975.7165 Orcein, Abraham Let us celebrate the great, ness of this man, February 12. » c LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER @fe&W€n>y J£, J 050 ^£0/ m < ~we&/*4w& d%e ^veadneM a/'dfa <^&em Richard Barksdale Harwell ?73.lU3 KI95 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/letuscelebrategrOOIinc Let us celebrate the greatness or this man by assembling excerpts rrom his writ- ings ana speeches. It is my considered opinion that thou- sands or years hence many or his words printed in this booklet will ring out clear and true as they do on this day SUNDAY FEBRUARY 12, 1950 M, .en saw no portents on that winter night A hundred years ago. No omens flared Above that rail-built cabin with one door, And windowless to all the peering stars. They laid him in the hallow of a log, Humblest of cradles, save that other one — The manger in the stall at Bethlehem. N, o portents! yet with whisper and alarm The Evil Powers that dread the nearing feet Of heroes held a council in that hour; And sent three fates to darken that low door, To baffle and beat back the heaven-sent child. Three were the fates — gaunt Poverty that chains, Gray Drudgery that grinds the hope away, And gaping Ignorance that starves the soul. 1 hey came with secret laughters to destroy. Ever they dogged him, counting every step, Waylaid his youth and strugged for his life. They came to master, but he made them serve. And from the wrestle with the destinies, He rose with all his energies aglow. — EDWIN MARKHAM — (1909) From — "The Praise of Lincoln" An Anthology. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Indiana FEBRUARY 12, 1809 tt ILL FED • ILL CLAD • ILL HOUSED tf Above etching by Charles Withee of Peoria, 111. Suggested by a cartoon by H. T. Webster which appeared several years ago in the New York Herald-Tribune — "THAT GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH." * • • FEBRUARY 12, 1950 WASHINGTON, D. C. FROM SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS MARCH 4, 1865 W ith malice toward none; with charity ror all; with rirmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to rinish the work we are in; to hind up the nation's wounds; to care ror him who shall have home the hattle, and ror his widow, and his orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. THE PERPETUATION OF OUR POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS." (An address delivered at the age of twenty-nine before the Young Mens Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838.) "As a subject for the remarks of the evening, 'The perpetuation of our poltical institutions" is selected. "In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of the Chris- tian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourslves under the government of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them; they are a legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edfice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only to transmit these — the former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation — to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform. "At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide. "I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is even now something of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country — the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts of out- rages committed by mobs form the everyday news of the times. "I know the American people are much attached to their government; I know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils long and pa- tiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for another, — yet, notwith- Let us celebrate the "Greatness" of this man. If I were asked to put just the kernel of his leadership in a few words, my answer would be: Imagination. I should say imagination with natural piety and moral magnanimity. — prof. T. v. smith. [9] standing all this, if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come. "When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be made for them with the least possible delay, but till then let them, if not too intolerable, be borne with. "But it may be asked, 'Why suppose danger to our political institutions? Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years? And why may we not for fifty times as long?' "We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, dangerous in their tendency, which have not existed heretofore, and which are not too insignificant to merit attention. That our government should have been maintained in its original form, from its establishment until now, is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is understood to be a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity and fame and distinction expected to find them in the success of that experiment. Their all was staked, upon it; their destiny was inseparably linked with it. Their ambition aspired to display before an admiring world a practical demonstration of the truth of a proposition which had hitherto been considered at best no better than problematical — namely, the capability of a people to govern themselves. If they succeeded they were to be immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties, and cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered and sung, toasted through all time. If they failed, they were to be called knaves, and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be forgotten. They succeeded. The experiment is successful, and thousands have won their deathless names in making it so. But the game is caught; and I believe it is true that with the catching end the pleasures of the chase. This field of glory is harvested, and the crop is already appropriated. But new reapers will arise, and they too will seek a field. It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And when they do, they will as naturally, seek the gratification of their ruling passion as others have done before them. He became a symbol never equaled in any history, whether it is Grecian or Roman or French or British or Russian history. He demonstrated that, under the consent of the gov- erned, leaders may rise to the greatest heights without forgetting those they serve. PROF. CHARLES E. MERRIAM. [10] "Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And when such an one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successful frustrate his designs. "Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willing- ly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down. "Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such an one as could not have well existed heretofore." "I SWEAR ETERNAL FIDELITY TO THE JUST CAUSE." (Speech at Springfield, III., during the Harrison Presidential campaign, 1840.) "Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was last to desert, but that I never de- serted, her. "I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing. "I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it, I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which we believe to be just. It shall not deter me. "If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly, alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. "Here, without contemplating consequences, before Heaven, and in the face of the world, / swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love; and who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath that I take? A thousand years hence no poet will deem his literary career complete until he has writ- ten at least one poem dedicated to this Uncommon Commoner; no artist will be disposed to lay aside his brush except he has put upon canvas his dear, homely, and beautiful face; no orator will be content to leave the platform unless he has woven into rhetorical fabric his heart's tribute to the man, who, born in a one-room log cabin, lighted by a single window, and with a dirt floor, climbed through pain, struggle, sacrifice and sorrow, to his place among "the few, the immortal names that were not born to die." — dr. edgar dewitt jones. [11] "Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. "But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so, we still have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, and adorned of our hearts in disaster, in chains, in death, we never faltered in defending." "THE ONE RETROGRADE INSTITUTION IN AMERICA." (Reply to Stephen A. Douglas, on the Kansas and Nebraska Bill, Springfield, III, October 4, 1854.) "Be not deceived. The spirit of the Revolution and the spirit of Nebraska are antipodes; and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter. Shall we make no effort to arrest this? Already the liberal party throughout the world express the apprehension 'that the one retrograde institution in America is undermining the principles of progress, and fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw.' This is not the taunt of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard — to disparage it? Is there no danger to liberty itself in discarding the earliest practice, and first precept of our ancient faith? "In our greedy haste to make profit of the negro, let us beware lest we cancel and rend in pieces even the white man's charter of freedom. "My distinguished friend, Douglas, says it is an insult to the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska to suppose they are not able to govern themselves. We must not slur over an argument of this kind because it happens to tickle the ear. It must be met and answered, "I admit the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern him- self, but, / deny his right to govern any other person without that person s consent." THE INJUSTICE OF SLAVERY. (Speech at Peoria, III., October 16, 1854.) "This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert zeal, for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slav- ery itself; I hate it because it deprives our republic of an example of its just influ- ence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; His genius for political finesse not only created the enthusiasm which insured his re- election, but was invaluable to the country during the war. He managed to keep radical New England and the conservative border states working together for Union; and through all the political vicissitudes of the conflict, not one foreign government ever sent a minister to Richmond. — M. l. houser. [12] and, especially, because it forces so many really good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticising the Declaration of Independence and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. "The doctrine of self-government is right, — absolutely and eternally right, — but it has no just application, as here attempted. Or, perhaps, I should rather say, that whether it has such just application depends upon whether a negro is not, or is, a man. If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man may, as a matter of self- government, do just what he pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of self-government to say that he, too, shall not govern himself? "When the white man governs himself that is self-government; but when he governs himself, and also governs another man, that is more than self-government — that is despotism. "What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man with- out that other's consent. "The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for him- self. Allow all the governed an equal voice in the government; that, and that only, is self-government. "Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and con- vulsions must ceaselessly follow. "Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all compromise — and repeal the Declaration of Independence — repeal all past history — still you cannot repeal human nature. "I particularly object to the new position which the avowed principles of the Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to it, because it assumes that there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free people, — a sad evidence that feeling prosper- ity, we forget right, — that liberty as a principle we have ceased to revere. "Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration that for some men to enslave others is a 'sacred right of self-govern- ment.' These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon. . . . That seems all the more remarkable, if not incredible. When we think that he has been so recently with us in contrast to the long range of human history itself. To have plowed your way into the morality and ethics of a civilization within a hundred years after one's death is an achievement unparalleled in human history. — dr. preston bradley. [13] "Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us purify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not in the blood, of the Revolution. "Let us turn slavery from its claims of 'moral right' back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of 'necessity.' Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in peace. "Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and the practices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South — let all Americans — let all lovers of liberty everywhere, join in the great and good work. "If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but shall have so saved it, as to make and to keep it forever worthy of saving. We shall have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free, happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest generations." ADDITIONAL EXCERPTS FROM THE PEORIA ADDRESS "Let me say that I think I have no prejudice against the Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us, we should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses North and South." "I insist that if there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people never to intrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions." "Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." "It is in the Constitution, and I do not for that cause, propose to destroy, or alter, or disregard the Constitution. I stand to it, fairly, fully and firmly." "Equal justice to the South, it is said, requires us to consent to the extension of slavery to new countries. That is to say, inasmuch as you do not object to my tak- ing my hog to Nebraska, therefore I must not object to your taking your slave. Now, I admit that this is perfectly logical if there is no difference between hogs and negroes. But while you thus require me to deny the humanity of the negro, I wish to ask whether you of the South, yourselves, have ever been willing to do as much ? It is kindly provided that of all those who come into the world only a small percentage are natural tyrants. That percentage is no larger in the slave states than in the free. The great majority South, as well as North, have human sympathies, of which they can no more divest themselves than they can of their sensibility to He lived in an era when men were resorting to every trick and fraud that their ingenuity could devise. This epoch of our national history brought out the most desperate efforts of political wire-pullers on either side, and often men, usually sincere and upright, forgot their integrity and under the dire stress of unusual necessity, counseled compromise and indirection. But he stood solid as a rock upon the strong foundation of absolute honesty and from this he could neither be shaken by violence or opposition; nor wooed by the winsomeness of treacherous flattery. — lester o. schriver. [14] physical pain. These sympathies in the bosom of the Southern people manifest, in many ways, their sense in the wrong of slavery, and their consciousness that after all, there is humanity in the negro. If they deny this, let me address them a few plain questions. In 1820 you joined the North, almost unanimously, in declaring the African slave-trade piracy, and in annexing to it the punishment of death. Why did you do this? If you did not feel that it was wrong, did you join in pro- viding that men should be hung for it? The practice was no more than bringing wild negroes from Africa to such as would buy them. But you never thought of hanging men for catching and selling wild horses, wild buffaloes, or wild bears." HOPELESS PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE. (Letter to Hon. Geo. Robertson, Lexington, Ky., August 15, 1855.) "So far as peaceful voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the negro slave in America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free mind, is now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better as that of the lost souls of the finally impenitent. "The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his sub- jects free republicans, sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves. "Our political problem now is, can we as a nation continue together perma- nently — forever — half slave and half free? The problem is too mighty for me. May God in his mercy superintend the solution!" ADDRESS IN SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 26, 1857. "I think the authors of that notable instrument (Declaration of Independ- ence) intended to include all men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social capacity. They denned with tolerable distinctness in what respects they did consider all men created equal — equal with 'certain inalien- able rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. "They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and The soldiers were the saviors of the nation; they were the liberators of men. In writing the Proclamation of Emancipation, he, the greatest of our mighty dead, whose memory is as gentle as the summer air when reaper sings amid the gathered sheaves, copied with his pen what Grant and his brave comrades wrote with swords. — Robert g. ingersoll. [15] even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby con- stantly spreading and deepening in its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere. The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use. Its authors meant it to be — as, thank God, it is now proving itself — a stumbling block to all those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back to the fateful paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant when such should reappear in this fair land and commence their vocation, they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack." "A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND." (The following speech was delivered at Springfield, III., June 17, 1858, at the close of the Republican State Convention, which nominated him for the United States Senate.) "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. "In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. ' A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. "Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in 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. "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. "The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner, or later, the victory is sure to come." As the summer and fall (1860) drew on toward Election Day he was to those who met him the same friendly neighbor as always — but with more to think about. Millions of people had by this time read his words of two years ago in the house-divided speech. They struck the soft, wierd keynote of the hour — "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are drifting, we could better judge what to do and how to do it." — carl sandburg, "The Prairie Years." [16] "THIS NATION CANNOT LIVE ON INJUSTICE." (Remarks defending his speech, June 17, 1838: "A House Divided Against It self," etc.) "Friends, I have thought about this matter a great deal, have weighed the question well from all corners, and am thoroughly convinced the time has come when it should be uttered; and if it must be that I must go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to truth. — die in the advocacy of what is right and just. "This nation cannot live on injustice. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand,' I say again and again." THE ELECTRIC CORD IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. (Reply to Senator Douglas, Chicago, III., July 10, 1838.) ' 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, gov- ernments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.' There is the origin of Popular Sovereignty. Who, then, shall come in at this day and claim that he invented it? "I am not master of language; I have not a fine education; I am not capable of entering into disquisition upon dialectics, as I believe you call it; but I do not believe the language I employed bears any such construction as Judge Douglas puts upon it. I have said a hundred times, and I have now no inclination to take it back, that I believe there is no right, and ought to be no inclination, in the people of the free States to enter into the slave States and interfere with the question of slavery at all. "We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers; they were iron men; they fought for the principle that they were contending for; and we understood that by what they then did it has followed that the degree of prosperity which we now enjoy has come to us. "We have besides these, men — descended by blood from our ancestors — among us, perhaps half our people, who are not descendants at all of these men; they are men who have come from Europe — German, Irish, French, and Scandi- navian — men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. "If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none— they cannot carry themselves back into A thousand years hence, no story, no tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with greater wonder or be read with deeper feeling than that which tells of his life and death. — HENRY WATTERSON. [17] that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are a part of us. But when they look through that old Declaration of Independence, they find that those old men say that 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men; that it is the father of all moral principal in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration; and so they are. "That is the electric cord in the Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together; that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the mind of men throughout the world. "My friend has said to me that I am a poor hand to quote Scripture; I will try it again, however. It is said in one of the admonitions of our Lord, 'As your Father in heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect.' The Saviour, I suppose, did not expect that any human creature could be perfect as the Father in heaven; but he said, 'As your Father in heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect.' He set that up as a standard, and he who did most toward reaching that standard, attained the highest degree of moral perfection. "So I say in relation to the principle that all men are created equal, let it be as nearly reached as we can. If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. "I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." DISADVANTAGES THE REPUBLICANS LABOR UNDER. (Speech at Springfield, III., July 17, 1858.) "Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his party for years past, have been looking upon him as certainly, at no distant day, to be the President of the United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post offices, land offices, marshalships, and cabinet appointments, chargeships, and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands. "And as they have been gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they can- not, in the little distraction that has taken place in the party, bring themselves to give up the charming hope; but with greedier anxiety they rush about him, sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries, and receptions beyond what, even in the days of his highest prosperity, they could have brought about in his favor. In his handling of Stanton, he exhibits his true tolerance, because he shows in his rela- tion to his secretary that he could be tolerant even with intolerance, and that is where the most tolerant of us fail. Stanton might call him a "damn fool" but the fool was wise to his folly, and his foolishness confounded the wisdom of the wise. DR. STEWART W. MCCLELLAND. [18] "On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out. These are disadvantages, all taken together, that the Republicans labor under. We have to fight that battle upon principle, and upon principle alone. "I am, in a certain sense, made the standard-bearer in behalf of the Republi- cans. I was made so merely because they had to be someone so placed, I being no wise preferable to any other one of the twenty-five — perhaps a hundred — we have in the Republican ranks. "Then, I say I wish it to be distinctly understood and borne in mind that we have to fight this battle without many — perhaps without any — of the external aids which are brought to bear against us. So I hope those with whom I am surrounded have principle enough to nerve themselves for the task, and leave nothing undone that can be fairly done, to bring about the right result." LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS JOINT DEBATES. (Fourth joint debate, Charleston, III., September 18, 1838.) "I have always wanted to deal with everyone I meet candidly and honestly. If I have made any assertion not warranted by facts, and it is pointed out to me, I will withdraw it cheerfully. "The Nebraska-Kansas bill was introduced four years and a half ago, and if the agitation is ever to come to an end, we may say we are four years and a half nearer the end. So, too, we can say we are four years and a half nearer the end of the world; and we can just as clearly see the end of the world as we can see the end of this agitation. "If Kansas should sink today, and leave a great vacant space in the earth's surface, this vexed question would still be among us. I say, then, there is no way of putting an end to the slavery agitation amongst us but to put it back upon the basis where our fathers placed it, no way but to keep it out of our new Territories — to restrict it forever to the old States where it now exists. Then the public mind will rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction." (Seventh and last joint debate, Alton, 111., October 13, 1838.) "It may be argued that there are certain conditions that make necessities and impose them upon us, and to the extent that a necessity is imposed upon a man he must submit to it. I think that was the condition in which we found ourselves when we established this government. When victory hung out her glorious banner, he extended kindness, sympathy, forgive- ness for the suffering. Not a word of reproach, not a single taunt. Not a whisper of revenge. Not a desire for one degree of unnecessary sorrow. — mason noble. [19] "We had slaves among us; we could not get our constitution unless we per- mitted them to remain in slavery; we could not secure the good we did secure if we grasped for more; and having by necessity submitted to that much, it does not destroy the principle that is the charter of our liberties. Let the charter remain as a standard. "I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. "They denned with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal: equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all men were then actually enjoying that quality, or yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. "They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere. "There, again, are the sentiments I have expressed in regard to the Declara- tion of Independence upon a former occasion — sentiments which have been put in print and read wherever anybody cared to know what so humble an individual as myself chose to say in regard to it." KINDLY FEELING FOR HIS OPPONENTS. (Speech at Cincinnati, O., September, 1859, addressed particularly to Kentuckians.) "I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. "We mean to remember that you are as good as we; that there is no difference between us other than the difference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and treat you accordingly." The four years of his administration life have put upon American annals a record of events wrought out under his supervision, which are unrivaled in the brilliancy of their char- acter and results by any that have appeared upon the historic page. — james m. ludlow. [20] "LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT." (Speech at Cooper Institute, February 27, I860.) "It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony, one with another. Let us Republicans do our part to have it so. Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and ill- temper. "Even though the Southern people will not do so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. "Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation. But can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to overrun us here in these free States ? "If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man; such as a policy of 'don't care' on a question about which all true men do care; such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance; such as invocations to Washington im- ploring men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did. "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it." "WE SHALL TRY TO DO OUR DUTY." (Speech at Leavenworth, Kans., spring of I860.) "If we shall constitutionally elect a President, it will be our duty to see that you also submit. Old John Brown has been executed for treason against a State. We cannot object, even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason. It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right. So, if we constitutionally elect a president, and, there- fore, you undertake to destroy the Union, it will be our duty to deal with you as old John Brown has been dealt with. We shall try to do our duty. We hope and believe that in no section will a majority so act as to render such extreme measure necessary." Never before did man raise himself from utter obscurity to a place of such honorable and lasting fame, where he shall stand as long as men keep the record of the great and good. HENRY E. BADGER. [21] FIRST NEWS OF HIS NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. While seated in the Journal office, Springfield, 111., May 8, I860, he was handed a telegram which gave him the first news of his nomination for presidency. His first words were: "There's a little woman down at our house would like to hear this — I'll go down and tell her." FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. (Reply to the President of the Convention, at the Homestead, Springfield, May 19, 1860.) "I tender to you, and through you to the Republican National Convention, and all the people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor done me, which you now formally announce. "Deeply, and even painfully, sensible of the great responsibility which is in- separable from this high honor, — a responsibility which I could almost wish had fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and experienced statesmen whose distinguished names were before the convention, — I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the convention, denominated the platform, and, without any unnecessary or unreasonable delay, respond to you, Mr. Chair- man, in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted." "ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BROTHERS." (Rejoicing over the November election, Springfield, III., November 20, I860, at a political meeting.) "I rejoice with you in the success which has so far attended the Republican cause, yet in all our rejoicing let us neither express nor cherish any hard feelings toward any citizen who by his vote differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling." As he lay in state in Washington, Edwin Stanton said: "There lies the most perfect ruler of men that ever lived." [22] LETTER TO ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, DECEMBER 22, 1860. "My Dear Sir: "Your obliging answer to my short note is just received, and for which please accept my thanks. I fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, and the weight of responsibility on me. Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly or indirectly, interfere with the slaves, or with them about the slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in the days of Wash- ington. I suppose, however, this does not meet the case. You think slavery is right and ought to be extended, while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That, I suppose, is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us." FAREWELL ADDRESS TO HIS NEIGHBORS. (When leaving Springfield for Washington, February 11, 1861.) "My friends, no one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. "I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me which is greater, perhaps, than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of divine Providence, upon which he at all time relied. "I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine aid which sustained him; and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will pray that I may receive the divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again, I bid you all an affection- ate farewell." "PRESERVE THE UNION AND LIBERTY." (In response to an address of welcome by Governor O. P. Morton, Indianapolis, February 11, 1861.) "In all trying positions in which I shall be placed, and, doubtless, I shall be placed in many such, my reliance will be placed upon you and the people of the United States; and I wish you to remember, now and forever, that it is your busi- No American president had ever spoken words like these to the American people. America never had a president who found such words in the depth of his heart. CARL SCHURZ. [23] ness, and not mine; that if the union of these States, and the liberties of this people, shall be lost, it is but little to any one man of fifty-two years of age, but a great deal to the thirty millions of people who inhabit these United States, and to their posterity in all coming time. "It is your business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty for your- selves, and not for me." "A JUST AND EQUITABLE TARIFF.'' (Address at Pittsburgh, Pa., February 15, 1861.) "According to my political education, I am inclined to believe that the people in the various portions of the country should have their own views carried out through their representatives in Congress; that consideration of the tariff should not be postponed until the next session of the National Legislature. "No subject should engage your representatives more closely than that of the tariff. If I have any recommendation to make, it will be that every man who is called upon to serve the people, in a representative capacity, should study the whole subject thoroughly, as I intend to do myself, looking to all the varied interests of the common country, so that, when the time for action arrives, adequate protection shall be extended to the coal and iron of Pennsylvania and the corn of Illinois. "Permit me to express the hope that the important subject may receive such consideration at the hands of your representatives that the interests of no part of the country may be overlooked, but that all sections may share in the common benefit of a just and equitable tariff." THE HUMBLEST OF ALL THE PRESIDENTS. (Speech to the Legislature, Albany, N. Y '., February 18, 1861.) "It is true that, while I hold myself, without mock modesty, the humblest of all the individuals who have ever been elected President of the United States, I yet have a more difficult task to perform than any of them has ever encountered. "You have here generously tendered me the support, the united support, of the great Empire State. For this, in behalf of the nation; in behalf of the present and future of the nation; in behalf of the cause of civil liberty in all time to come, I most gratefully thank you. "I do not propose to enter upon any expression as to the particular line of policy to be adopted with reference to the difficulties that stand before us in the opening of the incoming administration. As we review his words and various state papers which came from his hand, they are stamped with a maturity of judgment which the annals of the future will inscribe. Few have equaled, and none excelled. — c. c. Wallace. [24] "I deem that it is just to the country, to myself, to you, that I should see everything, hear everything, and have every light than can possibly be brought within my reach to aid me before I shall speak officially, in order that, when I do speak, I may have the best possible means of taking correct and true grounds." HIS 'EARLY HISTORY. M (Reply to a gentleman who asked for a sketch of his life.) "My early history is perfectly characterized by a single line of Gray's 'Elegy': " 'The short and simple annals of the poor.' " LIBERTY FOR ALL FUTURE TIME. Reply to an Address of Welcome, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, February 22, 1861.) "I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here, in this place, where were collected the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to the present distracted condition of the country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated and were given to the world from this hall. "I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the senti- ments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that Independence. "I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Inde- pendence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world for all future time. "It was that which you promise, that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Of all the rulers of the earth, no other one has ever been born to the tomb amid such extensive preparations to do him honor. His funeral procession may be said to have been more than a thousand miles long. — w. r. GORDON. [25] "Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon this basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, It will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it." ARRIVAL IN WASHINGTON. He arrived in Washington, February 23, 1861. On the 27th he responded to an address of welcome by the mayor, James G. Berrett, in Willard's Hotel, as follows: "I will take this occasion to say that I think very much of the ill-feeling that has existed, and still exists, between the people in the sections from whence I came and the people here, is dependent upon a misunderstanding of one another. I therefore avail myself of this opportunity to assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentlemen present, that I have not now, and never have had, any other than as kindly feelings toward you as the people of my own section. I have not now, and never have had, any disposition to treat you in any respect otherwise than as my own neighbors. I have not now any purpose to withhold from you any of the bene- fits of the Constitution, under any circumstances, that I would not feel myself con- strained to withhold from my neighbors; and I hope, in a word, that when we shall become better acquainted, and I say it with great confidence, we shall like each other the more." (An address to the Republican Association at Willard's Hotel, February 28, 1861.) "I have reached the City of Washington under circumstances considerably differing from those under which any other man has ever reached it. I am here for the purpose of taking an official position among the people, almost all of whom were politically opposed to me, and are yet opposed to me, as I suppose. I hope that, if things shall go along as prosperously as I believe we all desire they may, I may have it in my power to remove something of this misunderstanding." FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1861. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States, that by the occasion of a Republican 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 pub- lished speeches of him who now addresses you. His advent and destiny will emblazon history so long as the science of government shall be read and propagated by men. — H. M. RECTOR. [26] 'I hold, that in the contemplation of universal law and the Constitution, the union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no govern- ment proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Con- tinue to execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, and the Union will endure forever. "Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by National or by State authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Terri- tories ? The Constitution does not expressly say. "From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the government but acquiescence on the one side or the other. "If the minority will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which, inturn, will ruin and divide them; for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance, why should not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? "All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of interest among the States to compose a new union as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed secession ? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. "Physically speaking, we cannot separate; we cannot move our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. "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 adminis- tration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change it. "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. And upon nothing will memory more delight to dwell than upon that high, forgiving temper which lifts up a fallen foe, restores a wandering brother, and repays the cruelty of hatred by an overcoming benignity and love. — Stephen h. tyng. [27] "The government will not assail you; you can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. "I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully 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 withhold the requisite means, or in some authoritative manner direct the con- trary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself." "You can have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government; while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend' it. "I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be ene- mies. Though passion may have strained it, it must not break our bonds of affection. "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." PRESERVING THE PEACE OF MARYLAND. (Message to the Governor, April 20, 1861.) "I desire to consult with you and the mayor of Baltimore relative to preserv- ing the peace of Maryland. Please come immediately." MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1861. "This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men — to lift artificial weights from all shoul- ders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of life. Yielding to partial and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the government for whose existence we contend. "Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled — the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains — its successful maintenance against a for- midable internal attempt to overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the His history will be "of all time," and he will be recalled as one of the grandest figures of the world's history. — WINFIELD S. HANCOCK. [28] world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful appeal, except to ballots themselves, at suc- ceeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace: teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war." "And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional republic or democracy — a government of the people by the same people — can or cannot main- tain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control administration according to organic law in any case, can always, upon the pretenses made in this case, or on any other pretenses, or arbitrarly without any pretense, break up their government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: 'Is there, in all republics, this inherent and fatal weakness?' 'Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence' ?" ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, 1862. "The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dis- honor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power and bear the responsi- bility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assume freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." "I SHALL DO NOTHING IN MALICE." (Letter to Cutbert Bullett of New Orleans, July 28, 1862.) "I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I can, but shall do all I can to save the government; which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclina- tion. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealings." In the course of time the helm was in his own hands, during the storm and fury of terrific war. Hark! When the sky was blackest and all was at stake, he declared: "We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth!" Note the words. Did lovelier, truer, nobler diction ever flow from statesman's tongue or pen? Hark! Can words penetrate deeper into the soul of America than they do? — james w. bollinger. [29] DEFENDS THE SECRETARY OF WAR. (Remarks at a war meeting, Washington, August 6, 1862.) "General McClellan has sometimes asked for things that the Secretary of War did not give him. General McClellan is not to blame for asking what he wanted and needed, and the Secretary of War is not to blame for not giving when he had none to give. And I say here, as far as I know, the Secretary of War has withheld no one thing at any time in my power to give him. I have no accusation against him. I believe he is a brave and able man, and I stand here, as justice requires me to do, to take upon myself what has been charged on the Secretary of War, as withholding from him." LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY, AUGUST 22, 1862. "I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Consti- tution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was.' If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. "I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free." LETTER TO HON. FERNANDO WOOD OF NEW YORK, DECEMBER 12, 1862. "If 'the Southern States would send representatives to the next Congress' — to be substantially the same as that 'the people of the Southern States would cease resistance, and would reinaugurate, submit to, and maintain the national authority within the limits of such States, under the Constitution of the United States,' I say that in such case the war would cease on the part of the United States; and that within a reasonable time, if 'a full and general amnesty' were necessary to such end, it would not be withheld." I think all must be agreed, that in a trial which, perhaps more than any other, tested the moral quality of the man, he performed his duty with simplicity and strength. BENJAMIN DISRAELI. [30] REPLY TO ERASTUS CORNING, AND OTHERS, OF NEW YORK, 1863. (Who had protested against the arrest of C. L. Vallandigham.) "Must I shoot a simple-minded boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert ? "This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend into a public meeting, and there working upon his feelings till he is persuaded to write the soldier-boy that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptible government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. "I think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy." REFUSAL TO PARDON A MAN FOR IMPORTING SLAVES. (Reply to Mr. Alley, who read a petition for the man's pardon, 1863.) "You know my weakness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals of mercy; and, if this man were guilty of the foulest murder that the arm of man could perpetrate, I might forgive him on such an appeal; but the man who could go to Africa, and rob her of her children, and sell them into interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer that he can never receive pardon at my hands." "ALREADY TOO MANY WEEPING WIDOWS."— 1863 (Reply to a general who insisted on the President signing the warrants for the execution of twenty-four deserters.) "There are already too many weeping widows in the United States. For God's sake, don't ask me to add to the number, for I won't do it." LETTER TO GENERAL SAMUEL R. CURTIS, DEPARTMENT OF MISSOURI (Relative to the arrest of a church-member who sympathized with the Confederate army, January 2, 1863.) "The United States Government must not, as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When an individual in church, or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest, he must be checked; but let the churches, as such, take care of them- selves. It will not do for the United States to appoint trustees, supervisors, or other agents for the churches." His character and service to this country will stand as a monument long after the granite monuments erected to his memory have crumbled in the dust. — thomas a. edison. [31] LETTER TO MAJOR GENERAL HOOKER. Washington, January 26, 1863 Major General Hooker: General. I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons. And yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite satis- fied with you. I believe you to be a brave and a skillful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable limits, does good rather than harm. But I think that during Gen. Burnside's command of the Army, you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals, who gain successes, can set up for dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the Army, of criticizing their commander, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can, to put it down. Neither you, nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army, while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of rashness. — Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward, and give us victories. LETTER TO GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD. (May 24, 1863, in taking command of the Department of the Missouri.) "Now that you are in the position, I wish you to undo nothing merely because General Curtis or General Gamble did it, but to exercise your own judgment, and do right for the public interest. Let your military measures be strong enough to repel the invader and keep the peace, and not so strong as to unnecessarily harass and persecute the people. "It is a difficult role, and so much greater will be the honor if you perform it well. If both factions, or neither, shall abuse you, you will probably be about right. Beware of being assailed by one and praised by the other." No one who knew him ever knew another like him. He stands out from the whole world of his time, isolated and alone. — Leonard swett. [32] LETTER TO ERASTUS CORNING AND OTHERS, JUNE 12, 1863. "If I be wrong on this question of constitutional power, my error lies in believing that certain proceedings are constitutional when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety requires them, which would not be constitutional when, in absence of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does not require them: in other words, that the Constitution is not in its application in all respects the same in cases of rebellion or invasion involving the public safety, as it is in times of pro- found peace and public security. The Constitution itself makes the distinction, and I can no more be persuaded that the government can constitutionally take no strong measures in time of rebellion, because it can be shown that the same could not be lawfully taken in time of peace, that I can be persuaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick man because it can be shown to not be good food for a well man." LETTER TO GENERAL MEADE. (After the Battle of Gettysburg. This letter was not sent. July, 1863.) The letter, which was not sent, showed how deeply the President was grieved through General Meade's fault of omission. Nevertheless, the President was full of the spirit of forgiveness and he quickly forgave and was thankful for the measure of success which had been gained; therefore, he did not sign nor send the letter. The President was pleased that the victory was with the Union forces and he now could see the end of the mighty conflict that was raging between the North and the South. Grant had been successful at Vicksburg, General Meade had been successful at Gettysburg. On July 13, 1863, General Lee and his entire army recrossed the Potomac in retreat. When that news reached Washington, the President on July 14 wrote a letter of criticism to General Meade, expressing his great disappointment, which reflects the intensity of the President's feeling at the escape of General Lee, whom he felt Meade had had in his grasp. Had General Meade attacked General Lee's army then and there the war would have practically been ended. The letter the President wrote to Meade was not sent, and was never seen by Meade. It was found among the President's papers, by his secretaries, after his death. There have been those who have said that "It may have been for the best that General Meade did not follow up the advantage he had gained." We cannot agree with such an opinion, for if it had been for the best, the President was wise enough to have known it, and if he had thought it was for the best, he would not have said in his letter to General Meade, "I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of Never, amid the utmost fury of the storm that was beating around him, did his com- posure desert him; he had his work to do, and he meant to do it. His cheerfulness relieved the burden of duty and the gloom of his friends. — edward C. slater. [33] the misfortune involved in Lee's escape;" nor would he have said, "With our other late successes would have ended the war;" nor "Your golden opportunity is gone and I am distressed immeasurably because of it;" neither would he have said, "As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely." Think of the agony which the President endured previous to writing to Gen- eral Meade, when he had to tell Meade, "The war will be prolonged indefinitely!" JOSEPH BENJAMIN OAKLEAF The letter written by the President is in part as follows : "The case, summarily stated, is this: You fought and beat the enemy at Gettys- burg, and, of course, to say the least, his loss was as great as yours. He retreated, and you did not, as it seemed to me, pressingly pursue him; but a flood in the river detained him till, by slow degrees, you were again upon him. You had at least twenty thousand veteran troops directly with you, and as many more raw ones within supporting distance, all in addition to those who fought with you at Gettys- burg, while it was not possible that he had received a single recruit, and yet you stood and let the flood run down, bridges be built and the enemy move away at his leisure, without attacking him. * * * Again, my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape.. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefi- nitely. If you could not safely attack Lee last Monday, how can you possibly do so south of the river, when you can take with you very few more than two thirds of the forces you then had in hand? It would be unreasonable to expect, and I do not expect (that) you can now effect much. Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it." ADDRESS ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG. (At the dedication of the cemetery, November 19, 1863.) "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. "But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have Four days after his death, in the memorial services at Concord, Massachusetts, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his tribute to the martyred President included this allusion to the Gettys- burg address: ". . . His brief speech at Gettysburg will not easily be surpassed by words on any recorded occasion." [34] consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 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 government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." REPLY TO COMMITTEE OF THE WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK, DATED MARCH 21, 1864. "The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, and tongues, and kin- dreds. Nor should this lead us to a war upon property, or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus, by example, assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built." LETTER TO A. G. HODGES, APRIL 4, 1864. "I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can- not remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that government — that nation, of which the Constitution was the organic law." At the moment when the stars of the Union, sparkling and resplendent with the golden fires of liberty, were waving over the subdued walls of Richmond the sepulcher opens and the strong and the powerful enters it. — SR rebello da silva. [35] "OUR PEOPLE CAN AFFORD TO BE MAGNANIMOUS." (Interview with Charles Malt by, December, 1864.) "My own feelings have also changed much in that direction, and I am much gratified to see that it is the growing sentiment of the people. In the final success of the Union cause, our people can afford to be magnanimous and still be just. I can see and feel that there are many reasons why this should be so. "We have not been fighting aliens, but misled, misguided friends and brothers, members of our own household; and we may grant and forgive much when we take into consideration what have been the teachings and influences which have formed and molded the public sentiments and private feelings of that people. And now, when final success is obtained, which appears assured, I think the great object then to be first accomplished and to have in view, should be to bring back and restore the relation of the several rebel States to the Union and to their original and former standing. This may be done in a spirit of conciliation, friendship, and forbearance which should characterize a generous and forgiving people. To effect this desirable object, I think that we should deal with them as generously as the interests of the government and the public safety will permit." "WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE, WITH CHARITY FOR ALL." (Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.) "Fellow-countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presi- dential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. "The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. "On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dread it; all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted alto- gether to saving the Union without war, insurgents' agents were in the city seeking "With malice toward none" was his dying charge. It sounds strangely like the last words of Him who when dying on the cross, looked down upon his murderers and prayed: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." — daniel C. eddy. [36] to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide its effects by negotiation. "Both parties depreciated; 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. "The prayer of both could not be answered — those of neither have been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world be- cause of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' "If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we dis- cern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. "Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bonds- man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." " dixie; our lawful prize:' (Speech at a gathering be j ore the White House in the forenoon of April 10, 1863, rejoicing over the surrender of Lee's army.) "I am very greatly rejoiced that an occasion has occurred so pleasurable that the people can't restrain themselves. I suppose that arrangements are being made for some sort of formal demonstration, perhaps this evening or tomorrow night. If there should be such a demonstration, I, of course, shall have to respond to it, and I shall have nothing to say if I dribble it out before. Four years ago, oh, Illinois, we took from your midst, an untried man from among the people. Behold, we return him a mighty conqueror. Not thine, but the nation's; not ours, but the world's! Give him place, ye prairies! In the midst of this great continent his dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to myriads who shall pilgrim to that shrine, to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. — henry ward beecher (1865). [37] "I see you have a band. I propose now closing up by requesting you to play a certain air, or tune. I have always thought 'Dixie' one of the best tunes I ever heard. I have heard that our adversaries over the way have attempted to appropri- ate it as a national air. I insisted yesterday that we had fairly captured it. I pre- sented the question to the Attorney General, and he gave his opinion that it is our lawful prize. I ask the band to give us a good turn upon it." LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS April 11, 1865. On April 10th the President promised (see above) to make a few remarks the next evening. Here is an excerpt from his April 11th address. "We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. "The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the prin- cipal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. "We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper prac- tical relation with the Union; and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact, easier to do this, without deciding, or even considering, whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly imma- terial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union; and each forever after, innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without, into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it." Chieftain, farewell ! The nation mourns thee. Mothers shall teach thy name to their lisp- ing children; the youth of our land shall emulate thy virtues; statesmen shall study thy record, and from it learn lessons of wisdom. Mute though thy lips be, yet they still speak. Hushed is thy voice, but its echoes of liberty are ringing through the world, and the sons of bondage listen with joy. Thou did'st fall not for thyself. The assassin had no hate for thee; our hearts were aimed at; our national life was sought. We crown thee as our martyr of Humanity, enthrone thee as her triumphant son. Hero, martyr, friend, farewell ! — bishop Matthew Simpson's apostrophe with which he ended the eulogy at the burial of the President on May 4th, 1865, in Oakwood Cemetery, Springfield, 111. [38] Lithographed by Logan Printing Co. Peoria. Illinois for Edward J. Jacob Presentation Copy None For Sale '4WP 04e& K JW€tMb<€4ia€€wi 6 whew ^affl^w €m^ ^swow/mp Jt&4> '/neve. EDNA DEAN PRDCTDR UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 973.7L63K1950C C001 LET US CELEBRATE THE GREATNESS OF THIS M 3 0112 031830901