From tfie R^>e^ Compromise in 1 $$4 until ^m dose of the OvU War in 1863 j^jii.ius^ LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER "O slow to smite and swift to spare, Gentle and merciful and JUST! Who, in the fear of God, didst bear The sword of power— A NATION'S TRUST!" — William Cullen Bryant. SUPPOSED DIARY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN From the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 Until April 14, 1865 By MILTON R. SCOTT A UNION SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR Where there is no vision the people perish. — Proverbs XXIX, 18 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that to secure these rights governments are insti- tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." — Declaration of Independence. Newark, Ohio 1913 LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are en- gaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting place of the men who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have conse- crated far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be here dedicated to the unfinished work, which they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is for us rather to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain — that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH ! Copyright, 1913, by Milton R. Scott. LETTER TO MRS. BIXBY OF BOSTON, MASS. Washington, November 21, 1864. Dear Madam : — I have been shown on the files of the War Department a statement from the Adjutant General of Massachu- setts, that you are the mother of five sons, who have died glor- iously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine, which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I can not refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you the cherished memory of the loved and lost and the solemn PRIDE that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours sincerely, A. Lincoln. COLUMBUS, OHIO: THE F. J. HEER PRINTING CO. 19 13 L, A>COA. /'J CONTENTS PAGE Chap. I. Retrospect and Prospect : A Vision of Moses and Washington 5 Chap. II. Repeal of the Missouri Compromise 9 Chap. III. "Freedom National, Slavery Sectional" 13 Chap. IV. "They Also Serve Who Only Stand and Wait!" 16 Chap. V. Campaign of 1856 21 Chap. VI. The Dred Scott Decision 26 Chap. VII. The Lecompton Constitution 28 Chap. VIII. "The Freeport Heresy" 34 Chap. IX. The "Irrepressible Conflict" 39 Chap. X. Campaign of 1800 : "The End of the Power of Slavery in the United States!" 41 Chap. XI. Secession — Secession — Secession 52 Chap. XII. Farewell to Springfield 59 Chap. XIII. Exit Buchanan — Enters Lincoln 63 Chap. XIV. Civil War — Civil War — Civil War m Chap. XV. "On to Richmond !"— and Back to Wash- ington 75 Chap. XVI. McClellan Called to Washington 80 Chap. XVII. The Sleeping Sentinel 83 Chap. XVIII. "All Quiet on the Potomac !" 85 Chap. XIX McClellan's Peninsular Campaign 91 Chap. XX. Antietam and Emancipation — and the Last of McClellan 98 Chap. XXI. The Tragedy of Fredericksburg 102 Chap. XXII. Must the Cabinet be Reconstructed? 103 Chap. XXIII. Murfreesboro (or Stone River) and Chan- cellorsville 105 Chap. XXIV. Vicksburg and Gettysburg!.... 109 Chap. XXV. Chicamauga — Lookout Mountain — Mission- ary Ridge! 113 Chap. XXVI. Wilderness — Spottsylvania — Cold Harbor — Atlanta — Cedar Creek! 117 Chap. XXVII. Battle of Nashville and Sherman's March to the Sea ! 124 Chap. XXVIII. Fort Fisher — Richmond — Petersburg — Five Forks — Appomattox! 126 Appendix 134 (3) "THE FIRST AAIERICAN." Nature, they say, doth dote, And can not make a man. Save on some worn-out plan, Repeating us by rote. For HIM her old-world moulds aside she threw, And, choosing sweet clay from the breast Of the unexhausted West, With stuff untainted, made a hero new, Wise, steadfast in the strength of God — and TRUE. * * * * How beautiful to see Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed. Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead ; One whose meek flock the people joyed to be. Not lured by any cheat of birth, But by his clear-grained human worth, And brave old wisdom of sincerity ! :(: :^ :}c :|: His was no lonely mountain-peak of mind, Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars, A sea-mark now, now lost in vapor's blind ; Broad-prairie rather, genial, level-lined ; Fruitful and friendly for all human kind ; Yet also nigh to Heaven and loved of loftiest stars ! * * * * Our children shall behold his fame; The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, New birth of our new soil, the first American ! — ^James Russell Lowell. There was the roughness of the frontier upon Mr. Lincoln ; his clothes hung unthought of on his big angular frame; he broke often, in the midst of the weightiest affairs of state, into broad and boisterous humor; he did his work with a sort of careless heavi- ness, as if disinclined to action; but there was a singular gift of INSIGHT in him from early boyhood. He had been bred in straitened, almost abject poverty; and yet he had made even that life yield him more than other boys get from formal schooling. He had made a career for himself in Illinois, culminating in his debates with Douglas, debates to which the whole country paused to listen; and he was ready to be President by the time he became President. He called Mr. Seward and Mr. Chase, the accepted leaders of his party, into his cabinet; but he himself determined the course and policy of his administration. — Woodrow Wilson. (4) SUPPOSED DIARY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN CHAPTER I.* Retrospect and Prospect. — Vision of Moses and Wash- ington. Springfield, III., Sunday, January i, 1854. — I have never been in the habit of raking up my past life on New Year's day and forming a series of good resohitions in reference to my future conduct, but this morning I awoke several hours before sunrise and could not go to sleep again for reflecting on my past and wondering what my future is to be. I attended the usual services at the Presbyterian church, of which my wife is a member, in the hope of get- ting relief from the thoughts and reflections that were op- pressing me, but heara instead a very earnest discourse from the text, "Be Strong and of a Good Courage." While the sermon was addressed to people in all conditions of life, and I had no reason to suppose that Dr. Smith had me in his mind, my reflections of the morning were greatly in- tensified and continued with me throughout the rest of the day, so that I could do little else but review my past and strive in vain to forecast my future. I suppose I may consider myself a successful, if not a highly distinguished lawyer, and I have every reason to believe that the firm of Lincoln and Herndon will have as large a practice in the future as we desire ; but I must con- fess that the practice of law has failed to give me the com- plete satisfaction that I wish. My legal reputation is cer- tainly as good as I deserve, and the respect and good will that I have obtained from the people of Springfield and * U. S. Senator Cullom, of Illinois, to whom this first chapter was submitted, says of it, "Much of the article is substantially Lincoln's own words, as I remember them." The author of this book, however, lays no claim to an imi- tation of Mr. Lincoln's peculiar style of speech and composition; he only hopes that he has revealed the mind and soul of the great President in some measure at least. (5) 6 Supposed Diary of President Lincoln other parts of the state is something that I prize very highly ; but there are times when in spite of my professional suc- cess and reputation, my life seems almost useless, and I long for a chance to do something that will give me more complete satisfaction and earn a reputation that posterity will always cherish. Ever since my youthful days I have had friends to flatter me that I would some day occupy a distinguished position in the world, some of them going so far as to say that I would live to be President of the United States; and Mrs. Lincoln has frequently declared that I would yet be a greater man than Douglas before I died, and that I was more likely to be elected President than he was ; but if I have ever cherished such hopes and ambitions myself, they seem far enough from being realized. I have always been more or less active in politics, and I can truly say that I have tried to serve the whole people as well as to build up the Whig party and gratify my own ambition ; but my political career — if I may claim to have had such a career — has been an almost complete disappointment and failure. Four terms in the Illinois Legislature and one term in Congress tells the whole story — and to how little purpose or profit. I stumped it for Gen. Harrison in 1840 and greatly rejoiced in his victory over Van Buren, but his early death and the course of Tyler's administration deprived us of all the fruits of our victory. I also stumped the state for Henry Clay in 1844, and had to share in the pain and mortification which came to all his supporters at seeing him defeated by a man like James K. Polk. In the Taylor cam- paign of 1848, I was again a candidate for elector-at-large on the Whig ticket, and although we could not carry Il- linois for old Zach., we had the satisfaction of seeing Gen. Cass defeated and our candidate placed in the White House. I have always believed that Taylor's death was a great loss to the country, especially when I remember the firm stand he took in favor of the admission of California as a free state without any compromise or concession to the slave states. If he had lived, I can not help thinking the Whig party would have carried the election of 1852 and would now be in control of the government instead of being so near bankruptcy as we seem. I was again placed on the Whig electoral ticket in 1852 ; but all my efforts to sustain my own interest in General Scott, the conqueror of Alexico, Retrospect and Prospect and to secure votes for him were in vain. And ever since the election of Pierce by so large a majority of both the popular and the electoral vote, I have felt very little hope for the Whig party to which I have been so fondly attached. In fact, I can hardly see any future for it and no political future for myself. Clay and Webster are both dead, and no leaders have risen to take their place. The country does not want another National Bank; and the discovery of California gold has so stimulated business that there is very little complaint over the low tarifif of 1846, so it would he useless for us to enter the next presidential campaign with the same platform on which we have previously stood. And even if the Whig party is not as dead as the Democrats claim it is, the Democratic majority is so great in Illinois and Douglas has such a hold on the people, that there seems to be no chance for me in the political field. I am not a subscriber to Garrison's Liberator, but a friend in Boston occasionally sends me a copy which I am pretty sure to read in whole or in part. While I think he is engaged in a hopeless crusade and fear that the agitation of the Slavery question by him and other abolitionists is doing more harm than good, I can not help admiring his courage and sincerity. I have not yet read Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but I can see that it is having a great influence on the minds of the Northern people — and who can tell what the result of all the agitation will be? We Whigs followed the example of the Democrats and declared in our platform of 1852 that the compromise measures of 1850 were a final settlement of the slavery question, but the feel- ing against the fugitive slave law is constantly increasing, and the difficulty of enforcing it in the northern states be- comes more and" more apparent. Still as slavery is a state and not a national institution, I do not see how the Free Soil party can ever hope to secure its abolition except through the actions of the states where it now exists. My own view has always been that the institution is so contrary to the Declaration of Independence which I have always so highly revered, and in fact so contrary to all the principles on which our government was founded, that if its extension into our territories could be prevented, the Southern states would eventually realize its injustice and bad policy and provide for its extinction. Happily the gen- 8 Supposed Diary of President Lincoln eral government has already prohibited it north of the com- promise Hne of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, north latitude, so that the great northwest or "Platte country" now occupied by Indian tribes will in the course of future years be inhabited by settlers devoted to freedom and free soil from all parts of the country, and we may therefore hope that the friends of slavery will have to be satisfied with its present limits, if they do not see the wisdom of providing for its extinction. I have heard it predicted by some of my pro-slavery acquaintainces in Illinois that the Missouri compromise of 1820 will some day be repealed; but I can not think it possible that Congress will ever pass such a measure, or that any President will ever give it his approval. Springfield, III., January 2, 1854. — Last night I dreamed I was again a boy of ten years, standing by the bedside of my dying mother; and as she laid her hand on my head, she said to me in tones so clear that the sound of her voice still remains in my ear : "Abe, I have always taught you to be a good boy, and you have always been a good boy to me, and now I want to tell you that you must grow up to be a good and strong man, so that when I look down on you from my home in heaven, I will feel very proud to know I was the mother who gave you birth." Then my dream suddenly changed, and I was a full grown man at the foot of a steep mountain on the summit of which I could clearly see the faces and forms of Moses and Washington, as they beckoned me to climb the moun- tain and stand beside them. It was a hard and painful ascent and severely taxed both my patience and my strength ; but when I reached the rock on which they stood, each of them gave me a cordial grasp of his hand, and after speak- ing my name, suddenly disappeared from my sight. Then I awoke and have tried in vain to answer the question why, even in a dream Moses, the deliverer of a race from slavery, and Washington, the father of his country, should thus recognize me by name and invite me to stand beside them on the summit of so high a mountain. Repeal of the Missouri Compromise CHAPTER II. Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Springfield^ January 6, 1854. — I notice in a Chicago paper that Judge Douglas, as chairman of the Senate Com- mittee on territories, has introduced a bill for the organiza- tion of the Nebraska territory, accompanying it with the statement that his committee did not feel called on to dis- cuss the controverted questions whether Congress had any rightful authority to legislate on the subject of slavery in the territories and whether the constitution secured the right of every citizen to take slave property as well as all other kinds of property into the territories ; but at the same time his report contains the wholly new proposition that the compromise measures of 1850 are to be considered as based on the principle that all questions pertaining to slavery are to be left to the people of the territories acting through their chosen representatives. What Douglas proposes to do with the Missouri Compromise of 1820 does not appear in either his bill or his accompanying report; but I think he will have to meet that question one way or the otlier before he secures action on his bill by either the Senate or the House of Representatives. Springfield, January 20, 1854. — It has come to pass as I expected ; Douglas will have to recognize the Missouri Compromise as the fixed law of the country or provide for its repeal in his bill. Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, although a Whig, has given notice that when Douglas' bill comes before the Senate for action, he will offer an amend- ment providing that the provision in the Missouri Com- promise of 1820 prohibiting slavery in all the territory of the Louisiana Purchase north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, shall not apply to the territory contemplated in this act, which would virtually repeal the Missouri Compromise and open the Nebraska territory to the institution of slavery. This will be a hard question for Douglas to decide, and whatever decision he may make will have a very important bearing for better or worse on his presidential aspirations and his political future, and also on the welfare of the country. Only a year or so ago he declared the Missouri Compromise a binding contract; 10 Supposed Diary of President Lincoln but no one can tell whether he will adhere to that view, if he is led to think it will conflict with his presidential aspirations. Springfield, January 25, 1854. — The die is cast so far as Douglas is concerned. He has accepted Dixon's amendment and reported a bill repealing the jNIissouri Com- promise. His new bill provides for two territories, one lying directly west of Alissouri to be known as Kansas, and the northern portion to be known as Nebraska. With reference to slavery he declares in his bill that it is based on the principles established by the compromise measures of 1850, and that the "true intent and meaning of the act is not to legislate slavery into any territory or State of the United States or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way — "subject only to the Constitution of the United States." And yet neither Douglas nor any supporter of his bill could find anything in the compromise measures of 1850 denying the right of Congress to prohibit slavery in any territory or establish- ing any principle or policy for any other territories but Utah and New Mexico, in which the question of slavery was left for the decision of their inhabitants. A fatal defect in his bill is that it does not state whether the people of Kansas and Nebraska may deter- mine the question of slavery while under a territorial gov- ernment, or must wait until they frame a constitution and are admitted into the Union as states. Rumor has it that Douglas and the Southern leaders have mutually agreed to let this question be decided by the Supreme Court, and that herein lies the significance of the clause, "subject only to the Constitution of the United States." What breakers ahead there may be for Douglas on this issue Heaven only knows. To me it seems that he is only treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath for himself and his party. Springfield, February 12, 1854. — This is my forty- fifth birthday; and having no cases on hand that demanded immediate attention, I have lain on the lounge in our office and given myself up to pretty much the same reflections that occupied my mind on New Year's day, and to some extent ever since. At last I have reached what is supposed to be the prime of life, and although my health is good, I must Repeal of the Missouri Compromise 11 face the fact that henceforth I will have to travel the down grade in physical vigor. Besides the ambition I have always cherished in some measure, I have often longed to render some service to the country that would give me the satis- faction of making my life truly useful and would be grate- fully remembered by the people when I am no more on the earth. At this time I am almost "possessed" with the desire to do something that would prevent the passage of Douglas' Nebraska bill by Congress. But as I am not a member of either the Senate or the lower house of Congress, alas I can do nothing. So I can only console myself with the reflection that if it becomes a law I will be in no manner responsible for the evil results that will surely follow. Springfield, February 28, 1854. — And so our State Legislature has adopted a resolution indorsing Douglas' Nebraska bill, although when they first assembled less than half a dozen members were in favor of it. But under the party lash and Douglas' personal influence the Democratic majority (as far as their influence extends) have made themselves parties to this great wrong, if Divine Providence permits it to be consummated. Springfield, March 4, 1854. — It is only a year since President Pierce congratulated the country on the final settlement of the slavery question by the compromise meas- ures of 1850, and only three months since in his annual message he gave us the most positive assurance that the agitation of this question would never be reopened by any act of his administration ; and yet last night — at the fit HOUR OF MIDNIGHT ! — a Democratic Senate passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and opening the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to the institution of slavery by the decisive vote of thirty- seven to fourteen. It is hardly likely the Senate would have done this without a promise from Pierce that he would sign the bill, if it also passes the House ; but we can only wait and see. I have been much interested in reading the debates on this bill and the arguments urged against it by Seward, Chase, Wade, Sumner and others. I am not sure that I could have added anything to their points, but the desire to participate in the debate and show the country the fallacy of Douglas' "popular sovereignty" doctrine has been 12 Supposed Diary of President Lincoln very great, and it has been hard for me to see a measure so contrary to the principles of our government adopted by the Senate, while I had no opportunity to raise my voice against it. I still have hope that the House will vote it down ; but the power of the administration is very great ; and no one can tell how far it will be exercised to carry through this measure of Senator Douglas without regard to its elTect on the peace and welfare of the country. Springfield, May 25, 1854. — After considering Douglas' bill nearly three months, the House of Represen- tatives finally passed it by a vote of one hundred and thirteen to one hundred and ten, and it has been duly signed by President Pierce, notwithstanding all his pledges to do nothing that would reopen the agitation of the slavery question. It is some satisfaction to learn that as many as forty-four Northern Democrats voted against this bill and not one Northern Whig in favor of it. I have always been slow to attribute improper motives to my political opponents ; but if Pierce was sincere in the promises he made in his Inaugural and in his annual message to Congress, his hand must have shook and HIS KNEES smote TOGETHER whcn he wrotc his name in approval of this bill. And how blind he must be to its efifect on his administration and his party. I have never claimed any "gift of prophesy," but I may safely predict that Pierce's own party will be too wise in their generation to nominate him for President in 1856. Springfield, June 20, 1854. — Ever since the passage of Douglas' Nebraska bill I have been wondering what he thinks of his achievement and what his forecast of his political prospects may be. Knowing his great ambition to be President, I have not been greatly surprised at his efforts to please the Democratic leaders of the slave states ; but he certainly fails to appreciate the righteous indigna- tion which his measure has aroused in the North, and how can he hope to be elected by the South alone? Only last night I dreamed I saw him riding a magnificent steed and going forth to do battle at the head of an army with drums beating and colors flying. But in the efifort to make a movement against the enemy he was fighting, he suddenly approached a deep ditch into which he and his horse both fell, when his army quickly scattered in all directions and "Freedom National, Slavery Sectional" 13 left him to his fate. "Such stuff as dreams are made of," 'tis true, but why should such a dream come to me in the dead hours of the night? Springfield, June 24, 1854. — Have just written a letter to my good friend Joshua Speed, who formerly lived in Springfield but now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, in which I freely expressed my views on the slavery question. I also reminded him of our steamboat trip from Louisville to Cairo in the year 1841 and of the impression that was made on my mind by seeing a number of negro slaves on the boat chained together and carried as mere frieght on their way to the southern market. I would certainly be an anti-slavery man and would oppse the extension of the in- stitution into our free territory, if I knew no more of its evil character than I saw on that trip. Speed generously gave me office room and bedroom over his store in Springfield when I was admitted to the bar in the year 1836, and our relations ever since have ever been the most cordial and friendly, but I do not think he realizes as I do the extent to which Congress has departed from the fundamental principles of the government in the passage of Douglas' Nebraska bill. CHAPTER HL "Freedom National, Slavery Sectional." Springfield, July 4, 1854. — Our national birthday is being celebrated throughout the State in the usual manner, but there are fears and forebodings in many people's minds that can not be concealed or denied. Here in Springfield and generally in the northern part of the state the anti- Nebraska sentiment seems overwhelming ; but in the south- ern portion the prevailing sentiment is very dififerent. We Whigs have been in quite a pickle, not knowing whether we had better try to maintain our organization and nominate our own candidates for Congress and the Legislature or join hands with the anti-Nebraska Democrats and try to secure the restoration of the Missouri Compromise line by electing men who are opposed to Douglas' bill. For my own part I would willingly surrender all my devotion to the Whig party, if I could make myself in the least degree effective in securing a Legislature that would elect an anti- 14 Supposed Diary of President Lincoln Nebraska man to the United States Senate in place of James Shields, who voted for the Nebraska bill against his better judgment in order to please Douglas, and also effective in sending an anti-Nebraska delegation to the lower house of Congress that would undo the work of Richardson and the other Democratic members of our delegation. But if we make a fusion with the anti-Nebraska Democrats, there are some pro-slavery Whigs who will vote the Democratic ticket. However, I am hopeful there will be enough anti- Nebraska men in both parties who will put principle above party and overturn the Democratic majority in the State. And it now looks as if the same result will be secured in other Northern States. The Free Soil party, whose influ- ence I have generally regarded as more useful to the pro- slavery cause than to anti-slavery, seem willing to give up their party organization and assist in the election of anti- Nebraska men to Congress. The 150,000 votes they gave to John P. Hale in 1852 can not fail to turn the scale in many states. Springfield, July 6, 1854. — Herndon and I are fre- quently taken to task by our fellow-lawyers for making such low charges for our services, and being so "easy" in col- lecting our fees ; but it is simply impossible for me to have any ambition about amassing riches for myself beyond what is necessary for the support of my family and a reason- able provision against old age. If I had always charged such fees as most other lawyers charge, I might by this time have been able to call myself a rich man, but what satisfaction would that be to me? What is large wealth, anyhow, but a superfluity of the things v^e don't NEED.? And I have sometimes thought it was chiefly valu- ■ able as a means of keeping other people from getting the things they do need. And I have noticed that while the all-wise Creator allows some people to obtain a very large portion of the earth's riches while others can hardly secure the necessities of life, it seems to me He does not permit the rich to secure greater happiness than the poor as a rule. I also hold that lawyers as well as doctors and ministers should consider themselves public servants and should not refuse to appear in court in any case of clear merit, even if they have no hope of obtaining their fees. "Freedom National, Slavery Sectional" 15 Springfield, July 8, 1854. — In pursuance of a call signed by more than ten thousand voters, the anti-Nebraska men of Michigan met "under the oaks" at Jackson in that state two or three days ago and organized themselves as a party under the name of "Republican." After demanding the restoration of the Missouri Compromise and the abo- lition of slavery in the District of Columbia, they proceeded to nominate a full state ticket with Kinsley S. Bingham at its head as their candidate for Governor. If a new party is to be formed for the conflict that is before us I know no better name for it than the one they chose. Springfield, August 10, 1854. — Notwithstanding the large majority Pierce received over Scott in Iowa in 1852, the election recently held in that state resulted in a decided anti-Nebraska victory, Mr. Grimes being elected Governor by a handsome majority. I am hoping, perhaps hoping against hope, for a similar result in Illinois in November; but I can not expect so complete a revolution, as there are so many emigrants from the South in the Southern part of the state to which we have given the name of "Egypt." Springfield, October 10, 1854. — The election of James Pollock, the Whig and anti-Nebraska candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, with a majority of anti-Nebraska congressmen in that state and Indiana, in addition to the election of an entire anti-Nebraska delegation in Ohio by a majority of 3,000 and over in each district, gives me great satisfaction and increases my hope of an anti-Ne- braska victory in Illinois in November. I am aware, how- ever, that the result in these states, particularly in Ohio, was largely due to the "Know Nothing" organization, whose SECRET OATHS AND PROSCRIPTION ON ACCOUNT OF RELIGION OR FOREIGN BIRTH I CAN NEVER INDORSE. Whatever prin- ciples or measures I advocate, I want to do everything in the full light of day and before the eyes of all the people; for I hold that to proscribe any man on account of his religion or his foreign birth is contrary to the Declaration of Independence and to all m,y notions of justice and fairness. Peoria, Ills., October 16, 1854. — Douglas spoke at this place for three hours today in defense of his Nebraska bill and his doctrine of popular sovereignty, — which doc- trine, when duly interpreted means that if one man wants 16 Supposed Diary of President Lincoln to make a slave of another man, no third man has a right to object — and I repHed this evening in a speech of about the same length in an address which I had prepared with considerable care and study. I know full well that I have no such gifts of oratory as Douglas has ; but the attention and appreciation of the people were very gratifying, and at the close Douglas himself told me my arguments against his bill were harder to answer than any he had encountered in the United States Senate. I did not, however, tell him how I longed to be a member of the Senate and to par- ticipate in the debates on his bill when it was before that body. My friends all tell me that my speeches in this cam- paign are more effective than any they ever heard in pre- vious campaigns. I suppose this is because I am seeking to convince them, and I believe I am convincing most of them, that the passage of the Nebraska bill was a great WRONG, and not merely an unnecessary and unwise measure. Springfield, October 20, 1854. — The recent anti- Nebraska state convention held in this place was composed of Whi