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ABRKiV.AM Li N CO u 1. o 
 
 Speeches. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 L. E. CHITTENDEN, 
 
 1£v-$rcrftarti f tfje Srcasurq, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "PRESIDENT LINCOLN," ''PERSONAL 
 REMIXISCNCES," ETC. 
 
 
 . 1895 
 
 NEW YORK: '9' * 
 
 T JD, MEAD AND COMPANY. 
 1S95. 
 
J 
 
 Copyright. 1895, 
 By Dodd, Mead |jd Company. 
 
 ©tofocrstts Press: 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. 
 
CONTE. v 
 
 Page 
 
 Reply to the Mayor of Washin >. C 238 
 
 From the First Inaugural Add ... . . 240 
 From his First Message to Co 
 
 Session, July 4, 1S61 249 
 
 From his Message to Congres 
 
 sion .... 259 
 
 I lis Reply to the Lutheran M 265 
 
 From a Letter to General Mc 266 
 From his Proclamation revok 
 Order setting the Slaves fit 
 
 pensated Emancipation to slave Owners . - 268 
 Appeal to the Border States to accept Compensated 
 
 Emancipation 269 
 
 Letter to Cuthbert Bullitt 273 
 
 From his Letter to Count Gasparin 277 
 
 His Letter to Horace Greeley 279 
 
 From his Reply to the Chicago Committee of 
 United Religious Denominations, urging Imme- 
 diate Emancipation 281 
 
 His Order to remember and keep the Sabbath 
 
 Day 286 
 
 From the Annual Message to Congress 287 
 
 Draft of the Proclamation of Emancipation as Sub- 
 mitted to the Cabinet for Final Revision . . . 294 
 
 The Proclamation of Emancipation 295 
 
 From his Message to Congress 298 
 
 His Letter to the Working-men of Manchester, 
 
 England 300 
 
 His Letter to General Hooker 303 
 
 Letter to Rev. Alexander Reed *" . . 305 
 
 From his Reply to the Presbyterian Clergymen . . 306 
 
 Letter to Erastus Corning and Others 307 
 
 From his Reply to the Resolutions of the Demo- 
 cratic State Convention of Ohio 30S 
 
 The Letter to James C. Conkling 313 
 
 His Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving . . 321 
 
V1 VTENTS. 
 
 Re " ' ' io" of the National Ceme- PAGE 
 
 1 .... 
 
 Fr theA » ' ige to Congress' ' ' \l\ 
 
 C1 Fair for the Sanitary Com- 
 
 sion ... 
 
 Ll of Kentucky .' ' ¥1 
 
 •itary Fair in Baltimore .' .' « 4 
 
 IJ '• Srant ... „g 
 
 odist Delegation' ' ' „ Q 
 
 F from the Union League after 
 omination 
 
 1 a Fair' of the Sanitary Com- 34 ° 
 hia 
 
 the 164th Ohio Regiment ' ' ?t, 
 
 1 JaP.Gurney Z/A 
 
 of Baltimore for a Present of 
 ible .- .■ 
 
 renade ....'' ' 34 
 
 Serenade when his Re-election was ^ 
 Cert tin 
 
 His Letter to Mrs. Bixby .' ...."' ' " 34 ? 
 
 From his Annual Message to Congress .' .' ' ' V? 2 
 
 The Second Inaugural Address . ^g 
 
 From his Answer to a Serenade - His "last Public 
 Address . . 
 
 ' ' ' 361 
 
 Index . . . 
 
 &7 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The memory of Abraham Lincoln grows clearer 
 to his countrymen with lapse of time. The more 
 thorough study of his writings, and a higher ap- 
 preciation of his public services, may involve a 
 revision of some opinions founded upon imperfect 
 or unreliable evidence, but they will lead no one 
 to admire or love him less. It seems to be the 
 desire of true Americans to know him just as 
 
 he was. 
 
 No more valuable contribution to an accurate 
 
 knowledge of Abraham Lincoln could be made 
 than a proper selection from his speeches and 
 writings, in a single volume of convenient, read- 
 able form ; and no book of that kind could be 
 more difficult to make. His collected works, in- 
 cluding his speeches in Congress, his political de- 
 bates, and his official papers, would fill several 
 large volumes. Upon what principle or by what 
 rule shall they be compressed into a duodecimo of 
 three or four hundred pages, which will hold the 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 interest of the reader, and enable him to form an 
 accurate estimate of their great author and the 
 true lessons of his life and pen? 
 
 The compilation which I have made will be 
 better understood by a statement of some of the 
 facts of his early life. I shall give these facts as 
 I understand them, without citing authorities. 
 Doubtless there are those who will controvert 
 them, with whom I shall here have no dispute. 
 As I give them, they are consistent with his char- 
 acter, and the evidence is open to those who wish 
 to examine it further. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, born in Kentucky, was de- 
 scended from a New England ancestry, from 
 which he inherited an intense love of liberty, 
 thoroughness of character, and perfect integrity. 
 As often happens, these qualities did not appear 
 in his father, who was poor, improvident, and 
 ignorant. His mother was an energetic Chris- 
 tian woman of much refinement, whose devotion 
 to her domestic and maternal duties soon wore 
 out her frail body, but imprinted her image in- 
 delibly upon the heart of her son. Many times 
 he said that all he was, he owed to her. Then it 
 may be assumed that to her he owed his rugged 
 honesty, which became a part of his name, and 
 that thoroughness which led him to commit 
 
 \ 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 much of the Bible to memory, and which lay 
 at the foundation of his success. He did with 
 his might whatever his hand found to do. Born 
 to poverty, without paternal direction, he turned 
 from one avocation to another, until he became 
 a lawyer, entered public life, and was elected to 
 Congress. From 1848, when he declined are- 
 election to Congress, to June, 1858, he scarcely 
 challenged public notice. He made a speech at 
 Peoria °in 1854, and a few addresses in the Fre- 
 mont campaign, but during those ten years he was 
 not in public life, nor a candidate for office. 
 
 The period of his apparent inaction was that of 
 the metamorphosis of slavery. It comprised the 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Dred 
 Scott decision, and the warfare in Kansas and 
 Nebraska. What he was doing all this time is 
 evident from his subsequent life. 
 
 From that source we learn that he must have 
 been diligently engaged in the study of the his- 
 tory of American slavery. He saw in it the great 
 question of the time, upon which depended the 
 perpetuity of the Union. Slavery had previously 
 been patient under restriction, — it had consented 
 to the several compromises. Now it had sud- 
 denly become aggressive, and not only demanded 
 the repeal of those compromises, but the affirma- 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tion of its right to enter any Territory of the 
 United States. In defiance of their constitutions, 
 it even threatened to claim recognition in the 
 States which were supposed to have been appro- 
 priated in perpetuity to freedom. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln began his study of slavery with 
 the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the 
 commencement of its legislative history. The 
 thoroughness of his investigations may be seen 
 in his Cooper Institute speech in New York 
 (February, i860), wherein he traced the opin- 
 ions of a majority of the members of the first 
 Constitutional Convention on the subject of 
 slavery. Step by step he followed that history, 
 — there was no public man whose votes or 
 speeches escaped his search. Finally he reached 
 the conclusion which made him the President of 
 the United States, the destroyer of the institution, 
 and the emancipator of a race. 
 
 That conclusion was, that the free and the 
 slave States had lived harmoniously together for 
 eighty years, because the framers of the Consti- 
 tution, the statesmen who succeeded them, and 
 the public mind during all that time had rested 
 in the belief that slavery was in the course of 
 ultimate extinction, and would finally come to a 
 peaceful end. Therefore they had consented to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 the abolition of the African slave-trade and 
 other restrictions without objection. 
 
 But a great change had taken place. The 
 advocates of slavery in the South, and their 
 allies in the North, now claimed that slavery 
 should be fostered and made a permanent institu- 
 tion ; that property in slaves, like any other prop- 
 erty, was entitled to be taken into any Territory 
 of the United States, and to be protected there \ 
 that the Missouri Compromise must be repealed, 
 and all other restrictions removed. These claims 
 involved the further claim that slave property 
 should be protected, and consequently that slav- 
 ery should be lawful in all the free States of the 
 Union. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln knew that the free States would 
 never consent to these changes. The differences 
 between them and the teachers of the new school 
 were radical. The free States held that the 
 clause in the Declaration of Independence that 
 all men were created equal, included the negro, 
 and that to enslave him was to commit a moral 
 and political wrong. The South held that slav- 
 ery was morally and politically right. The sur- 
 render of its opinions was prohibited by the 
 conscience of the North ; the South would not 
 give up its claim. The two could not live 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 together. The country must become all slave 
 or all free, or the free and the slave States must 
 separate. 
 
 All this was as clear as the sunlight to the eye 
 of Abraham Lincoln when, on the 16 th of June, 
 1858, in the convention which nominated him to 
 the Senate of the United States, he discoursed 
 from the text, " If a house be divided against 
 itself, that house cannot stand," and declared his 
 belief that this government could not permanently 
 endure half slave and half free. It was useless 
 for his friends to remonstrate ; to assure him 
 that he would be charged with fomenting a sec- 
 tional war ; to entreat him to modify or to with- 
 draw that statement. He simply could not. It 
 was the truth, plain and unclouded ; he might, 
 with his party, fall and perish, but he could not 
 be disloyal to the truth. 
 
 From this time to his nomination for the Presi- 
 dency — covering a very important period of his 
 life, comprising the debate with Judge Douglas 
 and many of his most powerful speeches — al- 
 most all his public utterances, varied, logical, and 
 powerful as they. are, cluster about and illustrate 
 the foregoing text and its associations. It may 
 seem to some unnecessary to multiply extracts 
 from them. Slavery is dead. It will no more 
 
INTRODUCTION. y 
 
 disturb our peace. It has none but an historical 
 interest for the present generation. Why, then, 
 repeat arguments which have spent their force, 
 and demonstrations which have accomplished 
 their purpose ? 
 
 There are still some survivors of the past who, 
 with the writer, remember what an inspiration to 
 patriotism these arguments were when slavery was 
 making ready to raise its hand against the ark of 
 our covenant. They relate to one of the eras 
 in the history of our Republic. They cannot be 
 too well known to the present generation or its 
 posterity. It is better to incur some charge of 
 repetition than to lose the memory of their elo- 
 quence and power. 
 
 The opinion has prevailed that the youth of 
 Abraham Lincoln gave small promise of his future 
 eminence, — that his intellectual powers were 
 slow in reaching their maturity. Such an opin- 
 ion needs revision. His address to the people 
 of Sangamon County, at the age of twenty-three, 
 and that before the Lyceum at Springfield three 
 years later, give as full promise as could be ex- 
 pected at that age, of the speech at Gettysburg 
 and the two inaugural addresses. 
 
 I shall not attempt any criticism of the power 
 or excellence of the following extracts, nor any 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 defence of their selection. They have been 
 made after a thorough study of Mr. Lincoln's 
 intellectual life, from its commencement to its 
 close. If it shall occur to any that omissions 
 have been made, — as, for example, in the great 
 debate with Senator Douglas, — it should be re- 
 membered that this book is not a history. It is 
 a collection intended to comprise the best expres- 
 sions of a great patriot, perhaps the greatest 
 patriot-statesman who has honoured our Republic 
 since its birth. If by its publication I shall 
 succeed in making him better known to the 
 Republic he did so much to preserve, and to the 
 people in whose service his life was sacrificed, I 
 shall feel that I have been adequately rewarded. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Address to the People of Sangamon County.' 
 
 New Salem, March 9, 1832. 
 To the People of Sangamon County- 
 
 Fellow-Citizens, -Having become a candi- 
 date for the honourable office of one of your 
 Representatives in the next General Assembly of 
 this State, in accordance with an established cus- 
 tom and the principles of true republicanism, it 
 becomes my duty to make known to you, the 
 people whom I propose to represent, my senti- 
 ments with regard to local affairs. 
 
 1 Interest is attached to this Address from the fact 
 that t s he earliest-known product of Mr. "^pen 
 
 was issued when, at the age of twenty-three, he was fh st 
 a candidate for the office of Representative to the Leg s a 
 t u o Illinois. It is therefore given without abbrev^on 
 Mr Lincoln was defeated. He was running on the oppo 
 IS to General Jackson, the popular Presidential 
 candidate in Illinois. 
 
I0 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Time and experience have verified to a demon- 
 stration the public utility of internal improve- 
 ments. 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 labour 
 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 fer- 
 tile soil, and importing necessary articles from 
 abroad, are indispensably necessary. A meeting 
 has been held of the citizens of Jacksonville and 
 the adjacent country for the purpose of deliber- 
 ating and inquiring into the expediency of con- 
 structing a railroad from some eligible point on 
 the Illinois River through the town of Jacksonville, 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. \\ 
 
 in Morgan County, to the town of Springfield, 
 in Sangamon County. This is, indeed, a very 
 desirable object. No other improvement that rea- 
 son will justify us in hoping for can equal in utility 
 the railroad. It is a never- failing source of com- 
 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 diffi- 
 culties that render our future hopes of water 
 communication precarious and uncertain. 
 
 Yet, however desirable an object the construc- 
 tion 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 account of its cost which 
 forces us to shrink from our pleasing anticipa- 
 tions. The probable cost of this contemplated 
 railroad is estimated at $290,000 \ the bare state- 
 ment 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 
 
I2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 as the mouth of the South Fork, or probabiy 
 higher, to vessels of from twenty-five to thirty 
 tons' burden, for at least one half of all common 
 years, and to vessels of much greater burden a 
 part of the time. From my peculiar circum- 
 stances, it is probable that for the last twelve 
 months I have given as particular attention to 
 the stage of the water in this river as any other 
 person in the country. In the month of March, 
 1 83 1, in company with others, I commenced the 
 building of a flat-boat on the Sangamon, and fin- 
 ished 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 mill-dam being in the 
 last days of April, the water was lower than it 
 had been since the breaking of winter in Feb- 
 ruary, or than it was for several weeks after. 
 The principal difficulties we encountered in de- 
 scending the river were from the drifted timber, 
 which obstructions all know are not difficult to be 
 removed. Knowing almost precisely the height 
 of water at that time, I believe I am safe in say- 
 ing that it has as often been higher as lower 
 since. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 13 
 
 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 whatever may be its natural advantages, cer- 
 tain it is that it never can be practically useful 
 to any great extent without being greatly im- 
 proved by art. The drifted timber, as I have 
 before mentioned, is the most formidable barrier 
 to this object. Of all parts of the river, none 
 will require so much labour 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 
 Beardstown, in something near a straight direc- 
 tion, and this route is upon such low ground as 
 to retain water in many places during the season, 
 and in all parts such as to draw two-thirds or 
 three-fourths of the river-water at all high stages. 
 
 This route is on prairie-land the whole dis- 
 tance, so that it appears to me, by removing the 
 turf a sufficient width and damming up the old 
 channel, the whole river in a short time would 
 wash its way through, thereby curtailing the dis- 
 tance and increasing the velocity of the current 
 very considerably, while there would be no tim- 
 ber on the banks to obstruct its navigation in 
 
14 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 future ; and, being nearly straight, the timber which 
 might float in at the head would be apt to go 
 clear through. There are also many places above 
 this where the river, in its zigzag course, forms 
 such complete peninsulas as to be easier to cut 
 at the necks than to remove the obstructions from 
 the bends, which, if done, would also lessen the 
 distance. 
 
 What the cost of this work would be I am un- 
 able to say. It is probable, however, that it would 
 not be greater 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 judi- 
 cious, will meet my approbation and shall receive 
 my support. 
 
 It appears that the practice of drawing [qu. 
 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 claim- 
 ing the honour, or risking the danger, which may 
 await its first explorer. It seems as though we 
 were never to have an end to this baneful and 
 corroding system, acting almost as 'prejudicially 
 to the general interests of the community as a 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 15 
 
 direct tax of several thousand dollars annually 
 laid on each county for the benefit of a few indi- 
 viduals only, unless there be a law made fixing 
 the limits of usury. A law for this purpose, I am 
 of opinion, may be made without materially in- 
 juring 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 favour the pas- 
 sage of a law on this subject which might not be 
 very easily evaded. Let it be such that the labour 
 and difficulty of evading it could only be justified 
 in cases of greatest necessity. 
 
 Upon the subject of education, not presuming 
 to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can 
 only say that I view it as the most important sub- 
 ject 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 
 histories of his own and other countries, 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. 
 
16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 For my 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 
 something to the advancement of any measure 
 which might have a tendency to accelerate that 
 happy period. 
 
 With regard 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 con- 
 sidering the great probability that the framers of 
 those laws were wiser than myself, I should pre- 
 fer 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 to the 
 advancement of justice. 
 
 But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Con- 
 sidering the great degree of modesty which should 
 always attend youth, it is probable I have already 
 been more presuming than becomes me. How- 
 ever, upon the subjects of which I have treated, I 
 have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. jy 
 
 in regard to any or all of them ; but, holding it 
 a sound maxim that it is better only to be some- 
 times right than at all times wrong, so soon as I 
 discover my opinions to be erroneous I shall be 
 ready to renounce them. 
 
 Every man is said to have his peculiar ambi- 
 tion. 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 ren- 
 dering 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 re- 
 mained in the most humble walks of life. I have 
 no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recom- 
 mend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon 
 the independent voters of the county, and if 
 elected, they will have conferred a favour upon me 
 for which I shall be unremitting in my labours to 
 compensate. But if the good people in their 
 wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the back- 
 ground, I have been too familiar with disappoint- 
 ments to be very much chagrined. 
 
 Your friend and fellow-citizen, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
18 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From his Address before the Young Men's 
 Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, on the Per- 
 petuation of our Political Institutions. 1 
 
 January, 1837. 
 
 "... In the great journal of things happen- 
 ing under the sun, we, the American people, find 
 our account running under the date of the nine- 
 teenth century of the Christian era. We find 
 ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest 
 portion of the earth, as regards extent of terri- 
 tory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. 
 We find ourselves under the government of a 
 system of political institutions conducing more 
 essentially to the ends of civil and religious lib- 
 erty, than any of which the history of former 
 times tells us. We, when remounting the stage 
 of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors 
 of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not 
 in the acquirement or the establishment of them ; 
 they are a legacy bequeathed to us by a once 
 hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented 
 and departed race of ancestors. 
 
 " Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed 
 it) to possess themselves, and through themselves 
 
 1 Published in the Springfield " Weekly Journal." See 
 Arnold's " Life of Lincoln," p. 61. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 19 
 
 us, of this goodly land, and to rear upon its hills 
 and valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal 
 rights ; 't is ours only to transmit these, — the 
 former unprofaned by the foot of the invader; 
 the latter undecayed by lapse of time. This, 
 our duty to ourselves and to our posterity, and 
 love for our species in general, imperatively re- 
 quire us to perform. 
 
 " How, then, shall we perform it ? At what 
 point shall we expect the approach of danger? 
 By what means shall we fortify against it ? Shall 
 we expect some transatlantic military giant to step 
 across the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never. 
 All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa com- 
 bined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own 
 excepted) in their military chest, with a Bona- 
 parte for a commander, could not, by force, take 
 a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the 
 Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. 
 
 " At what point, then, is the approach of danger 
 to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us, 
 it must spring up among us. It cannot come 
 from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must 
 ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation 
 of freemen, we must live through all time, or die 
 by suicide. 
 
 " . . . There is even now something of ill 
 
 1^ 
 
20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 omen among us. I mean the increasing disre- 
 gard for law which pervades the country ; the 
 growing disposition to substitute wild and furious 
 passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts ; 
 and the worse than savage mobs for the execu- 
 tive ministers of justice. This disposition is 
 awfully fearful in any community; and that it 
 now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings 
 to admit, it would be a violation of truth and an 
 insult to our intelligence to deny. 
 
 " I know the American people are much at- 
 tached to their government. I know they would 
 suffer much for its sake. I know they would en- 
 dure evils long and patiently before they would 
 ever think of exchanging it for another. Yet, 
 notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually 
 despised and disregarded, if their rights to be 
 secure in their persons and property are held by 
 no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the 
 alienation of their affection for the government is 
 the natural consequence, and to that sooner or 
 later it must come. 
 
 " Here, then, is one point at which danger may 
 be expected. The question recurs, how shall we 
 fortify against it? The answer is simple. Let 
 every American, every lover of liberty, every 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 2 I 
 
 well-wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of 
 the Revolution never to violate in the least partic- 
 ular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate 
 their violation by others. As the patriots of sev- 
 enty-six did to the support of the Declaration of 
 Independence, so to the support of the Constitu- 
 tion and the Laws let every American pledge 
 his life, his property, and his sacred honour; 
 let every man remember that to violate the law 
 is to trample on the blood of his father, and to 
 tear the charter of his own and his children's 
 liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed 
 by every American mother to the lisping babe 
 that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught in 
 schools, in seminaries, and in colleges. Let it 
 be written in primers, spelling-books, and in 
 almanacs. Let it be preached from the pulpit, 
 proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in 
 courts of justice. And, in short, let it become 
 the political religion of the nation. 
 
 " Many great and good men, sufficiently quali- 
 fied for any task they should undertake, may ever 
 be found, whose ambition would aspire to nothing 
 beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a 
 presidential chair. But such belong not to the 
 
22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 family of the lion or the brood of the eagle. 
 What ? Think you these places would satisfy an 
 Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! 
 Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks 
 regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinc- 
 tion in adding story to story upon the monu- 
 ments of fame erected to the memory of others. 
 It denies that it is glory enough to serve under 
 any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of 
 any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts 
 and burns for distinction ; and, if possible, it will 
 have it, whether at the expense of emancipating 
 slaves, or enslaving free men. Is it unreasonable, 
 then, to expect that some men, possessed of the 
 loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient 
 to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time 
 spring up among us? And when such a one 
 does, it will require the people to be united with 
 each other, attached to the government and laws, 
 and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate 
 his design. 
 
 " Distinction will be his paramount object, and 
 although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, 
 acquire it by doing good as harm, yet that oppor- 
 tunity being passed, and nothing left to be done 
 in the way of building up, he would sit down 
 boldly to the task of pulling down. Here, then, 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 23 
 
 is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such a 
 one as could not well have existed heretofore. 
 
 "All honour to our Revolutionary ancestors, 
 to whom we are indebted for these institutions. 
 They will not be forgotten. In history we hope 
 they will be read of, and recounted, so long as 
 the Bible shall be read. But even granting that 
 they will, their influence cannot be what it here- 
 tofore has been. Even then, they cannot be so 
 universally known, nor so vividly felt, as they were 
 by the generation just gone to rest. At the close 
 of that struggle, nearly every adult male had been 
 a participator in some of its scenes. The conse- 
 quence was, that of those scenes, in the form of a 
 husband, a father, a son, or a brother, a living 
 history was to be found in every family, — a his- 
 tory bearing the indubitable testimonies to its 
 own authenticity in the limbs mangled, in the 
 scars of wounds received in the midst of the 
 very scenes related ; a history, too, that could be 
 read and understood alike by all, the wise and 
 the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. 
 But those histories are gone. They can be read 
 no more for ever. They were a fortress of 
 strength ; but what the invading foemen could 
 never do, the silent artillery of time has done, — 
 
24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the levelling of its walls. They are gone. They 
 were a forest of giant oaks ; but the resistless 
 hurricane has swept over them, and left only 
 here and there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its 
 verdure, shorn of its foliage, unshading and un- 
 shaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, 
 and to combat with its mutilated limbs a few 
 more ruder storms, and then to sink and be no 
 more. " 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's Earliest Announcement of his 
 Political Opinions. 
 
 June, 1836, and March, 1837. 
 In his letter published in the Sangamon " Jour- 
 nal," in June, 1836, he said: "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 ex- 
 cluding females.] " 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 25 
 
 From his Protest in the Journal of the Legis- 
 lature of Illinois, signed by Mr. Lincoln 
 and Dan Stone. 
 
 March, 1837. 
 
 " The undersigned believe that the institution 
 of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad 
 policy, but that the promulgation of abolition 
 doctrine tends rather to increase than to 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 Congress of the United 
 States has the power, under the Constitution, to 
 abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but 
 that that power ought not to be exercised unless 
 at the request of the people of said district." 
 
26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Extracts from a Political Debate between 
 Mr. Lincoln, E. D. Baker, and others, 
 against Stephen A. Douglas, Josiah Lam- 
 born, AND OTHERS, HELD IN THE SECOND 
 
 Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Il- 
 linois. 
 
 December, 1839. 
 In concluding his speech, Mr. Lincoln said : 
 " Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between 
 the Van Buren party and the Whigs is, that al- 
 though the former sometimes err in practice, 
 they are always correct in principle, whereas the 
 latter are wrong in principle ; and the better to 
 impress this proposition, he uses a figurative 
 expression in these words : ' The Democrats are 
 vulnerable in the heel, but they are sound in the 
 heart and in the head.' The first branch of the 
 figure — that is, that the Democrats are vulner- 
 able in the heel — I admit is not merely figura- 
 tively but literally true. Who that looks but for 
 a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their 
 Harringtons, and their hundreds of others, scam- 
 pering away with the public money to Texas, to 
 Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a 
 villain may hope to find refuge from justice, can 
 at all doubt that they are most distressingly 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 27 
 
 affected in their heels with a species of running 
 fever? It seems that this malady of their heels 
 operates on the sound-headed and honest-hearted 
 creatures very much like the cork leg in the song- 
 did on its owner, which, when he had once got 
 started on it, the more he tried to stop it, the 
 more it would run away. At the hazard of wear- 
 ing this point threadbare, I will relate an anec- 
 dote which seems to be too strikingly in point to 
 be omitted. A witty Irish soldier who was always 
 boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, 
 but who invariably retreated without orders at the 
 first charge of the engagement, being asked by 
 his captain why he did so, replied, ' Captain, I 
 have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had ; 
 but somehow or other, whenever danger ap- 
 proaches, my cowardly legs will run away with 
 it.' So it is with Mr. Lamborn's party. They 
 take the public money into their hands for the 
 most laudable purpose that wise heads and honest 
 hearts can dictate, but before they can possibly 
 get it out again, their rascally vulnerable heels 
 will run away with them. . . . 
 
 " Mr. Lamborn refers to the late elections in 
 the States, and, from their results, confidently 
 predicts every State in the Union will vote for 
 Mr. Van Buren at the next presidential election. 
 
28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Address that argument to cowards and knaves ! 
 With the free and the brave it will effect nothing. 
 It may be true : if it must, let it. Many free 
 countries have lost their liberties, and ours may 
 lose hers ; but if she shall, be it my proudest 
 plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that 
 1 never deserted her. I know that the great 
 volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by 
 the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth 
 the lava of political corruption in a current broad 
 and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity 
 over the whole length and breadth of the land, 
 bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or 
 living thing, while on its bosom are riding, like 
 demons on the wave of hell, the imps of that evil 
 spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those who dare 
 to resist its destroying course with the hopeless- 
 ness of their efforts ; and, knowing this, I cannot 
 deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it, 
 I too may be ; bow to it, I never will. The 
 probability that we may fall in the struggle ought 
 not to deter us from the support of a cause we 
 believe to be just. It shall not deter me. If 
 ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand 
 to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its 
 Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the 
 cause of my country deserted by all the world 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 29 
 
 beside, and I standing up, boldly, alone, hurling 
 defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, with- 
 out contemplating consequences, before Heaven 
 and in the face of the world, I swear eternal 
 fealty to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land 
 of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who 
 that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the 
 oath that I take ? Let none falter who thinks he 
 is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, 
 we shall fail, be it so ; we still shall have the 
 proud consolation of saying to our consciences 
 and to the departed shade of our country's free- 
 dom, that the cause approved of our judgment 
 and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in 
 torture, in death, we never faltered in defending." 
 
 Extracts from his Address before the Spring- 
 field Washingtonian Temperance Society. 
 
 February 22, 1842. 
 
 "Although the temperance cause has been 
 in progress for nearly twenty years, it is apparent 
 to all that it is just now being crowned with a 
 degree of success hitherto unparalleled. 
 
 " The list of its friends is daily swelled by the 
 additions of fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands. 
 The cause itself seems suddenly transformed from 
 
3o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 a cold abstract theory to a living, breathing, active 
 and powerful chieftain, going forth conquering 
 and to conquer. The citadels of his great ad- 
 versary are daily being stormed and dismantled ; 
 his temples and his altars, where the rites of his 
 idolatrous worship have long been performed, 
 and where human sacrifices have long been wont 
 to be made, are daily desecrated and deserted. 
 The trump of the conqueror's fame is sounding 
 from hill to hill, from sea to sea, and from land 
 to land, and calling millions to his standard at a 
 blast. 
 
 • ••••••• 
 
 " ' But,' say some, ' we are no drunkards, and 
 we shall not acknowledge ourselves such by join- 
 ing a reform drunkard's society, whatever our 
 influence might be.' Surely no Christian will 
 adhere to this objection. 
 
 " If they believe, as they profess, that Omnipo- 
 tence condescended to take on himself the form 
 of sinful man, and, as such, to die an ignominious 
 death for their sakes, surely they will not refuse 
 submission to the infinitely lesser condescension 
 for the temporal and perhaps eternal salvation 
 of a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their 
 fellow-creatures ; nor is the condescension very 
 great. In my judgment, such of us as have 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 3I 
 
 never fallen victims have been spared more from 
 the absence of appetite, than from any mental or 
 moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, 
 I believe if we take habitual drunkards as a class, 
 their heads and their hearts will bear an advan- 
 tageous comparison with those of any other class. 
 There seems ever to have been a proneness in the 
 brilliant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice. 
 The demon of intemperance ever seems to have 
 delighted in sucking the blood of genius and 
 generosity. What one of us but can call to 
 mind some relative more promising in youth than 
 all his fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to his 
 rapacity? He ever seems to have gone forth 
 like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned 
 to slay, if not the first, the fairest born of every 
 family. Shall he now be arrested in his deso- 
 lating career? In that arrest all can give aid 
 that will ; and who shall be excused that can and 
 will not? Far around as human breath has ever 
 blown, he keeps our fathers, our brothers, our 
 sons, and our friends prostrate in the chains of 
 moral death. To all the living everywhere we 
 cry, 'Come, sound the moral trump, that these 
 may rise and stand up an exceeding great army ! ' 
 ' Come from the four winds, O breath, and 
 breathe upon these slain, that they may live ! ' 
 
32 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 If the relative grandeur of revolutions shall be 
 estimated by the great amount of human misery 
 they alleviate, and the small amount they inflict, 
 then, indeed, will this be the grandest the world 
 shall ever have seen. 
 
 " Of our political revolution of '76, we are all 
 justly proud. It has given us a degree of political 
 freedom far exceeding that of any other nations 
 of the earth. In it the world has found a solu- 
 tion of the long-mooted problem as to the capa- 
 bility of man to govern himself. In it was the 
 germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow 
 and expand into the universal liberty of mankind. 
 
 " But with all these glorious results, past, 
 present, and to come, it had its evils too. It 
 breathed forth famine, swam in blood, and rode 
 in fire ; and long, long after, the orphans' cry and 
 the widows' wail continued to break the sad silence 
 that ensued. These were the price, the inevit- 
 able price, paid for the blessings it bought. 
 
 " Turn now to the temperance revolution. In 
 it we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a 
 viler slavery manumitted, and a greater tyrant de- 
 posed ; in it, more of want supplied, more disease 
 healed, more sorrow assuaged. By it no orphans 
 starving, no widows weeping. By it none wounded 
 in feeling, none injured in interest ; even the 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 33 
 
 dram-maker and dram-seller will have glided 
 into other occupations so gradually as never to 
 have felt the change, and will stand ready to join 
 all others in the universal song of gladness. And 
 what a noble ally this to the cause of political 
 freedom ! with such an aid its march cannot fail 
 to be on and on, till every son of earth shall drink 
 in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching draughts of 
 perfect liberty. Happy day when, all appetites 
 controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter sub- 
 jected, mind, all-conquering mind, shall live and 
 move, the monarch of the world ! Glorious con- 
 summation ! Hail, fall of fury ! Reign of reason, 
 all hail ! 
 
 " And when the victory shall be complete, — 
 when there shall be neither a slave nor a drunk- 
 ard on the earth, — how proud the title of that 
 Land which may truly claim to be the birth- 
 place and the cradle of both those revolutions 
 that shall have ended in that victory ! How nobly 
 distinguished that people who shall have planted 
 and nurtured to maturity both the political and 
 moral freedom of their species ! 
 
 " This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary 
 of the birthday of Washington. We are met to 
 celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest 
 name of earth, — long since mightiest in the cause 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. 
 On that name no eulogy is expected. It cannot 
 be. To add brightness to the sun, or glory to 
 the name of Washington, is alike impossible. 
 Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce 
 the name, and in its naked, deathless splendour 
 leave it shining on." 
 
 From the Circular of the Whig Committee. 1 
 
 March 4, 1843. 
 
 "... As an individual who undertakes to 
 live by borrowing soon finds his original means 
 devoured by interest, and next, no one left to 
 borrow from, so must it be with a government. 
 
 " We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for 
 revenue, or a direct tax, must soon be resorted 
 to ; and, indeed, we believe this alternative is 
 now denied by no one. But which system shall 
 be adopted? Some of our opponents in theory 
 admit the propriety of a tariff sufficient for rev- 
 enue, but even they will not in practice vote for 
 such a tariff; while others boldly advocate direct 
 
 1 This address, signed by Mr. Lincoln and two other 
 members of the Whig Committee, was written by Mr. Lin- 
 coln, and was an effective exposition of his principles at 
 the time. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 35 
 
 taxation. Inasmuch, therefore, as some of them 
 boldly advocate direct taxation, and all the rest 
 — or so nearly all as to make exceptions need- 
 less — refuse to adopt the tariff, we think it is 
 doing them no injustice to class them all as advo- 
 cates of direct taxation. Indeed, we believe 
 they are only delaying an open avowal of the 
 system till they can assure themselves that the 
 people will tolerate it. Let us, then, briefly 
 compare the two systems. The tariff is the 
 cheaper system, because the duties, being col- 
 lected in large parcels, at a few commercial 
 points, will require comparatively few officers in 
 their collection ; while by the direct tax system 
 the land must be literally covered with assessors 
 and collectors, going forth like swarms of Egyp- 
 tian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and 
 other green thing. And again by the tariff sys- 
 tem the whole revenue is paid by the consumers 
 of foreign goods, and those chiefly the luxuries 
 and not the necessaries of life. By this system, 
 the man who contents himself to live upon the 
 products of his own country pays nothing at all. 
 And surely that country is extensive enough, and 
 its products abundant and varied enough, to an- 
 swer all the real wants of its people. In short, 
 by this system the burden of revenue falls almost 
 
36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 entirely on the wealthy and luxurious few, while 
 the substantial and labouring many, who live at 
 home and upon home products, go entirely free. 
 By the direct tax system, none can escape. 
 However strictly the citizen may exclude from 
 his premises all foreign luxuries, fine cloths, fine 
 silks, rich wines, golden chains, and diamond 
 rings, — still, for the possession of his house, his 
 barn, and his homespun he is to be perpetually 
 haunted and harassed by the tax-gatherer. With 
 these views, we leave it to be determined whether 
 we or our opponents are more truly democratic 
 on the subject. 
 
 " . . . We declare it to be our solemn con- 
 viction that the Whigs are always a majority of 
 this nation ; and that to make them always suc- 
 cessful needs but to get them all to the polls and 
 to vote unitedly. This is the great desideratum. 
 Let us make every effort to attain it. At every 
 election, let every Whig act as though he knew 
 the result to depend upon his action. In the 
 great contest of 1840, some more than twenty- 
 one hundred thousand votes were cast, and so 
 surely as there shall be that many, with the ordi- 
 nary increase added, cast in 1844, that surely 
 will a Whig be elected President of the United 
 States." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 37 
 
 From his Speech in the House of Represen- 
 tatives of the United States. 1 
 
 July 27, 184S. 
 
 "... I have said General Taylor's position 
 is as well defined as is that of General Cass. 
 In saying this, I admit I do not certainly know 
 what he would do on the Wilmot proviso. I am 
 a Northern man, or rather a Western free-state 
 man, with a constituency I believe to be, and 
 with personal feelings I know to be, against the 
 extension of slavery. As such, and with what in- 
 formation I have, I hope and believe General Tay- 
 lor, if elected, would not veto the proviso. But I 
 do not knoiv it. Yet if I knew he would, I still 
 
 1 No apology is deemed necessary for these selections 
 from Mr. Lincoln's last important speech in Congress. It 
 may be conceded that they are undignified ; and yet they 
 indicate that the seed sown in his early life had not fallen 
 upon barren ground. It germinates slightly in his 
 eulogy upon Henry Clay, in 1852; it grows strong in the 
 speech at Peoria, in 1854; is still more vigorous in the 
 criticism of the Died Scott decision, in 1857 ; and its rip- 
 ened fruit appears in the " Divided House " speech of 
 June, 1858. The speech of July 27, 1848, marks the end 
 of a stage in the intellectual growth of its author, — the 
 change of the politician into the statesman. It was the 
 time when he laid aside satire and ridicule, and thence- 
 forward only made use of argument and historical or phi- 
 losophic demonstration. 
 
38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 would vote for him. I should do so, because, in 
 my judgment, his election alone can defeat Gen- 
 eral Cass ; and because, should slavery thereby 
 go to the territory we now have, just so much will 
 certainly happen by the election of Cass, and, in 
 addition, a course of policy leading to new wars, 
 new acquisitions of territory, and still further ex- 
 tensions of slavery. One of the two is to be 
 President ; which is preferable ? 
 
 " . . . The other day, one of the gentlemen 
 from Georgia [Mr. Iverson], an eloquent man, and 
 a man of learning, so far as I can judge, not be- 
 ing learned myself, came down upon us astonish- 
 ingly. He spoke in what the Baltimore ' American ' 
 calls ' the scathing and withering style.' At the 
 end of his second severe flash I was struck blind, 
 and found myself feeling with my fingers for an 
 assurance of my continued physical existence. 
 A little of the bone was left, and I gradually re- 
 vived. He eulogised Mr. Clay in high and beau- 
 tiful terms, and then declared that we had 
 deserted all our principles, and had turned Henry 
 Clay out, like an old horse, to root. This is terribly 
 severe. It cannot be answered by argument ; at 
 least, I cannot so answer it. I merely wish to 
 ask the gentleman if the Whigs are the only 
 party he can think of who sometimes turn old 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 39 
 
 horses out to root. Is not a certain Martin Van 
 Buren an old horse which your own party have 
 turned out to root? And is he not rooting to 
 your discomfort about now? 
 
 " . . . But the gentleman from Georgia fur- 
 ther says we have deserted all our principles and 
 taken shelter under General Taylor's military 
 coat-tail, and he seems to think this is exceed- 
 ing degrading. Well, as his faith is, so be it unto 
 him. But can he remember no other military 
 coat-tail under which a certain other party have 
 been sheltering for near a quarter of a century? 
 Has he no acquaintance with the ample military 
 coat-tail of General Jackson ? Does he not know 
 that his own party have run the last five presi- 
 dential races under that coat-tail, and that they 
 are now running the sixth under that same cover? 
 Yes, sir. That coat-tail was used not only for 
 General Jackson himself, but has been clung to 
 with the grip of death by every Democratic can- 
 didate since. 
 
 " ... By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you 
 know I am a military hero ? Yes, sir, in the days 
 of the Black Hawk War, I fought, bled, and came 
 away. Speaking of General Cass's career, re- 
 minds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's 
 defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to 
 
40 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Hull's surrender ; and, like him, I saw the place 
 very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not 
 break my sword, for I had none to break ; but I 
 bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion. If 
 Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in 
 desperation ; I bent the musket by accident. If 
 General Cass went in advance of me in picking 
 huckleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges 
 upon the wild onions. If he saw any live fight- 
 ing Indians, it was more than I did ; but I had a 
 good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, 
 and although I never fainted from loss of blood, 
 I can truly say I was often very hungry. ..." 
 
 The Eulogy upon Henry Clay. 
 
 July 1 6, 1852. 
 
 Note. — The fact is mentioned by all the 
 biographers of Mr. Lincoln, except Nicolay and 
 Hay, that on the 16th of July, 1852, at the re- 
 quest of his fellow-citizens, he delivered, at the 
 State House in Springfield, an eulogy upon 
 Henry Clay. In the most comprehensive of 
 these biographies, no mention appears to be 
 made of this eulogy, and of at least one other 
 address made by Mr. Lincoln. No selections 
 are made from this eulogy for obvious reasons. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 41 
 
 It was regarded at the time as unworthy of its 
 writer. Dr. Holland says, " The eulogy was pro- 
 nounced in the State House, and was listened to 
 by a large audience. The discourse, as it was 
 printed in the city newspapers of the day, was 
 by no means a remarkable one. It is remem- 
 bered as a very dull one at its delivery, and was 
 so regarded by Mr. Lincoln himself, who com- 
 plained that he lacked the imagination necessary 
 for a performance of that character." 
 
 Mr. Lamon says, " Such addresses are usually 
 called orations ; but this one scarcely deserved 
 the name. He made no effort to be eloquent, 
 and in no part of it was he more than ordinarily 
 animated. It is true that he bestowed great 
 praise upon Mr. Clay ; but it was bestowed in 
 cold phrases and a tame style, wholly unlike the 
 bulk of his previous compositions. ... If the 
 address upon Clay is of any historical value at 
 all, it is because it discloses Mr. Lincoln's unre- 
 served agreement with Mr. Clay in his opinions 
 concerning slavery and the proper method of ex- 
 tinguishing it. They both favoured gradual eman- 
 cipation by the voluntary action of the people of 
 the slave States and the transportation of the 
 whole negro population to Africa," etc. 
 
 Lapse of time and the distinguished career of 
 its author have only served to confirm the justice 
 of the contemporary criticisms of this paper. As 
 it appears in the " Collected Writings" of its 
 author, it is the most conspicuous of the two or 
 three papers which do not illustrate the thought- 
 
42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ful preparation which Mr. Lincoln usually gave 
 to his addresses, to which our literature is in- 
 debted for. so many gems of thought which will 
 permanently enrich and adorn its pages. 
 
 After a dry enumeration of the public offices 
 filled by Mr. Clay, the eulogy includes a long 
 obituary notice from one of the public journals, 
 the name of which is not given. It mentions 
 the public questions, including the Compromise 
 of 1820, in which Mr. Clay took a leading part, 
 and its remaining pages are occupied by an ac- 
 count of Mr. Clay's labours, in connection with 
 the American Colonisation Society, in attempting 
 to popularise the impossible scheme of abolish- 
 ing slavery by the deportation of the negro race 
 to Africa. One point in the eulogy is of some in- 
 terest in view of the use afterwards made of it by 
 Mr. Lincoln. It is his contention that the " Fath- 
 ers " intended to include the negro in the state- 
 ment in the Declaration of Independence, that 
 " all men are created equal," and that Mr. Cal- 
 houn was the first American of any note to assail 
 or ridicule the claim of the black man to a place 
 in the "white man's charter of freedom." His 
 comment upon Mr. Calhoun's new exposition has 
 in it a spark of the Lincoln humour, and has a 
 singular appropriateness in 1895. "We, how- 
 ever, look for and are not much shocked by 
 political eccentricities and heresies in South 
 Carolina." 
 
 There is not value enough in its few bright 
 thoughts to relieve the dulness of this document. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 43 
 
 No selections from it which would increase his 
 fame or serve any useful purpose, are possible. 
 It is omitted, then, with the consolatory reflection 
 " aliquando dormitat bonus Homerus." 
 
 From his Reply to Senator Douglas, deliv- 
 ered at Peoria, Illinois. Origin of the 
 Wilmot Proviso. 1 
 
 October 16, 1S54. 
 "... 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 
 expedient, 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 swimmingly in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, when a Democratic member from 
 Pennsylvania by the name of David Wilmot moved 
 as an amendment, ' Provided, that in any terri- 
 
 1 This speech was written out by Mr. Lincoln, and 
 published under his direction. It was his first speech 
 which attracted public attention. It is important, because 
 it shows the gradual growth of the argument presented in 
 the "divided House " speech of June, 1S5S. 
 
44 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tory thus acquired there shall never be slavery.' 
 This is the origin of the far-famed Wilmot Pro- 
 viso. 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, how- 
 ever, adjourned without final action on it, and 
 so both the appropriation and the proviso were 
 lost for the time. 
 
 "... This declared indifference, but, as I must 
 think, real, covert zeal, for the spread of slavery, I 
 cannot but hate. I hate it because of the mon- 
 strous 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 hypo- 
 crites, causes the real friends of freedom to doubt 
 our sincerity, and especially because it forces 
 so many good men amongst ourselves into an 
 open war with the very fundamental principles of 
 civil liberty, criticising the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, and insisting that there is no right 
 principle of action but self-interest. . . . 
 
 "... Equal justice to the South, it is said, 
 requires us to consent to the extension of slavery 
 to new countries. That is to say, that inasmuch 
 as you do not object to my taking my hog to 
 Nebraska, therefore I must not object to your 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 45 
 
 taking your slave. Now, I admit that this is per- 
 fectly logical, if there is no difference between 
 hogs and slaves. But while you thus require me 
 to deny the humanity of the negro, I wish to ask 
 whether you of the South, yourselves, have ever 
 been willing to do as much ? It is kindly pro- 
 vided that of all those who come into the world, 
 only a small percentage are natural tyrants. 
 That percentage 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 consciousness that, after all, 
 there is humanity in the negro. . . . In 1820 
 you joined the North almost unanimously in de- 
 claring 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. 
 
4 6 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " Again, you have among you a sneaking indi- 
 vidual 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 recognise him 
 as a friend, or even as an honest man. Your 
 children must not play with his ; they may rollick 
 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? 
 
 " . . . And yet again. There are in the 
 United States and Territories, including the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, over four hundred and thirty 
 thousand free blacks. At five hundred dollars 
 per head, they are worth over two hundred mil- 
 lions of dollars. How comes this vast amount of 
 property to be running about without owners? 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ^ 
 
 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 which has operated on their white 
 owners, inducing 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 con- 
 tinually telling you that the poor negro has some 
 natural right to himself, — that those who deny it 
 and make mere merchandise of him deserve kick- 
 ings, contempt, and death. 
 
 . . . 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.' . . . Some poet has said, — 
 
 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' 
 
 At the hazard of being thought one of the fools 
 of this quotation, I meet that argument, — I rush 
 in, — I take that bull by the horns. ... My 
 faith in the proposition that each man should do 
 precisely as he pleases with all which is exclu- 
 sively his own, lies at the foundation of the sense 
 of justice there is in me. I extend the prin- 
 ciple to communities of men as well as to indi- 
 
4 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 viduals. 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 Vir- 
 ginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The 
 doctrine of self-government is right, — absolutely 
 and eternally right ; but it has no just application 
 as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather 
 say that whether it has any application here de- 
 pends upon whether a negro is not or is a man. 
 If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man 
 may, as a matter of self-government, do just what 
 he pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, 
 is it not to that extent a total destruction of self- 
 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-government, — that is despot- 
 ism. If the negro is a man, then my ancient 
 faith teaches me that ' all men are created equal,' 
 and that there can be no moral right in connec- 
 tion with one man's making a slave of another. 
 
 " . . . Frequently and with bitter irony our 
 argument is paraphrased by saying, ' The white 
 people of Nebraska are good enough to govern 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 49 
 
 themselves, but they are not good enough to gov- 
 ern a few miserable negroes ! ' 
 
 " Well, I doubt not that the people of Ne- 
 braska 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 lead- 
 ing principle, — the sheet-anchor of American 
 republicanism. 
 
 " . . . Slavery is founded in the selfishness of 
 man's nature, — opposition to it in his love of jus- 
 tice. These principles are in eternal antagonism, 
 and when brought into collision so fiercely as slav- 
 ery 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 con- 
 tinue to speak. . . . 
 
 " The Missouri Compromise ought to be re- 
 stored. . . . But whether it be or not, we shall 
 have repudiated — discarded from the councils 
 of the nation — the spirit of compromise ; 
 
 4 
 
5o 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 for who, after this, will ever trust in a national 
 compromise? The spirit of mutual concession 
 — that spirit which first gave us the Constitution, 
 and has thrice saved the Union — we shall have 
 strangled and cast from us for ever. 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 restraints, 
 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 
 the constitutional right to take and hold slaves in 
 the free States, demand the revival of the slave- 
 trade, and demand 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 Com- 
 promise, and with it the spirit of all compromise, 
 will or will not embolden and embitter each of 
 these, and fatally increase the number of both. 
 
 " . . . Some men, mostly Whigs, who con- 
 demn the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 51 
 
 nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration, lest 
 they be thrown in company with the Abolition- 
 ists. Will they allow me, as an old Whig, to tell 
 them good-humouredly 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 Abolition- 
 ist in restoring the Missouri Compromise, and 
 stand against, him when he attempts to repeal the 
 Fugitive Slave Law. ... In both cases you 
 are right. ... In both you are national, and 
 nothing less than national. ... 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 slavery 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 because the Fathers of the 
 Republic eschewed and rejected it. . . . The 
 plain, unmistakable spirit of their age towards 
 slavery was hostility to the principle, and tolera- 
 tion only by necessity. 
 
 " But now it is to be transformed into a sacred 
 right. . . . Henceforth it is to be the chief jewel 
 
52 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of the nation, — the very figure-head 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 declaration, that for some men 
 to enslave others is a sacred right of self-govern- 
 ment. These principles cannot stand together. 
 They are as opposite as God and Mammon ; 
 and whoever holds to the one must despise the 
 other. . . . 
 
 " Our Republican robe is soiled and trailed in 
 the dust. Let us purify it. Let us turn and 
 wash it white in the spirit if not the blood of the 
 Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims 
 of moral right, back upon its existing legal rights 
 and its arguments of necessity. Let us return it 
 to the position our fathers gave it, and there let 
 it rest in peace. Let us re-adopt the Declaration 
 of Independence, and with it the practices and 
 policy which harmonise 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 for ever worthy of the saving. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 53 
 
 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. . . ." 
 
 Extracts from Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 1 
 
 August 24, 1855. 
 " . . . You suggest that in political action now, 
 you and I would differ. I suppose we would ; 
 not quite so much, however, as you may think. 
 You know I dislike slavery, and you fully admit 
 the abstract wrong of it. So far there is no cause 
 of difference. But you say that sooner than yield 
 your legal right to the slave, especially at the bid- 
 ding of those who are not themselves interested, 
 you would see the Union dissolved. I am not 
 aware that any one is bidding you yield that 
 right; very certainly I am not. I leave that 
 matter entirely to yourself. I also acknowledge 
 your rights and my obligations under the Consti- 
 
 1 In this letter to his intimate friend, as a justification 
 of his dislike of slavery, Mr. Lincoln is supposed to have 
 referred to his first object-lesson of the evils of the insti- 
 tution. If the incident of the slave auction in New 
 Orleans had occurred, it is believed that he would have 
 referred to it in this letter, which is a beautiful illustra- 
 tion of the sincerity of its author. 
 
54 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tution in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate 
 to see the poor creatures hunted down and caught 
 and carried back to their stripes and unrequited 
 toil ; but I bite my lips and keep quiet. In 1841, 
 you and I had together a tedious low- water trip 
 on a steamboat, from Louisville to St. Louis. You 
 may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville 
 to the mouth of the Ohio, there were on board 
 ten or a dozen slaves shackled together with irons. 
 That sight was a continued torment to me, and I 
 see something like it every time I touch the Ohio 
 or any other slave border. It is not fair for you 
 to assume that I have no interest in a thing which 
 has, and continually exercises, the power of mak- 
 ing me miserable. You ought rather to appreciate 
 how much the great body of the Northern people 
 do crucify their feelings in order to maintain their 
 loyalty to the Constitution and the Union. I do 
 oppose the extension of slavery, because my judg- 
 ment and feeling so prompt me, and I am under 
 no obligations to the contrary. If for this you 
 and I must differ, differ we must. You say if 
 you were President, you would send an army and 
 hang the leaders of the Missouri outrages upon 
 the Kansas elections ; still, if Kansas fairly votes 
 herself a slave State she must be admitted, or the 
 Union must be dissolved. But how if she votes 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 55 
 
 herself a slave State unfairly ; that is, by the very 
 means for which you say you would hang men? 
 Must she still be admitted, or the Union dis- 
 solved ? That will be the phase of the question 
 when it first becomes a practical one. In your 
 assumption that there may be a fair decision of 
 the slavery question in Kansas, I plainly see that 
 you and I would differ about the Nebraska law. 
 I look upon that enactment, not as a law, but as 
 a violence from the beginning. It was conceived 
 in violence, is maintained in violence, and is 
 being executed in violence. I say it was con- 
 ceived in violence, because the destruction of 
 the Missouri Compromise, under the circum- 
 stances, was nothing less than violence. It was 
 passed in violence, because it could not have 
 passed at all but for the votes of many members 
 in violence of the known will of their constitu- 
 ents. It is maintained in violence, because the 
 elections since clearly demand its repeal, and the 
 demand is openly disregarded. 
 
 " You say men ought to be hung for the way 
 they are executing the law ; I say that the way it 
 is being executed is quite as good as any of its 
 antecedents. It is being executed in the precise 
 way which was intended from the first, else why 
 does no Nebraska man express astonishment or 
 
56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 condemnation? Poor Reeder is the only public 
 man who has been silly enough to believe that 
 anything like fairness was ever intended, and he 
 has been bravely undeceived. 
 
 "That Kansas will form a slave constitution, 
 and with it ask to be admitted into the Union, 
 I take to be already a settled question, and so 
 settled by the very means you so pointedly con- 
 demn. By every principle of law ever held by 
 any court North or South, every negro taken 
 to Kansas is free ; yet in utter disregard of this 
 — in the spirit of violence merely — that beau- 
 tiful Legislature gravely passes a law to hang any 
 man who shall venture to inform a negro of his 
 legal rights. This is the subject and real object 
 of the law. If, like Hainan, they should hang 
 upon the gallows of their own building, I shall 
 not be among the mourners for their fate. In 
 my humble sphere, I shall advocate the restora- 
 tion of the Missouri Compromise so long as 
 Kansas remains a Territory ; and when, by all 
 these foul means, it seeks to come into the 
 Union as a slave State, I shall oppose it. I am 
 very loath in any case to withhold my assent to 
 the enjoyment of property acquired or located 
 in good faith ; but I do not admit that good faith 
 in taking a negro to Kansas to be held in slavery 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 57 
 
 is a probability with any man. Any man who 
 has sense enough to be the controller of his own 
 property has too much sense to misunderstand 
 the outrageous character of the whole Nebraska 
 business. But I digress. In my opposition to 
 the admission of Kansas, I shall have some com- 
 pany, but we may be beaten. If we are, I shall 
 not, on that account, attempt to dissolve the 
 Union. I think it probable, however, we shall 
 be beaten. Standing as a unit among yourselves, 
 you can, directly and indirectly, bribe enough of 
 our men to carry the day, as you could on the 
 open proposition to establish a monarchy. Get 
 hold of some man in the North whose position 
 and ability are such that he can make the sup- 
 port of your measure, whatever it may be, a 
 Democratic-party necessity, and the thing is 
 done. Apropos of this, let me tell you an anec- 
 dote. Douglas introduced the Nebraska Bill in 
 January. In February afterward, there was a 
 called session of the Illinois Legislature. Of 
 the one hundred members composing the two 
 branches of that body, about seventy were Demo- 
 crats. These latter held a caucus, in which the 
 Nebraska Bill was talked of, if not formally dis- 
 cussed. It was thereby discovered that just three, 
 and no more, were in favour of the measure. In 
 
58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 a day or two Douglas's orders came on to have 
 resolutions passed approving the bill ; and they 
 were passed by large majorities ! The truth of 
 this is vouched for by a bolting Democratic 
 member. The masses too, Democratic as well 
 as Whig, were even nearer unanimous against it ; 
 but as soon as the party necessity of supporting 
 it became apparent, the way the Democrats be- 
 gan to see the wisdom and justice of it was 
 perfectly astonishing. 
 
 " You say that if Kansas fairly votes herself a 
 free State, as a Christian you will rejoice at it. 
 All decent slaveholders talk that way, and I do 
 not doubt their candour ; but they never vote 
 that way. Although in a private letter or con- 
 versation you will express your preference that 
 Kansas should be free, you would vote for no 
 man for Congress who would say the same thing 
 publicly. No such man could be elected from 
 any district in a slave State. You think String- 
 fellow and company ought to be hung. . . . 
 The slave-breeders and slave-traders are a small, 
 odious, and detested class among you ; and yet 
 in politics they dictate the course of all of you, 
 and are as completely your masters as you are 
 the master of your own negroes. You inquire 
 where I now stand. That is a disputed point. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 59 
 
 I think I am a Whig ; but others say there are 
 no Whigs, and that I am an Abolitionist. When 
 I was at Washington, I voted for the Wilmot Pro- 
 viso as good as forty times ; and I never heard 
 of any one attempting to unwhig me for that. 
 I now do no more than oppose the extension of 
 slavery. I am not a Know-nothing ; that is cer- 
 tain. How could I be? How can any one who 
 abhors the oppression of negroes be in favour 
 of degrading classes of white people? Our 
 progress in degeneracy appears to me to be 
 pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring 
 that all men are created equal. We now prac- 
 tically read it, all men are created equal except 
 negroes. When the Know-nothings get control, 
 it will read, all men are created equal except ne- 
 groes and foreigners and Catholics. When it 
 comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some 
 country where they make no pretence of loving 
 liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despot- 
 ism can be taken pure, and without the base 
 alloy of hypocrisy. . . ." 
 
6o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From his Discussion of the decision in the 
 Dred Scott Case, at Springfield, Illinois. 1 
 
 June 26, 1857. 
 " . . . And now as to the Dred Scott decision. 
 That decision declares two propositions, — first, 
 that a negro cannot sue in the United States 
 courts ; and secondly, that Congress cannot pro- 
 hibit slavery in the Territories. It was made 
 by a divided court, — dividing differently on the 
 different points. Judge Douglas does not dis- 
 cuss the merits of the decision, and in that 
 respect I shall follow his example, believing I 
 
 1 The biographers of Mr. Lincoln do not seem to have 
 given to this speech the credit to which it is entitled. One 
 of them says, it was "not of much consequence." No 
 doubt it would have attracted more notice had Mr. Lincoln 
 been better known ; but when it is remembered that the 
 speech was delivered within six months after the Dred 
 Scott decision was made ; that it pointed out the far-reach- 
 ing force of that decision ; that it opened all the terri- 
 tories to slavery against the will of the people and the 
 territorial legislature; that it was a masterly analysis of 
 the views of the majority of the court, and did not touch 
 the right of the people to labour for its reversal, — this 
 speech will be found worthy of its place in history, fol- 
 lowing the speech at Peoria, the letter to Mr. Speed, and 
 to be followed by the "divided House" speech of the 
 next year. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. d 
 
 could no more improve on McLean and Curtis 
 than he could on Taney. 
 
 " He denounces all who question the correct- 
 ness of that decision, as offering violent resistance 
 to it. But who resists it? Who has, in spite of 
 the decision, declared Dred Scott free, and re- 
 sisted the authority of his master over him ? 
 
 " Judicial decisions have two uses : first, to 
 absolutely determine the case decided ; and sec- 
 ondly, to indicate to the public how other similar 
 cases will be decided when they arise. For the 
 latter use, they are called < precedents ' and 
 * authorities.' 
 
 " We believe as much as Judge Douglas (per- 
 haps more) in obedience to and respect for the 
 judicial department of government. We think 
 its decisions on constitutional questions, when 
 fully settled, should control not only the par- 
 ticular cases decided, but the general policy of 
 the country, subject to be disturbed only by 
 amendments of the Constitution, as provided 
 in that instrument itself. More than this would 
 be revolution. But we think the Dred Scott 
 decision is erroneous. We know the court that 
 made it has often overruled its own decisions, 
 and we shall do what we can to have it overrule 
 this. We offer no resistance to it. 
 
62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " Judicial decisions are of greater or less au- 
 thority as precedents according to circumstances. 
 That this should be so, accords both with com- 
 mon-sense and the customary understanding of 
 the legal profession. 
 
 " If this important decision had been made by 
 the unanimous concurrence of the judges, and 
 without any apparent partisan bias, and in ac- 
 cordance with legal public expectation, and with 
 the steady practice of the departments through- 
 out our history, and had been in no part based 
 on assumed historical facts, which are not really 
 true ; or if wanting in some of these, it had been 
 before the court more than once, and had there 
 been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of 
 years, — it then might be, perhaps would be 
 factious, nay, even revolutionary, not to acquiesce 
 in it as a precedent. 
 
 " But when, as is true, we find it wanting in 
 all these claims to the public confidence, it is not 
 resistance, it is not factious, it is not even disre- 
 spectful to treat it as not having yet quite estab- 
 lished a settled doctrine for the country. 
 
 "... The Chief Justice does not directly 
 assert, but plainly assumes as a fact, that the 
 public estimate of the black man is more favour- 
 able now than it was in the days of the Revolu- 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 63 
 
 tion. This assumption is a mistake. In some 
 trilling particulars the condition of that race has 
 been ameliorated ; but as a whole, in this coun- 
 try, the change between then and now is decidedly 
 the other way ; and their ultimate destiny has never 
 appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four 
 years. In two of the five States — New Jersey 
 and North Carolina — that then gave the free 
 negro the right of voting, the right has since 
 been taken away ; and in a third, New York, it 
 has been greatly abridged : while it has not been 
 extended, so far as I know, to a single additional 
 State, though the number of the States has more 
 than doubled. In those days, as I understand, 
 masters could, at their own pleasure, emancipate 
 their slaves ; but since then such legal restraints 
 have been made upon emancipation as to amount 
 almost to prohibition. In those days legislatures 
 held the unquestioned power to abolish slavery 
 in their respective States ; but now it is becoming 
 quite fashionable for State constitutions to with- 
 hold that power from the legislatures. In those 
 days, by common consent, the spread of the 
 black man's bondage to the new countries was 
 prohibited ; but now Congress decides that it will 
 not continue the prohibition, and the Supreme 
 Court decides that it could not if it would. In 
 
64 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 those days our Declaration of Independence was 
 held sacred by all, and thought to include all ; 
 but now, to aid in making the bondage of the 
 negro universal and eternal, it is assailed and 
 sneered at, and construed, and hawked at, and 
 torn, till, if its framers could rise from their 
 graves, they could not at all recognise it. All 
 the powers of earth seem rapidly combining 
 against him. Mammon is after him ; ambition 
 follows, philosophy follows, and the theology of 
 the day is fast joining in the cry. They have 
 him in his prison-house ; they have searched his 
 person, and left no prying instrument with him. 
 One after another they have closed the heavy 
 iron doors upon him ; and now they have him, 
 as it were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred 
 keys, which can never be unlocked without the 
 concurrence of every key ; the keys in the hands 
 of a hundred different men, and they scattered to 
 a hundred different and distant places ; and they 
 stand musing as to what invention, in all the 
 dominions of mind and matter, can be produced 
 to make the impossibility of escape more com- 
 plete than it is. It is grossly incorrect to say or 
 assume that the public estimate of the negro is 
 more favourable now than it was at the origin of 
 the government. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 65 
 
 "... There is a natural disgust in the minds 
 of nearly all white people at the idea of an 
 indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and 
 black races ; and Judge Douglas evidently is 
 basing his chief hope upon the chances of 
 his being able to appropriate the benefit of 
 this disgust to himself. If he can, by much 
 drumming and repeating, fasten the odium of 
 that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he 
 can struggle through the storm. He therefore 
 clings to this hope as a drowning man to the 
 last plank. He makes an occasion for lugging 
 it in from the opposition to the Dred Scott de- 
 cision. He finds the Republicans insisting that 
 the Declaration of Independence includes all 
 men, black as well as white ; and forthwith he 
 boldly denies that it includes negroes at all, and 
 proceeds to arguely gravely that all who contend 
 it does, do so only because they want to vote, and 
 eat, and sleep, and marry with negroes ! He will 
 have it that they cannot be consistent else. Now 
 I protest against the counterfeit logic which con- 
 cludes that because I do not want a black woman 
 for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife. 
 I need not have her for either. I can just leave 
 her alone. In some respects she certainly is not 
 my equal ; but in her natural right to eat the 
 
 5 
 
66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 bread she earns with her own hands without ask- 
 ing leave of any one else, she is my equal, and the 
 equal of all others. 
 
 " Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the 
 Dred Scott case, admits that the language of the 
 Declaration is broad enough to include the whole 
 human family; but he and Judge Douglas argue 
 that the authors of that instrument did not in- 
 tend to include negroes, by the fact that they did 
 not at once actually place them on an equality 
 with the whites. Now this grave argument comes 
 to just nothing at all, by the other fact that they 
 did not at once, nor ever afterward, actually place 
 all white people on an equality with one another. 
 And this is the staple argument of both the Chief 
 Justice and the senator, for doing this obvious 
 violence to the plain, unmistakable language of 
 the Declaration. 
 
 " I think the authors of that notable instru- 
 ment intended to include all men, but they did 
 not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. 
 They did not mean to say that all were equal in 
 color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social 
 capacity. They defined with tolerable distinct- 
 ness in what respects they did consider all men 
 created equal, — equal with ' certain inalienable 
 rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pur- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 6 7 
 
 suit of happiness.' This they said, and this they 
 meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious 
 untruth that all were then actually enjoying that 
 equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it 
 immediately upon them. In fact, they had no 
 power to confer such a boon. They meant simply 
 to declare the right, so that the enforcement of 
 it might follow as fast as circumstances should 
 permit. 
 
 "They meant to set up a standard maxim for 
 free society, which should be familiar to all and 
 revered by all, — constantly looked to, constantly 
 laboured for, and, even though never perfectly 
 attained, constantly approximated, and thereby 
 constantly spreading and deepening its influence, 
 and augmenting the happiness and value of life 
 to all people of all colours everywhere. The as- 
 sertion that ' all men are created equal,' was of 
 no practical use in effecting our separation from 
 Great P3ritain ; and it was placed in the Declara- 
 tion, not for that, but for future use. Its authors 
 meant it to be as, thank God, it is now proving 
 itself, a stumbling-block to all those who in after 
 times might seek to turn a free people back into 
 the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the 
 proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they 
 meant, when such should reappear in this fair land 
 
68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 and commence their vocation, that they should 
 find left for them at least one hard nut to crack. 
 
 " . . . Judge Douglas makes a mere wreck, a 
 mangled ruin, of our once glorious Declaration. 
 He says ' they were speaking of British subjects 
 on this continent being equal to British subjects 
 born and residing in Great Britain ! ' Why, ac- 
 cording to this, not only negroes but white people 
 outside of Great Britain and America were not 
 spoken of in that instrument. The English, Irish, 
 and Scotch, along with white Americans, were 
 included, to be sure ; but the French, Germans, 
 and other white people of the world are all gone 
 to pot along with the Judge's inferior races ! 
 
 " I had thought that the Declaration promised 
 something better than the condition of British 
 subjects ; but no, it only meant that we should 
 be equal to them in their own oppressed and 
 unequal condition. According to that, it gave 
 no promise that, having kicked off the king and 
 lords of Great Britain, we should not at once be 
 saddled with a king and lords of our own. 
 
 " I had thought the Declaration contemplated 
 the progressive improvement in the condition of 
 all men, everywhere ; but no, it merely ' was 
 adopted for the purpose of justifying the colo- 
 nists in the eyes of the civilised world in with- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 6g 
 
 drawing their allegiance from the British crown, 
 and dissolving their connection with the mother- 
 country.' Why, that object having been effected 
 some eighty years ago, the Declaration is of no 
 practical use now — mere rubbish — old wadding, 
 left to rot on the battle-field after the victory is 
 won. 
 
 " I understand you are preparing to celebrate 
 the ' Fourth,' to-morrow week. What for? The 
 doings of that day had no reference to the pres- 
 ent ; and quite half of you are not even descen- 
 dants of those who were referred to at that day. 
 But I suppose you will celebrate, and will even go 
 so far as to read the Declaration. Suppose, after 
 you read it once in the old-fashioned way, you 
 read it once more with Judge Douglas's version. 
 It will then run thus : ' We hold these truths to 
 be self-evident, that all British subjects who were 
 on this continent eighty- one years ago, were 
 created equal to all British subjects born and 
 then residing in Great Britain ! ' 
 
 " . . . The very Dred Scott case affords a 
 strong test as to which party most favours amal- 
 gamation, the Republicans or the dear Union- 
 saving Democracy. Dred Scott, his wife and 
 two daughters, were all involved in the suit. We 
 desired the court to have held that they were 
 
7 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 citizens, so far at least as to entitle them to a 
 hearing as to whether they were free or not ; and 
 then also, that they were in fact and in law really 
 free. Could we have had our way, the chances 
 of these black girls ever mixing their blood with 
 that of white people would have been diminished 
 at least to the extent that it could not have been 
 without their consent. But Judge Douglas is 
 delighted to have them decided to be slaves, 
 and not human enough to have a hearing, even 
 if they were free, and thus left subject to the 
 forced concubinage of their masters, and liable to 
 become the mothers of mulattoes in spite of them- 
 selves, — the very state of the case that produces 
 nine-tenths of all the mulattoes, all the mixing 
 of the blood of the nation. 
 
 "... Let us be brought to believe it is morally 
 right, and at the same time favourable to, or at 
 least not against our interest to transfer the African 
 to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do 
 it, however great the task may be. The children 
 of Israel, to such numbers as to include four hun- 
 dred thousand fighting men, went out of Egyptian 
 bondage in a body. 
 
 " . . . The plainest print cannot be read 
 through a gold eagle ; and it will be ever hard 
 to find many men who will send a slave to Li- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 n 
 
 beria and pay his passage, while they can send 
 him to a new country — Kansas, for instance — 
 and sell him for fifteen hundred dollars and the 
 rise." 
 
 The " Divided House " Speech delivered at 
 Springfield, Illinois, on his Nomination to 
 the Senate of the United States. 1 
 
 June 17, 1858. 
 
 If we could first know where we are, and 
 
 whither we are tending, we could better judge 
 
 what to do, and how to do it. We are now far 
 
 into the fifth year since a policy was initiated 
 
 1 This speech is the most important ever made by Mr. 
 Lincoln. It was printed and circulated with the report 
 of the Lincoln and Douglas debate, and it brought its 
 author prominently before the people of the whole coun- 
 try. No careful reader of this speech will fail to discover 
 that it cannot be condensed, that no paragraph in it can 
 be omitted without weakening its logic, injuring its style, 
 and doing injustice to its author. It has an interesting 
 history which it does not fall within the scope of this vol- 
 ume to give. It should always be presented in its en- 
 tirety, to maintain its own position as a model for political 
 speakers, a specimen of English composition, and, whether 
 judged by its intrinsic qualities or its influence upon the 
 fortunes of the Republic, one of the greatest of all politi- 
 cal documents since the Declaration of Independence. 
 

 
 72 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 with the avowed object and confident promise of 
 putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the 
 operation of that policy, that agitation has not 
 only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. 
 In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall 
 have been reached and passed. " A house di- 
 vided against itself cannot stand." I believe this 
 government cannot endure permanently, half 
 slave and half free. I do not expect the Union 
 to be dissolved, — I do not expect the house to 
 fall ; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. 
 It will become all one thing, or all the other. 
 Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the 
 further spread of it, and place it where the pub- 
 lic mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the 
 course of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates 
 will push it forward till it shall become alike law- 
 ful in all the States, old as well as new, North as 
 well as South. 
 
 Have we no tendency to the latter condition? 
 Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate 
 that now almost complete legal combination — 
 piece of machinery, so to speak — compounded 
 of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott de- 
 cision. Let him consider not only what work 
 the machinery is adapted to do, and how well 
 adapted ; but also let him study the history of its 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 n 
 
 construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, 
 if he can, to trace the evidences of design and 
 concert of action among its chief architects from 
 the beginning. 
 
 The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded 
 from more than half the States by State constitu- 
 tions, and from most of the national territory by 
 congressional prohibition. Four days later com- 
 menced the struggle which ended in repealing 
 that congressional prohibition. This opened all 
 the national territory to slavery, and was the first 
 point gained. 
 
 But so far, Congress only had acted ; and an 
 indorsement by the people, real or apparent, 
 was indispensable to save the point already gained 
 and give chance for more. 
 
 This necessity had not been overlooked, but 
 had been provided for, as well as might be, in the 
 notable argument of Squatter Sovereignty, other- 
 wise called sacred right of self-government, which 
 latter phrase, though expressive of the only right- 
 ful basis of any government, was so perverted in 
 this attempted use of it, as to amount to just this : 
 That if any one man choose to enslave another, 
 no third man shall be allowed to object. That 
 argument was incorporated into the Nebraska 
 Bill itself, in the language which follows : "It 
 
74 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 being the true intent and meaning of this act, not 
 to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor 
 to exclude it therefrom ; but to leave the people 
 thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their 
 domestic institutions in their own way, subject 
 only to the Constitution of the United States." 
 Then opened the roar of loose declamation in 
 favour of Squatter Sovereignty and sacred right of 
 self-government. " But," said opposition mem- 
 bers, "let us amend the bill so as to expressly 
 declare that the people of the Territory may 
 exclude slavery." " Not we," said the friends of 
 the measure, and down they voted the amend- 
 ment. 
 
 While the Nebraska Bill was passing through 
 Congress, a law case, involving the question of a 
 negro's freedom, by reason of his owner having 
 voluntarily taken him first into a free State and 
 then into a Territory covered by the congres- 
 sional prohibition, and held him as a slave for a 
 long time in each, was passing through the 
 United States Circuit Court for the District of 
 Missouri ; and both Nebraska Bill and lawsuit 
 were brought to a decision, in the same month of 
 May, 1854. The negro's name was "Dred 
 Scott," which name now designates the decision 
 finally rendered in the case. Before the then 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 75 
 
 next presidential election, the law case came to, 
 and was argued, in the Supreme Court of the 
 United States ; but the decision of it was deferred 
 until after the election. Still, before the election, 
 Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, re- 
 quested the leading advocate of the Nebraska 
 Bill to state his opinion whether the people of 
 a Territory can constitutionally exclude slavery 
 from their limits, and the latter answers: "That 
 is a question for the Supreme Court." 
 
 The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, 
 and the indorsement, such as it was, secured. 
 That was the second point gained. The indorse- 
 ment, however, fell short of a clear popular ma- 
 jority by nearly four hundred thousand votes, 
 and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable 
 and satisfactory. The outgoing President, in his 
 last annual message, as impressively as possible 
 echoed back upon the people the weight and au- 
 thority of the indorsement. The Supreme Court 
 met again ; did not announce their decision, but 
 ordered a reargument. The presidential inaugu- 
 ration came, and still no decision of the Court ; 
 but the incoming President in his inaugural ad- 
 dress fervently exhorted the people to abide by 
 the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. 
 Then, in a few days, came the decision. 
 
76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 The reputed author of the Nebraska Bill finds 
 an early occasion to make a speech at this capi- 
 tol, indorsing the Dred Scott decision, and vehe- 
 mently denouncing all opposition to it. The 
 new President, too, seizes the early occasion of 
 the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly construe 
 that decision, and to express his astonishment 
 that any different view had ever been entertained ! 
 
 At length a squabble springs up between the 
 President and the author of the Nebraska Bill, on 
 the mere question of fact whether the Lecompton 
 constitution was, or was not, in any just sense, 
 made by the people of Kansas ; and in that quar- 
 rel, the latter declares that all he wants is a fair 
 vote for the people, and that he cares not whether 
 slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not 
 understand his declaration that he cares not 
 whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to 
 be intended by him other than as an apt definition 
 of the policy he would impress upon the public 
 mind, — the principle for which he declares he 
 has suffered so much, and is ready to suffer to 
 the end. And well may he cling to that prin- 
 ciple. If he has any parental feeling, well may 
 he cling to it. That principle is the only shred 
 left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under 
 the Dred Scott decision, " squatter sovereignty " 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. yj 
 
 squatted out of existence, tumbled down like 
 temporary scaffolding; like the mould at the 
 foundry, it served through one blast, and fell back 
 into loose sand, — helped to carry an election, 
 and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint 
 struggle with the Republicans against the Le- 
 compton constitution, involves nothing of the 
 original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was 
 made on a point — the right of the people to 
 make their own constitution — upon which he 
 and the Republicans have never differed. 
 
 The several points of the Dred Scott decision 
 in connection with Senator Douglas's " care not" 
 policy, constitute the piece of machinery in its 
 present state of advancement. This was the 
 third point gained. The working points of that 
 machinery are : — 
 
 First. That no negro slave, imported as such 
 trom Africa, and no descendant of such slave, 
 can ever be a citizen of any State, in the sense of 
 that term as used in the Constitution of the United 
 States. This point is made in order to deprive 
 the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit 
 of that provision of the United States Constitu- 
 tion which declares that " citizens of each State 
 shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities 
 of citizens in the several States." 
 
78 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Secondly. That "subject to the Constitution of 
 the United States," neither Congress nor a terri- 
 torial legislature can exclude slavery from any 
 United States Territory. This point is made in 
 order that individual men may fill up the Terri- 
 tories with slaves, without danger of losing them 
 as property, and thus enhance the chances of 
 permanency to the institution through all the 
 future. 
 
 Thirdly. That whether the holding a negro in 
 actual slavery in a free State makes him free as 
 against the holder, the United States Courts will 
 not decide, but will leave to be decided by the 
 courts of any slave State the negro may be forced 
 into by the master. This point is made, not to 
 be pressed immediately ; but if acquiesced in for a 
 while, and apparently indorsed by the people at 
 an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion 
 that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do 
 with Dred Scott in the free State of Illinois, every 
 other master may lawfully do, with any other 
 one, or one thousand slaves in Illinois, or in any 
 other free State. 
 
 Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand 
 with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of 
 it, is to educate and mould public opinion not to 
 care whether slavery is voted down or voted up. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. yg 
 
 This shows exactly where we now are, and par- 
 tially, also, whither we are tending. 
 
 It will throw additional light on the latter, to go 
 back, and run the mind over the string of histor- 
 ical facts already stated. Several things will now 
 appear less dark and mysterious than they did 
 when they were transpiring. The people were to 
 be left "perfectly free," " subject only to the Con- 
 stitution." What the Constitution had to do with 
 it, outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough 
 now ; it was an exactly fitted niche for the Dred 
 Scott decision to afterwards come in, and declare 
 the perfect freedom of the people to be just no 
 freedom at all. Why was the amendment ex- 
 pressly declaring the right of the people voted 
 down ? Plainly enough now : the adoption of 
 it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred 
 Scott decision. Why was the Court decision 
 held up ? Why even a Senator's individual opin- 
 ion withheld till after the presidential election? 
 Plainly enough now: the speaking out then 
 would have damaged the perfectly free argument 
 upon which the election was to be carried. Why 
 the outgoing President's felicitation on the in- 
 dorsement? Why the delay of a reargument? 
 Why the incoming President's advance exhorta- 
 tion in favour of the decision? These things 
 
80 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 look like the cautious patting and petting of a 
 spirited horse, preparatory to mounting him, 
 when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a 
 fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of 
 the decision by the President and others? 
 
 We cannot absolutely know that all these 
 adaptations are the result of preconcert. But 
 when we see a lot of framed timbers, different 
 portions of which we know have been gotten out 
 at different times and places, and by different 
 workmen — Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, 
 for instance (Douglas, Pierce, Taney, Buchanan), 
 — and when we see those timbers joined together, 
 and see they exactly make the frame of a house 
 or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fit- 
 ting, and all the lengths and proportions of the 
 different pieces exactly adapted to their respec- 
 tive places, and not a piece too many or too few, 
 not omitting even scaffolding — or if a single 
 piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame 
 exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such 
 piece in, — in such a case, we find it impossible 
 not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and 
 Roger and James all understood one another 
 from the beginning, and all worked upon a com- 
 mon plan or draft, drawn up before the first blow 
 was struck. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 8 1 
 
 It should not be overlooked that by the Ne- 
 braska Bill the people of a State as well as Terri- 
 tory were to be left " perfectly free," " subject 
 only to the Constitution." Why mention a State? 
 They were legislating for Territories, and not for 
 or about States. Certainly the people of a State 
 are and ought to be subject to the Constitution 
 of the United States ; but why is mention of this 
 lugged into this merely territorial law? Why 
 are the people of a Territory and the people of 
 a State therein lumped together, and their rela- 
 tion to the Constitution therein treated as being 
 precisely the same ? While the opinion of the 
 Court by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott 
 case, and the separate opinions of all the con- 
 curring judges, expressly declare that the Con- 
 stitution of the United States neither permits 
 Congress nor a territorial legislature to exclude 
 slavery from any United States Territory, they 
 all omit to declare whether or not the same 
 Constitution permits a State or the people of a 
 State to exclude it. Possibly this is a mere omis- 
 sion ; but who can be quite sure if McLean 
 or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a 
 declaration of unlimited power in the people of a 
 State to exclude slavery from their limits, — just as 
 Chase and Mace sought to get such declaration 
 
 6 
 
82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 in behalf of the people of a Territory, into the 
 Nebraska Bill, — I ask, who can be quite sure that 
 it would not have been voted down in the one 
 case as it had been in the other? The nearest 
 approach to the point of declaring the power of 
 a State over slavery is made by Judge Nelson. 
 He approaches it more than once, using the 
 precise idea, and almost the language too, of the 
 Nebraska act. On one occasion his exact lan- 
 guage is " except in cases where the power is 
 restrained by the Constitution of the United 
 States, the law of the State is supreme over the 
 subject of slavery within its jurisdiction." In 
 what cases the power of the State is so restrained 
 by the United States Constitution is left an open 
 question, precisely as the same question, as to 
 the restraint on the power of the Territories, was 
 left open in the Nebraska act. Put this and 
 that together, and we have another nice little 
 niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with 
 another Supreme Court decision, declaring that 
 the Constitution of the United States does not 
 permit a State to exclude slavery from its limits. 
 And this may especially be expected if the doc- 
 trine of " care not whether slavery be voted down 
 or voted up " shall gain upon the public mind 
 sufficiently to give promise that such a decision 
 can be maintained when made. 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. %$ 
 
 Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of 
 being alike lawful in all the States. Welcome or 
 unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and 
 will soon be upon us, unless the power of the 
 present political dynasty shall be met and over- 
 thrown. We shall lie down, pleasantly dream- 
 ing that the people of Missouri are on the verge 
 of making their State free, and we shall awake to 
 the reality instead, that the Supreme Court has 
 made Illinois a slave State. To meet and over- 
 throw the power of that dynasty is the work now 
 before all those who would prevent that consum- 
 mation. That is what we have to do. How can 
 we best do it? 
 
 There are those who denounce us openly to 
 their own friends, and yet whisper to us softly 
 that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument 
 there is with which to effect that object. They 
 wish us to infer all from the fact that he now has 
 a little quarrel with the present head of that dy- 
 nasty, and that he has regularly voted with us on 
 a single point, upon which he and we have never 
 differed. They remind us that he is a great man 
 and that the largest of us are very small ones. 
 Let this be granted. But " a living dog is better 
 than a dead lion." Judge Douglas, if not a dead 
 lion, for this work is at least a caged and toothless 
 
84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery ? 
 He don't care anything about it. His avowed 
 mission is impressing the " public heart " to care 
 nothing about it. A leading Douglas Democratic 
 newspaper thinks Douglas's superior talent will 
 be needed to resist the revival of the African 
 slave-trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to 
 revive that trade is approaching? He has not 
 said so. Does he really think so? But if it is, 
 how can he resist it? For years he has laboured 
 to prove it a sacred right of white men to take 
 negro slaves into the new territories. Can he 
 possibly show that it is a less sacred right to buy 
 them where they can be bought cheapest? And 
 unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in 
 Africa than in Virginia. He has done all in his 
 power to reduce the whole question of slavery to 
 one of a mere right of property : and, as such, 
 how can he oppose the foreign slave-trade? — 
 how can he refuse that trade in that property 
 shall be "perfectly free," unless he does it as a 
 protection to home production? And as the 
 home producers will probably not ask the pro- 
 tection, he will be wholly without a ground of 
 opposition. 
 
 Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man 
 may rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yes- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 85 
 
 terday — that he may rightfully change when he 
 finds himself wrong. But can we, for that reason, 
 run ahead, and infer that he will make any par- 
 ticular change, of which he himself has given no 
 intimation ? Can we safely base our action upon 
 any such vague inference ? 
 
 Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge 
 Douglas's position, question his motives, or do 
 aught that can be personally offensive to him. 
 Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together 
 on principle, so that our cause may have assis- 
 tance from his great ability, I hope to have inter- 
 posed no adventitious obstacle. But, clearly, he 
 is not now with us — he does not pretend to be 
 — he does not promise ever to be. 
 
 Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and 
 conducted by, its own undoubted friends — those 
 whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the 
 work, who do care for the result. Two years ago 
 the Republicans of the nation mustered over thir- 
 teen hundred thousand strong. We did this under 
 the single impulse of resistance to a common dan- 
 ger, with every external circumstance against us. 
 Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, 
 we gathered from the four winds, and formed and 
 fought the battle through, under the constant hot 
 fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. 
 
86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Did we brave all then to falter now ? — now, 
 when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, 
 and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. 
 We shall not fail. If we stand firm, we shall not 
 fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes 
 delay it ; but sooner or later the victory is sure 
 to come. 
 
 From his Speech at Chicago, in reply to the 
 
 Speech of Judge Douglas, on the Evening 
 
 of July 9, 1858. 
 
 ///// 10, 1858. 
 
 Note. — Twenty years after the delivery of 
 this speech the following account of it was given 
 to me by a conservative and distinguished Dem- 
 ocrat. " I lived in Chicago at the time," he 
 said, " and I was a Douglas Democrat. We 
 loved the ' Little Giant ' for his courage, and we 
 had a sympathy for him, for he seemed to be fight- 
 ing half his own party and all the Republicans. 
 
 " I listened to Douglas's speech on the ninth 
 of July. He had a large audience, in full sym- 
 pathy with him, and he himself was at his best. 
 When he concluded there were many calls for 
 Lincoln. He appeared, and quietly said that the 
 hour was late, the audience weary, and to answer 
 Judge Douglas one must begin earlier in the 
 evening. He did not know that he should be 
 able to answer him, but those who cared to hear 
 him try, would come there the next evening. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 87 
 
 " I heard Mr. Lincoln's speech the next even- 
 ing, every word of it. When I assure you that it 
 convinced and converted a Douglas Democrat 
 like myself, I have expressed not only my own 
 opinion, but that of ten thousand others com- 
 prising that audience. I was satisfied then that 
 the 'Little Giant' had met his master." 
 
 This speech was generally considered by Re- 
 publicans as second in importance only to the 
 " Divided House " speech, the principles of which 
 it firmly maintained. It was afterwards repub- 
 lished, with others, under the same cover as the 
 Douglas and Lincoln Debate, and had a wide 
 circulation. No apology is deemed necessary 
 for the length of the selections from it, — it would 
 be published entire if the portions here omitted 
 did not appear elsewhere in this volume. 
 
 The address commenced with a good-natured 
 refutation of the charge that an alliance to defeat 
 Douglas existed between the friends of Lincoln 
 and the Buchanan Democrats. Then Mr. Lin- 
 coln went straight to the Douglas war-cry of 
 Popular Sovereignty. 
 
 u . . . Popular sovereignty ! everlasting pop- 
 ular sovereignty ! Let us for a moment inquire 
 into this vast matter of popular sovereignty. 
 What is popular sovereignty? We recollect that 
 at an early period in the history of this struggle, 
 there was another name for the same thing, — 
 squatter sovereignty. It was not exactly popular 
 
88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 sovereignty, but squatter sovereignty. What do 
 these terms mean? What do those terms mean 
 when used now? And vast credit is taken by 
 our friend, the Judge, in regard to his support of 
 it, when he declares the last years of his life have 
 been, and all the future years of his life shall be, 
 devoted to this matter of popular sovereignty. 
 What is it ? Why, it is the sovereignty of the peo- 
 ple ! What was squatter sovereignty ? I suppose, 
 if it had any signification at all, it was the right 
 of the people to govern themselves, to be sover- 
 eign in their own affairs, while they were squatted 
 down in a country not their own, — while they had 
 squatted on a territory that did not belong to 
 them, in the sense that a State belongs to the 
 people who inhabit it, — when it belonged to the 
 nation; such right to govern themselves was 
 called ' squatter sovereignty.' 
 
 " Now, I wish you to mark, What has become 
 of that squatter sovereignty ? What has become 
 of it ? Can you get anybody to tell you now that 
 the people of a Territory have any authority to gov- 
 ern themselves, in regard to this mooted question 
 of slavery, before they form a State constitution? 
 No such thing at all, although there is a general 
 running fire, and although there has been a hurrah 
 made in every speech on that side, assuming that 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 89 
 
 policy had given to the people of a Territory the 
 right to govern themselves upon this question; 
 yet the point is dodged. To-day it has been de- 
 cided — no more than a year ago it was decided 
 by the Supreme Court of the United States, and 
 is insisted upon to-day — that the people of a 
 Territory have no right to exclude slavery from 
 a Territory ; that if any one man chooses to take 
 slaves into a Territory, all the rest of the people 
 have no right to keep them out. This being so, 
 and this decision being made, one of the points 
 that the Judge approved, and one in the approval 
 of which he says he means to keep me down, — 
 put me down I should not say, for I have never 
 been up ! He says he is in favour of it, and 
 sticks to it, and expects to win his battle on that 
 decision, which says that there is no such thing as 
 squatter sovereignty, but that any one man may 
 take slaves into a Territory, and all the other 
 men in the Territory may be opposed to it, and 
 yet by reason of the Constitution they cannot 
 prohibit it. When that is so, how much is left of 
 this vast matter of squatter sovereignty, I should 
 like to know? 
 
 " When we get back, we get to the point of the 
 right of the people to make a constitution. Kan- 
 sas was settled, for example, in 1854. It was a 
 
9 o 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Territory yet, without having formed a constitu- 
 tion, in a very regular way, for three years. All 
 this time negro slavery could be taken in by any 
 few individuals, and by that decision of the Su- 
 preme Court, which the Judge approves, all the 
 rest of the people cannot keep it out ; but when 
 they come to make a constitution they may say 
 they will not have slavery. But it is there ; they 
 are obliged to tolerate it in some way, and all ex- 
 perience shows it will be so, — for they will not 
 take the negro slaves and absolutely deprive the 
 owners of them. All experience shows this to 
 be so. All that space of time that runs from the 
 beginning of the settlement of the Territory until 
 there is a sufficiency of people to make a State 
 constitution, — all that portion of time popular 
 sovereignty is given up. The seal is absolutely 
 put down upon it by the court decision, and 
 Judge Douglas puts his own upon the top of that ; 
 yet he is appealing to the people to give him 
 vast credit for his devotion to popular sovereignty. 
 " Again, when we get to the question of the 
 right of the people to form a State constitution 
 as they please, to form it with slavery or without 
 slavery, — if that is anything new I confess I 
 don't know it. Has there ever been a time when 
 anybody said that any other than the people of 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 91 
 
 a Territory itself should form a constitution? 
 What is now in it that Judge Douglas should have 
 fought several years of his life, and pledge him- 
 self to fight all the remaining years of his life for? 
 Can Judge Douglas find anybody on earth that 
 said that anybody else should form a constitution 
 for a people? ... It is enough for my pur- 
 pose to ask, whenever a Republican said any- 
 thing against it? They never said anything 
 against it, but they have constantly spoken for 
 it ; and whosoever will undertake to examine 
 the platform and the speeches of responsible 
 men of the party, and of irresponsible men, too, 
 if you please, will be unable to find one word 
 from anybody in the Republican ranks opposed 
 to that popular sovereignty which Judge Douglas 
 thinks he has invented. I suppose that Judge 
 Douglas will claim in a little while that he is the 
 inventor of the idea that the people should gov- 
 ern themselves ; that nobody ever thought of 
 such a thing until he brought it forward. We do 
 not remember that in that old Declaration of 
 Independence it is said that '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 
 
9 2 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 secure these rights, governments are instituted 
 among men, deriving their just powers from the 
 consent of the governed.' There is the origin of 
 popular sovereignty. Who, then, shall come in 
 at this day and claim that he invented it? 
 
 "The Lecompton constitution connects itself 
 with this question, for it is in this matter of the 
 Lecompton constitution that our friend Judge 
 Douglas claims such vast credit. I agree that in 
 opposing the Lecompton constitution, so far as 
 I can perceive, he was right. I do not deny that 
 at all ; and, gentlemen, you will readily see why 
 I could not deny it, even if I wanted to. But I 
 do not wish to, for all the Republicans in the 
 nation opposed it, and they would have opposed 
 it just as much without Judge Douglas's aid as 
 with it. They had all taken ground against it 
 long before he did. Why, the reason that he 
 urges against that constitution I urged against 
 him a year before. I have the printed speech in 
 my hand. The argument that he makes why 
 that constitution should not be adopted, that the 
 people were not fairly represented nor allowed to 
 vote, I pointed out in a speech a year ago, which 
 I hold in my hand now, that no fair chance was 
 to be given to the people. . . . 
 
 " A little more now as to this matter of popu- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 93 
 
 Iar sovereignty and the Lecompton constitution. 
 The Lecompton constitution, as the Judge tells 
 us, was defeated. The defeat of it was a good 
 thing, or it was not. He thinks the defeat of it 
 was a good thing, and so do I ; and we agree in 
 that. Who defeated it? [A voice, " Judge Doug- 
 las."] Yes, he furnished himself; and if you 
 suppose he controlled the other Democrats that 
 went with him, he furnished three votes, while 
 the Republicans furnished twenty. 
 
 " That is what he did to defeat it. In the 
 House of Representatives he and his friends fur- 
 nished some twenty votes, and the Republicans 
 furnished ninety odd. Now, who was it that did 
 the work? [A voice, "Douglas."] Why, yes, 
 Douglas did it? To be sure he did ! 
 
 " Let us, however, put that proposition another 
 way. The Republicans could not have done it 
 without Judge Douglas. Could he have done it 
 without them? Which could have come the 
 nearest to doing it without the other? Ground 
 was taken against it by the Republicans long be- 
 fore Douglas did it. The proposition of oppo- 
 sition to that measure is about five to one. [A 
 voice, " Why don't they come out on it? "] You 
 don't know what you are talking about, my 
 friend; I am quite willing to answer any gen- 
 
94 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tie man in the crowd who asks an intelligent 
 question. 
 
 " Now, who in all this country has ever found 
 any of our friends of Judge Douglas's way of 
 thinking, and who have acted upon this main 
 question, that have ever thought of uttering a 
 word in behalf of Judge Trumbull? I defy you 
 to show a printed resolution passed in a Demo- 
 cratic meeting. I take it upon myself to defy 
 any man to show a printed resolution, large or 
 small, of a Democratic meeting in favour of Judge 
 Trumbull, or any of the five to one Republicans 
 who beat that bill. Everything must be for the 
 Democrats ! They did everything, and the five to 
 the one that really did the thing, they snub over, 
 and they do not seem to remember that they 
 have an existence upon the face of the earth. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I fear that I shall become te- 
 dious. I leave this branch of the subject to take 
 hold of another. I take up that part of Judge 
 Douglas's speech in which he respectfully at- 
 tended to me. 
 
 "Judge Douglas made two points upon my 
 recent speech at Springfield. He says they are 
 to be the issues of this campaign. The first one 
 of these points he bases upon the language in a 
 speech which I delivered at Springfield, which I 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 95 
 
 believe I can quote correctly from memory. I 
 said that ' we are now far into the fifth year since 
 a policy was instituted for the avowed object and 
 with the confident promise of putting an end to 
 slavery agitation ; under the operation of that 
 policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but 
 has constantly augmented. I believe it will not 
 cease until a crisis shall have been reached and 
 passed. " A" house divided against itself cannot 
 stand." I believe this government cannot endure 
 permanently half slave and half free. I do not 
 expect the Union to be dissolved,' — I am quot- 
 ing from my speech, — ' I do not expect the 
 house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be 
 divided. It will become all one thing or all the 
 other. Either the opponents of slavery will ar- 
 rest the further spread of it, and place it where 
 the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is 
 in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advo- 
 cates will push it forward until it shall become 
 alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new ; 
 North as well as South.' 
 
 " That is the paragraph ! In this paragraph 
 which I have quoted in your hearing, and to 
 which I ask the attention of all, Judge Douglas 
 thinks he discovers great political heresy. I want 
 your attention particularly to what he has inferred 
 
96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 from it. He says I am in favour of making all 
 the States of this Union uniform in all their inter- 
 nal regulations ; that in all their domestic concerns 
 I am in favour of making them entirely uniform. 
 He draws this inference from the language I 
 have quoted to you. He says that I am in fa- 
 vour of making war by the North upon the South 
 for the extinction of slavery ; that I am also in 
 favour of inviting (as he expresses it) the South 
 to a war upon the North for the purpose of na- 
 tionalising slavery. Now, it is singular enough, 
 if you will carefully read that passage over, that I 
 did not say that I was in favour of anything in it. 
 I only said what I expected would take place. 
 I made a prediction only, — it may have been a 
 foolish one, perhaps. I did not even say that 
 I desired that slavery should be put in course of 
 / ultimate extinction. I do say so now, however ; so 
 there need be no longer any difficulty about that. 
 It may be written down in the great speech. 
 
 " Gentlemen, Judge Douglas informed you that 
 this speech of mine was probably carefully pre- 
 pared. I admit that it was. I am not master of 
 language ; I have not a fine education ; I am 
 not capable of entering into a disquisition upon 
 dialectics, as I believe you call it ; but I do not 
 believe the language I employed bears any such 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 97 
 
 construction as Judge Douglas puts upon it. 
 But I don't care about a quibble in regard to words. 
 I know what I meant, and I will not leave this 
 crowd in doubt, if I can explain it to them, what 
 I really meant in the use of that paragraph. 
 
 " I am not, in the first place, unaware that this 
 government has endured eighty-two years, half 
 slave and half free. I know that. I am tolerably 
 well acquainted with the history of the country, 
 and I know that it has endured eighty-two years, 
 half slave and half free. I believe — and that is 
 what I meant to allude to there — I believe it has 
 endured, because, during all that time, until the in- 
 troduction of the Nebraska Bill, the public mind 
 did rest all the time in the belief that slavery was 
 in course of ultimate extinction. That was what 
 gave us the rest that we had through that period 
 of eighty-two years ; at least, so I believe. I have 
 always hated slavery, I think, as much as any 
 Abolitionist, — I have been an old-line Whig, — 
 I have always hated it, but I have always been 
 quiet about it until this new era of the introduc- 
 tion of the Nebraska Bill began. I always be- 
 lieved that everybody was against it, and that it 
 was in course of ultimate extinction. . . . They 
 had reason so to believe. 
 
 " The adoption of the Constitution and its at- 
 
 7 
 
98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tendant history led the people to believe so, and 
 that such was the belief of the framers of the 
 Constitution itself. Why did those old men, 
 about the time of the adoption of the Constitu- 
 tion, decree that slavery should not go into the 
 new Territory where it had not already gone? 
 Why declare that within twenty years the African 
 slave-trade, by which slaves are supplied, might 
 be cut off by Congress? Why were all these 
 acts? I might enumerate more of these acts; 
 but enough. What were they but a clear indica- 
 tion that the framers of the Constitution intended 
 and expected the ultimate extinction of that in- 
 stitution ? And now when I say, — as I said in 
 my speech that Judge Douglas has quoted from, 
 — when I say that I think the opponents of 
 slavery will resist the further spread of it, and 
 place it where the public mind shall rest in the 
 belief that it is in the course of ultimate ex- 
 tinction, I only mean to say that they will place 
 it where the founders of this government origi- 
 nally placed it. 
 
 " I have said a hundred times, and I have now 
 no inclination to take it back, that I believe there 
 is no right, and ought to be no inclination in the 
 people of the free States, to enter into the slave 
 States and interfere with the question of slavery 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 99 
 
 at all. . . . And when it is said that I am in 
 favour of interfering with slavery where it exists, 
 I know it is unwarranted by anything I have ever 
 intended, and, as I believe, by anything I have 
 ever said. If by any means I have ever used 
 language which could fairly be so construed (as, 
 however, I believe I never have), I now cor- 
 rect it. . . . 
 
 " Now, in relation to his inference that I am in 
 favour of a general consolidation of all the local 
 institutions of the various States. ... I have 
 said very many times in Judge Douglas's hearing 
 that no man believed more than I in the prin- 
 ciple of self-government ; that it lies at the bottom 
 of all my ideas of just government from beginning 
 to end. ... I deny that any man has ever gone 
 ahead of me in his devotion to the principle, 
 whatever he may have done in efficiency in ad- 
 vocating it. I think that I have said it in your 
 hearing, that I believe each individual is naturally 
 entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the 
 fruit of his labour, so far as it in no wise interferes 
 with any other man's rights ; that each com- 
 munity, as a State, has a right to do exactly as it 
 pleases with all the concerns within that State 
 that interfere with the right of no other State ; 
 and that the general government upon principle 
 
IO o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 has no right to interfere with anything other than 
 that general class of things that does concern the 
 whole. I have said that at all times ; I have 
 said as illustrations that I do not believe in the 
 right of Illinois to interfere with the cranberry 
 laws of Indiana, the oyster laws of Virginia, or 
 the liquor laws of Maine. 
 
 "How is it, then, that Judge Douglas infers, 
 because I hope to see slavery put where the pub- 
 lic mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the 
 course of ultimate extinction, that I am in favour 
 of Illinois going over and interfering with the 
 cranberry laws of Indiana? What can authorise 
 him to draw any such inference? I suppose 
 there might be one thing that at least enabled 
 him to draw such an inference, that would not 
 be true with me or many others ; that is, be- 
 cause he looks upon all this matter of slavery 
 as an exceedingly little thing, — this matter of 
 keeping one-sixth of the population of the whole 
 nation in a state of oppression and tyranny un- 
 equalled in the world. He looks upon it as 
 being an exceedingly little thing, only equal to 
 the question of the cranberry laws of Indiana ; 
 as something having no moral question in it ; as 
 something on a par with the question of whether 
 a man shall pasture his land with cattle or plant it 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. IO i 
 
 with tobacco ; so little and so small a thing that 
 he concludes, if I could desire that anything 
 should be done to bring about the ultimate ex- 
 tinction of that little thing, I must be in favour 
 of bringing about an amalgamation of all the 
 other little things in the Union. Now, it so hap- 
 pens — and there, I presume, is the foundation 
 of this mistake — that the Judge thinks thus ; and 
 it so happens that there is a vast portion of the 
 American people that do not look upon that mat- 
 ter as being this very little thing. They look upon 
 it as a vast moral evil ; they can prove it as such 
 by the writings of those who gave us the blessings 
 of liberty which we enjoy, and that they so looked 
 upon it, and not as an evil merely confining 
 itself to the States where it is situated ; and while 
 we agree that by the Constitution we assented to, 
 in the States where it exists we have no right to 
 interfere with it, because it is in the Constitution, 
 we are both by duty and inclination to stick by 
 that Constitution in all its letter and spirit from 
 beginning to end. 
 
 " So much, then, as to my disposition, my wish, 
 to have all the State legislatures blotted out and 
 to have one consolidated government and a uni- 
 formity of domestic regulations in all the States ; 
 by which I suppose it is meant, if we raise corn 
 
I0 2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 here we must make sugar-cane grow here too, 
 and we must make those things which grow North 
 grow in the South. All this I suppose he under- 
 stands I am in favour of doing. Now, so much 
 for all this nonsense — for I must call it so. 
 The Judge can have no issue with me on a ques- 
 tion of establishing uniformity in the domestic 
 regulations of the States. 
 
 " A little now on the other point, — the Dred 
 Scott decision. Another of the issues, he says, 
 that is to be made with me is upon his devotion 
 to the Dred Scott decision and my opposition 
 to it. 
 
 " I have expressed heretofore, and I now re- 
 peat, my opposition to the Dred Scott decision ; 
 but I should be allowed to state the nature of 
 that opposition, and I ask your indulgence while 
 I do so. What is fairly implied by the term 
 Judge Douglas has used, ' resistance to the de- 
 cision ' ? I do not resist it. If I wanted to take 
 Dred Scott from his master I would be interfering 
 with property, and that terrible difficulty that 
 Judge Douglas speaks of, of interfering with prop- 
 erty, would arise. But I am doing no such thing 
 as that ; all that I am doing is refusing to obey it 
 as a political rule. If I were in Congress, and a 
 vote should come up on a question whether slavery 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 103 
 
 should be prohibited in a new Territory, in spite 
 of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it 
 should. 
 
 " That is what I would do. Judge Douglas 
 said last night that before the decision he might 
 advance his opinion, and it might be contrary to 
 the decision when it was made ; but after it was 
 made he would abide by it until it was reversed. 
 Just so ! We let this property abide by the de- 
 cision, but we will try to reverse that decision. 
 We will try to put it where Judge Douglas would 
 not object, for he says he will obey it until it is 
 reversed. Somebody has to reverse that decision, 
 since it is made ; and we mean to reverse it, and 
 we mean to do it peaceably. 
 
 " What are the uses of decisions of courts ? 
 They have two uses. First, they decide upon the 
 question before the court. They decide in this 
 case that Dred Scott is a slave. Nobody resists 
 that. Not only that, but they say to everybody 
 else that persons standing just as Dred Scott 
 stands are as he is. That is, they say that when 
 a question comes up upon another person it will 
 be so decided again, unless the court decides 
 another way, unless the court overrules its de- 
 cision. Well, we mean to do what we can to 
 have the court decide the other way. That is 
 one thing we mean to try to do. 
 
104 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 "The sacredness that Judge Douglas throws 
 around this decision is a degree of sacredness 
 that has never been before thrown around any 
 other decision. I have never heard of such a 
 thing. Why, decisions apparently contrary to 
 that decision, or that good lawyers thought were 
 contrary to that decision, have been made by that 
 very court before. It is the first of its kind ; it is 
 an astonisher in legal history ; it is a new wonder 
 of the world \ it is based upon falsehood in the 
 main as to the facts, — allegations of facts upon 
 which it stands are not facts at all in many in- 
 stances, — and no decision made on any question 
 — the first instance of a decision made under so 
 many unfavourable circumstances — thus placed, 
 has ever been held by the profession as law, and 
 it has always needed confirmation before the law- 
 yers regarded it as settled law ; but Judge Doug- 
 las will have it that all hands must take this 
 extraordinary decision made under these extraor- 
 dinary circumstances and give their vote in 
 Congress in accordance with it, yield to it, and 
 obey it in every possible sense. Circumstances 
 alter cases. Do not gentlemen here remember 
 the case of that same Supreme Court some 
 twenty-five or thirty years ago, deciding that a 
 national bank was constitutional ? I ask if some- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. I0 5 
 
 body does not remember that a national bank 
 was declared to be constitutional? Such is the 
 truth, whether it be remembered or not. The 
 bank charter ran out, and a re-charter was granted 
 by Congress. That re-charter was laid before 
 General Jackson. It was urged upon him, when 
 he denied the constitutionality of the bank, that 
 the Supreme Court had decided that it was con- 
 stitutional ; and General Jackson then said that 
 the Supreme Court had no right to lay down a 
 rule to govern a co-ordinate branch of the gov- 
 ernment, the members of which had sworn to 
 support the Constitution, — that each member 
 had sworn to support the Constitution as he un- 
 derstood it. I will venture here to say that I 
 have heard Judge Douglas say that he approved 
 of General Jackson for that act. What has now 
 become of all his tirade against ' resistance to the 
 Supreme Court ' ? 
 
 "My fellow-citizens, getting back a little, — for 
 I pass from these points, — when Judge Douglas 
 makes his threat of annihilation upon the ' al- 
 liance,' he is cautious to say that that warfare of 
 his is to fall upon the leaders of the Republican 
 party. Almost every word he utters and every 
 distinction he makes has its significance. He 
 means for the Republicans who do not count 
 
106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 themselves as leaders to be his friends ; he makes 
 no fuss over them, it is the leaders that he is 
 making war upon. He wants it understood that 
 the mass of the Republican party are really his 
 friends. It is only the leaders that are doing 
 something, that are intolerant, and require exter- 
 mination at his hands. As this is clearly and 
 unquestionably the light in which he presents 
 that matter, I want to ask your attention, ad- 
 dressing myself to Republicans here, that I may 
 ask you some questions as to where you, as the 
 Republican party, would be placed if you sus- 
 tained Judge Douglas in his present position by a 
 re-election? I do not claim, gentlemen, to be 
 unselfish ; I do not pretend that I would not like 
 to go to the United States Senate, — I make no 
 such hypocritical pretence ; but I do say to you, 
 that in this mighty issue it is nothing to you, 
 nothing to the mass of the people of the nation, 
 whether or not Judge Douglas or myself shall 
 ever be heard of after this night. It may be a trifle 
 to either of us ; but in connection with this mighty 
 question, upon which hang the destinies of the 
 nation, perhaps, it is absolutely nothing. But 
 where will you be placed if you reindorse Judge 
 Douglas? Don't you know how apt he is, how 
 exceedingly anxious he is, at all times to seize 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. lo y 
 
 upon anything and everything to persuade you 
 that something he has done you did yourselves? 
 Why, he tried to persuade you last night that our 
 Illinois Legislature instructed him to introduce 
 the Nebraska Bill. There was nobody in that 
 Legislature ever thought of it ; but still he rights 
 furiously for the proposition ; and that he did it 
 because there was a standing instruction to our 
 senators to be always introducing Nebraska bills. 
 He tells you he is for the Cincinnati platform ; 
 he tells you he is for the Dred Scott decision ; 
 he tells you — not in his speech last night, but 
 substantially in a former speech — that he cares 
 not if slavery is voted up or down ; he tells you 
 the struggle on Lecompton is past, — it may come 
 up again or not, and if it does, he stands where 
 he stood when, in spite of him and his oppo- 
 sition, you built up the Republican party. If 
 you indorse him, you tell him you do not care 
 whether slavery be voted up or down, and he 
 will close, or try to close, your mouths with his 
 declaration, repeated by the day, the week, the 
 month, and the year. I think, in the position 
 in which Judge Douglas stood in opposing the 
 Lecompton constitution, he was right ; he does 
 not know that it will return, but if it does we may 
 know where to find him ; and if it does not, we 
 
108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 may know where to look for him, and that is 
 on the Cincinnati platform. Now, I could ask 
 the Republican party, after all the hard names 
 Judge Douglas has called them by, . . . all his 
 declarations of Black Republicanism — (by the 
 way, we are improving, the black has got rubbed 
 off), but with all that, if he be indorsed by Repub- 
 lican votes, where do you stand? Plainly, you 
 stand ready saddled, bridled, and harnessed, and 
 waiting to be driven over to the slavery-extension 
 camp of the nation, — just ready to be driven 
 over, tied together in a lot, — to be driven over, 
 every man with a rope around his neck, that 
 halter being held by Judge Douglas. That is the 
 question. If Republican men have been in ear- 
 nest in what they have done, I think they had 
 better not do it ; but I think the Republican party 
 is made up of those who, as far as they can peace- 
 ably, will oppose the extension of slavery, and 
 who will hope for its ultimate extinction. If they 
 believe it is wrong in grasping up the new lands 
 of the continent, and keeping them from the 
 settlement of free white labourers, who want the 
 land to bring up their families upon ; if they are 
 in earnest, — although they may make a mistake, 
 they will grow restless, and the time will come 
 when they will come back again and reorganise, 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 109 
 
 if not by the same name, at least upon the same 
 principles as their party now has. It is better, 
 then, to save the work while it is begun. You 
 have done the labour; maintain it, keep it. If 
 men choose to serve you, go with them ; but as 
 you have made up your organisation upon prin- 
 ciple, stand by it ; for, as surely as God reigns 
 over you, and has inspired your minds and given 
 you a sense of propriety and continues to give 
 you hope, so surely will you still cling to these 
 ideas, and you will at last come back again after 
 your wanderings, merely to do your work over 
 again. 
 
 " We were often, — more than once, at least, 
 — in the course of Judge Douglas's speech last 
 night, reminded that this government was made 
 for white men, — that he believed it was made for 
 white men. Well, that is putting it into a shape 
 in which no one wants to deny it ; but the Judge 
 then goes into his passion for drawing inferences 
 that are not warranted. I protest, now and for 
 ever, against that counterfeit logic which pre- 
 sumes that, because I do not want a negro 
 woman for a slave, I do necessarily want her for a 
 wife. My understanding is, that I need not have 
 her for either ; but, as God made us separate, we 
 can leave one another alone, and do one another 
 
HO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 much good thereby. There are white men 
 enough to marry all the white women, and enough 
 black men to marry all the black women ; and in 
 God's name let them be so married. The Judge 
 regales us with the terrible enormities that take 
 place by the mixture of races ; that the inferior 
 race bears the superior down. Why, Judge, if 
 we do not let them get together in the Terri- 
 tories, they won't mix there. I should say at 
 least that that was a self-evident truth. 
 
 " Now, it happens that we meet together once 
 every year, somewhere about the 4th of July, for 
 some reason or other. These 4th of July gather- 
 ings, I suppose, have their uses. If you will 
 indulge me, I will state what I suppose to be 
 some of them. 
 
 " We are now a mighty nation : we are thirty, or 
 about thirty, millions of people, and we own and 
 inhabit about one-fifteenth part of the dry land 
 of the whole earth. We run our memory back 
 over the pages of history for about eighty-two 
 years, and we discover that we were then a very 
 small people in point of numbers, vastly in- 
 ferior to what we are now, with a vastly less 
 extent of country, with vastly less of everything 
 we deem desirable among men. We look upon 
 the change as exceedingly advantageous to us and 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. x r r 
 
 to our posterity, and we fix upon something thai 
 happened away back, as in some way or other 
 being connected with this rise of prosperity. We 
 find a race of men living in that day whom we 
 claim as our fathers and grandfathers ; they were 
 iron men ; they fought for the principle that they 
 were contending for, and we understand that by 
 what they then did, it lias followed that the de- 
 gree of prosperity which we now enjoy has come 
 to us. We hold this annual celebration to remind 
 ourselves of all the good done in this process of 
 time, — of how it was done, and who did it, and 
 how we are historically connected with it; and 
 we go from these meetings in better humour with 
 ourselves, — we feel more attached the one to 
 the other, and more firmly bound to the country 
 we inhabit. In every way we are better men, in 
 the age and race and country in which we live, 
 for these celebrations. But after we have done 
 all this, we have not yet reached the whole. 
 There is something else connected with it. We 
 have, besides these men — descended by blood 
 from our ancestors — among us, perhaps half our 
 people who are not descendants at all of these 
 men ; they are men who have come from Europe, 
 — German, Irish, French, and Scandinavian, — 
 men that have come from Europe themselves, or 
 
1 1 2 ABRA HA M LINCOLN. 
 
 whose ancestors have come hither and settled 
 here, finding themselves our equal in all things. 
 If they look back through this history, to trace 
 their connection with those days by blood, they 
 find they have none : they cannot carry them- 
 selves back into that glorious epoch and make 
 themselves feel that they are part of us ; but when 
 they look through that old Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, they find that those old men say that 
 ' we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
 men are created equal,' and then they feel that 
 that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences 
 their relation to those men, that it is the father 
 of all moral principle in them, and that they have 
 a right to claim it as though they were blood of 
 the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who 
 wrote that Declaration ; and so they are. That 
 is the electric cord in that Declaration that links 
 the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men to- 
 gether ; that will link those patriotic hearts as 
 long as the love of freedom exists in the minds 
 of men throughout the world. 
 
 " Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things 
 with this idea of ' don't care if slavery is voted 
 up or voted down ; ' for sustaining the Dred Scott 
 decision ; for holding that the Declaration of In- 
 dependence did not mean anything at all, — we 
 
A BR AH A M LINCOLN. x 1 3 
 
 have Judge Douglas giving his exposition of what 
 the Declaration of Independence means, and we 
 have him saying that the people of America are 
 equal to the people of England. According to 
 his construction, you Germans are not connected 
 with it. Now, I ask you in all soberness, if all 
 these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if con- 
 firmed and indorsed, if taught to our children 
 and repeated to them, do not tend to rub out the 
 sentiment of liberty in the country, and to trans- 
 form this government into a government of some 
 other form? Those arguments that are made, 
 that the inferior race are to be treated with as 
 much allowance as they are capable of enjoying ; 
 that as much is to be done for them as their con- 
 dition will allow, — what are these arguments? 
 They are the arguments that kings have made 
 for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. 
 You will find that all the arguments in favour of 
 kingcraft were of this class ; they always bestrode 
 the necks of the people, — not that they wanted 
 to do it, but because the people were better off 
 for being ridden. That is their argument ; and 
 this argument of the Judge is the same old ser- 
 pent, that says, ' You work, and I eat ; you toil, 
 and I will enjoy the fruits of it.' Turn in what- 
 ever way you will, — whether it come from the 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 mouth of a king, an excuse for enslaving the peo- 
 ple of his country, or from the mouth of men of one 
 race as a reason for enslaving the men of another 
 race, — it is all the same old serpent ; and I hold, 
 if that course of argumentation that is made for 
 the purpose of convincing the public mind that 
 we should not care about this, should be granted, 
 it does not stop with the negro. I should like to 
 know — taking this old Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, which declares that all men are equal, 
 upon principle, and making exceptions to it — 
 where will it stop? If one man says it does not 
 mean a negro, why not another say it does not 
 mean some other man? If that Declaration is 
 not the truth, let us get the statute-book in which 
 we find it, and tear it out ! Who is so bold as to 
 do it ? If it is not true, let us tear it out. [Cries 
 of " No ! No ! "] Let us stick to it, then ; let us 
 stand firmly by it, then. 
 
 " It may be argued that there are certain con- 
 ditions that make necessities and impose them 
 upon us, and to the extent that a necessity is 
 imposed upon a man, he must submit to it. I 
 think that was the condition in which we found 
 ourselves when we established this government. 
 We had slaves among us ; we could not get our 
 Constitution unless we permitted them to remain 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. \ 1 5 
 
 in slavery ; we could not secure the good we did 
 secure, if we grasped for more j but, having by 
 necessity submitted to that much, it does not de- 
 stroy the principle that is the charter of our liber- 
 ties. Let that charter stand as our standard. 
 
 " My friend has said to me that I am a poor 
 hand to quote Scripture. I will try it again, how- 
 ever. It is said in one of the admonitions of our 
 Lord, * Be ye [therefore] perfect even as your 
 Father which is in heaven is perfect.' The 
 Saviour, I suppose, did not expect that any 
 human creature could be perfect as the Father 
 in heaven; but He said: 'As your Father in 
 heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect.' He set 
 that up as a standard, and he who did most to- 
 ward reaching that standard attained the highest 
 degree of moral perfection. So I say in relation 
 to the principle that all men are created equal, 
 let it be as nearly reached as we can. If we can- 
 not give freedom to every creature, let us do 
 nothing that will impose slavery upon any other 
 creature. Let us, then, turn this government 
 back into the channel in which the framers of 
 the Constitution originally placed it. Let us 
 stand firmly by each other. If we do not do so, 
 we are tending in the contrary direction, that our 
 friend Judge Douglas proposes, — not intention- 
 
n 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ally, — working in the traces that tend to make 
 this one universal slave nation. He is one that 
 runs in that direction, and as such I resist him. 
 
 " My friends, 1 have detained you about as 
 long as I desired to do, and I have only to say, 
 let us discard all this quibbling about this man 
 and the other man, this race and that race and 
 the other race being inferior, and therefore they 
 must be placed in an inferior position. Let us 
 discard all these things, and unite as one people 
 throughout this land, until we shall once more 
 stand up declaring that all men are created 
 equal. 
 
 " My friends, I could not, without launching 
 off upon some new topic, which would detain you 
 too long, continue to-night. I thank you for 
 this most extensive audience that you have fur- 
 nished me to-night. I leave yon, hoping that 
 the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until 
 there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are 
 created free and equal." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 117 
 
 From his Speech at Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 July 17, 1858. 
 
 " . . . There is still another disadvantage 
 under which we labour, and to which I will ask 
 your attention. It arises out of the relative 
 positions of the two persons who stand before 
 the State as candidates for the Senate. Senator 
 Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious 
 politicians of his party, or who have been of his 
 party for years past, have been looking upon him 
 as certainly, at no distant day, to be the President 
 of the United States. They have seen, in his 
 round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, land-offices, 
 marshalships, and cabinet appointments, charge- 
 ships and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting 
 out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid 
 hold of by their greedy hands. And as they have 
 been gazing upon this attractive picture so long, 
 they cannot, in the little distraction that has taken 
 place in the party, bring themselves to give up 
 the charming hope. But with greedier anxiety 
 they rush about him, sustain him, and give him 
 marches, triumphal entries, and receptions, be- 
 yond what, even in the days of his highest pros- 
 perity, they could have brought about in his favour. 
 On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me 
 
U8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, 
 nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were 
 sprouting out. These are disadvantages, all 
 taken together, that the Republicans labour under. 
 We have to fight this battle upon principle, and 
 upon principle alone. I am in a certain sense 
 made the standard-bearer in behalf of the Re- 
 publicans. I was made so merely because there 
 had to be some one so placed, — I being in no 
 wise preferable to any other one of the twenty- 
 five, perhaps a hundred, we have in the Repub- 
 lican ranks. Then I say, I wish it to be distinctly 
 understood and borne in mind, that we have to 
 fight this battle without many — perhaps without 
 any — of the external aids which are brought to 
 bear against us. So I hope those with whom I 
 am surrounded have principle enough to nerve 
 themselves for the task, and leave nothing undone 
 that can fairly be done to bring about the right 
 result. 
 
 "After Senator Douglas left Washington . . . 
 he tarried ... in the city of New York ; and it 
 was heralded that, like another Napoleon, he was 
 lying by and framing the plan of his campaign ; 
 ... his plan for the purpose of going to Illinois, 
 to pounce upon and annihilate the treasonable 
 and disunion speech which Lincoln had made 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 119 
 
 here on the sixteenth of June. ... I think 
 I have been able to see what are the material 
 points of that plan. . . . What I shall point out, 
 though not showing the whole plan, are never- 
 theless the main points, as I suppose. 
 
 " They are not very numerous. The first is 
 popular sovereignty. The second and third are 
 attacks upon my speech of the sixteenth of June. 
 . . . Auxiliary to these main points, to be sure, 
 are their thunderings of cannon, their marching 
 and music, their fizzlegigs and fireworks; but I 
 will not waste time with them. . . . 
 
 " As appears by two speeches I have heard 
 him deliver since his arrival in Illinois, he gave 
 special attention to the speech of mine delivered 
 on the sixteenth of June. He says that he care- 
 fully read that speech. He told us that at Chicago 
 a week ago last night, and he repeated it at Bloom- 
 ington last night. . . . 
 
 " Having made that speech with the most 
 kindly feelings toward Judge Douglas, as mani- 
 fested therein, I was gratified when I found that 
 he had carefully examined it, and had detected 
 no error of fact, nor any inference against him, 
 nor any misrepresentations, of which he thought 
 fit to complain. . . . He seizes upon the doc- 
 trines he supposes to be included in that speech, 
 
I2 o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 and declares that upon them will turn the issues 
 of the campaign. He then quotes, or attempts 
 to quote, from my speech. I will not say that he 
 wilfully misquotes, but he does fail to quote ac- 
 curately. His attempt at quoting is from a pas- 
 sage which I believe I can quote accurately from 
 memory. I shall make the quotation now, with 
 some comments upon it, as I have already said, 
 in order that the Judge shall be left entirely with- 
 out excuse for misrepresenting me. I do so now, 
 as I hope, for the last time. I do this in great 
 caution, in order that if he repeats his misrepre- 
 sentation, it shall be plain to all that he does so 
 wilfully. If, after all, he still persists, I shall be 
 compelled to reconstruct the course I have 
 marked out for myself, and draw upon such 
 humble resources as I have for a new course, 
 better suited to the real exigencies of the case. 
 I set out in this campaign with the intention of 
 conducting it strictly as a gentleman, in substance 
 at least, if not in the outside polish. The latter 
 I shall never be, but that which constitutes the 
 inside of a gentleman I hope I understand, and 
 am not less inclined to practise than others. It 
 was my purpose and expectation that this canvass 
 would be conducted upon principle, and with 
 fairness on both sides, and it shall not be my 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 121 
 
 fault if this purpose and expectation shall be 
 given up. 
 
 " He charges, in substance, that I invite a war 
 of sections j that I propose all local institutions of 
 the different States shall become consolidated and 
 uniform. What is there in the language of that 
 speech which expresses such purpose or bears 
 such construction? I have again and again said 
 that I would not enter into any one of the States 
 to disturb the institution of slavery. Judge 
 Douglas said at Bloomington that I used lan- 
 guage most able and ingenious for concealing 
 what I really meant ; and that while I had pro- 
 tested against entering into the slave States, I 
 nevertheless did mean to go on the banks of 
 the Ohio and throw missiles into Kentucky, to 
 disturb them in their domestic institutions. 
 
 " I said in that speech, and I meant no more, 
 that the institution of slavery ought to be placed 
 in the very attitude where the framers of this 
 government placed it. . . . In the sentence re- 
 ferred to, I simply expressed an expectation. 
 Cannot the Judge perceive a distinction between 
 a purpose and an expectation? I have often 
 expressed an expectation to die, but I have never 
 expressed a wish to die. ... I said at Chicago, 
 and I now repeat, that I do wish to see the spread 
 
122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of slavery arrested, and to see it placed where the 
 public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in 
 the course of ultimate extinction . . . then . . . 
 we shall have peace on the slavery question. 
 
 "... I have said that I do not understand the 
 Declaration to mean that all men were created 
 equal in all respects. The negroes are not our 
 equals in colour ; but I suppose it does mean to 
 declare that all men are equal in some respects ; 
 they are equal in their right to ' life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness.' Certainly the negro 
 is not our equal in colour, perhaps not in many 
 other respects. Still, in the right to put into his 
 mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, 
 he is the equal of every other man, white or black. 
 In pointing out that more has been given you, 
 you cannot be justified in taking away the little 
 which has been given him. All I ask for the 
 negro is, that if you do not like him, let him 
 alone. If God gave him but little, that little let 
 him enjoy. 
 
 " . . . One more point on this Springfield 
 speech, which Judge Douglas says he has read 
 so carefully. I expressed my belief in the exist- 
 ence of a conspiracy to perpetuate and national- 
 ise slavery. I did not profess to know it, nor do 
 I now. I showed the part Judge Douglas had 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 123 
 
 played in the string of facts, constituting to my 
 mind the proof of that conspiracy. I showed 
 the parts played by others. 
 
 " I charged that the people had been deceived 
 into carrying the last presidential election, by the 
 impression that the people of the Territories 
 might exclude slavery if they chose, when it was 
 known in advance by the conspirators that the 
 court was to decide that neither Congress nor 
 the people could so exclude slavery. These 
 charges are more distinctly made than anything 
 else in the speech. 
 
 " Judge Douglas has carefully read and re-read 
 that speech. He has not, so far as I know, con- 
 tradicted those charges. In the two speeches 
 which I heard he certainly did not. On his own 
 tacit admission I renew that charge. I charge 
 him with having been a party to that conspiracy 
 and to that deception, for the sole purpose of 
 nationalizing slavery." 
 
124 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 
 
 The First Meeting at Ottawa, Illinois. 
 
 August 21, 1858. 
 
 [In his opening speech, Judge Douglas formu- 
 lated the direct charge of a conspiracy created in 
 1854, between Mr. Lincoln and Judge Lyman 
 Trumbull and their followers, to dissolve the old 
 national Whig and Democratic parties, and to 
 form out of the materials a new sectional, Aboli- 
 tion party, which should reward both the leaders 
 by an election to the Senate of the United States. 
 He said that their platform was adopted in a 
 convention held at Springfield in October, 1854, 
 some resolutions of which he read. He con- 
 cluded as follows :] 
 
 "... I believe that this new doctrine preached 
 by Mr. Lincoln and his party will dissolve the 
 Union if it succeeds. They are trying to array 
 all the Northern States in one body against the 
 South ; to excite a sectional war between the 
 free States and the slave States, in order that 
 the one or the other may be driven to the wall." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln began his reply by saying : — 
 
 " When a man hears himself somewhat misre- 
 presented, it provokes him — at least, I find it so 
 with myself; but when misrepresentation becomes 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 25 
 
 very gross and palpable, it is more apt to amuse 
 him. . . . [After stating the charge of an arrange- 
 ment between himself and Judge Trumbull.] 
 
 " Now, all I have to say upon that subject is, that 
 I think no man — not even Judge Douglas — can 
 prove it, because it is not true. I have no doubt 
 he is ' conscientious ' in saying it. As to those 
 resolutions that he took such a length of time to 
 read, as being the platform of the Republican 
 party in 1854, I say I never had anything to do 
 with them, and I think Trumbull never had. . . . 
 
 " Now, about this story that Judge Douglas tells 
 of Trumbull bargaining to sell out the old Demo- 
 cratic party, and Lincoln agreeing to sell out the 
 old Whig party, I have the means of knowing 
 about that ; Judge Douglas cannot have ; and I 
 know there is no substance to it whatever. . . . 
 
 " A man cannot prove a negative, but he has a 
 right to claim that when a man makes an affirma- 
 tive charge, he must offer some proof to show the 
 truth of what he says. I certainly cannot intro- 
 duce testimony to show the negative about things, 
 but I have a right to claim that if a man says he 
 knows a thing, then he must show how he knows 
 it. I always have a right to claim this ; and it is 
 not satisfactory to me that he may be ' conscien- 
 tious ' on the subject. 
 
126 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 "... In regard to that general abolition tilt 
 that Judge Douglas makes, when he says that I 
 was engaged at that time in Abolitionizing the 
 old Whig party, I hope you will permit me to 
 read a part of a printed speech which I then 
 made at Peoria, which will show altogether a 
 different view of the position I took in that con- 
 test of 1854. . . . 
 
 [After reading from the Peoria speech his 
 argument against the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
 promise, the wrong of letting slavery into Kansas 
 and Nebraska, his hatred of the wrong and injus- 
 tice of slavery, and his full recognition of the 
 rights of the South under the Constitution, 
 "not grudgingly, but fully and fairly," including 
 "legislation for the reclamation of their fugitive 
 slaves," — he continued :] 
 
 "... I have read to you the true complexion 
 of all I have ever said in regard to the institution 
 of slavery and the black race. This is the whole of 
 it, and anything that argues me into his idea 
 of perfect social and political equality with the 
 negro is but a specious and fantastic arrangement 
 of words, by which a man can prove a horse- 
 chestnut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, 
 while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, 
 either directly or indirectly, to interfere with the 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 27 
 
 institution of slavery in the States where it exists. 
 I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I 
 have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose 
 to introduce political and social equality between 
 the white and the black races. There is a physical 
 difference between the two, which, in my judg- 
 ment, will probably forever forbid their living 
 together upon the footing of perfect equality ; 
 and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there 
 must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, 
 am in favour of the race to which I belong hav- 
 ing the superior position. I have never said any- 
 thing to the contrary ; but I hold, that, notwith- 
 standing all this, there is no reason in the world 
 why the negro is not entitled to all the natural 
 rights enumerated in the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, — 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, cer- 
 tainly not in colour, perhaps not in moral or in- 
 tellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the 
 bread, without the leave of anybody, which his 
 own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of 
 Judge Douglas, and the equal of any living man. 
 " . . . I will dwell a little longer upon one or 
 two of these minor topics upon which the Judge 
 
128 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 has spoken. He has read from my speech at 
 Springfield, in which I say that ' a house divided 
 against itself cannot stand.' Does the Judge 
 say it can stand ? I don't know whether he does 
 or not. The Judge does not seem to be attend- 
 ing to me just now, but I would like to know if 
 it is his opinion that a house divided against itself 
 can stand ? If he does, then there is a question 
 of veracity, not between him and me, but be- 
 tween the Judge and an authority of a somewhat 
 higher character. 
 
 ■ "Now, my friends, I ask your attention to 
 this matter for the purpose of saying something 
 seriously. I know that the Judge may readily 
 enough agree with me that the maxim which was 
 put forth by the Saviour is true, but he may allege 
 that I misapply it ; and the Judge has a right to 
 urge that in my application I do misapply it, and 
 then I have a right to show that I do not mis- 
 apply it. When he undertakes to say that be- 
 cause I think this nation, so far as the question 
 of slavery is concerned, will all become one thing 
 or all the other, I am in favour of bringing 
 about a dead uniformity in the various States, in 
 all their institutions, he argues erroneously. The 
 great variety of local institutions in the States, 
 springing from differences in the soil, differences 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 29 
 
 in the face of the country, and in the climate are 
 bonds of union. They do not make ' a house 
 divided against itself,' but they make a house 
 united. If they produce in one section of the 
 country what is called for by the wants of another 
 section, and this other section can supply the 
 wants of the first, they are not matters of discord, 
 but bonds of union, true bonds of union. But 
 can this question of slavery be considered as 
 among these varieties in the institutions of the 
 country? I leave it for you to say, whether in 
 the history of our government, this institution of 
 slavery has not always failed to be a bond of union, 
 and, on the contrary, been an apple of discord 
 and an element of division in the house. I ask 
 you to consider whether so long as the moral 
 constitution of men's minds shall continue to be 
 the same, after this generation and assemblage 
 shall sink into the grave, and another race shall 
 arise with the same moral and intellectual devel- 
 opment we have — whether, if that institution is 
 standing in the same irritating position in which 
 it now is, it will not continue an element of 
 division ? 
 
 " If so, then I have a right to say that, in 
 regard to this question, the Union is a house 
 divided against itself; and when the Judge re- 
 
 9 
 
130 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 minds me that I have often said to him that the 
 institution of slavery has existed for eighty years 
 in some States, and yet it does not exist in some 
 others, I agree to the fact, and I account for it 
 by looking at the position in which our fathers 
 originally placed it, — restricting it from the new 
 Territories where it had not gone, and legislating 
 to cut off its source by the abrogation of the slave- 
 trade, thus putting the seal of legislation against 
 its spread. The public mind did rest in the be- 
 lief that it was in the course of ultimate extinc- 
 tion. But lately, I think, — and in this I charge 
 nothing on the Judge's motives, — lately, I think 
 that he and those acting with him have placed 
 that institution on a new basis, which looks to 
 the perpetuity and nationalization of slavery. 
 And while it is placed on this new basis, I say, 
 and I have said, that I believe we shall not have 
 peace upon the question, until the opponents of 
 slavery arrest the further spread of it, and place 
 it where the public mind shall rest in the belief 
 that it is in the course of ultimate extinction : 
 or, on the other hand, that its advocates will 
 push it forward until it shall become alike lawful 
 in all the States, old as well as new, North as 
 well as South. Now, I believe if we could arrest 
 the spread, and place it where Washington and 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 131 
 
 Jefferson and Madison placed it, it would be 
 in the course of ultimate extinction, and the 
 public mind would, as for eighty years past, 
 believe that it was in the course of ultimate 
 extinction. The crisis would be past, and the 
 institution might be let alone for a hundred years 
 — if it should live so long — in the States where 
 it exists, yet it would be going out of existence 
 in the way best for both the black and the white 
 races. [A voice, " Then do you repudiate popu- 
 lar sovereignty?"] Well, then, let us talk about 
 popular sovereignty. What is popular sover- 
 eignty? Is it the right of the people to have 
 slavery or not to have it, as they see fit, in the 
 Territories? I will state — and I have an able 
 man to watch me — my understanding is that 
 popular sovereignty, as now applied to the ques- 
 tion of slavery, does allow the people of a Terri- 
 tory to have slavery if they want to, but does not 
 allow them not to have it if they do not want it. 
 I do not mean that if this vast concourse of peo- 
 ple were in a Territory of the United States, any 
 one of them would be obliged to have a slave if 
 he did not want one ; but I do say that, as I 
 understand the Dred Scott decision, if any one 
 man wants slaves, all the rest have no way of 
 keeping that one man from holding them. 
 
132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " When I made my speech at Springfield, of 
 which the Judge complains, and from which he 
 quotes, I really was not thinking of the things 
 which he ascribes to me at all. I had no 
 thought in the world that I was doing anything 
 to bring about a war between the free and slave 
 States. I had no thought in the world that I was 
 doing anything to bring about a political and 
 social equality of the black and white races. It 
 never occurred to me that I was doing anything 
 or favouring anything to reduce to a dead uni- 
 formity ail the local institutions of the various 
 States. But I must say, in all fairness to him, if 
 he thinks I am doing something which leads to 
 these bad results, it is none the better that I did 
 not mean it. It is just as fatal to the country, if 
 I have any influence in producing it, whether I 
 intend it or not. But can it be true that placing 
 this institution upon the original basis — the basis 
 upon which our fathers placed it — can have any 
 tendency to set the Northern and the Southern 
 States at war with one another, or that it can 
 have any tendency to make the people of Ver- 
 mont raise sugar-cane, because they raise it in 
 Louisiana, or that it can compel the people of 
 Illinois to cut pine logs on the Grand Prairie, 
 where they will not grow, because they cut pine 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 33 
 
 logs in Maine, where they do grow? The Judge 
 says this is a new principle started in regard to this 
 question. Does the Judge claim that he is work- 
 ing on the plan of the founders of the govern- 
 ment? I think he says in some of his speeches 
 — indeed, I have one here now — that he saw 
 evidence of a policy to allow slavery to be south 
 of a certain line, while north of it it should be 
 excluded, and he saw an indisposition on the 
 part of the country to stand upon that policy, and, 
 therefore, he set about studying the subject upon 
 original principles, and upon original principles 
 he got up the Nebraska Bill ! I am fighting it 
 upon these ' original principles ' — fighting it 
 in the JerTersonian, Washingtonian, Madisonian 
 fashion. 
 
 [Mr. Lincoln then adverted to his claim made 
 in the " Divided House " speech, that the Ne- 
 braska Bill was prepared in anticipation of the 
 decision in the Dred Scott case, which decision 
 denied the right of the people of a Territory to 
 exclude slavery, which right was affirmed in the 
 Nebraska Bill, and continued :] 
 
 " . . . I want to ask your attention to a por- 
 tion of the Nebraska Bill which Judge Douglas has 
 quoted : ' It being the true intent and meaning 
 of this act, not to legislate slavery into any Terri- 
 
134 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to 
 leave the people thereof perfectly free to form 
 and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
 own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
 United States.' Thereupon Judge Douglas and 
 others began to argue in favour of ' popular sov- 
 ereignty,' — the right of the people to have 
 slaves if they wanted them, and to exclude slav- 
 ery if they did not want them. ' But,' said, in 
 substance, a senator from Ohio (Mr. Chase, I 
 believe), 'we more than suspect that you do not 
 mean to allow the people to exclude slavery if 
 they wish to ; and if you do mean it, accept an 
 amendment which I propose, expressly authoris- 
 ing the people to exclude slavery.' I believe I 
 have the amendment here before me, which was 
 offered, and under which the people of the Terri- 
 tory, through their proper representatives, might, 
 if they saw fit, prohibit the existence of slavery 
 therein. And now I state it as a fact, to be taken 
 back if there is any mistake about it, that Judge 
 Douglas and those acting with him voted that 
 amendment down. I now think that those who 
 voted it down had a real reason for doing so. 
 They know what that reason was. It looks to us, 
 since we have seen the Dred Scott decision pro- 
 nounced, holding that ' under the Constitution ' 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 135 
 
 the people cannot exclude slavery — I say it 
 looks to outsiders, poor, simple, ' amiable, intel- 
 ligent gentlemen,' as though the niche was left 
 as a place to put that Dred Scott decision in, a 
 niche that would have been spoiled by adopting 
 the amendment. And now I say again, if this 
 was not the reason, it will avail the Judge much 
 more to calmly and good-humouredly point out 
 to these people what that other reason was for 
 voting the amendment down, than swelling him- 
 self up to vociferate that he may be provoked to 
 call somebody a liar. 
 
 " Again, there is in that same quotation from 
 the Nebraska Bill this clause : ' it being the true 
 intent and meaning of this bill not to legislate 
 slavery into any Territory or State.' I have always 
 been puzzled to know what business the word 
 ' State ' had in that connection. Judge Douglas 
 knows — he put it there. He knows what he 
 put it there for. We outsiders cannot say what 
 he put it there for. The law they were passing 
 was not about States, and was not making pro- 
 vision for States. What was it placed there for? 
 After seeing the Dred Scott decision, which holds 
 that the people cannot exclude slavery from a 
 Territory, if another Dred Scott decision shall 
 come, holding that they cannot exclude it from a 
 
136 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 State, we shall discover that when the word was 
 originally put there, it was in view of something 
 that was to come in due time ; we shall see that 
 it was the other half of something. I now say 
 again, if there was any different reason for put- 
 ting it there, Judge Douglas, in a good-humoured 
 way, without calling anybody a liar, can tell what 
 the reason was. 
 
 " Now, my friends, ... I ask the attention of 
 the people here assembled, and elsewhere, to the 
 course that Judge Douglas is pursuing every day 
 as bearing upon this question of making slavery 
 national. Not going back to the records, but tak- 
 ing the speeches he makes, the speeches he made 
 yesterday and the day before, and makes con- 
 stantly, all over the country, I ask your attention 
 to them. In the first place, what is necessary to 
 make the institution national? Not war: there 
 is no danger that the people of Kentucky will 
 shoulder their muskets and . . . march into 
 Illinois to force the blacks upon us. There is 
 no danger of our going over there, and making 
 war upon them. Then what is necessary for 
 the nationalization of slavery? It is simply the 
 next Dred Scott decision. It is merely for the 
 Supreme Court to decide that no State under 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 37 
 
 1 the Constitution can exclude it, just as they 
 \ have already decided that under the Consti- 
 t' tution neither Congress nor the territorial legis- 
 lature can do it. When that is decided and 
 acquiesced in, the whole thing is done. This 
 being true and this being the way, as I think, that 
 slavery is to be made national, let us consider 
 what Judge Douglas is doing every day to that 
 end. In the first place, let us see what influence 
 he is exerting on public sentiment. In this and 
 like communities, public sentiment is everything. 
 With public sentiment nothing can fail ; without 
 it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who 
 moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he 
 who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. 
 He makes statutes and decisions possible or im- 
 possible to be executed. This must be borne in 
 mind, as also the additional fact that Judge Doug- 
 las is a man of vast influence, so great that it is 
 enough for many men to profess to believe any- 
 thing when they once find out that Judge Douglas 
 professes to believe it. Consider also the atti- 
 tude he occupies at the head of a large party, — 
 a party which he claims has a majority of all the 
 voters in the country. 
 
 " This man sticks to a decision which forbids 
 the people of a Territory to exclude slavery, and he 
 
138 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 does so not because he says it is right in itself, — 
 he does not give any opinion on that, — but be- 
 cause it has been decided by the Court, and, 
 being decided by the Court, he is, and you are, 
 bound to take it in your political action as law, — 
 not that he judges at all of its merits, but because 
 a decision of the Court is to him a 'Thus saith 
 the Lord.' He places it on that ground alone, 
 and you will bear in mind that thus committing 
 himself unreservedly to this decision, commits 
 himself just as firmly to the next one as to this. 
 He did not commit himself on account of the 
 merit or demerit of the decision, but it is a 'Thus 
 saith the Lord.' The next decision as much 
 as this will be a ' Thus saith the Lord.' There 
 is nothing that can divert or turn him away from 
 this decision. It is nothing that I point out to 
 him that his great prototype, General Jackson, 
 did not believe in the binding force of deci- 
 sions. It is nothing to him that Jefferson did 
 not so believe. I have said that I have often heard 
 him approve of Jackson's course in disregard- 
 ing the decision of the Supreme Court pronoun- 
 cing a national bank constitutional. He says I 
 did not hear him say so. He denies the accur- 
 acy of my recollection. I say he ought to know 
 better than I, but I will make no question about 
 
 V 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 139 
 
 this thing, though it still seems to me that I heard 
 him say it twenty times. I will tell him, though, 
 that he now claims to stand on the Cincinnati 
 platform, which affirms that Congress cannot char- 
 ter a national bank in the teeth of that old standing 
 decision that Congress can charter a bank. And 
 I remind him of another piece of Illinois history 
 on the question of respect for judicial decisions, 
 . . . belonging to a time when a large party to 
 which Judge Douglas belonged, were displeased 
 with a decision of the Supreme Court of Illi- 
 nois, . . . and I know that Judge Douglas will 
 not deny that he was then in favour of over- 
 slaughing that decision, by the mode of adding 
 five new Judges, so as to vote down the four old 
 ones. Not only so, but it ended in the Judge's 
 sitting down on the very bench as one of the 
 five new judges to break down the four old ones. 
 It was in this way precisely that he got his title 
 of Judge. Now, when the Judge tells me that 
 men appointed conditionally to sit as members 
 of a Court will have to be catechised beforehand 
 upon some subject, I say, ' You know, Judge ; you 
 have tried it ! ' When he says a Court of this 
 kind will lose the confidence of all men, will be 
 prostituted and disgraced by such a proceeding, 
 I say, ' You know best, Judge ; you have been 
 through the mill.' 
 
140 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " But I cannot shake Judge Douglas's teeth 
 loose from the Dred Scott decision. Like some 
 obstinate animal (I mean no disrespect) that will 
 hang on when he has once got his teeth fixed — 
 you may cut off a leg, or you may tear away an 
 arm, still he will not relax his hold. And so I 
 may point out to the Judge, and say that he is 
 bespattered all over, from the beginning of his 
 political life to the present time, with attacks 
 upon judicial decisions, — I may cut off limb 
 after limb of his public record, and strive to 
 wrench from him a single dictum of the Court, 
 yet I cannot divert him from it. He hangs to 
 the last to the Dred Scott decision. . . . Henry 
 Clay, my beau ideal of a statesman, . . . once said 
 of a class of men who would repress all tendencies 
 to liberty and ultimate emancipation, that they 
 must, if they would do this, go back to the era of 
 our independence, and muzzle the cannon that 
 thunders its annual joyous return ; that they must 
 blow out the moral lights around us ; they must 
 penetrate the human soul, and eradicate there 
 the love of liberty ; and then, and not till then, 
 could they perpetuate slavery in this country ! To 
 my thinking, Judge Douglas is, by his example 
 and vast influence, doing that very thing in this 
 community when he says that the negro has noth- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 141 
 
 ing in the Declaration of Independence. Henry 
 Clay plainly understood the contrary. Judge 
 Douglas is going back to the era of our Revolu- 
 tion, and, to the extent of his ability, muzzling 
 the cannon which thunders its annual joyous 
 return. When he invites any people, willing to 
 have slavery, to establish it, he is blowing out 
 the moral lights around us. When he says he 
 1 cares not whether slavery is voted down or 
 voted up,' — that it is a sacred right of self-govern- 
 ment, — he is, in my judgment, penetrating the 
 human soul and eradicating the light of reason 
 and the love of liberty in this American people. 
 And now I will only say, that when, by all these 
 means and appliances, Judge Douglas shall suc- 
 ceed in bringing public sentiment to an exact 
 accordance with his own views ; when these 
 vast assemblages shall echo back all these senti- 
 ments ; when they shall come to repeat his 
 views and avow his principles, and to say all that 
 he says on these mighty questions, — then it needs 
 only the formality of a second Dred Scott deci- 
 sion, which he indorses in advance, to make slav- 
 ery alike lawful in all the States, old as well as 
 new, North as well as South." 
 
142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From the Debate at Freeport, Illinois. 
 
 August 27, 1858. 
 
 [Note. — Mr. Lincoln had often said that the 
 answer of Judge Douglas to his question whether 
 under the Dred Scott decision the people of a 
 Territory could exclude slavery from it before a 
 State constitution was formed, would ruin his 
 prospects as a candidate for the presidency. If 
 he answered that they could, it would ruin him 
 at the South ; if he said they could not, it would 
 destroy his prospects in the free States. It was 
 the opinion of Elihu B. Washburne, in whose 
 district the Freeport meeting was held, that his 
 answers to this and other questions of Mr. Lincoln 
 " sounded the political death-knell of Judge 
 Douglas." His answer was that in his opinion 
 " the people of a Territory can, by lawful means, 
 exclude slavery from their limits prior to the for- 
 mation of a State constitution." This answer, 
 which denied the effect of the Dred Scott deci- 
 sion, as claimed by the Democracy of the South, 
 wrought the ruin predicted for it. This fact 
 gives a greater importance to the meeting at 
 Freeport than to all the meetings subsequently 
 held. 
 
 In his opening speech at Freeport, Mr. Lincoln 
 made direct answers to the seven questions which 
 Judge Douglas had put to him at Ottawa, with 
 such explanations as served to make his answers 
 more full and explicit. His four questions to 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 43 
 
 Judge Douglas involved the decision in the Dred 
 Scott case, and required him to answer whether 
 he would vote to admit Kansas without waiting 
 for the number of inhabitants required by the 
 English bill ; whether the people of a Territory 
 could in any lawful way exclude slavery from its 
 limits; whether if the Supreme Court should 
 decide that a State could not exclude slavery, he 
 would acquiesce in and follow such decision as a 
 rule of political action ; and whether he was in 
 favour of acquiring additional territory, in dis- 
 regard of how such acquisition would affect the 
 slavery question. Then, after correcting some er- 
 roneous statements of feet made by his adversary, 
 he said : — ] 
 
 "... I have been in the habit of charging, as 
 a matter of belief on my part, that, in the intro- 
 duction of the Nebraska Bill into Congress, there 
 was a conspiracy to make slavery perpetual and 
 national. I have arranged, from time to time, 
 the evidence which establishes and proves the 
 truth of this charge. I recurred to this charge 
 at Ottawa. I shall not now have time to dwell 
 upon it at any great length ; but inasmuch as 
 Judge Douglas, in his reply of half an hour, made 
 some points upon me in relation to it, I propose 
 noticing a few of them. 
 
 " The Judge insists that in the first speech I 
 made, in which I very distinctly made that charge, 
 
144 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 he thought for a good while that I was in fun, 
 that I was playful, that I was not sincere about 
 it ; and that he only grew angry and somewhat ex- 
 cited when he found that I insisted upon it as a 
 matter of earnestness. He says he characterised 
 it as a falsehood, as far as I implicated his moral 
 character in that transaction. Well, I did not 
 know, till he presented that view, that I had im- 
 plicated his moral character. He is very much 
 in the habit when he argues me up into a position 
 I never thought of occupying, of very cosily say- 
 ing he has no doubt Lincoln is ' conscientious ' in 
 that matter. I can conceive it possible for men 
 to conspire to do a good thing, and I really find 
 nothing in Judge Douglas's course of arguments 
 that is contrary to or inconsistent with his belief 
 of a conspiracy to nationalize and spread slavery 
 as being a good and blessed thing, and so I hope 
 he will understand that I do not question but that 
 in all this matter he is entirely ' conscientious.' 
 
 " But to draw your attention to one of the 
 points I made in this case, beginning at the be- 
 ginning : when the Nebraska Bill was introduced, 
 or a short time afterward, by an amendment, I 
 believe, it was provided that it must be con- 
 sidered ' the true intent and meaning of this act 
 not to legislate slavery into any State or Terri- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 145 
 
 tory, or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the 
 people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate 
 their domestic institutions in their own way, sub- 
 ject only to the Constitution of the United States.' 
 I have called his attention to the fact that when 
 he and some others began arguing that they were 
 giving an increased degree of liberty to the people 
 in the Territories over and above what they for- 
 merly had on the question of slavery, a question 
 was raised whether the law was enacted to give 
 such unconditional liberty to the people ; and to 
 test the sincerity of this mode of argument, Mr. 
 Chase, of Ohio, introduced an amendment in 
 which he made the law — if the amendment 
 were adopted — expressly declare that the people 
 of the Territory should have the power to exclude 
 slavery if they saw fit. I have asked attention 
 also to the fact that Judge Douglas and those who 
 acted with him voted that amendment down, not- 
 withstanding it expressed exactly the thing they 
 said was the true intent and meaning of the law. 
 I have called attention to the fact that in subse- 
 quent times a decision of the Supreme Court 
 has been made, in which it has been declared 
 that a Territorial Legislature has no constitutional 
 right to exclude slavery. And I have argued and 
 said that for men who did intend that the people 
 
 10 
 
146 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of the Territory should have the right to exclude 
 slavery absolutely and unconditionally, the voting 
 down of Chase's amendment is wholly inexpli- 
 cable. It is a puzzle — a riddle. But I have 
 said that with men who did look forward to such 
 a decision, or who had it in contemplation that 
 such a decision of the Supreme Court would or 
 might be made, the voting down of that amend- 
 ment would be perfectly rational and intelligible. 
 It would keep Congress from coming in collision 
 with the decision when it was made. Anybody 
 can conceive that if there was an intention or 
 expectation that such a decision was to follow, 
 it would not be a very desirable party attitude 
 to get into for the Supreme Court — all, or nearly 
 all its members belonging to the same party — to 
 decide one way, when the party in Congress had 
 decided the other way. Hence it would be very 
 rational for men expecting such a decision to 
 keep the niche in that law clear for it. After 
 pointing this out, I tell Judge Douglas that it 
 looks to me as though here was the reason why 
 Chase's amendment was voted down. I tell him 
 that as he did it, and knows why he did it, if it 
 was done for a reason different from this, he 
 knows what that reason was, and can tell us what 
 it was. I tell him, also, it will be vastly more 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 47 
 
 satisfactory to the country for him to give some 
 other plausible, intelligible reason why it was 
 voted down, than to stand upon his dignity and 
 call people liars. ..." 
 
 In Mr. Lincoln's Rejoinder to Judge Douglas 
 at Freeport, among other things, he said : — 
 
 "... At the introduction of the Nebraska policy, 
 we believed there was a new era being introduced 
 in the history of the Republic, which tended to the 
 spread and perpetuation of slavery. But in our 
 opposition to that measure we did not agree with 
 one another in everything. The people in the 
 north end of the State were for stronger measures 
 of opposition than we of the southern and central 
 portions of the State, but we were all opposed to 
 the Nebraska doctrine. We had that one feel- 
 ing and one sentiment in common. You at the 
 north end met in your conventions, and passed 
 your resolutions. We in the middle of the State 
 and further south did not hold such conventions 
 and pass the same resolutions, although we had 
 in general a common view and a common senti- 
 ment. So that these meetings which the Judge 
 has alluded to, and the resolutions he has read 
 from, were local, and did not spread over the 
 whole State. We at last met together in 1856, 
 
148 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 from all parts of the State, and we agreed upon a 
 common platform. You who held more extreme 
 notions, either yielded those notions, or if not 
 wholly yielding them, agreed to yield them prac- 
 tically, for the sake of embodying the opposition 
 to the measures which the opposite party were 
 pushing forward at that time. We met you then, 
 and if there was anything yielded, it was for prac- 
 tical purposes. We agreed then upon a platform 
 for the party throughout the entire State of Illi- 
 nois, and now we are all bound as a party to that 
 platform. And I say here to you, if any one 
 expects of me in the case of my election, that I 
 will do anything not signified by our Republican 
 platform and my answers here to-day, I tell you 
 very frankly, that person will be deceived. I do 
 not ask for the vote of any one who supposes 
 that I have secret purposes or pledges that I dare 
 not speak out. ... If I should never be elected 
 to any office, I trust I may go down with no stain 
 of falsehood upon my reputation, notwithstand- 
 ing the hard opinions Judge Douglas chooses to 
 entertain of me. ..." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 149 
 
 From Mr. Lincoln's Reply at Jonesboro. 
 
 September 15, 1858. 
 
 "... I hold myself under constitutional obli- 
 gations to allow the people in all the States, with- 
 out interference, direct or indirect, to do exactly 
 as they please, and I deny that I have any incli- 
 nation to interfere with them, even if there were 
 no such constitutional obligation. I can only 
 say again that I am placed improperly — alto- 
 gether improperly, in spite of all that I can say — 
 when it is insisted that I entertain any other view 
 or purpose in regard to that matter. 
 
 "While I am upon this subject, I will make 
 some answers briefly to certain propositions that 
 Judge Douglas has put. He says, ' Why can't 
 this Union endure permanently half slave and 
 half free ? ' I have said that I supposed it could 
 not, and I will try, before this new audience, to 
 give briefly some of the reasons for entertaining 
 that opinion. Another form of his question is, 
 1 Why can't we let it stand as our fathers placed 
 it ? ' That is the exact difficulty between us. I 
 say that Judge Douglas and his friends have 
 changed it from the position in which our 
 fathers originally placed it. I say in the way 
 our fathers originally left the slavery question, 
 
 
150 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the institution was in the course of ultimate ex- 
 tinction. I say when this government was first 
 established, it was the policy of its founders to 
 prohibit the spread of slavery into the new Terri- 
 tories of the United States where it had not ex- 
 isted. But Judge Douglas and his friends have 
 broken up that policy, and placed it upon a new 
 basis, by which it is to become national and per- 
 petual. All I have asked or desired anywhere is 
 that it should be placed back again upon the 
 basis that the fathers of our government originally 
 placed it upon. I have no doubt that it would 
 become extinct for all time to come, if we had 
 but readopted the policy of the fathers by re- 
 stricting it to the limits it has already covered — 
 restricting it from the new Territories. 
 
 " I do not wish to dwell on this branch of the 
 subject at great length at this time, but allow me 
 to repeat one thing that I have stated before. 
 Brooks, the man who assaulted Senator Sumner 
 on the floor of the Senate, and who was com- 
 plimented with dinners and silver pitchers and 
 gold- headed canes, and a good many other things 
 for that feat, in one of his speeches declared that 
 when this government was originally established, 
 nobody expected that the institution of slavery 
 would last until this day. That was but the 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 151 
 
 opinion of one man, but it is such an opinion as 
 we can never get from Judge Douglas or anybody 
 in favour of slavery in the North at all. You can 
 sometimes get it from a Southern man. He said 
 at the same time that the framers of our govern- 
 ment did not have the knowledge that experience 
 has taught us — that experience and the invention 
 of the cotton gin have taught us that the perpetu- 
 ation of slavery is a necessity. He insisted there- 
 fore upon its being changed from the basis upon 
 which the fathers of the government left it to the 
 basis of perpetuation and nationalization. 
 
 " I insist that this is the difference between 
 Judge Douglas and myself — that Judge Douglas 
 is helping the change along. I insist upon this 
 government being placed where our fathers 
 originally placed it. 
 
 " . . . When he asks me why we cannot get 
 along with it [slavery] in the attitude where our 
 fathers placed it, he had better clear up the evi- 
 dences that he has himself changed it from that 
 basis ; that he has himself been chiefly instru- 
 mental in changing the policy of the fathers. 
 Any one who will read his speech of the twenty- 
 second of March last, will see that he there makes 
 an open confession, showing that he set about 
 fixing the institution upon an altogether different 
 set of principles. . . . 
 
 
152 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " Now, fellow- citizens, in regard to this matter 
 about a contract between myself and Judge Trum- 
 bull ... I wish simply to say, what I have said 
 to him before, that he cannot know whether it is 
 true or not, and I do know that there is not a 
 word of truth in it. And I have told him so 
 before. I don't want any harsh language indulged 
 in, but I do not know how to deal with this per- 
 sistent insisting on a story that I know to be 
 utterly without truth. It used to be the fashion 
 amongst men that when a charge was made, some 
 sort of proof was brought forward to establish it, 
 and if no proof was found to exist it was dropped. 
 I don't know how to meet this kind of an argu- 
 ment. I don't want to have a fight with Judge 
 Douglas, and I have no way of making an argu- 
 ment up into the consistency of a corn-cob and 
 stopping his mouth with it. All I can do is good- 
 humouredly to say, that from the beginning to the 
 end of all that story about a bargain between 
 Judge Trumbull and myself, there is not a word 
 of truth in it. . . . 
 
 "When that compromise [of 1850] was made, 
 it did not repeal the old Missouri Compromise. 
 It left a region of United States territory half as 
 large as the present territory of the United States, 
 north of the line of 3 6° 30', in which slavery was 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 53 
 
 prohibited by act of Congress. This compromise 
 did not repeal that one. It did not affect nor 
 propose to repeal it. But at last it became Judge 
 Douglas's duty, as he thought (and I find no 
 fault with him), as chairman of the Committee 
 on Territories, to bring in a bill for the organi- 
 sation of a territorial government — first of one, 
 then of two Territories north of that line. When 
 he did so, it ended in his inserting a provision 
 substantially repealing the Missouri Compromise. 
 That was because the Compromise of 1850 had 
 not repealed it. And now I ask why he could 
 not have left that compromise alone? We were 
 quiet from the agitation of the slavery question. 
 We were making no fuss about it. All had ac- 
 quiesced in the compromise measures of 1850. 
 We never had been seriously disturbed by any 
 Abolition agitation before that period. ... I 
 close this part of the discussion on my part by 
 asking him the question again, Why, when we 
 had peace under the Missouri Compromise, could 
 you not have let it alone ? 
 
 "... He tries to persuade us that there must 
 be a variety in the different institutions of the 
 States of the Union ; that that variety necessarily 
 proceeds from the variety of soil, climate, of the 
 face of the country, and the difference of the 
 
154 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 natural features of the States. I agree to all that. 
 Have these very matters ever produced any diffi- 
 culty amongst us? Not at all. Have we ever 
 had any quarrel over the fact that they have laws 
 in Louisiana designed to regulate the commerce 
 that springs from the production of sugar, or 
 because we have a different class relative to the 
 production of flour in this State? Have they 
 produced any differences ? Not at all. They are 
 the very cements of this Union. They don't 
 make the house a house divided against itself. 
 They are the props that hold up the house and 
 sustain the Union. 
 
 But has it been so with this element of slavery ? 
 Have we not always had quarrels and difficulties 
 over it? And when will we cease to have quar- 
 rels over it? Like causes produce like effects. 
 It is worth while to observe that we have gener- 
 ally had comparative peace upon the slavery 
 question, and that there has been no cause for 
 alarm until it was excited by the effort to spread 
 it into new territory. Whenever it has been lim- 
 ited to its present bounds, and there has been no 
 effort to spread it, there has been peace. All the 
 trouble and convulsion has proceeded from efforts 
 to spread it over more territory. It was thus at 
 the date of the Missouri Compromise. It was 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. I 55 
 
 so again with the annexation of Texas ; so with 
 the territory acquired by the Mexican War ; and 
 it is so now. Whenever there has been an effort 
 to spread it, there has been agitation and resis- 
 tance. Now, I appeal to this audience (very 
 few of whom are my political friends), as rational 
 men, whether we have reason to expect that the 
 agitation in regard to this subject will cease while 
 the causes that tend to reproduce agitation are 
 actively at work? Will not the same cause that 
 produced agitation in 1820, when the Missouri 
 Compromise was formed, — that which produced 
 the agitation upon the annexation of Texas, and at 
 other times, — work out the same results always ? 
 Do you think that the nature of man will be 
 changed ; that the same causes that produced 
 agitation at one time will not have the same effect 
 at another? 
 
 " This has been the result so far as my obser- 
 vation of the slavery question and my reading in 
 history extend. What right have we then to hope 
 that the trouble will cease, that the agitation will 
 come to an end, until it shall either be placed 
 back where it originally stood, and where the 
 fathers originally placed it, or, on the other hand, 
 until it shall entirely master all opposition? This 
 is the view I entertain, and this is the reason why 
 
156 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 I entertained it, as Judge Douglas has read from 
 my Springfield speech. 
 
 " . . .At Freeport I answered several interro- 
 gatories that had been propounded to me by Judge 
 Douglas at the Ottawa meeting. ... At the same 
 time I propounded four interrogatories to him, 
 claiming it as a right that he should answer as 
 many for me as I did for him, and I would re- 
 serve myself for a future instalment when I got 
 them ready. The Judge, in answering me upon 
 that occasion, put in what I suppose he intends 
 as answers to all four of my interrogatories. The 
 first one of these I have before me, and it is in 
 these words : — 
 
 " Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall by means en- 
 tirely unobjectionable in all other respects, adopt a State 
 constitution and ask admission into the Union under it, 
 before they have the requisite number of inhabitants ac- 
 cording to the English bill — some 93,000 — will you vote 
 to admit them ? 
 
 " As I read the Judge's answer in the news- 
 paper, and as I remember it as pronounced at 
 the time, he does not give any answer which is 
 equivalent to yes or no, — I will or I won't. He 
 answers at very considerable length, rather quar- 
 relling with me for asking the question, and in- 
 sisting that Judge Trumbull had done something 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 157 
 
 that I ought to say something about ; and finally, 
 getting out such statements as induce me to infer 
 that he means to be understood, he will, in that 
 supposed case, vote for the admission of Kansas. 
 I only bring this forward now, for the purpose of 
 saying that, if he chooses to put a different con- 
 struction upon his answer, he may do it. But if 
 he does not, I shall from this time forward as- 
 sume that he will vote for the admission of Kansas 
 in disregard of the English bill. He has the right 
 to remove any misunderstanding I may have. I 
 only mention it now, that I may hereafter assume 
 this to have been the true construction of his 
 answer, if he does not now choose to correct me. 
 « The second interrogatory I propounded to 
 him was this : — 
 
 " Question 2. Can the people of a United States Territory 
 in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the 
 United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the 
 formation of a State constitution ? 
 
 "To this Judge Douglas answered that they 
 can lawfully exclude slavery from the Territory 
 prior to the formation of a constitution. He goes 
 on to tell us how it can be done. As I under- 
 stand him, he holds that it can be done by the 
 territorial legislature refusing to make any enact- 
 ments for the protection of slavery in the Ter- 
 
158 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ritory, and especially by adopting unfriendly 
 legislation to it. For the sake of clearness, I 
 state it again : that they can exclude slavery 
 from the Territory, — first, by withholding what 
 he assumes to be an indispensable assistance to 
 it in the way of legislation ; and second, by un- 
 friendly legislation. If I rightly understand him, 
 I wish to ask your attention for a while to his 
 position. 
 
 " In the first place, the Supreme Court of the 
 United States has decided that any congressional 
 prohibition of slavery in the Territories is uncon- 
 stitutional : they have reached this proposition 
 as a conclusion from their former proposition that 
 the Constitution of the United States expressly 
 recognises property in slaves ; and from that 
 other constitutional provision that no person shall 
 be deprived of property without due process of 
 law. Hence they reach the conclusion that as the 
 Constitution of the United States expressly recog- 
 nises property in slaves, and prohibits any person 
 from being deprived of property without due 
 process of law, to pass an act of Congress by 
 which a man who owned a slave on one side of 
 a line would be deprived of him if he took him 
 on the other side, is depriving him of that prop- 
 erty without due process of law. That I under- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 159 
 
 stand to be the decision of the Supreme Court. 
 I understand also that Judge Douglas adheres 
 most firmly to that decision ; and the difficulty 
 is, how is it possible for any power to exclude 
 slavery from the Territory unless in violation of 
 that decision? That is the difficulty. 
 
 "In the Senate of the United States, in 1856, 
 Judge Trumbull in a speech, substantially if not 
 directly, put the same interrogatory to Judge 
 Douglas, as to whether the people of a Territory 
 had the lawful power to exclude slavery prior to 
 the formation of a constitution? Judge Douglas 
 then answered at considerable length, and his 
 answer will be found in the ' Congressional 
 Globe,' under date of June 9, 1856. The Judge 
 said that whether the people could exclude slav- 
 ery prior to the formation of a constitution or 
 not, was a question to be decided by the Supreme 
 Court. He put that proposition, as will be seen 
 by the ' Congressional Globe,' in a variety of 
 forms, all running to the same thing in substance, 
 — that it was a question for the Supreme Court. 
 I maintain that when he says, after the Supreme 
 Court has decided the question, that the people 
 may yet exclude slavery by any means whatever, 
 he does virtually say that it is not a question for 
 the Supreme Court. He shifts his ground. I 
 
160 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 appeal to you whether he did not say it was a 
 question for the Supreme Court? Has not the 
 Supreme Court decided that question? When 
 he now says that the people may exclude slavery, 
 does he not make it a question for the people ? 
 Does he not virtually shift his ground and say that 
 it is not a question for the court, but for the 
 people ? This is a very simple proposition, — a 
 very plain and naked one. It seems to me that 
 there is no difficulty in deciding it. In a variety 
 of ways he said that it was a question for the 
 Supreme Court. He did not stop then to tell us 
 that, whatever the Supreme Court decides, the 
 people can by withholding necessary ' police 
 regulations ' keep slavery out. He did not make 
 any such answer. I submit to you now, whether 
 the new state of the case has not induced the 
 Judge to sheer away from his original ground? 
 Would not this be the impression of every fair- 
 minded man? 
 
 " I hold that the proposition that slavery cannot 
 enter a new country without police regulations is 
 historically false. It is not true at all. I hold 
 that the history of this country shows that the 
 institution of slavery was originally planted upon 
 this continent without these ' police regulations ' 
 which the Judge now thinks necessary for the 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 161 
 
 actual establishment of it. Not only so, but is 
 there not another fact, — how came this Dred 
 Scott decision to be made ? It was made upon 
 the case of a negro being taken and actually held 
 in slavery in Minnesota Territory, claiming his 
 freedom because the act of Congress prohibited 
 his being so held there. Will the Judge pretend 
 that Dred Scott was not held there without police 
 regulations ? There is at least one matter of record 
 as to his having been held in slavery in the Ter- 
 ritory, not only without police regulations, but in 
 the teeth of congressional legislation supposed 
 to be valid at the time. This shows that there 
 is vigour enough in slavery to plant itself in a new 
 country, even against unfriendly legislation. It 
 takes not only law, but the enforcement of law 
 to keep it out. That is the history of this country 
 upon the subject. 
 
 " I wish to ask one other question. It being 
 understood that the Constitution of the United 
 States guarantees property in slaves in the Terri- 
 tories, if there is any infringement of the right of 
 that property, would not the United States courts, 
 organised for the government of the Territory, 
 apply such remedy as might be necessary in that 
 case ? It is a maxim held by the courts that there 
 is no wrong without its remedy ; and the courts 
 
 ii 
 
162 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 have a remedy for whatever is acknowledged and 
 treated as a wrong. 
 
 " Again : I will ask you, my friends, if you were 
 elected members of the legislature, what would 
 be the first thing you would have to do before 
 entering upon your duties? Swear to support 
 the Constitution of the United States. Suppose 
 you believe as Judge Douglas does, that the Con- 
 stitution of the United States guarantees to your 
 neighbour the right to hold slaves in that Terri- 
 tory, — that they are his property, — how can you 
 clear your oaths unless you give him such legisla- 
 tion as is necessary to enable him to enjoy that 
 property? What do you understand by support- 
 ing the Constitution of a State or of the United 
 States? Is it not to give such constitutional 
 helps to the rights established by that Constitution 
 as may be practically needed ? Can you, if you 
 swear to support the Constitution and believe that 
 the Constitution establishes a right, clear your 
 oath without giving it support? Do you support 
 the Constitution if, knowing or believing there is 
 a right established under it which needs specific 
 legislation, you withhold that legislation ? Do you 
 not violate and disregard your oath ? I can con- 
 ceive of nothing plainer in the world. There can 
 be nothing in the words ' support the Constitu- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 163 
 
 tion,' if you may run counter to it by refusing 
 support to any right established under the Con- 
 stitution. And what I say here will hold with 
 still more force against the Judge's doctrine of 
 'unfriendly legislation.' How could you, having 
 sworn to support the Constitution, and believing 
 that it guaranteed the right to hold slaves in the 
 Territories, assist in legislation intended to defeat 
 that right? That would be violating your own 
 view of the Constitution. Not only so, but if you 
 were to do so, how long would it take the courts 
 to hold your votes unconstitutional and void? 
 Not a moment. 
 
 " Lastly, I would ask, is not Congress itself under 
 obligation to give legislative support to any right 
 that is established under the United States Con- 
 stitution? I repeat the question, is not Congress 
 itself bound to give legislative support to any right 
 that is established in the United States Constitu- 
 tion? A member of Congress swears to support 
 the Constitution of the United States, and if he 
 sees a right established by that Constitution which 
 needs specific legislative protection, can he clear 
 his oath without giving that protection? Let me 
 ask you why many of us, who are opposed to slav- 
 ery upon principle, give our acquiescence to a 
 fugitive-slave law? Why do we hold ourselves 
 
164 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 under obligations to pass such a law, and abide 
 by it when passed? Because the Constitution 
 makes provision that the owners of slaves shall 
 have the right to reclaim them. It gives the 
 right to reclaim slaves ; and that right is, as 
 Judge Douglas says, a barren right, unless there 
 is legislation that will enforce it. 
 
 " The mere declaration, ' No person held to 
 service or labour in one State, under the laws 
 thereof, escaping into another, shall, in conse- 
 quence of any law or regulation therein, be dis- 
 charged from such service or labour, but shall be 
 delivered up on claim of the party to whom such 
 service or labour may be due,' is powerless without 
 specific legislation to enforce it. Now, on what 
 ground would a member of Congress who is op- 
 posed to slavery in the abstract, vote for a fugitive 
 law, as I would deem it my duty to do? Be- 
 cause there is a constitutional right which needs 
 legislation to enforce it. And, although it is dis- 
 tasteful to me, I have sworn to support the Con- 
 stitution ; and, having so sworn, I cannot conceive 
 that I do support it if I withhold from that right 
 any necessary legislation to make it practical. 
 And if that is true in regard to a fugitive -slave 
 law, is the right to have fugitive slaves reclaimed 
 any better fixed in the Constitution than the right 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 165 
 
 to hold slaves in the Territories? For this deci- 
 sion is a just exposition of the Constitution, as 
 Judge Douglas thinks. Is the one right any 
 better than the other? If I wished to refuse to 
 give legislative support to slave property in the 
 Territories, if a member of Congress, I could 
 not do it, holding the view that the Constitution 
 establishes that right. If I did it at all, it would 
 be because I deny that this decision properly 
 construes the Constitution. But if I acknowledge 
 with Judge Douglas that this decision properly 
 construes the Constitution, I cannot conceive 
 that I would be less than a perjured man if I 
 should refuse in Congress to give such protection 
 to that property as in its nature it needed. ..." 
 
 From Mr. Lincoln's Rejoinder to Judge Doug- 
 las AT CHARLESTOWN, ILLINOIS. 
 
 September 18, 1858. 
 " Judge Douglas has said to you that he has 
 not been able to get from me an answer to the 
 question whether I am in favour of negro citizen- 
 ship. So far as I know, the Judge never asked 
 me the question before. He shall have no occa- 
 sion ever to ask it again, for I tell him very 
 
1 66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 frankly that I am not in favour of negro citizen- 
 ship. . . . Now my opinion is, that the different 
 States have the power to make a negro a citizen 
 under the Constitution of the United States, if 
 they choose. The Dred Scott decision decides 
 that they have not that power. If the State of 
 Illinois had that power, I should be opposed to 
 the exercise of it. . . . 
 
 " . . . Judge Douglas has told me that he 
 heard my speeches north and my speeches south, 
 . . . and there was a very different cast of senti- 
 ment in the speeches made at the different points. 
 I will not charge upon Judge Douglas that he 
 wilfully misrepresents me, but I call upon every 
 fair-minded man to take these speeches and read 
 them, and I dare him to point out any difference 
 between my speeches north and south. While I 
 am here, perhaps I ought to say a word, if I have 
 the time, in regard to the latter portion of the 
 Judge's speech, which was a sort of declamation 
 in reference to my having said that I entertained 
 the belief that this government would not endure, 
 half slave and half free. I have said so, and I 
 did not say it without what seemed to me good 
 reasons. It perhaps would require more time 
 than I have now to set forth those reasons in de- 
 tail ; but let me ask you a few questions. Have 
 we ever had any peace on this slavery question? 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 167 
 
 When are we to have peace upon it if it is kept 
 in the position it now occupies? How are we 
 ever to have peace upon it? That is an impor- 
 tant question. To be sure, if we will all stop and 
 allow Judge Douglas and his friends to march on 
 in their present career until they plant the insti- 
 tution all over the nation, here and wherever else 
 our flag waves, and we acquiesce in it, there will 
 be peace. But let me ask Judge Douglas how he 
 is going to get the people to do that? They 
 have been wrangling over this question for forty 
 years. This was the cause of the agitation result- 
 ing in the Missouri Compromise ; this produced 
 the troubles at the annexation of Texas, in the 
 acquisition of the territory acquired in the Mex- 
 ican War. Again, this was the trouble quieted by 
 the Compromise of 1850, when it was settled 
 ' for ever,' as both the great political parties de- 
 clared in their national conventions. That ' for 
 ever ' turned out to be just four years, when Judge 
 Douglas himself reopened it. 
 
 " When is it likely to come to an end? He in- 
 troduced the Nebraska Bill in 1854, to put an- 
 other end to the slavery agitation. He promised 
 that it would finish it all up immediately, and he 
 has never made a speech since, until he got into 
 a quarrel with the President about the Lecompton 
 constitution, in which he has not declared that 
 
1 68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 we are just at the end of the slavery agitation. 
 But in one speech, I think last winter, he did say 
 that he did n't quite see when the end of the 
 slavery agitation would come. Now he tells us 
 again that it is all over, and the people of Kansas 
 have voted down the Lecompton constitution. 
 How is it over? That was only one of the at- 
 tempts to put an end to the slavery agitation, — 
 one of these ' final settlements.' Is Kansas in the 
 Union? Has she formed a constitution that she 
 is likely to come in under? Is not the slavery 
 agitation still an open question in that Territory? 
 ... If Kansas should sink to-day, and leave a 
 great vacant space in the earth's surface, this 
 vexed question would still be among us. I say, 
 then, there is no way of putting an end to the 
 slavery agitation amongst us, but to put it back 
 upon the basis where our fathers placed it ; no 
 way but to keep it out of our new Territories, — 
 to restrict it for ever to the old States where it 
 now exists. Then the public mind will rest in 
 the belief that it is in the course of ultimate 
 extinction. That is one way of putting an end 
 to the slavery agitation. 
 
 " The other way is for us to surrender, and let 
 Judge Douglas and his friends have their way, 
 and plant slavery over all the States." . . . 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 69 
 
 From Mr. Lincoln's Reply to Judge Douglas 
 at Galesburg, Illinois. 
 
 October 7, 1858. 
 " . . . The Judge has alluded to the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and insisted that negroes 
 are not included in that Declaration ; and that it 
 is a slander on the framers of that instrument 
 to suppose that negroes were meant therein ; and 
 he asks you, Is it possible to believe that Mr. 
 Jefferson, who penned that immortal paper, could 
 have supposed himself applying the language of 
 that instrument to the negro race, and yet held 
 a portion of that race in slavery ? Would he not 
 at once have freed them ? I only have to remark 
 upon this part of his speech (and that too, very 
 briefly, for I shall not detain myself or you upon 
 that point for any great length of time), that I 
 believe the entire records of the world, from the 
 date of the Declaration of Independence up to 
 within three years ago, may be searched in vain 
 for one single affirmation from one single man, 
 that the negro was not included in the Declara- 
 tion of Independence ; I think I may defy Judge 
 Douglas to show that he ever said so, that Wash- 
 ington ever said so, that any President ever said 
 so, that any member of Congress ever said so, or 
 
170 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 that any living man upon the whole earth ever 
 said so, until the necessities of the present policy 
 of the Democratic party in regard to slavery had 
 to invent that affirmation. And I will remind 
 Judge Douglas and this audience, that while Mr. 
 Jefferson was the owner of slaves, as undoubtedly 
 he was, in speaking on this very subject, he used 
 the strong language that ' he trembled for his 
 country when he remembered that God was 
 just ; ' and I will offer the highest premium in 
 my power to Judge Douglas if he will show that 
 he, in all his life, ever uttered a sentiment at all 
 akin to that of Jefferson. 
 
 "... In order to fix extreme Abolitionism 
 upon me, Judge Douglas read a set of resolutions 
 which he declared had been passed by a Repub- 
 lican State Convention, in October, 1854, held at 
 Springfield, Illinois, and he declared that I had 
 taken a part in that convention. It turned out that 
 although a few men calling themselves an anti- 
 Nebraska State Convention had sat at Springfield 
 about that time, yet neither did I take any part 
 in it, nor did it pass the resolutions or any such 
 resolutions as Judge Douglas read. ... A fraud, 
 an absolute forgery, was committed, and the per- 
 petration of it was traced to the three, — Lanphier, 
 Harris, and Douglas. . . . The main object of 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 171 
 
 that forgery at that time was to beat Yates and 
 elect Harris to Congress, and that object was 
 known to be exceedingly dear to Judge Douglas 
 at that time. 
 
 " . . . The fraud having been apparently 
 successful upon that occasion, both Harris and 
 Douglas have more than once since then been 
 attempting to put it to new uses. As the fisher- 
 man's wife, whose drowned husband was brought 
 home with his body full of eels, said, when she 
 was asked what was to be done with him, < Take 
 out the eels and set him again,' so Harris and 
 Douglas have shown a disposition to take the 
 eels out of that stale fraud by which they gained 
 Harris's election, and set the fraud again, more 
 than once. . . . And now that it has been dis- 
 covered publicly to be a fraud, we find that 
 Judge Douglas manifests no surprise at all. . . . 
 But meanwhile the three are agreed that each is 
 a most honourable man. " 
 
172 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's Reply to Judge Douglas in the 
 Seventh and Last Joint Debate at Alton, 
 Illinois. 
 
 October 15, 1858. 
 "... When have we had perfect peace in 
 regard to this thing [slavery] which I say is an 
 element of discord in this Union? We have 
 sometimes had peace, but when was it? It was 
 when the institution of slavery remained quiet 
 where it was. We have had difficulty and tur- 
 moil whenever it has made a struggle to spread 
 itself where it was not. I ask then, if experience 
 does not speak in thunder-tones, telling us that 
 the policy which has given peace to the country 
 heretofore, being returned to, gives the greatest 
 promise of peace again ? You may say . . . that 
 all this difficulty in regard to the institution of 
 slavery is the mere agitation of office-seekers 
 and ambitious Northern politicians. ... I agree 
 that there are office-seekers amongst us. The 
 Bible says somewhere that we are desperately 
 selfish. I think we would have discovered that 
 fact without the Bible. I do not claim that I 
 am any less so than the average of men, but I 
 do claim that I am not more selfish than Judge 
 Douglas. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 173 
 
 " But is it true that all the difficulty and agi- 
 tation we have in regard to this institution of 
 slavery springs from office-seeking, — from the 
 mere ambition of politicians ? Is that the truth ? 
 How many times have we had danger from this 
 question ? Go back to the day of the Missouri 
 Compromise. Go back to the nullification ques- 
 tion, at the bottom of which lay this same slavery 
 question. Go back to the time of the annexation 
 of Texas. Go back to the troubles that led to the 
 Compromise of 1850. You will find that every 
 time, with the single exception of the nullification 
 question, they sprung from an endeavour to spread 
 this institution. There never was a party in the 
 history of this country, and there probably never 
 will be, of sufficient strength to disturb the general 
 peace of the country. Parties themselves may 
 be divided and quarrel on minor questions, yet 
 it extends not beyond the parties themselves. 
 But does not this question make a disturbance 
 outside of political circles? Does it not enter 
 into the churches and rend them asunder? What 
 divided the great Methodist Church into two 
 parts North and South? What has raised this 
 constant disturbance in every Presbyterian Gen- 
 eral Assembly that meets? What disturbed the 
 Unitarian Church in this very city two years ago ? 
 
174 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 What has jarred and shaken the great American 
 Tract Society recently, — not yet splitting it, but 
 sure to divide it in the end ? Is it not this same 
 mighty, deep-seated power, that somehow operates 
 on the minds of men, exciting and stirring them 
 up in every avenue of society, in politics, in re- 
 ligion, in literature, in morals, in all the manifold 
 relations of life ? Is this the work of politicians ? 
 Is that irresistible power which for fifty years has 
 shaken the government and agitated the people, 
 to be stilled and subdued by pretending that it is 
 an exceedingly simple thing, and we ought not 
 to talk about it ? If you will get everybody else to 
 stop talking about it, I assure you that I will quit 
 before they have half done so. But where is the 
 philosophy or statesmanship which assumes that 
 you can quiet that disturbing element in our so- 
 ciety, which has disturbed us for more than half 
 a century, which has been the only serious danger 
 that has threatened our institutions ? I say where 
 is the philosophy or the statesmanship, based on 
 the assumption that we are to quit talking about 
 it, and that the public mind is all at once to cease 
 being agitated by it? Yet this is the policy here 
 in the North that Douglas is advocating, — that 
 we are to care nothing about it ! I ask you if it 
 is not a false philosophy ? Is it not a false states- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 75 
 
 manship that undertakes to build up a system of 
 policy upon the basis of caring nothing about the 
 very thing that everybody does care the most 
 about, — a thing which all experience has shown 
 we care about a very great deal? 
 
 "... The real issue in this controversy — the 
 one pressing upon every mind — is the sentiment 
 en the part of one class that looks upon the insti- 
 tution of slavery as a wrong, and of another class 
 that does not look upon it as a wrong. The senti- 
 ment that contemplates the institution of slavery 
 in this country as a wrong is the sentiment of the 
 Republican party. It is the sentiment around 
 which all their actions, all their arguments, circle ; 
 from which all their propositions radiate. They 
 look upon it as being a moral, social, and political 
 wrong ; and while they contemplate it as such, 
 they nevertheless have due regard for its actual 
 existence among us, and the difficulties of getting 
 rid of it in any satisfactory way, and to all the 
 constitutional obligations thrown about it. Yet, 
 having a due regard for these, they desire a policy 
 in regard to it that looks to its not creating any 
 more danger. They insist that it, as far as may 
 be, be treated as a wrong ; and one of the methods 
 of treating it as a wrong is to make provision that 
 it shall grow no larger. They also desire a policy 
 
176 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 that looks to a peaceful end of slavery some time, 
 as being a wrong. These are the views they en- 
 tertain in regard to it, as I understand them ; and 
 all their sentiments, all their arguments and prop- 
 ositions are brought within this range. I have 
 said, and I here repeat it, that if there be a man 
 amongst us who does not think that the institu- 
 tion of slavery is wrong in any one of the aspects 
 of which I have spoken, he is misplaced, and 
 ought not to be with us. And if there be a man 
 amongst us who is so impatient of it as a wrong 
 as to disregard its actual presence among us, and 
 the difficulty of getting rid of it suddenly in a 
 satisfactory way, and to disregard the constitu- 
 tional obligations thrown about it, that man is 
 misplaced if he is on our platform. We disclaim 
 sympathy with him in practical action. He is 
 not placed properly with us. 
 
 " On this subject of treating it as a wrong and 
 limiting its spread, let me say a word. Has any- 
 thing ever threatened the existence of this Union 
 save and except this very institution of slavery? 
 What is it that we hold most dear amongst us? 
 Our own liberty and prosperity. What has ever 
 threatened our liberty and prosperity save and 
 except this institution of slavery? If this is true, 
 how do you propose to improve the condition of 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 77 
 
 things by enlarging slavery, — by spreading it out 
 and making it bigger? You may have a wen or a 
 cancer upon your person, and not be able to cut 
 it out lest you bleed to death ; but surely it is no 
 way to cure it, to engraft it and spread it over 
 your whole body. That is no proper way of 
 treating what you regard as a wrong. You see 
 this peaceful way of dealing with it as a wrong, — 
 restricting the spread of it, and not allowing it to 
 go into new countries where it has not already 
 existed. That is the peaceful way — the old- 
 fashioned way — the way in which the fathers 
 themselves set us the example. 
 
 " On the other hand, I have said there is a 
 sentiment which treats it as not being wrong. 
 That is the Democratic sentiment of this day. 
 I do not mean to say that every man who stands 
 within that range positively asserts that it is right. 
 That class will include all who positively assert 
 that it is right, and all who, like Judge Douglas, 
 treat it as indifferent, and do not say it is either 
 right or wrong. These two classes of men fall 
 within the general class of those who do not look 
 upon it as a wrong. And if there be among you 
 anybody who supposes that he, as a Democrat, 
 can consider himself * as much opposed to slavery 
 as anybody,' I would like to reason with him. 
 
 12 
 
178 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 You never treat it as a wrong. What other thing 
 that you consider a wrong do you deal with as 
 you deal with that ? Perhaps you say it is wrong, 
 but your leader never does, and you quarrel with 
 anybody who says it is wrong. Although you 
 pretend to say so yourself, you can find no fit 
 place to deal with it as a wrong. You must not 
 say anything about it in the free States, because it 
 is not here. You must not say anything about 
 it in the slave States, because it is there. You 
 must not say anything about it in the pulpit, be- 
 cause that is religion, and has nothing to do with 
 it. You must not say anything about it in poli- 
 tics, because that will disturb the security of ' my 
 place.' There is no place to talk about it as 
 being a wrong, although you say yourself it is a 
 wrong. But, finally, you will screw yourself up to 
 the belief that if the people of the slave States 
 should adopt a system of gradual emancipation 
 on the slavery question, you would be in favour 
 of it. You would be in favour of it ! You say 
 that is getting it in the right place, and you 
 would be glad to see it succeed. But you are 
 deceiving yourself. You all know that Frank 
 Blair and Gratz Brown, down there in St. Louis, 
 undertook to introduce that system in Missouri. 
 They fought as valiantly as they could for the 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 179 
 
 system of gradual emancipation, which you pre- 
 tend you would be glad to see succeed. Now I 
 will bring you to the test. After a hard fight they 
 were beaten ; and when the news came over here, 
 you threw up your hats and hurrahed for De- 
 mocracy ! More than that; take all the argu- 
 ment made in favour of the system you have 
 proposed, and it carefully excludes the idea that 
 there is anything wrong in the institution of slav- 
 ery. The arguments to sustain that policy care- 
 fully exclude it. Even here to-day, you heard 
 Judge Douglas quarrel with me, because I uttered 
 a wish that it might sometime come to an end. 
 Although Henry Clay could say he wished every 
 slave in the United States was in the country of 
 his ancestors, I am denounced by those who 
 pretend to respect Henry Clay, for uttering a 
 wish that it might sometime, in some peaceful 
 way, come to an end. 
 
 " The Democratic policy in regard to that in- 
 stitution will not tolerate the merest breath, the 
 slightest hint, of the least degree of wrong about 
 it. Try it by some of Judge Douglas's argu- 
 ments. He says he 'don't care whether it is 
 voted up or voted down.' . . . Any man can say 
 that who does not see anything wrong in slavery. 
 ... But if it is a wrong, he cannot say that people 
 
l8o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 have a right to do wrong. He says that, upon 
 the score of equality, slaves should be allowed 
 to go into a new Territory like other property. 
 This is strictly logical if there is no difference 
 between it and other property. . . . But if you 
 insist that one is wrong and the other right, there 
 is no use to institute a comparison between right 
 and wrong. . . . The Democratic policy every- 
 where carefully excludes the idea that there is 
 anything wrong in it. 
 
 " That is the real issue. That is the issue that 
 will continue in this country when these poor 
 tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be 
 silent. It is the eternal struggle between these 
 two principles — right and wrong — throughout 
 the world. They are the two principles that have 
 stood face to face from the beginning of time, 
 and will ever continue to struggle. The one is 
 the common right of humanity, and the other the 
 divine right of kings. It is the same principle in 
 whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same 
 spirit that says, 'You toil and work and earn 
 bread, and I '11 eat it.' No matter in what shape 
 it comes, whether from the mouth of a king, who 
 seeks to bestride the people of his own nation 
 and live by the fruit of their labour, or from one 
 race of men as an apology for enslaving another 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. l8l 
 
 race, — it is the same tyrannical principle. . . . 
 Whenever the issue can be distinctly made, and 
 all extraneous matter thrown out, so that men can 
 fairly see the real difference between the parties, 
 this controversy will soon be settled, and it will 
 be done peaceably, too. There will be no war, 
 no violence. It will be placed again where the 
 wisest and best men of the world placed it. . . . 
 I now say that, willingly or unwillingly, purposely 
 or without purpose, Judge Douglas has been the 
 most prominent instrument in changing the posi- 
 tion of the institution of slavery, which the fathers 
 of the government expected to come to an end 
 ere this, . . . and placing it where he openly con- 
 fesses he has no desire there shall ever be an 
 end to it." 
 
 From his Speech at Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 September 16, 1859. 
 "... The American people, on the first day 
 of January, 1854, found the African slave-trade 
 prohibited by a law of Congress. In a majority 
 of the States of this Union, they found African 
 slavery, or any other sort of slavery, prohibited 
 by State constitutions. They also found a law 
 existing, supposed to be valid, by which slavery 
 
1 82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 was excluded from almost all the territory the 
 United States then owned. This was the con- 
 dition of the country with reference to the insti- 
 tution of slavery, on the ist of January, 1854. 
 A few days after that, a bill was introduced into 
 Congress, which ran through its regular course in 
 the two branches of the national legislature, and 
 finally passed into a law in the month of May, 
 by which the Act of Congress prohibiting slavery 
 from going into the Territories of the United 
 States was repealed. In connection with the law 
 itself, and, in fact, in the terms of the law, the 
 then existing prohibition was not only repealed, 
 but there was a declaration of a purpose on the 
 part of Congress never thereafter to exercise any 
 power that they might have, real or supposed, to 
 prohibit the extension or the spread of slavery. 
 This was a very great change, for the law thus 
 repealed was of more than thirty years' standing. 
 Following rapidly upon the heels of this action 
 of Congress, a decision of the Supreme Court is 
 made, by which it is declared that Congress, if it 
 desires to prohibit the spread of slavery, has 
 no constitutional power to do so. . . . That de- 
 cision lays down principles which, if pushed to 
 their logical conclusion, — I say pushed to their 
 logical conclusion, — would decide that the con- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 183 
 
 stitutions of free States forbidding slavery were 
 themselves unconstitutional. 
 
 "... The Republican party, as I understand 
 its principles and policy, believes that there is 
 great danger of the institution of slavery being 
 spread out and extended, until it is ultimately 
 made alike lawful in all the States of this Union; 
 so believing, to prevent that incidental and ulti- 
 mate consummation is the original and chief 
 purpose of the Republican organisation. 
 
 "... The chief danger to this purpose is . . . 
 that insidious Douglas popular-sovereignty. This 
 is the miner and sapper. While it does not pro- 
 pose to revive the African slave-trade, nor to pass 
 a slave-code, nor to make a second Dred Scott 
 decision, it is preparing us for the onslaught and 
 charge of these ultimate enemies when they shall 
 be ready to come on, and the word of command 
 for them to advance shall be given. I say this 
 Douglas popular-sovereignty — for there is a broad 
 distinction, as I now understand it, between that 
 article and a genuine popular-sovereignty. 
 
 " I believe there is a genuine popular-sov- 
 ereignty. I think a definition of genuine popular- 
 sovereignty in the abstract would be about this : 
 that each man shall do precisely as he pleases 
 with himself, and with all those things which ex- 
 
1 84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 clusively concern him. Applied to governments, 
 this principle would be, that a general govern- 
 ment shall do all those things which pertain to 
 it; and all the local governments shall do pre- 
 cisely as they please in respect to those matters 
 which exclusively concern them. I understand 
 that this government of the United States under 
 which we live, is based upon this principle ; and 
 I am misunderstood if it is supposed that I have 
 any war to make upon that principle. 
 
 " Now, what is Judge Douglas's popular-sov- 
 ereignty? It is, as a principle, no other than 
 that if one man chooses to make a slave of an- 
 other man, neither that other man nor anybody 
 else has a right to object. Applied in govern- 
 ment, as he seeks to apply it, it is this : If, in a 
 new Territory into which a few people are begin- 
 ning to enter for the purpose of making their 
 homes, they choose to either exclude slavery from 
 their limits or to establish it there, however one 
 or the other may affect the persons to be enslaved, 
 or the infinitely greater number of persons who 
 are afterward to inhabit that Territory, or the 
 other members of the families of communities 
 of which they are but an incipient member, or 
 the general head of the family of States as parent 
 of all, — however their action may affect one or 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 85 
 
 the other of these, there is no power or right to 
 interfere. That is Douglas popular-sovereignty 
 applied. 
 
 " He has a good deal of trouble with popular 
 sovereignty. His explanations explanatory of ex- 
 planations explained are interminable. The most 
 lengthy and, as I suppose, the most maturely con- 
 sidered of his long series of explanations is his 
 great essay in * Harper's Magazine.' ... In that 
 article he quotes from two persons belonging to 
 the Republican party, without naming them, but 
 who can readily be recognised as being Governor 
 Seward of New York and myself. . . . 
 
 " . . . The sense of that quotation condensed, 
 is this : that this slavery element is a durable ele- 
 ment of discord among us, and that we shall 
 probably not have perfect peace in this country 
 with it until it either masters the free principle 
 in our government, or is so far mastered by the 
 free principle as for the public mind to rest in 
 the belief that it is going to its end. . . . Judge 
 Douglas has been so much annoyed by the ex- 
 pression of that sentiment that he has constantly, 
 I believe, in almost all his speeches since it was 
 uttered, been referring to it. ... I only ask 
 your attention to this matter for the purpose of 
 making one or two points upon it. 
 
1 86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 "... Judge Douglas himself says in his ' copy- 
 right essay,' that a controversy between the Amer- 
 ican colonies and the government of Great Britain 
 began on the slavery question in 1699, and con- 
 tinued from that time until the Revolution ; and 
 while he did not say so, we all know that it has 
 continued with more or less violence ever since 
 the Revolution. . . . Then we know from Judge 
 Douglas himself, that slavery began to be an ele- 
 ment of discord among the white people of this 
 country as far back as 1699, or one hundred and 
 sixty years ago, or five generations of men, count- 
 ing thirty years to a generation. Now it would 
 seem to me that it might have occurred to Judge 
 Douglas, or to anybody who had turned his atten- 
 tion to these facts, that there was something in 
 the nature of that thing — slavery — somewhat 
 durable for mischief and discord. 
 
 " . . . From the adoption of the Constitution 
 down to 1820, is the precise period of our history 
 when we had comparative peace upon this ques- 
 tion, — the precise period of time when we came 
 nearer to having peace about it than any other 
 time of that entire one hundred and sixty years 
 in which he says it began, or of the eighty years 
 of our Own Constitution. . . . This was the pre- 
 cise period of time in which our fathers adopted, 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 87 
 
 and during which they followed, a policy restrict- 
 ing the spread of slavery, and the whole Union 
 was acquiescing in it. The whole country looked 
 forward to the ultimate extinction of the institu- 
 tion. It was when a policy had been adopted 
 and was prevailing, which led all just and right- 
 minded men to suppose that slavery was gradually 
 coming to an end, and that they might be quiet 
 about it, watching it as it expired. I think Judge 
 Douglas might have perceived that too; and, 
 whether he did or not, it is worth the attention 
 of fair-minded men, here and elsewhere, to con- 
 sider whether that is not the truth of the case. 
 If he had looked at these two facts, ... he 
 might then, perhaps, have been brought to a 
 more just appreciation of what I said fifteen 
 months ago, that ' a house divided against itself 
 cannot stand.' ... In connection with it I said, 
 ' we are now far advanced into the fifth year since 
 a policy was initiated with the avowed object and 
 confident promise of putting an end to slavery 
 agitation. Under the operation of that policy, 
 that agitation has not only not ceased, but has 
 constantly augmented.' I now say to you here, 
 that we are advanced still farther into the sixth 
 year since that policy of Judge Douglas — that 
 popular sovereignty of his for quieting the slavery 
 
1 88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 question — was made the national policy. Fifteen 
 months more have been added since I uttered 
 that sentiment, and I call upon you and all other 
 right-minded men, to say whether those fifteen 
 months have belied or corroborated my words. 
 
 ". . . I cannot but express my gratitude that 
 this true view of this element of discord among 
 us, as I believe it is, is attracting more and more 
 attention. I do not believe that Governor Seward 
 uttered that sentiment because I had done so 
 before, but because he reflected upon this sub- 
 ject, and saw the truth of it. Nor do I believe, 
 because Governor Seward or I uttered it, that 
 Mr. Hickman of Pennsylvania, in different lan- 
 guage, since that time, has declared his belief in 
 the utter antagonism which exists between the 
 principles of liberty and slavery. You see we are 
 multiplying. Now, while I am speaking of Hick- 
 man, let me say, I know but little about him. I 
 have never seen him, and know scarcely anything 
 about the man ; but I will say this much about 
 him : of all the anti-Lecompton Democracy 
 that have been brought to my notice, he alone 
 has the true, genuine ring of the metal. 
 
 "... Judge Douglas . . . proceeds to assume, 
 without proving it, that slavery is one of those 
 little, unimportant, trivial matters which are of 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 89 
 
 just about as much consequence as the question 
 would be to me, whether my neighbour should 
 raise horned cattle or plant tobacco ; that there 
 is no moral question about it, but that it is alto- 
 gether a matter of dollars and cents ; that when 
 a new Territory is opened for settlement, the first 
 man who goes into it may plant there a thing 
 which, like the Canada thistle or some other of 
 those pests of the soil, cannot be dug out by the 
 millions of men who will come thereafter ; that 
 it is one of those little things that is so trivial in 
 its nature that it has no effect upon anybody save 
 the few men who first plant upon the soil ; that 
 it is not a thing which in any way affects the 
 family of communities composing these States, 
 nor any way endangers the general government. 
 Judge Douglas ignores altogether the very well- 
 known fact that we have never had a serious men- 
 ace to our political existence except it sprang 
 from this thing, which he chooses to regard as 
 only upon a par with onions and potatoes. 
 
 " . . . This is an idea, I suppose, which has 
 arisen in Judge Douglas's mind from his peculiar 
 structure. I suppose the institution of slavery 
 really looks small to him. He is so put up by 
 nature that a lash upon his back would hurt him, 
 but a lash upon anybody else's back does not 
 
190 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 hurt him. That is the build of the man, and 
 consequently he looks upon the matter of slavery 
 in this unimportant light. 
 
 " Judge Douglas ought to remember, when 
 he is endeavouring to force this policy upon the 
 American people, that while he is put up in that 
 way, a good many are not. He ought to remem- 
 ber . . . Thomas Jefferson, . . . who was led to 
 exclaim, ' I tremble for my country when I re- 
 member that God is just.' . . . There was danger 
 to this country, danger of the avenging justice of 
 God, in that little, unimportant popular-sovereignty 
 question of Judge Douglas. He supposed there 
 was a question of God's eternal justice wrapped 
 up in the enslaving of any race of men, or any 
 man, and that those who did so braved the arm 
 of Jehovah, — that when a nation thus dared the 
 Almighty, every friend of that nation had cause 
 to dread His wrath. Choose ye between Jeffer- 
 son and Douglas as to what is the true view of 
 this element among us. 
 
 "... Now, if you are opposed to slavery 
 honestly, I ask you to note that fact (the popular- 
 sovereignty of Judge Douglas), and the like of 
 which is to follow, to be plastered on, layer after 
 layer, until very soon you are prepared to deal 
 with the negro everywhere as with the brute. If 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 191 
 
 public sentiment has not been debauched already 
 to this point, a new turn of the screw in that 
 direction is all that is wanting ; and this is con- 
 stantly being done by the teachers of this insidi- 
 ous popular-sovereignty. You need but one or 
 two turns further, until your minds, now ripening 
 under these teachings, will be ready for all these 
 things, and you will receive and support or sub- 
 mit to the slave-trade, revived with all its horrors, 
 — a slave-code enforced in our Territories, — 
 and a new Dred Scott decision to bring slavery 
 up into the very heart of the free North. 
 
 "... I ask attention to the fact that in a pre- 
 eminent degree these popular sovereigns are at 
 this work : blowing out the moral lights around 
 us ; teaching that the negro is no longer a man, 
 but a brute ; that the Declaration has nothing to 
 do with him ; that he ranks with the crocodile 
 and the reptile ; that man with body and soul is 
 a matter of dollars and cents. I suggest to this 
 portion of the Ohio Republicans, or Democrats, 
 if there be any present, the serious consideration 
 of this fact, that there is now going on among 
 you a steady process of debauching public opin- 
 ion on this subject. With this, my friends, I bid 
 you adieu." 
 
192 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From his Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 September 17, 1859. 
 
 "... I am what they call, as I understand it, 
 a ' Black Republican.' I think slavery is wrong, 
 morally and politically. I desire that it should 
 be no further spread in these United States, and 
 I should not object if it should gradually termi- 
 nate in the whole Union. While I say this for 
 myself, I say to you, Kentuckians, that I under- 
 stand you differ radically with me upon this prop- 
 osition ; that you believe slavery is a good thing ; 
 that slavery is right ; that it ought to be extended 
 and perpetuated in this Union. Now, there being 
 this broad difference between us, I do not pretend, 
 in addressing myself to you, Kentuckians, to at- 
 tempt proselyting you. That would be a vain 
 effort. I do not enter upon it. I only propose 
 to try to show you that you ought to nominate for 
 the next presidency, at Charleston, my distin- 
 guished friend, Judge Douglas. In all that, there 
 is no real difference between you and him ; I 
 understand he is as sincerely for you, and more 
 wisely for you than you are for yourselves. I will 
 try to demonstrate that proposition. 
 
 " . . . What do you want more than anything 
 else to make successful your views of slavery, — to 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 193 
 
 advance the outspread of it, and to secure and 
 perpetuate the nationality of it? What do you 
 want more than anything else ? What is needed 
 absolutely? What is indispensable to you? Why, 
 if I may be allowed to answer the question, it is 
 to retain a hold upon the North ; to retain sup- 
 port and strength from the free States. If you 
 can get this support and strength from the free 
 States, you can succeed. If you do not get this 
 support and this strength from the free States, 
 you are in a minority, and you are beaten at once. 
 
 " If that proposition be admitted, and it is un- 
 deniable, then the next thing I say to you is, that 
 Douglas, of all men in this nation, is the only man 
 that affords you any hold upon the free States ; 
 that no other man can give you any strength in 
 the free States. This being so, if you doubt the 
 other branch of the proposition, whether he is 
 really for you, as I have expressed it, I propose 
 asking your attention for a while to a few facts. 
 
 "... In the first place, we know that, in a 
 government like this, — a government of the peo- 
 ple, where the voice of all the men of the country, 
 substantially, enters into the administration of 
 the government, — what lies at the bottom of all 
 of it, is public opinion. I lay down the propo- 
 sition that Judge Douglas is not only the man 
 
 13 
 
194 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 that promises you in advance a hold upon the 
 North, and support in the North, but that he 
 constantly moulds public opinion to your ends; 
 that in every possible way he can, he moulds the 
 public opinion of the North to your ends ; and if 
 there are a few things in which he seems to be 
 against you, — a few things which he says that 
 appear to be against you ; and a few things that 
 he forbears to say, which you would like to have 
 him say, — you ought to remember that the saying 
 of the one, or the forbearing to say the other, 
 would lose his hold upon the North, and by con- 
 sequence would lose his capacity to serve you. 
 
 " Upon this subject of moulding public opinion, 
 I call your attention to the fact — for a well- 
 established fact it is — that the Judge never says 
 your institution of slavery is wrong; he never 
 says it is right, to be sure, but he never says it is 
 wrong. There is not a public man in the United 
 States, I believe, with the exception of Senator 
 Douglas, who has not, at some time in his life, 
 declared his opinion whether the thing is right or 
 wrong ; but Senator Douglas never declares it is 
 wrong. He leaves himself at perfect liberty to 
 do all in your favour which he would be hindered 
 from doing if he were to declare the thing to be 
 wrong. On the contrary, he takes all the chances 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 195 
 
 that he has for inveigling the sentiment of the 
 North, opposed to slavery, into your support, by 
 never saying it is right. This you ought to set 
 down to his credit. You ought to give him full 
 credit for this much, little though it be in com- 
 parison with the whole which he does for you. 
 
 " Some other things I will ask your attention 
 to. He said upon the floor of the Senate of the 
 United States, and he has repeated it, as I under- 
 stand, a great many times, that he does not care 
 'whether slavery is voted up or voted down.' 
 This again shows you, or ought to show you, if 
 you would reason upon it, that he does not be- 
 lieve it to be wrong ; for a man may say, when 
 he sees nothing wrong in a thing, that he does 
 not care whether it be voted up or voted down ; 
 but no man can logically say that he cares not 
 whether a thing goes up or down which appears 
 to him to be wrong. You therefore have a dem- 
 onstration in this, that to Judge Douglas's mind, 
 your favourite institution, which you desire to 
 have spread out and made perpetual, is no wrong 
 
 " Another thing he tells you in a speech made 
 in Memphis . . . last year. He there distinctly 
 told the people that there was ' a line drawn by 
 the Almighty across this continent,' on one side 
 of which ' the soil must always be cultivated by 
 
196 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 slaves ; ' that he did not pretend to know exactly 
 where that line was, but there was such a line. 
 I want to ask your attention to that proposition 
 again : that there is one portion of this continent 
 where the Almighty has designed the soil shall 
 always be cultivated by slaves ; that its being cul- 
 tivated by slaves at that place is right ; that it has 
 the direct sympathy and authority of the Almighty. 
 Whenever you can get these Northern audiences 
 to adopt the opinion that slavery is right on the 
 other side of the Ohio ; whenever you can get 
 them, in pursuance of Douglas's views, to adopt 
 that sentiment, — they will very readily make the 
 other argument, which is perfectly logical, that 
 that which is right on that side of the Ohio can- 
 not be wrong on this, and that if you have that 
 property on that side of the Ohio, under the seal 
 and stamp of the Almighty, when by any means 
 it escapes over here, it is wrong to have consti- 
 tutions and laws to * devil ' you about it. 
 
 "... Let me ask your attention to another 
 thing. . . . Five years ago no living man had 
 expressed the opinion that the negro had no 
 share in the Declaration of Independence. . . . 
 Within that space of five years Senator Douglas, 
 in the argument of this question, has got his 
 entire party ... to join in saying that the negro 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 197 
 
 has no share in that Declaration of Independence. 
 If there be now in all these United States one 
 Douglas man that does not say this, I have been 
 unable upon any occasion to scare him up. Now, 
 if none of you said this five years ago, and all of 
 you say it now, that is a vast change which you 
 Kentuckians ought to note. . . . That change in 
 public sentiment has already degraded the black 
 man in the estimation of Douglas and his follow- 
 ers from the condition of a man of some sort, and 
 assigned him to the condition of a brute. 
 
 "... In Kentucky perhaps — in many of the 
 slave States certainly — ... you are trying to show 
 that slavery existed in the Bible times by Divine 
 ordinance. Now, Douglas is wiser than you, for 
 your own benefit, upon that subject. Douglas 
 knows that whenever you establish that slavery 
 was right by the Bible, it will occur that that slavery 
 was the slavery of the white man, — of men with- 
 out reference to colour, — and he knows very well 
 that you may entertain that idea in Kentucky as 
 much as you please, but you will never win any 
 Northern support upon it. He makes a wiser 
 argument for you. He makes the argument that 
 the slavery of the black man — the slavery of the 
 man who has a skin of a different colour from your 
 own — is right. He thereby brings to your support 
 
198 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Northern voters, who could not for a moment be 
 brought by your own argument of the Bible right 
 of slavery. 
 
 "... At Memphis he [Judge Douglas] de- 
 clared that in all contests between the negro and 
 the white man, he was for the white man, but 
 that in all questions between the negro and the 
 crocodile, he was for the negro. . . . 
 
 " The first inference seems to be that if you do 
 not enslave the negro, you are wronging the white 
 man in some way or other ; and that whoever is 
 opposed to the negro being enslaved is in some 
 way or other against the white man. Is not that 
 a falsehood ? If there was a necessary conflict 
 between the white man and the negro, I should 
 be for the white man as much as Judge Douglas ; 
 but I say there is no such necessary conflict. 1 
 say there is room enough for us all to be free, and 
 that it not only does not wrong the white man 
 that the negro should be free, but it positively 
 wrongs the mass of the white men that the negro 
 should be enslaved, — that the mass of white men 
 are really injured by the effects of slave labour in 
 the vicinity of the fields of their own labour. . . . 
 
 " There is one other thing that I will say to 
 you in this relation. It is but my opinion ; I 
 give it to you without a fee. It is my opinion 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 199 
 
 that it is for you to take him or be defeated ; and 
 that if you do take him you may be beaten. You 
 will surely be beaten if you do not take him. 
 We, the Republicans and others forming the op- 
 position of the country, intend { to stand by our 
 guns,' to be patient and firm, and in the long run 
 to beat you, whether you take him or not. We 
 know that before we fairly beat you, we have 
 to beat you both together. We know that ' you 
 are all of a feather,' and that we have to beat you 
 all together ; and we expect to do it. We don't 
 intend to be very impatient about it. We mean 
 to be as deliberate and calm about it as it is 
 possible to be, but as firm and resolved as it is 
 possible for men to be. When we do, as we say, 
 beat you, you perhaps want to know what we will 
 do with you. 
 
 " I will tell you, so far as I am authorised to speak 
 for the opposition, what we mean to do with you. 
 We mean to treat you as near as we possibly can 
 as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated 
 you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no 
 way to interfere with your institution \ to abide 
 by all and every compromise of the Constitution ; 
 and, in a word, coming back to the original prop- 
 osition, to treat you, so far as degenerate men (if 
 we have degenerated) may, according to the ex- 
 
iOO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ample of those noble fathers, Washington, Jeffer- 
 son, and Madison. We mean to remember that 
 you are as good as we ; that there is no differ- 
 ence between us other than the difference of 
 circumstances. We mean to recognise and bear 
 in mind always, that you have as good hearts 
 in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim 
 to have, and to treat you accordingly. We mean 
 to marry your girls when we have a chance — the 
 white ones I mean ; and I have the honour to say 
 that I once did have a chance in that way. 
 
 " I have told you what we mean to do. I want 
 to know, now, when that thing takes place, what 
 do you mean to do? I often hear it intimated 
 that you mean to divide the Union whenever a 
 Republican, or anything like it, is elected Presi- 
 dent of the United States. Well, then, I want 
 to know what you are going to do with your half 
 of it? Are you going to split the Ohio down 
 through, and push your half off a piece? Or 
 are you going to keep it right alongside of us 
 outrageous fellows? Or are you going to build 
 up a wall some way between your country and 
 ours, by which that movable property of yours 
 can't come over here any more, to the danger of 
 your losing it ? Do you think you can better your- 
 selves on that subject by leaving us here under no 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 201 
 
 obligation whatever to return these specimens of 
 your movable property that come hither? You 
 have divided the Union because we would not do 
 right with you, as you think, upon that subject. 
 When we cease to be under obligation to do any- 
 thing for you, how much better off do you think 
 you will be? Why, gentlemen, I think you are 
 as gallant and brave men as live ; that you can 
 fight as bravely in a good cause, man for man, as 
 any other people living ; that you have shown 
 yourselves capable of this upon various occasions : 
 but man for man you are not better than we are, 
 and there are not so many of you as there are of 
 us. You will never make much of a hand at 
 whipping us. If we were fewer in numbers than 
 you, I think you could whip us ; if we were equal, 
 it would likely be a drawn battle ; but being in- 
 ferior in numbers, you will make nothing by 
 attempting to master us. . . . 
 
 " Labour is the great source from which nearly 
 all, if not all, human comforts and necessities are 
 drawn. There is a difference in opinion about 
 the elements of labour in society. Some men 
 assume that there is a necessary connection be- 
 tween capital and labour, and that connection 
 
202 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 draws within it the whole of the labour of the 
 community. They assume that nobody works 
 unless capital excites them to work. They begin 
 next to consider what is the best way. They say 
 there are but two ways, — one is to hire men and to 
 allure them to labour by their consent ; the other 
 is to buy the men, and drive them to it, and that 
 is slavery. Having assumed that, they proceed 
 to discuss the question of whether the labourers 
 themselves are better off in the condition of slaves 
 or of hired labourers, and they usually decide that 
 they are better off in the condition of slaves. 
 
 " In the first place I say, the whole thing is a 
 mistake. That there is a certain relation between 
 capital and labour, I admit. That it does exist, 
 and rightfully exist, I think is true. That men 
 who are industrious and sober and honest in the 
 pursuit of their own interests should after a while 
 accumulate capital, and after that should be al- 
 lowed to enjoy it in peace, and also if they should 
 choose, when they have accumulated it, to use it 
 to save themselves from actual labour, and hire 
 other people to labour for them, — is right. In 
 doing so, they do not wrong the man they em- 
 ploy, for they find men who have not their own 
 land to work upon, or shops to work in, and who 
 are benefited by working for others, — hired la- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 203 
 
 bourers, receiving their capital for it. Thus a few 
 men that own capital hire a few others, and these 
 establish the relation of capital and labour right- 
 fully — a relation of which I make no complaint. 
 But I insist that that relation, after all, does not 
 embrace more than one eighth of the labour of the 
 country. 
 
 " . . . I have taken upon myself ... to say 
 that upon these principles all expect ultimately 
 to win. In order to do so, I think we want and 
 must have a national policy in regard to the in- 
 stitution of slavery that acknowledges and deals 
 with that institution as being wrong. 
 
 " Whoever desires the prevention of the spread 
 of slavery and the nationalization of that institu- 
 tion, yields all when he yields to any policy that 
 either recognises slavery as being right, or as being 
 an indifferent thing. Nothing will make you suc- 
 cessful but setting up a policy which shall treat 
 the thing as being wrong. . . . We believe that 
 the spreading out and perpetuity of the institu- 
 tion of slavery impairs the general welfare. We 
 believe, nay, we know, that that is the only thing 
 that has ever threatened the perpetuity of the 
 Union itself. The only thing which has ever men- 
 aced the destruction of the government under 
 which we live is this very thing. To repress 
 
204 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 this thing, we think is providing for the general 
 welfare. . . . 
 
 "... There are a plenty of men in the slave 
 States that are altogether good enough for me, 
 to be either President or Vice-President, provided 
 they will profess their sympathy with our purpose, 
 and will place themselves on such ground that 
 our men upon principle can vote for them. There 
 are scores of them — good men in their character 
 for intelligence, for talent and integrity. If such 
 an one will place himself upon the right ground, I 
 am for his occupying one place upon the next Re- 
 publican or opposition ticket. I will go heartily 
 for him. But unless he does so place himself, I 
 think it is perfect nonsense to attempt to bring 
 about a union upon any other basis ; that if a 
 union be made, the elements will so scatter that 
 there can be no success for such a ticket. The 
 good old maxims of the Bible are applicable, and 
 truly applicable, to human affairs ; and in this, as 
 in other things, we may say that he who is not 
 for us is against us ; he who gathereth not with 
 us, scattereth. I should be glad to have some 
 of the many good and able and noble men of 
 the South place themselves where we can confer 
 upon them the high honour of an election upon 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 20$ 
 
 one or the other end of our ticket. Tt would 
 do my soul good to do that thing. It would en- 
 able us to teach them that inasmuch as we select 
 one of their own number to carry out our prin- 
 ciples, we are free from the charge that we mean 
 more than we say." 
 
 From his Speech of February 27, i860, at the 
 Cooper Institute, New York. 
 
 [Note. — In this speech Mr. Lincoln main- 
 tained the negative of a question upon which 
 the Douglas Democrats held the affirmative, viz., 
 Whether there was anything in the Constitution 
 which forbade the Federal government to control 
 slavery in the Territories of the United States? 
 After clearly showing that the thirty-nine mem- 
 bers of the convention who signed the Constitu- 
 tion, and the seventy-six members of the Congress 
 which framed the amendments to it, also held the 
 negative of this question, he dealt with the threats 
 of the South to disrupt the Union if a Republican 
 President was elected, and the duty of loyal citi- 
 zens to defend and maintain it. He said] : 
 
 " It is surely safe to assume that the thirty- 
 nine framers of the original Constitution, and 
 the seventy-six members of the Congress which 
 framed the amendments thereto, taken together, 
 
206 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 do certainly include those who may be fairly 
 called ' our fathers who framed the government 
 under which we live.' And so assuming, I defy 
 any man to show that any one of them ever, in 
 his whole life, declared that, in his understanding, 
 any proper division of local from Federal authority, 
 or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
 government to control as to slavery in the Federal 
 Territories. I go a step further. I defy any one 
 to show that any living man in the whole world 
 ever did, prior to the beginning of the present cen- 
 tury (and I might almost say, prior to the beginning 
 of the last half of the present century), declare that, 
 in his understanding, any proper division of local 
 from Federal authority, or any part of the Con- 
 stitution, forbade the Federal government to con- 
 trol as to slavery in the Federal Territories. To 
 those who now so declare, I give not only ' our 
 fathers who framed the government under which 
 we live,' but with them all other living men within 
 the century in which it was framed, among whom 
 to search, and they shall not be able to find the 
 evidence of a single man agreeing with them. 
 
 " But enough ! Let all who believe that ' our 
 fathers who framed the government under which 
 we live understood this question just as well, and 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 20; 
 
 even better than we do now,' speak as they spoke, 
 and act as they acted upon it. This is all Re- 
 publicans ask, all Republicans desire, in relation 
 to slavery. As those fathers marked it, so let it 
 again be marked, as an evil not to be extended, 
 but to be tolerated and protected only because 
 of and so far as its actual presence among us 
 makes that toleration and protection a necessity. 
 Let all the guaranties those fathers gave it be not 
 grudgingly, but fully and fairly maintained. For 
 this Republicans contend, and with this, so far as 
 I know or believe, they will be content. 
 
 " And now, if they would listen, as I suppose 
 they will not, I would address a few words to the 
 Southern people. 
 
 " I would say to them : You consider yourselves 
 a reasonable and a just people ; and I consider 
 that in the general qualities of reason and justice 
 you are not inferior to any other people. Still, 
 when you speak of us Republicans, you do so 
 only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, 
 as no better than outlaws. You will grant a hear- 
 ing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it 
 to ' Black Republicans.' In all your contentions 
 with one another, each of you deems an uncon- 
 ditional condemnation of < Black Republicanism ' 
 as the first thing to be attended to. Indeed, 
 
208 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 such condemnation of us seems to be an indis- 
 pensable prerequisite, licence, so to speak, among 
 you, to be admitted or permitted to speak at all. 
 Now, can you or not be prevailed upon to pause 
 and to consider whether this is quite just to us, or 
 even to yourselves ? Bring forward your charges 
 and specifications, and then be patient long 
 enough to hear us deny or justify. 
 
 " You say we are sectional. We deny it. That 
 makes an issue ; and the burden of proof is upon 
 you. You produce your proof, and what is it? 
 Why, that our party has no existence in your 
 section — gets no votes in your section. The 
 fact is substantially true ; but does it prove the 
 issue? If it does, then in case we should, with- 
 out change of principle, begin to get votes in 
 your section, we should thereby cease to be sec- 
 tional. You cannot escape this conclusion ; and 
 yet, are you willing to abide by it? If you are, 
 you will probably soon find that we have ceased 
 to be sectional, for we shall get votes in your 
 section this very year. . . . The fact that we get 
 no votes in your section, is a fact of your making 
 and not of ours. And if there be fault in that 
 fact, that fault is primarily yours, and remains so 
 until you show that we repel you by some wrong 
 principle or practice. If we do repel you by any 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 209 
 
 wrong principle or practice, the fault is ours ; 
 but this brings you to where you ought to have 
 started, — to a discussion of the right or wrong 
 of our principle. If our principle, put in prac- 
 tice, would wrong your section for the benefit of 
 ours, or for any other object, then our principle 
 and we with it are sectional, and are justly op- 
 posed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, 
 on the question of whether our principle, put in 
 practice, would wrong your section, and so meet 
 us as if it were possible that something may be 
 said on our side. Do you accept the challenge ? 
 No ! Then you really believe that the principle 
 which ' our fathers who framed the government 
 under which we live ' thought so clearly right as 
 to adopt it, and indorse it again and again upon 
 their official oaths, is, in fact, so clearly wrong as 
 to demand your condemnation without a moment's 
 consideration. 
 
 " Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the 
 warning against sectional parties given by Wash- 
 ington in his Farewell Address. Less than eight 
 years before Washington gave that warning, he 
 had, as President of the United States, approved 
 and signed an act of Congress enforcing the pro- 
 hibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory ; 
 . . . and about one year after he penned it [that 
 
 14 
 
2IO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 warning] he wrote Lafayette that he considered 
 that prohibition a wise measure, expressing in the 
 same connection his hope that we should at some 
 time have a confederacy of free States. . . . 
 
 " Again, you say we have made the slavery 
 question more prominent than it formerly was. 
 We deny it. . . . It was not we but you who dis- 
 carded the old policy of the fathers. We resisted, 
 and still resist, your innovation ; and thence comes 
 the greater prominence of the question. Would 
 you have that question reduced to its former pro- 
 portions? Go back to that old policy. ... If 
 you would have the peace of the old times, re- 
 adopt the precepts and policy of the old times. 
 
 " You charge that we stir up insurrections among 
 your slaves. We deny it ; and what is your proof? 
 Harper's Ferry? John Brown? John Brown 
 was no Republican ; and you have failed to im- 
 plicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry 
 enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty 
 in that matter, you know it, or you do not know 
 it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable for 
 not designating the man and proving the fact. 
 If you do not know it, you are inexcusable for 
 asserting it. . . . 
 
 " . . . John Brown's effort was peculiar. It 
 was not a slave insurrection. It was an attempt 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 211 
 
 by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in 
 which the slaves refused to participate. In fact, 
 it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their 
 ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not suc- 
 ceed. That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds 
 with the many attempts ... at the assassination 
 of kings and emperors. An enthusiast . . . ven- 
 tures the attempt, . . . which ends in little else 
 than his own execution. . . . 
 
 "... But you will not abide the election of a 
 Republican president ! In that supposed event, 
 you say you will destroy the Union ; and then 
 you say the great crime of having destroyed it 
 will be upon us ! That is cool. A highwayman 
 holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his 
 teeth, ' Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and 
 then you will be a murderer ! ' 
 
 " If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and 
 constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and 
 should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, 
 we cannot justly object to its nationality — its uni- 
 versality ; if it is wrong, they cannot justly insist 
 upon its extension — its enlargement. All they 
 ask we could readily grant, if we thought slavery 
 right ; all we ask they could as readily grant if 
 
212 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right 
 and our thinking it wrong, is the precise fact 
 upon which depends the whole controversy. 
 Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to 
 blame for desiring its full recognition as being 
 right ; but thinking it wrong, as we do, can we 
 yield to them ? Can we cast our votes with their 
 view, and against our own ? In view of our moral, 
 social, and political responsibilities, can we do 
 this? 
 
 " Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet 
 afford to let it alone where it is, because that 
 much is due to the necessity arising from its 
 actual presence in the nation ; but can we, while 
 our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into 
 the national Territories, and to overrun us here in 
 these free States? If our sense of duty forbids 
 this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and 
 effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those 
 sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so in- 
 dustriously plied and belaboured, — contrivances 
 such as groping for some middle ground between 
 the right and the wrong, vain as the search for 
 a man who should be neither a living man nor a 
 dead man ; such as a policy of ' don't care,' on 
 a question about which all true men do care ; 
 such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 213 
 
 to yield to disunionists, reversing the Divine rule, 
 and calling not the sinners, but the righteous to 
 repentance ; such as invocations to Washington, 
 imploring men to unsay what Washington said, 
 and undo what Washington did. 
 
 " Neither let us be slandered from our duty by 
 false accusations against us, nor frightened from 
 it by menaces of destruction to the government, 
 nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith 
 that right makes might, and in that faith let us to 
 the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." 
 
 From his Speech at New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 March 6, i860. 
 
 [Note. — This speech was in large part a 
 repetition of his speech at the Cooper Institute 
 in New York on the 27th of February, i860, the 
 phraseology being slightly changed in some para- 
 graphs and unchanged in others. One of his 
 illustrations of the right of the people of the free 
 States — while leaving slavery alone in the slave 
 States — to prevent its extension, was new and 
 forcible. After stating that the Tariff, the Na- 
 tional Domain, and other subjects of national 
 interest would not receive attention while the 
 question of the extension of slavery remained 
 open, he asked :] 
 
214 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " . . . What ever endangered this Union save 
 and except slavery? Did any other thing ever 
 cause a moment's fear ? All men must agree that 
 this thing alone has ever endangered the per- 
 petuity of the Union. But if it was ever threat- 
 ened by any other influence, would not all men 
 say that the best thing that could be done, if we 
 could not or ought not to destroy it, would be at 
 least to keep it from growing any larger? Can 
 any man believe that the way to save the Union 
 is to extend and increase the only thing that 
 threatens the Union, and to suffer it to grow 
 bigger and bigger? 
 
 "... There are but two policies in regard to 
 slavery that can be at all maintained. The first, 
 based on the property view, that slavery is right, 
 conforms to that idea throughout, and demands 
 that we should do everything for it that we ought 
 to do if it were right. . . . 
 
 " . . . The other policy is one that squares 
 with the idea that slavery is wrong, and it con- 
 sists in doing everything that we ought to do if 
 it is wrong. Now I don't wish to be misunder- 
 stood, nor to leave a gap down, to be misrepre- 
 sented, even. I don't mean that we ought to 
 attack it where it exists. To me it seems that 
 if we were to form a government anew, in view 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 215 
 
 of the actual presence of slavery, we should find 
 it necessary to frame just such a government as 
 our fathers did, — giving to the slaveholder the 
 entire control where the system was established, 
 while we possess the power to restrain it from 
 going outside those limits. From the necessities 
 of the case, we should be compelled to form just 
 such a government as our blessed fathers gave 
 us ; and surely if they have so made it, that adds 
 another reason why we should let slavery alone 
 where it exists. 
 
 If I saw a venomous snake crawling in the road, 
 any man would say I might seize the nearest 
 stick and kill it ; but if I found that snake in bed 
 with my children, that would be another question. 
 I might hurt the children more than the snake, 
 and it might bite them. Much more, if I found 
 it in bed with my neighbour's children, and I had 
 bound myself by a solemn compact not to med- 
 dle with his children under any circumstances, it 
 would become me to let that particular mode 
 of getting rid of the gentleman alone. But if 
 there was a bed newly made up, to which the 
 children were to be taken, and it was proposed 
 to take a batch of young snakes and put them 
 there with them, I take it no man would say there 
 was any question how I ought to decide ! 
 
2l6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 "That is just the case. The new Territories 
 are the newly made bed to which our children 
 are to go, and it lies with the nation to say 
 whether they shall have snakes mixed up with 
 them or not. It does not seem as if there could 
 be much hesitation what our policy should be. . . ." 
 
 [After adverting to several of the arguments of 
 the proslavery Democrats, as ' bushwhacking,' he 
 continued : — ] 
 
 "... Another is John Brown ! You stir up 
 insurrections ; you invade the South ! John 
 Brown ! Harper's Ferry ! Why, John Brown 
 was not a Republican ! You have never im- 
 plicated a single Republican in that Harper's 
 Ferry enterprise. We tell you if any member 
 of the Republican party is guilty in that matter, 
 you know it or you do not know it. If you do 
 know it, you are inexcusable not to designate the 
 man and prove the fact. If you do not know it, 
 you are inexcusable to assert it, and especially 
 to persist in the assertion after you have tried and 
 failed to make the proof. You need not be told 
 that persisting in a charge which one does not 
 know to be true, is simply a malicious slander. 
 Some of you admit that no Republican designedly 
 aided or encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair, 
 but still insist that our doctrines and declarations 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 2\J 
 
 necessarily lead to such results. We do not 
 believe it. We know we hold to no doctrines 
 and make no declarations which were not held 
 to and made by our fathers who framed the gov- 
 ernment under which we live, and we cannot 
 see how declarations that were patriotic when 
 they made them are villainous when we make 
 them. You never dealt fairly by us in relation 
 to that affair, and I will say frankly that I know 
 of nothing in your character that should lead us 
 to suppose that you would. You had just been 
 soundly thrashed in the elections in several States, 
 and others were soon to come. You rejoiced at 
 the occasion, and only were troubled that there 
 were not three times as many killed in the affair. 
 You were in evident glee ; there was no sorrow 
 for the killed, nor for the peace of Virginia dis- 
 turbed. You were rejoicing that by charging 
 Republicans with this thing, you might get an 
 advantage of us in New York and the other 
 States. You pulled that string as tightly as you 
 could, but your very generous and worthy expec- 
 tations were not quite fulfilled. Each Republican 
 knew that the charge was a slander, as to himself 
 at least, and was not inclined by it to cast his 
 vote in your favour. It was mere bushwhacking 
 because you had nothing else to do. You are 
 
218 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 j 
 still on that track, and I say go on ! If you 
 
 think you can slander a woman into loving you 
 or a man into voting for you, try it until you are 
 satisfied. 
 
 " Another specimen of this bushwhacking, — 
 that ' shoe strike.' Now, be it understood that 
 I do not pretend to know all about the matter. 
 I am merely going to speculate a little about 
 some of its phases ; and, at the outset, I am glad 
 to see that a system of labour prevails in New 
 England under which labourers can strike when 
 they want to ; when they are not obliged to work 
 under all circumstances, and are not tied down 
 and obliged to labour whether you pay them or 
 not ! I like the system which lets a man quit 
 when he wants to, and wish it might prevail 
 everywhere. One of the reasons why I am op- 
 posed to slavery is just here. What is the true 
 condition of the labourer? I take it that it is 
 best for all to leave each man free to acquire 
 property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. 
 I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from 
 getting rich ; it would do more harm than good. 
 So while we do not propose any war upon capital, 
 we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal 
 chance to get rich with everybody else. When 
 one starts poor, as most do in the race of life, 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 219 
 
 free society is such that when he knows he can 
 better his condition, he knows that there is no 
 fixed condition of labour for his whole life. I am 
 not ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago 
 I was a hired labourer, mauling rails, at work on a 
 flat-boat — just what might happen to any poor 
 man's son. I want every man to have the chance 
 — and I believe a black man is entitled to it — 
 in which he can better his condition ; when he 
 may look forward and hope to be a hired labourer 
 this year, and the next work for himself afterward, 
 and finally to hire men to work for him. That is 
 the true system. Up here in New England you 
 have a soil that scarcely sprouts black- eyed beans, 
 and yet where will you find wealthy men so wealthy, 
 and poverty so rarely in extremity ? There is not 
 another such place on earth ! I desire that if 
 you get too thick here, and find it hard to better 
 your condition on this soil, you may have a chance 
 to strike and go somewhere else, where you may 
 not be degraded, nor have your family corrupted 
 by forced rivalry with negro slaves. I want you 
 to have a clean bed and no snakes in it. Then 
 you can better your condition, and so it may go 
 on and on in one ceaseless round so long as man 
 exists on the face of the earth. 
 
 " Now to come back to this shoe strike. If, 
 
220 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 as the senator from Illinois asserts, this is caused 
 by the withdrawal of Southern votes, consider 
 briefly how you will meet the difficulty. You 
 have done nothing, and have protested that you 
 have done nothing, to injure the South ; and yet 
 to get back the shoe trade you must leave off 
 doing something that you are now doing. What 
 is it? You must stop thinking slavery wrong. 
 Let your institutions be wholly changed ; let your 
 State constitutions be subverted ; glorify slavery ; 
 and so you will get back the shoe trade — for what ? 
 You have brought owned labour with it to com- 
 pete with your own labour, to underwork you and 
 to degrade you. Are you ready to get back the 
 trade on those terms? 
 
 " But the statement is not correct. You have 
 not lost that trade ; orders were never better than 
 now. Senator Mason, a Democrat, comes into 
 the Senate in homespun : a proof that the disso- 
 lution of the Union has actually begun. But 
 orders are the same. Your factories have not 
 struck work, neither those where they make any- 
 thing for coats, nor for pants, nor for shirts, nor 
 for ladies' dresses. Mr. Mason has not reached 
 the manufacturers who ought to have made him 
 a coat and pants. To make his proof good for 
 anything, he should have come into the Senate 
 barefoot. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 221 
 
 " Another bushwhacking contrivance, — simply 
 that, nothing else ! I find a good many people 
 who are very much concerned about the loss of 
 Southern trade. Now, either these people are 
 sincere or they are not. I will speculate a little 
 about that. If they are sincere, and are moved 
 by any real danger of the loss of Southern trade, 
 they will simply get their names on the white list, 
 and then instead of persuading Republicans to 
 do likewise, they will be glad to keep you away. 
 Don't you see they are thus shutting off compe- 
 tition? They would not be whispering around 
 to Republicans to come in and share the profits 
 with them. But if they are not sincere, and are 
 merely trying to fool Republicans out of their 
 votes, they will grow very anxious about your 
 pecuniary prospects ; they are afraid you are 
 going to get broken up and ruined ; they did not 
 care about Democratic votes — oh no, no, no ! 
 You must judge which class those belong to 
 whom you meet. I leave it to you to determine 
 from the facts." 
 
222 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 His Letter to Hon. Geo. Ashmun, President, 
 
 ACCEPTING HIS NOMINATION FOR THE PRESI- 
 DENCY. 
 
 May 23, i860. 
 I accept the nomination tendered me by the 
 Convention over which you presided, and of which 
 I am formally apprised in the letter of yourself 
 and others, acting as a committee of the Con- 
 vention for that purpose. 
 
 The declaration of principles and sentiments 
 which accompanies your letter, meets my ap- 
 proval ; and it shall be my care not to violate 
 or disregard it in any part. 
 
 Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, 
 and with due regard to the views and feelings of 
 all who were represented in the Convention ; 
 to the rights of all the States and Territories and 
 people of the nation • to the inviolability of the 
 Constitution ; and the perpetual union, harmony, 
 and prosperity of all, — I am most happy to co- 
 operate for the practical success of the principles 
 declared by the Convention. 
 
 Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 223 
 
 To the Citizens of Springfield, on his De- 
 parture for Washington. 
 
 Febrziary 11, 1S61. 
 
 My Friends : No one, not in my position, can 
 appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To 
 this people I owe all that I am. Here I have 
 lived more than a quarter of a century ; here my 
 children were born, and here one of them lies 
 buried. I know not how soon I shall see you 
 again. A duty devolves upon me which is, per- 
 haps, greater than that which has devolved upon 
 any other man since the days of Washington. 
 He never would have succeeded except by the 
 aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all 
 times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed with- 
 out the same Divine aid which sustained him, and 
 on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance 
 for support \ and I hope you, my friends, will all 
 pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, 
 without which I cannot succeed, but with which 
 success is certain. Again I bid you an affectionate 
 farewell. 
 
224 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From his Remarks at Indianapolis, Indiana. 
 
 February n, 1S61. 
 
 " When the people rise in mass in behalf of the 
 Union and the liberties of their country, truly may 
 it be said ' The gates of hell cannot prevail against 
 them.' In all trying positions in which I shall be 
 placed, — and doubtless I shall be placed in many 
 such, — my reliance will be placed upon you and 
 the people of the United States ; and I wish you 
 to remember, now and forever, that it is your 
 business and not mine ; that if the Union of these 
 States and the liberties of this people shall be lost, 
 it is but little to any one man of fifty-two years of 
 age, but a great deal to the thirty millions of people 
 who inhabit these United States, and to their pos- 
 terity in all coming time. It is your business to 
 rise up and preserve the Union and liberty for 
 yourselves, and not for me. 
 
 " I desire that [all duties] should be constitu- 
 tionally performed. I, as already intimated, am but 
 an accidental instrument, temporary, and to serve 
 but for a limited time ; and I appeal to you again, 
 to constantly bear in mind, that with you, and not 
 with politicians, not with presidents, not with 
 office-seekers, but with you is the question, Shall 
 the Union, and shall the liberties of this country, 
 be preserved to the latest generation? " 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 225 
 
 From his Address to the Legislature at 
 Indianapolis, Indiana. 
 
 Febrttary 12, 1861. 
 
 "... Solomon says ' there is a time to keep 
 silence,' and when men wrangle by the mouth 
 with no certainty that they mean the same thing 
 while using the same word, it perhaps were as well 
 if they would keep silence. 
 
 " The words ' coercion ' and ' invasion ' are 
 much used in these day.,, and often with some 
 temper and hot blood. Let us make sure, if we 
 can, that we do not misunderstand the meaning 
 of those who use them. Let us get exact defini- 
 tions of these words, not from dictionaries, but 
 from the men themselves, who certainly deprecate 
 the things they would represent by the use of 
 words. What then is coercion ? what is invasion ? 
 Would the marching of an army into South Caro- 
 lina, without the consent of her people and with 
 hostile intent towards them, be invasion? I cer- 
 tainly think it would ; and it would be coercion 
 also, if the South Carolinians were forced to sub- 
 mit. But if the United States should merely re- 
 take and hold its own forts and other property, and 
 collect the duties on foreign importations, or even 
 withhold the mails from places where they were 
 
 !5 
 
226 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 habitually violated, would any or all these things 
 be invasion or coercion ? Do our professed lovers 
 of the Union, but who spitefully resolve that they 
 will resist coercion and invasion, understand that 
 such things as these, on the part of the United 
 States, would be coercion or invasion of a State ? 
 If so, their idea of means to preserve the object 
 of their affection would seem exceedingly thin and 
 airy. If sick, the little pills of the homceopath- 
 ist would be much too large for them to swallow. 
 In their view, the Union as a family relation 
 would seem to be no regular marriage, but a sort 
 of free-love arrangement to be maintained only on 
 passional attraction. . . . 
 
 " In what consists the special sacredness of a 
 State? I speak not of the position assigned to 
 a State in the Union by the Constitution ; for 
 that, by the bond, we all recognise. That posi- 
 tion, however, a State cannot carry out of the 
 Union with it. I speak of that assumed primary 
 right of a State to rule all which is less than itself, 
 and ruin all which is larger than itself. If a State 
 and a county in a given case should be equal in 
 extent of territory, and equal in number of inhab- 
 itants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the 
 State better than the county? Would an ex- 
 change of names be an exchange of rights upon 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 227 
 
 principle? On what rightful principle may a 
 State, being not more than one-fiftieth part of 
 the nation in soil and population, break up the 
 nation, and then coerce a proportionally larger 
 subdivision of itself in the most arbitrary way? 
 What mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred 
 on a district of country, with its people, by merely 
 calling it a State? 
 
 " Fellow- citizens, I am not asserting anything: 
 I am merely asking questions for you to consider. 
 
 From his Address to the Legislature at Co- 
 lumbus, Ohio. 
 
 February 13, 1S61. 
 " It is true, as has been said by the president 
 of the Senate, that a very great responsibility rests 
 upon me in the position to which the votes of the 
 American people have called me. I am deeply 
 sensible of that weighty responsibility. I cannot 
 but know, what you all know, that without a name, 
 perhaps without a reason why I should have a 
 name, there has fallen upon me a task such as 
 did not rest even upon the Father of his Country ; 
 and so feeling, I cannot but turn and look for 
 that support without which it will be impossible 
 for me to perform that great task. I turn then, 
 
228 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 and look to the great American people, and to 
 that God who has never forsaken them. Allusion 
 has been made to the interest felt in relation to 
 the policy of the new Administration. In this I 
 have received from some a degree of credit for 
 having kept silence, and from others, some depre- 
 cation. I still think I was right. 
 
 " In the varying and repeatedly shifting scenes 
 of the present, and without a precedent which 
 could enable me to judge by the past, it has 
 seemed fitting that before speaking upon the 
 difficulties of the country, I should have gained 
 a view of the whole field, being at liberty to 
 modify and change the course of policy as future 
 events may make a change necessary. 
 
 " I have not maintained silence from any want 
 of real anxiety. It is a good thing that there is 
 no more than anxiety, for there is nothing going 
 wrong. It is a consoling circumstance that when 
 we look out, there is nothing that really hurts 
 anybody. We entertain different views upon 
 political questions, but nobody is suffering any- 
 thing. This is a most consoling circumstance, 
 and from it we may conclude that all we want is 
 time, patience, and a reliance on that God who 
 has never forsaken this people." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 229 
 
 From his Remarks at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 
 
 February 15, 1S61. 
 
 " . . . The condition of the country is an ex- 
 traordinary one, and fills the mind of every patriot 
 with anxiety. It is my intention to give this sub- 
 ject all the consideration I possibly can, before 
 specially deciding in regard to it, so that when I 
 do speak, it may be as nearly right as possible. 
 When I do speak, I hope I may say nothing in 
 opposition to the spirit of the Constitution, con- 
 trary to the integrity of the Union, or which will 
 prove inimical to the liberties of the people or to 
 the peace of the whole country. And further- 
 more, when the time arrives for me to speak on 
 this great subject, I hope I may say nothing to 
 disappoint the people generally throughout the 
 country, especially if the expectation has been 
 based upon anything which I have heretofore 
 said. 
 
 " . . . If the great American people only keep 
 their temper on both sides of the line, the troubles 
 will come to an end, and the question which now 
 distracts the country will be settled, just as surely 
 as all other difficulties of a like character which 
 have originated in this government have been 
 adjusted. Let the people on both sides keep 
 
230 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 their self-possession, and just as other clouds 
 have cleared away in due time, so will this great 
 nation continue to prosper as heretofore. 
 
 " ... It is often said that the tariff is the 
 specialty of Pennsylvania. Assuming that direct 
 taxation is not to be adopted, the tariff question 
 must be as durable as the government itself. It 
 is a question of national housekeeping. It is to 
 the government what replenishing the meal-tub 
 is to the family. Ever varying circumstances will 
 require frequent modifications as to the amount 
 needed and the sources of supply. So far there 
 is little difference of opinion among the people. 
 It is only whether, and how far, duties on imports 
 shall be adjusted to favor home productions. In 
 the home market that controversy begins. One 
 party insists that too much protection oppresses 
 one class for the advantage of another ; while 
 the other party argues that, with all its incidents, 
 in the long run all classes are benefited. In the 
 Chicago platform there is a plank upon this sub- 
 ject, which should be a general law to the incom- 
 ing Administration. We should do neither more 
 nor less than we gave the people reason to believe 
 we would when they gave us their votes. . . . 
 
 " * That while providing revenue for the support 
 of the general government by duties upon imports, 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 231 
 
 sound policy requires such an adjustment of these 
 imposts as will encourage the development of the 
 industrial interest of the whole country ; and we 
 commend that policy of national exchanges which 
 secures to working-men liberal wages, to agricul- 
 ture remunerating prices, to mechanics and man- 
 ufacturers adequate reward for their skill, labour, 
 and enterprise, and to the nation commercial 
 prosperity and independence.' 
 
 " ... My political education strongly inclines 
 me against a very free use of any of the means by 
 the Executive to control the legislation of the 
 country. As a rule, I think it better that Con- 
 gress should originate as well as perfect its meas- 
 ures without external bias. I therefore would 
 rather recommend to every gentleman who knows 
 he is to be a member of the next Congress, to 
 take an enlarged view, and post himself thor- 
 oughly, so as to contribute his part to such an 
 adjustment of the tariff as shall provide a suffi- 
 cient revenue, and in its other bearings, so far as 
 possible, be just and equal to all sections of the 
 country and classes of the people." 
 
232 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From his Address at Trenton, to the Senate 
 of New Jersey. 
 
 February 21, 1861. 
 "... May I be pardoned if, upon this occa- 
 sion, I mention that away back in my childhood, 
 the earliest days of my being able to read, I got 
 hold of a small book, such a one as few of the 
 younger members have ever seen, — ' Weems's 
 Life of Washington.' I remember all the ac- 
 counts there given of the battlefields and strug- 
 gles for the liberties of the country, and none 
 fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply 
 as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The 
 crossing of the river, the contest with the Hes- 
 sians, the great hardships endured at that time, 
 — all fixed themselves upon my memory more 
 than any single Revolutionary event; and you 
 all know, for you have all been boys, how those 
 early impressions last longer than any others. I 
 recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, 
 that there must have been something more than 
 common that these men struggled for. I am 
 exceedingly anxious that that thing — that some- 
 thing even more than national independence ; 
 that something that held out a great promise to 
 all the people of the world for all time to come 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 2$$ 
 
 — I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, this 
 Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall 
 be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea 
 for which that struggle was made ; and I shall be 
 most happy indeed, if I shall be a humble instru- 
 ment in the hands of the Almighty, and of this 
 his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the 
 object of that great struggle. You give me this 
 reception, as I understand, without distinction of 
 party. I learn that this body is composed of a 
 majority of gentlemen, who, in the exercise of 
 their best judgment in the choice of a chief 
 magistrate, did not think I was the man. I un- 
 derstand, nevertheless, that they came forward 
 here to greet me as the constitutionally elected 
 President of the United States, — as citizens of 
 the United States to meet the man who, for the 
 time being, is the representative of the majesty 
 of the nation, — united by the single purpose to 
 perpetuate the Constitution, the Union, and the 
 liberties of the people. As such I accept this 
 reception more gratefully than I could do, did I 
 believe it was tendered to me as an individual." 
 
234 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Address at Independence Hall, Philadelphia. 
 
 February 22, 1S61. 
 " I am filled with deep emotion at finding my- 
 self standing in this place, where were collected 
 together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devo- 
 tion to principle, from which sprang the insti- 
 tutions under which we live. You have kindly 
 suggested to me that in my hands is the task of 
 restoring peace to our distracted country. I can 
 say in return, Sir, that all the political sentiments I 
 entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been 
 able to draw them, from the sentiments which 
 originated in and were given to the world from 
 this hall. I have never had a feeling, politically, I 
 that did not spring from the sentiments embodied 
 in the Declaration of Independence. I have 
 often pondered over the dangers which were 
 incurred by the men who assembled here, and 
 framed and adopted that Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. I have pondered over the toils that 
 were endured by the officers and soldiers of the 
 army who achieved that independence. I have 
 often inquired of myself what great principle or 
 idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long 
 together. It was not the mere matter of the 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 235 
 
 separation of the colonies from the motherland, 
 but that sentiment in the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence which gave liberty, not alone to the 
 people of this country, but hope to all the world 
 for all future time. It was that which gave 
 promise that in due time the weight would be 
 lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all 
 should have an equal chance. This is the senti- 
 ment embodied in the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence. Now, my friends, can this country be 
 saved on that basis? If it can, I will consider 
 myself one of the happiest men in the world if I 
 can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon 
 that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this 
 country cannot be saved without giving up that 
 principle, I was about to say I would rather be as- 
 sassinated on this spot than surrender it. Now, 
 in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there 
 need be no bloodshed or war. There is no 
 necessity for it. I am not in favour of such a 
 course ; and I may say in advance that there will 
 be no bloodshed unless it is forced upon the Gov- 
 ernment, and then it will be compelled to act in 
 self-defence. The government will not use force, 
 unless force is used against it. . . . " 
 
236 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From his Reply to the Governor, and his 
 Address to the Legislature at Harris- 
 burgh, Pennsylvania. 
 
 February 22, 1861. 
 
 "... I thank you most sincerely for this re- 
 ception, and the generous words in which support 
 has been promised me upon this occasion. I 
 thank your great Commonwealth for the over- 
 whelming support it recently gave, not me person- 
 ally, but the cause which I think a just one, in the 
 late election. 
 
 Allusion has been made to the fact — the inter- 
 esting fact, perhaps we should say — that I for the 
 first time appear at the capital of the great Com- 
 monwealth of Pennsylvania upon the birthday of 
 the Father of his Country. In connection with 
 that beloved anniversary connected with the his- 
 tory of this country, I have already gone through 
 one exceedingly interesting scene this morning 
 in the ceremonies at Philadelphia. Under the 
 kind conduct of gentlemen there, I was for the 
 first time allowed the privilege of standing in old 
 Independence Hall to have a few words addressed 
 to me there, and opening up to me an oppor- 
 tunity of manifesting, with much regret, that I 
 had not more time to express something of my 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 237 
 
 own feelings excited by the occasion, that had 
 been really the feelings of my whole life. 
 
 Besides this, our friends there had provided a 
 magnificent flag of the country. They had ar- 
 ranged it so that I was given the honour of 
 raising it to the head of its staff. And when it 
 went up, I was pleased that it went to its place 
 by the strength of my own feeble arm, when, ac- 
 cording to the arrangement, the cord was pulled, 
 and it floated gloriously to the wind without an 
 accident, in the light, glowing sunshine of the 
 morning. I could not help hoping that there was 
 in the entire success of that beautiful ceremony 
 at least something of an omen of what is to 
 come. How could I help feeling there as I often 
 have felt? In the whole of that proceeding, I 
 was a very humble instrument. I had not pro- 
 vided the flag ; I had not made the arrangement 
 for elevating it to its place ; I had applied but 
 a very small portion of my feeble strength in 
 raising it. In the whole transaction, I was in 
 the hands of the people who had arranged it ; 
 and if I can have the same generous co-operation 
 of the people of the nation, I think the flag of our 
 country may yet be kept flaunting gloriously. 
 
 I recur for a moment but to repeat some words 
 uttered at the hotel, in regard to what has been 
 
238 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 said about the military support which the General 
 Government may expect from the Commonwealth 
 of Pennsylvania in a proper emergency. To 
 guard against any possible mistake do I recur to 
 this. It is not with any pleasure that I con- 
 template the possibility that a necessity may arise 
 in this country for the use of the military arm. 
 While I am exceedingly gratified to see the mani- 
 festation upon your streets of your military force 
 here, and exceedingly gratified at your promises 
 here to use that force upon a proper emergency — 
 while I make these acknowledgments, I desire 
 to repeat, in order to preclude any possible mis- 
 construction, that I do most sincerely hope that 
 we shall have no use for them ; that it will never 
 become their duty to shed blood, and most 
 especially never to shed fraternal blood. I 
 promise that, so far as I may .have wisdom to 
 direct, if so painful a result shall in any wise 
 be brought about, it shall be through no fault of 
 mine. ..." 
 
 Reply to the Mayor of Washington, D. C. 
 
 February 27, 1861. 
 " Mr. Mayor : I thank you, and through you 
 the municipal authorities of this city who accom- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 239 
 
 pany you, for this welcome. And as it is the first 
 time in my life, since the present phase of politics 
 has presented itself in this country, that I have 
 said anything publicly within a region of country 
 where the institution of slavery exists, I will take 
 this occasion to say that I think very much of the 
 ill-feeling that has existed and still exists between 
 the people in the section from which I came and 
 the people here, is dependent upon a misunder- 
 standing of one another. I therefore avail my- 
 self of this opportunity to assure you, Mr. Mayor, 
 and all the gentlemen present, that I have not 
 now, and never have had, any other than as 
 kindly feelings towards you as to the people of 
 my own section. I have not now and never have 
 had any disposition to treat you in any respect 
 otherwise than as my own neighbours. I have not 
 now any purpose to withhold from you any of the 
 benefits of the Constitution under any circum- 
 stances, that I would not feel myself constrained 
 to withhold from my own neighbours ; and I hope, 
 in a word, that when we become better acquainted, 
 — and I say it with great confidence, — we shall 
 like each other the more. ..." 
 
240 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From the First Inaugural Address. 
 
 March 4, 1 861. 
 "... Apprehension seems to exist among the 
 people of the Southern States, that by the acces- 
 sion of a Republican Administration their property 
 and their peace and personal security are to be 
 endangered. There has never been any reason- 
 able cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the 
 most ample evidence to the contrary has all the 
 while existed and been open to their inspection. 
 It is found in nearly all the published speeches of 
 him who now addresses you. I do but quote 
 from one of those speeches when I declare that 
 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to in- 
 terfere with the institution of slavery in the States 
 where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right 
 to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.' . . . 
 I only press upon the public attention the most 
 conclusive evidence of which the case is suscepti- 
 ble, that the property, peace, and security of no 
 section are to be in any wise endangered by the 
 now incoming Administration. I add, too, that 
 all the protection which, consistently with the 
 Constitution and the laws, can be given, will 
 cheerfully be given to all the Slates, when law- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 241 
 
 fully demanded for whatever cause, as cheerfully 
 to one section as to another. 
 
 "... I take the official oath to-day with no 
 mental reservations, and with no purpose to con- 
 strue the Constitution or the laws by any hyper- 
 critical rules. And while I do not choose now 
 to specify particular acts of Congress as proper 
 to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much 
 safer for all, both in official and private stations, 
 to conform to and abide by all those acts which 
 stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, 
 trusting to find impunity in having them held to 
 be unconstitutional. 
 
 " It is seventy-two years since the first inau- 
 guration of a President under our National Con- 
 stitution. During that period fifteen different and 
 greatly distinguished citizens have, in succession, 
 administered the Executive branch of the govern- 
 ment. They have conducted it through many 
 perils, and generally with great success. Yet, 
 with all this scope of precedent, I now enter 
 upon the same great task for the brief constitu- 
 tional term of four years, under great and peculiar 
 difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, 
 heretofore only menaced, is now formidably 
 attempted. 
 
 " I hold that, in contemplation of universal law, 
 16 
 
242 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 and of the Constitution, the Union of these States 
 is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not ex- 
 pressed, in the fundamental law of all National 
 Governments. It is safe to assert that no gov- 
 ernment proper ever had a provision in its 
 organic law for its own termination. Continue 
 to execute all the express provisions of our Na- 
 tional Government, and the Union will endure 
 forever, — it being impossible to destroy it, except 
 by some action not provided for in the instrument 
 itself. 
 
 " Again, if the United States be not a govern- 
 ment proper, but an association of States in the 
 nature of contract merely, can it as a contract be 
 peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who 
 made it ? One party to a contract may violate it 
 — break it, so to speak ; but does it not require 
 all to lawfully rescind it? 
 
 " . . . It follows then, from these views, that 
 no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully 
 get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances 
 to that effect are legally void ; and acts of violence 
 within any State or States, against the authority 
 of the United States, are insurrectionary or revo- 
 lutionary according to circumstances. 
 
 " I therefore consider that, in view of the Con- 
 stitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 243 
 
 and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, 
 as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon 
 me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully exe- 
 cuted in all the States. Doing this, I deem to be 
 only a simple duty on my part ; and I shall per- 
 form it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful 
 masters, the American people, shall withhold the 
 requisite means, or in some authoritative manner 
 direct the contrary. I trust this will not be re- 
 garded as a menace, but only as the declared 
 purpose of the Union, that it will constitutionally 
 defend and maintain itself. 
 
 " In doing this there need be no bloodshed or 
 violence ; and there shall be none, unless it be 
 forced upon the national authority. 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 im- 
 posts ; but beyond what may be but necessary 
 for these objects, there will be no invasion, no 
 using of force against or among the people 
 anywhere. . . . 
 
 " 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, 
 
244 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 however, who really love the Union, may I not 
 speak? 
 
 " Before entering upon so grave a matter as the 
 destruction of our national fabric, with all its 
 benefits, its memories, 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 com- 
 mission of so fearful a mistake ? 
 
 " All profess to be content in the Union, if all 
 constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it 
 true, then, that any right plainly written in the 
 Constitution has been 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? . . . 
 
 " 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 the suit, as to the object of that suit, 
 while they are also entitled to very high respect 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 245 
 
 and consideration in all parallel cases by all other 
 departments of the government. ... At the same 
 time, ... 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 people will have ceased to be 
 their own rulers, having to that extent practically 
 resigned their government into the hands of that 
 eminent tribunal. . . . 
 
 " Nor is there in this view any assault upon the 
 Court or the judges. . . . 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 sub- 
 stantial 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 ever can 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 restriction, in one section, while 
 
246 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 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 can- 
 not 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 more faithfully en- 
 forced between aliens than laws among friends? 
 Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always ; 
 and when, after much loss on both sides and no 
 gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical 
 old questions as to terms of intercourse are again 
 upon you. . . . 
 
 " The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority 
 from the people, and they have conferred none 
 upon him to fix terms for the separation of the 
 States. The people themselves can do this also, 
 if they choose ; but the Executive, as such, has 
 nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 247 
 
 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 eternal 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. 
 
 "... My countrymen, one and all, think calmly 
 and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valu- 
 able 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 Administration 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 
 
248 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, 
 patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on 
 Him who has never yet forsaken this favoured 
 land are still competent to adjust in the best 
 way all our present difficulty. 
 
 " In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-country- 
 men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of 
 civil war. The government will not assail you. 
 You can have no conflict without being your- 
 selves the aggressors. You have no oath regis- 
 tered in Heaven to destroy the government, 
 while I shall have the most solemn one to ' pre- 
 serve, 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 battlefield and patriot grave to every living 
 heart and hearthstone 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." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 249 
 
 From his first Message to Congress, at the 
 Special Session, July 4, 1861. 
 
 Jidy 4, 1 86 1. 
 
 " . . . It is thus seen that the assault upon and 
 reduction of Fort Sumter was in no sense a matter 
 of self-defence 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 the few brave and hungry 
 men of the garrison was all which would on that 
 occasion be attempted, unless themselves, by re- 
 sisting 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 pre- 
 serve the Union from actual and immediate disso- 
 lution, — trusting, as hereinbefore stated, to time, 
 discussion, and the ballot-box, for final adjust- 
 ment ; 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 dissolution. 
 
 "... By the affair at Fort Sumter, . . . the 
 assailants of the government began the conflict 
 
250 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of arms, without a gun in sight, or in expectancy 
 to return their fire, save only the few in the fort 
 sent to that harbour 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.' 
 
 u And this issue embraces more than the fate 
 of these United States. It presents to the whole 
 family of man the question whether a constitu- 
 tional republic or democracy — a government of 
 the people by the same people — can or cannot 
 maintain its territorial integrity against its own 
 domestic foes. It presents the question whether 
 discontented individuals, too few in numbers to 
 control administration according to organic law 
 in any case, can always, upon the pretences made 
 in this case or any other pretences, or arbitrarily 
 without any pretence, break up their government, 
 and thus practically put an end to free govern- 
 ment 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 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 25 I 
 
 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 una- 
 nimity and spirit the most sanguine expectation. 
 
 "... 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 citi- 
 zens this government is bound to recognise and 
 protect, as being Virginia. 
 
 " In the border States, so called, — in fact, 
 the Middle States, — there are those who favour 
 a policy which they call ' armed neutrality ; ' that 
 is, an arming of those States to prevent the Union 
 forces passing one way, or the disunion the other, 
 over their soil. This would be disunion com- 
 pleted. Figuratively speaking, it would be the 
 building 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 insurrectionists, which 
 it could not do as an open enemy. At a stroke, 
 it would take all the trouble off the hands of 
 
252 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 secession, except only what proceeds from the 
 external blockade. It would do for the disunion- 
 ists that which of all things they most desire, — 
 feed them well and give them disunion without a 
 struggle of their own. It recognises no fidelity 
 to the Constitution, no obligation to maintain the 
 Union ; and while very many who have favoured 
 it are doubtless loyal citizens, it is, nevertheless, 
 very injurious in effect. 
 
 "... 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 probable. 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 every- 
 where practically respected by foreign powers, 
 and a general sympathy with the country is mani- 
 fested throughout the world. 
 
 " ... 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, well 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 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 253 
 
 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 civilised and patriotic people. They knew 
 they could make no advancement directly in the 
 teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Ac- 
 cordingly, they commenced by an insidious de- 
 bauching of the public mind. They invented 
 an ingenious 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 peace- 
 fully, withdraw from the Union without the con- 
 sent 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 drugging the public mind of their section 
 for more than thirty years, and until at length 
 they have brought many good men to a willing- 
 ness to take up arms against the government the 
 day after some assemblage of men have enacted 
 
254 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the farcical pretence 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 omnipotent and sacred supremacy pertain- 
 ing 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 hav- 
 ing been a State out of the Union. 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 
 old ones in and by the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence. Therein the ' United Colonies ' were 
 declared to be ' free and independent States ; ' 
 but even then the object plainly was, not to de- 
 clare their independence of one another or of the 
 Union, but directly the contrary, as their mutual 
 pledges and their mutual action before, at the 
 time, and afterward abundantly show. The ex- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 255 
 
 press plighting of faith by each and all of the 
 original thirteen in the Articles of Confederation 
 two years later, that the Union shall be perpetual, 
 is most conclusive. Having never been States, 
 either in substance or 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 is not in the National 
 Constitution, nor, as is believed, in any of the 
 State constitutions. 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 
 independence and their liberty. By conquest 
 or purchase, the Union gave each of them what- 
 
256 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ever 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 it is not 
 forgotten that all the new States framed their 
 constitutions before they entered the Union, — 
 nevertheless, dependent upon and preparatory 
 to coming into 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 an impres- 
 sive illustration. So large an army as the govern- 
 ment 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, and professions, and what- 
 ever else, whether useful or elegant, is known in 
 the world ; and there is scarcely one from which 
 there could not be selected a President, a cabinet, 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 257 
 
 a congress, and perhaps a court, abundantly com- 
 petent to administer the government itself. Nor 
 do I say that this is not true also in the army of 
 our late friends, now adversaries in this contest ; 
 but if it is, so much the better reason why the 
 government which has conferred 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 defer- 
 ence 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 independence 
 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 national 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 deliber- 
 ate 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 main- 
 
 i7 
 
258 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 taining 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 
 the existence of which we contend. 
 
 "... 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 maintainance 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 by a war ; teaching all the folly of 
 being the beginners of a war." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 259 
 
 From his Message to Congress at its Regular 
 Session. 
 
 December 3, 1861. 
 
 "... You will not be surprised to learn that 
 in the peculiar exigencies of the times, our inter- 
 course with foreign nations has been attended 
 with profound solicitude, chiefly turning upon our 
 own domestic affairs. 
 
 " A disloyal portion of the American people 
 have, during the whole year, been engaged in an 
 attempt to divide and destroy the Union. A 
 nation which endures factious domestic division 
 is exposed to disrespect abroad ; and one party, 
 if not both, is sure, sooner or later, to invoke 
 foreign intervention. Nations thus tempted to 
 interfere are not always able to resist the 
 counsels of seeming expediency and ungenerous 
 ambition, although measures adopted under such 
 influences seldom fail to be injurious and unfor- 
 tunate to those adopting them. 
 
 "The disloyal citizens of the United States 
 who have offered the ruin of our country in return 
 for the aid and comfort which they have invoked 
 abroad, have received less patronage and encour- 
 agement than they probably expected. If it were 
 
260 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 just to suppose, as the insurgents have seemed to 
 assume, that foreign nations in this case, discard- 
 ing all moral, social, and treaty obligations, would 
 act solely and selfishly for the most speedy resto- 
 ration of commerce, including especially the ac- 
 quisition of cotton, those nations appear as yet 
 not to have seen their way to their object more 
 directly or clearly through the destruction than 
 through the preservation of the Union. . . . 
 
 " The principal lever relied on by the insurgents 
 for exciting foreign nations to hostility against us, 
 as already intimated, is the embarrassment of com- 
 merce. Those nations, however, not improbably 
 saw from the first that it was the Union which 
 made as well our foreign as our domestic com- 
 merce. They can scarcely have failed to per- 
 ceive that the effort for disunion produces the 
 existing difficulty ; and that one strong nation 
 promises a more durable peace and a more ex- 
 tensive, valuable, and reliable commerce than can 
 the same nation broken into hostile fragments. 
 
 "... The operations of the treasury during 
 the period which has elapsed since your adjourn- 
 ment have been conducted with signal success. 
 The patriotism of the people has placed at the 
 disposal of the government the large means de- 
 manded by the public exigencies. Much of the 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 26 1 
 
 national loan has been taken by citizens of the 
 industrial classes, whose confidence in their 
 country's faith, and zeal for their country's deliv- 
 erance from present peril have induced them to 
 contribute to the support of the government the 
 whole of their limited acquisitions. This fact 
 imposes peculiar obligations to economy in dis- 
 bursement and energy in action. 
 
 "... The war continues. In considering the 
 policy to be adopted for suppressing the insur- 
 rection, I have been anxious and careful that the 
 inevitable conflict for this purpose should not 
 degenerate into a violent and remorseless revo- 
 lutionary struggle. 
 
 "... The last ray of hope for preserving the 
 Union peaceably, expired at the assault on Fort 
 Sumter. . . . What was painfully uncertain then 
 is much better defined and more distinct now ; 
 and the progress of events is plainly in the right 
 direction. 
 
 " . . . It continues to develop that the insur- 
 rection is largely, if not exclusively, a war upon 
 the first principle of popular government, — the 
 rights of the people. Conclusive 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 docu- 
 
262 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ments 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 laboured arguments to prove that large con- 
 trol 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 gen- 
 eral argument should be made in favour of popular 
 institutions ; but there is one point, with its con- 
 nections, not so hackneyed as most others, to 
 which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to 
 place capital on an equal footing with, if not 
 above, labour, in the structure of government. 
 It is assumed that labour is available only in con- 
 nection with capital ; that nobody labours, unless 
 somebody else, owning capital, somehow, by the 
 use of it, induces him to labour. This assumed, 
 it is next considered whether it is best that capital 
 shall hire labourers, and thus induce them to work 
 by their own consent, or buy them and drive them 
 to it without their consent. Having proceeded 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 263 
 
 thus far, it is naturally concluded that all labourers 
 are either hired labourers, or what we call slaves. 
 And further, it is assumed that whoever is once a 
 hired labourer is fixed in that condition for life. 
 
 " Now, there is no such relation between capital 
 and labour as assumed, nor is there any such thing 
 as a free man being fixed for life in the condition 
 of a hired labourer. Both these assumptions are 
 false, and all inferences from them are groundless. 
 
 " Labour is prior to and independent of capital. 
 Capital is only the fruit of labour, and could never 
 have existed if labour had not first existed. Labour 
 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 al- 
 ways will be, a relation between labour and capi- 
 tal, producing mutual benefits. The error is in 
 assuming that the whole labour of the community 
 exists within that relation. A few men own cap- 
 ital, and that few avoid labour themselves, and 
 with their capital hire or buy another few to labour 
 for them. A large majority belong to neither 
 class, — neither work for others, nor have others 
 working for them. In most of the Southern 
 States, a majority of the whole people, of all 
 colours, are neither slaves nor masters ; while 
 
264 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 in the Northern, a majority are neither hirers nor 
 hired. Men with their families — wives, sons, and 
 daughters — work for themselves, on their farms, 
 in their houses, and in their shops, taking the 
 whole product to themselves, and asking no 
 favours of capital on the one hand, nor of hired 
 labourers or slaves on the other. It is not forgot- 
 ten that a considerable number of persons mingle 
 their own labour with capital, — that is, they la- 
 bour with their own hands, and also buy or hire 
 others to labour for them ; but this is only a mixed 
 and not a distinct class. No principle stated is 
 disturbed by the existence of this mixed class. 
 
 " Again, as has already been said, there is 
 not of necessity any such thing as the free, hired 
 labourer being fixed to that condition for life. 
 Many independent men, everywhere in these 
 States, a few years back in their lives were hired 
 labourers. The prudent, penniless beginner in 
 the world labours for wages awhile, saves a surplus 
 with which to buy tools or land for himself, then 
 labours on his own account another while, and at 
 length hires another new beginner to help him. 
 This is the just and generous and prosperous sys- 
 tem which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, 
 and consequent energy and progress and improve- 
 ment of condition to all. No men living are 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 265 
 
 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 sur- 
 rendered, 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." 
 
 His Reply to the Lutheran Ministers. 
 
 May, 1862. 
 I welcome here the representatives of the 
 Evangelical Lutherans of the United States. I 
 accept with gratitude their assurances of the sym- 
 pathy and support of that enlightened, influential, 
 and loyal class of my fellow-citizens, in an impor- 
 tant crisis which involves, in my judgment, not 
 only the civil and religious liberties of mankind in 
 many countries and through many ages. You 
 well know, gentlemen, and the world knows, how 
 reluctantly I accepted this issue of battle, forced 
 upon me, on my advent to this place, by the in- 
 ternal enemies of our country. You all know — 
 the world knows — the forces and the resources 
 the public agents have brought into employment 
 
266 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 to sustain a government against which there has 
 been brought not one complaint of real injury com- 
 mitted against society at home or abroad. You 
 all may recollect that in taking up the sword thus 
 forced into our hands, this government appealed 
 to the prayers of the pious and the good, and de- 
 clared that it placed its whole dependence upon 
 the favour of God. I now humbly and reverently, 
 in your presence, reiterate the acknowledgment 
 of that dependence, not doubting that, if it shall 
 please the Divine Being who determines the des- 
 tinies of nations, this shall remain a united people ; 
 and that they will, humbly seeking the Divine 
 guidance, make their prolonged national existence 
 a source of new benefits to themselves and their 
 successors, and to all classes and conditions of 
 mankind. 
 
 From a Letter to General McClellan. 
 
 May 9, 1862. 
 
 " . . . I have just assisted the Secretary of War 
 in framing part of a despatch to you, relating to 
 army corps, which despatch of course will have 
 reached you long before this will. 
 
 " I wish to say a few words to you privately on 
 this subject. I ordered the army corps organi- 
 sation, not only on the unanimous opinion of the 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 267 
 
 twelve generals whom you had selected and as- 
 signed as generals of division, but also on the 
 unanimous opinion of every military man I could 
 get an opinion from (and every modern military 
 book), yourself only excepted. Of course I did 
 not on my own judgment pretend to understand 
 the subject. I now think it indispensable for you 
 to know how your struggle against it is received 
 in quarters which we cannot entirely disregard. 
 It is looked upon as merely an effort to pamper 
 one or two pets and to persecute and degrade 
 their supposed rivals. I have had no word from 
 Sumner, Heintzelman, or Keyes. The command- 
 ers of these corps are of course the three highest 
 officers with you, but I am constantly told that 
 you have no consultation or communication with 
 them, — that you consult and communicate with 
 nobody but General Fitz John Porter, and per- 
 haps General Franklin. I do not say these com- 
 plaints are true or just, but at all events it is 
 proper you should know of their existence. Do 
 the commanders of corps disobey your orders 
 in anything? 
 
 " . . . Are you strong enough — are you strong 
 enough, even with my help — to set your foot upon 
 the necks of Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes, 
 all at once ? This is a practical and a very serious 
 question for you." 
 
268 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From his Proclamation revoking General 
 Hunter's Order setting the Slaves eree ; 
 and offering compensated emancipation to 
 Slave Owners. 
 
 May 19, 1862. 
 
 " The resolution . . . was adopted by large 
 majorities in both branches of Congress, and now 
 stands an authentic, definite, and solemn proposal 
 of the nation to the States and people most im- 
 mediately interested in the subject-matter. To 
 the people of those States I now earnestly appeal. 
 I do not argue — I beseech you to make argu- 
 ments for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, 
 be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you 
 a calm and enlarged consideration of them, rang- 
 ing, if it may be, far above personal and partisan 
 politics. The proposal makes common cause for 
 a common object, casting no reproaches upon any. 
 It acts not the Pharisee. The change it contem- 
 plates 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 provi- 
 dence of God it is now your high privilege to do. 
 May the vast future not have to lament that you 
 have neglected it." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 269 
 
 Appeal to the Border States to accept 
 Compensated Emancipation. 
 
 July 12, 1862. 
 
 After the adjournment of Congress, now near, 
 I shall have no opportunity of seeing you for 
 several months. Believing that you of the border 
 States hold more power for good than any other 
 equal number of members, I feel it a duty which 
 I cannot 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-emanci- 
 pation message of last March, the war would now 
 be substantially ended. And the plan therein pro- 
 posed is yet one of the most potent and swift 
 means of ending it. Let the States which are in 
 rebellion see, definitely and certainly, that in no 
 event will the States you represent ever join their 
 proposed confederacy, and they cannot much 
 longer maintain the contest. But you cannot 
 divest them of their hope to ultimately have you 
 with them, so long as you show a determination to 
 perpetuate the institution within your own States. 
 Beat them at elections, as you have overwhelm- 
 ingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim 
 
270 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 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 exclusively 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 pos- 
 sible event? You prefer that the constitutional 
 relation of the States to the nation shall be prac- 
 tically restored without disturbance of the insti- 
 tution ; 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 
 be not sooner attained, the institution in your 
 States will be extinguished by mere friction and 
 abrasion, — by the mere incidents of the war. 
 It will be gone, and you will have nothing valu- 
 able in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 2J\ 
 
 already. How much better for you and for your 
 people to take the step which at once shortens 
 the war and secures substantial compensation 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 never have 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 colonisation 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 difficulty not yet mentioned, 
 — one which threatens division among those who, 
 united, are none too strong. General Hunter is an 
 honest man. He was, and I hope still is, my 
 friend. I valued him none the less for his agree- 
 ing with me in the general wish that all men 
 everywhere could be free. He proclaimed all 
 
272 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 men free within certain States, and I repudiated 
 the proclamation. He expected more good and 
 less harm from the measure than I could believe 
 would follow. Yet in repudiating it, I gave dis- 
 satisfaction if not offence 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 Capitol, consider and discuss it 
 among yourselves. You are patriots and states- 
 men, and as such, I pray you, consider this 
 proposition, and at the least commend it to the 
 consideration 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 memories 
 are vindicated, and its happy future fully assured 
 and rendered inconceivably grand. To you more 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 273 
 
 than to any others the privilege is given to assure 
 that happiness and swell that grandeur, and to 
 link your own names therewith forever. 
 
 Letter to Cuthbert Bullitt. 
 
 July 28, 1862. 
 
 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, 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 the majority 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 exert themselves? Why stand passive and 
 allow themselves to be trodden down by a mi- 
 nority? Why did they not hold popular meet- 
 ings, and have a convention of their own, to 
 express and enforce the true sentiments of the 
 State? If pre-organisation 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 noth- 
 
 18 
 
274 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ing for the government, nothing for themselves, 
 except demanding that the government shall not 
 strike its open enemies, lest they be struck by 
 accident ! 
 
 Mr. Durant complains that in various ways the 
 relation of master and slave is disturbed by the 
 presence of our army ; and he considers it par- 
 ticularly vexatious that this, in part, is done under 
 cover of an act of Congress, while constitutional 
 guarantees 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 cannot get either 
 in sufficient 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 understanding^ of 
 the police regulations of which Mr. Durant com- 
 plains. If experience shows any one of them to be 
 wrong, let them be set right. I think I can per- 
 ceive in the freedom of trade which Mr. Durant 
 urges, that he would relieve both friends and 
 enemies from the pressure of the blockade. By 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 275 
 
 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 con- 
 scious 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 contest, 
 were anxious only to have quiet and comfort for 
 themselves while it rages, and to fall in with the 
 victorious side at the end of it, without loss to 
 themselves, their advice as to the mode of con- 
 ducting the contest would be precisely such as his. 
 
 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, — live merely as passengers (dead-heads, 
 at that) , — to be carried 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 
 
276 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 from that 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 gov- 
 ernment conforming thereto under the Constitu- 
 tion. 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 constitutional 
 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 govern- 
 ment, 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 
 with rose-water? Would you deal lighter blows 
 rather than heavier ones ? Would you give up the 
 contest, leaving any available means untried ? 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 277 
 
 I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more 
 than I can ; but I shall do all I can to save the 
 government, which is my sworn duty as well as 
 my personal inclination. I shall do nothing in 
 malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious 
 dealing. 
 
 From his Letter to Count Gasparin. 
 
 August 4, 1862. 
 
 "... The moral effect was the worst of the 
 affair before Richmond, and that has run its 
 course downward. We are now at a stand, and 
 shall soon be rising again, as we hope. I believe 
 it is true that in men and material the enemy suf- 
 fered more than we in that series of conflicts, 
 while it is certain he is less able to bear it. 
 
 " With us every soldier is a man of character, 
 and must be treated with more consideration than 
 is customary in Europe. Hence our great army, 
 for slighter causes than could have prevailed there, 
 has dwindled rapidly, bringing the necessity for a 
 new call earlier than was anticipated. We shall 
 easily obtain the new levy, however. Be not 
 alarmed if you shall learn that we have to draft 
 for part of this. It seems strange even to me, 
 but it is true, that the government is now pressed 
 
278 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 to this course by a popular demand. Thousands 
 who wish not to personally enter the service are 
 nevertheless anxious to pay and send substitutes, 
 provided they can have assurance that unwilling 
 persons, similarly situated, will be compelled to do 
 likewise. Besides this, volunteers mostly choose 
 to enter newly forming regiments, while drafted 
 men can be sent to fill up old ones, wherein, 
 man for man, they are quite doubly as valuable. 
 
 " You ask, ' Why is it that the North, with her 
 great armies, so often is found with inferiority of 
 numbers face to face with the armies of the 
 South ? ' While I painfully know the fact, a 
 military man, which I am not, would better an- 
 swer the question. The fact, I know, has not 
 been overlooked, and I suppose the cause of its 
 continuance lies mainly in the other fact that the 
 enemy holds the interior, and we the exterior 
 lines ; and that we operate where the people con- 
 vey information to the enemy, while he operates 
 where they convey none to us. . . . 
 
 " I am very happy to know that my course has 
 not conflicted with your judgment of propriety 
 and policy. I can only say that I have acted 
 upon my best convictions without selfishness or 
 malice, and that, by the help of God, I shall 
 continue to do so." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 279 
 
 His Letter to Horace Greeley. 
 
 August 22, l862. 
 
 I have just read yours of the 19th instant, 
 addressed to myself through the "New York 
 Tribune." 
 
 If there be in it any statements or assumptions 
 of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do 
 not now and here controvert them. 
 
 If there be in it 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. I would save the Union. I would save 
 it in the shortest way under the Constitution. 
 
 The sooner the national authority can be re- 
 stored, 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 
 
280 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 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 not either to save or to destroy 
 slavery. 
 
 If I could save the Union without freeing any 
 slave, I would do it ; 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 coloured 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 that 
 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 where shown to be 
 errors, and I shall adopt new views as fast as they 
 shall appear to be true views. 
 
 I have here stated my purpose according to my 
 views of official duty, and I intend no modifica- 
 tion of my oft-expressed personal wish that all 
 men everywhere could be free. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 281 
 
 From his Reply to the Chicago Committee 
 of United Religious Denominations, urging 
 lmmediate emancipation. 
 
 September 13, 1862. 
 
 " . . . I am approached with the most oppo- 
 site 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 is mistaken in that belief, and per- 
 haps, 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 
 supposed that 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 I suppose it will be 
 granted that I am not to expect a direct revela- 
 tion. 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, four gentlemen of standing 
 and intelligence, from Xew York, called as a d 
 
282 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 gation on business connected with the war ; but 
 before leaving, two of them earnestly besought 
 me to proclaim general emancipation, upon which 
 the other two at once attacked them. You also 
 know 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 
 is true of the religious people. 
 
 "... What good would a proclamation of 
 emancipation from me do, especially as we are 
 now situated? I do not want to issue a docu- 
 ment that the whole world will see must neces- 
 sarily 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 individual 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 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 283 
 
 and care for such a multitude ? General 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 com- 
 mand. They eat, and that is all ; though it is 
 true General Butler is feeding the whites also by 
 the thousand, for it nearly amounts to a famine 
 there. If now, the pressure of the war should 
 call off our forces from New Orleans to defend 
 some other point, what is to prevent the masters 
 from reducing the blacks to slavery again ? For I 
 am told that whenever the rebels take any black 
 prisoners, free or slave, they immediately auction 
 them off ! They did so with those they took from 
 a boat that was aground in the Tennessee River a 
 few days ago. And then I am very ungenerously 
 attacked for it. For instance, when, after the 
 late battles at and near Bull Run, an expedition 
 went out from Washington under a flag of truce 
 to bury the dead and bring in the wounded, and 
 the rebels seized the blacks who went along to 
 help, and sent them into slavery, Horace Greeley 
 said in his paper ' that the government would 
 probably do nothing about it.' What could I do ? 
 " Now, then, tell me, if you please, what possible 
 result of good would follow the issuing of such a 
 proclamation as you desire ? Understand, I raise 
 
284 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 no objections against it on legal or constitutional 
 grounds, for, as commander-in-chief of the army 
 and navy, in time of war I suppose I have a right 
 to take any measures which may best subdue the 
 enemy ; nor do I urge objections of a moral nature, 
 in view of possible consequences of insurrection 
 and massacre at the South. I view this matter as 
 a practical war-measure, to be decided on accord- 
 ing to the advantages or disadvantages it may 
 offer to the suppression of the rebellion." 
 
 [The committee had said that emancipation 
 would secure us the sympathy of the world, slav- 
 ery being the cause of the war. To which the 
 President replied :] 
 
 " I admit that slavery is at the root of the 
 rebellion, or at least its sine qua non. The am- 
 bition of politicians may have instigated them to 
 act, but they would have been impotent without 
 slavery as their instrument. I will also concede 
 that emancipation would help us in Europe, and 
 convince them that we are incited by something 
 more than ambition. I grant further, that it 
 would help somewhat at the North, though not 
 so much, I fear, as you and those you represent, 
 imagine. Still, some additional strength would 
 be added in that way to the war, — and then, 
 unquestionably, it would weaken the rebels by 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 285 
 
 drawing off their labourers, which is of great 
 importance ; but I am not so sure that we could 
 do much with the blacks. If we were to arm 
 them, I fear that in a few weeks the arms would 
 be in the hands of the rebels ; and indeed, thus 
 far, we have not had arms enough to equip our 
 white troops. I will mention another thing, 
 though it meet only your scorn and contempt. 
 There are fifty thousand bayonets in the Union 
 armies from the border slave States. It would be 
 a serious matter if, in consequence of a procla- 
 mation such as you desire, they should go over 
 to the rebels. I do not think they all would, — 
 not so many indeed, as a year ago, nor as six 
 months ago ; not so many to-day as yesterday. 
 Every day increases their Union feeling. They 
 are also getting their pride enlisted, and want to 
 beat the rebels. Let me say one thing more : I 
 think you should admit that we already have an 
 important principle to rally and unite the people, 
 in the fact that constitutional government is at 
 stake. This is a fundamental idea, going down 
 about as deep as anything. 
 
 " Do not misunderstand me because I have 
 mentioned these objections. They indicate the 
 difficulties that have thus far prevented my action 
 in some such way as you desire. I have not de- 
 
286 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 cided against a proclamation of liberty to the 
 slaves, but hold the matter under advisement. 
 And I can assure you that the subject is on my 
 mind by day and night, more than any other. 
 Whatever shall appear to be God's will, I will do. 
 I trust that in the freedom with which I have 
 canvassed your views, I have not in any respect 
 injured your feelings." 
 
 His Order to remember and keep the Sabbath 
 
 Day. 
 
 November 15, 1862. 
 The President, commander-in-chief of the 
 army and navy, desires and enjoins the orderly 
 observance of the Sabbath by the officers and 
 men in the military and naval service. The im- 
 portance for man and beast of the prescribed 
 weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian sol- 
 diers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best 
 sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard 
 for the Divine will demand that Sunday labour 
 in the army and navy be reduced to the measure 
 of strict necessity. The discipline and character 
 of the national forces should not suffer, nor the 
 cause they defend be imperilled, by the profana- 
 tion of the day or name of the Most High. " At 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 287 
 
 this time of public distress," adopting the words 
 of Washington, in 1776, "men may find enough 
 to do in the service of God and their country, 
 without abandoning themselves to vice and im- 
 morality." The first general order issued by the 
 Father of his Country, after the Declaration of 
 Independence, indicates the spirit in which our 
 institutions were founded and should ever be de- 
 fended. " The general hopes and trusts that 
 every officer and man will endeavour to live and 
 act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the 
 dearest rights and liberties of his country." 
 
 From the Annual Message to Congress. 
 
 December I, 1862. 
 
 " Since your last annual assembling, another 
 year of health and bountiful harvests has passed ; 
 and while it has not pleased the Almighty to bless 
 us with a return of peace, we can but press on, 
 guided by the best light He gives us, trusting 
 that in His own good time and wise way, all will 
 yet be well. 
 
 "... If the condition of our relations with 
 other nations is less gratifying than it has usually 
 been at former periods, it is certainly more satis- 
 
288 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 factory than a nation so unhappily distracted as 
 we are, might reasonably have apprehended. In 
 the month of June last, there were some grounds 
 to expect that the maritime powers, which, at the 
 beginning of our domestic difficulties, so unwisely 
 and unnecessarily, as we think, recognised the 
 insurgents as a belligerent, would soon recede 
 from that position, which has proved only less 
 injurious to themselves than to our own country. 
 But the temporary reverses which afterward befell 
 the national arms, and which were exaggerated by 
 our own disloyal citizens abroad, have hitherto 
 delayed that act of simple justice. 
 
 " The Civil War, which has so radically changed 
 for the moment the occupations and habits of 
 the American people, has necessarily disturbed 
 the social condition and affected very deeply the 
 prosperity of the nations with which we have 
 carried on a commerce that has been steadily 
 increasing throughout a period of half a century. 
 It has, at the same time, excited political ambi- 
 tions and apprehensions which have produced a 
 profound agitation throughout the civilised world. 
 In this unusual agitation we have forborne from 
 taking part in any controversy between foreign 
 States, and between parties or factions in such 
 States. We have attempted no propagandism 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 289 
 
 and acknowledged no revolution. But we have 
 left to every nation the exclusive conduct and 
 management of its own affairs. Our struggle has 
 been, of course, contemplated by foreign nations 
 with reference less to its own merits than to its 
 supposed and often exaggerated effects and con- 
 sequences resulting to those nations themselves. 
 Nevertheless, complaint on the part of this gov- 
 ernment, even if it were just, would certainly be 
 unwise. 
 
 "... The condition of the finances will claim 
 your most diligent consideration. The vast ex- 
 penditures incident to the military and naval opera- 
 tions required for the suppression of the rebel- 
 lion, have hitherto been met with a promptitude 
 and certainty unusual in similar circumstances, 
 and the public credit has been fully maintained. 
 
 " . . . A nation may be said to consist of its 
 territory, its people, and its laws. The territory 
 is the only part which is of certain durability. 
 ' One generation passeth away, and another gen- 
 eration cometh, but the earth abideth forever.' 
 It is of the first importance to duly consider and 
 estimate this ever-enduring part. That portion 
 of the earth's surface which is owned and inhab- 
 ited by the people of the United States is well 
 adapted to be the home of one national family, 
 
 19 
 
290 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 and it is not well adapted for two or more. Its 
 vast extent and its variety of climate and pro- 
 ductions are of advantage in this age for one 
 people, whatever they might have been in former 
 ages. Steam, telegraphs, and intelligence have 
 brought these to be an advantageous combination 
 for one united people. 
 
 " In the inaugural address I briefly pointed out 
 the total inadequacy of disunion as a remedy for 
 the differences between the people of the two sec- 
 tions. [Here several paragraphs from the inau- 
 gural address were repeated.] 
 
 "... There is no line, straight or crooked, 
 suitable for a national boundary, upon which to 
 divide. Trace through from east to west upon 
 the line between the free and the slave country, 
 and we shall find a little more than one third of 
 its length are rivers, easy to be crossed, and pop- 
 ulated, or soon to be populated, thickly upon 
 both sides ; while nearly all its remaining length 
 are merely surveyors' lines, over which people 
 may walk back and forth without any conscious- 
 ness of their presence. No part of this line can 
 be made any more difficult to pass, by writing it 
 down on paper or parchment as a national boun- 
 dary. The fact of separation, if it comes, gives 
 up, on the part of the seceding section, the fugitive- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 291 
 
 slave clause, along with all other constitutional 
 obligations upon the section seceded from, while 
 I should expect no treaty stipulation would be 
 ever made to take its place. 
 
 " But there is another difficulty. The great 
 interior region bounded east by the Alleghanies, 
 north by the British dominions, west by the 
 Rocky Mountains, and south by the line along 
 which the culture of corn and cotton meets, . . . 
 already has above ten millions of people, and will 
 have fifty millions within fifty years, if not pre- 
 vented by any political folly or mistake. It con- 
 tains more than one-third of the country owned 
 by the United States, — certainly more than one 
 million of square miles. Once half as populous as 
 Massachusetts already is, and it would have more 
 than seventy-five millions of people. A glance 
 at the map shows that, territorially speaking, it is 
 the great body of the republic. The other parts 
 are but marginal borders to it. . . . In the pro- 
 duction of provisions, grains, grasses, and all 
 which proceed from them, this great interior 
 region is naturally one of the most important in 
 the world. Ascertain from the statistics the small 
 proportion of the region which has, as yet, been 
 brought into cultivation, and also the urge and 
 rapidly increasing amount of its products, and 
 
292 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 we shall be overwhelmed with the magnitude of 
 the prospect presented. And yet this region has 
 no sea-coast, touches no ocean anywhere. As 
 part of one nation, its people now find, and may 
 forever find, their way to Europe by New York, 
 to South America and Africa by New Orleans, 
 and to Asia by San Francisco. But separate our 
 common country into two nations, as designed by 
 the present rebellion, and every man of this great 
 interior region is thereby cut off from one or more 
 of these outlets, — not perhaps by a physical 
 barrier, but by embarrassing and onerous trade 
 regulations. 
 
 "... These outlets, east, west, and south, 
 are indispensable to the well-being of the people 
 inhabiting, and to inhabit, this vast interior region. 
 Which of the three may be the best, is no proper 
 question. All are better than either ; and all of 
 right belong to that people and their successors 
 forever. True to themselves, they will not ask 
 where a line of separation shall be, but will vow 
 rather that there shall be no such line. Nor are 
 the marginal regions less interested in these com- 
 munications to and through them to the great 
 outside world. They too, and each of them, must 
 have access to this Egypt of the west, without pay- 
 ing toll at the crossing of any national boundary. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 293 
 
 " Our national strife springs not from our per- 
 manent part, not from the land we inhabit, not 
 from our national homestead. There is no pos- 
 sible severing of this but would multiply and not 
 mitigate evils among us. In all its adaptations and 
 aptitudes, it demands union and abhors separation. 
 In fact, it would ere long force reunion, however 
 much of blood and treasure the separation might 
 have cost. 
 
 " . . . Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape his- 
 tory. We of this Congress and this Administra- 
 tion will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No 
 personal significance or insignificance can spare 
 one or another of us. The fiery trial through 
 which we pass will light us down, in honour or 
 dishonour, to the latest generation. We say we 
 are for the Union. The world will not forget 
 that we say this. We know how to save the 
 Union. The world knows we do know how to 
 save it. We, even we here, hold the power and 
 bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the 
 slave, we assure freedom to the free, — honourable 
 alike in what we give and what we preserve. We 
 shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope 
 of earth. Other means may succeed ; this could 
 not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, 
 just, — a way which, if followed, the world will 
 forever applaud, and God must forever bless." 
 
294 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Draft of the Proclamation of Emancipation 
 as Submitted to the Cabinet for Final 
 Revision. 
 
 December 30, 1862. 
 
 Now therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
 of the United States, by virtue of the power in 
 me vested as commander-in-chief of the army 
 and navy of the United States, in time of actual 
 armed rebellion against the authority and govern- 
 ment of the United States, and as a proper and 
 necessary war-measure for suppressing said rebel- 
 lion, do, on this first day of January, in the year 
 of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 sixty-three, and in accordance with my intention 
 so to do, publicly proclaimed for one hundred 
 days as aforesaid, order and designate as the 
 States and parts of States in which the people 
 thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion 
 against the United States, the following, to wit : 
 [Here follow the States and counties named.] 
 
 And by virtue of the power, and for the pur- 
 pose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all 
 persons held as slaves within said designated 
 States and parts of States are, and henceforward 
 forever shall be free ; and that the Executive 
 Government of the United States, including the 
 military and naval authorities thereof, will recog- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 295 
 
 nise and maintain the freedom of said persons, 
 and will do no act or acts to repress said persons 
 or any of them, in any suitable efforts they may 
 make for their actual freedom ; and I hereby 
 appeal to the people so declared to be free, to 
 abstain from all disorder, tumult, and violence, 
 unless in necessary self-defence, and in all cases, 
 when allowed, to labour faithfully for wages. 
 
 And I further declare and make known, that 
 such persons of suitable condition will be received 
 into the armed service of the United States, to 
 garrison and defend forts, positions, stations, and 
 other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in 
 said service. 
 
 The Proclamation of Emancipation. 
 
 January 1, 1 863. 
 
 Whereas, on the twenty-second day of Sep- 
 tember, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was 
 issued by the President of the United States, con- 
 taining among other things the following, to wit : 
 
 " That on the first day of January, in the year 
 of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 sixty-three, all persons held as slaves, within any 
 State or designated part of a State, the people 
 
296 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 whereof shall then be in rebellion against the 
 United States, shall be then, thenceforward and 
 forever, free ; and the executive government of the 
 United States, including the military and naval 
 authority thereof, will recognise and maintain the 
 freedom of such persons, and will do no act or 
 acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any 
 efforts they may make for their actual freedom. 
 
 " That the Executive will, on the first day of 
 January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the 
 States and parts of States, if any, in which the 
 people thereof, respectively, shall be then in re- 
 bellion against the United States ; and the fact 
 that any State, or the people thereof, shall, on 
 that day, be in good faith represented in the 
 Congress of the United States, by members 
 chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority 
 of the qualified voters of such State shall have 
 participated, shall, in the absence of strong coun- 
 tervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evi- 
 dence that such State and the people thereof, 
 are not then in rebellion against the United 
 States." 
 
 Now therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
 of the United States, by virtue of the power in me 
 vested as commander-in-chief of the army and 
 navy of the United States, in time of actual armed 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 297 
 
 rebellion against the authority and government of 
 the United States, and as a fit and necessary war- 
 measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 
 first day of January, in the year of our Lord one 
 thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in 
 accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly 
 proclaimed for the full period of one hundred 
 days from the day first above mentioned, order 
 and designate as the States and parts of States 
 wherein the people thereof respectively are this 
 day in rebellion against the United States, the 
 following, to wit : 
 
 [Here follows the enumeration.] 
 
 And by virtue of the power and for the purpose 
 aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons 
 held as slaves within said designated States and 
 parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, 
 free ; and that the executive government of the 
 United States, including the military and naval 
 authorities thereof, will recognise and maintain 
 the freedom of said persons. 
 
 And I hereby enjoin upon the people so de- 
 clared to be free, to abstain from all violence, 
 unless in necessary self-defence ; and I recom- 
 mend to them that in all cases when allowed, 
 they labour faithfully for reasonable wages. 
 
 And I further declare and make known, that 
 
298 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 such persons of suitable condition will be received 
 into the armed service of the United States, to 
 garrison forts, positions, stations, and other 
 places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said 
 service. 
 
 And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an 
 act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon 
 military necessity, I invoke the considerate judg- 
 ment of mankind and the gracious favour of 
 Almighty God. 
 
 From his Message to Congress. 
 
 January 17, 1863. 
 "... While giving this approval, I think it 
 my duty to express my sincere regret that it has 
 been found necessary to authorise so large an 
 additional issue of United States notes, when this 
 circulation and that of the suspended banks to- 
 gether have become already so redundant as to 
 increase prices beyond real values, thereby aug- 
 menting the cost of living to the injury of labour, 
 and the cost of supplies to the injury of the whole 
 country. It seems very plain that the continued 
 issues of United States notes, without any check 
 to the issues of suspended banks, and without 
 adequate provision for the raising of money by 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 299 
 
 loans, and for funding the issues so as to keep 
 them within due limits, must soon produce dis- 
 astrous consequences ; and this matter appears 
 to me so important, that I feel bound to avail 
 myself of this occasion to ask the special attention 
 of Congress to it. 
 
 " That Congress has power to regulate the cur- 
 rency of the country can hardly admit of a doubt, 
 and that a judicious measure to prevent the de- 
 terioration of this currency by a reasonable taxa- 
 tion of bank circulation, or otherwise, is needed, 
 seems equally clear. Independently of this gen- 
 eral consideration, it would be unjust to the people 
 at large to exempt banks enjoying the special 
 privilege of circulation from their just proportion 
 of the public burdens. 
 
 " In order to raise money by way of loans 
 most easily and cheaply, it is clearly necessary to 
 give every possible support to the public credit. 
 To that end, a uniform currency in which taxes, 
 subscriptions to loans, and all other ordinary pub- 
 lic dues, as well as all private, may be paid, is 
 almost if not quite indispensable. Such a cur- 
 rency can be furnished by banking associations, 
 organised under a general act of Congress, as 
 suggested in my message at the beginning of the 
 present session. The securing of this circulation 
 
300 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 by a pledge of United States bonds, as therein 
 suggested, would still further facilitate loans, by 
 increasing the present and causing a future de- 
 mand for such bonds. 
 
 " ... By such measures, in my opinion, will 
 payment be most certainly secured, not only to 
 the army and navy, but to all honest creditors 
 of the government, and satisfactory provision 
 made for future demands upon the treasury." 
 
 His Letter to the Working-men of Man 
 Chester, England. 
 
 January 19, 1863. 
 
 I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of 
 the address and resolutions which you sent me on 
 the eve of the New Year. When I came, on the 
 fourth ol March, 1861, through a free and con- 
 stitutional election, to preside in the government 
 of the United States, the country was found at 
 the verge of civil war. Whatever might have 
 been the cause, or whosesoever the fault, one 
 duty paramount to all others was before me; 
 namely, to maintain and preserve at once the 
 Constitution and the integrity of the Federal Re- 
 public. A conscientious purpose to perform this 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 301 
 
 duty is the key to all the measures of adminis- 
 tration which have been, and to all which will 
 hereafter be, pursued. Under our frame of gov- 
 ernment and by my official oath, I could not 
 depart from this purpose if I would. It is not 
 always in the power of governments to enlarge or 
 restrict the scope of moral results which follow 
 the policies that they may deem it necessary for 
 the public safety from time to time to adopt. 
 
 I have understood well that the duty of self- 
 preservation rests solely with the American peo- 
 ple ; but I have at the same time been aware 
 that favour or disfavour of foreign nations might 
 have a material influence in enlarging or prolong- 
 ing the struggle with disloyal men in which the 
 country is engaged. A fair examination of his- 
 tory has served to authorise a belief that the past 
 actions and influences of the United States were 
 generally regarded as having been beneficial to- 
 ward mankind. I have therefore reckoned upon 
 the forbearance of nations. Circumstances, to 
 some of which you kindly allude, induce me 
 especially to expect that if justice and good faith 
 should be practised by the United States, they 
 would encounter no hostile influence on the part 
 of Great Britain. It is now a pleasant duty to 
 acknowledge the demonstration you have given 
 
302 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of your desire that a spirit of amity and peace 
 toward this country may prevail in the councils of 
 your Queen, who is respected and esteemed in 
 your own country only more than she is by the 
 kindred nation which has its home on this side 
 of the Atlantic. 
 
 I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which 
 the working-men at Manchester, and in all Europe, 
 are called to endure in this crisis. It has been 
 often and studiously represented that the at- 
 tempt to overthrow this government, which was 
 built upon the foundation of human rights, and 
 to substitute for it one which should rest ex- 
 clusively on the basis of human slavery, was 
 likely to obtain the favour of Europe. Through 
 the action of our disloyal citizens, the working-men 
 of Europe have been subjected to severe trials, 
 for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that 
 attempt. Under the circumstances, I cannot but 
 regard your decisive utterances upon the question 
 as an instance of sublime Christian heroism, which 
 has not been surpassed in any age or in any coun- 
 try. It is indeed an energetic and reinspiring 
 assurance of the inherent power of truth, and of 
 the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, 
 humanity, and freedom. I do not doubt that the 
 sentiments you have expressed will be sustained 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 303 
 
 by your great nation ; and, on the other hand, I 
 have no hesitation in assuring you that they will 
 excite admiration, esteem, and the most reciprocal 
 feelings of friendship among the American people. 
 I hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as 
 an augury that whatever else may happen, what- 
 ever misfortune may befall your country or my 
 own, the peace and friendship which now exist 
 between the two nations will be, as it shall be my 
 desire to make them, perpetual. 
 
 His Letter to General Hooker. 
 
 January 26, 1863. 
 
 General : I have placed you at the head of 
 the army of the Potomac. Of course I have 
 done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient 
 ■us, and yet I think it best for you to know 
 that there are some things in regard to which I am 
 not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be 
 a brave and skilful soldier, which of course I like. 
 I also believe you do not mix politics with your 
 profession, in which you are right. You have 
 confidence in yourself, which is a valuable if 
 not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious, 
 which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather 
 
304 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 than harm ; but I think that during General Bum- 
 side's command of the army you have taken 
 counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as 
 much as you could, — in which you did a great 
 wrong to the country, and to a most meritorious 
 and honourable brother officer. I have heard, in 
 such a way as to believe it, of your recently say- 
 ing that the army and the government needed a 
 dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in 
 spite of it, that I have given you the command. 
 Only those generals who gain successes can set up 
 dictators. What I now ask of you is military 
 success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The 
 government will support you to the utmost of its 
 ability, which is neither more nor less than it has 
 done and will do for all commanders. I much 
 fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse 
 into the army, of criticising their commander and 
 withholding confidence from him, will now turn 
 upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put 
 it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were 
 alive again, could get any good out of an army 
 while such a spirit prevails in it. And now beware 
 of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy 
 and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us 
 victories. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 305 
 
 Letter to Rev. Alexander Reed. 
 
 February 22, 1863. 
 
 Your note by which you, as general superin- 
 tendent of the United States Christian Commis- 
 sion, invite me to preside at a meeting to be this 
 day held at the hall of the House of Representa- 
 tives in this city, is received. 
 
 While, for reasons which I deem sufficient, I 
 must decline to preside, I cannot withhold my 
 approval of the meeting and its worthy objects. 
 Whatever shall be sincerely, and in God's name, 
 devised for the good of the soldier and seaman 
 in their hard spheres of duty, can scarcely fail to 
 be blessed. And whatever shall tend to turn our 
 thoughts from the unreasoning and uncharitable 
 passions, prejudices, and jealousies incident to a 
 great national trouble such as ours, and to fix 
 them upon the vast and long-enduring conse- 
 quences, for weal or for woe, which are to result 
 from the struggle, and especially to strengthen 
 our reliance on the Supreme Being for the final 
 triumph of the right, cannot but be well for us all. 
 
 The birthday of Washington and the Christian 
 Sabbath, coinciding this year, and suggesting to- 
 gether the highest interests of this life and of 
 that to come, is most propitious for the meeting 
 proposed. 
 
 20 
 
306 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 From his Reply to the Presbyterian 
 
 Clergymen. 
 
 May, 1863. 
 
 " It has been my happiness to receive testi- 
 monies of a similar nature from, I believe, all 
 denominations of Christians. They are all loyal, 
 but perhaps not in the same degree, or in the 
 same numbers ; but I think they all claim to be 
 loyal. This to me is most gratifying, because 
 from the beginning I saw that the issue of our 
 great struggle depended on the Divine interpo- 
 sition and favour. If we had that, all would be 
 well. The proportions of this rebellion were not 
 for a long time understood. I saw that it in- 
 volved the greatest difficulties, and would call 
 forth all the powers of the country. The end is 
 not yet. 
 
 "The point made in your paper is well taken as 
 to the ' government ' and ' the administration,' 
 in whose hands are these interests. I fully appre- 
 ciate its correctness and justice. In my admin- 
 istration I may have committed some errors. It 
 would be indeed remarkable if I had not. I have 
 acted according to my best judgment in every 
 case. The views expressed by the committee 
 accord with my own ; and on this principle ' the 
 government ' is to be supported, though ' the ad- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 307 
 
 ministration ' may not in every case wisely act. 
 As a pilot I have used my best exertions to keep 
 afloat our ship of state, and shall be glad to resign 
 my trust at the appointed time to another pilot, 
 more skilful and successful than I may prove. 
 In every case and at all hazards, the government 
 must be perpetuated. Relying as I do upon the 
 Almighty Power, and encouraged as I am by the 
 resolutions which you have just read, with the sup- 
 port which I receive from Christian men, I shall 
 not hesitate to use all the means at my control 
 to secure the termination of this rebellion, and 
 will hope for success. ..." 
 
 Letter to Erastus Corning and Others. 
 
 June 12, 1863. 
 
 [This letter is the President's answer to the 
 resolutions of a Democratic convention which 
 assert the loyalty of its members, but censure Mr. 
 Lincoln for his suspension of the writ of habeas 
 corpus, and for approving military arrests in places 
 not actually in rebellion. The reply is an un- 
 answerable justification of his acts. As a legal 
 argument it is conclusive, and as a specimen of 
 English composition it is clear, logical, and beau- 
 tiful. Its length (about 4500 words) prevents 
 the insertion here of the entire document. To 
 
308 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 take an extract from it would be like removing 
 a stone from the granite wall of a noble edi- 
 fice : it would deface the beauty and weaken the 
 strength of the wall, without giving any adequate 
 idea of the building. No selection from it is 
 therefore attempted.] 
 
 From his Reply to the Resolutions of the 
 Democratic State Convention of Ohio. 
 
 /tine 29, 1863. 
 
 [C. L. Vallandigham, a member of the last 
 Congress from Ohio, and a man of misdirected 
 ability, had by his speeches in Congress and else- 
 where promoted the rebellion up to the verge of 
 treason. On the 19th of May, 1863, the Presi- 
 dent ordered General Canby to put Vallandigham 
 beyond the lines, and if he returned, to arrest and 
 imprison him. The Democratic Convention of 
 Ohio then nominated him for governor, and 
 passed and sent resolutions to the President 
 which, while declaring its purpose to sustain the 
 National Union by all constitutional means, reas- 
 serted the objections of the Corning letter, and 
 protested against the arrest and deportation of 
 Vallandigham as unlawful and an insult to Ohio. 
 In this reply, among other things, the President 
 said :] 
 
 " You claim that men may, if they choose, 
 embarrass those whose duty it is to combat a 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 309 
 
 giant rebellion, and then be dealt with in turn 
 as if there were no rebellion. The Constitution 
 itself rejects this view. The military arrests and 
 detentions which have been made, including 
 those of Mr. Vallandigham, which are not differ- 
 ent in principle from the others, have been made 
 for prevention and not for punishment, — as in- 
 junctions to stay injury, as proceedings to keep 
 the peace. 
 
 "... I am unable to perceive an insult to Ohio 
 in the case of Mr. Vallandigham. Quite surely 
 nothing of the sort was or is intended. I was 
 wholly unaware that Mr. Vallandigham was, at 
 the time of his arrest, a candidate for the Demo- 
 cratic nomination for governor until so informed 
 by your reading to me the resolutions of the con- 
 vention. I am grateful to the State of Ohio for 
 many things, especially for the brave soldiers and 
 officers she has given in the present national trial 
 to the armies of the Union. 
 
 "... We all know that combinations, armed 
 in some instances, to resist the arrest of deserters 
 began several months ago ; that more recently the 
 like has appeared in resistance to the enrolment 
 preparatory to the draft ; and that quite a number 
 of assassinations have occurred from the same 
 animus. These had to be met by military force, 
 
3IO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 and this again has led to bloodshed and death. 
 And now, under a sense of responsibility more 
 weighty and enduring than any which is merely 
 official, I solemnly declare my belief that this 
 hindrance of the military, including maiming and 
 murder, is due to the course in which Mr. Val- 
 landigham has been engaged, in a greater degree 
 than to any other cause ; and it is due to him per- 
 sonally in a greater degree than to any other man. 
 
 " These things have been notorious, known to 
 all, and of course known to Mr. Vallandigham. 
 Perhaps I would not be wrong to say they origi- 
 nated with his special friends and adherents. 
 With perfect knowledge of them, he has fre- 
 quently, if not constantly, made speeches in Con- 
 gress and before popular assemblies ; and if it can 
 be shown that, with these things staring him in 
 the face, he has ever uttered a word of rebuke 
 or counsel against them, it will be a fact greatly 
 in his favour with me, and one of which I am as 
 yet totally ignorant. 
 
 " . . . With all this before their eyes, the con- 
 vention you represent have nominated Mr. Val- 
 landigham for governor of Ohio, and both they 
 and you have declared the purpose to sustain the 
 National Union by all constitutional means. But 
 of course they and you in common reserve to 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 311 
 
 yourselves to decide what are constitutional 
 means ; and, unlike the Albany meeting, you 
 omit to state or intimate that in your opinion an 
 army is a constitutional means of saving the 
 Union against a rebellion, or even to intimate 
 that you are conscious of an existing rebellion 
 being in progress with the avowed object of de- 
 stroying that very Union. At the same time 
 your nominee for governor, in whose behalf you 
 appeal, is known to you and to the world to de- 
 clare against the use of an army to suppress the 
 rebellion. Your own attitude, therefore, encour- 
 ages desertion, resistance to the draft and the 
 like, because it teaches those who incline to de- 
 sert and to escape the draft to believe it is your 
 purpose to protect them, and to hope that you 
 will become strong enough to do so. 
 
 " After a short personal intercourse with you, 
 gentlemen, I cannot say that you desire this effect 
 to follow your attitude ; but I assure you that 
 both friends and enemies of the Union look upon 
 it in this light. It is a substantial hope, and by 
 consequence a real strength, to the enemy. If it 
 is a false hope, and one you would willingly dispel, 
 I will make the way exceedingly easy. 
 
 " I send you duplicates of this letter, in order 
 that you or a majority of you, may, if you choose, 
 
312 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 indorse your names upon one of them, and return 
 it thus indorsed to me, with the understanding 
 that those signing are thereby committed to the 
 following propositions, and to nothing else : — 
 
 " ' i . That there is now a rebellion in the 
 United States, the object and tendency of which 
 is to destroy the National Union • and that in 
 your opinion an army and navy are constitu- 
 tional means for suppressing that rebellion ; 
 
 " ' 2. That no one of you will do anything which, 
 in his own judgment, will tend to hinder the in- 
 crease, or favour the decrease, or lessen the effi- 
 ciency of the army or navy while engaged in the 
 effort to suppress that rebellion ; and 
 
 '"3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all 
 he can to have the officers, soldiers, and seamen 
 of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort 
 to suppress the rebellion, paid, fed, clad, and 
 otherwise well supported and provided for. 
 
 " ' And with the further understanding that upon 
 receiving the letter and names thus indorsed, I 
 will cause them to be published, which publication 
 shall be, within itself, a revocation of the order 
 in relation to Mr. Vallandigham.' 
 
 " It will not escape observation that I consent 
 to the release of Mr. Vallandigham upon terms 
 not embracing any pledge from him or from others 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 313 
 
 as to what he will or will not do. I do this be- 
 cause he is not present to speak for himself, or to 
 authorise others to speak for him ; and because I 
 should expect that on his returning he would not 
 put himself practically in antagonism with the 
 position of his friends. But I do it chiefly be- 
 cause I thereby prevail on other influential gen- 
 tlemen of Ohio to so define their position as to 
 be of immense value to the army, thus more 
 than compensating for the consequences of any 
 mistake in allowing Mr. Vallandigham to return ; 
 so that, on the whole, the public safety will not 
 have suffered by it. Still, in regard to Mr. Val- 
 landigham and all others, I must hereafter, as 
 heretofore, do so much as the public safety may 
 seem to require." 
 
 The Letter to James C. Conkling. 
 
 August 26, 1863. 
 Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meet- 
 ing of unconditional Union men, to be held at 
 the capital of Illinois on the third day of Sep- 
 tember, has been received. It would be very 
 agreeable to me to thus meet my old friends at 
 my own home, but I cannot just now be absent 
 from here so long as a visit there would require. 
 
314 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 The meeting is to be of all those who maintain 
 unconditional devotion to the Union ; and I am 
 sure my old political friends will thank me for 
 tendering, as I do, the nation's gratitude to those 
 and other noble men whom no partisan malice or 
 partisan hope can make false to the nation's life. 
 
 There are those who are dissatisfied with me. 
 To such I would say : You desire peace, and you 
 blame me that we do not have it. But how can 
 we attain it? There are but three conceivable 
 ways. First* to suppress the rebellion by force 
 of arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for 
 it? If you are, so far we are agreed. If you are 
 not for it, a second way is to give up the Union. 
 I am against this. Are you for it? If you are, 
 you should say so plainly. If you are not for 
 force, nor yet for dissolution, there only remains 
 some imaginable compromise. I do not believe 
 any compromise embracing the maintenance of 
 the Union is now possible. All I learn leads to 
 a directly opposite belief. The strength of the 
 rebellion is its military, its army. That army 
 dominates all the country and all the people 
 within its range. Any offer of terms made by 
 any man or men within that range, in opposition 
 to that army, is simply nothing for the present, 
 because such man or men have no power what- 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 315 
 
 ever to enforce their side of a compromise, if one 
 were made with them. 
 
 To illustrate : Suppose refugees from the South 
 and peace men of the North get together in con- 
 vention, and frame and proclaim a compromise 
 embracing a restoration of the Union. In what 
 way can that compromise be used to keep Lee's 
 army out of Pennsylvania? Meade's army can 
 keep Lee's out of Pennsylvania, and, I think, can 
 ultimately drive it out of existence. But no paper 
 compromise, to which the controllers of Lee's 
 army are not agreed, can at all affect that army. 
 In an effort at such compromise we should waste 
 time which the enemy would improve to our dis- 
 advantage • and that would be all. A compro- 
 mise, to be effective, must be made either with 
 those who control the rebel army, or with the 
 people first liberated from the domination of that 
 army by the success of our own army. Now, 
 allow me to assure you that no word or intima- 
 tion from that rebel army, or from any of the men 
 controlling it, in relation to any peace compro- 
 mise, has ever come to my knowledge or belief. 
 All charges and insinuations to the contrary are 
 deceptive and groundless. And I promise you 
 that if any such proposition shall hereafter come, 
 it shall not be rejected and kept a secret from 
 
316 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 you. I freely acknowledge myself the servant 
 of the people, according to the bond of service, 
 — the United States Constitution, — and that, as 
 such, I am responsible to them. 
 
 But to be plain. You are dissatisfied with me 
 about the negro. Quite likely there is a differ- 
 ence of opinion between you and myself upon 
 that subject. I certainly wish that all men could 
 be free, while I suppose you do not. Yet I have 
 neither adopted nor proposed any measure which 
 is not consistent with even your views, provided 
 you are for the Union. I suggested compensated 
 emancipation, to which you replied, you wished 
 not to be taxed to buy negroes. But I had not 
 asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in 
 such way as to save you from greater taxation to 
 save the Union exclusively by other means. 
 
 You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and 
 perhaps would have it retracted. You say it is 
 unconstitutional. I think differently. I think 
 the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief 
 with the law of war in time of war. The most 
 that can be said — if so much — is that slaves are 
 property. Is there, has there ever been, any 
 question that, by the law of war, property, both 
 of enemies and friends, may be taken when 
 needed? And is it not needed whenever taking 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 317 
 
 it helps us or hurts the enemy ? Armies the world 
 over destroy enemies' property when they cannot 
 use it, and even destroy their own to keep it 
 from the enemy. Civilised belligerents do all 
 in their power to help themselves or hurt the 
 enemy, except a few things regarded as barbarous 
 or cruel. Among the exceptions are the massacre 
 of vanquished foes and non-combatants, male and 
 female. 
 
 But the proclamation, as law, either is valid or 
 is not valid. If it is not valid, it needs no retrac- 
 tion. If it is valid, it cannot be retracted any 
 more than the dead can be brought to life. Some 
 of you profess to think its retraction would ope- 
 rate favourably for the Union. Why better after 
 the retraction than before the issue? There was 
 more than a year and a half of trial to suppress 
 the rebellion before the proclamation issued, 
 the last one hundred days of which passed under 
 an explicit notice that it was coming, unless 
 averted by those in revolt returning to their al- 
 legiance. The war has certainly progressed as 
 favourably for us since the issue of the proclama- 
 tion as before. I know, as fully as one can know 
 the opinions of others, that some of the comman- 
 ders of our armies in the field who have given us 
 our most important successes, believe the eman- 
 
318 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 cipation policy and the use of coloured troops con- 
 stitute the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion, 
 and that at least one of these important successes 
 could not have been achieved when it was but for 
 the aid of black soldiers. Among the comman- 
 ders holding these views are some who have never 
 had any affinity with what is called Abolitionism 
 or with Republican party politics, but who hold 
 them purely as military opinions. I submit these 
 opinions as being entitled to some weight against 
 the objections often urged, that emancipation and 
 arming the blacks are unwise as military measures, 
 and were not adopted as such in good faith. 
 
 You say you will not fight to free negroes. 
 Some of them seem willing to fight for you ; but 
 no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save 
 the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose 
 to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you 
 shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, 
 if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be 
 an apt time then for you to declare you will not 
 fight to free negroes. 
 
 I thought that in your struggle for the Union, 
 to whatever extent the negroes should cease help- 
 ing the enemy, to that extent it weakened the 
 enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think 
 differently? I thought that whatever negroes 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 319 
 
 could be got to do as soldiers leaves just so 
 much less for white soldiers to do in saving the 
 Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But 
 negroes, like other people, act upon motives. 
 Why should they do anything for us, if we will 
 do nothing for them? If they stake their lives 
 for us, they must be prompted by the strongest 
 motive, even the promise of freedom. And the 
 promise being made, must be kept. 
 
 The signs look better. The Father of Waters 
 again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the 
 great Northwest for it. Nor yet wholly to them. 
 Three hundred miles up they met New England, 
 Empire, Keystone, and Jersey hewing their way 
 right and left. The sunny South, too, in more 
 colours than one, also lent a hand. On the spot, 
 their part of the history was jotted down in black 
 and white. The job was a great national one, 
 and let none be banned who bore an honourable 
 part in it. And while those who cleared the 
 great river may well be proud, even that is not 
 all. It is hard to say that anything has been 
 more bravely and well done than at Antietam, 
 Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on many fields of 
 lesser note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be 
 forgotten. At "all the watery margins they have 
 been present. Not only on the deep sea, the 
 
320 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the 
 narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground 
 was a little damp, they have been and made their 
 tracks. Thanks to all, — for the great Republic, 
 for the principle it lives by and keeps alive, for 
 man's vast future, — thanks to all. 
 
 Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I 
 hope it will come soon, and come to stay ; and 
 so come as to be worth the keeping in all future 
 time. It will then have been proved that among 
 freemen there can be no successful appeal from 
 the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take 
 such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay 
 the cost. And then there will be some black 
 men who can remember that with silent tongue, 
 and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well- 
 poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to 
 this great consummation, while I fear there will 
 be some white ones unable to forget that with 
 malignant heart and deceitful speech they strove 
 to hinder it. 
 
 Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy, 
 final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us 
 diligently apply the means, never doubting that 
 a just God, in His own good time, will give us 
 the rightful result. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 321 
 
 His Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgfving. 
 
 October 3, 1863. 
 
 The year that is drawing toward its close has 
 been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and 
 healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so 
 constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget 
 the source from which they come, others have 
 been added, which are of so extraordinary a 
 nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and 
 soften the heart which is habitually insensible to 
 the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. 
 
 In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magni- 
 tude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to 
 foreign States to invite and provoke their aggres- 
 sions, peace has been preserved with all nations, 
 order has been maintained, the laws have been 
 respected and obeyed, and harmony has pre- 
 vailed everywhere, except in the theatre of mili- 
 tary conflict ; while that theatre has been greatly 
 contracted by the advancing armies and navies of 
 the Union. 
 
 Needful diversions of wealth and strength from 
 the fields of peaceful industry to the national de- 
 fence have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or 
 the ship ; the axe has enlarged the borders of our 
 settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and 
 
 21 
 
322 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even 
 more abundantly than heretofore. Population 
 has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste 
 that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the 
 battle-field ; and the country, rejoicing in the con- 
 sciousness of augmented strength and vigour, is 
 permitted to expect continuance of years with 
 large increase of freedom. 
 
 No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any 
 mortal hand worked out these great things. They 
 are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, 
 while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath 
 nevertheless remembered mercy. 
 
 It has seemed to me fit and proper that they 
 should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully 
 acknowledged as with one heart and one voice 
 by the whole American people. I do, therefore, 
 invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the 
 United States, and also those who are at sea, and 
 those sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart 
 and observe the last Thursday of November next 
 as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our benefi- 
 cent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I 
 recommend to them that, while offering up the 
 ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular 
 deliverances and blessings, they do also, with 
 humble penitence for our national perverseness 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 323 
 
 and disobedience, commend to his tender care 
 all those who have become widows, orphans, 
 mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife 
 in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fer- 
 vently implore the interposition of the Almighty 
 Hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to 
 restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the 
 Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, 
 harmony, tranquillity, and union. 
 
 Remarks at the Dedication of the National 
 Cemetery at Gettysburg. 
 
 November 19, 1863. 
 
 [Note. — Is the address at Gettysburg, or his 
 second inaugural, the best example of English 
 composition from the pen of Abraham Lincoln ? 
 Upon this question, critics may well differ. Mr. 
 Lincoln himself, in his letter to Thurlow Weed, 
 of March 15, 1865, wrote that he expected the 
 latter (the second inaugural) to wear as well 
 as — perhaps better than — anything he had pro- 
 duced. But he thought it was not immediately 
 popular, for men are not flattered by being shown 
 that there has been a difference of opinion be- 
 tween the Almighty and them. 
 
 Neither of these examples could have been 
 written by one who was not a master of English 
 composition. But there is a dignity, a simplicity, 
 
324 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 and a completeness in the address at Gettysburg 
 which will make it noted as long as the language 
 endures.] 
 
 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth upon this continent a new nation, 
 conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the 
 proposition that all men are created equal. 
 
 Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 
 testing whether that nation, or any nation so 
 conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
 We are met on a great battle-field of that war. 
 We have come to dedicate a portion of that field 
 as a final resting-place for those who here gave 
 their lives that that nation might live. It is 
 altogether fitting and proper that we should do 
 this. 
 
 But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we 
 cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. 
 The brave men, living and dead, who struggled 
 here, have consecrated it far above our power to 
 add or detract. The world will little note nor 
 long remember what we say here, but it can 
 never forget what they did here. It is for us, 
 the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the 
 unfinished work which they who fought here 
 have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather 
 for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 325 
 
 remaining before us ; that from these honoured 
 dead we take increased devotion to that cause 
 for which they gave the last full measure of 
 devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these 
 dead shall not have died in vain; that this 
 nation, under God, shall have a new birth of 
 freedom ; and that government of the people, 
 by the people, and for the people, shall not 
 perish from the earth. 
 
 From the Annual Message to Congress. 
 
 December 8, 1863. 
 
 "... When Congress assembled a year ago, 
 the war had already lasted nearly twenty months, 
 and there had been many conflicts on both land 
 and sea, with varying results. The rebellion had 
 been pressed back into reduced limits ; yet the 
 tone of public feeling and opinion at home and 
 abroad was not satisfactory. With other signs, 
 the popular elections then just past indicated 
 uneasiness among ourselves ; while, amid much 
 that was cold and menacing, the kindest words 
 coming from Europe were uttered in accents of 
 pity that we were too blind to surrender a hope- 
 less cause. Our commerce was suffering greatly 
 
326 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 from a few vessels built upon and furnished from 
 foreign shores, and we were threatened with such 
 additions from the same quarter as would sweep 
 our trade from the seas and raise our blockade. 
 We had failed to elicit from European govern- 
 ments anything hopeful upon this subject. The 
 preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 
 September, was running its assigned period to the 
 beginning of the new year. A month later the 
 final proclamation came, including the announce- 
 ment that coloured men of suitable condition 
 would be received into the war service. The 
 policy of emancipation and of employing black 
 soldiers gave to the future a new aspect, about 
 which hope and fear and doubt contended in un- 
 certain conflict. According to our political system, 
 as a matter of civil administration, the general 
 government had no lawful power to effect eman- 
 cipation in any State, and for a long time it had 
 been hoped that the rebellion could be suppressed 
 without resorting to it as a military measure. It 
 was all the while deemed possible that the neces- 
 sity for it might come, and that, if it should, the 
 crisis of the contest would then be presented. 
 It came, and, as was anticipated, was followed 
 by dark and doubtful days. Eleven months hav- 
 ing now passed, we are permitted to take another 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 327 
 
 review. The rebel borders are pressed still far- 
 ther back, and by the complete opening of the 
 Mississippi, the country dominated by the rebel- 
 lion is divided into distinct parts, with no prac- 
 tical communication between them. Tennessee 
 and Arkansas have been substantially cleared of 
 insurgent control, and influential citizens in each, 
 owners of slaves and advocates of slavery at the 
 beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly 
 for emancipation in their respective States. Of 
 those States not included in the Emancipation 
 Proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of 
 which three years ago would tolerate any restraint 
 upon the extension of slavery into new Territories, 
 only dispute now as to the best mode of removing 
 it within their own limits. 
 
 " Of those who were slaves at the beginning of 
 the rebellion, full one hundred thousand are now 
 in the United States military service, about one 
 half of which number actually bear arms in the 
 ranks ; thus giving the double advantage of taking 
 so much labour from the insurgent cause and sup- 
 plying the places which otherwise must be filled 
 with so many white men. So far as tested, it is 
 difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as 
 any. No servile insurrection or tendency to vio- 
 lence or cruelty has marked the measures of eman- 
 
328 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 cipation and arming the blacks. These mea- 
 sures have been much discussed in foreign coun- 
 tries, and contemporary with such discussion the 
 tone of public sentiment there is much improved. 
 At home the same measures have been fully dis- 
 cussed, supported, criticised, and denounced, and 
 the annual elections following are highly encour- 
 aging to those whose official duty it is to bear the 
 country through this great trial. Thus we have 
 the new reckoning. The crisis which threatened 
 to divide the friends of the Union is passed. 
 
 "... In the midst of other cares, however 
 important, we must not lose sight of the fact that 
 the war power is still our main reliance. To that 
 power alone can we look, yet, for a time, to give 
 confidence to the people in the contested regions 
 that the insurgent power will not again overrun 
 them. Until that confidence shall be established, 
 little can be done anywhere for what is called 
 reconstruction. Hence, our chiefest care must 
 still be directed to the army and navy, which 
 have thus far borne their harder part so nobly 
 and well. And it may be esteemed fortunate 
 that in giving the greatest efficiency to these in- 
 dispensable arms, we do also honourably recog- 
 nise the gallant men, from commander to sentinel, 
 who compose them, and to whom, more than 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 329 
 
 others, the world must stand indebted for the 
 home of freedom, disenthralled, regenerated, 
 enlarged, and perpetuated." 
 
 Closing Address of the Fair for the 
 Sanitary Commission. 
 
 March 18, 1864. 
 
 I appear to say but a word. This extraordinary 
 war in which we are engaged falls heavily upon all 
 classes of people, but the most heavily upon the 
 soldier. For it has been said " all that a man 
 hath will he give for his life ; " and while all con- 
 tribute of their substance, the soldier puts his life 
 at stake, and often yields it up in his country's 
 cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the 
 soldier. 
 
 In this extraordinary war extraordinary devel- 
 opments have manifested themselves, such as 
 have not been seen in former wars ; and amongst 
 these manifestations nothing has been more re- 
 markable than these fairs for the relief of suffer- 
 ing soldiers and their families. And the chief 
 agents in these fairs are the women of America. 
 
 I am not accustomed to the language of eulogy A 
 I have never studied the art of paying compli- 
 
330 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ments to women. But I must say, that if all that 
 has been said by orators and poets since the 
 creation of the world in praise of women were 
 applied to the women of America, it would not 
 do them justice for their conduct during this 
 war. I will close by saying, God bless the women 
 of America ! 
 
 Letter to A. G. Hodges of Kentucky. 
 
 April 4, 1864. 
 I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not 
 wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember 
 when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have 
 never understood that the Presidency conferred 
 upon me an unrestricted right to act officially 
 upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the 
 oath that I took, that I would, to the best of my 
 ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Consti- 
 tution of the United States. I could not take 
 office without taking the oath. Nor was it my 
 view that I might take an oath to get power, and 
 break the oath in using the power. I understood, 
 too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath 
 even forbade me to practically indulge my primary 
 abstract judgment on the moral question of slav- 
 ery. I had publicly declared this many times 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 33 I 
 
 and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, 
 I have done no official act in mere deference to my 
 abstract feeling and judgment on slavery. I did 
 understand, however, that my oath to preserve 
 the Constitution to the best of my ability im- 
 posed upon me the duty of preserving, by every 
 indispensable means, that government — that 
 nation — of which that Constitution was the 
 organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation 
 and yet preserve the Constitution? By general 
 law, life and limb must be protected, yet often a 
 limb must be amputated to save a life ; but a life 
 is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that 
 measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might be- 
 come lawful by becoming indispensable to the 
 preservation of the Constitution through the 
 preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I 
 assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could 
 not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had 
 even tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save 
 slavery or any minor matter, I should permit the 
 wreck of government, country, and Constitution, 
 all together. When, early in the war, General 
 Fremont attempted military emancipation, I for- 
 bade it, because I did not then think it an indis- 
 pensable necessity. When, a little later, General 
 Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the 
 
332 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 arming of the blacks, I objected, because I 
 did not think it an indispensable necessity. 
 When, still later, General Hunter attempted 
 military emancipation, I again forbade it, because 
 I did not yet think the indispensable necessity 
 had come. When, in March and May and July, 
 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to 
 the border States to favour compensated emanci- 
 pation, I believed the indispensable necessity for 
 military emancipation and arming the blacks 
 would come, unless averted by that measure. 
 They declined the proposition, and I was, in my 
 best judgment, driven to the alternative of either 
 surrendering the Union, and with it the Consti- 
 tution, or laying strong hand upon the coloured 
 element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I 
 hoped for greater gain than loss ; but of this I 
 was not entirely confident. More than a year of 
 trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign rela- 
 tions, none in our home popular sentiment, none in 
 our white military force, — no loss by it anyhow or 
 anywhere. On the contrary, it shows a gain of 
 quite one hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, 
 seamen, and labourers. These are palpable facts, 
 about which, as facts, there can be no cavilling. 
 We have the men, and we could not have had 
 them without the measure. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 333 
 
 And now let any Union man who complains of 
 the measure, test himself by writing down in one 
 line that he is for subduing the rebellion by force 
 of arms ; and in the next, that he is for taking 
 these hundred and thirty thousand men from the 
 Union side, and placing them where they would 
 be but for the measure he condemns. If he can- 
 not face his case so stated, it is only because he 
 cannot face the truth. 
 
 I add a word which was not in the verbal con- 
 versation. In telling this tale, I attempt no com- 
 pliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to 
 have controlled events, but confess plainly that 
 events have controlled me. Now, at the end of 
 three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not 
 what either party, or any man, devised or ex- 
 pected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is 
 tending seems plain. If God now wills the 
 removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we 
 of the North, as well as you of the South, shall 
 pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, im- 
 partial history will find therein new cause to 
 attest and revere the justice and goodness of 
 God. 
 
334 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 His Address at the Sanitary Fair in 
 
 Baltimore. 
 
 April 18, 1864. 
 
 Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we 
 cannot fail to note that the world moves. Look- 
 ing upon these many people, assembled here to 
 serve, as they best may, the soldiers of the Union, 
 it occurs at once that three years ago the same 
 soldiers could not so much as pass through Balti- 
 more. The change from then till now is both 
 great and gratifying. Blessings on the brave 
 men who have wrought the change, and the fair 
 women who strive to reward them for it ! 
 
 But Baltimore suggests more than could hap- 
 pen within Baltimore. The change within Balti- 
 more is part, only, of a far wider change. When 
 the war begun, three years ago, neither party nor 
 any man expected it would last till now. Each 
 looked for the end, in some way, long ere to-day. 
 Neither did any anticipate that domestic slavery 
 would be much affected by the war. But here 
 we are : the war has not ended, and slavery has 
 been much affected — how much, needs not now 
 be recounted. So true is it that man proposes, 
 and God disposes. 
 
 But we can see the past, though we may not 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 335 
 
 claim to have directed it ; and seeing it, in this 
 case, we feel more hopeful and confident for the 
 future. 
 
 The world has never had a good definition of 
 the word "liberty," and the American people, just 
 now, are much in want of one. We all declare 
 for liberty ; but in using the same word, we do 
 not all mean the same thing. With some, the 
 word "liberty" may mean for each man to do as 
 he pleases with himself and the product of his 
 labour; while with others, the same word may 
 mean for some men to do as they please with 
 other men and the product of other men's labour. 
 Here are two, not only different, but incompati- 
 ble things, called by the same name, — liberty. 
 And it follows that each of the things is, by the 
 respective parties, called by two different and 
 incompatible names, — liberty and tyranny. 
 
 The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's 
 throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd 
 as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him 
 for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, 
 especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly, 
 the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a 
 definition of the word " liberty ; " and precisely the 
 same difference prevails to-day, among us human 
 creatures, even in the North, and all professing 
 
33^ ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 to love liberty. Hence we behold the process by 
 which thousands are daily passing from under the 
 yoke of bondage hailed by some as the advance of 
 liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction 
 of all liberty. Recently, as it seems, the people 
 of Maryland have been doing something to de- 
 fine liberty, and thanks to them that, in what 
 they have done, the wolfs dictionary has been 
 repudiated. 
 
 It is not very becoming for one in my position 
 to make speeches at great length, but there is 
 another subject upon which I feel that I ought to 
 say a word. 
 
 A painful rumour — true, I fear — has reached 
 us of the massacre by the rebel forces at Fort 
 Pillow, in the west end of Tennessee, on the 
 Mississippi River, of some three hundred coloured 
 soldiers and white officers, who had just been 
 overpowered by their assailants. There seems 
 to be some anxiety in the public mind whether 
 the government is doing its duty to the coloured 
 soldier, and to the service at this point. At the 
 beginning of the war, and for some time, the use 
 of coloured troops was not contemplated ; and 
 how the change of purpose was wrought, I will 
 not now take time to explain. Upon a clear con- 
 viction of duty, I resolved to turn that element of 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 337 
 
 strength to account ; and I am responsible for it 
 to the American people, to the Christian world, 
 to history, and, in my final account, to God. 
 Having determined to use the negro as a soldier, 
 there is no way but to give him all the protection 
 given to any other soldier. The difficulty is not 
 in stating the principle, but in practically apply- 
 ing it. It is a mistake to suppose the govern- 
 ment is indifferent to this matter, or is not doing 
 the best it can in regard to it. We do not to- 
 day know that a coloured soldier, or white officer 
 commanding coloured soldiers, has been massacred 
 by the rebels when made a prisoner. We fear it 
 — believe it, I may say — but we do not know 
 it. To take the life of one of their prisoners on 
 the assumption that they murder ours, when it is 
 short of certainty that they do murder ours, might 
 be too serious, too cruel, a mistake. We are hav- 
 ing the Fort Pillow affair thoroughly investigated ; 
 and such investigation will probably show conclu- 
 sively how the truth is. If after all that has been 
 said, it shall turn out that there has been no mas- 
 sacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost safe to say 
 that there has been none, and will be none, else- 
 where. If there has been the massacre of three 
 hundred there, or even the tenth part of three 
 hundred, it will be conclusively proved ; and 
 
 22 
 
338 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 being so proved, the retribution shall as surely 
 come. It will be matter of grave consideration 
 in what exact course to apply the retribution ; but 
 in the case supposed, it must come. 
 
 His Letter to General Grant. 
 
 April 30, 1864. 
 
 Not expecting to see you again before the 
 spring campaign opens, I wish to express in this 
 way my entire satisfaction with what you have 
 done up to this time, so far as I understand it. 
 The particulars of your plans I neither know nor 
 seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant ; 
 and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any 
 constraints nor restraints upon you. While I am 
 very anxious that any great disaster or capture of 
 our men in great numbers shall be avoided, I 
 know these points are less likely to escape your 
 attention than they would be mine. If there is 
 anything wanting which is within my power to 
 give, do not fail to let me know it. And now, 
 with a brave army and a just cause, may God 
 sustain you. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 339 
 
 His Answer to a Methodist Delegation. 
 
 May 14, 1864. 
 
 Gentlemen, — In response to your address, 
 allow me to attest the accuracy of its historical 
 statements, indorse the sentiments it expresses, 
 and thank you in the nation's name for the sure 
 promise it gives. 
 
 Nobly sustained as the government has been 
 by all the churches, I would utter nothing that 
 might seem invidious against any. Yet without 
 this it may fairly be said that the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, 
 is by its greater number the most important of 
 all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist 
 Church sends more soldiers to the field, more 
 nurses to the hospital, and more prayers to 
 Heaven than any. Bless all the churches; and 
 blessed be God who, in this our great trial, giveth 
 us the churches. 
 
340 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Reply to a Delegation from the Union 
 League after his Renomination. 
 
 June 9, 1864. 
 I can only say in response to the kind remarks 
 of your chairman, that I am very grateful for the 
 renewed confidence which has been accorded to 
 me, both by the convention and by the National 
 League. I am not insensible at all to the per- 
 sonal compliment there is in this, and yet I do 
 not allow myself to believe that any but a small 
 portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal 
 compliment to me. The convention and the 
 nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a 
 higher view of the interests of the country for the 
 present and the great future ; and the part I am 
 entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only 
 that part which I may lay hold of as being the 
 opinion of the convention and of the League, 
 that I am not entirely unworthy to be entrusted 
 with the place which I have occupied for the last 
 three years. I have not permitted myself to con- 
 clude that I am the best man in America ; but I 
 am reminded in this connection of a story of an 
 old Dutch farmer who remarked to a companion 
 that " it is not best to swap horses while crossing 
 the stream." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 34-1 
 
 From his Address at a Fair of the Sanitary 
 Commission in Philadelphia. 
 
 June 1 6, 1864. 
 
 " . . . Yet the war continues, and several re- 
 lieving coincidents have accompanied it from the 
 beginning, which have not been known, as I 
 understand or have any knowledge of, in any 
 former wars in the history of the world. The 
 Sanitary Commission with all its benevolent 
 labours ; the Christian Commission with all its 
 Christian and benevolent labours ; and the various 
 places, arrangements, and institutions have con- 
 tributed to the comfort and relief of the soldiers. 
 . . . The motive and object that lie at the bot- 
 tom of all these are most worthy ; for, say what 
 you will, after all, the most is due to the soldier 
 who takes his life in his hands and goes to fight 
 the battles of his country. . . . 
 
 " It is a pertinent question, often asked in the 
 mind privately, and from one to the other, when 
 is this war to end ? Surely I feel as deep an 
 interest in this question as any other can ; but I 
 do not wish to name a day, a month, or a year 
 when it is to end. I do not wish to run any risk 
 of seeing the time come without our being ready 
 for the end, for fear of disappointment because the 
 
342 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 time had come and not the end. We accepted 
 this war for an object, a worthy object, and the 
 war will end when that object is attained. Under 
 God, I hope it never will end until that time. 
 Speaking of the present campaign, General Grant 
 is reported to have said, " I am going through 
 on this line if it takes all summer." This war 
 has taken three years ; it was begun or accepted 
 upon the line of restoring the national authority 
 over the whole national domain ; and for the 
 American people, as far as my knowledge enables 
 me to speak, I say we are going through on this 
 line if it takes three years more ! 
 
 " My friends, I did not know but that I might 
 be called upon to say a few words before I got 
 away from here, but I did not know it was 
 coming just here. I have never been in the 
 habit of making predictions in regard to the war, 
 but I am almost tempted to make one. If I 
 were to hazard it, it is this : that Grant is this 
 evening, with General Meade and General Han- 
 cock and the brave officers and soldiers with 
 him, in a position from whence he will never be 
 dislodged until Richmond is taken ; and I have 
 but one single proposition to put now, and per- 
 haps I can best put it in the form of an interrog- 
 ative. If I shall discover that General Grant and 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 343 
 
 the noble officers and men under him can be 
 greatly facilitated in their work by a sudden pour- 
 ing forward of men and assistance, will you give 
 them to me? Are you ready to march? [Cries 
 of, Yes !] Then I say, stand ready, for I am 
 watching for the chance." 
 
 Remarks to the 164th Ohio Regiment. 
 
 August 18, 1864. 
 
 "... There is more involved in this contest 
 than is realised by every one. There is involved 
 in this struggle the question whether your chil- 
 dren and my children shall enjoy the privileges 
 we have enjoyed. I say this in order to impress 
 upon you, if you are not already so impressed, 
 that no small matter should divert us from our 
 great purpose. 
 
 " There may be some inequalities in the practi- 
 cal application of our system. It is fair that each 
 man shall pay taxes in exact proportion to the 
 value of his property ; but if we should wait, 
 before collecting a tax, to adjust the taxes upon 
 each man in exact proportion with every other 
 man, we should never collect any tax at all. 
 There may be mistakes made sometimes ; things 
 may be done wrong, while the officers of the 
 
344 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 government do all they can to prevent mistakes. 
 But I beg of you as citizens of this great Repub- 
 lic, not to let your minds be carried off from this 
 great work we have before us. This struggle is 
 too large for you to be diverted from it by any 
 small matter. When you return to your homes, 
 rise up to the height of a generation of men 
 worthy of a free government, and we will carry 
 out the great work we have commenced." 
 
 His Letter to Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney. 
 
 September 4, 1864. 
 
 My esteemed Friend, — I have not forgot- 
 ten — probably never shall forget — the very im- 
 pressive occasion when yourself and friends 
 visited me on a Sabbath forenoon, two years ago. 
 Nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year 
 later, ever been forgotten. In all, it has been 
 your purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. 
 I am much indebted to the good Christian people 
 of the country for their constant prayers and con- 
 solations ; and to no one of them more than to 
 yourself. The purposes of the Almighty are per- 
 fect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals 
 may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. 
 We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 345 
 
 war long before this; but God knows best, and 
 has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge 
 His wisdom and our own error therein. Mean- 
 while we must work earnestly, in the best lights 
 He gives us, trusting that so working still con- 
 duces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He 
 intends some great good to follow this mighty 
 convulsion, which no mortal could make, and no 
 mortal could stay. Your people, the Friends, 
 have had and are having a very great trial. On 
 principle and faith opposed to both war and op- 
 pression, they can only practically oppose oppres- 
 sion by war. In this hard dilemma, some have 
 chosen one horn, and some the other. For those 
 appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have 
 done and shall do the best I could and can, in 
 my own conscience, under my oath to the law. 
 That you believe this, I doubt not ; and believing 
 it, I shall still receive for our country and myself 
 your earnest prayers to Our Father in Heaven. 
 
346 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 To the Coloured Men of Baltimore for a 
 Present of the Bible. 
 
 September 7, 1864. 
 
 "... I can only now say, as I have often before 
 said, it has always been a sentiment with me 
 that all mankind should be free. So far as able, 
 within my sphere, I have always acted as I be- 
 lieve to be right and just ; and I have done all I 
 could for the good of mankind, generally. In 
 letters and documents sent from this office, I 
 have expressed myself better than I now can. 
 In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say 
 it is the best gift God has given to man. 
 
 " All the good the Saviour gave to the world 
 was communicated through this Book. But for 
 it, we could not know right from wrong. All 
 things most desirable for man's welfare, here and 
 hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. To 
 you I return my most sincere thanks for the very 
 elegant copy of the great Book of God which you 
 present." 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 347 
 
 His Reply to a Serenade. 
 
 October 19, 1864. 
 
 I am notified that this is a compliment paid 
 me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this Dis- 
 trict. I infer that the adoption of the new con- 
 stitution for the State furnishes the occasion, and 
 that, in your view, the extirpation of slavery con- 
 stitutes the chief merit of the new constitution. 
 Most heartily do I congratulate you and Mary- 
 land, and the nation and the world, upon this 
 event. I regret that it did not occur two years 
 sooner, which, I am sure, would have saved the 
 nation more money than would have met all the 
 private loss incident to the measure ; but it has 
 come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends 
 may fully realise all their anticipations of good 
 from it, and that its opponents may by its effects 
 be agreeably and profitably disappointed. 
 
 A word upon another subject. Something 
 said by the Secretary of State, in his recent 
 speech at Auburn, has been construed by some 
 into a threat that if I shall be beaten at the elec- 
 tion, I will, between then and the end of my con- 
 stitutional term, do what I may be able to ruin 
 the government. Others regard the fact that 
 
348 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the Chicago Convention adjourned, not sine die, 
 but to meet again, if called to do so by a partic- 
 ular individual, as the intimation of a purpose 
 that if their nominee shall be elected, he will at 
 once seize the control of the government. I 
 hope the good people will permit themselves to 
 suffer no uneasiness on either point. 
 
 I am struggling to maintain the government, 
 not to overthrow it. I am struggling, especially, 
 to prevent others from overthrowing it. I there- 
 fore say, that if I shall live, I shall remain Presi- 
 dent until the 4th of next March ; and that 
 whoever shall be constitutionally elected therefor 
 in November, shall be duly installed as President 
 on the 4th of March ; and that, in the interval, I 
 shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the 
 helm for the next voyage shall start with the 
 best possible chance to save the ship. 
 
 This is due to the people, both on principle 
 and under the Constitution. Their will, constitu- 
 tionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If 
 they should deliberately resolve to have immedi- 
 ate peace, even at the loss of their country and 
 their liberty, I know not the power or the right 
 to resist them. It is their own business, and they 
 must do as they please with their own. I be- 
 lieve, however, they are still resolved to preserve 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 349 
 
 their country and their liberty ; and in this, in 
 office or out of it, I am resolved to stand by 
 them. 
 
 I may add that in this purpose — to save the 
 country and its liberties — no classes of people 
 seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the 
 field and the sailors afloat. Do they not have 
 the hardest of it ? Who should quail when they 
 do not? God bless the soldiers and seamen, 
 with all their brave commanders. 
 
 His Reply to a Serenade when his Re- 
 election WAS CERTAIN. 
 
 November 10, 1864. 
 
 It has long been a grave question whether any 
 government not too strong for the liberties of its 
 people, can be strong enough to maintain its 
 existence in great emergencies. On this point 
 the present rebellion brought our Republic to a 
 severe test ; and a presidential election, occurring 
 in regular course during the rebellion, added not 
 a little to the strain. 
 
 If the loyal people united were put to the ut- 
 most of their strength by the rebellion, must they 
 not fail when divided and partially paralysed by 
 a political war among themselves? But the elec- 
 
350 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tion was a necessity. We cannot have free gov- 
 ernment without elections ; and if the rebellion 
 could force us to forego or postpone a national 
 election, it might fairly claim to have already 
 conquered and ruined us. The strife of the 
 election is but human nature practically applied 
 to the facts of the case. What has occurred in 
 this case must ever occur in similar cases. 
 Human nature will not change. In any future 
 great national trial, compared with the men of 
 this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly 
 and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us, there- 
 fore, study the incidents of this as philosophy to 
 learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs 
 to be revenged. But the election, along with its 
 incidental and undesirable strife, has done good, 
 too. It has demonstrated that a people's gov- 
 ernment can sustain a national election in the 
 midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has not 
 been known to the world that this was a possi- 
 bility. It shows also how sound and how strong 
 we still are. It shows that, even among candi- 
 dates of the same party, he who is most devoted 
 to the Union and most opposed to treason can 
 receive most of the people's votes. It shows 
 also, to the extent yet known, that we have more 
 men now than we had when the war began. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 35 I 
 
 Gold is good in its place, but living, brave, pa- 
 triotic men are better than gold. 
 
 But the rebellion continues ; and now that the 
 election is over, may not all having a common 
 interest reunite in a common effort to save our 
 common country? For my own part, I have 
 striven and shall strive to avoid placing any 
 obstacle in the way. So long as I have been 
 here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any 
 man's bosom. While I am deeply sensible to 
 the high compliment of a re-election, and duly 
 grateful as I trust to Almighty God for having 
 directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as 
 I think, for their own good, it adds nothing to 
 my satisfaction that any other man may be dis- 
 appointed or pained by the result. 
 
 May I ask those who have not differed with 
 me, to join with me in this same spirit towards 
 those who have ? And now let me close by ask- 
 ing three hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and 
 seamen, and their gallant and skilful commanders. 
 
352 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 His Letter to Mrs. Bixby. 
 
 November 2T, 1864. 
 Dear Madam, — I have been shown in the 
 files of the War Department a statement of the 
 Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are 
 the mother of five sons who have died gloriously 
 on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruit- 
 less must be any words of mine which should 
 attempt to beguile you from a loss so overwhelm- 
 ing. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you 
 the consolation that may be found in the thanks 
 of the Republic they died to save. I pray that 
 our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of 
 your bereavement, and leave you only the cher- 
 ished memory of the loved and lost, and the 
 solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so 
 costly a sacrifice upon the Altar of Freedom. 
 
 From his Annual Message to Congress. 
 
 December 6, 1864. 
 "... The ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and 
 Pensacola have been opened by proclamation. It 
 is hoped that foreign merchants will now consider 
 whether it is not safer and more profitable to 
 themselves, as well as just to the United States, 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 353 
 
 to resort to these and other open ports, than it is 
 to pursue, through many hazards and at vast cost, 
 a contraband trade with other ports which are 
 closed, if not by actual military occupation, at 
 least by a lawful and effective blockade. 
 
 " For myself, I have no doubt of the power and 
 duty of the Executive, under the law of nations, 
 to exclude enemies of the human race from an 
 asylum in the United States. If Congress should 
 think that proceedings in such cases lack the 
 authority of law, or ought to be further regulated 
 by it, I recommend that provision be made for 
 effectually preventing foreign slave-traders from 
 acquiring domicile and facilities for their criminal 
 occupation in our country. 
 
 " It is possible that if it were a new and open 
 question, the maritime powers, with the lights 
 they now enjoy, would not concede the privileges 
 of a naval belligerent to the insurgents of the 
 United States, destitute as they are, and always 
 have been, equally of ships of war and of ports 
 and harbours. Disloyal emissaries have been 
 neither less assiduous nor more successful, during 
 the last year, than they were before that time in 
 their efforts, under favour of that privilege, to em- 
 broil our country in foreign wars. The desire 
 and the determination of the governments of the 
 
 ^ 
 
354 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 maritime States to defeat that design, are believed 
 to be as sincere as, and cannot be more earnest 
 than, our own. 
 
 "... It is of noteworthy interest, that the 
 steady expansion of population, improvement, and 
 governmental institutions over the new and un- 
 occupied portions of our country have scarcely 
 been checked, much less impeded or destroyed, 
 by our great civil war, which at first glance would 
 seem to have absorbed almost the entire energies 
 of the nation. 
 
 "... The war continues. Since the last 
 annual message all the important lines and posi- 
 tions then occupied by our forces have been 
 maintained, and our arms have steadily advanced, 
 thus liberating the regions left in their rear ; so 
 that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of 
 other States have again produced reasonably fair 
 crops. 
 
 " The most remarkable feature in the military 
 operations 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 of our relative 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 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 355 
 
 to move on such an expedition. The result not 
 yet being known, conjecture in regard to it is not 
 here indulged. 
 
 " . . . 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 purpose of the people, within 
 the loyal States, to maintain the integrity of the 
 Union, was never more nearly unanimous than 
 now. The extraordinary calmness and good 
 order with which millions of voters met and min- 
 gled 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 be actuated by the same pur- 
 pose. It is an unanswerable argument to this 
 effect, that no candidate for any office, high or 
 low, has ventured to seek votes on the avowal 
 that he was for giving up the Union. 
 
 "... The election has exhibited another fact 
 not less valuable to be known, — the fact that we 
 do not approach exhaustion in the most impor- 
 tant branch of national resources, that of living 
 men. While it is melancholy to reflect that the 
 war has filled so many graves, and carried mourn- 
 ing to so many hearts, it is some relief to know. 
 
356 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 that compared with the surviving the fallen have 
 been so few. While corps, divisions, and brig- 
 ades 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 election returns prove this. The 
 States regularly holding elections, both now and 
 four years ago, viz., . . . show a net increase, 
 during three years and a half of war, of 145,551 
 votes. 
 
 "... 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 resources 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 unchanged, and, as we believe, un- 
 changeable. The manner of continuing the effort 
 remains to choose. On careful consideration of 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 357 
 
 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 nothing short of severance of the Union, 
 — precisely what we will not and cannot give. 
 
 "... Between him and us the issue is dis- 
 tinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue which 
 can only be tried by war and decided by victory. 
 If we yield, we are beaten. If the Southern 
 people fail him, he is beaten. Either way, it 
 would be the victory and defeat following war. 
 
 ". . . In presenting the abandonment of 
 armed resistance to the national authority on the 
 part of the insurgents as the only indispensable 
 condition to ending the war on the part of the 
 government, I retract nothing heretofore said as 
 to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year 
 ago, that * while I remain in my present position 
 I shall not attempt to retract or modify the 
 Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I return to 
 slavery any person who is free by the terms of 
 that proclamation, or by any of the Acts of 
 Congress.' 
 
 " If the people should, by whatever mode or 
 means, make it an Executive duty to re-enslave 
 such persons, another, and not I, must be their 
 instrument to perform it. 
 
358 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " In stating a single condition of peace, I mean 
 simply to say, that the war will cease on the part 
 of the government whenever it shall have ceased 
 on the part of those who began it." 
 
 The Second Inaugural Address. 
 
 March 4, 1865. 
 
 Fellow- Countrymen : At this second appear- 
 ing 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 expira- 
 tion 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 the attention and engrosses the energies 
 of the nation, little that is new could be presented. 
 The progress of our arms, upon which all else 
 chiefly depends, is as well known to the 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 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 359 
 
 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, in- 
 surgent 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 
 coloured slaves, not distributed generally over 
 the Union, but localized in the southern part 
 of it. These slaves constituted 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 magni- 
 tude or the duration which it has already at- 
 tained. Neither anticipated that the cause of 
 the conflict might cease with, or even before, 
 
36o 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 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 ask a just God's 
 assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat 
 of other men's faces ; but let us judge not, that 
 we be not judged. The prayers of both could 
 not be answered — that of neither has been 
 answered fully. 
 
 The Almighty has His own purposes. a Woe 
 unto the world because of offences ! for it must 
 needs be that offences come ; but woe to that 
 man by whom the offence cometh." If we shall 
 suppose that American slavery is one of those 
 offences 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 offence came, shall we discern therein any 
 departure from those divine attributes which the 
 believers in a living God always ascribe to Him ? 
 Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — 
 that this mighty scourge of war may speedily 
 pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 361 
 
 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 by 
 the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the 
 sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so 
 still it must be said, " The judgments of the Lord 
 are true and righteous altogether." 
 
 With malice toward none ; with charity for all ; 
 with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see 
 the right, — let us strive on to finish the work we 
 are in : to bind up the nation's wounds ; to care 
 for him who shall have borne the battle, and for 
 his widow and his orphan ; to do all which may 
 achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace 
 among ourselves, and with all nations. 
 
 From His Answer to a Serenade — His 
 last Public Address. 
 
 April 11, 1865. 
 
 " Fellow- Citizens : We meet this evening, not 
 in sorrow but in gladness of heart. The evacua- 
 tion of Richmond and Petersburg, and the sur- 
 render of the principal insurgent army, give the 
 hope of a just and speedy peace, the joyous 
 expression of which cannot be restrained. In 
 
362 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 all this joy, however, He from whom all blessings 
 flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national 
 thanksgiving is in the course of preparation, and 
 will be duly promulgated. Nor must those 
 whose harder part give us the cause for rejoicing 
 be overlooked. Their honours must not be par- 
 celled 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 honour for plan or execution is mine. To 
 General Grant, his skilful officers and brave men, 
 all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but 
 was not in reach to take an active part. 
 
 " By these recent successes the reinauguration 
 of the national authority, — reconstruction, — 
 which has had a large share of thought from the 
 first, is pressed much more closely upon our 
 attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. 
 Unlike a case of war between independent na- 
 tions, there is no organized 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 mould from disorganized and dis- 
 cordant elements. Nor is it a small additional 
 embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ 
 among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and 
 measure of reconstruction. As a general rule I 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 363 
 
 abstain from reading 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 accom- 
 panying proclamation, I presented a plan of 
 reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I prom- 
 ised, if adopted by any State, should be accepta- 
 ble 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 also 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 approved by every 
 member of it. . . . 
 
 " 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 govern- 
 ment, civil and military, in regard to those States, 
 is to again get them into that proper practical re- 
 
364 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 lation. 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 them- 
 selves safely at home, it would be utterly imma- 
 terial whether they had ever been abroad. Let 
 us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring 
 the proper practical relations between 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, would be more sat- 
 isfactory to all if it contained fifty thousand, or 
 thirty thousand, or even twenty thousand, instead 
 of only about twelve thousand, as it does. It is 
 also unsatisfactory to some that the elective fran- 
 chise is not given to the coloured 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 de- 
 sirable. The question is, will it be wiser to take 
 it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 365 
 
 disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought into 
 proper practical relation with the Union sooner 
 by sustaining or by discarding her new State 
 government? Some twelve thousand voters in 
 the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have sworn 
 allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the right- 
 ful political power of the State, held elections, 
 organised a State government, adopted a free- 
 State constitution, giving the benefit of public 
 schools equally to black and white, and empower- 
 ing the legislature to confer the elective franchise 
 upon the coloured man. Their legislature has 
 already voted to ratify the constitutional amend- 
 ment recently passed by Congress, abolishing 
 slavery throughout the nation. These twelve 
 thousand persons are thus fully committed to the 
 Union and to perpetual freedom in the State, — 
 committed to the very things, and nearly all the 
 tilings, the nation wants, — and they ask the 
 nation's recognition and its assistance to make 
 good their committal. 
 
 " If we reject and spurn them, we do our 
 utmost to disorganise 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 lib- 
 erty, which these, your old masters, hold to your 
 
366 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 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 paralysing both white and black, has any 
 tendency to bring Louisiana into proper, practical 
 relations with the Union, I have so far been unable 
 to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognise 
 and sustain the new government, the converse of 
 all this is made true. . . . 
 
 "... What has been said of Louisiana will 
 apply generally to other States. And yet so great 
 peculiarities pertain to each State, and such im- 
 portant and sudden changes occur in the same 
 State, and withal so new and unprecedented 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. Im- 
 portant principles may and must be inflexible. 
 In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it 
 may be my duty to make some new announce- 
 ment to the people of the South. I am con- 
 sidering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied 
 that action will be proper." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 "All men are created equal," 
 Discussion of, 59. 
 
 Alton meeting. Lincoln's reply 
 to Douglas, 172. 
 
 Antithesis, A fine, 320. 
 
 Ashmun, Geo., Letter to, ac- 
 cepting nomination, 222. 
 
 Bixby, Mrs., Mother of five 
 sons, Letter to, 352. 
 
 Black men enough to marry 
 black women, no. 
 
 Black woman not wanted for 
 slave or wife, 109. 
 
 Brown, John, Republicans not 
 responsible for, 210, 216. 
 
 Buchanan, President, his in- 
 efficiency, 75. 
 
 Bullitt, Cuthbert, Letter to, 273. 
 
 Bushwhacking, Democratic, 218. 
 
 Capital and labour, Relations 
 
 of, 202. 
 Charlestown meeting, Lincoln's 
 
 rejoinder, 165. 
 Chase's amendment to Nebraska 
 
 Act, 82. 
 Chicago, Speech at, July 10, 
 
 1858, 86. 
 Chicago Committee of religious 
 
 denominations, 281. 
 
 Clay, Henry, — 
 
 Note on Lincoln's eulogy, 40. 
 
 Lincoln's beau ideal, 140. 
 
 His views on slavery, 179. 
 Coloured men, — 
 
 Enlistment of, 318. 
 
 Present a Bible, 346. 
 Columbus, Ohio, Address to 
 Legislature, 227. 
 
 Speech at, Sept. 16, 1859, 
 181. 
 Congress, Power of, over slavery, 
 
 2 5- 
 Conkling, James C, Letter to, 
 
 3i3- 
 
 Conspiracy, Democratic, to per- 
 petuate slavery, 122. 
 
 Cooper Inst., N. Y., Speech at, 
 Feb. 27, 1S60, 205. 
 
 Corning and others, Erastus, 
 Note, 307. 
 
 Decisions of Courts discussed, 
 
 Declaration of Ind. includes the 
 
 negro, 63, 66, 114, 122. 
 Democrats convinced by speech 
 
 of July 10, 185S, 86. 
 Direct taxation opposed, 35. 
 Divided-house speech, 71, — 
 
 Defended against Douglas, 95. 
 
 Was carefully prepared, 96. 
 
368 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Douglas, S. A., — 
 
 Lincoln's reply to, at Peoria, 
 
 43- 
 Was right in opposing Le- 
 
 compton constitution, 92. 
 Approves Jackson's refusal to 
 
 obey decision of Court, 105, 
 
 138. 
 Claims that Republicans are 
 
 his friends, 105. 
 " Don't care if slavery is voted 
 
 up or down," 107. 
 Wants to take Republicans 
 
 into camp, 108. 
 Says government made for 
 
 white men, 109. 
 Says Germans not included in 
 
 Declaration, 113. 
 Expects to be President and 
 
 distribute offices, 117. 
 Plan in N. Y. to annihilate 
 
 Lincoln, 118. 
 Quotes Lincoln inaccurately, 
 
 120. 
 Conspired to nationalise sla- 
 very, 123. 
 Charges Lincoln with inciting 
 
 sectional war, 124. 
 Places slavery on a new basis, 
 
 ISO- 
 Destroyed by his answers at 
 
 Freeport, 142. 
 Guilty of falsification, 144. 
 Article in Harper's Magazine, 
 
 186. 
 Speech at Memphis criticised, 
 
 198. 
 Dred Scott case. — 
 Discussed, 60, 74, 140. 
 
 Dred Scott case, — 
 Judge Nelson's opinion, 82, 
 
 102. 
 Not to be obeyed as a politi- 
 cal rule, 102. 
 Durant, T. J., Comments on 
 letter of, 273. 
 
 Early writings and opinions 
 
 of Lincoln, 7, 24. 
 Education, — 
 
 Favoured, 15. 
 
 Lincoln's want of, 96. 
 Eighty-two years, Why gov- 
 ernment has endured, 97. 
 Emancipation, — 
 
 Compensated, offered, 269. 
 
 Reasons for postponing, 282. 
 
 Proclamation as submitted, 
 294. 
 
 Proclamation, Final, 295. 
 Explanation of divided-house 
 
 speech, 97. 
 
 Female suffrage favoured, 24. 
 
 " Fizzlegigs and fireworks," 49. 
 
 Fourth of July, Uses of, no. 
 
 Freedom must be entrusted to 
 its friends, 85. 
 
 Freeport meeting of Aug. 27, 
 1858, 142. 
 
 Freeport meeting, Lincoln's re- 
 ply to Douglas, 147. 
 
 Free States no right to interfere 
 with slavery, 98. 
 
 Galesburg meeting, Lincoln's 
 reply to Douglas, 169. 
 
 Gasparin, Count, Letter to, 277. 
 
 Gentleman inside, Lincoln hopes 
 he is, 120. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 369 
 
 Germans, Douglas says, are not 
 included in Declaration, 113. 
 
 Gettysburg address, 324. 
 
 Grant, General, Letter to, April 
 30, 1S64, 338. 
 
 Greeley, Horace, Letter to, 279. 
 
 Growth of the country in eighty- 
 two years, ito. 
 
 Gurney, Mrs. E. P., Letter to, 
 
 344- 
 
 Hodges, A. G., Letter to, 330. 
 Hooker, General, Letter to, 303. 
 Horse-chestnut not a chestnut 
 
 horse, 126. 
 Hunter, General, Proclamation 
 
 revoked, 268. 
 
 Importance of divided-house 
 
 speech, 71. 
 Inaugural Address, — 
 
 The first, 240, 248. 
 
 The second, 358. 
 Independence Hall, Phil., Ad- 
 dress at, 234. 
 Indiana Legislature, Address to, 
 
 225. 
 Indianapolis, Address at, Feb. 
 
 11, 1861, 224. 
 Internal improvements favoured, 
 
 10. 
 
 Jackson, President, would not 
 be boun 1 by decision, 105. 
 
 Jonesboro' meeting, Sept. 15, 
 1858, 149. 
 
 July Fourth, Uses of, no. 
 
 Kansas Slavery in, discussed, 
 55- 
 
 Labour, — 
 
 Source of human comforts, 20 1. 
 
 and capital discussed, 263. 
 Lecompton constitution, — 
 
 Douglas right in opposing, 92. 
 
 Defeated by Republicans, 93. 
 Lincoln, — 
 
 Intends to conduct campaign 
 as a gentleman, 120. 
 
 Accuses Douglas of false 
 charges, 124. 
 
 Comments on Douglas's an- 
 swers to his questions, 156. 
 Lincoln's lean face, no offices in 
 
 it, 118. 
 Lutheran ministers, Reply to, 
 
 265. 
 
 Machinery to make Kansas a 
 
 slave State, yy. 
 Manchester working-men, Let- 
 ter to, 300. 
 McClellan, General, Letter to, 
 
 266. 
 Message to Congress, — 
 
 Sp. Session, July 4. 1861, 249. 
 
 Keg. " Dec. 3, 1861, 259. 
 " " Dec. 1, 1862, 2S7. 
 
 Sp. " Jan. 17, 1S63, 298. 
 
 Reg. " Dec. 8, 1863, 325. 
 
 Dec. 6, 1S64, 352. 
 Methodist delegation, Reply to, 
 
 339- 
 
 Military coat-tail speech, 40. 
 Missouri Compromise, repealed 
 
 by Douglas, 153. 
 Mixture of races, Douglas on, 
 
 1 10. 
 Mother of Lincoln, 2. 
 
 24 
 
37o 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Nebraska Act, Chase's amend- 
 ment to, defeated, 82. 
 
 Nebraska Bill discussed, 134. 
 
 Negro, equal of any man in 
 right to eat bread, 122, 127. 
 
 Negro citizenship, Lincoln op- 
 poses, 165. 
 
 Negroes, their condition grow- 
 ing worse, 63. 
 
 Nelson, Judge, opinion in Dred 
 Scott case, 82. 
 
 New Haven, Conn., Speech at, 
 213. 
 
 Niche for Dred Scott decision, 
 79, 82, 135, 146. 
 
 No man good enough to govern 
 another without his consent, 
 49. 
 
 Ohio Democratic convention, 
 
 Answer to resolutions of, 308. 
 
 Ohio Regiment, i6}th, Address 
 
 to > 343- 
 
 Origin and qualities of Lin- 
 coln, 2. 
 
 Ottawa meeting, Aug. 21, 1S5S, 
 124. 
 
 Pennsylvania, Reply to Gov- 
 ernor of, 236. 
 
 People, Right of, to make con- 
 stitutions, 90. 
 
 Peoria, Speech at, 43. 
 
 Philadelphia, Address at, Feb. 
 22, 1861, 234. 
 
 Pillow, Fort, Massacre of, 336. 
 
 Pittsburgh, Address at, 229. 
 
 Political institutions, Perpetua- 
 tion of, 19. 
 
 Popular sovereignty dissected, 
 
 87, 131, 185. 
 Presbyterian ministers, Letter 
 
 to, 306. 
 Protective tariff advocated, 35. 
 
 Railroads favoured, 11. 
 Reed, Rev. Alex., Letter to, 305. 
 Republicans should stand by 
 
 their principles, 109, 118. 
 Reverence for law should be 
 
 taught, 21. 
 Right or wrong of slavery, 175, 
 
 180. 
 
 Sabbath, Order for observance 
 
 of, 2S6. 
 Sangamon Co., Address fo elec- 
 tors of, 9, 12. 
 Sanitary Fair, — 
 
 Washington, Remarks at, 329. 
 
 Baltimore, Remarks at, 334. 
 
 Philadelphia, Remarks at, 341. 
 Scripture quoted, 115. 
 Serenade, — 
 
 Reply to, Oct. 19, 1S64, 347. 
 
 Reply to, Nov. 10, 1S64, 349. 
 
 April 11, 1865, 361. 
 Slavery, — 
 
 Lincoln's first object lesson 
 in, 54. 
 
 A political machine, yy. 
 
 Could be made lawful in free 
 States by another decision. 
 
 §3- 
 
 Peaceable extinction of, be- 
 lieved in, 97. 
 
 Now claimed to be perpetual, 
 97. 98. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 m 
 
 Slavery, — 
 
 Momentous importance of, 
 
 106. 
 Not to be interfered with in 
 States where authorised, 
 127. 
 Always an clement of discord, 
 
 129, 154. 
 Chief cause of division, 17-5, 
 
 1S7. 
 How the founders looked up- 
 on it, 150. 
 Snake as a figure of speech, 215. 
 Speed, Joshua F., Letter to; 
 
 slaves in shackles, 53. 
 Springfield, — 
 
 Debate with Douglas and 
 
 others at, 26. 
 June, 1857, The Dred Scott 
 
 case, 60. 
 The divided-house speech, 
 
 June 17, 1S58, 71. 
 Speech, July 17, 1S5S, 117. 
 Farewell to citizens of, Feb. 
 11, 1 861, 223. 
 Springfield Lyceum, — 
 
 Address before, in 1 S ? 7 , iS. 
 Squatter sovereignty discussed 
 
 and eviscerated, 73, yj, SS. 
 State sovereignty discussed, 255. 
 Sugar-coated rebellion, 25^. 
 Sumn:r, Brooks's assault upon, 
 
 ISC- 
 Swapping horses while crossing 
 the stream, 340. 
 
 Tariff, Views on the, 230. 
 
 Temperance, Address on, Spring- 
 field, 1842, 29. 
 
 Thanksgiving proclamation, Oct. 
 3, 1863, 3 21 - 
 
 Thoroughness of Lincoln's stud- 
 ies, 6. 
 
 Trenton, N. J., Address at, 232. 
 
 Trumbull, Judge, Bargain with, 
 denied, 152. 
 
 Union, Why possible for eighty 
 
 years, 5. 
 Union of Illinois Republicans 
 
 justified, 148. 
 Union League, Reply to, on his 
 
 re-nomination, 340. 
 United States, Growth of, no. 
 Usury opposed, 14. 
 
 Vallandigham, C.L., Reasons 
 
 for arrest of, 309. 
 
 WASHBURNE, E. B.,on Freeport 
 
 meeting, 142. 
 Washington, Reply to Mayor 
 
 of, 238. 
 Whig Committee, Circular of, 
 
 34- 
 
 White men, Douglas claims 
 government made for, exclu- 
 sively, 109. 
 
 Wilmot proviso, — 
 Origin of, 44. 
 Voted for forty times, 59. 
 
V