f i Fs / a Cee. , —Oe "University of Virginia Library =e E;457.92;1922 ALD Abraham Lincoln; NM RX OO1 cb 4 OR tat rece ae. ae ie ae es ia he ieee ea P Gs i> 4 P Or lee Ue ag < pein ae pe ED ee vn Bs gy ny Cone _ a a ; prensa Says, te aTLIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA FROM THE BOOKS OF DR. JAMES G. JOHNSON SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS OF THE CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLEi F ? , i ! L} i | \ | " i —_= ee ee F i t i i ) | 1 ] ee Se Se nej : i Ly \ { \ /, ‘ 1 } ; } ' \ ] WASHINGT THE ICKINGHAM B\ BY C 922 4 COPYRIGHT TON, J r( WASHI!I EMORIAL, M NCOLN LI NEWAbraham Lincoln HisCopyriIGntT 1922 BY Scott, FoRESMAN AND COMPANYPREFACE A close student of Lincoln for many years past, have in the preparation of this volume made use of all the standard works on the subject, and have, in addi- tion, read several hundred short articles which touch his life, character, personality, and writings. As a result my obligations are so varied that it is an utter impossibility to acknowledge them all individually in any reasonable limits of space. I wish. however, to acknowledge my deep indebted ness for permission to use certain of the selections to Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, publishers of the Consti- tutional Edition of Lincoln’s Writings and of The Writ ings of Carl Schurz; to the Century Company for simi lar permission to use Abraham Lincoln’s Complete Works (edited by Nicolay and Hay); to Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons for permission to include a selection from Mary R. S. Andrews’s The Perfect Tribute, and to the Macmillan Company for an extract from Ida M. Tarbell’s Life of Abraham Lincoln. I am under heavy obligations to my wife for invalu- able assistance in making the selections. in the editorial work, and in the preparation of the manuscript. a. Gr. de We ci: Chapel Hill, N. C. December, 1921CONTENIS PREFACI BIBLIOGRAPHICAI IN rTRODUCTION CHRONOLOG) (GROWTH AND rislature Sangamon County.ITT. CONTENTS PAGE Petter to (Godding: © x... terse os okt oo rac ork ORE 131 Wetteruto; George’ Robertson din,) >... sedksn Sees eet cee 132 ISeLtennLo 0d Osiiua Fo Speeds ttc: «cs oo os hac tune cee 134 Metter 10.0..A° DBMtrennamen c+): &..o00 eee 140 Speech in Reply to Senator Douglas at Springfield. ..143 hero pringheld..Specen:. 61372 5.% eee a ee ee 158 SPELLCEMLO! (eA CNEVs AASDUIV cle cise 5 Gistuierac is sats oe ae Oe 171 Mincouns, Autobiography ‘of 1858s. t2 33... . oe. fe ee 172 PERI OF HU GMOCKACW 4 tee. fo ashe oievey broek Yaak 172 etreretOy di WN: BROWN: § sei hake von. oo a ee ee 172 POEKteE LO) EL. DD. SMANpeincc bcc ge hes cee ee 174 enters to: ti. L. Bierce and. Others... i... : &. sn ncaues 175 ME COOMUIMMIUS: SS PECCM ie stv tbc gic Rei suv ae Wie nee ceek 178 BOCTRET UD CU: Wee AE Clot as oo) cicia eis pice Gi estoy Seance a 212 Limcolnis Autobiography of 18590. +) et es ae .325 Letter to: Horace Greeleyei. (evewore occ chee nce 327 Reply to. a.Chicago: Committees. 224 ois. cu ers eeu cassc. 329 Telegram to General George B. McClellan............ 333 Letter. to. General Carl Schure........ «oc. 334 Order for Sabbath Observance. .336 Letter to General N. P. Banks iin x lets hare ie einer ae+ eee en CONTENTS PAGE etter to General Carl Sehure:. osc oe ct oie ce iene 338 Extract from Annual Message to Congress...... ee OAD Letter to William H. Seward and Salmon P. Chase... .356 The Emancipation Proclamation....:...........4..-.-3d00 Letter to General John A. McClernand............... 359 Reply to the Workingmen of Manchester............. 360 etter to General: Joseph’ Tlookers.. <2 oe oe ce en er 303 Letter to’ General Wriliam Nosecrans.........::...25% 364 Letter to Governor Horatio Seymour............3.... 366 Proclamation for a National Fast Day............... 367 Telegram to General Joseph Hooker..................369 Telegram to General Joseph Hooker..................369 Telegram to General Joseph Hooker..................370 Wetter to ieneral U.. SiGrants.3 <4; sce ie oe ee oe eae etter .to wv ames bl. -backett.< si. 5 ih ees oe. soe vetter-toywames ©. GonkKin eos cic. os cakiew cs oor eee 372 Wetter tov ames: ©: Conkling: a0. ct en ee eee 373 leetten Lom amon eb. Chases si... a pot | S16 e ek ore tens 378 Proclamation for ThanksSviving..: = .2 6... <2 fe ee aele etter! to) ames bl. Tackett. 4) lee be ale Sorat e te OU ithe: Gettysbure Address:.\. 2026. m etree ke Oe Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.........383 Extract from Annual Message to Congress........ COT etter to; oalmon, besChases. see ee oe ee ie em coe Better 10 Salmon be Cnasesr veces e tciecrd- ty 4 ue - soos etter to) Michael “Ealing: 84k. oo, et oe 395 Wetter to Asn ElOd mesic ce cei ee iene ieee ta ben OOOCONTENTS Order to General John Memorandum Letter to Mrs. Bixby.. See Extract from Annual Message to Congress Memorandum on Terms of Peace i a6 6 6 8 8 6-8 0°62 O64 Goa ae PS Se lelegram to General U. S. eeBIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Any attempt at a complete Lincoln bibliography is impossible, and of course, in a work of this sort is un- necessary. No man in American history has had so much attention devoted to his life as Lincoln, and the list of books and articles relating to him grows without any noticeable diminution. It may, however, be help- ful to those desiring to study him in greater detail to mention here a small number of works suitable for ref- erence purposes. The standard biography is Nicolay and Hay’s Life of Abraham Lincoln, in ten large volumes. This work deals with the history of the period in some detail and is biased and partisan. Tarbell’s Life of Abraham Lin- coln is very satisfactory in every way. Herndon’s Life of Lincoln contains a great deal of valuable and inter- esting material bearing on his early life, as does also Lamon’s Life of Lincoln. Of the shorter biographies Hapgood’s Lincoln, the Man of the People, in the judg- ment of the writer, stands easily first. Other valuable works are Putnam’s Abraham Lincoln; Whitney's Life of Lincoln; Lord Charnwood’s Abraham Lincoln; Rice's Reminiscences of Lincoln; and Rothschild’s Lincoln, Master of Men. Lowell and Schurz wrote essays on Lincoln which are excellent interpretations and which will prove very helpful to the student of Lincoln. This list is in no sense exhaustive; rather it must be noted that others almost as satisfactory could be pre- pared without including any of the works mentioned. 10INTRODUCTION This little volume of selections from Lincoln's writ- ings is prepared with a double purpose. Primarily it is intended to serve as the basis for the work of classes in English literature, or as collateral reading in American history, but it is hoped that it may also interest those who wish to find, gathered in convenient form, the more important and characteristic speeches, letters, and state papers of the great President. I confess to a strong prejudice against the rather common practice of including in such a collection as this portions of a speech or letter, isolated from their con- text. Believing that this tends to defective instruction and careless study, and that it is unjust both to author and reader, I have given the full text of all the docu- ments included, with exceptions in the cases of one speech, of one letter, and of the annual messages. In the case of the latter, I have omitted the routine portions, and the extracts given are complete units in themselves. In the running story which accompanies the text there are also occasional brief quotations for the purpose of illustration. I have endeavored to include in the collection not only the best known of Lincoln’s writings but also those others which best illustrate his growth and development, his personality, his political ideals, and his relation to important events and movements in American history. Thus, there will be found those papers and addresses which are most noted for the beauty and power of their language and the logic and strength of their thought; others significant for their hard common sense; and 1112 ‘SELECTIONS’ FROM LINCOLN still others which are illuminating for the study of the man or his period. Of his great political speeches I have included the Peoria, the Springfield, the Columbus, and the Cooper Union addresses, which, as Colonel Watterson says, con- tain his entire political philosophy. I have, however, omitted the debates with Douglas of 1858. In addition, I have thought it well to include a number of minor speeches, not so well known, which indicate the direc- tion and character of his growth, the heart of the man, or the formulation of an opinion or policy. In the case of the letters, I have been guided by somewhat the same idea. Every kind of letter he wrote is represented here. They have been selected with even more care than the speeches, for the light they throw upon Lincoln’s character and personality; and they range from the humorous and keenly satirical to the simple and wonderfully impressive letter to Mrs. Bixby. I believe that everything necessary to a full under- standing of the man and the policies and principles for which he stood has been included. Since the selections contain the essential outline of Lincoln’s life in his own words, I have made no attempt in this introduction to tell again the story. The running interpretation of the documents will, I believe, furnish all additional detail necessary to their full understand- ing. Three great reasons make the study of Lincoln’s writ- ings worth while. In the first place, uneven as they are, they contain masterpieces of English literature which in themselves, as examples of effective reasoning and pres- entation, fully repay study. A second reason is to be found in the revelation they furnish of a man who is one of the great figures of world history. Knowledge of his writings develops an intellectual intimacy with a man who was, in his later years at least, one of the lofti- est souls of history, but one which nevertheless neverINTRODUCTION io lost its contact and kinship with the minds, hearts, and souls of the mass of men; which never found difficulty ‘nits instinctive understanding of the thoughts, hopes, and aspirations of the average man. Finally, these papers throw the strongest possible light on the political events of their period of American history, and in that light the study of history is simplified and humanized. The power and beauty of Lineoln’s writings, partic- ularly remarkable when the lack of opportunity for con- ventional training is recalled, constitute one of the great- est personal achievements of his life. At an early age he set himself to work deliberately to acquire mastery of the power of clear expression. He thus described what he did: “When a mere child I used to get irritated when any- body talked to me in a way I could not understand. I do not think I ever got angry at anything else in my life: but that always disturbed my temper, and has ever since. I can remember going to my little bedroom, after hearing the neighbors talk of an evening with my father, and spending no small part of the night walking up and down trying to make out what was the exact meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. “I could not sleep when I got on such a hunt for an ‘dea until I had caught it; and when I thought I had got it, I was not satisfied until I had put it in language plain enough, as | thought, for any boy to comprehend. This was a kind of passion with me, and it has stuck by me; for I am never easy now, when I am handling a thought, till I have bounded it north, and bounded it south, and bounded it east, and bounded it west.” It was in consequence of this rigid self-training that his writings are all marked by terseness and simplicity of statement. In all he wrote and all he said, he sought to be persuasive, and to his mind that meant, above all things, to be clear. He dealt always with essentials-_ er en es ~ — OO mt ee yf me my \ 1 \ 14. SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN which he knew thoroughly. In preparation for a speech he saturated himself with his subject, studying it from all sides, handling it, and living with it night and day. As he phrased it once to his law-partner, Herndon, when deep in the preparation of a case, “If I can clean this ease of technicalities and get it properly to the jury, I'll win it.” All his writings show his purpose of strip- ping away the technicalities and getting the case prop- erly to the jury. He was not a quick thinker; rather he thought slowly, even with difficulty, but profoundly, and with the information available, accurately. Above all else he sought accurate thinking as a necessary preliminary to clear and persuasive expression. Thus, when finally he came to the discussion of the question, he could state his propositions with perfect exactness and in a very compact way. This power of compression enabled him to state the vital point of his argument in a few words or sentences which impressed themselves indelibly on the minds of his hearers. A remarkable instance of this is found in his Springfield speech of 1858 where he stated his final conclusion on the slavery question in these words: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I be- lieve this government cannot endure 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.” Along with compactness and clarity of expression went systematic building up of his argument, readiness in apt comparisons, often lighted up with keen wit, and relentless pursuit of an opponent's errors in fact or logic. How and where did Lincoln learn how to write is a question often asked. A clever and not wholly in adequate answer is that he “learned to reason withIN'TRODUCTION Ld Euclid and to feel and speak with the authors of the Bible.” Really the whole truth is not far to seek. His purpose and his guide in expression which greatly in- fiuenced his writing and speaking have been described. But, self-taught, he had to have models. As has been frequently pointed out, he might, under different circumstances, have been familiar with the work of Bryant, Poe, Hawthorne, Emerson, Lowell, Whittier, Holmes, Longfellow, and Thoreau. There is no reason, however, to believe that he knew any of them. His models were of a different sort. As a boy, forming then rapidly the man, he read the Bible, ZEsop’s Fables, Weems’s Life of Washington, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Robinson Crusoe, a small history of the United States, a volume of Indiana statutes, and Webster’s spelling book. Later in life he acquired Blackstone's Com- mentaries and became familiar with Shakespeare. These were his textbooks. The contrast between this small list and the titles now within the reach and at the command of most young people is striking; and yet the contrast is one of size rather than of quality. Lincoln could hardly have had a higher average of quality in his library, and the very smallness of the collection, making every word precious, served to impress their form and thought upon his mind in a very striking way. In other words he not only, like any eager and intellectually curious boy, devoured them: he digested and assimilated them completely. All influenced him doubtless. From Weems’s remark- able work of fiction he drew his first hero-worship and possibly his first conscious devotion to the country his hero had so gloriously made and served. From the law books he acquired, doubtless, a part of his exactness and accuracy of statement, and possibly no small part of his power of logical organization and thinking. The in- fluence of sop’s Fables is easily traced in his speeches as well as in the stories for which he was famous. All16 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN of his stories were in a sense allegorical. He never told one, at least in his speeches, which did not emphasize a point he wished to make. But of all these, the Bible and Shakespeare con- tributed the most to his style and his thought. The Bible began its impress when he was a mere child and it continued to make it all his life, becoming more marked in the seriousness of his later years. He never ceased to read it, and in the last year of his life, he wrote a close friend, “I am profitably engaged in read- ing the Bible. Take all of this book upon reason that you can and the balance upon faith, and you will live and die a better man.” In all his writings his familiarity with it is apparent, not only in his frequent quotations and allusions, but possibly more in the form and flavor of his speech and the “high seriousness” which char- acterized his thought. Shakespeare, coming into his hands later in life, did not make so deep an impression. Lincoln’s achievement thus described did not come all at once. In many of his early writings are touches of florid style, but he soon found that because these were not natural they were not effective, and, abandoning them, returned to his native simplicity, in which and through which in part he was to win fame. In American political literature he began a new era, setting a stand- ard which influenced profoundly not only that narrow field but the whole field of American literature. He began the movement toward simplicity that was in time to make the high-colored speeches and essays of Amer- ican politicians seem absurd in this country as well as abroad. His service here is one that should not be measured lightly. In most of his speeches and nearly all his letters he was perfectly natural. Popularly known as a humorist with rather a coarse strain of humor, little or none of this appears in his formal writings and little more in his letters. Nor was there in his speeches any strainingINTRODUCTION len for popular treatment. In his debates with Douglas, he was urged to treat his subject in this way, and re- plied, “The occasion is too serious, the issues are too grave. I do not seek applause, or to arouse the people, but to convince them.’ In fact, his speeches are marked by reserve and dignity, but they are seasoned with an original and homely flavor that carried them direct to the mind and heart of the hearer or reader. And this was his purpose. There is nothing to indicate any purpose, at least in his maturer years, of making “literature.” He acquired through close study of excellent models a sense of form that became almost instinctive, but, after all, beauty of form was to him, like clarity, chiefly an agency to persuasion. In his writings are evident the deep conviction which moved him and an essential honesty of purpose. He was contemptuous of tricks of public speaking and scorn- ful of the “specious and fantastic arguments by which a man may prove that a horse-chestnut is a chestnut horse,” and of “sophistical contrivances groping for some middle ground between right and wrong.” Honest in purpose, he consistently practiced honesty of method and expression, which made courts and juries believe in him, and, more important still, caught the ear and atten tion of that great jury, the people, to which he addressed himself. With all his conviction and “energy of honest directness,’ he was not a person unable to change an opinion. Taxed once with such a change, he said, “Yes, I have. and I don’t think much of a man who isn’t wiser today than he was vesterdav. In this connection Lowell aptly says, “The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.’ Another explanation of Lincoln's power lies in his possession of a keen, profound, and sympathetic knowl- edge of the human mind and heart. Part of this was sheer instinct; more, perhaps, was the result of long and18 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN wide experience with men, beginning with those of an almost primitive society. He knew the average man well, both as to his mind and his heart, and to the average man most of his arguments were directed. They lost nothing from the fact that they were always ad- dressed to the intelligence of men rather than to their prejudices, passions, and ignorance. ‘They gain tre- mendously in the later years in the seeming invitation of them all to come and reason together. ‘There is in them no pride of self or pride of opinion. Here as elsewhere, as Lowell says, Lincoln’s “I” always sounds like “‘we.”’ It must not, however, be supposed that he failed in conception of his own powers and his own place. Ready always to sink all thought of self in a great cause, he knew when to assume the dignity of his place and posi- tion. The reply to Seward’s famous “Thoughts for the President’s Consideration” is an illustration of this. Upon occasion, too, he could be severe, as in the letters to McClellan and Hooker. But in spite of these cases, the impression grows as study of him continues, that infinite patience and sweetness of spirit were among his most characteristic possessions. The lives of few Americans have offered so much opportunity for fascinating and profitable study as that of Lincoln. That this is so is proved by the great flood of Lincoln literature which has been poured out since 1865, and also by the fact that he is a familiar figure, not only to an extraordinary number of Americans, but also to thousands in other lands, who have come to know him as they know no other American. But it is well to note that, partly on account of the circumstances of his death, and partly on account of the peculiar relation he bore to the nation, a semi-mythical Lincoln has grown up in the popular mind. In this misrepresentation Lincoln has suffered. A man de- ified is apt in time to be robbed of all that makesINTRODUCTION 19 him akin to mere mortals, and in that very kinship, that identification with the mass of Americans, lies a large part of Lincoln's greatness. He gains nothing in the ascription to him in this way of wisdom more than human, of goodness that might well be called divine. To no one more than Lincoln himself would such a false portraiture have been unwelcome; to no one would it have seemed more misplaced. An American to the core, he found his greatest fame in representing the people from whom he was sprung. Their virtues, their ideals, were his, and. none the less, their faults. He was not, perhaps, the wisest nor the best man America has pro- duced, but he was beyond all doubt the most humanly representative. It is no error to call him, as did Lowell, the first American. It was this very fact, this identifica- tion with the spirit of the nation, the likeness of his great human heart to the heart of the whole people, which gave him his peculiar greatness, which enabled him to fill. as no other man in our history could have filled, the presidential office in the period of greatest national stress. Much space and energy, not to mention ingenuity, have been spent in the effort to prove Lincoln marked from his youth as a child of Destiny. All the truth points to the contrary. Hundreds of Americans of equally humble origin and small opportunity have dis- played the equal of the ability displayed by Lincoln before his inauguration. Those well qualified to judge found in him no evidences of greatness. Stanton was associated with him in 1857 in a lawsuit and regarded him as ‘‘a low, cunning clown.” Later he was to eall him “the original gorilla,’ and wonder why Du Chaillu had gone all the way to Africa. He wrote Buchanan in 1861 of Lincoln’s “painful imbecility,” and even after he became a member of Lincoln’s cabinet is said to have informed a visitor, who presented some order from the President, that Lincoln was a “d—d fool.” Lincoln's2 et ees ew ee ee SELECTIONS FROM a0 LINCOLN comment, thoroughly characteristic, exhibits what may justly be considered a part of his greatness; namely his power of humorous comprehension. “If Stanton,” said he, “said I was a d—d fool, then I must be one, for he is nearly always right and generally says what he means. I must step over and see him.” Nor was the irascible and conceited Stanton alone in criticism; it was widespread. Charles Francis Adams, as late as 1873, said that Lincoln, when he entered upon his duties as President, displayed “moral, intellectual, and execu- tive incompetency. This feeling is also expressed by the younger Charles Francis Adams in his biography of his father: “Seen in the light of subsequent events, it is assumed that Lincoln in 1865 was also the Lincoln of 1861. Historically speaking, there can be no greater error. The President, who has since become a species of legend, was in March, 1861, an absolutely unknown, and by no means promising political quantity.” Two sane and contemporary views of Lincoln furnish a good guide for the study of his life. John Lothrop Motley wrote his mother, “I venerate Abraham Lincoln exactly because he is the true, honest type of American democracy. There is nothing of the shabby-genteel, the would-be-but-couldn’t-be fine gentleman; he is the great American Demos, honest, shrewd, homely, but through blunders struggling onward toward what he believes the right.” Ward Lamon, Lincoln’s intimate friend, wrote: “With all my affection, admiration, love, and venera- tion for Mr. Lincoln, I have never been one of those who believed him immaculate and incapable of making mistakes. He was human and in the nature of things was liable to err, yet he erred less often than other men. He had amiable weaknesses, some of which only the more ennobled him. “Tt is no compliment to his memory to smother from the closest scrutiny any of the acts of his life and trans-INTRODUCTION 21 figure him by fulsome deification, so that his most inti- mate friends cannot recognize the Abraham Lincoln of former days. The truth of history requires that he should be place .d on the record now that he is dead, as he stood before the people while living. Whatever mis- takes he made were made through the purest of motives. All his faults. all his amiable weaknesses, and all his virtues should be written on the same pages, so that the world may know the true man as his friends knew him. It is fairly evident that Lincoln did not exhibit, prior to 1861, the greatness that was later beyond dispute. The debates with Douglas were those of a clever, one may almost say supreme, politician, but they went no further. Lincoln at this time was esse tially the poli- tician. albeit one of conviction, and while he did not play with principles, he frequently juggled with men. The debates, it is true, were sincere, but sincerity, if rare, is not greatness. The war made Lincoln great not because it made him anew, but because it gave his nature opportunity for expansion, and, still more, be- cause of the discipline it gave his character. All his qualities, save > his honesty, needed the purification, which the furnace of war was to effect, to develop the new Lincoln. far different from the old and yet always the same. The new Lincoln had the same keen, almost intuitive, knowledge of men, but was softened by a deeper and tenderer sympathy. The beautiful letter to Mrs. Bixby, for example, so natural from the Lincoln of 1864, could not have been penned by the Lincoln of 1861. And so we find the same qualities of leadership, guided now by a new tact, and the same devotion to a cause, strengthe ned now by a loftier purpose and a willingness to endure person: al sacrifice—if need be, to offer himself upon the altar of his country. This change is clearly to be seen in a contrast of the closing words of his two inaugural addresses. The Lincoln of 1861 could say with feeling: a SS TIES eS aeSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN ‘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 chords of memory, stretching from every battle- field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth- stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” But only the Lincoln of 1864 could say with the depth and feeling developed under the stern discipline of war: “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 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 discern therein any departure from those divine at- tributes 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 unrequited 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 thou- sand years ago, 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 nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his. widow, and his orphan—--INTRODUCTION 23 to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.” The study of his life and words leads to the conviction that in his heart, rather than in his brain, is to be found the secret of this development. Indeed there is to be found the explanation of his real relation to the nation’s history, and the place he holds in the affections of his countrymen. Regardless of war with the Southern states. to him all Americans, North, South, East, and West, were his kindred and fellow-countrymen. His heart held room for all and felt with all. Maurice Thompson, a Confederate soldier, has aptly given ex- pression to this thought, saying: ‘He was the Southern mother, leaning forth At dead of night to hear the cannon roar, Beseeching God to turn the cruel North And break it that her son might come once more; He was New England’s maiden, pale and pure, Whose gallant lover fell on Shiloh’s plain. He was the mangled body of the dead; He, writhing, did endure Wounds and disfigurement and racking pain, Gangrene and amputation, all things dread.” It is fitting that the man who occupies Lincoln’s place in American history and in the affections of the Ameri- can people should not have sprung from one stock or one section. Born in the South of Southern and Northern ancestry, reared in the West and filled with the essen- tials of Western political democracy and nationalism, he had something of each of these three great sections into which the country was then divided and was in personality representative of each, though less so of the North than of the South and West. This kinship is eloquently expressed by Henry Grady: “From the union of these Northern and Southern24 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN colonists, from the straightening of their purposes and the crossing of their blood, slowly perfecting through a century, came he who stands as the first American, the first who comprehended within himself all the strength and gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this re- public—Abraham Lincoln. “He was the sum of Puritan and Cavalier, for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of both were lost. He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that he was American, and that in his homely form were first gathered the vast and thrilling forces of his ideal government—charging it with such tremendous meaning and so elevating it above human suffering that martyrdom, though infamously aimed, came as a fitting crown to a life consecrated from the cradle to human liberty.” Lincoln is not only the miracle of the great man, a miracle which constantly puzzles the world afresh; he is the best example of the American miracle. American to the core, he owed little or nothing to the Old World directly, nothing beyond the common heritage of Ameri- cans. Lowell might well say: “People of sensitive organizations may well be shocked, but we are glad that in this our true war of in- dependence, which is to free us forever from the Old World, we have at the head of affairs a man whom America made, as God made Adam out of the very earth, unancestried, unprivileged, unknown, to show us how much truth, how much magnanimity, and how much statecraft wait the call of opportunity in simple man- hood when it helieves in the justice of God and the worth of Man.”1809 1816 1818 1819 1826 1828 1829 183 1832 1833 1834 1836 1837 1838 1840 1842 1844 1846 1849 1854 1855 1858 CHRONOLOGY OF LINCOLN’S LIFE AND WRITINGS February 12, born near Hodgensville, Hardin (now La Rue) County, Kentucky. His family moved to Gentryville, Indiana. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died. His father remarried. Attended school. Made trip to New Orleans on a flatboat. Moved to a clearing on Sangamon River, near Decatur, Illinois. Made second trip to New Orleans on a flatboat. Captain in the Black Hawk War. Unsuccessful candidate for legislature. Storekeeper, postmaster, and surveyor. Elected to legislature. Reélected to legislature. Whig candidate for presidential elector. Studied law and admitted to bar. Reélected to legislature. Whig candidate for presidential elector. Married Mary Todd. Canvassed state as a Whig candidate for presi- dential elector. Elected to Congress. Retired from Congress. Elected to legislature. October 16. The Peoria Speech. Candidate for United States Senator. Nominated for Senate by Republican party. June 16, The Springfield Speech. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: August 21, Ottawa. Or 201859 1860 186] 1862 1863 1864 1865 —— ee LINCOLN SELECTIONS FROM August 27, Freeport. September 15, Jonesboro. September 18, Charleston. October 7, Galesburg. October 13, Quincy. October 15, Alton. September 16, The Columbus Speech. February 27, The Cooper Union Speech. May 18, Nominated for President. November 6, Elected President. March 4, Inaugurated President. April 13, Fall of Fort Sumter. April 15, Call for troops. September 22, Preliminary Emancipation Procla- mation. January 1, Emancipation Proclamation. November 19, The Gettysburg Address. December 8, The Amnesty Proclamation. December 8, Gave outline of plan of reconstruc- tion. June 8, Renominated for President. November 8, Reélected President. March 4, The second inauguration. April 14, Mortally wounded. April 15, Died.SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN “First pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without h ypocrisy.”Se EE ee TR OI i BOY 7 . LINCOLNI GROWTH AND TRAINING The important facts of Lincoln’s life up to the time of his nomination for the Presidency are interestingly told in the fol- lowing autobiographical sketch, written at the request of a friend for use in the campaign of 1860. ‘The sketch is an excel- lent example of his terse, compressed style of narration, giving every essential fact, and yet using scarcely an unnecessary word. This facility of narration is noticeable in his later speeches and was very effective. AUTOBIOGRAPHY [Written for the Campaign of 1860] 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 grand- father, 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 peculiar habits of that people. The grand- father, 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 Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennes- see join; and his descendants are in that region. Thomas came to Kentucky, and after many years died there, whence his descendants went to Missouri. Abra- * After Lincoln’s death, research into his family history estab- lished the fact that he was descended from Samuel Lincoln, who came to New England in 1657. 2930) SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN ham, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, came to Kentucky, and was killed by Indians about the year 1784. He left a widow, three sons, and two daughters. The eldest son, Mordecai, remained 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 second son, Josiah, re- moved at an early day to a place on Blue River, now within Hancock County, Indiana, but no recent infor- mation of him or his family has been obtained. The eldest sister, Mary, married Ralph Crume, and some of her descendants are now known to be in Breckinridge 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 hay- ing reached this 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 reside in Coles, in Macon, and in Adams Counties, Ili- nois, 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 died many years ago, leaving no child; also a brother, younger than himself, who died in infancy. Before leaving Kentucky, he and his sister were sent, for short periods, to A B C schools, the first kept by Zachariah Riney, and the second by Caleb Hazel.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 2] 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 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 dif- ficulty in land titles in Kentucky. He settled in an unbroken 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 instrument —less, of course, in plowing and harvesting seasons. At this piace Abraham took an early start as a hunter, which was never much improved afterwards. A few days before the completion of his eighth year, in the absence of his father, a flock of wild turkeys approached the new log cabin, and Abraham with a rifle-gun, standing inside, shot through a crack and killed one of them. He has never since pulled a trigger on any larger game. In the autumn of 1818 his mother died; and a year afterwards his father married Mrs. Sally Johnston, at Elizabethtown, Ken- tucky, a widow with three children of her first mar- riage. She proved a good and kind mother to Abra- ham, and is still living in Coles County, Illinois. ‘There were no children of this second marriage. His fathers residence continued at the same place in Indiana till 1830. While here Abraham went to A B C schools by littles, kept successively by Andrew Crawford, Sweeney, and Azel W. Dorsey. He does not remem- ber any other. The family of Mr. Dorsey now re- sides in Schuyler County, Illinois. Abraham now thinks that the aggregate of all his schooling did not year. amount to one He was never in a college or esoZ2 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN academy as a student, and never inside of a college or academy 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 apparently killed for a time. When he was nineteen, still residing 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 in- tent to kill and rob them. They were hurt some in the meleé, 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- 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 Sangamon 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 beingSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN said just now, though these are far from being the first or only rails ever made by Abraham. The sons-in-law were temporarily settled in other places in the county. In the autumn all hands were greatly afflicted with acue and fever, to which they had not been used, and by which they were greatly dis- couraged, so much so that they determined on leaving the county. They remained, however, through the succeeding winter, which was the winter of the cele- brated “deep snow’ of Illinois. During that winter Abraham, together with his stepmother’s son, John D. Johnston, and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, hired themselves to Denton Offutt to take a flatboat trom Be irdstown, Illinois, to New Orleans: and for that purpose were to join him—Oftutt—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 difhculty they purchased a large canoe, and came down the Sangamon River in it. This is the time and 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 Sangamon town on the San- gamon River, seven miles northwest of Springfield, which boat they took to New Orleans, substantially upon the old contract. During this boat-enterprise acquaintance with Offutt who was previously an entire stranger, he conceived 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 Sangamon, now in Menard County. Hanks had not gone to New Orleans.eI as. 34. SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 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, and is a first cousin to Abraham's mother. Abraham’s father, with his own family and others mentioned, had, in pur- suance 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, before 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. Abra- ham joined a volunteer company, and, to his own sur- prise, 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. Returning from the campaign, and encouraged by his great popularity among his im- mediate neighbors, he the same year ran for the legis- lature, 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 pre- einct the autumn afterwards giving 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 busi- ness, 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 * Military service was paid for in warrants on the public lands,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN thought of trying to study law rather thought he could not succeed at that without a 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 objection. The store winked out. The surveyor of Sangamon offered to depute to Abraham that portion of his work which was within his part of the county. He accepted, 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 high- est vote cast for any candidate. Major John T. Stuart, then in full practice of the law, was also elected. Dur- ing the canvass, in a private conversation he encour- aged Abraham [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 no- body. 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 reélected 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 tak- ing him into partnership. 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, ‘t was then the same that it is now. The protest is as follows:SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN ‘Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned herel y 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 institution of slavery in the different states. ' They believe that the Soret of the United States has the power, under the Constit ution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised unless at the request of the people of the District. “The difference between these opinions and those contained in the above resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. “Dan STONE, "A, LIncoun; “Representatives from the County of Sangamon.” In 1838 and 1840, Mr. Lincoln’s party voted for him as Speaker, but being in the minority he was not elected. Ai 1840 he declined a reélection 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 Lex- ington, Kentucky. 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, commenc ing in Decem- ber, 1847, and ending with the inauguration of General Taylor, in March, 1849. All the battles of the Mexi-SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 37 can 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 for- mally ratified until the June afterward. Much has been said of his course in Congress in regard to this war. A careful examination of the Journal and Congres- sional 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 conducted the war through; with the ex- ception that some of these measures passed without yeas and nays, leaving no re cord as to how particular men voted. The Journal and Globe also show him voting that the war was unnecessarily and unconsti- tutionally begun by the President of the United States. This is the language of Mr. Ashmun’s amendment, for which Mr. Lincoln and nearly or quite all other Whigs* of the House of Repre sentatives voted. Mr. Lincoln’s reasons for the opinion expressed by this vote were bri fly 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 * The tT we mainr nolitical narties i ' [Tnited States : is ; ~we} 7, ’ | er’ rT} ; : eee lig time were | ; 1 Je i I LO! ‘ OUBN ais tinctly a part - opportunisn favored otective tariff, internal improvements, a nation il bank and in gens the xxtension of the powers of the general rovernment The itter, domi! ted ) tS wp yuthern wing, was the | rrty oft } io struction and states rights Lincoln was a member of the Whig arty, or, as he would have yhrased it, “a Henry Clay Whig.” h 3 . 7 -ee = ee ee ee ete oot ee oe ee ee 7 : 838 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN desert between that and the country over which Texas had actual control; that the country where hostilities commenced, haying. once belonged to Mexico, must re- main so until it was somehow legally tr: ansferred, 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 unconstitutional, 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 attention from the surrender of “Fifty-four, forty, or fight” * to Great Britain, on the Oregon boun- dary question. Mr. Lincoln was not a candidate for reélection. This was determined upon and declared before he went to Washington, in accordance with an understand- ing 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 opposition 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. Upon his return from Congress he went to the prac- tice of the law with greater earnestness than ever be- fore. Ii 1852 he was upon the Scott electoral ticket, *The Democrats in the campaign of 1844 had as rallying cries: “The re-annexation of Texas and the re-occupation of Oregon” and “Fifty-four, forty, or fight.” The latter referred to the dispute of the United States with Great Britain over the Oregon boundary; Great Britain claiming forty-nine degrees, north latitude, as the line, while the United States claimed fifty- four degrees and forty minutes, north latitude. The British contention was finally accepted.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 29 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 ret lection ot Hon. Richard Y ate s to Congress. 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. Y ate Ss 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 sper ches, no one of which, so tar as he remembers. was put in print. One of them was made at Galena, but Mr. Lincoln has no recollection of it being printed; nor does he remember whether in that speech he said any~ thing about a Suprem«¢ 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 | self as xl pre sente d. J , : Lé thinks he could not h iVE expr ssed nim- The pe rj dd of I incoln’s life which ended inh 1854 was largely piven to intense ind successful efforts to lift himself trom the humble circumstances in which he had been born, to the making of a living, and to the study ind reflection, vitalized by human contacts, which Il ide the finished man. The indications of intellectual and moral growth furnished by the selections which follow ire interesting ind ivnificant in il study of his ce velopme nt.40 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Lincoln was an aspirant for political office at a compara- tively early age. This was, however, by no means unusual. Every young man in the West in that day thought of himself as a possible holder of office, not a remarkable thing in a society where every boy was taught that the Presidency was open to him, and at a time when Andrew Jackson had furnished conclusive evidence of the fact. Two years after he moved to Illinois, and only eight months after he became a resident of Sangamon County, he announced his candidacy for the legis- lature of the state on a conventional National Republican platform. The National Republicans in that year, it will be recalled, supported Henry Clay for President, and four years later furnished the bulk of the newly organized Whig party. The two papers, which are his first recorded political utterances, are characteristic of the later Lincoln in their simple directness. It may, however, be noted that never again did he call himself “humble Abraham Lincoln.” Growing self- confidence destroyed that feeling. Nor is it possible to find many later allusions such as, “I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me.” He was never remotely ashamed of the facts thus stated, but he would not make capital of them in appeals to the people. ANNOUNCEMENT OF CANDIDACY FOR THE LEGISLATURE [Written about March 1, 1832] Fettow-Citizens: I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been so- licited by many friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance. I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system, and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same. A. LincounSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 1] {1DDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY | March 9, 183 | ~ FeELLow-CiT1zENs: Having become a candidate for the honorable office of one of your representatives in the next General Assembly of this state, in accordance with an established custom and the principles of true Repub- licanism, it becomes my duty to make known to you—the people whom | propose to represent—my sentiments with regard to local affairs. Time and experience have verified to a demonstration, the public utility of internal improvements. That the poorest and most thinly populated countries would be greatly benefited by the opening of good roads, and in the clearing of navigable streams within their limits. is what no person will deny. Yet it is folly to undertake works of this or any other kind, without first knowing that we are able to finish them—as half-finished work generally proves to be labor lost. There cannot justly be any objection to having railroads and canals, any more than to-other good things. provided they cost nothing. The only objection is to paying for them; and the objec- tion arises from the want of ability to pay. With respect to the county of Sangamon, some more easy means of communication than it now possesses for the purpose of facilitating the task of exporting the surplus products of its fertile soil, and importing neces- sary articles from abroad, are indispensably necessary. A meeting has been held of the citizens of Jacksonville, and the adjacent country, for the purpose of deliberating and inquiring into the expediency of constructing a rail- road from some eligible point on the Illinois river, through the town of Jacksonville, in Morgan County, to the town of Springfield in Sangamon County. This is, indeed, a very desirable object. No other improvement that reason will justify us in hoping for, can equal in utility the railroad. It is a never-failing source of com-42 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN munication, between places of business remotely situated from each other. Upon the railroad the regular progress of commercial intercourse is not interrupted by either high or low water, or freezing weather, which are the principal difficulties that render our future hopes of water communication precarious and uncertain. Yet, however desirable an object the construction of a railroad through our country may be; however high our imaginations may be heated at thoughts of it—there is always a heart-appalling shock accompanying the amount of its cost, which forces us to shrink from our pleasing anticipations. The probable cost of this contemplated railroad is estimated at $290,000—the bare statement of which, in my opinion, is sufficient to justify the belief that the improvement of the Sangamon river is an object much better suited to our infant resources. Respecting this view, I think I may say, without the fear of being contradicted, that its navigation may be rendered completely practicable, as high as the mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, to vessels of from 25 to 30 tons burthen, for at least one-half of all common years, and to vessels of much greater burthen a part of that time. From my peculiar circumstances, it is prob- able that for the last twelve months I have given as particular attention to the stages of the water in this river as any other person in the country. In the month of March, 1831, in company with others, I commenced the building of a flatboat on the Sangamon, and finished and took her out in the course of the spring. Since that time I have been concerned in the mill at New Salem. These circumstances are sufficient evidence that I have not been very inattentive to the stages of the water. The time at which we crossed the milldam, being in the last days of April, the water was lower than it had been since the breaking of winter in February, or than it was for sev- eral weeks after. The principal difficulties we en- countered in descending the river were from the driftedSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 42 timber, which obstructions all know are not difficult to be removed. Knowing almost precisely the height of water at that time, I believe l am safe in saying that it has AS oiten been higher as lower since. From this view of the subject it appears that my calculations with regard to the navigation of the Sangamon cannot but be founded in reason; but what _ ever may be its natural advantages, certain it is, that it never can be practically useful to any great extent with- out being’ oreatly improved by art. The drifted timber, as I have befor mentioned, is the most formidable barrier to this object. Of all parts of this river, none will require so much labor in proportion to make it navigable as the last thirty or thirty-five miles: and going with the meanderings of the channel. when we are this distance above its mouth, we are only between twelve and eighteen miles above Be ardstown in something near a straight direction, and this route is upon such low ground as to retain water in many places during the sea son, and in all parts such as to draw two-thirds or thre e fourths of the river water at all high stages. [his route is on prairie land the whole distance—so that it appears to me, by removing the turf, a sufhcient width, and d imming up the old ch innel, the whole river in i short tim«e would wash its way through, the reby curtailing the distance, and inert asing the velocity of the current Vv‘ ry cons derably, whil there would be no timber upon the banks to obstruct its navigation in future: and being nearly str ight, the timber which might float in at the head would be apt to go clear through. There are also many places above this whe re the TIVEL. in its zigzag course, forms such complete peninsulas as to be easier cut at the necks han to remove the obstruc tions from the bends which. if done, would also lessen the distance. What the COST ¢ say. It is probabl _ however, that it would not be greater , * f this work would be, I am unable to a— DS ee —o ee a oe SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 44 than is common to streams of the same length. Finally, [I believe the improvement of the Sangamon river to be vastly important and highly desirable to the people of the county ; and if elected, any measure in the legislature having this for its object, which may appear judicious, will meet my approbation and receive my support. It appears that the practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates of interest has already been opened as a field for discussion; so I suppose I may enter upon it without claiming the honor, or risking the danger, which may await its first explorer. It seems as though we are never to have an end to this baneful and corroding system, acting almost as prejudicially to the general interests of the community as a direct tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on each county, for the benefit of a few individuals only, unless there be a law made fixing a limit to the limits of usury. A law for this purpose, I am of opinion, may be made without materially injuring any class of people. In cases of extreme necessity there could always be means found to cheat the law, while in all other cases it would have its intended effect. I would favor the passage of a law upon this subject which might not be very easily evaded. Let it be such that the labor and difficulty of evading it could only be justified in cases of greatest necessity. Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dic- tate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every man may receive, at least, a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the history of his own and other coun- tries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital im- portance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the scriptures and other works, both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves. For mySELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 45 part, I desire to see the time when education, and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise, and industry, shall become much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute some- thing to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate that happy period. With re gard to existing laws, some alterations are thought to be necessary. Many respectable men have suggested that our estray laws, the law respecting the issuing of executions, the road law, and some others, are deficient in their present form, and require alterations. But considering the great probability that the framers of those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer not meddling with them unless they were first attacked by others: in which case I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand which, in my view, might tend most to the advancement of justice. But, fellow citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the oreat degree ot modesty which should always attend youth, it is probable I have already been more presuming than becomes me. However, upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as | discover my opinions to be erroneous I shall be ready to renounce them. Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young and unknown to. many of you. I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the county, ot a wees oe ee ee ee ee nae aeFeline tenet tl ea SS a 46 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN and if elected, they will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined. Your friend and fellow-citizen, A. LINcoLNn Immediately after these announcements, the Black Hawk War broke out: Lincoln volunteered and, to his great surprise, was elected captain of his company, “a success,” as he wrote years later, “that gave me more pleasure than any I have had since.’ He saw no fighting, but gained confidence in himself, learned how to handle men, and greatly widened the circle of his friends. When his company was mustered out, he reen- listed as a private, but in July he was back in New Salem, stumping the county. He displayed there the qualities of a shrewd stump speaker and debater which were later to assist powerfully in winning him fame. An interesting description of his appearance in this campaign is given by his friend, Judge S. T. Logan: “He was a very tall, gawky, and awkward- looking fellow then; his pantaloons didn’t meet his shoes by six inches. But after he began speaking, I became very much interested in him.” This description, in essence, remained true of him later. He always seemed awkward and ill-at-ease when he went on the platform, but when he began to speak, as a rule both he and his audience forgot all about it. Defeated for election, but with a most gratifying vote in his own precinct, Lincoln tried keeping a store. It was a disastrous experience, the store, as he said, “winking out” in less than a year, his partner being dissipated and he himself engaged in reading whatever books he could lay hands on. In this period he made the acquaintance of Shakespeare, Burns, and Gibbon, and a little later, that of Paine and Voltaire. He also found a copy of Blackstone’s Commentaries in a barrel of rubbish. He literally devoured it, finding in it at last the determination of his later career. During this time he learned also the rudiments of surveying and secured welcome employ- ment in that way. He was postmaster of New Salem, carryingSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 47 the mail in his hat and reading every newspaper which came before it could be called for. In 1834 he was elected to the legislature, where he took no . active part but spent his time studying the methods of legisla- | tion and the game of practical politics in which he was to ' become in time so supreme a master. Here for the first time . he met his lifetime rival, Stephen Arnold Douglas, lately come from Vermont and preparing for the brilliant career so soon | to be his. Lincoln’s first comment on him is striking. He \ described him as “the least man I ever saw,” alluding, of . course, to his size. 7 During this time he was continuing the reading of law, and even practicing before local magistrates. In 1836 he was again ( a successful candidate for the legislature. His announcement is notable for his advocacy of woman’s suffrage. POLITICAL VIEWS IN 1836 New Salem, June 13, 1836 To THE EpiTor or THE Journal: In your paper of last Saturday I see a communication, over the signature of “Many Voters,’ in which the candidates who are announced in the Journal are called upon to “show their hands.” Agreed. Here's mine. I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females). | If elected, I shall consider the whole people of | Sangamon my constitutents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. While acting as their representative, I shall be gov- erned by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is; and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will best advance their interests. Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public lands to the several states, to enable our state, in commona ee eg a Se Ee 48 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN with others, to dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing money and paying the interest on it. If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. White for President.* Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN During this campaign he wrote a letter which is an excellent example of his honesty in a political campaign. It should not, however, be overlooked that this was also good politics. TO ROBERT ALLEN New Salem, June 21, 1836 Dear CoLtonet: I am told that during my absence last week you passed through this place, and stated publicly that you were in possession of a fact or facts which, if known to the public, would entirely destroy the prospects of N. W. Edwards and myself at the ensuing election; but that, through favor to us, you should forbear to divulge them. No one has needed favors more than I, and, generally, few have been less unwilling to accept them; but in this case favor to me would be injustice to the public, and therefore I must beg your pardon for declining it. That I once had the confidence of the people of Sangamon, is sufficiently evident; and if I have since done anything, either by design or misadventure, which if known would subject me to a forfeiture of that confidence, he that knows of that thing, and conceals it, is a traitor to his country’s interest. I find myself wholly unable to form any conjecture of what fact or facts, real or supposed, you spoke; but my opinion of your veracity will not permit me for a moment to doubt that you at least believed what you said. I am flattered with the personal regard you manifested for me; * Hugh L. White, Senator from Tennessee, was one of the four candidates for whom the Whigs voted in 1836.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 49 but I do hope that, on more mature reflection, you will view the public interest as a paramount consideration, and therefore determine to let the worst come. I here assure you that the candid statement of facts on your part, however low it may sink me, shall never break the tie of personal friendship between us. I wish an answer to this, and you are at liberty to publish both, if you choose. Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN Lincoln was finding himself in this campaign. It was here that he showed himself able to retaliate against an opponent. One Forquer, who resided in Springfield, though not a candi- date, entered the canvass against Lincoln to “take him down.” He devoted himself to scornful derision of Lincoln’s dress, manners, and general personal appearance. Forquer had him- self been a Whig, but having become a Democrat he had been rewarded by a lucrative office. He lived in what was probably the finest house in Springfield, which was equipped with a lightning rod, then a new thing in Illinois. At the conclusion »f his speech, Lincoln replied and thus closed: “The gentle- man has seen fit to allude to my being a young man, but he forgets that I am older in years than I am in the tricks and trades of a politician. I desire to live, and I desire place and distinction, but I would rather die now than, like the gentle- man, live to see the day that I would change my politics for an office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then feel compelled to erect a lightning rod over my house to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God.” In the legislature Lincoln was one of the “Long Nine,”* who secured the removal of the capital from Vandalia to Spring- field and carried through a law for a system of canals and railways costing twelve million dollars. He was carried away with the internal improvements idea and was planning to be the “DeWitt Clinton of Illinois.’ This session furnished Lincoln the opportunity to express for the first time his feeling on the subject of slavery. The * All nine of these members were very tall + DeWitt Clinton, of New York, was the person most respo! sible for the Erie Canal, as well as other internal improvements a et50 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN abolition movement was now well under way, and Illinois was full of pro-slavery sentiment. ‘The legislature passed the fol- lowing resolutions: “Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois: “That we highly disapprove of the formation of Abolition Societies, and of the doctrines promulgated by them. “That the right of property in slaves is sacred to the slave- holding states by the Federal Constitution, and that they can- not be deprived of that right without their consent. “That the General Government cannot abolish slavery in the District of Columbia against the consent of the citizens of said District, without a manifest breach of good faith. “That the Governor be requested to transmit to the States of Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, New York, and Connecticut a copy of the foregoing report and resolutions.” Lincoln had seen slavery from his boyhood in Kentucky. He had seen a harsher type on a trip down the Mississippi to New Orleans. His dislike for the institution was characteristic of the class from which he was sprung, and in him it had become intensified. These resolutions excited his opposition chiefly because they contained no condemnation of slavery and possibly because of the phrase, “the right of property in slaves is sacred.” He voted against them and persuaded another Sangamon County representative to sign with him this protest. PROTEST AGAINST SLAVERY [March 3, 1837] The following protest was presented to the House March 3, 1837, which was read and ordered to be spread on the journals, to wit: Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery havy- ing 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 promul-SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 51 gation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils. They helieve that the Congress of the United States has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution 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 exercised, unless at the request of the people of the District. The difference between these opinions and those con- tained in the said resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. DAN STONE, A. LINCOLN, Representatives from the County of Sangamon. In March. 1836, Lincoln had been admitted to the bar, and in 1837 he moved to Springfield. Before this time he had become engaged Lo inne Rutledge, whom he tenderly loved hut who died within a short time. Her death had a most powerful influence upon him, and his friends almost despaired of his reason. It apparently destroyed in him any capacity for a later romance. ‘The following letter is descriptive of his second love affair. It lacks the taste characteristic of most of his writings. but the life of an almost frontier community lacked many of the refinements, ind the wonder is that Lincoln had as much instinctive good taste as he did. The letter shows one side of Lincoln at this period ind for that reason it is included. TO MRS. O. H. BROWNING Springfield, April 1, 1838 Dear Mapam: Without apologizing for being egotis- tical, 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 =ee ee Oo a ee et eee f Peat ~—. oe oe 59 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN and suffered since I saw you, I shall necessarily have to relate 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 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 dispatch. I, of course, accepted the proposal, for you know I could not have done other- wise had I really been averse to it; but privately, be- tween 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 company, 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 married sister to come, without anything concerning me having been mentioned to her, and so I concluded that if no other objection presented itself, I would consent 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 previous, as above men- tioned. In a few days we had an interview, and, al- though 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 Falstaff. I knew she was called an “old maid,” and I felt no doubt of the truth of at least half of the appellation, but now, when I beheld her, I could not for my life avoid thinking of my mother; and this, not from withered features—for her skin was too full of fat to permit of its contracting into wrinkles—but from her want of teeth, weather-SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Qo 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? 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, especially if others had been induced to act on it, which in this case | 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 consider her my wife, and this done, all my powers of discovery 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 unfortunate 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 V andalia, 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 con- tinually repenting the rashness which had led me to make it. Through life I have been in no bondage, either real or imaginary, from the thralldom 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 wasa me i Te 54 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN the same, and so was I. I now spent my time in plan- ning how I might get along in life after my contemplated 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 Irish- man 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 manner 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 further delay, and so I mustered my resolution and made 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 the 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 unexpectedly 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.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN As But let it all go! I'll try and outlive it. Others have been made fools of by the girls, but this can never in truth be said of me. I most emphatically, in this in- stance, 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 anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me. When you receive this, write me a long yarn about something to amuse me. Give my respects to Mr. Browning. Your sincere friend, A. LINCOLN In Springfield Lincoln entered upon the practice of law, and in 1838 and 1840 was again elected to the legislature, being the minority candidate for speaker at both sessions. He was actively in politics and exceedingly ambitious, and in 1840 was a Whig candidate for elector. No man in the West at this time could engage in the rough and tumble game of politics without personal difficulties. Lincoln had his, but his rather singular patience, good humor, and gentleness all tended to soften down the difficulties and prevent serious quarrels. But he would not yield when he was sure that he was right. The following letter evidently related -to one of these difficulties: TO W. G. ANDERSON* Lawrenceville, Ill., October 31, 1840 Dear Sir: Your note of yesterday is received. In the difficulty between us of which you speak, you say you think I was the aggressor. I do not think I was. You say my “words imported insult.” I meant them as a fair set-off to your own statements, and not otherwise; and in that light alone I now wish you to understand them. You ask for my present “feelings on the subject. ’ I entertain no unkind feelings to you, and none of any *w.G. Anderson represented Lawrence County in the Illinois > *) legislature at the sessions of 1832, 1842, and 1844.ee ae = EE SE ee — oO 56 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN sort upon the subject, except a sincere regret that I permitted myself to get into such an altercation. Yours, ete., A. Lincoitn The following letter, written to the sister of an intimate friend, is characteristic of Lincoln at this period of his life. It is also interesting for its allusion to the most horrible feature of slavery. TO MISS MARY SPEED Bloomington, Ill., September 27, 1841 Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. My Irrenp: Having resolved to write to some of your mother’s family, and not having the express per- mission of any one of them to do so, I have had some little difficulty in determining on which to inflict the task of reading what I now feel must be a most dull and silly letter; but when I remembered that you and I were something of cronies while I was at Farmington, and that while there I was under the necessity of shutting you up in a room to prevent your committing an assault and battery upon me, I inst: antly decided that you should be the devoted one. I assume that you have not heard from Joshua and myself since we left, because I think it doubtful whether he has written. You remember there was some uneasiness about Joshua’s health when we left. That little indisposition of his turned out to be nothing serious, and it was pretty nearly forgotten when we reached Springfield. We got on board the steamboat Lebanon in the locks of the canal, about twelve o'clock mM. of the day we left, and reached St. Louis the next Monday at 8 p.m. Noth- ing of interest happened during the passage, except the vexatious delays occasioned by ‘the sandbars we thought interesting. By the way, a fine example was presented on boardSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN of the boat for contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in different parts of Kentucky, and was taking them to a farm in the South. They were chained six and six together. A small iron clevis was around the left wrist of each, and this was fastened to the main chain by a shorter one, at a convenient distance from the others, so that the negroes were strung together pre- cisely like so many fish upon a trot- line. In this condition they were being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood. their friends, their fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them from their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery, where the lash of the master is proverbially more ruth- less and unrelenting than any other where; and yet amid all these distressing circumstances, as we would think them, they were the most cheerful and apparently happy creatures on board. One, whose offense for which he had been sold was an over-fondness for his wife, played the fiddle almost continually, and the others danced, sang, cracked jokes, and played various games with cards from day to day. How true it is that “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,’ * or in other words, that He renders the worst of human conditions tolerable, while He permits the best to be nothing better than tolerable. To return to the narrative. When we reached Spring- field, I stayed but one day, when I started on this tedious circuit where I now am. Do you remember my going to the city, while I was in Kentucky, to have a tooth extracted, and making a failure of it? Well, that same old tooth got to paining me so much that about a week since I had it torn out, bringing with it a bit of the jawbone, the consequence of which is that my mouth is now so sore that I can neither talk nor eat. ntal Journe y i nem ie AE trill —i ee _" 58 SELECTIONS. FROM LINCOLN I am literally “subsisting on savory remembrances” — that is, being unable to eat, I am living upon the remem- brance of the delicious dishes of peaches and cream we used to have at your house. When we left, Miss Fanny Henning was owing you a visit, as I understood. Has she paid it yet? If she has, are you not convinced that she is one of the sweetest girls in the world? There is but one thing about her, so far as I could perceive, that I would have otherwise than as it is—that is, someehine of a tendency to melancholy. This, let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault. Give her an assurance of my very highest regard when you see her. Is little Siss Eliza Davis at your house yet? If she is, kiss her “o’er and o’er again’ for me. Tell your mother that I have not got her “present” [an ‘ ‘Oxford” Bible] with me, but I “intend to read it regularly when I return home. I doubt not that it is really, as she says, the best cure for the blues, could one but take it according to the truth. Give my respects to all your sisters (including Aunt Emma) and brothers. Tell Mrs. Peay, of whose happy face I shall long retain a pleasant remembrance, that I have been trying to think of a name for her homestead, but as yet cannot satisfy myself with one. I shall be very happy to re- ceive a line from you soon after you receive this, and in case you choose to favor me with one, address it to Charleston, Coles County, Ill., as I shall be there about the time to receive it. Your sincere friend, A. LincoLn The next few years saw Lincoln, after an unlucky engage- ment, married to Mary Todd; in partnership in law, first with Judge Logan and later with William H. Herndon; and con- tinuing his active work in politics. In 1844 he was a Whig candidate for elector and as such made speeches in various parts of Illinois and also in Indiana. In 1843 he was a candi- date for Congress but was defeated by John J. Hardin. It isMARY TODD LINCOLNaes a yee eo , \ t \ h | \ { } ? ; 1 \ee SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 59 probable that it was then agreed that Edward D. Baker should be elected two years later, to be followed in 1846 by Lincoln. In the meantime anti-slavery sentiment, long-delayed, was growing in Illinois, and in 1844 the Liberty party, which nominated James G. Birney for President, gained considerable strength in the state, though not enough to influence the result. Two brothers, Williamson and Madison Durley, were promi- nent leaders in the party, and in 1845 Lincoln, keenly interested in the course of state politics, and himself a prospective candi- date for Congress, wrote to Williamson Durley this letter, notable for its practical logic. TO WILLIAMSON DURLEY Springfield, October 3, 1845 DEAR SIR: When I saw you at home, it was agreed that I should write to you and your brother, Madison. Until I then saw you I was not aware of your being what is generally called an abolitionist, or, as you call yourself, a Liberty man, though I well knew there were many such in your country. I was glad to hear that you intended to attempt to bring about, at the next election in Putnam, a union of the Whigs proper and such of the Liberty men as are Whigs in principle on all questions save only that of slavery. So far as I can perceive, by such union neither party need yield anything on the point in difference between them. If the Whig abolitionists of New York had voted with us last fall, Mr. Clay would now be President, Whig principles in the ascendant. and Texas not annexed; whereas, by the division, all that either had at stake in the contest was lost. And, indeed, it was extremely probable beforehand that such would be the result. As I have always understood, the Liberty men deprecated the annexation of Texas extremely; and this being so, why they should refuse to cast their votes |so| as to prevent it, even to me seemed wonderful. What was their process of reasoning, I can only judge from what a single one of them told me. It was this: “We are pa | } . j } I60 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN not to do evil that good may come.” This general proposition is doubtless correct; but did it apply? If by your votes you could have prevented the extension, etc., of slavery, would it not have been good, and not evil, so to have used your votes, even though it involved the cast- ing of them for a slaveholder? By the fruzt the tree is to be known. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. If the fruit of electing Mr. Clay would have been to prevent the extension of slavery, could the act of elect- ing have been evil? But I will not argue further. I perhaps ought to say that individually I never was much interested in the Texas question. I never could see much good to come of annexation, inasmuch as they were already a free republican péople on our own model. On the other hand, I never could very clearly see how the annexation would augment the evil of slavery. It always seemed to me that slaves would be taken there in about equal numbers, with or without annexation. And if more were taken because of annexation, still there would be just so many the fewer left where they were taken from. It is pos- sibly true, to some extent, that with annexation, some slaves may be sent to Texas and continued in slavery that otherwise might have been liberated. To whatever extent this may be true, I think annexation an evil. I hold it to be a paramount duty of us in the free states, due to the union of the states, and perhaps to liberty itself (paradox though it may seem), to let the slavery of the other states alone; while, on the other hand, -I hold it to be equally clear that we should never know- ingly lend ourselves, directly or indirectly, to prevent that slavery from dying a natural death—to find new places for it to live in, when it can no longer exist in the old. Of course I.am not now considering what would be our duty in cases of insurrection among the slaves. To recur to the Texas question, I understand the Liberty men to have viewed annexation as a much greater evilSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 61 than ever I did, and I would like to convince you, if | could, that they could have prevented it, if they had chosen. I intend this letter for you and Madison together, and if you and he, or either, shall think fit to drop me a line, I shall be pleased. Yours with respect, A. LINCOLN In 1846 Lincoln was at last elected to Congress. The Mexican War had already been fought, but he was violently ypposed to the policy of the administration, and his speeches were largely devoted to attacks upon President Polk as the responsible aggressor against Mexico. He sought in every way to prove the administration guilty of falsehood in rel ition to the wal, and thereby rreatly ant Lronized his district. During his term he favored and voted for the Wilmot Proviso, which was intended to exclude slavery from the new territory acquired from Mexico. He voted against a resolution for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, because it did not require the assent of Virginia and Maryland, which he thought necessary from a moral st indpoint, and because there was no provision for compens ition. He also voted against a resolution looking to the abolition of the slave-trade in the District because he did not like the form of the resolution. Later, he offered an elaborate substitute. In this short experience he showed no greater capacities than the average run of new members. He was a clever Western politician, so far as one could Sec. and that was ill. A close study of his activities, however, does reveal the fact that he did not mind unpopularity, if he was convinced that he was right and that he had a fairly consistent record of supporting his convictions. It was sound experience for him, in that it brought him in contact with the workings of government at Washington and with the men who conducted it He made a number of warm friends, among them Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, later Vice President of the Confederacy. Lincoln’s first allusion to him in his letters is most interesting.62 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON Washington, February 2, 1848 Dear Witt1am: I just take my pen to say that Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced, con- sumptive man, with a voice like Logan's, has just con- cluded the very best speech of an hour’s length I ever heard. My old withered dry eyes are full of tears yet. If he writes it out anything like he delivered it, our people shall see a good many copies of it. Yours truly, A, LINCOLN Lincoln had no desire to leave Congress. Not only was he ambitious and firm in the belief that there lay his road to distinction, but he also liked the life and work of a member of Congress. He had secured recognition from his party and acquired a degree of leadership that was very gratifying to him. But he could not ask for reélection without a breach of faith with his district, in which he had preached rotation in office and thereby secured election. In January, 1848, he wrote, =] made the declaration that I would not be a candidate again more from a wish to deal fairly with others, to keep peace among our friends, and to keep the district from going to the enemy, than from any cause personal to myself; so that if it should happen that nobody else wishes to be elected, I could not refuse the people the right of sending me again. But to enter myself as a competitor of others, or to authorize anyone so to enter me, is what my word and honor forbid.” Accordingly he retired at the expiration of his term, without the prospect of any office in which he might continue in active political life. He was-a tardy applicant for the post of com- missioner of the land office, refraining in order not to injure the chances of a friend, but he failed to secure the appoint- ment. There was, however, a strong disposition among the Whigs to reward him for his activity, and in the summer of 1849 he was offered by President Taylor the governorship of Oregon Territory. Many of his friends urged him to accept and he was tempted to do so, since Oregon had the lure of the unknown and because it was clear that it would soon be ad- mitted to statehood, when he would have little difficulty inSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 63 securing an election to the United States Senate. He had never aspired higher than the Senate, and he was frankly tempted by the prospect. But his wife, fortunately for his future, was opposed and he declined. He was keenly interested in the success of the Taylor admin- istration. The following letter, inspired by that feeling, is interesting for its reflection of his admiration for Jackson's decisiveness and readiness to assume responsibility: TO JOHN M. CLAYTON Springfield, Ill., July 28, 1849 Hon. J. M. Clayton, Sec y of State. Dear Sir: It is with some hesitation I presume to address you this letter—and yet I wish not only you, but the whole cabinet, and the President, too, would consider the subject matter of it—my being among the people, while you and they are not, will excuse the apparent presumption. It is understood that the President at first adopted, as a general rule, to throw the responsibility of the appointments upon the respective Departments; and that such rule is adhered to and practiced upon. This course I at first thought proper; and, of course, | am not now complaining of it. Still I am disappointed with the effect of it upon the public mind. It is fixing for the President the unjust and ruinous character of being a mere man of straw. This must be arrested, or it will damn us all inevitably. It is said Gen. Taylor and his officers held a council of war at Palo Alto (I believe) ; and that he then fought the battle against unanimous opinion of those oficers—this fact (no matter whether rightfully or wrongfully) gives him more popularity than ten thousand submissions, however really wise and magnanimous those submissions may be. ‘The appoint- ments need be no better than they have been, but the public must be brought to understand that they are the President’s appointments. He must occasionally say, or seem to say, “by the Eternal,’ “I take the responsi-64 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN ‘““Samson’s locks” of Gen. Jackson, and we dare not disregard the lessons of experience. Your Ob't Sev'tt, A. LINCOLN bility.” Those phrases were the With no political future apparently before him, and with urgent need of a growing income,, Lincoln now quietly took leave of politics and devoted himself almost exclusively to the practice of law. In this connection some notes of his for a law lecture, written about this time, throw light on the pro- fessional ideas and ideals of the man. NOTES FOR A LAW LECTURE | Written about July 1, 1851] I am not an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as much material for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed as in those wherein I have been moderately successful. The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor per- taining to it which can then be done. When you bring a common law-suit, if you have the facts for doing so, write the declaration at once. If a law point be involved, examine the books, and note the authority you rely on upon the declaration itself, where you are sure to find it when wanted. The same of defenses and pleas. In business not likely to be litigated—ordinary collection cases, foreclosures, partitions, and the like examinations of titles, and note them and even draft orders and decrees in advance. This course has a triple make all advantage; it avoids omissions and neglect, saves your labor when once done, performs the labor out of court when you have leisure, rather than in court when you have not. Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced andes SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 65 cultivated. It is the lawyer’s avenue to the public. How- ever able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too much on speech-making. If anyone, upon his rare powers ot speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a failure in advance. Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser—in fees, ex- penses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough. Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it. The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question of bread and butter involved. Properly at- tended to, fuller justice is done to both lawyer and client. An exorbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid be forehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client. And when you lack interest in the case, the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance. Settle the amount of fee and take a note in advance. Then you will feel that you are working for something, and you are sure to do your work faithfully and well. Never sell a fee note—at least not before the consideration sery ice 1S performed. It leads to negligence and dishonesty negligence by losing in-66 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN terest in the case, and dishonesty in refusing to refund when you have allowed the consideration to fail. There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are neces- sarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears im- probable that their impression of dishonesty is very dis- tinct and vivid. Yet the impression is common, almost universal. Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief—resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave. His financial needs were greatly increased by his growing family and by the necessity of assisting his father and step- mother, who now, after years of moving from place to place, were settled at Goose Nest Prairie, Illinois. Thomas Lincoln died in 1851, and Lincoln’s care for his step-mother continued until his death. One of her sons by her first marriage was John D. Johnston. He was an amiable but shiftless n’er-do-well who constantly appealed to Lincoln for aid. Three letters to him, written in 1851, show the sound common sense of Lincoln as well as his kindly nature. TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON January 2, 1851 Dear Jounston: Your request for eighty dollars I do not think best to comply with now. At the various times when I have helped you a little you have said to me, “We can get along very well now’; but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you have done a good whole day’s work in any one day.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 67 You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty ; it is vastly important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break the habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after they are in. You are now in need of some money; and what I pro- pose is, that you shall go to work, ‘‘tooth and nail,” for somebody who will give you money for it. Let father and your boys take charge of your things at home, pre- pare for a crop, and make the crop, and you go to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get; and to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you, that for every dollar that you will, between this and the first of May, get for your own labor, either in money or as your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work. In this I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines in California, but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to home in Coles County. Now, if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if | should now clear you out of debt, next year you would be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in heaven for seventy or eighty dollars. Then you value your place in heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can, with the offer I make, get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months’ work. You say if I will furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and, if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver possession. Nonsense!68 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN If you can’t now live with the land, how will you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eighty times eighty dollars to you. Affectionately your brother, A. LincoLn TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON Shelbyville, November 4, 1851 Dear Brotupr: When I came aaie Charleston day before yesterday, I learned that you are anxious to sell the land where you live and move to Missouri. I have been thinking of this ever since, and cannot but think such a notion utterly foolish. What can you do in Missouri better than here? Is the land any richer? Can you there, any more than here, raise corn and wheat and oats without work? Will anybody there, any more than here, do your work for you? If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to go to w oe you cannot get t along anywhere. Squirming and crawling about from: place to place can do no good. You have raised no crop this year; and what you really want is to sell the land, get the money, and spend it. Part with the land you have, and, my life upon it, you will never after own a spot big enough to bury you in. Half you will get for the land you will spend in moving to Missouri, ad the other half you will eat, drink, andl wear out, and no foot of land will be bought. Now, I feel it,my duty to have no hand in such a piece of poole I feel that it is so even on your own account, and particularly on mother’s account. The eastern forty acres I intend to keep for mother while she lives; if you will not cultivate it, it will rent for enough to support her—at least, it will rent for something. Her dower in the other two forties she can let you have, and no thanks to me. Now, do not mis-SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 69 understand this letter: I do not write it in any unkind ness. I write it in order, if possible, to get you to tace the truth, which truth is, you are destitute because you have idled away all your time. Your thousand pretenses for not getting along better are all nonsense; they deceive nobody but yourself. Go to work is the only cure for your case. A word to mother. Chapman tells me he wants you to go and live with him. If I were you I would try it awhile. If you get tired of it (as I think you will not you can return to your own home. Chapman feels very kindly to you, and [ have no doubt he will make your situation very pleasant. Sincert ly your son, A. LINcOL? TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON Springfi ld, N ove mber 9 185] John D. Johnston. Dear BrorTuHer: Your lett ceived. Your proposal about S¢ of the 22d is lust re } : : lling the east forty acres of land is all that I want or could want for myself; bul l am not satisfied with it on mother’s account—I want her to have her living, and I fee | that it is mj duty, to some extent, to see that she is not wronged. She had a right of dower (that 1s, the use of on third for lit in the other two forties! but. it seems, she has alr ady let you take that, hook and line. She now has the use of the whole east forty, as long as she lives: and if it be sold. of course, she is entitled to the interest on all the money it brings, as long as she lives; but you propos: to sell it for three hundred dollars, take one hundred away with you, and leave her two hundred at 8 per cent, making her the enormous sum of 16 dollars a year. Now, if you are satisfied with treating her in that way, I am not. It is true, that you are to have that forty for two hundred dollars, at your mother’s death; but you are. r o it a ans TE Ee eee OB I _— - ee yi OE eee il : i} : 70 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN not to have it before. I am confident that land can be made to produce for mother at least $30 a year, and I cannot, to oblige any living person, consent that she shall be put on an allowance of sixteen dollars a year. Yours, etc., A. LiNcoLNn In the years between 1849 and 1854, Lincoln’s practice grew rapidly, but since he cared little for money, his fees were so small as to excite the displeasure of his brethren of the bar and even to bring a protest from the presiding judge. His only political activity was as candidate for presidential elector in 1852. He was never effective where his heart was not, and the Whig platform of 1852, which had no fighting issue, excited in him no particular interest. He had thrown himself with renewed enthusiasm into fresh study of the law and was bidding fair, if nothing should prevent, to become possibly a great lawyer. Interestingly enough, he was now studying and master- ing Euclidean geometry, which gave him probably, even at this mature age, a power of closer reasoning. Although increas- ingly a student he did not withdraw from contact with the people. In fact he became during this period the idol of the Eighth Judicial Circuit in Illinois and increasingly well-known to the entire state. Here were formed the personal associa- tions which did so much to make Lincoln, with all his handi- caps, the Republican nominee for President in 1860. The Compromise of 1850 had apparently settled the slavery question, for that generation at least, and while Lincoln was firm in the conviction that “nothing is really ever settled until it is settled right,” and while his dislike of slavery had not lessened, he had, as a practical matter, dismissed the question from his mind, when the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, with its repeal of the Missouri Compromise, reopened the whole question in.a new form, and ushered in a new period in his life.II FIGHTING THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERYi ' f " ye ee ee ee ie —— | ; |[| FIGHTING THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY In this second period of his life, I.incoln devoted practically all his time and thought to opposing the extension of slavery into the territories of the United States. With slavery where it already existed he did not quarrel. Believing that it was a great evil, he nevertheless was convinced that under the Con- stitution of the [inited States it was entitled to protection. But quite different was his attitude as regarded its spread. It was to him more than a political question, and he never overlooked its possibilities in that respect; it was a moral question of the highest importance, and to the contest! he gave ill the strength that he had. In the contest he rrevw ind developed more rapidly than he had ever don By the Ordinance of 1787, providing for the government of the Northwest Territory, it was pro led that “there shall bi neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Tlerritor' otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the part shall have been dul Cony ected,” \s I result, the States o1 Ohio. Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were free of slavery. In 1803 the L nited States purchased Louisiana, in part of which slave ry alre idy existed. Louisiana was admitte as a slave state in 1812, and in 1818 the people of Missour petitioned Congress to be admitted as a slave state. In th North great opposition developed, and the House of Repre- sentatives and Sen ite were at a d idilock, the rormer insisting” upon admission only upon the condition of the gradual emancl- pation of slaves, and the latter insisting that it should be a slave state. Finally, upon the suggestion of Senator ‘Thomas of [llinois, Missouri was 1.dmitted iS a slave state, but in ill the rest of the Louisiana Purchase, north of 36° 30’, which 5 1 as the southern boundary of Missouri, slavery was forever prohibited. This not only determined the status of the 73 ieee ee | : ; { | |ee F hy 1 | f i i 4 1] 74 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN northern portion of the Louisiana Purchase, but it was a recognition of the right of Congress to deal with slavery in the territories. Under it there was little question of slavery ex- tension until the Mexican War. As a result of the Mexican War, the slavery question was reopened in Congress. California was particularly adapted for slavery, and there was an immediate demand from the South that the Missouri Compromise line be extended to the Pacific. The North still advocated the principle of the Wilmot Proviso that slavery should not extend to the new territory. At the same time there was a strong Northern demand for the abolition of slavery, or at least of the slave-trade, in the District of Columbia, while the South, which was losing two thousand slaves a year through the operations of the Under- ground Railway, demanded a more effective law for the return of fugitive slaves. In addition there were other questions, all connected, directly or indirectly, with slavery, which were agitated in Congress, such as the western boundary of Texas, and whether Utah and New Mexico should be free or slave. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 carried a flood of settlers there, and, without waiting for the establishment of a territorial government, they drew up a state constitution which prohibited slavery, and in 1849 applied for admission to the Union. Admission would of course prevent the exten- sion of the Compromise line to the Pacific, and the South opposed admission for this reason. The dispute grew so angry that there was serious danger of disunion, when Henry Clay, who had returned to the Senate for the purpose, proposed a series of compromise measures, which were finally adopted and which, together, form the Compromise of 1850. Under these acts California was admitted as a free state, New Mexico was given territory claimed by Texas, and in return debts of the state of Texas to the amount of $10,000,000 were assumed by the United States, while Utah and New Mexico were given territorial government with the provision that when either should be admitted as a state “the said territory .. . shall be admitted into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may provide at the time of admission.” This was a recognition of the principle of “popular sov- ereignty” which General Lewis Cass of Michigan had sug- gested as a way of settlement. In addition the slave-trade wasSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN TH abolished in the District of Columbia, and a new and more stringent fugitive slave law was passed.: Both political parties accepted the compromise and agreed not to discuss slavery further. National discussion did for a short time largely cease. But the new fugitive slave law was very unpopular in the North, and in every free state, except two, laws were passed to interfere with its operation. In addition its execution was frequently interrupted by mobs, backed by public sentiment. This angered the South, which felt that the North was unwilling to grant the protection guaranteed by the Constitution. With the development of overland trade to California which began in 1849, came a demand for the organization of the territory west of the Missouri River, which now was being slowly settled. In June, 1854, Stephen A. Douglas, who was chairman of the committee on the territories in the Senate, introduced a bill for the organization of the Nebraska Territory, with the provision that the people of the territory should decide whether or not it should have slavery. This fresh application of “popular sovereignty,” or, as it was popularly called, “squatter sovereignty) »’ was at once opposed as contrary to the Missouri Compromise. Douglas contended that the Compromise of 1850 had set aside the earlier com- promise, and later included in the bill a specific provision for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. At the same time provision was made in the bill for two territories instead of one: Kansas, which was clearly intended to be slave, and Nebraska, which was to be free, thus maintaining the tradi- tional balance between slave and free states. This Kansas-Nebraska Bill, with its “popular sovereignty,” plan, represented the ideas of many people in the West who in their adoration of democratic, popular government, thought that the people most nearly concerned should decide political questions. These people saw here a local question, like that of schools; they failed utterly to see that any question which involved a policy toward slavery was necessarily national in its scope. They also failed to see that it involved any moral question. The bill was passed, in spite of sharp opposition in the North. A large part of the Democratic party, the Anti- Nebraska men, refused to support it, and so unpopular was i j 7 | i 7 ‘ | it OS ee aa Sa TEESE + Sa ee a ee re en76 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN the bill that Douglas said that his way home from Washington was lighted all the distance “by Stephen A. Douglas, burning in effigy.” When he reached Chicago he attempted to defend his course in a public speech and was hissed from the plat- form. But each day he roused more enthusiasm and won back friends. This was the situation in Illinois and the nation when Lincoln came actively back into politics. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill inevitably brought Lincoln into politics. To him the issue involved was moral rather than political, and it was in the discussion of such questions that his powers and abilities lay. He threw him- self into a close study of the whole question. The following notes show the trend of his thought. They are chiefly inter- esting because they contain the germ of many of the argu- ments which he was to use later in a more developed form. THE NATURE AND OBJECTS OF GOVERNMENT, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SLAVERY [About July 1, 1854] [Fragmentary Notes | Government is a combination of the people of a coun- try to effect certain objects by joint effort. The best framed and best administered governments are neces- sarily expensive; while by errors. in frame and maladmin- istration most of them are more onerous than they need be, and some of them very oppressive. Why, then, should we have government? Why not each individual take to himself the whole fruit of his labor, without having any of it taxed away, in services, corn, or money? Why not take just so much land as he can cultivate with his own hands, without buying it of anyone? The legitimate object of government is “‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they cannot, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves. ’ There are many such things—some of them exist inde- pendently of the injustice in the world. Making and maintaining roads, bridges, and the like; providing forSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 77 the helpless young and afflicted; common schools; and disposing of deceased men’s property, are instances. But a far larger class of objects springs from the injustice of men. If one people will make war upon another, it is a necessity with that other to unite and cooperate for defense. Hence the military department. [If some men will kill, or beat, or constrain others, or despoil them of property, by force, fraud, or non-com- pliance with contracts, it is a common object with peace- ful and just men to prevent it. Hence the criminal and civil departments. The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves. in their separate and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere. The desirable things which the individuals of a people cannot do, or cannot well do, for themselves, fall into two classes: those which have relation to wrongs, and those which have not. Each of these branches off into an infinite variety of sub- divisions. The first—that in relation to wrongs—embraces all crimes, misdemeanors, and non-performance of contracts. The other embraces all which, in its nature, and without wrong requires combined action, as publie roads and highways, publie schools, charities, pauperism, orphan- age, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of gov- ernment itself. From this it appears that if all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of govern- ment. Equality in society alike beats inequality, whether the latter be of the British aristocratic sort or of the domestic Slavery sort. \ 7 if 17 ; j | ¢ i a ee We know Southern men declare that their slaves are78 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN better off than hired laborers amongst us. How little they know whereof they speak! There is no permanent class of hired laborers amongst us. ‘Twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer. The hired laborer of yester- day labors on his own account today, and will hire others to labor for him tomorrow. Advancement—improvement in condition—is the order of things in a society of equals. As labor is the com- mon burden of our race, so the effort of some to shift their share of the burden on to the shoulders of others is the great durable curse of the race. Originally a curse for transgression upon the whole race, when, as by slavery, it is concentrated on a part only, it becomes the double-refined curse of God upon his creatures. Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope. The power of hope upon human exertion and happiness is wonderful. The slave-master himself has a conception of it, and hence the system of tasks among slaves. The slave whom you cannot drive with the lash to break seventy-five pounds of hemp in a day, if you will task him to break a hundred, and promise him pay for all he does over, he will break you a hundred and fifty. You have substituted hope for the rod. And yet perhaps it does not occur to you that, to the extent of your gain in the case, you have given up the slave system and adopted the free system of labor. If A can prove, however conclusively, that he may of right enslave B, why may not B snatch the same argu- ment and prove equally that he may enslave A? You say A is white and B is black. It is color, then; the lighter having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule you are to be slave to the first man you meet with a fairer skin than your own. You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and there- fore have the right to enslave them? Take care again.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Y9 By this rule you are to be slave to the first man you meet with an intellect superior to your own. But, say you, it is a question of interest, and if you make it your interest you have the right to enslave an- other. Very well. And if he can make it his interest he has the right to enslave you. The ant who has toiled and dragged a crumb to his nest will furiously defend the fruit of his labor against whatever robber assails him. So plain that the most dumb and stupid slave that ever toiled for a master does constantly know that he is wronged. So plain that no one, high or low, ever does mistake it, except in a plainly selfish way; for although volume upon yolume is written. to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it by being a slave himself. Most governments have been based, practically, on the denial of the equal rights of men, as I have, in part, stated them; ours began by affirming these rights. They said some men are too ignorant and vicious to share in government. Possibly so, said we; and, by your system, you would always keep them ignorant and vicious. We proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser, and all better and happier together. We made the experiment, and the fruit is before us. Look at it, think of it. Look at it in its aggregate grandeur, of extent, of country, and numbers of popula- tion—of ship and steamboat, and railroad. Lincoln did not content himself with study. He went on the stump in behalf of a friend who was a candidate for Con gress, stating that he would only speak in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska act. He also began to write letters with the view of organization of public opinion against it. Th following is a good example of these:’ \ ‘ ' H rl } } f | ( al 80 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN TO JOHN M. PALMER Springfield, September 7, 1854 Hon. J. M. Palmer. Dear Sir: You know how anxious I am that this Nebraska measure shall be rebuked and condemned everywhere. Of course I hope something from your posi- tion, yet I do not expect you to do anything which may be wrong in your own judgment; nor would I have you do anything personally injurious to yourself. You are, and always have been, honestly and sincerely, a demo- erat; and I know how painful it must be to an honest, sincere man to be urged by his party to the support of a measure, which in his conscience he believes to be wrong. You have had a severe struggle with yourself, and you have determined not to swallow the wrong. Is it not just to yourself that you should, in a few public speeches, state your reasons, and thus justify yourself? I wish you would; and yet I say, “Don't do it, if you think it will injure you.’—You may have given your word to vote for Major Harris;* and if so, of course you will stick to it—But allow me to suggest that you should avoid speaking of this, for it probably would induce some of your friends, in like manner, to cast their votes.—You understand.—And now let me beg your pardon for obtruding this letter upon you, to whom I have ever been opposed in politics——Had your party omitted to make Nebraska a test of party fidelity, you probably would have been the Democratic candidate for Congress in the district.— You deserved it, and I believe it would have been given you.—In that case I should have been quite happy that Nebraska was to be rebuked at all events.—I still should have voted for the Whig candidate; but I should have made no speeches, written no letters; and you would have been elected by at least a thousand majority. Yours truly, A. LiNcoLn * Thomas L. Harris, the Democratic candidate for Congress.—— a SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN R21 The State Fair, held in October at Springfield, always attracted huge crowds, and Douglas arranged to speak there on October 3, in defense of his policy. Lincoln, who was now a candidate for the legislature, was promptly called upon to answer him and did so on the next day. His speech was very successful. Of it the Springfield Journal said: “The Anti-Nebraska speech of Mr. Lincoln was the pro- foundest, in our opinion, that he has made in his whole life. He felt upon his soul the truths burn which he uttered, and all present felt that he was true to his own soul. His feelings once or twice swelled within and came near stifling utterance. He quivered with emotion. The whole house was still as death. He attacked the Nebraska bill with unusual warmth and energy; and all felt that a man of strength was its enemy and that he intended to blast it if he could by strong and manly efforts. He was most successful, and the house approved the glorious triumph of truth by loud and continued huzzas.” Douglas replied the following day and these speeches may be said to be the beginning of the series of debates which was to last almost without interruption until 1860. Lincoln’s speech was not published, but when he spoke at Peoria twelve days later in reply to Douglas he used substantially the same argu- ments, lacking, possibly, the fire of the Springfield speech. The Peoria address is also notable because it contains the germ of many arguments and illustrations that he was to use during the next six years. In spite of the fact that it was written when Lincoln was in the process of finding himself, it is far superior to his speeches in the much more famous debates with Douglas in 1858. It is more imaginative, has greater elevation of thought, and is franker and more convinc- ing. It is a fine example of brief, direct, and terse statement. His major plea was for the vindication and restoration of the policy of the fathers of the republic toward slavery, but here, too, is made clearly the chief point of all his speeches of this period—that slavery was fundamentally wrong; that while it could not be disturbed where it already existed, it must be confined there and not allowed to spread at all into free terri- tory. It is notable also for its spirit of fairness toward the Southern people. . . 1 4 | |ee ed ose 1 i g9 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN THE PEORIA SPEECH [October 16, 1854] I do not rise to speak now, if I can stipulate with the audience to meet me here at half-past six or at seven o'clock. It is now several minutes past five, and Judge Douglas has spoken over three hours. If you hear me at all, I wish you to hear me through. It will take me as long as it has taken him. That will carry us beyond eight o'clock at night. Now, everyone of you who can remain that long can just as well get his supper, meet me at seven, and remain an hour or two later. The Judge has already informed you that he is to have an hour to reply to me. I doubt not but you have been a little sur- prised to learn that I have consented to give one of his high reputation and known ability this advantage of me. Indeed, my consenting to it, though reluctant, was not wholly unselfish, for I suspected, if it were understood that the Judge was entirely done, you Democrats would leave and not hear me; but by giving him the close I felt confident you would stay for the fun of hearing him skin me. [The audience signified their assent to the arrange- ment, and adjourned to seven o'clock p. M., at which time they reassembled, and Mr. Lincoln spoke substantially as follows:]| The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the propriety of its restoration, constitute the subject of what I am about to say. As I desire to present my own connected view of this subject, my remarks will not be specifically an answer to Judge Douglas; yet, as I pro- ceed, the main points he has presented will arise, and will receive such respectful attention as I may be able to give them. I wish further to say that I do not propose to question the patriotism or to assail the motives of any man or class of men, but rather to confine myself strictly to the naked merits of the question. I also wish to be no less than national in all the positions I may take, andSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Q2 whenever I take ground which others have thought, or may think, narrow, sectional, and dangerous to the union, I hope to give a reason which will appear sufhi- cient, at least to some, why I think differently. And as this subject is no other than part and parcel of the larger general question of domestic slavery, I wish to make and keep the distinction between the existing institution and the extension of it, so broad and so clear st that no honest man can misunderstand me, and no dis- honest one successfully misrepresent me. In order to a clear understanding of what the Mis souri Compromise 1s, a short history of the preceding kindred subjects will perhaps be proper. When we established our independence, W ¢ did not own or claim the country to which this compromise ap- plies. Indeed, strictly speaking, the Confederacy then owned no country at all; the states respective ly owned the country within their limits, and some of them owned territory beyond their strict state limits. Virginia thus owned the Northwestern Territory—the country out of which the principal part of Ohio, all Indiana, all Illinois, all Michigan, and all Wisconsin have since been formed. She also owned (perhaps within her then limits) what has since been formed into the State of Kentucky. North Carolina thus owned what is now the State of Tennessee; parts, what are now Mississippi and Alabama. Con- necticut, I think, owned the little remaining part of Ohio, being the same where they now send Giddings to Con- gress, and beat all creation in making cheese. These territories, together with the states themselves, constitute all the country over which the Confederacy then claimed any sort of jurisdiction. We were then living under the Articles of Confederation, which wert superseded by the Constitution several] years afterwards. The question of ceding the territories to the General Government was set on foot. Mr. Jefferson, the author and South Carolina and Georgia owned, in separate84 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN — ——t.> of the Declaration of Independence, and otherwise a chief actor in the Revolution; then a delegate in Con- gress; afterwards, twice President; who was, is, and perhaps will continue to be, the most distinguished poli- tician of our history; a Virginian by birth and continued residence, and withal a slaveholder—conceived the idea of taking that occasion to prevent slavery ever going into the Northwestern Territory. He prevailed on the Vir- ginia legislature to adopt his views, and to cede the Territory, making the prohibition of slavery therein a condition of the deed.* Congress accepted the cession with the condition; and the first ordinance (which the acts of Congress were then called) for the government of the Territory provided that slavery should never be permitted therein. This is the famed “Ordinance of 87, so often spoken of. Thenceforward for sixty-one years, and until, in 1848, the last scrap of this Territory came into the Union as the State of Wisconsin, all parties acted in quiet obedi- ence to this ordinance. It is now what Jefferson foresaw and intended—the happy home of teeming millions of free, white, prosperous people, and no slave among them. Thus, with the author of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, the policy of prohibiting slavery in new terri- tory originated. Thus, away back to the Constitution, in the pure, fresh, free breath of the Revolution, the State of Virginia and the National Congress put that policy into practice. Thus, through more than sixty of the best years of the republic, did that policy steadily work to its great and beneficent end. And thus, in those five states, and in five millions of free, enterprising people, we have before us the rich fruits of this policy. But now new light breaks upon us. Now Congress declares this ought never to have been, and the like of it must never be again. The sacred right of self-govern- ment is grossly violated by it. We even find some men * This was an error which Lincoln later corrected. | f i & ! { \ iSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN R5 who drew their first breath—and every other breath of their lives—under this very restriction, now live in dread of absolute suffocation if they should be restricted in the “sacred right” of taking slaves to Nebraska. That per- fect liberty they sigh for—the liberty of making slaves of other people—Jefferson never thought of, their own fathers never thought of, they never thought of them- selves, a year ago. How fortunate for them they did not sooner become sensible of their great misery! Oh, how difficult it is to treat with respect such assaults upon all we have ever really held sacred! But to return to history. In 1803 we purchased what was then called Louisiana, of France. It included the present states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa; also the territory of Minnesota, and the present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery al- ready existed among the French at New Orleans, and to some extent at St. Louis. In 1812 Louisiana came into the Union as a slave state without controversy. In 1818 or 719, Missouri showed signs of a wish to come in with slavery. This was resisted by Northern members of Congress; and thus began the first great slavery agitation in the nation. This controversy lasted several months, and became very angry and exciting—the House of Rep- resentatives voting for the prohibition of slavery in Missouri, and the Senate voting as steadily against it. Threats of the breaking up of the Union were freely made, and the ablest public men of the day became seri- ously alarmed. At length a compromise was made, in which, as in all compromises, both sides yielded some- thing. It was a law passed on the 6th of March, 1820, providing that Missouri might come into the Union with slavery, but that in all the remaining part of the terri tory purchased of France, which lies north of thirty- six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, slavery should never be permitted. This provision of law is the “Missouri Compromise.” In excluding slavery north of i , i | $ i , J \ i] | ‘— ee Se TST NT te ee a “ a a 86 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN the line, the same language is employed as in the ordi- nance of 1787. It directly applied to Iowa, Minnesota, and to the present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Whether there should or should not be slavery south of that line, nothing was said in the law. But Arkansas constituted the principal remaining part south of the line; and it has since been admitted as a slave state, without serious controversy. More recently, Iowa, north of the line, came in as a free state without con- _troversy. Still later, Minnesota, north of the line, had a territorial organization without controversy. Texas, principally south of the line, and west of Arkansas, though originally within the purchase from France, had, in 1819, been traded off to Spain in our treaty for the acquisition of Florida. It had thus become a part of Mexico. Mexico revolutionized and became independent of Spain. American citizens began settling rapidly with their slaves in the southern part of Texas. Soon they revolutionized against Mexico, and established an inde- pendent government of their own, adopting a constitution with slavery, strongly resembling the constitutions of our slave states. By still another rapid move, Texas, claim- ing a boundary much further west than when we parted with her in 1819, was brought back to the United States, and admitted into the Union as a slave state. Then there was little or no settlement in the northern part of Texas, a considerable portion of which lay north of the Missouri line; and in the resolutions admitting her into the Union, the Missouri restriction was expressly ex- tended westward across her territory. This was in 1845, only nine years ago. Thus originated the Missouri Compromise; and thus has it been respected down to 1845. And even four years later, in 1849, our distinguished senator, in a public address, held the following language in relation to it:= en SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 87 ‘The Missouri Compromise has been in practical oper- ation for about a quarter of a century, and has received the sanction and approbation of men of all parties in every section of the Union. It has allayed all sectional jealousies and irritations growing out of this vexed ques- tion, and harmonized and tranquilized the whole country. It has given to Henry Clay, as its prominent champion, the proud sobriquet of the ‘Great Pacificator,’ and by that title, and for that service, his political friends had repeatedly appealed to the people to rally under his standard as a presidential candidate, as the man who had exhibited the patriotism and power to suppress an unholy and treasonable agitation, and preserve the Union. He was not aware that any man or any party, from any section of the Union, had ever urged as an objection to Mr. Clay that he was the great champion ’ of the Missouri Compromise. On the contrary, the effort was made by the opponents of Mr. Clay to prove that he was not entitled to the exclusive merit of that great patriotic measure; and that the honor was equally due to others, as well as to him for securing its adoption that it had its origin in the hearts of all patriotic men who desired to preserve and perpetuate the blessings of our glorious Union—an origin akin to that of the Con- stitution of the United States, conceived in the same spirit of fraternal affection, and calculated to remove forever the only danger which seemed to threaten, at some distant day, to sever the social bond of union. All the evidences of public opinion at that day seemed to in- dicate that this Compromise had been canonized in the hearts of the American people, as a sacred thing which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to dis- turb.”’ | | . 4 : { | I do not read this extract to involve Judge Douglas in an inconsistency. If he afterwards thought he had been wrong, it was right for him to change. I bring this for-ee ee oe : i ) { | } 8° SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN ward merely to show the high estimate placed on the Missouri Compromise by all parties up to so late as the vear 1849. But going back a little in point of time. Our war with Mexico broke out in 1846. When Congress was about adjourning that session, President Polk asked them to place two millions of dollars under his control, to be used by him in the recess, if found practicable and expe- dient, in negotiating a treaty of peace with Mexico, and acquiring some part of her territory. A bill was duly gotten up for the purpose, and was progressing swim- mingly in the House of Representatives, when a member by the name of David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsyl- vania, moved as an amendment, “Provided, that in any territory thus acquired there shall never be slavery.” This is the origin of the far-famed Wilmot proviso. It created a great flutter; but it stuck like wax, was voted into the bill, and the bill passed with it through the House. The Senate, however, adjourned without final action on it, and so both appropriation and proviso were lost for the time. The war continued, and at the next session, the President renewed his request for the appro- priation, enlarging the amount, I think, to three millions. Again came the proviso, and defeated the measure. Con- eress adjourned again, and the war went on. In Decem- ber, 1847, the new Congress assembled. I was in the lower House that term. The Wilmot proviso, or the principle of it, was constantly coming up in some shape or other, and I think I may venture to say I voted for it at least forty times during the short time I was there. The Senate, however, held it in check, and it never be- came a law. In the spring of 1848 a treaty of peace was made with Mexico, by which we obtained that por- tion of her country which now constitutes the Territories of New Mexico and Utah, and the present State of Cali- fornia. By this treaty the Wilmot proviso was defeated, in so far as it was intended to be a condition of theSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN RQ acquisition of territory. Its friends, however, were still determined to find some way to restrain slavery from getting into the new country. This new acquisition lay directly west of our old purchase from France, and ex- tended west to the Pacific Ocean, and was so situated that if the Missouri line should be extended straight west, the new country would be divided by such extended line, leaving some north and some south of it. On Judge Douglas’s motion, a bill, or provision of a bill, passed the Senate to so extend the Missouri line. The proviso men in the House, including myself, voted it down, be- cause, by implication, it gave up the southern part to slavery, while we were bent on having it all free. In the fall of 1848 the gold mines were discovered in California. This attracted people to it with unprece- dented rapidity, so that on, or soon after, the meeting of the new Congress in December, 1849, she already had a population of nearly a hundred thousand, had ealled a convention, formed a State Constitution excluding slav- ery, and was knocking for admission into the Union. The proviso men, of course, were for letting her in, but the Senate, always true to the other side, would not consent to her admission, and there California stood, kept out of the Union because she would not let slavery into her borders. Under all the circumstances, perhaps, this was not wrong. There were other points of dispute connected with the general question of slavery, which equally needed adjustment. The South clamored for a more efficient fugitive-slave law. The North clamored for the abolition of a peculiar species of slave-trade in the District of Columbia, in connection with which, in view from the windows of the Capitol, a sort of negro livery stable, where droves of negroes were collected, temporarily kept, and finally taken to Southern markets, precisely like droves of horses, had been openly main- tained for fifty years. Utah and New Mexico needed territorial government; and whether slavery should or ' ri ee90 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN should not be prohibited within them was another ques- tion. The indefinite western boundary of Texas was to be settled. She was a slave state, and consequently the farther west the slavery men could push the boundary, the more slave country could be secured; and the farther east the slavery opponents could thrust the boundary back, the less slave ground was secured. Thus this was just as clearly a slavery question as any of the others. These points all needed adjustment, and they were held up, perhaps wisely, to make them help adjust one another. The Union now, as in 1820, was thought to be in danger, and devotion to the Union rightfully in- clined men to yield somewhat in points, where nothing else could have so inclined them. A compromise was finally effected. The South got their new fugitive-slave law, and the North got California (by far the best part of our acquisition from Mexico) as a free state. The South got a provision that New Mexico and Utah, when admitted as states, may come in with or without slavery as they may then choose; and the North got the slave- trade abolished in the District of Columbia. The North got the western boundary of Texas thrown farther back eastward than the South desired; but, in turn, they gave Texas ten millions of dollars with which to pay her old debts. This is the compromise of 1850. Preceding the presidential election of 1852, each of the great political parties, Democrats and Whigs, met in convention and adopted resolutions indorsing the com- promise of ’50, as a “finality,” a final settlement, so far as these parties could make it so, of all slavery agitation. Previous to this, in 1851, the Illinois legislature had in- dorsed it. During this long period of time, Nebraska had re- mained substantially an uninhabited country, but now emigration to and settlement within it began to take place. It is about one-third as large as the present United States, and its importance, so long overlooked,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Q] begins to come to view. The restriction of slavery by the Missouri Compromise directly applies to it—in fact was first made, and has since been maintained, expressly for it. In 1853, a bill to give it a territorial govern- ment passed the House of Representatives, and, in the hands of Judge Douglas, failed of passing only for want of time. This bill contained no repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Indeed, when it was assailed because it did not contain such repeal, Judge Douglas de- fended it in its existing form. On January 4, 1854, Judge Douglas introduces a new bill to give Nebraska territorial government. He accom- panies this bill with a report, in which last he expressly recommends that the Missouri Compromise shall neither be affirmed nor repealed. Before long the bill is so modified as to make two territories instead of one, calling the southern one Kansas. Also. about a month after the introduction of the bill, on the Judge’s own motion it is so amended as to declare the Missouri Compromise inoperative and void; and, substantially, that the people who go and settle there may establish slavery, or exclude it, as they may see fit. In this shape the bill passed both branches of Congress and became a law. This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The foregoing history may not be precisely accurate in every particular, but I am sure it is sufficiently so for all the use I shall attempt to make of it, and in it we have before us the chief material enabling us to judge cor- rectly whether the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is right or wrong. I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong—wrong in its direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, and wrong in its prospective prin- ciple, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide world where men can be found inclined to take it. This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal, for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. oat Se ie Fal a ec28 ae eg ere Sie EE ——e 99 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; and especially because it forces so many good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticiz- ing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. Before proceeding let me say that I think I have no prejudice against the Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us, we should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses North and South. Doubtless there are individuals on both sides who would not hold slaves under any circumstances, and others who would gladly introduce slavery anew if it were out of existence. We know that some Southern men do free their slaves, go North and become tiptop abolitionists, while some Northern ones go South and become most cruel slave masters. When Southern people tell us they are no more re- sponsible for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institu- tion exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do as to the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land. But a moment’s reflection would con- vince me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible. If they were all landed there in a day,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 92 they would all perish in the next ten days; and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough to carry them there in many times ten days. What then? Free them all, and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their condition? I think I would not hold one in slavery at any rate, yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce people upon. What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this, and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of whites will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judgment is not the sole question, if indeed it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be safely disregarded. We cannot then make them equals. It does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted, but for their tardiness in this I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the South. When they remind us of their constitutional rights, I acknowledge them—not grudgingly, but fully and fairly; and I would give them any legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives which should not in its stringency be more likely to carry a free man into slavery than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang an innocent one. But all this, to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse for permitting slavery to go into our own free territory than it would for reviving the African slave trade by law. The law which forbids the bringing of slaves from Africa, and that which has so long forbidden the taking of them into Nebraska, can hardly be distinguished on any moral principle, and the repeal of the former could find quite as plausible excuses as that of the latter. The arguments by which the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is sought to be justified are these: First, That the Nebraska country needed a territorial govern- ment; Second, That in various ways the public had repudiated that compromise and demanded the repeal,ae EE — oe 94 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN and therefore should not now complain of it; and, Lastly, That the repeal establishes a principle which is intrinsically right. I will attempt an answer to each of them in its turn. First, then. If that country was in need of a territorial organization, could it not have had it as well without as with a repeal? Iowa and Minnesota, to both of which the Missouri restriction applied, had, without its repeal, each in succession, territorial organizations. And even the year before, a bill for Nebraska itself was within an ace of passing without the repealing clause, and this in the hands of the same men who are now the champions of repeal. Why no necessity then for repeal? But still later, when this very bill was first brought in, it con- tained no repeal. But, say they, because the people had demanded, or rather commanded, the repeal, the repeal was to accompany the organization whenever that should occur. Now, I deny that the public ever demanded any such thing—ever repudiated the Missouri Compromise, ever commanded its repeal. I deny it, and call for the proof. It is not contended, I believe, that any such command has ever been given in express terms. It is only said that it was done in principle. The support of the Wil- mot proviso is the first fact mentioned to prove that the Missouri restriction was repudiated in principle, and the second is the refusal to extend the Missouri line over the country acquired from Mexico. These are near enough alike to be treated together. The one was to exclude the chances of slavery from the whole new acquisition by the lump, and the other was to reject a division of it, by which one-half was to be given up to those chances. Now, whether this was a repudiation of the Missouri line in principle depends upon whether the Missouri law contained any principle requiring the line to be extended over the country acquired from Mexico. I contend it did not. I insist that it contained no general principle,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Q5 but that it was, in every sense, specific. That its terms limit it to the country purchased from France is unde- nied and undeniable. It could have no principle beyond the intention of those who made it. They did not intend to extend the line to country which they did not own. If they intended to extend it in the event of acquiring additional territory, why did they not say so? It was just as easy to say that “in all the country west of the Mississippi which we now own, or may hereafter acquire, there shall never be slavery,” as to say what they did say; and they would have said it if they had meant it. An intention to extend the law is not only fot mentioned in the law. but is not mentioned in any contemporaneous history. Both the law itself, and the history of the times, are a blank as to any principle of extension: and by neither the known rules of construing statutes and contracts, nor by common sense, can any such principle be inferred. Another fact showing the specific character of the Missouri law—showing that it intended no more than it expressed, showing that the line was not intended as a universal dividing line between free and slave territory, present and prospective, north of which slavery could never go—is the fact that by that very law Missouri came in as a Slave state, north of the line. If that law contained any prospective principle, the whole law must he looked to in order to ascertain what the principle was. And by this rule the South could fairly contend that inasmuch as they got one slave state north of the line at the inception of the law, they have the right to have another given them north of it occasionally, now and then. in the indefinite westward extension of the line. This demonstrates the absurdity of attempting to deduce a prospective principle from the Missouri Compromise line. When we voted for the Wilmot proviso we were voting to keep slavery out of the whole Mexican acquisition, i nS cei ai nem ta tS ae 5= a ee a ee 96 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN and little did we think we were thereby voting to let it into Nebraska, lying several hundred miles distant. When we voted against extending the Missouri line, little did we think we were voting to destroy the old line, then of near thirty years’ standing. To argue that we thus repudiated the Missouri Com- promise is no less absurd than it would be to argue that because we have so far forborne to acquire Cuba, we have thereby, in principle, repudiated our former acqui- sitions and determined to throw them out of the Union. No less absurd than it would be to say that because I may have refused to build an addition to my house, I thereby have decided to destroy the existing house! And if I catch you setting fire to my house, you will turn upon me and say I instructed you to do it! The most conclusive argument, however, that while for the Wilmot proviso, and while voting against the extension of the Missouri line, we never thought of dis- turbing the original Missouri Compromise, is found in the fact that there was then, and still is, an unorganized tract of fine country, nearly as large as the State of Mis- souri, lying immediately west of Arkansas and south of the Missouri Compromise line, and that we never at- tempted to prohibit slavery as to it. I wish particular attention to this. It adjoins the original Missouri Com- promise line by its northern boundary, and consequently is part of the country into which by implication slavery was permitted to go by that compromise. There it has lain open ever since, and there it still lies, and yet no effort has been made at any time to wrest it from the South. In all our struggles to prohibit slavery within our Mexican acquisitions, we never so much as lifted a finger to prohibit it as to this tract. Is not this entirely conclusive that at all times we have held the Missouri Compromise as a sacred thing, even when against our- selves as well as when for us? Senator Douglas sometimes says the Missouri lineSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Q7 itself was in principle only an extension of the line of the ordinance of ’87—that is to say, an extension of the Ohio River. I think this is weak enough on its face. I will remark, however, that, as a glance at the map will show, the Missouri line is a long way farther south than the Ohio, and that if our senator in proposing his extension had stuck to the principle of jogging south- ward, perhaps it might not have been voted down so readily. But next it is said that the compromises of ’50, and the ratification of them by both political parties in ‘52, established a new principle which required the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. This again I deny. I deny it, and demand the proof. I have already stated fully what the compromises of ’50 are. That particular part of those measures from which the virtual repeal of the Missouri Compromise is sought to be inferred (for it is admitted they contain nothing about it in express terms) is the provision in the Utah and New Mexico laws which permits them when they seek admission into the Union as states to come in with or without slavery, as they shall then see fit. Now I insist this provision was made for Utah and New Mexico, and for no other place what- ever. It had no more direct reference to Nebraska than it had to the territories of the moon. But, say they, it had reference to Nebraska in principle. Let us see. The North consented to this provision, not because they considered it right in itself, but because they were com- pensated—paid for it. They at the same time got California into the Union as a free state. This was far the best part of all they had struggled for by the Wilmot proviso. They also got the area of slavery somewhat narrowed in the settle- ment of the boundary of Texas. Also they got the slave- trade abolished in the District of Columbia. For all these desirable objects the North could afford to vield something; and they did yield to the South the | | | 1 } _ elie ee98 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Utah and New Mexico provision. I do not mean that the whole North, or even a majority, yielded, when the law passed; but enough yielded, when added to the vote of the South, to carry the measure. Nor can it be pre- tended that the principle of this arrangement requires us to permit the same provision to be applied to Ne- braska, without any equivalent at all. Give us an- other free state; press the boundary of Texas still far- ther back; give us another step toward the destruction of slavery in the District, and you present us a similar case. But ask us not to repeat, for nothing, what you paid for in the first instance. If you wish the thing again, pay again. That is the principle of the com- promises of °50, if, indeed, they had any principles beyond their specific terms—it was the system of equiv- alents. Again, if Congress, at that time, intended that all future territories should, when admitted as states, come in with or without slavery, at their own option, why did it not say so? With such a universal provision, all know the bills could not have passed. Did they, then—could they—establish a principle contrary to their own intention? Still further, if they intended to estab- lish the principle that, whenever Congress had control, it should be left to the people to do as they thought fit with slavery, why did they not authorize the people of the District of Columbia, at their option, to abolish slavery within their limits? I personally know that this has not been left undone because it was unthought of. It was frequently spoken of by members of Congress, and by citizens of Washing- ton, six years ago; and I heard no one express a doubt that a system of gradual emancipation, with compensa- tion to owners, would meet the approbation of a large majority of the white people of the District. But with- out the action of Congress they could say nothing; and Congress said “No.” In the measures of 1850, Con-SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Q9 gress had the subject of slavery in the District expressly on hand. If they were then establishing the principle of allowing the people to do as they please with slavery, why did they not apply the principle to that people? Again, it is claimed that by the resolutions of the Illinois legislature, passed in 1851, the repeal. of the Missouri Compromise was demanded. This I deny also. Whatever may be worked out by a criticism of the language of those resolutions, the people have never understood them as being any more than an indorsement of the compromises of 1850, and a release of our sena- tors from voting for the Wilmot proviso. The whole people are living witnesses that this only was their view. Finally, it is asked, “If we did not mean to apply the Utah and New Mexico provision to all future territories, what did we mean when we, in 1852, in- dorsed the compromises of 1850?" For myself I can answer this question most easily. I meant not to ask a repeal or modification of the fugi tive-slave law. I meant not to ask for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. I meant not to resist the admission of Utah and New Mexico, even should they ask to come in as slave states. I meant nothing about additional territories, because, as I under- stood, we then had no territory whose character as to slavery was not already settled. As to Nebraska, I regarded its character as being fixed by the Missouri Compromise for thirty years—as unalterably fixed as that of my own home in Illinois. As to new acquisitions, I said, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” When we make new acquisitions, we will, as heretofore, try to manage them somehow. That is my answer; that is what I meant and said; and I appeal to the people to sav each for himself, whether that is not also the uni versal meaning of the free states. And now, in turn, let me ask a few questions. If. by any or all these matters, the repeal of the Missouri Com ‘ 4 { 4 are rk lt ea a{ ! { | ee ee = SS SO an a a Sc ED aoe oe 100 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN promise was commanded, why was not the command sooner obeyed? Why was the repeal omitted in the Nebraska bill of 1853? Why was it omitted in the original bill of 1854? Why in the accompanying report was such a repeal characterized as a departure from the course pursued in 1850? and its continued omission recommended? I am aware Judge Douglas now argues that the sub- sequent express repeal is no substantial alteration of the bill. This argument seems wonderful to me. It is as if one should argue that white and black are not dif- ferent. He admits, however, that there is a literal change in the bill, and that he made the change in defer- ence to other senators who would not support the bill without. This proves that those other senators thought the change a substantial one, and that the Judge thought their opinions worth deferring to. His own opinions, therefore, seem not to rest on a very firm basis, even in his own mind; and I suppose the world believes, and will continue to believe, that precisely on the substance of that change this whole agitation has arisen. I conclude, then, that the public never demanded the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. I now come to consider whether the repeal, with its avowed principles, is intrinsically right. I insist that it is not. Take the particular case. A controversy had arisen between the advocates and opponents of slavery, in relation to its establishment within the country we had purchased of France. The southern, and then best, part of the purchase was already in as a slave state. The controversy was settled by also letting Missouri in as a slave state; but with the agreement that within all the remaining part of the purchase, north of a certain line, there should never be slavery. As to what was to be done with the remaining part south of the line, nothing was said; but perhaps the fair implication was, it should come in with slavery if it should so choose. The south-SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 101 ern part, except a portion heretofore mentioned, after- ward did come in with slavery, as the State of Arkansas. All these many years, since 1820, the northern part had remained a wilderness. At length settlements began in it also. In due course Iowa came in as a free state, and Minnesota was given a territorial government, without removing the slavery restriction. Finally, the sole re- maining part north of the line—Kansas and Nebraska— was to be organized; and it is proposed, and carried, to blot out the old dividing line of thirty-four years’ stand- ing, and to open the whole of that country to the intro- duction of slavery. Now this, to my mind, is manifestly unjust. After an angry and dangerous controversy, the parties made friends by dividing the bone of contention. The one party first appropriates her own share, beyond all power to be disturbed in the possession of it, and then seizes the share of the other party. It is as if two starving men had divided their only loaf; the one had hastily swallowed his half, and then grabbed the other’s half just as he was putting it to his mouth. Let me here drop the main argument, to notice what I consider rather an inferior matter. It is argued that slavery will not go to Kansas and Nebraska, in any event. This is a palliation, a lullaby. I have some hope that it will not; but let us not be too confident. As to climate, a glance at the map shows that there are five slave States—Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, and also the District of Columbia, all north of the Missouri Compromise line. The census returns of 1850 show that within these there are eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand two hundred and sev- enty-six slaves, being more than one-fourth of all the slaves in the nation. It is not climate, then, that will keep slavery out of these territories. Is there anything in the peculiar nature of the country? Missouri adjoins these terri- tories by her entire western boundary, and slavery isee SN eee et ey | ea eS i ot rin 102 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN — already within every one of her western counties. I have even heard it said that there are more slaves in proportion to whites in the northwestern county of Mis- souri, than within any other county in the state. Slav- ery pressed entirely up to the old western boundary of the state, and when rather recently a part of that boun- dary at the northwest was moved out a little farther west, slavery followed on quite up to the new line. Now when the restriction is removed, what is to prevent it from going still farther? Climate will not, no peeuliarity of the ‘country will, nothing in nature will. Will the disposition of the people prevent it? Those nearest the scene are all in favor of the extension. The Yankees who are opposed to it may. be most numerous; but, in military phrase, the battlefield is too far from their base of operations. But it is said, there now is no law in Nebraska on the subject of slavery, and that, in such case, taking a slave there operates his freedom. That is good book-law, but is not the rule of actual practice. Wherever slavery is, it has been first introduced without law. The oldest laws we find concerning it are not laws introducing it but regulating it as an already existing thing. A white man takes his slave to Nebraska now. Who will inform the negro that he is free? Who will take him before court to test the question of his freedom? In ignorance of his legal emancipation he is kept chopping, splitting, and plowing. Others are brought, and move on in the same track. At last, if ever the time for voting comes on the question of slavery, the institution already, in fact, exists in the country, and cannot well be removed. The fact of its presence, and the difficulty of its removal, will carry the vote in its favor. Keep it out until a vote is taken, and a vote in favor of it cannot be got in any population of forty thousand on earth, who have been drawn together by the ordinary motives of emigra- tion and settlement. To get slaves into the territorySELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 103 simultaneously with the whites in the incipient stages o! settlement is thi precise stake played for and won 1n this Ne braska measure. The question is asked us: ‘If slaves will go in not- withstanding the general principle of law liberates them, why would they not equally go in against positive statute law—go in even 1 the Missouri restriction were main- tained?” I answer, because it takes a much bolder man to venture in with his property in the latter case than in the former; because the positive congressional enactment is known to and respected by all, or n arly all. whereas the negative principle that no law is free law is not much known except among lawyers. We have some experience of this practical difference. In spite of the ordinance of ’87, a few negroes were brought ‘nto Illinois, and held in a state of quasi-slavery, not enough, however, to carry a vote of the people in favor of the institution when they came to form a constitu- tion. But into the adjoining Missouri country, where there was no ordinance of 87—was no Fr striction, they were carried ten times, nay 4a hundred times, as fast, and actually made a slave state. This is fact—naked fact. Another lullaby argument is that taking slaves to new countries does not increase their number, does not m ike anyone slave who would otherwise be free. There is some truth in this, and I am glad of it; but it is not wholly true. The African slave-trade is not yet effectu- ally suppressed ; and if we make a reasonable deduction for the white people among us who are foreigners and the descendants of foreigners arriving here since 1805, we shall find the increase of the black population out- running that of the white to an extent unaccountable, except by supposing that some of them too, have been coming from Africa. If this be so, the opening of new countries to the institution increases the demand for and augments the price of slaves, and SO does, in fact, make PE eS na re ll - a104. SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN slaves of freemen, by causing them to be brought from Africa and sold into bondage. But however this may be, we know the opening of new countries to slavery tends to the perpetuation of the institution, and so does keep men in slavery who would otherwise be free. This result we do not feel like favor- ing, and we are under no legal obligation to suppress our feelings in this respect. Equal justice to the South, it is said, requires us to consent to the extension of slavery to new countries. That is to say, inasmuch as you do not object to my taking my hog to Nebraska, therefore I must not object to your pala your slave. Now, I admit that this is perfectly iopical: if there is no aifere nce between hogs and negroes. But while you thus require me to deny the humanity of the negro, I wish to ask whether you of the South, yourselves, har e ever been willing to do as much? It is kindly provided that of all Hose who come into the world, only a small percentage are natural tyrants. That mercentare is no larger in the slave States than in the free. The great majority, South as well as North, have human sympathies, of which they can no more divest themselves than they can of their sensibility to physical pain. These sympathies in the bosoms of the Southern people manifest in many ways their sense of the wrong of slavery, and their conscious- ness that after all, there is humanity in the negro. If they deny this, let me address them a few plain ques- tions. In 1820 you joined the North almost unanim- ously in declaring the African slave-trade piracy, and in annexing to it the punishment of death. Why did you do this? If you did not feel that it was wrong, why did you join in providing that men should be hung for it? The practice was no more than bringing wild negroes from Africa to such as would buy them. But you never thought of hanging men for catching and selling wild Horses , wild buffaloes, or wild bears.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 105 Again, you have among you a sneaking individual of the class of native tyrants known as the slave-dealer. He watches your necessities, and crawls up to buy your slave at a speculating price. If you cannot help it, you sell to him; but if you can help it, you drive him from your door. You despise him utterly; you do not recog- nize him as a friend, or even as an honest man. Your children must not play with his; they may rollic freely with the little negroes, but not with the slave-dealer’s children. If you are obliged to deal with him, you try to get through the job without so much as touching him. It is common with you to join hands with the men you meet; but with the slave-dealer you avoid the ceremony —instinctively shrinking from the snaky contact. If he grows rich and retires from business, you still remember him, and still keep up the ban of non-intercourse upon him and his family. Now, why is this? You do not so treat the man who deals in cotton, corn, or tobacco. And yet again. There are in the United States and territories, including the District of Columbia. 133,643 free blacks. At five hundred dollars per head, they are worth over two hundred millions of dollars. How comes this vast amount of property to be running about without owners? We do not see free horses or free cattle running at large. How is this? All these free blacks are the descendants of slaves, or have been slaves themselves; and they would be slaves now but for something that has operated on their white owners, in- ducing them at vast pecuniary sacrifice to liberate them. What is that something? Is there any mistaking it? In all these cases it is your sense of justice and human sympathy continually telling you that the poor negro has some natural right to himself—that those who deny it and make mere merchandise of him deserve kickings, contempt, and death. And now why will you ask us to deny the humanity of the slave, and estimate him as only the equal of the hog? EE SE Se ae 7 } : . SN tt ltl i aroy a re 106 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Why ask us to do what you will not do yourselves? Why ask us to do for nothing what two hundred millions of dollars could not induce you to do? But one great argument in support of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is still to come. That argument is “the sacred right of self-government.” It seems our distinguished senator has found great difficulty in get- ting his antagonists, even in the Senate, to meet him fairly on this argument. Some poet has said— “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” * At a hazard of being thought one of the fools of this quotation, I meet that argument—JI rush in—TI take that bull by the horns. I trust I understand and truly estimate the right of self-government. My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me. I ex- tend the principle to communities of ‘men as well as to individuals. I so extend it because it is politically wise, as well as naturally just: politically wise in saving us from broils about matters which do not concern us. Here, or at Washington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The doctrine of self-government is right— absolutely and eternally right—but it has no just appli- cation as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such application depends upon whether a negro is not or is aman. If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man may as a matter of self- government do just what he pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total de- struction of self-government to say that he too shall not govern himself? When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self- eovernment—that is despotism. If the negro is a man, * Alexander Pope in Essay on Criticism.SELECTIONS FROM. LINCOLN LO7 why then my ancient faith teaches me that “all men ar created equal,” and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man’s making a slave of another. Judge Douglas frequently, with bitter irony and sar- casm, paraphrases our argument by saying: ‘The white people of Nebraska are good enough to govern them- selves, but they are not good enough to govern a tew miserable negroes Le Well! I doubt not that the people of Nebraska are and will continue to be as good as the average of people elsewhere. I do not say the contrary. What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. I] say this is the leading principle, the sheet anchor of American republicanism. Our Declaration of Independence says: “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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de rvoing their just powers from the consent of the governed.” I have quoted so much at this time merely to show that, according to our ancient faith, the just powers of governments are derived from the consent of the goy- erned. Now the relation of master and slave is pro tanto,* a total violation of this principle. The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself. Allow all the governed an equal voice in the government, and that, and that only, is self-government. Let it not be said I am contending for the establish- ment of political and social equality between the whites and blacks. I have already said the contrary. I am * By so much,- . - a —¥ ‘em a . nee ere " _ a reer. bi (i fy i i 108 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN not combating the argument of necessity, arising from the fact that the blacks are already among us; but I am combating what is set up as moral argument for allow- ing them to be taken where they have never yet been— arguing against the extension of a bad thing, which, where it already exists, we must of necessity manage as we best can. In support of his application of the doctrine of self- government, Senator Douglas has sought to bring to his aid the opinions and examples of our Revolutionary fathers. JI am glad he has done this. I love the senti- ments of those old-time men, and shall be most happy to abide by their opinions. He shows us that when it was in contemplation for the colonies to break off from Great Britain, and set up a new government for them- selves, several of the states instructed their delegates to go for the measure, provided each state should be allowed to regulate its domestic concerns in its own way. I do not quote; but this in substance. This was right; I see nothing objectionable in it. I also think it probable that it had some reference to the existence of slavery among them. I will not deny that it had. But had it any roferente to the carrying of slavery into new coun- tries? That is the question, “and we will let the fathers themselves answer it. This same generation of men, and mostly the same individuals of the generation who declared this principle, who declared independence, who fought the War of the Revolution through, who afterward made the Constitu- tion under which we same men passed the Ordinance of 787, declaring that slavery should never go to the Northwest Territory. I have no doubt Judge Douglas thinks they were very inconsistent in Eisen UG is ca question of discrimination between them and him. But there is not an inch of ground left for his claiming that their opinions, their example, their author- ity, are on his side in the controversy.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 109 Again, is not Nebraska, while a territory, a part of us? Do we not own the country? -And if we sur render the control of it, do we not surrender the right of self-government? It is part of ourselves. If you say we shall not control it, because it is only part, the same is true of every other part; and when all the parts are gone, what has become of the whole? What is then left of us? What use for the general government, when there is nothing left for it to govern? But you say this question should be left to the people of Nebraska, because they are more particularly in- terested. If this be the rule, you must leave it to each individual to say for himself whether he will have slaves. What better moral right have thirty-one citizens of Nebraska to say that the thirty-second shall not hold slaves than the people of the thirty-one states have to say that slavery shall not go into the thirty-second state at all? But if it is a sacred right for the people of Nebraska to take and hold slaves there, it is equally their sacred right to buy them where they can buy them cheapest; and that, undoubtedly, will be on the coast of Africa, provided you will consent not to hang them for going there to buy them. You must remove this restriction, too, from the sacred right of self-government. I am aware, you say, that taking slaves from the states to Nebraska does not make slaves of freemen; but the African slave-trader can say just as much. He does not catch free negroes and bring them here. He finds them already slaves in the hands of their black captors, and he honestly buys them at the rate of a red cotton handkerchief a head. This is very cheap, and it is a great abridgment of the sacred right of self-government to hang men for engaging in this profitable trade. Another important objection to this application of the right of self-government is that it enables the first few to deprive the succeeding many of a free exercise of the110 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN right of self-government. ‘The first few may get slavery in, and the subsequent many cannot easily get it out. How common is the remark now in the slave states, “If we were only clear of our slaves, how much better it would be for us.” They are actually deprived of the privilege of governing themselves as they would, by the action of a very few in the beginning. The same thing was true of the whole nation at the time our Constitution was formed. Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new territories, is not a matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. The whole nation is inter- ested that the best use shall be made of these territories. We want them for homes of free white people. This they cannot be, to any considerable extent, if slavery shall be planted within them. Slave states are places for poor white people to remove from, not to remove to. New free states are the places for poor people to go to, and better their condition. For this use the nation needs these territories. Still further: there are constitutional relations be- tween the slave and free states which are degrading to the latter. We are under legal obligations to catch and return their runaway slaves to them: a sort of dirty, disagreeable job, which. I believe, as a general rule, the slaveholders will not perform for one “another. Then again, in the control of the government—the manage- ment of the partnership affairs—they have greatly the advantage of us. By the Constitution each state has two senators, each has a number of representatives in proportion to the number of its people, and each has a number of presidential electors equal to the whole num- ber of its senators and representatives together. But in ascertaining the number of the people for this pur- pose, five slaves were counted as being equal to three whites. The slaves do not vote; they are only counted, and so used to swell the influence of the white people'sSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 111 votes. The practical effect of this is more aptly shown by a comparison of the states of South Carolina and Maine. South Carolina has six representatives, and so has Maine; South Carolina has eight presidential electors, and so has Maine. This is precise equality so far; and. of course they are equal in senators, each having two. Thus in the control of the government the two states are equals precisely. But how are they in the number of their white people? Maine has 581,813, while South Carolina has 274.567; Maine has twice as many as South Carolina. and 32,679 over. Thus, each white man in South Carolina is more than the double of any man in Maine. This is all because South Carolina, besides her free people, has 384,984 slaves. The South Carolinian has precisely the same advantage over the white man in every other free state as well as in Maine. He is more than the double of any one of us in this crowd. The same advantage, but not to the same extent, is held by all the citizens of the slave states over those of the free; and it is an absolute truth, without an exception, that there is no voter in any slave state, but who has more legal power in the government than any voter-in any free state. There is no instance of exact equality; and the disadvantage is against us the whole chapter through. This principle, in the aggregate, gives the slave states in the present Congress twenty additional representatives, being seven more than the whole major- ity by which they passed the Nebraska Bill. Now all this is manifestly unfair; yet I do not men- tion it to complain of it, in so far as it is already settled. It is in the Constitution, and I do not for that cause, or any other cause, propose to destroy, or alter, or disre- i} ; i { 4 ; 1 t gard the Constitution. I stand to it, fairly, fully, and firmly. But when I am told I must leave it altogether to other people to say whether new partners are to be bred up and brought into the firm, on the same degrading termsoe wre ee 4 i i \ i } i. ‘ ‘ ' | 112 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN against me, I respectfully demur. I insist that whether I shall be a whole man, or only the half of one, in com- parison with others, is a question in which I am some- what concerned, and one which no other man ean have a sacred right of deciding for me. If I am wrong in this —if it really be a sacred right of self-government in the man who shall go to Nebraska to decide whether he will be the equal of me or the double of me, then, after he shall have exercised that right, and thereby shall have reduced me to a still smaller fraction of a man than I already am, I should like for some gentleman, deeply skilled in the mysteries of sacred rights, to provide him- self with a microscope, and peep about, and find out, if he can, what has become of my sacred rights. They will surely be too small for detection with the naked eye. Finally, I insist that if there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never intrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions. And if they shall think, as I do, that the extension of slavery endangers them more than any or all other causes, how recreant to themselves if they submit the question, and with it the fate of their country, to a mere handful of men bent only on self-interest. If this question of slavery extension were an insignificant one—one having no power to do harm—it might be shuffled aside in this way; and being, as it is, the great Behemoth * of danger, shall the strong grip of the nation be loosened upon him, to intrust him to the hands of such feeble keepers? I have done with this mighty argument of self-gov- ernment. Go, sacred thing! Go in peace. But Nebraska is urged as a great Union-saving measure. Well, I too go for saving the Union. Much as I hate slavery, I would consent to the extension of it rather than see the Union dissolved, just as I would * Job, xl, 15.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 113 consent to any great evil to avoid a greater one. But when I go to Union-saving, I must believe, at least, that the means I employ have some adaptation to the end. To my mind, Nebraska has no such adaptation. “Tt hath no relish of salvation in it.’’* It is an aggravation, rather, of the only one thing which ever endangers the Union. When it came upon us, all was peace and quiet. The nation was looking to the forming of new bonds of union, and a long course of peace and prosperity seemed to lie before us. In the whole range of possibility, there scarcely appears to me to have been anything out of which the slavery agita- tion could have been revived, except the very project of repealing the Missouri Compromise. Every inch of ter- ritory we owned already had a definite settlement of the slavery question, by which all parties were pledged to abide. Indeed, there was no uninhabited country on the continent which we could acquire, if we except some extreme northern regions which are wholly out of the question. In this state of affairs the Genius of Discord himself could scarcely have invented a way of again setting us by the ears but by turning back and destroying the peace measures of the past. The counsels of that Genius seem to have prevailed. The Missouri Compromise was re- pealed; and here we are in the midst of a new slavery agitation, such, I think, as we have never seen before. Who is responsible for this? Is it those who resist the measure, or those who causelessly brought it forward and pressed it through, having reason to know, and in fact knowing, it must and would be resisted? It could not but be expected by its author that it would be looked upon as a measure for the extension of slavery, aggra- vated by a gross breach of faith. Argue as you will and long as you will, this is the naked front and aspect of the measure. And in this * Hamlet, Act III, Scene iii Not an exact quotation.114 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN aspect it could not but produce agitation. Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature—opposition 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 ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal the Declaration of Independence, repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man’s heart that slavery extension is wrong, and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth will continue to speak.* The structure, too, of the Nebraska bill is very pe- culiar. The people are to decide the question of slavery for themselves; but when they are to decide or how they are to decide, or whether, when the question is once decided, it is to remain so or is to be subject to an in- definite succession of new trials, the law does not say. Is it to be decided by the first dozen settlers who arrive there, or is it to await the arrival of a hundred? Is it to be decided by a vote of the people or a vote of the legis- lature, or indeed, by a vote of any sort? To these ques- tions the law gives no answer. There is a mystery about this; for when a member proposed to give the legislature express authority to exclude slavery, it was hooted down by the friends of the bill. This fact is worth remembering. Some Yankees in the East are sending emigrants to Nebraska to exclude slavery from it; and, so far as I can judge, they expect the question to be decided by voting in some way or other. But the Missourians are awake, too. They are within a stone’s throw of the contested ground. They hold meetings and pass resolutions, in which not the slightest allusion to voting is made. They resolve that slavery already exists in the territory; that more shall go there; that they, remaining in Missouri, will protect it, and that * See Matthew, xii, 34; Luke, vi, 45.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 115 Abolitionists shall be hung or driven away. Through all this bowie-knives and six-shooters are seen plainly enough, but never a glimpse of the ballot-box. And really, what is the result of all this? Each party within having numerous and determined backers without, is it not probable that the contest will come to blows and bloodshed? Could there be a more apt invention to bring about collision and violence on the slavery ques- tion than this Nebraska project is? I do not charge or believe that such was intended by Congress; but if they had literally formed a ring and placed champions within it to fight out the controversy, the fight could be no more likely to come off than it is. And if this fight should begin, is it likely to take a very peaceful, Union- saving turn? Will not the first drop of blood so shed be the real knell of the Union? The Missouri Compromise ought to be restored. For the sake of the Union, it ought to be restored. We ought to elect a House of Representatives which will vote its restoration. If by any means we omit to do this, what follows? Slavery may or may not be established in Nebraska. But whether it be or not, we shall have repudiated—discarded from the councils of the nation— the spirit of compromise; for who, after this, will ever trust in a national compromise? The spirit of mutual concession—that spirit which first gave us the Constitu- tion, and which has thrice saved the Union—we shall have strangled and cast from us forever. And what shall we have in lieu of it? The South, flushed with triumph and tempted to excess; the North, betrayed as they believe, brooding on wrong and burning for revenge. One side will provoke, the other resent. The one will taunt, the other defy; one aggresses, the other retaliates. Already a few in the North defy all constitutional re- straints, resist the execution of the fugitive-slave law, and even menace the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. Already a few in the South claim the116 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN constitutional right to take and to hold slaves in the free states—demand the revival of the slave-trade—and de- mand a treaty with Great Britain by which fugitive slaves may be reclaimed from Canada. As yet they are but few on either side. It is a grave question for lovers of the Union, whether the final destruction of the Missouri Compromise, and with it the spirit of all com- promise, will or will not embolden and embitter each of these, and fatally increase the number of both. But restore the compromise, and what then? We thereby restore the national faith, the national con- fidence, the national feeling of brotherhood. We thereby reinstate the spirit of concession and compromise, that spirit which has never failed us in past perils, and which may be safely trusted for all the future. The South ought to join in doing this. The peace of the nation is as dear to them as to us. In memories of the past and hopes of the future, they share as largely as we. It would be on their part a great act—great in its spirit, and great in its effect. It would be worth to the nation a hundred years’ purchase of peace and prosper- ity. And what of sacrifice would they make? They only surrender to us what they gave us for a considera- tion long, long ago; what they have not now asked for, struggled or cared for; what has been thrust upon them not less to their astonishment than to ours. But it is said we cannot restore it; that though we elect every member of the lower House, the Senate is still against us. It is quite true that of the senators who passed the Nebraska bill, a majority of the whole Senate will retain their seats in spite of the elections of this and the next year. But if at these elections their sev- eral constituencies shall clearly express their will against Nebraska, will these Senators disregard their will? Will they neither obey nor make room for those who will? But even if we fail to technically restore the com-SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 117 promise, it is still a great point to carry a popular vote in favor of the restoration. The moral weight of such a vote cannot be estimated too highly. The authors of Nebraska are not at all satisfied with the destruction of the compromise—an indorsement of this principle they proclaim to be the great object. With them, Nebraska alone is a small matter—to establish a principle for future use is what they particularly desire. The future use is to be the planting of slavery wher- ever in the wide world local and unorganized opposition cannot prevent it. Now, if you wish to give them this indorsement, if you wish to establish this principle, do so. I shall regret it, but it is your right. On the con- trary, if you are opposed to the principle—intend to give it no such indorsement—let no wheedling, no sophistry, divert you from throwing a direct vote against it. Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration, lest they be thrown in company with the Abolitionists. Will they allow me, as an old Whig, to tell them, good-humoredly, that I think this is very silly: Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. Stand with the Abolitionist in restoring the Missouri Compromise, and stand against him when he attempts to repeal the fugitive-slave law. In the latter case you stand with the Southern disunionist. What of that? You are still right. In both cases you are right. In both cases you expose the dangerous extremes. In both you stand on middle ground, and hold the ship level and steady. In both you are national, and nothing less than national. This is the good old Whig ground. To desert such ground because of any company, is to be less than a Whig—less than a man—less than an American. I particularly object to the new position which the avowed principle of this Nebraska law gives to slavery118 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN in the body politic. I object to it because it assumes that there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free people—a sad evidence that, feeling pros- perity, we forget right; that liberty, as a principle, we have ceased to revere. I object to it because the fathers of the republic eschewed and rejected it. The argument of “necessity” was the only argument they ever admitted in favor of slavery; and so far, and so far only, as it carried them did it ever go. They found the institution existing among us, which they could not help, and they east blame upon the British king for having permitted its introduction. Before the Constitution they prohibited its introduction into the Northwestern Territory, the only country we owned then free from it. At the fram- ing and adoption of the Constitution, they forbore to so much as mention the word “slave” or “slavery” in the whole instrument. In the provision for the recovery of fugitives, the slave is spoken of as a “person held in service or labor.” In that prohibiting the abolition of the African slave-trade for twenty years, that trade is spoken of as “the migration or importation of such per- sons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit,” etc. These are the only provisions alluding to slavery. Thus the thing is hid away in the Constitu- tion, just as an afflicted man hides away a wen or cancer which he dares not cut out at once, lest he bleed to death —with the promise, nevertheless, that the cutting may begin at a certain time. Less than this our fathers could not do, and more they would not do. Necessity drove them so far, and further they would not go. But this is not all. The earliest Congress under the Constitution took the same view of slavery. They hedged and hemmed it in to the narrowest limits of necessity. In 1794 they prohibited an outgoing slave-trade—that is the taking of slaves from nes United States to sell. In 1798 they prohibited the bringing of slaves fromSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 119 Africa into the Mississippi Territory, this territory then comprising what are now the states of Mississippi and Alabama. This was ten years before they had the authority to do the same thing as to the states existing at the adoption of the Constitution. In 1800 they pro hibited American citizens from trading in slaves between foreign countries, as, for instance, from Africa to Brazil. In 1803 they passed a law in aid of one or two slave- state laws, in restraint of the internal slave-trade. In 1807, in apparent hot haste, they passed the law, nearly a year in advance—to take effect the first day of 1808, the very first day the Constitution would permit—pro- hibiting the African slave-trade by heavy pecuniary and corporal penalties. In 1820, finding these provisions in- effectual, they declared the slave-trade piracy, and affixed to it the extreme penalty of death. While all this was passing in the General Government, five or six of the original slave states had adopted systems of gradual emancipation, by which the institution was rapidly be- coming extinct within their limits. Thus we see that the plain, unmistakable spirit of that age toward slavery was hostility to the principle and toleration only by necessity. But now it is to be transformed into a “sacred right.” Nebraska brings it forth, places it on the highroad to extension and perpetuity, and with a pat on its back says to it, “Go, and God speed you.” Henceforth it is to be the chief jewel of the nation—the very figurehead of the Ship of State. 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 are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declara- tion, that for some men to enslave others is a “sacred right of self-government.” These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon; and whoever holds to the one must despise — e eee RE i ft api, NE eee A tl i ccs «, a ‘| | | | | i 4 sen TO a ON _oapern gn 120 SELECIIONS FROM LINCOLN the other. When Pettit,* in connection with his support of the Nebraska bill, called the Declaration of Inde- pendence ‘‘a self-evident lie,’ he only did what con- sistency and candor require all other Nebraska men to do. Of the forty-odd Nebraska senators who sat present and heard him, no one rebuked him. Nor am I apprised that any Nebraska newspaper, or any Nebraska orator, in the whole nation has ever yet rebuked him. If this had been said among Marion’s men, Southerners though they were, what would have become of the man who said it? If this had been said to the men who captured André, the man who said it would probably have been hung sooner than André was. If it had been said in old Independence Hall seventy-eight years ago, the very doorkeeper would have throttled the man and thrust him into the street. Let no one be deceived. The spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska are utter an- tagonisms; and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter. : Fellow-countrymen, Americans, South as well as North, shall we make no effort to arrest this? Already the liberal party throughout the world express the appre- hension “that the one retrograde institution in America is undermining the principles of progress, and fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw.” This is not the taunt of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard it—to despise it? Is there no danger to liberty itself in discarding the earliest practice and first precept of our ancient faith? In our greedy chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware lest we ‘“‘cancel and tear in pieces” even the white man’s charter of freedom. 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 * John Pettit, senator from Indiana.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 12] existing legal rights and its arguments of “necessity.” Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it the practices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South—let all Americans—let all lovers of liberty 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. At Springfield, twelve days ago, where I had spoken substantially as I have here, Judge Douglas replied to me; and as he is to reply to me here, I shall attempt to anticipate him by noticing some of the points he made there. He commenced by stating I had assumed all the way through that the principle of the Nebraska bill would have the effect of extending slavery. He denied that this was intended, or that this effect would follow. I will not reopen the argument upon this point. That such was the intention the world believed at the start, and will continue to believe. This was the countenance of the thing, and both friends and enemies instantly recognized it as such. That countenance cannot now be changed by argument. You can as easily argue the color out of the negro’s skin. Like the “bloody hand,’ * though you may wash it and wash it, the red witness of guilt still sticks and stares horribly at you. Next he says that congressional intervention never prevented slavery anywhere; that it did not prevent it in the Northwestern Territory, nor in Illinois; that, in fact. Illinois came into the Union as a slave state; that the principle of the Nebraska bill expelled it from Illi nois, from several old states, from everywhere. Now this is mere quibbling all the way through. If * Macbeth, Act II, Scene ii. we ee st asc rr ai Penns wes eens ee - | . | 2 Sn tc aN 192 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN the ordinance of ’87 did not keep slavery out of the Northwest Territory, how happens it that the north- west shore of the Ohio River is entirely free from it, while the.southeast shore, less than a mile distant, along nearly the whole length of the river, is entirely covered with it? If that ordinance did not keep it out of Illinois, what was it that made the difference between Illinois and Missouri? They lie side by side, the Mississippi River only dividing them, while their early settlements were within the same latitude. Between 1810 and 1820, the number of slaves in Missouri increased 7,211, while in Illinois, in the same ten years they decreased 51. This appears by the census returns. During nearly all of that ten years both were territories, not states. During this time the ordinance forbade slavery to go into Illi: nois, and nothing forbade it to go into Missouri. It did go into Missouri, and did not go into Illinois. That is the fact. Can anyone doubt as to the reason of it? But he says Illinois came into the Union as a slave state. Silence, perhaps, would be the best answer to this flat contradiction of the known history of the country. What are the facts upon which this bold assertion is based? When we first acquired the country, as far back as 1787, there were some slaves within it held by the French in- habitants of Kaskaskia. The territorial legislation ad- mitted a few negroes from the slave states as indentured servants. One year after the adoption of the first state constitution, the whole number of them was—what do you think? Just one hundred and seventeen, while the aggregate free population was 55,094—about four hun- dred and seventy to one. Upon this state of facts the people framed their constitution prohibiting the further introduction of slavery, with a sort of guarantee to the owners of the few indentured servants, giving freedom to their children to be born thereafter, and making no mention whatever of any supposed slave for life. OutSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 123 of this small matter the Judge manufactures his argu- ment that Illinois came into the Union as a slave state. Let the facts be the answer to the argument. The principles of the Nebraska bill. he says, expelled slavery from Illinois. The principle of that bill first planted it here that 1S, it first came because there was no law to prevent it, first came before we owned the country; and finding it here, and having the ordinance of ’87 to prevent its increasing, our people struggled along, and finally got rid of it as best they could. But the principle of the Nebraska bill abolished slavery in several of the old states. Well, it is true that several of the old states, in the last quarter of the last century, did adopt systems of gradual emancipation by which the institution has finally become extinct within their limits; but it may or may not be true that the principle of the Nebraska bill was the cause that led to the adoption of these measures. It is now more than htty years since the last of these states adopted its system of emancipation. If the Nebraska bill is the real author of these benevolent works, it is rather deporable that it has for so long a time ceased working altogether. Is there not some reason to suspect that it was the principle of the Revolution, and not the principle of the Nebraska bill, that led to emancipation in these old states? Leave it to the people of these old emancipating states, and | am quite certain they will decide that neither that nor any other good thing ever did or ever will come of the Nebraska bill. In the course of my main argument, Judge Douglas interrupted me to say that the principle of the Nebraska bill was very old; that it originated when God made man, and placed good and evil before him, allowing him to choose for himself, being responsible for the choice he should make. At the time I thought this was merely playful, and I answered it accordingly. But in his replya bi 124 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN to me he renewed it as a serious argument. In serious- ness, then, the facts of this proposition are not true as stated. God did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make his choice. On the contrary, he did tell him there was one tree of the fruit of which he should not eat, upon pain of certain death. I should scarcely wish so strong a prohibition against slavery in Nebraska. But this argument strikes me as not a little remark- able in another particular—in its strong resemblance to the old argument for the “divine right of kings.” By the latter, the king is to do just as he pleases with his white subjects, being responsible to God alone. By the former, the white man is to do just as he pleases with his black slaves, being responsible to God alone. The two things are precisely alike, and it is but natu- ral that they should find similar arguments to sustain them. I had argued that the application of the principle of self-government, as contended for, would require the revival of the African slave-trade; that no argument could be made in favor of a man’s right to take slaves to Nebraska which could not be equally well made in favor of his right to bring them from the coast of Africa. The Judge replied that the Constitution requires the sup- pression of the foreign slave-trade, but does not require the prohibition of slavery in the territories. That is a mistake in point of fact. The Constitution does not require the action of Congress in either case, and it does authorize it in both. And so there is still no difference between the cases. In regard to what I have said of the advantage the slave states have over the free in the matter of represen- tation, the Judge replied that we in the free states count five free negroes as five white people, while in the slave states they count five slaves three whites only, and that the advantage, at last, was on the side of the free states.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 125 Now, in the slave states they count free negroes just as we do; and it so happens that, besides their slaves, they have as many free negroes as we have, and thirty thousand over. Thus, their free negroes more than bal- ance ours; and their advantage over us, in consequence of their slaves, still remains as I stated it. In reply to my argument that the compromise measures of 1850 were a system of equivalents, and that the pro- visions of no one of them could fairly be carried to other subjects, without its corresponding equivalent being carried with it, the Judge denied outright that these measures had any connection with or dependence upon each other. This is mere desperation. If they had no connection, why are they always spoken of in connection? Why has he so spoken of them a thousand times? Why has he constantly called them a series of measures? Why does everybody call them a compromise? Why was California kept out of the Union six or seven months, if it was not because of its connection with the other measures? Webster's leading definition of the verb “to compromise’ is “to adjust and settle a difference, by mutual agreement, with concessions of claims by the parties.” This conveys precisely the popular under- standing of the word “‘compromise.” We knew, before the Judge told us, that these measures passed separately, and in distinct bills, and that no two of them were passed by the votes of precisely the same members. But we also know, and so does he know, that no one of them could have passed both branches of Con- gress but for the understanding that the others were to pass also. Upon this understanding, each got votes which it could have got in no other way. It is this fact which gives to the measures their true character; and it is the universal knowledge of this fact that has given them the name of “compromises,” so expressive of that true character. I had asked “‘if, in carrying the Utah and New MexicoSE, etre. Se a Se 126 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN laws to Nebraska, you could clear away other objection, how could you leave Nebraska ‘perfectly free’ to intro- duce slavery before she forms a constitution during her territorial government, while the Utah and New Mexico laws only authorize it when they form constitutions and are admitted into the Union?” To this Judge Douglas answered that the Utah and New Mexico laws also authorized it before; and to prove this he read from one of their laws, as follows: “That the legislative power of said territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation, consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act.” Now it is perceived from the reading of this that there is nothing express upon the subject, but that the authority is sought to be implied merely for the general provision of “all rightful subjects of legislation.” In reply to this I insist, as a legal rule of construction, as well as the plain, popular view of the matter, that the express provision for Utah and New Mexico coming in with slavery, if they choose, when they shall form Con- stitutions, is an exclusion of all implied authority on the same subject; that Congress, having the subject dis- tinctly in their minds when they made the express pro- vision, they therein expressed their whole meaning on that subject. The Judge rather insinuated that I had found it con- venient to forget the Washington territorial law passed in 1853. This was a division of Oregon organizing the northern part as the Territory of Washington. He asserted that by this act the ordinance of ’87, theretofore existing in Oregon, was repealed; that nearly all the members of Congress voted for it, beginning in the House of Representatives with Charles Allen of Massachusetts, and ending with Richard Yates of Illinois; and that he could not understand how those who now oppose the Nebraska bill so voted there, unless it was because it was then too soon after both the great political partiesSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 127 had ratified the compromises of 1850, and the ratification therefore was too fresh to be then repudiated. Now I have seen the Washington act before, and I have carefully examined it since; and I aver that there is no repeal of the ordinance of 87, or of any prohibition of slavery, in it. In express terms, there is absolutely nothing in the whole law upon the subject—in fact, nothing to lead a reader to think of the subject. ‘To my judgment it is equally free from everything from which repeal can be legally implied; but however this may be, are men now to be entrapped by a legal implication, extracted from covert language, introduced perhaps for the very purpose of entrapping them? [I sincerely wish every man could read this law quite through, carefully watching every sentence and every line for a repeal of the ordinance of ’87, or anything equivalent to it. Another point on the Washington act. If it was in- tended to be modeled after the Utah and New Mexico acts, as Judge Douglas insists, why was it not inserted ‘n it. as in them, that Washington was to come in with or without slavery as she may choose at the adoption of her constitution? It has no such provision in it; and I defy the ingenuity of man to give a reason for the omission, other than that it was not intended to follow the Utah and New Mexico laws in regard to the question of slavery. The Washington act not only differs vitally from the Utah and New Mexico acts, but the Nebraska act differs vitally from both. By the later act the people are left “nerfectly free’ to regulate their own domestic concerns, etc.: but in all the former, all their laws are to be sub- mitted to Congress, and if disapproved are to be null. The Washington act goes even further; it absolutely prohibits the territorial legislature, by very strong and cuarded language, from establishing banks or borrowing money on the faith of the territory. Is this the sacred right of self-government we hear vaunted so much? No, | ! ' i 4 IO A OR A A af 7 | | | 2 Ey eI a Peerenen 128 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN sir; the Nebraska bill finds no model in the acts of ’50 or the Washington act. It finds no model in any law from Adam till today. As Phillips says of Napoleon, the Nebraska act is “grand, gloomy, and peculiar, wrapped in the solitude at its own originality, without a model and without a shadow upon the earth.’ In the course of his reply Senator Douglas remarked in substance that he had always considere d this govern- ment was made for the white people and not foe the negroes. Why, in point of mere fact, I think so too. But in inf remark of the Judge there is a significance which I think is the key to the great mistake (if there is any such mistake) which he has: made in this Nebraska measure. It shows that the Judge has no very vivid im- pression that the negro is human, and consequently has no idea that there can be any moral question in legislat- ing about him. In his view the question of whether a new country shall be slave or free, is a matter of as utter indifference as it is whether his neighbor shall plant his farm with tobacco or stock it with hoeaed cattle. Now, whether this view is right or wrong, it is very certain that the great mass of mankind take a totally different view. They consider slavery a great moral wrong, and their fe eling against it is not evanescent, but eternal. It lies at the very foundation of their sense of justice, and it ‘annot be trifled with. It is a great and durable element of popular action, and I think no statesman can safely disregard it. Our senator also objects that those who oppose him in this matter do not entirely agree with one another. He reminds me that in my firm adherence to the consti- tutional rights of the slave states, I differ widely from others who are cooperating with me in opposing the Nebraska bill, and he says it is not quite fair to oppose him in this variety of ways. He should remember that he took us by surprise—astounded us by this measure. We were thunderstruck and stunned, and we reeled andSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 129 fell in utter confusion. But we rose, each fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach—a scythe, a pitchfork, a chopping-ax, or a butcher’s cleaver. We struck in the direction of the sound, and we were rapidly closing in upon him. He must not think to divert us from our purpose by showing us that our drill, our dress, and our weapons are not entirely perfect and uniform. When the storm shall be past he shall find us still Ameri- cans. no less devoted to the continued union and pros- perity of the country than heretofore. Finally, the Judge invokes against me the memory of Clay and Webster. They were great men, and men of ereat deeds. But where have I assailed them? For what is it that their lifelong enemy shall now make profit by assuming to defend them against me, their life- long friend? I go against the repeal of the Missour Compromise; did they ever go for it? They went for the compromises of 1850; did I ever go against them: They were greatly devoted to the Union; to the small measure of my ability was I ever less so? Clay and Webster were dead before this question arose; by what authority shall our senator say they would espouse his side of it if alive? Mr. Clay was the leading spirit in making the Missouri Compromise; is it very credible that if now alive he would take the lead in the breaking of it? The truth is that some support from Whigs is now a necessity with the Judge, and for this it is that the names of Clay and Webster are invoked. His old friends have deserted him in such numbers as to leave too few to live by. He came to his own, and his own received him not; and lo! he turns unto the Gentiles. A word now as to the Judge’s desperate assumption that the compromises of 1850 had no connection with one another: that Illinois came into the Union as a slave state. and some other similar ones. This is no other than a bold denial of the history of the country. If we do not know that the compromises of 1850 were dependent | | i i i} |_ peg ee Phi one Se 130 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN on each other; if we do not know that Illinois came into the Union as a free state—we do not know anything. If we do not know these things, we do not know that we ever had a Revolutionary war or such a chief as Washington. To deny these things is to deny our na- tional axioms—or dogmas, at least— and it puts an end to all argument. If a man will stand up and assert, and repeat and reassert, that two and two do not make four, I know nothing in the power of argument that can stop him. I think I can answer the Judge so long as he sticks to the premises; but when he flies from them, I cannot work any argument into the consistency of a mental gag and actually close his mouth with it. In such a case I can only commend him to the seventy thousand answers just in from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.* After the Peoria speech Lincoln and Douglas came to an agreement not to continue the debate. The legislative elections resulted in a defeat for the Douglas adherents, who were in a minority. The majority was composed of Anti-Nebraska Democrats, Free-soilers, and Whigs, the last far outnumber- ing the others. Of this element Lincoln became the chosen candidate for the United States Senate and was compelled under the state law to resign from the legislature. He was certain of the Whigs and Free-soilers, but five Anti-Nebraska Democrats refused to vote for any Whig, and supported Ly- man Trumbull.. After nine ballots, Lincoln, in order to secure the election of an opponent of the Kansas-Nebraska act, with- drew in favor of Trumbull, who was elected. All through the West the Anti-Nebraska men were organiz- ing under various names. It soon developed that Republican was a favorite name, due to the fact that they claimed to be the. followers of Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the original Republican party and formulator of its principles. A Repub- lican state organization was perfected at Springfield in the autumn of 1854 and Lincoln was, without his knowledge, placed on the executive committee. He was not yet certain of where * These three states were all carried in the elections by Anti- Nebraska candidates. The allusion is to their combined majorities.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 13] he stood politically. Was the Whig party dead? It seemed so, but there was no certainty of the fact. He suspected the Republicans of abolitionist sympathies and tendencies and knew that if this were true he did not belong in their fold. Even if it were not, it was uncertain if they would gain sufficient strength to accomplish anything. He therefore wrote this letter: TO I. CODDING Springfield, November 27, 1854. [. Codding, Esq. Dear Sir: Your note of the 13th requesting my attendance at the Republican State Central Committee, on the 17th instant at Chicago, was, owing to my absence from home, received on the evening of that day (17th) only. While I have pen in hand allow me to say I have been perplexed some to understand why my name was placed on that committee. I was not consulted on the subject, nor was I apprised of the appointment until I discovered it by accident two or three weeks afterward. I suppose my opposition to the principle of slavery is as strong as that of any member of the Republican party; but I have also supposed that the extent to which I feel authorized to carry that opposition, practically, was not at all satisfactory to that party. The leading men who organized that party were present on the 4th of October at the discussion between Douglas and myself at Spring- field, and had full opportunity to not misunderstand my position. Do I misunderstand them? Please write and inform me. Yours truly, A. LincoLn In the meantime he was reaching a more fixed opinion in respect to the significance of the slavery question. Soon after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act he and Judge T. Lyle Dickey were on circuit together, sharing the same room. After an evening spent in discussing the question with others they went to their room and after undressing continued to argue wc sa sn . : iS i eee A a | : t if 1] } mt i { MMLE Ae = ee 960 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN resident citizens from holding the federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices. The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised according to circumstances actually existing, and with a view and a hope of a peace- ful solution of the national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak? Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruc- tion of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memo- ries, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from* have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from—will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? All profess to be content in the Union if all constitu- tional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the Constitution, has been * Hamlet, Act iii, Scene i.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 261 denied? I think not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly writ- ten constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify rev Brntionece tainly would if such a right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibitions, in the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical adminis- tration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be sur- rendered by national or by state authority? The Consti- tution does not expressly s say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the territories? The Gonstitition does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say.* From questions of this class spring all our constitu- tional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no other alternative; for continuing the government is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily * Lincoln fails to discuss here the personal liberty laws or the insistent refusal of the North to accept the Dred Scott decision, both grave causes of Southern dissatisfaction. | | .262 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of interests among the states to compose a new Union, as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despot- ism. Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.* I do not forget the position, assumed by some, that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding, in any case, upon the parties to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the government. And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be over- ruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their govern- *This is a splendid statement of the fundamental principle on which majority rule in government is based.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 263 ment into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution, and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured; and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave-trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, without restric- tion, in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other.* Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be * T.incoln constantly asserted that secession would be followed by the reopening of the African slave trade. But the Confed- erate constitution forbade its reopening, and there was little or no sentiment in the South in favor of such action. e i j i} ;7 OR a il ln le a cen Ly eneOR a ee , , fi \ a | ‘ i a i ; \ 264. SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and Shen after eee 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 institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their con- stitutional 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 people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution—which amendment, however, I have not seen—has passed Congress, to the effect that the federal government shall never tate rfere with the domestic insti- tutions of the states, including that of persons held te service. To avoid misconstruction 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 provi- sion to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection 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 them-SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 965 selves can do this also if they choose; but the Executive, 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 transmit 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 differences is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His terial truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people. By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public serv ants but little power for mischief; and have, with equal wis- dom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years My countrymen, one and all, 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 deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have the old Consti- tution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administra- tion will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriot- ism, Christianity, 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.. i | i ee 266 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 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 repistered in heaven to destroy the government, while I 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 chords of memory, stretching from every battle- field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth- stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.{ Immediately after his inauguration Lincoln was over- whelmed by the throng of office seekers that attend any new administration, particularly large at this time because a new party was coming into power. To them he was compelled to give the major part of his time, regardless of the crisis in the affairs of the nation. So far-as the South was concerned, he submitted to the cabinet the question of whether it was polit- ically advisable to relieve Fort Sumter. Five answered that it was not. He himself was quite uncertain what to do. He thought it all-important to save to the Union the Border slave states which had not seceded, and so he did what Buchanan had done—let things drift for the time being. There was much criticism like that of General John A. Dix, “When I left Washington Saturday last (March 23) I do not think the administration had any settled policy. It was merely drifting with the current, at a loss to know whether it were better to come to anchor or set sail.” *Constitution, Art. 2, Sec. Il, 8. + Seward suggested the last paragraph of the address. He wrote it, ‘I close. We are not, we must not be, aliens or enemies, but fellow-countrymen and brethren. Although passion may have strained our bonds of affection too hardly, they must not, IT am sure they will not, be broken. The mystic chords which, proceeding from so many battlefields and so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts and hearths in this broad continent of ours, will yet again harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel of the nation.” Contrast the two statements of the same idea.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 967 In the meantime Secretary Seward, on his own account, was in communication with the Confederate commissioners through Justice John A. Campbell of the Supreme Court, and was assuring them that it was almost certain that Fort Sumter would be evacuated. He had accepted the post of Secretary of State with the firm conviction that he would save the coun- try. As he wrote his wife on the day he accepted the appoint- ment, “I will try to save freedom and my country.” On an- other occasion he wrote, “I know that I can save the country, and I know no other man can.” He believed in all sincerity and honesty that Lincoln was unable to save the situation and on April 1, wrote the following remarkable note: “conrre THOUGHTS FOR THE PRESIDENTS CONSIDERATION “First. We are at the end of a month’s administration, and yet without a policy either domestic or foreign. “Second. This, however, is not culpable, and it has even been unavoidable. The presence of the Senate, with the need to meet applications for patronage, have prevented attention to other and more grave matters. “Third. But further delay to adopt and prosecute our policies for both domestic and foreign affairs would not only bring scandal on the administration, but danger upon the country. “Fourth. To do this we must dismiss the applicants for office. But how? I suggest that we make the local appoint- ments forthwith, leaving foreign or general ones for ulterior and occasional action. “Fifth. The policy at home. I am aware that my views are singular, and perhaps not sufficiently explained. My system is built upon this idea as a ruling one, namely, that we must “Change the question before the public from one upon slavery, or about slavery, for a question upon union or disunion: “In other words, from what would be regarded as a party question, to one of patriotism or union. “The occupation or evacuation of Fort Sumter, although not in fact a slavery or a party question, is so regarded. Wit- ness the temper manifested by the Republicans in the free states, and even by the Union men in the South. “T would therefore terminate it as a safe means for chang- ino the issue. I deem it fortunate that the last administration created the necessity. “For the rest, I would simultaneously defend and reénforce all the ports in the gulf, and have the navy recalled from268 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN foreign stations to be prepared for a blockade. Put the island of Key West under martial law. “This will raise distinctly the question of union or disunion. I would maintain every fort and possession in the South. For Foreign Nations “T would demand explanations from Spain and France, categorically, at once. “T would seek explanations from Great Britain and Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico, and Central. America to rouse a vigorous continental spirit of independence on this continent against European intervention.* “And, if satisfactory explanations are not received from Spain and France, would convene Congress and declare war against them. “But whatever policy we adopt, there must be energetic prosecution of it. “For this purpose it must be somebody’s business to pursue and direct it incessantly. “Either the President must do it himself, and be all the while active in it, or “Devolve it on some member of his Cabinet. Once adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide. It is not in my especial province. But I neither seek to evade nor to assume responsibility.” On the same day Lincoln replied with a note which forever set at rest the doubt in Seward’s mind as to who was to be President in fact. Seward was thoroughly frank and gener- ous and not a great while later wrote his wife, “Executive force and vigor are rare qualities; the President is the best of us.” Henceforth he gave Lincoln the most faithful and complete support. The reply was on the part of Lincoln a fine example of self- restraint and selflessness, combined with a firm dignity. TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD Executive Mansion, April 1, 1861 Hon. W. H. Seward. My pear Sir: Since parting with you I have been con- sidering your paper dated this day, and entitled “Some * These European nations had been active in making demon- strations against Mexico in the hope of forcing the payment of debts due them. Seward’s proposed device of uniting the coun- try by a foreign war was an old trick of politico-statesmen.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 269 Thoughts for the President’s Consideration.” The first proposition in it is, “First, We are at the end of a month's administration, and yet without a policy either domestic or foreign.” At the beginning of that month, in the inaugural, I said: “The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts. © This had your distinct approval at the time; and, taken in connection with the order I immediately gave General Scott, directing him to employ every means in his power to strengthen and hold the forts, comprises the exact domestic policy you now urge, with the single exception that it does not propose to abandon Fort Sumter. Again, I do not perceive how the reénforcement of Fort Sumter would be done on a slavery or a party issue, while that of Fort Pickens would be on a more national and patriotic one. The news received yesterday in regard to St. Domingo* certainly brings a new item within the range of our foreign policy; but up to that time we have been prepar- ing circulars and instructions to ministers and the like, all in perfect harmony, without even a suggestion that we had no foreign policy. Upon your closing propositions—that “whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it. “For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it incessantly. “Either the President must do it himself, and be all the while active in it, or ‘“Devolve it on some member of his cabinet. Once adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide’ —TI remark that if this must be done, I must do it. When a general line of policy is adopted, I apprehend there is no danger of its being changed without good reason, or *San Domingo had just requested Spain to assume again complete sovereignty over her. Sa a tg tli it nme TR a970 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still, upon points arising in its progress I wish, and suppose I am entitled to have, the advice of all the cabinet. Your obedient servant, A. LincoLNn Late in March Lincoln again submitted the question of Sumter to his cabinet. This time the vote stood five to two in favor of its relief. A little later he decided to attempt the relief of both Sumter and Pickens, with the full knowledge that it meant the opening of war, since notice had been given by the Confederate authorities that any attempt to relieve Sumter would result in its reduction. Seward had promised that notice of any expedition would be given, and Lincoln car- ried out the pledge. A prompt attack on the fort forced its fall on April 13. On the same day a committee from the Virginia convention, which had been in session since the winter, visited Lincoln. He had been most anxious to secure Virginia’s support agrainst war, and had gone so far as to offer to abandon Sumter if the convention would adjourn sine die, but the message had never been delivered to the convention. Now it was too late for negotiation. He replied to the committee in these words: REPLY TO A COMMITTEE FROM THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION [April 13, 1861] Hon. William Ballard Preston, Alexander H. H. Stuart, George W. Randolph, Esq. GENTLEMEN: As a committee of the Virginia Conven- tion now in session, you present me a preamble and resolution in these words: “Whereas, in the opinion of this Convention, the uncer- tainty which prevails in the public mind as to the policy which the Federal Executive intends to pursue toward the seceded states is extremely injurious to the industrial and commercial interests of the country, tends to keep up an excitement which is unfavorable to the adjustmentSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 971 of pending difficulties, and threatens a disturbance. of the public peace; therefore “Resolved, that a committee of three delegates be appointed by this Convention to wait upon the President of the United States, present to him this preamble and resolution, and respectfully ask him to communicate to this Convention the policy which the Federal Executive intends to pursue in regard to the Confederate States. ‘Adopted by the Convention of the State of Virginia, Richmond, April 8, 1861.” In answer I have to say that, having at the beginning of my official term expressed my intended policy as plainly as I was able, it is with deep regret and some mortification I now learn that there is great and injurious uncertainty in the public mind as to what that policy is, and what course I intend to pursue. Not having as yet seen occasion to change, it is now my purpose to pursue the course marked out in the inaugural address. I com- mend a careful consideration of the whole document as the best expression I can give of my purposes. As I then and therein said, I now repeat: “The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what is necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. ” By the words “property and places belonging to the government,” I chiefly allude to the military posts and property which were in the possession of the government when it came to my hands. But if, as now appears to be true, in pursuit of a pur- pose to drive the United States authority from these places, an unprovoked assault has been made upon Fort Sumter, I shall hold myself at liberty to repossess, if I can, like places which had been seized before the govern- ment was devolved upon me. And in every event I shall, to the extent of my ability, repel force by force. In79) SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN case it proves true that Fort Sumter has been assaulted, as is reported, I shall perhaps cause the United States mails to be withdrawn from all the states which claim to have seceded, believing that the commencement of actual war against the government justifies and possibly demands this. I scarcely need to say that | consider the military posts and property situated within the states which claim to have seceded as yet belonging to the government ot the United States as much as they did before the sup- posed secession. Whatever else I may do for the purpose, I shall not attempt to collect the duties and imposts by any armed invasion of any part of the country; not meaning by this, however, that I may not land a force deemed necessary to relieve a fort upon a border of the country. From the fact that I have quoted a part of the inaugural address, it must not be inferred that I repu- diate any other part, the whole of which I reaffirm, except so far as what I now say of the mails may be regarded as a modification. On April 15 Lincoln called upon the governors of the states for 75,000 men to suppress what he termed “unlawful com- binations” in the seceded states. Every care was taken from the beginning of the war not to make any move against a state as such, for the Border states and many people in the North, like Buchanan, did not believe that the United States had any power to coerce a state. With the call for troops, uncertainty ended in the North and South, and the people rushed to arms. Virginia, Arkan- sas, Tennessee, and North Carolina seceded. Missouri and Maryland were prevented from doing so only by force. Ken- tucky declared herself neutral in the impending conflict. ‘The struggle for the preservation of the Union had begun. With the outbreak of actual war, Lincoln’s one aim became the preservation of the Union, All else disappeared from view, and to that end he gave his undivided attention. His lettersSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 973 show this. The people of Maryland at this time objected to the passage of troops across the state to Washington for the invasion of Virginia. The Sixth Massachusetts was attacked by a mob as it crossed Baltimore, with resulting bloodshed on both sides. Reverdy Johnson, a distinguished Maryland law- yer, wrote Lincoln a letter on the subject, which brought this reply: TO REVERDY JOHNSON | Confide ntial | Executive Mansion, April 24, 1861 Hon. Reverdy Johnson. My pear Sir: Your note of this morning is just received. I forbore to answer yours of the 22d because of my aversion (which I thought you understood) to get- ting on paper and furnishing new grounds for misunder- standing. I do say the sole purpose of bringing troops here is to defend this capital. I do say I have no purpose to invade Virginia with them or any other troops, as I understand the word invasion. But, suppose Virginia sends her troops, or admits others through her borders, to assail this capital, am I not to repel them even to the crossing of the Potomac, if I can? Suppose Virginia erects, or permits to be erected, batteries on the opposite shore to bombard the city, are we to stand still and see it done? In a word, if Virginia strikes us, are we not to strike back, and as effectively as we can? Again, are we not to hold Fort Monroe (for instance) if we can? I have no objection to declare a thousand times that I have no purpose to invade Virginia or any other state, but I do not mean to let them invade us without striking back. Yours truly, A. LINcoLN Gustavus V. Fox, later Assistant Secretary of the Navy, had planned the expedition to relieve Sumter. This letter to him from the President is interesting because of the view it gives of the latter’s purpose in relieving Fort Sumter.‘ i i \ een ee te 274 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN TO GUSTAVUS V. FOX Washington, D. C., May 1, 1861 Captain G. V. Fox. My pear Sir: I sincerely regret that the failure of the late attempt to provision Fort Sumter should be the source of any annoyance to you. The practicability of your plan was not, in fact, brought to a test. By reason of a gale, well known in advance to be possible and not improbable, the tugs, an essential part of the plan, never reached the ground; while, by an accident for which you were in no wise responsible, and possibly I to some extent was, you were deprived of a war vessel.* with her men, which you deemed of great importance to the enterprise. I most cheerfully and truly declare that the failure of the undertaking has not lowered you a particle, while the qualities you developed in the effort have greatly heightened you in my estimation. For a daring and dangerous enterprise of a similar character you would today be the man of all my acquaint- ances whom I would select. You and I both anticipated that the cause of the country would be advanced by mak- ing the attempt to provision Fort Sumter, even if it should fail: and it is no small consolation now to feel that our anticipation is justified by the result. Very truly your friend, A. LINCOLN Colonel EK. E. Ellsworth, who had been a law student in Lincoln’s office, was killed in Alexandria while hauling down the Confederate flag. This letter to his parents is the first of the many letters of condolence Lincoln wrote during the war. It is particularly interesting in comparison with the letter to Mrs. Bixby written three years later. *The Powhatan was detached from the Sumter expedition and sent to Fort Pickens without the knowledge of the officers in charge of the expeditionSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 975 TO COLONEL ELLSWORTH’S PARENTS Washington, D. C., May 25, 1861 To the Father and Mother of Colonel Elmer E. Ells- worth. My pear Sir aNp Mapam: In the untimely loss of your noble son, our affliction here is scarcely less than your own. So much of promised usefulness to ones country, and of bright hopes for oneself and friends, have rarely been so suddenly dashed as in his fall. In size, in years, and in youthful appearance a boy only, his power to command men was surpassingly great. This power, combined with a fine intellect, an indomitable energy, and a taste altogether military, constituted in him, as seemed to me, the best natural talent in that department I ever knew. And yet he was singularly modest and deferential in social intercourse. My acquaintance with him began less than two years ago; yet through the latter half of the intervening period it was as intimate as the disparity of our ages and my engrossing engagements would per- mit. To me he appeared to have no indulgences or pastimes; and I never heard him utter a profane or an intemperate word. What was conclusive of his good heart, he never forgot his parents. The honors he labored for so laudably, and for which in the sad end he so gal- lantly gave his life, he meant for them no less than for himself. In the hope that it may be no intrusion upon the sacredness of your sorrow, I have ventured to address you this tribute to the memory of my young friend and your brave and early fallen child. May God give you that consolation which is beyond all earthly power. Sincerely your friend in a common affliction, A. LINcoLN2976 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN At the same time that he called for troops, Lincoln sum- moned Congress to meet in special session on July 4. When it assembled he stated the existing situation in a special mes- sage. It is an exceedingly able document and is worth careful study as one of the strongest statements of the national posi- tion in the war. It is, however, in its spirit and in its ignoring of undisputed historical facts, a lawyer’s presentation and far more partisan than one is accustomed to find from Lincoln. MESSAGE TO CONGRESS IN SPECIAL SESSION [July 4, 1861] FELLow-CiT1zENS OF THE SENATE AND House OF REPRESENTATIVES: Having been convened on an extraord- dinary occasion, as authorized by the Constitution, your attention is not called to any ordinary subject of legislation. At the beginning of the present presidential term, four months ago, the functions of the Federal Govern- ment were found to be generally suspended within the several states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, excepting only those of the Post Office Department. Within these states all the forts, arsenals, doekyards, custom-houses, and the like, including the movable and stationary property in and about them, had been seized, and were held in open hostility to this government, excepting only Forts Pickens, Taylor, and Jefferson, on and near the Florida coast, and Fort Sumter, in Charles- ton Harbor, South Carolina. The forts thus seized had been put in improved condition, new ones had been built, and armed forces had been organized and were organiz- ing, all avowedly with the same hostile purpose. The forts remaining in the possession of the Federal Government in and near these states were either besieged or menaced by warlike preparations, and especially Fort Sumter was nearly surrounded by well-protected hostile batteries, with guns equal in quality to the best of its Ve, )SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 977 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 immediate reach of the government. Officers of the Federal army and navy resigned in great numbers; and of those resigning a large proportion had taken up arms against the government. Simultaneously, and in connection with all this, the purpose to sever the Federal Union was openly avowed. In accordance with this pur- pose, 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 government of these states had been promul- gated; and this illegal organization, in the character of confederate states, was already invoking recognition, aid, and intervention 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 declared 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 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 { SE et ha aim tacts ™ ie Se Se978 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN without which it was believed possible to keep the govern- ment on foot. On the 5th of March (the present incumbent's first full day in office), a letter of Major Anderson, command- ing at Fort Sumter, written on the 28th day of February 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 reénforcements 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 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 is believed, however, that to so abandon that posi- tion, under the circumstances, would be utterly ruinous; that the necessity under which it was to be done would not be fully understood; that by many it would be con- strued as a part of a voluntary policy; that at home it would discourage friends of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure to the latter a recogni- tion abroad; that, in fact, it would be our nationalSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 279 destruction consummated. This could not be allowed. Starvation was not yet upon the garrison, and ere it would be reached, Fort Pickens might be reénforced. This last would be a clear indication of policy, and would better enable the country to accept the evacuation of ‘ort Sumter as a military necessity. An order was at once directed to be sent for the landing of the troops from the steamship 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 oficer commanding the Sabine, to which vessel the troops had been trans- ferred from the Brooklyn, acting upon some quasi armi- stice of the late administration (and of the existence of which the present administration, up to the time the order was dispatched, had only too vague and uncertain rumors to fix attention), had refused to land the troops. To now reénforce Fort 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 prepar- ing an expedition as well adapted as might be to relieve Fort Sumter, which expedition was intended to be ulti- mately 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 Governor of South Carolina that he might expect an attempt would be made to provision the fort; and that, if the attempt should not be resisted, there would be no effort to throw in men, arms, or ammunition, without further 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 awaiting the arrival of the provisioning expedition.’ : o A > i \ i | i ie i ‘ a i i : J i i ISO SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 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 garrison in the fort could by no possibility commit aggression upon them. They knew—they were expressly notified—that the giving of bread to a few brave and hungry men of the garrison was all which would on that occasion be attempted, unless themselves, by resisting so much, should provoke more. They knew that this government 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 adjustment ; and they assailed and reduced the fort for precisely the reverse object—to drive out the visible authority of the Federal Union, and thus force it to immediate dissolu- tion. That this was their object the Executive well under- stood; and having said to them in the inaugural address, “You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors,” he took pains not only to keep this declara- tion good, but also to keep the case so free from the power of ingenious sophistry that the world should not be able lo misunderstand it. By the affair at Fort 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 expect- ancy to return their fire, save only the few in the fort sent to that harbor years before for their own protection, and still ready to give that protection 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 the United States. It presents to the whole family of man * Lincoln of course did not see that from the standpoint of ‘the South the retention of Fort Sumter, even without any attempt to relieve it, was an act of aggression. aSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 28] the question whether a constitutional republic or democe 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 number to control administration according to organic law in any case, can always, by the pretenses made in this case, or on 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 preservation. The call was made, and the response of the country was most gratifying, surpassing in unanimity and spirit the most sanguine expectation. Yet none of the states commonly called slave states, except Delaware, gave a regiment through regular state organization. A few regiments have been organized within some others of those states by individual enterprise, and received into the government service. Of course the seceded states, so called (and to which Texas had been joined about the time of the inauguration), gave no troops to the cause of the Union. The border states, so called, were not uniform in their action, some of them being almost for the Union, while in others—as Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas—the Union sentiment was nearly repressed and silenced. The course taken in Virginia was the most remarkable—perhaps the most important. A convention elected by the people of that state to consider the very question of disrupting the Federal Union was in session at the capital of Virginia when Fort Sumter fell. To this body the people had chosen a large majority of professedi . Se a ———————EEE——————EE I82, SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Union men. Almost immediately after the fall of Sumter, many members of that majority went over to the original disunion minority, and with them adopted an ordinance for withdrawing the state from the Union. Whether this change was wrought by their great approval of the assault upon Sumter or their great resentment at the government's resistance to that assault, is not definitely known. Although they submitted the ordinance for rati- fication to a vote of the people, to be taken on a day then somewhat more than a month distant, the convention and the legislature (which was also in session at the same time and place), with leading men of the state not mem- bers of either, immediately commenced acting as if the state were already out of the Union. They pushed mili- tary preparations vigorously forward all over the state. They seized the United States armory at Harpers Ferry, and the navy-yard at Gosport, near Norfolk. They received—perhaps invited—into their state large bodies of troops, with their warlike appointments, from the so-called seceded states. They formally entered into a treaty of temporary alliance and cooperation with the so-called “Confederate States,’ and sent members to their congress at Montgomery. And, finally, they per- mitted the insurrectionary government to be transferred to their capital at Richmond. The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant insurrection to make its nest within her borders; and this government has no choice left but to deal with it where it finds it. And it has the less regret as the loyal citizens have, in due form, claimed its protection. Those loyal citizens this government is bound to recognize and protect, as being Virginia. In the border states. so called—in fact, the Middle States—there are those who favor a policy which they call “armed neutrality” ; that is, an arming of those states to prevent the Union forces passing one way, or the dis- union the other, over their soil. This would be disunionSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 983 completed. Figuratively speaking, it would be the build- ing of an impassable wall along the line of separation— and yet not quite an impassable one, for under the guise of neutrality it would tie the hands of Union men and freely pass supplies from among them to the insurrec- tionists, which it could not do as an open enemy. At a stroke it would take all the trouble off the hands of seces- sion, except only what proceeds from the external blockade. It would do for the disunionists that which, of all things, they most desire—feed them well, and give them disunion without a struggle of their own. It recog- nizes no fidelity to the Constitution, no obligation to maintain the Union; and while very many who have favored it are doubtless loyal citizens, it is, nevertheless, very injurious in effect. Recurring to the action of the government, it may be stated that at first a call was made for 75,000 militia, and, rapidly following this, a proclamation was issued for closing the ports of the insurrectionary district by proceedings in the nature of blockade.* So far all was believed to be strictly legal. At this point the insurrectionists announced their purpose to enter upon the practice of privateering. Other calls were made for volunteers to serve for three years, unless sooner discharged, and also for large addi- tions to the regular army and navy. ‘These measures, whether strictly legal or not, were ventured upon, under what appeared to be a popular demand and a public necessity; trusting then, as now, that Congress would readily ratify them. It is believed that nothing has been done beyond the constitutional competency of Congress. Soon after the first call for militia, it was considered a duty to authorize the commanding general in proper cases, according to his discretion, to suspend the privilege * Lincoln’s proclamation of the blockade of the Southern ports was held by many to be a recognition of the separation of the seceded states from the Union, since the President could not blockade home ports without an act of Congress{ : i ‘ y 4 \ i \ i ee ee 284 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN of the writ of habeas corpus,* or, in other words, to arrest and detain, without resort to the ordinary processes and forms of law, such individuals as he might deem danger- ous to the public safety. This authority has purposely been exercised but very sparingly. Nevertheless, the legality and propriety of what has been done under it are questioned, and the attention of the country has been called to the proposition that one who has sworn to “‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed” should not himself violate them. Of course some consideration was given to the questions of power and propriety before this matter was acted upon. The whole of the laws which were required to be faithfully executed were being resisted and failing of execution in nearly one-third of the states. Must they be allowed to finally fail of execu- tion, even had it been perfectly clear that by the use of the means necessary to their execution some single law, made in such extreme tenderness of the citizen’s liberty that, practically, it relieves more of the guilty than of the innocent, should to a very limited extent be violated? To state the question more directly, are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated? Even in such a case, would not the official oath be broken if the government should be overthrown, when it was believed that dis- regarding the single law would tend to preserve it? But it was not believed that this question was presented. It was not believed that any law was violated. The pro- vision of the Constitution that “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it,” is equivalent to a provision—is a provision— _* The acts of the President thus described marked the begin- ning of the military dictatorship which prevailed throughout the war, based upon the war powers of the President. They were without authority of law. Never in the history of an English- speaking people, from the first Habeas Corpus Act, had the sus- pension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus been claimed aS an executive power. In the Constitution the provision for its suspension appears in the legislative article.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 985 that such privilege may be suspended when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does require it. It was decided that we have a case of rebellion, and that the public safety does require the qualified suspension of the privilege of the writ which was authorized to be made. Now it is insisted that Congress, and not the Executive, is vested with this power. But the Constitution itself is silent as to which or who is to exercise the power ; and as the provision was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed the framers of the instrument intended that in every case the danger should run its course until Congress could be called together, the very assembling of which might be prevented, as was intended in this case, by the rebellion. No more extended argument is now offered, as an opinion at some length will probably be presented by the Attorney General. Whether there shall be any le gislation upon the subject, and if any, what, is submitted entirely to the better judgment of Congress. The forbearance of this government had been so extraordinary and so long continued as to lead some foreign nations to shape their action as if they supposed the early destruction of our National Union was prob- able. While this, on discovery, gave the Executive some concern, he is now happy to say that the sovereignty and rights of the United States are now everywhere prac- tically respected by foreign powers; and a general sympathy with the country is manifested throughout the world. The pices of the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and the Navy will give the information in detail deemed necessary and convenient for your deliberation and action; while the Executive and all the departments will stand ready to supply omissions, or to communicate new facts considered important for you to know. It is now recommended that you give the legal means for making this contest a short and decisive one; thatORG SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN you place at the control of the government for the work at least four hundred thousand men and $400,000,000. That number of men is about one-tenth of those of proper ages within the regions where, apparently, all are willing to engage ; and the sum is less than a twenty-third part of the money value owned by the men who seem ready to devote the whole. A debt of $600,000,000 now is a less sum per head than was the debt of our Revolution when we came out of that struggle; and the money value in the country now bears even a greater proportion to what it was then than does the population. Surely each man has as strong a motive now to preserve our liberties as each had then to establish them. A right result at this time will be worth more to the world than ten times the men and ten times the money. The evidence reaching us from the country leaves no doubt that the material for the work is abundant, and that it needs only the hand of legislation to give it legal sanction, and the hand of the Executive to give it practical shape and efficiency. One of the greatest perplexities of the government is to avoid receiving troops faster than it can provide for them. In a word, the people will save their government if the government itself will do its part only indifferently well. It might seem, at first thought, to be of little difference whether the present movement at the South be called “secession” or “rebellion.” The movers, however, will understand the difference. At the beginning they knew they could never raise their treason to any respectable magnitude by any name which implies violation of law. They knew their people possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to law and order, and as much pride in and reverence for the history and government of their common country as any other civilized and patriotic people. They knew they could make no advance- ment directly in the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly, they commenced by an insidiousSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN IQ7T debauching of the public mind. They invented an ingeni- ous sophism which, if conceded, was followed by perfectly logical steps, through all the incidents, to the complete destruction of the Union. The sophism itself is that any state of the Union may consistently with the National Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peacefully, withdraw from the Union without the consent of the Union or of any other state. The little disguise, that the supposed right is to be exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judges of its justice, is too thin to merit any notice.* With rebellion thus sugar-coated they have been drug- ging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years, until at length they have brought many good men to a willingness to take up arms against the government the day after some assemblage of men have enacted the farcical pretense of taking their state out of the Union, who could have been brought to no such thing the day before. This sophism derives much, perhaps the whole, of its currency from the assumption that there is some omnipo- tent and sacred supremacy pertaining to a state—to each state of our Federal Union. Our states have neither more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union by the Constitution—no one of them ever having been a state out of the Union.t The original ones passed into the Union even before they cast off their British colonial dependence; and the new ones each came into the Union directly from a condition of dependence, excepting Texas. And even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated a state. The new ones only took the designation of states on coming into the Union, while that name was first adopted for the * With due respect for the influence of the heat of war, Lincoln must be accused of special pleading here. He was too well acquainted with American history and with the feeling of the country not to be aware of the absolute hold of the doctrine of state sovereignty upon the Southern people. 7 North Carolina and Rhode Island both occupied this position.a fi i o \ ee ee 288 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN old ones in and by the Declaration of Independence. Therein the ‘‘United Colonies’”’ were declared to be “free and independent states” ; but even then the object plainly was not to declare their independence of one another or of the Union, but directly the contrary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual action before, at the time, and afterward, abundantly show. The express plighting of faith by each and all of the original thirteen in the Arti- cles of Confederation, two years later, that the Union shall be perpetual, is most conclusive. Having never been states either in substance or in name outside of the Union, whence this magical omnipotence of “State Rights,’ asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy the Union itself? Much is said about the “sovereignty — of the states; but the word even is not in the National Constitution, nor, as is believed, in any of the state con- stitutions. What is “sovereignty” in the political sense of the term? Would it be far wrong to define it “a political community without a political superior”? Tested by this, no one of our states except Texas ever was a sovereignty. And even Texas gave up the character on coming into the Union; by which act she acknowledged the Constitution of the United States, and the laws and treaties of the United States made in pursuance of the Constitution, to be for her the supreme law of the land. The states have their status in the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against law and by revolution. The Union, and not themselves separately, procured their independ- ence and their liberty. By conquest or purchase the Union gave each of them whatever of independence or liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the states, and, in fact, it created them as states. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and, in turn, the Union threw off their old dependence for them, and made them states, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a state constitution independent of the Union. Of course,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 289 it is not forgotten that all the new states framed their hi constitutions before they entered the Union—neverthe- less, dependent upon and preparatory to coming into the Union.* Unquestionably the states have the powers and rights reserved to them in and by the National Constitution; but among these surely are not included all conceivable powers, however mischievous or destructive, but, at most, such only as were known in the world at the time as governmental powers; and certainly a power to destroy the government itself had never been known as a govern- mental, as a merely administrative power. This relative matter of national power and state rights, as a principle, is no other than the principle of generality and locality. Whatever concerns the whole should be confided to the whole—to the General Government; while whatever con- cerns only the state should be left exclusively to the state. This is all there is of the original principle about it. Whether the National Constitution in defining boundaries between the two has applied the principle with exact accuracy, is not to be questioned. We are all bound by that defining, without question. What is now combated is the position that secession is consistent with the Constitution—is lawful and peace- ful. It is not contended that there is any express law for it; and nothing should ever be implied as law which leads to unjust or absurd consequences. ‘The nation purchased with money the countries out of which several of these states were formed. Is it just that they shall go off without leave and without refunding? The nation paid very large sums (in the aggregate, I believe, nearly < a hundred millions) to relieve Florida of the aboriginal tribes. Is it just that she shall now be off without consent or without making any return? ‘The nation is now in debt for money applied to the benefit of these so-called | t . | | i} | i i] a 4 *'This is a remarkably able statement of the theory of the Union, comparatively new at that time.290 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN seceding states in common with the rest. Is it just either that creditors shall go unpaid or the remaining states pay the whole?* A part of the present national debt was contracted to pay the old debts of Texas.{ Is it just that she shall leave and pay no part of this herself? Again, if one state may secede, so may another; and when all shall have seceded, none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to creditors? Did we notify them of this sage view of ours when we borrowed their money? If we now recognize this doctrine by allowing the seceders to go in peace, it is difficult to see what we can do if others choose to go or to extort terms upon which they will promise to remain. The seceders insist that our Constitution admits of secession. They have assumed to make a national con- stitution of their own, in which of necessity they have either discarded or retained the right of secession as they insist it exists in ours. If they have discarded it, they thereby admit that on principle it ought not to be in ours. If they have retained it by their own construction of ours, they show that to be consistent they must secede from one another whenever they shall find it the easiest way of settling their debts, or effecting any other selfish or unjust object. The principle itself is one of disinte- gration, and upon which no government can possibly endure. If all the states save one should assert the power to drive that one out of the Union, it is presumed the whole class of seceder politicians would at once deny the power and denounce the act as the greatest outrage upon state rights. But suppose that precisely the same act, instead of being called “driving the one out,” should be called “the seceding of the others from that one,” it would be exactly what the seceders claim to do, unless, indeed, * The Southern states in their attempt to negotiate with the United States had as one declared purpose the adjustment of the national debt. 7 Texas surrendered her claims upon a large part of New Mexico in exchange for this payment.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 99] they make the point that the one, because it is a minority, may rightfully do what the others, because they are a majority, may not rightfully do. ‘These politicians are subtle and profound on the rights of minorities. They are not partial to that power which made the Constitution and speaks from the preamble, calling itself ““We, the People.” It may well be questioned whether there is today a majority of the legally qualified voters of any state, except perhaps South Carolina, in favor of disunion. There is much reason to believe that the Union men are the majority in many, if not in every other one, of the so-called seceded states. ‘The contrary has not been demonstrated in any one of them. It is ventured to affirm this even of Virginia and Tennessee; for the result of an election held in military camps, where the bayonets are all on one side of the question voted upon, can scarcely be considered as demonstrating popular sentiment. At such. an election, all that large class who are at once for the Union and against coercion would be coerced to vote against the Union. It may be affirmed without extravagance that the free institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved the condition of our whole people beyond any example in the world. Of this we now have a striking and impressive illustration. So large an army as the government has now on foot was never before known, without a soldier in it but who has taken his place there of his own free choice. But more than this, there are many single regiments whose members, one and another, possess full practical knowledge of all the arts, sciences, professions, and whatever else, whether useful or ele- gant, is known in the world; and there is scarcely one from which there could not be selected a president, a cabinet, a congress, and perhaps a court, abundantly competent to administer the government itself. Nor do I say this is not true also in the army of our late friends,999 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN now adversaries in this contest; but if it is, so much better the reason why the government which has con- ferred such benefits on both them and us should not be broken up. Whoever in any section proposes to abandon such a government would do well to consider in deference to what principle it is that he does it—what better he is likely to get in its stead—whether the substitute will give, or be intended to give, so much of good to the people. There are some foreshadowings on this subject. Our adversaries have adopted some declarations of inde- pendence in which, unlike the good old one, penned by Jefferson, they omit the words “all men are created equal.” Why? They have adopted a temporary na- tional constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed by Washington, they omit “We, the People,’ and substitute, “We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent states.’ Why? Why this deliberate pressing out of view the rights of men and the authority of the people? This is essentially a people’s contest. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men—to lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of life. Yielding to partial and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the government for whose existence we contend. I am most happy to believe that the plain people understand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that while in this, the government’s hour of trial, large numbers of those in the army and navy who have been favored with the offices have resigned and proved false to the hand which had pampered them, not one common soldier or common sailor is known to have deserted his flag. Great honor is due to those officers who remainedSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 293 true, despite the example of their treacherous associates ; but the greatest honor, and most important fact of all, is the unanimous firmness of the common soldiers and common sailors. ‘To the last man, so far as known, they have successfully resisted the traitorous efforts of those whose commands, but an hour before, they obeyed as absolute law. This is the patriotic instinct of the plain people. They understand, without an argument, that the destroying of the government which was made by Washington means no good to them. Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled—the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains—its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful appeal, except to ballots themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war. Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men as to what is to be the course of the government toward the Southern states after the rebellion shall have been suppressed, the Executive deems it proper to say it will be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided by the Constitution and the laws; and that he probably will have no different understanding of the powers and duties of the Federal Government relatively to the rights of the states and the people, under the Constitution, than that expressed in the inaugural address. He desires to preserve the government, that it mayi i b a ee ad eee 994 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN be administered for all as it was administered by the men who made it. Loyal citizens everywhere have the right to claim this of their government, and the govern- ment has no right to withhold or neglect it. It is not perceived that in giving it there is any coercion, any conquest, or any subjugation, in any Just sense of those terms. The Constitution provides, and all the states have accepted the provision, that “the United States shall guarantee to every state in ens Union a republican form of government.” But if a state may lawfully go out of the Union, having eet so, it may also discard the republican form of government; so that to prevent its voing out is an indispensable means to the end of main- taining the guaranty mentioned; and when an end is lawful and obligatory, the indispensable means to it are also lawful and obligatory. It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found the duty of employing the war power in defense of the government forced upon him. He could but per- form this duty or surrender the existence of the govern- ment. No compromise by public servants could, in this case, be a cure; not that compromises are not often proper, but that no popular government can long survive a marked precedent that those who ec: urry an election can only save the government from immediate destruction by giving up the main point upon which the people gave the election. The people themselves, and not their servants, can Safely reverse their own deliberate decisions. As a private citizen the Executive could not have con- sented that these institutions shall perish; much less could he, in betrayal of so vast and so sacred a trust as the free people have confided to him. He felt that he had no she: right to shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own life in what might follow. In full view of his great responsibility he has, so far, done what he has deemed his duty. You will now, according toSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 995 your own judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes that your views and your actions may so accord with his as to assure all faithful citizens who have been dis- turbed in their rights of a certain and speedy restoration to them. under the Constitution and the laws. And having thus chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and vo forward without fear and with manly hearts. ABRAHAM LINCOLN Soon after the opening of the war, anti-slavery sentiment in the North began to grow very rapidly. As it grew stronger, suggestions of emancipation increased in number. Lincoln saw clearly that emancipation al this time would almost cer- tainly result in the loss to the Union of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, with the additional loss of the support of those in the North who were opposed to a war of emancipation. He therefore set his face against any of the suggestions. In August. General John C. Frémont, who was in command of the Department of the West, proclaimed the emancipation of all slaves of Confederate supporters in Missouri. I incoln at once sent him this letter by special messenger: TO GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT Washington, D. C., September 2, 1861 Major-General Fremont. My pear Sir: Two points in your proclamation o1 August 30 give me some anxiety. First. Should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation,* the Confederates would very certainly shoot our best men in their hands in retaliation; and so, man for man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that you allow no man to be shot under the proclamation without first having my approbation or consent. *In his emancipation proclamatio1 General Frémont an- nounced his intention of trying by court-martial all persons found witl rms in their hands in opposition to the Union cause, and shooting them upon conviction,i | ‘ ee ee 296 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Second. I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in relation to the confiscation of property and the liberating slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act of Congress en- titled, ““An act to confiscate property used for insurrec- tionary purposes,’ approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of which act I herewith send you. This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of censure. I send it by special messenger, in order that it may certainly and speedily reach you. Yours very truly, A. LincoLn Frémont’s proclamation had caused great enthusiasm in the North. Lincoln’s reply to it caused an equal burst of denun- ciation. There was talk of impeachment. Frémont became a popular idol, which may have been his intention in issuing the proclamation. Lowell wrote: “How many times are we to save Kentucky and lose self-respect?” ven Lincoln’s close friends in many cases opposed his attitude, as is indicated by this letter to O. H. Browning, who was now filling the vacancy in the Senate from Illinois caused by the death of Stephen A. Douglas. TO O. H. BROWNING [Private and Confidential] Executive Mansion, Washington, September 22, 1861 Hon. O. H. Browning. My pear Sir: Yours of the 17th is just received; and coming from you, I confess it astonishes me. That you should object to my adhering to a law which you had assisted in making and presenting to me less thanSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 297 a month before is odd enough. But this is a very small part. General Frémont’s proclamation as to confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves is purely political and not within the range of military law or necessity. [If a commanding general finds a necessity to seize the farm of a private owner for a pasture, an encampment, or a fortification, he has the right to do so, and to so hold it as long as the necessity lasts; and this is within military law, because within military necessity. But to say the farm shall no longer belong to the owner, or his heirs forever, and this as well when the farm is not needed for military purposes as when it is, is purely political, without the savor of military law about it. And the same is true of slaves. If the general needs them, he can seize them and use them; but when the need is past, it is not for him to fix their permanent future condition. That must be settled according to laws made by lawmakers, and not by military proclamations. The proclamation in the point in question is simply “dictatorship.” It assumes that the general may do anything he pleases—confisecate the lands and free the slaves of loyal people, as well as of disloyal ones. And going the whole figure, I have no doubt, would be more popular with some thoughtless people than that which has been done! But I cannot assume this reckless posi- tion, nor allow others to assume it on my responsibility. You speak of it as being the only means of saving the government. On the contrary, it is itself the surrender of the government. Can it be pretended that it is any longer the Government of the United States—any gov- ernment of constitution and laws—wherein a general or a president may make permanent rules of property by proclamation? I do not say Congress might not with propriety pass a law on the point, just such as General Frémont proclaimed. I do not say I might not, as a member of Congress, vote for it. What I object to is, that I. as President, shall expressly or impliedly seize| alee ieee Tae ee 996 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN oo and exercise the permanent legislative functions of the government. So much as to principle. Now as to policy. No doubt the thing was popular in some quarters, and would have been more so if it had been a general declaration of emancipation. The Kentucky legislature would not budge till that proclamation was modified; and General Ander- son telegraphed me that on the news of General Fremont having actually issued deeds of manumission, a whole company of our volunteers threw down their arms and disbanded. I was so assured as to think it probable that the very arms we had furnished Kentucky would be turned against us. I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capital. On the con- trary, if you will give up your restlessness for new positions, and back me manfully on the grounds upon which you and other kind friends gave me the election and have approved in my public documents, we shall go through triumphantly. You must not understand I took my course on the proclamation because of Kentucky. I took the same ground in a private letter to General Frémont before I heard from Kentucky. You think I am inconsistent because I did not also forbid General Frémont to shoot men under the procla- mation. I understand that part to be within military law, but I also think, and so privately wrote General Frémont, that it is impolitic in this, that our adversaries have the power, and will certainly exercise it, to shoot as many of our men as we shoot of theirs. I did not say this in the public letter, because it is a subject I prefer not to discuss in the hearing of our enemies. There has been no thought of removing General Fré- mont on any ground connected with his proclamation,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 999 and if there has been any wish for his removal on any ground, our mutual friend Sam. Glover can probably tell you what it was. I hope no real necessity for it exists on any ground. ee ee Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN In the midst of the growing burden of the war, Lincoln found solace in his sense of humor which appeared not only in his famous anecdotes but also crept into his letters. TO MAJOR RAMSEY Executive Mansion, October 17, 1861 My pear Sir: The lady bearer of this says she has two sons who want to work. Set them at it if possible. Wanting to work is so rare a want that it should be encouraged. Yours truly, A. I INCOLN When Congress met in regular session in December, 1861, Lincoln in his message made a preliminary suggestion of a plan very dear to his heart, that of compensated emancipa- tion with the colonization of the negroes. Later this was much more developed. With all his horror of slavery, Lincoln had no illusions about the negroes in the mass. He stated his opinion on the subject clearly in the debates with Douglas and there is no indication that he ever changed it. At Ottawa he said: “T have no purpose to introduce political and social equality hetween the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will prob- ablv forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality; and ‘nasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior posi ; ion. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that. notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world| i i] ‘ me ee ee LO Oe 300 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumer- ated in the Declaration of Independence—the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects—certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man.” At Charleston he said: “I will say that I am not, or ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to inter- marry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” It was Lincoln’s hope by this plan of colonization, which he had first suggested in 1857, to settle not only the question of slavery, but also the race question which he clearly foresaw. tXTRACT FROM ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS [December 3, 1861] FELLow-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HovusE oF REPRESENTATIVES: In the midst of unprecedented political troubles we have cause of great gratitude to God for unusual good health and most abundant harvests. Under and by virtue of the act of Congress entitled “An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes, approved August 6, 1861, the legal claims of certain persons to the labor and service of certain other persons have become forfeited: and numbers of the latter, thus liberated, are already dependent on the United States, and must be provided for in some way. Besides this, it is not impossible that some of the statesSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 201 will pass similar enactments for their own benefit re spectively, and by operation of which persons of the same class will be thrown upon them for disposal. In such case I recommend that Congress provide for ac cepting such persons from such states, according to some mode of valuation, in lieu, pro tanto,* of direct taxes, or upon some other plan to be agreed on with such states respectively, that such persons, on such acceptance by the General Government, be at once deemed free; and, that, in any event, steps be taken for colonizing both classes (or the one first mentioned, if the other shall not be brought into existence) at some place or places in a climate congenial to them. It might be well to consider, too, whether the free colored people already in the United States could not, so far as individuals may desire. be included in such colonization. To carry out the plan of colonization may involve the acquiring of territory, and also the appropriation of money beyond that to be expended in the territorial acquisition. Having practiced the acquisition of terri- tory for nearly sixty years, the question of constitutional power to do so is no longer an open one with us. The power was questioned at first by Mr. Jefferson, who, however, in the purchase of Louisiana, yielded his scruples on the plea of great expediency. If it be said that the only legitimate object of acquiring territory is to furnish homes for white men, this measure effects that object; for the emigration of colored men leaves addi- tional room for white men remaining or coming here. Mr. Jefferson, however, placed the importance of pro- curing Louisiana more on political and commercial grounds than on providing room for population. On this whole proposition, including the appropriation of money with the acquisition of territory, does not the expediency amount to absolute necessity—that without which the government itself cannot be perpetuated? * To that extent.r ‘ i n i na 302 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN The war continues. In considering the policy to be adopted for suppressing the insurrection, I have been anxious and careful that the inevitable conflict for this purpose shall not degenerate into a violent and remorse- less revolutionary struggle. I have, therefore, in every case thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as the primary object of the contest on our part, leaving all questions which are not of vital military importance to the more deliberate action of the legis- lature. In the exercise of my best discretion I have adhered to the blockade of the ports held by the insurgents, in- stead of putting in force, by proclamation, the law of Congress enacted at the last session for closing ports.” So also, obeying the dictates of prudence as well as the obligations of law, instead of transcending I have adhered to the act of Congress to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes. If a new law upon the same subject shall be proposed, its propriety will be duly considered. The Union must be preserved; and hence all indispensable means must be employed. We should not be in haste to determine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are indispensable. The inaugural address at the beginning of the admin- istration, and the message to Congress at the late special session, were both mainly devoted to the domestic con- troversy out of which the insurrection and consequent war have sprung. Nothing now occurs to add or subtract, to or from, the principles or general purposes stated and expressed in those documents. The last ray of hope for preserving the Union peace- ably expired at the assault upon Fort Sumter; and a * As has been noted (see page 283) Lincoln’s action in pro- claiming a blockade of the Southern ports was regarded by many people in the North as a recognition of secession as a legal and accomplished fact Accordingly Congress passed a law closing the ports, which Lincoln ignored, as he here explains,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 202 general review of what has occured since may not be unprofitable. What was painfully uncertain then is 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 government; she already gives seven regiments to the cause of the Union and none to the enemy; and her people, at a resular election, have sustained the Union by a larger majority and a larger aggregate vote than they ever before 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 cer- tainly not more than a third of that number, and they of doubtful whereabouts and doubtful existence, are in arms against it. After a somewhat bloody struggle of months. winter closes on the Union people of west- ern Virginia, leaving them masters of their own country. It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not exclusively, a war upon the first principle of : { j } Pe et a 2 cecil a ne I304 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 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 approach 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 hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief atten- tion. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the structure of government. [It is assumed that labor is available qnly in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. 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 laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And, further, it is assumed that whoever is once a _ hired laborer 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 * Lincoln was mistaken in this. The Confederate government was as clearly popular as that of the United States.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN a0F laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all in ferences from them are groundless. Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of 1: tbor. and could never have existed ‘f 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 hir 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 p: ople, of all colors, art 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 Pe shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and ; ing no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of a laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a 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, ee is not, of neces- sity, any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men every- where in these states, a few years back in their lives, were hired eee: The prudent, penniless beginner ‘n the world labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires; i i] ‘ l i NH 4 ‘ i i ; ‘ r 1 ) 306 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 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 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 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 the first taking of our national census to the last are seventy years; and we find our population at the end of the period eight times as great as it was at the beginning. The increase of those other things which men deem desirable has been even greater. We thus have, at one view, what the popular principle, applied to government, through the machinery of the states and the Union has produced in a given time; and also what, if firmly maintained, it promises for the future. There are already among us those who, if the Union be pre- served, will live to see it contain 250,000,000.* The struggle of today is not altogether for today—it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us. ABRAHAM LINCOLN The message was generally approved. The following com- ment from Harpers Weekly is an interesting example. “The President is an honest, plain, shrewd magistrate. He is not a brilliant orator; he is not a great leader.” All during the war Lincoln had, in addition to his other burdens, the necessity of soothing and healing the tender sen- sibilities of jealous military men. It was not a pleasant task, as may be judged from this letter: * This was of course greatly overestimated. = ee ee a oeSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 207 TO GENERAL DAVID HUNTER Executive Mansion, Washington, December 31, 1861 Major-General Hunter. Dear Sir: Yours of the 23d is received, and I am constrained to say it is difficult to answer so ugly a letter in good temper. I am, as you intimate, losing much of the great confidence I placed in you, not from any act or omission of yours touching the public service, up to the time you were sent to Leavenworth, but from the flood of grumbling dispatches and letters I have seen from you since. I knew you were being ordered to Leavenworth at the time it was done; and I aver that with as tender a regard for your honor and your sensi- bilities as I had for my own, it never occurred to me that you were being “humiliated, insulted, and dis- graced!” nor have I, up to this day, heard an intimation that you have been wronged, coming from anyone but yourself. No one has blamed you for the retrograde movement from Springfield, nor for the information you eave General Cameron; and this you could readily under- stand. if it were not for your unwarranted assumption that the ordering you to Leavenworth must necessarily have been done as a punishment for some fault. | thought then, and think yet, the position assigned to you is as responsible, and as honorable, as that assigned to Buell—I know that General McClellan expected more important results from it. My impression is that at the time you were assigned to the new Western Department, ‘+ had not been determined to replace General Sherman in Kentucky; but of this I am not certain, because the ‘dea that a command in Kentucky was very desirable, and one in the farther West undesirable, had never occurred to me. You constantly speak of being placed in command of only 3,000. Now tell me, is this not mere impatience? Have you not known all the while that you are to command four or five times that many?r ene eee a ee EO ae 308 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN I have been, and am sincerely your friend; and if, as such, I dare to make a suggestion, I would say you are adopting the best possible way to ruin yourself. “Act well your part, there all the honor lies.” * He who does something at the head of one regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred. Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN In addition, he was compelled to take part in the framing of military plans and was constantly in correspondence with General George B. McClellan, who commanded the Army of the Potomac, and whom Lincoln was trying to induce to become more aggressive. The following is a characteristic letter: TO GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN Executive Mansion, Washington, February 3, 1862 Major-General McClellan. My pear Sir: You and [I have distinct and different plans for a movement of the Army of the Potomac— yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the Rappahannock to Urbana, and across land to the terminus of the rail- road on the York River; mine to move directly to a point on the railroad southwest of Manassas. If you will give me satisfactory answers to the fol- lowing questions, I shall gladly yield my plan to yours. First. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of time and money than mine? Second. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine? Third. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine? "Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. IV, Line 193. “Honor and shame from no condition rise, Act well your part, there all the honor lies.”SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 309 Fourth. In fact, would it not be less valuable in this. that it would break no great line of the enemy's communications, while mine would? Fifth. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more difficult by your plan than mine? Yours truly, ABRAHAM LINCOLN Memorandum Accompanying Letter of President Lincoln to General McClellan, Dated February 3, 1862 First. Suppose the enemy should attack us in force before we reach the Occoquan, what? Second. Suppose the enemy in force shall dispute the crossing of the Occoquan, what? In view of this, might it not be safest for us to cross the Occoquan at Colchester, rather than at the village of Occoquan? This would cost the enemy two miles more of travel to meet us, but would, on the contrary, leave us two miles farther from our ultimate destination. Third. Suppose we reach Maple Valley without an attack. will we not be attacked there in force by the enemy marching by the several roads from Manassas ; and if so, what? In March, 1862, satisfied that he had public support behind him. Lincoln renewed his suggestion for compensated emanci- pation in a special message to Congress. SPECIAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS {March 6, 1862] FeLLow-CitT1zENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be sub- stantially as follows: Resolved, That the United States ought to cooperate with any state which may adopt gradual abolishment of210 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN slavery, giving to such state pecuniary aid, to be used by such state, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system. If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the states and people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The federal government would find its highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. ‘The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this gov- ernment will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave states north of such part will then say, “Tne Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section.” To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebellion; and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it as to all the states initiating it. The point is not that all the states tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more Northern shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the more Southern that in no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say ete . . . 23 . io ri 7 initiation” because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with the census tables and treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valu- ation, all the slaves in any named state. Such a proposi- tion on the part of the general government sets up no claim of a right by federal authority to interfere withSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 21] slavery within state limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the state and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them. In the annual message, last December, I thought fit to say, “The Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed.” I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be, an indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however. resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great efficiency, toward ending the struggle, must and will come. The proposition now made, though an offer only, | hope it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the states and private persons concerned than are the institution and property in it, in the present aspect of affairs? While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important practical results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject. ABRAHAM LINCOLN The proposition proved popular; Lincoln received many letters of endorsement, and newspaper comment was generall} favorable. The following letter to the editor of the New York Times shows how Lincoln kept behind any plan he was desir- ous of carrying through: te i tapes ak ls le ee ee ee soSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN CO — a) TO HENRY J. RAYMOND [Private | Executive Mansion, Washington, March 9, 1862 Hon. Henry J. Raymond. My pear Sir: I am grateful to the New York jour- nals, and not less so to the Times than to others, for their kind notices of the late special message to Con- gress. Your paper, however, intimates that the proposition, though well intentioned, must fail on the score of expense. I do hope you will reconsider this. Have you noticed the facts that less than one-half day's cost of this war would pay for all the slaves in Delaware at $400 per head—that eighty-seven days’ cost of this war would pay for all in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Kentucky, and Missouri at the same price? Were those states to take the step, do you doubt that it would shorten the war more than eighty-seven days, and thus be an actual saving of expense? Please look at these things and consider whether there should not be another article in the Times. Yours very truly, A. LincoLn The difficulties with General McClellan continued as the spring advanced. Lincoln was very patient, but at times even his patience was strained. TO GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN Washington, April 9, 1862 Major-General McClellan. My pear Sir: Your dispatches, complaining that you are not properly sustained, while they do not offend me, do pain me very much. Blenker’s division was withdrawn from you beforeSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 213 vou left here, and you knew the pressure under which I did it, and, as I thought, acquiesced in it—certainly not without reluctance. After you left I ascertained that less than 20,000 unorganized men, without a single field-battery, were all you designed to be left for the defense of Washington and Manassas Junction, and part of this even was to go to General Hooker’s old position; General Bank's corps, once designed for Manassas Junction, was divided and tied up on the line of Winchester and Strasburg, and could not leave it without again exposing the upper Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This presented (or would present, when McDowell and Sum- ner should be gone) a great temptation to the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock and sack Washing- ton. My explicit order that Washington should, by the judgment of all the commanders of corps, be left entirely secure, had been neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell. I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrange- ment to leave Banks at Manassas Junction; but when that arrangement was broken up and nothing was sub- stituted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was constrained to substitute something for it myself. And now allow me to ask, do you really think I should permit the line from Richmond via Manassas Junction to this city to be entirely open, except what resistance could be presented by less than 20,000 unorganized troops? This is a question which the country will not allow me to evade. There is a curious mystery about the number of the troops now with you. When I telegraphed you on the 6th, saying you had over 100,000 with you, I had just obtained from the Secretary of War a statement, taken as he said from your own returns, making 108,000 then with you and en route to you. You now say you will have but 85,000 when all en route to you shall have314 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN reached you. How can this discrepancy of 23,000 be accounted for? As to General Wool’s command, I understand it is doing for you precisely what a like number of your own would have to do if that command was away. I sup- pose the whole force which has gone forward to you is with you by this time; and if so, I think it is the precise time for you to strike a blow. By delay the enemy will relatively gain upon you—that is, he will gain faster by fortifications and reénforcements than you can by reénforcements alone. And once more let me tell you it is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. You will do me the justice to remember I always insisted that going down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only shift- ing and not surmounting a difficulty; that we would find the same enemy and the same or equal entrenchments at either place. The country will not fail to note—is not- ing now—that the present hesitation to move upon an entrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated. [ beg to assure you that I have never written you or spoken to you in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you, so far as in my most anxious judgment I consistently can; but you must act. Yours very truly, A. Lincoitn The pressure for military appointments, tremendous at the opening of the war, was replaced in 1862 by a similar one for promotion. General John Pope, who was in command of a Union force in Missouri had forced the Confederates to aban- don strong defenses at New Madrid and to surrender Island No. 10. This made much easier the task of obtaining control of the Mississippi. Instant demand for the promotion of Gen- eral Pope was made, and Lincoln thus replied:SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN ~~ — ae | TO R. YATES AND WILLIAM BUTLER [Telegram | Washington, April 10, 1862 Hon. R. Yates and William Butler, Springfield, Illinois: I fully appreciate General Pope’s splendid achieve- ments. with their invaluable results; but you must know that major-generalships in the regular army are not as plenty as blackberries. A. LINCOLN In May, General David Hunter, a personal friend of Lin- coln’s, who was commander of the Department of the Kast, in spite of his intimate knowledge of what had befallen Frémont, issued an order declaring, “Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible ; the persons in . . Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free.” Lincoln first heard of this through the newspapers. He at once issued the following proclamation: PROCLAMATION REVOKING GENERAL HUNTER'S ORDER OF MILITARY EMANCIPATION [May 19, 1862] Whereas there appears in the public prints what pur ports to be a proclamation of Major-General Hunter, in the words and figures following, to wit: “Headquarters Department of the South. “Hilton Head, Port Royal, S. C., May 9, 1862 “The three states of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, comprising the military department of the South, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under the protection of the United States of America, and having taken up arms against the said United States, it became a military necessity to declare martial law. ‘This was accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862. Slavery and martial law in a free316 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN country are altogether incompatible; the persons in these three States—Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina —heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared for- ever free. “By command of Major-General D. Hunter: ~(Official.) Ed. W. Smith, Acting Assistant Adjut- ant-General.”’ And whereas the same is producing some excitement and misunderstanding: therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, proclaim and declare that the Government of the United States had no knowledge, information, or belief of an intention on the part of General Hunter to issue such a proclamation; nor has it yet any authentic information that the document is genuine. And further, that neither General Hunter, nor any other commander or person, has been authorized by the Government of the United States to make a proclamation declaring the slaves of any state free; and that the supposed proclamation now in question, whether genuine or false, is altogether void so far as respects such a declaration. I further make known that, whether it be competent for me, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any state or states free, and whether, at any time, in any case, it shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the gov- ernment to exercise such supposed power, are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field. These are totally different questions from those of police regulations in armies and camps. On the sixth day of March last, by special message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint reso- lution, to be substantially as follows:SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN O17 “Resolved, That the United States ought to cooperate with any state which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such state pecuniary aid, to be used by such state, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, public and private, produced by such change of system. The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large majorities in both branches of Con- gress, and now stands an authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the states and people most immediately interested in the subject-matter. To the people of those states I now earnestly appeal. I do not argue—I beseech you to make arguments for your- selves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged con- sideration of them, ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. Will you not . embrace it? So much good has not been done, by one effort, in all past time, as in the providence of God it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it. In witness, etc., ABRAHAM LINCOLN By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State To Lincoln’s sorrow and disappointment the senators and representatives from the Border states paid no attention to his suggestion for compensated emancipation. In July he asked them to the White House and addressed them briefly on the subject. 7 ai ' i ‘ em 218 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN APPEAL TO THE BORDER STATE REPRESENTATIVES FOR COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION [July 12, 1862] GENTLEMEN: After the adjournment of Congress, now very near, I shall have no opportunity of seeing you for several months. Believing that you of the Bor- der states hold more power for good than any other equal number of members, I feel it a duty which I can- not justifiably waive to make this appeal to you. I intend no reproach or complaint when I assure you that, in my opinion, if you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual-emancipation message of last March, the war would now be substantially ended. And the plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent and swift means of ending it. Let the states which are in rebel- lion see definitely and certainly that in no event will the states you represent ever join their proposed con- federacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the con- test. But you cannot divest them of their hope to ulti- mately have you with them so long as you show a deter- mination to perpetuate the institution within your own states. Beat them at elections, as you have overwhelm- ingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim you as their own. You and I know what the lever of their power is. Break that lever before their faces, and they can shake you no more forever. Most of you have treated me with kindness and consideration, and I trust you will not now think I improperly touch what is exclu- sively your own, when, for the sake of the whole country, I ask, Can you, for your states, do better than to take the course I urge? Discarding punctilio and maxims adapted to more manageable times, and looking only to the unprecedentedly stern facts of our case, can you do better in any possible event? You prefer that the con- stitutional relation of the states to the nation shall beSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 319 practically restored without disturbance of the institu tion; and if this were done, my whole duty in this respect, under the Constitution and my oath of office, would be performed. But it is not done, and we are trying to accomplish it by war. The incidents of the war cannot be avoided. If the war continues long, as it must if the object is not sooner attained, the institution in your states will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion—by the mere incidents of war. It will be gone and you will have nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. How much ee for you and for your people to take the step which a once shortens the war and secures substantial compensa- tion for that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other event! How much better to thus save the money which else we sink forever in the war! How much better to do it while we can, lest the war ere long render us pecuniarily unable to do it! How much better for you as seller. and the nation as buyer, to sell out and buy out that without which the war could have never been, than to sink both the thing to be sold and the price of it in cutting one another's throats ! I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at once to emancipate gradually. Room in South America for colonization can be obtained cheaply and in abundance, and when numbers shall be large enough to be company and encouragement for one another, the freed people will not be so reluctant to go. I am pressed with a dif ficulty not yet mentioned—one which threatens division among those who, united, are none too strong. An instance of it is known to you. General Hunter is an honest man. He was, and I hope, still is, my friend. I v: alued him none the less for his agreeing with me in the general wish that all men every- whe re could be free. He proclaimed all men free within certain states, and I repudiated the proclamation. He expected more good and less harm from the measurei] ” 1 ‘ . ’ 320 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN than I could believe would follow. Yet, in repudiating it, I gave dissatisfaction, if not offense, to many whose support the country cannot afford to lose. And this is not the end of it. The pressure in this direction is still upon me, and is increasing. By conceding what I now ask, you can relieve me, and, much more, can relieve the country, in this important point. Upon these considerations I have again begged your attention to the message of March last. Before leaving the capi- tal, consider and discuss it among yourselves. You are patriots and statesmen, and as such I pray you consider this proposition, and at the least commend it to the con- sideration of your states and people. As you would perpetuate popular government for the best people in the world, I beseech you that you do in no wise omit this. Our common country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to bring it speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, its beloved history and cherished memo- ries are vindicated, and its happy future fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand. ‘To you, more than to any others, the privilege is given to assure that happi- ness and swell that grandeur. and to link your own names therewith forever. His audience was entirely friendly to him but unsympathetic toward his plan, possibly because they. knew that sentiment at home would be opposed. In the meantime Congress had eman- cipated the slaves in the District of Columbia, appropriating one million dollars for the compensation of loyal owners, and one hundred thousand dollars to pay the expenses of such of the freedmen as wished to go to Liberia or Haiti. This was as far as Lincoln’s plan was ever successful. In 1862 Lincoln appointed Colonel George F. Shepley, Andrew Johnson, and Edward Stanley military governors of Louisiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina respectively, with the hope of so stimulating Union sentiment in those states that governments loyal to the United States might be estab-Pe ee s TS a P - Ke | . “a eer Pe NS SEN Oba ag ie te ee NTIOONII > A — Nee SIH ATIN Val 6 eei | a ite or ee eer Oe ey A eaeSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 29] lished. It was the beginning of his policy of reconstruction. Almost immediately he received numerous protests against the policy followed in Louisiana. The situation there was dis- cussed in several notable letters. TO REVERDY JOHNSON | Private Executive Mansion, Washington, July 26, 1862 Hon. Reverdy Johnson. My pear Sir: Yours of the 16th, by the hand of Governor Shepley, is received. It seems the Union feeling in Louisiana is being crushed out by the course of General Phelps.* Please pardon me for believing that is a false pretense. The people of Louisiana—all intelligent people every where—know full well that I never had a wish to touch the foundations of their society, or any right of theirs. With perfect knowledge of this they forced a necessity upon me to send armies among them, and it is their own fault, not mine, that they are annoyed by the presence of General Phelps. They also know the remedy—know how to be cured of General Phelps. Remove the necessity for his presence. And might it not be well for them to consider whether they have not already had time enough to do this? If they can conceive of anything worse than General Phelps within my power, would they not better be look- ing out for it? They very well know the way to avert all this is simply to take their place in the Union upon the old terms. If they will not do this, should they not receive harder blows rather than lighter ones? You are ready to say I apply to friends what is due only to enemies. 1 distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me. This appeal of professed friends has paralyzed me *Ceneral J. W. Phelps was actively engaged in recruiting negro troops in Louisiana without authority of law.te ee ee 399 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN more in this struggle than any other one thing. You remember telling me, the day after the Baltimore mob in April, 1861, that it would crush all Union feeling in Maryland for me to attempt bringing troops over Mary- land soil to Washington. I brought the troops not- withstanding, and yet there was Union feeling enough left to elect a legislature the next autumn, which in turn elected a very excellent Union United States sena- tor!* I am a patient man—always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance. Still, I must save this gov- ernment, if possible. What I cannot do, -of course I will not do, but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed. Yours truly, A. LincoLn TO CUTHBERT BULLITT [Private] Washington, D. C., July 28, 1862 Cuthbert Bullitt, Esq., New Orleans, La. Sir: The copy of a letter addressed to yourself by Mr. Thomas J. Durant has been shown to me. The writer appears to be an able, a dispassionate, and an entirely sincere man. The first part of the letter is devoted to an effort to show that the secession ordinance of Louisiana was adopted against the will of a major- ity. of the people. This is probably true, and in that fact may be found some instruction. Why did they allow the ordinance to go into effect? Why did they not assert themselves? Why stand passive and allow them- selves to be trodden down by a minority? Why did they not hold popular meetings and have a convention of their own to express and enforce the true sentiment * Reverdy Johnson himself.SELECTIONS FROM LI NCOLN 393 of the state? If preorganization was against them then, why not do this now that the United States army is present to protect them? The paralysis—the dead palsy—of the government in this whole struggle is that this class of men will do nothing for the government, nothing for themselves, except demanding that the gov- ernment shall not strike its open enemies lest they be struck by accident. Mr. Durant complains that in various ways the rela- tion of master and slave is disturbed by the presence of our army, and he considers it particularly vexatious that this, in part, is done under cover of an act of Congress, while constitutional guaranties are suspended on the plea of military necessity. The truth is that what is done and omitted about slaves is done and omitted on the same military necessity. It is a military necessity to have men and money; and we can get neither in suffi- cient numbers or amounts if we keep from or drive from our lines slaves coming to them. Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in this direction, nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds till he and such as he shall have time to help themselves. I am not posted to speak understandingly on all the police regulations of which Mr. Durant complains. If experience shows any one of them to be wrong, let them be set right. I think I can perceive in the freedom of trade which Mr. Durant urges that he would relieve both friends and enemies from the pressure of the block- ade. By this he would serve the enemy more effectively than the enemy is able to serve himself. I do not say or believe that to serve the enemy is the purpose of Mr. Durant, or that he is conscious of any purpose other than national and patriotic ones. Still, if there were a class of men who, having no choice of sides in the con- test. were anxious only to have quiet and comfort for themselves while it rages, and to fall in with the victori- ous side at the end of it without loss to themselves, their Panere caneee eer ae aeee a el te et i i eet eel ee Oe 324 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN advice as to the mode of conducting the contest would be precisely such as his is. He speaks of no duty— apparently thinks of none—resting upon Union men. He even thinks it injurious to the Union cause that they should be restrained in trade and passage without taking sides. They are to touch neither a sail nor a pump, but to be merely passengers—deadheads at that—to be car- ried snug and dry throughout the storm, and safely landed right side up. Nay, more: even a mutineer is to go untouched, lest these sacred passengers receive an accidental wound. Of course the rebellion will never be suppressed in Louisiana if the professed Union men there will neither help to do it nor permit the govern- ment to do it without their help. Now, I think the true remedy is very different from what is suggested by Mr. Durant. It does not lie in rounding the rough angles of the war, but in removing the necessity for the war. The people of Louisiana who wish protection to person and property, have but to reach forth their hands and take it. Let them in good faith reinaugurate the national authority, and set up a state government con- forming thereto under the Constitution. They know how to do it, and can have the protection of the army while doing it. The army will be withdrawn as soon as such government can dispense with its presence, and the people of the state can then, upon the old constitu- tional terms, govern themselves to their own liking. This is very simple and easy. . If they will not do this, if they prefer to hazard all for the sake of destroying the government, it is for them to consider whether it is probable that I will surrender the government to save them from losing all. If they decline what I suggest, you will scarcely need to ask what I will do. What would you do in my position? Would you drop the war where it is, or would you prose- cute it in future with elder-stalk squirts charged withSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 995 rosewater? Would you deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you give up the contest, leaving any available means unapplied: I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I ean; and I shall do all I can to save the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclina- tion. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing. Yours truly, A. LINCOLN TO AUGUST BELMONT* [July 31, 1862] Dear Sir: You send to Mr. W—— an extract from a letter written at New Orleans the 9th instant, which is shown to me. You do not give the writer’s name; but plainly he is a man of ability, and probably of some note. Hesays: “The time has arrived when Mr. Lin- coln must take a decisive course. [Trying to please every body, he will satisfy nobody. A vacillating policy in matters of importance is the very worst. Now is the time. if ever, for honest men who love their country to rally to its support. Why will not the North say ofh- cially that it wishes for the restoration of the Union as it was? And so. it seems, this is the point on which the writer thinks I have no policy. Why will he not read and understand what I have said? The substance of the very declaration he desires is in the inaugural, in each of the two regular messages to Congress, and in many, if not all, the minor documents issued by the Executive since the Inauguration. 3eoken eggs cannot be mended; but Louisiana has -— nothing to do now but to take her place in the Union as *A prominent New York Democrat :4 7 ; ae | a RP OER 326 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN it was, barring the already broken eggs. The sooner she does so, the smaller will be the amount of that which will be past mending. This government cannot much longer play a game in whi~': it stakes all, and its ene- mies stake nothing. Those enemies must understand that they cannot experiment for ten years trying to de- stroy the government, and if they fail, still come back into the Union unhurt. If they expect in any contin- gency to ever have the Union as it was, I join with the writer in saying, ““Now is the time.” How much better it would have been for the writer to have gone at this, under the protection of the army at New Orleans, than to have sat down in a closet writing complaining letters northward! Yours truly, A. LiNcoLn In the summer of 1862 the cause of the Union was at its lowest ebb. The military campaign in Virginia, which was the only one in which the country was deeply interested, had been a disastrous failure. Dissatisfied with the plan for com- pensated emancipation, the radical opponents of slavery now demanded immediate emancipation by proclamation. The demand was very strong and the denunciation of the President by his opponents increasingly bitter. Lincoln had hinted to Seward and Welles, the day after the conference with the Border state representatives, that he might emancipate the slaves as a military measure by proclamation, and finally on July 22 he read to his cabinet a proclamation announcing that he would on January 1, 1863, as a measure of war, free the slaves in any states not then recognizing the authority of the United States. His amazed cabinet approved, but Seward suggested that if it were issued at the time it would be con- sidered the “last shriek” of the Government, and that it would be better tactics to wait for a military victory. Lincoln agreed, and a long wait for a victory followed. On August 20, Horace Greeley published in the editorial columns of the Tribune an open letter to President Lincoln, called “The Prayer of Twenty Million.” It began:SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 997 Oat “T'¢ Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States: “Dear Sir: I do not intrude to tell you—-for you must know already—that a great proportion of those who triumphed in your election, and of all who desire the unqualified suppres- sion of the rebellion now desolating our country, are sorely disappointed and deeply pained by the policy you seem to be pursuing with regard to the slaves of rebels. I write you only to set succinctly and unmistakably before you what we require, what we think we have a right to expect, and of what we complain.” The letter continued with a mixture of demands and accu- sations. Demanding that the President execute the laws, it accused him of being “strangely remiss” in the discharge of official and imperative duty with regard to the emancipation provisions of the confiscation acts: of being unduly influenced by the counsels, the representations, and the menaces of certain “fossil politicians” of the Border states, and warned him that timid counsels were perilous, and that the Union cause was suffering from mistaken deference to “rebel slavery. It went so far as to say, “You never give a direction to your military subordinates which does not appear to have been conceived in the interest of Slavery rather than that of Free- dom.” It closed, “I entreat you to render hearty and un- equivocal obedience to the laws of the land.” Lincoln’s reply is one of the most remarkable letters of history, not only for its dignity and restraint, its effectiveness and logic, but also for the power of its expression and its revelation of his purpose. It is all the more remarkable when ‘+t is remembered that the Emancipation Proclamation was all the while in his desk. TO HORACE GREELEY Executive Mansion, Washington, August 22, 1862 Hon. Horace Greeley. Dear Sir: I have just read yours of the 19th, addressed to myself through the New York Tribune. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now andery en ee 398 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now and here, argue against them. 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. [ would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views 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. Yours, A. LINCOLNSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 390 Artother remarkable document is an address in reply to a demand for emancipation. REPLY TO A CHICAGO COMMITTEE ASKING FOR EMANCIPATION [September 13, 1862] The subject presented in the memorial is one upon which I have thought much for weeks past, and I may even say for months. I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by religious men who are equally certain that they represent the Divine Will. I am sure that either the one or the other class ‘s mistaken in that belief, and perhaps in some respects both. I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to others on a point so connected with my duty, it might be sup- posed He would reveal it directly to me; for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter, And if I can learn what it is, I will do it. These are not, however, the days of miracles, and | suppose it will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise and right. The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree. For instance, the other day four gentlemen of standing and intelligence from New York called as a delegation on business connected with the war; but, before leaving, two of them earnestly beset me to proclaim general emancipation, upon which the other two at once attacked them. You know also that the last session of Congress had a decided majority of anti-slavery men, yet they could not unite on this policy. And the same 1s true of the religious people. Why, the rebel soldiers are praying with a great deal more earnestness, I fear, thaneine ee ae ee vie ' : f 330 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN © ’ our own troops, and expecting God to favor their side; for one of our soldiers who had been taken prisoner told Senator Wilson a few days since that he met with noth- ing so discouraging as the evident sincerity of those he was among in their prayers. But we will talk over the merits of the case. What good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do, especially as we are now situated? I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet.* Would my word free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the rebel states? Is there a single court, or magistrate, or indi- vidual that would be influenced by it there? And what reason is there to think it would have any greater effect upon the slaves than the late law of Congress, which I approved, and which offers protection and freedom to the slaves of rebel masters who come within our lines? Yet I cannot learn that that law has caused a single slave to come over to us. And suppose they could be induced by a proclamation of freedom from me to throw themselves upon us, what should we do with them? How can we feed and care for such a multitude? Gen- eral Butler wrote me a few days since that he was issuing more rations to the slaves who have rushed to him than to all the white troops under his command. They eat, and that is all; though it is true General Butler is feed- ing the whites also by the thousand, for it nearly amounts * In 1456 the Turks had taken Constantinople and established themselves in Europe. A comet appeared. According to a con- temporary historian Pope Calixtus III ‘‘decreed several days of prayer for the averting of the wrath of God, that whatever calamity impended might be turned from the Christians and against the Turks.” At the same time the plea, ‘From the Turk and the comet, good Lord, deliver us,’”’ was added to the litany. This intercession of the Pope was unavailing, as the Turks still hold Constantinople, and the comet, known to the modern world as Halley’s, still appears at intervals. : . 31,443,790 35.58 z “ « This shows an average decennial increase of 34.60 per cent in population through the seventy years from our first to our last census yet taken. It is seen that the ratio of increase at no one of these seven periods is either two per cent below or two per cent above the average, thus showing how inflexible, and consequently how reliable, the law of increase in our case is. Assum- ing that it will continue, gives the following results: MSS 7. ig cere ace: ote 8, rates do "otnte o elevane 142,323,341 TESS Oras Eek ici wie) o wide etnaeie eset eROpeae 56,967,216 IE Uopgooomopeosmomoaar coud 76,677,872 NOOO... 5 2 - SNS @ crete e,auars o edacete) sheers 103,208,415 BOM Orne: eo cicta sie etc els ele faloyel seen 38,918,526 ODO ee ike oc oi terete» 0 eaelerntale « 186,984,335= | j a ———————————E—eEeE—— ee ee — eee rarer ie $ t \ 25() SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN These figures show that our country may be as populous as Europe now is at some point between 1920 and 1930 -say about 1925—our territory, at 731% persons to the square mile, being of capacity to contain 217,186,000.* And we will reach this, too, if we do not ourselves relinquish the chance by the folly and evils of disunion, or by long and exhausting war springing from the only great element of national discord among us. While it cannot be foreseen exactly how much one huge example of secession, breeding lesser ones indefinitely, would retard population, civilization, and prosperity, no one can doubt that the extent of it would be very great and injurious. The proposed emancipation would shorten the war, perpetuate peace, insure this increase of population, and proportionately the wealth of the country. With these, we should pay all the emancipation would cost, together with our other debt, easier than we should pay our other debt without it. If we had allowed our old national debt to run at six per cent per annum, simple interest, from the end of our Revolutionary struggle until today, without paying anything on either principle or interest, each man of us would owe less upon that debt now than each man owed upon it then; and this because our in- crease of men, through the whole period, has been greater than six per cent—has run faster than the in- terest upon the debt. Thus, time alone relieves a debtor nation, so long as its population increases faster than unpaid interest accumulates on its debt. This fact would be no excuse for delaying payment of what is justly due; but it shows the great importance of time in this connection—the great advantage of a policy by which we shall not have to pay, until we number a * Lincoln again overestimated the future growth of population in the United States. The actual figures have been: LOU ORS Sees 7238-81 80449 19008 ee aT Gree aat LSS eee ere. HOS D782). GIGI) aan ree nGwEmEO RG Eiote US 90 yeeyiae eee cs . +S Gam aE RMR MeeSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 405 The war continues. Since the last annual message, all the important lines and positions then occupied by our forces have been maintained, and our arms have steadily advanced, thus liberating the regions left in the 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 of three hundred miles, directly through the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase in our rela- tive strength, that our general-in-chief should feel able to confront and hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet to detach a well-appointed large army to move on such an expedition. The result not being yet known, conjecture in regard to it is not here indulged. 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 earnestly struggling to maintain and administer them. The movements in the same direction, more extensive though less definite, in Missouri, Kentucky, and Ten- nessee, should not be overlooked. But Maryland pre- sents the example of complete success. Maryland is secure to liberty and Union for all the future. The genius of rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit, being driven out, it may seek to tear her, but it will woo her no more.* At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery throughout the United States, passed the Senate, but failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in the House cf Represen- * Mark ix, 17-26.| _ 2 a a oe. awn er eo te ee — ee ee oe een ERE ie ina if ; i 406 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN tatives. Although the present is the same Congress, and nearly the same members, and without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to recommend the reconsideration and passage of the measure at the present session. Of course the abstract question is not changed, but an intervening election shows, almost certainly, that the next Congress will pass the measure if this does not. Hence there is only a question of time as to when the proposed amend- ment will go to the states for their action. And as it is to so go, at all events, may we not agree that the sooner the better? It is not claimed that the election has imposed a duty on members to change their views or their votes any further than as an additional element to be considered, their judgment may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people now for the first time heard upon the question. In a great national crisis like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very desirable—almost indispensable. And yet no approach to such unanimity is attainable unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the majority, simply because it is the will of the majority. In this case the common end is the maintenance of the Union, and among the means to secure that end, such will, through the election, is most clearly declared in favor of such constitutional amendment. The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is derived through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass and its result, the pur- pose of the people within the loyal states to maintain the integrity of the Union, was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous than now. The extraordinary calm- ness and good order with which the millions of voters met and mingled at the polls give strong assurance of this. Not only all those who supported the Union ticket, so called, but a great majority of the opposing party also, may be fairly claimed to entertain, and to beSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 407 actuated by, the same purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to this effect, that no candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. There has been much impugning of motives, and much heated con- troversy as to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause; but on the distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people. In affording the people the fair opportun- ity of showing one to another and to the world this firm- ness and unanimity of purpose, the election has been of vast value to the national cause. The election has exhibited another fact, not less valu- able to be known—the fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most important branch of national resources—that of living men. While it is melancholy to reflect that the war has filled so many graves, and carried mourning to so many hearts, it is some relief to know that compared with the surviving, the fallen have been so few. While corps, and divisions, and brigades, and regiments have formed, and fought, and dwindled, and gone out of existence, a great majority of the men who composed them are still living. ‘The same is true of the naval service. The election returns prove this. So many voters could not else be found. The states regularly holding elections, both now and four years ago—to wit: California, Connecticut, Delaware, [lli- nois. Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mas- sachusetts. Michigan, Minnesota, Missorri, New Hamp- shire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsyl- vania, Rhode Is land. Vermont, West Virginia, and Wis- consin—cast 3,982,011 votes now, against 3,870,222 cast then; showing an aggregate now of 3.982.011. To this is to be added 33,762 cast now in the new states of Kansas and Nevada, which states did not vote in 1860; thus swelling the aggregate to 4,015,773, and the neta ee a.“ Secemeees 408 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN increase during the three years and a half of war, to 145,551. A table is appended, showing particulars. To this again should be added the number of all soldiers in the field from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jer- sey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and California, who by the laws of those states could not vote away from their homes, and which number cannot be less than 90,000. Nor yet is this all. The number in organized terri- tories is triple now what it was four years ago, while thousands, white and black, join us as the national arms press back the insurgent lines. So much is shown, affirmatively and negatively, by the election. It is not material to inquire how the increase has been produced, or to show that it would have been greater but for the war, which is probably true. The important fact remains demonstrated that we have more men now than we had when the war began; that we are not exhausted, nor in process of exhaustion; that we are gaining strength, and may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely. This as to men. Material re- sources are now more complete and abundant than ever. The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe, inexhaustible. The public purpose to re- establish and maintain the national authority is un- changed, and, as we believe unchangeable. The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any good. He would accept noth- ing 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 excuse to deceive ourselves. He cannot voluntarily reaccept the Union; we cannot voluntarily yield it. Between him and us the issue js distinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 409 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 reaccept 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 authority under the Constitution. After so much the government could not, if it would, maintain war against them. The loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If questions should remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful 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 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 special clemency. During the year many availed them- selves of the general provision, and many more would, only that the signs of bad faith in some led to such precautionary measures as rendered the practical process less easy and certain. During the same time, also, special pardons have been granted to individuals of the excepted classes, and no. voluntary application has been denied.= ee a a te ee ee ee eT ee a el ty ee an Me ea a a \ ‘ { { 410 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 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 hereto- fore 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 Emancipa- tion 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 reénslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to per- form 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. ABRAHAM LINCOLN When on March 4, 1865, Lincoln delivered his second in- augural address, the end of the war was in sight. The marks of the four years in the all-consuming furnace of war had been stamped upon his face as upon his soul as revealed in the speech he was about to make. Through all these years he had been growing in patience and in hopefulness; in justice and in understanding; in tenderness and in mercy; in capacity and in strength. With his growth in greatness he had grown in modesty. For whatever he may have been in 1861, now, after the fiery furnace through which he had passed, he was su-SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 41] premely great, though not as yet had his people come to see ‘++ But with it all he was bowed with the griefs of his people, and his face showed the truth of his words at the time, cI think I shall never be glad again.” As Lord Charnwood says: “This man had stood alone in the dark. He had done justice; he had loved mercy; he had walked humbly with his God.” The second inaugural ranks with the Gettysburg address in its simple yet wonderfully felicitous language and style, its deep feeling, and its “high seriousness.” It was not generally so regarded at the time, judging by the comment of the news- papers. Like his other addresses, it was to come into its own after a time. One of the most striking commentaries upon ‘t is that of the London Spectator at a much later day. “In three or four hundred words that burn with the heat of their compression he tells the history of the war and reads its lesson. No nobler thoughts were ever conceived. No man ever found words more adequate to his desire. Here is the whole tale of the nation’s shame and the misery of her heroic struggles to free herself therefrom and of her victory. Had Lincoln written a hundred times as much more, he would not have said more fully what he desired to say. Every thought receives its complete expression, and there is no word employed which does not directly and manifestly contribute to the de- velopment of the central thought. “We cannot read it without a renewed conviction that it is the noblest political document known to history, and should have for the nation and the statesmen he left behind him some- thing of a sacred and almost prophetic character.” SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS (March 4, 1865] FeLLow CountTrRYMEN: At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declara- tions have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs thei Nt i Se — ee 412 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an 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 divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came. One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves con- stituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial 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. 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 askSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 413 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 ‘s 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 discern therein any departure from those divine at- tributes 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 unrequited 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 judg- ments 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 nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have horne 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. * Matthew, vii, 1 + Matthew, xviii, 7 iThe unintentional rime has been frequently criticised. ¢* Psalms, xix, 9. H Hi \ ! i ) | { \ | iet ae lg eit eel tale t 414 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN Lincoln’s own opinion of the address is expressed in a note to Thurlow Weed. TO THURLOW WEED Executive Mansion, Washington, March 15, 1865 Dear Mr. WEED: Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little notification speech and on the recent in- augural address. I expect the latter to wear as well as —perhaps better than—anything I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it. Truly yours, A. LINCOLN As has been seen, Lincoln had very definite views on the question of the reconstruction of the seceded states. These were rather generally accepted after his message of 1863, but, before the session of Congress ended, radical opposition, led by Henry Winter Davis of Maryland and Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, had developed, resulting in the passage of a bill pre- scribing more severe terms of restoration, and ignoring the President in the process required. Lincoln vetoed it, and, so far as could be seen, he had the backing of the country, the convention of 1864 making no mention of the question, and the Session of Congress which ended on March 4. 1865, ignoring it. Lincoln also was not only determined upon the acceptance of the Southern states as still in the Union; he was no less deter- mined that there should be, so far as such a thing was possible,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN A15 © genuine reconciliation of the sections. He, almost alone of public men in the North, had refrained from harsh expressions toward the South. An illustration of his attitude is to be seen in a happening in one of the Washington military hospitals during the war. He started to go into a ward filled with prisoners, and the attendant said, “Mr. President! You won't want to go in there; they are only rebels.” Lincoln laid his hand on the attendant’s shoulder and said, “You mean Con- federates,” and went on in. He allowed food to go to Savannah ‘1 1865 when Stanton refused the ships clearance for the purpose and again and again indicated the sort of policy he had in mind concerning the Southern people. When someone ‘n conversation said that Jefferson Davis ought to be hanged, he quoted, “Let us judge not, that we be not judged,” and repeated, “Let us judge not, that we be not judged.” R. M. T. Hunter, in company with Judge J. A. Campbell and Alex- ander H. Stephens, met Lincoln and Seward on February 4, 1865, at the Hampton Roads Conference, where they discussed the possibility of peace. He felt clearly this attitude of Lincoln and said smilingly, “Well, Mr. Lincoln, we have about concluded that we shall not be hanged as long as you are President, if we behave ourselves.” It was entirely true that he wanted no policy of retribution. He gave orders to facilitate the escape of Davis and his cabinet, and said, “No one need expect I will take any part in hanging or killing these men, even the worst of them. Frighten them out of the country, open the gates, let down the bars, scare them off. Enough lives have been sacrificed; we must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and union.” It was clear that he believed that the new order of things should be established without bitterness and without reproaches, and, as Hapgood says, by treating the Confederate as if he were a beloved brother who had just been convinced in an argument. After the fall of Richmond, Lincoln visited the city. There he met Judge John A. Campbell, who had been at the Hampton Roads Conference, and they discussed the restoration of order. Lincoln gave him the following unsigned memorandum on the subject of the terms of peace:y a -— 2 _— : ' 416 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN MEMORANDUM ON TERMS OF PEACE [April 5, 1865] As to peace, I have said before, and now repeat, that three things are indispensable: 1. The restoration of the national authority through- out the United States. 2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message, and in preceding documents. 3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the government. That all propositions coming from those now in hostility to the government, not inconsistent with the foregoing, will be respectfully considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. I now add that it seems useless for me to be more specific with those who will not say that they are ready for the indispensable terms, even on conditions to be named by themselves. If there be any who are ready for these indispensable terms, on any conditions what- ever, let them say so, and state their conditions, so that the conditions can be known and considered. It is further added, that the remission of confiscation being within the executive power, if the war be now further persisted in by those opposing the government, the making of confiscated property at the least to bear the additional cost will be insisted on, but that confiscations (except in case of third-party intervening interests) will be remitted to the people of any state which shall now promptly and in good faith withdraw its troops from further resistance to the government. What is now said as to the remission of confiscation has no reference to supposed property in slaves.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 417 He then sent General Grant the following account of what he had done: TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT (Telegram | Headquarters, Armies of the United States, City Point, April 6, 1865, 12 M. LIEUTENANT GENERAL GRANT, IN THE FIELD: Secretary Seward was thrown from his carriage yes- terday and seriously injured. This, with other matters, will take me to Washington soon. I was at Richmond yesterday and the day before, when and where Judge Campbell, who was with Messrs. Hunter and Stephens in February, called on me, and made such representa- tions as induced me to put in his hands an informal paper, repeating the propositions in my letter of in- structions to Mr. Seward, which you remember, and adding that if the war be now further persisted in by the rebels, confiscated property shall at the least bear the additional cost, and that confiscation shall be re- mitted to the people of any state which will now promptly and in good faith withdraw its troops and other support from resistance to the government. Judge Campbell thought it not impossible that the rebel legislature of Virginia would do the latter if per- mitted: and accordingly I addressed a private letter to General Weitzel with permission to Judge Campbell to see it, telling him (General Weitzel) that if they attempt this, to permit and protect them, unless they attempt something hostile to the United States, in which case to give them notice and time to leave, and to arrest any remaining after such time. I do not think it very probable that anything will come of this, but I have thought best to notify you, so that if you should see signs you may understand them.418 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN From your recent despatches it seems that you are pretty effectually withdrawing the Virginia troops from opposition to the government. Nothing that I have done, cr probably shall do, is to delay, hinder, or interfere with your work. Yours truly, A. LincoLtn A few days later when preparations were being made for the assembling of the Virginia legislature, so much hostile opposition appeared in the North that Lincoln retracted the offer, saying that the situation had been changed by Lee’s sur- render, which had taken place at Appomattox on April When the news reached Washington of Lee’s surrender, a large crowd went to the White House and called for Lincoln. He asked them to come back the next night and promised that he would speak to them then. In the meantime he prepared with great care an address which proved to be his last public utterance. He read it from one of the windows of the White House to an immense crowd outside, by whom it was en- thusiastically received. It is notable for its dealing with the question of reconstruction, “the binding up of the nation’s wounds.” It was no easy task that lay before him, particularly in view of the bitter hatred of him and his policy on the part of the radical leaders in Congress. The following extract from George W. Julian’s Recollections * will indicate the extent of this. Speaking of Lincoln’s death he wrote: “IT spent most of the afternoon in a political caucus, held for the purpose of considering the necessity for a new cabinet and a line of policy less conciliatory than that of Mr. Lincoln: and while everybody was shocked at his murder, the feeling was nearly universal that the accession of Johnson to the Presidency would prove a godsend to the country.” LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS [April 11, 1865] We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Pete rsburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army give hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous *Julian, Politica’ Recollections, page 255.SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 419 expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part give us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor for plan or execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful officers and brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part. By these recent successes the reinauguration of the national authority—recon- struction—which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our atten- tion. It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no author- ized organ for us to treat with—no one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with and mold from disorganized and dis- cordant elements. Nor is it a small additional em- barrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from read- ing the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new state government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much as, and no more than, the public knows. In the Annual Message of December, 1863, and in the accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I »romised, if adopted by any state, should be acceptable to and sustained by the executive government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might possibly be acceptable, and I also420 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN distinctly protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such states. This plan was in advance submitted to the then cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them sug- gested that I should then and in that connection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore ex- cepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the admission of members to Congress. But even he approved every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emanci- pation for the whole state, practically applies the procla- mation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and it is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, as it applied to Louisiana, every member of the cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I re- ceived many commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and not a single objection to it from any pro- fessed emancipationist came to my knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 1862, I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be interested [in] seeking a reconstruction of a state government for Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident that the people, with his military cooperation, would reconstruct substantially on that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to try it. They tried it, and the result is known. Such has been my only agency in get- ting up the Louisiana government. As to sustaining it,SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 49] my promise is out, as before stated. But as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break it whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest; but I have not yet been so convinced. I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the seceded states, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonishment to his regret were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men endeavoring to make that question, I have pur- posely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all—a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded states, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those states is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether these states have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations be- tween these states and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the states from without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana government rests, would499 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN be more satisfactory to all if it contained 50,000 or 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of only about 12,000, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, Will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new state government? Some 12,000 voters in the heretofore slave state of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the state, held elections, organized a state sovern- ment, adopted a free state constitution. giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white. and em- powering the legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These 12,000 persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom in the state— committed to the very things, and nearly all the things, the nation wants—and they ask the nation’s recognition and its assistance to make good their committal. Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We. in effect, say to the white man: You are worthless, or worse; we will neither help you nor be helped by you. To the blacks we say: This cup of liberty which these. your old masters, hold to your lips we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and Scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how. If this course. discouraging and paralyzing both white and black. has any tendency to epeeSELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN 423 bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union. I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize and sustain the new govern- ment of Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the 12.000 to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it than by running backward over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the national Constitution. To meet this proposition it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those states which have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure to be persistently ques- tioned, while a ratification by three-fourths of all the states would be unquestioned and unquestionable. ] repeat the question: Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sus- taining or by discarding her new state government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other states. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each state, and such important and sudden changes occur in the same state, and withal so new and un- precedented is the whole case that no exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important prin-494 SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN ciples may and must be inflexible. In the present situ- ation, as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper. The kast letter Lincoln wrote was filled with the same thought of reconciliation. TO GENERAL VAN ALEN Executive Mansion, Washington, April 14, 1865 GENERAL VAN ALEN: I intend to adopt the advice of my friends and use due precautions. . . . I thank you for the assurance you give me that I shall be sup- ported by conservative men like yourself, in the efforts I may make to restore the Union, so as to make it, to use your language, a Union of hearts and hands as well as of states. Yours truly, A. LINcoLN On the same night he was shot in Ford’s Theater, and in the early morning of April 15, he was, in Stanton’s expressive words, “with the ages.”ee ee el eee wee Zen a ee tel ee ————ALDERMAN LIBRARY The return of this book is due on the date indicated below DUE DUE Usually books are lent out for two weeks, but there are exceptions and the borrower should note carefully the date Stamped above. Fines are charged for over-due books at the rate of five cents a day: for reserved books there are special rates and regulations. Books must be presented at the desk if renewal ig desired. L-1lex ool 269 401