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 THE VOICE OF 
 
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THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 From the statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens at Chicago, 111. 
 
THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 BY 
 R. M. WANAMAKER 
 
 A JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 1918 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 
 Published March, 1918 
 
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO THE 
 MEMORY OF MY MOTHER 
 
 LAURA SHOENBERGER WANAMAKER 
 
 WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 
 
 FEBRUARY 26, 1890 
 
 HER LOVE AND AMBITION HAVE BEEN THE 
 GREAT INSPIRATION OF MY LIFE 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 3 Q o j o 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. WHY THIS BOOK? 3 
 
 II. LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE ... 5 
 
 III. LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 
 
 (CONTINUED) 14 
 
 IV. His PASSION FOR JUSTICE 30 
 
 V. LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 42 
 
 VI. LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS (CONTINUED) . . 59 
 
 VII. LINCOLN THE LAWYER 77 
 
 VIII. LINCOLN THE LAWYER (CONTINUED) ... 94 
 
 IX. LINCOLN THE LAWYER (CONTINUED) . . . 113 
 
 X. LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 124 
 
 XI. LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN (CONTINUED) . . . 134 
 
 XII. LINCOLN LANGUAGE 155 
 
 XIII. LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 172 
 
 XIV. LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 188 
 
 XV. LINCOLN S INTERPRETATION OF THE DECLARA 
 TION OF INDEPENDENCE 205 
 
 XVI. GETTYSBURG ORATION 218 
 
 XVII. LINCOLN S GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH . .231 
 
 XVIII. LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 249 
 
 XIX. LINCOLN S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS . . . 280 
 
 XX. LINCOLN THE LEADER . 297 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAQE 
 
 XXI. LINCOLN THE LEADER (CONTINUED) . . . 310 
 
 XXII. LINCOLN ON PEACE 3 
 
 XXIII. LINCOLN THE MOST UNSELFISH MAN . . . 345 
 
 XXIV. LINCOLN S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS .... 350 
 
THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
CHAPTER I 
 WHY THIS BOOK? 
 
 MOST of us have a smattering of the life of Lincoln, 
 many of us have made a general surface study of it. 
 But Lincoln lived in the subsoil of human thought 
 and soul. He dug down deep into every subject-matter 
 claiming his attention. If we would know and ap 
 preciate him we too must dig down deep among the 
 roots, the foundations, of his personal, professional, 
 and public life. 
 
 He lived largely in the world of thought. How he 
 thought, what his mental methods were, how he 
 developed his great mental efficiency in law, logic, 
 language, and public leadership, should be a matter 
 of interest and inspiration to that great army of men 
 and women who have learned to love Lincoln. 
 
 This is an era of efficiency. We all understand 
 physical efficiency, industrial efficiency, financial effi 
 ciency, and the like, and rapidly we are coming 
 to understand something of educational efficiency. 
 
 Lincoln s life is a demonstration of the highest type 
 of efficiency for every situation he met. 
 
 How did he attain it ? 
 
 Humility s child, he became humanity s man. How ? 
 
 How did this backwoods boy become a master of 
 men? 
 
 How did he pass from the pioneer life, with all the 
 privation and primitiveness of the frontier, and grow 
 
 3 
 
4 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 to be the greatest lawyer of his State, the greatest or 
 ator of his day, and the greatest statesman of his age ? 
 
 In short, what was the paramount philosophy of 
 his life, as gathered from what he said, from what he 
 did, from how he lived and how he died? 
 
 To answer some of these questions, as they have 
 not been answered heretofore, is the primary and para 
 mount purpose of this volume. 
 
 To this end I have selected and assembled from the 
 authenticated records as compiled by others the signif 
 icant and symptomatic facts of his life, and have ex 
 amined carefully his words and works. 
 
 I want to present what I conceive to be, not merely 
 his creed but his code of conduct, with his chart, com 
 pass, and chain; and how he used this chart, compass, 
 and chain in each day s duties, particularly as a lawyer 
 at Springfield and as President at Washington. 
 
 But more important than all else is to present to 
 young America, and to the world, our type of true 
 Americanism. 
 
 History, after all, is only the sum of big biography, 
 the product of the leadership and life of the great men 
 with benevolent ideas and ideals that preserve and 
 promote our American institutions, our spirit of lib 
 erty and democracy practically applied. 
 
 We can best study Americanism through some great 
 American, and in the foregoing respects, by common 
 consent, at home and abroad, the name of Lincoln 
 leads all the rest. We are told that the world must 
 be made "safe for democracy." 
 
 But what is democracy? Who better understood 
 and expressed it than Lincoln? What were his views 
 on government, its powers, its purposes? That is, 
 what did Lincoln himself say about it? 
 
CHAPTER II 
 LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 
 
 "A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth 
 strength." Proverbs 24 : 5. 
 
 WITHIN a twelvemonth, within a circle described 
 by a fifty-mile radius, there were born in the State of 
 Kentucky two boys destined to be the great popular 
 leaders on the opposite sides of a great cause Abra 
 ham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. 
 
 When quite young, Davis moved south to Missis 
 sippi, to slavery and aristocracy; Lincoln moved north 
 to Indiana and Illinois, to liberty and democracy. Had 
 their routes been reversed, then what? 
 
 Davis was educated at a college in Mississippi, 
 Transylvania University at Lexington, Ky., and later 
 was graduated at West Point. 
 
 Lincoln never spent a day in a public school or col 
 lege. 
 
 How, then, did he become the leading lawyer of 
 Illinois, the only man of his State who dared to de 
 bate with Douglas? 
 
 How did he become the logician at Cooper Union, 
 the orator at Gettysburg, the emancipator of a race, 
 the savior of a country, and the idol of the patriotic 
 world? 
 
 Great men, as a rule, have had great mothers rather 
 than great fathers. This was peculiarly true as to Lin 
 coln. Though his mother died when he was but nine 
 
 5 
 
6 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 years of age, she had given him the blessings of her 
 meagre education, had helped him to read and write, 
 had inspired him with a love for learning, and left such 
 mental and moral impress upon the lad that he after 
 ward said: 
 
 "All that I am and all that I hope to be, I owe to 
 my angel mother. Blessings on her memory." 
 
 Herndon,* in his biography, relates an intimate 
 talk that he once had with Lincoln concerning the 
 latter s mother: 
 
 "She was the daughter of Lucy Hanks and a well- 
 bred but obscure Virginia farmer or planter, and he 
 (Lincoln) argued that from this last source came his 
 power of analysis, his logic, his mental activity, his 
 ambition, and all the qualities that distinguished him 
 from the other members and descendants of the Hanks 
 family." f 
 
 Perhaps the longest personal statement he ever made 
 concerning himself was made to J. W. Fell, in 1859, 
 in his own handwriting: 
 
 "I was bom February 12, 1809, in Hardin county, 
 Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, 
 of undistinguished families second families, perhaps 
 I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, 
 
 * I shall very often quote from William H. Herndon s biography of 
 Lincoln in two volumes. This biography furnishes the basis of Lin 
 coln s life until he became President of the United States, and furnishes 
 the basis of most of the reliable facts of Lincoln s life as used by other 
 biographers. 
 
 Members of Herndon s family lived in and about New Salem, and 
 Herndon himself became acquainted with Lincoln shortly after he en 
 tered the State Legislature at Springfield. He was the junior partner 
 of Lincoln from 1843 until March 4, 1861. Taken altogether, he had 
 unusual opportunities to know and study Abraham Lincoln, and to 
 write about him at first hand. Moreover, no one ever accused Herndon 
 of overstating anything in Lincoln s favor. 
 
 t Vol. I, p. 3. 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 7 
 
 was of a family by the name of Hanks. . . . My pa 
 ternal 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. 
 
 "My father (Thomas Lincoln) at the death of his 
 father was but six years of age. By the early death 
 of his father, and the very narrow circumstances of 
 his mother, he was, even in childhood, a wandering, 
 laboring boy, and grew up literally without education. 
 He never did more in the way of writing than bung- 
 lingly to write his own name. . . . He removed from 
 Kentucky to what is now Spencer county, Indiana, 
 in my eighth year. ... It was a wild region, with 
 many bears and other animals still in the woods. . . . 
 There were some schools, so-called, but no qualifica 
 tion was ever required of a teacher beyond readin 
 writing and cipherin 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. ... Of course, 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. . . . 
 The little advance I now have upon this store of educa 
 tion I have picked up from time to time under the 
 pressure of necessity. 
 
 "I was raised to farm work . . . till I was twenty- 
 two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, Macon 
 county. Then I got to New Salem, . . . where I re 
 mained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came 
 the Black Hawk war; and I was elected captain of 
 a volunteer company, a success that gave me more 
 pleasure than any I have had since. I went into the 
 
8 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 campaign was elated ran for the Legislature the 
 same year (1832), and was beaten the only time I 
 ever have been beaten by the people. The next, and 
 three succeeding biennial elections, I was elected to 
 the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterward. 
 During the legislative period I had studied law and 
 removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was 
 elected to the lower house of Congress. Was not a 
 candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, inclu 
 sive, practised law more assiduously than ever before. 
 Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the Whig 
 electoral tickets, making active canvasses. I was losing 
 interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise aroused me again. 
 
 "If any personal description of me is thought de 
 sirable, 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 gray eyes. No other marks 
 or brands recollected." 
 
 An unusually modest estimate of one who within 
 a year was to be elected President of the United 
 States. 
 
 This scarcely reads like the story of one who had a 
 "passion for knowledge. 
 
 After Lincoln s nomination for the presidency, he 
 was repeatedly requested to furnish for his friends 
 and biographers the story of his life. 
 
 One of the earliest to arrive at Springfield, 111., 
 was J. L. Scripps of the Chicago Tribune, a paper very 
 friendly to Lincoln. Scripps wanted to prepare and 
 publish the story of his life. 
 
 " Why, Scripps," said he, " it is a great piece of folly 
 to attempt to make anything out of me or my early 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 9 
 
 life. It can all be condensed into a single sentence, 
 and that sentence you will find in Gray s Elegy. 
 
 "The short and simple annals of the poor. 
 
 "That s my life and that s all that you or anybody 
 else can make out of it." * 
 
 For the purpose of knowing more about the metal 
 in his making, than this modest man has himself given 
 us, a fuller statement will be made of his earlier as 
 well as later days. 
 
 Lincoln was born in a log cabin of Kentucky, near 
 Hodgenville a cabin that was doorless, windowless, 
 and floorless. Oh, of course, it had a floor. It was 
 dirt furnished by good old Mother Earth. 
 
 If there was any log cabin in Kentucky ruder or 
 more primitive than the Lincoln cabin, it has not been 
 discovered. 
 
 But few incidents of consequence occurred in Ken 
 tucky that are really important or indicative of char 
 acter in the boy s life. He several times heard Parson 
 Elkins preach, the Baptist minister of that circuit. 
 The probabilities are this gave him his first inspira 
 tion for public speaking. 
 
 As to schools, they were few and four miles at least 
 from home. Two or three months at most would 
 cover the entire time at irregular intervals that he re 
 ceived the benefit of even the most elementary 
 teachers. 
 
 When young Abraham was but seven, the Lincoln 
 family moved to what is now Spencer County, in 
 southern Indiana, just north of the Ohio River. 
 
 The first family residence in Indiana was but little, 
 
 * Herndon, vol. I, p. 2. 
 
10 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 if any, improvement over the home in Kentucky. It 
 was scarcely creditable to a carpenter s handiwork. 
 
 Herndon says: 
 
 "The structure when completed was fourteen feet 
 square and was built of small unhewn logs. In the 
 language of the day it was called a half faced camp/ 
 being enclosed on all sides but one. It had neither 
 floor, door, nor windows. In this forbidding hovel 
 these doughty emigrants braved the exposure of the 
 varying seasons for an entire year. At the end of that 
 time Thomas and Betsy Sparrow followed, bringing 
 with them Dennis Hanks and to them Thomas Lincoln 
 surrendered the half faced camp while he moved 
 into a more pretentious structure, a cabin enclosed 
 on all sides." * 
 
 This cabin is further described by Herndon as fol 
 lows : 
 
 "It was of hewed logs, and was eighteen feet square. 
 It was high enough to admit of a loft, where Abe slept, 
 and to which he ascended each night by means of pegs 
 driven in the wall. The rude furniture was in keeping 
 with the surroundings. Three-legged stools answered 
 for chairs. The bedstead, made of poles fastened in 
 the cracks of the logs on one side, and supported by 
 a crotched stick driven in the ground floor on the other, 
 was covered with skins, leaves, and old clothes. A 
 table of the same finish as the stools, a few pewter 
 dishes, a Dutch oven, and a skillet completed the house 
 hold outfit. In this uninviting frontier structure the 
 future President was destined to pass the greater part 
 of his boyhood. 7 f 
 
 Holland confirms this account in the following 
 language : 
 
 * Herndon, vol. I, p. 19. f Herndon, vol. I, p. 20. 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 11 
 
 "It is very difficult for any one bred in the older 
 communities of the country to appreciate the extreme 
 humility of border life, the meagerness and meanness 
 of its household appointments, and the paucity of its 
 stimulants to mental growth and social development. 
 The bed in which the elder Lincolns, and, on very cold 
 nights, the little Lincolns, slept, during their first 
 years in Indiana, was one whose rudeness will give a 
 key to the kind of life which they lived there. The 
 head and one side of the bedstead were formed by 
 an angle of the cabin itself. The bed-post standing 
 out into the room was a single crotch, cut from the 
 forest. Laid upon this crotch were the ends of two 
 hickory sticks, whose other extremities were morticed 
 into the logs, the two sides of the cabin and the two 
 rails embracing a quadrilateral space of the required 
 dimensions. This was bridged by slats rived 7 from 
 the forest log, and on the slats was laid a sack filled 
 with dried leaves. This was, in reality, the bed of 
 Thomas and Nancy Lincoln." * 
 
 In the midst of such primitve and unfavorable 
 surroundings, the boy really began his mental and 
 moral development: Not at any private school for 
 boys, not at any academy, college, high school, or 
 even the most elementary public school, but solely 
 with the help of his mother, the few books that he 
 could borrow in the neighborhood, and occasionally 
 some transient teacher for a month or two. 
 
 Some still small voice within seemed to command 
 him like Paul did Timothy of old: 
 
 "Stir the gift of God which is within thee." 
 
 What these gifts were and how he stirred them in 
 his boyhood life should be of special interest. 
 
 * Holland, p. 28. 
 
12 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Somehow or other in some quarters Lincoln has 
 been regarded as the accident of genius, as a mere 
 backwoods boor, ignorant and unschooled, but prov 
 identially endowed in some miraculous way, with un 
 common common sense, with almost divine wisdom, 
 with a genius for logic and language that persuaded 
 men against their will, and a godlike prescience. 
 
 Nothing could be farther from the truth. 
 
 The greatest gift with which nature endowed him, 
 that was practically the parent of all others, was not 
 a mere desire for knowledge, a thirst for truth, but a 
 perfect passion for learning, for knowledge. 
 
 It would be unsafe to judge most men upon their 
 own estimates. The bill of lading would surprisingly 
 exceed the quality and quantity of goods delivered. 
 Not so with Lincoln. 
 
 And as it is the purpose of this volume merely to 
 interpret Lincoln from what he has said, from what 
 he has done, I shall give here his own version of his 
 " passion for knowledge." 
 
 After his delivery of the great Cooper Institute 
 speech in New York, February 27, 1860, he made a 
 short trip through New England, in which he aroused 
 great public interest, both as to the man and his 
 message. 
 
 A leading paper contained the following interview 
 with him: 
 
 "Well, as to education, the newspapers are correct. 
 I never went to school more than six months in my 
 life. I can say this: that among my earliest recollec 
 tions 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 remember going to my 
 little bedroom, after hearing the neighbors talk of an 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 13 
 
 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 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. This was a kind of passion 
 with me, and it has stuck by me; for I am never easy 
 now, when I am handling a thought, until I have 
 bounded it north and bounded it south and bounded 
 it east and bounded it west." * 
 
 No simpler, stronger statement could be made of 
 his paramount passion for knowledge, his self-reliant 
 methods of research and reason upon his own re 
 sources, f 
 
 * Curtis, p. 59. 
 
 f Doctor E. C. Moore, formerly professor of education in Harvard 
 University, in his treatise on "What is Education," at page 24 says: 
 "Education is determined by what the student does. A single subject 
 which has been pursued in such a way that he has learned to stand on 
 his own feet, and use his own mind in the getting and solving of its prob 
 lems provides a more real education than a whole college course in which 
 one has merely endeavored to appropriate the thoughts of other men, or 
 tried to become a thinker without thinking about anything which seemed 
 to require thought." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 
 
 (CONTINUED) 
 
 LINCOLN was his own schoolmaster in the rudiments 
 of knowledge, in law, and in government. What a 
 teacher ! What a pupil ! What results ! 
 
 This master man gave us his method, and his formula 
 of self -education in the interview just quoted. Later 
 in a succeeding chapter, in his advice to a law student, 
 he tells us to "work, work, work." No matter what 
 the educational method may be, in its last analysis 
 it will be found, as Euclid said: " There is no royal 
 road to learning." 
 
 Let us examine Lincoln s own formula as to its ele 
 ments, and as to where and how he applied them. 
 
 Now, where did Lincoln "hunt" for his ideas? 
 What did he repeat over and over again and put in 
 language "plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I 
 knew to comprehend," and where did he get the 
 thoughts which he says he "bounded north and 
 bounded south and bounded east and bounded west," 
 as appeared in the New York interview cited in the 
 last chapter? 
 
 He was as poor in number of books as he was rich 
 in the nature of books. His library, chiefly borrowed, 
 was composed of the Bible, Bunyan s "Pilgrim s Prog 
 ress," "^Esop s Fables," DeFoe s "Robinson Crusoe," 
 Weems s "Life of Washington," a "History of the 
 United States " and the dictionary. 
 
 14 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 15 
 
 And yet what a library for a liberal and efficient 
 education at least the foundation of an education. 
 
 What boy ever had a better set of text-books for 
 learning and language, for conscience and character, 
 than these? 
 
 These books he read and reread, studied and re- 
 studied, until he knew them from cover to cover. He 
 literally devoured them and assimilated them into his 
 mind, as he assimilated food into his body. 
 
 While working in the field at odd moments, or be 
 tween errands in the home, or between customers in 
 the store, whenever he had a leisure moment, the Bible, 
 or Bunyan, or the dictionary was always at his elbow. 
 
 In addition to these books he was a constant and 
 regular reader of the best newspapers of the day. 
 
 Herndon* says: 
 
 "He was a careful and patient reader of newspapers, 
 the Sangamon Journal published at Springfield 
 Louisville Journal, St. Louis Republican, and Cincin 
 nati Gazette being usually within his reach/ 
 
 Abe not only had the handicap of no schools in the 
 neighborhood, no books in the home, but also the lack 
 of interest, and even opposition, of the father to his 
 employment in books rather than in the field. 
 
 As appears in Lincoln s written statement to Fell in 
 the preceding chapter: 
 
 "He, the father, grew up literally without educa 
 tion. He never did more in the way of writing than 
 bunglingly to write his own name." (His wife had 
 taught him to do this.) 
 
 This illiteracy upon the part of the father exhibited 
 itself in a strong opposition to the boy s education. 
 The father s general shiftlessness and business inef- 
 * Vol. I, p. 104. 
 
16 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 ficiency made constant demands upon the big, hardy 
 boy to work, not only in the father s fields when he 
 ought to have been at school, but also to work at wage 
 for the neighbors in order to furnish funds for the 
 father s deficiencies. 
 
 I am entirely aware that Doctor Holland takes the 
 opposite view. 
 
 He says: 
 
 "Among the most untoward circumstances Thomas 
 Lincoln embraced every opportunity to give Abraham 
 an education." 
 
 The overwhelming evidence is to the contrary, as 
 shown in almost every other leading biography. 
 
 Herndon* says: 
 
 "Abe s love for books, and his determined effort 
 to obtain an education in spite of so many obstacles, 
 induced the belief in his father s mind, that book- 
 learning was absorbing a greater proportion of his 
 energy and industry than the demands of the farm. 
 The old gentleman had but little faith in the value 
 of books or papers, and hence the frequent drafts he 
 made on the son to aid in the drudgery of daily toil." 
 
 Mrs. Thomas Lincoln, in a statement made under 
 date of September 8, 1865, as noted by Herndon, says: 
 
 "I induced my husband to permit Abe to read and 
 study at home as well as at school. At first he was 
 not easily reconciled to it, but finally he too seemed 
 willing to encourage him to a certain extent." 
 
 Indeed, this was the chief bone of unpleasantness 
 between father and son, and they never afterward 
 seemed to sustain that affectionate relation that Abra 
 ham s nature, deportment, and rapid rise to fame should 
 have abundantly justified. 
 
 *Vol. I, p. 33. 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 17 
 
 Lincoln himself evidently refers to the strained re 
 lations between him and the father in a letter that he 
 wrote to John Johnston, a stepbrother, in 1851, just 
 prior to his father s death. 
 
 In this letter he said, among other things: 
 
 ". . . 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 any thing else for father in his 
 present sickness. My business is such that I could 
 hardly leave home now, if it were not, as it is, that 
 my own wife is sick-a-bed. ... I sincerely hope 
 father may yet recover his health; but, at all events, 
 tell him to remember to 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 loved ones gone be 
 fore, and where the rest of us, through the help of God, 
 hope ere long to join them. 
 
 " Write me again when you receive this. 
 
 " Affectionately, 
 
 " A. LINCOLN." 
 
 When the boy was in his tenth year, his dear de 
 voted mother died. Within a year or two the father 
 took unto himself another wife, a widow by the name 
 of Sarah Bush Johnston, who then lived in Kentucky. 
 
18 .THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 She had been courted by Thomas Lincoln before he 
 had married Nancy Hanks. 
 
 The coming of Sarah Bush Johnston into the Illinois 
 home made a great change. The home, through her 
 effort and insistence, was greatly improved, as far as 
 their means would allow. The boy was again given 
 a mother s care, and as already noted, the new mother 
 overcame much of the opposition of the father against 
 the education of young Abraham. More than that, 
 this stepmother read and studied with him, and con 
 trary to the usual rule, there was a sweeter, tenderer 
 relation between them than there was between her 
 and her own children. 
 
 Herndon* gives us a very clear and detailed ac 
 count of the influence of the second Mrs. Lincoln upon 
 their primitive home in Indiana. He says: 
 
 "The new Mrs. Lincoln was accompanied by her 
 three children, John, Sarah, and Matilda. Her social 
 status is fixed by the comparison of a neighbor, who 
 observed that life among the Hankses, the Lincolns, 
 and the Enlows was a long ways below life among the 
 Bushes. 
 
 "In the eyes of her spouse she could not be regarded 
 as a poor widow. She was the owner of a goodly stock 
 of furniture and household goods; bringing with her 
 among other things a walnut bureau valued at fifty 
 dollars. What effect the new family, their collection 
 of furniture, cooking utensils, and comfortable bedding 
 must have had on the astonished and motherless pair 
 who from the door of Thomas Lincoln s forlorn cabin 
 watched the well-filled wagon as it came creaking 
 through the woods can better be imagined than de 
 scribed. Surely Sarah and Abe, as the stores of sup 
 plies were rolled in through the doorless doorways, 
 * Vol. I, p. 27. 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 19 
 
 must have believed that a golden future awaited them. 
 The presence and smile of a motherly face in the cheer 
 less cabin radiated sunshine into every neglected corner. 
 If the Lincoln mansion did not in every respect corre 
 spond to the representations made by its owner to 
 the new Mrs. Lincoln before marriage, the latter gave 
 no expression of disappointment or even surprise. With 
 true womanly courage and zeal she set resolutely to 
 work to make right that which seemed wrong. Her 
 husband was made to put a floor in the cabin, as well 
 as to supply doors and windows. The cracks between 
 the logs were plastered up. A clothes-press filled the 
 space between the chimney jamb and the wall, and 
 the mat of corn husks and leaves on which the children 
 had slept in the corner gave way to the comfortable 
 luxuriance of a feather bed. She washed the two or 
 phans, and fitted them out in clothes taken from the 
 stores of her own. The work of renovation in and 
 around the cabin continued until even Thomas Lin 
 coln himself, under the general stimulus of the new 
 wife s presence, caught the inspiration, and developed 
 signs of intense activity. The advent of Sarah Bush 
 was certainly a red-letter day for the Lincolns. She 
 was not only industrious and thrifty, but gentle and 
 affectionate; and her newly adopted children for the 
 first time, perhaps, realized the benign influence of 
 a mother s love. Of young Abe she was especially 
 fond, and we have her testimony that her kindness 
 and care for him were warmly and bountifully re 
 turned." 
 
 One of the last things done by Lincoln before he 
 left Springfield for Washington in February, 1861, 
 was to go out and call on his grand old stepmother, 
 and the story of their meeting and parting is one of 
 the sweetest, tenderest memories of his life. 
 
20 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 This insatiable thirst for knowledge, unquenched 
 and unquenchable, as against poverty and parental 
 opposition, is noted frequently by his many biog 
 raphers. 
 
 Herndon* says: 
 
 "The foundation for his education was laid in In 
 diana and in the little town of New Salem in Illinois, 
 and in both places he gave evidence of a nature and 
 characteristics that distinguished him from every as 
 sociate and surrounding he had. He was not peculiar 
 or eccentric, and yet a shrewd observer would have 
 seen that he was decidedly unique and original. Al 
 though imbued with a marked dislike for manual labor 
 (Lincoln once said that his father taught him farm 
 work but never taught him to love it), it cannot be 
 truthfully said of him that he was indolent. From 
 a mental standpoint he was one of the most energetic 
 young men of his day. He dwelt altogether in the 
 land of thought. His deep meditation and abstrac 
 tion easily induced the belief among his horny-handed 
 companions that he was lazy. . . . His chief delight 
 during the day, if unmolested, was to lie down under 
 the shade of some inviting tree and read and study. 
 At night, lying on his stomach in front of the open 
 fireplace with a piece of charcoal he would cipher on 
 a broad wooden shovel. . . . His stepmother told 
 me he devoured everything in the book line within 
 his reach. If in reading he came across anything that 
 pleased his fancy, he entered it down in a copy-book 
 a sort of repository, in which he was wont to store 
 everything worthy of preservation." 
 
 Herndon further says in the same connection: 
 
 "Whenever Abe had a chance in the field while at 
 "Vol. I, pp. 36-39. 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 21 
 
 work, or at the house, he would stop and read. He 
 kept the Bible and ^Esop s Fables always within 
 reach, and read them over and over again." 
 
 Even Colonel Lamon, in his biography, says: 
 
 "Abe loved to lie under a shade tree or up in the 
 loft of the cabin and read, cipher, or scribble at night. 
 He sat by the chimney jamb and ciphered by the light 
 of the fire on the wooden fire shovel. When the shovel 
 was fairly covered he would shave it off with Tom 
 Lincoln s drawing knife and begin again. At day time 
 he used boards for the same purpose out of doors and 
 went through the shaving process everlastingly. His 
 stepmother repeats often that He read every book 
 that he could lay his hands on/ She says Abe read 
 diligently every book he could lay his hands on and 
 when he came across a passage that struck him he 
 would write it down on boards if he had no paper, keep 
 it there until he did get some paper, then he would 
 rewrite it, repeat it. He had a kind of copy book, a 
 scrap book in which he put down the things and thus 
 preserved it." 
 
 Lamon further says : 
 
 " Among the books upon which Abe laid his hands 
 were ^Esop s Fables, Robinson Crusoe, Bunyan s Pil 
 grim s Progress, a History of the United States and 
 Weems s Life of Washington. All these he read many 
 times, transferred extracts from them to the boards 
 and the scrap book. He had procured the scrap book 
 because most of his literature was borrowed and he 
 thought it profitable to take copious notes from the 
 books before he returned them. David Turnham 
 had bought a volume of the Revised Statutes of 
 Indiana. Lincoln borrowed this book and read it in 
 tensely." 
 
22 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Lamon notes a conversation he had with the wife 
 of Allen Gentry, which was rather unusual. She 
 said: 
 
 "I am now thoroughly satisfied that Abe knew the 
 general laws of astronomy and the movements of the 
 heavenly bodies. He was better read then than the 
 world knows, or is likely to know exactly. No man 
 could talk to me that night as he did, unless he had 
 known something of geography as well as astronomy. 
 He often and often commented or talked to me about 
 what he read, seemed to read it out of the book as 
 he went along, did so to others. He was the learned 
 boy among us unlearned folks. He took great pains 
 to explain; could do it so simply." * 
 
 "Of all these years of Abraham Lincoln s early child 
 hood we know almost nothing. . . . He never talked 
 of these days to his most intimate friends. . . . When 
 Abraham was seven years of age Thomas Lincoln 
 moved with his family to Indiana and there established 
 a temporary shelter merely made from poles, enclosed 
 on three sides. For a year or two it was without doors, 
 windows or floors. At night the boy Abraham climbed 
 to his bed in the loft, by a ladder of wooden pins driven 
 into the logs. ... A thirst for knowledge as a means 
 of rising in the world was innate in him. ... All the 
 little learning he ever acquired he seized as a tool to 
 better his condition. He learned his letters that he 
 might read books and see how men in the great world 
 outside of his woods had borne themselves in the fight 
 for which he longed. He learned to write, first, that 
 he might have an accomplishment his playmates had 
 not; then that he might help his elders by writing 
 their letters, and enjoy the feeling of usefulness which 
 
 * Nicolay and Hay, in vol. I, pp. 27, et seq. 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 23 
 
 this gave him; and finally that he might copy what 
 struck him in his reading and thus make it his own 
 for future use. . . . His attendance upon school was 
 all told less than a year. . . . He read everything 
 he could lay his hands upon, and he was certainly for 
 tunate in the few books of which he became the 
 possessor. ... He read them over and over again 
 until he knew them almost by heart. . . . He would 
 sit in the twilight and read a dictionary as long as he 
 could see. He used to go to David Turnham s, the 
 town constable, and devour the Revised Statutes of 
 Indiana/ as boys in our day do the Three Guards 
 men. 7 Of the books he did not own he took voluminous 
 notes, filling his copy-book with choice extracts, and 
 poring over them until they were fixed in his memory. 
 He could not afford to waste paper upon his original 
 compositions. He would sit by the fire at night and 
 cover the wooden shovel with essays and arithmetical 
 exercises, which he would shave off and then begin 
 again. It is touching to think of this great-spirited 
 child, battling year after year against his evil star, 
 wasting his ingenuity upon devices and makeshifts, 
 his high intelligence starving for want of the simple 
 appliances of education that are now offered gratis 
 to the poorest and most indifferent." 
 
 Much more might be offered along the same line 
 for the encouragement of the poor boy, the boy with 
 out opportunity, at least the opportunity of high school, 
 academy, college, or university. 
 
 The devotion to his books, the thoroughness of his 
 study, the assimilation of their contents, was most 
 unusual. He made everything that he read and studied 
 a part of himself. As the food he ate was assimilated 
 into muscle, so the books he read were assimilated 
 
24 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 into mind. His life gives added force to the old adage, 
 " Beware of the man of few books." 
 
 The Lincoln idea was to learn the fundamentals, 
 the basic truths of life, intellectual, moral, political; 
 not merely to know them, but to use them for his 
 own betterment, for the public enlightenment, to turn 
 them to practical account, to some workable pur 
 pose. 
 
 Doctor Holland strikingly shows us what this boy 
 did with the things he learned and digested from the 
 few but fertile books he had. 
 
 "He became a writer also. The majority of the 
 settlers around him were entirely illiterate, and when 
 it became known that Mr. Lincoln s boy could write, 
 his services were in frequent request by them in send 
 ing epistolary messages to their friends. In the com 
 position of these letters his early habits of putting the 
 thoughts of others as well as his own into language 
 were formed. The exercise was, indeed, as good as 
 a school to him; for there is no better discipline, for 
 any mind, than that of giving definite expression to 
 thought in language. Much of his subsequent power 
 as a writer and speaker was undoubtedly traceable 
 to this early discipline." 
 
 Doctor Holland further relates an instance of Abra 
 ham when only nine years of age writing a letter upon 
 the death of his mother to good old Parson Elkins in 
 Kentucky, from whom he got his first inspiration in 
 public speaking, to come to their Indiana home and 
 preach the funeral sermon in memory of his sainted 
 mother. This the parson did some months after. 
 
 The boy s writing material was very crude. Ink 
 was made from pokeberries, pens from feathers, and 
 paper, which was scarce, usually found a substitute 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 25 
 
 in logs, bark, sand, shingles, and wooden shovels. Abra 
 ham would take a shingle and write on it with a piece 
 of charcoal. After the shingle was filled he would 
 shave it off and write on it again. So also he used the 
 old shovel of the fireplace, writing upon its burnt wood, 
 shaving and rewriting, until there was nothing left 
 of the shovel. It is difficult in these times for young 
 America with all their privileges and opportunities 
 to realize the hardships encountered by this boy in 
 his eager efforts to educate himself. 
 
 In addition to his letter-writing as a means of im 
 proving his thought and his language, he wrote many 
 compositions that attracted more than casual atten 
 tion from the people of the neighborhood. 
 
 Colonel Lamon, in his biography, says: 
 
 "Nat Grigsby, a boyhood friend of Lincoln, says: 
 Essays and poetry were not taught in this school 
 (refering to Crawford s). Abe took it up on his own 
 account. He first wrote short sentences against cruelty 
 to animals and at last came forward with a composi 
 tion on the subject. He was very much annoyed and 
 pained by the conduct of the boys who were in the 
 habit of catching terrapins and putting coals of fire 
 on their backs. He would write us, Nat says, and 
 tell us it was wrong and would write against it." 
 
 The same author further says: 
 
 "All sorts of frolics and all kinds of popular gather 
 ings, whether for work or amusement, possessed irre 
 sistible attractions for Abe. He loved to see and be 
 seen, to make sport and to enjoy it. It was a most 
 important part of his education that he got at the corn- 
 shuckings, the log-rollings, the shooting-matches, and 
 the gay and jolly weddings of those early border times. 
 He was the only man or boy within a wide compass 
 
26 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 who had learning enough to furnish the literature for 
 such occasions." 
 
 "At Gentryville they had exhibitions or speaking 
 meetings. 7 Some of the questions they spoke on were, 
 The Bee and the Ant, Water and Fire; another was, 
 Which had the most right to complain, the Negro or 
 the Indian. " 
 
 "One William Wood, a boyhood friend of Abe s, 
 says that Abe was in the habit of carrying (his pieces) 
 to him for criticism and encouragement. Mr. Wood 
 took at least two newspapers, one of them devoted to 
 politics and one of them to temperance. Abe bor 
 rowed them both and read them faithfully over and 
 over again, was inspired with an ardent desire to write 
 something on the subjects of which they treated. He 
 accordingly composed an article on Temperance, which 
 Mr. Wood thought excelled for sound sense anything 
 that the paper contained. Abe then tried his hand 
 on national politics, saying that the American govern 
 ment was the best form of government for an intelligent 
 people; that it ought to be kept sound and preserved 
 forever; that general education should be fostered 
 and carried all over the country; that the constitu 
 tion should be saved, the Union perpetuated and the 
 laws revered, respected and enforced. This article 
 was turned over to Mr. Wood. Judge Pritchard after 
 wards passed that way, read the article, and said The 
 world can t beat it. It was afterwards published in 
 some local paper." 
 
 This was written when the boy was but seventeen 
 years of age. 
 
 On Monday mornings he would mount a stump and 
 deliver in substance the sermon that he had heard the 
 day before. His taste for public speaking seemed not 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 27 
 
 only natural but was most pronounced at a very early 
 age. His stepsister Matilda Johnston says: 
 
 "He was an indefatigable preacher. When Father 
 and Mother would go to church Abe would take down 
 the Bible, read a verse, give out a hymn and we would 
 sing. Abe was then about fifteen years of age. He 
 preached and we would do the crying. Sometimes he 
 would join in the chorus of tears. One day my brother, 
 John Johnston, threw a land terrapin against a tree 
 and crushed the shell. It suffered much. Abe then 
 preached against cruelty to animals contending that 
 an ant s life was as sweet to it as ours to us." 
 
 After reaching New Salem, when twenty-two years 
 of age, one of the first things he did was to join the 
 "New Salem Literary Society. " The president, Mr. 
 R. B. Rutledge spoke of Lincoln s debates as follows: 
 
 "He pursued the questions with reason and argu 
 ment so pithy and forcible that all were amazed." 
 
 While here he frequently walked to Booneville 
 court-house to observe and study the trial of cases. 
 
 It was at New Salem within a week from his arrival 
 that he met the village schoolmaster, Mentor Graham, 
 who exercised a most wholesome and intellectual in 
 fluence on the young man, not only giving him books 
 to study, but aiding him in their study, and strongly 
 advising him to study grammar. Lincoln walked six 
 miles to borrow a copy of Kirkham s grammar and 
 with Graham s help he succeeded in mastering it in 
 six weeks. His comment was that if that was science 
 he thought he could "subdue" another. 
 
 Herndon, at page 112, quotes the schoolmaster 
 Graham as saying: 
 
 "He (Lincoln) studied to see the subject-matter 
 clearly, and to express it truly and strongly. I have 
 
28 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 known him to study for hours the best way of three 
 to express an idea." 
 
 The fact of the matter is he was one of the busiest 
 boys in all the neighborhood, with his quills, pokeberry 
 juice, scraps of paper, charcoal and shingles, scrap- 
 books, compositions, debate, talking from stumps to 
 the trees as an audience, reading and repeating over 
 and over again until he had memorized the contents, 
 of books, sermons, and speeches, and could reproduce 
 them verbatim. 
 
 Mental power does not come from mere knowledge, 
 but rather in the ability to practically use that knowl 
 edge. As child and youth he was constantly engaged 
 not only in acquiring knowledge, but in arranging the 
 same and putting it in appropriate phrase and formula 
 for future use. 
 
 Our public schools and colleges seem to neglect this 
 important and useful branch of practical education 
 and mental discipline. I fear the essentials of the old 
 literary society have come and gone until public opinion 
 shall call them back. 
 
 It was one of the biggest factors in the intellectual 
 product of this man. He was organizing and attend 
 ing literary societies, participating in what he called 
 " practising polemics " in and about Gentry ville, in 
 and about New Salem, and even after he got to Spring 
 field as a member of the State Legislature, he, with 
 others, organized a Lyceum, in the autumn of 1836, 
 and delivered before that organization in January, 
 1837, a remarkable speech on "The Perpetuation of 
 our Political Institutions." This speech will be dis 
 cussed in a later chapter. 
 
 Lincoln was not a man of ordinary desires, ordinary 
 tastes, ordinary likes and dislikes. He was, for the 
 
LINCOLN S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 29 
 
 most part, extraordinary in these respects. He had 
 passions for things, and no passion of his life was 
 stronger than his passion for knowledge save one. 
 What was that one ? His passion for justice. 
 
 These two passions were ever present and prevail 
 ing throughout his personal and public life. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 
 
 "And behold there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he 
 was a good man and a just." St. Luke 23 : 50. 
 
 JUSTICE, as here used is the broad generic word and 
 its associated attributes, such as gentleness, helpful 
 ness, gratitude, truthfulness, honesty, and the like 
 to every man his due. 
 
 It embraces those qualities of character, which the 
 world admires when it pays tribute to a just man. 
 
 As we have already seen, Lincoln while unschooled, 
 as a boy, was everything but uneducated. Where in 
 all Indiana could he have found a schoolmaster as 
 great as himself ? Where could he have found a school 
 that could have given the time to study, to repetition 
 in repeating over and over again his reading and writ 
 ing, where could he have found a school with such 
 text-books as the Bible, Bunyan s " Pilgrim s Prog 
 ress," "^Esop s Fables," DeFoe s " Robinson Crusoe," 
 and the like ? 
 
 Just as he was without the opportunity of regular 
 attendance upon the day-school, so he was also with 
 out the opportunity of attendance upon Sunday-school 
 and upon church and Bible class. And yet there was 
 no book to which he devoted so much time, study, 
 analysis and application of its great truths as he did 
 to the Bible. 
 
 As Herndon has well said: "This book was nearly 
 always at his elbow." 
 
 Its parables and proverbs furnished a plan and spec- 
 
 30 
 
HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 31 
 
 ifications for many a Lincoln address. Indeed, in the 
 vast majority of Lincoln s public speeches, in early as 
 well as later life, we find cropping out, yes, we find 
 as the corner-stone of his simple, strong arguments, 
 the Holy Bible or the Declaration of Independence, or 
 both. 
 
 It is an old saying that " Coming events cast their 
 shadows before." 
 
 The early experiences and expressions of boyhood 
 ofttimes forecast the coming man. 
 
 Let us note a few of the symptomatic incidents of 
 Lincoln s boyhood, as showing the presence of this 
 pronounced passion for justice. 
 
 Nicolay and Hay* relate this interesting incident of 
 the boy s life in Kentucky. He was then only a child 
 not exceeding seven years of age. When asked for any 
 recollection he had of the War of 1812-1815, Mr. 
 Lincoln once said: 
 
 " Nothing but this. I had been fishing one day and 
 caught a little fish which I was taking home. I met a 
 soldier in the road, and having been always told at 
 home that we must be good to the soldiers, I gave him 
 my fish." 
 
 These same authors observe: 
 
 "This is only a faint glimpse but what it shows is 
 rather pleasant the generous child and the patriotic 
 household." 
 
 I have already noted his talks to the boys and girls 
 against cruelty to animals, especially a common prac 
 tice in that neighborhood of putting coals of fire on 
 the backs of turtles. 
 
 Later he prepared a composition on this subject 
 that received neighborhood prominence. 
 * Vol. I, p. 27. 
 
32 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Herndon relates several interesting incidents touch 
 ing his passion for justice. 
 
 One day his stepsister, Matilda Johnston, a mere 
 girl, followed Abe into the woods. Running hurriedly 
 after him, she crept up, catlike, behind him and jumped 
 on his back; planting her knee in the middle of his 
 back, she threw him over backward, the axe that he 
 was carrying so falling as to cut the girl s ankle as she 
 fell, and there was a general flow of blood. Abe tore 
 off a part of his shirt for a bandage and stopped the 
 blood. Thereafter the boy, Abe, said to Tilda: 
 
 "What are you going to tell mother about getting 
 hurt?" 
 
 "Tell her I did it with the ax," she sobbed. "That 
 will be the truth, won t it?" 
 
 To which last inquiry Abe manfully responded: 
 
 "Yes, that is the truth, but it is not all the truth. 
 Tell the whole truth, Tilda, and trust to your good 
 mother for the rest." 
 
 Another incident related by Herndon shows the 
 inner nature of this boy.* 
 
 It was during the moving from Indiana to Illinois, 
 while crossing a frozen stream which had to be forded 
 by the yoke of oxen hauling the effects of the Lincoln 
 family. Herndon says: 
 
 "Among other things which the party brought with 
 them was a pet dog, which trotted along after the 
 wagon. One day the little fellow fell behind and 
 failed to catch up till after they had crossed the stream. 
 Missing him they looked back, and there, on the oppo 
 site bank, he stood, whining and jumping about in 
 great distress. The water was running over the 
 broken edges of the ice, and the poor animal was 
 
 * Herndon, vol. I, p. 59. 
 
HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 33 
 
 afraid to cross. It would not pay to turn the oxen 
 and wagon back and ford the stream again in order to 
 recover a dog, and so the majority, in their anxiety 
 to move forward, decided to go on without him. 
 But I could not endure the idea of abandoning even 
 a dog/ related Lincoln. Pulling off shoes and socks 
 I waded across the stream and triumphantly returned 
 with the shivering animal under my arm. His frantic 
 leaps of joy and other evidences of a dog s gratitude 
 amply repaid me for all the exposure I had under 
 gone. 7 7 
 
 Holland records several incidents of a like nature: 
 
 "One evening, while returning from a raising in his 
 wide neighborhood, with a number of companions, he 
 discovered a straying horse, with saddle and bridle 
 upon him. The horse was recognized as belonging to 
 a man who was accustomed to excess in drink, and it 
 was suspected at once that the owner was not far off. 
 A short search only was necessary to confirm the sus 
 picions of the young men. The poor drunkard was 
 found in a perfectly helpless condition, upon the chilly 
 ground. Abraham s companions urged the cowardly 
 policy of leaving him to his fate, but young Lincoln 
 would not hear to the proposition. At his request, the 
 miserable sot was lifted to his shoulders, and he actu 
 ally carried him eighty rods to the nearest house. 
 Sending word to his father that he should not be back 
 that night, with the reason for his absence, he attended 
 and nursed the man until the morning, and had the 
 pleasure of believing that he had saved his life." 
 
 Again he says: 
 
 "He (Lincoln) was riding by a deep slough, in which, 
 to his exceeding pain, he saw a pig struggling, and with 
 such faint efforts that it was evident that he could 
 
34 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 not extricate himself from the mud. Mr. Lincoln 
 looked at the pig and the mud which enveloped him, 
 and then looked at some new clothes with which he 
 had but a short time before enveloped himself. De 
 ciding against the claims of the pig, he rode on, but 
 he could not get rid of the vision of the poor brute, 
 and, at last, after riding two miles, he turned back, 
 determined to rescue the animal at the expense of his 
 new clothes. Arrived at the spot, he tied his horse, 
 and coolly went to work to build of old rails a passage 
 to the bottom of the hole. Descending on these rails, 
 he seized the pig and dragged him out, but not with 
 out serious damage to the clothes he wore. Washing 
 his hands in the nearest brook, and wiping them on 
 the grass, he mounted his gig and rode along. He 
 then fell to examining the motive that sent him back 
 to the release of the pig. At the first thought it 
 seemed to be pure benevolence, but, at length, he 
 came to the conclusion that it was selfishness, for he 
 certainly went to the pig s relief in order (as he said to 
 the friend to whom he related the incident) to Hake 
 a pain out of his own mind/ This is certainly a new 
 view of the nature of sympathy, and one which it will 
 be well for the casuist to examine." 
 
 Many more incidents of a similar nature, showing a 
 variety of his kind, helpful, and generous instincts 
 toward man and brute, might be related in these pages 
 and not without profit. But this is sufficient to show 
 the kind of boy we are dealing with, who was to become 
 the kind of man we find later at Springfield, as lawyer, 
 and at Washington, as President. 
 
 No boy was such a welcome guest in every neighbor 
 hood in which he lived as the boy Abe. He was always 
 doing chores for the good women of the community, 
 
HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 35 
 
 helping with the work about the house, taking care of 
 their children, and making himself generally useful. 
 But on such occasions he was never without a book 
 to engage his spare moments. And even when rocking 
 the primitive cradles of those days to help the busy 
 mother, Lincoln could be found with a foot on the 
 rocker and a book in his hand. 
 
 Notwithstanding the keen and noble sense of obli 
 gation to his father, because he was his father, the 
 last year or two in Indiana found the boy exceed 
 ingly restive and dissatisfied. He talked the matter 
 over with his neighbors about leaving home and 
 beginning life for himself. They advised him to stay 
 until he had reached his majority, and then he would 
 feel perfectly free to emancipate himself. This he 
 did. 
 
 Indeed, after the family moved to Macon, Illinois, he 
 remained with them a year in helping with the new 
 cabin, building fences, ploughing the new land, put 
 ting in and cultivating and harvesting the crops. 
 
 He remained in that section doing odd jobs at farm 
 work until August, 1831, when he went to New Salem, 
 which opened up a new era for the ambitious youth, 
 now twenty- two years of age. 
 
 At this time he was a giant in size and strength, six 
 feet four, weight one hundred and eighty pounds; and 
 numerous biographers relate the fact to be that he 
 could lift six hundred pounds. 
 
 His remarkable physical strength gave him great 
 prominence in the various communities in which he 
 lived, and no place more than at New Salem. 
 
 One witness declares he was equal to three men, 
 having on a certain occasion carried a load of six hun 
 dred pounds. At another time he walked away with 
 
36 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 a pair of logs which three robust men were sceptical 
 of their ability to carry. 
 
 "He could strike with a maul a heavier blow, could 
 sink an axe deeper into wood than any man I ever 
 saw," says another witness. 
 
 Having a giant s strength, he, however, refused to 
 use it as the average giant does. He was no " bully." 
 
 Lincoln s early life in New Salem is full of interesting 
 events. But I shall record only those significant ones 
 that show the inner man. 
 
 He was employed by Denton Offut, one of the 
 village merchants, as a clerk in a general store. This 
 gave him additional acquaintance with the people in 
 a large neighborhood, and also furnished him ample 
 leisure, day and night, for pursuing his studies. He 
 still continued to read and study everything he could 
 get his hands on that seemed worth while. 
 
 While here, he met the notorious Jack Armstrong, 
 the leader of the Clary s Grove boys. The Armstrong 
 contest is worthy of mention in some detail. 
 
 Offut had wagered with Bill Clary, one of the gang, 
 that Lincoln was a " better man" than Jack Arm 
 strong. 
 
 Herndon describes the contest as follows: 
 
 "The new clerk strongly opposed this sort of an in 
 troduction, but after much entreaty from Offut, at 
 last consented to make his bow to the social lions of 
 the town in this unusual way. He was now six feet 
 four inches high, and weighed, as his friend and con 
 fidant, William Greene tells us with impressive pre 
 cision, two hundred and fourteen pounds. The con 
 test was to be a friendly one and fairly conducted. All 
 New Salem adjourned to the scene of the wrestle. 
 Money, whiskey, knives, and all manner of property 
 
HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 37 
 
 were staked on the result. It is unnecessary to go into 
 details of the encounter. Every one knows how it 
 ended; how at last the tall angular rail-splitter, en 
 raged at the suspicion of foul tactics, and profiting 
 by his height and the length of his arms, fairly lifted 
 the great bully by the throat and shook him like a 
 rag; how by this act he established himself solidly in 
 the esteem of all New Salem, and secured the respect 
 ful admiration and friendship of the very man whom 
 he had so thoroughly vanquished. From this time 
 forward Jack Armstrong, his wife Hannah, and all 
 the other Armstrongs became his warm and trusted 
 friends." * 
 
 On another occasion, while acting as clerk in the 
 Offut store, Lincoln was waiting upon several ladies 
 who were making some purchases of calico. The bully 
 at once began to talk in an offensive and profane manner 
 hi the presence of the ladies. Lincoln leaned over the 
 counter and begged him to stop. The incident as re 
 lated by Holland is as follows: 
 
 "The bully retorted that the opportunity had come 
 for which he had long sought, and he would like to 
 see the man who could hinder him from saying any 
 thing he might choose to say. Lincoln, still cool, told 
 him that if he would wait until the ladies retired, he 
 would hear what he had to say, and give him any satis 
 faction he desired. As soon as the women were gone, 
 the man became furious. Lincoln heard his boasts 
 and his abuse for a time, and finding that he was not 
 to be put off without a fight, said Well, if you must 
 be whipped, I suppose I may as well whip you as any 
 other man/ This was just what the bully had been 
 seeking, he said, so out of doors they went, and Lin- 
 
 * Herndon, vol. I, p. 74. 
 
38 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 coin made short work with him. He threw him upon 
 the ground, held him there as if he had been a child, 
 and gathering some smart-weed which grew upon 
 the spot, rubbed it into his face and eyes, until the 
 fellow bellowed with pain. Lincoln did all this with 
 out a particle of anger, and when the job was finished, 
 went immediately for water, washed his victim s face, 
 and did everything he could to alleviate his distress. 
 Thereafter the two men became great friends." 
 
 Much as Lincoln regretted experiences of this char 
 acter, he was fully persuaded that the eminent justice 
 of the situation called for a vigorous discipline of the 
 offender. It was a case of being cruel only to be kind. 
 
 This passion for justice made him likewise an honest 
 boy and an honest man, and he became known while 
 a clerk in the store at New Salem, and for many years 
 thereafter as " Honest Abe." 
 
 Holland has preserved two incidents illustrative of 
 this trait of his character: 
 
 "On one occasion he sold a woman a little bill of 
 goods amounting in value, by the reckoning, to two 
 dollars and six and a quarter cents. He received the 
 money, and the woman went away. On adding the 
 items of the bill again, to make himself sure of cor 
 rectness, he found that he had taken six and a quarter 
 cents too much. It was night, and closing and lock 
 ing the store, he started out on foot, a distance of two 
 or three miles, for the house of his defrauded customer, 
 and delivering over to her the sum whose possession 
 had so much troubled him, went home satisfied. On 
 another occasion, just as he was closing the store for 
 the night, a woman entered, and asked for half a pound 
 of tea. The tea was weighed out and paid for, and 
 the store was left for the night. The next morning, 
 
HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 39 
 
 Abraham entered to begin the duties of the day, when 
 he discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He 
 saw at once that he had made a mistake, and, shutting 
 the store, he took a long walk before breakfast to de 
 liver the remainder of the tea." 
 
 These circumstances are small in and of themselves, 
 but they are simply the outcropping of a great, 
 big, just, honest, conscientious nature, and were as 
 much a part of Abraham Lincoln as his arms and his 
 legs. 
 
 A similar incident occurred after he began the prac 
 tice of law at Springfield. Uncle Sam had never asked 
 any accounting of Lincoln during his term as post 
 master at New Salem, which began in 1833. 
 
 Some years afterward, when Lincoln was practising 
 law at Springfield, a post-office inspector from the 
 Federal Government appeared and advised Lincoln 
 that he was indebted to Uncle Sam in the amount of 
 seventeen dollars and some odd cents. Mr. Lincoln 
 thought a moment, went to an old trunk, unknotted 
 an old rag that he had tied up years before, and therein 
 produced the exact number of dollars and cents which 
 he had correctly reckoned, tied up in this old rag, and 
 put away in his old trunk, so that, when Uncle Sam was 
 ready for the accounting, he, Lincoln, was ready to 
 pay to the very last penny. 
 
 As he gave the money to the inspector he said: 
 
 "I never use any man s money but my own." 
 
 Nicolay and Hay, vol. I, page 120, speak of this pas 
 sion for justice that was generally recognized by every 
 body that knew him as an essential part of the boy 
 Lincoln : 
 
 "He was continually called on to serve in the most 
 incongruous capacities. Old residents say he was the 
 
40 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 best judge at a horse-race the county afforded; he was 
 occasionally a second in a duel of fisticuffs, though he 
 usually contrived to reconcile the adversaries on the 
 turf before any damage was done; he was the arbiter 
 on all controverted points of literature, science, or 
 woodcraft among the disputatious denizens of Clary s 
 Grove, and his decisions were never appealed from. 
 His native tact and humor were invaluable in his 
 work as a peacemaker, and his enormous physical 
 strength, which he always used with a magnanimity 
 rare among giants, placed his offhand decrees beyond 
 the reach of contemptuous question. He composed 
 differences among friends and equals with good-natured 
 raillery, but he was as rough as need be when his 
 wrath was roused by meanness and cruelty." 
 
 Holland also speaks of this general confidence that 
 the public universally had in his sense of fairness and 
 justice: 
 
 " Every one trusted him. It was while he was per 
 forming the duties of the store that he acquired the 
 sobriquet Honest Abe a characterization that he 
 never dishonored, and an abbreviation that he never 
 outgrew. He was judge, arbitrator, referee, umpire, 
 authority, in all disputes, games, and matches of man- 
 flesh, and horse-flesh; a pacificator in all quarrels; 
 everybody s friend; the best natured, the most sensi 
 ble, the best informed, the most modest and unassum 
 ing, the kindest, gentlest, roughest, strongest, best 
 young fellow in all New Salem and the region round 
 about." 
 
 Many more of the symptomatic facts of his child 
 hood and youth might be here recorded to forecast the 
 foundation of the character of this just boy and man. 
 
 Later, throughout his keen, competitive life as a 
 
HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 41 
 
 lawyer and political leader, he clung fast to the ideals 
 of justice of his boyhood. Every controversy, per 
 sonal, professional, or political, had first to be tried 
 out in God s court. 
 
 What do I mean? 
 
 The first court of justice was established by God 
 Almighty. Wherever he established a man he estab 
 lished a court, because he put the court in the man. 
 The most instantaneous, automatic, infallible, human 
 function known is that of conscience. From the primi 
 tive man to the most civilized, conscience has so cor 
 rected and chastised our conduct that if the prompt 
 ings of the still small voice are followed, human nature 
 does not go far wrong. 
 
 In this court there are no technical rules of sub 
 stantive law, of pleading, of evidence. Everything is 
 reduced to the simple formula: "Whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." 
 
 And in the essentials of life it is amazing how our 
 intelligence accepts the judgment of conscience as wise 
 and just, without even the suggestion of an appeal. 
 
 As there are no technical rules in this court, so there 
 are no delays. The truth being presented, the just 
 ness or unjustness of any contemplated action is at 
 once determined. 
 
 Every controversy of Lincoln, as layman, lawyer, or 
 leader, had first to receive the sanction of this court. 
 If it failed to secure the judgment of the court of con 
 science, no matter what financial sacrifices were in 
 volved, no matter what friendships were at stake, no 
 matter what political issues might be affected, Lincoln 
 refused to have anything further to do with such contro 
 versy. Conscience having rejected it, Lincoln rejected 
 it, and so far as he was concerned it was at an end. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 
 
 THE day the Lincolns moved from Indiana into 
 Macon County, Illinois, was an eventful one for young 
 Abraham. He was then twenty-one years of age. 
 
 For some years he had longed for the day of his 
 majority, when he might be free to follow his own 
 bent, to begin his own life in his own way, free from 
 paternal interference. 
 
 A year and more he spent in and about that neigh 
 borhood in farm work, still, however, employing all 
 leisure time in pursuing his studies. He also, during 
 this time, devoted some months to boating upon the 
 Sangamon and the Ohio Rivers. 
 
 Finally he landed at New Salem, in Sangamon 
 County, as he himself says, as "a piece of driftwood. " 
 
 A new day, however, had now dawned for Abraham 
 Lincoln, and within ten days from the time he arrived 
 at this little town of some twenty homes and one hun 
 dred inhabitants he received his first public job. An 
 interesting account of this incident is given in Tarbell s 
 Biography : * 
 
 "The village schoolmaster, Mentor Graham by 
 name, was clerk at this particular election, but his 
 assistant was ill. Looking about for some one to help 
 him, Mr. Graham saw a tall stranger loitering around 
 the polling place and called to him: Can you write ? 
 Yes/ said the stranger, I can make a few rabbit 
 
 *Vol. I, page 61. 
 42 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 43 
 
 tracks/ Mr. Graham was evidently satisfied with the 
 answer, as he promptly initiated him." 
 
 This was his first public position. 
 
 At the close of the day he was no longer a stranger 
 in New Salem. His pleasing manner, entertaining 
 stories, and efficient service became the talk of the 
 neighborhood and won for him the lasting friendship 
 of the village schoolmaster, who henceforth played no 
 unimportant part in the intellectual development of 
 young Lincoln. 
 
 While clerking in Offut s store Lincoln conceived the 
 idea of becoming a candidate for the general assembly 
 of Illinois, and accordingly in March, 1832, he issued 
 to the people of Sangamon County his first political 
 circular. 
 
 Inasmuch as this is really the beginning of the poli 
 tician and the statesman, that circular becomes a mat 
 ter of prime and unusual interest to one following the 
 evolution of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 As an index to the mind, character, and ambition 
 of this twenty-three-year-old unschooled youth, this 
 circular furnished instructive and undoubted evi 
 dence. 
 
 It contained about two thousand words, setting 
 forth his views on the important issues of the day. 
 
 I am entirely aware that Mr. Herndon calls it a 
 mere " literary fulmination," and otherwise speaks 
 slightingly of it. 
 
 On the other hand, Nicolay and Hay, in their great 
 work, say: 
 
 "This is almost precisely the style of his later years. 
 The errors of grammar and construction which spring 
 invariably from an effort to avoid redundancy of ex 
 pression remained with him through life. He seemed 
 
44 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 to grudge the space required for necessary parts of 
 speech. But his language was at twenty-three, as 
 it was thirty years later, the simple and manly attire 
 of his thought, with little attempt at ornament and 
 none at disguise." 
 
 The circular is as follows: 
 
 "To THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY. 
 
 " Fellow-Citizens, Having become a candidate for 
 the honorable office of one of your Representatives in 
 the next General Assembly of this State, in accordance 
 with an established custom and the principles of true 
 republicanism, it becomes my duty to make known 
 to you, the people, whom I propose to represent, my 
 sentiments with regard to local affairs. 
 
 "Time and experience have verified to a demonstra 
 tion the public utility of internal improvements. That 
 the poorest and most thinly-populated counties would 
 be greatly benefited by the opening of good j-oads, and 
 in the clearing of navigable streams within their limits, 
 is what no person will deny. Yet it is folly to under 
 take works of this or any other kind, without first 
 knowing that we are able to finish them, as half- 
 finished work generally proves to be labor lost. There 
 cannot justly be any objection to having railroads 
 and canals, any more than to other good things, pro 
 vided they cost nothing. The only objection is to pay 
 ing for them; and the objection arises from the want 
 of ability to pay. 
 
 "With respect to the County of Sangamon, some 
 more easy means of communication than it now pos 
 sesses, for the purpose of facilitating the task of ex 
 porting the surplus products of its fertile soil, and 
 importing necessary articles from abroad, are indis- 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 45 
 
 pensably necessary. A meeting has been held of the 
 citizens of Jacksonville and the adjacent country, for 
 the purpose of deliberating and inquiring into the ex 
 pediency of constructing a railroad from some eligible 
 point on the Illinois River, through the town of Jack 
 sonville, in Morgan County, to the town of Spring 
 field, in Sangamon County. This is, indeed, a very- 
 desirable object. No other improvement that reason 
 will justify us in hoping for can equal in utility the 
 railroad. It is a never-failing source of communica 
 tion between places of business remotely situated from 
 each other. Upon the railroad the regular progress of 
 commercial intercourse is not interrupted by either 
 high or low water, or freezing weather, which are the 
 principal difficulties that render our future hopes of 
 water communication precarious and uncertain. 
 
 "Yet however desirable an object the construction 
 of a railroad through our country may be; however 
 high our imaginations may be heated at thoughts of 
 it, there is always a heart-appalling shock accom 
 panying the account of its cost, which forces us to 
 shrink from our pleasing anticipations. The principal 
 cost of this contemplated railroad is estimated at 
 $290,000; the bare statement of which, in my opinion, 
 is sufficient to justify the belief that the improvement 
 of the Sangamon River is an object much better suited 
 to our infant resources. 
 
 " Respecting this view, I think I may say, without 
 the fear of being contradicted, that its navigation 
 may be rendered completely practicable as high as the 
 mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, to vessels 
 of from twenty-five to thirty tons burden, for at least 
 one-half of all common years, and to vessels of much 
 greater burden a part of the time. From my peculiar 
 
46 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 circumstances, it is probable that for the last twelve 
 months I have given as particular attention to the 
 stage of the water in this river as any other person in 
 the country. In the month of March, 1831, in com 
 pany with others, I commenced the building of a flat- 
 boat on the Sangamon, and finished and took her out 
 in the course of the spring. Since that time I have 
 been concerned in the mill at New Salem. These cir 
 cumstances are sufficient evidence that I have not been 
 very inattentive to the stages of the water. The time 
 at which we crossed the mill-dam being in the last 
 days of April, the water was lower than it had been 
 since the breaking of winter in February, or than it 
 was for several weeks after. The principal difficulties 
 we encountered in descending the river were from the 
 drifted timber, which obstructions all know are not 
 difficult to be removed. Knowing almost precisely 
 the height of water at this time, I believe I am safe 
 in saying that it has as often been higher as lower 
 since. 
 
 "From this view of the subject it appears that my 
 calculations with regard to the navigation of the San 
 gamon cannot but be founded in reason; but, what 
 ever may be its natural advantage, certain it is that 
 it never can be practically useful to any great extent 
 without being greatly improved by art. The drifted 
 timber, as I have before mentioned, is the most formi 
 dable barrier to this object. Of all parts of this river, 
 none will require so much labor in proportion to make 
 it navigable as the last thirty or thirty-five miles; and 
 going with the meanderings of the channel, when we 
 are this distance above its mouth we are only between 
 twelve and eighteen miles above Beardstown in some 
 thing near a straight direction; and this route is upon 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 47 
 
 such low ground as to retain water in many places 
 during the season, and in all parts such as to draw two- 
 thirds or three-fourths of the river water at all high 
 stages. 
 
 "This route is on prairie land the whole distance, 
 so that it appears to me, by removing the turf a suf 
 ficient width, arid damming up the old channel, the 
 whole river in a short time would wash its way through, 
 thereby curtailing the distance and increasing the 
 velocity of the current very considerably, while there 
 would be no timber on the banks to obstruct its navi 
 gation in future; and being nearly straight, the timber 
 which might float in at the head would be apt to go 
 clear through. There are also many places above this 
 where the river, in its zigzag course forms such com 
 plete peninsulas as to be easier to cut at the necks than 
 to remove the obstructions from the bends, which, 
 if done, would also lessen the distance. 
 
 "What the cost of this work would be, I am unable 
 to say. It is probable, however, that it would not be 
 greater than is common to streams of the same length. 
 Finally, I believe the improvement of the Sangamon 
 River to be vastly important and highly desirable to 
 the people of the county; and, if elected, any measure 
 in the legislature having this for its object, which may 
 appear judicious, will meet my approbation and re 
 ceive my support. 
 
 "It appears that the practice of drawing money at 
 exorbitant rates of interest has already been opened 
 as a field for discussion; so I suppose I may enter 
 upon it without claiming the honor, or risking the 
 danger, which may await its first explorer. It seems 
 as though we are never to have an end to this baneful 
 and corroding system, acting almost as prejudicial 
 
48 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 to the general interests of the community as a direct 
 tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on each 
 county, for the benefit of a few individuals only, unless 
 there be a law made fixing the limits of usury. A law 
 for this purpose, I am of opinion, may be made, with 
 out materially injuring any class of people. In cases 
 of extreme necessity, there could always be means 
 found to cheat the law; while in all other cases it would 
 have its intended effect. I would favor the passage 
 of a law on this subject which might not be very easily 
 evaded. Let it be such that the labor and difficulty 
 of evading it could only be justified in cases of greatest 
 necessity. 
 
 "Upon the subject of education, not presuming to 
 dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only 
 say that I view it as the most important subject which 
 we as a people can be engaged in. That every man 
 may receive at least a moderate education, and there 
 by be enabled to read the histories of his own and 
 other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the 
 value of our free institutions, appears to be an object 
 of vital importance, even on this account alone, to 
 say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be 
 derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and 
 other works both of a religious and moral nature, for 
 themselves. 
 
 "For my part, I desire to see the time when educa 
 tion and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise, 
 and industry shall become much more general than 
 at present, and should be gratified to have it in my 
 power to contribute something to the advancement 
 of any measure which might have a tendency to ac 
 celerate that happy period. 
 
 "With regard to existing laws, some alterations are 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 49 
 
 thought to be necessary. Many respectable men have 
 suggested that our estray laws the law respecting 
 the issuing of executions, the road law, and some others 
 are deficient in their present form, and require al 
 terations. But, considering the great probability that 
 the framers of those laws were wiser than myself, I 
 should prefer not meddling with them, unless they 
 were first attacked by others; in which case I should 
 feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand, 
 which, in my view, might tend most to the advance 
 ment of justice. 
 
 "But fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering 
 the great degree of modesty which should always at 
 tend youth, it is probable I have already been more 
 presuming than becomes me. However, upon the 
 subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I 
 have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or 
 all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is 
 better only sometimes to be right than at all times 
 to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be 
 erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them. 
 
 "Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. 
 Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I 
 have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed 
 of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their 
 esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this 
 ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, and 
 unknown to many of you. I was born, and have ever 
 remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have 
 no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recom 
 mend 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 compensate. But, if 
 
50 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep 
 me in the background, I have been too familiar with 
 disappointments to be very much chagrined." 
 
 How few could excel or equal this at twenty-three 
 years of age. 
 
 He had now been in Illinois but two years, Sanga- 
 mon County and New Salem less than one year, but 
 this circular shows a familiarity with the local issues 
 of the day, a simplicity of statement, a clearness of 
 demonstration, and a modest announcement of his 
 ambition that might well add credit to any man older 
 by a score. 
 
 I want to call attention to one thing in particular, 
 and that is the orderly arrangement of this circular, 
 as showing his learning, his logic, and his language. 
 
 1. His declaration of principles. 
 
 2. His demonstration of their soundness. 
 
 3. His dedication to them if elected. 
 
 I desire to emphasize this feature of this boyhood 
 address, because like the young apple-tree bearing its 
 first crop, it may not be perfect, indeed it seldom is, 
 but it surely forecasts the kind of apple that tree will 
 bear in the coming years. 
 
 This threefold manner, to wit, declaration, demon 
 stration, and dedication, are the constitutional charac 
 teristics of the Lincoln mind and character that we see 
 all through the coming years. This address merits 
 further analysis. It falls into the following divisions: 
 
 1. His "duty to make known to you, the people, 
 whom I propose to represent, my sentiments with re 
 gard to local affairs." 
 
 2. His declaration in favor of internal improvements, 
 particularly the navigability of the Sangamon River. 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 51 
 
 3. His declaration against the loan shark of the day. 
 
 4. His declaration in favor of popular education. 
 
 5. His declaration in favor of reserving the right to 
 change or amend the existing laws as " might tend 
 most to the advancement of justice." 
 
 6. He notes his own humility: "I may be wrong in 
 regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound 
 maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right 
 than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my 
 opinions to be erroneous I shall be ready to renounce 
 them." 
 
 7. His peculiar ambition, and to this I urge particu 
 lar attention: "I have no other (ambition) so great as 
 that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by 
 rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I 
 shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be 
 developed. I am young and unknown to many of 
 you. I was born, and have ever remained, in the most 
 humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular 
 relations or friends to recommend me." 
 
 8. "My case is thrown exclusively upon the inde 
 pendent voters of the county." The independent 
 voters seem to have been of importance even in 1832. 
 
 9. His submission of the question: "If elected they 
 (the people) 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 disappointments to be very much cha 
 grined." 
 
 In this circular are the seeds of the student, oppor 
 tunity and obligations of the orator, a subject-matter 
 for the statesman, and the methods and manner of the 
 popular leader and legislator. 
 
52 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Truly the boy Lincoln was father to the man Lincoln. 
 
 Within sixty days from the publication of this cir 
 cular the Black Hawk War came on, and a company 
 was organized among the pioneers in and about New 
 Salem. With many others Lincoln volunteered. Soon 
 a captain was to be chosen. There was one avowed 
 candidate, a man by the name of Kirkpatrick. Kirk- 
 patrick had been an employer of Lincoln at a sawmill. 
 One of Lincoln s duties was the handling of the big 
 logs, which called for the exercise of even his giant 
 strength. A cant-hook was used, among other things, 
 as is common about a sawmill, and in some way or 
 other it got lost, strayed, or stolen. Kirkpatrick sug 
 gested buying a new one, to which Lincoln responded: 
 "If you will give me the two dollars which the cant 
 hook will cost you, I will handle the logs myself with 
 out the aid of a cant hook." Kirkpatrick agreed. 
 But Lincoln never got the two dollars, nor the cant- 
 hook. Having such a high regard for a man s word 
 of honor, Lincoln felt much hurt over Kirkpatrick s 
 treatment, though the amount was small. 
 
 At this time it took very little persuasion from his 
 friends in the new company to make him a candidate 
 against Kirkpatrick. The custom was for the candi 
 dates to stand up at the head of the line, and those 
 who favored either candidate fell in at his side. At 
 once fully three-fourths of the men in the new com 
 pany lined up on the side of Lincoln and the others, 
 seeing his overwhelming victory, joined Lincoln and 
 left Kirkpatrick standing alone. It was a victory that 
 Lincoln very keenly appreciated, especially in view of 
 Kirkpatrick s haughty and contemptuous treatment of 
 him and his failure to pay him the two dollars, which 
 he was abundantly able to do. 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 53 
 
 This was the people s first expression of confidence 
 and honor toward Captain Lincoln. He served as 
 captain about ninety days, all told, and then returned 
 to New Salem, and, contrary to the usual political cus 
 toms in such cases, Captain Lincoln never exploited 
 his military experience or honor. Indeed, he rarely 
 mentioned it. 
 
 One incident is peculiarly noteworthy because of 
 its political significance. In after-years, in the year 
 1846, he was elected a member of Congress from the 
 Sangamon district. While making a speech touching 
 the claims made by the friends of General Cass as to 
 his military record, Lincoln made this reference to the 
 Black Hawk War: 
 
 "The friends of General Cass, when that gentleman 
 was a candidate for the presidency, endeavored to en 
 dow him with a military reputation. Mr. Lincoln, at 
 that time a representative in Congress, delivered a 
 speech before the House, which, in its allusions to 
 General Cass, was exquisitely sarcastic and irresis 
 tibly humorous. By the way, Mr. Speaker, said Mr. 
 Lincoln, do you know I am a military hero? Yes, 
 sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war, I fought, bled 
 and came away. Speaking of General Cass s career 
 reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman s Defeat, 
 but I was about as near it as Cass to Hull s surrender; 
 and like him I saw the place very soon afterward. It 
 is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had 
 none to break; but I bent my musket pretty badly on 
 one occasion. ... 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 
 
54 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly 
 say I was often very hungry. Mr. Lincoln then went 
 on to say that if he should ever turn democrat, and be 
 taken up as a candidate for the presidency by the 
 democratic party, he hoped they would not make fun 
 of him by attempting to make of him a military hero." 
 
 Captain Lincoln returned to New Salem about ten 
 days before the election. Naturally the balance of the 
 time was spent in furthering his candidacy for the 
 State Legislature. He was defeated on the general 
 vote, but found much satisfaction and compliment in 
 the vote of his own precinct where he received 205 
 votes out of a possible 208. Nothing could more con 
 clusively show his popularity at home. 
 
 Immediately he looked about for something to do. 
 
 A man named Berry bought a half -interest in the 
 general store kept by the Herndon Brothers. Very 
 soon the other brother disposed of his half to Lincoln, 
 who was without means to pay for the purchase. 
 Herndon relates that he once asked his cousin why he 
 sold to Lincoln on such terms, that is, without cash, 
 merely taking Lincoln s note. To that the merchant 
 said: 
 
 "I believed he was thoroughly honest and that im 
 pression was so strong in me that I accepted his note 
 in payment of the whole. Lincoln had no money but 
 I would have advanced him still more had he asked 
 for it." 
 
 Very soon thereafter another merchant of the town 
 by the name of Radford got into a controversy with 
 the Clary s Grove boys, and therefore concluded to 
 "retire from business." He sold out to William 
 Greene, who later sold in turn to Berry and Lincoln, 
 accepting their notes. Berry and Lincoln conducted 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 55 
 
 the business for a brief time, Lincoln giving his spare 
 time to his studies and Berry giving his spare time to 
 consuming the liquor that was a part of the stock. 
 
 In a comparatively short time, not to exceed eight 
 months, Berry and Lincoln were ready "to retire." 
 They sold out to two brothers by the name of Trent, 
 who assumed all the store debts of their predecessors 
 and gave their notes for the balance. Before the notes 
 fell due the Trents failed and fled to parts unknown, 
 and Lincoln was left with about $1,100 to pay. For 
 a man absolutely without means, without an income, 
 and with no more prospect than Lincoln had at that 
 time it is no wonder that he called this his " National 
 Debt." He discharged it in small sums year by year, 
 paying off the last cent as late as 1848, from his salary 
 as congressman. 
 
 His friends, however, were making Lincoln famous 
 in that community as the most intelligent and best- 
 read young man in it. 
 
 One John C. Calhoun, who afterward became fa 
 mous, or infamous, as the president of the Lecompton 
 Constitution of Kansas, was then surveyor of Sanga- 
 mon County. Calhoun had been a school-teacher and a 
 lawyer, was an intelligent and cultivated gentleman 
 and a stanch Democrat, well grounded in the doc 
 trines of his party and capable of forcibly presenting 
 them in debate. Herndon himself says: 
 
 "I have heard Lincoln say that Calhoun gave him 
 more trouble in his debates than Douglas ever did, be 
 cause he was more captivating in his manner and a 
 more learned man than Douglas." 
 
 Calhoun offered the position as deputy to Lincoln. 
 Lincoln was entirely frank with him and told him that 
 his knowledge in mathematics was so defective and 
 
56 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 his utter ignorance of surveying was such that it 
 would be impossible for him to accept the job. 
 
 Calhoun took such a liking to the young man s 
 frankness and apparent intelligence that he gave him 
 a treatise on surveying by Flint and Gibson, and ad 
 vised him to study it and when he thought he could 
 master the subject to report to him, Calhoun, for 
 duty. 
 
 Lincoln returned to New Salem and began the new 
 venture of qualifying himself for a deputy county sur 
 veyor. 
 
 As he had mastered his Kirkham the year before 
 with Graham s help, he now determined to master 
 Flint and Gibson likewise with Graham s help. 
 
 Herndon relates that " Graham s daughter is au 
 thority for the statement that her father and Lincoln 
 frequently sat up until midnight, engrossed in calcula 
 tions, and only ceased when her mother drove them 
 out for a fresh supply of wood for the fire." 
 
 Herndon further relates in this connection: 
 
 "He was so studious and absorbed in his applica 
 tion at one time that his friends, according to a state 
 ment made by one of them, noticed that he was so 
 emaciated we feared he might bring on mental de 
 rangement." 
 
 In six weeks, however, he had mastered his book 
 and again reported to Calhoun, but before accepting 
 the job, knowing Calhoun s intense partisan princi 
 ples, he said: 
 
 "If I can be perfectly free in my political action, I 
 will take the office, but if my sentiments or even ex 
 pression of them is to be abridged in any way, I would 
 not have it nor any other office." 
 
 He got the job. 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 57 
 
 This was the most money that Lincoln ever got 
 for any service up to this time, three dollars per day. 
 He became a painstaking, careful, and thorough sur 
 veyor. 
 
 One of his biographers relates that upon one occa 
 sion Lincoln was called to decide or locate a disputed 
 corner for some persons in the northern part of the 
 county. Among others interested was his friend and 
 admirer Henry McHenry. According to the latter s 
 recollection, the following happened: 
 
 " After a good deal of disputing we agreed to send 
 for Lincoln and to abide by his decision. He came 
 with compass, flag-staff, and chain. He stopped with 
 me three or four days and surveyed the whole section. 
 When in the neighborhood of the disputed corner by 
 actual survey he called for his staff, and driving it in 
 the ground at a certain spot said Gentlemen, here is 
 the corner. We dug down into the ground at the 
 point indicated and, lo ! there we found about six or 
 eight inches of the original stake sharpened at the end 
 and beneath which was the usual piece of charcoal 
 placed there by Rector the surveyor who laid the 
 ground off for the government many years before." 
 
 That part of Illinois was developing very rapidly, 
 and Lincoln frequently laid out the original town 
 plats. Among these was the town of Petersburg, the 
 original survey of which bears Mr. Lincoln s name. 
 It is claimed with some show of probability that his 
 first chain was not a chain, but rather only a grape 
 vine. 
 
 Several of his biographers relate the fact that once 
 his surveyor s instruments were sold to pay one of the 
 old Berry debts. A friend came to his rescue, bid in 
 the instruments and returned them to Mr. Lincoln. 
 
58 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 I want to challenge attention to one thing especially 
 in connection with his duties as a surveyor: We hear 
 much nowadays about surveys, inventories, taking 
 stock of everything you have and that the other fellow 
 has. Lincoln applied much of the same method and 
 philosophy to the survey of every subject that was 
 submitted to him for study, consideration, and judg 
 ment, not only in cases in court, but causes in govern 
 ment. 
 
 In his experience as a surveyor he came in contact 
 very frequently with the word " dedicate": the dedi 
 cation of streets, of public grounds, and the laying out 
 of his town plats that is, the giving over, yielding, 
 consecrating something to a public use, or a public 
 service and we shall see and learn much of this word 
 dedicate in future chapters. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 
 
 (CONTINUED) 
 
 SHORTLY after Lincoln and Berry had sold out their 
 store to the Trent Brothers, and the whole thing had 
 " petered out," as Lincoln said, Lincoln was commis 
 sioned postmaster at New Salem by President Jack 
 son, though he was known at the time to be a stanch 
 Whig. 
 
 The duties were not very burdensome, the mail arriv 
 ing only once a week. The post-office was really under 
 Lincoln s hat, where he carried the mail in his trips 
 around the neighborhood. The office was nominally 
 in the Hill store of New Salem. The small salary, 
 however, was the most insignificant part of it. 
 
 The really important thing was the efficiency of 
 the postmaster, who gave universal satisfaction in 
 his management of the office and had the opportunity 
 of reading all the newspapers that came to the office, 
 which furnished him his information as to current 
 events. Nobody will ever be able fairly to estimate 
 the large fund of information of a public nature that 
 Abraham Lincoln gathered from the great newspapers 
 of that day by his inveterate reading and study. 
 
 In 1834 he again became a candidate for the legis 
 lature upon substantially the same declaration of 
 principles on which he made his canvass in 1832. He 
 was elected by an unusually large vote. His friend 
 
 59 
 
60 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 John T. Stuart, afterward his partner, was also a can 
 didate on that same ticket. Lincoln, however, led 
 Stuart by more than 200, a very flattering vote indeed. 
 
 Some say he walked to the capital to be inducted 
 into office, some say he rode on horseback, some by 
 stage. It is immaterial which way he went. Every 
 body knows that he was so poor that he had to borrow 
 money to buy suitable clothing, and to take care of 
 his preliminary expenses while at the State capital, 
 which was then Vandalia. The preponderance of the 
 evidence, however, suggests that he went to the capi 
 tal by stage-coach, as the public generally did in that 
 day. 
 
 During his first term he conducted himself with 
 becoming modesty and took little part in the public 
 discussions, but he had a keen eye and discriminating 
 judgment to learn the " ropes" of procedure and par 
 liamentary law, of committee work, and the general 
 legislative machinery of the State. 
 
 As one man, Mentor Graham, was big in his in 
 fluence on Lincoln at New Salem, so here at Vandalia, 
 and alike at the new capital of Springfield, there were 
 many big young men, full of the fibre and fire of the 
 frontier, that made a wonderful impression upon Lin 
 coln, knocked off many of his sharp edges and rough 
 corners, and qualified him for useful and distinguished 
 service as a member of the legislature, and later as 
 a member of the bar. 
 
 The legislative sessions then, as they should be now, 
 were short, and his brief service during his first term 
 seems to have whetted his appetite for further polit 
 ical honors. He became a candidate again in 1836, 
 as fully appears from the following circular in the San- 
 gamon Journal: 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 61 
 
 "NEW SALEM, June 13, 1836. 
 " To the Editor of the Journal: 
 
 "In your paper of last Saturday I see a communica 
 tion over the signature of Many Voters 7 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 fe 
 males). 
 
 "If elected I shall consider the whole people of San- 
 gamon my constituents, as well those that oppose as 
 those that support 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 public lands to the several States to en 
 able our State, in common with others, to dig canals 
 and construct railroads without borrowing money 
 and paying the interest on it. 
 
 "If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall 
 vote for Hugh L. White, for President. 
 
 "Very respectfully, 
 
 "A. LINCOLN." 
 
 For a simple, short-cut, straightforward declara 
 tion of principles, it is hard to beat. Much of it is 
 apropos to-day and might well be imitated by modern 
 would-be statesmen. 
 
62 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 During this time Lincoln was gradually shaping his 
 political ambition to some definite political pro 
 gramme. Naturally the psychology of the political 
 situation of Illinois at that time appealed to him most 
 strongly, and the one great ambition of his life of that 
 day was to become the "DeWitt Clinton of Illinois "- 
 DeWitt Clinton, it will be remembered, was the great 
 governor of New York, who became famous for the 
 canals and other internal improvements of that State. 
 
 As Lincoln had done in Indiana, as he had done at 
 New Salem, so he did at Vandalia and Springfield: 
 organized literary societies. 
 
 The Springfield Society was called by the somewhat 
 dignified name of " Lyceum." 
 
 In the campaign of 1836 for the State Legislature a 
 joint debate was held just before the election. Sub 
 stantially all of the candidates participated. The argu 
 ment became very heated and very bitter. A duel 
 seemed about to result, when Lincoln, with his spirit 
 of fairness and justice to all the disputants, quieted 
 the tumult. The meeting adjourned with compara 
 tively good feeling among all the candidates. 
 
 It was during this campaign that Joshua F. Speed, 
 a great friend of Lincoln s, describes a meeting held at 
 Springfield about this same time: 
 
 "The crowd was large and great numbers of his 
 friends and admirers had come in from the country. 
 I remember that his speech was a very able one, using 
 with great power and originality all the arguments 
 used to sustain the principles of the Whig party as 
 against its great rival, the Democratic party of that 
 day. The speech produced a profound impression 
 the crowd was with him. George Forquer, an old citi 
 zen, a man of recognized prominence and ability as a 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 63 
 
 lawyer, was present. Forquer had been a Whig one 
 of the champions of the party but had then recently 
 joined the Democratic party, and almost simultane 
 ous with the change had been appointed Register of 
 the Land Office, which office he then held. Just about 
 that time Mr. Forquer had completed a neat frame 
 house the best house then in Springfield and over 
 it had erected a lightning rod, the only one in the place 
 and the first one Mr. Lincoln had ever seen. He after 
 wards told me that seeing Forquer s lightning rod had 
 led him to the study of the properties of electricity 
 and the utility of the rod as a conductor. At the con 
 clusion of Lincoln s speech the crowd was about dis 
 persing, when Forquer rose and asked to be heard. 
 He commenced by saying that the young man would 
 have to be taken down, and was sorry the task de 
 volved on him. He then proceeded to answer Lin 
 coln s speech in a style which, while it was able and 
 fair, in his whole manner asserted and claimed superi 
 ority. Lincoln stood a few steps away with arms 
 folded, carefully watching the speaker and taking in 
 everything he said. He was laboring under a good 
 deal of suppressed excitement. Forquer s sting had 
 roused the lion within him. At length Forquer con 
 cluded, and he mounted the stand to reply. 
 
 "I have heard him often since/ continued Speed, 
 "in the courts and before the people, but never saw 
 him appear and acquit himself so well as upon that 
 occasion. His reply to Forquer was characterized by 
 great dignity and force. I shall never forget the con 
 clusion of that speech: Mr. Forquer commenced his 
 speech by announcing, said Lincoln, that the young 
 man would have to be taken down. It is for you, 
 fellow citizens, not for me to say whether I am up or 
 
64 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 down. The gentleman has seen fit to allude to my 
 being a young man; but he forgets that I am older in 
 years than I am in the tricks and trades of politicians. 
 I desire to live, and I desire place and distinction; but 
 I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live 
 to see the day that I would change my politics for an 
 office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then 
 feel compelled to erect a lightning rod to protect a 
 guilty conscience from an offended God/ 
 
 "The effect of this reply can readily be imagined." 
 
 Another incident that throws some light upon the 
 
 spirit of the time as well as the versatility of Lincoln 
 
 occurred in his campaign for the State Legislature in 
 
 1838. 
 
 Herndon* gives the account of it as follows: 
 " Among the Democratic orators who stumped the 
 county at this time was one Taylor commonly known 
 at Colonel Dick Taylor. He was a showy, bombastic 
 man, with a weakness for fine clothes and other per 
 sonal adornments. Frequently he was pitted against 
 Lincoln, and indulged in many bitter flings at the 
 lordly ways and aristocratic pretensions of the Whigs. 
 He had a way of appealing to his horny-handed neigh 
 bors/ and resorted to many other artful tricks of a 
 demagogue. When he was one day expatiating in his 
 accustomed style, Lincoln, in a spirit of mischief and, 
 as he expressed it, to take the wind out of his sails/ 
 slipped up to the speaker s side, and catching his vest 
 by the lower edge gave it a sharp pull. The latter in 
 stantly opened and revealed to his astonished hearers 
 a ruffled shirt-front glittering with watch-chain, seals, 
 and other golden jewels. The effect was startling. 
 The speaker stood confused and dumbfounded, while 
 
 * Vol. I, page 185. 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 65 
 
 the audience roared with laughter. When it came 
 Lincoln s turn to answer he covered the gallant colonel 
 over in this style : While Colonel Taylor was making 
 these charges against the Whigs over the country, rid 
 ing in fine carriages, wearing ruffled shirts, kid gloves, 
 massive gold watch-chains with large gold seals, and 
 flourishing a heavy gold-headed cane, I was a poor 
 boy, hired on a flat-boat at eight dollars a month, and 
 had only one pair of breeches to my back, and they 
 were buckskin. Now, if you know the nature of buck 
 skin when wet and dried by the sun, it will shrink; 
 and my breeches kept shrinking until they left several 
 inches of my legs bare between the tops of my socks 
 and the lower part of my breeches; and whilst I was 
 growing taller they were becoming shorter, and so 
 much tighter that they left a blue streak around my 
 legs that can be seen to this day. If you call this 
 aristocracy I plead guilty to the charge." 
 
 Another event in the following campaign of 1840 is 
 worthy of mention as showing some new sides to 
 Lincoln. 
 
 One of his biographers gives this account of what 
 became known in Springfield as the " skinning" of 
 Thomas : 
 
 " Jesse B. Thomas, one of the men who had repre 
 sented the Democratic side in the great debate in the 
 Presbyterian Church (earlier in the campaign) in a 
 speech at the court house, indulged in some fun at 
 the expense of the Long Nine/ reflecting somewhat 
 more on Lincoln than the rest. The latter was not 
 present, but being apprised by his friends of what had 
 been said, hastened to the meeting, and soon after 
 Thomas closed, stepped upon the platform and re 
 sponded. The substance of his speech on this occasion 
 
66 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 was not so memorable as the manner of its delivery. 
 He felt the sting of Thomas s allusions, and for the 
 first time, on the stump or in public, resorted to mimicry 
 for effect. In this, as will be seen later on, he was with 
 out a rival. He imitated Thomas in gesture and voice, 
 at times caricaturing his walk and the very motion of 
 his body. Thomas, like everybody else, had some 
 peculiarities of expression and gesture, and these Lin 
 coln succeeded in rendering more prominent than ever. 
 The crowd yelled and cheered as he continued. En 
 couraged by these demonstrations, the ludicrous fea 
 tures of the speaker s performance gave way to in 
 tense and scathing ridicule. Thomas, who was obliged 
 to sit near by and endure the pain of this unique ordeal, 
 was ordinarily sensitive; but the exhibition goaded 
 him to desperation. He was so thoroughly wrought 
 up with suppressed emotion that he actually gave 
 way to tears." 
 
 It is related that shortly thereafter, Lincoln, feeling 
 that possibly he had gone too far, saw Thomas and 
 made ample apology for his strictures. Acknowledg 
 ment of wrong with appropriate apology is the act of 
 a just man. 
 
 As we have before seen, Lincoln met big books and 
 studied them; he also met big men and studied them, 
 clear through from cover to cover, books and men. 
 He knew their strength and their weakness, emulated 
 the one and avoided the other. 
 
 Among these men who were members either of the 
 legislature or members of the bar at Springfield, or 
 the famous eighth judicial district were the following: 
 Douglas, Baker, Davis, Hardin, McClernand, Brown 
 ing, Treat, Edwards, Trumbull, McDougal, and many 
 others. Indeed, in the first legislature of which Lin- 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 67 
 
 coin was a member there were numbered not only a 
 future President of the United States and a future 
 candidate for the presidency, but six future members 
 of the United States Senate, eight future members of 
 the House of Representatives, future Cabinet members, 
 future judges of the State, and many other men who 
 later distinguished themselves as citizens or as officers. 
 
 Surely, there were giants in those days. 
 
 Lincoln, during his first and second terms in the 
 legislature had so capably conducted the affairs of 
 the State on matters of legislation, and so successfully 
 led his party, that upon his election for the third term 
 in 1838, he was the party s unanimous choice for 
 speaker; the Democrats being in the majority, how 
 ever, he simply became the minority leader. He easily 
 maintained his prestige in the legislature and upon 
 re-election for the last time in 1840 he was again his 
 party s choice for speaker. 
 
 He was urged again to become a candidate but de 
 clined, evidently looking to higher honors, for in 1842, 
 he became a candidate for Congress against John J. 
 Hardin and Edward Baker, both capable men. Hardin 
 was nominated and elected and served one term, which 
 seems to have been the rule of service in that district 
 at that time. 
 
 Following him in 1844, Baker was nominated, though 
 Lincoln was again a candidate. Each time Lincoln 
 pressed his candidacy to the point where he felt it was 
 unavailing to insist further, and then supported the 
 candidacy of both Hardin and Baker respectively. 
 
 In 1846 Lincoln was nominated and elected. The 
 canvass was a very interesting and a very bitter one 
 personally. His opposing candidate was the famous 
 Reverend Peter Cartwright, a circuit-rider in the dis- 
 
68 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 trict for years, who probably knew more men person 
 ally in the district than even did Lincoln. 
 
 Lincoln s religious views, or the want of them at 
 that time, got into the controversy, but the people s 
 faith in Lincoln could not be discredited, and he 
 emerged from the canvass stronger than ever. 
 
 The biography Lincoln furnished for the congres 
 sional directory, after his election, is of especial in 
 terest as another proof of his brevity and directness, 
 as well as his humility: 
 
 "Born February 12, 1809, Hardin County, Ken 
 tucky. 
 
 " Education, defective. 
 
 " Profession, lawyer. 
 
 " Military service, captain of volunteers in the Black 
 Hawk War. 
 
 " Offices held: postmaster at a very small office; 
 four times a member of the Illinois Legislature, and 
 elected to the Lower House of the next Congress." 
 
 He took his seat in the National Congress the first 
 Monday of December, 1847. His legislative experi 
 ence at Springfield, Illinois, during four terms of the 
 legislature, as well as his legal experience at the bar, 
 also his experience upon the stump in the discussion 
 of the great public questions of the day, had so equipped 
 him for his service in the Federal Congress that it was 
 not long before he was heard from in a most surprising 
 and striking way. 
 
 For many years the old rule applied that first-term 
 congressmen in either house must be silent and duly 
 deferential to the powers that be. Lincoln was neither, 
 but preferred to smash the precedent hi both respects. 
 
 At the same tune that Lincoln became a member of 
 the lower house Douglas became one of the youngest 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 69 
 
 members of the upper house. Before thirty days of 
 the congressional session had elapsed, to wit, the 22d 
 day of December, Lincoln introduced a series of reso 
 lutions that have become known as the "Spot Resolu 
 tions." These resolutions are worthy of particular 
 mention. 
 
 " WHEREAS, The President of the United States, in 
 his message of May 11, 1846, has declared that the 
 Mexican Government not only refused to receive him 
 (the envoy of the United States) or listen to his propo 
 sitions, but, after a long-continued series of menaces, 
 has at last invaded our territory, and shed the blood 
 of our fellow citizens on our own soil : 
 
 "And again, in his message of December 8, 1846, 
 that We had ample cause of war against Mexico long 
 before the breaking out of hostilities; but even then 
 we forebore to take redress into our own hands until 
 Mexico herself became the aggressor, by invading our 
 soil in hostile array, and shedding the blood of our 
 citizens : 
 
 "And yet again, in his message of December 7, 1847, 
 that The Mexican Government refused even to hear 
 the terms of adjustment which he (our minister of 
 peace) was authorized to propose, and finally, under 
 wholly unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two coun 
 tries in war, by invading the territory of the State of 
 Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the blood 
 of our citizens on our own soil, and, 
 
 "WHEREAS, This House is desirous to obtain a full 
 knowledge of all the facts which go to establish whether 
 the particular spot on which the blood of our citizens 
 was so shed was or was not at that time our own soil : 
 therefore, 
 
 "Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the 
 
70 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 President of the United States be respectfully re 
 quested to inform this house: 
 
 "1st. Whether the spot on which the blood of our 
 citizens was shed, as in his messages 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 revo 
 lutionary Government of Mexico. 
 
 "3d. Whether that spot is or is not within a settle 
 ment of people, which settlement has existed ever 
 since long before the Texas revolution, and until its 
 inhabitants fled before the approach 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 unin 
 habited 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 grow 
 ing crops, before the blood was shed, as in the messages 
 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. 
 
 "7th. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, 
 as in his messages declared, were or were not, at that 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 71 
 
 time, armed officers and soldiers, sent into that settle 
 ment 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 move 
 ment was necessary to the defense or protection of 
 Texas." 
 
 These resolutions clearly show Lincoln s full famil 
 iarity with the subject which he was dealing with. They 
 show him going to the very crux of the controversy. 
 
 Lincoln evidently was a party man in its best sense. 
 In his eulogy upon Henry Clay in 1852 he said: 
 
 "A free people in times of peace and quiet when 
 pressed by no common danger, naturally divide into 
 parties. At such times the man who is not of either 
 party is not, cannot be, of any consequence. Mr. Clay, 
 therefore, was of a party." 
 
 The northern division of the Whig party devoutly 
 believed that the Mexican War was nothing less than 
 an effort to increase slave territory and slave power. 
 But the country was at war and the very serious and 
 delicate dilemma arose of denouncing the cause and 
 occasion of the war and at the same time supporting 
 the government in voting the necessary funds and sup 
 plies. 
 
 There were many charges of disloyalty and treason 
 to the government made against leading Whigs, Lin 
 coln among the number, especially after his speech on 
 the 12th of January, 1848. 
 
 This speech is a marvel for the thoroughness of 
 knowledge and entire familiarity with all the facts sur 
 rounding the beginning of the war. It showed in a 
 
72 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 striking manner how thoroughly Lincoln went to the 
 bottom of things before he presented his views to the 
 public. 
 
 His clear, concise reasoning, his plain, pointed speech, 
 his demonstration of his position on the unjustifiable- 
 ness of the war were unanswerable. For logic and lan 
 guage this address deserves to rank with any other 
 great argumentative Lincoln ever made; and still there 
 were many who did not recognize in this speech the 
 coming man. 
 
 Notwithstanding the Whig opposition to the war, 
 the political paradox presents itself in 1848 of the same 
 Whig party nominating, supporting, and electing the 
 real hero of the Mexican War, General Taylor, and 
 electing him on account of his military record and 
 prestige, for he had no political record, which seems to 
 have been one of his chief qualifications. Clay, the 
 candidate of many campaigns, had, as many other men 
 have had, too much record. 
 
 Lincoln made a speech in which he rigorously ridi 
 culed General Cass, the opposing candidate to General 
 Taylor. He said, after quoting from the record to show 
 where General Cass had stood on slavery, particularly 
 the Wilmot Proviso: 
 
 " These extracts show that in 1846 General Cass was 
 for the Proviso at once, that in March, 1847, he was 
 still for it, but not just then; and that in December he 
 was against it altogether. This is a true index to the 
 whole man. When the question was raised in 1846, he 
 was in a blustering hurry to take ground for it, ... 
 but soon he began to see glimpses of the great demo 
 cratic ox-gad waving in his face, and to hear indis 
 tinctly, a voice saying, back ! back, sir ! back a 
 little! He shakes his head, and bats his eyes, and 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 73 
 
 blunders back to his position of March, 1847; but still 
 the gad waves, and the voice grows more distinct and 
 sharper still back, sir! back, I say! further back! 
 and back he goes to the position of December, 1847; 
 at which the gad is still, and the voice soothingly says 
 - so! stand still at that! " 
 
 While not in diplomatic phrase, it certainly had 
 dynamic force. 
 
 Lincoln was not a candidate for re-election. In 
 discussing the matter in a letter to Herndon in Janu 
 ary, 1848, he says: 
 
 " January 8, 1848. 
 " DEAR WILLIAM : . . . 
 
 "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 am 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 object 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 myself; so that, if it should 
 
74 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 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 me, is what my word and 
 honor forbid." 
 
 Lincoln, after declining to be a candidate for re 
 election, entered heartily into the campaign for the 
 election of General Taylor. In that behalf he made 
 a campaign trip through New England which is of 
 special interest here. 
 
 As to this, the Boston Advertiser reports: 
 
 "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 and cool and very 
 eloquent manner, 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 sec 
 tion, everybody was supposed to be instructed and 
 wise. But he had devoted his attention to the ques 
 tion of the coming presidential election, and was not 
 unwilling to exchange with all whom he might meet 
 the ideas to which he had arrived/ This passage gives 
 some reason to suppose that, conscious of his powers, 
 he was disposed to try them before audiences some 
 what different from those to which he had been ac 
 customed, and therefore, he had come to New Eng 
 land/ 7 
 
 Lincoln also made a speech at Boston, which, ac 
 cording to the newspaper report, was " seldom equalled 
 for sound reason, cogent argument and keen satire/ 7 
 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 75 
 
 Three cheers were given for the "Lone Star" of Il 
 linois, Lincoln being the only Whig member from that 
 State. 
 
 All the reports of this campaign from the press and 
 interviews by leading politicians of the day show that 
 Lincoln had made a wonderful impression upon all 
 his audiences, and that he appreciably advanced the 
 cause of General Taylor as a presidential candidate. 
 
 Herndon records the fact that while making a speech 
 at Dedham in that campaign where he had spoken 
 only a half-hour, the following occurred: 
 
 "The bell that called to the steam cars sounded. 
 Mr. Lincoln instantly stopped. I am engaged to 
 speak at Cambridge to-night/ said he, and I must 
 leave. The whole audience seemed to rise in protest. 
 Oh, no! go on! finish it! was heard on every hand. 
 One gentleman arose and pledged himself to take his 
 horse and carry him across the country. But Mr. 
 Lincoln was inexorable. I can t take any risks/ said 
 he. I have engaged to go to Cambridge, and I must 
 be there. I came here as I agreed, and I am going 
 there in the same way. A more disappointed audience 
 was never seen; but Mr. Lincoln had fairly wakened 
 it up, and it stayed through the afternoon and into 
 the evening to listen to other speakers. We tried to 
 get him to come again, but was impossible." 
 
 After this campaign Lincoln returned to Springfield, 
 Illinois. Following the election, he returned again to 
 Washington, where he remained until March 4, 1849, 
 which closed his congressional career. 
 
 An interesting fact here appears. His prominence 
 in the campaign of 1848, especially his defense of Gen 
 eral Taylor personally as a fit man for President, led 
 some of his friends to make some effort with the ad- 
 
76 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 ministration to procure for him a desirable presidential 
 appointment. 
 
 It is said with a show of probability that the Presi 
 dent tendered him the governorship of the territory 
 of Oregon, as well as the choice of some other Western 
 appointments. Acceptance would have required, how 
 ever, his removal from Springfield. It is said that the 
 decisive vote was finally cast by Mrs. Lincoln, and the 
 country will never know how much it may be indebted 
 to Mrs. Lincoln for this veto. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 LINCOLN THE LAWYER 
 
 ASIDE from a few military heroes, and one or two 
 other notable exceptions, the lawyer has been the occu 
 pant of the White House from the birth of the nation 
 until the present hour. 
 
 He has constituted the potential and generally the 
 numerical majority in both houses of Congress; of ne 
 cessity he has occupied the Federal bench to the ex 
 clusion of all other professions. And what has been 
 true in the nation has been true in a more or less 
 degree in most of the several States, so that, for good or 
 ill, we have had very largely a government by lawyers. 
 
 For twenty-four years before becoming President 
 Abraham Lincoln was engaged in the practice of law 
 in both State and Federal courts at Springfield, Illinois. 
 His preparation for his chosen profession should be of 
 intense interest, not only to the layman but to his 
 fellow lawyers as well. 
 
 His biographers generally agree that the first law- 
 book ever coming into his hands was the "Revised 
 Statutes of Indiana," which he borrowed while living 
 in Indiana from the township constable, one David 
 Turnham. 
 
 This volume contained not only the statutes of In 
 diana but also the Constitution of Indiana, the Con 
 stitution of the United States, the Declaration of In 
 dependence, the Ordinance of 1787. 
 
 That he read and reread, studied, and literally 
 voured this book there can be no doubt. 
 
 77 
 
78 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 The book itself, now treasured by Mrs. Emma 
 Winters, of Brooklyn, the wife of a former librarian 
 of the New York Law Institute, attests hard service. 
 
 Turnham himself is authority for the statement that 
 this book had much to do with influencing the boy to 
 study law as his chosen profession. We are not ad 
 vised as to when this was, but it must have been some 
 time prior to his majority. 
 
 Some biographers have made light of the influence 
 of this volume on the mind of young Lincoln. But 
 inasmuch as it was his perverse habit to devour prac 
 tically every book that he could get his hands on, it is 
 not improbable that this volume suffered the same 
 fate. 
 
 One thing is quite sure, that the Declaration of In 
 dependence therein found became finally the warp and 
 woof of all his political ideas and inspirations. This 
 fact is more than confirmed in his many addresses, 
 especially in his speech at Philadelphia, which will be 
 referred to in the chapter of Lincoln s Interpretation 
 of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 The very scarcity of his books enhanced their value 
 to him, and it is not difficult to presume that this 
 book, at least upon constitutional law, State and 
 federal, the Declaration of Independence, and the 
 Ordinance of 1787 furnished much food for his hungry 
 and precocious mind. 
 
 The next book he read was Blackstone, and this 
 while clerking in the store for Offut, at New Salem, 
 and also when a merchant on his own account in part 
 nership with Berry. 
 
 Tradition at least records that some traveller came 
 that way who had a surplus barrel of junk which he 
 no longer cared to carry. He sold it to Lincoln for 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 79 
 
 fifty cents, barrel and contents. At the bottom of 
 this barrel were two volumes of Blackstone. 
 
 At all events, he read Blackstone while at New 
 Salem. He not only read it, he studied it, he mastered 
 it, he knew it from cover to cover. Much of his clear, 
 concise legal style is readily attributable to his famili 
 arity with Blackstone s legal English. 
 
 In his campaign for the legislature he met Major 
 John T. Stuart, of Springfield, one of the leading law 
 yers of Illinois. Stuart encouraged him in the study 
 of law and loaned him a number of law-books, which 
 Lincoln took with him from Springfield back to New 
 Salem. 
 
 Lincoln himself has spoken upon this subject in the 
 following words : 
 
 "I began to read those famous works (Blackstone s 
 Commentaries ) 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 be 
 tween. And the more I read the more intensely in 
 terested I became. Never in my whole life was my 
 mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured 
 them." 
 
 Some years afterward Lincoln was asked by a young 
 man as to how to study law, to which inquiry he re 
 sponded : 
 
 "Get books and read and study them carefully. 
 Begin with Blackstone s Commentaries, and after 
 reading carefully through, say twice, take Chitty s 
 Pleadings, Greenleaf s Evidence, and Story s Equity 
 in succession. Work, work, work is the main thing." 
 
 One can but regret that so many of our so-called 
 modern schools of law have omitted from their course 
 of educational training such standard works as Lin- 
 
80 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 coin mentions, works that deal scientifically with the 
 fundamental and philosophical principles of the law. 
 
 These masterpieces of legal logic and language have 
 been supplanted by a number of so-called "case books," 
 a mere collection in more or less abbreviated form of 
 the judgments pronounced by some judge or court. 
 
 Now every judge of experience well knows that the 
 primary idea in the opinion of the judge speaking for 
 the court is to support and sustain the judgment en 
 tered in the particular case, with a view of discussing 
 only the questions raised in that particular case. Be 
 yond that it is a mere obiter dictum. 
 
 The judge rendering the opinion is primarily not 
 concerned with an orderly scientific discussion of the 
 fundamental principle involved, its origin, history, and 
 development. He applies it only to the particular 
 case in defense of the particular judgment. 
 
 "Case law" is fast becoming the great bane of the 
 bench and bar. 
 
 Our old-time great thinkers and profound reasoners 
 who conspicuously honored and distinguished our 
 jurisprudence have been succeeded very largely by 
 an industrious, painstaking, far-searching army of 
 sleuths, of the type of Sherlock Holmes, hunting some 
 precedent in some case, confidently assured that if the 
 search be long enough and far enough some apparently 
 parallel case may be found to justify even the most 
 absurd and ridiculous contention. 
 
 Case after case is piled, Ossa on Pelion, and about 
 an equal number can be found on each side; then the 
 court is expected to strike the balance and decide ac 
 cording to the preponderance of cases, rather than 
 the preponderance of reason and justice. 
 
 After all, the case is at most an illustration of some 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 81 
 
 great underlying fundamental principle, and is help 
 ful only to the degree that it tends to demonstrate or 
 illustrate the soundness and application of the prin 
 ciple. The lawyer and law student are intensely in 
 terested in the principle. Scientific treatises upon 
 these fundamental principles of law and equity have 
 a proper place in any library, but imagine a library 
 made up of case books, illustrations, at best. Car 
 toons are often very pertinent and are helpful, but 
 they do not yet make a satisfactory library. 
 
 Think of such a library as compared with the old 
 masters like Blackstone, Chitty, Greenleaf, Story, 
 and Kent, Cooley, Bishop, Thompson, and the like, 
 or even as compared with the library Lincoln had 
 when at Springfield. 
 
 Hill, in his splendid book " Lincoln the Lawyer," 
 says : * 
 
 "A part of Mr. Lincoln s law library of 1861 is still 
 in existence. In the Lambert collection: Illinois Con 
 veyancer; Angell on Limitations. In the Vanuxem- 
 Potter collection: A volume containing the Declara 
 tion of Independence, etc.; Chitty s Pleadings and 
 Parties; Stephen s Commentaries on the Laws of Eng 
 land; Greenleaf on Evidence, vol. I; Revised Statutes 
 of Illinois, 1844; Kent s Commentaries; Smith s Land 
 lord and Tenant; Story s Equity Jurisprudence, 1843; 
 Parsons Law of Contracts, 2 vols. ; Wharton s Criminal 
 Law; Redfield s Law of Railways; Stephen s Plead 
 ing. In the Orendorf collection: Barbour & Herring- 
 ton, Eq. Dig., Vol. 3; Biddle & McMurtrie, Index to 
 Eng. Com. Law, 2 vols.; Taylor on Poisons in Rela 
 tion to Medical Jurisprudence; Barbour s Eq. Dig. 
 of U. S. etc.; 3 Curtis U. S. Dig., 1846; Chitty & 
 
 * Footnote, page 292. 
 
82 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Temple, Law of Carriers; Angell & Ames on Corpora 
 tions; 1 U. S. Digest for 1847." 
 
 We do know that the authors of the works studied 
 and recommended by Lincoln, have, during a long 
 period of years, been universally recognized as the 
 leading masters of law and logic. To omit them from 
 the law student s curriculum would seem like omit 
 ting the Bible from a school of theology or Gray s 
 " Anatomy" from a school of medicine. 
 
 After all, the primary and original principles of law 
 and equity, as announced by these legal masters, have 
 never been surpassed in our legal lore, and they are 
 to-day quoted as standards in practically all the courts 
 of our land. 
 
 Lincoln s advice to the young lawyer is strikingly 
 significant in another respect, to wit, the logical order 
 in which he names the books for the young law student 
 to read: 
 
 1. The body of the law as scientifically arranged 
 and stated by Blackstone, the greatest law-book of 
 its day, perhaps of any other day. 
 
 2. The manner of framing a legal issue, as described 
 and discussed in Chitty s " Pleadings." 
 
 3. The manner of proving that issue the evidence, 
 and testimony, what is competent and what is not 
 competent, and the measure of proof required, etc., 
 as viewed by Greenleaf . 
 
 4. The conscience of the chancellor is appealed to 
 as a court of equity to provide a remedy for some wrong 
 wherein the law is short or deficient, and Story, the 
 great jurist, is admittedly a master in this branch of 
 our jurisprudence. 
 
 Lincoln has heretofore expressed his own view of 
 the study of the law by the word " devoured." Hern- 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 83 
 
 don relates* an interesting and characteristic incident in 
 Lincoln s early studies, where he draws a most signifi 
 cant distinction between reading and studying. Let 
 the student emulate it. It occurred while Lincoln was 
 living at New Salem: 
 
 A man by the name of Russell Godby employed 
 Lincoln to do farm work. One day he was much sur 
 prised to find him sitting barefoot on the summit of 
 a woodpile and attentively reading a book. 
 
 " This being an unusual thing for farm hands in 
 that early day to do, I asked him," relates Godby, 
 " what he was reading. I m not reading, he answered. 
 I am studying. Studying what? I enquired. Law, 
 sir, was the emphatic response. It was really too 
 much for me, as I looked at him sitting there proud 
 as Cicero. Great God Almighty! I exclaimed and 
 passed on." 
 
 As Lincoln said before: 
 
 "The more I read (Blackstone) the more intensely 
 interested I became. Never in my whole life was my 
 mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured 
 them." 
 
 At last the youth had found the yearning of his life. 
 He was not only "thoroughly absorbed," but entirely 
 oblivious to everything else. His conduct caused much 
 comment in the neighborhood: 
 
 "He dwelt altogether in the land of thought. His 
 deep meditation and abstraction easily induced the 
 belief among his horny handed companions that he 
 was lazy. . . . His chief delight during the day if 
 unmolested was to lie down under the shade of some 
 inviting tree and read and study. . . . No one had 
 ajnore retentive memory. If he read or heard a good 
 
 * Vol. I, page 102. 
 
84 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 thing it never escaped him. His power of concentration 
 was intense, and in the ability through analysis to strip 
 bare a proposition he was unexcelled. His thoughtful 
 and investigating mind dug down after ideas and 
 never stopped until bottom facts were reached." 
 
 Constable Turnham says as to his later years in 
 Indiana : 
 
 " As he shot up he seemed to change in appearance 
 and action. Although quick-witted and ready with 
 an answer, he began to exhibit deep thoughtfulness 
 and was so often lost in studied reflection we could 
 not help noticing the strange turn in his actions." 
 
 Herndon says:* 
 
 "But Lincoln kept on at his studies. Wherever he 
 was and whenever he could do so the book was brought 
 into use. He carried it with him in his rambles through 
 the woods and his walks to the river. When night 
 came he read it by the aid of any friendly light he could 
 find. Frequently he went down to the cooper s shop and 
 kindled a fire out of the waste material lying about, and 
 by the light it afforded read until far into the night." 
 
 Herndon quotes one of his companions as saying: 
 
 "He never appeared to be a hard student, as he 
 seemed to master his studies with little effort, until he 
 commenced the study of the law. In that he became 
 wholly engrossed, and began for the first time to avoid 
 the society of men, in order that he might have more 
 time for study."f 
 
 Henry McHenry, who knew him well said: 
 
 "He was so studious and absorbed in his applica 
 tion at one time that his friends noticed that he was 
 so emaciated we feared it might bring on mental de 
 rangement." 
 
 * Vol. I, page 102. f Herndon, vol. I, p. 112. 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 85 
 
 Holland says: 
 
 "One who remembers his habits during this period 
 says that he went, day after day, for weeks, and sat 
 under an oak tree on a hill near New Salem and read, 
 moving around to keep in the shade, as the sun moved. 
 He was so much absorbed that some people thought 
 and said that he was crazy. Not unfrequently he met 
 and passed his best friends without noticing them. 
 The truth was that he had found the pursuit of his 
 life, and had become very much in earnest." 
 
 His presence in Springfield during his first term in 
 the legislature afforded him a splendid opportunity of 
 further pursuing his studies and meeting also some of 
 the really big lawyers of Illinois. They seemed to give 
 him hope and spur and help materially to "stir the 
 gifts that were within him." 
 
 Upon his admission to the bar in March, 1837, he 
 was paid the very high compliment of being invited 
 to become the junior partner of Major John T. Stuart, 
 a fellow member of the Illinois Legislature. Stuart 
 knew better than any one else the thoroughness of 
 Lincoln s equipment for a great legal career. 
 
 Lincoln s friend, Joshua F. Speed, relates in a very 
 interesting way Lincoln s arrival in Springfield to 
 practise law as follows: 
 
 "He had ridden into town on a borrowed horse/ 
 relates Speed, "and engaged from the only cabinet 
 maker in the village a single bedstead. He came into 
 my store, set his saddle-bags on the counter, and en 
 quired what the furniture for a single bedstead would 
 cost. I took slate and pencil, made a calculation, and 
 found the sum for furniture complete would amount 
 to seventeen dollars in all. Said he: It is probably 
 cheap enough; but I want to say that, cheap as it is, 
 
86 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 I have not the money to pay. But if you will credit 
 me until Christmas, and my experiment here as a 
 lawyer is a success, I will pay you then. If I fail in 
 that I will probably never pay you at all. The tone 
 of his voice was so melancholy that I felt for him. I 
 looked up at him and I thought then, as I think now, 
 that I never saw so gloomy and melancholy a face in 
 my life. I said to him, So small a debt seems to 
 affect you so deeply, I think I can suggest a plan by 
 which you will be able to attain your end without in 
 curring any debt. I have a very large room and a 
 very large double bed in it, which you are perfectly 
 welcome to share with me if you choose. Where is 
 your room? he asked. Upstairs, said I, pointing to 
 the stairs leading from the store to my room. With 
 out saying a word he took his saddle-bags on his 
 arm, went upstairs, set them down on the floor, 
 came down again, and with a face beaming with 
 pleasure and smiles, exclaimed: Well, Speed, I m 
 moved." 
 
 He was now to have the opportunity for which he 
 had long looked and labored, and his friends looked 
 forward with interest and anxiety to the tests and 
 trials through which he must pass in the clash and 
 conflict of legislative hall and judicial forum. 
 
 There is no other place known among men where 
 the measure and merit of mind is so accurately ascer 
 tained as at the trial table before judge or jury, 
 where one or more men of presumably equal ability 
 are engaged upon either side for the express purpose 
 of luring into pitfalls, exposing the weakness and fal 
 lacy of argument, overthrowing a false premise of fact 
 or law, and by direct and flank attack discounting 
 and defeating a ruling and judgment. 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 87 
 
 What was to be the verdict of the profession and of 
 the public upon this new limb of the law? 
 
 We have already noted his intellectual preparation, 
 which, however, did not cease with his admission to 
 the bar, but continued throughout his practice as a 
 lawyer and his administration as President. 
 
 But what were to be his ethical and moral standards 
 in the practice of the law? 
 
 Was Lincoln still to possess and practise his " pas 
 sion for justice," as noted in an earlier chapter? Was 
 he still to be the " Honest Abe" as he was known at 
 New Salem? 
 
 First, let him speak for himself as to his ideals in 
 the practice of the law. 
 
 Upon his death there was found among his effects 
 some loose, undated sheets in his own handwriting, 
 that he had evidently prepared to use as the basis of 
 an address or lecture to lawyers, or law students. 
 They should be printed in burning letters and hung 
 in every law college and law office: 
 
 " Extemporaneous 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 business if he cannot 
 make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal 
 error to young lawyers than relying too much on 
 speech-making. If 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 compromise 
 whenever you can. Point out to them how the nomi 
 nal winner is often a real loser in fees, expenses, and 
 waste of time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a 
 superior opportunity of being a good man. There will 
 
88 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 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 in 
 fused into the profession which should drive such men 
 out of it. ... There is a vague popular belief that 
 lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague be 
 cause, when we consider to what extent confidence 
 and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers 
 by the people, it appears improbable that their im 
 pression 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 popular belief. Resolve to be honest at 
 all events; and if, in your own judgment, you cannot 
 be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without 
 being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation rather 
 than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, 
 consent to be a knave." 
 
 Conceive, if you can, this code of ethics carried out 
 hi every court-room, not merely to the letter, but to 
 the spirit, by every counsellor at law. What a change 
 would be wrought in the administration of justice in 
 the forty-eight commonwealths of our country ! 
 
 It is regrettable to-day that so many men have one 
 code for their personal life, another code for their pro 
 fessional life, and perchance yet another for their busi 
 ness life. 
 
 Lincoln had but one code, the code of justice, the 
 code of the Golden Rule, the code of conscience. 
 
 Herndon speaks of Lincoln s early practice as 
 Stuart s partner as follows: 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 89 
 
 " Stephen T. Logan was judge of the Circuit court, 
 and Stephen A. Douglas was prosecuting attorney. 
 Among the attorneys we find many promising spirits. 
 Edward D. Baker, John T. Stuart, Cyrus Walker, 
 Samuel H. Treat, Jesse B. Thomas, George Forquer, 
 Dan Stone, Ninian W. Edwards, John J. Hardin, Schuy- 
 ler Strong, A. T. Bledsoe, and Josiah Lamborn a 
 galaxy of names, each destined to shed more or less 
 lustre on the history of the State. While I am inclined 
 to believe that Lincoln did not, after entering Stuart s 
 office, do as much deep and assiduous studying as 
 people generally credit him with, yet I am confident 
 he absorbed not a little learning by contact with the 
 great minds who thronged about the courts and State 
 Capitol. The books of Stuart and Lincoln, during 
 1837, show a practice more extensive than lucrative, 
 for while they received a number of fees, only two or 
 three of them reached fifty dollars; and one of these 
 has a credit of: Coat to Stuart, $15.00, showing that 
 they were compelled, now and then, even to trade 
 out their earnings. The litigation was as limited in 
 importance as in extent. There were no great corpora 
 tions, as in this progressive day, retaining for counsel 
 the brains of the bar in every county seat, but the 
 greatest as well as the least had to join the general 
 scramble for practice." 
 
 Lincoln was then twenty-nine years of age and was 
 still a member of the State Legislature. His practice 
 was naturally limited to the usual pioneer litigation, 
 such as assaults, trespass on real estate, daily contracts 
 between the neighbors, accounts, notes, and the like. 
 His spare time he devoted to further study of the law, 
 public addresses, and to faithful and regular attendance 
 upon "The Young Men s Lyceum." 
 
90 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Lincoln s partnership with Stuart was compara 
 tively brief, only about four years, from 1837 to 1841. 
 Much of this time Stuart was actively engaged in polit 
 ical campaigns or in his congressional sittings at Wash 
 ington. Hence he was able to give but little attention 
 to their legal practice at Springfield. Necessarily this 
 fell on Lincoln s shoulders. The routine and details 
 of his early office work thus forced upon him were 
 doubtless of great value in training and discipline as 
 well as practical experience. 
 
 Litigation in that early day was not as important, 
 when measured by the amount involved, or the com 
 plexity of the legal problems as it was in later years, and 
 yet we find many very important cases, so far as prin 
 ciple was concerned, intrusted to the new firm. Dur 
 ing these four short years at least a half a dozen of the 
 firm s cases were taken to the Supreme Court, and Lin 
 coln appeared in the argument of three or four of them. 
 
 But the biggest lawyer in Springfield had his eye 
 upon the rising young barrister. It was none other 
 than the leader of the Springfield bar, who could no 
 doubt have had his choice of any lawyer in Springfield 
 for a junior partner. 
 
 As Stuart, with his legal and political standing in 
 that community, had paid Lincoln a very high compli 
 ment by inviting him to be his junior partner in 1837, 
 so now, in 1841, Lincoln received a much higher com 
 pliment by being invited to become the junior partner 
 of Judge Stephen F. Logan. 
 
 Logan had then the reputation of being the best 
 "Nisi Prius lawyer in the State." 
 
 Herndon, who knew him personally and intimately, 
 spoke of him as follows: 
 
 "Judge Logan was a very orderly but somewhat 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 91 
 
 technical lawyer. ... He was assiduous in study 
 and tireless in search of legal principles. He was in 
 dustrious and very thrifty, delighted to make and 
 save money, and died a rich man. . . . Lincoln was 
 five years younger, and yet his mind and make-up so 
 impressed Logan that he was invited into the partner 
 ship with him. Logan s example had a good effect 
 on Lincoln, and it stimulated him to unusual endeavors. 
 For the first time he realized the effectiveness of order 
 and method in work, but his old habits eventually 
 overcame him. . . . Logan was scrupulously exact, 
 and used extraordinary care in the preparation of 
 papers. His words were well chosen, and his style of 
 composition was stately and formal." 
 
 This partnership between Logan and Lincoln lasted 
 about two years. They were both candidates for Con 
 gress at the same time, and the presumption is, with 
 more or less evidence to support it, that their rivalry 
 brought some bitterness between them. At all events, 
 it was at this time, in 1843, that Lincoln retired from 
 the firm, and invited William H. Herndon, who was 
 just beginning the practice of law, to become his junior 
 partner. 
 
 Herndon himself says: 
 
 "I was young in the practice and was painfully 
 aware of my want of ability and experience; but when 
 he remarked in his earnest, honest way, Billy, I can 
 trust you, if you can trust me/ I felt relieved, and 
 accepted the generous proposal. It has always been a 
 matter of pride with me that during our long partner 
 ship, continuing on until it was dissolved by the bullet 
 of the assassin Booth, we never had any personal con 
 troversy or disagreement. I never stood in his way 
 for political honors or office, and I believe we under- 
 
92 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 stood each other perfectly. In after years, when he 
 became more prominent, and our practice grew to 
 respectable proportions, other ambitious practitioners 
 undertook to supplant me in the partnership. One 
 of the latter, more zealous than wise, charged that I 
 was in a certain way weakening the influence of the 
 firm. I am flattered to know that Lincoln turned on 
 this last named individual with the retort I know my 
 own business, I reckon. I know Billy Herndon better 
 than anybody, and even if what you say of him is true 
 I intend to stick by him. 7 
 
 While Lincoln was a partner of Logan s, Herndon 
 relates the following incident: 
 
 "I have before me a letter written by Lincoln at 
 this time to the proprietors of a wholesale store in 
 Louisville, for whom suit had been brought, in which, 
 after notifying the latter of the sale of certain real 
 estate in satisfaction of their judgment, he adds: As 
 to the real estate we cannot 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 trustworthy man, and one whom the Lord made 
 on purpose for such business/ 
 
 Mr. Herndon comments: 
 
 "He gravely signs the firm name, Logan and Lin 
 coln, to this unlawyerlike letter and sends it on its 
 way. Logan never would have written such a letter." 
 
 Whether Logan " would have written such a letter" 
 or not we do not know, neither need we care. Lincoln 
 wrote it because he was true then, as he was true al 
 ways, to his convictions as to what was and what was 
 not a lawyer s business, and what he did in this case 
 squares exactly with his sense of professional duty and 
 honor and represents his own practical distinction of 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 93 
 
 what was "law" business and what was "real estate 7 
 business. 
 
 Lincoln was a lawyer, first, last and all the time, 
 and be it said in his honor that he never lowered the 
 professional standards in his twenty-four years of 
 practice. 
 
 He was not a "money-getter," neither was he any 
 body s "hired man." I think the public will most 
 respectfully differ from Mr. Herndon in saying that 
 this was an " unlawyerlike letter." This illustrates 
 the difference between the point of view of Lincoln 
 and the point of view of Herndon. 
 
 The prerogatives of the senior partner in a law firm 
 seem to have been superior in that early day to what 
 they are now. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln upon his retirement from the firm of 
 Logan and Lincoln in 1843 seemed desirous of being 
 the senior partner in a new firm, and it was really from 
 the year 1843 forward that he developed and became 
 distinguished as a great lawyer who won verdicts and 
 judgments. 
 
 But his early campaigns for Congress upon his own 
 account, as well as his campaigns for the Whig tickets 
 upon the party s account consumed much of his time 
 in his earlier years. His election to Congress in 1846 
 suspended for the time being his activities in the law. 
 
 At all events, what he did prior to that time was so 
 largely preparatory to his future contests and triumphs 
 that it deserves no further discussion here. The really 
 great lawyer will appear upon his return to Springfield 
 in 1849, and from thenceforward to his election as 
 President. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LINCOLN THE LAWYER 
 
 (CONTINUED) 
 
 LINCOLN had just passed the fortieth mile-stone 
 when, at the end of his one term in Congress, he re 
 turned from Washington to resume the practice of the 
 law. 
 
 As his contact with the leading men of Springfield 
 had stimulated him to a deeper and broader study 
 of the law in his earlier days, so now the big, brainy 
 men of Washington and the East whom he had met 
 during these last two years had given him a new 
 stimulus for further education and excellence in the 
 law. 
 
 As never before he proceeded at once "to stir the 
 gifts of God within him" in wider, deeper study of the 
 law, the sciences, and history. 
 
 Herndon relates a marked change in Lincoln s pur 
 suit of the law: 
 
 "I could notice a difference in Lincoln s movement 
 as a lawyer from this time forward. He had begun to 
 realize a certain lack of discipline a want of mental 
 training and method. Ten years had wrought some 
 change in the law, and more in the lawyers, of Illinois. 
 The conviction had settled in the minds of the people 
 that the pyrotechnics of court-room and stump oratory 
 did not necessarily imply extensive or profound ability 
 in the lawyer who resorted to it. The courts were be 
 coming graver and more learned, and the lawyer was 
 
 94 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 95 
 
 learning as a preliminary and indispensable condition 
 to success that he must be a close reasoner, besides 
 having at command a broad knowledge of the princi 
 ples on which the statutory law is constructed. . . . 
 And now he began to make up for time lost in politics 
 by studying the law in earnest. No man had greater 
 power of application than he. Once fixing his mind 
 on any subject, nothing could interfere with or disturb 
 him. Frequently I would go out on the circuit with 
 him. We, usually, at the little country inns occupied 
 the same bed. In most cases the beds were too short 
 for him, and his feet would hang over the foot-board, 
 thus exposing a limited expanse of shin bone. Placing 
 a candle on a chair at the head of the bed, he would 
 read and study for hours. I have known him to study 
 in this position till two o clock in the morning. Mean 
 while I and others who chanced to occupy the same 
 room would be safely and soundly asleep." 
 
 Holland, in his biography, at page 124, notes the same 
 change in habits of study and research: 
 
 "On returning to his home, Mr. Lincoln entered 
 upon the duties of his profession, and devoted himself 
 to them through a series of years, less disturbed by 
 diversions into State and national politics than he had 
 been during any previous period of his business life. . . . 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln s lack of early advantages and the 
 limited character of his education were constant sub 
 jects of regret with him. His intercourse with mem 
 bers of Congress and with the cultivated society of 
 Washington had, without doubt, made him feel his 
 deficiencies more keenly than ever before. . . . 
 
 1 It was at this period that he undertook to improve 
 himself somewhat by attention to mathematics, and 
 actually mastered the first six books of Euclid. " 
 
96 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Herndon confirms this fact as to Euclid and further 
 relates that his study of Euclid was chiefly done upon 
 the circuit while Lincoln s fellow lawyers were com 
 fortably asleep. 
 
 Touching this study, Lincoln once said: 
 
 "In the course of my reading I constantly came 
 upon the word demonstrate I thought at first that 
 I understood its meaning, but soon became satisfied 
 that I did not. I consulted Webster s Dictionary. 
 That told of certain proof, proof beyond the probabil 
 ity of doubt ; but I could form no sort of idea what 
 sort of proof that was. 
 
 "I consulted all the dictionaries and books of refer 
 ence I could find, but with no better results. You 
 might as well have defined blue to a blind man. At 
 last I said, Lincoln, you can never make a lawyer if 
 you do not understand what demonstrate means. I 
 studied Euclid until I could give any proposition in 
 the first six books at sight. I then found out what 
 demonstrate meant." 
 
 What a splendid lesson here, not only for the student 
 and the lawyer, but also for every man that has to do 
 with the study of any science where logic is a factor. 
 To the jury it was a case of " demonstration," to the 
 judge it was a case of " demonstration," to the public 
 in a political argument it was likewise a case of " dem 
 onstration," and afterward when he became President 
 of the United States his one great purpose was to 
 " demonstrate" the wisdom and justice of his policy 
 the Union. 
 
 But we are now concerned with him as a lawyer. 
 You will remember in the preceding chapter his views 
 on legal ethics. Bear in mind that Lincoln s words 
 there quoted were not glittering generalities. They 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 97 
 
 were not mere theories or abstractions. They were 
 the root and branch taken from his practice. In short, 
 he put his ideals into his cases. 
 
 Lincoln realized reverently that the lawyer was first 
 "an officer of the court" in the administration of jus 
 tice and as such the attorney or agent of the public 
 to do justice, before he became an attorney or agent 
 of some client to win his cause. 
 
 His great ability in the conduct of cases became so 
 familiar to the people of Illinois that no doubt he was 
 often sought for by prospective clients to take causes 
 that were unconscionable. At all events, before Lin 
 coln would accept a retainer every cause had to be 
 first tried out in the court of conscience. 7 This was 
 God s court; it was Lincoln s court, and a favorable 
 judgment had to be given here first before he proceeded 
 into man s court with any cause either for plaintiff or 
 defendant. 
 
 No case better illustrates this conscientious convic 
 tion of Lincoln than the following incident. A client 
 in Lincoln s office was talking very earnestly and in low 
 tone to Lincoln about a case in which he desired to 
 employ him. One person in the office overheard the 
 conversation and related Mr. Lincoln s reply, as fol 
 lows, in a letter addressed to Mr. Herndon: 
 
 "Yes," he said, "we can doubtless gain your case 
 for you; we can set a whole neighborhood at logger 
 heads; we can distress a widowed mother and her six 
 fatherless children, and thereby get for you six hundred 
 dollars to which you seem to have a legal claim, but 
 which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much to 
 the woman and her children as it does to you. You 
 must remember that some things legally right are not 
 morally right. We shall not take your case, but will 
 
98 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 give you a little advice for which we will charge you 
 nothing. You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man; 
 we would advise you to try your hand at making six 
 hundred dollars in some other way." 
 
 Many instances of this character might be cited. 
 Indeed, after he got into the midst of a case, if he found 
 out that his client had misrepresented things to him, 
 had lied to him about the facts of the case, and it turned 
 out during the progress of the trial that the judgment 
 ought to be against his client, he not unfrequently 
 would say so directly to the court. In one noted in 
 stance he abandoned the case. 
 
 Curtis in his biography quotes Leonard Swett, the 
 great lawyer of Chicago, and the great personal and 
 political friend of Lincoln, as follows: 
 
 "Once he (Lincoln) was prosecuting a civil suit, in 
 the course of which evidence was introduced showing 
 that his client was attempting a fraud. Lincoln rose 
 and went to his hotel in deep disgust. The judge sent 
 for him; he refused to come. Tell the judge, he said, 
 my hands are dirty; I came over to wash them." 
 
 Lincoln quit the case. His conduct will be a shock 
 to some modern lawyers. But this was Lincoln s char 
 acteristic way of dealing with frauds and shams. 
 
 Frequently in the trial of a cause, if he had good 
 reason to believe that his client was wrong, or if it was 
 a criminal case that his client was guilty, he seemed to 
 lose heart because he had lost the approval of his con 
 science, and left his associate to conduct the cause. 
 
 In one noted instance, where there was a large 
 amount involved, he turned to his associate counsel 
 and said: 
 
 "Our client is wrong. I can t proceed further with 
 the case. You will have to conduct it alone." 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 99 
 
 Associate counsel did conduct it alone and won the 
 case. He got a fee of nine hundred dollars. He 
 offered to share it with Lincoln, but not a cent would 
 he take. Lincoln believed it was " tainted money." 
 His conscience could not approve of it. 
 
 One time, when he was engaged with Judge Parks in 
 the defense of a prisoner charged with larceny, he 
 turned to Parks and said: 
 
 "If you can say anything for the man, do it, I can t; 
 if I attempt it, the jury will see I think he is guilty, and 
 convict him." 
 
 Lincoln was once engaged in the defense of a prisoner 
 who was charged with aggravated assault and battery. 
 He was persuaded that the prosecuting witness had 
 greatly exaggerated his account of the assault, and 
 when the prosecuting attorney turned the witness 
 over to Lincoln for cross-examination he merely asked 
 him one question: 
 
 "Well, my friend, what ground did you and my 
 client here fight over?" 
 
 The witness answered: 
 
 "About six acres." 
 
 "Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "don t you think this 
 is an almighty small crop of fight to gather from such 
 a big piece of ground?" 
 
 The answer was such as to laugh the whole case 
 out of court. 
 
 One quality about Lincoln that his opposing counsel 
 always feared, was that he would "ring in" some 
 thing that they could not anticipate. An instance 
 of his cleverness in this respect appears in a case in 
 which he was opposing his former partner, Judge 
 Logan. 
 
 Judge Logan had the closing argument and Lincoln 
 
100 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 well knew his power and persuasiveness with jurors 
 and undertook to caution them against being over- 
 persuaded by the judge; that it was for them to look 
 carefully to the evidence and the law as given by his 
 honor, and not to put entire confidence in what Judge 
 Logan might say, however plausible he might be. The 
 judge himself was sometimes mistaken and didn t 
 know it. As an evidence of Judge Logan s mistaken 
 judgment Lincoln called attention to the fact that at 
 that very time Judge Logan had made an error in 
 putting on his shirt, the plaiting, instead of being in 
 the front, was in the back. Lincoln implied that a 
 man that didn t know enough to put on his shirt 
 right might be mistaken on the facts or the law of a 
 given case. 
 
 This pat reference to the judge s shirt absolutely 
 unmanned him in his argument to the jury, and Lin 
 coln won the case. 
 
 One of Lincoln s familiar sayings in the practice of 
 the law was this: 
 
 "If I can free this case from technicalities and get 
 it properly swung to the jury, I will win it." 
 
 As a rule he made the twelve men in the box feel 
 that that jury was composed not of twelve but thirteen 
 and that Lincoln, not the judge, was the thirteenth 
 member. 
 
 He was so manifestly fair, not affectedly so, but 
 sincerely so, that this quality of his mind and heart 
 were constantly creeping out. He was always " Honest 
 Abe." 
 
 Leonard Swett, gives the following account of Lin 
 coln s methods in the trial of a case, whether to judge 
 or jury: 
 
 "As he entered the trial where most lawyers would 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 101 
 
 object he would say he reckoned it would be fair to 
 let this in, or that; and sometimes, when his adver 
 sary could not quite prove what Lincoln knew to be 
 the truth, he reckoned it would be fair to admit the 
 truth to be so-and-so. When he did object to the court, 
 and when he heard his objections answered, he would 
 often say, Well, I reckon I must be wrong. Now, 
 about the time he had practised this three-fourths 
 through the case, if his adversary didn t understand 
 him, he would wake up in a few minutes learning that 
 he had feared the Greeks too late, and find himself 
 beaten. He was wise as a serpent in the trial of a cause, 
 but I have had too many scares from his blows to certify 
 that he was harmless as a dove. When the whole thing 
 was unravelled, the adversary would begin to see that 
 what he was so blandly giving away was simply what 
 he couldn t get and keep. By giving away six points 
 and carrying the seventh he carried his case, and the 
 whole case hanging on the seventh, he traded away 
 everything which would give him the least aid in carry 
 ing that. Any man who took Lincoln for a simple- 
 minded man would very soon wake up with his back 
 in a ditch." 
 
 As before suggested, Lincoln always held to the idea 
 of the ultimate justice of a case. What was right and 
 fair under all the facts and circumstances; what was 
 the just judgment that the court ought to enter ? Any 
 thing that conflicted with his idea of justice, even 
 though it were substantially settled law, Lincoln could 
 not help but regard as more or less of a technical rule. 
 He tried to induce courts and juries always to apply 
 the rules of law in such a way as not to defeat jus 
 tice. 
 
 One of the most difficult cases he had of this char- 
 
102 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 acter, though involving a comparatively small amount, 
 is related by Herndon* as follows: 
 
 "In the spring term of the Tazewell County Court 
 in 1847, which at that time was held in the village of 
 Tremont, I was detained as a witness an entire week. 
 Lincoln was employed in several suits, and among 
 them was one of Case vs. Snow Bros. The Snow Bros., 
 as appeared in evidence (who were both minors), had 
 purchased from an old Mr. Case what was then called 
 a prairie team/ consisting of two or three yoke of 
 oxen and prairie plow, giving therefor their joint note 
 for some two hundred dollars; but when pay-day came 
 refused to pay, pleading the minor act. The note was 
 placed in Lincoln s hands for collection. The suit was 
 called and a jury impanelled. The Snow Bros, did 
 not deny the note, but pleaded through their counsel 
 that they were minors, and that Mr. Case knew they 
 were at the time of the contract and conveyance. All 
 this was admitted by Mr. Lincoln, with his peculiar 
 phrase, Yes, gentlemen, I reckon that s so. The 
 minor act was read and its validity admitted in the 
 same manner. The counsel of the defendants were 
 permitted without question to state all these things 
 to the jury, and to show by the statute that these 
 minors could not be held responsible for their con 
 tract. By this time you may well suppose that I began 
 to be uneasy. What ! thought I, this good old man, 
 who confided in these boys to be wronged in this way, 
 and even his counsel, Mr. Lincoln, to submit in silence ! ; 
 I looked at the court, Judge Treat, but could read 
 nothing in his calm and dignified demeanor. Just 
 then, Mr. Lincoln slowly got up, and in his strange, 
 half-erect attitude and clear, quiet accent began: 
 
 * Vol. II, page 327. 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 103 
 
 Gentlemen of the Jury, are you willing to allow these 
 boys to begin life with this shame and disgrace attached 
 to their character? If you are, I am not. The best 
 judge of human character that ever wrote has left 
 these immortal words for all of us to ponder: 
 
 " Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, 
 Is the immediate jewel of their souls: 
 Who steals my purse steals trash: tis something, nothing; 
 Twas mine, tis his, and has been slave to thousands; 
 But he that filches from me my good name 
 Robs me of that which not enriches him 
 And makes me poor indeed. 
 
 "Then rising to his full height, and looking upon 
 the defendants with the compassion of a brother, his 
 long right arm extended toward the opposing counsel, 
 he continued: l Gentlemen of the jury, these poor 
 innocent boys would never have attempted this low 
 villany had it not been for the advice of these lawyers/ 
 Then for a few minutes he showed how even the noble 
 science of law may be prostituted. With a scathing 
 rebuke to those who thus belittle their profession, he 
 concluded: And now, gentlemen, you have it in your 
 power to set these boys right before the world. He 
 pleaded for the young men only; I think he did not 
 mention his client s name. The jury, without leaving 
 their seats, decided that the defendants must pay the 
 debt; and the latter, after hearing Lincoln, were as 
 willing to pay it as the jury were determined they 
 should. I think the entire argument lasted not 
 above five minutes." 
 
 One of the cases that contributed most to Mr. Lin 
 coln s reputation among the people of Illinois was 
 known as the " Armstrong" case. It will be remem- 
 
104 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 bered that upon Lincoln s going to New Salem, when 
 twenty-two years of age, he soon came in contact with 
 the Clary s Grove boys, whose leader was Jack Arm 
 strong. They were the terror of that neighborhood. 
 Later, however, they became very intimate friends. 
 While Lincoln was not of them in habits, they some 
 how or other felt that he " belonged" at least as their 
 idol, and Hannah Armstrong, the wife of Jack, furnished 
 Abraham Lincoln many a meal and many a bed when 
 he was sorely in need. She learned to love him also 
 and Lincoln learned to love her. 
 
 Years passed by and her son, Duff Armstrong, was in 
 dicted for murder. Much as Lincoln disliked defenses 
 in criminal cases, he could not deny the pleadings of 
 Duff Armstrong s now widowed mother, to whom he 
 felt under the greatest obligations. 
 
 The man, Norris, charged as the accomplice of Duff 
 Armstrong, had already been convicted, and the evi 
 dence of that case disclosed very much incriminating 
 evidence against Hannah Armstrong s son. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln s first effort, as it is of every capable, 
 skilled lawyer, was to get the right kind of jury. The 
 twelve men in the box were all comparatively young 
 men, as Duff Armstrong was a young man. The ex 
 amination of the State s witnesses was most carefully 
 and cautiously conducted. 
 
 He never made the mistake in cross-examination 
 that was once made by an overzealous counsel in what 
 has become known as the "ear case." It is not irrele 
 vant here. 
 
 A man was being tried in a far Western State on a 
 charge of mayhem. The particular charge was that 
 he bit off the prosecuting witness s ear and that in a 
 drunken brawl. 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 105 
 
 At the time of the fight the witnesses for the State 
 were so drunk that they could scarcely recollect the 
 circumstances of the affair, and the prosecutor was 
 forced to rely on one sober witness, who was exceed 
 ingly friendly to the defendant, but also, it must be 
 said to his credit, he was not unfriendly to the truth. 
 After putting a number of questions to the principal 
 witness for the State, the answers to which were either 
 indifferent or unsatisfactory, sufficient of the friendli 
 ness of the witness for the accused was elicited to 
 secure from the court permission to put direct or lead 
 ing questions to the witness. 
 
 U Q. Now, you say, Mr. Jones, that you did not see 
 the defendant bite off the ear of the prosecuting wit 
 ness, Brown? 
 
 "A. No, sir. 
 
 "Q. And do you mean to say that you did not see 
 him biting at his ear? 
 
 "A. No, sir." 
 
 The prosecutor practically threw up his hands. He 
 had failed to make a case, and passed the witness to 
 the other side for cross-examination. 
 
 Any skilled and experienced counsel would simply 
 have answered: "We have no cross-examination." 
 But the turn of events had so taken everybody off his 
 feet that counsel for the defendant in his zeal said: 
 "Just a question or two." 
 
 "Q. Now, I understand you to say you did not see 
 the defendant biting off Mr. Brown s ear? 
 
 "A. No. 
 
 "Q. You did not see him biting at his ear? 
 
 "A. No, sir. 
 
 "Q. You did not see anything that indicated that 
 he had bitten off his ear? 
 
106 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 "A. Well, I would not want to say that. 
 
 "Q. Well, what did you see? 
 
 "A. Well, I saw the defendant spit out an ear." 
 
 Lincoln never made such mistakes in cross-examina 
 tion. He asked the right question at the right time 
 and in the right way. He never pushed a witness too 
 far, nor ever put himself in a hostile attitude to the 
 witness, unless he was sure of his ground, sure that he 
 would be able successfully to impeach him later. 
 
 The case had gone well for Mr. Lincoln until the 
 star witness for the State was put upon the stand. 
 His name was Allen. All eyes were turned to hear 
 Allen s story, because he was the only witness that 
 claimed to have seen the fatal blow struck at a dis 
 tance of about one hundred and fifty feet from where 
 the fatal assault took place. Allen testified that the 
 assault took place at about eleven o clock in the night 
 time and that he saw Armstrong strike the deceased, 
 Metzker, with a sling-shot. Mr. Lincoln asked him 
 as to how he could see that distance at that time of 
 night. Allen replied at once: "By the light of the 
 moon." 
 
 Lincoln was prepared to meet this testimony, and, 
 therefore, he gave the witness, Allen, all possible rope 
 to repeat and to emphasize the fact of how clearly he 
 had seen this blow struck, so that there was no possible 
 chance of retracting it or qualifying it. Allen made 
 the moon to shine that night like the noonday sun. 
 Then Lincoln introduced the almanac of that year, a 
 silent witness, but a thoroughly credible one. 
 
 The almanac showed that the moon had just com 
 pleted its first quarter before midnight and that at 
 the hour named by this star witness the moon was 
 so near its setting that it was impossible for it to have 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 107 
 
 furnished any light by which Allen could have seen 
 Armstrong strike the blow. Allen had been entirely 
 discredited. The verdict was Lincoln s. 
 
 One or two biographers have endeavored to discredit 
 Mr. Lincoln s professional honor in this case by charg 
 ing that he used an old almanac and not the one of 
 1857, the year of the murder. 
 
 Again the almanac is its best witness. Numerous 
 biographers have answered that charge by showing 
 that the original account of the transaction, as re 
 ported by Lincoln, is absolutely correct, that the 
 almanac of 1857 did support every claim made by 
 Lincoln in behalf of Armstrong. 
 
 But more than that, if such almanac were not now 
 available, Lincoln s whole professional career brands 
 the other story as a lie, and if it had even been possi 
 ble for him to indulge in such a vicious practice to 
 mislead court and jury, it would have excited such 
 discussion and opposition in Illinois in that day as to 
 have resulted in a deserved disbarment. The bar of 
 Illinois in that day was of too high standing to have 
 suffered such an imposition upon court and jury to 
 have gone either undiscovered or unpunished. 
 
 Considerable discussion has arisen by Lincoln s vari 
 ous biographers touching the statement made as to 
 Lincoln s methods in court by one Judge Treat, who 
 was at one time a member of the Supreme Court of 
 Illinois. 
 
 One of Lincoln s biographers gives Judge Treat as 
 authority for the following brief argument of Lincoln 
 before the Supreme Court of Illinois: 
 
 "This is the first case I ILincolnl ever have had in 
 this court, and I, therefore, examined it with great 
 care. As the court will perceive by looking at the 
 
108 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 abstract of the record, the only question in the case is 
 one of authority. I have not been able to find any 
 authority to sustain my side of the case. But I have 
 found several cases directly in point on the other side. 
 I will now give these authorities to the court and then 
 submit the case." 
 
 Several of Lincoln s biographers deny it and point 
 to the fact that at the time Lincoln argued his first 
 case in the Supreme Court of Illinois Judge Treat was 
 not a member of that court. They say not only that 
 Lincoln never used that language, but that it would 
 have been highly improper to have done so. 
 
 It matters not whether it occurred at this time or 
 some other time; that it frequently did occur is just 
 what you would expect from a lawyer like Lincoln. 
 
 But the controversy is not important as to the time 
 when it occurred. The fact of the matter is that Lin 
 coln was always so fair, so frank with the court that 
 there is nothing in these words in the slightest contra 
 diction to his uniform attitude and conduct in the 
 presence of a court of justice. 
 
 To Lincoln there was nothing sacred about a decided 
 case, except its weight in reason and justice, and if the 
 reason and justice of the case on trial was upon his 
 side, Lincoln would plainly and persuasively present 
 that side, notwithstanding some court may have de 
 cided otherwise. 
 
 A case of more than usual interest was one in which 
 he had been retained to render certain service as an 
 attorney-at-law in some taxation suits brought by the 
 State of Illinois against the Illinois Central Railroad. 
 Upon the completion of that litigation Lincoln ren 
 dered a bill to the railroad company for two thousand 
 dollars. The bill was rejected. 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 109 
 
 Some of his biographers have related, with no show 
 of probability, however, that the rejection was made 
 by the chief engineer of that company, one George 
 B. McClellan. The facts are all against this conten 
 tion. The bill, however, was rejected. Lincoln felt 
 much hurt, and conferred with his associates at the 
 bar. They rather severely criticised Lincoln, not be 
 cause the bill was too large, but because it was too 
 little. They urged that the bill should be presented 
 for five thousand dollars, which was done. Again the 
 bill was rejected, suit was brought and judgment finally 
 taken in favor of Lincoln. Lincoln collected the money 
 upon the judgment, brought it to the office, divided 
 it without any book entry, carefully wrapped up two 
 thousand five hundred dollars, and labelled it " Hern- 
 don s half." 
 
 Some of his biographers have urged that the suit 
 against the Illinois Central Railroad was entirely 
 friendly. Without any facts to support this claim, 
 save that Lincoln was subsequently retained by the 
 Illinois Central Railroad, the presumption is the other 
 way. Men who are willing to pay claims in a sub 
 stantial amount do not ordinarily submit to a suit to 
 collect them. 
 
 No doubt Lincoln s great ability in the case was, 
 in itself, sufficient to urge the advisability upon some 
 of the officers of the railroad company for future 
 employment, wholly independent of the issue in the 
 five-thousand-dollar case. 
 
 Another case that attracted a great deal of interest, 
 and has been given much space in his various biogra 
 phies was the " Manny" or "McCormick" case, as it 
 is sometimes known. 
 
 So many different accounts have been given con- 
 
110 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 cerning this case that they are irreconcilable, save in 
 one particular, and that is that Mr. Lincoln was very 
 rudely treated by associate counsel in the case. 
 
 The case was one involving a patent brought by 
 the McCormick Company against one Manny on the 
 charge of infringement of patents in the United States 
 Court at Cincinnati, and was heard there during the 
 fall term of 1855. 
 
 For plaintiff there appeared a distinguished lawyer 
 from Baltimore, Reverdy Johnson, and a Mr. Dicker- 
 son, from Philadelphia, an expert patent lawyer. 
 
 Mr. George Harding was the expert patent lawyer 
 from Philadelphia for the defendant, and Lincoln had 
 been retained by one of the defendants, Mr. Emerson, 
 of Rockford, Illinois, to match as a lawyer of general 
 and successful practice in the trial of cases the dis 
 tinguished and skilled Johnson from Baltimore. 
 
 When Lincoln arrived at Cincinnati he learned that 
 other parties interested with the defendant had also 
 employed Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, formerly of Steuben- 
 ville, Ohio, but now of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, a 
 college-bred man, and a lawyer of large ability and 
 successful experience. 
 
 Up to the time of their meeting at Cincinnati Mr. 
 Stanton did not know of Mr. Lincoln having been 
 retained in behalf of the defendant, and Lincoln evi 
 dently did not know that Mr. Stanton had been re 
 tained likewise in behalf of the defendant. 
 
 Upon meeting Lincoln, it is said that Stanton in 
 quired: " Where did this long-legged, long-armed 
 person come from and who is it?" Other things were 
 said no doubt, some of them not fit for public record. 
 
 At all events, Lincoln did not participate in the 
 trial. He did not assist in the examination of the wit- 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 111 
 
 nesses. He did not make any argument to the court, 
 nor file any brief in the case, though he had been re 
 tained by one of the defendants for that purpose. 
 
 Harding made an argument as an expert patent 
 lawyer, which was supplemented by a very able argu 
 ment by Stanton. Lincoln, it is said, after being 
 crowded out of the case, tendered Harding and Stanton 
 a brief that he had prepared, which they cordially 
 consigned to the waste-basket without examining it. 
 
 As a further evidence of their lack of cordiality and 
 general agreeableness toward Lincoln, it should be 
 said with entire truth that Judge McLean gave a little 
 dinner, during the early part of the trial, in which all 
 the counsel in the case were present as honored guests. 
 Lincoln, however, was not present, and neither was he 
 invited to be present. 
 
 Lincoln remained in Cincinnati a few days, and 
 then went home to Springfield much depressed and 
 deeply grieved over the treatment accorded him by 
 counsel in that case. Stanton had brutally kicked 
 him out in a manner that could not be misunderstood 
 by Lincoln. Stanton was as big in mind as he was 
 bad in manners, and his conduct toward Lincoln and 
 the public then and later, as we shall see, furnish abun 
 dant evidence of his dominating and haughty char 
 acteristics. 
 
 Lincoln had one marked peculiarity that deserves 
 mention here, and that is, that he rarely detailed his 
 personal or professional grievances to his friends, and 
 no fact is better established than that he never had 
 any intimates. He never confided the secrets, espe 
 cially the unpleasant and disagreeable secrets of his 
 personal, professional, or political life to any other 
 living soul. So that we have little account of what 
 
112 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Lincoln himself said or thought of Stanton s treat 
 ment of him in this case at Cincinnati. 
 
 Herndon says: 
 
 " Lincoln felt that Stanton had not only been very 
 discourteous to him, but had purposely ignored him 
 in the case and that he had received rather rude, if not 
 unkind, treatment from all hands. Stanton in his 
 brusque and abrupt way, it is said, described him as 
 a long, lank creature from Illinois, wearing a dirty 
 linen duster for a coat, on the back of which the per 
 spiration had splotched wide stains that resembled a 
 map of the continent/ 
 
 We may feel sure from what we know of Lin 
 coln personally that if he (Lincoln) felt that Stanton 
 had been " discourteous," "had purposely ignored him," 
 "had been rude" that Stanton, as a matter of fact, 
 had been doubly so. 
 
 When we lawyers realize the courtesy due from one 
 counsel to another, no matter what our personal feel 
 ing may be, Stanton s treatment of Lincoln seems not 
 only outrageous, but almost unpardonable. 
 
 Herndon himself further says that Lincoln once 
 said to him that he had been "roughly handled by 
 that man Stanton," and that he had overheard Stanton 
 saying: "Where did that long-armed creature come 
 from and what can he expect to do in this case?" 
 
 Stanton s relations to Lincoln in this case are given 
 at length because Lincoln and Stanton will have much 
 to do with each other in another chapter. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 LINCOLN THE LAWYER 
 
 (CONTINUED) 
 
 WHILE a partner of Herndon in 1858, Lincoln made 
 the following notes for an argument to the court: 
 
 " Legislation and adjudication must follow and con 
 form to the progress of society. 
 
 "The progress of society now begins to produce 
 cases of the transfer for debts of the entire property 
 of railroad corporations; and to enable transferees to 
 use and enjoy the transferred property legislation and 
 adjudication begin to be necessary. 
 
 " Shall this class of legislation just now beginning 
 with us be general or special? 
 
 " Section Ten of our Constitution requires that it 
 should be general, if possible. (Read the Section.) 
 
 " Special legislation always trenches upon the judi 
 cial department; and in so far violates Section Two of 
 the Constitution. (Read it.) 
 
 " Just reasoning policy is in favor of general legis 
 lation else the legislature will be loaded down with 
 the investigation of small cases a work which the 
 courts ought to perform, and can perform much more 
 perfectly. How can the Legislature rightly decide the 
 facts between P. & H. and S. C. & Co. ? 
 
 "It is said that under a general law, whenever a 
 R. R. Co. gets tired of its debts, it may transfer fraudu 
 lently to get rid of them. So they may so may indi 
 viduals; and which the Legislature or the courts is 
 best suited to try the question of fraud in either case? 
 
 113 
 
114 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 "It is said, if a purchaser have acquired legal rights, 
 let him not be robbed of them, but if he needs legisla 
 tion let him submit to just terms to obtain it. 
 
 "Let him, say we, have general law in advance 
 (guarded in every possible way against fraud), so that, 
 when he acquires a legal right, he will have no occasion 
 to wait for additional legislation; and if he has prac 
 tised fraud let the courts so decide." 
 
 The student will note the orderly arrangement of 
 this argument, the logical steps in which the notes 
 are made, how the legal and the ethical argument is 
 presented together so that each re-enforces the other. 
 
 One of the noted cases that Lincoln had for trial 
 was known as the Wright case. A widow had been 
 defrauded of a large part of her pension by a pen 
 sion agent who had secured for her an allowance 
 of $800 from the government, for which he had 
 charged her the outrageous fee of $400. The widow 
 was old, crippled, and needy. She sought Lincoln 
 to retain him to recover the $400, less a reasonable 
 fee. 
 
 Lincoln s notes for the argument of this case are as 
 follows : 
 
 "No contract. Not professional services. Unrea 
 sonable charge. Money retained by Deft not given 
 by Pl ff. Revolutionary War. Describe Valley Forge 
 privations. Ice. Soldier s bleeding feet. Pl ff s hus 
 band. Soldier leaving home for army. Skin Deft. 
 Close." 
 
 Herndon s account of it is very interesting, includ 
 ing a portion of Lincoln s argument. He says: 
 
 "As he reached that point in his speech wherein he 
 narrated the hardened action of the defendant in 
 fleecing the old woman of her pension his eyes flashed, 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 115 
 
 and throwing aside his handkerchief, which he held in 
 his right hand, he fairly launched into him. His 
 speech for the next five or ten minutes justified the 
 declaration of Davis, that he was i hurtful in denun 
 ciation and merciless in castigation. There was no 
 rule of court to restrain him in his argument, and I 
 never, either on the stump or on other occasions in 
 court, saw him so wrought up. Before he closed, he 
 drew an ideal picture of the plaintiff s husband, the 
 deceased soldier, parting with his wife at the threshold 
 of their home, and kissing their little babe in the 
 cradle, as he started for the war. Time rolls by/ he 
 said in conclusion; the heroes of 76 have passed away 
 and are encamped on the other shore. The soldier 
 has gone to rest, and now, crippled, blinded, and 
 broken, his widow comes to you and to me, gentlemen 
 of the jury, to right her wrongs. She was not always 
 thus. She was once a beautiful young woman. Her 
 step was as elastic, her face as fair, and her voice as 
 sweet as any that rang in the mountains of old Virginia. 
 But now she is poor and defenceless. Out here on the 
 prairies of Illinois, many hundreds of miles away from 
 the scenes of her childhood, she appeals to us, who 
 enjoy the privileges achieved for us by the patriots of 
 the Revolution, for our sympathetic aid and manly 
 protection. All I ask is, shall we befriend her ? The 
 speech made the desired impression on the jury. Half 
 of them were in tears, while the defendant sat in the 
 court room, drawn up and writhing under the fire of 
 Lincoln s fierce invective. . . . When the judgment 
 was paid we remitted the proceeds to her and made no 
 charge for our services." 
 
 When a man is mad, he is mad clear through, and 
 that was true of Lincoln in this case. He hated a 
 
116 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 sham and a counterfeit, whether it be in a person or 
 a policy. 
 
 But when the widow was in the wrong he was equally 
 frank to tell her so and refuse her case. 
 
 An instance is related wherein Lincoln was once 
 asked to examine the title to a piece of valuable 
 land owned by a widow. Lincoln himself surveyed 
 the land and carefully examined its title, and the liens 
 thereon. After taking his survey and the records into 
 full consideration, together with the facts that the 
 widow was able to give him, he told her frankly that 
 she ought to pay a certain sum to the heirs of a former 
 grantor. To this the widow entered strenuous objec 
 tion. Lincoln, however, told her that unless she did 
 so he would drop the case. Finally, with great reluc 
 tance, she consented, paid the amount, and Lincoln 
 himself distributed it to the various heirs. 
 
 After all, it appears that each case had to stand upon 
 its own bottom. It had to square with justice, and, 
 unless his conscience approved, he refused the retainer. 
 
 Another instance well illustrates the ethics of Lin 
 coln in the practice of the law, and as well the differ 
 ence between him and Herndon in their ethical stand 
 ards. A suit had been brought against one of their 
 clients involving a large sum of money. For some 
 reason or other Lincoln and Herndon were not ready 
 for trial. Herndon, having charge of the case, did all 
 that he could to postpone the trial. He says, concern 
 ing the case:* 
 
 "We dared not make an affidavit for continuance, 
 founded on facts, because no such pertinent and mate 
 rial facts as the law contemplated existed. Our case 
 for the time seemed hopeless. One morning, however, I 
 
 * Vol. I, page 326. 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 117 
 
 accidentally overheard a remark from Stuart indicating 
 his fear lest a certain fact should happen to come into 
 our possession. I felt some relief, and at once drew 
 up a fictitious plea, averring as best I could the sub 
 stance of the doubts I knew existed in Stuart s mind. 
 The plea was as skilfully drawn as I knew how, and 
 was framed as if we had the evidence to sustain it. 
 The whole thing was a sham, but so constructed as to 
 work the desired continuance, because I knew that 
 Stuart and Edwards believed the facts were as I 
 pleaded them. This was done in the absence and 
 without the knowledge of Lincoln. The plea could 
 not be demurred to, and the opposing counsel dared 
 not take the issue on it. It perplexed them sorely. 
 At length, before further steps were taken, Lincoln 
 came into court. He looked carefully over all the 
 papers in the case, as was his custom, and seeing my 
 ingenious subterfuge asked, Is this seventh plea a 
 good one? Proud of the exhibition of my skill I 
 answered that it was. But/ he inquired, incredu 
 lously, is it founded on fact? I was obliged to re 
 spond in the negative, at the same time following up 
 my answer with an explanation of what I had over 
 heard Stuart intimate, and of how these alleged facts 
 could be called facts if a certain construction were put 
 upon them. I insisted that our position was justifiable, 
 and that our client must have time or be ruined. I 
 could see at once it failed to strike Lincoln as just 
 right. He scratched his head thoughtfully and asked, 
 Hadn t we better withdraw that plea? You know 
 it s a sham, and a sham is very often but another name 
 for a lie. Don t let it go on record. The cursed thing 
 may come staring us in the face long after this suit has 
 been forgotten. The plea was withdrawn. By some 
 
118 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 agency not our own the case was continued and our 
 client s interests were saved. " 
 
 Herndon entirely misconceives Mr. Lincoln s reason 
 for having the sham plea withdrawn, on " account of 
 the record." It was not on " account of the record," 
 but on account of the right of the thing. He was so 
 keen for justice that he could not knowingly do any 
 thing unjust; neither would he permit it to be done. 
 
 I may have devoted more time than some would 
 think necessary to relating particular incidents and 
 instances of his practice, but I am persuaded that Lin 
 coln was nature s great jurist, and, therefore, his ideas, 
 as well as ideals of justice, as they were expressed and 
 experienced in his every-day life, as the lawyer, are 
 of vital interest to any student of Lincoln, and should 
 be of special interest to lawyers who believe in a higher 
 and nobler code of ethics for the profession. 
 
 Indeed, it is evidence of the fact that he was a great 
 natural jurist, that whenever the judge on the circuit 
 was absent for any reason, the one lawyer, above all 
 others, that was unanimously chosen to sit instead of 
 the absent judge and proceed with the trial of causes 
 that day assigned, was Lincoln. 
 
 Some of his rules of practice are worthy of further 
 note, not only as a matter of interest in illustrating 
 his character, but also of emulation in the profession. 
 
 "In law it is good policy never to plead what you 
 need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you 
 cannot." 
 
 Once he said to Herndon: 
 
 " Billy, don t shoot too high aim lower and the 
 common people will understand you. They are the 
 ones you want to reach at least they are the ones 
 you ought to reach. The educated and refined people 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 119 
 
 will understand you anyway. If you aim too high 
 your ideas will go over the heads of the masses and 
 only hit those who need no hitting." 
 
 Herndon overstates nothing in Lincoln s favor when 
 he says: 
 
 " Lincoln could look a long distance ahead and cal 
 culate the triumph of right. With him justice and 
 truth were paramount. If to him a thing seemed un 
 true he could not in his nature simulate truth. His 
 retention by a man to defend a lawsuit did not prevent 
 him from throwing it up in its most critical stage if 
 he believed he was espousing an unjust cause. This 
 extreme conscientiousness and disregard of the alleged 
 sacredness of the professional cloak robbed him of 
 much so-called success at the bar." 
 
 A higher tribute no man can pay another. 
 
 The query comes to many of us, can a man with 
 such high standards of personal integrity and profes 
 sional honor be successful in the practice of the law? 
 If large fees are the index of professional success, if 
 large corporation retainers are the index of profes 
 sional success, if fifty or one hundred thousand dollars 
 annual income be the index of professional success, 
 then Abraham Lincoln was not a successful lawyer. 
 
 His annual fees rarely aggregated more than two 
 or three thousand dollars, and he was by all stand 
 ards counted a poor man. He says something on 
 this subject himself when in New York to deliver the 
 Cooper Union speech. The day before he met an old 
 friend from Springfield who had recently come to New 
 York and engaged in business. The talk on Broadway 
 was substantially as follows. Said Mr. Lincoln: 
 
 "How have you been getting along since leaving 
 the West?" 
 
120 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 "I have made $100,000 and lost all," was the reply. 
 
 Then his friend said: 
 
 "How is it with you, Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "Oh, very well," said he, "I have the cottage at 
 Springfield and about $8,000 in money. If they make 
 me Vice President with Seward, as some say they will, 
 I hope I shall be able to increase it to $20,000; and 
 that is as much as any man ought to want." 
 
 If, however, painstaking, efficient, successful prac 
 tice for a large clientage of every kind and nature in 
 the nisi prius courts, as well as in the Supreme Court 
 of his State, and also a number of cases in the Federal 
 Courts, are any exponent of a lawyer s success at the 
 bar, then Abraham Lincoln must be acknowledged 
 as one of the first and biggest lawyers of Illinois. 
 
 From the time he returned from his service in Con 
 gress, in 1849, until his nomination for the presidency, 
 there is no doubting that he had more cases during 
 those eleven years in the Supreme Court of Illinois 
 than any other lawyer in the State. 
 
 From the commencement of his practice to its close, 
 the record shows that he had more than one hundred 
 and seventy-five cases in the Supreme Court of Il 
 linois, a record surpassed by few men, if any, in that 
 State or any other in that day. 
 
 What his fellow lawyers said of him after his death 
 will illustrate many sides of his personal and profes 
 sional character. 
 
 Shortly after Lincoln s death in 1865, the Supreme 
 Court of Illinois heard obituary addresses in his honor. 
 On that occasion, Judge Caton said in presenting the 
 resolutions : 
 
 "He (Mr. Lincoln) understood the relations of 
 things, and hence his deductions were rarely wrong, 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 121 
 
 from any given state of facts. So he applied the prin 
 ciples of law to the transactions of men with great clear 
 ness and precision. He was a close reasoner. He 
 reasoned by analogy, and enforced his views by apt 
 illustration. His mode of speaking was generally of 
 a plain and unimpassioned character, and yet he was 
 the author of some of the most beautiful and eloquent 
 passages in our language, which, if collected, would 
 form a valuable contribution to American literature. 
 The most punctilious honor ever marked his profes 
 sional and private life." 
 
 Judge Breese, responding to the resolutions, said: 
 
 "For my single self, I have for a quarter of a cen 
 tury regarded Mr. Lincoln as the finest lawyer I ever 
 knew, and of a professional bearing so high-toned and 
 honorable as justly, and without derogating from the 
 claims of others, entitling him to be presented to the 
 profession as a model well worthy of the closest imita 
 tion." 
 
 Judge Thomas Drummond, of Chicago, then a 
 member of the Federal Court in the city, upon this 
 same occasion said: 
 
 "I have no hesitation in saying that he was one of 
 the ablest lawyers I have ever known. With a voice 
 by no means pleasant, and, indeed, when excited, in 
 its shrill tones, sometimes almost disagreeable; with 
 out any of the personal graces of the orator; without 
 much in the outward man indicating superiority of 
 intellect; without great quickness of perception 
 still, his mind was so vigorous, his comprehension so 
 exact and clear, and his judgment so sure, that he 
 easily mastered the intricacies of his profession, and 
 became one of the ablest reasoners and most impres 
 sive speakers at our bar. With a probity of character 
 
122 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 known of all, with an intuitive insight into the human 
 heart, with a clearness of statement which was itself 
 an argument, with uncommon power and felicity of 
 illustration, often, it is true, of a plain and homely 
 kind, and with that sincerity and earnestness of 
 manner which carried conviction, he was, perhaps, 
 one of the most successful jury lawyers we have ever 
 had in the state. He always tried a case fairly and 
 honestly. He never intentionally misrepresented the 
 evidence of a witness or the argument of an opponent. 
 He met both squarely, and, if he could not explain the 
 one or answer the other , substantially admitted it. He 
 never misstated the law according to his own intelligent 
 view of it." 
 
 Judge David Davis, then of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, delivered a eulogy on Lincoln as a 
 lawyer at Indianapolis, in which he said: 
 
 "In all the elements that constitute the great law 
 yer, he (Mr. Lincoln) had few equals. He was great 
 both at Nisi Prius and before an appellate tribunal. 
 He seized the strong points of a case, and presented 
 them with clearness and great compactness. A vein 
 of humor never deserted him, and he was always able 
 to chain the attention of court and jury when the 
 cause was the most uninteresting, by the appropriate 
 ness of his anecdotes." 
 
 Arnold, one of his biographers, and also a fellow 
 lawyer, at Indianapolis, in speaking of both Douglas 
 and Lincoln, said: 
 
 "Both were strong jury lawyers. Lincoln was, on 
 the whole, the strongest we ever had in Illinois. Both 
 were distinguished for their ability in seizing and bring 
 ing out distinctly and clearly the real points in a case. 
 Both were happy in the examination of witnesses, but 
 
LINCOLN THE LAWYER 123 
 
 I think Lincoln was the stronger of the two in cross- 
 examination." 
 
 Lincoln lived the lawyer and loved the law, but more 
 than all else he lived and loved justice. 
 
 He was the chancellor in the court of conscience be 
 fore he was the counsellor in a court of law. 
 
 Whenever there was conflict in the judgments of 
 these two courts with Lincoln, the former was para 
 mount. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 
 
 "Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good." ST. PAUL. 
 
 "Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing 
 else but reason . . . the law which is perfection of reason." SIR ED 
 WARD COKE. 
 
 PROBABLY he never read John Stuart Mill, Doctor 
 Whateley, or Sir William Hamilton, yet in logic he was 
 the peer of all of them. But what is logic ? says some 
 one. Boiled down, it is only the " science or art of 
 exact reasoning" or "the laws according to which the 
 processes of pure thinking should be conducted" or 
 "the science of the laws of thought." 
 
 Lincoln was, first, last, and all the time a "thinker." 
 In speaking he was merely telling the thought on the 
 platform. In writing he was merely telling the thought 
 on paper. 
 
 Reason, calm, candid, calculating reason, was the 
 gift of God, as Paul characterizes it, which bridged his 
 "passion for knowledge" to his "passion for justice." 
 It was the gift by which he sought and obtained do 
 minion over his fellow men. 
 
 Herndon, his old partner, who associated with him 
 in the law office for nearly a score of years, had ex 
 traordinary opportunity of observing the mental pow 
 ers and operations of Lincoln, and what he has written 
 may well command our attention: 
 
 "He had no faith, and no respect for say so s/ come 
 though they might from tradition or authority. Thus 
 everything had to run through the crucible, and be 
 
 124 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 125 
 
 tested by the fires of his analytic mind; and when at 
 last he did speak, his utterances rang out with the 
 clear and keen ring of gold upon the counters of the 
 understanding. He reasoned logically through anal 
 ogy and comparison. All opponents dreaded his origi 
 nality of idea, his condensation, definition, and force 
 of expression; and woe be to the man who hugged to 
 his bosom a secret error if Lincoln got on the chase of 
 it. ... His conscience, his heart, and all the facul 
 ties and qualities of his mind bowed submissively to 
 the despotism of his reason. He lived and acted from 
 the standard of reason that throne of logic, home of 
 principle the realm of Deity in man. It is from this 
 point Mr. Lincoln must be viewed. Not only was he 
 cautious, patient, and enduring; not only had he con 
 centration and great continuity of thought; but he had 
 profound analytical power. His vision was clear, and 
 he was emphatically the master of statement. His 
 pursuit of the truth, as before mentioned, was indefati 
 gable. He reasoned from well-chosen principles with 
 such clearness, force, and directness that the tallest in 
 tellects in the land bowed to him. He was the strong 
 est man I ever saw, looking at him from the elevated 
 standpoint of reason and logic. He came down from 
 that height with irresistible and crashing force. His 
 Cooper Institute and other printed speeches will prove 
 this; but his speeches before the courts especially the 
 Supreme Court of Illinois if they had been preserved, 
 would demonstrate it still more plainly." * 
 
 This mental sketch is a splendid summary of our 
 logician, but it falls short of the methods which Lin 
 coln used in bringing about the triumphs of his rea 
 son. 
 
 * Herndon, vol. II, pp. 304 et seq. 
 
126 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 If the great problem of our education is to find 
 out how to teach and train the mind of our youth, 
 how to think, how to reason clearly, correctly, and 
 conclusively, then it is vitally important that we 
 should study this great " thinker" and "reasoner," 
 God-made and self-made, certainly not school-made, 
 for the purpose of ascertaining and emulating the ways 
 and means he employed in the study of any subject, and 
 how he proceeded to demonstrate the relation of that 
 subject to some great legal principle or cause, or its 
 natural and necessary relation to the betterment and 
 happiness of our humanity. 
 
 Early in life he exhibited great power of mental con 
 centration. He would centralize all his mental forces 
 upon the subject under investigation to the exclusion 
 of everything and everybody else. 
 
 Herndon* notes this quality in the following lan 
 guage: 
 
 "From a mental standpoint he was one of the most 
 energetic young men in his day. He dwelt altogether 
 in the land of thought. . . . His powers of concen 
 tration were intense, and in the ability through analysis 
 to strip bare a proposition he was unexcelled. His 
 thoughtful and investigating mind dug down after 
 ideas, and never stopped till bottom facts were 
 reached." 
 
 Herndon further says : f 
 
 "When Lincoln entered the domain of investiga 
 tion he was a severe and persistent thinker, and had 
 wonderful endurance; hence he was abstracted, and 
 for that reason at times was somewhat unsocial, ret 
 icent, and uncommunicative." 
 
 Lincoln said during the war, in talking about the 
 
 * Vol. I, pages 39-41. t Vol. II, page 133. 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 127 
 
 " Trent Affair/ and also in talking about Maximilian 
 in Mexico, "one war at a time." So in his study it 
 was "one subject at a time." 
 
 Let us not forget here that Lincoln in his early life 
 was a surveyor. What he learned in a practical way 
 in the survey of some given specific lot or land he ap 
 plied when surveying some given or specific fact or 
 principle. His paramount "passion for knowledge" 
 heretofore discussed moved him to use his mental com 
 pass and chain so that he would "run the courses and 
 distances from monument to monument" in survey 
 ing all the facts or the legal principles involved in any 
 given case with just the same thoroughness and ex 
 actness as he did when he surveyed the concrete 
 land. 
 
 As he himself has said he "bounded it on the north, 
 bounded it on the east, bounded it on the south, and 
 bounded it on the west." 
 
 He would proceed substantially after this manner: 
 Fact A is bounded on the north by causes 1 and 2, on 
 the east by associations 3, 4, and 5, on the south by 
 consequences 6, 7, and 8, on the west by opposition 
 9, 10, and 11. 
 
 This was the method of the surveyor. It was the 
 old lesson in geography by virtue of which the student 
 fixed the location of a township, a county, a State or 
 a country, by giving its geographical boundaries. 
 
 This very simplicity was one of the great secrets of 
 his mental strength. 
 
 Each fact was considered in its causal relation with 
 other facts. Lincoln not only wanted to know the 
 cause of the fact and the consequences from that fact, 
 but he went back to the original question itself, the 
 question back of all others is it in fact a "fact"? 
 
128 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 After he had carefully and comprehensively sur 
 veyed all the facts relating to any given situation, it 
 was a Lincoln characteristic, stamping all his methods 
 and arguments in court, as well as his public speeches 
 and presidential papers, to discriminate between the 
 essential and controlling facts and principles of any 
 given case or cause, and the unimportant and incon 
 sequential. He was continually separating the wheat 
 from the chaff, the ear from the shuck. 
 
 He was Nature s great jurist. Whether the ques 
 tion was one of fact or law, whether it was one of a 
 truth or a principle, he presented both sides of the 
 cause in every forum, judicial or popular, with such 
 evident and considerate fairness that his adversaries 
 were often surprised that he had, not infrequently, 
 conceded to them some strength that they had not 
 even claimed. His concessions, his yieldings, however, 
 were not what he conceived to be the vital issues in 
 the case. Those he stuck to with a bulldog tenacity. 
 
 Clear thinking is the first essential to correct think 
 ing, and clearness of conception was the first thing 
 for which Lincoln labored. To convey that clear con 
 ception to others was his second great purpose; as he 
 himself has often said, he sought to put it in language 
 plain enough "for any boy I knew to comprehend." 
 
 Next, having reached a conclusion through a course 
 of reasoning in his own mind, he proceeds to demon 
 strate the truth and soundness of his position in the 
 simplest terms of speech, so as to persuade others to 
 his way of thinking and to the support of his cause. 
 
 Constantly he has before him the word "demon 
 strate," as to which he was quoted in an earlier chap 
 ter, but which will bear repetition here in discussing 
 his logic. 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 129 
 
 Lincoln soliloquized as follows: 
 
 " Lincoln, you can never make a lawyer, if you 
 do not understand what demonstrate means/ I studied 
 Euclid until I could give any proposition in the first 
 six books at sight. I then found out what demon 
 strate meant." 
 
 In making his demonstration it is strikingly signif 
 icant that his great addresses in law, government, or 
 politics were usually bottomed upon some parable or 
 proposition from the Bible, some primary legal axiom, 
 or political proposition from the Declaration of In 
 dependence. The first was his Magna Charta of morals 
 and conduct, the last his Magna Charta of liberty and 
 democracy. No better example of this method can 
 be found than in the Springfield speech of 1858. 
 
 Here his first proposition, which served as his major 
 premise of argument, was a familiar or undisputed 
 fact or principle from the Bible to which all men, or 
 most men, must agree. 
 
 Not unfrequently he would take this basic fact or 
 proposition from some statement or admission of the 
 adversary, as he did in the great Cooper Union speech 
 in New York City in 1860. 
 
 After having laid down his major premise, he would 
 then follow it up with his minor premises with such 
 clearness of statement, closeness of reasoning, mar 
 shalling all the evidence, all the facts, as a great mili 
 tary commander does his troops upon the one given 
 point of attack, all to prove to the point of probability 
 or to the point of moral certainty the truth or wisdom 
 of the proposition in question. 
 
 After making his demonstration to the satisfaction 
 of the average man, if the proposition were one in 
 volving some human or great public interest, he then 
 
130 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 followed it with a simple, sincere, straightforward, dedi 
 cation of himself and his honor to that cause. 
 
 Where did he get this order which he habitually 
 followed in his discussions on law or government? 
 He does not definitely advise us. Neither do any of 
 his biographers. 
 
 It is, however, more than passing strange that Lin 
 coln s early acquaintance with, and study of, the 
 Declaration of Independence brought him directly 
 and intimately in touch with this method of presenta 
 tion and argument. That Declaration of Independence 
 is naturally divisible into those same three parts, dec 
 laration, demonstration, dedication. It is most natural 
 for us to presume that Lincoln, who studied and quoted 
 the Declaration of Independence more frequently 
 than any other American statesman of his own time, 
 or any other, should have been strikingly impressed 
 with the logical order so plainly and powerfully put 
 in the Declaration of Independence, by his great proto 
 type, Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 From the time Lincoln first entered politics in 1832, 
 when but twenty-three years of age, until his martyr 
 dom in 1865, it is the logician, the thinker, the reasoner, 
 that we meet at every turn of the road, and all the 
 while he is dealing with matters of human interest, 
 matters that are cardinal and controlling in any given 
 situation; and when he has presented his cause and 
 offered his proof in support thereof, by a course of 
 reasoning amounting to a " demonstration, " he could 
 confidently submit it to the people in the belief that 
 he would persuade them, or a majority of them, to 
 the Lincoln view of things. 
 
 Lincoln s ability as a logician had its severest test 
 when he, as the "big giant" of the Republican party 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 131 
 
 of Illinois, met the " little giant 7 of the Democratic 
 party of Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, in political de 
 bate, in 1858. 
 
 Herndon says* concerning Lincoln and Douglas: 
 " History furnishes few characters whose lives and 
 careers were so nearly parallel as those of Lincoln and 
 Douglas. They met for the first time at the legisla 
 ture in Vandalia in 1834, where Lincoln was a member 
 of the house of representatives and Douglas was in 
 the lobby. The next year Douglas was also a member. 
 In 1839 both were admitted to practice in the supreme 
 court of Illinois on the same day. In 1841 both courted 
 the same young lady. In 1846 both represented Il 
 linois in congress at Washington, the one in the upper 
 and the other in the lower House. In 1858 they were 
 opposing candidates for United States Senator; and 
 finally, to complete the remarkable counterpart, both 
 were candidates for the presidency in 1860. While 
 it is true that their ambitions ran in parallel lines, yet 
 they were exceedingly unlike in all other particulars. 
 Douglas was short, something over five feet high, 
 heavy set, with a large head, broad shoulders, deep 
 chest, and striking features. He was polite and affable, 
 but fearless. He had that unique trait, magnetism, 
 fully developed in his nature, and that attracted a host 
 of friends and readily made him a popular idol. He 
 had had extensive experience in debate, and had been 
 trained by contact for years with the great minds and 
 orators in congress. He was full of political history, 
 well informed on general topics, eloquent almost to 
 the point of brilliancy, self-confident to the point of 
 arrogance, and a dangerous competitor in every re 
 spect. What he lacked in ingenuity he made up in 
 * Vol. II., page 72. 
 
132 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 strategy, and if in debate he could not tear down the 
 structure of his opponent s argument by a direct and 
 violent attack, he was by no means reluctant to resort 
 to a strained restatement of the latter s position or 
 to the extravagance of ridicule. Lincoln knew his man 
 thoroughly and well. He had often met Douglas on 
 the stump; was familiar with his tactics, and though 
 fully aware of his want of fixed political morals/ was 
 not averse to measuring swords with the elastic and 
 flexible Little Giant. 7 
 
 "Lincoln himself was constructed on an entirely 
 different foundation. His base was plain common 
 sense, direct statement, and the inflexibility of logic. 
 In physical make-up he was cold at least not mag 
 netic and made no effort to dazzle people by his bear 
 ing. He cared nothing for a following, and though he 
 had often before struggled for a political prize, yet in 
 his efforts he never had strained his well-known spirit 
 of fairness or open love of the truth. He analyzed 
 everything, laid every statement bare, and by dint of 
 his broad reasoning powers and manliness of admission 
 inspired his hearers with deep conviction of his earnest 
 ness and honesty. Douglas may have electrified the 
 crowds with his eloquence or charmed them with his 
 majestic bearing and dexterity in debate, but as each 
 man, after the meetings were over and the applause 
 had died away, went to his home, his head rang with 
 Lincoln s logic and appeal to manhood." 
 
 In the campaign of 1858 no political contest from 
 coast to coast held the attention of the public like the 
 " joint discussion" between Stephen A. Douglas and 
 Abraham Lincoln in the State of Illinois. 
 
 The debates were held beginning August 21 to Oc 
 tober 15 inclusive. They were seven in number, one 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 133 
 
 held in each congressional district so as to cover the 
 entire State. 
 
 Douglas was the Democratic candidate for United 
 States senator as his own successor. Lincoln had been 
 unanimously nominated as a candidate for the same 
 office by the Republican State Convention of Illinois, 
 held at Springfield on June 17. 
 
 These seven speeches interestingly and exhaustively 
 cover the issues of that time, and in full occupy two 
 hundred pages of closely printed matter. They merit 
 the careful attention and study of every political stu 
 dent, of the debater, the orator, the logician, the lin 
 guist. They have an intense human interest in that 
 they cover the history of our country upon the subject 
 of slavery, as well as the fundamental principles of our 
 government from its very beginning to the hour of 
 discussion. 
 
 This debate takes us back to his life in Gentryville, 
 when he stood upon the stump and talked to the trees, 
 arguing pro and con upon the issues of the day, and 
 his practice of " polemics," as he called it, in the debat 
 ing societies of that early day, his labors in like line at 
 New Salem, his " Lyceum" at Springfield. He was a 
 " veritable gladiator" in debate. 
 
 It would be impossible to give the reader a proper 
 view of his great logical powers without in some 
 measure reviewing this extended debate. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 
 
 (CONTINUED) 
 
 DOUGLAS had demanded and received the concession 
 of not only opening and closing the first debate, but of 
 opening and closing the series. This placed Mr. Lin 
 coln under a considerable handicap, owing to the fact 
 that Senator Douglas had the vantage-ground of choos 
 ing and defining the issues of that debate. 
 
 In the popular judgment at least Lincoln was more 
 or less forced against his will to follow Douglas s lead 
 and to devote much of his time to answering Douglas s 
 charges as to matters that were peculiarly personal and 
 unimportant as to the great issues of that day, but 
 which, the charge having been made, must receive 
 some measure of answer. 
 
 The political finesse and personal adroitness of 
 Douglas is nowhere more apparent than in the charges 
 that he brought against Lincoln, to wit : 
 
 "1. That Trumbull, as an old-time Democrat, and 
 Lincoln, as an old-time Whig, had formed an unholy 
 combination to break up these two parties. 
 
 "2. That Lincoln was responsible for the abolition 
 platform of 1854 at Springfield. 
 
 "3. That the Buchanan administration was fighting 
 Douglas because he was against the Lecompton Con 
 stitutional Convention, and that Lincoln and Trum 
 bull were in this conspiracy. 
 
 134 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 135 
 
 "4. That Lincoln was guilty of political treason in 
 attacking the Dred Scott decision/ 
 
 "5. That Lincoln, by virtue of his Springfield speech, 
 was emphatically sectional, and was endeavoring to 
 array the North against the South. 
 
 "6. That Lincoln stood for absolute equality be 
 tween the black and white, socially and politically. 
 
 "7. That Lincoln s opposition to the Mexican War 
 was unpatriotic and even treasonable." 
 
 No wonder that Lincoln should have characterized 
 this style of argument on the part of Douglas in aban 
 doning the great political issues of the day and devot 
 ing his time chiefly to personal politics by the fol 
 lowing observation: 
 
 " Douglas is playing cuttle fish a small species of 
 fish that has no mode of defending himself when pur 
 sued except by throwing out a black fluid which makes 
 the water so dark the enemy cannot see it, and thus 
 escapes. " 
 
 Upon the other hand, Lincoln strenuously endeav 
 ored to centre the debate upon the great questions 
 of that day, and as far as he could, with due def 
 erence to the position of his opponent, discussed the 
 big questions at issue along the following several 
 lines : 
 
 1. That slavery was a great evil and a violation of 
 the fundamental principle of our government as an 
 nounced in the Declaration of Independence, "all men 
 are created equal." 
 
 2. That our fathers, while recognizing slavery under 
 the Constitution, believed that it was "in the course 
 of ultimate extinction." 
 
 3. That the Kansas-Nebraska Act, as a piece of 
 legislation by Congress, and the Dred Scott decision 
 
136 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 as an unconstitutional piece of legislation by a court, 
 had reversed the policy of "ultimate extinction " by 
 the fathers and aided and encouraged the "further 
 spread of it" (slavery). 
 
 4. That Douglas so-called "squatter sovereignty " 
 was a sham and a fallacy. 
 
 5. That while he (Lincoln) believed slavery to be 
 wrong, nevertheless he stood for giving to the slave- 
 masters of the South the full and complete protection 
 in the possession and enjoyment of their slaves as de 
 clared in the Constitution; in short, that there should 
 be no disturbance or interference with the domestic 
 institutions in the States of the South. 
 
 Upon the first proposition he said : 
 
 "But I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is 
 no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to 
 all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of 
 Independence the right to life, liberty, and the pur 
 suit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled 
 to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Doug 
 las he is not my equal in many respects certainly not 
 in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endow 
 ment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the 
 leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is 
 my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal 
 of every living man." 
 
 Upon the second proposition he said: 
 
 "And when the Judge reminds me that I have often 
 said to him that the institution of slavery has existed 
 for eighty years in some States, and yet it does not exist 
 hi some others, I agree to the fact, and I account for it 
 by looking at the position in which our fathers origi 
 nally placed it restricting it from the new Territories 
 where it had not gone, and legislating to cut off its 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 137 
 
 source by the abrogation of the slave-trade, thus put 
 ting the seal of legislation against its spread. The pub 
 lic mind did rest in the belief that it was in the course 
 of ultimate extinction. But lately, I think and in 
 this I charge nothing on the Judge s motives lately, I 
 think, that he, and those acting with him, have placed 
 that institution on a new basis, which looks to the 
 perpetuity and nationalization of slavery. And while it 
 is placed upon this new basis, I say, and I have said, 
 that I believe we shall not have peace upon the question 
 until the opponents of slavery arrest the further spread 
 of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in 
 the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinc 
 tion, or, on the other hand, that its advocates will push 
 it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all 
 the States, old as well as new, North as well as South. 
 Now, I believe if we could arrest the spread, and place 
 it where Washington and Jefferson and Madison placed 
 it, it would be in the course of ultimate extinction, and 
 the public mind would, as for eighty years past, believe 
 that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. The 
 crisis would be past, and the institution might be let 
 alone for a hundred years, if it should live so long, in 
 the States where it exists ; yet it would be going out of 
 existence in the way best for both the black and the 
 white races." 
 
 Upon the third proposition Lincoln called attention 
 to the fact that the old Missouri Compromise Act of 
 1820 had absolutely prohibited the further spread of 
 slavery north of 36 30 , save and except the State of 
 Missouri 36 30 was the parallel of the southern 
 boundary of that State and that the Kansas-Nebraska 
 Act, of which Douglas was the father and the Dred 
 Scott decision, of which Chief Justice Taney was the 
 
138 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 author, was a reversal of the policy of ultimate extinc 
 tion favored by the fathers. 
 
 Upon this latter charge Lincoln said, first in the 
 Springfield speech and later on in the debates: 
 
 "We cannot absolutely know that these exact 
 adaptations are the result of preconcert; but when 
 we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of 
 which we know have been gotten out at different times 
 and places, and by different workmen, Stephen, 
 Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance, and when 
 we see these timbers joined together, and see they 
 exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the 
 tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths 
 and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted 
 to their respective places, and not a piece too many 
 or too few, not omitting the scaffolding, or if a 
 single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame 
 exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece 
 in, in such a case we feel it impossible not to believe 
 that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all 
 understood one another from the beginning, and all 
 worked upon a common plan or draft drawn before 
 the first blow was struck." 
 
 Lincoln the logician nowhere more persuasively ap 
 peals than in his attack upon the Dred Scott decision. 
 
 He said: 
 
 "This man sticks to a decision which forbids the 
 people of a Territory from excluding 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, and you are, bound to take it in your 
 political action as law, not that he judges at all of its 
 merits, but because a decision of the court is to him 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 139 
 
 a Thus saith the Lord. He places it on that ground 
 alone; and you will bear in mind that thus committing 
 himself unreservedly to this decision commits him to 
 the next one just as firmly as to this. He did not commit 
 himself on account of the merit or demerit of the de 
 cision, but it is a Thus saith the Lord. The next de 
 cision, as much as this, will be a Thus saith the Lord. 
 There is nothing that can divert or turn him away 
 from this decision. It is nothing that I point out to 
 him that his great prototype, General Jackson, did 
 not believe in the binding force of decisions. It is 
 nothing to him that Jefferson did not so believe. I 
 have said that I have often heard him approve of Jack 
 son s course in disregarding the decision of the Supreme 
 Court pronouncing a National Bank constitutional. 
 He says, I did not hear him say so. He denies the 
 accuracy of my recollection. I say he ought to know 
 better than I, but I will make no question about this 
 thing, though it still seems to me that I heard him say 
 it twenty times. I will tell him, though, that he now 
 claims to stand on the Cincinnati platform which af 
 firms that Congress cannot charter a National Bank, 
 in the teeth of that old standing decision that Con 
 gress can charter a bank. And I remind him of an 
 other piece of history on the question of respect for 
 judicial decisions, and it is a piece of Illinois history 
 belonging to a time when the large party to which 
 Judge Douglas belonged were displeased with a de 
 cision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, because they 
 had decided that a Governor could not remove a Secre 
 tary of State. You will find the whole story in Ford s 
 History of Illinois, and I know that Judge Douglas 
 will not deny that he was then in favor of overslaugh 
 ing that decision by the mode of adding five new judges, 
 
140 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 so as to vote down the four old ones. Not only so, 
 but it ended in the Judge s sitting down on that very 
 bench as one of the five new judges to break down the four 
 old ones. It was in this way precisely that he got his 
 title of judge. Now, when the Judge tells me that 
 men appointed conditionally to sit as members of a 
 court will have to be catechised beforehand upon some 
 subject, I say, You know, Judge; you have tried it. 
 When he says a court of this kind will lose the con 
 fidence of all men, will be prostituted and disgraced 
 by such a proceeding, I say, You know best, Judge; 
 you have been through the mill. But I cannot shake 
 Judge Douglas s teeth loose from the Dred Scott de 
 cision. Like some obstinate animal (I mean no dis 
 respect) that will hang on when he has once got his 
 teeth fixed, you may cut off a leg, or you may tear away 
 an arm, still he will not relax his hold. And so I may 
 point out to the Judge, and say that he is bespattered 
 all over, from the beginning of his political life to the 
 present time, with attacks upon judicial decisions; 
 I may cut off limb after limb of his public record, and 
 strive to wrench him from a single dictum of the 
 court, yet I cannot divert him from it. He hangs, 
 to the last, to the Dred Scott decision. These things 
 show there is a purpose strong as death and eternity for 
 which he adheres to this decision, and for which he 
 will adhere to all other decisions of the same court." 
 On the fourth proposition, Mr. Lincoln said: 
 "What is Popular Sovereignty? Is it the right of 
 the people to have slavery or not have it, as they see 
 fit, in the Territories? I will state and I have an 
 able man to watch me my understanding is that 
 Popular Sovereignty, as now applied to the question 
 of slavery, does allow the people of a Territory to have 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 141 
 
 slavery if they want to, but does not allow them not 
 to have it if they do not want it. (Dred Scott decision) 
 I do not mean that if this vast concourse of people 
 were in a Territory of the United States, any one of 
 them would be obliged to have a slave if he did not 
 want one; but I do say that, as I understand the Dred 
 Scott decision, if any one man wants slaves, all the 
 rest have no way of keeping that one man from hold 
 ing them." 
 
 On the fifth proposition, Mr. Lincoln said: 
 
 "When they remind us of their constitutional rights, 
 I acknowledge them, not grudgingly, but fully and 
 fairly; and I would give them any legislation for the 
 reclaiming of their fugitives which, should not, in its 
 stringency, be more likely to carry a free man into 
 slavery, than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang 
 an innocent one. ... I will say here, while upon 
 this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or in 
 directly, 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 submit that a careful reading of these debates will 
 clearly and conclusively show that these positions are 
 unanswerable, and that certainly there was nothing 
 in anything that Douglas said, however plausible he 
 was, that squarely attempted to answer them. It was 
 the " cuttle fish" sort of argument. 
 
 Throughout the debate he sought to take advantage 
 of the public state of mind in reference to its prejudices 
 against social and marital equality for the negro. Upon 
 this proposition Mr. Lincoln said: 
 
 "I have no purpose to introduce political and social 
 equality between the white and black races. There 
 is a physical difference between the two which in my 
 
142 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 judgment will probably forever forbid their living to 
 gether upon the footing of perfect equality." 
 
 He further said: 
 
 "And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they 
 do remain together there must be the position 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 every 
 thing. 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 wife. So it seems to me quite possible for 
 us to get along without making either slaves or wives 
 of negroes." 
 
 Douglas s effort to commit Lincoln to the proposi 
 tion of social and political equality between the black 
 and white is referred to throughout the debates. 
 
 Indeed, in almost every one of the series of seven, 
 Lincoln (the audience being a new one) feels called 
 upon to make reply. Throughout the debates Lincoln 
 is insistent upon giving the South her constitutional 
 rights as to slavery with zealous and vigilant care. 
 Nevertheless, he does insist most vigorously that slavery 
 is inherently wrong. 
 
 Upon this proposition he says: 
 
 "We have in this nation this element of domestic 
 slavery. It is a matter of absolute certainty that it 
 is a disturbing element. It is the opinion of all the 
 great men who have expressed an opinion upon it, 
 that it is a dangerous element. We keep up a con- 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 143 
 
 troversy in regard to it. That controversy necessarily 
 springs from difference of opinion; and if we can learn 
 exactly can reduce to the lowest elements what 
 that difference of opinion is, we perhaps shall be better 
 prepared for discussing the different systems of policy 
 that we would propose in regard to that disturbing 
 element. I suggest that the difference of opinion, re 
 duced to its lowest of terms, is no other than the dif 
 ference between the men who think slavery a wrong, 
 and those who do not think it wrong. The Republican 
 party think it wrong; we think it is a moral, a social, 
 and a political wrong. We think it as a wrong not 
 confining itself merely to the persons or the States 
 where it exists, but that it is a wrong in its tendency, 
 to say the least, that extends itself to the existence of 
 the whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we pro 
 pose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. 
 We deal with it as with any other wrong, in so far as 
 we can prevent its growing any larger, and so deal with 
 it that in the run of time there may be some promise 
 of an end to it. We have a due regard to the actual 
 presence of it amongst us, and the difficulties of getting 
 rid of it in any satisfactory way, and all the constitu 
 tional obligations thrown about it. I suppose that 
 in reference both to its actual existence in the nation, 
 and to our constitutional obligations, we have no right 
 at all to disturb it in the States where it exists, and we 
 profess that we have no more inclination to disturb 
 it than we have the right to do it. We go further than 
 that: we don t propose to disturb it where, in one in 
 stance, we think the Constitution would permit us. 
 We think the Constitution would permit us to disturb 
 it in the District of Columbia. Still, we do not propose 
 to do that, unless it should be in terms which I don t 
 
144 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 suppose the nation is very likely soon to agree to, 
 the terms of making the emancipation gradual, and 
 compensating the unwilling owners. Where we sup 
 pose we have the constitutional right, we retrain our 
 selves in reference to the actual existence of the in 
 stitution and the difficulties thrown about it. We 
 also oppose it as an evil so far as it seeks to spread it 
 self. We insist on the policy that shall restrict it to 
 its present limits. We don t suppose that in doing 
 this we violate anything due to the actual presence 
 of the institution, or anything due to the constitu 
 tional guaranties thrown around it. ... He (Judge 
 Douglas) has the high distinction, so far as I know, 
 of never having said slavery is either right or wrong. 
 Almost everybody else says one or the other, but the 
 Judge never does. If there be a man in the Democratic 
 party who thinks it is wrong, and yet clings to that 
 party, I suggest to him, in the first place, that his 
 leader don t talk as he does, for he never says that it 
 is wrong. In the second place, I suggest to him that 
 if he will examine the policy proposed to be carried 
 forward, he will find that he carefully excludes the 
 idea that there is anything wrong in it. If you will 
 examine the arguments that are made on it, you will 
 find that every one carefully excludes the idea that 
 there is anything wrong in slavery." 
 
 In the last debate at Alton, October 15, 1858, Lin 
 coln again states his position in clear and unmistakable 
 as well as unanswerable terms: 
 
 "I think the authors of that notable instrument 
 intended to include all men, but they did not mean 
 to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not 
 mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, 
 moral development, or social capacity. They defined 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 145 
 
 with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider 
 all men created equal, equal in certain inalienable 
 rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
 of happiness. This they said, and this they meant. 
 They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that 
 all were then actually enjoying that equality, or yet 
 that they were about to confer it immediately upon 
 them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a 
 boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that 
 the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circum 
 stances should permit. 
 
 "They meant to set up a standard maxim for free 
 society which should be familiar to all, constantly 
 looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though 
 never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, 
 and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its 
 influence, and augmenting the happiness and value 
 of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere." 
 
 On the question of slavery being a constant menace 
 to the Union, Lincoln says: 
 
 "But is it true that all the difficulty and agitation 
 we have in regard to this institution of slavery springs 
 from office seeking, from the mere ambition of politi 
 cians? Is that the truth? How many times have 
 we had danger from this question? Go back to the 
 day of the Missouri Compromise. Go back to the 
 Nullification question, at the bottom of which lay this 
 same slavery question. Go back to the time of the 
 Annexation of Texas. Go back to the troubles that 
 led to the Compromise of 1850. You will find that 
 every time, with the single exception of the Nullifica 
 tion question, they sprung from an endeavor to spread 
 this institution. There never was a party in the his 
 tory of this country, and there probably never will 
 
146 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 be, of sufficient strength to disturb the general peace 
 of the country. Parties themselves may be divided 
 and quarrel on minor questions, yet it extends not 
 beyond the parties themselves. But does not this ques 
 tion make a disturbance outside of political circles? 
 Does it not enter into the churches and rend them 
 asunder? What divided the great Methodist Church 
 into two parts, North and South? What has raised 
 this constant disturbance in every Presbyterian Gen 
 eral Assembly that meets? What disturbed the Uni 
 tarian Church in this very city two years ago? What 
 has jarred and shaken the great American Tract So 
 ciety recently, not yet splitting it, but sure to divide 
 it in the end ? Is it not this same mighty, deep-seated 
 power that somehow operates on the minds of men, 
 exciting and stirring them up in every avenue of so 
 ciety, in politics, in religion, in literature, in morals, 
 in all the manifold relations of life? Is this the work 
 of politicians? Is that irresistible power, which for 
 fifty years has shaken the government and agitated 
 the people, to be stilled and subdued by pretending 
 that it is an exceedingly simple thing, and we ought 
 not to talk about it? If you will get everybody else 
 to stop talking about it, I assure you I will quit before 
 they have half done so. But where is the philosophy 
 or statesmanship which assumes that you can quiet 
 that disturbing element in our society which has dis 
 turbed us for more than half a century, which has been 
 the only serious danger that has threatened our in 
 stitutions, I say, where is the philosophy or the states 
 manship based on the assumption that we are to quit 
 talking about it, and that the public mind is all at once 
 to cease being agitated by it? Yet this is the policy 
 here in the North that Douglas is advocating, that 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 147 
 
 we are to care nothing about ! I ask you if it is not a 
 false philosophy. Is it not a false statesmanship that 
 undertakes to build up a system of policy upon the 
 basis of caring nothing about the very thing that every 
 body does care the most about ? a thing which all ex 
 perience has shown we care a very great deal about?" 
 
 "On this subject of treating it as a wrong, and limit 
 ing its spread, let me say a word. Has anything ever 
 threatened the existence of this Union save and except 
 this very institution of slavery? What is it that we 
 hold most dear amongst us? Our own liberty and 
 prosperity. What has ever threatened our liberty and 
 prosperity save and except this institution of slavery? 
 If this is true, how do you propose to improve the con 
 dition of things by enlarging slavery, by spreading 
 it out and making it bigger? You may have a wen 
 or cancer upon your person, and not be able to cut it 
 out, lest you bleed to death; but surely it is no way 
 to cure it, to engraft it and spread it over your whole 
 body. That is no proper way of treating what you 
 regard a wrong. You see this peaceful way of dealing 
 with it as a wrong, restricting the spread of it, and 
 not allowing it to go into new countries where it has 
 not already existed. That is the peaceful way, the 
 old-fashioned way, the way in which the fathers them 
 selves set us the example. 
 
 "He says he don t care whether it is voted up or 
 voted down in the Territories. I do not care myself, 
 in dealing with that expression, whether it is intended 
 to be expressive of his individual sentiments on the 
 subject, or only of the national policy he desires to 
 have established. It is alike valuable for my purpose. 
 Any man can say that who does not see anything wrong 
 
148 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 in slavery; but no man can logically say it who does 
 see a wrong in it, because no man can logically say he 
 don t care whether a wrong is voted up or voted down. 
 He may say he don t care whether an indifferent thing 
 is voted up or down, but he must logically have a choice 
 between a right thing and a wrong thing. He contends 
 that whatever community wants slaves has a right 
 to have them. So they have, if it is not a wrong. But 
 if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right to 
 do wrong. He says that upon the score of equality, 
 slaves should be allowed to go in a new Territory, like 
 other property. This is strictly logical if there is no 
 difference between it and other property. If it and 
 other property are equal, his argument is entirely log 
 ical. But if you insist that one is wrong and the other 
 right, there is no use to institute a comparison be 
 tween right and wrong. You may turn over every 
 thing in the Democratic policy from beginning to end, 
 whether in the shape it takes on the statute book, in 
 the shape it takes in the Dred Scott decision, in the 
 shape it takes in conversation, or the shape it takes 
 in short maxim-like arguments, it everywhere care 
 fully excludes the idea that there is anything wrong in it. 
 "That is the real issue. That is the issue that will 
 continue in this country when these poor tongues of 
 Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the 
 eternal struggle between these two principles right 
 and wrong throughout the world. They are the 
 two principles that have stood face to face from the 
 beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. 
 The one is the common right of humanity, and the 
 other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle 
 in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same 
 spirit that says, You work and toil and earn bread, 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 149 
 
 and I ll eat it. No matter in what shape it comes, 
 whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to be 
 stride the people of his own nation and live by the 
 fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as 
 an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same 
 tyrannical principle." 
 
 Again Lincoln exposes Douglas s doctrine of " un 
 friendly legislation" that the latter favored in the 
 Freeport debate as follows: 
 
 " Although it is a right established by the Constitu 
 tion of the United States to take a slave into a Terri 
 tory of the United States and hold him as property, 
 yet, unless the Territorial Legislature will give friendly 
 legislation, and, more especially, if they adopt un 
 friendly legislation, they can practically exclude him. 
 Now, without meeting this proposition as a matter of 
 fact, I pass to consider the real constitutional obliga 
 tion. 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 Legislature. The first thing he will 
 do will be to swear that he will support the Constitu 
 tion of the United States. His neighbor by his side in 
 the Territory has slaves and needs Territorial legisla 
 tion 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 support ? 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 Constitution of 
 the United States ! There has never been as outlandish 
 or lawless a doctrine from the mouth of any respectable 
 man on earth. I do not believe it is a constitutional 
 
150 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 % 
 
 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 legis 
 lating it out of all force while the law itself stands. I 
 repeat that there has never been so monstrous a doc 
 trine uttered from the mouth of a respectable man." 
 
 Lincoln most successfully exposed the fallacy of this 
 doctrine of " squatter sovereignty," announced at Free- 
 port, in one sentence of his great speech at Columbus, 
 Ohio, in 1859, when he said: 
 
 "When all the trash, the words, the collateral mat 
 ter, was cleared away from it, all chaff was fanned 
 out of it, it was a pure absurdity no less than a thing 
 may be lawfully driven away from where it has a lawful 
 right to be. Clear it of all verbiage and that is the 
 naked truth of his proposition that a thing may be 
 lawfully driven from the place where it has a lawful 
 right to stay." 
 
 It is little wonder that throughout the country wher 
 ever these debates or extracts from them had been 
 published, that the things that were remembered be 
 cause they were approved, were Lincoln s apt and able 
 arguments demonstrating that slavery was a great evil, 
 that "the fathers believed it in the course of ultimate 
 extinction," and that the South, with Senator Douglas 
 and others as allies, was now endeavoring to reverse 
 that policy through the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Dred 
 Scott decision, and other means to bring about the 
 further spread of slavery. 
 
 Greeley, in speaking of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, 
 says: 
 
 "I cannot help regarding that senatorial contest of 
 1858 between Lincoln and Douglas as one of the most 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 151 
 
 characteristic and at the same time most creditable 
 incidents in our national life. There was an honest 
 and earnest difference with regard to a most important 
 and imminent public question. ... So the two cham 
 pions traversed the prairies speaking alternately to the 
 same vast audiences at several central accessible points, 
 and speaking separately at others, until the day of the 
 election; when Douglas secured a small majority in 
 either branch of the legislature and was re-elected, 
 though Lincoln had the larger popular vote. . . . Lin 
 coln, it was said, was beaten; it was hasty erring judg 
 ment. This canvass made him stronger at home, 
 stronger with the Republicans of the whole country, 
 and when the next National Convention of his party 
 assembled 18 months thereafter he became its nominee 
 for President and thus achieved the highest station in 
 the gift of his country, but for that misjudged defeat 
 in 1858 he would never have attained." 
 
 These debates undoubtedly contributed more to 
 make Abraham Lincoln a national character, capable 
 of successful leadership in the public mind upon the 
 dominant question of 1860, than any other achievement 
 of his life. 
 
 What Lincoln said in these debates made him the 
 popular antislavery leader throughout the North. 
 What Douglas said throughout these debates, espe 
 cially at Freeport, cost him his political leadership 
 throughout the South. As Lincoln had increased in 
 presidential size by reason of the debate, Douglas had 
 correspondingly decreased in presidential size. 
 
 Lincoln s direct drives at the aggressions of the slave 
 power were more than a match for Douglas s dodging. 
 In the general public estimation Lincoln was greater 
 in defeat than Douglas in victory. 
 
152 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 One thing more that should not be overlooked: 
 Horace Greeley, the great editor of the New York 
 Tribune, had been a thorn in the flesh of Lincoln 
 since 1858, when he threw the influence of the Tribune 
 in favor of Douglas s re-election as United States 
 senator. 
 
 After Lincoln s inauguration his unfriendliness 
 seemed to develop in endeavoring to embarrass the 
 administration upon the question of emancipation of 
 the slave. Greeley was early and strongly in favor of 
 that emancipation. He bitterly attacked Lincoln and 
 the administration because it had not abolished slavery 
 by some sweeping proclamation of emancipation. The 
 clamor and criticism took a direct and definite form in 
 an open letter by Horace Greeley, which was unusually 
 severe and intemperate. It must have greatly pained 
 the President. Lincoln did the most unusual thing of 
 ignoring his dignity and answering the letter in these 
 memorable words. In this letter we see again the 
 master mind of the logician. Read and reread it: 
 
 "Hon. Horace Greeley, Dear Sir: I have just read 
 yours of the nineteenth 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. 
 
 1 i If there be 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 dic 
 tatorial 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 
 
LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 153 
 
 say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I 
 would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest 
 way under the Constitution. 
 
 "The sooner the national authority can be re 
 stored, the nearer the Union will be the Union as it 
 was. 
 
 "If there be those who would not save the Union 
 unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do 
 not agree with them. 
 
 "If there be those who would not save the Union 
 unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I 
 do not agree with them. 
 
 "My paramount object is to save the Union, and 
 not either to save or destroy slavery. 
 
 " If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, 
 I would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, 
 I would do it; and if I could do 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 this Union; and 
 what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it 
 would help to save the Union. 
 
 "I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am 
 doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I 
 believe doing more will help the cause. 
 
 "I shall try to correct errors when shown to be 
 errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they 
 shall appear to be true views. 
 
 "I have here stated my purpose according to my 
 views of official duty, and I intend no modification of 
 my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every 
 where could be free. 
 
 "Yours, 
 
 "A. LINCOLN." 
 
154 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 That letter must have been very embarrassing to 
 Mr. Greeley and it no doubt suggested to him that, 
 after all, he had underestimated the ability of this 
 "rail-splitter" from Illinois, who not only knew how 
 to use a maul but how to use a pen driven by a maul. 
 
 Lincoln had no place in his logic, his language, or his 
 life for falsehood or fallacy, hypocrisy or camouflage. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 LINCOLN LANGUAGE 
 
 "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" 
 
 Job. 
 
 WHERE did Lincoln get his language? From the 
 Bible, Bunyan s "Pilgrim s Progress," ".Esop s Fables," 
 DeFoe s " Robinson Crusoe," Declaration of Indepen 
 dence, Blackstone, and last but not least, the dictionary 
 that he used and studied continually. These gave him 
 models or types of the simple, pure, and powerful 
 English. 
 
 He followed the advice of the poet who wrote: 
 
 " And don t confound the language of the nation 
 With long tailed words in osity and ation" 
 
 Lincoln s words were simple, short, and strong. 
 They were straightforward and hence free from doubt. 
 You always knew what he meant from what he said. 
 His great aim was simple speech, as he himself has 
 said: 
 
 "I could not sleep, although I tried to, when I got 
 on such a hunt for an idea until I had caught it; and 
 when I thought I had got it I was not satisfied unti> 
 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. . . . This was a kind of passion 
 with me." 
 
 From these books and also later from Burns and 
 Shakespeare, he picked out the strong, striking pas- 
 
 155 
 
156 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 sages and repeated them over and over again, and then 
 he would take the sentiment and put it in simple 
 speech, or, as he says, "in language plain enough, as I 
 thought, for any boy I knew to comprehend/ 
 
 As we have seen before, this he did upon logs and 
 bark, shingles and shovels, with a piece of charcoal, 
 with quills and pokeberry juice on scraps of paper, 
 and finally, when he had put his idea in plain, pointed 
 phrase, he would copy it in his scrap-book to preserve 
 it for future use. 
 
 Mentor Graham has well said what many of his 
 biographers have referred to in Lincoln s study of 
 language : 
 
 1 1 have known him to study for hours the best way 
 of three to express an idea." 
 
 Just so did he study and master the English lan 
 guage in the preparation of all his compositions. 
 
 When I think of the average boys or girls in the 
 modern school and college making a sort of bugbear 
 of their work in English composition, it seems more 
 than striking strange that the boy Lincoln, and youth 
 Lincoln, and man Lincoln, was constantly studying and 
 selecting words for their wealth of ideas and imagery 
 that would give to the human mind a simple, strong 
 concept of what he wished to convey. 
 
 His meagre materials, limited opportunities, unfa 
 vorable surroundings, would have fatally discouraged 
 most boys, but his " passion" for these things made 
 his pursuit of the knowledge of English a real pleasure; 
 and if a tree is known by its fruits, then Lincoln s mas 
 tery of language is the highest evidence of his careful, 
 constant, and conscientious study of great masterpieces 
 of English prose and poetry. 
 
 His biographers have written as follows: 
 
LINCOLN LANGUAGE 157 
 
 Nicolay and Hay say of him: 
 
 " Nothing would have more amazed Mr. Lincoln 
 than to hear himself called a man of letters; but this 
 age had produced few greater writers. Emerson ranks 
 him with ^Esop; Montalembert commends his style as 
 a model for Princes." 
 
 Curtis says : 
 
 "He used the simplest words in the language, but 
 they strengthened every case he stated, and no fact, 
 or anecdote or argument ever lost force or effect from 
 his style of presentation." 
 
 Holland says: 
 
 "He had been from a child in the habit of putting 
 his thoughts into language. He wrote much, and to 
 this fact is doubtless owing his clearness in statement. 
 He could state with great exactness any fact within 
 the range of his knowledge. His knowledge was not 
 great, nor his vocabulary rich, but he could state the 
 details of one by the use of the other with a precision 
 that Daniel Webster never surpassed." 
 
 But in addition to the books that he studied and 
 assimilated the use that he made of this knowledge, 
 though referred to in a previous chapter, will bear 
 repetition, for after all in study the first essential is 
 "repetition." 
 
 Bacon has said "reading maketh a full man, confer 
 ence a ready man, and writing an exact man." The 
 boy Lincoln was constantly doing all three, but seemed 
 particularly to grasp the importance of putting his 
 thoughts in the plainest phrase that had point and 
 "punch" to it. 
 
 His boyhood compositions on "Temperance," "Cru 
 elty to Animals," and the "American Government," 
 which he wrote at an early age for his own discipline 
 
158 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 and education, were great factors in producing the 
 Gettysburg Address. 
 
 So likewise were his humble efforts as a boy in public 
 speaking to the trees of the forest, to the boys and 
 girls of the neighborhood, to the literary societies and 
 debating clubs and lyceums, each time doing a little 
 better than he had done the time before. 
 
 Of course when we think of Lincoln the orator we 
 think of the Gettysburg oration, which will be found 
 on page 221. 
 
 This two-minute oration was such a masterpiece of 
 logic, language, politics, and patriotism, that a special 
 chapter has been later devoted to its psychology, its 
 unity of thought, its fundamental democracy, its ele 
 gance of expression, typical not only of those times 
 but of the times to-day. 
 
 His language is as pure and persuasive as his logic 
 is plain and powerful, and they are almost inseparable 
 by any analysis of his speeches or papers. \ 
 
 What would serve as an illustration of the one very 
 often performs the same service in the other. 
 
 But some things that he has said are peculiarly 
 pertinent to picture to the mind s eye his sweet, 
 simple speech touching the tenderer relations of our 
 humanity. This type of speech is best illustrated 
 by what has become known as the " Widow Bixby 
 Letter." 
 
 "DEAR MADAM: 
 
 "I have been shown in the files of the War Depart 
 ment a statement of the Adjutant General of Massa 
 chusetts 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 
 
LINCOLN LANGUAGE 159 
 
 mine which should attempt to beguile you from the 
 grief of a loss so overwhelming. 
 
 "But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the 
 consolation that may be found in the thanks of the 
 Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly 
 Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement 
 and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved 
 and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to 
 have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
 11 Yours very sincerely and respectfully, 
 
 "A. LINCOLN." 
 
 The Johnston children that Sarah Bush Johnston 
 Lincoln brought into the new family when Abraham 
 was only ten years of age mixed most agreeably with 
 the young Lincolns. They were about the same age. 
 
 One of the boys, John Johnston, was a shiftless, ne er- 
 do-well sort of fellow that was constantly appealing to 
 Lincoln in later years for assistance. 
 
 Numerous letters passed between them, indicating a 
 very tender and intimate relation, notwithstanding 
 Johnston s infirmities and his many importunities upon 
 Lincoln, from time to time, for help. 
 
 Lincoln, in his own inimitable way, sends him a 
 letter, which for kind, fatherly advice is rarely excelled. 
 
 Lincoln s human side, that was all prominent in his 
 dealings with his fellow men, creeps out all through 
 this letter. It is worthy of a place here to show his 
 simple speech and his good sense and understanding 
 of the kind of nature that he was dealing with. 
 
 The letter follows : 
 
 "DEAR JOHNSTON: 
 
 "Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it 
 best to comply with now. At the various times when 
 
160 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 I have helped you a little you have said to me, We 
 can get along very well now/ but in a very short time 
 I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can 
 only happen by some defect in your conduct. What 
 that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and 
 still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw 
 you, you have done a good whole day s work in any 
 one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and 
 still you do not work much, merely because it does not 
 seem to you that you could get much for it. This 
 habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty; 
 and it is vastly important to you, and still more so to 
 your children, that you should break the habit. It is 
 more important to them because they have longer to 
 live, and can keep out of an idle habit, before they are 
 in it, easier than they can get out after they are in. 
 
 " You are in need of some ready money, and what I 
 propose is that you shall go to work tooth and naiP 
 for somebody who will give you money for it. Let 
 father and your boys take charge of things at home, 
 prepare for a crop, and make the crop, and you go to 
 work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any 
 debt you owe, that you can get and to secure you a 
 fair reward for your labor I now promise you that for 
 every dollar you will, between this and the first of next 
 May, get for your own labor, either in money or as 
 your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other 
 dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a 
 month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty 
 dollars a month for your work. In this I do not mean 
 you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the 
 gold mines in California, but I mean for you to go at it 
 for the best wages you can get close to home in Coles 
 County. Now if you will do this, you will be soon out 
 
LINCOLN LANGUAGE 161 
 
 of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit that 
 will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I 
 should now clear you out, next year you would be just 
 as deep in as ever. You say you would give your 
 place in heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your 
 place in heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can, 
 with the offer I make, get the seventy or eighty dollars 
 for four or five months work. 
 
 "You say, if I will furnish you the money, you will 
 deed me the land, and if you don t pay the money back 
 you will deliver possession. Nonsense ! If you can t 
 now live with the land, how will you then live without 
 it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not 
 mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you 
 will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more 
 than eight times eighty dollars to you. 
 " Affectionately, 
 
 "Your brother, 
 
 "A. LINCOLN." 
 
 The "Little Giant" of Illinois, with his apparent 
 suavity and culture, might well be suspected as the 
 author of the Bixby, or Johnston, lines, but the "Big 
 Giant" of Illinois, with his uncouth and awkward 
 exterior would be the last person in the State who 
 would be presumed to have been the author of such 
 sound sense and wholesome tender sentiment as ap 
 pears in the foregoing. 
 
 For pure patriotic phrase, for a common sense of 
 the great common heart of our humanity, this language 
 is unsurpassed. 
 
 I want to add here the closing of the first inaugural 
 address : 
 
 "The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority 
 
162 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 from the people, and they have conferred none upon 
 him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The 
 people themselves can do this also if they choose; but 
 the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His 
 duty is to administer the present Government, as it 
 came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by 
 him, to his successor. 
 
 "Why should there not be a patient confidence in 
 the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better 
 or equal hope in the world ? In our present differences 
 is either party without faith of being in the right ? If 
 the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth 
 and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours 
 of the South, that truth and that justice will surely 
 prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the 
 American people. 
 
 "By the frame of the Government under which we 
 live, this same people have wisely given their public 
 servants but little power for mischief; and have, with 
 equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little 
 to their own hands at very short intervals. While 
 the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no ad 
 ministration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, 
 can very seriously injure the Government in the short 
 space of four years. 
 
 "My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and 
 well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can 
 be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry 
 any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would 
 never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated 
 by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated 
 by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have 
 the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive 
 point, the laws of your own framing under it; while 
 
LINCOLN LANGUAGE 163 
 
 the new Administration will have no immediate power, 
 if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that 
 you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dis 
 pute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate 
 action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a 
 firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this 
 favored land are still competent to adjust, in the best 
 way, all our present difficulty. 
 
 "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-country 
 men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil 
 war. The Government will not assail you. You can 
 have no conflict, without being 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 battle-field, and patriot grave, to every 
 living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, 
 will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again 
 touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels 
 of our nature." 
 
 Attention is challenged to the last paragraph. The 
 preparation of this inaugural address will also be dealt 
 with later. Here, it is sufficient to say that paragraph 
 is the most important and substantial change made 
 in the inaugural address. The change was made in 
 Washington the day before the inaugural at the sug 
 gestion of Seward and concurred in by Chase and other 
 members of the Cabinet. 
 
 It was suggested that Mr. Lincoln s original draft 
 was not sufficiently fraternal toward the South and 
 
164 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 its people, and that something further should be said 
 on this point. Mr. Lincoln requested the secretary 
 of state, Mr. Seward, to submit a draft. Seward sub 
 mitted the following: 
 
 "I close. We are not, we must not be, aliens or 
 enemies, but fellow-countrymen and brethren. Al 
 though passion has strained our bonds of affection 
 too hardly, they must not, I am sure they will not, 
 be broken. The mystic chords, which, proceeding from 
 so many battlefields and so many patriot graves, 
 pass through all the hearts and all hearths in this broad 
 continent of ours, will yet again harmonize in their 
 ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian 
 angel of the nation. " 
 
 A study of this original paragraph and the revision 
 made by Lincoln is not only interesting, but instruc 
 tive. It illuminates the superiority of Lincoln as a 
 master of language far beyond that of his more scholarly 
 and cultured secretary of state, Mr. Seward, who had 
 been twice governor of New York, and twice elected 
 United States senator from the Empire State, and 
 whose defeat at Chicago gave the college men and cul 
 ture of the nation a severe shock. 
 
 "Lincoln s logic and language are so intertwined in 
 one grand cable of conviction that of necessity they 
 must be more or less treated together, and yet for sim 
 plicity and strength, statement and sweetness of senti 
 ment nothing has surpassed his second inaugural ad 
 dress. Because of its brevity and beauty, it is here 
 given in full. 
 
 " Fellow-Countrymen At this second appearing to 
 take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less 
 occasion for an extended address than there was at 
 the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a 
 
LINCOLN LANGUAGE 165 
 
 course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. 
 Now, at the expiration of four years, during which 
 public declarations have been constantly called forth 
 on every point and phase of the great contest which 
 still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies 
 of the nation, little that is new could be presented. 
 
 "The progress of our arms, upon which all else 
 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 impend 
 ing civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid 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 the effect by negotiation. Both 
 parties deprecated war; but one of them would make 
 war rather than let the nation survive, and the other 
 would accept war rather than let it perish; and the 
 war came. 
 
 "One-eighth of the whole population were colored 
 slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but 
 localized in the southern part of it. These slaves con 
 stituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew 
 that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. 
 To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest, 
 was the object for which the insurgents would rend 
 the Union even by war, while the government claimed 
 no right to do more than to restrict the territorial en 
 largement of it. 
 
 "Neither party expected for the war the magnitude 
 
166 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 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 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 Amer 
 ican slavery is one of these 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 soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it con 
 tinue until all the wealth piled by the bondman s two 
 hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be 
 sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the 
 lash shall be paid with 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 
 
LINCOLN LANGUAGE 167 
 
 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 or 
 phans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just 
 and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all na 
 tions." 
 
 After Lincoln had made his famous Cooper Institute 
 speech in February, 1860, which is recorded and ana 
 lyzed in another chapter, he made a trip through 
 New England. 
 
 Holland, gives us some valuable suggestions as to 
 his reception by the people of New Egnland as fol 
 lows: 
 
 "Some very interesting reminiscences of this trip 
 were communicated to the public in 1864, by Rev. 
 John P. Gulliver of Norwich, who listened to his ad 
 dress in that city. On the morning following the speech, 
 he met Mr. Lincoln upon a train of cars, and entered 
 into conversation with him. In speaking of his speech, 
 Mr. Gulliver remarked to Mr. Lincoln that he thought 
 it the most remarkable one he ever heard. Are you 
 sincere in what you say? inquired Mr. Lincoln. I 
 mean every word of it, replied the minister. Indeed, 
 sir, he continued, I learned more of the art of public 
 speaking last evening than I could from a whole course 
 of lectures on rhetoric. Then Mr. Lincoln informed 
 him of a most extraordinary circumstance that oc 
 curred at New Haven a few days previously. A pro 
 fessor of rhetoric in Yale College, he had been told, 
 came to hear him, took notes of his speech, and gave 
 a lecture on it to his class the following day; and, not 
 satisfied with that, followed him to Meriden the next 
 evening and heard him again for the same purpose. 
 All this seemed to Mr. Lincoln to be very extraor 
 dinary. He had been sufficiently astonished by his 
 
168 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 success at the West, but he had no expectation of any 
 marked success at the East, particularly among lit 
 erary and learned men. Now/ said Mr. Lincoln, I 
 should like very much to know what it was in my speech 
 which you thought so remarkable, and which interested 
 my friend the professor so much? Mr. Gulliver s 
 answer was: The clearness of your statements, the 
 unanswerable style of your reasoning, and, especially, 
 your illustrations, which were romance and pathos 
 and fun and logic all welded together/ 
 
 " After Mr. Gulliver had fully satisfied his curiosity 
 by a further exposition of the politician s peculiar 
 power, Mr. Lincoln said, I am much obliged to you 
 for this. I have been wishing for a long time to find 
 some one who would make this analysis for me. It 
 throws light on a subject which has been dark to me. 
 I can understand very readily how such a power as 
 you have ascribed to me will account for the effect 
 which seems to be produced by my speeches. I hope 
 you have not been too flattering in your estimate. 
 Certainly I have had a most wonderful success for a 
 man of my limited education. 
 
 I want to add one more letter of the many that 
 might with almost equal propriety be included in this 
 chapter, which reveals in a most intimate and peculiarly 
 human way, the great heart of this great President; 
 his letter to General Hooker upon his appointment 
 in command of the Army of the Potomac in the place 
 of General Burnside, who had been relieved after the 
 battle of Fredericksburg : 
 
 " GENERAL: I have placed you at the head of the 
 Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this 
 upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons, and 
 yet I think it best for you to know that there are some 
 
LINCOLN LANGUAGE 169 
 
 things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with 
 you. I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, 
 which of course I like. I also believe you do not mix 
 politics with your profession, in which you are right. 
 You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable 
 if not 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 meri 
 torious 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 dic 
 tator. 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. The government will support you 
 to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor 
 less than it has done and will do for all commanders. 
 I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to 
 infuse into the army, of criticising their commander 
 and withholding confidence from him, will now turn 
 upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it 
 down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive 
 again, could get any good out of an army while such 
 a spirit prevails in it; and now beware of rashness. 
 Beware of rashness, and give us victories. Yours very 
 truly, 
 
 "A. LINCOLN. " 
 
 We are told of the effect on Hooker in these words: 
 
 "He finished reading it, almost with tears in his 
 
 eyes; and as he folded it and put it back in the breast 
 
170 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 of his coat, he said, That is just such a letter as a father- 
 might write to a son. It is a beautiful letter, and al 
 though I think he was harder on me than I deserved, 
 I will say that I love the man who wrote it. 
 
 What was it about his speech that gave it such per 
 suasive power and such political permanence? This 
 concrete man was always thinking about concrete 
 things, as to their concrete properties, and as to con 
 crete persons with their concrete rights. He did not 
 deal with metaphysical abstractions nor with the 
 beauties of transcendentalism. He had lived the 
 varied life of a common humanity, from its lowest 
 depths to its loftiest heights. He knew human poverty 
 and privation, human suffering and service, and when 
 his country called, as Cincinnatus left the plough, so 
 he left the law office to which he had been jealously 
 wedded for some years, and espoused humanity s cause 
 for liberty, entire liberty, eternal liberty, the liberty 
 of all men everywhere. 
 
 His oratory was not the oratory of expediency, or 
 opportunism; it was the oratory of the eternal reason 
 and right of things. What he said more than a half- 
 century ago was entirely and eternally reasonable and 
 right when he said it, and therefore it is entirely and 
 eternally reasonable and right to-day. 
 
 He was the universal representative man hu 
 manity s man, unbounded by time or territory, ser 
 vice or station. 
 
 Nature has endowed many orators with some won 
 derful prepossession, such as an attractive physique, 
 a rich voice, or exceptional dramatic power. He had 
 none of these. He was awkward, ungainly, and had 
 a squeaky, falsetto voice. These disadvantages, how 
 ever, were more than compensated by the humanities 
 
LINCOLN LANGUAGE 171 
 
 of his head and heart, put in such plain premises, link 
 on link, in such simple, sincere speech that it was like 
 one human heart speaking to a multitude of human 
 hearts in their own language and life. 
 
 When we remember how much of controversy in 
 this old world of ours arises out of uncertain, indefinite, 
 double-meaning words, not unfrequently resulting in 
 bitterness and jealousy in our community life, when 
 we remember how much of litigation, from the lowest 
 to the highest courts of the land, arises out of uncer 
 tain, inappropriate, ambiguous words and phrases in 
 our constitutions, our statutes, our contracts, the 
 importance of the Lincoln model for written or spoken 
 speech should be most obvious to all of us. 
 
 No other man of his own time has demonstrated 
 himself to be such an accurate and reliable interpreter 
 of human nature and human needs as this Man of 
 Illinois. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 
 
 LINCOLN thought in the terms of democracy; spoke 
 its speech; lived its life; and died triumphant in its 
 defense. 
 
 Lincoln was his own pedagogue and pupil in govern 
 ment. He not only studied the trunk and the limbs, 
 but the root and all its branches. His like has not 
 yet been recorded in biography for thoroughness and 
 efficiency in research and study of foundation facts 
 and first principles. 
 
 I remember a sentence in one of my old text-books 
 which reads: 
 
 "I know a lot of things, but nothing thoroughly; 
 I remember a mass of things but nothing distinctly." 
 
 How this sentence applies to many of us ! 
 
 What Lincoln knew he knew " thoroughly." What 
 he remembered, he remembered " distinctly," and 
 he knew and remembered vitally enough so that he 
 could use and did use that knowledge in a practical 
 way. 
 
 The Bible gave him the ethical side of government, 
 the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the 
 United States, Constitution of the State of Indiana, 
 the Ordinance of 1787, as contained in Turnham s now 
 famous volume of Revised Statutes of Indiana, gave 
 him the political side of government. 
 
 Doubtless, also he learned much from some history 
 of the United States which early came into his pos- 
 
 172 
 
LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 173 
 
 session, and also Weems s "Life of Washington," to 
 gether with other biographies and histories. 
 
 His intelligent and enthusiastic interest in the sub 
 ject of government cropped out at a very early age, 
 considering his handicaps. Several of his reliable biog 
 raphers say that when he was but seventeen years of 
 age he wrote a composition on the " American Govern 
 ment," giving particular attention to "the necessity 
 of preserving the Constitution and perpetuating the 
 Union." 
 
 It is almost prophetic, weirdly so, that this boy at 
 seventeen should be writing an essay on "perpetuat 
 ing the Union," when thirty-five years later he was to 
 be the great central figure in the conduct of the Civil 
 War for the purpose of "perpetuating the Union." 
 
 Lincoln s life, as boy and youth, is a splendid illus 
 tration of the old doctrine of evolution announced in 
 Holy Writ, "first the blade, then the ear, after that 
 the full corn in the ear." 
 
 His studies and views continued their development 
 until we have a masterpiece in the address he delivered 
 before the Lyceum of Springfield in January, 1837. 
 
 It reads, as many of Lincoln s addresses read, as if 
 they were made not for then, but for now. At that 
 time he was twenty-eight years of age. His English 
 style was not quite as simple, or as smooth as it was 
 in later years, but it had all the Lincoln essentials in 
 it, his simple statement of a given situation, his 
 demonstration of its being wrong or right, and his sug 
 gestion and demonstration of the remedy. His clear 
 declaration against mobs and riots and other lawless 
 ness are matters of intense interest to the American 
 public to-day. 
 
 The "Mob" of 1837 seems quite the same as the 
 
174 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 "Mob" of 1917. The passing of eighty years has not 
 changed human nature nor the danger of lawlessness 
 to our institutions. 
 
 Among other things he said: 
 
 "I hope I am not over wary; but if I am not there 
 is even now something of ill omen amongst us. I mean 
 the increasing disregard for law which pervades the 
 country the growing disposition to substitute the 
 wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment 
 of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the exec 
 utive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully 
 fearful in any community; and that it now exists in 
 ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would 
 be a violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence 
 to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs 
 form the e very-day news of the times. They have 
 pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; 
 they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the 
 former nor the burning suns of the latter; they are 
 not the creature of climate, neither are they confined 
 to the slaveholding or the non-slaveholding States. 
 Alike they spring up among the pleasure-hunting 
 masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens 
 of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their 
 cause may be, it is common to the whole country. 
 
 "It would be tedious as well as useless to recount 
 the horrors of all of them. Those happening in the 
 State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are perhaps the 
 most dangerous in example and revolting to humanity. 
 In the Mississippi case they first commenced by hang 
 ing the regular gamblers a set of men certainly not 
 following for a livelihood a very useful or very honest 
 occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden 
 by the laws, was actually licensed by an act of the 
 
LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 175 
 
 Legislature passed but a single year before. Next, 
 negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an insurrection 
 were caught up and hanged in all parts of the State; 
 then, white men supposed to be leagued with the 
 negroes; and finally, strangers from neighboring states, 
 going thither on business, were in many instances sub 
 jected to the same fate. Thus went on this process 
 of hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to 
 white citizens, and from these to strangers, till dead 
 men were seen literally dangling from the boughs of 
 trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost 
 sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the coun 
 try as a drapery of the forest. 
 
 "Turn, then, to that horror-striking scene at St. 
 Louis. A single victim only was sacrificed there. This 
 story is very short, and is perhaps the most highly 
 tragic of anything of its length that has ever been wit 
 nessed in real life. A mulatto man by the name of 
 Mclntosh was seized in the street, dragged to the 
 suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and actually 
 burned to death; and all within a single hour from the 
 time he had been a freeman attending to his own busi 
 ness and at peace with the world. 
 
 "Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the 
 scenes becoming more and more frequent in this land 
 so lately famed for love of law and order, and the stories 
 of which have even now grown too familiar to attract 
 anything more than an idle remark. 
 
 "But you are perhaps ready to ask, What has this to 
 do with the perpetuation of our political institutions? 
 I answer, It has much to do with it. Its direct con 
 sequences are, comparatively speaking, but a small 
 evil, and much of its danger consists in the proneness 
 of our minds to regard its direct as its only con- 
 
176 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 sequences. Abstractly considered, the hanging of the 
 gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. 
 They constitute a portion of population that is worse 
 than useless in any community; and their death, if 
 no pernicious example be set by it, is never matter of 
 reasonable regret with any one. If they were annually 
 swept from the stage of existence by the plague of 
 smallpox, honest men would perhaps be much profited 
 by the operation. Similar, too, is the correct reasoning 
 in regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. He 
 had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an out 
 rageous murder upon one of the most worthy and re 
 spectable citizens of the city, and had he not died as 
 he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law 
 in a very short time afterward. As to him alone, it 
 was as well the way it was as it could otherwise have 
 been. But the example in either case was fearful. 
 When men take it in their heads to-day to hang 
 gamblers or burn murderers, they should recollect that 
 in the confusion usually attending such transactions 
 they will be as likely to hang or burn some one who is 
 neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is, and 
 that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of 
 to-morrow may, and probably will, hang or burn some 
 of them by the very same mistake. And not only so; 
 the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against 
 violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty 
 fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it 
 goes up, step by step, till all the walls erected for the 
 defense of the persons and property of individuals are 
 trodden down and disregarded. But all this, even, is 
 not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by 
 instances of the perpetrators of such acts going un 
 punished, the lawless in spirit are encouraged to be- 
 
LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 177 
 
 come lawless in practice; and having been used to no 
 restraint but dread of punishment, they thus become 
 absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded govern 
 ment as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of 
 the suspension of its operations, and pray for nothing 
 so much as its total annihilation. While, on the other 
 hand, good men, men who love tranquillity, who desire 
 to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, who would 
 gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country, 
 seeing their property destroyed, their families insulted, 
 and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and 
 seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for 
 the better, become tired of and disgusted with a govern 
 ment that offers them no protection, and are not much 
 averse to a change in which they imagine they have 
 nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this 
 mobocratic spirit which all must admit is now abroad 
 in the land, the strongest bulwark of any government, 
 and particularly of those constituted like ours, may 
 effectually be broken down and destroyed I mean 
 the attachment of the people. Whenever this effect 
 shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious 
 portion of population shall be permitted to gather in 
 bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, 
 ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing-presses 
 into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious 
 persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend on it, 
 this government cannot last. By such things the feel 
 ings of the best citizens will become more or less 
 alienated from it, and thus it will be left without 
 friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to 
 make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and 
 under such circumstances, men of sufficient talent, 
 and ambition will not be wanting to seize the oppor- 
 
178 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 tunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric 
 which for the last half century has been the fondest 
 hope of the lovers of freedom throughout the world. 
 
 "I know the American people are much attached 
 to their government; I know they would suffer much 
 for its sake; I know they would endure evils long and 
 patiently before they would ever think of exchanging 
 it for another yet, notwithstanding all this, if the 
 laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their 
 rights to be secure in their persons and property are 
 held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, 
 the alienation of their affections from the government 
 is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or 
 later, it must come. 
 
 "Here, then is one point at which danger may be 
 expected. 
 
 "The question recurs, How shall we fortify against 
 it ? The answer is simple. Let every American, every 
 lover of liberty, every 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. As the patriots of 
 seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of 
 Independence, so to the support of the Constitution 
 and laws let every American pledge his life, his property, 
 and his sacred honor let every man remember that 
 to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his 
 father, and to tear the charter of his own and his chil 
 dren s liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed 
 by every American mother to the lisping babe that 
 prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in semi 
 naries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, 
 spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached 
 from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and 
 
LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 179 
 
 enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it be 
 come the political religion of the nation; and let the 
 old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave 
 and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and 
 conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. 
 
 " While ever a state of feeling such as this shall uni 
 versally or even very generally prevail throughout the 
 nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every 
 attempt, to subvert our national freedom. 
 
 "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 con 
 tinue in force, for the sake of example they should be 
 religiously observed. So also in unprovided cases. If 
 such arise, let proper legal provisions be made for them 
 with the least possible delay, but till then let them, 
 if not too intolerable, be borne with. 
 
 " There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress 
 by mob law. In any case that may arise, as, for in 
 stance, the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two 
 positions is necessarily true that is, the thing is right 
 within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of 
 all law and all good citizens, or it is wrong, and there 
 fore proper to be prohibited by legal enactments; and 
 in neither case is the interposition of mob law either 
 necessary, justifiable, or excusable. 
 
 1 1 But those histories (scenes of American Revolution) 
 are gone. They can be read no more forever. They 
 were a fortress of strength; but what invading foeman 
 
180 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 could never do, the silent artillery of time has done 
 the levelling of its walls. They are gone. They were 
 a forest of giant oaks; but the all-resistless hurricane 
 has swept over them, and left only here and there a 
 lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its 
 foliage, unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few 
 more gentle breezes, and to combat with its mutilated 
 limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink and be 
 no more. 
 
 "They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now 
 that they have crumbled away that temple must fall 
 unless we, their descendants, supply their places with 
 other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober 
 reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. 
 It will in future be our enemy. Reason cold, calcu 
 lating, unimpassioned reason must furnish all the 
 materials for our future support and defense. Let 
 those materials be molded into general intelligence, 
 sound morality, and, in particular, a reverence for the 
 Constitution and laws; and that we improved to the 
 last, that we remained free to the last, that we revered 
 his name to the last, that during his long sleep we per 
 mitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his 
 resting-place, shall be that which to learn the last 
 trump shall awaken our Washington. 
 
 "Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, 
 as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said 
 of the only greater institution, the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it." 
 
 We have seen this prophet at seventeen writing 
 about "the necessity of preserving our Constitution 
 and perpetuating the Union"; at twenty-eight we hear 
 him speaking on: 
 
 "Whenever the vicious portion of population shall 
 
LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 181 
 
 be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thou 
 sands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision- 
 stores, throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors, 
 and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and 
 with impunity, depend on it, this government cannot 
 last/ 
 
 Again he says: 
 
 " How shall we fortify against it? The answer is 
 simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, 
 every well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood 
 of the Revolution never to violate in the least particu 
 lar the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their 
 violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did 
 to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so 
 to the support of the Constitution and laws let every 
 American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred 
 honor let every man remember that to violate the 
 law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to 
 tear the charter of his own and his children s liberty. 
 Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every Ameri 
 can mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap ; 
 let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in col 
 leges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and 
 in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, pro 
 claimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of 
 justice." 
 
 Again he says: 
 
 u There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress 
 by mob law." 
 
 These political proverbs, primary principles of effi 
 cient government, are as applicable to-day as they were 
 in 1837, when Lincoln uttered them. 
 
 This speech may serve as a model for young America 
 in the preparation of a composition or oration upon 
 
182 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 law and order, a subject of unusual interest and im 
 portance in this twentieth century, and at no time 
 more than to-day. 
 
 Without law and order all nature must return to 
 chaos and all government to anarchy. There is no 
 alternative. 
 
 We need more of leadership to-day along these Lin 
 coln lines of law and order; more of the accomplish 
 ment of needful change in our social and industrial life, 
 but through the regular and orderly constitutional or 
 statutory channels. 
 
 The deserved dissolution and death of the Whig 
 party in the early fifties provided the occasion and 
 necessity for the organization of the new Republican 
 party. 
 
 In this political organization there were sundry and 
 divers elements, varying from those that were exceed 
 ingly conservative to those that were extremely radical. 
 
 Abolitionism, as it was then known, and with which 
 Herndon, Lincoln s partner, was more or less identi 
 fied, was reaching out to control the new party. Hern 
 don himself says: 
 
 "We recommended the employment of any means, 
 however desperate, to promote and defend the cause 
 of freedom. At one of these meetings Lincoln was 
 called on for a speech. He responded to the request, 
 counselling moderation and less bitterness in dealing 
 with the situation before us. We were belligerent in 
 tone, and clearly out of patience with the Government. 
 Lincoln opposed the notion of coercive measures with 
 the possibility of resulting bloodshed, advising us to 
 eschew resort to the bullet. You can better succeed/ 
 he declared, with the ballot. You can peaceably then 
 redeem the Government and preserve the liberties of 
 
LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 183 
 
 mankind through your votes and voice and moral in 
 fluence. . . . Let there be peace. Revolutionize 
 through the ballot box, and restore the Government 
 once more to the affections and hearts of men by mak 
 ing it express, as it was intended to do, the highest 
 spirit of justice 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 fol 
 lies and end in bringing sorrow on your heads and ruin 
 the cause you would freely die to preserve ! 
 
 A sentiment more sound and salutary in the social, 
 industrial, and political councils of the nation to-day 
 could scarcely be found. 
 
 The violent outbreaks in that day, 1855, were not 
 unlike those that we find to-day in the unrest, disorder, 
 and violence through I. W. W., the use of bomb and 
 dynamite in labor strikes, and the picketing of the 
 White House by overzealous suffragists. 
 
 It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance 
 of the training and discipline afforded Lincoln by his 
 service in the legislature of Illinois for four terms, his 
 service as a lawyer at a most active and able bar for 
 twenty-four years, his service in Congress for one term, 
 all the while giving special study from the point of 
 personal predilection to the subject of government, as 
 a case of first impression and as a study in original 
 philosophy. His great speeches teem with the basic 
 principles of constitutional government as declared in 
 the handiwork of Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of 
 Independence. 
 
 To most of us government is a sort of vague abstrac 
 tion. We lack definite ideas and clearness of concep 
 tion as to just what government is. I think of it as 
 the old grist-mill along the little river. As it took 
 
184 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 power to run that mill, so it takes power to run gov 
 ernment. It matters not whether the power be water 
 power, electric power, or what-not, it still takes power 
 to run the mill and grind the grist. 
 
 So in government. It may be government by " con 
 sent of the governed," it may be government by a 
 kaiser, king, or sultan, it may be government by oli 
 garchy or aristocracy of wealth, or royalty; but with 
 us here, as sons and daughters of Uncle Sam, it is all 
 boiled down to the proposition that "all political power 
 is inherent in the people," and that the power of the 
 American government is first, last, and all the time in 
 the hands, heads, and hearts of our American citizens. 
 
 We believe that the aggregate judgment of all the 
 people is better than the individual judgment of any 
 one of the people. 
 
 Now, this people s power furnishes the water or 
 electricity, steam, or what-not to run the government 
 machinery and operates upon the departments, the 
 officers, and the general routine, all for what purpose? 
 In short, what, after all, are the purposes of government. 
 
 The constitutional fathers in 1787 made some gen 
 eralizations upon this subject in the preamble of the 
 Constitution, which, however, has been held by the 
 Supreme Court of the United States not to be any 
 part of that document. 
 
 The preamble reads: 
 
 "We, the people, in order to form a more perfect 
 union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, 
 provide for the common defense, promote the general 
 welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
 and our posterity, do establish and ordain this con 
 stitution for the United States of America." 
 
 "Glittering generalities" are too frequently only an- 
 
LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 185 
 
 other name for political " phantasmagoria." They 
 vaguely cover such a vast field that in particular they 
 cover nothing. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, in his own simple, strong speech, 
 puts the purposes of our government into the following 
 language : 
 
 "This is essentially a people s contest. ... It is a 
 struggle for maintaining in the world that form and 
 substance of government whose leading object is to 
 elevate the condition of men to lift artificial weights 
 from the shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pur 
 suits for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair 
 chance in the race of life. Yielding to partisan and 
 temporary departure from necessity, this, after all, is 
 the leading object of the government for whose exist 
 ence we contend." 
 
 In my judgment this is the biggest and best con 
 ception of American democracy ever put into the 
 English language, and it took the biggest and best 
 democratic American of his own time or any other to 
 put these paramount purposes in such plain, practical 
 phrase. 
 
 "To elevate the condition of men." 
 "To lift artificial weights from the shoulders." 
 "To clear the paths of laudable pursuits for all." 
 "To afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance 
 in the race of life." 
 
 These four phrases spell humanity, and Lincoln for 
 ever makes them the definition of our American democ 
 racy. 
 
 In a word it means that with Lincoln, democracy 
 was synonymous with humanity. He thought, he 
 talked, he labored, and lived, yes, he died, as the 
 one, composite, universal, representative man. 
 
186 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 These words of Lincoln should be written in every 
 public forum, in every school and college in the land. 
 They should be familiar at every fireside and their 
 substance and spirit should inspire and guide every 
 public officer in the discharge of his public duties. 
 
 In some strange way these immortal basic thoughts 
 of Lincoln have been much overlooked. Of all his 
 great sayings which future generations will treasure, 
 at every human hearthstone and every forum for free 
 dom, these words, part of his official message to the 
 Congress of the United States, will stand out among 
 the most immortal of all his immortality. 
 
 Lincoln always had an abiding faith in the general 
 judgment of the common people. He once said: 
 
 "Our government rests on public opinion. Who 
 ever can change public opinion can change the govern 
 ment practically just so much." 
 
 In the first Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa Lin 
 coln said: 
 
 "In this and like communities, public sentiment is 
 everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; 
 without it nothing can succeed. Consequently, he 
 who moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who 
 enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes 
 statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be 
 executed." 
 
 In his first inaugural address he used this language: 
 
 "Why should there not be a patient confidence in 
 the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any bet 
 ter or equal hope in the world ? . . . By the frame of 
 the government under which we live, this same people 
 have wisely given their public servants but little power 
 for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for 
 the return of that little to their own hands at very 
 
LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 187 
 
 short intervals. While the people retain their virtue 
 and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme 
 wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the gov 
 ernment in the short space of four years." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 
 
 MUCH has been spoken and still more written as to 
 Mr. Lincoln s position on slavery from the time of his 
 boyhood to the day of his martyrdom. 
 
 A review of what Lincoln himself has said on the 
 matter, what Lincoln himself has done, and why he 
 did it, would seem relevant here. 
 
 Some of his biographers have earnestly attempted to 
 give his childhood mind a bent against slavery due 
 to parental inheritance, especially through the father, 
 Thomas Lincoln. 
 
 These biographers assign hatred of slavery as a 
 reason for Thomas Lincoln s removal from the slave 
 soil of Kentucky to the free soil of Indiana. 
 
 Notwithstanding this highly creditable theory, it is 
 wholly unsupported by fact. He moved, as many 
 another man moved, because it looked better on the 
 other side of the fence, in the next county, in the next 
 State. 
 
 It is altogether unlikely that any hatred of slavery 
 in Kentucky would be silenced by the free soil of In 
 diana and Illinois, and we hear nothing of Thomas 
 Lincoln either favorably for freedom or for his rising 
 son during all his political and legal contests. 
 
 The first contact Lincoln had with slavery in the 
 concrete, as agreed by a number of his more reliable 
 biographers, was on a trip he made to New Orleans 
 for Denton Offut. 
 
 John Hanks, his cousin, and John Johnston, his 
 
 188 
 
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 189 
 
 stepbrother, with Lincoln, constructed a boat and 
 launched it within four weeks, for a trip down the 
 Mississippi. After disposing of Offut s cargo at New 
 Orleans they viewed the sights of the Crescent City, 
 and Lincoln for the first time saw " negroes in chains- 
 whipped and scourged. " 
 
 The following account is given by Herndon in his 
 life of Lincoln. 
 
 "One morning in their rambles over the city the 
 trio passed a slave auction. A vigorous and comely 
 mulatto girl was being sold. She underwent a thor 
 ough examination at the hands of the bidders; they 
 pinched her flesh and made her trot up and down the 
 room like a horse, to show how she moved, and in 
 order, as the auctioneer said, that bidders might sat 
 isfy themselves whether the article they were offering 
 to buy was sound or not. The whole thing was so 
 revolting that Lincoln moved away from the scene 
 with a deep feeling of unconquerable hate. Bidding 
 his companions follow him he said, By God, boys, let s 
 get away from this. If ever I get a chance to hit that 
 thing (meaning slavery), I ll hit it hard." 
 
 Herndon relates, the incident was given to him in 
 1865 by John Hanks. Herndon also relates that he 
 himself had heard Lincoln refer to the same incident 
 himself. This is confirmed by several other biogra 
 phers. At this time Lincoln was twenty-two years of 
 age. 
 
 The next time slavery was brought to his attention 
 was when he was a member of the State Legislature at 
 Springfield, six years after his visit to New Orleans. 
 The abolitionist had taken his westward way, and 
 New England seed had settled in the soil of Illinois. 
 The majority of the State Legislature, however, greatly 
 
190 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 deprecated the agitation against slavery, and as ex 
 pressing such deprecation the following resolution 
 was passed: 
 
 "Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of 
 Illinois: That we highly disapprove of the formation 
 of Abolition societies and of the doctrines promulgated 
 by them, 
 
 "That the right of property in slaves is sacred to 
 the slave-holding States by the Federal Constitution, 
 and that they cannot be deprived of that right with 
 out their consent, 
 
 "That the General Government cannot abolish 
 slavery in the District of Columbia against the con 
 sent of the citizens of said District, without a manifest 
 breach of good faith, 
 
 "That the Governor be requested to transmit to 
 the States of Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, New 
 York, and Connecticut, a copy of the foregoing report 
 and resolutions." 
 
 Thereafter, Lincoln endeavored to marshal the 
 minority in support of a resolution of protest against 
 these pro-slavery resolutions. He was unable to find 
 any one save Dan Stone to join him in presenting the 
 minority resolutions. 
 
 Lincoln s protest read as follows: 
 
 "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. 
 
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 191 
 
 "They believe that the Congress of the United 
 States has no power under the Constitution to inter 
 fere 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 above resolutions is their reason for 
 entering this protest. 
 
 "DAN STONE, 
 
 "A. LINCOLN, 
 "Representatives from the county of Sangamon." 
 
 Holland speaks of Mr. Lincoln s record on the slav 
 ery question, while a member of Congress, as follows: 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln carried into this session the anti- 
 slavery record of an anti-slavery whig. He had voted 
 forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, had stood 
 firmly by John Quincy Adams and Joshua R. Giddings 
 on the right of petition, and was recognized as a man 
 who would do as much in opposition to slavery as his 
 constitutional obligations would permit him to do." 
 
 It will be remembered that Lincoln himself had in 
 troduced the "Spot Resolutions," quoted in a previous 
 chapter, and also had made a speech upon the "un 
 constitutional and unjustifiable" commencement of 
 the Mexican War, which he believed to be simply an 
 attempt for the further extension of slavery. But 
 Lincoln had, as a congressman, taken an oath to sup 
 port the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 To a man of Lincoln s high sense of honor and his 
 
192 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 conception of a conscientious constitutional duty, the 
 taking of this oath was not a light or trifling thing, and 
 in his recognition of this obligation he felt it his duty 
 to protect the slaveholder in his constitutional rights, 
 as well as the non-slaveholder in his constitutional 
 rights. 
 
 While engaged in the practice of law, he not unfre- 
 quently was retained by the slave-owner to prosecute 
 or defend an action in which the right of property in 
 a slave was involved. A noted case was that in which 
 he was employed by General Madison, of Bourbon 
 County, Kentucky, who had brought five or six negroes 
 into Coles County, Illinois, and worked them on a 
 farm for two or three years. 
 
 He presented simply the legal side of the case with 
 out sentiment or enthusiasm. The Supreme Court de 
 cided against him, but Lincoln believed that under the 
 Constitution and the acts of Congress the slaveholder 
 had an undoubted right to be protected as to his prop 
 erty in the slave. 
 
 In his speech in Chicago, delivered July 10, 1858, 
 Mr. Lincoln said: 
 
 "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 in 
 terfere with the question of slavery at all." 
 
 Further on in that speech he says: 
 
 "While we agree that, by the Constitution we as 
 sented to, in the States where it exists, we have no 
 right to interfere with it, because it is in the Consti 
 tution; and we are by both duty and inclination to 
 stick by that Constitution, in all its letter and spirit, 
 from beginning to end." 
 
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 193 
 
 It was in this speech that he made apt answer to 
 the charge made against him by Douglas that he 
 favored an entire equality between black and white, as 
 follows : 
 
 "I protest, now and forever, against that counter 
 feit logic which presumes that because I did not want 
 a negro woman for a slave, I do necessarily want her 
 for a wife. My understanding is that I need not have 
 her for either, but, as God made us separate, we can 
 leave one another alone, and do one another much 
 good thereby. 7 
 
 In his first debate with Douglas at Ottawa, he quotes 
 from his Peoria speech delivered four years before: 
 
 "I think, and shall try to show that it (the repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise and the enactment of the 
 Kansas and Nebraska Bill) is wrong, wrong in its 
 direct effect, letting slavery 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 cannot but 
 hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of 
 slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our repub 
 lican 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 free 
 dom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it 
 forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into 
 an open war with the very fundamental principles of 
 civil liberty, criticising the Declaration of Indepen 
 dence, and insisting that there is no right principle of 
 action but self-interest. . . . 
 
 "When they [the slaveholders] remind us of their 
 
194 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 constitutional rights, I acknowledge them, not grudg 
 ingly, but fully and fairly; and I would give them any 
 legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives which 
 should not, in its stringency, be more likely to carry a 
 free man into slavery, than our ordinary criminal laws 
 are to hang an innocent one." 
 
 This doctrine was expressed by him again and again 
 in a number of speeches before the debates and through 
 out the debates. 
 
 I know some will be surprised at Lincoln s position 
 at this time, but I am quite sure that in the painting 
 of this political portrait of him he would answer, much 
 as Cromwell did to the great artist who was paint 
 ing his picture in oil. The artist suggested the elimi 
 nation of a wart on the great Crom well s face. "No," 
 said Cromwell, " paint me as I am." 
 
 In view of his position on the fugitive slave law Wen 
 dell Phillips often referred to Lincoln as the " Slave 
 Hound of Illinois," and was much opposed to his nom 
 ination for the presidency of the United States. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, after his election as President, stopped 
 at Cincinnati on his way to Washington. In the 
 Queen City he made a short speech in which he said, 
 among other things: 
 
 "You [Kentuckians] will want to know what we 
 will do with you. We mean to treat you as near as 
 we possibly can as Washington, Jefferson and Madison 
 treated you. We mean to leave you alone and in no 
 way to interfere with your institutions, to abide by all 
 and every compromise of the Constitution." 
 
 In the first inaugural address, March 4, 1861, Lin 
 coln said: 
 
 "I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I 
 declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, 
 to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states 
 
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 195 
 
 where it exists/ I believe I have no lawful right to 
 do so; and I have no inclination to do so. Those who 
 nominated and elected me did so with the full knowl 
 edge that I had made this, and made many similar 
 declarations, and had never recanted them." 
 
 And then he quotes one of the planks of the Repub 
 lican National platform as follows: 
 
 "Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the 
 rights of the states, and especially the right of each 
 state to order and control its own domestic institutions 
 according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential 
 to that balance of power on which the perfection and 
 endurance of our political fabric depend. . . ." 
 
 Lincoln further said: 
 
 " There is much controversy about the delivering 
 up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I 
 now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as 
 any other of its provisions: 
 
 " No person held to service or labor in one state 
 under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
 in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
 discharged from such service or labor, but shall be de 
 livered up on claim of the party to whom such service 
 or labor may be due." 
 
 Commenting on this provision of the Constitution, 
 Lincoln said in that same inaugural address: 
 
 "It is scarcely questioned that this provision was 
 intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of 
 what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the 
 lawgiver is the law. 
 
 "All members of Congress swear their support to 
 the whole Constitution to this provision as well as 
 any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves 
 whose cases come within the terms of this clause shall 
 be delivered up/ their oaths are unanimous. 7 
 
196 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Shortly after the opening of the great Civil War the 
 agitation began in various quarters of the republic to 
 emancipate the slaves. 
 
 General Fremont s attitude upon this question in 
 Missouri and General Hunter s in the South had very 
 greatly embarrassed the President, and their orders of 
 partial emancipation had to be reversed, which caused 
 a fresh outbreak for emancipation in many sections of 
 the country. 
 
 Delegation after delegation called on the President 
 urging emancipation. It is a well-known fact that 
 Lincoln was all the while in favor of a gradual emanci 
 pation with compensation. Congress, however, and 
 the South, also, was against his plan, and still the aboli 
 tion sentiment grew. 
 
 It will be remembered that Horace Greeley, who for 
 some years had been a thorn in the flesh of Mr. Lin 
 coln, finally came out in an article in the New York 
 Tribune, then probably the most largely circulated and 
 most influential newspaper in the United States, in 
 which he very severely criticised, and even castigated, 
 President Lincoln for his failure to act summarily in 
 the emancipation of the slave. 
 
 In the summer of 1862 Mr. Lincoln made the first 
 draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, and that 
 without consulting his Cabinet. 
 
 It is worthy of suggestion here that that draft had 
 been made before the letter to Greeley. 
 
 About the 1st of August the Proclamation was 
 submitted to a Cabinet meeting. It is needless to say 
 that members of the Cabinet were much surprised. 
 
 Holland, relates the circumstances as follows: 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln had before him a document which 
 he knew was to perpetuate his name to all futurity, 
 
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 197 
 
 a document which involved the liberty of four millions 
 of human beings then living, and of untold millions 
 then unborn, which changed the policy of the govern 
 ment and the course and character of the war, which 
 revolutionized the social institutions of more than a 
 third of the nation, which brought all the govern 
 ments of Christendom into new relations to the re 
 bellion, and which involved Mr. Lincoln s recognition 
 of the will of the Divine Ruler of the universe. It was 
 the supreme moment of his life." 
 
 Numerous suggestions by way of changes were made, 
 some as to one thing, and some as to another. Finally 
 Seward said: 
 
 "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 step. 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 our last shriek on the re 
 treat." 
 
 Finally it was agreed, upon the suggestion of Seward, 
 that the matter go over until a more favorable situa 
 tion as to the nation s prospect of victory. 
 
 Then came the battle of Antietam, and while not 
 a decisive victory, it was regarded as a repulse to the 
 South. Lincoln immediately made his second draft, 
 called a meeting of the Cabinet, and finally said to his 
 confidential official family in a low and reverent tone: 
 "I have promised my God that I will do it." 
 
 Chase thereupon said : 
 
 "Did I understand you correctly, Mr. President?" 
 
198 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Lincoln replied : 
 
 "I made a solemn vow before God that, if General 
 Lee should be driven back from Pennsylvania, I would 
 crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the 
 slaves. " 
 
 This Emancipation Proclamation is surely worthy 
 of a place among these pages: 
 
 "I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United 
 States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the 
 army and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and de 
 clare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be 
 prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the 
 constitutional relation between the United States and 
 each of the states, and the people thereof, in which 
 states that relation is or may be suspended or dis 
 turbed. 
 
 "That is my purpose, upon the next meeting of 
 Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a prac 
 tical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free ac 
 ceptance 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 respective limits; and that the effort to 
 colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, 
 upon this continent or elsewhere, with the previously 
 obtained consent of the governments existing 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 as slaves within any state, or desig 
 nated part of a state, the people whereof shall then 
 
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 199 
 
 be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, 
 thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive 
 Government of the United States, including the mili 
 tary and naval authority thereof, will recognize and 
 maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no 
 act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in 
 any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. 
 
 "That the Executive will, on the first day of January 
 aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and 
 parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof re 
 spectively shall then be in rebellion against the United 
 States ; and the fact that any state, or the people there 
 of, shall on that day be in good faith represented in 
 the Congress of the United States, by members chosen 
 thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified 
 voters of such state shall have participated, shall, in 
 the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be 
 deemed conclusive evidence that such state, and the 
 people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the 
 United States. 
 
 "That attention is hereby called to an act of Con 
 gress entitled An Act to make an additional Article 
 of War/ approved March 13th, 1862, and which act 
 is in the words and figures following: 
 
 " Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre 
 sentatives of the United States of America in Congress 
 assembled, That hereafter the following shall be pro 
 mulgated as an additional article of war for the govern 
 ment of the army of the United States, and shall be 
 obeyed and observed as such: 
 
 " ARTICLE All officers or persons in the military 
 or naval service of the United States are prohibited 
 from employing any of the forces under their respec 
 tive commands for the purpose of returning fugitives 
 
200 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 from service or labor who may have escaped from any 
 persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to 
 be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by 
 a court-martial of violating this article shall be dis 
 missed from the service. 
 
 " Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act 
 shall take effect from and after its passage. 
 
 "Also, to the ninth and tenth sections of an act en 
 titled An Act to suppress Insurrection, to punish 
 Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate Property 
 of Rebels, and for other purposes, approved July 16th, 
 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures 
 following : 
 
 " Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves 
 of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion 
 against the government of the United States, or who 
 shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping 
 from such persons and taking refuge within the lines 
 of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons, 
 or deserted by them, and coming under the control of 
 the government of the United States; and all slaves 
 of such persons found on (or) being within any place 
 occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by 
 forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives 
 of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, 
 and not again held as slaves. 
 
 " Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That 
 no slave escaping into any state, territory, or the Dis 
 trict of Columbia, from any other state, shall be de 
 livered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his 
 liberty, except for crime, or some offense against the 
 laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall 
 first make oath that the person to whom the labor or 
 service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his law- 
 
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 201 
 
 ful owner, and has not borne arms against the United 
 States in the present rebellion, nor in any way given 
 aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in 
 the military or naval service of the United States shall, 
 under any pretense whatever, assume to decide on 
 the validity of the claim of any person to the service 
 or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such 
 person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed 
 from the service. 
 
 "And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons 
 engaged in the military and naval service of the United 
 States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their re 
 spective spheres of service, the act and sections above 
 recited. 
 
 "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 be 
 tween the United States and their respective states and 
 people, if that relation shall have been suspended or 
 disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the 
 United States, including the loss of slaves. 
 
 "In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, 
 and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
 "Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day 
 of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 (L. s.) eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Inde 
 pendence of the United States the eighty- 
 seventh. 
 
 "ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 "By the President: 
 "WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State." 
 
 Subsequent to this date, in April, 1864, Lincoln in a 
 personal letter to Mr. Hodges of Frankfort, Kentucky, 
 
202 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 gave his course of reasoning preliminary to the Eman 
 cipation Proclamation, as follows: 
 
 "I did understand, however, that very oath to pre 
 serve the Constitution to the best of my ability, im 
 posed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indis 
 pensable means, that government that nation of 
 which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it 
 possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Con 
 stitution? By general law, life and limb must be pro 
 tected; 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 pres 
 ervation of the Constitution through the preservation 
 of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, 
 and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best 
 of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the Consti 
 tution, if, to preserve slavery, or any minor matter, I 
 should permit the wreck of government, country, and 
 Constitution altogether. When, early in the war, Gen 
 eral Fremont attempted military emancipation, I for 
 bade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable 
 necessity. When, a little later, General Cameron, then 
 Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I 
 objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensa 
 ble necessity. When still later General Hunter at 
 tempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, be 
 cause I did not yet think the indispensable necessity 
 had come. When, in March and May and July, 1862, 
 I made earnest and successive appeals to the border 
 states to favor compensated emancipation, I believed 
 the indispensable necessity for military emancipation 
 and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by 
 that measure. They declined the proposition; and I 
 
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 203 
 
 was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of 
 either surrendering the Union, and with it the Consti 
 tution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored ele 
 ment. I chose the latter. 7 
 
 A few days after the Proclamation was issued a large 
 delegation appeared at the White House, and the 
 President was called upon for a short address. In ref 
 erence to the Proclamation, he said: 
 
 "What I did, I did after a very full deliberation, and 
 under a heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I 
 can only trust in God I have made no mistake. " 
 
 Two years thereafter he said: 
 
 "As affairs have turned, it is the central act of my 
 administration, and the great event of the nineteenth 
 century." 
 
 The final and formal act of Emancipation did not 
 take place until the 1st of January, 1863. One para 
 graph of that is so concisely explanatory of the whole 
 Proclamation that it should be quoted: 
 
 "And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act 
 of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon mili 
 tary necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of 
 mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 
 
 After Lincoln s re-election in November, 1864, he took 
 up for the second time the matter of a new amendment 
 to the Federal Constitution to abolish slavery through 
 out the nation. 
 
 He always felt that his own Emancipation Proclama 
 tion was largely a military measure and that a number 
 of very serious and perplexing questions might arise 
 under it. Therefore, in order to save all these and 
 guarantee forever to the black man his new freedom, 
 Lincoln urged upon Congress the passage of the Thir 
 teenth Amendment in its present form to be submitted 
 
204 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 to the States of the Union for their adoption. This 
 amendment finally passed Congress the last of January, 
 1865. It was the crowning work of the Lincoln Eman 
 cipation. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 LINCOLN S INTERPRETATION OF THE 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 IF America had done nothing else than to give the 
 world two such apostles of democracy as Thomas Jef 
 ferson and Abraham Lincoln, she would have immor 
 talized herself for all coming ages. 
 
 As Jefferson was the most distinguished author of 
 the Declaration of Independence, so Lincoln has proven 
 its most distinguished interpreter. 
 
 So far as political discussion in the press and public 
 forum was concerned, the Declaration of Independence 
 had very largely gone into eclipse after the surrender 
 of Yorktown in 1781. The men who framed the Dec 
 laration of Independence did not frame the Constitu 
 tion of the United States. There was not a single line 
 of the former in the latter. Save here and there a soli 
 tary voice crying in the wilderness, that Declaration of 
 Independence and its immortal principles of personal 
 and political liberty was nothing but a memory. 
 
 Indeed, in a large section of the country to refer to 
 it was, to say the least, lese-majeste, and it remained 
 the practical, patriotic task of Lincoln to resurrect the 
 principles of the Declaration of Independence and to 
 challenge the advancing hosts of slavery to the doc 
 trines of Jefferson as announced and adopted in that 
 Declaration. 
 
 What Aristotle was to his great teacher, Plato, Lin 
 coln was to his great teacher, Jefferson, and it may be 
 
 205 
 
206 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 observed here, for it is an historical fact, that Abraham 
 Lincoln has quoted Jefferson more favorably and fre 
 quently than he has quoted all other American states 
 men combined. 
 
 It would be impossible, as it would be inadvisable, 
 to give all the references Lincoln has made to the doc 
 trines of Jefferson in or out of the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence. But a few references will be most oppor 
 tune for this chapter and this century. 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas was in 1857 the greatest political 
 leader of the Democratic party, that had been in con 
 trol of the national government in all its councils, save 
 a few brief and irregular intervals, since the days of 
 George Washington. 
 
 Douglas, known as the " Little Giant" of Illinois, 
 was a good lawyer, a great orator, and was looked for 
 ward to as the candidate of his party for the presidency 
 of the United States. 
 
 He made a speech, upon invitation of the federal 
 grand jury of Springfield, Illinois, in 1857, in which 
 he said, among other things, that "all men are created 
 equal," meant only that " British subjects on this con 
 tinent were equal to British subjects born and residing 
 in Great Britain." 
 
 The speech was concededly a very able one and 
 aroused wide comment throughout Illinois. A num 
 ber of Lincoln s friends at once appealed to him to 
 answer that speech. Lincoln accepted the invitation, 
 and made what was probably one of the strongest and 
 soundest political arguments of his life. In the course 
 of his address he used this language as the fair and 
 sensible interpretation of the Jeffersonian proposition 
 that "all men are created equal": 
 
 "I think the authors of that notable instrument 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 207 
 
 intended to include all men; but they did not intend 
 to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not 
 mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral 
 developments, or social capacity. They defined with 
 tolerable distinctness in what respects they did con 
 sider all men equal equal in certain inalienable rights, 
 among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi 
 ness. This they said and this they meant. They did 
 not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were 
 then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they 
 were about to confer it upon them. In fact, they had 
 no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply 
 to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might 
 follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They 
 meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, 
 which should be familiar to all and revered by all; 
 constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and, 
 even though never perfectly attained, constantly ap 
 proximated, and thereby constantly spreading and 
 deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness 
 and value of life to all people of all colors every 
 where." 
 
 One year thereafter, on August 12, 1858, and also 
 before the Douglas debates, Lincoln made the speech 
 at Beardstown, Illinois, in which he recurs to the same 
 matter but at somewhat greater length. The report 
 of this speech was written by Mr. Horace White of 
 the Chicago Tribune: 
 
 " These by their representatives in old Independence 
 Hall said to the whole race of men: We hold these 
 truths to be self-evident: that all men are created 
 equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
 certain inalienable rights: that among these are life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This was their 
 
208 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 majestic interpretation of the economy of the universe. 
 This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding 
 of the justice of the Creator to his creatures yes, 
 gentlemen, to all his creatures, to the whole great family 
 of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped 
 with the divine image and likeness was sent into the 
 world to be trodden on and degraded and imbruted 
 by its fellows: They grasped not only the whole race 
 of man then living, but they reached forward and 
 seized upon the farthest posterity. They erected a 
 beacon to guide their children, and their children s 
 children, and the countless myriads who should in 
 habit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they 
 were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed 
 tyrants, and so they established these great self-evi 
 dent truths, that when in the distant future some man, 
 some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine 
 that none but rich men, none but white men, or none 
 but Anglo-Saxon white men were entitled to life, lib 
 erty, and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity 
 might look up again to the Declaration of Independence 
 and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers 
 began, so that truth and justice and mercy and all 
 the humane and Christian virtues might not be ex 
 tinguished from the land; so that no man would 
 hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great 
 principles on which the temple of liberty was being 
 built. 
 
 "Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught 
 doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the 
 Declaration of Independence; if you have listened 
 to suggestions which would take away from its gran 
 deur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions; 
 if you have been inclined to believe that all men are 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 209 
 
 not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated 
 by our chart of liberty: let me entreat you to come 
 back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring 
 close by the Blood of the Revolution. Think nothing 
 of me; take no thought for the political fate of any 
 man whomsoever, but come back to the truths that 
 are in the Declaration of Independence. You may 
 do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed 
 these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me 
 for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to 
 death. While pretending no indifference to earthly 
 honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by 
 something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge 
 you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought 
 for any man s success. It is nothing; I am nothing; 
 Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that 
 immortal emblem of humanity the Declaration of 
 American Independence." * 
 
 In Lincoln s great speech at Chicago, in June, 1858, 
 before the debates, he said upon the Declaration of 
 Independence : 
 
 "Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things with 
 this idea of don t care if slavery is voted up or voted 
 down, for sustaining the Dred Scott decision, for hold 
 ing that the Declaration of Independence did not mean 
 anything at all, we have Judge Douglas giving his 
 exposition of what the Declaration of Independence 
 means, and we have him saying that the people of 
 America are equal to the people of England. Accord 
 ing to his construction, you Germans are not connected 
 with it. Now, I ask you in all soberness, if all these 
 things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed and in 
 dorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to them, 
 * Herndon, vol. II, p. 84. 
 
210 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the 
 country, and to transform this government into a 
 government of some other form. Those arguments 
 that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated 
 with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoy 
 ing; that as much is to be done for them as their con 
 dition will allow. What are these arguments? They 
 are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving 
 the people in all ages of the world. You will find that 
 all the arguments in favor of kingcraft were of this 
 class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, 
 not that they wanted to do it, but because the people 
 were better off for being ridden. That is their argu 
 ment, and this argument of the Judge is the same old 
 serpent that says, You work, and I eat; you toil, and 
 I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way 
 you will, whether it come from the mouth of a king, 
 an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or 
 from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for en 
 slaving the men of another race, it is all the same old 
 serpent; and I hold, if that course of argumentation 
 that is made for the purpose of convincing the public 
 mind that we should not care about this, should be 
 granted, it does not stop with the negro. I should 
 like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Inde 
 pendence, which declares that all men are equal upon 
 principle, and making exceptions to it, where will it 
 stop ? If one man says it does not mean a negro, why 
 not another say it does not mean some other man? 
 If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute 
 book, in which we find it, and tear it out ! (Cries of 
 No, No/) Let us stick to it, then; let us stand firmly 
 by it then." 
 
 The week following the Chicago speech he again 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 211 
 
 refers to the Declaration of Independence in a speech 
 he delivered at Springfield, Illinois: 
 
 "My declaration upon this subject of negro slavery 
 may be misrepresented, but cannot 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 have earned, he is the equal 
 of every other man, white or black. In pointing out 
 that more has been given you, you cannot be justified 
 in taking away the little which has been given him. 
 All I ask for the negro is that if you do not like him, 
 let him alone. If God gave him but little, that little 
 let him enjoy." 
 
 Throughout the Douglas-Lincoln debates in the cam 
 paign for the United States senatorship, reference to 
 which is made in another chapter, Lincoln was de 
 claring and defining the doctrines of the Declaration 
 of Independence as written by Jefferson, and adopted 
 by the Federal Congress, while Douglas was endeavor 
 ing to restrict the meaning so as to apply only to white 
 men or English subjects. A typical illustration from 
 these debates, as bearing upon the Declaration of In 
 dependence, as understood by Lincoln, will be pertinent 
 here. 
 
 In the first debate at Ottawa, August 21, 1858, Lin 
 coln said: 
 
 "I have no purpose to introduce political and social 
 equality between the white and the black races. There 
 
212 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 is a physical difference between the two which, in my 
 judgment, will probably forever forbid their living 
 together upon the footing of perfect equality; and in 
 asmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a 
 difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of 
 the race to which I belong having the superior posi 
 tion. I have never said anything to the contrary, but 
 I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason 
 in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the 
 natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these 
 as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is 
 not my equal in many respects certainly not in color, 
 perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But 
 in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of any 
 body else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, 
 and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every 
 living man." 
 
 Later on, in the very notable address in February, 
 1861, at Philadelphia, indeed in the very Independence 
 Hall, Lincoln said : 
 
 "I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself 
 standing here in this place, where were collected the 
 wisdom and patriotism and devotion to principle from 
 which sprang the institutions under which we live. 
 You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is 
 the task of restoring peace to the present distracted 
 condition of the country. I can say in return, Sir, 
 that all the political sentiments I entertain have been 
 drawn so far as I have been able to draw them from the 
 sentiments which originated and were given to the world 
 from this hall. I have never had a feeling politically that 
 did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Dec 
 laration of Independence. I have often pondered over 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 213 
 
 the dangers which were incurred by the men who as 
 sembled here and framed and adopted that Declaration 
 of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that 
 were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army 
 who achieved that independence. ... It was not the 
 mere matter of a separation of the Colonies from the 
 Motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of 
 Independence which gave liberty not alone to the peo 
 ple of this country, but I hope to the world for all future 
 time. It was that which gave promise that in due time 
 the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. 
 This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of 
 Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be 
 saved on this basis? If it can I will consider myself 
 one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to 
 save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will 
 be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved 
 without giving up that principle, I was about to say / 
 would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender." 
 
 In view of all these declarations by Lincoln express 
 ing with emphasis his abiding faith in the principles of 
 the Declaration of Independence as the fundamental 
 democracy of this country, it was entirely fitting that 
 the great Magna Charta of his practical, patriotic 
 democracy should be given at Gettysburg as the climax 
 of it all. 
 
 Lincoln s great political teacher in democracy, antici 
 pating the end, wrote his own epitaph in these modest 
 words : 
 
 "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the 
 Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia 
 for religious freedom, and father of the University of 
 Virginia." 
 
 He didn t even mention that he had been President 
 of the United States for eight years, deeming it was 
 
214 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 nobler to have contributed something to the political, 
 religious, and intellectual liberty of the American 
 people. 
 
 Had Lincoln written his own epitaph, at the close of 
 his eventful life, the phrase in his own inimitable 
 phrase, would perhaps have been something about 
 liberty and democracy. 
 
 Most of us have read the Declaration of Indepen 
 dence. Few of us have studied it. Perhaps no other 
 great American has given it the studious thought and 
 analytical attention as did Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 It must have made a very profound impression upon 
 him, else he would not have so earnestly and so often 
 quoted it, discussed it, interpreted it, and applied it 
 to the political conditions of the time. 
 
 Most of us have accepted its sentiments as " self- 
 evident." At least we have given little thought to 
 the logic that its lines develop. It is a poem of pa 
 triotism in prose. But it is more. It is a masterpiece 
 of logic well worthy of an Aristotle, a Whateley, or a 
 Mill. 
 
 As Lincoln himself has said in his speech at Phila 
 delphia, February, 1861, heretofore referred to: 
 
 "I have never had a feeling politically that did not 
 spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declara 
 tion of Independence. ... It was not the mere mat 
 ter of a separation of the Colonies from the Mother 
 land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence which gave liberty not alone to the people 
 of this country, but I hope to the world for all future time. 
 It was that which gave promise that in due time the 
 weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. 
 This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of 
 Independence. 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 215 
 
 But Lincoln got more than sentiment from this Dec 
 laration, which he read in his early Indiana days out 
 of David Turnham s " Revised Statutes of Indiana. " 
 Perchance he also may have read it in the " History of 
 the United States/ 7 though we are not told whether 
 such history contained the Declaration in full or not. 
 At all events he must have learned it by heart at an 
 early age, and its rich outcroppings appear almost con 
 tinually in his course of political discussions and state 
 papers. 
 
 But the logic of that immortal document, as written 
 by Jefferson, provided Lincoln with the key to those 
 fundamental political doctrines that furnished the un 
 derpinning of our national democracy. 
 
 Let us give heed for a moment to this Declaration. 
 Naturally, first comes the preamble, a masterly state 
 ment. 
 
 Then comes the declaration of self-evident truths: 
 "that all men are created equal, that they are en 
 dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
 Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the 
 pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, 
 Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their 
 just powers from the consent of the governed, That 
 whenever any Form of Government becomes destruc 
 tive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter 
 or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, lay 
 ing its foundation on such principles and organizing its 
 powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely 
 to effect their Safety and Happiness." 
 
 Next comes the demonstration that these self-evident 
 rights have been constantly and cardinally violated, 
 viz.: 
 
 "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 
 
216 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design 
 to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their 
 right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, 
 and to provide new Guards for their future security. 
 The history of the present King of Great Britain is a 
 history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having 
 in direct object the establishment of an absolute 
 Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts 
 be submitted to a candid world." 
 
 Then follow eighteen separate paragraphs, specify 
 ing the manner in which the aforesaid " self-evident " 
 rights of the American colonists have been violated, all 
 stated so simply, so strongly, that it is nine-tenths an 
 argument. 
 
 After demonstration is completed then comes, dedi 
 cation: 
 
 "We, therefore, the Representatives of the united 
 States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, 
 appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the 
 rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and 
 by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, 
 solemnly publish and declare, That these United 
 Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and In 
 dependent States; . . . and that as Free and Inde 
 pendent States, they have full Power to levy War, 
 conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Com 
 merce, and to do all other Acts and Things which 
 Independent States may of right do. And for the 
 support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on 
 the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge 
 to each other our lives, our Fortunes and our sacred 
 Honor." 
 
 Signed by the thirteen colonies through their fifty- 
 six delegates. 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 217 
 
 The reader will note the significant and orderly ar 
 rangement of this illustrious argument: 
 
 1. Declaration. 
 
 2. Demonstration. 
 
 3. Dedication. 
 
 And this afterward served as the strong, splendid 
 model of Abraham Lincoln in substantially all of his 
 legal and political addresses, as well as his masterly 
 state papers. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 GETTYSBURG ORATION 
 
 GETTYSBURG a little village of less than four thou 
 sand people in southern Pennsylvania near the Mary 
 land border became world-famous in 1863 for two 
 reasons: 
 
 1. A great battle. 
 
 2. A great speech. 
 
 " The great battle" is pronounced by historians, espe 
 cially by Creasy, as one of a class of fifteen decisive 
 battles of the world s wars. 
 
 "The great speech" is unclassified. It stands alone 
 as the greatest speech of its kind ever delivered by 
 human tongue. 
 
 What made it great? 
 
 1. The situation. 
 
 2. The speaker. 
 
 3. The speech. 
 
 "The great battle" had taken place July 1-4, 1863. 
 It was one of the most sanguinary struggles that war 
 fare up to then had ever recorded. The city of the 
 dead had become larger than the city of the living. 
 The toll of life and limb, of sacrifice and of suffering 
 had been appalling in that heroic struggle, but where 
 "American met American." The side that stood for 
 liberty and democracy had overwhelmingly triumphed. 
 
 A great national call went up over the land that 
 some of this sacred soil should be set apart for a na 
 tional cemetery for the honored dead. 
 
 218 
 
GETTYSBURG ORATION 219 
 
 The governors of the States conferred about it and 
 the Honorable Andrew G. Cur tin, the distinguished 
 war governor of Pennsylvania, was given local charge 
 and designated one David Wills as his agent to take 
 care of the routine of the arrangements. 
 
 Wills wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln, as President 
 of the United States, inviting him to be present upon 
 that occasion. 
 
 A very pertinent part of that letter reads as follows : 
 
 ". . . Hon. Edward Everett will deliver the ora 
 tion. I am authorized by the Governors of the different 
 states to invite you to be present and participate in 
 these ceremonies, which will doubtless be very impos 
 ing and solemnly impressive. It is the desire that 
 after the oration, you, as chief executive of the nation, 
 formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use 
 by a few appropriate remarks" 
 
 The ceremonies took place November 19, 1863. The 
 presidential party arrived from Washington the day 
 before, and was composed of the President, Secretary 
 of State Seward, Postmaster-General Blah*, Secretary 
 of the Interior Usher, John G. Nicolay, and John Hay, 
 the President s secretaries, and Captain H. A. Wise 
 and wife, the latter a daughter of the Honorable Ed 
 ward Everett, together with many newspaper corre 
 spondents arid a military guard of honor. 
 
 The night before a public reception was held by the 
 good citizens of Gettysburg, at which there was some 
 speech-making. 
 
 The President, of course, was called on, but expressed 
 a desire to reserve his remarks for the following day. 
 
 Secretary Seward was also called on and delivered a 
 brief address, which is as follows: 
 
 "I am thankful that you are willing to hear me at 
 
220 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 last. I thank my God that I believe this strife is 
 going to end in the removal of all that evil which 
 ought to have been removed by deliberate counsel and 
 peaceable means (good). I thank my God for the 
 hope . . . that when that cause is removed simply by 
 the operation of abolishing it as the origin and agent 
 of the treason that it is without justification and with 
 out parallel, we shall henceforth be united, be only 
 one country, having only one hope, one ambition and 
 one destiny. To-morrow at least we shall feel that 
 we are not enemies, but that we are friends and brothers, 
 that this union is a reality and we shall moan together 
 for the evil wrought by this rebellion. . . . When we 
 part to-morrow night let us remember that we owe it 
 to our. country and to mankind that this war shall 
 have for its conclusion the establishment of the principle 
 of Democratic government . . . the simple principle 
 that whatever party, whatever portion of the com 
 munity prevails by constitutional suffrage in an elec 
 tion, that party is to be respected and maintained in 
 power until it shall give place, on another trial and 
 another verdict, to a different portion of the people. 
 If you do not do this you are drifting at once and irre 
 sistibly to the very verge of universal, cheerless, and 
 hopeless anarchy." 
 
 When placed in parallel columns with the "few ap 
 propriate remarks" of Lincoln, the day following, it 
 can be confidently said that the " rail-splitter" of the 
 new West does not suffer in comparison with his schol 
 arly and distinguished Secretary of State. 
 
 We had had two awful years of war. No one ven 
 tured to see the end. The triumphs of Grant and 
 Sherman had not yet come. The tremendous loss of 
 life and treasure, suffering and sacrifice was to be en 
 dured for two years more until Appomattox. 
 
GETTYSBURG ORATION 221 
 
 In this appalling situation the morning of November 
 19 had come when Edward Everett, in a masterly, 
 eloquent, and histrionic address of two hours delivered 
 " the oration." 
 
 Then came Lincoln, who was assigned the task of 
 making a "few appropriate remarks." 
 
 The air was still charged with the eloquence of Ever 
 ett. Its echoes still hallowed every heart of those who 
 heard. Probably but few of the assembled thousands 
 expected any more than a mere formal dedication of 
 that sacred soil for a national cemetery. But no, the 
 ceremonies of the day were not over; they had only 
 begun. 
 
 Like Moses of old, delivering a new commandment 
 to his people, so Lincoln, awkward, ungainly, pro 
 foundly impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, 
 gives a new commandment to his people for a new 
 " dedication" to "new birth of freedom," and a new 
 democracy in "government of the people by the peo 
 ple and for the people." 
 
 Lincoln said : 
 
 "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought 
 forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in 
 liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men 
 are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great 
 civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so 
 conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are 
 met on a great battlefield of that war. We have 
 come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting 
 place for those who here gave their lives that that na 
 tion might live. It is altogether fitting and proper 
 that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can 
 not dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, 
 this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who 
 struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor 
 
222 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 power to add or detract. The world will little note nor 
 long remember what we may say here, but it can never 
 forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather 
 to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they 
 who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It 
 is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
 remaining before us, that from these honored dead we 
 take increased devotion to that cause for which they 
 gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here 
 highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in 
 vain; that this nation under God shall have a new 
 birth of freedom, and that government of the people, 
 by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from 
 the earth." 
 
 There has been much misinformation in regard to 
 the preparation of this address, some contending that 
 it was wholly extemporaneous, others that it was writ 
 ten on board train between Washington and Gettys 
 burg, some say upon the President s cuff, others upon 
 a mere scrap of paper, presumably an envelope. 
 
 Lincoln s speeches almost without exception, cer 
 tainly all his great speeches, were most carefully thought 
 out, systematically arranged, logically fitted together 
 and painstakingly phrased, generally through manu 
 script before their delivery. 
 
 Those who knew Mr. Lincoln best generally join in 
 the contention that Mr. Lincoln was not a success as 
 an impromptu speaker. The Springfield speech in 1858 
 and Cooper Union speech in New York in 1860 contain 
 undoubted evidences of that thorough preparation 
 characteristic of Lincoln. 
 
 And so as to this Gettysburg address, that is classed 
 as one of his four greatest addresses, Colonel John 
 Nicolay, who was one of his private secretaries and a 
 
GETTYSBURG ORATION 223 
 
 member of the presidential party on this occasion, 
 says: 
 
 1 i There is neither recorded evidence, nor well-founded 
 tradition that Mr. Lincoln did any writing or made 
 any notes on the journey between Washington and 
 Gettysburg." 
 
 The best available evidence from Nicolay and others 
 is to the effect that the first draft of this speech was 
 prepared in Washington the day before the trip. 
 
 Mr. Wills, President Lincoln s host at Gettysburg, 
 says that the President retired about nine o clock and 
 sent his servant down-stairs for writing-materials. 
 These were taken to Mr. Lincoln s room by Mr. Wills 
 himself. Thereupon Mr. Lincoln said to him: "Mr. 
 Wills, what do you expect from me to-morrow?" Mr. 
 Wills replied: "A brief address, Mr. President." 
 
 Mr. Wills reports that in about a half an hour after 
 his visit to President Lincoln s room, Mr. Lincoln 
 came down-stairs, and had some sheets of paper with 
 him, and with Mr. Wills he went to the house in which 
 Secretary Seward was a guest and submitted to the 
 secretary his manuscript. It is said to have met Mr. 
 Seward s approval. They then returned to the Wills 
 home. The next morning a further revision of the 
 manuscript was made. 
 
 At the time of the speech Mr. Nicolay advises us 
 that the President held the manuscript in his hand, 
 though he did not read from it, but in his delivery 
 of the speech he further revised the matter and style 
 of the manuscript. 
 
 So that the preponderance of the evidence is clear, 
 from those who ought to know, that this speech was 
 most carefully considered, drafted, and redrafted by 
 Mr. Lincoln before its delivery. But if any further 
 
224 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 evidence were needed to corroborate painstaking prep 
 aration, both as to logic and language, the speech it 
 self furnishes that evidence. 
 
 Shortly thereafter a further slight verbal revision 
 was made by Lincoln, which gave us the masterpiece 
 we now know. 
 
 For years I have had a sort of subconscious feeling 
 that there was something about this address that I 
 had not discovered. I could feel its effect. It was 
 exhilarating but elusive; when I reached out for it 
 it would seem to be just beyond me. 
 
 My curiosity to discover this mystery persisted to 
 the point that I was led to put this speech into its parts, 
 and see what, if anything, would be disclosed. So I 
 dissected it into its ten sentences, and the result of 
 that labor is shown on opposite page. 
 
 This dissection of the Gettysburg speech developed 
 the keystone idea of Lincoln upon this occasion. His 
 art in putting this central idea in every one of the ten 
 sentences uttered upon that occasion demonstrates 
 beyond a doubt his unapproachable excellence in logic 
 and language. 
 
 How closely it is reasoned, how cleverly expressed ! 
 The polish in his patriotism, the philosophy in his prop 
 ositions, the unity of his ideas are all typical of his 
 great life and his devotion to the union of the States. 
 
 What is this keystone idea throughout the address? 
 The colored diagram is its own answer: " DEDICA 
 TION." 
 
 In these ten sentences the word " dedicate" ex 
 pressly appears six times. In the fifth sentence the 
 definitive adjective "this" is used for "dedicate." 
 
 In the seventh sentence the word "consecrate" is 
 used for "dedicate." 
 
GETTYSBURG ORATION 
 
 225 
 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 GETTYSBURCX^DDRESS 
 (AN ANALYSI^L 
 
 Sentence 
 One. 
 
 Sentence 
 Two. 
 
 Sentence 
 Three. 
 
 Sentence 
 Four. 
 
 Sentence 
 Five. 
 
 Sentence 
 Six. 
 
 Sentence 
 Seven. 
 
 Sentence 
 Eight. 
 
 Sentence 
 Nine. 
 
 Sentence 
 Ten. 
 
 Fourscore and seven (eighty-sexen) years ago (1776, 
 not 1789) our fathers brought fortbSujon this continent 
 a new nation conceived in liberty andjDEDICATED] to 
 the proposition that all men are^p^eaTed equal. 
 
 Now we are engaged^Tn a great civil war testing 
 whether that najjonor any nation so conceived, and so 
 DEDICATED] can long endure. 
 
 We are met on a great 
 life is dedicated) of that war 
 
 (where 
 
 We have come tol DEDICATE] a portion of that field 
 as a final resting-pia"ce for those who here gave their lives 
 that thai naUenmight live. 
 
 It iftXitogethcr fitting and proper that we should do 
 ITHISJCDEDICATE). 
 
 But in a larger sense we cannot J DEDIC ATEJ we can 
 not consecrate, we cannot halloXthis ground. 
 
 The brave men livinaj^and dead who struggled here 
 havelCONSECRATEDlit far above our poor power to 
 add or detract. 
 
 The world will litne note nor long remember what 
 we may say here, but nScan never forget 
 JWHAT THEY DID HERE.j 
 (Dedication of Kbman life.) 
 
 It is for us the living rather to be I DEDICATED! here 
 to the unfinished work which they who fougift here have 
 thus far so nobly advanced. 
 
 It is rather for us to be here|DEDICATED|to the great 
 tasks 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 and for 
 the people shall not perish from the earth. 
 
226 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 In the third sentence we have the word " battle 
 field/ and in the eighth sentence we have the words 
 "what they did here/ the simplest, strongest, and 
 most picturesque language possible to express the 
 active idea of dedication. 
 
 As the word " dedicate" was the biggest and best 
 word in the English language in 1863 in mid- war, so 
 that same word " dedicate" is the biggest and best 
 word in the English language to-day when we are 
 likewise in mid-war. 
 
 As Jefferson made it the slogan of our spirit and 
 test of the times in 1776, and as Lincoln likewise used 
 it in 1863, so may we all, as one hundred million Amer 
 icans or more, likewise use it in 1917. 
 
 Some have placed the emphasis in this speech upon 
 the last part of the last sentence; some have placed 
 it upon the prepositions "OP," "BY," and "FOR." 
 But I submit, and some who heard it hold, that what 
 ever emphasis was used in this sentence was put, not 
 upon the prepositions, but upon the words "the people." 
 Yet the foregoing diagram unmistakably demonstrates 
 that Lincoln put his emphasis elsewhere that he 
 placed it properly upon the central idea "dedicate." 
 
 How this idea is bound together and linked on to 
 the pole-star of the Declaration of Independence ! 
 
 Indeed, we find sentence two linked on to sentence 
 one, and sentence three linked on in turn to sentence 
 two, and so on through these ten sentences, link on 
 link, until he had forged a chain of consecration, dedi 
 cating the nation to liberty, equality, and democracy. 
 
 But this speech was not only remarkable for what it 
 did say; it was equally as remarkable for what it did 
 not say. 
 
 Throughout the speech of Edward Everett there 
 
GETTYSBURG ORATION 227 
 
 occur the words " rebel" and "rebellion," " slavery," 
 " secession/ "treason," and the like, and Secretary 
 Seward, the night before in his short speech, hereto 
 fore quoted, used the words "treason," and "rebel 
 lion." 
 
 But these find no place in the speech of Lincoln. 
 Not a bitter or hateful word is there, and though a 
 man above all others who had been rejected and re 
 viled by the South, he reviled not again. 
 
 Truly has Job written, "How forcible are right 
 words"; and I may add also, How forcible are appro 
 priate thoughts ! 
 
 The Gettysburg address is more than a great ora 
 tion, it is an index of his mind, an exponent of his spir 
 itual self. It is as perfect a portrait of Abraham Lin 
 coln as could be put in human speech. 
 
 In short, we see here the logician, the linguist, the 
 leader, the spirit and soul of a truly great man, moved 
 by "malice toward none and charity for all." 
 
 The brevity of the speech is excelled only by the 
 brevity of the words in which it is phrased. 
 
 The ten sentences contain 267 immortal words, 200 
 of which are words of one syllable; 43 words of two 
 syllables and the remainder three or more syllables, 
 but all of them are simple and familiar enough for 
 "any boy I knew to comprehend." 
 
 The short Saxon words stand out strongly. Lincoln 
 had never studied Latin or Greek, or any other foreign 
 language, but he did know English, and as a specimen 
 of the purest English this address has to-day an honored 
 place in Oxford University, England. 
 
 Note also the absence of the superlative, the de 
 scriptive adjective and adverb. The skeleton of his 
 
228 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 speech is the concrete noun to which he hitches some 
 active verb or its derivatives. 
 
 These words have point and " punch " and, taken to 
 gether, make a sort of " movie-picture " of patriotic and 
 intense human interest. 
 
 In style as much as in subject-matter it excelled 
 all other addresses of his own or any other time. This 
 is the more significant because his specific instructions 
 were to submit "a few appropriate remarks." 
 
 The orator of the day was chosen from New Eng 
 land s universities, her culture, her scholarship, her 
 statesmen, Edward Everett. He talked two hours and 
 most of what he said has been forgotten. Lincoln 
 talked two minutes and what he said not only has 
 become a classic, but is hanging upon the walls to 
 day of more than a million homes, not only in America 
 but throughout the world. 
 
 In a two-minute speech he used the central idea 
 ten tunes, and the same central word six times the 
 word "dedicate." 
 
 Surely, at some time or other in his earlier life, this 
 word must have made a very profound impression 
 upon him to have been put so prominently in the 
 Gettysburg address. 
 
 When, where, and how had he come in contact with 
 it? 
 
 We have already seen how in his early days he be 
 came an ardent student of the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence. We have seen in the chapter, "Lincoln s 
 Interpretation of the Declaration of Independence," 
 how frequently he referred to it, how thoroughly he 
 analyzed it, what a wonderful impression it made upon 
 his mind and soul. 
 
 It is more than passing coincidence that the closing 
 
GETTYSBURG ORATION 229 
 
 words of that Declaration of Independence were de 
 voted to a dedication of the Colonists, their lives and 
 treasures, to the cause for which it stood. 
 
 It has been said that Lincoln s effort was a sad dis 
 appointment to him, and that he was greatly depressed 
 as the result of the utter absence of applause during 
 the address. This, however, would not be strange, 
 even if true, owing to the occasion and the solemnity 
 of the environment, but the New York Tribune of the 
 following day shows " applause" five different times 
 during the address, and "long continued applause" 
 at the close. If Lincoln at any time spoke deprecat- 
 ingly of his effort it was only because it was more or 
 less characteristic of him. 
 
 It has been said that Lincoln s effort was a sad dis 
 appointment to Everett. This is wholly disproved 
 by the letter that Everett took the pains to write Lin 
 coln the day following the address, in which he said, 
 among other things : 
 
 "Permit me to express my great admiration of the 
 thoughts expressed by you with such eloquent sim 
 plicity and appropriateness at the consecration of the 
 cemetery. I should be glad if I could flatter myself 
 that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion 
 in two hours as you did in two minutes." 
 
 I have gone into the detail of analysis on the Gettys 
 burg speech in order to furnish a model for a similar 
 analysis of Lincoln s other speeches. 
 
 They are too long to permit of such separate de 
 tailed dissection, as has been applied to this brief ora 
 tion. But if they shall be studied and separated into 
 their natural and logical parts, it will be seen that 
 in the main they pursue the same unity of thought, 
 simplicity of speech, clearness and conclusiveness in 
 
230 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 demonstration, sincerity of dedication that is so strik 
 ingly characteristic in the Gettysburg address. 
 
 The student, young and old, in or out of high school 
 or college, cannot more pleasurably nor profitably 
 employ his mind than by a careful study and analysis 
 of many of the other great speeches and papers of 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 This greatest of the world s orations deserves a trib 
 ute from one of the world s greatest orators. Colonel 
 Ingersoll said of the Gettysburg address: 
 
 "If you wish to know the difference between an 
 orator and an elocutionist between what is felt and 
 what is said between what the heart and brain can 
 do together and what the brain can do alone read 
 Lincoln s wondrous words at Gettysburg, and then 
 the speech of Edward Everett. The oration of Lin 
 coln will never be forgotten. It will live until languages 
 are dead and lips are dust. The speech of Everett 
 will never be read. The elocutionists believe in the 
 virtue of voice, the sublimity of syntax, the majesty 
 of long sentences, and the genius of gesture. The 
 orator loves the real, the simple, the natural. He 
 places the thought above all. He knows that the 
 greatest ideas should be expressed in the shortest words 
 that the greatest statues need the least drapery." 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 LINCOLN S GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 
 
 AGAIN it is strikingly demonstrated that his argu 
 ments on law, government, or politics were usually 
 bottomed upon some primary legal principle from one 
 of the great masters of the law, some parable or refer 
 ence from the Bible, or some political proposition from 
 the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 No better illustration can be found than the Spring 
 field speech of 1858, which became known as the 
 " House Divided Against Itself 7 speech. 
 
 That speech occupies such a conspicuous and critical 
 position in the political life of Lincoln that it deserves 
 special mention here. 
 
 Upon Lincoln s return to Springfield in 1849, at the 
 close of his one term in Congress, we have already 
 noted how he had devoted, yes, had dedicated him 
 self to the practice of the law and to its deeper and 
 broader study. He had little thought of ever again 
 taking an active hand in the politics of the times, but 
 the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854 had so aroused his 
 love for human freedom and his hatred of slavery that 
 he soon again found himself in the political maelstrom. 
 
 The Democratic party had lost control of the State 
 Legislature of Illinois in that election. Lincoln was the 
 Whig candidate for the United States senatorship. 
 Feeling that if he continued in the contest he would 
 endanger the election of an antislavery senator, Lin 
 coln magnanimously withdrew and urged his friends 
 
 231 
 
232 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 to support Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska Democrat, 
 when, by every fair consideration of politics, Lincoln 
 should then have been the United States senator. 
 
 After that campaign he continued largely in the 
 practice of the law until 1858, when Senator Douglas, 
 his old-tune rival, was again a candidate for re-election. 
 In the meantime a number of political changes had 
 occurred. Webster s famous, or infamous "7th of 
 March 7 speech, wherein he apologized and trimmed 
 for all his past position against slavery and lost all the 
 political prestige he had ever had as a Whig leader; 
 Clay s " Alabama" letter in the campaign of 1844, 
 which characteristically compromised upon the grave 
 cause of human liberty, and other like subservience to 
 the controlling slave power of the day, had left the 
 Whig party not only leaderless but issueless. It dis 
 solved and died as it deserved to die. 
 
 Upon its ruins rose the new Republican party of 
 1854 and 1856, and Lincoln became one of its most 
 active members and leaders in the State of Illinois. 
 
 One of the policies to which the new party was com 
 mitted was "to arrest the further spread of slavery," 
 and it was upon this proposition that Abraham Lincoln 
 prepared his great Springfield speech in June of 1858. 
 
 After he had carefully prepared the speech and re 
 duced it to manuscript he read it to a number of his 
 friends. Most of them openly condemned it and none 
 approved it. One said "Damned fool utterance," 
 another said, "Impolitic," another said, "It gives un 
 necessary offense," another said, "It is all right, but 
 it is ahead of its tune," and so on. 
 
 But Lincoln said: 
 
 "My friends, this thing has been retarded long 
 enough. The time has come when these sentiments 
 
HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 233 
 
 should be uttered, and if it is decreed that I should go 
 down because of this speech, then let me go down 
 linked to the truth ; let me die in the advocacy of what 
 is just and right." 
 
 The first paragraph was the one that was especially 
 "impolitic." If that had been omitted there would 
 have been no serious objection to the speech by his 
 party friends. 
 
 The speech in full is as follows : 
 
 "Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: 
 
 1. "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 con 
 fident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. 
 Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has 
 not only not ceased but has constantly augmented. In 
 my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have 
 been reached and passed. A house divided against 
 itself cannot stand. I believe this government can 
 not endure permanently half slave and half free. I do 
 not expect the Union to be dissolved I do not expect 
 the house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be 
 divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. 
 Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further 
 spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall 
 rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate ex 
 tinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it 
 shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well 
 as new, North as well as South. 
 
 "Have we no tendency to the latter condition? 
 
 2. "Let any one who doubts carefully contemplate 
 that now almost complete legal combination piece of 
 
234 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 machinery, so to speak compounded of the Nebraska 
 doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. Let him con 
 sider not only what work the machinery is adapted to 
 do, and how well adapted; but also let him study the 
 history of the construction, and trace, if he can, or 
 rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of design 
 and concert of action among its chief architects, from 
 the beginning. 
 
 3. "The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded 
 from more than half the States by State constitutions, 
 and from most of the national territory by congressional 
 prohibition. Four days later commenced the struggle 
 which ended in repealing that congressional prohibition. 
 This opened all the national territory to slavery, and 
 was the first point gained. 
 
 4. "But, so far, Congress only had acted; and an 
 indorsement by the people, real or apparent, was in 
 dispensable to save the point already gained and give 
 chance for more. 
 
 5. "This necessity had not been overlooked, but had 
 been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable 
 argument of squatter sovereignty/ otherwise called 
 sacred right of self-government/ which latter phrase, 
 though expressive of the only rightful basis of any 
 government, was so perverted in this attempted use of 
 it as to amount to just this: That if any one man choose 
 to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to 
 object. That argument was incorporated into the Ne 
 braska bill itself, in the language which follows: It 
 being the true intent and meaning of this act not to 
 legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to 
 exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof 
 perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic in 
 stitutions in their own way, subject only to the Con- 
 
HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 235 
 
 stitution of the United States. Then opened the roar 
 of loose declamation in favor of squatter sovereignty 
 and sacred right of self-government. But/ said op 
 position members, let us amend the bill so as to ex 
 pressly declare that the people of the Territory may 
 exclude slavery. Not we, said the friends of the 
 measure; and down they voted the amendment. 
 
 6. "While the Nebraska bill was passing through 
 Congress a law case involving the question of a negro s 
 freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily 
 taken him first into a free State and then into a Ter 
 ritory covered by the congressional prohibition, and 
 held him as a slave for a long time in each, was passing 
 through the United States Circuit Court for the Dis 
 trict of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and lawsuit 
 were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 
 1854. The negro s name was Dred Scott, which name 
 now designates the decision finally made in the case. 
 Before the then next presidential election, the law case 
 came to and was argued in the Supreme Court of the 
 United States; but the decision of it was deferred until 
 after the election. Still, before the election, Senator 
 Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the 
 leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his 
 opinion whether the people of a Territory can consti 
 tutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the 
 latter answered: That is a question for the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 7. "The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, 
 and the indorsement, such as it was secured. That 
 was the second point gained. The indorsement, how 
 ever, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly 
 four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was 
 not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The 
 
236 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 outgoing President, in his last annual message, as 
 impressively as possible echoed back upon the people 
 the weight and authority of the indorsement. The 
 Supreme Court met again; did not announce their 
 decision, but ordered a reargument. The presidential 
 inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; 
 but the incoming President in his inaugural address 
 fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forth 
 coming decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a 
 few days, came the decision. 
 
 8. "The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds 
 an early occasion to make a speech at this capital in 
 dorsing the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently de 
 nouncing all opposition to it. The new President, 
 too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to 
 indorse and strongly construe that decision, and to 
 express his astonishment that any different view had 
 ever been entertained ! 
 
 9. "At length a squabble springs up between the 
 President and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the 
 mere question of fact, whether the Lecompton con 
 stitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by 
 the people of Kansas; and in that quarrel the latter 
 declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, 
 and that he cares not whether slavery be voted down 
 or voted up. I do not understand his declaration that 
 he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted 
 up to be intended by him other than as an apt defini 
 tion of the policy he would impress upon the public 
 mind the principle for which he declares he has suf 
 fered so much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And 
 well may he cling to that principle. If he has any 
 parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That prin 
 ciple is the only shred left of his original Nebraska 
 
HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 237 
 
 doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision squatter 
 sovereignty squatted out of existence, tumbled down 
 like temporary scaffolding, like the mold at the foun 
 dry, served through one blast and fell back into loose 
 sand, helped to carry an election, and then kicked 
 to the winds. His late joint struggle with the Repub 
 licans against the Lecompton constitution involves 
 nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That 
 struggle was made on a point the right of a people 
 to make their own constitution upon which he and 
 the Republicans have never differed. 
 
 10. "The several points of the Dred Scott decision, 
 in connection with Senator Douglas s care not policy, 
 constitute the piece of machinery in its present state 
 of advancement. This was the third point gained. 
 The working points of that machinery are: 
 
 "(1) That no negro slave, imported as such from 
 Africa, and no descendant of such slave, can ever be 
 a citizen of any State, in the sense of that term as used 
 in the Constitution of the United States. This point 
 is made in order to deprive the negro in every possible 
 event of the benefit of that provision of the United 
 States Constitution which declares that the citizens 
 of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and 
 immunities of citizens in the several States. 
 
 "(2) That, subject to the Constitution of the 
 United States, neither Congress nor a territorial legis 
 lature can exclude slavery from any United States 
 Territory. This point is made in order that individual 
 men may fill up the Territories with slaves, without 
 danger of losing them as property and thus enhance 
 the chances of permanency to the institution through 
 all the future. 
 
 " (3) That whether the holding a negro in actual 
 
238 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 slavery in a free State makes him free as against the 
 holder, the United States courts will not decide, but 
 will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave 
 State the negro may be forced into by the master. 
 This point is made not to be pressed immediately, 
 but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently in 
 dorsed by the people at an election, then to sustain 
 the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott s master 
 might lawfully do with Dred Scott in the free State 
 of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with 
 any other one or one thousand slaves in Illinois or in 
 any other free State. 
 
 11. " Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in 
 hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left 
 of it, is to educate and mold public opinion, at least 
 Northern public opinion, not to care whether slavery 
 is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly where 
 we now are, and partially, also, whither we are tend 
 ing. 
 
 "12. It will throw additional light on the latter, to 
 go back and run the mind over the string of historical 
 facts already stated. Several things will now appear 
 less dark and mysterious than they did when they 
 were transpiring. The people were to be left per 
 fectly free/ subject only to the Constitution/ What 
 the Constitution had to do with it outsiders could 
 not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an exactly 
 fitted niche for the Dred Scott decision to afterward 
 come in, and declare the perfect freedom of the people 
 to be just no freedom at all. Why was the amendment 
 expressly declaring the right of the people voted down ? 
 Plainly enough now, the adoption of it would have 
 spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision. Why 
 was the court decision held up ? Why even a senator s 
 
HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 239 
 
 individual opinion withheld till after the presidential 
 election? Plainly enough now, the speaking out then 
 would have damaged the perfectly free argument 
 upon which the election was to be carried. Why the 
 outgoing President s felicitation on the indorsement? 
 Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming 
 President s advance exhortation in favor of the de 
 cision ? These things look like the cautious patting and 
 petting of a spirited horse preparatory to mounting 
 him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider 
 a fall. And why the hasty after-endorsement of the 
 decision by the President and others? 
 
 13. " We cannot absolutely know that all these exact 
 adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when 
 we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of 
 which we know have been gotten out at different times 
 and places and by different workmen, Stephen, 
 Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance, and we 
 see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly 
 make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and 
 mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and pro 
 portions of the different pieces exactly adapted to 
 their respective places, and not a piece too many or 
 too few, not omitting even scaffolding or, if a single 
 piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly 
 fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece in in 
 such a case we find it impossible not to believe that 
 Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all under 
 stood one another from the beginning, and all worked 
 upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the 
 first blow was struck. 
 
 14. "It should not be overlooked that, by the 
 Nebraska bill, the people of a State as well as Terri 
 tory were to be left perfectly free/ subject only to 
 
240 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 the Constitution. 7 Why mention a State? They 
 were legislating for Territories, and not for or about 
 States. Certainly the people of a State are and ought 
 to be subject to the Constitution of the United States; 
 but why is mention of this lugged into this merely 
 territorial law? Why are the people of a Territory 
 and the people of a State therein lumped together, 
 and their relation to the Constitution therein treated 
 as being precisely the same? While the opinion of 
 the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott 
 case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring 
 judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the 
 United States neither permits Congress nor a terri 
 torial legislature to exclude slavery from any United 
 States Territory, they all omit to declare whether or 
 not the same Constitution permits a State, or the 
 people of a State, to exclude it. Possibly, this is a 
 mere omission; but who can be quite sure, if McLean 
 or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declara 
 tion of unlimited power in the people of a State to 
 exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and 
 Mace sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the 
 people of a Territory, into the Nebraska bill I ask, 
 who can be quite sure that it would not have been 
 voted down in the one case as it had been in the other ? 
 The nearest approach to the point of declaring the 
 power of a State over slavery is made by Judge Nelson. 
 He approaches it more than once, using the precise 
 idea, and almost the language too, of the Nebraska 
 act. On one occasion his exact language is: t Except 
 in case where the power is restrained by the Constitu 
 tion of the United States, the law of the State is supreme 
 over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction/ 
 In what cases the power of the States is so restrained by 
 
HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 241 
 
 the United States Constitution is left an open question, 
 precisely as the same question as to the restraint on the 
 power of the Territories was left open in the Nebraska 
 act. Put this and that together, and we have another 
 nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with 
 another Supreme Court decision declaring that the 
 Constitution of the United States does not permit a 
 State to exclude slavery from its limits. And this 
 may especially be expected if the doctrine of care 
 not whether slavery be voted down or voted up shall 
 gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise 
 that such a decision can be maintained when made. 
 
 15. "Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks 
 of being alike lawful in all the States. Welcome, or 
 unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and 
 will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present 
 political dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We 
 shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people 
 of Missouri are on the verge of making their State 
 free, and we shall awake to the reality instead that 
 the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State. 
 To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty is 
 the work now before all those who would prevent that 
 consummation. That is what we have to do. How 
 can we best do it? 
 
 16. " There are those who denounce us openly to 
 their own friends, and yet whisper us softly that Senator 
 Douglas is the aptest instrument there is with which 
 to effect that object. They wish us to infer all from 
 the fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present 
 head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly voted 
 with us on a single point upon which he and we have 
 never differed. They remind us that he is a great man 
 and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let 
 
242 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 this be granted. But a living dog is better than a 
 dead lion/ Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this 
 work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can 
 he oppose the advances of slavery? He don t care 
 anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing 
 the public heart to care nothing about it. A leading 
 Douglas newspaper thinks Douglas s superior talent 
 will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave- 
 trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that 
 trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he 
 really think so ? But if it is, how can he resist it ? For 
 years he has 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 un 
 questionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa 
 than in Virginia. He has done all in his power to re 
 duce 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 protec 
 tion, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition. 
 17. "Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man 
 may rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday 
 that he may rightfully change when he finds himself 
 wrong. But can we, for that reason, run ahead, and 
 infer that he will make any particular change of which 
 he, himself, has given no intimation? Can we safely 
 base our action upon any such vague inference? Now, 
 as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas s 
 position, question his motives, or do aught that can 
 be personally offensive to him. Whenever, if ever, 
 
HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 243 
 
 he and we can come together on principle so that our 
 great cause may have assistance from his great ability, 
 I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. 
 But clearly, he is not now with us he does not pre 
 tend to be he does not promise ever to be. 
 
 18. "Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and 
 conducted by, its own undoubted friends those whose 
 hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do 
 care for the result. Two years ago the Republicans 
 of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand 
 strong. We did this under the single impulse of re 
 sistance to a common danger, with every external 
 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 doubtful. We shall 
 not fail if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise 
 counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but, 
 sooner or later, the victory is sure to come." 
 
 The speech made a " profound impression." But it 
 did much more than that; it was the one speech dis 
 cussed not only in Springfield but throughout Illinois, 
 and more or less throughout the North and even parts 
 of the South. 
 
 Some of the Republicans were considerably dissatis 
 fied with some of the things that Lincoln had said. 
 Some of his most intimate friends remonstrated with 
 him as to his political indiscretion. To one of these 
 critics he said: 
 
 "If I had to draw a pen across my record and erase 
 my whole life from sight and I had one poor gift or 
 
244 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 choice left as to what I should save from the wreck I 
 should choose that speech and leave it to the world 
 unerased." 
 
 In my judgment this speech did more in the making 
 of the man Lincoln, the logician Lincoln, and repre 
 sented more of the lawyer Lincoln and the political 
 general Lincoln than any other speech he ever made. 
 
 This speech was the underpinning of the Lincoln- 
 Douglas debates. In conjunction with the Cooper 
 Union speech, treated in a separate chapter, it had 
 more to do with his nomination for the presidency 
 than any other words he ever uttered. 
 
 Let us analyze the speech as the lawyer and logician 
 uttered it. 
 
 Note that in the very first paragraph of this speech 
 he plants himself squarely upon a proposition from 
 Holy Writ Matthew, 12th chapter, 25th verse: 
 
 " And Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, 
 every kingdom divided against itself is brought to 
 desolation; and every city or house divided against it 
 self shall not stand." 
 
 The verity of that proposition had not been ques 
 tioned for over eighteen centuries and Lincoln did not 
 think it could be successfully questioned now; so he 
 bottomed his great speech upon that elementary prop 
 osition as announced by Jesus of Nazareth when he 
 was reproving the Pharisees of old. As a corollary to 
 that proposition he says : 
 
 " 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 until 
 it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as 
 well as new, North as well as South. 
 
HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 245 
 
 "Have we no tendency to the latter condition?" 
 Here now is his basic proposition: 
 
 1. The "half slave" and "half free" constitute the 
 "divided house." 
 
 2. Such a house cannot stand "it will become all 
 one thing or all the other." 
 
 3. The tendency of the times is to "push it (sla 
 very) forward until it shall become alike lawful in all 
 the States." 
 
 As discussed before, Lincoln s method was so ex 
 ceedingly simple that we naturally overlook it. 
 
 First comes his statement of fact, next his declara 
 tion of the principles involved, then he proceeds to 
 demonstrate the soundness of his position as to the 
 facts and the application of his principles thereto. 
 
 Throughout his public discussions "declaration" 
 comes first, "demonstration" next, and very shortly, 
 if the cause be near his heart as this was, there follows 
 a "dedication" to the cause. 
 
 From the second to the twelfth paragraph, inclusive, 
 he presents his evidence, and then demonstrates the 
 fact to be that there was a "legal combination piece 
 of machinery/ so to speak compounded of the Ne 
 braska doctrine (legislative) and the Dred Scott deci 
 sion" (judicial decree) all adapted to and conducive to 
 such extension and nationalization of slavery. 
 
 Having now laid the groundwork by strong circum 
 stantial proof, he boldly makes the charge contained in 
 paragraph 13 as follows: 
 
 "We cannot absolutely know that all these exact 
 adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when 
 we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of 
 which we know have been gotten out at different times 
 and places and by different workmen, Stephen, Frank- 
 
246 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 lin, Roger, and James, for instance, and we see these 
 timbers joined together, and see they exactly make 
 the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mor 
 tises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions 
 of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respec 
 tive places, and not a piece too many or too few, not 
 omitting even scaffolding or, if a single piece be lack 
 ing, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and 
 prepared yet to bring such piece in in such a case we 
 find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and 
 Franklin and Roger and James all understood one an 
 other from the beginning, and all worked upon a com 
 mon plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was 
 struck." 
 
 That was a heroic thing to say. But Lincoln felt 
 that he had demonstrated it as conclusively as any 
 political policy was capable of demonstration, and 
 suffice it to say, there never was any serious and 
 successful attempt made to answer it. Of course it 
 was categorically denied. The opposition undertook 
 to laugh it out of court, but the charge stuck. It 
 had all the earmarks of truth in it and the people 
 believed it. 
 
 Note the concrete noun that he uses as the base of 
 every thought and then he hitches up to the concrete 
 noun the active verb, so that you get a sort of picture 
 upon the mental screen. In this paragraph you can 
 see the President of the United States, James Buchanan, 
 and his predecessor, Franklin Pierce, confer with the 
 judge of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney, and the 
 Democratic legislative leader, Stephen A. Douglas, co- 
 laboring on a policy to nationalize slavery throughout 
 North and South, East and West. 
 
 In paragraph 14 Lincoln then attacks the Dred Scott 
 
HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 247 
 
 decision, which was a part of this political conspiracy 
 to fasten slavery upon the people against their will. 
 
 The 15th paragraph anticipates another decision to 
 fill "the niche" considerately left open to complete the 
 conspiracy announced in paragraph 13. 
 
 Again, here comes political generalship. Lincoln 
 realized, as no other man did, that great effort would be 
 made in behalf of Senator Douglas, because of his hav 
 ing taken a stand against the Lecompton Constitution 
 and against the administration s effort to have that 
 constitution ratified by the people of Kansas. There 
 fore, some would say that Senator Douglas was "the 
 aptest instrument to overthrow the power of that 
 dynasty," though, as Lincoln charged, he was one of 
 the conspirators to extend and perpetuate the slave 
 power. 
 
 Lincoln aptly asks: 
 
 "How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He 
 don t care anything about it. (Douglas had fre 
 quently said he didn t care whether it was voted up 
 or voted down.) His avowed mission is impressing 
 the public heart to care nothing about it. ... For 
 years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of white 
 men to take negro slaves into the new Territories. 
 Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to 
 buy them where they can be bought cheapest? And 
 unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa 
 than in Virginia. He has done all in his power to 
 reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere 
 right of property." 
 
 Lincoln was determined that the issue should not be 
 misunderstood by the people; that the claim made that 
 Senator Douglas had changed his political views and 
 that he was entitled to change them should not fool 
 
248 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 the people, and upon that proposition he said, in para 
 graph 17: 
 
 " Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may 
 rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday that 
 he may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong. 
 . . . But clearly, he is not now with us he does not 
 pretend to be he does not promise ever to be." 
 
 Lincoln then closes with paragraph 18, which is so 
 important in public leadership on great questions to 
 day that it cannot be too often repeated. He says: 
 
 "Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and con 
 ducted by, its own undoubted friends those whose 
 hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do 
 care for the result. . . . Did we brave all then (two 
 years ago) to falter now ? now, when that same enemy 
 is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result 
 is not doubtful. We shall not fail if we stand firm, 
 we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or 
 mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is 
 sure to come. 7 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 
 
 WHEN is a defeat not a defeat? 
 
 Lincoln s fight for the faith of the fathers in " arresting 
 the further spread of slavery," in placing slavery where 
 it was "in the course of ultimate extinction," had only 
 begun. 
 
 Temporarily it was in abeyance, but as we shall soon 
 see, the smouldering fires would inevitably break forth 
 in the great contest that was unavoidable the cam 
 paign of 1860. 
 
 The real disaster was not to Lincoln s political pros 
 pects, but really to his financial. In a letter to Chair 
 man Judd of the Republican State Committee, written 
 at the close of that campaign in 1858, Lincoln said: 
 
 "I have been on expense so long, without earning 
 anything, that I am absolutely without money now 
 for even household expenses. Still, if you can put in 
 $250 for me towards discharging the debt of the com 
 mittee, I will allow it when you and I settle the private 
 matter between us. This, with what I have already 
 paid, with an outstanding note of mine, will exceed my 
 subscription of $500. 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 than I am. But 
 as I had the post of honor, it is not for me to be over- 
 
 nice." 
 
 249 
 
250 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Herndon, in speaking of his financial situation at 
 this tune, says : * 
 
 "At the time this letter was written his property 
 consisted of the house and lot on which he lived, a few 
 law books and some household furniture. He owned 
 a small tract of land in Iowa which yielded him noth 
 ing, and the annual income from his law practice did 
 not exceed $3,000." 
 
 During the following winter Lincoln prepared a lec 
 ture on " inventions. " After delivering it two or three 
 times it proved such a flat failure that he abandoned 
 the lecture platform. 
 
 Mr. Henry C. Whitney writes: 
 
 "I read in the paper that he had come to either 
 Bloomington or Clinton to lecture, and no one turned 
 out. The paper added that doesn t look much like 
 his being President. I once joked him about it; he 
 said good naturedly, Don t, that plagues me." 
 
 In October, 1859, he received an invitation to go to 
 New York City to deliver a lecture. He accepted the 
 invitation from New York with the suggestion that he 
 would deliver a speech on the political questions of 
 the day some time in the following February. The 
 original plan contemplated a lecture in Mr. Beecher s 
 church in Brooklyn. The change of subject and the 
 change in the spirit of the times led to a choice of 
 Cooper Institute, where the speech was finally given 
 under the auspices of the Young Men s Republican 
 Club. 
 
 As was Lincoln s habit in the preparation of all his 
 public addresses, he devoted himself enthusiastically 
 and painstakingly to the preparation of this speech. 
 He was, in a popular phrase, to invade the "enemy s 
 country." 
 
 * Vol. II, page 157. 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 251 
 
 The culture and scholarship of the East had not been 
 very kindly disposed to the awkward and unschooled 
 "Big Giant" of Illinois. 
 
 Seward, the scholar, the statesman, of broad culture 
 and distinguished public service as governor of the 
 Empire State, and then representing that State in the 
 United States Senate, was the idol of the East. 
 
 To pave the way for his friends who were already 
 organizing for his nomination at Chicago, as the Re 
 publican candidate for President, Lincoln spared 
 neither time nor effort in the preparation of the Cooper 
 Union address, which for political logic, plain, per 
 suasive phrase, bottomed upon indisputable historic 
 fact, has never been excelled. It was to be for the 1 
 East what the Springfield speech of 1858 was for the j 
 West. 
 
 Dressed in a new but ill-fitting suit of clothes, Mr. 
 Lincoln arrived in New York. Probably there never 
 assembled in that great city a more representative 
 audience, in party prominence, general scholarship, 
 business success, and the great middle class from all 
 lines of industry and commerce, than the audience that 
 packed the doors that night to hear the future Presi 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 William Cullen Bryant, then editor of the New York 
 Evening Post, was the presiding officer. Among other 
 things, in introducing Mr. Lincoln, he said: 
 
 "It is a grateful office I perform in introducing to 
 you an eminent citizen of the West, hitherto known to 
 you only by reputation." 
 
 For a fair, full, and forcible statement of the slavery 
 question, as it then presented itself to the American 
 people, upon the eve of a great national campaign, this 
 speech is worthy of reproduction here. 
 
 Senator Douglas, his old-time rival, in a speech at 
 
252 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Columbus, Ohio, delivered the previous fall, used this 
 language: 
 
 "Our Fathers when they framed the government 
 under which we live, understood this question (the 
 question of slavery) just as well, and even better, than 
 we do now." 
 
 This furnished the common ground between Douglas 
 and Lincoln, who were the great political leaders of the 
 West, and led to Lincoln asking this question: Did that 
 understanding of the fathers " forbid the Federal Gov 
 ernment control as to slavery in our Federal terri 
 tories?" 
 
 This great speech contains the best evidence of its 
 own greatness as well as Lincoln s and is given here in 
 full: 
 
 ADDRESS AT COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK, 
 FEBRUARY 27, 1860 
 
 "MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS OF NEW 
 YORK: The facts with which I shall deal this evening 
 are mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new 
 in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall 
 be any novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting the 
 facts, and the inferences and observations following 
 that presentation. In his speech last autumn at Co 
 lumbus, Ohio, as reported in the New York Times, 
 Senator Douglas said: 
 
 " Our fathers, when they framed the government 
 under which we live, understood this question just as 
 well, and even better, than we do now/ 
 
 "I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this 
 discourse. I so adopt it because it furnishes a precise 
 and an agreed starting-point for a discussion between 
 Republicans and that wing of the Democracy headed 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 253 
 
 by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry: 
 What was the understanding those fathers had of the 
 question mentioned ? 
 
 "What is the frame of government under which we 
 live? The answer must be, The Constitution of the 
 United States/ That Constitution consists of the 
 original, framed in 1787, and under which the present 
 government first went into operation, and twelve sub 
 sequently framed amendments, the first ten of which 
 were framed in 1789. 
 
 "Who were our fathers that framed the Constitu 
 tion? I suppose the thirty-nine who signed the 
 original instrument may be fairly called our fathers 
 who framed that part of the present government. It 
 is almost exactly true to say they framed it, and it is 
 altogether true to say they fairly represented the 
 opinion and sentiment of the whole nation at that time. 
 Their names, being familiar to nearly all, and accessible 
 to quite all, need not now be repeated. 
 
 "I take these thirty-nine/ for the present as being 
 our fathers who framed the government under which 
 we live. What is the question which, according to 
 the text, those fathers understood just as well, and 
 even better, than we do now ? 
 
 "It is this: Does the proper division of local from 
 Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, 
 forbid our Federal Government to control as to slavery 
 in our Federal Territories? 
 
 "Upon this, Senator Douglas holds the affirmative, 
 and the Republicans the negative. This affirmation 
 and denial form an issue; and this issue this question 
 is precisely what the text declares our fathers under 
 stood better than we. Let us now inquire whether 
 the thirty-nine, or any of them, ever acted upon this 
 
254 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 question; and if they did, how they acted upon it 
 how they expressed that better understanding. In 
 1784, three years before the Constitution, the United 
 States then owning the Northwestern Territory, and 
 no other, the Congress of the Confederation had before 
 them the question of prohibiting slavery in that Ter 
 ritory; and four of the thirty-nine who afterward 
 framed the Constitution were in that Congress, and 
 voted on that question. Of these Roger Sherman, 
 Thomas Mifflin and Hugh Williamson voted for the 
 prohibition, thus showing that, in their understanding, 
 no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor any 
 thing else, properly forbade the Federal Government 
 control as to slavery in Federal territory. The other 
 of the four, James McHenry, voted against the pro 
 hibition, showing that for some cause he thought it im 
 proper to vote for it. 
 
 "In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the 
 convention was in session framing it, and while the 
 Northwestern Territory still was the only Territory 
 owned by the United States, the same question of pro 
 hibiting slavery in the Territory again came before the 
 Congress of the Confederation; and two more of the 
 thirty-nine who afterward signed the Constitution 
 were in that Congress, and voted on the question. 
 They were William Blount and William Few; and they 
 both voted for the prohibition thus showing that in 
 their understanding no line dividing local from Federal 
 authority, nor anything else, properly forbade the 
 Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal 
 territory. This time the prohibition became a law, 
 being part of what is now well known as the ordinance 
 of 87. 
 
 "The question of Federal control of slavery in the 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 255 
 
 Territories seems not to have been directly before the 
 convention which framed the original Constitution; 
 and hence it is not recorded that the thirty-nine, or 
 any of them, while engaged on that instrument, ex 
 pressed any opinion on that precise question. 
 
 "In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under 
 the Constitution, an act was passed to enforce the 
 ordinance of 87, including the prohibition of slavery 
 in the Northwestern Territory. The bill for this act 
 was reported by one of the thirty-nine Thomas 
 Fitzsimmons, then a member of the House of Repre 
 sentatives from Pennsylvania. It went through all 
 its stages without a word of opposition, and finally 
 passed both branches without ayes and nays, which 
 is equivalent to a unanimous passage. In this Con 
 gress there were sixteen of the thirty-nine fathers who 
 framed the original Constitution. They were John 
 Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, Wm. S. Johnson, Roger 
 Sherman, Robert Morris, Thos. Fitzsimmons, William 
 Few, Abraham Baldwin, Rufus King, William Pater- 
 son, George Clymer, Richard Bassett, George Read, 
 Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll and James Madison. 
 
 "This shows that, in their understanding, no line 
 dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything 
 in the Constitution, properly forbade Congress to 
 prohibit slavery in the Federal territory; else both 
 their fidelity to correct principle, and their oath to 
 support the Constitution, would have constrained 
 them to oppose the prohibition. 
 
 "Again, George Washington, another of the thirty- 
 nine/ was then President of the United States and as 
 such approved and signed the bill, thus completing 
 its validity as a law, and thus showing that, in his 
 understanding, no line dividing local from Federal 
 
256 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 authority, nor anything in the Constitution, forbade 
 the Federal Government to control as to slavery in 
 Federal territory. 
 
 "No great while after the adoption of the original 
 Constitution, North Carolina ceded to the Federal 
 Government the country now constituting the State 
 of Tennessee; and a few years later Georgia ceded 
 that which now constitutes the States of Mississippi 
 and Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was made a 
 condition by the ceding States that the Federal Govern 
 ment should not prohibit slavery in the ceded coun 
 try. Besides this, slavery was then actually in the 
 ceded country. Under these circumstances, Congress, 
 on taking charge of these countries did not absolutely 
 prohibit slavery within them. But they did interfere 
 with it take control of it even there, to a certain 
 extent. In 1798 Congress organized the Territory of 
 Mississippi. In the act of organization they prohibited 
 the bringing of slaves into the Territory from any place 
 without the United States, by fine, and giving freedom 
 to slaves so brought. This act passed both branches 
 of Congress without yeas and nays. In that Congress 
 were three of the thirty-nine who framed the original 
 Constitution. They were John Langdon, George 
 Read, and Abraham Baldwin. They all probably 
 voted for it. Certainly they would have placed their 
 opposition to it upon record if, in their understanding, 
 any line dividing local from Federal authority, or any 
 thing in the Constitution, properly forbade the Federal 
 Government to control as to slavery in Federal terri 
 tory. 
 
 "In 1803 the Federal Government purchased the 
 Louisiana country. Our former territorial acquisitions 
 came from certain of our own States ; but this Louisiana 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 257 
 
 country was acquired from a foreign nation. In 1804 
 Congress gave a territorial organization to that part of 
 it which now constitutes the State of Louisiana. New 
 Orleans, lying within that part, was an old and com 
 paratively large city. There were other considerable 
 towns and settlements, and slavery was extensively and 
 thoroughly intermingled with the people. Congress 
 did not, in the Territorial Act, prohibit slavery; but 
 they did interfere with it take control of it in a 
 more marked and extensive way than they did in the 
 case of Mississippi. The substance of the provision 
 therein made in relation to slaves was: 
 
 "1st. That no slave should be imported into the 
 Territory from foreign parts. 
 
 "2d. That no slave should be carried into it, who 
 had been imported into the United States since the 
 first day of May, 1798. 
 
 "3d. That no slave should be carried into it, except 
 by the owner, and for his own use as a settler; the 
 penalty in all the cases being a fine upon the violator 
 of the law, and freedom to the slave. 
 
 "This act also was passed without ayes or nays. 
 In the Congress which passed it there were two of the 
 1 thirty-nine. They were Abraham Baldwin and 
 Jonathan Dayton. As stated in the case of Mississippi, 
 it is probable they both voted for it. They would not 
 have allowed it to pass without recording their opposi 
 tion to it if, in their understanding, it violated either 
 the line properly dividing local from Federal authority, 
 or any provision of the Constitution. 
 
 "In 1819-20 came and passed the Missouri ques 
 tion. Many votes were taken, by yeas and nays, in 
 both branches of Congress, upon the various phases 
 of the general question. Two of the thirty-nine - 
 
258 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Rufus King and Charles Pinckney were members 
 of that Congress. Mr. King steadily voted for slavery 
 prohibition and against all compromises, while Mr. 
 Pinckney as steadily voted against slavery prohibi 
 tion and against all compromises. By this Mr. King 
 showed that, in his understanding, no line dividing 
 local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Con 
 stitution, was violated by Congress prohibiting slavery 
 in Federal territory; while Mr. Pinckney, by his votes, 
 showed that, in his understanding, there was some 
 sufficient reason for opposing such prohibition in that 
 case. 
 
 "The cases I have mentioned are the only acts of 
 the thirty-nine, or of any of them, upon the direct 
 issue, which I have been able to discover. 
 
 "To enumerate the persons who thus acted as being 
 four in 1784, two in 1787, seventeen in 1789, three in 
 1798, two in 1804, and two in 1819-20, there would 
 be thirty of them. But this would be counting John 
 Langdon, Roger Sherman, William Few, Rufus King, 
 and George Read each twice, and Abraham Baldwin 
 three times. The true number of those of the thirty- 
 nine whom I have shown to have acted upon the ques 
 tion which, by the text, they understood better than 
 we, is twenty-three, leaving sixteen now shown to 
 have acted upon it in any way. 
 
 "Here, then, we have twenty- three out of our thirty- 
 nine fathers who framed the government under which 
 we live/ who have, upon their official responsibility 
 and their corporal oaths, acted upon the very question 
 which the text affirms they understood just as well, 
 and even better, than we do now ; and twenty-one 
 of them a clear majority of the whole thirty-nine 
 so acting upon it as to make them guilty of gross polit- 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 259 
 
 ical impropriety and wilful perjury if, in their under 
 standing, any proper division between local and Federal 
 authority, or anything in the Constitution they had 
 made themselves, and sworn to support, forbade the 
 Federal Government to control as to slavery in the 
 Federal Territories. Thus the twenty-one acted; and, 
 as actions speak louder than words, so actions under 
 such responsibility speak still louder. 
 
 "Two of the twenty-three voted against congres 
 sional prohibition of slavery in the Federal Territories, 
 in the instances in which they acted upon the question. 
 But for what reasons they so voted is not known. They 
 may have done so because they thought a proper divi 
 sion of local from Federal authority, or some provision 
 or principle of the Constitution, stood in the way; or 
 they may, without any such question, have voted 
 against the prohibition on what appeared to them to 
 be sufficient grounds of expediency. No one who has 
 sworn to support the Constitution can conscientiously 
 vote for what he understands to be an unconstitutional 
 measure, however expedient he may think it; but 
 one may and ought to vote against a measure which 
 he deems constitutional if, at the same time, he deems 
 it inexpedient. It, therefore, would be unsafe to set 
 down even the two who voted against the prohibition 
 as having done so because, in their understanding, any 
 proper division of local from Federal authority, or 
 anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal Gov 
 ernment to control as to slavery in Federal territory. 
 
 "The remaining sixteen of the thirty-nine/ so far 
 as I have discovered, have left no record of their un 
 derstanding upon the direct question of Federal control 
 of slavery in the Federal Territories. But there is 
 much reason to believe that their understanding upon 
 
260 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 that question would not have appeared different from 
 that -of their twenty-three compeers, had it been mani 
 fest at all. 
 
 "For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I 
 have purposely omitted whatever understanding may 
 have been manifested by any person, however dis 
 tinguished, other than the thirty-nine fathers who 
 framed the original Constitution; and, for the same 
 reason, I have also omitted whatever understanding 
 may have been manifested by any of the thirty-nine 
 even on any other phase of the general question of 
 slavery. If we should look into their acts and declara 
 tions on those other phases, as the foreign slave-trade, 
 and the morality and policy of slavery generally, it 
 would appear to us that on the direct question of 
 Federal control of slavery in Federal Territories, the 
 sixteen, if they had acted at all, would probably have 
 acted just as the twenty- three did. Among that six 
 teen were several of the most noted antislavery men 
 of those times, as Dr. Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, 
 and Gouverneur Morris, while there was not one 
 now known to have been otherwise, unless it may be 
 John Rutledge, of South Carolina. 
 
 "The sum of the whole is that out of thirty-nine fa 
 thers who framed the original Constitution, twenty-one 
 a clear majority of the whole certainly understood 
 that no proper division of local from Federal authority, 
 nor any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
 Government to control slavery in the Federal Territo 
 ries; while all the rest had probably the same under 
 standing. Such unquestionably was the understanding 
 of our fathers who framed the original Constitution; 
 and the text affirms that they understood the question 
 1 better than we/ * 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 261 
 
 "But, so far, I have been considering the under 
 standing of the question manifested by the framers of 
 the original Constitution. In and by the original in 
 strument, a mode was provided for amending it; and, 
 as I have already stated, the present frame of the gov 
 ernment under which we live consists of that original, 
 and twelve amendatory articles framed and adopted 
 since. Those who now insist that Federal control of 
 slavery in Federal Territories violates the Constitution, 
 point us to the provisions which they suppose it thus 
 violates; and, as I understand, they all fix upon pro 
 visions in these amendatory articles, and not in the 
 original instrument. The Supreme Court, in the Dred 
 Scott case, plant themselves upon the Fifth Amend 
 ment, which provides that no person shall be deprived 
 of life, liberty, or property without due process of 
 law ; while Senator Douglas and his peculiar adherents 
 plant themselves upon the Tenth Amendment, provid 
 ing that the powers not delegated to the United States 
 by the Constitution are reserved to the States re 
 spectively, or to the people. 
 
 "Now, it so happens that these amendments were 
 framed by the first Congress which sat under the Con 
 stitution the identical Congress which passed the 
 act, already mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of 
 slavery in the Northwestern Territory. Not only was 
 it the same Congress, but they were the identical, same 
 individual men who, at the same session, and at the 
 same time within the session, had under consideration, 
 and in progress toward maturity, these constitutional 
 amendments, and this act prohibiting slavery in all the 
 territory the nation then owned. The constitutional 
 amendments were introduced before, and passed after, 
 the act enforcing the ordinance of 87; so that, during 
 
262 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 the whole pendency of the act to enforce the ordinance, 
 the constitutional amendments were also pending. 
 
 "The seventy-six members of that Congress, includ 
 ing sixteen of the framers of the original Constitution, 
 as before stated, were preeminently our fathers who 
 framed that part of the government under which we 
 live which is now claimed as forbidding the Federal 
 Government to control slavery in the Federal Terri 
 tories. 
 
 "Is it not a little presumptuous in any one at this 
 day to affirm that the two things which that Congress 
 deliberately framed, and carried to maturity at the 
 same time, are absolutely inconsistent with each other? 
 And does not such affirmation become impudently ab 
 surd when coupled with the other affirmation, from the 
 same mouth, that those who did the two things alleged 
 to be inconsistent, understood whether they really were 
 inconsistent better than we better than he who affirms 
 that they are inconsistent? 
 
 "It is surely safe to assume that the thirty-nine 
 framers of the original Constitution, and the seventy- 
 six members of the Congress which framed the amend 
 ments thereto, taken together, do certainly include 
 those who may be fairly called l our fathers who framed 
 the government under which we live/ And so assum 
 ing, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, 
 in his whole life, declared that, in his understanding, 
 any proper division of local from Federal authority, 
 or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
 Government to control as to slavery in the Federal 
 Territories. I go a step further. I defy any one to 
 show that any living man in the whole world ever did, 
 prior to the beginning of the present century (and I 
 might almost say prior to the beginning of the last half 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 263 
 
 of the present century), declare that, in his understand 
 ing, any proper division of local from Federal authority, 
 or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
 Government to control as to slavery in the Federal 
 Territories. To those who now so declare I give not 
 only our fathers who framed the government under 
 which we live/ but with them all other living men 
 within the century in which it was framed, among 
 whom to search, and they shall not be able to find the 
 evidence of a single man agreeing with them. 
 
 "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 discard all the lights of current ex 
 perience to reject all progress, all improvement. 
 What I do say is that if we would supplant the opinions 
 and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so 
 upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, 
 that even their great authority, fairly considered and 
 weighed, cannot stand; and most surely not in a case 
 whereof we ourselves declare they understood the 
 question better than we. 
 
 "If any man at this day x sincerely believes that a 
 proper division of local from Federal authority, or any 
 part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Govern 
 ment to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories, 
 he is right to say so, and to enforce his position by all 
 truthful evidence and fair argument which he can. 
 But he has no right to mislead others, who have less 
 access to history, and less leisure to study it, into the 
 false belief that our fathers who framed the govern 
 ment under which we live were of the same opinion 
 thus substituting falsehood and deception for truthful 
 evidence and fair argument. If any man at this day 
 
264 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 sincerely believes our fathers who framed the govern 
 ment under which we live 7 used and applied principles, 
 in other cases, which ought to have led them to under 
 stand that a proper division of local from Federal 
 authority, or some part of the Constitution, forbids the 
 Federal Government to control as to slavery in the 
 Federal Territories, he is right to say so. But he 
 should, at the same time, brave the responsibility of 
 declaring that, in his opinion, he understands their 
 principles better than they did themselves; and espe 
 cially should he not shirk that responsibility by assert 
 ing that they understood the question just as well, 
 and even better, than we do now/ 
 
 "But enough ! Let all who believe that our fathers 
 who framed the government under which we live under 
 stood this question just as well, and even better than 
 we do now/ speak as they spoke, and act as they acted 
 upon it. This is all Republicans ask all Republicans 
 desire in relation to slavery. As those fathers marked 
 it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be ex 
 tended, but to be tolerated and protected only because 
 of and so far as its actual presence among us makes 
 that toleration and protection a necessity. Let all the 
 guaranties those fathers gave it be not grudgingly, but 
 fully and fairly, maintained. For this Republicans 
 contend, and with this, so far as I know or believe, they 
 will be content. 
 
 "And now, if they would listen, as I suppose they 
 will not, I would address a few words to the Southern 
 people. 
 
 "I would say to them: You consider yourselves a 
 reasonable and a just people; and I consider that in the 
 general qualities of reason and justice you are not in 
 ferior to any other people. Still when you speak of us 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 265 
 
 Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, 
 or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will 
 grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing 
 like it to Black Republicans. 7 In all your contentions 
 with one another, each of you deems an unconditional 
 condemnation of Black Republicanism as the first 
 thing to be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation 
 of us seems to be an indispensable prerequisite license, 
 so to speak among you to be admitted or permitted 
 to speak at all. Now can you or not be prevailed upon 
 to pause and to consider whether this is quite just to 
 us, or even to yourselves ? Bring forward your charges 
 and specifications, and then be patient long enough 
 to hear us deny or justify. 
 
 "You say we are sectional. We deny it. That 
 makes an issue; and the burden of proof is upon you. 
 You produce your proof; and what is it? Why, that 
 our party has no existence in your section gets no 
 votes in your section. The fact is substantially true; 
 but does it prove the issue? If it does, then in case 
 we should, without change of principle, begin to get 
 votes in your section, we should thereby cease to be 
 sectional. You cannot escape this conclusion; and yet, 
 are you willing to abide by it? If you are, you will 
 probably soon find that we have ceased to be sectional, 
 for we shall get votes in your section this very year. 
 You will then begin to discover, as the truth plainly is, 
 that your proof does not touch the issue. The fact 
 that we get no votes in your section is a fact of your 
 making, and not of ours. And if there be fault in that 
 fact, that fault is primarily yours, and remains so until 
 you show that we repel you by some wrong principle 
 or practice. If we do repel you by any wrong principle 
 or practice, the fault is ours; but this brings you to 
 
266 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 where you ought to have started to a discussion of 
 the right or wrong of our principle. If our principle, 
 put in practice, would wrong your section for the 
 benefit of ours, or for any other object, then our prin 
 ciple, and we with it, are sectional, and are justly op 
 posed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the 
 question of whether our principle, put in practice, 
 would wrong your section; and so meet us as if it were 
 possible that something may be said on our side. Do 
 you accept the challenge ? No ! Then you really be 
 lieve that the principle which our fathers who framed 
 the government under which we live thought so clearly 
 right as to adopt it, and indorse it again and again, 
 upon their official oaths, is in fact so clearly wrong as 
 to demand your condemnation without a moment s 
 consideration. 
 
 "Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the 
 warning against sectional parties given by Washington 
 in his Farewell Address. Less than eight years before 
 Washington gave that warning, he had, as President 
 of the United States, approved and signed an act of 
 Congress enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the 
 Northwestern Territory, which act embodied the policy 
 of the government upon that subject up to and at the 
 very moment he penned that warning; and about one 
 year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he 
 considered that prohibition a wise measure, expressing 
 in the same connection his hope that we should at 
 some tune have a confederacy of free States. 
 
 "Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism 
 has since arisen upon this same subject, is that warning 
 a weapon in your hands against us, or in our hands 
 against you ? Could Washington himself speak, would 
 he cast the blame of that sectionalism upon us, who 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 267 
 
 sustain his policy, or upon you who repudiate it? We 
 respect that warning of Washington, and we commend 
 it to you, together with his example pointing to the 
 right application of it. 
 
 "But you say you are conservative eminently con 
 servative while we are revolutionary, destructive, or 
 something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it 
 not adherence to the old and tried, against the new 
 and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical 
 old policy on the point in controversy which was 
 adopted by our fathers who framed the government 
 under which we live ; while you with one accord re 
 ject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and in 
 sist upon substituting something new. True, you 
 disagree among yourselves as to what that substitute 
 shall be. You are divided on new propositions and 
 plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and de 
 nouncing the old policy of the fathers. Some of you 
 are for reviving the foreign slave-trade; some for a 
 congressional slave code for the Territories; some for 
 Congress forbidding the Territories to prohibit slavery 
 in the Territories through the judiciary; some for the 
 1 gur-reaLpur-rinciple that if one man would enslave 
 another, no third man should object/ fantastically 
 called popular sovereignty ; but never a man among 
 you is in favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in 
 Federal Territories, according to the practice of our 
 fathers who framed the government under which we 
 live. Not one of all your various plans can show a 
 precedent or an advocate in the century within which 
 our government originated. Consider, then, whether 
 your claim of conservatism for yourselves, and your 
 charge of destructiveness against us, are based on the 
 most clear and stable foundations. 
 
268 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 " Again, you say we have made the slavery question 
 more prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. 
 We admit that it is more prominent, but we deny that 
 we made it so. It was not we, but you, who discarded 
 the old policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still 
 resist, your innovation; and thence comes the greater 
 prominence of the question. Would you have that 
 question reduced to its former proportions? Go back 
 to that old policy. What has been will be again, under 
 the same conditions. If you would have the peace of 
 the old times, readopt the precepts and policy of the 
 old times. 
 
 "You charge that we stir up insurrections among 
 your slaves. We deny it; and what is your proof? 
 Harper s Ferry! John Brown! John Brown was 
 no Republican; and you have failed to 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 the fact. If you do not know it, you are 
 inexcusable for asserting it, and especially for persist 
 ing in the assertion after you have tried and failed to 
 make the proof. You need not be told that persisting 
 in a charge which one does not know to be true, is 
 simply malicious slander. 
 
 "Some of you admit that no Republican designedly 
 aided or encouraged the Harper s Ferry affair, but still 
 insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily 
 lead to such results. We do not believe it. We know 
 we hold no doctrine, and make no declaration, which 
 were not held to and made by our fathers who framed 
 the government under which we live. You never 
 dealt fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 269 
 
 occurred, some important State elections were near 
 at hand, and you were in evident glee with the belief 
 that, by charging the blame upon us, you could get 
 an advantage of us in those elections. The elections 
 came, and your expectations were not quite fulfilled. 
 Every Republican man knew that, as to himself at 
 least, your charge was a slander, and he was not much 
 inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor. Republican 
 doctrines and declarations are accompanied with a 
 continual protest against any interference whatever 
 with your slaves, or with you about your slaves. Surely 
 this does not encourage them to revolt. True, we do, 
 in common with our fathers who framed the govern 
 ment under which we live, declare our belief that 
 slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear us declare 
 even this. For anything we say or do, the slaves would 
 scarcely know there is a Republican party. I believe 
 they would not, in fact, generally know it but for 
 your misrepresentations of us in their hearing. In 
 your political contests among yourselves, each faction 
 charges the other with sympathy with Black Repub 
 licanism; and then, to give point to the charge, de 
 fines Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, 
 blood, and thunder among the slaves. 
 
 " Slave insurrections are no more common now than 
 they were before the Republican party was organized. 
 What induced the Southampton insurrection, twenty- 
 eight years ago, in which at least three times as many 
 lives were lost as at Harper s Ferry? You can scarcely 
 stretch your very elastic fancy to the conclusion that 
 Southampton was got up by Black Republicanism/ 
 In the present state of things in the United States, I 
 do not think a general, or even a very extensive, slave 
 insurrection is possible. The indispensable concert of 
 
270 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 action cannot be attained. The slaves have no means 
 of rapid communication; nor can incendiary freemen, 
 black or white, supply it. The explosive materials 
 are everywhere in parcels; but there neither are, nor 
 can be supplied, the indispensable connecting trains. 
 
 "Much is said by Southern people about the affec 
 tion of slaves for their masters and mistresses; and a 
 part of it, at least, is true. A plot for an uprising could 
 scarcely be devised and communicated to twenty in 
 dividuals before some one of them, to save the life 
 of a favorite master or mistress, would divulge it. This 
 is the rule, and the slave revolution in Hayti was not 
 an exception to it, but a case occurring under peculiar 
 circumstances. The gunpowder plot of British history, 
 though not connected with slaves, was more in point. 
 In that case, only about twenty were admitted to the 
 secret; and yet one of them, in his anxiety to save a 
 friend, betrayed the plot to that friend, and, by con 
 sequence, averted the calamity. Occasional poisonings 
 from the kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations 
 in the field, and local revolts extending to a score or 
 so, will continue to occur as the natural results of 
 slavery; but no general insurrection of slaves, as I 
 think, can happen in this country for a long time. Who 
 ever much fears, or much hopes, for such an event, 
 will be alike disappointed. 
 
 "In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many 
 years ago, It is still in our power to direct the process 
 of emancipation and deportation peaceably, and in 
 such slow degrees, as that the evil will wear off insen 
 sibly; and their places be, pari passu, filled up by free 
 white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force 
 itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect 
 held up. 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 271 
 
 "Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that 
 the power of emancipation is in the Federal Govern 
 ment. He spoke of Virginia; and, as to the power of 
 emancipation, I speak of the slave-holding States only. 
 The Federal Government, however, as we insist, has 
 the power of restraining the extension of the institu 
 tion the power to insure that a slave insurrection 
 shall never occur on any American soil which is now 
 free from slavery. 
 
 "John Brown s effort was peculiar. It was not a 
 slave insurrection. 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 enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people 
 till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to 
 liberate them. He ventures the attempt, which ends 
 in little else than his own execution. 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 Eng 
 land in the one case, and on New England in the other, 
 does not disprove the sameness of the two things. 
 
 "And how much would it avail you, if you could, 
 by the use of John Brown, Helper s Book, and the like 
 break up the Republican organization? Human action 
 can be modified to some extent, but human nature 
 cannot be changed. There is a judgment and a feeling 
 against slavery in this nation, which cast at least a 
 million and a half of votes. You cannot destroy that 
 judgment and feeling that sentiment by breaking 
 
272 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 up the political organization which rallies around it. 
 You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which 
 has been formed into order in the face of your heaviest 
 fire; but if you could, how much would you gain by 
 forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peace 
 ful channel of the ballot-box into some other channel? 
 What would that other channel probably be? Would 
 the number of John Browns be lessened or enlarged by 
 the operation? 
 
 "But you will break up the Union rather than sub 
 mit to a denial of your constitutional rights. 
 
 "That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would 
 be palliated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, 
 by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some 
 right plainly written down in the Constitution. But 
 we are proposing no such thing. 
 
 "When you make these declarations you have a 
 specific and well-understood allusion to an assumed 
 constitutional right of yours to take slaves into the 
 Federal Territories, and to hold them there as property. 
 But no such right is specifically written in the Consti 
 tution. That instrument is literally silent about any 
 such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such a 
 right has any existence in the Constitution, even by 
 implication. 
 
 "Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will 
 destroy the government, unless you be allowed to 
 construe and force the Constitution as you please, on 
 all points in dispute between you and us. You will 
 rule or ruin in all events. 
 
 "This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps 
 you will say the Supreme Court has decided the dis 
 puted constitutional question in your favor. Not quite 
 so. But waiving the lawyer s distinction between die- 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 273 
 
 turn and decision, the court has decided the question 
 for you in a sort of way. The court has substantially 
 said, it is^xDurlTonstitutional right to take slaves into 
 the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as 
 property. When I say the decision was made in a 
 sort of way, I mean it was made in a divided court, by 
 a bare majority of the judges, and they not quite agree 
 ing with one another in the reasons for making it; that 
 it is so made as that its avowed supporters disagree 
 with one another about its meaning, and that it was 
 mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact the 
 statement in the opinion that the right of property in 
 a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Con 
 stitution. 
 
 "An inspection of the Constitution will show that 
 the right of property in a slave is not distinctly and 
 expressly affirmed in it. Bear in mind, the judges do 
 not pledge their judicial opinion that such right is im- 
 pliedly affirmed in the Constitution; but they pledge 
 their veracity that it is distinctly and expressly 
 affirmed there distinctly, that is, not mingled with 
 anything else expressly, that is, in words meaning 
 just that, without the aid of any inference, and sus 
 ceptible of no other meaning. 
 
 "If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that 
 such right is affirmed in the instrument by implication, 
 it would be open to others to show that neither the 
 word slave nor slavery is to be found in the Con 
 stitution, nor the word property even, in any con 
 nection with language alluding to the things slave or 
 slavery; and that wherever in that instrument the 
 slave is alluded to, he is called a person ; and wher 
 ever his master s legal right in relation to him is alluded 
 to, it is spoken of as service or labor which may be 
 
274 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 due as a debt payable in service or labor. Also it 
 would be open to show, by contemporaneous history, 
 that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, in 
 stead of speaking of them, was employed on purpose to 
 exclude from the Constitution the idea that there 
 could be property in man. 
 
 "To show all this is easy and certain. 
 
 "When this obvious mistake of the judges shall be 
 brought to their notice, is it not reasonable to expect 
 that they will withdraw the mistaken statement, and 
 reconsider the conclusion based upon it? 
 
 "And then it is to be remembered that our fathers 
 who framed the government under which we live - 
 the men who made the Constitution decided this 
 same constitutional question in our favor long ago: 
 decided it without division among themselves when 
 making the decision; without division among them 
 selves about the meaning of it after it was made, and, 
 so far as any evidence is left, without basing it upon 
 any mistaken statement of facts. 
 
 "Under all these circumstances, do you really feel 
 yourselves justified to break up this government unless 
 such a court decision as yours is shall be at once sub 
 mitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political 
 action? But you will not abide the election of a Re 
 publican president ! In that supposed event, you say, 
 you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great 
 crime of having destroyed it will be upon us. That is 
 cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and 
 mutters through his teeth, Stand and deliver, or I 
 shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer ! 
 
 "To be sure, what the robber demanded of me my 
 money was my own; and I had a clear right to keep 
 it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 275 
 
 own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my 
 money, and the threat of destruction of the Union, to 
 extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in prin 
 ciple. 
 
 "A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly 
 desirable that all parts of this great Confederacy shall 
 be at peace, and in harmony one with another. Let 
 us Republicans do our part to have it so. Even though 
 much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and 
 ill temper. Even though the Southern people will not 
 so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider then 1 de 
 mands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of 
 our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say 
 and do, and by the subject and nature of their contro 
 versy with us, let us determine, if we can, what will 
 satisfy them. 
 
 "Will they be satisfied if the Territories be uncondi 
 tionally surrendered to them? We know they will not. 
 In all their present complaints against us, the Terri 
 tories are scarcely mentioned. Invasions and insur 
 rections are the rage now. Will it satisfy them if, in 
 the future, we have nothing to do with invasions and 
 insurrections? We know it will not. We so know, 
 because we know we never had anything to do with 
 invasions and insurrections; and yet this total abstain 
 ing does not exempt us from the charge and the de 
 nunciation. 
 
 "The question recurs, What will satisfy them? 
 Simply this: we must not only let them alone, but we 
 must somehow convince them that we do let them 
 alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. 
 We have been so trying to convince them from the very 
 beginning of our organization, but with no success. In 
 all our platforms and speeches we have constantly pro- 
 
276 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 tested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had 
 no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to 
 convince them is the fact that they have never detected 
 a man of us in any attempt to disturb them. 
 
 " These natural and apparently adequate means all 
 failing, what will convince them ? This, and this only : 
 cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it 
 right. And this must be done thoroughly done in 
 acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated 
 we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Sen 
 ator Douglas s new sedition law must be enacted and 
 enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery is 
 wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, 
 or in private. We must arrest and return fugitive 
 slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our 
 free-State constitutions. The whole atmosphere must 
 be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, 
 before they will cease to believe that all their troubles 
 proceed from us. 
 
 "I am quite aware they do not state their case pre 
 cisely in this way. Most of them would probably say 
 to us, Let us alone; do nothing to us, and say what 
 you please about slavery. 7 But we do let them alone, 
 have never disturbed them, so that, after all, it is 
 what we say which dissatisfies them. They will con 
 tinue to accuse us of doing, until we cease saying. 
 
 "I am also aware they have not as yet in terms de 
 manded the overthrow of our free-State constitutions. 
 Yet those constitutions declare the wrong of slavery 
 with more solemn emphasis than do all other sayings 
 against it; and when all these other sayings shall have 
 been silenced, the overthrow of these constitutions will 
 be demanded, and nothing be left to resist the demand. 
 It is nothing to the contrary that they do not demand 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 277 
 
 the whole of this just now. Demanding what they do, 
 and for the reason they do, they can voluntarily stop 
 nowhere short of this consummation. Holding, as they 
 do, that slavery is morally right and socially elevating, 
 they cannot cease to demand a full national recognition 
 of it as a legal right and a social blessing. 
 
 "Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground 
 save our conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery 
 is right, all words, acts, laws, and constitutions against 
 it are themselves wrong and should be silenced and 
 swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to 
 its nationality, its universality; if it is wrong, they 
 cannot justly insist upon its extension its enlarge 
 ment. All they ask we could readily grant, if we 
 thought slavery right; all we ask they could as readily 
 grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it 
 right and our thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon 
 which depends the whole controversy. Thinking it 
 right, as they do, they are not to blame for desiring its 
 full recognition as being right; but thinking it wrong, 
 as we do, can we yield to them? Can we cast our 
 votes with their view, and against our own ? In view 
 of our moral, social, and political responsibilities, can 
 we do this? 
 
 "Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford 
 to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to 
 the necessity arising from its actual presence in the 
 nation; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, 
 allow it to spread into the national Territories, and 
 to overrun us here in these free States? If our sense 
 of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty 
 fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none 
 of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are 
 so industriously plied and belabored contrivances 
 
278 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 such as groping for some middle ground between the 
 right and the wrong: vain as the search for a man 
 who should be neither a living man nor a dead man; 
 such as a policy of don t care on a question about 
 which all true men do care; such as Union appeals 
 beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, 
 reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, 
 but the righteous to repentance; such as invocations 
 to Washington, imploring men to unsay what Wash 
 ington said and undo what Washington did. 
 
 " Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false 
 accusations against us, nor frightened from it by 
 menaces of destruction to the government, nor of 
 dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right 
 makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare 
 to do our duty as we understand it." 
 
 Holland, who wrote only five years after the de 
 livery of this speech, says concerning it: 
 
 "The papers of the city were full of his address and 
 with comments upon it the next day. The Illinois 
 lawyer was a lion. Critics read the speech, and mar 
 velled at its pure and compact English, its felicity of 
 statement and its faultless logic. It was read during 
 the day not only by New York but by nearly all New 
 England." 
 
 Greeley wrote of Lincoln s Cooper Institute speech: 
 
 "I do not hesitate to pronounce Mr. Lincoln s speech 
 at Cooper Institute at New York in the spring of 1860 
 the very best political address to which I have ever 
 listened, and I have heard some of Webster s grandest. 
 As a literary effort it would not of course bear com 
 parison with many of Webster s speeches; but re 
 garded simply as an effort to convince the largest pos 
 sible number that they ought to be on the speaker s 
 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 279 
 
 side, and not on the other, I do not hesitate to pro 
 nounce it unsurpassed." 
 
 Shortly thereafter he made a tour through New 
 England, speaking in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and 
 New Hampshire. His tour was a continued triumph, 
 and doubtless had much to do with his nomination 
 for the presidency at Chicago in the following June. 
 
 The other day I met my old friend, General Robert 
 P. Kennedy of Bellefontaine, Ohio. In 1860 he was 
 a student at Yale College, New Haven, and heard 
 Mr. Lincoln make his great speech in that city. He 
 told me what a wonderful impression the speech made 
 upon him as a college youth, and how distinctly he 
 remembered a few of the sentences of that speech, 
 which are not contained in the official report, but which 
 I have no doubt Abraham Lincoln delivered, because 
 the language and thought is so clearly Lincolnesque. 
 
 "I hold this truth to be self evident: What is right 
 in Connecticut is right in South Carolina. What is 
 wrong in Connecticut is wrong in South Carolina. I 
 hold human slavery to be wrong in Connecticut and 
 I hold human slavery to be wrong, eternally wrong, 
 in South Carolina." 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 LINCOLN S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 THE time 1 P. M., March 4, 1861. The place- 
 east portico of Capitol, Washington, D. C. The as 
 semblage President Buchanan, judges of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, United States senators, 
 members of the House of Representatives, governors 
 of the States, foreign ambassadors and diplomats, 
 heads of governmental departments, and a great crowd 
 of political admirers and adversaries gathered to see 
 and hear the new President of the United States. 
 
 Three of the nation s most distinguished men 
 representing the three great departments of the govern 
 ment stood in the foreground of this immortal assem 
 blage: Abraham Lincoln, the chief executive elect, 
 Roger B. Taney, the chief justice of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, Stephen A. Douglas, a 
 leading member of the United States Senate and de 
 feated Democratic candidate for the presidency of 
 the United States, standing at Lincoln s side, holding 
 his hat. 
 
 We are reminded here of 1858 when these same 
 three persons were in the limelight of the political 
 arena, not because conditions are the same, but, upon 
 the contrary, because they are so different. Then 
 Douglas was the victor, Lincoln the vanquished; 
 Taney, through the Dred Scott decision, vindicated. 
 To-day, Douglas was the vanquished, Lincoln the 
 victor, and Taney was regretfully administering the 
 
 280 
 
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 281 
 
 oath of office to the new President of the United States, 
 Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. 
 
 Surely, the wheel of fate had pitilessly reversed the 
 order of things in two and a half short years. 
 
 The oath being administered, Lincoln began his re 
 markable inaugural address. But a few preliminary 
 words should be written before we are ready for this 
 address. 
 
 Lincoln s mental make-up, with his experience as 
 a lawyer and party leader, required him first of all to 
 make a survey of the whole national situation, as it 
 would present itself to him on the 4th of March, 1861. 
 This he proceeded to do shortly after the election. 
 
 What was to be the policy of the new administra 
 tion with reference to the political situation in which 
 the new President would find himself upon taking the 
 reins of power? 
 
 Again we see Lincoln taking his compass and chain 
 and making his survey, through his first inaugural 
 address an address that dwelt on the most critical 
 and difficult situation ever presented to an incoming 
 President, whose sceptre of power was to be delayed 
 for four months following his election. In the meantime 
 one political complication after another was develop 
 ing as fast as the daily press could record it. 
 
 It will be interesting for the reader to know that 
 that inaugural address, save the concluding paragraphs, 
 was Lincoln s own. He prepared it in Springfield 
 without assistance or consultation from either personal 
 friend or political adviser. 
 
 Herndon, his law partner, furnishes the following 
 very interesting account of the preparation of that 
 address:* 
 
 * Herndon, vol. II, p. 188. 
 
282 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 "When, therefore, he began on his inaugural speech 
 (late in January) he told me what works he intended 
 to consult. I looked for a long list, but when he went 
 over it I was greatly surprised. He asked me to furnish 
 him with Henry Clay s great speech delivered in 1850; 
 Andrew Jackson s proclamation against Nullification; 
 and a copy of the Constitution. He afterwards called 
 for Webster s reply to Hayne, a speech which he read 
 when he lived at New Salem, and which he always 
 regarded as the grandest specimen of American ora 
 tory. With these few volumes/ and no further sources 
 of reference, he locked himself up in a room upstairs over 
 a store across the street from the State House, and 
 there, cut off from all communication and intrusion, 
 he prepared the address. Though composed amid 
 the unromantic surroundings of a dingy, dusty, and 
 neglected back room, the speech has become a memo 
 rable document. Posterity will assign to it a high rank 
 among historical utterances; and it will ever bear 
 comparison with the efforts of Washington, Jefferson, 
 Adams, or any that preceded its delivery from the 
 steps of the national Capitol." 
 
 Once upon a time Herndon was asked what, if any 
 thing, he had to do with the preparation of that ad 
 dress, to which he replied: 
 
 "You don t understand Mr. Lincoln. No man ever 
 asked less aid than he ; his confidence in his own ability 
 to meet the requirements of every hour was so marked 
 that his friends never thought of tendering their aid, 
 and therefore no one could share his responsibilities. 
 I never wrote a line for him; he never asked me to. 
 I was never conscious of having exerted any influence 
 over him. He often called out my views on some phil 
 osophical question, simply because I was a fond student 
 
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 283 
 
 of philosophy, and conceding that I had given the sub 
 ject more attention than he; he often asked as to the 
 use of a word or the turn of a sentence, but if I volun 
 teered to recommend or even suggest a change of lan 
 guage which involved a change of sentiment I found 
 him the most inflexible man I have ever seen." 
 The first inaugural address is as follows: 
 
 " Fellow-Citizens of the United States: In compliance 
 with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear 
 before you to address you briefly, and to take in your 
 presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the 
 United States to be taken by the President before he 
 enters on the execution of his office. 
 
 "I do not consider it necessary at present for me to 
 discuss those matters of administration about which 
 there is no special anxiety or excitement. 
 
 " Apprehension seems to exist among the people of 
 the Southern States that by the accession of a Re 
 publican administration their property and their peace 
 and personal security are to be endangered. There has 
 never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. 
 Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has 
 all the while existed and been open to their inspection. 
 It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him 
 who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of 
 those speeches when I declare that I have no purpose, 
 directly or indirectly, to 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. Those who nominated and elected me did 
 so with full knowledge that I had made this and many 
 similar declarations, and had never recanted them. 
 
 "And, more than this, they placed in the platform 
 
284 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to 
 me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now 
 read: 
 
 "Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the 
 rights of the States, and especially the right of each 
 State to order and control its own domestic institutions 
 according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential 
 to that balance of power on which the perfection and 
 endurance of our political fabric depend, and we de 
 nounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil 
 of any State or Territory, no matter under what pre 
 text, as among the gravest of crimes. 7 
 
 "I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, 
 I only press upon the public attention the most con 
 clusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that 
 the property, peace, and security of no section are to 
 be in any wise endangered by the now incoming ad 
 ministration. I add, too, that all the protection which, 
 consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can 
 be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States when 
 lawfully demanded, for whatever cause as cheerfully 
 to one section as to another. 
 
 " There is much controversy about the delivering up 
 of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now 
 read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any 
 other of its provisions: 
 
 " No person held to service or labor in one State, 
 under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in 
 consequence of any law or regulation therein be dis 
 charged from such service or labor, but shall be deliv 
 ered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
 labor may be due. 
 
 "It is scarcely questioned that this provision was 
 intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of 
 
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 285 
 
 what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the 
 lawgiver is the law. All members of Congress swear 
 their support to the whole Constitution to this pro 
 vision as much as to any other. To the proposition, 
 then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of 
 this clause shall be delivered up/ their oaths are 
 unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in 
 good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanim 
 ity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep 
 good that unanimous oath? 
 
 " There is some difference of opinion whether this 
 clause should be enforced by national or by State 
 authority; but surely that difference is not a very ma 
 terial one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be 
 of but little consequence to him or to others by which 
 authority it is done. And should any one in any case 
 be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely 
 unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept? 
 
 " Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all 
 the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane 
 jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a freeman be 
 not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? And might 
 it not be well at the same time to provide by law for 
 the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution 
 which guarantees that the citizen of each State shall 
 be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens 
 in the several States ? 
 
 1 i I take the official oath to-day with no mental reser 
 vations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitu 
 tion or laws by any hypercritical rules. And while I 
 do not choose now to specify particular acts of Con 
 gress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will 
 be much safer for all, both in official and private sta 
 tions, to conform to and abide by all those acts which 
 
286 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting 
 to find impunity in having them held to be unconsti 
 tutional. 
 
 "It is seventy- two years since the first inauguration 
 of a President under our National Constitution. Dur 
 ing that period fifteen different and greatly distin 
 guished citizens have, in succession, administered the 
 executive branch of the government. They have con 
 ducted it through many perils, and generally with great 
 success. Yet, with all this scope of precedent, I now 
 enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional 
 term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. 
 A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only 
 menaced, is now formidably attempted. 
 
 "I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and 
 of the Constitution, the Union of these States is per 
 petual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the 
 fundamental law of all national governments. It is 
 safe to assert that no government proper ever had a 
 provision in its organic law for its own termination. 
 
 "Continue to execute all the express provisions of 
 our National Constitution, and the Union will endure 
 forever it being impossible to destroy it except by 
 some action not provided for in the instrument it 
 self. 
 
 "Again, if the United States be not a government 
 proper, but an association of States in the nature of 
 contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably un 
 made by less than all the parties who made it? One 
 party to a contract may violate it break it, so to 
 speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? 
 
 "Descending from these general principles, we find 
 the proposition that, in legal contemplation, the Union 
 is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union 
 
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 287 
 
 itself. The Union is much older than the Constitu 
 tion. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Asso 
 ciation in 1774. It was matured and continued by 
 the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was fur 
 ther matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen 
 States expressly plighted and engaged that it should 
 be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. 
 And, finally, in 1787 one of the declared objects for 
 ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to 
 form a more perfect Union. 
 
 "But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a 
 part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union 
 is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost 
 the vital element of perpetuity. 
 
 "It follows from these views that no State upon its 
 own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; 
 that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally 
 void; and that acts of violence, within any State or 
 States, against the authority of the United States, are 
 insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circum 
 stances. 
 
 "I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitu 
 tion and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the 
 extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitu 
 tion itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of 
 the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. 
 Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part ; 
 and I shall perform it so far as practicable, unless my 
 rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold 
 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. 
 
288 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 "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 
 invasion, no using of force against or among the people 
 anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in 
 any interior locality, shall be so great and universal 
 as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding 
 the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force 
 obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. 
 While the strict legal right may exist in the government 
 to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to 
 do so would be so irritating, and so nearly imprac 
 ticable withal, that I deem it better to forego for the 
 time the uses of such offices. 
 
 "The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be 
 furnished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible, 
 the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect 
 security which is most favorable to calm thought and 
 reflection. The course here indicated will be followed 
 unless current events and experience shall show a 
 modification or change to be proper, and in every case 
 and exigency my best discretion will be exercised ac 
 cording to circumstances actually existing; and with 
 a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national 
 troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies 
 and affections. 
 
 "That there are persons in one section or another 
 who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are 
 glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor 
 deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to 
 
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 289 
 
 them. To those, however, who really love the Union 
 may I not speak? 
 
 " Before entering upon so grave a matter as the de 
 struction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, 
 its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to 
 ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard 
 so desperate a step while there is any possibility that 
 any portion of the ills you fly from have no real exist 
 ence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are 
 greater than all the real ones you fly from will you 
 risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? 
 
 "All profess to be content in the Union if all con 
 stitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, 
 that any right, plainly written in the Constitution, 
 has been denied? I think not. Happily the human 
 mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the 
 audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single 
 instance in which a plainly written provision of the 
 Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere 
 force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority 
 of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, 
 in a moral point of view, justify revolution certainly 
 would if such a right were a vital one. But such is 
 not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of 
 individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirma 
 tions and negations, guarantees and prohibitions, in 
 the Constitution, that controversies never arise con 
 cerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed 
 with a provision specifically applicable to every ques 
 tion which may occur in practical administration. No 
 foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reason 
 able length contain, express provisions for all possible 
 questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered 
 by national or by State authority? The Constitution 
 
290 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery 
 in the Territories ? The Constitution does not expressly 
 say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Territories ? 
 The Constitution does not expressly say. 
 
 "From questions of this class spring all our con 
 stitutional controversies, and we divide upon them 
 into majorities and minorities. If the minority will 
 not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government 
 must cease. There is no other alternative; for con 
 tinuing the government is acquiescence on one side 
 or the other. 
 
 "If a minority in such case will secede rather than 
 acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will 
 divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own will 
 secede from them whenever a majority refuses to 
 be controlled by such minority. For instance, why 
 may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or 
 two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as a por 
 tion of the present Union now claim to secede from it ? 
 All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being 
 educated to the exact temper of doing this. 
 
 "Is there such perfect identity of interests among 
 the States to compose a new Union, as to produce 
 harmony only, and prevent renewed secession? 
 
 "Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence 
 of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitu 
 tional checks and limitations, and always changing 
 easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and 
 sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. 
 Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy 
 or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible; the rule 
 of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly 
 inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, 
 anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. 
 
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 291 
 
 "I do not forget the position, assumed by some, 
 that constitutional questions are to be decided by the 
 Supreme Court; nor do I deny that such decisions 
 must be binding, in any case, upon the parties to a 
 suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also 
 entitled to very high respect and consideration in all 
 parallel cases by all other departments of the govern 
 ment. And while it is obviously possible that such 
 decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the 
 evil effect following it, being limited to that particular 
 case, with the chance that it may be overruled and 
 never become a precedent for other cases, can better 
 be borne than could the evils of a different practice. 
 
 "At the same time, the candid citizen must confess 
 that if the policy of the government, upon vital ques 
 tions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably 
 fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant 
 they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties 
 in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be 
 their own rulers, having to that extent practically 
 resigned their government into the hands of that emi 
 nent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault 
 upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which 
 they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought 
 before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek 
 to turn their decisions to political purposes. 
 
 l One section of our country believes slavery is right, 
 and ought to be extended, while the other believes it 
 is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the 
 only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause 
 of the Constitution, and the law for the suppression 
 of the foreign slave-trade, are each as well enforced, 
 perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where 
 the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports 
 
292 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 the law itself. The great body of the people abide by 
 the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break 
 over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured; 
 and it would be worse in both cases after the separa 
 tion of the sections than before. The foreign slave- 
 trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately 
 revived, without restriction, in one section, while fugi 
 tive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not 
 be surrendered at all by the other. 
 
 " Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We can 
 not remove our respective sections from each other, 
 nor build an impassable wall between them. A hus 
 band and wife may be divorced, and go out of the pres 
 ence and beyond the reach of each other; but the 
 different parts of our country cannot do this. They 
 cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either 
 amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is 
 it possible, then, to make that intercourse more ad 
 vantageous or more satisfactory after separation than 
 before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends 
 can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully en 
 forced between aliens than laws can among friends? 
 Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and 
 when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on 
 either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions 
 as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. 
 
 "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the 
 people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow 
 weary of the existing government, they can exercise 
 their constitutional right of amending it, or their revo 
 lutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot 
 be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic 
 citizens are desirous of having the National Constitu 
 tion amended. While I make no recommendation of 
 
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 293 
 
 amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority 
 of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised 
 in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument 
 itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, 
 favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being af 
 forded the people to act upon it. I will venture to 
 add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, 
 in that it allows amendments to originate with the 
 people themselves, instead of only permitting them 
 to take or reject propositions originated by others not 
 specially chosen for the purpose, and which might 
 not be precisely such as they would wish to either ac 
 cept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment 
 to the Constitution which amendment, however, I 
 have not seen has passed Congress, to the effect that 
 the Federal Government shall never interfere with 
 the domestic institutions of the States, including that 
 of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction 
 of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to 
 speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, 
 holding such a provision to now be implied constitu 
 tional law, I have no objection to its being made ex 
 press and irrevocable. 
 
 "The chief magistrate derives all his authority from 
 the people, and they have conferred none upon him to 
 fix terms for the separation of the States. The people 
 themselves can do this also if they choose; but the 
 executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty 
 is to administer the present government, as it came to 
 his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to 
 his successor. 
 
 "Why should there not be a patient confidence in 
 the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better 
 or equal hope in the world? In our present differences 
 
294 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 is either party without faith of being in the right ? If 
 the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth 
 and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours 
 of the South, that truth and that justice will surely 
 prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the 
 American people. 
 
 "By the frame of the government under which we 
 live, this same people have wisely given their public 
 servants but little power for mischief; and have, with 
 equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to 
 their own hands at very short intervals. While the 
 people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administra 
 tion, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very 
 seriously injure the government in the short space of 
 four years. 
 
 "My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well 
 upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be 
 lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry 
 any of you in hot haste to a step which you would 
 never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated 
 by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated 
 by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have 
 the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive 
 point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the 
 new administration will have no immediate power, if 
 it would, to change either. If it were admitted that 
 you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dis 
 pute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate 
 action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a 
 firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this 
 favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best 
 way all our present difficulty. 
 
 "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
 and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
 
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 295 
 
 The government will not assail you. You can have no 
 conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You 
 have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the gov 
 ernment, 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 chord of memory, stretching 
 from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living 
 heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet 
 swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as 
 surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 
 
 Here was the chart for the sailing of the ship of state 
 under its new captain, Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 It is a model for clearness, consistency, patience, and 
 patriotism, even in temper and exact in justice to 
 South no less than North. 
 
 He contended that the South had neither consti 
 tutional right nor consistent reason for attempting to 
 secede and organize an independent government. 
 
 And yet, he did not speak of " treason" or " rebellion" 
 or any other words that might fan the flames of sec 
 tional hate. Its effect upon the North and upon the 
 border States was most favorable, but in the South it 
 was received with taunts and jeers. 
 
 Greeley s New York Tribune said, March 5: 
 
 "It is marked by no feeble expression. He who 
 runs may read it and to twenty millions of people it 
 will carry the tidings, good or not, as the case may be, 
 that the Federal government of the United States is 
 still in existence with a man at the head of it." 
 
 After all, the address itself must be read and reread 
 and studied and restudied to see and sense its clear- 
 
296 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 ness of statement, calmness, and the conclusiveness of 
 its course of reasoning. 
 
 The South, however, had gotten beyond the realm 
 of reason. Its leaders had fanned it into a fury, hot 
 with hate. 
 
 With what delicacy and tenderness Lincoln treats 
 them in his final appeal for the Union. 
 
 Lincoln s fame as statesman and patriot may well 
 rest upon his first inaugural address. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 LINCOLN THE LEADER 
 
 "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." 
 II Sam. 24 : 3. 
 
 OUR own experience, confirmed by the records of 
 history, demonstrate that leaders are born, not made. 
 Men and birds and beasts, indeed almost all living 
 creatures, have their leaders, and in most cases they 
 lead because they are the best qualified to lead. This 
 is peculiarly true as to the leaders of public thought. 
 
 Evidences of Lincoln s leadership appeared at a 
 comparatively early date. The children of the neigh 
 borhood looked to him to furnish their entertainment 
 by speech or story. The grown-ups looked upon him 
 as a boy of unusual education, in that he could write 
 and write well, and accordingly they called upon him 
 to attend to much of their correspondence, for writing 
 in that day was a rather unusual accomplishment in 
 his community. 
 
 In all the games in which he was not a participant 
 for honors, from a boxing or wrestling match to a 
 horse race, he was always chosen as referee, umpire, 
 judge. Such was his universal reputation for fairness 
 and fearlessness that his judgments and decisions were 
 rarely, if ever, questioned. 
 
 His great physical strength, his skill with the maul 
 and the ax and the scythe, gave him front rank in 
 every community in which he lived as boy and youth. 
 These qualities at that age were peculiarly marks of 
 excellence and superiority. 
 
 297 
 
298 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Unusual respect and even veneration was paid his 
 physical powers, as well as his mental capacity. He 
 was a helper to every one that was in need, from the 
 humblest housewife to the biggest farmer in the com 
 munity, with a gentleness, a kindness, a gratitude not 
 ordinarily found in giants. He was friend of every 
 body and enemy of nobody. Even as a boy it could 
 well be said of him that he always had " charity for 
 all and malice toward none/ 7 
 
 The "people" at Gentryville, the "folks" at New 
 Salem, all seemed to see in this boy and youth one of 
 their own kind. He was born of them, and among 
 them, and in some way or other he just seemed to " be 
 long." He emulated their virtues, eschewed their 
 vices, and yet maintained the respect and good-will 
 of all. 
 
 We remember how he was chosen captain in the 
 Black Hawk War in 1832 over an older and more ex 
 perienced man, Kilpatrick. The people did it. They 
 believed in him and wanted to honor him. 
 
 We remember how, though a Whig, he was appointed 
 postmaster at New Salem in 1833 by President Jack 
 son, a Democrat, because the people wanted him and 
 generally recommended him. 
 
 We remember how he rose to leadership in the gen 
 eral assembly of Illinois, so that he was the unanimous 
 choice of his party for speaker of the House in 1838 
 and again in 1840. He was recognized as the Whig 
 party leader of Illinois in the national campaign of 
 1840, 1844, and 1848, indeed in almost every national 
 campaign until the death of the Whig party. 
 
 It has been said that all this recognition of leadership 
 on the part of Lincoln in early life, as well as later, 
 was unconscious and unsought so far as Lincoln was 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 299 
 
 concerned. We deceive ourselves and misrepresent 
 Lincoln. There have been few men in our American 
 life more ambitious than he. 
 
 The first reference that he makes to his political 
 ambition was in his first circular at twenty-three years 
 of age, when he became a candidate for the first time 
 for member of the Illinois House of Representatives. 
 You will remember what he said in the circular. It 
 will bear repetition here in this chapter: 
 
 " Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. 
 Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I 
 have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed 
 of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their 
 esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this am 
 bition is yet to be developed." 
 
 In 1854, in one of his great speeches, he said: 
 
 " Twenty- two years ago, Judge Douglas and I first 
 became acquainted. We were both young then he 
 a trifle younger than I. Even then we were both am 
 bitious, I, perhaps quite as much so as he. With 
 me, the race of ambition has been a failure a flat 
 failure; with him, it has been one of splendid success. 
 His name fills the nation, and is not unknown even 
 in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high 
 eminence he has reached. So reached that the op 
 pressed of my species might have shared with me in 
 the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence 
 than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a mon 
 arch s brow." 
 
 This high and honorable ambition upon the part 
 of Abraham Lincoln "of being truly esteemed of my 
 fellow-men by rendering myself worthy of their es 
 teem," should be the motive power of more men in 
 the public service to-day. 
 
300 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 There is a lot of human nature about most of us. 
 Some have more than others. Lincoln was of this 
 latter type. He knew the average man better than 
 the average man knew himself, and he always seemed 
 to take that average man s view-point, that is his best 
 view-point, his noblest view-point, and then he would 
 present his view in such a simple straightforward 
 manner that the average citizen would adopt it much 
 in surprise that Lincoln had only presented his audi 
 tor s own view of things after all; therefore, being the 
 auditor s own, it must be correct. For tis with our 
 judgments as with our watches: "None go just alike, 
 but each believes his own." 
 
 It has been said that consistency is the plea of the 
 small mind. That contains the half of a truth and 
 the whole of a lie. 
 
 Lincoln himself asserted the right and the duty of 
 changing his mind whenever he found that he was 
 wrong; nevertheless, in following the course of his life 
 from its Lake Itasca down to the great Gulf, we find a 
 consistency, a sincerity, a straightforwardness of the 
 current that is astonishing. True, he is human enough 
 to present now and then a trifling, a temporary de 
 parture, but in the substance of things, in the essen 
 tials of each day s duties, in his conduct toward his 
 fellow men, his fellow lawyers, his fellow statesmen, 
 the Lincoln of Gentryville, Indiana, of New Salem, 
 Illinois, of Springfield, Illinois, was the same Lincoln at 
 Washington, D. C., always animated by a " passion 
 for justice," the achievement of which was the goal 
 of his life, and to which he was as true as the magnet 
 to the pole. 
 
 I have already discussed at considerable length 
 "his passion for justice," in a previous chapter devoted 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 301 
 
 to that element of his character. That dominating 
 element, unaffected, uniform, unchanged and unchang 
 ing all through his life was recognized as much a part 
 of " Honest Abe," as were his arms and legs. 
 
 This abiding confidence of the people in his judg 
 ment, in his sincerity, in his honesty, coupled with 
 the fact that he spoke their simple speech, gave him 
 tremendous persuasive power in moulding their judg 
 ment and their action. 
 
 His understanding of the understanding of the twelve 
 men in the jury-box effectively equipped him to under 
 stand the understanding of the larger jury at the ballot- 
 box. 
 
 We have noticed with what diligence Lincoln con 
 tinued the practice of law after his return from Con 
 gress in 1849, until the campaign of 1854. By common 
 consent of his fellow lawyers, a rather unusual thing, 
 he was easily the leader of the Illinois bar, at least of 
 the eighth circuit. 
 
 We have seen that leadership recognized by his fre 
 quent choice of his fellow lawyers to preside in the 
 trial of cases in the absence of the regular judge, a 
 most unusual honor and recognition of leadership, 
 for there were giants in those days. But Lincoln not 
 merely physically, but mentally, was the master of 
 them all. The people believed it and the lawyers of 
 his day generally admitted it. 
 
 One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four marked 
 a new crisis in the politics of the nation upon the one 
 great disturbing question slavery, which was thrown 
 into the foreground of the political stage by the pas 
 sage of Douglas s Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 
 
 The Missouri Compromise of 1820 said save and, 
 except the State of Missouri, there should be no slavery 
 
302 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 in the national territory north of 36 30 ; the Kansas- 
 Nebraska bill said you can have slavery in Kansas 
 and Nebraska if you choose. It was Douglas s bid 
 for the support of the South, and indicated to Lincoln 
 unmistakably the purpose to bring about the further 
 spread of slavery. It was to him a new call to arms 
 in behalf of liberty and democracy, and we find him 
 in the campaign of that year for the senatorship. He 
 was the unanimous candidate of the Whig party, and 
 while they had a plurality of the legislature, they did 
 not have a majority. There were sufficient anti-Ne 
 braska Democrats to prevent an election. Their candi 
 date was Lyman Trumbull. Rather than see the 
 election of a senator of pro-slavery views, Lincoln 
 magnanimously withdrew and urged his party fol 
 lowers and friends to go to the support of Trumbull, 
 who, while he had but few votes, with Lincoln s many 
 votes, could be elected. Again Lincoln demonstrated 
 his leadership in a great cause, though it meant for 
 the time being his own defeat. 
 
 In 1856 the Republican party was organized in 
 Illinois at a convention held in Bloomington, at which 
 Lincoln made one of the greatest speeches of his life. 
 Indeed, so absorbed and entranced were the news 
 paper men who were present, that they forgot to take 
 notes during the progress of the speech and found 
 themselves, at its close, with only a memory of his 
 splendid triumph. Lincoln himself had no manu 
 script, and hence this great speech has become known 
 as the "Lost Speech" of Lincoln. 
 
 Lincoln s wonderful address before the Republican 
 Convention of 1856 established him at once as the 
 Republican leader of Illinois. Though not at the 
 Republican National Convention, held the same year 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 303 
 
 at Philadelphia, he received in that convention 110 
 votes for the vice-presidency of the United States as 
 against William L. Dayton of New Jersey, the success 
 ful nominee. This fact is worthy of mention, because 
 many of us have been taught to believe that even in 
 1860, two years after the great debate with Douglas 
 in 1858, Lincoln was wholly unknown to the country 
 and to the leaders of his party. 
 
 His leadership in the debate with Douglas in 1858, 
 one of the great political and forensic battles upon 
 the great issue of slavery, had been widely discussed 
 by the press of the nation. Later, his speeches in Kan 
 sas, in Ohio, in New York, and in New England had 
 invited, yes, compelled, attention to this coming man 
 with his simplicity of manner, his strength of mind, 
 his persuasive power upon the platform, and his fitness 
 for party leadership. 
 
 That Lincoln himself looked forward to future leader 
 ship there can be no doubt. 
 
 The fact that he overruled all his personal and polit 
 ical friends on the first paragraph of his great Spring 
 field speech demonstrated not only the firmness of 
 his convictions, the soundness of his judgment, but 
 that he was steering his ship of state for some great 
 future political sea. 
 
 An interesting incident in the Lincoln-Douglas de 
 bate illustrating Lincoln s leadership occurred at Free- 
 port. He had written out a number of questions to 
 be submitted to Senator Douglas for an answer, among 
 which was the following: 
 
 "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?" 
 
304 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 The reader is no doubt aware that the Dred Scott 
 decision, as it has become popularly known, was the 
 basis of many great political arguments in the years 
 1857, 1858, 1859, and 1860. The effect of the decision 
 was that a slave was property, and that any citizen 
 could take any of his property into any Territory of the 
 United States, and that the Constitution of the Union 
 would protect him there in the possession, use, and en 
 joyment of such property. 
 
 This now being a federal law by virtue of the Dred 
 Scott case, a Territory either by act of Congress or by 
 its local legislature could not in any wise impair or 
 defeat that right. Hence, the pertinency of this ques 
 tion. 
 
 Before submitting the question to Senator Douglas, 
 it was carefully written out by Lincoln and submitted 
 to a number of his friends in order to obtain their 
 judgment as to the wisdom of putting it to Senator 
 Douglas at the Freeport debate. They were unani 
 mously against the question. 
 
 They urged that Douglas would answer it in the 
 affirmative and that that answer would cost Lincoln 
 the senatorship. Lincoln overruled them, as he had 
 done with reference to their judgment on the opening 
 paragraph of the Springfield speech heretofore referred 
 to, and in ignoring the advice and counsel of his friends 
 he said: 
 
 "I am after larger game. The battle of 1860 is 
 worth a hundred of this." 
 
 The question was put as written out by Lincoln. 
 Douglas answered in the affirmative and gave as his 
 reason " unfriendly legislation by the local legislature." 
 
 A parrot will repeat what she heard her master say 
 yesterday, a philosopher will diagnose the sayings and 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 305 
 
 doings of to-day, but it is only a prophet who can 
 forecast what will happen in the to-morrows. 
 
 Lincoln put this question to Douglas, not to beat 
 Douglas for the senatorship, but to beat him for the 
 presidency. No, on second thought I think this is an 
 injustice to Lincoln. I don t think he had in mind any 
 person s triumph or defeat, but rather the greater 
 question, the triumph or defeat of a great human 
 cause. He saw with almost divine prescience that 
 Douglas s answer to that question would place him at 
 once in square and irreconcilable conflict with the great 
 Democratic party of the South, and one of two things 
 must happen to Douglas: he would either lose their 
 support for the nomination of President or the elec 
 tion of President. 
 
 Solomon has said: 
 
 " Where there is no vision, the people perish." 
 
 And Isaiah has spoken about the essential qualities 
 of vision in the following words : 
 
 "They err in vision; they stumble in judgment." 
 
 Lincoln s vision was well-nigh divine, but it was 
 arrived at by the orderly processes of his own mind, 
 applying the principle of causation to conditions and 
 forces as they are to-day, with a view of predetermining 
 their effects to-morrow and next year. 
 
 So he stood firm, almost obstinately, for the open 
 ing paragraph of the Springfield speech and for the 
 question put to Douglas in the Freeport debate. 
 
 He had vision, and, therefore, he did not " stumble 
 in judgment." 
 
 Lincoln was right. Douglas won the senatorship, 
 but his, after all, was only a Pyrrhic victory. Herndon 
 relates that upon the aggregate vote cast for members 
 of the legislature Lincoln beat Douglas by some four 
 
306 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 thousand votes, but that owing to the partisan forma 
 tion of the legislative districts Douglas had the major 
 ity of the legislative vote. 
 
 Though the victor in the senatorship fight in Illinois, 
 Douglas s reception in Democratic circles was far less 
 favorable than the reception accorded Abraham Lin 
 coln, the vanquished, in Republican circles. Why? 
 Lincoln had stood four-square for a great cause, for 
 human liberty, not only as written in the Declaration 
 of Independence, but to be written into the political 
 policies of the life of the nation. 
 
 He himself says, after that debate was over and after 
 he had been twice defeated for the United States 
 senatorship of Illinois in 1854 and 1858 in a letter 
 to Doctor Henry, an intimate personal and political 
 friend : 
 
 "I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a 
 hearing on the great and durable questions 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 liberty long after I am gone." 
 
 In a letter to Henry Asbury in 1858 he said: 
 
 ". . . The fight must go on. The cause of civil 
 liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or 
 even one hundred defeats. Douglas had the ingenuity 
 to be supported in the late contest both as the best 
 means to break down and to uphold the slave interest. 
 No ingenuity can keep these antagonistic elements in 
 harmony long. Another explosion will soon come." 
 
 Here we have the very genius of leadership, a leader 
 ship that stands for measures rather than men, for 
 causes rather than candidates, for principles rather 
 than persons. 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 307 
 
 This campaign to date had tested and tried Lincoln 
 as to his capacity for political leadership in three 
 notable instances : 
 
 1. He had followed his own judgment as to the 
 "house divided against itself" paragraph of the Spring 
 field speech against the advice of all of his friends. 
 
 2. He had followed his own judgment in the question 
 that he put to Douglas in the Freeport debate, likewise 
 against the advice of all his friends. 
 
 3. By the Freeport question to Douglas and Doug 
 las s answer he had driven Douglas into a position 
 upon the question of slavery so hostile to the Southern 
 point of view that Douglas, as the Democratic nomi 
 nee of 1860, became impossible so long as the South 
 was in the saddle. 
 
 While Lincoln had lost the senatorship he had gained 
 friends and fame throughout the country, not merely 
 as a great debater, but as an able leader upon the 
 great questions that were to stir this country from 
 coast to coast in the coming national election. 
 
 This independence and self-reliance, after having 
 carefully and conscientiously studied the whole ques 
 tion, was one of the marked characteristics of Abraham 
 Lincoln. It was as true of him legally as it was true 
 politically. His own partner, Herndon, repeatedly 
 says that he never knew him to advise even with as 
 sociate counsel as to the best course to pursue in the 
 trial of a cause in any court. Yet he was not dis 
 courteous, but, upon the contrary, a perfect gentleman, 
 not only with the court, but with all the counsel en 
 gaged in any cause. No member of the Springfield 
 bar was ever treated with such uniform courtesy as 
 was Lincoln, and the chief reason was that that was 
 the kind of treatment he gave in return. 
 
308 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 We shall see much of this independent judgment of 
 Lincoln s in the following pages. 
 
 The story of the National Republican Conven 
 tion held in the "Wigwam" at Chicago in 1860 is 
 familiar to all of us. It is unnecessary to review its 
 details. 
 
 His campaign managers were specifically instructed 
 that there were to be no bargains for votes. 
 
 It has been questioned as to whether Judge Davis 
 and others specifically followed this instruction. 
 
 If any departure was made from it, Mr. Lincoln 
 never felt obligated in the least. 
 
 Lincoln was nominated upon the third ballot, which 
 was followed by a public demonstration that had never 
 before been witnessed in any political convention. 
 
 The people of his party were evidently with him 
 from the start, but the leaders had grave doubts. 
 Most of the men upon the committee who went to 
 Springfield officially to notify Lincoln of his nomination 
 were of the latter class. Upon the whole he made a 
 favorable impression, however, both in their reception 
 and by his few brief remarks. He was importuned 
 from all quarters to take the stump in the national 
 campaign. Here again the leader asserts himself: he 
 positively but diplomatically declined, saying among 
 other things the following: 
 
 "Those who will not read or heed what I have al 
 ready publicly said would not heed or read a repetition 
 of it. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
 neither will they be persuaded if one rose from the 
 dead! " 
 
 Many of his friends in different sections of the coun 
 try wrote him personal letters containing inquiries as 
 to this and that touching his public utterances. As 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 309 
 
 to one of these he ventured an explanation, but added 
 this significant language: 
 
 "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 cannot have it if we don t." 
 
 The night of his election his ability to lead the people 
 was evidenced by two facts occurring in Springfield. 
 
 1. He had decided that night at the telegraph-office 
 upon his Cabinet substantially as finally constituted. 
 
 2. In a little speech he made to his neighbors who 
 came to the Lincoln home to express their enthusiasm, 
 he said: 
 
 "In all our rejoicing let us neither express nor cher 
 ish any hard feeling toward any citizen who has dif 
 fered from us. Let us at all times remember that all 
 American citizens are members of a common country 
 and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal 
 feeling." 
 
 Here in these few words to his friends and neighbors 
 was outshadowed not only Lincoln leadership, but the 
 one great issue of his administration, to which all other 
 issues must subordinate themselves, and that was: We 
 are "all members of a common country." Therefore, 
 the slogan must be "The Union it must be preserved." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 LINCOLN THE LEADER 
 
 (CONTINUED) 
 
 LINCOLN was, after all, a minority President. The 
 slavery men had been confounded by divisions among 
 them. Thereby Lincoln had saved the election; could 
 he now save the Union? Here was the occasion and 
 opportunity for leadership of the highest quality, and 
 I have always felt that Lincoln s greatness in this be 
 half has never been fully appreciated. 
 
 We have read much and heard much about his sub 
 duing Seward, his patient handling of Chase, and his 
 diplomatic dealing with Stanton, whom he finally 
 brought to love him as much as Stanton could love 
 any man. 
 
 But Lincoln s greatness appeared not merely in deal 
 ing with individual man. It was the handling of men 
 in the mass; in short, in the moulding and managing 
 of public opinion. 
 
 It will be remembered that in his debate with Doug 
 las touching the importance of public opinion, he said : 
 
 "In this and like communities, public sentiment is 
 everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; 
 without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he 
 who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who 
 enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes 
 statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be 
 executed." 
 
 Of the total vote cast for the presidency, the electoral 
 vote in and of itself is exceedingly misleading. That 
 
 310 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 311 
 
 vote stood: Lincoln 180 votes, Douglas 12, Brecken- 
 ridge 72, and Bell 39. But the popular vote really, 
 after all, indexed public sentiment. That vote stood 
 as follows: Lincoln 1,858,000, Douglas 1,366,000, Breck- 
 enridge 848,000, and Bell 591,000. The total popular 
 vote was 4,663,000, of which Lincoln s vote was a bare 
 forty per cent. Even in the States north of Mason and 
 Dixon s line Lincoln was barely a majority candidate. 
 Something had to be done at once to unify public sen 
 timent in the North. The votes for Douglas and Bell 
 were so numerous that substantial representation must 
 be given to those leaders in the new administration in 
 order to keep their followers loyal to the great cause 
 of the Union. 
 
 His Cabinet chosen by himself, was as follows: 
 For secretary of state, William H. Seward, of New 
 York; for secretary of treasury, Salmon P. Chase, of 
 Ohio; for secretary of war, Simon Cameron, of Penn 
 sylvania; for attorney-general, Edward Bates, of Mis 
 souri; for secretary of interior, Caleb B. Smith, of In 
 diana; for secretary of navy, Gideon Welles, of Con 
 necticut; for postmaster-general, Montgomery Blair, of 
 Maryland. 
 
 No such political Cabinet had ever been chosen in 
 this country or any other. The majority of the mem 
 bers had been rival candidates for the presidency in 
 the convention that nominated Lincoln. Four of them 
 had been former Democrats, three of them former 
 Whigs. Some of Lincoln s Republican friends re 
 monstrated with him against a Republican President 
 having a Democratic Cabinet. Lincoln replied, half 
 in jest, but more than half in wisdom, that he would 
 ofttimes sit in the Cabinet, and that would make it 
 stand four to four. 
 
312 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Not a big man in the Cabinet but believed him 
 self bigger than the President and bigger than all the 
 other big men in the Cabinet. If such thing were pos 
 sible, each Cabinet officer distrusted the others much 
 more than each distrusted the President. Yet each 
 member of that Cabinet in a peculiar way repre 
 sented in large measure a substantial fraction of public 
 opinion, especially public opinion from a personal or 
 partisan standpoint. 
 
 Lincoln s paramount object in the construction of 
 this Cabinet was to unify public sentiment of the North 
 so as to be able effectually to meet the united public 
 sentiment of the South in the great crisis confronting 
 him. 
 
 In the selection of a Cabinet two plans were open to 
 the new President : The first, to surround himself with 
 men of inferior loyalty who would fawn upon and flatter 
 him and act merely as his faithful subordinates, or: 
 second, with an official family made up of the biggest 
 and most representative leaders of all political parties 
 and elements from all the various sections of the country, 
 even at the risk of eclipsing or menacing his ability to 
 lead in such a company of distinguished men. He 
 chose the latter. 
 
 It is fair to presume that no other President would 
 have chosen such a Cabinet, and no other President 
 could have managed such a Cabinet so as to get out of 
 it the efficiency that Lincoln did get out of it. 
 
 Now comes the play for place and power. Volumes 
 have been written upon Lincoln s mastery over his 
 Cabinet ministers, and I take pleasure in referring to 
 Rothschild on "Lincoln, Master of Men/ 7 dealing 
 largely with his Cabinet ministers and generals. Only 
 a brief review of his relations with his Cabinet will be 
 given here. 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 313 
 
 Seward was the most keenly and conscientiously 
 disappointed candidate at the Chicago Convention. 
 His long experience in public life, twice governor of 
 New York, twice senator, a distinguished leader of 
 his party, gave him the lead in that convention. 
 To his great surprise he was defeated, and at first he 
 and his friends took that defeat very bitterly. Out 
 wardly he seemed magnanimous by taking an active 
 part in the national campaign in behalf of Lincoln and 
 Hamlin, but his inward disappointment and humilia 
 tion strikingly appear in his personal letters to his 
 wife. In one of these letters he described himself as 
 "a leader deposed by my own party in the hour of 
 organization for decisive battle." 
 
 This was no doubt his conscientious attitude. He 
 honestly believed that not only was he the first and 
 only fit man for that distinguished honor, but that 
 Abraham Lincoln, the nominee, was wholly unfit for 
 that distinguished honor. 
 
 Early after the election Lincoln invited him to be 
 come his secretary of state in the new administration. 
 Seward took three weeks to answer. He accepted but 
 with such a haughty and lordly air that the President 
 elect was greatly pained. 
 
 Later, on the Saturday before the inauguration, he 
 withdrew that acceptance. Lincoln took tune to meet 
 this unexpected withdrawal, and on the following 
 Monday morning addressed a brief note to Seward, in 
 which, among other things, he said: 
 
 "It is the subject of the most painful solicitude with 
 me ; and I feel constrained to beg that you will counter 
 mand the withdrawal. The public interest, I think, 
 demands that you should; and my personal feelings 
 are deeply enlisted in the same direction. Please con 
 sider and answer by 9 o clock A. M. to-morrow." 
 
314 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Seward did enter the Cabinet as secretary of state, 
 but not because he loved Lincoln or had any measure 
 of faith in his ability as the head of the new adminis 
 tration; but as he said in a letter to Mrs. Seward: 
 
 "I have advised Mr. L. that I will not decline. It 
 is inevitable. I will try to save freedom and my coun- 
 try." 
 
 A few days later he wrote: 
 
 "I have assumed a sort of dictatorship for defence; 
 and am laboring night and day, with the cities and 
 States. ... It seems to me that if I am absent only 
 three days, this administration, the Congress, and 
 the District would fall into consternation and de 
 spair. I am the only hopeful, calm, conciliatory person 
 here." 
 
 Strange, indeed, that Seward had so misgauged the 
 measure of the new President as to feel warranted in 
 sending him before he had been in office thirty days 
 the following memorandum: 
 
 " Some Thoughts for the President s Consideration, 
 April 1, 1861 
 
 "First. We are at the end of a month s administra 
 tion, and yet without a policy, either domestic or for 
 eign. 
 
 "Second. This, however, is not culpable, and it 
 has even been unavoidable. The presence of the Senate, 
 with the need to meet applications for patronage, have 
 prevented attention to other and more grave matters. 
 
 "Third. But further delay to adopt and prosecute 
 our policies for both domestic and foreign affairs would 
 not only bring scandal on the administration, but 
 danger upon the country. 
 
 "Fourth. To do this we must dismiss the applicants 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 315 
 
 for office. But how? I suggest that we make the 
 local appointments forthwith, leaving foreign or gen 
 eral ones for ulterior and occasional action. 
 
 " Fifth. The policy at home. I am aware that my 
 views are singular, and perhaps not sufficiently ex 
 plained. My system is built upon this idea as a ruling 
 one, namely, that we must 
 
 " CHANGE THE QUESTION BEFORE THE PUBLIC FROM 
 ONE UPON SLAVERY, OR ABOUT SLAVERY, for a ques 
 tion upon UNION OR DISUNION: 
 
 "In other words, from what would be regarded as 
 a party question, to one of patriotism or union. 
 
 "The occupation or evacuation of Fort Sumter, 
 although not in fact a slavery or a party question, is 
 so regarded. Witness the temper manifested by the 
 Republicans in the Free States, and even by the Union 
 men in the South. 
 
 "I would therefore terminate it as a safe means for 
 changing the issue. I deem it fortunate that the last 
 administration created the necessity. 
 
 "For the rest, I would simultaneously defend and 
 re-enforce all the ports in the Gulf, and have the navy 
 recalled from foreign stations to be prepared for a 
 blockade. Put the island of Key West under martial 
 law. 
 
 "This will raise distinctly the question of union or 
 disunion. I would maintain every fort and possession 
 in the South. 
 
 FOR FOREIGN NATIONS 
 
 "I would demand explanations from Spain and 
 France, categorically, at once. 
 
 "I would seek explanations from Great Britain and 
 Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico, and 
 
316 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Central America to rouse a vigorous continental spirit 
 of independence on this continent against European 
 intervention. 
 
 "And, if satisfactory explanations are not received 
 from Spain and France, 
 
 "Would convene Congress and declare war against 
 them. 
 
 "But whatever policy we adopt, there must be 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. 
 
 "It is not in my especial province; 
 
 "But I neither seek to evade nor assume respon 
 sibility." * 
 
 Such a note as this would have cost a Cabinet officer 
 in anybody else s Cabinet than Lincoln s a summary 
 dismissal or at least a deserved rebuke. 
 
 No matter what one s prestige, place, or power may 
 be, he is never excused from being a gentleman. 
 
 Lincoln even had a right to presume that Secretary 
 Seward, distinguished for his learning, his culture, and 
 social experience, would not so far forget his good 
 manners as to address such a note to a backwoods law 
 yer from a little town in Illinois. 
 
 But nature s gentleman ignored the insults between 
 the lines, no less than in the lines, and sent Seward a 
 lesson in good manners, good policy, and good govern 
 ment that he never forgot. 
 
 * Herndon, vol. II, p. 201. 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 317 
 
 Upon the same day the note was received, Lincoln 
 replied as follows : 
 
 EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 1, 1861. 
 "HON. W. H. SEWARD. 
 
 "My dear Sir: Since parting with you, J have been 
 considering your paper dated this day, and entitled 
 Some Thoughts for the President s Consideration/ 
 The first proposition in it is, First. We are at the 
 end of a month s administration, and yet without a 
 policy, either domestic or foreign/ 
 
 "At the beginning of that month, in the inaugural, 
 I said : The power confided to me will be used to hold, 
 occupy, and possess the property and places belonging 
 to the government, and to collect the duties and im 
 posts. 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 re-enforcement 
 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 harmony, without even a 
 suggestion that we had no foreign policy. 
 
 "Upon your closing proposition that whatever 
 policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecu 
 tion of it. 
 
318 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 " 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 
 
 " t 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 general line of policy is adopted, I ap 
 prehend there is no danger of its being changed with 
 out good reason, or continuing to be a subject of un 
 necessary debate; still, upon points arising in its prog 
 ress I wish, and suppose I am entitled to have, the 
 advice of all the cabinet. 
 
 "Your obedient servant, 
 
 "A. LINCOLN." 
 
 For personal forbearance, political magnanimity, and 
 practical poise, this answer of President Lincoln is un 
 excelled in diplomatic correspondence. It was never 
 revealed to the public until thirty years thereafter, 
 when published by Nicolay and Hay. 
 
 No wonder that later this same Secretary Seward, in 
 a letter to his wife, wrote : 
 
 " Executive force and vigor are rare qualities. The 
 President is the best of us." 
 
 Henceforth the secretary of state revised his esti 
 mate of his chief, and learned not only to respect his 
 power but respect his personality. 
 
 By the by, the time came when Seward s political 
 prestige was assailed by a committee from the Senate 
 composed of some of its most distinguished members, 
 who called upon President Lincoln demanding the dis 
 missal of Secretary Seward from the Cabinet. 
 
 In this company of distinguished senators were Col- 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 319 
 
 lamore, Sumner, Fessenden, Wade, Trumbull, Grimes, 
 Harris, Howard, and Pomeroy. As they filed into the 
 President s room that night they saw present his entire 
 Cabinet save Secretary Seward, whose dismissal they 
 urged. 
 
 The Senate committee made a sharp assault upon 
 the administration and particularly upon Seward s part 
 in it. The position of the Cabinet was best stated by 
 Stanton when he said in reply to the senators : 
 
 "This cabinet, gentlemen, is like yonder window. 
 Suppose you allowed it to be understood that passers- 
 by might knock out one pane of glass just one at a 
 time, how long do you think any panes would be left 
 in it?" 
 
 The Cabinet stood together for Seward. Chase 
 was the one embarrassed man who sat that time as 
 upon a hot griddle, for he had been one of the chief 
 instigators of the anti-Seward movement, and the sen 
 ators present, as well as President Lincoln, thoroughly 
 knew it. 
 
 Chase finally was called upon to state his position 
 with reference to Seward. Upon this question Roths 
 child in " Master of Men," says: 
 
 "Even Chase, brought to bay, was forced into turn 
 ing, after a fashion, against the men who had come to 
 strengthen his position. He found himself in a pre 
 dicament. To agree with the Senators in their attacks 
 upon Seward or the administration, though he had 
 made the identical criticisms to them and to others, 
 was, in that presence, obviously out of the question. 
 To take ground effectively against these charges, with 
 out stultifying himself, was, under existing conditions, 
 equally impossible. So he joined with his fellow 
 ministers, as best he could, protesting angrily, the while, 
 
320 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 against his dilemma, and expressing regret that he had 
 come. 7 
 
 Before the adjournment Lincoln again polled the 
 committee. Of the eight present only four voted 
 against Seward, indicating a decided change in the 
 situation from what the committee had at first ex 
 hibited. 
 
 Lincoln had saved Seward. 
 
 Chase is the one human enigma of the Lincoln Cabi 
 net, a marvellous combination of personal dignity, 
 classical scholarship, legal ability, public experience, 
 conscientious conviction against human slavery. He 
 was the second man Lincoln had determined upon the 
 night of the election for a leading member of his Cabi 
 net. Chase s acceptance of the secretaryship of the 
 treasury was not finally made until after the nomina 
 tion had been sent to the Senate on the 4th of March, 
 1861. 
 
 Chase, like Seward, could not yet understand why 
 the great National Republican Convention at Chicago 
 should have preferred Lincoln to him. His pride had 
 been piqued by the fact that Seward had been given 
 the preference for secretary of state, and after learning 
 that his name had gone to the Senate for confirmation, 
 called upon President Lincoln to decline the appoint 
 ment. What happened in that interview with Presi 
 dent Lincoln is not reported. Suffice it to say that 
 Lincoln s view prevailed and Chase became a member 
 of the Cabinet. 
 
 It must be freely conceded that Chase s management 
 of the nation s finances place him in the class of Ham 
 ilton and Gallatin, and nobody appreciated the skill 
 and efficiency of his public service in the great national 
 crisis more than his chief, the President. 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 321 
 
 But with all nature s lavish gifts, with which this 
 man had been so richly endowed, he was literally ob 
 sessed with his own vanity, his own selfishness, and a 
 supreme jealousy of all possible rivals. He was pe 
 culiarly susceptible to flattery and loved it in such 
 wholesale quantities as would have been strikingly 
 offensive to almost any other man. He had no confi 
 dence in the President s ability and less in the ability 
 of every other member of the Cabinet. 
 
 He was a prodigal letter-writer, and in his early ser 
 vice in the government mostly directed his activity 
 against his chief. As a specimen from his erratic pen, 
 I submit the following from the Chase diary: 
 
 "Ten days of battle and then such changes changes 
 in which it is difficult to see the public good. How sin 
 gularly all our worst defeats have followed administra 
 tive er no, blunders." 
 
 To one of his friends he wrote: 
 
 "I am not responsible for the management of the 
 war and have no voice in it, except that I am not for 
 bidden to make suggestions and do so now and then 
 when I cannot help it." 
 
 He also wrote the President a note something after 
 the manner of Seward s " Thoughts." It was as un 
 gracious as it was unjustifiable. 
 
 His penchant for letter-writing found a strange out 
 let in an active and general correspondence that he 
 had with civil and military leaders throughout the 
 country, who had found themselves, for some reason 
 or other, in disfavor with President Lincoln. He 
 seemed delighted to be encouraging disloyalty and 
 sympathizing with antiadministration men. 
 
 His diary furnishes an absolute demonstration of 
 his disloyalty to President Lincoln, personally and 
 
322 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 politically. The selfish qualities that dominated his 
 life came out in connection with what became known 
 as the "Pomeroy Circular." His active disloyalty 
 to Abraham Lincoln while in the Cabinet in con 
 nection with his war against Seward to force him out 
 of the administration, and his war against Lincoln 
 to beat him for a renomination, so clouds what other 
 wise might have been a most distinguished career of 
 this able Cabinet officer, that the one incredible thing 
 above all others is that his friends should ever have 
 permitted his diary to be given to the public. 
 
 In the beginning of this administration he was prob 
 ably no more disappointed or distrustful, and con 
 scientiously so, of the capacity of Lincoln for the great 
 trust committed to his hands than Seward; but Seward 
 had been disillusioned. He had early come to under 
 stand Lincoln, and to concede him a large measure of 
 the very great ability that he clearly possessed. 
 
 Not so with Chase. He was the one disgruntled, 
 dissatisfied, disloyal man toward his chief practically 
 throughout his service in the Cabinet. He had re 
 signed several times, the President refusing to accept 
 his resignation, and Chase did not further press the 
 issue. Finally, in June, 1864, the next day after the 
 famous Cabinet meeting with the United States sen 
 ators, at the White House, as noted in the discussion of 
 Seward s relations with Lincoln, Chase sent in his 
 resignation. At that time the resignations of both 
 Seward and Chase were in the hands of the President. 
 He refused to accept Seward s and much to Chase s 
 surprise accepted his. 
 
 The formal acceptance was by letter to the secre 
 tary as follows : 
 
 "Your resignation of the office of Secretary of the 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 323 
 
 Treasury, sent me yesterday, is accepted. 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 
 relations, which it seems cannot be overcome or longer 
 sustained, consistently with the public service." 
 
 Later on Lincoln, in justification of this acceptance, 
 said to a friend: 
 
 " I will tell you how it is with Chase. It is the easiest 
 thing in the world for a man to fall into a bad habit. 
 Chase has fallen into two bad habits. ... He thinks 
 he has become indispensable to the country; that his 
 intimate friends know it, and he cannot comprehend 
 why the country does not understand it. He also 
 thinks he ought to be President ; he has no doubt what 
 ever about that. It is inconceivable to him why people 
 have not found it out; why they don t as one man, 
 rise up and say so. ... He knows that I could not 
 make it. (The nomination of Field in New York). 
 He knows that the nomination of Field (as assistant 
 secretary of the treasury) would displease the Unionists 
 of New York, would delight our enemies, and injure 
 our friends. He knows that I could not make it with 
 out seriously offending the strongest supporters of 
 the government in New York, and that the nomina 
 tion would not strengthen him anywhere or with any 
 body. Yet he resigns because I will not make it. He 
 is either determined to annoy me, or that I shall pat 
 him on the shoulder and coax him to stay. I don t 
 think I ought to do it. I will not do it. I will take 
 him at his word." 
 
 Being now out of the Cabinet, he pursued with rare 
 relish his petty criticisms of Lincoln. 
 
 In 1864, Chief Justice Taney of Dred Scott notoriety 
 
324 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 had died, and a new chief justice had to be selected 
 by President Lincoln to preside over the greatest ju 
 dicial tribunal of the nation. Who should it be? 
 Naturally a man of large legal ability and experience, 
 whose education and equipment qualified him for that 
 high and honorable place. Likewise, another great 
 qualification must prevail, and that is sympathy with 
 the fundamental constitutional and legislative policies 
 of the administration. Many legislative acts were 
 being challenged upon the basis of unconstitutionality 
 in the federal courts. 
 
 Naturally, President Lincoln would cast about him 
 for some great lawyer, some great jurist, who was not 
 inherently hostile to the legislative and administrative 
 policies from the Northern point of view. 
 
 Then it was that an unheard-of and almost unbeliev 
 able thing happened. This same Salmon P. Chase, 
 who had caused Lincoln much embarrassment while 
 in the Cabinet, had written the bitterest criticism of 
 him, had become a candidate against him to defeat 
 him for renomination, and continued his bitter and 
 unreasonable criticism even after he had retired from 
 the Cabinet, this Chase was nominated by President 
 Lincoln as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. 
 
 Would you have done it? Could you have done 
 it? 
 
 It is only another overwhelming proof that Lin 
 coln, as President, always kept in the foreground one 
 " central idea," and that was the Union, its perpetuity 
 and its welfare, no matter how his personal pride might 
 be hurt or his personal fortunes affected. 
 
 As showing his splendid magnanimity along these 
 lines, I want to quote a note quoted by Rothschild in 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 325 
 
 his " Lincoln, Master of Men." Judge E. Rockwood 
 Hoar and Richard H. Dana called on Lincoln in behalf 
 of Chase s appointment as chief justice. In that inter 
 view Lincoln said: 
 
 "Mr. Chase is a very able man. He is a very am 
 bitious man and I think on the subject of the presidency 
 a little insane. He has not always behaved very well 
 lately and people say to me Now is the time to crush 
 him out/ Well, I am not in favor of crushing anybody 
 out. If there is anything that a man can do and do 
 it well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance." 
 
 Edwin M. Stanton we have all heard of him, and 
 first met him in connection with Lincoln in the 
 " McCormick-Manny " case tried in the Federal Court 
 at Cincinnati in 1855. 
 
 We remember Stanton s elbowing Lincoln out of the 
 case and treating him in such form that Lincoln 
 with all his charity characterized it to Herndon as 
 "rude," " purposely ignored," and "roughly handled 
 by that man Stanton." 
 
 No doubt Stanton never again expected to hear from 
 that "long-armed creature." 
 
 In the meantime Stanton had taken front rank 
 among American lawyers, and had been employed by 
 the government in very important cases. Later he 
 became attorney-general for the spineless administra 
 tion of James Buchanan, and furnished what little 
 virility that administration possessed in its parting 
 days. 
 
 Cameron, Lincoln s first secretary of war, was a 
 bad misfit. His administration was wholly incom 
 petent, if not dishonest. Not that Cameron was 
 dishonest, but many of his subordinates were found 
 to be so, and he was held responsible for it. 
 
326 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Stanton was then living in Washington. He had 
 bitterly criticised Lincoln and his administration. He 
 had written to one of the major-generals of the army: 
 
 "No one can imagine the deplorable condition of 
 this city, and the hazard of the government, who did 
 not witness the weakness and panic of the administra 
 tion, and the painful imbecility of Lincoln. " 
 
 To ex-President Buchanan he had written: 
 
 "A strong feeling of distrust in the candor and sin 
 cerity of Lincoln personally and of his cabinet has 
 sprung up. If they had been merely silent and secret, 
 there might have been no ground of complaint. But 
 assurances are said to have been given and declarations 
 made in conflict with the facts now transpiring, in re 
 spect to the South, so that no one speaks of Lincoln or 
 any member of his cabinet with respect or regard. " 
 
 McClellan, in earlier days a stanch friend of Stan- 
 ton s, says that Stanton often referred to President 
 Lincoln "as a low, cunning clown." According to an 
 other, he habitually referred to Lincoln as "the origi 
 nal gorilla, 7 and even said that "Du Chaillu was a 
 fool to wander all the way to Africa in search of what 
 he could so easily have found at Springfield, Illinois." 
 
 Stanton was such a hard hitter and hater, that his 
 views concerning Lincoln were no doubt known to the 
 President at the time of Stanton s selection as secre 
 tary of war. 
 
 Immediately after his choice, Stanton wrote to a 
 friend as follows: 
 
 "I hold my present post at the request of a President 
 who knew me personally, but to whom I had not 
 spoken from the 4th of March, 1861, until the day he 
 handed me my commission. [January, 1862.] I knew 
 that everything I cherish and hold dear would be sacri- 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 327 
 
 ficed by accepting office. But I thought I might help 
 to save the country, and for that I was willing to 
 perish." 
 
 Several congressmen once called on Stanton to bring 
 about a certain army appointment. Stanton declined 
 to make it. The committee urged that the President 
 was strongly in favor of it. Stanton replied : 
 
 "I do not care what the President wants; the coun 
 try wants the very best it can get. I am serving the 
 country regardless of individuals." 
 
 The congressmen returned to Lincoln and reported 
 their failure. Whereupon Lincoln said: 
 
 " Gentlemen, it is my duty to submit. I cannot add 
 to Mr. Stanton s troubles. His position is one of the 
 most difficult in the world. Thousands in the army 
 blame him because they are not promoted, and other 
 thousands out of the army blame him because they 
 are not appointed. The pressure upon him is im 
 measurable and unending. He is the rock on the 
 beach of our national ocean against which the breakers 
 dash and roar, dash and roar, without ceasing. He 
 fights back the angry waters and prevents them from 
 undermining and overwhelming the land. Gentlemen, 
 I do not see how he survives why he is not crushed 
 and torn to pieces. Without him I should be de 
 stroyed. He performs his task superhumanly. Now 
 do not mind this matter, for Mr. Stanton is right and 
 I cannot wrongly interfere with him." 
 
 Numerous instances can be cited in which Stanton 
 had his way, notwithstanding the well-known wishes 
 of the President to the contrary. These were chiefly 
 matters relating to appointments. But on matters of 
 general policy, where the President had reached a fixed 
 conclusion as to any matter, it was the President s will 
 
328 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 that finally prevailed. In some cases of appointments, 
 indeed, the President was peremptory, as is shown by 
 the following brief note to Secretary Stanton: 
 
 "EXECUTIVE MANSION, November 11, 1863. 
 
 "DEAR SIR: 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. 
 
 " Yours, etc., 
 
 "A. LINCOLN." 
 
 Every member of examining boards in civil or mili 
 tary life should read and regard the philosophy of this 
 note. If so, many questions would be omitted from 
 the usual tests. This note is Lincolnian for the essen 
 tials of things and the directness with which he points 
 his English. 
 
 Rothschild, who has made a painstaking analysis of 
 the relation between Stanton and Lincoln, says: 
 
 "The Secretary of War never successfully opposed 
 his will to that of the President in any matter concern 
 ing which his chief had reached a definite purpose. 
 Yet Mr. Lincoln made no display of his authority. He 
 even, as we have seen, turned it over at times to Mr. 
 Stanton; or, anxious to avoid a conflict, exercised it 
 with all the delicacy of which he was capable. Few, 
 if any, of the world s great captains could have man 
 aged this truculent lieutenant with so little friction. 
 To that end, concession, persuasion, and diplomacy 
 were freely intermingled. When they failed, however, 
 the President asserted his mastery with a vigor before 
 which the Secretary s passion and obstinacy had to 
 give way." 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 329 
 
 On the general policies of the War Department in the 
 administration, Stanton had Lincoln s confidence, and 
 Lincoln likewise enjoyed the confidence of his great 
 secretary of war. They were one as to their views on 
 McClellan, who was constantly procrastinating and 
 complaining about the insufficiency of his army to meet 
 the enemy. In this respect Stanton once said of him, 
 as recorded by Nicolay and Hay: 
 
 "If he had a million men he would swear the enemy 
 had two million, and then he would sit down in the 
 mud and yell for three." 
 
 Indeed, though McClellan and Stanton had been 
 close personal and political friends, the President 
 stayed with McClellan even after Stanton was ready 
 to abandon him, and in this respect he had overruled 
 Stanton as to the recall of McClellan. 
 
 During one of the many discussions with reference 
 to jealousies between Cabinet officers and generals of 
 the army, Lincoln asserted his authority in the follow 
 ing brief address to his 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 endeav 
 oring 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 else 
 where, now or hereafter." 
 
 This language needs no comment. 
 
 Many delegations called on the President to induce 
 him to dismiss from his Cabinet Secretary Stanton. 
 To one of these friends Lincoln said : 
 
 "Go home, my friend, and read attentively the tenth 
 
330 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 verse of the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs : Accuse not 
 a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee and thou 
 
 be found guilty/ 
 
 One of the great historians of that time relates Lin 
 coln s estimate of Stanton to one of these anti-Stanton 
 delegations as follows: 
 
 "Mr. Stanton has excellent qualities, and he has his 
 defects. Folks come up here and tell me that there 
 are a great many men in the country who have all 
 Stanton s excellent qualities without his defects. All 
 I have to say is, I haven t met em ! I don t know 
 em! I wish I did!" 
 
 After Taney s death a delegation called on the Presi 
 dent urging the appointing of Stanton as chief justice. 
 Mr. Lincoln said: 
 
 "If you will find me another Secretary of War like 
 him I will gladly appoint him." 
 
 Later Stanton sent his resignation to Lincoln, owing 
 to failing health under the great strain of his depart 
 ment. Lincoln, in the presence of the secretary, tore 
 up the resignation, and throwing his arms about Stan- 
 ton said: 
 
 "Stanton, you have been a good friend and a faith 
 ful public servant; and it is not for you to say when 
 you will no longer be needed here." 
 
 Stanton himself refers to this instance as follows : 
 
 "Stanton, you cannot go. Reconstruction is more 
 difficult and dangerous than construction or destruc 
 tion. You have been our main reliance; you must 
 help us through the final act. The bag is filled. It 
 must be tied, and tied securely. Some knots slip; 
 yours do not. You understand the situation better 
 than anybody else, and it is my wish and the country s 
 that you remain." 
 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 331 
 
 Stanton bowed to the will that was stronger than 
 his own, and continued his duties. 
 
 During the campaign for re-election there was no 
 influence in the Cabinet so strongly and successfully 
 exerted in the President s favor as that by Edwin M. 
 Stanton, and during Lincoln s latter days the rela 
 tions between them were as cordial and confidential 
 as that between Lincoln and any other member of his 
 Cabinet, and as the President passed away by the bullet 
 of Booth, the great Stanton, with tears trickling down 
 his cheeks, pathetically observed: 
 
 "Now he belongs to the ages." 
 
 There is no higher test of leadership than ability 
 to lead in adversity and defeat. 
 
 When we think of all the troubles, defeats, and dis 
 asters that befell Abraham Lincoln and his administra 
 tion during his first three years in office, we wonder 
 why he was not driven to desperation. We wonder 
 what great faith and power could have sustained him 
 in his loyalty to liberty and his dedication to democracy. 
 None but his divine dedication. 
 
 With Greeley s cry "On to Richmond" before we 
 were ready, which was demonstrated at Bull Run; 
 with Fremont s precipitous emancipation policy in 
 Missouri, which had to be reversed; with McClellan s 
 procrastination and petty complaints of executive 
 interference; with the Trent affair, in which Captain 
 Wilkes was made a hero and the national demand, for 
 the time, was to uphold his action, all of which had to 
 be reversed by the President and Secretary Seward; 
 with Cameron s gross mismanagement in the Depart 
 ment of War; with the death of his son Willie; with 
 the failure of his policy of emancipation with com 
 pensation; with the defeats at Fredericksburg and 
 
332 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Chancellorsville, and the failure of McClellan to follow 
 up his victory at Antietam and that of Meade to 
 follow up his victory at Gettysburg; with stocks fall 
 ing, and troops reduced and five big Northern States 
 repudiating the administration in their elections, we 
 wonder how the President ever survived so many 
 failures, so many defeats, so many embarrassments. 
 Through it all, not only the opposition press, but 
 many of his own party, charged the responsibility for 
 the whole series of political troubles and military dis 
 asters to the President of the United States. 
 
 His preservation through it all seems well-nigh prov 
 idential. Yet all this while he was searching intently 
 for a general, and finally found him in the silent 
 man, U. S. Grant. Thenceforth victory became as 
 frequent as defeat had been frequent. 
 
 Lincoln was always laboring to right the wrongs to 
 others, but he never lowered himself to the point of 
 attempting to right any wrong to himself. For his 
 own justification he depended upon the logic of time 
 and events. 
 
 Public leadership, to be successful, must proceed 
 from an intelligent dedication to a great cause. A 
 complete and correct view of that cause is impossible 
 if it shall be clouded by envyings, jealousies, personal 
 likes and dislikes. 
 
 The question, after all, is, What instruments and 
 individuals will best promote the cause? That was 
 always the crucial question with Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Emerson has aptly expressed this trait of Lincoln 
 as follows: 
 
 "His heart was as great as the world, but there was 
 no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong." 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 LINCOLN ON PEACE 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was a man of peace the peace 
 of justice, the peace of honor, the peace of the Union. 
 He not only believed in it, he would fight for it, he 
 would die for it. 
 
 From the day of his nomination for the presidency, 
 May 18, 1860, until the day of his inauguration, March 
 4, 1861, he made no public statement of his policies, 
 either before the election or afterward. There were 
 not even any front-porch speeches or public letters 
 or interviews. This has been referred to in another 
 chapter. 
 
 The nearest approach to any utterance upon the 
 menacing situation then presented was at Philadelphia, 
 at Independence Hall, on February 22, 1861, when he 
 said: 
 
 "It was not there mere matter of separation of the 
 colonies from the motherland, 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 weight 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 cannot be saved 
 upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this 
 
 333 
 
334 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 country cannot be saved without giving up that prin 
 ciple, 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 blood 
 shed 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 be forced upon 
 the Government. The Government will not use force, 
 unless force is used against it." 
 
 Touching this matter of war, Lincoln said near the 
 close of his first inaugural: 
 
 "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
 and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
 The Government will not assail you. You can have 
 no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. 
 You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy 
 the Government while I shall have the most solemn 
 one to preserve, protect, and defend it." 
 
 The President and his Cabinet had been divided 
 upon provisions and reinforcements for Fort Sumter. 
 Lincoln was for the policy, Seward and Cameron 
 against it, but finally the relief commission sailed out 
 of New York, April 9. The opening gun against Fort 
 Sumter was fired at 4.30 A. M., April 12. Civil War 
 had begun. 
 
 On April 15 he issued a proclamation calling for 
 75,000 militia "to favor, facilitate and aid this effort 
 to maintain the honor, the integrity and the existence 
 of our national union and the perpetuity of popular 
 government and to redress wrongs already long enough 
 endured." 
 
 The firing on Fort Sumter unified the South, but 
 in an even greater degree it unified the North for 
 the defense of the Union. 
 
LINCOLN ON PEACE 335 
 
 In 1863 at Gettysburg Lincoln avowed his purpose 
 to prosecute the war to a successful issue in the use 
 of these words: 
 
 "It is for us who live rather to be dedicated here to 
 the unfinished work which they who fought here have 
 thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be 
 here dedicated to the great task remaining before us 
 that from these honored dead we take increased devo 
 tion to that cause for which they gave the last full 
 measure of devotion; that we here solemnly resolve 
 that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this 
 Nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom 
 and that government of the people by the people and 
 for the people shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 The year following, 1864, he avows the same plain 
 and persistent purpose. 
 
 A great fair was being held at Philadelphia, June 16, 
 1864, for the benefit of the United States Sanitary 
 Commission, one of the great charities of that day that 
 was doing much to relieve the horrors and sufferings 
 of war. At this fair President Lincoln was an honored 
 guest and made a brief address, in which, among other 
 things, he said: 
 
 "They [these charities] . . . give proof that the 
 national resources are not at all exhausted, and that 
 the national spirit of patriotism is even firmer and 
 stronger than at the commencement of the war. 
 
 "It is a pertinent question often asked in the mind 
 privately, and from one to the other, when is the war 
 to end ? Surely I feel as deep an interest in this ques 
 tion as any other question; but I do not wish to name 
 a day, a month, or year, when it is to end. I do not 
 wish to run any risk of seeing the time come without 
 our being ready for the end, for fear of disappointment 
 
336 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 because the time had come and not the end. We ac 
 cepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war 
 will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope 
 it will never end until that time. Speaking of the pres 
 ent campaign, General Grant is reported to have said 
 I am going through on this line if it takes all summer. 7 
 This war has taken three years; it was begun or ac 
 cepted upon the line of restoring the national authority 
 over the whole national domain, and for the American 
 people, as far as my knowledge enables me to speak, I 
 say we are going through on this line if it takes three 
 years more." 
 
 At the Democratic National Convention in 1864 a 
 direct and distinct demand was made for a cessation 
 of hostilities. Vallandigham was one of the leading 
 spirits of the convention and made the platform. 
 Upon the peace platform stood a war candidate, Gen 
 eral George B. McClellan. McClellan himself repudi 
 ated the platform for peace, and what was left of it 
 was soon shot to death by General Grant, General 
 Sherman, and Admiral Farragut. 
 
 Lincoln s re-election had been in grave doubt during 
 the summer of 1864. He himself at one time fully 
 expected defeat. In which event what would be, and 
 should be, the leading question in his mind ? He wrote 
 it down on a slip of paper, had his Cabinet members put 
 their names upon the back without noting its con 
 tents, and folding it up, laid it away. That paper read : 
 
 " EXECUTIVE MANSION 
 " WASHINGTON, August 23, 1864. 
 
 "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 co 
 operate with the President-elect as to save the Union 
 
LINCOLN ON PEACE 337 
 
 between the election and the inauguration; as he will 
 have secured his election on such ground that he can 
 not possibly save it afterward. 
 
 "A. LINCOLN." 
 
 The November election brought much encourage 
 ment to Lincoln and the administration, and in his 
 message to Congress in December, 1864, among other 
 things, he said: 
 
 "On careful consideration of all the evidence accessi 
 ble, it seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with 
 the insurgent leader could result in any good. He 
 would accept nothing short of severance of the Union 
 precisely what we will not and cannot give. His dec 
 larations to this effect are explicit and oft repeated. 
 He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no 
 excuse to deceive ourselves. He cannot voluntarily 
 re-accept the Union; we cannot voluntarily yield it. 
 Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and 
 inflexible." 
 
 It may not be amiss here as showing the unselfish 
 patriotism of Abraham Lincoln infinitely above any 
 personal or political consideration for himself, that 
 during the summer of 1864, when the army was in need 
 of more troops, he issued another draft that aroused 
 much adverse public sentiment, because Grant and 
 Sherman and the other generals needed them, though 
 his political friends all advised him against it as a bad 
 piece of politics and one that would imperil his elec 
 tion. Nevertheless, he said: 
 
 "We must lose nothing even if I am defeated. I 
 am quite willing the people should understand the 
 issue. My re-election will mean that the rebellion is 
 to be crushed by force of arms." 
 
 And on July 18 he called for 500,000 volunteers for 
 
338 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 one, two, and three years. There is real courage and 
 real heroism for us. 
 
 Read again that part of his second inaugural that 
 applies to this same situation, with a purpose as firm 
 and as fearless as the everlasting rock: 
 
 " Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that 
 this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, 
 if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled 
 by the bondman s two hundred and fifty years of un 
 requited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
 blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with 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 do all which may achieve and cherish a 
 just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all 
 nations." 
 
 I fear some of us remember too much the words, 
 "With malice toward none, with charity for all," and 
 forget Lincoln s reference to "firmness in the right, as 
 God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish 
 the work we are in, ... to do all which may achieve 
 and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves 
 and with all nations." 
 
 Lincoln was persistently plagued during his admin 
 istration by the pestiferous and perverse peace man, 
 who was conspicuous, not only among his political op 
 ponents, but even among his professed friends. It 
 would be impossible, as well as inadvisable, in a work 
 of this scope to consider all of these negotiations. It 
 will be sufficient to note generally that Lincoln had 
 
LINCOLN ON PEACE 339 
 
 no faith in any of them after the bombardment of 
 Fort Sumter. 
 
 One of the most vociferous and troublesome of the 
 peace agitators was one Vallandigham, a brilliant, 
 capable, and perhaps well-meaning man, but intensely 
 partisan. In 1863 he gave Lincoln and the Union 
 cause serious trouble and embarrassment by his public 
 addresses to the effect that the war was "a wicked, 
 cruel and unnecessary war 7 ; "a war not being waged 
 for the preservation of the Union"; "a war for the pur 
 pose of crushing out liberty and erecting a despotism." 
 
 He further said "that if the administration had so 
 wished the war could have been honorably terminated 
 months ago"; that " peace might have been honorably 
 obtained by listening to the proposed intermediation 
 of France," etc. 
 
 He was arrested by General Burnside, tried, and 
 found guilty, sentenced to "close confinement in some 
 fortress of the United States." Finally he was sent 
 to the Confederate lines and from there went to Canada. 
 Later he ran for governor of Ohio on the Democratic 
 ticket, and was overwhelmingly beaten by General 
 Brough by some ninety thousand. 
 
 Numerous protests were sent to President Lincoln 
 against the treatment accorded Vallandigham, espe 
 cially by "New York Democrats" and "Ohio Demo 
 crats." Lincoln answered these protests, and in one 
 of his replies said: 
 
 " ... he who dissuades one man from volunteer 
 ing, or induces one soldier to desert, weakens the Union 
 cause as much as he who kills a Union soldier in battle. 
 Yet this dissuasion or inducement may be so con 
 ducted as to be no defined crime of which any civil 
 court would take cognizance." 
 
340 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Among Lincoln s friends there are two instances, 
 however, that are worthy of special mention. Of this 
 peace class there is no better example than that of 
 Horace Greeley. Greeley was as brilliant and well 
 meaning as he was erratic and unpractical. He it was 
 who at the beginning of the war was in favor of " letting 
 the erring sisters go in peace. " 
 
 In July, 1864, Greeley received a letter advising 
 that there were in Canada two ambassadors of the 
 rebel government with full power to negotiate peace. 
 Greeley enclosed this letter to Lincoln, commenting 
 that he thought the matter deserved attention. 
 
 He also wrote Lincoln in that connection, saying: 
 
 "I venture to remind you that our bleeding, bank 
 rupt, almost dying country, longs for peace shudders 
 at the prospect of fresh conscriptions, of further whole 
 sale devastations, and of new rivers of human blood; 
 and a wide-spread conviction that the government 
 and its supporters are not anxious for peace, and do 
 not improve proffered opportunities to achieve it, is 
 doing great harm now, and is morally certain, unless 
 removed, to do far greater in the approaching elec 
 tions." 
 
 To that letter the President replied as follows: 
 
 "If you can find any person, anywhere, professing 
 to have any proposition of Jefferson Davis, in writing, 
 embracing the restoration of the Union and abandon 
 ment of slavery, whatever else it embraces, say to him 
 that he may come to me with you." 
 
 Greeley replied to the President, stating in substance 
 that he had information upon which he could rely that 
 two persons had been duly commissioned and empow 
 ered to negotiate for peace and were at that time not 
 far from Niagara Falls. Their names were Clement 
 
LINCOLN ON PEACE 341 
 
 C. Clay, of Alabama, and Jacob Thompson, of Missis 
 sippi. 
 
 Lincoln later wrote Mr. Greeley: 
 
 "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 ninth inst., show that and this to them; and, if 
 they will consent to 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." 
 
 Lincoln had no confidence in the commissioners, 
 or their authority, but he resolved to throw the re 
 sponsibility for it upon Greeley by appointing him as 
 a commissioner to interview and negotiate with the 
 commissioners from the South. 
 
 Lincoln sent Major Hay to Niagara with the fol 
 lowing letter: 
 
 "EXECUTIVE MANSION, 
 "WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. 
 "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 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 on liberal terms on substantial 
 and collateral points; and the bearer or bearers thereof 
 shall have safe-conduct both ways. 
 
 " ABRAHAM LINCOLN." 
 
 To a friend afterward Lincoln said his appointment 
 of Greeley arose out of the fact that he had no con- 
 
342 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 fidence whatsoever either in the authority of the 
 Southern commissioners or in their disposition for 
 peace, and he proposed to appoint Greeley and let 
 him " crack that nut." 
 
 Later on Francis P. Blair, Jr., was infected with 
 the same peace germ and sought to enlist Lincoln to 
 another conference with three commissioners from the 
 South Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and 
 John A. Campbell all members of the Confederate 
 Government. The result of Blair s mediation was that 
 Secretary Seward received from Lincoln authority 
 to meet said commissioners from the Confederate 
 Government, with these specific instructions submitted 
 by President Lincoln : 
 
 "1. The restoration of the national authority 
 throughout all the States. 
 
 "2. No receding by the executive of the United 
 States on the slavery question from the position as 
 sumed thereon in the late annual message to Congress, 
 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." 
 
 Generous as Lincoln could be and generous as he 
 generally was to a foe, he realized that the issue here 
 was inflexible and was not a subject for negotiation 
 between the North and South, except upon the basis 
 that he above outlined. Some things cannot be com 
 promised. 
 
 During the latter months of Lincoln s life he had 
 given much attention to the subject of reconstruction 
 in the South. He anticipated the victories of Grant 
 and Sherman that must soon end the war. He fore 
 saw some of the divisions among the Northern states- 
 
LINCOLN ON PEACE 343 
 
 men as to the policies that would be advocated for 
 reconstruction. One of the great questions footballed 
 through Congress was this, Are the States that are 
 members of the Confederate Government in the Union 
 or out of the Union? 
 
 Lincoln handled this question in his own inimit 
 able way in the following pointed and pertinent lan 
 guage: 
 
 "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 the proper practical relation. I believe that it is 
 not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without 
 deciding or even considering whether these States have 
 ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding 
 themselves safely at home, it would be utterly imma 
 terial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all 
 join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper 
 practical relations between these States and the Union, 
 and each forever after innocently indulge his own 
 opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States 
 from without into the Union, or only gave them proper 
 assistance, they never having been out of it. 7 
 
 Lincoln as a lawyer and logician never had any 
 patience with distinguishing between tweedledee and 
 tweedledum. He always cut the "Gordian knot 77 of 
 technicality and got into the heart and substance of 
 things. He did that as a lawyer, he did it more as a 
 statesman. 
 
 At the bottom of the reconstruction policy was the 
 13th Amendment to the Constitution, that was to for 
 ever rivet the rights of freemen to the late slave. It 
 was to put the military emancipation proclamation 
 
344 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 into our civil constitution. But Booth s bullet did its 
 deadly work on April 14, 1865. 
 
 The soul of the broad-gauged, far-sighted, generous, 
 merciful Lincoln took its flight to another country, 
 and at the very hour the South, no less than the North, . 
 needed him most. 
 
 The patient, considerate, and troubled administra 
 tion of Abraham Lincoln, free from all hate, malice, or 
 revenge, was over. Radicalism and rancor were now 
 to design and direct the nation s policies of recon 
 structing the South. What an awful story of trouble 
 and terror, crime and crimination followed in the wake 
 of Andrew Johnson, his successor ! 
 
 Surely it could never have occurred with Lincoln s 
 wise and humane personality in command at Wash 
 ington. He indicated enough of his plans for the 
 South before his martyrdom to assure us of the most 
 benevolent, generous, and considerate policies for the 
 restoration and reconstruction of the South. The reign 
 of terror, the carpetbag government, the Kuklux Klan 
 and all were the natural and almost necessary result of 
 Lincoln s assassination. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 LINCOLN THE MOST UNSELFISH MAN 
 
 TIME would fail me to detail the many instances re 
 corded in the various biographies of Lincoln exhibiting 
 almost divine unselfishness; from his kindness to the 
 returning soldier in Kentucky, to his companions and 
 neighbors at Gentry ville in Indiana, toward the " plain 
 folk" of New Salem, Illinois, his professional conduct 
 at Springfield and his official life at Washington. But 
 some of these incidents are so strikingly significant, so 
 exceptional and surprising that they should be given 
 more than mere mention in surveying the unselfish 
 character and service of his magnanimous life. 
 
 Few great historical characters who were possessed 
 of the ambition of Abraham Lincoln were so utterly 
 free from envy and jealousy of their fellows. Though 
 the leader of the Whig party in Illinois as early as 
 1840, when he was its unanimous candidate for speaker 
 in the general assembly, his defeat for nomination for 
 Congress in 1842 by John J. Hardin did not sour him. 
 
 He came back manfully in 1844, when he was again 
 defeated by Edward M. Baker. He loyally and en 
 thusiastically supported Baker and stumped the dis 
 trict for him. 
 
 In 1846 he was again a candidate and was this time 
 nominated. During his term in Congress he received a 
 letter from his old-time partner, Herndon, complaining 
 that the young men of Illinois were being rudely and 
 inconsiderately pushed aside by the older men, whom 
 
 345 
 
346 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Herndon characterized as "the old fossils in the party 
 who were constantly holding the young man back." 
 Mr. Lincoln administered a very gentle and gracious 
 rebuke in the following letter; under date of July 10, 
 1848, he wrote: 
 
 "DEAR WILLIAM: 
 
 "Your letter covering the newspaper slips was re 
 ceived last night. The subject of that letter is ex 
 ceedingly painful to me, and I cannot 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 think is good 
 with you, that nothing could afford me more satisfac 
 tion than to learn that you and others of my young 
 friends at home were 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. I cannot conceive that other men feel 
 differently. Of course I cannot 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 every way he can, never suspecting that any 
 body wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you 
 that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in 
 any situation." . . . 
 
 The petty disappointments and personal insults that 
 come and go in one s personal and public life were either 
 ignored or forgotten by him. He always kept his eye 
 on the "central idea" rather than some personal griev 
 ance or insult. 
 
 Lincoln was not only not selfish, he was constitu- 
 
LINCOLN THE MOST UNSELFISH MAN 347 
 
 tionally unselfish in the superlative degree. Nowhere 
 was this better demonstrated than in connection with 
 his Cabinet. Not a man in it was chosen because of 
 his personal loyalty and ability to advance the political 
 fortunes of Abraham Lincoln. Upon the contrary, the 
 primary and paramount idea throughout his choice of 
 Cabinet members was the crystallization of public sen 
 timent for the Union. 
 
 This " frontier lawyer" of Duff Armstrong and the 
 Widow Wright, of the Illinois prairies, as he was known 
 in the East, had now become chief counsel for the 
 American people in the great governmental court at 
 Washington, and in this case no Stanton would elbow 
 him out of the great cause to which he had dedicated 
 his life. 
 
 He not only continued as counsel, but as chief coun 
 sel, and his Cabinet ministers with one glaring and un 
 pardonable exception, recognized who the chief counsel 
 was. 
 
 All this came about, not by any selfish assertion of 
 power, not by any personal vanity, but by reason of 
 superiority of sense, his judgment, his foresight, his 
 fairness and firmness, his loyalty to liberty and his 
 devotion to democracy. 
 
 We see him again patiently reading Seward s note, 
 "Some Thoughts for the Consideration of the Presi 
 dent," with all its haughtiness, its ungracious insults, 
 and we see again the President s fair, firm, and conclu 
 sive answer. 
 
 No one will ever know how much his personal pride, 
 during the first year or two of Seward s service, was 
 hurt and cut to the quick. But he ignored it all, and 
 later these two were the most faithful friends in one 
 common cause, Union and Liberty. 
 
348 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 No one can ever know the continuous, intolerable, 
 petty, and paltry faultfinding of Chase, his treason 
 able undermining of the President s political loyalty 
 and fortunes, and his continual quarrelling with other 
 members of the Cabinet, and how long thereafter the 
 President kept him, feeling that while he was disloyal 
 to A. Lincoln, he was rendering efficient service to 
 Uncle Sam. Then finally, when it was discovered that 
 he was tunnelling under Seward through the United 
 States Senate, and also under Lincoln and his policies, 
 it was inevitable that the President should accept 
 Chase s third resignation. Chase had literally forced 
 himself out of the Cabinet. 
 
 And then again upon Taney s death, when a new 
 chief justice had to be chosen, how easy it would 
 have been for Mr. Lincoln to have appointed some one 
 experienced and qualified for that honorable place in 
 our national jurisprudence, with no thought at all of 
 Chase, and when some of his friends ventured to urge 
 his name, which in view of the relations between the 
 secretary of the treasury and the President, would 
 seem the sheerest effrontery, how easy it was for Lin 
 coln to say: "Now is my chance to humiliate him, to 
 get even with him." 
 
 Lincoln s appointment of Chase under the circum 
 stances of their past relationship, and Chase s treat 
 ment of him, as shown by the latter s own diary, as 
 well as the many disclosures of the biographies of both 
 of them, demonstrate a magnanimity upon the part 
 of Abraham Lincoln so rare and so rich in human kind 
 ness that it almost stamps him as divine. Could 
 you have done it ? Would you have done it ? Would 
 any other President have done it that you ever knew of ? 
 
 And then to Stanton s conduct, with all its dis- 
 
LINCOLN THE MOST UNSELFISH MAN 349 
 
 courtesies, its insults in the Federal Court at Cincin 
 nati, in 1855, as noted in previous chapters. To have 
 overlooked this " prof essional outrage, " this " personal 
 insult," to have laid aside his bitterest criticisms, given 
 wide publicity in Washington and the country, in 
 which he characterized Lincoln s administration as 
 "political imbecility," to have taken this man Stanton 
 into his official family in charge of the great office 
 of secretary of war, is surely too much to expect of 
 human flesh. And yet Lincoln did it. Could you 
 have done it? Would you have done it? Has any 
 other President ever done it? 
 
 A reasonable amount of criticism is a good thing for 
 a public officer. It keeps reminding him of the fact 
 that after all he is only a public servant, a public agent, 
 a public representative. He admits it the day before 
 election. He too often forgets it the day after. Such 
 criticism, as a rule, only makes big men bigger and lit 
 tle men littler, both eminently desirable results in the 
 evolution of government. 
 
 "With malice toward none and charity for all" 
 this literally personified Abraham Lincoln throughout 
 his life, and this spirit of the man from Illinois still 
 reminds us that his "soul goes marching on," and 
 that it is receiving a new life and a new loyalty in 
 his own fair country Our America. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 LINCOLN S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 
 
 RELIGION 
 
 From an interview between Mr. Newton Bateman, superintendent of 
 public instruction of Illinois, and Lincoln, in 1860, touching a 
 poll-book of Springfield, particularly relating to the ministers of 
 that city. 
 
 "HERE are twenty- three ministers of different de 
 nominations, and all of them are against me but three; 
 and here are a great many prominent members of the 
 churches, a very large majority of whom are against me. 
 Mr. Bateman, I am not a Christian God knows I 
 would be one but I have carefully read the Bible, 
 and I do not so understand this book"; (and he drew 
 from his bosom a pocket New Testament). "These 
 men well know," he continued, "that I am for free 
 dom in the territories, freedom everywhere as far as 
 the Constitution and laws will permit, and that my 
 opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, 
 with this book in their hands, in the light of which 
 human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going 
 to vote against me. I do not understand it at all." 
 
 Here Mr. Lincoln paused paused for long minutes, 
 his features surcharged with emotion. Then he rose 
 and walked up and down the room in the effort to re 
 tain or regain his self-possession. Stopping at last, 
 he said, with a trembling voice and his cheeks wet 
 with tears: 
 
 "I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice 
 and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that 
 His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me 
 
 350 
 
LINCOLN S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 351 
 
 and I think He has I believe I am ready. I am 
 nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right 
 because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches 
 it, and Christ is God. I have told them that a house 
 divided against itself cannot stand, and Christ and 
 reason say the same; and they will find it so. Douglas 
 don t care whether slavery is voted up or voted down, 
 but God cares, and humanity cares, and I care; and 
 with God s help I shall not fail. I may not see the 
 end; but it will come, and I shall be vindicated; and 
 these men will find that they have not read their 
 Bibles aright." 
 
 Much of this was uttered as if he were speaking to 
 himself, and with a sad and earnest solemnity of manner 
 impossible to be described. After a pause, he resumed : 
 " Doesn t it appear strange that men can ignore the 
 moral aspects of this contest? A revelation could 
 not make it plainer to me that slavery or the govern 
 ment must be destroyed. The future would be some 
 thing awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on which 
 I stand" (alluding to the Testament which he still 
 held in his hand), " especially with the knowledge of 
 how these ministers are going to vote. It seems as 
 if God had borne with this thing (slavery) until the 
 very teachers of religion have come to defend it from 
 the Bible, and to claim for it a divine character and 
 sanction; and now the cup of iniquity is full, and the 
 vials of wrath will be poured out." 
 
 PERSUADING MEN 
 
 From a temperance speech delivered before the Springfield Washing- 
 tonian Temperance Society, February 22, 1842. 
 
 "When the conduct of men is designed to be in 
 fluenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, 
 
352 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim 
 that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon 
 of gall/ So with men. If you would win a man to 
 your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere 
 friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his 
 heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad 
 to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will 
 find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of 
 the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really 
 be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to 
 his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark 
 him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will 
 retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head 
 and his heart; and though your cause be naked truth 
 itself, transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than 
 steel, and sharper than steel can be made, and though 
 you throw it with more than herculean force and pre 
 cision, you shall be no more able to pierce him than 
 to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. 
 Such is man, and so must he be understood by those 
 who would lead him, even to his own best interests. 
 
 "Few can be induced to labor exclusively for pos 
 terity; and none will do it enthusiastically. Posterity 
 has done nothing for us; and theorize on it as we may, 
 practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are 
 made to think we are at the same time doing some 
 thing for ourselves." 
 
 TEMPERANCE 
 From the same temperance address. 
 
 "Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it 
 we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery 
 manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in it, more 
 
LINCOLN S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 353 
 
 of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow 
 assuaged. By it no orphans starving, no widows weep 
 ing. By it, none wounded in feeling, none injured in 
 interest; even the dram-maker and dram-seller will 
 have glided into other occupations so gradually as 
 never to have felt the change, and will stand ready 
 to join all others in the universal song of gladness. 
 And what a noble ally this to the cause of political 
 freedom, with such an aid its march cannot fail to be 
 on and on, till every son of earth shall drink in rich fru 
 ition the sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect liberty. 
 Happy day when all appetites controlled, all poisons 
 subdued, all matter subjected mind, all conquering 
 mind, shall live and move, the monarch of the world. 
 Glorious consummation ! Hail, fall of fury ! Reign 
 of reason, all hail ! 
 
 "And when the victory shall be complete, when 
 there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the 
 earth, how proud the title of that land which may 
 truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both 
 those revolutions that shall have ended in that vic 
 tory. How nobly distinguished that people who shall 
 have planted and nurtured to maturity both the polit 
 ical and moral freedom of their species." 
 
 LABOR 
 
 From the President s Message of December 3, 1861. 
 
 "It is not needed nor fitting here that a general ar 
 gument should be made in favor of popular institu 
 tions; 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 capital on an 
 equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the struc 
 ture of government. It is assumed that labor is avail- 
 
354 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 able only in connection with capital; that nobody 
 labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow 
 by the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, 
 it is next considered whether it is best that capital 
 shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by 
 their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to 
 it without their consent. Having proceeded thus far, 
 it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either 
 hired laborers or what we call slaves. And, further, 
 it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is 
 fixed in that condition for life. 
 
 "Now, there is no such relation between capital 
 and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as 
 a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a 
 hired 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 con 
 sideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy 
 of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied 
 that there is, and probably always will be, a relation 
 between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. 
 The error is in assuming that the whole of labor of 
 the community exists within that relation. A few men 
 own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and 
 with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for 
 them. A large majority belong to neither class 
 neither work for others nor have others working for 
 them. In most of the Southern States a majority of 
 the whole people, of all colors are neither slaves nor 
 masters; while in the Northern a large majority are 
 neither hirers nor hired. Men with their families 
 wives, sons, and daughters work for themselves, on 
 
LINCOLN S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 355 
 
 their farms, in their houses, and in their shops taking 
 the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors 
 of capital on the one hand, nor of hired laborers or 
 slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a con 
 siderable number of persons mingle then: own labor 
 with capital that is, they labor with their own hands 
 and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but 
 this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No prin 
 ciple stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed 
 class. 
 
 " Again, as has already been said, there is not, of 
 necessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer 
 being fixed to that condition for life. Many indepen 
 dent men everywhere in these States, a few years back 
 in their lives, were hired laborers. The prudent, penni 
 less beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, 
 saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for 
 himself, then labors on his own account another while, 
 and at length hires another new beginner to help him. 
 This is the just and generous and prosperous system 
 which opens the way to all gives hope to all, and 
 consequent energy and progress and improvement of 
 condition to all. No men living are more worthy to 
 be trusted than those who toil up from poverty none 
 less inclined to take or touch aught which they have 
 not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrender 
 ing a political power which they already possess, and 
 which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the 
 door of advancement against such as they, and to fix 
 new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of lib 
 erty shall be lost." 
 
 From the President s Message to Congress, July 4, 1861. 
 
 "This is essentially a people s contest. On the side 
 of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the 
 
356 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 world that form and substance of government whose 
 leading object is to elevate the condition of men to 
 lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the 
 paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an un 
 fettered start and a fair chance in the race of life. 
 Yielding to partial and temporary departures, from 
 necessity, this is the leading object of the government 
 for whose existence we contend. 
 
 "I am most happy to believe that the plain people 
 understand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note 
 that while in this, the government s hour of trial, large 
 numbers of those in the army and navy who have been 
 favored with the officers have resigned and proved 
 false to the hand which had pampered them, not one 
 common soldier or common sailor is known to have 
 deserted his flag." 
 
 AGRICULTURE 
 From an address before an agricultural society, September 30, 1859. 
 
 "I know nothing so pleasant to the mind as the dis 
 covery of anything that is at once new and valuable 
 nothing that so lightens and sweetens toil as the hope 
 ful pursuit of such discovery. And how vast and how 
 varied a field is agriculture for such discovery ! The 
 mind already trained to thought in the country school, 
 or higher school, cannot fail to find there an exhaust- 
 less source of enjoyment. Every blade of grass is a 
 study; and to produce two where there was but one 
 is both a profit and a pleasure. And not grass alone, 
 but soils, seeds, and seasons hedges, ditches, and 
 fences draining, droughts, and irrigation plowing, 
 hoeing, and harrowing reaping, mowing, and thresh 
 ing saving crops, pests of crops, diseases of crops, and 
 
LINCOLN S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 357 
 
 what will prevent or cure them implements, utensils, 
 and machines, their relative merits, and how to im 
 prove them hogs, horses, and cattle sheep, goats, 
 and poultry trees, shrubs, fruits, plants and flowers 
 the thousand things of which these are specimens- 
 each a world of study within itself. 
 
 "In all this, book-learning is available. A capacity 
 and taste for reading gives access to whatever has al 
 ready been discovered by others. It is the key, or 
 one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And 
 not only so: it gives a relish and facility for success 
 fully pursuing the unsolved ones. The rudiments of 
 science are available, highly available. Some knowl 
 edge of botany assists in dealing with the vegetable 
 world with all growing crops. Chemistry assists 
 in the analysis of soils, selection and application of 
 manures, and in numerous other ways. The mechan 
 ical branches of natural philosophy are ready help in 
 almost everything, but especially in reference to im 
 plements and machinery. 
 
 "The thought recurs that education cultivated 
 thought can best be combined with agricultural 
 labor, or any labor, on the principle of thorough work; 
 that careless, half performed, slovenly work makes no 
 place for such combination; and thorough work, again 
 renders sufficient the smallest quantity of ground to 
 each man; and this, again, conforms to what must 
 occur in a world less inclined to wars and more devoted 
 to the arts of peace than heretofore. Population must 
 increase rapidly, more rapidly than in former times, 
 and ere long the most valuable of all arts will be the 
 art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the 
 smallest area of soil. No community whose every 
 member possesses this art, can ever be the victim of op- 
 
358 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 pression in any of its forms. Such community will be 
 alike independent of crowned kings, money kings, 
 and land kings. 
 
 "The ambition for broad acres leads to poor farm 
 ing, even with men of energy. I scarcely ever knew 
 a mammoth farm to sustain itself, much less to return 
 a profit upon the outlay. I have more than once known 
 a man to spend a respectable fortune upon one, fail, 
 and leave it, and then some man of modest aim get 
 a small fraction of the ground, and make a good living 
 upon it. Mammoth farms are like tools or weapons 
 which are too heavy to be handled; ere long they are 
 thrown aside at a great loss." 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 From the last public address, April 11, 1865. 
 
 11 We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in glad 
 ness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and 
 Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insur 
 gent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace, 
 whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the 
 midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings 
 flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national 
 thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly pro 
 mulgated. 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 trans 
 mitting much of the good news to you; but no part 
 of the honor for plan or execution is mine. To Gen 
 eral Grant, his skilful officers and brave men, all be- 
 
LINCOLN S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 359 
 
 longs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in 
 reach to take active part. 
 
 "The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring 
 emancipation for the whole State, practically applies 
 the proclamation to the part previously excepted. It 
 does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and 
 it is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the 
 admission of members to Congress. So that, as it 
 applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet 
 fully approved the plan. The message went to Con 
 gress, and I received many commendations of the plan, 
 written and verbal, and not a single objection to it 
 from any professed emancipationist came to my knowl 
 edge until after the news reached Washington that the 
 people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance 
 with it. From about July, 1862, I had corresponded 
 with different persons supposed to be interested (in) 
 seeking a reconstruction of a State government for 
 Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan 
 before mentioned, reached New Orleans, General 
 Banks wrote me that he was confident that the people, 
 with his military co-operation, would reconstruct sub 
 stantially on that plan. I wrote to him and some of 
 them to try it. They tried it, and the result is known. 
 Such has been my only agency in getting up the 
 Louisiana government. 
 
 "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 convinced that keeping it is 
 adverse to the public interest; but I have not yet 
 been so convinced. I have been shown a letter on 
 this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the 
 
360 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed 
 to be definitely fixed on the question whether the 
 seceded States, so-called, are in the Union or out of 
 it. It would perhaps add astonishment to his regret 
 were he to learn that since I have found professed 
 Union men endeavoring to make that question, I have 
 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 dis 
 cussion of it, while it thus remains practically imma 
 terial, could have no effect other than the mischievous 
 one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may 
 hereafter become, that question is bad as the basis 
 of a controversy, and good for nothing at all a merely 
 pernicious abstraction. 
 
 "We all agree that the seceded States, so-called, 
 are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, 
 and that the sole object of the government, civil and 
 military, in regard to those States, is to again get them 
 into that proper practical relation. I believe that it 
 is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this with 
 out deciding or even considering whether these States 
 have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Find 
 ing 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 States from without into the Union, or only gave 
 them proper assistance, they never having been out 
 of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on 
 which the new Louisiana government rests, would 
 be more satisfactory to all if it contained 50,000 or 
 
LINCOLN S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 361 
 
 30,000, or even 20,000 instead of only about 12,000, 
 as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the 
 elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I 
 would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the 
 very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as 
 soldiers. 
 
 "Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana 
 government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. 
 The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and 
 help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it? Can 
 Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation 
 with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding 
 her new State government? Some twelve thousand 
 voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have 
 sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the right 
 ful political power of the State, held elections, organized 
 a State government, adopted a free-State constitu 
 tion, 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 con 
 stitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, 
 abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These 
 12,000 persons are thus fully committed to the Union 
 and to perpetual freedom in the State committed 
 to the very things, and nearly all the things, the na 
 tion 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 ut 
 most 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 
 
362 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 
 
 you and leave you to the chances of gathering the 
 spilled and scattered contents in some vague and un 
 defined when, where, and how. If this course, dis 
 couraging and paralyzing both white and black, has 
 any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper prac 
 tical relations with the Union, I have so far been un 
 able 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 12,000 to adhere to 
 their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and 
 fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to 
 a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing 
 all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, 
 and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires 
 the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by 
 saving the already advanced steps toward it than by 
 running backward over them? Concede that the 
 new government of Louisiana is only 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 na 
 tional Constitution. To meet this proposition it has 
 been argued that no more than three-fourths of those 
 States which have not attempted secession are neces 
 sary 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 
 unquestionable. I repeat the question: Can Louisiana 
 be brought into proper practical relation with the 
 Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new 
 
LINCOLN S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 363 
 
 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 details and collaterals. Such exclusive and in 
 flexible plan would surely become a new entangle 
 ment. Important principles may and must be in 
 flexible. 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." 
 
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