy task e'en then; 
 
 A^pd stalwart men, and men of toil, 
 
 Whose interests were alive — 
 
 The products of a virgin soil — 
 
 In men who did survive 
 
 Through hardships dire, virtuous life, 
 
 As models for mankind, 
 
 Go woo and win a world from strife, 
 
 In holy compact bind. 
 
 We need the men like such today, 
 
 And men who would be true 
 
 And never failing see fair play, 
 
 Men who would dare and do. 
 
 Prayer 
 Great God "from whom all blessings flow,' 
 
 O give us men who go 
 With fearless step, no evil know, — 
 
 Save country from its woe. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 |HE WRITER of this modest volume has al- 
 ways felt a pride in the fact that he was once 
 a citizen of Springfield than which there is 
 scarcely another city of its size and age in this 
 country which can present a better showing in the 
 galaxy of great men. The sterling worth of some 
 of these have been an inspiration to attempt to give 
 forth some expression of the due regard the writer 
 has felt for them in a few plain and truthful 
 sketches he has brought together. They were not 
 faultless, not perfect, but were true men, live men, 
 whom we knew and loved just as they were, who 
 lived here and went in and out among us. No 
 attempt has been made here to write a book of their 
 lives, but only to bring <out from memory either of 
 himself or from others who were familiar with 
 these persons, some of the incidents of their lives, 
 filling in between them from true sources what has 
 been related of them in order to render them real 
 historical characters and to present them whole and 
 recognizable. 
 
 So many lives of great men have been written 
 
by those who never knew them, Lincoln, for example, 
 and so much rhetoric thrown around their charac- 
 teristic features that we do not know them. It is 
 even thus with him. Or, if it be the orator or 
 lecturer on the life of Lincoln, >so many flourishes 
 are thrown about him that his characteristic fea- 
 tures are spoiled. To send him skyward is to spoil 
 him. Will the writers and speakers leave us the 
 Lincoln we knew and loved with all his faults and 
 inconsistencies ? 
 
 The early life of Lincoln was faulty, that is, his 
 young manhood life, like others that have lived; 
 but there was a great deal of come out in him when 
 he came to maturer years, and we are not disappoint- 
 ed in him after all, because he had good early re- 
 ligious training which righted itself and asserted 
 itself, and made good in the end. Moreover, he 
 was a self-made man, as also was Douglas and 
 nearly every one else held up to view in these pages. 
 Let every young person who may read this little 
 book, and who, possibly, may have a hard time to 
 rise, or think they have, maintain courage. Honesty, 
 frugality, industry, and carefulness, all have their 
 virtuous reward. The high standards of excellence 
 bring victory in the end. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER - - - - 15 
 
 DOUGLAS AND WEBER ------ 30 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ------ 44 
 
 MORE ABOUT LINCOLN - - - - - 66 
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS ----- 8! 
 
 LINCOLN THE RAIL-SPLITTER AND 
 
 SIR KNIGHT OF THE MAUL - - 101 
 
 PRELIMINARIES OF THE JOINT DIS- 
 CUSSION --------- 115 
 
 SPEECHES OF SENATOR DOUGLAS - 129 
 AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN - - - 170 
 
 THE JOINT DISCUSSION ----- 202 
 
 THE REAL DOUGLAS ------ 244 
 
 THE TWO PARTISANS AND SOME 
 
 OTHERS --------- 269 
 
 VIEWS OF MR. LINCOLN ON THE 
 CHRISTIAN RELIGION AND THE 
 BIBLE - --.__... 292 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introductory Chapter 
 
 HE WRITER desires to present a little bit 
 of the early history of Springfield, Illinois, in 
 
 these pages, which concerns principally three 
 estimable citizens, one of whom was the joint-edi- 
 tor and proprietor of a newspaper in a very early 
 day; the other two were eminent lawyers who were 
 well-known in the local fame of the place and in the 
 surrounding country, but who later on in life, as 
 the city and country developed, became distinguish- 
 ed in the annals of the history of our country as 
 are few other Americans. The two whom I shall 
 place first upon the list were the most distinguished 
 citizens that Springfield and Illinois ever had, Honor- 
 able Stephan A. Douglas, and President Abraham 
 Lincoln, but ithe third mentioned in connection with 
 them was the editor and proprietor of the first demo- 
 cratic newspaper published at Springfield, and whose 
 name was George R. Weber. It is necessary to 
 say a few words about him before taking up the 
 prominent characters, and to give a little bit of his- 
 
 15 ' 
 
16 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 tory which lies in the foreground and necessary to 
 the understanding and explanation of what is here 
 desirable to say, and which is not generally well- 
 known outside of the place, and only by a very few, 
 or at most, a limited number who have lived in or 
 near the confines of the little city, who have survived 
 to this time. Perhaps there are not half a dozen 
 persons now living who will remember the facts 
 which the writer wishes to give, and which concern 
 the three individuals. 
 
 The writer of these pages was a small boy during 
 a part of this early period, if indeed he was born. 
 The first start was before his time, and much that 
 occurred was before he can remember; but a little 
 later on, when the most ^rapid advances were made, 
 he can remember very well, as do most of the young 
 lads who were neighbors then if they be living. 
 Something needs to be said as a sort of background 
 to the picture he would produce of these early days ; 
 something in regard to what was visible of the wild 
 and native state of the region in which the little city 
 was placed, which might be termed its environments, 
 for there was nothing else but country in its original 
 state to be seen. He will be pardoned, then, for 
 giving a little personal experience which came with- 
 in his own observation in this new land before his 
 narrative of folks begins. Just a few words about 
 this will come first. 
 
 There were no very good schools or educational 
 advantages of any kind when he first came to the 
 
Early Days in Illinois 17 
 
 country — only such as were usually found in the 
 early stages of development almost any where at 
 that period, but they were not long delayed. Yet 
 the people were an honest set of folk and moral. I 
 wonder what our modernists would think were they 
 to be set down in such environments? One thing 
 is sure. They were fresh, and very vigorous; they 
 had good native minds and retentive memories, and 
 very certainly they retained what they heard, read, 
 and learned; they knew how to make good use of 
 the knowledge they had acquired, in after life as 
 opportunity offered. 
 
 As to the writer, he was one of a numerous fam- 
 ily. The families then were nearly all numerous. 
 My father had emigrated with his family with his 
 effectsl from Ohio; from the banks of the Scioto 
 river to the banks of the Sangamon. How freely 
 the waters of these rivers flowed! Just like the 
 blood of our young hearts, for we were all strong 
 and very hardy. Everything seemed new to us, and 
 this we enjoyed. I can recollect very well on our 
 way out when we emerged from the wooded country 
 of Indiana into the open prairie land of Illinois — the 
 Grand Prairies they were called, wild and beautiful ! 
 I had often heard of them and now I could behold 
 them with my own eyes. What a sight they were 
 to my vision! It never seemed the same after be- 
 ing plowed and cultivated as in the wild and native 
 state. The memories of that time now remind me 
 
18 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 in writing of the lines of Bryant, which, when I 
 got older, I committed to memory : 
 
 The prairies, I behold them for the first, 
 
 And my heart swells, while the dilated sight 
 
 Takes in the encircling vastness. Lo, they stretch, 
 
 In airy undulations far away, 
 
 As if the ocean in his gentlest swell, 
 
 Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed 
 
 And motionless forever. 
 
 The Grand prairies of Illinois extended across 
 the State from east to iwest some hundred and fifty 
 miles or more, and from north to south a greater 
 distance still. Clumps of trees and groves dotted tt»e 
 horizon, and limpid streams gleamed in the sunlight 
 where they were not skirted with trees. Altogether 
 in those days, unimproved, the prairies presented a 
 scene of ravishing sweetness and beauty. And that 
 is the way I remember them in their virgin state. 
 This is the place where we came to settle, till the 
 soil, develop and grow up in city and country, and 
 this is the place where men were made, honest, pure 
 men, self-made men, as the sequel of these pages 
 will show. 
 
 We arrived in the Fall of the year, spent the win- 
 ter in the little town of Mechanicsburg, and settled 
 on a partially improved farm in the Spring. For a 
 time we lived in a hewed log house of four rooms, 
 which had two large fire-places, one at each end of 
 the house, and were very comfortable until we could 
 
Early Days in Illinois 19 
 
 build a new frame house of three times its size. 
 Our home was located just at the edge of the woods. 
 We had a fractional section of land, half of which 
 was timber and half prairie. Almost all the early 
 settlements were made along the edge of the prairie 
 skirted by the timber land. This gave the advan- 
 tage of not having to clear up the land to be cultiva- 
 ted and also timber for rails for fencing and fire- 
 wood. My father's farm was situated nearly mid- 
 way between Springfield and Decatur, a little near- 
 er the former than the latter place. We were not 
 many miles away from the little "Hanks" farm 
 which was rendered famous a few years afterward 
 by "the rail-splitter of the Republic of the West," 
 as he was sometimes called in England after his 
 name had passed into history. But his fame as a 
 rail-splitter was due not in those early days but years 
 afterward <to his coming into political prominence, 
 and when he was about to receive the nomination 
 of a State convention held at Decatur previous to 
 the National convention at Chicago, which nominated 
 him for the Presidency of the United States of 
 America, and on this wise: A relative of his living 
 on this farm loaded on his wagon a couple of old 
 rails which Lincoln is said to have made when he 
 was a young man, hauled them to the convention, 
 and exhibited them to the convention. The "rail- 
 splitter" was there in person. He said : "I can- 
 not tell whether I made these rails, but I know I 
 
20 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 made a great many rails as good as these." There 
 is no reason to doubt that these rails were genuine 
 rails which he made. None of the neighbors who 
 were familiar with the circumstances ever doubted 
 their being genuinely his. 
 
 The wife of the writer of these pages has a small 
 piece of one of these rails which passed into her 
 hands as a keepsake. It was given to her by her 
 father, the newspaper man referred to in the first 
 paragraph of this chapter. He was there attending 
 the convention, the friend of the rail-splitter, accom- 
 panied him, and heard what he said. He procured 
 one of the pieces given out. Small pieces have been 
 given off from the original piece since then until 
 but little is left. 
 
 As to the Hanks farm, it was located near the 
 present town of Illiopolis, which has been called the 
 geographical center of the great State of Illinois. 
 But we did not value it at this early date on account 
 of the rails which fenced it, some of which Mr. 
 Lincoln no doubt made. It lay several miles away 
 from the little town to the southeast, and over the 
 boundary line which separated Sangamon County 
 from Macon County. That Mr. Lincoln in his 
 early life when he first came to this region lived 
 upon it with his relatives in a log cabin, slept there, 
 mauled rails in the timber which grew upon it, and 
 studied there by the flickering firelight in pursuing 
 fht branches of a rudimentary education, becomes 
 
Early Days in Illinois 21 
 
 somewhat like a question of archaeology, which may 
 make the heart of some people beat a little faster on 
 becoming acquainted with the facts relative to his 
 life. But more anon of the rails and the rail-split- 
 ter. This man became in time our most distinguish- 
 ed citizen. Poor Lincoln! How we all pitied him 
 in his sad and untimely taking off, and his tragic 
 end! 
 
 There was another thing to be mentioned which 
 usually goes with a new country like this was in its 
 early development, which makes it interesting, and 
 I must not neglect to speak of it here, for it helps to 
 fill out the picture jn the foreground. Wild game 
 was very plentiful in these parts at the time of which 
 I speak, deer, wild turkeys, wild geese, wild ducks, 
 brent-geese (just brents for short, we called them) 
 prairie chickens, quails, squirrels, rabbits, and the 
 like. We country lads had varied experiences in 
 hunting these, usually with good success. There is 
 nothing that quite equals the feverish heat of the 
 young hunter like killing a deer, or which stirs the 
 blood to such a pitch. Nearly all hunting was done 
 at this time with the rifle. Give me the rifle and the 
 "crack shot." There is something noble in the will- 
 ingness to give the game a chance for life, rather 
 than to seek to slaughter it wholesale "just for fun" 
 as was done years later upon the plains with the 
 buffalo. 
 
 It seems also necessary to say a foreword about 
 
22 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Springfield before taking up any of the characters 
 who lived there about whom we shall have some- 
 thing to relate further on. Springfield was .situated 
 on the prairie not a great way from the timber line, 
 and near a small stream called Spring Creek on 
 which was built a flour mill and a saw mill which 
 kept running most of the year. Springfield became 
 the new capital of the State, having been moved 
 from Vandalia. It was built upon low, level ground 
 almost a frog pond at first. It was a thriving little 
 city when I first knew it, of about four thousand 
 inhabitants. Its citizens have always been a thor- 
 ough-going, honest class of people, willing to live 
 and let live. It has now grown to be a pretty inland 
 city of nearly seventy thousand souls. It is built in 
 a good style of architecture, and it contains many 
 handsome churches and business buildings. It is 
 noted for its shady streets and many pretty resi- 
 dences. 
 
 I remember well the first time I was there, being 
 attracted, as a small boy, by the new State House 
 scarcely completed, and by the low two-wheel long- 
 tail drays drawn by one horse. Being the capital 
 of the State, it attracted many of the legal frater- 
 nity who sought patronage, many of whom became 
 eminent politicians. It became, consequently, well 
 known throughout the State for its leading jurists, 
 much more, perhaps, than any city in the State in 
 an early day. Judge Douglas, Judge Logan, Judge 
 
Early Days in Illinois 23 
 
 Treat, General Shields, Abraham Lincoln, E. D. 
 Baker, John T. Stuart, Ben Edwards, and Ninian 
 Edwards, besides many others, settled there; and 
 later on, S. M. Cullom and John M. Palmer made 
 it their home, while Richard J. Ogelsby was a famil- 
 iar person upon the streets. Five of these gentle- 
 men became United States senators while they lived 
 there, and two after they lived elsewhere; three 
 were congressmen, and one was president of the 
 United States. Besides these, there were many not 
 so widely known, but familiar personages in these 
 parts, who became distinguished, holding high official 
 positions in the State or in the National govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Nearly all the above mentioned persons were law- 
 yers, and were men of ability in their profession, 
 practicing in their own county court and in the ad- 
 joining counties included in the judicial circuit pre- 
 sided over by the same judge. Many of them travel- 
 led around the judicial circuit in their own private 
 conveyances in the early days of the history of the 
 country. There is no need to exagerate the ability 
 of any of these jurists, or to detract from the repu- 
 tation of others by holding these up to view. The 
 writer as a boy knew most of these, not intimately, 
 but reasonably well, and others who practiced in the 
 courts embraced in the judicial circuit. Lawyers 
 and doctors as well as other professional men were 
 not so plentiful as now, and we knew men by repu- 
 
24 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 tation far and near. There were not so many en- 
 gaged in sharp practice in the law as now, and we 
 had a profound (respect for them. Many of these 
 became politicians, however, to the neglect of the 
 practice of the law, not always having the will or 
 inclination to stick to the latter as closely as is neces- 
 sary, i 
 
 I am now about ready to say something of the 
 persons whom I have mentioned in the first part of 
 this chapter, and I shall now take them up, and hold 
 them up to view while we consider some of the 
 phases of their character, and some of the happen- 
 ings in their history which brought them into public 
 notice. The first, then, to be considered, will be 
 Mr. George R. Weber, the newspaper editor and 
 publisher. 
 
 Briefly, Mr. Weber was a native of Maryland, 
 having been born in Baltimore. He was of Dutch 
 origin, a humbler citizen than either of the others, 
 as to fame, but well born, and not in the least be- 
 hind them in industry and the honest integrity of 
 his character. He was, like the others, a self-made 
 man with a good native mind, a wonderful memory, 
 pure-hearted, and "tender as a woman;" capable of 
 writing a good editorial for a newspaper, using 
 clear, concise language, and quite capable of making 
 a good stump speech, or of addressing a Sabbath- 
 school. He knew thoroughly the tricks of politicians, 
 also. 
 
STEPHEIJ A. DOUGLAS 
 
Early Days in Illinois 25 
 
 He learned the printing business in the Atlantic 
 states, and partly in New York City where he work- 
 ed for some time on the New York Journal of Com- 
 merce. He was older than the other gentlemen with 
 whom he has been associated on the first page of 
 this chapter, was an intimate friend of both in their 
 early struggle to rise, and survived them both by 
 quite a number of years. At the time of his death 
 which was in his eighty-sixth year, he was said to 
 be the oldest newspaper man in the State of Illinois. 
 From his own published correspondence, entitled 
 Reminiscences of Early Times in Springfield, it is 
 learned he settled in Springfield in the Spring of 
 1835, from Virginia. He says: "The country was 
 sparsely settled, and by an honest and industrious 
 people. The houses of that day have nearly all dis- 
 appeared, to make room for others; and but few of 
 the early business men of thirty-six years ago, at 
 this present writing remain. A new city has been 
 built, and another generation of inhabitants throng 
 our streets, and dwell in fine houses and spacious 
 mansions. The few old settlers who were active 
 then, belong to a generation that has passed away." 
 
 He further states in these "Reminiscences" that 
 there were two newspapers published at Springfield 
 at that early day; one of which was the Sangamo 
 Journal, published by Simeon Francis and Brother ; 
 the other was the Illinois Republican, the Demo- 
 cratic newspaper mentioned already in these notes, 
 
26 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 established by himself and Mr. Walters his partner, 
 in the printing business in May, 1835. The name of 
 the former, the organ of the Whig party, was chang- 
 ed to the Illinois State Journal; the name of the 
 other paper published was changed to the Illinois 
 State Register. The latter was done when Mr. 
 Charles Lanphier became the proprietor and editor 
 of it. The Sangamo Journal was some years the 
 senior of the Illinois Republican. Both papers are 
 still published under their later names. 
 
 Mr. Weber goes on to say in his "Reminiscences" 
 what will be of interest to some people : "The State 
 was divided into three Congressional Districts. San- 
 gamon County and all the territory north, including 
 the villages of Chicago and Galena, was included in 
 the third Congressional District. Mr. Lincoln was 
 then a young man and somewhat prominent as a 
 young politician, awkward, and unpolished, but good 
 hearted and popular. 
 
 From notes of Mr. Weber in the hands of his 
 family, it is learned that he was in the Nauvoo war 
 against the Mormons, which resulted in their expul- 
 sion from the State of Illinois. He held a commis- 
 sion in that war signed by Governor Thomas Ford, 
 which gave him the rank of Major. He was at times 
 in command of the anti-Mormon forces in this war. 
 Mr. Weber was also a soldier in the early part of 
 the Mexican war. He enlisted as a private in a 
 company made up in Springfield and in the county 
 
Early Days in Illinois 27 
 
 adjacent thereto, commanded by captain Roberts, 
 which company helped to make up the regiment of 
 Colonel E. D. Baker, from this part of the state. 
 His partner in business having died, it became nec- 
 essary for Mr. Weber to return. The firm held a 
 contract with the State as public printers to the State, 
 and this rendered Mr. Weber a State officer requir- 
 ing his return in order to look after the affairs of 
 the office. The matter of publishing their newspa- 
 per, together with the public printing, had been left 
 in the hands of Mr. Charles Lanphier while the 
 partners of the business were absent. 
 
 I have before me two letters to Mr. Weber bear- 
 ing upon this matter; one from Governor Ford, 
 bearing the date of July 31st, 1846, and the other 
 of the same date from one Mr. Brayman, in which 
 the former was inclosed. I give here an extract 
 from the latter : "I write to inform you of the death 
 of Mr. Walters, and to suggest the necessity of your 
 immediate return, you being now sole public printer, 
 and the officer in whose name the business must be 
 carried on. The death of Mr. Walters, of course, 
 terminates the agency of Mr. Lanphier, who has 
 no further authority to act in matters of an official 
 character. Unless you return, it will be necessary 
 for you to appoint an agent to act or resign. In 
 either case your various interests connected with 
 the office and establishment of public printer can- 
 not be secured. I presume that Colonel Baker and 
 
28 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Captain Roberts will cheerfully dismiss you from the 
 service. I enclose you a letter from Governor Ford 
 to Colonel Baker in aid of this object. 
 
 Here is Governor Ford's letter relative to Mr. 
 Weber : 
 
 Executive Department. 
 Springfield, Illinois, July 31st, 1846. 
 Colonel E. D. Baker, 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 I regret to inform you of the death of William 
 Walters, Esq. late volunteer with you in the present 
 war. Mr. Walters was one of the public printers of 
 this State, In Company with George R. Weber, Esq., 
 who is now a private in the "Company of Captain 
 Roberts under your command. The decease of Mr. 
 Walters renders it necessary that Mr. Weber should 
 return in order that the affairs of the office may be 
 placed in proper position. 
 
 Should Mr. Weber, therefore, apply either for a 
 discharge from service, or for a furlough, you will 
 confer a favor by granting it and oblige, 
 
 Yours, 
 Thomas Ford. 
 
 We are now about ready to take up and give a 
 bit of the early history of some of the events which 
 occurred in the developments of the little city which 
 became the capital of the great State of Illinois, and 
 which has grown to considerable proportions in all 
 that goes to make up a modern city. It is not our 
 
Early Days in Illinois 29 
 
 purpose to give here a chronological epitome of the 
 history of the place, but only to state a few of the 
 facts and incidents which connect together some of 
 the great men as they were dependent upon each 
 other, and which are not familiar to the general 
 reader, even to those who are living in the place. 
 There are happenings which may not be familiar 
 but to a few, for those who will remember them as 
 told by the preceding generation are becoming fewer 
 year by year. Indeed those whose names are given 
 in a group together on a foregoing page of this 
 chapter are all dead, and those who knew even them 
 personally and their children, many of them, are 
 nearly all gone. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Douglas and Weber 
 
 |S MR. DOUGLAS came into prominence 
 sooner than Mr. Lincoln, it will be quite 
 necessary to take up his part in the early 
 history of Springfield first, and to speak about some 
 of the events which led up to his early development, 
 and which contributed in making him what he after- 
 ward became, the most illustrious senator of Illinois, 
 and in the latter days of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, 
 taking rank with them in many respects, and espe- 
 cially as an able debater and statesman. Mr. Doug- 
 las -was a native of Vermont, and was born in the 
 town of Brandon. He came to Illinois when he 
 was a young man and made that State his home, 
 growing up with the country. Mr. Douglas once 
 said : "Vermont was a good State in which to be 
 born, but that one needed to emigrate West pretty 
 soon." There once hung a cartoon picture of Ver- 
 mont in the office of a small hotel in a little town in 
 that state where the writer stopped for some time, 
 and it represented the State as a personified woman, 
 the mother of Mr. Douglas as a lad across the lap 
 
 30 
 
Early Days in Illinois 31 
 
 in a state of chastisement, and in a pretty precarious 
 situation. She was administering a few spanks on 
 the most vulnerable part of his breeches, saying 
 meanwhile, Stephen, you have been a bad boy ever 
 since you had anything to do with that Missouri 
 Compromise business. It was even as she said, and 
 I have always remembered it. 
 
 When Mr. Douglas came to the region of Spring- 
 field and adjoining counties, he stopped for a time 
 in Winchester and in Jacksonville, and later in 
 Springfield where he made (his home quite a num- 
 ber of years. Mr. Douglas spoke of his early life 
 in Illinois, in his joint discussion with Mr. Lincoln 
 in 1858, at Ottawa, and in connection with Mr. 
 Lincoln, the latter being present on the platform. 
 He said: "I have known him [Mr. Lincoln] for 
 twenty-five years. There were many points of sym- 
 pathy between us when we first got acquainted. We 
 were both comparatively boys, and both struggling 
 with poverty in a strange land. I was a school 
 teacher in the town of Winchester, and he a flourish- 
 ing 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 under- 
 take. I made as good a school teacher as I could, 
 and when a cabinet maker, I made good bedsteads 
 and tables, although my old boss said I succeeded 
 
32 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 better with bureaus, and secretaries than with any- 
 thing else; but I believe that Lincoln was more 
 successful 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 uphill 
 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 running a footrace, 
 in pitching quoits or tossing a copper. I sympa- 
 thized with him because he was struggling with diffi- 
 culties, and so was I. Mr. Lincoln served with me 
 in the Legislature in 1836, when we both retired, 
 and he subsided, or became submerged, and was 
 lost sight of as a public man for years. In 1846 
 when Wilmot introduced his celebrated proviso, and 
 the Abolition tornado swept the country, Lincoln 
 turned up as a member of Congress from the San- 
 gamon district. I was then in the Senate of the 
 United States and was glad to welcome my old 
 friend and companion." 
 
 In his speech answering Mr. Douglas, Mr. 
 Lincoln in correcting Mr. Douglas, denied that he 
 had been a grocery keeper, and in this particular, 
 said that the Judge was mistaken. The charge in 
 reference to Lincoln, which I have suppressed and 
 which was only made pour rire, he also modified. 
 But, after all, there was a grain of truth in the 
 statement of Mr. Douglas when the facts of the 
 early life of Mr. Lincoln are all known. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 33 
 
 But now let us turn away from this statement of 
 Mr. Douglas to his own early history at Springfield. 
 Here I wish to consult Mr. Weber's Reminiscences 
 again, for some of the events very nearly concern 
 him. "Mr. Douglas was appointed Registrar of the 
 Land Office at Springfield by President Van Buren, 
 in the Spring of 1837, and thus became a citizen of 
 Springfield. He was a representative from Morgan 
 County in the Legislature, at the time of his ap- 
 pointment. Mr. Douglas was boyish in his appear- 
 ance, and somewhat in his manner; was a ready 
 writer, and a fluent and bold speaker. He made 
 politics his chief study, to the neglect of his profes- 
 sion. He wrote considerably for the columns of 
 the Illinois Republican, which appeared both as edi- 
 torial and communicated. The paper in political 
 circles, was regarded as the organ of young Doug- 
 las." 
 
 And now I wish to prepare the way for the in- 
 troduction of a little episode which renders this early 
 history a little more spicy and interesting, more so 
 than it would otherwise be without the part which 
 Judge Douglas took and of which he mainly was 
 the cause. In the year 1835-6, the Legislature pass- 
 ed a law for the removal of the capital of the State 
 from Vandalia to Springfield. This was largely 
 the work of the "long nine" who were all tall men, 
 among whom was Abraham Lincoln, not much above 
 the rest in point of stature. I give here the names 
 
34 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 of these : Abraham Lincoln, Ninian Edwards, John 
 Dawson, Andrew McCormic, Daniel Stone, Wil- 
 liam F. Elkins, Robert T. Wilson, Job Fletcher, 
 and Archer Herndon. A number of towns came up 
 for consideration, even Illiopolis, the geographic 
 centre of the state, although no town existed at this 
 point at that time (Herndon and Wick's Life of 
 Lincoln.) The commissioners were appointed to 
 superintend the building of a new State Capitol 
 building of which Doctor Henry was the acting Com- 
 missioner. Mr. Weber says of him that he was an 
 able political writer and contributed largely to the 
 columns of the Sangamo Journal both politically and 
 otherwise. Hence the newspaper fights of that early 
 day between the Journal and the Republican were 
 mainly between Douglas and Doctor Henry, as the 
 champion writers of the political parties. 
 
 Mr. Weber in his Reminiscences gives some of 
 the particulars of a little political quarrel which oc- 
 curred at this early date, which became for a short 
 time quite a serious matter. I transcribe here from 
 his notes : "Douglas, in several anonymous com- 
 munications, attacked Doctor Henry, as actuig State 
 House Commissioner, denouncing him with much 
 bitterness, as being unqualified for his position, and 
 burlesquing many of his official acts ; and advising 
 the Governor to remove hini for incompetency, and 
 appoint a practical builder — a mechanic or architect, 
 
Early Days in Illinois 35 
 
 as doctors and lawyers knew but little about build- 
 ing state houses." 
 
 "Doctor Henry and many of his friends, believing 
 Douglas to be the author of the offensive articles, 
 determined to demand the name of the author, by 
 calling on the editor. A committee was appointed 
 for the purpose which, armed with canes and pistols, 
 waited upon the editor (until then supposed to be 
 a meek man), and made the demand." Douglas had 
 gotten wind of it, and came to the office to give warn- 
 ing. He was sitting there when the committee 
 arrived. "The demand was made with threats and 
 a flourish of the cane, when the meek man of the 
 press planted his fist in the face of the chairman of 
 the committee, informing him at the same time that 
 he was responsible for everything that appeared in 
 his paper. The committee was thus dispersed. Doug- 
 las being an eye witness to the disastrous defeat of 
 the committee, gave a highly colored description of 
 what had occurred in the next issue of the pape**, 
 which, when the paper appeared, resulted in a deter- 
 mination of certain aggrieved parties to destroy the 
 printing establishment of the Illinois Republican. 
 
 "On the evening of the next day which was the 
 27th of June, 1837, while the editor and his em- 
 ployees were away at supper, a mob appeared before 
 the office door which was locked. The leader of 
 the mob, who was the sheriff of the county, being 
 on a 'spree', picked up a stick of cord- wood and with 
 
36 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 it burst open the door, and ordered the men into the 
 printing office and throw the printing material into 
 the street, promising to pay all damages." 
 
 The Weber brothers by some means got word of 
 what was going on, and were soon in the midst of 
 the scene. There were three of them, Douglas, and 
 one, Doctor Early, a fine gentleman (afterward as- 
 sassinated), and a few others. The Webers were 
 equal to the emergency. There was not a drop of 
 cowardice blood in their veins; pure minded and 
 fearless for that which was right, and for that which 
 was their own. They went in, and would have done 
 so if the door had been lined with demons and devils. 
 They kicked and flung the mob-crats from the build- 
 ing in short order. This day's work had a funny 
 ending, but the next day was more serious, for the 
 mob rallied, and as Mr. Weber and a younger 
 brother* walked down the street from the printing 
 establishment to the first cross-street, the mob closed 
 in upon them. The sheriff, whose name was Elkins, 
 struck Mr. Weber, the editor, from behind, with 
 a loaded whip-stalk, and felled him to the ground; 
 the other brother of these two was attacked by one, 
 a Doctor Merryman, said to be the "bully" of 
 Springfield, with a great flourish of his arms and 
 fists. This brother was not a pugilist nor used to 
 the ways of pugilism; but squaring himself very 
 much as a ram or as a billy-goat gets ready for * 
 fray, he came head first at his assailant, butted him 
 
 * John B. W*ber. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 37 
 
 in the stomach, and knocked him down, after which 
 he proceeded to give him a good drubbing. Just at 
 this juncture of the fight, the third Weber brother,* 
 who was on a visit from Maryland, came along and 
 joined in the fight. Seeing the one brother had been 
 knocked senseless, and the other engaged in the 
 fight, he whipped out his pocket knife, and plunged 
 it into the back of the sheriff who, fainting, fell 
 covered with blood, and was carried home. This 
 ended the fight of the mob. This brother who was 
 younger than either of the others, came upon the 
 scene of the fight just at the opportune time to gain 
 the fight, and quell the mob. He was arraigned, 
 however, before the court, and Mr. Douglas defend- 
 ed him, making a masterly plea which cleared him. 
 These happenings gave notoriety to the paper And 
 the spicy and able articles of Douglas as editorials 
 and communications, like pure and good democratic 
 seed sown in good ground resulted in the nomina- 
 tion of Stephen A. Douglas for Congress by the 
 Democratic party of the third Congressional dis- 
 trict. His opponent was Honorable John T. Stuart, 
 a gentleman of talent and excellent moral charac- 
 ter — the Whig candidate. 
 
 This was a hotly contested campaign, and was 
 bitter and exciting. Mr. Douglas distinguished 
 himself very much in his encounters with Mr. Stuart, 
 Baker, Lincoln, and others, on the stump. Mr. 
 Douglas was defeated, but only by a very small ma- 
 
 * Jacob Weber. 
 
38 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 jority, and he achieved the name of the "little Giant" 
 in this campaign. It placed him at the head of the 
 Democratic party, and paved the way for greater 
 honors in the State, which came thick and fast. 
 
 The causes which contributed to his success were 
 various, and they followed in such rapid succes- 
 sion they now seem in looking over them to have been 
 fortuitous in his making. Let us run over them in 
 rapid review. Born in Brandon, Vermont, in 1813, 
 he came west when quite a young man ; taught school 
 for a time after he came; he continued in the mean- 
 time the study of law which he had already begun, 
 and commenced the practice of law in Jacksonville 
 in 1834. He was attorney general of the State 
 that same year, and in 1835, he became a member 
 of the legislature. He was secretary of State in 
 Illinois in 1840, and judge of the Supreme Court 
 in Illinois in 1841. From 1843 to 1846, he was a 
 member of Congress, and from 1846 to 1860, he 
 was a United States senator. In 1860, he was a 
 candidate for the presidency of the United States, 
 representing the Popular Sovereignty wing of 
 the Democratic party, the other wing going over 
 to John C. Breckinridge. By means of this split in 
 the Democratic party, Mr. Lincoln was elected pres- 
 ident of the United States. It was a rapid stride. 
 Honors could not well come faster. 
 
 But Mr. Douglas, as a self-made man, and the 
 greatest senator that the State of Illinois has ever 
 
Early Days in Illinois 39 
 
 had, perhaps, is deserving of a little more extended 
 account than is given him in the above rapid sketch. 
 He was of good American Revolutionary stock, 
 his grandfather having been a soldier under Gen- 
 eral Washington, and was present with him at Val- 
 ley Forge and at Yorktown. His father was a 
 physician, and settled at Brandon, Vermont, where 
 Mr. Douglas was born, and he died while the child 
 was an infant. Mr. Douglas received the princi- 
 pal part of his education in the common schools of 
 his native State up to the time he was fifteen years 
 of age. He showed an aptitude and perseverance for 
 an extended course at college, but the family was too 
 poor to undergo the expense. 
 
 He apprenticed himself to a cabinet-maker to 
 learn the business. He applied himself at this busi- 
 ness for nearly two years at the end of which time 
 he gave it up, and returned to his studies in an acad- 
 emy at Brandon. But the family did not remain 
 long in Brandon after this period. Indeed the next 
 year they moved to Canandaigua, New York, where 
 Mr. Douglas pursued the study of law in the law 
 office of one Mr. Hubble. By this time he arrived 
 at the age of twenty years, and set out for the West, 
 determined to embark in the practice of law. On his 
 way out, he stopped at numerous cities, including 
 Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis, to see if they 
 were proper places for him to locate. He pulled up, 
 
40 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 however, in the State of Illinois where he establish- 
 ed himself permanently. 
 
 Douglas was a very ardent and resolute young 
 man, possessed of rare reasoning powers, destined 
 to attain pre-eminence among his fellows. Arriving 
 in Illinois, he first taught school in Winchester 
 where he had forty pupils, still giving his energies 
 to the study of law. He was admitted to the bar of 
 the Supreme Court of the State, and immediately 
 entered upon the practice of the legal profession in 
 Jacksonville, the Athens of the West. By sheer 
 destiny he seemed to drift into political life, and 
 before he was twenty-two years of age, he was 
 elected by the Legislative Assembly, Attorney-Gen- 
 ral of the State against the distinguished competitor, 
 the Honorable John J. Hardin. The next year, 
 1836, he was elected by a Democratic vote a mem- 
 ber of the Legislature. The next year after this, 
 he received the appointment from President Van 
 Buren of Registrar of the Land Office at Spring- 
 field, and the same year, was candidate of the Demo- 
 cratic party for Congress, and he would have been 
 elected had not a few votes on which his name was 
 mispelled, been thrown out, which gave a majority 
 of five out of more than forty thousand votes cast, 
 to Mr. John T. Stuart, the Whig candidate. He 
 pursued, meanwhile, his profession of the practice 
 of law, and eagerly entered into the canvass for 
 Van Buren in the presidential campaign which re- 
 
GEORGE R. WEBER 
 
Early Days in Illinois 41 
 
 suited in the election of General William Henry 
 Harrison. From this time forward, he arose in 
 political prominence in Illinois very fast. He was 
 appointed Secretary of State in 1840, and the next 
 year he was elected by the Legislature a judge of 
 the Supreme Court at the age of 27, discharging 
 the duties of that office for two years or until 1843, 
 when he was elected to Congress. He was re-elec- 
 ted to that office in 1844, and in 1846, and at the 
 expiration of that term of office, the Legislature 
 elected him Senator of the United States for the full 
 term of six years. He was twice re-elected to the 
 same office, terminated only with his death. The last 
 time was the celebrated and hotly contested campaign 
 of 1858, in which his competitor was Abraham 
 Lincoln. Had there not been a Douglas there would 
 not have been a Lincoln President of the United 
 States. 
 
 The joint discussion which they had in Illinois 
 in 1858, over the senatorship, while the election re- 
 sulted in the defeat of the latter for that office, 
 brought out the greatness of Mr. Lincoln, and gave 
 such color to his fame that by it he became the Re- 
 publican candidate for the Presidency, and was 
 elected. 
 
 But the joint discussion, how did it come to take 
 place? It had a history which I shall now relate. 
 The fact is, Judge Douglas was the best advertised 
 man in the state of which he was, doubtlessly, the 
 
42 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 widest known Senator that Illinois has ever had, 
 occupying as has often been asserted, a larger share 
 of public attention than any other American Senator. 
 Of Lincoln at the time he made the challenge to 
 Douglas, there cannot be said nearly so much, and he 
 knew this right well. He was not inferior, possibly, 
 in debate, or in the quality of his mind, and this 
 Douglas, too, knew right well. But he had not been 
 so long nor so well tested. The Democrats were 
 especially bitter towards Lincoln for following 
 Douglas around and contesting every inch of ground, 
 availing himself of the advertisement which Douglas 
 gave him. This charge nettled Lincoln as did also 
 a certain other feature of the campaign which we 
 will presently give. We who were living on the 
 ground often heard such charges during the cam- 
 paign. Lincoln did follow Douglas around to a 
 great extent, but this was not always his fault. One 
 thing is sure, and both Douglas and Lincoln realized 
 the fact which is this : the acceptance of the chal- 
 lenge by Douglas made it possible for us to know 
 the Lincoln as we have today, and it should not seem 
 surprising to learn that he (Douglas), hesitated mo- 
 mentarily and said to certain friends: 
 
 ''Between you and me, I do not want to go into 
 the debate. The whole country knows me, and has 
 me measured. Lincoln, as regards myself, is com- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 43 
 
 paratively unknown, and if he gets the best of this 
 debate — and I want to say that he is the ablest man 
 the Republicans have got — I shall lose every- 
 thing. Should I win, I shall gain but little. I do 
 not want to go into a debate with Lincoln."* 
 
 The other feature. Whoever would read these 
 debates, will scarcely fail to notice that throughout 
 the speeches of Douglas much of his time was de- 
 voted to Judge Trumbull, who had been denomi- 
 nated a "veritable thorn in the side of Douglas. So 
 much of the Douglas attention and newspaper com- 
 ment became centered upon Trumbull that Lincoln 
 considered himself ignored and without delay, he 
 sought to counteract that influence by securing a 
 series of joint debates with Douglas/'t 
 
 The newspapers took up the matter when the cor- 
 respondence was given to the press, and a general 
 explosion took place and in a variety of ways. The 
 writer remembers it well, but not the exact words 
 of the verbiage to give any of it. However, it afford- 
 ed some degree of amusement to those who lived on 
 the farm, and was an occasion, to some of us young 
 lads, of laughter at some of the witty things that 
 were sometimes said. I give in full in a subsequent 
 chapter the correspondence which followed Mr. 
 Lincoln's letter of challenge to the joint debate. 
 
 Mr. Stevens in his Life of Douglas. 
 Ibid 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 E NOW turn away from considering Mr. 
 Douglas, a wonderful man in many respects, 
 in order to take up another; a greater and 
 more wonderful man still, Mr. Lincoln, save as it 
 becomes necessary to speak of him further in con- 
 nection with the latter in anything we may have to 
 say about the early stages of his development where 
 the two men were brought together in contrast with 
 each other in any relation, or as partisans. Great 
 Lincoln! Honest and upright, simple and true- 
 hearted, "Honest Old Abe," as he was sometimes 
 called during the great campaign with Douglas, — 
 the friend of the weak and defenceless, — how shall 
 we approach his record or say anything about him 
 that has not already been said? Have not the his- 
 torians ransacked all the sources of information in 
 relation to him, searched diligently every letter of 
 his, and listened to his every saying told them, to 
 find out something new to relate? His public life 
 is well known, and a few anecdotes remain among 
 his friends at home which have not been told, only 
 a few more facts in the reminiscences of him by his 
 friends are left to be gathered up. Great Lincoln' 
 the man of great destiny, fitted and prepared of 
 Providence to fill the place he occupied during the 
 44 
 
Early Days in Illinois 45 
 
 dark days of civil strife when men's hearts were fail- 
 ing them ! How shall we say more ? Yet his friends 
 at home knew him best, and one man in particular 
 among them all, has given the truest account of 
 him, his law-partner, Mr. Herndon, who com- 
 menced a true life of Lincoln, getting far advanced 
 in his work, but later on abandoned it as an inoppor- 
 tune time for such an undertaking, declaring that 
 after the assassination of the president, the public 
 mind was in such a state it would not bear the whole 
 truth about him to be told. Now the public state 
 of mind has somewhat subsided, and a more just 
 estimate of Lincoln may be given. His manuscript 
 notes and letters gathered, Mr. Herndon turned 
 over to other hands; but he wrote other notes and 
 he had other letters afterwards which he did not 
 turn over, or give out. The true and unbiased life 
 of Mr. Lincoln is yet to be written. 
 
 Lincoln was a son of the South, it may be claim- 
 ed by some, as to his nativity, of obscure parentage, 
 of Kentuckian origin, and of a state which remain- 
 ed neutral throughout the civil strife. His true 
 sources have filtered through little by little until the 
 truth about his origin has become known. Mr. 
 Lincoln's ancestry runs back into Virginia. His 
 grandfather, whose name was Abraham Lincoln, 
 emigrated from Virginia to Jefferson County, Ken- 
 tucky about 1780. Lincoln's father's name was 
 Thomas Lincoln, and his mother's name was Nancy 
 
46 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Hanks* before she was married. They were 
 married the 12th of June, 1806. The person who 
 performed the marriage ceremony was a Methodist 
 minister, the Rev. Jesse Head, who left a marriage 
 certificate in the records of Washington County, 
 Kentucky. President Lincoln had a sister older 
 than himself, whose name was Sarah, and she was 
 born February 10th, 1807. Abraham Lincoln, the 
 subject of this sketch, was born February 12th, 1809. 
 When his mother died, Mrs. Nancy [Hanks] 
 Lincoln, he had for his stepmother, Mrs. Sarah 
 Bush Johnston who was born December 13th, 1788, 
 and who was living in Kentucky. She had been 
 the sweetheart of Mr. Thomas Lincoln when both 
 were young; so, when his first wife died, the father, 
 scarcely a year afterward, sought her again in her 
 home in Kentucky. She was a widow, and was 
 living there. He went to see her December 1st, and 
 they were married December 7th, 1819. Herndon 
 and Weik, in their work upon the "Life of Presi- 
 dent Lincoln," have this to say of them : "Their 
 courtship was short. He said to her, Miss Johns- 
 
 * There is a difference in this record in Herndon and Weiks work 
 on the Life of President Lincoln and another in possession of the 
 writer, furnished him by the Rev. Charles T. Alexander, D.D. a 
 Baptist minister, in regard to the maiden name of Mr. Lincoln's 
 mother. The latter reads thus : "Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hicks 
 were married by a Methodist minister by the name of Jesse Head." 
 This document is from a more recently discovered source; probably an 
 error in transcribing the name from the church record, or from 
 the spelling of the name by the recording secretary of the church 
 record, or still by careless printing of the name in a newspaper 
 from which it was taken. Farther on, when I come to speak of the 
 religious bias of Mr. Lincoln's life, or his early bringing up, I 
 shall give this crude document verbatim in its entirety. It is valuable 
 as respects the religious life of the family of Mr. Lincoln's father. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 47 
 
 ton, I have no wife and you have no husband. I 
 came a-purpose to marry you. I knowed you from 
 a gal, and you knowed me from a boy. I've no 
 time to lose; and if you're willin', let it be done 
 straight off. 1 ' She replied that she could not marry 
 him right off, as she had some little debts which she 
 wanted to pay first. He replied, "Give me the list 
 of them."' He got the list and paid them that even- 
 ing. 
 
 We learn from this same authoritative work on 
 the life of President Lincoln, that a four horse 
 wagon load of housekeeping goods was carted off 
 to the home in Indiana. We learn from the same 
 work on the authority of Dennis and John Hanks, 
 the former being known to the writer, that Mr. 
 Lincoln's sister Sarah was married to one, Aaron 
 Grigsby, Spencer County, Indiana, in the month of 
 August, 1826, and that she died January 20th, 
 1828. She, with her brother, went to school to- 
 gether when very young in Kentucky, she being only 
 seven years old, but that their father moved away 
 with them to Indiana before she had finished her 
 ninth year. 
 
 The writer in his boyhood knew Mr. Lincoln, but 
 not when Mr. Lincoln was a young man. The period 
 in which he knew him was later in life, and when 
 Mr. Lincoln's public life became better known 
 throughout the country and throughout the state. 
 When he first became known to Springfield folk, 
 his reputation was by no means enviable, but there 
 
48 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 was a great deal of "come out" in him, and men 
 here developed fast. None of the young ladies of 
 that time thought him a very gallant beau, however, 
 and none liked to dance with him, neither is it re- 
 ported that he was regarded as very entertaining 
 in his conversation by the fair sex. 
 
 He was a lawyer by profession, and of limited 
 education. Even after he received the nomination 
 for the presidency, especially in the remote Eastern 
 states, and more especially in New England, there 
 was somewhat of doubt as to whether he would be 
 at all able to write an inaugural address and more 
 especially a creditable state-paper. The writer dur- 
 ing his stay in Vermont, which was at the period of 
 the first part of his campaign for the presidency, 
 was asked more than once in regard to this. Yet 
 he proved quite capable of either, and his memorial 
 address on the battlefield of Gettysburg, without an 
 hour's preparation, has gone down in history, in 
 point of style, simplicity, and as an example of pure 
 English, as a classic. 
 
 Of humble birth and from the ranks of the com- 
 mon people, single-handed and alone, without wealth 
 or education, he arose to the summit of power and 
 dignity, the highest his countrymen could confer. 
 How was he enabled to do this? Everything in 
 form and outward expression would seem to be 
 against him. First of all, it must be conceded, 
 there was nothing to mark him out or to distinguish 
 him above his fellows — only the opposite of this. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 49 
 
 It has often been asked of those who knew him well 
 as intimate neighbors and friends, if there was 
 anything before the great joint discussion between 
 himself and Senator Douglas, which had very great- 
 ly distinguished him above and beyond others of 
 his friends at Springfield, or of the state, who had 
 held responsible position of public trust, or who had 
 sought to do so? It must be answered that there 
 was not. And yet when this is done, the answer 
 should be with every kind of reserve ; for, there 
 were instances in his life (before this period when 
 he was able to launch forth jets of brilliancy which 
 truly betrayed symptoms of a great, powerful and 
 inerrant mind. This was in 1854, when he was 
 candidate for the United States senatorship against 
 General Shields,* his old duelling antagonist, and 
 when the whole question of slavery came up for re- 
 view, being a time which afforded an opportunity 
 for arousing the latent energies within him, and 
 for the display of eloquence. Lincoln was thor- 
 oughly aroused, and was equal to the emergency. 
 The writer, although a boy in his "teens," remem- 
 bers this campaign well. The whole question of 
 slavery was then debated. There were three or four 
 
 * It may be well to give a word of explanation of this difficulty. Mr. 
 
 Lincoln had written and published some sort of scurrilous letter in 
 the Sangamon Journal against James Shields, a Democratic politician, 
 under an anonymous signature. Other letters followed under the 
 same signature written by Lincolnfs sweetheart, Miss Mary Todd, 
 and her friend, Miss Julia Jayne. Shields was furious. Lincoln, 
 to shield the ladies, took the blame upon himself. What was meant 
 for fun came near being a serious matter. Shields challenged Lincoln 
 to fight a duel, and Lincoljti accepted, choosing "broad swords." They 
 met upon the ground to fight, but friends to both men met with them 
 to intercede not to fight, and prevailed. 
 
50 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 years in this period. It was always Lincoln's for- 
 tune, whether considered good or bad, during all 
 his greatest efforts ,in political life, to be pitted 
 against Douglas in debate. Both men were poli- 
 ticians, and they usually locked horns, whether in 
 literary clubs and lyceums in their early days in 
 Springfield, in the State Legislature, or elsewhere. 
 Whatever there was in his early life in Springfield 
 of aberration of mind, it was now effectually effac- 
 ed, and he rose to the full height of his manly dig- 
 nity that defied all his competitors. 
 
 Lincoln was an anomaly in himself, an enigma to 
 many, difficult of explanation. He was not a book- 
 worm, that is to say, not a reader of many books. 
 Whence, then, his knowledge, and by what means 
 was he enabled to grapple and engage with his great 
 opponents such as Douglas and others, and to main- 
 tain the equilibrium of a great discussion, showing 
 himself up in the arts of a great debater and the 
 habits of a well disciplined mind? This would seem 
 to result from his power to originate ideas in some 
 sort of spontaneous way in modes of thought and 
 expression all his own, rather than as an imitator; 
 or, if the latter, he had learned how to assimilate all 
 he had heard, felt and known through the thoughts 
 of others, classifying and arranging the impressions 
 that came to him until they became as it were, all 
 his own original reflections. Let us look at him in 
 his habits in his own home town of Springfield, and 
 view him in progress of development, being made 
 
'Early Days in Illinois 51 
 
 ready when the crucial period came which was to 
 make him the uppermost man of his age among 
 all his countrymen. 
 
 In the view we shall take of him, we will pass 
 over silently most of his early life, especially that 
 part which was spent on the farm in Macon countv 
 making rails to fence it although later on we shall 
 have something to say on his fame as a railsplitter. 
 Nor yet do we wish to say much upon that part of 
 his life spent at New Salem; that part has been told 
 often enough to be familiar to most persons who 
 have read the various books which have been 
 written of Lincoln's life. But we do wish to men- 
 tion some of the events and incidents in the ex- 
 perineces of his early history in his home town 
 among his friends at Springfield, which endeared 
 him to them and which affected him greatly and 
 worked to his interest and to his fame. 
 
 It might be a proper thing to do, if the writer 
 were intending to make a brief sketch of the life 
 of Lincoln, to speak of him, somewhat in chrono- 
 logical order as a private man, as a public man, as 
 a lawyer, and as a politician. But this he is not 
 endeavoring to do, — only to give a reminiscence of 
 him made out from personal recollection of the 
 man, and his knowledge derived from what has 
 been told him by others who were intimate with 
 him, and who were his friends. Yet it will be nec- 
 essary to give some points in his life coming under 
 
 fc!8RARt 
 
 UNIVERSITY W S8JlJtf« ! 
 
52 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 the above heads, but not always in the foregoing 
 order. 
 
 From what we know of Lincoln, his political re- 
 cord began before he commenced the practice of 
 law, or before he made much headway in his pro- 
 fession. This is due, it may be supposed, to his 
 association with members of the bar while he was 
 in the legislature, or at least in part, that he formed 
 the design of the practice of law. Indeed, while 
 he was a clerk in a store at New Salem, he felt 
 stirred by a power within him working out the prob- 
 lem of his early education, and he would borrow 
 books of (a lawyer, reading them at night and re- 
 turning them the next morning. It is perhaps due 
 to his first law partner, Mr. John T. Stuart, more 
 than to any other source or influence, who was as- 
 sociated with him during the Black Hawk War,* 
 he being a good and reputable lawyer, lending him 
 books and prevailing on him to come to Spring- 
 field to live. So that, it is said, Lincoln rode to 
 Springfield about the first of the year 1837, on a 
 borrowed horse, with a pair of saddle bags in which 
 there were a few books and a few pieces of cloth- 
 ing, in order to make the new capital of the state 
 his home. The store of Mr. Joshua Speed became 
 his headquarters. Mr. Stuart took him into part- 
 
 * Mr. Lincoln was Captain in this war, and Mr. Stuart was a 
 
 Major serving with him. In relation to this, Mr. Joseph Fort New- 
 ton in his work entitled Lincoln and Herndon, quotes in a footnote 
 this passage from the Life of Jefferson Davis, by his wife : "Then a 
 tall, gawky, slabsided young man, dressed in a suit of blue jeans, 
 presented himself as captain of a company of recruits, and was sworn 
 in service by Jefferson Davis." A strange coincidence when we think 
 of the future record of these two men. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 53 
 
 nership, the name of the firm becoming Stuart, and 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Both partners were members of the legislature, 
 and served during the term of that year. That year 
 proved an exciting one for Mr. Stuart who was the 
 opposing candidate of Mr. Douglas and defeated 
 him for Congress. Mr. Lincoln being thus early a 
 fully equipped politician, knew the tricks of such a 
 profession thoroughly, no doubt, and served his 
 partner with consummate skill, it being a congenial 
 part of the business with him. Mr. Newton in his 
 work on Lincoln and Herndon makes the following 
 remark on this feature : "A kind of industry con- 
 genial to him, which was, no doubt, one reason 
 why Stuart chose him as managing clerk. He knew 
 how to play the game of politics according to the 
 rules thereof, and was not over nice as to the meth- 
 od when no moral principle was involved." 
 
 The 1 next year also, 1838, he was re-elected to 
 the Assembly, in which campaign he made a com- 
 plete canvass of the entire country. And in 1839, 
 Mr. Stuart was re-elected to Congress. Consequent- 
 ly, Lincoln was a very busy man, having almost the 
 entire business of the firm including both law and 
 politics. In April, 1841, the firm of Stuart and 
 Lincoln was dissolved, for some reason unknown to 
 the writer. Before the year was out, however, a 
 new firm was formed with Mr. Lincoln as Junior 
 partner under the name of Logan and Lincoln, the 
 junior partner being taken in by Stephen T. Logan 
 
54 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 formerly judge of the Circuit Court of the State, a 
 man who has borne the reputation of being the ablest 
 jurist Springfield ever had. The two men were in 
 strange contrast with each other. He was person- 
 ally known to the writer. He was a small, thin, 
 dried-up looking man, thin in the face and with red - 
 dish features. His hair usually worn long, was of 
 light color, and his voice was sharp and shrill, yet 
 not disagreeable. The men could scarcely have 
 been more opposite in looks than in the character 
 and natural quality of their make-up. Both men 
 were careless in the attention they paid to dress, 
 which varied in the two, and both gentlemen were 
 rather pleasant and agreeable, but unlike in their 
 manners. 
 
 By profession, Logan was a hair-splitter in points 
 of the law as notorious in local fame as was the 
 junior partner as a rail-splitter, whose fame as such 
 later spread near and far. Logan loved money and 
 made it. Lincoln did not care for it, only for its use, 
 neither did he make much of it. Logan cared for 
 the law. Lincoln did not, only as a means to an 
 end — his living. There is no need to carry this con- 
 trast further, nor to describe the personal appear- 
 ance of Lincoln. His height, his gait, his manner 
 of life, and the like, have all been held up to view, 
 and everything like this has become known. Many 
 at Springfield wondered why Logan took him up, — 
 they were so different. In two points they agreed : 
 ?)oth were Whigs, and both were anxious for politi- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 55 
 
 cal position. The niceties in points of the law as a 
 ruling characteristic of Logan was good schooling 
 for Lincoln. It was during the term of his partner- 
 ship of Logan and Lincoln that Mr. Herndon took 
 up the study of law in their office, being induced to 
 do so through the instrumentality of Lincoln whose 
 firm friend and future partner he became. 
 
 But the partnership of Logan and Lincoln was 
 not of long duration, scarcely two and a half years. 
 There had been a little friction between them ow- 
 ing to their political aspirations for Congressional 
 honors, and two strong natures like theirs could not 
 very well be yoked permanently together. Never- 
 theless, their disagreement did not preclude a friend- 
 ly rivalry, and they remained friends. This was 
 demonstrated more than ten years afterward, in 
 1854, when Lincoln was the political aspirant for 
 the United States senatorship against General 
 Shields. This year he and Judge Logan were elec- 
 ted to the legislature to represent Sangamon coun- 
 ty ; but Lincoln resigned from the Legislature in 
 order to become a candidate for the senatorship. 
 He would have won the place but for the insurgent 
 Democrats who persisted in voting for Judge Trum- 
 bull, a sturdy Democrat on every issue, save the 
 slavery issue. The excitement was intense, and 
 after the tenth ballot, rather than see a man re-elected 
 who had voted for the Nebraska bill in the United 
 States Senate as General Shields had done, Lincoln 
 admonished his friends to withdraw his name, and 
 
56 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 vote for Lyman Trumbull, which they did, and 
 Trumbull was elected. It is said of Judge Logan 
 that he actually shed tears as he transferred his vote. 
 There are more times than one, twice, or thrice, that 
 Lincoln stood aside to give place for others, though 
 not always when it was a question for political pre- 
 ferment. This illustrates his true character, and 
 vindicates him from any charge of selfishness, ex- 
 hibiting his devotion to the cause for which he 
 stood in the righteousness of principle. 
 
 We come back to the firm of Logan and Lincoln. 
 It was dissolved more on account of financial rea- 
 sons than perhaps any thing else. It was said that 
 Lincoln was desirous of setting up for himself, and 
 when the opportunity offered of entering into a 
 partnership with himself as senior member of a 
 firm ) and with William H. Herndon as junior mem- 
 ber, a young man in whom he had every confidence, 
 he made a proposition to the latter, which was ac- 
 cepted. So, on the twentieth day of September, 1843, 
 the firm of Logan and Lincoln was dissolved, and 
 the new firm of Lincoln and Herndon was establish- 
 ed, which endured for more than twenty-one years, 
 or until terminated by the assassination and death 
 of the President. 
 
 Mr. Herndon, notwithstanding -all that has been 
 said against him by some of the biographical writers 
 of the life of Lincoln, and their names are legion, 
 all the "strange mixtures and complexities," his 
 "impetuosity and impulsiveness," his "uncouth and 
 
Early Days in Illinois 57 
 
 rough" exterior, was an abler man, more generous 
 towards the memory of his friend and senior part- 
 ner, than he got credit for. One does not inspire a 
 great mind like Lincoln without having some merit- 
 He was always honest, sincere and loyal, and 
 Lincoln never had cause to regret the business ar- 
 rangement he that day went into. Lincoln took him 
 in on equal terms with himself financially, the gains 
 of their earnings being divided equally between them. 
 Years afterward, in speaking of this day's arrange- 
 ment, Mr. Herndon had this to say : "It has always 
 been a matter of pride with me that during our part- 
 nership, continuing on until it was dissolved by the 
 bullet of the assassin Booth, we never had any per- 
 sonal controversy or disagreement. I never stood 
 in his way for public honors or office, and I believe 
 we understood each other perfectly. In after years, 
 when he became more prominent, and our practice 
 grew to respectable proportions, other ambitious 
 practitioners undertook to supplant me in the part- 
 nership. One of the latter more zealous than wise, 
 charged that I was in a certain way weakening the 
 influence of the firm. I am flattered to know that 
 Lincoln turned on the last named individual with 
 the retort, "I know my own business, I reckon. I 
 know Billy Herndon better than anybody, and even 
 if what you say of him is true, I intend to stick to 
 him.'' That retort sounds like Lincoln, and is char- 
 acteristic of what we know of him, and worthy of 
 the man. 
 
58 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 We have followed Mr. Lincoln loosely and in a 
 few rapid statements concerning his public career 
 from the time he first began to come into public 
 notice, attracting considerable attention in his own 
 state as a legislator until the time of his member- 
 ship in Congress, when he returned at the expira- 
 tion of his term, having been duly elected to serve 
 his congressional district in 1846, against Rev. 
 Peter Cartwright. I feel that I must here make a 
 break in this narrative to give a bit of information 
 which will be of interest to many Methodists. I did 
 not know, until I began to gather materials and 
 make notes for these memoirs, that Peter Cartwright 
 ever had any political aspirations, and I do not 
 think many of the denomination of Methodists have 
 known this. In 1846, he was the Democratic candi- 
 date for Congress against Abraham Lincoln in the 
 Third Congressional District, and waxed warm in 
 his oratorical fervor, but was defeated by a sweep- 
 ing victory by his opponent. I have in my collection 
 of books, two of his books, his autobiography, and 
 his "Fifty Years a Presiding Elder," and in neither 
 of these does he say anything about this matter. I 
 have already stated in these reminiscences that my 
 father's family moved into Sangamon county from 
 Ohio, and that the first winter we lived in the little 
 town of Mechanicsburg. This was in the year of 
 1846, the same year that Peter Cartwright was 
 making a race against Abraham Lincoln, and was 
 beaten. He was our presiding elder that year, and 
 
Early Days in Illinois 59 
 
 stayed 'with my fathers family while there on his 
 official relation to the church. 
 
 I return to my narrative to speak of Mr. Lincoln. 
 In the period embraced between the year 1846, and 
 the year 1854, we do not hear very much about him, 
 after his term in Congress had expired. It was a 
 period out of which he emerged in great brilliancy 
 and power, a great formative period, and of mar- 
 velous transformation. It was during this period 
 that he was given back to his own country folk in 
 his home at Springfield and Sangamon county, 
 where he applied himself diligently to the practice 
 of law, following the rounds of the circuit rider 
 after Judge Davis in his judical circuit. The ground 
 work of the foundation of his greatness and popu- 
 larity, however, was laid in a period anterior to this 
 in which figured quite a number of self-made men 
 among whom even Douglas himself appeared. This 
 period we refer to was in the early days in Spring- 
 field. They called each other "boys," then. Doug- 
 las pleasantly alludes to some of the scenes which 
 took place in these early days, in his speech at 
 Ottawa, but got them mixed up a little with those 
 of earlier date. He says of Lincoln, "He could 
 beat any of the boys wrestling, or running a foot- 
 race, pitching quoits, or flipping a copper." In the 
 matter of running a footrace, Douglas would not 
 have been a match for Lincoln's long legs pitched 
 against the short Yankee jumpers of the former. 
 
60 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Douglas forgot to speak of the other "boys" even 
 a little later in life, in a game of "Town Ball"' in 
 which Lincoln and some of the other lesser boys, 
 in a mix-up together, when law business was a little 
 dull, and they needed a little exercise. I know men 
 now living at this period of writing, who used to 
 watch them play together, yet who were too small 
 to take part in the games. 
 
 Then, too, the young folk used to form them- 
 selves into literary and debating clubs for self-im- 
 provement in which many took part. Those whose 
 names have appeared in these chapters already, used 
 to be among the number who were invited to make 
 addresses before these societies, notably, Lincoln, 
 Shields, and others. The Young Men's Lyceum, 
 and the Mechanics' Union were two of these soci- 
 eties, and to their public meetings all were invited. 
 I have before me some published extracts from the 
 minutes of the Mechanics' Union from the day of 
 its organization, August 14th, 1839, to the day of 
 its close, January 4th, 1848. The extracts of which 
 the writer avails himself, were made from the min- 
 utes of the secretary's book which was quite worn, 
 by Mr. T. W. S. Kidd and published by him in his 
 Springfield Morning Monitor, January 6th, 1898. 
 He published a partial list of the members of the 
 society, and one of the most active members of the 
 society whose name appears on the* minutes, was 
 George R. Weber, printer who is one of the three 
 
Early Days in Illinois 61 
 
 persons concerning which these pages are written. 
 Mr. Lincoln's name appears twice on these minutes. 
 In the minutes of March 5th, 1840, this record 
 appears : "The charter incorporating the Union was 
 then presented and read. George R. Weber moved 
 that the Union present Mr. A. Lincoln a vote of 
 thanks for the passage of the act of incorporation." 
 Again in the minutes of July 8th, 1841, there is the 
 following record : "On motion of W. D. Herndon, 
 Abraham Lincoln, Esq., was elected as the individual 
 to address the Union on the fourth Thursday of the 
 present month, and on motion, a committee of three 
 was appointed to wait on Mr. Lincoln and solicit 
 the favor of an address from him on that evening." 
 No subsequent page of the minutes, says Mr. Kidd, 
 shows that Mr. Lincoln ever performed the service 
 asked. General James Shields is another gentle- 
 man who was asked to deliver an address before the 
 society, and who favored them with its delivery in 
 the Methodist church on the evening of November 
 8th, 1841. A copy of his address was obtained and 
 published in both the city papers. One other ad- 
 dress was given before the society, — that of Col. 
 Zebriskey — and was also published in the same 
 papers. The record says that the Young Men's 
 Lyceum people were invited to attend this lecture. 
 It is thus that the young people as well as the older 
 people availed themselves of the opportunity to at- 
 tend and encourage such exercises as a means of 
 
62 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 self-improvement. It is certain that Lincoln en- 
 couraged such efforts, and that he gave addresses 
 before these meetings of the young people one of 
 which — that before the Young Men's Lyceum — 
 brought him into favorable repute in the confines of 
 his own home, the subject being suggested by the 
 burning of a negro by a mob in St. Louis. 
 
 But these days were not the earliest of such ef- 
 forts. Lincoln, Logan, Baker, Douglas, and others, 
 all of whom were self-made men, were accustomed 
 to meet together, and discuss the questions of the 
 day, and especially political questions. All the above 
 named persons are especially worthy of being held 
 up to view as illustrious examples in their endeav- 
 ors to rise. Every one of these became eminent 
 in their day in their field of operation as lawyers, or 
 as politicians, holding positions in the state or na- 
 tional government. These men were possessed, 
 naturally, of good minds which needed cultivation, 
 and these meetings around at the shops and stores 
 afforded the means of self -improvement as they 
 paired off taking opposite sides and vied with each 
 other as disputants. This exercise in the things of 
 the mind rendered them practical, rough and ready, 
 so that in after life when called upon to express 
 themselves on the various subjects before them, 
 they always had something to say without any 
 fear of a break-down. 
 
 I will give an example of one or two of these 
 
Early Days in Illinois 63 
 
 meetings to fill in here, and which will be of interest 
 to many, possibly, and which have been related by 
 Mr. Herndon, who was an eye witness. He was the 
 best informed person on the early young-man life 
 of Lincoln, without doubt, and is one who has fur- 
 nished the biographers with more of the early life 
 of the man than any other person. Many of these 
 meetings which took place in the early history of 
 Springfield, were at Mr. Joshua Speed's store it 
 being a frequent lounging place for the young men 
 who gathered around the comfortable fireplace, and 
 were made welcome by the proprietor of the estab- 
 lishment in these early rural days, seated around the 
 fire upon boxes, benches, and nail kegs covered with 
 boards or shoe leather. It was a place of good 
 schooling for them, and made so, doubtless, by this 
 bachelor merchant at this period of his life. Here 
 they liked to gather and have their little discussions, 
 read prepared papers, and do their little literary 
 acrobatic feats. 
 
 One evening, eight or ten of these young men 
 gathered thus about the fireplace, and their discus- 
 sion turned upon politics. As it proceeded, it grew 
 warm with excitement, Democrats against the Whigs. 
 Finally, in the midst of this state of excitement, 
 Douglas sprang to his feet, and challenged the 
 Whigs to debate the question or questions between 
 them, alleging that the store was not a fit place to 
 talk politics. The challenge was accepted, and the 
 
64 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 discussion was arranged to take place in the old 
 Presbyterian church. Accordingly, they paired off, 
 four on a side in the following order : Democrats, 
 Douglas, J. C. Calhoun, Josiah Lamborn, and Jesse 
 Thomas ; Whigs, Stephen T. Logan, E. D. Baker, 
 O. H. Browning, and Abraham Lincoln. One even- 
 ing was allowed to each disputant, and it consumed 
 more than a week to complete the discussion. Other 
 discussions followed similar to this, one of which 
 was by Lincoln and Calhoun on the tariff question 
 in the same manner, and which was held in the 
 court house. In view of what all these men became, 
 this seems strange. 
 
 I must not forget to state one characteristic, at 
 least, of Mr. Lincoln, before closing this chapter. 
 He was a good story-teller. I remember well my 
 father speaking of him as such. While out from 
 Ohio in Illinois in 1846, viewing the country pre- 
 vious to moving there the autumn of that year, he 
 had occasion to go in a stage coach or in a hack from 
 Springfield to Taylorville, which was the county 
 seat of Christian county. The vehicle was filled 
 with lawyers mainly, going there to attend court. 
 It was a jolly crowd, among whom, it appears, were 
 Judge Linder, then a young man, Judge Logan, 
 Abraham Lincoln, and others. It was a warm day 
 in June, and they sweltered with the heat as they 
 rode along the way through the brushy woods of 
 the south fork of the Sangamon River. But they 
 
Early Days in Illinois 65 
 
 entertained themselves the most of the time in a 
 roar of laughter in a hearty, go-lucky manner. 
 Lincoln was the best of the lot, enriching his jokes 
 and his stories with the pithness of his puns and 
 the embellishments of his anecdotes. 
 
 But there was also the sober side to some of his 
 stories. Mr. Ed. Thayer, Springfield's old bachelor 
 dry-goods merchant, used to tell a story coming 
 from Lincoln, which he said was a true one. It con- 
 cerned the occasion of the birth of one of his chil- 
 dren, I think the oldest. Mr. Thayer, who was 
 familiar with the conditions of the story, relates 
 that he met Mr. Lincoln who was on his way to 
 church one Sunday morning, and they talked to- 
 gether. Mr. Lincoln said : "Well, the affair is all 
 over, and both mother and child are doing well. 
 I may consider myself fortunate in this matter 
 Only think of it. If the child had been born with a 
 long leg like mine and a short one like Mary's, what 
 an awful thing that would have been ! But every- 
 thing is all right, and I am fortunate that nothing 
 like that happened. " 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 More About Lincoln 
 
 S A JURIST, it should be said, Mr. Lincoln 
 was not learned, but he was very honorable 
 and able, nevertheless ; a very safe lawyer in 
 whom to confide for legal advice, and to whom to 
 entrust a cause to be conducted through all the 
 stages of a process at law. It seems to me as I re- 
 member him and his legal associates, there were 
 more conscientious scruples as to what cases they 
 undertook to defend in the courts then than now. 
 They were loathe to take up the cases of clients who 
 had committed very flagrant crimes, and where it 
 seemed very plainly the duty of lawyers, for the 
 good of society, was to endeavor to allow the law 
 to take its course. There was little resort to "sharp 
 practice" in order to obstruct the energy of the law 
 from having its full force with incorrigible culprits. 
 Money consideration with Mr. Lincoln was not a 
 motive strong enough to induce him to violate his 
 ideas of intergrity where moral principle was con- 
 cerned. These were the days before attornev's 
 66 
 
Early Days in Illinois 67 
 
 fees became so fabulously large and court expenses 
 so great as at present through long drawn out pro- 
 cesses, postponements, changes of venue, errors, etc., 
 until the patience of the people was worn out and 
 the cases dropped out, owing to the many obstruc- 
 tions permitted by the judges. It was still before 
 the days of specialists who are resourceful in tech- 
 nicalities and loop holes of the law, which are now 
 oftentimes allowed to defeat the ends of justice. 
 
 What else shall we say of him as a lawyer? Not 
 much, for we have not long to praise him without 
 extending our notes beyond a reasonable limit. A 
 few characteristics more will suffice, and these from 
 his associate friends who were members of the bar. 
 What do they say of him ? This : He was very 
 clear in stating a case before a jury, was searching 
 in his examination of witnesses, and courteous un- 
 less he detected evidence of untruthfulness, when 
 he would become almost merciless. He was force- 
 ful and sagacious in his pleadings before a jury, 
 quick to take the different phases in his mind, and 
 trusted his memory in the matter of evidence, de- 
 veloping his case from facts, and when it turned 
 upon moral issues, he is said to have been " one of 
 the most persuasive advocates at the bar." It was 
 this moral sentiment, a characteristic feature of Mr. 
 Lincoln, long pent up within him, striving for out- 
 ward vent and expression, which though ordinarily 
 a mild man, broke out in irresistable fury against 
 
68 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Douglas in the period from 1854 and 1856 to 1858, 
 occasioned first by the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
 promise, then by the attempt to foist the Nebraska 
 Bill upon the people west of the State of Missouri, 
 and finally by the Dred Scott Decision of the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States. 
 
 This brings us to a very near approach to Mr. Lin- 
 coln's religious convictions. The moral element in his 
 make-up was deep-seated, and this came very 
 naturally from very early training and the early 
 example of his parents, as well as other early re- 
 ligious environments. We shall presently give the 
 proof of these statements in the effect upon him in 
 his maturer years when the crucial tests came upon 
 him. How beautifully true is the admonition of the 
 Word which was written long, long ago : "Train up 
 a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, 
 he will not depart from it." This is true in almost 
 every case which has come under the writer's ob- 
 servation, and he has lived long enough in life's ex- 
 periences to take knowledge of many facts. The 
 rule may not be invariable, but it is true in most 
 cases. If he were required to instance an example, 
 he does not remember a case to which he would 
 rather refer than that of Abraham Lincoln. The 
 writer had thought to pass over silently that fea- 
 ture of his record at his home in Springfield, but 
 so various have been the religious views expressed 
 about him, he has thought to say something upon 
 
Early Days in Illinois 69 
 
 it. Whatever else may be said about Mr. Lincoln 
 on the matter of his religious belief, up to the time 
 he left Springfield to go to Washington to become 
 the President of the United States, this may be said : 
 He was not a deeply religious man in the sense of 
 piety. I use the latter word in the good sense of the 
 term, sanctity, holiness, deeply religious devotion 
 to God, and not in any loose sense, as patriotism, 
 love of country, respect for law and order, or ordi- 
 nary morals such as any good citizen may have be- 
 fore touching the realm of the religious in a spirit- 
 ual sense. The Springfield folk who knew him best, 
 never have reported him as having a mind of this 
 order. He never united with any church up to the 
 time he left Springfield. While he attended church 
 services, and contributed to the support of the church, 
 and to other good causes, he was not known to be 
 deeply religious, not after the New Testament sense, 
 certainly, and not certainly an orthodox member of 
 any Christian body. One may have a rich natural 
 endowment of the moral qualities of mind, as did 
 Mr. Lincoln, but fall far below the standard held 
 up to view in the Sacred Book, as most men do, even 
 those who have won a very high place in the esti- 
 mation of mankind. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln has been a man difficult to explain, 
 whether in regard to his mental, his moral, or his 
 religious make-up. It is needless to endeavor to do 
 this, but it is needful just to let him stand as he was, 
 
70 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 with all his contradictions, if we consider his entire 
 record with his good and inestimable qualities, or 
 without, a man very much by himself, natural 
 throughout, raised up, possibly, of God, to fill in his 
 proper place at a time when such as he was needed. 
 Far be it from the writer to drop a word here about 
 him which in any way could cast a shadow about 
 {lis fair memory; rather would he stand in the re- 
 lation of friendliness to his good name, and as one 
 who loves his memory. But the truth needs to be 
 told even about him, however, much we may ven- 
 erate his memory, and however much we may be 
 impressed in sympathy on account of the strange 
 freak of his taking off by the bullet of the assassin. 
 To tell the truth about him can do his memory no 
 harm, and the truth is that his record has some in- 
 consistencies, one part of it truly at variance with 
 another part. The record of his early manhood be- 
 fore he came to Springfield, reveals the fact that he 
 was a deist if not a fatalist, and opposed to mir- 
 acles, and consequently, lacking in an orthodox 
 faith. In the campaign of Peter Cartwright against 
 Abraham Lincoln, in 1846, the former assailed the 
 latter for his infidelity, alleging that he had written 
 a paper attacking the Christian religion after the 
 manner of Thomas Paine. This was in the period 
 of his life during his stay at New Salem. I quote 
 the note for my authority for this statement given 
 by Rev. Joseph Fort Newton in his work on Lincoln 
 
Early Days in Illinois 71 
 
 and Herndon : "Such an essay was written by 
 Lincoln in his early days, while under the spell of 
 Volney, Paine, and other thinkers of that school, 
 in which he argued that the Bible was not inspired 
 and that Jesus was not the Son of God. He carried 
 it to the village store, where it was read and freely 
 discussed; but his employer, Samuel Hill, snatched 
 the manuscript out of his hands and put it into the 
 stove." — Abraham Lincoln, by Herndon and Weik, 
 Vol. II, pp. 149-151. It is fitting to add here what 
 is reported of him later in life: "A change came 
 over him, and that, after this, he was no more the 
 same." Later still in life, he became subject to a 
 greater change of belief, adopting many of the say- 
 ings of the Saviour, and made use of some of them 
 in his political discussion which could not be shaken. 
 That one from' the Gospel of Mark, is a notable in- 
 stance of one which he used against Douglas in his 
 Springfield speech, June 17th, 1858, relative to a 
 "house if divided against itself, it cannot stand," 
 applying it to the nonperpetuity of our government 
 existing half slave and half free. The passage from 
 the Scriptures in the use he made of it, has a place 
 in his record which we shall give later on when we 
 come to its historical setting. Here is what his 
 biographers have given, which he said about him- 
 self concerning his religious belief at this period'. 
 "I have never united myself to any church, because 
 I have found difficulty in giving my assent, with- 
 
72 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 out mental reservation, to the long complicated 
 statements of Christian doctrine which characterize 
 their Articles of Belief and confessions of faith. 
 When any church will inscribe over its altar, as the 
 sole qualification of membership, the Saviour's con- 
 densed statement of the substance of the Gospel, 
 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, 
 and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself/ 
 that church will I join with all my heart, soul and 
 mind." 
 
 I think that change became his final experience. 
 If, after the death of his son, Willie, he came into 
 this experience, in consequence, that death, possibly, 
 became a stepping stone into a better and brighter 
 life. If so, it was the smighting stroke of the Spirit 
 which broke the fetters of that power which had 
 bound him so long in its slavery, and made him a 
 free man. It was the worthy and merciful accom- 
 paniment when, in signing his name to the docu- 
 ment of emancipation proclamation, he broke the 
 shackles of millions in slavery, and by a stroke of 
 his pen set them free. It is well if that experience 
 could not come to him earlier that it came later. 
 
 I have already spoken in this chapter of the deep- 
 seated moral principle of Mr. Lincoln, and assert- 
 ed it to be owing to the early religious training of his 
 parents in his early life. I am in possession of an 
 old record which clears up much of the mystery of 
 the early religious training of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 73 
 
 which has remained for more than half a century. 
 It is a record, or I should say a transcription of an 
 old record made by Mr. McGregor in the finding 
 of two church record books which were more than 
 one hundred years old, and which were hid away 
 in the archives of Little Pigeon Baptist Church 
 near Lincoln City, Indiana. Mr. McGregor, who 
 was assistant Attorney General of the State of 
 Kentucky, has given to appreciative America sub- 
 stantial evidence that Abraham Lincoln was reared 
 by his parents in the simple faith of the "hard shell" 
 Baptist Church. There is no record, however, of 
 his affiliation with any church denomination. This 
 record proves conclusively that the Lincoln family 
 were Baptists. Here is what Mr. McGregor says : 
 "The parents of Abraham Lincoln deserve a fairer 
 estimate than has been given them by most of the 
 biographers of Lincoln; and the story as told by the 
 records that are still to be found in the archives of 
 Little Pigeon Church, near Lincoln City, Spender 
 [ ?] County, Ind., of the devotion paid by the parents 
 of Lincoln to Him who guided the lad of Pigeon 
 Creek in the hour of the Nation's travail, goes far to 
 give their true estimate. In fact, they were well-to- 
 do pioneers of their day; of sturdy ancestral stock, 
 and owned a farm, domestic animals, tools, and a 
 family Bible ; neighborly, sacrificing and active 
 church-going members. 
 
 "Pigeon Creek Church was founded on June 8th, 
 
74 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 1816, the year that Thomas Lincoln and his family 
 moved from Kentucky and settled on Pigeon Creek, 
 in what was then Warrick county, Indiana Terri- 
 tory. It was then, as now, the chief church in that 
 vicinity. When the meeting house was built its site 
 was selected about a mile west of Thomas Lincoln's 
 home, the church building today occupying practi- 
 cally the same place. When Lincoln's mother died 
 she was buried between their home and the church, 
 the graveyard not having been at that time started 
 at the church, but when Lincoln's sister, Sarah 
 Grigsby, died in 1828, she was buried at the church 
 burying ground, where her grave is yet to be seen, 
 marked by a rough stone. 
 
 This church, with its continuous existence since 
 1816, has only two books containing its records and 
 minutes; the first covering the period from 1816 
 to 1840. It is in this book that we find Abraham's 
 father and step-mother and sister were active mem- 
 bers of the Hardshell Baptist Church of Pigeon 
 Creek, and this book with its deer skin cover, the 
 hair still remaining, not only reveals in its crude his- 
 toric way the true religion of Lincoln's parents, 
 but gives us the best insight yet found to his own 
 religious views. 
 
 "Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were mar- 
 ried by a Methodist minister by the name of Jesse 
 Head, but shortly afterward they were united with 
 one of the churches of the Baptist Licking Locust 
 
Early Days in Illinois 75 
 
 Association of Regular Baptist churches in Ken- 
 tucky, and when Nancy Lincoln died in Indiana, 
 Abraham, by his own efforts, had their Kentucky 
 Pastor, Elder David Elkins, come to their wilder- 
 ness home and preach his mothers funeral. 
 
 "After Thomas Lincoln had married Sally Bush 
 Johnson, he sent back to his Kentucky church and 
 obtained his letter of fellowship, and the minutes 
 on June 1, 1823, show he united with the Pigeon 
 Creek church by this letter, his wife by experience. 
 From that date until they moved to Illinois in 1830, 
 their names appear frequently in the minutes of the 
 church proceedings, Thomas being one of the pillars 
 of the church, acting as moderator, on committees 
 to investigate the conduct of brethren and sisters, 
 and messenger to association, bearing the letter of 
 Pigeon Creek to her sister churches." 
 
 I give here the historic minutes which Mr. Mc- 
 Gregor furnishes, the wording and spelling just as 
 I find in his transcription, which, as far as he has 
 given, must be like that in the original : 
 "June 7th, 1823. 
 
 The church met and after prayer proceeded to busi- 
 ness. 
 First — Inquires for fellowship. 
 Second — Invited members of sister churches to 
 
 seats with us. 
 Third — Opened a dore for the reception of mem- 
 bers. 
 
76 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Fourth — Received Brother Thomas Linkhon by 
 
 letter * * * 
 Seventh — Received Brother John Wire by relation 
 and Sister Linkhon and Thomas Carter 
 by experience. 
 
 "Thomas Lincoln was not in such poor circum- 
 stances but that he always donated to the needs of 
 the church," said Mr. McGregor in offering the 
 copy of an agreement to build a new chimney on 
 the meeting house. 
 
 "We the undersigned do agree one with another 
 to pay the several somes next our names in produce 
 this Fall ;to be delivered betwixt the first and 20th 
 of December, the produce, as follows, corn, wheat, 
 whiskey, soft linen, wool or any other article or 
 material to do the work with, the produce will be 
 delivered at Wm. Barkers in good mercantile pro- 
 duce." 
 
 Signed with other names is : 
 
 Thomas Lincoln, white corn manufactured — 
 pounds — 24. "Thus," continued Mr. McGregor, 
 "we have revealed to us the religion of Abraham 
 Lincoln's parents, his sister, Sarah, and of himself. 
 He was raised in the simple hard shelled faith, which 
 in after years never left him. 
 
 "We have no record of Thomas Lincoln or wife 
 ever uniting with any church after they moved to 
 Illinois in 1830." 
 
 The writer does not design saying anything fur- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 77 
 
 ther in this place on the phases of Mr. Lincoln's re- 
 ligious views. In an appendix to this treatise will 
 be found other materials and a deeper and more 
 extended research on the question of the moral 
 aspects of his religion such as were known to the 
 citizens of Springfield, especially his most familiar 
 friends. So far, only a general statement has been 
 given of this feature of his mpral make-up in this 
 and preceding chapters. But curiosity may be 
 far reaching, and may be difficult to satisfy. To 
 such he would invite to the perusal of the notes in 
 the appendix for the proofs of the author's state- 
 ments made in his estimation of this great man. 
 But Mr. Lincoln had a variety of traits in the moral 
 status of his character which is somewhat difficult 
 to understand; yet here is one element which is 
 pleasing to contemplate, and with which we desire 
 to close this chapter. He loved that which was 
 natural, which was pure and good, and which had 
 within it the cheer of Joy and Hope. There was 
 something within him, after all that may be said, 
 which responded to the needs of the soul, and he 
 looked beyond himself in its appeal to be satisfied 
 and be brought into contentment. As proof and 
 illustration of what is here meant, I give a little inci- 
 dent of his life related by Mr. Herndon. This in- 
 cident will be found as told in the Appleton edition 
 of the Life of Lincoln by Herndon and Weik, 1906, 
 Vol. I, pp 321, 322. It is in regard to the "poem" 
 
78 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 or song that Lincoln "liked." I give the incident 
 and song as there found. Mr. Herndon Says : 
 
 "He once told me of a song a young lady had 
 sung in his hearing at a time when he was laboring 
 under some dejection of spirits. The lines struck 
 his fancy, and although he did not know the sing- 
 er — having heard her from the side walk as he 
 passed her house — he sent her a request to write 
 the lines out for him. Within a day or two he came 
 into the office, carrying in his hand a delicately per- 
 fumed envelope which bore the address, "Mr Lin- 
 coln — Present," in an unmistakable female hand. 
 In it written on gilt-edged paper, were the lines of 
 the song. The plaintive strain of the piece and its 
 melancholy sentiment struck a responsive chord in 
 a heart already filled with gloom and sorrow. 
 Though ill-adapted to dissipate one's depression, 
 something about it charmed Lincoln, and he read 
 and re-read it with increasing relish. I had forgot- 
 ten the circumstance until recently, when, in going 
 over some old papers and letters turned over to me 
 by Mr. Lincoln, I ran across the manuscript, and 
 the incident was brought vividly to my mind. The 
 envelope, still retaining a faint reminder of the per- 
 fumed scent given it thirty years before, bore ^the 
 laconic endorsement, "Poem — I like this," in the 
 hand writing of Mr. Lincoln. Unfortunately no 
 name accompanied the manuscript, and unless the 
 lady on seeing this chooses to make herself known, 
 
Early Days in Illinois 79 
 
 we shall probably not learn who the singer was. 
 The composition is headed, 'The Enquiry." I leave 
 to my musical friends to render it into song. The 
 following are the lines : 
 
 "Tell me, ye Winged Winds, 
 
 That round my pathway roar, 
 
 Do ye not know some spot 
 
 Where mortals weep no more; 
 
 Some lone and pleasant vale 
 
 Some valley in the West, 
 
 Where, free from toil and pain 
 
 The weary soul may rest? 
 
 The loud wind dwindled to a whisper low 
 
 And sighed for pity as it answered, no. 
 
 "Tell me, thou Mighty Deep, 
 
 Whose billows round me play, 
 
 Know'st thou some favored spot, 
 
 Some island far away, 
 
 Where weary man may find 
 
 The bliss for which he sighs; 
 
 Where sorrow never lives 
 
 And friendship never dies? 
 
 The loud waves rolling in perpetual flow 
 
 Stopped for awhile and sighed to answer, no. 
 
 "And thou, serenest Moon 
 
 That with such holy face 
 
 Dost look upon the Earth 
 
 Asleep in Nights' embrace — 
 
 Tell me, in all thy round 
 
 Hast thou not seen some spot 
 
 Where miserable man 
 
 Might find a happier lot? 
 
 Behind a cloud the moon withdrew in woe, 
 
 And a voice sweet but sad responded, no. 
 
80 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 "Tell me, my secret Soul, 
 Oh, tell me, Hope and Faith, 
 Is there no resting place 
 From sorrow, sin and death? 
 Is there no happy spot 
 Where mortal may be blessed, 
 Where Grief may find a balm 
 And weariness a rest? 
 
 Faith, Hope, and Love, best boon to mortals given, 
 Waved their bright wings and whispered, 
 'Yes; in Heaven.'" 
 
 In a foot note beneath the poem, Mr. Herndon 
 says: "Persons familiar with literature will recog- 
 nize this as a poem written by Charles Mackay, an 
 English writer who represented a London news- 
 paper in the United States during the Rebellion as 
 its war correspondent. It was set to music as a 
 chant, and as such was frequently rendered in public 
 by the famous Hutchinson family of singers. I 
 doubt if Mr. Lincoln ever knew who wrote it." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Early Days in Illinois 
 Lincoln and Douglas 
 
 BN THE foregoing chapter that point in Mr. 
 Lincoln's life was reached when it becomes 
 necessary to speak of him as a changed man — 
 not alone in the sense of his religious sentiment 
 which had received a change, — but as being thor- 
 oughly aroused by what he saw going on in the 
 political world around him. It is a good place to 
 begin to speak of him, farther, in his political life 
 in the period reaching from 1850 to 1854 or later 
 on, and when he had reached the essential age of the 
 full vigor of his manhood. It was a short period, 
 but very fruitful in many respects, and when the 
 excitement in Illinois was beginning to be intense. 
 
 We have spoken rather incidentally of Mr. Lin- 
 coln, rehearsing a few facts in the great formative 
 period of his life, viewing him getting ready for 
 action. Here we have him when, like a chrysalis, 
 he has burst the shell, and broken away a fully grown 
 man, thoroughly aroused from a state of inaction 
 
 81 
 
82 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 to one of great brilliancy and power, which made 
 itself felt. The questions of that day rendered it 
 so. There were the questions first of temperance 
 and "know-nothingism," which absorbed interest 
 for a time — Mr. Lincoln canvassing and making 
 speeches in favor of the former topic in his own 
 county and in those which were contiguous; but 
 they were tame enough in comparison with what 
 followed later on — the question of slavery, the 
 questions of the Missouri Compromise and its re- 
 peal, the Fugitive slave law, and the Dred Scott de- 
 cision, — all of which agitated the public mind and 
 set the country all on fire. 
 
 The period of 1850 to 1852 opened with the 
 giants wrestling with the great problem which 
 threatened to rend the nation asunder; the voices 
 of union and disunion "clashed and echoed far and 
 wide" over the nation. At length the trouble was 
 fixed up, and the country was thought to be secure in 
 its peace. It was by the enactment of the Missouri 
 Compromise. It was the great triumphant but 
 short-lived work of Henry Clay. Also the domestic 
 slave trade was prohibited in the District of Colum- 
 bia, which lent encouragement to the peace of the 
 country. The old measure which was in force still 
 for the benefit of the pro-slavery men, it was 
 thought would now compel the country to main- 
 tain peace, as it was thought none would dare inter- 
 fere in the affairs of the law — the Fugitive Slave 
 
Early Days in Illinois 83 
 
 law, whose majesty all would respect, since it was 
 the law. Altogether, it was accounted a great stroke 
 of statesmanship which would forever settle the per- 
 petuity of the Union and the peace of the land with 
 the institution of slavery shut up within it. But 
 not so. The Fugitive slave law was " cruel, merci- 
 less and stringent."* It aroused the abolition senti- 
 ment of the North, and many felt that although a 
 law of the land, they could not respect it nor obey 
 it. So that by the time of the campaign of 1852, 
 in which there were the two old parties still in the 
 field, the Whigs and the Democrats, lined up against 
 each other, the former under General Scott and the 
 latter under Franklin Pierce, they both felt them- 
 selves muzzled by the Slave power, and courting 
 the Southern vote, while insisting in their platforms 
 that the compact of 1850 was final, and that the 
 Fugitive Slave law must be obeyed. Such condi- 
 tions could not be permanent. 
 
 It was about this period, also, that Douglas came 
 into great brilliancy and power. He was an able 
 debater, taking front rank in the Senate, and finally 
 became the great champion. This he maintained 
 from 1850 to 1860, when the question of slavery 
 came up for consideration. Douglas himself seem- 
 ed not to have had any conscientious scruples as to 
 the moral wrong of slavery. He was ambitious for 
 his own popularity, and to this end bent all his 
 energies, insisting upon the institution of slavery 
 
 * Joseph Fort Newton in his work, Lincoln and Herndon. 
 
84 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 because it was the law of the land, which he had 
 been instrumental in making, or at least was re- 
 sponsible for helping to bring around existing con- 
 ditions in regard to it. Douglas did not himself 
 originate the measure of the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise, yet he was responsible more than any 
 man for the undoing of the compact, and thereby 
 became the instrument which precipitated the Civil 
 War. Knowingly or unknowingly, it was an 
 iniquitous piece of business, and when once into it, 
 he was by force of being leader, drawn still deeper 
 into it, and carried whither he would not. He saw, 
 perhaps, his fatal error, but only when it was too 
 late for remedy, and his political doom was sealed; 
 but being an adroit man, he tried to justify himself 
 by an appeal to his "popular sovereignty" scheme 
 which in the end utterly failed. When put to the 
 test in Kansas, popular sovereignty proved only 
 "squatter sovereignty." There was a rush across 
 the border line of Missouri into Kansas into tents, 
 improvised sheds, and hovels — anywhere that the 
 pro-slavery men could "squat" themselves in order 
 to defeat the actual free-loving, bonafide citizens 
 knocking for admission into the Union as a free 
 state, now alas ! with Congress no longer any power 
 to interfere and prevent it from becoming a slave 
 state. The memory of these times anJ events are 
 still fresh in the minds of a few people yet living. 
 
 The history of the entrance of Kansas into the 
 
"Early Days in Illinois 85 
 
 Union is largely a history of "rump legislatures," 
 "fraudulent constitutions," "outrages at the poles," 
 and tragedies from which even Douglas himself 
 revolted. It is not a history of these events that is 
 here intended to be written, but to give enough of 
 the happenings to get the matter of those times 
 fairly well before the mind as the causes of a rude 
 awakening 'throughout the North against Pro- 
 slavery sentiments and pro-slavery schemes. When 
 tne Kansas-Nebraska bill was introduced by tne 
 insane slave-holding interests of a few men of the 
 South, not the best men among them, the violence 
 between the North and the South became intense ; 
 it threatened to disrupt the two sections of the 
 country even at that time. It was the "irrepressible 
 conflict destined to rage with increasing force," 
 says Mr. Newton energetically, "until slavery was 
 destroyed in the flames kindled by its own folly. "* 
 Illinois was stirred more than any State in the North, 
 perhaps, owing to the fact that it was the home of 
 Senator Douglas who was the champion leader of 
 the movement. Then and there began to form c 
 movement in order to resist the attempt of the 
 South to seize and enslave Kansas, and a new 
 party of men arose known as the "Free-soil party," 
 "Anti-Nebraska men," and the like? but in other 
 states, they were known from the start as Republi 
 cans. In Illinois, there were many discordant ele- 
 ments. Men there did not like to be called Aboli- 
 
 * In his book, Lincoln and Herndon. 
 
86 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 tionists, as it was a term much in disfavor, Lincoln 
 was one of these. He was not an abolitionist, but 
 he had a hatred of slavery and of the ' 'popular 
 sovereignty" dogma of Douglas. He resolved to 
 oppose it with all his might. In his hours of seclu- 
 sion he had studied all the issues of his day, which 
 affected his country, and from every angle and view- 
 point until he was thoroughly informed on the sub- 
 ject. When he emerged from his period of seclu- 
 sion, he was a changed man, completely equipped, 
 and he launched forth against Douglas his great 
 argument in "tongues and flashes of fire."* In the 
 start, Lincoln argued for the restoration of the 
 Compromise, but when the Dred Scott decision was 
 announced, every forlorn hope was swept aside, 
 and he measured arms with Judge Douglas in every 
 legal, political and moral aspects of those issues. 
 
 His good work began in his home town of 
 Springfield. He started out from the first with the 
 great thought burning in his heart, " . This nation 
 cannot exist half slave and half free," and from this 
 basis he never changed nor deviated. Although 
 after this start he did remain quiet for a time, with 
 his feelings pent up within him often striving to 
 break out in irresistible utterance. But, as he him- 
 self said, he bit his lips, stifled his feelings, while 
 he jotted down his notes, "stowing them away in 
 his hat," according to Mr. Herndon, some of which 
 
 * In his book, Lincoln and Herndon. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 87 
 
 have been preserved, "showing with what keen and 
 merciless logic he went to the bottom of things.*' 
 
 Douglas was very popular in his home state of 
 Illinois, and rushed all his own campaigns and 
 others in which he was interested, with a furor. 
 In the campaign of 1854, he stumped the state for 
 General Shields, whose opponent was Mr. Lincoln, 
 and he found the latter thoroughly prepared for a 
 rencounter. In the early part of the Fall of that 
 year, Douglas was at Springfield attending the State 
 Fair, and he made a great speech in the State- 
 house. The two men locked horns. It was the be- 
 ginning of a great discussion which lasted for five 
 years, and terminating in their Joint Discussion in 
 1858. On that occasion Douglas spoke in the fore- 
 noon, consuming nearly all that length of time be- 
 fore a large audience. This was the beginning of 
 his great argument in defense of the Nebraska Bill, 
 and the gist of his argument for that bill lay in the 
 fallacy of his assumption that property in slaves 
 did not vary from other kinds of property. Douglas, 
 ordinarily was a fluent speaker, and he delivered his 
 address with much warmth, energy and charm, 
 carrying many of his audience to his side of the 
 question by his resort to the "Popular Sovereignty" 
 scheme, and he succeeded in swaying them into a 
 belief in its plausibility. 
 
 The next day in the afternoon in the same place, 
 Lincoln addressed a reply to Douglas before a 
 
88 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 large audience, also, for above the space of three 
 hours. This address has been pronounced a master- 
 piece of work, put together in such manner as to be 
 impregnable, carrying away the people as by storm. 
 He had been silent a long time, but now he had 
 spoken. People who lived in Springfield were proud 
 of their distinguished citizen. They felt that a new 
 star had indeed arisen in the political firmament. 
 He dealt with the question of slavery unlike many 
 abolitionists in not depicting its cruelties and hor- 
 rors, but confined himself to its legal aspects, not 
 forgetting its moral issues; and when it came to the 
 dogma of Douglas, he drove his shafts home, 
 piercing it through and through, turning it over from 
 every side until nothing remained. Douglas was 
 amazed. He sat only a short distance in front of 
 the speaker while the latter dealt with his entire 
 speech delivered the previous day in a most com- 
 plete and merciless exposure. It is said that Doug- 
 las felt most keenly his epigrams, occasionally in- 
 terrupting him only to receive his sharp retorts with 
 a readiness that surprised and delighted his auditors. 
 Lincoln gained a complete victory and was greeted 
 by thunders of applause. This first speech was 
 never reported, but numerous comments were made 
 upon it. I cannot refrain from giving the com- 
 ments of Horace White upon this speech. His de- 
 livery, gesticulations, and manner of oratory would 
 not have been preserved to future generations but 
 
Early Days in Illinois 89 
 
 for him, although it may be he has somewhat over- 
 drawn Mr. Lincoln in some of his features of 
 oratory. Here follows what he said : "He began in 
 a slow and hesitating manner, but without any mis- 
 takes of language, dates or facts. It was evident 
 that he had mastered his subject, that he knew what 
 he was going to say, and that he knew he was right. 
 He had a thin, high-pitched, falsetto voice of much 
 carrying power, and could be heard a long dis- 
 tance in spite of the bustle and tumult of the crowd. 
 He had the accent and pronunciation peculiar to 
 his native state, Kentucky. Gradually he warmed 
 up with his subject, his angularity disappeared, and 
 he passed into that attitude of unconscious majesty 
 that is so conspicuous in Saint-Gauden's statue at the 
 entrance to Lincoln Park in Chicago. Progressing 
 with his theme, his words began to come faster 
 and his face to light up with the rays of genius and 
 his body to move in unison with his thoughts. His 
 gestures were made with his body and head rather 
 than with his arms. They were the natural expres- 
 sion of the man, and so perfectly adapted to what 
 he was saying that anything different would have 
 been quite inconceivable. Sometimes his manner 
 was very impassioned, and he seemed transfigured 
 with his subject. Perspiration would stream down 
 his face, and each particular hair would stand on 
 end. In such transfigured moments as these, he was 
 the type of the Hebrew prophet. 
 
90 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 "I heard the whole speech. It was superior to 
 Webster's reply to Hayne, because its theme is 
 loftier and its scope wider. I think also that Lin- 
 coln's speech is the superior of the two as an exam- 
 ple of English style. It lacks something of the 
 smooth, comprehensive flow which takes the in- 
 tellect captive in the Websterian diction, but it 
 excels in simplicity, directness, and lucidity which 
 appeal both to the intellect and the heart. The 
 speech made so profound an impression on me that 
 I feel under its spell to this day." 
 
 About two weeks after this encounter at Spring- 
 field, they had another hitch at Peoria. It was a 
 joint discussion this time, I do not know if it were 
 a pre-arranged one. Douglas spoke for more than 
 three hours in presenting his isde of the question, 
 keeping to the line of his address at Springfield. He 
 acquitted himself well from his standpoint, and 
 when he was through, it was supper time. Lincoln 
 admonished his hearers to repair to their lunch 
 baskets as his address would not be less lengthy 
 than that of Senator Douglas, announcing at the 
 same time that Douglas was to reply. Lincoln's 
 reply was also very similar to his reply at Spring- 
 field, only it is said to have been in an improved 
 form, compactness, and rigour of style. If so, it 
 was a very impassioned address. It was not report- 
 ed, nor yet a third address delivered in Blooming- 
 ton in 1856, although all these were the master 
 
Early Days in Illinois 91 
 
 pieces of his life from a political stand point of 
 view. This third address we shall have occasion to 
 speak of later on. Mr. Lincoln himself regarded his 
 Peoria speech as the ablest and best of his life, and 
 wrote it down in its entirety at his leisure, and pub- 
 lished it in the Illinois State Journal at Springfield. 
 From the files of this newspaper it, doubtless, may 
 be read. Someone has copied it or parts of it, pub- 
 lished it and. given it to| the people and to literature, 
 from which source it might have been lost had not 
 Mr. Lincoln himself taken the pains to give it forth 
 and preserve it. It is the simplest, clearest, ablest and 
 best putting of the subject on which it treats of any- 
 thing heard or read during that lengthy period of 
 excitement. It was on the subject of the restoration 
 or the reenactment of the Missouri Compromise, 
 which never came. 
 
 As I have given a description of Mr. Lincoln's 
 manner of oratory from the pen of Mr. White who 
 was a competent judge in a matter of this kind, it 
 may be that I can serve my readers in no better 
 purpose than to give a part of the Peoria speech 
 that those who have never seen it, if any such there 
 be, but who would be interested in reading it, might 
 be able to possess it. Here it is : "Before proceed- 
 ing, let 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 now exist 
 among them, they would not introduce it. If it did 
 
92 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 now exist among us, we should not instantly give it 
 up. This I believe of the masses North and South. 
 Doubtless there are individuals on both sides who 
 would not hold slaves under any circumstances, and 
 others who would gladly introduce slavery anew if 
 it were out of existence. We know that some 
 Southern men do free their slaves, go North and 
 become tip-top Abolitionists, while some Northern 
 ones go south and become slave masters. 
 
 "When the Southerners tell us that they are no 
 more responsible for the origin of slavery than we 
 are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that 
 the institution exists and that it is very difficult to 
 get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can under- 
 stand and appreciate the same. I surely will not 
 blame them for not doing what I should not know 
 how to do my self. // all earthly power were given 
 me I should not knozv what to do with the existing 
 institution. My first impulse would be to free all 
 slaves and send them to Liberia, to their native 
 land. But a moment's reflection would convince 
 me that whatever high hope (as I think there is) 
 there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden 
 execution is impossible. * * But all this, in my 
 judgment, furnishes no more excuse for permitting 
 slavery to go into our new territory than it would 
 for reviving the African slave trade by law. 
 
 Equal justice to the South, it is said, requires us 
 to consent to the extension of slavery to the new 
 
Early Days in Illinois 93 
 
 Territories. That is to say, inasmuch as you do 
 not object to my taking my hog to Nebraska, there- 
 fore I must not object to you taking your 
 slave. Now, I admit that is perfectly logical, if there 
 is no difference between hogs and negroes. But 
 while you require me to deny the humanity of the 
 negro, I wish to ask whether you of the South, 
 yourselves, have ever been willing to do as much? 
 The great majority, South as well as North, have 
 human sympathies, of which they can no more 
 divest themselves than they can of their sensibility 
 to physical pain. These sympathies in the bosoms 
 of the Southern people manifest, in many ways, 
 their sense of the wrong of slavery, and their con- 
 sciousness that, after all, there is humanity in the 
 negro * * And now why will you ask us to deny 
 the humanity of the negro, and estimate him only 
 the equal of the hog? 
 
 The doctrine of self-government is right, — abso- 
 lutely and eternally right, — but it has no just appre- 
 ciation as here attempted * * * But if the negro is 
 man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of 
 self-government to say that he too shall not govern 
 himself? When the white man governs himself 
 that is self-government; but when he governs him- 
 self and also another man, that is more than self- 
 government — that is despotism * * * No man is 
 good enough to govern another man without that 
 other mans consent. I say this is the leading prin- 
 
94 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 ciple, the sheet-anchor, of American Republicanism. 
 But Nebraska is urged as a great Union saving 
 measure., Well, I too go for saving the Union. 
 Much as I hate slavery, I would consent to the ex- 
 tension of it rather than see the Union dissolved, 
 just as I would consent to any great evil to avoid 
 a greater one. But when I go to Union-saving, I 
 must believe, at least, that the means I employ must 
 have some adaptation to the end. To my mind, 
 Nebraska has no such adaptation. It hath no relish 
 of salvation in it. It is an aggravation, rather, of 
 the only thing which ever endangers the Union. 
 When it came upon us, all was peace and quiet. The 
 nation was looking to the forming of new bonds of 
 union, and a long course of peace and prosperity 
 seemed to lie before us. 
 
 "In this state of affairs the Genius of Discord 
 himself could hardly have invented a way of again 
 setting us by the ears but by turning back and de- 
 stroying the peace measures of the past. The coun- 
 cils of the Genius seem to have prevailed. The 
 Missouri Compromise was repealed; and here we 
 are in the midst of a new slavery agitation, such, 
 I think, as we have never seen before. * * * The 
 Missouri Compromise ought to be restored. For 
 the peace of the Union, it ought to be restored. If 
 by any means we omit this, what follows? Slavery 
 may or may not be established in Nebraska. But 
 whether it be or not, we shall have repudiated — dis- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 95 
 
 carded from the counsels of the nation — the spirit 
 of compromise; for who, after this, will ever trust 
 in a national compromise ? The spirit of 'mutual 
 concession — » that spirit which first gave us the 
 Constitution, and which has thrice saved the Union — 
 we shall have strangled and cast from us forever." 
 
 "And what shall we have in lieu of it? The 
 South flushed with triumph and tempted to excess; 
 the North betrayed as they believe, brooding on 
 wrong and burning for revenge. One side will pro- 
 voke, the other resent. One will taunt, the other 
 defy : one aggresses, the other retaliates. Already a 
 few in the North defy all constitutional restraints, 
 resist the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, and 
 menance the institution of slavery in the States 
 where it exists. Already a few in the South claim 
 the constitutional right to take and hold slaves in the 
 free states, demand the revival of the slave trade. 
 But restore the Compromise, what then ? We here- 
 by restore the national faith, the national confidence 
 the national feeling of brotherhood. We thereby 
 reinstate the spirit of concession and compromise, 
 that spirit which never failed us in past perils, and 
 which may be safely trusted for all the future. 
 
 The South ought to join in this. The peace of 
 the nation is as dear to them as to us. The memories 
 of the past and hopes of the future, they share as 
 largely as we. It would be on their part a great act 
 — great in its spirit and great in its effect. It would 
 
96 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 be worth to the nation a hundred years purchase 
 of peace and prosperity. And what of sacrifice 
 would they make ? They only surrender to us what 
 they gave us for a consideration long, long ago ; 
 what they asked for, struggled or cared for; what 
 has been thrust upon them, not less to their astonish- 
 ment than to ours * * * * Our republican robe 
 is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us purify it. 
 Let us turn and wash it white in the spirit, if not 
 in the blood of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery 
 from its claims of ''moral right'' back upon its exist- 
 ing legal right of necessity. Let us return it to 
 the position our fathers gave it, and there let it 
 rest in peace. * * * Let North and South — let all 
 Americans — let all lovers of liberty everywhere 
 join in the great work and good work. If we do this 
 we shall not only have saved the Union, but we 
 shall have so saved it as to make and keep it forever 
 worthy of the saving."* 
 
 Again may it be said as it was said of the Spring- 
 field speech that Douglas was amazed — so amazed 
 at the "skill and power of his opponent" that it is 
 reported he made, flatteringly, a proposition to 
 Lincoln like this : "You are giving me more trouble 
 in debate than all the United States Senate; let us 
 both stop and go home." The biographers of 
 Lincoln have reported that Lincoln agreed to the 
 proposition and kept his agreement, but Douglas 
 did not. 
 
 Quoted from Joseph Fort Newton's Lincoln and Herndon. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 97 
 
 In this same Peoria speech of Lincoln do these 
 words occur: "Let us turn and wash it (meaning 
 our republican robe) white in the spirit, if not in 
 the blood of the Revolution." It was a "deep-toned 
 prophetic forecast of blood and violence" which was 
 coming. Lincoln and many others in the North as 
 well in the South were watching the struggle ap- 
 proaching, and knew that it was coming on and 
 soon. 
 
 The campaign of 1856 was a remarkable one. I 
 remember it as if it had been only yesterday. Politi- 
 cal clubs were formed at all the little towns through- 
 out the State. Those of us who lived there at that 
 time had never known the like before. Public 
 speaking was held before these nearly every week 
 in the daytime and after night. Men went to these 
 in buggies, wagons, and on horseback. There were 
 three political parties in the field at the same time 
 all vieing with one another in single speeches or in 
 joint discussions. Two of these parties were new 
 parties, made out of the old Whig party with addi- 
 tions to either of them from the old line Demo- 
 cratic party. In Illinois these were the American 
 (Know — Nothing) Party, and the other was the Re- 
 publican party, made up by the fusion of the Free- 
 soilers, the Anti-Nebraska men, and the Abolitionists. 
 As we are here concerned with Mr. Lincoln in the 
 part he took in bringing around this fusion, a word 
 about it will not be out of order, especially as it 
 
98 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 brought out one of the greatest speeches he ever 
 made, and which had more effect than any other 
 thing, possibly, in bringing about his nomination 
 at the Chicago Convention, because it brought him 
 prominently before the people. 
 
 At the beginning of the campaign of 1856, a con- 
 vention was held in Bloomington for the purpose of 
 uniting into one party the Anti-Nebraska men, the 
 Free-soilers, and the Abolitionists, and others as 
 chose to come out of the old Democratic party like 
 some who attended the convention, namely, John 
 M. Palmer, Wentworth, Allen, Judd, and Koerner. 
 Indeed it began with Hon. John M. Palmer in the 
 chair. It was a stormy convention, but Lincoln 
 and a few others of his friends succeeded in quiet- 
 ing and uniting it. After this, the business before 
 the convention was the nomination of a State Ticket, 
 and Wm. H. Bissell and Francis Hoffman were 
 chosen for candidates respectively for Governor 
 and Lieutenant Governor. For the balance of the 
 State ticket, it was filled by the nominating Com- 
 mittee of which Mr. Lincoln was chairman. The 
 business of the convention being finished, Mr. Lin- 
 coln was set upon by many who called wildly for a 
 speech and he replied by a vivid and intensely pas- 
 sionate address, the most vigorous address of his 
 life, according to Mr. Herndon, Lincoln's law part- 
 ner, who was there and heard it in its entirety. 
 There is no authentic report of this speech. Mr. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 99 
 
 Herndon undertook to make notes of it, but aban- 
 doned the undertaking in the intensity of his interest. 
 It was said by many of the friends who heard it 
 however, to the the greatest of all his speeches, ex- 
 celling any he made in the joint discussion with 
 Douglas. It was the explosion of the pent up fires 
 within him now slumbering for a long time, due to 
 the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise still, the 
 agitation of the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred 
 Scott case drawing on apace. The wild and excit- 
 ing scenes going on in the country, the little war 
 going on in the State of Kansas, the imprisonment 
 of her Governor, the caning of Sumner in the 
 United States senate, — all conspired to render the 
 times exciting, and Lincoln was full to the brim. 
 Of all the reports of this speech I have read, Mr. 
 Herndon's is the fullest and best. I give here his 
 report as I find it. Mr. Herndon says : "I have 
 heard or read all of Mr. Lincoln's speeches, and I 
 give it as my opinion that the Bloomington speech 
 was the grand effort of his life. Heretofore he had 
 simply argued the slavery question on grounds of 
 policy — the statesman's grounds * * * Now he was 
 newly baptised, * * * the smothered fire broke out ; 
 his eyes glowed with inspiration, he felt justice; his 
 heart was alive, and he stood before the throne of 
 the eternal Right. * * * It was logic ; it was pathos ; 
 it was enthusiasm; it was justice, equity, truth and 
 right set ablaze by the divine fires of a soul mad- 
 
100 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 dened by wrong ; it was hard, heavy, knotted, gnarl- 
 ed, backed with wrath. I attempted for about 
 fifteen minutes as usual with me to take notes, but 
 at the end of that time I threw my pen and paper 
 away and lived only in the inspiration of the hour. 
 Mr. Lincoln was six feet and four inches usually, 
 at Bloomington that day he was seven feet, and in- 
 spired at that." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Early Days in Illinois. 
 
 Lincoln the Rail Splitter and Sir Knight 
 Of the Maul. 
 
 FTER THE Bloomington convention, Mr. 
 Herndon hurried back home to Springfield 
 in advance of Mr. Lincoln in order to make 
 
 arrangements for a mass meeting the purpose of 
 which was to unite the discordant elements among 
 their constituents into a new party. But it is said 
 that when the time came for the meeting which was 
 held in the old Court-House at the Northeast cor- 
 ner of the capitol square, there were present only 
 three persons. According to Mr. Herndon, Mr. 
 Lincoln used to speak of it jokingly by saying that 
 while he knew himself and Mr. Herndon would be 
 there, he was not certain that any one else would be 
 there, and that the meeting was larger than he ex- 
 pected.* I have heard Mr. Weber relate being pres- 
 ent at a similar meeting in the same old Court- 
 House with Mr. Lincoln and some one else behind 
 
 * This third man's name was John Rim, whom Mr. Herndon, in 
 higr life of Lincoln, calls a "courageous" man, so great was the 
 ordium attached to the term aboJitionist. The prejudice around 
 Springfield in those days was very great, and owing, no doubt, 
 to the great number of Southerners among the early settlers located 
 in and around Springfield. 
 
 101 
 
102 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 closed doors, where they met and arranged every- 
 thing of the preliminary matters for a new republi- 
 can club and for a mass-meeting which came later 
 and was a success. The truth is, the reason these 
 first meetings were not larger, there was the odium 
 attached to the term, Abolitionist, which was one of 
 the names of the factionists to be harmonized, and 
 only a few cared to have their names mixed up with 
 them in a political party. They were at first very 
 unpopular — so much so that those living today 
 scarcely realize this fact. On this point I give two 
 or three excerpts from Mr. Newton's Lincoln and 
 Herndon: "Slavery had become a question about 
 which men in Illinois picked their words with care. 
 So intense was the feeling that in March, 1837 — 
 one month before Lincoln entered the office of 
 Stuart — the Assembly passed a resolution express- 
 ing disapproval of the formation of Abolition so- 
 cieties and the doctrines advocated by them. Many 
 men who hated slavery sympathized in part with 
 this action, on the ground that such agitation ten- 
 ded more to irritate men than to convince them, 
 thus making the situation doubly difficult. Still 
 
 the resolution of the Assembly passed with great 
 enthusiasm, glibly ignored the moral principle in- 
 volved, and it required some courage for Lincoln 
 to file protest against it. But he did so in words 
 so well-chosen and far-sighted that he had no need 
 to alter them for thirty years. He held that 
 
Early Days in Illinois 103 
 
 slavery "is founded on both injustice and bad policy, 
 but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines 
 tend rather to increase than to abate the evils." 
 
 I give further a second excerpt from the same 
 source : "Shortly afterwards Elijah Lovejoy, editor 
 of the St. Louis Observer, a religious weekly, was 
 driven from that city by a mob for expressing anti- 
 slavery sentiments in his paper. Unwisely, as many 
 thought, he established his paper at Alton, Illinois, 
 only twenty miles distant by steamer, with the re- 
 sult that a mob attacked his press and he was shot 
 while defending it. Not satisfied with this brutal 
 crime, the mob threatened to attack Illinois College 
 at Jacksonville, because its president, Edward 
 Beecher, had stood guard with Lovejoy the night 
 before the tragedy. Excitement was at fever heat, 
 and indignation meetings were held throughout the 
 State. At a gathering of students, notable for its 
 intensity of feeling, William Herndon, in a speech 
 long remembered by his fellow students, denounced 
 not only the enslavement of men, but the attempt to 
 gag the press by mob rule." 
 
 "The elder Herndon, who was intensely pro- 
 slavery in his views, fearing that his son had be- 
 come infested with the poison of abolitionism with- 
 drew the lad from; college, remarking that he would 
 have no part in the education of a d abolition- 
 ist pup ! It was as he had suspected. The lad came 
 home an enthusiastic and radical Abolitionist. 
 
104 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 There was a break between father and son, and the 
 boy left home, though he remained religiously loyal 
 to his mother, visiting her almost every day."* 
 
 He had been employed in Springfield before enter- 
 ing as a student at Illinois College, by one Joshua 
 F. Speed, and on his return to Springfield, he re- 
 engaged himself to him. as clerk in his store at 
 seven hundred dollars per annum for his services, 
 where he remained for several years. 
 
 I return to the place in my narrative from which 
 I broke away to give the foreging excerpts and to 
 where Mr. Weber, Mr. Lincoln, and one other man 
 met together behind closed doors in the old Court 
 House to consult together on political matters. 
 From this time forward Mr. Weber and Mr. Lincoln 
 became warm personal friends, more so than the 
 former had ever been with Judge Douglas. The 
 campaigning of 1856 in our county, which was 
 Sangamon, was the most hotly contested field I 
 had ever witnessed. There was public speaking in 
 almost every voting precinct in the county. The 
 only time I remember Mr. Lincoln being at our 
 little town of Mechanics-burg to make a speech was 
 in that year, and he spoke an hour and a half at 
 least. He had a full house on that night. He 
 spoke mainly in behalf of Freemont, and admonish- 
 ed those of the American party to vote for this 
 candidate as the most likely way to elect Mr. Fill- 
 more, which might throw the matter of the election 
 
 * See Chapter I pages 7,8, and 9 of his work, Lincoln and Herndon. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 105 
 
 of the President into the House of Congress, as 
 they held the balance of power, but that there was 
 not a ghost of a chance for the American party 
 otherwise. He wrote numerous letters that year to 
 farmers in our end of the country whom he knew 
 to be Fillmore men, to the same effect. 
 
 There were many large mass-meetings held in 
 Springfield that year by all the contesting political 
 parties with delegates representing each township in 
 the county, and at some of these, there were in 
 attendance as many as twenty or thirty thousand 
 persons, or more. 
 
 In the campaign of 1856, both Mr. Lincoln and 
 Mr Herndon made speeches for their candidate, 
 especially Lincoln in the larger towns throughout 
 the State, but their candidate was badly defeated. 
 Not being able to unite all the factions in Illinois, 
 especially the American party, Lincoln foresaw the 
 inevitable defeat of Freemont. After this campaign, 
 we heard very little from Lincoln, and what speeches 
 we did hear from him, fell far below those we have 
 indicated which brought him into such conspicuous 
 notice. He subsided into silence, applying himself 
 assiduously to his law practice. But Lincoln was a 
 politician with aspirations for dignified and exalted 
 positions, but not at all for money making. Say 
 what we may, he aspired to the office of United 
 States senatorship, and even to the Presidency, for 
 either of which he was deservedly qualified. 
 
106 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Mr. Herndon has related in some of his notes 
 what was going on in Lincoln's mind during this 
 silence from 1856 to 1858. It was a state of prep- 
 aration in a special way in which he and Mr. Hern- 
 don worked with very special aim. Lincoln thought 
 well of his law partner, and counselled with him on 
 many points with respect to his political ambitions. 
 It is related of Mr. Lincoln that prior to the con- 
 vention which met at Springfield on June 16th, 1858, 
 he carefully prepared and wrote out the speech 
 which he delivered before this Republican conven- 
 tion June 17th, 1858* I have the book of the politi- 
 cal Debates between Lincoln and Douglas before me 
 while I am writing. This speech is great. It has a 
 history. When he had completed writing it, he 
 read it aloud to Herndon, first locking the office 
 door and drawing the curtain across the glass panel 
 of the same. Mr. Herndon relates that he read the 
 speech paragraph by paragraph, stopping after each 
 to wait for comment. They discussed it fully be- 
 tween them, and it is said only the first paragraph 
 which included the part of the Scripture quotation 
 
 * Mr. Herndon relates in life of Lincoln that a few days before this 
 convention met, while Mr. Lincoln was busily engaged in writing 
 this speech, Jesse K. Dubois who was Auditor of State, came into the 
 office and seeing Mr. Lincoln busy at writing, inquired what he was 
 doing or what he was writing. Lincoln answered gruffly. "Its 
 something you may see or hear sometime, but I'll not let you see 
 it now." "After the convention Mr. Lincoln met me," says Mr. 
 Dubois, "and said, 1 can tell you now what I was 'doing the other 
 day when you came into my office. I was writing that speech, and 
 I knew rf I read the passage about the "house divided against 
 itself" to you, you would ask me to change or modify it, and 
 that I was determined not to do so. I had willed it so, and 
 was willing if necessary to perish with it." From M. S. Statement. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 107 
 
 from Jesus Christ, raised any question. He had 
 used this quotation in his Bloomington speech which 
 drew from Judge Dickey the unjust and wicked re- 
 mark, "A d fool utterance." Mr Herndon re- 
 membering the remark, said : "It is true, but is it 
 wise or polite to say so?" Where upon Lincoln re- 
 plied in a manner worthy of the man, which reply 
 will be remembered when the name of Judge Dickey 
 will have been forgotten. I give it as I find it: 
 "That expression is_a truth of all human experience, 
 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' The 
 proposition is also true, and has been true for six 
 thousand years. I want to use some universally 
 well known figures expressed in simple language as 
 universally well known, that may strike home to the 
 minds of men in order to raise them up to the peril 
 of the times. I do not believe I would be right in 
 changing or omitting it. I would rather be defeated 
 with this expression in the speech, and uphold and dis- 
 cuss it before the people, than be victorious without 
 it." 
 
 But this is not the end of the matter of this 
 speech. Afterward, Lincoln called a few of his per- 
 sonal friends together in the library of the State 
 House and read to them the speech. All with the ex- 
 ception of Herndon pronounced against it, principal- 
 ly because they thought it was too radical to suit the 
 Anti-Lecompton Democrats whom it was especially 
 desirous to retain. Not one endorsed the wisdom 
 
108 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 of making that speech ; but when they were all done, 
 Herndon exclaimed, "Lincoln, deliver that speech 
 as read, and it will make you President."* And 
 he delivered it. 
 
 In 1858, he became the competitor for the office 
 of the United States senatorship against Douglas. 
 It somehow always transpired that Lincoln arose 
 to great eminence in his oratorical efforts when 
 pitched against Douglas. The latter became eminent- 
 ly conspicuous by his course of opposition to Presi- 
 dent Buchanan when his term of office of the United 
 States senatorship was drawing to a close, and he 
 returned to Illinois flushed by his victory over him ; 
 and, armed, moreover, with the Dred Scott Decision, 
 he determined to push his campaign with the ut- 
 most vigor. Lincoln was waiting and watchful to 
 dispute every inch of his way with his careful 
 preparation. Douglas returned to Chicago accom- 
 panied by his newly wedded wife who was a very 
 fascinating and accomplished lady, qualified in every 
 way to render him popular and to assist him wher- 
 ever he went. Indeed, so popular was he that his 
 reception was every where one ceaseless round of 
 toasting and ovation. 
 
 His return to Chicago was greeted by a com- 
 mittee of reception, with a grand supper, a brass 
 band, a procession, and the firing of cannon. At 
 night he made a great speech. Mr. Lincoln was 
 
 * Herndon and Wiek's Life of Lincoln. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 109 
 
 present on the balcony from which he made his 
 speech only a few feet away from him and heard 
 every word. The next evening he made a great 
 speech also in reply from the same balcony. Mr. 
 Douglas made a great, popular and introductory 
 speech opening his campaign. In it he gloated over 
 his late victory in the senate. He was very smooth 
 and patronizing, and after he had himself proceeded 
 to some length, he turned from his theme to address 
 Mr. Lincoln personally. After his compliments to 
 the latter, as a kind, amiable, intelligent and worthy 
 competitor whom he had known for many years, he 
 addressed himself to an attack upon the latter's 
 speech at Springfield, delivered on the occasion of 
 his nomination for United States senator from 
 Illinois in lieu of Mr. Douglas. We gave a mo- 
 ment ago a little bit of history of that speech of 
 Lincoln's acceptance. Sure enough, as anticipated, 
 Mr. Douglas attacked its first paragraph, the im- 
 pregnable basis, as Lincoln thought, uttered by the 
 historic Christ : "A house divided against itself can- 
 not stand," which passage Lincoln took from the 
 Word in order to make his attack upon the institu- 
 tion of slavery . These two speeches may be con- 
 sidered the commencement of the great political 
 joint debate between these champions, and Mr. 
 Lincoln's speech of acceptance at Springfield was 
 the key. In it Mr. Lincoln had said : "I believe this 
 government cannot endure half slave and half free. 
 
110 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 I do not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect it 
 to cease to he divided. It will become all one thing 
 or the other. Mr. Douglas attacked Mr. Lincoln's 
 position in strong terms. 
 
 Another point in Lincoln's speech of acceptance 
 of the candidature of the United States senatorship 
 was his opposition to the Dred Scott Decision. It 
 was one of the strong points with which Douglas 
 expected easy victory over his competitor. It was 
 the side of the law ; but Lincoln took his stand 
 against it from the moral standpoint, arguing 
 against the moral status of slavery, insisting that 
 although the Decision was by the United States Su- 
 preme Court that Decision might be reversed or be 
 lawfully changed. Lincoln attacked his position in 
 the whole course he took in the senate, first for his 
 pro-slavery participation in the Repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise, for his maintenance of the 
 Fugitive Slave Law, and for his upholding the Su- 
 preme Court Decision in the Dred Scott case. The 
 position of Mr. Douglas was a difficult one and 
 now required him to reverse himself from his form- 
 er course of working with the pro-slavery element. 
 His position on the Kansas- Nebraska bill was a 
 course inconsistent with his former course, and his 
 Popular-Sovereignty scheme was only a thin veneer 
 to hide this inconsistency, which he could not make 
 work to this real advantage. Douglas had stated in 
 the United States senate in his opposition to Presi- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 111 
 
 dent Buchanan with respect to the Kansas State 
 constitution, that it was her right to have her con- 
 stitution as she wanted it. If she had desired to be 
 a slave state, she had a perfect right to be so; but 
 if it were her choice to be a free state, that was her 
 privilege. "It is none of my business," maintained 
 Mr. Douglas, "which way the slavery clause is de- 
 cided. I care not whether it is voted up or down." 
 Mr. Lincoln saw through this entire matter of Judge 
 Douglas, and he ceased not to ring changes upon it 
 during the entire joint discussion. Douglas tried 
 to get even with Lincoln by doing likewise over the 
 matter of the latter's "divided house" clause para- 
 graph in his Springfield speech of acceptance as a 
 candidate for Mr. Douglas's position as United 
 States senator. Their rivalry as candidates became 
 so hotly contested that before it was through with, 
 it wore so heavily upon Douglas he showed signs 
 of nervousness even to the point of irritation. But 
 Lincoln cared for none of this. Whoever desires 
 to read or re-read this controversy, will find the 
 two Chicago speeches of Douglas and Lincoln, the 
 attack of the former and the answer of the latter, 
 a good preface to this whole joint discussion. 
 
 In a former chapter we promised to have some- 
 thing to say concerning Mr. Lincoln as a "Rail- 
 splitter" and his "Rails." We do so now at the 
 close of this chapter and before we begin the chapter 
 on the joint discussion. We have already given 
 
112 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 some points in regard to this subje,ct, but there are 
 some other features connected therewith that man)' 
 may not know, and which may be regarded as its 
 funny side which some people will enjoy. Mr. 
 Lincoln received the title, whether a dignified one 
 or not of the " Rail-splitter of the Republic of the 
 West." A well known and dignified English Gentle- 
 man has well spoken of him under this title. This 
 he has sometimes been called in England, but in this 
 country where we do not pay so much heed to honors, 
 he has been simply designated by the common term, 
 "Rail-splitter." The above honorary English desig- 
 nation, had he lived a few centuries ago, might have 
 been extended and added to as a "Sir Knight of the 
 Maul, the Axe and the Wedge," the necessary work- 
 ing tools of that occupation or as appendages of his 
 profession, after his name and his fame had passed 
 into history. But his fame as a rail-splitter was not 
 due him in his early days, but years afterward to 
 his coming into political prominence, and when he 
 was about to receive the nomination at a State con- 
 vention held at Decatur previous to the national con- 
 vention held at Chicago, which nominated him for 
 Presidency of the United States. 
 
 Be this story of Mr. Lincoln whatever it may ; 
 it is a true one from the source of its origin, and 
 worked to his advantage in spreading his name 
 world wide as the Cincinnatus of the Republic of the 
 West, and was a story which he himself enjoyed. 
 
'Early Days in Illinois 113 
 
 The advantages derived from it was, it helped the 
 republican party to elect him President of the United 
 States. And thereby hangs another story of the 
 appendages of his title. It is the story of the "maul," 
 which I shall now relate. To do this, I shall have 
 recourse to Mr. Weber's Reminiscences again of 
 the early times in Springfield. It will be of interest 
 to some people to know, and must be authenticated. 
 Some of these reminiscences appeared in a small 
 weekly paper which he and his sons published in 
 Springfield for several years after the Civil War. 
 The story is as follows : "After Mr. Lincoln was 
 nominated by the Chicago convention, the republican 
 executive committee in Springfield received orders 
 from all parts of the country from union leagues 
 and executive committees for one of Lincoln's old 
 rails. The demand became so great that our old 
 friend Llopper turned it into a grand speculation. 
 
 John Hopper kept a news depot on Sixth street, 
 between Adams and Monroe. He was from New 
 York city, and was acquainted with all the tricks of 
 politicans. Hopper bought old rails by wholesale 
 and shipped all orders from abroad, at reasonable 
 prices (any price was considered reasonable for so 
 precious a relic). Hopper made a good thing out 
 of it. And Hopper did a good work for the republi- 
 cans in the days of their purity. 
 
 "But to cap the 1 climax, during this mania for 
 rails, "Uncle Jesse" (Jesse K. Du Bois) visited his 
 
114 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 farm in the southern part of the State, and one day 
 in going into the timber, he spied an old maul. In 
 an instant a bright idea was dancing in his head 
 and gleaming from his good natured face. He 
 thought he could pass the maul off for one of 
 Lincoln's old mauls. He brought the maul to Spring- 
 field and presented it to Hopper just in time to fill 
 an order from Massachusetts for a Lincoln rail or 
 some other relic of his days of hard labor. Hopper 
 knew exactly how to fix it up, and proceeded at once 
 to have the maul and rail certified to by several 
 noted republicans as genuine relics of "Old Abe." 
 They were sent with the bill "C. O. D." 
 
 "The arrival of the maul and rail produced a 
 sensation in Massachusetts. In the after calls for 
 republican conventions in New England, all that 
 was necessary to secure an immense crowd was to 
 announce the fact that Lincoln's maul would be on 
 exhibition." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Early Days in Illinois. 
 The Preliminaries of the Joint Discussion. 
 
 HT IS NOT our purpose to extend these notes 
 to any great length into the joint debate be- 
 tween these two men, yet it is needful to take 
 it up and follow if far enough to give the salient 
 points between them, and in such wise as shall be 
 clear and understood; also, that any one who has 
 never read the discussion may be able to judge of 
 the relative merits of the two contestants. Other- 
 wise, these sketches would seem to be incomplete ; 
 and, moreover, because some idea may be realized 
 of the great questions which were uppermost be- 
 fore the American nation to be settled, and which 
 cost a bloody civil war in the end. Those living in 
 this age, after it is all over and settled, can scarcely 
 judge of the magnitude of the strife, nor realize 
 what it cost. 
 
 These debates between Lincoln and Douglas were 
 the prelude to the crisis; and they drew upon them 
 not only the eyes of all the States, but the attention 
 of the world, and towards the great State of Illinois, 
 because it was here these champions lived, who were 
 
 115 
 
116 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 contending for high honors, and not only so, but 
 because of the great question of slavery between 
 them which was up for discussion, was so greatly 
 affecting the American nation and Government just 
 at this time either for its extension or prohibition, 
 into new territory. The mind of the people was 
 very much agitated everywhere throughout the 
 States, and was the great issue which was being 
 threshed out between these two great contestants in 
 their great arguments. 
 
 The breach between the anti-slavery faction of the 
 north and the pro-slavery faction of the south widen- 
 ed and threatened the perpetuity of the American 
 government. Every body was watching with strain- 
 ed eyes the result of the issue in Illinois in 1858 
 which had for its object the United States senator- 
 ship of that State. 
 
 In the immediately preceding chapter is given in 
 part the conditions obtaining in Illinois just at this 
 time. It is necessary to recur to the conditions to 
 give some additional points in order to bring the 
 subject more fully before our minds, and to give 
 cause why it was so. If there were any two States 
 in the Union which were more pivotal in the North 
 and in the South on the slavery question than the 
 others, those two States were respectively Illinois 
 and South Carolina, the former of anti-slavery 
 tendencies, and the latter of pro-slavery tendencies. 
 In the early settlement of Illinois, the pro-slavery 
 
Early Days in Illinois 117 
 
 interests undertook to make of her broad prairies 
 a territory which would eventually become, when 
 admitted into the Union, a slave State. But the 
 scheme failed. On the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
 promise, that same pro-slavery interest was revived, 
 and hopes were entertained that Kansas and Nebras- 
 ka would both become slave States. 
 
 We have seen the part Senator Douglas took in 
 this matter. Hence the warfare of words and an- 
 tagonism between him and Abraham Lincoln in the 
 discussions which took place and which lasted a per- 
 iod of the greater part of a decade. While Lincoln 
 was defeated for the senatorship by Douglas, the 
 great discussions were the means of so bringing out 
 the latent powers of Lincoln as to have greater 
 honors conferred upon him which seem to have been 
 reserved for him Providentially — The Presidency of 
 the United States. 
 
 Before taking up the joint discussions proper, 
 some things else as a fore-word would seem to be 
 necessary. The debate between these two rivals for 
 the senatorship really began before the joint dis- 
 cussion which followed the challenge of Mr. Lincoln. 
 The campaign was really ushered in at Chicago on 
 the occasion of the reception of Mr. Douglas when 
 he made a speech to the people of that city from the 
 balcony of his hotel on July 6th, on his return home 
 from the East, and was followed by Mr. Lincoln 
 the next evening from the same balcony in a reply. 
 
118 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 A brief detailed account of these speeches has been 
 given in chapter six. On July 16th Mr. Douglas 
 delivered a speech at Bloomington, and another the 
 next day at Springfield. These two speeches are 
 very similar. Mr. Lincoln was present and heard 
 the Bloomington speech, but was not present at the 
 Springfield speech. Mr. Lincoln replied to the 
 Bloomington speech the next day at Springfield, but 
 Mr. Douglas was not present. Mr. Douglas made 
 his two speeches respectively at Bloomington and 
 Springfield in daylight; but Mr. Lincoln made his 
 answer to the former on the evening of the 17th at 
 Springfield, with only twenty- four hours time for 
 preparation including his trip to Springfield. Both 
 these speeches of these contestants are master-pieces 
 of their kind and in what they meant to the whole 
 country. Heretofore, the writer had been in sym- 
 pathy with Mr. Douglas on account mainly of his 
 Popular Sovereignty doctrine, and because of the 
 course he had taken in the United States senate 
 against President Buchanan and his friends to 
 foist slavery upon the State of Kansas knocking at 
 the door for admission into the Union. He was 
 then well along in his "teens" and had been watch- 
 ing the course of events, reading both sides of the 
 question of slavery thrust upon the people for their 
 consideration just at this period. He had taken up 
 with the popular side which was in keeping the exist- 
 ing law of the land out of respect for the lazv itself, 
 
Early Days in Illinois 119 
 
 and Douglas was his hero in this defense; but the 
 reading of the reply to Mr. Douglas, sent him 
 Lincolnward ever thereafter. 
 
 I desire to give here in a chapter by itself follow- 
 ing this one after I shall have gotten through with 
 preliminaries and the correspondence which led up 
 to the joint discussion, these two great speeches in 
 their exact form in which they were delivered, for 
 they together with the Chicago speech led up to the 
 challenge, and the great discussion which grew out 
 of it. There are those who may never have read 
 the exact issues between these two disputants, and 
 who would like to read them just as they were put 
 by themselves with the struggle of "Greek against 
 Greek" for the mastery. However, before I do so, 
 I shall transcribe here a brief statement of the issues 
 between them which I find in the Centennial Edition 
 of the Illinois State Register at Springfield, written 
 by Mr. Walter Lewis Patterson, June 23rd, 1918, 
 as follows : 
 
 "The doctrine set forth by Douglas in the Kansas- 
 Nebraska bill, and defended by him throughout his 
 political career, was known as 'Popular- Sovereignty', 
 which was changed by his political enemies to 
 'Squatter Sovereignty', and it was simply that the 
 people of a territory applying for admission as a 
 state of the Union, had a right to decide for them- 
 selves whether they should own slaves or not, and 
 that Congress had no power to deny this right, but 
 
120 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 when the democratic national administration of 
 which President James Buchanan was the head, 
 attempted to force Kansas into the Union under a 
 constitution recognizing slavery against the will of 
 a majority of the people of the territory, Douglas 
 denounced the act in unmeasured terms, and thus 
 drew down upon himself the opposition of the 
 President and his political friends. Notwithstand- 
 ing this opposition in his own party, Douglas went 
 before the people of Illinois for his vindication, and 
 when challenged to a joint debate by Lincoln, who 
 had been selected by the republican state convention 
 as a candidate for United States senator, he accepted 
 and went into the fight with all confidence and 
 courage that had carried him to former victories. 
 Both of these men were equipped for the contest 
 not only with natural ability, but with political 
 experience." 
 
 One thing more I would say here. There may be 
 those who shall be my readers, who have never read 
 an entire speech of these two men, but who would 
 like to have this privilege in order to judge of their 
 power as orators and especially the closely contest- 
 ed questions between them at this period. These 
 two speeches are fair samples although possibly not 
 their best examples, and both were delivered in the 
 home town of Lincoln, which had once been the 
 home of Judge Douglas in an earlier day of their 
 history. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 121 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 Between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas relative 
 to the Joint Discussion which was held between 
 them between the dates of August 21st and Octo- 
 ber 15th inclusive, 1858. 
 
 Chicago, 111., July 24th, 1858. 
 Hon. S. A. Douglas — My Dear Sir : 
 
 Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrange- 
 ment for you and myself to divide time, and address 
 the same audiences the present canvass? Mr. Judd, 
 who will hand you this, is authorized to receive 
 your answer; and, if agreeable to you, to enter into 
 the terms of such arrangement. 
 
 Your Obedient Servant 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 Chicago, July 24th, 1858 
 Hon. A. Lincoln — Dear Sir: 
 
 Your note of this date, in which you inquire 
 if it would be agreeable to me to make arrangement 
 to divide the time and address the same audiences 
 during the present canvass, was handed me by Mr. 
 Judd. Recent events have interposed difficulties 
 in the way of such an arrangement. 
 
 I went to Springfield last week for the purpose 
 of conferring with the Democratic State Central 
 Committee upon the mode of conducting the canvass, 
 and with them, and under their advice, made a list 
 of appointments covering the entire period until 
 
122 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 late in October. The people of the several localities 
 have been notified of the times and places of the 
 meetings. Those appointments have all been made 
 for Democratic meetings, and arrangements have 
 been made by which the Democratic candidates for 
 Congress, for the Legislature, and other offices, will 
 be present and address the people. It is evident, 
 therefore, that these various candidates, in connec- 
 tion with myself, will occupy the whole time of the 
 day and evening, and leave no opportunity for other 
 speeches. 
 
 Besides, there is another consideration which 
 should be kept in mind. It has been suggested re- 
 cently that an arrangement had been made to bring 
 out a third candidate for the United States Senate, 
 who, with yourself, should canvass the State in op- 
 position to me, with no other purpose than to insure 
 my defeat, by dividing the Democratic party for 
 your benefit. If I should make this arrangement 
 with you, it is more than probable that this candi- 
 date who has a common object with you, would de- 
 sire to become a party to it, and claim the right to 
 speak from the same stand; so that he and you, in 
 concert, might be able to take the opening and 
 closing in every case. 
 
 I cannot refrain from expressing my surprise, if 
 it was your original intention to invite such an 
 arrangement, that you should have waited until 
 after I should have made my appointments, inas- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 123 
 
 much as we were both here in Chicago together for 
 several days after my arrival, and again at Bloom- 
 ington, Atlanta, Lincoln and Springfield, where it 
 was well known I went for the purpose of consult- 
 ing with the State Central Committee, and agreeing 
 upon the plan of the campaign. 
 
 While, under the circumstances, I do not feel at 
 liberty to make any arrangements which would de- 
 prive the Democratic candidate for Congress, State 
 office, and the Legislature from participating in the 
 discussion at the various meetings designated by the 
 Democratic State Central Committee, I will, in order 
 to accommodate you as far as it is in my power to 
 do so, take the responsibility of making an arrange- 
 ment with you for a discussion between us at one 
 prominent point in each Congressional District in 
 the State, except the second and sixth districts, where 
 we have both spoken, and in each of which cases 
 you had the concluding speech. If agreeable to you, 
 T. will indicate the following places as the most suit- 
 able in the several Congressional Districts at which 
 we should speak, to wit: Freeport, Ottawa, Gales- 
 burg, Quincy, Alton, Jonesboro and Charleston. 
 I will confer with you at the earliest convenient op- 
 portunity in regard to the mode of conducting the 
 debate, the times of meeting at the several places, 
 subject to the condition, and where appointments 
 have been made by the Democratic State Central 
 
124 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Committeeat any of those places, I must insist upon 
 you meeting me at the times specified. 
 
 Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, 
 
 S\ A. Douglas. 
 
 Springfield, 111., July 29th, 1858. 
 Hon. S. A. Douglas — Dear Sir : 
 
 Yours of the 24th in relation to an arrange- 
 ment to divide time, and address the same audiences, 
 is received ; and, in apology for not sooner replying, 
 allow me to say, that when I sat by you at dinner 
 yesterday, I was not aware that you had answered 
 my note, nor, certainly, that my own note had been 
 presented to you. An hour after, I saw a copy of 
 your answer in the Chicago Times, and, reaching 
 home, I found the original awaiting me. Protest- 
 ing that your insinuations of attempting unfairness 
 on my part are unjust, and with the hope that you 
 did not considerately make them, I proceed to reply. 
 To your statement that "It has been suggested, re- 
 cently, that an arrangement had been made to bring 
 out a third candidate for U. S. Senate, who, with 
 yourself, should canvass the State in opposition to 
 me," etc., I can only say, that such suggestion must 
 have been made by yourself, for certainly none such 
 has been made by or to me, or otherwise, to my 
 knowledge. Surely you did not deliberately con- 
 clude, as you insinuate, that I was expecting to draw 
 you into an arrangement of terms, to be agreed on 
 yourself, by which a third candidate and myself, 
 
Early Days in Illinois 125 
 
 r 'in concert, might be able to take the opening and 
 closing speech in every case." 
 
 As to your surprise that I did not sooner make 
 the proposal to divide time with you, I can only say, 
 I made it as soon as I resolved to make it. I did 
 not know but that such proposal would come from 
 you; I waited, respectfully, to see. It may have 
 been well known to you that you went to Spring- 
 field for the purpose of agreeing on the campaign; 
 but it was not so known to me. When your appoint- 
 ments were announced in the papers, extending only 
 to the 21st of August, I, for the first time consider- 
 ed it certain that you would make no proposal to 
 me, and then resolved that, if my friends concurred, 
 I would make one to you. As soon thereafter as I 
 could see and consult with friends satisfactorily, I 
 did make the proposal. It did not occur to me that 
 the proposed arrangements could derange your 
 plans after the latest of your appointments already 
 made. After that, there was, before the election, 
 largely over two months of clear time. 
 
 For you to say that we have already spoken at 
 Chicago and Springfield, and that on both occasions 
 I had the concluding speech, is hardly a fair state- 
 ment. The truth rather is this : At Chicago, July 
 9th, you made a carefully-prepared conclusion on 
 my speech June 16th. Twenty four hours after, I 
 made a hasty conclusion on yours of the 9th. You 
 had six days to prepare, and concluded on me again 
 
126 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 at Bloomington on the 16th. Twenty four hours 
 after, I concluded on you at Springfield. In the 
 meantime, you had made another conclusion on me 
 at Springfield, which I did not hear, and of the con- 
 tents of which I knew nothing when I spoke ; so 
 that your speech made in daylight, and mine at night, 
 of the 17th, at Springfield were both made in per- 
 fect independence of each other. The dates of 
 making all these speeches will show, I think, that in 
 the matter of time for preparation, the advantage 
 has all been on your side ; and that none of the ex- 
 ternal circumstances have stood to my advantage. 
 
 I agree to an arrangement for us to speak at the 
 seven places you have named, and at your own times, 
 provided you name the times at once, so that I, as 
 well as you can have to myself the time covered by 
 the arrangement. As to the other details, I wish 
 perfect reciprocity, and no more. I wish as much 
 time as you, and that conclusions shall alternate. 
 That is all. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 P. S. As matters stand, I shall be at no more of 
 your exclusive meetings ; and for about a week from 
 today a letter from you will reach me at Springfield. 
 
 A.L. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 127 
 
 Bement, Piatt Co., 111., July 30, 1858. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Your letter, dated yesterday, accepting my prop- 
 osition for a joint discussion at one prominent 
 point in each Congressional District, as stated in my 
 previous letter, was received this morning. 
 
 The times and places designated are as follows : 
 
 Ottawa, Lasalle County, August 21st, 1858 
 
 Freeport, Stephenson County, August 27th, 1858 
 Jonesboro, Union County, September 15th, 1858 
 Charleston, Coles County, September 18th, 1858 
 Galesburgh, Knox County, October 7th, 1858 
 
 Quincy, Adams County, October 13th, 1858 
 
 Alton, Madison County October 15th, 1858 
 
 I agree to your suggestion that we shall alternately 
 open and close the discussion. I will speak at 
 Ottawa one hour, you can reply, occupying an hour 
 and a half, and I will follow for half an hour. At 
 Freeport you shall open the discussion and speak an 
 hour, I will follow for an hour and a half, and you 
 can then reply for half an hour. We will alternate 
 in like manner in each successive place. 
 
 Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, 
 Hon. A. Lincoln, Springfield, 111. S. A. Douglas. 
 
 Springfield, July, 31st, 1858. 
 Hon. S. A. Douglas — Dear Sir : 
 
 Yours of yesterday, naming places, times and 
 turns, for joint discussion between us, was received 
 
128 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 this morning. Although, by the terms, as you pro- 
 pose, you take four openings and closes, to my three, 
 I accede, and thus close the arrangement. I direct 
 this to you at Hillsboro, and shall try to have both 
 your letter and this appear in the Journal and Regis- 
 ter of Monday morning. 
 
 Your Obedient Servant, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Early Days in Illinois. 
 
 Speech of Senator Douglas. 
 
 Delivered July 17th, 1858, at Springfield, III. (Mt 
 Lincoln not being Present). 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens of Springfield 
 and Old Sangamon : My heart is filled with emo- 
 tion at the allusions which have been so happily and 
 so kindly made in the welcome just extended to me, — 
 a welcome so numerous and so enthusiastic, bringing 
 me to my home among my old friends, that language 
 cannot express my gratitude. I do feel at home 
 whenever I return to old Sangamon and receive 
 those kind and friendly greetings which have never 
 failed to meet me when I have come among you; 
 but never before have I had such occasion to be 
 grateful and to be proud of the manner of the re- 
 ception as at present. While I am willing, sir, to 
 attribute a part of this demonstration to those kind 
 and friendly personal relations to which you have 
 referred, I cannot conceal from myself that the con- 
 trolling and prevailing element in this mass of hu- 
 man beings is devotion to that principle of self- 
 129 
 
130 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 government to which so many years of my life have 
 been devoted ; and rejoice more in considering it an 
 approval of my support of a cardinal principle than 
 I would if I could appropriate it to myself as a per- 
 sonal compliment. 
 
 You but speak rightly when you assert that during 
 the last session of Congress there was an attempt 
 to violate one of the fundamental principles upon 
 which our free institutions rest. The attempt to 
 force the Lecompton Constitution upon the people 
 of Kansas against her will would have been, if suc- 
 cessful, subversive of the great fundamental prin- 
 ciples upon which our institutions rest. If there is 
 any one principle more sacred and more vital to the 
 existence of a free government than all others, it is 
 the right of the people to form and ratify the con- 
 stitution under which they are to live. It is the cor- 
 ner-stone of the temple of liberty; it is the founda- 
 tion upon which the whole structure rests; and 
 whenever it can be successfully evaded, self-govern- 
 ment has received a stab. I deemed it my duty as 
 a citizen and as a representative of the State of 
 Illinois, to resist, with all my energies and with 
 whatever ability I could command, the consumma- 
 tion of that effort to force a constitution upon an 
 unwilling people. I am aware that other questions 
 have been connected, or attempted to be connected, 
 with that great struggle ; but they were mere col- 
 lateral questions, not affecting the main point. My 
 
Early Days in Illinois 131 
 
 opposition to the Lecompton Constitution rested 
 solely upon the fact that it was not the act and deed 
 of that people, and that it did not embody their will. 
 I did not object to it upon the ground of the slavery 
 clause contained in it. I should have resisted it with 
 the same energy and determination even if it had 
 been a free State instead of a slave holding State; 
 and so as an evidence of this fact I wish you to bear 
 in mind that my speech against that Lecompton Act 
 was made on the 9th day of December, nearly two 
 weeks before the vote was taken on the acceptance 
 or rejection of the slavery clause. I did not then 
 know, whether the slavery clause would be accepted 
 or rejected ; the general impression was that it would 
 be rejected, and in my speech I assumed that im- 
 pression to be true, that probably it would be voted 
 down ; and then I said to the United States Senate, 
 as I now proclaim to you, my constituents, that you 
 have no more right to force a free State upon an 
 unwilling people than you have to force a slave State 
 upon them against their will. You have no right 
 to force either a good or a bad thing upon a people 
 who do not choose to receive it. And then, again. 
 the highest privilege of our people is to determine 
 for themselves what kind of institutions are good 
 and what kind of institutions are bad; and it may 
 be true that the same people, situated in a different 
 latitude and different climate, and with different 
 productions and different interests, might decide the 
 
132 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 same question one way in the North and another 
 way in the South, in order to adapt their institutions 
 to the wants and wishes of the people to be affected 
 by thetn. 
 
 You are familiar with the Lecompton struggle, 
 and I will occupy no more time upon the subject, 
 except to remark that when we drove the enemies of 
 the principle of sovereignty from the effort to force 
 the Lecompton Constitution upon the people of 
 Kansas, and when we compelled them to abandon 
 the attempt and to refer that Constitution to that 
 people for acceptance or rejection, we obtained a con- 
 cession of the principle for which I had contended 
 throughout the struggle. When I saw that the prin 
 ciple was conceded, and that the Constitution was 
 not to be forced upon Kansas against the wishes of 
 the people, I felt anxious to give the proposition my 
 support; but when I examined it, I found that the 
 mode of reference to the people and the form of 
 submission, upon which the vote was taken, was so 
 objectionable as to make it unfair and unjust. 
 
 Sir, it is an axiom with me that in every free gov- 
 ernment an unfair election is no election at all. Every 
 election should be free, should be fair, with the 
 same privilege and the same inducements for a 
 negative as for an affirmative vote. The objection 
 to what is called the "English 5 ' proposition by the 
 Lecompton Constitution as referred back to the 
 people of Kansas, was this: that if the people chose 
 
Early Days in Illinois 133 
 
 to accept the Lecompton Constitution they could 
 come in with only 35,000 inhabitants; while if they 
 determined to reject it, in order to form another 
 more in accordance with their wishes and sentiments, 
 they were compelled to stay out until they should 
 have 93,420 inhabitants. In other words, it was 
 making a distinction and discrimination between 
 free States and slave States under the Federal Con- 
 stitution. I deny the justice, I deny the right, of 
 any distinction or discrimination between the States 
 North and South, free or slave. Equality among 
 the States is a fundamental principle of this govern- 
 ment. Hence, while I will never consent to the pas- 
 sage of a law that a slave State may come in with 
 35,000, while a free State shall not come in unless 
 it have 93,000, on the other hand, I shall not consent 
 to admit a free State with a population of 35,000, 
 and require 93,000 in a slave-holding State. 
 
 My principle is to recognize each State of the 
 Union as independent, sovereign, and equal in its 
 sovereignty. I will apply that principle, not only 
 to the original thirteen States, but to the States which 
 have since been brought into the Union, and also to 
 every State that shall hereafter be received, "as long 
 as water shall run, and grass grow." For these 
 reasons I felt compelled, by a sense of duty, by a 
 conviction of principle, to record my vote against 
 the English bill ; but yet the bill became a law, and 
 under that law an election has been ordered to be 
 
134 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 held on the first Monday in August, for the purpose 
 of determining the question of the acceptance or re- 
 jection of the proposition submitted by Congress. 
 I have no hesitation in saying to you, as the chair- 
 man of your committee has justly said in his address, 
 that whatever the decision of the people of Kansas 
 may be at that election, it must be final and conclu- 
 sive of the whole subject; for if at that election a 
 majority of the people of Kansas shall vote for the 
 acceptance of the Congressional proposition, Kansas 
 from that moment becomes a State of the Union, 
 the law admitting her becomes irreparable, and thus 
 the controversy terminates forever; if, on the other 
 hand, the people of Kansas shall vote down that 
 proposition, as it is now generally admitted they 
 will, by a large majority, then from that instant the 
 Lecompton Constitution is dead, — dead beyond the 
 power of resurrection; and thus the controversy 
 terminates. And when the monster shall die, I 
 shall be willing, and trust that all of you will be will- 
 ing, to acquiesce in the death of the Lecompton 
 Constitution. The controversy may now be con- 
 sidered as terminated, for in three weeks from now 
 it will be finally settled, and all the ill-feeling, all the 
 embittered feeling which grew out of it shall cease, 
 unless an attempt should be made in the future to 
 repeat the sam e outrage upon the popular rights. 
 I need not to tell you that my past course is a suffi- 
 cient guaranty that if the occasion shall ever arise 
 
Early Days in Illinois 135 
 
 again while I occupy a seat in the United States 
 Senate, you will find me carrying out the same prin- 
 ciple that I have this winter with all my energy and 
 all the power I may be able to command. I have 
 the gratification of saying to you that I do not be- 
 lieve that that controversy will ever arise again : 
 firstly, because the fate of Lecompton is a warning 
 to the people of every Territory and of every State 
 to be cautious how the example is repeated; and, 
 secondly, because the President of the United States, 
 in his annual message, has said that he trusts the 
 example in the Minnesota case, wherein Congress 
 passed a law, called the Enabling Act, requiring the 
 Constitution to be submitted to the people for ac- 
 ceptance or rejection, will be followed in all future 
 cases ["That was right."] I agree with you that it 
 was right. I said so on the day after the message 
 was delivered in my speech in the Senate on the 
 Lecompton Constitution, and I have frequently in 
 my speech in the Senate on the Lecompton Consti- 
 tution, and I have frequently in the debate ten- 
 dered to the President and his friends, tendered to 
 the Lecomptonites, my voluntary pledge, that if he 
 will stand by that recommendation, and they will 
 stand by it, they will find me working hand in hand 
 with them in the effort to carry it out. All we have 
 to do, therefore, is to adhere firmly in future, as 
 we have done in the past, to the principle contained 
 in the recommendation of the President in his an- 
 
136 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 nual message, that the example in the Minnesota 
 case shall be carried out in all future cases of the 
 admission of Territories into the Union as States. 
 Let that be done, and the principle of popular sov- 
 ereignty will be maintained in all its vigor and all 
 of its integrity. I rejoice to know that Illinois 
 stands prominently and proudly forward among the 
 States which first took their position firmly and im- 
 movably upon this principle of popular sovereignty 
 applied to the Territories as well as the States. You 
 all recollect when in 1850, the peace of the country 
 was disturbed in consequence of the agitation of the 
 slavery question, and the effort to force the Wilmot 
 Proviso upon all the Territories, that it required all 
 the talent and all the energy, all the wisdom, all the 
 patriotism, of a Clay and Webster, united with other 
 great leaders, to devise a system of measures by 
 which peace and harmony could be restored to our 
 distracted country. Those compromise measures 
 eventually passed, and were recorded on the statute 
 book, not only as the settlement of the then existing 
 difficulties, but as furnishing a rule of action which 
 should prevent in all future time the recurrence of 
 like evils, if they were firmly and fairly carried out. 
 Those compromise measures rested, as I advised in 
 my speech at Chicago on my return home that year, 
 upon the [principle that every people ought to have 
 the right to form and regulate their own domestic 
 
'Early Days in Illinois 137 
 
 institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
 Constitution. They were founded upon the prin- 
 ciple that while every State possessed that right 
 under the Constitution, that the same right ought to 
 be extended to and exercised by the people of the 
 Territories. When the Illinois Legislature as- 
 sembled, a few months after the adoption of these 
 measures, the first thing the members did was to re- 
 view their action upon the slavery agitation, and to 
 correct the errors into which their predecessors had 
 fallen. You remember that thdr first act was to 
 repeal the Wilmot Proviso instructions to our United 
 States Senators, which had been previously passed, 
 and in lieu of them to record another resolution upon 
 the journal, with which you must all be familiar, — 
 a resolution brought forward by Mr. Ninian Ed- 
 wards, and adopted by the House of Representatives 
 by a vote of 61 in the affirmative to 4 in the nega- 
 tive. That resolution I can quote to you in almost 
 its precise language. It declared that the great prin- 
 ciple of self-government was the birth-right of free- 
 men, was the gift of Heaven, was achieved by the 
 blood of our revolutionary fathers, and must be con- 
 tinued and carried out in the organization of all the 
 Territories and admission of all New States. That 
 became the Illinois platform by the united voices of 
 the Democratic party and of the Whig party in 
 1851; all the Whigs and all the Democrats in the 
 Legislature uniting in an affirmative vote upon it, 
 
138 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 and there being only four votes in the negative, — 
 of Abolitionists, of course. That resolution stands 
 upon the journal of your Legislature to this day and 
 hour unrepealed, as a standing, living, perpetual 
 instruction to the Senators from Illinois in all time 
 to come to carry out the principle of self-govern- 
 ment, and allow no limitation upon it in the organi- 
 zation of any Territories or the admission of any 
 new States. In 1854, when it became my duty as 
 the chairman of the committee on Territories to 
 bring forward a bill for the organization of Kansas 
 and Nebraska incorporated that principle in it, and 
 Congress passed it, thus carrying the principle into 
 practical effect. I will not recur to these scenes which 
 took place all over the country in 1854, when that 
 Nebraska Bill passed. I could then travel from Bos- 
 ton to Chicago by the light of my own effigies, in 
 consequence of having stood up for it. I leave it 
 to you to say how I met that storm, and whether 
 I quailed under it; whether I did not "face the 
 music," justify the principle, and pledge my life 
 to carry it out. 
 
 A friend here reminds me, too, that when making 
 speeches then, justifying the Nebraska Bill and the 
 great principle of self-government, that I predicted 
 that in less than five years you would have to get 
 out a search-warrant to find an anti-Nebraska man. 
 Well, I believe I did make that prediction. I did not 
 claim the power of a prophet, but it occurred to me 
 
Early Days in Illinois 139 
 
 that among a free people, and an honest people, and 
 an intelligent people, that five years were long enough 
 for them to come to an understanding that the great 
 principle of self-government was right, not only in 
 the States but in the Territories. I rejoiced this 
 year to see my prediction, in that respect, carried out 
 and fulfilled by a unanimous vote, in one form or 
 another, of both Houses of Congress. If you will 
 remember that pending this Lecompton controversy 
 that gallant old Roman, Kentucky's favorite son, 
 the worthy successor of the immortal Clay, — I allude, 
 as you know, to the gallant John J. Crittenden — 
 brought forward a bill, now known as the Critten- 
 den-Montgomery bill, in which it was proposed that 
 the Lecompton Constitution should be referred back 
 to the people of Kansas, to be decided for or against 
 it, at a fair election, and if the majority were in 
 favor of it, that Kansas should come into the Union 
 as a slave holding state, but that if the majority 
 were against it, that they should make a new con- 
 stitution, and come in with slavery or without it, as 
 they thought proper. ("That was right.") Yes, my 
 dear sir, it was not only right, but it was carrying 
 out the principle of the Nebraska Bill in its letter 
 and in its spirit. Of course I voted for it, and so did 
 every Republican Senator and Representative in 
 Congress. I have found some Democrats so per- 
 fectly straight that they blame me for voting for 
 the 1 principle of the Nebraska Bill because the Re- 
 
140 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 publicans voted the same w a y. (Great laughter, 
 'what did they say.") 
 
 What did he say? Why, many of them said that 
 Douglas voted with the Republicans. Yes, not only 
 that, but with the black Republicans. Well, there 
 are different modes of stating that proposition. The 
 New York Tribune says that Douglas did not vote 
 with the Republicans, but that on that question the 
 Republicans went over to Douglas and voted with 
 him. 
 
 My friends,I have never yet abandoned a principle 
 because of the support I found men yielding to it, 
 and I shall never abandon my Democratic principles 
 merely because Republicans come to them. For 
 what do we travel over the country and make speech- 
 es in every political canvass, if it is not to enlighten 
 the minds of the Republicans, to remove the scales 
 from their eyes, and to impart to them the light of 
 Democratic vision, so that they may be able to carry 
 out the Constitution of our country as our fathers 
 made it. And if by preaching our principles to the 
 people we succeed in convincing the Republicans of 
 the errors of their ways, and bring them over to us, 
 are we bound to turn traitors to our principles mere- 
 ly because they give them support? All I have 
 to say is that I hope the Republican party will stand 
 firm in the future, by the vote they gave the Crit- 
 tenden-Montgomery bill. I hope we will find, in th e 
 resolutions of their country and Congressional con- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 141 
 
 ventions of "no more Slave States to be admitted 
 into this Union," but in lieu of that declaration that 
 we will find the principle that the people of every 
 State and every Territory shall come into the Union 
 with slavery or without it, just as they please with- 
 out any interference on the part of Congress. 
 
 My friends, whilst I was at Washington, en- 
 gaged in this great battle for sound constitutional 
 principles, I find from the newspapers that the Re- 
 publican party of this State assembled in State Con- 
 vention, and not only nominated, as it was wise and 
 proper for them to do, a man for my successor in 
 the Senate, but laid down a platform, and their 
 nominee made a speech, carefully written and pre- 
 pared, and well delivered, which that Convention 
 accepted as containing the Republican creed. I have 
 no comment to make on that part of Mr. Lincoln's 
 speech in which he represents me as forming a con- 
 spiracy with the Supreme Court, and with the late 
 President of the United States and the present chief 
 magistrate, having for my object the passage of the 
 Nebraska Bill, the Dred Scott decision, and the ex- 
 tension of slavery, — a scheme* of political tricksters, 
 composed of Chief Justice Taney and his eight as- 
 sociates, two Presidents of the United States, and 
 one Senator of Illinois. If Mr. Lincoln deems me 
 a conspirator of that kind, all I have to say is that I 
 do not think so badly of the President of the United 
 States, and the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 
142 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 the highest judicial tribunal on earth, as to believe 
 that they were capable in their action and decision 
 of entering into political intrigues for partisan pur- 
 poses. I therefore shall only notice those parts of 
 Mr. Lincoln's speech in which he lays down his 
 platform of principles, and tells you what he intends 
 to do if he is elected to the Senate of the United 
 States. An old gentleman here rose on the platform 
 and said: ["Be particular now, judge, be particu- 
 lar."] 
 
 Mr. Douglas : My venerable friend here says that 
 he will be gratified if I will be particular; and in 
 order that I may be so, I will read the language of 
 Mr. Lincoln as reported by himself and published 
 to the country. Mr. Lincoln lays down his main 
 proposition in these words: 
 
 " 'A house divided against itself cannot stand'. I 
 believe this Union cannot endure permanently half 
 free and half slave. I do not expect the Union will 
 be dissolved, I do not expect the- house to fall; but 
 I do expect it to be divided. It will become all one 
 thing or all the other." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln does not think this Union can con- 
 tinue to exist composed of half slave and half free 
 States ; they must all be free or all slave. I do not 
 doubt that he thinks it is the highest duty of every 
 patriotic citizen to preserve this glorious Union, and 
 to adopt these measures as necessary to its preserva- 
 tion. He tells you that the only mode to preserve the 
 
Early Days in Illinois 143 
 
 Union is to make all the States free, or all slave. Il 
 must be the one or it must be the other. Now, that 
 being essential, in his estimation, to the preservation 
 of this glorious Union, how is he going to accom- 
 plish it ? He says that he wants to go to the Senate 
 in order to carry out this favorite patriotic policy 
 of his making all the States free, so that the house 
 shall no longer be divided against itself. When he 
 gets to the Senate, by what means is he going to 
 accomplish it? By an Act of Congress? Will he 
 contend that Congress has any power under the 
 Constitution to abolish slavery in any State of the 
 Union, or to interfere with it directly or indirectly? 
 Of course he will not contend that. Then what is 
 his mode of carrying out his principle, by which 
 slavery shall be abolished in the States? Mr. Lin- 
 coln certainly does not speak at random. He is a 
 lawyer, — an eminent lawyer, — and his profession is 
 to know the remedy for every wrong. What is his 
 remedy for this imaginary wrong which he supposes 
 to exist? The Constitution of the United States 
 provides that it may be amended by Congress passing 
 an amendment by a two-thirds majority of each 
 house, which shall be ratified by three-fourths of 
 the States; and the inference that Mr. Lincoln in- 
 tends to carry this slavery agitation into Congress 
 with the view of amending the Constitution so that 
 slavery can be abolished in all the States of the 
 Union. In other words, he is not going to allow one 
 
144 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 portion of the Union to be slave and another portion 
 to be free ; he is not going to permit the house to be 
 divided against itself. He is going to remedy it by 
 lawful and constitutional means. What are to be 
 these means? How can he abolish slavery in those 
 States where it exists? There is but one mode by 
 which a political organization, composed of men in 
 the free States, can abolish slavery in the slave- 
 holding States, and that would be to abolish the State 
 legislatures, blot out of existence the State sov- 
 ereignties, invest Congress with full and plenary 
 power over all the local and domestic and police 
 regulations of the different States of this Union. 
 Then there would be uniformity in the local concerns 
 and domestic institutions of the different States ; then 
 the house would be no longer divided against itself; 
 then the States would be free, or they would be slave ; 
 then you would have uniformity prevailing through- 
 out this whole land in the local and domestic insti- 
 tutions; but it would be a uniformity, not of liberty, 
 but a uniformity of despotism that would triumph. 
 I submit to you, my fellow citizens, whether this 
 is not the logical consequence of Mr. Lincoln's prop- 
 position? I have called on Mr. Lincoln to explain 
 what he did mean, if he did not mean this, and he 
 has made a speech at Chicago in which he attempts 
 to explain. And how does he explain ? I will give 
 him the benefit of his own language, precisely as 
 
Early Days in Illinois 145 
 
 it was reported in the Republican papers of that city, 
 after undergoing his revision: 
 
 "I have said a hundred times, and have now no 
 inclination to take it back, that I believe there is no 
 right and ought to be no inclination in the people of 
 the free States to enter into the Slave States and 
 interfere with the question of slavery at all." 
 
 He believes there is no right on the part of the 
 free people of the free States to enter into the 
 slave States and interfere with the question of slav- 
 ery; hence he does not prepare to go to Kentucky 
 and stir up a civil war and a servile war between 
 the blacks and the whites . All he proposes is to in- 
 vite the people of Illinois and every other free 
 State to band together as one sectional party, gov- 
 erned and divided by geographical line, to make war 
 upon the institution of slavery in the slave holding 
 States. He is going to carry it out by means 
 of a political party that has its adherents only in 
 the free States, a political party that does not pretend 
 that it can give a solitary vote in the slave States of 
 the Union ; and by this sectional vote he is going to 
 elect a President of the United States, form a cabinet 
 and administer the government on sectional grounds, 
 being the power of the North over that of the South. 
 In other words, he invites a war of the North 
 against the slave-holding States. He asks all men 
 against the South, a warfare of the free States 
 
146 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 in the free States to conspire to exterminate slavery 
 in the Southern States, so as to make them all free 
 and then notifies the South that, unless they are go- 
 ing to submit to our efforts to exterminate institu- 
 tions, they must band together and plant slavery 
 in Illinois and every Northern State. He says that 
 the states must all be free or all slave. On this 
 point I take issue} with him directly. I assert that 
 Illinois has a right to decide the slavery question 
 for herself. We have decided it, and I think we 
 have done so wisely; but whether wisely or unwise- 
 ly, it is our business, and the people of no other State 
 have any right to interfere with us, directly or in- 
 directly. Claiming as we do this right for ourselves, 
 we must concede it to every other State, to be ex- 
 ercised by them respectively. 
 
 Now Mr. Lincoln says that he will not enter into 
 Kentucky to abolish slavery there, but that all he 
 will do is to fight slavery in Kentucky from Illinois. 
 He will not go over there to set fire to the match. 
 I do not think he would. Mr. Lincoln is a very pru- 
 dent man. He would not deem it wise to go over in- 
 to Kentucky to stir up strife, but would do it from 
 this side of the river. Permit me to inquire whether 
 the wrong, the outrage, of interference by one State 
 with the local concerns of another is worse when you 
 actually invade them than it would be if you carried 
 on the warfare from another State? For the pur- 
 pose of illustration, suppose the British government 
 
'Early Days in Illinois 147 
 
 should plant a battery on INPiagra River opposite- Buf- 
 falo, and throw their shells over into Buffalo,where 
 they would explode and blow up the houses and de- 
 stroy the town. We call the British Government to 
 an account, and they say, in the language of Mr. Lin- 
 coln. We did not enter into the limits of the United 
 States to interfere with you; we planted the bat- 
 tery on our soil; and if our shells and balls fell in 
 Buffalo and killed your inhabitants, why, it is your 
 lookout, not ours. Thus, Mr. Lincoln is going to 
 plant his abolition batteries along the banks of the 
 Ohio River and throw his shells into Virginia and 
 Kentucky and into Missouri, and blow up the in- 
 stitution of slavery; and when we arraign him for 
 his unjust interference with the institutions of the 
 other States, he says, why, I never did enter into 
 Kentucky to interfere with her ; I do not propose to 
 do it ; I only propose to take care of my own head by 
 keeping on this side of the river, out of harm's way. 
 But yet he says he is going to preserve the 
 Union in this system of sectional warfare and 
 I have no doubt he is sincere in what he says. 
 He says that the existence of the Union de- 
 pends upon his success in firing into these 
 slave States until he exterminates them. He 
 says that unless he shall play his batteries successful- 
 ly so as to abolish slavery in every one of the 
 States that the Union shall be dissolved; and he 
 says that a dissolution of the Union would be a 
 
148 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 terrible calamity. Of course it would. We are all 
 friends of the Union. We all believe — I do — that 
 our lives, our liberties, our hopes in the future, de- 
 pend upon the preservation and perpetuity of this 
 glorious Union. I believe that the hopes of the 
 friends of liberty throughout the world depend upon 
 the perpetuity of the American Union. But while 
 I believe that, my mode of preserving the Union is 
 a very different one from that of Mr. Lincoln : I 
 believe that the Union can only be preserved by 
 maintaining inviolate the Constitution of the United 
 States as our fathers have made it. That Consti- 
 tution guarantees to the people of every state the 
 right to have slavery or not have it ; to have negroes 
 or not have them ; to have Maine liquor laws or not 
 to have them ; to have just such institutions as they 
 choose, each State being left free to decide for 
 itself. The framers of that Constitution never con- 
 ceived the idea that uniformity in the Domestic 
 institutions of the different States was either desir- 
 able or possible. They well understood that the 
 laws and institutions which would be well adapted 
 to the granite hills of New Hampshire would be 
 unfit for the rice plantations of South Carolina; 
 they well understood that each one of the thirteen 
 States had distinct and separate local laws and local 
 institutions. And in view of that fact they provided 
 that each state should retain its sovereign power with- 
 in its own limits, with the right to make just such 
 
Early Days in Illinois 149 
 
 laws and just such institutions as it saw proper, 
 under the belief that no two of them would be alike. 
 If they had supposed that uniformity was desirable 
 and possible, why did they not provide for a sep- 
 arate Legislature for each State? Why did they not 
 blot out State Sovereignty and State Legislatures, and 
 give all the power to Congress, in order that the 
 laws might be uniform? For the very reason that 
 uniformity, in their opinion, was neither desirable 
 nor possible. We have increased from thirteen 
 States to thirty-two States; and just in proportion 
 as the number of States increases and our territory 
 expands, there will be a still greater variety and 
 dissimilarity of climate, of production, and of in- 
 terest, requiring a corresponding dissimilarity and 
 variety in the local laws and institutions adapted 
 thereto. The laws that are necessary in the mining- 
 regions of California would be totally useless and 
 vicious on the prairies of Illinois, the laws that 
 would suit the lumber regions of Maine or of Min- 
 nesota would be totally useless and valueless in the 
 tobacco regions of Virginia and Kentucky; the laws 
 which would suit the manufacturing districts of 
 New England would be totally unsuited to the plant- 
 ing regions of the Carolinas, of Georgia and of 
 Louisiana. Each State is supposed to have inter- 
 ests separate and distinct from each and every other 
 State, in order that its laws shall be adapted to the 
 condition and necessities of the people. Plence I 
 
150 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 insist that our institutions rest on the theory that 
 there shall be dissimilarity and variety in the local 
 laws and institutions of the different States, in- 
 stead of all being uniform; and you find, my 
 friends, that Mr. Lincoln and myself differ radically 
 and totally on the fundamental principles of this 
 government. He goes for consolidation, for uni- 
 formity in our local institutions, for blotting out 
 State rights and State sovereignty,and consolidating 
 all the power in the Federal Government, for con- 
 verting these thirty-two sovereign States into one 
 empire, and making uniformity throughout the 
 length and breadth of the land. On the other hand, 
 I go for maintaining and preserving the sovereignty 
 of each and all of the States of the Union, in order 
 that each State may regulate and adopt its own local 
 institutions in its own way, without interference 
 from any power whatsoever. Thus you find there 
 is a distinct issue of principles — principles irrecon- 
 cilable — between Mr. Lincoln and myself. He goes 
 for consolidation and uniformity in our government ; 
 I go for maintaining the confederation of the sov- 
 ereign States under the Constitution as our fathers 
 made it, leaving each State at liberty to manage its 
 own affairs and own internal institutions. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln makes another point upon me, and 
 rests his whole case upon these two points. His 
 last point is, that he will wage a warfare upon the 
 Supreme Court of the United States because of the 
 
Early Days in Illinois 151 
 
 Dred Scott decision. He takes occasion in his speech 
 made before the Republican Convention in my ab- 
 sence to arraign me not only for having expressed my 
 acquiescence in that decision, but to charge me with 
 being a conspirator with that court in devising that 
 decision three years before Dred Scott ever thought 
 of commencing a suit for his freedom. The object 
 of his speech was to convey the idea to the people 
 that the court could not be trusted ; that they were all 
 conspirators in bringing about that corrupt decision, 
 to which Mr. Lincoln is determined he will never 
 yield a willing obedience. 
 
 He makes two points upon the Dred Scott decision. 
 The first is that he objects to it because the court de- 
 cided that negroes descended of slave parents are 
 not citizens of the United States; and secondly, be- 
 cause they have decided that the act of Congress, 
 passed 8th of March, 1820, prohibiting slavery in 
 all of the Territories north of 36 degrees 30 mins. 
 was unconstitutional and void, and hence did not 
 have effect in emancipating a slave brought into that 
 Territory. And he will not submit to that decision. 
 He says that he will not fight the Judges or the 
 United States Marshals in order to liberate Dred 
 Scott, but that he will not respect that decision, as 
 a rule of law binding on this country in the future. 
 Why not? Because, he says, it is unjust. How is he 
 going to remedy it ? Why, he says he is going to re- 
 verse it. How? He is going to take an appeal. To 
 
152 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 whom is he going to appeal ? The Constitution of the 
 United States provides that the Supreme Court is 
 the ultimate tribunal, the highest judicial tribunal 
 on earth, and Mr. Lincoln is going to appeal from that 
 to whom? I know he appealed to the Republican 
 State Convention of Illinois, and I believe that Con- 
 vention reversed the decision, but I am not aware 
 that they have yet carried it into effect. How are 
 they going to make that reversal effectual? Why, 
 Mr. Lincoln tells us in his late Chicago speech. He 
 explains it as clear as light. He says to the people 
 of Illinois that if you elect him to the Senate he will 
 introduce a bill to re-enact the law which the Court 
 pronounced unconstitutional. (Shouts of laughter, 
 and voices, "Spot the law"). Yes, he is going to 
 spot the law. The court pronounces that law, prohib- 
 iting slavery, unconstitutional and void, and Mr. 
 Lincoln is going to pass an act reversing that decision 
 and making it valid. I never before heard of an ap- 
 peal being taken from the Supreme Court to the Con- 
 gress of the United States to reverse its decision. 
 I have heard of appeals being taken from Congress 
 to the Supreme Court to declare a statute void. That 
 has been done from the earliest days of Chief Justice 
 Marshall, down to the present time. 
 
 The Supreme Court of Illinois do not hesitate to 
 pronounce an act of the Legislature void, as being 
 repugnant to the Constitution, and the Supreme 
 Court of the United States is vested by the Constitu- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 153 
 
 tion with that power. The Constitution says that the 
 Judicial power of the United States shall be vested 
 in the Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as 
 Congress shall, from time to time, ordain and estab- 
 lish. Hence it is the province and duty of the 
 Supreme Court to pronounce judgment on the val- 
 idity and constitutionality of an act of Congress. In 
 this case they have done so, and Mr. Lincoln will not 
 submit to it, and he is going to reverse it by an- 
 other act of Congress of the same tenor. My opin- 
 ion is that Mr. Lincoln ought to be on the Supreme 
 bench himself, when the Republicans get into power 
 if that kind of law knowledge qualifies a man for 
 the bench. But Mr. Lincoln intimates that there is 
 another mode by which he can reverse the Dred 
 Scott decision. How is that ? Why, he is going to 
 appeal to the people to elect a President who will 
 appoint judges who will reverse the Dred Scott de- 
 cision. Well, let us see how that is done. First, 
 he has to carry on his sectional organization, a party 
 confined to the free States, making war upon the 
 slave holding 4 ; States, until he gets a Republican 
 President elected. ["He never will, sir."] I do 
 not believe he ever will. But suppose he should; 
 when that Republican President shall have taken 
 his seat (Mr. Seward, for instance,) will he then 
 proceed to appoint judges? No! he will have to 
 wait until the present judges die before he can do 
 that, and perhaps his four years would be out be- 
 
154 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 fore a majority of these judges found it agreeable 
 to die; and it is very possible, too, that Mr. Lin- 
 coln's senatorial term would expire before these 
 judges would be accommodating enough to die. If 
 it should so happen I do not see a very great 
 prospect for Mr. Lincoln to reverse the Dred Scott 
 decision. But suppose they should die, then how 
 are the new judges to be appointed? Why, the 
 Republican President is to call upon the candidates 
 and catechise them, and ask them, "How will you 
 decide this case if I appoint you judge?" Suppose, 
 for instance, Mr. Lincoln to be a candidate for a 
 vacancy on the supreme bench to fill Chief Justice 
 Taney's place, and when he applied to Seward, 
 the latter would say, "Mr. Lincoln, I cannot appoint 
 you until I know how you will decide the Dred Scott 
 case?" Mr. Lincoln tells him, and then asks him 
 how he will decide Tom Jones's cast and Bill Wil- 
 son's case, and thus catechises the judge as to how 
 he will decide any case which may arise before him. 
 Suppose you get a Supreme Court composed of such 
 judges, who have been appointed by a partisan 
 President upon giving pledges how they would de- 
 cide a case before it arose, what confidence would 
 you have in such a court? 
 
 Would not your court be prostituted beneath the 
 contempt of all mankind? What man would feel 
 that his liberties were safe, his right of person 
 or property was secure, if the supreme bench, that 
 
Early Days in Illinois 155 
 
 august tribunal, the highest on earth, was brought 
 clown to that low, dirty pool wherein the judges are 
 to give pledges in advance how they will decide all 
 questions which may be brought before them? It is a 
 proposition to make that court the corrupt, unscru- 
 pulous tool of a political party. But Mr. Lincoln 
 cannot conscientiously submit, he thinks, to the de- 
 cision of a court composed of a majority of Demo- 
 crats. Tf he cannot, how can he expect us to have 
 confidence in a court composed of a majority of 
 Republicans, selected for the purpose of deciding 
 the against Democracy and in favor of the Republi- 
 cans? The very proposition carries with it the de- 
 moralization and degradation destructive of the judi- 
 cial department of the Federal Government. 
 
 I say to you, fellow citizens, that I have no war- 
 fare to make upon the Supreme Court because of 
 the Dred Scott decision. I have no complaints to 
 make against that court, because of that decision. 
 My private opinion on some points of the case may 
 have been one way and on other points of the case 
 another; in some things concurring with the court 
 and in others dissenting, but what have my private 
 opinions in a question of law to do with the decision 
 after it has been pronounced by the highest judicial 
 tribunal known to the Constitution? You, sir [ad- 
 dressing the chairman], as an eminent lawyer, have 
 a right to entertain your opinions on any question 
 that comes before the court and to appear before 
 
156 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 the tribunal and maintain them boldly and with 
 tenacity until the final decision shall have been pro- 
 nounced, and then, sir, whether you are sustained 
 or overruled your duty as a lawyer and a citizen is 
 to bow in deference to that decision. I intend to 
 yield obedience to the decisions of the highest tri- 
 bunals in the land in all cases whether their opinions 
 are in conformity with my views as a lawyer or not. 
 When we refuse to abide by judicial decisions what 
 protection is there left for life and property? To 
 whom shall you appeal? To mob law, to partisan 
 caucuses, to town meetings, to revolution ? I will 
 not stop to inquire whether I agree or disagree with 
 all the opinions expressed by Judge Taney or any 
 other judge. It is enough for me to know that 
 the decision has been made. It has been made by a 
 tribunal appointed by the Constitution to make it ; 
 it was a point within their jurisdiction, and I am 
 bound by it. 
 
 But, my friends, Mr. Lincoln says that this Dred 
 Scott decision destroys the doctrine of popular sov- 
 ereignty, for the reason that the court has decided 
 that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in 
 the Territories, and hence he infers that it would 
 decide that the Territorial Legislatures could not pro- 
 hibit slavery there. I will not stop to inquire wheth- 
 er the court will carry the decision that far or not. 
 It would be interesting as a matter of theory, but 
 of no importance in practice; for this reason, that 
 
Early Days in Illinois 157 
 
 if the people of a Territory want slavery they 
 will have it, and if they do not want it they will 
 drive it out, and you cannot force it on them. 
 Slavery cannot exist a day in the midst of an un- 
 friendly people with unfriendly laws. There is 
 truth and wisdom in a remark made to me by an 
 eminent Senator, when speaking of this technical 
 right to take slaves into the Territories. Said he, 
 "I do not care a fig which way the decision shall 
 be, for it is of no particular consequence; slavery 
 cannot exist a day or an hour in any Territory or 
 State unless it has affirmative laws sustaining and 
 supporting it, furnishing police regulations and 
 remedies, and an omission to furnish them would 
 be fatal as a constitutional prohibition. Without 
 affirmative legislation in its favor slavery could 
 not exist any longer than a new-born infant 
 could survive under the heat of the sun, on a 
 barren rock, with out protection. It would 
 
 wilt and die for the want of support." So it would 
 be in the Territories. See the illustration in Kansas. 
 The Republicans have told you during the whole 
 history of that Territory, down to last winter, that 
 the pro-slavery party in the Legislature had passed 
 a pro-slavery code, establishing and sustaining slav- 
 ery in Kansas, but that this pro-slavery Legislature 
 did not truly represent thel people, but was imposed 
 upon them by an invasion from Missouri, and hence 
 the Legislature were only one way and the people 
 
158 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 another. Granting all this, and what has been the 
 result? With laws supporting slavery, but the peo- 
 ple against, there are not as many slaves in Kansas 
 today as there were on the day the Nebraska bill 
 passed and the Missouri Compromise was repealed. 
 Why? Simply because slave owners knew that if 
 they took their slaves into Kansas, where a majority 
 of the people were opposed to slavery that it would 
 soon be abolished, and they would lose their right 
 of property in consequence of taking them there. 
 For that reason they would not take or keep them 
 there. If there had been a majority of the people 
 in favor of slavery and the climate had been favor- 
 able, they would have taken them there, but the cli- 
 mate not being suitable, the interest of the people 
 being opposed to it, and a majority of them against 
 it, the slave owner did not find it profitable to take 
 his slaves theire, and consequently there are not as 
 many slaves there today as on the day the Missouri 
 Compromise was repealed. This shows clearly that 
 if the people do not want slavery they will keep it 
 out, and if they do want it they will protect it. 
 
 You have a good illustration of this in the terri- 
 torial history of this State. You all remember that 
 by the ordinance of 1787, slavery was prohibited in 
 Illinois, yet you all know, particularly you old settlers, 
 who were here in territorial times, that the Territo- 
 rial Legislature, in defiance of that ordinance, passed 
 a law allowing you to go into Kentucky, buy slaves 
 
Early Days in Illinois 159 
 
 and bring them into the Territory, having them sign 
 indentures to serve you and your posterity ninety- 
 nine years, and their posterity thereafter to do the 
 same. This heriditary slavery was introduced in de- 
 fiance of an act of Congress. On the other hand, if 
 the people of a Territory are hostile to slavery they 
 will drive it out. Consequently this theoretical 
 question raised upon the Dred Scott decision, is 
 worthy of no consideration whatsoever, for it is 
 only brought into these political discussions and us- 
 ed as a hobby upon which to ride into office, or out 
 of which to manufacture political capital. 
 
 But Mr. Lincoln's main objection to the Dred 
 Scott decision I have reserved for my conclusion. 
 His principal objection to that decision is that it was 
 intended to deprive the negro of the rights of citizen- 
 ship in the different States of the union. Well, sup- 
 pose it was, and there is no doubt that that was its 
 legal effect, that is the objection to it? Why, he 
 thinks that a negro ought to be permitted to have the 
 rights of citizenship. He is in favor of negro cit- 
 izenship, and opposed to the Dred Scott decision, 
 because it declares that a negro is not a citizen, and 
 hence is not entitled to vote. Here I have a di- 
 rect issue with Mr. Lincoln. I am not in favor of 
 negro citizenship. I do not believe that a negro is a 
 citizen or ought to be a citizen. I believe that this 
 Government of ours was founded, upon the white 
 basis. It was made by white men for the benefit 
 
160 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 of white men and their posterity, to be executed and 
 managed by white men. I freely concede that 
 humanity requires us to extend all protection, all 
 the privileges, all the immunities to the Indian and 
 the negro which they are capable of enjoying con- 
 sistent with the safety of society. You may then ask 
 me what are those rights, what is the nature and ex- 
 tent of the rights which a negro ought to have? My 
 answer is that this is a question for each State and 
 each Territory to decide for itself. In Illinois we 
 have decided that a negro is not a slave, but we 
 have at the same time determined that he is not a 
 citizen and shall not enjoy political rights. I concur 
 in the wisdom of that policy and am content with it. 
 I assert that the sovereignty of Illinois had a right 
 to determine that question as we have decided it, and 
 I deny that any other State has a right to interfere 
 with us or call us to account for that decision. In 
 the State of Maine they have decided by their Con- 
 stitution that the negro shall exercise the elective fran- 
 chise and hold office on an equality with the white 
 man. Whilst I do not concur in the good sense or 
 correct taste of that decision on the part of Maine, 
 I have no disposition to quarrel with her. It is her 
 business and not ours. If the people of Maine de- 
 sire to be put on an equality with the negro, I do 
 not know that anybody in this State will attempt to 
 prevent it. If the white people of Maine think a negro 
 their equal, and that he has a right to come and kill 
 
Early Days in Illinois 161 
 
 their vote by a negro vote, they have a right to 
 think so, I suppose, and I have no disposition to in- 
 terfere with them. Then, again, passing over to 
 New York, we find in that State they have provid- 
 ed that a negro may vote provided he holds $250.00 
 worth of property, but that he shall not unless he 
 does; that is to say, they will allow a negro to vote 
 if he is rich, but a poor fellow they will not allow to 
 vote. In New York they think a rich negro is equal 
 to a white man. Well, that is a matter of taste with 
 them. If they think so in that State, and do not carry 
 the doctrine outside of it and propose to interfere 
 with us, I have no quarrel to make with them. It is 
 their business. There is a great deal of philosophy 
 and good sense in the saying of Fridley of Kane. 
 Fridley had a law-suit before a justice of the peace 
 and the justice decided it against him. This he did 
 not like, and standing up and looking at the justice 
 for a moment, "Well, Squire", said he, "if a man 
 choose to make a darnation fool of himself I sup- 
 pose there is no law against it". That is all I have 
 to say about these negro regulations and this negro 
 voting in other States where they have systems dif- 
 ferent from ours. If it is their wish to have it so, 
 be it so. There is no cause to complain. Ken- 
 tucky has decided that it is not consistent with her 
 safety and her prosperity to allow a negro to have 
 either political rights or his freedom, and hence she 
 
162 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 makes him a slave. That is her business, not mine. 
 It is her right under the Constitution of the country. 
 The sovereignty of Kentucky, and that alone, can de- 
 cide that question, and when she decides it there is 
 no power on earth to which you can appeal to reverse 
 it. Therefore, leave Kentucky as the Constitution 
 has left her, sovereign, independent State, with the 
 exclusive right to have slavery or not, as she choos- 
 es, and so long as I hold power I will maintain and 
 defend her rights against any assaults from whatso- 
 ever quarter they may come. 
 
 I will never stop to inquire whether I approve or 
 disapprove of the domestic institutions of a State. 
 I maintain her sovereign rights. I defend her sov- 
 ereignty from all assault, in the hope that she will 
 join in defending us when we are assailed by any 
 outside power. How are we to protect our sov- 
 ereign rights, to keep slavery out, unless we protect 
 the sovereign rights to every other State to decide 
 the question for itself. Let Kentucky, or South 
 Carolina, or any other State attempt to interfere in 
 Illinois, and tell us that we shall establish slavery, 
 in order to make it uniform, according to Mr. Lin- 
 coln's proposition, throughout the Union; let them 
 come here and tell us that we must and shall have 
 slavery, and I will call on you to follow me, and 
 shed the last drop of our heart's blood in repelling 
 the invasion and chastising their insolence. And 
 if we would fight for our reserved rights and sov- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 163 
 
 ereign power in our own limits, we must respect the 
 sovereignty of each other State. 
 
 Hence, you find that Mr. Lincoln and myself come 
 to a direct issue on whole doctrine of slavery. He 
 is going to wage war against it everywhere, not on- 
 ly in Illinois, but in his native State of Kentucky. 
 And why? Because he says that the Declaration of 
 Independence contains this language : "We hold 
 these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
 created equal ; that they are endowed by their Crea- 
 tor with certain inalienable rights ; that among these 
 are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness,'' and he 
 asks whether that instrument does not declare that 
 all men are created equal. Mr. Lincoln then goes 
 on to say that that clause of the Declaration of In- 
 dependence includes negroes. [I say not.] Well, 
 if you say not, I do not think you will vote for Mr. 
 Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln goes on to argue that the 
 language "all men" included the negroes, Indians, 
 and all inferior races. 
 
 In his Chicago speech he says, in so many words, 
 that it includes the negroes, that they were endow- 
 ed by the Almighty with the right of equality with 
 the white man, and therefore that that right is 
 Divine — a right under the higher law; that the law 
 of God makes them equal to the white man, and 
 therefore that the law of the white man cannot de- 
 prive them of that right. This is Mr. Lincoln's 
 argument. He is conscientious in his belief. I 
 
164 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 do not question his sincerety, I do not think 
 that the negro is any kin of mine at all. 
 And here is the difference between us. I be- 
 lieve that the Declaration of Independence, in the 
 words "all men are created equal," was intended 
 to allude only to the people of the United States, 
 to the men of European birth or descent, being 
 white men, that they were created equal and hence 
 that Great Britian had no right to deprive them of 
 their political and religious privileges ; but the sign- 
 ers of that paper did not intend to include the 
 Indian or the negro in that declaration, for if they 
 had would they not have been bound to abolish 
 slavery in every State and Colony from that day. 
 Remember, too, that at the time the Declaration was 
 put forth, every one of the thirteen colonies were 
 slave-holding colonies ; every man who signed that 
 Declaration represented slave-holding constitutents. 
 Did those signers mean by that act to charge them- 
 selves, and all their constituents with having violated 
 the law of God, in holding the negro in an inferior 
 condition to the white man? And yet, if they in- 
 cluded negroes in that term, they were bound, as 
 conscientious men, that day and that hour, not only 
 to have abolished slavery throughout the land, but to 
 have conferred political rights and privileges on the 
 negro, and elevated him to an equality with the white 
 man. [They did not do it.] I know they did not do it, 
 and the very fact that they did not shows that 
 
Early Days in Illinois 165 
 
 they did not understand the language they used to 
 include any but the white race. Did they mean to say 
 that the Indian, on this continent, was created equal 
 to the white man, and that he was endowed by the 
 Almighty with inalienable rights — rights so sacred 
 that they could not be taken way by any Constitu- 
 tion or law that man could pass? Why, their 
 whole action toward the Indian showed that they 
 never dreamed that they were bound to put him on 
 an equality. I am opposed to putting the coolies, now 
 importing into this country, on an equality with 
 us, or putting the Chinese or any inferior race on 
 an equality with us/ I hold that the white race, the 
 European race, I care not whether Irish, German, 
 French, Scotch, English, or to what nation they be- 
 long, so they are the white race, to be our equals. 
 And I am for placing them, as our fathers did, on 
 an equality with us. Emigrants from Europe, and 
 their descendants, constitute the people of the United 
 States. The Declaration of Independence only in- 
 cluded the white people of the United States. The 
 Constitution of the United States was framed by 
 the white people. It ought to be administered 
 by them, leaving each State to make such regulations 
 concerning the negro as it chooses, allowing him 
 political rights or not, as it chooses, and allowing 
 him civil rights or not, as it may determine for 
 itself. 
 
 Let us carry out those principles, and we will 
 
166 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 have peace and harmony in the different States. But 
 Mr. Lincoln's concientious scruples on this point 
 govern his actions, and I honor him for following 
 them, although I abhor the doctrine which he preach- 
 es. His concientious scruples lead him to believe 
 that the negro is entitled by Divine right to the 
 civil and political privileges of citizenship on an 
 equality with the white man. 
 
 For that reason he says he wishes the Dred Scott 
 decision reversed. He wishes to confer those privi- 
 leges of citizenship on the negro. Let us see how he 
 will do it. He will first be called upon to strike 
 out of the Constitution of Illinois that clause which 
 prohibits free negroes and slaves from Kentucky or 
 any other State coming into Illinois. When he 
 blots out that clause, when he lets down the door 
 or opens the gate for all the negro population to flow 
 in and cover our prairies, until in midday they will 
 look dark and black as night; when he shall have 
 done this, his mission will yet be unfilled. Then it 
 will be that he will apply his principles of negro 
 equality, that is if he can get the Dred Scott de- 
 cision reversed in the meantime. He will then 
 change the Constitution again, and allow them to 
 vote to elect the Legislature, the Judges and the 
 Governor, and will make them eligible to the office 
 of Judge or Governor, or to the Legislature. He will 
 put them on an equality with the white man. What 
 then? Of course, after making them eligible to the 
 
Early Days in Illinois 167 
 
 judiciary, when he gets CufTee elevated to the bench, 
 he certainly will not refuse his judge the privilege of 
 marrying any woman he may select ! I submit to you 
 whether these are not the legitimate consequences 
 of his doctrine? If it be true, as he says, that by the 
 Declaration of Independence and by Divine law,the 
 negro is created the equal of the white man; if it be 
 true that the Dred Scott decision is unjust and wrong, 
 because it deprives the negro of citizenship and 
 equality with the white man, then does it not follow 
 that if he had the power he would make negroes cit- 
 izens, and give them all the rights and all the priv- 
 ileges of citizenship on an equality with the white 
 men? I think that is the inevitable conclusion. I 
 do not doubt Mr. Lincoln's conscientious conviction 
 on the subject, and I do not doubt that he will carry 
 out that doctrine if he has the power; but I resist 
 it because I am utterly opposed to any political am- 
 algamation or any other amalgamation on this con- 
 tinent. We are witnessing the result of giving civil 
 and political rights to inferior races in Mexico, in 
 Central America, in South America, and in the West 
 India Islands. Those young men who went from 
 here to Mexico, to fight the battles of their country 
 in the Mexican war, can tell you the fruits of negro 
 equality with the white man. They will tell you 
 that the result of that equality is social amalgama- 
 tion, demoralization, and degradation, below the 
 capacity of self government. 
 
168 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 My friends, if we wish to preserve this govern- 
 ment we must maintain it on the basis which was 
 established, to-wit : the white basis. We must pre- 
 serve the purity of the race not only in our politics 
 but in our domestic relations. We must preserve the 
 sovereignty of the States, and we must maintain the 
 Federal Union by preserving the Federal Constitu- 
 tion inviolate. Let us do that, and our Union will 
 not only be perpetual but may expand until it shall 
 spread over the entire continent. Fellow-citizens, I 
 have already detained you too long. I have ex- 
 hausted myself and wearied you, and owe you an 
 apology for the desultory manner in which I have 
 discussed these topics. I will have an opportunity 
 of addressing you again before the November 
 election comes off. I come to you to appeal to your 
 judgment as American citizens, to take your verdict 
 of approval or disapproval upon the discharge of my 
 public duties and my principles as compared with 
 those of Mr. Lincoln. If you conscientiously believe 
 that his principles are more in harmony with the 
 feelings of the American people and the interests 
 and honor of the Republic, elect him. If, on the 
 contrary, you believe that my principles are more 
 consistent with those great principles upon which 
 our fathers framed this Government, then I shall 
 ask you to so express your opinion at the polls. I 
 am aware that it is a bitter and severe contest, but 
 I do not doubt what the decision of the people of 
 
Early Days in Illinois 169 
 
 Illinois will be. I do not anticipate any personal col- 
 lision between Mr.Lincoln and myself. You all know 
 that I am an amiable, good-natured man, and I take 
 great pleasure in bearing testimony to the fact that 
 Mr. Lincoln is a kind-hearted, amiable, good-natured 
 gentleman,with whom no man has a right to pick a 
 quarrel, even if he wanted one. He is a worthy 
 gentleman. I have known him for twenty-five years, 
 and there is no better citizen, and no kinder-hearted 
 man. He is a fine lawyer, possesses high ability, and 
 there is no objection to him, except the monstrous 
 revolutionary doctrines with which he is identified 
 and which he conscientiously entertains, and is de- 
 termined to carry out if he gets the power. He has 
 one element of strength upon which he relies to ac- 
 complish his object, that his alliance with certain men 
 in this state claiming to be Democrats, whose avow- 
 ed object is to use their power to prostrate the Demo- 
 cratic nominees. He hopes he can secure the few 
 men claiming to be friends of the Lecompton Con- 
 stitution or its supporters. He is as silent as the 
 grave upon that subject. Behold Mr. Lincoln court- 
 ing Lecompton votes, in order that he may go to 
 the Senate as the representative of Republican prin- 
 ciples ! You know that that alliance exists. I think 
 you will find that it will ooze out before the con- 
 test is over. It must be a contest of principle. Eith- 
 er the radical abolition principles of Mr. Lincoln 
 must be maintained, or the strong, constitutional, 
 
170 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 national Democratic principles with which I am 
 identified must be carried out. I shall be satisfied 
 whatever way you decide. I have been sustained 
 by the people of Illinois with a steadiness, a firm- 
 ness and an enthusiasm which makes my heart over- 
 flow with gratitude. If I was now to be consigned 
 to private life, I would have nothing to complain of. 
 I would even then owe you a debt of gratitude which 
 the balance of my life could not repay. But, my 
 friends, you have discharged every obligation you 
 owe to me. I have been a thousand times paid by 
 the welcome you have extended to me since I have 
 entered the State on my return home this time. 
 Your reception not only discharges all obligations, 
 but it furnishes inducement to renewed efforts to 
 serve you in the future. If you think Mr. Lincoln 
 will do more to advance the interests and elevate 
 the character of Illinois than myself, it is your duty 
 to elect him; if you think he would do more to 
 preserve the peace of the country and perpetuate 
 the Union than myself, then elect him. I leave 
 the question in your hands, and again tender you 
 my profound thanks for the cordial and heart-felt 
 welcome tendered to me this evening. 
 
 Speech of Honorable Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Delivered in Springfield, Saturday evening, July 
 
 17th, 1858 
 
 (Mr. Douglas was not present.) 
 
 Fellow Citizens : Another election, which is 
 
Early Days in Illinois 171 
 
 deemed an important one, and, as I suppose, the 
 Republican party will, without much difficulty elect 
 their State ticket. But in regard to the Legislature, 
 we, the Republicans, labor under some disadvan- 
 tages. In the first place, we have a Legislature to 
 elect upon an apportionment of representation made 
 several years ago, when the proportion of the pop- 
 ulation was far greater in the South (as compared 
 with the North) than it now is; and inasmuch as 
 our opponents hold almost entire sway in the South, 
 and we are a correspondingly large majority in the 
 North, the fact that we are now represented as we 
 were years ago, when the population was different, 
 is to us, a very great loss. We had in the year 1856, 
 according to law, an enumeration of the inhabi- 
 tants, taken for the purpose of a new apportion- 
 ment of representation. We know what a fair ap- 
 portionment of representation upon that census 
 would give us. We know that it could not, if 
 fairly made, fail to give to the Republican party 
 from six to ten more members of the Legislature 
 than they can probably get as the law now stands. 
 It so happened at the last session of the Legislature, 
 that our opponents, holding the control of both 
 branches of the Legislature, steadily refused to give 
 us such an apportionment as we were rightly en- 
 titled to have upon the census already taken. The 
 Legislature steadily refused to give us such an ap- 
 portionment as we were rightly entitled to have upon 
 
172 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 the census taken of the population of the State. The 
 Legislature would pass no bill upon that subject, 
 except such as was at least unfair to us as the old 
 one, and in some instances, two men in the Demo- 
 cratic regions were allowed to go as far toward 
 sending a member to the Legislature as three were 
 in the Republican regions. Comparison was made 
 at the time as to representative and senatorial dis- 
 tricts, which completely demonstrated that such was 
 the fact. Such a bill was passed and tendered to 
 the Republican Governor for his signature ; but prin- 
 cipally for the reasons stated, he withheld his ap- 
 proval, and the bill fell without becoming a law. 
 
 Another disadvantage under which we labor is, 
 that there are one or two Democrat Senators who 
 will be members of the next Legislature, and will 
 vote for the election of Senator, who are holding 
 over in districts in which we could, on all reason- 
 able calculation, elect men of our own, if we only 
 had the chance of an election. When we consider 
 only twenty-five Senators in the Senate, taking 
 two from the side where they rightfully belong and 
 adding them to the other, is to us a disadvantage not 
 to be lightly regarded. Still, so it is; we have this 
 to contend with. Perhaps there is no ground of 
 complaint on our part. In attending to the many 
 things involved in the last general election for Pres- 
 ident, Governor, Auditor, Treasurer, Superintendent 
 
Early Days in Illinois 173 
 
 of Public Instruction, Members of Congress, of the 
 Legislature, County Officers, and so on, we allowed 
 these things to happen by want of sufficient at- 
 tention, and we have no cause to complain of our 
 adversaries, so far as this matter is concerned. But 
 we have to complain of the refusal to give us a 
 fair apportionment. 
 
 There is still another disadvantage under which 
 I will ask your attention. It arises out of the rela- 
 tive positions of the two persons who stand before 
 the State as candidates for the Senate. Senator 
 Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious 
 politicians of his party, or who have been of his 
 party for years past, have been looking upon him as 
 certainly, at no distant day, to be the President of 
 the United States. They have seen in his round, 
 jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, land-offices, marshal- 
 ships and cabinet appointments, chargeships and 
 foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in won- 
 derful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by their 
 greedy hands. And as they have been gazing upon 
 this attractive picture so long, they cannot, in the 
 little distraction that has taken place in the party, 
 bring themselves to give up charming hope; but 
 with greedier anxiety they rush about him, sus- 
 tain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries, 
 and receptions beyond what even in the days of his 
 highest prosperity they could have brought) about 
 in his favor. On the contrary, nobody has ever 
 
174 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, 
 lank face, nobody has ever seen that any cabbages 
 were sprouting out. These are disadvantages all, 
 taken together, that the Republicans labor under. We 
 have to fight this battle upon principle, and upon 
 principle alone. I am, in a certain sense made the 
 standard-bearer in behalf of the Republicans. I 
 was made so merely because there had to be some 
 one so placed — I being in nowise preferable to any 
 other one of the twenty five — perhaps a hundred we 
 have in the Republican ranks. Then I say I wish 
 it to be distinctly understood and borne in mind, 
 that we have to fight this battle without many — per- 
 haps without any — of the external aids which are 
 brought to bear against us. So I hope those with 
 whom I am surrounded have principle enough to 
 nerve themselves for the task and leave nothing un- 
 done, that can be fairly done, to bring about the 
 right result. 
 
 After Senator Douglas left Washington, as his 
 movements were made known by the public prints, 
 he tarried a considerable time in the city of New 
 York; and it was heralded that, like another Nap- 
 oleon, he was lying by and framing the plan of 
 his campaign. It was telegraphed to Washington 
 City, and published in the Union, that he was 
 framing his plan for the purpose of going to 
 Illinois to pounce upon and annihilate the treason- 
 able and disunion speech Lincoln had made here 
 
Early Days in Illinois 175 
 
 on the 16th of June. Now, I do suppose that the 
 Judge really spent some time in New York matur- 
 ing the plan of campaign, as his friends hearlded 
 for him. I have been able, by noting his move- 
 ments since his arrival in Illinois, to discover 
 evidences confirming of that allegation, I have been 
 able to see what are the material points of that plan. 
 I will, for a little while, ask your attention to some 
 of them. What I shall point out, though not show- 
 ing the whole plan, are, nevertheless, the main points, 
 as I suppose. 
 
 They are not very numerous. The first is pop- 
 ular Sovereignty. The second and third are at- 
 tacks upon my speech made on the 16th of June. 
 Out of these three points — drawing within the range 
 of popular sovereignty the question of the Lecomp- 
 ton Constitution — he makes his principal assault. 
 Upon these his successive speeches are one and the 
 same — On this matter of popular sovereignty 
 I wish to be careful. Auxiliary to these main 
 points, to be sure, are their thunderings of cannon, 
 their marching and music, their fizzle-gigs and 
 fire-works : but I will not waste time with them. 
 They are but the little trappings of the campaign. 
 
 Coming now to the substance — the first point — 
 "popular sovereignty." It is to be labeled upon 
 the cars in which he travels ; put upon the hacks he 
 rides in; to be flaunted upon the arches he passes 
 under, and the banners which wave over him. It 
 is to be dished up in as many varieties as a French 
 
176 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 cook can produce soups from potatoes. Now, as 
 this is so great a staple of the plan of the campaign, 
 it is worth while to examine it carefully; and if 
 we examine only a very little, and not allow ourselves 
 to be misled, we shall see that the whole thing is 
 the most arrant Quixotism that was ever enacted 
 before a community. What is the matter of pop- 
 ular sovereignty? The first thing, in order to un- 
 derstand it, is to get a good definition of what it 
 is, and after that to see how it is applied. 
 
 I suppose almost every one knows that, in this con- 
 troversy, whatever has been said has had reference 
 to the question of negro slavery. We have not been 
 in a controversy about the right of the people to gov- 
 ern themselves in the ordinary matters of domestic 
 concern in the States and Territories. Mr. Buchanan, 
 in one of his late messages (I think when he sent up 
 the Lecompton Constitution), urged that the main 
 points to which the public attention had been di- 
 rected, was not in regard to the great variety of 
 small domestic matters, but was directed to the 
 question of negro slavery; and he asserts, that if the 
 people had a fair chance to vote on that question, 
 there was no reasonable ground of objection in re- 
 gard to minor questions. Now, while I think that 
 the people had not had given, or offered them a fair 
 chance upon that slavery question; still if there had 
 been a fair submission to vote upon the main 
 question, the President's proposition would have 
 
Early Days in Illinois 177 
 
 been true to the uttermost. Hence, when hereafter 
 I speak of popular sovereignty, I wish to be under- 
 stood as applying what I say to the question of slav- 
 ery only, not to other minor domestic matters of a 
 Territory or State. 
 
 Does judge Douglas, when he says that several 
 of the past years of his life have been devoted to 
 the question of "popular sovereignty," and that all 
 the remainder of his life shall be devoted to it, does 
 he mean to say that he has been devoting his life to 
 securing to the people of the Territories the right 
 to exclude slavery from the Territories? If he 
 means so to say, he means to deceive ; because he and 
 everyone knows that the decision of the Supreme 
 court, which he approves and makes special ground 
 for attack upon me for disapproving, forbids the 
 people of a Territory to exclude slavery. This cov- 
 ers the whole ground, from the settlement of a Ter- 
 ritory till it reaches the degree of maturity entitling 
 it to form a State Constitution. So far as all that 
 ground is concerned, the Judge is not sustaining pop- 
 ular sovereignty, but absolutely opposing it. He 
 sustains the decision which declares that the pop- 
 ular will of the Territories has no constitutional 
 power to exclude slavery during their territorial ex- 
 istence. This being so, the period of time from 
 the settlement of a Territory till it reaches the 
 point of forming a State Constitution, is not the 
 thing that the Judge has fought for, the thing that 
 
178 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 annihilates and crushes out that same popular sov- 
 ereignty. 
 
 Well, so much being disposed of, what is left? 
 Why, he is contending for the right of the people 
 when they come to make a State Constitution, to 
 make it for themselves, and precisely as best suits 
 themselves. I say again, that is Quixotic. I defy 
 contradiction when I declare that the Judge can 
 find no one to oppose him on that proposition. I 
 repeat there is nobody opposing that proposition on 
 principle. Let me not be misunderstood. I know 
 that, with reference to the Lecompton Constitu- 
 tion, I may be misunderstood ; but when you under- 
 stand me correctly, my proposition will be true and 
 accurate. Nobody is opposing, or has opposed, the 
 right of the people, when they form a constitution 
 to form it for themselves. Mr. Buchanan and his 
 friends have not done it ; they, too, as well as the 
 Republicans and the anti-Lecompton Democrats, 
 have not done it ; but, on the contrary, they to- 
 gether have insisted on the right of the people to 
 form a Constitution for themselves. The differ- 
 ence between the Buchanan men on the one hand, 
 and the Douglas men and the Republicans on the 
 other, has not been on a question of principle, but 
 on a question of fact. 
 
 The dispute was upon the question of fact,whether, 
 the Lecompton Constitution had been fairly formed 
 by the people or not. Mr. Buchanan and his 
 
Early Days in Illinois 179 
 
 friends have not contended for the contrary prin- 
 ciple any more than the Douglas men or the Repub- 
 licans. They have insisted that whatever of small 
 irregularities existed in getting up the Lecompton 
 Constitution, were such as happen in the settlement 
 of all new Territories. The question was, was it a 
 fair emanation of the people? It was a question of 
 fact and not of principle. As to the principle, all 
 were agreed. Judge Douglas voted with the Re- 
 publicans upon that matter of fact. 
 
 He and they, by their voices and votes, denied 
 that it was a fair emanation of the people. The Ad- 
 ministration affirmed that it was. With respect 
 to the evidence bearing upon that question of fact, 
 I readily see that Judge Douglas and the Repub- 
 licans had the right on their side, and the adminis- 
 tration was wrong. But I state again that as a mat- 
 ter of principle, there is no dispute upon the right of 
 a people in a Territory, merging into a State to 
 form a Constitution for themselves without inter- 
 ference fromi any quarter. This being so, what is 
 Judge Douglas going to spend his life for? Is he go- 
 ing to spend his life in maintaining a principle that 
 nobody opposes ? Does he expect to stand up in ma- 
 jestic dignity, and go through his apotheosis and be- 
 come a god, in the maintaining of a principle which 
 neither man nor mouse in all God's creation is op- 
 posing? Now something in regard to the Lecomp- 
 ton Constitution more specially; for I pass from 
 
180 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 this other question of popular sovereignty as the 
 most arrant humbug that has ever been attempted 
 on an intelligent community. 
 
 As to the Lecompton Constitution, I have already 
 said that on the question of fact as to whether it 
 was a fair emanation of the people or not, Judge 
 Douglas with the Republicans and some Americans 
 had greatly the argument against the Administra- 
 tion; and while I repeat this, I wish to know what 
 there is in the opposition of Judge Douglas to the 
 Lecompton Constitution that entitles him to be con- 
 sidered the only opponent to it — as being par ex- 
 cellence the very quintessence of that opposition. I 
 agree to the rightfulness of his opposition. He in 
 the Senate and his class of men there formed the 
 number three and no more. In the House of Rep- 
 resentatives his class of men — the Anti-Lecompton 
 Democrats — formed a number of about twenty. It 
 took one hundred and twenty to defeat the measure, 
 against one hundred and twelve. Of the votes of 
 that one hundred and twenty, Judge Douglas's 
 friends furnished twenty, to add to which there were 
 six Americans and ninety-four Republicans. I do 
 not know that I am precisely accurate in their num- 
 bers, but I am sufficiently so for any use I am mak- 
 ing of it. 
 
 Why is it that twenty shall be entitled to all the 
 credit of doing that work, and the hundred none of 
 it? Why, if, as Judge Douglas says, the honor is 
 
Early Days in Illinois 181 
 
 to be divided and due credit is to be given to other 
 parties, why is it just so much given as is consonant 
 with his wishes, the interests and advancement of 
 the twenty? My understanding is, when a common 
 job is done, or a common enterprise prosecuted, if 
 I put in five dollars to your one, I have a right to 
 take out five dollars to your one. But he does not 
 so understand it. He declares the dividend of cre- 
 dit for defeating Lecompton upon a basis which 
 seems unprecedented and incomprehensible. 
 
 Let us see. Lecompton in the raw was defeated. 
 It afterward took a sort of cooked up shape, and 
 was passed in the English bill. It is said by the 
 Judge that the defeat was a good and proper thing. 
 If it was a good thing, why is he entitled to more 
 credit than others, for the performance of that 
 good act, unless there was something in the ante- 
 cedents of the Republicans that might induce every 
 one to expect them to join in that good work, and 
 at the same time, something leading them to doubt 
 that he would? Does he place his superior claim 
 to credit, on the ground that he performed a good 
 act which was never expected of him? He says 
 I have a proneness for quoting scripture. If I 
 should do so now, it occurs that perhaps he places 
 himself somewhat upon the ground of the parable 
 of the lost shedp which went astray upon the 
 mountains, and when the owner of the hundred 
 sheep found the one that was lost, and threw it upon 
 
182 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 his shoulders, and came home rejoicing, it was said 
 that there was more rejoicing over the one sheep 
 that was lost and had been found than over the 
 ninety and nine in the fold. The application is 
 made by the Saviour in this parable, thus : "Verily, 
 I say unto you there is more rejoicing in heaven 
 over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety 
 and nine persons that need no repentance." 
 
 And now, if the Judge claims the benefit of this 
 parable, let him repent. Let him not come up here 
 and say: "I am the only just person; and you are 
 the ninety-nine sinners." Repentance before for- 
 giveness is a provision of the Christian system, and 
 on that condition alone will the Republicans grant 
 his forgiveness. 
 
 How will he prove that we have ever occupied 
 a different position in regard to the Lecompton Con- 
 stitution or any principle in it ? He says he did not 
 make his opposition on the ground as to whether it 
 was a free or slave Constitution, and he would 
 have you understand that the Republicans made 
 their opposition because it ultimately became a slave 
 Constitution. To make proof in favor of himself 
 on this point, he reminds us that he opposed Lecomp- 
 ton before the vote was taken declaring whether 
 the State was to be free or slave. But he for- 
 gets to say that our Republican Senator, Trumbul, 
 made a speech against Lecompton even before he 
 did. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 183 
 
 Why did he oppose it ? Partly, as he declares, be- 
 cause the members of the Constitution who framed 
 it were not fairly elected by the people; that the 
 people were not all allowed to vote unless they had 
 been registered; and that the people of whole coun- 
 ties, in some instances, were not registered. For 
 these reasons he declares the Constitution was not 
 an emanation, in any true sense, from the people. 
 He also has an additional objective as to the mode 
 of submitting the Constitution back to the people. 
 But bearing on the question of whether the dele- 
 gates were fairly elected, a speech of his, made 
 something more than twelve months ago, from this 
 stand, becomes important. It was made a little 
 while before the election of the delegates who made 
 Lecompton. In that speech he declared there was 
 every reason to hope and believe the election would 
 be fair; and if anyone failed to vote, it would be his 
 own culpable fault. 
 
 I, a few days after, made a sort of answer to that 
 speech. In that answer, I made, substantially, the 
 very argument with which he combatted his Le- 
 compton adversaries in the Senate last winter. I 
 pointed to the facts that the people could not vote 
 without being registered, and that the time for reg- 
 istering had gone by. I commented on it as wonder- 
 ful that Judge Douglas could be ignorant of these 
 facts, which every one else in the nation so well 
 knew. 
 
184 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 I now pass from, popular sovereignty and Le- 
 compton. I may have occasion to refer to one or 
 both. 
 
 When he was planning his campaign, Napoleon- 
 like, in New York, as appears by two speeches I 
 have heard him deliver a speech since his arrival 
 in Illinois, he gave special attention to the speech 
 of mine, delivered here on the 16th of June last. 
 He says that he carefully read that speech. He 
 told us that at Chicago a week ago last night, and 
 he repeated it at Bloomington last night. Doubt- 
 less, he repeated it again today, though I did not 
 hear him. In the two first places I heard him; 
 today I did not. He said he had carefully examin- 
 ed that speech; when, he did not say; but there is 
 no reasonable doubt it was when he was in Chicago 
 and Bloomington and New York preparing his plan 
 of campaign. I am glad he did read it carefully. 
 He says it was evidently prepared with great care. 
 I freely admit it was prepared with care. I claim 
 not to be more free from errors than others — per- 
 haps scarcely so much; but I was only careful not 
 to put anything in that speech as a matter of fact, 
 or make any inferences which did not appear to 
 me to be true, and fully warrantable. If I had 
 made a mistake I was willing to be corrected; if 
 I had drawn any inference in regard to Judge 
 Douglas, or anyone else, which was not warranted, 
 I was fully prepared to modify it as soon as dis- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 185 
 
 covered. I planted myself on the truth and the 
 truth only, so far as I knew it, or could be brought 
 to know it. 
 
 Having made that speech with the most kindly 
 feelings toward Judge Douglas as manifested 
 therein, I was gratified when I found that he had 
 carefully examined it, and had detected no error of 
 fact, nor any inference against him, nor any mis- 
 representations, of which he thought fit to com- 
 plain. In neither of the two speeches I have men- 
 tioned, did he make any such complaint. I will 
 thank anyone who will inform me that he, in his 
 speech today, pointed out anything I had stated, re- 
 specting him, as being erroneous. I presume there 
 is no such thing. I have reason to be gratified that 
 the care and caution used in that speech, left it so that 
 he, most of all others interested in discovering er- 
 ror, has not been able to point out one thing against 
 him which he could say was wrong. He sizes upon 
 the doctrines he supposes to be included in that 
 speech, and declares that upon them will turn the 
 issues of this campaign. He then quotes, or at- 
 tempts to quote, from my speech. I will not say that 
 he willfully misquotes, but he does fail to quote 
 accurately. His attempt at quoting is from a pass- 
 age which I believe I can quote accurately from 
 memory. I shall make the quotation now, with 
 some comments upon it, as I have already said, in 
 order that the Judge shall be left entirely without 
 
186 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 excuse for misrepresenting me. I do so now, as I 
 hope, for the last time. I do this in great caution, 
 in order that if he repeats his misrepresentations, it 
 shall be plain to all that he does so willfully. If, 
 after all, he still persists, I shall be compelled to re- 
 construct the course I have marked out for myself, 
 and draw upon such humble resources as I have, for 
 a new course, better suited to the exigencies of the 
 case. I set out, in this campaign with the intention 
 of conducting it strictly as a gentleman, in substance 
 at least, if not in the outside polish. The latter I 
 shall never be, but that, which constitutes the inside 
 of a gentleman I hope I understand, and am not less 
 inclined to practice than others. It was my purpose 
 and expectation that this canvass would be conducted 
 upon principle, and with fairness on both sides, and 
 it shall not be my fault if this purpose and expecta- 
 tion shall be given up. 
 
 He charges in substance, that I invite a war of 
 sections; that I propose all the local institutions of 
 the different States shall become consolidated and 
 uniform. What is there in the language of that 
 speech which expresses such purpose, or bears 
 such construction ? I have again and again said that 
 I would not enter into any of the States into any at- 
 titude of firing bombs or shells into the slave States. 
 I was not using that passage for the purpose for 
 which he infers I did use it. I said: "We are now 
 far advanced into the fifth year since a policy was 
 
Early Days in Illinois 187 
 
 created for the avowed object and with the confi- 
 dent promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. 
 Under the operation of that policy that agitation 
 has not only not ceased, but has constantly augment- 
 ed. In my opinion it will not cease till a crisis 
 shall have been reached and passed. "A house di- 
 vided against itself cannot stand." I believe that 
 this Government cannot endure permanently half 
 slave and half free. It will become all one thing 
 or 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 forward till it shall become alike lawful 
 in all States, old as well as new, North as well as 
 South. 
 
 Now you all see, from that quotation, I did not ex- 
 press my wish or purpose of my own; I simply 
 expressed my expectation. Cannot the Judge per- 
 ceive a distinction between a purpose and an ex- 
 pectation? I have often expressed an ex- 
 pectation? I have often expressed an ex- 
 pectation to die, but I have never expressed a wish 
 to die. I said at Chicago, and now I repeat, that 
 I am quite aware this Government has endured, half 
 slave and half free, for eighty-two years. I under- 
 stand that little bit of history. I expressed the 
 opinion I did, because I perceived — or thought I 
 perceived — a new set of causes introduced. I did 
 
188 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 say at Chicago, in my speech there, that I do wish to 
 see the spread of slavery arrested, and to see it 
 placed where the public mind shall rest in the be- 
 lief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction. 
 I said that because I supposed, when the 'public mind 
 shall rest in that belief, we shall have peace on the 
 slavery question. I have believed — and now be- 
 lieve — the public mind did rest on that belief up to 
 the introducing of the Nebraska bill. 
 
 Although I have ever been opposed to slavery, so 
 far I rested in the hope and belief that it was in the 
 course of ultimate extinction. For this reason it 
 had been a minor question with me. I might have 
 been mistaken ; but I had believed, and now believe 
 that the whole public mind, that is, the mind of the 
 great majority, had rested in that belief up to the re- 
 peal of the Missouri Compromise. But upon that 
 event, I became convinced that either I had been 
 resting in a delusion, the institution was being placed 
 on a new basis — a basis for making it perpetual, 
 national and universal. Subsequent events have 
 greatly confirmed me in that belief. I believe that 
 bill to be the beginning of a conspiracy for that pur- 
 pose. So believing, I have since then considered 
 that question a paramount one. So believing, I 
 thought the public mind will never rest till the power 
 of Congress to restrict the spread of it shall again 
 be acknowledged and exercised on the one hand, or 
 on the other, resistance being entirely crushed out. 
 I have expressed that opinion, and I entertain it to- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 189 
 
 night. It is denied that there is any tendency to 
 nationalization of slavery in these States. 
 
 Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, in one of his 
 speeches, when they were presenting him canes, sil- 
 ver plate, gold pitchers, and the like, for assaulting 
 Senator Sumner, distinctly affirmed his opinion that 
 when the Constitution was framed it was the be- 
 lief of no man that slavery would last to the present 
 day. 
 
 He said, what I think, that the framers of our Con- 
 stitution placed the institution of slavery where the 
 public mind rested in the hope that it was in the 
 course of ultimate extinction. But he went on to 
 say that the men of the present age, by their exper- 
 ience, have become wiser than the framers of the 
 Constitution; and the invention of the cotton gin 
 had made the perpetuity of slavery a necessity in 
 this country. 
 
 As another piece of evidence tending to this same 
 point : Quite recently in Virginia a man — the own- 
 er of slaves — made a will providing that after his 
 death certain of his slaves should have their free- 
 dom if they should choose and go to Liberia, rather 
 than remain in slavery. They chose to be liberated. 
 But the persons to whom they would descend as 
 property, claimed them as slaves. A suit was insti- 
 tuted, which finally came to the Supreme Court of 
 Virginia, and was there decided against the slaves, 
 upon the ground that a negro cannot make a choice — 
 
190 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 that they had no legal power to choose — could not 
 perform the condition upon which their freedom de- 
 pended. 
 
 I do not mention this with any purpose of crit- 
 icising it but I wish to connect it with the arguments 
 as affording additional evidence of the change of 
 sentiment upon this question of slavery in the di- 
 rection of making it perpetual and national. I ar- 
 gue now as I did before, that there is such a tenden- 
 cy, and I am backed not merely by the facts, but by 
 the open confession in slave States. 
 
 And now, as to the Judge's inference, that be- 
 cause I wish to see slavery placed in the course of 
 ultimate extinction — placed where our fathers 
 originally placed it — I wish to annihilate the State 
 Legislatures — to force cotton to grow upon the tops 
 of the Green Mountains — to freeze ice in Florida 
 — to cut lumber on the broad Illinois prairies — that 
 I am in favor of all these ridiculous and impossible 
 things. 
 
 It seems to me it is a complete answer to all this to 
 ask, if, when Congress did have the fashion of re- 
 stricting from free territory; when courts did have 
 the fashion of deciding that taking a slave into a 
 free country made him free — I say it is a suffi- 
 cient answer to ask, if any of this rediculous non- 
 sense about consolidation, and uniformity, did act- 
 ually follow? Who heard any such thing, be- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 191 
 
 cause of the ordinance of '87? because of the Mis- 
 souri Restrictions? because of the numerous court 
 decisions of that character? 
 
 Now, as to the Dred Scott decision; for upon 
 that he makes his last point at me. He boldly takes 
 ground in favor of that decision. 
 
 This is onehalf the onslaught, and one-third of 
 the entire plan of the campaign. I am opposed to 
 that decision in a certain sense, but not in the sense 
 which he puts on it. I say that so far a suit decided 
 in favor of Dred Scott's master, and against Dred 
 Scott and his family, I do not propose to distub or 
 resist the decision. 
 
 I never have proposed to do any such thing. I 
 think, that in respect for judicial authority, my hum- 
 ble history would not suffer in comparison with that 
 of Judge Douglas. He would have the citizen con- 
 form his vote to that decision; the member of Con- 
 gress, his ; the President, his use of the veto power. 
 He would make it a rule of political action for the 
 people and all the departments of the Government. 
 I would not. By resisting it as a political rule, I dis- 
 turb no right of property, create no disorder, excite 
 no mobs. 
 
 When he spoke at Chicago, on Friday evening of 
 last week, he made this same point upon me. On 
 Saturday evening I replied, and reminded him of 
 a Supreme Court decision which he opposed for at 
 least several years. Last night, at Bloomington, 
 
192 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 he took some notice of that reply; but entirely for- 
 got to remember that part of it. 
 
 He renews his onslaught on me, forgetting to re- 
 member that I have turned the tables against him- 
 self on that very point. I renew the effort to draw 
 his attention to it. I wish to stand erect before the 
 country, as well as Judge Douglas, on this question 
 of judicial authority; and therefore I add some- 
 thing to the authority, in favor of my position. 
 I wish to show that I am sustained by authority, in 
 addition to that heretofore presented. I do not ex- 
 pect to convince the Judge. It is part of the plan of 
 his campaign, and he will cling to it with a desper- 
 ate grip. Even, turn it upon him — the sharp point 
 against him, and gaff him through — he will still 
 cling to it till he can invent some new dodge to take 
 the place of it. 
 
 In public speaking it is tedious reading from doc- 
 uments; but I must beg to indulge the practice to a 
 limited extent. I shall read from a letter written 
 by Mr. Jefferson in 1820, and now to be found in 
 the seventh volume of his correspondence, at page 
 1 77. It seems he had been presented by a gentleman 
 of the name of Jarvis with a book, or essay, or 
 periodical, called the "Republican,"and he was writ- 
 ing in acknowledgment of the present, and noting 
 some of its contents. After expressing the hope that 
 the work will produce a favorable effect upon the 
 
Early Days in Illinois 193 
 
 minds of the young, he proceeds to say: 
 
 "That it will have this tendency may be expected, 
 and for that reason I feel an urgency to note what 
 I deem an error in it, the more requiring notice as 
 your opinion is strengthened by that of others. You 
 seem, in page 84 and 148 to consider the Judges as 
 the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions — 
 a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which 
 would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. 
 Our Judges are as honest as other men, and not more 
 so. They have, with others, the same passions for 
 party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. 
 Their maxium is 'boni jndicis est ampliare judfisdic- 
 tionem;' and their power is the more dangerous as 
 they are in office for life, and not responsible, as 
 the other functionaries are, to the elective control. 
 The constitution has erected no such single tribunal 
 knowing that, to whatever hands confided, with the 
 corruptions of time and party, its numbers would 
 become despots. It has more wisely made all the 
 departments coequal and sovereign with themselves." 
 
 Thus we see the power claimed for the Supreme 
 Court by Judge Douglas, Mr. Jefferson holds, would 
 reduce us to the despotism of an oligarchy. 
 
 Now, I have said no more than this — in fact, never 
 quite so much as this — at least I am sustained by 
 Mr. Jefferson. 
 
 Let us go a little further. You remember we once 
 
194 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 had a National Bank. Someone owed the bank a 
 debt ; he was sued and sought to avoid payment, on 
 the ground that the bank was unconstitutional. The 
 case went to the Supreme Court, and therein it was 
 decided that the bank was unconstitutional. The 
 whole Democratic party revolted against that decis- 
 ion. General Jackson himself asserted that he, as 
 President, would not be bound to hold a National 
 Bank to be constitutional, even though the court had 
 decided it to be so. He fell in precisely with the 
 view of Mr. Jefferson, and acted upon it under his 
 official oath, in vetoing a charter for a National 
 Bank. The declaration that Congress does not possess 
 the constitutional power to charter a bank, has gone 
 into the Democratic platform at their National Con- 
 vention, and was brought forward and reaffirmed 
 in their last convention at Cincinnati. They have 
 contended for that declaration, in the very teeth of 
 the Supreme Court, for more than a quarter of a 
 century. In fact, they have reduced the decision 
 to an absolute nullity. That decision, I repeat, is re- 
 pudiated in the Cincinnati platform ; and still, as if to 
 show that effrontery can go farther, Judge Doug- 
 las vaunts in the very speeches in which he de- 
 nounces me for opposing the Dred Scott decision, 
 that he stands on the Cincinnati platform. 
 
 Now, I wish to know what the judge can charge 
 upon me, with respect to decisions of the Supreme 
 Court, which does not lie in all its length, breadth, 
 
Early Days in Illinois 195 
 
 and proportions at his own door. The plain truth 
 is simply this : Judge Douglas is for Supreme Court 
 decisions when he likes and against them when he 
 does not like them. He is for the Dred Scott decis- 
 ion because it tends to nationalize slavery — because 
 it is a part of the original combination for that ob- 
 ject. It so happens, singularly enough, that I nev- 
 er stood opposed to a decision of the Supreme Court 
 till this. On the contrary, I have no recollection 
 that he was ever in favor of one till this. He never 
 was in favor of any, nor opposed to any, till the 
 present one, which helps to nationalize slavery. 
 
 Free men of Sangamon — free men of Illinois — 
 free men everywhere — judge between him and me, 
 upon this issue. 
 
 He says the Dred Scott case is a very small matter 
 at most — that it has no practical effect ; and at best, 
 or rather, I suppose, at worst, it is but an abstraction. 
 I submit that the thing which determines whether 
 a man is free or a slave, is rather concrete than 
 abstract. I think you would conclude that it was, 
 if your liberty depended upon it, and so would 
 Judge Douglas if his liberty depended upon it. But 
 suppose it was upon the question of spreading 
 slavery over the new Territories that he considers it 
 as being merely an abstract matter, and one of no 
 practical importance. How has the planting of 
 slavery in new countries always been effected? It 
 has now been decided that slavery cannot be kept out 
 
196 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 of our new Territories by any legal means. In what 
 does our new Territories now differ in this respect 
 from the old Colonies when slavery was first planted 
 within them? It was planted as Mr. Clay once de- 
 clared, and as history proves true, by individual men 
 in spite of the wishes of the people; the Mother 
 Government refusing to prohibit it, and withholding 
 from the people of the Colonies the authority to 
 prohibit it for themselves. Mr. Clay says this was 
 one of the great and just causes of complaint against 
 Great Britian by the Colonies, and the best apology 
 we can now make for having the institution amongst 
 us. In that precise condition our Nebraska politi- 
 cians have at last succeded in placing our new Terri- 
 tories; the Government will not prohibit slavery 
 within them, nor allow the people to prohibit it. 
 
 I defy any man to find any difference between 
 the policy which now prevails in our new Territories. 
 If it does not go into them, it is only because no 
 individual wishes it to go. The Judge indulged 
 himself, doubtless today, with the question as to 
 what I am going to do about the Dred Scott decision. 
 Well, Judge, will you please tell me what you did 
 about the bank decision? Will you not graciously 
 allow us to do with the Dred Scott decision precisely 
 as you did with the bank decision? You succeeded 
 in breaking down the moral effect of that decision; 
 did you find it necessary to amend the Constitution? 
 or to set up a court of negroes in order to do it? 
 
Early Days in Illinois 197 
 
 There is one other point. Judge Douglas has a 
 very affectionate leaning toward the Americans and 
 Old Whigs. Last evening, in a sort of weeping 
 tone, he described to us a death-bed scene. He had 
 been called to the side of Mr. Clay, in his last 
 moments, in order that the genius of "popular sov- 
 ereignty" might duly descend from: the dying man 
 and settle upon him, the living and most worthy 
 successor. He could do no less than promise that 
 he would devote the remainder of his life to "pop- 
 ular sovereignty;" and then the great statesman 
 departs in peace. By this part of the "plan of the 
 campaign," the Judge has evidently promised him- 
 self that tears shall be drawn down the cheeks of 
 all the old Whigs, as large as half grown apples. 
 
 Mr. Webster, too, was mentioned; but it did not 
 quite come to a death-bed scene, as to him. It 
 would be amusing, if it were not disgusting, to see 
 how quick these compromise-breakers administer on 
 the political effects of their dead adversaries, trump- 
 ing up claims never before heard of, and dividing 
 the assets among themselves. If I should be found 
 dead tomorrow morning, nothing but my insigni- 
 ficance could prevent a speech being made on my 
 authority, before the end of next week. It so hap- 
 pens that in that "popular sovereignty" with which 
 Mr. Clay was identified, the Missouri Compromise 
 was expressly reversed; and it was a little singular 
 if Mr. Clay cast his mantle upon Judge Douglas 
 on purpose to have that compromise repealed. 
 
198 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Again, the judge did not stop with Mr. Clay when 
 he first brought in his Nebraska bill. He left the 
 Missouri Compromise unrepealed, and in his report 
 accompanying the bill, he told the world he did it 
 on purpose. The manes of Mr. Clay must have been 
 in great agony, till thirty days later, when "popular 
 sovereignty" stood forth in all its glory. 
 
 One more thing. Last night Judge Douglas tor- 
 mented himself with horrors about my disposition to 
 make negroes perfectly equal with white men in 
 social political relations. He did not stop to show 
 that I have said any such thing, or that it is legiti- 
 mately from anything I have said, but he rushes on 
 with his assertions. I adhere to the Declaration of 
 Independence. If Judge Douglas and his friends 
 are not willing to stand by it, let them come out 
 and amend it. Let them make it read that all men 
 are created equal except negroes. Let us have it 
 decided, whether the Declaration, in this blessed 
 year of 1858, shall be thus amended. In his con- 
 struction of the Declaration last year, he said it 
 only meant that Americans in America were equal 
 to Englishmen in England. Then, when I pointed 
 out to him that by rule he excludes the Germans, 
 the Irish, the Portuguese, and all other people who 
 have come amongst us since the Revolution, he re- 
 constructs his reconstruction. In his last speech he 
 tells us it mean Europeans. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 199 
 
 I press him a little farther, and ask if it meant to 
 include the Russians in Asia? or does he mean 
 to exclude that vast population from the principles 
 of our Declaration of Independence? I expect ere 
 long he will introduce another amendment to his 
 definition. He is not at all particular. He is satis- 
 fied with anything which does not endanger the 
 nationalizing of negro slavery. It may draw white 
 men down, but it must not lift negroes up. Who 
 shall say, "I am the superior, and you are the in- 
 ferior?" 
 
 My declarations upon this subject of negro slavery 
 may be misrepresented, but cannot be misunderstood. 
 I have said that I do not understand the Declara- 
 tion to mean that all men were created equal in all 
 respects. They are not our equal in some respects; 
 they are equal in their right to "life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness." Certainly the negro is 
 not our equal in color — perhaps not in many other 
 respects; still, in the right to put into his mouth 
 the bread that his own hands have earned, he is 
 the equal of every other man, white or black. In 
 pointing out that more has been given you, you 
 cannot be justified in taking away the little which 
 has been given him. All I ask for the negro is that 
 if you do not like him, let him alone. If God gave 
 him but little, that little let him enjoy. 
 
 When our Government was established, we had 
 the institution of slavery among us. We were in 
 
200 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 a certain sense compelled to tolerate its existence. 
 It was a sort of necessity. We had gone through 
 our struggle and secured our own independence. 
 The framers of the Constitution found the institu- 
 tion of slavery amongst their other institutions at 
 the time. They found that by an effort to eradicate 
 it, they might lose much of what they had already 
 gained. They were obliged to bow to the necessity. 
 They gave power to Congress to abolish the slave 
 trade at the end of twenty years. They also 'pro- 
 hibited it in the Territories where it did not exist. 
 They did what they could and yielded to the neces- 
 sity for the rest. I also yield to all which follows 
 from that necessity. What I would most desire 
 would be the separation of the white and black 
 races. 
 
 I charged that the people had been deceived into 
 carrying the last Presidential election, by the im- 
 pression that the people of the Territories might 
 exclude slavery if they chose, when it was known in 
 advance by the conspirators, that the court was to 
 decide that neither Congress nor the people could 
 so exclude slavery. These charges are more dis- 
 tinctly made than anything else in the speech. 
 
 Judge Douglas has carefully read and re-read 
 that speech. He has not so far as I know, con- 
 tradicted those charges. In the two speeches which 
 I heard, he certainly did not. On his own tacit ad- 
 mission I renew that charge. I charge him with 
 
Early Days in Illinois 
 having been a party to that 
 
 201 
 
 deception 
 slavery 
 
 for the sole 
 
 conspiracy and to that 
 purpose of nationalizing 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Early Days in Illinois 
 
 The Joint Discussion 
 
 |T IS not our purpose to give the speeches of 
 the two disputants in the joint discussion 
 held at the different places throughout the 
 State, but only some of the main points the most 
 closely contested, which came up somewhat spon- 
 taneously during the process of the great debate, 
 giving the line of their argument in their manner 
 of dealing with the questions at issue between them 
 and before the country. The place of commence- 
 ment was at Ottawa, August 21st, 1858, and the 
 continuous discussions agreed upon took place with- 
 out a break in dates until finished. Large audiences 
 greeted the two gentlemen at each gathering. 
 
 Mr. Douglas at Ottawa had the opening speech, 
 and he proposed certain questions, seven in number, 
 for Mr. Lincoln's consideration and which he ex- 
 pected him to answer without fail and without 
 equivocation. They were knotty questions, con- 
 sidering all the conditions and circumstances which 
 were before the country, they were difficult of ans- 
 wers. It was with some degree of solicitude that 
 202 
 
Early Days in Illinois 203 
 
 Mr. Lincoln set about his answers. Indeed, he did 
 not attempt any answer to these interrogations until 
 he came to Freeport where he had the opening and 
 closing speeches, but took up his time in dealing 
 with other points raised by Douglas in his opening 
 speech here and at other places, which had been 
 previously raised. It is evident that he had reserv- 
 ed these to wisely meditate upon them before at- 
 tempting any answers, because he did not know the 
 disposition his wily adversary in debate might make 
 of them. These answers, however, were made in 
 a general way when he did attempt them, and in a 
 categorical manner while they were followed up in 
 amplified form with a few words of explanation. 
 Mr. Douglas was unable to twist them into very 
 much advantage to himself. 
 
 After the first day's joint discussion at Ottawa 
 the disputants went about making other speeches un- 
 til they were to hold another by appointment six days 
 later at Freeport. Mr. Lincoln made quite a num- 
 ber of addresses at various cities on his way thither, 
 but all the while keeping well in his mind how he 
 would better answer the interrogatories of Mr. Doug- 
 las. One of the interrogatories gave Mr. Lincoln 
 no little concern ; and, doubtless, he would not have 
 ventured to answer it so soon had he not been press- 
 ed to the point of doing so by his adversary. He 
 resolved, however, to answer them all in the categor- 
 ical manner we have already indicated. But the 
 
204 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 manner of answering this interrogatory, the third 
 one in the list asked by Douglas in his Ottawa 
 speech, did not satisfy the latter, and it became a 
 bone of contention all the way through the joint 
 discussion. 
 
 In the half hour's rejoinder of Mr. Douglas's 
 speech to Mr. Lincoln's speech at Ottawa, the former 
 complained of the latter because he seemed to pay no 
 attention to the questions asked in his first speech 
 to be answered by the latter. In the first speech of 
 Mr. Lincoln at Freeport, he speaks of this. He 
 says :"I do him no injustice in saying that he oc- 
 cupied at least half of his rejply in dealing with me 
 as though I had refused to answer his interrogato- 
 ries. I now propose that I will answer any of the 
 interrogatories, upon condition that he will answer 
 questions from me not exceeding the same number 
 I give him an opportunity to respond. The Judge 
 remains silent. I now say that I will answer his in- 
 terrogatories, whether he answers mine or not; and 
 that after I have done so, I shall propound mine to 
 him. 
 
 "I have supposed myself, since the organization 
 of the Republican party at Bloomington, in May 
 1856, bound as a party man by the platforms of 
 the party, then and since. If in any interrogatories 
 which I shall answer I go beyond the scope of what 
 is within these platforms, it will be perceived that 
 no one is responsible but myself. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 205 
 
 "Having said this much, I will take up the Judge's 
 interrogatories as I find them printed in the Chicago 
 Times, and answer them seriatim. In order that 
 there may be no mistake about it, I have copied the 
 interrogatories in writing, and also my answers to 
 them. The first one of these interrogatories is in 
 these words : 
 
 Question 1. "I desire to know whether Lincoln 
 to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the un- 
 conditional repeal of the Fugitive slave law?"? 
 
 Answer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in 
 favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive 
 slave law. 
 
 Question 2. "I desire him to answer whether he 
 stands pledged today, as he did in 1854, against the 
 admission of any more slave States into the Union, 
 even if the people want them?" 
 
 Answer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand 
 pledged against the admission of any more slave 
 States into the Union. 
 
 ^Question 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 my see fit to make?" 
 
 Answer. I do not stand pledged against the ad- 
 mission of a new State into the Union with such a 
 Constitution as the people of that State may see 
 fit to make. 
 
 Question 4. "I want to know whether he stands 
 
206 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 today pledged to the abolition of slavery in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia?" 
 
 Answer. I do not stand today pledged to the 
 abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
 
 Question 5 : "I desire him to answer whether he 
 stands pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade 
 between the different States ?" 
 
 Answer. I do not stand pledged to the prohi- 
 bition of the slave-trade between the different States. 
 
 Question 6 : "I desire to know whether he stands 
 pledged to prohibit slavery in all the Territories of 
 the United States, North as well as South of the 
 Missouri Compromise line?" 
 
 Answer. I am impliedly, if not expressly pledg- 
 ed to a belief in the right and duty of Congress to 
 prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories. 
 
 Question 7: "I desire him to answer whether 
 he is opposed to the acquisition of any new terri- 
 tory unless slavery is first prohibited therein? 
 
 Answer. I am not generally opposed to honest 
 acquisition of territory; and, in any given case, I 
 would or would not oppose such acquisition, ac- 
 cordingly as I might think such acquisition would 
 or would not aggravate the slavery question among 
 ourselves. 
 
 "Now, my friends, it will be perceived upon an 
 examination of these questions and answers, that so 
 far as I have only answered that I was not pledged 
 to this, that or the other. The Judge has not framed 
 
Early Days in Illinois 207 
 
 his interrogatories to ask me anything more than 
 this, and I have answered in strict accordance with 
 the interrogatories, and have answered truly that I 
 am not pledged at all upon any of the points to which 
 I have answered. But I am not disposed to hang 
 upon the exact form of his interrogatory. I am 
 rather disposed to take up at least some of the 
 questions, and state what I really think upon them. 
 
 "As to the first one, in regard to the Fugitive 
 Slave Law, I have never hesitated to say, and I 
 do not now hesitate to say, that I think, under the 
 Constitution of the United States, the people of the 
 Southern States are entitled to a Congressional 
 Fugitive Slave law, further than that I think it 
 should have been framed so as to be free from some 
 of the objections that pertain to it, without lessening 
 its efficiency. And inasmuch as we are not now in 
 agitation in regard to an alteration or modification 
 of that law, I would not be the man to introduce it 
 as a new subject of agitation upon the general ques- 
 tion 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 very frankly 
 that I would be exceedingly sorry ever to be put 
 in a position of having to pass upon that question. 
 I should be exceedingly glacj to know that there 
 would never be another slave State admitted into the 
 Union; but I must add, that if slavery shall be kept 
 
208 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 out of the Territories during the territorial exis- 
 tence of any one given Territory, and then the peo- 
 ple shall, having a fair chance and a clear field, when 
 they come to adopt the Constitution, uninfluenced by 
 the actual presence of the institution among them, 
 I see no alternative, if we own the country, but to 
 admit them into the Union. 
 
 "The third interrogatory is answered by the sec- 
 ond, it being, as I conceive, the same as the second. 
 
 "The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of 
 slavery in the District of Columbia. In relation to 
 that, I have my mind very distinctly made up. I 
 should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished 
 in the District of Columbia. I believe that Congress 
 possesses the constitutional 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 the qualified voters of the 
 District; and third, that compensation should be 
 made to unwilling owners. With these three con- 
 ditions, I confess 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 Capitol that foul blot upon our 
 Nation." 
 
 "In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say 
 
Early Days in Illinois 209 
 
 here, that as to the question of the 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 authorized to state a posi- 
 tion so as to hold myself entirely bound by it. 
 In other words, that question has never been prom- 
 inently enough before me to induce me to investi- 
 gate it if I had sufficient time, to bring myself to a 
 conclusion upon that subject; but I have not done 
 so, and I say so frankly to you here, and to Judge 
 Douglas. I must say, however, that if I should be of 
 opinion that Congress does possess the constitutional 
 power to abolish the slave-trade among the different 
 States, I should still not be in favor of the exercise 
 of that power unless upon some conservative princi- 
 ple 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 
 be prohibited in all the Territories of the United 
 States, is full and explicit within itself, and cannot 
 be made clearer by any comments of mine. So I 
 suppose in regard to the question whether I am op- 
 posed to the acquisition of any more territory 
 unless slavery is first prohibited therein, my 
 answer 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. 
 
210 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 "Now in all this the Judge has me, and he has 
 me on my record. I suppose he had flattered him- 
 self that I was really entertaining one set of opinions 
 for one place and another set for another place — 
 that I was afraid to say at one place what I uttered 
 at another. What I am saying here I suppose I 
 say to a vast audience as strongly tending to Aboli- 
 tionism as any audience in the State of Illinois, 
 and I believe I am saying that which if it would be 
 offensive to any persons and render them enemies 
 to myself, would be offensive to persons in this 
 audience. 
 
 "Now I proceed to propound to the judge the 
 interrogatories, so far as I framed them. I will 
 bring them forward now, only reaching to number 
 four. 
 
 The first one is : 
 
 Question I. If the people of Kansas shall, by 
 means entirely unobjectionable in all respects, adopt 
 a State Constitution, and ask admission into the 
 Union under it before they have the requisite number 
 of inhabitants according to the English bill — some 
 ninety-three thousand — will you vote to admit them ? 
 
 Question II. Can the people of the United States 
 Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of 
 any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery 
 from its limits prior to the formation of a State 
 Constitution ? 
 
 Question III. If the Supreme Court of the United 
 
Early Days in Illinois 211 
 
 States shall decide that States cannot exclude slavery 
 from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing 
 in, adopting and following such decision as a rule 
 of political action? 
 
 Question IV. Are you in favor of acquiring ad- 
 ditional territory, in disregard of how such ac- 
 quisition may affect the nation on the slavery ques- 
 tion?" 
 
 The questions and answers propounded to each 
 other are about all the writer desires to bring up in 
 these notes on the Freeport speeches of the an- 
 tagonists. They were chokers to each other and 
 designedly so as regarded by their friends, much de- 
 pending as to success upon the manner of their 
 answers at the coming election. Mr. Lincoln's po- 
 litical friends did not approve of the policy of Mr. 
 Lincoln's second question to Mr. Douglas for the 
 reason they were apprehensive that he would answer 
 it in the affirmative, which would lead to his de- 
 feat for the senatorship. That question had a his- 
 tory, and a conference was held beforehand between 
 Mr. Lincoln and a few of his supporters at Dixon, 
 among whom were Mr. Norma B. Judd and Dr. 
 C. H. Ray, the editor-in-chief of the Tribune. They 
 counselled Mr, Lincoln not to put that question to 
 Mr. Douglas for the reason given above. "They 
 believed the latter would leave the * subject 
 alone as much as possible in order not to 
 offend the South, unless he should be driven into 
 
212 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 a corner." What was Mr. Lincoln's reply? It was 
 this : "An affirmative answer from Douglas on this 
 question was exactly what he wanted, and that his 
 object was to make it impossible for Douglas to get 
 the vote of the Southern States in the next Presiden- 
 tial election. He considered that fight much more im- 
 portant than the present one and he would be will- 
 ing to lose this in order to win that/' is the word of 
 Mr. Horace White. The exact words of Mr. Lin- 
 coln appear to have been, "I am after larger game; 
 the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." 
 
 Mr. White further adds in this matter: "The 
 result justified Mr. Lincoln's prevision. Douglas 
 did answer in the affirmative. If he had answered 
 in the negative he would have lost the senatorial 
 election, and that would have ended his political 
 career. He took the chance of being able to make 
 satisfactory explanations to the slaveholders, but 
 they would have nothing to do with him afterwards. 
 "After the debate was finished, we Republicans did 
 not feel happy. We held the same opinion that 
 Mr. Judd and Dr. Ray had — that Douglas's answer 
 had probably saved him from defeat. We did not look 
 forward, we did not look South ; even if we had done 
 so, we were too much enlisted in this campaign to 
 swap it for another one which was two years dis- 
 tant. Mr. Lincoln's wisdom was soon vindicated by 
 his antagonist, one of whose earliest acts, after he 
 returned to Washington City, was to make a speech 
 
Early Days in Illinois 213 
 
 (February 23rd 1859) defending himself against 
 attacks upon 'Freeport heresy,' as the Southerners 
 called it. In that debate Jefferson Davis was par- 
 ticularly aggravating and Douglas did not reply to 
 his with his usual spirit." 
 
 I give here the answers of Mr. Douglas to Mr. 
 Lincolns four questions to him! in the joint dis- 
 cussion at Freeport : 
 
 "First, he desires to know if the people of Kansas 
 shall form a constitution by means entirely proper 
 and unobjectionable and ask admission into the 
 Union as a State, before they have the requisite 
 population for a member of Congress, whether I 
 will vote for that admission. Well, now, I regret 
 exceedingly that he did not answer that interro- 
 gatory himself before he put it to me, in order that 
 we might understand, and not be left to infer, on 
 which side he is. Mr. Trumbull, during the last 
 session of Congress, voted from the beginning to 
 the end against the admission of Oregon, although 
 a free State, because she had not the requisite 
 population for a member of Congress. Mr. Trum- 
 bull would not consent, under any circumstances, to 
 let a State, free or slave, come into the Union until 
 it had the requisite population. As Mr. Trumbull is 
 in the field fighting for Mr. Lincoln, I would like 
 to have Mr. Lincoln answer his own question and 
 tell me whether he is fighting Trumbull on this issue 
 or not. But I will answer his question. In refer- 
 
214 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 ence to Kansas, it is my opinion, that as she has 
 population enough to constitute a slave State, she 
 has people enough for a free State. I will not make 
 Kansas an exceptional case to other States of the 
 Union. I hold it to be a sound rule of universal 
 application to require a Territory to contain the re- 
 quisite population for a member of Congress, before 
 it is admitted as a State into the Union. I made that 
 proposition in the Senate in 1856, and I renewed it 
 during the last session, in a bill providing that no 
 Territory of the United States should form a Con- 
 stitution and apply for admission until it had the re- 
 quisite population. On another occasion I proposed 
 that neither Kansas, or any other Territory, should 
 be admitted until it had the requisite population. Con- 
 gress did not adopt any of my propositions con- 
 taining this general rule, but did make an exception 
 of Kansas. I will stand by that exception. Either 
 Kansas must come in as a free State, with what- 
 ever population she may have, or the rule must be 
 applied to all the other Territories alike. I therefore 
 answer at once, that it having been decided that 
 Kansas has people enough for a slave State, I hold 
 that she has enough for a free state. I hope Mr. 
 Lincoln is satisfied with my answer; and now I 
 would like to get his answer to his own interrogatory 
 — whether or not he will vote to admit Oregon 
 before that Territory has the requisite population. 
 Mr. Trumbell will not, and the same reason that 
 
Early Days in Illinois 215 
 
 commits Mr. Trumbell against the admission of 
 Oregon, commits him against Kansas, even if she 
 should apply for admission as a free state. If there 
 is any sincerity, any truth, in the argument of Mr. 
 Trumbull in the Senate, against the admission of 
 Oregon because she had not 93,420 people, although 
 her population was larger than that of Kansas, he 
 stands pledged against the admission of both Oregon 
 and Kansas until they have 93,420 inhabitants. I 
 would like Mr. Lincoln to answer this question. I 
 would like him to take his own medicine. If he 
 differs with Mr. Trumbull let him answer his ar- 
 gument against the admission of Oregon, instead of 
 poking questions at me. 
 
 'The next question propounded to me by Mr. 
 Lincoln is, can the people of a Territory in any law- 
 ful way, against the wishes of any citizen of the 
 United States, exclude slavery from their limits prior 
 to the formation of a State Constitution? I answer 
 temphatically, as Mr. Lincoln has heard me answer 
 a hundred times from every stump in Illinois, that 
 in my opinion the people of a Territory can, by law- 
 ful means, exclude slavery from their limits prior to 
 the formation of a State Constitution. Mr. Lincoln 
 knew that I had answered that question over and over 
 again. He heard me argue the Nebraska bill on that 
 principle all over the State in 1854, in 1855, and 
 1856, and he has no excuse for pretending to be 
 in doubt as to my position on that question. It mat- 
 
216 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 ters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter 
 decide as to the abstract question whether slavery 
 may or may not go into a Territory under the Con- 
 stitution, the people have the lawful means to intro- 
 duce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that 
 slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, un- 
 less it is supported by local police regulations. Those 
 police regulations can only be established by the local 
 legislature, and if the people are opposed to slavery 
 they will elect representatives to that body who will by 
 unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the intro- 
 duction of it into their midst. If, on the contrary, 
 they are for it, their legislation will favor its exten- 
 sion. Hence, no matter what the decision of the 
 Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still 
 the right of the people to make a slave Territory is 
 perfect and complete under the Nebraska bill. I 
 hope Mr. Lincoln deems my manner satisfactory 
 on that point. * * * * 
 
 "The third question which Mr. Lincoln present- 
 ed is, if the Supreme Court of the United States 
 shall decide that a State of this Union cannot ex- 
 clude slavery from its own limits, will I submit 
 to it? I am amazed that Mr. Lincoln should ask 
 such a question. ["A school-boy knows better"] 
 Yes, a school-boy does know better. Mr. Lincoln's 
 object is to cast an imputation upon the Supreme 
 Court. He knows that there never was but one 
 man in America, claiming any degree of intelligence 
 
Early Days in Illinois 217 
 
 or decency, who ever for a moment pretended such a 
 thing. It is true that the Washington Union, in 
 an article published on the 17th of last December, 
 did put forth that doctrine, and I denounced the ar- 
 ticle on the floor of the Senate in a speech which 
 Mr. Lincoln now pretends was against the Pres- 
 ident. The Union had claimed that slavery had a 
 right to go into the free States and that any pro- 
 vision in the Constitution or laws of the free States 
 to the contrary were null and void. I denounced 
 it in the Senate, as I said before, and I was the first 
 man who did. Lincoln's friends, Trumbull, and 
 Seward, and Hale, and Wilson, and the whole Black 
 Republican side of the Senate, were silent. They 
 left it to me to denounce it. And what was the reply 
 made to me on that occasion? Mr. Toombs, of 
 Georgia, got up and undertook to lecture me on the 
 ground that I ought not to have deemed the article 
 worthy of notice, and ought not to have replied to 
 it : that there was not one man, woman or child 
 South of the Potomac, in any slave State, who did 
 not repudiate any such pretension. Mr. Lincoln 
 knows that that reply was made on he spot, and yet 
 now he asks this question. He might as well ask 
 me, suppose Mr. Lincoln should steal a horse 
 would I sustain it ; and it would be as genteel in me 
 to ask him, in the event he stole a horse, what ought 
 to be done with him. He casts an imputation upon 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, by suppos- 
 
218 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 ing that they would violate the Constitution of the 
 United States. I tell him that such a thing is not 
 possible. It would be an act of moral treason that 
 no man on the bench could ever descend to. Mr. 
 Lincoln himself would never in his partisan feelings 
 so far forget what was right as to be guilty of such 
 an act. 
 
 ''The fourth question of Mr. Lincoln is, are you in 
 favor of acquiring additional territory, in disregard 
 as to how such acquisition may affect the Union on 
 the slavery question? This question is very inge- 
 niously and cunningly put. 
 
 "The Black Republican creed lays it down ex- 
 pressly, that under no circumstances shall we ac- 
 quire any more territory unless slavery is first pro- 
 hibited in the country. I ask Mr. Lincoln whether 
 he is in favor of that proposition. Are you [ad- 
 dressing Mr. Lincoln] opposed to the acquisition 
 of any more territory, under any circumstances, un- 
 less slavery is prohibited in it? That he does not 
 like to answer. When I ask him whether he stands 
 up to that article in the platform of his party, he 
 turns Yankee fashion, and without answering it, asks 
 me whether I am in favor of acquiring territory 
 without regard to how it may affect the Union on the 
 slavery question ? I answer that I am in favor of it, 
 without reference to the question of slavery, and 
 when we have acquired it, I will leave the people 
 free to do as they please, either to make it a slave 
 
Early Days in Illinois 219 
 
 or free territory, as they prefer. It is idle to tell 
 me or you that we have territory enough. Our 
 fathers supposed that we had enough when our ter- 
 ritory extended to the Mississippi river, but a few 
 years' growth and expansion satisfied them that we 
 needed more, and the Louisiana territory, from the 
 West branch of the Mississippi to the British pos- 
 sessions, was acquired. Then we acquired Oregon, 
 then California and New Mexico. We have enough 
 now for the present, but this is a young and growing 
 nation. It swarms as often as a hive of bees, and 
 as new swarms are turned out each year, there must 
 be hives in which they can gather and make their 
 honey. Just as fast as our interests grow and our 
 destiny require additional territory~I am for it, and 
 when we acquire it, will leave the people, according 
 to the Nebraska bill, free to do as they please on the 
 subject of slavery and every other question. 
 
 "I trust that now Mr. Lincoln will deem himself 
 answered on his four points. He racked his brain 
 so much in devising these four questions that he 
 exhausted himself, and had not strength enough to 
 invent the others. As soon as he is able to hold a 
 council with his advisers, Lovejoy, Farnsworth, and 
 Fred Douglas, he will frame and propound others." 
 
 This ended the palaver at Freeport so far as con- 
 cerns the questions and their answers which had been 
 up for discussion except a brief paragraph in Mr. 
 Lincoln's closing speech in reply to Mr. Douglas. 
 
220 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Neither of them seemed satisfied with the answers 
 which had been given, and they were renewed or re- 
 sumed a little more than two weeks later at Jones- 
 boro in which there was a good deal of time consum- 
 ed and, figuratively speaking, a good deal of fur 
 flew in the course of their arguments, for things 
 waxed warmer as the debate progressed. 
 
 I desire to give that brief paragraph before pass- 
 ing on to the discussion at Jonesboro. It reads 
 thus : "The Judge complains that I did not fully an- 
 swer his questions. If I have sense to comprehend 
 and answer those questions, I have done so fairly. 
 If it can be pointed out to me how I can more fully 
 and fairly answer him, I aver I have not the sense 
 to see how it is to be done. He says I would not 
 declare I would in any event vote for the admission 
 of a slave State into the Union. If I have been 
 fairly reported he will see that I did give an ex- 
 plicit answer to his interrogatories, I did not merely 
 say that I would dislike to be put to the test : but I 
 said clearly, if I were put to the test, and a territory 
 from which slavery had been excluded should present 
 herself with a State Constitution sanctioning slavery 
 a most extraordinary thing, wholly unlikely to hap- 
 pen — I did not see how I could avoid voting for her 
 admission. But he refused to understand that I said 
 so, and he wants this audience to understand that 
 I did not say so. Yet it will be so reported in 
 the printed speech that he cannot help seeing it. 
 
Line Early Days in Illinois 221 
 
 Here 
 
 Freeport, Mr. Lincoln grouped the second and thir8 
 questions together as one, conceiving them as prac- 
 tically of the same import and stating at the time 
 that "the third is answered by the second." I do 
 not find anywhere throughout the whole joint de- 
 bate that he made any special effort to do other- 
 wise. The whole question that was between them 
 was the slavery question, its extension into new ter- 
 ritory or its confinement to the States where it was 
 already in existence. 
 
 After the joint debate at Freeport, August 27th, 
 and the day for i! renewal at Jonesboro, Sept. 25th, 
 some two weeks and more intervened, and Mr. Lin- 
 coln had some little time outside of his other appoint- 
 ments, to spend at his home in Springfield with the 
 friends, and to counsel with them, if need be. Some 
 were a little "ill at ease" with him, because of the 
 questions and answers which had been proposed to 
 each other and the manner of the answers, especial- 
 ly the second question of Mr. Lincoln of the four 
 propounded in the group at Freeport. They were 
 not as far-seeing as Mr. Lincoln, and did not wish 
 to surrender the Senatorship. Even Uncle Jesse K. 
 Dubois came in with his complaint under this head 
 as he had done with his "divided house clause". 
 The latter was our State Auditor, a familiar per- 
 sonage at Springfield where nearly everybody called 
 him familiarly "Uncle Jesse". He thought Mr. 
 
 In answering Mr. Douglas's interrogatories at 
 
222 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Lincoln had been placed in an unfavorable light in 
 not taking up with the counsel of his friends. But 
 Mr. Lincoln saw that the tide was turning, and put 
 the question to suit himself. Uncle Jesse declared to 
 Mr. Lincoln that "he had elected Mr. Douglas Unit- 
 ed States Senator". To which Mr. Lincoln re- 
 plied,"Well, Jesse, it may be as you say, I have elect- 
 ed Mr. Douglas Senator, but I have elected a repub- 
 lican President in 1860". And so it proved, for he 
 himself was elected. 
 
 As respects the questions proposed to him at Ot- 
 tawa, only that one which was in reference to the ad- 
 mission of any more slave States into the Union 
 gave him trouble ; and only so because of the com- 
 promising position in which he might be brought 
 with respect to his party. His answer to this could 
 not help being considered weak and reluctant. In- 
 deed, Mr. Lincoln himself felt that in this regard 
 the advantage had been with his wily disputant. Be- 
 cause of this he was led to seek out his old friend, 
 Mr. George R. Weber for a little counsel. To get 
 even with Douglas was one reason he had asked 
 him the much mooted second question proposed at 
 Freeport. Mr. Weber told the writer that Mr. Lin- 
 coln sought him at his printing office and that they 
 retired to his private office at his establishment 
 where Mr. Lincoln laid bare the whole matter of 
 all the questions and the replies which had been sub- 
 mitted by each, and which had given him difficulty 
 
Early Days in Illinois 223 
 
 to answer, as he would like, without compromising 
 his party, and jeopardising the cause of the repub- 
 licans for the United States Senatorship. And to- 
 gether they went over the entire ground of the ques- 
 tions and answers and the line of argument to be 
 taken by Mr. Lincoln if it were found convenient 
 to bring the matter up at the next place of the joint 
 discussion, which was at Jonesboro, or as soon as it 
 was deemed possible. The plan seems to have been 
 to nurse along the great question of slavery in leav- 
 ing it as much as possible in reserve for his great 
 argument and his hard and telling hits until it came 
 to the last place of the joint discussion at Alton. The 
 few hints and suggestions by his friends were suf- 
 ficient for the basis of amplification to a great mind 
 like Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 At the next place of meeting, Jonesboro, Mr. 
 Douglas had the opening and closing speeches. He 
 did not refer in his first speech to the subject of Mr. 
 Lincoln's answer to his third interrogatory proposed 
 in his Ottawa speech, and Mr. Lincoln wisely let it 
 drop out of sight in order to take up the answer of 
 Judge Douglas to the second question of Mr. Lincoln, 
 proposed at Freeport, which Lincoln's friends did not 
 wish him to ask, and he straightway subjected it to 
 a rigid and thorough analysis. This was in range 
 with the conversation which he had with Mr. Weber. 
 It was not until the second speech of Mr. Douglas 
 in reply to Mr. Lincoln's speech that he brought up 
 
224 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 his own interrogatory, when, of course, Lincoln 
 could not reply. This worked to Mr. Lincoln's ad- 
 vantage in postponing anything which he might have 
 to say upon it until a later date. At Charleston 
 other subject-matter engaged their entire attention, 
 and gave opportunity for its further postponement. 
 
 I repeat that Mr. Douglas had the opening ad- 
 dress at Jonesboro, and that in it he did not bring up 
 the matter of the questions and their answers. But 
 towards the latter half of Mr. Lincoln's address it 
 became convenient for him to bring up the matter 
 of the answer of Judge Douglas to his second 
 question proposed to the latter at Freeport. It is 
 seldom we read in a stump speech a more skillful and 
 judicious handling than the sophistry of Mr. Doug- 
 las received which he had used to build up his pet 
 scheme to uphold the legal aspect of slavery in its 
 spread into new territory acquired by the United 
 States.* 
 
 Mr. Lincoln says : "The Judge in answering me 
 upon that occasion, put in what I suppose he intends 
 as answers to all four of my interrogatories. The 
 first one of these interrogatories I have before me, 
 ''Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall, by 
 
 * It is evident that Mr. Lincoln felt grateful to Mr. Weber for 
 his suggestions many of which were fitted into the above named 
 speech at Jonesboro in the argument he made against the answer 
 of Mr. Douglas to the second interrogatory proposed at Free- 
 port. After the debates were over and after Mr. Lincoln was el- 
 ected and before being inaugurated, he presented Mr. Weber with 
 a copy of the discussions with his own markings and his autograph. 
 This book is now a very valiubble book. It is now in the pos- 
 session of Mr. John R. Weber of Cedar Rapids., Iowa. Before this 
 it was for some months in the possession, of the writer. During this 
 time, he exhibited it to quite a number of people. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 225 
 
 means entirely unobjectionable in all respects, adopt 
 a State Constitution, and ask admission into the 
 Union under it, before they have the requisite num- 
 ber of inhabitants according to the English bill — 
 some ninety-three thousand — will you vote to admit 
 them?" 
 
 "As I read the Judges' answer in the newspaper, 
 and as I remember it as pronounced at the time, he 
 does not give any answer which is equivalent to yes 
 or no — I will or I wo'nt. He answers at very con- 
 siderable length, rather quarrelling with me for ask- 
 ing the question, and insisting that Judge Trumbull 
 had done something that I ought to say something 
 about ; and finally getting out such statements as in- 
 duce me to infer that he means to be understood he 
 will, in that supposed case, vote for the admission of 
 Kansas. I only bring this forward now for the pur- 
 pose of saying that if he chooses to put a different 
 construction upon his answer he may do it. But if 
 he does not, I shall from this time forward assume 
 that he will vote for the admission of Kansas in dis- 
 regard of the English bill. He has the right to re- 
 move any misunderstanding I may have. I only 
 mention it now that I may hereafter assume this to 
 be the true construction of his answer, if he does 
 not choose to correct me. 
 
 "The second interrogatory that I pronounced 
 to him, was this :"Question 2. Can the people of the 
 United States Territory, in any lawful way, against 
 
226 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude 
 slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a 
 States Constitution?" To this Judge Douglas ans- 
 wered that they can lawfully exclude slavery from 
 the Territory prior to the formation of a Constitu- 
 tion. He goes on to tell us how it can be done. As 
 I understand him, he holds that it can be done by the 
 Territorial Legislature refusing to make any enact- 
 ments for the protection of slavery in the Territory, 
 and especially by adopting unfriendly legislation to 
 it. For the sake of clearness I state it again; that 
 they can exclude slavery from the Territory, 1st by 
 withholding what he assumes to be an indispensable 
 assistance to it in the way of legislation ; and 2nd, by 
 unfriendly legislation. If I rightly understand him, 
 I wish to ask your attention for a while to his posi- 
 tion. 
 
 "In the first place, the Supreme Court of the 
 United States has decided that any Congressional 
 prohibition of slavery in the Territories is unconsti- 
 tutional — that they have reached this proposition as 
 a conclusion from their former proposition, that the 
 Constitution of the United States expressly recogniz- 
 es property in slaves, and from that other Consti- 
 tutional provision, that no person shall be deprived 
 of property without due process of law. Hence they 
 reach the conclusion that as the Constitution of the 
 United States expressly recognizes property in slaves, 
 and prohibits any person from being deprived of 
 
Early Days in Illinois 227 
 
 property without due process of law, to pass an act 
 of Congress by which a man who owned a slave on 
 one side of a line would be deprived of him if he took 
 him on the other side, is depriving him of that proper- 
 ty without due process of law. That I understand 
 to be the decision of the Supreme Court. I under- 
 stand also that Judge Douglas adheres most firmly 
 to that decision; and the difficulty is, how is it pos- 
 sible for any power to exclude slavery from the Ter- 
 ritory unless in violation of that decision? That is 
 the difficulty. 
 
 "In the Senate of the United States, in 1850, 
 Judge Trumbull, in a speech, substantially, if not 
 directly, put the same interrogatory to Judge Doug- 
 las, as to whether the people of a Territory had the 
 lawful power to exclude slavery prior to the forma- 
 tion of a Constitution? Judge Douglas then an- 
 swered at considerable length, and his answer will be 
 found in the Congressional Globe, under date of 
 June 9th, 1856. The Judge said that whether the 
 people could exclude slavery prior to the formation 
 of a Constitution or not was a question to be decid- 
 ed by the Supreme Court. He put that proposition, 
 as will be seen by the Congressional Globe, in a va- 
 riety of forms, all running to the same thing in sub- 
 stance — that it was a question for the Supreme Court. 
 I maintain that when he says, after the Supreme 
 Court have decided the question, that the people 
 
228 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 may yet exclude slavery by any means whatever, he 
 does virtually say, that it is not a question for the 
 Supreme Court. He shifts his ground. I appeal 
 to you whether he did not say it was a question for 
 the Supreme Court? Has not the Supreme Court 
 decided that question? Does he not virtually shift 
 his ground and say that it is not a question for the 
 Supreme Court, but for the people? This is a very 
 simple proposition — a very plain and naked one. It 
 seems to me that there is no difficulty in deciding it. 
 In a variety of ways he said that it was a question 
 for the Supreme Court. He did not stop then to tell 
 us that whatever the Supreme Court decides, the peo- 
 ple can by withholding necessary "police regulations" 
 keep slavery out. He did not make any such an- 
 swer. I submit to you now, whether the new state of 
 the case has not induced the Judge to sheer away 
 from his original ground. Would not this be the 
 impression to every fair minded man? 
 
 "I hold that the proposition that slavery cannot 
 enter a new country without police regulations is his- 
 torically false. It is not true at all. I hold that the 
 history of this country shows that the institution of 
 slavery was originally planted upon this continent 
 without these "police regulations" which the Judge 
 now thinks necessary for the actual establishment of 
 it. Not only so, but is there not another fact — how 
 came this Dred Scott decision to be made? It was 
 made upon the case of a negro being taken and ac- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 229 
 
 tually held in slavery in Minnesota Territory, claim- 
 ing his freedom because the act of Congress prohibit- 
 ed his being so held there. Will th e Judge pretend 
 that Dred Scott was not held there without police 
 regulations ? There is at least one matter of record 
 not only without police regulations, but in the teeth 
 of Congressional legislation supposed to be valid at 
 the time. This shows that there is vigor enough in 
 slavery to plant itself in a new country even against 
 unfriendly legislation. It takes not only law but the 
 enforcement of law to keep it out. That is the his- 
 tory of this country upon the subject. 
 
 I will ask one other question. It being un- 
 derstood that the Constitution of the United 
 States guarantees property in slaves in the Ter- 
 ritories, if there is any infringement of the right 
 of that property, would not the United States Courts, 
 organized for the government of the Territory, ap- 
 ply such remedy as might be necessary in that case ? 
 It is a maxim held by the courts, that there is no 
 wrong without its remedy ; and the courts have a 
 remedy for whatever is acknowledged and treated 
 as a wrong. Again: I will ask you, my friends, if 
 you were elected members of the legislature, what 
 would be the first thing you would have to do be- 
 fore entering upon your duties? Swear to support 
 the Constitution of the United States. Suppose you 
 believe, as Judge Douglas does, that the Constitution 
 of the United States guarantees to your neighbor 
 
230 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 the right to hold slaves in that Territory — that 
 they are his property — how can you clear your oaths 
 unless you give him such legislation as is necessary 
 to enable him to enjoy that property ? What do you 
 understand by supporting the Constitution of a State, 
 or of the United States? Is it not to give such con- 
 stitutional helps to the rights established by that Con- 
 stitution as may be practically needed? Can you, if 
 you swear to support the Constitution and believe 
 that the Constitution establishes a right, clear your 
 oath, without giving it support? Do you support 
 the Constitution if, knowing or believing there is a 
 right established under it which needs specific legis- 
 lation, you withhold that legislation? Do you not 
 violate and disregard your oath? I can conceive of 
 nothing plainer in the world. There can be nothing 
 in the words "support the Constitution," if you may 
 run counter to it by refusing suport to any right 
 established under the Constitution. And what I say 
 here will hold with still more force against the 
 Judge's doctrine of "unfriendly legislation." How 
 could you having sworn to support the Constitution, 
 and believing it guaranteed the right to hold slaves 
 in the Territories, assist in legislation intended to de- 
 feat the right? That would be violating your own 
 view of the Constitution. Not only so, but if you 
 were to do so, how long would it take the Courts to 
 hold your votes unconstitutional and void? Not a 
 moment. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 231 
 
 "Lastly, I would ask, is not Congress, itself, un- 
 der obligation to give legislative support to any 
 right that is established under the United States 
 Constitution? I repeat the question — is not Con- 
 gress, itself, bound to give legislative support to any 
 right that is established in the United States Con- 
 stitution? A member of Congress swears to sup- 
 port the Constitution of the United States, and if he 
 sees a right established by the Constitution which 
 needs specific legislative protection, can he clear his 
 oath without giving that protection ? Let me ask you 
 why many of us who are opposed to slavery upon 
 principle, give our acquiescence to a Fugitive Slave 
 law? Why do we hold ourselves under obligation 
 to pass such a law, and abide by it when it is passed ? 
 Because the Constitution makes provision that the 
 owners of slaves shall have the right to reclaim them. 
 It gives the right to reclaim slaves, and that right 
 is, as Judge Douglas says, a barren right, unless 
 there is legislation that will enforce it. 
 
 "The mere declaration, '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 discharged from such service 
 or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the 
 party to whom such service or labor may be due,' is 
 powerless without specific legislation to enforce it. 
 Now, on what ground would a member of Congress 
 who is opposed to slavery in the abstract, vote for 
 
232 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 a Fugitive law, as I would deem it my duty to do? 
 And although it is distasteful to me, I have sworn to 
 support the Constitution, and having so sworn, I 
 cannot conceive that I do support it if I withhold 
 from that right any necessary legislation to make it 
 practical. And if that is true in regard to a fugitive 
 Slave law, is the right to have fugitive slaves re- 
 claimed any better fixed in the Constitution than 
 the right to hold slaves in the Territories ? For this 
 decision is a just exposition of the Constitution, as 
 Judge Douglas thinks. Is the one right any better 
 than the other ? Is there any man who, while a mem- 
 ber of Congress, would give support to the one any 
 more than the other? If I wished to refuse to give 
 legislative support to slave property in the Territo- 
 ries, if a member of Congress, I could not do it, 
 holding the view that the Constitution establishes 
 that right. If I did it at all, it would be because I 
 deny that this decision properly construes the Con- 
 stitution. But if I acknowledge, with Judge Doug- 
 las, that this decision properly construes the Con- 
 stitution, I cannot conceive that I would be less than 
 a perjured man if I should refuse in Congress to give 
 such protection to that property as in its nature 
 it needed." 
 
 The rejoinder of Mr. Douglas to this part of 
 Mr. Lincoln's speech is as follows : "Now analyze 
 that answer (to the second and third questions to 
 Mr. Lincoln by Mr. Douglas at Ottawa). In the 
 
Early Days in Illinois 233 
 
 first place he says he would be exceedingly sorry to 
 be put in a position where he would have to vote on 
 the question of the admission of a slave State. Why 
 is he a candidate for the Senate if he would be sorry 
 to be put in that position? I trust the people of 
 Illinois will not put him in a position which he would 
 be sorry to occupy. The next position he takes is 
 that he would be glad to know that there would never 
 be another slave State, yet, in certain contingencies, 
 he might have to vote for one. What is that con- 
 tingency? If Congress keeps slavery out by law 
 while it is a Territory, and then the people should 
 have a fair chance and should adopt slavery, unin- 
 fluenced by the presence of the institution,' he sup- 
 posed he would have to admit the State. Suppose 
 Congress should not keep slavery out during their 
 territorial existence, then how would he vote when 
 the people applied for admission into the Union 
 with a slave Constitution? That he does not answer 
 and that is the condition of every territory we have 
 now. Slavery is not kept out of Kansas by an 
 act of Congress, and when I put the question to Mr. 
 Lincoln, whether he will vote for the admission with 
 or without slavery, as her people may desire, he will 
 not answer, and you have not got an answer from 
 him. In Nebraska slavery is not prohibited by act 
 of Congress, but the people are allowed, under the 
 Nebraska bill, to do as they please on the subject; 
 and when I ask him whether he will vote to admit 
 
234 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Nebraska with a slave Constitution if her people de- 
 sire it, he will not answer. So with New Mexico, 
 Washington Territory, Arizona and the four new 
 States to be admitted from Texas. You cannot get 
 an answer from him to these questions. His answer 
 only applies to a given case, to a condition — things 
 which he knows do not exist in any one territory in 
 the Union. He tries to give you to understand that 
 he would allow the people to do as they please, and 
 yet he dodges the question as to every Territory in 
 the Union. I now ask why cannot Mr. Lincoln 
 answer to each of these territories? He has not 
 done it, and he will not do it. The Abolitionists up 
 North understand that this answer is made with a 
 view of not committing himself on any one Terri- 
 tory now in existence. It is so understood there 
 and you cannot expect an answer from him on a 
 case that applies to any one Territory, or applies 
 to the new States which by compact we are pledged 
 to admit out of Texas, when they have the required 
 population and desire admission. I submit to you 
 whether he has made a frank answer, so that you can 
 tell how he would vote in any one of these cases. 
 'He would be sorry to be put in the position.' Why 
 would he be sorry to be put in this position if his 
 duty required him to give the vote? If the people 
 of a Territory ought to be permitted to come into 
 the Union as a State, with slavery or without it, as 
 they pleased, why not give the vote admitting them 
 
Early Days in Illinois 235 
 
 cheerfully ? If in his opinion they ought not to come 
 in with slavery, even if they wanted to, why not say 
 that he would cheerfully vote against their admis- 
 sion? His intimation is that conscience would not 
 let him vote 'No,' and he would be sorry to do that 
 which his conscience would compel him to do as an 
 honest man." 
 
 It will be seen by anyone who follows the debate 
 from the beginning to the end that the whole mat- 
 ter beween these two disputants hinged upon the sub- 
 ject of slavery as to cause . There was nothing else 
 to be settled, and that was the great bone of con- 
 tention between the North and the South. Every- 
 thing depended on that in the attempt to break up and 
 destroy the Union of the States which brought on 
 the Civil War. 
 
 Not wishing to prolong the subject of the joint 
 discussion to too great a length, I pass over the de- 
 bates held respectfully at Charleston and Galesburg, 
 nor yet at Quincy except to record the complaint of 
 Mr. Douglas that Mr. Lincoln would not give any 
 different answer to his interrogatories proposed at 
 Ottawa, especially his third one, than given at Free- 
 port, although he had essayed to drag out of him 
 something different at almost every occasion of their 
 joint debate. At Quincy Mr. Douglas complained 
 of Mr. Lincoln's reticence. He said: "Now let me 
 call your attention for a moment to the answers 
 
236 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 which Mr. Lincoln made at Freeport to the questions 
 which I propounded him at Ottawa. ***The point I 
 wish him to answer is this : Supose Congress should 
 not prohibit slavery in the Territory, and it applied 
 for admission with a Constitution recognizing slav- 
 ery, then how would he vote?*** I have put that 
 question to him time and time again, and have not 
 been able to get an answer out of him." Mr. Douglas 
 was still unable to get anything out of him which 
 he could twist to his own advantage and bring the 
 former into antagonism with his party. Let it be 
 stated here why he would not answer differently. Mr. 
 Lincoln had a moral sentiment against slavery as a 
 wrong, and he would not do violence to that senti- 
 ment. Accordingly, we find him discoursing upon 
 that subject at Alton which ended their controversy . 
 
 "I have stated upon former occasions, and I 
 may as well state again, what I understand to be the 
 real issue in this controversy between Judge Douglas 
 and myself. On the point of my wanting to make 
 war between the Free and the Slave States, there has 
 been no issue betwen us. So, too, when he assumes 
 that I am in favor of introducing a perfect social and 
 political equality between the white and black races. 
 These are false issues, upon which Judge Douglas 
 has tried to force the controversy. There is no 
 foundation in truth for the charge that I maintain 
 
Early Days in Illinois 237 
 
 either of these propositions.* The real issue in 
 this controversy — the one pressing upon every mind 
 — is the sentiment on the part of one class that looks 
 upon the institution of slavery as a wrong, and an- 
 other class that does not look upon it as a wrong. 
 The sentiment that contemplates the institution of 
 slavery in this country as a wrong is the sentiment of 
 the Republican party. It is the sentiment around 
 which all their actions, all their arguments, circle, 
 from which all their propositions radiate. They 
 look upon it as being a moral, social, and political 
 wrong; and while they contemplate it as such, they 
 nevertheless have due regard for its actual existence 
 among us, and the difficulties of getting rid of it in 
 any satisfactory way and to all the constitutional ob- 
 ligations thrown about it. Yet, having a due regard 
 
 * It was at Charleston that Lincoln shut up the mouth of Judge 
 Douglass on these issues in the following manner : "I will say then, 
 that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in 
 any way the social and political equality of the white and black 
 races, that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters 
 or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying tthem, to hold office, 
 not to intermarry with white people, and I will say, in addition to 
 this, that there is a physical difference between the white and 
 black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living 
 together on terms of social and political equality. I do not under- 
 stand that bcause I do not want a negro woman 'for a slave, I must 
 necessarily want her for a wife. 
 
 I append here to this plain statement of Abraham Lincoln a 
 remark which I find in Mr. Frank E. Stevens' Life of Stephen A. 
 Douglas, which the State Historical Society of Illinois has published, 
 and which its Librarian and Secretary has generously sent me, 
 Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber. 
 
 Here! is the statement ! to be found on Pages 579 and 580, em- 
 bracing also what Mr. Douglas said in regard to it : Without any 
 doubt Lincoln "Shut up Douglas." Why? Because he had 
 answered in just that manner. Douglas said himself that nothing 
 was left upon that paint cf debate, I am glad that I have at last 
 succeeded in getting an answer out of him upon this question of 
 negro citizenship and eligibility to office, for I have been trying to 
 bring him to the point on it ever since the canvass commenced." 
 
238 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 for these, they desire a policy in regard to it that 
 looks to its not creating any more danger. They in- 
 sist that it should, as far as may be, be treated as a 
 wrong; and one of the methods of treating it as a 
 wrong is to make provisions that it shall grow no 
 larger. They also desire a policy that looks to a peace- 
 ful end of slavery at the same time, as being wrong. 
 These are the views they entertain in regard to it as T 
 understand them; and all their sentiments, all their 
 arguments and propositions are brought within this 
 range.*** 
 
 On this subject as treating it as a wrong, and 
 limiting its spread, let me say a word. Has anything 
 ever threatened the existence of this Union save and 
 except this very institution of slavery? What is it 
 that we hold most dear amongst us ? Our own lib- 
 erty and prosperity. What has ever threatened our 
 liberty and prosperity, save and except this institu- 
 tion of slavery? If this be true, how do you pro- 
 pose to improve the condition of things by enlarg- 
 ing slavery — by spreading it out and making it big- 
 ger? You may have a wen or cancer upon your 
 person, and not be able to cut it out, lest you bleed 
 to death ; but surely it is no way to cure it, to engraft 
 it and spread it over your whole body. That is no 
 proper way of treating what you regard as a wrong 
 You see this peaceful way of dealing with it as a 
 wrong — resisting the spread of it, and not allowing 
 it to go into new countries where it has not already 
 
Early Days in Illinois 239 
 
 existed. That is the peaceful way, the old fashioned 
 way in which the fathers themselves set us the exam- 
 ple.* 
 
 "On the other hand, I have said there is a sen- 
 timent which treats it as not being wrong. That is 
 the Democratic sentiment of this day. I do not mean 
 to say that every man who stands within that range 
 positively asserts that it is right. That class will in- 
 clude all who positively assert that it is right, and all 
 who, like Judge Douglas, treat it as indifferent and 
 do not say it is either right or wrong. These two 
 classes of men fall within the general class of those 
 who do not look upon it as a wrong.*** 
 
 The Democratic policy in regard to that institu- 
 tion will not tolerate merest breath, the slightest hint, 
 of the least degree of wrong about it. Try it by 
 some of Judge Douglas's arguments. He says he 
 "don't care whether it is voted up or voted down in 
 the Territories." I do not care myself, in dealing 
 with that expression, whether it is intended to be ex- 
 pressive of his individual sentiments on the subject, 
 or only of the national policy he desires to have 
 established. It is alike valuable for my purpose. Any 
 
 * I give in this foot note what Mr. Lincoln himself gave in the 
 
 fore part of this Alton speech as thel "father's way" which is the 
 "old fashioned way," and it is this: "I entertain the opinion, upon 
 evidence sufficiejrit to my mind, that the fathers of this government 
 placed that institution where the public mind did rest in the be- 
 lief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. Let me ask why 
 they made provision that the source of slavery-the African slave, 
 trade — should be cut off at the end of twenty years? Why did 
 the make provisions that in all the new territory we owned at that 
 time slavery should be forever inhibited? Why stop its spread in 
 one direction, and cut off its source in another, if they did not 
 look to its* being placed in the course of ultimate extinction?" 
 
240 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 man can say that he does not see anything wrong in 
 slavery ; hut no man can logically say who does see a 
 wrong in it, because no man can logically say he don't 
 care whether an indifferent thing is voted up or voted 
 down, but he must logically have a choice between a 
 right and a wrong thing. He contends that what- 
 ever community wants slaves has a right to have 
 them. So they have, if it is not wrong. But if it 
 is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right to do 
 wrong. He says that upon the score of equality, 
 slaves should be allowed to go into a new Territory, 
 like other property. If it and other property are 
 equal, his argument is entirely logical. But if you 
 insist that one is wrong and the other right, there 
 is no use to institute a comparison between right 
 and wrong. You may turn over everything in the 
 Democratic policy from beginning to end, whether 
 in the shape it takes on the statute book, in the shape 
 it takes in conversation, or the shape it takes in 
 the Dred Scott decision, in the shape it takes in short 
 maxim-like arguments! — it everywhere carefully ex- 
 cludes the idea that there is anything wrong in it. 
 
 "That is the real issue. That is the issue that 
 will continue in this country when these poor tongues 
 of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the 
 eternal struggle between these two principles — right 
 and wrong — throughout the world. They are the 
 two principles that have stood face to face from the 
 beginning of time.*** The one is the common right 
 
Early Days in Illinois 241 
 
 of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. 
 It is the same spirit that says,"You work and toil and 
 earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape 
 it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who 
 seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and 
 live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of 
 men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is 
 the same tyrannical principle." 
 
 It is evident from the foregoing statements of 
 Mr. Lincoln that, had he lived in this twentieth cen- 
 tury age and in view of what took place in the gi- 
 gantic struggle of the world- war, and if the world of 
 mankind among us had partaken of his sentiments, 
 there would not have been a "slacker" to be seen by 
 him. 
 
 Before closing this chapter bearing upon the 
 joint discussion between these two champions, it 
 seems fitting to restate what was said in a former 
 part of this work — the distinctive difference between 
 them resulting from their respective view points. 
 Douglas stood for the law as it read, while Lincoln 
 stood for the law as it should read. Both men 
 were loyal and patriotic as their later history prov- 
 ed, and this is evident, too, to every one who has 
 read the entire debate. Douglas firmly endorsed 
 the Dred Scott decision because it was the law of 
 the land; Lincoln did not, and declared his belief 
 that the decision was improperly made, and he went 
 for revising it on the ground of its immoral bearing 
 
242 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 in its triumph of wrong over right. Throughout 
 the entire discussion Douglas did not betray the least 
 sympton that he thought there was anything wrong 
 in the institution of slavery, or that he had any con- 
 scientious scruples of this kind. Nevertheless, he 
 was not insensible to the sentiment when all the facts 
 of hiis life ar e known, and in another chapter the 
 writer will be pleased to gather up some of the evi- 
 dences of this sort and present them. His indom- 
 itable ambition to be president of the United States 
 seemed to still his moral sentiment against its wrong 
 if only he might gain enough Southern prestige to 
 be able to become such. Lincoln either knew this or 
 suspected it, for in a few lines above this in the 
 part of th e Alton speech which we have transcribed 
 he alludes to this apparent indifference, putting him 
 in the class of Democrats who did not care for such 
 a thing, or for this moral sentiment. Mr. Lincoln 
 here attacks the position of Mr. Douglas in the argu- 
 ments of the latter to uphold the cause of slavery 
 against the deep sense and moral convictions of its 
 wrong which such a man as he must be considered 
 to have, by his endeavors to uphold such an institu- 
 tion on the basis of its national issue, and he beat him 
 into the high position of the Presidency, which they 
 both coveted. 
 
 One or two points more and I shall be through 
 with anything I may have to say in a direct manner 
 on the subject of the joint debate. Mr. Douglas in 
 
Early Days in Illinois 243 
 
 his political course through life defeated his own 
 high ideas and ambition by doing violence to his own 
 inner conscience. He might have been President 
 had his course been different. Mr. Lincoln clung to 
 the higher and better course, and reached his goal. 
 Yet one thing seems certain in the opinion of the writ- 
 er : If there had not been a Douglas there would not 
 have been a Lincoln. This was the opinion of the writ- 
 er during the time when he was a young man on the 
 farm, as he read the discussion as it was being con- 
 ducted through its entire course, and as he heard it 
 talked about by others. Since commencing to write 
 this treatise he has waded through the entire pro- 
 cess of that long debate, and having done so, he has 
 not seen fit to change his mind. While he main- 
 tained himself throughout the discussion, and won 
 the meed of victory as to the Senatorship, he lost 
 something to his competitor, and ended up his life 
 in disappointment to his ambition. Virtue has its 
 reward. He might have been President, but he paid 
 the penalty for violence to his real sentiment, and we 
 may shed a tear for this disappointment to his high 
 hopes. He was a worthy man. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Early Days in Illinois 
 
 The Real Douglas 
 
 HOEVER has read the discussions between 
 these two representative men of Illinois, 
 Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln, without 
 knowing very much of the history of the former, 
 will, doubtless, be led to form an erroneous opinion 
 of his real character. He had been so long before 
 the people of Illinois as a representative man in 
 public office, he had been petted and fondled by them 
 so long that he appeared somewhat spoiled, and he 
 seemed to assume a sort of patronizing air toward 
 any one who pressed to oppose him in anything he 
 had to say or do. He had become opinionated by 
 virtue by being kept in office so long that this feature 
 of character became a sort of second nature, as it 
 were, and to that extent that it was very noticeable 
 and rendered him somewhat disagreeable and rather 
 tiresome to many. He had been kept before the 
 people so many years that his ambition became so 
 great he appeared to think, but not in reality, no 
 one else had any right to the high station he oc- 
 
 244 
 
Early Days in Illinois 245 
 
 cupied as United States Senator from the State of 
 Illinois until he could step into the higher office of 
 the Presidency. 
 
 I record here the words of Mr. Horace White 
 who accompanied Mr. Lincoln to every point at 
 which the two men spoke during the joint debate, and 
 who is good authority in a matter of this kind: "I 
 have been asked what was the demeanor of the two 
 men toward each other during these debates. Their 
 demeanor on th e platform was that of cool polite- 
 ness. There was nothing like comradeship between 
 them. Mr. Douglas began the campaign by as- 
 suming an air of superiority and patronage and tol- 
 eration towards Lincoln, which he did not really 
 feel. It was a part of his political game to make 
 the most of his own greater prestige. If he had met 
 Lincoln everywhere on terms of his usual geniality 
 and good fellowship the Democrats would have been 
 obliged to confess that the two champions were on 
 equal footing, whereas they had always believed and 
 insisted that Douglas was much the greater of the 
 two. Of course Lincoln would not tolerate any 
 claims of superiority. His demeanor on the plat- 
 form was framed to repel and rebuke such airs. Off 
 the platform they did not meet at all during the cam- 
 paign."*** I add here a word from Mr. Stevens: 
 "Lincoln was human. The sweetness of his human 
 foibles must stand as a constant reminder of what a 
 human being in a human way can do for lasting 
 
246 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 blessings to fellow men and glory to himself. To 
 carry him skyward is to lose him altogether. Though 
 at times he displayed a high degree of nervousness 
 and anger, his gentleness came invariably to the res 
 cue and nobody appreciated his human virtues more 
 than his great rival, Douglas, a man of many virtues 
 which have been hidden by the overpowering shad- 
 ows of that other who for so long a time watched 
 and envied the great distance which separated them. 
 What a sommersault fickle fortune turned with re- 
 spect to those great rivals !"* 
 
 After what has been said in a few sentences by 
 the writer in the commencement of this chapter re- 
 lative to Mr. Douglas, he cannot refrain from intro- 
 ducing here a just and very worthy remark of Mr. 
 Stevens in his Life of Mr. Douglas, which work lies 
 before him as he writes: "Of all the political rival- 
 ries of American history, not one is entitled to stand 
 in the class of Douglas and Lincoln. Hamilton 
 and Jefferson could never be brought together or in- 
 to terms of more than civility, so tightly drawn 
 were their relations. Clay and Calhoun hated each 
 other cordially; it was war to the death between. 
 Nothing but the inflexible and powerful will 
 of Jackson could have coped successfully against 
 the hatred and superior genius of Calhoun. But 
 between Douglas and Lincoln, there was present an 
 
 * Quoted from Mr. Frank E. Stevens' Life of Stephen A. 
 
 Douglas and published by the Illinois State Historical Society, Page 
 589 and 590. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 247 
 
 attachment ; a warm, lasting friendship. Upon the 
 jtump from 1840 to 1858, in joint debate, each 
 would pay his political respects to the other in no un- 
 certain manner, but the debate over, the friendship 
 remained undisturbed. In the contest of the latter 
 years, personalities might have become more than 
 usually noticeable with his three cornered fight on 
 hand, because Douglas' stock of patience was ex- 
 hausted. But there abided always, his great respect 
 for his powerful adversary." 
 
 As a friendly and courteous act of Mr. Douglas 
 towards his rival, Mr. Stevens cites an instance 
 which is well known to many persons familiar with 
 these two gentlemen :"When upon sending his son 
 Robert to Harvard, Lincoln desired for his son at- 
 tentions which might not come to the average young 
 western man, how did Lincoln secure that coveted at- 
 tention? By securing from his old friend, Senator 
 Douglas, a letter to the President of Harvard, Dr. 
 Walker, and therein he speaks of the young man as 
 a son of his friend Abraham Lincoln, 'with whom I 
 have lately been canvassing the State of Illinois.' 
 
 The writer well remembers that incident for 
 there was more to it than expressed in that citation. 
 He himself was also a student in a sister State of 
 New England preparing to enter college. We were 
 both from this same town, Springfield. Right well 
 were these two champions familiar with each other's 
 ability as contestants. This knowledge came from 
 
248 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 away back in their history when they were young men 
 at Springfield, in their literary and political strife 
 with each other. And when at Washington Mr. 
 Douglas learned that Mr. Lincoln had been chosen 
 as the Republican candidate for the United States 
 senatorship in his stead, he said to others of his 
 friends that a very able and very honest man had 
 been nominated. He said on another occasion to 
 Mr. John W. Farney, amplifying the above state- 
 ment : "I shall have my hands full. He is the 
 strong man of his party — full of rich facts, dates, 
 and is the best stump speaker in the west. He is as 
 honest as he is shrewd; and if I beat him, my vic- 
 tory will be hardly won."* These with others are 
 facts which we who lived with Lincoln in Sangamon 
 County were familiar with, and which Judge Doug- 
 las had come up against and realized only too often 
 to forget them. I give in this place a few more 
 facts from this same source which the author of that 
 work has culled out from the great mass which are 
 extant : 
 
 "When that celebrated canvass was finished 
 and Douglas, a victor over Buchanan as well as over 
 Lincoln, he told Henry Wilson, in reply to the ques- 
 tion as to what he thought of Mr. Lincoln :'He is an 
 able and honest man, one of the noblest men of the 
 nation. I have been in Congress sixteen years, and 
 there is not a man in the Senate I would not rather 
 encounter in debate'." Again, "When later, in a 
 
 ** Stevens' Life of Douglas. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 249 
 
 spirit of ugliness, it was proposed to offend Mr. 
 Lincoln in his new office, Douglas said with spirit : 
 I shall be there and if anyone attacks Mr. 
 Lincoln he attacks me too'." More than this, it 
 has been said of Mr. Douglas and it is recorded in 
 reference to his treatment of secession sympathizers, 
 he made this statement: "If I were President, I'd 
 convert or hang them all within forty-eight hours. 
 However, don't be in any hurry. I've known Mr. 
 Lincoln a longer time than you have, or than the 
 country; he'll come out all right and we will all 
 stand by him." Lastly, "When at the inauguration 
 ball it had been intimated that Mrs. Lincoln was to be 
 snubbed by Washington society absenting itself, 
 Douglas a social favorite, let it be known at once that 
 the Douglases would undertake to spoil the little 
 plot and to the utmost of his ability he did, by es- 
 corting Mrs. Lincoln to the ball room upon his arm." 
 But it was in the social features of his qualities 
 and in the home that Douglas excelled. He loved 
 his home and home life in the family, and he tried 
 to have at least one cheerful, happy spot exempt from 
 all anxiety for himself and all the inmates of his 
 home and for whoever else it might be by whom he 
 was surrounded. It is said of Mr. Douglas that he 
 loved to have company in his home — his immediate 
 friends and other invited guests. I record here 
 what another has written:* "The married life of 
 
 * Mr. Stevens 5n his Life of Stephen A. Douglas, Page 683 as 
 
 published in Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 
 
250 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Douglas was ideal. As the son Stephen has repeat- 
 ed many times about his mother, 'she was the love of 
 my father's life'. The love of Douglas for his wife 
 was an infatuation and if a change was ever notice- 
 able in his devotion, it was that he was more de- 
 voted than upon the day before. No father loved 
 a romp with the boys more than Douglas ; upon hands 
 and knees he would permit them to take his heavy 
 locks of hair in hand and lead him about the room 
 playing horse. He was ever a chum, a boy chum 
 with them and no more beautiful tribute can be of- 
 fered than that of the son Stephen but a few days 
 before his death : "I knew both of the men, to honor 
 whom you gather here today. I knew the one as a 
 boy may know his farther — his friend, his playmate 
 and his chum, whom he loved and respected, but had 
 never learned to fear.' ' And in a footnote on this 
 same page I find the following from this same son 
 Stephen mentioning "the fondness of the father, 
 when dancing the son upon one knee, far away" 
 "They tried to make a cabinet maker of me, but I 
 was a failure and so they made a Senator of me." 
 
 Mr. Douglas was twice married and happily 
 mated each time. His first wife was Miss Martha 
 Denny Martin, th e daughter of one Colonel Martin 
 who was a resident of North Carolina. Of the issue 
 of that marriage there were two sons* and one 
 daughter. The latter did not survive her mother's 
 
 * It appeirs that these two sons were horn at the old Martin 
 
 homestead in North Carolina, and that the daughter was horn in 
 Washington. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 251 
 
 death but a month or two, dying in infancy. The 
 older son's name was Robert Martin Douglas, born 
 January 28, 1849, and the name of the younger son 
 was Stephen Arnold Douglas, the same as that of 
 his father, born November 3, 1850. The mother of 
 these children died in Washington, January 23, 
 1853. Douglas lived in a cottage which he built in 
 Chicago in 1853 until 1856. After this period he 
 lived in Washington, and later in life he built a 
 four story residence of some pretensions where he 
 lived, becoming a ''princely entertainer" and where he 
 reached his highest fame after his second marriage. 
 For his second wife he married Miss Adele Cutts, 
 "the beautiful and accomplished daughter of J. Mad- 
 ison Cutts, then second comptroller of the treasury. 
 His new house became the rendezvous for committee 
 meetings, and friends who desired to make plans." 
 Here is what I find in a foot note on page 648 of 
 Mr. Stevens Life of Douglas: "And the beauty and 
 cleverness of Mrs. Senator Douglas caused her par- 
 lors to be thronged by those whose loyalty was out- 
 spoken or whose disloyalty was not yet avowed. The 
 'Little Giant', too, as a host was most charming." 
 
 The next feature characteristic of Mr. Douglas 
 to which we wish to call attention is the much moot- 
 ed question of his pro-slavery tendencies which he 
 might have had or might not have had. Through- 
 out his public utterances in his stump speeches or 
 anywhere else, so far as the writer is aware, he did 
 
252 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 not commit himself publicly on the subject of the in- 
 stitution of slavery as to what he thought of it in 
 the aspect of its righteousness or unrighteousness. 
 And because of this, he has been interpreted as hav- 
 ing no qualms of conscience or distressing thought 
 about it on the moral basis. During the debates 
 with Mr. Lincoln, the latter twits him for this in 
 the oft repeated use he makes in his citation of the 
 statement that he did not care how the question of 
 slavery went, whether it was "voted up or down." 
 In this, Mr Douglas has sometimes been misjudged. 
 He had conscientious scruples, nevertheless, about 
 the subject of slavery. He made the statement 
 rather loosely in the heated discussion which took 
 place in the Senate, perhaps, in the course of his ar- 
 gument not intending to give any expresion as to its 
 moral right which he might have or might not have 
 or his conscientious scruples about it. 
 
 That expression of Mr. Douglas has a history. 
 How did he come to mak e it ? lit occurs in a speech 
 which he made in the United States Senate at the 
 time of his opposition to President Buch- 
 anan who sought to force a slave constitution upon 
 the people of Kansas in opposition to their wishes 
 and in violation of their rights, thus bringing her 
 into the Union a slave State. I give here the words 
 of his speech leading up to the expression : "Let me 
 ask you, why force this Constitution down the 
 throats of the people of Kansas in opposition to 
 
Early Days in Illinois 253 
 
 their wishes and in violation of our pledges? * * * 
 [There was great fear of dividing the Democratic 
 party if they did]. Do we propose to keep the party 
 united by offering division? * * * But I am be- 
 sought to wait until I hear from the election on the 
 21st of December. I am told that will put it all 
 right and will save the whole difficulty. How can 
 it? * * * But I deny that it is impossible to have 
 a fair vote on the slavery clause ; and I say that it 
 is not impossible to have any vote on the constitu- 
 tion. Why wait for the mockery of an election, 
 when it is provided unalterably, that the people can- 
 not vote — when the majority are disfranchised? 
 
 "But I am told on all sides, 'Oh, just wait ! the 
 pro-slavery clause will be voted down.'*** If Kan- 
 sas wants a slave State constitution, she has a right 
 to it; if she wants a free-State constitution, she has 
 a right to it. It is none of my business which way 
 the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether it 
 is voted down or up."*** This is the clause and 
 this is its setting in his speech in the Senate, upon 
 which Mr. Lincoln throughout the joint discussion, 
 whether rightly or wrongly, rang many changes. 
 
 It has been stated in this chapter that the first 
 wife of Senator Douglas was a Southern woman, 
 the daughter of a citizen of North Carolina. He 
 was the owner of lands and slaves in that State. Be- 
 sides this homestead, he also owned a plantation and 
 slaves in the State of Mississippi. The next day 
 after the marriage of Mr. Douglas with Miss Mar- 
 
254 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 tin, her father placed in the hands of his new son-in 
 law a package of papers with the information that 
 it was a wedding gift. Mr. Stevens whose work on 
 the Life of Mr. Douglas gives us this bit of infor- 
 mation, gives, also another authentic statement con- 
 cerning the charge that Mr. Douglas was a slave 
 owner, which will be of interest to many persons. 
 This charge was the occasion of a confab on the 
 floor of the Senate between Mr. Douglas and Sen- 
 ator Wade of Ohio, the latter of whom saw fit to 
 call attention to the indelicate matter of the re- 
 lations alleged to exist between Mr. Douglas and 
 slaves and the income from slaves. Mr. Stevens 
 has said of it that "probably it would not have been 
 made but for the intense feeling then existing be- 
 tween the great political parties of the country in a 
 desperate fight." I shall presently give the short 
 and curt reply in which Mr. Douglas pays his re- 
 spects to the Ohio Senator. 
 
 "Later," says Mr. Stevens, "Douglas found the 
 package of papers to contain among other things, 
 an absolute deed, conveying to him certain planta- 
 tions in the State of Mississippi and the slaves there- 
 on, of the value of something like $100,000. With- 
 out reflecting a moment upon his course in the prem- 
 ises, Douglas sought Col. Martin and with protesta- 
 tions of profound thanks for the spirit which mov- 
 ed the gift, he returned the deed, stating that while 
 he was no abolitionist, and had no sympathy with 
 
Early Days in Illinois 255 
 
 them in their ultra views respecting slavery, yet he 
 was a northern man by birth, education and residence 
 and was totally ignorant of that description of pro- 
 perty, and as ignorant of the manner of its govern- 
 ment; wherefore, wholly incompetent as he was for 
 the property, particularly at the great distance from 
 which he lived, he preferred Col. Martin should re- 
 tain the property, at least during his lifetime, and 
 if in the meantime no disposition was made of it, he 
 could then by will leave directions for its dispo- 
 sition."* 
 
 As things turned out Col. Martin died May 25, 
 1848, leaving in his will the following :"In giving 
 to my dear daughter full and complete control over 
 my slaves in Mississippi (his slaves in North Car- 
 olina having been left to his wife in fee simple) I 
 make to her one dying request instead of endeavor- 
 ing to reach the case in this will. That is, that if 
 she leaves no children, to make provisions before she 
 dies to have all these negroes, together with their 
 increase, sent to Liberia, or some other colony in Af- 
 rica. By giving them the net proceeds of the last 
 crop they may make would fit them out for the trip 
 and probably leave a large surplus to aid them in 
 commencing planting in that country. In this re- 
 quest I would remind my dear daughter that her 
 husband does not desire to own this kind of property 
 and most of our collateral connection already have 
 
 * Mr. Stevens quotes as authority for this statement the son of 
 Judge Douglas, Robert M. Douglas. 
 
258 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 ■belief, expressed in the will, that they would be hap- 
 pier and better off with the descendants of the fam- 
 ily with whom they had been born and raised, 
 than in a distant land where they might find no 
 friend to care for them. This brief statement, relat- 
 ing to private and domestic affairs (which ought to 
 be permitted to remain private and sacred), has been 
 extorted and wrung from me with extreme reluct- 
 ance, even in vindication of the purity of my motives 
 in the performance of a high public trust. As the 
 truth compelled me to negative the insinuations so of- 
 fensively made by the Senator from Ohio, God for- 
 bid that I should be understood by anyone as willing 
 to cast from me any responsibility that now does, or 
 ever has attached to any member of my family. So 
 long as life shall last — and I shall cherish with re- 
 ligious veneration the memory and virtues of the 
 sainted mother of my children — so long as my heart 
 shall be filled with parental solicitude for the hap- 
 piness of those motherless infants, I shall implore 
 my enemies, who so ruthlessly invade the domestic 
 sanctuary, to do me the favor to believe that I have 
 no wish, no aspiration, to be considered purer or bet- 
 ter than she who was, or they who are, slave-holders. 
 
 Sir, when my assailants refuse to accdpt a like 
 amount of this species of property tendered to them, 
 under similar circumstances, and shall perform a 
 domestic trust with equal fidelity and disinterested- 
 ness, it will be time enough for them to impute mer- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 259 
 
 cenary motives to me in the performance of my 
 official duties." 
 
 I give one more paragraph concerning this plan- 
 tation and the slaves upon it from Mr. Stevens' work. 
 This is not the end of the matter. Whoever cares 
 to pursue the matter to its end may find the whole 
 story written out in full in Part XXIX from which 
 this account is taken. 
 
 "This plantation was located on Pearl River, 
 Lawrence County, in the State of Mississippi. Some 
 years after th e death of Major Martin, the land, in 
 the absence of enrichment, and by reason of frequent 
 freshets, became so unproductive that, Senator 
 Douglas, the executor of the will, made a contract 
 with a gentleman named James A. McHatton, who 
 owned a large and fertile plantation in another Coun- 
 ty to take the slaves and work them for a certain 
 portion of the profit. The Martin plantation was 
 then sold by order of court, largely upon credit. The 
 war followed soon after, in which the records were 
 destroyed, and the greater part of the payments 
 were never recovered. The slaves of course were 
 emancipated." 
 
 "The stock objection to the course of Douglas 
 with regard to slavery," says Mr. Stevens' work on 
 page 648, "has been that he would not believe nor say 
 that slavery was wrong fundamentally. Douglas did 
 believe that slavery was wrong fundamentally. But 
 with a constitutional recognition of it staring him in 
 
260 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 the face, the plan of Douglas for its ultimate ex- 
 tinction was the wisest. The Kansas experiment 
 proved that it could be crowded out." 
 
 After all that may be said, there yet remain 
 those who are persuaded that he would not make 
 such pronouncement lest it might be the means of 
 keeping him out of the Presidential chair which was 
 the object of his great ambition, and for this reason 
 he coveted the Southern vote, as others from the 
 North had done, and had come into it by this means. 
 If this be true, he paid the penalty by so doing, and 
 lost out. Far be it from the writer to regard Mr. 
 Douglas in such light as to do his memory harm ; but 
 he was a politician, and was not wholly unlike many 
 other politicians. He coveted honor and high posi- 
 tion, but possibly not more than did Mr. Lincoln, his 
 champion competitor. Both set high their goal, and 
 struggled hard to reach it. Both were patriots, 
 equally so. The one reached his highest aim, the 
 other did not, but had he lived there is no tell- 
 ing what might have been. 
 
 But whatever hope Mr. Douglas had once en- 
 tertained of becoming President in the term next fol- 
 lowing that of Buchanan, that hope began to wane 
 before the campaign of 1859 and 1860 set in. The 
 effort of Lincoln in Illinois in the senatorial campaign 
 in 1858 during the great debate between these two 
 men, while Lincoln was beaten for that high office, 
 had done its work towards heading off Mr. Douglas 
 
Early Days in Illinois 261 
 
 from reaching the object of his high goal so soon. 
 We hear Mr. Douglas admonishing his friends other- 
 wise like this : 'They know that, personally I do not 
 desire the Presidency at this time — that I prefer a 
 seat in the Senate for the next six years, with the 
 chance of a re-election, to being President for four 
 years, at my age of life. They know that I will take 
 no steps to obtain the Charleston nomination, that I 
 will make no sacrifice of principle, no concealment 
 of opinions, no concessions to power for the pur- 
 pose of getting it.*** In other words, I prefer the 
 position of Senator, or even that of private citizen, 
 where I would be at liberty to defend and maintain 
 the well-defined principles of the Democratic party, 
 to accepting a Presidential nomination upon a plat- 
 form incompatible with the principles of self govern- 
 ment in the territories, or the reserved rights of 
 States or the perpetuity of the Union under the 
 Constitution." 
 
 The fact is, Mr. Douglas knew the composi- 
 tion of the Southern mind better than did Mr. Lin- 
 coln. He understood their temper well, and began 
 to see the signs of "the hand writing on the wall" — 
 the danger that beset the American flag to maintain 
 itself in the disruption of the Union. In such an 
 event, he would not be a tool of slavery interests, 
 and many of his "Southern friends believed and 
 charged him with being an open enemy of the pe- 
 culiar institution." Under this head, Mr. Stevens 
 
262 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 writes : "His tenacity of purpose, his fearlessness 
 of political or other consequences had done more 
 than the world has been inclined to lay to his credit. 
 With due respect to the memory of Lincoln, it is 
 not to be said that he would have braved party cen- 
 sure with any bolder declarations than those uttered 
 by Douglas. The utterances of Douglas in 1859 
 and 1860 were bolder than the utterances of Lincoln 
 during the campaign of 1858." 
 
 Nevertheless, without heeding his admonitions 
 and warnings of disaster to the party which "the 
 fight was likely to precipitate," his friends reassemb- 
 ling in Baltimore went ahead and put him in nomina- 
 tion, and declared him to be the candidate, as follows : 
 "Resolved, unanimously, That Stephen A. Douglas, 
 of the State of Illinois, having now received two- 
 thirds the vote given in this convention, is hereby 
 declared, in accordance with the uniform customs 
 and rules of former Democratic National Conven- 
 tions, the regular nominee of the Democratic party 
 of the United States." 
 
 The Southern delegates had withdrawn from 
 the Convention, and he had no support from the 
 South except that of Alexander H. Stephens. His 
 friends had done everything they possibly could for 
 him. They had gone to the length even of suppress- 
 ing the telegrams he had sent them during the prog- 
 ress of the convention, offering, during the wrangle 
 between the delegates from North and South which 
 
Early Days in Illinois 263 
 
 threatened the disruption of the Democratic party, 
 to sacrifice everything to save the party rather than 
 to divide it : but they had gone ahead, nevertheless 
 and nominated him. There was nothing to do but 
 stand by his friends and make the fight. That was 
 the honorable side for him to take, which he did, en- 
 tering into the field in person, taxing his endurance 
 to the very limit, sparing neither health nor expense 
 in the long and bitterly contested struggle. The 
 Southern wing of the Democratic party met in an- 
 other convention and nominated Breckenridge. "The 
 secret and sometimes expressed wish of the Brecken- 
 ridge party," says Mr. Stevens who has given a 
 lengthened account of the trouble of this period, "in- 
 dicated that it was the hope of that party that Lin- 
 coln might succeed, the better, no doubt, to present 
 an opening for the already well planned object of 
 secession. On the other hand, the thorough accord 
 of the Republicans left little hope for carrying a 
 Northern State for Douglas. In other words, be- 
 tween these two extremes, little was left for the man 
 who attempted to occupy neutral ground."* 
 
 There were four parties in the field in this cam- 
 paign, which added to the hardship of Douglas who 
 spoke in nearly every free State in the Union and in 
 many of the slave States. In the course of his speech 
 in Baltimore he made this bold statement : "It is my 
 opinion that there is a well matured plan through- 
 
 * Life of Douglas, part XXIX, page 622. 
 
264 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 out the southern States to break up the Union. I 
 believe the election of a Republican is to be the signal 
 for that attempt, and that the leaders of the scheme 
 desire the election of Lincoln so as to have an ex- 
 cuse for disunion. I do not believe that every 
 Breckenridge man is a disunionist, but I do believfc 
 that every disunionist in America is a Breckenridge 
 man." 
 
 These were strong, prophetic words, and there 
 was not a man in all the northern part of the United 
 States, who was more outspoken in his utterances 
 against disunionists from this time onward until his 
 death than Mr. Douglas. And the writer, though 
 not having reached the years of his majority, was in- 
 terested enough in the record of Stephen A. Douglas 
 to remember this fact. I give following this general 
 statement some of the outspoken words of Douglas 
 as he went to and forth canvassing in the differ- 
 ent States. He was a thorough Unionist, and seem- 
 ed more anxious over this subject than on all others. 
 "When speaking at Norfolk, Va., he left no room, 
 for doubt as to his position when he answered the 
 person who handed him a written question, whether, 
 if elected, he would maintain the Union by force. 
 "I answer emphatically" replied Douglas, "that it 
 is the duty of the President of the United States and 
 all others in authority under him to enforce the laws 
 of the United States passed by Congress, and as the 
 courts expound them, and I, as in my duty bound by 
 
Early Days in Illinois 265 
 
 my oath of fidelity to the Constitution, would do all 
 in my power to aid the government of the United 
 States, in maintaining the supremacy of the laws 
 against all resistence to them, come from what quar- 
 ter it might. In other words, I think the President, 
 whoever he may be, should treat all attempts to break 
 up the Union by resistance to the laws, as Old Hick- 
 ory treatd the nullifiers in 1832. 
 
 "Asked at another point whether he would join 
 in an effort to dissolve the Union if Lincoln were 
 elected, he answered, 'I tell them no; never on earth." 
 
 "At Petersburg, he expressed the opinion that 
 there was 'no evil which the Constitution and laws 
 do not furnish a remedy for; no grievance that can 
 justify disunion." 
 
 "At Raleigh, he stated that he was ready, 'to put 
 the hemp around the neck, and hang any man who 
 would raise the arm of resistence to the constituted 
 authorities of the country.' 'The country' he said, 
 'had already demonstrated its power, and now there 
 is one thing remaining to be done, in order to prove 
 us capable of meeting any emergency ; and when the 
 time comes, I trust the government will show itself 
 strong enough to perform that final deed — hang a 
 traitor/ " * 
 
 It may be asked, what was the distinctive dif- 
 ference in mind of these two men, Douglas and Lin- 
 coln, as to the possibility of the attempt to destroy 
 
 * Statement from Mr. Stevens' Life of Douglas, Part XXVII, 
 
 pages 623 and 624. 
 
266 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 the Union just at this period? I transcribe a para- 
 graph from this same work of Mr. Stevens, which is 
 in point here : 
 
 "Douglas in effect declared that he cared more 
 for peace than for the fate of the negro. Lincoln, 
 casuist and prophet, on the contrary seemed to care 
 more for the negro than for peace, at least he could 
 not be made to see the dangers of war. 'But when the 
 legitimate result of philanthropic solicitude actual- 
 ly broke upon the country in the shape of disunion 
 and war, Lincoln was obliged to recant his philan- 
 thropy and embrace the mere statesmanship of Mr. 
 Douglas.' 'My paramount object is to save the Un- 
 ion and not either to save or destroy slavery. If 
 I could save the Union without freeing any slaves 
 I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some 
 and leaving others alone, I would also do that." 
 
 There is an important foot note which the author 
 makes bearing upon his statements in the immediate 
 paragraph above, concerning Mr. Lincoln, "the 
 casuist and prophet, who could not be made to see 
 the dangers of war" in the agitation of the sub- 
 ject of the abolition of slavery, which Mr. Douglas 
 declared "meant the greatest of all wars." I place 
 the footnote here in the body of the text, and it is 
 this : "At Alton Lincoln declared, 'There never was 
 a party in the history of this country and there 
 probably never will be, of sufficient strength to dis- 
 turb the general peace of the country.*** Whenever 
 
Early Days in Illinois 267 
 
 the issue can be distinctly made and all extraneous 
 matters thrown out so that men can fairly see the 
 difference between the parties, this controversy will 
 soon be settled and it will be done peacefully too. 
 There will be no war, no violence.' " 
 
 I give another instance of his mistaken prog- 
 nostication on the same subject a short time after 
 his election and before his inauguration in office. 
 After his election and before he left for Washing- 
 ton, he occupied a room which had been fitted up 
 for him in the old capitol building, now the County 
 Court House, where he might meet and entertain 
 his friends. Mr. George R. Weber related the in- 
 cident to the writer he is about to give, and it took 
 place here, and on this wise : Mr. Weber was ac- 
 companied by a son whom he had been teaching, it 
 appears, a paraphrase of Patrick Henry's speech 
 in which occurs "Every gale that sweeps from the 
 north brings to our ears the clash of resounding 
 arms ! The enemy are already in the field : Why 
 stand we here idle?" The word "North" was 
 changed so as to make it "every gale which sweeps 
 from the South brings to our ears the clash af re- 
 sounding arms." What had been intended for the 
 lad to repeat to the President-elect, was repeated by 
 the senior Weber himself, not calling upon his son, 
 being so highly wrought up at the news of the day. 
 Listening patiently, for a moment, Mr. Lincoln 
 buried his face in his hands, and then looking up, 
 
268 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 shaking his head in expostulation, insistently de- 
 clared that there "could not, would not, be war." 
 And he believed that there would not be war. 
 
 There remains only one more feature of the 
 character of Mr. Douglas concerning which the 
 writer would say only a few brief words; namely, 
 his religious tendencies. The writer does not know 
 if he ever united with any church, but he attended 
 church, and he was not an unbeliever. The im- 
 pression of the writer is, however, that he never 
 became a church member. On religious matters 
 it is said by those who knew him best, that he was 
 not a sectarian in his views, but that he"was a firm 
 believer in the Bible as being the word of God in 
 the sense in which that expression is generally un- 
 derstood, and that true religion is a factor of in- 
 finite benefit to mankind." His mother was a 
 Christian, a member of the Baptist Church, while 
 also his sister was a regular attendant upon Baptist 
 church services. All this meant something. This 
 has been written of him: "In all his public utter- 
 ances, you will search in vain for a word of disre- 
 spect or doubt of a Supreme Being — God." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Early Days in Illinois 
 
 The Two Partisans, 
 
 and 
 
 Some Others 
 
 HERE IS something pathetic in the winding 
 up of the careers to these two partisans — 
 patriots true, indeed ; and in their meeting in 
 Washington on the occasion of the inauguration of 
 Mr. Lincoln. AfTecting was it in the extreme in 
 view of the rivalry there had been between them. 
 That meeting is the best illustration that could be 
 given of the real character of the two men. It is 
 said they met in Washington some days before the 
 inauguration, and were closited together. They laid 
 aside their old animosity, and were true friends. 
 Mr. Lincoln read to Douglas his inaugural address, 
 and on the day of its delivery, Douglas stood beside 
 him, and the crowning act was when Lincoln's high 
 hat was handed to a young reporter, Mr. Waterson, 
 it was taken by Mr. Douglas and held by him dur- 
 269 
 
270 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 ing the entire ceremony, while the aged Judge Taney, 
 who wrote the Dred Scott Decision, inducted in to 
 office the man who was to make that opinion for- 
 ever null and void. All this was simple and artless 
 in the acts themselves whose "significance was not 
 lost."* 
 
 What a happy moment it must have been to Mr. 
 Lincoln to be surrounded at such a time by so many 
 of his old time friends who once were his at Spring- 
 field in their young manhood days in their mix-ups, 
 now gathered close to his side on the occasion of 
 one of that number being ushered into office the 
 highest his countrymen could bestow, the Presidency 
 of the United States! 
 
 He was fortunate to have them there. It was 
 not now as at the time when in pioneer life they 
 were gathered around the crackling fireplace in 
 Joshua Speed's store doing their literary or polit- 
 ical "stunts," vieing with each other in their rude 
 but friendly way, and wondering, possibly, what 
 was in store for them in the future of their more 
 manly lives. View them as Senators now in their 
 changed conditions : Edward D. Baker, United 
 States Senator from Oregon, as he stands up to in- 
 troduce in appropriate terms such as he knew how 
 to do in a few words, his very respected friend to 
 the vast audience gathered there to witness the cere- 
 mony; Mr. McDougal, another of his quondam 
 
 * Some foregoing statements from Newton's Lincoln and Hern- 
 don, page 285. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 271 
 
 friends from Jacksonville, standing near him, now 
 United States Senator from the State of California; 
 lastly but not least in rank and fame, Judge Douglas, 
 the "Little Giant," and his great competitor in de- 
 bate and for office, standing by his side and hold- 
 ing his high silk hat and intently listening to the 
 inaugural address of his friend and meanwhile nod- 
 ding his head in approval, with such exclamations 
 as "Good!" "That's fair!" "No backing out there!" 
 "That's a good point !" and the like, which he is said 
 to have uttered.* 
 
 Then, also, there were others of his personal 
 friends, Congressmen, who had been re-elected, sur- 
 rounding him among whom were Richardson, Mc- 
 Clernand, John A. Logan. 
 
 "What a reversal of fortune !" says Mr. Stevens 
 in his life of Douglas, in speaking of him in con- 
 nection with Mr. Lincoln on this occasion. "Lin- 
 coln swiftly, pathetically, alluding to the giddy 
 heights Douglas in 1856 had reached — now Douglas 
 holding the hat of his humble rival of other days !" 
 
 "It was a tejnder little tribute which could come 
 only from a friendship, strong and enduring, born 
 amidst the happy hardships of rude pioneer life, 
 where friendships are as strong as the men who 
 build states."* , 
 
 Whatever remains to be said by the writer con- 
 cerning Mr. Douglas in this treatise, he feels it must 
 
 * Stevens. 
 
 * Stevens in his Life of Douglas, page 672. 
 
272 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 be said here in this chapter ; and, in doing so, he is de- 
 pendent upon what others have said of him "When 
 a shell burst over Fort Sumpter, on April 12th, 
 says Mr. Newton in his book on Lincoln and Hern- 
 don ' 'Lincoln and Douglas were cemented in one 
 common aim. From that day on, they were in fre- 
 quent consultation, and the sorely tried President 
 was grateful for the grip of so strong a hand. Late 
 at night, April 14th, Douglas heard Lincoln read 
 his call for 75,000 men, and suggested that the num- 
 ber should be 200,000; for he, at least, did not un- 
 derrate the chivalry and valor of the South. At 
 once he offered his services to the President, will- 
 ing <to go or stay where he could do the most good. 
 Lincoln asked him to go to Illinois, where his voice 
 was like a bugle and unify the State. There was 
 a quick hand-grasp, a hurried farewell, and they met 
 no more." Say we not well that such a parting 
 was touching? "His speeches on the way out," says 
 the same authority, were pitched in a lofty, patri- 
 otic key, and his address before the Legislature of 
 his own State was one of the greatest of his life." 
 It was in this speech that he uttered that supreme 
 appeal which smacks of that religious trend of his 
 belief : "I believe in my conscience that it is a duty 
 that we owe to ourselves and our children and to our 
 God, to protect the government and that flag from 
 every assailant, be he who he may."* 
 
 Now he is his natural self. The partisan is 
 
 * Newton Stevens 
 
Early Days in Illinois 273 
 
 emerged into the patriot, and he speaks the true lan- 
 guage of his heart. He no longer veils his true sent- 
 iment. Once he said/'If I were a citizen of Lou- 
 isiana, I would vote for retaining and maintaining 
 slavery, because I believe the good of that people 
 require it. As a citizen of Illinois, I am utterly op- 
 posed to it, because our institutions would not be 
 promoted by it." Then he stood behind a political 
 policy, and hid his real sentiment; but now he is a 
 changed man with regard to that institution which 
 was making trouble and was bringing the perpetuity 
 of the government into jeopardy and threatening 
 the destruction of the Union. Behold! now he 
 speaks plainly, as the biographer we have been main- 
 ly followly in the latter part of the notes, says : 
 
 "He awoke to the belief that there rested behind 
 the institution, a deep seated conspiracy to dissolve 
 the Union. And he then declared, He would favor 
 just so much extension of slave territory and just 
 so many slaves as the conspirators could hold at 
 the point of a bayonet." 
 
 There was one portion of Illinois about which 
 both Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas were anxious. 
 It was that portion which lies within the limits of 
 the southern part of the State, which was called 
 "Egypt" by the way of distinction from other parts. 
 In the early history of the State it was settled by 
 many Southern people from different states. They 
 had brought their slaves with them when it was 
 
274 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 thought to carry the institution of slavery into the 
 whole Northwest and especially Illinois, thus mak- 
 ing that institution perpetual, if possible. It was 
 here that Douglas had purposed going in order to 
 proclaim the new doctrine which might be needed, 
 the salvation of the Union, to unite into a solid bond 
 the northern and southern regions if perchance, they 
 might be at variance in that perilous time. It was 
 here that in a more recent date when Douglas had 
 come into great prominence he had spread abroad 
 his doctrine of Popular Sovereignty which consisted 
 in the right, as they thought, to carry that institu- 
 tion into the territory of Kansas and Nebraska. 
 When upon the election of Lincoln as President, 
 rebellion against the government broke out and 
 states in the South began to secede from the Un- 
 ion, and Douglas was obliged to recant his doctrine 
 of popular Sovereignty, as we have seen, it was 
 thought that it might have been necessary to go into 
 this region and do a little work in pacifying them. 
 The writer does not know if he went there after he 
 left Washington, but he thinks it did not become 
 necessary. This great speech before the State Leg- 
 islature at Springfield settled everything, "putting 
 to shame," as one of the biographers of Lincoln 
 has expressed it, the devices of Gen. John A. Lo- 
 gan."* 
 
 It was at Springfield that Logan had his last in- 
 terview with Douglas, in which the latter said to 
 
 * Newton's Lincoln and Herndon, page 286. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 27 S 
 
 him : 'The time has now arrived when a man must 
 be either for or against his country. Indeed so 
 strongly do I feel this, and that further dalliance 
 with this question is useless, that I shall myself 
 take steps to join the army and fight for the main- 
 tenance of the Union." 
 
 It is said of this speech of Douglas, as coming 
 from James G. Blaine: "No message carried con- 
 fidence to move hearts or gave greater strength to 
 the National cause." Mr. Stevens says of it : 
 "There was just one object they [the people in 
 southern Illinois] adored more than the firesides of 
 their ancestors and that was Douglas. Like wild- 
 fire his speech spread through Egypt and over into 
 the border states, and without a draft, Egypt fur 
 nished more than its quota of men to the Union 
 armies." 
 
 Mr. Horace White has recorded his opinion of 
 this speech like this : "I heard Mr. Douglas deliver 
 his speech to the members of the Illinois Legisla- 
 ture, April 25th, 1861, in the gathering tumult of 
 arms. It was like a blast of thunder. I do not 
 think it possible for a human being to produce a 
 more prodigious effect with spoken words.* * * He 
 was standing in the same place where I first heard 
 Mr. Lincoln. That speech hushed the breath of 
 treason in every corner of the State." 
 
 After this speech at Springfield, he was invited by 
 the people of Chicago to address them. This he did 
 
276 Abraham Lincoln * 
 
 at the Wigwam. He was received by them as never 
 before. All joined in paying tribute to him, friend 
 and foe alike, who had emerged into a patriot, and 
 this occasion was another of the great efforts of his 
 life. Soon after this he was taken sick, and became 
 delirious, but "even in his delirium," it is said, "he 
 was battling for the Union." He died June 3rd, 
 in the "prime of life, at the age of forty-eight. 
 Great was the grief at his 'passing away. Chicago, 
 deeply draped in mourning, laid him away with al- 
 most royal pomp beside the lake." We are told that 
 Mr. Lincoln on receiving the news of his death 
 shed tears of bitter grief which ran down his cheeks 
 at the loss of so dear a friend, and for the loss of 
 so firm a support to the nation. 
 
 To this I subjoin the fitting tribute of Henry 
 Waterson : "I knew Judge Douglas well : I admired, 
 respected, loved him, I shall never forget the day 
 he quitted Washington to go to his home in Illinois. 
 He had burned the candle at both ends, * * * and, 
 though not yet fifty, the candle had burned out. 
 His infirmities were no greater than those of Clay; 
 not to be mentioned with those of Webster. * * * 
 No one has found occasion to come to the rescue of 
 his fame. No party interest has been identified with 
 his memory. But when the truth of history is writ- 
 ten, it will be told that, not less than Webster and 
 Clay, he, too, was a patriotic man, who loved his 
 country and tried to save the Union." 
 
Early Days in Illinois 277 
 
 Two remarks by Mr. Waterson in the above ex- 
 cerpt deserve a passing notice : "No one has found 
 occasion to come to the rescue of his fame" and 
 "No party interest has been identified with his mem- 
 ory." While that was true at the time in which it 
 was written, it cannot be said that it is so now. 
 Persons do come forth today with due appreciation 
 of his sterling worth and do justice to his fame in 
 the works that are being written of him; and if no 
 strictly party interest has arisen to identify itself 
 with his memory, the great State of Illinois through 
 its Legislative branch without regard to policies 
 erected a bronze statue of him in the Southeast 
 corner of the State House grounds at Springfield 
 indicative of honor and reverence for his memory, 
 which was unveiled on the occasion of the Centen- 
 nial celebrating of the admission of the State into 
 the Federal Union. The expense of this statue was 
 paid for out of the state treasury, some twenty-five 
 thousand dollars. This statue is said to be a very 
 fine piece of work as to the work of the artist in his 
 likeness of the man, and was unveiled the same day 
 as a companion piece to the Lincoln statue of the 
 Farewell address of the sculptor, Andrew O'Connor. 
 
 In looking over the list of the names of those 
 concerning whom something should be said, there 
 appear a few names connected with the history of 
 Springfield and incidentally with Lincoln together 
 with a few events and incidents which not all readers 
 
278 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 know and others may have forgotten. This needs 
 to be related. Among these appears the names of 
 three persons who were well known. These were 
 Hon. Richard Yates, governor of Illinois at the 
 beginning of the Civil War, a brilliant man, indeed, 
 and an esteemed friend of Lincoln ; U. S. Grant, and 
 Elmer Elsworth, the latter once a law student in 
 the office of Lincoln and Herndon. 
 
 In looking over some of Mr. Weber's private 
 papers there is an autograph letter from Gov. Yates 
 appointing Mr. Weber Commissary of Subsistence 
 at Camp Yates which was at the old fair grounds 
 west of Springfield. This was the Camp of the 
 Illinois State Militia before being mustered into the 
 regular United States service. Gen. Grant was at 
 this camp. He was then a Lieutenant, and was ap- 
 pointed by Gov. Yates to drill the Militia at this 
 camp. Gov. Yates was one of the first to recognize 
 his worth, and honored him for his integrity. There 
 was also Elmer Elsworth at this camp, afterward 
 Colonel of the famous "Elsworth Zouaves," who 
 was killed by one Jackson at Alexandria, Virginia, 
 while removing a rebel flag from a hotel operated 
 by Jackson. It was Elsworth of whom Lincoln 
 said, "He is a young man who seems to have a 
 real genius for war." 
 
 Mr. Weber has rescued a little speech of Gov. 
 Yates, which would never have become known but 
 for him. I give it as I find it with its connections 
 in Mr. Weber's papers. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 279 
 
 "In the Spring of 1860, the republican State 
 convention met at Decatur, and nominated Richard 
 Yates, the republican candidate for governor of 
 Illinois. Governor Yates was one of the most ac- 
 complished governors of our noble state. He was 
 patriotic, brave, eloquent and generous. We shall 
 never forget a little speech he made in the gover- 
 nor's mansion, near the close of the war, in re- 
 sponse to a serenade party on an occasion of news 
 of a great Union victory. The speech was never 
 in print, and as it is short, it ought to be preserved. 
 Here it is : 'When elected governor of this State, I 
 expected to have an easy time, with little more to 
 do than to sign commissions for civil officers, to 
 write a few messages to the legislature, a few re- 
 prieves, and receipts for my salary ; but I assure you 
 I have done more work, hard work — caused by the 
 war — than the work of all my predecessors put to- 
 gether, and God Almighty never made a weaker 
 piece of humanity than I am." 
 
 "This last sentence was uttered with such pathos, 
 and with such a forlorn face that stout hearted men 
 were moved to tears to see one so loved struggling 
 fearfully in the toils of intemperance. He might 
 have been President. He commissioned Grant. He 
 nerved the right arm of Lincoln. He detested 
 slavery, yet he lived a slave and died a slave to a 
 more cruel master than Legree who whipped 'Uncle 
 Tom' to death." 
 
280 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Gov. Yates was a citizen of Jacksonville, and was 
 a brilliant and accomplished man. He was Governor 
 during the hardest part of the struggle for the sup- 
 pression of the rebellion, a period extending from 
 1861 to 1865. After the expiration of his term of 
 office as Governor, he was elected United States 
 Senator as a compliment and reward for his patri- 
 otism during the time he was Governor. He died in 
 1873, while still a member of the United States 
 Senate. 
 
 The next Governor who followed him was 
 Richard J. Oglesby. He had a good record behind 
 him as a soldier in the Mexican war, having been in 
 the siege of Vera Cruz and in the battle of Cerro 
 Gordo. He was distinguished as an orator, and de- 
 livered the oration at the time of unveiling of the 
 Lincoln Statue of the Lincoln Monument at Oak 
 Ridge while in the period of his United States Sen- 
 atorship. He was three times Governor of Illinois. 
 He resigned that office soon after being elected the 
 second time in order to become United States Sen- 
 ator. The third time he became Governor was 
 after the expiration of his term of office as senator. 
 He was colonel of the 8th Regiment of Illinois 
 volunteers in the Civil War, and for his gallantry at 
 Fort Donaldson, at Fort Henry and at Corinth he 
 obtained the rank of Major General. He was 
 severely wounded at the last named battle. He died 
 in 1899. He was a familiar personage on the streets 
 
Early Days in Illinois 281 
 
 of Springfield, though not a citizen proper of Spring- 
 field, but of Lincoln, Illinois, where was his home. 
 
 General John M. Palmer was the Governor who 
 succeeded Gov. Oglesby. He was a citizen of Carlin- 
 ville, but after his term of office as Governor ex- 
 pired, he became a citizen of Springfield, making 
 his home there until he died. For a term of years 
 he with his son, John Mayo Palmer, engaged in the 
 practice of the law, which was his profession. He 
 was a strong man and an able Governor. During 
 the Civil War he became the Colonel of the 14th 
 Illinois Volunteers, and was promoted to Brigadier- 
 General in 1861, and was made Major-General in 
 1863; but in 1869, he was elected Governor on the 
 Republican ticket. In 1888, he went back to the 
 Democratic ranks where he had always been, and 
 received the nomination for Governor on that 
 ticket, but was defeated. In 1891, however, he was 
 elected United States Senator by the Legislature. 
 In the Centennial edition of the Illinois State Regis- 
 ter, I find this record of him : "Gov. Palmer was a 
 scholarly man of excellent literary attainments and 
 wrote his personal reminiscences which were publish- 
 ed under the title of, "The Story of an Earnest Life. " 
 
 I add in connection with him this brief note: 
 His daughter, M^rs. Jessie Palmer Weber, has in- 
 herited somewhat of his native ability in this direc- 
 tion. She is well and favorably known in literary 
 circles, especially in Illinois, as a person of fine 
 
282 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 literary taste and excellent ability. She is at present 
 Librarian, Secretary and Treasurer of the Illinois 
 State Historical Society at Springfield. She is also 
 principal Editor of "Journal °f tne State Historical 
 Society," or Quarterly Magazine published by the 
 Society. 
 
 There is one more name among the governors of 
 Illinois of which the writer wishes to make mention 
 on this page. It is the name of Shelby M. Cullom. 
 He was personally known to him almost the entire 
 time of his public career dating from the time he 
 was elected from Sangamon County to the State 
 Legislature on the American ticket. He was the 
 next elected governor of Illinois after Gov. Palmer. 
 He was elected to that office in 1876, and re-elected 
 to the same office in 1880- In 1883 he was elected 
 United States Senator, and continued to fill that of- 
 fice until 1913. Before this period he had repre- 
 sented his Congressional District at Washington. 
 It was in this latter mentioned period, in 1868, he 
 rendered the writer the favor of a letter of introduc- 
 tion to the State Department at Washington which 
 procured for him a passport while on a visit to 
 European countries. 
 
 I give here a little meeting which Mr. Weber 
 with his little son Johnie had with Mr. Lincoln at 
 his office. It seems to have been sometime during 
 the campaign for the Presidency. Repairing with 
 "Johnie" to Mr. Lincoln's office, he had the little 
 
Early Days in Illinois 283 
 
 lad repeat a short campaign poem which he had 
 been taught. 
 
 I give here four stanzas of the poem repeated, 
 entitled 
 
 HONEST OLD ABE 
 "Hurrah, hurrah for freedom's cause! 
 Let every banner wave; 
 Abe Lincoln is the man we need 
 Our dear old flag to save. 
 The ship of state has been abused 
 Until she's sprung a leak; 
 They've run the good old ship aground 
 'Till all her timbers creak. 
 We'll have her cleared from keel to truck, 
 Make all her rigging new, 
 Stop all her democratic leaks, 
 And ship an honest crew. 
 Old Abe's the boy who split the rails, 
 He's honest, just and brave, 
 And where he points her mighty prow 
 Will freedom's banner wave." 
 
 There were two more stanzas which I do not 
 give, except two lines of the last one which were 
 this: 
 
 This so pleased Mr. Lincoln that he took the 
 little fellow upon his lap while he caressed him and 
 spoke kindly and good naturedly to him. The 
 verses may not be valuable so much for their merit 
 as a poem as for the occasion of their memory, and 
 the incident is a little episode in the happenings of 
 a family which is pleasant to remember, which 
 brought them in connection with the great Lincoln. 
 
 "The honest-hearted patriot, 
 Old Abe of Illinois." 
 
284 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Mr. Weber also held the office of Commissary of 
 Subsistence of volunteers at Camp Butler under Mr. 
 Lincoln, having received his commission from him 
 March 30th, 1864. Mr. Ninian Edwards, a relative 
 of Mr. Lincoln by marriage, held the office before 
 this. Some things were not going right in the 
 office — some looseness in methods of supplying food 
 for the soldiers, which amounted to a species of 
 graft, it was thought, and the warm, personal 
 friends of the President became dissatisfied at the 
 conduct of the officer, and through their jealousy 
 for the good name of the latter took the matter up 
 to have the affairs of the office regulated. But 
 when it became necessary for some one of these to 
 assume responsibility and write to the President con- 
 cerning this delicate matter (Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. 
 Edwards were sisters) no one seemed to wish to 
 do it. They formed among themselves a committee 
 to wait upon Mr. Weber in order to prevail upon 
 him to do this bit of clerical work. He wrote a per- 
 sonal, friendly letter direct to the President, stating 
 to him the substance of this delicate nature of the 
 business, and that he had been requested to lay it 
 before him; that the committee of his old friends, 
 republicans and democrats alike, thought for the 
 sake of his reputation he would better look into the 
 matter. In a few days word came back. Mr. Lin- 
 coln wrote in return under his own hand and sig- 
 nature, suggesting the names of several men whom 
 
Early Days in Illinois 285 
 
 he believed honest and fearless, among whom was 
 the name of George R. Weber. He wrote that he 
 would appoint anyone of these men which his friends 
 at Springfield agreed upon. George R. Weber was 
 selected and duly commissioned. I have seen the 
 original commission and have a copy of it before 
 me while writing. There is nothing unusual about 
 it. It gives to Mr. Weber the rank of Captain in 
 the services of the United States, to take rank as 
 such from the 22nd day of June, 1864.* 
 
 There are two or three more points concerning 
 President Lincoln which need to be related, two of 
 which were sad events to the citizens of Springfield. 
 The first event to relate is the giving up of an in- 
 estimable citizen to go to the capital of the nation 
 and become the nation's chief; and the other, a 
 sadder event, still, when the nation returned him to 
 them dead, for the last sad rite of his obsequies after 
 he had been laid low by the fatal shot of the assassin, 
 Booth. It was the result of the contention which 
 had been going on for some years for the mastery 
 of the two sets of principles — contention of right 
 and wrong for the mastery, liberty and slavery. We 
 recall in this connection the words of Lincoln al- 
 ready quoted in a former chapter from his Alton 
 speech. He said then of the contention: "It will 
 continue in this country when these poor tongues 
 
 * Mr. Weber placed his nephew, Mr. H. K. Weber, the present 
 
 incumbent of the office of the presidency of the First National Bank 
 of Springfield, then recently having come from Cumberland, Mary- 
 land out at the Camp to represent him in the transaction of the 
 business. 
 
286 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. " How 
 little did he realize how soon that would be! the 
 one which had contended so eloquently for the 
 right, and the other for the wrong, would be ren- 
 dered mute! 
 
 And now we record the parting of Lincoln from 
 his friends at home. It is this which took on a 
 saddening aspect. I can do no better than to give 
 the substance of what has been recorded by Mr. 
 Herndon. Before leaving for Washington, he 
 slipped away to visit the grave of his father, and 
 also he rode to Farmington, in Coles County, to 
 see his aged step-mother who was still living. "Amid 
 such scenes of farewell, and the kindly greetings 
 of old and dear friends, a gloom as of the grave 
 overshadowed, reviving the pre-monition of which 
 he talked to Herndon as early as 1843, that some 
 violent end was to overtake him at last. 
 
 "The last afternoon before he left for Washing- 
 ton was spent with Herndon in the office, in which 
 they had toiled, planned, and dreamed together. He 
 locked the door, and after going over the cases, con- 
 cerning which he had certain requests to make, and 
 a few suggestions as to methods of procedure, they 
 talked as old comrades. Lincoln asked his partner 
 if he wanted any office, and if so, to name it. Hern- 
 don wanted no office, except that of bank examiner 
 which he then held, and Lincoln said he would 
 speak to Richard Yates, the incoming Governor, 
 in his behalf."* 
 
 * Newton's Lincoln and Herndon. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 287 
 
 Here is how Mr. Herndon gives an account of 
 the last afternoon spent together after they were 
 through with what took place in the account as 
 given in the paragraph above : "He crossed to the 
 opposite side of the room and threw himself down 
 on the old office sofa, which, after many years of 
 service, had been moved against the wall for sup- 
 port. He lay down for a few moments, his face 
 toward the ceiling, without either of us speaking. 
 Presently he inquired, 'Billy' — he always called me 
 by that name — 'how long have we been together?' 
 'Over sixteen years,' I answered. 'We've never had 
 a cross word during all that time, have we?' to 
 which I returned a vehement, 'No, indeed we have 
 not.' He then recalled some of the incidents of 
 early practice and took great pleasure in delineating 
 the ludicrous features of many a law suit on the 
 circuit. It was at this last interview in Spring- 
 field that he told me of the efforts that had been 
 made by other lawyers to supplant me in the part- 
 nership with him. He insisted that such men were 
 weak creatures, who, to use his own language, 
 'hoped to secure a law practice by hanging to his 
 coat-tail.' I never saw him in a more cheerful 
 mood. He gathered up a bundle of books and 
 papers he wished to take with him and started to go ; 
 but before leaving he made the strange request that 
 the sign-board which swung on its rusty hinges at 
 the foot of the stairway should remain. Let it 
 
288 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 hang there undisturbed,' he said, with a significant 
 lowering of his voice. 'Give our clients to under- 
 stand that the election of a President makes no 
 change in the firm of Lincoln and Herndon. If I 
 live I'm coming back sometime, and then we'll go 
 right on practising law as if nothing had ever hap- 
 pened.' He lingered a moment as if to take a look 
 at the old quarters, and then passed through the 
 door into the narrow hallway. I accompanied him 
 down stairs. * * * Grasping my hand warmly and 
 with a fervent "Good-bye," he disappeared down 
 the street, and never came back to the office. 
 
 The next morning he was to leave for Washing- 
 ton over the Wabash Route, and it was dark and 
 lowery. It was a February morning and raining. 
 He took his farewell forever to scenes made dear 
 by struggle and sorrow. From the rear end of the 
 car he addressed his friends, republicans and demo- 
 crats alike, who knew him well and loved him. I 
 give his little speech as he uttered it : 
 
 "My friends : No one, not in my position, can 
 appreciate my feelings of sadness at this parting. 
 To this place, and the kindness of these people, I 
 owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a 
 century and have passed from a young to an old 
 man. Here my children have been born and one 
 of them is buried. I now leave, not knowing when 
 or whether ever I may return, with a task before 
 me greater than that which rested upon Washing- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 289 
 
 ton. Without the assistance of that Divine Being 
 who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With 
 that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting to Him 
 who can go with me, and remain with you, and be 
 everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all 
 will yet be well. To His care commending you, as 
 T hope in your prayers you will commend me, I 
 bid you an affectionate farewell." 
 
 That was a heart talk to his friends from his 
 heart to theirs full of warm and generous impulses 
 all his own. It is beautiful and is full of sim- 
 plicity and grace. It has a right to be ranked 
 superior to his Gettysburg speech for that reason, 
 and because it is so artless. There is not a super- 
 fluous word in it, not too many or too few. 
 
 I do not design nor desire to say anything of his 
 official acts at Washington. They are all well 
 known to the American public and to the world. 
 There is nothing to cover up. 
 
 The next and last event, Mr. Lincoln's return 
 home to Springfield, is a sadder and more serious 
 event to record, which I do briefly, leaving out the 
 too saddening scenes at Washington, after the as- 
 sassination, as too harrowing to retrace. I have 
 spread out before me at this writing, the Illinois 
 State Journal, of April 15th, 1865, which was once 
 the mouth-piece and organ of Abraham Lincoln in 
 his home town. That issue is full of startling in- 
 telligence. Two of its pages are full of leaded 
 
290 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 black columns in mourning for him. I give a little 
 of the heading of the first column of the second 
 page as follows : * 'Treason in the National Capital ! 
 President assassinated ! The work too surely done ! 
 President is probably now no more. The Nation 
 mourns a loved and honest President, a true patriot 
 and an honest man." Then followed three dis- 
 patches. I give the first as it appears in the Jour- 
 nal : "Washington, April 15th, 12:30 a.m. The 
 President was shot at a theatre tonight, and is prob- 
 ably mortally wounded." The second dispatch 
 states, "The President is not expected to live through 
 the night," and that "Secretary Seward was also 
 assassinated;" while there follows a third dispatch, 
 giving some of the particulars which I do not give, 
 as the facts are all familiar to the reading public. 
 President Lincoln never regained consciousness, and 
 died after some hours. 
 
 The extra Journal of April 20th, gives the an- 
 nouncement by E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, 
 of the route to be taken by the funeral train to 
 Springfield. It was by the way of Baltimore, 
 Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buf- 
 falo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago 
 to Springfield. A pilot engine, fittingly decorated, 
 and having a life-size picture of Mr. Lincoln on the 
 front, headed the funeral train all the way. When 
 the train arrived at the station at Springfield over 
 the Alton and Chicago Railway, an immense throng 
 
Early Days in Illinois 29 1 
 
 awaited it, and there scarcely was a dry eye in all 
 that crowd. 
 
 His body was borne to the State Capital building 
 where it remained in State for several days, and then 
 was taken to the Oak Ridge Cemetery and de- 
 posited temporarily, until such time when the 
 present Lincoln monument could be built where his 
 body was finally deposited, and where it rests to- 
 day in peace. Several years afterward an attempt 
 was made to steal his body away by bandits, but 
 they were apprehended by the guard and were foiled. 
 Since then further precaution was taken, and by 
 encasing the casket beneath and on all sides by a 
 mass of steel and concrete protecting it. 
 
 A little more than four years after he went out 
 from among his friends at Springfield to become 
 the President of the United States, he was returned 
 to them a corpse, the victim of an assassin. At 
 New York, April 22nd, a funeral sermon by Henry 
 Ward Beecher was preached in Plymouth Pulpit, 
 on the death of Abraham Lincoln. At the close 
 of the sermon are these words : 
 
 ""Four years ago, Oh Illinois, we took him from 
 your midst an untried man, and from the people. 
 We return him to you a mighty conqueror. Not 
 thine any. more, but the Nations' ; not ours, but the 
 world's. Give him place, Oh ye prairies! In the 
 midst of this great Continent his dust shall rest, a 
 sacred treasure to myriads who shall pilgrim to 
 that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism !" 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The Views of Mr. Lincoln on the 
 
 Christian Religion and the Bible. 
 
 HE AUTHOR of this little treatise has 
 given his own views already on the sub- 
 ject of Mr. Lincoln's moral sentiment and 
 the views he entertained on the subject of the 
 Christian religion and the Bible when he was a 
 young man at New Salem and for the first few 
 years after he came to Springfield to live. This 
 he has given in a former part of this work, and has 
 placed them in the body of the text with the promise 
 to extend the inquiry farther in an appendix. It is 
 what others who knew Mr. Lincoln well, and have 
 related of him in the time of this early period of 
 his history concerning his opinions on the subject 
 of the Christian religion and the Bible as expressed 
 to them by himself at this time. It is this that he 
 has reserved for this place. These persons who 
 have related these views were citizens of Spring- 
 field and were his friends. With few exceptions 
 the writer knew them all, and he is satisfied they 
 have not borne evidence of misconceptions as to 
 292 
 
Early Days in Illinois 293 
 
 what he believed and expressed himself in their 
 presence. It is useless to endeavor to explain away 
 in my zeal for Mr. Lincoln as some biographers 
 have attempted to do, who never knew Mr. Lincoln 
 until after he became a great man and an idol of 
 human kind, and possibly not at all, but who refuse 
 to believe what others have related of him as to the 
 religious notions he once entertained. His early 
 religious views have passed into history, and there 
 is no use to try to cover up those blemishes, if they 
 were such, as fabrications of political or other 
 enemies. His early religious views were faulty, due 
 as it is said, to the personal influence of some of 
 his associates, and not like that in which he had been 
 raised when he was a small boy. But after he came 
 to Springfield to live and became acquainted with 
 other associates who were of a different order of 
 mind religiously, he outgrew much of that faulty 
 bias and prejudice, and yielded to a more salutary 
 influence. 
 
 The people of Springfield were church goers, and 
 Lincoln formed the habit of going to church the 
 same as others. It was yet too soon and the city too 
 small for the entertainment of theatres. Besides 
 the churches, after the capital of the State was mov- 
 ed there, always managed to maintain some of the 
 best men the ministry afforded of the respective 
 denominations, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, 
 Episcopalian, and others. Somehow Mr. Lincoln 
 
294 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 became a frequent attendant at the Presbyterian 
 church where was the venerable Dr. Smith, for quite 
 a number of years, a Scotchman, and a very strong 
 man, whose logic and whole-heartedness was well 
 nigh irresistible and entirely too much for one of 
 his age and experience to hold out against. Oc- 
 casionally he would stop in with his wife at Saint 
 Paul's Episcopal church whose rector for many 
 years was old Dr. Dresser, an able and spiritually 
 minded clergyman. These two churches were near 
 together, and she was a member of that church. 
 Saint and sinner went to church in those days when 
 infidels, agnostics and modernists were not so 
 plentiful as in these days. Shall we not accord to 
 him the same privilege and benefit that we do to 
 other folk, of a change of mind from worse to bet- 
 ter even if some things do not become just what 
 suits some of us and not quite to the liking of others. 
 It is reported that Mr. Lincoln underwent a change 
 of mind. His farewell address to the citizens of 
 Springfield indicates as much, and the writer is go- 
 ing to show from what that change was unto 
 what he afterward became in his religious opin- 
 ions. Such is the purpose of this appendix, and a 
 transcription from the later edition of Herndon and 
 Weik's two volume Work on the life of Abraham 
 Lincoln will be introduced here, which the writer 
 considers the best analysis of his religious belief he 
 has yet seen. 
 
Early Days in Illinois 29 S 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's Views on the Christian Religion 
 and the Bible 
 
 'Tn 1834, while still living in New Salem and be- 
 fore he became a lawyer, he was surrounded by a 
 class of people exceedingly liberal in matters of re- 
 ligion. Volney's 'Ruins' and Pain's 'Age of Reason' 
 passed from hand to hand, and furnished food for 
 the evening's discussion in the tavern and village 
 store. Lincoln read both these books and thus as- 
 similated them into his own being. He prepared 
 an extended essay — called by name a book — in 
 which he made an argument against Christianity, 
 striving to prove that the Bible was not inspired, 
 and therefore not of God's revelation and Jesus 
 Christ was not the Son of God. The manuscript 
 containing these audacious and comprehensive prop- 
 ositions he intended to have published or given 
 wide circulation in some other way. He carried 
 it to the store, where it was read and freely discuss- 
 ed. His friend and employer, Samuel Hill was 
 among the listeners, and seriously questioning the 
 propriety of a promising young man like Lincoln 
 fathering such unpopular notions, he snatched the 
 manuscript from his hands and thrust it into the 
 stove. The book went up in flames, and Lincoln's 
 political future was secure. But his infidelity and 
 his skeptical views were not diminished. He soon 
 removed to Springfield, where he attracted con- 
 siderable notice by his rank doctrine. Much of 
 
296 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 what he then said may be credited to his impetuosity 
 and exuberance of youth. One of his closest friends 
 whose name is withheld, narrating scenes and re- 
 viewing discussions that in 1839 took place in the 
 office of the county clerk, says : 'Sometimes Lincoln 
 bordered on to atheism. He went far that way, 
 and shocked me.***He would come into the clerk's 
 office where I and some young men were writing 
 and staying, and would bring the Bible with him ; 
 would read a chapter and argue against it. *** 
 Lincoln was enthusiastic in his infidelity. As he 
 grew older he grew more discreet ; didn't talk much 
 before strangers about religion; but to friends, close 
 and bosom ones, he was always open and avowed, 
 fair and honest to strangers, he held them off from 
 policy.' John T. Stuart, who was Lincoln's first 
 partner, substantially endorses the above. 'He was 
 an avowed and open infidel,' declares Stuart, 'and 
 against Christian beliefs and doctrines and prin- 
 ciples than I ever heard; he shocked me. I don't 
 remember the exact line of his argument; suppose 
 it was against inherent defects, so called, of the 
 Bible and on grounds of reason. Lincoln always 
 denied that Jesus was the Christ of God — denied 
 that Jesus was the Son of God as understood and 
 maintained by the Christian Church.' David Davis 
 tells us this : 'The idea that Lincoln talked to strang- 
 ers about his religion or his religious views, or made 
 such speeches and remarks as are published, is to me 
 
Early Days in Illinois 297 
 
 absurd. I knew the man so well; he was the most 
 reticent, secretive man I ever saw or expect to see. 
 He had no faith, in the Christian sense of the term — 
 had faith in laws, principles, causes and effects.' 
 Another man (William H. Hannah) testifies as 
 follows : 'Mr. Lincoln told me that he was a kind of 
 immortalist; that he never could bring himself to be- 
 lieve in eternal punishment; that man lived but a 
 little while here ; and that if enternal punishment were 
 man's doom, he should spend that little life in vig- 
 ilant and ceaseless preparation by never-ending 
 prayer.' Another intimate friend (I. W. Keys) 
 furnishes this : 'In my intercourse with Mr. Lincoln 
 I learned that he believed in a Creator of all things, 
 who had neither beginning nor end, possessing all 
 power and wisdom, established a principle in obe- 
 dience to which worlds move and are upheld,animal 
 nature and vegetable life come into existence. A 
 reason he gave for his belief was that in view of 
 order and harmony of all nature which we behold, 
 it would have been more miraculous to have come 
 about by chance than to have been created and ar- 
 ranged by some great thinking power. As to the 
 Christian theory that Christ is God or equal to the 
 Creator, he said it had to be taken for granted ; for by 
 the test of reason we might become infidels on that 
 subject, for evidence of Christ's divinity came to us 
 in a somewhat doubtful shape; but that the system 
 of Christianity was an ingenious one at least and 
 perhaps was calculated to do good.' 
 
298 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Mr. Herndon says, in speaking further of Mr. 
 Lincoln's views on the subject of Christianity, the 
 latter confided the details of his religious belief to 
 Mr. Jesse W. Fell who, in the biography given him, 
 furnishes a more elaborate account of his religion 
 than anyone else. I give it here as I find it in what 
 his law partner has left on record in his work on the 
 life of Lincoln : "If there were any traits of charact- 
 er that stood out in bold relief in the person of Mr. 
 Lincoln, they were those of truth and candor. He 
 was utterly incapable of insincerity or professing 
 views on this or any other subject he did not en- 
 tertain. Knowing such to be his true character, 
 that insincerity, much more duplicity, were traits 
 wholly foreign to his nature, many of his old friends 
 were not a little surprised at finding in some of the 
 biographies of the great man statements concern- 
 ing his religious opinions so utterly at variance 
 with his known sentiments. True, he may have 
 changed or modified these sentiments * after his re- 
 
 The matter of the note will explain itself. Mr. Nicolay was 
 private secretary to Mr. Lincoln at Washington from Springfield. 
 Friend Herndon : 
 
 Mr. Lincoln did not to my knowledge in any way 
 change his religions ideas, opinions or helief from the time he left 
 Springfield to the day of his death. T do not know just what they 
 were, never having heard him explain them in detail ; hut I am 
 very sure he gave no 'outward indication of his mind having under- 
 gone any change in that regard while here. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Jno.G. Nicolay, 
 Note hy the Author: 
 
 Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Herndon were in intimate relation as law 
 partner^ for nearly twenty years, and knew each other thoroughly. 
 It is very prohahle that the! latter knew Mr. Lincoln better than any 
 other man. The writer knew Mr. Herndon's family and himself not 
 intimately, but well enough to know that Mr. Lincoln had no warm. 
 er or better friend nnywhere th?n his law partner; no one who would 
 do more for him that was within his power or who would say leas 
 
Early Days in Illinois 299 
 
 moval from among us, though this is hardly re- 
 concilable with the history of the man, and his en- 
 tire devotion to public matters during his four years 
 residence at the national capital. It is possible, 
 however, that this may be the proper solution of 
 this conflict of opinions; or it may be that with no 
 intention on the part of anyone to mislead the 
 public mind, those who have represented him as 
 believing in the popular theological views of the 
 times may have misrepresented him, as experience 
 shows to be quite common where no special effort 
 has been made to attain critical accuracy on a sub- 
 ject of this nature. This is the more probable from 
 the well-known fact, that Mr. Lincoln seldom com- 
 municated to any one his views on this subject ; but 
 be this as it may, I have no hesitation whatever in 
 saying that whilst he held many opinions in common 
 with the great mass of Christian believers, he did 
 
 against him which could do him injury, or who would misrepresent 
 him wilfully in any way, even ©speqially, in the matter of his re- 
 ligion. Moreover, he endeavored, in collecting materials for his 
 work on the life of Lincoln, to arrive at the exact truth ahout him, 
 was more pains-taking — an indefatigable worker — in his researches 
 after information about the man in that which was the truth in order 
 not to misrepresent him than all his biographers put together so 
 far as the writer knows. The above note from Mr. Nicolay shows his 
 careful painstaking. The writer knew Mr. Nicolay, and was ren- 
 dered a personal favor by him during the first part of his ^tay in 
 Paris, France. Mr. Nicolay was then U. S. Consul at Paris. The 
 writer sought as a matter of personal favor a life membership to all 
 the privileges of the Bibliotheque Impiriate except that of the an- 
 cient Manuscripts, maps, and charts. To procure such a favor re- 
 quired a letter of introduction and recommendations, as it had to 
 be voted upon by the trustees of the institution. It was then that 
 he sought Mr. Nicolay. He was a personal friend of my aunt's 
 family, and knew of me through them back in Springfield. He 
 furnished me with the favors asked, which procured the coveted 
 privileges. 
 
300 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 not believe in what are regarded as the orthodox or 
 evangelical views of Christianity. 
 
 "On the innate depravity of man, the character 
 and office of the great Head of the Church, the 
 atonement, the infallibility of the written revelation, 
 the performance of miracles, the nature and design 
 of present and future rewards and punishment (as 
 they are popularly called), and many other sub- 
 jects he held opinions utterly at variance with what 
 are usually taught in the Church. I should say 
 that his expressed views on these and kindred topics 
 were such as, in the estimation of most believers, 
 would place him outside the principles and practices 
 and the spirit of his whole life were of the very 
 kind we universally agree to call Christian ; and T 
 think this conclusion is in no wise affected by the 
 circumstances that he never attached himself to 
 any religious society whatever. 
 
 "His religious views were eminently practical, 
 and are summed up, as I think, in these two prop- 
 ositions : the Father-hood of God and the brother- 
 hood of man. He fully believed in a superintending 
 Providence that guides and controls the operations of 
 the world, but maintained that law and order, and 
 not their violation or suspension, are the appointed 
 means by which this Providence is exercised." 
 
 "I will not attempt any specification of either his 
 belief or disbelief on various religious topics, as de- 
 rived from conversations with him at different times 
 
Early Days in Illinois 301 
 
 during a considerable period; but as conveying a 
 general view of his religious or theological opinions, 
 will state the following facts. Some eight or ten 
 years prior to his death, in conversing with him 
 upon the subject, the writer took occasion to refer, 
 in terms of approbation, to the sermons and writings 
 generally of Dr. W. E. Channing; and finding he 
 was considerably interested in the statements I made 
 of the opinions held by that author, I proposed to 
 present him (Lincoln) a copy of Channing's entire 
 works, which I soon after did. Subsequently the 
 works of Theodore Parker, furnished him as he 
 informed me, by his friend and law-partner, Wil- 
 liam H. Herndon, became naturally the topics of 
 conversation with us ; and though far from believing 
 there was harmony of views on his part with either 
 of these authors, yet they were generally much ad- 
 mired and approved by him. 
 
 "No religious views with him seemed to find any 
 favor except of practical and rationalistic order ; and 
 if, from my recollection on the subject, I was called 
 upon to designate an author whose views most 
 nearly resembled Mr. Lincoln's on the subject, I 
 would say that author was Theodore Parker." 
 
 "The last witness to testify before this case is 
 submitted to the reader is no less a person than Mrs. 
 Lincoln herself. In a statement at a time and under 
 circumstances detailed in a subsequent chapter," says 
 Mr. Herndon in his work on Lincoln, "she said this :" 
 
302 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 'Mr. Lincoln had no faith and no hope in the usual 
 acceptation 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 sub- 
 ject 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 was never 
 a technical Christian. 
 
 I now give what Mr. Herndon has stated in his 
 conclusion upon Mr. Lincoln's belief, which is a 
 brief summary of what he understood his religious 
 belief to be; after which, I shall conclude with the 
 statement of a Baptist minister, which has lately 
 come to my knowledge from another source, and 
 then I am done with this subject. 
 
 "No man had a stronger or firmer faith in Provi- 
 dence — God — than Mr. Lincoln, but the continued 
 use by him late in life of the word God must not be 
 interpreted to mean that he believed in a personal 
 God. In 1854 he asked me to erase the Word God 
 from a speech which I had written and read to him 
 for criticism because my language indicated a per- 
 sonal God, whereas he insisted no such personality 
 ever existed. 
 
 "My own testimony, however, in regard to Mr. 
 Lincoln's religious views may invite discussion. The 
 world has always insisted on making an orthodox 
 Christian of him, and to analyze his sayings or sound 
 his beliefs is best to break the idol. It only re- 
 
Early Days in Illinois 303 
 
 mains to say that, whether orthodox or not, he be- 
 lieved in God and immortality; and even if he ques- 
 tioned the existence of future eternal punishment 
 he hoped to find a rest from trouble and a heaven 
 beyond the grave. If at anytime in his life he was 
 skeptical of the divine origin of the Bible he ought 
 not for that reason to be condemed; for he ac- 
 cepted the practical precepts of that great book as 
 binding alike upon his head and conscience. The 
 benevolence of his impulses, the seriousness of his 
 convictions, and the nobility of his character are 
 evidences unimpeachable that his soul was ever filled 
 with the exalted purity and sublime faith of natural 
 religion." 
 
 I give in closing this account of the different ones 
 who have given their opinions concerning Mr. Lin- 
 coln's religious views and his estimate of the Bible, 
 the first paragraph of a letter from Rev. James 
 Lemen to his son Dr. Moses P. Lemen of DuQuoin, 
 Illinois, relative to some things about Mr. Douglas 
 and incidentally about Mr. Lincoln in connection 
 with the religious views and opinions of the former : 
 "My dear son: 
 
 I am pleased to learn that you are studying 
 Senator Stephen A. Douglas' life history, as he was 
 not only a remarkable man, but was a very warm 
 friend to me. I was thrown with him and Abraham 
 Lincoln a great deal in Springfield and elsewhere, 
 and each was a very near and dear friend of mine. 
 
304 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 As to Abraham Lincoln, I was his confidential re- 
 ligious adviser for many years, and was one of 
 the only two ministers who ever heard him pray, 
 and I now have a copy of one of his most beautiful 
 prayers. Lincoln's temperament and moods in- 
 clined him more to religious matters, but Douglas 
 as I know from! his own expressions, was a firm be- 
 liever in the Christian religion and the divinity of 
 the Scriptures; but he was not a sectarian." Quoted 
 from Mr. Stevens' Life of Douglas, Journal of the 
 Illinois State Historical Society, Nos. 3-4, page 655. 
 
6es -c 
 
 (yw,trv<j