e: 
 
 451 
 
ABRAHAII LINCOLN 
 LINGK'UH. 
 

 L>X>. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 AMERICA; Imgk'un, a.d. 1809-1865. 
 
 Sixteenth President of the United States: 1809, 
 February, 12 — 1865, April 15; born Hardin county, 
 Kentucky. His ancestors came from England about 
 1638, settling in Massachusetts. His grandparents 
 moved from Virginia to Kentucky, 1782, where his 
 grandfather was killed by an Indian two years after- 
 ward, leaving a widow with three sons and two 
 daughters, Thomas Lincoln, father of Abraham, being 
 then but six years old. Thomas Lincoln married Nancy 
 Hanks, of Virginia, 1806, and settled in what is now 
 Larue county, Kentucky, where Abraham was born, 
 and where he began going to school, when, 18 16, the 
 family removed to Indiana. Here in their rude log- 
 cabin his mother died, 1818 — a bright, intelligent, 
 industrious and devout woman, of whom her son 
 could truly say what he used to say of his step- 
 mother, "All that I am, or hope to be^ I owe to my 
 angel mother." A year and a month later his, father 
 married again; the family lived a poor, laborious 
 life; the son receiving only about a year pf the 
 rudest school education, but showing great taste for 
 reading, perusing over and over again the few books 
 he could get, as Aesop's Fables, Pilgrim's Progress, 
 Robinson Crusoe, a History of the United States, Life 
 of Washington, etc. In 1825, he managed a ferry 
 across the Ohio ; 1828, he took a flat-boat v/ith prod- 
 uce to New Orleans; 1830, the family removed to 
 Illinois, clearing and fencing 15 acres of land about 
 10 miles west of Decatur. This year Abraham be- 
 came of age. He was 6 ft. 4 in. tall, of gigantic 
 strength and great agility, and by his studious use 
 of every opportunity had gained a fair mastery of 
 the English language, of American history, and of 
 elementary mathematics, besides having developed 
 a very practical and shrew turn of mind, unusual 
 narrative and rhetorical powers, with great humor 
 and sterling integrity of character. A.bout this time 
 
LINCOLN. .. A)l.l 
 
 he made his first public speech, on the navigation of 
 the Sangamon River, in reply to one by a candidate 
 for the Legislature. In 1831 he took another flat- 
 boat to New Orleans, for Denton Offutt ; and on his 
 return attended to the latter's store in New Salem, 
 Menard county, where he employed his abundant 
 leisure in studying surveying and the principles of 
 law. Next year came the Black Hawk Indian war. 
 Lincoln at once enlisted, and was made captain, but 
 served in that capacity only about a month, when 
 his company was mustered out of service. He im- 
 mediately joined another company, however, as 
 private ; and served without any notable experi- 
 ences, until finally mustered out a few weeks later, 
 1832, June 16. Returning home, he entered on a late 
 and hasty canvass for the Legislature, announcing 
 his platform thus: ''I presume you all known who 
 I am ; I am humble Abrahani Lincoln. I have been 
 solicited by my many friends to become a candidate 
 for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, 
 like the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a na- 
 tional bank ; I am in favor of internal improvements, 
 and a high protective tariff. These are my .senti- 
 ments and political principles. If elected, I shall 
 be thankful ; if not, it will be all the same." He was 
 defeated, though his own neighborhood voted for 
 him almost unanimously. Thereupon ' he entered 
 into partnership with another man in the grocery 
 and dry goods business in New Salem. His partner 
 was worthless, and the firm failed, Lincoln being 
 left with the indebtedness of the concern resting 
 upon him. By frugality and hard work he paid it 
 off entirely in a few years. He next took to studying 
 law, and then to surveying. In 1833 he was ap- 
 pointed postmaster of New Salem, with a beggarly 
 salary but plenty of time for reading and study. He 
 held the office for three years, being at the same 
 time also deputy for the county surveyor. In 1834 
 he was again candidate for the Legislature, and this 
 time was elected by a large majority, afterward 
 being re-elected three times, 1836-38-40, until he re- 
 
 2 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 fused to serve again. In 1835 he became engaged 
 to Ann Rutledge, a daughter in the family with 
 whom he was boarding at New Salem. But before 
 they could be married this young lady died, leaving 
 ^ her lover despondent. 
 
 •^ His service in the Legislature was such as to 
 
 V^ make him a recognized leader of the whig party, 
 and a proficient lawyer. He was instrumental in 
 having the state capital removed from Vandalia to 
 Springfield, where he settled, 1837. In .the Legisla- 
 ture, too, he had his first encounter with Stephen 
 A. Douglas, whose political and oratorical opponent 
 he continued to be from this time until i860, when 
 Douglas was finally defeated and Lincoln elected 
 to the Presidency. In 1840 Lincoln entered with 
 fervor into the campaign for Harrison, being an 
 elector on the Harrison ticket ; and the same year 
 also met and engaged himself to marry Mary, daugh- 
 ter of the Hon. Robert S. Todd, who had just come 
 from Lexington, Ky. For some reason connected 
 with this engagement, Lincoln fell into a deep mel- 
 ancholy and was in danger of becoming insane. He 
 recovered, however, and married Miss Todd, 1842, 
 November 4. 
 
 Always an admirer of Henry Clay, he was made 
 an elector on the Clay ticket, 1844; and two years 
 afterward was elected to Congress by an unusually 
 large majority, over the Rev. Peter Cartwright. 
 Now began his anti-slavery record in his proposing 
 a scheme for the abolition of slavery in the District 
 of Columbia, which, however, characteristically 
 moderate as it was. Congress refused to consider. 
 He served only one term in Congress, after which 
 for several years he was not specially active in poli- 
 tics, imtil the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
 1854, a fact which he regarded as a gross breach of 
 faith, and which involved him in a series of debates 
 with Douglas in the years following, which attracted 
 national attention, and greatly enhanced the reputa- 
 tion of Lincoln as a debater and orator. In 1858 he 
 appeared before the state convention with a view 
 
 3 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 to securing the nomination for U. S. Senator. In 
 his speech he uttered these prophetic words, soon 
 after to be fully realized: "A house divided against 
 itself cannot stand. I believe this government can- 
 not 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 pubhc mind shall rest in the belief that it is in 
 course of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates will 
 push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in 
 all the states, old as well as new — North as well as 
 South." These words were deemed highly impolitic 
 by his partisans ; and, indeed, they did not secure 
 him the Senatorship, Douglas being re-elected,' much 
 to Lincoln's disappointment. But they did enhance 
 his fame as a man above political trickery and time- 
 serving, as a statesman capable and courageous 
 enough to treat political questions from the ethical 
 side, and as involving fundamental principles of 
 right and truth. 
 
 It was largely owing to the, attention that his six 
 years' contest with Douglas aroused, and to his 
 manifest superiority over the 'little giant," culmi- 
 nating in his famous Cooper Institute address in 
 New York, i860, February 2^, that he began more 
 and more to be talked of in connection with the 
 republican nomination for the Presidency. When 
 the republican national convention met at Chicago, 
 i860, May 16, William H. Seward was the leading 
 candidate, though Lincoln was the popular man out- 
 side the convention. On the third day balloting 
 began, and Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot, 
 his chief competitors besides Seward being Cam- 
 eron, Chase, Dayton, McLean, Collamer, and Bates, 
 Next day he was officially notified of his nomination, 
 at Springfield ; and accepted in a brief speech. 
 Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, was nominated for the 
 vice-presidency. Many republicans, however, were 
 
 4 
 
LINCOLN, 
 
 not satisfied, and nominated Bell as the candidate 
 of the ''constitutional union" party ; but their defec- 
 tion was more than offset by the split in the demo- 
 cratic party, the more conservative element nomi- 
 nating Doug-las, while the extreme slavery men 
 utterly repudiated him and nominated Breckenridc^e. 
 The canvass was an exciting one, it being felt that 
 the gravest national questions depended for solu- 
 tion on the result, Lincoln received of the popular 
 vote, 1,866,46; Douglas, 1,375,157; Breckenridge, 
 847,953; Bell, 590,631. None of them had a ma- 
 jority. But when, December 5, the electoral college 
 met, the vote of the electors stood as follows: Lin- 
 coln, 180; Douglas, 12; Breckenridge, y2', Bell, 39; 
 giving Lincoln a clear majority of 57. 
 
 Even before the election certain extremists in the 
 South had been preparing for secession; and Novem- 
 ber 10, four days after it, the Legislature of South 
 Carolina ordered the state convention to consider 
 the question of secession, and, December 20, that 
 state formally seceded from the union, and by 1861, 
 February 18, the ''Confederate States of America" 
 were organized, and Jefferson Davis was made their 
 president. Troops w^ere being massed in the South, 
 arms and ammunition accumulated, and fortifica- 
 tions strengthened. In this ominous state of affairs 
 the President-elect w^as preparing for his inaugura- 
 tion. Fearing assassination, his friends prevailed on 
 him to travel to Washington in comparative secrecy, 
 where he was inaugurated, 186 1, March 4. His in- 
 augural was temperate yet firm in tone, denying 
 the right of any state to secede, and declaring his 
 resolve to maintain the union at all hazards. The 
 Confederates, however, had already in January vir- 
 tually begun the civil war by besieging Fort Sump- 
 ter, in Cliarleston harbor, which was held by a hand- 
 ful of Federal troops under Major Robert Anderson. 
 April 13 this fort was obliged to surrender after 34. 
 hours' bombardment by the Confederates under 
 General Beauregard. Two days afterv/ard Lincoln 
 issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 militia to 
 
 S 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 serve three months, and May 4 ordered the enHst- 
 ment of 64,748 soldiers and 18,000 seamen for three 
 years' service, and ]\Iay 19 instituted a blockade of 
 the Southern ports. The first blood was shed when, 
 in response to this call, the 6th Massachusetts regi- 
 ment was attacked by a mob while marching 
 through Baltimore. Other minor engagements fol- 
 lowed; and, 1861, July i, the first important battle 
 was fought, at Bull Run, the Federal forces being 
 routed, and the national capital endangered. The 
 North speedily recovered from this shock, and vol- 
 unteers poured into Washington without waiting to 
 be called. In October General Scott retired, and 
 McClellan was given command of the Federal troops. 
 He set himself with great skill thoroughly to oraniz- 
 ing the army. 
 
 Meanwhile the slavery question came more and 
 more into the foreground. In 1861, August, Con- 
 gress passed an act confiscating the rights of slave- 
 holders in active rebellion to their slaves. Extreme 
 abolitionists urged more radical measures. General 
 Fremont declared martial law in Missouri, and the 
 freedom of all slaves owned by active rebels. Lin- 
 coln believing such a measure premature and un- 
 authorized, countermanded it. Sentiment was 
 divided in the North ; but the great mass of the 
 people sustained the conservative counsels of the 
 President. March 6, 1862, he sent a message to 
 Congress recommending a gradual abolition and 
 offering pecuniary compensation to slave owners. 
 Congress passed an act in conformity with this, but 
 no result followed. In April it passed an act, which 
 Lincoln approved, emancipating all slaves in the 
 District of Columbia, with compensation to the 
 owners. When General Hunter, however, 1862, 
 May 9, presumed to declare all slaves in Georgia, 
 Florida and South Carolina free, Lincoln at once 
 issued a proclamation declaring this order void and 
 unauthorized, at the same time repeating the offer 
 to compensate all who should voluntarily free their 
 slaves. In the North the anti-slavery sentiment was 
 
 6 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 steadily growing; and in June Congress prohibited 
 slavery in all the territories. July 12 Lincoln again 
 specially urged upon the border slave states his 
 proposal of a gradual emancipation with compensa- 
 tion, saying: "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 valuable in 
 lieu of it." But his words seemed to have no effect. 
 It was then, 1862, July, that he reached the conclu- 
 sion that a general and final abolition of slavery 
 must soon be brought about, and that apparently 
 nothing was left him to do than to issue a proclama- 
 tion of emancipation and so accomplish the great 
 end at one blow. He soon wrote such a proclama- 
 tion and submitted it to members of his cabinet. 
 But the course of military affairs constrained him 
 not to consummate the matter just at this time. 
 *'My paramount object is to save the union," he said, 
 ''and not either to save or destroy slavery. If I 
 could save the union without freeing any slave, I 
 would do it ; if I could save it by freeing any slave, 
 I would do it." 
 
 Meanwhile the outcome of the war at this period 
 seemed doubtful. Early in 1862 the Federal forces 
 had had successes at Forts Donelson and Henry 
 and at Shiloh. Roanoke Island on the North Caro- 
 lina coast had been taken. The Monitor had sub- 
 dued the Merrimac. New Orleans had been taken, 
 and the Mississippi in the main was in the control 
 of the Federal government. But events were less 
 favorable during the second quarter of the year, 
 McClellan had moved '*on to Richmond," but' had 
 finally been forced to retreat and abandon the cam- 
 paign. Pope had been driven back upon Washing- 
 ton. At Antietam, indeed, Lee's advance north- 
 ward had been stopped, but he was not fatally 
 crippled. Fredricksburg and Chancellorsville both 
 had been disastrous Federal defeats. All this, how- 
 ever, was but ripening popular sentiment, and mak- 
 
 7 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 ing clear the necessity of emancipation, if only as 
 a war measure, a means of self-preservation. Ac- 
 cordingly, 1862, September 22, Lincoln issued his 
 preliminary proclamation, declaring that on and 
 after 1863, January i, all persons held as slaves in 
 states or parts of states then in rebellion should he 
 free. Then, after another attempt, December i, to 
 bring about the gradual abolition, with compensation, 
 he made the final proclamation declaring Arkan- 
 sas, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, 
 South Carolina, North Carolina and certain parts of 
 Louisiana and Virginia to be in rebellion against the 
 United States ; and that as a necessary war measure 
 he did ''order and declare that all persons held as 
 slaves wirthin said designated states and parts of 
 states, are and henceforth shall be free." As he said 
 two years afterward, this proclamation was "the 
 central act of my administration, and the great event 
 of the nineteenth century." Its legal validity was 
 indeed questioned by some, but never had a verdict 
 passed upon it by the national courts ; circumstances 
 and the course of events fully justified it. Moreover, 
 in 1864, December, Lincoln urged Congress to adopt 
 a thirteenth amendment to the constitution making 
 slavery illegal and unconstitutional. This was done, 
 1865, January, 31, and before the close of the year 
 twenty-seven of the thirty-six states of the union 
 had ratified the amendment, which therefore was 
 officially declared adopted, 1865, December 18. 
 
 After the reverse at Chancellorsville the tide of 
 success turned steadily and strongly in favor of the 
 Federal armies, whose number, including negro 
 troops who were now regularly enlisted, reached 
 about a million men. The fall of Vicksburg and 
 Port Hudson opened the Mississippi. Lee's invasion 
 of Pennsylvania resulted in his defeat, after a three 
 days' struggle, at Gettysburg — the greatest battle 
 of the war. It was here that, 1863, November 19, at 
 the dedication of the battle-field at a national sol- 
 diers' cemetery, Lincoln delivered, almost ex tem- 
 pore, the matchless oration, which at once took its 
 
 8 
 
J.INCOLN. 
 
 place as a classic unsurpassed among addresses of the 
 kind. 
 
 The defeat at Gettysburg was fatal to the Confeder- 
 ates. Their resources were failing ; men and provisions 
 were becoming scarce. The Federals were stronger 
 than ever. Grant was made commander of their 
 armies, and set himself pertinaciously to the capture 
 of Richmond. Sherman was sweeping like a tornado 
 through the very heart of the Confederacy, from the 
 Mississippi Valley to Savannah, and thence northward 
 to meet Grant. Lee was forced out of Richmond, and 
 surrendered at Appomattox, 1865, April 9. The war 
 was ended. The North was wild with joy. The sur- 
 render of Johnston to Sherman a few weeks later, 
 April 26, was only the inevitable consequence of Ap- 
 pomattox. 
 
 A glance at some of the president's diplomatic and 
 political acts previous to this culmination is proper 
 here. Several times during the v/ar serious foreign 
 complications were threatened. The arrest by Capt. 
 Wilkes of two Confederate envoys, Mason and Slidell, 
 on their way to England on the British steamer Trent, 
 threatened our peace with Great Britain. Though pub- 
 lic sentiment sustained Wilkes, Lincoln saw that his 
 action had been illegal, and ordered the surrender of 
 the prisoners. When Maximilian was set up as emper- 
 or of Mexico under the protection of French troops, 
 our government strictly maintained its policy of non- 
 intervention, though declaring the sympathy of its peo- 
 ple vv^ith a Mexican republic, and that our own safety 
 was dependent on the maintenance of free republican 
 institutions throughout America, at the same time 
 accepting the assurance of France that she did not 
 intend to overthrow or establish local government. 
 When in 1863 France proposed a mediation between 
 the North and South, Lincoln firmly declined to con- 
 sider the proposal. Certain agents in Canada, 1864, 
 trying to arouse sympathy for the Confederacy, by 
 conveying the impression that the South wished to 
 treat for peace, declared themselves authorized by the 
 Confederacy to enter into peaceful negotiations. Lin- 
 9 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 coin at once promised them safe conduct to Washington 
 and an interview. This forced them to confess that the 
 Confederacy had never authorized them. 1865, Feb. 
 3, he and Secretary Seward met three Confederate 
 commissioners in an informal conference at Hampton 
 Roads, at which the latter proposed a cessation of 
 hostilities and postponement of its issues until after the 
 expulsion of the French from Mexico by the allied 
 forces of the North and South. Lincoln, however, in- 
 sisted as the inevitable conditions of any adjustment, 
 first, the restoration of the national authority through- 
 out the states; second, no recession by the national 
 government on the slavery question ; and third, no ces- 
 sation of hostilitie,s until the war should be ended and 
 all Confederate troops disbanded. This closed the 
 conference. 
 
 In 1864, November, the regular presidential election 
 was to be held. Tiie Republicans nominated Lincoln ; 
 the Democrats McClellan. The election showed 2,216,- 
 076 ballots cast for Lincoln, and 1,808,725 for McClel- 
 lan; while of the electors 212 voted for Lincoln, and 
 only twenty-one for McClellan. The former was in- 
 augurated 1865, March 4. 
 
 Little more than a month after, in midst of the na- 
 tional rejoicing over the virtual conclusion of the war 
 by Lee's surrender at Appomattox, a sudden chill 
 struck the heart of the nation by the news flashed over 
 the vvdres from Washington that the President had been 
 assassinated. He had visited Grant's army, and with it 
 entered Richmond the day after its surrender. He 
 returned to Washington, April 11, and made an address 
 on the question of reconstructing the governments of 
 the states lately in rebellion. On the 14th, being Good 
 Friday, he and his wife, together with Major Rathbone 
 and INIiss Harris, were invited to Ford's Theatre. They 
 occupied a private box, and Lincoln was absorbed in 
 the play, when at about 10:30 P. M. a shot rang 
 through the hall. The next instant John Wilkes Booth 
 jumped down from the President's box upon the stage, 
 brandishing a dagger, and shouting, "Sic semper tyran- 
 nis! The South is avenged !" rushed behind the scenes, 
 
 10 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 out through the stage door, mounted a horse, and 
 escaped into the night. The President sat motionless, 
 'the assassin's ball had pierced his brain and he was 
 unconscious. He was tenderly carried into a house 
 across the street, where he died at 7 o'clock next morn- 
 ing, 1865, April 15. Booth had entered the President's 
 box from the corridor behind, and unseen by any one 
 had discharged his pistol at the back of his victim's 
 head, the ball entering just behind the ear. Major 
 Rathbone, trying to seize the murderer, had been 
 stabbed in the arm by him. Everything was done so 
 quickly, that before the audience knew what had hap- 
 pened, the assassin was gone. On the same night the 
 attempt was made also to murder Secretary Seward at 
 his house, where he was conlined to his bed by an 
 accident. Other prominent officials also were to have 
 been made way with had not the plot failed. The dis- 
 covery of this plot and the nevv's of the assassination 
 occasioned horror throughout the civilized world. The 
 murder had been planned by a gang of irresponsible 
 individuals, without the authority, connivance, or 
 knowledge of those outside of their fanatical circle. 
 Booth, who had broken his leg in jumping from the box 
 upon the stage, was pursued and shot in a barn where 
 he had concealed himself, twelve days after his crime, 
 AH his confederates were likewise soon brought to 
 justice. 
 
 Next to the name of Washington there is none so 
 deeply and lovingly enshrined in the American heart 
 as that of Abraham Lincoln ; and James Russell Lowell 
 in his classic essay on him, stated the sirnple truth 
 when he wrote: 
 
 "A civilian during times of the most captivating mili- 
 tary achievement, av/kward, with no skill m the'^lowcr 
 technicalities of manners, he left behind him a fame 
 beyond that of any conqueror, the memorv of a grace 
 higher than that of outward person, and 'of a .^-entlc- 
 manliness deeper than mere breeding. Never before 
 that startled April morning did such multitudes of men 
 shed tears for the death of one thev had never seen, 
 as if with him a friendly presence had been taken avN^ay 
 
 II 
 
IISCOLN. 
 
 from their lives, leaving them colder and darker. Never 
 was funeral panegyric so eloquent as the silent look 
 of sympathy which strangers exchanged when they 
 met on that day. Their common manhood had lost a 
 kinsman." 
 
 DEBATE WITH DOUGLAS. 
 
 Springfield, Illinois^ June 17, 1858. 
 
 Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Convention — If 
 we could first know where we are, and whither we are 
 tending, we could better judge Vidiat to do, and how to 
 do it. V/e are now far into the fifth year since a policy 
 was initiated with the vowed 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 divided against itself 
 cannot stand.'' I believe this government cannot en- 
 dure 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 ceasc to oe divided. 
 It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either 
 the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread 
 of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the 
 belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction ; or 
 Its advocates will push It forward till it shall become 
 alike lawful 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 ma- 
 chinery, so to speak — compounded by the Nebraska 
 doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider 
 how well adapted; but also let him study the history 
 not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and 
 of its construction, and trace, If he can, or rather fail. 
 If he can, to trace the evidences of de?Ign and concert 
 of action among Its chief architects from the be<rlnnln.e. 
 The new year of 18^4 found slaverv excluded from 
 more than half the States by State Constitutions, and 
 
 12 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 from most of the national territory by Congressional 
 proiiibition. P'our days later commenced the struggle 
 which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibi- 
 tion. This opened all tlie national territory to slavery, 
 and was the first point gained. 
 
 But so far Congress only had acted ; and an indorse- 
 ment 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," otherwise called 
 ''sacred right of self-government," which latter phrase, 
 though expressive of the only rightful basis of any gov- 
 ernment, 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 allovv^ed to ob- 
 ject. That argument was incorporated into the Ne- 
 baska bill itself, in the language which follows: 'Tt 
 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 Con- 
 stitution of the United States." Then opened the 
 roar of loose declamation in favor of "squatter sov- 
 ereignty,' and ''sacred right of self-government." 
 "But," said opposition memljers, "let us amend the bill 
 so as to expressly declare that the people of the terri- 
 tory may exclude slavery." "Not we," said the friends 
 of the measure ; and down they voted the amendment. 
 
 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 Congressional 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 Mis- 
 souri, and both Nebraska bill and lavvsuit were brought 
 to a decision in the same month of Mav, 1854. The 
 negro's name was "Dred Scott," v/hich name now des- 
 
 13 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 ignates the decision finally made in the case. Before 
 the then next presidential election, the law case came 
 to, and was argued in the Supreme Court of tlie 
 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, requested the 
 leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opin- 
 ion whether the people of a territory can constitution- 
 ally 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 indorsement, however, 
 fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly four 
 hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not over- 
 whelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The outgoing 
 President, in his last annual message, as impressively 
 as possible echoed back upon the people the weight and 
 authority of the indorsement. The Supreme Court met 
 again ; did not announce their decision, but ordered a 
 reargument. The presidential inauguration came, and 
 still no decision of the court; but the incoming Presi- 
 dent, in his inaugural address, fervently exhorted the 
 people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever 
 it might be. Then, in a few days, came the decision. 
 
 The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an 
 early occasion to make a speech at this capital, indors- 
 ing the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently denounc- 
 ing 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 as- 
 tonishm.ent that any different view had ever been en- 
 tertained. 
 
 At length a squabble springs up between the Presi- 
 dent 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 quarrel 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 
 
 14 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be 
 intended by him other than as an apt definition of the 
 pohcy 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 principle. If he has any parental feeling, 
 well may he cling to it. That principle is the only 
 khred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under 
 the Dred Scott decision "squatter sovereignty" squatted 
 out of existence, tumbled down, like temporary scaf- 
 folding — like the mould at the foundry 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 a people to make their own con- 
 stitution — upon which he and the Republicans have 
 never differed. 
 
 The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in con- 
 nection with Senator Douglas' "care not " policy, con- 
 stitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of ad- 
 vancement. This was the third point gained. The 
 working points of that machinery are : — 
 
 First. That no negro slave imported as such from 
 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 Constitution, which declares that 'The citizens 
 of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and 
 immunities of citizens in the several states." 
 
 Secondly. That, ''subject to the Constitution of the 
 United States," neither Congress nor a territorial Leg- 
 islature can. exclude slavery from any United States 
 territory. This point is made in order that individual 
 men may fill up the territories with slaves without dan- 
 ger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the 
 chances of permanency to the institution through all the 
 future. / 
 
 . 15 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 Thirdly. That whether the holding a negro in actual 
 laver}^ 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 acqui- 
 esced in for awhile, and apparently indorsed by the 
 people at an election, then to sustain the logical conclu- 
 sion 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, at least Northern 
 public opinion, not to care whether slavery is voted 
 down or voted up. This shows exactly where we now 
 are ; and partially, also, whither we are tending. 
 
 It will throw additional light on the latter, to go 
 back, and run the mind over the string of historical 
 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 Constitution." 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 afterv/ard 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 
 v/as the court decision held up? Why even a Senator's 
 individual opinion withheld till after the presidential 
 election ? Plainly enough now ; the speaking out then 
 vrould have damaged the perfectly free arsfument upon 
 v.hich the election v/as to be carried- Why the out- 
 going President's felicitation on the indorsement ? Why 
 the delay of a re-argument? Why the incoming Presi- 
 dent's advance exhortation in favor of the decision? 
 
 i6 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 These things 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 exact adap- 
 tations are the result of preconcert. But when we see 
 a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we 
 know have gotten out at different times and places, and 
 by different workmen — Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and 
 James, for instance — and when we see these timbers 
 joined together, and see they exactly make the frame 
 of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly 
 fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the dif- 
 ferent pieces exactly adapted to their respective 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 a 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 common plan or 
 draft drawn up before the first blow was struck. 
 
 It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska 
 bill, the people of a state, as well as territory, were to 
 be left "perfectly free," "subject only to the Constitu- 
 tion." 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 relation to the Con- 
 stitution therein treated as being precisely the same? 
 W^hile the opinion of the court, by Chief Justice Taney, 
 in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all 
 the concurring 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, 
 
 17 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 or the people of a state, to exclude it. Possibly, this is 
 a mere omission; but who can be quite sure, if McLean 
 or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declara- 
 tion of unlimited power in the people of a state to ex- 
 clude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace 
 sought to get such declaration, 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 language 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 states 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 Ne- 
 braska 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 per- 
 mit a state to exclude slavery from its limits. And 
 this may especially be expected, if the doctrine 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. 
 
 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 overthrown. We shall lie down pleas- 
 antly dreaming 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 overthrow the 
 power of that dynasty is the work now before all those 
 
 i8 
 
■ LINCOLN? 
 
 wTio would prevent that consummation. 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 us softly, that Senator 
 Doug-las 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 pres- 
 ent head of the dynasty, 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 one. 
 How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't 
 care anything about it. His avowed mission is im- 
 pressing the "public heart" to care nothing about it. A 
 leading Douglas democratic newspaper thinks Doug- 
 las' 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 labored to prove it 
 a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into 
 the new territories. Can he possibly show that it is 
 less a 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 the home production ? And as the home producers 
 will probably not ask the protection, 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 Vv-as yesterday— 
 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 particular change, of which 
 
 19 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 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' 
 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 assistance from his great ability, I 
 hope to have interposed no adventitous 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 thirteen hundred thousand 
 strong. We did this under the single impulse of re- 
 sistance to a common danger, with every external cir- 
 cumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and 
 even hostile elements, we gathered from from the four 
 winds, and formed and fought the battle through, un- 
 der the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud and 
 pampered enemy. Did we brave all then to falter 
 now? — now, when that same enemy is wavering, dis- 
 severed, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. 
 We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. 
 W^ise councils may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, 
 but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come. 
 
 At Quincy, October 13. 
 
 W^e have in this nation this element of domestic 
 slavery. It is a matter of absolute certainty that it is 
 a disturbing element. It is the opinion of all the great 
 men who have expressed an opinion upon it that it is 
 a dangerous element. We keep up a controversy in 
 reo-ard to it. That controversy necessarily springs 
 from difference of opinion, and if we can learn exactly 
 ^^can reduce to the lowest elements — what that differ- 
 ence of opinion is, we perhaps shall be better prepared 
 for discussing the different systems of policy that we 
 v/ould propose in regard to that disturbing element. 
 I suggest that the difference of opinion, reduced to 
 
 20 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 Its lowest terms, is no other than the difference be- 
 tween the men who think slavery a wrong and those 
 who do not think it wrong. The Republican party 
 think it a wrong— we think it is a moral, a social, and 
 a political wrong. We think it is a wrong not con- 
 iining itself merely to the persons or the states where 
 ii exists, but that it is a wrong in its tendency, to say 
 the least, that extends itself to the existence of the 
 whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we propose 
 a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. 
 We deal with it as with any other wrong, in so far 
 as we can prevent its growing any larger, and so deal 
 with it that in the run of time there may be some 
 promise of an end to it. We have a due regard to the 
 actual presence of it amongst us, and the difficulties 
 of getting rid of it in any satisfactory way, and all 
 the constitutional obligations thrown about it. I sup- 
 pose that in reference both to its actual existence in 
 the nation, and to our constitutional obligations, we 
 have no right at all to disturb it in the states where it 
 exists, and wx profess that we have no more inclination 
 to disturb it than we have the right to do it. We go 
 further than that; we don't propose to disturb it where, 
 in one instance, we think the Constitution would per- 
 mit us. We think the Constitution would permit us 
 to disturb it in the District of Columbia. Still we do 
 not propose to do that, unless it should be in terms 
 which I don't suppose the nation is very likely soon 
 to agree to — the terms of making the emancipation 
 gradual, and compensating the unwilling owners. 
 Where we suppose we have the constitutional right, 
 we restrain ourselves in reference to the actual exist- 
 ence of the institution and the difficulties thrown about 
 it. We also oppose it as an evil, so far as it seeks to 
 spread itself. We insist on the policy that shall restrict 
 it to its present limits. We don't suppose that in doing 
 this we violate anything due to the actual presence of 
 the institution, or anyhing due to the constitutional 
 guarantees thrown around it. 
 
 We oppose the Dred Scott decision in a certain way, 
 upon which I ought perhaps to address you a few 
 
 21 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 words. We do not propose that when Dred Scott has 
 been decided to be a slave by the court, we, as a mob, 
 will decide him to be free. We do not propose that, 
 when any other one, or one thousand, shall be decided 
 by that court to be slaves, we will in any violent way 
 disturb the rights of property thus settled; but we 
 nevertheless do oppose that decision as a political rule, 
 which shall be binding on the voter to vote for nobody 
 who thinks it wrong, which shall be binding on the 
 members of Congress or the President to favor no 
 measure that does not actually concur with the princi- 
 ples of that decision. We do not propose to be bound 
 by it as a political rule in that way, because we think 
 it lays the foundation not merely of enlarging and 
 spreading out what we consider an evil, but it lays the 
 foundation for spreading that evil into the states 
 themselves. We propose so resisting it as to have it 
 reversed if we can, and a new judicial rule established 
 upon this subject. 
 
 I will add this, that if there be any man who does 
 not believe that slavery is wrong in the three aspects 
 which I have mentioned, or in any one of them, that 
 man is misplaced, and ought to leave us. While, on 
 the other hand, if there be any man in the Republican 
 party who is impatient over the necessity springing 
 from its actual presence, and is impatient of the con- 
 stitutional guarantees thrown around it, and would 
 act in disregard of these, he too is misplaced, standing 
 with us. He will find his place somewhere else : for we 
 have a due regard, so far as we are capable of under- 
 standing them, for all these things. This gentlemen, 
 as well as I can give it, is a plain statement of our 
 principles in all their enormity. 
 
 At Alton, October 15. 
 
 I have intimated that I thought the agitation would 
 not cease until a crisis should have been reached and 
 passed. I have stated in what way I thought it would 
 be reached and passed. I have said that it might go 
 c'^e v/ay or the other. We might, by arresting the 
 
 22 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 further spread of it, and placing it where the fathers 
 originally placed it, put it where the public mind should 
 rest in the belief that it was in the course of ultimate 
 extinction. Thus the agitation may cease. It may 
 be pushed forward until it shall become alike lawful 
 in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as 
 South. I have said, and I repeat, my wish is that 
 the further spread of it may be arrested, and that it 
 may be placed w^here the public mind shall rest in the 
 belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, 
 I have expressed that as my wish. I entertain the 
 opinion, upon evidence sufficient to my mind, that the 
 fathers of this government placed that institution 
 where the public mind did rest in the belief that it 
 was in the course of ultimate extinction. Let me ask 
 why they made provision that the source of slavery — 
 the African slave trade — should be cut off at the end 
 of twenty years? Why did they make provision that 
 in all the new territory we owned at that time slavery 
 should be forever inhibited? Why stop its spread in 
 one direction and cut off its source in another, if they 
 did not look to its being placed in the course of ulti- 
 mate extinction? 
 
 The sentiment 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 neverthe- 
 less have due regard for its actual existence among 
 us, and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any satis- 
 factory w^ay, 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 
 should, 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 de- 
 sire a policy that looks to a peaceful end of slavery 
 at some time as being wrong. These are the views 
 
 23 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 they entertain in regard to it, as I understand them; 
 and all their sentiments — all their arguments and propo- 
 sitions are brought within this range. I have said, 
 and I repeat it here, that if there be a man amongst 
 us who does not think that the institution of slaver}' 
 is wrong, in any one of the aspects of which 1 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 sud- 
 denly in a satisfactory way, and to disregard the con- 
 stitutional obligations thrown about it, that man is 
 misplaced, if he is on our platform. We disclaim sym- 
 pathy with him in practical action. He is not placed 
 properly with us. 
 
 On this subject of treating it as a wrong, and limit- 
 ing its spread, let me say a word. Has anything 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. Vv^hat 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 con- 
 dition of things by enlarging slavery — by spreading it 
 out and making it bigger? You may have a wen or 
 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 a wrong. You see this peaceful way of deal- 
 ing with it as a wrong — restricting the spread of it, 
 and not allowing it to go into new countries where 
 it had 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 demo- 
 cratic 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 
 
 24 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 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 an}'- 
 body who supposes that he, as a democrat, can con- 
 sider himself "as much opposed to slavery as anybod}-," 
 I would like to reason with him. You never treat it 
 as a wrong. What other thing that you consider as 
 a "^rong do you deal with as you deal with that? Per- 
 haps you say it is a 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 any- 
 thing about it in the pulpit, because that is religion, 
 and has nothing to do with it. You must not say any- 
 thing about it in politics, 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 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 he in favor 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 known that Frank Blair and Gratz Brown, 
 down there in St. Louis, undertook to introduce that 
 system into Missouri. They fought us valiantly as 
 they could for the system of gradual emancipation 
 which you pretend 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 democracy. 
 More than that ; take all the arguments made in favor 
 of the system you have proposed, and it carefully ex- 
 cludes the idea that there is anything wrong in the 
 institution of slavery. The arguments to sustain that 
 policy carefully excluded it. Even here to-day you 
 
 25 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 heard Judge Douglas quarrel with me because I ut- 
 tered a wish that it might some time come to an end. 
 Although Henry Clay could say he wished every slave 
 in the United States was in the country of his ances- 
 tors, I am denounced by those pretending to respect 
 Henry Clay for uttering a wish that it might some 
 time, in some peaceful way, come to an end. The 
 democratic policy in regard to that institution will not 
 tolerate the merest breath, the slightest hint, of the 
 least degree of wrong about it. 
 
 At Independence Hall, Philadflphia, Feb. 21, 1861. 
 
 I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself 
 standing here in this place, where were collected to- 
 gether the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to 
 principle from which sprang the institutions under 
 which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that 
 in my hands is the task of restoring peace to the pres- 
 ent distracted condition of the country. I can say 
 m return, sir, that all the political sentiments I enter- 
 tain 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, 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 Delcaration 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 of idea it was that kept 
 this conefderacy so long together. It was not the 
 mere matter of the separation of the colonies from 
 the mother-land, but that sentiment in the Declaration 
 of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the 
 people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for 
 all future time. It was that which gave promise that 
 m due time the weight would be lifted from the shoul- 
 ders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in 
 the Declaration of Independence. Now, rny friends, 
 
 26 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 can this country be saved upon that basis If it can, 
 1 will consider myself one of the happiest men m the 
 world if I can help to save it. But if this country 
 cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I 
 was about to say I would rather be assassinated 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 
 favor of such a course; and I may say in advance 
 that there will be no bloodshed unless it be forced upon 
 the government, and then it will be compelled to act 
 m self-defence. 
 
 My friends, this is an wholly unexpected speech, and 
 1 did not expect to be called upon to say a word when 
 I came here. I supposed it was merely to do some- 
 thing towards raising the flag— I may, therefore, have 
 said something indiscreet. I have said nothing but 
 what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure 
 of Almighty God, die by. 
 
 FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 March 4, 1861. 
 
 Fellow Citizens of the United States— In compliance 
 with a custom as old as the government itself, I ap- 
 pear before you to address you briefly, and to take in 
 your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution 
 of the United States to be taken by the President 
 "before he enters on the execution of his office." 
 
 I do not consider it necessary at present for me to 
 discuss those matters of administration about which 
 there is no special anxiety or excitement. 
 
 Apprehension seems to exist among the people of 
 the Southern States that by the accession of a republi- 
 can administration their property and their peace and 
 personal security are to be endangered. There has 
 never been any reasonable 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 public speeches of him 
 who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of 
 those speeches when I declare that 'T have no pur- 
 
 27 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 pose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the insti- 
 tution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe 
 1 have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclina- 
 tion to do so." Those who nominated and elected me 
 did so with full knowledge that I had made this and 
 many similar declarations, and had never recanted 
 them. And more than this, they placed in the plat- 
 form for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves 
 and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which 
 I now read: — 
 
 "Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of 
 the rights of the states, and especially the right of 
 each state to order and control its own domestic 
 institutions according to its own judgment exclu- 
 sively, is essential to the balance of power on 
 which the perfection and endurance of our politi- 
 cal fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless 
 invasion by armed force of the soil of any state 
 or territory, no matter under what pretext, as 
 among the gravest of crimes." 
 
 I now reiterate these sentiments ; and, in doing so, 
 I only press upon the public attention the most con- 
 clusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that 
 the property, peace and security of no section are to 
 be in anywise endangered by the now incoming admin- 
 istration. I add, too, that all the protection which, 
 consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can 
 be given, will be cheerfully given to all the states, when 
 lawfully demanded, for w^hatever cause — as cheerfully 
 to one section as to another. 
 
 There is much controversy about the delivering up 
 of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now 
 read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any 
 other of its provisions: — 
 
 "No person held to service or labor in one state, 
 under the laws thereof, escaping into another, 
 shall, in consequence of any law or regulation 
 therein, be discharged from such service or labor, 
 but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to 
 whom such service or labor may be due." 
 It is scarcely questioned that this provision was 
 
 2$ 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of 
 what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the 
 lawgiver is the law. All members of Congress swear 
 their support to the whole Constitution— to^ this pro- 
 vision as much as any other. To the propositon, then, 
 that slaves, whose cases come within the terms of this 
 clause, "shall be delivered up," their oaths are unani- 
 mous. Now, if they would make the effort in good 
 temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, 
 frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good 
 that unanimous oath? 
 
 There is some difference of opinion whether this 
 clause should be enforced by national or by state 
 authority; but surely that difference is not a very 
 material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can 
 be of but little consequence to him, or to others, by 
 which authority it is done. And should any one, in 
 any case be content that his oath shall go unkept, an 
 a mere unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall 
 be kept? 
 
 Again, in any law upon the subject, ought not all 
 the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and human 
 jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be 
 not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? And might 
 it not be well, at the same time, to provide by law for 
 the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution 
 which guarantees that "the citizens of each state shall 
 be entitled to all priviliges and immunities of citizens 
 hi the several states?" 
 
 I shall take the official oath to-day with no mental 
 reservation, and with no purpose to construe the Con- 
 stitution or laws by any hypercritical rule. And while 
 I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Con- 
 gress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it Vvill 
 be much safer for all, both in official and private sta- 
 tions, 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 unconstitu- 
 tional. 
 
 It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration 
 of a President under our national Constitution. Dur- 
 
 29 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 ing that period, fifteen different and greatly distin- 
 guished citizens have, in succession, administered the 
 executive branch of the government. They have con- 
 ducted it through many perils, and generally with 
 great success. Yet, with all this scope for precedent, 
 1 now enter upon the same task for the brief constitu- 
 tional term of four years, under great and peculiar 
 difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, hereto- 
 fore only menaced is now formidably attempted. 
 
 I hold that, in contemplation of universal law, and 
 of the Constitution, the union of these states is per- 
 petual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the 
 fundamental law of all national governments. It is 
 safe to assert that no government proper ever had a 
 provision in its organic law for its own termination. 
 Continue to execute all the express provisions of our 
 national government, and the Union will endure for- 
 ever — 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 government 
 proper, but an association of states in the nature oi 
 contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably 
 unmade by less tlian 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 ? 
 
 Descending from these general principles, we find 
 the proposition that, in legal contemplation, the Union 
 is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union 
 itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. 
 It was formed, in fact, by the articles of association 
 in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declara- 
 tion of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, 
 and the faith of all the then thirteen states expressly 
 plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by 
 the articles of confederation in 1778. And, finally, in 
 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and 
 establishing the Constitution was *'to form a more per- 
 fect Union." 
 
 But if destruction of the Union, by one, or by a part 
 only, of the states, be lawfully possible, the Union is 
 less perfect than before, the Constition having lost 
 the vital element of perpetuity. 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 It follows, 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 that acts of violence within any states or 
 states, against the authority of the United States, are 
 insurrectionary, or revolutionary, according to circum- 
 stances. 
 
 I, therefore, consider that in view of the Constitu- 
 tion and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and to the 
 extent of my ability I shall take, as the Constitu- 
 tion itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws 
 of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states. 
 Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part ; 
 and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless 
 my rightful masters, the American people, shall with- 
 hold the requisite means, or, in some authoritative 
 manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not bei 
 regarded 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 governrnent, and to collect the 
 duties and imposts ; but beyond what may be but neces- 
 sary for these objects there will be no invasion, no 
 using of force against or among the people anywhere. 
 Where hostility to the United States in any interior 
 locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent 
 competent resident citizens from holding federal of- 
 fices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxioiis 
 strangers among the people for that object. While 
 the strict legal right may exist in the government to 
 enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do 
 so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable 
 withal, I deem It better to forego, for the time, the uses 
 of such ofiices. 
 
 The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be fur- 
 nished in all parts of the l^nion. So far as possible, 
 the people everywhere shall have that sense cf perfect 
 
 31 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 security which is most favorable to cahn thought and 
 reflection. The course here indicated *vill be followed, 
 unless current events and experience shall show a 
 modification or change to be proper, and in every case 
 and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, ac- 
 cording to circumstances actually existing, and with a 
 view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national 
 troubles, and the restoration of fraternal sympathies 
 and affections. 
 
 That there are persons in one section or another 
 who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are 
 glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor 
 deny; but if there be such, I need address no word 
 to them. To those, however, who really love the 
 Union, may I not speak? 
 
 Before entering upon so grave a matter as the de- 
 struction 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 exist- 
 ence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are 
 greater than all the real ones you fly from — will you 
 risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? 
 
 All profess to be content in the Union, if all con- 
 stitutional 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. If, by the mere force of num- 
 bers, a majority should deprive a minority of any 
 clearly written constitutional right, it might, In a moral 
 point of view, justify revolution — certain would if 
 such a right v/ere a vital one. But such is not our 
 case. All the vital rights of minorities and of indi- 
 viduals are so plainly assured to them by affirmation 
 and negations, guarantees and prohibitions in the Con- 
 stitution, that controversies never arise concerning 
 them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a 
 provision specifically applicable to every question 
 
 32 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 which may occur in practical administration. No fore- 
 sight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable 
 length contain, express provisions for all possible 
 questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered 
 by national or by state authority? The Constitution 
 does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery 
 in the territories ? The Constitution does not express- 
 ly sav. 
 
 From questions of this class spring all our constitu- 
 tional controversies, and we divide upon them into 
 majorities and minorities. If the minority vv^-ll not 
 acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must 
 cease. There is no other alternative ; for contmunig 
 the government is acquiescence on one side or the 
 other. If a minority in such case will secede rather 
 than acquiesce, they make a precedent which, in turn, 
 will divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own 
 will secede from them whenever a majority refuses 
 to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why 
 m.ay not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or 
 two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as por- 
 tions of the present Union now claim to secede from 
 it ? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being 
 educated to the exact tem.per of doing this. 
 
 Is there such perfect identity of interests among 
 the states to compose a new Union, as to produce har- 
 mony only, and prevent renewed secession? 
 
 Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence 
 of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitu- 
 tional checks and limitations, and always changing 
 easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and 
 sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. 
 Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy 
 or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible ; the rule 
 of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly 
 inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, 
 anarchy or despotism, in some form, is all that is left. 
 
 I do not forget the position assumed by some, that 
 constitutional questions are to be decided by the Su- 
 preme Court; nor do I deny that such decisions must 
 be binding, in any case, upon the parties to a suit, 
 
 33 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled 
 to very high respect and consideration in all parallel 
 cases, by all other departments of the government. 
 And while it is obviously possible that such decisions 
 may be erroneous in any given case, still, the evil effect 
 following it being limited to that particular case, with 
 the chance that it may be overruled, and never become 
 a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than 
 could the evils of a different practice. At the same 
 time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy 
 of the government upon vital questions affecting the 
 whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions 
 of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in 
 ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions, 
 the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, hav- 
 ing to that extent practically resigned their govern- 
 ment into the hands of that eminent tribunal. 
 
 Nor is there in this view any assault upon the Court 
 or the Judges. It is a duty from which they may not 
 shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, 
 and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their 
 decisions to political purposes. One section of our 
 country believes slavery is right, and ought to be ex- 
 tended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought 
 not to be extended. This is the only substantial dis- 
 pute. The fugitive slave clause of the Constitution, and 
 the law for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, 
 are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can 
 ever be in a community where the moral sense of the 
 people 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 fugitive slaves, now only partially 
 surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the 
 other. 
 
 Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We can- 
 not remove our respective sections from each other nor 
 build an impassable wall between them. A husband 
 
 34 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence 
 and beyond the reach of each other; but the different 
 parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but 
 remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable 
 or hostile, must continue between them. It is impos- 
 sible 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 enforced between aliens 
 than laws can 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. 
 
 This country, with its institutions, belongs to the 
 people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow 
 weary of the existing government, they can exercise 
 their constitutional right of amending it, or their 
 revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I 
 cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and 
 patrotic citizens are desirous of having the National 
 Constitution amended. While I make no recommen- 
 dation of amendment, I fully recognize the rightful 
 authority of the people over the whole subject, to be 
 exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the in- 
 strument itself; and I should, under existing circum- 
 stances, favor, rather than oppose, a fair opportunity 
 being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture 
 to add, that to me the convention mode seems prefer- 
 able, in that it allows amendments to originate with 
 the people themselves instead of only permitting them 
 to take or reject propositions originated by others, not 
 especially chosen for the purpose, and which might 
 not be precisely such as they would wish to either ac- 
 cept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment 
 to the Constitution — which amendment, however, I 
 have not seen — has passed Congress, to the effect that 
 the Federal Government shall never interfere with the 
 domestic institutions of the states, including, that of 
 persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of 
 what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to 
 
 35 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that, 
 holding such a provision now to be implied constitu- 
 tional law. I have no objections to its being made 
 express and irrevocable. 
 
 The chief magistrate derives all his authority from 
 the people, and they have conferred none upon him 
 to fix terms for the separation of the states. The 
 people themselves can do this also if they choose; but 
 the executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His 
 duty is to adm.inister 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 tribu- 
 nal of the American people. 
 
 By the frame of the government under wihch we 
 live, the same people have wisely given their public 
 servants but little power for mischief, and have, with 
 equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little 
 to their own hands at very short intervals. While the 
 people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administra- 
 tion, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very 
 seriously injure the government in the short space of 
 four years. 
 
 My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well 
 upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be 
 lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry 
 any of you in hot haste to a step which you would 
 never take deliberately, that object will be' frustrated 
 by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated 
 by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have 
 the old Constitution 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 dis- 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 pute, there still is no single good reason for precipi- 
 tate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and 
 a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken 
 this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the 
 best way, all our present difficulty. 
 
 In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and 
 not in mine, is the monentous issues of civil war. The 
 government will not assail you. 
 
 You can have no conflict without being yourselves 
 the aggressors. You have no oath registered in 
 heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have 
 the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and de- 
 fend" it. 
 
 I am loathe to close. We are not enemJes, but 
 friends. We must riot be enemies. Though passion 
 may have strained, it must not break our bonds of 
 affection. 
 
 The mystic cord of mem^ory, stretching from every 
 battle-field 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. 
 
 EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 
 
 Washington, January i, 1863. 
 
 Whereas, on the 22d day of September, in the year 
 of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
 two, a proclamation w^as issued by the President of 
 the United States, containing, among other things, the 
 following, to vv'it : — 
 
 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 states or designated 
 part of a state, the people 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 mili- 
 tary and naval authority thereof, will recognize 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. 
 
 Z7 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 That the Executive will, on the first day df January 
 aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and 
 parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof re- 
 spectively shall then be in rebellion against the United 
 States ; and the fact that any state, or the people there- 
 of, 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 countervailing testimony, be 
 deemed conclusive evidence that such state, and the 
 people therof, 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-cliief of the army and navy of the 
 United States in time of actual armed rebellion against 
 the authority and government of the United States, 
 and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppress- 
 ing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in 
 the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 sixty-tliree, and in accordance with my purpose so to 
 do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hun- 
 dred 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 rebel- 
 lion against the United States, the following, to wit : 
 
 Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of 
 St. Bernard, Plaquemines, JefTerson, St. John, St. 
 Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre 
 Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, St. IMartin, and Or- 
 leans, including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, 
 Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North 
 Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties 
 designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of 
 Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, 
 York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities 
 of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted 
 parts are for the present left precisely as if this pro- 
 clamation were not issued. 
 
 38 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 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 ot 
 •states are, and henceforward shall be, free ;^ and that 
 tlie Executive Government of the United States, ni- 
 cluding the rnilitarv and naval authorities therof, wul 
 recop-nize and maintain the freedom ol said persons 
 And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared 
 to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in neces- 
 sary self-defence ; and I recommend to them that, m 
 all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for rea- 
 sonable wages. ^1 ^ u 
 And I further declare and make known that sucn 
 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 bv the Constitution upon mili- 
 tary necessitv, I invoke the considerate judgment of 
 mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God. 
 
 In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, 
 and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed 
 Done at the City of Washington, this first day of 
 Tanuarv, in the vear of our Lord one thousand 
 eight hundred and sixtv-three, and of the inde- 
 [l. s.] pendence of the United States the eighty- 
 seventh. 
 By the President : Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 William H. Seward, Secretary of State. 
 
 SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG. 
 
 November IQ, 1863. 
 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought 
 forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived m 
 liberty, and dedicated to the proposition tnat all men 
 are created equal. Now we are engaged m a great 
 civil war, testing whether that nation, or any naaon 
 so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. \\ e 
 are met on a great battle-field of that war. AVe have 
 come to dedicate a portion of that field as a nnal rest- 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 ing-place for those who here gave their Hves that that 
 nation might Uve. It is altogether fitting and proper 
 that we should do this. But in a larger sense we can- 
 not 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, Vv^hat we say here, but it can 
 never forget v/hat 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 dedi- 
 cated to the great task remaining before us, that from 
 these honored 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 gov- 
 ernment of the people, by the people, and for the peo- 
 ple, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 March 4, 1865. 
 
 Fellow-Countrymen — At this second appearing to 
 take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less 
 occasion for an extended address than there was at 
 the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a 
 course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. 
 Now, at the expiration of four years, during which 
 public declarations have been constantly called forth 
 on every point and phase of the great contest which 
 still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies 
 of the nation, little that is new could be presented. 
 
 The progress of our arms, upon which all else chieflv 
 depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, 
 and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encourag- 
 ing to all. Vv' ith high hope for the future, no predic- 
 tion in regard to it is ventured. 
 
 On the occasion corresponding to this four years 
 ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an im- 
 pending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avoid 
 
 40 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 It. While the inaugural address was being delivered 
 from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union 
 without war, insurgent agents were in the city, seeking 
 to destroy it with war — seeking to dissolve the Union 
 and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties 
 deprecated war, but one of them would make war 
 rather than let the nation survive, and the other would 
 accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. 
 One-eighth of the whole population were colored 
 slaves, not distributed generally over the union, but 
 localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves 
 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 by war, while the government claimed no 
 right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlarge- 
 ment of it. 
 
 Neither party expected for the v/ar the magnitude 
 or the duration which it has already attained. Neither 
 anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease, 
 or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each 
 looked for an easier triumph, and a result less funda- 
 mental and astounding. 
 
 Both read the same Bible and 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 w^-inging their bread from 
 the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, 
 that we be not judged. The prayer of both could not 
 be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. 
 The Almighty has his own purposes. Woe unto the 
 world, because of offences, for it must needs be that 
 offences coine, but woe to that man by whom the of- 
 fence cometh. If we shall suppose that American slav- 
 ery is one of these offences which in the providence of 
 God must needs come, but which having continued 
 through His appointed tim.e 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 there any departure from those Divine 
 
 41 
 
LINCOLN. 
 
 attributes which the believers in a living God always 
 ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do 
 we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily 
 pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all 
 the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and 
 fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until 
 every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid 
 by another drawn with the sword, as was said three 
 thousand years ago, so, still it must be said, that the 
 judgments of the Lord are true and righteous alto- 
 gether. 
 
 With malice towards none, wath charity for all, with 
 firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, 
 let us 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 orphans, to do all 
 which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting 
 peace among ourselves and wdth all nations. 
 
 4« 
 
Interesting Facts and Plans 
 
 concerning a Library of Universal Literature, repre- 
 senting all times and all languages, translated. 
 
 Each reader may be, in a measure, "his own 
 editor" and choose the authors which most interest 
 him. 
 
 In the years 1884-91 the writer of this, Mr. Alden, 
 edited and published a "Cyclopedia of Universal 
 Literature," in 20 volumes, covering biographies 
 and selections from the writings of about 2,000 of 
 the world's most celebrated authors. In 1891 this 
 work passed from his hands to those of other pub- 
 lishers. 
 
 Since 1896 that Cyclopedia has, with trifling 
 changes and some additions, been "masqueraded," 
 first under the name of "Du Puy's," more recently 
 as "Ridpath's" Library of Universal Literature, 
 selling at about five times the former "Alden 
 prices" ; and — a serious "joke" on themselves — in 
 their anxiety to get away from the "Alden" name, 
 the publishers foolishly forfeited their legal copy- 
 right. 
 
 This makes it possible for us to republish the 
 original work, so far as we choose to do so — but we 
 plan to make very great improvements upon it. 
 
 The "Cyclopedia of Universal Literature" was 
 the first publication of its class, and served in large 
 measure as a model, and even to a surprising ex- 
 tent as the "source" of later compilations — notably 
 the "Library of the World's Best Literature," with 
 wdiich the name of Charles Dudley Warner is as- 
 sociated ; also "Masterpieces of the World's Lit- 
 erature," Harry Thurston Peck, Julian Hawthorne 
 and Frank R. Stockton, editors, which most flatter- 
 ingly "compliments" the original Alden work by 
 the great amount of matter transferred, bodily, to 
 "Masterpieces," 
 
THE PRAISE OF BOOKS. 
 
 John Bright — On the Love of Books, 3c. The Praise of Books, 
 
 by Famous Men, from Socrates to Carlyle, 3c. 
 Dr. John Brown — Rab and His Friends, 3c. 
 Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin and Other 
 
 Poems, 3c. 
 ]\Irs. Browning's Lady Geraldine's Courtship, sc. 
 Buddha — Selections, translated by Max Muller, 3c. 
 Edmund Burke — On the Sublime and Beautiful, loc. 
 Robert Burns — The Cotter's Saturday Night; Tam o' Shanter; 
 
 To a Mouse ; The Toothache ; Auld Lang Syne ; A Man's a 
 
 Man ; etc., s^. Carlyle's Hero as Poet, 3c. 
 Lord Byron — IMazeppa, 3c. ; Childe Harold, 6c. 
 Thomas Campbell — Gertrude of Wyoming, 3c. 
 Thomas Carlyle — The Hero as Poet; as Prophet; as Priest; 
 
 as Divinity; as King, as Man of Letters, each 3c. On 
 
 Goethe, 5c. Jean Paul Richter, 3c. 
 Chaucer — The Story of Grisilde, with glossary, 5c. ' 
 Madame Cottin — Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia. 8c. 
 William Cowper — John Gilpin's Ride and Other Poems, 3c. 
 
 Table Talk, 3c. The Task, 5c. 
 R. PL Dana — The Buccaneers, 3c. 
 Dante — Carlyles Essay on The Hero as Poet, 3c. 
 Declaration of Independence and U. S- Constitution, 3c. 
 Thomas De Quince}- — On Conversation, 3c. Confessions of 
 
 an Opium Eater, 15c. 
 Prof. Henry Drum.mond — Pax Vobiscum, 3c. Love, the 
 
 Greatest Thing in the World, 3c. A Talk with Boys, 3c. 
 
 Travels in Tropical Africa, T2c. 
 George Eliot — How Lisa Loved the King, 3c. 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lecture on, by Matthew Arnold, 3c. 
 
 Emerson's Essay on Character, 3c. 
 Epictetus — Teachings of Epictetus, 15c. 
 Baron Fouque — Undine, 8c. 
 James Anthony Froude — On Education. 3c. 
 Wm. E. Gladstone — The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture, 
 
 3C. The Creation Story, 3c. The Psalms, 3c. 
 Goethe — Carlyle's Essay on Goethe, sc. Goethe's Herman and 
 
 Dorothea, 7c. Emerson's Essay on Goethe, 3c. 
 Oliver Goldsmith— The Deserted Villan^e and The Traveler, 
 
 3c. The Vicar of Wakefield, iSc Life, by Washington Irv- 
 
 m^l, 15c. 
 Thomas Gray— Elegy in a Country Church Yard, 3c. 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes— The One-Hoss Shay and Other 
 
 Poems, 3c. The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. 15c. Sketch 
 
 of, by IT. R. Haweis, 3c. 
 Thomas Hood— The Bridge of Sighs, The Song of the Shirt, 
 
 and Oth<-r Poems, 3c. 
 Hulbert— The Distinctive Idea in Education: "Not What a 
 
 Man Knows, but JVJiat a Man Is." 3c. 
 Thomas IT. Huxley — Evidences of Evolution. t,c. 
 Jean Ingelow— Songs of Seven and Other Poems, 3c, 
 
Washington Irving— Sketch of, by H. R. Havveis, 2c. Rip 
 Van Winkle, 3c. Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 3c. The Spec- 
 tre Bridegroom, 3c. Days in the Alhambra, 3c. Tour of 
 the Prairies, loc. Life, by R. H. Stoddard; cloth, loc. 
 
 Samuel Johnson— Macaulay's Essay on Johnson, 3c. Carlyle's 
 Hero as a Man of Letters, 3c. 
 
 Keats— Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems, 3c. 
 
 Lamartine — Life of Mary, Queen of Scots, 8c. 
 
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 II Penseroso, 6c. Paradise Lost, Books 1-2, notes, 6c.; 
 
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Shelley— The Sensitive Plant and Other Poems, 3c. 
 
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 U. S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, 3c. 
 
 George Washington — Farewell Address and Other Papers, 3c. 
 
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 A BooK for Every American Homeo 
 
 Speeches, Letters, and Other Papers by Eminent American Statesmen and P* 
 trlots, compiled by S. H. Peabody, Ex-Pres't, University of Illinois, 684 pages^ 
 12mo, cloth, gilt top. 65c. ^ ,. ^ 
 
 It is simple truth to say it: the literature and history of no other nation can 
 present a compilation of papers that will match it — patriotism, eloquence, wiaa 
 statesmanship here stand unrivaled. No lover of his country can affora to be un- 
 acquainted with the contents of the volume. Every patriot's heart will glow 
 with pride, and with hope for bis country's future, when he reads and consults it. 
 
 A Portion of Its Contents. 
 
 Washington: Letter to the Governors. Andrew Jackson: Against Nullification. 
 
 Farewell to the Army; Resignation of Daniel Webster: On Adams and Jef* 
 
 Commission; Inaugural Address; Faro- ferson; Bunker Hill Monument, t^^c» 
 
 well Address speeches; Reply to Hayne. 
 
 Samuel Adams: Protest of Boston Henry Clay: Consequences of Secession, 
 
 against Taxation; Appeal to the Sons Charles Sun>aer: The True Grandeur o£ 
 
 of Liberty; R6ports on the Rights of Nations; Protest Against Slavery la 
 
 rfinni=!t<? Kansas and Nebraska. 
 
 T^.; V,,., n Pnnklin- Causes of \meri- ^^^"^^ Choate: Eulogy on Webster. 
 
 Colonies. ^^ Gettysbum 
 
 Joseph Warren: Oration at Boston. w.-ndel Phillips': Burial of John Brown; 
 
 Jc.hn Hancock: Oration on the Boston ,p^^ ^j,^ j^^. ^^^ Union. 
 
 Massacre. „ ^. ^. • ♦v, Heurv Ward Beecher: The Martyr 
 
 John Adams: Predictions concerning the l»resident. 
 
 Fourth of July. George Bancroft: The Death of Lin- 
 
 WiUiam Pitt: On Removing the Troops (.(,11,. 
 
 from Boston. r. c. Winfhrop: Centennial Oration. 
 
 Patrick Henry: To the Delegates of Matthew Siuipsori: The Burial of Lincoln. 
 
 Virginia. Abraham Lincoln: Debate with Doug' 
 
 John Quincy Adams: On Lafayette; las; Speech at Independence Hall; In 
 
 Jubilee of the Cons^titution. augural Addresses; Emancipatiorf 
 
 Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Proclamation and Speech at Gettys 
 
 Independence. burg. 
 
 Besides these are many other speeches and papers, by other eminent patriot* 
 and statesmen ©f hardly less interest and value. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS