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 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 HIS AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL WEITINGS 
 
 NOW BROUGHT TOGETHER FOR THE 
 
 FIRST TIME, AND PREFACED WITH 
 
 AN INTRODUCTORY COMMENT BY 
 
 PAUL M. ANGLE 
 
 NEW BRUNSWICK 
 
 RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 19 4 8 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1947, BY PAUL M. ANGLE 
 
 ALL EIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 PRINTED IN U. S. A. 
 
e,o#«2rf 
 
 AN APPRECIATORY FOREWORD 
 
 This collection of the principal autobiographical writings 
 of Abraham Lincoln provides for the general reader a new 
 and absorbing insight into Lincoln's mind and heart. Even 
 the Lincoln scholar who always has known of the existence 
 of these writings in scattered sources will be grateful to Mr. 
 Angle for his good judgment in bringing them together be- 
 tween the covers of one book. Here in Lincoln 's own words 
 are the facts of his life presented with a straightforward 
 simplicity and a dogged honesty so typical of the man. The 
 thrill of these writings is in their homely language, their 
 total absence of pretension, their reflection of the modesty 
 and humility of this man who would have been the last to 
 believe in his own eternal greatness. One can almost see Lin- 
 coln with his feet twisted around the legs of a chair, his lips 
 sucking the tip of a pen, a perplexed frown on his big, plain 
 face as he contemplated the task of setting down for a cam- 
 paign biography the important events of his life. What, 
 after all, could he say that seemed significant I Throughout 
 his life he had been called an ugly man— but everybody 
 knew that. In the end he set down the facts as he saw them, 
 doubtless calling it good riddance when the job was done. 
 This was his record as he saw it and if it didn't add up to 
 much there wasn't anything he could do to help it. And so 
 the man who was to inspire more books than any other 
 American had his say about himself. 
 
 v 
 
AN APPRECIATORY FOREWORD 
 
 The position of eminence which Mr. Angle holds among 
 Lincoln experts has been richly deserved. Those of us who 
 know Paul applauded the entirely fitting tribute paid him 
 recently in the columns of The Atlantic Monthly when he 
 was characterized as combining the knowledge of a scholar 
 with the open-minded fairness of a gentleman. In all of his 
 work— and for a relatively young man he has produced 
 more good books than anyone could have reasonably ex- 
 pected—the quality of the scholar and the gentleman is ir- 
 resistibly there. He simply cannot avoid infusing vitality 
 into everything he does, for like Lincoln he never pretends 
 to be anything other than himself and the result is perfectly 
 satisfying to everyone. I could append at this point an im- 
 pressive list of his published writings or tell of his distin- 
 guished accomplishments first as Executive Secretary of 
 the Abraham Lincoln Association, then as Librarian of the 
 Illinois State Library, and now as Director of the Chicago 
 Historical Society, but if a phrase may be borrowed from 
 Macaulay, Paul Angle is more than a book in breeches. 
 Really to know Paul Angle one should walk with him 
 through Lincoln Park and feel his love as a Midwesterner 
 for the sprawling, rowdy, overspoiled, wonderful metropolis 
 that Chicago is to him. Or one should try to get him to give 
 up and go to bed, for he seems to begrudge the pitiful sub- 
 stitute sleep offers when good companionship and lively con- 
 versation are crowding the hours ridiculously close to dawn. 
 Or one should share with him the adventure of work and 
 know the deep satisfaction of a mind that cannot be budged 
 one inch beyond its own scrupulous standards of integrity. 
 He tells well a story on himself —a sure test of unaffected- 
 ness. 
 
 V% 
 
AN APPRECIATORY FOREWORD 
 
 This book offers no claim of being anything more than a 
 neglected but nonetheless appealing approach to an under- 
 standing of Lincoln. There is not a word in it that has not 
 withstood the closest scrutiny of modern historical scholar- 
 ship. The letter of Lincoln to John Coulter is here repro- 
 duced for the first time through the courtesy of Ralph New- 
 man, who certainly requires no introduction among Lin- 
 colnians. 
 
 Earl. Schenck Miers 
 New Brunswick, N. J. 
 January 15, 1947 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 A few days after Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the 
 presidency John Locke Scripps of the Chicago Press and 
 Tribune visited him for the purpose of obtaining material 
 for a campaign biography. "Why, Scripps," said Lincoln, 
 (i it is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out 
 of me or my early life. It can all be condensed into a single 
 sentence, and that sentence you will find in Gray's Elegy, 
 1 The short and simple annals of the poor. ' 
 
 "That's my life, and that's all you or anyone else can 
 make out of it." 
 
 Lincoln's attitude was both characteristic and consistent. 
 Two years earlier, when the compiler of the Dictionary of 
 Congress had asked him for a sketch of his life, he had re- 
 sponded with the following : 
 
 "Born, February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. 
 
 "Education defective. 
 
 "Profession, a lawyer. 
 
 "Have been a captain of volunteers in Black Hawk War. 
 
 "Postmaster at a very small office. 
 
 "Four times a member of the Illinois legislature, and 
 was a member of the lower house of Congress." 
 
 In December, 1859, Jesse W. Fell of Bloomington, Illi- 
 nois, had succeeded in drawing an autobiographical account 
 from Lincoln, but it turned out to be only six hundred words 
 in length, and went to Fell accompanied by a letter in which 
 the subject explained: "There is not much of it, for the rea- 
 
 %x 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 son, I suppose, that there is not much of me." Even so, Fell 
 was much more fortunate than the artist Thomas Hicks, to 
 whom, on June 14, 1860, Lincoln gave an autobiographical 
 sketch of three sentences : "I was born February 12, 1809, in 
 then Hardin County, Kentucky, at a point within the now 
 county of La Rue, a mile, or a mile and a half, from where 
 Hodgen's mill now is. My parents being dead, and my own 
 memory not serving, I know no means of identifying the pre- 
 cise locality. It was onNolin Creek." 
 
 Scripps, nevertheless, succeeded in persuading Lincoln 
 to write an autobiography of approximately 3,500 words. 
 Around it he built his life of Abraham Lincoln, published in 
 the summer of 1860. Though the best of the campaign biog- 
 raphies, the book has long since ceased to compare ininterest 
 with the document on which it was based. Lean and sinewy as 
 his own frame, and tantalising in its omissions, Lincoln's au- 
 tobiography, written in the third person, remains the most 
 important single source for his life's history up to 1856. In 
 the following pages it is presented in its entirety, though di- 
 vided into sections corresponding with the life-periods of its 
 subject. 
 
 In addition to what he wrote for Scripps, Lincoln unin- 
 tentionally made a considerable number of contributions to 
 his life's history. He was only whiling away an idle evening 
 when he wrote the story of his courtship of Mary Owens to 
 Mrs. Browning, yet despite the narrow limit of his purpose, 
 that is one incident in his life about which posterity is fully 
 informed. A decade later he produced a campaign handbill 
 merely to counteract the innuendoes of a rival politician, but 
 in so doing he made the only explicit elucidation of his early 
 religious beliefs. In offering advice to a young man who 
 wanted to become a lawyer, he revealed the method by which 
 
 x 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 he himself had come to the law. And in his state papers— a 
 most unlikely medium— he included a number of passages 
 with biographical implications. 
 
 From these writings this booh has been made up. In two 
 respects, it falls short of completeness. It does not include all 
 Lincoln's autobiographical contributions, but the omissions 
 have only spared the reader needless duplication. And it 
 does not cover all phases of Lincoln's life. For that lack, 
 however, the compiler takes no responsibility: he could not 
 gather what Lincoln himself had not provided. But for this 
 falling short of perfection no apology should be required. 
 Everything that Lincoln wrote is characterised by a meticu- 
 lous accuracy that renders it of prime biographical impor- 
 tance. And every sentence from his pen is marked by a felic- 
 ity of expression, whether exemplified by the sparse and 
 fact-laden prose of his autobiography, or the marvelous met- 
 aphors of his letter to J. C. Conkling, or the Hebraic opu- 
 lence of the Second Inaugural, that makes it worth reading 
 for the sheer joy of observing literary mastery. 
 
 PAUL M. ANGLE 
 
 THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 November 1, 1946 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
Of His Life Until His 8 th Year 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, then in 
 Hardin, now in the more recently formed county of La 
 Rue, Kentucky. His father, Thomas, and grandfather, 
 Abraham, were born in Rockingham County, Virginia, 
 whither their ancestors had come from Berks County, 
 Pennsylvania. His lineage has been traced no farther 
 back than this. The family were originally Quakers, 
 though in later times they have fallen away from the pe- 
 culiar habits of that people. The grandfather, Abraham, 
 had four brothers— Isaac, Jacob, John, and Thomas. So 
 far as known, the descendants of Jacob and John are 
 still in Virginia. Isaac went to a place near where Vir- 
 ginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee join ; and his de- 
 scendants are in that region. Thomas came to Kentucky, 
 and after many years died there, whence his descend- 
 ants went to Missouri. Abraham, grandfather of the 
 subject of this sketch, came to Kentucky, and was killed 
 by Indians about the year 1784. He left a widow, three 
 
AB RAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 sons, and two daughters. The eldest son, Mordecai, re- 
 mained in Kentucky till late in life, when he removed to 
 Hancock County, Illinois, where soon after he died, and 
 where several of his descendants still remain. The sec- 
 ond son, Josiah, removed at an early day to a place on 
 Blue River, now within Hancock County, Indiana, but 
 no recent information of him or his family has been ob- 
 tained. The eldest sister, Mary, married Ralph Crume, 
 and some of her descendants are now known to be in 
 Breckenridge County, Kentucky. The second sister, 
 Nancy, married William Brumfield, and her family are 
 not known to have left Kentucky, but there is no recent 
 information from them. Thomas, the youngest son, and 
 father of the present subject, by the early death of his 
 father, and very narrow circumstances of his mother, 
 even in childhood was a wandering laboring-boy, and 
 grew up literally without education. He never did more 
 in the way of writing than to bunglingly write his own 
 name. Before he was grown he passed one year as a hired 
 hand with his uncle Isaac on Watauga, a branch of the 
 Holston River. Getting back into Kentucky, and hav- 
 ing reached his twenty-eighth year, he married Nancy 
 Hanks— mother of the present subject— in the year 
 1806. She also was born in Virginia ; and relatives of 
 hers of the name of Hanks, and of other names, now re- 
 side in Coles, in Macon, and in Adams counties, Illinois, 
 and also in Iowa. The present subject has no brother 
 or sister of the whole or half blood. He had a sister, 
 older than himself, who was grown and married, but 
 
 4 
 
OF HIS FAMILY HISTORY 
 
 died many years ago, leaving no child ; also a brother, 
 younger than himself, who died in infancy. Before leav- 
 ing Kentucky, he and his sister were sent, for short peri- 
 ods, toABC schools, the first kept by Zachariah Einey, 
 and the second by Caleb Hazel. 
 
 At this time his father resided on Knob Creek, on the 
 road from Bardstown, Kentucky, to Nashville, Ten- 
 nessee, at a point three or three and a half miles south or 
 southwest of Atherton's Ferry, on the Rolling Fork. 
 
 From his Third Person Auto- 
 biography, June, 1860 
 
 Of His Family History 
 
 From what you say there can be no doubt that you and 
 I are of the same family. The history of your family, as 
 you give it, is precisely what I have always heard, and 
 partly know, of my own. As you have supposed, I am 
 the grandson of your uncle Abraham ; and the story of 
 his death by the Indians, and of Uncle Mordecai, then 
 fourteen years old, killing one of the Indians, is the 
 legend more strongly than all others imprinted upon my 
 mind and memory. I am the son of grandfather's young- 
 est son, Thomas. I have often heard my father speak of 
 his uncle Isaac residing at Watauga (I think), near 
 where the then States of Virginia, North Carolina, and 
 Tennessee join,— you seem now to be some hundred 
 miles or so west of that. I often saw Uncle Mordecai, and 
 Uncle Josiah but once in my life ; but I never resided 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 near either of them. Uncle Mordecai died in 1831 or 2, 
 in Hancock County, Illinois, where he had then recently 
 removed from Kentucky, and where his children had 
 also removed, and still reside, as I understand. Whether 
 Uncle Josiah is dead or living, I cannot tell, not having 
 heard from him for more than twenty years. When I 
 last heard of him he was living on Big Blue Biver, in 
 Indiana (Harrison Co., I think), and where he had re- 
 sided ever since before the beginning of my recollection. 
 My father (Thomas) died the 17th of January, 1851, in 
 Coles County, Illinois, where he had resided twenty 
 years. I am his only child. I have resided here, and here- 
 abouts, twenty-three years. I am forty-five years of age, 
 and have a wife and three children, the oldest eleven 
 years. My wife was born and raised at Lexington, Ken- 
 tucky ; and my connection with her has sometimes taken 
 me there, where I have heard the older people of her 
 relations speak of your uncle Thomas and his family. 
 He is dead long ago, and his descendants have gone to 
 some part of Missouri, as I recollect what I was told. 
 When I was at Washington in 1848, I got up a corre- 
 spondence with David Lincoln, residing at Sparta, 
 Bockingham County, Virginia, who, like yourself, was 
 a first cousin of my father ; but I forget, if he informed 
 me, which of my grandfather's brothers was his father. 
 With Col. Crozier, of whom you speak, I formed quite 
 an intimate acquaintance, for a short one, while at 
 Washington ; and when you meet him again I will thank 
 you to present him my respects. Tour present governor, 
 
OF HIS PAREN TAGE 
 
 Andrew Johnson, was also at Washington while I was ; 
 and he told me of there being people of the name of 
 Lincoln in Carter County, I think. I can no longer claim 
 to be a young man myself ; but I infer that, as you are of 
 the same generation as my father, you are some older. 
 
 From a Letter to Jesse 
 Lincoln, April 1, 1854 
 
 Of His Parentage and Childhood 
 
 In the main you are right about my history. My father 
 was Thomas Lincoln, and Mrs. Sally Johnston was his 
 second wife. You are mistaken about my mother. Her 
 maiden name was Nancy Hanks. I was not born at 
 Elizabethtown, but my mother's first child, a daughter, 
 two years older than myself, and now long since de- 
 ceased, was. I was born February 12, 1809, near where 
 Hogginsville [Hodgenville] now is, then in Hardin 
 County. . . . 
 
 My father has been dead near ten years ; but my step- 
 mother, (Mrs. Johnston,) is still living. . . . 
 
 The place on Knob Creek ... I remember very 
 well ; but I was not born there. As my parents have told 
 me, I was born on Nolin, very much nearer Hodgen's 
 Mill than the Knob Creek place is. My earliest recollec- 
 tion, however, is of the Knob Creek place. 
 
 From Letters to Samuel 
 Haycraft, May 28, 1860, 
 and June 4, 1860 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Of His Youth in Indiana 
 
 From this place he removed to what is now Spencer 
 County, Indiana, in the autumn of 1816, Abraham then 
 being in his eighth year. This removal was partly on 
 account of slavery, but chiefly on account of the diffi- 
 culty in land titles in Kentucky. He settled in an un- 
 broken forest, and the clearing away of surplus wood 
 was the great task ahead. Abraham, though very young, 
 was large of his age, and had an ax put into his hands 
 at once ; and from that till within his twenty-third year 
 he was almost constantly handling that most useful in- 
 strument—less, of course, in plowing and harvesting 
 seasons. At this place Abraham took an early start as a 
 hunter, which was never much improved afterward. A 
 few days before the completion of his eighth year, in the 
 absence of his father, a flock of wild turkeys approached 
 the new log cabin, and Abraham with a rifle-gun, stand- 
 ing inside, shot through a crack and killed one of them. 
 He has never since pulled a trigger on any larger game. 
 In the autumn of 1818 his mother died ; and a year after- 
 ward his father married Mrs. Sally Johnston, at Eliza- 
 bethtown, Kentucky, a widow with three children of 
 her first marriage. She proved a good and kind mother 
 to Abraham, and is still living in Coles County, Illi- 
 nois. There were no children of this second marriage. 
 His father's residence continued at the same place in 
 Indiana till 1830. While here Abraham went toABC 
 schools by littles, kept successively by Andrew Craw- 
 
 8 
 
OF HIS YOUTH IN INDIANA 
 
 ford, Sweeney, and Azel W. Dorsey. He does not 
 
 remember any other. The family of Mr. Dorsey now 
 resides in Schuyler County, Illinois. Abraham now 
 thinks that the aggregate of all his schooling did not 
 amount to one year. He was never in a college or acad- 
 emy as a student, and never inside of a college or acad- 
 emy building till since he had a law license. What he 
 has in the way of education he has picked up. After he 
 was twenty-three and had separated from his father, he 
 studied English grammar— imperfectly, of course, but 
 so as to speak and write as well as he now does. He 
 studied and nearly mastered the six books of Euclid 
 since he was a member of Congress. He regrets his want 
 of education, and does what he can to supply the want. 
 In his tenth year he was kicked by a horse, and appar- 
 ently killed for a time. When he was nineteen, still resid- 
 ing in Indiana, he made his first trip upon a flatboat to 
 New Orleans. He was a hired hand merely, and he and a 
 son of the owner, without other assistance, made the 
 trip. The nature of part of the " cargo-load," as it was 
 called, made it necessary for them to linger and trade 
 along the sugar-coast ; and one night they were attacked 
 by seven negroes with intent to kill and rob them. They 
 were hurt some in the melee, but succeeded in driving 
 the negroes from the boat, and then "cut cable,' ' 
 " weighed anchor," and left. 
 
 March 1, 1830, Abraham having just completed his 
 twenty-first year, his father and family, with the fami- 
 lies of the two daughters and sons-in-law of his step- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 mother, left the old homestead in Indiana and came to 
 Illinois. Their mode of conveyance was wagons drawn 
 by ox-teams, and Abraham drove one of the teams. They 
 reached the county of Macon, and stopped there some 
 time within the same month of March. His father and 
 family settled a new place on the north side of the San- 
 gamon River, at the junction of the timberland and 
 prairie, about ten miles westerly from Decatur. Here 
 they built a log cabin, into which they removed, and 
 made sufficient of rails to fence ten acres of ground, 
 fenced and broke the ground, and raised a crop of sown 
 corn upon it the same year. These are, or are supposed 
 to be, the rails about which so much is being said just 
 now, though these are far from being the first or only 
 rails ever made by Abraham. 
 
 From his Third Person Auto- 
 biography, June, 1860 
 
 Of His Life in New Salem 
 
 The sons-in-law were temporarily settled in other 
 places in the county. In the autumn all hands were 
 greatly afflicted with ague and fever, to which they had 
 not been used, and by which they were greatly discour- 
 aged, so much so that they determined on leaving the 
 county. They remained, however, through the succeed- 
 ing winter, which was the winter of the very celebrated 
 "deep snow" of Illinois. During that winter Abraham, 
 together with his stepmother's son, John D. Johnston, 
 
 10 
 
OF HIS LIFE IN NEW SALEM 
 
 and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, hired 
 themselves to Denton Offiutt to take a flatboat from 
 Beardstown, Illinois, to New Orleans ; and for that pur- 
 pose were to join him— Offiutt— at Springfield, Illinois, 
 so soon as the snow should go off. When it did go off, 
 which was about the first of March, 1831, the county was 
 so flooded as to make traveling by land impracticable ; 
 to obviate which difficulty they purchased a large canoe, 
 and came down the Sangamon River in it. This is the 
 time and the manner of Abraham's first entrance into 
 Sangamon County. They found Offutt at Springfield, 
 but learned from him that he had failed in getting a boat 
 at Beardstown. This led to their hiring themselves to 
 him for twelve dollars per month each, and getting the 
 timber out of the trees and building a boat at Old Sanga- 
 mon town on the Sangamon River, seven miles north- 
 west of Springfield, which boat they took to New Or- 
 leans, substantially upon the old contract. 
 
 During this boat-enterprise acquaintance with Of- 
 futt, who was previously an entire stranger, he con- 
 ceived a liking for Abraham, and believing he could 
 turn him to account, he contracted with him to act as 
 clerk for him, on his return from New Orleans, in 
 charge of a store and mill at New Salem, then in Sanga- 
 mon, now in Menard County. Hanks had not gone to 
 New Orleans, but having a family, and being likely to be 
 detained from home longer than at first expected, had 
 turned back from St. Louis. He is the same John Hanks 
 who now engineers the "rail enterprise" at Decatur, 
 
 11 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 and is a first cousin to Abraham's mother. Abraham's 
 father, with his own family and others mentioned, had, 
 in pursuance of their intention, removed from Macon to 
 Coles County. John D. Johnston, the stepmother's son, 
 went to them, and Abraham stopped indefinitely and for 
 the first time, as it were, by himself at New Salem, be- 
 fore mentioned. This was in July, 1831. Here he rapidly 
 made acquaintances and friends. In less than a year 
 Offutt's business was failing— had almost failed — when 
 the Black Hawk war of 1832 broke out. Abraham joined 
 a volunteer company, and, to his own surprise, was 
 elected captain of it. He says he has not since had any 
 success in life which gave him so much satisfaction. He 
 went to the campaign, served near three months, met 
 the ordinary hardships of such an expedition, but was 
 in no battle. He now owns, in Iowa, the land upon which 
 his own warrants for the service were located. 
 
 From his Third Person Auto- 
 biography, June, 1860 
 
 Of His Black Hawk War Service 
 
 By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know that I am a 
 military hero % Yes, Sir ; in the days of the Black Hawk 
 war I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of Gen- 
 eral Cass's career reminds me of my own! I was not at 
 Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass was 
 to Hull's surrender ; and, like him, I saw the place very 
 soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my 
 sword, for I had none to break; but I bent a musket 
 
 12 
 
OF STOREKEEPING AT NEW SALEM 
 
 pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke bis sword, 
 tbe idea is be broke it in desperation ; I bent tbe musket 
 by accident. If General Cass went in advance of me 
 in picking huckleberries, I guess I surpassed him in 
 charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live, fight- 
 ing Indians, it was more than I did ; but I had a good 
 many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and al- 
 though I never fainted from the loss of blood, I can truly 
 say I was often very hungry. 
 
 From a Speech in Congress, 
 July 27, 1848 
 
 Of Storekeeping at New Salem 
 
 Returning from the campaign, and encouraged by his 
 great popularity among his immediate neighbors, he 
 the same year ran for the legislature, and was beaten,— 
 his own precinct, however, casting its votes 277 for and 
 7 against him— and that, too, while he was an avowed 
 Clay man, and the precinct the autumn afterward giv- 
 ing a majority of 115 to General Jackson over Mr. Clay. 
 This was the only time Abraham was ever beaten on a 
 direct vote of the people. He was now without means 
 and out of business, but was anxious to remain with his 
 friends who had treated him with so much generosity, 
 especially as he had nothing elsewhere to go to. He 
 studied what he should do— thought of learning the 
 blacksmith trade— thought of trying to study law— 
 rather thought he could not succeed at that without a 
 
 13 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 better education. Before long, strangely enough, a man 
 offered to sell, and did sell, to Abraham and another as 
 poor as himself, an old stock of goods, upon credit. They 
 opened as merchants ; and he says that was the store. Of 
 course they did nothing but get deeper and deeper in 
 debt. He was appointed postmaster at New Salem— the 
 office being too insignificant to make his politics an ob- 
 jection. The store winked out. The surveyor of Sanga- 
 mon offered to depute to Abraham that portion of his 
 work which was within his part of the county. He ac- 
 cepted, procured a compass and chain, studied Flint and 
 Gibson a little, and went at it. This procured bread, and 
 kept soul and body together. The election of 1834 came, 
 and he was then elected to the legislature by the highest 
 vote cast for any candidate. Major John T. Stuart, then 
 in full practice of the law, was also elected. During the 
 canvass, in a private conversation he encouraged Abra- 
 ham [to] study law. After the election he borrowed 
 books of Stuart, took them home with him, and went at 
 it in good earnest. He studied with nobody. He still 
 mixed in the surveying to pay board and clothing bills. 
 When the legislature met, the law-books were dropped, 
 but were taken up again at the end of the session. He 
 was reelected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. In the autumn of 
 1836 he obtained a law license, and on April 15, 1837, 
 removed to Springfield, and commenced the practice— 
 his old friend Stuart taking him into partnership. 
 
 From his Third Person Auto- 
 biography, June, 1860 
 
 U 
 
OF STUDYING LAW 
 
 Of Studying Law 
 
 Youks of the 29th written in behalf of Mr. John H. 
 Widner, is received. I am absent altogether too much 
 to be a suitable instructor for a law student. When a 
 man has reached the age that Mr. Widner has, and has 
 already been doing for himself, my judgment is, that he 
 reads the books for himself without an instructor. That 
 is precisely the way I came to the law. Let Mr. Widner 
 read Blackstone's Commentaries, Chitty's Pleadings, 
 Greenleaf 's Evidence, Story's Equity, and Story's Eq- 
 uity Pleadings, get a license, and go to the practice, and 
 still keep reading. That is my judgment of the cheapest, 
 quickest, and best way for Mr. Widner to make a lawyer 
 of himself. 
 
 A Letter to James T. Thornton, 
 December 2, 1858 
 
 Of a Love Affair 
 
 Dear madam : Without apologizing for being egotisti- 
 cal, I shall make the history of so much of my life as has 
 elapsed since I saw you the subject of this letter. And, 
 by the way, I now discover that in order to give a full 
 and intelligible account of the things I have done and 
 suffered since I saw you, I shall necessarily have to re- 
 late some that happened before. 
 
 It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 that a married 
 lady of my acquaintance, and who was a great friend 
 of mine, being about to pay a visit to her father and 
 other relatives residing in Kentucky, proposed to me 
 
 15 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 that on her return she would bring a sister of hers 
 with her on condition that I would engage to become 
 her brother-in-law with all convenient despatch. I, of 
 course, accepted the proposal, for you know I could not 
 have done otherwise had I really been averse to it ; but 
 privately, between you and me, I was most confoundedly 
 well pleased with the project. I had seen the said sister 
 some three years before, thought her intelligent and 
 agreeable, and saw no good objection to plodding life 
 through hand in hand with her. Time passed on, the lady 
 took her journey and in due time returned, sister in com- 
 pany, sure enough. This astonished me a little, for it 
 appeared to me that her coming so readily showed that 
 she was a trifle too willing, but on reflection it occurred 
 to me that she might have been prevailed on by her mar- 
 ried sister to come, without anything concerning me 
 ever having been mentioned to her, and so I concluded 
 that if no other objection presented itself, I would con- 
 sent to waive this. All this occurred to me on hearing of 
 her arrival in the neighborhood— for, be it remembered, 
 I had not yet seen her, except about three years previ- 
 ous, as above mentioned. In a few days we had an inter- 
 view, and, although I had seen her before, she did not 
 look as my imagination had pictured her. I knew she 
 was over-size, but she now appeared a fair match for 
 Palstaff. I knew she was called an "old maid," and I 
 felt no doubt of the truth of at least half of the appella- 
 tion, but now, when I beheld her, I could not for my life 
 avoid thinking of my mother ; and this, not from with- 
 
 16 
 
OF A LOVE AFFAIR 
 
 ered features,— for her skin was too full of fat to permit 
 of its contracting into wrinkles,— but from her want of 
 teeth, weather-beaten appearance in general, and from 
 a kind of notion that ran in my head that nothing could 
 have commenced at the size of infancy and reached her 
 present bulk in less than thirty-five or forty years ; and, 
 in short, I was not at all pleased with her. But what 
 could I do 1 I had told her sister that I would take her 
 for better or for worse, and I made a point of honor 
 and conscience in all things to stick to my word, espe- 
 cially if others had been induced to act on it, which in 
 this case I had no doubt they had, for I was now fairly 
 convinced that no other man on earth would have her, 
 and hence the conclusion that they were bent on holding 
 me to my bargain. "Well," thought I, "I have said it, 
 and, be the consequences what they may, it shall not be 
 my fault if I fail to do it." At once I determined to con- 
 sider her my wife, and this done, all my powers of dis- 
 covery were put to work in search of perfections in her 
 which might be fairly set off against her defects. I tried 
 to imagine her handsome, which, but for her unfortu- 
 nate corpulency, was actually true. Exclusive of this, 
 no woman that I have ever seen has a finer face. I also 
 tried to convince myself that the mind was much more 
 to be valued than the person, and in this she was not 
 inferior, as I could discover, to any with whom I had 
 been acquainted. 
 
 Shortly after this, without attempting to come to any 
 positive understanding with her, I set out for Vandalia, 
 
 17 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 when and where you first saw me. During my stay there 
 I had letters from her which did not change my opinion 
 of either her intellect or intention, but, on the contrary, 
 confirmed it in both. 
 
 All this while, although I was fixed "firm as the 
 surge-repelling rock" in my resolution, I found I was 
 continually repenting the rashness which had led me 
 to make it. Through life I have been in no bondage, 
 either real or imaginary, from the thraldom of which I 
 so much desired to be free. After my return home I saw 
 nothing to change my opinion of her in any particular. 
 She was the same, and so was 1. 1 now spent my time in 
 planning how I might get along in life after my con- 
 templated change of circumstances should have taken 
 place, and how I might procrastinate the evil day for a 
 time, which I really dreaded as much, perhaps more, 
 than an Irishman does the halter. 
 
 After all my sufferings upon this deeply interesting 
 subject, here I am, wholly, unexpectedly, completely out 
 of the "scrape," and I now want to know if you can 
 guess how I got out of it— out, clear, in every sense of 
 the term— no violation of word, honor, or conscience. I 
 don't believe you can guess, and so I might as well tell 
 you at once. As the lawyer says, it was done in the man- 
 ner following, to wit : After I had delayed the matter as 
 long as I thought I could in honor do (which, by the way, 
 had brought me round into the last fall), I concluded I 
 might as well bring it to a consummation without fur- 
 ther delay, and so I mustered my resolution and made 
 
 18 
 
OF A LOVE AFFAIR 
 
 the proposal to her direct ; but, shocking to relate, she 
 answered, No. At first I supposed she did it through an 
 affectation of modesty, which I thought but ill became 
 her under the peculiar circumstances of her case, but on 
 my renewal of the charge I found she repelled it with 
 greater firmness than before. I tried it again and again, 
 but with the same success, or rather with the same want 
 of success. 
 
 I finally was forced to give it up, at which I very un- 
 expectedly found myself mortified almost beyond en- 
 durance. I was mortified, it seemed to me, in a hundred 
 different ways. My vanity was deeply wounded by the 
 reflection that I had so long been too stupid to discover 
 her intentions, and at the same time never doubting that 
 I understood them perfectly ; and also that she, whom 
 I had taught myself to believe nobody else would have, 
 had actually rejected me with all my fancied greatness. 
 And, to cap the whole, I then for the first time began to 
 suspect that I was really a little in love with her. But 
 let it all go! Ill try and outlive it. Others have been 
 made fools of by the girls, but this can never with truth 
 be said of me. I most emphatically, in this instance, 
 made a fool of myself. I have now come to the conclusion 
 never again to think of marrying, and for this reason— 
 I can never be satisfied with any one who would be 
 blockhead enough to have me. 
 
 A Letter to Mrs. 0. H. 
 Browning, April 1, 1838 
 
 19 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Of His Career in Politics 
 
 March 3, 1837, by a protest entered upon the " Illinois 
 House Journal' ' of that date, at pages 817 and 818, 
 Abraham, with Dan Stone, another representative of 
 Sangamon, briefly defined his position on the slavery 
 question ; and so far as it goes, it was then the same that 
 it is now. The protest is as follows : 
 
 Eesolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 
 passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present 
 session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage 
 of the same. 
 
 They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on 
 both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of 
 Abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its 
 evils. 
 
 They believe that the Congress of the United States has 
 no power under the Constitution to interfere with the insti- 
 tution of slavery in the different States. 
 
 They believe that the Congress of the United States has 
 the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the 
 District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be ex- 
 ercised unless at the request of the people of the District. 
 
 The difference between these opinions and those con- 
 tained in the above resolutions is their reason for entering 
 this protest. 
 
 Dan Stone, 
 A. Lincoln, 
 
 Representatives from the County of Sangamon. 
 
 20 
 
OF HIS CAREER IN POLITICS 
 In 1838 and 1840, Mr. Lincoln's party voted for him 
 as Speaker, but being in the minority he was not elected. 
 After 1840 he declined a reelection to the legislature. He 
 was on the Harrison electoral ticket in 1840, and on that 
 of Clay in 1844, and spent much time and labor in both 
 those canvasses. In November, 1842, he was married to 
 Mary, daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Ken- 
 tucky. They have three living children, all sons, one 
 born in 1843, one in 1850, and one in 1853. They lost one, 
 who was born in 1846. 
 
 In 1846 he was elected to the lower House of Con- 
 gress, and served one term only, commencing in Decem- 
 ber, 1847, and ending with the inauguration of General 
 Taylor, in March, 1849. All the battles of the Mexican 
 war had been fought before Mr. Lincoln took his seat 
 in Congress, but the American army was still in Mexico, 
 and the treaty of peace was not fully and formally rati- 
 fied till the June afterward. Much has been said of his 
 course in Congress in regard to this war. A careful ex- 
 amination of the ' ' Journal ' ' and ' ' Congressional Globe ' * 
 shows that he voted for all the supply measures that 
 came up, and for all the measures in any way favorable 
 to the officers, soldiers, and their families, who con- 
 ducted the war through : with the exception that some 
 of these measures passed without yeas and nays, leaving 
 no record as to how particular men voted. The " Jour- 
 nal" and " Globe" also show him voting that the war 
 was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the 
 President of the United States. This is the language of 
 
 21 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Mr. Ashmun's amendment, for which Mr. Lincoln and 
 nearly or quite all other Whigs of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives voted. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's reasons for the opinion expressed by 
 this vote were briefly that the President had sent Gen- 
 eral Taylor into an inhabited part of the country be- 
 longing to Mexico, and not to the United States, and 
 thereby had provoked the first act of hostility, in fact 
 the commencement of the war ; that the place, being the 
 country bordering on the east bank of the Rio Grande, 
 was inhabited by native Mexicans, born there under the 
 Mexican government, and had never submitted to, nor 
 been conquered by, Texas or the United States, nor 
 transferred to either by treaty; that although Texas 
 claimed the Rio Grande as her boundary, Mexico had 
 never recognized it, and neither Texas nor the United 
 States had ever enforced it; that there was a broad 
 desert between that and the country over which Texas 
 had actual control; that the country where hostilities 
 commenced, having once belonged to Mexico, must re- 
 main so until it was somehow legally transferred, which 
 had never been done. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln thought the act of sending an armed force 
 among the Mexicans was unnecessary, inasmuch as 
 Mexico was in no way molesting or menacing the United 
 States or the people thereof ; and that it was unconstitu- 
 tional, because the power of levying war is vested in 
 Congress, and not in the President. He thought the 
 principal motive for the act was to divert public atten- 
 
 22 
 
OF THE MEXICAN WAR 
 
 tion from the surrender of " Fifty-four, forty, or fight" 
 to Great Britain, on the Oregon boundary question. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was not a candidate for reelection. This 
 was determined upon and declared before he went to 
 Washington, in accordance with an understanding 
 among Whig friends, by which Colonel Hardin and 
 Colonel Baker had each previously served a single term 
 in this same district. 
 
 In 1848, during his term in Congress, he advocated 
 General Taylor's nomination for the presidency, in op- 
 position to all others, and also took an active part for 
 his election after his nomination, speaking a few times 
 in Maryland, near Washington, several times in Mas- 
 sachusetts, and canvassing quite fully his own district 
 in Illinois, which was followed by a majority in the 
 district of over 1500 for General Taylor. 
 
 From his Third Person Auto- 
 biography, June, 1860 
 
 Of His Attitude Toward the Mexican War 
 
 I was in congress but a single term. I was a candidate 
 when the Mexican war broke out— and I then took the 
 ground, which I never varied from, that the Admin- 
 istration had done wrong in getting us into the war, but 
 that the officers and soldiers who went to the field must 
 be supplied and sustained at all events. I was elected the 
 first Monday of August 1846, but, in regular course, 
 only took my seat December 6, 1847. In the interval all 
 
 23 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 the battles had been fought, and the war was substan- 
 tially ended, though our army was still in Mexico, and 
 the treaty of peace was not finally concluded till May 30, 
 1848. Col. E. D. Baker had been elected to Congress from 
 the same district, for the regular term next preceding 
 mine ; but having gone to Mexico himself, and having 
 resigned his seat in Congress, a man by the name of 
 John Henry, was elected to fill Baker's vacancy, and so 
 came into Congress before I did. On the 23rd day of Feb- 
 ruary 1847 (the very day I believe, Col. John Hardin 
 was killed at Buena Vista, and certainly more than nine 
 months before I took a seat in Congress) a bill corre- 
 sponding with great accuracy to that mentioned by the 
 Times, passed the House of Representatives, and John 
 Henry voted against it, as may be seen in the Journal of 
 that session at pages 406-7. The bill became a law ; and 
 is found in the U. S. Statutes at Large— Vol. 9. page 149. 
 
 This I suppose is the real origin of the Times' attack 
 upon me. In its blind rage to assail me, it has seized on 
 a vague recollection of Henry's vote, and appropriated 
 it to me. I scarcely think any one is quite vile enough to 
 make such a charge in such terms, without some slight 
 belief in the truth of it. 
 
 Henry was my personal and political friend; and, 
 as I thought, a very good man ; and when I first learned 
 of that vote, I well remember how astounded and morti- 
 fied I was. This very bill, voted against by Henry, 
 passed into a law, and made the appropriations for the 
 year ending June 30, 1848— extending a full month 
 
 u 
 
RIVALRY WITH P. CARTWRIGHT 
 
 beyond the actual and formal ending of the war. When 
 I came into Congress, money was needed to meet the 
 appropriations made, and to be made ; and accordingly 
 on the 17th day of Feb. 1848, a bill to borrow 18,500,000. 
 passed the House of Representatives, for which I voted, 
 as will appear by the Journal of that session page 426, 
 427. The act itself, reduced to 16,000,000 (I suppose in 
 the Senate) is found in U. S. Statutes at Large Vol. 
 9-217. 
 
 Again, on the 8th of March 1848, a bill passed the 
 House of Representatives, for which I voted as may be 
 seen by the Journal 520-521. It passed into a law, and is 
 found in Statutes U. S. at Large Page 215 and forward. 
 The last section of the act on page 217. contains an ap- 
 propriation of 800,000. for clothing the volunteers. 
 
 It is impossible to refer to all the votes I gave but the 
 above I think are sufficient as specimens ; and you may 
 safely deny that I ever gave any vote for withholding 
 any supplies whatever, from officers or soldiers of the 
 Mexican war. I have examined the Journals a good deal ; 
 and hence [ ?] I can not be mistaken ; for I have my eye 
 always upon it. I must close to get this into the mail. 
 
 From a Letter to Joseph 
 Medill, June 25, 1858 
 
 Of His Rivalry with Peter Cartwright 
 
 In 1832 i was first a candidate for the Legislature, with 
 some ten or a dozen other candidates. Peter Cartwright, 
 
 25 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 and three others were elected, of whom I was not one. In 
 1834 he, and I, and several others, again became candi- 
 dates; he declined before the election, I ran the race 
 through, and, with three others, was elected. In 1835 
 he became a candidate to fill a vacancy in the State 
 Senate, and his sole competitor, Job Fletcher, beat him 
 by near six hundred majority. 
 
 In 1836, 1838, and 1840, 1 was successively elected to 
 the Legislature— he not being a candidate at either of 
 those elections. 
 
 I then ceased to be a candidate for anything until 
 1846, when I ran for Congress. Mr. Cartwright was my 
 competitor, and I beat him, as I recollect, 1511 majority, 
 being about double the party majority of the District. 
 
 1 I was never a candidate for Congress at any other 
 time, and never had any contest with Mr. Cartwright 
 other than as I have stated. 
 
 Please do not make this public. 
 
 From a Letter to John Coulter, 
 September 4, 1860 
 
 '■m 
 
 Of His Religious Views 
 
 Mr. ford : I see in your paper of the 8th inst. a commu- 
 nication in relation to myself, of which it is perhaps 
 expected of me to take some notice. 
 
 Shortly before starting on my tour through yours, 
 and the other northern counties of the District, I was 
 
 26 
 
caJ 
 
 fofu/ Cc f^r^^j isd~- V^/ ld&)S Jf {~r*^t /p^^C 
 
 ^G-^+^s^ *,*^ Q^~-~+s Z^ft^-*^> <r^&^ i+sr-~J fL&-c£* 
 fi^j f 0-S i^r^r^f J ^t^j />yg" ^7W_ <&^ /PJ& 
 

 
 /$"// (h^e^i Jfr-e^-^r t^-isp*^ &£<rh~£*4L> C^&T 
 
 ^<7 ^*~v jr&v*-^ jCc^^j / c^^^c^y o— ^^^/ -fC<*^J 
 
OF HIS RELIGIOUS VIEWS 
 
 informed by letter from Jacksonville that Mr. Cart- 
 wright was whispering the charge of infidelity against 
 me in that quarter.— I at once wrote a contradiction of 
 it, and sent it to my friends there, with the request that 
 they should publish it or not, as in their discretion they 
 might think proper, having in view the extent of the 
 circulation of the charge, as also the extent of credence 
 it might be receiving. They did not publish it. After my 
 return from your part of the District, I was informed 
 that he had been putting the same charge in circulation 
 against me in some of the neighborhoods in our own, 
 and one or two of the adjoining counties.— I believe 
 nine persons out of ten had not heard the charge at all ; 
 and, in a word, its extent of circulation was just such 
 as to make a public notice of it appear uncalled for; 
 while it was not entirely safe to leave it unnoticed. After 
 some reflection, I published the little hand-bill, herewith 
 enclosed, and sent it to the neighborhoods above re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 I have little doubt now, that to make the same charge 
 —to slyly sow the seed in select spots— was the chief 
 object of his mission through your part of the District, 
 at a time when he knew I could not contradict him, 
 either in person or by letter before the election. And, 
 from the election returns in your county, being so dif- 
 ferent from what they are in parts where Mr. Cart- 
 wright and I are both well known, I incline to the belief 
 that he has succeeded in deceiving some honest men 
 there. . . . 
 
 27 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 It is my wish that you give this letter, together with 
 the accompanying hand-bill, a place in your paper. 
 
 TO THE VOTEES OF THE SEVENTH 
 CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 
 
 Fellow Citizens: 
 
 A charge having got into circulation in some of the 
 neighborhoods of this District, in substance that I am 
 an open scoffer at Christianity, I have by the advice of 
 some friends concluded to notice the subject in this 
 f oym. That I am not a member of any Christian Church, 
 is true ; but I have never denied the truth of the Scrip- 
 tures ; and I have never spoken with intentional disre- 
 spect of religion in general, or of any denomination of 
 Christians in particular. It is true that in my early life 
 I was inclined to believe in what I understand is called 
 the "Doctrine of Necessity"— that is, that the human 
 mind is impelled to action, or held in rest by some power, 
 over which the mind itself has no control ; and I have 
 sometimes (with one, two or three, but never publicly) 
 tried to maintain this opinion in argument.— The habit 
 of arguing thus however, I have entirely left off for 
 more than five years.— And I add here, I have always 
 understood this same opinion to be held by several of 
 the Christian denominations. The foregoing, is the 
 whole truth, briefly stated, in relation to myself upon 
 this subject. 
 
 I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a 
 man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and 
 
 28 
 
OF HIS RETURN TO POLITICS 
 
 scoffer at, religion.— Leaving the higher matter of 
 eternal consequences, between him and his Maker, I 
 still do not think any man has the right thus to insult the 
 feeling, and injure the morals, of the community in 
 which he may live.— If, then, I was guilty of such con- 
 duct, I should blame no man who should condemn me 
 for it ; but I do blame those, whoever they may be, who 
 falsely put such a charge in circulation against me. 
 
 From a Letter to Allen N. 
 Ford, Editor of the Illinois 
 Gazette of Lacon, August 
 11, 1846; and a Handbill 
 dated July 31, 1846 
 
 Of His Return to Politics 
 
 Upon his return from Congress he went to the practice 
 of the law with greater earnestness than ever before. 
 In 1852 he was upon the Scott electoral ticket, and did 
 something in the way of canvassing, but owing to the 
 hopelessness of the cause in Illinois he did less than in 
 previous presidential canvasses. 
 
 In 1854 his profession had almost superseded the 
 thought of politics in his mind, when the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise aroused him as he had never been 
 before. 
 
 In the autumn of that year he took the stump with no 
 broader practical aim or object than to secure, if pos- 
 sible, the reelection of Hon. Richard Yates to Congress. 
 
 29 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 His speeches at once attracted a more marked attention 
 than they had ever before done. As the canvass pro- 
 ceeded he was drawn to different parts of the State out- 
 side of Mr. Yates's district. He did not abandon the law, 
 but gave his attention by turns to that and politics. The 
 State agricultural fair was at Springfield that year, and 
 Douglas was announced to speak there. 
 
 In the canvass of 1856 Mr. Lincoln made over fifty 
 speeches, no one of which, so far as he remembers, was 
 put in print. One of them was made at Galena, but Mr. 
 Lincoln has no recollection of any part of it being 
 printed ; nor does he remember whether in that speech 
 he said anything about a Supreme Court decision. He 
 may have spoken upon that subject, and some of the 
 newspapers may have reported him as saying what is 
 now ascribed to him ; but he thinks he could not have ex- 
 pressed himself as represented. 
 
 From his Third Person Auto- 
 biography, June, 1860 
 
 Of His Defeat for the Senate in 1855 
 
 My deae sir : The agony is over at last, and the result 
 you doubtless know. I write this only to give you some 
 particulars to explain what might appear difficult of 
 understanding. I began with 44 votes, Shields 41, and 
 Trumbull 5,— yet Trumbull was elected. In fact, 47 dif- 
 ferent members voted for me,— getting three new ones 
 on the second ballot, and losing four old ones. How came 
 
 30 
 
OF HIS DEFEAT IN 1855 
 
 my 47 to yield to Trumbull 's 5? It was Governor Mat- 
 teson 's work. He has been secretly a candidate ever 
 since (before, even) the fall election. All the members 
 round about the canal were Anti-Nebraska, but were 
 nevertheless nearly all Democrats and old personal 
 friends of his. His plan was to privately impress them 
 with the belief that he was as good Anti-Nebraska as 
 any one else,— at least could be secured to be so by in- 
 structions, which could be easily passed. In this way 
 he got from four to six of that sort of men to really pre- 
 fer his election to that of any other man— all sub rosa, 
 of course. One notable instance of this sort was with Mr. 
 Strunk of Kankakee. At the beginning of the session he 
 came a volunteer to tell me he was for me and would 
 walk a hundred miles to elect me ; but lo ! it was not long 
 before he leaked it out that he was going for me the 
 first few ballots and then for Governor Matteson. 
 
 The Nebraska men, of course, were not for Mat- 
 teson ; but when they found they could elect no avowed 
 Nebraska man, they tardily determined to let him get 
 whomever of our men he could, by whatever means he 
 could, and ask him no questions. In the mean time Os- 
 good, Don Morrison, and Trapp of St. Clair had openly 
 gone over from us. With the united Nebraska force and 
 their recruits, open and covert, it gave Matteson more 
 than enough to elect him. We saw into it plainly ten days 
 ago, but with every possible effort could not head it off. 
 All that remained of the Anti-Nebraska force, excepting 
 Judd, Cook, Palmer, Baker and Allen of Madison, and 
 
 31 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 two or three of the secret Matteson men, would go into 
 caucus, and I could get the nomination of that caucus. 
 But the three senators and one of the two representa- 
 tives above named " could never vote for a Whig," and 
 this incensed some twenty Whigs to " think" they would 
 never vote for the man of the five. So we stood, and so we 
 went into the fight yesterday,— the Nebraska men very 
 confident of the election of Matteson, though denying 
 that he was a candidate, and we very much believing also 
 that they would elect him. But they wanted first to make 
 a show of good faith to Shields by voting for him a few 
 times, and our secret Matteson men also wanted to make 
 a show of good faith by voting with us a few times. So we 
 led off. On the seventh ballot, I think, the signal was 
 given to the Nebraska men to turn to Matteson, which 
 they acted on to a man, with one exception, my old 
 friend Strunk going with them, giving him 44 votes. 
 Next ballot the remaining Nebraska man and one pre- 
 tended Anti went over to him, giving him 46. The next 
 still another, giving him 47, wanting only three of an 
 election. In the mean time our friends, with a view of 
 detaining our expected bolters, had been turning from 
 me to Trumbull till he had risen to 35 and I had been re- 
 duced to 15. These would never desert me except by my 
 direction ; but I became satisfied that if we could pre- 
 vent Matteson 's election one or two ballots more, we 
 could not possibly do so a single ballot after my friends 
 should begin to return to me from Trumbull. So I de- 
 termined to strike at once, and accordingly advised my 
 
 32 
 
OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS 
 
 remaining friends to go for him, which they did and 
 elected him on the tenth ballot. 
 
 Such is the way the thing was done. I think you 
 would have done the same under the circumstances; 
 though Judge Davis, who came down this morning, de- 
 clares he never would have consented to the forty-seven 
 men being controlled by the five. I regret my defeat 
 moderately, but I am not nervous about it. I could have 
 headed off every combination and been elected, had it 
 not been for Matteson's double game— and his defeat 
 now gives me more pleasure than my own gives me pain. 
 On the whole, it is perhaps as well for our general cause 
 that Trumbull is elected. The Nebraska men confess 
 that they hate it worse than anything that could have 
 happened. It is a great consolation to see them worse 
 whipped than I am. I tell them it is their own fault— 
 that they had abundant opportunity to choose between 
 him and me, which they declined, and instead forced it 
 on me to decide between him and Matteson. 
 
 A Letter to Elihu B. Washburne, February 9, 1855 
 
 Of His Contest with Stephen A. Douglas 
 
 My friends, today closes the discussions of this canvass. 
 The planting and the culture are over; and there re- 
 mains but the preparation, and the harvest. 
 
 I stand here surrounded by friends— some political, 
 
 33 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 all personal friends, I trust. May I be indulged, in this 
 closing scene, to say a few words of myself. I have borne 
 a laborious, and, in some respects to myself, a painful 
 part in the contest. Through all, I have neither assailed, 
 nor wrestled with any part of the Constitution. The legal 
 right of the Southern people to reclaim their fugitives I 
 have constantly admitted. The legal right of Congress 
 to interfere with their institution in the States, I have 
 constantly denied. In resisting the spread of slavery to 
 new territory, and with that, what appears to me to be a 
 tendency to subvert the first principle of free govern- 
 ment itself my whole effort has consisted. To the best 
 of my judgment I have labored for, and not against the 
 Union. As I have not felt, so I have not expressed any 
 harsh sentiment towards our Southern brethren. I have 
 constantly declared, as I really believed, the only dif- 
 ference between them and us, is the difference of cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 I have meant to assail the motives of no party, or 
 individual; and if I have, in any instance (of which I 
 am not conscious) departed from my purpose, I re- 
 gret it. 
 
 I have said that in some respects the contest has been 
 painful to me. Myself, and those with whom I act have 
 been constantly accused of a purpose to destroy the 
 Union; and bespattered with every imaginable odious 
 epithet ; and some who were friends, as it were but yes- 
 terday have made themselves most active in this. I have 
 cultivated patience, and made no attempt at a retort. 
 
 34 
 
ON LEAVING SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Ambition has been ascribed to me. God knows how 
 sincerely I prayed from the first that this field of ambi- 
 tion might not be opened. I claim no insensibility to 
 political honors ; but today could the Missouri restric- 
 tion be restored, and the whole slavery question be re- 
 placed on the old ground of ' toleration' by necessity 
 where it exists, with unyielding hostility to the spread 
 of it, on principle, I would, in consideration, gladly 
 agree, that Judge Douglas should never be out, and I 
 never in, an office, so long as we both or either, live. 
 
 From a Speech at Springfield, 
 October 30, 1858 
 
 Of His Emotions on Leaving Springfield 
 
 My friends : No one, not in my situation, can appreciate 
 my feeling 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 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 Washington. With- 
 out the assistance of that Divine Being who ever at- 
 tended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I 
 cannot fail. Trusting in 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 
 
 35 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will 
 commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 
 
 Speech at Springfield, Feb- 
 ruary 11, 1861 
 
 Of the Outbreak of Civil War 
 
 At the beginning of the present presidential term, four 
 months ago, the functions of the Federal Government 
 were found to be generally suspended within the several 
 States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missis- 
 sippi, Louisiana, and Florida, excepting only those of 
 the Post-office Department. 
 
 Within these States all the forts, arsenals, dock- 
 yards, custom-houses, and the like, including the mov- 
 able and stationary property in and about them, had 
 been seized, and were held in open hostility to this gov- 
 ernment, excepting only Forts Pickens, Taylor, and 
 Jefferson, on and near the Florida coast, and Fort Sum- 
 ter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The forts 
 thus seized had been put in improved condition, new 
 ones had been built, and armed forces had been organ- 
 ized and were organizing, all avowedly with the same 
 hostile purpose. 
 
 The forts remaining in the possession of the Federal 
 Government in and near these States were either be- 
 sieged or menaced by warlike preparations, and espe- 
 cially Fort Sumter was nearly surrounded by well-pro- 
 tected hostile batteries, with guns equal in quality to the 
 
 36 
 
OF THE OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR 
 
 best of its own, and outnumbering the latter as perhaps 
 ten to one. A disproportionate share of the Federal 
 muskets and rifles had somehow found their way into 
 these States, and had been seized to be used against the 
 government. Accumulations of the public revenue lying 
 within them had been seized for the same object. The 
 navy was scattered in distant seas, leaving but a very 
 small part of it within the immediate reach of the gov- 
 ernment. Officers of the Federal army and navy had 
 resigned in great numbers; and of those resigning a 
 large proportion had taken up arms against the govern- 
 ment. Simultaneously, and in connection with all this, 
 the purpose to sever the Federal Union was openly 
 avowed. In accordance with this purpose, an ordinance 
 had been adopted in each of these States, declaring the 
 States respectively to be separated from the National 
 Union. A formula for instituting a combined govern- 
 ment of these States had been promulgated; and this 
 illegal organization, in the character of confederate 
 States, was already invoking recognition, aid, and inter- 
 vention from foreign powers. 
 
 Finding this condition of things, and believing it to be 
 an imperative duty upon the incoming executive to pre- 
 vent, if possible, the consummation of such attempt to 
 destroy the Federal Union, a choice of means to that end 
 became indispensable. This choice was made and was de- 
 clared in the inaugural address. The policy chosen 
 looked to the exhaustion of all peaceful measures before 
 a resort to any stronger ones. It sought only to hold the 
 
 37 
 
AB RAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 public places and property not already wrested from the 
 government, and to collect the revenue, relying for the 
 rest on time, discussion, and the ballot-box. It promised 
 a continuance of the mails, at government expense, to 
 the very people who were resisting the government ; and 
 it gave repeated pledges against any disturbance to any 
 of the people, or any of their rights. Of all that which a 
 President might constitutionally and justifiably do in 
 such a case, everything was forborne without which it 
 was believed possible to keep the government on foot. 
 
 On the 5th of March (the present incumbent's first 
 full day in office), a letter of Major Anderson, com- 
 manding at Fort Sumter, written on the 28th of Feb- 
 ruary and received at the War Department on the 4th of 
 March, was by that department placed in his hands. 
 This letter expressed the professional opinion of the 
 writer that reinforcements could not be thrown into that 
 fort within the time for his relief, rendered necessary by 
 the limited supply of provisions, and with a view of 
 holding possession of the same, with a force of less than 
 twenty thousand good and well-disciplined men. This 
 opinion was concurred in by all the officers of his com- 
 mand, and their memoranda on the subject were made 
 inclosures of Major Anderson's letter. The whole was 
 immediately laid before Lieutenant-General Scott, who 
 at once concurred with Major Anderson in opinion. On 
 reflection, however, he took full time, consulting with 
 other officers, both of the army and the navy, and at the 
 end of four days came reluctantly but decidedly to the 
 
 38 
 
OF THE OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR 
 
 same conclusion as before. He also stated at the same 
 time that no such sufficient force was then at the control 
 of the government, or could be raised and brought to the 
 ground within the time when the provisions in the fort 
 would be exhausted. In a purely military point of view, 
 this reduced the duty of the administration in the case 
 to the mere matter of getting the garrison safely out of 
 the fort. 
 
 It was believed, however, that to so abandon that po- 
 sition, under the circumstances, would be utterly ruin- 
 ous ; that the necessity under which it was to be done 
 would not be fully understood ; that by many it would be 
 construed as a part of a voluntary policy ; that at home 
 it would discourage the friends of the Union, embolden 
 its adversaries, and go far to insure to the latter a recog- 
 nition abroad ; that, in fact, it would be our national de- 
 struction consummated. This could not be allowed. Star- 
 vation was not yet upon the garrison, and ere it would be 
 reached Fort Pickens might be reinforced. This last 
 would be a clear indication of policy, and would better 
 enable the country to accept the evacuation of Fort Sum- 
 ter as a military necessity. An order was at once directed 
 to be sent for the landing of the troops from the steam- 
 ship Brooklyn into Fort Pickens. This order could not 
 go by land, but must take the longer and slower route by 
 sea. The first return news from the order was received 
 just one week before the fall of Fort Sumter. The news 
 itself was that the officer commanding the Sabine, to 
 which vessel the troops had been transferred from the 
 
 39 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Brooklyn, acting upon some quasi armistice of the late 
 administration (and of the existence of which the pres- 
 ent administration, up to the time the order was des- 
 patched, had only too vague and uncertain rumors to fix 
 attention), had refused to land the troops. To now rein- 
 force Port Pickens before a crisis would be reached at 
 Fort Sumter was impossible— rendered so by the near 
 exhaustion of provisions in the latter-named fort. In 
 precaution against such a conjuncture, the government 
 had, a few days before, commenced preparing an expe- 
 dition as well adapted as might be to relieve Fort Sum- 
 ter, which expedition was intended to be ultimately 
 used, or not, according to circumstances. The strongest 
 anticipated case for using it was now presented, and it 
 was resolved to send it forward. As had been intended in 
 this contingency, it was also resolved to notify the gov- 
 ernor of South Carolina that he might expect an at- 
 tempt would be made to provision the fort ; and that, if 
 the attempt should not be resisted, there would be no ef- 
 fort to throw in men, arms, or ammunition, without fur- 
 ther notice, or in case of an attack upon the fort. This 
 notice was accordingly given ; whereupon the fort was 
 attacked and bombarded to its fall, without even await- 
 ing the arrival of the provisioning expedition. 
 
 It is thus seen that the assault upon and reduction of 
 Fort Sumter was in no sense a matter of self-defense on 
 the part of the assailants. They well knew that the garri- 
 son in the fort could by no possibility commit aggression 
 upon them. They knew— they were expressly notified— 
 
 40 
 
OF THE OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR 
 
 that the giving of bread to the few brave and hungry 
 men of the garrison was all which would on that occa- 
 sion be attempted, unless themselves, by resisting so 
 much, should provoke more. They knew that this gov- 
 ernment desired to keep the garrison in the fort, not to 
 assail them, but merely to maintain visible possession, 
 and thus to preserve the Union from actual and imme- 
 diate dissolution— trusting, as hereinbefore stated, to 
 time, discussion, and the ballot-box for final adjust- 
 ment ; and they assailed and reduced the fort for pre- 
 cisely the reverse object— to drive out the visible author- 
 ity of the Federal Union, and thus force it to immediate 
 dissolution. That this was their object the executive well 
 understood ; and having said to them in the inaugural 
 address, "You can have no conflict without being your- 
 selves the aggressors," he took pains not only to keep 
 this declaration good, but also to keep the case so free 
 from the power of ingenious sophistry that the world 
 should not be able to misunderstand it. By the affair at 
 Port Sumter, with its surrounding circumstances, that 
 point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants of 
 the government began the conflict of arms, without a 
 gun in sight or in expectancy to return their fire, save 
 only the few in the fort sent to the harbor years before 
 for their own protection, and still ready to give that pro- 
 tection in whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding 
 all else, they have forced upon the country the distinct 
 issue, " immediate dissolution or blood." 
 
 And this issue embraces more than the fate of these 
 
 41 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 United States. It presents to the whole family of man 
 the question whether a constitutional republic or democ- 
 racy—a government of the people by the same people— 
 can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against 
 its own domestic foes. It presents the question whether 
 discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control 
 administration according to organic law in any case, can 
 always, upon the pretenses made in this case, or any 
 other pretenses, or arbitrarily without any pretense, 
 break up their government, and thus practically put an 
 end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to 
 ask: "Is there, in all republics, this inherent and fatal 
 weakness ?" "Must a government, of necessity, be too 
 strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to 
 maintain its own existence % ' ' 
 
 So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out 
 the war power of the government ; and so to resist force 
 employed for its destruction, by force for its preserva- 
 tion. 
 
 From His Message to Con- 
 gress Assembled in Special 
 Session, July 4, 1861 
 
 Of the Wars Underlying Significance 
 
 The last ray of hope for preserving the Union peace- 
 ably expired at the assault upon Fort Sumter; and a 
 general review of what has occurred since may not be 
 unprofitable. What was painfully uncertain then is 
 
 w 
 
OF THE WAR'S SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 much better defined and more distinct now; and the 
 progress of events is plainly in the right direction. The 
 insurgents confidently claimed a strong support from 
 north of Mason and Dixon's line ; and the friends of the 
 Union were not free from apprehension on the point, 
 This, however, was soon settled definitely, and on the 
 right side. South of the line, noble little Delaware led off 
 right from the first. Maryland was made to seem against 
 the Union. Our soldiers were assaulted, bridges were 
 burned, and railroads torn up within her limits, and we 
 were many days, at one time, without the ability to bring 
 a single regiment over her soil to the capital. Now her 
 bridges and railroads are repaired and open to the gov- 
 ernment ; she already gives seven regiments to the cause 
 of the Union and none to the enemy ; and her people, at 
 a regular election, have sustained the Union by a larger 
 majority and a larger aggregate vote than they ever be- 
 fore gave to any candidate or any question. Kentucky, 
 too, for some time in doubt, is now decidedly, and, I 
 think, unchangeably, ranged on the side of the Union. 
 Missouri is comparatively quiet, and, I believe, cannot 
 again be overrun by the insurrectionists. These three 
 States of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, neither of 
 which would promise a single soldier at first, have now 
 an aggregate of not less than forty thousand in the field 
 for the Union, while of their citizens certainly not more 
 than a third of that number, and they of doubtful where- 
 abouts and doubtful existence, are in arms against it. 
 After a somewhat bloody struggle of months, winter 
 
 43 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 closes on the Union people of western Virginia, leaving 
 them masters of their own country. 
 
 An insurgent force of about 1500, for months domi- 
 nating the narrow peninsular region constituting the 
 counties of Accomac and Northampton, and known as 
 the eastern shore of Virginia, together with some con- 
 tiguous parts of Maryland, have laid down their arms, 
 and the people there have renewed their allegiance to 
 and accepted the protection of the old flag. This leaves 
 no armed insurrectionist north of the Potomac or east 
 of the Chesapeake. 
 
 Also we have obtained a footing at each of the iso- 
 lated points, on the southern coast, of Hatteras, Port 
 Royal, Tybee Island, near Savannah, and Ship Island ; 
 and we likewise have some general accounts of popular 
 movements in behalf of the Union in North Carolina 
 and Tennessee. 
 
 These things demonstrate that the cause of the 
 Union is advancing steadily and certainly southward. 
 
 Since your last adjournment Lieut enant-General 
 Scott has retired from the head of the army. During his 
 long life the nation has not been unmindful of his merit ; 
 yet, on calling to mind how faithfully, ably, and bril- 
 liantly he has served the country from a time far back in 
 our history when few of the now living had been born, 
 and thenceforward continually, I cannot but think we 
 are still his debtors. I submit, therefore, for your con- 
 sideration what further mark of recognition is due to 
 him and to ourselves as a grateful people. 
 
 u 
 
OF THE WAR'S SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 With the retirement of General Scott came the exec- 
 utive duty of appointing in his stead a general-in-chief 
 of the army. It is a fortunate circumstance that neither 
 in council nor country was there, so far as I know, any 
 difference of opinion as to the proper person to be se- 
 lected. The retiring chief repeatedly expressed his judg- 
 ment in favor of General McClellan for the position, 
 and in this the nation seemed to give a unanimous con- 
 currence. The designation of General McClellan is, 
 therefore, in considerable degree the selection of the 
 country as well as of the executive, and hence there is 
 better reason to hope there will be given him the confi- 
 dence and cordial support thus by fair implication 
 promised, and without which he cannot with so full effi- 
 ciency serve the country. 
 
 It has been said that one bad general is better than 
 two good ones ; and the saying is true, if taken to mean 
 no more than that an army is better directed by a single 
 mind, though inferior, than by two superior ones at var- 
 iance and cross-purposes with each other. 
 
 And the same is true in all joint operations wherein 
 those engaged can have none but a common end in view, 
 and can differ only as to the choice of means. In a storm 
 at sea no one on board can wish the ship to sink ; and 
 yet not infrequently all go down together because too 
 many will direct, and no single mind can be allowed to 
 control. 
 
 It continues to develop that the insurrection is 
 largely, if not exclusively, a war upon the first principle 
 
 45 
 
AB RAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 of popular government— the rights of the people. Con- 
 clusive evidence of this is found in the most grave and 
 maturely considered public documents as well as in the 
 general tone of the insurgents. In those documents we 
 find the abridgment of the existing right of suffrage and 
 the denial to the people of all right to participate in the 
 selection of public officers except the legislative, boldly 
 advocated, with labored arguments to prove that large 
 control of the people in government is the source of all 
 political evil. Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as 
 a possible refuge from the power of the people. 
 
 In my present position I could scarcely be justified 
 were I to omit raising a warning voice against this ap- 
 proach of returning despotism. 
 
 It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argu- 
 ment should be made in favor of popular institutions ; 
 but there is one point, with its connections, not so hack- 
 neyed as most others, to which I ask a brief attention. It 
 is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if 
 not above, labor, in the structure of government. It is as- 
 sumed that labor is available only in connection with 
 capital ; that nobody labors unless somebody else, own- 
 ing capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to la- 
 bor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is 
 best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce 
 them to work by their own consent, or buy them, and 
 drive them to it without their consent. Having pro- 
 ceeded thus far, it is naturally concluded that all labor- 
 ers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And, 
 
 46 
 
OF THE WAR'S SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired la- 
 borer is fixed in that condition for life. 
 
 Now, there is no such relation between capital and 
 labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free 
 man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired la- 
 borer. Both these assumptions are false, and all infer- 
 ences from them are groundless. 
 
 Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capi- 
 tal is only the fruit of labor, and could never have ex- 
 isted if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior 
 of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. 
 Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection 
 as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and 
 probably always will be, a relation between labor and 
 capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in as- 
 suming that the whole labor of the community exists 
 within that relation. A few men own capital, and that 
 few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire 
 or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority 
 belong to neither class— neither work for others nor 
 have others working for them. In most of the Southern 
 States a majority of the whole people, of all colors, are 
 neither slaves nor masters; while in the Northern a 
 large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men with 
 their families— wives, sons, and daughters— work for 
 themselves, on their farms, in their houses, and in their 
 shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and ask- 
 ing no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of hired la- 
 borers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a 
 
 47 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 considerable number of persons mingle their own labor 
 with capital— that is, they labor with their own hands 
 and also buy or hire others to labor for them ; but this is 
 only a mixed and not a distinct class. No principle stated 
 is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class. 
 
 Again, as has already been said, there is not, of ne- 
 cessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer being 
 fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men 
 everywhere in these States, a few years back in their 
 lives, were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless begin- 
 ner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus 
 with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors 
 on his own account another while, and at length hires 
 another new beginner to help him. This is the just and 
 generous and prosperous system which opens the way to 
 all— gives hope to all, and consequent energy and prog- 
 ress and improvement of condition to all. No men living 
 are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up 
 from poverty —none less inclined to take or touch aught 
 which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware 
 of surrendering a political power which they already 
 possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to 
 close the door of advancement against such as they, and 
 to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of 
 liberty shall be lost. 
 
 From his Annual Message to 
 Congress, December, 1861 
 
 48 
 
OF ULTIMATE TRIUMPH 
 
 Of the Promise of Ultimate Triumph 
 
 The signs look better. The Father of Waters again 
 goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest 
 for it. Nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up 
 they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, 
 hewing their way right and left. The sunny South, too, 
 in more colors than one, also lent a hand. On the spot, 
 their part of the history was jotted down in black and 
 white. The job was a great national one, and let none be 
 banned who bore an honorable part in it. And while 
 those who have cleared the great river may well be 
 proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that any- 
 thing has been more bravely and well done than at An- 
 tietam, Murfreesboro', Gettysburg, and on many fields 
 of lesser note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgot- 
 ten. At all the watery margins they have been present. 
 Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid 
 river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wher- 
 ever the ground was a little damp, they have been and 
 made their tracks. Thanks to all : for the great republic 
 — for the principle it lives by and keeps alive — for man 's 
 vast future— thanks to all. 
 
 Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it 
 will come soon, and come to stay ; and so come as to be 
 worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have 
 been proved that among free men there can be no suc- 
 cessful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they 
 who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay 
 
 49 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 the cost. And then there will be some black men who can 
 remember that with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, 
 and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have 
 helped mankind on to this great consummation, while I 
 fear there will be some white ones unable to forget that 
 with malignant heart and deceitful speech they strove to 
 hinder it. 
 
 Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final tri- 
 umph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the 
 means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good 
 time, will give us the rightful result. 
 
 From his Letter to J. C. 
 Conkling, August 26, 1863 
 
 Of His Attitude Toward Slavery 
 
 My dear sir: You ask me to put in writing the sub- 
 stance of what I verbally said the other day in your 
 presence, to Governor Bramlette and Senator Dixon. It 
 was about as follows : 
 
 ' * I am naturally antislavery . If slavery is not wrong, 
 nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so 
 think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the 
 presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to 
 act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in 
 the oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, 
 preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
 United States. I could not take the office without taking 
 
 50 
 
OF SLAVERY 
 
 the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath 
 to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I 
 understood, too, that in ordinary civil administration 
 this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my pri- 
 mary abstract judgment on the moral question of slav- 
 ery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in 
 many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no 
 official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment 
 and feeling on slavery. I did understand, however, that 
 my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my 
 ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by ev- 
 ery indispensable means, that government— that nation, 
 of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it 
 possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitu- 
 tion 1 By general law, life and limb must be protected, 
 yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life ; but a 
 life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that meas- 
 ures otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by 
 becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Con- 
 stitution through the preservation of the nation. Right 
 or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I 
 could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even 
 tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery or 
 any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of govern- 
 ment, country, and Constitution all together. When, 
 early in the war, General Fremont attempted military 
 emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think 
 it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, Gen- 
 eral Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the 
 
 51 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 arming of the blacks, I objected because I did not yet 
 think it an indispensable necessity. When, still later, 
 General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I 
 again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indis- 
 pensable necessity had come. When in March and May 
 and July, 1862, 1 made earnest and successive appeals to 
 the border States to favor compensated emancipation, I 
 believed the indispensable necessity for military eman- 
 cipation and arming the blacks would come unless 
 averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, 
 and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alterna- 
 tive of either surrendering the Union, and with it the 
 Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored 
 element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for 
 greater gain than loss ; but of this, I was not entirely 
 confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by 
 it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular 
 sentiment, none in our white military force— no loss by 
 it anyhow or anywhere. On the contrary it shows a gain 
 of quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, 
 and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as 
 facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men ; and we 
 could not have had them without the measure. 
 
 " And now let any Union man who complains of the 
 measure test himself by writing down in one line that he 
 is for subduing the rebellion by force of arms ; and in the 
 next, that he is for taking these hundred and thirty 
 thousand men from the Union side, and placing them 
 where they would be but for the measure he condemns. 
 
 52 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION 
 
 If he cannot face his case so stated, it is only because he 
 cannot face the truth. " 
 
 I add a word which was not in the verbal conversa- 
 tion. In telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my 
 own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but 
 confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at 
 the end of three years ' struggle, the nation's condition is 
 not what either party, or any man, devised or expected. 
 God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems 
 plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, 
 and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the 
 South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, 
 impartial history will find therein new cause to attest 
 and revere the justice and goodness of God. 
 
 A Letter to A. G. Hodges, 
 April 4, 1864 
 
 Of Practical Religion 
 
 In response to the preamble and resolutions of the 
 American Baptist Home Mission Society, which you did 
 me the honor to present, I can only thank you for thus 
 adding to the effective and almost unanimous support 
 which the Christian communities are so zealously giving 
 to the country and to liberty. Indeed, it is difficult to con- 
 ceive how it could be otherwise with any one professing 
 Christianity, or even having ordinary perceptions of 
 right and wrong. To read in the Bible, as the word of 
 God himself, that "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
 eat bread, ' ' and to preach therefrom that, ' ' In the sweat 
 
 53 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 of other men's faces shalt thou eat bread," to my mind 
 can scarcely be reconciled with honest sincerity. When 
 brought to my final reckoning, may I have to answer for 
 robbing no man of his goods ; yet more tolerable even 
 this, than for robbing one of himself and all that was his. 
 When, a year or two ago, those professedly holy men of 
 the South met in the semblance of prayer and devotion, 
 and, in the name of him who said, " As ye would all men 
 should do unto you, do ye even so unto them," appealed 
 to the Christian world to aid them in doing to a whole 
 race of men as they would have no man do unto them- 
 selves, to my thinking they contemned and insulted God 
 and his church far more than did Satan when he tempted 
 the Saviour with the kingdoms of the earth. The devil's 
 attempt was no more false, and far less hypocritical. 
 But let me forbear, remembering it is also written, 
 ' ' Judge not lest ye be judged. ' ' 
 
 A Letter to the Eev. Dr. 
 Ide, J. R. Doolittle, and A. 
 Hubbell, May 30, 1864 
 
 Of a Testing of Democracy 
 
 It has long been a grave question whether any govern- 
 ment, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be 
 strong enough to maintain its existence in great emer- 
 gencies. On this point the present rebellion brought our 
 republic to a severe test, and a presidential election oc- 
 curring in regular course during the rebellion, added 
 not a little to the strain. 
 
 5k 
 
OF A TESTING OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 If the loyal people united were put to tlie utmost of 
 their strength by the rebellion, must they not fail when 
 divided and partially paralyzed by a political war 
 among themselves ? But the election was a necessity. We 
 cannot have free government without elections ; and if 
 the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a na- 
 tional election, it might fairly claim to have already con- 
 quered and ruined us. The strife of the election is but 
 human nature practically applied to the facts of the 
 case. What has occurred in this case must ever recur in 
 similar cases. Human nature will not change. In any fu- 
 ture great national trial, compared with the men of this, 
 we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, 
 as bad and as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents 
 of this as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of 
 them as wrongs to be revenged. But the election, along 
 with its incidental and undesirable strife, has done good 
 too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can 
 sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil 
 war. Until now, it has not been known to the world that 
 this was a possibility. It shows, also, how sound and how 
 strong we still are. It shows that, even among candidates 
 of the same party, he who is most devoted to the Union 
 and most opposed to treason can receive most of the peo- 
 ple 's votes. It shows, also, to the extent yet known, that 
 we have more men now than we had when the war began. 
 Gold is good in its place, but living, brave, patriotic men 
 are better than gold. 
 
 But the rebellion continues, and now that the elec- 
 
 55 
 
AB RAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 tion is over, may not all having a common interest re- 
 unite in a common effort to save our common country ? 
 For my own part, I have striven and shall strive to avoid 
 placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been 
 here I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's 
 bosom. 
 
 While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment 
 of a reelection, and duly grateful, as I trust, to almighty 
 God for having directed my countrymen to a right con- 
 clusion, as I think, for their own good, it adds nothing 
 to my satisfaction that any other man may be disap- 
 pointed or pained by the result. 
 
 May I ask those who have not differed with me to 
 join with me in this same spirit toward those who have ? 
 And now let me close by asking three hearty cheers for 
 our brave soldiers and seamen and their gallant and 
 skilful commanders. 
 
 His Address of Novem- 
 ber 10, 1864 
 
 Of the Beginnings of Reconstruction 
 
 The wak continues. Since the last annual message, all 
 the important lines and positions then occupied by our 
 forces have been maintained, and our arms have stead- 
 ily advanced, thus liberating the regions left in rear ; so 
 that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of other 
 States have again produced reasonably fair crops. 
 
 The most remarkable feature in the military opera- 
 tions of the year is General Sherman's attempted march 
 
 56 
 
OF THE PROSPECT OF PEACE 
 
 of three hundred miles, directly through the insurgent 
 region. It tends to show a great increase of our relative 
 strength, that our general-in-chief should feel able to 
 confront and hold in check every active force of the en- 
 emy, and yet to detach a well-appointed large army to 
 move on such an expedition. The result not yet being 
 known, conjecture in regard to it is not yet here in- 
 dulged. 
 
 Important movements have also occurred during the 
 year to the effect of molding society for durability in the 
 Union. Although short of complete success, it is much in 
 the right direction that 12,000 citizens in each of the 
 States of Arkansas and Louisiana have organized loyal 
 State governments, with free constitutions, and are ear- 
 nestly struggling to maintain and administer them. The 
 movements in the same direction, more extensive though 
 less definite, in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 
 should not be overlooked. But Maryland presents the 
 example of complete success. Maryland is secure to lib- 
 erty and Union for all the future. 
 
 From his Annual Message to 
 Congress, December 6, 1864 
 
 Of the Prospect of Peace 
 
 The public purpose to reestablish and maintain the 
 national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, un- 
 changeable. The manner of continuing the effort re- 
 mains to choose. On careful consideration of all the evi- 
 
 57 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 dence accessible, it seems to me that no attempt at nego- 
 tiation with the insurgent leader could result in any 
 good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the 
 Union— precisely what we will not and cannot give. His 
 declarations to this effect are explicit and oft repeated. 
 He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no ex- 
 cuse to deceive ourselves. He cannot voluntarily re- 
 accept the Union ; we cannot voluntarily yield it. 
 
 Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and 
 inflexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war, 
 and decided by victory. If we yield, we are beaten ; if the 
 Southern people fail him, he is beaten. Either way it 
 would be the victory and defeat following war. What is 
 true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause, is 
 not necessarily true of those who follow. Although he 
 cannot re-accept the Union, they can. Some of them, we 
 know, already desire peace and reunion. The number of 
 such may increase. 
 
 They can at any moment have peace simply by laying 
 down their arms and submitting to the national author- 
 ity under the Constitution. After so much the govern- 
 ment could not, if it would, maintain war against them. 
 The loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If ques- 
 tions should remain, we would adjust them by the peace- 
 ful means of legislation, conference, courts, and votes, 
 operating only in constitutional and lawful channels. 
 Some certain, and other possible, questions are, and 
 would be, beyond the executive power to adjust ; as, for 
 instance, the admission of members into Congress, and 
 
 58 
 
OF THE PROSPECT OF PEACE 
 
 whatever might require the appropriation of money. 
 The executive power itself would be greatly diminished 
 by the cessation of actual war. Pardons and remissions 
 of forfeitures, however, would still be within executive 
 control. In what spirit and temper this control would be 
 exercised, can be fairly judged of by the past. 
 
 A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon speci- 
 fied terms, were offered to all except certain designated 
 classes, and it was at the same time made known that the 
 excepted classes were still within contemplation of spe- 
 cial clemency. During the year many availed themselves 
 of the general provision, and many more would, only 
 that the signs of bad faith in some led to such precau- 
 tionary measures as rendered the practical process less 
 easy and certain. During the same time, also, special 
 pardons have been granted to individuals of the ex- 
 cepted classes, and no voluntary application has been 
 denied. 
 
 Thus, practically, the door has been for a full year 
 open to all, except such as were not in condition to make 
 free choice— that is, such as were in custody or under 
 constraint. It is still so open to all; but the time may 
 come— probably will come— when public duty shall de- 
 mand that it be closed ; and that in lieu more rigorous 
 measures than heretofore shall be adopted. 
 
 In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance 
 to the national authority on the part of the insurgents as 
 the only indispensable condition to ending the war on 
 the part of the government, I retract nothing heretofore 
 
 59 
 
AB RAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year 
 ago, that " while I remain in my present position I shall 
 not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation 
 Proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person 
 who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any 
 of the acts of Congress." 
 
 If the people should, by whatever mode or means, 
 make it an executive duty to reenslave such persons, an- 
 other, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it. 
 
 In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply 
 to say, that the war will cease on the part of the govern- 
 ment whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those 
 who began it. 
 
 From his Annual Message to 
 Congress, December 6, 1864 
 
 Of Charity and Forebearance 
 
 Fellow-countrymen : At this second appearing to take 
 the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion 
 for an extended address than there was at the first. Then 
 a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pur- 
 sued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration 
 of four years, during which public declarations have 
 been constantly called forth on every point and phase of 
 the great contest which still absorbs the attention and 
 engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new 
 could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon 
 which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the 
 
 60 
 
OF CHARITY AND FOREBEARANCE 
 
 public as to myself ; and it is, I trust, reasonably satis- 
 factory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the 
 future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 
 
 On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, 
 all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending 
 civil war. All dreaded it— all sought to avert it. While 
 the inaugural address was being delivered from this 
 place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without 
 war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy 
 it without war— seeking to dissolve the Union, and di- 
 vide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated 
 war ; but one of them would make war rather than let the 
 nation survive ; and the other would accept war rather 
 than let it perish. And the war came. 
 
 One-eighth of the whole population were colored 
 slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but lo- 
 calized in the Southern part of it. These slaves consti- 
 tuted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that 
 this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To 
 strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the 
 object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, 
 even by war ; while the government claimed no right to 
 do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 
 
 Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or 
 the duration which it has already attained. Neither an- 
 ticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, 
 or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each 
 looked for an easier triumph, and a result less funda- 
 mental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and 
 
 61 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 pray to the same God ; and each invokes his aid against 
 the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare 
 to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread 
 from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge 
 not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not 
 be answered— that of neither has been answered fully. 
 
 The Almighty has his own purposes. " Woe unto the 
 world because of offenses ! for it must needs be that of- 
 fenses come ; but woe to that man by whom the offense 
 cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is 
 one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, 
 must needs come, but which, having continued through 
 his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he 
 gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the 
 woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we dis- 
 cern therein any departure from those divine attributes 
 which the believers in a living God always ascribe to 
 him? Fondly do we hope— fervently do we pray— that 
 this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, 
 if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by 
 the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unre- 
 quited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood 
 drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with 
 the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still 
 it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true 
 and righteous altogether. ' ' 
 
 With malice toward none ; with charity for all ; with 
 firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let 
 us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up the 
 
 62 
 
OF CHARITY AND FOREBEARANCE 
 
 nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne 
 the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan— to do all 
 which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace 
 among ourselves, and with all nations. 
 
 His Second Inaugural Ad- 
 dress, March 4, 1865 
 
SOURCES 
 
 Letter to John Coulter, September 4, 1860 : From the origi- 
 nal autograph letter in the possession of the Abraham 
 Lincoln Book Shop, Chicago, and here, by permission of 
 that institution, first included in a collection of Lincoln's 
 writings. 
 
 Letters to Samuel Haycraf t, May 28 and June 4, 1860 : From 
 John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Complete Works of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln (New York, Francis D. Tandy Company, 
 1905). 
 
 Letter to James T. Thornton, December 2, 1858 : Ibid. 
 
 Letter to Joseph Medill, June 25, 1858 : From Paul M. Angle, 
 New Letters and Papers of Lincoln (Boston, Houghton 
 Mifflin Company, 1930). 
 
 Speech at Springfield, October 30, 1858 : Ibid. 
 
 Letter to Allen N. Ford, August 11, 1846, and Handbill, July 
 31, 1846 : From The Abraham Lincoln Quarterly, March, 
 1942. 
 
 All others : From John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham 
 Lincoln: Complete Works (New York, The Century Com- 
 pany, 1894). 
 
This edition 
 of the autobiographical writings of Abraham Lincoln 
 has been set in 12 point Linotype De Vinne, and 
 printed on an all rag paper, furnished by Walker, 
 Goulard, Plehn and Company. The printing and bind- 
 ing was done at Kingsport Press, Incorporated, Kings- 
 port, Tennessee. The format has been designed by 
 Andor Braun. 
 
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