tM *.•**---* A * — a »■» u^K,^ (s^tr^s- sJscj-i*- 0Sl-^, Qw**- ■ 04-*. ^„-.*j A^-^-w_ ( *V^ V . f£ttri~~j £2~i i^S/T&e^mif&s SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN A SOUVENIR OF THE SEVENTH ANNUAL LINCOLN DINNER OF THE REPUBLICAN CLUB OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, AT DELMONICO'S, FEBRUARY n, 1893 <©><©»<©> NEW-YORK COMPILED BY THE COMMITTEE 1893 COMMITTEE ON LINCOLN DINNER, 1893. CHARLES H. DENISON, CHAIRMAN. E. A. McALPIN. A. B. HUMPHREY. JOSEPH ULLMAN, TREASURER. HENRY MELVILLE, SECRETARY. JAMES A. BLANCHARD, EX-OFFICIO. 773. 1 L L>3 i,*jc KI813 OFFICERS OF THE REPUBLICAN CLUB OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, FOR THE YEAR 1893. PRESIDENT, JOHN S. SMITH. FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT, ARTHUR L. MERRIAM. SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT, JAMES S. LEHMAIER. THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT, WILLIAM LEARY. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, HENRY B. JOHNSON. RECORDING SECRETARY, FRANCIS E. LAIMBEER. TREASURER, ALFRED B. PRICE. LIST OF EXTRACTS PAGE From Speech at Peoria, Oct. 16, 1854 7 From Speech at Springfield, June 26, 1857 (Argument on the Dred Scott Decision) 15 From Speech at Springfield, June l6 > 1858 33 From Speech at Beardstown, III., Aug. 12, 1858 36 From Speech at Edwardsville, III., Sept. 13, 1858 ...... 44 From Letter to Mr. Henry As- bury, Nov. 19, 1858 55 From Letter to Pierce and Others, April 6, 1859 56 3 LIST OF EXTRACTS PAGE Peroration of Address at Cooper Institute, Feb. 27, i860 ... 60 Farewell Address at the Rail- road Station, Springfield, Feb. 11, 1861 63 Closing Sections of First Inau- gural Address, Washington, March 4, 1861 67 From Message to Congress, Dec. 3, 1861 (Labor and Capital) . . 77 From Letter to the Secretary of State, June 28, 1862 85 Letter to Horace Greeley, Aug. 22, 1862 86 Closing Paragraph of Message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862 .... 90 Letter to the Working-men of Manchester, Eng., Jan. 19, 1863 92 Closing Paragraph of Letter to James C. Conkling, Aug. 26, 1863 101 4 LIST OF EXTRACTS PAGE From Letter to Drake and Others, Oct. 5, 1863 103 Speech at Gettysburg, Pa., Nov. 19, 1863 107 Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 112 Portraits of Mr. Lincoln, besides the frontispiece, are inserted opposite pages 12, 26, 38, 50, 64, 78, 92, 108. IA Lincoln's Birthplace. From Speech at Peoria, October 16, 1854. ' HIS declared indifference, H but, as I must think, covert zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slav- ery itself. I hate it because it de- prives our republican example of its just influence in the world ; enables the enemies of free insti- tutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites ; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity ; and especially because SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS it forces so many really good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental princi- ples of civil liberty, criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. • •••••• The doctrine of self-government is right, — absolutely and eternally right, — but it has no just applica- tion as here attempted. Or per- haps I should rather say that whether it has such just applica- tion depends upon whether a ne- gro is not, or is, a man. If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man may as a matter of self-gov- OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ernment do just what he pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of self-govern- ment to say that he too shall not govern himself? When the white man governs himself, that is self- government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-gov- ernment — that is despotism. • •••••• What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. • •••••• Slavery is founded in the sel- fishness of man's nature — oppo- SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS sition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism ; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must cease- lessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all compro- mise — repeal the Declaration of Independence — repeal all past history — still you cannot repeal human nature. • •••••• Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men IO OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. are created equal ; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration that for some men to enslave others is a " sacred right of self-government." These principles cannot stand to- gether. They are as opposite as God and Mammon. • •••••• Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us re- purify it. Let us turn and wash it white in the spirit if not the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of ''moral right" back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of " ne- cessity." Let us return it to the ir SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and the practices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South — let all Americans — let all lovers of liber- ty everywhere — join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall have so saved it as to make and to keep it forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free, happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest generations. 12 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Argument on the Dred Scott Decision. From Speech at Springfield, June 26, 1857. ND now, as to the Dred Scott decision. That de- cision declares two propositions — first, that a negro cannot sue in the United States courts ; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories. It was made by a divided court — dividing differently on the differ- ent points. Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits of the deci- sion, and in that respect I shall fol- 15 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS low his example, believing I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis than he could on Taney. He denounces all who question the correctness of that decision, as offering violent resistance to it. But who resists it? Who has, in spite of the decision, declared Dred Scott free, and resisted the author- ity of his master over him ? Judi- cial decisions have two uses — first, to absolutely determine the case decided ; and secondly, to indicate to the public how other similar cases will be decided when they arise. For the latter use they are called ''precedents" and "authorities." 16 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in obe- dience to and respect for the judicial department of govern- ment. We think its decisions on con- stitutional questions, when fully settled, should control not only the particular cases decided, but the general policy of the country, sub- ject to be disturbed only by amendments of the Constitution as provided in that instrument itself. More than this would be revolution. But we think the Dred Scott de- cision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and 2 17 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS we shall do what we can to have it overrule this. We offer no resis- tance to it. Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as pre- cedents according to circumstances. That this should be so, accords both with common sense and the customary understanding of the legal profession. If this important decision had been made by the unanimous concurrence of the judges, and without any apparent partizan bias, and in accordance with legal public expectation and with the steady practice of the departments throughout our his- tory, and had been in no part based on assumed historical facts which OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. are not really true ; or, if wanting in some of these, it had been before the court more than once, and had there been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years, it then might be, perhaps would be, fac- tious, nay, even revolutionary, not to acquiesce in it as a precedent. But when, as is true, we find it wanting in all these claims to the public confidence, it is not resis- tance, it is not factious, it is not even disrespectful, to treat it as not having yet quite established a set- tled doctrine for the country. • •••••• The Chief Justice does not direct- ly assert, but plainly assumes as a 19 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS fact that the public estimate of the black man is more favorable now than it was in the days of the Rev- olution. This assumption is a mistake. In some trifling particu- lars the condition of that race has been ameliorated ; but as a whole, in this country, the change be- tween then and now is decidedly the other way; and their ultimate destiny has never appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four years. In two of the five States — New Jersey and North Carolina — that then eave the free negro the right of voting, the right has since been taken away ; and in a third — New-York — it has 20 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. been greatly abridged ; while it has not been extended, so far as I know, to a single additional State, though the number of the States has more than doubled. In those days, as I understand, masters could, at their own plea- sure, emancipate their slaves ; but since then, such legal restraints have been made upon emanci- pation as to amount almost to prohibition. In those days, legislatures held the unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their respective States; but now it is becoming quite fash- ionable for State Constitutions to withhold that power from the legis- 2A 21 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS latures. In those days, by com- mon consent, the spread of the black man's bondage to the new countries was prohibited ; but now Congress decides that it will not continue the prohibition, and the Supreme Court decides that it could not if it would. In those days our Declaration of Indepen- dence was held sacred by all, and thought to include all ; but now, to aid in making the bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, and sneered at, and construed, and hawked at, and torn, till if its framers could rise from their graves they could not at all recognize it. 22 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. All the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him — Mammon is after him, ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the theology of the day is fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison house, they have searched his person and left no pry- ing instrument with him. One after another they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him ; and now they have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can never be un- locked without the concurrence of every key — the keys in the hands of a hundred different men, and they scattered to a hundred dif- 23 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS ferent and distant places ; and they stand musing as to what in- vention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to make the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is. There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white peo- ple at the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races; and Judge Douglas evidently is basing his chief hope upon the chances of his being able to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. If he can, by much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can 24 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. struggle through the storm. He therefore clings to this hope as a drowning man to the last plank. He makes an occasion for luof- ging it in, from the opposition to the Dred Scott decision. He finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of Independence in- cludes all men, black as well as white, and forthwith he boldly de- nies that it includes negroes at all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all who contend it does, do so only because they want to vote, and eat, and sleep, and marry with negroes. He will have it that they cannot be consistent else. Now, I protest against the counterfeit SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS logic which concludes that because I do not want a black woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal ; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands, without ask- ing leave of any one else, she is my equal and the equal of all others. Chief Justice Taney, in his opin- ion in the Dred Scott case, admits that the language of the Declara- tion is broad enough to include the whole human family ; but he and Judge Douglas argue that the authors of that instrument did not 26 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. intend to include negroes by the fact that they did not at once actu- ally place them on an equality with the whites. Now, this grave argu- ment comes to just nothing at all by the other fact that they did not at once or ever afterward actually place all white people on an equal- ity with one another. And this is the staple argument of both the Chief Justice and the Senator for doing this obvious violence to the plain, unmistakable language of the Declaration. I think the authors of that no- table instrument intended to in- clude all men ; but they did not intend to declare all men equal in 29 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS all respects. They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what respects they did consider all men created equal — equal with "cer- tain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply 3 o OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should per- mit. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all ; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere. The asser- tion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in affecting our separation from Great 31 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS Britain ; and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use. Its authors meant it to be, as, thank God, it is now proving- itself, a stumbling-block to all those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of des- potism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants ; and they meant when such should re- appear in this fair land and com- mence their vocation, they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack. 32 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. From Speech at Springfield, June 16, 1858. F we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confi- dent promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agi- tation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. 3 33 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this Govern- ment cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinc- tion ; or its advocates will push it 34 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South. 35 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS From Speech at Beardstown, Illinois, August 12, 1858. HESE communities, by their y|l|8§ representatives in old In- dependence Hall, said to the whole race of men: "We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This was their majestic interpre- tation of the economy of the 36 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. universe. This was their lofty f and wise, and noble understand- ing of the justice of the Creator to his creatures. Yes, gentle- men, to all his creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on and de- graded, and imbruted by its fel- lows. They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They erected a beacon to guide their children, and their children's chil- dren, and the countless myriads 3 A 37 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS who should inhabit the earth in other a^es. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the ten- dency of prosperity to breed ty- rants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doc- trine that none but rich men, none but white men, or none but An- glo-Saxon white men, were en- titled to life, liberty, and the pur- suit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Dec- laration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began, so that truth 38 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and justice and mercy and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land; so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circum- scribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was being built. Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines con- flicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Indepen- dence; if you have listened to suggestions which would take away from its grandeur and muti- late the fair symmetry of its pro- portions; if you have been in- clined to believe that all men are 41 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS not created equal in those inalien- able rights enumerated by our chart of liberty : let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolu- tion. Think nothing of me, — take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever, — but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I 42 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and in- significant thought for any man's success. It is nothing; I am no- thing ; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity — the Dec- laration of Independence. 43 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS From Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois, September 13, 1858. HE difference between the Republican and the Demo- cratic parties on the leading issues of this contest, as I understand it, is that the former consider slavery amoral, social, and political wrong, while the latter do not consider it either a moral, a social, or a political wrong ; and the action of each, as respects the growth of the country ? and the expansion of our popula- tion, is squared to meet these views. 44 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. I will not affirm that the Dem- ocratic party consider slavery morally, socially, and politically right, though their tendency to that view has, in my opinion, been constant and unmistakable for the past five years. I prefer to take, as the accepted maxim of the party, the idea put forth by Judge Doug- las, that he " don't care whether slavery is voted down or voted up." I am quite willing to believe that many Democrats would prefer that slavery should be always voted down, and I know that some prefer that it be always " voted up " ; but I have a right to insist that their ac- tion, especially if it be their constant 45 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS action, shall determine their ideas and preferences on this subject. Every measure of the Demo- cratic party of late years, bearing directly or indirectly on the slavery question, has corresponded with this notion of utter indifference, whether slaverv or freedom shall outrun in the race of empire across to the Pacific — every measure, I say, up to the Dred Scott decision, where, it seems to me, the idea is boldly suggested that slavery is bet- ter than freedom. The Republican party, on the contrary, hold that this government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and that slavery is an unqualified 4 6 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State. Re- garding it as an evil, they will not molest it in the States where it exists; they will not overlook the constitutional guards which our fathers placed around it ; they will do nothing that can give proper offense to those who hold slaves by legal sanction ; but they will use every constitutional method to pre- vent the evil from becoming larger and involving more negroes, more white men, more soil, and more States in its deplorable conse- quences. They will, if possible, place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course 47 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS of ultimate peaceable extinction in God's own good time. And to this end they will, if possible, restore the government to the policy of the fathers — the policy of preserving the new Territories from the bane- ful influence of human bondage, as the northwestern Territories were sought to be preserved by the Or- dinance of 1787, and the Com- promise Act of 1820. They will oppose, in all its length and breadth, the modern Democratic idea, that slavery is as good as freedom, and ought to have room for expansion all over the conti- nent, if people can be found to carry it. All, or nearly all, of 48 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Judge Douglas's arguments are logical, if you admit that slavery is as good and as right as freedom, and not one of them is worth a rush if you deny it. This is the differ- ence, as I understand it, between the Republican and Democratic parties. • • • • • • My friends, I have endeavored to show you the logical conse- quences of the Dred Scott decision, which holds that the people of a Territory cannot prevent the estab- lishment of slavery in their midst. I have stated what cannot be gainsaid, that the grounds upon which this decision is made are 4 49 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS equally applicable to the free States as to the free Territories, and that the peculiar reasons put forth by Judge Douglas for indors- ing this decision commit him, in advance, to the next decision, and to all other decisions coming from the same source. And when, by all these means, you have sue- ceeded in dehumanizing the negro; when you have put him down and made it impossible for him to be but as the beasts of the held ; when you have extinguished his soul in this world and placed him where the ray of hope is blown out as in the darkness of the damned, are you quite sure that the demon you 50 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. have roused will not turn and rend you ? What constitutes the bul- wark of our own liberty and inde- pendence? It is not our frown- ing battlements, our bristling sea- coasts, our army and our navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny. All of those may be turned against us with- out making us weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism at 4A 53 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS your own doors. Familiarize your- selves with the chains of bondage, and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to tram- ple on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own inde- pendence, and become the fit sub- jects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you. And let me tell you, that all these things are prepared for you by the teach- ings of history, if the elections shall promise that the next Dred Scott decision and all future decisions will be quietly acquiesced in by the people. 54 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. From Letter to Mr. Henry Asbury, November 19, 1858. HE fight must goon. The Jj cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even one hundred, defeats. 55 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS From Letter to Pierce and others, April 6, 1859. L UT, soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true; but neverthe- less he would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the defini- tions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and 56 OF ABRAHAM LINXOLN. axioms of free society. And yet they are denied and evaded, with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them "glittering generalities." Another bluntly calls them "self-evident lies." And others insidiously argue that they apply only to "superior races." These expressions, dif- fering in form, are identical in object and effect — the supplant- ing the principles of free govern- ment, and restoring those of classification, caste, and legiti- macy. They would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are the vanguard — the miners 57 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS and sappers of returning despot- ism. We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must con- sent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others de- serve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. All honor to Jefferson — to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national inde- pendence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revo- lutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and 58 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. all times, and so to embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very har- bingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression. 59 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS Peroration of Address at Cooper Institute, February 27, i860. RONG as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity aris- ing from its actual presence in the nation ; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the National Terri- tories, and to overrun us here in the Free States? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and 60 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contri- vances wherewith we are so in- dustriously plied and belabored, — contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man ; such as a policy of " don't care" on a question about which all true men do care ; such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunion- ists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance; such as invocations to Washington, im- 61 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS ploring men to unsay what Wash- ington said, and undo what Wash- ington did. Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us. nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Goyernment nor of dungeons to ourselyes. Let us haye faith that riodit makes migfht. and in that faith let us, to the end. dare to do our duty as we understand it. iz OF ABRAHAM LINXOLX. Farewell Address at the Railroad Station, Springfield, February n. 1561. f'Kh\Y FRIENDS: Xo one not g^Wj in my situation can appre- ciate mv feeling G f 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 mv children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I mav return, with SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him, who can go with me, and remain with you, and be every- where for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affec- tionate farewell. 6 4 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Closing Sections of First Inaugural Address. Washington, March 4. 1861. fTlpHYSICALLY speaking, we H mi , v g cannot separate. \\ e can- not remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an im- passable wall between them. A husband and wife maybe divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our countrv cannot do this. Thev cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable -- SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS or hostile, must continue between them. Is it impossible, then, to make that intercourse more ad- vantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before f Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully en- forced between aliens than laws can among friends ? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight al- ways; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. This country, with its institu- tions, belongs to the people who 68 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Gov- ernment they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the peo- ple over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument it- self; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than 5 A 69 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add, that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amend- ments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only per- mitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the pur- pose, and which might not be pre- cisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I un- derstand a proposed amend- ment to the Constitution — which amendment, however, I have not seen — has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Gov- 7 o OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ernment shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid mis- construction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision now to be implied con- stitutional law, I have no objec- tion to its being made express and irrevocable. The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this 7 1 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS also if they choose; but the Ex- ecutive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to admin- ister the present Government as it came to his hands, and to trans- mit it, unimpaired by him, to his successor. Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differ- ences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Al- mighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and 72 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. that justice will surely prevail, by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people. By the frame of the Govern- ment under which we live, the same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their vir- tue and vigilance, no administra- tion, by any extreme of wicked- ness or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years. My countrymen, one and all, 73 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take de- liberately, that object will be frus- trated by taking time, but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dis- satisfied still have the old Consti- tution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it ; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to chancre either. If it were ad- o mitted that you who are dissat- 74 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ished hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christian- ity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being- yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Govern- 75 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS ment; while /shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect and defend " it. I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chord of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the cho- rus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. 76 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Labor and Capital. From Message to Congress, December 3, 1861. iOW, there is no such rela- tion between capital and labor as assumed; nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condi- tion of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless. Labor is prior to, and indepen- dent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never 77 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS have existed 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 produc- ing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and those few avoid labor themselves, and, with their capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority be- long to neither class — neither 78 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 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 them- selves, on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable num- ber of persons mingle their own labor with capital, — that is, they SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS 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 prin- ciple stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class. Again, as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such thing as the free hired la- borer 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 beginner in the world labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his 82 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. own account another while, and at length hires another new be- ginner to help him. This is the just, and generous, and prosper- ous system, which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and con- sequent energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty — none less in- clined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of sur- rendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement 83 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost. 8 4 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. From Letter to the Secretary of State, June 28, 1862. EXPECT to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me. 6a 85 SELECTION'S FROM THE WORKS Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862. glEAR SIR: I have just jfjjgfjil read yours of the 19th, addressed to myself through the New- York Tribune. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it anv inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now and here, argue against them. 86 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right. As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you say. I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national author- ity can be restored, the nearer the Union will be the Union as it was. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not aoree with them. 87 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union with- out freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by free- ing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I be- lieve it helps to save the Union; 83 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and what I forbear, I forbear be- cause I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more when- ever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free. 8 9 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS Closing Paragraph of Message to Congress, December i, 1862. [ELLOW-CITIZENS, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remem- bered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignifi- cance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We say that we are for the Union. The world will 90 OF ABRAHAM LIN'COLX. not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving free- dom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free. — honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed ; this could not, cannot fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just, — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless. 91 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS Letter to the Working-men of Manchester, England, January 19, 1863. e~t 1 f 1 f 1 1 g | II « HAVE the honor to ac- pi jjl knowledge the receipt of the address and resolutions which you sent me on the eve of the new year. When I came on the 4th of March, 1861, through a free and constitutional election, to preside in the Government of the United States, the country was found at the verge of civil war. Whatever might have been the cause, or whosesoever the fault, one duty paramount to all others was be- 92 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. fore me, — namely, to maintain and preserve at once the Constitution and the integrity of the Federal Republic. A conscientious pur- pose to perform this duty is the key to all the measures of ad- ministration which have been, and to all which will hereafter be, pur- sued. Under our frame of gov- ernment and my official oath, I could not depart from this purpose if I would. It is not always in the power of governments to enlarge or restrict the scope of moral re- sults which follow the policies that they may deem it necessary, for the public safety, from time to time to adopt. 95 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS I have understood well that the duty of self-preservation rests sole- ly with the American people. But I have at the same time been aware that favor or disfavor of foreign nations might have a material in- fluence in enlarging or prolonging the struggle with disloyal men in which the country is engaged. A fair examination of history has served to authorize a belief that the past actions and influences of the United States were generally regarded as having been beneficial toward mankind. I have, there- fore, reckoned upon the forbear- ance of nations. Circumstances — to some of which you kindly 9 6 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. allude — induced me especially to expect that if justice and good faith should be practised by the United States, they would encoun- ter no hostile influence on the part of Great Britain. It is now a pleasant duty to acknowledge the demonstration you haye giyen of your desire that a spirit of amity and peace toward this country may preyail in the councils of your Queen, who is respected and es- teemed in your own country only * 4 more than she is by the kindred nation which has its home on this side of the Atlantic. I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working-men 7 97 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS of Manchester, and in all Eu- rope, are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously represented that the at- tempt to overthrow this Govern- ment, which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Through the action of our disloyal citizens, the working-men of Europe have been subjected to severe trials, for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under the cir- cumstances, I cannot but regard your decisive utterances upon the 9 8 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an en- ergetic and reinspiring assurance of the inherent power of truth, and of the ultimate and universal tri- umph of justice, humanity, and freedom. I do not doubt that the sentiments you have expressed will be sustained by your great nation, and, on the other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite admiration, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friendship among the American people. I hail this in- terchange of sentiment, therefore, 99 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS as an augury that whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exist between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual. IOO OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Closing Paragraph of Letter to James C. Conkling, August 26, 1863. EACE 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 success- ful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And then there will be some black men who IOI 7 A SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS can remember that with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayo- net, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation ; while I fear there will be some white ones unable to forget that with ma- lignant heart and deceitful speech they strove to hinder it. Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result. 1 02 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. From Letter to Drake and others, October 5, 1863. MONG the reasons given, enough of suffering and wrong to Union men is certainly, and I suppose truly, stated. Yet the whole case, as presented, fails to convince me that General Scho- field, or the enrolled militia, is responsible for that suffering and wrong. The whole can be ex- plained on a more charitable and, as I think, a more rational hy- pothesis. We are in Civil War. In such cases there always is a 103 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS main question ; but in this case that question is a perplexing com- pound — Union and Slavery. It thus becomes a question not of two sides merely, but at least four sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those who are against it. Thus, those who are for the Union with, but not without^ slav- ery — those for it without, but not with — those for it with or with- out, but prefer it with — and those for it with or without, but prefer it without. Among these again is a subdivision of those who are for gradual, but not for immediate, and those who are for immediate, 104 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. but not for gradual, extinction of slavery. It is easy to conceive that all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men. Yet, all being for the Union, by reason of these differences each will pre- fer a different way of sustaining the Union. At once sincerity is questioned, and motives are as- sailed. Actual war coming, blood grows hot, and blood is spilled. Thought is forced from old channels into confusion. Deception breeds and thrives. Confidence dies, and universal suspicion reigns. Each man feels an impulse to kill his 105 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS neighbor, lest he be first killed by him. Revenge and retaliation fol- low. And all this, as before said, may be among honest men only. But this is not all. Every foul bird comes abroad, and every dirty reptile rises up. These add crime to confusion. Strong measures deemed indispensable, but harsh at best, such men make worse by mal- administration. Murders for old grudges, and murders for pelf, proceed under any cloak that will best cover for the occasion. These causes amply account for what has occurred in Missouri, without as- cribing it to the weakness or wickedness of any general. 106 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. H Speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863. £ Bl )URSCORE and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedi- 107 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS cate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that na- tion might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, liv- ing and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfin- ished work which they who fought OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. here have thus far so nobly ad- vanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take in- creased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full mea- sure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth. in SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. ELLOW-COUNTRY- MEN: At this second ap- pearing to take the oath of the Pres- idential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then, a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued seemed 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 112 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. still absorbs the attention and en- grosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be pre- sented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to my- self; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ven- tured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an im- pending civil war. All dreaded it — all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being de- IJ 3 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS livered 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 divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties depre- cated war ; but one of them would make war rather than let the na- tion survive ; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came. One eighth of the whole popula- tion were colored slaves, not dis- tributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. ii 4 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and ex- tend 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 terri- torial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. "5 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any 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 offenses come ; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses, 116 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. which in the providence of God must needs come, but which, hav- ting continued through his appoint- ed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believ- ers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speed- ily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hun- dred and fifty years of unrequited 117 WORKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 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 na- tion's wounds ; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphans — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 118 Lincoln's Tomb at Springfield. ■