LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 presented by 
 
 Dr. Theodore Z. Polley 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/autobiographyofabraOOIinc 
 
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY of 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
Statue of Lincoln by Daniel Chester French 
 
*An AUTOBIOGRAPHY of 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Consisting of the 
 
 Personal Portions of his Letters 
 
 Speeches and Conversations 
 
 Compiled and Annotated by 
 
 Nathaniel Wright Stephenson 
 
 Illustrated 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, 1926 
 By The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 PRINTED AND BOUND 
 
 BY BRAUNWORTH & CO., INC 
 
 BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 
 
TO 
 ALBERT BUSHNELL HART 
 
 Dear Professor Hart: 
 
 Though so many years are gone, alas! since it was my regu- 
 lar habit to submit to you all my "findings," the impulse to do 
 so has that imperishable foundation which belongs to all de- 
 lightful things established in the Golden Age. What a number 
 of us, who, if we subtracted from our "technique" — as the 
 pompous ones like to say — all that we owe to you, would have 
 at best such a doubtful remainder! 
 
 I hope you will think well of this attempt to show Lincoln s 
 development through a mosaic of his literary remains. A word 
 as to how and why. It would be a fault in candor, as well as a 
 lack of graciousness, not to acknowledge, first of all, the 
 model — that skilful volume upon Napoleon, "The Corsican," 
 compiled by the late R. M. Johnson. Will you question the 
 one serious departure from Johnson s method, the admission — 
 sparingly, please observe — among the written fragments of a 
 few anecdotes? How else could Lincoln's humor be intro- 
 duced? How else get round that singular fact, the disappear- 
 ance of his humor the moment almost he took pen in hand? 
 Then, too, do not these personal bits preserve his quaint home- 
 liness, persistent in the man to the end though it faded 
 eventually from his papers as their stateliness came in? Of 
 course, one is sadly conscious of the obviously apochryphal 
 character of so many Lincoln anecdotes. To be a peg for fools 
 to hang stories upon, especially broad stories, is already part of 
 his ironic fate. 
 
You will find that no substantial liberties have been taken 
 with the papers. A few imperative ones only — such as altered 
 punctuation when the biographical bits of a document have 
 been spliced together; the dropping of allusions to passages not 
 retained; once in a while, placing a passage not at the date when 
 it was written, but at the date to zuhich it refers; et cetera. And 
 is not the appended matter quite necessary to establish con- 
 necting links? 
 
 But why discuss what you will perceive at a glance and 
 judge with finality? 
 
 Because of your unfailing interest in the promising younger 
 men you may care to know that some of the best bits that fol- 
 low, including the letter to Chase of June 20, 1859, were dis- 
 covered by my former student, Mr. A. Howard Meneely, now 
 of New York University. 
 
 Always gratefully, 
 
 Nathaniel Wright Stephenson. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 Statue of Lincoln by Daniel Chester French . Frontispiece 
 
 Facing Page 
 
 Cartoon : The Coming Man's Presidential Career, a la 
 
 Blondin 30 
 
 View on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, Monday, 
 
 March 4, 1861 80 
 
 Cartoon: Over the Way 132 
 
 Cartoon: John Bull Passant sur Ic Ventre de I'Oncle 
 Tom, son Ancicn Protege, pour Saisir tine Balle de 
 
 Coton 186 
 
 Cartoon : Abe Lincoln's Last Card ; or Rouge-et-noir . 238 
 Cartoon: One Head Better Than Two .... 290 
 Cartoon: Columbia Upbraids Lincoln .... 342 
 Cartoon : The True Issue, or "That's What's the Matter" 394 
 Cartoon: Britannia Sympathizes with Columbia . . 446 
 
 Note. It is a pleasure to acknowl- 
 edge the helpful suggestions in the 
 selection of Lincoln cartoons of Mr. 
 Oliver McKee, assistant editor of The 
 Pageant of America, whose knowledge 
 of the subject is extremely wide and sure. 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 Grateful acknowledgment by the editor is due to the fol- 
 lowing publishers, authors and proprietors of copyrights, 
 whose permission to include selections from the indicated 
 volumes was generously granted : 
 
 The Century Company, New York, for excerpts from 
 The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by John G. 
 Nicolay and John Hay, 
 
 Mr. George Haven Putnam, New York, for excerpts from 
 The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Mr. Put- 
 nam and Doctor Arthur Brooks Lapsley. 
 
 The Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, for excerpts 
 from The Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln, brought 
 together by Gilbert A. Tracy ; from The Real Lincoln, by Jesse 
 W. Weik, and from The Diary of Gideon Welles. 
 
 The Macmillan Company, New York, Lincoln History 
 Society of New York, and Miss Ida M. Tarbell the author, 
 for excerpts from The Life of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, for excerpts 
 from Intimate Character Sketches of Abraham Lincoln, by 
 Henry B. Rankin; and The True Abraham Lincoln, by 
 William Eleroy Curtis. 
 
 Messrs. D. Appleton & Company, New York, for excerpts 
 from A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, by Parke God- 
 win; and Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, 
 by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik. 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 Mr. Alexander W. Hannah, Chicago, for permission to 
 include a letter from Lincoln to his wife; first printed in 
 Abraham Lincoln, the Prairie Years, by Carl Sandburg; copy- 
 right by Harcourt, Brace & Company. 
 
 Doctor William E. Barton, Foxboro, Massachusetts, for 
 excerpts from his Life of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Honorable William Barnes, Albany, New York, for ex- 
 cerpts from Memoir of Thurlow Weed. 
 
 Mr. W. H. Seward, Auburn, New York, for excerpts from 
 Seward at Washington. 
 
 N. W. S. 
 
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 1809-1836 
 
 February I 2th, 1809. I was born February 12, 1809, near 
 where Hogginsville (Hodgenville) now is, then in Hardin 
 County, Kentucky, at a point within the now county of La 
 Rue, a mile or a mile and a half from where Hodgen's Mill 
 now is. I know no means of identifying the precise locality. 
 It was on Nolin's Creek. 
 
 My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished 
 families — second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, 
 who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of 
 Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others in 
 Macon County, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham 
 Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to 
 Kentucky about 1781 or 1782, where a year or two later he 
 was killed by the Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when 
 he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, 
 who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, 
 Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them with the New Eng- 
 land family of the same name ended in nothing more definite 
 than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as 
 Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like.* 
 
 My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of 
 age, and he grew up literally without education. By the early 
 death of his father, and the very narrow circumstances of his 
 
 *Subsequent genealogical labors have established the connection which 
 Lincoln thought did not exist. 
 
 I 
 
2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1813-17 
 
 mother, even in childhood he was a wandering laboring-boy, 
 and never did more in the way of writing than bunglingly to 
 write his own name. 
 
 1813. Thomas Lincoln takes a farm on Knob Creek. 
 
 181 3. The place on Knob Creek I remember very well. 
 My earliest recollection is of the Knob Creek place. 
 
 18 14. Before leaving Kentucky, I and my sister were sent, 
 for short periods, to A B C schools, the first kept by Zachariah 
 Reney, the second by Caleb Hazel. 
 
 1815. With weapons no more formidable than hickory 
 clubs Austin Gallaher and I had been playing in the woods and 
 hunting rabbits. After several hours of vigorous exercise we 
 had stopped to rest. After a while I threw down my cap, 
 climbed a tree, and was resting comfortably in the forks of 
 two limbs. Below me stretched out full length on the grass 
 was Austin apparently asleep. Beside him lay his cap, the 
 inside facing upward. In the pocket of my little jacket reposed 
 a paw-paw which I had shortly before found. The thought 
 suddenly occurred to me that it would be great fun to drop it 
 into Austin's upturned cap. It was so ripe and soft I could 
 scarcely withdraw it whole from my pocket. Taking careful 
 aim I let it fall. I had calculated just right; for it struck the 
 cap center and I could see portions of soft yellow paw-paw 
 spattering in every direction. I paused to observe the result, 
 convinced that Austin would resent the indignity ; but, strange 
 to relate, the proceeding failed to arouse him. Presently I slid 
 down the tree, but judge of my surprise on reaching the 
 ground when I learned that, instead of sleeping, Austin had 
 really been awake; and that while I was climbing the tree he 
 had very adroitly changed caps, substituting my own for his, 
 so that, instead of tormenting him as I was intending, I had 
 simply besmeared my own headgear. 
 
age 4-8] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 3 
 
 1816. Our farm was composed of three fields which lay 
 in the valley surrounded by high hills and deep gorges. Some- 
 times when there came a big rain in the hills the water would 
 come down the gorges and spread over the farm. The last 
 thing I remember of doing there was one Saturday afternoon; 
 the other boys planted the corn in what we called the "big 
 field" — it contained seven acres — and I dropped the pumpkin 
 seed. I dropped two seeds every other hill and every other 
 row. The next Sunday morning there came a big rain in the 
 hills ; it did not rain a drop in the valley, but the water, coming 
 down through the gorges, washed ground, corn, pumpkin seeds 
 and all clear off the field. 
 
 I can remember our life in Kentucky; the cabin, the stinted 
 living, the sale of our possessions, and the journey with my 
 father and mother to Southern Indiana. We removed to what 
 is now Spencer County, Indiana, in the autumn of 18 16, I then 
 being in my eighth year. This removal was partly on account 
 of slavery, but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles 
 in Kentucky. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln and his family settle on uncleared land, 
 near Pigeon Creek, not far from Rockport, Indiana. 
 
 Autumn, 1816. We settled in an unbroken forest, and the 
 clearing away of surplus wood was the great task ahead. I, 
 though very young, was large of my age, and had an ax put 
 into my hands at once; and from that till within my twenty- 
 third year I was almost constantly handling that most useful 
 instrument — less, of course, in plowing and harvest seasons. 
 
 February, 1817. Our new home was a wild region with 
 many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There 
 I took an early start as a hunter, which was never much im- 
 proved afterward. A few days before the completion of my 
 eighth year, in the absence of my father, a flock of wild tur- 
 
4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1818-21 
 
 keys approached the new log cabin, and I with a rifle-gun, 
 standing inside, shot through a crack and killed one of them. 
 I have never since pulled a trigger on any larger game. 
 
 It was pretty pinching times at first in Indiana, getting the 
 cabin built, and clearing for the crops, but presently we got 
 reasonably comfortable. 
 
 October 5th, 1818. My mother died. 
 
 1819. I was kicked by a horse and apparently dead for a 
 time. 
 
 December 2nd. My father married Mrs. Sally Johnston, at 
 Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a widow with three children by her 
 first marriage. She proved a good and kind mother to me. 
 
 1820. There were some schools, so called, but no qualifi- 
 cation was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin', writin', 
 and cipherinV' to the rule of three. If a straggler supposed to 
 understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he 
 was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing 
 to excite ambition for education. ... I went to A B C 
 schools by littles, kept successively by Andrew Crawford, 
 Sweeney, and Azel W. Dorsey. I do not remember any other. 
 I now think that the aggregate of all my schooling did not 
 amount to one year. 
 
 (In a copy book) 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, his hand and pen, 
 He will be good, but God knows when. 
 
 18 2 1 (?). Among my earliest recollections I remember 
 how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody 
 talked to me in a way that I could not understand. I can re- 
 member going to my little bedroom, after hearing the neighbors 
 talk of an evening with my father, and spending no small part 
 of the night trying to make out what was the exact meaning of 
 some of their, to me, dark sayings. 
 
 I could not sleep, although I tried to, when I got on such a 
 
age 9-12] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 5 
 
 hunt for an idea, until I had caught it ; and when I thought I 
 had got it I was not satisfied until I had repeated it over and 
 over again, until I had put it in language plain enough, as I 
 thought, for any boy I knew to comprehend. 
 
 One day a wagon with a lady and two girls and a man 
 broke down near us, and while they were fixing up, they 
 cooked in our kitchen. The woman had books and read us 
 stories. I took a great fancy to one of the girls; and when 
 they were gone I thought of her a great deal, and one day, 
 when I was sitting out in the sun by the house, I wrote out a 
 story in my mind. I thought I took my father's horse and 
 followed the wagon, and finally I found it, and they were 
 surprised to see me. I talked with the girl and persuaded her 
 to elope with me; and that night I put her on my horse, and 
 we started off across the prairie. After several hours we 
 came to a camp; and when we rode up we found it was the 
 one we had left a few hours before, and we went in. The next 
 night we tried again, and the same thing happened — the horse 
 came back to the same place; and then we concluded that we 
 ought not to elope. I stayed until I had persuaded her father 
 to give her to me. I always meant to write that story out and 
 publish it, and I began once, but I concluded that it was not 
 much of a story. But I think that was the beginning of love 
 with me. 
 
 Away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being 
 able to read, I got hold of a small book, Weems' Life of Wash- 
 ington. I remember all the accounts there given of the battle- 
 fields and struggles for the liberties of the country, and none 
 fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle 
 at Trenton, New Jersey. The crossing of the river, the contest 
 with the Hessians, the great hardship endured at that time, all 
 fixed themselves on my memory more than any single Revolu- 
 tionary event. I recollect thinking then, boy even though I 
 was, that there must have been something more than common 
 that these men struggled for. 
 
6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1824-31 
 
 1824. I was raised to farm work, which I continued till 
 I was twenty-two. 
 
 Spring, 182/. He undertakes to run a ferry across the 
 Ohio, sixteen miles from home. 
 
 Summer, 1827. I was contemplating a new flatboat, and 
 wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in 
 any particular, when two men came down to the shore in car- 
 riages with trunks, and looking at the different boats singled 
 out mine, and asked: "Who owns this?" I answered, somewhat 
 modestly, "I do." "Will you," said one of them, "take us and 
 our trunks out to the steamer?" "Certainly," said I. I was 
 glad to have the chance of earning something. I supposed that 
 each of them would give me two or three bits. The trunks 
 were put on my flatboat, and the passengers seated themselves 
 on the trunks, and I sculled them out to the steamer. 
 
 They got on board, and I lifted up their heavy trunks and 
 put them on deck. The steamer was about to put on steam 
 again, when I called out that they had forgotten to pay me. 
 Each of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar and 
 threw it on the floor of my boat. I could scarcely believe my 
 eyes as I picked up the money. I could scarcely credit that I, 
 a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day and that by 
 honest work. The world seemed fairer and wider before me. 
 I was a more hopeful and confident being from that hour. 
 
 1828. When I was nineteen, still residing in Indiana, I 
 made my first trip upon a flatboat to New Orleans. I was a 
 hired man merely, and I and a son of the owner, without any 
 other assistance, made the trip. The nature of part of the 
 "cargo load," as it was called, made it necessary for us to linger 
 and trade along the sugar-coast, and one night we were attacked 
 by seven negroes with intent to kill and rob us. We were hurt 
 some in the melee, but succeeded in driving the negroes from 
 the boat, and then "cut cable," "weighed anchor," and left. 
 
age 15-22] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 7 
 
 February 12th, 1830. When I came of age I did not know 
 much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the 
 rule of three, but that was all. I was never in a college or 
 academy as a student. What I have in the way of education I 
 have picked up, from time to time under pressure of necessity. 
 
 March 1st. I, having just completed my twenty-first year, 
 my father and family, with the families of the two daughters 
 and sons-in-law of my stepmother, left the old homestead in 
 Indiana and came to Illinois. Their mode of conveyance was 
 wagons drawn by ox-teams, and I drove one of the teams. 
 They reached the County of Macon and stopped there some 
 time within the same month of March. My father and family 
 settled a new place on the north side of the Sangamon River, 
 at the junction of the timber land and prairie, about ten miles 
 westerly from Decatur. Here they built a log cabin into which 
 they removed, and made sufficient of rails to fence ten acres 
 of ground, fenced and broke the ground, and raised a crop of 
 sown corn upon it in the same year. 
 
 1830-1831. In the autumn all hands were greatly afflicted 
 with ague and fever, to which they had not been used, and by 
 which they were greatly discouraged, so much so that they 
 determined on leaving the county. They remained, however, 
 through the succeeding winter of the very celebrated "deep 
 snow" of Illinois. 
 
 March, 1831. I, together with my stepmother's son, John 
 D. Johnston, and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, 
 hired ourselves to Denton Offutt to take a flatboat from 
 Beardstown, Illinois, to New Orleans; and for that purpose 
 were to join him — Offutt — at Springfield, Illinois, as soon as 
 the snow should go off. When it did go off, which was about 
 the first of March, 183 1, the county was so flooded as to make 
 traveling by land impracticable; to obviate which difficulty we 
 purchased a large canoe, and came down the Sangamon River 
 in it. This is the time and the manner of my first entrance 
 into Sangamon County. 
 
8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1831-32 
 
 Summer. We found Offutt at Springfield, but learned 
 from him that he had failed in getting a boat at Beardstown. 
 This led to our hiring ourselves to him for twelve dollars per 
 month each, and getting the timber out of the trees and build- 
 ing a boat at Old Sangamon town on the Sangamon River, 
 seven miles northwest of Springfield, which boat we took to 
 New Orleans, substantially upon the old contract. 
 
 July. New Salem. During this boat-enterprise acquaint- 
 ance with Offutt, who was previously an entire stranger, he 
 conceived a liking for me and believed he could turn me to 
 account. He contracted with me to act as clerk for him on 
 my return from New Orleans, in charge of a store and mill at 
 New Salem, then in Sangamon, now in Menard County. 
 
 Autumn. For the first time, as it were, by myself, at New 
 Salem. Here I rapidly made acquaintances and friends. 
 
 1832. After I was twenty-three and had separated from 
 my father I studied English grammar — imperfectly, of course. 
 
 1832, early: Decides to become a candidate for the Legis- 
 lature of Illinois. 
 
 (At a political meeting.) I presume you all know who I am. 
 I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many 
 friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics 
 are short and sweet, like the old woman's dance. I am in favor 
 of a national bank. I am in favor of the internal-improvement 
 system, and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments 
 and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if not, 
 it will be all the same. 
 
 Makes his first attempt at formal literary expression — a 
 statement of views upon local questions agreeable to almost all 
 his community, coupled with a naive account of himself. 
 
 March gth. (Address to the people of Sangamon County.) 
 Fellow-citizens : Having become a candidate for the honorable 
 
age 22-23] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 9 
 
 office of one of your Representatives in the next General 
 Assembly of this State, in accordance with an established cus- 
 tom and the principles of true Republicanism, it becomes my 
 duty to make known to you, the people whom I propose to 
 represent, my sentiments with regard to local affairs. 
 
 Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether 
 it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so 
 great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by 
 rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall suc- 
 ceed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed, I am 
 young, and unknown to many of you. I was borri, and have 
 ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no 
 wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My 
 case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the 
 county; and, if elected, they will have conferred a favor upon 
 me for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to compen- 
 sate. But, if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to 
 keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with dis- 
 appointments to be very much chagrined. 
 
 f April When the Black Hawk War of 1832 broke out, 
 joined a volunteer company, and, to my own surprise, was 
 elected Captain of it. 
 
 Went to the campaign, served near three months, met the 
 ordinary hardships of such an expedition, but was in no battle. 
 
 April 28th. At Beardstown. 
 
 Received April 28, 1832, for the use of the Sangamon 
 County company under my command, thirty muskets, bayonets, 
 screws, and wipers, which I oblige myself to return upon 
 demand. 
 
 (His company is marching in line toward a gate and he 
 can not remember the proper command for "getting the com- 
 pany through the gate endwise.") So, as we came near the 
 gate, I shouted, 'The company is dismissed for two minutes, 
 when it will fall in again on the other side of the gate." 
 
io ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1832-33 
 
 In the days of the Black Hawk War I fought, bled, and 
 came away. Speaking of General Cass's career reminds me of 
 my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as 
 near it as Cass was to Hull's surrender ; and, like him, I saw 
 the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain that I did 
 not break my sword, for I had none to break; but I bent a 
 musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, 
 the idea is that he broke it in desperation; I bent the musket 
 by accident. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking 
 whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges on the wild 
 onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians it was more than 
 I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mos- 
 quitoes, and although I never fainted from the loss of blood, I 
 can truly say that I was often very hungry. 
 
 June. In regard to the time David Rankin served, the 
 enclosed discharge shows correctly — as well as I can recollect — 
 having no writing to refer. The transfer of Rankin from 
 my company occurred as follows: — Rankin having lost his 
 horse at Dixon's ferry, and having acquaintance in one of the 
 foot companies who were going down the river, was desirous 
 to go with them, and one Galishen, being an acquaintance of 
 mine, and belonging to the company in which Rankin wished 
 to go, wished to leave it and join mine; this being the case it 
 was agreed that they should exchange places and answer to 
 each other's names — as it was expected we all would be dis- 
 charged in very few days. 
 
 Comes up with his company just after the skirmish at 
 Kellogg's Grove and buries the dead. 
 
 We rode up the little hill where their camp was. The red 
 light of the morning sun was streaming upon them as they 
 
age 23-24] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 11 
 
 lay heads toward us on the ground. And every man had a 
 round red spot on the top of his head about as big as a dollar 
 where the redskins had taken his scalp. It was frightful, but 
 it was grotesque ; and the red sunlight seemed to paint every- 
 thing all over. One man had buckskin breeches on. 
 
 August 6th. Returning from the campaign, and encour- 
 aged by great popularity among my immediate neighbors, I 
 ran for the Legislature and was beaten — my own precinct, how- 
 ever, casting its votes two hundred and seventy-seven for and 
 seven against me- — and that, too, while I was an avowed Clay 
 man, and the precinct the autumn afterward gave a majority 
 of one hundred and fifteen to General Jackson over Mr. Clay. 
 
 Autumn. I was now without means and out of business 
 but Was anxious to remain with my friends who had treated 
 me with so much generosity, especially as I had not elsewhere 
 to go. I studied what I should do — thought of learning the 
 blacksmith trade — thought of trying to study law — rather 
 thought I could not succeed at that without a better education. 
 Before long, strangely enough, a man offered to sell, and did 
 sell, to me and another as poor as myself, an old stock of goods, 
 upon credit. We opened as merchants. Of course we did 
 nothing but get deeper and deeper in debt. 
 
 March 6th, 1833. Know all men by these presents, we, 
 William F. Berry, Abraham Lincoln, and John Bowling Green, 
 are held and firmly bound unto the County Commissioners of 
 Sangamon County in the full sum of three hundred dollars to 
 which payment well and truly to be made we bind ourselves, 
 our heirs, executors and administrators firmly by these pres- 
 ents, sealed with our seal and dated this 6th day of March 
 A. D. 1833. Now the condition of this obligation is such that 
 whereas the said Berry & Lincoln has obtained a license from 
 the County Commissioners' Court to keep a tavern in the town 
 of New Salem to continue one year. Now if the said Berry 
 
12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1833-35 
 
 & Lincoln shall be of good behavior and observe all the laws 
 of this State relative to tavern keepers — then this obligation 
 to be void or otherwise remain in full force. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln (Seal) 
 Wm. F. Berry (Seal) 
 Bowling Green (Seal) 
 
 One day a man who was migrating to the West drove up 
 in front of my store with a wagon which contained his family 
 and household plunder. He asked me if I would buy an old 
 barrel for which he had no room in his wagon and which he 
 said contained nothing of special value. I did not want it, but 
 to oblige him I bought it, and paid him, I think, half a dollar 
 for it. Without further examination I put it away in the store 
 and forgot all about it. Some time after, in overhauling 
 things, I came upon the barrel, and emptying it upon the floor 
 to see what it contained, I found at the bottom of the rubbish 
 a complete edition of Blackstone's Commentaries. I began to 
 read those famous works, and I had plenty of time ; for during 
 the long summer days, when the farmers were busy with their 
 crops, my customers were few and far between. The more I 
 read the more intensely interested I became. Never in my 
 whole life was my mind so thoroughly absorbed, I read until 
 I devoured them. 
 
 May. Appointed postmaster at New Salem — the office 
 being too insignificant to make my politics an objection. The 
 store winked out. 
 
 Firm of Lincoln and Berry fails leaving a heavy debt 
 which Lincoln assumes. This debt embarrasses him for fif- 
 teen years. 
 
 Autumn. That debt was the greatest obstacle I have ever 
 met in my life; I had no way of speculating, and could not 
 
age 24-26] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 13 
 
 earn enough money except by labor, and to earn by labor 
 eleven hundred dollars besides my living seemed the work of a 
 lifetime. There was, however, but one way. I went to the 
 creditors, and told them that if they would let me alone I would 
 give them all I could earn over my living, as fast as I could 
 earn it. 
 
 The surveyor of Sangamon offered to depute to me that 
 portion of his work which was within my part of the county. 
 Accepted, procured a compass and chain, studied Flint and 
 Gibson a little, and went to it. This procured bread, and kept 
 soul and body together. 
 
 Autumn, 1834. The election of 1834 came, and I was 
 then elected to the Legislature by the highest vote ever cast 
 for any candidate. Major John T. Stuart, then in full practise 
 of the law, was also elected. During the canvass, in a private 
 conversation he encouraged me to study law. After the elec- 
 tion I borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with me, 
 and went at it in good earnest. I studied with nobody. I still 
 mixed in the surveying to pay board and clothing bills. 
 
 He continues also to be postmaster at New Salem, and to 
 eke out a very scanty livelihood. 
 
 December. When the Legislature met, the law books 
 were dropped, but were taken up again at the end of the session. 
 
 1835, New Salem. 
 
 Love affair of Lincoln and Ann Rutledge. Her sudden 
 death of an epidemic, in August, casts him into desperate mel- 
 ancholy from which he emerges slowly. 
 
 Autumn. I can never be reconciled to have the snow, 
 rains and storms beat upon her grave ! 
 
i 4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1836 
 
 (At the grave of Ann Rutledge.) My heart is buried there. 
 1836. Stands for re-election to the Legislature. 
 
 June 13th. (To the Editor of the Journal.) In your 
 paper of last Saturday, I see a communication, over the signa- 
 ture of "Many Voters," in which the candidates who are 
 announced in the Journal are called upon to "show their 
 hands." Agreed. Here's mine. 
 
 I go for- all sharing the privileges of the government who 
 assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting 
 all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms 
 (by no means excluding females). 
 
 If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon 
 my constituents, as well those that oppose as those that sup- 
 port me. 
 
 While acting as their Representative, I shall be governed 
 by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of 
 knowing what their will is ; and upon all others, I shall do what 
 my own judgment teaches me will best advance their interests. 
 Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of 
 the sales of the public lands to the several States, to enable our 
 State, in common with others, to dig canals and construct rail- 
 roads without borrowing money and paying the interest on it. 
 
 If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for 
 Hugh L. White for President. 
 
 June 2 1 st. (To Robert Allen.) I am told that during my 
 absence last week you passed through this place, and stated 
 publicly that you were in possession of a fact or facts, which 
 if known to the public, would entirely destroy the prospects of 
 N. W. Edwards and myself at the ensuing elections, but that 
 through favor to us, you should forbear to divulge them. No 
 one has needed favors more than I, and, generally, few have 
 been less unwilling to accept them, but in this case favor to me 
 would be injustice to the public, and therefore I must beg your 
 
age 27] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 15 
 
 pardon for declining it. That I once had the confidence of the 
 people of Sangamon is sufficiently evident; and if I have since 
 done anything, either by design or misadventure, which if 
 known would subject me to a forfeiture of that confidence, he 
 that knows of that thing, and conceals it, is a traitor to his 
 country's interest. 
 
 I find myself wholly unable to form any conjecture of what 
 fact or facts, real or supposed, you spoke; but my opinion of 
 your veracity will not permit me for a moment to doubt that 
 you at least believed what you said. I am flattered with the 
 personal regard you manifested for me; but I do hope that, on 
 more mature reflection, you will view the public interest as a 
 paramount consideration, and therefore determine to let the 
 worst come. 
 
 I assure you that the candid statement of facts on your 
 part, however low it may sink me, shall never break the tie of 
 personal friendship between us. 
 
 I wish an answer to this, and you are at liberty to publish 
 both, if you choose. 
 
 During the campaign of 1836—% 
 
 (Attacking an opponent accused of graft, whose residence 
 carried an enormous lightning-rod.) The gentleman com- 
 menced his speech by saying that this young man would have 
 to be taken down, and he was sorry the task devolved upon 
 him. I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks and 
 trade of a politician ; but live long or die young, I would rather 
 die now than, like the gentleman, change my politics and simul- 
 taneous with the change, receive an office worth three thousand 
 dollars a year, and then have to erect a lightning-rod over my 
 house to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God. 
 
 (To some farmers after he had been driving with a more 
 prosperous opponent.) I am too poor to own a carriage, but 
 
16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1836 
 
 my friend has generously invited me to ride with him. I want 
 you to vote for me if you will; but if not, then vote for my 
 opponent, for he is a fine man. 
 
 Re-elected to tJie Legislature. 
 
 September pth. Obtains a license to practise law. In a 
 sort of desperate reaction after the tragedy of Ann Rutledge 
 he becomes entangled in a curious love affair, 
 
 November. (To Mrs. O. H. Browning.) In the autumn 
 of 1836, a married lady of my acquaintance, and who was a 
 great friend of mine, being about to pay a visit to her father 
 and other relatives residing in Kentucky, proposed to me that 
 on her return she would bring a sister of hers with her on con- 
 dition that I would engage to become her brother-in-law with 
 all convenient despatch. I, of course, accepted the proposal, 
 for I could not have done otherwise had I really been adverse 
 to it ; but I was most confoundedly well pleased with the proj- 
 ect. I had seen the said sister some three years before, thought 
 her intelligent and agreeable, and saw no good objection to 
 plodding life through hand in hand with her. Time passed 
 on, the lady took her journey and in due time returned, sister 
 (Mary Owens) in company, sure enough. This astonished 
 me a little; for it appeared to me that her coming so readily 
 showed that she was a trifle too willing; but on reflection it 
 occurred to me that she might have been prevailed on by her 
 married sister to come, without anything concerning me having 
 been mentioned to her; and so I concluded that if no objection 
 presented itself, I would consent to waive this. All this oc- 
 curred to me on hearing of her arrival in the neighborhood; 
 for, be it remembered, I had not seen her, except about three 
 years previous, as above mentioned. In a few days we had an 
 interview, and although I had seen her before, she did not look 
 
age 2 7 ] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 17 
 
 as my imagination had pictured her. I knew she was over-size, 
 but now she appeared a fair match for Falstaf f. I knew she 
 was called an "old maid," and I felt no doubt of the truth of 
 at least half of the appellation, but now, when I beheld her, 
 I could not for my life avoid thinking of my mother; and this, 
 not from withered features, for her skin was too full of fat to 
 permit of its contracting into wrinkles, but from her want of 
 teeth, weather-beaten appearance in general, and from a kind 
 of notion that ran in my head that nothing could have com- 
 menced at the size of infancy and reached her present bulk in 
 less than thirty-five or forty years; and, in short, I was not 
 at all pleased with her. But what could I do ? I had told her 
 sister that I would take her for better or for worse ; and I made 
 a point of honor and conscience in all things to stick to my 
 word, especially if others had been induced to act on it, which 
 in this case I had no doubt they had; for I was now fairly con- 
 vinced that no other man on earth would have her, and hence 
 the conclusion that they were bent on holding me to my bar- 
 gain. "Well/' thought I, "I have said it, and, be the conse- 
 quences what they may, it shall not be my fault if I fail to do 
 it." At once I determined to consider her my wife, and this 
 done, all my powers of discovery were put to work in search 
 of perfections in her which might be fairly set off against her 
 defects. I tried to imagine her handsome, which, but for her 
 unfortunate corpulency, was actually true. Exclusive of this, 
 no woman that I have ever seen had a finer face. I also tried 
 to convince myself that the mind was much more to be valued 
 than the person; and in this she was not inferior so far as I 
 could discover, to any with whom I had been acquainted. 
 
 December. Without attempting to come to any positive 
 understanding with her, I set out for Vandalia. 
 
 December 13th. Vandalia. 
 
 (To Miss Mary Owens.) I have been sick ever since my 
 arrival, or I should have written sooner. It is but little differ- 
 
1 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1836 
 
 ence, however, as I have very little even yet to write. And 
 more, the longer I can avoid the mortification of looking in the 
 post-office for your letter and not finding it, the better. You 
 see I am mad about that old letter yet. I don't like very well 
 to risk you again. I'll try you once more, anyhow. 
 
 Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield 
 is better than I expected. An internal-improvement convention 
 was held here since we met, which recommended a loan of 
 several millions of dollars, on the faith of the State, to con- 
 struct railroads. Some of the Legislature are for it, and some 
 against it ; which has the majority I can not tell. 
 
 You recollect that I mentioned at the outset of this letter 
 that I had been unwell. That is the fact, though I believe I 
 am about well now; but that, with other things I can not ac- 
 count for, have conspired, and have gotten my spirits so low 
 that I feel that I would rather be any place in the world than 
 here. I really can not endure the thought of staying here ten 
 weeks. Write back as soon as you get this, and, if possible, 
 say something that will please me, for really I have not been 
 pleased since I left you. This letter is so dry and stupid that 
 I am ashamed to send it, but with my present feelings I can 
 not do any better. 
 
1837 
 
 Young Lincoln develops a sarcastic vein which he indulges 
 in his political speeches. 
 
 January. (In the House of Representatives of Illinois, 
 upon the resolution offered by Mr. Linder, to institute an 
 inquiry into the management of the affairs of the State Bank.) 
 Mr. Chairman : Lest I should fall into the too common error 
 of being mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, 
 I shall make it my first care to remove all doubt on that point 
 by declaring that I am opposed to the resolution under consid- 
 eration, in toto. Before I proceed to the body of the subject, I 
 will further remark that it is not without a considerable degree 
 of apprehension that I venture to cross the track of the gentle- 
 man from Coles (Mr. Linder). Indeed, I do not believe I 
 could muster a sufficiency of courage to come in contact with 
 that gentleman, were it not for the fact, that he, some days 
 since, most graciously condescended to assure us that he would 
 never be found wasting ammunition on small game. On the 
 same fortunate occasion he further gave us to understand that 
 he regarded himself as being decidedly the superior of our 
 common friend from Randolph (Mr. Shields) ; and feeling, 
 as I really do, that I, to say the most of myself, am nothing 
 more than the peer of our friend from Randolph, I shall regard 
 the gentleman from Coles as decidedly my superior also, and 
 consequently, in the course of what I shall have to say, when- 
 ever I shall have occasion to allude to that gentleman, I shall 
 endeavor to adopt that kind of court language which I under- 
 
 19 
 
20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1837 
 
 stand to be due to decided superiority. In one faculty, at least, 
 there can be no dispute of the gentleman's superiority over me, 
 and most other men; and that is, the faculty of entangling a 
 subject, so that neither himself, nor any other man, can find 
 head or tail to it. Here he has introduced a resolution, embrac- 
 ing ninety-nine printed lines across common writing paper, 
 and yet more than one half of his opening speech has been 
 made upon subjects about which there is not one word said 
 in his resolution. 
 
 By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that a 
 principal object of the committee is to examine into, and ferret 
 out, a mass of corruption, supposed to have been committed by 
 the commissioners who apportioned the stock of the Bank. I 
 believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all 
 men will ever act correctly unless they have a motive to do 
 otherwise. If this be true, we can only suppose that the com- 
 missioners acted corruptly, by also supposing that they were 
 bribed to do so. Taking this view of the subject, I would ask 
 if the Bank is likely to find it more difficult to bribe the com- 
 mittee of seven, which we are about to appoint, than it may 
 have found it to bribe the commissioners ? 
 
 (Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair decided that 
 Mr. Lincoln was not out of order. Mr. Linder appealed to the 
 House; but before the question was put, withdrew his appeal, 
 saying he preferred to let the gentleman go on; he thought he 
 would break his own neck. Mr. Lincoln proceeded) : 
 
 Another gracious condescension; I acknowledge it with 
 gratitude. I know I was not out of order; and I know every 
 sensible man in the House knows it. I was not saying that 
 the gentleman from Coles could be bribed, nor, on the other 
 hand, will I say he could not. In that particular I leave him 
 where I found him. I was only endeavoring to show that there 
 was at least as great a probability of any seven members that 
 could be selected from this House being bribed to act corruptly, 
 
age 28] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 21 
 
 as there was that the twenty-four commissioners had been so 
 bribed. 
 
 These are twenty- four of the most respectable men in the 
 State. Probably no twenty-four men could be selected in the 
 State with whom the people are better acquainted, or in whose 
 honor and integrity they would more readily place confidence. 
 And I now repeat that there is less probability that those men 
 have been bribed and corrupted than that any seven men, or 
 rather any six men, that could be selected from the members 
 of this House, might be so bribed and corrupted ; even though 
 they were headed and led on by "decided superiority" himself. 
 
 The half -hear ted courtship of Mary Owens drags on. 
 
 February. During my stay [at Vandalia] I had letters 
 from Mary Owens which did not change my opinion of either 
 her intellect or intention, but, on the contrary, confirmed it 
 in both. 
 
 All this while, although I was fixed, "firm as the surge- 
 repelling rock" in my resolution, I found I was continually 
 repenting the rashness which had led me to make it. Through 
 life I have been in no bondage, either real or imaginary, from 
 the thraldom of which I so much desired to be free. 
 
 At the close of a debate on slavery in the Legislature Lin- 
 coln takes a position that hardly any one opposes. 
 
 March 3rd. 
 
 Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 
 passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present 
 session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage of 
 the same. 
 
 They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on 
 both injustice and bad policy; but that the promulgation of 
 abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils. 
 
22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1837 
 
 They believe that the Congress of the United States has no 
 power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution 
 of slavery in the different States. 
 
 They believe that the Congress of the United States has the 
 power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District 
 of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised, 
 unless at the request of the people of the District. 
 
 The difference between these opinions and those contained 
 in the said resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. 
 
 Dan Stone, 
 A. Lincoln, 
 (Representatives from the County of Sangamon.) 
 
 April 1st. New Salem. 
 
 After my return home from the Legislature I saw nothing 
 to change my opinion of Mary Owens in any particular. She 
 was the same, and so was I. I now spent my time in planning 
 how I might get along in life after my contemplated change in 
 circumstances should have taken place, and how I might pro- 
 crastinate the evil day for a time, which I really dreaded as 
 much, perhaps more, than an Irishman does the halter. 
 
 15th. Removed to Springfield, and commenced the prac- 
 tise of law— my old friend Stuart taking me into partnership. 
 
 (To Joshua Speed, of whom Lincoln had asked credit on 
 coming to Springfield to live.) If I fail in this (attempt to 
 practise law) I do not know that I can ever pay you. 
 
 (Speed, thinking he has never seen a sadder face: You 
 seem to be so much pained at contracting so small a debt, I 
 think I can suggest a plan by which you can avoid the debt, 
 and at the same time attain your end. I have a large room 
 with a double bed upstairs, which you are very welcome to 
 share with me.) 
 
 (Lincoln) : Where is your room? 
 
 (Speed: Upstairs.) 
 
age 28] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 23 
 
 (After taking his saddlebags upstairs and coming down, 
 his face beaming with pleasure.) Well Speed, I'm moved. 
 
 Still in two minds about Mary Owens. 
 
 May yth. Springfield. 
 
 (To Miss Mary Owens.) I have commenced two letters 
 to send you before this, both of which displeased me before I 
 got half done, and so I tore them up. The first I thought was 
 not serious enough, and the second was on the other extreme. 
 I shall send this, turn out as it may. 
 
 This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, 
 after all ; at least it is to me. I am quite as lonesome here as I 
 ever was anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but 
 one woman since I have been here, and should not have been 
 by her if she could have avoided it. I've never been to church, 
 and probably shall not be soon. I stay away because I am 
 conscious I should not know how to behave myself. 
 
 I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to 
 live at Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. 
 There is a great deal of flourishing about in carriages here, 
 which it would be your doom to see without sharing it. You 
 would have to be poor, without the means of hiding your pov- 
 erty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently ? Whatever 
 woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is 
 my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and 
 contented; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make 
 me more unhappy than to fail in the effort. I know I should 
 be much happier with you than the way I am, provided I saw 
 no signs of discontent in you. What you have said to me may 
 have been in the way of jest, or I may have misunderstood it. 
 If so, then let it be forgotten; if otherwise, I much wish you 
 would think seriously before you decide. What I have said I 
 will most positively abide by, provided you wish it. My opinion 
 
24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1837 
 
 is that you had better not do it. You have not been accustomed 
 to hardship, and it may be more severe than you now imagine. 
 I know you are capable of thinking correctly on any subject, 
 and, if you deliberate maturely upon this before you decide, 
 then I am willing to abide your decision. 
 
 You must write me a good long letter after you get this. 
 You have nothing else to do, and though it might not seem 
 interesting to you after you had written ijt, it would be a good 
 deal of company to me in this "busy wilderness.' , Tell your 
 sister I don't want to hear any more about selling out and 
 moving. That gives me the hypo whenever I think of it. 
 
 August 16th. (To Miss Mary Owens.) You will no 
 doubt think it rather strange that I should write you a letter 
 on the same day on which we parted ; and I can only account 
 for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes me think of 
 you more than usual; while at our late meeting we had but 
 few expressions of thoughts. You must know that I can not 
 see you or think of you with entire indifference ; and yet it may 
 be that you are mistaken in regard to what my real feelings 
 toward you are. If I knew you were not, I should not trouble 
 you with this letter. Perhaps any other man would know 
 enough without further information; but I consider it my 
 peculiar right to plead ignorance, and your bounden duty to 
 allow the plea. 
 
 I want in all cases to do right, and most particularly so in 
 all cases with women. I want, at this particular time, more 
 than anything else, to do right with you ; and if I knew it would 
 be doing right, as I rather suspect it would, to let you alone, 
 I would do it. And, for the purpose of making the matter as 
 plain as possible, I now say that you can drop the subject, dis- 
 miss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me forever, 
 and leave this letter unanswered, without calling forth one 
 accusing murmur from me. And I will even go further, and 
 say, that, if it will add anything to your comfort or peace of 
 
age 28] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 25 
 
 mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you should. Do not 
 understand that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I mean no 
 such thing. What I do wish is that our further acquaintance 
 shall depend upon yourself. If such further acquaintance 
 would contribute nothing to your happiness, I am sure it would 
 not to mine. If you feel yourself in any degree bound to me, 
 I am now willing to release you, provided you wish it ; while, 
 on the other hand, I am willing and even anxious to bind you 
 faster, if I can be convinced that it will, in any considerable 
 degree, add to your happiness. This, indeed, is the whole 
 question with me. Nothing would make me more miserable 
 than to believe you miserable — nothing more happy than to 
 know you were so. 
 
 In what I have now said, I think I can not be misunder- 
 stood; and to make myself understood is the only object of 
 this letter. 
 
 If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. A long 
 life and a merry one attend you. But if you conclude to write 
 back, speak as plainly as I do. There can be neither harm nor 
 danger in saying to me anything you think, just in the manner 
 you think it. 
 
 Again his sarcastic bent is displayed. 
 
 October 28th. (Denunciation of a political enemy.) Gen- 
 eral Adams' publications and outdoor maneuvering taken in 
 connection with the editorial articles of the Republican, are not 
 more foolish and contradictory than they are ludicrous and 
 amusing. One week the Republican notifies the public that 
 General Adams is preparing an instrument that will tear, rend, 
 split, rive, blow up, confound, overwhelm, annihilate, extin- 
 guish, exterminate, burst asunder and grind to powder all its 
 slanderers, and particularly Talbott and Lincoln — all of which 
 is to be done in due time. Then for two or three weeks all is 
 
26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1837 
 
 calm — not a word said. Again the Republican comes forth 
 with a mere passing remark that "Public opinion has decided in 
 favor of General Adams," and intimates that he will give him- 
 self no more trouble about the matter. In the meantime Adams 
 himself is prowling about, and as Burns says of the Devil, "For 
 prey, a' holes and corners tryin'," and in one instance, goes so 
 far as to take an old acquaintance of mine several steps from a 
 crowd and apparently weighed down with the importance of his 
 business, gravely and solemnly asks him if "he ever heard Lin- 
 coln say he was a deist/' Anon the Republican comes again, 
 "We invite the attention of the public to General Adams' com- 
 munication," &c, "The victory is a great one," "The triumph 
 is overwhelming." (I really believe the editor of the Illinois 
 Republican is fool enough to think General Adams is an honest 
 man.) Then General Adams leads off — "Authors most 
 egregiously mistaken'' &c, — "most wo f idly shall their pre- 
 sumption be punished," &c, (Lord, have mercy on us.) "The 
 hour is yet to come, yea nigh at hand — (how long first do you 
 reckon?) — when the Journal and its junto shall say, I have ap- 
 peared too early." — "Then infamy shall be laid bare to the 
 public gaze." Suddenly the General appears to relent at the 
 severity with which he is treating us and he exclaims, "The 
 condemnation of my enemies is the inevitable residt of my own 
 defense" For your health's sake, dear General, do not permit 
 your tenderness of heart to afflict you so much on our account. 
 For some reason (perhaps because we are killed so quickly) 
 we shall never be sensible of our suffering. 
 
 Finally breaks with Mary Owens. 
 
 Autumn. (To Mrs. O. H. Browning.) After all my suf- 
 fering upon this deeply interesting subject, here I am, wholly, 
 unexpectedly, completely out of "the scrape" ; and I now want 
 to know if you can guess how I got out of it— out, clear, in 
 
age 28] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 27 
 
 every sense of the term — no violation of word, honor, or con- 
 science. I don't believe you can guess, and so I might as well 
 tell you at once. As the lawyer says, it was done in the manner 
 following, to wit : After I had delayed the matter as long as I 
 thought I could in honor do (which, by the way, had brought 
 me round into last fall), I concluded I might as well bring it to 
 a consummation without further delay, and so I mustered my 
 resolution and made the proposal to her direct; but, shocking 
 to relate, she answered, No. At first I supposed she did it 
 through an affectation of modesty, which I thought but ill 
 became her under the peculiar circumstances of her case, but 
 on my renewal of the charge, I found she repelled it with 
 greater firmness than before. I tried it again and again, but 
 with the same success, or rather with the same want of success. 
 I finally was forced to give it up, at which I very unex- 
 pectedly found myself mortified almost beyond endurance. I 
 was mortified, it seemed to me, in a hundred different ways. 
 My vanity was deeply wounded by the reflection that I had so 
 long been too stupid to discover her intentions, and at the same 
 time never doubting that I understood them perfectly ; and also 
 that she, whom I had taught myself to believe nobody else 
 would have, had actually rejected me with all my fancied great- 
 ness. And, to cap the whole, I then for the first time began to 
 suspect that I was really a little in love with her. But let it all 
 go! I'll try and outlive it. Others have been made fools of 
 by girls; but this can never with truth be said of me. I most 
 emphatically, in this instance, made a fool of myself. I have 
 now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, 
 and for this reason: I can never be satisfied with any one who 
 would be blockhead enough to have me. 
 
1838-1841 
 
 By this time he is a leading member of the Young Men's 
 Lyceum, of Springfield. The stormy events of the year 1837, 
 including the murder of Owen Love joy, are soon followed by 
 a defense of law by young Lincoln. 
 
 January 27th, 1838. As a subject for the remarks of the 
 evening, "The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions" is 
 selected. 
 
 All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with 
 all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their mili- 
 tary chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by 
 force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue 
 Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. 
 
 At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be ex- 
 pected ? I answer, If it ever reach us it must spring up among 
 us; it can not 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 among us. I mean the increasing dis- 
 regard 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. Here, then, is one 
 point at which danger may be expected. 
 
 The question recurs, "How shall we fortify against it?" 
 The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of 
 
 28 
 
age 3 o] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 29 
 
 liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood 
 of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the 
 laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by 
 others. 
 
 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 pos- 
 sible delay, but till then let them, if not too intolerable, be borne 
 with. There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by 
 mob law. 
 
 Re-elected to the Legislature. 
 
 He soon draws up a petition not strictly political. 
 
 October 10th, 1839. (To the Honorable Mrs. Browning.*) 
 We, the undersigned, respectfully represent to your Honoress, 
 that we are in great need of your society in the town of 
 Springfield and therefore humbly pray that your Honoress 
 will repair forthwith to the seat of Government bringing in 
 your train all ladies in general who may be at your command 
 and all Mrs. Browning's sisters in particular, and as faithful 
 and dutiful petitioners we promise that if you grant this our 
 request, we will render unto your Honoress due attention and 
 faithful obedience to your orders in general and to Miss Brown- 
 ing's in particular. 
 
 In tender consideration whereof we pray your Honoress to 
 
 *See p. 16. Her husband Orville H. Browning was one of his closest 
 friends. 
 
3 o ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1839-40 
 
 grant your humble petitioners their above request and such 
 other and further relief in the premises as to your Honoress 
 may seem right and proper; and your petitioners as in duty 
 bound will ever pray, etc. 
 
 His vein of quaint humor enlivens his legal correspondence.* 
 
 December 23rd. (To John T. Stuart.) Doctor Henry 
 will write you all the political news. I write this about some 
 little matters of business. You recollect you told me you had 
 drawn the Chicago Masack money and sent it to the claimants. 
 A d — d hawk-billed Yankee is here besetting me at every turn 
 I take, saying that Robert Kinzie never received the eighty 
 dollars to which he was entitled. 
 
 Can you tell anything about the matter? Again, old Mr. 
 Wright, who lives up South Fork somewhere, is teasing me 
 continually about some deeds which he says he left with you, 
 but which I can find nothing of. Can you tell where they are ? 
 
 During this year he has become engaged to Mary Todd, a 
 Springfield belle, whose social position was very much higher 
 titan his own. 
 
 But his new love affair does not in any way check his politi- 
 cal enterprise. 
 
 January 20th, 1840. (To John T. Stuart.) Be sure to 
 send me as many copies of the Life of Harrison as you can 
 spare from other uses. Be very sure to procure and send me 
 the Senate Journal of New York of September, 18 14. I have 
 a newspaper article which says that that document proves that 
 Van Buren voted against raising troops in the last war. And, 
 in general, send me everything you think will be a good "war- 
 club." 
 
 You have heard that the Whigs and Locos had a political 
 
 *See particularly p. 53- 
 
u 
 
 HARPERS Wl 
 
age 30-31] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 31 
 
 discussion shortly after the meeting of the Legislature. Well, 
 I made a big speech which is in progress of printing in pam- 
 phlet form. 
 
 March 1st. (To John T. Stuart.) I have never seen the 
 prospects of our party so bright in these parts as they are now. 
 We shall carry this county by a larger majority than we did 
 in 1836. 
 
 I think my prospects individually are not very flattering, 
 for I think it probable I shall not be permitted to be a candi- 
 date; but the party ticket will succeed triumphantly. 
 
 Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider himself in- 
 sulted by something in the Journal, undertook to cane Francis 
 in the street. Francis caught him by the hair and jammed him 
 back against a market cart where the matter ended by Francis 
 being pulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludi- 
 crous that Francis and everybody else (Douglas excepted) 
 have been laughing about it ever since. 
 
 26th. (To John T. Stuart.) We have had a convention 
 for nominating candidates in this county. Baker was put on 
 the track for the Senate, and Bradford, Brown of the Island 
 Grove, Josiah Francis, Darneille, and I for the House. 
 Ninian Edwards was very much hurt at not being nominated, 
 but he has become tolerably well reconciled. I was much, very 
 much, wounded myself at his being left out. The fact is, the 
 county delegates made the nominations as they pleased; and 
 they pleased to make them all from the county, except Baker 
 and me, whom they supposed necessary to make stump speeches. 
 
 Re-elected to the Legislature. 
 
 January 1st, 1841. Engagement broken for some reason 
 not certainly known. Much gossip grows out of the event. 
 Lincoln is again plunged into deep melancholy and repeats to 
 some degree the gloomy experiences which followed the death 
 of Ann Rutlcdge. 
 
32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1841 
 
 January 23rd-. (To John T. Stuart.) Yours of the 
 3d instant is received, and I proceed to answer it as well as I 
 can, though from the deplorable state of my mind at this time 
 I fear I shall give you but little satisfaction. 
 
 On last evening there was a meeting of our friends at 
 Butler's, and I submitted the question to them, and found them 
 unanimously in favor of having you announced as a candidate. 
 A few of us this morning, however, concluded that as you were 
 already being announced in the papers, we would delay an- 
 nouncing you, as by your own authority, for a week or two. 
 We thought that to appear too keen about it might spur our 
 opponents on about their general ticket project. Upon the 
 whole, I think I may say with certainty that your re-election 
 is sure, if it be in the power of the Whigs to make it so. 
 
 For not giving you a general summary of news, you must 
 pardon me ; it is not in my power to do so. I am now the most 
 miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed 
 to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful 
 face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I can not 
 tell ; I awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impos- 
 sible; I must die or be better, it appears to me. The matter 
 you speak of on my account you may attend to as you say, 
 unless you shall hear of my condition forbidding it. I say this 
 because I fear I shall be unable to attend to any business here, 
 and a change of scene might help me. If I could be myself, 
 I would rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write 
 no more. 
 
 Before long he emerges from his first gloom but is not fully 
 himself for a long while. 
 
 February 5th. (To John T. Stuart.) Some of us here 
 have concluded that if it is agreeable, Bat Webb shall be our 
 District Attorney. He would accept the place, but will not 
 
age 32] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 33 
 
 enter into a scramble for it. We hear, or at least I know, of no 
 other applicant. I will add that I really have my heart set 
 upon Webb's appointment to this place, and that I believe the 
 whole party would be gratified with it. 
 
 He finds solace in renewed political activity. 
 
 26th. The undersigned can not assent to the passage of 
 the bill (reorganizing the State Judiciary) or permit it to be- 
 come a law without this evidence of their disapprobation; and 
 they now protest against the reorganization of the judiciary, 
 because — (1) It violates the great principles of free govern- 
 ment by subjecting the judiciary to the Legislature. (2) It is a 
 fatal blow at the independence of the judges and the constitu- 
 tional term of their office. (3) It is a measure not asked for, 
 or wished for, by the people. (4) It will greatly increase the 
 expense of our courts, or else greatly diminish their utility. 
 (5) It will give our courts a political and partisan character, 
 thereby impairing public confidence in their decisions. (6) It 
 will impair our standing with other States and the world. 
 (7) It is a party measure for party purposes, from which no 
 practical good to the people can possibly arise, but which may 
 be the source of immeasurable evils. 
 
 The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be 
 altogether unavailing with the majority of this body. The 
 blow has already fallen, and we are compelled to stand by, the 
 mournful spectators of the ruin it will cause. 
 
 April 14th. End of firm of Stuart and Lincoln, which is 
 succeeded by the firm of Logan and Lincoln. 
 
 May. He is involved in a faint love affair with a young 
 girl, Sarah Richard.* 
 
 *Of this rather shadowy affair, which appears to have comprised the 
 reaction after his torment over Mary Todd, very little is known. The 
 lady herself, twenty-five years after, told Mr. Jesse W. Weik that Lincoln 
 proposed to her and was rejected. The contemporary record is in a few 
 
34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1841 
 
 June. He goes to Kentucky and makes a visit to the rela- 
 tives of Speed. Soon after his return — 
 
 September 2jth, Bloomington. (To Miss Mary Speed.) 
 Having resolved to write to some of your mother's family, 
 and not having the express permission of any one of them to 
 do so, I have had some little difficulty in determining on which 
 to inflict the task of reading what I now feel must be a most 
 dull and silly letter; but when I remembered that you and I 
 were something of cronies while I was at Farmington, and 
 that while there I was under the necessity of shutting you up 
 in a room to prevent your committing an assault and battery 
 upon me, I instantly decided that you should be the devoted 
 one. I assume that you have not heard from Joshua and myself 
 since we left, because I think it doubtful whether he has 
 written. You remember there was some uneasiness about 
 Joshua's health when we left. That little indisposition of his 
 turned out to be nothing serious, and it was pretty nearly for- 
 gotten when we reached Springfield. We got on board the 
 steamboat Lebanon in the locks of the canal, about twelve 
 o'clock m. of the day we left, and reached St. Louis the next 
 Monday at 8 p. m. Nothing of interest happened during the 
 passage, except the vexatious delays occasioned by the sand- 
 bars we thought interesting. By the way, a fine example was 
 present on board the boat for contemplating the effect of con- 
 dition upon human happiness. A gentleman had purchased 
 twelve negroes in different parts of Kentucky and was taking 
 them to a farm in the South. They were chained six and six 
 together. A small iron clevis was around the left wrist of each, 
 and this was fastened to the main chain by a shorter one at a 
 convenient distance from the others, so that the negroes were 
 strung together precisely like so many fish upon a trot-line. In 
 
 rather cryptic sentences scattered through the letters to Speed. The orig- 
 inal editors suppressed the name, at Speed's request. See The Real Lin- 
 coln, 67-68. 
 
age 32] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 35 
 
 this condition they were being separated forever from the 
 scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and moth- 
 ers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them from their 
 wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery, where the 
 lash of the master is proverbially more ruthless and unrelenting 
 than any other where; and yet amid all these distressing cir- 
 cumstances, as we would think them, they were the most cheer- 
 ful and apparently happy creatures on board. One whose of- 
 fense for which he had been sold was an over-fondness for his 
 wife, played the fiddle almost continually, and the others 
 danced, sang, cracked jokes and played various games with 
 cards from day to day. How true it is that "God tempers the 
 wind to the shorn lamb," or in other words, that He renders 
 the worst of human conditions tolerable, while He permits the 
 best to be nothing better than tolerable. To return to the nar- 
 rative. When we reached Springfield, I stayed but one day 
 when I started on this tedious circuit where I now am. Do you 
 remember my going to the city while I was in Kentucky to 
 have a tooth extracted, and making a failure of it? Well, that 
 same old tooth got to paining me so much that about a week 
 since I had it torn out, bringing with it a bit of the jaw-bone, 
 the consequence of which is that my mouth is now so sore 
 that I can neither talk nor eat. 
 
 I am literally "subsisting on savory remembrances ,, — that 
 is, being unable to eat, I am living upon the remembrance of 
 the delicious dishes of peaches and cream we used to have at 
 your house. When we left, Miss Fanny Henning was owing 
 you a visit, as I understood. Has she paid it yet? If she has, 
 are you not convinced that she is one of the sweetest girls in 
 the world? There is but one thing about her, so far as I could 
 perceive, that I would have otherwise than as it is — that is, 
 something of a tendency to melancholy. This, let it be ob- 
 served, is a misfortune, not a fault. 
 
 Give her an assurance of my very highest regard when 
 
36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i&n 
 
 you see her. Is little Siss Eliza Davis at your house yet? If 
 she is, kiss her "o'er and o'er again" for me. 
 
 Tell your mother that I have not got her "present'* [ an 
 "Oxford" Bible] with me, but I intend to read it regularly 
 when I return home. I doubt not that it is really, as she says, 
 the best cure for the blues, could one but take it according to 
 the truth. 
 
 Now quite himself again and once more in full political 
 career. 
 
 October 20th. The undersigned, acting, as is believed, in 
 accordance with the wishes of the Whig party, and in compli- 
 ance with their duties as the Whig Central Committee of this 
 State, appoint the third Monday of December next for the 
 meeting of a Whig State Convention, at Springfield, for the 
 purpose of nominating candidates for the offices of Governor 
 and Lieutenant-Governor of this State for the coming 
 election. 
 
 A. G. Henry, J. F. Speed, A. Lincoln, 
 
 E. D. Baker, Wm. L May, 
 
 Whig State Central Committee 
 
1842 
 
 Speed having become engaged to be married, suffers a 
 period of introspection, dissecting his own motives, which ap- 
 pears to resemble the experience through which Lincoln had 
 passed before the breaking of his engagement to Mary Todd. 
 Having recovered himself he seeks to lead Speed to recovery. 
 
 January 3rd. (To Joshua F. Speed.) Feeling, as you 
 know I do, the deepest solicitude for the success of the enter- 
 prise you are engaged in, [his engagement to be married] I 
 adopt this as the last method I can adopt to aid you, in case 
 (which God forbid) you shall need any aid. I do not place 
 what I am going to say on paper because I can say it better that 
 way than I could by word of mouth, but, were I to say it orally 
 before we part, most likely you would forget it at the very 
 time when it might do you some good. As I think it reasonable 
 that you will feel very badly some time between this and the 
 final consummation of your purpose, it is intended that you 
 shall read this just at such a time. Why I say it is reasonable 
 that you will feel very badly yet, is because of three special 
 causes added to the general one which I shall mention. 
 
 The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous 
 temperament; and this I say from what I have seen of you 
 personally, and what you have told me concerning your mother 
 at various times, and concerning your brother William at the 
 time his wife died. 
 
 The first special cause is your exposure to bad weather on 
 your journey, which my experience clearly proves to be very 
 severe on defective nerves. The second is the absence of all 
 
 37 
 
38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1842 
 
 business and conversation of friends, which might divert your 
 mind, give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought 
 which will sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare, and 
 turn it to the bitterness of death. The third is the rapid and 
 near approach of that crisis on which all your thoughts and 
 feelings concentrate. 
 
 If from all these causes you shall escape and go through 
 triumphantly, without another "twinge of the soul," I shall be 
 most happily but not egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, 
 you shall, as I expect you will at some time, be agonized and 
 distressed, let me, who have some reason to speak with judg- 
 ment of such a subject, beseech you to ascribe it to the causes 
 I have mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous suggestion 
 of the Devil. 
 
 I know what the painful point with you is at all times when 
 you are unhappy ; it is an apprehension that you do not love her 
 as you should. What nonsense ! How came you to court her ? 
 Was it because you thought she deserved it, and that you had 
 given her reason to expect it? 
 
 Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole 
 basis of all your early reasoning on the subject ? After you and 
 I had once been at the residence, did you not go and take me 
 all the way to Lexington and back, for no other purpose but to 
 get to see her again, on your return that evening to take a 
 trip for that express object? 
 
 What earthly consideration would you take to find her 
 scouting and despising you, and giving herself up to another? 
 But of this you have no apprehension; and therefore you can 
 not bring it home to your feelings. 
 
 February 3rd. (To Joshua F. Speed.) You well know 
 that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly than I 
 do yours, when I know of them; and yet I assure you I was 
 not much hurt by what you wrote me of your excessively bad 
 feeling at the time you wrote. Not that I am less capable of 
 
age 33] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 39 
 
 sympathizing with you now than ever, not that I am less your 
 friend than ever, but because / hope and believe that your pres- 
 ent anxiety and distress about her health and her life must and 
 will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you 
 sometimes felt as to the truth of your affection for her. If 
 they can once and forever be removed (and I almost feel a 
 presentiment that the Almighty has sent your present affliction 
 expressly for that object), surely nothing can come in their 
 stead to fill their immeasurable measure of misery. The death 
 scenes of those we love are surely painful enough; but these 
 we are prepared for and expect to see ; they happen to all, and 
 all know they must happen. Painful as they are, they are not 
 an unlooked-for sorrow. Should she, as you fear, be destined 
 to an early grave, it is indeed a great consolation to know that 
 she is so well prepared to meet it. Her religion, which you 
 once disliked so much, I will venture you now prize most 
 highly. 
 
 Why, Speed, if you did not love her, although you might 
 not wish her death, you would most certainly be resigned to it. 
 Perhaps this point is no longer a question with you, and my 
 pertinacious dwelling upon it is a rude intrusion upon your 
 feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You know the hell I 
 have suffered on that point, and how tender I am upon it. 
 You know I do not mean wrong. I have been quite clear of 
 hypo since you left ; even better than I was along in the fall. 
 
 13th. (To Joshua F. Speed.) Yours of the 1st instant 
 came to hand three or four days ago. When this shall reach 
 you, you will have been Fanny's husband several days. You 
 know my desire to befriend you is everlasting; that I will never 
 cease while I know how to do anything. 
 
 But you will always hereafter be on ground that I never 
 occupied, and consequently, if advice were needed, I might 
 advise wrong. I do fondly hope, however, that you will never 
 again need any comfort from abroad. But, should I be mis- 
 
4 o ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1842 
 
 taken in this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied 
 with a painful counterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I 
 have ever done, to remember, in the depth and even agony of 
 despondency, that very shortly you are to feel well again. I am 
 now fully convinced that you love her as ardently as you are 
 capable of loving. Your ever being happy in her presence, 
 and your intense anxiety about her health, if there were noth- 
 ing else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I 
 incline to think it probable that your nerves will fail you occa- 
 sionally for a while; but once you get them firmly guarded 
 now, that trouble is over forever. 
 
 Meanwhile business though plentiful is not lucrative. 
 
 16th. (To G. B. Sheledy.)' Judge Logan and myself are 
 doing business together now, and we are willing to attend to 
 your cases as you propose. As to the terms, we are willing to 
 attend each case you prepare and send us for $10 (when there 
 shall be no opposition) to be sent in advance, or you know that 
 it is safe. It takes $5.75 of cost to start upon, that is $1.75 to 
 clerk, and $2 to each of two publishers of papers — Judge 
 Logan thinks it will take the balance of $20 to carry a case 
 through. This must be advanced from time to time as the 
 services are performed, as the officers will not act without. I 
 do not know whether you can be admitted an attorney of the 
 Federal Court in your absence or not ; nor is it material, as the 
 business can be done in our names. 
 
 The young lawyer-politician champions a growing but not 
 wholly popular movement in an address to the Washington 
 Society for the promotion of temperance. 
 
 22nd. The warfare heretofore waged against the demon 
 intemperance has somehow or other been erroneous. Either 
 
age 33] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 41 
 
 the champions engaged or the tactics they adopted have not 
 been the most proper. These champions for the most part have 
 been preachers, lawyers, and hired agents. Between these and 
 the mass of mankind there is a want of approachability, if the 
 term be admissible, partially, at least, fatal to their success. 
 They are supposed to have no sympathy of feeling or interest 
 with those very persons whom it is their object to convince and 
 persuade. 
 
 By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the 
 habitual drunkard to hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt 
 a more enlarged philanthropy; they go for present as well as 
 future good. They labor for all now living, as well as here- 
 after to live. They teach hope to all — despair to none. As 
 applying to their cause, they deny the doctrine of unpardonable 
 sin; as in Christianity it is taught, so in this they teach — 
 "While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may 
 return." 
 
 "But," say some, "we are no drunkards, and we shall not 
 acknowledge ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkards' 
 society, whatever our influence might be." Surely no Chris- 
 tian will adhere to this objection. If they believe as they pro- 
 fess, that Omnipotence condescended to take on himself the 
 form of sinful man, and as such to die an ignominious death 
 for their sakes, surely they will not refuse submission to the 
 infinitely lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps 
 eternal, salvation of a large, erring, and unfortunate class of 
 their fellow creatures. Nor is the condescension very great. 
 In my judgment such of us as have never fallen victims have 
 been spared more by the absence of appetite than from any 
 mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I 
 believe if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and 
 their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those 
 of any other class. There seems ever to have been a proneness 
 in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice — the 
 
42 
 
 A B R A H A M LINCOLN [1842 
 
 demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in suck- 
 ing the blood of genius and of generosity. What one of us 
 but can call to mind some relative, more promising in youth 
 than all his fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity? 
 He ever seems to have gone forth like the Egyptian angel of 
 death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest born 
 of every family. Shall he now be arrested in his desolating 
 career? In that arrest all can give aid that will; and who 
 shall be excused that can and will not? Far around as human 
 breath has ever blown he keeps our fathers, our brothers, our 
 sons, and our friends prostrate in the chains of moral death. 
 To all the living everywhere we cry, "Come sound the moral 
 trump, that these may rise and stand up an exceeding great 
 army." "Come from the four winds, O breath! and breathe 
 upon these slain that they may live.' , If the relative grandeur 
 of revolutions shall be estimated by the great amount of human 
 misery they alleviate, and the small amount they inflict, then 
 indeed will this be the grandest the world shall ever have seen. 
 
 25th. (To Joshua F. Speed.) Yours of the 16th instant, 
 announcing that Miss Fanny and you are "no more twain, but 
 one flesh, " reached me this morning. I have no way of tell- 
 ing you how much happiness I wish you both, though I believe 
 you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat jealous of both of 
 you now : you will be so exclusively concerned for one another, 
 that I shall be forgotten entirely. 
 
 I regret to learn that you have resolved not to return to 
 Illinois. I shall be very lonesome without you. How miser- 
 ably things seem to be arranged in this world! If we have no 
 friends, we have no pleasure ; and if we have them, we are sure 
 to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss. I did hope she 
 and you would make your home here; but I own I have no 
 right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten thousand times 
 more sacred than you can owe to others, and in that light let 
 them be respected and observed. 
 
age 33] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 43 
 
 25th. (To Joshua F. Speed.) I tell you, Speed, our fore- 
 bodings (for which you and I are peculiar) are all the worst 
 sort of nonsense. I fancied, from the time I received your 
 letter of Saturday, that the one of Wednesday was never to 
 come, and yet it did come, and what is more, it is perfectly 
 clear, both from its tone and handwriting, that you were much 
 happier, or, if you think the term preferable, less miserable, 
 when you wrote it than when you wrote the last one before. 
 You had so obviously improved at the very time I so much 
 fancied you would have grown worse. You say that something 
 indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will 
 not say that three months from now, I will venture. When 
 your nerves once get steady now, the whole trouble will be 
 over forever. Nor should you become impatient at their being 
 even very slow in becoming steady. Again you say you much 
 fear that that Elysium of which you have dreamed so much is 
 never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it will 
 not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I now have no 
 doubt that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to 
 dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything 
 earthly can realize. Far short of your dreams as you may be, 
 no woman could do more to realize them than that same black- 
 eyed Fanny. If you could but contemplate her through my 
 imagination, it would appear ridiculous to you that any one 
 should for a moment think of being unhappy with her. My 
 old father used to have a saying that "If you make a bad bar- 
 gain, hug it all the tighter"; and it occurs to me that if the 
 bargain you have just closed can possibly be called a bad one, 
 it is certainly the most pleasant one for applying that maxim 
 to which my fancy can by any effort picture. 
 
 I write another letter, inclosing this, which you can show 
 her, if she desires it. I do this because she would think 
 strangely, perhaps, should you tell her that you received no let- 
 ters from me, or, telling her you do, refuse to let her see them. 
 
44 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1842 
 
 March 2ph. (To Joshua F. Speed.) It can not be told 
 how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say you are "far 
 happier than you ever expected to be." That much I know is 
 enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations 
 were not, at least, sometimes extravagant, and, if the reality 
 exceeds them all, I say, "Enough, dear Lord." I am not 
 going beyond the truth when I tell you that the short space it 
 took me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure than 
 the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st of Jan- 
 uary, 1 84 1. Since then it seems to me I should have been 
 entirely happy, but for the never-absent idea that there is one 
 still unhappy whom I have contributed to make so. That still 
 kills my soul. I can not but reproach myself for even wishing 
 to be happy while she is otherwise. She accompanied a large 
 party on the railroad cars to Jacksonville last Monday, and on 
 her return spoke, so that I heard of it, of having enjoyed the 
 trip exceedingly. God be praised for that! 
 
 Speed now takes the role of adviser and Lincoln begins to 
 ponder his own case. 
 
 July 4th. (To Joshua F. Speed.) As to my having been 
 displeased with your advice, surely you know better than that. 
 I know you do, and therefore will not labor to convince you. 
 True, that subject is painful to me; but it is not your silence 
 or the silence of all the world that can make me forget it. I 
 acknowledge the correctness of your advice, too; but before I 
 resolve to do the one thing or the other, I must gain my confi- 
 dence in my own ability to keep my resolves when they are 
 made. In that ability you know I once prided myself as the 
 only or chief gem of my character: that gem I lost, how and 
 where you know too well. I have not yet regained it; and 
 until I do, I can not trust myself in any matter of much im- 
 portance. I believe now that had you understood my case at 
 
age 33] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 45 
 
 the time as well as I understood yours afterward, by the aid 
 you would have given me I should have sailed through clear; 
 but that does not now afford me sufficient confidence to begin 
 that or the like of that again. 
 
 You make a kind of acknowledgment of your obligations 
 to me for your present happiness. I am pleased with that 
 acknowledgment. But a thousand times more am I pleased to 
 know that you enjoy a degree of happiness worthy of an 
 acknowledgment. The truth is, I am not sure that there was 
 any merit with me in the part I took in your difficulty : I was 
 drawn to it by a fate. If I would, I could not have done less 
 than I did. I was always superstitious: I believe God made 
 me one of the instruments of bringing your Fanny and you 
 together, which union I have no doubt He had foreordained. 
 Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. "Stand still, and 
 see the salvation of the Lord" is my text just now. If, as you 
 say, you have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her 
 seeing this letter, but for its reference to our friend here : let 
 her seeing it depend upon whether she has ever known anything 
 of my affairs; and if she has not, do not let her. 
 
 I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am 
 so poor and make so little headway in the world that I drop 
 back in a month of idleness as much as I gain in a year's sow- 
 ing. I should like to visit you again. I should like to see that 
 "sis" of yours that was absent when I was there, though I 
 suppose she would run away again if she were to hear I was 
 coming. 
 
 Though meditating a recovery of relations that may lead 
 to matrimony, his fees are still painfully slight. 
 
 14th. (To Samuel D. Marshall.) Yours of the 15th 
 June, relative to the suit of Grable vs. Margrave was duly re- 
 ceived, and I have delayed answering it till now, when I can 
 
46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1842 
 
 announce the result of the case. The judgment is affirmed. 
 So soon as the clerk has leisure to make a copy of the mandate 
 of the court, I will get him to do so, and send it to you, by 
 force of which your clerk will issue an execution. 
 
 As to the fee, if you are agreed, let it be as follows. Give 
 me credit for two years subscription to your paper and send 
 me five dollars, in good money or the equivalent of it in our 
 Illinois paper. 
 
 A reconciliation with Mary Todd is somehow effected 
 though neither discloses quite how it was done and gossiping 
 tongues wag more busily than ever. Speedily Lincoln has an 
 opportunity to defend the lady. Satirical letters signed "Rebec- 
 cah" appear in the Springfield Journal lampooning a local politi- 
 cian, James Shields; some of these are written by Lincoln, one 
 by Mary Todd and a girl friend. When Shields becomes en- 
 raged over the sauciness of the "Rebeccah" letters, Lincoln 
 assumes responsibility for them. Shields challenges him to a 
 duel, Lincoln replies: 
 
 September 17th. (To Jas. Shields, Esq.) Your note of 
 to-day was handed me by General Whitesides. In that note 
 you say you have been informed, through the medium of 
 the editor of the Journal, that I am the author of certain articles 
 in that paper which you deem personally abusive of you; and 
 without stopping to inquire whether I really am the author, or 
 to point out what is offensive in them, you demand an unquali- 
 fied retraction of all that is offensive, and then proceed to hint 
 at consequences. 
 
 Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so 
 much of menace as to consequences, that I can not submit to 
 answer that note any further than I have, and to add that the 
 consequences to which I suppose you allude would be matter of 
 as great regret to me as it possibly could to you. 
 
age 33] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 47 
 
 ipth. (Memorandum of Instructions to E. H. Merryman, 
 Lincoln's Second.) In case Whitesides shall signify a wish 
 to adjust this affair without further difficulty, let him know 
 that if the present papers be withdrawn, and a note from Mr. 
 Shields asking to know if I am the author of the articles of 
 which he complains, and asking that I shall make him gentle- 
 manly satisfaction if I am the author, and this without menace 
 of dictation as to what that satisfaction shall be, a pledge is 
 made that the following answer shall be given : — 
 
 "I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which appeared in 
 the Journal of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any 
 form in any other article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly 
 for political effect. I had no intention of injuring your per- 
 sonal or private character or standing as a man or a gentleman ; 
 and I did not then think, and do not now think, that that 
 article could produce or has produced that effect against you; 
 and had I anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to 
 write it. And I will add, that your conduct toward me, so far 
 as I know, had always been gentlemanly; and that I had no 
 personal pique against you, and no cause for any." 
 
 If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what 
 shall and what shall not be published. 
 
 If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of the fight 
 are to be : 
 
 1st. Weapons: — Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, 
 precisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the 
 cavalry company at Jacksonville. 
 
 2d. Position: — A plank ten feet long, and from nine to 
 twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, 
 as the line between us, which neither is to pass his foot over 
 upon forfeit of his life. Next a line drawn on the ground on 
 either side of said plank and parallel with it, each at the distance 
 of the whole length of the sword and three feet additional from 
 the plank; and the passing of his own such line by either 
 
48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1842 
 
 party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the 
 contest. 
 
 3d. Time : — On Thursday evening at 5 o'clock, if you can 
 get it so; but in no case to be at a greater distance of time 
 than Friday evening at 5 o'clock. 
 
 4th. Place : — Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite 
 side of the river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. 
 
 Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you 
 are at liberty to make at your discretion ; but you are in no case 
 to swerve from these rules, or to pass beyond their limits. 
 
 Quarrel with Shields patched up by friends after the duel- 
 ists have taken their places. 
 
 October 4th. (To Joshua F. Speed.) You have heard of 
 my duel with Shields, and I have now to inform you that the 
 dueling business still rages in this city. Day before yesterday 
 Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, and proposed fighting 
 next morning at sunrise in Bob Allen's meadow, one hundred 
 yards' distance, with rifles. To this Whitesides, Shields' sec- 
 ond, said "no" because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2. 
 Yesterday Whitesides chose to consider himself insulted by 
 Doctor Merryman, so sent him a kind of g^a^-challenge, invit- 
 ing him to meet him at the Planter's House in St. Louis on 
 the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman made me 
 his friend, and sent a note, inquiring to know if he meant his 
 note as a challenge, and if so, that he would, according to the 
 law in such case made and provided, prescribe the terms of 
 the meeting. Whitesides returned for answer that if Merry- 
 man would meet him at the Planter's House as desired, he 
 would challenge him. M. replied in a note that he denied W.'s 
 right to dictate time and place, but that he (M.) would waive 
 the question of time, and meet him in Louisiana, Missouri. 
 Upon my presenting this note to W. and stating verbally its 
 
age 33] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 49 
 
 contents, he declined receiving it, saying he had business in 
 St. Louis, and it was as near as Louisiana. Merryman then 
 directed me to notify Whitesides that he should publish the 
 correspondence between them with such comments as he 
 thought fit. This I did. Thus it stood at bedtime last night. 
 This morning Whitesides, by his friend Shields, is praying for 
 a new trial, on the ground that he was mistaken in Merryman's 
 proposition to meet him at Louisiana, Missouri, thinking it 
 was the State of Louisiana. This Merryman hoots at, and is 
 preparing his publication ; while the town is in a ferment, and 
 a street fight somewhat anticipated. 
 
 October. (To his cousin, John Hanks.) Dear John — I am 
 to be married on the 4th of next month to Miss Todd. I hope 
 you will come over. Be sure to be on deck by early candle-light. 
 
 November 4, 1842, married to Mary Todd. 
 
 November nth. Nothing new here [Springfield] except 
 my marrying, which to me is matter of profound wonder. 
 
1843-1847 
 
 February 14th, 1843. (To Richard S. Thomas.) Now if 
 you should hear any one say that Lincoln don't want to go to 
 Congress, I wish you, as a personal friend of mine, would tell 
 him you have reason to believe he is mistaken. The truth is, I 
 would like to go very much. Still, circumstances may happen 
 which may prevent my being a candidate. 
 
 If there are any who be my friends in such an enterprise, 
 what I now want is that they shall not throw me away just yet. 
 
 March yth. On yesterday morning the most of the Whig 
 members of this District got together and agreed to hold the 
 convention (to nominate a member of Congress) at Tremont 
 in Tazewell County. 
 
 24th. (To Joshua F. Speed.) We had a meeting of the 
 Whigs of the county here on last Monday to appoint delegates 
 to a district convention ; and Baker beat me, and got the delega- 
 tion instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my 
 attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates ; so that, 
 in getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal 
 like a fellow who is made a groomsman to a man that has cut 
 him out and is marrying his own dear "gal." About the pros- 
 pects of your having a namesake at our town, can't say exactly 
 yet. 
 
 The causes of Lincoln's rejection by the convention reveal 
 an attitude toward him on the part of the ultra conservative 
 part of the community. He has been reading skeptical books 
 and has talked freely, at the Lyceum and elsewhere, in a way 
 that has mystified the ultras. 
 
 5° 
 
ace 34] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 51 
 
 26th. (To Martin M. Morris.) It is truly gratify- 
 ing to me to learn that while the people of Sangamon have cast 
 me off, my old friends of Menard, who have known me longest 
 and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not amuse the 
 older citizens, to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, unedu- 
 cated, penniless boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per 
 month) have been put down here as the candidate of pride, 
 wealth, and aristocratic family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it 
 was. There was, too, the strangest combination of church in- 
 fluence against me. Baker is a Campbellite; and therefore, as 
 I suppose, with few exceptions got all that church. My wife 
 has some relations in the Presbyterian churches, and some with 
 the Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would tell, I 
 was set down as either the one or the other, while it was every- 
 where contended that no Christian ought to go for me, because 
 I belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist, and 
 had talked about fighting a duel. With all these things, Baker, 
 of course, had nothing to do. Nor do I complain of them. 
 As to his own church going for him, I think that was right 
 enough, and as to the influences I have spoken of in the other, 
 though they were very strong, it would be grossly untrue and 
 unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body, or were 
 very near so. I only mean that those influences levied a tax 
 of a considerable per cent upon my strength throughout the 
 religious controversy. But enough of this. 
 
 You say you shall instruct your delegates for me unless I 
 object. I certainly shall not object. That would be too pleas- 
 ant a compliment for me to tread in the dust. And besides, if 
 anything should happen (which, however, is not probable) by 
 which Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be at 
 liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, how- 
 ever, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from 
 getting the nomination. I should despise myself were I to 
 attempt it. I think, then, it would be proper for your meeting 
 
52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1843-45 
 
 to appoint three delegates and to instruct them to go for some 
 one as a first choice, some one else as a second, and perhaps 
 some one as a third; and if in those instructions I were named 
 as the first choice, it would gratify me very much. 
 
 /. /. Hardin receives the Whig nomination, to the chagrin 
 both of Lincoln and Baker. The nominee has doubts upon the 
 attitude of his rivals. 
 
 May nth. (To Hardin.) Butler informs me that he re- 
 ceived a letter from you in which you expressed some doubt 
 whether the Whigs of Sangamon will support you cordially. 
 You may, at once, dismiss all fears on that subject. We have 
 already resolved to make a particular effort to give you the 
 very largest majority possible in our county. From this, no 
 Whig of the county dissents. We have many objects for doing 
 it. We make it a matter of honor and pride to do it ; we do it 
 because we love the Whig cause ; we do it because we like you 
 personally ; at last we wish to convince you that we do not bear 
 that hatred to Morgan county, that you people have so long 
 seemed to imagine. You will see by the Journal of this week, 
 that we propose, upon pain of losing a Barbecue, to give you 
 twice as great a majority in this county as you shall receive in 
 your own. I got up the proposal. 
 
 1 8th. (To Joshua F. Speed.) In relation to our Congress 
 matter here, you wece right in supposing I would support the 
 nominee. Neither Baker nor I, however, is the man, but 
 Hardin. We shall have no split or trouble about the matter; 
 all will be harmony. In relation to the "coming events" about 
 which Butler wrote you, I had not heard one word before I got 
 your letter; but I have so much confidence in the judgment of 
 a Butler on such a subject that I incline to think there may be 
 some reality in it. What day does Butler appoint? By the 
 way, how do "events" of the same sort come on in your family? 
 
age 34-36] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 53 
 
 Are you possessing houses and lands, and oxen and asses, and 
 hieh-servants and maid-servants, and begetting sons and 
 daughters? We are not keeping house, but boarding at the 
 Globe Tavern, which is very well kept now by a widow lady of 
 the name of Beck. Our room (the same that Doctor Wallace 
 occupied there) and boarding only costs us four dollars a week. 
 Ann Todd was married something more than a year since to 
 a fellow by the name of Campbell, and who, Mary says, is 
 pretty much of a "dunce," though he has a little money and 
 property. They live in Boonville, Missouri, and have not been 
 heard from lately enough for me to say anything about her 
 health. I reckon it will scarcely be in our power to visit Ken- 
 tucky this year. Besides poverty and the necessity of attending 
 to business, those "coming events," I suspect, would be some- 
 what in the way. I most heartily wish you and your Fanny 
 would not fail to come. Just let us know the time, and we will 
 have a room provided for you at our house, and all be merry 
 together for a while. 
 
 September 20th. Firm of Logan and Lincoln dissolved; 
 and succeeded immediately by the firm of Lincoln and Hern- 
 don. The correspondence of senior member of the new firm is 
 often entertaining. 
 
 April 24th, 1844. As to real estate, we can not attend to it. 
 We are not real estate agents, we are lawyers. We recommend 
 that you give the charge of it to Mr. Isaac S. Britton, a trust- 
 worthy man and one whom the Lord made on purpose for such 
 business. 
 
 The controversy over Texas which disturbs the whole coun- 
 try leads Illinois politicians to say where they stand. 
 
 October 3rd, 1845. I perhaps ought to say that individu- 
 ally I never was much interested in the Texas question. I 
 
54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1845-46 
 
 never could see much good to come of annexation, inasmuch as 
 they were already a free republican people on our own model. 
 On the other hand, I never could very clearly see how the 
 annexation would augment the evil of slavery. It always seemed 
 to me that slaves would be taken there in about equal numbers, 
 with or without annexation. And if more were taken because 
 of annexation, still there would be just so many the fewer left 
 where they were taken from. It is possibly true, to some ex- 
 tent, that, with annexation, some slaves may be sent to Texas 
 and continued in slavery that otherwise might have been liber- 
 ated. To whatever extent this may be true, I think annexation 
 an evil. I hold it to be a paramount duty of us in the free 
 States, due to the Union of the States, and perhaps to liberty 
 itself (paradox though it may seem), to let the slavery of the 
 other States alone; while, on the other hand, I hold it to be 
 equally clear that we should never knowingly lend ourselves, 
 directly or indirectly, to prevent that slavery from dying a 
 natural death — to find new places for it to live in, when it can 
 no longer exist in the old. Of course I am not now considering 
 what would be our duty in cases of insurrection among the 
 slaves. 
 
 Lincoln's friend Baker elected to Congress to succeed 
 Hardin. Lincoln hopes to succeed Baker in two years' time, 
 but is disturbed by the prompt strategy of Hardin. 
 
 November ijth. (To B. F. James.) The paper of Pekin 
 has nominated Hardin for governor; and, commenting on 
 this, the Alton paper indirectly nominated him for Congress 
 (in 1847). It would give Hardin a great start, and perhaps 
 use me up, if the Whig papers of the district should nominate 
 him for Congress. If your feelings toward me are the same as 
 when I saw you (which I have no reason to doubt), I wish you 
 would let nothing appear in your paper which may operate 
 
age 36-37] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 55 
 
 against me. You understand. Matters stand just as they did 
 when I saw you. Baker is certainly off the track and I fear 
 Hardin intends to be on it (a second time). 
 
 1 8th. Before Baker left he said to me, in accordance with 
 what had long been an understanding between him and me, that 
 the track for the next congressional race was clear to me so far 
 as he was concerned; and that he would say so publicly in 
 any manner and at any time I might desire. I said in reply, as 
 to the manner and time I would consider a while and write him. 
 
 January jih, 1846. (To Doctor Robert Boal.) If Hardin 
 and I stood precisely equal, if neither of us had been to Con- 
 gress, or, if we both had — it would not only accord with what 
 I have always done, for the sake of peace, to give way to him ; 
 and I expect I should do it. That I can voluntarily postpone 
 my pretentions, when they are no more than equal to those to 
 which they are postponed, you have yourself seen. But to 
 yield to Hardin under present circumstances, seems to me as 
 nothing else than yielding to one who would gladly sacrifice 
 me altogether. This, I would rather not submit to. That 
 Hardin is talented, energetic, usually generous and magnani- 
 mous, I have, before this, affirmed to you, and do not now 
 deny. You know that my only argument is that "turn about 
 is fair play." This he practically, at least, denies. 
 
 14th. (To B. F. James.) I should be pleased if I could 
 concur with you in the hope that my name would be the only 
 one presented to the convention; but I can not. Hardin is a 
 man of desperate energy and perseverance, and one that never 
 backs out; and, I fear, to think otherwise is to be deceived in 
 the character of our adversary. I would rejoice to be spared 
 the labor of a contest ; but "being in," I shall go it thoroughly, 
 and to the bottom. 
 
 The Beardstown paper is entirely in the hands of my 
 friends. The editor is a Whig, and personally dislikes Hardin. 
 When the supreme court shall adjourn (which it is thought 
 
56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1846 
 
 will be about the 15th of February), it is my intention to take 
 a quiet trip through the towns and neighborhoods of Logan 
 County, Delavan, Tremont, and on to and through the upper 
 counties. Don't speak of this, or let it relax any of your 
 vigilance. 
 
 15th. (To John Bennett.) Nathan Dresser is here, and 
 speaks as though the contest between Hardin and me is to be 
 doubtful in Menard County — I know he is candid and this 
 alarms me some — I asked him to tell me the names of the 
 men that were going strong for Hardin; he said Morris was 
 about as strong as any. Now tell me, is Morris going it openly ? 
 You remember you wrote me that he would be neutral. Nathan 
 also said that some man who he could not remember said 
 lately that Menard County was going to decide the contest and 
 that that made the contest very doubtful. Do you know who 
 that was ? Don't fail to write me instantly on receiving, telling 
 me all — particularly the names of those who are going strong 
 against me. 
 
 1 6th. (To B. F. James.) A plan is on foot to change the 
 mode of selecting the candidate for this district. The move- 
 ment is intended to injure me, and, if effected, most likely 
 would injure me to some extent. I have not time to give par- 
 ticulars now ; but I want you to let nothing prevent your getting 
 an article in your paper of this week, taking strong ground for 
 the old system under which Hardin and Baker were nominated 
 without seeming to know or suspect that any one desires to 
 change it. 
 
 2 1 st. (To Hardin, declining a proposal to leave the nom- 
 ination to the electors, avoiding a convention.) It seems to 
 me that on reflection you will see the fact of your having 
 been in Congress has, in various ways, so spread your name in 
 the district as to give you a decided advantage in such a stipula- 
 tion. I appreciate your desire to keep down excitement ; and I 
 promise you to "keep cool" under all circumstances. I have al- 
 
age 37] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 57 
 
 ways been in the habit of acceding to almost any proposal that a 
 friend would make and I am truly sorry that I can not in this. 
 I perhaps ought to mention that some friends at different 
 places are endeavoring to secure the honor of the sitting of the 
 convention at their towns respectively, and I fear that they 
 would not feel much complimented if we shall make a bargain 
 that it should sit nowhere. 
 
 2 1 st. (To N. J. Rockwell.) You perhaps know that Gen- 
 eral Hardin and I have a contest for the Whig nomination to 
 Congress for this district. He has had a term and my argu- 
 ment is "Turn about is fair play." I shall be pleased if this 
 strikes you as a sufficient argument. 
 
 February pth. If I am not, in what I have done, and am 
 able to do, for the party, near enough the equal of General 
 Hardin, to entitle me to the nomination, I scorn it on any and 
 all other grounds. 
 
 Nominated for Congress after Hardin withdraws from the 
 race. 
 
 During the campaign — 
 
 (As he is leaving a revival meeting addressed by his politi- 
 cal opponent, the Reverend Peter Cartwright, who cries out, 
 "If you are not going to repent, and go to Heaven, Mr. Lin- 
 coln, where are you going?") 
 
 "I am going to Congress, Brother Cartwright." 
 
 Politics, though his paramount interest outside his profes- 
 sion, do not wholly engross his thoughts. 
 
 April 1 8th. (To Johnston.) Your letter, written 
 
 some six weeks since, was received in due course, and also the 
 paper with the parody. It is true, as suggested it might be, 
 that I have never seen Poe's "Raven"; and I very well know 
 
58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1846 
 
 that a parody is almost entirely dependent for its interest upon 
 the reader's acquaintance with the original. Still there is 
 enough in The Polecat, self -considered, to afford one several 
 hearty laughs. I think four or five of the last stanzas are 
 decidedly funny, particularly where Jeremiah "scrubbed and 
 washed, and prayed and fasted." 
 
 I have not your letter now before me; but, from memory, 
 I think you ask me who is the author of the piece I sent you 
 and that you do so ask as to indicate a slight suspicion that I 
 myself am the author. Beyond all question I am not the 
 author. I would give all I am worth, and go in debt, to be 
 able to write so fine a piece as I think that is. Neither do I 
 know who is the author. I met it in a straggling form in a 
 newspaper last summer and I remember to have seen it once 
 before, about fifteen years ago, and this is all I know about it. 
 The piece of poetry of my own which I alluded to, I was led 
 to write under the following circumstances. In the fall of 
 1844, thinking I might aid some to carry the State of Indiana 
 for Mr. Clay, I went into the neighborhood in that State in 
 which I was raised, where my mother and only sister were 
 buried, and from which I had been absent about fifteen years. 
 That part of the country is, within itself, as unpoetical as any 
 spot of the earth; but still, seeing it and its objects and inhabi- 
 tants, aroused feelings in me which were certainly poetry; 
 though whether my expression of those feelings is poetry is 
 quite another question. When I got to writing, the change 
 of subjects divided the thing into four little divisions or cantos, 
 the first only of which I send you now and may send the 
 others hereafter. 
 
 My childhood's home I see again, 
 
 And sadden with the view ; 
 And still, as memory crowds my brain, 
 
 There's pleasure in it too. 
 
agb 37] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 59 
 
 Memory 1 thou midway world 
 'Twixt earth and paradise, 
 
 Where things decayed and loved ones lost 
 In dreamy shadows rise. 
 
 And, freed from all that's earthly vile, 
 
 Seem hallowed, pure, and bright, 
 Like scenes in some enchanted isle 
 
 All bathed in liquid light. * 
 
 As dusky mountains please the eye 
 
 When twilight chases day; 
 As bugle-notes that, passing by, 
 
 In distance die away; 
 
 As leaving some grand waterfall, 
 
 We, lingering, list its roar — 
 So memory will hallow all 
 
 We've known, but know no more. 
 
 Near twenty years have passed away 
 
 Since here I bid farewell 
 To woods and fields, and scenes of play, 
 
 And playmates loved so well. 
 
 Where many were, but few remain 
 
 Of old familiar things; 
 But seeing them, to mind again 
 
 The lost and absent brings. 
 
 The friends I left that parting day, 
 
 How changed, as time has sped ! 
 Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray, 
 
 And half of all are dead. 
 
 1 hear the loved survivors tell 
 
 How nought from death could save, 
 Till every sound appears a knell, 
 And every spot a grave. 
 
 I range the fields with pensive tread, 
 
 And pace the hollow rooms, 
 And feel (companion of the dead) 
 
 I'm living in the tombs, 
 
60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1847 
 
 The quarrel over the Whig nomination has been very bit- 
 ter. Lincoln seeks to restore harmony. 
 
 26th. (To James Berdan.) I thank you for the prompt- 
 ness with which you answered my letter from Bloomington. I 
 also thank you for the frankness with which you comment 
 upon a certain part of my letter; because that comment affords 
 me an opportunity of trying to express myself better than I did 
 before, seeing, as I do, that in that part of my letter you have 
 not understood me as I intended to be understood. In speak- 
 ing of the "dissatisfaction" of men who yet mean to do no 
 wrong, &c, I meant no special application of what I said to 
 the Whigs of Morgan, or of Morgan & Scott. I only had in 
 my mind the fact, that previous to General Hardin's withdrawal 
 some of his friends and some of mine had become a little 
 warm ; and I felt, and meant to say, that for them now to meet 
 face to face and converse together was the best way to efface 
 any remnant of unpleasant feeling, if any such existed. I did 
 not suppose that General Hardin's friends were in any greater 
 need of having their feelings corrected than mine were. 
 
 May /th. It is a matter of high moral obligation, if not of 
 necessity, for me to attend the Coles and Edgar courts. I 
 have some cases in both of them in which the parties have my 
 promise and are depending upon me. 
 
 August. Elected to Congress, for the session beginning 
 December, 1847. 
 
 May 12, 184/. Outbreak of the Mexican War. All the 
 Whigs, Lincoln not excepted, take a relatively non-committal 
 attitude toward this Democratic project. 
 
 June. All those who, because of knowing too little, or 
 because of knowing too much, can not conscientiously oppose. 
 
agb 3 8] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 61 
 
 the conduct of the President [Polk] in beginning [the war], 
 should nevertheless as good citizens and good patriots, remain 
 silent on that point, at least until the war is ended.* 
 
 October 22nd. (To Joshua F. Speed.) You, no doubt, 
 assign the suspension of our correspondence to the true phil- 
 osophic cause ; though it must be confessed by both of us that 
 this is rather a cold reason for allowing a friendship such as 
 ours to die out by degrees. I propose now, that upon receipt 
 of this you shall be considered in my debt and under obligations 
 to pay soon, and that neither shall remain long in arrears 
 hereafter. Are you agreed? 
 
 Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to 
 our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as 
 I expected. 
 
 We have another boy, born the 10th of March. He is very 
 much such a child as Bob was at his age, rather of a longer 
 order. Bob is "short and low/' and I expect always will be. 
 He talks very plainly — almost as plainly as anybody. He is 
 quite smart enough. I sometimes fear that he is one of the 
 little rare-ripe sort that are smarter at about five than ever 
 after. He has a great deal of that sort of mischief that is the 
 offspring of such animal spirits. Since I began this letter, a 
 messenger came to tell me Bob was lost; but by the time I 
 reached the house his mother had found him and had him 
 whipped, and by now, very likely, he is run away again. Mary 
 has read your letter and wishes to be remembered to Mrs. Speed 
 and you, in which I most sincerely join her. 
 
 November. Leaves Springfield for Washington. 
 
 December 5th, Washington. 
 
 (To William H. Herndon.) You may remember that 
 about a year ago a man by the name of Wilson (James Wilson, 
 
 *See pp. 67-69. 
 
62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1847 
 
 I think) paid us twenty dollars as an advance fee to attend to 
 a case in the Supreme Court for him, against a Mr. Campbell, 
 the record of which case was in the hands of Mr. Dixon of St. 
 Louis, who never furnished it to us. When I was at Bloom- 
 ington last fall, I met a friend of Wilson, who mentioned the 
 subject to me and induced me to write to Wilson, telling him 
 I would leave the ten dollars with you which had been left 
 with me to pay for making abstracts in the case so that the case 
 may go on this winter ; but I came away, and forgot to do it. 
 What I want now is to send you the money to be used accord- 
 ingly, if any one comes on to start the case, or to be retained 
 by you if no one does. 
 
 13th. (To William H. Herndon.) Your letter advising 
 me of the receipt of our fee in the bank-case, is just received, 
 and I don't expect to hear another as good piece of news from 
 Springfield while I am away. I am under no obligations to the 
 bank ; and I therefore wish you to buy bank certificates and pay 
 my debt there, so as to pay it with the least money possible. I 
 would as soon you should buy them of Mr. Ridgely, or any 
 other person at the bank, as of any one else, provided you can 
 get them as cheaply. I suppose after the bank debt shall be 
 paid, there will be some money left out of which I would like 
 to have you pay Lavely and Stout twenty dollars, and Priest 
 and somebody (oil-makers) ten dollars, for materials got for 
 house-painting. If there shall still be any left, keep it till you 
 see or hear from me. 
 
 The Whigs are badgering the President for bringing on the 
 war though they do not quite dare to refuse to support it. Lin- 
 coln introduces his famous (( Spot Resolutions" 
 
 22nd. (Resolutions introduced into the House of Repre- 
 sentatives.) Whereas, The President of the United States, 
 in his message of May 1 1, 1846, has declared that "the Mexican 
 
age 38] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 6 
 
 o 
 
 Government not only refused to receive him (the envoy of the 
 United States), or to listen to his propositions, but, after a 
 long-continued series of menaces, has at last invaded our terri- 
 tory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil. 
 
 Resolved, By the House of Representatives, that the Presi- 
 dent of the United States be respectfully requested to inform 
 this House, — 
 
 ist. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens 
 was shed, as in his message declared, was or was not within 
 the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until 
 the Mexican revolution. 
 
 2d. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory 
 which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary govern- 
 ment of Mexico. 
 
 3d. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of 
 people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the 
 Texas revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the ap- 
 proach of the United States army. 
 
 4th. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from 
 any and all other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande 
 on the south and west, and by wide uninhabited regions on the 
 north and east. 
 
 5th. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority 
 of them, or any of them, have ever submitted themselves to 
 the government or laws of Texas or of the United States, by 
 consent or by compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting 
 at elections, or paying tax, or serving on juries, or having 
 process served upon them, or in any other way. 
 
 6th. Whether the people of that settlement did or did not 
 flee from the approach of the United States army, leaving 
 unprotected their homes and their growing crops, before the 
 blood was shed, as in the message stated ; and whether the first 
 blood, so shed, was or was not shed within the inclosure of 
 one of the people who had thus fled from it. 
 
64 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1847 
 
 7th. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his 
 message declared, were or were not, at that time, armed officers 
 and soldiers, sent into that settlement by the military order of 
 the President, through the Secretary of War. 
 
 8th. Whether the military force of the United States was 
 or was not so sent into that settlement after General Taylor 
 had more than once intimated to the War Department, that, in 
 his opinion, no such movement was necessary to the defense or 
 protection of Texas. 
 
1848 
 
 January 1st. There is a good deal of diversity among the 
 Whigs, as to who shall be their candidate for the Presidency, 
 but I think it will result in favor of General Taylor. 
 
 As to Mr. Graham's application for a Lieutenancy, I have 
 already submitted it to the President in the best way I could 
 think of to give it chance of success. I wrote him about it; 
 and do not know anything more that I can do for him. I can 
 have no intimacy with the President, which might give me 
 personal influence over him. 
 
 Lincoln begins to learn the ways of Congress which has 
 formalities that are nczv to him. 
 
 $th. (From the Congressional Globe.) Mr. Lincoln said 
 he had made an effort, some few days since, to obtain the floor 
 in relation to this measure (resolution requiring the Postmaster 
 General to make new arrangement for carrying the mails), but 
 had failed. One of the objects he had then had in view was 
 now in a great measure superseded by what had fallen from the 
 gentleman from Virginia who had just taken his seat. He 
 begged to assure his friends on the other side of the House 
 that no 1 assault whatever was meant upon the Postmaster Gen- 
 eral; and he was glad that what the gentleman had now said, 
 modified to a great extent by the impression which might have 
 been created by the language he had used on a previous occa- 
 sion. He wanted to state to gentlemen who might have en- 
 tertained such impressions, that the Committee on the Post 
 Office was composed of five Whigs and four Democrats, and 
 
 65 
 
66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i8 4 8 
 
 their report was understood as sustaining, not impugning, the 
 position taken by the Postmaster General. That report had 
 met with the approbation of all the Whigs and of all the 
 Democrats also, with the exception of one, and he wanted to 
 go even further than this. (Intimation was informally given 
 Mr. L. that it was not in order to mention on the floor what 
 had taken place in committee.) He then observed that if he 
 had been out of order in what he had said, he took it all back 
 so far as he could. He had no desire, he could assure gentle- 
 men, ever to be out of order — though he never could keep long 
 in order. 
 
 8th. (To William H. Herndon.) As to speech-making, 
 by way of getting the hang of the House I made a little speech 
 two or three days ago on a post-office question of no general 
 interest. I find speaking here and elsewhere about the same 
 thing. I was about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am 
 when I speak in court. I expect to make one within a week or 
 two in which I hope to succeed well enough to wish you to 
 see it. 
 
 It is very pleasant to learn from you that there are some 
 who desire that I should be reelected. I most heartily thank 
 them for their kind partiality ; and I can say, as Mr. Clay said 
 of the annexation of Texas, that "personally I would not ob- 
 ject'' to a reelection, although I thought at the time, and still 
 think, it would be quite as well for me to return to the law at 
 the end of a single term. I made the declaration that I would 
 not be a candidate again, more from a wish to deal fairly with 
 others, to keep peace among our friends and to keep the district 
 from going to the enemy, than for any cause personal to my- 
 self ; so that, if it should so happen that nobody else wishes to 
 be elected, I could not refuse the people the right of sending me 
 again. But to enter myself as a competitor of others, or to 
 authorize any one so to enter ine, is what my word and honor 
 forbid. 
 
age 38] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 67 
 
 After a year in Congress Lincoln tries his hand formulat- 
 ing the Whig doctrine that the President is a rascal but the 
 war must be carried through. 
 
 12th. (In the United States House of Representatives.) 
 Mr. Chairman: Some, if not all, the gentlemen on the other 
 side of the House who have addressed the committee within 
 the last two days, have spoken rather complainingly, if I have 
 rightly understood them, of the vote given a week or ten days 
 ago declaring that the war with Mexico was unnecessarily and 
 unconstitutionally commenced by the President. I admit that 
 such a vote should not be given in mere party wantonness, and 
 that the one given is justly censurable, if it have no other or 
 better foundation. I am one of those who joined in that vote; 
 and I did so under my best impression of the truth of the case. 
 How I got this impression, and how it may possibly be reme- 
 died, I will now try to show. When the war began, it was my 
 opinion that all those who because of knowing too little, or 
 because of knowing too much, could not conscientiously oppose 
 the conduct of the President (in the beginning of it), should, 
 nevertheless, as good citizens and patriots, remain silent on 
 that point, at least till the war should be ended. Some leading 
 Democrats, including ex-President Van Buren, have taken this 
 same view, as I understand them ; and I adhered to it and acted 
 upon it, until since I took my seat here ; and I think I should 
 still adhere to it were it not that the President and his friends 
 will not allow it to be so. Besides the continual effort of the 
 President to argue every silent vote given for supplies into an 
 indorsement of the justice and wisdom of his conduct; besides 
 that singularly candid paragraph in his late message in which 
 he tells us that Congress with great unanimity (only two in 
 the Senate and fourteen in the House dissenting), had declared 
 that "by the act of the Republic of Mexico, a state of war 
 exists between that Government and the United States/' when 
 
68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1848 
 
 the same journals that informed him of this also informed him 
 that when that declaration stood disconnected from the ques- 
 tion of supplies sixty-seven in the House, and not fourteen 
 merely, voted against it; besides this open contempt to prove 
 by telling the truth what he could not prove by telling the whole 
 truth, demanding of all who will not submit to be misrepre- 
 sented, in justice to themselves, to speak out, besides all this, 
 one of my colleagues (Mr. Richardson), at a very early day in 
 the session brought in a set of resolutions expressly indorsing 
 the original justice of the war on the part of the President. 
 Upon these resolutions when they shall be put on their pas- 
 sage I shall be compelled to vote; so that I can not be silent if 
 I would. 
 
 As to the country now in question, we bought it of France 
 in 1803, and sold it to Spain in 1819, according to the Presi- 
 dent's statements. After this, all Mexico, including Texas, 
 revolutionized against Spain; still later Texas revolutionized 
 against Mexico. In my view, just so far as she carried her 
 resolution by obtaining the actual, willing or unwilling, sub- 
 mission of the people, so far the country was hers, and no 
 farther. 
 
 Now, sir, for the purpose of obtaining the very best evi- 
 dence as to whether Texas had actually carried her revolution 
 to the place where the hostilities of the present war commenced, 
 let the President answer the interrogatories I proposed, as 
 before mentioned, or some other similar ones. Let him 
 answer fully, fairly, and candidly. Let him answer with facts 
 and not with arguments. Let him remember he sits where 
 Washington sat; and, so remembering, let him answer as 
 Washington would answer. As a nation should not, and the 
 Almighty will not, be evaded, so let him attempt no evasion, 
 no equivocation. And if, so answering, he can show that the 
 soil was ours where the first blood of the war was shed; that 
 it was not within an inhabited country, or, if within such, 
 
age 3 8] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 69 
 
 that the inhabitants had submitted themselves to the civil 
 authority of Texas or of the United States, and that the same 
 is true of the site of Fort Brown— then I am with him for his 
 justification. In that case I shall be most happy to reverse 
 the vote I gave the other day. 
 
 February 1st. (To William H. Herndon.) Your letter 
 of the 19th ult. was received last night, and for which I am 
 much obliged. The only thing in it that I wish to talk to you 
 about at once is, that because of my vote for Ashmun's amend- 
 ment you fear that you and I disagree about the war. I regret 
 this, not because of any fear we shall remain disagreed after 
 you have read this letter, but because if you misunderstand I 
 fear other good friends may also. That vote affirms that the 
 war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by 
 the President; and I will stake my life that if you had been in 
 my place you would have voted just as I did. Would you 
 have voted what you felt and knew to be a lie? I know you 
 would not. Would you have gone out of the House — skulked 
 the vote? I expect not. If you had skulked one vote you 
 would have had to skulk many more before the end of the 
 session. Richardson's resolutions, introduced before I made 
 any move or gave any vote upon the subject, make the direct 
 question of the justice of the war; so that no man can be silent 
 if he would. You are compelled to speak; and your only al- 
 ternative is to tell the truth or a lie. I can not doubt which 
 you would do. 
 
 This vote has nothing to do in determining my votes on 
 the question of supplies. I have always intended, and still 
 intend, to vote supplies : perhaps not in the precise form recom- 
 mended by the President, but in a better form for all purposes, 
 except Locofoco party purposes. It is in this particular you 
 seem mistaken. The Locos are untiring in their efforts to 
 make the impression that all who vote supplies or take part in 
 the war do of necessity approve the President's conduct in the 
 
jo ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1848 
 
 beginning of it; but the Whigs have from the beginning made 
 and kept the distinction between the two. In the very first 
 act nearly all the Whigs voted against the preamble declaring 
 that war existed by the act of Mexico; and yet nearly all of 
 them voted for the supplies. I do not, mean this letter for the 
 public, but for you. Before it reaches you, you will have seen 
 and read my pamphlet speech, and, perhaps, been scared anew 
 by it. After you get over your scare, read it over again, sen- 
 tence by sentence, and tell me honestly what you think of it. I 
 condensed all I could for fear of being cut off by the hour 
 rule; and when I got through, I had spoken but forty- five 
 minutes. 
 
 2nd. I just take my pen to say that Mr. Stephens, of 
 Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man, with a 
 voice like Logan's, has just concluded the very best speech of 
 an hour's length I ever heard. My old, withered, dry eyes are 
 full of tears yet. 
 
 4th. There now is some probability of peace, but should 
 the war go on, I think volunteers with the right of electing 
 their own officers will be voted, but that no more regulars will 
 be voted. 
 
 15th. (To William H. Herndon.) Your letter of the 
 29th of January was received last night. Being exclusively a 
 constitutional argument, I wish to submit some reflections 
 upon it in the same spirit of kindness that I know actuates you. 
 Let me first state what I understand to be your position. 
 It is that if it shall become necessary to repel invasion, the 
 President may, without violation of the Constitution, cross the 
 line, and invade the territory of another country; and that 
 whether such necessity exists in any given case the President 
 is the sole judge. 
 
 Before going further, consider well whether this is or is 
 not your position. If it is, it is a position that neither the 
 President himself, nor any friend of his, so far as I know, has 
 
age 38-39] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 71 
 
 ever taken. Their only positions are, first, that the soil was 
 ours when the hostilities commenced ; and second, that whether 
 it was rightfully ours or not, Congress had annexed it, and 
 the President for that reason was bound to defend it; both of 
 which are as clearly proved to be false in fact as you can prove 
 that your house is mine. The soil was not ours, and Congress 
 did not annex or attempt to annex it. But to return to your 
 position. Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation 
 whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and 
 you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he 
 deems it necessary for such purposes, and you allow him to 
 make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit 
 to his power in this respect after having given him so much as 
 you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it 
 necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invad- 
 ing us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, "I see 
 no probability of the British invading us"; but he will say to 
 you, "Be silent; I see it, if you don't. " 
 
 The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making 
 power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the 
 following reasons: kings had always been involving and im- 
 poverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not 
 always, that the good of the people was the object. This our 
 convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly 
 oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution 
 that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppres- 
 sion upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter and 
 places our President where kings have always stood. Write 
 soon again. 
 
 In the midst of eloquence over foreign policy shrewd 
 schemes for the next election are not forgotten. 
 
 30th. (To Archibald Williams.) I have not seen in the 
 papers any evidence of a movement to send a delegate from 
 
yz ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1848 
 
 your circuit to the June convention. I wish to say that I think 
 it all-important that a delegate should be sent. Mr. Clay's 
 chance for an election is just no chance at all. He might get 
 New York, and that would have elected in 1844, but it will 
 not now, because he must now, at the least, lose Tennessee, 
 which he had then and in addition the fifteen new votes of 
 Florida, Texas, Iowa and Wisconsin. I know our good friend 
 Browning is a great admirer of Mr. Clay, and I therefore fear 
 he is favoring his nomination. If he is, I ask him to discard 
 feeling, and try if he can possibly, as a matter of judgment, 
 count the votes necessary to elect him. 
 
 In my judgment we can elect nobody but General Taylor ; 
 and we can not elect him without a nomination. Therefore 
 don't fail to send a delegate. 
 
 Taylor is nominated by the Whigs. 
 
 June 12th. (To Archibald Williams.) On my return 
 from Philadelphia, where I had been attending the nomination 
 of "Old Rough" [Taylor] I found your letter in a mass of 
 others which had accumulated in my absence. By many, and 
 often, it had been said they would not abide the nomination of 
 Taylor ; but, since the deed has been done, they are fast falling 
 in, and in my opinion we shall have a most overwhelming, 
 glorious triumph. One unmistakable sign is that all the odds 
 and ends are with us — Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler 
 men, disappointed office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord 
 knows what. This is important, if in nothing else, in showing 
 which way the wind blows. 
 
 22nd. (To William H. Herndon.) Last night I was at- 
 tending a sort of caucus of the Whig members held in relation 
 to the coming Presidential election. The whole field of the 
 nation was scanned; and all is high hope and confidence. 
 
 You young men get together and form a Rough and Ready 
 
age 39] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 73 
 
 Club, and have regular meetings and speeches. Take in every- 
 body you can get. Harrison, Grimsley, L. A. Enos. See 
 Kimball and C. W. Matheny will do to begin the thing; but 
 as you go along gather up all the shrewd, wild boys about 
 town, whether just of age or a little under age — Chris. Logan, 
 Reddick Ridgdey, Lewis Zurzler, and hundreds such. Let 
 every one play the part he can play best — some speak, some 
 sing, and all "holler." Your meetings will be of evenings; and 
 older men, and the women, will go to hear you ; so that it 
 will not only contribute to the election of "Old Zack," but will 
 be an interesting pastime and improving to the intellectual 
 faculties of all engaged. Don't fail to do this. 
 
 You ask me to send you all the speeches made about "Old 
 Zack, 1 ' the war, etc., etc. Now this makes me a little impatient. 
 I have regularly sent you the Congressional Globe and "Appen- 
 dix," and you can not have examined them, or you would have 
 discovered that they contain every speech made by every man 
 in both Houses of Congress, on every subject, during the 
 session. 
 
 Lincoln drazvs tip his views as to how Taylor ought to deal 
 with the subjects of the hour. 
 
 July 1st. The question of a national bank is at rest. Were 
 I President, I should not urge its reagitation upon Congress; 
 but should Congress see fit to pass an act to establish such an 
 institution, I should not arrest it by the veto, unless I should 
 consider it subject to some constitutional objection from which 
 I believe the two former banks to have been free. 
 
 It appears to me that the national debt created by the war 
 renders a modification of the existing tariff indispensable ; and 
 when it shall be modified I should be pleased to see it adjusted 
 with a due reference to the protection of our home industry. 
 The particulars, it appears to me, must and should be left to 
 the untrammeled discretion of Congress. 
 
74 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1848 
 
 At Springfield the younger Whigs are not altogether satis- 
 fied with their leader. 
 
 2nd: (To Mrs. Lincoln.) My dear wife: Your letter of 
 last Sunday came last night — On that day (Sunday) I wrote 
 the principal part of a letter to you, but did not finish it, or 
 send it till Tuesday, when I had provided a draft for $100 
 which I sent in it — It is now probable that on that day 
 (Tuesday) you started to Shelby ville; so that when the 
 money reaches Lexington, you will not be there — Before 
 leaving, did you make any provision about letters that might 
 come to Lexington for you? Write me whether you got the 
 draft, if you shall not have already done so, when this 
 reaches you — Give my kindest regards to your uncle John, 
 and all the family — ■ Thinking of them reminds me that I 
 saw your acquaintance, Newton, of Arkansas, at the Phila- 
 delphia Convention — We had but a single interview, and 
 that was so brief, and in so great a multitude of strange faces, 
 that I am quite sure I should not recognize him, if I were to 
 meet him again — - He was a sort of Trinity, three in one, 
 having the right, in his own person, to cast the three votes of 
 Arkansas — Two or three days ago I sent your uncle John, 
 and a few of our other friends each a copy of the speech I 
 mentioned in my last letter; but I did not send any to you, 
 thinking you would be on the road here, before it would 
 reach you — I send you one now — Last Wednesday, P. H. 
 Hood & Co. dunned me for a little bill of $5 — 50 cents, for 
 goods which they say you bought — I hesitated to pay them, 
 because my recollection is that you told me when you went 
 away, that there was nothing left unpaid — Mention in your 
 next letter whether they are right — 
 
 Mrs. Richardson is still here ; and what is more, has a 
 baby — so Richardson says, and he ought to know — I 
 believe Mary Hewett has left here and gone to Boston — I 
 
age 39] AN, AUTOBIOGRAPHY 75 
 
 met her on the street about fifteen or twenty days ago, and 
 she told me she was going soon — I have seen nothing of 
 her since — 
 
 The music in the Capitol grounds on Saturdays, or, rather, 
 the interest in it, is dwindling down to nothing — Yesterday 
 evening the attendance was rather thin — Our two girls, 
 whom you remember seeing first at Canisis, at the exhibition 
 of the Ethiopian Serenaders, and whose peculiarities were the 
 wearing of black fur bonnets, and never being seen in close 
 company with other ladies, were at the music yesterday — One 
 of them was attended by their brother, and the other had a 
 member of Congress in tow — He went home with her; and 
 if I were to guess, I would say, he went away a somewhat 
 altered man — most likely in his pockets, and in some other 
 particular — The fellow looked conscious of guilt, although 
 I believe he was unconscious that everybody around knew 
 who it was that had caught him — 
 
 I have had no letter from home, since I wrote you before, 
 except short business letters, which have no interest for you — 
 
 By the way, you do not intend to do without a girl, be- 
 cause the one you had has left you? Get another as soon as 
 you can to take charge of the dear codgers — Father ex- 
 pected to see you all sooner; but let it pass; stay as long as 
 you please, and come when you please — Kiss and love the 
 dear rascals — Affectionately A. Lincoln 
 
 10th. (To Herndon.) The subject of [your] letter is 
 exceedingly painful to me; and I can not but think there is 
 some mistake in your impression of the motives of the old men. 
 I suppose I am now one of the old men ; and I declare, on my 
 veracity, which I trfink is good with you, that nothing could 
 afford me more satisfaction than to learn that you and others 
 of my young friends at home are doing battle in the contest 
 and endearing themselves to the people and taking a stand far 
 above any I have ever been able to reach in their admiration. 
 
76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1848 
 
 I can not conceive that other old men feel differently. Of 
 course I can not demonstrate what I say ; but I was young once, 
 and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back. I hardly 
 know what to say. The way for a young man to rise is to 
 improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that 
 anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that 
 suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. 
 There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young 
 man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind 
 to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted 
 injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured 
 every person you have ever known to fall into it. 
 
 Like all the other politicians in Congress, Lincoln makes 
 political speeches that have nothing to do with the business 
 before the House. 
 
 2jth. (In the House.) Mr. Speaker, it is no business or 
 inclination of mine to defend Martin Van Buren. In the war 
 of extermination now waging between him and his old admir- 
 ers, I say, "Devil take the hindmost" — and the foremost. But 
 there is no mistaking the origin of the breach : and if the curse 
 of "stinking" and "rotting" is to fall on the first and greatest 
 violators of principle in the matter, I disinterestedly suggest 
 that the gentleman from Georgia and his present co-workers 
 are bound to take it upon themselves. But the gentleman from 
 Georgia further says we have deserted all our principles, and 
 taken shelter under General Taylor's military coat-tail, and he 
 seems to think this is exceedingly degrading. Well, as his 
 faith is, so be it unto him. But can he remember no other 
 military coat-tail under which a certain other party has been 
 sheltering, for near a quarter of a century? Has he no ac- 
 qaintance with the ample military coat-tail of General Jack- 
 son? Does he not know that his own party has run the five 
 last presidential races under that coat-tail ? And that they are. 
 
age 39] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 77 
 
 now running the sixth under the same cover? Yes, sir, that 
 coat-tail was used not only for General Jackson himself, but 
 has been clung to, with the grip of death, by every Democratic 
 candidate since. You have never ventured, and dare not now 
 venture, from under it. Your campaign papers have constantly 
 been "Old Hickories," with rude likenesses of the old general 
 upon them; hickory poles and hickory brooms your never- 
 ending emblems; Mr. Polk himself was "Young Hickory," 
 "Little Hickory," or something so ; and even now your cam- 
 paign paper here is proclaiming that Cass and Butler are of 
 the true "Hickory stripe." Now, sir, you dare not give it up. 
 Like a horde of hungry ticks you have stuck to the tail of the 
 Llermitage lion to the end of his life; and you are still sticking 
 to it, and drawing a loathsome sustenance from it, after he is 
 dead. 
 
 But in my hurry I was very near closing this subject of 
 military tails before I was done with it. There is one entire 
 article of the sort I have not discussed yet ; I mean the military 
 tail you Democrats are now engaged in dove-tailing into the 
 great Michigander. Yes, sir, all his biographers (and they are 
 legion) have him in hand, tying him to a military tail, like so 
 many mischievous boys tying a dog to a bladder of beans. 
 True, the material they have is very limited, but they drive at 
 it might and main. He invaded Canada without resistance, 
 and he Evaded it without pursuit. As he did both under 
 orders, I suppose there was, to him, neither credit nor discredit 
 in them; but they constitute a large part of the tail. He was 
 not at Hull's surrender, but he was close by ; he was volunteer 
 aide to General Harrison on the day of the battle of the 
 Thames; and as you said in 1840 Harrison was picking huckle- 
 berries two miles off while the battle was fought, I suppose it 
 is a just conclusion with you to say Cass was aiding Harrison 
 to pick whortleberries. This is about all, except the mooted 
 question of the broken sword. Some authors say he broke it; 
 
78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1848 
 
 some say he threw it away; and some others, who ought to 
 know, say nothing about it. Perhaps it would be a fair his- 
 torical compromise to say, if he did not break it, he did not do 
 anything else with it. 
 
 By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military 
 hero? Yes, sir; in the days of the Black Llawk war I fought, 
 bled, and came away. Speaking of General Cass's career re- 
 minds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was 
 about as near it as Cass was to LIull's surrender ; and, like him, 
 I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did 
 not break my sword, for I had none to break ; but I bent a mus- 
 ket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the 
 idea is he broke it in desperation; I bent the musket by acci- 
 dent. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking 
 whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon the 
 wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more 
 than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the 
 mosquitoes; and although I never fainted from the loss of 
 blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to doff whatever 
 our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade 
 Federalism about me, and therefore they shall take me up as 
 their candidate for the Presidency, I protest they shall not 
 make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting 
 to write me into a military hero. 
 
 August 8 th. I am remaining here [Washington] for two 
 weeks to frank documents. 
 
 28th. The news we are receiving here now from all parts 
 is on the look-up. We have had several letters from Ohio to- 
 day, all encouraging. . . . The tone of the letters — free from 
 despondency — full of hope — is what particularly encourages 
 me. If a man is scared when he writes, I think I can detect it, 
 when I see what he writes. 
 
age 39] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 79 
 
 September. During the adjournment of Congress Lincoln 
 makes a number of speeches in New England. 
 
 September 12th. (Report of Speech Delivered at Wor- 
 cester, Massachusetts.) Mr. Lincoln has a very tall and thin 
 figure, with an intellectual face, showing a searching mind and 
 a cool judgment. He spoke in a clear, cool and very elo- 
 quent manner, for an hour and a half, carrying the audience 
 with him in his able arguments and brilliant illustrations — only 
 interrupted by warm and frequent applause. He began by 
 expressing a real feeling of modesty in addressing an audience 
 "this side of the mountains," a part of the country where, in 
 the opinion of the people of his section, everybody was sup- 
 posed to be instructed and wise. But he had devoted his atten- 
 tion to the question of the coming presidential election, and 
 was not unwilling to exchange with all whom he might the 
 ideas to which he had arrived. He then began to show the 
 fallacy of some of the arguments against General Taylor, 
 making his chief theme the fashionable statement of all those 
 who oppose him ("the old Locofocos as well as the new"), 
 that he has no principles, and that the Whig party have aban- 
 doned their principles by adopting him as their candidate. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln then passed to the subject of slavery in the 
 States, saying that the people of Illinois agreed entirely with 
 the people of Massachusetts on this subject, except perhaps 
 that they did not keep so constantly thinking about it. All 
 agreed that slavery was an evil, but that we were not respon- 
 sible for it and can not affect it in states of this Union where 
 we do not live. But the question of the extension of slavery 
 to new territories of this country is a part of our responsibility 
 and care, and is under our control. 
 
 The "Free Soil" men in claiming that name indirectly 
 attempt a deception by implying that Whigs were not Free Soil 
 men. In declaring that they would "do their duty and leave 
 
80 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1848 
 
 the consequences to God," merely gave an excuse for taking a 
 course they were not able to maintain by a fair and full argu- 
 ment. To make this declaration did not show what their duty 
 was. If it did we should have no use for judgment, we might 
 as well be made without intellect, and when divine or human 
 law does not clearly point out what is our duty, we have no 
 means of finding out what it is by using our most intelligent 
 judgment of the consequences. 
 
 22nd. (To William H. Seward, following the meeting at 
 Tremont Temple, Boston, where both were speakers.) 
 
 Governor Seward, I have been thinking about what you 
 said in your speech, I reckon you are right. We have got to 
 deal with this slavery question and got to give much more 
 attention to \t hereafter than we have been doing. 
 
 Visits Niagara Falls while on the way home to Illinois. 
 
 The thing that struck me most forcibly when I saw the 
 Falls was, where in the world did all that water come from? 
 
 At Springfield, finds that the younger Whigs do not like 
 his course in Congress and that the older Whigs are losing 
 influence. No chance for him to be renominated. He returns 
 to Washington. 
 
 His father with whom he corresponded so little writes him 
 a singular letter which causes the son to feel misgivings. 
 
 December 24th, Washington. 
 
 (To Thomas Lincoln.) Your letter of the 7th was re- 
 ceived night before last. I very cheerfully send you the twenty 
 dollars, which sum you say is necessary to save your land from 
 sale. It is singular that you should have forgotten a judgment 
 against you; and it is more singular that the plaintiff should 
 
mi g&nssi 
 
age 39] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 81 
 
 have let you forget it so long, particularly as I suppose you 
 always had property enough to satisfy a judgment of that 
 amount. Before you pay it, it would be well to be sure you 
 have not paid, or at least that you can not prove that you 
 have paid it. 
 
 Give my love to mother and all connections. Affection- 
 ately your son — * 
 
 *The character of Thomas Lincoln has been much discussed. The evi- 
 dence with regard to him is slight and indirect. Does not this letter indicate 
 a doubt of his veracity in the mind of his son? 
 
1849-1853 
 
 As his term draws to a close he puts himself on record with 
 regard to slavery by introducing a bill in which the House has 
 so little interest that a vote upon it is evaded. 
 
 January 16th, 1849. (From the Congressional Globe.) 
 Mr. Lincoln moved the following amendment in the House of 
 Representatives in Congress, instructing the proper committee 
 to report a bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
 Columbia, with the consent of the voters of the District, and 
 with compensation to owners.* 
 
 As his term is almost ended, Lincoln enters upon his one 
 attempt at office seeking — through wire-pulling in Washington. 
 
 20th. I believe that so far as the Whigs in Congress are 
 concerned, I could have the General Land Office (at Washing- 
 ton) almost by common consent; but then Sweet and Don 
 Morrison and Browning and Cyrus Edwards all want it, and 
 what is worse, while I think I could easily take it myself, I 
 fear I shall have trouble to get it for any other man in Illinois. 
 The reason is that McGaughey, an Indiana ex-member of Con- 
 gress, is here after it, and being personally known, he will be 
 hard to beat by any one who is not.f 
 
 *The text of Lincoln's emancipation bill is in the Congressional Globe, 
 January 16, 1849; also in Nicolay and Hay, 1, 286-288; in the Biographical 
 edition of his Complete Works, and in the Putnam edition of his Complete 
 Writings, 
 
 tSee pp. 85-89 for the subsequent history of this curious matter. 
 
 82 
 
age 4 o] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 83 
 
 February 20th. (To C. R. Welles.) This is Tuesday 
 evening, and your letter enclosing the one of Young & Brothers 
 to you, saying the money sent by me to them had not been re- 
 ceived, came to hand last Saturday night. The facts, which are 
 perfectly fresh in my recollection, are these : You gave me the 
 money in a letter (open, I believe) directed to Young & 
 Brothers. To make it more secure than it would be in my hat, 
 where I carry most all my packages, I put it in my trunk. I 
 had a great many jobs to do in St. Louis; and by the very 
 extra care I had taken of yours, overlooked it. On the Steam 
 Boat near the mouth of the Ohio, I opened the trunk, and dis- 
 covered the letter. I then began to cast about for some safe 
 hand to send it back by. Mr. Yeatman, Judge Pope's son- 
 in-law, and stepson of Mr. Bell of Tennessee, was on board, 
 and was to return immediately to St. Louis, from the Mouth 
 of Cumberland. At my request, he took the letter and prom- 
 ised to deliver it, and I heard no more about it till I received 
 your letter on Saturday. It so happens that Mr. Yeatman is 
 now in this City; I called on him last night about it; he said 
 he remembered my giving him the letter, and he could remem- 
 ber nothing more of it. He told me he would try and refresh 
 his memory, and see me again concerning it to-day, which, 
 however, he has not done. I will try to see him to-morrow and 
 write you again. He is a young man, as I understand, of un- 
 questioned, and unquestionable character; and this makes me 
 fear some pickpocket on the boat may have seen me give him 
 the letter, and slipped it from him. In this way, never seeing 
 the letter again, he would, naturally enough, never think of it 
 again. 
 
 March 3rd. Congressional career ends. 
 4th. Attends Taylor s inaugural ball. Member of com- 
 mittee on arrangements. 
 
 gth. (To the Secretary of the Treasury.) Colonel 
 E. D. Baker and myself ?re the only Whig members of Con- 
 
84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1849 
 
 gress from Illinois — I of the Thirtieth, and he of the Thirty- 
 first. We have reason to think the Whigs of that State hold 
 us responsible, to some extent, for the appointments which may 
 be made of our citizens. We do not know you personally ; and 
 our efforts to see you have, so far, been unavailing. I there- 
 fore hope I am not obtrusive in saying in this way, for him 
 and myself, that when a citizen of Illinois is to be appointed 
 in your department, to an office either in or out of the State, 
 we most respectfully ask to be heard. 
 
 Returns to Springfield and out of savings from his salary 
 as Congressman pays off the last of the debt contracted at New 
 Salem fifteen years before. 
 
 Resumes the practise of law. 
 
 Wire-pulling over the land office continues, both with re- 
 gard to the Washington appointees and the local appointees. 
 
 April ?th. Springfield. 
 
 (To the Secretary of the Interior.) I recommend that 
 Walter Davis be appointed receiver of the land office at this, 
 place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. I can not say that 
 Mr. Herndon, the present incumbent, has failed in the proper 
 discharge of any of the duties of the office. He is a very 
 warm partisan, and openly and actively opposed to the election 
 of General Taylor. I also understand that since General Tay- 
 lor's election, he has received a reappointment from Mr. Polk, 
 his old commission not having expired. Whether this is true 
 the records of the department will show. I may add that 
 the Whigs here almost universally desire his removal. 
 
 I give no opinion of my own, but state the facts, and ex- 
 press the hope that the department will act in this as in all 
 other cases on some proper general rule. 
 
 I recommend that Turner R. King, now of Pekin, Illinois, 
 be appointed register of the land office at this place whenever 
 there shall be a vacancy. 
 
age 4 o] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 85 
 
 (To W. B. Warren and others.) In answer to your 
 note concerning the General Land Office I have to say that, if 
 the office could be secured to Illinois by my consent to accept 
 it, and not otherwise, I give that consent. Some months since 
 I gave my word to secure the appointment to that office of 
 Mr. Cyrus Edwards, if in my power, in case of a vacancy; and 
 more recently I stipulated with Colonel Baker that if Mr. Ed- 
 wards and Colonel J. L. D. Morrison could arrange with each 
 other for one of them to withdraw, we would jointly recom- 
 mend the other. In relation to these pledges, I must not only 
 be chaste, but above suspicion. If the office shall be tendered 
 to me, I must be permitted to say : "Give it to Mr. Edwards or, 
 if so agreed by them, to Colonel Morrison, and I decline it; if 
 not, I accept." With this understanding you are at liberty to 
 procure me the offer of the appointment if you can; and I 
 shall feel complimented by your effort, and still more by its 
 success. 
 
 25th. (To Thompson.) A tirade is still kept 
 
 up against me here for recommending (April 7) T. R. King. 
 This morning it is openly avowed that my supposed influence 
 at Washington shall be broken down generally, and King's 
 prospects defeated in particular. Now, what I have done in 
 this matter I have done at the request of you and some other 
 friends in Tazewell; and I therefore ask you to either admit 
 it is wrong, or come forward and sustain me. 
 
 May loth. (To the Secretary of the Interior.) I regret 
 troubling you so often in relation to the land-offices here, but 
 I hope you will perceive the necessity of it, and excuse me. 
 On the 7th of April I wrote you recommending Turner R. 
 King for register, and Walter Davis for receiver. Subse- 
 quently I wrote you that, for a private reason, I had con- 
 cluded to transpose them. That private reason was the re- 
 quest of an old personal friend who himself desired to be 
 receiver, but whom I felt it my duty to refuse a recommen- 
 
86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1849 
 
 elation. He said if I would transpose King and Davis he 
 would be satisfied. I thought it a whim, but, anxious to oblige 
 him, I consented. Immediately he commenced an assault upon 
 King's character, intending, as I suppose, to defeat his ap- 
 pointment, and thereby secure another chance for himself. 
 This double offense of bad faith to me and slander upon a 
 good man is so totally outrageous that I now ask to have 
 King and Davis placed as I originally recommended — that is, 
 King for register and Davis for receiver. 
 
 1 8th. (To Duff Green.) I learn from Washington that 
 a man by the name of Butter field will probably be appointed 
 Commissioner of the General Land Office. This ought not 
 to be. That is about the only crumb of patronage which 
 Illinois expects; and I am sure the mass of General Taylor's 
 friends here would quite as lief see it go east of the Alle- 
 ghenies, or west of the Rocky Mountains, as into that man's 
 hands. They are already sore on the subject of his getting 
 office. In the great contest of 1840 he was not seen or 
 heard of; but when the victory came, three or four old 
 drones, including him, got all the valuable offices, through 
 what influence no one has yet been able to tell. I believe 
 the only time he has been very active was last spring a year 
 ago, in opposition to General Taylor's nomination. 
 
 Now can not you get the ear of General Taylor? Ewing 
 is for Butterfield, and therefore he must be avoided. Preston, 
 I think, will favor you. Mr. Edwards has written me offer- 
 ing to decline, but I advised him not to do so. Some kind 
 friends think I ought to be an appellant, but I am for Mr. 
 Edwards. Try to defeat Butterfield, and in doing so use Mr. 
 Edwards, J. L. D. Morrison, or myself, whichever you can 
 to best advantage. Write me, and let this be confidential. 
 
 ipth. Butterfield will be Commissioner of the General 
 Land Office, unless prevented by strong and speedy efforts. 
 Ewing is for him and he is only not appointed yet because old 
 Zach. [Taylor] hangs fire. 
 
age 4 o] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY Sy 
 
 By way of variety in the midst of his political anxieties he 
 devises a curious invention and applies for a patent. 
 
 22nd. What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure 
 by letters patent, is the combination of expansible buoy- 
 ant chambers placed at the sides of a vessel with the main 
 shaft or shafts by means of the sliding spars which pass down 
 through the buoyant chambers and are made fast to their bot- 
 toms and the series of ropes and pulleys or their equivalents in 
 such a manner that by turning the main shaft or shafts in 
 one direction the buoyant chambers will be forced down- 
 wards into the water, and at the same time expanded and 
 filled with air for buoying up the vessel by the displacement of 
 water, and by turning the shafts in an opposite direction the 
 buoyant chambers will be contracted into a small space and 
 secured against injury. 
 
 Returning to the problem of the Land Office — 
 
 25th. (To E. Embree.) I understand that the General 
 Land Office is about to be given to Illinois, and that Mr. 
 Ewing desires Justin Butterfield of Chicago, to be the man. 
 I give you my word, the appointment of Mr. Butterfield will 
 be an egregious offense to the whole Whig party here, and 
 be worse than a dead loss to the administration of so much 
 of its patronage. 
 
 There are other questions of patronage. 
 
 June $th. (To William H. Herndon.) There must be 
 some mistake about Walter Davis saying I promised him the 
 Post-office. I did not so promise him. I did tell him that 
 if the distribution of the offices should fall into my hands, he 
 should have anything; and if I shall be convinced he has said 
 any more than this, I shall be disappointed. 
 
88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [iftfc 
 
 I said this much to him because, as I understand, he is 
 of good character, is one of the young men, is of the mechanics, 
 and always faithful and never troublesome; a Whig, and is 
 poor, with the support of a widow mother thrown almost ex- 
 clusively on him by the death of his brother. If these are 
 wrong reasons, then I have been wrong; but I have certainly 
 not been selfish in it, because in my greatest need of friends he 
 was against me, and for Baker. 
 
 At last he decides to play his own hand with regard to 
 the Land Office. 
 
 8th. (To Nathaniel Pope.) I do not know that it would, 
 but I can well enough conceive it might embarrass you to 
 now give a letter recommending me for the General Land 
 Office. Could you not, howevet, without embarrassment or 
 any impropriety, so far indicate the truth of history as to 
 briefly state to me, in a letter, what you did say to me last 
 spring, on my arrival here from Washington, in relation to 
 my becoming an applicant for that office? Having at last 
 concluded to be an applicant, I have thought it is perhaps due 
 to me to be enabled to show the influences which brought me 
 to the conclusion, and of which influences the wishes and 
 opinions you expressed, were not the least. 
 
 Butterfield, with strong backing at Washington, succeeds 
 in obtaining the Land Office appointment. 
 
 Unexpected bitterness in connection with the Land Office. 
 
 July 13th. Mr. Edwards is unquestionably offended with 
 me in connection with the matter of the General Land Office. 
 He wrote a letter against me which was filed at the Depart- 
 ment. 
 
 The better part of one's life consists of his friendships; 
 and, of them, mine with Mr. Edwards was one of the most 
 
age 40] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 89 
 
 cherished. I have not been false to it. At a word I could 
 have had the office any time before the Department was 
 committed to Mr. Butterfield — at least Mr. Ewing and the 
 President say as much. That word I forbore to speak, partly 
 for other reasons, but chiefly for Mr. Edwards' sake — losing 
 the office that he might gain it, I was always for; but 
 to lose his friendship by the effort for him, would oppress 
 me very much, were I not sustained by the utmost con- 
 sciousness of rectitude. I first determined to be an appli- 
 cant, unconditionally, on the 2nd of June; and I did so then 
 upon being informed by a Telegraphic despatch that the 
 
 question was narrowed down to Mr. B. and myself, and 
 
 that the Cabinet had postponed the appointment, three weeks, 
 for my benefit. Not doubting that Mr. Edwards was wholly 
 out of the question, I, nevertheless, would not then have be- 
 come an applicant had I supposed he would thereby be brought 
 to suspect me of treachery to him. Two or three days after- 
 ward a conversation with Levi Davis convinced me Mr. Ed- 
 wards was dissatisfied; but I was then too far in to get out. 
 His own letter, written on the 25th of April, after I had fully 
 informed him of all that had passed up to within a few days 
 of that time, gave assurance I had that entire confidence from 
 him, which I felt my uniform and strong friendship for him 
 entitled me to. 
 
 28th. Springfield. 
 
 (To John M. Clayton, Secretary of State.)' It is with 
 some hesitation I presume to address this letter — and yet 
 I wish not only you, but the whole Cabinet, and the Presi- 
 dent too, would consider the subject matter of it. My being 
 among the People while you and they are not, will excuse 
 the apparent presumption. It is understood that the President 
 at first adopted, as a general rule, to throw the responsibility 
 of the appointments upon the respective Departments; and 
 that such rule is adhered to and practised upon. This 
 
90 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1849-50 
 
 course I at first thought proper; and, of course, I am 
 not now complaining of it. Still I am disappointed with 
 the effect of it on the public mind. It is fixing for the Presi- 
 dent the unjust and ruinous character of being a mere man 
 of straw. This must be arrested, or it will damn us all in- 
 evitably. It is said General Taylor and his officers held a 
 council of war, at Palo Alto (I believe) ; and that he then 
 fought the battle against unanimous opinion of those officers. 
 This fact (no matter whether rightfully or wrongfully) gives 
 him more popularity than ten thousand submissions, however 
 really wise and magnanimous those submissions may be. 
 
 The appointments need be no better than they have been, 
 but the public must be brought to understand that they are 
 the President's appointments. He must occasionally say, or 
 seem to say, "by the Eternal/' "I take the responsibility. ,, 
 Those phrases were the "Samson's locks" of General Jackson 
 and we dare not disregard the lessons of experience. 
 
 The Hungarian revolution arouses general sympathy in 
 America. Lincoln draws up resolutions adopted at a public 
 meeting. 
 
 September 12th. Resolved, That in their present glorious 
 struggle for liberty, the Hungarians command our highest 
 admiration and have our warmest sympathy. 
 
 Resolved, That they have our most ardent prayers for their 
 speedy triumph and final success. 
 
 Resolved, That the Government of the United States should 
 acknowledge the independence of Hungary as a nation of free- 
 men at the very earliest moment consistent with our amicable 
 relations with the government against which they are con- 
 tending. 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting, the im- 
 mediate acknowledgment of the independence of Hungary by 
 
age 4o-4i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 91 
 
 our government is due from American freemen to their strug- 
 gling brethren, to the general cause of republican liberty, and, 
 not violative of the just rights of any nation or people. 
 
 Meanwhile, the President has decided to compensate him 
 for the loss of the Land Office. Mrs. Lincoln strongly op- 
 poses accepting the substitute appointment and her husband 
 declines it. 
 
 27th. (To John Addison.) I can not but be grateful 
 to you and all other friends who have interested them- 
 selves in having the governorship of Oregon offered to me; 
 but on as much reflection as I have had time to give the subject, 
 I can not consent to accept it. As to the secretaryship (of 
 Oregon) I have already recommended our friend Simeon 
 Frances of the Journal. 
 
 Lincoln now devoted himself to the practise of law, travel- 
 ing much "on the circuit!' After a sort of impromptu con- 
 cert, in a hotel, when he was being teased to sing: 
 
 Autumn. Why, Miss Newhall, if it was to save my soul 
 from hell, I couldn't imitate a note that you would touch on 
 that [piano]. I never sung in my life and never was able 
 to. Those fellows [who had been teasing him about his sing- 
 ing] are just simply liars. But I'll tell you what 111 do for 
 you. You girls have been so kind singing for us, I'll repeat 
 to you my favorite poem. ["Oh why should the spirit of 
 mortal be proud."] 
 
 His relations with his family have been spasmodic during 
 many years. Now, his half-brother resumes correspondence. 
 
 February 23rd, 1850. (To John D. Johnston.) Your let- 
 ter about a mail contract was received yesterday. I have made 
 
92 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1850 
 
 out a bid for you at $120, guaranteed to myself, got our p. m. 
 here to certify it, and send it on. Your former letter, concern- 
 ing some man's claim for a pension, was also received. I had 
 the claim examined by those who are practised in such matters, 
 and they decide he can not get a pension. 
 
 As you make no mention of it, I suppose you had not 
 learned that we lost our little boy. He was sick fifteen days, 
 and died in the morning of the first day of this month. It 
 was not our first, but our second child. We miss him very 
 much. 
 
 As a business correspondent he continues incorrigible. 
 
 June 27th. (To Richard S. Thomas.) I am ashamed of 
 not sooner answering your letter, herewith returned; and my 
 only apologies are, first, that I have been very busy in the 
 U. S. court; and second, that when I received the letter I put 
 it in my old hat, and buying a new one the next day, the old 
 one was set aside, and so the letter was lost sight of for a time. 
 
 He develops lofty views about his profession. 
 
 (Notes for Law Lecture.) I am not an accomplished 
 lawyer. I find quite as much material for a lecture in those 
 points wherein I have failed, as in those wherein I have been 
 moderately successful. The leading rule for the lawyer, as for 
 the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for 
 to-morrow which can de done to-day. Never let your corre- 
 spondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have 
 in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which 
 can then be done. When you bring a common-law suit, if you 
 have the facts for doing so, write the declaration at once. If a 
 law point be involved, examine the books, and note the author- 
 ity you rely upon for the declaration itself, where you are sure 
 to find it when wanted. The same of defenses and pleas. In 
 
age 4 i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 93 
 
 business not likely to be litigated — ordinary collection cases, 
 foreclosures, partitions, and the like — make all examinations 
 of titles, and note them, and even draft orders and degrees in 
 advance. This course has a triple advantage, saves your labor 
 when once done, performs the labor out of court when you 
 have leisure, rather than in court when you have not. Extem- 
 poraneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is 
 the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful 
 he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him busi- 
 ness if he can not make a speech. And yet there is not a more 
 fatal error to young lawyers than relying too much on speech- 
 making. If any one, upon his rare powers of speaking, shall 
 claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a 
 failure in advance. 
 
 Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to com- 
 promise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal 
 winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of 
 time. As a peace-maker the lawyer has a superior opportunity 
 of being a good man. There will still be business enough. 
 
 Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be 
 found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a 
 fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds 
 in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put 
 money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into 
 the profession which should drive such men out of it. 
 
 The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere 
 question of bread and butter involved. Properly attended to, 
 fuller justice is done to both lawyer and client. An exorbi- 
 tant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule never take 
 your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. 
 When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common 
 mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if 
 something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your 
 client. And when you lack interest in the case the job will 
 
94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1851 
 
 very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance. Settle 
 the amount of fee and take a note in advance. Then you will 
 feel that you are working for something, and you are sure to 
 do your work faithfully and well. Never sell a fee note — at 
 least not before the consideration service is performed. It 
 leads to negligence and dishonesty — negligence by losing in- 
 terest in the case, and dishonesty in refusing to refund when 
 you have allowed the consideration to fail. 
 
 There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily 
 dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to what 
 extent confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred 
 upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that their 
 impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the 
 impression is common, almost universal. Let no young man 
 choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the pop- 
 ular belief — resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your 
 own judgment you can not be an honest lawyer, resolve to be 
 honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occu- 
 pation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in 
 advance, consent to be a knave. 
 
 Family matters imperatively claim his attention. 
 
 January 2nd, 18 51. (To John D. Johnston.) You are 
 now in need of some money; and what I propose is, that you 
 shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will give 
 you money for it. Let father and your boys take charge of your 
 things at home, prepare for a crop, and make a crop, and you 
 go to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any 
 debt you owe, that you can get; and, to secure you a fair 
 reward for your labor, I now promise you, that for every 
 dollar you will, between this and the first of May, get for your 
 own labor, either in money or as your own indebtedness, I will 
 then give you one other dollar. 
 
age 42] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 95 
 
 1 2th. (To John D. Johnston.) On the day before yes- 
 terday I received a letter from Harriet, written at Greenup. 
 She says she has just returned from your house, and that 
 father is very low and will hardly recover. She also says you 
 have written me two letters, and that although you do not 
 expect me to come now, you wonder that I do not write. 
 
 I received both your letters, and although I have not 
 answered them, it is not because I have forgotten them, or 
 been uninterested about them, but because it appeared to me 
 that I could write nothing which would do any good. You 
 already know I desire that neither father nor mother shall be 
 in want of any comfort, either in health or sickness, while they 
 live; and I feel sure you have not failed to use my name, if 
 necessary, to procure a doctor, or anything else for father in 
 his present sickness. My business is such that I could hardly 
 leave home now, if it was not, as it is, that my own wife is 
 sick-a-bed. (It is a case of baby-sickness, and I suppose is 
 not dangerous.) I sincerely hope Father may recover his 
 health, but at all events, tell him to remember and call upon 
 and confide in our great and good and merciful Maker, who 
 will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes 
 the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads, 
 and He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in 
 Him. Say to him that if we could meet now it is doubtful 
 whether it would not be more painful than pleasant, but that 
 if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting 
 with many loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us, 
 through the help of God, hope ere long to join them. 
 
 August 31st. (To John D. Johnston.) Inclosed is the 
 deed for the land. We are all well, and have nothing in the 
 way of news. We have had no cholera here for about two 
 weeks. Give my love to all, and especially to Mother. 
 
 November 4th. (To John D. Johnston.) When I came 
 into Charleston day before yesterday, I learned that you are 
 
96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1851-52 
 
 anxious to sell the land where you live, and move to Mis- 
 souri. I have been thinking of this ever since, and can not 
 but think such a motion is utterly foolish. What can you do in 
 Missouri better than here? Is the land any richer? Can you 
 there, any more than here, raise corn and wheat and oats 
 without work? Will anybody there, any more than here, do 
 your work for you? If you intend to go to work, there is no 
 better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to 
 go to work, you can not get along anywhere. Squirming and 
 crawling about from place to place can do no good. You 
 have raised no corn this year; and what you really want is to 
 sell the land, get the money, and spend it. Part with the 
 land you have, and, my life upon it, you will never after own 
 a spot big enough to bury you in. Half you will get for the 
 land you will spend in moving to Missouri, and the other half 
 you will eat, drink, and wear out, and no foot of land will be 
 bought. Now, I feel it my duty to have no hand in such a 
 piece of foolery. I feel that it is so even on your own 
 account, and particularly on mother s account. 
 
 Your thousand pretenses for not getting along better are all 
 nonsense; they deceive nobody but yourself. Go to work is 
 the only cure for your case. 
 
 pth. (To John D. Johnston.) When I wrote you before, 
 I had not received your letter. I still think as I did; but if the 
 land can be sold so that I get three hundred dollars to put to 
 interest for mother, I will not object, if she does not. But, 
 before I will make a deed, the money must be had, or secured 
 beyond all doubt, at ten per cent. 
 
 As to Abram, I do not want him, on my own account; 
 but I understand he wants to live with me, so that he can go 
 to school and get a fair start in the world, which I very much 
 wish him to have. When I reach home, if I can make it con- 
 venient to take, I will take him, provided there is no mistake 
 between us as to the object and terms of my taking him. 
 
age 43-43] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 97 
 
 25th. (To John D. Johnston.) Your letter of the 22nd 
 is just received. Your proposal about selling the east forty 
 acres of land is all that I want or could claim for myself; but 
 I am not satisfied with it on mother s account. I want her to 
 have her living, and I feel that it is my duty, to some extent, 
 to see that she is not wronged. She had a right of Dower 
 (that is, the use of one-third for life) in the other two 
 forties ; but, it seems, she has already let you take that, hook 
 and line. She now has the use of the whole of the East forty, 
 as long as she lives ; and if it be sold, of course she is entitled to 
 the interest on all the money it brings, as long as she lives ; but 
 you propose to sell it for three hundred dollars, take one hun- 
 dred away with you, and leave her two hundred at 8 per cent, 
 making her the enormous sum of sixteen dollars a year. Now, 
 if you are satisfied with treating her in that way, I am not. It 
 is true, that you are to have that forty for two hundred dol- 
 lars, at mother's death; but you are not to have it before. I 
 am confident that land can be made to produce for mother at 
 least thirty dollars a year, and I can not, to oblige any living 
 person, consent that she shall be put on an allowance of sixteen 
 dollars a year. 
 
 The death of Henry Clay, next to Jefferson perhaps his 
 chief hero, leads him to formulate a political attitude in eulo- 
 gizing his dead leader* 
 
 July 16th, 1852. Mr. Clay's predominant sentiment, from 
 first to last, was a deep devotion to the cause of human lib- 
 erty — a strong sympathy with the oppressed everywhere, and 
 an ardent wish for their elevation. With him this was a 
 primary and all-controlling passion. Subsidiary to this was 
 the conduct of his whole life. He loved his country partly 
 because it was his own country, and mostly because it was a 
 free country; and he burned with a zeal for its advancement, 
 
98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1852 
 
 prosperity, and glory, because he saw in such the advance- 
 ment, prosperity, and glory of human liberty, human right, 
 and human nature. He desired the prosperity of his country- 
 men, partly because they were his countrymen, but chiefly to 
 show to the world that free men could be prosperous. 
 
 He ever was on principle and in feeling opposed to slavery. 
 The very earliest, and one of the latest, public efforts of his 
 life, separated by a period of more than fifty years, were 
 both made in favor of gradual emancipation. He did not per- 
 ceive that on a question of human right the negroes were to be 
 excepted from the human race. And yet Mr. Clay was the 
 owner of slaves. Cast into life when slavery was already 
 widely spread and deeply seated, he did not perceive, as I 
 think no wise man had perceived, how it could be at once 
 eradicated without producing a greater evil even to the cause 
 of human liberty itself. His feeling and his judgment, there- 
 fore, ever led him to oppose both extremes of opinion on the 
 subject. Those who would shiver into fragments the Union 
 of these States, tear to tatters its now venerated Constitution, 
 and even burn the last copy of the Bible, rather than slavery 
 should continue a single hour, together with all their more 
 halting sympathizers, have received, and are receiving, their 
 just execration; and the name and opinions and influence of 
 Mr. Clay are fully and, as I trust, effectually and enduringly 
 arrayed against them. But I would also, if I could, array 
 his name, opinions, and influence against the opposite ex- 
 treme — against a few but an increasing number of men, who, 
 for the sake of perpetuating slavery, are beginning to assail 
 and to ridicule the white man's charter of freedom, the 
 declaration that "all men are created free and equal." 
 
 The American Colonization Society was organized in 
 1 8 16. Mr. Clay, though not its projector, was one of its 
 earliest members; and he died, as for many preceding years 
 he had been, its president. It was one of the most cherished 
 
age 43] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 99 
 
 objects of his direct care and consideration, and the associa- 
 tion of his name with it has probably been its very greatest 
 collateral support. He considered it no demerit in the society 
 that it tended to relieve the slaveholders from the troublesome 
 presence of the free negroes; but this was far from being its 
 whole merit in his estimation. 
 
 This suggestion of the possible ultimate redemption of the 
 African race and African continent was made twenty-five 
 years ago. Every succeeding year has added strength to the 
 hope of its realization. May it indeed be realized. Pharaoh's 
 country was cursed with plagues, and his hosts were lost in 
 the Red Sea, for striving to retain a captive people who had 
 already served them more than four hundred years. May like 
 disasters never befall us! If, as the friends of colonization 
 hope, the present and coming generations of our countrymen 
 shall by any means succeed in freeing our land from the dan- 
 gerous presence of slavery, and at the same time in restoring 
 a captive people to their long-lost fatherland with bright pros- 
 pects for the future, and this too so gradually that neither 
 races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will 
 indeed be a glorious consummation, and if to such a con- 
 summation the efforts of Mr. Clay shall have contributed, it 
 will be what he most ardently wished, and none of his labors 
 will have been more valuable to his country and his kind. 
 
 In the campaign of 1852 Lincoln is sharply pitted as stump 
 speaker against an old acquaintance who has gone far ahead 
 of him in the race for preferment, Stephen A. Douglas. Much 
 of Lincoln's earlier bent for sarcasm in political speaking has 
 disappeared. But now and then something of the earlier im- 
 pulse revives — as in these comments on Douglas. 
 
 This speech (that of Mr. Douglas at Richmond) has been 
 published with high commendations in at least one of the Dem- 
 
ioo ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1852-53 
 
 ocratic papers in this State, and I suppose it has been and will 
 be in most of the others. When I first saw it and read it, I 
 was reminded of old times, when Judge Douglas was not so 
 much greater man than all the rest of us, as he is now, — of the 
 Harrison campaign twelve years ago, when I used to hear and 
 try to answer many of his speeches; and believing that the 
 Richmond speech, though marked with the same species of 
 "shirks and quirks" as the old ones, was not marked with any 
 greater ability, I was seized with a strange inclination to at- 
 tempt an answer to it, and this inclination it was that prompted 
 me to seek the privilege of addressing you on this occasion. 
 
 Let us stand by our candidate as faithfully as he has 
 always stood by our country, and I much doubt if we do not 
 perceive a slight abatement in Judge Douglas's confidence in 
 Providence as well as in the people. I suspect that confidence 
 is not more firmly fixed with the judge than it is with the 
 old woman whose horse ran away with her in a buggy. She 
 said she "trusted in Providence till the 'britchin' broke, and 
 then she didn't know what on airth to do." The chance is, the 
 judge will see the "britchin" broke; and then he can at his 
 leisure bewail the fate of Locofocoism as the victim of mis- 
 placed confidence. 
 
 The serious lawyer which he has now become can on occa- 
 sion write a very skilful letter. 
 
 May 1 2th, 1853. (To J. R. Stanford.) I hope the sub- 
 ject-matter of this letter will appear a sufficient apology to you 
 for the liberty I, a total stranger, take in addressing you. The 
 persons here holding two lots under a conveyance made by you, 
 as the attorney of Daniel M. Baily, now nearly twenty-two 
 years ago, are in great danger of losing the lots, and very 
 much, perhaps all, is to depend on the testimony you give as to 
 whether you did or did not account to Baily for the proceeds 
 
age 43-44] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 101 
 
 received by you on this sale of the lots. I therefore, as one 
 of the counsel, beg of you to fully refresh your recollection by 
 any means in your power before the time you may be called 
 on to testify. If persons should come about you and show 
 a disposition to pump you on the subject, it may be no more 
 than prudent to remember that it may be possible they design 
 to misrepresent you and embarrass the real testimony you 
 may ultimately give. 
 
 By this time, though not famous, he is sufficiently known 
 for other Lincolns to be curious about him. 
 
 April 1st. (To Jesse Lincoln.) On yesterday I had the 
 pleasure of receiving your letter of the 16th of March. From 
 what you say there can be no doubt that you and I are of the 
 same family. The history of your family, as you give it, is 
 precisely what I have always heard, and partly know, of my 
 uncle Abraham; and the story of his death by the Indians, and 
 of Uncle Mordecai, then fourteen years old, killing one of the 
 Indians, is the legend more strongly than all others imprinted 
 upon my mind and memory. I am the son of grandfather's 
 youngest son, Thomas. I have often heard my father speak 
 of his uncle Isaac residing at Watauga (I think), near where 
 the then States of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee 
 join — you seem now to be some hundred miles or so west of 
 that. 
 
1854 
 
 The Kansas-Nebraska Bill, popularly called the "Nebraska 
 Bill," sponsored by Stephen A. Douglas, is violently condemned 
 in both the Whig and Democratic parties. Its opponents irre- 
 spective of party are labelled "Anti-Nebraska Men." They 
 speak of the bill as "the repeal of the Missouri Compromise" 
 
 From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practised law more 
 assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in politics; and 
 generally on the Whig electoral tickets, making active can- 
 vasses. I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise aroused me again. 
 
 During the summer of 1854, he ponders the problems of 
 government and puts some of his thoughts on paper. 
 
 July 1st. Most governments have been based, practically, 
 on the denial of the equal rights of men, as I have, in part, 
 stated them; ours began by affirming those rights. They said, 
 some men are too ignorant and vicious to share in government. 
 Possibly so, said we ; and, by your system, you would always 
 keep them ignorant and vicious. We proposed to give all a 
 chance ; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignor- 
 ant wiser, and all better and happier together. 
 
 Equality in society alike beats inequality, whether the lat- 
 ter be of the British aristocratic sort or of the domestic slavery 
 sort. We know Southern men declare that their slaves are 
 better off than hired laborers amongst us. How little they 
 
 102 
 
age 45] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 103 
 
 know whereof they speak! There is no permanent class of 
 hired laborers amongst us. Twenty-five years ago I was a 
 hired laborer. The hired laborer of yesterday labors on his 
 own account to-day, and will hire others to labor for him 
 to-morrow. Advancement — improvement in condition — is the 
 order of things in a society of equals. As labor is the common 
 burden of our race, so the effort of some to shift their share 
 of the burden onto the shoulders of others is the great durable 
 curse of the race. Originally a cure for trangression upon the 
 whole race, when, as by slavery, it is concentrated on a part 
 only, it becomes the double-refined curse of God upon his 
 creatures. 
 
 October 3rd. Stephen A. Douglas having returned from 
 Washington to champion the "Nebraska Bill" in Illinois, 
 speaks at Springfield. Lincoln promptly replies. 
 
 16th. Douglas speaks in defense of the "Nebraska Bill" at 
 Peoria,. Again Lincoln replies. In this speech he amazes every 
 one by the force and acumen with which he builds up a distinc- 
 tive political attitude strikingly his own. Here begins the 
 period of his greatness. 
 
 (Speech at Peoria, Illinois, in reply to Douglas.) The 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the propriety of its 
 restoration, constitute the subject of what I am about to say. 
 As I desire to present my own connected view of this subject, 
 my remarks will not be specifically in answer to Judge Doug- 
 las; yet, as I proceed, the main points he has presented will 
 arise, and will receive such respectful attention as I may be able 
 to give them. I wish further to say that I do not propose to 
 question the patriotism or to assail the motives of any man or 
 class of men, but rather to confine myself strictly to the naked 
 merits of the question. I also wish to be no less than national 
 in all the positions I may take, and whenever I take ground 
 
104 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1854 
 
 which others have thought, or may think, narrow, sectional, 
 and dangerous to the Union, I hope to give a reason which will 
 appear sufficient, at least to some, why I think differently. 
 
 And as this subject is no other than part and parcel of the 
 larger general question of domestic slavery, I wish to make and 
 to keep the distinction between the existing institution and the 
 extension of it, so broad and so clear that no honest man can 
 misunderstand me, and no dishonest one successfully misrep- 
 resent me. 
 
 In 1853, a bill to give it (Nebraska) a territorial govern- 
 ment passed the House of Representatives, and, in the hands of 
 Judge Douglas, failed of passing only for want of time. This 
 bill contained no repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Indeed, 
 when it was assailed because it did not contain such repeal, 
 Judge Douglas defended it in its existing form. On January 
 4, 1854, Judge Douglas introduces a new bill to give Nebraska 
 territorial government. He accompanies this bill with a report, 
 in which last he expressly recommends that the Missouri Com- 
 promise shall neither be affirmed nor repealed. Before long 
 the bill is so modified as to make two territories instead of one, 
 calling the southern one Kansas. 
 
 Also, about a month after the introduction of the bill, on 
 the Judge's own motion it is so amended as to declare the 
 Missouri Compromise inoperative and void ; and, substantially, 
 that the people who go and settle there may establish slavery, 
 or exclude it, as they may see fit. In this shape the bill passed 
 both branches of Congress and became a law. 
 
 This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The fore- 
 going history may not be precisely accurate in every particular, 
 but I am sure it is sufficiently so for all the use I shall attempt 
 to make of it, and in it we have before us the chief material 
 enabling us to judge correctly whether the repeal of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise is right or wrong. I think, and shall try to 
 show, that it is wrong — wrong in its direct effect, letting slav- 
 
age 45] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 105 
 
 ery into Kansas and Nebraska, and wrong in its prospective 
 principle, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide 
 world where men can be found inclined to take it. 
 
 This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real 
 zeal, for the spread of slavery, I can not but hate. I hate it 
 because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it 
 because it deprives our republican example of its just influence 
 in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with 
 plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites ; causes the real friends of 
 freedom to doubt our sincerity ; and especially because it forces 
 so many good men among ourselves into an open war with the 
 very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticizing the 
 Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no 
 right principle of action but self-interest. 
 
 Before proceeding let me say that I think I have no preju- 
 dice against the Southern people. They are just what we 
 would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among 
 them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among 
 us, we should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the 
 masses North and South. Doubtless there are individuals on 
 both sides who would not hold slaves under any circumstances, 
 and others who would gladly introduce slavery anew if it were 
 put of existence. We know that some Southern men do free 
 their slaves, go North and become tip-top Abolitionists, while 
 some Northern ones go South and become most cruel slave- 
 masters. 
 
 When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible 
 for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. 
 When it is said that the institution exists, and that it is very 
 difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can under- 
 stand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them 
 for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If 
 all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to 
 do as to the existing institution. My first impulse would be to 
 
106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1854 
 
 free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native 
 land. But a moment's reflection would convince me that what- 
 ever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this 
 in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible. If they 
 were all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the next 
 ten days ; and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money 
 enough to carry them there in many times ten days. What 
 then ? Free them all, and keep them among us as underlings ? 
 Is it quite certain that this betters their condition? I think I 
 would not hold one in slavery at any rate, yet the point is not 
 clear enough for me to denounce people upon. What next? 
 Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals. 
 My own feelings will not admit of this, and if mine would, we 
 well know that those of the great mass of whites will not. 
 Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judgment 
 is not the sole question, if indeed it is any part of it. A univer- 
 sal feeling, whether well or ill founded, can not be safely dis- 
 regarded. We can not then make them equals. It does seem 
 to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted, 
 but for their tardiness in this I will not undertake to judge 
 our brethren of the South. 
 
 When they remind us of their constitutional rights, I 
 acknowledge them — not grudgingly, but fully and fairly; and 
 I would give them legislation for the reclaiming of their fugi- 
 tives which should not in its stringency be more likely to carry 
 a free man into slavery than our ordinary criminal laws are to 
 hang an innocent one. 
 
 But all this, to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse for 
 permitting slavery to go into our own free territory than it 
 would for reviving the African slave-trade by law. The law 
 which forbids the bringing of slaves from Africa, and that 
 which has so long forbidden the taking of them into Nebraska, 
 can hardly be distinguished on any moral principle, and the 
 repeal of the former could find quite as plausible excuses as 
 that of the latter. 
 
age 45] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 107 
 
 Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new 
 Territories, is not a matter of exclusive concern to the people 
 who may go there. The whole nation is interested that the 
 best use shall be made of these Territories. We want them 
 for homes of free white people. This they can not be, to any 
 considerable extent, if slavery shall be planted within them. 
 Slave States are places for poor white people to remove from, 
 not to remove to. New Free States are the places for poor 
 people to go to, and better their condition. For this use the 
 nation needs these Territories. 
 
 Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restor- 
 ation, lest they be thrown in company with the Abolitionists. 
 Will they allow me, as an old Whig, to tell them, good- 
 humoredly, that I think this is very silly? Stand with anybody 
 that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part 
 with him when he goes wrong. Stand with the Abolitionist 
 in restoring the Missouri Compromise, and stand against him 
 when he attempts to repeal the fugitive-slave law. In the 
 latter case you stand with the Southern disunionist. What of 
 that ? you are still right. In both cases you are right. In both 
 cases you expose the dangerous extremes. In both you stand 
 on middle ground, and hold the ship level and steady. In both 
 you are national. This is the good old Whig ground. To 
 desert such ground because of any company, is to be less than 
 a Whig — less than a man — less than an American. 
 
 Fellow-countrymen, Americans, South as well as North, 
 shall we make no effort to arrest this? Already the liberal 
 party throughout the world express the 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 it — to 
 despise it ? Is there no danger to liberty itself in disregarding 
 
108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1854 
 
 the earliest practise and first precept of our ancient faith? In 
 our greedy chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware 
 lest we "cancel and tear in pieces" even the white man's char- 
 ter of freedom.* 
 
 Immense impression made on "Anti-Nebraska Men" irre- 
 spective of party, by Lincoln's replies to Douglas. He decides 
 to become a candidate for election to the United States Senate, 
 encouraged to do so because the "Anti-Nebraska" Democrats 
 put up a candidate, Lyman Trumbull, in opposition to the 
 regular Democrat, James Shields — now a general because of 
 service in the Mexican War. 
 
 November 10th. (To Charles Hoyt.) You used to ex- 
 press a good deal of partiality for me, and if you are still so, 
 now is the time. Some friends here are really for me, for 
 the U. S. Senate, and I should be very grateful if you could 
 make a mark for me among your members. Please write me 
 at all events giving me the names, post-offices, and "political 
 position" of members round about you. Direct to Spring- 
 field. 
 
 Let this be confidential. 
 
 iyth. Newly organized Republican Party attempts to draw 
 Lincoln into its membership, by inviting him to become a mem- 
 ber of their State Central Committee. 
 
 2fth. (To I. Codding.) Your note of the 13th request- 
 ing my attendance on the Republican State Central Committee, 
 on the 17th instant at Chicago, was, owing to my absence from 
 home, received on the evening of that day (17th) only. While 
 I have pen in hand allow me to say I have been perplexed some 
 to understand why my name was placed on that Committee. 
 
 *This speech, in some respects the most notable event of Lincoln's politi- 
 cal life, strictly speaking, is in its entirety an elaborate essay. See Biographi- 
 cal Edition, IV, 190, etc.; Putnam Edition, II, 178, etc. 
 
age 451 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 109 
 
 I was not consulted on the subject, nor was I appraised of the 
 appointment until I discovered it by accident two or three 
 weeks afterward. I suppose my opposition to the principle of 
 slavery is as strong as that gf any member of the Republican 
 party ; but I have also supposed that the extent to which I feel 
 authorized to carry that opposition, practically, was not at 
 all satisfactory to that party. The leading men who organized 
 that party were present on the 4th of October at the discussion 
 between Douglas, and myself at Springfield, and had full op- 
 portunity to not misunderstand my position. Do I misunder- 
 stand them? Please write and inform me. 
 
 Lincoln continues in the race for the Senatorship as a Whig. 
 
 2jih. (To T. J. Henderson.) It has come round that 
 a Whig may, by possibility, be elected to the United States 
 Senate, and I want the chance of being the man. You 
 are a member of the Legislature, and have a vote to give. 
 Think it over, and see whether you can do better than go for 
 me. Write me at all events; and let this be confidential. 
 
 December 1st. (To Joseph Gillespie.) I have really got 
 it into my head to try to be United States Senator, and, if I 
 could have your support, my chance would be reasonably good. 
 But I know, and acknowledge, that you have as just claims to 
 the place as I have and therefore I can not ask you to yield to 
 me, if you are thinking of becoming a candidate yourself. If, 
 however, you are not, then I should like to be remembered 
 affectionately by you; and also to have you make a mark for 
 me with the Anti-Nebraska members, down your way. 
 
 If you know, and have no objection to tell, let me know 
 whether Trumbull intends to make a push. If he does, I sup- 
 pose the two men in St. Clair, the one, or both, in Madison, 
 will be for him. We have the Legislature, clearly enough, on 
 joint ballot, but the Senate is very close, and Cullom told me 
 
no ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1854 
 
 to-day that the Nebraska men will stave off the election, if 
 they can. Even if we get into joint vote, we shall have diffi- 
 culty to unite our forces. Please write me, and let this be 
 confidential. 
 
 14th. (To E. A. Washbourn. ) So far as I am concerned, 
 there must be something wrong about United States Senator 
 at Chicago. My most intimate friends there do not answer 
 my letters, and I can not get a word from them. Wentworth 
 has a knack of knowing things better than most men. I wish 
 you would pump him, and write me what you get from him. 
 Please do this as soon as you can, as the time is growing short. 
 Don't let any one know I have written you this ; for there may 
 be those opposed to me nearer about you than you think. 
 
 15th. We shall have a terrible struggle with our adver- 
 saries. They are desperate and bent on desperate deeds. I 
 accidentally learned of one of the leaders here writing to a 
 member south of here, in about the following language : 
 
 "We are beaten. They have a clear majority of at least 
 nine, on joint ballot. They outnumber us, but we must out- 
 manage them. Douglas must be sustained. We must elect 
 the speaker; and we must elect a Nebraska* United States 
 Senator, or elect none at all." 
 
 Similar letters, no doubt, are written to every Nebraska 
 member. Be considering how we can best meet, and foil, 
 and beat them. 
 
 *The term used for supporters of the bill fathered by Douglas. 
 
1855 
 
 January 6th. (To E. B. Washburne.) I telegraphed you 
 as to the organization of the two Houses. T. J. Turner elected 
 Speaker, 40 to 24; House not full; Doctor Richmond of Schuy- 
 ler was his opponent; Anti-Nebraska also elected all the other 
 officers of the House of Representatives. In the Senate Anti- 
 Nebraska elected George T. Brown, of the Alton Courier, sec- 
 retary; and Doctor Ray, of the Galena Jeffersonian, one of the 
 clerks. In fact they elected all the officers, but some of them 
 were Nebraska men elected over the regular Nebraska nom- 
 inees. It is said that by this they get one or two Nebraska 
 senators to go for bringing on the senatorial election. I can 
 not vouch for this. As to the senatorial election, I think very 
 little more is known than was before the meeting of the 
 Legislature. Besides the ten or a dozen on our side who are 
 willing to be known as candidates, I think there are fifty 
 secretly watching for a chance. I do not know that it is much 
 advantage to have the largest number of votes at the start. 
 If I did know this to be an advantage, I should feel better, for 
 I can not doubt but I have more committals than any other 
 man. 
 
 The " Anti-N ebraska Men" discern that the "Nebraska 
 Men" who are supporting Douglas and his policies are work- 
 ing secretly for a combination of all "Nebraska Men" Whigs 
 and Democrats, to elect as Senator the Democratic Governor, 
 Joel A. Matteson. They strive in vain to head off this move- 
 ment toivard a "Nebraska" coalition. 
 
 in 
 
ii2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1855 
 
 February pth. (To E. B. Washburne.) The agony is 
 over at last, and the result you doubtless know. I write this 
 only to give you some particulars to explain what might ap- 
 pear difficult of understanding. I began with 44 votes, 
 Shields 41, and Trumbull 5 — yet Trumbull was elected. In 
 fact, 47 different members voted for me — getting three new 
 ones on the second ballot, and losing four old ones. How 
 came my 47 to yield to Trumbull's 5 ? It was Governor Mat- 
 teson's work. He has been secretly a candidate ever since 
 (before, even) the fall election. All the members round 
 about the canal were Anti-Nebraska but were nevertheless 
 nearly all Democrats and old personal friends of his. His 
 plan was to privately impress them with the belief that he 
 was as good Anti-Nebraska as any one else — at least could be 
 secured to be so by instructions, which could be easily passed. 
 In this way he got from four to six of that sort of men to really 
 prefer his election to that of any other man — all sub rosa, of 
 course. One notable instance of this sort was with Mr. Strunk 
 of Kankakee. At the beginning of the session he came a 
 volunteer to tell me he was for me and would walk a hundred 
 miles to elect me ; but lo ! it was not long before he leaked it 
 out that he was going for me the first few ballots and then 
 for Governor Matteson. 
 
 The Nebraska men, of course, were not for Matteson; but 
 when they found they could elect no avowed Nebraska man, 
 they tardily determined to let him get whomever of our men 
 he could, by whatever means he could, and ask him no ques- 
 tions. In the meantime Osgood, Don Morrison, and Trapp of 
 St. Clair had openly gone over from us. With the united 
 Nebraska force and their recruits, open and covert, it gave 
 Matteson more than enough to elect him. We saw into it 
 plainly ten days ago, but with every possible effort could not 
 head it off. All that remained of the Anti-Nebraska force, 
 excepting Judd, Cook, Palmer, Baker and Allen of Madison, 
 
age 45] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 113 
 
 and two or three of the secret Matteson men, would go into 
 caucus, and I could get the nomination of that caucus. But 
 the three senators and one of the two representatives above 
 named "could never vote for a Whig," and this incensed some 
 twenty Whigs to "think" they would never vote for the man 
 of the five. So we stood, and so we went into the fight yes- 
 terday — the Nebraska men very confident of the election of 
 Matteson, though denying that he was a candidate, and we 
 very much believing also that they would elect him. But 
 they wanted first to make a show of good faith to Shields by 
 voting for him a few times, and our secret Matteson men also 
 wanted to make a show of good faith by voting with us a 
 few times. So we led off. On the seventh ballot, I think, the 
 signal was given to the Nebraska men to turn to Matteson, 
 which they acted on to a man, with one exception, my old 
 friend Strunk going with them, giving him 44 votes. 
 
 Next ballot the remaining Nebraska man and one pre- 
 tended Anti went over to him, giving him 46. The next, 
 still another, giving him 47, wanting only three of an election. 
 In the meantime our friends, with a view of detaining our ex- 
 pected bolters, had been turning from me to Trumbull till he 
 had risen to 35 and I had been reduced to 15. These would 
 never desert me except by my direction ; but I became satis- 
 fied that if we could prevent Matteson's election one or two 
 ballots more, we could not possibly do so a single ballot after 
 my friends should begin to return to me from Trumbull. So 
 I determined to strike at once, and accordingly advised my 
 remaining friends to go for him, which they did and elected 
 him on the tenth ballot. 
 
 Such is the way the thing was done. I think you would 
 have done the same under the circumstances; though Judge 
 Davis, who came down this morning, declared he never would 
 have consented to the forty-seven men being controlled by the 
 five. I regret my defeat moderately, but I am not nervous 
 
ii 4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1855 
 
 about it. I could have headed off every combination and been 
 elected — had it not been for Matteson's double game — and his 
 defeat now gives me more pleasure than my own gives me 
 pain. On the whole, it is perhaps as well for our general cause 
 that Trumbull is elected. The Nebraska men confess that they 
 hate it worse than anything that could have happened. It is a 
 great consolation to see them worse whipped than I am. I tell 
 them it is their own fault — that they had abundant opportunity 
 to choose between him and me, which they declined, and in- 
 stead forced it on me to decide between him and Matteson. 
 
 Accepting defeat Lincoln tarns back to his profession. 
 
 March 10th. (To Sanford, Porter and Striker.) Yours 
 of the 5th is received, as also was that of 15th December last, 
 inclosing bond of Clift to Pray. When I received the bond 
 I was dabbling in politics, and of course neglecting business. 
 Having since been beaten out I have gone to work again. 
 
 As I do not practise in Rushville I to-day open a corre- 
 spondence with Henry E. Dummer, Esq., of Beardstown, Ills., 
 with the view of getting the job into his hands. He is a good 
 man if he will undertake it. Write me whether I shall do this 
 or return the bond to you. 
 
 He is preoccupied with the new issue over slavery and con- 
 stantly seeking to find ways of fighting the "Nebraska Men." 
 
 23rd. (To A. B. Moreau.) Stranger though I am, per- 
 sonally, being a brother in the faith, I venture to write to you. 
 Yates can not come to your court next week. He is obliged 
 to be at Pike court where he has a case, with a fee of five 
 hundred dollars, two hundred dollars already paid. To neg- 
 lect it would be unjust to himself, and dishonest to his client. 
 Harris will be with you, head up tail up, for Nebraska. You 
 
age 4 6] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 115 
 
 must have some one to make an anti-Nebraska speech. Pal- 
 mer is the best, if you can get him, I think. Jo. Gillespie, if 
 you can not get Palmer, and somebody anyhow, if you can get 
 neither. But press Palmer hard. 
 
 August nth. Know Nothingism has not yet entirely 
 tumbled to pieces. Nay, it is even a little encouraged by the late 
 election in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. Until we can 
 get the elements of this organization there is not sufficient 
 material to successfully combat the Nebraska democracy with. 
 We can not get them so long as they cling to a hope of success 
 under their own organization ; and I fear an open push by us 
 now may offend them and tend to prevent our ever getting 
 them. About us here, they are mostly my old political and 
 personal friends, and I have hoped this organization would die 
 out without the painful necessity of my taking an open stand 
 against them. Of their principles I think little better than I 
 do of those of the slavery extensionists. Indeed I do not 
 perceive how any one professing to be sensitive to the wrongs 
 of the negro, can join in a league to degrade a class of white 
 men. I have no objection to "fuse" with any body provided 
 I can fuse on grounds which I think right. And I believe 
 the opponents of slavery extension could now do this if it 
 were not for the K. N.ism. In many speeches last summer 
 I advised those who did me the honor of a hearing to "stand 
 with" any body who stands right, and I am still quite willing 
 to follow my own advice. 
 
 His strong literary bent leads him to strive constantly after 
 phrases to express the new issue. 
 
 15th. On the question of liberty as a principle, we are not 
 what we have been. When we were the political slaves of King 
 George, and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that "all 
 men are created equal" a self-evident truth, but now when we 
 
n6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1855 
 
 have grown fat, and have lost all dread of being slaves our- 
 selves, we have become so greedy to be master that we call the 
 same maxim "a self-evident lie." The Fourth of July has not 
 quite dwindled away ; it is still a great day — for burning fire- 
 crackers ! ! ! 
 
 That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of slavery 
 has itself become extinct with the occasion and the men of the 
 Revolution. Under the impulse of that occasion, nearly half 
 the States adopted systems of emancipation at once, and it is 
 a significant fact that not a single State has done the like 
 since. So far as peaceful voluntary emancipation is concerned, 
 the condition of the negro slave in America, scarcely less ter- 
 rible 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 subjects 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 permanently — forever — half slave and half free?"* 
 The problem is too mighty for me — may God, in His mercy, 
 superintend the solution. 
 
 24th. (To Joshua F. Speed.) You know what a poor cor- 
 respondent I am. Ever since I received your very agreeable 
 letter of the 226. of May I have been intending to write you an 
 answer to it. You suggest that in political action you and I 
 would differ. I suppose we would; not quite as much, how- 
 ever, as you may think. You know I dislike slavery, and you 
 fully admit the abstract wrong of it. So far there is no cause 
 of difference. But you say that sooner than yield your legal 
 right to the slave — especially at the bidding of those who are 
 not themselves interested — you would see the Union dissolved. 
 I am not aware that any one is bidding you yield that right; 
 
 See p. 137 for the historic use of this phrase. 
 
age 46] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 117 
 
 very certainly I am not. I leave that matter entirely to your- 
 self. I also acknowledge your rights and my obligations under 
 the Constitution in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to 
 see the poor creatures hunted down and caught and carried 
 back to their stripes and unrequited toil ; but I bite my lips and 
 keep quiet. In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low- 
 water trip on a steamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. You 
 may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth 
 of the Ohio there were on board ten or a dozen slaves shackled 
 together with irons. That sight was a continued torment to 
 me, and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio or 
 any other slave border. It is not fair for you to assume that I 
 have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises, 
 the power of making me miserable. You ought rather to 
 appreciate how much the great body of the Northern people do 
 crucify their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the 
 Constitution and the Union. 
 
 You say, that, if Kansas fairly votes herself a free State, 
 as a Christian you will rejoice at it. All decent slaveholders 
 talk that way; and I do not doubt their candor. But they 
 never vote that way. Although in a private letter or conversa- 
 tion you will express your preference that Kansas shall be free, 
 you would vote for no man for Congress who would say the 
 same thing publicly. No such man could be elected from any 
 district in a slave State. You think Stringfellow & Co. ought 
 to be hung; and yet, at the next Presidential election you will 
 vote for the exacj: type and representative of Stringfellow. 
 The slave-breeders and slave-traders are a small, odious, and 
 detested class among you; and yet in politics they dictate the 
 course of all of you, and are as completely your masters as you 
 are the master of your own negroes. You inquire where I 
 now stand. That is a disputed point. I think I am a Whig; 
 but others say there are no Whigs, and that I am an Abolition- 
 ist. When I was at Washington, I voted for the Wilmot 
 
n8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1855 
 
 proviso as good as forty times; and I never heard of any one 
 attempting to unwhig me for that. I now do no more than 
 oppose the extension of slavery. I am not a Know-nothing; 
 that is certain. How could I be? How can any one who 
 abhors the oppression of negroes be in favor of degrading 
 classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears 
 to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that 
 "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all 
 men are created equal, except negroes. ,, When the Know- 
 nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, 
 except negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes 
 to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they 
 make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, 
 where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy 
 of hypocrisy. 
 
 September. Acts as associate counsel in an important patent 
 suit brought by Cyrus H. McCormick. Case is tried at Cin- 
 cinnati. Lincoln is treated with condescending incivility by 
 the senior counsel, Edwin M. Stanton. 
 
 (To Ralph Emerson after the trial is over.) I am going 
 home to study law. 
 
 (Emerson: You stand at the head of the bar in Illinois 
 now.) 
 
 Oh, yes, I do occupy a good position there, and I think that 
 I can get along with the way things are done there now. But 
 these college-trained men, who have devoted their whole lives 
 to study, are coming West, don't you see? And they study 
 their cases as we never do. They have got as far as Cincinnati 
 now. They will soon be in Illinois. I am going home to study 
 law. I am as good as any of them, and when they get out to 
 Illinois I will be ready for them. 
 
 November $th. (To Isham Reaves.) I am from home too 
 
age 46] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 119 
 
 much of my time, for a young man to read law with me 
 advantageously. If you are resolutely determined to make a 
 lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. 
 It is but a small matter whether you read with any body or 
 not. I did not read with any one. Get the books, and read 
 and study them till you understand them in their principal fea- 
 tures; and that is the main thing. It is of no consequence to 
 be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New 
 Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The 
 books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the 
 same in all places. Mr. Dummer is a very clever man and an 
 excellent lawyer (much better than I, in law-learning) ; and I 
 have no doubt he will cheerfully tell you what books to read, 
 and also loan you the books. 
 
 Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, 
 is more important than any other one thing. 
 
 December 15th. 
 
 THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, 
 To A. LINCOLN, Dr. 
 
 To professional services in the case of the Illinois 
 Central Railroad Company against the County 
 of McLean, argued in the Supreme Court of the 
 State of Illinois at December term, 1855 $5,000.00 
 
 We, the undersigned members of the Illinois Bar, under- 
 standing that the above entitled cause was twice argued in the 
 Supreme Court, and that the judgment therein decided the 
 question of the claim of counties and other minor municipal 
 corporations to the property of said Railroad company, and 
 settled said question against said claim and in favor of said 
 railroad company, are of opinion the sum above charged as a 
 fee is not unreasonable. 
 
 Grant Goodrich, N. H. Purple, 
 
 N. B. Judd, O. H. Browning, 
 
 Archibald Williams, R. S. Blackwell. 
 
1856 
 
 Law and politics continue to divide his attention. He is 
 still holding off from the new Republican party, deliberating 
 what to do. Meanwhile the violence in Kansas on both sides 
 receives his condemnation. He speaks earnestly on the sub- 
 ject addressing a little association of abolitionists formed to 
 oppose the government in Kansas. 
 
 Friends, I agree with you in Providence; but I believe in 
 the providence of most men, the largest purse, and the longest 
 cannon. You are in the minority — in a sad minority ; and you 
 can not hope to succeed, reasoning from all human experience. 
 You would rebel against the Government, and redden your 
 hands in the blood of your countrymen. If you are in the 
 minority, as you are, you cant succeed. I say again and again, 
 against the Government, with a great majority of its best 
 citizens backing it, and when they have the most men, the 
 longest purse, and the biggest cannon, you can not succeed. If 
 you have the majority, as some of you say you have, you can 
 succeed with the ballot, throwing away the bullet. You can 
 peacefully, then, redeem the Government, and preserve the lib- 
 erties of mankind, through your votes and voice and moral 
 influence. Let there be peace. In a democracy, where the 
 majority rule by the ballot through the forms of law, these 
 physical rebellions and bloody resistances are radically wrong, 
 unconstitutional, and are treason. Better bear the ills you have 
 than fly to those you know not of. Our own Declaration of 
 
 120 
 
age 47] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 121 
 
 Independence says, that governments long established, for 
 trivial causes should not be resisted. Revolutionize through 
 the ballot-box, and restore the Government once more to the 
 affections and hearts of men, by making it express, as it was 
 intended to do, the highest spirit of justics and liberty. Your 
 attempt, if there be such, to resist the laws of Kansas by 
 force, is criminal and wicked ; and all your feeble attempts will 
 be follies, and end in bringing sorrow on your heads, and ruin 
 the cause you would freely die to preserve ! 
 
 Still, his humor does not desert him despite the evil times. 
 
 February 13th. (Request for renewal of pass over Chicago 
 and Alton Railroad.) Says Tom to John, "Here's your rotten 
 wheelbarrow. I've broke it usin' on it. I wish you would 
 mend it, 'case I shall want to borrow it this afternoon." Act- 
 ing on this as a precedent I say, "Here's your old 'chalked hat,' 
 I wish you would take it and send me a new one ; 'case I shall 
 want to use it the first of March." 
 
 2 1st. (To George P. Floyd.) I have just received yours 
 of the 1 6th, with check on Flagg & Savage for twenty- five 
 dollars. You must think I am a high-priced man. You are 
 too liberal with your money. 
 
 Fifteen dollars is enough for the job. I send you a receipt 
 for fifteen dollars and return you a ten-dollar bill. 
 
 May 29th. The "Anti-Nebraska Men" in both the old 
 parties gradually come together in the new Republican party. 
 Trumbull leads Anti-Nebraska Democrats into the new organ- 
 ization. Lincoln, after long hesitation writes Herndon, who 
 is hot for the new party, "All right. Go ahead. Will meet you 
 radicals and all." Accepts election as member of State Repub- 
 lican Convention. Commits himself to new party in a famous, 
 unrecorded address known as "The Lost Speech" 
 
122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1856 
 
 June i?th. Republican National Convention at Phila- 
 delphia gives Lincoln one hundred ten votes on the informal 
 ballot for vice-president. William L. Dayton is finally chosen. 
 John C. Fremont nominated for President. 
 
 (On receiving news of the vote for him at Philadelphia.) I 
 reckon it's not me. There's another Lincoln down in Massa- 
 chusetts. I've an idea he's the one. 
 
 27th. (To John Van Dyke.) Allow me to thank you for 
 your kind notice of me in the Philadelphia Convention. 
 
 When you meet Judge Dayton present my respects, and 
 tell him I think him a far better man than I for the position 
 he is in, and that I shall support both him and Colonel Fremont 
 most cordially. 
 
 July 12th. I am superstitious. I have scarcely known a 
 party preceding an election to call in help from the neighboring 
 States, but they lost the State. Last fall, our friends had 
 Wade, of Ohio, and others, in Maine ; and they lost the State. 
 Last spring our adversaries had New Hampshire full of South 
 Carolinians, and they lost the State. And so, generally, it 
 seems to stir up more enemies than friends. 
 
 Meanwhile, Fillmore is nominated for President by the 
 remnant of the Whig party in conjunction with the temporary 
 ''American" (Know-nothing) party. 
 
 August 1st. (Speech at Galena.) You [Democrats] 
 further charge us with being disunionists. If you mean that 
 it is our aim to dissolve the Union, I for myself answer that 
 it is untrue ; for those who act with me I answer that it is un- 
 true. Llave you heard us assert that as our aim? Do you 
 really believe that such is our aim? Do you find it in our 
 platform, our speeches, our conventions, or anywhere? If not, 
 withdraw the charge. 
 
age 47] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 123 
 
 But you may say that, though it is not our aim, it will be the 
 result if we succeed, and that we are therefore disunionists in 
 fact. This is a grave charge you make against us, and we 
 certainly have a right to demand that you specify in what way 
 we are to dissolve the Union. How are we to effect this? 
 
 The only specification offered is volunteered by Mr. Fill- 
 more in his Albany speech. His charge is that if we elect a 
 President and Vice-President both from the free States it will 
 dissolve the Union. This is open folly . . . 
 
 No other specification is made, and the only one that could 
 be made is that the restoration of the restriction of 1820, 
 making the United States territory free territory, would dis- 
 solve the Union. Gentlemen, it will require a decided ma- 
 jority to pass such an act. We, the majority, being able con- 
 stitutionally to do all that we purpose, would have no desire 
 to dissolve the Union. Do you say that such restriction of 
 slavery would be unconstitutional, and that some of the States 
 would not submit to its enforcement? I grant you that an 
 unconstitutional act is not a law ; but I do not ask and will not 
 take your construction of the Constitution. The Supreme 
 Court of the United States is the tribunal to decide such a ques- 
 tion, and we will submit to its decisions; and if you do also, 
 there will be an end of the matter. Will you? If not, who 
 are the disunionists — you or we? W r e, the majority, would not 
 strive to dissolve the Union; and if any attempt is made, it 
 must be by you, who so loudly stigmatize us as disunionists. 
 But the Union, in any event, will not be dissolved. We don't 
 want to dissolve it, and if you attempt it, we won't let you. 
 With the purse and sword, the army and navy and treasury, 
 in our hands and at our command, you could not do it. This 
 government would be very weak indeed if a majority with a 
 disciplined army and navy and a well-filled treasury could not 
 preserve itself when attacked by an unarmed, undisciplined, un- 
 organized minority. All this talk about dissolution of the 
 
124 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1856 
 
 Union is humbug, nothing but folly. We do not want to 
 dissolve the Union; you shall not. 
 
 nth. I have just returned from speaking at Paris and 
 Grandview in Edgar County — & Charleston and Shelbyville, 
 in Coles and Shelby Counties. Our whole trouble along there 
 has been & is Fillmoreism. It loosened considerably during the 
 week, not under my preaching, but under the election returns 
 from Mo., Ky., Ark., & N. C. I think we shall ultimately 
 get all the Fillmore men, who are really anti-slavery exten- 
 sion — the rest will probably go to Buchanan where they right- 
 fully belong; if they do not, so much the better for us. 
 
 September 8th. (To Harrison Maltby.) I understand 
 you are a Fillmore man. Let me prove to you that every vote 
 withheld from Fremont and given to Fillmore in this State 
 actually lessens Fillmore's chance of being President. 
 
 Suppose Buchanan gets all the slave States and Pennsyl- 
 vania, and any other one State besides; then he is elected, no 
 matter who gets all the rest. But suppose Fillmore gets the 
 two slave States of Maryland and Kentucky; then Buchanan 
 is not elected; Fillmore goes into the House of Representa- 
 tives, and may be made President by a compromise. 
 
 But suppose, again, Fillmore's friends throw away a few 
 thousand votes on him in Indiana and Illinois ; it will inevitably 
 give these States to Buchanan, which will more than compen- 
 sate him for the loss of Maryland and Kentucky; will elect 
 him, and leave Fillmore no chance in the H. of R. or out of it. 
 
 This is as plain as adding up the weight of three small 
 hogs. As Mr. Fillmore has no possible chance to carry Illi- 
 nois for himself, it is plainly to his interest to let Fremont take 
 it, and thus keep it out of the hands of Buchanan. 
 
 October 1st. It is constantly objected to Fremont and Day- 
 ton, that they are supported by a sectional party, who by their 
 sectionalism endanger the national Union. This objection, 
 more than all others, causes men really opposed to slavery ex- 
 
age 47] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 125 
 
 tension to hesitate. Practically, it is the most difficult objec- 
 tion we have to meet. For this reason I now propose to exam- 
 ine it a little more carefully than I have heretofore done, or 
 seen it done by others. First, then, what is the question be- 
 tween the parties respectively represented by Buchanan and 
 Fremont? Simply this. "Shall slavery be allowed to extend 
 into United States territories now legally free?" Buchanan 
 says it shall, and Fremont says it shall not. 
 
 The thing which gives most color to the charge of section- 
 alism, made against those who oppose the spread of slavery 
 into free territory, is the fact that they can get no votes in 
 the slave States, while their opponents get all, or nearly so, in 
 the slave States, and also a large number in the free States. 
 To take it in another way, the extensionists can give votes over 
 the nation, while the restrictionists can get them only in the 
 free States. 
 
 This being the fact, why is it so? It is not because one 
 side of the question dividing them is more sectional than the 
 other, nor because of any difference in the mental or moral 
 structure of the people North and South. It is because in that 
 question the people of the South have an immediate, palpable 
 and immensely great pecuniary interest, while with the people 
 of the North it is merely an abstract question of moral right, 
 with only slight and remote pecuniary interest added. 
 
 The slaves of the South, at a moderate estimate, are worth 
 a thousand millions of dollars. Let it be permanently settled 
 that this property may extend to new territory without re- 
 straint, and it greatly enhances, perhaps quite doubles, its value 
 at once. This immense, palpable, pecuniary interest on the 
 question of extending slavery unites the Southern people as 
 one man. But it can not be demonstrated that the North will 
 gain a dollar by restricting it. Moral principle is all, or nearly 
 all, that unites us of the North. Pity 'tis, it is so, but this is 
 a looser bond than pecuniary interest. Right here is the plain 
 
126 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1856 
 
 cause of their perfect union and our want of it. And see how 
 it works. If a Southern man aspires to be President, they 
 choke him down instantly, in order that the glittering prize of 
 the presidency may be held up on Southern terms to the greedy 
 eyes of Northern ambition. With this they tempt us and 
 break it upon us. 
 
 Republicans lose the election. Democrats elect Buchanan, 
 drawing to them a great many Whigs who look upon the Re- 
 publicans as too radical. 
 
 December 10th. We have another annual Presidential 
 message. Like a rejected lover making merry at the wedding 
 of his rival, the President [Pierce] felicitated himself hugely 
 over the late Presidential election. He considers the result a 
 signal triumph of good principles and good men, and a very 
 pointed rebuke of bad ones. He says the people did it. He 
 forgets that the "people," as he complacently calls only those 
 who voted for Buchanan, are in a minority of the whole people 
 by about four hundred thousand votes — one full tenth of all 
 the votes. Remembering this, he might perceive that the 
 "rebuke" may not be quite as durable as he seems to think — 
 that the majority may not choose to remain permanently re- 
 buked by that minority. 
 
 The President thinks that the great body of us Fre- 
 monters, being ardently attached to liberty, in the abstract, 
 were duped by a few wicked and designing men. There is a 
 slight difference of opinion on this. We think he, being 
 ardently attached to the hope of a second term, in the concrete, 
 was duped by men who had liberty every way. He is the 
 cat's-paw. By much dragging of chestnuts from the fire for 
 others to eat, his claws are burnt off to the gristle, and he is 
 thrown aside as unfit for further use. As the fool said of 
 King Lear when his daughters had turned him out of doors, 
 "He's a shelled peascod." 
 
age 47] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 127 
 
 Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can 
 change public opinion can change the government practically 
 just so much. Public opinion, on any subject, always has a 
 "central idea,'* from which all its minor thoughts radiate. 
 That "central idea" in our political public opinion at the be- 
 ginning was, and until recently has continued to be, "the 
 equality of men." And although it has always submitted 
 patiently to whatever of inequality there seemed to be as mat- 
 ter of actual necessity, its constant working has been a steady 
 progress toward the practical equality of all men. The late 
 Presidential election was a struggle by one party to discard 
 that central idea and to substitute for it the opposite idea that 
 slavery is right in the abstract, the workings of which as a 
 central idea may be the perpetuity of human slavery and its 
 extension to all countries and colors. 
 
1857 
 
 Apropos the rumor that Mrs. Lincoln ruled the house — 
 
 February 20th. (To John E. Rosette.) Your note about 
 the little paragraph in the Republican was received yesterday, 
 since which time I have been too unwell to notice it. I had 
 not supposed you wrote or approved it. The whole originated 
 in mistake. You know by the conversation with me that I 
 thought the establishment of the paper unfortunate, but I 
 always expected to throw no obstacle in its way, and to pa- 
 tronize it to the extent of taking and paying for one copy. 
 When the paper was brought to my house, my wife said to me, 
 "Now are you going to take another worthless little paper?" 
 I said to her evasively, "I have not directed the paper to be 
 left." From this, in my absence, she sent the message to the 
 carrier. This is the whole story. 
 
 March 6th. Dred Scott Decision. There follows another 
 act in the oratorical duel between Lincoln and Douglas. The 
 latter delivers a speech at Springfield defending the decision 
 and denouncing its critics. He professes to believe that the 
 Republicans advocate a mixture of races. To this charge 
 especially Lincoln replies. 
 
 June 26th. There is a natural disgust, in the minds of 
 nearly all white people, at the idea of an indiscriminate amalga- 
 mation of the white and black races; and Judge Douglas evi- 
 dently is basing his chief hope upon the chances of his being 
 
 128 
 
age 4 8] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 129 
 
 able to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. 
 If he can, by much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium 
 of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle 
 through the storm. He, therefore, clings to this hope, as a 
 drowning man to the last plank. He makes an occasion for 
 lugging it in from the opposition of the Dred Scott decision. 
 He finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of In- 
 dependence includes all men, black as well as white, and 
 forthwith he boldly denies that it included negroes at all, and 
 proceeds to argue gravely that all who contend it does do so 
 only because they want to vote, and eat, and sleep, and marry 
 with negroes. He will have it that they can not be consistent 
 else. Now I protest against the counterfeit logic which con- 
 cludes that because I do not want a black woman for a slave 
 I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her 
 for either. I can just leave her alone. In some respects she 
 certainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the 
 bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave of 
 any one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all others. 
 
 Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, 
 admits that the language of the Declaration is broad enough 
 to include the whole human family ; but he and Judge Douglas 
 argue that the authors of that instrument did not intend to 
 include negroes, by the fact that they did not at once actually 
 place all white men on an equality with one another. And 
 this is the staple argument of both the Chief Justice and the 
 Senator for doing this obvious violence to the plain, unmis- 
 takable language of the Declaration. 
 
 I think the authors of that notable instrument 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 men were 
 equal in color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social 
 capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what re- 
 spects they did consider all men created equal, equal with "cer- 
 
130 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1857 
 
 tain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness." This they said, and this they meant. 
 They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all were 
 then actually enjoying that quality, nor yet that they were 
 about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had 
 no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to 
 declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow 
 as fast as circumstances should permit. 
 
 I have said that the separation of the races is the only per- 
 fect preventive of amalgamation. I have no right to say 
 all the members of the Republican party are in favor of this, 
 nor to say that as a party they are in favor of it. There is 
 nothing in their platform directly on the subject. But I can 
 say a very large proportion of its members are for it, and that 
 the chief plank in their platform — opposition to the spread of 
 slavery — is most favorable to that separation. 
 
 Such separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected 
 by colonization; and no political party, as such, is now doing 
 anything directly for colonization. Party operations at pres- 
 ent only favor or retard colonization incidentally. The enter- 
 prise is a difficult one; but "where there is a will there is a 
 way," and what colonization needs most is a hearty will. Will 
 springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest. 
 Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and at the 
 same time favorable to, or at least not against, our interest 
 to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find 
 a way to do it, however great the task may be. The children 
 of Israel, to such numbers as to include four hundred thou- 
 sand fighting men, went out of Egyptian bondage in a body. 
 
 How differently the respective courses of the Democratic 
 and Republican parties incidentally bear on the question of 
 forming a will — a public sentiment — for colonization, is easy 
 to see. The Republicans inculcate, with whatever of ability 
 they can, that the negro is a man, that his bondage is cruelly 
 
age 4 8] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 131 
 
 wrong, and that the field of his oppression ought not to be 
 enlarged. The Democrats deny his manhood; deny, or dwarf 
 to insignificance, the wrong of his bondage; so far as pos- 
 sible, crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate and excite 
 hatred and disgust against him; compliment themselves as 
 Union-savers for doing so; and call the indefinite outspreading 
 of his bondage "a sacred right of self-government. ,, 
 
 The plainest print can not be read through a gold eagle; 
 and it will be ever hard to find many men who will send a slave 
 to Liberia, and pay his passage, while they can send him to a 
 new country — Kansas, for instance — and sell him for fifteen 
 hundred dollars, and the rise. 
 
 He is beginning to have considerable reputation as a public 
 speaker; receives an invitation to speak in Iowa. 
 
 August. I lost nearly all the working part of last year, giv- 
 ing my time to the canvass; and I am altogether too poor to 
 lose two years together. I am engaged in a suit in the United 
 States Court at Chicago, in which the Rock Island Bridge 
 Company is a party. The trial is to commence on the 8th of 
 September, and probably will last two or three weeks. During 
 the trial it is not improbable that all hands may come over and 
 take a look at the bridge, and if it were possible to make it hit 
 right, I could then speak at Davenport. My courts go right on 
 without cessation till late in November. 
 
 September. Lincoln argues his most celebrated civil suit, 
 defending the owners of a bridge over the Mississippi (Rock 
 Island Bridge Company) against prosecution by the steamboat 
 interests. The jury disagrees, nine for the bridge, three 
 against it. 
 
 Soon after this comes his most famous criminal case. 
 
 (To Hannah Armstrong.) I have just heard of your deep 
 
132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1857 
 
 affliction, and the arrest of your son for murder. I can hardly 
 believe that he can be capable of the crime alleged against him. 
 It does not seem possible. I am anxious that he should be 
 given a fair trial at any rate; and gratitude for your long- 
 continued kindness to me in adverse circumstances prompts me 
 to offer my humble services gratuitously m his behalf. 
 
 It will afford me an opportunity to requite, in a small de- 
 gree, the favors I received at your hand, and that of your 
 lamented husband, when your roof afforded me a grateful 
 shelter without money and without price.* 
 
 November. Breach between Douglas and Buchanan over 
 the proposed admission of Kansas as a slave State under its 
 so-called "Lecompton Constitution" adopted September, 1857. 
 Douglas, believing this constitution to be the result of a packed 
 election, refuses to stand by the President in urging the admis- 
 sion of the State. In the controversy which ensues he makes 
 his famous assertion that he does not care whether slavery is 
 tc voted up or down" in Kansas, that his sole care is whether 
 the conclusion is reached through the free exercise of local 
 choice, through iC popular sovereignty" 
 
 30th. (To Lyman Trumbull.) What think you of the 
 probable "rumpus" among the Democracy over the Kansas 
 Constitution? I think the Republicans should stand clear of 
 it. In their view both the President and Douglas are wrong; 
 and they should not espouse the cause of either, because they 
 may consider the other a little the farther wrong of the two. 
 From what I am told here, Douglas tried, before leaving, to 
 draw off some Republicans on this issue, and even succeeded 
 in making some impression on one or two. 
 
 *When Lincoln was keeping store at New Salem, Jack Armstrong, 
 father of the boy now accused of murder, was a wild young fellow who 
 nevertheless became his fast friend. Their freindship began with a 
 wrestling match in which Lincoln was the victor. See also p. 134. 
 
age 48] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 133 
 
 Certain eastern Republicans seise upon the quarrel between 
 Douglas and Buchanan as a chance to win Douglas to their 
 side. 
 
 December 28th. What does the New York Tribune mean 
 by its constant eulogizing, and admiring, and magnifying 
 Douglas? Does it, in this, speak the sentiments of the Repub- 
 licans at Washington ? Have they concluded that the Republi- 
 can cause, generally, can be best prompted by sacrificing us 
 here in Illinois? If so we would like to know it soon; it will 
 save us a great deal of labor to surrender at once. 
 
 As yet I have heard of no Republican here going over to 
 Douglas; but if the Tribune continues to din his praises into 
 the ears of its five or ten thousand Republican readers in 
 Illinois, it is more than can be hoped that all will stand firm. 
 
1858 
 
 February 23rd. This [autograph album] is the first book 
 for such a purpose I ever saw. (Writes on the first page.) 
 To-day, February 23, 1858, the owner honored me with the 
 privilege of writing the first name in this book. 
 
 Senatorial contest in Illinois for seat occupied by Doug- 
 las which will be vacant in 1859. Douglas hopes to succeed 
 himself. Lincoln is his rival. 
 
 April 21st. I have believed — I do believe now — that 
 Greeley, for instance, would be rather pleased to see Douglas 
 reelected over me or any other Republican; and yet I do not 
 believe it is because of any secret arrangement with Douglas. 
 It is because he thinks Douglas's superior position, reputation, 
 experience, ability, if you please, would more than compensate 
 for his lack of a pure Republican position, and therefore his 
 reelection would do the general cause of Republicanism more 
 good than would the election of any one of our better undis- 
 tinguished pure Republicans. 
 
 Greeley writes to Lincoln to the effect that he ought not to 
 renew his candidacy for the Senate but should contribute to 
 win over Douglas. 
 
 May ph. Lincoln wins his most famous criminal case, 
 clearing Duff Armstrong of the charge of murder. He proves 
 that evidence given was false because it misrepresented the 
 state of the moon on the night when the murder was said to 
 have taken place. 
 
 134 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 135 
 
 May 10th. Politically speaking, there is a curious state of 
 things here. The impulse of almost every Democrat is to stick 
 to Douglas; but it horrifies them to have to follow him out of 
 the Democratic party. A good many are annoyed that he did 
 not go for the English contrivance, and thus heal the breach. 
 They begin to think there is a "negro in the fence," — that 
 Douglas really wants to have a fuss with the President ; — that 
 sticks in their throats. 
 
 15th. The "State Register" here is evidently laboring its 
 old friends into what the doctors call the "comatose state" — 
 that is, a sort of drowsy, dreamy condition, in which they may 
 not perceive or remember that there has ever been, or is, any 
 difference between Douglas and the President. This could be 
 done if the Buchanan men would allow it — which, however, 
 the latter seem determined not to do. 
 
 I think our prospects gradually and steadily grow better, 
 though we are not yet clear out of the woods by a great deal. 
 
 27th. Political matters just now bear a very mixed and 
 incongruous aspect. For several days the signs have been that 
 Douglas and the President have probably buried the hatchet — 
 Douglas's friends at Washington going over to the President's 
 side, and his friends here and South of here talking as if there 
 never had been any serious difficulty, while the President him- 
 self does nothing for his own peculiar friends here. But this 
 morning my partner, Mr. Herndon, receives a letter from Mr. 
 Medill of the Chicago Tribune, showing the writer to be in 
 great alarm at the prospect North of Republicans going over 
 to Douglas, on the idea that Douglas is going to assume steep 
 Free-soil ground, and furiously assail the administration on 
 the stump when he comes home. There certainly is a double 
 game being played somehow. Possibly — even probably — 
 Douglas is temporarily deceiving the President in order to 
 crush out the 8th of June convention here. Unless he plays 
 his double game more successfully than we have often seen 
 
136 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 done, he can not carry many Republicans North, without at the 
 same time losing a larger number of his old friends South. 
 
 In spite of Eastern opposition, the Illinois Republicans 
 nominate Lincoln as their candidate for United States Senator. 
 
 June 16th. (To Convention which had just nominated 
 him.) 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 aug- 
 mented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have 
 been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself can 
 not stand." I believe this government can not endure per- 
 manently 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 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 . . . 
 
 Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion, 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's superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the 
 African slave-trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive 
 that trade is approaching ? He has not said so. Does he really 
 think so? But, if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 137 
 
 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. 
 
 Our cause, then, must be instructed 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 resistance to a common danger; with every 
 external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and 
 even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and 
 formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot 
 fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we 
 brave all then to falter now? — now, when that same enemy is 
 wavering, dissevered, and belligerent ? The result is not doubt- 
 ful. 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. 
 
 24th. (To Henry C. Whitney.) Your letter enclosing the 
 attack of the Times upon me was received this morning. — Give 
 yourself no concern about my voting against the supplies,* 
 unless you are without faith that' a lie can be successfully c<3n- 
 
 _ *He is always careful to make plain that in 1848 in Congress he voted 
 against the mode of starting the war, not against its continuance, once 
 begun. This was the recognized Whig position. 
 
138 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 traaicted. There is not a word of truth in the charge, and I 
 am just considering a little as to the best shape to put a con- 
 tradiction in. Show this to whomever you please, but do not 
 publish it in the papers. 
 
 25th. (To J. W. Somers.) It may well puzzle older 
 heads than yours to understand how, as the Dred Scott de- 
 cision holds, Congress can authorize a territorial legislature 
 to do anything else, and can not authorize them to prohibit 
 slavery. This is one of the things the court can decide, but 
 can never give an intelligible reason for. 
 
 The campaign for the election of a State Legislature that 
 should choose a new Senator opens at Chicago Jidy pth, with 
 the speech of Douglas from a balcony of the Tremont House. 
 Lincoln is present and the following night replies. In the 
 political duel which follows, the issues, aside from challenging 
 the records of the candidates, are the same as at the time of 
 the Peoria speech (October 16, 1854) except for one thing. 
 Since then the Dred Scott decision (March 7, 1857) has ex- 
 tended the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill to all the 
 Territories, which are thus declared to be open to slavery if 
 their inhabitants so desire, and denies the right of Congress to 
 close the Territories against slavery. The most burning ques- 
 tion of the moment is, what attitude shall be taken toward this 
 decision. 
 
 Attempts to patch up the quarrel between Douglas and 
 Buchanan having failed, Douglas is very bitter against the 
 President, and even accuses him of playing into the hands of 
 the Republicans in Illinois. 
 
 July 10th. At Chicago. 
 
 My fellow-citizens : On yesterday evening, upon the occa- 
 sion of the reception given to Senator Douglas, I was fur- 
 nished with a seat very convenient for hearing him and was 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 139 
 
 otherwise very courteously treated by him and his friends, and 
 for which I thank him and them. During the course of 
 his remarks my name was mentioned in such a way as, I sup- 
 pose, renders it at least not improper that I should make some 
 sort of reply to him. I shall not attempt to follow him in the 
 precise order in which he addressed the assembled multitude 
 upon that occasion, though I shall perhaps do so in the main. 
 There was one question to which he asked the attention of 
 the crowd, which I deem of somewhat less importance — at 
 least of propriety for me to dwell upon — than the others, 
 which he brought in near the close of fris speech, and which I 
 think it would not be entirely proper for me to omit attending 
 to; and yet if I were not to give some attention to it now, I 
 should probably forget it altogether. While I am upon this 
 subject, allow me to say that I do not intend to indulge in 
 that inconvenient mode sometimes adopted in this public speak- 
 ing, of reading from documents; but I shall depart from that 
 rule so far as to read a little scrap from his speech, which 
 notices this first topic of which I shall speak — that is, provided 
 I can find it in the paper. 
 
 "I have made up my mind to appeal to the people against 
 the combination that has been made against me.* The Repub- 
 lican leaders have formed an alliance, an unholy and unnatural 
 alliance, with a portion of unscrupulous federal office-holders. 
 I intend to fight that allied army wherever I meet them. I 
 know they deny the alliance, but yet these men who are trying 
 to divide the Democratic party for the purpose of electing a 
 Republican Senator in my place, are just so much the agents 
 and tools of the supporters of Mr. Lincoln. Hence I shall 
 deal with this allied army just as the Russians dealt with the 
 allies at Sebastopol — that is, the Russians did not stop to in- 
 quire, when they fired a broadside, whether it hit an 
 
 *This may be called the third round of the persistent duel of these 
 inveterate political enemies. See pp. 99 and ro3. Herndon implies that 
 their animosity was personal as well as political. 
 
i 4 o ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 Englishman, a Frenchman, or a Turk. Nor will I stop to 
 inquire, nor shall I hesitate, whether my blows shall hit these 
 Republican leaders or their allies, who are holding the federal 
 offices and yet acting in concert with them." 
 
 Well, now, gentlemen, is not that very alarming? Just 
 to think of it; right at the outset of his canvass, I, a poor, kind, 
 amiable, intelligent gentleman — I am to be slain in this way. 
 Why, my friend the judge is not only, as it turns out, not a 
 dead lion, nor even a living one — he is the rugged Russian 
 bear! 
 
 But if they will have it — for he says that we deny it — 
 that there is any such alliance, as he says there is — and I don't 
 propose hanging very much up on this question of veracity — but 
 if he will have it that there is such an alliance — that the Ad- 
 ministration men and we are allied, and we stand in the atti- 
 tude of English, French, and Turk, he occupying the position 
 of the Russian — in that case I beg he will indulge us while 
 we barely suggest to him that these allies took Sebastopol. 
 
 Judge Douglas made two points upon my recent speech at 
 Springfield. Gentjemen, Judge Douglas informed you that 
 this speech of mine was probably carefully prepared. I admit 
 that it was. I am not a master of language; I have not a fine 
 education ; I am not capable of entering into a disquisition upon 
 dialectics, as I believe you call it; but I do not believe the lan- 
 guage I employed bears any such construction as Judge Doug- 
 las 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. 
 
 Now in relation to this inference that I am in favor of 
 a general consolidation of all the local institutions of the 
 various States. I have said yery many times in Judge 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 141 
 
 Douglas's hearing that no man believed more than I in the 
 principle of self-government; that it lies at the bottom of all 
 my ideas of just government, from beginning to end. I have 
 denied that his use of that term applies properly. I believe 
 each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with 
 himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise inter- 
 feres with any other man's rights ; that each community, as a 
 State, has a right to do exactly as it pleases with all the con- 
 cerns within that State that interfere with the right of no 
 other State ; and that the General Government, upon principle, 
 has no right to interfere with anything other than that general 
 class of things that does not concern the whole. I have said 
 that at all times. I have said as illustrations that I do not be- 
 lieve in the right of Illinois to interfere with the cranberry 
 laws of Indiana, the oyster laws of Virginia, or the liquor laws 
 of Maine. I have said these things over and over again, and 
 I repeat them here as my sentiments. 
 
 How is it, then, that Judge Douglas infers, because I hope 
 to see slavery put where the public mind shall rest in the 
 belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, that I am 
 in favor of Illinois going over and interfering with the cran- 
 berry laws of Indiana? 
 
 So much then as to my disposition — my wish — to have all 
 the State Legislatures blotted out, and to have one consolidated 
 government, and a uniformity of domestic regulations in all 
 the States; by which I suppose it is meant, if we raise corn 
 here, we must make sugar-cane grow here too, and we must 
 make those things which grow North grow in the South. All 
 this I suppose he understands I am in favor of doing. Now, 
 so much for all this nonsense — for I must call it so. The 
 judge can have no issue with me on a question of establishing 
 uniformity in the domestic regulations of the States. 
 
 I have expressed heretofore, and I now repeat, my oppo- 
 sition to the Dred Scott decision; but I should be allowed to 
 
142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 state the nature of that opposition, and I ask your indulgence 
 while I do so. What is fairly implied by the term Judge 
 Douglas has used, "resistance to the decision" ? I do not resist 
 it. If I wanted to take Dred Scott from his master, I would be 
 interfering with property, and that terrible difficulty that 
 Judge Douglas speaks of, of interfering with property, would 
 arise. But I am doing no such thing as that; all that I am 
 doing is refusing to obey it as a political rule. If I were in 
 Congress, and a vote should come up on a question whether 
 slavery should be prohibited in a new Territory, in spite of the 
 Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it should. 
 
 What are the uses of decisions of courts? They have two 
 uses. As rules of property they have two uses. First — they 
 decide upon the question before the court. They decide in 
 this case that Dred Scott is a slave. Nobody resists that. Not 
 only that, but they say to everybody else that persons standing 
 just as Dred Scott stands are as he is. That is, they say that 
 when a question comes up upon another person, it will be so 
 decided again, unless the court decides in another w r ay, unless 
 the court overrules its decision. Well, we mean to do what 
 we can to have the court decide the other way. That is one 
 thing we mean to try to do. 
 
 15th. (To Gustave Koerner.) I have just been called on 
 by one of our German Republicans here, to ascertain if Mr. 
 Hecker could not be prevailed on to visit this region and 
 address the Germans, at this place, and a few others at least. 
 Please ascertain and write me. He would of course have to be 
 paid something. Find out from him about how much. 
 
 I have just returned from Chicago. Douglas took noth- 
 ing by his motion there — in fact, by his rampant endorsement 
 of the Dred Scott decision he drove back a few Republicans 
 who were favorably inclined towards him. His tactics just 
 now, in part, is to make it appear that he is having a triumphal 
 entry into, and march through the country; but it is all as 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 143 
 
 bombastic and hollow as Napoleon's bulletins sent back from 
 his campaign in Russia. I was present at his reception in 
 Chicago, and it was certainly very large and imposing; but 
 judging from the opinions of others better acquainted with 
 faces there, and by the strong call for me to speak, when he 
 closed, I really believe we could have voted him down in that 
 very crowd. 
 
 Our meeting, twenty- four hours later, called only twelve 
 hours before it came together and got up without trumpery, 
 was really as large and five times as enthusiastic. 
 
 I?th. At Springfield. 
 
 There is still a disadvantage under which we [Republicans] 
 labor, and to which I will ask your attention. It arises 
 out of the relative positions of the two persons who 
 stand before the State as candidates for the Senate. Sen- 
 ator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious 
 politicians of his party, or who have been of his party 
 for years past, have been looking upon him as certainly, at no 
 distant day, to be the President of the United States. They 
 have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, land- 
 offices, marshalships and cabinet appointments, chargeships 
 and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonder- 
 ful 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 be- 
 yond what even in the days of his highest prosperity they 
 could have brought about in his favor. 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 this battle 
 
144 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 upon principle, and upon principle alone. I am, in a certain 
 sense, made the standard-bearer in behalf of the Republicans. 
 I was made so merely because there had to be some one so 
 placed — I being in no wise preferable to any other one of the 
 twenty-five — perhaps a hundred — we have in the 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 sur- 
 rounded have principle enough to nerve themselves for the 
 task, and leave nothing undone that can be fairly done to 
 bring about the right result. 
 
 Although I have ever been opposed to slavery, so far I 
 rested in the hope and belief that it was in the course of ulti- 
 mate extinction. For that reason, it had been a minor ques- 
 tion with me. I might have been mistaken ; but I had believed, 
 and now believe, that the whole public mind, that is, the 
 mind of the great majority, had rested in that belief up to 
 the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.* But upon that 
 event, I became convinced that either I had been resting in a 
 delusion, or the institution was being placed on a new basis — 
 a basis for making it perpetual, national, and universal. Sub- 
 sequent events have greatly confirmed me in that belief. I 
 believe that bill to be the beginning of a conspiracy for that 
 purpose. So believing, I have since then considered that ques- 
 tion a paramount one. So believing, I think the public mind 
 will never rest till the power of Congress to restrict the spread 
 of it shall again be acknowledged and exercised on the one 
 hand, or, on the other, all resistance be entirely crushed out. I 
 have expressed that opinion, and I entertain it to-night. It is 
 denied that there is any tendency to the nationalization of 
 slavery in these States. 
 
 Now, as to the Dred Scott decision; for upon that he 
 
 *That is, the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 
 
age 4Q] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 145 
 
 [Douglas] makes his last point at me. I am opposed to that 
 decision in a certain sense, but not in the sense which he puts 
 on it. I say that in so far as it decided in favor of Dred 
 Scott's master, and against Dred Scott and his family, I do not 
 propose to disturb or resist the decision. 
 
 I never have proposed to do any such thing. I think, that 
 in respect for judicial authority, my humble history would not 
 suffer in comparison with that of Judge Douglas. He would 
 have the citizens conform his vote to that decision; the mem- 
 ber of Congress, his; the President, his use of the veto power. 
 He would make it a rule of political action for the people and 
 all the departments of the Government. I would not. By 
 resisting it as a political rule, I disturb no right of property, 
 create no disorder, excite no mobs. 
 
 One more thing. Last night Judge Douglas tormented 
 himself with horrors about my disposition to make negroes 
 perfectly equal with white men in social and political relations. 
 
 My declarations upon this subject of negro slavery may be 
 misrepresented, but can not be misunderstood. I have said 
 that I do not understand the Declaration to mean that all men 
 were created equal in all respects. They are not our equal in 
 color; but I suppose that it does mean to declare that all men 
 are equal in some respects; they are equal in their right to 
 "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Certainly the 
 negro is not our equal in color — perhaps not in many other 
 respects; still, in the right to put into his mouth the bread 
 that his own hands earned, he is the equal of every other man, 
 white or black. 
 
 When our Government was established, we had the institu- 
 tion of slavery among us. We were in a certain sense com- 
 pelled to tolerate its existence. It was a sort of necessity. 
 We had gone through our struggle, and secured our own inde- 
 pendence. The framers of the Constitution found the institution 
 of slavery among their other institutions at the time. They 
 
146 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 found that by an effort to eradicate it, they might lose much 
 of what they had already gained. They were obliged to bow 
 to the necessity. They gave power to Congress to abolish the 
 slave-trade at the end of twenty years. They also prohibited 
 slavery in the Territories where it did not exist. They did 
 what they could and yielded to necessity for the rest. I also 
 yield to all which follows from that necessity. What I would 
 most desire would be the separation of the white and black 
 races. 
 
 20th. (To John Mathers.) Your kind and interest- 
 ing letter of the 19th was duly received. Your suggestions as 
 to placing one's self on the offensive rather than the defensive 
 are certainly correct. That is a point which I shall not disre- 
 gard. I spoke here on Saturday night. The speech, not very 
 well reported, appears in the State Journal of this morning. 
 You doubtless will see it ; and I hope that you will perceive in 
 it, that I am already improving. I would mail you a copy now, 
 but have not one at hand. I thank you for your letter and 
 shall be pleased to hear from you again. 
 
 In the midst of the political duel and in spite of his growing 
 legal practise money questions are pressing. 
 
 (To Henry E. Dummer.) When I was in Beardstown last 
 spring, Doctor Sprague said if I would leave a bill, he would 
 pay it before long. I do not now remember that I spoke to you 
 about it. I am now in need of money. Suppose we say the 
 amount shall be $50? If the Doctor is satisfied with that, 
 please get the money and send it to me, 
 
 He decides upon a pitched battle with Douglas. 
 
 24th. (To Stephen A. Douglas.) My dear Sir: Will it 
 be agreeable to you to make an arrangement for you and myself 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 147 
 
 to divide time, and address the same audiences the present 
 canvass? Mr. Judd, who will hand you this, is authorized to 
 receive your answer; and, if agreeable to you, to enter in the 
 terms of such arrangement. 
 
 Invitation to joint debate accepted by Douglas. 
 
 29th. (To Stephen A. Douglas.) Yours of the 24th in 
 relation to an arrangement to divide time and address the same 
 audiences is received ; and, in apology for not sooner replying, 
 allow me to say, that when I sat by you at dinner yesterday,* I 
 was not aware that you had answered my note, nor certainly 
 that my own had been presented to you. An hour after I saw 
 a copy of your answer in the Chicago Times and reaching 
 home, I found the original awaiting me. Protesting that your 
 insinuations of attempted unfairness on my part are unjust, 
 and with hope that you did not very considerately make them, 
 I proceed to reply. 
 
 As to your surprise that I did not sooner make the proposal 
 to divide time with you, I can only say I made it as soon as I 
 resolved to make it. I did not know but that such proposal 
 would come from you; I waited, respectfully, to see. It may 
 have been well known to you that you went to Springfield for 
 the purpose of agreeing on the plan of campaign ; but it was not 
 so known to me. When your appointments were announced 
 in the papers, extending only to the 21st of August, I for the 
 first time considered it certain that you would make no pro- 
 posal to me, and then resolved that, if my friends concurred, I 
 would make one to you. As soon thereafter as I could see 
 and consult with friends satisfactorily, I did make the proposal. 
 
 I agree to an arrangement for us to speak at the seven 
 places you have named, and at your own times, provided you 
 
 The temper of politics at that time permitted men to call one another 
 liars and robbers on the stump and yet hobnob off the stump in the most 
 friendly way. 
 
148 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 name the times at once, so that I, as well as you, can have to 
 myself the time not covered by the arrangement. As to the 
 other details, I wish perfect reciprocity, and no more. I wish 
 as much time as you, and that conclusions shall alternate. That 
 is all. 
 
 31st. (To Stephen A. Douglas.) Yours of yesterday, 
 naming places, times and terms for joint discussions between 
 us, was received this morning. Although, by the terms, as 
 you propose, you take four openings and closes to my three, I 
 accede, and thus close the arrangement. 
 
 (To Henry Asbury.) Yours of the 28th is received. The 
 points you propose to press upon Douglas he will be very hard 
 to get up to, but I think you labor under a mistake when you 
 say no one cares how he answers. This implies that it is 
 equal with him whether he is injured here or at the South. 
 That is a mistake. He cares nothing for the South ; he knows 
 he is already dead there. He only leans Southward more to 
 keep the Buchanan party from growing in Illinois. You shall 
 have hard work to get him directly to the point whether a 
 territorial legislature has or has not the power to exclude slav- 
 ery. But if you succeed in bringing him to it^ — though he will 
 be compelled to say it possesses no such power — he will in- 
 stantly take ground that slavery can not actually exist in the 
 Territories unless the people desire it, and so give it protection 
 by territorial legislation. If this offends the South, he will 
 let it offend them, as at all events he means to hold on to his 
 chances in Illinois.* 
 
 Lincoln keeps a sharp eye on strategical dangers every- 
 where in Illinois. 
 
 August 2nd. (To B. C. Cook.) I have a letter from a very 
 true friend and intelligent man insisting that there is a plan 
 
 *This astute forecast of what Douglas will be driven to do is the clew 
 to Lincoln's strategy throughout the debates. 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 149 
 
 on foot in La Salle and Bureau to run Douglas Republicans 
 for Congress and for the Legislature in those counties, if they 
 can only get the encouragement of our folks nominating pretty 
 extreme abolitionists. It is thought they will do nothing if 
 our folks nominate men who are not very obnoxious to the 
 charge of abolitionism. Please have your eye upon this. Signs 
 are looking pretty fair. 
 
 $th. I do not understand the Republican party to be com- 
 mitted to the proposition "No more slave States.'' I think they 
 are not so committed. Most certainly they prefer there should 
 be no more, but I know there are many of them who think we 
 are under obligations to admit slave States from Texas, if 
 such shall be presented for admission; but I think the party 
 as such is not committed either way. 
 
 6th. (To Gustave Koerner.) Yesterday morning I found 
 a drop letter from Governor Bissel urging, partly in conse- 
 quence of a letter from you, that my late speeches, or some of 
 them, shall be printed in pamphlet form both in English and 
 German. Having had a good many letters to the same effect, 
 I went at once to the Journal office here, and set them to work 
 to print me in English fifty dollars' worth of my last speech at 
 Springfield, July 17th, that appearing, by what I hear, to be 
 the most "taking" speech I have made. From that sum they 
 will furnish about 7,000; they will, at the same time, print 
 some more, on their account, and keep the type standing for a 
 while. 
 
 Douglas makes the opening speech on the first joint debate, 
 at Ottawa, August 21st, propounding various questions, re- 
 viewing his ozvn record, and accusing Lincoln of having made 
 a deal with Trumbull when both were candidates in 1854. A 
 large part of the debates which follow is strategic jugglery of 
 the political records of the two rivals. They add practically 
 nothing to their statements of political faith. In reality, two 
 
150 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 experienced jury lawyers are trying each other before the bar 
 of local opinion each aiming to make the other's record discredit 
 him. 
 
 2 1 st. At Ottawa. 
 
 When a man hears himself somewhat misrepresented, it 
 provokes him — at least, I find it so with myself; but when 
 misrepresentation becomes very gross and palpable, it is more 
 apt to amuse him. The first thing I see fit to notice is the 
 fact that Judge Douglas alleges after running through the his- 
 tory of the old Democratic and the old Whig parties, that 
 Judge Trumbull and myself made an arrangement in 1854, by 
 which I was to have the place of General Shields in the United 
 States Senate, and Judge Trumbull was to have the place of 
 Judge Douglas. Now all I have to say upon that subject is 
 that I think no man — not even Judge Douglas — can prove it, 
 because it is not true. I have no doubt he is <( conscientious" in 
 saying it. As to those resolutions that he took such a length 
 of time to read, as being the platform of the Republican party 
 in 1854, I say I never had anything to do with them, and I 
 think Trumbull never had. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, this is the true complexion of all I have 
 ever said in regard to the institution of slavery and the black 
 race. This is the whole of it, and everything that argues me 
 into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the 
 negro is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words, by 
 which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse. 
 I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, 
 either directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of 
 slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful 
 right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no 
 purpose to introduce political and social equality between the 
 white and the black races. There is a physical difference be- 
 tween the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 151 
 
 forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equal- 
 ity; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must 
 be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of 
 the race to which I belong having the superior position. 
 
 Now I pass on to consider one or two more of these little 
 follies. The Judge is woefully at fault about his early friend 
 Lincoln being a "grocery-keeper." I don't know that it would 
 be a great sin if I had been ; but he is mistaken. Lincoln never 
 kept a grocery anywhere in the world. It is true that Lincoln 
 did work the latter part of one winter in a little still-house up 
 at the head of a hollow. And so I think my friend, the Judge, 
 is equally at fault when he charges me at the time when I was 
 in Congress of having opposed our soldiers who were fighting 
 in the Mexican War. The Judge did not make his charge very 
 distinctly, but I tell you what he can prove, by referring to the 
 record. You remember I was an Old Whig, and whenever 
 the Democratic party tried to get me to vote that the war had 
 been righteously begun by the President, I would not do it. 
 But whenever they asked for any money, or land-warrants, or 
 anything to pay the soldiers there, during all that time, I gave 
 the same vote that Judge Douglas did. You can think as you 
 please as to whether that was consistent. Such is the truth; 
 and the Judge has the right to make all he can out of it. But 
 when he, by a general charge, conveys the idea that I withheld 
 supplies from the soldiers who were fighting in the Mexican 
 War, or did anything else to hinder the soldiers, he is, to say 
 the least, grossly and altogether mistaken, as a consultation of 
 the records will prove to him. 
 
 Again : there is in that same quotation from the Nebraska 
 bill this clause — "It being the true intent and meaning of this 
 bill not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State." I 
 have always been puzzled to know what business the word 
 "State" had in that connection. Judge Douglas knows. He 
 put it there. He knows what he put it there for. We out- 
 
152 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 siders can not say what he put it there for. The law they were 
 passing was not about States, and was not making provision 
 for States. What was it placed there for? After seeing the 
 Dred Scott decision which holds that the people can not exclude 
 slavery from a Territory, if another Dred Scott decision shall 
 come, holding that they can not exclude it from a State, we 
 shall discover that when the word was originally put there, it 
 was in view of something which was to come in due time, we 
 shall see that it was the other half of something. I now say 
 again, if there is any different reason for putting it there, 
 Judge Douglas, in a good-humored way, without calling any- 
 body a liar, can tell what the reason was. 
 
 In the first place, what is necessary to make an institution 
 national? Not war. There is no danger that the people of 
 Kentucky will shoulder their muskets, and, with a young nigger 
 stuck on every bayonet, march into Illinois and force them 
 upon us. There is no danger of our going over there and 
 making war upon them. Then what is necessary for the 
 nationalization of slavery? It is simply the next Dred Scott 
 decision. It is merely for the Supreme Court to decide that no 
 State under the Constitution can exclude it, just as they have 
 already decided that under the Constitution neither Congress 
 nor the Territorial Legislature can do it. When that is decided 
 and acquiesced in, the whole thing is done. 
 
 This man sticks to a decision which forbids the people of 
 a Territory to exclude slavery, and he does so not because he 
 says it is right in itself — he does not give any opinion on 
 that — but because it has been decided by the court, and, being 
 decided by the court, he is, as you are, bound to take it in your 
 political action as lazv — not that he judges at all of its merits, 
 but because a decision of the court is to him a "Thus saith the 
 Lord!* He places it on that ground alone, and you will bear 
 in mind that thus committing himself unreservedly to this de- 
 cision, commits him to the next one just as firmly as to this. 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 153 
 
 He did not commit himself on account of the merit or demerit 
 of the decision, but it is a "Thus saith the Lord." The next 
 decision, as much as this, will be a "Thus saith the Lord." 
 There is nothing that can divert or turn him away from this 
 decision. 
 
 Henry Clay, my beau ideal of a statesman, the man for 
 whom I fought all my humble life — Henry Clay once said of a 
 class of men who would repress all tendencies to liberty and 
 ultimate emancipation, that they must, if they would do this, 
 go back to the era of our independence, and muzzle the cannon 
 which thunders its annual joyous return; they must blow out 
 the moral lights around us; they must penetrate the human 
 soul, and eradicate there the love of liberty; and then, and not 
 till then, could they perpetuate slavery in this country ! To my 
 thinking, Judge Douglas is, by his example and vast influence, 
 doing that very thing in this community when he says that the 
 negro has nothing in the Declaration of Independence. Henry 
 Clay plainly understood the contrary. Judge Douglas is going 
 back to the era of our Revolution, and to the extent of his 
 ability muzzling the cannon which thunders its annual joyous 
 return. When he invites any people, willing to have slavery, 
 to establish it, he is blowing out the moral lights around us. 
 When he says he "cares not whether slavery is voted down or 
 voted up" — that it is a sacred right of self-government — he is, 
 in my judgment, penetrating the human soul and eradicating 
 the light of reason and the love of liberty in this American 
 people. 
 
 22nd. (To J. O. Cunningham.) Yours of the 18th, signed 
 as secretary of the Republican club, is received. In the matter 
 of making speeches I am a good deal pressed by invitations 
 from almost all quarters, and while I hope to be at Urbana 
 some time during the canvass, I can not yet say when. Can 
 you not see me at Monticello on the 6th of September? 
 
 Douglas and I, for the first time this canvass, crossed 
 
154 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 swords here yesterday; the fire flew some, and I am glad to 
 know I am yet alive. There was a vast concourse of people — 
 more than could get near enough to hear. 
 
 27th. At Freeport. 
 
 On Saturday last, Judge Douglas and myself first met in 
 public discussion. In the course of that opening argument 
 Judge Douglas proposed to me seven distinct interroga- 
 tories. ... I now propose that I will answer any of the 
 interrogatories, upon condition that he will answer questions 
 from me not exceeding the same number. I give him an op- 
 portunity to respond. The Judge remains silent. I now say 
 that I will answer his interrogatories, whether he answers mine 
 or not ; and that after I have done so, I shall propound mine 
 to him. 
 
 Having said this much, I will take up the Judge's interrog- 
 atories as I find them printed in the Chicago Times, and 
 answer them seriatim. In order that there may be no mistake 
 about it, I have copied the interrogatories in writing, and also 
 my answers to them. The first one of these interrogatories is 
 in these words : 
 
 Question 1. "I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day 
 stands as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal 
 of the Fugitive Slave law?" 
 
 Answer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the 
 unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. 
 
 Q. 2. "I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged 
 to-day as he did in 1854, against the admission of any more 
 slave States into the Union, even if the people want them?" 
 
 A. I do not now, nor ever did, stand pledged against the 
 admission of any more slave States into the Union. 
 
 Q. 3. "I want to know whether he stands pledged against 
 the admission of a new State into the Union with such a Con- 
 stitution as the people of that State may see fit to make?" 
 
 A. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 155 
 
 State Into the Union with such a Constitution as the people 
 of that State may see fit to make. 
 
 Q. 4. "I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged 
 to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia?" 
 
 A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slav- 
 ery in the District of Columbia. 
 
 Q. 5. "I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged 
 to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different 
 States?" 
 
 A. I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave- 
 trade between the different States. 
 
 Q. 6. "I desire to know whether he stands pledged to 
 prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, 
 North as well as South, of the Missouri Compromise line?" 
 
 A. I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief 
 in the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the 
 United States Territories. 
 
 Q. 7. "I desire him to answer whether he is opposed to the 
 acquisition of any new territory unless slavery is first prohib- 
 ited therein?" 
 
 A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of 
 territory ; and, in any given case, I would or would not oppose 
 such acquisition, accordingly as I might think such acquisition 
 would or would not aggravate the slavery question among 
 ourselves. 
 
 As to the first one, in regard to the Fugitive Slave law, I 
 have never hesitated to say, and I do not now hesitate to say, 
 that I think, under the Constitution of the United States, the 
 people of the Southern States are entitled to a Congressional 
 Fugitive Slave law. Having said that, I have had nothing to 
 say in regard to the existing Fugitive Slave law, further than 
 that I think it should have been framed so as to be free from 
 some of the objections that pertain to it, without lessening 
 its efficiency. And inasmuch as we are now in an agitation 
 
156 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 in regard to an alteration or modification of that law, I would 
 not be the man to introduce it as a new subject of agitation 
 upon the general question of slavery. 
 
 In regard to the other question, of whether I am pledged 
 to the admission of any more slave States into the Union, I 
 state to you very frankly that I would be exceedingly sorry ever 
 to be put in a position of having to pass upon that question. I 
 should be exceedingly glad to know that there would never be 
 another slave State admitted into the Union; but I must add, 
 that if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during the 
 territorial existence of any one given Territory, and then the 
 people shall, having a fair chance and a clear field, when they 
 come to adopt the Constitution, do such an extraordinary thing 
 as to adopt a slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual 
 presence of the institution among them, I see no alternative, if 
 we own the country, but to admit them into the Union. 
 
 The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to the 
 second, it being, as I conceive, the same as the second. 
 
 The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery in 
 the District of Columbia. In relation to that, I have my 
 mind very distinctly made up. I should be exceedingly glad 
 to see slavery abolished in the District of Columbia. I believe 
 that Congress possesses the constitutional power to abolish it. 
 Yet as a member of Congress, I should not with my present 
 views, be in favor of endeavoring to abolish slavery in the 
 District of Columbia unless it would be upon these conditions : 
 First, that the abolition should be gradual; Second, that it 
 should be on a vote of the majority of qualified voters in the 
 District; and third, that compensation should be made to un- 
 willing owners. With these three conditions, I confess I would 
 be exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the 
 District of Columbia, and, in the language of Henry Clay, 
 "sweep from our capital that foul blot upon our nation." 
 
 In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say that as to 
 
ACK49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 157 
 
 the question of the abolition of the slave-trade between the 
 different States, I can truly answer, as I have, that I am 
 pledged to nothing about it. It is a subject to which I have 
 not given that mature consideration that would make me feel 
 authorized to state a position so as to hold myself entirely 
 bound by it. In other words, that question has never been 
 prominently enough before me to induce me to investigate 
 whether we really have the constitutional power to do it. I 
 could investigate it if I had sufficient time to bring myself to a 
 conclusion upon that subject, but I have not done so, and I 
 say so frankly to you here and to Judge Douglas. I must say, 
 however, that if I should be of opinion that Congress does 
 possess the constitutional power to abolish the slave-trade 
 among the different States, I should still not be in favor of 
 the exercise of that power unless upon some conservative prin- 
 ciple as I conceive it, akin to what I have said in relation to 
 the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
 
 Now in all this, the Judge has me, and he has me on the 
 record. I suppose he had flattered himself that I was really 
 entertaining one set of opinions for one place and another set 
 for another place — that I was afraid to say at one place what 
 I uttered at another. What I am saying here I suppose I say 
 to a vast audience as strongly tending to Abolitionism as any 
 audience in the State of Illinois, and I believe I am saying that 
 which, if it would be offensive to any persons and render them 
 enemies to myself, would be offensive to persons in this 
 audience. 
 
 I now proceed to propound to the Judge the interrogatories 
 so far as I have framed them. I will bring forward a new 
 installment when I get them ready. I will bring them forward 
 now, only reaching to number four. 
 
 Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall, by means en- 
 tirely unobjectionable in all other respects, adopt a State con- 
 stitution, and ask admission into the Union under it, before 
 
158 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 they have the requisite number of inhabitants according to 
 the English bill — some ninety-three thousand — will you vote 
 to admit them ? 
 
 Q. 2. Can the people of a United States Territory in any 
 lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United 
 States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of 
 a State Constitution? 
 
 Q. 3. If the Supreme Court of the United States shall 
 decide that States can not exclude slavery from their limits, 
 are you in favor of acquiescing in, adopting, and following 
 such decision as a rule of political action? 
 
 Q. 4. Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory, 
 in disregard of how such acquisition may affect the nation on 
 the slavery question? . . . 
 
 Go on, Judge Douglas. 
 
 Douglas replies (1) that as a rule he does not believe in ad- 
 mitting States with less than the statutory population but is 
 willing to make an exception of Kansas and will admit it at 
 once no matter whether the people are for slavery or freedom. 
 Douglas goes on (2) to propound what at once becomes famous 
 as the "Freeport Doctrine" namely, that while Congress has 
 no right to close a Territory to slavery the people of the Terri- 
 tory may "by unfriendly legislation effectively prevent the in- 
 troduction of it into their midst" The question (3) whether he 
 would acquiesce in an hypothetical decision of the Supreme 
 Court opening the Free States to slavery is denounced by 
 Douglas as preposterous and is squarely answered in the nega- 
 tive. Douglas goes on (4) to describe Lincoln's closing ques- 
 tion on his attitude toward new acquisitions of territory as 
 "very ingeniously and cunningly put" He meets it zvith these 
 words: "just as fast as our interests and our destiny require 
 additional territory in the North, in the South, or on the islands 
 of the ocean, I am for it, and when we acquire it will leave the 
 
AGE4Q] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 159 
 
 people according to the Nebraska bill, free to do as they please 
 on the subject of slavery and every other subject/' 
 
 September 3rd. (To Doctor William Fithian.) You will 
 see by the Journal that I have been appointed to speak at Dan- 
 ville on the 22nd of Sept. — the day after Douglas speaks there. 
 My recent experience shows that speaking at the same place 
 the next day after D. is the very thing — it is, in fact, a con- 
 cluding speech on him. Give full notice to all surrounding 
 country. 
 
 Acting on his plan of supplementing the debates by inde- 
 pendent speeches attacking Douglas, Lincoln in a speech at 
 Clinton coins his most famous epigram. 
 
 8th. At Clinton. 
 
 You can fool all the people some of the time and some of 
 the people all of the time, but you can not fool all the people all 
 of the time. 
 
 Douglas will tell a lie to ten thousand people one day, even 
 though he knows he may have to deny it to five thousand the 
 next. 
 
 15th. At Jonesboro. 
 
 There is very much in the principles that Judge Douglas 
 has enunciated that I most cordially approve, and over which 
 I shall have no controversy with him. In so far as he has in- 
 sisted that all the States have the right to do exactly as they 
 please about all their domestic relations, including that of 
 slavery, I agree entirely with him. 
 
 While I am upon this subject, I will make some answers 
 briefly to certain propositions that Judge Douglas has put. He 
 says, "Why can't this Union endure permanently, half slave 
 and half free?" I have said that I supposed it could not, and 
 I will try, before this new audience, to give briefly some of the 
 reasons for entertaining that opinion. Another form of his 
 
160 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 question is, "Why can't we let it stand as our fathers placed 
 it?" That is the exact difficulty between us. I say, that 
 Judge Douglas and his friends have changed it from the posi- 
 tion in which our fathers originally placed it. I say, in the way 
 our fathers originally left the slavery question, the institution 
 was in the course of ultimate extinction, and the public mind 
 rested in the belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinc- 
 tion. I say when this Government was first established, it was 
 the policy of its founders to prohibit the spread of slavery into 
 the new Territories of the United States, where it had not 
 existed. But Judge Douglas and his friends have broken up 
 that policy, and placed it upon a new basis by which it is to 
 become national and perpetual. All I have asked or desired 
 anywhere is that it should be placed back again upon the basis 
 that the fathers of our Government originally placed it upon. I 
 have no doubt that it would become extinct, for all time to 
 come, if we but readopted the policy of the fathers by restrict- 
 ing it to the limits it has already covered — restricting it from 
 the new Territories. 
 
 I do not wish to dwell at great length on this branch of the 
 subject at this time, but allow me to repeat one thing that I 
 have stated before. Brooks, the man who assaulted Senator 
 Sumner on the floor of the Senate, and who was complimented 
 with dinners, and silver pitchers, and gold-headed canes, and 
 a good many other things for that fact, in one of his speeches 
 declared that when this Government was originally established, 
 nobody expected that the institution of slavery would last until 
 this day. That was but the opinion of one man, but it was 
 such an opinion as we can never get from Judge Douglas, or 
 anybody in favor of slavery in the North at all. You can 
 sometimes get it from a Southern man. He said at the same 
 time that the framers of our Government did not have the 
 knowledge that experience has taught us — that experience and 
 the invention of the cotton-gin have taught us that the perpetu- 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 161 
 
 ation of slavery is a necessity. He insisted, therefore, upon its 
 being changed from the basis upon which the fathers of the 
 Government left it to the basis of its perpetuation and 
 nationalization. 
 
 I insist that this is the difference between Judge Douglas 
 and myself — and that Judge Douglas is helping that change 
 along. I insist upon this Government being placed where our 
 fathers originally placed it. 
 
 At Freeport I answered several interrogatories that had 
 been propounded to me by Judge Douglas at the Ottawa meet- 
 ing. At the same time, I propounded four interrogatories to 
 him, claiming it as a right that he should answer as many inter- 
 rogatories for me as I did for him, and I would reserve myself 
 for a future installment when I got them ready. 
 
 I propose to give the Judge my fifth interrogatory, which 
 he may take and answer at his leisure. My fifth interrogatory 
 is this : 
 
 If the slave-holding citizens of a United States Territory 
 should need and demand Congressional legislation for the pro- 
 tection of their slave property in such Territory, would you, as 
 a member of Congress, vote for or against such legislation? 
 
 (Judge Douglas: Will you repeat that? I want to answer 
 that question.) 
 
 If the slave-holding citizens of a United States Territory 
 should need and demand Congressional legislation for the pro- 
 tection of their slave property in such Territory, would you, 
 as a member of Congress, vote for or against such legislation? 
 
 In his rejoinder at Jonesboro, Douglas replies to Lincoln's 
 new question by saying: "I answer him that it is a fundamental 
 article in the Democratic creed that there should be non-inter- 
 ference and non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the 
 States or Territories. Mr. Lincoln could have found an answer 
 to his question in the Cincinnati platform, if he had desired it. 
 
1 62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 The Democratic party have always stood by that great principle 
 of non-interference and non-intervention by Congress with 
 slavery in the States and Territories alike, and I stand on that 
 platform now/' 
 
 18th. At Charleston. 
 
 It will be very difficult for an audience as large as this to 
 hear distinctly what a speaker says, and consequently it is im- 
 portant that as profound silence be preserved as possible. 
 
 While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentleman called 
 upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing 
 a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. While 
 I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on 
 that subject, yet as the question was asked me I thought I 
 would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in re- 
 gard to it. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in 
 favor of bringing about in any way the social and political 
 equality of the white and black races — that I am not, nor ever 
 have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor 
 of qualifying them to hold office, nor to inter-marry with 
 white people ; and I say in addition to this that there is a physi- 
 cal difference between the white and black races which I believe 
 will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of 
 social and political equality. And inasmuch as they can not 
 so live, while they do remain together there must be the posi- 
 tion of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man 
 am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the 
 white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that 
 because the white man is to have the superior position the 
 negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that 
 because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must 
 necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I 
 can just let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I 
 certainly never have had a black woman for either a slave or a 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 163 
 
 wife. So it seems to me quite possible for us to get along 
 without making either slaves or wives of negroes. I will add 
 to this that I have never seen, to my knowledge, a man, woman, 
 or child who was in favor of producing a perfect equality, 
 social and political, between negroes and white men. I recol- 
 lect of but one distinguished instance that I ever heard of so 
 frequently as to be entirely satisfied of its correctness — and 
 that is the case of Judge Douglas's old friend Colonel Richard 
 M. Johnson. I will also add to the remarks I have made (for 
 I am not going to enter at large upon this subject), that I have 
 never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would 
 marry negroes if there was no law to keep them from it; but 
 as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehen- 
 sion that they might, if there was no law to keep them from it, 
 I give him the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last, 
 stand by the law of this State, which forbids the marrying of 
 white people with negroes. I will add one further word which 
 is this; that I do not understand that there is any place where 
 an alteration of the social and political relations of the negro 
 and the white man can be made except in the State Legisla- 
 ture — not in the Congress of the United States — and as I do 
 not really apprehend the approach of any such thing myself, 
 and as Judge Douglas seems to be in constant horror that 
 some such danger is rapidly approaching, I propose, as the best 
 means to prevent it, that the Judge be kept at home and placed 
 in the State Legislature to fight the measure. I do not propose 
 dwelling longer at this time on the subject. 
 
 In his Freeport Doctrine Douglas has done exactly what 
 Lincoln had aimed to make him do — as foreshadowed in the 
 letter to Henry Asbury, Jidy thirty-first. Douglas, by first 
 asserting that the people of a territory have no constitutional 
 right to exclude slavery and then admitting that they can 
 always find a way to do so if they wish, has given Lincoln the 
 
164 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 opportunity to accuse him of duplicity. Lincoln now has 
 Douglas where he wants him and proceeds to drive him further 
 and further into the corner. 
 
 Douglas makes a desperate attempt to save himself and 
 shift the issue by renewing his criticism of Lincoln's record 
 during the Mexican War. 
 
 At Charleston. 
 
 It follows as a matter of course that a half-hour answer to 
 a speech of an hour and a half can be but a very hurried one. 
 I shall only be able to touch upon a few of the points suggested 
 by Judge Douglas, and give them a brief attention, while I shall 
 have to totally omit others for the want of time. 
 
 Judge Douglas complains, at considerable length, about a 
 disposition on the part of Trumbull and myself to attack him 
 personally. I want to attend to that suggestion a moment. I 
 don't want to be unjustly accused of dealing illiberally or un- 
 fairly with an adversary, either in court, or in a political can- 
 vass, or anywhere else. I would despise myself if I supposed 
 myself ready to deal less liberally with an adversary than I was 
 willing to be treated myself. Judge Douglas, in a general way, 
 without putting it in a direct shape, revives the old charge 
 against me in reference to the Mexican War. He does not 
 take the responsibility of putting it in a very definite form, 
 but makes a general reference to it. That charge is more than 
 ten years old. He complains of Trumbull and myself, because 
 he says we bring charges against him one or two years old. 
 He knows, too, that in regard to the Mexican war story, the 
 more respectable papers of his own party throughout the State 
 have been compelled to take it back and acknowledge that it 
 was a lie. 
 
 (Here Mr. Lincoln turns to the crowd on the platform, and 
 selecting Honorable Orlando B. Ficklin, leads him forward and 
 says:) 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 165 
 
 I do not mean to do anything with Mr. Ficklin, except to 
 present his face and tell you that he personally knows it to be 
 a lie! He was a member of Congress at the only time I was in 
 Congress, and he knows that whenever there was an attempt to 
 procure a vote of mine which would indorse the origin and 
 justice of the war, I refused to give such indorsement, and 
 voted against it ; but I never voted against the supplies for the 
 army, and he knows, as well as Judge Douglas, that whenever a 
 dollar was asked by way of compensation or otherwise, for the 
 benefit of the soldiers, / gave all the votes that Ficklin or 
 Douglas did, and perhaps more. 
 
 (Mr. Ficklin: My friends, I wish to say this in reference 
 to the matter. Mr. Lincoln and myself are just as good per- 
 sonal friends as Judge Douglas and myself. In reference to 
 this Mexican War, my recollection is that when Ashman's res- 
 olution [amendment] was offered by Mr. Ashman of Mass- 
 achusetts, in which he declared that the Mexican War was 
 unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the Presi- 
 dent — my recollection is that Mr. Lincoln voted for that res- 
 olution.) 
 
 That is the truth. Now you all remember that was a 
 resolution censuring the President for the manner in which 
 the war was begun. You know they have charged that I 
 voted against the supplies, by which I starved the soldiers who 
 were out fighting the battles of their country. I say that 
 Ficklin knows it is false. When that charge was brought for- 
 ward by the Chicago Times, the Springfield Register (Doug- 
 las organ) reminded the Times that the charge really applied to 
 John Henry and I do know that John Henry is now making 
 speeches and fiercely battling for Judge Douglas. If the Judge 
 now says that he offers this as a sort of a set-off to what I said 
 to-day in reference to Trumbull's charge, then I remind him 
 that he made this charge before I said a word about Trum- 
 bull's. He brought this forward at Ottawa, the first time we 
 
1 66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 met face to face ; and in the opening speech that Judge Doug- 
 las made, he attacked me in regard to a matter ten years old. 
 Isn't he a pretty man to be whining about people making 
 charges against him only two years old! 
 
 I take it these people have some sense ; they see plainly that 
 Judge Douglas is playing cuttle-fish, a small species of fish 
 that has no mode of defending itself when pursued except by 
 throwing out a black fluid, which makes the water so dark the 
 enemy can not see it, and thus it escapes. Ain't the Judge 
 playing the cuttle-fish? 
 
 October 1st. (Note for a speech.) Allow me now, in my 
 own way, to state with what aims and objects I did enter upon 
 this campaign. I claim no extraordinary exemption from per- 
 sonal ambition. That I like preferment as well as the average 
 of men may be admitted. But I protest I have not entered 
 upon this hard contest solely, or even chiefly, for a mere per- 
 sonal object. I clearly see, as I think, a powerful plot to make 
 slavery universal and perpetual in this nation. The effort to 
 carry that plot through will be persistent and long continued, 
 extending far beyond the senatorial term for which Judge 
 Douglas and I are just now struggling. I enter upon the con- 
 test to contribute my humble and temporary mite in opposition 
 to that effort. 
 
 (Note for a speech.) The sum of pro-slavery theology 
 seems to be this : "Slavery is not universally right, nor yet 
 universally wrong; it is better for some people to be slaves; 
 and, in such cases, it is the will of God that they be such." 
 
 Certainly there is no contending against the will of God; 
 but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining and applying it 
 to particular cases. For instance, we will suppose the Rev- 
 erend Doctor Ross has a slave named Sambo, and the question 
 is, "Is it the will of God that Sambo shall remain a slave, or 
 be set free?" The Almighty gives no audible answer to the 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 167 
 
 question, and His revelation, the Bible, gives none — or at most 
 none but such as admits of a squabble as to its meaning; no 
 one thinks of asking Sambo's opinion on it. 
 
 So at last it comes to this, that Doctor Ross is to decide 
 the question; and while he considers it, he sits in the shade, 
 with gloves on his hands, and subsists on the bread that Sambo 
 is earning in the burning sun. If he decides that God wills 
 Sambo to continue a slave, he thereby retains his own com- 
 fortable position; but if he decides that God wills Sambo to be 
 free, he therefore has to walk out of the shade, throw off his 
 gloves, and delve for his own bread. Will Doctor Ross be 
 actuated by the perfect impartiality which has ever been con- 
 sidered most favorable to correct decisions? 
 ?th. At Galesburg. 
 
 This is but an opinion, and the opinion of one very hum- 
 ble man : but it is my opinion that the Dred Scott decision, as 
 it is, never would have been made in its present form if the 
 party that made it had not been sustained previously by the 
 elections. My own opinion is that the new Dred Scott deci- 
 sion* deciding against the right of the people of the States 
 to exclude slavery, will never be made if that party is not sus- 
 tained by the elections. I believe, further, that it is just as 
 sure to be made as to-morrow is to come, if that party shall 
 be sustained. I have said upon a former occasion, and I repeat 
 it now, that the course of argument that Judge Douglas makes 
 use of upon this subject (I charge not his motives in this) 
 is preparing the public mind for that new Dred Scott decision. 
 I have asked him again to point out to me the reasons for his 
 first adherence to the Dred Scott decision as it is. I have 
 turned his attention to the fact that General Jackson differed 
 with him in regard to the political obligation of a Supreme 
 Court decision. Jefferson said that "judges are as honest as 
 
 *This hypothetical decision, it should be remembered, is purely an argu- 
 mentative device, a sort of reductio ad absurdam. 
 
1 68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 other men, and not more so." And he said, substantially, 
 that whenever a free people should give an absolute submission 
 to any department of government, retaining for themselves 
 no appeal from it, their liberties were gone. 
 
 13 th. At Quincy. 
 
 Now in regard to this matter of the Dred Scott decision, 
 I wish to say a word or two. After all, the Judge will not 
 say whether, if a decision is made holding that the people of the 
 States can not exclude slavery, he will support it or not. He 
 obstinately refuses to say what he will do in that case. The 
 Judges of the Supreme Court as obstinately refuse to say what 
 they would do on this subject. Before I reminded him that 
 at Galesburg he said the judges had expressly declared the 
 contrary, and you remember that in my opening speech I told 
 him I had the book containing that decision here, and I would 
 thank him to lay his finger on the place where any such thing 
 was said. He has occupied his hour and a half, and he has not 
 ventured to try to sustain his assertion. He never will. But 
 he is desirous of knowing how we are going to reverse the 
 Dred Scott decision. Judge Douglas ought to know how. 
 Did not he and his political friends find a way to reverse the 
 decision of that same court in favor of the constitutionality of 
 the National Bank ? Didn't they find a way to do it so effec- 
 tually that they have reversed it as completely as any decision 
 ever was reversed, so far as its practical operation is concerned ? 
 And let me ask you, didn't Judge Douglas find a way to reverse 
 the decision of our Supreme Court, when it decided that Car- 
 lin's father — old Governor Carlin — had not the constitutional 
 power to remove a secretary of state? Did he not appeal to 
 the "mobs," as he calls them? Did he not make speeches in 
 the lobby to show how villainous that decision was, and how 
 it ought to be overthrown? Did he not succeed, too, in get- 
 ting an act passed by the Legislature to have it overthrown? 
 And didn't he himself sit down on that bench as one of the 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 169 
 
 five added judges who were to overslaugh the four old ones — 
 getting his name of "Judge" in that way and in no other? 
 If there is a villainy in using disrespect or making opposition to 
 Supreme Court decisions, I commend it to Judge Douglas's 
 earnest consideration. I know of no man in the State of Illi- 
 nois who ought to know so well about how much villainy 
 it takes to oppose a decision of the Supreme Court, as our 
 honorable friend, Stephen A. Douglas. 
 
 15th, At Alton. 
 
 Judge Douglas knows that we are before an audience hav- 
 ing strong sympathies southward by relationship, place of 
 birth, and so on. He desires to place me in an extremely 
 Abolition attitude. He read upon a former occasion, and 
 alludes without reading to-day, to a portion of a speech which 
 I delivered in Chicago. In his quotations from that speech, as 
 he has made them upon former occasions, the extracts were 
 taken in such a way as, I suppose, brings them within the 
 definition of what is called garbling — taking portions of a 
 speech which, when taken by themselves, do not present the 
 entire sense of the speaker as expressed at the time. I propose, 
 therefore, out of that same speech, to show how one portion of 
 it which he skipped over (taking an extract before and an 
 extract after,) will give a different idea, and the true idea I 
 intended to convey. 
 
 Now I have upon all occasions declared as strongly as 
 Judge Douglas against the disposition to interfere with the 
 existing institution of slavery. 
 
 The principle upon which I have insisted in this canvass, is 
 in relation to laying the foundations of new societies. I have 
 never sought to apply these principles to the old States for the 
 purpose of abolishing slavery in those States. It is nothing 
 but a miserable perversion of what I have said, to assume that 
 I have declared Missouri, or any other slave State, shall eman- 
 cipate her slaves. I have proposed no such thing. 
 
lyo ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 I confess, when I propose a certain measure of policy, it 
 is not enough for me that I do not intend anything evil in 
 the result, but it is incumbent on me to show that it has not 
 a tendency to that result. I have met Judge Douglas in that 
 point of view. I have not only made the declaration that I do 
 not mean to produce a conflict between the States, but I have 
 tried to show by fair reasoning, and I think I have shown 
 to the minds of fair men, that I propose nothing but what has 
 a most peaceful tendency. The quotation that I happened to 
 make in that Springfield speech, that "a house divided against 
 itself can not stand," and which has proved so offensive to the 
 Judge, was part and parcel of the same thing. He tries to 
 show that variety in the domestic institutions of the different 
 States is necessary and indispensable. I do not dispute it. 
 
 And I understand as well as Judge Douglas, or anybody 
 else, that these mutual accommodations are the cements which 
 bind together the different parts of this Union — that instead 
 of being a thing to "divide the house" — figuratively express- 
 ing the Union — they tend to sustain it; they are the props of 
 the house tending always to hold it up. 
 
 I understand I have ten minutes yet. I will employ it in 
 saying something about this argument Judge Douglas uses, 
 while he sustains the Dred Scott decision, that the people of 
 the Territories can still somehow exclude slavery. The first 
 thing I ask attention to is the fact that Judge Douglas con- 
 stantly said, before the decision, that whether they could or not, 
 was a question for the Supreme Court. But after the court 
 has made the decision, he virtually says it is not a question 
 for the Supreme Court, but for the people. And how is it he 
 tells us they can exclude it? He says it needs "police reg- 
 ulations," and that admits of "unfriendly legislation." Al- 
 though it is a right established by the Constitution of the 
 United States to take a slave into a Territory of the United 
 States and hold him as property, yet unless the Territorial 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 171 
 
 Legislature will give friendly legislation, and, more especially, 
 if they adopt friendly legislation, they can practically exclude 
 him. Now, without meeting this proposition as a matter of 
 fact, I pass to consider the real constitutional obligation. Let 
 me take the gentleman who looks me in the face before me, 
 and let us suppose that he is a member of the Territorial Legis- 
 lature. The first thing he will do will be to swear that he will 
 support the Constitution of the United States. His neighbor 
 by his side in the Territory has slaves and needs Territorial 
 Legislation to enable him to enjoy that constitutional right. 
 Can he withhold the legislation which his neighbor needs for 
 the enjoyment of a right which is fixed in his favor in the 
 Constitution of the United States which he has sworn to sup- 
 port? Can he withhold it without violating his oath? And 
 more especially, can he pass unfriendly legislation to violate his 
 oath? 
 
 Why, this is a monstrous sort of talk about the Consti- 
 tution of the United States! There has never been as outland- 
 ish or lawless a doctrine from the mouth of any respectable 
 man on earth. I do not believe it is a constitutional right to 
 hold slaves in a Territory of the United States. I believe the 
 decision was improperly made, and I go for reversing it. 
 Judge Douglas is furious against those who go for reversing 
 a decision. But he is for legislating it out of all force while 
 the law itself stands. I repeat that there has never been so 
 monstrous a doctrine from the mouth of a respectable man. 
 
 I suppose most of us (I know it of myself) believe that 
 the people of the Southern States are entitled to a Congres- 
 sional Fugitive Slave law — that it is a right fixed in the Con- 
 stitution. But it can not be made available to them without 
 congressional legislation. In the Judge's language, it is a 
 "barren right" which needs legislation before it can become 
 efficient and valuable to the persons to whom it is guaranteed. 
 And, as the right is constitutional, I agree that the legis- 
 
172 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 lation shall be granted to it — and that not that we like the 
 institution of slavery: wa profess to have no taste for run- 
 ning and catching niggers — at least, I profess no taste for that 
 job at all. Why then do I yield support to a Fugitive Slave 
 law? Because I do not understand that the Constitution, 
 which guarantees that right, can be supported without it. And 
 if I believed that the right to hold a slave in a Territory was 
 equally fixed in the Constitution with the right to reclaim 
 fugitives, I should be bound to give it the legislation neces- 
 sary to support it. I say that no man can deny his obligation 
 to give the necessary legislation to support slavery in a Terri- 
 tory, who believes it is a constitutional right to have it there. 
 No man can, who does not give the Abolitionists an argument 
 to deny the obligation enjoined by the Constitution to enact 
 a Fugitive Slave law. Try it now. It is the strongest Aboli- 
 tion argument ever made. I say, if that Dred Scott decision 
 is correct, then the right to hold slaves in a Territory is equally 
 a constitutional right with the right of a slaveholder to have 
 his runaway returned. No one can show the distinction be- 
 tween them. The one is express, so that we can not deny it; 
 the other is construed to be in the Constitution, so that he who 
 believes the decision to be correct believes in the right. And the 
 man who argues that by unfriendly legislation, in spite of that 
 constitutional right, slavery may be driven from the Terri- 
 tories, can not avoid furnishing an argument by which Aboli- 
 tionists may deny the obligation to return fugitives, and claim 
 the power to pass laws unfriendly to the right of the slave- 
 holder to reclaim his fugitive. I do not know how such an 
 argument may strike a popular assembly like this, but I defy 
 anybody to go before a body of men whose minds are edu- 
 cated to estimating evidence and reasoning, and show that 
 there is an iota of difference between the constitutional right 
 to reclaim a fugitive, and the constitutional right to hold a 
 slave, in a Territory, provided this Dred Scott decision is 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 173 
 
 correct. I defy any man to make an argument that will 
 justify unfriendly legislation to deprive a slaveholder of his 
 right to hold his slave in a Territory, that will not equally, in 
 all its length, breadth, and thickness, furnish an argument for 
 nullifying the Fugitive Slave law. Why, there is not such an 
 Abolitionist in the nation as Douglas, after all. 
 
 20th. (To Norman B. Judd.) I now have a high degree 
 of confidence that we shall succeed, if we are not overrun with 
 fraudulent votes to a greater extent than usual. 
 
 I have a bare suggestion. When there is a known body of 
 these voters, could not a true man, of the "detective" class, be 
 introduced among them in disguise, who could, at the nick of 
 time, control their votes? Think this over. It would be a 
 great thing, when this trick is attempted upon us, to have the 
 saddle come up on the other horse. 
 
 30th. At Springfield. 
 
 To-day closes the discussions of this canvass. The plant- 
 ing and the culture are over; and there remains but the prep- 
 aration and the harvest. 
 
 Ambition has been ascribed to me. God knows how sin- 
 cerely I prayed from the first that this field of ambition might 
 not be opened. I claim no insensibility to political honors ; but 
 to-day could the Missouri restriction be removed, and the 
 whole slavery question replaced on the old ground of "tolera- 
 tion" by necessity where it exists, with unyielding hostility to 
 the spread of it, on principle, I would, in consideration, gladly 
 agree, that Judge Douglas should never be out, and I never in, 
 an office, so long as we both, or either, live. 
 
 November 2nd. Legislature elected containing fifty-four 
 Douglas men and forty-six Lincoln men. 
 
 For such an awkward fellow I am pretty sure footed. It 
 used to take a pretty dexterous man to throw me. I remember 
 
174 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 the evening of the day in 1858 that decided the contest for the 
 Senate between Mr. Douglas and myself, was dark, rainy and 
 gloomy. I had been reading the returns (in the telegraph 
 office), and had ascertained that we had lost tat Legislature, 
 and started to go home. The path had been worn pegbacked 
 and was slippery. My foot slipped out from under me, knock- 
 ing the other out of the way; but I recovered and said to 
 myself, "It's a slip and not a fall" 
 
 6th. Enthusiastic meeting at Mansfield, Ohio, proposes 
 Lincoln as next Republican candidate for President. Despite 
 his defeat by Douglas his conduct in the debate has fixed upon 
 him the eyes of the whole nation. 
 
 16th. (To N. B. Judd.) Yours of the 15th is just re- 
 ceived. I wrote you the same day. As to the pecuniary mat- 
 ter, I am willing to pay according to my ability ; but I am the 
 poorest hand living to get others to pay. I have been on ex- 
 penses so long without earning anything that I am absolutely 
 without money now for even household purposes. Still if you 
 can put in two hundred and fifty dollars for me toward dis- 
 charging the debt of the committee, I will allow it when you 
 and I settle the private matter between us. This, with what 
 I have already paid, and with an outstanding note of mine, 
 will exceed my subscription of five hundred dollars. This, 
 too, is exclusive of my ordinary expenses during the campaign, 
 all of which being added to my loss of time and business, bears 
 pretty heavily upon one no better off in [this] world's goods 
 than I ; but as I had the post of honor, it is not for me to be 
 over nice. You are feeling badly — "And this too shall pass 
 away," never fear. 
 
 ipth. Well, the election is over ; and, in the main point, we 
 are beaten. Still my view is that the fight must go on. Let no 
 one falter. The question is not half settled. New splits and 
 
age 49] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 175 
 
 divisions will soon be upon our adversaries, and we shall fuse 
 again. 
 
 As a general rule, out of Sangamon as well as in it, much 
 of the plain old Democracy is with us, while nearly all the old 
 exclusive silk-stocking Whiggery is against us. I don't mean 
 nearly all the Old Whig party, but nearly all of the nice 
 exclusive sort. And why not? There has been nothing in 
 politics since the Revolution so congenial to their nature as the 
 present position of the great Democratic party. 
 
 I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on 
 the great and durable question of the age, which I could have 
 had in no other way ; and though I now sink out of view, and 
 shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which 
 will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone. 
 
 20th. (To Dr. C. H. Ray.) I believe, according to a let- 
 ter of yours to Hatch, you are "feeling like hell yet." Quit 
 that. You will soon feel better. Another "blow up" is com- 
 ing; and we shall have fun again. Douglas managed to be 
 supported both as the best instrument to put down and to up- 
 hold the slave power; but no ingenuity can long keep the 
 antagonism in harmony. 
 
 December 2nd. I am absent altogether too much to be 
 a suitable instructor for a law student. When a man has 
 reached the age that Mr. Widner has, and has already been 
 doing for himself, my judgment is, that he reads the books for 
 himself without an instructor. That is precisely the way I 
 came to the law. Let Mr. Widner read Blackstone's Com- 
 mentaries, and Chitty's Pleadings, Greenleaf's Evidence, 
 Story's Equity, and Story's Equity Pleadings, get a license, and 
 go to the practise, and still keep reading. That is my judg- 
 ment of the cheapest, quickest, and best way for Mr. Widner to 
 make a lawyer of himself. 
 
 nth. Douglas has gene South, making characteristic 
 speeches, and seeking to reinstate himself in that section. The 
 
176 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 majority of the Democratic politicians of the nation mean to 
 kill him ; but I doubt whether they will adopt the aptest way to 
 do it. Their true way is to present him with no new test, let 
 him into the Charleston convention, and then out-vote him, and 
 nominate another. In that case, he will have no pretext for 
 bolting the nomination, and will be as powerless as they can 
 wish. On the other hand, if they push a Slave Code upon him, 
 as a test, he will bolt at once, turn upon us, as in the case of 
 Lecompton, and claim that all Northern men shall make com- 
 mon cause in electing him President as the best means of 
 breaking down the Slave power. In that case, the Democratic 
 party go into a minority inevitably; and the struggle in the 
 whole North will be, as it was in Illinois last summer and fall, 
 whether the Republican party can maintain its identity, or be 
 broken up to form the tail of Douglas's new kite. Some of 
 our great Republican doctors will then have a splendid chance 
 to swallow the pills they so eagerly prescribed for us last 
 spring. Still I hope they will not swallow them ; and although 
 I do not feel that I owe the said doctors much, I will help them, 
 to the best of my ability, to reject the said pills. The truth is, 
 the Republican principle can in no wise live with Douglas ; and 
 it is arrant folly now, as it was last spring, to waste time, and 
 scatter labor already performed, in dallying with him. 
 
 1 2th. I expect the result of the election went hard with 
 you. So it did with me, too, perhaps not quite so hard as you 
 may have supposed. I have an abiding faith that we shall beat 
 them in the long run. 
 
1859 
 
 Though confident that his party is growing in strength, he 
 opens the new year despondent about his own prospects. He 
 appears to put little value upon the applause called forth by the 
 debates. 
 
 January 6th. Well, whatever happens I expect every one 
 to desert me now but Billy Herndon. 
 
 2pth. Our friends here from different parts of the State, 
 in and out of the Legislature, are united, resolute, and de- 
 termined and I think it is almost certain that we shall be far 
 better organized for i860 than ever before. 
 
 Other people by no means think Lincoln a dead dog. 
 Trumbull fears a contest with him over Trumbull 's place in the 
 Senate. 
 
 February 3rd. (To Lyman Trumbull.) And I beg to 
 assure you, beyond all possible cavil, that you can scarcely 
 be more anxious to be sustained two years hence than I ara 
 that you shall be so sustained. I can not conceive it possible 
 for me to be a rival of yours, or to take sides against you in 
 favor of any rival. Nor do I think there is much danger of the 
 old Democratic and Whig elements of our party breaking into 
 opposing factions. They certainly shall not, if I can prevent it. 
 
 Again his profession demands his time. 
 
 March 2nd. Chicago. 
 
 At last I am here to give some attention to the suit of 
 Haines vs. Talcott and others. 
 
 177 
 
178 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1859 
 
 3rd. (To one of his clients.) I do not think there is the 
 least use of doing any more with the law suit. I not only do 
 not think you are sure to gain it, but I do think you are sure 
 to lose it. Therefore the sooner it ends the better. 
 
 He has evidence that his political reputation still lives. 
 
 5th. Springfield. 
 
 (To Thomas J. Pickett.) Yours of the 2nd instant, invit- 
 ing me to deliver my lecture on "Inventions" in Rock Island, 
 is at hand, and I regret to be unable from press of business to 
 comply therewith. In regard to the other matter you speak of, 
 I beg that you will not give it a further mention. Seriously, I 
 do not think I am fit for Presidency. 
 
 It is proposed to publish his speeches. 
 
 26th. (To William A. Ross.) I would really be pleased 
 with a publication substantially as you proposed. But I would 
 suggest a few variations from your plan. I would not include 
 the Republican platform ; because that would give the work a 
 one-sided party cast, unless the Democratic platform is also 
 included. 
 
 I would not take all the speeches from the Press-Tribune; 
 but I would take mine from that paper; and those of Judge 
 Douglas from the Chicago Times. 
 
 My scrap book would be the best thing to print from; 
 still, as it cost me a good deal of labor to get it up, and I am 
 very desirous to preserve the substance of it permanently, I 
 would not let it go out of my control. If an arrangement 
 could be made to print it in Springfield, under my supervision, 
 I would allow the scrap book to be used, and would claim no 
 share in any profit that could be made out of the publication. 
 
 28th. (To William M. Morris.) Your note inviting me 
 
age 50] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 179 
 
 to deliver a lecture at Galesburg, is received. I regret to say 
 I can not do so now : I must stick to the courts a while. I read 
 a sort of lecture to three different audiences during the last 
 month and this ; but I did so under circumstances which made 
 it a waste of no time whatever. 
 
 There is gratifying evidence that in a way he has become 
 a national figure. 
 
 April 6th. (To several gentlemen of Boston.) Your 
 kind note inviting me to attend a festival in Boston, on the 
 28th instant, in honor of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, 
 was duly received. My engagements are such that I can not 
 attend. 
 
 I remember being once much amused at seeing two partially 
 intoxicated men engaged in a fight with their great overcoats 
 on, which fight, after a long and rather harmless contest, ended 
 in each having fought himself out of his own coat and into 
 that of the other. If the two leading parties of this day are 
 really identical with the two in the days of Jefferson and 
 Adams, they have performed the same feat as the two drunken 
 men. 
 
 But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles 
 of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. 
 
 The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms 
 of free society. And yet they are denied and evaded, with 
 no small show of success. One dashingly calls them "glitter- 
 ing generalities." Another bluntly calls them "self-evident 
 lies." And others insidiously argue that they apply to "supe- 
 rior races." These expressions, differing in form, are iden- 
 tical in object and effect — the supplanting the principles of 
 free government, and restoring those of classification, caste, 
 and legitimacy. They would delight a convocation of crowned 
 heads plotting against the people. They are the vanguard, the 
 
180 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1859 
 
 miners and the sappers of returning despotism. We must re- 
 pulse them or they will subjugate us. This is a world of com- 
 pensation ; and he who would be no slave must consent to have 
 no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for 
 themselves, and, under a just God, can not long retain it. All 
 honor to Jefferson — to the man who, in the concrete pressure of 
 a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the 
 coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely rev- 
 olutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and 
 all times, and so to embalm it there that to-day and in all com- 
 ing days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very 
 harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression. 
 
 As a detail of the approaching political campaign Repub- 
 lican managers take thought of the German vote in Illinois. 
 
 nth. Springfield. 
 
 (To Gustave Koerner.) The meeting of the Central Com- 
 mittee was at Bloomington, and not here. I was there attend- 
 ing court, and, in common with several other outsiders, one of 
 whom was Judge Trumbull, was in conference with the Com- 
 mittee, to some extent. Judge Trumbull privately mentioned 
 the subject of which you wrote to me, and requested me to 
 prepare a resolution, which I did. When I brought in the 
 resolution and read it to the Committee, and others present, in 
 an informal way, Judge Trumbull suggested that it would be 
 better to select some act of our adversaries, rather than of our 
 friends, upon which to base a protest against any distinction 
 between native and naturalized citizens, as to the right of 
 suffrage. This led to a little parley. I was called from the 
 room, the thing passed from my mind, and I do not know 
 whether anything was done about it by the Committee. Judge 
 Trumbull will be in Belleville when this reaches you, and he 
 probably can tell you all about it. Whether anything was done 
 
age 5 o] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 181 
 
 or not, something must be, the next time the Committee meets, 
 which I presume will be before long. 
 
 An obscure political movement is working quietly out of 
 sight of the public. T. J. Pickett, a newspaper editor, writes 
 to Lincoln: "I would like to have a talk with you on political 
 matters as to announcing your name for the Presidency. My 
 partner and myself are about addressing the Republican edi- 
 tors of the State on the subject of a simultaneous announce- 
 
 1 6th. (To T. J. Pickett.) I must in candor say I do not 
 think myself fit for Presidency. I certainly am flattered and 
 gratified that some partial friends think of me in that con- 
 nection; but I really think it best for our cause that no con- 
 certed effort, as you suggest, should be made. Let this be 
 considered confidential. 
 
 May ijth. (To Theodore Canisius.) Your note asking, 
 in behalf of yourself and other German citizens, whether I 
 am for or against the constitutional provision in regard to 
 naturalized citizens, lately adopted by Massachusetts, and 
 whether I am for or against a fusion of the Republicans, and 
 other opposition elements, for the canvass of i860, is received. 
 
 Massachusetts is a sovereign and independent State; and 
 it is no privilege of mine to scold her for what she does. Still, 
 if from what she has done an inference is sought to be drawn 
 as to what I would do, I may without impropriety speak out. 
 I say, then, I am against its adoption in Illinois, or any place 
 where I have a right to oppose it. Understanding the spirit 
 of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men I am opposed 
 to whatever tends to degrade them. I have some little notoriety 
 for commiserating the oppressed condition of the negro; and I 
 should be strangely inconsistent if I could favor any project 
 for curtailing the existing rights of white men, even though 
 
1 82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1859 
 
 born in different lands and speaking different languages from 
 myself. As a matter of fusion, I am for it if it can be had on 
 Republican grounds ; and I am not for it on any other terms. 
 
 30th. Purchases Illinois Staats Anzeiger and contracts 
 with Theodore Canisius to edit it as a Republican organ. The 
 purchase is effected by a confidential arrangement and is not 
 made public. 
 
 He has letters of consultation from national leaders attest- 
 ing his growth in importance. 
 
 June 20th. (To S. P. Chase.) Yours of the 13th instant is 
 received. You say you would be glad to have my views. Al- 
 though I think Congress has Constitutional authority to en- 
 act a fugitive slave law, I have never elaborated an opinion 
 on the subject. My view has been, ever is, simply this : The 
 U. S. Constitution says the fugitive slave "shall be delivered 
 up" but it does not expressly say who shall deliver him up. 
 Whatever the Constitution says "shall be done" and has 
 omitted saying who shall do it, the government established by 
 that Constitution, ex vi termini, is vested with the power of 
 doing; and Congress is, by the Constitution, expressly em- 
 powered to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper 
 for carrying into execution all powers vested by the Consti- 
 tution in the government of the United States. This would 
 be my view, on a simple reading of the Constitution; and it 
 is greatly strengthened by the historical fact that the Consti- 
 tution was adopted, in great part, in order to get a government 
 which could execute its own behests, in contradistinction to that 
 under the Articles of Confederation, which depended in many 
 respects upon the States for its execution ; and the other fact 
 that one of the earliest Congresses under the Constitution, did 
 enact a Fugitive Slave law. 
 
age 5 o] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 183 
 
 But I do not write you on this subject, with any view of 
 discussing the Constitutional question. My only object was 
 to impress you with what I believe is true, that the introduc- 
 tion of a proposition for repeal of the Fugitive Law into the 
 next Republican National convention will explode the conven- 
 tion and the party. Having turned your attention to this point, 
 I wish to do no more. 
 
 23rd. From the passage of the Nebraska bill up to date, 
 the Southern opposition have constantly sought to gain an 
 advantage over the rotten democracy, by running ahead of 
 them in the extreme opposition to, and vilification and mis- 
 representation of black republicans. It will be a good deal, if 
 we fail to remember this in malice, (as I hope we shall fail to 
 remember it) ; but it is altogether too much to ask us to stand 
 with them on the platform which has proven altogether in- 
 sufficient to sustain them alone. If the rotten democracy shall 
 be beaten in i860, it has to be done by the North, no human 
 invention can deprive them of the South. I do not deny that 
 there are as good men in the South as the North ; and I guess 
 we will elect one of them if he will allow us to do so on Re- 
 publican ground. I think there can be no other ground of 
 union. For my single self I would be willing to risk some 
 Southern man without a platform ; but I am satisfied that is 
 not the case with the Republican party generally. 
 
 His political insight perceives the internal dangers of his 
 party. 
 
 Jidy 6th. (To Schuyler Colfax.) Besides a strong de- 
 sire to make your personal acquaintance, I was anxious to 
 speak with you on politics a little more fully than I can well do 
 in a letter. 
 
 My main object in such conversation would be to hedge 
 against divisions in the Republican ranks generally, and par- 
 
184 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1859 
 
 ticularly for the contest of i860. The point of danger is the 
 temptation in different localities to "platform" for some- 
 thing which will be popular there, but which, nevertheless, will 
 be a brand elsewhere, and especially in a national convention. 
 As instances, the movement against foreigners in Massachu- 
 setts; in New Hampshire, to make obedience to the Fugitive 
 Slave law punishable as a crime ; in Ohio, to repeal the Fugitive 
 Slave law ; and squatter sovereignty in Kansas. In these things 
 there is explosive enough to blow up half a dozen national 
 conventions, if it gets into them; and what gets very rife out- 
 side of conventions is very likely to find its way into them. 
 What is desirable, if possible, is that in every local convocation 
 of Republicans a point should be made to avoid everything 
 which will disturb Republicans elsewhere. Massachusetts Re- 
 publicans should have looked beyond their noses, and then they 
 could not have failed to see that tilting against foreigners 
 would ruin us in the whole Northwest. New Hampshire and 
 Ohio should forbear tilting against the Fugitive Slave law in 
 such a way as to utterly overwhelm us in Illinois with the 
 charges of enmity to the Constitution itself. Kansas, in her 
 confidence that she can be saved to freedom on "Squatter 
 sovereignty," ought not to forget that to prevent the spread and 
 nationalization of slavery is a national concern, and must be 
 attended to by the nation. 
 
 Still the subterranean movement to nominate him for the 
 presidency goes on. 
 
 28th, (To Samuel Galloway.) Two things done by the 
 Ohio Republican convention — the repudiation of Judge Swan, 
 and the "plank" for a repeal of the Fugitive Slave law — I very 
 much regretted. These two things are of a piece; and they 
 are viewed by many good men, sincerely opposed to slavery, as 
 a struggle against, and in disregard of, the Constitution itself. 
 
age 50] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 185 
 
 And it is the very thing which will greatly endanger our cause, 
 if it is not kept out of our national convention. 
 
 I must say that I do not think myself fit for the presidency. 
 
 His form of politics does not pay and his range of political 
 activity is limited by his poverty. 
 
 August 6th. It is bad to be poor. I shall go to the wall for 
 bread and meat, if I neglect my business this year as well as 
 last. It would please me much to see the City and good people 
 of Keokuk, but for this year it is little less than an impossi- 
 bility. I am constantly receiving invitations which I am com- 
 pelled to decline. I was pressingly urged to go to Minnesota ; 
 and I now have two invitations to go to Ohio. These last are 
 prompted by Douglas going there ; and I am really tempted to 
 make a flying trip to Columbus and Cincinnati. 
 
 September 6th. (To Peter Zinn.) Yours of the 2nd in 
 relation to my appearing at Cincinnati in behalf of the Oppo- 
 sition is received. I already had a similar letter from Mr. 
 W. J. Bascom, Secretary of the Republican State Central Com- 
 mittee at Columbus, which I answer to-day. You are in cro- 
 respondence with him, and will learn all from him. I shall 
 try to speak at Columbus and Cincinnati, but can not do more. 
 
 He makes the promised journey to Ohio. 
 
 lyth. At Cincinnati. 
 
 This is the first time in my life that I have appeared 
 before an audience in so great a city as this. I therefore — 
 though I am no longer a young man — make this appearance 
 under some degree of embarrassment. But I have found that 
 when one is embarrassed, usually the shortest way to get 
 through with it is to quit talking or thinking about it, and go 
 at something else. 
 
1 86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1859 
 
 Labor is the great source from which nearly all, if not all, 
 human comforts and necessities are drawn. There is a differ- 
 ence in opinion about the elements of labor in society. Some 
 men assume that there is a necessary connection between cap- 
 ital and labor, and that connection draws within it the whole 
 of the labor of the community. 
 
 They assume that nobody works unless capital excites them 
 to work. They begin next to consider what is the best way. 
 They say there are but two ways; one is to hire men and to 
 allure them to labor by their consent; the other is to buy the 
 men and to drive them to it; and that is slavery. Having 
 assumed that, they proceed to discuss the question of whether 
 the laborers themselves are better off in the condition of slaves 
 or of hired laborers, and they usually decide that they are bet- 
 ter off in the condition of slaves. 
 
 In the first place, I say that the whole thing is a mistake. 
 That there is a certain relation between capital and labor, I 
 admit. That it does exist, and rightfully exists, I think is true. 
 That men who are industrious and sober and honest in the pur- 
 suit of their own interests should after a while accumulate cap- 
 ital, and after that should be allowed to enjoy it in peace, and 
 also if they choose, when they have accumulated it, to use it to 
 save themselves from actual labor and hire other people to 
 labor for them, is right. In doing so, they do not wrong the 
 man they employ, for they find men who have not their own 
 land to work upon, or shops to work in, and who are benefited 
 by working for others — hired laborers, receiving their capital 
 for it. Thus a few men that own capital hire others, and these 
 establish the relation of capital and labor rightfully — a relation 
 of which I make no complaint. 
 
 30th. Delivers the Annual Address before the Wisconsin 
 State Agricultural Society at Milwaukee. 
 
acs so] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 187 
 
 October nth. I was an old Henry Clay-Tariff Whig. In 
 old days I made more speeches on that subject than any other. 
 
 I have not since changed my views. I believe yet, if we 
 could have a moderate, carefully adjusted, protective tariff, so 
 far acquiesced in as not to be a perpetual subject of political 
 strife, squabbles, changes, and uncertainties, it would be better 
 for us. Still it is my opinion that just now the revival of that 
 question will not advance the cause itself, or the man who re- 
 vives it. 
 
 I have not thought much on the subject recently, but my 
 general impression is that the necessity for a protective tariff 
 will ere long force its old opponents to take it up ; and then its 
 old friends can join in and establish it on a more firm and 
 durable basis. 
 
 17th. (To Mark W. Delahay.) As to the pecuniary mat- 
 ter, about which you formerly wrote me, I again appealed to 
 our friend Turner by letter, but he never answered. I can but 
 repeat to you that I am so pressed myself, as to be unable to 
 assist you, unless I could get it from him. 
 
 Though his silent friends are Still hoping to bring about his 
 nomination, he still refrains from committing himself. 
 
 November 1st. For my single self, I have enlisted for the 
 permanent success of the Republican cause; and for this ob- 
 ject I shall labor faithfully in the ranks, unless, as I think not 
 probable, the judgment of the party shall assign me a different 
 position. 
 
 December. A speech-making trip in Kansas is a great pop- 
 ular success. Arguments of the Douglas debates are effec- 
 tually used again. 
 
 pth. (To N. B. Judd.) I do not understand Trumbull 
 and myself to be rivals. I am pledged to not enter a struggle 
 
1 88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1859 
 
 with him for the seat of the Senate now occupied by him; 
 and yet I would rather have a full term in the Senate than in 
 the Presidency. 
 
 ipth. (To G. M. Parsons and Others.) Your letter of the 
 7th instant, accompanied by a similar one from the governor- 
 elect, the Republican State officers, and the Republican mem- 
 bers of the State Board of Equalization of Ohio, both re- 
 questing of me, for publication in permanent form, copies of 
 the political debates between Senator Douglas and myself last 
 year, has been received. With my grateful acknowledgments 
 to both you and them for the very flattering terms in which 
 the request is communicated, I transmit you the copies. 
 
 As evidence of the growth of his silent "boom" his friends 
 obtain from him the earliest sketch of his life. 
 
 20th. (To J. W. Fell.) Herewith is a little sketch, as you 
 requested. There is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, 
 that there is not much of me. If anything be made out of it, 
 I wish it to be modest, and not to go beyond the material. If it 
 were thought necessary to incorporate anything from any of 
 my speeches, I suppose there would be no objection. Of course 
 it must not appear to have been written by myself. 
 
 If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it 
 may be said that I am, in height, six feet four inches, nearly; 
 lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty 
 pounds ; dark complexion, with coarse black hair and grey eyes, 
 no other marks or brands recollected.* 
 
 22nd. The Union we intend to keep, and loyal states will 
 not let disloyal ones break it. Its constitution and laws made 
 in pursuance thereof must and shall remain, "the supreme law 
 
 *The entries in this record which cover his early years are drawn in 
 part from the sketch of himself prepared for Fell. Others are from a fullei; 
 sketch prepared in i860. 
 
age so] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 189 
 
 of the land." The enforcement of what laws? If they are 
 those which give the use of jails and domestic police for mas- 
 ters seeking "fugitives from labor" that means war in the 
 North. No law is stronger than is the public sentiment where 
 it is to be enforced. Free speech and immunity from the whip 
 and tar and feathers, seem implied by the guarantee of each 
 state of "a republican form of government." Try Henry Clay's 
 "gradual emancipation" scheme now in Kentucky, or to cir- 
 culate W. L. Garrison's Liberator where most men are sali- 
 vated by the excessive use of the Charleston Mercury. Father 
 told a story of a man in your parts required to give a warran- 
 tee bill of sale with a horse. He wrote, "I warrant him sound 
 in skin and skeleton and without faults or faculties." That is 
 more than I can say of an unmeaning platform. Compromises 
 of principles break of their own weight. 
 
 Old John Brown has been executed for treason against a 
 State.* 
 
 We Republicans can not object, even though he agreed with 
 us in thinking slavery wrong. That can not excuse violence, 
 bloodshed and treason. It could avail him nothing that he 
 might think himself right. So, if we constitutionally elect a 
 President, and therefore you, Democrats, 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 measures necessary. 
 
 ♦December 2nd, 1859. 
 
1860 
 
 January ipth. (To Alexander H. Stephens.) Your letter 
 and one from Honorable J. J. Crittenden, reached me at the 
 same time. He wants a new party on the platform of "The 
 Union, the Constitution and the Enforcement of Laws," — not 
 construed. You from your retirement at Liberty Hall com- 
 plain of the bad faith of many in the Free States who refuse to 
 return fugitives from labor, as agreed in the compromise of 
 1850, 1854; but I infer that you agree with Judge Douglas that 
 the territories are to be left to "form and regulate their own 
 domestic institutions subject only to the Constitution of the 
 United States." 
 
 When we were both members of the Young-Indian Club in 
 Washington,* you then argued for paramount state Sov- 
 ereignty going very nearly to the extreme of state nullification 
 of Federal laws with John C. Calhoun; and of secession at 
 will with Robert Toombs. The Colonies were subject up to 
 July 4, 1776, and had no recognized independence until they 
 won it in 1783; but the only time they ever had the shadows 
 of separate sovereignty was in the two years before they were 
 compelled to the articles of Confederation July 9, 1778. They 
 fought England for seven years for the right to club together 
 but when were they independent of each other? Let me say 
 right here that only unanimous consent of all the States can 
 dissolve this Union. We shall not secede and you shall not. 
 Let me show you what I think of the reserved rights of the 
 states as declared in the articles of Confederation and in the 
 
 *When Lincoln was a member of Congress. 
 
 190 
 
age 5 o] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 191 
 
 Constitution and so-called Jeffersonian amendments; suppose 
 that I sold a farm here in Illinois with all and singular the 
 rights, members and appurtenances to the same in any wise 
 belonging or appertaining, signed, sealed, and delivered : I 
 have now sold my land. Will it at all change the contract if 
 I go to the clerk's office and add a post script to the record; 
 that all rights not therein conveyed I reserve to myself and my 
 children? The colonies, by the Declaration of July 4, 1776, 
 did not get nationality, for they were leagued to fight for it. 
 By the articles of Confederation of July 9, 1778, under stress 
 and peril of failure without union, a government was created 
 to which the states ceded certain powers of nationality, espe- 
 cially in the command of the army and navy, as yet supported 
 by the states. 
 
 Three years later Virginia led the states in urging con- 
 cessions of power, and then by twelve states — Rhode Island 
 objecting — was framed our original Constitution of 1787, 
 fully three and a half years after the peace that sealed our 
 United National Independence. No loop hole left for nulli- 
 fication, and none for secession — because the right of peaceable 
 assembly and of petition and by the Article Fifth of the Con- 
 stitution, the right of amendment is the Constitutional substi- 
 tute for revolution. Here is our Magna Charta not wrested by 
 Barons from King John, but the free gift of the states to the 
 nation they create and in the very amendments harped upon by 
 states rights men are proposed by Federal congress and ap- 
 proved by Presidents, to make the liberties of the Republic of 
 the West forever sure. All of the States' Rights which they 
 wished to retain are now and forever retained in the Union, 
 including slavery, and so I have sworn loyalty to this constitu- 
 tional Union, and for it let me live or let me die. 
 
 I am not in favor of a party of Union, Constitution and 
 Law to suit Mr. Bell or Mr. Everett and be construed variously 
 in as many sections as there are states, 
 
192 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 February. Requested by letter to speak in Mr. Beecher's 
 church in Brooklyn. He accepts the invitation. 
 
 By this time his friends have gone so far in working up the 
 confidential movement for his nomination that he decides to 
 let their course determine his own. 
 
 pth. (To N. B. Judcl.) I am not in a position where it 
 would mean much for me not to be nominated on the national 
 ticket; but I am where it would hurt some for me to not get 
 the Illinois delegates. What I expected when I wrote the letter 
 to Messrs. Dole and others is now happening. Your discom- 
 fited assailants are most bitter against me; and they will, for 
 revenge upon me, lay to the Bates egg in the South, and to the 
 Seward egg in the North, and go far toward squeezing me out 
 in the middle with nothing. Can you not help me a little in 
 this matter in your end of the vineyard? I mean this to be 
 private. 
 
 13th. I am engaged to be in Brooklyn the evening of the 
 29th. 
 
 Plan for an address at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, 
 changed; address to be given at Cooper Institute, New York, 
 under the auspices of the Young Men's Central Republican 
 Union. 
 
 25th. New York. 
 
 (On arrival at the offices of the Editor of the Independent, 
 who had promoted the Cooper Institute meeting.) 
 
 Is this Mr. Henry C. Bowen? (Mr. Bowen, rather 
 curtly, — Yes.) I am Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Bowen, I am just 
 in from Springfield, Illinois, and I am very tired. If you 
 have no objection I will lie down on your lounge here and you 
 can tell me about the arrangements for Monday night. 
 
 26th. (After hearing Beecher preach.) Mr. Bowen, you 
 
age si] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 193 
 
 will have to excuse me from dining with you. I would very 
 much enjoy meeting you and your friends at dinner, but, as a 
 matter of fact, I have not fully prepared the speech that I am 
 to deliver Monday night. I must go over to the Astor House 
 and work on it. 
 
 2jt'h. At Cooper Union he is escorted to the platform by 
 Horace Greeley and David Dudley Field. William Cidlen Bry- 
 ant introduces him. He makes a deep impression on a very 
 influential audience. Besides skilfully formulating the general 
 Republican position, he boldly passes judgment on the recent 
 episode of John Brown with which at the moment the whole 
 country is ringing. 
 
 (At Cooper Institute.) Now, and here, let me guard 
 a little against being misunderstood. I do not mean to 
 say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers 
 did. To do so would be to distract all the lights of current 
 experience — to reject all progress — all improvement. What I 
 do say is, that, if we should supplant the opinions and policy 
 of our fathers in any case, we should do so on evidence so 
 conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their great author- 
 ity, fairly considered and weighed, can not stand ; and most 
 surely not in a case whereof we ourselves declare they under- 
 stood the question better than we. 
 
 And now, if they would listen — as I suppose they will not — 
 I would address a few words to the Southern people. 
 
 You charge that we stir up insurrections among your 
 slaves. We deny it. And what is your proof? Harper's 
 Ferry? John Brown? John Brown was no Republican; and 
 you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's 
 Ferry enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty in that 
 matter, you know it, or you do not know it. If you do know 
 it, you are inexcusable for not designating the man and proving 
 
194 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 the fact. If you do not know it, you are inexcusable for as- 
 serting it, and especially for persisting in the assertion after you 
 have tried and failed to make the proof. 
 
 John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insur- 
 rection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt 
 among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In 
 fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, 
 saw plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in its 
 philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts, related in 
 history, at the assassination of kings and emperors. An en- 
 thusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies 
 himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ven- 
 tures the attempt, which ends in little less than his own execu- 
 tion. Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's 
 attempt at Harper's Ferry, were, in their philosophy, precisely 
 the same. The eagerness to cast blame on old England in the 
 one case, and on New England in the other, does not disprove 
 the sameness of the two things. 
 
 March. Left for New Hampshire where I have a son in 
 school. 
 
 6th. At New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 Whenever this question shall be settled, it must be settled 
 on some philosophical basis. No policy that does not rest on 
 philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained. 
 And hence there are but two policies in regard to slavery that 
 can be at all maintained. The first, based on the property view 
 that slavery is right, conforms to that idea throughout, and 
 demands that we shall do everything for it that we ought to do 
 if it were right. We must sweep away all opposition, for 
 opposition to the right is wrong ; we must agree that slavery is 
 right, and we must adopt the idea that property has persuaded 
 the owner to believe that slavery is morally right and socially 
 elevating. This gives a philosophical basis for a permanent 
 policy of encouragement, 
 
age 5 i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 195 
 
 The other policy is one that squares with the idea that 
 slavery is wrong, and it consists in doing everything that we 
 ought to do if it is wrong. Now I don't wish to be misunder- 
 stood, nor to leave a gap down to be misrepresented, even. I 
 don't mean that we ought to attack it where it exists. To me 
 it seems that if we were to form a government anew, in view of 
 the actual presence of slavery we should find it necessary to 
 frame just such a government as our fathers did — giving to 
 the slave-holder the entire control where the system was estab- 
 lished, while we possess the power to restrain it from going 
 outside those limits. From the necessities of the case we 
 should be compelled to form just such a government as our 
 blessed fathers gave us; and surely if they have so made it, 
 that adds another reason why we should let slavery alone 
 where it exists. 
 
 Returns home through New York from New England. 
 
 1 6th. (To Mark W. Delahay.) As to your kind wishes 
 for myself, allow me to say I can not enter the ring on the 
 money basis — first, because in the main it is wrong, and sec- 
 ondly, I have not and can not get the money. I say, in the 
 main, the use of money is wrong; but for certain objects in a 
 political contest, the use of some is both right and indispen- 
 sable. With me, as with yourself, the long struggle has been 
 one of pecuniary loss. 
 
 I now distinctly say this: if you shall be appointed a dele- 
 gate to Chicago, I will furnish one hundred dollars to bear the 
 expenses of the trip. 
 
 (To Lyman Trumbull.) Our friend Delahay wants to be 
 one oi the Senators from Kansas. Certainly it is not for out- 
 siders to obtrude their interference. Delahay has suffered a 
 great deal in our cause, and been very faithful to it, as I under- 
 stand. He writes me that some of the members of the Kansas 
 
196 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 Legislature have written you in a way that your simple answer 
 might help him. I wish you would consider whether you can 
 not assist him that far, without impropriety. I know it is a 
 delicate matter and I do not wish to press you beyond your 
 own judgment. 
 
 24th. Chicago. 
 
 (To Samuel Galloway.) I am here attending a trial 
 in court. Before leaving home I received your kind letter of 
 the 15th. Of course I am gratified to know that I have friends 
 in Ohio who are disposed to give me the highest evidence of 
 their friendship and confidence. Mr. Parrot, of the Legisla- 
 ture, had written me to the same effect. If I have any chance, 
 it consists mainly in the fact that the whole opposition would 
 vote for me, if nominated. (I don't mean to include the pro- 
 slavery opposition of the South, of course). My name is new 
 in the field, and I suppose I am not the first choice of a very 
 great many. Our policy, then, is to give no offense to others — 
 leave them in a mood to come to us if they shall be compelled to 
 give up their first love. This, too, is dealing justly with all, 
 and leaving us in a mood to support heartily whoever shall be 
 nominated. I believe that I have once before told you that I 
 wish especially to do no ungenerous thing toward Governor 
 Chase, because he gave us his sympathy in 1858 when scarcely 
 any other distinguished man did. Whatever you may do for 
 me, consistently with these suggestions, will be appreciated and 
 gratefully remembered. 
 
 With the great event of his life impending he keeps pa- 
 tiently at his professional duties. 
 
 26th. Chicago. 
 
 (To Ward H. Lamon.) Yours about notions to quash the 
 indictment was received yesterday. I think I had no authority 
 but the statute when I wrote the indictment — in fact I remem- 
 ber but a little about it. I think yet there is no necessity for 
 
age 51] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 197 
 
 setting out the letter in haec verba. Our statute as I think 
 releases the high degree of technical certainty formerly re- 
 quired. 
 
 I am so busy with our cause on trial here that I can not 
 examine authorities here as fully as you can there. If after all 
 the indictment shall be quashed it will prove that my forte is 
 as a statesman rather than a prosecutor. 
 
 April 6th. Springfield. 
 
 (To R. M. Corwine.) Reaching home after an absence of 
 more than two weeks, I found your letter of the 24th of March. 
 Remembering that when a not very great man begins to be 
 mentioned for a very great position, his head is very likely to 
 be a little turned, I conclude I am not the fittest person to 
 answer the questions you ask. Making due allowance for this, 
 I think Mr. Seward is the very best candidate we could have 
 for the North of Illinois, and the very worst for the South of 
 it. The estimate of Governor Chase here is neither better nor 
 worse than that of Seward, except that he is a newer man. 
 They are regarded as being almost the same, seniority gives 
 Seward the inside track. Mr. Bates, I think, would be the 
 best man for the South of our State, and the worst for the 
 North of it. If Judge McLean was fifteen or even ten years 
 younger, I think he would be stronger than either, in our State, 
 taken as a whole; but his great age, and the recollections of 
 the deaths of Harrison and Taylor have, so far, prevented his 
 being much spoken of. 
 
 I really believe we can carry the State for either of them, 
 or for any one who may be nominated ; but doubtless it would 
 be easier to do it with some than with others. 
 
 I feel myself disqualified to speak of myself in this mat- 
 ter. I feel this letter will be of little value to you; but I can 
 make it no better, under the circumstances. Let it be strictly 
 confidential, not that there is any thing really objectionable 
 in it, but because it might be misconstrued. 
 
 (To C. F. McNeil.) Reaching home yesterday, I found 
 
198 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 yours of the 23rd March, inclosing a slip from the Middleport 
 Press. It is not true that I ever charged anything for a politi- 
 cal speech in my life; but this much is true. Last October I 
 was requested by letter to deliver some sort of speech in Mr. 
 Beecher's church, in Brooklyn, $200 being offered in the first 
 letter. I wrote that I could do it in February, provided they 
 would take a political speech if I could find time to get up no 
 other. They agreed; and subsequently I informed them the 
 speech would have to be a political one. When I reached New 
 York, I, for the first time learned that the place was changed 
 to "Cooper's Institute.' , I made the speech, and left for New 
 Hampshire, where I had a son in school, neither asking for 
 pay, nor having any offered me. Three days after, a check 
 for $200 was sent to me at N. H. ; and I took it, and did not 
 know it was wrong. My understanding now is — though I 
 knew nothing of it at the time, — that they did charge for ad- 
 mittance to the Cooper Institute, and they took in more than 
 twice $200. 
 
 I have made this explanation to you as a friend ; but I wish 
 no explanation made to our enemies. What they want is a 
 squabble and a fuss; and that they can have if we explain; and 
 they can not have it if we don't. 
 
 When I returned through New York from New England, 
 I was told by the gentleman who sent me the check that a 
 drunken vagabond in the club, having learned something about 
 the $200, made the exhibition out of which The Herald manu- 
 factured the article quoted by the Press of your town. 
 
 My judgment is, and therefore my request is, that you give 
 no denial, and no explanations. 
 
 14th. (To Delahay.) You know I was in New England. 
 Some of the acquaintances I made while there write to me 
 since the election that the close vote in Connecticut and the 
 quasi defeat in R. I. are a drawback upon the prospects of Gov- 
 ernor Seward; and Trumbull writes Dubois to the same effect. 
 
age 5 i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 199 
 
 Do not mention this as coming from me. Both those States are 
 safe enough for us in the fall. I see by the despatches that 
 since you wrote Kansas has appointed delegates and instructed 
 them for Seward. Do not stir them up to anger, but come 
 along to the convention, and I will do as I said about the 
 expenses. 
 
 29th. (To Lyman Trumbull.) As you requested, I will 
 be entirely frank. The taste is in my mouth a little ; and this, 
 no doubt, disqualifies me, to some extent, to form correct 
 opinions. You may confidently rely, however, that by no 
 advice or consent of mine, shall my pretensions be pressed, to 
 the point of endangering our common cause. 
 
 A word now for your own special benefit. You better 
 write no letters which can possibly be distorted into opposition, 
 or quasi opposition to me. There are men on the constant 
 watch for such things out of which to prejudice my peculiar 
 friends against you. 
 
 While I have no more suspicion of you than of my best 
 friend living, I am kept in a constant struggle against sugges- 
 tions of this sort. I have hesitated some to write this para- 
 graph, lest you should suspect I do it for my own benefit, and 
 not for yours; but on reflection I conclude you will not suspect 
 me. 
 
 Let no eye but your own see this — not that there is anything 
 wrong, or even ungenerous, in it ; but it would be misconstrued. 
 
 May 2nd. (To James Grant Wilson.) I am greatly 
 obliged for the volume of your friend Fitz Green Halleck's 
 poems. Many a month has passed since I have met with any- 
 thing more admirable than his lines on Burns. With Alnwick 
 Castle, Marco Bozzaris, and Red Jacket, I am also much 
 pleased. 
 
 It is wonderful that you should have seen and known a 
 sister of Robert Burns. You must tell me something about 
 her when we meet again. 
 
200 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 (To R. M. Corwine.) I think the Illinois delegation will 
 be unanimous for me at the start; but may be restrained by 
 their colleagues. It is represented to me by men who ought to 
 know, that the whole of Indiana might not be difficult to get. 
 You know how it is in Ohio. I am certainly not the first 
 choice there ; and yet I have not heard that any one makes any 
 positive objection to me. It is just so everywhere as far as I 
 can perceive. Everywhere, except here in Illinois and possibly 
 in Indiana, one or another is preferred to me, but there is no 
 positive objection. 
 
 Attends the Republican State Convention which endorses 
 him as the Illinois candidate for the Presidency. His friends 
 exhibit fence rails which are said to have been made by hint 
 long before when a farm laborer, a ct rail splitter/' 
 
 gth. (To the Republican Convention.) Gentlemen, I sup- 
 pose you want to know something about those things [pointing 
 to old John and the rails]. Well, the truth is, John Hanks and 
 I did make rails in the Sangamon Bottom. I don't know 
 whether we made those rails or not; the fact is, I don't think 
 they are a credit to the makers [laughing as he spoke]. But I 
 do know this : I made rails then, and I think I could make bet- 
 ter ones than these now. 
 
 1 8th. Nominated for President by the Republican Conven- 
 tion at Chicago on the third ballot through a combination of 
 several minor groups against a major group that supported 
 Seward. 
 
 (After receiving news of the first ballot in the conven- 
 tion.) The despatches seem to be coming to the Journal office, 
 by arrangement, I presume; we had better go over there. (On 
 receiving the telegram announcing his nomination.) I felt 
 
age 5 i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 20I 
 
 sure this would come when I saw the second ballot. ( In reply 
 to the immediate suggestion that a life of him should be writ- 
 ten.) My friend, I do not see much in my life yet to write 
 about. (As he makes his way through a crowd of congratula- 
 tory friends.) There is a lady over yonder on Eighth Street 
 who is deeply interested in this news ; I will carry it to her. 
 
 2 1 st, (Reply to the Committee sent by the Chicago Con- 
 vention to inform him of his nomination for President.) 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: 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 inseparable 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 distin- 
 guished 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 and 
 unreasonable delay, respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, 
 not doubting that the platform will be found satisfactory, and 
 the nomination gratefully accepted. And now I will no longer 
 defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of you, by the hand. 
 
 26th. (To S. P. Chase.) It gave me great pleasure to 
 receive yours, mistakenly dated May 17. Holding myself the 
 humblest of all whose names were before the convention, I feel 
 in especial need of the assistance of all; and I am glad — very 
 glad — of the indication that you stand ready. It is a great 
 consolation that so nearly all — all except Mr. Bates and Mr. 
 Clay, I believe — of those distinguished and able men are al- 
 ready in high position to do service in the common cause. 
 
 (To C. B. Smith.) Yours of the 21st was duly received; 
 but I have found no time until now, to say a word in the way 
 of answer. I am, indeed, much indebted to Indiana; and, as 
 
202 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 my home friends tell me, much to you personally. Your saying 
 you no longer consider Iowa a doubtful State is very gratifying. 
 The thing stacts well everywhere — too well, I almost fear, to 
 last. But we are in, and stick or go through, must be the word. 
 
 31st, (To Charles C. Nott.) Yours of the 23rd accom- 
 panied by a copy of the speech delivered by me at the Cooper 
 Institute, and upon which you make some notes for emenda- 
 tions, was received some days ago. Of course I would not 
 object to, but would be pleased rather, with a more pejfect 
 edition of that speech. 
 
 I did not preserve memoranda of my investigations ; and I 
 could not now reexamine, and make notes, without an expendi- 
 ture of time which I can not put on it. Some of your notes I 
 do not understand. 
 
 So far as it is intended merely to improve in grammar and 
 elegance of composition, I am quite agreed; but I do not wish 
 the sense changed, or modified, to a hair's breadth. 
 
 June '$th. (To Trumbull.) I see by the papers this morn- 
 ing, that Mr. Fillmore refuses to go with us. What do the 
 New Yorkers at Washington think of this? Governor Reeder 
 was here last evening direct from Pennsylvania. He is entirely 
 confident of that State, and of the general result. I do not 
 remember to have heard General Cameron's opinion of Penn- 
 sylvania. Weed was here and saw me; but he showed no 
 signs whatever of the intriguer. He asked for nothing; and 
 said New York is safe, without condition. 
 
 Remembering that Peter denied his Lord with an oath, 
 after most solemnly protesting that he never would, I will not 
 swear that I will make no committals ; but I do think I will not. 
 
 28th. (To William Cullen Bryant.) Please accept my 
 thanks for the honor done me in your letter of the 16th. I ap- 
 preciate the danger against which you would guard me ; nor am 
 I wanting in the purpose to avoid it. I thank you for the ad- 
 ditional strength your words give me to maintain that purpose. 
 
age 5 i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 203 
 
 July 4th. (To A. G. Henry.) Our boy, in his tenth year, 
 (the baby when you left), has just had a hard and tedious spell 
 of scarlet fever, and he is not yet beyond all danger. I have 
 a headache and a sore throat upon me now, inducing me to 
 suspect that I have an inferior type of the same thing. 
 
 Our eldest boy, Bob, has been away from us nearly a year 
 at school, and will enter Harvard University this month. He 
 promises very well, considering we never controlled him much. 
 
 1 8th. (To Hannibal Hamlin.) It appears to me that you 
 and I ought to be acquainted, and accordingly I write this as a 
 sort of introduction of myself to you. You first entered the 
 Senate during the single term I was a member of the House 
 of Representatives, but I have no recollection that we were 
 introduced. I shall be pleased to receive a line from you. 
 
 The prospect of the Republican success now appears very 
 flattering, so far as I can perceive. Do you see anything to 
 the contrary? 
 
 2 1 st. (To A. Jonas.) I suppose that as good or even 
 better men than I may have been in American or Know- 
 Nothing lodges; but, in point of fact, I never was in one, in 
 Quincy or elsewhere. I was never in Quincy but one day and 
 two nights while Know-Nothing lodges were in existence, and 
 you were with me that day and both those nights. I had never 
 been there before in my life, and never afterward, till the joint 
 debate with Douglas in 1858. It was in 1854 when I spoke 
 in some hall there, and after the speaking, you, with others, 
 took me to an oyster-saloon, passed an hour there, and you 
 walked with me to, and parted with me at the Quincy House, 
 quite late at night. I left by stage for Naples before daylight 
 in the morning, having come in by the same route after dark 
 the evening previous to the speaking, when I found you wait- 
 ing at the Quincy House to meet me. 
 
 And now a word of caution. Our adversaries think they 
 can gain a point if they could force me to openly deny the 
 
204 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 charge, by which some degree of offense would be given to the 
 Americans. For this reason it must not publicly appear that I 
 am paying any attention to the charge. 
 
 30th. (To Thomas Doney.) The picture (I know not the 
 artistic designation) was duly and thankfully received. I con- 
 sider it a very excellent one ; though, truth to say, I am a very 
 indifferent judge. 
 
 August 15th. (To John B. Fry.) Yours of the 9th, en- 
 closing the letter of Honorable John Minor Botts, was duly 
 received. The latter is herewith returned, according to your 
 request. It contains one of the many assurances I receive 
 from the South, that in no probable event will there be any 
 formidable effort to break up the Union. The people of the 
 South have too much of good sense and good temper to attempt 
 the ruin of the government rather than see it administered as 
 it was administered by the men who made it. At least, so I 
 hope and believe. 
 
 17th, Douglas is managing the Bell element with great 
 adroitness. He has his men in Kentucky to vote for the Bell 
 candidate, producing a result which has badly alarmed and 
 damaged Breckenridge, and at the same time has induced the 
 Bell men to suppose that Bell will certainly be President if 
 they can keep a few of the Northern States away from us by 
 throwing them to Douglas. 
 
 September 22nd. (To Mrs. M. J. Green.) Your kind con- 
 gratulatory letter of August was received in due course, and 
 should have been answered sooner. The truth is I have never 
 corresponded much with ladies ; and hence I postpone writing 
 letters to them, as a business which I do not understand. I 
 can only say now I thank you for the good opinion you ex- 
 press of me, fearing, at the same time, I may not be able to 
 maintain it through life. 
 
 28th. (To Professor Gardner.) Some specimens of your 
 scap have been used at our house and Mrs. L. declares it is a 
 
age si] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 205 
 
 superior article. She at the same time protests that I have 
 never given sufficient attention to the "soap question" to be 
 a competent judge. 
 
 October ipth. (To Miss Grace Bedell.) Your very 
 agreeable letter of the 15th is received. I regret the necessity 
 of saying I have no daughter. I have three sons — one seven- 
 teen, one nine, and one seven. They with their mother con- 
 stitute my whole family. As to the whiskers, having never 
 w r orn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly 
 affectation if I were to begin now? 
 
 23rd. (To David Turnham.) Your kind letter of the 7th 
 is received. I am very glad to learn you are still living and 
 well. I well remember when you and I last met, after a sep- 
 aration of fourteen years, at the cross-road voting place in the 
 fall of 1844. It is now sixteen years more and we are both 
 no longer young men. I suppose you are a grandfather; 
 and I, though married much later in life, have a son nearly 
 grown. 
 
 I would like much to visit the old home, and old friends of 
 my boyhood, but I fear the chance of doing so is not very 
 good. 
 
 24th. (To J. C. Lee.) I never gave fifty dollars, nor one 
 dollar, nor one cent, for the object you mention, or any such 
 object. 
 
 I once subscribed twenty-five dollars, to be paid whenever 
 Judge Logan would decide it was necessary to enable the peo- 
 ple of Kansas to defend themselves against any force coming 
 against them from without the Territory, and not by 
 authority of the United States. Logan never made the de- 
 cision, and I never paid a dollar on the subscription. The 
 whole of this can be seen in the files of the Illinois Journal, 
 since the first of June last. 
 
 26th. (To Major David Hunter.) I have another letter 
 from a writer unknown to me, saying the officers of the army 
 
206 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 at Fort Kearney have determined, in case of Republican suc- 
 cess at the approaching presidential election, to take them- 
 selves, and the arms at that point, South, for the purpose of 
 resistance to the government. While I think there are many 
 chances to one that this is a humbug, it occurs to me that any 
 real movement of this sort in the army would leak out and 
 become known to you. In such case, if it would not be un- 
 professional or dishonorable (of which you are to be the 
 judge), I shall be much obliged if you will apprise me of it. 
 
 November 6th. Elected President. 
 
 yth. It was just after my election in i860, when the news 
 had been coming in thick and fast all day and there had been a 
 great "hurrah boys," so that I was well tired out and went 
 home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my cham- 
 ber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass 
 upon it, and looking in that glass, I saw myself reflected al- 
 most at full length; but my face, I noticed, had two separate 
 and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about 
 three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, 
 perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the 
 illusion vanished. On lying down again, I saw it a second 
 time, plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that 
 one of the faces was a little paler — say, five shades — than the 
 other. I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, 
 and in the excitement of the hour I forgot about it — nearly, 
 but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and 
 give me a little pang, as if something uncomfortable had hap- 
 pened. When I went home again that night, I told my wife 
 about it, and a few days afterward I made the experiment 
 again, when, sure enough! the thing came again; but I never 
 succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once 
 tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was some- 
 
age si] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 207 
 
 what worried about it. She thought it was a "sign" that I 
 was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the pale- 
 ness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life 
 through the last term. 
 
 19th. (To Park Benjamin.) Your kind note of congrat- 
 ulation was received in due course; and you are not dis- 
 appointed in the hope you express that I may set some value 
 upon it. 
 
 That my political position, and personal history are such as 
 to meet the unselfish approval of one possessing your high 
 literary fame and character, is matter of sincere pride with 
 me. 
 
 20th. (Remarks at the meeting at Springfield, Illinois, to 
 celebrate his election.) Please excuse me on this occasion from 
 making a speech. I thank you in common with all those who 
 have thought fit by their votes to endorse the Republican 
 cause. I rejoice with you in the success which has thus far 
 attended the cause. Yet in all our rejoicings, let us neither 
 express nor cherish any hard feelings toward any citizen who 
 by his vote has 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. 
 Let me again beg you to accept my thanks, and to excuse me 
 from further speaking at this time. 
 
 I have labored in, and for, the Republican organization 
 with entire confidence that whenever it shall be in power, each 
 and all of the States shall be left in as complete control of their 
 affairs respectively, and at as perfect liberty to choose, and em- 
 ploy, their own means of protecting property, and preserving 
 peace and order within their respective limits, as they have ever 
 been under any administration. Those who have voted for 
 Mr. Lincoln, have expected, and still expect this; and they 
 would not have voted for him had they expected otherwise. 
 I regard it as extremely fortunate for the peace of the whole 
 
208 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 country, that this point, upon which the Republicans have been 
 so long, and so persistently misrepresented, is now to be 
 brought to a practical test, and placed beyond the possibility 
 of doubt. Disunionists per se, are now in hot haste to get 
 out of the Union, precisely because they perceive they can not, 
 much longer, maintain apprehension among the Southern peo- 
 ple that their homes, and firesides, and lives, are to be endan- 
 gered by the action of the Federal Government. With such, 
 "Now or never' is the maxim. 
 
 I am rather glad of this military preparation in the South. 
 It will enable the people more easily to suppress any uprisings 
 there, which their misrepresentations of purposes may have 
 encouraged. 
 
 28th. (To Henry J. Raymond.) Yours of the 14th was 
 received in due course. I have delayed so long to answer it, 
 because my reason for not coming before the public in any 
 form just now had substantially appeared in your paper (the 
 Times), and hence I feared they were not deemed sufficient by 
 you, else you would not have written me as you did. I now 
 think we have a demonstration in favor of my view. On the 
 20th instant Senator Trumbull made a short speech, which I 
 suppose you have both seen and approved. Has a single news- 
 paper, heretofore against us, urged that speech upon its readers 
 with a purpose to quiet public anxiety? Not one, so far as I 
 know. On the contrary, the Boston Courier and its class 
 hold me responsible for that speech, and endeavor to inflame 
 the North with the belief that it foreshadows an abandonment 
 of Republican ground by the incoming administration; while 
 the Washington Constitution and its class hold the same speech 
 up to the South as an open declaration of war against them. 
 This is just as I expected, and just what would happen with 
 any declaration I could make. These political friends are not 
 half sick enough yet. Party malice, and not public good 
 possesses them entirely. "They seek a sign, and no sign shall 
 
age si] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 209 
 
 be given them." At least such is my present feeling and 
 purpose. 
 
 December 6th. Sells the Illinois Staats Anzeiger to Theo- 
 dore Canisius. 
 
 8th. I regret exceedingly the anxiety of our friends in 
 New York, but it seems to me that the sentiment in that state 
 which sent a united delegation to Chicago in favor of Governor 
 Seward ought not and must not be snubbed, as it would be by 
 the omission to offer Gov. S. a place in the Cabinet. I 
 will myself fake care of the question of ''corrupt jobs" and 
 see that justice is done to all our friends as well as others. 
 
 (To W. H. Seward.) With your permission I shall at the 
 proper time nominate you to the Senate for confirmation as 
 Secretary of State for the United States. 
 
 (To Seward.) In addition to the accompanying and more 
 formal note inviting you to take charge of the State Depart- 
 ment, I deem it proper to address you this. Rumors have got 
 into the newspapers to the effect that the Department named 
 above would be tendered you as a compliment, and with the 
 expectation that you would decline it. I beg you to be assured 
 that I have said nothing to justify these rumors. On the con- 
 trary, it has been my purpose, from the day of the nomination 
 at Chicago, to assign you, by your leave, this place in the ad- 
 ministration. I have delayed so long to communicate that 
 purpose in deference to what appeared to me a proper caution 
 in the case. Nothing has been developed to change my view 
 in the premises ; and now I offer you the place in the hope that 
 you will accept it, and, with the belief that your position in the 
 public eye, your integrity, ability, learning, and great expe- 
 rience, all combine to render it an appointment preeminently 
 fit to be made. 
 
210 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 One word more. In regard to the patronage sought with 
 so much eagerness and jealousy, I have prescribed for myself 
 the maxim, "Justice to all;" and I earnestly beseech your co- 
 operation in keeping the maxim good. 
 
 While the Republicans have been engrossed in the political 
 campaign an agitation for an ultimatum has been carried on 
 in the South. The opening of Congress is followed by a de- 
 mand for a new compact between the sections. The Senate 
 appoints a Committee of Thirteen to consider the matter. For 
 a moment the Republican leaders at Washington seem inclined 
 to fall back upon the old position of 1854 and redivide the Ter- 
 ritories between the North and the South on the line of 36 30'. 
 Lincoln exerts all his influence to prevent this compromise. 
 
 nth. (To William Kellogg.) Entertain no proposition 
 for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery. The 
 instant you do, they have us under again ; all our labor is lost, 
 and sooner or later must be done over. Douglas is sure to be 
 again trying to bring in his "popular sovereignty." Have none 
 of it. The tug has to come, and better now than later. You 
 know I think the Fugitive Slave law of the Constitution ought 
 to be enforced — to put it in its mildest form, ought not to be 
 resisted. 
 
 13th. (To E. B. Washburne.) Prevent, as far as possible, 
 any of our friends from demoralizing themselves and our 
 cause by entertaining propositions for compromise of any sort 
 on "slavery extension." There is no possible compromise upon 
 it but which puts us under again, and leaves all our work to 
 do over again. Whether it be a Missouri line or Eli Thayer's 
 popular sovereignty, it is all the same. Let either be done, and 
 immediately filibustering and extending slavery recommences. 
 On that point hold firm, as with a chain of steel. 
 
 Ifth. (To Thurlow Weed.) Should the convocation of 
 
age 5 i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 211 
 
 governors of which you speak seem desirous to know my views 
 on the present aspect of things, tell them you judge from my 
 speeches that I will be inflexible on the territory question ; that 
 I probably think either the Missouri line extended, or Doug- 
 las's and Eli Thayer's popular sovereignty, would lose us 
 everything we gain by the election; that filibustering for all 
 south of us and making slave States of it would follow, in 
 spite of us, in either case; also that I probably think all oppo- 
 sition, real and apparent, to the fugitive slave cause of the Con- 
 stitution ought to be withdrawn. 
 
 I believe you can pretend to find but little, if anything, in 
 my speeches, about secession. But my opinion is, that no State 
 can in any way lawfully get out of the Union without the con- 
 sent of the others ; and that it is the duty of the President and 
 other government functionaries to run the machine as it is. 
 
 20th. The situation is immensely complicated by the seces- 
 sion of South Carolina, while the Committee of Thirteen is 
 hopelessly divided, and Lincoln stands firm for no concessions. 
 
 On this same day Thurlow Weed, whom Seward has sent 
 to Springfield to confer with Lincoln, receives his final state- 
 ment of his position in the form of a set of resolutions. 
 
 (Memorandum given to Weed.)' Resolved: The fugitive 
 slave clause of the Constitution ought to be enforced by a law 
 of Congress, with efficient provisions for that object, not 
 obliging private persons to assist in its execution, and with the 
 usual safeguards to liberty, securing free men against being 
 surrendered as slaves. 
 
 That all State laws, if there be such, really or apparently 
 in conflict with such law of Congress, ought to be repealed; 
 and no opposition to the execution of such law of Congress 
 ought to be made. 
 
 That the Federal Union must be preserved. 
 
 2 1st. (To Lyman Trumbull.) Thurlow Weed was with 
 
212 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [i860 
 
 me nearly all day yesterday, and left last night with three short 
 resolutions which I drew up, and which, or the substance of 
 which, I think, would do much good if introduced and unani- 
 mously supported by our friends. They do not touch the ter- 
 ritorial question. Mr. Weed goes to Washington with 
 them; and says he will first of all confer with you and Mr. 
 Hamlin. I think it would be best for Mr. Seward to introduce 
 them, and Mr. Weed will let him know that I think so. Show 
 this to Mr. Hamlin, but beyond him do not let my name be 
 known in the matter. 
 
 (To E. B. Washburne.) Last night I received your letter 
 giving an account of your interview with General Scott, and 
 for which I thank you. Please present my respects to the 
 General, and tell him, confidentially, I shall be obliged to him 
 to be as well prepared as he can to either hold or retake the 
 forts, as the case may require, at and after the inauguration. 
 
 2 2nd. (To Alexander H. Stephens.) Your obliging 
 answer to my short note is just received, and for which please 
 accept my thanks. I fully appreciate the present peril the coun- 
 try 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 be- 
 tween us. 
 
 24th. I expect to be able to offer Mr. Blair a place in the 
 Cabinet; but I can not, as yet, be committed on the matter, to 
 any extent whatever. 
 
age 5 i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 213 
 
 Despatches have come here two days in succession, that the 
 Forts in South Carolina will be surrendered by the order, or 
 consent at least, of the President [Buchanan]. 
 
 I can scarcely believe this ; but if it prove true, I will, if our 
 friends at Washington concur, announce publicly at once that 
 they are to be retaken after the inauguration. This will give 
 the Union men a rallying cry, and preparation will proceed 
 somewhat on their side, as well as on the other. 
 
 (To Hannibal Hamlin.) I need a man (in the Cab- 
 inet) of Democratic antecedents from New England. I can 
 not get a fair share of that element in without. This stands in 
 the way of Mr. Adams. I think of Governor Banks, Mr. 
 Welles, and Mr. Tuck. Which of them do the New England 
 delegation prefer? Or shall I decide for myself? 
 
 28th. Committee of Thirteen reports, in effect, that it can 
 not devise a sectional compact which both North and South will 
 accept. The Southern members of the Committee will not agree 
 to anything short of a redivision of the Territories between 
 slavery and freedom. The Republican members under Lincoln's 
 direction refuse to concur in the establishment of any new slave 
 Territories. Thus the compromise negotiations come to an end. 
 
 30th. South Carolina demands the withdrawal of Federal 
 garrisons from all forts within her borders. 
 
 j 1st. (To Salmon P. Chase.) In these troublous times I 
 would much like a conference with you. Please visit me here 
 at once. 
 
 (To Simon Cameron.) I think fit to notify you now, that 
 by your permission I shall at the proper time nominate you to 
 the United States Senate for confirmation as Secretary of the 
 Treasury, or as Secretary of War — which of the two I have 
 not yet definitely decided. Please answer at your earliest con- 
 venience. 
 
1861 
 
 January. There were stories and rumors before I left 
 home, about people who intended to do me mischief. I never 
 attached much importance to them — never wanted to believe 
 any such thing about them in the way of taking precautions and 
 the like. Some of my friends, though, thought differently — 
 Judd and others — and without my knowledge, they employed 
 a detective (Allan Pinkerton) to look into the matter. 
 
 (To Joseph Gillespie.) Every hour adds to the difficulties 
 I am called upon to meet, and the present administration does 
 nothing to check the tendency toward dissolution. I, who 
 have been called to meet this awful responsibility, am compelled 
 to remain here doing nothing to avert it or lessen its force 
 when it comes to me. 
 
 Secession is being fostered rather than repressed, and if 
 the doctrine meets with a general acceptance in the border 
 States, it will be a great blow to the government. I suppose 
 you will never forget that trial down in Montgomery County, 
 where the lawyer associated with you gave away the whole case 
 in his opening speech. I saw you signaling to him, but you 
 couldn't stop him. Now, that's just the way with me and 
 Buchanan. He is giving away the case, and I have nothing to 
 say, and can't stop him. 
 
 While Lincoln is deeply distressed over the course of events 
 at Washington which he is powerless to control, the intrigues 
 at Springfield over Cabinet appointments drive him well nigh 
 to distraction. He feels constrained in some cases to reconsider 
 his first intentions. 
 
 214 
 
age 5 i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 215 
 
 jrd. (To Cameron.) When you were here, about the last 
 of December, I handed you a letter saying I should at the 
 proper time nominate you to the Senate for a place in the Cab- 
 inet. It is due to you and to truth for me to say you were here 
 by my invitation, and not upon any suggestion of your own. 
 You have not as yet signified to me whether you would accept 
 the appointment, and with much pain I now say to you that you 
 will relieve me from great embarrassment by allowing me to 
 recall the offer. This springs from an unexpected complica- 
 tion, and not from any change of my view as to the ability or 
 faithfulness with which you would discharge the duties of the 
 place. 
 
 I now think I will not definitely fix upon any appointment 
 for Pennsylvania until I reach Washington. 
 
 You will say this comes of an interview with McClure ; 
 and this is partly, but not wholly, true. The more potent mat- 
 ter is wholly outside of Pennsylvania; and yet I am not at 
 liberty to specify it. Enough that it appears to me to be 
 sufficient. And now I suggest that you write me declining the 
 appointment, in which case I do not object to its being known 
 that it was tendered you. Better do this at once, before things 
 so change that you can not honorably decline, and I be com- 
 pelled to openly recall the tender. No person living knows or 
 has an intimation that I write this letter. 
 
 (To Seward.) I have been considering your suggestions 
 as to my reaching Washington somewhat earlier than is usual. 
 It seems to me the inauguration is not the most dangerous 
 point for us. Our adversaries have us now clearly at dis- 
 advantage. On the second Wednesday of February, when 
 the votes should be officially counted, if the two Houses refuse 
 to meet at all, or meet without a quorum of each, where shall 
 we be? I do not think that this counting is constitutionally 
 essential to the election ; but how are we to proceed in absence 
 of it? In view of this, I think it best for me not to attempt 
 
216 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 appearing in Washington till the result of that ceremony is 
 known. 
 
 It certainly would be of some advantage if you could know 
 who are to be at the heads of the War and Navy departments ; 
 but until I can ascertain definitely whether I can get any suit- 
 able men from the South, and who, and how many, I can not 
 well decide. As yet, I have no word from Mr. Gilmer in 
 answer to my request for an interview with him. I look for 
 something on the subject, through you, before long. 
 
 Jth. Gen. C. has not been offered the Treasury and I think 
 he will not be. It seems to me not only highly proper but a 
 necessity that Gov. Chase shall take their place. His ability, 
 firmness, and purity of character produce this propriety; and 
 that he alone can reconcile Mr. Bryant and his class to the 
 appointment of Gov. C. to the State Department produces the 
 necessity. But then comes the danger that the protectionists of 
 Pennsylvania will be dissatisfied; and to clear this difficulty 
 Gen. C. must be brought to co-operate. He would readily do 
 this for the War Department. But then comes the fierce op- 
 position to his having any Department, threatening even to 
 send charges into the Senate to procure his rejection by that 
 body. Now, what I would most like, and what I think he 
 should prefer too, under the circumstances, would be to retain 
 his place in the Senate, and if that place has been promised to 
 another let that other take a respectable and reasonably lucra- 
 tive place abroad. Also, let Gen. C.'s friends be, with entire 
 fairness, cared for in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. 
 
 pth. Mississippi secedes. 
 10th. Florida secedes. 
 
 nth. (To General Win field Scott.) I herewith beg leave 
 to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 4th 
 instant, inclosing (documents Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) copies 
 
age 5 i] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 217 
 
 of correspondence and notes of conversation with the Presi- 
 dent of the United States and the Secretary of War concerning 
 various military movements suggested by yourself and the 
 maintenance of public order. 
 
 Permit me to renew to you the assurance of my high appre- 
 ciation of the many past services you have rendered the Union, 
 and of my deep gratification at this evidence of your present 
 active exertions to maintain the integrity and honor of the 
 nation. 
 
 I shall be highly pleased to receive from time to time such 
 communications from yourself as you may deem it proper to 
 make to me. 
 
 What is your present condition ? We have just carried an 
 election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are 
 told in advance the government shall be broken up unless we 
 surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. 
 In this they are either attempting to play upon us or they are 
 in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of 
 us and of the government. They will repeat the experiment 
 upon us ad libitum. A year will not pass till we shall have t@ 
 take Cuba as a condition upon which they will stay in the 
 Union. They now have the Constitution under which we have 
 lived over seventy years, and acts of Congress of their own 
 framing, with no prospect of their being changed; and they 
 can never have a more shallow pretext for breaking up the 
 government, or extorting a compromise, than now. There is 
 in my judgment but one compromise which would really settle 
 the slavery question, and that would be a prohibition against 
 acquiring any more territory. 
 
 nth. Alabama secedes. 
 
 1 2th. (To W. H. Seward.) I still hope Mr. Gilmer will, 
 on a fair understanding with us, consent to take a place in the 
 
218 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 Cabinet. The preference for him over Mr. Hunt or Mr. 
 Gentry is, that, up to date, he has a living position in the South, 
 while they have not. He is only better than Winter Davis in 
 that he is farther South. I fear, if we could not safely take 
 more than one such man — that is, not more than one who op- 
 posed us in the election — the danger being to lose the confi- 
 dence of our own friends. 
 
 Your selection for the State Department having become 
 public, I am happy to find scarcely any objection to it. I shall 
 have trouble with every other Northern Cabinet appointment — 
 so much so, that I shall have to defer them as long as possible, 
 to avoid being teased to insanity, to make changes. 
 
 14th. (To General John E. Wool.) Many thanks for 
 your patriotic and generous letter of the nth instant. As to 
 how far the military force of the government may become nec- 
 essary to the preservation of the Union, and more particularly 
 how that force can best be directed to the object, I must chiefly 
 rely upon General Scott and yourself. It affords me the 
 profoundest satisfaction to know that with both of you judg- 
 ment and feeling go heartily with your sense of professional 
 and official duty to the work. 
 
 1 8th. Georgia secedes. 
 
 2 1 st. Withdrawal from the Senate of Jefferson Davis and 
 other southern senators. 
 
 26th. (To Mrs. C. W. Pratt.) Herewith I send you my 
 autograph, which you request. 
 
 26th. Louisiana secedes. 
 
 2Qth. Through the withdrawal of southern senators, the 
 Republicans are able to admit Kansas to the Union as a free 
 state. 
 
 February 2nd. (To George D. Prentice.) Yours of the 
 31st ult. requesting a copy of the inaugural is received. I have 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 219 
 
 the document blocked out; but in the now rapidly shifting 
 scenes, I shall have to hold it subject to revision up to near the 
 time of delivery. So soon as it shall take what I can regard as 
 its final shape, I shall remember, if I can, to send you a copy. 
 
 The seceding states through their representatives at Mont- 
 gomery, Alabama, form the Confederate States of America. 
 
 4th. (To Thurlow Weed.) I have both your letter to 
 myself and that to Judge Davis, in relation to a certain gentle- 
 man in your State claiming to dispense patronage in my name, 
 and also to be authorized to use my name to advance the 
 chances of Mr. Greeley for an election to the United States 
 Senate. 
 
 It is very strange that such things should be said by any 
 one. The gentleman you mention did speak to mg of Mr. 
 Greeley in connection with the senatorial election, and I replied 
 in terms of kindness toward Mr. Greeley, which I really feel, 
 but always with an expressed protest that my name must not 
 be used in the senatorial election in favor of or against any one. 
 Any other representation of me is a misrepresentation. 
 
 As to the matter of dispensing patronage, it perhaps will 
 surprise you to learn that I have information that you claim 
 to have my authority to arrange that matter in New York. I 
 do not believe that you have so claimed ; but still so some men 
 say. On that subject you know all I have said to you is "jus- 
 tice to all," and I have said nothing more particular to any one. 
 I say this to reassure you that I have not changed my position. 
 
 10th. (To Herndon, after making final arrangements in 
 their law office.) Billy, how long have we been together? 
 
 (Herndon: Over sixteen years.) 
 
 We've never had a cross word during all that time, have 
 we? (After gathering up a bundle of papers:) Let it [their 
 old signboard] hang there undisturbed. Give our clients to 
 
220 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 understand that the election of a President makes no change 
 in the firm of Lincoln & Herndon. If I live, I am coming 
 back some time, and then we'll go right on practising law as if 
 nothing had happened. 
 
 nth. On the platform of the railway car as he is about 
 to leave Springfield for Washington: 
 
 "FRIENDS — No one who has never been placed in a like 
 position can understand my feelings at this hour, nor the op- 
 pressive sadness I feel at this parting. For more than a quarter 
 of a century I have lived among you, and during all that time 
 I have received nothing but kindness at your hands. Here I 
 have lived from my youth, until now I am an old man. Flere 
 the most sacred ties of earth were assumed. Here all my chil- 
 dren were born; and here one of them lies buried. To you, 
 dear friends, I owe all that I have, all that I am. All the 
 strange, checkered past seems to crowd now upon my mind. 
 To-day I leave you. I go to assume a task more difficult than 
 that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the great God, 
 who assisted him, shall be with and aid me, I must fail; but if 
 the same omniscient mind and almighty arm that directed and 
 protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail — I 
 shall succeed. Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may 
 not forsake us now. To Him I commend you all. Permit me 
 to ask, that, with equal security and faith, you will invoke His 
 wisdom and guidance for me. With these few words I must 
 leave you : for how long I know not. Friends, one and all, I 
 must now bid you an affectionate farewell." 
 
 12th. At Indianapolis. 
 
 Solomon says, there is "a time to keep silence," and when 
 men wrangle by the mouth with no certainty that they mean 
 the same thing, while using the same word, it perhaps were as 
 well if they would keep silence. 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 221 
 
 The words "coercion" and ''invasion" are much used in 
 these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. Let us 
 make sure, if we can, that we do not misunderstand the mean- 
 ing of those who use them. Let us get exact definitions of 
 these words, not from dictionaries, but from the men them- 
 selves, who certainly deprecate the things they would represent 
 by the use of words. What, then, is "coercion"? What is 
 "invasion"? Would the marching of an army into South 
 Carolina without the consent of her people, and with hostile 
 intent toward them, be "invasion" ? I certainly think it would ; 
 and it would be "coercion" also if the South Carolinians were 
 forced to submit. But if the United States should merely hold 
 and retake its own forts and other property, and collect the 
 duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the mails 
 from places where they were habitually violated, would any or 
 all of these things be "invasion" or "coercion" ? Do our pro- 
 fessed lovers of the Union, but who spitefully resolve that they 
 will resist coercion and invasion, understand that such things 
 as these on the part of the United States would be coercion or 
 invasion of a State? If so, their idea of means to preserve 
 the object of their great affection, would seem to be exceed- 
 ingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the homeopathist 
 would be much too large for them to swallow. In their view, 
 the Union as a family relation would seem to be no regular 
 marriage, but rather a sort of "free-love" arrangement, to be 
 maintained only on "passional attraction." 
 
 By the way, in what consists the special sacredness of a 
 State? I speak not of the position assigned to a State in the 
 Union by the Constitution ; for that, by the bond, we all recog- 
 nize. That position, however, a State can not carry out of the 
 Union with it. I speak of that assumed primary right of a 
 State to rule all which is less than itself, and ruin all which is 
 larger than itself. If a State and a county, in a given case, 
 should be equal in extent of territory, and equal in number of 
 
222 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 inhabitants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the State better 
 than the county? Would an exchange of names be an ex- 
 change of rights upon principle? On what rightful principle 
 may a State, being not more than one fiftieth part of the 
 nation, in soil and population, break up the nation, and then 
 coerce a proportionally larger subdivision of itself, in the most 
 arbitrary way? What mysterious right to play tyrant is con- 
 ferred on a district of country with its people, by merely calling 
 it a State ? 
 
 At Cincinnati. 
 
 Twenty-four hours ago, at the capital of Indiana, I said 
 to myself I have never seen so many people assembled to- 
 gether in winter weather. I am no longer able to say that. 
 But it is what might reasonably have been expected — that this 
 great city of Cincinnati would thus acquit herself on such an 
 occasion. My friends, I am entirely overwhelmed by the mag- 
 nificence of the reception which has been given, I will not say 
 to me, but to the President-elect of the United States of 
 America. Most heartily do I thank you, one and all, for it. 
 
 13th. At Columbus.* 
 
 In the varying and repeatedly shifting scenes I have not 
 
 *This speech with its strange assurance that "there is nothing going 
 wrong" strikes a new note that startles Lincoln's adherents and leads some of 
 them to distrust his mental poise. His frame of mind at this moment has 
 never been satisfactorily explained. Throughout the months of January and 
 February — in fact, during the whole winter of 1860-1861 — he is a psychologi- 
 cal puzzle, — unlike what he had been and different from what he was soon 
 to be. There are times when he is quite himself — as in his firmness with 
 regard to his policy on December 20 — but often he is wavering, overshadowed, 
 wistfully unhappy. The last interview with Herndon is typical. It is worth 
 remembering also that the strange hallucination mentioned on page 206 intro- 
 duces this period. 
 
 Whether he felt suddenly overpowered by his new responsibilities or 
 from some more obscure cause, he resists explanation all this while and 
 seems frequently to be walking in a troubled dream. Looking back from 
 this episode to those other periods of mysterious gloom — following the death 
 of Ann Rutledge, following the breaking of his engagement to Mary Todd— 
 one hesitates to_ generalize, merely observes and wonders. All his friends 
 agree that a vein of deep melancholy ran side by side with his boisterous 
 humor. Both can be seen weaving in and out through the curious sobriety 
 of his written fragments. 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 223 
 
 maintained silence from any want of real anxiety. It is a good 
 thing that there is no more than anxiety, for there is nothing 
 going wrong. It is a consoling circumstance that when we 
 look out there is nothing that really hurts anybody. We en- 
 tertain different views upon political questions, but nobody is 
 suffering. 
 
 14th. At Steubenville. 
 
 I fear that the great confidence placed in my ability is un- 
 founded. Indeed, I am sure it is. Encompassed by vast diffi- 
 culties as I am, nothing shall be wanting on my part, if sus- 
 tained by the American people and God. I believe the devotion 
 to the Constitution is equally great on both sides of the [Ohio] 
 river. It is only the different understanding of that instru- 
 ment that causes difficulty. The only dispute on both sides is, 
 "What are their rights ?" If the majority should not rule, 
 who would be the judge? Where is such a judge to be found ? 
 We should all be bound by the majority of the American 
 people; if not, then the minority must control. Would that be 
 right? Would it be just or generous? Assuredly not. I re- 
 iterate that the majority should rule. If I adopt a wrong 
 policy, the opportunity for condemnation will occur in four 
 years' time. Then I can be turned out, and a better man with 
 better views put in my place. 
 
 15th. At Pittsburgh. 
 
 Notwithstanding the troubles across the (Monongahela) 
 river, there is really no crisis springing from any thing in the 
 Government itself. In plain words, there is really no crisis, 
 except an artificial one. What is there now to warrant the 
 condition of affairs presented by our friends "over the river"? 
 Take even their own view of the questions involved, and there 
 is nothing to justify the course they are pursuing. / repeat it, 
 then, there is no crisis, except such a one as may be gotten up 
 at any time by turbulent men, aided by designing politicians. 
 My advice, then, under such circumstances is to keep cool. 
 
224 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 At Cleveland. 
 
 Frequent allusion is made to the excitement at present ex- 
 isting in our national politics, and it is as well that I should 
 also allude to it here. I think that there is no occasion for any 
 excitement. I think the crisis, as it is called, is altogether an 
 artificial one. In all parts of the nation there are differences 
 of opinion, even here. You did not all vote for the person who 
 now addresses you, although quite enough of you did for all 
 practical purposes, to be sure. 
 
 18th. At Syracuse. 
 
 I see you have erected a very fine and handsome platform 
 here for me, and I presume you expected me to speak from it. 
 If I should go upon it, you would imagine that I was about to 
 deliver you a much longer speech than I am. I wish you to 
 understand that I mean no discourtesy to you by thus declin- 
 ing. I intend discourtesy to no one. But I wish you to un- 
 derstand that though I am unwilling to go upon this plat- 
 form, you are not at liberty to draw any inferences concerning 
 any other platform with which my name has been or is con- 
 nected. I wish you long life and prosperity individually, and 
 pray that with the perpetuity of those institutions under which 
 we have all so long lived and prospered, our happiness may be 
 secured, our future made brilliant, and the glorious destiny of 
 our country established forever. 
 
 At Utica. 
 
 I have no speech to make to you, and no time to speak in. 
 I appear before you that I may see you, and that you may see 
 me; and I am willing to admit, that so far as the ladies are 
 concerned, I have the best of the bargain, though I wish it to 
 be understood that I do not make the same acknowledgment 
 concerning the men. 
 
 ipth. At New York City. 
 
 I am rather an old man to avail myself of such an excuse 
 as I am now about to do. Yet the truth is so distinct, and 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 225 
 
 presses itself so distinctly upon me, that I can not well avoid 
 it — and that is, that I did not understand when I was brought 
 into this room that I was to be brought here to make a speech. 
 It was not intimated to me that I was brought into the room 
 where Daniel Webster and Henry Clay had made speeches, and 
 where one in my position might be expected to do something 
 like those men, or say something worthy of myself or my audi- 
 ence. I, therefore, beg you to make allowance for the circum- 
 stances in which I have been by surprise brought before you. 
 I do suppose that, while the political drama being enacted 
 in this country, at this time, is rapidly shifting its scenes — for- 
 bidding an anticipation with any degree of certainty, to-day, of 
 what we shall see to-morrow — it is peculiarly fitting that I 
 should see it all, up to the last minute, before I should take 
 ground that I might be disposed (by the shifting of the scenes 
 afterward) also to shift. I have said several times upon this 
 journey, and I now repeat it to you, that when the time does 
 come, I shall then take the ground that I think is right — right 
 for the North, for the South, for the East, for the West, for 
 the whole country. And in doing so, I hope to feel no necessity 
 pressing upon me to say anything in conflict with the Constitu- 
 tion; in conflict with the continued union of these States — in 
 conflict with the perpetuation of the liberties of this people — or 
 anything in conflict with anything whatever that I have ever 
 given you reason to expect from me. And now, my friends, 
 have I said enough? (Cries of no, no!) Now, my friends, 
 there appears to be a difference of opinion between you and 
 me, and I really feel called upon to decide the question myself. 
 
 2 1 st. At Philadelphia. Allan Pinkerton brings in a report 
 that there is a plan to murder Lincoln on his way to Washing- 
 ton, on the night of the twenty-second-twenty-third. Seward 
 sends word that he has heard the same report. Both Pinkerton 
 and Frederick Seward confer with Lincoln, 
 
226 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 Pinkerton informed me that a plan had been laid for my 
 assassination, the exact time when I expected to go through 
 Baltimore being publicly known. He was well informed as to 
 the plan, but did not know that the conspirators would have 
 pluck enough to execute it. He urged me to go right through 
 with him to Washington that night. I did not like that. I had 
 made engagements to visit Harrisburg, and go from there to 
 Baltimore, and I resolved to do so. I could not believe that 
 there was a plot to murder me. I made arrangements, how- 
 ever, with Mr. Judd for my return to Philadelphia the next 
 night, if I should be convinced that there was danger in going 
 through Baltimore. I told him that if I should meet at Harris- 
 burg, as I had at other places, a delegation to go with me to the 
 next place (then Baltimore), I should feel safe, and go on. 
 
 (Frederick Seward urges more consideration of the report.) 
 
 Do you know anything about the way this information 
 was obtained? 
 
 Did you hear any names mentioned? Did you, for in- 
 stance, ever hear anything said about such a name as 
 Pinkerton ? 
 
 (Mr. Seward has no knowledge hitherto of Pinkerton's 
 connection with the matter.) 
 
 Only to-day, since our arrival at this house, he brought 
 this story, or something similar to it, about an attempt on my 
 life in the confusion and hurly-burly of the reception at 
 Baltimore. 
 
 That is why I was asking you about names. If different 
 persons, not knowing of each other's work, have been pursuing 
 separate clews that led to the same result, why, then, it shows 
 there must be something in it. But if this is only the same 
 story, filtered through two channels, and reaching me in two 
 ways, then that don't make it any stronger. Don't you see? 
 
 Well, we haven't got to decide it to-night, anyway, and I 
 see it is getting late. You need not think I will not consider it 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 227 
 
 well. I shall think it over carefully, and try to decide it right ; 
 and I will let you know in the morning. 
 
 22nd. (Address in Independence Hall.) 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 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 
 hope to all the world, for all future time. It was that which 
 gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from 
 the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal 
 chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of 
 Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved 
 on that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the 
 happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it can not 
 be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this 
 country can not 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 is no need of bloodshed and 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 is 
 forced upon the Government, and then it will be compelled to 
 act in self-defense. 
 
 At Harrisburg. 
 
 I recur for a moment but to repeat some words uttered at 
 the hotel, in regard to what has been said about the military 
 support which the General Government may expect from the 
 commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a proper emergency. To 
 guard against any possible mistake do I recur to this. It is 
 not with any pleasure that I contemplate the possibility that a 
 necessity may arise in this country for the use of the military 
 arm. While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifes- 
 tation upon your streets of your military force here, and ex- 
 
228 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 ceedingly gratified at your promise to use that force upon a 
 proper emergency — while I make these acknowledgments I de- 
 sire to repeat, in order to preclude any possible misconstruc- 
 tion, that I do most sincerely hope that we shall have no use 
 for them : That it will never become their duty to shed blood, 
 and most especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise 
 that, so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful a re- 
 sult shall in any wise be brought about, it shall be through no 
 fault of mine. 
 
 2 2nd- 2 3rd. Because of the anxiety of his friends over the 
 supposed discoveries of Pinkerton, Lincoln makes the journey 
 from Harrisburg to Washington in secret. No further evi- 
 dence of a conspiracy is discovered. 
 
 23rd. Lincoln breakfasts in Washington. 
 Texas secedes; immediately joins the Confederacy. 
 
 27th. (Reply to the Mayor of Washington.) I thank you, 
 and through you the municipal authorities of this city who ac- 
 company you, for this welcome. As it is the first time in my 
 life, since the present phase of politics has presented itself in 
 this country, that I have said anything publicly within a region 
 of country where the institution of slavery exists, I will take 
 this occasion to say that I think very much of the ill-feeling 
 that has existed and still exists between the people in the section 
 from which I came and the people here, is dependent upon a 
 misunderstanding of one another. I therefore avail myself of 
 this opportunity to assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentle- 
 men present, that I have not now, and never have had, any 
 other than as kindly feelings toward you as to the people of 
 my own section. I have not now, and never have had, any 
 disposition to treat you in any respect otherwise than as my 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 229 
 
 own neighbors. I have not now any purpose to withhold from 
 you any of the benefits of the Constitution, under any circum- 
 stances, that I would not feel myself constrained to withhold 
 from my own neighbors ; and I hope, in a word, that when we 
 shall become better acquainted, and I say it with great confi- 
 dence, we shall like each other the more. I thank you for the 
 kindness of this reception. 
 
 The last few days before the inauguration are filled by final 
 negotiations over Cabinet positions — including the restoration 
 of Cameron as Secretary of War — and the last revision of 
 the inaugural address. It is criticized in detail by Seward who 
 suggests many changes some of which Lincoln accepts. 
 
 March 4th. (Inaugural Address.) I take the of ficial oath 
 to-day with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to 
 construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules. 
 
 I hold, that, in contemplation of universal law and of the 
 Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetu- 
 ity 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. 
 
 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 exe- 
 cuted 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 be regarded as a menace, but only as 
 the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally 
 defend and maintain itself. 
 
230 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; 
 and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national 
 authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, 
 occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the 
 government, and to collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond 
 what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no inva- 
 sion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. 
 
 Where hostility to the United States, in any interior local- 
 ity, shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent 
 resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will 
 be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people 
 for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the 
 government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the at- 
 tempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly impractica- 
 ble withal, that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses 
 of such offices. 
 
 One section of our country believes slavery is right, and 
 ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and 
 ought not to be extended; and this is the only substantial dis- 
 pute; and the fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution, and the 
 law for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are each as 
 well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community 
 where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the 
 law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal 
 obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I 
 think, can not 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. 
 
 I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution 
 (which amendment, however, I have not seen) has passed Con- 
 gress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 231 
 
 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 speak of 
 particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a 
 provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no ob- 
 jection to its being made express and irrevocable. Why should 
 there 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 pre- 
 vail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American 
 people. 
 
 In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not 
 in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government 
 will not assail you. 
 
 You can have no conflict without being yourselves the ag- 
 gressors. You 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 enemies. Though passion may have strained, it 
 must not break our bonds of affection. 
 
 The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every bat- 
 tle-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.* 
 
 (To William H. Seward.) Your note of the 2nd instant, 
 
 *Nicolay and Hay show in detail the changes in Lincoln's original man- 
 uscript that were due to Seward. The Inaugural marks the opening of a 
 new epoch in Lincoln as a writer. Qualities of richness and distinction, 
 unknown to his former writings, appear now and grow steadily more con- 
 spicuous. 
 
232 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 asking to withdraw your acceptance of my invitation to take 
 charge of the State Department, was duly received. It is the 
 subject of the most painful solicitude with me, and I feel con- 
 strained to beg that you will countermand the withdrawal. 
 The public interest, I think, demands that you should ; and my 
 personal feelings are deeply enlisted in the same direction. 
 Please consider and answer by 9 a. m. to-morrow. 
 
 Seward decides to serve as Secretary of State. 
 
 $th. (To the Pennsylvania Delegation, Washington.) 
 
 Allusion has been made to the hope that you entertain 
 that you have a President and a government. In respect to 
 that I wish to say to you that in the position I have assumed I 
 wish to do more than I have ever given reason to believe I 
 would do. I do not wish you to believe that I assume to be 
 any better than others who have gone before me. I prefer 
 rather to have it understood that if we ever have a government 
 on the principles we profess, we should remember, while we 
 exercise our opinion, that others have also rights to the 
 exercise of their opinions, and that we should endeavor to allow 
 these rights, and act in such a manner as to create no bad 
 feeling. I hope we have a government and a President. I 
 hope, and wish it to be understood, that there may be no allu- 
 sion to unpleasant differences. 
 
 We must remember that the people of all the States are 
 entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens of 
 the several States. We should bear this in mind, and act in 
 such a way as to say nothing insulting or irritating. I would 
 inculcate this idea, so that we may not, like the Pharisees, set 
 ourselves up to be better than other people. 
 
 pth. (To General Scott.) On the 5th instant I received 
 from the Honorable Joseph Holt, the then faithful and vigilant 
 Secretary of War, a letter of that date, inclosing a letter and 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 233 
 
 accompanying documents received by him on the 4th instant 
 from Major Robert Anderson, commanding Fort Sumter, 
 South Carolina; and copies of all which I now transmit. Im- 
 mediately on receipt of them by me, I transmitted the whole 
 to you for your consideration, and the same day you returned 
 the package to me with your opinion indorsed upon it, a copy 
 of which opinion I now also transmit to you. Learning from 
 you verbally that since then you have given the subject a more 
 full and thorough consideration, you will much oblige me by 
 giving answers, in writing, to the following interrogatories: 
 
 (1). To what point of time can Major Anderson main- 
 tain his position at Fort Sumter, without fresh supplies or 
 reinforcement? 
 
 (2). Can you, with all the means now in your control, 
 supply or reinforce Fort Sumter within that time? 
 
 (3). If not, what amount of means, and of what descrip- 
 tion, in addition to that already at yowr control, would enable 
 you to supply and reinforce that fortress within the time? 
 
 Please answer these, adding such statements, information, 
 and counsel as your great skill and experience may suggest. 
 
 Scott advises the withdrawal of the Sumter garrison on the 
 ground that he lacks the military force necessary to relieve it. 
 
 The question of holding Fort Pickens on the Florida coast 
 is also under discussion. The steamship Brooklyn, lying off 
 Fort Pickens has on board a detachment of Federal troops. 
 The President despatches orders to the Brooklyn to place these 
 troops in the fort. 
 
 15th. (Note asking Cabinet opinions on Fort Sumter.) 
 Assuming it to be possible to now provision Fort Sumter, 
 under all the circumstances is it wise to attempt it? Please 
 give me your opinion in writing on this question. 
 
 Cabinet divides on the subject of relieving Sumter. 
 
234 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 Seward heads the majority, advising the surrender of Sum- 
 ter to the Confederates. Seward thinks the war scare will 
 blow over if there is no bloodshed. The others think the North 
 is not ready to fight. No action is taken. 
 
 The President is largely engrossed in making appointments 
 to office. 
 
 1 8th. (To Secretary Seward.) I believe it is a necessity 
 with us to make the appointments I mentioned last night — that 
 is, Charles F. Adams to England, William L. Dayton to 
 France, George P. Marsh to Sardinia, and Anson Burlingame 
 to Austria. These gentlemen all have my highest esteem ; but 
 no one of them is originally suggested by me, except Mr. 
 Dayton. Mr. Adams I take, because you suggested him, cou- 
 pled with his eminent fitness for the place. Mr. Marsh and 
 Mr. Burlingame I take because of the intense pressure of their 
 respective States, and their fitness also. 
 
 (To Attorney-General Bates.) I shall be obliged if you 
 will give me your opinion in writing whether, under the Con- 
 stitution and existing laws, the executive has power to collect 
 duties on shipboard off shore in cases where their collection 
 in the ordinary way is by any cause rendered impracticable. 
 This would include the question of lawful power to prevent 
 the landing of dutiable goods unless the duties were paid. 
 
 26th. (To the Senate.) I have received a copy of the 
 resolution of the Senate, passed on the 25th instant, requesting 
 me, if in my opinion not incompatible with the public interest, 
 to communicate to the Senate the despatches of Major Robert 
 Anderson to the War Department during the time he has been 
 in command of Fort Sumter. On examination of the corre- 
 spondence thus called for, I have, with the highest respect for 
 the Senate, come to the conclusion that at the present moment 
 the publication of it would be inexpedient. 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 235 
 
 29th. President again consults the Cabinet upon the ques- 
 tion of evacuating Sumter. The majority is now in favor of 
 holding Sumter and accepting war if that is necessary. They 
 have had their ears to the ground and now think that the North 
 is in a mood to fight. Seward still favors evacuation. 
 
 (To the Secretary of War.) I desire that an expedition, 
 to move by sea, be got ready to sail as early as the 6th of April 
 next, the whole according to memorandum attached, and that 
 you co-operate with the Secretary of the Navy for that object. 
 
 30th. (To John T. Stuart.) Cousin Lizzie shows me 
 your letter of the 27th. The question of giving her the Spring- 
 field Post-office troubles me. You see I have already ap- 
 pointed William Jayne a territorial governor and Judge Trum- 
 bull's brother to a landoffice. Will it do for me to go on 
 and justify the declaration that Trumbull and I have divided 
 out all the offices among our relatives? Doctor Wallace, you 
 know, is needy, and looks to me; and I personally owe him 
 much. 
 
 I see by the papers, a vote is to be taken as to the Post- 
 office. Could you not set up Lizzie and beat them all? She, 
 being here, need know nothing of it, so therefore there would 
 be no indelicacy on her part. 
 
 April 1st: Seward submits to the President a scheme of 
 policy which in his judgment will unite North and South and 
 avoid domestic war. He proposes to surrender Fort Sumter 
 but hold Fort Pickens; to pick quarrels with Spain and France 
 and if possible provoke a foreign war. 
 
 (To Secretary Seward.) Since parting with you I have 
 been considering your paper dated this day, and entitled "Some 
 Thoughts for the President's Consideration. ,, The first prop- 
 
236 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 osition in it is, "First, We are at the end of a month's admin- 
 istration, and yet without a policy either domestic or foreign." 
 
 At the beginning of that month, in the Inaugural, I said : 
 'The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and 
 possess the property and places belonging to the government, 
 and to collect the duties and imposts." This had your distinct 
 approval at the time; and, taken in connection with the order 
 I immediately gave General Scott, directing him to employ 
 every means in his power to strengthen and hold the forts, 
 comprises the exact domestic policy you now urge, with the 
 single exception that it does not propose to abandon Fort 
 Sumter. 
 
 Again, I do not perceive how the reinforcement of Fort 
 Sumter would be done on a slavery or a party issue, while 
 that of Fort Pickens would be on a more national and patriotic 
 one. 
 
 The news received yesterday in regard to St. Domingo 
 certainly brings a new item within the range of our foreign 
 policy; but up to that time we have been preparing circulars 
 and instructions to ministers and the like, all in perfect har- 
 mony, without even a suggestion that we had no foreign policy. 
 
 Upon your closing propositions — that "whatever policy we 
 adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it. 
 
 "For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue 
 and direct it incessantly. 
 
 "Either the President must do it himself, and be all the 
 while active in it, or 
 
 "Devolve it on some member of his Cabinet. Once 
 adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide." I 
 remark that if this must be done, I must do it. When a gen- 
 eral line of policy is adopted, I apprehend there is no danger of 
 its being changed without good reason, or continuing to be 
 a subject of unnecessary debate; still, upon points arising in 
 its progress I wish, and suppose I am entitled to have, the 
 advice of all the Cabinet. 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 237 
 
 (To Lieutenant D. D. Porter.) You will proceed to New 
 York, and with the least possible delay assuming command of 
 any naval steamer available, proceed to Pensacola Harbor, and 
 at any cost or risk prevent any expedition from the mainland 
 reaching Fort Pickens or Santa Rosa Island. 
 
 You will exhibit this order to any naval officer at Pen- 
 sacola, if you deem it necessary after you have established 
 yourself within the harbor, and will request co-operation by the 
 entrance of at least one other steamer. 
 
 This order, its object, and your destination will be com- 
 municated to no person whatever until you reach the harbor 
 of Pensacola. 
 
 (To Commandant Andrew H. Foote.) Fit out the Pow- 
 hatan to go to sea at the earliest possible moment under sealed 
 orders. Orders by a confidential messenger go forward to- 
 morrow.* 
 
 (To General Scott.) Would it impose too much labor on 
 General Scott to make short comprehensive daily reports to me 
 of what occurs in his department, including movements by him- 
 self, and under his orders, and the receipt of intelligence? If 
 not, I will thank him to do so. 
 
 April 4th. On the 5th of March (the present incumbent's 
 first full day in office), a letter of Major Anderson command- 
 ing at Fort Sumter, written on the 28th of February and re- 
 ceived at the War Department on the 4th of March, was, by 
 that department placed in his hands. This letter expressed the 
 professional opinion of the writer that reinforcements could 
 not be thrown into that fort, within the time of his relief, ren- 
 dered necessary by the limited supply of provisions, and with 
 a view of holding possession of the same, with a force of less 
 than 20,000 good and well-disciplined men. This opinion was 
 concurred in by all the officers of the command, and their 
 
 *For the purpose of relieving Fort Sumter. See p. 240. 
 
2?$ ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 memoranda on the subject were made inclosures of Major 
 Anderson's letter. The whole was immediately laid before 
 Lieutenant-General Scott, who at once concurred with Major 
 Anderson in opinion. On reflection, however, he took full 
 time, consulting with other officers, both of the army and the 
 navy, and at the end of four days came reluctantly but decidedly 
 to the same conclusion as before. He also stated at the same 
 time that no such sufficient force was then at the control of 
 the government, or could be raised and brought to the ground 
 within the time when the provisions in the fort would be 
 exhausted. In a purely military point of view, this reduced 
 the duty of the administration in the case to the mere matter 
 of getting the garrison safely out of the fort. 
 
 It was believed, however, that to so abandon that position, 
 under the circumstances, would be utterly ruinous; that the 
 necessity under which it was to be done would not be fully 
 understood ; that by many it would be construed as a part of a 
 voluntary policy ; that at home it would discourage the friends 
 of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure 
 to the latter a recognition abroad; that, in fact, it would be 
 our national destruction consummated. This could not be 
 allowed. Starvation was not yet upon the garrison, and ere 
 it would be reached Fort Pickens might be reinforced. This 
 last would be clear indication of policy, and would better en- 
 able the country to accept the evacuation of Fort Sumter as a 
 military necessity. An order was at once directed to be sent 
 for the landing of the troops from the steamship Brooklyn 
 into Fort Pickens. This order could not go by land, but must 
 take the longer and slower route by sea. 
 
 The first return news from the order was received just one 
 week before the fall of Fort Sumter. The news itself was that 
 the officer commanding the Sabine, to which vessel the troops 
 had been transferred from the Brooklyn, acting upon some 
 quasi armistice of the late Administration (and of the existence 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 239 
 
 of which the present Administration,* up to the time the order 
 was dispatched, had only too vague and uncertain rumors to 
 fix attention), had refused to land the troops. To now re- 
 inforce Fort Pickens before a crisis would be reached at Fort 
 Sumter was impossible — rendered so by the near exhaustion 
 of provisions in the latter-named fort. In precaution against 
 such a conjuncture, the government had, a few days before, 
 commenced preparing an expedition as well adapted as might 
 be to relieve Fort Sumter, which expedition was intended to 
 be ultimately used, or not, according to circumstances. The 
 strongest anticipated case for using it was now presented, and 
 it was resolved to send it forward. As had been intended in 
 this contingency, it was also resolved to notify the Governor 
 of South Carolina that he might expect an attempt would be 
 made to provision the fort; and that, if the attempt should not 
 be resisted, there would be no effort to throw in men, arms, 
 or ammunition, without further notice, or in case of an attack 
 upon the fort. 
 
 (To Major Robert Anderson.) Your letter of the 1st 
 instant occasions some anxiety to the President. 
 
 On the information of Captain Fox, he had supposed you 
 could hold out till the 15th instant without any great incon- 
 venience, and had prepared an expedition to relieve you before 
 that period. 
 
 Hoping still that you will be able to sustain yourself till 
 the nth or 12th instant, the expedition will go forward, and, 
 finding your flag flying, will attempt to provision you, and 
 in case the effort is resisted, will endeavor also to reinforce 
 you. 
 
 You will therefore hold out, if possible, till the arrival of 
 the expedition. 
 
 It is not, however, the intention of the President to subject 
 your command to any danger or hardship beyond what, in 
 
 *A promise made by President Buchanan to Senator Mallory of Florida. 
 
2 4 o ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 your judgment, would be usual in military life: and he has 
 entire confidence that you will act as becomes a patriot and 
 a soldier under all circumstances. 
 
 Whenever, if at all, in your judgment, to save yourself 
 and command, a capitulation becomes a necessity, you are 
 authorized to make it. 
 
 6th. (To R. S. Chew.) You will proceed directly to 
 Charleston, South Carolina; and if, on your arrival there, the 
 flag of the United States shall be flying over Fort Sumter, 
 and the fort shall not have been attacked, you will procure an 
 interview with Governor Pickens, and read to him as follows : 
 "I am directed by the President of the United States to notify 
 you to expect an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter 
 with provisions only; and that, if such attempt be not resisted, 
 no effort to throw in men, arms, or ammunition will be made 
 without further notice, or in case of an attack upon the fort." 
 
 After you shall have read this to Governor Pickens, deliver 
 to him the copy of it herein enclosed, and retain this letter 
 yourself. 
 
 But if, on your arrival at Charleston, you shall ascertain 
 that Fort Sumter shall have been already evacuated, or sur- 
 rendered by the United States force, or shall have been 
 attacked by an opposing force, you will seek no interview 
 with Governor Pickens, but return here forthwith. 
 
 nth. (To Postmaster-General Blair.) Has a Postmas- 
 ter been appointed, as yet, at Covington, Kentucky? Colonel 
 Carpenter wishes John S. Scott to be appointed. He says Scott 
 is a Douglas Union man. I know nothing as to the propriety 
 of this; but write to keep a promise. 
 
 (To Secretary Chase.) W. W. Danenhower is the only 
 marked representative of the American organization in Illi- 
 nois, who cooperated with us in 1858 and i860, and who is 
 now asking anything here. He was very serviceable to us 
 then, and is very needy now. 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 241 
 
 Can anything be found for him — permanent or temporary ? 
 
 Please try. 
 
 1 2th. (To Attorney-General Bates.) On examination of 
 papers, and full consideration, I have concluded to appoint Earl 
 Bile, Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio. 
 
 Please send me the commission. 
 
 Surrender of Sumter demanded by the Confederate author- 
 ities and refused. Bombardment of Sumter begins. The fleet 
 intended to relieve Sumter does not arrive in time to prevent 
 the capture of the fort. 
 
 13th. (To a Committee from the Virginia Convention.) 
 If, as now appears to be true, in pursuit of a purpose to 
 drive the United States authority from these places, an un- 
 provoked assault has been made upon Fort Sumter, I shall 
 hold myself at liberty to repossess, if I can, like places 
 which had been seized before the Government was devolved 
 upon me. And in every event I shall, to the extent of my 
 ability, repel force by force. In case it proves true that Fort 
 Sumter has been assaulted, as is reported, I shall, perhaps, 
 cause the United States mails to be withdrawn from all the 
 States which claim to have seceded, believing that the com- 
 mencement of actual war against the Government, justifies 
 and possibly demands this. I scarcely need to say that I con- 
 sider the military posts and property situated within the States 
 which claim to have seceded as yet belonging to the Govern- 
 ment of the United States as much as they did before the sup- 
 posed secession. Whatever else I may do for the purpose, I 
 shall not attempt to collect the duties and imposts by any armed 
 invasion of any part of the country; not meaning by this, how- 
 ever, that I may not land a force deemed necessary to relieve a 
 fort upon a border of the country. 
 
242 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 14th. Stunt er surrendered to the Confederate authorities. 
 Anderson and his garrison permitted to withdraw by means 
 of the belated fleet. 
 
 13th. (A Proclamation.) Whereas the laws of the United 
 States have been for some time past and now are opposed, and 
 the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Car- 
 olina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 
 Texas by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the 
 ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers 
 vested in the marshals by law: 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Con- 
 stitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and 
 hereby do call forth, militia of the several States of the Union, 
 to the aggregate number of 75,000, in order to suppress said 
 combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. 
 
 i?th. Virginia secedes. 
 
 ipth. (Proclamation.) Whereas an insurrection against 
 the Government of the United States has broken out in the 
 States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mis- 
 sissippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United 
 States for the collection of the revenue can not be effectually 
 executed therein conformably to that provision of the Con- 
 stitution which requires duties to be uniform throughout the 
 United States; 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States, with a view to the same purposes before men- 
 tioned, and to the protection of the public peace, and the lives 
 and property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing their law- 
 ful occupations, until Congress shall have assembled and de- 
 liberated on the said unlawful proceedings, or until the same 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 243 
 
 shall have ceased, have further deemed it advisable to set on 
 foot a blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, in 
 pursuance of the laws of the United States, and of the law 
 of nations in such case provided. For this purpose a com- 
 petent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit 
 of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with a view 
 to violate such blockade, a vessel shall approach or shall at- 
 tempt to leave either of the said ports, she will be duly warned 
 by the commander of one of the blockading vessels, who will 
 endorse on her register the fact and date of such warning, and 
 if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter or leave the 
 blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to the nearest 
 convenient port, for such proceedings against her and her 
 cargo, as prize, as may be deemed advisable. 
 
 And I hereby proclaim and declare that if any person un- 
 der the pretended authority of the said States, or under any 
 other pretense, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or 
 the persons or cargo on board of her, such person will be held 
 amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention 
 and punishment of piracy. 
 
 Sixth Massachusetts regiment passing through Baltimore 
 en route to Washington is attacked by a mob. 
 
 20th. (To the Governor of Maryland and the Mayor of 
 Baltimore.) Your letter by Messrs. Bond, Dobbin, and 
 Brune is received. I tender you both my sincere thanks for 
 your efforts to keep the peace in the trying situation in which 
 you are placed. For the future troops must be brought here, 
 but I make no point of bringing them through Baltimore. 
 
 Without any military knowledge myself, of course I must 
 leave details to General Scott. He hastily said this morning 
 in the presence of these gentlemen, "March them around Bal- 
 timore, and not through it." 
 
244 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 I sincerely hope the General, on fuller reflection, will con- 
 sider this practical and proper, and that you will not object 
 to it. By this a collision of the people of Baltimore with the 
 troops will be avoided, unless they go out of their way to 
 seek it. I hope you will exert your influence to prevent this. 
 Now and ever I shall do all in my power for peace consistently 
 with the maintenance of the government. 
 
 2 1st. We must have troops ; and as they can neither crawl 
 under Maryland nor fly over it, they must come across it. 
 
 Railroad from Washington northward destroyed by rioters. 
 Telegraph wires are cut. Washington completely isolated 
 from the North. 
 
 22nd. The force now sought to be brought through Mary- 
 land is intended for nothing but the defense of the capital. 
 The President has necessarily confided the choice of the 
 national highway which that force shall take in coming to this 
 city to the lieutenant-general commanding the army of the 
 United States, who, like his only predecessor, is not less dis- 
 tinguished for his humanity than for his loyalty, patriotism, 
 and distinguished public services. 
 
 23rd. Why don't they come ! Why don't they come ! 
 
 24th. (To wounded soldiers while anxiously waiting for 
 Northern troops.) I don't believe there is any North! The 
 Seventh Regiment is a myth? Rhode Island is not known 
 in our geography any longer. You are the only northern 
 realities. 
 
 25th. Arrival at Washington of the Seventh Regiment of 
 New York. Resumption of connection between the Capital 
 and the North. 
 
 (To General Scott.) The Maryland Legislature assem- 
 bles to-morrow at Annapolis, and not improbably will take 
 action to arm the people of the State against the United 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 245 
 
 States. The question has been submitted to and considered 
 by me, whether it would not be justifiable, upon the ground 
 of necessary defense, for you, as General-in-chief of the United 
 States Army, to arrest or disperse the members of that body. 
 I think it would not be justifiable nor efficient for the desired 
 object. 
 
 I therefore conclude that it is only left to the Commanding 
 General to watch and wait their action, which, if it shall be 
 to arm their people against the United States, he is to adopt 
 the most prompt and efficient means to counteract, even, if 
 necessary, to the bombardment of their cities, and, in the ex- 
 tremest necessity, the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. 
 
 27th. (To General Scott.) You are engaged in sup- 
 pressing an insurrection against the laws of the United States. 
 If at any point on or in the vicinity of any military line which 
 is now between the city of Philadelphia, via Perrysville, An- 
 napolis City, and Annapolis Junction, you find resistance 
 which renders it necessary to suspend the writ of habeas cor- 
 pus for the public safety, you personally, or through the offi- 
 cer in command at the point at which resistance occurs, are 
 authorized to suspend that writ. 
 
 May 1st. (To Major Robert Anderson.) A few days ago 
 I caused an official letter to be written to you, through the 
 War Department, expressive of the approbation and gratitude 
 I considered due you and your command from this govern- 
 ment. 
 
 I now write this as a purely private and social letter to say 
 I shall be much gratified to see you here at your earliest con- 
 venience, when and where I can personally testify my apprecia- 
 tion of your services and fidelity, and perhaps explain some 
 things on my part which you may not have understood. 
 
 I shall also be very glad to see any of the officers who 
 served with you at Fort Sumter, and whom it might be con- 
 venient and agreeable for you to invite to accompany you here. 
 
246 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 (To Gustavus V. Fox, who had planned the relief of 
 Sumter.) I sincerely regret that the failure of the late attempt 
 to provision Fort Sumter should be the source of any annoy- 
 ance to you. The practicability of your plan was not, in fact, 
 brought to a test. 
 
 By reason of a gale, well known in advance to be possible 
 and not improbable, the tugs, an essential part of the plan, 
 never reached the ground, while by an accident for which you 
 were in no wise responsible, and possibly I to some extent was,* 
 you were deprived of a war vessel, with her men, which you 
 deemed of great importance to the enterprise. I most cheer- 
 fully and truly declare, that the failure of the undertaking has 
 not lowered you a particle, while the qualities you developed in 
 the effort have greatly heightened you in my estimation. For 
 a daring and dangerous enterprise of a similar character you 
 would to-day be the man of all my acquaintances whom I 
 would select. You and I both anticipated that the cause of the 
 country would be advanced by making the attempt to pro- 
 vision Fort Sumter, even if it should fail; and it is no small 
 consolation now to feel that our anticipation is justified by 
 the result. 
 
 6th. (To Vice-President Hamlin.) Please advise me at 
 the close of each day what troops left during the day, where 
 going, and by what route; what remaining at New York, and 
 what expected in the next day. Give the numbers, as near 
 as convenient, and what corps they are. This information, 
 reaching us daily, will be very useful as well as satisfactory. 
 
 10th. (To Secretary Chase.) I have felt myself obliged 
 to refuse the post-office at this place to my old friend Nathan 
 Sargent, which wounds him, and consequently me, very deeply. 
 He now says there is an office in your department, called the 
 
 *The warship, Powhatan, intended by Secretary Welles for the Sum- 
 ter was detached by virtue of an order submitted by Seward to Lincoln, 
 who signed it without reading it. 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 247 
 
 "Commissioner of Customs," which the incumbent, a Mr. 
 Ingram, wishes to vacate. I will be much obliged if you agree 
 for me to appoint Mr. Sargent to this place. 
 
 13th. (To Secretary Cameron.) You see on the other 
 side of this sheet that four German regiments already raised 
 in New York wish to form a brigade and have Carl Schurz 
 for their brigadier-general. Why should it not be done at 
 once? By the plan of organization, I see I am to appoint 
 the generals. 
 
 (To Colonel F. P. Blair.) We have a good deal of 
 anxiety here about St. Louis. I understand an order has gone 
 from the War Department to you, to be delivered or withheld 
 in your discretion, relieving General Harney from his com- 
 mand. I was not quite satisfied with the order when it was 
 made; though on the whole I thought it best to make it; but 
 since then I have become more doubtful of its propriety. I do 
 not write now to countermand it, but to say I wish you would 
 withhold it, unless in your judgment the necessity to the con- 
 trary is very urgent. There are several reasons for this. We 
 had better have him a friend than an enemy. It will dissatisfy 
 a good many who otherwise would be quiet. More than all, 
 we first relieve him, then restore him: and now if we relieve 
 him again the public will ask, "Why all this vacillation?" 
 
 Still, if in your judgment it is indispensable, let it be so. 
 
 22nd. (To Governor E. D. Morgan.) I wish to see you 
 face to face to clear these difficulties about forwarding troops 
 from New York. 
 
 25th. (To Colonel Ellsworth's parents.) In the untimely 
 loss of your noble son, our affliction here is scarcely less than 
 your own. So much of promised usefulness to one's country, 
 and of bright hopes for one's self and friends, have rarely 
 been so suddenly dashed as in his fall. In size, in years, and 
 in youthful appearance a boy only, his power to command men 
 was surpassingly great. This power, combined with a fine 
 
248 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 intellect, an indomitable energy, and a taste altogether military, 
 constituted in him, as seemed to me, the best natural talent in 
 that department I ever knew. 
 
 June 5th. (To General Scott.) Doubtless you begin to 
 understand how disagreeable it is for me to do a thing arbi- 
 trarily when it is unsatisfactory to others associated with me. 
 
 I very much wish to appoint Colonel Meigs quartermaster- 
 general, and yet General Cameron does not quite consent. I 
 have come to know Colonel Meigs quite well for a short ac- 
 quaintance, and, so far as I am capable of judging, I do not 
 know one who combines the qualities of masculine intellect, 
 learning, and experience of the right sort, and physical power 
 of labor and endurance, so well as he. 
 
 I know he has great confidence in you, always sustaining, 
 so far as I have observed, your opinions against any differing 
 ones. 
 
 You will lay me under one more obligation if you can ^nd 
 will use your influence to remove General Cameron's objection. 
 I scarcely need tell you I have nothing personal in this, having 
 never seen or heard of Colonel Meigs until about the end of 
 last March. 
 
 July 2nd. (To the Commanding General, Army of the 
 United States.) You are engaged in suppressing an insur- 
 rection against the laws of the United States. If at any point 
 on or in the vicinity of any military line which is now or which 
 shall be used between the city of New York and the city of 
 Washington you find resistance which renders it necessary to 
 suspend the writ of liabeas corpus for the public safety, you 
 personally, or through the officer in command at the point 
 where resistance occurs, are authorized to suspend that writ. 
 
 4th. (Message to Congress.) And this issue [the Right 
 of Secession] 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 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 249 
 
 of the people, by the same people — can or can not maintain 
 its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes. It pre- 
 sents the question whether discontented individuals, too few 
 in numbers to control administration, according to organic law 
 in any case, can always, upon the pretenses, or arbitrarily with- 
 out any pretense, break up their government, and thus prac- 
 tically 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 ?" 
 
 The States have their status in the Union, and they have 
 no other legal status. If they break from this, they can only 
 do so against law and by revolution. The Union, and not 
 themselves separately, procured their independence and their 
 liberty. By conquest or purchase the Union gave each of 
 them whatever of independence or liberty it has. The Union 
 is older than any of the States, and, in fact, it created them 
 as States. Originally, some dependent colonies made the 
 Union, and, in turn, the Union threw off their old dependence 
 for them, and made them States, such as they are. 
 
 If all the States save one should assert the power to drive 
 that one out of the Union, it is presumed the whole class of 
 seceder politicians would at once deny the power and denounce 
 the act as the greatest outrage upon State rights. But sup- 
 pose that precisely the same act, instead of being called "driv- 
 ing the one out," should be called "the seceding of the others 
 from that one," it would be exactly what the seceders claim 
 to do, unless, indeed, they make the point that the one, because 
 it is a minority, may rightfully do what the others, because 
 they are a majority, may not rightfully do. These politicians 
 are subtle and profound on the rights of minorities. They 
 are not partial to that power which made the Constitution and 
 speaks from the preamble called itself "We, the People." 
 
250 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [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 ele- 
 vate the condition of men — to lift artificial weights from all 
 shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to 
 afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of 
 life. Yielding to partial and temporary departures, from 
 necessity, this is the leading object of the government for 
 whose existence we contend. 
 
 Our popular government has often been called an experi- 
 ment. Two points in it our people have already stated — 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 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 been fairly and constitutionally decided, there can 
 be no successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no 
 successful appeal, except to ballots themselves, at succeeding 
 elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching men 
 that what they can not take by an election, neither can they 
 take it by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginning 
 of a war. 
 
 10th. (To General S. B. Buckner.) It is my duty, as I 
 conceive, to suppress an insurrection existing within the United 
 States. I wish to do this with the least possible disturbance 
 or annoyance to well-disposed people anywhere. So far I have 
 not sent an armed force into Kentucky, nor have I any present 
 purpose to do so. I sincerely desire that no necessity for it 
 may be presented ; but I mean to say nothing which shall here- 
 after embarrass me in the performance of what may seem to 
 be my duty. 
 
 1 8th. (To Secretary Chase.) I can scarcely avoid an 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 251 
 
 "unpleasantness," not to say a difficulty, or rupture, respec- 
 tively with Mr. Senator King and Mr. Speaker Grow, unless 
 I can find a place for each man. Mr. Grow, knowing I have 
 Mr. King on hand, as well as himself, was here this morning, 
 insisting that the second and fifth authorships are still open, 
 and that I might give them to Mr. King's man and to his. 
 Is the fact so? Are those places open? If they are, you would 
 both oblige and relieve me by letting them go as indicated. 
 
 2 1st. Battle of Ball Run (First Manassas) is a disastrous 
 Federal defeat. 
 
 In ordering General McDowell, zvho commanded at Bull 
 Run, to offer battle against his judgment, Lincoln had yielded 
 to the clamor of politicians in Congress who feared the effect 
 on their constituents of military inaction, Lincoln now roused 
 himself to defy them. Regardless of their wishes he selected 
 for high command the man whom he supposed was the best 
 soldier available. 
 
 22nd. General George B. McClellan summoned to Wash- 
 ington as second in command to General Scott. 
 
 23rd. 
 
 1. Let the plan for making the blockade effective be 
 pushed forward with all possible despatch. 
 
 2. Let the volunteer forces at Fort Monroe and vicinity 
 under General Butler be constantly drilled, disciplined, and in- 
 structed without more for the present. 
 
 3. Let Baltimore be held as now, with a gentle but firm 
 and certain hand. 
 
 4. Let the force now under Patterson or Banks be 
 strengthened and made secure in its position. 
 
 5. Let the forces in Western Virginia act till further or- 
 
252 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 ders according to instructions or orders from General Mc- 
 Clellan. 
 
 6. Let General Fremont push forward his organization 
 and operations in the West as rapidly as possible, giving rather 
 special attention to Missouri. 
 
 7. Let the forces late before Manassas, except the three- 
 months men, be reorganized as rapidly as possible in their 
 camps here and about Arlington. 
 
 8. Let the three-months forces who decline to enter the 
 longer service be discharged as rapidly as circumstances will 
 permit. 
 
 9. Let the new volunteer forces be brought forward as 
 fast as possible, and especially into the camps on the two sides 
 of the river here. 
 
 2fth. 
 
 1. Let Manassas Junction (or some point on one or other 
 of the railroads near it) and Strasburg be seized, and perma- 
 nently held, with an open line from Washington to Manassas, 
 and an open line from Harper's Ferry to Strasburg — the mili- 
 tary men to find the way of doing these. 
 
 2. This done, a joint movement from Cairo on Memphis, 
 and from Cincinnati on East Tennessee. 
 
 In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives 
 of the 24th instant, asking the grounds, reason, and evidence 
 upon which the police commissioners of Baltimore were 
 arrested and are now detained as prisoners at Fort McHenry, 
 I have to state that it is judged to be incompatible with the 
 public interest at this time to furnish the information called for 
 by the resolution. 
 
 August 8th. (To Secretary Cameron.) Edward Ells- 
 worth, first cousin to Colonel Ellsworth, who fell at Alexan- 
 dria, a non-commissioned officer in the Fourth Regiment of 
 Michigan Volunteers, now stationed at the Relay House, 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 253 
 
 wishes to be a second lieutenant in the army. He is present 
 while I write this, and he is an intelligent and an exceedingly 
 wary-appearing young man of twenty years of age. I shall 
 be glad if a place can be found for him. 
 
 (To Gustave Koerner.) Your despatch, saying application 
 of German Brigade is withdrawn, is just received. Without 
 occupying our standpoint, you can not conceive how this sub- 
 ject embarrasses us. We have promises out, to more than 
 four hundred regiments, which if they all come, are more than 
 we want. If they all come, we could not take yours; if they 
 do not all come we shall want yours, and yet we have no pos- 
 sible means of knowing whether they will all come or not. 
 I hope you will make due allowance for the embarrassment this 
 produces. 
 
 1 2th. (Proclamation.) 
 
 Whereas a joint committee of both Houses of Congress 
 has waited on the President of the United States and requested 
 him to "recommend a day of public prayer, humiliation, and 
 fasting, to be observed by the people of the United States with 
 religious solemnities, and the offering of fervent supplications 
 to Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States, 
 His blessings on their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace ;" 
 
 And whereas it is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, 
 to acknowledge and revere the supreme government of God; 
 to bow in humble submission to His chastisements ; to con- 
 fess and deplore their sins and transgressions, in the full 
 conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wis- 
 dom; and to pray with all fervency and contrition for the 
 pardon of their past offenses, and for a blessing upon their 
 present and prospective action ; 
 
 And whereas when our own beloved country, once, by the 
 blessing of God, united, prosperous, and happy, is now 
 afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us 
 to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in 
 
354 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a 
 nation, and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him 
 and to pray for His mercy — to pray that we may be spared 
 further punishment though most justly deserved; that our 
 arms may be blessed and made effectual for the re-establish- 
 ment of law, order, and peace throughout the wide extent of 
 our country; and that the inestimable boon of civil and re- 
 ligious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the 
 labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its 
 original excellence; 
 
 Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
 States, do appoint the last Thursday in September next as a day 
 of humiliation, prayer, and fasting for all the people of the 
 nation. And I do earnestly recommend to all the people, and 
 especially to all ministers and teachers of religion, of all de- 
 nominations, and to all heads of families, to observe and keep 
 that day, according to their several creeds and modes of wor- 
 ship, in all humility and with all religious solemnity, to the end 
 that the united prayer of the nation may ascend to the Throne 
 of Grace, and bring down plentiful blessings upon our country. 
 
 Great concern at Washington over Missouri which seems 
 likely to become a theater of war. General Fremont in com- 
 mand at St. Louis. 
 
 15th. (To Governor O. P. Morton.) Start your four 
 regiments to St. Louis at the earliest moment possible. Get 
 such harness as may be necessary for your rifled guns. Do not 
 delay a single regiment, but hasten everything forward as soon 
 as one regiment is ready. Have your three additional regi- 
 ments organized at once. We shall endeavor to send you the 
 arms this week. 
 
 (To General Fremont.) Been answering your messages 
 since day before yesterday. Do you receive the answers? The 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 255 
 
 War Department had notified all the governors you designate 
 to forward all available forces. So telegraphed you. Have 
 you received these messages? Answer immediately. 
 
 The divided sentiment of the border States is a constant 
 alarm to the President. 
 
 24th. (To Governor B. Magoffin of Kentucky.) Your 
 letter of the 19th instant, in which you "urge the removal from 
 the limits of Kentucky of the military force now organized and 
 in camp within said State," is received. 
 
 I may not possess full and precisely accurate knowledge 
 upon this subject, but I believe it is true that there is a military 
 force in camp within Kentucky, acting by authority of the 
 United States, which force is not very large, and is not now 
 being augmented. I also believe that some arms have been 
 furnished to this force by the United States. 
 
 I also believe that this force consists exclusively of Ken- 
 tuckians, having their camp in the immediate vicinity of their 
 own homes, and not assailing or menacing any of the good 
 people of Kentucky. 
 
 In all I have done in the premises, I have acted upon the 
 urgent solicitation of many Kentuckians, and in accordance 
 with what I believed, and still believe, to be the wish of a 
 majority of all the Union-loving people of Kentucky. 
 
 While I have conversed on this subject with many eminent 
 men of Kentucky, including a large majority of her members 
 of Congress, I do not remember that any one of them, or any 
 other person, except your Excellency and the bearers of your 
 Excellency's letter, has urged me to remove the military force 
 from Kentucky or to disband it. One other very worthy citi- 
 zen of Kentucky did solicit me to have the augmenting of the 
 force suspended for a time. 
 
 Taking all the means within my reach to form a judgment, 
 
256 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 I do not believe it is the popular wish of Kentucky that this 
 force shall be removed beyond her limits; and, with this im- 
 pression, I must respectfully decline to so remove it. 
 
 I most cordially sympathize with your Excellency in the 
 wish to preserve the peace of my own native State, Kentucky, 
 but it is with regret I search for and can not find, in your not 
 very short letter, any declaration or intimation that you enter- 
 tain any desire for the preservation of the Federal Union. 
 
 30th. Fremont at St. Louis, issues an order freeing slaves 
 in his district and establishing a bureau of abolition. This is 
 a sort of defiance of the President who has refused to make 
 abolition the issue of the war. He insists that the purpose of 
 the war is merely to restore the Union. 
 
 September 2nd. (To General John C. Fremont.) Two 
 points in your proclamation of August 20 give me some 
 anxiety. 
 
 First. Should you shoot a man, according to the procla- 
 mation, the Confederates would very certainly shoot our best 
 men in their hands in retaliation ; and so, man for man, in- 
 definitely. It is, therefore, my order that you allow no man 
 to be shot under the proclamation without first having my 
 approbation or consent. 
 
 Second. I think there is great danger that the closing para- 
 graph, in relation to the confiscation of property and the lib- 
 erating slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern 
 Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our 
 rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to ask 
 that you will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph 
 so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act 
 of Congress entitled, "An act to confiscate property used for 
 insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6, 1861, and a 
 copy of which act I herewith send you. 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 257 
 
 This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of cen- 
 sure. I send it by special messenger, in order that it may cer- 
 tainly and speedily reach you. 
 
 pth. (To General David Hunter.) General Fremont 
 needs assistance which it is difficult to give him. He is losing 
 the confidence of men near him, whose support any man in 
 his position must have to be successful. His cardinal mistake 
 is that he isolates himself and allows nobody to see him, and 
 by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter 
 he is dealing with. He needs to have by his side a man of 
 large experience. Will you not, for me, take that place? 
 Your rank is one grade too high to be ordered to it, but 
 will you not serve the country and oblige me by taking it 
 voluntarily ? 
 
 nth. (To General Fremont.) Yours of the 8th, in an- 
 swer to mine of the 2nd instant, is just received. Assuming 
 that you, upon the ground, could better judge of the necessities 
 of your position than I could at this distance, on seeing your 
 proclamation of August 30 I perceived no general objection 
 to it. The particular clause, however, in relation to the con- 
 fiscation of property and the liberation of slaves appeared to 
 me to be objectionable in its noncomformity to the act of Con- 
 gress passed the 6th of last August upon the same subjects; 
 and hence I wrote you, expressing my wish that that clause 
 should be modified accordingly. Your answer, just received, 
 expresses the preference on your part that I should make an 
 open order for the modification, which I very cheerfully do. 
 It is therefore ordered that the said clause of said proclamation 
 be so modified, held, and construed as to conform to, and not 
 4.0 transcend, the provisions on the same subject contained in 
 the act of Congress, entitled, "An act to confiscate property 
 used for insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6, 1861, 
 and that said act be published at length with this order. 
 
 1 2th. (To Mrs. Fremont, who has come to Washington 
 
258 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 post-haste to complain that her husband is being treated ill.) 
 Your two notes of to-day are before me. I answered the letter 
 you bore me from General Fremont on yesterday, and not 
 hearing from you during the day, I sent the answer to him 
 by mail. It is not exactly correct, as you say you were told 
 by the elder Mr. Blair, to say that I sent Postmaster-General 
 Blair to St. Louis to examine into that department and report. 
 Postmaster-General Blair did go, with my approbation, to see 
 and converse with General Fremont as a friend. I do not feel 
 authorized to furnish you with copies of letters in my pos- 
 session without the consent of the writers. No impression has 
 been made on my mind against the honor or integrity of Gen- 
 eral Fremont, and I now enter my protest against being 
 understood as acting in any hostility toward him. 
 
 There is bitter protest over the cancelling of Fremont's 
 abolition proclamation. 
 
 22nd. (To O. H. Browning.) General Fremont's procla- 
 mation as to confiscation of property and the liberation of 
 slaves is purely political and not within the range of military 
 law or necessity. If a commanding general finds a necessity 
 to seize the farm of a private owner for a pasture, an encamp- 
 ment, or a fortification, he has the right to do so, and to so 
 hold it as long as the necessity lasts ; and this is within military 
 law, because within military necessity. But to say the farm 
 shall no longer belong to the owner, or his heirs forever, and 
 this as well when the farm is not needed for military purposes 
 as when it is, is purely political, without the savor of military 
 law about it. And the same is true of slaves. If the general 
 needs them, he can seize them and use them ; but when the need 
 is past, it is not for him to fix their permanent future con- 
 dition. That must be settled according to laws made by law- 
 makers, and not by military proclamations. The proclamation 
 
ace 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 259 
 
 in the point in question is simply "dictatorship." It assumes 
 that the general may do anything he pleases — confiscate the 
 lands and free the slaves of loyal people, as well as of disloyal 
 ones. And going the whole figure, I have no doubt, would 
 be more popular with some thoughtless people than that which 
 has been done! But I can not assume this reckless position, 
 nor allow others to assume it on my responsibility. 
 
 You speak of it as being the only means of saving the 
 government. On the contrary, it is itself the surrender of 
 the government. Can it be pretended that it is any longer the 
 Government of the United States — any government of con- 
 stitution and laws — wherein a general or a president may 
 make permanent rules of property by proclamation? I do not 
 say Congress might not with propriety pass a law on the point, 
 just such as General Fremont proclaimed. I do not say I 
 might not, as a member of Congress, vote for it. What I 
 object to is, that I, as President, shall expressly or impliedly 
 seize and exercise the permanent legislative functions of the 
 government. 
 
 So much as to principle. Now as to policy. No doubt the 
 thing was popular in some quarters, and would have been 
 more so if it had been a general declaration of emancipation. 
 The Kentucky Legislature would not budge till that procla- 
 mation was modified; and General Anderson telegraphed me 
 that on the news of General Fremont having actually issued 
 deeds of manumission, a whole company of our volunteers 
 threw down their arms and disbanded. I was so assured as 
 to think it probable that the very arms we had furnished Ken- 
 tucky would be turned against us. I think to lose Kentucky 
 is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky 
 gone, we can not hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. 
 These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large 
 for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, 
 including the surrender of this capital. 
 
260 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 The government is unable to find arms for its soldiers. 
 Only through purchases in Europe — 726,000 rifles, the first 
 year — is it able to equip its forces. 
 
 2pth. (To Governor Morton.) You do not receive arms 
 from us as fast as you need them; but it is because we have 
 not near enough to meet all the pressing demands, and we are 
 obliged to share around what we have, sending the larger share 
 to the points which appear to need them most. We have great 
 hope that our own supply will be ample before long, so that 
 you and all others can have as many as you need. I see an 
 article in an Indianapolis newspaper denouncing me for not 
 answering your letter sent by special messenger two or three 
 weeks ago. I did make what I thought the best answer to that 
 letter. As I remember, it asked for ten heavy guns to be dis- 
 tributed, with some troops, at Lawrenceburg, Madison, New 
 Albany, and Evansville; and I ordered the guns and directed 
 you to send the troops, if you had them. As to Kentucky, 
 you do not estimate that State as more important than I do, 
 but I am compelled to watch all points. While I write this I 
 am, if not in range, at least in hearing of cannon-shot from 
 an army of enemies more than 1,000,000 strong. I do not 
 expect them to capture this city; but I know they would if I 
 were to send men and arms from here to defend Louisville, of 
 which there is not a single hostile armed soldier within forty 
 miles, nor any force known to be moving upon it from any 
 distance. It is true the army in our front may make a half- 
 circle around southward and move on Louisville, but when 
 they do we will meet them; and in the meantime we will get 
 up what forces we can from other sources to also meet them. 
 
 The importance of East Tennessee because of its anti- 
 slavery popidation is ever in Lincoln's thoughts. 
 
 October 1st. On or about the 5th of October (the exact 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 261 
 
 date to be determined hereafter) I wish a movement made to 
 seize and hold a point on the railroad connecting Virginia and 
 Tennessee, near the mountain-pass called Cumberland Gap. 
 
 As to movements, my idea is that the one for the coast and 
 that on Cumberland Gap be simultaneous, and that in the mean- 
 time preparation, vigilant watching, and the defensive only be 
 acted upon ; this, however, not to apply to Fremont's operations 
 in northern and middle Missouri. 
 
 14th. (To General Scott.) The military line of the 
 United States for the suppression of the insurrection may be 
 extended so far as Bangor, Me. You and any officer acting 
 under your authority are hereby authorized to suspend the writ 
 of habeas corpus in any place between that place and the city 
 of Washington. 
 
 2 1st. (To Archbishop Hughes). I am sure you will 
 pardon me if in my ignorance I do not address you with tech- 
 nical correctness. I find no law authorizing the appointment 
 of chaplains for our hospitals; and yet the services of chaplains 
 are more needed, perhaps, in the hospitals than with the healthy 
 soldiers in the field. With this view, I have given a sort of 
 quasi appointment (a copy of which I inclose) to each of three 
 Protestant ministers, who have accepted and entered upon 
 their duties. If you perceive no objection, I will thank you to 
 give me the name or names of one or more suitable persons of 
 the Catholic Church, to whom I may with propriety tender 
 the same service. 
 
 Fremont for various reasons has become impossible. 
 
 24th. (To General S. R. Curtis.) On receipt of this, with 
 the accompanying inclosures, you will take safe, certain, and 
 suitable measures to have the inclosure addressed to Major- 
 General Fremont delivered to him with all reasonable despatch, 
 
262 ABRAHAM LINCOLN U861 
 
 subject to these conditions only: that if, when General Fre- 
 mont shall be reached by the messenger — yourself or any one 
 sent by you — he shall then have, in personal command, fought 
 and won a battle, or shall then be actually in a battle, or shall 
 then be in the immediate presence of the enemy in expectation 
 of a battle, it is not to be delivered, but held for further orders. 
 After, and not till* after, the delivery to General Fremont, let 
 the inclosure addressed to General Hunter be delivered to him. 
 
 (General Orders No. 18.) 
 
 Headquarters of the Army, 
 
 Washington, October 24, 1861. 
 Major-General Fremont, of the U. S. Army, the present 
 commander of the Western Department of the same, will, on 
 the receipt of this order, call Major-General Hunter of the 
 U. S. Volunteers, to relieve him temporarily in that command, 
 when he, (Major-General Fremont) will report to General 
 Headquarters, by letter, for further orders. 
 
 WINFIELD SCOTT. 
 By command : E. D. TOWNSEND, 
 
 Assistant Adjutant-General. 
 
 (To the Commander of the Department of the West.) 
 The command of the Department of the West having de- 
 volved upon you, I propose to offer you a few suggestions. 
 Knowing how hazardous it is to bind down a distant com- 
 mander in the field to specific lines and operations, as so much 
 always depends on a knowledge of localities and passing 
 events, it is intended, therefore, to leave a considerable margin 
 for the exercise of your judgment and discretion. 
 
 The main rebel army (Price's) west of the Mississippi is 
 believed to have passed Dade County in full retreat upon north- 
 western Arkansas, leaving Missouri almost freed from the 
 enemy, excepting in the southeast of the State. Assuming this 
 basis of fact, it seems desirable, as you are not likely to over- 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 263 
 
 take Price, and are in danger of making too long a line from 
 your own base of supplies and reinforcements, that you should 
 give up the pursuit, halt your main army, divide it into two 
 corps of observation, one occupying Sedalia and the other 
 Rolla, the present termini of railroads; then recruit the con- 
 dition of both corps by reestablishing and improving their dis- 
 cipline and instructions, perfecting their clothing and equip- 
 ments, and providing less uncomfortable quarters. 
 
 November 1st. On the 1st day of November, a. d., 1861, 
 upon his own application to the President of the United States, 
 Brevet Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott is ordered to be 
 placed, and hereby is placed, upon the list of retired officers of 
 the Army of the United States, without reduction in his cur- 
 rent pay, subsistence, or allowances. 
 
 The American people will hear with sadness and deep 
 emotion that General Scott has withdrawn from the active 
 control of the Army, while the President and a unanimous 
 Cabinet express their own and the nation's sympathy in his 
 personal affliction, and their profound sense of the important 
 public services rendered by him to his country during his long 
 and brilliant career, among which will ever be gratefully dis- 
 tinguished his faithful devotion to the Constitution, the Union, 
 and the flag when assailed by parricidal rebellion. 
 
 The President is pleased to direct that Major-General 
 George B. McClellan assume the command of the Army of the 
 United States. 
 
 The headquarters of the Army will be established in the 
 city of Washington. 
 
 The promotion of McClellan makes trouble for Lincoln in 
 Congress because McClellan is a Democrat and the Republican 
 majority want a commanding general of their own party; but 
 Lincoln is determined to stake everything on the professional 
 soldier. 
 
264 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 8th. Confederate envoys, Mason and Slidell, taken off the 
 British merchant vessel Trent by U. S. cruiser. Great excite- 
 ment throughout the United States. All the friends of Fre- 
 mont and other radical politicians insist on returning the 
 envoys. 
 
 I fear the traitors will prove to be white elephants. We 
 must stick to American principles concerning the rights of neu- 
 trals. We fought Great Britain for insisting by theory and 
 practise on the right to do exactly what Captain Wilkes has 
 done. If Great Britain shall now protest against the act and 
 demand their release, we must give them up, apologize for the 
 act as a violation of our doctrines, and thus forever bind her 
 over to keep the peace in relation to neutrals, and so acknowl- 
 edge that she has been wrong for sixty years. 
 
 Despite the popidar clamor, Mason and Slidell are allowed 
 to proceed on their journey to Liverpool. 
 
 Lincoln realizes how dangerous may be the power of the 
 press in time of war. 
 
 2 1 st. (To Governor Walker.) I have thought over the 
 interview which Mr. Gilmore has had with Mr. Greeley, and 
 the proposal that Greeley has made to Gilmore, namely, that 
 he (Gilmore) shall communicate to him (Greeley) all that he 
 learns from you of the inner workings of the administration, 
 in return for his (Greeley's) giving such aid as he can to the 
 new magazine, and allowing you (Walker) from time to time 
 the use of his (Greeley's) columns when it is desirable to feel 
 of, or forestall, public opinion on important subjects. The 
 arrangement meets my unqualified approval, and I shall 
 further it to the extent of my ability, by opening to you — as I 
 do now — fully the policy of the .Government — its present 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 265 
 
 views and future intentions when formed, giving you permis- 
 sion to communicate them to Gilmore for Greeley ; and in case 
 you go to Europe I will give these things direct to Gilmore. 
 But all this must be on the express and explicit understanding 
 that the fact of these communications coming from me shall 
 be absolutely confidential — not to be disclosed by Greeley to his 
 nearest friend, or any of his subordinates. He will be, in 
 effect, my mouthpiece, but I shall not be known to be the 
 speaker. 
 
 I need not tell you that I have the highest confidence in 
 Mr. Greeley. He is a great power, Having him firmly behind 
 me will be as helpful to me as an army of one hundred thousand 
 men. That he has ever kicked the traces has been owing to his 
 not being fully informed. Tell Gilmore to say tt> him that, if 
 he ever objects to my policy, I shall be glad to have him state 
 to me his views frankly and fully. I shall adopt his if I can. 
 If I can not, I will at least tell him why. He and I should 
 stand together, and let no minor differences come between us; 
 for we both seek one end, which is the saving of our country. 
 Now, Governor, this is a longer letter than I have written in a 
 month — longer than I would have written for any other man 
 than Horace Greeley. 
 
 In McClellan Lincoln appears to have made a mistake. The 
 new General treats the President as a crude layman, even snubs 
 him. 
 
 While Lincoln waits for McClellan at the latter 9 s house 
 the General comes in and instead of meeting the President 
 quietly slips off to bed. Young Hay, Lincoln's secretary, 
 is furious at this "insolence of epaulettes/' Lincoln wearily 
 replies — 
 
 I will hold McClellan's horse if he will only win me vic- 
 tories. 
 
266 ABRAHAM EINCOLN [1861 
 
 December 1st. (Inquiries and observations by the Presi- 
 dent: replies to inquiries, in italics, by General McClellan.) If 
 it were determined to make a forward movement of the Army 
 of the Potomac without awaiting further increase of numbers 
 or better drill and discipline, how long would it require to 
 actually get in motion? 
 
 // bridge trains ready by December 15th, probably 25th. 
 
 After leaving all that would be necessary, how many troops 
 could join the movement from southwest of the river? 
 
 Seventy-one thousand. 
 
 How many from northeast of it? 
 
 Thirty-three thousand. 
 
 Suppose, then, that of those southwest of the river fifty 
 thousand move forward and menace the enemy at Centerville ; 
 the remainder of the movable force on that side move rapidly 
 to the crossing of the Occoquan by the road from Alexandria 
 to Richmond, there to be joined by the whole movable force 
 from northeast of the river, having landed from the Potomac, 
 just below the mouth of the Occoquan, moved by land up the 
 south side of that stream to the crossing point named, then the 
 whole move together by the road thence to Brentsville and 
 beyond to the railroad just south of its crossing of Broad 
 Run, a strong detachment of cavalry having gone rapidly 
 ahead to destroy the railroad bridges south and north of the 
 point. 
 
 If the crossing of the Occoquan by those from above be 
 resisted, those landing from the Potomac below to take the 
 resisting force of the enemy in the rear; or, if the landing 
 from the Potomac be resisted, those crossing the Occoquan 
 from above to take that resisting force in the rear. Both 
 points will probably not be successfully resisted at the same 
 time. 
 
 Armed vessels and transportation should remain at the 
 Potomac landing to cover a possible retreat. 
 
age 5* AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 267 
 
 3rd. (Message to Congress.) The war continues. In 
 considering the policy to be adopted for suppressing the insur- 
 rection, I have been anxious and careful that the inevitable 
 conflict for this purpose shall not degenerate into a violent and 
 remorseless revolutionary struggle. I have, therefore, in every 
 case thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union 
 prominent as the primary object of the contest on our part, 
 leaving all questions which are not of vital military importance 
 to the more deliberate action of the Legislature. 
 
 In the exercise of my best discretion I have adhered to the 
 blockade of the ports held by the insurgents, instead of putting 
 in force, by proclamation, the law of Congress enacted at the 
 last session for closing those ports. 
 
 So, also, obeying the dictates of prudence as well as the 
 obligations of law, instead of transcending, I have adhered to 
 the act of Congress to confiscate property used for insurrec- 
 tionary purposes. If a new law upon the same subject shall 
 be proposed, its propriety will be duly considered. The Union 
 must be preserved ; and hence all indispensable means must be 
 employed. We should not be in haste to determine that rad- 
 ical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well 
 as the disloyal, are indispensable. 
 
 It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if 
 not exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular gov- 
 ernment — the rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of 
 this is found in the most grave and maturely considered public 
 documents, as well as in the general tone of the insurgents. 
 In those documents we find the abridgment of the exist- 
 ing right of suffrage, and the denial to the people of aH 
 right to participate in the selection of public officers except 
 the legislative, boldly advocated, with labored arguments to 
 prove that large control of the people in government is the 
 source of all political evil. Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted 
 at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. 
 
268 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 In my present position I could scarcely be justified were 
 I to omit raising a warning voice against this approach of 
 returning despotism. 
 
 It is not needed, nor fitting here that a general argument 
 should be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is 
 one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others 
 to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to place cap- 
 ital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the struc- 
 ture of government. It is assumed that labor is available only 
 in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless some- 
 body else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces 
 him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it 
 is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to 
 work by their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to it 
 without their consent. Having proceeded thus far, it is nat- 
 urally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or 
 what we call slaves. And further, it is assumed that whoever 
 is once a hired laborer is fixed in that condition for life. 
 
 Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor 
 as assumed; nor is there any such thing as a free man being 
 fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these 
 assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are 
 groundless. 
 
 Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is 
 only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor 
 had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and 
 deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, 
 which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. 
 
 Innumerable details of dissatisfaction claim the President's 
 attention. 
 
 14th. (To Rev. Dr. A. Fischel.) I find that there are 
 several particulars in which the present law in regard to 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 269 
 
 Chaplains is supposed to be deficient, all of which I now design 
 presenting to the appropriate Committee of Congress. I shall 
 try to have a new law broad enough to cover what is desired 
 by you in behalf of the Israelites. 
 
 31st. (To General Halleck, in command of the West.) 
 General McClellan is sick. Are General Buell and yourself in 
 concert? When he moves on Bowling Green, what hinders it 
 being reinforced from Columbus? A simultaneous movement 
 by you on Columbus might prevent it. 
 
 (To Major-General Hunter, who is forever complaining.) 
 Yours of the 23rd is received, and I am constrained to say 
 it is difficult to answer so ugly a letter in good temper. 
 I am, as you intimate, losing much of the great confidence 
 I placed in you, not from any act of omission of yours touch- 
 ing the public service up to the time you were sent to Leaven- 
 worth, but from the flood of grumbling despatches and let- 
 ters I have seen from you since. 
 
 I have been, and am, sincerely your friend; and if, as such 
 I dare to make a suggestion, I would say you are adopting the 
 best possible way to ruin yourself. "Act well your part, there 
 all the honor lies." He who does something at the head of 
 one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head 
 of a hundred. 
 
1862 
 
 Lincoln is very eager to have the Western generals march 
 to the assistance of the people of Eastern Tennessee who are 
 mainly for the Union. 
 
 January 1st. (To General D. C. Buell.) General Mc- 
 Clellan should not be disturbed with business. I think you 
 better get in concert with General Halleck at once. I write 
 you to-night. I also telegraph and write Halleck. 
 
 (To General H. W. Halleck.) General McClellan is not 
 dangerously ill, as I hope, but would better not be disturbed 
 with business. I am very anxious that, in case of General 
 Buell's moving toward Nashville, the enemy shall not be greatly 
 re-in forced, and I think there is danger he will be from Colum- 
 bus. It seems to me that a real or feigned attack on Columbus 
 from up-river at the same time would either prevent this or 
 compensate for it by throwing Columbus into our hands. I 
 wrote General Buell a letter similar to this, meaning that he 
 and you shall communicate and act in concert, unless it be your 
 judgment and his that there is no necessity for it. You and 
 he will understand much better than I how to do it. Please 
 do not lose time in this matter. 
 
 6th. (To General D. C. Buell.) Your despatch of yes- 
 terday has been received and it disappoints and distresses me. 
 My distress is that our friends in East Tennessee are being 
 hanged and driven to despair and even now I fear are taking 
 rebel arms for the sake of personal protection. In this we lose 
 the most valuable state we have in the South. My despatch to 
 which yours is an answer was sent with the knowledge of Sen- 
 ator Johnson and Representative Maynard of East Tennessee 
 
 270 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 271 
 
 and they will be upon me to know the answer which I can not 
 safely show them. They would despair; possibly resign to go 
 and save their families somehow or die with them. 
 
 I do not intend this to be an order in any sense but merely 
 as intimated before to show you the grounds of my anxiety. 
 
 Jth. (To General D. C. Buell.) Please name as early a 
 day as you safely can on or before which you can be ready to 
 move southward in concert with Major-General Halleck. De- 
 lay is ruining us, and it is indispensable for me to have some- 
 thing definite. I send a like despatch to Major-General 
 Halleck. 
 
 10th. (Indorsement.) The within is a copy of a letter 
 just received from General Halleck. It is exceedingly dis- 
 couraging. As everywhere else, nothing can be done. 
 
 All this while bitter intrigues inside the ruling party. 
 Cameron disagrees with his chief and tries to play into the 
 hands of the Abolitionists. His enemies accuse him of pecu- 
 lation. Lincoln forces him to offer his resignation, but at the 
 same time devises a way to save his face for him. 
 
 nth. (To Secretary Cameron.) Though I have said 
 nothing hitherto in response to your wish, expressed long since, 
 to resign your seat in the Cabinet, I have not been unmindful 
 of it. I have been only unwilling to consent to a change at a 
 time and under circumstances which might give occasion to 
 misconstruction, and unable till now to see how such miscon- 
 struction could be avoided. 
 
 But the desire of Mr. Clay to return home and to offer his 
 services to his country in the field enables me now to gratify 
 your wish, and at the same time evince my personal regard for 
 you, and my confidence in your ability, patriotism, and fidelity 
 to public trust. 
 
 I therefore tender for your acceptance, if you still desire to 
 resign your present position, the post of minister to Russia. 
 
2>j2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 Should you accept it, you will bear with you the assurance of 
 my undiminished confidence, of my affectionate esteem, and 
 of my sure expectation that, near the great sovereign whose 
 personal and hereditary friendship for the United States so 
 much endears him to Americans, you will be able to render 
 services to your country not less important than those you 
 could render at home. 
 
 (To dissatisfied Republican Senators who urge him to ap- 
 point a whole new Cabinet.) Gentlemen, your request for a 
 change of the whole Cabinet because I have made one change 
 reminds me of a story I once heard in Illinois, of a farmer who 
 was much troubled with skunks. His wife insisted on his try- 
 ing to get rid of them. 
 
 He loaded his shotgun one moonlight night and awaited 
 developments. After some time the wife heard the shotgun 
 go off, and in a few minutes the farmer entered the house. 
 
 "What luck have you?" asked she. 
 
 "I hid myself behind the wood-pile," said the old man, "with 
 the shotgun pointed toward the hen-roost, and before long 
 there appeared not one skunk, but seven. I took aim, blazed 
 away, killed one, and he raised such a fearful smell that I con- 
 cluded it was best to let the other six go." 
 
 13th. (To General D. C. Buell.) Your despatch of yes- 
 terday is received, in which you say: "I have received your 
 letter and General McClellan's, and will at once devote all my 
 efforts to your views and his." In the midst of my many 
 cares, I have not seen nor asked to see General McClellan's 
 letter to you. For my own views, I have not offered and do 
 not now offer them as orders; and while I am glad to have 
 them respectfully considered, I would blame you to follow 
 them contrary to your own clear judgment, unless I should 
 put them in the form of orders. As to General McClellan's 
 views, you understand your duty in regard to them better than 
 I do. 
 
age 52] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 273 
 
 With this preliminary, I state my general idea of this war 
 to be that we have the greater numbers, and the enemy has 
 the greater facility of concentrating forces upon points of 
 collision; that we must fail unless we can find some way of 
 making our advantage an overmatch for his; and that this 
 can only be done by menacing him with superior forces at 
 different points at the same time, so that we can safely attack 
 one or both if he makes no change; and if he weakens one to 
 strengthen the other, forbear to attack the strengthened one, 
 but seize and hold the weakened one, gaining so much. 
 
 Not only in the West but in the East as well the slowness 
 of military preparation has become unbearable. Though Mc- 
 Clellan has organized a great army he still insists that more 
 time must elapse before he will be ready to advance. At last 
 Lincoln can not restrain his impatience any longer. 
 
 27th. (President's General War Order No. 1.) 
 
 Ordered, That the 22nd day of February, 1862, be the 
 day for a general movement of all the land and naval forces of 
 the United States against the insurgent forces. That especially 
 the army at and about Fortress Monroe, the army of the Po- 
 tomac; the army of Western Virginia; the army near Mun- 
 fordville, Kentucky ; the army and flotilla at Cairo, and a naval 
 force in the Gulf of Mexico, be ready to move on that day. 
 
 That all other forces, both land and naval, with their re- 
 spective commanders, obey existing orders for the time, and 
 be ready to obey additional orders when duly given. 
 
 That the heads of departments, and especially the Secre- 
 taries of War and the Navy, with all their subordinates, and 
 the general-in-chief, with all other commanders and subordi- 
 nates of land and naval forces, will severally be held to their 
 strict and full responsibilities for prompt execution of this 
 order. 
 
 3 1st. (President's Special War Order No. 1.) 
 
274 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 Ordered, That all the disposable force of the army of the 
 Potomac, after providing safely for the defense of Washing- 
 ton, be formed into an expedition for the immediate object of 
 seizing and occupying a point upon the railroad southwestward 
 of what is known as Manassas Junction ; all details to be in the 
 discretion of the general-in-chief, and the expedition to move 
 before or on the 22nd day of February next. 
 
 The President and the General disagree sharply as to what 
 plan of campaign should be adopted. 
 
 February 3rd. (To McClellan.) You and I have distinct 
 and different plans for a movement of the Army of the Po- 
 tomac — yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the Rappahan- 
 nock to Urbana, and across land to the terminus of the railroad 
 on the York River; mine to move directly to a point on the 
 railroad southwest of Manassas. If you will give me satis- 
 factory answers to the following questions, I shall gladly yield 
 my plan to yours. 
 
 Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of 
 time and money than mine? 
 
 Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine? 
 
 Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine ? 
 
 In fact, would it not be less valuable in this, that it would 
 break no great line of the enemy's communications, while mine 
 would ? 
 
 In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more difficult 
 by your plan than mine? 
 
 (To William H. Herndon.) Yours of January 30th just 
 received. Do just as you say about the money matter. As 
 you well know, I have not time to write a letter of respectable 
 length. God bless you. 
 
 4th. To all whom these Presents shall come. Greetings: 
 Whereas it appears that at a term of the Circuit Court of the 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 275 
 
 United States of America for the Southern District of New 
 York, held in the month of November, A. d., 1861, Nathaniel 
 Gordon was indicted and convicted for being engaged in the 
 slave-trade, and was by the said court sentenced to be put to 
 death by hanging by the neck, on Friday the 7th day of Feb- 
 ruary, a. d., 1862 : 
 
 And whereas a large number of respectable citizens have 
 earnestly besought me to commute the said sentence of the 
 said Nathaniel Gordon to a term of imprisonment for life, 
 which application I have felt it to be my duty to refuse : 
 
 And whereas it has seemed to me probable that the un- 
 successful application made for the commutation of his sen- 
 tence may have prevented the said Nathaniel Gordon from 
 making the necessary preparation for the awful change which 
 awaits him; 
 
 Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, 
 President of the United States of America, have granted and 
 do hereby grant unto him, the said Nathaniel Gordon, a respite 
 of the above recited sentence until Friday, the twenty-first day 
 of February, a. d., 1862, between the hours of twelve o'clock 
 at noon and three o'clock in the afternoon of the said day, 
 when the said sentence shall be executed. 
 
 In granting this respite it becomes my painful duty to 
 admonish the prisoner that, relinquishing all expectation of 
 pardon by human authority, he refer himself alone to the 
 mercy of the common God and Father of all men. 
 
 15th. First notable Federal victory. Fort Donelson taken 
 by the Western army. 
 
 16th. (To General H. W. Halleck.) You have Fort 
 Donelson safe, unless Grant shall be overwhelmed from out- 
 side; to prevent which latter will, I think, require all the vig- 
 ilance, energy, and skill of yourself and Buell, acting in full 
 
276 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 cooperation. Columbus will not get at Grant, but the force 
 from Bowling Green will. They hold the railroad from Bowl- 
 ing Green to within a few miles of Fort Donelson, with the 
 bridge at Clarksville undisturbed. 
 
 Could not a cavalry force from General Thomas on the 
 Upper Cumberland dash across, almost unresisted, and cut the 
 railroad at or near Knoxville, Tennessee? In the midst of a 
 bombardment at Fort Donelson why could not a gunboat run 
 up and destroy the bridge at Clarksville ? Our success or fail- 
 ure at Fort Donelson is vastly important, and I beg you to 
 put your soul in the effort. 
 
 20th. The President's son, "Willie" dies after a short ill- 
 ness. He was tenderly loved by his father and for a time fol- 
 lowing his death Lincoln finds the weight of his duties all but 
 intolerable. 
 
 At this moment of extreme distress all the factions in Con- 
 gress which for one reason or another disapprove his policy 
 press their own policies on the President relentlessly. 
 
 The Abolition group is particularly vehement, ignoring the 
 President's solicitude as to the effect of their policy on the 
 border states (page 256). Lincoln, presently, makes a move 
 that may turn their flank. 
 
 March 6th. Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of 
 Representatives : I recommend the adoption of a joint resolu- 
 tion by your honorable body, which shall be substantially as 
 follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the United States, in order to cooperate 
 with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of 
 slavery, ought to give such State pecuniary aid, to be used by 
 such State, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconven- 
 ience, public and private, produced by such change of system. 
 
 If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2^ 
 
 the approval of Congress and the country, there is an end of 
 it. But if it does command such approval, I deem it of im- 
 portance that the States and people immediately interested 
 should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they 
 may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. 
 
 The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery 
 would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that, while 
 the offer is equally made to all, the more Northern shall, by 
 such initiation, make it certain to the more Southern that in 
 no event will the former join the latter in their proposed con- 
 federacy. I say initiation because, in my judgment, gradual 
 and not sudden emancipation is better for all. 
 
 Jth. Despite the War Order No. 1, Lincoln has not com- 
 pelled McClellan to go forward against his judgment. He is 
 determined to let the military expert decide the matter. But he 
 hopes that McClellan will not be sustained by other generals, 
 and therefore calls a council of division commanders, twelve 
 altogether, who are to decide between his plan and McClellan' s, 
 (page 214). He promises them to abide by their decision. 
 The council decides against him, eight to four. 
 
 (To Stanton who urges him to disregard the council.) We 
 are civilians. We should justly be held responsible for any 
 disaster if we set up our opinions against those of experienced 
 military men in the practical management of a campaign. 
 
 Lincoln notices that the four generals who agreed with him 
 are of the old army and do not owe their position to McClellan. 
 This gives him an idea. He sees a way to enhance their influ- 
 ence in the army by reorganizing it in army corps and promot- 
 ing these men to the rank of corps commanders. 
 
 8th. (President's General War Order No. 2.) Ordered: 
 
27% ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 That the Major-General commanding the army of the Potomac 
 proceed, forthwith, to organize that part of the said army des- 
 tined to enter upon active operations (including the reserve, 
 but excluding the troops to be left in the fortifications about 
 Washington) into four army corps. 
 
 The forces left for the defense of Washington will be 
 placed in command of Brigadier-General James Wadsworth, 
 who shall also be Military Governor of the District of 
 Columbia. 
 
 (President's General War Order No. 3.) Ordered: That 
 no change of the base of operations of the army of the Po- 
 tomac shall be made without leaving in and about Washing- 
 ton such a force as in the opinion of the general-in-chief and 
 the commanders of all the army corps shall leave said city 
 entirely secure. 
 
 That no more than two army corps (about fifty thousand 
 troops) of said army of the Potomac shall be moved en route 
 for a new base of operations until the navigation of the Po- 
 tomac from Washington to the Chesapeake Bay shall be freed 
 from enemy's batteries and other obstructions, or until the 
 President shall hereafter give express permission. 
 
 pth. (To Henry J. Raymond.) I am grateful to the New 
 York journals, and not less so to the Times than to others, for 
 their kind notices of the late special message to Congress. 
 
 Your paper, however, intimates that the proposition, 
 though well intentioned, must fail on the score of expense. 
 I do hope you will reconsider this. Have you noticed the facts 
 that less than one-half day's cost of this war would pay for all 
 the slaves in Delaware at four dollars per head — that eighty- 
 seven days' cost of this war would pay for all in Delaware, 
 Alary land, District of Columbia, Kentucky, and Missouri at 
 the same price? Were those States to take the step, do you 
 doubt that it would shorten the war more than eighty-seven 
 days, and thus be an actual saving of expense? 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 279 
 
 Please look at these things and consider whether there 
 should not be another article in the Times. 
 
 While McClellan slowly prepares to carry out his flanking 
 plan, General J. A. Johnston assumes that he will move directly 
 south and skilfully draws back his army to a stronger position. 
 Lincoln feels that an opportunity to destroy Johnston has been 
 lost. For once he is angry. He takes from McClellan the 
 rank of commanding general. 
 
 10th. In his eagerness for a policy of compensated eman- 
 cipation Lincoln calls together a number of Border States Rep- 
 resentatives and explains his position. 
 
 The President said he did not pretend to disguise his anti- 
 slavery feeling; that he thought it was wrong, and should 
 continue to think so ; but that was not the question we had to 
 deal with now. Slavery existed, and that, too, as well by the 
 act of the North as of the South ; and in any scheme to get rid 
 of it, the North as well as the South was morally bound to do 
 its full and equal share. He thought the institution wrong 
 and ought never to have existed; but yet he recognized the 
 rights of property which had grown out of it, and would re- 
 spect those rights as fully as similar rights in any other prop- 
 erty; that property can exist, and does legally exist. 
 
 nth. (President's Special War Order No. 3.) Major- 
 General McClellan, having personally taken the field as the 
 head of the army of the Potomac until otherwise ordered, he 
 is relieved from the command of the other military depart- 
 ments, he retaining command of the Department of the 
 Potomac. 
 
 That all the commanders of departments, after the receipt 
 of this order by them, respectively report, severally and directly 
 to the Secretary of War, and that prompt, full, and frequent 
 reports will be expected of all and each of them. 
 
280 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 19th. (To Doctor Samuel Boyd Tobey.) A domestic 
 affliction,* of which doubtless you are informed, has de- 
 layed me so long in making acknowledgment of the very kind 
 and appropriate letter signed on behalf and by direction of a 
 meeting of the representatives of the Society of Friends for 
 New England, held at Providence, Rhode Island, the 8th of 
 second month, 1862, by Samuel Boyce, clerk, and presented to 
 me by yourself and associates. 
 
 Engaged as I am in a great war, I fear it will be difficult 
 for the world to understand how fully I appreciate the prin- 
 ciples of peace inculcated in this letter and everywhere by the 
 Society of Friends. 
 
 Grateful to the good people you represent for the prayers 
 in behalf of our common country, I look forward hopefully to 
 an early end of war and return to peace. 
 
 Radical Senators have convinced themselves that McClellan 
 is not loyal, that he is delaying for a purpose, and tliat he 
 schemes to leave Washington unprotected while he removes 
 his army to the Southeast. They bring renewed pressure to 
 bear on Lincoln demanding his interference in McClellan* s 
 plans. 
 
 31st. (To General G. B. McClellan.) This morning I felt 
 constrained to order Blenker's division to Fremont, (who has 
 been put in command in Northern Virginia) and I write this 
 to assure you I did so with great pain, understanding that you 
 would wish it otherwise. If you could know the full pressure of 
 the case, I am confident that you would justify it, even beyond 
 a mere acknowledgment that the commander-in-chief may or- 
 der what he pleases. 
 
 April 1st. Conference of Lincoln and McClellan at Alex- 
 andria, as McClellan is about to go down the Potomac to 
 Fortress Monroe. 
 
 *The death of his son. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 281 
 
 3rd. (To Stanton.) The Secretary of War will order 
 that one or the other of the corps of General McDowell and 
 General Sumner remain in front of Washington until further 
 orders from the department, to operate at or in the direction 
 of Manassas Junction, or otherwise, as occasion may require ; 
 that the other corps not so ordered to remain go forward to 
 General McClellan as speedily as possible; that General Mc- 
 Clellan commence his forward movements from his new base 
 at once; and that incidental modifications as the foregoing 
 may render proper be also made.* 
 
 pth. (To Halleck.) If the rigor of the confinement of 
 Magoffin at Alton is endangering his life or materially im- 
 pairing his health I wish it mitigated as far as it can be con- 
 sistently with his safe detention. 
 
 McClellan, always overestimating the difficulties of his 
 task, complains to the President continually. 
 
 pth. (To McClellan.) Your despatches, complaining that 
 you are not properly sustained, while they do not offend me, 
 do pain me very much. 
 
 Blenker's division was withdrawn from you before you 
 left here, and you know the pressure under which I did it, and, 
 as I thought, acquiesced in it — certainly not without re- 
 luctance. 
 
 After you left, I ascertained that less than twenty thousand 
 unorganized men, without a single field-battery, were all you 
 
 *The movements of McDowell are the central issue in the strange con- 
 troversy which now ensues between the President and McClellan. A review 
 of the facts in anticipation will be helpful ; McClellan advanced westward 
 from Fortress Monroe expecting McDowell to move south from Washing- 
 ton and join him before Richmond; Johnston sent Jackson into the valley 
 of Virginia to appear to threaten Washington hoping this would stop the 
 advances of McDowell ; Lincoln fell into his trap and sent McDowell against 
 Jackson ; Johnston attacked and checked McClellan on the Chickahominy ; a 
 month later while McDowell was still in the vicinity of Washington Jackson 
 slipped across Virginia and brought his forces into the terrible battle of the 
 Seven Days which ended McClellan's campaign. 
 
282 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 designed to be left for the defense of Washington and 
 Manassas Junction, and part of this even was to go to Gen- 
 eral Llooker's old position. General Banks' corps, once de- 
 signed for Manassas Junction, was diverted and tied up on 
 the line of Winchester and Strasburg, and could not leave it 
 without again exposing the upper Potomac and the Baltimore 
 and Ohio Railroad. This presented, or would present, when 
 McDowell and Sumner should be gone, a great temptation to 
 the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock and sack 
 Washington. My explicit order that Washington should, by 
 the judgment of all the commanders of corps, be left entirely 
 secure, had been neglected. It was precisely this that drove 
 me to detain McDowell. 
 
 10th. (To R. Yates and William Butler.) I fully ap- 
 preciate General Pope's splendid achievements, with their in- 
 valuable results, but you must know that major-generalships 
 in the regular army are not as plentiful as blackberries. 
 
 Abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
 
 16th. The act entitled "An act for the release of certain 
 persons held to service for labor in the District of Columbia" 
 has this day been approved and signed. 
 
 I have never doubted the constitutional authority of Con- 
 gress to abolish slavery in this District ; and I have ever desired 
 to see the national capital freed from the institution in some 
 satisfactory way. Hence there has never been in my mind any 
 question upon the subject except the one of expediency, aris- 
 ing in view of all the circumstances. If there be matters 
 within and about this act which might have taken a course or 
 shape more satisfactory to my judgment, I do not attempt to 
 specify them. I am gratified that the two principles of com- 
 pensation and colonization are both recognized and practically 
 applied in the act. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 283 
 
 31st. Fredericksburg is evacuated and the bridges de- 
 stroyed by the enemy, and a small part of McDowell's com- 
 mand occupies this side of the Rappahannock, opposite the 
 town. He purposes moving his whole force to that point. 
 
 May 1st. In answer to the resolution of the Senate in re- 
 lation to Brigadier-General Stone, I have the honor to state 
 that he was arrested and imprisoned under my general author- 
 ity, and upon evidence which, whether he be guilty or innocent, 
 required, as appears to me, such proceedings to be had against 
 him for the public safety. 
 
 I deem it incompatible with the public interest, as also, 
 perhaps, unjust to General Stone, to make a more particular 
 statement of the evidence. He had not been tried because, in 
 the state of military operations at the time of his arrest and 
 since, the officers to constitute a court-martial and for wit- 
 nesses could not be withdrawn from duty without serious in- 
 jury to the service. He will be allowed a trial without any 
 unnecessary delay; the charges and specifications will be fur- 
 nished him in due season, and every facility for his defense 
 will be afforded him by the War Department. 
 
 6th. (To Evangelical Lutherans.) Gentlemen: I wel- 
 come here the representatives of the Evangelical Lutherans of 
 the United States. I accept with gratitude their assurances of 
 the sympathy and support of that enlightened, influential, and 
 loyal class of my fellow-citizens in an important crisis which 
 involves, in my judgment, not only the civil and religious lib- 
 erties of our own dear land, but in a large degree the civil 
 and religious liberties of mankind in many countries and 
 through many ages. 
 
 pth. (To AlcClellan.) I have just assisted the Secretary 
 of War in framing part of a despatch to you relating to army 
 corps, which despatch of course will have reached you before 
 this will. 
 
284 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 I wish to say a few words to you privately on this subject. 
 I ordered the army corps organization not only on the unani- 
 mous opinion of the twelve generals whom you had 
 selected and assigned as generals of division, but also on 
 the unanimous opinion of every military man I could get an 
 opinion from (and every modern military book), yourself only 
 excepted. Of course I did not on my own judgment pretend 
 to understand the subject. I now think it indispensable for 
 you to know how your struggle against it is received in 
 quarters which we can not entirely disregard. It is looked 
 upon as merely an effort to pamper one or two pets and to 
 persecute and degrade their supposed rivals. I have had no 
 word from Sumner, Heintzelman, or Keyes. The commanders 
 of these corps are of course the three highest officers with 
 you, but I am constantly told that you have no consultation or 
 communication with them; that you consult and communicate 
 with nobody but General Fitz-John Porter and perhaps Gen- 
 eral Franklin. I do not say these complaints are true or just, 
 but at all events it is proper you should know of their ex- 
 istence. Do the commanders of corps disobey your orders in 
 anything ? 
 
 When you relieved General Hamilton of his command the 
 other day, you thereby lost the confidence of at least one of 
 your best friends in the Senate. And here let me say, not 
 as applicable to you personally, that senators and represen- 
 tatives speak to me in their places as they please without ques- 
 tion, and that officers of the Army must cease addressing 
 insulting letters to them for taking no greater liberty with them. 
 
 General Hunter takes it upon himself to imitate Fremont 
 and declares free slaves that have come within his lines. 
 
 iyth. No commanding general shall do such a thing 
 (issue an order of military emancipation), upon my respon- 
 sibility, without consulting me. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 285 
 
 18th. 2 p. m. (To McClellan.) The President is not 
 willing to uncover the capital entirely, and it is believed that, 
 even if this were prudent, it would require more time to effect 
 a junction between your army and that of the Rappahannock 
 by the way of the Potomac and York rivers than by a land 
 march. 
 
 In order, therefore, to increase the strength of the attack 
 upon Richmond at the earliest moment, General McDowell has 
 been ordered to march upon that city by the shortest route.* 
 
 He is ordered, keeping himself always in position to save 
 the capital from all possible attack, so to operate as to put his 
 left wing in communication with your right wing, and you 
 are instructed to co-operate so as to establish this communi- 
 cation as soon as possible. 
 
 By extending your right wing to the north of Richmond, it 
 is believed that this communication can be safely established 
 either north or south of the Pamunkey river. 
 
 ipth. (Proclamation.) Whereas there appears in the 
 public prints what purports to be a proclamation of Major- 
 General Hunter, in the words and figures following, to-wit : 
 
 General Orders No. 11. 
 
 Headquarters Department of the South, 
 Hilton Head, Port Royal, S. C., May 9, 1862. 
 
 The three States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina 
 comprising the Military Department of the South,f having 
 deliberately declared themselves no longer under the protection 
 of the United States of America, and having taken up arms 
 against the said United States, it became a military necessity 
 to declare martial law. 
 
 This was accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862. 
 Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether in- 
 
 *See note, p. 281. 
 
 t Coast operations were being carried on from a base established by the 
 Navy at Hilton Head. The Department of the South was relatively a 
 fiction. 
 
286 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 compatible; the persons in these three States — Georgia, Flor- 
 ida, and South Carolina — heretofore held as slaves, are there- 
 fore declared forever free. 
 
 Signed, David Hunter: 
 
 Major-General Commanding. 
 (Official) 
 
 Edward W. Smith, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. 
 
 And, whereas, the same is producing some excitement and 
 misunderstanding, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
 of the United States, proclaim and declare that the Govern- 
 ment of the United States had no knowledge, information, or 
 belief of an intention on the part of General Hunter to issue 
 such a proclamation ; nor has it yet any authentic information 
 that the document is genuine; and, further, that neither Gen- 
 eral Hunter, nor any other commander or person, has been 
 authorized by the Government of the United States to make 
 proclamation declaring the slaves of any State free, and that 
 the supposed proclamation now in question, whether genuine 
 or false, is altogether void so far as respects such a declaration. 
 I further make known that, whether it be competent for me, 
 as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, to declare the 
 slaves of any State or States free ; and whether at any time, in 
 any case, it shall have become a necessity indispensable to the 
 maintenance of the Government to exercise such supposed 
 power, are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve 
 to myself, and which I can not feel justified in leaving to the 
 decision of commanders in the field . . . On the sixth day 
 of March last, by special message, I recommended to Congress 
 the adoption of a joint resolution as follows: 
 
 Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with 
 any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, 
 giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, 
 in its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, public 
 and private, produced by such change of system. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 287 
 
 The resolution in the language above quoted was adopted 
 by large majorities in both branches of Congress, and now 
 stands an authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the 
 Nation to the States and people most immediately interested in 
 the subject matter. To the people of those States I now ear- 
 nestly appeal. I do not argue — I beseech you to make argu- 
 ments for yourselves. You can not, if you would, be blind to 
 the signs of the times. 
 
 I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, 
 ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. 
 
 This proposal makes common cause for a common object, 
 casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The 
 change it contemplates would come gently as the dew of 
 Heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. Will you not 
 embrace it? So much good has not been done, by one effort, 
 in all past time, as in the providence of God it is now your 
 high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament 
 that you have neglected it. 
 
 Jackson opens his famous "Valley Campaign/' aiming to 
 do just what he succeeds in doing — terrify Washington and 
 prevent the concentration of the Federal forces before Rich- 
 mond. Jackson s movements threaten the commands of Gen- 
 eral Banks and General Fremont. 
 
 24th. (To McClellan.) I left General McDowell's camp 
 at dark last evening. Shields' command is there, but it is 
 so worn that he can not move before Monday morning, the 
 26th. We have so thinned our line to get troops for other 
 places, that it was broken yesterday at Front Royal, with a 
 probable loss to us of one regiment infantry, two companies 
 cavalry, putting General Banks in some peril. 
 
 The enemy's forces under General Anderson now opposing 
 General McDowell's advance, have, as their line of supply and 
 retreat, the road to Richmond. 
 
288 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 If, in conjunction with McDowell's movement against An- 
 derson, you could send a force from your right to cut off the 
 enemy's supplies from Richmond, preserve the railroad bridges 
 across the two forks of the Pamunkey, and intercept the 
 enemy's retreat, you will prevent the army now opposed to 
 you from receiving an accession of numbers of nearly 15,000 
 men; and if you succeed in saving the bridges you will secure 
 a line of railroad for supplies in addition to the one you now 
 have. Can you not do this almost as well as not while you 
 are building the Chickahominy bridges? McDowell and 
 Shields both say they can, and positively will, move Monday 
 morning. I wish you to move cautiously and safely. 
 
 You will have command of McDowell, after he joins you, 
 precisely as you indicated in your long despatch to us of the 
 2 1 st. 
 
 1 p. M. Geary reports Jackson with 20,000 moving from 
 Ashby's Gap by the Little River turnpike, through Aldie, 
 toward Centerville. This, he says, is reliable. He is also in- 
 formed of large forces south of him. We know a force of 
 some 15,000 broke up Saturday night from in front of Fred- 
 ericksburg and went we know not where. 
 
 4 p. m. (To General J. C. Fremont.) The exposed con- 
 dition of General Banks makes his immediate relief a point 
 of paramount importance. You are therefore directed by the 
 President to move against Jackson at Harrisonburg, and 
 operate against the enemy in such way as to relieve Banks. 
 This movement must be made immediately. You will acknowl- 
 edge the receipt of this order, and specify the hour it is re- 
 ceived by you. 
 
 4 p. m. (To McClellan.) In consequence of General 
 Banks' critical position, I have been compelled to suspend Gen- 
 eral McDowell's movements to join you.* The enemy are 
 making a desperate push on Harper's Ferry, and we are trying 
 
 : See note, p. 281. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 289 
 
 to throw General Fremont's force and part of General Mc- 
 Dowell's in their rear. 
 
 5 p. m. (To General Samuel T. McDowell.) General Fre- 
 mont has been ordered by telegraph to move from Franklin 
 on Harrisonburg to relieve General Banks and capture or de- 
 stroy Jackson's and Ewell's forces. You are instructed, laying 
 aside for the present the movement on Richmond, to put 20,000 
 men in motion at once for the Shenandoah, moving on the 
 line or in advance of the line of the Manassas Gap Railroad. 
 Your object will be to capture the forces of Jackson and Ewell, 
 either in cooperation with General Fremont, or, in case want 
 of supplies or of transportation interferes with his movements, 
 it is believed that the force which you move will be sufficient 
 to accomplish this object alone. The information thus far re- 
 ceived here makes it probable that if the enemy operate actively 
 against General Banks, you will not be able to count upon 
 much assistance from him, but may even have to release him. 
 Reports received this moment are that Banks is fighting with 
 Ewell eight miles from Winchester. 
 
 (To General H. W. Halleck.) Several despatches from 
 Assistant Secretary Scott and one from Governor Morton 
 asking reinforcements for you have been received. I beg you 
 to be assured we do the best we can. I mean to cast no blame 
 when I tell you each of our commanders along our line from 
 Richmond to Corinth supposed himself to be confronted by 
 numbers superior to his own. Under this pressure we thinned 
 the line on the upper Potomac, until yesterday it was broken 
 at heavy loss to us, and General Banks put in great peril, out 
 of which he is not yet extricated, and may be actually captured. 
 We need men to repair this breach, and have them not at hand. 
 My dear general, I feel justified to rely very much on you. 
 I believe you and the brave officers and men with you can 
 and will get the victory at Corinth. 
 
 2 p. m. (To McClellan.) The enemy is moving north in 
 
290 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 sufficient force to drive General Banks before him, in pre- 
 cisely what force we can not tell. He is also threatening Lees- 
 burg and Geary, on the Manassas Gap Railroad, from both 
 north and south, in precisely what force we can not tell. I 
 think the movement is a general and concerted one,* such as 
 would not be if he was acting upon the purpose of a very des- 
 perate defense of Richmond. I think the time is near when 
 you must either attack Richmond or give up the job and come 
 to the defense of Washington. 
 
 Let me hear from you instantly. 
 
 (To General McClellan.) Can you not cut the Aquia Creek 
 railroad? Also, what impression have you as to intrenched 
 works for you to contend with in front of Richmond? Can 
 you get near enough to throw shells into the city? 
 
 2/th. (To General Fremont.) I see that you are at 
 Moore field. You were expressly ordered to march to Har- 
 risonburg. What does this mean? 
 
 28th. (To Fremont.) The President directs you to halt 
 at Moore field and await orders, unless you hear of the enemy 
 being in the general direction of Romney, in which case you 
 will move upon him. 
 
 (To McDowell.) You say General Geary's scouts report 
 that they find no enemy this side of the Blue Ridge. Neither 
 do I. Have they been to the Blue Ridge looking for them? 
 
 5:40 p. m. (To McDowell.) I think the evidence now 
 preponderates that Ewell and Jackson are still about Winches- 
 ter. Assuming this, it is for you a question of legs. Put in 
 all the speed you can. I have told Fremont as much, and 
 directed him to drive at them as fast as possible. By the way, 
 I suppose you know Fremont has got up to Moore field, in- 
 stead of going to Harrisonburg. 
 
 *This was a complete misapprehension and shows how entirely the 
 Confederate ruse had succeeded. Jackson had with him only some 15,000 
 men. 
 
ONE HEAD BETTER THAN TWO. 
 
 Lon, \<,-...,..n "I SAY, HIH.VT WE BETTER TELL OIK fR!*XD THERE To LEAVE OFF MAKING 4 
 
 Ft**!, IM il!MS,U >" 
 
 tau»>*v. "H'.M, WELL, SUWOSX VOU TALE TO HIM YOI'RSELE. HE'S A GRJEAT ADMIRER OF YOl'RS, 
 
 ' KMitt." — 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 291 
 
 The audacity of Jackson's swift movements completely 
 mystify his antagonists. He strikes, disappears, and they 
 know not what to do. And now Johnston reaps his advantage. 
 
 May sist-Jnne 1st. Battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks. 
 McClellan is brought to a standstill within four miles of Rich- 
 mond. General Johnston, wounded, is succeeded by General 
 Lee. 
 
 June 1st. (To McClellan.) You are probably engaged 
 with the enemy. I suppose he made the attack. Stand well on 
 your guard, hold all your ground, or yield only inch by 
 inch and in good order. This morning we merge General 
 Wool's department into yours, giving you command of the 
 whole, and sending General Dix to Fort Monroe and General 
 Wool to Fort McHenry. 
 
 We also send General Sigel to report to you for duty. 
 
 But Jackson has not finished his work in the valley. Re- 
 newed alarm at Washington. 
 
 (To McClellan.) Shields' advance came in collision with 
 part of the enemy yesterday evening six miles from Front 
 Royal, in a direction between Winchester and Strasburg, driv- 
 ing them back, capturing a few prisoners and one rifled can- 
 non. Firing in that direction to-day, heard both from Harper's 
 Ferry and Front Royal, indicates a probability that Fremont 
 has met the enemy. 
 
 We have concluded to send General Sigel to Harper's 
 Ferry, so that what I telegraphed you about him this morning 
 is revoked. Dix goes to Fort Monroe to-night. 
 
 3rd. (To McClellan.) With these continuous rains I am 
 very anxious about the Chickahominy — so close in your rear 
 and crossing your line of communication. Please look to it. 
 
 6th. (To McDowell.) The President directs that Mc- 
 
292 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 Call's division be sent by water to Major-General McClellan 
 immediately, and that you place such force at Fredericksburg 
 by the time McCall leaves there as may, in your judgment, be 
 necessary to hold that place. 
 
 In respect to the operations of the residue of your force, 
 the President reserves directions, to be given as soon as he 
 determines. 
 
 pth. (To General N. P. Banks.) We are arranging a 
 general plan for the valley of the Shenandoah, and in accord- 
 ance with this you will move your main force to the Shen- 
 andoah at or opposite Front Royal as soon as possible. 
 
 10th. (To the Senate and House of Representatives.) I 
 transmit to Congress a copy of a treaty for the suppression 
 of the African slave trade, between the United States and her 
 Britannic Majesty, signed in this city on the 7th of April last, 
 and the ratifications of which were exchanged at London on 
 the 20th ultimo. 
 
 15th. (To McClellan.) The night between your two 
 late battles of Saturday and Sunday I went earnestly to work 
 to find a way of putting General Wool's force under your con- 
 trol without wounding any one's feelings. But, after all, Gen- 
 eral Dix was a little hurt at being taken from an independent 
 command and put in a dependent one. I could not help this 
 without giving up the principal object of the move. So soon 
 as you can (which I do not expect is yet), I wish you to give 
 me the benefit of your suggestions as to how an independent 
 command can be given him without detriment. The Secretary 
 of War has turned over to me your despatch about sending 
 McDowell to you by water instead of by land. I now fear he 
 can not get to you either way in time. Shields' division has 
 got so terribly out of shape, out at elbows, and out at toes, that 
 it will require a long time to get it in again. I expect to see 
 McDowell within a day or two, when I will again talk with 
 him about the mode of moving. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 293 
 
 After a fortnight of heavy rain, clearing weather makes it 
 possible for Lee to attack McClellan. He and Davis decide upon 
 another rase for the purpose of further alarming Washington 
 and increasing the nervousness of McClellan, already near the 
 point of exhaustion. It is intended to give the impression that 
 large reinforcements are moving to the Valley of Virginia. 
 McClellan is deceived. He concludes that the Confederates 
 have great reserves of men. But Lincoln is not deceived. 
 
 igth. (To McClellan.) Yours of last night just received 
 and for which I thank you. If large reinforcements are going 
 from Richmond to Jackson it proves one of two things, either 
 that they are very strong at Richmond or do not mean to 
 defend the place desperately. 
 
 On reflection, I do not see how reinforcements from Rich- 
 mond to Jackson could be in Gordonsville, as reported by the 
 Frenchman and your deserters. Have not all been sent to 
 deceive ? 
 
 (To Fremont.) We have no indefinite power of sending 
 reinforcements ; so that we are compelled rather to consider the 
 proper disposal of the forces we have than of those we could 
 wish to have. We may be able to send you some dribs by 
 degrees, but I do not believe we can do more. As you alone 
 beat Jackson last Sunday, I argue that you are stronger than 
 he is to-day, unless he has been reinforced; and that he can 
 not have been materially reinforced, because such reinforce- 
 ment could only have come from Richmond, and he is much 
 more likely to go to Richmond than Richmond is to come to 
 him. Neither is very likely. I think Jackson's game — his 
 assigned work — now is to magnify the accounts of his num- 
 bers and reports of his movements, and thus by constant 
 alarms keep three or four times as many of our troops away 
 from Richmond as his own force amounts to. Thus he helps 
 his friends at Richmond three or four times as much as if he 
 were there. Our game is not to allow this. 
 
294 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 20th. (To McClellan.) We have this morning sent you 
 a despatch of General Sigel corroborative of the proposition 
 that Jackson is being reinforced from Richmond. This may 
 be reality, and yet may only be contrivance for deception, and 
 to determine which is perplexing. If we knew it was not true, 
 we could send you some more force ; but as the case stands we 
 do not think we safely can. Still, we will watch the signs and 
 do so if possible. 
 
 24th. Lincoln, accompanied by General Pope, suddenly 
 makes a flying visit to West Point, where General Scott is liv- 
 ing in retirement. Scott advises 1, that the forces under Fre- 
 mont and Banks are adequate to protect Washington; 2, that 
 forces stationed at Fredericksburg are entirely out of position; 
 3, that a victory before Richmond would end the war. 
 
 26th. Washington. Ordered— 1. The forces under Ma- 
 jor-Generals Fremont, Banks, and McDowell, including the 
 troops now under Brigadier-General Sturgis at Washington, 
 shall be consolidated and form one army, to be called the Army 
 of Virginia. 
 
 2. The command of the Army of Virginia is especially 
 assigned to Major-General John Pope, as commanding gen- 
 eral.* 
 
 3. The Army of Virginia shall operate in such manner as 
 while protecting western Virginia and the national capital 
 from danger or insult, it shall in the speediest manner attack 
 and overcome the rebel forces under Jacksonf and Ewell, 
 threaten the enemy in the direction of Charlottesville, and 
 
 *Pope had made a popular reputation by his services on the Mississippi. 
 Having been called to Washington on military business he ingratiated him- 
 self with the Committee on the Conduct of the War by insinuations against 
 McClellan. Lincoln took him up and, for a time, appears to have believed 
 in him. 
 
 tAt this moment, Jackson, having accomplished his purpose in the Val- 
 ley, had secretly withdrawn his whole force to the vicinity of Richmond. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 295 
 
 render the most effective aid to relieve General McClellan and 
 capture Richmond. 
 
 Lee attacks McClellan at Mechanicsville, opening the Seven 
 Days before Richmond. 
 
 27th. (To McClellan.) Your three despatches of yester- 
 day in relation to the affair, ending with the statement that 
 you completely succeeded in making your point, are very grat- 
 ifying. 
 
 The later one of 6:15, suggesting the probability of your 
 being overwhelmed by 200,000,* and talking of where the 
 responsibility will belong, pains me very much. I give you 
 all I can, and act on the presumption that you will do the best 
 you can with what you have, while you continue, ungenerously, 
 I think, to assume that I could give you more if I would. I 
 have omitted and shall omit no opportunity to send you re- 
 inforcements whenever I possibly can. 
 
 P. S. General Pope thinks if you fall back it would be 
 much better toward York River than toward the James. As 
 Pope now has charge of the capital, please confer with him 
 through the telegraph. 
 
 28th. (To General H. W. Halleck.) The enemy have 
 concentrated in such force at Richmond as to render it abso- 
 lutely necessary, in the opinion of the President, for you im- 
 mediately to detach 25,000 of your force, and forward it by 
 the nearest and quickest route by way of Baltimore and Wash- 
 ington, to Richmond. It is believed that the quickest route, 
 would be by way of Columbus, Kentucky, and up the Ohio 
 River. But in detaching your force the President directs that 
 it be done in such a way as to enable you to hold your ground 
 and not interfere with the movement against Chattanooga and 
 
 ^Characteristic of McClellan; his force of 109,000 was opposed by 
 87,000 under Lee. 
 
296 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 East Tennessee. This condition being observed, the forces to 
 be detached and the routes they are to be sent are left to your 
 own judgment. 
 
 The direction to send these forces immediately is rendered 
 imperative by a serious reverse suffered by General McClellan 
 before Richmond yesterday, the full extent of which is not yet 
 known. 
 
 (To Major-General Burnside.) We have intelligence that 
 General McClellan has been attacked in large force and com- 
 pelled to fall back toward the James River. We are not ad- 
 vised of his exact condition, but the President directs that you 
 shall send him all the reinforcements from your command to 
 the James River that you can safely do without abandoning 
 your own position. Let it be infantry entirely, as he said yes- 
 terday that he had cavalry enough. 
 
 (To McClellan.) Save your army, at all events. Will 
 send reinforcements as fast as we can. Of course they can 
 not reach you to-day, to-morrow, or next day. I have not 
 said you were ungenerous for saying you needed reinforce- 
 ments. I thought you were ungenerous in assuming that I did 
 not send them as fast as I could. I feel any misfortune to you 
 and your army quite as keenly as you feel it yourself. If you 
 have had a drawn battle, or a repulse, it is the price we pay 
 for the enemy not being in Washington. We protected Wash- 
 ington, and the enemy concentrated on you. Had we stripped 
 Washington, he would have been upon us before the troops 
 could have gotten to you. Less than a week ago you notified 
 us that reinforcements were leaving Richmond to come in 
 front of us. It is the nature of the case, and neither you nor 
 the government is to blame. Please tell at once the present 
 condition and aspect of things. 
 
 Convinced that McClellan is suffering a terrible defeat and 
 that the Federal fortunes are in desperate plight, Lincoln, 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 297 
 
 nevertheless, fears to make an open appeal for fresh troops lest 
 a general panic ensue. He sends Seward on a confidential 
 mission to Governors of States arming him with a statement 
 of facts as the President sees them. 
 
 My view of the present condition of the war is about as 
 follows : 
 
 The evacuation of Corinth and our delay by the flood in 
 Chickahominy have enabled the enemy to concentrate too much 
 force in Richmond for McClellan to successfully attack. In 
 fact there soon will be no substantial rebel force anywhere else. 
 But if we send all the force from here to McClellan, the enemy 
 will, before we can know of it, send a force from Richmond 
 and take Washington. Or if a large part of the western army 
 be brought here to McClellan, they will let us have Richmond, 
 and retake Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, etc. What should 
 be done is to hold what we have in the West, open the Mis- 
 sissippi, and take Chattanooga and East Tennessee without 
 more. A reasonable force should in every event be kept about 
 Washington for its protection. Then let the country give us 
 100,000 new troops in the shortest possible time, which, added 
 to McClellan, directly or indirectly, will take Richmond with- 
 out endangering any other place which we now hold, and will 
 substantially end the war. I expect to maintain this contest 
 until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term ex- 
 pires, or Congress or the country forsake me ; and I would 
 publicly appeal to the country for this new force were it not that 
 I fear a general panic and stampede would follow, so hard it 
 is to have a thing understood as it really is. I think the new 
 force should be all, or nearly all, infantry, principally because 
 such can be raised most cheaply and quickly. 
 
 (To General J. A. Dix.) Communication with McClellan 
 by White House is cut off. Strain every nerve to open com- 
 munication with him by James River, or any other way you 
 can. 
 
298 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 30th. We are yet without communication with General 
 McClellan, and this absence of news is our point of anxiety. 
 Up to the latest point to which we are posted he effected every- 
 thing in such exact accordance with his plan, contingently 
 announced to us before the battle began, that we feel justified 
 to hope that he has not failed since. He had a severe engage- 
 ment in getting the part of his army on this side of the Chick- 
 ahominy over to the other side, in which the enemy lost 
 certainly as much as we did. 
 
 3 p. m. (To General H. W. Halleck.) The Chattanooga 
 expedition must not on any account be given up. The Presi- 
 dent regards that and the movement against East Tennessee 
 as one of the most important movements of the war, and its 
 occupation nearly as important as the capture of Richmond. 
 He is not pleased with the tardiness of the movement toward 
 Chattanooga, and directs that no force be sent here if you can 
 not do it without breaking up the operations against that point 
 and East Tennessee. 
 
 Battle of Malvern Hill, July 1st, closes the Seven Days 
 Battle. McClellan has retreated to a secure position on the 
 James. 
 
 Meanwhile negotiations between the White House and the 
 Governors of various States have led to a communication from 
 the Governors to the President on which Lincoln now takes 
 action. 
 
 Fully concurring in the wisdom of the views expressed to 
 me in so patriotic a manner by you, in the communication of 
 the twenty-eighth of June,* I have decided to call into the 
 service an additional force of 300,000 men. I suggest and 
 recommend that the troops should be chiefly of infantry. An 
 order fixing the quotas for the respective States will be issued 
 by the War Department to-morrow. 
 
 *In response to his letter of the same date. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 299 
 
 (To General McClellan.) It is impossible to reinforce you 
 for your present emergency. If we had a million of men we 
 could not get them to you in time. We have not the men to 
 send. If you are not strong enough to face the enemy, you 
 must find a place of security, and wait, rest, and repair. Main- 
 tain your ground if you can, but save the army at all events, 
 even if you fall back to Fort Monroe. We still have strength 
 enough in the country, and will bring it out. 
 
 2nd. (To McClellan.) Your despatch of Tuesday morn- 
 ing induces me to hope your army is having some rest. In this 
 hope allow me to reason with you a moment. When you ask 
 for 50,000 men to be promptly sent you, you surely labor under 
 some gross mistake of fact. Recently you sent papers show- 
 ing your disposal of forces made last spring for the defense 
 of Washington, and advising a return to that plan. I find it 
 included in and about Washington 75,000 men. Now, please 
 be assured I have not men enough to fill that very plan by 
 15,000. 
 
 If you think you are not strong enough to take Richmond 
 just now, I do not ask you to try just now. Save the army, 
 material and personal, and I will strengthen it for the offensive 
 again as fast as I can. The governors of eighteen States offer 
 me a new levy of 300,000, which I accept. 
 
 (To General H. W. Halleck.) Please tell me, could you 
 not make me a flying visit for consultation without endanger- 
 ing the service in your department ? 
 
 3rd. I should not want the half of the 300,000 new troops 
 if I could have them now. If I had 50,000 additional troops 
 here now, I believe I could substantially close the war in two 
 weeks. But time is everything, and if I get 50,000 new men 
 in a month, I shall have lost 20,000 old ones during the same 
 month, having gained only 30,000, with the difference be- 
 tween old and new troops still against me. 
 
300 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 At last advices General Halleck thinks he can not send 
 reinforcements without endangering all he has gained. 
 
 [The President] is of opinion that under the law of Con- 
 gress they [fugitive slaves]* can not be sent back to their mas- 
 ters; that in common humanity they must not be permitted to 
 suffer for want of food, shelter, or other necessaries of life; 
 that to this end they should be provided for by the quarter- 
 master's and commissary's departments; and that those who 
 are capable of labor should be set to work and paid reasonable 
 wages. 
 
 In directing this to be done, the President does not mean, 
 at present, to settle any general rule in respect to slaves or 
 slavery, but simply to provide for the particular case under the 
 circumstances in which it is now presented. 
 
 4th. (To McClellan.) Save the army, first, where you 
 are, if you can; and secondly, by removal, if you must. You, 
 on the ground, must be the judge as to which you will attempt, 
 and of the means for effecting it. I but give it as my opinion 
 that with the aid of the gunboats and reinforcements men- 
 tioned above, you can hold your present position; provided, 
 and so long as you can keep the James River open below you. 
 
 5th. (To McClellan.) A thousand thanks for the relief 
 your two despatches of twelve and one p. m. yesterday, gave 
 me. Be assured the heroism and skill of yourself and officers 
 and men is, and forever will be, appreciated. 
 
 If you can hold your present position, we shall have the 
 enemy yet. 
 
 pth. Lincoln visits McClellan at Harrison's Landing on 
 the James and holds a sort of informal court of inquisition on 
 the conduct of the campaign. He does not ask for advice. His 
 
 *Slaves who had escaped from Confederate masters and taken refuge 
 with Federal troops, afforded the Abolitionists another issue with the Pres- 
 ident. The law referred to is the First Confiscation Act providing for the 
 appropriation of property of "rebels." 
 
age 53] A N A U TO BIOGRAPHY 301 
 
 temper and attitude are profoundly different from what they 
 were in the conference with the generals on March ph.* 
 
 nth. Ordered that Major-General Henry W. Halleck be 
 assigned to command the whole land forces of the United 
 States, as General-in-Chief, and that he repair to this capital 
 so soon as he can with safety to the positions and operations 
 within the department now under his charge. 
 
 He concludes that the desperate situation in which he is now 
 placed compels him to shift the issue of the war and make 
 emancipation his avowed aim. His first step is another appeal 
 to the Border States. 
 
 1 2th. (To Border-State Representatives.) Believing that 
 you of the Border States hold more power for good than any 
 other equal number of members of Congress I feel it a duty 
 which I can not justifiably waive to make this appeal to you. 
 
 I intend no reproach or complaint when I assure you that, 
 in my opinion, if you all had voted for the resolution in the 
 gradual-emancipation message of last March, the war would 
 now be substantially ended. And the plan therein proposed 
 is yet one of the most potent and swift means of ending it. 
 Let the States which are in rebellion see definitely and cer- 
 tainly that in no event will the States you represent ever join 
 
 *The contrast in these two conferences can not be over-emphasized. 
 During the four months intervening - Lincoln had passed through a trans- 
 formation or something very near to that. The month of June is the turn- 
 ing point of his career. Some change in him was coming rapidly forward 
 though just what the change was and just how it was accomplished are 
 matters of conjecture. The interview with Scott seems to form a crucial 
 moment. It is to be noted that General Pope, who accompanied him to 
 West Point, was placed in high command immediately upon their return. 
 When Lincoln visited McClellan at Harrison's Landing all the timidity, 
 the hesitation, that was conspicuous in him four months before had van- 
 ished. Previous to this time there is much in his attitude to life that is 
 problematical. From this time forward there is very little. A great genius 
 has found himself, has acquired confidence in himself, and henceforth will 
 be master of his own house. 
 
3 o2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 their proposed confederacy, and they can not much longer 
 maintain the contest. But you can not divest them of their 
 hope to ultimately have you with them so long as you show a 
 determination to perpetuate the institution within your own 
 States. 
 
 I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision 
 at once to emancipate gradually. Room in South America for 
 colonization can be obtained cheaply, and in abundance, and 
 when numbers shall be large enough to be company and en- 
 couragement for one another, the freed people will not be so 
 reluctant to go. 
 
 I am pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned — one which 
 threatens division among those who, united, are none too 
 strong. An instance of it is known to you. General Hunter 
 is an honest man. He was, and I hope still is, my friend. I 
 valued him none the less for his agreeing with me in the gen- 
 eral wish that all men everywhere could be free. He pro- 
 claimed all men free within certain. States, and I repudiated the 
 proclamation. He expected more good and less harm from 
 the measure than I could believe would follow. Yet, in re- 
 pudiating it, I gave dissatisfaction, if not offense, to many 
 whose support the country can not afford to lose. And this 
 is not the end of it. The pressure in this direction is still upon 
 me, and is increasing. By conceding what I now ask, you can 
 relieve me, and, much more, can relieve the country, in this 
 important point. 
 
 Our common country is in great peril, demanding the 
 loftiest views and boldest action to bring it speedy relief. 
 Once relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, 
 its beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated, and 
 its happy future fully assured and rendered inconceivably 
 grand. To you, more than to any others, the privilege is given 
 to assure that happiness and swell that grandeur, and to link 
 your own names therewith forever. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 303 
 
 13th. The Border-State Representatives having refused to 
 endorse a policy of compensated emancipation, Lincoln dis- 
 closes to Seward and Welles his conclusion that he must take 
 up the policy of emancipating slaves in seceded states by mili- 
 tary order. This will amount to giving the war a new issue. 
 His aim in so doing is partly to kindle new enthusiasm at home, 
 but even more, to enlist the support of the Liberal party 
 throughout the world. The European Liberals have little 
 interest in American nationality. Since the great Confederate 
 success there is imminent danger that England and France may 
 recognize the Confederate States. By shifting the issue to 
 emancipation powerful influences in both countries will be en- 
 listed against recognition. Both Seward and Welles agree 
 with him. 
 
 Things had gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that 
 we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations 
 we had been pursuing; that we had about played our last card, 
 and must change our tactics or lose the game. I now deter- 
 mined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy. 
 
 (To McClellan.) I am told that over 160,000 men have 
 gone into your army on the Peninsula. When I was with 
 you the other day we made out 86,500 remaining, leaving 
 73,500 to be accounted for. I believe 23,500 will cover all the 
 killed, wounded, and missing in all your battles and skirmishes, 
 leaving 50,000 who have left otherwise. Not more than 5,000 
 of these have died, leaving 45,000 of your army still alive and 
 not with it. I believe that half or two-thirds of them are fit 
 for duty to-day. Have you any more perfect knowledge of 
 this than I have? If I am right and you have these men with 
 you, you could go into Richmond in the next three days. How 
 can they be got to you, and how can they be prevented from 
 getting away in such manner for the future ? 
 
304 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 14th. (To Halleck.) I am very anxious — almost im- 
 patient — to have you here. Have due regard to what you leave 
 behind. When can you reach here? 
 
 Before announcing military emancipation he prepares an 
 escape for any state that will accept his terms. 
 
 Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives : 
 Herewith is a draft of a bill to compensate any State which may 
 abolish slavery within its limits, the passage of which, substan- 
 tially as presented, I respectfully and earnestly recommend. 
 
 17th. The traitor against the General Government for- 
 feits his slave at least as justly as he does any other property, 
 and he forfeits both to the government against which he 
 offends. The government, so far as there can be ownership, 
 thus owns the forfeited slaves, and the question for Con- 
 gress in regard to them is, "Shall they be made free or be sold 
 to new masters?" I perceive no objection to Congress de- 
 ciding in advance that they shall be free. To the high honor 
 of Kentucky as I am informed, she has been the owner of 
 some slaves by escheat, and she sold none, but liberated all. I 
 hope the same is true of some other States. Indeed, I do not 
 believe it would be physically possible for the General Govern- 
 ment to return persons so circumstanced to actual slavery. I 
 believe there would be physical resistance to it which could 
 neither be turned aside by argument nor driven away by force. 
 
 22nd. Without consultation with, or the knowledge of, the 
 Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, 
 and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting 
 upon the subject. All were present, excepting Mr. Blair, the 
 Postmaster-General, who was absent at the opening of the 
 discussion, but came in subsequently. I said to the Cabinet 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 305 
 
 that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them 
 together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a 
 proclamation before them; suggestions as to which would be 
 in order after they had heard it read. Mr. Lovejoy was in 
 error when he informed you that it excited no comment ex- 
 cepting on the part of Secretary Seward. Various suggestions 
 were offered. Secretary Chase wished the language stronger 
 in reference to the arming of the blacks. 
 
 Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy on the 
 ground that it would cost the administration the fall elections. 
 Nothing, however, was offered that I had not already fully 
 anticipated and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward 
 spoke. He said in substance, "Mr. President, I approve of 
 the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at 
 this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent 
 upon our repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of 
 so important a story. It may be viewed as the last measure of 
 an exhausted government, a cry for help; the government 
 stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia 
 stretching forth her hands to the government." His idea was 
 that it would be considered our last shriek on the retreat. 
 This was his precise expression. "Now," continued Mr. 
 Seward, "while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that you 
 postpone its issue, until you can give it to the country sup- 
 ported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be 
 the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war!" The 
 wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with 
 very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my 
 thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The re- 
 sult was that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, waiting 
 for a victory. 
 
 22nd. First : Ordered that military commanders within 
 the States of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ala- 
 bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas in an or- 
 
306 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 derly manner seize and use any property, real or personal, 
 which may be necessary or convenient for their several com- 
 mands, for supplies, or for other military purposes; and that 
 while property may be destroyed for proper military objects, 
 none shall be destroyed in wantonness or malice. 
 
 Second : That military and naval commanders shall em- 
 ploy as laborers, within and from said States, so many per- 
 sons of African descent as can be advantageously used for 
 military or naval purposes, giving them reasonable wages for 
 their labor. 
 
 28th. Mr. Durant (of Louisiana) complains that in 
 various ways the relation of master and slave is disturbed by 
 the presence of our army, and he considers it particularly 
 vexatious that this, in part, is done under cover of an act of 
 Congress, while constitutional guarantees are suspended on 
 the plea of military necessity. The truth is, that what is done 
 and omitted about slaves is done and omitted on the same mili- 
 tary necessity. It is a military necessity to have men and 
 money, and we can get neither in sufficient numbers or 
 amounts if we keep from, or drive from, our lines slaves com- 
 ing to them. Mr. Durant can not be ignorant of the pressure 
 in this direction, nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds 
 till he and such as he shall have time to help themselves. 
 
 He speaks of no duty — apparently thinks of none — resting 
 upon Union men. He even thinks it injurious to the Union 
 cause that they should be restrained in trade and passage with- 
 out taking sides. They are to touch neither a sail nor a pump, 
 but to be merely passengers — deadheads at that — to be carried 
 snug and dry throughout the storm, and safely landed right 
 side up. Nay, more; even a mutineer is to go untouched, lest 
 these sacred passengers receive an accidental wound. Of 
 course the rebellion will never be suppressed in Louisiana if 
 the professed Union men there will neither help to do it nor 
 permit the government to do it without their help. Now, I 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 307 
 
 think the true remedy is very different from what is suggested 
 by Mr. Durant. It does not lie in rounding the rough angles 
 of the war, but in removing the necessity for the war. 
 
 I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I can, 
 and I shall do all I can, to save the Government, which is my 
 sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I shall do noth- 
 ing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious 
 dealing. 
 
 ^i st. Broken eggs can not be mended ; but Louisiana has 
 nothing to do now but to take her place in the Union as it was, 
 barring the already broken eggs. The sooner she does so, 
 the smaller will be the amount of that which will be past mend- 
 ing. This government can not much longer play a game in 
 which it stakes all, and its enemies stake nothing. Those ene- 
 mies must understand that they can not experiment for ten 
 years trying to destroy the government, and if they fail still 
 come back into the Union unhurt. 
 
 August 4th. The moral effect was the worst of the affair 
 before Richmond, and that has run its course downward. We 
 are now at a stand, and shall soon be rising again, as we 
 hope. I believe it is true that in men and material the enemy 
 suffered more than we in that series of conflicts, while it is 
 certain he is less able to bear it. 
 
 6th. There has been a very wide-spread attempt to have 
 a quarrel between General McClellan and the Secretary of 
 War. Now I occupy a position that enables me to observe 
 that these two gentlemen are not nearly so deep in the quarrel 
 as some pretending to be their friends. General McClellan's 
 attitude is such that, in the very selfishness of his nature, he 
 can not but wish to be successful, and I hope he will — and the 
 Secretary of War is in precisely the same situation. If the 
 military commanders in the field can not be successful, not 
 only the Secretary of War, but myself — for the time being the 
 master of them both — can not but be failures. 
 
308 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 14th. (To a Deputation of Colored Men.) Having all 
 been seated, the President, after a few preliminary observa- 
 tions, informed them that a sum of money had been appro- 
 priated by Congress, and placed at his disposition, for the 
 purpose of aiding the colonization in some country of the peo- 
 ple, or a portion of them, of African descent, thereby making 
 it his duty, as it had for a long time been his inclination, to 
 favor that cause. And why, he asked, should the people of 
 your race be colonized, and where ? Why should they leave this 
 country? This is, perhaps, the first question for proper con- 
 sideration. You and we are different races. We have be- 
 tween us a broader difference than exists between almost any 
 other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not 
 discuss; but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to 
 us both, as I think. Your race suffers very greatly, many of 
 them, by living among us, while ours suffers from your pres- 
 ence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, 
 it affords a reason, at least, why we should be separated. 
 
 The place I am thinking about for a colony is in Central 
 America. It is nearer to us than Liberia — not much more than 
 one-fourth as far as Liberia, and within seven days' run by 
 steamers. Unlike Liberia, it is a great line of travel — it is a 
 highway. The country is a very excellent one for any people, 
 and with great natural resources and advantages, and especially 
 because of the similarity of climate with your native soil, thus 
 being suited to your physical condition. The particular place 
 I have in view is to be a great highway from the Atlantic or 
 Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and this particular place 
 has all the advantages for a colony. On both sides there are 
 harbors — among the finest in the world. Again, there is evi- 
 dence of very rich coal-mines. A certain amount of coal is 
 valuable in any country, and there may be more than enough 
 for the wants of any country. Why I attach so much impor- 
 tance to coal is, it will afford an opportunity to the inhab- 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 309 
 
 itants for immediate employment till they get ready to settle 
 permanently in their homes. If you take colonists where there 
 is no good land, there is a bad show; and so where there 
 is nothing to cultivate and of which to make a farm. But if 
 something is started so that you can get your daily bread as 
 soon as you reach there, it is a great advantage. Coal land is 
 the best thing I know of with which to commence an enter- 
 prise. 
 
 22nd. (To Horace Greeley.) I have just read yours of 
 the 19th instant, addressed to myself through the New York 
 Tribune* If there be in it any statements or assumptions 
 of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and 
 here, controvert them. 
 
 If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be 
 falsely drawn, I do not, now and here, argue against them. 
 
 If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial 
 tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I 
 have always supposed to be right. 
 
 As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have 
 not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. 
 I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. 
 
 The sooner the national authority can be restored, the 
 nearer the Union will be the Union as it was. 
 
 If there be those who would not save the Union unless 
 they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with 
 them. 
 
 If there be those who would not save the Union unless they 
 could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with 
 them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the 
 Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I 
 could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do 
 it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do 
 
 *An article entitled The Prayer of Twenty Millions demanding un- 
 conditional abolition. 
 
3 io ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 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 for- 
 bear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. 
 
 I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing 
 hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe 
 doing more will help the cause. 
 
 I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and 
 I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true 
 views. 
 
 I have here stated my purpose according to my view of 
 official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed 
 personal wish that all men everywhere could be free. 
 
 23rd. Halleck arrives at Washington and assumes the role 
 of commanding general* 
 
 26th. (To Reverdy Johnson.) It seems the Union feeling 
 in Louisiana is being crushed out by the course of General 
 Phelps. Please pardon me for believing that is a false pre- 
 tense. The people of Louisiana — all intelligent people every- 
 where — know full well that I never had a wish to touch the 
 foundations of their society, or any right of theirs. With per- 
 fect knowledge of this they forced a necessity upon me to send 
 armies among them, and it is their own fault, not mine, that 
 they are annoyed by the presence of General Phelps. They 
 also know the remedy; know how to be cured of General 
 Phelps. Remove the necessity of his presence. And might 
 it not be well for them to consider whether they have not 
 already had time enough to do this? If they can conceive of 
 anything worse than General Phelps within my power, would 
 they not better be looking out for it? 
 
 *Halleck was far too cautious for his high position. Very soon he be- 
 came a figurehead. See p. 334. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 311 
 
 I am a patient man, always willing to forgive on the Chris- 
 tian terms of repentance; and also to give ample time for re- 
 pentance. Still, I must save this government, if possible. 
 What I can not do, of course I will not do; but it may as well 
 be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this 
 game leaving any available card unplayed. 
 
 Pope with his Army of Virginia moves directly south 
 from Washington. The Army of the Potomac on the advice 
 of Halleck, is being brought back by zvater to its old position 
 in front of the capital, with a view to combining it with Pope's 
 forces. McClellan is virtually, though not formally, super- 
 seded by Pope. 
 
 4:10 p. m. (To McClellan.)* Yours of to-day just re- 
 ceived. I think your first alternative — to-wit, "to concentrate 
 all our available forces to open communication with Pope," is 
 the right one, but I wish not to control. That I now leave to 
 General Halleck, aided by your counsels. 
 
 Pope is disastrously defeated, Jidy 2pth-joth in the battle 
 of Manassas (Second Bidl Run). 
 
 September 2nd. Lincoln informs Cabinet he has asked 
 McClellan to resume command in the place of Pope. 
 
 (To John Hay.) He [McClellan] has acted badly in this 
 matter [of his relations with Pope] but we must use what 
 tools we have. There is no man in this army who can man 
 these fortifications and lick these troops of ours into shape 
 half as well as he. Unquestionably, he has acted badly toward 
 Pope ; he wanted him to fail. That is unpardonable, but he is 
 too useful now to sacrifice. 
 
 *His forces are passing back into central Virginia via the Potomac. His 
 enemies afterward accused him of not making proper haste in coming to the 
 aid of Pope. Lee, the moment the Army of the Potomac was recalled, pre- 
 pared to move across Virginia and strike Pope. 
 
312 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 4th. Lee crosses the Potomac, causing wild alarm in Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 1 2th. (To Governor Curtin.) Your despatch asking for 
 80,000 disciplined troops to be sent to Pennsylvania is received. 
 Please consider we have not to exceed 80,000 disciplined troops, 
 properly so called, this side of the mountains; and most of 
 them, with many of the new regiments, are now close in the 
 rear of the enemy supposed to be invading Pennsylvania. Start 
 half of them to Harrisburg, and the enemy will turn upon and 
 beat the remaining half, and then reach Harrisburg before the 
 part going there, and beat it too when it comes. The best pos- 
 sible security for Pennsylvania is putting the strongest force 
 possible in the enemy's rear. 
 
 While Lee is in Maryland and a crisis is at hand, the Aboli- 
 tionists, having no suspicion of Lincoln s real intention, make 
 another attempt to force him into a comer. He uses the occa- 
 sion to "feel" the country, playing advocatus diaboli against 
 his secret purpose. 
 
 13th. (To a Committee from the Religious Denomina- 
 tions of Chicago, asking the President to issue a Proclamation 
 of Emancipation.) I am approached with the most opposite 
 opinions and advice, and that by religious men, who are equally 
 certain that they represent the Divine w T ill. I am sure that 
 either the one or the other class is mistaken in that belief, and 
 perhaps in some respects both. I hope it will not be irreverent 
 for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His 
 will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might 
 be supposed He would reveal it directly to me; for, unless I 
 am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest 
 desire to know the will of Providence in this matter. And if I 
 can learn what it is, I will do it! 
 
ace 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 313 
 
 What good would a proclamation of emancipation from 
 me do, especially as we are now situated? I do not want to 
 issue a document that the whole world will see must 
 necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the 
 comet! Would my word free the slaves, when I can not even 
 enforce the Constitution in the rebel States? 
 
 I raise no objections against it on legal or constitutional 
 grounds, for, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, in 
 time of war I suppose I have a right to take any measure which 
 may best subdue the enemy; nor do I urge objections of a 
 moral nature, in view of possible consequences of insurrection 
 and massacre at the South. I view this matter as a practical 
 war measure, to be decided on according to the advantages or 
 disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the rebellion. 
 
 I will also concede that emancipation would help us in 
 Europe, and convince them that we are incited by something 
 more than ambition. 
 
 I have not decided against a proclamation of liberty to the 
 slaves, but hold the matter under advisement ; and I can assure 
 you that the subject is on my mind, by day and night, more 
 than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will, I 
 will do. 
 
 14th. (To General H. G. Wright — at Cincinnati.) 
 Thanks for your despatch. Can you not pursue the retreating 
 enemy, [who have made a raid in Kentucky while Lee was 
 moving northward] and relieve Cumberland Gap? 
 
 15th. (To General G. B. McClellan.) Your despatch of 
 to-day received. God bless you, and all with you. Destroy the 
 rebel army if possible. 
 
 1 6th: noon. (To Governor Curtin, at Harrisburg.) What 
 do you hear from General McClellan's army? We have noth- 
 ing from him to-day. 
 
 2 135 p. m. Since telegraphing you, despatch came from 
 General McClellan, dated seven o'clock this morning. Noth- 
 
314 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 ing of importance happened to him yesterday. This morning 
 he was up with the enemy at Sharpsburg, and waiting for 
 heavy fog to rise. 
 
 iyth. Antietam-Sharpsburg. This dreadful battle is in- 
 terpreted by the North as a victory, and Lincoln at once pre- 
 pares to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. 
 
 21st. From time to time I added or changed a line, [of 
 the Emancipation Proclamation] touching it up here and 
 there, anxiously watching the progress of events. Finally 
 came the week of the battle of Antietam. I determined to 
 wait no longer. The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that 
 the advantage was on our side. I was then staying at the 
 Soldiers' Home [three miles out of Washington]. Here I fin- 
 ished writing the second draft of the preliminary proclama- 
 tion; came up on Sunday; called the Cabinet together to hear 
 it and it was published on the following Monday. 
 
 22nd. (At a Cabinet meeting.) Gentlemen, I have, as 
 you are aware, thought a great deal about the relation of this 
 war to slavery; and you all remember that several weeks ago 
 I read you an order I had prepared on this subject, which, on 
 account of objections made by some of you, was not issued. 
 Ever since, my mind has been much occupied with this subject 
 and I have thought all along that the time for acting on it 
 might probably come. I think the time has come now. I 
 wish it was a better time. I wish that we were in a better 
 condition. The action of the army against the Rebels has not 
 been quite what I should have liked. But they have been 
 driven out of Maryland; and Pennsylvania is no longer in 
 danger of invasion. When the Rebel army was at Frederick 
 I determined, as soon as it should be driven out of Maryland, 
 to issue a proclamation of emancipation, such as I thought 
 most likely to be useful. I said nothing to any one, but I made 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 315 
 
 the promise to myself, and (hesitating a little) to my Maker. 
 The Rebel army is now driven out and I am going to fulfill 
 that promise. I have got you together to hear what I have 
 written down. I do not wish your advice about the main mat- 
 ter, for that I have determined for myself. This I say with- 
 out intending anything but respect for any one of you. But 
 I already know the views of each on this question. They have 
 been heretofore expressed, and I have considered them as thor- 
 oughly and as carefully as I can. What I have written is that 
 which my reflections have determined me to say. I must do 
 the best I can and bear the responsibility of taking the course 
 which I feel I ought to take. 
 
 (A Proclamation.) I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the 
 army and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that 
 hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the ob- 
 ject of practically restoring the constitutional relation between 
 the United States and each of the States, and the people there- 
 of, in which States that relation is or may be suspended or dis- 
 turbed. 
 
 That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, 
 to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure ten- 
 dering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all 
 slave States, so called, the people whereof may not then be in 
 rebellion against the United States, and which States may then 
 have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, 
 immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their re- 
 spective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of Afri- 
 can descent with their consent upon this continent or elsewhere, 
 with the previously obtained consent of the governments exist- 
 ing there, will be continued. 
 
 That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
 one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held 
 
316 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the peo- 
 ple whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, 
 shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Ex- 
 ecutive 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 re- 
 press such persons, or any of them in any efforts they may 
 make for their actual freedom. 
 
 And the Executive will in due time recommend that all 
 citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal 
 thereto, throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration 
 of the constitutional relation between the United States and 
 their respective States and people, if that relation shall have 
 been superseded or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by 
 acts of the United States, including the loss, of slaves. 
 
 24th. A proclamation making all persons discouraging en- 
 listment in the army subject to martial law and suspending so 
 jar as they are concerned the writ of habeas corpus. 
 
 2jth. Major Key and Major Turner appear before me. 
 Major Turner says: "As I remember it, the conversation 
 was : 'Why we did not bag them after the battle of Sharps- 
 burg?' Major Key's reply was. 'That was not the game; 
 that we should tire the rebels out and ourselves; that was the 
 only way the Union could be preserved, we must come together 
 fraternally, and slavery be saved/ ' On cross-examination 
 Major Turner says he has frequently heard Major Key con- 
 verse in regard to the present troubles, and never heard him 
 utter a sentiment unfavorable to the maintenance of the Union. 
 He has never uttered anything which he, Major T., would call 
 disloyalty. The particular conversation detailed was a private 
 one. 
 
 In my view it is wholly inadmissable for any gentleman 
 holding a military commission from the United States to ut- 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 317 
 
 ter such sentiments as Major Key is within proved to have 
 done. Therefore, let Major John J. Key be forthwith dis- 
 missed from the military service of the United States. 
 
 28th. It is known to some that, while I hope something 
 from the proclamation, my expectations are not as sanguine as 
 are those of some friends. The time for its effect southward 
 had not come; but northward the effect should be instanta- 
 neous. It is six days old, and while commendation in news- 
 papers and by distinguished individuals is all that a vain man 
 could wish, the stocks have declined, and troops come forward 
 more slowly than ever. This, looked soberly in the face, is not 
 very satisfactory. 
 
 I happened to be placed, being a humble instrument in the 
 hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am, and as we all are, to 
 work out His great purposes, I have desired that all my works 
 and acts may be according to His will, and that it might be so, 
 I have sought His aid; but if, after endeavoring to do my best 
 in the light which He affords me, I find my efforts fail, I must 
 believe that for some purpose unknown to me, He wills it 
 otherwise. If I had had my way, this war would never have 
 been commenced. If I had been allowed my way, this war 
 would have been ended before this; but we find it continues 
 and we must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose 
 of His own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though with 
 our limited understandings we may not be able to comprehend 
 it, yet we can not but believe that He who made the world still 
 governs it.* 
 
 30th. The will of God prevails. In great contests each 
 party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both 
 may be, and one must be, wrong. God can not be for and 
 against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil 
 
 *In this period of his life Lincoln thought much upon religious ques- 
 tions and discussed them freely with his intimates. He was a regular at- 
 tendant of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, 
 
318 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something dif- 
 ferent from the purpose of either party; and yet the human 
 instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adap- 
 tation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that 
 this is probably true ; that God wills this contest, and wills that 
 it shall not end yet. By His mere great power on the minds of 
 the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed 
 the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. 
 And, having begun, He could give the final victory to either 
 side any day. Yet the contest proceeds. 
 
 October 4th. (Remarks at Frederick, Maryland.) In my 
 present position it is hardly proper for me to make speeches. 
 Every word is so closely noted that it will not do to make fool- 
 ish ones, and I can not be expected to be prepared to make sen- 
 sible ones. If I were as I have been for most of my life, I 
 might, perhaps, talk nonsense to you for half an hour, and it 
 wouldn't hurt anybody. As it is, I can only return thanks for 
 the compliment paid our cause. Please accept sincere thanks 
 for the compliment to our country. 
 
 6th. (To McClellan, who has greatly disturbed the Presi- 
 dent by failing to pursue Lee.) The President directs that you 
 cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or drive him 
 south. Your army must move now, while the roads are good. 
 
 13th. (To McClellan.) You remember my speaking to 
 you of what I called your over-cautiousness. Are you not 
 over-cautious when you assume that you can not do what the 
 enemy is constantly doing ? Should you not claim to be at least 
 his equal in prowess, and act upon the claim ? 
 
 As I understand, you telegraphed General Halleck that you 
 can not subsist your army at Winchester unless the railroad 
 from Harper's Ferry to that point be put in working order. 
 But the enemy does not subsist his army at Winchester, at a 
 distance nearly twice as great from railroad transportation as 
 you would have to do without the railroad last named. 
 
age S3] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 319 
 
 Again, one of the standard maxims of war, as you know, 
 is to "operate upon the enemy's communications as much as 
 possible without exposing your own." You seem to act as if 
 this applies against you, but can not apply in your favor. 
 Change positions with the enemy, and think you not he would 
 break your communication with Richmond within the next 
 twenty- four hours? 
 
 If he should move northward, I would follow him closely, 
 holding his communications. If he should prevent our seizing 
 his communications, and move toward Richmond, I would 
 press closely to him, fight him if a favorable opportunity 
 should present, and at least try to beat him to Richmond on 
 the inside track. I say "try"; if we never try, we shall never 
 succeed. If he makes a stand at Winchester, moving neither 
 north nor south, I would fight him there, on the idea that if we 
 can not beat him when he bears the wastage of coming to us, 
 We never can when we bear the wastage of going to him. 
 
 In the West, the success of the Federal armies has placed 
 the State of Louisiana under Federal control. 
 
 14th. (To General B. F. Butler and others.) The bearer 
 of this, Hon. John E. Bouligny, a citizen of Louisiana, goes to 
 that State seeking to have such of the people thereof as desire 
 to avoid the unsatisfactory prospect before them, and to have 
 peace again upon the old terms under the Constitution of the 
 United States, manifest such desire by elections of members to 
 the Congress of the United States particularly, and perhaps a 
 legislature, State officers, and United States senators friendly 
 to their object. I shall be glad for you, and each of you, to aid 
 him and all others acting for this object as much as possible. In 
 all available ways give the people a chance to express their 
 wishes at these elections. Follow forms of law as far as con- 
 venient, but at all events get the expression of the largest num- 
 
3 2o ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 ber of the people possible. All see how such action will connect 
 with and affect the proclamation of September 22. Of course 
 the men elected should be gentlemen of character, willing to 
 swear support to the Constitution, as of old, and known to be 
 above reasonable suspicion of duplicity. 
 
 24th. (To McClellan.) I have just read your despatch 
 about sore-tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me 
 for asking what the horses of your army have done since the 
 battle of Antietam that fatigues anything? 
 
 27th. (To McClellan.) Yours of yesterday received. 
 Most certainly I intend no injustice to any, and if I have done 
 any I deeply regret it. To be told, after more than five weeks' 
 total inaction of the army, and during which period we sent 
 to the army every fresh horse we possibly could, amounting in 
 the whole to 7,918, that the cavalry horses were too much fa- 
 tigued to move, presents a very cheerless, almost hopeless, pros- 
 pect for the future, and it may have forced something of im- 
 patience in my despatch. If not recruited and rested then, when 
 could they ever be ? I suppose the river is rising, and I am glad 
 to believe you are crossing. 
 
 2pth. (To McClellan.) I am much pleased with the move- 
 ment of the army. When you get entirely across the river let 
 me know. What do you know of the enemy? 
 
 McClellan fails to attack Lee who makes good his retreat 
 into Virginia. 
 
 November $th. By direction of the President of the 
 United States, it is ordered that Major General McClellan be 
 relieved from command of the Army of the Potomac, and that 
 Major General Burnside take the command of that army. 
 
 15th. The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army 
 and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the 
 Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval serv- 
 
age S3] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 321 
 
 ice. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed 
 weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, 
 a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian peo- 
 ple, and a due regard for the Divine will, demand that Sunday 
 labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of 
 strict necessity. 
 
 2 1 st. We do not particularly need members of Congress 
 from those States (under military control) to enable us to get 
 along with legislation here. What we do want is the conclusive 
 evidence that respectable citizens of Louisiana are willing to be 
 members of Congress and to swear to support the Constitution, 
 and that other respectable citizens there are willing to vote for 
 them and send them. To send a parcel of Northern men here 
 as representatives, elected, as would be understood (and per- 
 haps really so), at the point of the bayonet, would be disgust- 
 ing and outrageous; and were I a member of Congress here, 
 I would vote against admitting any such man to a seat. 
 
 I wish elections for Congressmen to take place in Lou- 
 isiana; but I wish it to be a movement of the people of the dis- 
 tricts, and not a movement of our military and quasi-military 
 authorities there. I merely wish our authorities to give the 
 people a chance — to protect them against secession interference. 
 
 24th. (To General Carl Schurz.) I have just received 
 and read your letter of the 20th. The purport of it is that we 
 lost the late elections and the Administration is failing because 
 the war is unsuccessful, and that I must not flatter myself that 
 I am not justly to blame for it. I certainly know that if the 
 war fails, the administration fails, and that I will be blamed for 
 it, whether I deserve it or not and I ought to be blamed if I 
 could do better. You think I could do better; therefore you 
 blame me already. I think I could not do better; therefore I 
 blame you for blaming me. I understand you now to be will- 
 ing to accept the help of men who are not Republicans, pro- 
 vided they have "heart in it." Agreed. I want no others. But 
 
322 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 who is to be judge of hearts, or of "heart in it"? If I must 
 discard my own judgment and take yours, I must also take that 
 of others ; and by the time I should reject all I should be advised 
 to reject, I should have none left, Republicans or others — 
 not even yourself. For be assured, my dear sir, there are men 
 who have "heart in it" that think you are performing your part 
 as poorly as you think I am performing mine. I certainly have 
 been dissatisfied with the slowness of Buell and McClellan; 
 but before I relieved them I had great fears I should not find 
 successors to them who would do better; and I am sorry to 
 add that I have seen little since to relieve those fears. 
 
 27th. (Steamer Baltimore, off Aquia Creek, Virginia.) 
 I have just had a long conference with General Burnside. He 
 believes that General Lee's whole army, or nearly the whole of 
 it, is in front of him, at and near Fredericksburg. General 
 Burnside says he could take into battle now any day about 
 110,000 men; that his army is in good spirit, good condition, 
 good morale, and that in all respects he is satisfied with offi- 
 cers and men; that he does not want more men with him, be- 
 cause he could not handle them to advantage; that he thinks 
 he can cross the river in face of the enemy and drive him away ; 
 but that, to use his own expression, it is somewhat risky. 
 
 December 1st. Washington. 
 
 (Annual Message to Congress.) A nation may be said to 
 consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory 
 is the only part which is of certain durability. "One gen- 
 eration passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the 
 earth abideth forever." It is of the first importance of duty 
 to consider and estimate this ever-enduring part. That por- 
 tion of the earth's surface which is owned and inhabitated by 
 the people of the United States is well adapted to be the home 
 of one national family, and it is not well adapted for two or 
 more. Its vast extent and its variety of climate and produc- 
 tions are of advantage in this age for one people, whatever 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 323 
 
 they might have been in former ages. Steam, telegraphs, and 
 intelligence have brought these to be an advantageous com- 
 bination for one united people. 
 
 There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a na- 
 tional boundary, upon which to divide. Trace through, from 
 east to west, upon the line between the free and slave country, 
 and we shall find a little more than one-third of its length are 
 rivers, easy to be crossed, and populated, or soon to be populated 
 thickly upon both sides ; while nearly all its remaining length 
 are merely surveyors' lines, over which people may walk back 
 and forth without any consciousness of their presence. No 
 part of this line can be made any more difficult to pass by writ- 
 ing it down on paper or parchment as a national boundary. 
 
 But there is another difficulty. The great interior region, 
 bounded east by the Alleghanies, north by the British domin- 
 ions, west by the Rocky Mountains, and south by the line 
 along which the culture of corn and cotton meets, and which 
 included part of Virginia, part of Tennessee, all of Kentucky, 
 Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Kan- 
 sas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of Dakota, Nebraska, 
 and part of Colorado, already has above ten millions of people, 
 and will have fifty millions within fifty years if not prevented 
 by any political folly or mistake. It contains more than one- 
 third of the country owned by the United States — certainly 
 more than one million of square miles. One-half as populous 
 as Massachusetts already is, it would have more than seventy- 
 five millions of people. A glance at the maps shows that, ter- 
 ritorially speaking, it is the great body of the republic. The 
 other parts are but marginal borders to it, the magnificent re- 
 gion sloping west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 
 being the deepest and also the richest in undeveloped resources. 
 In the production of provisions, grains, grasses, and all which 
 proceed from them, this great interior region is naturally one 
 of the most important in the world. Ascertain from the sta- 
 
324 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 tistics the small proportion of the region which has as yet, been 
 brought into cultivation, and also the large and rapidly increas- 
 ing amount of its products, and we shall be overwhelmed with 
 the magnitude of the prospect presented; and yet this region 
 has no sea-coast, touches no ocean anywhere. As part of one 
 nation, its people now find, and may forever find, their way to 
 Europe by New York, to South America and Africa by New 
 Orleans, and to Asia by San Francisco. But separate our com- 
 mon country into two nations as designed by the present rebel- 
 lion, and every man of this great interior region is thereby cut 
 off from some one or more of these outlets — not, perhaps, by a 
 physical barrier, but by embarrassing and onerous trade regu- 
 lations. 
 
 And this is true wherever a dividing or boundary line may 
 be fixed. Place it between the now free and slave country, or 
 place it south of Kentucky, or north of Ohio, and still the truth 
 remains that none south of it can trade to any port or place 
 north of it, and none north of it can trade to any port or place 
 south of it except upon terms dictated by a government foreign 
 to them. Three outlets, east, west, and south are indispensable 
 to the w r ell-being of the people inhabiting, and to inhabit, this 
 vast interior region. Which of the three may be the best is no 
 proper question. All are better than either, and all of right be- 
 long to that people and to their successors forever. True to 
 themselves, they will not ask where a line of separation shall 
 be, but will vow rather that there shall be no such line. Nor 
 are the marginal regions less interested in these communica- 
 tions to and through them to the great outside world. They, 
 too, and each of them, must have access to this Egypt of the 
 West without paying toll at the crossing of any national 
 boundary. 
 
 Our national strife springs not from our permanent part; 
 not from the land we inhabit, not from our national homestead. 
 There is no possible severing of this but would multiply, and 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 325 
 
 not mitigate, evils among us. In all Its adaptations and apti- 
 tudes, it demands union and abhors separation. In fact, it 
 would ere long force reunion, however much of blood and 
 treasure the separation might have cost. 
 
 Our strife pertains to ourselves : to the passing genera- 
 tions of men ; and it can without convulsion be hushed forever 
 with the passing of one generation. 
 
 In this view I recommend the adoption of the following- 
 resolution and articles amendatory to the Constitution of the 
 United States: — 
 
 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America in Congress assembled (two- 
 thirds of both houses concurring), That the following articles 
 be proposed to the Legislatures (or Conventions) of the sever- 
 al States as amendments to the Constitution of the United 
 States, all or any of which articles when ratified by three- 
 fourths of the said Legislatures (or Conventions) to be valid 
 as part or parts of the said Constitution, viz. : 
 
 "Article — Every State wherein slavery now exists which 
 shall abolish the same therein at any time or times before the 
 first day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand and 
 nine hundred, shall receive compensation from the United 
 States as follows, to wit : 
 
 "The President of the United States shall deliver to every 
 such State bonds of the United States, bearing interest at the 
 rate of per cent, per annum, to an amount equal to the ag- 
 
 gregate sum of for each slave shown to have been 
 
 therein by the eighth census of the United States, said bonds to 
 be delivered to such State by installments, or in one parcel 
 at the completion of the abolishment, accordingly as the same 
 shall have been gradual or at one time within such State ; and 
 interest shall begin to run upon any such bond only from the 
 proper time of its delivery as aforesaid. Any State having 
 received bonds as aforesaid, and afterward re-introducing or 
 
326 ABRAHAM. LINCOLN U&>2 
 
 tolerating slavery therein, shall refund to the United States 
 the bonds so received, or the value thereof, and all interest 
 paid thereon. 
 
 "Article — All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom 
 by the chances of the war, at any time before the end of the re- 
 bellion, shall be forever free; but all owners of such who shall 
 not have been disloyal shall be compensated for them at the 
 same rates as are provided for States adopting abolishment of 
 slavery, but in such way that no slave shall be twice accounted 
 for. 
 
 "Article — Congress may appropriate money and otherwise 
 provide for colonizing free colored persons, with their own 
 consent, at any place or places without the United States. " 
 
 The emancipation will be unsatisfactory to the advocates 
 of perpetual slavery; but the length of time should greatly 
 mitigate their dissatisfaction. The time spares both races from 
 the evils of sudden derangement — in fact, from the necessity of 
 any derangement; while most of those whose habitual course 
 of thought will be disturbed by the measure will have passed 
 away before its consummation. They will never see it. An- 
 other class will hail the prospect of emancipation, but will 
 deprecate the length of time. They will feel that it gives too 
 little to the now living slaves. But it really gives them much. 
 It saves them from the vagrant destitution which must largely 
 attend immediate emancipation in localities where their num- 
 bers are very great; and it gives the inspiring assurance that 
 their posterity shall be free forever. The plan leaves to each 
 State choosing to act under it, to abolish slavery now, or at the 
 end of the century, or at any intermediate time, or by degrees 
 extending over the whole or any part of the period; and it 
 obliges no two States to proceed alike. It also provides for 
 compensation, and generally the mode of making it. This, it 
 would seem, must further mitigate the dissatisfaction of those 
 who favor perpetual slavery, and especially of those who are to 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 327 
 
 receive the compensation. Doubtless some of those who are to 
 pay and not to receive, will object. Yet the measure is both 
 just and economical. In a certain sense the liberation of slaves 
 is the destruction of property — property acquired by descent 
 or by purchase, the same as any other property. It is no less 
 true for having been often said, that the people of the South 
 are not more responsible for the original introduction of this 
 property than are the people of the North ; and when it is re- 
 membered how unhesitatingly we all use cotton and sugar and 
 share the profits of dealing in them, it may not be quite safe 
 to say that the South has been more responsible than the North 
 for its continuance. If, then, for a common object this prop- 
 erty is to be sacrificed, is it not just that it be done at a 
 common charge? 
 
 Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Con- 
 gress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of 
 ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can 
 spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we 
 pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, 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 to bear the responsibility. In giving 
 freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable 
 alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly 
 save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means 
 may succeed; this could not, can not fail. The way is plain, 
 peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world 
 will forever applaud, and God must forever bless. 
 
 nth. Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to en- 
 courage another outbreak (of Indian war in Minnesota) on the 
 one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the 
 other, I caused a careful examination of the records to be made, 
 in view of first ordering the execution of such as had been 
 
328 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 proved of violating females. Contrary to my expectations, 
 only two of this class were found. I then directed a further 
 examination, and a classification of all who were proven to 
 have participated in massacres, as distinguished from partici- 
 pation in battles. This class numbered forty, and included the 
 two convicted of female violation. One of the number is 
 strongly recommended, by the commission which tried them, 
 for commutation to ten years' imprisonment. I have ordered 
 the other thirty-nine to be executed on Friday, the 19th instant. 
 
 1 2th. (To Fernando Wood.) Your letter of the 8th, with 
 accompanying note of same date, was received yesterday. 
 
 The most important paragraph in the letter, as I consider, 
 is in these words : "On the 25th of November last I was ad- 
 vised by an authority which I deemed likely to be well informed, 
 as well as reliable and truthful, that the Southern States 
 would send representatives to the next Congress, provided that 
 a full and general amnesty should permit them to do so. No 
 guarantees or terms were asked for other than the amnesty 
 referred to." 
 
 I strongly suspect your information will prove to be 
 groundless; nevertheless, I thank you for communicating it 
 to me. Understanding the phrase in the paragraph above 
 quoted — "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 au- 
 thority 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 if within a 
 reasonable time "a full and general amnesty" were necessary 
 to such end, it would not be withheld. 
 
 I do not think it would be proper now for me to communi- 
 cate this formally or informally to the people of the Southern 
 States. My belief is that they already know it ; and when they 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 329 
 
 choose, if ever, they can communicate with me unequivocally. 
 Nor do I think it proper now to suspend military operations to 
 try any experiment of negotiation. 
 
 I should nevertheless receive with great pleasure the exact 
 information you now have, and also such other as you may in 
 any way obtain. Such information might be more valuable 
 before the 1st of January than afterward. 
 
 ijth. Fredericksburg. 
 
 16th. (To General Curtis.) N. W. Watkins, of Jackson, 
 Missouri, (who is half brother to Henry Clay), writes me that 
 a colonel of ours has driven him from his home at Jackson. 
 Will you please look into the case and restore the old man to 
 his home if the public interest will admit? 
 
 lyth. Republican members of the Senate meet in caucus 
 which is dominated by the enemies of Seward. Their aim is to 
 force the President to dismiss the Cabinet and re-constitute it 
 under the influence of Chase. 
 
 1 8th. (To Senator Browning who has reported to Lincoln 
 that the caucus has named a committee that shall lay its de- 
 mands before him.) What do those men want? 
 
 (Browning: I hardly know, Mr. President, but they are 
 exceedingly violent against the administration.) 
 
 They wish to get rid of me, and I am sometimes half 
 disposed to gratify them. 
 
 (Browning: You must stand firmly at your post, with 
 a steady hand.) 
 
 We are on the brink of destruction. It appears to me that 
 the Almighty is against us and I can hardly see a ray of hope. 
 The committee is to be up and see me at 7 o'clock. Since I 
 heard last night of the proceedings of the caucus, I have been 
 more distressed than by any event of my life. 
 
330 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 The President brings the committee and the Cabinet face 
 to face. Chase disappoints his friends by failing to come out 
 frankly in agreement with their views. The committee with- 
 draws in bad humor. 
 
 Seward submits his resignation. Chase feels he must fol- 
 low suit. 
 
 ipth. (Chase calls on the President and says he has pre- 
 pared his resignation.) 
 
 Where is it? 
 
 (Chase : I brought it with me.) 
 
 Let me have it. This (seizing the paper) cuts the Gordian 
 knot. I can dispose of this subject now without any difficulty. 
 I see my way clear. 
 
 20th. Now I can ride. I have a pumpkin in each end of 
 my sack. 
 
 (To Secretaries Seward and Chase.) You have respective- 
 ly tendered me your resignations as Secretary of State and 
 Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. I am apprised 
 of the circumstances which may render this course personally 
 desirable to each of you; but after most anxious considera- 
 tion, my deliberate judgment is, that the public interest does not 
 admit of it. I therefore have to request that you will resume 
 the duties of your departments respectively. 
 
 While they [the enemies of Seward] seemed to believe in 
 my honesty, they also appeared to think that when I had in me 
 any good purpose or intention, Seward contrived to suck it 
 out of me unperceived.* 
 
 2 1 st. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) Do not come on the night train. 
 It is too cold. Come in the morning. 
 
 22tid. (To the Army of the Potomac.) I have just read 
 
 *Date approximate. 
 
age 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 331 
 
 your commanding general's report of the battle of Fredericks- 
 burg. Although you were not successful, the attempt was not 
 an error, nor the failure other than accident. The courage with 
 which you, in an open field, maintained the contest against an 
 intrenched foe, and the consummate skill and success with 
 which you crossed and recrossed the river in the face of the 
 enemy, show that you possess all the qualities of a great army, 
 which will yet give victory to the cause of the country and of 
 popular government. 
 
 (To Generals W. B. Franklin and W. F. Smith.) Yours 
 of the 2 1st, suggesting a plan of operation for the Army of the 
 Potomac, is received. I have hastily read the plan, and shall 
 yet try to give it more deliberate consideration, with the aid of 
 military men. Meanwhile let me say it seems to me to present 
 the old question of preference between the line of the Penin- 
 sula and the line you are now upon. The difficulties you point 
 out as pertaining to the Fredericksburg line are obvious and 
 palpable. But now, as heretofore, if you go to James River, a 
 large part of the army must remain on or near the Fredericks- 
 burg line, to protect Washington. It is the old difficulty. 
 When I saw General Franklin at Harrison's Landing on James 
 River last July, I can not be mistaken in saying that he distinct- 
 ly advised the bringing of the army away from there. 
 
 (To Governor Curtin, talking about the campaign of 
 Fredericksburg.) This reminds me of an old farmer I used 
 to know out in Illinois. He took it into his head to go into 
 hog-raising. He sent out to Europe and imported the finest 
 breed of hogs he could buy. The prize hog was put into a 
 pen and the farmer's two mischievous boys, James and John, 
 were told to be sure not to let it out. But James, the worst of 
 the two, let the brute out the next day. The hog went straight 
 for the boys, and drove John up a tree, then the hog went for 
 the seat of James' trousers, and the only way the boy could 
 save himself was by holding on to the hog's tail. The hog 
 
332 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 would not give up his hunt, nor the boy his hold. After they 
 had made a good many circles around the tree, the boy's 
 courage began to give out and he shouted to his brother : "I 
 say, John, come down quick and help me let go this hog." 
 
 Now, Governor, that is exactly my case. I wish some one 
 would come and help me let the hog go.* 
 
 : Date conjectural. 
 
1863 
 
 January ist. (Proclamation.) I, Abraham Lincoln, Presi- 
 dent of the United States, by virtue in me vested as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, 
 in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and 
 government of the United States wherein the people thereof, 
 respectively, are this day in rebellion, do, on this first day of 
 January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
 and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, 
 publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days 
 from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as 
 the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, re- 
 spectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, 
 the following, to-wit: 
 
 Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. 
 Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, Ascen- 
 sion, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. 
 Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), 
 Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North 
 Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties desig- 
 nated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Ac- 
 comac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and 
 Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and 
 which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this 
 proclamation were not issued. 
 
 And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, 
 I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within 
 said designated States and parts of States are, and hence- 
 
 333 
 
334 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 forward shall be free; and that the Executive Government of 
 the United States, including the military and naval authorities 
 thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said 
 persons. 
 
 (To General H. W. Llalleck.) General Burnside wishes 
 to cross the Rappahannock with his army, but his grand 
 division commanders all oppose the movement. If in such a 
 difficulty as this you do not help, you fail me precisely in the 
 point for which I sought your assistance. You know what 
 General Burnside's plan is, and it is my wish that you go with 
 him to the ground, examine it as far as practicable, confer with 
 the officers, getting their judgment and ascertaining their 
 temper ; in a word, gather all the elements for forming a judg- 
 ment of your own, and then tell General Burnside that you 
 do approve his plan. Your military skill is useless to me 
 if you do not do this. 
 
 2nd. (To General S. R. Curtis.) Yours of December 29 
 by the hand of Mr. Strong is just received. The day I tele- 
 graphed you suspending the order in relation to Doctor Mc- 
 Pheeters, he, with Mr. Bates, the Attorney-General, appeared 
 before me and left with me a copy of the order mentioned. 
 The doctor also showed me the copy of an oath which he said 
 he had taken, which is, indeed, very strong and specific. He 
 also verbally assured me that he had constantly prayed in 
 church for the President and government, as he had always 
 done before the present war. In looking over the recitals in 
 your order, I do not see that this matter of prayer, as he states 
 it, is negatived, nor that any violation of his oath is charged, 
 nor, in fact, that anything specific is alleged against him. 
 The charges are all general: that he has a rebel wife and rebel 
 relations, that he sympathizes with rebels, and that he exercises 
 rebel influence. Now, after talking with him, I tell you 
 frankly I believe he does sympathize with the rebels, but the 
 question remains whether such a man, of unquestioned good 
 
are 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 335 
 
 moral character, who has taken such an oath as he has, and 
 can not even be charged with violating it, and who can be 
 charged with no other specific act of omission, can, with safety 
 to the government, be exiled upon the suspicion of his secret 
 sympathies. But I agree that this must be left to you, who 
 are on the spot; and if, after all, you think the public good 
 requires his removal, my suspension of the order is withdrawn, 
 only with this qualification, that the time during the suspen- 
 sion is not to be counted against him. I have promised him 
 this. But I must add that the United States Government must 
 not, as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When 
 an individual in a church or out of it becomes dangerous to 
 the public interest, he must be checked; but let the churches, 
 as such, take care of themselves. It will not do for the United 
 States to appoint trustees, supervisors, or other agents for the 
 churches. 
 
 $th. (To General S. R, Curtis.) I am having a good deal 
 of trouble with Missouri matters, and I now sit down to write 
 you particularly about it. One class of friends believe in 
 greater leniency in regard to arrests, banishments, and assess- 
 ments. As usual in such cases, each questions the other's 
 motives. On the one hand, it is insisted that Governor Gam- 
 ble's Unionism, at most, is not better than a secondary spring 
 of action; that hunkerism and a wish for political influence 
 stand before Unionism with him. On the other hand, it is 
 urged that arrests, banishments, and assessments are made 
 more for private malice, revenge, and pecuniary interest than 
 for the public good. This morning I was told by a gentleman 
 who I have no doubt believes what he says, that in one case 
 of assessments for $10,000, the different persons who paid 
 compared receipts, and found they had paid $30,000. If this 
 be true, the inference is that the collecting agents pocketed the 
 odd $20,000. And true or not in the instance, nothing but 
 the sternest necessity can justify the making and maintaining 
 
336 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 of a system so liable to such abuses. Doubtless the necessity 
 for the making of the system in Missouri did exist, and 
 whether it continues for the maintenance of it is now a prac- 
 tical and very important question. 
 
 Some days ago General Gamble telegraphed me, asking 
 that the assessments outside of St. Louis County might be 
 suspended, as they already have been within it, and this morn- 
 ing all the members of Congress here from Missouri but one 
 laid a paper before me asking the same thing. Now, my belief 
 is that Governor Gamble is an honest and true man, not less 
 so than yourself; that you and he could confer together on this 
 and other Missouri questions with great advantage to the 
 public; that each knows something which the other does not; 
 and that acting together you could about double your stock of 
 pertinent information. May I not hope that you and he will 
 attempt this? I could at once safely do (or you could safely 
 do without me) whatever you and he agree upon. There is 
 absolutely no reason why you should not agree. 
 
 It is most cheering and encouraging for me to know that 
 in the efforts which I have made and am making for the res- 
 toration of a righteous peace to our country, I am upheld and 
 sustained by the good wishes and prayers of God's people. 
 No one is more deeply than myself aware that without His 
 favor our highest wisdom is but as foolishness and that our 
 most strenuous efforts would avail nothing in the shadow of 
 His displeasure. I am conscious of no desire for my country's 
 welfare that is not in consonance with His will, and of no plan 
 upon which we may not ask His blessing. It seems to me that 
 if there be one subject upon which all good men may unitedly 
 agree, it is imploring the gracious favor of the God of nations 
 upon the struggles our people are making for the preservation 
 of their precious birthright of civil and religious liberty. 
 
 8th. I never did ask more, nor ever was willing to accept 
 less, than for all the States, and the people thereof, to take and 
 
are 53] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 337 
 
 hold their places and their rights in the Union, under the Con- 
 stitution of the United States. For this alone have I felt 
 authorized to struggle and I seek neither more nor less now. 
 Still, to use a coarse but an expressive figure, "broken eggs 
 can not be mended." I have issued the Emancipation Procla- 
 mation, and I can not retract it. After the commencement of 
 hostilities, I struggled nearly a year and a half to get along 
 without touching the "institution" ; and when finally I con- 
 ditionally determined to touch it, I gave a hundred days' fair 
 notice of my purpose to all the States and people, within which 
 time they could have turned it wholly aside by simply again 
 becoming good citizens of the United States. 
 
 14th. (To General J. A. Dix.) The proclamation has 
 been issued. We were not succeeding — at best we were 
 progressing too slowly — without it. Now that we have it, and 
 bear all the disadvantages of it (as we do bear some in certain 
 quarters), we must also take some benefit from it, if prac- 
 ticable. I therefore will thank you for your well-considered 
 opinion whether Fortress Monroe and Yorktown, one or both, 
 could not, in whole or in part, be garrisoned by colored troops, 
 leaving the white forces now necessary at those places to be 
 employed elsewhere. 
 
 ipth. (To the Workingmen of Manchester, England.) 
 I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the address and 
 resolutions which you sent me on the eve of the new year. 
 
 I have understood well that the duty of self-preservation 
 rests solely with the American people. But I have at the same 
 time been aware that favor or disfavor of foreign nations 
 might have a material influence in enlarging or prolonging 
 the struggle with disloyal men in which the country is engaged. 
 A fair examination of history has served to authorize a belief 
 that the past actions and influences of the United States were 
 generally regarded as having been beneficial toward mankind. 
 I have, therefore, reckoned upon the forbearance of nations. 
 
338 "ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 Circumstances — to some of which you kindly allude — induce 
 me especially to expect that if justice and good faith should be 
 practised by the United States, they would encounter no hos- 
 tile influence on the part of Great Britain. It is now a pleasant 
 duty to acknowledge the demonstration you have given of 
 your desire that a spirit of amity and peace toward this country 
 may prevail in the councils of your Queen, who is respected and 
 esteemed in your country only more than she is by the kindred 
 nation which has its home on this side of the Atlantic. 
 
 I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the work- 
 ingmen at Manchester, and in all Europe, are called to endure 
 in this crisis. It has been often and studiously represented 
 that the attempt to overthrow this Government, which was 
 built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute 
 for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of human 
 slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Through 
 the action of our disloyal citizens, the workingmen of Europe 
 have been subjected to severe trials, for the purpose of forcing 
 their sanction to that attempt. Under the circumstances, I can 
 not but regard your decisive utterances upon the question as 
 an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been 
 surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an ener- 
 getic and reinspiring assurance of the inherent power of truth, 
 and of the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, human- 
 ity and freedom. I do not doubt that the sentiments you have 
 expressed will be sustained by your great nation; and on the 
 other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you that they 
 will excite admiration, esteem and the most reciprocal feelings 
 of friendship among the American people. I hail this inter- 
 change of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that whatever 
 else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country 
 or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists be- 
 tween the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make 
 them, perpetual. 
 
ARE531 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 330, 
 
 21st. The foregoing proceedings, findings, and sentence, 
 in the foregoing case of Major-General Fitz-John Porter are 
 approved and confirmed; and it is ordered that the said Fitz- 
 John Porter be, and he hereby is, cashiered and dismissed from 
 the service of the United States as a major-general of volun- 
 teers, and as colonel and brevet brigadier-general in the reg- 
 ular service of the United States, and forever disqualified 
 from holding any office of trust or profit under the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. 
 
 25th. The President of the United States has directed : 
 
 That Major-General A. E. Burnside, at his own request, be 
 relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac. 
 
 That Major-General J. Hooker be assigned to the com- 
 mand of the Army of the Potomac. 
 
 26th. (To General J. Hooker.) I have placed you at the 
 head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this 
 upon what appears 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 satisfied with you. I believe 
 you to be a brave and skilful soldier, which, of course, I like. 
 I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in 
 which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which 
 is valuable if not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious, 
 which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm ; 
 but I think that during General 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 gen- 
 erals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask 
 of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. 
 
340 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 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 
 decided to infuse into the army of criticizing their commander 
 and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. 
 I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you 
 nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out 
 of an army while such spirit prevails in it; and now beware 
 of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleep- 
 less vigilance go forward and give us victories. 
 
 29th. (To Thurlow Weed.) Your valedictory to the pa- 
 trons of the Albany Evening Journal brings me a good deal 
 of uneasiness. What does it mean? 
 
 February 2nd. (To the Workingmen of London, Eng- 
 land.) I have received the New Year's address which you 
 have sent me, with a sincere appreciation of the exalted and 
 humane sentiments by which it was inspired. 
 
 As these sentiments are manifestly the enduring support of 
 the free institutions of England, so I am sure also that they 
 constitute the only reliable basis for free institutions through- 
 out the world. 
 
 The resources, advantages, and powers of the American 
 people are very great, and they have consequently succeeded to 
 equally great responsibilities. It seems to have devolved upon 
 them to test whether a government established on the prin- 
 ciples of human freedom can be maintained against an effort 
 to build one upon the exclusive foundation of human bondage. 
 They will rejoice with me in the new evidences which your 
 proceedings furnish that the magnanimity they are exhibiting 
 is justly estimated by the true friends of freedom and human- 
 ity in foreign countries. 
 
 Accept my best wishes for your individual welfare, and 
 for the welfare and happiness of the whole British people. 
 
 5th. (To General Franz Siegel.) General Schurz thinks I 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 341 
 
 was a little cross in my last note to you. If I was, I ask par- 
 don. If I do get up a little temper I have not sufficient time 
 to keep it up. 
 
 22nd. (To Reverend Alexander Reed.) Your note by 
 which you, as General Superintendent of the United States 
 Christian Commission, invite me to preside at a meeting to be 
 held this day at the hall of the House of Representatives in 
 this city, is received. 
 
 While for reasons which I deem sufficient, I must decline 
 to preside, I can not withhold my approval of the meeting and 
 its worthy objects. Whatever shall be sincerely, and in God's 
 name, devised for the good of the soldier and seaman in their 
 hard spheres of duty, can scarcely fail to be blessed. 
 
 28th. In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of 
 the 26th instant, requesting a copy of any correspondence 
 which may take place between me and workingmen in England, 
 I transmit the papers mentioned in the subjoined list. 
 
 March 10th. And I do hereby declare and proclaim that 
 all soldiers now absent from their respective regiments without 
 leave who shall on or before the first day of April, in the year 
 one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, report themselves 
 at any rendezvous designated by the general orders of the War 
 Department, number fifty-eight, hereto annexed, may be re- 
 stored to their respective regiments without punishment, ex- 
 cept for the forfeiture of pay and allowances during their 
 absence ; and all who do not return within the time above speci- 
 fied shall be arrested as deserters and punished as the law 
 provides. 
 
 1 8th. (To Henry Winter Davis.) There will be in the 
 new House of Representatives, as there were in the old, some 
 members openly opposing the war, some supporting it uncon- 
 ditionally, and some supporting it with "buts," and "ifs," and 
 "ands." They will divide on the organization of the House — 
 on the election of a Speaker. As you ask my opinion, I give 
 
342 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 it, that the supporters of the war should send no man to Con- 
 gress who will not pledge himself to go into caucus with the 
 unconditional supporters of the war, and to abide the action 
 of such caucus and vote for the person therein nominated for 
 Speaker. Let the friends of the government first save the 
 government, and then administer it to their own liking. This 
 is not for publication, but to prevent misunderstanding of 
 what I verbally said to you yesterday. 
 
 20th. Whereas, it appears to my satisfaction that Thomas 
 W. Knox, a correspondent of the New York Herald, has been 
 by the sentence of a court-martial excluded from the military 
 department under command of Major-General Grant, and also 
 that General Thayer, president of the court-martial which 
 rendered the sentence, and Major-General McClernand, in 
 command of a corps of that department, and many other re- 
 spectable persons, are of the opinion that Mr. Knox's offense 
 was technical rather than wilfully wrong, and that the sen- 
 tence should be revoked: now, therefore, said sentence is 
 hereby so far revoked as to allow Mr. Knox to return to 
 General Grant's headquarters, and to remain if General Grant 
 shall give his express assent, and to again leave the department 
 if General Grant shall refuse such assent. 
 
 23rd. (To Governor Seymour.) You and I are sub- 
 stantially strangers, and I write this chiefly that we may be- 
 come better acquainted. I, for the time being, am at the head 
 of a nation which is in great peril, and you are at the head of 
 the greatest State of that nation. As to maintaining the na- 
 tion's life and integrity, I assume and believe there can not be 
 a difference of purpose between you and me. If we should 
 differ as to the means, it is important that such difference 
 should be as small as possible; that it should not be enhanced 
 by unjust suspicions on one side or the other. In the perform- 
 ance of my duty the cooperation of your State, as that of 
 others, is needed — in fact, is indispensable. This alone is a 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 343 
 
 sufficient reason why I should wish to be at a good under- 
 standing with you. Please write me at least as long a letter 
 as this, of course saying in it just what you think fit. 
 
 24th. (To Henry W. Raymond who has urged him not to 
 place General Hooker in high command.) That is all true; 
 Hooker talks badly ; but the trouble is, he is stronger with the 
 country to-day than any other man. 
 
 (Raymond argues that Hooker's strength would crumble if 
 his real attitude of antagonism to his superiors should be made 
 public. ) 
 
 The country would not believe it; they would say it was 
 air a He. 
 
 26th. (To Governor Andrew Johnson.) I am told you 
 have at least thought of raising a negro military force. In 
 my opinion the country now needs no specific thing so much 
 as some man of your ability and position to go to this work. 
 When I speak of your position, I mean that of an eminent 
 citizen of a slave State and himself a slaveholder. The colored 
 population is the great available and yet unavailed of, force for 
 restoring the Union. The bare sight of 50,000 armed and 
 drilled black soldiers upon the banks of the Mississippi would 
 end the rebellion at once : And who doubts that we can present 
 that sight if we but take hold in earnest? If you have been 
 thinking of it, please do not dismiss the thought. 
 
 30th. (A Proclamation.) And whereas, it is the duty of 
 nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the 
 overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgres- 
 sions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine 
 repentance will lead to mercy and pardon ; and to recognize the 
 sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven 
 by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is 
 the Lord; 
 
 And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, 
 like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastise- 
 
344 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 ments in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful 
 calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but 
 a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to 
 the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? 
 We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. 
 We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and pros- 
 perity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no 
 other nation has ever grown ; but we have forgotten God. We 
 have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, 
 and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us ; and we have 
 vainly imagined, in the deceit fulness of our hearts, that all 
 these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and 
 virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we 
 have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeem- 
 ing and preserving grace — too proud to pray to the God that 
 made us. 
 
 It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the 
 offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for 
 clemency and forgiveness. 
 
 All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest 
 humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings, that the 
 united cry of the nation will be heard on high, and answered 
 with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and 
 the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its 
 former happy condition of unity and peace. 
 
 April 1st. (To General D. Hunter.) I am glad to see 
 the accounts of your colored force at Jacksonville, Florida. I 
 see the enemy are driving at them fiercely, as is to be expected. 
 It is important to the enemy that such a force shall not take 
 shape and grow and thrive in the South, and in precisely the 
 same proportion it is important to us that it shall. Hence the 
 utmost caution and vigilance is necessary on our part. The 
 enemy will make extra efforts to destroy them, and we should 
 do the same to preserve and increase them. 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 345 
 
 3rd. (To General Hooker.) Our plan is to pass Satur- 
 day night on the boat; go over from Acquia Creek to your 
 camp Sunday morning ; remain with you till Tuesday morning 
 and then return. Our party will probably not exceed six per- 
 sons of all sorts. 
 
 nth. My opinion is that just now, with the enemy directly 
 ahead of us, there is eligible route for us into Richmond; and 
 consequently a question of preference between the Rappahan- 
 nock route and the James River route is a contest about noth- 
 ing. Hence our prime object is the enemy's army in front of 
 us, and is not with or about Richmond at all, unless it be inci- 
 dental to the main object. 
 
 What then ? The two armies are face to face, with a nar- 
 row river between them. Our communications are shorter and 
 safer than are those of the enemy. For this reason we can, 
 with equal power, fret him more than he can us. I do not 
 think that by raids toward Washington he can derange the 
 Army of the Potomac at all. He has no distant operations 
 which can call any of the Army of the Potomac away ; we have 
 such operations which may call him away, at least in part. 
 While he remains intact I do not think we should take the 
 disadvantage of attacking him in his intrenchments ; but we 
 should continually harass and menace him, so that he shall 
 have no leisure nor safety in sending away detachments. If 
 he weakens himself, then pitch into him. 
 
 13th. (To Admiral S. F. DuPont.) Hold your position 
 inside the bar near Charleston, or, if you shall have left it, 
 return to it, and hold it till further orders. Do not allow the 
 enemy to erect new batteries or defenses on Morris Island. If 
 he has begun it drive him out. I do not herein order you to 
 renew the general attack. That is to depend on your own 
 discretion or a further order. 
 
 (To General D. Hunter and Admiral S. F. DuPont, near 
 Charleston.) We still hope that by cordial and judicious co- 
 
346 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 operation you can take the batteries on Morris Island and 
 Sullivan's Island and Fort Sumter. But whether you can or 
 not, we wish the demonstration kept up for a time, for a col- 
 lateral and very important object. We wish the attempt to be 
 a real one, (though not a desperate one) if it affords any 
 considerable chance of success. But if prosecuted as a dem- 
 onstration only, this must not become public or the whole 
 effect will be lost. 
 
 15th. (To General J. Hooker.) It is now 10:15 p. m. 
 An hour ago I received your letter of this morning, and a few 
 moments later your despatch of this evening. The latter gives 
 me considerable uneasiness. The rain and mud of course 
 were to be calculated upon. General S. is not moving rapidly 
 enough to make the expedition come to anything. He has now 
 been out three days, two of which were unusually fair weather, 
 and all three without hindrance from the enemy, and yet he is 
 not twenty-five miles from where he started. To reach his 
 point he still has sixty to go, another river (the Rapidan) to 
 cross, and will be hindered by the enemy. By arithmetic, how 
 many days will it take him to do it? I do not know that any 
 better can be done, but I greatly fear it is another failure 
 already. Write me often. I am very anxious. 
 
 27th. (To General J. Hooker.) How does it look now? 
 
 2/th. (To General Lane.) The Governor of Kansas is 
 here asking that Lieutenant-Colonel J. M. Williams, of a col- 
 ored regiment there, shall be removed; and also complaining 
 of the military interference of General Blunt in the late election 
 at Leavenworth., I do not know how, if at all, you are con- 
 nected with these things ; but I wish your assistance to so shape 
 things that the Governor of Kansas may be treated with the 
 consideration that is extended to governors of other States. 
 We are not forcing a regimental officer upon any other gov- 
 ernor against his protest. Can not this matter be somehow 
 adjusted ? 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 347 
 
 May 2-4. Chancellor sville. 
 
 2nd. General Halleck tells me he has a despatch from 
 General Schenck this morning informing him that our forces 
 have joined, and that the enemy menacing Pennsylvania will 
 have to fight or run to-day. 
 
 3rd. (To General D. Butter field.) Where is General 
 Hooker? Where is Sedgwick? Where is Stoneman? 
 
 4th. (To General J. Hooker.) We have news here that 
 the enemy has re-occupied heights about Fredericksburg. Is 
 that true? 
 
 6th. 12:23 p. M. (To General J. Hooker.) We have, 
 through General Dix, the contents of Richmond papers of the 
 fifth. General Dix's despatch in full is going to you by Cap- 
 tain Fox of the navy. The substance is General Lee's despatch 
 of the third, Sunday, claiming that he had beaten you, and 
 that you were then retreating across the Rappahannock; dis- 
 tinctly stating that two of Longstreet's divisions fought you 
 on Saturday, and that General Paxton was killed, Stonewall 
 Jackson severely wounded, and Generals Heth and A. P. Hill 
 slightly wounded. The Richmond papers also stated, upon 
 what authority not mentioned, that our cavalry have been at 
 Ashland, Hanover Court House, and other points, destroying 
 several locomotives and a good deal of other property, and 
 all the railroad bridges to within five (5) miles of Richmond. 
 
 (To General J. Hooker.) Just as I had telegraphed you 
 contents of Richmond papers showing that our cavalry has not 
 failed, I received General Butterfield's of 11 a. m. yesterday. 
 This, with the great rain of yesterday and last night, securing 
 your right flank, I think puts a new face upon your case ; but 
 you must be the judge. 
 
 fth. (To General J. Hooker.) The recent movement of 
 your army is ended without effecting its object, except, per- 
 haps, some important breakings of the enemy's communications. 
 
348 ABRAHAM tINCOLN [1863 
 
 What next? If possible, I would be very glad of another 
 movement early enough to give us some benefit from the fact 
 of the enemy's communication being broken; but neither for 
 this reason nor any other do I wish anything done in despera- 
 tion or rashness. An early movement would also help to super- 
 sede the bad moral effect of the recent one, which is said to be 
 considerably injurious. Have you already in your mind a plan 
 wholly or partially formed? If you have, prosecute it without 
 interference from me. If you have not, please inform me, so 
 that I, incompetent as I may be, can try and assist in the 
 formation of some plan for the army. 
 
 8th. (To General J. Hooker.) The news is here of the 
 capture by our forces of Grand Gulf, a large and very impor- 
 tant thing. General Willich, an exchanged prisoner just from 
 Richmond, has talked with me this morning. He was there 
 when our cavalry cut the roads in that vicinity. He says there 
 was not a sound pair of legs in Richmond, and that our men, 
 had they known it, could have safely gone in and burned every- 
 thing and brought in Jeff. Davis, captured and paroled three 
 or four hundred men. He says as he came to City Point there 
 was an army three miles — Longstreet, he thought, moving 
 toward Richmond. Milroy has captured a despatch of General 
 Lee, in which he says his loss was fearful in his last battle 
 with you. 
 
 pth. (To General J. A. Dix.) It is very important for 
 Hooker to know exactly what damage is done to the railroads 
 at all points between Fredericksburg and Richmond. As yet 
 we have no word as to whether the crossings of the North and 
 South Anna, or any of them, have been touched. There are 
 four of these crossings; that is, one on each road on each 
 stream. You readily perceive why this information is desired. 
 I suppose Kilpatrick or Davis can tell. Please ascertain fully 
 what was done, and what is the present condition, as near as 
 you can, and advise me at once. 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 349 
 
 nth. (To General D. Butter field.) About what distance 
 is it from the observatory we stopped at last Thursday to the 
 line of enemies' works you ranged the glass upon for me ? 
 
 1 2th. (To Governor Horatio Seymour.) Doctor Swin- 
 burne and Mr. Gillett are here, having been refused, as they 
 say, by the War Department, permission to go with the Army 
 of the Potomac. They now appeal to me, saying you wish 
 them to go. I suppose they have been excluded by a rule which 
 experience has induced the department to deem proper, still 
 they shall have leave to go, if you say you desire it. Please 
 answer. 
 
 13th. (To General J. Hooker.) If it will not interfere 
 with the service, nor personally incommode you, please come 
 up and see me this evening. 
 
 14th. (To General J. Hooker.) When I wrote on the 
 7th I had an impression that possibly, by an early movement, 
 you could get some advantage from the supposed facts that 
 the enemy's communications were disturbed, and that he was 
 somewhat deranged in position. That idea has now passed 
 away, the enemy having re-established his communications, re- 
 gained his positions, and actually received reinforcements. It 
 does not now appear probable to me that you can gain any- 
 thing by an early renewal of the attempt to cross the Rappa- 
 hannock. I therefore shall not complain if you do no more 
 for a time than to keep the enemy at bay and out of other mis- 
 chief, by menaces and occasional cavalry raids, if practicable, 
 and to put your own army in good condition again. Still, if, 
 in your own clear judgment, you can renew the attack suc- 
 cessfully, I do not mean to restrain you. Bearing upon this 
 last point, I must tell you that I have some painful intima- 
 tions that some of your corps and division commanders are 
 not giving you their entire confidence. This would be ruinous, 
 if true, and you should therefore, first of all, ascertain the real 
 facts beyond all possibility of doubt. 
 
35Q ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 15th. (To H. T. Blow, C. D. Drake, and others.) Your 
 despatch of to-day is just received. It is very painful to me 
 that you in Missouri can not or will not settle your factional 
 quarrel among yourselves. I have been tormented with it be- 
 yond endurance for months by both sides. Neither side pays 
 the least respect to my appeals to your reason. I am now com- 
 pelled to take hold of the case. 
 
 Because of activities 'in opposition to Federal recruiting, C. 
 L. Vallandigham is arrested by General Burnside, nozv in com- 
 mand of the Department of the Ohio. Great excitement over 
 this arrest which is at once made an issue by the Democrats. 
 
 ipth. (To Major-General Burnside, Commanding De- 
 partment of Ohio.) The President directs that without delay 
 you send C. L. Vallandigham under secure guard to the head- 
 quarters of General Rosecrans, to be put by him beyond our 
 military lines; and in case of his return within our lines, he be 
 arrested and kept in close custody for the term specified in his 
 sentence. 
 
 20th. (To General W. S. Rosecrans.) The President de- 
 sires to know whether you have any late news from Grant, or 
 any of the operations on the Mississippi. If you have, please 
 report. 
 
 22nd. We have news here in the Richmond newspapers of 
 20th and 2 1 st, including a despatch from General Joe Johnston 
 himself, that on the 15th or 16th — a little confusion as to the 
 day — Grant beat Pemberton and (W. W.) Loring near Ed- 
 wards Station, at the end of a nine hours' fight, driving Pem- 
 berton over the Big Black and cutting Loring off and driving 
 him south to Crystal Springs, twenty-five miles below Jack- 
 son. Joe Johnston telegraphed all this, except about Loring, 
 from his camp between Brownsville and Lexington, on the 
 1 8th. Another despatch indicates that Grant was moving 
 against Johnston on the 18th. 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 351 
 
 24th. (To Anson Stager.) Late last night Fuller tele- 
 graphed you, as you say, that ''the stars and stripes float over 
 Vicksburg and the victory is complete." Did he know what 
 he said, or did he say it without knowing it? Your despatch 
 of this afternoon throws doubt upon it. 
 
 26th. (To Isaac N. Arnold.) Your letter advising me to 
 dismiss General Halleck is received. If the public believe, as 
 you say, that he has driven Fremont, Butler, and Si gel from 
 the service, they believe what I know to be false; so that if I 
 was to yield to it, it would only be to be instantly beset by some 
 other demand based on another falsehood equally gross. You 
 know yourself that Fremont was relieved at his own request, 
 before Halleck could have had anything to do with it — went 
 out near the end of June, while Halleck only came in near the 
 end of July. I know equally well that no wish of Halleck's 
 had anything to do with the removal of Butler or Sigel. Sigel, 
 like Fremont, was relieved at his own request, pressed upon 
 me almost constantly for six months, and upon complaints that 
 could have been made as justly by almost any corps commander 
 in the army, and more justly by some. So much for the way 
 they got out. Not a word as to their not getting back. In the 
 early spring, General Fremont sought active service again ; and, 
 as it seemed to me, sought it in a very good and reasonable 
 spirit. But he holds the highest rank in the Army, except 
 McClellan, so that I could not well offer him a subordinate 
 command. Was I to displace Hooker, or Hunter, or Rose- 
 crans, or Grant, or Banks? If not, what was I to do? And, 
 similar to this is the case of both the others. One month after 
 General Butler's return I offered him a position in which I 
 thought and still think he could have done himself the highest 
 credit, and the country the greatest service, but he declined it. 
 When General Sigel was relieved, at his own request as I have 
 said, of course I had to put another in command of his corps. 
 Can I instantly thrust that other one [out] to put him in again? 
 
352 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 And now my good friend, let me turn your eyes upon 
 another point. Whether General Grant shall or shall not con- 
 summate the capture of Vicksburg, his campaign from the be- 
 ginning of the month up to the twenty-second day of it, is one 
 of the most brilliant in the world. His corps commanders and 
 division commanders, in part, are McClernand, McPherson, 
 Sherman, Steele, Hovey, Blair and Logan. And yet taking 
 General Grant and these seven of his generals, and you can 
 scarcely name one of them that has not been constantly de- 
 nounced, even opposed, by the same men who are now so 
 anxious to get Halleck out, and Fremont and Butler and Sigel 
 in. I believe no one of them went through the Senate easily, 
 and certainly one failed to get through at all. I am compelled 
 to take a more impartial and unprejudiced view of things. 
 Without claiming to be your superior, which I do not, my 
 position enables me to understand my duty in all these matters 
 better than you possibly can, and I hope you do not yet doubt 
 my integrity. 
 
 27th. (To General John M. Scho field.) Having relieved 
 General Curtis and assigned you to the command of the De- 
 partment of the Missouri, I think it may be of some advantage 
 for me to state to you why I did it. I did not relieve General 
 Curtis because of any full conviction that he had done wrong 
 by commission or omission. I did it because of a conviction 
 in my mind that the Union men of Missouri, constituting 
 when united a vast majority of the whole people, have entered 
 into a pestilent factional quarrel among themselves, General 
 Curtis, perhaps not of choice, being the head of one faction 
 and Governor Gamble that of the other. After months of 
 labor to reconcile the difficulty, it seemed to grow worse and 
 worse, until I felt it my duty to break it up somehow ; and as I 
 could not remove Governor Gamble, I had to remove General 
 Curtis. 
 
 Now that you are in the position, I wish you to undo noth- 
 
A*E 5 4] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 353 
 
 ing merely because General Curtis or Governor 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. 
 
 28th. (To General W. S. Rosecrans.) I would not push 
 you to any rashness, but I am very anxious that you do your 
 utmost, short of rashness, to keep Bragg from getting off to 
 help Johnston against Grant. 
 
 29th. (To General A. E. Burnside.) Your despatch of 
 to-day received. When I shall wish to supersede you I will let 
 you know. All the Cabinet regretted the necessity of arresting 
 for instance Vallandigham — some perhaps doubting there was 
 a real necessity for it, but being done all were for seeing you 
 through with it. 
 
 June 4th. (To Secretary Stanton.) I have received 
 additional despatches which, with former ones, induce me to 
 believe we should revoke or suspend the order suspending the 
 Chicago Times, and if you concur in opinion, please have it 
 done. 
 
 $tfa (To General J. Hooker.) Yours of to-day was 
 received an hour ago. So much of professional military skill 
 is requisite to answer it that I have turned the task over to 
 General Halleck. He promises to perform it with his utmost 
 care. I have but one idea which I think worth suggesting to 
 you, and that is, in case you find Lee coming to the north of the 
 Rappahannock, I would by no means cross to the south of it. 
 If he should have a rear force at Fredericksburg, tempting you 
 to fall upon it, it would fight in intrenchments and have you at 
 disadvantage, and so, man for man, worst you at that point, 
 
354 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 while his main force would in some way be getting an advan- 
 tage of you northward. In one word, I would not take any risk 
 of being entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped half over 
 a fence and liable to be torn by dogs front and rear without a 
 fair chance to gore one way or kick the other. If Lee would 
 come to my side of the river, I would keep on the same side, 
 and fight him or act on the defense, according as might be my 
 estimate of his strength relatively to my own. But these are 
 mere suggestions, which I desire to be controlled by the judg- 
 ment of yourself and General Halleck. 
 
 8th. We have despatches from Vicksburg of the 3rd. 
 Siege progressing. No general fighting recently. All well. 
 Nothing new from Port Hudson. 
 
 pth. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) Think you had better put 
 Tad's pistol away. I had an ugly dream about him. 
 
 ioth. (To General J. Hooker.) Your long despatch of 
 to-day is just received. If left to me, I would not go south of 
 the Rappahannock upon Lee's moving north of it. If you had 
 Richmond invested to-day you would not be able to take it in 
 twenty days ; meanwhile your communications, and with them 
 your army, would be ruined. I think Lee's army, and not Rich- 
 mond, is your true objective point. If he comes toward the 
 upper Potomac follow on his flank and on his inside track, 
 shortening your lines while he lengthens his. Fight him, too, 
 when opportunity offers. If he stays where he is, fret him 
 and fret him. 
 
 nth. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) Your three despatches 
 received. I am very well and am glad to know that you and 
 Tad are so. 
 
 1 2th. (To Erastus Corning and others.) Your letter of 
 May 19th, inclosing the resolutions of a public meeting held at 
 Albany, New York, on the 16th of the same month, was 
 received several days ago. 
 
 The resolutions, as I understand them, are resolvable into 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 355 
 
 propositions — first, the expression of a purpose to sustain the 
 cause of the Union, to secure peace through victory, and to 
 support the Administration in every constitutional and lawful 
 measure to suppress the rebellion ; and secondly, a declaration 
 of censure upon the Administration for supposed unconstitu- 
 tional action, such as the making of military arrests. And 
 from the two propositions a third is deduced, which is that the 
 gentlemen composing the meeting are resolved on doing their 
 part to maintain our common Government and country, despite 
 the folly or wickedness, as they may conceive, of any Admin- 
 istration. This position is eminently patriotic, and as such I 
 thank the meeting, and congratulate the nation for it. My 
 own purpose is the same, so that the meeting and myself have 
 a common object, and can have no difference, except in the 
 choice of means or measures for effecting that object. 
 
 But the meeting, by their resolutions, assert and argue that 
 certain military arrests, and proceedings following them, for 
 which I am ultimately responsible, are unconstitutional. I 
 think they are not. 
 
 Take the particular case mentioned by the meeting. It is as- 
 serted, in substance, that Mr. Vallandigham was, by a military 
 commander, seized and tried, "for no other reason than words 
 addressed to a public meeting in criticism of the course of the 
 Administration, and in condemnation of the military orders of 
 the General/' Now, if there be no mistake about this, if this 
 assertion is the truth and the whole truth, if there was no other 
 reason for the arrest, then I concede that the arrest was wrong. 
 But the arrest, as I understand, was made for a very different 
 reason. Mr. Vallandigham avows his hostility to the war on 
 the part of the Union; and his arrest was made because he 
 was laboring, with some effect, to prevent the raising of troops, 
 to encourage desertions from the army, and to leave the 
 rebellion without an adequate military force to suppress it. He 
 Was not arrested because he was damaging the political prospects 
 
3$6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 of the Administration or the personal interests of the 
 commanding general but because he was damaging the army, 
 upon the existence and vigor of which the life of the nation 
 depends. He was warring upon the military, and this gave 
 the military constitutional jurisdiction to lay hands upon him. 
 If Mr. Vallandigham was not damaging the military power of 
 the country, then his arrest was made on mistake of fact, which 
 I would be glad to correct on reasonably satisfactory evidence. 
 
 I understand the meeting whose resolutions I am con- 
 sidering to be in favor of suppressing the rebellion by military 
 force — by armies. Long experience has shown that armies 
 can not be maintained unless desertion shall be punished by the 
 severe penalty of death. The case requires, and the law and 
 the Constitution sanction this punishment. Must I shoot a 
 simple-minded soldier 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. 
 
 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 ab- 
 sence of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does not require 
 them ; in other words, that the Constitution is not in its appli- 
 cation in all respects the same in cases of rebellion or invasion 
 involving the public safety, as it is in times of profound peace 
 and public security. The Constitution itself makes the distinc- 
 tion, and I can no more be persuaded that the government can 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 357 
 
 constitutionally take no strong measure in time of rebellion, 
 because it can be shown that the same could not be lawfully 
 taken in time of peace, than 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 one. Nor am I able to 
 appreciate the danger apprehended by the meeting, that the 
 American people will, by means of military arrests during 
 the rebellion lose the right of public discussion, the liberty of 
 speech and the press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, and 
 habeas corpus throughout the indefinite peaceful future which 
 I trust lies before them, any more than I am able to believe 
 that a man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics 
 during temporary illness as to persist in feeding upon them 
 during the remainder of his healthful life. 
 
 13th. (To General J. Hooker.) I was coming down this 
 afternoon; but if you would prefer I should not, I shall blame 
 you if you do not tell me so. 
 
 14th. (To General J. Hooker.) So far as we can make 
 out here, the enemy have Milroy surrounded at Winchester, 
 and Tyler at Martinsburg. If they could hold out a few days, 
 could you help them? If the head of Lee's army is at Martins- 
 burg and the tail of it on the plank road between Fredericksburg 
 and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere : 
 could you not break him ? 
 
 (To Major-General Hooker.) You have nearly all the 
 elements for forming an opinion whether Winchester is 
 surrounded that I have. I really fear, almost believe, it is. 
 No communication has been had with it during the day, either 
 at Martinsburg or Harper's Ferry. At seven p. m. we also 
 lost communication with Martinsburg. The enemy had also 
 appeared there some hours before. At nine p. m. Harper's 
 Ferry said the enemy was reported at Berryville and Smith- 
 field. If I could know that Longstreet and Ewell moved in 
 that direction so long ago as you stated in your last, then I 
 
358 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 should feel sure that Winchester is strongly invested. It is 
 quite certain that a considerable force of the enemy is there- 
 about, and as I fear it is an overwhelming one compared with 
 Milroy's I am unable to give any more certain opinion. 
 
 (To General R. C. Schenck.) Get General Milroy from 
 Winchester to Harper's Ferry if possible. He will be gobbled 
 up if he remains, if he is not already past salvation. 
 
 15th. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) Tolerably well. Have not rode 
 out much yet, but have at last got new tires on the carriage 
 wheels and perhaps shall ride out soon. 
 
 Lee threatens an invasion of the North. 
 
 The facts are now known here that Winchester and 
 Martinsburg were both besieged yesterday. The troops from 
 Martinsburg have got into Harper's Ferry without loss. Those 
 from Winchester are also in, having lost in killed, wounded 
 and missing about one-third of their number. Of course the 
 enemy holds both places, and I think the report is authentic that 
 he is crossing the Potomac at Williamsport. We have not 
 heard of his yet appearing at Harper's Ferry, or on the river 
 anywhere below. 
 
 (A Proclamation.) Whereas, the armed insurrectionary 
 combinations now existing in several of the States are 
 threatening to make inroads into the States of Maryland, 
 Western Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, requiring 
 immediately an additional military force for the service of the 
 United States ; 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and 
 Navy thereof, and of the militia of the several States when 
 called into actual service, do hereby call into the service of the 
 United States 100,000 militia from the States following, 
 namely: from the State of Maryland, 10,000; from the State 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 359 
 
 of Pennsylvania, 50,000; from the State of Ohio, 30,000; 
 from the State of West Virginia, 10,000, to be mustered into 
 the service of the United States forthwith, and to serve for the 
 period of six months from the date of such muster into said 
 service, unless sooner discharged. 
 
 16th. (To General J. Hooker.) I send you this by the 
 hand of Captain Dahlgren. Your despatch at 11:30 a. m. 
 to-day is just received. When you say I have long been aware 
 that you do not enjoy the confidence of the major-general 
 commanding, you state the case much too strongly. 
 
 You do not lack his confidence in any degree to do you any 
 harm. On seeing him, after telegraphing you this morning, I 
 found him more nearly agreeing with you than I was myself. 
 Surely you do not mean to understand that I am withholding 
 my confidence from you when I happen to express an opinion 
 (certainly never discourteously) differing from one of your 
 own. 
 
 I believe Halleck is dissatisfied with you to this extent only, 
 that he knows that you write and telegraph ("report," as he 
 calls it) to me. I think he is wrong to find fault with this ; but 
 I do not think he withholds any support from you on account 
 of it. If you and he would use the same frankness to one 
 another, and to me, that I use to both of you, there would be no 
 difficulty. I need and must have the professional skill of both, 
 and yet these suspicions tend to deprive me of both. 
 
 I believe that you are aware that since you took command 
 of the army I have not believed you had any chance to effect 
 anything till now. As it looks to me, Lee's returning toward 
 Harper's Ferry gives you back the chance that I thought 
 McClellan lost last fall. Quite possibly I was wrong both then 
 and now ; but, in the great responsibility resting upon me, I can 
 not be entirely silent. Now, all I ask is that you will be in such 
 mood that we can get into our action the best cordial judgment 
 of yourself and General Halleck, with my poor mite added, if 
 
3 6o ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 indeed he and you shall think it entitled to any consideration at 
 all. 
 
 (To Mrs. Lincoln.) It is a matter of choice with yourself 
 whether you come home. There is no reason why you should 
 not that did not exist when you went away. As bearing on the 
 question of your coming home, I do not think the raid into 
 Pennsylvania amounts to anything at all. 
 
 (To Colonel W. S. Bliss.) Your despatch asking whether 
 I will accept the "Loyal Brigade of the North" is received. I 
 never heard of that brigade by name and do not know where 
 it is, yet presuming it is in New York, I say I will gladly accept 
 it, if tendered by and with the consent and approbation of the 
 Governor of that State; otherwise not. 
 
 (To General J. Hooker.) To remove all misunderstanding, 
 I now place you in strict military relation to General Halleck 
 of a commander of one of the armies to the general-in-chief of 
 all the armies. 
 
 I have not intended differently, but as it seems to be 
 differently understood, I shall direct him to give you orders, 
 and you to obey them. 
 
 1 8th. If General Brooks, now in command at Pittsburgh, 
 finds any person or persons injuriously affecting his military 
 operations, he is authorized to arrest him or them at once, if the 
 case is urgent. If not urgent, let him communicate the 
 particulars to me. General Brooks is the man to now manage 
 the matter at Pittsburgh. 
 
 21st. Operator at Leesburg just now tells us that firing 
 commenced about seven this morning in direction from here of 
 Aldie's Gap and Middleburg; has continued all day, and has 
 receded from him, and is apparently now about White Plains, 
 was very heavy this morning, but lighter now. 
 
 22nd. (To General John M. Scho field.) Your despatch, 
 asking in substance, whether, in case Missouri shall adopt 
 gradual emancipation, the General Government will protect 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 361 
 
 slave-owners in that species of property during the short time 
 it shall be permitted by the State to exist within it, has been 
 received. Desirous as I am that emancipation shall be adopted 
 by Missouri, and believing as I do that gradual can be made 
 better than immediate for both black and white, except when 
 military necessity changes the case, my impulse is to say that 
 such protection would be given. I can not know exactly what 
 shape an act of emancipation may take. If the period from 
 the initiation to the final end should be comparatively short, 
 and the act should prevent persons being sold during that 
 period into more lasting slavery, the whole would be easier. 
 
 23rd. (To General D. N. Couch.) Have you any reports 
 of the enemy moving into Pennsylvania? And, if any, what? 
 
 25th. (To Secretary Chase.) Honorable William Kellogg 
 will tell you plainly what he wants ; and I wish him obliged so 
 far as you can consistently do it. Please strain a point for him, 
 if you do not have to strain it too far. 
 
 27th. Hooker having resigned because of friction in his 
 army, Meade succeeds him. 
 
 2pth. (To M. Birchard and others.) The resolutions of 
 the Ohio Democratic State Convention, which you present me, 
 together with your introductory and closing remarks, being in 
 position and argument mainly the same as the resolutions of 
 the Democratic meeting at Albany, New York, I refer you to 
 my response to the latter as meeting most of the points in the 
 former. 
 
 You ask, in substance, whether I really claim that I may 
 override all the guaranteed rights of individuals, on the plea of 
 conserving the public safety — when I may choose to say the 
 public safety requires it. This question, divested of the phrase- 
 ology calculated to represent me as struggling for an arbitrary 
 personal prerogative, is either simply a question who shall 
 
362 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 decide, or an affirmation that nobody shall decide, what the 
 public safety does require in cases of rebellion or invasion. The 
 Constitution contemplates the question as likely to occur for 
 decision, but it does not expressly declare who is to decide it. 
 By necessary implication, when rebellion or invasion comes, the 
 decision is to be made from time to time ; and I think the man 
 whom, for the time, the people have, under the Constitution, 
 made the commander-in-chief of their army and navy, is the 
 man who holds the power and bears the responsibility of 
 making it. If he uses the power justly, the same people will 
 probably justify him; if he abuses it, he is in their hands to 
 be dealt with by all the modes they have reserved to themselves 
 in the Constitution. 
 
 We all know that combinations, armed in some instances, 
 to resist the arrest of deserters began several months ago ; that 
 more recently the like has appeared in resistance to the enroll- 
 ment preparatory to a draft; and that quite a number of 
 assassinations have occurred from the same animus. These 
 had to be met by military force, and this again has led to blood- 
 shed and death. And now, under a sense of responsibility 
 more weighty and enduring than any which is merely official, 
 I solemnly declare my belief that this hindrance of the military, 
 including maiming and murder, is due to the course in which 
 Mr. Vallandigham has been engaged in a greater degree than 
 to any other cause ; and it is due to him personally in a greater 
 degree than to any other one man. 
 
 With all this before their eyes, the convention you represent 
 have nominated Mr. Vallandigham for Governor of Ohio, and 
 both they and you have declared the purpose to sustain the 
 National Union by all constitutional means; but of course, 
 they and you, in common reserve to yourselves to decide what 
 are constitutional means, and, unlike the Albany meeting, you 
 omit to state or intimate that in your opinion an army is a 
 constitutional means of saving the Union against a rebellion, 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 363 
 
 or even to intimate that you are conscious of an existing 
 rebellion being in progress with the avowed object of 
 destroying that very Union. At the same time, your nominee 
 for Governor, in whose behalf you appeal, is known to you and 
 to the world to declare against the use of an army to suppress 
 the rebellion. Your own attitude, therefore, encourages 
 desertion, resistance to the draft, and the like, because it teaches 
 those who incline to desert and to escape the draft to believe it 
 is your purpose to protect them, and to hope that you will 
 become strong enough to do so. 
 
 After a short personal intercourse with you, gentlemen of 
 the committee, I can not say I think you desire this effect to 
 follow your attitude; but I assure you that both friends and 
 enemies of the Union look upon it in this light. It is a 
 substantial hope, and by consequence a real strength to the 
 enemy. If it is a false hope and one which you would willingly 
 dispel, I will make the way exceedingly easy. I send you 
 duplicates of this letter in order that you, or a majority of you, 
 may, if you choose, indorse your names upon one of them and 
 return it thus indorsed to me with the understanding that 
 those signing are thereby committed to the following 
 propositions and to nothing else : — 
 
 1. That there is now a rebellion in the United States, the 
 object and tendency of which is to destroy the National Union; 
 and that, in your opinion, an army and navy are constitutional 
 means for suppressing that rebellion. 
 
 2. That no one of you will do anything which, in his own 
 judgment, will tend to hinder the increase, or favor the 
 decrease, or lessen the efficiency of the army or navy, while 
 engaged in the effort to suppress that rebellion ; and, — 
 
 3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all he can to 
 have the officers, soldiers, and seamen of the army and navy, 
 while engaged in the effort to suppress the rebellion, paid, fed, 
 clad, and otherwise well provided for and supported. 
 
364 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 And with the further understanding that upon receiving 
 the letter and names thus indorsed, I will cause them to be 
 published, which publication shall be, within itself, a revocation 
 of the order in relation to Mr. Vallandigham. 
 
 It will not escape observation that I consent to the release 
 of Mr. Vallandigham upon terms not embracing any pledge 
 from him or from others as to what he will or will not 
 do. I do this because he is not present to speak for himself 
 or to authorize others to "speak for him; and because I 
 should expect that on his returning he would not put himself 
 practically in antagonism with the position of his friends. But 
 I do it chiefly because I thereby prevail on other influential 
 gentlemen of Ohio to so define their position as to be of 
 immense value to the army — thus more than compensating for 
 the consequences of any mistake in allowing Mr. Vallandigham 
 to return, so that, on the whole, the public safety will not have 
 suffered by it. Still, in regard to Mr. Vallandigham and all 
 others, I must hereafter, as heretofore, do so much as the 
 public safety may seem to require. 
 
 Few things are so troublesome to the government as the 
 fierceness with which the profits in trading are sought. The 
 temptation is so great that nearly everybody wishes to be in 
 it ; and, when in, the question of profit controls all, regardless 
 of whether the cotton-seller is loyal or rebel, or whether he is 
 paid in corn-meal or gunpowder. The officers of the army, 
 in numerous instances, are believed to connive and share the 
 profits, and thus the army itself is diverted from fighting the 
 rebels to speculating in cotton ; and steamboats and wagons in 
 the pay of the government are set to gathering and carrying 
 cotton, and the soldiers to loading cotton-trains and guarding 
 them. 
 
 30th. I really think the attitude of the enemy's army in 
 Pennsylvania presents us the best opportunity we have had 
 since the war began. 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 365 
 
 No one out of my position can know so well as if he were 
 in it, the difficulties and involvments of replacing General 
 McClellan in command, and this aside from any imputations 
 upon him. 
 
 I judge by absence of news that the enemy is not crossing 
 
 or pressing up to the Susquehanna. 
 
 July ist-jrd. Gettysburg, 
 
 4th. (To Rear Admiral S. P. Lee.) You will not permit 
 Mr. Stephens to proceed to Washington or to pass the blockade. 
 He does not make known the subjects to which the 
 communication in writing from Mr. Davis relates, which he 
 bears and seeks to deliver in person to the President, and upon 
 which he desires to confer. Those subjects can only be military 
 or not military, or partly both. Whatever may be military will 
 be readily received if offered through the well-understood 
 military channel. Of course nothing else will be received by 
 the President when offered, as in this case, in terms assuming 
 the independence of the so-called Confederate States; and any- 
 thing will be received, and carefully considered by him, when 
 offered by any influential person or persons in terms not 
 assuming the independence of the so-called Confederate States. 
 
 The President announces to the country that news from the 
 Army of the Potomac, up to 10 p. m. of the 3rd, is such as to 
 cover that army with the highest honor; to promise a great 
 success to the cause of the Union, and to claim the condolence 
 of all for the many gallant fallen ; and that for this he especially 
 desires that on this day, He, whose will, not ours, should ever 
 be done, be everywhere remembered and reverenced with pro- 
 foundest gratitude. 
 
 6th. (Soldiers' Home, Washington.) I left the telegraph 
 office a good deal dissatisfied. I did not like the phrase, in 
 Orders, No. 68, I believe, "Drive the invaders from our soil." 
 
366 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 Since then I see a despatch from General French, saying the 
 enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without 
 saying why he does not stop it, or even intimating a thought 
 that it ought to be stopped. Still later, another despatch from 
 General Pleasonton, by direction of General Meade, to General 
 French stating that the main army is halted because it is believed 
 the rebels are concentrating "on the road toward Hagerstown, 
 beyond Fairfield," and is not to move until it is ascertained that 
 the rebels intend to evacuate Cumberland Valley. 
 
 There things all appear to me to be connected with a 
 purpose to cover Baltimore and Washington, and to get the 
 enemy across the river again without a further collision, and 
 they do not appear connected with a purpose to prevent his 
 crossing and to destroy him. I do fear the former purpose is 
 acted upon and the latter is rejected. 
 
 yth. We have certain information that Vicksburg 
 surrendered to General Grant on the 4th of July. Now if 
 General Meade can complete his work, so gloriously prosecuted 
 thus far, by the literal or substantial destruction of Lee's army, 
 the rebellion will be over. 
 
 8th. (To Major-General Meade.) There is reliable 
 information that the enemy is crossing at Williamsport. The 
 opportunity to attack his divided forces should not be lost. 
 The President is urgent and anxious that your army should 
 move against him by forced marches. 
 
 (To General Lorenzo Thomas.) Your despatch of this 
 morning to the Secretary of War is before me. The forces you 
 speak of will be of no imaginable service if they can not go 
 forward with a little more expedition. Lee is now passing the 
 Potomac faster than the forces you mention are passing 
 Carlisle. Forces now beyond Carlisle to be joined by regiments 
 still at Harrisburg, and the united force again to join Pierce 
 somewhere, and the whole to move down the Cumberland 
 Valley, will, in my unprofessional opinion, be quite as likely to 
 capture the "man in the moon" as any part of Lee's army. 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 367 
 
 nth. It is certain that after three days' fighting at 
 Gettysburg, Lee withdrew and made for the Potomac ; that he 
 found the river so swollen as to prevent his crossing, that he is 
 still [on] this side, near Hagerstown and Williamsport, 
 preparing to defend himself; and that Meade is close upon 
 him, and preparing to attack him, heavy skirmishing having 
 occurred nearly all day yesterday. 
 
 I am more than satisfied with what has happened north of 
 the Potomac so far, and am anxious and hopeful for what is to 
 come. 
 
 13th. (To General Grant.) I do not remember that you 
 and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful 
 acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have 
 done the country. I wish to say a word further. When you 
 first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should 
 do what you finally did — march the troops across the neck, run 
 the batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I 
 never had any faith, except a general hope that you knew 
 better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could 
 succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand 
 Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and 
 join General Banks, and when you turned northward, east of 
 the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make 
 the personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was 
 wrong. 
 
 (To General J. M. Scho field.) I regret to learn of the 
 arrest of the Democrat editor. Please spare me the trouble this 
 is likely to bring. 
 
 14th. 1 p. M. (Halleck to Meade writes:) 
 / need hardly say to you that the escape of Lee's army 
 without another battle has created great dissatisfaction in the 
 mind of the President, and it will require an active and ener- 
 
368 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 getic pursuit on your part to remove the impression that it 
 (sic) has not been sufficiently active heretofore. 
 
 (To General G. G. Meade.) I have just seen your 
 despatch to General Halleek, asking to be relieved of your 
 command because of a supposed censure of mine. I am very, 
 very grateful to you for the magnificent success you gave the 
 cause of the country at Gettysburg; and I am sorry now to be 
 the author of the slightest pain to you. But I was in such deep 
 distress myself that I could not restrain some expression of it. 
 I have been oppressed nearly ever since the battles of 
 Gettysburg by what appeared to be evidences that yourself and 
 General Couch and General Smith were not seeking a collision 
 with the enemy, but were trying to get him across the river 
 without another battle. What these evidences were, if you 
 please, I hope to tell you at some time when we shall both feel 
 better. 
 
 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 indefinitely. If 
 you could not safely attack Lee last Monday, how can you 
 possibly do so south of the river, when you take with you very 
 few more than two-thirds of the force you then had in hand? 
 
 13th. (A Proclamation.) It has pleased Almighty God 
 to hearken to the supplication and prayers of an afflicted 
 people, and to vouchsafe to the Army and Navy of the United 
 States victories on land and on sea so signal and so effective 
 as to furnish reasonable grounds for augmented confidence 
 that the union of these States will be maintained, their Con- 
 stitution preserved, and their peace and prosperity permanently 
 restored. But these victories have been accorded not without 
 sacrifices of life, limb, health, and liberty, incurred by brave, 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 369 
 
 loyal and patriotic citizens. Domestic affliction in every part 
 of the country follows in the train of these fearful bereave- 
 ments. It is meet and right to recognize and confess the pres- 
 ence of the Almighty Father and the power of His hand 
 equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows. 
 
 Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, 
 the 6th day of August next, to be observed as a day for national 
 thanksgiving, praise, and prayer. 
 
 20th. I was pained to be informed this morning by the 
 Provost-Marshal-General that New Jersey is now behind twelve 
 thousand, irrespective of the draft. I did not have time to 
 ascertain by what rules this was made out ; and I shall be very 
 glad if it shall, by any means, prove to be incorrect. 
 
 21st. I desire that a renewed and vigorous effort be made 
 to raise colored forces along the shores of the Mississippi. 
 
 y 2j7'd. (To Governor H. R. Gamble.) My private sec- 
 retary has just brought me a letter, saying it is a very "cross" 
 one from you about mine to General Scho field, recently pub- 
 lished in the Democrat. As I am trying to preserve my own 
 temper by avoiding irritants so far as practicable, I decline to 
 read the cross letter. I think fit to say, however, that when 
 I wrote the letter to General Scho field, I was totally uncon- 
 scious of any malice or disrespect toward you, or of using 
 any expression which should offend you if seen by you. I 
 have not seen the document in the Democrat, and therefore can 
 not say whether it is a correct copy. 
 
 (To General R. C. Schenck.) Returning to the Executive 
 Room yesterday, I was mortified to find you were gone, leav- 
 ing no word of explanation. I went down-stairs, as I under- 
 stood, on a perfect understanding with you that you would 
 remain till my return. I got this impression distinctly from 
 "Edward," whom I believe you know. Possibly I misunder- 
 stood him. I had been very unwell in the morning, and had 
 scarcely tasted food during the day, till the time you saw me 
 
370 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 go down. I beg you will not believe I have treated you with 
 intentional discourtesy. 
 
 24th. (To Postmaster-General Blair.) Yesterday little 
 indorsements of mine went to you in two cases of postmaster- 
 ships sought for widows whose husbands have fallen in the 
 battles of this war. These cases occurring on the same day 
 brought me to reflect more attentively than I had before done, 
 as to what is fairly due from us here in the dispensing of 
 patronage toward the men who, by fighting our battles, bear 
 the chief burden of saving our country. My conclusion is 
 that other claims and qualifications being equal, they have the 
 better right ; and this is especially applicable to the disabled sol- 
 dier and the deceased soldier's family. 
 
 25th. (To the Secretary of the Navy.) Certain matters 
 have come to my notice, and considered by me, which induce 
 me to believe that it will conduce to the public interest for you 
 to add to the general instructions given to our naval com- 
 manders in relation to contraband trade propositions substan- 
 tially as follows, to-wit: 
 
 First, You will avoid the reality, and as far as possible the 
 appearance, of using any neutral port, to watch neutral vessels, 
 and then to dart out and seize them on their departure. 
 
 Note. Complaint is made that this has been practised at 
 the port of St. Thomas, which practise, if it exists, is dis- 
 approved and must cease. 
 
 Second. You will not, in any case, detain the crew of a 
 captured neutral vessel, or any other subject of a neutral power, 
 on board such vessel, as prisoners of war or otherwise, except 
 the small number necessary as witnesses in the prize court. 
 
 Note. The practise here forbidden is also charged to exist, 
 which, if true, is disapproved and must cease. 
 
 What I propose is in strict accordance with international 
 law, and is therefore unobjectionable, whilst, if it does no other 
 good, it will contribute to sustain a considerable portion of the 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 371 
 
 present British ministry in their places, who, if displeased, are 
 sure to be replaced by others more unfavorable to us. 
 
 28th. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) Bob went to Fort Monroe and 
 only got back to-day. Will start to you at 1 1 a. m. to-morrow. 
 All well. 
 
 30th. The government of the United States will give the 
 same protection to all its soldiers; and if the enemy shall sell or 
 enslave any one because of his color, the offense shall be pun- 
 ishable by retaliation upon the enemy's prisoners in our pos- 
 session. 
 
 It is therefore ordered that for every soldier of the United 
 States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier 
 shall be executed, and for every one enslaved by the enemy or 
 sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor 
 on the public works, and continued at such labor until the 
 other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a 
 prisoner of war. 
 
 31st. The emancipation proclamation applies to Arkansas. 
 I think it is valid in law, and will be so held by the courts. 
 I think I shall not retract or repudiate it. Those who shall 
 have tasted actual freedom I believe can never be slaves or 
 quasi-slaves again. For the rest, I believe some plan substan- 
 tially being gradual emancipation would be better for both 
 white and black. The Missouri plan, recently adopted, I do 
 not object to on account of the time for ending the institution; 
 but I am sorry the beginning should have been postponed for 
 seven years, leaving all that time to agitate for the repeal of 
 the whole thing. It should begin at once, giving at least the 
 new-born a vested interest in freedom which could not be 
 taken away. 
 
 August 5th. (To General N. P. Banks.) Governor Bout- 
 well read me to-day that part of your letter to him which re- 
 lates to Louisiana affairs. While I very well know what I 
 would be glad for Louisiana to do, it is quite a different thing 
 
Z72 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 for me to assume direction of the matter. I would be glad 
 for her to make a new constitution recognizing the emanci- 
 pation proclamation, and adopting emancipation in those parts 
 of the State to which the proclamation does not apply. And 
 while she is at it, I think it would not be objectionable for her 
 to adopt some practical system by which the two races could 
 gradually live themselves out of the old relation to each other, 
 and both come out better prepared for the new. Education for 
 young blacks should be included in the plan. After all, the 
 power or element of "contract" may be sufficient for this 
 probationary period ; and, by its simplicity and flexibility, may 
 be the better. 
 
 Jth. (To Governor Seymour.) I can not consent to sus- 
 pend the draft in New York as you request, because, among 
 other reasons, time is too important. 
 
 We are contending with an enemy, who, as I understand, 
 drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his ranks, very 
 much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter pen. No 
 time is wasted; no argument is used. This produces an army 
 which will soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers, already 
 in the field, if they shall not be sustained by recruits as they 
 should be. 
 
 My purpose is to be in my action just and constitutional, 
 and yet practical, in performing the important duty which I 
 am charged — of maintaining the unity and the free principles 
 of our common country. 
 
 8th. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) All is well as usual, and no par- 
 ticular trouble anyway. I put the money into the Treasury at 
 five per cent., with the privilege of withdrawing it any time 
 upon thirty days' notice. I suppose you are glad to learn 
 this. Tell dear Tad poor "Nanny Goat" is lost, and Mrs. 
 Cuthbert and I are in distress about it. The day you left, 
 Nanny was found resting herself and chewing her little cud on 
 the middle of Tad's bed; but now she's gone! The gardener 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 373 
 
 kept complaining that she destroyed the flowers till it was con- 
 cluded to bring her down to the White House. This was done, 
 and the second day she had disappeared and has not been heard 
 of since. This is the last we know of poor Nanny. The 
 weather continues dry and excessively warm. Nothing very 
 important occurring. 
 
 pth. (To General U. S. Grant.) I see by a despatch of 
 yours that you incline quite strongly toward an expedition 
 against Mobile. This would appear tempting to me also, were 
 it not that in view of recent events in Mexico I am greatly im- 
 pressed with the importance of re-establishing the national 
 authority in western Texas as soon as possible. ' I am not mak- 
 ing an order, however ; that I leave, for the present at least, to 
 the general-in-chief. 
 
 A word upon another subject. General Thomas has gone 
 again to the Mississippi Valley, with the view of raising col- 
 ored troops. I have no reason to doubt that you are doing 
 what you reasonably can upon the same subject. I believe it 
 is a resource which if vigorously applied now will soon close 
 the contest. 
 
 1 2th, I am constantly pressed by those who scold before 
 they think, or without thinking at all, to give commands re- 
 spectively to Fremont, McClellan, Butler, Sigel, Curtis, Hun- 
 ter, Hooker, and perhaps others, when, all else out of the way, 
 I have no commands to give them. 
 
 17th. (To James H. Hackett.) For one of my age I 
 have seen very little of the drama. The first presentation of 
 Falstaff I ever saw was yours here, last winter or spring. 
 Perhaps the best compliment I can pay is to say, as I truly can, 
 I am very anxious to see it again. Some of Shakespeare's 
 plays I have never read, while others I have gone over perhaps 
 as frequently as any unprofessional reader. Among the latter 
 are Lear, Richard III., Henry VIII., Hamlet, and especially 
 Macbeth. I think nothing equals Macbeth. It is wonderful 
 
374 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 Unlike you gentlemen of the profession, I think the 
 soliloquy in Hamlet commencing "Oh, my offense is rank," 
 surpasses that commenchig "To be or not to be." But pardon 
 this small attempt at criticism. I should like to hear you pro- 
 nounce the opening speech of Richard III. Will you not soon 
 visit Washington again? If you do, please call and let me 
 make your personal acquaintance. 
 
 18 th. (General Butler, driving with the President, at 
 night, without military escort, asks him — Is it known that you 
 ride thus alone at night out to the Soldiers' Home?) 
 
 Oh, yes, when business detains me until night. I do go 
 out earlier, as a rule. 
 
 (Butler: I think you peril too much. We have passed a 
 half-dozen places where a well-directed bullet might have taken 
 you off.) 
 
 Oh, assassination of public officers is not an American 
 crime. 
 
 2 1st. (To General G. G. Meade.) At this late moment I 
 am appealed to in behalf of William Thompson of Company 
 K, Third Maryland Volunteers, in Twelfth Army Corps, said 
 to be at Kelly's Ford, under sentence to be shot to-day as a 
 deserter. He is represented to me to be very young, with 
 symptoms of insanity. Please postpone the execution till 
 further order. 
 
 26th. The signs look better. The Father of Waters again 
 goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for 
 it. Nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they 
 met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing 
 their way right and left. The Sunny South, too, in more colors 
 than one, also lent a hand. On the spot, their part of the 
 history was jotted down in black and white. The job was a 
 great national one ; and let none be banned who bore an hon- 
 orable part in it. And while those who have cleared the great 
 river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 375 
 
 that anything has been more bravely and well done than at 
 Antietam, Murphreesborough, Gettysburg, and on many fields 
 of lesser note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. 
 At all the watery margins they have been present. Not only 
 on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up 
 the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a 
 little damp, they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to 
 all. For the great Republic — for the principle it lives by and 
 keeps alive — for man's vast future — thanks to all. 
 
 September 2nd. (To Secretary Chase.) Knowing your 
 great anxiety that the Emancipation Proclamation shall now be 
 applied to certain parts of Virginia and Louisiana, which were 
 exempted from it last January, I state briefly what appear to 
 me to be difficulties in the way of such a step. The original 
 proclamation has no constitutional or legal justification, except 
 as a military measure. The exemptions were made because 
 the military necessity did not apply to the exempted localities. 
 Nor does that necessity apply to them now any more than it 
 did then. If I take the step, must I not do so without the 
 arguments of military necessity, and so without any argument 
 except the one that I think the measure politically expedient 
 and morally right ? Would I not thus give up all footing upon 
 Constitution or law? Would I not thus be in the boundless 
 field of absolutism? Could this pass unnoticed or unresisted? 
 Could it fail to be perceived that without any further stretch 
 I might do the same in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Ten- 
 nessee, and Missouri, and even change any law in any State? 
 Would not many of our friends shrink away appalled? Would 
 it not lose us the elections and with them the very cause we 
 seek to advance? 
 
 6 th. Burnside has Kingston and Knoxville, and drove the 
 enemy across the river at Loudon, the enemy destroying the 
 bridge there ; captured some stores and one or two trains ; very 
 little fighting; few wounded and none killed. No other 
 news of consequence. 
 
376 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 nth. (To Governor Andrew Johnson.) All Tennessee 
 is now clear of armed insurrectionists. You need not to be 
 reminded that it is the nick of time for reinaugurating a loyal 
 State government. Not a moment should be lost. You and the 
 cooperating friends there can better judge of the ways and 
 means than can be judged by any here. I only offer a few 
 suggestions. The reinauguration must not be such as to give 
 control of the State and its representation in Congress to the 
 enemies of the Union, driving its friends there into political 
 exile. The whole struggle for Tennessee will have been profit- 
 less to both State and nation if it so ends that Governor John- 
 son is put down and Governor Llarris is put up. It must not 
 be so. You must have it otherwise. Let the reconstruction be 
 the work of such men only as can be trusted for the Union. 
 
 15th. (A Proclamation.) I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
 of the United States, do hereby proclaim and make known to 
 all whom it may concern, that the privilege of the writ of 
 habeas corpus is suspended throughout the United States in the 
 several cases before mentioned, and that this suspension will 
 continue throughout the duration of the said rebellion, or until 
 this proclamation shall, by a subsequent one to be issued by the 
 President of the United States, be modified or revoked. 
 
 (To General H. W. Halleck.) If I did not misunderstand 
 General Meade's last despatch, he posts you on facts as well 
 as he can, and desires your views and those of the government 
 as to what he shall do. My opinion is that he should move 
 upon Lee at once in manner of general attack, leaving to de- 
 velopments whether he will make it a real attack. I think this 
 would develop Lee's real condition and purposes better than 
 the cavalry alone can do. Of course my opinion is not to 
 control you and General Meade. 
 
 ipth. (To General H. W. Halleck.) By General Meade's 
 despatch to you of yesterday, it appears that he desires your 
 views and those of the government as to whether he shall ad- 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 377 
 
 vance upon the enemy. I am not prepared to order or even 
 advise an advance in this case, wherein I know so little of par- 
 ticulars, and wherein he, in the field, thinks the risk is so 
 great and the promise of advantage so small. 
 
 To avoid misunderstanding, let me say that to attempt to 
 fight the enemy slowly back into his intrenchments at Rich- 
 mond, and then to capture him, is an idea I have been trying 
 to repudiate for quite a year. 
 
 My judgment is so clear against it that I would scarcely 
 allow the attempt to be made if the general in command should 
 desire to make it. My last attempt upon Richmond was to get 
 McClellan, when he was nearer there than the enemy was, to 
 run in ahead of him. Since then I have constantly desired the 
 Army of the Potomac to make Lee's army, and not Richmond, 
 its objective point. If our army can not fall upon the enemy 
 and hurt him where he is, it is plain to me it can gain nothing 
 by attempting to follow him over a succession of intrenched 
 lines into a fortified city. 
 
 ipth-20th. Chickamanga. 
 
 20th. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) I neither see nor hear anything 
 of sickness here now, though there may be much without my 
 knowing it. I wish you to stay, or come just as it is most 
 agreeable to yourself. 
 
 2 1 st. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) The air is so clear and cool 
 and apparently healthy that I would be glad for you to come. 
 Nothing very particular but I would be glad to see you and 
 Tad. 
 
 I think it very important for General Rosecrans to hold his 
 position at or about Chattanooga, because if held from that 
 place to Cleveland, both inclusive, it keeps all Tennessee clear 
 of the enemy, and also breaks one of his most important rail- 
 
378 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 road lines. To prevent these consequences is so vital to his 
 cause that he can not give up the effort to dislodge us from 
 the position, thus bringing him to us and saving us the labor, 
 expense, and hazard of going farther to find him, and also 
 giving us the advantage of choosing our own ground and 
 preparing it to fight him upon. The details must, of course, 
 be left to General Rosecrans, while we must furnish him the 
 means to the utmost of our ability. 
 
 (To General Burnside.) Go to Rosecrans with your force 
 without a moment's delay. 
 
 (To General W. S. Rosecrans.) Be of good cheer. We 
 have unabated confidence in you and in your soldiers and 
 officers. In the main you must be the judge as to what is to 
 be done. If I w r ere to suggest, I would say save your army 
 by taking strong positions until Burnside joins you, when I 
 hope you can turn the tide. I think you had better send a 
 courier to Burnside to hurry him up. We can not reach him 
 by telegraph. We suppose some force is going to you from 
 Corinth, but for want of communication we do not know how 
 they are getting along. We shall do our utmost to assist you. 
 Send us your present posting. 
 
 22nd. 8:30 p. m. (To Rosecrans.) We have not a word 
 here as to the whereabouts or condition of your army up to a 
 later hour than sunset Sunday, the 20th. Your despatches 
 to me of 9 a. m. and to General Halleck of 2 p. m. yesterday, 
 tejl us nothing later on those points. Please relieve my anxiety 
 as to the position and condition of your army up to the last 
 moment. 
 
 23rd. 9:15 A. M. (To Rosecrans.) Below is Bragg's 
 despatch as found in the Richmond papers. You see he does 
 not claim so many prisoners or captured guns as you were 
 inclined to concede. He also confesses to heavy loss. An ex- 
 changed general of ours leaving Richmond yesterday says two 
 of Longstreet's divisions and his entire artillery and two o£ 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 379 
 
 Pickett's brigades and Wise's legion have gone to Tennessee. 
 He mentions no other. 
 
 24th. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) We now have a tolerably 
 accurate summing up of the late battle between Rosecrans and 
 Bragg. The result is that we are worsted, if at all, only in 
 the fact that we, after the main fighting was over, yielded 
 the ground, thus leaving considerable of our artillery and 
 wounded to fall into the enemy's hands, for which we got 
 nothing in turn. We lost in general officers 1 killed and 3 
 or 4 wounded, all brigadiers, while, according to the rebel 
 accounts which we have, they lost 6 killed and 8 wounded. Of 
 the killed 1 major-general and 5 brigadiers, including your 
 brother-in-law, Helm; and of the wounded 3 major-generals 
 and 5 brigadiers. This list may be reduced to two in number 
 by corrections of confusion in names. At 1 1 40 a. m. yester- 
 day General Rosecrans telegraphed from Chattanooga, "We 
 hold this point, and I can not be dislodged except by very 
 superior numbers and after a great battle." A despatch leav- 
 ing there after night yesterday says : "No fight to-day." 
 
 25th. (To General McCallum.) I have sent to General 
 Meade, by telegraph, to suspend the execution of Daniel Sul- 
 livan of Company E, Thirteenth Massachusetts, which was to 
 be to-day, but understanding there is an interruption on the 
 line, may I beg you to send this to him by the quickest mode 
 in your power? 
 
 27th. (To Burnside.) Hold your present positions, and 
 send Rosecrans what you can spare, in the quickest and safest 
 way. In the meantime hold the remainder as nearly in read- 
 iness to go to him as you can consistently with the duty it is 
 to perform while it remains. 
 
 28th. (To Rosecrans.) We are sending you two small 
 corps, one under General Howard and one under General Slo- 
 cum, and the whole under General Hooker. Unfortunately the 
 relations between Generals Hooker and Slocum are not such 
 
380 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 as to promise good, if their present relative positions remain. 
 Therefore, let me beg — almost enjoin upon you — that on their 
 reaching you, you will make a transposition by which Gen- 
 eral Slocum with his corps may pass from under the command 
 of General Hooker, and General Hooker, in turn, receive some 
 other equal force. It is important for this to be done, though 
 we could not well arrange it here. 
 
 October 1st. (To General J. M. Schofield.) Under your 
 recent order, which I have approved, you will only arrest indi- 
 viduals and suppress assemblies or newspapers (in Missouri) 
 when they may be working palpable injury to the military in 
 your charge, and in no other case will you interfere with the 
 expression of opinion in any form or allow it to be interfered 
 with violently by others. In this you have a discretion to exer- 
 cise, with great caution, calmness, and forbearance. With 
 the matters of removing the inhabitants of certain counties 
 en masse, and of removing certain individuals from time to 
 time who are supposed to be mischievous, I am not now inter- 
 fering, but am leaving to your own discretion. Nor am I 
 interfering with what may still seem to you to be necessary 
 restrictions upon trade and intercourse. I think proper, how- 
 ever, to enjoin upon you the following: Allow no part of 
 the military under your command to be engaged in either 
 returning fugitive slaves or in forcing or enticing slaves from 
 their homes, and, so far as practicable, enforce the same for- 
 bearance upon the people. 
 
 3rd. (A Proclamation.) The year that is drawing toward 
 its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields 
 and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so con- 
 stantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from 
 which they come, others have been added, which are of so 
 extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and 
 soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever- 
 Wfttchful providence of Almighty God, 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 381 
 
 In the midst of a civil war of unequal magnitude and 
 severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to 
 invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved 
 with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have 
 been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed every- 
 where, except in the theater of military conflict, while that 
 theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies 
 and navies of the Union. 
 
 No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand 
 worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of 
 the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for 
 our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. 
 
 It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be 
 solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one 
 heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, there- 
 fore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United 
 States, and also those who are at sea and those who are so- 
 journing in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last 
 Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and 
 praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. 
 
 4th. If we can hold Chattanooga and East Tennessee, I 
 think the rebellion must dwindle and die. 
 
 5th. We are in civil war. In such cases there always is a 
 main question ; but in this case that question is a perplexing 
 compound — Union and slavery. It thus becomes a question 
 not of two sides merely, but of at least four sides, even among 
 those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those who are 
 against it. Thus, those who are for the Union with, but not 
 without, slavery; those for it without, but not with; those for 
 it with or without, but prefer it with; and those for it with or 
 without, but prefer it without. Among these, again, is a sub- 
 division of those who are for gradual, but not for immediate, 
 and those who are for immediate, but not for gradual, extinc- 
 tion of slavery. It is easy to conceive that all these shades of 
 
382 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 opinion, and even more, may be sincerely entertained by honest 
 and truthful men. Yet, all being for the Union, by reason of 
 these differences each will prefer a different way of sustain- 
 ing the Union. At once sincerity is questioned, and motives 
 are assailed. Actual war coming, blood grows hot, and blood 
 is spilled. Thought is forced from old channels into con- 
 fusion. Deception breeds and thrives. Confidence dies and 
 universal suspicion reigns. Each man feels an impulse to kill 
 his neighbor, lest he be first called by him. Revenge and re- 
 taliation follow. And all this, as before said, may be among 
 honest men only; but this is not all. Every foul bird comes 
 abroad and every dirty reptile rises up. 
 
 To restrain contraband intelligence and trade, a system 
 of searches, seizures, permits, and passes had been introduced 
 (in Missouri) by General Fremont. When General Halleck 
 came, he found and continued this system, and added an order, 
 applicable to some parts of the State, to levy and collect con- 
 tributions from noted rebels, to compensate losses and relieve 
 destitution caused by the rebellion. The action of General 
 Fremont and General Halleck, as stated, constituted a sort of 
 system, which General Curtis found in full operation when he 
 took command of the department. That there was a necessity 
 for something of the sort was clear, but that it could only be 
 justified by stern necessity and that it was liable to great abuse 
 in administration, was equally clear. Agents to execute it, 
 contrary to the great prayer, were led into temptation. Some 
 might, while others would not, resist that temptation. It was 
 not possible to hold any to a very strict accountability, and 
 those yielding to the temptation would sell permits and passes 
 to those who would pay most and most readily for them; and 
 would seize property and collect levies in the aptest way to 
 fill their own pockets. Money being the object, the man having 
 money, whether loyal or disloyal, would be a victim. This 
 practise doubtless existed to some extent, and it was a real 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 383 
 
 additional evil that it could be and was plausibly charged to 
 exist in greater extent than it did. 
 
 1 2th. (To Rosecrans.) As I understand, Burnside is 
 menaced from the east, and so can not go to you without 
 surrendering East Tennessee. I now think the enemy will 
 not attack Chattanooga and I think you will have to look 
 out for his making a concentrated drive at Burnside. You and 
 Burnside now have him by the throat, and he must break your 
 hold or perish. I therefore think you better try to hold the 
 road up to Kingston, leaving Burnside to what is above there. 
 Sherman is coming to you, though gaps in the telegraph pre- 
 vent our knowing how far he is advanced. He and Hooker 
 will so support you on the west and northwest as to enable you 
 to look east and northeast. 
 
 13th. The enemy some days ago made a movement, ap- 
 parently to turn General Meade's right. This led to a maneu- 
 vering of the two armies and to pretty heavy skirmishing on 
 Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We have frequent despatches 
 from General Meade, and up to 10 o'clock last night nothing 
 had happened giving either side any marked advantage. 
 
 14th. (To Thurlow Weed.) I have been brought to fear 
 recently that somehow, by commission or omission, I have 
 caused you some degree of pain. I have never entertained an 
 unkind feeling or a disparaging thought toward you; if I 
 have said or done anything which has been construed into 
 such unkindness or disparagement, it has been misconstrued. I 
 am sure if we could meet we would not part with any un- 
 pleasant impression on either side. 
 
 16th. (To T. W. Sweeney.) Tad is teasing me to have 
 you forward his pistol to him. 
 
 iyth. (A Proclamation.) Whereas, the term of service of 
 a part of the volunteer forces of the United States will 
 expire during the coming year; and whereas, in addition 
 to the men raised by the present draft, it is deemed expedient 
 
384 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 to call out three hundred thousand volunteers to serve for 
 three years of the war, not, however, exceeding three years; 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy 
 thereof, and of the militia of the several States when called 
 into actual service, do issue this, my proclamation, calling upon 
 the Governments of the different States to raise and have en- 
 listed into the United States service, for the various com- 
 panies and regiments in the field from their respective States, 
 their quotas of three hundred thousand men. 
 
 18 th. (To John Hay, discussing Chase's secret attempt 
 to supplant Lincoln as Republican leader.) It is very bad 
 taste but I am determined to shut my eyes to all these per- 
 formances. Mr. Chase makes a good secretary and I shall 
 keep him where he is. If he becomes President, all right. 
 I hope we may never have a worse man. I have all 
 along seen clearly his plan of strengthening himself. When- 
 ever he sees that an important matter is troubling me, if I am 
 compelled to decide it any way to give offense to a man of 
 some influence, he always ranges himself in opposition to me 
 and persuades the victim that he, Chase, would have arranged 
 it differently. I am entirely indifferent as to his failure or 
 success in these schemes so long as he does his duty as head 
 of the Treasury department. 
 
 24th. (To Halleck.) Taking all our information to- 
 gether, I think it probable that Ewell's corps has started for 
 East Tennessee by way of Abingdon, marching last Monday, 
 say, from Meade's front directly to the railroad at Charlottes- 
 ville. 
 
 First, the object of Lee's recent movement against Meade; 
 his destruction of the Alexandria and Orange Railroad, and 
 subsequent withdrawal, without more motive, not otherwise 
 apparent, would be explained by the hypothesis. 
 
 Secondly, the direct statement of Sharpe's men that Ewell 
 has gone to Tennessee. 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 385 
 
 If you have a plan matured, I have nothing to say. If 
 you have not, then I suggest that, with all possible expedition, 
 the Army of the Potomac get ready to attack Lee, and that 
 in the meantime a raid shall, at all hazards, break the railroad 
 at or near Lynchburg. 
 
 26th. (To George H. Boker.) It is with heartfelt grati- 
 fication that I acknowledge the receipt of your communication 
 of the 6th, and the accompanying medal by which I am made 
 an honorary member of the Union League of Philadelphia. 
 
 29th. (To General G. G. Meade.) I see in a newspaper 
 that you have recently approved sentences of death for deser- 
 tion of Thomas Sands, James Haley, H. H. Williams, Mathias 
 Brown, alias Albert Brown, H. C. Beardsley, and George F. 
 Perkins. Several of these are persons in behalf of whom 
 appeals have been made to me. Please send me a short state- 
 ment of each one of the cases, stating the age of each, so far 
 as you can. 
 
 November 2nd. (To Postmaster-General Blair.) Some 
 days ago I understood you to say that your brother, General 
 Frank Blair, desires to be guided by my wishes as to whether 
 he will occupy his seat in Congress or remain in the field. 
 My wish, then, is compounded of what I believe will be best 
 for the country and best for him, and it is that he will come 
 here, put his military commission in my hands, take his seat, 
 go into caucus with our friends, abide by the nominations, help 
 elect the nominees, and thus aid to organize a House of Rep- 
 resentatives which will really support the government in the 
 war. If the result shall be the election of himself as Speaker, 
 let him serve in that position; if not, let him take his com- 
 mission and return to the army for the benefit of the country. 
 
 (To James H. Hackett.) My note to you I certainly did 
 not expect to see in print, yet I have not been much shocked 
 by the newspaper comments upon it. Those comments con- 
 stitute a fair specimen of what has occurred to me through 
 
286 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 life. I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much 
 malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite 
 free from ridicule. I am used to it. 
 
 3rd. (To General G. G. Meade.) Samuel Wellers, pri- 
 vate in Company B, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, 
 writes that he is to be shot for desertion on the 6th instant. 
 His own story is rather a bad one, and yet he tells it so frankly, 
 that I am somewhat interested in him. Has he been a good 
 soldier except the desertion? About how old is he? 
 
 pth. In a conversation with General Butler, he made a sug- 
 gestion which impressed me a good deal at the time. It was 
 that, as a preliminary step, a vote be taken (in Louisiana) yea 
 or nay, whether there shall be a State convention to repeal the 
 ordinance of secession and remodel the State constitution. 
 
 The point which impressed me was, not so much the ques- 
 tions to be voted on, as the effect of crystallizing, so to speak, 
 in taking such popular vote on any popular question. 
 
 In fact, I have always thought the act of secession is 
 legally nothing, and needs no repealing. 
 
 nth. (To John Milderborger.) I can not comprehend 
 the object of your despatch. I do not often decline seeing peo- 
 ple who call upon me, and probably will see you if you call. 
 
 (To Secretary Stanton.) I personally wish Jacob Freese, 
 of New Jersey, to be appointed colonel for a colored regiment, 
 and this regardless of whether he can tell the exact shade of 
 Julius Caesar's hair. 
 
 iyth. (To Secretary Chase.) I expected to see you here 
 at Cabinet meeting, and to say something about going to 
 Gettysburg. There will be a train to take and return us. The 
 time for starting is not yet fixed; but when it shall be, I will 
 notify you. 
 
 ipth. At Gettysburg. 
 
 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 
 on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedi- 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 387 
 
 cated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now 
 we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that 
 nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long 
 endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We 
 have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting- 
 place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might 
 live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 
 But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not conse- 
 crate, we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living 
 and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our 
 poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor 
 long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what 
 they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated 
 here to the 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 government of the people, by the people, for the people, 
 shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 20th. Washington. 
 
 (To Edward Everett.) Your kind note of to-day is 
 received. In our respective parts yesterday, you could not 
 have been excused to make a short address, nor I a long one. 
 I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little I did 
 say was not entirely a failure. 
 
 Of course, I knew Mr. Everett would not fail, and yet, 
 while the whole discourse was eminently satisfactory, and will 
 be of great value, there were passages in it which transcended 
 my expectations. 
 
 The point made against the theory of the General Govern- 
 ment being only an agency whose principals are the States, 
 
388 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 was new to me, and, as I think, is one of the best arguments 
 for the national supremacy. The tribute to our noble women 
 for their angel ministering to the suffering soldiers surpasses 
 in its way, as do the subjects of it, whatever has gone before. 
 
 Our sick boy, for whom you kindly inquire, we hope is 
 past the worst. 
 
 (To General G. G. Meade.) If there is a man by the 
 name of King under sentence to be shot, please suspend execu- 
 tion till further order, and send record. 
 
 An intelligent woman in deep distress, called this morning, 
 saying her husband, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, 
 was to be shot next Monday for desertion, and putting a letter 
 in my hand, upon which I relied for particulars, she left with- 
 out mentioning a name or other particular by which to identify 
 the case. On opening the letter I found it equally vague, hav- 
 ing nothing to identify by, except her own signature, which 
 seems to be "Mrs. Anna S. King." I could not again find her. 
 If you have a case which you shall think is probably the one 
 intended, please apply my despatch of this morning to it. 
 
 I am very glad the elections this autumn have gone favor- 
 ably, and that I have not, by native depravity or under evil 
 influences, done anything bad enough to prevent the good 
 result. I hope to "stand firm" enough to not go backward, and 
 yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause. 
 
 23rd. (To E. P. Evans.) Yours to Governor Chase in 
 behalf of John A. Welch is before me. Can there be a worse 
 case than to desert and with letters persuading others to desert ? 
 I can not interpose without a better showing than you make. 
 When did he desert? When did he write this letter? 
 
 2^th-2^th. Chattanooga. 
 
 December ?th. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) All doing well. Tad 
 confidently expects you to-night. When will you come? Tad 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 389 
 
 has received his book. The carriage shall be ready at 6p. m. 
 to-morrow. 
 
 (Announcement of Union success in East Tennessee.) 
 Reliable information being received that the insurgent 
 force is retreating from East Tennessee, under circumstances 
 rendering it probable that the Union forces can not hereafter 
 be dislodged from that important position, and esteeming this 
 to be of high national consequence, I recommend that all loyal 
 people do, on receipt of this information, assemble at their 
 places of worship, and render special homage and gratitude to 
 Almighty God for this great advancement of the national 
 cause. 
 
 8th. (A Proclamation.) Whereas, it is now desired by 
 some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume 
 their allegiance to the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal 
 State governments within and for their respective States : 
 Therefore 
 
 I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do 
 proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, 
 directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, 
 except as hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby 
 granted to them and each of them, with restoration of all 
 rights of property, except as to slaves, and in property cases 
 where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon 
 the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe 
 an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath in- 
 violate; and which oath shall be registered for permanent 
 preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect following, 
 to-wit : 
 
 "I, , do solemnly swear, in presence of 
 
 Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, pro- 
 tect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and 
 the union of the States thereunder; and that I will, in like 
 manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress 
 
390 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so 
 long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by 
 Congress, or by decision of the Supreme Court; and that I 
 will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all procla- 
 mations of the President made during the existing rebellion 
 having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified 
 or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help 
 me God." 
 
 The persons exempted from the benefits of the foregoing 
 provisions are all who are, or shall have been, civil or diplo- 
 matic officers or agents of the so-called Confederate Gov- 
 ernment; all who have left judicial stations under the United 
 States to aid the rebellion; all who are or shall have been 
 military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Gov- 
 ernment above the rank of colonel in the army or of lieutenant 
 in the navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress 
 to aid the rebellion ; all who resigned commissions in the army 
 or navy of the United States and afterward aided the rebellion; 
 and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored per- 
 sons, or white persons in charge of such, otherwise than law- 
 fully as prisoners of war, and which persons may have been 
 found in the United States service as soldiers, seamen, or in 
 any other capacity. 
 
 And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that 
 whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, 
 Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Car- 
 olina, and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than 
 one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at the 
 presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
 hundred and sixty each having taken the oath aforesaid and 
 not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the 
 election law of the State existing immediately before the so- 
 called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall re- 
 establish a State government which shall be republican, and 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 391 
 
 in no wise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized 
 as the true government of the State, and the State shall receive 
 thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision which 
 declares that: "the United States shall guarantee to every 
 State in this Union a republican form of government, and 
 shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on applica- 
 tion of the Legislature, or the executive (when the Legislature 
 can not be convened), against domestic violence. ,, 
 
 And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that 
 any provision which may be adopted by such State government 
 in relation to the freed people of such State, which shall recog- 
 nize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their 
 education, and which may yet be consistent as a temporary 
 arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, land- 
 less, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the national 
 Executive. 
 
 When Congress assembled a year ago the war had already 
 lasted nearly twenty months, and there had been many con- 
 flicts on both land and sea with varying results. The re- 
 bellion had been pressed back into reduced limits ; yet the tone 
 of public feeling and opinion, at home and abroad, was not 
 satisfactory. With other signs, the popular elections, then 
 just past, indicated uneasiness among ourselves while, amid 
 much that was cold and menacing, the kindest words coming 
 from Europe were uttered in accents of pity that we w r ere too 
 blind to surrender a hopeless cause. Our commerce was suf- 
 fering greatly by a few armed vessels built upon, and furnished 
 from, foreign shores, and we were threatened with such addi- 
 tions from the same quarter as would sweep our trade from 
 the sea and raise our blockade. We had failed to elicit from 
 European governments anything hopeful upon this subject. 
 The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in Septem- 
 ber, was running its assigned period to the beginning of the 
 new year. A month later the final proclamation came, includ- 
 
392 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 ing the announcement that colored men of suitable condition 
 would be received into the war service. The policy of eman- 
 cipation, and of employing black soldiers gave to the future a 
 new aspect, about which hope, fear, and doubt contended in 
 uncertain conflict. According to our political system, as a 
 matter of civil administration, the Government had no lawful 
 power to effect emancipation in any State, and for a long time 
 it had been hoped that the rebellion could be suppressed with- 
 out resorting to it as a military measure. It was all the while 
 deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and that 
 if it should, the crisis of the contest would then be presented. 
 It came, and, as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and 
 doubtful days. Eleven months having now passed, we are per- 
 mitted to take another review. The rebel borders are pressed 
 still further back, and, by the complete opening of the Mis- 
 sissippi, the country dominated by the rebellion is divided into 
 distinct parts, with no practical communication between them. 
 Tennessee and Arkansas have been substantially cleared of 
 insurgent control, and influential citizens in each, owners of 
 slaves and advocates of slavery at the beginning of the re- 
 bellion, now declare openly for emancipation in their respec- 
 tive States. Of those States not included in the Emancipation 
 Proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which three 
 years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of 
 slavery into new territories, only dispute now as to the best 
 mode of removing it within their own limits. 
 
 Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion, 
 full 100,000 are now in the U. S. military service, about one- 
 half of which number actually bear arms in the ranks, thus 
 giving the double advantage of taking so much labor from 
 the insurgent cause, and supplying the places which otherwise 
 must be filled with so many white men. So far as attested, it 
 is difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as any. No 
 servile insurrection, or tendency to violence or cruelty, has 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 393 
 
 marked the measures of emancipation and arming the 
 blacks. 
 
 These measures have been much discussed in foreign 
 countries, and contemporary with such discussion the tone of 
 public sentiment there is much improved. At home the same 
 measures have been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and 
 denounced and the annual elections following are highly 
 encouraging to those whose official duty it is to bear the 
 country through this great trial. Thus we have the new 
 reckoning. The crises which threatened to divide the friends 
 of the Union is past. 
 
 The proposed acquiescence Qf the national Executive in any 
 reasonable temporary State arrangement for the freed people 
 is made with the view of possibly modifying the confusion and 
 destitution which must at best attend all classes by a total 
 revolution of labor throughout whole States. It is hoped that 
 the already deeply afflicted people in those States may be some- 
 what more ready to give up the cause of their affliction, if, to 
 this extent, this vital matter be left to themselves; while no 
 power of the national executive to prevent an abuse is abridged 
 by the proposition. 
 
 The movements, by State action, for emancipation in 
 several of the States not included in the Emancipation 
 Proclamation are matters of profound gratulation. And while 
 I do not repeat in detail what I have heretofore so earnestly 
 urged upon this subject, my general views and feelings remain 
 unchanged; and I trust that Congress will omit no fair 
 opportunity of aiding these important steps to a great 
 consummation. 
 
 In the midst of other cares, however important, we must 
 not lose sight of the fact that the war power is still our main 
 reliance. To that power alone can we look yet for a time, to 
 give confidence to the people in the contested regions that the 
 insurgent power will not again overrun them. Until that 
 
394 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 confidence shall be established, little can be done anywhere for 
 what is called reconstruction. Hence our chief est care must 
 still be directed to the Army and Navy, who have thus far borne 
 their harder part so nobly and well. And it may be esteemed 
 fortunate that in giving the greatest efficiency to these 
 indispensable arms, we do also honorably recognize the gallant 
 men, from commander to sentinel, who compose them, and to 
 whom, more than to others, the world must stand indebted for 
 the home of freedom disenthralled, enlarged, and perpetuated. 
 
 (To General U. S. Grant.) Understanding that your 
 lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now secure, I wish 
 to tender you, and all under your command my more than 
 thanks, my profoundest gratitude for the skill, courage and 
 perseverance with which you and they, over so great 
 difficulties, have effected that important object. God bless 
 you all. 
 
 (To Mother Mary Gonyeag.) The President has no 
 authority as to whether you may raffle for the benevolent 
 object you mention. If there is no objection in the Iowa laws, 
 there is none here. 
 
 17th. (To General S. A. Hurlbut.) I understand you have 
 under sentence of death, a tall old man, by the name of Henry 
 F. Luckett. I personally know him, and did not think him a 
 bad man. Please do not let him be executed unless upon further 
 order from me, and in the meantime send me a transcript of 
 the record. 
 
 18 th. (To Secretary Stanton.) I believe General Scho field 
 must be relieved from command of the department of Missouri ; 
 otherwise a question of veracity, in relation to his declarations 
 as to his interfering, or not, with the Missouri legislature, will 
 be made with him, which will create an additional amount of 
 trouble, not to be overcome by even a correct decision of the 
 question. The question itself must be avoided. Now for the 
 mode. Senator Henderson, his friend, thinks he can be induced 
 
age 54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 395 
 
 to ask to be relieved; if he shall understand he will be gener- 
 ously treated ; and, on this latter point, Grant Brown will help 
 his nomination as a major-general through the Senate. In no 
 other way can he be confirmed; and upon his rejection alone 
 it would be difficult for me to sustain him as commander of 
 the department. Besides, his being relieved from command of 
 the department, and at the same time confirmed as a major- 
 general will be the means of Henderson and Brown leading 
 off together as friends, and will go far to heal the Missouri 
 difficulty. Another point. I find it is scarcely less than 
 indispensable for me to do something for General Rosecrans; 
 and I find Henderson and Brown will agree to him for the 
 commander of their department. 
 
 25th. (To Bayard Taylor.) I think a good lecture or two 
 on Serfs, Serfdom, and Emancipation in Russia would be both 
 interesting and valuable. Could not you get up such a thing? 
 
1864 
 
 January fth. The case of Andrews (a deserter) is really 
 a very bad one, as appears by the record already before me. 
 Yet before receiving this I had ordered his punishment 
 commuted to imprisonment for during the war at hard labor, 
 and had so telegraphed. I did this, not on any merit in the case, 
 but because I am trying to evade the butchering business lately. 
 
 1 6th. (To Crosby and Nichols.) The number of this 
 month and year of the North American Review was duly 
 received, and for which please accept my thanks. Of course, 
 I am not the most impartial judge; yet, with due allowance 
 for this, I venture to hope that the article entitled "The 
 President's Policy" will be of value to the country. I fear I 
 am not quite worthy of all which is therein kindly said of me 
 personally. 
 
 The sentence of twelve lines, commencing at the top of 
 pages 252, I could wish to be not exactly as it is. In what is 
 there expressed, the writer has not correctly understood me. 
 I have never had a theory that secession could absolve States or 
 people from their obligations. Precisely the contrary is 
 asserted in the inaugural address; and it was because of my 
 belief in the continuation of these obligations that I was 
 puzzled, for a time, as to denying the legal rights of those 
 citizens who remained individually innocent of treason or 
 rebellion. But I mean no more now than to merely call 
 attention to this point. 
 
 20th. (To General J. J. Reynolds.) It would appear by 
 the accompanying papers that Mrs. Mary E. Morton is the 
 
 396 
 
ace54] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 397 
 
 owner, independently of her husband, of a certain building, 
 premises, and furniture which she, with her children, has been 
 occupying and using peaceably during the war until recently, 
 when the Provost-Marshal has, in the name of the United 
 States Government, seized the whole of said property, and 
 ejected her from it. It also appears by her statement to me 
 that her husband went off in the rebellion at the beginning, 
 wherein he still remains. 
 
 It would seem that this seizure has not been made for any 
 military object, as for a place of storage, a hospital, or the like, 
 because this would not have required the seizure of the 
 furniture, and especially not the return of furniture previously 
 taken away. 
 
 The seizure must have been on some claim of confiscation, 
 a matter of which the courts, and not the provost-marshals 
 or other military officers, are to judge. In this very case 
 would probably be the questions, "Is either the husband or wife 
 a traitor ?" "Does the property belong to the husband or to 
 the wife?" "Is the property of the wife confiscable for the 
 treason of the husband?" and other similar questions, all which 
 it is ridiculous for a provost-marshal to assume to decide. 
 
 The true rule for the military is to seize such property as 
 is needed for military uses and reasons, and let the rest alone. 
 Cotton and other staple articles of commerce are seizable for 
 military reasons. Dwelling houses and furniture seldom are. 
 If Mrs. Morton is playing traitor to the extent of practical 
 injury, seize her, but leave her house to the courts. Please 
 revise and adjust this case upon these principles. 
 
 23rd. (To Alpheus Lewis.) You have inquired how the 
 government would regard and treat cases wherein the owners 
 of plantations, in Arkansas, for instance, might fully recognize 
 the freedom of those formerly slaves, and by fair contracts of 
 hire with them, recommence the cultivation of their plantations. 
 I answer, I should regard such cases with great favor, and 
 
398 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 should as a principle treat them precisely as I would treat the 
 same number of free white people in the same relation and 
 condition. Whether white or black, reasonable effort should 
 be made to give government protection. 
 
 February 1st. (To Secretary Stanton.) You are 
 directed to have a transport (either a steam or sailing vessel, 
 as may be deemed proper by the Quartermaster-General) sent 
 to the colored colony established by the United States at the 
 island of Vache, on the coast of San Domingo, to bring back 
 to this country such of the colonists there as desire to return. 
 You will have the transport furnished with suitable supplies 
 for that purpose, and detail an officer of the Quartermaster's 
 Department who, under special instructions to be given, shall 
 have charge of the business. The colonists will be brought to 
 Washington, unless otherwise hereafter directed, and be 
 employed and provided for at the camps for colored persons 
 around that city. Those only will be brought from the island 
 who desire to return, and their effects will be brought with 
 them. 
 
 Ordered, That a draft for 500,000 men, to serve for three 
 years or during the war, be made on the 10th day of March 
 next, for the military service of the United States, crediting 
 and deducting therefrom so many as may have been enlisted or 
 drafted into the service prior to the 1st day of March, and not 
 before credited. 
 
 5th. On principle I dislike an oath which requires a man 
 to swear he has not done wrong. It rejects the Christian 
 principle of forgiveness on terms of repentance. I think it is 
 enough if the man does no wrong hereafter. 
 
 17th. (To W. M. Fishback.) Wlien I fixed a plan for an 
 election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance that your convention 
 was doing the same work. Since I learned the latter fact I 
 have been constantly trying to yield my plan to theirs. I have 
 sent two letters to General Steele, and three or four despatches 
 
age 551 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 399 
 
 to you and others, saying that he, (General Steele) must be 
 master, but that it will probably be best for him to merely help 
 the convention on its own plan. Some single mind must be 
 master, else there will be no agreement in anything; and 
 General Steele, commanding the military and being on the 
 ground, is the best man to be that master. Even now citizens 
 are telegraphing me to postpone the election to a later day than 
 either that fixed by the convention or by me. This discord 
 must be silenced. 
 
 1 8th. (To Governor Andrew.) Yours of the 12th was 
 received yesterday. If I were to judge from the letter, without 
 any external knowledge, I should suppose that all the colored 
 people south of Washington were struggling to get to Massa- 
 chusetts ; that Massachusetts was anxious to receive and retain 
 the whole of them as permanent citizens, and that the United 
 States Government here was interposing and preventing this. 
 But I suppose these are neither really the facts nor meant to be 
 asserted as true by you. Coming down to what I suppose to 
 be the real facts, you are engaged in trying to raise colored 
 troops for the United States, and wish to take recruits from 
 Virginia through Washington to Massachusetts for that 
 object, and the loyal governor of Virginia, also trying to raise 
 troops for us, objects to your taking his material away, while 
 we, having to care for all and being responsible alike to all, 
 have to do as much for him as we would have to do for you if 
 he was by our authority taking men from Massachusetts to 
 fill up Virginia regiments. No more than this has been intended 
 by me, nor, as I think, by the Secretary of War. There may 
 have been some abuses of this, as a rule, which, if known, 
 should be prevented in future. If, however, it be really true 
 that Massachusetts wishes to afford a permanent home within 
 her borders for all or even a large number of colored persons 
 who will come to her, I shall be only too glad to know it. It 
 would give relief in a very difficult point, and I would not for 
 
400 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 a moment hinder from going any person who is free by the 
 terms of the proclamation, or any of the acts of Congress. 
 
 25th. (To General F. Steele.) General Sickles is not 
 going to Arkansas. He probably will make a tour down the 
 Mississippi and home by the gulf and ocean, but he will not 
 meddle in your affairs. At one time I did intend to have him 
 call on you and explain more fully than I could do by letter or 
 telegraph, so as to avoid a difficulty coming of my having 
 made a plan here, while the convention made one there, for 
 reorganizing Arkansas ; but even his doing that has been given 
 up for more than two weeks. Please show this to Governor 
 Murphy to save me telegraphing him. 
 
 2/th. No person who has taken the oath of amnesty of 
 eighth December, 1863, and obtained a pardon thereby, and 
 who intends to observe the same in good faith, should have any 
 objection to taking that prescribed by Governor Johnson (of 
 Tennessee) as a test of loyalty. I have seen and examined 
 Governor Johnson's proclamation, and am entirely satisfied 
 with his plan, which is to restore the State government and 
 place it under the control of citizens truly loyal to the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. 
 
 A paper known as the Pomeroy Circular is distributed 
 confidentially for the purpose of making Chase the Republican 
 nominee for President. At last it is made public and Chase 
 writes to the President disowning it. 
 
 2pth. (To Secretary Chase.) My knowledge of Mr. 
 Pomeroy's letter having been made public came to me only the 
 day you wrote; but I had, in spite of myself, known of its 
 existence several days before. I have not yet read it, and I 
 think I shall not. I was not shocked or surprised by the 
 appearance of the letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. 
 Pomeroy's committee, and of secret issues which, I supposed, 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 401 
 
 came from it, and of secret agents who, I supposed, were sent 
 out by it, for several weeks. I have known just as little of 
 these things as my friends have allowed me to know. They 
 bring the documents to me, but I do not read them ; they tell 
 me what they think fit to tell me, but I do not inquire for more. 
 
 I fully concur with you that neither of us can be justly held 
 responsible for what our respective friends may do without our 
 instigation or countenance; and I assure you, as you have 
 assured me, that no assault has been made upon you by my 
 instigation or with my countenance. 
 
 Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury 
 Department is a question which I will not allow myself to 
 consider from any stand-point other than my judgment of the 
 public service, and, in that view, I do not perceive occasion for 
 a change. 
 
 (Commenting on Chase.) My half-brother was once 
 ploughing corn on a Kentucky farm. I was driving the horse 
 and he holding the plough. The horse was lazy, but on one 
 occasion rushed across the field so fast that I, even with my 
 long legs, could hardly keep pace with him. On reaching the 
 end of the furrow, I found an enormous chin-fly fastened 
 upon him, and knocked him off. My brother asked me what 
 I did that for. I told him I didn't want the old horse bitten in 
 that way. "Why," said he, "that's what makes him go." If Mr. 
 Chase has a Presidential chin-fly biting him, I'm not going 
 to knock him off, if it will only make his department go.* 
 
 March 1st. (To Secretary Stanton.) A poor widow, by 
 the name of Baird, has a son in the army, that for some offense 
 has been sentenced to serve a long time without pay, or at most 
 with very little pay. I do not like this punishment of with- 
 holding pay — it falls so very hard upon poor families. After 
 he had been serving in this way for several months, at the tear- 
 ful appeal of the poor mother, I made a direction that he be 
 
 *Date approximate. 
 
402 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 allowed to enlist for a new term, on the same conditions as 
 others. She now comes and says she can not get it acted upon. 
 Please do it. 
 
 4th. (To Secretary Chase.) In consequence of a call Mr. 
 Villard makes on me, having a note from you to him, I am 
 induced to say I have no wish for the publication of the 
 correspondence between yourself and me in relation to the 
 Pomeroy circular — in fact, rather prefer to avoid any 
 unnecessary exhibition; yet you are at liberty, without in the 
 least offending me, to allow the publication if you choose. 
 
 yth. I am very anxious for emancipation to be effected 
 in Maryland in some substantial form. I think it probable that 
 my expressions of a preference for gradual over immediate 
 emancipation are misunderstood. I had thought the gradual 
 would produce less confusion and destitution; and therefore 
 would be more satisfactory; but if those who are better 
 acquainted with the subject, and are more deeply interested in 
 it, prefer the immediate, most certainly I have no objection to 
 their judgment prevailing. My wish is that all who are for 
 emancipation in any form, shall cooperate, all treating all 
 respectfully, and all adopting and acting upon the major 
 opinion when fairly ascertained. What I have dreaded is the 
 danger that by jealousies, rivalries, and consequent ill-blood — 
 driving one another out of meetings and conventions — 
 perchance from the polls — the friends of emancipation them- 
 selves may divide, and lose the measure altogether. 
 
 pth. (To General Grant.) The expression of the nation's 
 approbation of what you have already done, and its reliance 
 on you for what remains to do in the existing great struggle, 
 is now presented with this commission, constituting you 
 Lieutenant-General of the Army of the United States. 
 
 With this high honor, devolves an additional responsibility. 
 As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain 
 you. I scarcely need add, that with what I here speak for the 
 country, goes my own hearty personal concurrence. 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 403 
 
 13th. (To Governor Michael Hahn.) I congratulate you 
 on having fixed your name in history as the first Free State 
 Governor of Louisiana. Now you are about to have a 
 convention, which, among other things, will probably define 
 the elective franchise. I barely suggest, for your private 
 consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be 
 let in, as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those 
 who have fought gallantly in our ranks. 
 
 (To General C. Schurz.) Yours of February 29 reached 
 me only four days ago ; but the delay was of little consequence, 
 because I found, on feeling around, I could not invite you here 
 without a difficulty which at least would be unpleasant, and 
 perhaps would be detrimental to the public service. Allow me to 
 suggest that if you wish to remain in the military service, it is 
 very dangerous for you to get temporarily out of it; because, 
 with a major-general once out, it is next to impossible for even 
 the President to get him in again. With my appreciation of 
 your ability and correct principle, of course I would be very 
 glad to have your service for the country in the approaching 
 political canvass; but I fear we can not properly have it 
 without separating you from the military. 
 
 18th. In this extraordinary war, extraordinary develop- 
 ments have manifested themselves, such as have not been seen 
 in former wars; and amongst these manifestations nothing 
 has been more remarkable than these fairs for the relief of 
 suffering soldiers and their families. And the chief agents in 
 these fairs are the women of America. I am not accustomed 
 to the use of language of eulogy; I have never studied the 
 art of paying compliments to women; but I must say, that if 
 all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of 
 the world in praise of women were applied to the women of 
 America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during 
 this war. I will close by saying, God bless the women of 
 America. 
 
404 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 2 1st. (To a Committee from the Working Men's 
 Association of New York.) The honorary membership in 
 your association, as generously tendered, is gratefully accepted. 
 
 You comprehend, as your address shows, that the existing 
 rebellion means more, and tends to more, than the perpetuation 
 of African slavery — that it is, in fact, a war upon the rights 
 of all working people. 
 
 None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion 
 as the working people. Let them beware of prejudices working 
 division and hostility among themselves. The most notable 
 feature of a disturbance in your city last summer was the 
 hanging of some working people by other working people. 
 The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside the family 
 relation, should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, 
 and tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead 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 assuming that his own shall be safe from violence 
 when built. 
 
 23rd. (To General C. Schurz.) I perceive no objection 
 to your making a political speech when you are where one is 
 to be made; but quite surely speaking in the North and 
 f ighting ; in the South at the same time are not possible ; nor 
 could I be justified to detail any officer to the political 
 campaign during its continuance and then return him to the 
 army. 
 
 29th. (To Meade.) Your letter to Colonel Townsend, 
 inclosing a slip from the Herald, and asking a court of inquiry, 
 has been laid before me by the Secretary of War, with the 
 request that I would consider it. It is quite natural that you 
 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 405 
 
 should feel some sensibility on the subject; yet I am not 
 impressed, nor do I think the country is impressed, with the 
 belief that your honor demands, or the public interest demands, 
 such an inquiry. The country knows that at all events you 
 have done good service; and I believe it agrees with me that 
 it is much better for you to be engaged in trying to do more 
 than to be diverted, as you necessarily would be, by a court of 
 inquiry. 
 
 (To General U. S. Grant.) Captain Kinney, of whom I 
 spoke to you as desiring to go on your staff, is now in your 
 camp, in company with Mrs. Senator Dixon. Mrs. Grant and 
 I and some others, agreed last night that I should, by this 
 despatch, kindly call your attention to Captain Kinney. 
 
 April 4th. I am naturally anti-slavery. 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 that Constitution was 
 the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet 
 preserve the Constitution? By general law, life and limb 
 
406 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ti86 4 
 
 must be protected, yet often a limb must be amputated to save 
 a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt 
 that measures otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful 
 by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the nation. 
 Right or wrong, I assume this ground, and now avow it. 
 
 I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly 
 that events have controlled me. 
 
 $th. (To Mrs. Horace Mann.) The petition of persons 
 under eighteen, praying that I would free all slave children, 
 and the heading of which petition it appears you wrote, was 
 handed me a few days since by Senator Sumner. Please tell 
 these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so 
 full of just and generous sympathy, and that, while I have not 
 the power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that 
 God has, and that, as it seems, He wills to do it. 
 
 (To the Senate of the United States.) I nominate Salmon 
 P. Chase, of Ohio, to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States, vice Robert B. Taney deceased. 
 
 1 8th. A painful rumor, true, I fear, has reached us, of the 
 massacre, by the rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end 
 of Tennessee, on the Mississippi River, of some three hundred 
 colored soldiers and white officers, who had just been 
 overpowered by their assailants. There seems to be some 
 anxiety in the public mind whether the government is doing 
 its duty to the colored soldier, and to the service, at this point. 
 At the beginning of the war, and for some time, the use of 
 colored troops was not contemplated; and how the change of 
 purpose was wrought I will not now take time to explain. 
 Upon a clear conviction of duty, I resolved to turn that element 
 of strength to account, and I am responsible for it to the 
 American people, to the Christian world, to history, and in my 
 final account to God. Having determined to use the negro as a 
 soldier, there is no way but to give him all the protection given 
 to any other soldier. The difficulty is not in stating the 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 407 
 
 principle, but in practically applying it. It is a mistake to 
 suppose the Government is indifferent to this matter, or is not 
 doing the best it can in regard to it. We do not to-day know 
 that a colored soldier or white officer commanding colored 
 soldiers, has been massacred by the rebels when made a 
 prisoner. We fear it, believe it, I may say, but we do not know 
 it. To take the life of one of their prisoners on the assumption 
 that they murder ours, when it is short of certainty that they 
 do murder ours, might be too serious, too cruel, a mistake. 
 We are having the Fort Pillow affair thoroughly investigated; 
 and such investigation will probably show conclusively how 
 the truth is. If after all that has been said it shall turn out 
 that there has been no massacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost 
 safe to say there has been none, and will be none, elsewhere. 
 If there has been the massacre of three hundred there, or even 
 the tenth part of three hundred, it will be conclusively proved; 
 and being so proved, the retribution shall as surely come. It 
 will be matter of grave consideration in what exact course to 
 apply the retribution; but in the supposed case it must come. 
 
 2 1st. (To Major-General Dix, New York.) Yesterday I 
 was induced to telegraph the officer in military command at 
 Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, suspending the 
 execution of Charles Carpenter, to be executed to-morrow for 
 desertion. Just now on reading your order in the case, I tele- 
 graphed the same officer withdrawing the suspension, and 
 leaving the case entirely with you. The man's friends are 
 pressing me, but I refer them to you, intending to take no 
 further action myself. 
 
 28th. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) Tell Tad the goats and father 
 are very well, especially the goats. 
 
 30th. (To General U. S. Grant.) Not expecting to see you 
 again before the spring campaign opens, I wish to express in 
 this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to 
 this time, so far as I understand it. 
 
408 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to 
 know. You are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with 
 this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or restraints upon 
 you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster or 
 capture of our men in great numbers shall be avoided, I know 
 these points are less likely to escape your attention than they 
 would be mine. If there is anything wanting which is within 
 my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. 
 
 And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God 
 sustain you. 
 
 May 4th. (To General W. T. Sherman.) I have an 
 imploring appeal in behalf of the citizens (of Chattanooga ) 
 who say your Order No. 8 will compel them to go north of 
 Nashville. This is in no sense an order, nor is it even a request 
 that you will do anything which in the least shall be a drawback 
 upon your military operations, but anything you can do for 
 those suffering people, I shall be glad of. 
 
 pth. Enough is known of army operations within the last 
 five days to claim an especial gratitude to God, while what 
 remains undone demands our most sincere prayers to, and 
 reliance upon, Him without whom all human effort is vain. I 
 recommend that all patriots, at their homes, in their places of 
 public worship, and wherever they may be, unite in common 
 thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God. 
 
 ( Response to a Serenade. ) I am very much obliged to you 
 for the compliment of this call, though I apprehend it is owing 
 more to the good news received to-day from the army, than a 
 desire to meet me. I am indeed very grateful to the brave men 
 who have been struggling with the enemy in the field, to their 
 noble commanders who have directed them, and especially to 
 our Maker. Our commanders are following up their victories 
 resolutely and successfully. I think, without knowing the 
 particulars of the plans of General Grant, that what has been 
 accomplished is of more importance than at first appears. I 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 409 
 
 believe, I know (and am especially grateful to know) that 
 General Grant has not been jostled in his purposes, that he has 
 made all his points, and to-day he is on his line as he purposed 
 before he moved his armies. 
 
 There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and 
 patriots to perform their share of the labor and follow the 
 example of the modest general at the head of our armies, and 
 sink all personal consideration for the sake of the country. I 
 commend you to keep yourselves in the same tranquil mood 
 that is characteristic of this brave and loyal man. 
 
 1 2th. (To S. C. Pomeroy.) I did not doubt yesterday 
 that you desired to see me about the appointment of assessor 
 in Kansas. I wish you and Lane would make a sincere effort 
 to get out of the mood you are in. It does neither of you any 
 good. It gives you the means of tormenting my life out of 
 me, and nothing else. 
 
 14th. (To a Methodist Delegation.) In response to your 
 address, allow me to attest the accuracy of its historical state- 
 ments, indorse the sentiments it expresses, and thank you in 
 the nation's name for the sure promise it gives. Nobly 
 sustained as the Government has been by all the churches, I 
 would utter nothing which might in the least appear invidious 
 against any. Yet without this, it may fairly be said, that the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is 
 by its greater numbers the most important of all. It is no fault 
 in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the 
 field, more nurses to the hospital, and more prayers to Heaven 
 than any. God bless the Methodist Church. Bless all the 
 churches. Blessed be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth 
 us the churches. 
 
 (To a Baptist Delegation.) In the present very responsible 
 position in which I am engaged, I have had great cause of 
 gratitude for the support so unanimously given by all Christian 
 denominations of the country. I have had occasion so 
 
410 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 frequently to respond to something like this assemblage, that I 
 have said all I had to say. This particular body is, in all 
 respects, as respectable as any that have been presented to me. 
 The resolutions I have merely half read, and I therefore beg 
 to be allowed an opportunity to make a short response in 
 writing. 
 
 1 8th. (To General J. A. Dix.) Whereas there has been 
 wickedly and traitorously printed and published this morning 
 in the New York World and New York Journal of Commerce, 
 newspapers printed and published in the city of New York, a 
 false and spurious proclamation, purporting to be signed by 
 the President and to be countersigned by the Secretary of State, 
 which publication is of a treasonable nature, designed to give 
 aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States and to the 
 rebels now at war against the government, and their aiders and 
 abettors, you are therefore hereby commanded forthwith to 
 arrest and imprison, in any fort or military prison in your 
 command, the editors, proprietors, and publishers of the afore- 
 said newspapers, and all such persons as, after public notice 
 has been given of the falsehood of said publication, print and 
 publish the same with intent to give aid and comfort to the 
 enemy, and you will hold the persons so arrested in close 
 custody until they can be brought to trial before a military 
 commission for their offense. You will also take possession 
 by military force, of the printing establishments of the New 
 York World and Journal of Commerce, and hold the same 
 until further orders, and prevent further publication therefrom. 
 
 June 3rd. (To F. A. Conkling and others.) Your letter, 
 inviting me to be present at a mass-meeting of loyal citizens, 
 to be held at New York, on the 4th instant, for the purpose of 
 expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant for his signal 
 services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to 
 attend. I approve, nevertheless, whatever may tend to 
 strengthen and sustain General Grant and the noble armies 
 
ace 551 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 411 
 
 now under his direction. My previous high estimate of 
 General Grant has been maintained and heightened by what 
 has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now conducting, 
 while the magnitude and difficulty of the task before him do 
 not prove less than I expected. He and his brave soldiers are 
 now in the midst of their great trial, and I trust that at your 
 meeting you will so shape your good words that they may turn 
 to men and guns, moving to his and their support. 
 
 5th. Mr. Holt is a good man, but I had not heard or 
 thought of him for Vice-President. Wish not to interfere 
 about Vice-President. Can not interfere about platform. Con- 
 vention must judge for itself. 
 
 pth. (To the Committee Notifying President Lincoln of 
 Renomination.) I will neither conceal my gratification, nor 
 restrain the expression of my gratitude, that the Union people, 
 through their convention, in their continued effort to save and 
 advance the nation, have deemed me not unworthy to remain 
 in my present position. I know no reason to doubt that I shall 
 accept the nomination tendered ; and yet, perhaps, I should not 
 declare definitely before reading and considering what is called 
 the platform. I will say, however, I approve the declaration 
 in favor of so amending the Constitution as to prohibit slavery 
 throughout the nation. 
 
 (To an Ohio Delegation.) I am very much obliged to you 
 for this compliment. I have just been saying, and will repeat 
 it, that the hardest of all speeches I have to answer is a serenade. 
 I never know what to say on these occasions. I suppose that 
 you have done me this kindness in connection with the action of 
 the Baltimore convention, which has recently taken place, and 
 with which, of course, I am very well satisfied. What we 
 want, still more than Baltimore conventions or presidential 
 elections, is success under General Grant. I propose that you 
 constantly bear in mind that the support you owe to the brave 
 officers and soldiers in the field is of the very first importance, 
 and we should therefore bend all our energies to that point. 
 
4 i2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 (To a Delegation from the National Union League.) I can 
 only say in response to the kind remarks of your chairman, as I 
 suppose, that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence 
 which has been accorded to me both by the convention and by 
 the National League.. I am not insensible at all to the personal 
 compliment there is in this, and yet I do not allow myself to 
 believe that any but a small portion of it is to be appropriated 
 as a personal compliment to me. That really the convention 
 and the Union League assembled with a higher view — that of 
 taking care of the interests of the country for the present and 
 the great future — and that the part I am entitled to ap- 
 propriate as a compliment is only that part which I may lay 
 hold of as being the opinion of the convention and of the 
 League, that I am not entirely unworthy to be intrusted with 
 the place which I have occupied for the last three years. But 
 I do not allow myself to suppose that either the convention or 
 the League have concluded to decide that I am either the 
 greatest or best man in America, but rather they have concluded 
 that it is not best to swap horses while crossing the river, and 
 have further concluded that I am not so poor a horse that they 
 might not make a botch of it in trying to swap. 
 
 13th. (To General L. Thomas.) Complaint is made to 
 me that in the vicinity of Henderson our militia are seizing 
 negroes and carrying them off without their own consent, and 
 according to no rules whatever except those of absolute 
 violence. I wish you would look into this and inform me, and 
 see that the making soldiers of negroes is done according to 
 the rules you are acting upon, so that unnecessary provocation 
 and irritation be avoided. 
 
 1 6th. (At a Sunday fair in Philadelphia.) We accepted 
 this war, and did not begin it. We accepted it for an object, 
 and when that object is accomplished the war will end, and I 
 hope to God it will never end until that object is accomplished. 
 We are going through with our task, so far as I am concerned, 
 if it takes us three years longer. 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 413 
 
 ipth. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) Tad arrived safely and all well. 
 
 20th. What I said to Postmaster of Philadelphia on this 
 day — June 20, 1864: 
 
 Complaint is made to me that you are using your official 
 power to defeat Judge Kelley's renomination to Congress. 
 
 I am well satisfied with Judge Kelley as a member of 
 Congress, and I do not know that the man who might supplant 
 him would be as satisfactory; but the correct principle, I 
 think, is that all our friends should have absolute freedom of 
 choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is that you 
 will do just as y©u think fit with your own suffrage in the 
 case, and not constrain any of your subordinates to do other 
 than he thinks fit with his. 
 
 This is precisely the rule I inculcated and adhered to on my 
 part when a certain other nomination now recently made was 
 being canvassed for, 
 
 24th. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) All well and very warm. Tad 
 and I have been to General Grant's army. Returned yesterday 
 safe and sound. 
 
 2/th. (To William Cullen Bryant.) Yours of the twenty- 
 fifth has just been handed me by the Secretary of the Navy. 
 The tone of the letter, rather than any direct statement in it, 
 impresses me as a complaint that Mr. Henderson should have 
 been removed from office, and arrested, coupled with the 
 single suggestion that he be restored if he shall establish his 
 innocence. 
 
 I know absolutely nothing of the case except as follows: 
 Monday last, Mr. Welles came to me with the letter of 
 dismissal already written, saying he thought proper to show it 
 to me before sending it. I asked him the charges, which he 
 stated in a general way. With as much emphasis as I could, I 
 said: "Are you entirely certain of his guilt ?" He answered 
 that he was, to which I replied : "Then send the letter.'' 
 
 Whether Mr. Henderson was a supporter of my second 
 
414 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 nomination, I neither knew nor inquired, nor even thought of. 
 I shall be very glad indeed if he shall, as you anticipate, estab- 
 lish his innocence; or, to state it more strongly and properly, 
 "if the government shall fail to establish his guilt." I believe, 
 however, the man who made the affidavit was of as spotless 
 reputation as Mr. Henderson, until he was arrested on what his 
 friends insist was outrageously insufficient evidence. I know 
 the entire city government of Washington, with many other 
 respectable citizens, appealed to me in his behalf as a greatly 
 injured gentleman. 
 
 While the subject is up, may I ask whether the Evening 
 Post has not assailed me for supposed too lenient dealing with 
 persons charged with fraud and crime? And that in cases of 
 which the Post could know but little of the facts? I shall 
 certainly deal as leniently with Mr. Henderson as I have felt 
 it my duty to deal with others, notwithstanding any newspaper 
 assaults. 
 
 (To William Dennison and others.) Your letter of the 
 14th instant, formally notifying me that I have been nom- 
 inated by the convention you represent for the Presidency of 
 the United States for four years from the 4th of March next, 
 has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as 
 the resolutions of the convention, called the platform, are 
 heartily approved. 
 
 While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of re- 
 publican government upon the Western Continent is fully con- 
 curred in, there might be misunderstanding were I not to say 
 that the position of the Government in relation to the action 
 of France in Mexico, as assumed through the State Depart- 
 ment and approved and indorsed by the convention among the 
 measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully main- 
 tained as long as the state of facts shall leave that position 
 pertinent and applicable. 
 
 28th. (To Secretary Chase.) Yours, inclosing a blank 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 415 
 
 nomination for Maunsell B. Field to be Assistant Treasurer 
 at New York, was received yesterday. I can not, without much 
 embarrassment, make this appointment, principally because of 
 Senator Morgan's very firm opposition to it. 
 
 I do not think Mr. Field a very proper man for the place; 
 but I would trust your judgment and forego this were the 
 greater difficulty out of the way. Much as I personally like 
 Mr. Barney, it has been a great burden to me to retain him in 
 his place, when nearly all our friends in New York were, 
 directly or indirectly, urging his removal. Then the appoint- 
 ment of Hogeboom to be General Appraiser, brought me to, 
 and has ever since kept me at the verge of open revolt. Now, 
 the appointment of Mr. Field would precipitate me in it, unless 
 Senator Morgan, and those feeling as he does, could be brought 
 to concur in it. Strained as I already am at this point, I do 
 not think I can make this appointment in the direction of still 
 greater strain. 
 
 29th. (To General F. Steele.) I understand that Con- 
 gress declines to admit to seats the persons sent as senators 
 and representatives from Arkansas. These persons apprehend 
 that, in consequence, you may not support the new State gov- 
 ernment there as you otherwise would. My wish is that you 
 give that government and the people there the same support 
 and protection that you would if the members had been ad- 
 mitted, because in no event, nor in any view of the case, can 
 this do any harm, while it will be the best you can do toward 
 suppressing the rebellion. 
 
 30th. (To Secretary Chase.) Your resignation of the 
 office of Secretary of the Treasury sent me yesterday is ac- 
 cepted. Of all I have said in commendation of your ability 
 and fidelity, I have nothing to unsay ; and yet you and I have 
 reached a point of mutual embarrassment in our official re- 
 lations which, it seems, can not be overcome or longer sustained 
 consistently with the public service. 
 
416 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 July 4th. (To Senator Chandler who demands his signa- 
 ture to a punitive Reconstruction Bill.) 
 
 This bill has been placed before me a few minutes before 
 Congress adjourns. It is a matter of too much importance to 
 be swallowed in that way. 
 
 (Chandler: If it is vetoed it will damage us fearfully in 
 the Northwest. The important point is the one prohibiting 
 slavery in the Reconstructed States.) 
 
 That is the point on which I doubt the authority of Con- 
 gress to act. 
 
 (Chandler: It is no more than you have done yourself.) 
 
 I conceive that I may in an emergency do things on military 
 grounds which can not constitutionally be done by Congress. 
 
 (Chandler angrily leaves the room.) 
 
 I do not see how any of us now can deny and contradict 
 what we have always said, that Congress has no constitutional 
 power over slavery in the States. 
 
 If they (Chandler and other radicals) choose to make a 
 point on this, I do not doubt that they can do harm. They 
 have never been friendly to me. At all events, I must keep 
 some consciousness of being somewhere near right. I must 
 keep some standard of principle fixed within myself. 
 
 5th. (To Lamon.) I fear I have made Senator Wade of 
 Ohio my enemy for life. Wade was here just now urging me 
 to dismiss Grant, and, in response to something he said, I re- 
 marked, "Senator, that reminds me of a story.' , 
 
 (What did Wade say?) 
 
 He said, in a petulant way "It is with you, sir, all story, 
 story! You are the father of every military blunder that has 
 been made during the war. This government is on the road 
 to hell, sir, by reason of your obstinacy, and you are not a 
 mile from there this minute/' 
 (What did you say then?) 
 
 I good-naturedly said to him, "Senator, that is just about 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 417 
 
 the distance from here to the capitol, is it not ?" He was very- 
 angry, grabbed up his hat and cane, and went away.* 
 
 8th. (Proclamation.) Whereas, at the late session Con- 
 gress passed a bill to "guarantee to certain States, whose gov- 
 ernments have been usurped or overthrown, a republican form 
 of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed; 
 
 And whereas the said bill was presented to the President 
 of the United States for his approval less than one hour before 
 the sine die adjournment of said session, and was not signed 
 by him; 
 
 And whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a 
 plan for restoring the States in rebellion to their proper prac- 
 tical relation in the Union, which plan expresses the sense of 
 Congress upon that subject, and which plan it is now thought 
 fit to lay before the people for their consideration; 
 
 Now, therefore, I> Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known, that 
 while I am (as I was in December last when by proclamation 
 I propounded a plan for restoration) unprepared, by a formal 
 approval of this bill, to be inflexibly committed to any single 
 plan of restoration ; and, while I am also unprepared to declare 
 that the free-State constitutions and governments already 
 adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set 
 aside and held for naught, thereby repelling and discouraging 
 the loyal citizens who have set up the same as to further effort, 
 or to declare a constitutional competency in Congress to abol- 
 ish slavery in States, but am at the same time sincerely hoping 
 and expecting that a constitutional amendment abolishing 
 slavery throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless 
 I am fully satisfied with the system for restoration contained 
 in the bill as one very proper plan for the loyal people of any 
 State choosing to adopt it, and that I am, and at all times 
 shall be, prepared to give the executive aid and assistance to 
 
 *Date conjectural. 
 
418 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Um 
 
 any such people, so soon as the military resistance to the United 
 States shall have been suppressed in any such State, and the 
 people thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their obe- 
 dience to the Constitution and the laws of the United States, in 
 which case military governors will be appointed, with direc- 
 tions to proceed according to the bill. 
 
 pth. (To Horace Greeley.) If you can find any person 
 anywhere professing to have any proposition of Jefferson 
 Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the restoration of the 
 Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it embraces, 
 say to him he may come to me with you; and that if he really 
 brings such proposition, he shall at the least have safe-conduct 
 with the paper (and without publicity, if he chooses) to the 
 point where you shall have met him. The same if there be two 
 or more persons. 
 
 loth. (To Thomas Swann and others, Baltimore, Md.) 
 I have not a single soldier but who is being disposed by the 
 military for the best protection of all. By latest accounts the 
 enemy is moving on Washington. They can not fly to either 
 place. Let us be vigilant, but keep cool. I hope neither Bal- 
 timore nor Washington will be sacked. 
 
 (To General U. S. Grant.) Your despatch to General 
 Halleck, referring to what I may think in the present emer- 
 gency is shown me. General Halleck says we have absolutely no 
 force here fit to go to the field. He thinks that with the one 
 hundred day men and invalids we have here we can defend 
 Washington, and scarcely Baltimore. Besides these there are 
 about 8,000, not very reliable, under Howe, at Harper's Ferry, 
 with Hunter approaching that point very slowly, with what 
 number I suppose you know better than I. Wallace, with some 
 odds and ends, and part of what came up with Ricketts, was so 
 badly beaten yesterday at Monocacy, that what is left can attempt 
 no more than to defend Baltimore. What we shall get in from 
 Pennsylvania and New York will scarcely be worth counting, 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 419 
 
 I fear. Now, what I think is, that you should provide to re- 
 tain your hold where you are, certainly, and bring the rest 
 with you personally, and make a vigorous effort to destroy 
 the enemy's forces in this vicinity. I think there is really a 
 fair chance to do this, if the movement is prompt. This is 
 what I think upon your suggestion, and is not an order. 
 
 Early having threatened Washington is kept from seizing 
 the city by the prompt movements of General Wright. 
 
 nth. The enemy will learn of Wright's arrival, and then 
 the difficulty will be to unite Wright and Hunter south of the 
 enemy before he will recross the Potomac. Some firing be- 
 tween Rockville and here now. 
 
 1 2th. (To Grant.) Vague rumors have been reaching 
 us for two or three days that Longstreet's corps is also on its 
 way to this vicinity. Look out for its absence from your 
 front. 
 
 14th. (To Secretary Stanton.) Your note of to-day 
 inclosing General Halleck's letter of yesterday relative to 
 offensive remarks supposed to have been made by the Post- 
 master-General concerning the military officers on duty about 
 Washington is received. The general's letter in substance de- 
 mands of me that if I approve the remarks I shall strike the 
 names of those officers from the rolls; and that if I do not 
 approve them the Postmaster-General shall be dismissed from 
 the Cabinet. 
 
 Whether the remarks were really made I do not know, nor 
 do I suppose such knowledge is necessary to a correct response. 
 If they were made, I do not approve them; and yet, under the 
 circumstances, I would not dismiss a member of the Cabinet 
 therefor. I do not consider what may have been hastily said 
 in a moment of vexation at so severe a loss is sufficient 
 ground for so grave a step. Besides this, truth is generally the 
 
420 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 best vindication against slander. I propose continuing to be 
 myself the judge as to when a member of the Cabinet shall be 
 dismissed. 
 
 (To the Cabinet.) I must myself be the judge how long to 
 retain in and when to remove any of you from his position. It 
 would greatly pain me to discover any of you endeavoring to 
 procure another's removal, or in any way to prejudice him 
 before the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong to me, 
 and, much worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is that 
 on this subject no remark be made nor question asked by any 
 of you, here or elsewhere, now or hereafter. 
 
 Horace Greeley has attempted informal peace negotiations 
 with Confederate agents in Canada. 
 
 15th. (To Greeley.) Yours of the 13th is just received, 
 and I am disappointed that you have not already reached here 
 with those commissioners, if they would consent to come on 
 being shown my letter to you of the 9th instant. Show that 
 and this to them, and if they will come on the terms stated in 
 the former, bring them. I not only intend a sincere effort for 
 peace, but I intend that you shall be a personal witness that it 
 is made. 
 
 16th. The President of the United States directs that the 
 four persons whose names follow — to wit : Honorable Clement 
 C. Clay, Honorable Jacob Thompson, Professor James B. 
 Holcombe, George N. Sanders, shall have safe conduct to the 
 city of Washington in company with the Honorable Horace 
 Greeley, and shall be exempt from arrest or annoyance of any 
 kind from any officer of the United States during their jour- 
 ney to the said city of Washington. 
 
 18th. To whom it may concern: Any proposition 
 which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity 
 of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 421 
 
 which comes by and with an authority that can control the 
 armies now at war against the United States, will be received 
 and considered by the Executive Government of the United 
 States, and will be met by liberal terms on other substantial 
 and collateral points, and the bearer or bearers thereof shall 
 have safe-conduct both ways. 
 
 25th. The men of the South recently (and perhaps still) 
 at Niagara Falls tell us distinctly that they are in the confiden- 
 tial employment of the rebellion; and they tell us distinctly that 
 they are not empowered to offer terms of peace. Does any one 
 ioubt that what they are empowered to do is to assist in selecting 
 and arranging a candidate and a platform for the Chicago 
 convention? Who could have given them this confidential 
 employment but he who, only a week since, declared to 
 Jaquess and Gilmore, that he had no terms of peace but the 
 independence of the South — the dissolution of the Union? 
 Thus, the present presidential contest will almost certainly be 
 no other than a contest between a union and a disunion candi- 
 date, disunion certainly following the success of the latter. 
 The issue is a mighty one, for all people, and all times; and 
 whoever aids the right will be appreciated and remembered. 
 
 26th. (To General U. S. Grant.) The President desires 
 you to name, if you can, a time when it would be convenient 
 for you to meet him in person at Fortress Monroe after Thurs- 
 day morning. 
 
 August 3rd. (To General U. S. Grant.) I have seen your 
 despatch in which you say, "I want Sheridan put in command 
 of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put himself 
 south of the enemy, and follow him to the death. Wherever 
 the enemy goes, let our troops go also." This, I think, is 
 exactly right as to how our forces should move, but please 
 look over the despatches you may have received from here, 
 ever since you made that order, and discover, if you can, that 
 there is any idea in the head of any one here of "putting our 
 
422 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 army south of the enemy,' ' or of "following him to the death/' 
 in any direction. I repeat to you, it will neither be done nor 
 attempted, unless you watch it every day and hour and force it. 
 
 $th. Senator Wade and Henry Winter Davis publish a bit- 
 ter attack on Lincoln's policy which has come to be known as 
 the <( Wade-Davis Manifesto." They stigmatise his rejection of 
 the reconstruction policy of Congress as "a studied outrage on 
 the legislative authority of the people." Wendell Phillips also 
 denounces him. 
 
 I have not seen (these attacks upon me) nor do I care to 
 see them. I have seen enough to satisfy me I am a failure, 
 not only in the opinion of the people in the rebellion, but of 
 many distinguished politicians in my own party. But time 
 will show whether I am right or they are right, and I am con- 
 tent to abide its decision. I have enough to look after without 
 giving much of my time to the consideration of who shall be 
 my successor in office. The position is not an easy one; and 
 the occupant, whoever he may be, for the next four years, will 
 have little leisure to pluck a thorn or plant a rose in his own 
 pathway. 
 
 Our friends, Wade, Davis, Phillips, and others are hard 
 to please. I am not capable of doing so. I can not please 
 them without wantonly violating not only my oath, but the 
 most vital principles upon which our government was founded. 
 As to those who, like Wade and the rest, see fit to depreciate 
 my policy and cavil at my official acts, I shall not complain 
 of them. I accord them the utmost freedom of speech and 
 liberty of the press, but shall not change the policy I have 
 adopted in the full belief that I am right. I feel on this sub- 
 ject as an Illinois farmer once expressed himself while eating 
 cheese. He was interrupted in the midst of his repast by the 
 entrance of his son, who exclaimed, "Hold on, dad! there's 
 skippers in that cheese you are eating!" 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 423 
 
 "Never mind, Tom," said he, as he kept on munching his 
 cheese, "if they can stand it I can."* 
 
 6th. (To Horace Greeley.) Yours to Major Hay about 
 publication of our correspondence received. With the sup- 
 pression of a few passages in your letters in regard to which 
 I think you and I would not disagree, I should be glad of the 
 publication. Please come over and see me. 
 
 8 th. (To Horace Greeley.) I telegraphed you Saturday. 
 Did you receive my despatch? Please answer. 
 
 (To General S. G. Burbridge.) Last December Mrs. 
 Emily T. Helm, half-sister of Mrs. Lincoln, and widow of the 
 rebel general, Ben. Hardin Helm, stopped here on her way 
 from Georgia to Kentucky, and I gave her a paper, as I re- 
 member, to protect her against the mere fact of her being 
 General Helm's widow. I hear a rumor to-day that you 
 recently sought to arrest her, but were prevented by her pre- 
 senting the paper from me. I do not intend to protect her 
 against the consequences of disloyal words or acts, spoken or 
 done by her since her return to Kentucky, and if the paper 
 given her by me can be construed to give her protection for 
 such words or acts, it is hereby revoked pro tanto. Deal with 
 her for current conduct just as you would with any other. 
 
 pth. (To Horace Greeley.) Herewith is a full copy of the 
 correspondence, and which I have had privately printed, but 
 not made public. The parts of your letters which I wish sup- 
 pressed are only those which, as I think, give too gloomy an 
 aspect to our cause, and those which present the carrying of 
 elections as a motive of action. I have, as you see, drawn a red 
 pencil over the parts I wish suppressed. 
 
 As to the Alexander H. Stephens matter, so much pressed 
 by you, I can only say that he sought to come to Washington 
 in the name of the "Confederate States," in a vessel of "the 
 Confederate States navy," and with no pretense even that he 
 
 *Date approximate. 
 
424' ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 would bear any proposal for peace ; but with language showing 
 that his mission would be military, and not civil or diplomatic. 
 Nor has he at any time since pretended that he had terms of 
 peace, so far as I know or believe. On the contrary, Jefferson 
 Davis has, in the most formal manner, declared that Stephens 
 had no terms of peace. I thought we could not afford to give 
 this quasi-acknowledgment of the independence of the Confed- 
 eracy, in a case where there was not even an intimation of 
 anything for our good. Still, as the parts of your letters relat- 
 ing to Stephens contain nothing worse than a questioning of 
 my action, I do not ask a suppression of those parts. 
 
 (To General N. P. Banks.) I have just seen the new 
 constitution adopted by the Convention at Louisiana ; and I am 
 anxious that it shall be ratified by the people. I will thank 
 you to let the civil officers in Louisiana, holding under me, 
 know that this is my wish, and let me know at once who of 
 them openly declare for the constitution, and who of them, if 
 any, decline to so declare. 
 
 14th. (To General U. S. Grant.) The Secretary of War 
 and I concur that you had better confer with General Lee, and 
 stipulate for a mutual discontinuance of house-burning and 
 other destruction of private property. The time and maimer 
 of conference and particulars of stipulation we leave, on our 
 part, to your convenience and judgment. 
 
 15th. (Mr. President, said Governor Randall, why can't 
 you seek seclusion, and play hermit for a fortnight ? It would 
 reinvigorate you.) 
 
 Ah, two or three weeks would do me no good. I can not 
 fly from my thoughts — my solicitude for this great country 
 follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal vanity 
 or ambition, though I am not free from these infirmities, but 
 I can not but feel that the weal or woe of this great nation 
 will be decided in November. There is no program offered 
 by any wing of the Democratic party but that must result in 
 the permanent destruction of the Union. 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 425 
 
 (To Henry J. Raymond.) I have proposed to Mr. Greeley 
 that the Niagara correspondence be published, suppressing only 
 the parts of his letters over which the red pencil is drawn in 
 the copy which I herewith send. He declines giving his consent 
 to the publication of his letters unless these parts be published 
 with the rest. I have concluded that it is better for me to 
 submit, for the time, to the consequences of the false position 
 in which I consider he has placed me, than to subject the coun- 
 try to the consequences of publishing their discouraging and 
 injurious parts. I send you this and the accompanying copy, 
 not for publication, but merely to explain to you, and that you 
 may preserve them until their proper time shall come. 
 
 Ifth. (To General U. S. Grant.) I have seen your des- 
 patch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where 
 you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bull-dog grip, 
 and chew and choke as much as possible. 
 
 (Unfinished memorandum.) To me it seems plain that 
 saying reunion and abandonment of slavery would be con- 
 sidered, if offered, is not saying that nothing else or less 
 would be considered, if offered. 
 
 The way these [emancipation] measures were to help the 
 cause was not to be by magic or miracles, but by inducing the 
 colored people to come bodily over from the rebel side to ours. 
 
 Drive back to the support of the rebellion the physical 
 force which the colored people now give and promise us, and 
 neither the present, nor any coming administration can save 
 the Union. Take from us and give to the enemy the hundred 
 and thirty, forty, or fifty thousand colored persons now serv- 
 ing us as soldiers, seamen, and laborers, and we can not longer 
 maintain the contest. 
 
 It is not a question of sentiment or taste, but one of physical 
 force, which may be measured and estimated, as horse-power 
 and steam-power are measured and estimated. And by meas- 
 
426 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 urement it is more than we can lose and live. Nor can we by 
 discarding it get a white force in place of it. There is a wit- 
 ness in every white man's bosom that he would rather go to 
 the war having the negro to help him than to help the enemy 
 against him. It is not the giving of one class for another — it is 
 simply giving a large force to the enemy for nothing in return. 
 
 If Jefferson Davis wishes for himself, or for the benefit 
 of his friends at the North, to know what I would do if he 
 were to offer peace and reunion, saying nothing about slavery, 
 let him try me. 
 
 1 8th. (To the 164th Ohio Regiment.) You are about to 
 return to your homes and your friends, after having, as I 
 learn, performed in camp a comparatively short term of duty 
 in this great contest. I am greatly obliged to you, and to all 
 who have come forward at the call of their country. 
 
 I wish it might be more generally and universally under- 
 stood what the country is now engaged in.. We have, as all 
 will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to 
 be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this 
 form of Government and every form of human right is en- 
 dangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved in 
 this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in 
 this struggle the question whether your children and my chil- 
 dren shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say this in 
 order to impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, 
 that no small matter should divert us from our great purpose. 
 
 20th. (To General B. F. Butler.) Please allow Judge 
 Snead to go to his family on Eastern Shore or give me some 
 good reason why not. 
 
 22nd. (To the 1 66th Ohio Regiment.) I most always 
 feel inclined, when I happen to say anything to soldiers, to 
 impress upon them, in a few brief remarks, the importance of 
 success in this contest. It is not merely for the day, but for all 
 time to come, that we should perpetuate for our children's 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 427 
 
 children that great and free government which we have enjoyed 
 all our lives. I beg you to remember this, not merely for my 
 sake, but for yours. I happen, temporarily, to occupy this 
 White House. I am a living witness that any one of your 
 children may look to come here as my father's child has. It is 
 in order that each one of you may have, through this free 
 government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair 
 chance for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence ; that you 
 may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its 
 desirable human aspirations — it is for this the struggle should 
 be maintained, that we may not lose our birthright — not only 
 for one, but for two or three years, if necessary. The nation 
 is worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel. 
 
 23rd. This morning, as for some days past, it seems ex- 
 ceedingly probable that this administration will not be re- 
 elected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the 
 President-elect as to save the Union between the election and 
 the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such 
 ground that he can not possibly save it afterward.* 
 
 24th. (To Henry J. Raymond.) (Not sent or used.) 
 You will proceed forthwith and obtain, if possible, a conference 
 for peace with Honorable Jefferson Davis, or any person by 
 him authorized for that purpose. You will address him in en- 
 tirely respectful terms, at all events, and in any that may be 
 indispensable to secure the conference. At said conference 
 you will propose, on behalf of this government, that upon the 
 restoration of the Union and the national authority the war 
 shall cease at once, all remaining questions to be left for adjust- 
 ment by peaceful modes. If this be accepted, hostilities to 
 cease at once. If it be not accepted, you will then request to 
 be informed what terms, if any, embracing the restoration of 
 the Union would be accepted. If any such be presented you 
 in answer, you will forthwith report the same to this govern- 
 
 *See p. 436. 
 
428 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 ment, and await further instructions. If the presentation of 
 any terms embracing the restoration of the Union be declined, 
 you will then request to be informed what terms of peace 
 would be accepted; and, on receiving any answer, report the 
 same to this government, and await further instructions. 
 
 September 1st. It is represented to me that there are at 
 Rock Island, 111., as rebel prisoners of war, many persons of 
 Northern and foreign birth who are unwilling to be exchanged 
 and sent South, but who wish to take the oath of allegiance 
 and enter the military service of the Union. 
 
 Colonel Huidekoper, on behalf of the people of some parts 
 of Pennsylvania, wishes to pay the bounties the government 
 would have to pay to proper persons of this class, have them 
 enter the service of the United States, and be credited to the 
 localities furnishing the bounty money. He will therefore 
 proceed to Rock Island, ascertain the names of such persons 
 (not including any who have attractions Southward), and 
 telegraph them to the Provost-Marshal General here, where- 
 upon direction will be given to discharge the persons named 
 upon their taking the oath of allegiance ; and then upon the 
 official evidence being furnished that they shall have been 
 duly received and mustered into the service of the United 
 States, their number will be credited as may be directed by 
 Colonel Huidekoper. 
 
 (To Stanton who protests vehemently against an order of 
 Lincoln for enlistment of prisoners of war who wish to enter 
 the Union Army.) 
 
 Mr. Secretary, I reckon you'll have to execute the order. 
 
 (Stanton: Mr. President, I can not do it.) 
 
 Mr. Secretary, it will have to be done. 
 
 (The order is executed.)* 
 
 3rd. (Proclamation.) The signal success that divine 
 Providence has recently vouchsafed to the operations of the 
 
 *Date conjectural. 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 429 
 
 United States fleet and army in the harbor of Mobile, and the 
 reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan, and 
 the glorious achievements of the army under Major-General 
 Sherman, in the State of Georgia, resulting in the capture of 
 the city of Atlanta, call for devout acknowledgment to the 
 Supreme Being, in whose hands are the destinies of nations. 
 It is, therefore, requested that on next Sunday, in all places of 
 worship in the United States, thanksgiving be offered to Him 
 for His mercy in preserving our national existence against the 
 insurgent rebels who have been waging a cruel war against the 
 Government of the United States for its overthrow ; and also 
 that prayer be made for Divine protection to our brave soldiers 
 and their leaders in the field, who have so often and so gallantly 
 periled their lives in battling with the enemy ; and for blessings 
 and comfort from the Father of Mercies to the sick, wounded, 
 and prisoners, and to the orphans and widows of those who 
 have fallen in the service of their country, and that He will 
 continue to uphold the Government of the United States 
 against all the efforts of public enemies and secret foes. 
 
 4th. (To Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney.) I have not forgotten, 
 probably never shall forget, the very impressive occasion when 
 yourself and friends visited me on a Sabbath forenoon, two 
 years ago ; nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year 
 later, ever been forgotten. In all it has been your purpose to 
 strengthen my reliance in God. I am much indebted to the 
 good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers 
 and consolation, and to no one of them more than to yourself. 
 The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, 
 though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them 
 in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this ter- 
 rible war long before this, but God knows best, and has ruled 
 otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom, and our 
 own error therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in 
 the best lights He gives us, trusting that so working still con- 
 
430 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 duces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He intends some 
 great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal 
 could make, and no mortal could stay. 
 
 Your people — the Friends — have had, and are having, very 
 great trials. On principle and faith opposed to both war and 
 oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. 
 In this hard dilemma some have chosen one horn and some 
 the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, 
 I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can, in my own 
 conscience, under my oath to the law. That you believe this, 
 I doubt not, and, believing it, I shall still receive for our coun- 
 try and myself your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven. 
 
 8th. (To Mrs. Lincoln.) All well, including Tad's pony 
 and the goats. Mrs. Colonel Dimmick died night before last. 
 Bob left Sunday afternoon. Said he did not know whether 
 he should see you. 
 
 1 2th. (To General U. S. Grant.) Sheridan and Early are 
 facing each other at a dead-lock. Could we not pick up a regi- 
 ment here and there, to the number of, say ten thousand men, 
 and quietly but suddenly concentrate them at Sheridan's camp 
 and enable him to make a strike? This is but a suggestion. 
 
 ipth. (To General W. T. Sherman.) The State election 
 of Indiana occurs on the nth of October, and the loss of it, 
 to the friends of the Government, would go far toward losing 
 the whole Union cause. The bad effect upon the November 
 election, and especially the giving the State government to 
 those who will oppose the war in every possible way, are too 
 much to risk, if it can possibly be avoided. The draft proceeds, 
 notwithstanding its strong tendency to lose us the State. Indi- 
 ana is the only important State, voting in October, whose sol- 
 diers can not vote in the field. Anything you can safely do to 
 let her soldiers, or any part of them, go home and vote at the 
 State election will be greatly in point. They need not remain 
 for the Presidential election, but may return to you at once. 
 
age 55] 'AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 431 
 
 This is in no sense an order, but is merely intended to impress 
 you with the importance, to the army itself, of your doing 
 all you safely can, yourself being the judge of what you can 
 safely do. 
 
 (To J. S. Ten Eyck.) Doctor J. R. Freese, now editor of 
 a leading Union journal in New Jersey, resided for a time in 
 Illinois, where and when I made his acquaintance, and since 
 when I have enjoyed much of his friendship. He is some- 
 what wounded with me now, that I do not recognize him as 
 he thinks I ought. I wish to appoint him a provost-marshal in 
 your State. May I have your approval ? 
 
 20th. (To Sheridan.) Have just heard of your great vic- 
 tory. God bless you all, officers and men. Strongly inclined 
 to come up and see you. 
 
 2 1 st. (To General E. R. S. Canby.) General Baily of 
 Rapides Parish, Louisiana, is vouched to me as entirely trust- 
 worthy, and appeals to me in behalf of the people of his 
 region, who he says are mostly Union people, and are in great 
 destitution — almost absolute starvation. He says their condi- 
 tion is greatly aggravated by General Banks' expedition up 
 Red River, last spring, in reliance upon which they mostly 
 took the oath of allegiance. 
 
 Of course what General Baily asks is permission to carry 
 provisions to them. 
 
 This I will not give without your consent, but I will thank 
 you to hear and consider their case, and do for them the best 
 you can, consistently with the interests of the public service. 
 
 22nd. (To General U. S. Grant.) I send this as an ex- 
 planation to you, and to do justice to the Secretary of War. 
 I was induced, upon pressing application, to authorize the 
 agents of one of the districts of Pennsylvania to recruit in one 
 of the prison depots in Illinois, and the thing went so far be- 
 fore it came to the knowledge of the Secretary that, in my 
 judgment, it could not be abandoned without greater evil than 
 
432 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 would follow its going through. I did not know at the time 
 that you had protested against that class of thing being done; 
 and I now say that while this particular job must be completed, 
 no other of the sort will be authorized without an understand- 
 ing with you, if at all. The Secretary of War is wholly 
 free of any part in this blunder. 
 
 23rd. (To Postmaster-General Blair.) You have gener- 
 ously said to me, more than once, that whenever your resig- 
 nation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. The 
 time has come. You very well know that this proceeds from 
 no dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially. 
 Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any 
 friend, and while it is true that the war does not so greatly add 
 to the difficulties of your department as to those of some 
 others, it is yet much to say, as I most truly can, that in the 
 three years and a half during which you have administered 
 the general postof fice, I remember no single complaint against 
 you in connection therewith. 
 
 24th. Congress having authorized the purchase for the 
 United States of the products of States declared in insurrec- 
 tion, and the Secretary of the Treasury having designated New 
 Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Pensacola, Port Royal, Beaufort, 
 (North Carolina), and Norfolk, as places of purchase, and 
 with my approval appointed agents and made regulations under 
 which said products may be purchased, therefore : 
 
 All persons except such as may be in the civil, military, 
 or naval service of the government, having in their possession 
 any products of States or part of States declared in insurrec- 
 tion, which said agents are authorized to purchase, and all 
 persons owning or controlling such products therein are author- 
 ized to convey such products to either of the places which have 
 been hereby or may hereafter be designated as places of pur- 
 chase, and such products so destined shall not be liable to 
 detention, seizure, or forfeiture while in transitu, or in store 
 waiting transportation. 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 433 
 
 (To William Dennison.) Mr. Blair has resigned and T 
 appoint you Postmaster-General. Come on immediately. 
 
 29th. (To General U. S. Grant.) I hope it will have no 
 constraint on you, nor do harm any way, for me to say I am a 
 little afraid lest Lee sends reinforcements to Early, and thus 
 enables him to turn upon Sheridan. 
 
 October ipth. (Response to a Serenade.)' Something 
 said by the Secretary of State in his recent speech at Auburn, 
 has been construed by some into a threat that if I shall be 
 beaten at the election I will, between then and the end of my 
 constitutional term, do what I may be able to ruin the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention ad- 
 journed, not sine die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a 
 particular individual, as the intimation of a purpose that if 
 their nominee shall be elected he will at once seize control of 
 the Government. I hope the good people will permit themselves 
 to suffer no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling to 
 maintain the Government, not to overthrow it. I am strug- 
 gling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I 
 therefore say that if I shall live, I shall remain President until 
 the 4th of next March, and that whoever shall be constitu- 
 tionally elected in November shall be duly installed as Presi- 
 dent on the 4th of March, and that in the interval I shall do 
 my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voy- 
 age shall start with the best possible chance of saving the ship. 
 
 20th. It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national 
 life another year, defending us with His guardian care against 
 unfriendly designs from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His 
 mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our 
 own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to 
 favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their 
 camps, and our sailors on the rivers and seas, with unusual 
 health. He has largely augmented our free population by 
 
434 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us 
 new sources of wealth, and has crowned the labor of our 
 workingmen in every department of industry with abundant 
 rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and in- 
 spire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and reso- 
 lution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we 
 have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause 
 of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes 
 of an intimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and 
 afflictions. 
 
 Second election as President. 
 
 November 8th. It is a little singular that I, who am not a 
 vindictive man, should always have been before the people for 
 elections marked for their bitterness — always but once. When 
 I came to Congress it was a quiet time. But always besides 
 that the contests in which I have been present have been 
 marked by great rancor. 
 
 pth. (Response to a Serenade.) I earnestly believe that 
 the consequences of this day's work, if it be as you assure me, 
 and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting advantage, if 
 not to the very salvation, of the country. I can not at this hour 
 say what has been the result of the election; but whatever it 
 may be, I have no desire to modify this opinion, 
 that all who have labored to-day in behalf of the Union have 
 wrought for the best interests of the country and the world, 
 not only for the present, but for all future ages. I am thankful 
 to God for this approval of the people. But, while deeply grate- 
 ful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, 
 my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do 
 not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no 
 pleasure to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to 
 the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to 
 stand by free government and the rights of humanity. 
 
age S5] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 435 
 
 10th. (Speaking of the reply to Serenade.) Not very 
 graceful, but I am growing old enough not to care much for 
 the manner of doing things. 
 
 It has long been a grave question whether any government, 
 not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong 
 enough to maintain its existence in great emergencies. On 
 this point the present rebellion brought our Government to a 
 severe test, and a Presidential election occurring in regular 
 course during the rebellion, added not a little to the strain. 
 
 If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of their 
 strength by the rebellion, must they not fail when divided and 
 partially paralyzed by a political war among themselves ? But 
 the election was a necessity. We can not have free govern- 
 ment without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to 
 forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to 
 have already conquered and ruined us. The strife of the 
 election is but human nature practically applied to the facts of 
 the case. What has occurred in this case must ever recur in 
 similar cases. Human nature will not change. In any future 
 great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall 
 have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and 
 as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this as 
 philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs 
 to be revenged. 
 
 But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable 
 strife, has done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's 
 government can sustain a national election in the midst of a 
 great civil war. Until now it has not been known to the world 
 that this was a possibility. 
 
 But the rebellion continues, and now that the election is 
 over, may not all having a common interest reunite in a com- 
 mon effort to save our common country? For my own part, 
 I have striven and shall strive to avoid placing any obstacle in 
 the way. So long as I have been here I have not willingly 
 
436 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply sen- 
 sible to the high compliment of a reelection, and duly grateful, 
 as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my countrymen 
 to a right conclusion, as I think, for their good, it adds nothing 
 to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed 
 by the result. 
 
 nth. (At a Cabinet Meeting.) Gentlemen, do you re- 
 member last summer I asked you to sign your names on the 
 back of a paper of which I did not show you the inside? This 
 is it. Now, Mr. Hay, see if you can get this open without tear- 
 ing it. 
 
 (Hay opens it and produces the memorandum of August 
 22nd.*) 
 
 You will remember that this was written at a time, six 
 days before the Chicago nominating convention, when as yet 
 we had no adversary, and seemed to have no friends. I then 
 solemnly resolved on the course of action indicated above. I 
 resolved in case of the election of General McClellan, being- 
 certain that he would be the candidate, that I would see him 
 and talk matters over with him. I would say, "General, the 
 election has demonstrated that you are stronger, have more 
 influence with the American people than I. Now let us get 
 together, you with your influence, and I with all the executive 
 power of the government, and try to save the country. You 
 raise as many troops as you possibly can for this final trial, and 
 I will devote all my energy to assisting and pushing the war." 
 
 (Stanton: And the general would answer you, "Yes, yes," 
 and the next day when you saw him again and pressed these 
 views upon him he would say "Yes, yes," and so on forever; 
 and would have done nothing at all.) 
 
 At least, I should have done my duty, and have stood clear 
 before my own conscience. 
 
 14th. Few things since I have been here have impressed 
 
 *See p. 427t 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 437 
 
 me more painfully than what, for four or five months past, 
 has appeared a bitter military opposition to the new State gov- 
 ernment of Louisiana. Of course, in the condition of things 
 in New Orleans, the military must not be thwarted by the civil 
 authority; but when the Constitutional Convention, for what 
 it deems a breech of privilege arrests an editor, in no way con- 
 nected with the military, the military necessity for insulting the 
 Convention and forcibly discharging the editor, is difficult to 
 perceive. Neither is the military necessity for protecting the 
 people against paying large salaries, fixed by a legislature of 
 their own choosing, very apparent. Equally difficult to per- 
 ceive is the military necessity for forcibly interposing to pre- 
 vent a bank from loaning its own money to the State. These 
 things, if they have occurred, are, at the best, no better than 
 gratuitous hostility. I wish I could hope that they may be 
 shown to not have occurred. To make assurance against mis- 
 understanding, I repeat that in the existing condition of things 
 in Louisiana, the military must not be thwarted by the civil 
 authority; and I add that on points of difference the com- 
 manding general must be judge and master. But I also add 
 that in the exercise of this judgment and control, a purpose, 
 obvious, and scarcely unavowed, to transcend all military 
 necessity, in order to crush out the civil government, will not 
 be overlooked. 
 
 2 1 st. (To Mrs. Bixby.) I have been shown in the files of 
 the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of 
 Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have 
 died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and 
 fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to 
 beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But 
 I can not refrain from tendering to you the consolation that 
 may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. 
 I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of 
 your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of 
 
438 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to 
 have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.* 
 
 (To John Philips.) I have heard of the incident at the 
 polls in your town, in which you acted so honorable a part, and 
 I take the liberty of writing to you to express my personal 
 gratitude for the compliment paid me by the suffrage of a citi- 
 zen so venerable. 
 
 The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose 
 days have already been extended an average lifetime beyond 
 the Psalmist's limit, can not but be valuable and fruitful. It 
 is not for myself only, but for the country which you have in 
 your sphere served so long and so well, that I thank you. 
 
 December 3rd. (On Thursday of last week, two ladies 
 from Tennessee came before the President asking the release 
 of their husbands held as prisoners of war at Johnson's Island. 
 They were put off until Friday when they came again; and 
 were again put off until Saturday. At each of the interviews 
 one of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious man. 
 On Saturday the President ordered the release of the prisoners, 
 when he said to this lady,) You say your husband is a re- 
 ligious man ; tell him when you meet him, that I say I am not 
 much of a judge of religion ; but that, in my opinion, the 
 religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their govern- 
 ment, because, as they think, that government does not suffi- 
 ciently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other 
 men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can 
 get to heaven. 
 
 6th. The public purpose to reestablish and maintain the 
 national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchange- 
 able. The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. 
 On careful consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems 
 
 *With regard to this letter there is a curious confusion. The files of 
 the War Department do not corroborate its facts. Its authenticity has been 
 challenged. It was included in the collection of Nicholay and Hay, who 
 ardently believed it genuine. 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 439 
 
 to me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader 
 could result in any good. He would accept nothing short of 
 severance of the Union — precisely what we will not and can not 
 give. His declarations to this effect are explicit and oft re- 
 peated. He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no 
 excuse to deceive ourselves. He can not voluntarily reaccept 
 the Union ; we can not voluntarily yield it. Between him and 
 us the issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue 
 which can only be tried by war, and decided by victory. If we 
 yield we are beaten; if the Southern people fail him, he is 
 beaten. Either way it would be a victory and defeat following 
 war. What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent 
 cause, is not necessarily true of those who follow. Although 
 he can not reaccept the Union, they can. Some of them, we 
 know, already desire peace and reunion. The number of such 
 may increase. They can at any moment have peace simply by 
 laying down their arms and submitting to the national author- 
 ity under the Constitution. After so much the government 
 could not, if it would, maintain war against them. The loyal 
 people would not sustain or allow it. If questions should re- 
 main, we would adjust them by the peaceful means of legis- 
 lation, conference, courts, and votes, operating only in 
 constitutional and lawful channels. Some certain, and other 
 possible, questions are, and would be, beyond the executive 
 power to adjust — as, for instance, the admission of members 
 into Congress, and whatever might require the appropriation 
 of money. The executive power itself would be greatly dimin- 
 ished by the cessation of actual war. Pardons and remissions 
 of forfeitures, however, would still be within executive con- 
 trol. In what spirit and temper this control would be exercised, 
 can be fairly judged of by the past. 
 
 (To a close personal friend of Chase.) I have something 
 to tell you that will make you happy. I have just sent Mr. 
 Chase word that he is to be appointed Chief -Justice, and you 
 are the first man I have told of it. 
 
440 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 (Mr. President, this is an exhibition of magnanimity and 
 patriotism that could hardly be expected of any one. After 
 what he has said against your administration, which has un- 
 doubtedly been reported to you, it was hardly to be expected 
 that you would bestow the most important office within your 
 gift on such a man.) 
 
 Although I may have appeared to you and to Mr. Sumner 
 to have been opposed to Chase's appointment, there never has 
 been a moment since the breath left old Taney's body that I 
 did not conceive it to be the best thing to do to appoint Mr. 
 Chase to that high office; and to have done otherwise I should 
 have been recreant to my convictions of duty to the Republican 
 party and to the country. 
 
 As to his talk about me, I do not mind that. Chase is, on 
 the whole, a pretty good fellow and a very able man. His 
 only trouble is that he has "the White House fever" a little 
 too bad, but I hope this may cure him and that he will be 
 satisfied. 
 
 (Response to a Serenade.) I believe I shall never be 
 old enough to speak without embarrassment when I have 
 nothing to talk about. I have no good news to tell you, and 
 yet I have no bad news to tell. We have talked of elections 
 until there is nothing more to say about them. The most inter- 
 esting news we now have is from Sherman. We all know 
 where he went in, but I can't tell where he will come out. I 
 will now close by proposing three cheers for General Sherman 
 and his army. 
 
 12th. As to cotton. By the external blockade, the price 
 is made certainly six times as great as it was. And yet the 
 enemy gets through at least one-sixth part as much in a given 
 period, say a year, as if there were no blockade, and receives 
 as much for it as he would for a full crop in time of peace. 
 The effect, in substance, is, that we give him six ordinary crops 
 without the trouble of producing any but the first; and at the 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 441 
 
 same time leave his fields and his laborers free to produce pro- 
 visions. You know how this keeps up his armies at home and 
 procures supplies from abroad. For other reasons we can not 
 give up the blockade, and hence it becomes immensely impor- 
 tant to us to get the cotton away from him. Better give him 
 guns for it than let him, as now, get both guns and ammunition 
 for it. But even this only presents part of the public interest 
 to get out cotton. Our finances are greatly involved in the 
 matter. The way cotton goes now carries so much gold out of 
 the country as to leave us paper currency only, and that so far 
 depreciated as that for every hard dollar's worth of supplies we 
 obtain, we contract to pay two and a half hard dollars here- 
 after. This is much to be regretted; and, while I believe we 
 can live through it, at all events it demands an earnest effort 
 on the part of all to correct it. And if pecuniary greed can be 
 made to aid us in such effort, let us be thankful that so much 
 good can be got out of pecuniary greed. 
 
 26th. (To General W. T. Sherman.) Many, many thanks 
 for your Christmas gift, the capture of Savannah. When you 
 were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anx- 
 ious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, 
 and remembering that "nothing risked, nothing gained, " I did 
 not interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor 
 is all yours, for I believe none of us went further than to ac- 
 quiesce. And taking the work of General Thomas into the 
 count, as it should be taken, it is indeed a great success. Not 
 only does it afford the obvious and immediate military ad- 
 vantages; but in showing to the world that your army could 
 be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new 
 service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing 
 force of the whole — Hood's army — it brings those who sat in 
 darkness to see a great light. But what next? I suppose it 
 will be safe if I leave General Grant and yourself to decide. 
 
 Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole 
 army, officers and men. 
 
442 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 27th. (To Doctor John Maclean.) I have the honor to 
 acknowledge the reception of your note of the 20th of Decem- 
 ber, conveying the announcement that the trustees of the Col- 
 lege of New Jersey had conferred upon me the degree of Doc- 
 tor of Laws. 
 
 The assurance conveyed by this high compliment that the 
 course of the Government which I represent has received the 
 approval of a body of gentlemen of such character and intelli- 
 gence, in this time of public trial is most grateful to me. 
 
 Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon 
 this continent is involved in the issue of our contest. Among 
 the most gratifying proofs of this conviction is the hearty de- 
 votion everywhere exhibited by our schools and colleges to the 
 national cause. 
 
 I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduct 
 to the preservation of those institutions under which alone we 
 can expect good government, and in its train, sound learning, 
 and the progress of the liberal arts. 
 
 30th. (To Colonel A. J. Warner.) It is said that you 
 were on the court-martial that tried John Lennon, and that 
 you are disposed to advise his being pardoned and sent to his 
 regiment. If this be true, telegraph me to that effect at once. 
 
 T have never united myself to any church, because I have 
 found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental reserva- 
 tions, to the long, complicated statement of Christian doctrine 
 which characterize their Articles of Belief and Confessions of 
 Faith. When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole 
 qualification for membership, the Saviour's condensed state- 
 ment of both Law and Gospel, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy 
 mind, and thy neighbor as thyself," that church will I join 
 with all my heart and all my soul.* 
 
 ^Date approximate. 
 
1865 
 
 January 18th. (To F. P. Blair, Sr.) You having shown 
 me Mr. Davis' letter to you of the 12th instant, you may say to 
 him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall continue, 
 ready to receive any agent whom he, or any other influential 
 person now resisting the national authority may informally 
 send to me with the view of securing peace to the people of our 
 one common country. 
 
 (To General U. S. Grant.) Please read and answer this 
 letter as though I was not President, but only a friend. My 
 son, now in his twenty-second year, having graduated at 
 Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it ends. 
 I do not wish to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a 
 commission, to which those who have already served long are 
 better entitled and better qualified to hold. Could he, without 
 embarrassment to you or detriment to the service, go into your 
 military family with some nominal rank, I, and not the public, 
 furnishing his necessary means? If no, say so without the 
 least hesitation, because I am as anxious and as deeply inter- 
 ested that you shall not be encumbered as you can be yourself. 
 
 28th. To-day Mr. Blair tells me that on the 21st instant 
 he delivered to Mr. Davis the original, of which the within 
 [letter to Blair of January 18th] is a copy, and left it with 
 him; that at the time of delivering it Mr. Davis read it over 
 twice in Mr. Blair's presence, at the close of which he (Mr. 
 Blair) remarked that the part about "our one common country" 
 related to the part of Mr. Davis' letter about "the two coun- 
 tries," to which Mr. Davis replied that he so understood it. 
 
 443 
 
444 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 30th. (To Major T. T. Eckert.) You will proceed with 
 the documents placed in your hands, and on reaching General 
 Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by the Sec- 
 retary of War; then, by General Ord's assistance, procure an 
 interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any 
 of them. Deliver to him or them the paper on which your own 
 letter is written. Note on the copy which you retain the time 
 of delivery and to whom delivered. Receive their answer in 
 writing, waiting a reasonable time for it, and which, if it con- 
 tain their decision to come through without further condition, 
 will be your warrant to ask General Ord to pass them through 
 as directed in the letter of the Secretary of War to him. If, 
 by their answer they decline to come, or propose other terms, 
 do not have them pass through. And this being your whole 
 duty, return and report to me. 
 
 (To Lieutenant-General Grant.) The President desires 
 that you will please procure for the bearer, Major Thomas T. 
 Eckert, an interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and 
 Campbell, and if, on his return to you, he request it, pass them 
 through our lines to Fortress Monroe, by such route and under 
 such military precautions as you may deem prudent, giving 
 them protection and comfortable quarters while there, and that 
 you let none of this have any effect upon your movements or 
 plans. 
 
 (To Secretary Seward.) You will proceed to Fortress 
 Monroe, Va., there to meet and informally confer with Messrs. 
 Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the basis of my letter to 
 F. P. Blair, Esq., on January 18, 1865, a copy of which you 
 have. 
 
 You will make known to them that three things are in- 
 dispensable, fo-wit : 
 
 1st The restoration of the national authority throughout 
 all the States. 
 
 2nd. No receding by the Executive of the United States 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 445 
 
 on the slavery question from the position assumed thereon in 
 the late annual message to Congress and in preceding docu- 
 ments. 
 
 3rd. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the 
 war and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. 
 
 You will inform them that' all propositions of theirs, not 
 inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed 
 upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they 
 may choose to say and report it to me. 
 
 You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. 
 
 February 1st. (To General U. S. Grant.) Let nothing 
 which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military 
 movements or plans. 
 
 The President of the United States has just signed the res- 
 olution of Congress, submitting to the Legislatures of the sev- 
 eral States a proposition to amend the Constitution of the 
 United States. 
 
 2nd. (To Secretary Seward.) Induced by a despatch 
 from General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe as soon as I 
 can come. 
 
 3rd. On the night of the 2nd I reached Hampton Roads, 
 found the Secretary of State and Major Eckert on a steamer 
 anchored offshore, and learned of them that the Richmond 
 gentlemen were on another steamer also anchored offshore, in 
 the Roads; and that the Secretary of State had not yet seen or 
 communicated with them. 
 
 On the morning of the 3rd the three gentlemen — Messrs. 
 Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell — came aboard of our steamer, 
 and had an interview with the Secretary of State and myself, 
 of several hours' duration. No question of preliminaries to 
 the meeting was then and there made or mentioned. No other 
 person was present; no papers were exchanged or produced; 
 and it was, in advance, agreed that the conversation was to be 
 informal and verbal merely. On our part the whole substance 
 
446 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 of the instructions to the Secretary of State was stated and 
 insisted upon, and nothing was said inconsistent therewith; 
 while, by the other party, it was not said that in any event or 
 on any condition, they ever would consent to reunion, and yet 
 they equally omitted to declare they never would so consent. 
 They seemed to desire a postponement of that question, and 
 the adoption of some other course first, which, as some of 
 them seemed to argue, might or might not lead to reunion, but 
 which course, we thought, would amount to an indefinite post- 
 ponement. The conference ended without result. 
 
 (To Mr. Hunter, in the conference of February 3rd, reply- 
 ing to remarks on the constitutional relations of Charles I and 
 the parliamentary army.) Upon questions of history I must 
 refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and 
 I don't pretend to be right. My only distinct recollection of 
 the matter is that Charles lost his head. 
 
 (Hunter makes the point that the entire Southern Society, 
 without compulsory slave labor, would be irremediably ruined.) 
 
 I waited for Seward to answer that argument, but as he 
 was silent, I at length said: "Mr. Hunter, you ought to know 
 a great deal better about this argument than I, for you have 
 always lived under the slave system. I can only say, in reply 
 to your statement of the case, that it reminds me of a man out 
 in Illinois, by the name of Case, who undertook, a few years 
 ago, to raise a very large herd of hogs. It was a great trouble 
 to feed them, and how to get around this was a puzzle to him. 
 At length he hit on the plan of planting an immense field of 
 potatoes, and, when they were sufficiently grown, he turned 
 the whole herd into the field, and let them have full swing, thus 
 saving not only the labor of feeding the hogs, but also that of 
 digging the potatoes. Charmed with his sagacity, he stood 
 one day leaning against the fence, counting his hogs, when a 
 neighbor came along. 
 
 "Well, well," said he, "Mr. Case, this is all very fine. Your 
 
age 55] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 447 
 
 hogs are doing very well just now, but you know out here in 
 Illinois the frost comes early, and the ground freezes for a 
 foot deep. Then what you going to do?" 
 
 This was a view of the matter which Mr. Case had not 
 taken into account. Butchering time for hogs was 'way on in 
 December or January ! He scratched his head, and at length 
 stammered : '"Well, it may come pretty hard on their snouts, 
 but I don't see but that it will be root, hog, or die." 
 
 4th. (To the officer in command at Johnson's Island, 
 Ohio.) Parole Lieutenant John A. Stephens, prisoner of war, 
 to report to me here in person, and send him to me. It is in 
 pursuance of an arrangement I made yesterday with his uncle, 
 Honorable A. H. Stephens. Acknowledge receipt. 
 
 5//z. (Proposed Draft of Message to Congress.) I re- 
 spectfully recommend that a joint resolution, substantially as 
 follows, be adopted so soon as practicable by your honorable 
 bodies : "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives 
 of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That 
 the President of the United States is hereby empowered, in 
 his discretion, to pay $400,000,000 to the States of Alabama, 
 Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, 
 Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, in 
 the manner and on the conditions following, to wit: The 
 payment to be made in six per cent, government bonds, and 
 to be distributed among the said States pro rata on their re- 
 spective slave populations as shown by the census of i860, and 
 no part of said sum to be paid unless all resistance to the 
 national authority shall be abandoned and cease, on or before 
 the first day of April next; and upon such abandonment and 
 ceasing of resistance one half of said sum to be paid in manner 
 aforesaid, and the remaining half to be paid only upon the 
 amendment of the National Constitution recently proposed by 
 Congress becoming valid law, on or before the first day of 
 
448 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 July next, by the action thereon of the requisite number of 
 States," 
 
 The adoption of such resolution is sought with a view to 
 embody it, with other propositions, in a proclamation looking 
 to peace and reunion. 
 
 Whereas, a joint resolution has been adopted by Congress, 
 in the words following, to wit : 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known, that on 
 the conditions therein stated, the power conferred on the execu- 
 tive in and by said joint resolution will be fully exercised; that 
 war will cease and armies be reduced to a basis of peace ; that 
 all political offenses will be pardoned ; that all property, except 
 slaves, liable to confiscation or forfeiture, will be released 
 therefrom, except in cases of intervening interests of third par- 
 ties ; and that liberality will be recommended to Congress upon 
 all points not lying within executive control. 
 
 [Indorsement.] 
 
 To-day these papers, which explain themselves, were drawn 
 up and submitted to the Cabinet and unanimously disapproved 
 by them. 
 
 8 th. (To Congress.) The joint resolution entitled: 
 "Joint resolution declaring certain States not entitled to repre- 
 sentation in the Electoral College," has been signed by the 
 Executive, in deference to the view of Congress implied in its 
 passage and presentation to him. In his own view, however, 
 the two Houses of Congress, convened under the twelfth 
 article of the Constitution, have complete power to exclude 
 from counting all electoral votes deemed by them to be illegal, 
 and it is not competent for the Executive to defeat or obstruct 
 that power by a veto, as would be the case if his action were at 
 all essential in the matter. He disclaims all right of the 
 Executive to interfere in any way in the matter of canvassing 
 
age 56] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 449 
 
 or counting electoral votes, and he also disclaims that, by 
 signing said resolution, he has expressed any opinion on the 
 recitals of the preamble, or any judgment of his own upon the 
 subject of the resolution. 
 
 pth. (To a Committee of Congress, Reporting the Result 
 of the Electoral Count.) With deep gratitude to my country- 
 men for this mark of their confidence; with a distrust of my 
 own ability to perform the duty required under the most 
 favorable circumstances, and now rendered doubly difficult by 
 existing national perils ; yet with a firm reliance on the strength 
 of our free government, and the eventual loyalty of the people 
 to the just principles upon which it is founded, and above all 
 with an unshakable faith in the Supreme Ruler of nations, I 
 accept this trust. Be pleased to signify this to the respective 
 Houses of Congress. 
 
 10th. (To A. H. Stephens.) According to our agreement, 
 your nephew, Lieutenant Stephens, goes to you bearing this 
 note. Please, in return, to select and send to me that officer 
 of the same rank imprisoned at Richmond, whose physical con- 
 dition most urgently requires his release. 
 
 1 2th. (To General J. Pope.) I understand that provost- 
 marshals in different parts of Missouri are assuming to de- 
 cide that the conditions of bonds are forfeited, and therefore 
 are seizing and selling property to pay damages. This, if 
 true, is both outrageous and ridiculous. Do not allow it. The 
 courts, and not provost-marshals, are to decide such questions 
 unless when military necessity makes an exception. 
 
 20th. (To James Gordon Bennett.) I propose, at some 
 convenient and not distant day, to nominate you to the United 
 States Senate as Minister to France. 
 
 It seems that there is now no organized military force of 
 the enemy in Missouri, and yet that destruction of property 
 and life is rampant everywhere. Is not the cure for this within 
 
450 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 easy reach of the people themselves? It can not but be that 
 every man not naturally a robber or cut-throat would gladly 
 put an end to this state of things. A large majority in every 
 locality must feel alike upon this subject; and if so, they only 
 need to reach an understanding, one with another. Each 
 leaving all others alone solves the problem; and surely each 
 would do this but for his apprehension that others will not 
 leave him alone. Can not this mischievous distrust be removed ? 
 Let the neighborhood meetings be everywhere called and held 
 of all entertaining a sincere purpose for mutual security in the 
 future, whatever they may heretofore have thought, said, or 
 done about the war, or about anything else. Let all such meet, 
 and, waiving all else, pledge each to cease harassing others, 
 and to make common cause against whoever persists in making, 
 aiding, or encouraging further disturbance. The practical 
 means they will best know how to adopt and apply. At such 
 meetings old friendships will cross the memory, and honor and 
 Christian charity will come in to help. 
 
 March 3rd. (To Grant, from the Secretary of War.) 
 The President directs me to say that he wishes you to have 
 no conference with General Lee unless it be for capitulation 
 of General Lee's army, or on some minor or purely military 
 matter. He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, 
 discuss, or confer upon any political questions. Such questions 
 the President holds in his own hands, and will submit them to 
 no military conferences or conventions. Meanwhile you are 
 to press to your utmost your military advantages. 
 
 4th. (Second Inaugural Address.) At this second 
 appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office, there 
 is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the 
 first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be 
 pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now at the expiration of 
 four years, during which public declarations have been con- 
 stantly called forth on every point and phase of the great con- 
 
age 56] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 451 
 
 test 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 dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural 
 address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether 
 to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the 
 city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the 
 Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties dep- 
 recated 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, even by war ; 
 while the government claimed no right to do more than to 
 restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 
 
 Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the 
 duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that 
 the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the 
 conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, 
 and a result less fundamental and astounding. 
 
 Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, and 
 each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange 
 that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in 
 wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but 
 
452 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both 
 could not be answered. That of neither has been answered 
 fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. Woe unto the 
 world because of offences for it must needs be that offences 
 come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. If 
 we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences 
 which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which 
 having continued through His appointed time, He now wills 
 to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this 
 terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence 
 came, shall we discern therein any departure from those Divine 
 attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to 
 Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 
 mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God 
 wills that it continue 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, The judgments of the Lord 
 are true and righteous altogether. 
 
 With malice toward none; with charity for all; with 
 firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us 
 strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up the nation's 
 wounds ; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and 
 for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and 
 cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all 
 nations. 
 
 $th. (To Charles Sumner.) I should be pleased for you to 
 accompany us to-morrow evening at ten o'clock on a visit of 
 half an hour to the inaugural ball. I inclose a ticket. Our 
 carriage will call for you at half -past nine. 
 
 6th. (To Secretary Seward.) I have some wish that 
 Thomas D. Jones, of Cincinnati, and John J. Piatt, now in 
 this city, should have some of those moderate sized consulates 
 
age 56] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 453 
 
 which facilitate artists a little in their profession. Please 
 watch for chances. 
 
 9th. (To Grant.) I see your despatch to the Secretary of 
 War objecting to rebel prisoners being allowed to take the oath 
 and go free. Supposing that I am responsible for what is done 
 in this way, I think fit to say that there is no general rule of 
 action, allowing prisoners to be discharged merely on taking 
 the oath. What has been done is that members of Congress 
 come to me, from time to time, with lists of names, alleging 
 that from personal knowledge, and evidence of reliable persons, 
 they are satisfied that it is safe to discharge the particular 
 persons named on the lists, and I have ordered their discharge. 
 These members are chiefly from the border States, and those 
 they get discharged are their neighbors and neighbors' sons. 
 They tell me that they do not bring to me one-tenth of the 
 names which are brought to them, bringing only such as their 
 knowledge or the proof satisfied them about. I have, on the 
 same principle, discharged some on the representations of oth- 
 ers than members of Congress, as, for instance, Governor 
 Johnson, of Tennessee. The number I have discharged has 
 been rather larger than I liked, reaching, I should think, an 
 average of fifty a day since the recent general exchange com- 
 menced. On the same grounds, last year, I discharged quite a 
 number at different times, aggregating perhaps a thousand, 
 Missourians and Kentuckians; and their members, returning 
 here since the prisoners' return to their homes, report to me 
 only two cases of proving false. Doubtless some more have 
 proved false, but, on the whole, I believe what I have done in 
 this way has done good, rather than harm. 
 
 15th. (To Thurlow Weed.) Every one likes a compliment. 
 Thank you for yours on my little notification speech and on 
 the recent inaugural address. 
 
 I expect the latter to wear as well as, perhaps better than, 
 anything I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately 
 
454 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has 
 been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. 
 To deny it, however, in this case is to deny that there is a God 
 governing the world. 
 
 It is a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as 
 whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on 
 myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it. 
 
 i?th. There are but few views or aspects of this great 
 war upon which I have not said or written something whereby 
 my own opinions might be known. But there is one — the re- 
 cent attempt of our erring brethren, as they are sometimes 
 called, to employ the negro to fight for them. I have neither 
 written nor made a speech on that subject, because that was 
 their business, not mine, and if I had a wish upon the subject, 
 I had not the power to introduce it, or make it effective. The 
 great question with them was whether the negro, being put 
 into the army will fight for them. I do not know, and there- 
 fore can not decide. They ought to know better than me. I 
 have in my lifetime heard many arguments why the negroes 
 ought to be slaves ; but if they fight for those who would keep 
 them in slavery, it would be a better argument than any I have 
 yet heard. He who will fight for that ought to be a slave. 
 
 I will say one thing in regard to the negroes being employed 
 to fight for them. I do know he can not fight and stay at 
 home and make bread too. And as one is about as important as 
 the other to them, I don't care which they do. I am rather in 
 favor of having them try them as soldiers. They lack one 
 vote of doing that, and I wish I could send my vote over the 
 river so that I might cast it in favor of allowing the negro to 
 fight. But they can not fight and work both. We must now 
 see the bottom of the enemy's resources. They will stand out 
 as long as they can, and if the negro will fight for them they 
 must allow him to fight. They have drawn upon their last 
 branch of resources, and we can now see the bottom. 
 
age 5 6] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 455 
 
 (Senator Sumner calls on the President with regard to 
 official business.) 
 
 Come to me when I open shop in the morning; I will have 
 the order written and you shall see it. 
 
 (Sumner: When do you open shop?) 
 
 At nine o'clock. 
 
 18th. (Sumner arrives early and receives the desired 
 order. Lincoln asks Sumner if he is familiar with the writings 
 of Petroleum V. Naseby. Sumner is not.) 
 
 I must initiate you. 
 
 (Lincoln reads aloud from Naseby.) 
 
 For the genius to write these things I would gladly give 
 up my office. 
 
 I am unwilling for the sentence [of two contractors] 
 to stand, and be executed, to any extent in this case. In the 
 absence of a more adequate motive than the evidence discloses, 
 I am wholly unable to believe in the existence of criminal or 
 fraudulent intent on the part of the men of such well established 
 good character. If the evidence went as far to establish a guilty 
 profit of one or two hundred thousand dollars, as it does of one 
 or two hundred dollars, the case would, on the question of guilt, 
 bear a far different aspect. That on this contract, involving 
 some twelve thousand dollars, the contractors would plan, and 
 attempt to execute a fraud which, at the most could profit them 
 only one or two hundred, or even one thousand dollars, is to 
 my mind beyond the power of rational belief. That they did 
 not, in such a case, make far greater gains, proves that they 
 did not, with guilty or fraudulent intent, make at all. The 
 judgment and sentence are disapproved, and declared null, and 
 the defendants are fully discharged. 
 
 20th. (To General U. S. Grant.) Your kind invitation 
 received. Had already thought of going immediately after the 
 next rain. Will go sooner if any reason for it. Mrs. L. and 
 
456 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 a few others will probably accompany me. Will notify you of 
 exact time, once it shall be fixed upon. 
 
 23rd. (To Grant.)' We start to you at 1 p. m. to-day. 
 May lie over during the dark hours of the night. Very small 
 party of us. 
 
 25th. City Point. 
 
 Arrived here all safe about 9 p. m. yesterday. No war 
 news. General Grant does not seem to know very much about 
 Yeatman, but thinks very well of him so far as he does know. 
 
 General Lee has sent the Russell letter back, concluding, as 
 I understand from Grant, that their dignity does not admit of 
 their receiving the document from us. Robert just now tells 
 me there was a little rumpus up the line this morning, ending 
 about where it began. 
 
 (To Stanton.) I am here within five miles of the scene 
 of this morning's action. I have nothing to add to what 
 General Meade reports, except that I have seen the prisoners 
 myself, and they look like there might be the number he 
 states — 1600. 
 
 30th. 7:30 P. m. I begin to feel that I ought to be at 
 home, and yet I dislike to leave without seeing nearer to the 
 end of General Grant's present movement. He has now been 
 out since yesterday morning, and although he has not been 
 diverted from his programme, no considerable effort has yet 
 been produced, so far as we know here. Last night at 10:15 
 when it was dark as a rainy night without a moon could be, a 
 furious cannonade, soon joined in by a heavy musketry fire, 
 opened near Petersburg and lasted about two hours. The 
 sound was very distinct here as also were the flashes of the 
 guns upon the clouds. It seemed to me a great battle, but the 
 older hands here scarcely noticed it, and sure enough this 
 morning it was found that very little had been done. 
 
 j 1st. At 12 130 p. m. to-day General Grant telegraphed me 
 as follows; 
 
age 56] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 457 
 
 There has been much hard fighting this morning. The enemy 
 drove our left from near Dabney's house back well toward the 
 Boydton plank road. We are now about to take the offensive 
 at that point, and I hope will more than recover the lost 
 ground. 
 
 Later he telegraphed again as follows : 
 
 Our troops, after being driven back to the Boydton plank 
 road, turned and drove the enemy in turn and took the White 
 Oak road, which we now have. This gives us the ground 
 occupied by the enemy this morning. I will send you a rebel 
 flag captured by our troops in driving the enemy back. There 
 have been four flags captured to-day. 
 
 Judging by the two points from which General Grant 
 telegraphs, I infer that he moved his headquarters about one 
 mile since he sent the first of the two despatches. 
 
 (To an officer who complained that Sherman had threat- 
 ened to shoot him.) Threatened to shoot you! Well (in a 
 stage whisper) if I were you, I would keep away from him; if 
 he threatens to shoot, I would not trust him, for I believe he 
 would do it. 
 
 April 1st. (To the Secretary of War.) I have had two 
 despatches from General Grant since my last to you, but they 
 contain little additional, except that Sheridan also had pretty 
 hot work yesterday, that infantry was sent to his support during 
 the night, and that he (Grant) has not since heard from 
 Sheridan. Mrs. Lincoln has started home, and I will thank you 
 to see that our coachman is at the Arsenal wharf at 8 o'clock 
 to-morrow morning, there to wait until she arrives. 
 
 (To Grant.) Yours showing Sheridan's success of to-day 
 is just received and highly appreciated. Having no great deal 
 to do here, I am still sending the substance of your despatches 
 to the Secretary of War. 
 
 2nd. At 4:30 p. m. to-day General Grant telegraphs that 
 he has Petersburg completely enveloped from river below to 
 
458 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 river above, and has captured, since he started last Wednesday, 
 about 12,000 prisoners and 50 guns. He suggests that I shall 
 go out and see him in the morning, which I think I will do. 
 
 Despatches are frequently coming in. All going finely. 
 Parke, Wright, and Ord's lines are extending from the Appo- 
 mattox to Hatcher's Run. They have all broken through the 
 enemy's intrenched lines, taking some forts, guns, and prisoners. 
 Sheridan, with his own cavalry, the Fifth Corps, and part of 
 the Second, is coming in from the west on the enemy's flank. 
 Wright is already tearing up the South Side Railroad. 
 
 (To Grant.) Allow me to tender to you and all with you 
 the nation's thanks for this additional and magnificent success. 
 At your kind suggestion I think I will meet you to-morrow. 
 
 3rd. 8 130 A. M. This morning General Grant reports 
 Petersburg evacuated, and he is confident that Richmond also 
 is. He is pushing forward to cut off, if possible, the retreating 
 rebel army. 
 
 5 p. M. Yours received. Thanks for your caution, but I 
 have already been to Petersburg. Stayed with General Grant an 
 hour and a half and returned here. It is certain now that 
 Richmond is in our hands, and I think I will go there to- 
 morrow. I will take care of myself. 
 
 (Speaking of a conversation with Grant who wanted to 
 know what he should do if Davis was captured.) About 
 that, I told him the story of an Irishman who had taken the 
 pledge of Fathew Matthew. He became terribly thirsty, applied 
 to a bar-tender for a lemonade, and while it was being pre- 
 pared whispered to him, "And couldn't ye put a little brandy 
 in it all unbeknown to meself ?" I told Grant if he could let 
 Jeff Davis escape all unbeknown to himself, to let him go. I 
 didn't want him. 
 
 $th. Richmond. 
 
 (Unsigned Memorandum given to J. A. Campbell.) As 
 
age 56] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 459 
 
 to peace, I have said before, and now repeat, that three things 
 are indispensable : 
 
 1. The restoration of the national authority throughout the 
 United States. 
 
 2. No receding by the executive of the United States on 
 the slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the 
 late annual message, and in preceding documents. 
 
 3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war, 
 and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the government. 
 That all propositions coming from those now in hostility to the 
 government, not inconsistent with the foregoing, will be re- 
 spectfully considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere 
 liberality. 
 
 I now add that it seems useless for me to be more specific 
 with those who will not say that they are ready for the in- 
 dispensable terms, even on conditions to be named by them- 
 selves. If there be any who are ready for these indispensable 
 terms, on any condition whatever, let them say so, and state 
 their conditions, so that the conditions can be known and con- 
 sidered. It is further added, that the remission of confiscation 
 being within the executive power, if the war be now further 
 persisted in by those opposing the government, the making of 
 confiscated property at least to bear the additional cost will 
 be insisted on, but that confiscations (except in case of third 
 party intervening interests) will be remitted to the people of any 
 state which shall now promptly and in good faith withdraw its 
 troops from further resistance to the government. What is 
 now said as to the remission of confiscation has not reference 
 to supposed property in slaves. 
 
 6th. City Point. (To Grant.) Secretary Seward was 
 thrown from his carriage yesterday and seriously injured. 
 This, with other matters, will take me to Washington soon. 
 I was at Richmond yesterday and the day before, when and 
 where Judge Campbell, who was with Messrs. Hunter and 
 
460 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 Stephens in February, called on me and made such represen- 
 tations as induced me to put in his hands an informal paper, 
 repeating the propositions in my letter of instructions to Mr. 
 Seward, which you remember, and adding that if the war now 
 be further persisted in by the rebels confiscated property shall, 
 at the least, bear the additional cost; and that confiscation shall 
 be remitted to the people of any State which will now, promptly 
 and in good faith, withdraw its troops and other support from 
 resistance to the Government. Judge Campbell thought it not 
 impossible that the rebel Legislature of Virginia would do the 
 latter if permitted, and accordingly I addressed a private letter 
 to General Weitzel, with permission to Judge Campbell to see 
 it, telling him (General W.) that if they attempt this, to permit 
 and protect them, unless they attempt something hostile to the 
 United States, in which case to give them notice and time to 
 leave, and to arrest any remaining after such time. 
 
 I do not think it very probable that anything will come of 
 this, but I have thought best to notify you so that if you should 
 see signs you may understand them. 
 
 (To General G. Weitzel.) It has been intimated to me that 
 the gentlemen who have acted as the legislature of Virginia, 
 in support of the rebellion, may now desire to assemble at 
 Richmond and take measures to withdraw the Virginia troops 
 and other supports from resistance to the General Government. 
 If they attempt it, give them permission and protection, until, 
 if at all, they attempt some action hostile to the United States, 
 in which case you will notify them, give them reasonable time 
 to leave, and at the end of which time arrest any who remain. 
 Allow Judge Campbell to see this, but do not make it public. 
 
 ?th. (To General U. S. Grant.) General Sheridan says 
 "If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender." Let 
 the thing be pressed. 
 
 April pth. Surrender of Lee, 
 
age 56] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 461 
 
 (While walking through a lonely country graveyard in Vir- 
 ginia with Mrs. Lincoln.) Mary, you are younger than I; you 
 will survive me. When I am gone, lay my remains in some 
 quiet place like this.* 
 
 nth. At Washington. (Last Public Address.) 
 We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of 
 heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the 
 surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a 
 righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous expression can not 
 be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom 
 all blessings flow must not be forgotten. 
 
 A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and 
 will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part 
 give us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors 
 must not be parceled out with others. I myself was near the 
 front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the 
 good news to you; but no part of the honor for plan or 
 execution is mine. To General Grant, his skilful officers and 
 brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was 
 not in reach to take active part. By these recent successes the 
 reinauguration of the national authority — reconstruction — 
 which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed 
 much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great 
 difficulty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, 
 there is no authorized organ for us to treat with — no one man 
 has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We 
 simply must begin with and mold from disorganized and 
 discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment 
 that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, 
 manner, and measure of reconstruction. As a general rule, 
 I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, 
 wishing not to be provoked by that to which I can not properly 
 offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it 
 
 *Date conjectural. 
 
462 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 comes to my knowledge that I am much censured for some 
 supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new 
 State Government of Louisiana. . . . 
 
 As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. 
 But as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat 
 this as a bad promise, and break it whenever I shall be con- 
 vinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest; but I 
 have not yet been so convinced. I have been shown a letter 
 on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer 
 expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely 
 fixed on the question whether the seceded States, so called, 
 are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonish- 
 ment to his regret were he to learn that since I have found 
 professed Union men endeavoring to make that question, I 
 have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As 
 appears to me, that question has not been, nor yet is, a 
 practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it 
 thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other 
 than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, 
 whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad as the 
 basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all — a merely 
 pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded States, 
 so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the 
 Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and 
 military, in regard to those States, is to again get them into 
 that proper relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but 
 in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering 
 whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than 
 with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be 
 utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us 
 all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper 
 practical relations between these States and the Union, and 
 each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether 
 in doing the acts he brought the State from without into the 
 
AGE S 6] AN" AUTOBIOGRAPHY 463 
 
 Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having 
 been out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on 
 which the new Louisiana Government rests, would be more 
 satisfactory to all if it contained fifty thousand or thirty 
 thousand, or even twenty thousand, instead of only about 
 twelve thousand, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some 
 that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I 
 would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very 
 intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still, 
 the question is not whether the Louisiana Government, as it 
 stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be 
 wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and 
 disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical 
 relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding 
 her new State Government? Some twelve thousand voters in 
 the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance 
 to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the 
 State, held elections, organized a State Government, adopted 
 a Free-State Constitution, giving the benefit of public schools 
 equally to black and white, and empowering the legislature to 
 confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their 
 Legislature has already voted to ratify the Constitutional 
 Amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery 
 throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are 
 thus committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom in the 
 State — committed to the very things, and nearly all the things, 
 the nation wants — and they ask the nation's recognition and its 
 assistance to make good their committal. Now if we reject and 
 spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. 
 We, in effect, say to the white man, "You are worthless or 
 worse ; we will neither help you, nor be helped by you." To the 
 blacks we say, "This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, 
 hold to your lips we will dash from you, and leave you to the 
 chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some 
 
464 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 vague and undefined when, where, and how." If this course, 
 discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any 
 tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with 
 the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the 
 contrary, we recognize and sustain the new Government of 
 Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. We encourage 
 the hearts and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to adhere 
 to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight 
 for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete 
 success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, is 
 inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same 
 end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not 
 attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward 
 it than by running backward over them? Concede that the 
 new government of Louisiana is only what it should be as the 
 egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching 
 the egg than by smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana, we 
 also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the 
 National Constitution. To meet this proposition it has been 
 argued that no more than three- fourths of those States which 
 have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the 
 amendment. I do not commit myself against this further than 
 to say that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure 
 to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by three- 
 fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestion- 
 able. I repeat the question, Can Louisiana be brought into 
 proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or 
 by discarding her new State Government? What has been 
 said of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. And 
 yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such 
 important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and 
 withal so new and unprecedented is the whole case that no 
 exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to de- 
 tails and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would 
 
age 56] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 465 
 
 surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may 
 and must be inflexible. In the present situation, as the phrase 
 goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to 
 the people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail 
 to act when satisfied that action will be proper. 
 
 1 2th. (To General G. Weitzel.) I have seen your despatch 
 to Colonel Hardie about the matter of prayers. I do not re- 
 member hearing prayers spoken of while I was in Richmond; 
 but I have no doubt you have acted in what appeared to you to 
 be the spirit and temper manifested by me while there. Is there 
 any sign of the rebel legislature coming together on the under- 
 standing of my letter to you ? If there is any such sign, inform 
 me what it is. If there is no such sign you may withdraw 
 the offer. 
 
 1 2th. (Talking with Mrs. Lincoln about a dream he had 
 had in which he beheld a catafalque in the East Room of the 
 White House and heard a voice crying — The President has 
 been assassinated.) The (next) time I opened the Bible, 
 strange as it may appear, it was at the twenty-eighth chapter 
 of Genesis which relates the wonderful dream Jacob had. I 
 turned to other passages and seemed to encounter a dream or a 
 vision wherever I looked. I kept on turning the leaves of the 
 Old Book, and everywhere my eye fell upon passages recording 
 matters strangely in keeping with my own thoughts — super- 
 natural visitations, dreams, visions, etc. (When Lamon seizes 
 the text and preaches upon the danger of assassination, Lin- 
 coln laughs at his downright foolishness.)* 
 
 (To Major-General Weitzel, Richmond, Virginia.) I have 
 just seen Judge Campbell's letter to you of the 7th. He 
 assumes, as appears to me, that I have called the insurgent 
 legislature of Virginia together, as the rightful Legislature 
 of the State, to settle all differences with the L T nited States. I 
 
 *Date conjectural. 
 
466 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 have done no such thing. I spoke of them, not as a legislature, 
 but as "the gentlemen who have acted as the Legislature of 
 Virginia in support of the rebellion." I did this on purpose 
 to exclude the assumption that I was recognizing them as a 
 rightful body. I dealt with them as men having power de 
 facto to do a specific thing, to wit : "to withdraw the Virginia 
 troops and other support from resistance to the General 
 Government/' for which, in the paper handed Judge Campbell, 
 I promised a specific equivalent, to wit: a remission to the 
 people of the State, except in certain cases, of the confiscation 
 of their property. I meant this, and no more. Inasmuch, how- 
 ever, as Judge Campbell misconstrues this, and is still pressing 
 for an armistice, contrary to the explicit statement of the paper 
 I gave him, and particularly as General Grant has since cap- 
 tured the Virginia troops, so that giving a consideration for 
 their withdrawal is no longer applicable, let my letter to you 
 and the paper to Judge Campbell both be withdrawn, or coun- 
 termanded, and he be notified of it. 
 
 Do not allow them to assemble, but if any have come, allow 
 them safe return to their homes. 
 
 13th. (To General Creswell who wants a pardon for a 
 Confederate friend of his.) Creswell, you make me think 
 of a lot of young folks who once started out Maying. To 
 reach their destination, they had to cross a shallow stream, and 
 did so by means of an old flat-boat. When the time came to 
 return, they found to their dismay that the old scow had dis- 
 appeared. They were in sore trouble, and thought over all 
 manner of devices for getting over the water, but without 
 avail. 
 
 After a time, one of the boys proposed that each fellow 
 should pick up the girl he liked best and wade over with her. 
 The masterly proposition was carried out, until all that were 
 left upon the island was a little short chap and a great, long, 
 gothic-built, elderly lady. 
 
 
age 56] AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 467 
 
 Now, Creswell, you are trying to leave me in the same 
 predicament. You fellows are all getting your own friends 
 out of this scrape; and you will succeed in carrying off one 
 after another, until nobody but Jeff Davis and myself will be 
 left on the island, and then I won't know what to do. How 
 should I feel? How should I look, lugging him over? 
 
 I guess the way to avoid such an embarrassing situation is 
 to let them all out at once.* 
 
 14th. (To the Cabinet.) I hope there will be no persecu- 
 tion, no bloody work after the war is over. None need expect 
 me to take any part in hanging or killing them. Frighten 
 them out of the country, let down the bars, scare them off. 
 Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our 
 resentment if we expect harmony and union. There is too 
 much desire on the part of our very good friends to be masters, 
 to interfere with and dictate to those states, to treat the people 
 not as fellow citizens ; there is too little respect for the right. 
 I don't sympathize with those feelings. 
 
 (Addressing Secretary Welles while recounting a strange 
 dream he had had the night before.) It was in your depart- 
 ment. It related to the water. I seemed to be in a singular 
 and indescribable vessel that was moving with great rapidity 
 toward a dark and indefinite shore. I had this same dream 
 preceding the firing on Sumter, the battles of Bull Run, Antie- 
 tam, Gettysburg, Stone River, Vicksburg, Wilmington and 
 others. Though victory has not always followed it, some im- 
 portant event has. I have no doubt, this time, that a battle has 
 taken place or is about to be fought and that Johnson will be 
 beaten. My dream must relate to Sherman. My thoughts are 
 in that direction and I know of no other very important event 
 which is very likely just now to occur. 
 
 *Date conjectural. 
 
468 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 (To Charles A. Dana, who reports that Jacob Thompson, 
 Confederate secret agent, is known to be in Portland.) What 
 does Stanton say? 
 
 (Dana: Arrest him.) 
 
 Well, I rather guess not. When you have an elephant on 
 hand and he wants to run away, better let him run. 
 
 (To Lamon, who has asked him to sign a pardon.) Do 
 you know how the Patagonians eat oysters ? 
 
 (No, I do not, Mr. Lincoln.) 
 
 It is their habit to open them as fast as they can and throw 
 the shells out of the window, and when the pile of shells grows 
 to be higher than the house, why, they pick up stakes and 
 move. Now, Lamon, I felt like beginning a new pile of par- 
 dons, and I guess this is a good one to begin on. 
 
 (While driving with Mrs. Lincoln.) We have had a hard 
 time since we came to Washington, but the war is over, and 
 with God's blessings, we may hope for four years of peace 
 and happiness, and then we will go back to Illinois and pass the 
 rest of our lives in quiet. We have laid by some money, and 
 during this time, we will save up more, but shall not have 
 enough to support us. We will go back to Illinois. I will 
 open a law office at Springfield or Chicago and practise law, 
 and at least do enough to help give us a livelihood. 
 
 (To General Van Alen.) I intend to adopt the advice 
 of my friends and use due precaution ... I thank you 
 for the assurance you give me that I shall be supported by 
 conservative men like yourself, in the efforts I may make to 
 restore the Union, so as to make it, to use your language, a 
 Union of hearts and hands as well as of States. 
 
 Assassinated. 
 
 15th. Death of Lincoln. 
 
TABLE OF SOURCES 
 
TABLE OF SOURCES 
 
 Key to Abbreviations Used 
 
 Paragraph numbers refer to quoted matter only. Paragraphs of 
 editorial comment are not included in the numbering. 
 BARTON: The Life of Abraham Lincoln, by William E. Barton, 1925. 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis. 
 CARPENTER: Six Months in the White House, by F. B. Carpenter, 
 
 1866. Hurd and Houghton, New York. 
 C. C. W. : Report of Committee on Conduct of War. (S. N. — serial 
 
 number; Supp. — Supplement.) 
 CENTURY: The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by John 
 
 G. Nicolay and John Hay, 1886. The Century Company, New York. 
 CRAWFORD: The Genesis of the Civil War, by Samuel Wylie Craw- 
 ford, 1887. Charles L. Webster & Companv, New York. 
 CROSBY: Life of Abraham Lincoln, by F. Crosby, 1865. J. A. Potter, 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 CURTIS : The True Abraham Lincoln, by William Eleroy Curtis, 1902. 
 
 J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 
 GODWIN : A Biography of William Cullen Bryant with Extracts from 
 
 His Private Correspondence, by Parke Godwin, 1883. D. Appleton 
 
 & Company, New York. 
 GORHAM : Life and Public Services of Edzvin M. Stanton, by George C. 
 
 Gorham, 1899. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 
 H. & W. : Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, by 
 
 William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, 1892. D. Appleton & 
 
 Company, New York. 
 HAY MS. : Diary of John Hay. Photostat copies in the library of the 
 
 Massachusetts Historical Society, accessible only by special per- 
 mission. 
 LAMON : The Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Ward H. Lamon, 1872. 
 
 James R. Osgood & Company, Boston. 
 McC. REPT. : Report on the Organization and Campaigns of the Army of 
 
 the Potomac, by George B. McClellan, 1864. Sheldon and Company, 
 
 New York. 
 M. M. : The Martyr's Monument, Being the Patriotism and Political 
 
 Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln as Exhibited in His Speeches, Orders 
 
 and Proclamations from the Presidential Canvass of i860 until His 
 
 Assassination, April 14, 1865. 1865. The American News Company, 
 
 New York. 
 N. R. : Naval Records of the War of the Rebellion. 
 O. R. : Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. 
 PA. HIS. SOC: Administrations. Pennsylvania Historical Society. 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 POL. D. : Political Debates between Honorable Abraham Lincoln and 
 
 Honorable Stephen A. Douglas, i860. Follett, Foster and Co., 
 
 Columbus, Ohio. 
 PUTNAM : The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by George 
 
 Haven Putnam and Doctor Arthur Brooks Lapsley, 1888- 1906. 
 R. R.: Rebellion Record, edited by Frank Moore, 1861-1868. G. P. 
 
 Putnam's Sons, New York. 
 
 471 
 
472 TABLE OF SOURCES 
 
 RANKIN : Intimate Character Sketches of Abraham Lincoln, by Henry 
 
 B. Rankin, 1924. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 
 RAYMOND: The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, by 
 
 Henry J. Raymond, 1865. Derby and Miller, New York. 
 REMINISCENCES: Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, by Distinguished 
 
 Men of His Time, edited by Allen Thorndike Rice, 1886. North 
 
 American Publishing Company, New York. 
 SANDBURG: Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years, by Carl Sandburg, 
 
 1926. Harcourt, Brace & Company, New York. 
 SCHUCKERS: Life and Public Services of Chief Justice Chase, by 
 
 Jacob W. Schuckers, 1874. D. Appleton & Company, New York. 
 SEN, DOCS. : Senate Documents. 
 SEWARD : Seward at Washington as Senator and Secretary of State, 
 
 by Frederic W. Seward, 1890. Derby and Miller, New York. 
 STINE: History of the Army of the Potomac, by James Henry Stine, 
 
 1892. J. B. Rogers Printing Company, Philadelphia. 
 TARBELL: The Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Ida M. Tarbell, 1895. 
 
 The Macmillan Company, New York. 
 TARBELL, FOOTSTEPS: In the Footsteps of the Lincolns, by Ida M. 
 
 Tarbell, 1924. Harper & Brothers, New York. 
 TRACY: Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln, brought together by 
 
 Gilbert A. Tracy, 1917. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. 
 WARDEN : An Account of the Private Life and Public Services of 
 
 Salmon Portland Chase, by Robert P. Warden, 1874. Wilstach, 
 
 Baldwin & Company, Cincinnati. 
 WEED: Memoir of Thurloiv Weed, by Thurlow Weed Barnes, 1884. 
 
 Houghton Mifflin & Company, New York. 
 WEIK: The Real Lincoln, by Jesse W. Weik, 1922. Houghton Mifflin 
 
 Company, New York. 
 WELLES : Diary of Gideon Welles, with an Introduction by John T. 
 
 Morse, Jr., 191 1. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. 
 
 Note: When Tarbell is starred and no volume number given, it always 
 refers to Volume IV, Appendix. 
 
 Where no paragraph number is given the reference is to the entire page. 
 
 In some cases matter contained in the standard editions of Lincoln's 
 writings is here attributed to other sources, either because the latter are 
 primary or because of considerations of copyright. 
 

 
 TABLE OF 
 
 SOURCES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Century VI, 24 
 
 21 
 
 I 
 
 Tarbell,* 75 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Lamon, Appendix 
 
 
 2 f 3 
 
 Lamon, 182 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 Century VI, 39 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 » 209 
 
 
 2 
 
 " 26 
 
 22 
 
 i-3 
 
 t> „ 
 
 
 3 
 
 Weik, 17 
 
 
 4 
 
 182 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 Tarbell I, 17 
 
 
 5 
 
 Century VI, 33 
 
 
 2 
 
 Curtis, 60 
 
 
 6-9 
 
 Tarbell I, 148 
 „ „ „ 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century VI, 26 
 
 23 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 V, 287 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 Lamon, 178 
 
 4 
 
 i 
 
 Curtis, 60 
 
 24 
 
 1-3 
 
 178-179 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VI, 27 
 
 25 
 
 1,2 
 
 " 179 
 
 
 3 
 
 " 28 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell,* 74-75 
 
 
 4 
 
 " 27 
 
 26 
 
 1 
 
 Lamon, 183 
 
 
 5 
 
 V, 287 ; VI, 27 
 
 27 
 
 1 
 
 « » 
 
 
 6 
 
 H. & W. I, 40 
 
 28 
 
 i-5 
 
 Putnam I, 148 
 
 
 7,8 
 
 Curtis, 59 
 
 29 
 
 1 
 
 ,, „ ,, 
 
 5 
 
 i 
 
 " 35-36 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tracy, 4 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VI, 151 
 
 30 
 
 1,2 
 
 Lamon, 316 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 Lamon, Appendix 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Century I, 146 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Curtis, 24 
 
 31 
 
 i-3 
 
 Putnam VII, 373 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century VI, 28 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century I, 150 
 
 
 5 
 
 " V, 287 
 
 32 
 
 1-3 
 
 " 157 
 
 7 
 
 I 
 
 VI, 28 
 
 
 4 
 
 Tracy, 6 
 
 
 2 
 
 " 29 
 
 33 
 
 1,2 
 
 Putnam I, 242 
 
 
 3 
 
 " 29-30 
 
 34 
 
 1 
 
 Century I, 177 
 
 8 
 
 1,2 
 
 ,, J, ,J JJ 
 
 35 
 
 1,2 
 
 ,, „ „ 
 
 
 3 
 
 " 31 
 
 36 
 
 1 
 
 ft y* a 
 
 
 4 
 
 " 27-28 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam I, 252 
 
 
 5 
 
 Lamon, 125 
 
 37 
 
 1-3 
 
 Lamon, 244 
 
 
 6 
 
 129 
 
 38 
 
 1-4 
 
 „ ,, 
 
 9 
 
 i 
 
 ,» », 
 
 
 5 
 
 246 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Century VI, 31 
 
 39 
 
 i-3 
 
 " 246-247 
 
 
 4 
 
 ". I. 9 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 83 
 
 
 5 
 
 Curtis, 230 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam I, 262 
 
 10 
 
 i 
 
 Lamon, 307 
 
 4i 
 
 1,2 
 
 „ „ „ 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 61 
 
 42 
 
 1,2 
 
 Lamon, 247 
 
 
 3 
 
 I, 87 
 
 43 
 
 1,2 
 
 Lamon, 248-249 
 
 ii 
 
 i 
 
 Century VI, 31 
 
 44 
 
 1 
 
 ,, „ ,, 
 
 
 2 
 
 * 31-32 
 
 
 2 
 
 " 251 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell I, 96 
 
 45 
 
 1,2 
 
 » „ 
 
 12 
 
 I 
 
 Curtis, 62 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tracy, 7 
 
 
 2 
 
 33 
 
 46 
 
 1 
 
 « ,> 
 
 
 3 
 
 » „ 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Lamon, 263-265 
 
 13 
 
 I 
 
 Century VI, 32 
 
 47 
 
 1-6 
 
 ,, „ >r 
 
 
 2 
 
 » >> >> 
 
 48 
 
 i-3 
 
 „ „ „ 
 
 
 3 
 
 T *■ " 33 
 
 
 4 
 
 t> ^.^^ 
 252 
 
 
 4 
 
 Lamon, 164 
 
 49 
 
 1 
 
 Weik, 58 
 
 14 
 
 i 
 
 Lamon, 162 
 
 
 2 
 
 Barton I, 265 
 
 
 2-6 
 
 186 
 
 50 
 
 1,2 
 
 Tracy, 9 
 
 
 7 
 
 H. & W. I, 168 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell,* 84 
 
 15 
 
 1-3 
 
 >> ,» » }> >> 
 
 
 4 
 
 Lamon, 270 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 Tarbell I, 129-130 
 
 5i 
 
 !,2 
 
 270-271 
 
 16 
 
 I 
 
 Lamon, 181 
 
 52 
 
 I 
 
 Tracy, 2 
 
 17 
 
 I 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 
 2 
 
 Lamon, 272 
 
 
 2 
 
 " 177 
 
 53 
 
 I 
 
 Tracy, 12 
 
 18 
 
 !,2 
 
 >» >> 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 89 
 
 19 
 
 I 
 
 Tarbell,* 75 
 
 54 
 
 I 
 
 Tarbell I, 202 
 
 20 
 
 ir3 
 
 Tarbell,* 75 
 
 55 
 
 I 
 
 Tracy, 14 
 
 473 
 
474 
 
 
 TABLE OF 
 
 SOURCES 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 
 55 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 90 
 
 87 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam II, 
 
 136 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Century I, 283 
 
 
 3 
 
 Lamon, 309 
 
 
 56 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 91 
 
 88 
 
 1 
 
 „ „ 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century I, 285 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century II, 
 
 124 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell I, 204-205 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Tarbell IV, 
 
 96 
 
 57 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 91 
 
 89 
 
 1 
 
 Tracy, 39 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tracy, 18 
 
 90 
 
 1 
 
 >> » 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell, Footsteps, 271 
 
 
 2-5 
 
 Putnam II, 
 
 142 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century I, 288 
 
 9i 
 
 1 
 
 Century II, 
 
 129 
 
 58 
 
 1 
 
 » „ „ 
 
 
 2 
 
 Rankin, 76 
 
 
 59 
 
 
 ,, „ „ 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century II, 
 
 135 
 
 60 
 
 1,2 
 
 Tarbell,* 91-92 
 
 92 
 
 1 
 
 )> >> 
 
 }} 
 
 
 3 
 
 Lamon, 283 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tracy, 42 
 
 
 61 
 
 i-3 
 
 278 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century II, 
 
 140 
 
 
 4 
 
 279 
 
 93 
 
 
 « >) 
 
 ,, 
 
 62 
 
 1 
 
 280 
 
 94 
 
 1 
 
 » }> 
 
 »> 
 
 
 2 
 
 282 
 
 
 2 
 
 Lamon, 337 
 
 
 63 
 
 
 » » 
 
 95 
 
 1,2 
 
 336 
 
 
 64 
 
 
 » „ 
 
 
 3 
 
 Putnam II, 
 
 151 
 
 65 
 
 1,2 
 
 Tracy, 26 
 
 
 4 
 
 Lamon, 338 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century I, 321 
 
 96 
 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 
 66 
 
 1,2 
 
 Lamon, 280 
 
 97 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell, 99 
 
 
 67 
 
 
 283 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam II, 
 
 163 
 
 68 
 
 
 „ » 
 
 08 
 
 
 „ » 
 
 » 
 
 69 
 
 1,2 
 
 291 
 
 99 
 
 1 
 
 „ ,> 
 
 », 
 
 70 
 
 1 
 
 H. & W. II, 282 
 
 
 2 
 
 Lamon, 341-342 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tracy, 27 
 
 100 
 
 1 
 
 „ „ 
 
 }j 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Lamon, 293 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 9c 
 
 \ 
 
 7i 
 
 1 
 
 IOI 
 
 1 
 
 Century II, 
 
 180 
 
 
 2 
 
 294 
 
 102 
 
 1 
 
 Lamon, Appendix 
 
 72 
 
 1,2 
 
 „ » 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Century II, 
 
 184 
 
 
 3 
 
 " 295 
 
 103 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam II, 
 
 178 
 
 73 
 
 I 
 
 Lamon, 295 
 
 104 
 
 
 „ „ 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Century II, 55 
 
 105 
 
 
 », ,, 
 
 » 
 
 74 
 
 
 Sandburg, 393 
 
 106 
 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 » 
 
 75 
 
 1-3 
 
 396 
 
 107 
 
 
 „ „ 
 
 ,» 
 
 
 4 
 
 Lamon, 296 
 
 108 
 
 1, 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 101 
 
 76 
 
 1 
 
 303-307 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century II, 
 
 264 
 
 77 
 
 
 » „ „ 
 
 109 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam VII 
 
 , 382 
 
 78 
 
 1,2 
 
 » » >f 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tarbell,* 101 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tracy, 34 
 
 no 
 
 I 
 
 Century II, 
 
 267 
 
 
 4 
 
 35 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 Putnam VII, 
 
 79 
 
 
 Tarbell,* 02 
 
 in 
 
 
 Century II, 
 
 279 
 
 80 
 
 1,2 
 
 Tarbell II, 18 
 
 112 
 
 
 ,, „ 
 
 274 
 
 
 3 
 
 " 19 
 
 113 
 
 
 ,, » 
 
 „ 
 
 
 4 
 
 Lamon, 308 
 
 114 
 
 1,2 
 
 Tarbell,* 101 
 
 81 
 
 
 » )> 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century XI 
 
 , 100 
 
 82 
 
 I 
 
 Century II, 97 
 
 115 
 
 1 
 
 Tracy, 59 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 " 105 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century n, 
 
 279 
 
 83 
 
 I 
 
 Tracy, 37 
 
 116 
 
 1,2 
 
 „ ,, 
 
 „ 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam II, 127 
 
 
 3 
 
 Lamon, 368 
 
 
 84 
 
 i-3 
 
 " 129 
 
 117 
 
 
 » ,, 
 
 
 85 
 
 1 
 
 Century II, no 
 
 118 
 
 i-3 
 
 Tarbell II, 
 
 60 
 
 
 2 
 
 Lamon, 309 
 
 
 4 
 
 Tracy, 61 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Putnam II, 133 
 
 119 
 
 1 
 
 ,» ,» 
 
 
 86 
 
 1,2 
 
 Century II, 118 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Century II, 
 
 288 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell,* 95 
 
 120 
 
 
 Lamon 373 
 
 
 87 
 
 1 
 
 H. & W. II, 299 
 
 121 
 
 I 
 
 Tarbell, Footsteps, 314 
 
TABLE OF SOURCES 
 
 475 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 121 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tracy, 66 
 
 122 
 
 I 
 
 Weik, 211 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Century II, 289 
 
 
 4 
 
 Tarbell,* 117 
 
 
 5 
 
 Putnam II, 277 
 
 123 
 
 
 »> ,, >> 
 
 124 
 
 1 
 
 Tracy, 69 
 
 
 2-5 
 
 Lamon, 381 
 
 
 6 
 
 Century II, 299 
 
 I2 i 
 
 126 
 
 
 Putnam II, 283 
 
 127 
 
 
 »» ,, », 
 
 128 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 119 
 
 
 2 
 
 Crosby, 440 
 
 129 
 
 
 
 130 
 
 
 « », 
 
 131 
 
 1 
 
 >, »> 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 119 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tracy, 79 
 
 132 
 
 1 
 
 " " 
 
 
 2 
 
 82 
 
 133 
 
 
 83 
 
 134 
 
 1 
 
 Rankin, 106 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century II, 262 
 
 135 
 
 1 
 
 " 358 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 " 360 
 
 
 4 
 
 " 361 
 
 136 
 
 i-3 
 
 Lamon, 399 
 
 137 
 
 1-3 
 
 ,, »> 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century XI, 104 
 
 138 
 
 
 III, 16 
 
 
 2 
 
 Pol. D., 14 
 
 139 
 
 
 „ ,, ,, 
 
 140 
 
 
 », ,, >> 
 
 141 
 
 
 » » » 
 
 142 
 
 1 
 
 » » » 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tracy, 89 
 
 143 
 
 I 
 
 " " 
 
 
 2 
 
 Pol. D., 54 
 
 144 
 
 
 »» », » 
 
 145 
 
 
 >, t, »> 
 
 146 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 129 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tracy, 90 
 
 
 3 
 
 Pol. D., 64 
 
 147 
 
 1-3 
 
 " " 65 
 
 148 
 
 1 
 
 " " 66 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century HI, 197 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell,* 129 
 
 149 
 
 1.2 
 
 Tracy, 92 
 
 150 
 
 
 Pol. D., 73 
 
 151 
 
 
 », », ,, 
 
 152 
 
 
 » „ ,» 
 
 153 
 
 1,2 
 
 »» ,, >, 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Tarbell II, 94 
 
 154 
 
 1-8 
 
 Pol. D., 87 
 
 155 
 
 
 »» »j >, 
 
 156 
 
 
 >» ,> » 
 
 157 
 
 
 »J » ?> 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 158 
 
 
 Pol. D 
 
 , S7 
 
 159 
 
 I 
 
 Tarbell, 
 
 * 130 
 
 
 2 
 
 <?entury 
 
 HI, 349 
 
 
 3 
 
 Weik, 
 
 233 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 Pol. b. 
 
 , 118 
 
 l6o 
 
 
 „ „ 
 
 " 
 
 l6l 
 
 1-6 
 
 » ,» 
 
 „ 
 
 
 7 
 
 » » 
 
 136 
 
 l62 
 
 1,2 
 
 >, »> 
 
 163 
 
 
 »> », 
 
 136 
 
 164 
 
 
 >, „ 
 
 156 
 
 165 
 
 
 >, »» 
 
 y> 
 
 166 
 
 1 
 
 ,, » 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century 
 
 IV, 2 H 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 " 
 
 " 201 
 
 167 
 
 1 
 
 >, 
 
 » » 
 
 
 2 
 
 Pol. D. 
 
 185 
 
 168 
 
 
 " " 
 
 211 
 
 169 
 
 1 
 
 », ,, 
 
 224 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 „ „ 
 
 225 
 
 170 
 
 1 
 
 >, >» 
 
 » 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 „ 
 
 234 
 
 171 
 
 1,2 
 
 " " 
 
 235 
 
 172 
 
 
 ,, », 
 
 >» 
 
 1/3 
 
 1,2 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 93 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Barton 
 
 I, 400 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 ,, 
 
 " 403 
 
 '74 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam 
 
 V, 17 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 95 
 
 175 
 
 1,2 
 
 Century 
 
 V, 95 
 
 
 3 
 
 »» 
 
 XI, 11: 
 
 
 4 
 
 M 
 
 IX, 114 
 
 
 5 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 97 
 
 176 
 
 1 
 
 " ] 
 
 31 
 
 177 
 
 1 
 
 Weik, 
 
 3 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 99 
 
 
 3 
 
 ' 
 
 100 
 
 
 4 
 
 >> 
 
 101 
 
 178 
 
 1 
 
 ,, 
 
 103 
 
 
 2 
 
 Lamgn, 
 
 422 
 
 
 3-5 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 105 
 
 
 6 
 
 Lamon, 
 
 421 
 
 179 
 
 i-4 
 
 Putnam 
 
 V, 24 
 
 180 
 
 1 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 107 
 
 181 
 
 1 
 
 Century 
 
 V, 127 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Putnam 
 
 V, 26 
 
 182 
 
 1 
 
 Pa. His 
 
 . Soc. IV, 53 
 
 183 
 
 1 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 112 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Century 
 
 V, 131 
 
 184 
 
 1 
 
 " 
 
 " 136 
 
 185 
 
 1 
 
 », 
 
 j, j» 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell, 
 
 137 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 116 
 
 
 4 
 
 Pol. D. 
 
 255 . 
 
 186 
 
 
 >> ,, 
 
 „ 
 
 m 
 
 1-3 
 
 Lamon, 
 
 423 
 
 
 4 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 116 
 
476 
 
 
 TABLE O 
 
 F SC 
 
 )UR 
 
 CES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 187 
 
 5 
 
 Century V, 257 
 
 210 
 
 3 
 
 Putnam V, 196 
 
 
 6 
 
 " 281 
 
 
 4 
 
 Weed II, 310 
 
 188 
 
 I 
 
 Putnam V, 117 
 
 211 
 
 1 
 
 >» >r ;» 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 " 1 17-120 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 Century XI, 115 
 
 
 4 
 
 Tracy, 121 
 
 
 5 
 
 Tracy, 172 
 
 189 
 
 1,2 
 
 Century XI, 115 
 
 212 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam V, 197 
 
 I90 
 
 
 Tracy, 123 
 
 
 2 
 
 " 198 
 
 191 
 
 
 >i » 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tracy, 173 
 
 192 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam V, 120 
 Century V, 292 
 
 213 
 
 1,2 
 
 » » 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 Putnam V, 200 
 
 
 3 
 
 Rankin, 178-179 
 
 
 4 
 
 Warden, 364 
 
 
 4 
 
 182 
 
 
 5 
 
 Century VI, 90 
 
 193 
 
 1-3 
 
 Lamon, 432 
 
 214 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 214 
 
 194 
 
 1 
 
 » }t 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tarbell II, 201 
 
 
 2 
 
 " 441 
 
 215 
 
 1,2 
 
 Century VI, 97 
 
 
 3 
 
 Putnam V, 156 
 
 
 3 
 
 " 91 
 
 195 
 
 1 
 
 „ » >> 
 
 
 4 
 
 Seward I, 492 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tracy, 135 
 
 2l6 
 
 1 
 
 >> t, >> 
 
 
 4 
 
 136 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tracy, 173 
 
 I96 
 
 1 
 
 Century VI, 7 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century VI, 92 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tracy, 137 
 
 217 
 
 i-3 
 
 }> >> >» 
 
 197 
 
 I 
 
 ,, >> 
 
 
 4 
 
 Seward V, 493 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 " 138 
 
 218 
 
 1 
 
 » ,» » 
 
 198 
 
 1-4 
 
 Lamon, 441 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VI, 98 
 
 
 5 
 
 Tracy, 141 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Tracy, 175 
 
 199 
 
 i-4 
 
 142 
 
 219 
 
 i-3 
 
 Weed II, 324 
 
 
 5,6 
 
 147 
 
 
 4-6 
 
 Weik, 299 
 
 200 
 
 1 
 
 Tracy, 146 
 
 220 
 
 1 
 
 Lamon, 506 
 
 
 2 
 
 Lamon, 446 
 
 
 2 
 
 M. M., 15 
 
 
 3 
 
 Rankin, 208-209 
 
 221 
 
 
 ,, >> ,, 
 
 201 
 
 1 
 
 Lamon, 453 
 
 222 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam V, 208 
 
 
 2 
 
 Warden, 364 
 
 
 2 
 
 Lamon, 509 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell, 133 
 
 223 
 
 1 
 
 M. M., 18 
 
 202 
 
 1-3 
 
 Tracy, 149 
 
 
 2 
 
 Lamon, 509 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 153 
 
 224 
 
 1 
 
 Century VI, 130 
 
 
 6 
 
 Godwin II, 143 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam V, 224 
 
 203 
 
 1,2 
 
 Century VI, 43 
 
 
 3 
 
 M. M., 23 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Putnam V, 186 
 
 
 4 
 
 " " 24 
 
 
 5,6 
 
 " 187 
 
 225 
 
 1 
 
 „ >, ,, 
 
 204 
 
 1 
 
 Tracy, 157 
 
 226 
 
 1-4 
 
 Tarbell II, 213 
 
 
 2 
 
 Lamon, 507 
 
 
 5,6 
 
 " 214 
 
 
 3 
 
 Weed II, 297 
 
 227 
 
 1 
 
 M. M., 33 
 
 
 4 
 
 Tracy, 164 
 
 
 2 
 
 " ;; 35 
 
 
 5 
 
 Century, VI, 60 
 
 228 
 
 1 
 
 * " 36 
 
 205 
 
 1 
 
 H. & W. Ill, 487 
 
 229 
 
 1-4 
 
 Lamon, 531 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tracy, 166 
 
 230 
 
 
 " 532 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 Century VI, 64 
 
 231 
 
 1-4 
 
 " 536 
 
 
 6 
 
 Tarbell,* 135 
 
 
 5 
 
 Putnam V, 267 
 
 206 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell II, 198 
 
 232 
 
 1,2 
 
 Century XI, 116 
 
 207 
 
 1,2 
 
 Tracy, 167 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century VI, 118 
 
 
 3 
 
 Putnam V, 184 
 
 233 
 
 i-4 
 
 ,, ,, t, 
 
 
 4 
 
 Tracy, 168 
 
 
 5 
 
 O. R. I, I, 196 
 
 208 
 
 I 
 
 >> » 
 
 234 
 
 1 
 
 Seward I, 525 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VI, 74 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Century VI, 225 
 
 209 
 
 I 
 
 Tracy, 170 
 
 235 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. I, I, 226 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Century VI, 76 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tarbell,* 136 
 
 2IO 
 
 I 
 
 ,, » )> 
 
 
 4 
 
 Putnam V, 280 
 
 236 
 
TABLE OF SOURCES 
 
 477 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 237 
 
 i-3 
 
 N. R. I, IV, 108 
 
 260 
 
 2 
 
 0. R. I, LII, I, 101 
 
 
 4 
 
 O. R. I, I, 229 
 
 26l 
 
 I 
 
 j, „ ,, » »• » 
 
 
 5 
 
 Century VI, 238 
 
 
 2 
 
 " " " LI " 497 
 
 
 6 
 
 O. R. Ill, I, 312 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century VII, 8 
 
 238 
 
 
 W ,J J> » » 
 
 
 4 
 
 O. R. I, III, 553 
 
 239 
 
 i-5 
 
 Century VI, 239 
 
 262 
 
 
 » » >> » »> 
 
 24O 
 
 1 
 
 „ „ ,, 
 
 263 
 
 i-4 
 
 " " " V, 639 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 " 241 
 
 264 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell III, 72 
 
 
 5 
 
 Tracy, 178 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century XI, 120 
 
 
 6 
 
 " 179 
 
 265 
 
 1 
 
 >, », »» 
 
 24I 
 
 i-4 
 
 a >> 
 
 
 2 
 
 Curtis, 243 
 
 
 5 
 
 M. M., 48 
 
 266 
 
 
 O. R. I, XI, III, 6 
 
 242 
 
 1,2 
 
 O. R. Ill, I, 67 
 
 267 
 
 
 " " III, I, 718-719 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 „ „ „ „ gg 
 
 268 
 
 1-4 
 
 » » „ >» » » 
 
 243 
 
 1 
 
 » » » » >» 
 
 
 5 
 
 Tracy, 199 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Crosby, III 
 
 269 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. I, VII, 524 
 
 244 
 
 I 
 
 Tarbell III, 38 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 » " " LIII, 511 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VI, 253 
 
 270 
 
 1 
 
 » » » VIJ> 526 
 
 
 3 
 
 IV, 152 
 
 
 2 
 
 " " " " 926 
 
 
 4 
 
 Hay Ms. I, 45 
 
 
 3 
 
 " " II, I, 90O 
 
 
 5 
 
 Putnam V, 290 
 
 271 
 
 1 
 
 >» >> ,, >» »> 
 
 245 
 
 1 
 
 >, ,, t) 
 
 
 2 
 
 " " I, VII, 535 
 
 
 2 
 
 0. R. I, LI, I, 337 
 
 
 3 
 
 n " " " 533 
 
 
 3-5 
 
 Century VI, 260 
 
 
 4-6 
 
 Century VII, 79 
 
 246 
 
 1,2 
 
 Crawford, 420 
 
 272 
 
 1-4 
 
 Barton II, 108 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. Ill, I, 161 
 
 
 5,6 
 
 0. R. I, VII, 928 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century VI, 269 
 
 273 
 
 1-3 
 
 McC. Rept., 42 
 
 247 
 
 1 
 
 " 273 
 
 
 4 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1152, 9 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 McCabe, 348 
 
 274 
 
 1-7 
 
 J, >» ,7 J, ,» ', " 
 
 
 4 
 
 O. R. Ill, I, 226 
 
 
 8 
 
 H. & W. Ill, 500 
 
 
 5 
 
 Putnam V, 309 
 
 
 9 
 
 Putnam V, 427 
 
 248 
 
 i-4 
 
 Century VI, 290 
 
 275 
 
 1-4 
 
 ,, >, ,» 
 
 
 5 
 
 O. R. II, IT, 19 
 
 
 5 
 
 O. R. I, VII, 624 
 
 
 6 
 
 O. R. Ill, I, 314 
 
 276 
 
 1 
 
 ,, „ », », » 
 
 249 
 
 
 „ >> » tt " 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 M. M., 100 
 
 250 
 
 if 2 
 
 >, >, a ,, ,» 
 
 277 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century VI, 325 
 
 
 2 
 
 Gorham I, 348 
 
 
 4 
 
 " 329 
 
 
 3 
 
 McC. Rept., 58 
 
 251 
 
 i-5 
 
 Putnam V, 342 
 
 278 
 
 1 
 
 ,, >> » 
 
 252 
 
 i-4 
 
 ,, ,, ,, 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1152,11 
 
 
 5,6 
 
 " 343 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 Century VII, 119 
 
 
 7 
 8 
 
 O. R. I, II, 156 
 
 Century VI, 340 
 
 279 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 " 126 
 
 253 
 
 1 
 
 Tracy, 192 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 McC. Rept., 125 
 
 2-4 
 1 
 
 O. R. Ill, I, 405 
 
 280 
 
 i-3 
 
 Century VII, 135 
 
 254 
 
 j, }> >> >> >, 
 
 
 4 
 
 McC. Rept. 135 
 
 2 
 
 " » " » 413 
 
 28l 
 
 1 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1 1 52, 
 
 255 
 
 U 
 
 " " I, HI, 443 
 M. M., 73 
 
 
 2 
 
 319 
 O. R. II, I, 276 
 
 256 
 
 1 
 
 j, „ ,, 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 M. M., 102 
 
 
 2-4 
 1 
 
 0. TL I, III, 469 
 
 
 5 
 
 ,, 
 
 257 
 
 
 282 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. I, LIII, 521 
 
 2 
 
 Century VI, 352 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 M. M., 105 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. I, III, 485 
 
 283 
 
 li 2 
 
 O. R. II, III, 508 
 
 
 4 
 
 Putnam VTI, 399 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century VI, 153 
 
 258 
 259 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam V, 362 
 
 284 
 
 4 
 1,2 
 
 0. R. I, XI, III, 154 
 ,, j, >, ,, )y »> 
 
 260 
 
 i 
 
 Century VII, 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 Warden, 434 
 
478 
 
 TABLE OF SOURCES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 285 
 
 .1-4 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1152, 
 
 306 
 
 2,3 
 
 0. R. I, LIII, 529 
 
 
 
 273 
 
 307 
 
 I 
 
 •, „ ,» ;, •> 
 
 
 5-7 
 
 M. M., 106 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VII, 299 
 
 286 
 
 
 ,, >» »» 
 
 
 3 
 
 Raymond, 771 
 
 287 
 
 1-3 
 
 >> »> »> 
 
 
 4 
 
 324 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 " " 110 
 
 308 
 
 
 505 
 
 288 
 
 i, 2 
 
 >} >, >> 
 
 309 
 
 1-7 
 
 253 
 
 
 3 
 
 0. R. I, XII, I, 626 
 
 310 
 
 i-4 
 
 »» ,, 
 
 
 4 
 
 » " " " » 643 
 
 
 5 
 
 0. R. I, LIII, 524 
 
 
 5 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1152, 
 
 311 
 
 1 
 
 ,, », ,} 1, ,, 
 
 
 
 329 
 
 
 2 
 
 McC. Rept. 176 
 
 289 
 
 1 
 
 C C. W., S. N. 1 1 52, 
 
 
 3 
 
 Hay. 
 
 
 
 274 
 
 312 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. I, XIX, II, 276 
 
 
 2 
 
 O. R. I, X, 666 
 
 
 2 
 
 Raymond, 254 
 
 
 3 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1152, 
 
 313 
 
 1-4 
 
 ,» ,» 
 
 
 
 330 
 
 
 5 
 
 O. R. I, XVI, II, 517 
 
 290 
 
 1 
 
 McC. Rept., 102 
 
 
 6 
 
 McC. Rept., 373 
 
 
 2 
 
 O. R. I, XII, I, 644 
 
 
 7,8 
 
 O. R. I, XIX, II, 310 
 
 
 3 
 
 " " » » » 645 
 
 314 
 
 1 
 
 Carpenter, 22 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 " " " " III, 267 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell III, T20 
 
 291 
 
 1-4 
 
 " " " XI, " 205 
 
 315 
 
 1-3 
 
 Raymond, 257 
 
 
 5 
 
 McC. Rept., 113 
 
 316 
 
 1,2 
 
 Putnam VI, 148 
 
 
 6 
 
 O. R. I, XI, III, 216 
 
 317 
 
 1 
 
 149 
 
 292 
 
 1 
 
 » „ », >, » » 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VIII, 51 
 
 
 2 
 
 " " " XII, I, 542 
 
 
 3 
 
 52 
 
 
 3 
 
 Sen. Docs. S. N. 11 22, 
 
 3l8 
 
 1 
 
 „ 1 XI ' T2 4 
 
 
 
 No. 57, 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 McC. Rept., 219 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century VII, 220 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Raymond, 319 
 
 293 
 
 I, 2 
 
 O. R. I, XI, III, 234 
 
 319 
 
 1,2 
 
 " 
 
 
 3 
 
 " " " " I, 661 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century VIII, 61 
 
 294 
 
 1 
 
 " " " " III, 236 
 
 320 
 
 1 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1152, 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 " " " XII, I, 169 
 
 
 
 547 
 
 295 
 
 1-3 
 
 " " " XI, III, 259 
 
 
 2 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1152, 
 
 
 4 
 
 >, » „ » » 27I 
 
 
 
 549 
 
 296 
 
 1,2 
 
 »> »» ,, »l >, }> 
 
 
 3 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1 152, 
 
 
 3 
 
 " " " " " 269 
 
 
 
 556 
 
 297 
 
 i, 2 
 
 " " III, II, 179 
 
 
 4 
 
 C. C. W„ S. N. 1152, 
 
 
 3 
 
 " " L XI, III, 270 
 
 
 
 565 
 
 298 
 
 1 
 
 " " •' " " 276 
 
 
 5 
 
 R. R. VI, 181 
 
 
 2 
 
 » " n " " 280 
 
 321 
 
 1 
 
 Raymond, 486 
 
 
 3 
 
 " " III, II, 187 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VIII, 80 
 
 299 
 
 1 
 
 McC. Rept., 141 
 
 
 3 
 
 Putnam VI, 174 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 O. R. I, XI, III, 286 
 
 322 
 
 1 
 
 Century VIII, 88 
 
 
 5 
 
 " " III, II, 200 
 
 
 2 
 
 Raymond, 351 
 
 300 
 
 1 
 
 " " I, XI, III, 291 
 
 323 
 
 
 352 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 " " III, II, 200 
 
 3 2 4 
 
 
 353 
 
 
 4-6 
 
 McC. Rept., 143 
 
 O. R. I, XI, III, 314 
 
 325 
 
 
 3 § 4 
 
 301 
 
 1 
 
 326 
 
 
 360 
 
 
 2 ,3 
 
 Raymond, 235 
 
 327 
 
 1 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 302 
 
 
 „ >) 
 
 
 2 
 
 Sen. Docs. S. N. 1149, 
 
 303 
 
 1 
 
 Carpenter, 20 
 
 
 
 No. 7 
 
 
 2 
 
 O. R. I, XI, III, 319 
 
 328 
 
 
 Raymond, 341 
 
 304 
 
 1 
 
 " " " " " 321 
 
 329 
 
 1 
 
 ,, »» 
 
 
 2 
 
 Raymond, 238 
 
 
 2 
 
 0. R. I, XXII, 836 
 
 
 3 
 
 Putnam VI, 95 
 
 
 3-7 
 
 Barton II, 156 
 
 
 4 
 
 Carpenter, 20 
 
 330 
 
 i-4 
 
 Welles I, 201 
 
 305 
 
 1 
 
 », ,» 
 
 
 5 
 
 Warden, 508 
 
 
 2 
 
 Raymond, 331 
 
 
 6,7 
 
 Century VIII, 148 
 
 306 
 
 I 
 
 » f> 
 
 
 8 
 
 Tarbell,* 153 
 
TABLE OF SOURCES 
 
 479 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 330 
 
 9 
 
 O. R. I, XXI, 67 
 
 350 
 
 I 
 
 0. R. I, XXII, II, 281 
 
 33* 
 
 I 
 
 Stine, 294 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam VI, 297 
 
 
 2 
 
 Barton II, 399 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. I, XXIII, II, 342 
 
 332 
 
 
 „ ,, „ 
 
 
 4 
 
 " " " XXIV, III, 342 
 
 333 
 
 
 O. R. Ill, III, 2 
 
 351 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 161 
 
 334 
 
 I 
 
 " " I, XXI, 940 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tracy, 224 
 
 
 2 
 
 " " XXII, II, 6 
 
 352 
 
 1 
 
 », », 
 
 335 
 
 I 
 
 " " I, XXII, II, 17 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 0. R. I, XXII, II, 293 
 
 336 
 
 I 
 
 „ ,, »> »> >, >» 
 
 353 
 
 1 
 
 " " " XXIII, " 369 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 154 
 Century VIII, 181 
 
 
 2 
 
 " " 11, v, 717 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 3 
 
 " " III, III, 252 
 
 337 
 
 1 
 
 " 186 
 
 
 4 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Raymond, 496 
 
 
 
 ^ 2 4 9 
 
 338 
 
 
 " " 
 
 354 
 
 1,2 
 
 TarDell,* 164 
 
 339 
 
 I 
 
 0. R. I, XII, II, 512 
 
 
 3 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 " " " XXI, 1004 
 
 
 
 255 
 
 
 5 
 
 " " " XXV, II, 4 
 
 
 4 
 
 Tarbell * 164 
 
 340 
 
 1 
 
 Weed II, 433 
 
 
 5,6 
 
 Raymond, 387 
 
 
 2-5 
 
 Raymond, 498 
 
 355 
 
 
 391 
 
 
 6 
 
 Tracy, 221 
 
 356 
 
 
 ,, „ 
 
 34i 
 
 1,2 
 
 Raymond, 500 
 
 357 
 
 1 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 3 
 
 Sen. Docs. S. N. 1149, 
 
 
 
 259 
 
 
 
 No. 49 
 
 
 2 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 4 
 
 0. R. Ill, III, 60 
 
 
 
 260 
 
 
 5 
 
 Century VIII, 229 
 
 
 3 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 342 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam VI, 267 
 
 
 
 261 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VIII, 230 
 
 358 
 
 1 
 
 0. R. I, LI, I, 55 
 
 343 
 
 1,2 
 
 Raymond, 704 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 165 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. Ill, III, 103 
 
 
 3 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 4.5 
 
 " " " " io5 
 
 
 
 264 
 
 344 
 
 1,2 
 
 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 0. R. Ill, III, 360 
 
 
 3 
 
 " " I, XIV, 435 
 
 359 
 
 i-4 
 
 Century VIII, 320 
 
 345 
 
 1 
 
 ' LI, I, 1000 
 
 360 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 166 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Century VIII, 243 
 N. R. I, XIV, 132 
 
 
 2 
 
 O. R. Ill, III, 3/T 
 
 
 4,5 
 
 
 3-4 
 
 C. C. W, S. N. 1212, 
 
 346 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. I, XXV, II, 214 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 5 
 
 O. R. I, XXVII, III, 
 
 
 
 221 
 
 
 
 204 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century VIII, 256 
 
 
 6 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 347 
 
 1 
 
 0. R. I, XXV, II, 372 
 
 
 
 279 
 
 
 2 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 7 
 
 0. R. I, XXII, II, 311 
 
 
 
 225 
 
 361 
 
 
 O. R. I, XXVII, III, 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 
 295 
 
 
 
 226 
 
 
 2 
 
 Warden I, 30 
 
 
 5 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Raymond, 394 
 
 
 
 227 
 
 362 
 
 1,2 
 
 397 
 
 
 6 
 
 0. R. I, XXV, II, 438 
 
 363 
 
 
 », ,, 
 
 348 
 
 1 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 364 
 
 1 
 
 398 
 
 
 
 143 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century IX, 10 
 
 
 2 
 
 0. R. I, XXV, II, 455 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. I, XXVII, III, 
 
 349 
 
 1 
 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 
 
 
 436 
 
 
 
 217 
 
 365 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. I, XXVII, III, 
 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 Tarbell, 160 
 C. C. W., S. N. 1212, 
 238 
 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 436 
 Tarbell,* 170 
 Century IX, 15 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Raymond, 411 
 
 
 4 
 
 C. C. W, S. N. 1212, 
 150 
 
 
 5 
 
 O. R. I, XXVII, III, 
 
 567 
 
480 
 
 
 TABLE OF 
 
 SOURCES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 366 
 
 I 
 
 O. R. I, XXVII, III, 
 
 379 
 
 4 
 
 Century VIII, 142 
 
 
 
 567 
 
 380 
 
 1 
 
 0. R. I, XXII, II, 586 
 
 
 2 
 
 O. R. I., XXVII, I, 
 
 
 2 
 
 " " HI, III, 859 
 
 
 
 83 
 
 381 
 
 i-3 
 
 » »» „ „ ' ,, 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R, I., XXVII, I, 
 
 
 4 
 
 " " I, XXX, IV, 79 
 
 
 
 0. \. I, XXVII, III, 
 
 
 5 
 
 " " " XXII, II, 604 
 
 
 4 
 
 382 
 
 
 „ 1, „ „ ' ,, ,, 
 
 
 
 612 
 
 383 
 
 1 
 
 " " "XXX, IV, 306 
 
 3^7 
 
 1,2 
 
 0. R. I, XXVII, III, 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 187 
 
 
 
 645 
 
 
 3 
 
 Weed II, 440 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. I, LII, 406 
 
 
 4 
 
 Tarbell,* 189 
 
 
 4 
 
 " " " XXVII, II, 
 
 
 5 
 
 O. R. Ill, III, 892 
 
 
 
 366 
 
 384 
 
 1 
 
 » „ „ ,, ,, 
 
 368 
 
 1,2 
 
 Century IX, 28 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century VIII, 316 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. Ill, III, 492 
 
 
 3-5 
 
 O. R. I, XXIX, II, 
 
 369 
 
 1 
 
 ,, ,, >, »J ,, 
 
 
 
 375 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam VI, 362 
 
 385 
 
 1 
 
 0. R. I, XXIX, II, 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century IX, 37 
 
 
 
 375 
 
 
 4 
 
 " 40 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century IX, 181 
 
 
 5 
 
 " 41 
 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell,* 191 
 
 370 
 
 1 
 
 ,, » ,, 
 
 
 4 
 
 Raymond, 474 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam VI, 364 
 
 
 5 
 
 Putnam VII, 14 
 
 
 3-8 
 
 N. R. II, I, 410 
 
 386 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 194 
 
 371 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 172 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 Century IX, 203 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 0. R. II, VI, 163 
 
 
 5 
 
 Tarbell,* 195 
 Century IX, 206 
 
 
 4 
 
 " " I, XXIV, III, 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 567 
 
 
 7 
 
 Warden, 555 
 
 
 5 
 
 Century IX, 56 
 O. R. HI III, 635 
 
 
 8 
 
 Raymond, 412 
 
 372 
 
 1-3 
 
 387 
 
 1 
 
 Century IX, 210 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century IX, 61 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 ,, ,, „ 
 
 373 
 
 1,2 
 
 Putnam VI, 378 
 
 388 
 
 1 
 
 " 212 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. I, LII, 438 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tarbell,* 196 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century IX, 84 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century IX, 213 
 
 ?74 
 
 1 
 
 " " " 
 
 
 5 
 
 Tarbell,* 197 
 
 
 2-5 
 
 Curtis, 247 
 
 
 6 
 
 Tarbell,* 199 
 
 
 6 
 
 Tarbell,* 174 
 
 389 
 
 1 
 
 Raymond, 420 
 
 
 7 
 
 O. R. Ill, III, 733 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 0. R. II, VI, 650 
 
 375 
 
 1 
 
 Century IX, 108 
 
 390 
 
 
 ,, ,, ,, ,, „ 
 
 
 2 
 
 O. R. I, XXX, III, 
 
 391 
 
 1 
 
 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 
 
 
 
 399 
 
 
 2 
 
 '' ;; in, in, 1152 
 
 376 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. Ill, III, 789 
 
 392 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 " " " " 817 
 
 393 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 " " I, XXIX, II, 
 
 394 
 
 1 
 
 " " I, XXXI, II, 51 
 
 
 
 187 
 
 O. R. I, XXIX, II, 7 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tarbell,* 201 
 
 
 4 
 
 395 
 
 4 
 1 
 
 Century IX, 264 
 Tracy, 237 
 
 377 
 378 
 
 1, 2 
 
 3,4 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 Tarbell,* 181 
 
 O. R. I, XXX, I, 148 
 
 " " » » " 146 
 " " " " " 161 
 
 396 
 
 397 
 
 1 
 
 2,3 
 
 4 
 1-3 
 
 Century IX, 279 
 Raymond, 481 
 Century IX, 287 
 
 
 4 
 
 0. R. I, XXX, III, 
 
 791 
 
 398 
 
 4 
 1 
 2 
 
 292 
 
 O. R. Ill, IV, 75 
 
 „ ,, „ » 5g> 
 
 379 
 
 1 
 
 0. R. I, XXX, III, 
 
 
 3 
 
 Century IX, 303 
 
 
 
 811 
 
 
 4 
 
 Raymond, 492 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tarbell,* 182 
 
 399 
 
 1 
 
 Century X, T2 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. I, XXX, III, 
 
 400 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. Ill, IV, 133 
 
 
 
 905 
 
 
 2 
 
 " » » " 141 
 

 
 TABLE OF 
 
 SOUR 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 400 
 
 3 
 
 Schuckers, 501 
 
 419 
 
 2 
 
 401 
 
 1,2 
 
 „ , 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Carpenter, 130 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 
 4 
 
 Century X, 27 
 
 420 
 
 I 
 
 402 
 
 1 
 
 Warden, 575 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century X, 30 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Raymond, 476 
 
 
 4 
 
 403 
 
 1 
 
 489 
 
 421 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam VII, in 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 Crosby, 275 
 
 
 
 404 
 
 i-3 
 4 
 
 Raymond, 498 
 
 Century X, 55 
 
 O. R. I, XXVII, 13 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 5 
 
 422 
 
 1,2 
 
 405 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam VII, 115 
 
 423 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 Raymond, 767 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 406 
 
 1 
 
 j, >, 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam VII, 119 
 
 
 5,6 
 
 
 3 
 
 Schuckers, 513 
 
 424 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 Raymond, 502 
 
 
 2 
 
 407 
 
 I 
 
 Tarbell,* 219 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century X, 89 
 
 425 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 Raymond, 523 
 
 
 2 
 
 408 
 
 1,2 
 
 ,» ,» 
 
 
 3-6 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. I, XXXVIII, 
 IV, 25 
 
 426 
 
 1 
 
 2,3 
 
 
 4 
 
 O. R. I, XXXVI, II, 
 560 
 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 5 
 
 Raymond, 526 
 
 427 
 
 1 
 
 409 
 
 1 
 
 " " 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century X, 98 
 
 428 
 
 1,2 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 Raymond, 618 
 
 
 3-7 
 
 410 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 0. R. Ill, IV, 388 
 
 Raymond, 553 
 
 
 8 
 
 411 
 
 1 
 
 Putnam VII, 146 
 
 429 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 Raymond, 559 
 
 430 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 560 
 
 
 2 
 
 412 
 
 1 
 
 ,, „ 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 
 2 
 
 O. R. Ill, IV, 429 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 3 
 
 Raymond, 504 
 
 431 
 
 1 
 
 413 
 
 1 
 
 Tarbell,* 225 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2-5 
 
 Century X, 132 
 
 
 3-5 
 
 
 6 
 
 Putnam VII, 158 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 7-9 
 
 Century X, 135 
 
 432 
 
 1 
 
 414 
 
 1 
 
 " 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Raymond, 563 
 
 433 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 Warden, 611-613 
 
 
 2 
 
 415 
 
 1 
 
 ,, » ,, 
 
 
 3,4 
 
 
 2 
 
 0. R. Ill, IV, 460 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 3 
 
 Schuckers, 509 
 
 434 
 
 1 
 
 416 
 
 1-9 
 
 Century IX, 120 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 10-14 Barton II, 294 
 
 435 
 
 1 
 
 4T7 
 
 1-4 
 
 O. R. Ill, IV, 477 
 
 
 2-5 
 
 418 
 
 1 
 
 " " " " 486 
 
 436 
 
 1-5 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam VII, 172 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. I, XXXVII, II, 
 
 437 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 155 
 
 438 
 
 !,2 
 
 419 
 
 1 
 
 0. R. I, XXXVII, n 5 
 191 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 :es '481 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 O. R. I, XXXVII, II, 
 
 221 
 
 Century X, 157 
 
 " 158 
 
 O. R. Ill, IV, 496 
 „ „ „ » 50I 
 
 « » « H 5Q3 
 
 Century X, 170 
 
 O. R. I, XXXVII, II, 
 
 444 
 O. R. I, XXXVII, II, 
 
 582 
 
 Barton II, 293 
 „ ,» „ 
 
 Tarbell* 277 
 
 O. R. II, VII, 567 
 
 Century X, 184 
 
 " 185 
 
 O. R. I, XLII, II, 167 
 
 Putnam VII, 188 
 
 Raymond, 588 
 
 O. R. I, XLII, II, 243 
 
 Century X, 194 
 „ ,» » 
 
 Crosby, 316 
 Tarbell,* 228 
 Century X, 202 
 
 " 203 
 
 " 204 
 O. R. Ill, IV, 680 
 Reminiscences, 398 
 O. R. I, XXXIX, II, 
 
 339 
 Raymond, 616 
 ,, ,, 
 
 Century X, 219 
 Putnam VII, 205 
 H. & W. Ill, 557 
 Century X, 226 
 O. R. I, XLIII, I, 61 
 Century X, 227 
 O. R. Ill, IV, 740 
 Raymond, 602 
 Putnam VII, 210 
 Century X, 234 
 O. R. I, XLII, II, 1090 
 Raymond, 609 
 O. R. Ill, IV, 788 
 Century IX, 376 
 Raymond, 613 
 Century IX, 377 
 Raymond, 613 
 Barton II, 304 
 O. R. I, XLI, IV, 555 
 Raymond, 616 
 615 
 Tracy, 248 
 Raymond, 634 
 
482 
 
 TABLE OF SOURCES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 P.AR. 
 
 SOURCE 
 
 
 439 
 
 I 
 
 Tracy, 217 
 
 
 456 
 
 6 
 
 0. R. 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 HI, 
 
 440 
 
 1-3 
 
 " " 
 
 
 
 
 332 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Raymond, 620 
 
 
 457 
 
 1-4 
 
 O. R. 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 III, 
 
 
 5 
 
 Century X, 312 
 
 
 
 
 332 
 
 
 
 441 
 
 I|2 
 
 C. C. W. Supp. Pt. I 
 
 
 5 
 
 Barton 
 
 II, 398 
 
 
 
 
 297 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 0. R. 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 HI, 
 
 442 
 
 1-4 
 
 Raymond, 619 
 
 
 
 
 392 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Tarbell* 240 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 0. R. 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 III, 
 
 
 6 
 
 Carpenter, 190 
 
 0. R. I, XLVI, II, 
 
 
 
 
 395 
 
 
 
 443 
 
 1 
 
 506 
 
 
 8 
 
 O. R. 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 HI, 
 
 
 2 
 
 Putnam VII, 284 
 
 
 
 
 447 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 0. R. I. XLVI, II, 
 
 506 
 
 458 
 
 1 
 
 0. R. 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 III, 
 
 444 
 
 1 
 
 507 
 
 
 
 446 
 
 
 
 
 2-6 
 
 » a » » a 
 
 5p9 
 
 
 2 
 
 0. R. 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 III, 
 
 445 
 
 1-4 
 
 u >i a it a 
 
 
 
 
 449 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Century IX, 354 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 O. R. 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 III, 
 
 
 6-8 
 
 O. R. I, XLVI, II, 
 
 5ii 
 
 
 
 508 
 
 
 
 446 
 
 1 
 2,3 
 
 Tarbell II, 211 
 Carpenter, 210 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 O. R. 
 
 509 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 III, 
 
 447 
 
 1 
 
 a a 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Curtis, 
 
 300 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Century IX, 356 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Century XI, 71 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 XI, 1 
 
 
 459 
 
 i-4 
 
 a 
 
 ,> >t 
 
 
 448 
 
 1-3 
 
 4 
 
 " 2 
 " 3 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 O. R. 
 
 593 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 HI, 
 
 
 5 
 
 Raymond 664 
 
 
 460 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 III, 
 
 449 
 
 1,2 
 
 Putnam VII, 298 
 
 
 
 
 593 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 0. R. I, XLVII1 
 
 , I, 
 
 
 2 
 
 C. C. W.. S. N. 
 
 1212, 
 
 
 
 825 
 
 
 
 
 521 
 
 
 
 450 
 
 4,5 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 Century XI, 38 
 O. R. I, XLVI, II, 
 Raymond, 670 
 
 802 
 
 461 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2,3 
 
 Tarbell,* 255 
 Tarbell II, 231 
 Raymond, 686 
 
 
 451 
 
 
 
 
 462 
 
 
 u 
 
 t> 
 
 
 452 
 
 1 
 
 2,3 
 
 671 
 
 Century XI, 47 
 
 
 463 
 464 
 
 465 
 
 
 a 
 a 
 
 687 
 » 
 
 
 453 
 454 
 
 455 
 
 1 
 
 2,3 
 
 I 
 
 2,3 
 
 1-8 
 
 0. R. I, XLVI, II, 
 Weed II, 449 
 
 a t> ,, 
 
 Century XI, 55 
 Barton II, 406 
 
 900 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 0. R. I, XLVI, 
 
 724 
 Recollections, 116 
 0. R. I, XLVI, 
 
 HI, 
 HI, 
 
 
 9 
 
 Putnam VII, 339 
 
 
 
 
 725 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 0. R. I, XLVI, 
 50 
 
 III, 
 
 466 
 
 1 
 
 0. R. 
 
 725 
 
 I, XLVI, 
 
 HI, 
 
 456 
 
 1 
 
 O. R. I, XLVI, 
 
 III, 
 
 
 2,3 
 
 Recollections. 249 
 
 
 
 
 86 
 
 
 467 
 
 1,2 
 
 ,: 
 
 > „ 
 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 0. R. I, XLVI, 
 109 
 
 III, 
 
 468 
 
 3,4 
 1-6 
 
 Barton 
 
 II, 339 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 0. R. I, XLVI, 
 
 III, 
 
 
 7 
 
 Tarbell 
 
 II. MS 
 
 
 
 
 280 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 Putnam VII, 371 
 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Conferderate States of America 
 
 formed, 219 
 ports blockaded, 242 
 secession of, 217 
 war declared, 242 
 Albany, New York 
 
 resolutions from meeting at, 
 Lincoln's reply, 354-357 
 Alton 
 debate between Douglas and Lin- 
 coln, 168 
 American Colonization Society, 98 
 Anderson, Robert (Major) 
 commander, Fort Sumter 
 holding of fort, 233, 237, 239 
 Andrew (Governor) 
 concerning colored migration to 
 Massachusetts, 399 
 Antietam-Sharpsburg, Battle of, 314 
 Arkansas 
 discord in government, 398 
 emancipation proclamation ap- 
 plicable, 371 
 representatives excluded from 
 Congress, 415 
 Armtrong case, 131, 134 
 Arnold, Isaac N., 
 change in generals demanded by, 
 
 35i 
 Ashbury, Henry 
 
 Lincoln's forecast of Douglas 
 policy, 148, 163 
 Baltimore 
 
 Massachusetts regiment attacked 
 
 by mob, 243 
 police commissioners arrested, 252 
 Banks, N. P. (General) 
 advance on Shenandoah Valley, 
 
 292^ 
 suggestions for Louisiana govern- 
 ment, 371 
 Baptist Delegation to Washington, 
 
 ^ , 409 
 Battles 
 
 see also, Civil War 
 
 Antietam-Sharpsburg, 314 
 
 Bull Run, 251. 
 
 Chancellorsville, 347 
 
 Chattanooga, 388 
 
 Chickamauga, 377 
 
 Battles, con't. 
 
 Fort Donelson, 275 
 
 Fredericksburg, 329, 330 
 
 Gettysburg, 365 
 
 Malvern Hill, 298 
 
 Manassas, 311 
 
 Petersburg, 457 
 
 Seven Days, before Richmond, 
 
 295 
 Seven Pines or Fair Oaks, 291 
 Bennett, James Gordon, 449 
 Berry, William F., 11 
 Bile, Earl 
 
 Marshal for Northern District of 
 Ohio, 241 
 Birchard, M., 
 reply to resolutions at Ohio Con- 
 vention, 361-364 
 Birthplace of Lincoln, 1 
 Black Hawk War 
 
 Lincoln a captain, 9 
 Blair, Frank (General) 
 
 Lincoln's wish that he sit in Con- 
 gress, 385 
 Blair (Postmaster-General) 
 
 concerning disabled men and 
 
 > families, 370 
 resignation accepted, 432 
 Bliss, W. S. (Colonel) 
 offer of "Loyal Brigade of the 
 North," 359 
 Boats 
 
 cargo loads taken down Missis- 
 sippi, 6, 7 
 ferry across Ohio 
 
 operated by Lincoln, 6 
 invention of buoyant chambers 
 for, 87 
 Boker, George H., 385 
 Books, influential 
 see also, Reading of Lincoln 
 Blackstone's, Commentaries, 12 
 for study of law, 175 
 Weems', Life of Washington, 5 
 Boston 
 
 invitation to attend festival, 179 
 Britton, Isaac S., 53 
 Brooklyn 
 
 Lincoln invited to speak, 192 
 Brooks (General) 
 commander, Pittsburgh, 359 
 
 485 
 
*86 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Brown, John, 193-194 
 Browning, O. H. (Mrs.) 
 
 letter to, 29 
 Bryant, William Cullen 
 
 removal of Mr. Henderson, 413 
 Buchanan, James 
 presidential campaign 
 slavery issue, 124 
 Buckner, S. B. (General), 250 
 Buell, D. C. (General) 
 
 suggested activities, 270, 271, 272 
 Bull Run, Battle of 
 Federal defeat, 251 
 Burbridge, S. G. (General) 
 
 concerning Mrs. Helm, 423 
 Burnside, A. E. (General) 
 Army of Potomac 
 commander, 320 
 relieved from command, 339 
 letter to, regarding arrest of Val- 
 
 landigham, 353 
 ordered to Chattanooga, 378 
 Business enterprises 
 store 
 
 Berry and Lincoln, proprietors, 
 
 11 
 clerk at New Salem, 8 
 surveying, 13 
 Cabinet of Lincoln 
 
 Cameron's resignation, 271 
 Chase, Salmon P., 
 
 resignation accepted, 415 
 resignation tendered, 330 
 Emancipation Proclamation, 304, 
 
 314 
 memorandum of prior date read, 
 
 concerning election, 436 
 proposed appointments, 212, 213, 
 
 214, 215, 218, 229 
 Senators ask dismissal of, 329 
 Seward, William H., 
 appointment, 232 
 office offered to, 209 
 resignation tendered, 330 
 Cameron, Simon 
 Cabinet 
 nomination, 213, 215 
 resignation, 271 
 Canisius, Theodore 
 editor, Staats Anzeiger, 182 
 German newspaper purchased from 
 
 Lincoln, 209 
 letter to, naturalized citizen pro- 
 vision, 181 
 Capital and labor 
 question in relation to issue of 
 
 the war, 268 
 slavery, application shown, 186 
 Cartwright, Peter (Reverend), 57 
 
 Central America 
 Lincoln's plan for colony of 
 negroes at, 308 
 Chancellorsville, Battle of, 347 
 Chandler (Senator), 416 
 Chaplains 
 
 appointment to hospitals, 261 
 Charleston 
 debate between Douglas and Lin- 
 coln, 162-166 
 instructions to Hunter and Du 
 Pont, 345 
 Chase, Salmon P., 201 
 
 attempt to supplant Lincoln, 384 
 
 Pomeroy Circular, 401, 402 
 Chief Justice, Supreme Court, 
 appointment, 439 
 nomination, 406 
 Emancipation Proclamation, ap- 
 plication of, 375 
 fugitive slave law enforcement, 
 
 182 
 Secretary of Treasury 
 resignation accepted, 415 
 resignation tendered, 330 
 Chattanooga 
 Battle of, 388 
 Rosecrans in vicinity, 377 
 Chew, Henry, 166 
 Chew, R. S., 
 ordered to Fort Sumter with pro- 
 visions, 240 
 Chicago 
 speeches of Douglas and Lincoln, 
 138 
 Chickamauga, Battle of, 377 
 Churches 
 administration independent of the 
 
 Government, 335 
 delegations to Washington, 409 
 Cincinnati 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 
 222 
 speech at, 185 
 Citizens, naturalized 
 provision adopted by Massachu- 
 setts, 181 
 suffrage, 180 
 Civil War 
 see also, Battles 
 
 conditions for cessation of hostili- 
 ties, 444, 459 
 governors to arrange for addi- 
 tional troops, 298 
 issue of, 405, 439 
 emancipation, 303 
 restoration of Union, and not 
 
 abolition, 256, 267 
 Union and slavery, 381 
 
INDEX 
 
 487 
 
 Civil War, con't. 
 Lee's surrender, 460 
 Lincoln's desire for no bloodshed 
 
 as aftermath, 467 
 message to governors concerning 
 
 progress, 297 
 policy outlined 
 
 in connection with report of 
 Sumter's bombardment, 241 
 proclamation, 242 
 writ of habeas corpus suspended, 
 376 
 Clay, Henry 
 death of, 97 
 
 view of emancipation, 153 
 Cleveland 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 224 
 Clinton 
 
 speech, "you can fool all the peo- 
 ple . . .," 159 
 Colfax, Schuyler, 183 
 College of New Jersey 
 
 degree conferred upon Lincoln, 442 
 Colonization of negroes 
 
 Central America suggested, 308 
 Vache, return of discontented 
 from, 398 
 Colored men 
 colonization 
 plans discussed, 308 
 return of discontented from 
 Vache, 398 
 report of seizure of, at Hender- 
 son, 412 
 troops raised along Mississippi, 
 
 369, 373 
 use as soldiers, 343, 391, 392, 406 
 Florida, 344 
 Fortress Monroe and Yorktown, 
 
 337 
 in Rebel Army, 454 
 Columbus 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 222 
 Committee of Thirteen, 211 
 appointed, 210 
 
 unable to devise acceptable com- 
 pact, 213 
 Confederate States of America 
 see also, South 
 agents 
 
 interview with, at Fortress 
 
 Monroe, 444, 445 
 negotiations with, in Canada, 420 
 'safe conduct' to Washington, 420 
 Stephen's mission to Washing- 
 ton, 423 
 
 Confederate States of America, 
 con't. 
 cessation of hostilities on basis of 
 
 bond issue to states, 447 
 envoys taken off British vessel, 
 
 264 
 formed at Montgomery, 219 
 idea of peace conference with, 
 
 abandoned, 427 
 ports blockaded, 242 
 possibility of European recogni- 
 tion, 303 
 property to be seized for military 
 
 purposes, 305 
 war declared, 242 
 Congress 
 electoral count in favor of Lin- 
 coln, 448 
 House of Representatives 
 
 Lincoln in connection with 
 elected, 60 
 nominated, 57 
 term of office expired, 83 
 message to, July, 1861 
 
 on Right of Secession, 248 
 message to, December, 1861 
 
 Union, primary issue of war, 267 
 message to, December, 1862 
 Constitutional amendments re- 
 garding slavery recommended, 
 322-327 
 opinion that members should sup- 
 port war, 341 
 Senate 
 election of Douglas, 173 
 Lincoln in connection with can- 
 didacy, 108, 112 
 defeated, 173 
 nominated, 136 
 withdrawal of southern mem- 
 bers, 218 
 slavery- 
 African slave trade suppression, 
 
 292 
 authority in relation to, 161, 182, 
 282, 416 
 State laws in conflict with those 
 of, 211 
 Conkling, F. A. 
 
 New York mass-meeting, 410 
 Constitution 
 amendments regarding slavery re- 
 commended, 322-327 
 framing of, 191 
 fugitive slave laws 
 
 enforcement of, 182, 211 
 Proclamation of allegiance, 389 
 proposition for amendment, 445 
 
488 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Contraband intelligence and trade 
 
 system to restrain, 382 
 Conventions, political 
 
 see also, Politics 
 
 Baltimore, 411 
 
 danger of local "platforms," 184 
 
 Illinois Republican, 136 
 
 Ohio Democratic, 361 
 
 Ohio Republican 
 unfortunate "plank" chosen, 184 
 Cook, B. C, 148 
 Cooper Institute, New York 
 
 Lincoln's speech at, 192-194 
 receipt of $200.00, 198 
 Corning, Erastus 
 
 reply to resolutions at Albany 
 Vallandigham's arrest explained, 
 
 354-357 
 Cotton 
 
 situation in south affected by, 440 
 Cuba, 217 
 Curtin, Governor 
 
 letter to, 331 
 Curtis, S. R. (General) 
 question of government in Mis- 
 
 souri, 337 
 relieved from command, Depart- 
 ment of Missouri, 352 
 Dana, Charles A., 468 
 Danenhower, W. W., 240 
 Davis, Henry Winter 
 
 opinion on support of war by Con- 
 gressmen, 341 
 published attack on President, 422 
 Davis, Jefferson 
 
 withdrawal from Senate, 218 
 Davis, Walter, 87 
 Debates 
 Douglas and Lincoln 
 a plan arranged, 146-148 
 Alton, 168 
 Charleston, 162-166 
 Freeport, 154 
 Galesburg, 167 
 Jonesboro, 159 
 Ottawa, first debate at, 149 
 Quincy, 168 
 Declaration of Independence 
 
 interpretation regarding negroes, 
 129, 145 
 Delahay, Mark W., 
 
 letter to, 195 
 Democratic Party 
 Albany meeting resolutions 
 
 Lincoln's reply, 354-357 
 Ohio State Convention resolutions 
 Lincoln's reply, 361-364 
 Dennison, William 
 appointed Postmaster-General, 433 
 
 Dennison, William, con't. 
 
 Lincoln's renommation, 414 
 District of Columbia 
 slavery abolition in, 282 
 bill in House, 82 
 Lincoln's opinion, 156 
 Dix, J. A. (General) 
 
 plan for use of colored troops, 337 
 Douglas, Stephen A., 
 
 Buchanan, break with, over ad- 
 mission of Kansas, 132, 135, 138 
 debate with Lincoln 
 a plan arranged, 146-148 
 Alton, 168 
 Charleston, 162-166 
 Freeport, 154 
 Galesburg, 167 
 Jonesboro, 159 
 Ottawa, first debate at, 149 
 Quincy, 168 
 desire to succeed himself as sena- 
 tor, 134 
 Dred Scott Decision, speech on, 128 
 elected to Senate, 173 
 "Freeport Doctrine," 158 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill sponsored 
 
 by, 102, 103 
 policy of, forecast by Lincoln, 
 
 148, 163 
 senatorial election, result forecast 
 
 by Lincoln, 175 
 speech, Richmond, 99 
 speech to which Lincoln replied 
 Chicago, 138 
 Peoria, 103 
 Springfield, 128 
 Drama 
 Lincoln's appreciation of Shake- 
 speare, 373 
 Dred Scott Decision, 128, 138 
 Lincoln's opposition to, 141 144 
 new version, 167 
 question of reversing decision, 168 
 senatorial issue at Chicago in- 
 tensified by, 138 
 slave holding affected by, 170, 172 
 Territories may not exclude slav- 
 ery, 152 
 Du Pont, Samuel F. (Admiral) 
 Charleston, instructions regarding, 
 
 345 
 Edwards, N. W., 14 
 Emanicipation 
 see also, Slavery 
 Border state Representatives 
 
 conference on policy, 279, 301, 303 
 compensation plan refused, 303 
 issue of Civil War, 303 
 Lincoln's plan for, 402 
 
INDEX 
 
 489 
 
 Emancipation, con't. 
 
 Missouri, query from General 
 
 Schofield, 360 
 Proclamation 
 Arkansas, 371 
 Cabinet discussion, 304 
 demanded by abolitionists, 312 
 issue of, 333, 337, 39 1 
 question of application without 
 
 military necessity, 375 
 read at Cabinet meeting, 314 
 text of, 315 
 England 
 Workingmen of Manchester 
 resolutions sent, reply, 337, 340 
 Everett, Edward, 387 
 Fair Oaks, Battle of, 291 
 Fairs and benefits held, 403 
 Ferry 
 
 operated by Lincoln, 6 
 Ficklin, Orlando B., 164 
 Field, Maunsell B., 414-415 
 Fischel, A. (Rev. Dr.), 268 
 Fishback, W. M. 
 
 Arkansas affairs, 398 
 Florida 
 ports blockaded, 242 
 secession of, 216 
 slaves freed by Hunter, 285 
 
 act repudiated by Lincoln, 286 
 war declared, 242 
 Foote, Andrew H., 
 
 commander, Powhatan, 237 
 Fort Donelson 
 
 plans for holding, 275-276 
 Fort Kearney 
 
 officers threaten to move south 
 if Republicans win election, 
 206 
 Fort Pickens 
 
 naval detachment sent, 237 
 question of holding, 233 
 S. S. Brooklyn, troops on, 233, 
 238, 239 
 Fort Sumter 
 
 bombardment and surrender, 241, 
 
 242 
 Chew sent to take provisions and 
 interview Governor Pickens, 
 240 
 holding of, favored by majority, 
 
 237 
 surrender to Confederates advised, 
 
 233 
 Fortress Monroe 
 interview with agents of South, 
 
 444, 445 
 Forts 
 question of holding, 233, 236 
 
 "Fourscore and seven years . . .," 
 
 Gettysburg speech, 386 
 Fox, Gustavus V., 
 
 services in regard to Fort Sumter, 
 246 
 Franklin, W. B. (General) 
 
 plan for Army of Potomac, 331 
 Fredericksburg, Battle of, 329, 330 
 "Free Soil" men, 79 
 Freeport 
 
 debate between Douglas and Lin- 
 coln, 154 
 Freese, J. R. (Doctor), 431 
 Freese, Jacob, 386 
 Fremont, John C. (General), 
 
 command at St. Louis, 254 
 
 proclamation issued in St. Louis 
 modified by Lincoln, 256-258 
 
 relieved of command of Western 
 Department of Army, 262 
 Friends 
 
 letter to Mrs. Gurney, 429 
 Fugitive slave laws 
 
 Congress' power in relation to, 182 
 
 enforcement, 21 1 
 Galena 
 
 speech in reply to charge of "dis- 
 unionists," 122 
 Galesburg 
 
 debate between Douglas and Lin- 
 coln, 167 
 Gallaher, Austin, 2 
 Galloway, Samuel, 184 
 Gamble, Hamilton R. (Governor), 
 
 335, 369 
 General Land Office 
 Butterfield appointed, 88 
 Butter field's appointment opposed, 
 
 86, 87 
 office sought by Lincoln, 82, 85, 88 
 Georgia 
 ports blockaded, 242 
 secession of, 218 
 slaves freed by Hunter, 285 
 
 act repudiated by Lincoln, 286 
 war declared, 242 
 German newspaper 
 purchased by Lincoln, 182 
 sold by Lincoln, 209 
 German regiments 
 
 formed in New York, 247 
 German vote, 142, 180 
 Gettysburg 
 Battle of, 365 
 
 Lee withdrew but unable to 
 cross Potomac, 367 
 Lincoln's speech 
 "Fourscore and seven years . . ." 
 386 
 
490 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Gordon, Nathaniel, 274-275 
 Government 
 
 importance of its preservation, 120 
 Governors 
 additional troops arranged for, 298 
 message to, concerning progress of 
 war, 297 
 Grant, Ulysses S. (General), 
 acknowledment of service in vi- 
 cinity of Vicksburg, 367 
 activities along Mississippi, 350, 
 
 352 
 as Lieutenant-General of Army, 
 
 402 
 colored troops recommended, 373 
 informed of conditions in vicinity 
 
 of Washington, 418 
 Lincoln visits camp of, 456 
 Mobile expedition inadvisable, 
 
 373 
 Petersbug victory, 457 
 recommended that Sheriden, as 
 commander, move south of 
 enemy, 421 
 tribute of Lincoln, 461 
 victorious campaign, 408 
 Greeley, Horace, 418 
 answer to his article, Prayer of 
 
 Twenty Millions, 309 
 peace negotiations with Confeder- 
 ate agents in Canada, 420 
 permission to publish correspon- 
 dence with Lincoln, 423, 425 
 press used through, 264 
 Stephens' mission to Washington, 
 423 
 Green, John Bowling, 11 
 Gurney, Eliza O. (Mrs.)» 429 
 Habeas corpus writ 
 
 suspension, 376 
 Hackett, James EL, 373, 386 
 Hahn, Michael (Governor) 
 
 Louisana first Free State, 403 
 Halleck, Henry W. (General) 
 attack on Lee suggested by Lin- 
 coln, 384-385 
 criticized for opposing Burnside, 
 
 334 
 disagreement with Hooker, 359 
 General-in-Chief of Army, 301 
 
 command assumed,3io 
 Meade's campaign discussed, 376 
 suggestions for campaign in West, 
 270 
 Hanks, family, 1 
 Hanks, John, 7 
 Hardin County, Kentucky 
 birthplace of Lincoln, 1 
 
 Hardin, J. J., 52 
 Harney (General), 247 
 Harper's Ferry, 193-194 
 
 troops from Martinsburg and 
 Winchester, 358 
 Harrisburg 
 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 227 
 Harrison's Landing 
 
 Lincoln's visit to McClellan, 300 
 Helm, Emily T. (Mrs.), 423 
 Hernclon, William H., 61, 75 
 
 concerning Lincoln's reelection to 
 Congress, 66 
 
 Mexican War controversy, 69 
 
 partnership with Lincoln, 53 
 hopes for continuance, 219 
 Hogginsville 
 
 birthplace of Lincoln, 1 
 Llooker, Joseph (General) 
 
 campaign plans, Richmond, 345 
 
 commander, Army of Potomac, 
 
 339 
 disagreement with Halleck, 359 
 failure to obtain results, 347 
 Lincoln's estimate of, 339 
 military relation to Halleck, 359 
 Rappahannock campaign, 353, 354 
 resignation from Army of Po- 
 tomac, 361 
 
 Hospitals 
 
 chaplains appointed, 261 
 
 House of Representatives 
 election to, 60 
 expiration of term, 83 
 nomination to, 57 
 "Spot Resolutions," 63 
 
 Hungarian revolution 
 
 resolutions of sympathy, 90 
 
 Hunter, David (General) 
 slaves freed by, 285, 286 
 temporary command, Western De- 
 partment, 262 
 use of colored soldiers, 344 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Lincoln family moved to, 7 
 
 Illinois Central Railroad Company 
 bill for professional services, 119 
 
 Indian War in Minnesota, 327 
 
 Indiana 
 Lincoln family moved to, 3 
 state election 
 soldiers to vote, 430 
 Indianapolis 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 22c 
 Inventions 
 buoyant chambers for vessel, 87 
 
INDEX 
 
 491 
 
 Jackson, Thomas J. (General) 
 return from Shenandoah to vicin- 
 ity of Richmond, 294 
 "Valley Campaign," 287 
 James River 
 
 McClellan's army in camp, 300 
 Jefferson, Thomas 
 principles of, 179 
 Johnson, Andrew (Governor), 400 
 suggested plans for Tennessee, 
 
 376 
 use of colored soldiers, 343 
 Johnston, John D., 7, 91, 94"97 
 Johnston, Joseph E. (General) 
 
 succeeded by Lee, 291 
 Johnston, Sally (Mrs.) 
 
 Thomas Lincoln's second wife, 4 
 Jones, Thomas D., 452 
 Jonesboro 
 debate between Douglas and Lin- 
 coln, 159 
 Journal of Commerce 
 
 military seizure due to articles 
 printed, 410 
 Judd, Norman B., 
 
 suggestion regarding fraudulent 
 votes, 172 
 Judiciary 
 
 State, reorganization, 33 
 Kansas 
 admission controversy, 132 
 as free state, 117, 218 
 Governor complains of military 
 
 interference, 346 
 Nebraska territorial bill modified 
 
 to include, 104 
 speech concerning situation in, 120 
 squatter sovereignty 
 as party "platform," 184 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 elections influenced by, 11 1 
 introduction, 102 
 Lincoln's reply to Douglas, 103- 
 
 108 
 Missouri Compromise repealed by, 
 
 104 
 slavery issue affected by, 144 
 Kentucky 
 birthplace of Lincoln, 1 
 military force in 
 
 removal request denied, 255 
 Key, John J. (Major) 
 
 dismissed from military service, 
 317 
 King, Turner R., 84, 85 
 Kinney, Captain, 405 
 Knob Creek, Kentucky 
 
 senior Lincoln's farm at, 2, 3 
 
 Knox, Thomas W., 
 
 court-martial sentence revoked, 
 342 
 Koerner, Gustave 
 
 address by Hecker desired, 142 
 
 concerning suffrage of natural- 
 ized citizens, 180 
 
 printing of Lincoln's speeches, 149 
 Labor 
 
 see, Capital and labor 
 Land Office, Springfield 
 
 recommendations to Secretary of 
 Interior, 84 
 Land Office, Washington 
 
 Lincoln interested in, 82, 85, 88 
 La Rue County, Kentucky 
 
 birthplace of Lincoln, 1 
 Law practise 
 
 Armstrong case, 131, 134 
 
 Illinois Central Railroad Company 
 bill for professional services, 119 
 
 license obtained, 16 
 
 partnership with Herndon, 53, 219 
 
 partnership with Logan, 33 
 dissolved, 53 
 
 partnership with Stuart, 22 
 dissolved, 33 
 
 professional development, 118 
 
 resumed upon leaving Congress, 84 
 
 Rock Island Bridge Co. suit, 131 
 
 views of profession expressed in 
 lecture, 92 
 
 work "on the circuit," 91 
 Law studies 
 
 between sessions of Legislature, 13 
 
 Blackstone's, Commentaries, 12 
 Lawyers 
 
 advice to beginners, 118 
 
 method of study, 1*75 
 
 views of, expressed in lecture, 94 
 " Lecompton Constitution," 132 
 Lee, Robert E., 
 
 attack on McClellan at Mechan- 
 icsville, 295 
 
 retreat into Virginia, 320 
 
 succeeds Johnston, 291 
 
 surrender, 460 
 Lee, S. P. (Admiral) 
 
 concerning Stephens as messenger 
 of Davis, 365 
 Leesburg 
 
 firing in vicinity, 360 
 Legislation 
 
 affecting slave property, 161 
 
 fugitive slave laws, relationship, 
 182 
 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 introduction, 102 
 
 special slave laws, 171 
 
492 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Legislature 
 Illinois 
 candidate, not elected, 8, n 
 election, 13 
 reelection, 16, 29, 31 
 Lewis, Alpheus, 397 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 abolition in District of Columbia, 
 
 156 
 addresses on trips to Washington 
 
 for inauguration, 220-228 
 assassination, 468 
 
 his dream concerning, 465 
 plot reported, prior to his inaug- 
 uration, 225 
 scoffed by, 374 
 birthplace, 1 
 business enterprises 
 
 store clerk at New Salem, 8 
 store owner at New Salem, 11 
 Cabinet 
 
 see, Cabinet of Lincoln 
 children of, 61, 92, 203, 205, 220, 
 383, 388 
 death of son, 270 
 entrance of son into army, 443 
 Civil War 
 desire to have no bloodshed as 
 
 aftermath, 467 
 issue of, 256, 267 
 
 emancipation, 303 
 policy outlined, 241 
 proclamation, 242 
 college degree conferred upon, 442 
 complete self-assurance attained, 
 
 301 
 Congress 
 
 message to, 248, 267, 322-327 
 death of Ann Rutledge, 13 
 debate with Douglas 
 
 a plan arranged, 146-148 
 Alton, 168 
 Charleston, 162-166 
 Freeport, 154 
 Galesburg, 167 
 Jonesboro, 159 
 Ottawa, first debate at, 149 
 Quincy, 168 
 Douglas' senatorial election 
 
 results predicted, 175 
 dreams of unusual nature, 465, 
 
 466 
 Dred Scott Decision 
 
 see, Dred Scott Decision 
 Emancipation 
 
 see, Emancipation 
 forecast of the Douglas policy, 
 
 148, 163 
 Grant's camp visited, 456 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, con't. 
 
 image in mirror and Mrs. Lin- 
 coln's interpretation, 206 
 invention for vessels, 87 
 joined Republican Party, 121 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 
 reply to Douglas, 103-108 
 law practise 
 
 license obtained, 16 
 partnerships with Herndon, 53, 
 
 219 
 partnership with Logan, 33 
 
 dissolved, 53 
 partnership with Stuart, 22 
 dissolved, 33 
 law studies, 12, 13 
 letters of condolence, 247, 437 
 marriage to Mary Todd, 49 
 Mary Owens 
 agreement concerning, 16 
 break with, 26 
 mother's death, 4 
 newspaper, German 
 purchased, 182 
 sold, 209 
 opinion on Fremont's act of free- 
 ing slaves, 259 
 parentage, 1 
 
 personal description, 188 
 plans for future, 468 
 poetry written by, 58 
 political career 
 
 Flouse of Representatives 
 election, 60 
 
 expiration of term, 83 
 nomination, 57 
 Illinois Legislature 
 
 candidate, not elected, 8, 11 
 election, 13 
 reelection, 16, 29, 31 
 Oregon office refused, 91 
 presidency 
 elected, 207 
 
 elected second time, 434 
 inaugural address, 229 
 nominated, 200 
 proposed for, 173, 181, 195, 
 
 196, 197, 199, 200 
 renomination, 411, 414 
 second inaugural address, 450 
 Senate 
 candidacy, 108, 136 
 condidacy defeated, 112 
 election defeated, 173 
 prayer day for special meditation 
 
 assigned, 253, 368, 429 
 printing of speeches, 149, 178 
 religious aspect, 317, 336, 429, 434 
 view of joining a church, 442 
 
INDEX 
 
 493 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, con't. 
 reply to Douglas 
 
 Chicago, 138 
 
 Peoria, 103 
 
 Springfield, 128 
 reply to Greeley on policy of war, 
 
 309 
 river transportation 
 
 first work after leaving farm, 6 
 schooling, 2, 4 
 singing ability refuted, 91 
 slavery 
 
 see also, Slavery 
 
 bill for abolition in District of 
 
 Columbia, 82 
 Constitutional amendments rec- 
 ommended, 322-327 
 first action regarding, 21 
 plan for abolishment, 276, 286 
 speeches 
 
 "Fourscore and seven years . . .," 
 
 386 
 last public address, 461 
 New York, 192-194, 198 
 Springfield, 143 
 
 printing of, 149 
 "With malice toward none . . .," 
 
 452 
 "You can fool all the people . . .," 
 159 
 temperance championed by, 40 
 Lincoln, Abraham (Mrs.) 
 see also, Todd, Mary 
 notes from her husband, 74, 354. 
 358, 360, 371, 377, 379, 388, 
 407, 413, 430 
 Tad's goat, 372 
 Lincoln, Abraham, senior, 1 
 Lincoln family 
 see also, Johnson 
 ancestry, 101 
 Illinois farm, 7 
 Knob Creek farm, 2 
 Spencer County farm, 3 
 Lincoln, Thomas 
 birthplace, 1 
 
 farm at Knob Creek, 2, 3 
 letter to, 80 > 
 second marriage, 4 
 "Lost Speech," 121 
 Louisiana 
 as Free State, 403 
 effect of issue in, 306, 310 
 government, 371-372, 437. 462 
 Hahn, first Free State Governor, 
 
 403 
 new constitution, 424 
 ports blockaded, 242 
 
 Louisiana, con't. 
 
 Rapids Parish, people destitute, 
 
 431 
 
 secession of, 218 
 
 question of repeal, 386 
 
 under Federal control, 319 
 
 Congressional election, 319, 321 
 
 war declared, 242 
 "Loyal Brigade of the North," 359 
 Luckett, Henry F., 394 
 Maclean, John (Doctor) 
 
 of College of New Jersey, 442 
 Magoffin, B. (Governor) 
 
 military force in Kentucky 
 removal request denied, 255 
 Malvern Hill, Battle of, 298 
 Manassas, Battle of 
 
 Federal defeat, 311 
 Manassas Junction 
 
 Potomac Army ordered to advance 
 on, 274 
 Mann, Horace (Mrs.), 406 
 Martinsburg 
 
 Confederate victory, 357 
 
 Tyler surrounded, 357 
 Maryland 
 
 additional troops called for, 358 
 Massachusetts 
 
 colored migration, 399 
 
 naturalized citizen provision, 181 
 danger as "platform," 184 
 Matteson, Joel A., no 
 McClellan, George B. (General) 
 
 attacked by Lee at Mechanicsville, 
 
 295 
 disagreement with President over 
 
 plans, 274, 277 
 outside of Richmond, 291 
 placed in command of Army, 263 
 policy, Lincoln dubious, 283 
 relieved as commanding general, 
 
 279 
 relieved from command, Army of 
 
 Potomac, 320 
 replacing of, 365 
 resumed command in place of 
 
 Pope, 311 
 summoned to Washington, 251 
 urged to go into action, 318, 320 
 visit of Lincoln at Harrison's 
 Landing and subsequent re- 
 moval as commander-in-chief, 
 300-301 
 McCormick, Cyrus H., 118 
 McDowell, Samuel T. (General) 
 advance on Shenandoah Valley, 
 
 289 
 movement of troops, 281, 286 
 McPheeters, Doctor, 334 
 
494 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Meade, George G. (General) 
 commander, Army of Potomac, 
 
 36i 
 court of inquiry refused, 404 
 inaction after Gettysburg, 368-369 
 ordered to suspend execution of 
 
 soldier, 388 
 suggestion that he move against 
 Lee, 376 
 Mechanicsville 
 
 Lee attacked McClellan, 295 
 Meigs (Colonel) 
 
 Lincoln's estimate of, 248 
 Methodist Delegation to Washing- 
 ton, 409 
 Mexican War 
 letter to Herndon explaining views, 
 
 69 
 Lincoln's speech before House, 67 
 outbreak of, 60 
 "Spot Resolutions," 62 
 Milderborger, John, 386 
 Milroy, R. H. (General) 
 
 in command at Winchester, 357 
 Mississippi 
 colored troops desirable, 369, 373 
 ports blockaded, 242 
 secession of, 216 
 war declared, 242 
 Missouri 
 emancipation, policy possible, 360 
 factional quarrel, 352 
 governing of, 335-336 
 policy in, discussed with Scho- 
 
 field, 380 
 regiments rushed to, 254 
 seizure of property by provost- 
 marshals, 449 
 Missouri Compromise 
 repeal, 102, 103, 144 
 by Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 104 
 or restoration, 107 
 Missouri, Department of 
 
 Curtis relieved from command, 352 
 Schofield in command, 352 
 Monocacy 
 
 defeat, 418 
 Montgomery, Alabama 
 
 Confederate States of America 
 formed, 219 
 Morris, Martin M., 
 
 letter to, 51 
 Morton, Mary E., 
 
 property seized, 397 
 National Union League, Delegation 
 
 to Washington, 412 
 Nebraska 
 territorial government, bill for, 
 104 
 
 "Nebraska Bill," 102 
 
 Lincoln's reply to Douglas, 103- 
 108 
 Negroes 
 
 see, Colored men ; Slavery 
 New England 
 
 speeches of Lincoln, 79 
 New Hampshire 
 fugitive slave laws 
 obedience, punishable, 184 
 New Jersey 
 
 quota of troops lacking, 369 
 New Orleans 
 
 flatboat trip to, 6, 7 
 New Salem, Illinois 
 postmaster appointment, 12 
 store 
 Berry and Lincoln, proprietors, 11 
 Lincoln as clerk, 8 
 New York 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 
 224 
 Cooper Institute 
 
 Lincoln's speech at, 192-194 
 draft 
 
 suspension refused, 372 
 
 Newspapers 
 help asked on abolition plan, 278 
 New York 
 seizure due to articles printed, 
 410 
 power of press recognized, 264 
 Nezv York World 
 military seizure due to nature of 
 articles, 410 
 North American Review 
 
 article, "The President's Policy/' 
 396 
 Oath 
 
 Lincoln's dislike of, 398 
 of amnesty, 389, 400 
 Tennessee, 400 
 Offutt, Denton, 7 
 Ohio 
 
 additional troops called for, 358 
 fugitive slave laws 
 repeal, as "platform," 184 
 Ohio Delegation at Washington, 411 
 "Old Rough" 
 
 name applied Zachary Taylor, 72 
 Ottawa 
 debate between Douglas and Lin- 
 coln, 149 
 Owens, Mary, 16, 26 
 Parentage of Lincoln, I 
 Peace 
 conditions for basis of, 444, 459 
 Greeley's negotiations, 420 
 
INDEX 
 
 495 
 
 Peace, con't. 
 
 idea of conference with Davis, 
 
 abandoned, 427 
 interview at Fortress Monroe, 444, 
 
 445 
 Lincoln willing to interview 
 
 agents of South, 443 
 proposal, on basis of bond issue 
 to States, 447 
 Pennsylvania 
 additional troops called for, 358 
 troops in, 312 
 Pennsylvania Delegation 
 
 reply to, 232 
 Pensacola 
 
 Porter sent to guard Fort Pick- 
 ens, 237 
 Peoria 
 
 speeches of Douglas and Lincoln, 
 103 
 Petersburg 
 
 Grant victorious, 457 
 Philadelphia 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 227 
 Philips, John, 438 
 Phillips, Wendell, 422 
 Piatt, John J., 452 
 Pittsburgh 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 
 225 < 
 Brooks in command, 359 
 Plymouth Church, Brooklyn 
 
 Lincoln invited to speak, 192 
 Poetry 
 
 on childhood home, 58 
 Political career 
 House of Representatives 
 election to, 60 
 nomination, 57 
 Illinois Legislature 
 
 candidate, not elected, 8, II 
 election, 13 
 reelection, 16, 29, 31 
 Oregon office refused, 91 
 presidency 
 elected, 206 
 
 elected second time, 434 
 inaugural address, 229 
 nominated, 200 
 
 proposed for, 195, 196, 197, 199, 
 200 
 by L. J. Pickett, 181 
 Mansfield, Ohio, 173 
 second inaugural address, 450 
 Senate 
 candidacy defeated, 112 
 candidate for, 108 
 election defeated, 173 
 
 Political opinions 
 Buchanan's campaign, issue of, 124 
 constitutionality of slave holding 
 
 and slave returning, 172 
 early views, 8, 14 
 election of Douglas not an end 
 
 to controversy, 174 
 fugitive slave laws 
 
 Congress' power in relation to, 
 182, 211 
 "house divided against itself," 136 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 
 reply to Douglas, 103-108 
 Mexican War controversy, 67 
 naturalized citizen provision, 181 
 obligation to Supreme Court de- 
 cision, 167 
 racial equality, 162 
 slave legislation as affecting the 
 
 Constitution, 170 
 slavery, attitude toward, formu- 
 lated, 97 
 "Spot Resolutions," 62 
 Taylor 
 
 method of appointment, 89 
 nomination, 72, 73 
 Political speeches, 19 
 see also, Speeches 
 Cincinnati, 185 
 
 Cooper Union, New York, 193 
 debate between Douglas and Lin- 
 coln 
 a plan arranged, 146-148 
 Alton, 168 
 Charleston, 162-166 
 Freeport, 154 
 Galesburg, 167 
 Jonesboro, 159 
 Ottawa, 149 
 Quincy, 168 
 Democratic Party referred to, 76 
 Douglas and Lincoln 
 Chicago, 138 
 Peoria, 103 
 Springfield, 128 
 Galena 
 
 reply to charge of "disunion- 
 ists," 122 
 invitations, 185 
 made in New England, 79 
 parties compared on slavery ques- 
 tion, 130 
 printing of, 149, 178 
 Springfield, 143 
 
 printing of, 149 
 time devoted to, 131 
 Politics 
 see also, Conventions, political 
 
496 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Politics, con't. 
 
 Chase's attempt to supplant Lin- 
 coln, 384, 400 
 Douglas policy forecast by Lin- 
 coln, 148, 163 
 Douglas' senatorial election 
 
 results predicted by Lincoln, 175 
 Dred Scott decision intensified 
 senatorial issue at Chicago, 
 138 
 elections of 1863, 388 
 Electoral Count 
 
 Lincoln's reelection, 448 
 German vote, 142, 180 
 Kansas admission controversy, 132 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 
 elections influenced by, in 
 local "platforms" dangerous, 183- 
 
 184 
 office seeking 
 
 General Land Office, 82, 88 
 Post-office sought by Davis, 87 
 presidential campaign of 1865, 433 
 contest between union and dis- 
 union, 421 
 senatorial vacancy in 1859 
 Lincoln and Douglas candidates, 
 
 134 
 slavery 
 
 issue more apparent, 114 
 issue of Buchanan's campaign, 
 124 
 "Union, Constitution and Enforce- 
 ment of Laws," platform 
 wanted, 190 
 Pomeroy Circular, 400, 402 
 Pomeroy, S. C, 
 concerning government in Kansas, 
 409 
 Pope (General) 
 
 command given to McClellan, 311 
 commander, Army of Virginia, 
 294 
 Porter, D. D. (Lieutenant) 
 
 sent to Pensacola, 237 
 Porter, Fitz-John (Major-General) 
 dismissed from military service, 
 
 339 
 Postmaster at New Salem, 12 
 Postmaster-General 
 
 Blair's resignation, 432 
 Denni son's appointment, 433 
 Potomac, Army of 
 attack on Lee suggested by Lin- 
 coln, 384-385 
 Burnside in command, 320 
 Burnside relieved from command, 
 
 339 
 Fredericksburg, Battle of, 330 
 Gettysburg, Battle of, 365 
 
 Potomac, Army of, con't. 
 Hooker in command, 339 
 Hooker's resignation, 361 
 Lee's army as suggested objective, 
 
 377 
 McClellan relieved from com- 
 mand, 320 
 Meade in command, 361 
 plans, 266, 278, 331 
 President's Special War Order 
 No. 1 
 move on Manassas Junction, 274 
 Powhatan 
 
 Foote in command, 237 
 Prayer, 343 
 
 special day for, observed, 253, 
 368, 429 
 Presidents 
 Buchanan 
 
 slavery issue, 124 
 campaign of 1865 
 
 contest between union and dis- 
 union, 421 
 Lincoln 
 elected, 206 
 
 elected second time, 434 
 inaugural address, 239 
 nominated, 200 
 
 proposed, 195, 196, 197, 199, 200 
 by T. J. Pickett, 181 
 Mansfield, Ohio, 173 
 Republican State Convention, 
 200 
 renomination, 411, 414 
 second inaugural address, 450 
 Taylor 
 
 nomination, 72 
 Products of States in insurrection, 
 
 432 
 Property 
 
 destruction of, by armies, 424 
 Publicity 
 
 Lincoln's speeches printed, 149, 
 
 ^ 8 
 Quincy 
 
 debate between Douglas and Lin- 
 coln, 167 
 Rappahannock 
 
 Hooker's forces against Lee, 353, 
 
 354 
 Raymond, Henry J., 425 
 
 letter to, concerning peace con- 
 ference, not used, 427 
 Reading of Lincoln 
 
 Blackstone's, Commentaries, 12 
 Weems' Life of Washington, 5 
 Rebel prisoners freed, 453 
 Reed, Alexander (Reverend) 
 United States Christian Commis- 
 sion, 341 
 
INDEX 
 
 497 
 
 Regiments 
 colored, 343, 344, 406 
 
 possible use at Fortress Monroe 
 and Yorktown, 337 
 Ohio, Lincoln's address to, 426 
 Potomac Division 
 
 plans for, 266 
 regulations concerning deserted 
 
 soldiers, 341 
 troops of McDowell, 281, 285 
 Republican National Convention, 
 Philadelphia 
 Lincoln voted for, 121 
 Republican Party- 
 Chicago Convention 
 
 nomination of Lincoln, 200 
 Lincoln became member, 121 
 need of uniformity, 183 
 organized, 108 
 Republican State Convention 
 
 Lincoln proposed for president, 
 200 
 Reynolds, J. J. (General) 
 
 questioned concerning seizure of 
 property, 396 
 Richard, Sarah, 33 
 Richmond 
 
 Burnside directed to send troops, 
 
 296 
 campaign for capture, 294-295 
 capture of, 458 
 Halleck directed to send troops, 
 
 295 
 McClellan in vicinity, 291 
 plan for attack under Hooker, 345 
 Seven Days Battle 
 
 Malvern Hill, 298 
 Seven Days Battle 
 Mechanicsville, 295 
 River transportation 
 
 carried on by Lincoln, 6 
 Rock Island Bridge Co. suit, 131 
 Rosecrans, W. S. (General) 
 
 asked for news from Mississippi, 
 
 350 
 Burnside to join, at Chattanooga, 
 
 378 
 cited for advancement, 395 
 positions of troops and Lee's 
 
 probable move, 383 
 vicinity of Chattanooga, 377 
 Rutledge, Ann, 13 
 Sabbath 
 
 observance of, 320 
 St. Louis 
 
 Fremont in command, 254 
 slaves freed by Fremont 
 order modified by Lincoln, 256, 
 257, 258 
 
 St. Louis, con't. 
 
 trip to, with Joshua Speed, 34 
 Savannah 
 
 Sherman victorious, 441 
 Schenck, R. C. (General), 369 
 Scho field, John M. (General) 
 Department of Missouri 
 in command, 352 
 question of removal, 394 
 policy in Missouri, 380 
 query concerning emancipation in 
 Missouri, 360 
 Schurz, Carl (General), 321, 403, 
 
 404 
 Scott, Winfield (General), 216 
 daily reports required, 237 
 opinion on military strength at 
 
 Lincoln's inauguration, 232 
 retired upon request, 263 
 suggested policy for, 244-245 
 Secession 
 Alabama, 217 
 first rumors 
 after Lincoln's nomination, 204 
 Lincoln's reply, 190 
 Florida, 216 
 
 fostered during latter part of 
 Buchanan's administration, 214 
 Georgia, 218 
 legality of, 386 
 Louisiana, 218 
 Mississippi, 216 
 South Carolina, 211 
 Texas, 228 
 United States mail withdrawn as 
 
 result of, 241 
 Virginia, 242 
 Secretary of State 
 Seward, William H., 
 appointment, 232 
 office offered to, 209 
 resignation tendered, 330 
 Secretary of Treasury 
 Chase, Salmon P., 
 resignation accepted, 415 
 resignation tendered, 330 
 Senate 
 attack on President's policy, 422 
 Committee of Thirteen appointed, 
 
 210 
 election of Douglas, 173 
 Lincoln 
 
 candidacy, 108, 136 
 
 defeated, 112 
 election, defeated, 173 
 Republicans want new Cabinet, 
 
 272 
 request dismissal of Lincoln's 
 Cabinet, 329 
 
498 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Senate, con't. 
 vacancy in 1859 
 
 Lincoln and Douglas candidates, 
 134 
 withdrawal of southern members, 
 218 
 Seven Oaks, Battle of, 291 
 Seventh Regiment 
 
 arrival at Washington, 244 
 Seward, William H., 
 Secretary of State 
 appointment, 232 
 office offered to, 209 
 resignation tendered, 330 
 suggestions of policy to President 
 first month's administration, 235 
 Seymour, Horatio (Governor), 342, 
 
 Shakespeare's works 
 
 Lincoln's appreciation of, 373 
 Sheledy, G. B., 40 
 Shenandoah Valley 
 
 Banks ordered to advance, 292 
 McDowell ordered to advance, 289 
 Sheridan, Philip H. (General) 
 campaign against Early, 430, 431 
 Grant's recommendations for cam- 
 paign, 421 
 Sherman, William T. (General) 
 citizens of Chattanooga forced to 
 
 move, 408 
 Indiana election, 430 
 Savannah captured by, 441 
 Shields, James, 46 
 Slavery 
 see also, Emancipation 
 abolition in District of Columbia, 
 282 
 bill in House, 82 
 abolition, Lincoln's plan, 276, 286 
 African slave trade suppression, 
 
 292 
 Buchanan's campaign, importance 
 
 of issue, 124 
 Congress 
 
 jurisdiction over States and 
 
 Territories, 138, 161 
 lack of constitutional power 
 over, 416 
 Constitutional amendments recom- 
 mended, 322-327 
 Constitutionality of slave holding 
 
 and slave returning, 172 
 Dred Scott Decision, 128, 144 
 slave holding affected by, 170, 
 172 
 extension 
 
 danger of compromise, 210 
 foreign slave-trade question, 136 
 
 Slavery, con't. 
 
 Fugitive Slave laws, 155 
 Congress' power, 171, 182 
 enforcement, 21 r 
 issue of war, 381 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 102 
 issue affected by, 144 
 Lincoln's reply to Douglas, 103- 
 108 
 Lincoln's attitude, 97, 405 
 Lincoln's first action, 21 
 mentioned in New England speech, 
 
 79 
 opposed by Henry Clay, 98 
 perpetuation not intended by 
 founders of our Government, 
 
 political issue growing, 114 
 racial equality not alternative, 163 
 slave-trade between states, 157 
 Territories 
 
 Congressional power, 138 
 question of permitting, 106 
 Dred Scott decision denies ex- 
 clusion, 152 
 Texas, effect of annexation upon, 
 
 54 
 view of Henry Clay, 153 
 Slaves 
 
 fugitive, temporary provision for, 
 
 by army, 300 
 paid service in Union army, 306 
 petition to free, sent by Mrs. 
 Horace Mann, 406 
 Smith, W. F. (General) 
 
 plan for Army of Potomac, 331 
 Society 
 
 problems of, 102 
 Society of Friends 
 acknowledgment of letter from, 
 280 
 Soldiers 
 deserters, regulations concerning, 
 
 341 
 expiration of term of service, 383 
 mistreatment, arbitrary retaliation 
 
 in kind for, 371 
 negroes, 391, 392 
 prisoners of war 
 enlistment in Union Army, 428, 
 
 431 
 exchange, 449 
 freed, 453 
 sentenced to die, Lincoln asks full 
 information of, 385, 386, 388, 
 396 
 withholding of pay, 401 
 
INDEX 
 
 499 
 
 South 
 see also, Confederate States of 
 
 America 
 Confederate States of America 
 
 formed, 219 
 cotton, effect on situation, 440 
 Fort Kearney officers 
 threat to resist government if 
 Republicans win election, 206 
 rumored report of willingness to 
 send men to Congress, 1862, 328 
 secession 
 
 first rumors, after Lincoln's 
 nomination, 204 
 South Carolina 
 ports blockaded, 242 
 secession, 211 
 slaves freed by Hunter, 285 
 
 act repudiated by Lincoln, 286 
 war declared, 242 
 withdrawal of Federal garrisons 
 demanded, 213 
 Speeches 
 see also, Lincoln, Abraham, 
 
 speeches* Political speeches 
 en route to Washington, 220-228 
 inaugural addresses, 239, 450 
 last public address, 461 
 printing of, 149, 178 
 Speed, Joshua F., 22 
 concerning marriage, 36-40, 42-45 
 slavery controversy, 116 
 trip to St. Louis, 34 
 Speed, Mary (Miss) 
 
 letter to, 34 
 Spencer County, Indiana 
 
 Lincoln family moved to, 3 
 "Spot Resolutions," 62 
 Springfield, Illinois 
 
 farewell address prior to in- 
 auguration, 220 
 Lincoln's law practise at, 22 
 speeches of Douglas, Lincoln, 128 
 Staats Anzeiger 
 
 purchased by Lincoln, 182 
 sold by Lincoln, 209 
 Stager, Anson 
 
 report on Vicksburg, 351 
 Stanford, J. R., 100 
 Stanton, Edwin M., 118 
 
 suspension, Chicago Times, 353 
 States 
 additional troops needed, 383 
 Border 
 conference on emancipation 
 
 policy, 279, 301 
 compensated emancipation re- 
 fused, 303 
 
 States, con't. 
 Free 
 
 Kansas, 117, 218 
 Louisiana, 403 
 laws conflicting with those of 
 
 Congress, 211 
 message to governors concerning 
 
 progress of the war, 297 
 primary meaning of term, 221 
 proclamation concerning the res- 
 toration, 417 
 provisions concerning negroes, 391, 
 
 393 
 purchase of products, 432 
 seceded, government reestab- 
 lished, 390 
 slavery, Lincoln's plan for abolish- 
 ment, 276 
 Steele, F. (General) 
 
 plans for Arkansas, 400 
 Stephens, Alexander H., 190, 423 
 Stephens, John A. (Lieutenant), 
 
 447, 449 
 Steubenville 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 223 
 Stone, General, 283 
 Stuart, John T. (Major) 
 Lincoln encouraged to study law 
 by, 13 
 Sullivan, Daniel 
 
 execution suspended, 379 
 Sumner, Charles, 452 
 Supreme Court 
 decisions, reversing of, 168 
 political obligation to decision of, 
 167 
 Surveying 
 
 work at Sangamon, 13 
 Syracuse 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 224 
 Tariff 
 
 Lincoln's view of, 187 
 Taylor, Bayard, 395 
 Taylor, Zachary 
 
 presidential nomination, 72 
 Temperance 
 
 cause championed by Lincoln, 40 
 Tennessee 
 
 oath of amnesty, 400 
 plans of reinauguration, 376 
 Union troops needed in, 269, 270 
 Territories 
 division between North and South, 
 
 question agitated, 210 
 "Freeport Doctrine" of Douglas, 
 158 
 
5oo 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Territories, con't. 
 
 Fugitive-Slave law, 171 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 
 effect on, 138 
 slavery 
 
 agitation regarding "slave" and 
 
 "free" divisions, 213 
 Dred Scott Decision, 152, 170, 
 
 question of permitting, 106 
 Territorial Legislature 
 
 Constitution, relationship, 170 
 Texas 
 annexation controversy, 53 
 ports blockaded, 242 
 secession of, 228 
 Thanksgiving Proclamation, 380 
 Thomas, Lorenzo (General), 366 
 
 seizure of negroes, 412 
 Thompson, William 
 
 deserter, 374 
 Tobey, Samuel Bo}'d (Doctor) 
 letter acknowledged from Society 
 of Friends, 280 
 Todd, Mary 
 see also, Lincoln, Abraham (Mrs.) 
 engagement, 30 
 broken, 31 
 renewed, 46 
 marriage, 49 
 Trumbull, Lyman 
 letter to, 199 
 
 Lincoln not a rival, 177, 187 
 senatorial candidate, 108 
 Tyler (General) 
 
 in command at Martinsburg, 357 
 Union 
 
 articles of Confederation, 1778, 
 
 191 
 issue of controversy outlined by 
 
 Lincoln, 248 
 preservation, 188, 211 
 
 effect of Democratic election, 
 
 427 
 issue of 1865 presidential cam- 
 paign, 421 
 issue of war, 381 
 possible use of military force, 
 218 
 restoration of, purpose of Civil 
 
 War, 256 
 unanimous vote of states to dis- 
 solve, 190 
 Union League of Philadelphia 
 
 Lincoln, honorary member, 385 
 United States Army 
 activities outlined, 251 
 arms supply inadequate, 260 
 council of division commanders, 
 277 
 
 United States Army, con't. 
 daily reports 
 Hamlin, 246 
 Scott, 237 
 draft ordered, 398 
 enlistment of rebel prisoners of 
 
 war, 428, 431 
 expedition ordered to move by sea, 
 
 April, 1862, 237 
 Grant, U. S., Lieutenant-General, 
 
 402 
 officers' threat to resist Govern- 
 ment if Republicans win elec- 
 tion, 207 _ 
 Potomac Division 
 
 Burnside in command, 320 
 McClellan relieved from com- 
 mand, 320 
 plans for, 266 
 President's General War Orders, 
 
 273, 277, 278 
 President's Special War Order 
 
 No. 3, 279 
 Scott replaced by McClellan, 263 
 States called upon for additional 
 
 troops, 358 
 Virginia Division, 294 
 volunteers' term of service to ex- 
 pire 
 States asked to raise quota, 383 
 Western Department 
 Fremont replaced by Hunter, 
 262 
 United States Christian Commission, 
 
 341 
 United States Government 
 articles of Confederation, 1778, 
 
 191 
 mails withdrawn from seceded 
 
 States, 241 
 oath of amnesty, 389, 400 
 offices 
 
 (see also, Cabinet of Lincoln) 
 appointments of Lincoln, 234 
 plans to cope with resistance of 
 army officers after Lincoln's 
 election, 212, 213 
 policy toward states claiming 
 
 secession, 241 
 state laws in opposition to, 211 
 states in rebellion 
 
 bond issue proposed, 447 
 conditions for cessation of hos- 
 tilities, 444, 459 
 issue inflexible, 439 
 negotiations with agents of, 420, 
 
 444, 445 
 restoration plans, 417 
 
INDEX 
 
 Soi 
 
 United States Government, corit. 
 Union, preservation of, 188 
 possibility of using military 
 force, 218 
 United States, military forces 
 
 strength of, at time of Lincoln's 
 inauguration, 233, 238 
 United States Navy 
 instructions, 370 
 
 Porter ordered to Pensacola, 237 
 President's General War Order 
 No. 1 
 general movement of troops, 273 
 Utica 
 
 address, en route to Washington, 
 224 
 Vache Island 
 
 colored colony at, 398 
 Vallandigham, C. L., 
 arrest of, 350 
 
 explanation to Erastus Corning, 
 
 355 
 
 nominated for governor, 362 
 "Valley Campaign" 
 
 Jackson's, 287 
 Vandalia 
 
 State Legislature convened at. 17 
 Vessels 
 
 see, Boats 
 Veterans and families 
 
 responsibility toward, 370 
 Vicksburg, Battle of 
 
 surrender to Grant, 366 
 Virginia 
 
 Legislature during rebellion 
 no official recognition, 460, 465 
 
 secession, 242 
 Virginia, Army of 
 
 formation, with General Pope in 
 command, 294 
 Virginia Convention Committee 
 
 Lincoln's policy outlined to, 241 
 Wade-Davis Manifesto, 422 
 Wade (Senator) 
 
 published attack on President, 422 
 Walker, Governor 
 
 letter to 
 
 Horace Greeley and the press, 
 264 
 War 
 
 Black Hawk 
 Lincoln a captain in, 9 
 
 War, con't. 
 
 Civil 
 see, Civil War 
 
 Indian, in Minnesota, 327 
 
 Mexican, 67, 69 
 outbreak of, 60 
 "Spot Resolutions," 62 
 Washington 
 
 address at, in reply to Mayor, 228 
 
 condition of troops in vicinity, 418 
 
 communication with North des- 
 troyed, later resumed, 244 
 
 Seventh Regiment at, 244 
 Watkins, N. W., 329 
 Weed, Thurlow, 383 
 Weitzel, G. (General), 460, 465 
 Welch, John A., 388 
 Wellers, Samuel, 386 
 Welles, C. R., 
 
 letter to, 83 
 West Virginia 
 
 additional troops called for, 358 
 Whig State Convention, 36 
 White, Hugh L., 14 
 Wilmot proviso, 117 
 Wilson, James Grant 
 
 book of poems acknowledged, 199 
 Winchester 
 
 Confederate victory, 358 
 
 Milroy surrounded, 357 
 Wisconsin State Agricultural Soci- 
 ety 
 
 address by Lincoln, 186 
 Wood, Fernando 
 
 letter to, 328 
 Wool, John E. (General) 
 
 letter to 
 
 possibility of military force 
 used to preserve Union, 218 
 Women of America 
 
 Lincoln's tribute, 403 
 Working Men's Association of New 
 
 York, 404 
 Workingmen of Manchester 
 
 resolutions sent and reply, 337, 
 340 
 Wright, H. G. (General) 
 
 asked to move to Cumberland 
 
 <*ap, 313 
 
 Young-Indian Club, 190 
 
 Young Men's Lyceum of Spring- 
 field, 28