From Portrait by F. B. Carpenter. 
 Engraved by F. Hal pin. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 AND HIS PRESIDENCY 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH H. BARRETT, LL.D. 
 
 IN T WO VOL UMES 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 ; 
 
 TBTT^SW 
 
 Or THE ^ >^ 
 
 IVITiVSITY : 
 
 RN^L 
 CINCINNATI 
 
 THR ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY 
 1904 
 
Copyright, 1903, by 
 JOSEPH II. BARRETT. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 . 
 
 & 
 
 PRESS OF THE ROBERT CLARKE CO. 
 CINCINNATI, U. S. A. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Before the meeting of the Republican National Con 
 vention of 1860 I had undertaken, not of my own motion 
 or at first willingly, to write a campaign biography of its 
 nominee for the Presidency. I was confident that my 
 subject would not be Mr. Seward, but had no presenti 
 ment that the choice of the convention would be Abra 
 ham Lincoln, whom I had then never met. In my first 
 interview with him, soon after the adjournment of the 
 convention (of which I was a member), he earnestly and 
 even sadly insisted that there was no adequate material 
 for such a work as was intended, yet he received me 
 very kindly, and showed no unusual reserve in talking 
 of either his earlier or maturer life. As to both periods, 
 he readily gave such facts as my inquiries invited or 
 suggested; introduced me to friends with whom he had 
 been on intimate terms for more than twenty years; 
 and put me in the way of exploring newspaper files 
 and legislative journals in the Illinois State library for 
 biographic material. 
 
 He told me of his correspondence with one of his 
 father s relatives in Rockingham County, Virginia, and 
 
 (in) 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 with one of the Lincolns of Massachusetts, without 
 obtaining positive proof of the relationship which later 
 research has rendered certain. Recognizing that his 
 parents were of humble life, and ranking himself with 
 plain people, he distinctly claimed to be of a stock 
 which, though it had produced no man of great emi 
 nence, had always been of good repute in general as to 
 both character and capacity. At my request and in my 
 presence (May 24, 1861) he sat for a daguerreotype, 
 which was lithographically reproduced for the volume 
 then in preparation, published the following month. 
 
 My personal intercourse with Lincoln was continued 
 later at Springfield, as well as during part of his journey 
 to Washington the next winter, and in that city thence 
 forward during the rest of his days. While preparing 
 to add a second part to the biography, for the canvass 
 of 1864, access was given me to the needed official 
 papers. With permission, copies were made of valuable 
 documents, not all of which were then used, including 
 autograph letters and papers of the President, General 
 Scott, and General McClellan, not then generally acces 
 sible. Additional autograph manuscripts of Lincoln, 
 Chase, and others are now printed for the first time. 
 
 In the summer of 1865 there was added to the two 
 parts thus produced a third and longer one, making a 
 volume of over eight hundred pages. With all its 
 defects, the book had an extraordinary sale. A more 
 
PREFACE. v 
 
 deliberate and complete biography was then intended 
 by the author as soon as freedom from interfering duties 
 would permit. That time was long in coming, but the 
 purpose thus deferred was never abandoned. It is now 
 fulfilled, with the advantage gained from constantly 
 accumulating materials, and with the aid of new lights 
 and changed conditions favorable to a more dispas 
 sionate estimate of the men and events of one of the 
 most exciting and momentous periods in human history. 
 A reproduction of Halpin s engraving of the portrait 
 of Lincoln by F. B. Carpenter serves as frontispiece to 
 the first volume, with the artist s approval, given (March 
 27, 1900) a few weeks before his decease. Of the orig 
 inal painting, President Lincoln said: " I feel that there 
 is more of me in this portrait than in any representation 
 which has ever been made." Chief Justice Chase wrote 
 (in 1866): "The likeness is very faithful and lifelike. 
 Mr. Lincoln s countenance had great mobility, and its 
 expression varied much. I have seen him often with 
 that which you have given him. I think it also his 
 best." The frontispiece of the second volume is a pho 
 togravure of the daguerreotype taken just after his 
 nomination at Chicago lithographed for a campaign 
 biography, but otherwise never before published. 
 
 J. II. BARRETT. 
 
 , OHIO, November, 1903. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. FAGS 
 LINEAGE LINCOLN MIGRATIONS i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PARENTAGE CHILDHOOD IN KENTUCKY YOUTH IN 
 INDIANA jr 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 REMOVAL TO ILLINOIS CAPTAIN IN BLACK HAWK WAR 
 POSTMASTER, SURVEYOR, LEGISLATOR MENARD 
 LEGENDS 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ADMITTED TO THE BAR REMOVAL TO SPRINGFIELD 
 LAW POLITICS PERSONALITIES 48 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MARY TODD BROKEN ENGAGEMENT DEPRESSION 
 VISIT TO KENTUCKY LETTER TO Miss SPEED LAW 
 CASE 61 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TEMPERANCE ADDRESS DIFFICULTY WITH SHIELDS 
 MARRIAGE CONGRESSIONAL ASPIRATIONS ANNEX 
 ATION OF TEXAS WAR WITH MEXICO ELECTED TO 
 CONGRESS 7 1 
 
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. PAGE 
 
 IN CONGRESS SPEECH ON THE MEXICAN WAR 
 FAVORS NOMINATION OF GENERAL TAYLOR SPEECHES 
 ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS AND PRESIDENTIAL 
 NOMINEES WILMOT PROVISO 84 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IN CONGRESS SPEECHES IN NEW ENGLAND SECOND 
 SESSION SLAVERY TURMOIL No OFFICE FROM 
 TAYLOR WHIG CANDIDATE FOR SENATOR 96 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PROFESSIONAL WORK AND WAYS HOME AND FAMILY 
 EULOGY ON HENRY CLAY RAILWAY AND REAPER 
 CASES no 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE NEBRASKA" SURPRISE .......123 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FIRST ANTI-NEBRASKA CAMPAIGN PEORIA SPEECH 
 TRUMBULL ELECTED SENATOR 130 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ANTI-NEBRASKA COALITION KANSAS CONFLICT RE 
 PUBLICAN PARTY ORGANIZED FREMONT BEATEN 
 BY BUCHANAN DRED SCOTT DECISION CASES IN 
 COURT 139 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION ANOTHER DEMO 
 CRATIC SCHISM LINCOLN A CANDIDATE FOR SEN 
 ATOR " HOUSE-DIVIDED " SPEECH . . . i r,6 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. PAGE 
 THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE 170 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH LETTERS AND AD 
 DRESSES INCIDENTS AND PORTENTS JOHN BROWN 
 AT HARPER S FERRY CHAOS IN CONGRESS 196 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION LINCOLN NOMINATED FOR 
 PRESIDENT 216 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS A QUADRILATERAL CON 
 TEST 226 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA LEADS A REVOLT SECESSION TUMULT 
 IN THE GULF STATES THE PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDES 
 His TIME 236 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 EMBARRASSMENTS OF PRESIDENT BUCHANAN MAJOR 
 ROBERT ANDERSON AND FORT SUMTER PLANS FOR 
 PACIFICATION " CONFEDERATE STATES " 250 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 ON THE WAY TO THE WHITE HOUSE 260 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 INAUGURATION CABINET AND DIPLOMATIC APPOINT 
 MENTS 277 
 
x TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER xxn. PAGE: 
 
 FIRST FORTY DAYS THE FORT SUMTER PROBLEM. . . .285 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 LOYAL UPRISING PRESIDENT LINCOLN S PROCLAMA 
 TION FOUR MORE STATES REVOLT THE CAPITAL 
 ISOLATED 295 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 TAKING UP THE BURDEN OF WAR PRESIDENT AND 
 CONGRESS 309 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 A BATTLE OUTLOOK AT HOME AND ABROAD 331 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 CONGRESS WAR-MAKING ON SLAVE SOIL AFFAIRS 
 IN THE WEST ARMY AND NAVY OPERATIONS ON 
 THE COAST 344 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 ARMY OF THE POTOMAC BALL S BLUFF MCCLELLAN 
 SUCCEEDS SCOTT MESSAGE TO CONGRESS THE 
 TRENT TROUBLE .....,-... 362 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, FROM PORTRAIT BY 
 
 CARPENTER, ENGRAVED BY HALPIN Frontispiece 
 
 FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM SALMON P. CHASE. . .Page 207 
 
LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Lineage Lincoln Migrations. 
 
 President Lincoln s grandfather, a Kentucky pioneer 
 who bore the same name and met a like fate, was the 
 son of John Lincoln, a Virginia planter of good estate, 
 who had removed from Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah 
 Valley many years before the Revolution. The first of 
 this line born in America was Mordecai Lincoln, grand 
 father of John, of Virginia, and son of Samuel Lincoln, a 
 native of England, who was one of the early settlers of 
 Massachusetts. The surname is ancient and honorable, 
 having a common origin with the name of an English 
 county, derived from that of a Roman settlement on the 
 site of Lincoln City. The last syllable, with its trouble 
 some mute, is a shortening of the Latin colonia. There 
 are instances in early New England documents in which 
 a scribe has written " Linklon " or " Linkhorn " for Lin 
 coln, but none is found in which an autograph signature 
 is thus deformed. The American general after whom 
 one of the three original counties of Kentucky was 
 
2 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 named used to be called " Linkhorn " by Southern 
 soldiers. The same bad habit once prevailed more or 
 less in England. On a pillar of the old cathedral of 
 Winchester a small plate of brass, with an engraved 
 inscription, commemorates a martial hero born in 
 " Linkhorne sheire." * 
 
 Samuel Lincoln, a native of Norfolk County, Eng 
 land, was eighteen years old when, in 1637, ne settled at 
 Hingham, on Massachusetts Bay. An older brother, 
 Thomas " the weaver," was already there, and another 
 brother, Daniel, came near the same time. There were 
 other Lincolns less nearly related to Samuel among the 
 first proprietors there, including Thomas " the cooper," 
 from whom descended General Benjamin Lincoln of the 
 Revolution. All appear to have been good citizens of 
 the early New England type plain, industrious, relig 
 ious people, well esteemed by their neighbors. They or 
 their immediate descendants were connected by mar 
 riage with a good share of the families in a community 
 honored by many names of distinction. Of their Eng 
 lish ancestry little is definitely known. 
 
 Hingham, beautiful in situation, on the southern 
 shore of the bay, a few miles from Boston, had from the 
 first a double industrial life of land and sea not only 
 farming and mechanic arts, but shipping also, for there 
 were fisheries as well as coast traffic and travel, or even 
 remoter ventures. The original settler did not always 
 stick to the trade he had learned; there was a craving for 
 independent tenure of land; and no virtuous method of 
 gain was despised. If all came here to enjoy freedom of 
 
 * Milner s History of Winchester, II., 75-6. 
 
LINEAGE LINCOLN MIGRATIONS. 3 
 
 conscience, few lacked equal zeal to better their worldly 
 condition. Samuel Lincoln had been apprenticed to 
 a weaver, and may have followed this calling for a 
 time, but we find him later described as a mariner. His 
 oldest son, Samuel junior, was a carpenter, held local 
 office, and served as a trooper in the King Philip War. 
 His great-grandson, Levi Lincoln, a Harvard graduate^ 
 was Attorney General under President Jefferson, and 
 declined an appointment to the Supreme Bench from 
 President Madison. He had a brother Abraham, of 
 Worcester, who was a man of local note, and two sons, 
 who were New England Governors Levi Lincoln, 
 junior, of Massachusetts, and Enoch Lincoln, of Maine. 
 Another son of the immigrant Samuel, Mordecai 
 Lincoln (1657-1727), was a busy and prosperous man 
 blacksmith, iron founder, owner of mills and lands 
 and became one of the richest colonists of his time. By 
 his wife Sarah, daughter of Abraham Jones, of Hull, he 
 had three sons Mordecai, junior, Abraham, and Isaac, 
 and by a second marriage, late in life, he had a son 
 Jacob, born in 1711. Not far from this date the two 
 oldest brothers, already of age, sought new homes in 
 New Jersey, afterward crossing the Delaware their 
 local relation to Philadelphia being, all the while, like 
 that of their immediate progenitors to Boston. In spite 
 of Puritan and Quaker antagonism there was no impass 
 able gulf between the two communities. A Harvard 
 graduate, who was a school teacher in Hingham when 
 these two Lincoln brothers were boys, and who was 
 the son of a partner of their father, had founded the first 
 Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia; and here a youth 
 
4 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 from Boston, named Benjamin Franklin, for some time 
 attended on his ministration not altogether with 
 profit. * 
 
 The second Mordecai married Hannah, daughter of 
 Judge Richard Salter, of Monmouth County, New 
 Jersey. John Bowne, a near relative of her mother, left 
 an estate substantial enough to support a protracted 
 contest over its distribution, Mordecai Lincoln being 
 one of the defendants. Disposing of his mining inter 
 ests in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1725, he 
 bought and settled on a large tract of land in what is now 
 Berks County, where he died in 1736. He fraternized 
 with the Society of Friends, was a man of good condi 
 tion, and in legal papers was styled " gentleman." In 
 his will he bequeathed to his son John three hundred 
 acres of land in New Jersey, derived from the latter s 
 maternal grandfather, Richard Salter, and divided the 
 Berks County tract between three sons by a second mar 
 riage. The youngest of these, Abraham, resided all his 
 life in the house his father had built near the city of 
 Reading; served several terms in the Legislature, and 
 was a member of the Convention which framed the first 
 Constitution of Pennsylvania. 
 
 In this region a generation of Lincolns and Boones 
 grew up together, and the families were allied by mar 
 riage. Before Daniel Boone removed with his father 
 to the Yadkin River country, in North Carolina, John 
 Lincoln settled in the Upper Shenandoah Valley, where 
 
 * The preacher in question, of whom Franklin writes in his 
 autobiography without giving his name, was the Rev. Jedidiah 
 Andrews. 
 
LINEAGE LINCOLN MIGRATIONS. 5 
 
 he bought six hundred acres of land near Harrisonburg, 
 in the original county of Augusta, of which the chief 
 town was Staunton, just across the Blue Ridge from 
 Charlottesville, not then boasting of its University or 
 its Jefferson. The next three generations of this family 
 were to differ widely in environment from the three 
 which preceded. The nearest capital towns were Phil 
 adelphia accessible by wild and tedious ways, across 
 the Potomac and South Mountain and Williams- 
 burg, Virginia, to which the journey was compara 
 tively easy. On the west were the great Alleghanies, 
 and a world unknown beyond. Here pioneer life was 
 to begin anew, without advantage from nearness of 
 seaboard or city. 
 
 John Lincoln lived until 1792, and had five sons: 
 John and Jacob, who remained in Virginia, and Abra 
 ham, Isaac, and Thomas, who in early manhood moved 
 on into remoter wilds across the mountains. Abraham 
 entered three separate tracts of land in Kentucky, on 
 one of which, in what is now Bullitt County, he settled 
 about the year 1784. Here the rifle-shot of an Indian, 
 who had stolen upon him unawares while at work, sud 
 denly ended his days. His widow and their five chil 
 dren, all of whom were born in Virginia, thereupon 
 moved to the neighborhood of relatives in Washington 
 County. The oldest son, Mordecai, aged about four 
 teen at the time of his father s death, was legal heir 
 to his titles of land a nominal estate of seventeen 
 hundred acres, promising to be of a value greater than 
 the estate of any of his American ancestors, but prov 
 ing, through conflicting or defective records and sur 
 veys, to be of little real worth. He became a man of 
 
6 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 prominence and good standing. * Josiah, the second 
 son, early removed to Harrison County, Indiana; and 
 two daughters, Mary and Nancy, married and settled in 
 Kentucky. The youngest son, Thomas, a mere child 
 when the family came from Virginia, was the father of 
 President Lincoln. 
 
 *" I remember to have heard my uncle, Judge Paul I. Booker, 
 remark to some hotheads when Lincoln was first elected President: 
 *I do not know Abraham Lincoln, but if he is as good a man as 
 his uncle Mordecai, whom I served with in the Legislature of Ken 
 tucky, you need have no fears/ " W. F. Booker, Clerk of Wash 
 ington County, Kentucky, to the writer, March 26, 1895. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 1809-1830. 
 
 Parentage Childhood in Kentucky Youth in Indiana. 
 
 Much has been inconsiderately written and said 
 about Thomas Lincoln. The violent death of his 
 father suddenly and sadly deranged the affairs of the 
 family, and the loss of paternal care was especially 
 unfortunate for one of such tender age. As he grew 
 up, he became more unsettled and less thrifty than his 
 brothers. Once, before he came to his majority, he 
 went off to find his uncle Isaac in Eastern Tennes 
 see; succeeded in his quest; and worked for a year or 
 more on his uncle s farm.* Later, he was employed 
 for a time in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, where 
 he learned carpentry, and perhaps cabinet-making, in 
 which he afterward showed some skill. He was not 
 lacking in an honest inclination to earn his own living, 
 though he was too readily content with what barely 
 sufficed for the simplest wants. Reared to labor, much 
 in the open air, and used to hardship, he had great 
 physical strength, with a certain robust relish for the 
 rough life of the border. He had no opportunity for 
 even rudimentary schooling, yet he could write his 
 
 *It was probably a son of this uncle whose name appears in 
 the following quotation from the family record of a noted per 
 sonage: "Married, at Greenville, by Mordecai Lincoln, Esq., on 
 the I7th day of May, 1827, Andrew Johnson to Eliza McCardal." 
 
 (7) 
 
8 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 name legibly, as proved by his signature to the bond 
 given on procuring his marriage license. He was a 
 religious man, with human limitations; companionable, 
 having a store of shrewd maxims and apt stories; and 
 withal one of those peaceable men who are not to be 
 scornfully trifled with. An octogenarian clerk of court, 
 who knew him during his residence in Elizabethtown, 
 said more than fifty years afterward: " He was a hale, 
 hearty-looking man, of medium height, rather clumsy 
 in his gait, and had a kind-looking face. He was a 
 moderately good house-carpenter, some of his work 
 remaining to this day in the neighborhood. He was 
 quite illiterate, and was regarded as a very honest man." 
 On the 1 2th of June, 1806, when in his twenty-ninth 
 year, Thomas Lincoln was married to Nancy Hanks, 
 six years younger, whom he had known from her child 
 hood. The wedding was at " Beechland," near Spring 
 field, in Washington County the place of Richard 
 Berry, in whose family she had lived as a ward for many 
 years. It appears from The Genealogy of the Hanks 
 Family* the best authority known on this subject 
 that she was born in Amelia County, Virginia, Feb 
 ruary 5, 1784, and was the youngest of nine children of 
 Joseph Hanks by his wife Nancy, whose maiden name 
 was Shipley. The father died in Nelson County, Ken 
 tucky, in 1793, and his will, of that date, naming all his 
 children, is on file at Bardstown. Her mother dying 
 not long after, Nancy went to live with Mrs. Berry, her 
 mother s sister. This definite account of the parentage 
 
 *MS., compiled by Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, of Cam 
 bridge, Mass., to whom thanks are due for information kindly fur 
 nished to the author. 
 
PARENTAGE CHILDHOOD YOUTH. 9 
 
 and early life of President Lincoln s mother sufficiently 
 disposes of an unfortunate hallucination of Mr. Hern- 
 don. According to the personal description of Nancy 
 Hanks by those who knew her, all substantially agree 
 ing, with one or two exceptions, due to mistaken iden 
 tity, she was slight in form and rather above the 
 medium height of her sex; her features were regular, 
 her hair dark, and her brown eyes bright and gentle. 
 She had a ready sense of the ludicrous, and there was 
 a vein of pleasantry in her talk. She was amiable, 
 devout, and naturally cheerful. Though living where 
 education was slighted, she early learned to read a 
 slender fact on which weighty events were to depend. 
 
 For a year or two the wedded pair lived in Elizabeth- 
 town, where their first child, Sarah, was born, in 1807. 
 The carpentry which detained them here being finished, 
 the next year they went to live in another part of the 
 county, occupying land in Nolin Creek valley, near 
 "Hodgen s Mills" bought before their marriage, and 
 known to-day as Rock Spring Farm. Here, in a log 
 cabin, their son Abraliam was born on Sunday, the I2th 
 day of February, 1809. 
 
 Much of the State was yet as wild and woody as 
 when the Lincolns first crossed the mountains. The 
 third President was still in office, and the Emperor, of 
 whom he had lately purchased " Louisiana," was at the 
 height of his power. This very year Bolivar, the South 
 American Liberator, visited England and our Republic, 
 intent upon political schemes which were to have fruit 
 on his own continent and in Mexico. Henry Clay 
 was just rising to high rank in the party called Repub 
 lican, whose creed embraced the Resolutions of 98. 
 
 
io LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 But what relation could these things have to the future 
 of a child born in a corner so remote and of parents so 
 obscure? 
 
 A noted Illinois lawyer (Mr. U. F. Linder) said in 
 1865: "I was born within ten miles of the birthplace 
 of Abraham Lincoln, only a month later than he. I 
 knew his father and his relatives in Kentucky. They 
 were a good family. They were poor, the very poor 
 est people of the middle class, I might say, but they 
 were true." 
 
 Of this home on the Nolin, young Abraham was to 
 remember little or nothing, for in three or four years 
 the family moved to another farm near the confluence 
 of Knob Creek with Rolling Fork, several miles east 
 ward. The latter stream, considerably larger than Nolin 
 Creek, from which it is separated by highlands towered 
 with a series of far-looking knobs, runs in an opposite 
 direction, seeking Salt River and the Ohio. His parents 
 still had like relations as before with Hodgenville and 
 the Baptist Church organized there by the first settlers. 
 In his second home he passed the more conscious years 
 of his early childhood. 
 
 Almost his earliest recollections were of sitting with 
 his sister at his mother s feet, listening as she read from 
 a book or told tales of imagination or experience. 
 Here his education began, and when still quite young 
 he eagerly read Robinson Crusoe, Aesop s Fables, Pil 
 grim s Progress, and other books common at plain fire 
 sides in the older States, but then rare in Kentucky. No 
 public instruction was then available. For a time he and 
 his sister walked a great distance to attend the school 
 kept by a Catholic priest named Zachariah Riney 
 
PARENTAGE CHILDHOOD YOUTH. 1 1 
 
 possibly a precursor of the Trappists, who founded the 
 noted monastery at Gethsemane, in that region. Later, 
 he in like manner became a pupil of Caleb Hazel, his 
 mother s cousin-in-law, who occasionally exercised his 
 gifts as a Baptist minister. Of both these teachers he 
 always retained pleasant remembrance, though he was 
 under their tuition but a few months in all. He was 
 not yet eight years old when he left Kentucky. One 
 of the last incidents he recalled of his life there was 
 accompanying his mother in her parting visit to the 
 grave of her youngest child, a son who died in infancy. 
 
 Hard times came with the War of 1812, and lasted 
 long. As some relief, the Government offered its wild 
 lands north of the Ohio to new settlers on credit. 
 There were serious troubles, too, about land titles in 
 Kentucky; nor was its labor system kind to people who 
 labored. Slavery was now firmly established there, and 
 the man of small means had less chance of rising than 
 of lapsing into the scorned class of " poor whites." 
 Thomas Lincoln chose to live in a free State. That 
 this was one of his motives for a change was explicitly 
 declared by his son. * In spite of this fact (or in igno 
 rance of it) a Boston biographer has scornfully affirmed 
 that " whatever poetic fitness there might be in such a 
 motive, the suggestion is entirely gratuitous and with 
 out the slightest foundation." f One of the authorities 
 cited (Lamon) would have us believe there were very 
 few slaves in that part of Kentucky, and no trouble 
 whatever about slavery. 
 
 A different story was told by the noted Methodist 
 
 *See "Complete Works," Nicolay and Hay, I., 639. 
 tMorse s "Abraham Lincoln," I., 10-11. 
 
12 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 preacher, Rev. Peter Cartwright, a native of Amherst 
 County, Virginia, who removed near the same time from 
 Kentucky to Illinois, avowedly because he was unwill 
 ing to bring up his children in the midst of slavery. He 
 was Elder of the Salt River Circuit, Kentucky, in 1808, 
 belonging to the old Western Conference, which met in 
 that year at Liberty Hill, Tennessee, and at Cincinnati 
 in 1809. In his Jubilee address at Lincoln, Illinois, 
 September 24, 1869, he told of the refusal of the Con 
 ference in 1806 to admit to " the travelling connection " 
 a South Carolina applicant, who owned two slaves, until 
 he emancipated them, " which required expense addi 
 tional to the loss of his slaves." During the year 1808 
 he said " some feeling existed in the bounds of the Con 
 ference " in regard to slavery, " and several petitions 
 were presented praying for the adoption of some more 
 specific rule upon the subject." A rule was adopted 
 that year requiring the expulsion of any member who 
 bought or sold a slave or slaves " from speculative 
 motives." * It is known that the anti-slavery leaven 
 was alsp at work in the denomination to which Thomas 
 Lincoln and his wife belonged. 
 
 In the autumn of 1816 the family migrated a long 
 distance westward across the Ohio, into the depths of 
 the Indiana wilderness. A few weeks later the Terri 
 tory, with but sixty-five thousand inhabitants, mostly 
 on the southern border, became a State. 
 
 The quarter section already selected was sixteen 
 miles from the nearest landing on the Ohio, and on this 
 
 *" Fifty Years a Presiding Elder." "I had been a preacher 
 for several years," he said, " before I saw a shingle-roofed house 
 of any description." 
 
PARENTAGE CHILDHOOD YOUTH. 13 
 
 place, near Gentryville, there is now a station named 
 Lincoln, twenty miles by railway from Rockport, on 
 that river. The principal stream in the vicinity is Little 
 Pigeon Creek. At first there were very few settlers 
 within many miles. Years passed before a store was 
 opened or the logs were hewn for the Little Pigeon 
 Baptist meeting-house. Here, from his eighth year to 
 his majority, Abraham Lincoln had his chief experience 
 of pioneer life. 
 
 The subjugators of a continental wilderness had 
 always to begin with a very simple domestic shelter, 
 and to live under hard conditions, that improved but 
 slowly at the best. A prolonged contest with the 
 pitiless elements, with resisting nature, often with the 
 unrelenting savage, alone made the building of our 
 republic possible. The doers of this work are true kin 
 of the old heroes and demi-gods. Hercules, " by con 
 quering the lawless powers of nature," says Curtius, 
 "prepared the soil for a rational order of life; he is 
 the regular symbol of the pioneering agency of the 
 earliest settlements." To descend from Hercules was 
 a Grecian s glory. 
 
 Bishop Meade, of Virginia, whose father, impover 
 ished by the Revolution, began life anew near Winches 
 ter, wrote: "The whole country was little less than a 
 forest at that time. For a small sum he purchased a 
 farm, with two unfinished log cabins, around which 
 the wolves nightly howled. Laying aside the weapons 
 of war, he took himself to hard labor with the axe, 
 the maul, and other instruments, while my mother 
 exchanged the luxuries of Lower Virginia for the 
 economy and diligence of a Western housewife." 
 
14 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 The historian of early Kentucky, Humphrey Mar 
 shall, spoke from personal knowledge when he said: 
 "Much. use was made of the skins of deer for dress, 
 while the buffalo and bear skins were consigned to the 
 floor for beds and covering." He describes pioneer fur 
 niture in general in almost the identical words which 
 have been used to describe the interior of Thomas Lin 
 coln s log cabin: "A like workmanship comprised the 
 table and the stool a slab hewn with an axe, and 
 sticks of a similar manufacture set in for legs supported 
 both. When the bed was by chance or refinement ele 
 vated above the floor and given a fixed place, it was 
 often laid on slabs placed across poles supported on 
 forks set in the earthen floor; or where the floor was 
 puncheons, the bedstead was hewed pieces pinned on 
 upright posts or let into them by auger-holes. Other 
 utensils and furniture were of a corresponding descrip 
 tion, applicable to the time." Through all that was 
 worst in this rough life he saw and admired " that sort 
 of Spartan virtue " essential in founding new countries. 
 Many of our American ancestors in the oldest States 
 passed through an experience not widely different. 
 
 Gentryville is farther south than Louisville or St. 
 Louis. Around its site the newcomers found a rich soil 
 and much green turf beneath the forest trees, with some 
 times a luxurious undergrowth, forming almost impen 
 etrable thickets. Ferocious beasts prowled about; and 
 there were deer, wild turkeys, and other game, furnish 
 ing an abundance of wholesome food. Young Abra 
 ham distinguished himself at an early day by a good 
 rifle-shot, though he never acquired his father s zest for 
 
PARENTAGE CHILDHOOD YOUTH. 15 
 
 hunting. Large of his age and strong, he did good 
 service with the axe almost from the beginning of his 
 Hoosier life. With young David Turnham for a com 
 panion, he watched for deer coming to the licks on the 
 neighboring prairie, and made long trips on horseback 
 to the nearest mill (save of hand-power) for grinding 
 corn. On one of the latter occasions, when he was in 
 his tenth year, as he said in 1860, he met with an 
 accident serious enough to be lastingly remembered. 
 When urging his horse, which furnished the power at 
 the mill for his own grist, a kick of the animal rendered 
 him unconscious, and for some time he was thought 
 to be dead. On reviving, he finished the interrupted 
 word of command to the horse as though nothing had 
 intervened a mental phenomenon which he made the 
 subject of philosophical comment in later life. 
 
 During the first two years here, new settlers were 
 gradually coming. The great event of the year 1818 
 was the appearance of an epidemic known as " milk 
 sickness," of which several persons died. The disease, 
 still occasionally heard of, seems to have no recog 
 nized place in systems of pathology. Malarious poison 
 enough was certainly inhaled or imbibed in these woods, 
 but some evil power besides must have aggravated its 
 effects. 
 
 Mrs. Lincoln died on the 5th of October in this year, 
 aged nearly thirty-five. It is not quite certain whether 
 the mysterious malady was the cause, for there is a local 
 tradition that she died of consumption. It is further 
 noticeable that her son once spoke of " milk sickness " 
 as being very much like quick consumption. There 
 was no doctor within calling distance, and there was 
 
16 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 no professional diagnosis of the case. An old resident 
 of Spencer County, who knew her well during the two 
 years she lived in Indiana, said, in 1862, that Mrs. Nancy 
 Lincoln was a woman of superior mind, though she had 
 but little education; that she had " great amiability and 
 kindness of heart," was "quick-witted," with a humor 
 ous turn" in her talk; and was "more energetic than her 
 husband." The loss of his mother was the first great 
 grief of young Abraham, then not quite ten years old. 
 The love of reading acquired through her inspiration 
 and help was of itself enough, in his condition, to justify 
 his saying: " I owe all that I am or hope to be to my 
 angel mother." His recollection of her seemed always 
 to be quite clear and vivid, and he ever spoke of her with 
 tenderness and reverence. 
 
 What could be done as housekeeper by a girl of 
 twelve, Sarah did for more than a year; but a matron s 
 care was too visibly lacking, and the father decided to 
 ask the help and hand of one he had early known as 
 Sally Bush, now living in widowhood at Elizabethtown. 
 She had married Daniel Johnston, the jailor, who died, 
 leaving three children and little property. Evidently 
 Thomas Lincoln was quite unconscious of any stain on 
 his reputation where he was best known. All the gossip 
 to the contrary, of which more than enough has been 
 repeated by some writers, is plainly of later invention. 
 In 1874 Samuel Haycraft, the veteran clerk of the court 
 of Hardin County, said of this courtship and marriage: 
 
 " I was born in this town on the I4th of August, 
 1795, and have a good memory of persons and things 
 as they existed in auld lang syne. I knew Thomas 
 
PARENTAGE CHILDHOOD YOUTH. 17 
 
 Lincoln well.* . . . His second wife was originally 
 Miss Sally Bush, daughter of Christopher and Hannah 
 Bush, and was raised in Hardin County, half a mile 
 from Elizabethtown. She was married to Daniel John 
 ston on the 1 3th of March, 1806, and lived in Elizabeth- 
 town, where he died early in April, 1814, of what was 
 called cold plague/ . . . His widow continued to live 
 here until the 2d of December, 1819. Thomas Lin 
 coln returned to this place on the ist day of Decem 
 ber, and inquired for the residence of Widow Johnston. 
 She lived near the clerk s office. I was the clerk, and 
 informed him how to find her. He was not slow to 
 present himself before her, when the following courtship 
 occurred. He said to her: 
 
 " I am a lone man, and you are a lone woman. I 
 have knowed you from a girl, and you have knowed me 
 from a boy; and I have come all the way from Indiana 
 to ask if you ll marry me right off, as I ve no time to 
 lose/ 
 
 "To which she replied: Tommy Lincoln, I have 
 no objection to marrying you, but I can not do it right 
 off, for I owe several little debts which must first be 
 paid/ 
 
 "The gallant man promptly said: Give me a list 
 of your debts/ 
 
 " The list was furnished, and the debts were paid the 
 same evening. The next morning, December 2d, 1819, 
 I issued the license, and the same day they were married, 
 bundled up, and started for home/ 
 
 *For Mr. Haycraft s personal description of Thomas Lincoln 
 (the passage omitted here), see ante, p. 8. 
 
18 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Surely this man could be very energetic whenever 
 he would! 
 
 " Mrs. Johnston, formerly Sally Bush " (continued 
 the venerable clerk) " was tall, slender, very good look 
 ing, and was taken in those days to be quite a graceful 
 and gay lady. She was very neat, and thought to have 
 been a good match for Thomas Lincoln. His new wife 
 added much to the comfort of his Indiana home, and 
 she took great interest in the training and education of 
 her stepson, Abraham." 
 
 Dennis Hanks, who had moved to Indiana with rela 
 tives of Abraham s mother, lived in the family until he 
 married one of the Johnston daughters; and the other 
 became the wife of Levi Hall, whose mother was also a 
 Hanks. The stepmother was indeed a very kind one, 
 and for the lad especially she had an affection like 
 that of an actual mother, as he fully appreciated then 
 and after. 
 
 The Baptist meeting-house and the school-house, 
 both log structures, were presently built, not far away. 
 It happened that two highways one extended west 
 ward from Corydon through Spencer County in 1820, 
 the other northwestward from Rockport a year or two 
 later crossed each other a mile and a half from 
 Thomas Lincoln s cabin. A store was opened at the 
 corners, and the Gentryville postoffice was established 
 in 1824. William Jones soon became the leading store 
 keeper, succeeding James Gentry, after whom the place 
 was named, and who continued to be its most promi 
 nent citizen. Some one else started a grocery there 
 " saloon " being a refinement as yet unknown in the 
 West. The blacksmith had earlier arrived; conveniences 
 
PARENTAGE CHILDHOODYOUTH. 19 
 
 were steadily increasing; and the settlement had now an 
 assured position in the world. 
 
 At the Gentry ville school in the winter of 1823-4 the 
 teacher, in addition to the usual course, gave instruc 
 tion in " manners " more rudimentary than the les 
 sons of Chesterfield. Whether due to this training or 
 not, young Abraham, while lacking in personal graces, 
 was politely deferential when speaking to a lady, it is 
 said, touching his hat or cap sometimes lifting it out 
 right, we may suppose, if his head-gear at the time hap 
 pened to be promptly manageable. In Indiana, how 
 ever, as in Kentucky, his school days were few. They 
 ended altogether before he was seventeen. 
 
 Except in reading, he found no greater delight as 
 a boy than in going to have a talk with John Baldwin, 
 the blacksmith, a famous story-teller. He also liked to 
 listen to people who lounged at the store. He had a 
 good friend in Mr. Jones, who lent him newspapers, and 
 occasionally gave him something to do. At htiskings 
 and merry-makings he was not only noticeable for his 
 figure, very tall for his years, lank and sallow-faced, 
 but also for his humor and spirit. If he had just done 
 a hard day s work, it made little difference. He had 
 great physical strength and wonderful endurance. One 
 of his pastimes was to attend the Squire s courts at 
 Gentryville, and he would walk the long distance to the 
 county court-house to witness a more stately trial. In 
 1825 he was employed for some months by a farmer 
 and ferryman at the mouth of Anderson s Creek. This 
 brought him into familiarity with the Ohio River and 
 with new scenes of life and business. In the next year 
 his sister, at the age of eighteen, was married to Aaron 
 
20 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Grigsby a good match, apparently, for both; yet in 
 a year she died in child-bed. Of this family, that left 
 Kentucky ten years before, there remained in 1828 only 
 the father and son, whom neither hardship nor malaria 
 had dangerously affected. 
 
 In the spring of 1828 Abraham gladly accepted the 
 offer of Mr. Gentry to take charge, in connection with 
 his son Allen, of a flatboat cargo of produce to be 
 sold along the " sugar-coast " of Louisiana and in New 
 Orleans. For a youth of nineteen, who was expected 
 to bear the brunt of the undertaking, this commission 
 was a great affair; and it gave him, for the first time, 
 (in reality, not in dream,) a long outlook and excur 
 sion among far-off places and people. Of this voyage 
 it is not known that he ever gave any detailed account 
 beyond that of a single adventure a memorable one 
 too briefly told. 
 
 Looking back at this day through the intervening 
 time, it has much more significance than his modest 
 words would imply that it had in his own mind. In 
 disposing of that part of their cargo intended for sale 
 along the river in Louisiana, the boatmen lingered on 
 their way, pausing at one and another plantation. Just 
 below Baton Rouge, one night, they had cabled their 
 craft to the shore, expecting to remain until morning. 
 But their repose was disturbed by a party of seven 
 negroes, who came on board with the evident purpose 
 of surprising them in sleep, and taking possession of 
 their boat. It was a fight for life, and surely a hope 
 less one but for the remarkable strength and dexterity 
 of young Lincoln. The murderous looting party the 
 first of their race with whom he had come in direct con- 
 
PARENTAGE CHILDHOOD YOUTH. 21 
 
 tact were beaten off, and the victors made no delay 
 in pulling out into the current, floating miles away when 
 morning dawned. 
 
 After successfully accomplishing their business in 
 New Orleans, they undoubtedly gave some time to 
 observation. Could they have omitted to visit the 
 famous battle-ground of 1815? The West was still 
 proudly exulting in the glories of that field, in which 
 the " hunters of Kentucky " so honorably shared. 
 Jackson himself had lately made his excursion down 
 the river, amid fireworks and huzzas, on invitation to 
 a grand celebration at the scene of his victory, meant 
 to give a good send-off to his candidacy in the Presi 
 dential canvass of this year. Returning by steamboat 
 to Rockport, the young navigators were at home again 
 before the end of June. 
 
 From Lincoln s birth until the close of his Indiana 
 life and his minority there are no contemporary letters 
 or other writings of himself, or of any associate, to give 
 material help to the biographer. No acquaintance of 
 his in those years ever came to marked distinction. 
 The local gossip of a later generation and the crude 
 recollections of garrulous Dennis Hanks must not be 
 taken at their face value, and they seldom touch the 
 things we would most like to know. Through this 
 haze, however, we may partly discover and securely 
 infer that young Lincoln, like a stolen prince among 
 herdmen, was of different mould from those around 
 him freely associating with them, but having an 
 independent life of his own. If he had associates that 
 did not contribute to his refinement, he was never sub 
 ject to them, and could always rise above their influ- 
 
22 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 ence. Drinking habits were prevalent, but he had no 
 relish for strong liquors, and seldom if ever tasted any. 
 He shrank from causing needless suffering, and could 
 not bear to see any wanton infliction of pain. This may 
 have been one reason that he had so little to do with 
 hunting and fishing. He was helpful to " the women 
 folks," and in general was liked by them. The oft-told 
 incident of his finding a drunken man lying in the road 
 on a freezing night, and carrying him without help to 
 a cabin, in spite of a companion s advice to " let the 
 drunkard alone," illustrates the habitual kindness of Lin 
 coln in these as in later years. He joined in wrestling 
 and other trials of strength and skill, and was usually 
 the winner. He seems to have been credited with a 
 strength of mind in proportion to his superior physical 
 force and stature. 
 
 He helped organize a debating club, and indulged 
 elsewhere occasionally in at least a burlesque harangue. 
 We may credit the report that under provocation he 
 even wrote satiric " chronicles," and that one of these, 
 said to have been preserved, is altogether genuine, 
 though not in all respects commendable. It deserves 
 no special outpouring of censure, however; and its good 
 English and easy style prove that its author had no need 
 to ask the aid of a schoolmaster, as related of Lincoln 
 years later, in framing a political manifesto. He wrote 
 two or three short contributions, which, under friendly 
 encouragement, were sent to a newspaper editor, who 
 published them. 
 
 He was much given to reading when he could get a 
 book and a chance sometimes by day in the open any 
 more commonly at night by the light of an open fire or~ 
 
PARENTAGE CHILDHOOD YOUTH. 23 
 
 of a tallow dip or taper in his loft. He transcribed pass 
 ages to be pondered over after the borrowed book was 
 gone. He worked out " sums " in arithmetic with pen 
 and ink, and practiced penmanship in a copy-book or 
 on blank leaves, apparently furnished him by Mr. Jones 
 or some one else from an old ledger. Among the latter 
 exercises were eight lines, of which Mr. Herndon says: 
 " Nothing indicates that they are borrowed, and I have 
 always, therefore, believed that they were original with 
 him." These were in fact the once familiar lines of an 
 older date, beginning: 
 
 "Time, what an empty vapor tis; 
 And days, how swift they are; 
 Swift as an Indian arrow flies, 
 Or like a shooting star." 
 
 Mr. Herndon says positively that certain lines, of which 
 he found a copy in the neighborhood, alleged to have 
 been sung at Sarah s wedding in 1826 were "com 
 posed in honor of the event by Abe himself," but the/ 
 production was not his, and his connection with the 
 paper at all lacks proof.* 
 
 Having as yet no access to libraries, he borrowed a 
 volume here and there as he could including Ram- 
 
 *The "tiresome doggerel," as Herndon calls it, begins: 
 
 " When Adam was created 
 
 He dwelt in Eden s shade," etc. 
 
 An old and yellowed manuscript agreeing substantially with 
 the Gentryville document, as far as the latter goes, but of greater 
 length, is in possession of the present writer, to whom it came 
 as a family relic, handed down from generation to generation since 
 its date, August 21, 1786. It was written in Massachusetts, but its 
 origin may have been more remote. 
 
24 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 sey s Life of Washington and a History of the United 
 States. Another was the peculiar biography of Wash 
 ington by Weems, at one time very popular with young 
 readers in the West, and notably mentioned by him in 
 a speech at Trenton while on his last journey to the 
 national capital. The book is a compound of fiction 
 and fact, even the author s claim (on his title page) 
 to have been " formerly rector of Mt. Vernon " being 
 disputed by Bishop Meade. Imaginary conversations 
 abound in its pages; unheroic realities are freely embel 
 lished, if not elevated, by incidental inventions; and the 
 famous hatchet story is among the less ambitious orig 
 inal creations with a moral purpose. We may also add 
 the Autobiography of Franklin, which would do much 
 in this case to encourage a laudable ambition. * He as 
 yet knew little of Shakespeare or Burns, afterward his 
 favorite poets. The few novels within his reach tempted 
 him little, though later he enjoyed the " Leather Stock 
 ing Tales " and other American fiction less permanently 
 in repute. He found solid satisfaction in a copy of the 
 " Statutes of Indiana," more especially from the fact 
 of much moment that the volume also contained the 
 Constitution of the United States and the Declaration 
 of Independence. 
 
 *Mr. J. L. Scripps stated in a biographical sketch submitted to 
 Lincoln in 1860, that the latter read at this period the "Life of 
 Franklin," and Plutarch s " Lives." The Plutarch was first read 
 much later, Lincoln said, but the Franklin reading was by silence 
 affirmed. See letter in Cranbrook Press reprint of Scripps, p. 8. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 1830-1837. 
 
 Removal to Illinois A Second Voyage to New Orleans 
 Captain in Black Hawk War Surveyor, Post 
 master, Legislator Menard Legends. 
 
 To dwell in a frame house was not beyond the ambi 
 tion of Thomas Lincoln. Before the year 1829 was 
 ended he had gathered the needed boards, sawn by 
 hand the saw-pit still awaiting the belated mill. But 
 the house was never to be for him. Times were hard as 
 ever. President Jackson implored Congress to relieve 
 settlers who had taken lands under the credit system; 
 but his voice was unheeded. Many had to sell improved 
 lands at a loss or to abandon them altogether. And, 
 besides, the Pigeon Creek community had another vis 
 itation this autumn from its old enemy, milk sickness. 
 Finally, allured by favorable reports from his friend, 
 John Hanks, who had gone to the Sangamon River 
 country, in Illinois, Thomas Lincoln determined to fol 
 low him. The boards went to another farmer of the 
 Gentryville neighborhood and made the Crawford house 
 famous. What remained of the Lincoln farm (one-half 
 had already reverted to the Government) passed into 
 the possession of the more fortunate James Gentry. 
 
 Sangamon County was organized in 1821, and 
 Springfield, while as yet having little more than a paper 
 
 (25) 
 
26 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 existence, became the county seat. Farther up the 
 Sangamon River, in Macon County, ten miles west of 
 Decatur, the Lincoln family temporarily settled, early 
 in the spring of 1830. The son assisted in building a 
 cabin and fencing in a field of ten acres probably his 
 chief experience as a " rail-splitter." The few months 
 that he spent in Macon County are otherwise of little 
 interest, save as to the manner in which the sojourn 
 ended. Afterward he never visited the place, (near 
 which John Hanks, a successful farmer, remained for 
 life,) nor did the rest of the family continue here long. 
 
 The winter of 1830-31 was ever memorable to the 
 early settlers of the State for its marvelous " deep 
 snow." Before the immense floods of the following 
 spring had fairly set in, " there came a man to that part 
 of Macon County/ said Lincoln in 1860, " looking for 
 hands to run a flat-boat to New Orleans." It may not 
 have been quite by chance that he there met one who 
 was entirely competent for the service who had no pre 
 vious engagement. A bargain was closed with Lin 
 coln, to be assisted by John Johnston, his step-brother, 
 and John Hanks. At the time appointed for meeting 
 their employer (Denton Offutt) near Springfield, the 
 waters spread far and wide, like a great sea, over which 
 Lincoln voyaged, by canoe, gaining his " introduction 
 to Sangamon County." 
 
 A flatboat was built from timber which they cut in 
 the woods and sawed at a mill; and after the launch all 
 went well until the craft stuck fast on a dam at New 
 Salem, twenty miles down the river. That was on the 
 1 8th of April, 1831. The gathered people watched 
 the vain efforts made, as the day wore on, until finally 
 
REMOVAL TO ILLINOIS. 27 
 
 Lincoln s ingenuity prevailed. The cargo having been 
 removed, holes were bored in that part of the boat pro 
 jecting over the dam; the water ran out as the rear was 
 elevated, and a combination of main strength did the 
 rest. Offutt was delighted, bystanders applauded, and 
 the re-loaded vessel resumed its course. The scene of 
 this adventure was to have a more lasting relation to 
 his life. Here Offutt saw what seemed an inviting 
 opportunity for business, in which young Lincoln, to 
 whom he took a great liking, would be serviceable on 
 his return from New Orleans, which happened in due 
 time. 
 
 In making two such voyages, Lincoln came to see, 
 as would otherwise not have happened in his early expe 
 rience, what trouble had befallen the nation from the 
 introduction of a race of men stolen from the midst of 
 a barbarism that was dark and cruel, to serve as labor 
 machines. Their presence as bondmen indeed, their 
 presence at all had become a continued source of dis 
 turbance. One side of the case he had seen one to 
 excite his antipathy when forced to an unwilling con 
 flict at Baton Rouge two years before. On his second 
 trip he encountered enough of the \vorst visible features 
 of slavery, beyond doubt, to excite a resentful sympathy 
 for its victims. It is less certain that, as alleged, he 
 vowed to " hit that thing if he ever got a chance, and 
 hit it hard," or that a fortune-telling negress told him 
 he would one day be President, and then all the negroes 
 would be free. 
 
 New Salem village was of very recent birth, having 
 less than a score of cheap buildings, on a bluff over 
 hanging the Sangamon on the west. Two miles north, 
 
28 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 down the valley, is the present town of Petersburg, not 
 then existing or even platted, but which was ere long 
 to absorb the very life-blood of the older settlement 
 and to become the seat of a new county, Menard. In 
 Lincoln s memory this valley as far as Concord, four 
 miles farther on, had a secure place. His busy hours 
 must have been haunted by visions of these bluffs and 
 bottom lands; in solitary revery he must often have 
 heard the roar of Sangamon Falls making monotonous 
 lament while the ghosts of hopes and sorrows, of cares 
 and joys, flitted in the thickening darkness of his spirit. 
 He had floated down on the "deep snow" flood, he once 
 said, and landed here like a piece of driftwood. 
 
 Just before the State election, then occurring in 
 August, he returned from a visit to his father (who had 
 finally settled in Coles County), and was pressed into 
 service as a clerk at the polls. It was here, in Clary s 
 Grove precinct, that he cast his first vote. The viva 
 voce method, according to the Kentucky code which 
 Illinois had copied, was still in use. The poll-sheet dis 
 closes that Lincoln voted for James Turney, Whig, for 
 Representative in Congress, as against Joseph Dun 
 can, Democrat, who was re-elected; for John ("Jack") 
 Armstrong for Constable; and for Boling Green, later 
 his warm friend, for Magistrate. Both the last were 
 elected. Armstrong, as the champion wrestler, was 
 soon after put forward to test the value of Offutt s brag 
 ging over the athletic powers of his clerk. Lincoln 
 accepted the challenge of the constable; stakes were put 
 up by the backers of each, and the entire community 
 was astir over the contest. The wrestlers proved to be 
 nearly equally matched. Both kept stoutly on their feet 
 
REMOVAL TO ILLINOIS. 29 
 
 during a long struggle. Then there was an alleged foul 
 and a dispute, with angry excitement among the friends 
 of each and stormy signs all around. But respectable 
 Mr. Rutledge counseled peace; and under like circum 
 stances peace was probably never more easily secured. 
 In truth, the newcomer had triumphed, as his com 
 petitor conceded with an amicable shake of the hand. 
 Ever afterward Lincoln had the respect and good will 
 of these people and a restraining influence over the most 
 refractory spirits. 
 
 The new store was hardly opened before bustling 
 Offutt also took possession of the mill at the foot of the 
 bluff, rented from Cameron and Rutledge, two of the 
 earliest adventurers here; and the business was further 
 enlarged, if it was here that Lincoln was employed for 
 a time in " a still at the head of a valley," as he once 
 stated in debate. Young William G. Greene,* to whom 
 the world is indebted for recollections of those days, 
 was employed to help in these complicated affairs, the 
 two clerks becoming firm friends, fellow-lodgers at the 
 store, and fellow-boarders at Rutledge s tavern. An 
 other acquaintance was a bright and genial, yet short 
 lived young fellow of bibulous habits, John Kelso, 
 whose enthusiasm over Burns and Shakespeare was 
 caught by his new associate. Boling Green, who lived 
 a mile or two from the mill, had readable books, and 
 gave Lincoln cordial welcome to his fireside. Farther 
 away on the same river road was the farm of Bennett 
 Abell, whose wife was a well-educated Kentuckian and 
 among Lincoln s most esteemed acquaintances here. 
 
 *Later of Tallula, Menard County a wealthy farmer and 
 banker. He died in 1894. 
 
30 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 As the autumn and winter (1831-2) passed, his 
 twenty-third year closing, it became evident that an 
 other change of his lot was impending. In the spring 
 a steamboat, " The Talisman," to test the navigability 
 of the Sangamon River, made a first (and last) trip from 
 St. Louis up to the Springfield landing. This was easy 
 during the floods of the season. Lincoln was called 
 upon to pilot the boat from Beardstown upward. At 
 Springfield the enterprise found a welcome all aglow 
 with brilliant expectations. While enthusiasm grew 
 and generous hospitalities were prolonged, the waters 
 rapidly subsided. To return was now the labor. The 
 same pilot had the troublesome though not profitless 
 job of conducting the boat back to the steadier cur 
 rent of the Illinois. It was the last steam trip on the 
 Upper Sangamon. Offutt, losing heart in his com 
 bined undertakings, sold his store, gave up the mill, 
 and departed to the unknown from whence he came, 
 leaving his late clerk free to take a hand in the Indian 
 war, now brewing. 
 
 It was early a cherished purpose at the West and 
 South to get the wild red man across the Mississippi. 
 To do this, and to keep him there, counted for the time 
 as an effectual riddance. Black Hawk, a chief of the 
 Sacs and Foxes, had when young gone to Iowa with his 
 tribe, under a treaty surrendering lands in the fair and 
 fertile valley of Rock River a treaty which he person 
 ally confirmed on coming to the chieftainship. With 
 something of the ambition of Pontiac, though without 
 his capacity, he later tried to unite other tribes with his 
 own in attempting to re-possess the ceded land. Gath- 
 
CAPTAIN IN BLACK HAWK WAR. 31 
 
 ering a few hundred warriors in the spring of 1831, he 
 crossed over into his native valley and began a savage 
 campaign, not free from the usual atrocities. Before 
 encountering the regular troops stationed at Rock 
 Island and the volunteers called out by the Governor 
 of Illinois, however, Black Hawk and his marauders 
 retreated beyond the Mississippi. After suffering some 
 retaliatory chastisement, Black Hawk sued for peace, 
 and agreed to a treaty requiring him to remain quiet 
 on his side of the river. These events happened while 
 Lincoln was on his last flatboat expedition to New 
 Orleans. 
 
 He had scarcely returned from piloting " The Talis 
 man " back to Beardstown, in the spring of 1832, when 
 news came that Black Hawk was again on the warpath 
 in Rock River valley, and Governor Reynolds again 
 called for volunteers to aid in repelling the invasion. 
 Lincoln at once enlisted, as did enough of the " boys " 
 of Clary s Grove and vicinity to form a company, and 
 they were enrolled on the 2ist of April as mounted vol 
 unteers. At Beardstown, the general rendezvous for 
 the State troops, Lincoln was chosen Captain by vote 
 of the company, much to his gratification as a token of 
 personal favor. 
 
 The regiments and the spy battalion levied by the 
 Governor were under the command of General White- 
 side, an experienced Indian fighter. Marching north 
 wardly to Oquawka, about eighty miles distant on the 
 Mississippi, and thence into the Rock River valley, they 
 advanced to Prophetstown, which was burnt, and con 
 tinued as far as Dixon s Ferry without overtaking the 
 flying enemy. There was an alertness among the vol- 
 
32 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 unters, an eagerness for giving battle, quite in contrast 
 with the steadier move of the regulars, who were as yet 
 far in the rear. Whiteside allowed two zealous bat 
 talions, lately added to his command, to make a recon- 
 noissance under Major Stillman, on the I2th of May. 
 Twelve miles above Dixon they pitched their camp for 
 the night near an inviting creek, since known as Still- 
 man s Run, which proved to be unexpectedly near 
 Black Hawk s main force. When the Indian scouts 
 were driven in, at dusk, the direction of the chase was 
 suddenly reversed, followed by a panic among Still- 
 man s men, which ended all prospect of a night s rest 
 in camp. They rapidly countermarched, suffering con 
 siderable loss; but the red chief did not care to rush on 
 three times his number at Dixon s Ferry, and was out 
 of reach next morning. Whiteside s regulars and ex 
 pected supplies the latter now greatly needed had 
 at last arrived. As the end of their brief term of enlist 
 ment drew near, the martial ardor of the volunteers 
 had so diminished with increase of experience that few 
 re-enlisted. 
 
 Captain Lincoln s company was mustered out at the 
 mouth of Fox River on the 27th of May. Of those 
 honorably discharged there were, besides three Arm 
 strongs and two Clarys, John M. Rutledge and David 
 Rutledge, (the former a nephew, the latter a son of 
 James Rutledge,) and William G. Greene. There were 
 some turbulent fellows under the young Captain s com 
 mand; his patience was occasionally tried pretty se 
 verely, and his utmost tact brought into play, where 
 military training was almost unknown and discipline a 
 word scarcely understood; for these men regarded indi- 
 
CAPTAIN IN BLACK HAWK WAR. 33 
 
 vidual bravery and good marksmanship the chief essen 
 tials in war, and were ill prepared, in advance of expe 
 rience, to blend readily the independence of a citizen 
 with the subordination of a soldier. When the real 
 issue came, and a positive assertion of authority was 
 demanded, Lincoln maintained his supremacy fully as 
 much, it would seem, by his qualities as a man as by 
 virtue of his office. One instance deserves to be spe 
 cially remembered, in which, single-handed against the 
 men of his company, he prevailed in saving the life of a 
 really harmless and friendly Indian, who had come into 
 camp bearing a written passport from higher authority, 
 but whom the soldiers believed to be a pretender or a 
 spy, and were bent on summarily executing. The Cap 
 tain s bearing and his power on this occasion, accord 
 ing to accounts from some of the men in after years, 
 impressed them as almost supernaturally grand. 
 
 When his company was disbanded Lincoln promptly 
 re-enlisted, and served as a private in the scouting bat 
 talion of Captain Early, of Springfield. There was some 
 fighting in the vicinity of Galena, and again at Kellogg s 
 Grove in June. Black Hawk crossed the Wisconsin 
 River in the latter part of July, and was finally over 
 taken on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, near the 
 mouth of the Bad Axe River, and beaten there on the 
 2d of August. He was captured a few days afterward, 
 to be received at Washington rather as a guest than as 
 a prisoner. Already an old man, he survived for many 
 years, comfortably sustaining the character of a hero in 
 misfortune. Lincoln was not engaged in any battle or 
 skirmish, and the scouting company which he joined 
 was mustered out before the final defeat of Black Hawk. 
 
34 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 In a war so meager in military exploit, it is curious 
 to note how many persons then or later distinguished 
 had part Andrew Jackson being Commander-in-Chief, 
 ex-officw. Major-General Scott had set out with a small 
 body of regulars, to put an end to the affair by taking 
 the field in person. Arrived at Chicago, then beginning 
 to grow from a mere military fort into a thin, straggling 
 village, he met a more formidable foe than he was seek 
 ing, in the form of Asiatic cholera. He has himself told 
 with some degree of indignation, even in remote recol 
 lection, how he was deserted by the only surgeon of his 
 command who had capacity in the medical line, and had 
 to assume the additional characters of nurse and medi 
 cal attendant for the sick soldiers in camp. He had not 
 fully restored the health of his convalescents when news 
 came that Black Hawk was beaten and the war was over. 
 
 Other officers connected with this campaign were 
 Zachary Taylor, then a Colonel of the regular army, and 
 in command of the post of Fort Crawford, at Prairie du 
 Chien; Jefferson Davis, later his son-in-law; Albert Sid 
 ney Johnston; Erasmus D. Keyes, a Lieutenant, lately 
 graduated; and Robert Anderson, then Lieutenant of 
 Artillery, acting as Assistant Inspector-General, by 
 whom the volunteers were mustered into the service. 
 Of more immediate importance to Captain Lincoln 
 were two men in the volunteer service, both residents 
 of Springfield: Major John T. Stuart, an educated Ken- 
 tuckian and an able lawyer, who first met Lincoln at 
 Beardstown at the time of the mustering-in, and John 
 Calhoun, of a prominent Massachusetts family of Scotch 
 descent, said to be related to the eminent Carolina 
 statesman. 
 
POSTMASTER, SURVEYOR, LEGISLATOR. 35 
 
 Before going to the war, Lincoln had announced 
 himself a candidate for Representative in the Legisla 
 ture, avowing in his printed address substantially the 
 principles of Henry Clay, and enlarging especially on 
 the feasibility and great advantage of making the San- 
 gamon River navigable by steamboats to the vicinity of 
 Springfield. Stress was also laid upon education under 
 a public school system, and upon legal restriction of 
 the rates of interest. As the county was strongly Jack- 
 sonian, he had little to hope as a candidate, even after 
 his return with a popular military record; but he had 
 been strongly encouraged at the outset by Mr. Rutledge 
 and others, who had heard him speak at the debating 
 club, and formed a high opinion of his capacity. They 
 assured him that he would be benefited by running, even 
 if defeated. He was beaten, but in his own precinct, 
 out of the two hundred and eighty-four votes polled, he 
 received two hundred and seventy-five. The prestige 
 thus gained proved to be of essential value. 
 
 His next adventure was joining with one Berry 
 in "keeping store" they buying cheap for credit the 
 goods and good-will of one establishment after another, 
 for New Salem already showed signs of coming disso 
 lution. The consolidated interests were found before 
 spring to be in a bad way, and the summer of 1833 
 had scarcely begun when Berry departed, leaving all 
 the responsibility to Lincoln, who manfully stood his 
 ground, ultimately making good the claims of every 
 creditor. As country storekeeper he but repeated an 
 experience had by Patrick Henry and Andrew Jackson 
 in their young days, without better success. Before the 
 break-up Lincoln was appointed postmaster (May 7, 
 
36 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 1833), and served until the office at New Salem was 
 closed (May 28, 1836), its business being transferred 
 to Petersburg. His postal duties occupied little of his 
 time and brought but a pennyworth of pay. 
 
 At this juncture his war acquaintance, John Cal- 
 houn, the Democratic Surveyor of Sangamon County, 
 invited him to become his deputy, and put him in the 
 way of the needed instruction. After a few weeks study 
 of Flint and Gibson he became a competent surveyor, and 
 for the next two or three years found a good business in 
 settling boundaries, laying out roads and making village 
 plats. In the meantime he was preparing for admis 
 sion to the bar, as advised by Major Stuart, who loaned 
 him text-books. All the while he assiduously kept up 
 his historical and other reading. But the cardinal event 
 of this period of his life was his election, two years after 
 his first candidacy, as one of the four State Representa 
 tives from Sangamon County. Major Stuart and Cap 
 tain Lincoln canvassed the county as Whig candidates, 
 making speeches and " mixing " with the people. No 
 caucus nominations were made in those days, and there 
 were six other candidates on the same side. Lincoln 
 had over two hundred votes more than Stuart, and the 
 two were the only Whigs elected. 
 
 It may reasonably be imagined that a gentleman 
 like Stuart more than once recalled, in the presence of 
 his youthful colleague, what Jefferson and Randolph 
 thought of Patrick Henry at nearly the same age, as 
 told by Wirt. " His manners," wrote Jefferson, " had 
 something of coarseness in them; his passion was music, 
 dancing, and pleasantry. He excelled in the last, and 
 it attached every one to him. Mr. Henry had, a little 
 
POSTMASTER, SURVEYOR, LEGISLATOR. 37 
 
 before, broken up his store, or rather it had broken him 
 up; but his misfortunes were not to be traced either in 
 his countenance or conduct." Omitting in the compar 
 ison both the music and the dancing, it may be added 
 that in height and angularity the two were as alike as in 
 the other features of this picture. A little later, when 
 Henry applied for admission to the bar, Randolph 
 (afterward the King s Attorney-General) " was so much 
 shocked by Henry s very ungainly figure and address 
 that he refused to examine him." These scruples were 
 at length overcome, and Randolph became satisfied that 
 it was an " erroneous conclusion which he had drawn 
 from the exterior of the candidate." 
 
 The young Illinois legislator was at least one not to 
 escape attention, and before the close of his two years 
 term at Vandalia he had won the favor and influence 
 that precede leadership. Stuart was now foremost 
 among the Whig members of the House, of which 
 James Semple, a Democrat, afterward United States 
 Senator was the Speaker, The State was rapidly 
 filling up; land speculation was bringing in Eastern 
 money; it was an era of great expectations. Illinois, 
 it was claimed, only needed liberal legislation toward 
 developing her latent powers to rival the most pros 
 perous States. The Jackson party was in the ascend 
 ant, but the measures adopted did not all accord with 
 the Jackson policy. A new State bank, with a capital 
 of one million and a half, was chartered; the old bank 
 at Shawneetown in suspended animation during the 
 last dozen years was resuscitated; a loan was granted 
 to the Illinois and Michigan Canal Company, organized 
 in 1825; and several railway corporations, without State 
 
38 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 aid, were created. Among the railways thus initiated 
 were the Illinois Central and the Chicago and Galena 
 lines. 
 
 It was during the earlier session of this Legislature 
 that Lincoln first met Stephen A. Douglas, not himself 
 a member. " He was then/ said Lincoln, " the least 
 man I had ever seen." Short in stature, he was at that 
 time exceptionally thin and meager. Late in the year 
 I ^33, while only in his twenty-first year, Douglas had 
 come to Winchester, Illinois (his native State being 
 Vermont), after a temporary stay at Cleveland, Ohio, 
 Cincinnati, and places farther south. The next year he 
 continued the study of law, begun at Cleveland, and 
 took part in local politics. At this session an act, of 
 which Douglas was an active lobby supporter, if not the 
 originator, was passed, taking from the Governor the 
 power of appointing State s Attorneys for the several 
 judicial districts, and providing for their choice by the 
 Legislature. Scarcely as yet an expert in the legal pro 
 fession, he presented himself as a candidate for State s 
 Attorney in his district against John J. Hardin, a distin 
 guished Whig lawyer, then in office. The movement 
 was so adroit that the younger aspirant distanced his 
 surprised competitor by a majority of two votes in the 
 joint assembly. 
 
 To this period belongs a romance, with tragic end 
 ing, current among Menard traditions thirty years later. 
 Its substance was then communicated to the writer, as 
 follows: " Miss Ann Rutledge was a rosy-cheeked, blue- 
 eyed, fair-haired girl, whose people were a branch of the 
 family of that name so distinguished in the Carolinas. 
 
POSTMASTER, SURVEYOR, LEGISLATOR. 39 
 
 and were regarded as rather aristocratic. She died in 
 
 1835, in the summer. The family left this section a 
 
 .few years later. Lincoln s attachment to Miss Rut- 
 
 ledge and his extraordinary grief when she died were 
 
 matters of current interest among the old settlers when 
 
 I first knew him." 
 
 While there are different versions of the story as 
 ultimately expanded and embellished, it is agreed that 
 Ann had a lover named McNamar, to whom she was 
 engaged, at least as early as 1832. In that or the next 
 year he left for a visit to his former home in the State of 
 New York, promising an early return. She never saw 
 him again, and after two years, with only occasional 
 and not reassuring communications from him, she died. 
 The relations of the two were well known to Lincoln, 
 who was a boarder at Rutledge s tavern, and his heart 
 was moved by Ann s disappointment and prolonged sus 
 pense for it appears that she still loved McNamar 
 " never quite gave him up." About this date Lincoln 
 memorized the sad poem, " Oh, why should the spirit 
 of mortal be proud?" which he afterward often recited. 
 It may be that the briefer lines of Lander s " Rose 
 Aylmer " would have better suited his mood had he 
 known them. The sense of a great personal loss is not 
 the basis of the most poignant grief. Profound sorrow 
 springs rather from an infinite sympathy for the one 
 who has endured all and is forever silent. 
 
 During the three years in question, as storekeeper, 
 captain of volunteers, postmaster and surveyor, he was 
 struggling for existence and advancement, actively em 
 ploying his spare time not only in improving his general 
 education, but also in preparation for law practice. He 
 
40 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 was depressed by some unpleasant vicissitudes, such as 
 the seizure of his horse, saddle and surveying imple 
 ments to satisfy a judgment against him on the notes 
 which were so long a reminder of his " mercantile " 
 experience. The obligations now changed hands, his 
 friends, James Short and W. G. Greene, generously 
 assuming the debts as more gracious creditors, releas 
 ing the property levied on. He was also " in politics," 
 canvassing the county in 1834, getting elected to the 
 Legislature, and attending its sessions during the next 
 two winters at Vandalia. All the while he found little 
 leisure for listless brooding. He had the same ambi 
 tious purposes, and used like methods to gain advance 
 ment, before and after the event which he lamented so 
 deeply. 
 
 There are other facts to be considered in this con 
 nection. In 1833, Lincoln met and was pleased with 
 Miss Mary Owens, of Kentucky, then on a visit to her 
 sister, his friend and neighbor, Mrs. Bennett Abell. 
 The lady was somewhat older than himself, and there 
 proved to be no special affinity between them, as is 
 evident from the slight correspondence which followed 
 a renewal of the acquaintance in 1836. This renewal 
 occurred through the instrumentality of Mrs. Abell, who 
 seems to have been trying her hand at match-making. 
 Finally Lincoln brought the affair to a crisis rather 
 awkwardly, it must be added by writing a letter, in 
 which he formally offered his hand in such terms as 
 he honestly could, though hardly suited to persuade a 
 romantic mind. Her negative response ended what 
 seemed to be a sense of obligation or of virtual com 
 mitment on his part. The publication of these letters 
 
POSTMASTER, SURVEYOR, LEGISLATOR. 41 
 
 was hardly needed on any account; yet they show him 
 to have been at this time neither a very graceful wooer, 
 nor one who had taken a vow of celibacy at the grave 
 of another a few months before. Miss Owens was sen 
 sible and good-natured; and between them there was no 
 misunderstanding. * 
 
 As if all the other trials and toils of the time were 
 not enough, it has been added that he wrote an "infidel 
 book." A very few words will suffice for whatever there 
 is of real basis for such a tale. According to all that is 
 known of the matter, the "book" was nothing more 
 than a number of manuscript pages, discussing in a 
 rationalistic way some of the commonly received theo 
 logical opinions or dogmas as "incarnation," "atone 
 ment," or the like very probably going no farther 
 than is now tolerated in many pulpits not reckoned as 
 " orthodox." It is needless to intimate that he can 
 have had no ambition to be known as an assailant of the 
 Bible or the church. How wide was the range of his 
 arguments can not be told with any certainty, for he 
 permitted a friend to put the writing in the fire without 
 ceremony. Nor is it very material. If we had it, we 
 should be little wiser as to his maturer convictions. 
 
 In 1836, Lincoln was again a candidate for Repre 
 sentative. Responding to a demand that the Whig can 
 didates should " show their hand," he said through the 
 Springfield Journal, under date of June I3th: 
 
 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 
 
 *She married a well-to-do farmer, named Vineyard, not long 
 after, settling at Weston, Mo., where she died in 1877. 
 
42 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 or bear arms (by no means excluding females). If elected, 
 I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon County my 
 constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support 
 me. While acting as their Representative, I shall be gov 
 erned by their will upon 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 advance 
 their interests. Whether elected or not, I go for distrib 
 uting the proceeds of the sales of the public lands to the 
 several States, to enable our State, in common with others, 
 to dig canals and construct 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 
 
 Martin Van Buren, the Democratic candidate, was 
 opposed by a faction of the party, who supported Sen 
 ator White, of Tennessee, a former personal friend 
 of Jackson, but now alienated, and with such success 
 that the latter had the chagrin of seeing his own State 
 lost to his favorite and carried by his recusant enemy. 
 The Whigs had no regular nominee in Massachusetts 
 voting for Daniel Webster, and in other Whig States 
 mostly for General W. H. Harrison. Their only chance 
 for defeating Van Buren was in so dividing the elec 
 toral votes as to throw the election into the House of 
 Representatives. 
 
 It was in the spring of this year that Lincoln first 
 became personally known to Mr. Joshua F. Speed, 
 henceforward his warm and faithful friend. Mr. Speed, 
 born near Louisville, Kentucky, in 1814, was a graduate 
 of St. Joseph s College, at Bardstown. After an expe 
 rience of some years in the largest wholesale house in 
 Louisville, he opened a store at Springfield, in 1835, on 
 his own account. During the five or six years follow- 
 
POSTMASTER, SURVEYOR, LEGISLATOR. 43 
 
 ing 1836 no one had a closer intimacy with Lincoln, 
 who, before they met, already had a certain local fame 
 at the county seat. " I heard him spoken of by those 
 who knew him," said Mr. Speed, in 1882, " as a won 
 derful character. They boasted that he could out- 
 wrestle any man in the county, and that he could beat 
 any lawyer in Springfield speaking." Of what he 
 thought was Lincoln s first speech at that place, Mr. 
 Speed said: 
 
 At that time there were but two parties, Whig and 
 Democrat. Lincoln was a Whig and the leading man upon 
 the ticket. I was then fresh from Kentucky, and had heard 
 many of her great orators. It seemed to me then, as it seems 
 to me now, that I never heard a more effective speaker. He 
 carried the crowd with him, and swayed them as he pleased. 
 So deep an impression did he make that George Forquer, a 
 man of much celebrity as a sarcastic speaker and great State 
 reputation as an orator, rose and asked the people to hear 
 him. He commenced his speech by saying that this young 
 man would have to be taken down, and he was sorry that the 
 task devolved upon him. He made what was called one of 
 his slasher-gaff speeches, dealing much in ridicule and sar 
 casm. Lincoln stood near him with his arms folded, never 
 interrupting him. When Forquer was done, Lincoln walked 
 to the stand, and replied so fully and completely that his 
 friends bore him from the court-house on their shoulders. 
 So deep an impression did this first speech make upon me 
 that I remember its conclusion now. Said he " The gen 
 tleman commenced his speech by saying that this young 
 man will have to be taken down, and he was sorry that the 
 task devolved upon him. I am not so young in years as I 
 am in the tricks and trades of a politician ; but, live long 
 or die young, I would rather die now than, like the gentle 
 man, change my politics, and simultaneously with the change 
 receive an office worth $3,000 a year, and then have to erect 
 a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilty conscience 
 from an offended God." 
 
44 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Forquer had been a Whig, but changed his politics, 
 and had been appointed Register of the Land Office. 
 Over his house was " the only lightning-rod in the town 
 or county. Lincoln had seen it for the first time on the 
 day before. Not understanding its properties, he made 
 it a study that night by aid of a book, bought for the 
 purpose, till he knew all about it." 
 
 The Whigs elected their Legislative candidates in 
 Sangamon County, with one exception, Lincoln receiv 
 ing more than an average vote. Each of the seven 
 Representatives and two Senators thus chosen (the 
 number being larger than at the last election) was over 
 six feet in height, and hence they were called the "Long 
 Nine." This was the most numerous representation 
 from any county, and attracted much notice from the 
 influence it wielded. Stephen A. Douglas was a Rep 
 resentative from Morgan County, having recently taken 
 up his residence at Jacksonville. He was never again 
 chosen to the Legislature, and, in fact, vacated his seat 
 soon after the first session, to become Register of the 
 Land Office at Springfield. 
 
 As in the preceding House of Representatives, the 
 Democrats had a majority; and Mr. Semple was again 
 the Speaker. Lincoln was assigned a place on the 
 Financial Committee. Besides the members already 
 named, there were many who were afterward prominent 
 in State or national politics, including James Shields, 
 Augustus C. French, Robert Smith, John Dougherty, 
 William A. Richardson, and John A. McClernand. 
 At both sessions Lincoln came forward more actively, 
 gradually becoming recognized as the Whig leader. 
 
 Internal improvements were again a prominent sub- 
 
POSTMASTER, SURVEYOR, LEGISLATOR. 45 
 
 ject of legislation. Under the excitement of the flush 
 times of 1836, this business was indeed much overdone. 
 Through subsequent mismanagement and the revulsion 
 of the next year, the financial affairs of Illinois were 
 presently tangled in a knot, which seemed about to be 
 recklessly cut by a sharp stroke of repudiation. Doug 
 las was one of the most zealous for the improvements. 
 Lincoln warmly favored them. The former, having 
 retired from the Legislature before the crisis, did 
 nothing to avert the discredit which came upon the 
 State, though his party had the responsible ascendency. 
 Lincoln was active, as the records of the second session 
 show, in his efforts to maintain honest dealing and to 
 provide some method for satisfying all creditors in 
 good faith. 
 
 At the first session charters were granted for a num 
 ber of railways, and provision was made for the comple 
 tion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, from Chicago 
 to Peru, in La Salle County, and for the improvement 
 of the navigation of the Kaskaskia, Illinois, Rock, and 
 Great and Little Wabash Rivers, with aid from the State 
 requiring in the aggregate a loan of eight million dol 
 lars. Scarcely budded before the storm of 1837 came, 
 these schemes were much more luxuriant in blossom 
 than bountiful in fruit. 
 
 Slavery agitation had begun anew, and in more 
 deadly earnest, a few years before. In the South it had 
 sprung from the roots of Nullification directly after that 
 baneful growth had been felled to the ground. The 
 dominant party in the Illinois Legislature, stimulated by 
 a reference to the subject in President Jackson s annual 
 message of December, 1836, adopted, near the day of 
 
46 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 adjournment, a series of resolutions strongly Southern 
 in tone, in regard to slavery and Abolitionism. Those 
 who refused or hesitated to take this extreme ground 
 were in danger of being called Abolitionists, and that 
 was an opprobrium which few politicians felt able to 
 bear. There was then little anti-slavery sentiment in 
 Central and Southern Illinois, at any rate, to sustain a 
 Representative in refusing obsequious submission to 
 such resolutions. Yet Lincoln could not honestly vote 
 for them. He might have remained silent, but he chose 
 to be frank and open. He entered his protest in the 
 House journal, joined by only one other member, Dan 
 Stone, a colleague from Sangamon County. The doc 
 ument bears the date of the last day of Andrew Jack 
 son s Presidency, March 3, 1837. In it Lincoln declared 
 (for the language is his own) his belief: 
 
 1. 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 to abate 
 its evils." 
 
 2. That "the Congress of the United States has no 
 power, under the Constitution, to interfere with the institu 
 tion of slavery in the different States." 
 
 3. That "the Congress of the United States has the 
 power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the Dis 
 trict of Columbia ; but that the power ought not to be exer 
 cised unless at the request of the people of said District." 
 
 It was near the close of the same session that an act 
 was passed removing the State capital from Vandalia 
 to Springfield, a measure due more to the exertions of 
 Lincoln than of any other member, even of the " Long 
 Nine." The first capital, Kaskaskia, was convenient 
 enough, if not quite central, for the small population 
 
POSTMASTER, SURVEYOR, LEGISLATOR. 47 
 
 provided with a territorial government in 1809. On 
 the admission of Illinois as a State in 1818, Vandalia, 
 far up the Kaskaskia River, was laid out as the new seat 
 of government. This was well to the southwest, in the 
 heart of what has since been known as the " Egypt " 
 of the State. But during the several years immediately 
 preceding 1837, the center of population had gradually 
 moved northward, as the middle and upper parts of 
 the State were becoming more extensively settled. As 
 usual in like cases, many rival towns were competing 
 for the prize when the question arose as to another cap 
 ital, expected to be the permanent and final one. There 
 was of course a formidable Vandalia interest opposed to 
 change. But after a severe and protracted contest - 
 the battle at one time seeming to all the Springfield 
 party except Lincoln to have been irretrievably lost 
 the act for removal to their locality was passed, to take 
 effect July 4, 1839. 
 
CHAPTER IV. i 
 
 1837-1840. 
 
 Admitted to the Bar Removal to Springfield Laiv, 
 Politics and Personalities. 
 
 Lincoln was admitted to the bar " in the autumn of 
 1836." * He began practice at Springfield as partner 
 of Major John T. Stuart in the following spring, his 
 residence there beginning (as he said to the writer in 
 1860) " on the I5th of April/ Boarding with William 
 Butler, afterward State Treasurer, he shared the lodg 
 ings of Joshua F. Speed over the store of the latter, a 
 recent comer from Louisville. As one of the Sanga- 
 mon " Long Nine," known as the longest and most 
 efficient in removing the capital, he was cordially wel 
 comed to the place which was ever after to be his home. 
 While the State had made a great advance since 1830, 
 its northern half was still but sparsely settled. Chi 
 cago was yet an unimportant if not unpromising vil 
 lage. Alton was eminently the ambitious town, hoping 
 to surpass or even to supplant St. Louis. Springfield 
 had now not more than twelve hundred inhabitants 
 a number soon to be largely exceeded. Its bar already 
 included several names that were to be distinguished in 
 the profession and in public life. 
 
 The United States District Court and the Supreme 
 
 *These are his own words. Mr. Herndon gives a later date. 
 
 (48) 
 
LAW POLITICS PERSONALITIES. 49 
 
 Court of Illinois soon came to hold their sessions here, 
 and there were annually three terms of the Common 
 Pleas Court of Sangamon County. Circuit practice 
 as then prevalent also occupied several weeks each 
 year in making the rounds of the dozen other coun 
 ties of the Eighth District, judges and lawyers travel 
 ing mainly by private conveyance. Roads were bad 
 and tavern accommodations simple. The court-houses 
 were neither sightly nor spacious. These pilgrimages 
 had their adventures and tales, which a Chaucer might 
 not have been tempted to idealize in rhyme, but which 
 were not lacking in charm for the pilgrims. The ar 
 rival of court officers, attorneys, litigants, witnesses and 
 jurors at the opening of a term was an epoch for the 
 little village, nominal or real, in which justice had a 
 local dwelling. Attending court was one of the chief 
 diversions of a people having as yet neither drama, 
 circus, menagerie, nor county fair. Of evenings and 
 in daylight intermissions of court there were eager 
 listeners as these errant knights interchanged stories, 
 indulged in short, sharp debates, or bandied jokes and 
 repartees. These were scenes which Lincoln was sel 
 dom inclined to shun. On such occasions he cast care 
 to the winds, and might have been thought the hap 
 piest spirit of all. In his tours, however, he passed 
 many hours or sometimes a whole day alone. Jogging 
 along on horseback through arduous ways, made still 
 more tedious by mud or flood, he was absorbed in medi 
 tation or profound study. Sometimes in a vehicle with 
 one or two companions, he might seem to be rather 
 thinking aloud than conversing, his mind wandering 
 over a wide area, from his own obscure days and varied 
 
 4 
 
5 o LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 fortunes to higher topics of national life and human 
 destiny. In general, his early practice involved few 
 weighty questions or heavy stakes, and brought him 
 scanty fees. 
 
 Recalling his three or four years of intimate associa 
 tion with him, beginning in 1837, Mr. Speed said Lin 
 coln " was a social man, though he did not seek com 
 pany," adding, "after he had his home with me, on 
 every winter s night at my store, by a big wood fire, no 
 matter how inclement the weather, eight or ten choice 
 spirits assembled, without distinction of party. It was 
 a sort of social club without organization. They came 
 there because they were sure to find Lincoln. His 
 habit was to engage in conversation upon any and all 
 subjects except politics." 
 
 It happened, nevertheless, that one evening, in the 
 winter preceding the Presidential canvass of 1840, he 
 became involved in a political argument with Douglas, 
 then Register of the Land Office at Springfield. As 
 the discussion grew warm, Douglas sprang to his feet 
 and said: " Gentlemen, this is no place to talk poli 
 tics; we will discuss the questions publicly with you." 
 Not long after there was a meeting of Whigs, and a 
 challenge to the Democrats for a joint debate between 
 champions of the parties. This was accepted, the Dem 
 ocrats choosing on their part Messrs. Douglas, Lam- 
 born, Calhoun, and Jesse B. Thomas former Senator 
 from Illinois, and famed for his connection with the 
 Missouri Compromise legislation. The Whigs elected 
 as their speakers Messrs. Logan, Baker, Browning, and 
 Lincoln. The debate took place in the Presbyterian 
 
LAW POLITICS PERSONALITIES. 51 
 
 church where the Legislature held its sessions after 
 the capital was removed until the completion of the new 
 State House. Large audiences were present, each of 
 the eight speakers having one night to himself. The 
 date January, 1840, will sufficiently indicate the gen 
 eral nature of the discussion. General Harrison had 
 already been nominated at Harrisburg for the Presi 
 dency; Van Buren s re-nomination was certain in the 
 near future. Here, though little heard of in the wide 
 land, was an opening cannonade long locally famous 
 as the "great debate" in the remarkable campaign of 
 the year just begun. Lincoln wrote his speech, though 
 it was delivered without notes of any kind; and it was 
 soon after printed, filling seven columns of the Sanga- 
 mon Journal. The leading topic of all the speeches was 
 Van Buren s sub-treasury method for " collecting, safe 
 keeping, transferring, and disbursing the revenues of 
 the nation, as contrasted with a National Bank for the 
 same purposes." Alleged extravagant expenditures 
 " gold spoons " for the White House and other incon 
 gruities in oppressively hard times naturally found 
 place among incidental diversions from the solid sub 
 ject. Lincoln, making the closing speech of the series, 
 was of course expected to reply to whatever he thought 
 needed such attention in the speeches of the other side. 
 He unhesitatingly grappled with the stoutest arguments 
 of the Democratic champions; but a little by-play of less 
 gravity probably gave more pleasure to the audience. 
 One specimen will illustrate this feature of his speech: 
 
 Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van 
 Buren party and the Whigs is, that, although the former 
 
52 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 sometimes err in practice, they are always correct in prin 
 ciple, whereas the latter are wrong in principle, and, the 
 better to impress this proposition, he uses a figurative ex 
 pression in these words : " The Democrats are vulnerable in 
 the heel, but they are sound in the heart and head." The 
 first branch of the figure that is, that the Democrats are 
 vulnerable in the heel I admit is not merely figuratively 
 but literally true. Who that looks but for a moment at their 
 Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, and their hun 
 dreds of others, scampering away with the public money to 
 Texas, to Europe, and to every spot on earth where a villain 
 may hope to find refuge from justice, can at all doubt that 
 they are most distressingly affected in their heels with a spe 
 cies of "running itch"? It seems that the malady of their 
 heels operates on the sound-headed and honest-hearted crea 
 tures very much like the cork leg in the comic song on its 
 owner, which, when he had once started on it, the more he 
 tried to stop it, the more it would run away. At the haz 
 ard of wearing the point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote 
 which seems to be too strikingly in point to be omitted. A 
 witty Irish soldier who was always boasting of his bravery 
 when no danger was near, but who invariably retreated with 
 out orders at the first charge of the engagement, being asked 
 by his captain why he did so, replied: "Captain, I have as 
 brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had, but, somehow or 
 other, whenever danger approaches my cowardly legs will 
 run away with it." So with Mr. Lamborn s party. They 
 take the public money into their hands for the most laudable 
 purpose that wise heads and honest hearts can dictate; but, 
 before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally vul 
 nerable heels will run away with them. 
 
 Referring, near the close of his speech, to Mr. Lam 
 born s argument, founded upon the indications of re 
 cent State elections, that Van Buren was sure to be 
 re-elected, Lincoln gave his imagination free range 
 among bold metaphors in denunciation of the admin 
 istration " the great volcano at Washington," that 
 was " belching forth the lava of political corruption in 
 
LAW POLITICS PERSONALITIES 53 
 
 a current broad and deep," by which " all may be 
 swept away." 
 
 The probability that we may fall in the struggle [he 
 said] ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we 
 believe to be just. It shall not deter me. If ever I feel the 
 soul within me dilate and expand to those dimensions not 
 wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I 
 contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the 
 world beside, and I standing up boldly, alone, hurling defi 
 ance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without contem 
 plating consequences, before heaven and in the face of the 
 world, I swear eternal fealty to the just cause, as I deem 
 it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who 
 ithat thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath that 
 I take ? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may 
 succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so ; we still shall 
 have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and 
 to the departed shade of our country s freedom, that the 
 cause approved of our judgment and adored of our hearts, 
 in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered 
 in defending. 
 
 This was one of his first published speeches, not alto 
 gether faultless in style or in the main of much moment, 
 yet, judged in the light of later history, there is some 
 thing more than mere declamation something almost 
 prophetic withal in these final sentences. 
 
 At this time he was in his third term as Representa 
 tive, to which he had been chosen in 1838. While he 
 had been gaining a living practice at the bar, he had 
 also been growing in prominence as a political leader, 
 so that in the organization of the House of Repre 
 sentatives he was the choice of the Whigs for Speaker, 
 and received a vote but slightly less than that of his 
 Democratic competitor. 
 
 He again served on the Finance Committee, which 
 
54 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 had vexations enough in seeking to relieve the State 
 from disastrous entanglements of its banking, loan and 
 improvement system. Lincoln was not an expert finan 
 cier, certainly, nor did the methods he proposed find 
 favor with the majority, except in the first element of 
 ^financial wisdom, good faith with public creditors. 
 
 He was chosen to the House of Representatives for 
 the fourth time in 1840, and was again the candidate 
 of the Whig minority for Speaker. Named for elector 
 on the Harrison ticket, he spent much time in canvass 
 ing the central counties of the State especially, bearing 
 the brunt of the Presidential battle on the Whig side, 
 either Douglas or Calhoun being usually at hand to 
 reply. Lincoln regarded the latter as the harder to 
 meet. Illinois could not be wrested from the Demo 
 cratic party, but the efforts made were not wasted on 
 so helpless a cause as Lamborn s predictions implied, 
 and Van Buren s defeat brought with it the delusive 
 prospect of better days for the Whigs. 
 
 Douglas, then holding the comparatively lucrative 
 position of Register of the Land Office, given him by 
 Van Buren, continued to press forward with character 
 istic energy. He had already made one canvass as a 
 Congressional candidate, and was beaten by Major 
 Stuart (Lincoln s partner) by so close a vote that he 
 was for some time disposed to contest the seat. A bill 
 to abolish the Supreme and Circuit Courts of Illinois 
 and providing a new judiciary organization origi 
 nated and lobbied for by Douglas, and alleged to have 
 a partisan object was passed by the Legislature, 
 Lincoln, Baker, and thirty-three other Whig members 
 filing their protest against it. Dan Stone and the 
 
LAW POLITICS PERSONALITIES. 55 
 
 other Whig judges having thus been ousted, Douglas 
 himself and other Democrats were appointed to the 
 newly constituted bench. 
 
 As a lawyer, Lincoln was always inclined to enter 
 heartily into the cause of one whom he believed to be 
 wronged, yet lacking means to secure legal redress on 
 ordinary terms. Many cases which brought him little 
 or no pecuniary return, afforded him more than com 
 pensating satisfaction in having protected the weak 
 against tyrannous injustice. One instance was that of 
 a poor widow, of whose pension arrears a greedy attor 
 ney had kept quite an undue share. When her case was 
 stated to Lincoln, he not only interested himself in her 
 behalf, but became indignant, and secured prompt retri 
 bution without legal process or fee. He was occasion 
 ally the attorney for a negro defendant whose freedom 
 was in question, though at the risk of prejudice to his 
 political standing. Without resorting to the courts, he 
 secured the release of a free negro of Illinois, who had 
 landed from a steamer in New Orleans in violation of a 
 local law, and was to have been sold for want of means 
 to pay his fine. Lincoln raised the needed money, him 
 self a contributor, choosing an immediate practical rem 
 edy without delaying justice by inflammatory talk. He 
 was retained in a suit brought in Tazewell County in 
 1839 to enforce payment of a promissory note given 
 in payment for a negro woman named Nance a relic 
 of the " vested rights " of certain French slaveholders 
 before the Louisiana Purchase the parties in court 
 being residents of Illinois. Lincoln was counsel for the 
 defendant; and judgment having been rendered for the 
 plaintiff, an appeal was taken to the Illinois Supreme 
 
56 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Court. Before that tribunal he argued the case in 1841, 
 maintaining that the contract was void for lack of con 
 sideration; that under the ordinance of 1789 and the 
 Constitution of Illinois adopted in 1818, slavery had no 
 lawful standing; and that Nance being legally a free 
 woman, could not be the subject of a sale. His conten 
 tion was sustained by the court, and the question as to 
 slavery in Illinois was settled. * 
 
 He sometimes defended an alleged fugitive slave, 
 but did not refuse to act as counsel for a Kentuckian 
 seeking to reclaim certain slaves he had voluntarily 
 brought into Illinois for temporary employment. His 
 client, one Matteson, of Bourbon County, had put some 
 of his slaves at work on a farm in Coles County, Illinois. 
 It appears that these servants would have been willing 
 to return to Kentucky when required by their master, 
 but for philanthropic intervention through an appeal to 
 the local court. It can hardly be supposed that Lincoln 
 was at all disappointed in losing his case. It is a relief, 
 however, to have so good a proof after all that has 
 been told to the contrary that he had no invincible 
 objection to a good client with a bad cause. 
 
 At Danville, in Vermillion County, which borders on 
 Indiana, he had a case in 1842, in which John J. Brown, 
 his client, was the plaintiff, and Mr. Juneau, of Mil 
 waukee, was the defendant, whose attorney was John 
 P. Usher, twenty years later Secretary of the Interior 
 Department. It was a complicated case, growing out 
 of a speculative transaction. Lincoln gained the suit 
 not only in this first trial, but afterward on appeal to 
 
 * Notwithstanding, it was later alleged by Douglas, in debate, that 
 Illinois had been a slave state. 
 
LAW POLITICS PERSONALITIES. 57 
 
 the Supreme Court. Mr. Usher, who here met him for 
 the first time and knew him well thenceforward, said of 
 his manner of addressing a jury, that his voice was so 
 smooth and attractive as never to become wearisome; 
 that in posture and gesture he was not graceful or 
 always dignified sometimes placing one foot in a 
 chair, or leaning on the back of one, sometimes stand 
 ing with his arms akimbo; but that he never failed of 
 being listened to with close attention and lively interest 
 from the beginning to the end of his argument. 
 
 During his last term in the Legislature, Lincoln was 
 for some time in a state of serious mental depression. 
 As told by his friend Speed: 
 
 In the winter of 1841 a gloom came over him till his 
 friends were alarmed for his life. ... In his deepest 
 gloom, and when I told him he would die unless he rallied, 
 he said: "I am not afraid, and would be more than willing. 
 But I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured 
 that the world is a little better for my having lived in it." 
 ... In the early summer of 1841 Mr. Lincoln came to 
 Kentucky and spent several months at Farmington, the home 
 of my mother, near this city (Louisville). 
 
 He returned from this visit with restored health, and 
 resumed his professional business in September. There 
 was nothing really dangerous in these moods, as the 
 event always proved for this was neither the first nor 
 the last of his experiences of like sort. One cause may 
 be readily discerned by those who know the effects of 
 such a persistent malarious influence as he had always 
 been exposed to. He was subject to glooms of the 
 darkest blue, but without entirely losing self-control 
 when they were at the worst. To Mr. Speed, who was 
 
5 8 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 himself given to like depressions, he later suggested 
 that it was only necessary to bear in mind that he 
 would soon be well again, to retain his balance, and to 
 live down the trouble. Those who knew him best were 
 aware that what he specially needed at such a time was 
 genial companionship, and that nothing would more 
 quickly and completely dispel the mists than social sun 
 shine. Once before, in one of his darkest periods, this 
 treatment had been successfully tried at New Salem. 
 
 Plainly, his outlook for the future was not at this 
 time such as to inspire cheerfulness. He had been three 
 or four years at Springfield, gaining ground, to be sure, 
 but not receiving an ample income. Major Stuart had 
 taken his seat in Congress, and in April (1841) their 
 partnership was to end. It must be remembered, too, 
 that sedentary life could not but unfavorably affect one 
 hitherto wont to be much out of doors and to give vig 
 orous exercise to his robust physical powers. There 
 was otherwise a great contrast between the life led 
 here and that almost wild freedom enjoyed in the little 
 Salem hamlet. He had at once passed into a greatly 
 different state of society. Now, too, he was at an 
 age (past thirty) when to many minds the world begins 
 to wear its most serious aspect, and when disappoint 
 ment over youthful dreams unrealized quite eclipses the 
 satisfaction of partial success and dims the light of 
 sanguine hope. 
 
 Sensitiveness and modesty were as native to him as 
 bold strength and courage a seeming paradox, but a 
 truth to be remembered in trying to comprehend a char 
 acter so unique. Two significant incidents of about this 
 date may be taken as rather an illustration than a digres- 
 
LAW POLITICS PERSONALITIES. 59 
 
 sion. The exciting political canvass of 1840 had come 
 to the final issue at the polls. On the line of railway 
 then in construction, near by, there was a large gang 
 of laborers, mostly of the " alien " class, whose right 
 to vote had been denied, but sustained by the new 
 Supreme Court organized under the " Douglas bill." 
 The contractor who employed them w r as an ardent 
 Democrat, and on election day it came to the ears of 
 Lincoln that he had marched up his battalion of voters 
 and taken possession of one of the polling places. It 
 was not a question now whether these men should be 
 allowed to vote; but that they should refuse honest 
 voters access to the ballot-box was not to be borne 
 with resignation. With true Berserker rage he hurried 
 to the scene, faced the offenders, and without need 
 of blows drove back the riotous crowd. From the 
 statements of Mr. Speed, who gave the substance of 
 this account from his own knowledge, it appears that 
 Lincoln started, cudgel in hand, under an impulse to 
 clear the way to the polls by force. 
 
 The other incident also rests on the authority of 
 Mr. Speed. One day Lincoln, Baker, Hardin, Speed 
 and others were riding on horseback along the road, 
 two-and-tw 7 o, some distance from Springfield. In pass 
 ing a thicket of wild plum and crab apple trees, Lincoln 
 and Hardin being in the rear, the former discovered by 
 the roadside two young birds not old enough to fly. 
 They had been shaken from their nest by a recent gale. 
 The old bird," said Mr. Speed, " was fluttering about 
 and wailing as a mother ever does for her babes. Lin 
 coln stopped, hitched his horse, caught the birds, hunted 
 the nest, and placed them in it. The rest of us rode on 
 
60 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 to a creek, and while the horses were drinking. Hardin 
 rode up. Where is Lincoln? said one. Oh, when I 
 saw him last he had two little birds in his hand hunting 
 for their nest. In perhaps an hour he came. They 
 laughed at him. He said, with much emphasis, Gen 
 tlemen, you may laugh, but I could not have slept well 
 to-night if I had not saved those birds. Their cries 
 would have rung in my ears/ 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 1841. 
 
 Mary Todd A Broken Engagement Depression Visit 
 
 to Kentucky Letter to Miss Speed An 
 
 Interesting Law Case. 
 
 It was about the year 1839 that Lincoln first met 
 Miss Mary Todd. Born at Lexington, Kentucky, De 
 cember 13, 1818, she was one of four daughters of 
 Robert S. Todd by his first wife, whose maiden name 
 was Elizabeth Parker. Mary was quite young at the 
 time of her mother s death, and ere long came under 
 the care of a stepmother. She received a good educa 
 tion in the higher schools of her native city, and learned 
 to read and speak the French language in the private 
 school of a French lady, nearly opposite the "Ash 
 land" mansion of Henry Clay. The house of her eldest 
 sister at Springfield, after the latter s marriage to Mr. 
 Edwards colleague of Lincoln in the Legislature, and 
 son of a former United States Senator was open to 
 Mary and her other sisters whenever they chose to be 
 there, rather than with their stepmother and a number 
 of brothers and sisters of the half-blood. Mary came to 
 live there soon after her school-days at Lexington were 
 ended. Major Stuart was her cousin, his mother being 
 a daughter of Levi Todd, Mary s grandfather. Her sis- 
 
 (61) 
 
62 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 ters Frances and Anne were married in Springfield 
 the former to Dr. Wallace, and the other, later, to a 
 successful merchant of that place, Mr. C. M. Smith. A 
 young lady of unusual personal attractions and bright 
 intellectual faculties, Mary was also of agreeable man 
 ners. She was not long without admirers, if she may 
 not have been properly called the " belle " of the place. 
 The higher and more exclusive circles of her native 
 city to which she belonged were unsurpassed in social 
 refinement and mental cultivation in any Southern 
 community of the time west of the Alleghanies. 
 
 Of all her sex with whom Lincoln had become ac 
 quainted, Mary Todd was undoubtedly the one best 
 suited to win his admiration and a more tender regard. 
 Aside from the dissimilarity in their earlier training and 
 position, however, there was a considerable difference 
 in their years, he being past thirty, and she little more 
 than twenty. At his age, an attachment of this sort is 
 likely to be very earnest; at hers, the spirits more vola 
 tile, with any young tendency to coquetry yet undis 
 ciplined, and with maidenly ways sometimes provoca 
 tive of resentment or despair in a sensitive lover. The 
 lady was ambitious; dazzled by the glory of the great 
 statesman to whom her father was a personal and polit 
 ical friend, her highest ideal of manhood was typified 
 by the eloquent orator and expectant President. She 
 received attentions from two persons who took a lead 
 ing part, on opposite sides, in the Harrison canvass 
 one tall and ungainly, yet amiable, modest, kind-hearted, 
 already noted as a speaker and aspiring to a higher posi 
 tion than he had been given by prolonged legislative 
 service; the other low in stature, but strong in energy 
 
MARY TODD VISIT TO KENTUCKY. 63 
 
 and pluck, graceful in manner, bold, ready, and pleasing 
 in speech, as ambitious as his rival, and deemed by his 
 friends a more eloquent orator, though on what was to 
 her the wrong side. She preferred the principles and 
 habits of Lincoln to those of Douglas, as she avowed 
 afterward; and if she was also influenced by ambition, 
 her political intuition famous in later life was not 
 now at fault. To a friend of her girlhood she wrote 
 of her engagement, speaking plainly of the defects of 
 her intended husband, in personal appearance especially, 
 and adding: " But I mean to make him President of the 
 United States. You will see that, as I always told you, 
 I will yet be the President s wife." 
 
 They were to have been married on New Year s 
 day, 1841, but Lincoln failed to keep that engagement. 
 Without being reasonably accounted for, his conduct 
 was unpardonable. Months afterward it certainly was 
 pardoned, hence it must have been somehow explained 
 to the person who had a right to know the reason. 
 Whether the alarming depression previously noticed 
 as of this period began before or after the appointed 
 wedding day whether it was in this instance in some 
 degree cause or effect is not clear. Lincoln was 
 superstitious, and that New Year s fell on a Friday. Did 
 that have any effect? How happened it, then, that the 
 marriage subsequently took place on the same discred 
 ited day of the week? All that is said of the matter 
 in his intimate correspondence with Mr. Speed reveals 
 little more than that both these bachelors like so 
 many others (Thomas Carlyle, for one) had a morbid 
 dread or misgiving on coming directly in face of the 
 matrimonial altar. 
 
64 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 While absent in Kentucky during much of the sum 
 mer of 1841, at the homestead of the Speed family, the 
 invalid proved to be neither intractable nor unsuscep 
 tible to their well-advised remedies. There were out 
 door activities and trips to Lexington and elsewhere; 
 new acquaintances were made; the two old friends con 
 fided to each other their very hearts: and Lincoln was 
 introduced to a black-eyed lady whom Speed was to 
 marry. If the terrible depression had any relation to 
 Ann Rutledge as Herndon imagined not a breath 
 of it was lisped, as naturally would have happened, to 
 Speed, now or ever after. To him the legend was " all 
 new " when Herndon made the suggestion to him 
 so he expressly said in 1866. 
 
 Lincoln and Speed returned to Illinois together, 
 going by steamboat to St. Louis, and thence more 
 directly to Springfield, where the former found busi 
 ness awaiting him and a tour of the circuit to be 
 made. He was now apparently in as good spirits as 
 ever; his company just as much sought; his talk just 
 as entertaining. While in McLean County he wrote 
 this letter, acknowledging the kindness received from 
 his Farmington friends: 
 
 BLOOMINGTON, ILL., September 27, 1841. 
 Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky.: 
 
 MY FRIEND : Having resolved to write to some of your 
 mother s family, and not having the express permission of 
 any one of them to do so, I have had some little difficulty 
 in determining on which to inflict the task of reading what 
 I now feel must be a most dull and silly letter ; but when I 
 remembered that you and I were something of cronies while 
 I was at Farmington, and that while there I was under the 
 necessity of shutting you up in a room to prevent your com- 
 
MARY TODD VISIT TO KENTUCKY. 65 
 
 mitting an assault and battery upon me, I instantly decided 
 that you should be the devoted one. 
 
 I assume that you have not heard from Joshua and my 
 self since we left, because I think it doubtful whether he has 
 written. You remember there was some uneasiness about 
 Joshua s health when we left. That little indisposition of 
 his turned out to be nothing serious, and it was pretty nearly 
 forgotten when we reached Springfield. We got on board 
 the steamboat Lebanon in the locks of the canal about 12 
 o clock M. of the day we left, and reached St. Louis the next 
 Monday at 8 P. M. 
 
 Nothing of interest happened during the passage, except 
 the vexatious delays occasioned by the sandbars be thought 
 interesting. By the way, a fine example was presented on 
 board the boat for contemplating the effect of condition upon 
 human happiness. A gentleman had purchased twelve ne 
 groes in different parts of Kentucky, and was taking them 
 to a farm in the South. They were chained six and six 
 together. A small iron clevis was around the left wrist of 
 each, and this fastened to the main chain by a shorter one, 
 at a convenient distance from the others, so that the negroes 
 were strung together precisely like so many fish upon a trot- 
 line. In this condition they were being separated forever 
 from the scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers 
 and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them 
 from their wives and children, and going into perpetual 
 slavery, where the lash of the master is proverbially more 
 ruthless and unrelenting than any otherwhere ; and yet, amid 
 all these distressing circumstances as we would think them, 
 they were the most cheerful and apparently happy creatures 
 on board. One whose offense, for which he had been sold, 
 was an over-fondness for his wife, played the fiddle almost 
 continually, and the others danced, sung, cracked jokes, and 
 played various games with cards from day to day. How 
 true is it that "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," 
 or, in other words, that he renders the worst of human con 
 ditions tolerable, while he permits the best to be nothing 
 better than tolerable. 
 
 To return to the narrative. When we reached Spring 
 field, I stayed but one day, when I started on this tedious 
 circuit, where I now am. Do you remember my going to the 
 5 
 
66 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 city, while I was in Kentucky, to have a tooth extracted, and 
 making a failure of it? Well, that same old tooth got to 
 paining me so much that about a week since I had it torn out, 
 bringing with it a bit of the jawbone, the consequence of 
 which is that my mouth is now so sore that I can neither 
 talk nor eat. I am literally "subsisting on savory remem 
 brances" that is, being unable to eat, I am living upon the 
 remembrances of the delicious dishes of peaches and cream 
 we used to have at your house. 
 
 When we left, Miss Fanny Henning was owing you a 
 visit as I understand. Has she paid it yet? If she has, are 
 you not convinced that she is one of the sweetest girls in 
 the world? There is but one thing about her, so far as I 
 could perceive, that I would have otherwise than it is that 
 is, something of a tendency to melancholy. This, let it be 
 observed, is a misfortune, not a fault. Give her an assurance 
 of my very highest regard when you see her. Is little Siss 
 Eliza Davis at your house yet? If she is, kiss her "o er and 
 o er again" for me. 
 
 Tell your mother that I have not got her "present" with 
 me, but I intend to read it regularly when I return home. 
 I doubt not that it is really, as she says, the best cure for the 
 blues, could one but take it according to the truth. 
 
 Give my. respects to all your sisters (including Aunt 
 Emma) and brothers. Tell Mrs. Peay, of whose happy face 
 I shall long retain a pleasant remembrance, that I have been 
 trying to think of a name for her homestead, but as yet can 
 not satisfy myself with one. I shall be very happy to receive 
 a line from you soon after you receive this ; and in case you 
 choose to favor me with one, address it to Charleston, Coles 
 County, 111., as I shall be there about the time to receive it. 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 A. LINCOLN. 
 
 The incident of the chained groups of slaves, gently 
 mentioned to one of a family in which slavery in its 
 mildest form still had place, made a lasting impression 
 on his mind. The young lady, with no recognized 
 defect but a tendency to melancholy, was the intended 
 wife of Mr. Speed. The " present " from the latter s 
 
INTERESTING LAW CASE. 67 
 
 mother was an Oxford Bible, of which he made a fresh 
 acknowledgment from the White House. 
 
 Lincoln s partnership with Major Stuart had been 
 dissolved, and a new one with Judge Stephen T. Logan 
 had begun on the I4th of April, 1841. About this date 
 they were employed in a criminal case quite famous in 
 its day one which, with various traditional increments 
 and distortions, has served to emphasize the uncertain 
 ties of circumstantial evidence. This is the legend as 
 ultimately shaped in the newspaper press: 
 
 " In 1840, when the State House at Springfield, Illi 
 nois, was being built, one of the stone-cutters engaged 
 was a man named Martin, from New York City. He 
 was not a man of sound mind; at least, he was a maniac 
 on one subject, which was that there was no good 
 money except that of the old Metropolitan Bank of 
 New York. Every Saturday night, when the men 
 were paid off, he used to go around among them and 
 buy up this money, often paying as high as ten per 
 cent, premium for it. He was known to have a con 
 siderable sum of this money hid away or about him. 
 In May of the year named he and one Smith hired a 
 wagon to go to the Sangamon River, four miles dis 
 tant. At night Smith returned, but not with Martin. 
 When asked where Martin was, he said he did not 
 know. Martin was soon missed; the ground where 
 they went was searched, and the plainest evidence was 
 presented that they had quarreled. The ground was 
 trampled on the river bank, and some of Martin s 
 clothes were found. It was discovered that some drops 
 of blood were dried on the sand, and that the buggy 
 had been drawn into the water. The supposition was 
 
68 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 that Martin had been murdered and his body carried 
 into the river. Search was made for days, but no body 
 could be found. Meantime Smith, the assumed mur 
 derer, was arrested and put in the old log jail. In a 
 few weeks the prisoner was regularly arraigned in the 
 Circuit Court on the charge of murder. Abraham Lin 
 coln, then rising into fame as a lawyer, was engaged for 
 the defense. The production of the corpus mortuum was 
 not insisted upon; the evidence seemed as clear and con 
 clusive as though a dozen persons had seen the act of 
 murder. The witnesses were few, yet what evidence 
 there was pointed to the crime and the means by which 
 it was done. The marks of the struggle, the clothes 
 found there, the drops of blood on the sand, the driving 
 of the buggy to the river, as if to throw the lifeless body 
 into the swift current, were all circumstances that could 
 only be accounted for in connection with the deep 
 damnation of the taking off of poor Martin. The 
 defense could hardly make a show of evidence, and a 
 verdict of guilty seemed a foregone conclusion. Mean 
 while the sheriff of Tazewell County had read in the 
 Sangamon Journal a description of Martin s person, and 
 had heard that a man had appeared in a distant part of 
 the county, without coat or hat, and who could give no 
 intelligent account of himself. An inspiration prompted 
 the sheriff to go and see him, and he became satisfied 
 that he was the missing man. His having in his posses 
 sion still a considerable amount of Metropolitan Bank 
 money made the sheriff morally sure on the point; so 
 he took the man in charge and started with him for 
 Springfield. Arriving on the last day of the judicial 
 
INTERESTING LAW CASE. 69 
 
 investigation, he lodged the man in jail and went into 
 the court room and saw Mr. Lincoln. Then Mr. Lin 
 coln asked a suspension of proceedings, as he had an 
 important witness to introduce. With the sheriff he 
 went to the old jail, saw the prisoner, and was satisfied 
 that the dead was alive. Returning to court, Mr. Lin 
 coln said that he could not look for anything but a ver 
 dict against his client as the case stood, but he asked 
 permission to introduce a new and very material wit 
 ness. Martin himself was placed on the stand, and in 
 a moment the case fell to the ground." 
 
 Changing the date to the year 1841, and the ficti 
 tious names of Smith and Martin to the real ones 
 three brothers Trailor as the accused, and Archibald 
 Fisher as their alleged victim the story is true in its 
 main effect. This professional incident has a value 
 besides its intrinsic interest, as helping us to form a 
 just estimate of certain statements concerning Lincoln s 
 whereabouts and the state of his mind during the first 
 half of this year. He wrote a clear account of this case 
 in a letter to his friend Speed, (dated June 19, 1841,) 
 having evidently given the affair close attention from 
 beginning to end. * He had not yet gone to Kentucky, 
 but. mentions in this letter his intention of doing so, as 
 he did apparently in the latter part of June. Hence he 
 was not " there during most of the summer and fall," 
 as has been stated, for he was back again on the court 
 circuit, as his letter to Mary Speed shows, before the 
 close of September. Again, an examination of the 
 
 *" Complete Works" (N. & H.), I., 48-51. 
 
70 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 House journal is sufficient to disprove the assertion of 
 some biographers, that Lincoln, on account of great 
 mental depression, was seldom in his seat during this 
 winter s session of the Legislature. He was evidently 
 as regularly present then as at any other session, or as 
 any other member. The terrible reality of his melan 
 choly, however, may be judged from his own words in 
 a letter to Major Stuart, at Washington (January 23, 
 1841): " I am now the most miserable man living. If 
 what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human 
 family, there would not be one cheerful face on the 
 earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; 
 I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is 
 impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 1842-1846. 
 
 Temperance Address Personal Difficulty with James 
 Shields Marriage to Mary Todd Defeated Candi 
 date for Congressional Nomination in 1843 An Even 
 ing with Van Bur en Polk Defeats Clay Annexation 
 of Texas War with Mexico Begun Lincoln Elected 
 to Congress. 
 
 Early in 1842 Mr. Speed returned to his native State, 
 married, and thenceforward resided on a country place 
 near Louisville, which was again his place of business. 
 The former chums wrote to each other freely of their 
 personal affairs for a year or two, but the correspond 
 ence was interrupted by long intervals after 1843. Dur 
 ing the winter (1841-2) Lincoln was quite free from 
 " hypo " or " nervous debility/ both of which terms he 
 used to describe his ailment. 
 
 On the 22d of February he delivered an address at 
 Springfield in aid of the " Washingtonian " temper 
 ance movement, then lately inaugurated with the spe 
 cial object of reforming inebriates. He treated the sub 
 ject in a manner peculiarly his own with humanity, 
 charity, and moderation. " When the dram-seller and 
 drinker [he said] were incessantly told, not in accents 
 of entreaty and persuasion, diffidently addressed by 
 erring men to an erring brother, but in the thunder 
 
 (70 
 
72 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 tones of anathema and denunciation, . . . that they 
 were the authors of all the vice and misery in the land, 
 ... it is not wonderful that they were slow, very 
 slow, to acknowledge the truth of such denunciations 
 and to join the ranks of their denouncers in a hue and 
 cry against themselves. To have expected them to do 
 otherwise than they did . . . was to expect a rever 
 sal of human nature, which is God s decree, and can 
 never be reversed. . . . When all such of us as have 
 now reached the years of maturity first opened our 
 eyes upon this stage of existence, we found intoxi 
 cating liquor recognized by everybody, used by every 
 body, repudiated by nobody. It commonly entered 
 into the first draught of the infant and the last draught 
 of the dying man. From the sideboard of the parson 
 down to the ragged pocket of the homeless loafer, it 
 was constantly found. Physicians prescribed it in this, 
 that, and the other disease; government provided it for 
 soldiers and sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a 
 husking or hoe-down anywhere about without it was 
 positively insufferable. So, too, it was everywhere a 
 respectable article of manufacture and of merchandise. 
 . . . The universal sense of mankind on any subject 
 is an argument, or at least an influence, not easily over 
 come. The success of the argument in favor of the 
 existence of an overruling Providence mainly depends 
 upon that sense; and men ought not, in justice, to be 
 denounced for yielding to it in any case, or giving it 
 up slowly, especially when they are backed by interest, 
 fixed habits, or burning appetites. . . . Whether or 
 not the world would be vastly benefited by a total ban 
 ishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me 
 
MARRIAGE ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 73 
 
 not now an open question. Three-fourths of mankind 
 confess the affirmative with their tongues, and I believe 
 all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts." 
 
 Lincoln s former relations with Mary Todd, inter 
 rupted as we have seen, had not been at once renewed 
 on his return from visiting the Speeds in Kentucky, 
 yet the interruption was not to be permanent, as was 
 apparent the following summer. Many an " affair of 
 honor " has been somehow evolved from a like relation 
 ship; and such a trouble, though not after the usual 
 course, happened in the present case. Happily, it was 
 anything but serious in its outcome; and the same may 
 be said of its immediate origin. Lincoln s adversary 
 was a man afterward distinguished on the battlefield; 
 a man of real courage as well as of considerable bluster, 
 who was ere long to have a seat in the United States 
 Senate. Particulars, tediously full and dull, may be 
 found in newspaper files of the time, James Shields, 
 born in Ireland, and now a gallant bachelor past thirty, 
 was a member of the Illinois Legislature during Lin 
 coln s second term, and later as State Auditor became a 
 resident of Springfield. Certain contributions to the 
 Sangamon Journal a letter written by Lincoln, some 
 what in the " Jack Downing " manner; another, over 
 the same signature, said to have been concocted by 
 Mary Todd and her friend, Miss Jayne (soon to be 
 Mrs. Lyman Trumbull), and, most exasperating of all, 
 some " lines " by Miss Todd gave great offense to 
 the Auditor. The editor, having been called upon by 
 Shields* " friend/ General Whiteside, turned over the 
 responsibility to Lincoln, to whom Shields wrote, de 
 manding " a full, positive, and absolute retraction of 
 
74 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 all offensive allusions used " in said communications, 
 and " an apology for the insults conveyed in them " 
 adding in conclusion: " This may prevent consequences 
 which no one will regret more than myself." 
 
 Lincoln, who was at this time attending court in 
 Tazewell County, more than fifty miles from Spring 
 field Shields having gone to Fremont on this per 
 sonal errand replied (Fremont, September 17, 1842): 
 " Your note of to-day was handed me by General White- 
 side. In that note you say you have been informed, 
 through the medium of the editor of the Journal, that 
 I am the author of certain articles in that paper which 
 you deem personally abusive of you; and, without stop 
 ping to inquire whether I am really the author, or to 
 point out what is offensive in them, you demand an 
 unqualified retraction of all that is offensive, and then 
 proceed to hint at consequences. Now, sir, there is in 
 this so much assumption of facts, and so much menace 
 as to consequences, that I can not submit to answer 
 that note any further than I have, and to add, that the 
 consequence to which I suppose you allude would be 
 matter of as great regret to me as it possibly could 
 to you." 
 
 Shields had not come so far, by such conveyance 
 and thoroughfares as the country then afforded, with 
 out being very much in earnest. His letter was in 
 terms that left no door ajar for explanation or dis 
 avowal, much less for retraction on the part of such a 
 man as he had to deal with a Kentuckian by birth, 
 with associations largely of that type. Learning that 
 Shields and Whiteside had started for Tazewell County, 
 two friends of Lincoln Dr. Merriman and Mr. Butler 
 
MARRIAGE ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 75 
 
 set out for the same goal, and were promptly at hand. 
 Attempts at mediation having failed, all returned to 
 Springfield, and a " meeting " was fixed for the 22d 
 of the month, in Missouri, within three miles of Alton. 
 Lincoln gave Dr. Merriman the following written state 
 ment, to be read if Shields should first withdraw his 
 notes: " I did write the Lost Township letter, which 
 appeared in the Journal of the 2d inst, but had no par 
 ticipation in any form in any other article alluding to 
 you. I wrote that wholly for political effect. I had 
 no intention of injuring your personal or private char 
 acter or standing as a man or a gentleman; and I did 
 not then think, and do not now think, that that article 
 could produce, or has produced, that effect against you; 
 and had I anticipated such an effect, would have for 
 borne to write it. And I will add that your conduct 
 towards me, so far as I knew, had always been gen 
 tlemanly, and that I had no personal pique against 
 you, and no cause for any." If no acommodation was 
 effected, he chose for weapons " cavalry broadswords of 
 the largest size, precisely equal in all respects, and such 
 as now used by the cavalry company at Jacksonville." 
 After the prospective combatants had crossed into 
 Missouri, other friends of both among whom were 
 John J. Hardin and W. L. D. Ewing succeeded in 
 bringing about a pacific adjustment. At this day the 
 whole affair looks very much like an intended travesty 
 of the code of honor in its modern development, or as 
 a piece of waggery which might afford to the two mis 
 chievous young ladies, as well as to the humor-loving 
 Lincoln, as much real enjoyment as they had found in 
 the offending articles. 
 
76 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was married to Mary Todd on 
 Friday, November 4th, by Rev. Charles Dresser, D.D., 
 rector of the Episcopal Church in Springfield. There 
 was a large wedding party on the occasion at the resi 
 dence of Mr. Ninian W. Edwards, the home of the bride. 
 There has been some waste of words concerning the 
 amount of romantic sentiment on either side. It may 
 be readily granted that this union was not based on 
 such a passion as we read of, for example, in Disraeli s 
 Henrietta Temple. It is clear that there was an affinity 
 in their ambitions; that mutual appreciation came with 
 acquaintance; and that a more tender relation very 
 naturally followed. 
 
 At first the wedded pair were boarders at the Globe 
 tavern. A year or two later Lincoln bought of the 
 Episcopal rector a plain frame house of one story, to 
 which a second was added after a time, completing the 
 exterior since made familiar to the world in picture. 
 This continued to be their home thenceforward. Its 
 next owner was the State of Illinois, in whose cus 
 tody it remains as a precious memorial. Hon. Isaac 
 N. Arnold, of Chicago, who was there as a guest at 
 times during many years, and was better qualified to 
 speak of their domestic life than some persons who have 
 written about it more copiously in a less amiable spirit, 
 said, in noticing the marriage: " With her he lived most 
 happily until" the final separation.* Again, at a ban 
 quet of the Illinois Bar Association in 1881, speaking 
 of old-time hospitalities at Springfield: "Among others 
 I recall, with a sad pleasure, the dinners given by Mrs. 
 
 *" Lincoln and Slavery," p. 79. 
 
MARRIAGE ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 77 
 
 Lincoln. In her modest and simple home, where every 
 thing was so orderly and refined, there was always on 
 the part of both host and hostess a cordial and hearty 
 Western welcome, which put every guest perfectly at 
 ease. Their table was famed for the excellence of many 
 rare Kentucky dishes, and for the venison, wild turkeys, 
 and other game, then so abundant. Yet it was her 
 genial manner and ever-kind welcome, and Mr. Lin 
 coln s wit and humor, anecdote and unrivaled conver 
 sation, which formed the chief attraction." 
 
 Lincoln had declined to be a candidate for re-elec 
 tion to the Legislature in 1842. One substantial reason 
 is easy to find. Representatives in Congress were to be 
 chosen the next year in Illinois, under a law that was 
 changed at the following session of the Legislature so 
 as to require their election, as at present, the year before 
 they were to take their seats. It thus happened that 
 there was a Congressional election in that State in 1843 
 and again in 1844. Major Stuart was not a candidate 
 for another term. The way was thus opened for Lin 
 coln, and it would seem that his nomination was fairly 
 to be expected. The Sangamon district convention 
 was called to meet in May (1843). His own county 
 had a larger number of delegates than any other, and 
 he had certainly well earned its support. But there was 
 another Springfield aspirant, Edward D. Baker; and 
 when the county convention met to choose delegates, 
 Baker, who had a more captivating oratory, and whose 
 supporters were active and artful, was found to be in 
 the lead. 
 
 Writing soon after the event to a friend in Menard 
 
78 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 County his earlier home, which had remained faith 
 ful to him Lincoln said he was " put down " in San- 
 gamon " as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aris 
 tocratic family distinction " (which he thought would 
 astonish his old friends in Menard); and that "there 
 was, too, the strangest combination of church influ 
 ence" against him: "Baker is a Campbellite; and there 
 fore, as I suppose, with few exceptions, got all of that 
 church. My wife has some relations in the Presbyte 
 rian churches, and some in the Episcopal churches; and 
 therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down as 
 either the one or the other, while it was everywhere 
 contended that no Christian ought to go for me, be 
 cause I belonged to no church, was suspected of being 
 a deist, and had talked about fighting a duel. With all 
 these things Baker, of course, had nothing to do, nor 
 do I complain of them." 
 
 The marriage the churches the ridiculous "duel"! 
 Undoubtedly the defeat was a sore disappointment. 
 
 After all, it was another candidate who got the 
 nomination, John J. Hardin, of Morgan County, 
 and in August he was elected. 
 
 Since 1840 Lincoln had given less attention to poli 
 tics than to law practice. His partnership with Judge 
 Logan who also had Congressional aspirations was 
 comparatively brief, ending in 1843. A new one was 
 formed with a younger man, whom he had known as 
 a clerk in Mr. Speed s store, and who had now been 
 recently admitted to the bar, Mr. William H. Herndon, 
 who was especially serviceable in regard to office work, 
 the senior assuming the chief labors of the court room. 
 Members of Congress, as we have explained, were to 
 
MARRIAGE ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 79 
 
 be elected in 1844, but Lincoln was not now a candi 
 date for the nomination. He gave way to his friend, 
 Edward D. Baker, as did also Colonel Hardin. On 
 the breaking out of the Mexican War, Hardin took 
 the command of a regiment of volunteers. He was 
 killed at the battle of Buena Vista. Baker was given 
 a like command, before the close of the term for which 
 he was elected. On returning from the war he changed 
 his residence, and was sent to Congress from the Galena 
 district. 
 
 Clay had a clear field this year for the Presidential 
 nomination. The friends of ex-President Van Buren 
 had been hoping for a like unanimity in his favor on the 
 Democratic side. He made a tour through the West 
 in 1843, f which Mr. Speed recalled an incident not 
 out of place here: " In 1843, when Mr. Van Buren and 
 Commodore Paulding visited the West, and gave out 
 that they would reach Springfield on a certain day, but 
 their friends knew from the condition of the roads that 
 their expectations would not be realized, a party was 
 formed, and Lincoln, though not of their politics, was 
 pressed into the service. They met Van Buren and his 
 party at Rochester, in Sangamon County, in an old 
 barn of a hotel. Lincoln was charged to do his best to 
 entertain the distinguished guests. Well did he do his 
 part. Lincoln soon got under way, and kept the com 
 pany convulsed with laughter till the small hours of the 
 night. Mr. Van Buren stayed some days in Spring 
 field, and repeatedly said he never spent so agreeable 
 a night in his life. He complained that his sides were 
 sore with laughter, and to more than one predicted for 
 that young man a bright and brilliant future." 
 
8o LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 A few months before the Democratic National Con 
 vention met, a new issue had come into prominence. 
 The annexation of Texas was thrust forward by the 
 Tyler-Calhoun Administration in a manner to disturb 
 political calculations as to the next Presidential can 
 vass. No such device ever had more complete suc 
 cess. Deeper purposes and larger consequences were 
 also involved. " One of the foremost," says Benton, 
 " to give away Texas, Mr. Calhoun was the very fore 
 most to get her back; and at an immense cost to our 
 foreign relations and domestic peace. The immediate 
 admission of Texas into the Union was his plan. She 
 was at war with Mexico we at peace; to incorporate 
 her into the Union was to adopt her war." Formal 
 application for the admission of Texas was made in 
 1838, but her war with Mexico still continued, and this 
 war was more than even the South in general then cared 
 to adopt. Subsequent attempts fared likewise, but the 
 case was not suffered to drop. Some months before the 
 Presidential nominations were to be made, in 1844, a 
 letter adverse to annexation had been drawn from Van 
 Buren; and Clay had been catechised with like result. 
 Both seemed so certain to be the opposing candidates, 
 was it not safe for both to speak out in this way and be 
 rid of a troublesome issue? If there was an agreement 
 between them to such effect, never were two great men 
 worse deceived. Van Buren s pledged majority con 
 sented to the rule requiring two-thirds to nominate; 
 James K. Polk, of Tennessee, chosen in his stead, was 
 elected over Clay; and annexation was an accomplished 
 fact before Polk s inauguration. 
 
 Lincoln, as he had done four years before, can- 
 
MARRIAGE ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 81 
 
 vassed the State as one of the electoral candidates. 
 He entered into the work with an earnest and hopeful 
 spirit. After closing his work in Illinois, he made a 
 brief stumping tour in Indiana. For the first time since 
 he left the State in 1830, he visited Gentry ville, and had 
 an enthusiastic welcome from people of both parties. 
 Still more to the purpose if it be true, as told a 
 good number of those who came to hear him as Demo 
 crats went away to vote for Clay, and to remain Lin 
 coln s political as \vell as personal friends ever after. 
 
 Illinois remained so decidedly Democratic that any 
 material change in a lifetime might well seem hopeless. 
 Douglas was elected to Congress for a second term, and 
 had not long to wait for a seat in the Senate. A skillful 
 politician as well as a popular orator, he took control of 
 the Democratic organization in the State with a strong 
 hand, and exercised the leadership with shrewdness 
 and energy, like Van Buren in New York managing 
 always to make party success subservient to his own 
 advancement. 
 
 President Polk found the situation regarding Texas 
 and Mexico all he could have wished when he took the 
 reins. General Zachary Taylor had been ordered to 
 Texas with a small force of regulars; and in November 
 (1845) h e occupied Corpus Christi, beyond the river 
 Nueces, and near its mouth. Maintaining communica 
 tions by the Gulf, he was to proceed to the Rio Grande, 
 occupying positions near the coast, and opposite Mata- 
 moras, where a Mexican force largely superior to his 
 own was soon gathered. After vainly warning off 
 Taylor, the Mexicans crossed the river and attacked 
 him, suffering a serious repulse at Palo Alto and again 
 6 
 
82 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 at Resaca de le Palma, on the 8th and Qth of May 
 (1846). President Polk issued a proclamation declar 
 ing that war had been begun by Mexico, and calling 
 for fifty thousand volunteers. 
 
 Elections for the next Congress were to occur this 
 summer and autumn. General Taylor, fast becoming 
 a popular idol, was meanwhile advancing on the far 
 ther side of the Rio Grande to Camargo, and thence up 
 the valley of the San Juan to Monterey, which place he 
 took by storm, against great odds, in October. 
 
 Lincoln had no great difficulty, this time, in securing 
 the Congressional nomination in his district. As the 
 election took place early in August, the victorious army 
 in Mexico was only in the first stages of its career when 
 the canvass closed. Few people in Illinois were making 
 any great outcry against the war, or showed much con 
 cern over the possible acquisition of more territory into 
 which the cotton-belt empire could expand. 
 
 As Lincoln s competitor, the Democrats nomi 
 nated the Rev. Peter Cartwright, a popular Methodist 
 preacher and presiding elder, who had removed from 
 Kentucky to Illinois some years after his marriage, for 
 the reason (as we have seen) that he did not wish to 
 raise his children in a slave State. The canvass was 
 made on the old political lines. As to slavery, Cart- 
 wright could hardly claim greater conservatism than 
 Lincoln, unless by virtue of his connection with the 
 Democratic party. The preacher had many warm 
 friends, and would naturally find some favor in his own 
 denomination among its Whig members. There were 
 even attempts to gain votes for the Gospel minister by 
 contrasting his orthodoxy with the undefined faith of 
 
MARRIAGE ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 83 
 
 his opponent. Nevertheless, comparing the votes for 
 member of Congress with the votes for Governor, Lin 
 coln received four hundred more, and Cartwright over 
 seven hundred less, than the head of their respective 
 party tickets. Lincoln s plurality over Cartwright was 
 1,51 1, more than one thousand greater than the plurality 
 in the district for the Whig candidate for Governor. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 1847-1848. 
 
 In Congress Mexican War Ending Lincoln s Maiden 
 Speech His Second Speech Senator Lewis Cass, the 
 Democratic Nominee for President Lincoln Favors the 
 Nomination of General Taylor The Illinois Delegates 
 to the Whig National Convention Unanimous for Clay 
 Taylor s Nomination "Free Soil" Party Nominate 
 Van Bur en and Adams. 
 
 The Mexican War was nearly over when Lincoln 
 (in December, 1847) took his seat in Congress. In 
 the preceding February General Taylor had won a bril 
 liant victory at Buena Vista. General Scott had taken 
 the field with a separate force, moving from Vera Cruz; 
 defeating the enemy at Cerro Gordo in April, and ad 
 vancing with repeated engagements until, after storm 
 ing Molino del Rey on the 8th of September, he entered 
 the city of Mexico, where as a conqueror he remained 
 many months, awaiting the settlement of terms of peace. 
 
 The Thirtieth Congress was an especially memorable 
 one. The administration of President Polk, even under 
 the pressure of a foreign war, had failed to retain its par 
 tisan strength in the House of Representatives, which 
 chose the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, 
 the Whig nominee, for Speaker. In both houses there 
 
 (84) 
 
IN CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. 85 
 
 were venerable statesmen who had personally known 
 some of "the Fathers" who organized the Government, 
 and whose names have scarcely less luster than theirs. 
 These honored seniors had given character to the politi 
 cal era which, though perhaps unconsciously to them 
 all, was now about to close. Of the new epoch, fore 
 shadowed in other and more striking ways, we may find 
 one suggestion in the nature of the journey across the 
 Alleghanies now made by Lincoln for the first time, 
 as compared with the slow coaching of Henry Clay, 
 Andrew Jackson, Thomas H. Benton, and their West 
 ern colleagues, for almost a lifetime, in their progress to 
 the national capital. The eminently respectable Whigs 
 and Democrats of the older States still looked a little 
 downward or askance, however complacently, upon the 
 people s representatives who came thus tediously from 
 afar, save upon a few, of the slaveholding class more 
 especially, who were distinguished not only by rare 
 abilities, but also by long experience. 
 
 Among members of the House on the Whig side 
 was the venerable ex-President John Quincy Adams, 
 who died in the very capitol during the first session. 
 There were also Messrs. J. R. Ingersoll, of Pennsyl 
 vania; J. M. Botts, of Virginia; Robert Toombs, A. H. 
 Stephens, and Thomas Butler King, of Georgia; Wash 
 ington Hunt, of New York; Jacob Collamer and George 
 P. Marsh, of Vermont; Truman Smith, of Connecticut; 
 Henry W. Hilliard, of Alabama; Samuel F. Vinton and 
 Robert C. Schenck, of Ohio; Caleb B. Smith and Rich 
 ard W. Thompson, of Indiana, and Meredith P. Gentry, 
 of Tennessee. On the Democratic side were R. M. 
 
86 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 McLane, of Maryland; James McDowell and R. K. 
 Meade, of Virginia; R. B. Rhett, of South Carolina; 
 Howell Cobb, of Georgia; Jacob Thompson, of Missis 
 sippi; Linn Boyd, of Kentucky; Andrew Johnson, of 
 Tennessee, and James S. Greene and John S. Phelps, of 
 Missouri. Douglas had been re-elected to the House 
 in 1846; but at the succeeding session of the Legisla 
 ture he had been transferred to the Senate, and William 
 A. Richardson had been elected as Representative in 
 his stead. Thus it happened that the first appearance 
 of Douglas as Senator was simultaneous with that of 
 Lincoln as member of the House. Among the Sena 
 tors were Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, John M. 
 Clayton, Thomas Corwin, Thomas H. Benton, John 
 Bell, Daniel S. Dickinson, Samuel S. Phelps, Simon 
 Cameron, Hannibal Hamlin, Reverdy Johnson, Sam 
 Houston, William R. King, R. M. T. Hunter, and 
 Jefferson Davis. 
 
 Lincoln s maiden speech related to the President s 
 responsibility for the beginning of the Mexican War. 
 On the nth of the preceding February, weeks before 
 news came of Taylor s victory at Buena Vista, Thomas 
 Corwin delivered his famous speech in the Senate, not 
 only against the action of President Polk in the incep 
 tion of the war, but against any appropriation in its 
 support. In this extreme position Corwin was not 
 generally sustained by his Whig colleagues, and the 
 appropriations passed without much opposition. Pres 
 ident Folk s annual message had elaborately defended 
 his action in ordering Taylor to the Rio Grande. Mr. 
 Richardson, of Illinois, gathering about him the mantle 
 consigned by Douglas on ascending higher, was prompt 
 
IN CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. 87 
 
 in moving an indorsement of the President. The gaunt 
 let was thrown down before all who could not applaud 
 the whole proceedings from the annexation of Texas 
 onward. Such, in brief, was the condition of this matter 
 when, on the I2th of January, 1848, Lincoln obtained 
 the floor. His prepared speech was intended to fill an 
 hour, but he spoke so rapidly that he had several minutes 
 left at the close. 
 
 He said that some time after his colleague (Mr. 
 Richardson) introduced the resolutions above men 
 tioned, he (Mr. Lincoln) introduced a preamble, reso 
 lution, and interrogatories, intended to draw the Presi 
 dent out, if possible, on this hitherto untrodden ground. 
 
 To show their relevancy, [he continued,] I propose to 
 state my understanding of the rule for ascertaining the 
 boundary between Texas and Mexico. It is that wherever 
 Texas was exercising jurisdiction was hers; and wherever 
 Mexico was exercising jurisdiction was hers ; and that what 
 ever separated the actual exercise of jurisdiction of the one 
 from that of the other, was the true boundary between them. 
 . . . The extent of our territory in that region depended 
 not on any treaty-fixed boundary (for no treaty had 
 attempted it), but on revolution. Any people anywhere, being 
 inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and 
 shake off the existing government, and form a new one that 
 suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred 
 right a right which, we hope and believe, is to liberate the 
 world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the 
 whole people of an existing government may choose to exer 
 cise it. Any portion of such people that can may revolu 
 tionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as 
 they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of 
 such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, in- 
 intermingled with or near about them, who may oppose their 
 movements. Such minority was precisely the case of the 
 Tories of our own Revolution. It is a quality of revolutions 
 not to go by old lines, or old laws ; but to break up both, 
 
88 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 and make new ones. As to the country now in question, 
 we bought it of France in 1803, and sold it to Spain in 1819, 
 according to the President s statement. After this, all Mex 
 ico, including Texas, revolutionized against Spain ; and still 
 later, Texas revolutionized against Mexico. In my view, 
 just so far as she carried her revolution by obtaining the 
 actual, willing or unwilling submission of the people, so far 
 the country was hers, and no further.* . . . 
 
 The war has gone on for some twenty months; for the 
 expenses of which, together with an inconsiderable old score, 
 the President now claims about one-half of the Mexican 
 territory, and that by far the better half, so far as concerns 
 our ability to make anything out of it. It is comparatively 
 uninhabited, so that we could establish land offices in it, and 
 raise some money in that way. But the other half is already 
 inhabited, as I understand it, tolerably densely for the nature 
 of the country, and all its lands, or all that are valuable, 
 already appropriated as private property. . . . 
 
 As to the mode of terminating the war and securing 
 peace, the President is equally wandering and indefinite. 
 First, it is to be done by a more vigorous prosecution of the 
 war in the vital part of the enemy s country; and, after 
 apparently talking himself tired on this point, the President 
 drops down into a half despairing tone, and tells us, that 
 "with a people distracted and divided by contending factions, 
 and a government subject to constant changes, by successive 
 revolutions, the continued success of our arms may fail to 
 obtain a satisfactory peace." Then he suggests the propriety 
 of wheedling the Mexican people to desert the counsels of 
 their own leaders, and, trusting in our protection, to set up 
 a government from which we can secure a satisfactory peace, 
 telling us that " this may become the only mode of obtaining 
 such a peace !" But soon he falls into doubt of this too, and 
 then drops back to the already half-abandoned ground of 
 " more vigorous prosecution." All this shows that the Pres 
 ident is in no wise satisfied with his own positions. . . . 
 
 *The part of this passage relating to the natural right of revo 
 lution was quoted against him fifteen years later, on the floor of 
 the House. Hon. A. H. Stephens also claimed that this was an 
 indorsement of Secession. 
 
IN CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. 89 
 
 His mind, tasked beyond its power, is running hither and 
 thither, like some tortured creature on a burning surface, 
 rinding no position on which it can settle down and be at 
 ease. . . . He is a bewildered, confounded and miserably 
 perplexed man. God grant he may be able to show there 
 is not something about his conscience more painful than all 
 his mental perplexity. 
 
 In comparison with other speeches of anti-Adminis 
 tration members during this and the following session, 
 on questions immediately growing out of the Mexican 
 War, his position may well be pronounced moderate. 
 Of slavery as a motive for the war, not a word is spoken. 
 At one point, indeed, a hint of this kind seems almost 
 to have been on his tongue, only to vanish inarticulate. 
 
 There was no lack of listeners to the new orator 
 from the West; no one could fail to discern something 
 above the common in his treatment of the matter in 
 hand; yet the speech was not electrifying; it was not 
 of the kind by which a reputation is " made at once." 
 In Illinois there were even some mutterings among 
 his Whig constituents, as if such a redoubtable fact as 
 the Mexican War should have been simply glorified or 
 quietly let alone. 
 
 In the Illinois Legislature Lincoln had favored inter 
 nal improvements on a liberal scale at the expense of 
 the State. As intimated to a friend, he thought the 
 glory of a DeWitt Clinton worthy of his ambition. 
 But the financial crash of 1837 put an end to such 
 hopes. In regard to public works of a national char 
 acter, he was still an ardent follower of Henry Clay. 
 Lincoln made this the subject of a speech in Congress 
 on the 2Oth of June. 
 
 In the preceding year a convention had been held 
 
90 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 at Chicago, in which the Western States in general 
 were represented, to add the force of a commanding 
 public expression in favor of needed improvements by 
 the Federal Government, to facilitate navigation on the 
 great rivers and lakes. The convention met on the 5th 
 of July, 1847, and its sessions extended through the two 
 following days. It was presided over by Judge Edward 
 Bates, of St. Louis, whose opening speech was greatly 
 admired at the time, and talked of long afterward as a 
 rare specimen of eloquence. Among the other distin 
 guished speakers was Thomas Corwin, then in his best 
 days, who had no superior in popular oratory. One of 
 the distinguished Western men who notably did not 
 attend this " River and Harbor Convention," so-called, 
 was Senator Lewis Cass, whose residence at Detroit 
 seemed to make his presence and countenance, as a 
 man who had been so long in public life, almost 
 imperative. 
 
 Mr. Cass was nominated for the Presidency by the 
 Democratic National Convention which met at Balti 
 more on the 22d day of May, 1848. Soon after his 
 nomination, being at the city of Cleveland, he had been 
 called out, and was making thankful response to his 
 friends, when one in the crowd asked an expression in 
 regard to river and harbor improvements. Cass replied 
 that the " noise and confusion " would prevent his 
 making himself understood. It was after this last 
 incident that Lincoln spoke on the general subject in 
 the House. President Polk, early in the session, had 
 vetoed a bill making appropriations for the improve 
 ment of rivers and harbors. The Baltimore conven 
 tion which nominated Mr. Cass had declared in its plat- 
 
IN CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. 91 
 
 form against the constitutional power of the Govern 
 ment " to commence and carry on a general system of 
 internal improvements," and the nominee, in his letter 
 of acceptance, had indorsed the platform without reser 
 vation. Citing these facts at the outset, and concluding 
 from them that the question of such improvements was 
 " verging to a final crisis," Lincoln said the friends of 
 the policy " must now battle, and battle manfully, or 
 surrender all." The entire speech is of more than tran 
 sient value, sustaining the prevalent policy of the Gov 
 ernment on the subject from that day to the present. 
 
 A treaty with Mexico, unofficially arranged at Guad- 
 aloupe Hidalgo in February (1848), was, after consid 
 erable delay, ratified by both governments as a final 
 pacification, and General Scott left the Mexican capital 
 in June. Not only was the Rio Grande conceded as 
 the international boundary a natural and fitting one, 
 but also that great domain on the Pacific, California, 
 and what was called New Mexico, partly included now 
 in Utah and Arizona all confirmed by treaty stipula 
 tion, be it as indemnity, purchase, or conquest, or all 
 these combined. Such a consummation, had nothing 
 more serious been involved than the cost of the war and 
 the comparatively trivial amount of purchase money, 
 would have been brilliant enough to dazzle a glory- 
 loving people. 
 
 There was, however, a darker side, which had already 
 disclosed itself in the deliberations of the preceding Con 
 gress. President Polk had asked a grant of two mil 
 lion dollars to be used in negotiation. The acquisition 
 of Mexican territory was understood to be in contem 
 plation. That Congress was strongly Democratic in 
 
92 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 both houses. Could the President for a moment doubt 
 that a request so moderate in terms would be readily 
 granted? Quite unexpectedly, a Democratic member 
 from Pennsylvania, David Wilmot by name, proposed 
 to limit the grant with a proviso that (using the terms 
 of the Ordinance of 1787 organizing the Northwest 
 ern Territory) neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
 except for crime, should ever be permitted in any ter 
 ritory acquired from Mexico. This was the Wilmot 
 Proviso, long to be remembered. From the Calhoun 
 party, on the mere motion, there was a great outbreak 
 of wrath. When a majority of the House, in February, 
 1847, actually voted for this proviso, the storm passed 
 all bounds. Three years before, Benton said in secret 
 session of the Senate, as he himself tells us, in opposing 
 Calhoun s treaty for the annexation of Texas: " Dis 
 union is at the bottom, and I denounce it to the Ameri 
 can people. Under the pretext of getting Texas into 
 the Union, the scheme is to get the South out of it." 
 As to the noise made over the Wilmot Proviso, Benton, 
 writing half a dozen years after the event, was equally 
 explicit. He avers that Calhoun really " hugged " the 
 proviso " as a means of forcing the issue between the 
 North and the South." For two years, he adds, the 
 Wilmot Proviso " convulsed the Union." 
 
 The Senate rejected the proviso, and the Two Mil 
 lion bill fell in the fight. The question remained as 
 an inheritance to the Thirtieth Congress, and had lost 
 nothing of its significance after an immense territorial 
 area had been positively acquired under the ratified 
 treaty with Mexico. In whatever form the principle 
 came before the House for action while he was a 
 
IN CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. 93 
 
 member, it was sustained by the vote of Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Senator Cass, to make himself more agreeable to the 
 South, had written a letter which many Northern Dem 
 ocrats thought too obsequious, wishing in particular to 
 remove the impression created by a vote of his, that he 
 favored legislation for " freedom in the territories." A 
 large number of Democrats in New York and Ohio, 
 especially, were tending toward aggregation into a sep 
 arate " free soil " wing. Ex-President Van Buren and 
 his close friends were known to have retained some 
 resentment for the manner in w r hich he \vas defeated 
 in the national convention of 1844. Much discontent 
 in the party at once manifested itself on the nomina 
 tion of Mr. Cass, and as weeks wore on, this discon 
 tent rather increased than diminished. Another hope 
 ful opportunity was presented for the Whigs. But was 
 it possible for that party in the present state of affairs 
 to be thoroughly united, North and South, on a 
 Presidential ticket? 
 
 The Whig National Convention met at Philadelphia 
 on the 8th of June. Mr. Clay had consented to accept 
 another nomination, if tendered him, and active exer 
 tions had been made for several months to accomplish 
 that object. There had early been much talk of nomi 
 nating General Taylor as a more expedient move, and 
 after the battle of Buena Vista the scheme had assumed 
 strong proportions. General Scott was preferred by 
 others. Daniel Webster had strong adherents, but few 
 farther west or south than New York. Before the con 
 vention the choice was substantially narrowed down to 
 Clay or Taylor. 
 
94 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Lincoln was one of a group of members, including 
 Mr. Stephens and others from the South, who actively 
 urged the nomination of General Taylor. It was not a 
 distinctively Southern movement. One of the earliest 
 and most influential workers in this cause was Thurlow 
 Weed, the political adjutant of Mr. Seward (not as yet 
 a Senator) at Albany. Lincoln wrote letters to a num 
 ber of personal friends in Illinois, seeking to bring them 
 over to his side. It has been continually asserted that 
 he was himself a member of the Philadelphia conven 
 tion, but such was not the fact. He neither led nor 
 followed the sentiment of his own State, which sent a 
 delegation united and unchangeable in their support of 
 Clay. They did not see fit even to appoint Lincoln to 
 a vacancy, though there happened to be two. He was 
 at Philadelphia during the convention, however, and 
 made his presence felt.* 
 
 There was much discontent among Northern Whigs 
 in several States over the nomination of Taylor. Part 
 of the Massachusetts delegation openly protested, and 
 withdrew from the convention before the ticket was 
 completed, with the name of Millard Fillmore for Vice- 
 President. Whig and Democratic malcontents, uniting 
 with the "Liberty" men who had voted for Mr. Birney 
 in 1844, held a convention a little later at Buffalo, 
 and nominated Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis 
 Adams. One of the leading spirits of the convention 
 
 *The delegates were Isaac Vandeventer, S. Lisle Smith, James 
 W. Singleton, Churchill Coffing, M. P. Sweet, N. G. Wilcox, 
 Ezra Baker, R. H. Allison, J. B. Herrick. The main facts in the 
 case were furnished to the writer in 1866, by Colonel Wilcox, one 
 of the delegates, and a paymaster in the army, appointed by Lin 
 coln. See also " Complete Works " (N. & H.), I, 155. 
 
IN CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. 95 
 
 was Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, to whom was largely 
 attributed the shaping of the platform, and especially 
 its noted phrase, " freedom national, slavery sectional." 
 It soon appeared that a large segment of the Demo 
 cratic party in New York and of the Whig party in 
 Massachusetts, with many from both parties in Ohio 
 and other States, would support this " Free Soil " 
 ticket. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 1848-1849. 
 
 In Congress Speeches in New England Meets Mr. 
 Seivard in Boston Fails to Receive a Federal Appoint 
 ment Whig Candidate for Senator. 
 
 Congress, remaining in session until nearly the end 
 of summer, gave much of its time to what were properly 
 " campaign speeches." In this vein Lincoln addressed 
 the House on the 27th of July. " Our Democratic 
 friends," he began, " seem to be in great distress be 
 cause they think our candidate for the Presidency 
 doesn t suit us;" then proceeded to vindicate the posi 
 tion of General Taylor and to assail that of General 
 Cass, with much banter on the latter s war record; and 
 turned the tables on his opponents, who accused the 
 Whigs of thrusting aside a veteran leader to take up 
 a military hero. It was one of the best examples of 
 the Western stump oratory of that day, though still 
 susceptible of improvement. 
 
 In this speech occurs, in an incidental way, the most 
 explicit expression given by him in Congress concern 
 ing the cardinal principle of the new Republican party, 
 as yet neither formed nor foreseen. After saying he 
 did not certainly know what General Taylor " would do 
 as to the Wilmot Proviso," he added: " I am a North 
 ern man, or, rather, a Western free-State man, with a 
 
 (96) 
 
IN CONGRESS AN EASTERN TOUR. 97 
 
 constituency I believe to be, and with personal feelings 
 I know to be, against the extension of slavery. As 
 such, and with what information I have, I hope and 
 believe General Taylor, if elected, would not veto the 
 proviso; but I do not know it. Yet, if I knew he would, 
 I still would vote for him. I should do so, because, 
 in my judgment, his election alone can defeat General 
 Cass; and because, should slavery thereby go into the 
 territory we now have, just so much will certainly 
 happen by the election of Cass; and, in addition, a 
 course of policy leading to new wars, new acquisitions 
 of territory, and still further extensions of slavery." . . , 
 Farther on he said, in regard to the Mexican War: 
 " But as General Taylor is, par excellence, the hero of 
 the Mexican War, and as you Democrats say we Whigs 
 have always opposed the war, you think it must be very 
 awkward and embarrassing for us to go for General 
 Taylor. The declaration that we have always opposed 
 the war is true or false, according as one may under 
 stand the term opposing the war. If to say the war 
 was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by 
 the President be opposing the war, then the Whigs 
 have very generally opposed it. ... But if, when the 
 war had begun, and had become the cause of the coun 
 try, the giving of our money and our blood, in common 
 with yours, was support of the war, then it is not true 
 that we have always opposed the war. With few indi 
 vidual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes 
 here for all the necessary supplies. And, more than 
 this, you have had the services, the blood and the lives 
 of our political brethren in every trial, and on every 
 field. . . . Clay and Webster each gave a son, never 
 7 
 
98 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 to be returned. From the State of my own residence, 
 besides other worthy but less known Whig names, we 
 sent Marshall, Morrison, Baker, and Hardin; they all 
 fought, and one fell, and in the fall of that one we lost 
 our best Whig man. ... In speaking of this, I mean 
 no odious comparison between the lion-hearted Whigs 
 and Democrats who fought there. ... I think of all 
 those brave men as Americans, in whose proud fame, 
 as an American, I, too, have a share. Many of them, 
 Whigs and Democrats, are my constituents and per 
 sonal friends; and I thank them more than thank 
 them one and all, for the high, imperishable honor 
 they have conferred on our common State." 
 
 This third and last of his " set speeches " in Con 
 gress was listened to with an interest often intense, and 
 its sarcastic passages provoked repeated outbursts of 
 laughter. Such is the testimony of one who was pres 
 ent on this occasion (Mr. C. H. Brainerd), and who has 
 supplied these additional particulars: 
 
 The seats in the old Hall of Representatives were ar 
 ranged in a semi-circle, and divided by narrow aisles, radiat 
 ing like the spokes of a wheel, from the area which was 
 occupied by the Clerk s desk and the Speaker s chair. Mr. 
 Lincoln s seat was on the outer range, near the western 
 entrance of the hall. His speech was carefully written out 
 on sheets of foolscap paper, and lay before him on his desk. 
 After speaking a few minutes he abandoned his notes and 
 trusted to his memory or the inspiration of the moment. Be 
 coming excited, he commenced walking down the aisle, his 
 right arm extended, and his long, bony forefinger pointing 
 toward the Democratic side of the hall. His left arm was 
 behind him, and supported the skirts of his black dress coat. 
 He seemed almost unconscious of his movement until he 
 
IN CONGRESS AN EASTERN TOUR. 99 
 
 crossed the area, and stood face to face with the members 
 of the opposite side, when he would turn and, quickly walk 
 ing back to his seat, glance at his manuscript, and then 
 resume his walk. He thus occupied his hour. 
 
 In February, John Quincy Adams, a familiar figure 
 in the House for many weeks after Lincoln first took 
 his seat there, had fallen paralyzed in his presence, soon 
 to see " the last of earth." The Illinois Whig member, 
 to whom the ex-President had been an object of politi 
 cal adoration and a source of inspiration perhaps second 
 only to Henry Clay, was appropriately selected as one of 
 the Congressional delegation to accompany the remains 
 of Adams to their burial place in Massachusetts, directly 
 after the summer adjournment (August 14). It is not 
 strange that after his mission to Quincy was accom 
 plished, he tarried many days in the State. There were 
 national as well as personal reasons for this detention. 
 It was a critical year in politics. A son of the lately 
 deceased ex-President, named for Vice-President by the 
 Van Buren Free Soil party, was expected to withdraw 
 from General Taylor a large share of the anti-slavery 
 Whigs of Massachusetts. 
 
 Henry Wilson and his fellow-seceders from the Phil 
 adelphia Convention when Clay was beaten, were work 
 ing with might and main in the confident hope of carry 
 ing the State for Van Buren and Adams. Charles Sum- 
 ner, after years of quietude, with a leaning towards the 
 non-resistance and non-voting abolitionism of Garrison 
 and Phillips, was now beginning to take hold of poli 
 tics. The year before Sumner had been disposed to 
 urge that Thomas Corwin be taken as the Whig can 
 didate for President, after that Senator s famous Mexi- 
 
ioo LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 can war speech. By nature and training, one would 
 then have supposed Sumner a predestined Whig of the 
 true Boston type, if he were to meddle with politics at 
 all. He seemed, indeed, not to have been constructed 
 for a politician. In his noted Fourth-of-July oration 
 (1845), on " The Grandeur of Nations/ he denounced 
 war and warriors, and deprecated all preparations for 
 war, even militia organization. " Military chieftains " 
 lie could not abide, and so fixed his choice on Van 
 Buren in preference to Taylor or Cass. Even Daniel 
 Webster had said the Whig nomination was one " not 
 fit to be made." It was very late in the canvass before 
 he came to the support of his party in a Faneuil Hall 
 speech against Van Buren and the Buffalo platform 
 rather than in favor of Taylor. Horace Greeley, whose 
 Tribune had a New England constituency, almost missed 
 coming out for Taylor and Fillmore, but ran up that 
 banner at the last moment, after their election was 
 deemed sure. Altogether, certainly, the prospect was 
 far from pleasing to Massachusetts Whigs when they 
 gathered at Worcester for their State convention, held 
 on the 1 3th of September. 
 
 That city was the very headquarters of the Free 
 Soil revolt; but it had been the wonted place for State 
 conventions, and it was best to beard the lion in his den. 
 Two orators from a distance were invited to speak on 
 the evening of the I2th, Abraham Lincoln and Leslie 
 Coombs, the latter the neighbor and personal friend of 
 Henry Clay. The former was claimed by the chairman, 
 who introduced him as " one of our Lincolns." Con 
 temporary press reports only a summary, as usual in 
 those days indicate that his speech included in sub- 
 
IN CONGRESS AN EASTERN TOUR. 101 
 
 stance a good share of the most telling passages of his 
 27th of July speech in the House, and the main argu 
 ments of his earlier one on the Mexican War. The 
 principal new matter seems to have been in relation to 
 the extension of slavery. As Webster did later, Lincoln 
 argued that the Whigs were as positive as the Free Soil- 
 ers, and more practical than they, in supporting free 
 soil; that opponents of slavery would gain nothing and 
 lose much in helping to defeat the Whig candidate and 
 to elect Cass. It was called a " truly masterly and con 
 vincing " speech; and at its close "the audience gave 
 three enthusiastic cheers for Illinois, and three more for 
 the eloquent Whig member from that State." Another 
 contemporary account represents it as " one of the best 
 speeches ever heard in Worcester," and of good effect 
 in reclaiming errant Whigs. It made Lincoln person 
 ally known to a great number of people from all parts 
 of the State. He was much in request thereafter as a 
 speaker, and several invitations were accepted during 
 the next ten days. He spoke at New Bedford, Ded- 
 ham, Dorchester, Cambridge, Lowell, and other places; 
 and more notably in Boston, at Tremont Temple, on 
 the evening of September 22d, on the same platform 
 with Governor William H. Seward, who preceded him. 
 This was almost certainly the first time these two 
 speakers ever met. Seward had as yet seen no Con 
 gressional service, though he had twice been elected 
 Governor of New York. In the February following 
 (1849) ne was elected to the United States Senate. He 
 was not altogether a pleasing speaker as to voice or 
 manner, though he commanded close attention by the 
 matter which he nresented with finished rhetoric. He 
 
102 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 was, of course, much more radical in those days as to 
 slavery than Lincoln, and in Northern Ohio, later in the 
 canvass, used such extreme expressions in endeavoring 
 to stay the defection of anti-slavery Whigs as to have 
 a reactionary effect in other directions. Massachusetts 
 voted for General Taylor, but Ohio did not. Many 
 years after their later association in more important 
 affairs was ended, it was told, no doubt on the author 
 ity of Mr. Seward, that in conversing together on that 
 evening in Boston when the speaking was over, Lincoln 
 remarked: " I have been thinking over what you have 
 said. I reckon you re right. We have got to deal with 
 this slavery question, and got to give much more atten 
 tion to it hereafter than we have been doing." * If his 
 activity was quickened or his purpose modified by what 
 he heard that night, Lincoln s opinions were not mate 
 rially changed. This may be seen from his own words 
 before and after. 
 
 He called upon Thurlow Weed at Albany, on the 
 way homeward from Boston as appears from the lat- 
 ter s recollections and they together had an interview 
 with Millard Fillmore, the candidate for Vice-President. 
 He was gaining acquaintance with the chiefs of both 
 wings of the Whig party in New York. 
 
 The few weeks of the campaign remaining after his 
 return home were chiefly devoted to the canvass in 
 Illinois. In his own district Judge Stephen T. Logan, 
 the Whig nominee for Representative in Congress, was 
 beaten; but the majority for General Taylor was over 
 
 *E. L. Pierce s "Life of Sumner." See also "Life of \V. H. 
 Seward" (F. W. S.), II., 80. 
 
IN CONGRESS SLAVERY TURMOIL. 103 
 
 fifteen hundred slightly less than Lincoln had received 
 at his election two years before. 
 
 The defection from the Democratic party in New 
 York, in which Van Buren had a large vote, gave that 
 State to Taylor, as the " Liberty " vote four years pre 
 viously had given it to Polk; and in both cases the large 
 electoral vote of the Empire State was decisive of the 
 general result. Zachary Taylor and Lewis Cass carried 
 each an equal number of States fifteen Taylor hav 
 ing one hundred and sixty-three and Cass one hundred 
 and twenty-seven electoral votes. 
 
 The second session of the Thirtieth Congress, com 
 ing between the election and the inauguration of a new 
 President, would no doubt have been a very quiet one 
 but for the territorial acquisition from Mexico. An 
 older controversy that had been languishing was now 
 revived. If Congress really had exclusive and complete 
 jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, why should 
 it longer tolerate slavery there? Why should the sale 
 of slaves, as a regular market business, be permitted to 
 go on almost under the windows of the Capitol? 
 
 Where Lincoln s sympathies were, as to these latter 
 matters, may be clearly seen from his action on the 
 territorial question. There were to his mind, however, 
 practical difficulties in the one case that did not exist 
 in the other. Whatever his reasons, he now stood in 
 the same position as when he wrote his " protest " in 
 1837. When Mr. Palfrey, of Massachusetts, sought to 
 introduce a bill " to repeal all acts, or parts of acts, of 
 Congress, establishing or maintaining slavery or the 
 slave trade in the District of Columbia," and Mr. 
 Holmes, of South Carolina, objected, under the rules, 
 
104 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Lincoln was one of the few Northern men who voted 
 against granting the leave asked. His colleague, Mr. 
 Wentworth, from the Chicago district, and one or two 
 other Northern Democrats, voted in favor of Mr. Pal 
 frey s request. Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, and Mr. Dunn, of 
 Indiana, among Northern Whigs, voted with Lincoln 
 on the side of the united South. The negative majority 
 was altogether but thirteen. 
 
 On the 2 ist of December, Mr. Gott, of New York, 
 introduced a resolution, with a preamble declaring that 
 the " traffic now prosecuted in this metropolis of the 
 Republic in human beings, as chattels, is contrary to 
 national justice and the fundamental principles of our 
 political system, and is notoriously a reproach to our 
 country throughout Christendom, and a serious hin 
 drance to the progress of republican liberty among the 
 nations of the earth;" the resolution instructing the 
 District Committee " to report a bill, as soon as prac 
 ticable, prohibiting the trade in said District." 
 
 Lincoln and three other Northern Whigs Inger- 
 soll, of Pennsylvania, and Dunn and Thompson, of 
 Indiana voted with the South, to lay the resolution 
 on the table. A reconsideration having been moved, 
 the subject was postponed until the loth of January, 
 and on that day Lincoln read a proposed substitute, in 
 the form of a bill, providing that no person not already 
 within the District should be held in slavery therein, 
 and prescribing a process of gradual emancipation 
 there, with compensation to owners voluntarily freeing 
 their slaves; the measure, however, to be conditioned 
 on the assent of the people of the District, by a majority 
 vote, at a special election. The bill also made an excep- 
 
IN CONGRESS SLAVERY TURMOIL. 105 
 
 tion, allowing citizens of slaveholding States coming 
 into the District on public business to " be attended 
 into and out of said District, and while there, by the 
 necessary servants of themselves and their families," and 
 recognized the right to reclaim fugitive slaves therein 
 as in free territory elsewhere. Lincoln said he was 
 authorized to state that of about fifteen of the leading 
 citizens of the District to whom this plan had been 
 submitted, there was no one who did not approve of 
 the adoption of such a proposition. The bill, however, 
 received no further attention. With the close of the 
 short session, March 3, 1849, his Congressional service 
 came to an end. 
 
 Since the Presidency of Jackson, a division of spoils 
 had been expected to follow a party triumph. Lincoln 
 having labored with more than his usual zeal for the 
 nomination as well as the election of the new President, 
 ought not the retiring Congressman to be offered a 
 valuable place under the Government? No such offer 
 came. He generously urged that a place in the Cab 
 inet should be given to Colonel Edward D. Baker, but 
 no office of that magnitude was wont to be flung so far 
 West. Even so late as 1860 the highest Federal office 
 distributed in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, or States more 
 remote, was that of Commissioner of the General Land 
 Office, which had been successively held by some of the 
 foremost men in Ohio and Indiana.* General James 
 
 *Judge John McLean, after serving two terms in Congress, 
 and some years on the Supreme Bench of Ohio, was appointed 
 Commissioner of the General Land Office in 1822, and next year 
 Postmaster General. 
 
io6 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Shields, who held the place when the Mexican War 
 began, had been succeeded as Commissioner by Richard 
 M. Young, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of 
 Illinois. The Whig members of the Illinois Legisla 
 ture and some other prominent men of the State had 
 united in recommending Mr. Browning, of Quincy, to 
 be Judge Young s successor. After mature reflection, 
 Browning declined to have his name presented to the 
 President. Then testimonials were prepared for Cyrus 
 Edwards, a constituent of Lincoln, who added his own 
 indorsement. A formidable competitor soon appeared 
 in the person of Justin Butterfield, a prominent lawyer 
 of Chicago, who had failed to get the coveted place of 
 Solicitor of the Treasury. He had been a champion of 
 Mr. Clay, and strongly opposed to the nomination of 
 General Taylor, which no doubt brought him valuable 
 support from the former s friends, and he secured the 
 favor of the Secretary of the Interior, Hon. Thomas 
 Ewing. 
 
 Butterfield was not a favorite among the Whigs of 
 the State in general, and with the approval of Edwards, 
 who was sure to be beaten, Lincoln became a candi 
 date. About the middle of June two Illinois friends 
 of Lincoln Colonel Greene Wilcox and Josiah M. 
 Lucas waited on the President, hoping that he might 
 be influenced to another decision than that which the 
 Chicago applicant was confidently expecting. This 
 embassy met a gracious reception at the White House; 
 but it was soon discovered only too plainly that the 
 blunt General had already made up his mind, and was 
 not disposed to assume any disguise in talking of the 
 matter. In answer to a mild inquiry, he said it was true 
 
NO OFFICIAL REWARD FROM TAYLOR. 107 
 
 that he intended to displace Judge Young. Thereupon, 
 after reminding the President that Abraham Lincoln 
 was a candidate for the succession, Colonel Wilcox said 
 the gentleman was on his way to Washington, and had 
 telegraphed from Dayton, Ohio, that he would be here 
 as soon as possible; and expressed the hope that final 
 action in the case would be delayed until Lincoln s 
 arrival. This was promised. 
 
 In due course of railway trains Lincoln appeared, 
 but the case was really no longer open. The chief 
 interest in the matter now lies in the following mem 
 orandum (copied by the writer from the original in 
 Lincoln s handwriting), addressed to President Taylor: 
 
 Nothing in my papers questions Mr. B. s competency or 
 honesty, and, I presume, nothing in his questions mine. Be 
 ing equal so far, if it does not appear I am preferred by the 
 Whigs of Illinois, I lay no claim to the office. 
 
 But if it does appear I am preferred, it will be argued 
 that the whole Northwest, and not Illinois alone, should be 
 heard. I answer I am strongly recommended by Ohio and 
 Indiana, as well as Illinois ; and further, that when the many 
 appointments were made for Ohio, as for the Northwest, Illi 
 nois was not consulted. When an Indianian was nominated 
 for Governor of Minnesota, and another appointed for Com 
 missioner of Mexican Claims, as for the Northwest, Illinois 
 was not consulted. When a citizen of Iowa was appointed 
 Second Assistant Postmaster General and another to a Land 
 Office in Minnesota, Illinois was not consulted. Of none of 
 these have I ever complained. In each of them, the State 
 whose citizen was appointed was allowed to control, and I 
 think rightly. I only ask that Illinois be not cut off with less 
 deference. 
 
 It will also be argued that all the Illinois appointments, 
 so far, have been South, and that therefore this should go 
 North. I answer, that of the local appointments every part 
 has had its share, and Chicago far the best share of any. 
 Of the transitory, the Marshal and Attorney are all ; and 
 
io8 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 neither of these is within a hundred miles of me, the former 
 being South and the latter North of West. I am in the 
 center. Is the center nothing? that center which alone has 
 ever given you a Whig representative? On the score of 
 locality, I admit the claim of the North is no worse, and I 
 deny that it is any better than that of the center. 
 
 Lincoln s peculiar skill in making the facts of a case 
 their own argument has no better example than in this 
 paper (never before printed). It was conclusive on the 
 points he understood to be in issue. There was, how 
 ever, another difficulty not then so well known as after 
 ward. Taylor permitted his Cabinet to decide his ap 
 pointments contrary to Executive usage twelve years 
 later. Under that policy, Cabinet officers mutually 
 sustained one another, securing to each the control of 
 offices in his own department. Secretary Ewing had 
 promised the place in question; the case was referred to 
 the Cabinet, and Ewing kept his word. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln wrote to a friend at Springfield, [said 
 Colonel Wilcox to the writer,] that " nothing but Ewing s 
 promise saved Butterfield." A day or two after, he was 
 walking in his room, and speaking of his pecuniary circum 
 stances he paused and looking up to the ceiling said to a 
 friend : " I am worth about three thousand dollars ; I have 
 a little property and owe no debts ; it is perhaps well that I 
 did not get this appointment. I will go home and resume 
 my practice, at which I can make a living and perhaps 
 some day the people may have use for me." . . . He called 
 on Mr. Ewing at the Department for the purpose of with 
 drawing his papers, when the Secretary remarked that if 
 Mr. Lincoln had applied when the administration came in 
 he should have had the office. The latter replied that if 
 Mr. Ewing would reduce that statement to writing he would 
 be satisfied, and the Secretary thereupon gave him a letter 
 to that effect. 
 
NO OFFICIAL REWARD FROM TAYLOR. 109 
 
 It is commonly reported unto this day that the Gov 
 ernorship of Oregon was offered to Lincoln afterward, 
 and declined on account of Mrs. Lincoln s disinclina 
 tion to such banishment. This would imply that the 
 Administration volunteered what was deemed a recom 
 pense for a previous disappointment. Lincoln made 
 no complaint, asked nothing else, and the plain truth 
 must be told that the only place offered him, so far as 
 the files of the State Department show, was one he 
 could not with due self-respect accept. In the writer s 
 possession are two copies of commissions of the same 
 date, certified under the seal of the department issued 
 August 9, 1849, an d returned to the files with the 
 indorsement " Declined " one to Hon. Joseph G. 
 Marshall, of Indiana, as Governor of the Territory of 
 Oregon, and the other to Hon. Abraham Lincoln as 
 Secretary of that Territory. 
 
 A United States Senator was to be chosen at the 
 next session of the Illinois Legislature, but a Whig 
 majority in that body was not among the possibilities 
 of the time. Lincoln was voted for by the Whig mem 
 bers for that office when the election came off, while 
 the more effective vote of the Democratic majority was 
 given to General James Shields, who had resigned his 
 place as Commissioner of the General Land Office to 
 go to the war, had been shot through the body on a 
 Mexican battlefield, and had come back a military hero, 
 who could easily distance all political competitors. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 1849-1855. 
 
 Professional Work and Ways Home and Pamily Eulogy 
 on Henry Clay Law Cases. 
 
 Late in the forties Chicago was a small but hopeful 
 city, claiming fifteen thousand inhabitants, and assuring 
 the world that it was " rapidly growing." On return 
 ing from Congress Lincoln was offered a promising 
 partnership there, which he declined, and contentedly 
 resumed the practice which his young associate had 
 kept alive. With this he was to be chiefly concerned 
 for the next five years. He sensitively watched, in 
 silence and distance, the great political turmoil at 
 Washington; the inaugurated movements for secession 
 in the Cotton States; the increasing intensity of anti- 
 slavery feeling in the North; the new compromise strug 
 gling into life; and the lull which came at length, as if 
 everybody had wearied of this sad business and wanted 
 solid repose. He made a few campaign speeches for 
 Winfield Scott in 1852, but the ill-starred party was in 
 a mortal decline. 
 
 His winter attendance on the Federal courts at 
 Springfield began in December, before Justice John 
 McLean, of the Supreme, and Judge Nathaniel Pope, 
 of the District Court. McLean was a courtly gentle 
 man, whose home was in a hill suburb (now part) of 
 
 (no) 
 
AT THE BAR HOME AND FAMILY, in 
 
 Cincinnati. When still a very young man he was 
 Postmaster-General under President Monroe, and with 
 William Wirt, Attorney-General, remained in office 
 through the term of President Adams. Unwilling to 
 aid President Jackson in his methods of civil service 
 reform, McLean was honorably relieved by promotion 
 to the Supreme Bench, and only lacked the Presidency 
 to fill the full measure of his ambition. Judge Pope 
 was a son of Senator John Pope, of Kentucky, and as 
 the Territorial delegate when Illinois was admitted as 
 a State had secured a large extension of its area all 
 that part north of a line running due west from the 
 southern point of Lake Michigan. Before these two 
 Judges Lincoln met many distinguished lawyers, and 
 was employed in cases that taxed his best powers. The 
 county courts of the Eighth District presided over, 
 after 1848, by Judge David Davis, an intimate friend of 
 Lincoln, and afterward so well known to the nation 
 sat at Springfield in March, July and November, and in 
 its other counties there were only two tours, one begin 
 ning in April and the other in September. Excepting 
 special calls that occasionally took him to other coun 
 ties, it will thus appear that the time of his absence from 
 home was less than some have alleged. 
 
 His superiority as a jury advocate was early recog 
 nized. Without broad and thorough learning in the 
 law, he had a mind quick to grasp and firm to hold the 
 combined facts and principles of a case, an aptness and 
 lucidity of statement, and a rare power of close and 
 exhaustive analysis. He had a candid and comprehen 
 sive way of viewing both sides of a question, and thereby 
 reaching honest conclusions. This was one of his pecu- 
 
ii2 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 liar qualities on the stump as well as at the bar. He 
 had so strong a bias for the right for its own sake as 
 to be embarrassed in any attempt to make the worse 
 appear the better cause. More than once he was so 
 scrupulous, not to say singular, in this respect as to 
 astonish some of his professional associates. The trait, 
 however, must not be so exaggerated or misconstrued 
 as to imply that he assumed infallibility in determining 
 the right side; or that he was less conscious than others 
 of the uncertainties of fact as well as of law; or that 
 he had an undue sense of accountability for an unjust 
 result of a trial in which he took part. Nor can it be 
 true that he would decline to aid in saving a known 
 offender from the infliction of an excessive penalty, or 
 in protecting a litigant, who was really in the wrong, 
 from an oppressive verdict. 
 
 Believing in the supremacy of law over mere indi 
 vidual will, wish or interest, he was not disposed to 
 regard his own conceptions of a higher than human law 
 as a valid substitute for legislative authority. Yet the 
 first-hand conclusions of reason, moral judgment and 
 common sense in administering the law and what 
 better origin has precedent itself? were undoubtedly 
 sometimes sufficient to his mind without further sup 
 port. When he found a bewildering contradiction of 
 precedents, he did not care to juggle with citations. 
 He had little patience with sophisms. He thought his 
 own process of reaching an honest conclusion, presented 
 clearly, was his best method for convincing the mind of 
 another. In this spirit he was wont to speak, whether 
 addressing judge, jury, or people. 
 
 After his admission to the bar he never dabbled in 
 
AT THE BARHOME AND FAMILY. 113 
 
 farming, trading, or speculating. Besides his city home 
 stead, he owned no real estate except a lot presented to 
 him in the town of Lincoln (Illinois) named in his 
 honor and a quarter section of bounty land granted 
 him for service in the Black Hawk War. The latter 
 property he neither sold nor improved. He was mod 
 erate in his professional charges, ana indulgent as to any 
 return from a client who was poor. He did not, conse 
 quently, accumulate money rapidly, although he came 
 to have practice enough to make him affluent had he 
 dealt a little more rigidly. He had, in fact, no craving 
 for great wealth, even as an aid to political ambition. 
 The golden lever was not in his day the power most 
 relied upon in politics, nor was it one he would have 
 ever cared to use. 
 
 He was regarded by District Judge Drummond, of 
 Chicago, a political opponent, as one of the most suc 
 cessful lawyers that Illinois ever had, and as not more 
 powerful before a jury than with the court. Judge 
 David Davis, holding the same opinion, pronounced 
 Lincoln " the fairest and most accommodating of prac 
 titioners"; while, hating as he did oppression and 
 knavery, " many a man whose fraudulent conduct was 
 undergoing a review in a court of justice has writhed 
 under his terrific indignation and rebuke." A witness 
 believed unscrupulous would be dealt with in the same 
 unsparing manner. Few of his professional contempo 
 raries during his more active practice had as large a 
 number of cases before the Supreme Court of Illinois 
 as Lincoln. 
 
 During the sessions of the Legislature and the 
 courts, Mrs. Lincoln in these years was wont to give 
 8 
 
ii4 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 occasional dinners and evening parties. As a hostess 
 she was gracious and affable as well as liberal; perhaps 
 no one in the city who entertained was more generally 
 popular than she. While her father lived (his death 
 occurred in 1849) there were visits with her husband 
 to Lexington, Kentucky,* where she had a number of 
 brothers and sisters of the half-blood. When there Lin 
 coln would naturally call on Henry Clay if he was at the 
 time at Ashland. One such visit, perhaps it was the only 
 one, has been mentioned as chilling the hero-worship 
 er s devotion, if not effecting a complete disillusion. 
 But this is clearly an extravagant over-statement, if it 
 has any basis at all. There may have been an unex 
 pected distance in Clay s manner, and not as many sto 
 ries were told, we may be sure, as at the meeting with 
 Van Buren on the prairies in 1843; yet Lincoln was to 
 the last an admirer of the great orator and conciliator 
 who was his earliest political master. 
 
 At the time of his election to Congress, Robert 
 and Edward were his only children the former born 
 August i, 1843, tne latter March 10, 1846. His family 
 were with him during part of his term at Washington. 
 "Eddie" died February i ? 1850, and William was 
 born the 2ist of December following. The youngest 
 child, born April 4, 1853, was given the name of his 
 deceased grandfather, Thomas, though in childhood 
 more commonly called " Tad." Of their domestic life, 
 according to Mr. W. H. Herndon,f Mrs. Lincoln said 
 (in 1865): " Mr. Lincoln was the kindest man and most 
 
 *See "Complete Works" (N. & H.), I, 577- 
 fin Springfield Register, January 14, 1874. 
 
EULOGY ON CLAY. 115 
 
 loving husband and father in the world. He gave us all 
 unbounded liberty. . . . He was exceedingly indulgent 
 to his children. . . . He was a terribly firm man when 
 he set his foot down. None of us no man or woman 
 could rule him after he had made up his mind." 
 
 Thomas Lincoln, the father, died on the I5th of 
 January, 1851, at Farmington, in Coles County, in the 
 seventy-fourth year of his age. His funeral sermon was 
 preached by Rev. Thomas Goodwin, Campbellite, of 
 Charleston, in that county, who said in 1887, not long 
 before his own death: " In his case I could not say 
 aught but good. He was a consistent member through 
 life of the church of my choice the Christian Church, 
 or Church of Christ; and was, as far as I know 
 and I was a very intimate friend illiterate, yet always 
 truthful, conscientious, and religious." 
 
 The eulogy on Henry Clay pronounced by Lincoln 
 in July, 1852, at Springfield, was not regarded as one of 
 his best efforts, yet at this distance in time parts of it 
 afford glimpses of self-revelation and are otherwise of 
 particular interest. He said that "Mr. Clay s eloquence 
 did not consist, as many fine specimens of eloquence do, 
 of tropes and figures, of antithesis and elegant arrange 
 ment of words and sentences, but rather of that deeply 
 earnest and impassioned tone and manner which can 
 proceed only from great sincerity and a thorough con 
 viction in the speaker of the justice and importance of 
 his cause. This it is that truly touches the chords of 
 sympathy; and those w r ho heard Mr. Clay never failed 
 to be moved by it, or ever afterward forgot the impres- 
 
n6 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 sion. All his efforts were made for practical effect. He 
 never spoke merely to be heard. He never delivered a 
 Fourth-of-July oration, or a eulogy on .an occasion like 
 this." Clay s ruling passion he declared to be a love 
 of liberty and right for their own sakes, and continued: 
 
 He ever was on principle and in feeling opposed to slav 
 ery. The very earliest, and one of the latest, public efforts 
 of his life, separated by a period of more than fifty years, 
 were both made in favor of gradual emancipation. He did 
 not perceive that on a question of human right the negroes 
 were to be excepted from the human race. And yet Mr. 
 Clay was the owner of slaves. Cast into life when slavery 
 was already widely spread and deeply seated, he did not 
 perceive, as I think no wise man has, perceived, how it could 
 be at once eradicated without producing a greater evil even 
 to the cause of human liberty itself. . . . Those who 
 would shiver into fragments the union of these State, tear 
 to tatters its now-venerated Constitution, and even burn the 
 last copy of the Bible, rather than slavery should continue a 
 single hour, together with all their more halting sympa 
 thizers, have received, and are receiving, their just execra 
 tion ; and the name and opinions and influence of Mr. Clay 
 are fully and, as I trust, effectually and enduringly arrayed 
 against them. But I would also, if I could, array his name, 
 opinions and influence against the opposite extreme 
 against a few but an increasing number of men who, for 
 the sake of perpetuating slavery, are beginning to assail and 
 to ridicule the white man s charter of freedom, the declara 
 tion that " all men are created free and equal." 
 
 Some quotations made in this address are specially 
 noteworthy one, for instance, from Jefferson, includ 
 ing the famous passage relating to the Missouri con 
 flict of 1820: " But this momentous question, like a 
 fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me with 
 terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the 
 Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But 
 
EULOGY ON CLAY. 117 
 
 this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence." Remem 
 ber that this was recalled here, in the midst of the can 
 vass of 1852, in which the two great parties had declared 
 Clay s last compromise a " final settlement." We may 
 note also, in the same quotation, Jefferson s avowal that 
 the surrender of slave property " would not cost him a 
 second thought if emancipation and expatriation couldi 
 be effected, and gradually and with due sacrifices, as he 
 thought it might be." Another quotation was from a 
 speech of Clay himself, in 1827, favoring colonization. 
 Lincoln s concluding words, whatever their impres 
 sion on those who heard or read them at the time, will 
 not lack appreciation to-day: 
 
 This suggestion of the possible ultimate redemption of 
 the African race and African continent was made twenty- 
 five years ago. Every succeeding year has added strength 
 to the hope of its realization. May it indeed be realized. 
 Pharaoh s country was cursed with plagues, and his hosts 
 were lost in the Red Sea for striving to retain a captive 
 people who had already served them more than four hun 
 dred years. May like disasters never befall us ! 
 
 Our country is prosperous and powerful ; but could it 
 have been quite all it has been, and is, and is to be, without 
 Henry Clay? Such a man the times have demanded, and 
 such in the providence of God was given us. But he is gone. 
 Let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the con 
 tinued care of divine Providence, trusting that in future 
 national emergencies He will not fail to provide us the in 
 struments of safety and security. 
 
 In 1853 suit was brought in McLean County for 
 the collection of taxes assessed upon the Illinois Cen 
 tral Railway a test case, which was to decide the 
 validity of a statute exempting that corporate property 
 from taxation in the several counties through which the 
 
il8 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 railway passes. Lincoln was counsel for the company, 
 and won the case. It was taken up to the State Supreme 
 Court on appeal, twice argued there, and the decision of 
 the lower court affirmed in 1855. The amount directly 
 and indirectly involved, of course, was large. He asked 
 what would now be thought a quite moderate fee, but 
 there was higgling about its payment. If we may trust 
 the recollection of Mr. Herndon, the original account 
 exclusive of $250 received as a retainer was for only 
 $2,000; and he further says: " The official to whom he 
 was referred supposed to have been the Superintend 
 ent, George B. McClellan, who afterward became the 
 eminent General looking at the bill, expressed great 
 surprise. Why, sir/ he exclaimed, this is as much 
 as Daniel Webster himself would have charged. We 
 can not allow such a claim/ Several attorneys with 
 whom Lincoln advised " induced him to increase the 
 demand to $5,000 and to bring suit." Judgment was 
 given in his favor, and the amount was "promptly paid." 
 As to the " supposed " official, however, Mr. Hern 
 don gave too free rein to conjecture. An alibi is easily 
 proved for General McClellan, who was in Europe in 
 1855, and did not retire from the army until 1857, in 
 which year began his connection with the Illinois Cen 
 tral Railway, of which he was at first chief engineer, and 
 afterward vice-president. It was during the time of his 
 official connection with this road that McClellan first 
 knew Lincoln, as stated by the General in his " Own 
 Story."* On more than one occasion they met at some 
 
 *" Long before the war, when Vice President of the Illinois 
 Central Railroad Company, I knew Mr. Lincoln, for he was one 
 of the counsel of the company." (P. 162.) On page 29 of the 
 same work McClellan states that he resigned his " commission as 
 a captain of cavalry in January, 1857." 
 
RAILWAY AND REAPER CASES. 119 
 
 place on the railway line where Lincoln was attending 
 court; and while the future General does not appear to 
 have been among the most sympathetic admirers of the 
 many anecdotes to which, as he says, he was a listener 
 at such times, these earliest relations were in no degree 
 unfriendly. 
 
 It was somewhat otherwise with the beginning of 
 Lincoln s acquaintance with Edwin M. Stanton. They 
 first met as associate attorneys in a memorable patent 
 case. Most of Lincoln s Illinois biographers give an 
 erroneous date to this event,* which Mr. Arnold states 
 correctly as in 1855, giving the proper reference to 
 McLean s Reports. The record shows that a bill in 
 chancery, filed by Cyrus H. McCormick, complaining 
 of an infringement of patent by John H. Manny and 
 others, came up for hearing in Chicago at the July term 
 (1855) in the Circuit Court of the United States for the 
 Northern District of Illinois, before Justice McLean and 
 Judge Drummond. In the taking of testimony, Mr. 
 Manny employed Mr. P. H. Watson (afterward Assist 
 ant Secretary of War), a prominent attorney in patent 
 cases, who had intimate relations with Mr. Stanton. 
 The depositions taken were sent to both Lincoln and 
 Stanton, as directed by Mr. Manny, whose extensive 
 manufactory of reapers was at Rockford, Illinois; and 
 both received retainers, with the understanding that 
 they were to prepare to argue the case in court. An 
 other attorney, Mr. George Harding, of Philadelphia, 
 especially skilled in presenting the mechanical details 
 involved in such a suit, was also employed. Mr. Stan- 
 ton had already an established reputation in this class 
 
 *Herndon says 1857; Lamon (" Recollections "), 1858; Stod- 
 dard, 1859; etc. 
 
120 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 of practice, with which Lincoln was little familiar, and 
 both stood on the same footing as to the circumstances 
 of their engagement. Mr. McCormick s attorneys were 
 Hon. Reverdy Johnson and Mr. E. N. Dickinson the 
 latter s part being relatively the same as Mr. Harding s. 
 
 Lincoln had carefully prepared for the trial, his 
 argument being written out in full. He had the pop 
 ular side, which seemed to him the equitable one; and 
 he was never more ambitious to acquit himself well 
 than in the expected forensic contest with so eminent 
 a lawyer as Mr. Johnson. Arguments having been lim 
 ited to two in number on each side, and Mr. Harding 
 being deemed indispensable, for the reason just stated, 
 it was settled that Stanton should speak instead of 
 Lincoln. It is not true (as has been stated*) that he 
 thereupon abandoned the case, returned his retaining 
 fee, and went home. Quite to the contrary, he put his 
 written argument in the hands of Mr. Harding for the 
 benefit of whatever suggestion it might give him, and 
 remained until the close, taking a lively interest in the 
 case. He kept his retainer ($500). and received the 
 same additional compensation ($2,000) as if he had 
 addressed the court. The case was argued at Cincin 
 nati before Judge McLean, who dismissed the suit at 
 the cost of the complainant. 
 
 When retained in this case, Lincoln had lately been 
 the anti-Nebraska candidate for the Senatorship to suc 
 ceed Shields, after the canvass of 1854, and had barely 
 missed the place, which was given to Judge Trumbull. 
 To this depressing defeat was now added the disappoint- ( 
 ment of his hope to gain new professional laurels in, 
 
 *In Lamon s " Recollections." 
 
RAILWAY AND REAPER CASES. 121 
 
 an encounter with a man of high national reputation as 
 a lawyer and a statesman. The brusque ways of Stan- 
 ton a Democrat then in sympathy with Douglas 
 and Shields in this their first intercourse were no 
 doubt somewhat exasperating. Disparaging remarks 
 about Lincoln either overheard or reported to the 
 latter by a tale-bearer may have been added, as has 
 been alleged; but this was the extent of Stanton s 
 offending. There was no stir made about the matter by 
 any one, and of course no complaint that was expected 
 to go beyond the domestic circle in which this was a 
 subject of conversation.* 
 
 Between a case involving perhaps millions of dollars 
 and the interests of agricultural producers throughout 
 the nation, before this high Federal court, and a simple 
 case of assault and battery before a justice of the peace, 
 there is a contrast sufficiently striking, yet one which 
 illustrates the range of Lincoln s actual practice at this 
 time. Only the week before, as stated by the late Judge 
 Dickson, Lincoln had been counsel in a case of which 
 he gave this account: 
 
 I was retained in the defense of a man charged before a 
 justice of the peace with assault and battery. It was in the 
 country, and when I got to the place of trial I found the 
 whole neighborhood excited, and the feeling was strong 
 against my client. I saw the only way was to get up a laugh 
 and get the people in good humor. It turned out that the 
 prosecuting witness was talkative ; he described the fight at 
 great length ; how they had fought over a field, now by the 
 barn, again down to the creek, and over it, and so on. I 
 asked him on cross-examination how large that field was ; 
 
 *While in Cincinnati on this occasion he was a guest of Judge 
 W. M. Dickson, whose wife was a first cousin of Mrs. Lincoln. 
 
122 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 he said it was ten acres; he knew it was, for he and some 
 one else had stepped it off with a pole. "Well, then," I 
 inquired, " was not that the smallest crap of a fight you 
 have ever seen raised off of ten acres ?" The hit took. The 
 laughter was uproarious, and in half an hour the prosecuting 
 witness was retreating amid the jeers of the crowd. 
 
 A little later this mysteriously constituted man of 
 the forum and the hustings would be found doing advo 
 cate s work in the famous Rock Island bridge case, and 
 making an argument which entitled him to be classed 
 in the highest grade of his profession. 
 
 Had he stuck to the law exclusively henceforward, 
 Lincoln would have gained a moderate fortune and 
 more than a local celebrity. Probably he would have 
 been as well and as long remembered as any eminent 
 lawyer of his time. Ultimately he might have been 
 raised to the bench, for which he had some special 
 qualifications. But did there not yet live, beneath the 
 embers of disappointed hope and endeavor, something 
 of the fire of political ambition? If so, its revival needed 
 but opportunity; and the opportunity came unsought 
 and unexpected. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 1854. 
 The Great Surprise Nebraska. 
 
 When the exclusion of slavery from the annexed 
 Mexican territory and the suppression of slave-market 
 ing in the District of Columbia were both demanded by 
 a majority vote in the popular branch of the Thirtieth 
 Congress, Calhoun and his sect at once set about kind 
 ling a new conflagration in the South. With great dif 
 ficulty and after repeated failures the Compromise meas 
 ures of 1850 were carried through Congress admit 
 ting California as a free State; organizing the Territo 
 ries of New Mexico and Utah without the exclusion 
 of slavery; suppressing slave -trading in the District of 
 Columbia; giving the South a new law for reclaiming 
 fugitive slaves, and granting ten million dollars to 
 Texas to quiet her claim to certain disputed territory. 
 The followers of Calhoun were especially exasperated 
 that California, the most essential part of the acquisition 
 from Mexico, had added its weight to the scale it was 
 not meant for. 
 
 Jefferson Davis, after the admission of California, 
 resigned his seat in the Senate to run for Governor of 
 Mississippi on a " Resistance " platform. The mode of 
 resistance proposed was not distinctly defined in public, 
 but it is certain that the " State Rights associations," 
 
 (123) 
 
124 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 whose candidate Davis was, were straining every nerve 
 to precipitate secession. Ex-Senator Henry S. Foote 
 canvassed the State as the " Union " candidate sus 
 taining the compromise in opposition to Davis, and 
 beat him, though by only a slender majority. On this 
 event, it may be, depended the postponement, for ten 
 years, of a revolt already determined on. The South 
 ern Democrats, for the moment divided into two seg 
 ments, were presently rejoicing in the election of Frank 
 lin Pierce, who made Jefferson Davis a member of his 
 Cabinet. " Peace, peace!" was the cry; and there 
 seemed to be peace. 
 
 The unorganized remainder of the Louisiana Pur 
 chase, lying directly west of Missouri and Iowa, and 
 north of the Missouri Compromise line, was a vast 
 region, chiefly defined on the old maps as the " Great 
 American Desert." On its eastern border there were 
 a few Indian reservations; and in time its desolateness 
 was disclosed rather than relieved by two trails of 
 traffic and emigration, one leading to Santa Fe, in New 
 Mexico, and the other across the Rocky Mountains 
 by the South Pass. These thoroughfares the Mexican 
 war and the Mexican acquisitions had given increased 
 consequence; and the settlers on the Missouri border 
 were already coveting the Indian lands near them. So 
 it happened that soon after the admission of California 
 as a State and the organization of New Mexico as a 
 Territory, Congress was petitioned to create a territo 
 rial government for this so-called "Platte country." In 
 December, 1852, a bill responsive to this prayer was 
 introduced in the House, and in the February following 
 
THE " NEBRASKA " SURPRISE. 125 
 
 was favorably reported, with the recommendation that 
 the name of the territory be changed from "Platte" to 
 Nebraska, which was agreed to. Eight days after (Feb 
 ruary loth) the bill was passed, 98 to 43; and the next 
 day it was referred in the Senate to the Committee on 
 Territories, of which Douglas was chairman. 
 
 Senator Douglas had lately been elected for a sec 
 ond term. In the previous year he had figured rather 
 prominently in the national convention of his party as a 
 Presidential candidate the main contest at the outset 
 being between Messrs. Cass and Buchanan; and had the 
 "Young Democracy" been less eager to thrust him for 
 ward as against these two veterans, there is no mani 
 fest reason why the choice might not have alighted on 
 Douglas instead of the unconspicuous ex-Senator from 
 New Hampshire. As it was, Douglas had much to 
 hope for at the next trial. He had never given the 
 South offense, and was little disposed to do so now. 
 Six days after its reference he reported back the 
 Nebraska bill without amendment, recommending its 
 passage. The status of the new territory as to slavery, 
 as the bill then stood, was clearly defined by the Mis 
 souri Compromise. On the 2d of March he asked that 
 the bill be taken up for consideration. Only twenty 
 Senators voted in the affirmative, while twenty-five, all 
 Southern, voted against his motion. He tried again on 
 the next and last day of the session, when he was again 
 defeated, by a vote exclusively Southern. 
 
 Senator Atchison, of Missouri, had vaguely inti 
 mated some exigency requiring prompt action in nego 
 tiating with the Indians just across the border of his 
 State for the extinguishment of their title to certain 
 
126 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 reservations; and some of his constituents were impor 
 tuning him to favor an immediate organization of the 
 Platte territory. He and his colleague alone among 
 Southern Senators voted for present action on the bill; 
 and in explanation of his vote he spoke significantly 
 enough, though a little darkly. No State was perhaps, 
 he said, " more deeply interested in this question than 
 Missouri." The best, if not the largest part of the pro 
 posed territory, and "perhaps the only portion of it that 
 in half a century will become a State, lies immediately 
 west of the State of Missouri." While his remarks dis 
 closed clearly enough his unwillingness to see a non- 
 slaveholding territory organized on the west of Mis 
 souri, was he not as yet quite innocent of even a tran 
 sient thought that it would be practicable to annul 
 the restriction by direct action of Congress? He more 
 probably counted upon its easy evasion by the gradual 
 and quiet expansion of slaveholding communities on the 
 western border, in like manner as slavery had spread 
 into the free soil of Texas before its annexation. If 
 such was his policy, he was wiser in his generation 
 or at least more cunning than those who ultimately 
 chose a bolder course. 
 
 All this skirmishing about Nebraska was little no 
 ticed outside of Washington. It produced little excite 
 ment even there, but served to introduce a new name, 
 " Nebraska," which later events were to make familiar. 
 
 The session closed and President Pierce was inaugu 
 rated. The Senate promptly confirmed his chosen Cab 
 inet officers, of whom the recent " Resistance " can 
 didate for Governor of Mississippi was a leading spirit. 
 In his December message the President declared, as he 
 
THE "NEBRASKA" SURPRISE. 127 
 
 had done in his inaugural address, that during his term 
 nothing should be done with his consent to reopen the 
 closed agitation. On the I4th of December Senator 
 Dodge, of Iowa, introduced a bill for the organization 
 of the Territory of Nebraska, similar in terms to that of 
 the previous session. Douglas reported it back from 
 his committee this time with amendments on the 
 4th of January (1854). A question had arisen in 1850, 
 said the report, " whether slavery was prohibited by law 
 in the country acquired from Mexico," and the question 
 was disposed of by leaving the issue to the people them 
 selves in New Mexico and Utah. So, too, " a similar 
 question" had now arisen concerning "the right to hold 
 slaves in the proposed Territory of Nebraska when the 
 Indian laws shall be withdrawn and the country thrown 
 open to emigration and settlement." Under the eighth 
 section of the Missouri Act of March 6, 1820, slavery 
 in the territory in question was "forever prohibited" ; 
 but, "as in the case of Mexican law in New Mexico 
 and Utah, it is a disputed point whether slavery is pro 
 hibited in the Nebraska country by valid enactment. 
 The decision of this question involves the constitutional 
 power of Congress to pass laws prescribing and regu 
 lating the domestic institutions of the various territo 
 ries of the Union." Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, gave 
 notice that when the bill came up for consideration, he 
 should propose an amendment annulling the said eighth 
 section of the Missouri Act, as applicable to Nebraska. 
 This met the issue squarely. On motion of Douglas, 
 the bill was thereupon recommitted, and a week later 
 he reported a substitute creating two territories, Kansas 
 and Nebraska, and declaring the Missouri Compromise 
 
128 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 restriction " inoperative." This proving insufficient, he 
 added the words, "and void," ending all Southern 
 opposition. 
 
 " The country was at once in a blaze." The mere 
 proposition of repeal seemed a sacrilege, and popular 
 excitement rose to a pitch unprecedented even in 1850. 
 Douglas had not taken the momentous step until after 
 consultation with President Pierce, who gave it his 
 approval, and pledged the power of his administration 
 in its support. Mr. Pierce kept this promise. 
 
 When Douglas asked the Senate to proceed at once 
 to the consideration of the bill as finally amended, Sen 
 ator Chase objected, asking a postponement until the 
 following week, and by general consent the 3Oth of 
 January was fixed for opening the discussion. Mean 
 while a vigorous Anti-Nebraska manifesto, signed by 
 Senators Chase and Sumner, and by other members 
 of Congress, was sent to the country. Resolutions 
 indignantly condemning the proposed action were 
 introduced into several State Legislatures then in ses 
 sion, and passed with emphasis and promptitude. The 
 press of the free States was never more terribly earnest 
 in the display of fiery indignation. The whole power of 
 the administration, of which Douglas expected so much, 
 was far from sufficient to keep in line the rank and file 
 of the Democratic party. On the other hand. Northern 
 Whigs by no means excepting those who had been 
 most conservative in their views of slavery agitation 
 disgusted and alienated by the course of their Southern 
 fellow-partisans, who in a sectional caucus decided to 
 support the Nebraska bill, were in a mood to welcome 
 
THE " NEBRASKA " SURPRISE. 129 
 
 the obviously inevitable advent of a reorganization of 
 parties. 
 
 On the 30th of January, when the question came up 
 according- to assignment in the Senate, Douglas, having 
 a bitter foretaste of what was coming, angrily arraigned 
 Senator Chase and his associates for their manifesto, and 
 used all his ingenuity in defending his own action. The 
 debate was prolonged, deepening the impression first 
 made upon the public mind. The " Nebraska bill " 
 passed the Senate on the 3d day of March. It was 
 not at once acted on in the House. Democratic mem 
 bers from the free States found it perilous with an 
 election just at hand to stand in party line. By a 
 vote of 113 to 100, on the final test, the consummation 
 was reached on the 26th of May. 
 
 At once began the struggle, which lasted for years, 
 between the friends and foes of slavery for the control 
 of the Territory of Kansas. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 1854-1855. 
 
 First "Anti-Nebraska" Campaign Lincoln and Douglas 
 
 on the Stump Trumbull, and Not Lincoln, 
 
 Elected Senator. 
 
 Returning home late in August, Douglas encoun 
 tered a storm of popular wrath at Chicago, where he 
 attempted to speak. For the first time in his life he 
 found himself facing a turbulent throng, styled by him 
 a mob, which determined that he should not be heard, 
 and which would not be cowed. There was open and 
 serious revolt in the party he had hitherto ruled with 
 out question. Later he had willing auditors in minor 
 towns; and on the 4th of October, at the State fair in 
 Springfield, dividing time with Lincoln by agreement, 
 he addressed a multitude gathered from all parts of 
 Illinois. It was now within four weeks of the election 
 at which Congressional representatives and members of 
 the State Legislature were to be chosen. A Senator- 
 ship was also at stake, as the term of General Shields 
 was about expiring. Usually aggressive and auda 
 cious, it was remarked that Douglas was different in 
 his manner on this occasion. He sought to conciliate, 
 and his words implied a pervading memory of the Chi 
 cago storm. Yet it was Douglas who spoke always 
 able, wary, and plausible. Lincoln was relied upon by 
 
 (130) 
 
"ANTI-NEBRASKA" CAMPAIGN. 131 
 
 the Anti-Nebraskans, Whig and Democratic, as their 
 most effective champion, and his speech in turn was 
 so masterly as to surprise both friends and opponents. 
 Hearts and voices went with him, and when he closed, 
 the applause was so general and so tumultuous that 
 Douglas could have enjoyed himself little better here 
 than at his home reception a month before. He rose 
 for a rejoinder, but his remarks were brief. Twilight 
 being at hand, the meeting temporarily adjourned, with 
 the understanding that he would speak more at length 
 in the evening, but this he failed to do, and his absence 
 was a subject for disparaging comment. 
 
 Douglas spoke three hours at Peoria on the i6th 
 of October, and was followed by Lincoln in what he 
 regarded in later years as his best speech. As written 
 out by him and published in the Springfield Journal, it 
 probably included a reproduction, in the main, of his 
 speech at the State fair. 
 
 Announcing his subject as " the repeal of the Mis 
 souri Compromise and the propriety of its restoration, 1 
 he insisted that distinction be made and kept between 
 existing domestic slavery and its extension. To aid "a 
 clear understanding of what the Missouri Compromise 
 was/ he gave historic details, beginning with the pass 
 age of the Ordinance of 1787, which shut the institu 
 tion out from five great central States of the West. 
 " Thus," he said, " with the author of the Declaration 
 of Independence the policy of prohibiting slavery in 
 new territory began. Thus, away back of the Consti 
 tution, in the pure, fresh, free breath of the Revolu 
 tion, the State of Virginia and the National Congress 
 put that policy in practice. Thus, through more than 
 
132 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 sixty of the best years of the Republic, did that policy 
 steadily work to its great and beneficial end. And 
 thus, in those five States and five millions of free, 
 enterprising people, we have before us the rich fruits of 
 this policy. But now new light breaks upon us. ... 
 We find even some men who drew their first breath, and 
 every other breath of their lives, under this very restric 
 tion, now live in dread of absolute suffocation if they 
 should be restricted in the sacred right of taking slaves 
 to Nebraska. That perfect liberty they sigh for the 
 liberty of making slaves of other people Jefferson 
 never thought of; their own fathers never thought of; 
 they never thought of themselves a year ago." 
 
 He then spoke of the territory acquired by the 
 Louisiana Purchase, in 1803, and the Missouri contro 
 versy, " the first great slavery agitation in the nation," 
 during which " threats of breaking up the Union were 
 freely made, and the ablest public men of the day became 
 seriously alarmed" a controversy quieted at length by 
 the act approved March 6, 1820, " providing that Mis 
 souri might come into the Union with slavery, but that 
 in all the remaining part of the territory purchased of 
 France which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty 
 minutes north latitude slavery should never be permit 
 ted. This provision of law is the Missouri Compromise. 
 ... It directly applied to Iowa, Minnesota, and the 
 present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska." 
 After noticing the controversy following the acquisition 
 of Mexican territory, and stating the terms of the Com 
 promise of 1850, he gave an account of the "Nebraska" 
 legislation, which declared the Missouri Compromise 
 " inoperative and void " " so that the people who go 
 
PEORIA SPEECH. 133 
 
 and settle in Nebraska and Kansas may establish slavery 
 or exclude it, as they may see fit." Continuing, he said: 
 
 This declared indifference, but, as I must think, real zeal 
 foir the spread of slavery, I can not but hate. I hate it 
 because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself; I hate 
 it because it deprives our republican example of its just in 
 fluence in the world ; enables the enemies of free institutions 
 with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites ; causes the real 
 friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity ; and especially 
 because it forces so many really good men among ourselves 
 into an open war with the very fundamental principles of 
 civil liberty, criticising the Declaration of Independence, and 
 insisting that there is no right principle of action but self- 
 interest. . . . 
 
 I think I have no prejudice against the Southern people. 
 They are just what we would be in their situation. If slav 
 ery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce 
 it. If it did now exist among us, we should not instantly 
 give it up. This I believe of the masses North and South. 
 Doubtless there are individuals, on both sides, who would 
 not hold slaves under any circumstances, and others who 
 would gladly introduce slavery anew, if it were out of exist 
 ence. We know that some Southern men do free their 
 slaves, go North, and become tip-top Abolitionists ; while 
 some Northern ones go South, and become most cruel slave- 
 masters. When the Southern people tell us they are no 
 more responsible for the origin of slavery than we are, I 
 acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution 
 exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satis 
 factory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. 
 I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should 
 not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given 
 me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing insti 
 tution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and 
 send them to Liberia to their own native land. But a 
 few moments reflection would convince me that whatever 
 of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this in 
 the long run, its sudden execution is impossible. . . . 
 What next? Free them, and make them politically and so- 1 
 cially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; 
 
i 3 4 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 and if mine would, we well know that those of the great 
 mass of white people will not. Whether this feeling accords 
 with justice and sound judgment, is not the sole question, 
 if indeed it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether 
 well or ill founded, can not be safely disregarded. We can 
 not, then, make them equals. It does seem to me that sys 
 tems of gradual emancipation might be adopted ; but for 
 their tardiness in this, I will not undertake to judge our 
 brethren of the South. 
 
 When they remind us of their constitutional rights, I 
 acknowledge them, not grudgingly, but fully and fairly ; and 
 I would give them 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. 
 
 But all this, to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse 
 for permitting slavery to go into our own free territory than 
 it would for reviving the African slave-trade by law. The 
 law which forbids the bringing of slaves from Africa, and 
 that which has so long forbidden the taking of them into 
 Nebraska, can hardly be distinguished on any moral prin 
 ciple ; and the repeal of the former could find quite as plaus 
 ible excuses as that of the latter. . . . 
 
 Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new 
 Territories, is not a matter of exclusive concern to the people 
 who may go there. The whole nation is interested that the 
 best use shall be made of these Territories. We want them 
 for the homes of free white people. This they can not be, 
 to any considerable extent, if slavery shall be planted within 
 them. Slave States are places for poor white people to 
 remove from, not to remove to. New free States are the 
 places for poor people to go to and better their condition. 
 For this use the nation needs these Territories. 
 
 Still further: There are constitutional relations between 
 the slave and free States which are degrading to the latter. 
 We are under legal obligations to catch and return their run 
 away slaves to them a sort of dirty, disagreeable job 
 which, I believe, as a general rule, the slaveholders will not 
 perform for one another. Then again : In the control of the 
 government the management of the partnership affairs 
 they, have greatly the advantage of us. ... The slaves 
 
PEORIA SPEECH. 135 
 
 do not vote ; they are only counted and so used as to swell 
 the influence of tlie white people s votes. The practical effect 
 of this is more aptly shown by a comparison of the States of 
 South Carolina and Maine. South Carolina has six Repre 
 sentatives, and so has Maine; South Carolina eight Presi 
 dential electors, and so has Maine. . . . But how are they 
 in the number of their white people? Maine has 581,813, 
 while South Carolina has 274,567 ; Maine has twice as many 
 as South Carolina, and 32,679 over. Thus each white man 
 in South Carolina is more than double of any man in Maine. 
 This is all because South Carolina, besides her free people, 
 has 384,984 slaves. The South Carolinian has precisely the 
 same advantage over the white man in every other free State 
 as in Maine. He is more than the double of any one of us 
 in this crowd. . . . This principle in the aggregate gives 
 the slave States in the present Congress twenty additional 
 representatives, being seven more than the whole majority 
 by which they passed the Nebraska bill. 
 
 Now, all this is manifestly unfair ; yet I do not mention 
 it to complain of it, in so far as it is already settled. It is in 
 the Constitution, and I do not, for that cause or any other 
 cause, propose to destroy, or alter, or disregard the Consti 
 tution. I stand to it fairly, fully and firmly. But when I 
 am told I must leave it altogether to other people to say 
 whether new partners are to be bred up and brought into 
 the firm, on the same degrading terms against me, I respect 
 fully demur. . . . 
 
 Finally, I insist that if there is anything which it is the 
 duty of the whole people to never intrust to any hands but 
 their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of 
 their own liberties and institutions. And if they shall think, 
 as I do, that the extension of slavery endangers them, more 
 than any or all other causes, how recreant to themselves if 
 they submit the question, and with it the fate of their coun 
 try, to a mere handful of men, bent only on temporary self- 
 interest ! . . . 
 
 But Nebraska is urged as a Union-saving measure. Well, 
 I too go for saving the Union. Much as I hate slavery, I 
 would consent to the extension of it rather than see the 
 Union dissolved, just as I would consent to any great evil 
 to avoid a greater one. But when I go to Union-saving, I 
 
136 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 must believe, at least, that the means I employ have some 
 adaptation to the end. To my mind, Nebraska has no such 
 adaptation. 
 
 " It hath no relish of salvation in it." 
 
 It is an aggravation, rather, of the only thing which ever 
 endangered the Union. When it came upon us, all was peace 
 and quiet. The nation was looking to the forming of new 
 bonds of union, and a long course of peace and prosperity 
 seemed to lie before us. In the whole range of possibility, 
 there scarcely appears to me to have been anything out of 
 which the slavery agitation could have been revived, except 
 the very project of repealing the Missouri Compromise. 
 Every inch of territory we owned already had a definite set 
 tlement of the slavery question, by which all parties were 
 pledged to abide. Indeed, there was no uninhabited country 
 on the continent which we could acquire, if we except some 
 extreme Northern regions which are wholly out of the 
 question.* 
 
 In this state of affairs, the Genius of Discord himself 
 could scarcely have invented a way of again getting us by 
 the ears, but by turning back and destroying the peace meas 
 ures of the past. ... It could not but be expected by its 
 author that it would be looked upon as a measure for the 
 extension of slavery, aggravated by a gross breach of faith. 
 Argue as you will, and long as you will, this is the naked 
 front and aspect of the measure. And in this aspect, it could 
 not but produce agitation. 
 
 Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man s nature 
 opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are 
 in eternal antagonism ; and when brought into collision so 
 fiercely as slavery-extension brings them, shocks and throes 
 and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. f Repeal the Mis 
 souri Compromise repeal all compromise repeal the 
 Declaration of Independence repeal all past history you 
 
 *And yet then least of all in Lincoln s mind remote Alaska 
 was soon to be ours! 
 
 fThis sentence is certainly as explicit as the later "house- 
 divided " passage, or as the " irrepressible conflict " of Seward. 
 
PEORIA SPEECH. 137 
 
 still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abun 
 dance of man s heart that slavery-extension is wrong; and 
 out of the abundance of his heart his mouth will continue to 
 speak. . . . 
 
 Some Yankees in the East are sending emigrants to Ne 
 braska to exclude slavery from it ; and, so far as I can judge, 
 they expect the question to be decided by voting in some 
 way or other. But the Missourians are awake, too. They 
 are within a stone s throw of the contested ground. They 
 hold meetings, and pass resolutions in which not the slightest 
 allusion to voting is made. They resolve that slavery already 
 exists in the Territory ; that more shall go there ; that they, 
 remaining in Missouri, will protect it ; and that Abolitionists 
 shall be hung or driven away. Through all this, bowie- 
 knives and six-shooters are seen plainly enough: but never 
 a glimpse of the ballot-box. . . . 
 
 Could there be a more apt invention to bring about col 
 lision and violence on the slavery question than this Ne 
 braska project is? I do not charge or believe that such was 
 intended by Congress ; but if they had literally formed a 
 ring, and placed champions within it to fight out the con 
 troversy, the fight could be no more likely to come off than 
 it is. And if this fight should begin, is it likely to take a 
 very peaceful Union-saving turn ? Will not the first drop of 
 blood so shed be the real knell of the Union ? . . . 
 
 I particularly object to the new position which the 
 avowed principle of this Nebraska law gives to slavery in 
 the body politic. . . . Near eighty years ago we began 
 by declaring all men are created equal ; but now from that 
 beginning we have run down to the other declaration that 
 for some men to enslave others is a " sacred right of self- 
 government." These principles can not stand together. 
 They are as opposite as God and Mammon ; and whoever 
 holds to the one must despise the other. ... In our 
 greedy chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware how 
 we " cancel and tear to pieces " even the white man s charter 
 of freedom. 
 
 Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let 
 us repurify it. ... Let us re-adopt the Declaration of 
 Independence, and with it the practices and policy which 
 harmonize with it. Let North and South, let all Americans, 
 
138 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 let all lovers of liberty everywhere join in the great and 
 good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved 
 the Union, but we shall have so saved it as to make it and 
 keep it forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so 
 saved it that the succeeding millions of free, happy people, 
 the world over, shall rise up and call us blessed, to the latest 
 generation. 
 
 The year, which opened with the proposed repeal 
 of the Missouri restriction, closed with a divided and 
 defeated Democratic party. The powerful organiza 
 tion, of which Douglas was master and manager in Illi 
 nois, was now, for the first time, broken and beaten. It 
 failed to secure a working majority in the Legislature, 
 which was to choose a Senator. The Whig members 
 desired the election of Lincoln, to whom, as the leading 
 champion of the Anti-Nebraska cause, the place seemed 
 to be due; but five Democratic members opposed to 
 Shields cast their votes for Judge Lyman Trumbull, an 
 Anti-Nebraska Democrat, on the first ballot in joint 
 assembly, (February 8, 1855.) so that Lincoln received 
 only forty-five votes, fifty-one being necessary to a 
 choice. After further balloting, with a gain of but 
 two for Lincoln, a new candidate was presented on 
 the Democratic side (Lieutenant-Governor Matteson), 
 whose defeat seemed possible only by^ uniting on Trum 
 bull. Lincoln promptly advised his friends accordingly 
 effacing himself and saving the cause. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1855-1858. 
 
 Anti-Nebraska Coalition Kansas Cunftlet - - Republican 
 Party Organised Fremont Beaten by Buchanan Dred 
 Scott Decision- Utah Rebellion Cases in Court. 
 
 The Anti-Nebraska coalition was generally suc 
 cessful in the elections of 1855, though with somewhat 
 diminished majorities. Meanwhile a new party, pop 
 ularly called Know-Nothings, had grown into promi 
 nence in several of the Southern as well as Northern 
 States. Its National Council met in secret session at 
 Philadelphia in June of this year, and found itself hope 
 lessly divided on the prevailing subject of discord. A 
 break-up occurred, further preparing the way for a 
 "union of all elements" in the North opposed to the 
 Administration. Lincoln took no part in the Know- 
 Nothing movement, which had, however, a large fol 
 lowing in his State. In some other parts of the coun 
 try, and particularly in Massachusetts, it had completely 
 revolutionized politics, carrying everything before it. 
 This must have been due quite as much to the efficacy 
 of its secret organization as to its ostensible objects 
 checking foreign influences and counteracting the com 
 pact power of naturalized voters. As an "American " 
 party the organization was kept up for some years 
 longer at the South, but in the North it soon dwindled 
 and died. 
 
 d39) 
 
I 4 o LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 The conflict in Kansas had gone on with vigor. 
 Andrew H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, the first Gov 
 ernor, took the helm before the end of the year (1854), 
 and ordered the election of a Legislature and of a dele 
 gate to Congress in the following March. The pro- 
 slavery party prevailed, largely through the votes of 
 Missourians who crossed the border solely to deposit 
 their ballots, and through fraudulent returns. The Gov 
 ernor rejected the returned members in six districts and 
 ordered new elections therein, with the result that in 
 nearly every instance anti-slavery men were chosen. 
 These, however, were unhesitatingly voted out of their 
 seats and the first returned members voted in. 
 
 The interesting body so constituted proceeded to 
 pass bills for the establishment of slavery and the sup 
 pression of Abolitionism. Reeder having vetoed cer 
 tain enactments which he thought to be atrocious, they 
 were passed over his veto, and the Legislature recip 
 rocated his opposition by asking President Pierce to 
 remove him. The request was granted with alacrity. 
 Ex-Governor Shannon, of Ohio, succeeded Governor 
 Reeder on the ist of September. 
 
 There was no more intent spectator of the opening 
 scenes of the Kansas drama than Lincoln. Some of his 
 reflections on the occasion appear in the following pass 
 ages of a letter to his Kentucky friend, Speed (August 
 
 24, 1855) - 
 
 You know what a poor correspondent I am. Ever since 
 I received your very agreeable letter of the 22d of May I 
 have been intending to write you in answer to it. You sug 
 gest that in political action now you and I would differ. I 
 suppose we would ; not quite as much, however, as you may 
 think. You know I dislike slavery, and you fully admit the 
 
KANSAS CONFLICT CANVASS OF 1856. 141 
 
 abstract wrong of it. So far there is no cause of difference. 
 But you say that sooner than yield your legal rights to the 
 slave, especially at the bidding of those who are not them 
 selves interested, you would see the Union dissolved. I am 
 not aware than any one is bidding you to yield that right 
 very certainly I am not. I leave that matter entirely to your 
 self. I also acknowledge your rights and my obligations 
 under the Constitution in regard to slaves. I confess I hate 
 to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught and 
 carried back to their stripes and unrequited toils ; but I bite 
 my lip and keep quiet. 
 
 In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low- water trip 
 on a steamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may 
 remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of 
 the Ohio there were on board ten or a dozen slaves shackled 
 together with irons. That sight was a continued torment to 
 me, and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, 
 or any other slave border. It is not fair for you to assume 
 that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually 
 exercises, the power of making me miserable. You ought 
 rather to appreciate how much the great body of the North 
 ern people do crucify their feelings, in order to maintain 
 their loyalty to the Constitution and the Union. 
 
 I do oppose the extension of slavery because my judg 
 ment and feeling so prompt me ; but I am under no obliga 
 tions to the contrary. If for this you and I must differ, 
 differ we must. You say, if you were President, you would 
 send an army, and hang the leaders of the Missouri outrages 
 upon the Kansas elections ; still, if Kansas fairly votes her 
 self a slave State, she must be admitted, or the Union must 
 be dissolved. But how if she votes herself a slave State 
 unfairly that is, by the very means for which you say you 
 would hang men? . . . You think Stringfellow & Co. 
 ought to be hung ; and yet, at the next Presidential election, 
 you will vote for the exact type and representative of String- 
 fellow. The slave-breeders and slave-traders are a small, 
 odious and detested class among you, and yet in politics they 
 dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your 
 masters as you are the master of your own negroes. 
 
 You inquire where I now stand. That is a disputed 
 point. I think I am a Whig ; but others say there are no 
 
142 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Whigs, and that I am an Abolitionist. When I was at Wash 
 ington I voted for the Wilmot proviso as good as forty times, 
 and I never heard of any one attempting to un-Whig me 
 for that. I now do no more that oppose the extension of 
 slavery. I am not a Know-Nothing that is certain. How 
 could I be ? How can any one who abhors the oppression of 
 negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people? 
 Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. 
 As a nation we began by declaring that " all men are created 
 equal." We now practically read it, "All men are created 
 equal except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get con 
 trol, it would read, "All men are created equal except ne 
 groes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this 
 I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make 
 no pretense of loving liberty to Russia, for instance, 
 where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base 
 alloy of hypocrisy. 
 
 Mary will probably pass a day or two in Louisville in 
 October. My kindest regards to Mrs. Speed. On the lead 
 ing subject of this letter I have more of her sympathy than 
 I have of yours ; and yet let me say I am 
 
 Your friend forever, 
 
 A. LINCOLN. 
 
 The Free-State men in Kansas, in mass meeting 
 at Big Springs, soon after Governor Shannon s arrival, 
 denounced the alleged Legislature as a fraud, and repu 
 diated all its works. Consequently they did not partic 
 ipate in the election, ordered by that body for the ist of 
 October, for the choice of a Delegate to Congress as, 
 in fact, it would seem to have been quite useless to do. 
 They were not intending, however, to submit quietly to 
 the yoke, and they had assembled for business. They 
 effected a party organization, and took measures for a 
 convention, which met at Topeka on the igth of Sep 
 tember. It was determined that a Delegate should be 
 voted for on the second Tuesday of October. Thus it 
 
KANSAS CONFLICT CANVASS OF 1856. 143 
 
 happened that the Slave-State party elected John W. 
 Whitfield (Indian agent, from Tennessee) as Delegate 
 on one day, and the Free-State party the week after 
 of course irregularly elected ex-Governor Reeder, 
 who had remained in the Territory after being super 
 seded. This party also held a convention to frame a 
 State Constitution, at Topeka, on the 23d of October. 
 Under the Free-State Constitution so framed, admis 
 sion into the Union was to be sought. It had been 
 practically a condition of civil war from the first, with 
 actual bloodshed, as well as bolts and counter-bolts of 
 legislation and convention, and continual tumult. As 
 yet, too, there had been but the beginning of sorrows. 
 The actual settlers who wanted a Free-State govern 
 ment were now greatly in the majority, but their adver 
 saries had not only the advantage of being nearer their 
 base, as earlier remarked by Lincoln, but also of having 
 the strong arm of the central power at Washington on 
 their side. 
 
 The Congress which met in December, 1855, was 
 without a Democratic majority in the lower house. 
 After a long struggle, Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massa 
 chusetts, Anti-Nebraska and American, was chosen 
 Speaker. A committee (Messrs. W. A. Howard, of 
 Michigan, John Sherman, of Ohio, and Mordecai Oli 
 ver, of Missouri) was appointed to investigate the affairs 
 of Kansas. The voluminous report of the majority of 
 this committee figured prominently in the next Presi 
 dential canvass. Whitfield took his seat as Delegate, 
 and held it to the end of that Congress. 
 
 Such was the situation when a preliminary meeting 
 of delegates from the free States, representing those 
 
144 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 opposed to the Administration and its Kansas policy, 
 was held at Pittsburg on Washington s birthday, 1856, 
 for consultation and action in regard to the organiza 
 tion of a consolidated opposition party. This conven 
 tion issued an address, written by Mr. Raymond, of the 
 New York Times, and called a National Convention of 
 the " Republican " party, to be held at Philadelphia 
 on the 1 7th of June following, for the nomination of 
 candidates for President and Vice-President. 
 
 The first Republican State Convention, under that 
 name, in Illinois was held at Bloomington on the 2Qth 
 of May, 1856. Lincoln took part in forming the new 
 organization, and made at this convention an earnest 
 and stimulating speech, of which there was but a brief 
 report. This was the chief event of the occasion, aside 
 from the appointment of delegates to the national 
 convention at Philadelphia. 
 
 The Democratic National Convention met at Cincin 
 nati on the 2d of June, and nominated James Buchanan 
 for President (Douglas having 121 votes and Buchanan 
 1 68 on the last ballot) and John C. Breckinridge for 
 Vice-President. At Philadelphia, the Republicans nom 
 inated Colonel John C. Fremont (who had 359 votes, 
 and Justice John McLean 196,) for President, and 
 William L. Dayton (who had 259 votes, and Abraham 
 Lincoln no,) for Vice-President. Lincoln had not 
 been a candidate for the place, and was surprised to 
 learn that he had been so complimented. The Amer 
 ican party nominated Millard Fillmore for President 
 and Andrew J. Donelson for Vice-President. These 
 candidates were indorsed by a thin national convention 
 
KANSAS CONFLICT CANVASS OF 1856. 145 
 
 of Whigs at Baltimore in September Judge Edward 
 Bates, of Missouri, presiding. 
 
 It has been reasonably affirmed that Lincoln would 
 have been nominated for Governor had he not in ad 
 vance declined. Without the support of the Ameri 
 cans, the Republican candidate could have no chance 
 of success, and this co-operation was effected on the 
 Governorship by the nomination of Colonel William H. 
 Bissell, a former member of Congress, who had served 
 in the Mexican War. Lincoln, again on the electoral 
 ticket, took a leading part in the national canvass in 
 Illinois. Bissell was elected, showing a majority against 
 Douglas and the Administration, but, with the opposi 
 tion votes divided between Fremont and Fillmore, the 
 electoral vote of the State was given to Buchanan. 
 
 In all the slave States except Maryland (which voted 
 for Fillmore) Democratic electors were chosen, and also 
 in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois, and Cali 
 fornia. All the other States voted for Fremont and 
 Dayton. The electoral vote stood: For Buchanan, 
 174; Fremont, 114; Fillmore. 8. The popular vote was 
 more equally divided, Buchanan receiving 1,838,169; 
 Fremont, 1,341,264; Fillmore, 874,534. In New Jersey 
 and California, as well as in Illinois, the Democrats had 
 only a plurality of votes. Had the opposition been fully 
 united in these States, there would have been twenty- 
 two electoral votes less in the Buchanan column, which 
 could have spared but three more without leaving the 
 final election to the House of Representatives. 
 
 James Buchanan, last Democratic President of the 
 old regime, was not a leader. Solid, not brilliant, by 
 
 10 
 
146 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 persistence and constancy in the course marked out by 
 his party, he attained late in life its highest reward. 
 Absence as Minister to England during the inception 
 of the Nebraska-Kansas strife was an opportune aid to 
 this benign result. More of absence or less of leader 
 ship at this juncture might possibly have left Douglas 
 a prospect bright in comparison with that of his aged 
 competitor. It was not a luxurious heritage of power 
 to which President Buchanan succeeded. Civil war on 
 a limited scale was prevailing in Kansas. During the 
 late canvass he had made fair professions, no doubt 
 heartily enough intending what he said when he prom 
 ised, if elected, to maintain an equal and just policy in 
 regard to Kansas. His party, with the help of these 
 assurances, had barely succeeded in carrying Pennsyl 
 vania and Indiana in October sufficient, with a nearly 
 unanimous South, to insure his election in November. 
 The necessity of conciliating support in the North, 
 however, had taken him farther than the party man 
 agement would allow in practice. Four of his Cabinet 
 officers were of the South: Howell Cobb, of Georgia, 
 Secretary of the Treasury; John B. Floyd, of Virginia, 
 Secretary of War; Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, Sec 
 retary of the Interior, and Aaron V. Brown, of Ten 
 nessee, Postmaster-General all, if we except the last, 
 who died before the close of the term, Secessionists at 
 heart, if not already so in purpose. The three remain 
 ing places were respectively given to Lewis Cass, of 
 Michigan, Secretary of State; Isaac Toucey, of Con 
 necticut, Secretary of the Navy, and Jeremiah S. Black, 
 of Pennsylvania, Attorney-General. 
 
 The second Governor of Kansas, Mr. Shannon, sent 
 
KANSAS CONFLICT BUCHANAN. 147 
 
 by President Pierce, had been recalled by him in a few 
 moriths, and replaced by John W. Geary. President 
 Buchanan put a distinguished man in Geary s place 
 Robert J. Walker, former Secretary of the Treasury, 
 long identified with the South as a Mississippian, though 
 born in Pennsylvania. Under his auspices a conven 
 tion met at Lecompton and framed a State Constitu 
 tion. The people were asked to % vote (in December, 
 1857) for the Constitution "with slavery" or "with 
 out slavery," but not allowed to reject it altogether. 
 The Free-State men, now largely in the majority, refused 
 to participate in such a vote. 
 
 Directly after Mr. Buchanan s inauguration, the 
 Dred Scott decision determined the year before, and 
 opinions written out was announced by the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, Chief Justice Taney speak 
 ing for a majority of the court. By a suggestive coin 
 cidence of dates, this case had come before the highest 
 court in the same month (May, 1854) that the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Act was approved by President Pierce. Dred 
 Scott, the slave of an army surgeon in Missouri, had 
 been taken by his master to other military posts 
 Rock Island, in Iowa, and Fort Snelling, in Minne 
 sota and afterward returned with him to Missouri. 
 He claimed his freedom, on the ground that his having 
 been taken to free territory emancipated him. The 
 case was dismissed for want of jurisdiction because 
 the suitor was not a " citizen." Judge Taney in his 
 opinion gave new fuel to the flame by his construction 
 of the Constitution on other questions, and especially 
 by denying to Congress any power to exclude slavery 
 from the territories. 
 
148 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 There was also a little rebellion farther west than 
 Kansas to add to the troubles of the veteran Presi 
 dent. Polygamous Utah resisted the judicial authori 
 ties placed over its people by the Federal Government, 
 and a military force was presently sent to suppress the 
 insurrection. 
 
 On the stump in the summer of 1857 Douglas took 
 upon his shoulders the new burden of the Dred Scott 
 decision a theme which excited the zeal of Lincoln 
 scarcely less than the repeal of the Missouri Compro 
 mise. In his first important speech after Buchanan s 
 inauguration, Lincoln said in opening (at Springfield, 
 June 26, 1857): 
 
 Two weeks ago Judge Douglas spoke here, on the sev 
 eral subjects of Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and Utah. 
 I listened to the speech at the time, and have read the report 
 of it since. It was intended to controvert opinions which 
 I think just, and to assail (politically, not personally) those 
 men who, in common with me, entertain those opinions. For 
 this reason I wished then, and still wish to make some an 
 swer to it, which I now take the opportunity of doing. 
 
 I begin with Utah. If it prove to be true, as is probable, 
 that the people of Utah are in open rebellion against the 
 United States, then Judge Douglas is in favor of repealing 
 their territorial organization, and attaching them to the 
 adjoining States for judicial purposes. I say, too, if they 
 are in rebellion, they ought to be somehow coerced to obedi 
 ence, and I am not now prepared to admit or deny that the 
 Judge s mode of coercing them is not as good as any. The 
 Republicans can fall in with it, without taking back any 
 thing they have ever said. To be sure, it would be a con 
 siderable backing down by Judge Douglas from his much- 
 vaunted doctrine of self-government for the Territories ; but 
 this is only additional proof of what was very plain from 
 the beginning, that the doctrine was a mere deceitful pre- 
 
DRED SCOTT UTAH COURT CASES. 149 
 
 tense for the benefit of slavery.* . . . The substance of 
 the Judge s speech on Kansas is an effort to put the Free 
 State men in the wrong for not voting at the election of 
 delegates to the Constitutional Convention. ... I readily 
 agree that if all had a chance to vote, they ought to have 
 voted. If, on the contrary, as they allege, and Judge 
 Douglas ventures not particularly to contradict, few only of 
 the Free-State men had a chance to vote, they were perfectly 
 right in staying away from the polls in a body. . . . 
 
 Of the Dred Scott decision he said: 
 
 That decision declares two propositions first, that a 
 negro can not sue in the United States Courts ; and secondly, 
 that Congress can not prohibit slavery in the Territories. 
 It was made by a divided court, dividing differently on the 
 different points. . . . Judicial decisions have two uses 
 first, to absolutely determine the case decided ; and secondly, 
 to indicate to the public how other similar cases will be 
 decided when they arise. For the latter use they are called 
 " precedents " and " authorities." Judicial decisions are of 
 greater or less authority as precedents, according to circum 
 stances. That this should be so accords both with common 
 sense, and the customary understanding of the legal profes 
 sion. If this important decision had been made by the 
 unanimous concurrence of the judges, and without any 
 apparent partisan bias, and in accordance with legal public 
 expectation, and with the steady practice of the departments, 
 throughout our history, and had been in no part based upon 
 assumed historical facts which are not really true; or, if 
 wanting in some of these, it had been before the Cou^t more 
 than once, and had there been affirmed and reaffirmed 
 through a course of years, it then might be, perhaps would 
 be, factious, nay, even revolutionary, not to acquiesce in it 
 as a precedent. 
 
 But when, as is true, we find it wanting in all these claims 
 to the public confidence, it is not resistance, it is not factious, 
 
 *One of the sharpest arrows of the Philadelphia platform had 
 been feathered with the exasperating phrase, " twin relics of bar 
 barism polygamy and slavery." 
 
150 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY 
 
 it is not even disrespectful, to treat it as not having yet quite 
 established a settled doctrine for the country. . . . 
 
 I have said, in substance, that the Dred Scott decision 
 was, in part, based on assumed historical facts which were 
 not really true, and I ought not to leave the subject without 
 giving some reasons for saying this. I therefore give an 
 instance or two which I think fully sustain me. Chief Jus 
 tice Taney, in delivering the opinion of the majority of the 
 Court, insists at great length that negroes were no part of 
 the people who made, or for whom was made, the Declara 
 tion of Independence or the Constitution of the United 
 States. On the contrary, Judge Curtis, in his dissenting 
 opinion, shows that in five of the then thirteen States, to- 
 wit: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New 
 Jersey and North Carolina, free negroes were voters, and, 
 in proportion to their numbers, had the same part in making 
 the Constitution that the white people did. 
 
 Again, Chief Justice Taney says : " It is difficult, at this 
 day, to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that 
 unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civilized and en 
 lightened portions of the world at the time of the Declara 
 tion of Independence, and when the Constitution of the 
 United States was framed and adopted." And again, after 
 quoting from the Declaration, he says : " The general words 
 above quoted would seem to include the whole human family, 
 and if they were used in a similar instrument at this day, 
 would be so understood." 
 
 In these words the Chief Justice does not directly assert, 
 but plainly assumes as a fact, that the public estimate of 
 the black man is more favorable now than it was in the days 
 of the Revolution. This assumption is a mistake. In some 
 trifling particulars the condition of that race has been amel 
 iorated ; but, as a whole, in this country, the change between 
 then and now is decidedly the other way, and their ultimate 
 destiny has never appeared so hopeless as in the last three or 
 four years. In two of the five States New Jersey and 
 North Carolina that then gave the free negro the right 
 of voting, the right has since been taken away ; and in the 
 third New York it has been greatly abridged, while it 
 has not been extended, so far as I know, to a single addi 
 tional State, though the number of the States has been more 
 
DRED SCOTT UTAH- COURT CASES. 151 
 
 than doubled. In those days, as I understand, masters could, 
 at their own pleasure, emancipate their slaves ; but since then 
 such legal restraints have been made upon emancipation as 
 to amount almost to prohibition. In those days Legislatures 
 held the unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their re 
 spective States ; but now it is becoming quite fashionable for 
 State Constitutions to withhold that power from the Leg 
 islatures. In those days, by common consent, the spread of 
 the black man s bondage to the new countries was prohib 
 ited ; but now Congress decides that it will not continue the 
 prohibition and the Supreme Court decides that it could 
 not if it would. In those days our Declaration of Inde 
 pendence was held sacred by all, and thought to include all ; 
 but now to aid in making the bondage of the negro universal 
 and eternal, it is assailed, sneered at, construed, hawked at, 
 and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they 
 could not at all recognize it. All the powers of the earth 
 seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon is after him ; 
 ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the theology of 
 the day is fast joining the cry. . . . 
 
 Three years and a half ago Judge Douglas brought for 
 ward his famous Nebraska bill. The country was at once in 
 a blaze. He scorned all opposition, and carried it through 
 Congress. Since then he has seen himself superseded in a 
 Presidential nomination, . . . and he has seen that suc 
 cessful rival constitutionally elected, not by the strength of 
 friends, but by the division of his adversaries, being in a 
 popular minority of nearly four hundred thousand votes. 
 He has seen his chief aids in his own State, Shields and 
 Richardson, politically speaking, successively tried, convicted 
 and executed for an offense not their own, but his. And now 
 he sees his own case standing- next on the docket for trial. 
 
 There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all 
 white people to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation 
 of the white and black races, and Judge Douglas evidently 
 is basing his chief hope upon the chances of his being able 
 to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. If he 
 can, by much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium of 
 that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle 
 through the storm. . . . Chief Justice Taney, in his opin 
 ion in the Dred Scott case, admits that the language of the 
 
152 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Declaration is broad enough to include the whole human 
 family ; but he and Judge Douglas argue that the authors of 
 that instrument did not intend to include negroes, by the fact 
 that they did not at once actually place them on an equality 
 with the whites. . . . 
 
 They did not means to say all were equal in color, size, 
 intellect, moral development, or social capacity. They de 
 fined with tolerable distinctness in what respects they did 
 consider all men created equal equal with " certain in 
 alienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pur 
 suit of happiness." This they said, and this meant. . . , 
 Its authors meant it to be as, thank God, it is now proving 
 itself, a stumbling-block to all those who, in after times, 
 might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths 
 of despotism. . . . 
 
 The plainest print can not be read through a gold eagle, 
 and it will be ever hard to find many men who will send a 
 slave to Liberia and pay his passage, while they can send 
 him to a new country Kansas, for instance and sell 
 him for fifteen hundred dollars, and the rise. 
 
 As yet Douglas had manifested no repugnance 
 toward the policy pursued for making Kansas a slave 
 State, marked as in this regard was the absence of any 
 practical virtue in his fine theory of popular sover 
 eignty. This device, he could see, was now in immi 
 nent danger of returning to plague its originator. 
 There was a dilemma. To openly sustain the popular 
 majority in Kansas was to forfeit Southern support; 
 to abandon the majority there and help their enemies 
 within and without was to stultify himself and to be 
 ruined at home. 
 
 In the spring of 1858 Lincoln appeared at Beards- 
 town as counsel in a case which recalled the Menard 
 country, where the Sangamon Falls still roar as of old, 
 their voice resounding through the valley and over the 
 
DRED SCOTT UTAH COURT CASES. 153 
 
 heights on which once stood the hamlet where he lived 
 as clerk, surveyor, law student, postmaster, and, after 
 a tour as captain of mounted volunters, received the 
 votes of all about him for member of the Legislature. 
 More than twenty-five years had passed since he met 
 Jack Armstrong in a tough wrestling match, afterwards 
 visiting occasionally at his house, and sometimes rock 
 ing the cradle in which lay baby William, his son. Jack 
 was now dead, and the boy, grown into manhood, had 
 come to be the chief support of his mother, with whom 
 he lived on the old farm. Late in the summer of 1857 
 he and other young men of the neighborhood had gone 
 to a camp-meeting in the adjoining county of Mason. 
 Around what might be called a sutler s wagon of the 
 enemy, stationed at a distance from the Methodist 
 encampment, thirsty groups were gathered as the night 
 came on. An affray occurred, in which one Metzgar 
 was mortally wounded by blows on the head. Arm 
 strong and another young man were charged with the 
 homicide, lodged in the Mason County jail, and indicted. 
 There was an intense feeling against the accused, and 
 there was one swift witness ready to swear that he saw 
 the fatal blows struck. Armstrong s counsel obtained 
 for his client a change of venue to Cass County and a 
 postponement of the trial until spring. Learning the 
 heavy trouble which had befallen the family, Lincoln 
 promised the prisoner s mother to aid in his defense. 
 It was a gratuitous service. At the trial the witness 
 before alluded to identified the accused as the one who 
 struck the fatal blows with a slung-shot, and this, with 
 the other evidence for the State, seemed to place his 
 guilt beyond reasonable doubt. For the defense there 
 
154 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 was only testimony to his previous good reputation and 
 peaceable disposition; but the chief accusing witness, on 
 cross-examination, had been led to say that a full moon 
 was shining clearly at the time, and was about where the 
 sun would be at 10 o clock in the forenoon. Lincoln 
 produced an almanac to be given to the jury, and in the 
 course of his argument one of the most eloquent he 
 ever made in court pointed out that the lunar cal 
 endar proved the witness a perjurer. Armstrong was 
 acquitted. 
 
 A verdict that seemed so impossible before Lincoln 
 spoke, the disappointed ones accounted for by pretend 
 ing that the almanac used was for the year previous to 
 the homicide, and that the jurors were cheated. Of 
 course such a charge against such a lawyer should need 
 no disproof; yet it found some credence among dull 
 people, who did not think or did not care to compare 
 the almanac of 1856 with that of 1857, which would 
 have settled the matter beyond cavil. 
 
 Another instance, less noted but no less notable than 
 the Armstrong case, shows Lincoln s readiness, out of 
 mere sympathy for a friend in distress, to undertake the 
 defense of one accused of crime. At a meeting of the 
 bar in 1865, Mr. Linder (mentioned in a previous chap 
 ter) told of his first meeting with Abraham Lincoln at 
 Charleston, Coles County, in 1835, and of their con 
 tinued friendship thenceforward, despite partisan dis 
 agreements. Not long ago the former had been in 
 great trouble on account of the indictment of his son 
 for a homicide " in a part of the State where Lincoln 
 was a tower of strength," and " where his arguments at 
 law had more power than the instructions of the court." 
 
DRED SCOTT UTAH COURT CASES. 155 
 
 " I wrote to him," continued Mr. Linder, " giving him 
 all the circumstances, telling him of my wife s grief and 
 my own, and soliciting that he would come and assist 
 me to defend my son, though I feared he had been 
 employed against him. . . . He condoled with us in 
 our misfortune, and assured us that, no matter what 
 business he might be engaged in, he would come, and 
 that he was truly sorry that I had supposed he would 
 take part in the prosecution of the son of a friend of 
 his." To the offer of a fee he replied that he knew no 
 act of his that would justify the supposition " that he 
 would take money from a friend for assisting in the 
 defense of a child." The young man got clear, went 
 South, and as a prisoner of war received further favors 
 from the same benefactor in another capacity. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1858. 
 
 The Lecompton Constitution Another Democratic Schism 
 Lincoln a Candidate for Senator. 
 
 Douglas undoubtedly wished Kansas promptly ad 
 mitted and the annoyance fairly out of the way. The 
 new Congress was strongly Democratic in both houses. 
 A personal friend of Douglas from Illinois, John Cal- 
 houn, presided over the Constitutional Convention at 
 Lecompton, and was actively concerned in the subsid 
 iary work at the polls. The situation was at first alto 
 gether promising. But certain ugly facts ere long 
 began to come into the light sinister shapes, which 
 no flimsy veil could screen. Before Congress met the 
 public mind at the North had become deeply impressed 
 with the conviction shared by Senator Crittenden and 
 other candid Southern men that the Lecompton con 
 stitution was an intolerable imposition. Douglas him 
 self could honestly have no other feeling. Still less 
 could he be blind to the new dangers into which he 
 was drifting. 
 
 The case did not come before Congress until early 
 in February, when the President in a special message 
 recommended the acceptance of the Lecompton con 
 stitution, and declared that Kansas was slave territory. 
 
 (156) 
 
THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 157 
 
 Douglas promptly announced his disagreement with 
 the President, and soon after, in a set speech, declared 
 against "forcing the constitution down the throats of 
 the people of Kansas, in opposition to their wishes and 
 in violation of our pledges." In spite of him the meas 
 ure so denounced passed the Senate by a good major 
 ity, only two others of the forty Democratic Senators 
 voting with him. In the House he had a better fol 
 lowing, though not a large one. After a protracted 
 struggle, lasting till the end of April (1858), Congress 
 ordered a submission of the Lecompton constitution to 
 the people of Kansas for their adoption or rejection. 
 Conditions having so changed before the time appointed 
 that a reasonably fair vote was possible, the Free-State 
 men improved the opportunity, and the constitution was 
 repudiated. 
 
 It is notable that for a time some prominent Repub 
 licans, including Henry Wilson and Horace Greeley, 
 favored the adoption of Douglas as a party leader, and 
 were ready to support his re-election to the Senate. In 
 some of the Congressional districts, at the ensuing elec 
 tion, the Republicans helped to return Anti-Lecomp- 
 ton Democrats to the House, and the fusion was ulti 
 mately advantageous to the stronger party. The case 
 was different as to one in the position of Douglas; and, 
 at all events, this policy found little support among the 
 Republicans of Illinois. The Democrats of that State, 
 at their convention on the 2ist of April, gave Douglas 
 an unconditional indorsement. A few dissentients, in 
 deed, some time later effected a nominal organization, 
 claiming to be the genuine Administration party, and 
 declaring for ex-Senator Breese as their candidate; but 
 
158 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 their course rather helped than hurt Douglas in his 
 canvass. 
 
 One finds it difficult to digest the stubborn truth 
 that ardent and able anti-slavery men should be will 
 ing to follow as a heroic leader one who was indiffer 
 ent whether slavery were voted up or voted down in 
 Kansas, and all because while he had been foremost 
 in repealing the restriction which, if left alone, had 
 already settled the question forever he insisted merely 
 that the voting should be fairly done. It is especially 
 curious that Mr. Greeley after both Lincoln and 
 Douglas had ended all their work near the close of 
 his life not only avowed his active zeal in this direction, 
 but also declared his unchanged opinion, that in 1858 
 the Republicans of Illinois should have aided in the 
 re-election of Douglas instead of supporting Lincoln. 
 
 Congress sat until the i6th of June. This happened 
 to be the date at which the Republican State Conven 
 tion met at Springfield, and resolved that Abraham Lin 
 coln was its first and only choice for United States Sen 
 ator as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas. In the 
 evening Lincoln addressed the convention, making one 
 of his most famous speeches. Some passages specially 
 noticed in the Lincoln-Douglas canvass are here given: 
 
 Gentlemen of the Convention : If we could first know 
 where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then 
 better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now 
 far on into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with 
 the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end 
 to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, 
 that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly 
 augmented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis 
 shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided 
 
"HOUSE-DIVIDED SPEECH." 159 
 
 against itself can not 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 course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates 
 will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all 
 the States old as well as new North as well as South, 
 
 Have we no tendency to the latter condition? Let any 
 one who doubts carefully contemplate that now almost com 
 plete legal combination piece of machinery, so to speak 
 compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott 
 decision. Let him consider not only what work the ma 
 chinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted, but also let 
 him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he 
 can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of de 
 sign and concert of action among its chief master-workers 
 from the beginning. . . . 
 
 While the Nebraska bill was passing through Congress, 
 a law case, involving the question of a negro s freedom, by 
 Teason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into 
 a free State and then into a Territory covered by the Con 
 gressional prohibition, and held him as a slave for a long 
 time in each was passing through the United States Cir 
 cuit Court for the District of Missouri, and both Nebraska 
 bill and lawsuit were brought to a decision in the same 
 month of May, 1854. The negro s name was " Dred Scott," 
 which name now designates the decision finally 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. . . . 
 
 At length a squabble springs up between the President 
 and the author of the Nebraska bill on the mere question of 
 fact, whether the Lecompton constitution was or was not 
 in any just sense made by the people of Kansas ; and in that 
 squabble 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. 
 
160 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 . . . Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the 
 right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down ? Plainly 
 enough now ; the adoption of it would have spoiled the 
 niche for the Dred Scott decision. Why was the court 
 decision held up? Why even a Senator s individual opinion 
 withheld till after the Presidential election ? Plainly enough 
 now ; the speaking out then would have damaged the " per 
 fectly free " argument upon which the election was to be 
 carried. Why the outgoing President s felicitation on the 
 indorsement? Why the delay of a re-argument? Why the 
 incoming President s advance exhortation in favor of the 
 decision? 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. Ahd 
 why the hasty after-indorsements of the decision by the 
 President and others? 
 
 We can not absolutely know that all these exact adapta 
 tions are the result of pre-concert. 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 in 
 stance 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 even scaffolding or, if a single piece be lacking, 
 we can see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared 
 to yet bring such a piece in in such case we find it impos 
 sible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger 
 and James all understood one another from the beginning, 
 and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up 
 before the first blow was struck. . . . 
 
 Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas s 
 position, question his motives, or do aught that can be per 
 sonally offensive to him. Whenever, if ever, 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 pretend to be, he does not promise ever to be. 
 Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its 
 
"HOUSE-DIVIDED SPEECH." 161 
 
 own undoubted friends those whose hands are free, whose 
 hearts are in the work who do care for the result. 
 
 He closed by saying: " Two years ago the Repub 
 licans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred 
 thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse 
 of resistance to a common danger, with every external 
 circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and 
 even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, 
 and formed and fought the battle through, under the 
 constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud and pampered 
 enemy. Did we brave all then to falter now now, 
 when the same enemy is wavering, dissevered and bel 
 ligerent? 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." 
 
 After the adjournment of Congress, Douglas lin 
 gered more than three weeks at the East. He had 
 carefully watched all preliminaries of the combat, and 
 did not return unprovided with liberal campaign funds. 
 Arriving in Chicago on the 9th of July, he had a tri 
 umphal entry, quite in contrast with his reception there 
 four years before. Here, to be the last of his changing 
 abodes, he had taken up his residence after being fairly 
 launched on a national career. He now came to his 
 home not only with the indorsement of the Democratic 
 party of Illinois, but also with the prestige of a bold and 
 successful conflict with the Democratic administration. 
 
 In response to the auspicious and inspiring home- 
 welcome, he spoke at much length in his wonted 
 bold, imperious manner. Lincoln was present to hear. 
 Douglas claimed the merit of defeating the Lecompton 
 ii 
 
i62 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 scheme, and patronizingly thanked the Republicans for 
 "coming up manfully and sustaining" him in his work. 
 At length he came to Lincoln s Springfield speech of 
 the 1 6th of June: 
 
 I have observed from the public prints that but a few 
 days ago the Republican party of the State of Illinois assem 
 bled in convention at Springfield, and not only laid down 
 their platform, but nominated a candidate for the United 
 States Senate as my successor. I take great pleasure in say 
 ing that I have known, personally and intimately, for about 
 a quarter of a century, the worthy gentleman who has been 
 nominated for my place, and I will say that I regard him as 
 a kind, amiable and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen and 
 an honorable opponent ; and whatever issue I may have with 
 him will be of principle, and not involving personalities. Mr. 
 Lincoln made a speech before that Republican Convention 
 which unanimously nominated him for the Senate a 
 speech evidently well prepared and carefully written in 
 which he states the basis upon which he proposes to carry on 
 the campaign during this summer. In it he lays down two 
 distinct propositions which I shall notice, and upon which 
 I shall take a direct and bold issue with him. 
 
 His first and main proposition I will give in his own lan 
 guage, Scripture quotation and all; I give his exact lan 
 guage: " A house divided against itself can not stand/ I 
 believe this Government can not endure, permanently, half 
 slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis 
 solved. I do not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect it 
 to cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all 
 the other." In other words, Mr. Lincoln asserts, as a fun 
 damental principle of this government, that there must be 
 uniformity in the local laws and domestic institutions of each 
 and all the States of the Union; and he therefore invites all 
 the non-slaveholding States to band together, organize as one 
 body, and make war upon slavery in Kentucky, upon slavery 
 in Virginia, upon slavery in the Carolinas, upon slavery in 
 all the slaveholding States in this Union, and to persevere 
 in that war until it shall be exterminated. . . . Now, my 
 friends, I must say to you frankly that I take bold, unqual- 
 
"HOUSE-DIVIDED SPEECH." 163 
 
 ified issue with him upon that principle. I assert that it is 
 neither desirable nor possible that there should be uniformity 
 in the local institutions and domestic regulations of the dif 
 ferent States of this Union. The framers of our govern 
 ment never contemplated uniformity in its internal concerns. 
 
 The other proposition discussed by Mr. Lincoln in his 
 speech consists in a crusade against the Supreme Court of 
 the United States on account of the Dred Scott decision. 
 On this question, also, I desire to say to you unequivocally 
 that I take direct and distinct issue with him. I have no 
 warfare to make on the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 either on account of that or any other decision which they 
 have pronounced from that bench. ... I have no idea of 
 appealing from the decision of the Supreme Court upon a 
 constitutional question to the decisions of a tumultuous town 
 meeting. I am aware that once an eminent lawyer of this 
 city, now no more, said that the State of Illinois had the 
 most perfect judicial system in the world, subject to but one 
 exception, which could be cured by a slight amendment, and 
 that amendment was to so change the law as to allow an 
 appeal from the decisions of the Supreme Court of Illinois, 
 on all constitutional questions, to Justices of the Peace. 
 
 [ " You were then on the Supreme Bench," said Lincoln, 
 quietly.] 
 
 My friend, Mr. Lincoln, who sits behind me, reminds me 
 that the proposition was made when I was Judge of the 
 Supreme Court. Be that as it may, I do not think that fact 
 adds any greater weight or authority to the suggestion. . . . 
 I am opposed to this doctrine of Mr. Lincoln, by which he 
 proposes to take an appeal from the decision of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, upon this high constitutional 
 question, to a Republican caucus sitting in the country. Yes, 
 or any other caucus or town meeting, whether it be Repub 
 lican, American, or Democratic. I respect the decisions of 
 that august tribunal ; I shall always bow in deference to 
 them. . . . He objects to the Dred Scott decision because it 
 does not put the negro in the possession of the rights of 
 citizenship on an equality with the white man. I am opposed 
 to negro equality. ... I am opposed to taking any step* 
 that recognizes the negro man or the Indian as the equal of 
 the white man. I am opposed to giving him a voice in the 
 
1 64 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 administration of the government. I would extend to the 
 negro, and the Indian, and to all dependent races, every 
 right, every privilege, and every immunity consistent with 
 the safety and welfare of the white races ; but equality they 
 never should have, either political or social, or in any other 
 respect whatever. 
 
 As some of Lincoln s friends had foretold, coupling 
 the prophecy with a warning that was not heeded, 
 Douglas had with alacrity seized upon the soon famous 
 passage introduced with a scriptural quotation, as a 
 basis for assuming the aggressive. On neither side was 
 this matter dropped until the last speech of the canvass 
 was ended. 
 
 From the same platform Lincoln replied on the next 
 evening, the large audience receiving him with as hearty 
 manifestations as Douglas had been received the night 
 before. After reviewing the "popular sovereignty" 
 eulogized by Douglas and illustrated in Kansas, Lin 
 coln touched upon the claim set up by the Senator on 
 the score of his opposition to the Lecompton scheme, 
 and continued: 
 
 Judge Douglas made two points upon my recent speech 
 at Springfield. He says they are to be the issues of this 
 campaign. The first one of these points he bases upon the 
 language in a speech which I delivered at Springfield, which 
 I believe I can quote correctly from memory. . . . He 
 says that I am in favor of making war by the North upon 
 the South for the extinction of slavery; that I am also in 
 favor of inviting, as he expresses it, the South to a war upon 
 the North for the purpose of nationalizing slavery. Now, 
 it is singular enough, if you will carefully read that passage 
 over, that I did not say that I was in favor of anything in it. 
 I only said what I expected would take place. I made a 
 prediction only it may have been a foolish one perhaps. 
 I did not even say that I desired that slavery should be put 
 
CANDIDATE FOR SENATOR. 165 
 
 in course of ultimate extinction. I do say so now, however, 
 so there need be no longer any difficulty about that. It may 
 be written down in the next speech. ... I have always 
 hated slavery, I think, as much as any Abolitionist. I have 
 been an Old-Line Whig. I have always hated it, but I have 
 always been quiet about it until this new era of the intro 
 duction of the Nebraska bill began. I always believed that 
 everybody was against it, and that it was in course of ulti 
 mate extinction. ... I have said a hundred times, and I 
 have 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 to interfere with 
 the question of slavery at all. I have said that always. . . . 
 A little now on the other point the Dred Scott decision. 
 . . . What is fairly implied by the term Judge Douglas has 
 used, "resistance to the decision" ? I do not resist it. If 
 I wanted to take Dred Scott from his master, I would be 
 interfering with property. I am doing no such thing as that, 
 but all that I am doing is refusing to obey it as a political 
 rule. If I were in Congress, and a vote should come up on 
 a question whether slavery should be prohibited in a new 
 territory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote 
 that it should. % . . . We let this property abide by the 
 decision, but we will try to reverse that decision. We will 
 try to put it where Judge Douglas will not object, for he 
 says he will obey it until it is reversed. Somebody has to 
 reverse that decision, since it was made, and we mean to 
 reverse it, and we mean to do it peaceably. 
 
 After commenting on Douglas s view of the Decla 
 ration of Independence substantially as at Springfield 
 the previous year Lincoln continued: 
 
 My friend has said to me that I am a poor hand to quote 
 Scripture. I will try it again, however. It is said in one 
 of the admonitions of our Lord: "As your Father in heaven 
 is perfect, be ye also perfect." The Savior, I suppose, did 
 not expect that any human creature could be perfect as the 
 Father in heaven, but he said: "As your Father in heaven 
 is perfect, be ye also perfect." He set that up as a standard, 
 and he who did most toward reaching that standard attained 
 
i66 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 the highest degree of moral perfection. So I say in relation 
 to the principle that all men are created equal, let it be as 
 nearly reached as we can. If we can not give freedom to 
 every creature, let us do nothing to impose slavery upon any 
 other creature. Let us, then, turn this Government back 
 into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution 
 originally placed it. ... Turning in the contrary direc 
 tion that our friend Judge Douglas proposes not inten 
 tionally . . . tends to make this one universal slave 
 nation. He is one that runs in that direction, and as such I 
 resist him. 
 
 The two Chicago speeches and that of Lincoln at 
 Springfield in June present the chief subjects of the 
 campaign. Douglas could not, of course, neglect to 
 appear early at the State capital, and on his way thither 
 he spoke at Bloomington, and was again listened to by 
 his competitor. The Senator s speech at Springfield on 
 the 1 7th had much resemblance to his " key-note " at 
 Chicago. Lincoln also spoke there on the same day, 
 at night, without having heard Douglas in the after 
 noon. His opening remarks pointed out some of the 
 unequal conditions of the contest: 
 
 .... In the first place, we have a Legislature to elect 
 upon an apportionment of the representation made several 
 years ago, when the proportion of the population was far 
 greater in the south, as compared with the north, than it 
 now is; and inasmuch as our opponents hold almost entire 
 sway in the south, and we a correspondingly large majority 
 in the north, the fact that we are now to be represented as 
 we were years ago, when the population was different, is to 
 me a very great disadvantage. . . . 
 
 Proceeding to the methods and plans of his com 
 petitor, he said: 
 
 After Senator Douglas left Washington, as his move 
 ments were made known by the public prints, he tarried a 
 
CANDIDATE FOR SENATOR. 167 
 
 considerable time in the city of New York ; and it was 
 heralded that, like another Napoleon, he was lying by and 
 framing the plan of his campaign. . . . What I shall point 
 out, though not showing the whole plan, are, nevertheless, 
 the main points, as I suppose. They are not very numerous. 
 The first is Popular Sovereignty. The second and third are 
 attacks upon my speech made on the i6th of June. . . . 
 Upon these his successive speeches are substantially one 
 and the same. . . . Auxiliary to these main points, to be 
 sure, are their thunderings of cannon, their marching and 
 music, their fizzle-gigs and fireworks ; but I will not waste 
 time with them. They are but the little trappings of the 
 campaign. . . . 
 
 Judge Douglas said, at Bloomington, that I used lan 
 guage most able and ingenious for concealing what I really 
 meant ; and that, while I had protested against entering into 
 the slave States, I nevertheless did mean to go on the banks 
 of the Ohio and throw missiles into Kentucky, to disturb the 
 people there in their domestic institutions. I said in that 
 speech, and I meant no more, that the institution of slavery 
 ought to be placed in the very attitude where the framers of 
 this Government placed it, and left it. I do not understand 
 that the framers of our Constitution left the people of the 
 free States in the attitude of firing bombs or shells into the 
 slave States. . . . 
 
 Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, in one of his speeches, 
 when they were presenting him canes, silver plate, gold 
 pitchers and the like, for assaulting Senator Sumner, dis 
 tinctly affirmed his opinion that when this Constitution 
 was formed, it was the belief of no man that slavery would 
 last to the present day. He said, what I think, that the 
 framers of our Constitution placed the institution of slavery 
 where the public mind rested in the hope that it was in the 
 course of ultimate extinction. But he went on to say that 
 the men of the present age, by their experience, have become 
 wiser than the framers of the Constitution ; and the inven 
 tion of the cotton-gin had made the perpetuity of slavery a 
 necessity in this country. 
 
 Recurring to the Dred Scott case, he cited Jeffer 
 son s views on judicial decisions, alluded to the course 
 
1 68 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 of the Democratic party and of Douglas personally, in 
 regard to the National Bank decision, and concluded: 
 
 Judge Douglas is for Supreme Court decisions when he 
 likes, and against them when he does not like them. He is 
 for the Dred Scott decision because it tends to nationalize 
 slavery because it is a part of the original combination for 
 that object. It so happened, singularly enough, that I never 
 stood opposed to a decision of the Supreme Court till this. 
 On the contrary, I have no recollection that he was ever par 
 ticularly in favor of one till this. He never was in favor of 
 any, nor I opposed to any, till the present one, which helps 
 to nationalize slavery. Free men of Sangamon free men 
 of Illinois free men everywhere judge ye between him 
 and me upon this issue. 
 
 It was not until the last of July that on Lincoln s 
 challenge Douglas agreed to a series of joint meet 
 ings one in each of the seven Congressional districts 
 in which they had not yet spoken during the present 
 canvass. 
 
 It may be presumed that many of Lincoln s friends, 
 who knew the skill and ability of Douglas in debate 
 especially, regarded the challenge as a bold, if not a 
 rash one. The two were unlike in their methods. As 
 his opponent said of him, Lincoln was "conscientious," 
 and his candor seemed at times to place him at a disad 
 vantage with a wily antagonist; nor had he the practical 
 readiness in face-to-face discussion, for which the other 
 was distinguished. Lincoln was not alone in thinking 
 the Senator a somewhat unscrupulous opponent in a 
 pressing emergency. Often overbearing in his manner, 
 conscious of the superior position his better fortune in 
 politics had gained for him, and impressed now with a 
 lively sense of the consequences of defeat, he would cer- 
 
CANDIDATE FOR SENATOR. 
 
 tainly spare no available resource in this contest. But 
 he had shown no alacrity in consenting to a joint can 
 vass, even the partial one granted; nor did he think 
 Lincoln s challenge mere "banter," as at one of their 
 later meetings, when in a rather exasperated mood, he 
 seemed to insinuate. He knew Lincoln better than 
 some other politicians did, and though not lacking in 
 self-confidence, was possibly not quite sure that any 
 thing would be gained on his part by accepting the 
 challenge. 
 
 Speaking separately for the next three weeks, each 
 of course went over the same ground substantially as 
 at Chicago and Springfield. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AUGUST - OCTOBER, 1858. 
 The Lincoln -Douglas Debate. 
 
 At the first joint meeting, August 2ist, at Ottawa, 
 in the strongly anti-slavery district represented by Owen 
 Lovejoy, Douglas led off in the line of talk into which, 
 after his opening at Chicago, he habitually struck when 
 choosing his own course, or when he wanted an easy 
 road to fall back upon. This was his starting point: 
 "Prior to 1854 this country was divided into two great 
 political parties, known as the Whig and the Demo 
 cratic parties. Both were national and patriotic, advo 
 cating principles that were universal in their applica 
 tion. ... In 1854, Mr. Abraham Lincoln and Mr. 
 Trumbull entered into an arrangement, one with the 
 other, and each with his respective friends, to dissolve 
 the old Whig party on the one hand, and to dissolve the 
 old Democratic party on the other, and to connect the 
 members of both into an Abolition party, under the 
 name and disguise of a Republican party. The terms 
 of that arrangement between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
 Trumbull . . . were, that Lincoln should have Shields s 
 place in the United States Senate, which was then about 
 to become vacant, and that Trumbull should have my 
 seat when my term expired. ... In pursuance of the 
 arrangement, the parties met at Springfield in October, 
 
 (170) 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 171 
 
 1854, and proclaimed their new platform. I have the 
 resolutions of their State Convention then held, which 
 was the first State Convention ever held in Illinois by 
 the Black Republican party, and I now hold them in 
 my hands, and will read a part of them, and cause the 
 others to be printed/ 
 
 The resolutions thus produced were not those 
 adopted by the "first State Convention," (which met 
 at Bloomington in 1856,) nor were they adopted in 
 1854 at Springfield, as alleged, but at a local convention 
 held much farther north. On the erroneous assump 
 tion made, Douglas proceeded to interrogate his oppo 
 nent as to his position on the fugitive slave law, the 
 admission of new slave States, and so forth, and added: 
 "I ask Abraham Lincoln to answer these questions, in 
 order that when I trot him down to lower Egypt I may 
 put the same questions to him. ... I desire to know 
 whether Mr. Lincoln s principles will bear transporting 
 from Ottawa to Jonesboro. I put these questions to 
 him to-day distinctly, and ask an answer." Then came 
 the following personalities: 
 
 In the remarks I have made on this platform, and the 
 position of Mr. Lincoln upon it, I mean nothing personally 
 disrespectful or unkind to that gentleman. I have known 
 him for nearly twenty-five years. There were many points 
 of sympathy between us when we first got acquainted. We 
 were both comparatively boys, and both struggling with pov 
 erty in a strange land. I was a school teacher in the town 
 of Winchester, and he a flourishing grocery-keeper in the 
 town of Salem. He was more successful in his occupation 
 than I was in mine, and hence more fortunate in this world s 
 goods. Lincoln is one of those peculiar men who perform 
 with admirable skill everything which they undertake. I 
 made as good a school teacher as I could, and when a cabi- 
 
172 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 net-maker I made a good bedstead and tables, although my 
 old boss said I succeeded better with bureaus and secreta 
 ries than with anything else ; but I believe that Lincoln was 
 always more successful in business than I, for his business 
 enabled him to get into the Legislature. I met him there, 
 however, and had a sympathy with him, because of the 
 up-hill struggle we both had in life. He was then just as 
 good at telling an anecdote as now. He could beat any of 
 the boys at wrestling, or running a foot-race, in pitching 
 quoits or tossing a copper ; could ruin more liquor than all 
 the boys of the town together, and the dignity and impar 
 tiality with which he presided at a horse-race or fist-fight 
 excited the admiration and won the praise of everybody 
 that was present and participating. I sympathized with him, 
 because he was struggling with difficulties, and so was I. 
 Mr. Lincoln served with me in the Legislature in 1836, when 
 we both retired, and he subsided, or became submerged, and 
 he was lost sight of as a public man for some years. In 
 1846, when Wilmot introduced his celebrated proviso, and 
 the Abolition tornado swept over the country, Lincoln again 
 turned up as a member of Congress from the Sangamon dis 
 trict. I was then in the Senate of the United States, and 
 was glad to welcome my old friend and companion. Whilst 
 in Congress he distinguished himself by his opposition to the 
 Mexican war, taking the side of the common enemy against 
 his own country ; and when he returned home he found that 
 the indignation of the people followed him everywhere, and 
 he was again submerged or obliged to retire into private life, 
 forgotten by his former friends. He came up again in 1854, 
 just in time to make this Abolition or Black Republican plat 
 form, in company with Giddings, Lovejoy, Chase and Fred. 
 Douglass, for the Republican party to stand upon. Trum- 
 bull, too, was one of our own contemporaries. He was born 
 and raised in old Connecticut, was bred a Federalist, but 
 removing to Georgia, turned Nullifier, when nullification was 
 popular, and as soon as he disposed of his clocks and wound 
 up his business, migrated to Illinois, turned politician and 
 lawyer here, and made his appearance in 1841 as a member 
 of the Legislature. 
 
 Following this biographic fancy-work came the inev- 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 173 
 
 itable onslaught on the i6th of June speech, with more 
 of the spice of caricature and badinage: 
 
 We are told by Lincoln that he is utterly opposed to the 
 Dred Scott decision, and will not submit to it, for the reason 
 that he says it deprives the negro of the rights and privileges 
 of citizenship. ... I ask you, are you in favor of confer 
 ring upon the negro the rights and privileges of citizenship ? 
 Do you desire to strike out of our State Constitution that 
 clause which keeps slaves and free negroes out of the State, 
 and allow the free negroes to flow in, and cover your prairies 
 with black settlements ? Do you desire to turn this beautiful 
 State into a free negro colony, in order that when Missouri 
 abolishes slavery she can send one hundred thousand eman 
 cipated slaves into Illinois, to become citizens and voters, 
 on an equality with yourselves? . . . For one, I am 
 opposed to negro citizenship in any and every form. I be 
 lieve this Government was made on the white basis. I 
 believe it was made by white men, for the benefit of white 
 men and their posterity forever, and I am in favor of con 
 fining citizenship to white men, men of European birth and 
 descent, instead of conferring it upon negroes, Indians and 
 other inferior races. Mr. Lincoln, following the example 
 and lead of all the little Abolition orators, who go around 
 and lecture in the basements of schools and churches, reads 
 from the Declaration of Independence that all men were 
 created equal, and then asks, How can you deprive a negro 
 of that equality which God and the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence award to him? I do not question Mr. Lincoln s 
 conscientious belief that the negro was made his equal, and 
 hence is his brother ; but for my own part, I do not regard 
 the negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my 
 brother or any kin to me whatever. ... I believe that 
 this new doctrine preached by Mr. Lincoln and his party 
 will dissolve the Union if it succeeds. 
 
 Douglas having rilled his hour, Lincoln began: 
 
 When a man hears himself somewhat misrepresented, it 
 provokes him at least, I find it so with myself ; but when 
 misrepresentation becomes very gross and palpable, it is 
 more apt to amuse him. The first thing I see fit to notice 
 
174 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 is the fact that Judge Douglas alleges, after running through 
 the history of the old Democratic and the old Whig parties, 
 that Judge Trumbull and myself made an arrangement in 
 1854 by which I was to have the place of General Shields 
 in the United States Senate, and Judge Trumbull was to 
 have the place of Judge Douglas. Now, all I have to say 
 upon that subject is, that I think no man not even Judge 
 Douglas can prove it, because it is not true. I have no 
 doubt he is " conscientious " in saying it. As to those res 
 olutions that he took such a length of time to read, as being 
 the platform of the Republican party in 1854, I say I never 
 had anything to do with them, and I think Trumbull never 
 had. Judge Douglas can not show that either of us ever 
 did have anything to do with them. . . . Now, gentle 
 men, I hate to waste my time on such things, but in regard 
 to that general Abolition tilt that Judge Douglas makes, 
 when he says that I was engaged at that time in selling out 
 and abolitionizing the old Whig party I hope you will 
 permit me to read a part of a printed speech that I made 
 then at Peoria, which will show altogether a different view 
 of the position I took in that contest of 1854. . . . This 
 is the whole of it, and anything that argues me into his idea 
 of perfect social and political equality with the negro is but 
 a specious and fantastic arrangement of words, by which a 
 man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse. I 
 will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no pur 
 pose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 
 of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have 
 no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do 
 so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social 
 equality between the white and the black races. . . . 
 
 Now I pass on to consider one or two more of these 
 little follies. The Judge is wofully at fault about his early 
 friend Lincoln being a " grocery-keeper." I don t know as 
 it would be a great sin if I had been ; but he is mistaken. 
 Lincoln never kept a grocery anywhere in the world. It 
 is true that Lincoln did work the latter part of one winter 
 in a little still-house, up at the head of a hollow. And so 
 I think my friend, the Judge, is equally at fault when he 
 charges me at the time when I was in Congress of having 
 opposed our soldiers who were fighting in the Mexican war. 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 175 
 
 He then gave some attention to his opponent s con 
 struction of the "house divided" feature of the speech 
 of June 1 6th, replying substantially as on previous occa 
 sions, and in one sentence giving a key to his purpose: 
 "My main object was to show, so far as my humble 
 ability was capable of showing, to the people of this 
 country what I believed was the truth, that there was 
 a tendency, if not a conspiracy, among those who have 
 engineered the slavery question for the last four or five 
 years, to make slavery perpetual and universal in this 
 nation." As incidental to this "main object" he had 
 added a "bit of comment" containing the illustration 
 of "Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James," working 
 together in building a house, with the signs of pre 
 concert to be found in the exact fitting of tenons and 
 mortises, and so forth; to which Douglas, when "he 
 took hold of this speech " at Chicago, paid no atten 
 tion at all, but complimented him as being a " kind, 
 amiable, and intelligent gentleman," whereby he was a 
 little " taken," coming as it did " from a great man." 
 " I was not very much accustomed to flattery," Lincoln 
 said, " and it came the sweeter to me. I was rather 
 like the Hoosier with the gingerbread, when he said he 
 reckoned he loved it better than any other man, and 
 got less of it." 
 
 He next spoke at some length of the effect and 
 intent of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in combination with 
 the Dred-Scott decision, concluding: 
 
 Henry Clay, my beau ideal of a statesman, the man for 
 whom I fought all my humble life Henry Clay once said 
 of a class of men who would repress all tendencies to lib 
 erty and ultimate emancipation, that they must, if they would 
 
i;6 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 do this, go back to the era of our Independence and muzzle 
 the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return; they 
 must blow out the moral lights around us ; they must pen 
 etrate the human soul and eradicate there the love of lib 
 erty ; and then, and not till then, could they perpetuate slav 
 ery in this country! To my thinking, Judge Douglas is, 
 by his example and vast influence, doing that very thing in 
 this community when he says that the negro has nothing 
 in the Declaration of Independence. Henry Clay plainly 
 understood the contrary. . . . And now I will only say 
 that when, by all these means and appliances, Judge Douglas 
 shall succeed in bringing public sentiment to an exact ac 
 cordance with his own views, . . . then it needs only the 
 formality of the second Dred Scott decision, which he in 
 dorses in advance, to make slavery alike lawful in all the 
 States old as well as new, North as well as South. 
 
 In his half-hour response Douglas wasted further 
 time on the spurious " Republican platform," which 
 had figured so largely in his opening speech. Of the 
 "conspiracy" charge Douglas remarked: 
 
 He says he will repeat it until I answer his folly and 
 nonsense about Stephen, and Franklin, and Roger, and Bob, 
 and James. He studied that out prepared that one sen 
 tence with the greatest care, committed it to memory, and 
 put it in his first Springfield speech, and now he carries that 
 speech around and reads that sentence to show how pretty 
 it is. His vanity is wounded because I will not go into that 
 beautiful figure of his about the building of a house. All 
 I have to say is, that I am not green enough to let him 
 make a charge which he acknowledges he does not know 
 to be true, and then take up my time in answering it, when 
 I know it to be false and nobody else knows it to be true. 
 . . . . What does Mr. Lincoln propose? He says that 
 the Union can not exist divided into free and slave States. 
 If it can not endure thus divided, then he must strive to make 
 them all free or all slave, which will inevitably bring about 
 a dissolution of the Union. 
 
 So ended the Ottawa debate. Lincoln wrote next. 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 177 
 
 day to a friend: There was a vast concourse of 
 people more than could get near enough to hear." 
 A majority were Republicans, very enthusiastic for 
 their candidate, and at the close he was borne on stout 
 shoulders from the platform. 
 
 Freeport, the place of their next meeting (August 
 27th), was in a region where, as in the Ottawa district, 
 even the " regular " Democrats had repeatedly indorsed 
 what Douglas was now calling Abolition sentiments. 
 The opening was made lively and picturesque by the 
 arrival of the Little Giant in a gay barouche drawn by 
 four white horses and loudly greeted by the throng; 
 and still wilder applause hailed the advent of Lincoln, 
 whose chariot was a plain " prairie schooner." This 
 occasion is chiefly memorable for one of the series of 
 questions propounded to Douglas and for the answer 
 given, which bore on his subsequent career with the 
 power of inexorable fate. 
 
 After some preliminary remarks, Lincoln said of the 
 questions asked him at Ottawa: " I now propose that 
 I will answer any of the interrogatories upon condition 
 that he will answer questions from me not exceeding the 
 same number. I give him an opportunity to respond. 
 The Judge remains silent. I now say that I will answer 
 his interrogatories, whether he answers mine or not; 
 and that after I have done so, I shall propound mine 
 to him." 
 
 He then read the seven questions of Douglas, 
 answering in substance that he was not and never had 
 been committed (i) to the unconditional repeal of the 
 fugitive slave law; or (2) against the admission of any 
 
 12 
 
178 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 more slave States into the Union; or (3) against the 
 admission of a new State into the Union, with such a 
 Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to 
 make; or (4) in favor of the abolition of slavery in the 
 District of Columbia; or (5) in favor of prohibiting the 
 slave-trade between the different States. He was (6) 
 " impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the 
 right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the 
 United States Territories"; and (7) was not generally 
 opposed to honest acquisition of territory; and, in any 
 given case, would or would not oppose such acquisition, 
 according as he might think such acquisition would or 
 would not agitate the slavery question among ourselves. 
 After a fuller expression of his views on some of 
 these points, he propounded four questions to Douglas, 
 as follows: 
 
 Question I. If the people of Kansas shall, by means en 
 tirely unobjectionable in all other respects, adopt a State 
 Constitution, and ask admission into the Union under it, 
 before they have the requisite number of inhabitants accord 
 ing to the English bill some ninety-three thousand 
 would you vote to admit them? 
 
 Question 2. Can the people of a United States Territory, 
 in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the 
 United States, exclude slavery from its limits? 
 
 Question 3. If the Supreme Court of the United States 
 shall decide that States can not exclude slavery from their 
 limits, are you in favor of acquiescing 1 in, adopting and fol 
 lowing such decisions as a rule of action? 
 
 Question 4. Are yon in favor of acquiring additional ter 
 ritory in disregard of how such acquisition may affect the 
 nation on the slavery question? 
 
 There were friends of Lincoln to whom he showed 
 these questions in advance, who told him an affirmative 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 179 
 
 answer would unhesitatingly be given to the second one, 
 regardless of any effect except upon the pending con 
 test to Douglas the vital interest of the moment 
 trusting to his own skill in making peace with the South 
 afterward. These anxious advisers thought they had 
 persuaded him to drop it, and (as one of them said to 
 the writer a year or two later*) were " thunderstruck " 
 when they heard the question read from the stand, 
 feeling that this insured their candidate s defeat. 
 
 When Douglas in his response came to this inter 
 rogatory, he read it with assurance and exultation in 
 his voice, promptly answered in the affirmative, and was 
 "immensely applauded." It seemed as if this were just 
 the opportunity he had longed for. " It matters not," 
 he said, " what way the Supreme Court may hereafter 
 decide as to the abstract question as to whether slavery 
 may or may not go into a Territory under the Consti 
 tution, the people have the lawful means to introduce it 
 or exclude it, as they please, for the reason that slavery 
 can not exist a day or an hour anywhere unless it is sup 
 ported by local police regulations. Those police regu 
 lations can only be established by the local Legislature, 
 and if the people are opposed to slavery, they will elect 
 representatives to that body who will, by unfriendly 
 legislation, effectually prevent the introduction of it into 
 their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their 
 legislation will favor its extension. Hence, no matter 
 what the decision of the Supreme Court may be on that 
 abstract question, still the right of the people to make 
 a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and com- 
 
 *The late Hon. Joseph Medill, of the Chicago Tribune. 
 
i8o LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 plete under the Nebraska bill. I hope Mr. Lincoln 
 deems my answer satisfactory on that point." 
 
 Lincoln s questioning brought so explicit and direct 
 an answer at this time in spite of the Supreme Court s 
 decision as to make a positive impression at the South. 
 Douglas in vain tried afterward to remove it even 
 quoting from a speech made by Jefferson Davis in 
 Maine, before the Kansas-Nebraska act was passed, as 
 sustaining his own view. He was not forgiven, and 
 on no one did his FYeeport avowal take effect more 
 adversely to Douglas than upon Jefferson Davis him 
 self. By forcing Douglas to commit himself upon this 
 question in exact terms, Lincoln counted on widening 
 the breach in the Democratic party to the advantage 
 of the Republican cause, whatever the first effect on 
 himself. His sagacity in this will not now be disputed. 
 
 The other three questions have no interest in com 
 parison with the second. In replying to the first one, 
 Douglas said he preferred that no Territory should be 
 admitted as a State without a population equal to that 
 fixed as the ratio of representation, but numbers suffi 
 cient for a slave State were sufficient for a free State; 
 and Kansas having been offered admission under the 
 Lecompton constitution with only about one-third of 
 such population, he would consent to its admission 
 without increase as a free State. As to the third ques 
 tion, he scouted the idea of any such possibility as it 
 implied, and gave no direct answer. As to acquiring 
 any additional territory regardless of slavery (the fourth 
 question), he answered that " whenever it becomes nec 
 essary, in due growth and progress, to acquire more ter 
 ritory," he was " in favor of it, without reference to the 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 181 
 
 question of slavery," leaving the people " free to do as 
 they please, either to make it slave or free territory, as 
 they prefer." With the zeal of an ardent expansionist 
 he concluded on this point: 
 
 I tell you, increase and multiply and expand, is the law 
 of this nation s existence. You can not limit this great Re 
 public by mere boundary lines, saying, " Thus far shalt thou 
 go, and no further." Any one of you gentlemen might as 
 well say to a son twelve years old that he is big enough, 
 and must not grow any larger, and in order to prevent his 
 growth put a hoop around him to keep him to his present 
 size. What would be the result? Either the hoop must 
 burst and be rent asunder, or the child must die. So it 
 would be with this great nation. With our natural increase, 
 growing with a rapidity unknown in any other part of the 
 globe, with the tide of emigration that is fleeing from des 
 potism in the old world to seek refuge in our own, there is 
 a constant torrent pouring into this country that requires 
 more land, more territory upon which to settle, and just as 
 fast as our interests and our destiny require additional ter 
 ritory in the North, in the South, or on the islands of tihe 
 ocean, I am for it, and when we acquire it, will leave the 
 people, according to the Nebraska bill, free to do as they 
 please on the subject of slavery and every other question. 
 
 The four interrogatories being disposed of, he as 
 sumed the defensive in regard to his spurious Repub 
 lican State platform. Conceding that he had been in 
 error, he sought to throw the responsibility on the 
 editor of the Democratic organ at Springfield; but still 
 used a great deal of special pleading to show that the 
 resolutions of an Anti-Nebraska convention in Kane 
 County, long before the Republican party was organ 
 ized in Illinois, somehow compromised Lincoln. 
 
 In his rejoinder Lincoln said on th>s subject: 
 
 At the introduction of the Nebraska policy we believed 
 there was a new era beincf introduced in the historv of the 
 
1 82 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Republic which tended to the spread and perpetuation of 
 slavery. But in our opposition to that measure we did 
 
 not agree with one another in everything We at 
 
 last met together in 1856, from all parts of the State, and we 
 agreed upon a platform. . . . And I say here to you, if 
 any one expects of me in the case of my election that 
 I will do anything not signified by our Republican platform 
 and my answers here to-day, I tell you very frankly, that 
 person will be deceived. I do not ask for the vote of any 
 one who supposes that I have secret purposes or pledges 
 that I dare not speak out. Can not the Judge be satisfied? 
 ... I tell you what he is afraid of. He is afraid we ll 
 all pull together. This is what alarms him more than any 
 thing else. For my part, I do hope that all of us enter 
 taining a common sentiment in opposition to what appears 
 to us a design to nationalize and perpetuate slavery will 
 waive minor differences on questions which either belong to 
 the dead past or the distant future, and all pull together in 
 this struggle. 
 
 The most notable new point made in this closing 
 half-hour speech was in connection with his rejoinder 
 to the attempt of Douglas to explain away a speech of 
 his in the Senate, construed by Lincoln as charging the 
 Administration with aiming a " fatal blow " at the sov 
 ereignty of the States. After presenting documentary 
 evidence in regard to the " fatal blow " feature of the 
 Lecompton quarrel, Lincoln continued: 
 
 But the Judge s eye is farther south now. Then it was 
 very peculiarly and decidedly north. His hope rested on the 
 idea of visiting the great " Black Republican " party and 
 making it the tail of his new kite. He knows he was then 
 expecting from day to day to turn Republican and place 
 himself at the head of our organization. He has found that 
 these despised " Black Republicans " estimate him by a 
 standard which he has taught them none too well. Hence 
 he is crawling back into his old camp, and you will find 
 him eventually installed in full fellowship among those 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 183 
 
 whom he was then battling, and with whom he now pretends 
 to be at such fearful variance. 
 
 The third joint discussion, on the I5th of September, 
 was at Jonesboro fairly * down in Egypt " at last. 
 Douglas led off with his " Prior to 1854 this country 
 was divided into two great political parties," and so 
 forth, continuing on this line until he digressed to say 
 of his opponents in the Anti-Nebraska canvass of the 
 year named: 
 
 They were Republicans or Abolitionists in the North, 
 anti-Nebraska men down about Springfield, and in this 
 neighborhood they contented themselves with talking about 
 the inexpediency of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
 In the extreme northern counties they brought out men to 
 canvass the State whose complexions suited their political 
 creed, and hence Fred Douglass, the negro, was to be found 
 there, following General Cass, and attempting to speak on 
 behalf of Lincoln, Trumbull and Abolitionism against that 
 illustrious Senator. Why, they brought Fred Douglas to 
 Freeport, when I was addressing a meeting there, in a 
 carriage driven by the white owner, the negro sitting inside 
 with the white lady and her daughter. When I got through 
 canvassing the northern counties that year, and progressed 
 as far south as Springfield, I was met and opposed in dis 
 cussion by Lincoln, Lovejoy, Trumbull and Sidney Breese, 
 who were on one side. Father Giddings, the high-priest of 
 Abolitionism, had just been there, and Chase came about 
 the time I left. 
 
 Again resuming his staple speech for a while, he 
 came to the Republican State Convention of the pre 
 vious June, and went on through the old criticism of 
 Lincoln s speech on that occasion. This brought the 
 Senator to the close of his hour. In his reply Lincoln 
 said at the outset: 
 
 There is very much in the principles that Judge Douglas 
 has here enunciated that I most cordially approve, and over 
 
184 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 which I shall have no controversy with him. In so far as 
 he has insisted that all the States have the right to do ex 
 actly as they please about all their domestic relations, includ 
 ing that of slavery, I agree entirely with him. He places me 
 wrong in spite of all I can tell him, though I repeat it again 
 and again, insisting that I have no difference with him upon 
 this subject. I have made a great many speeches, some of 
 which have been printed, and it will be utterly impossible for 
 him to find anything that I have ever put in print contrary 
 to what I now say upon this subject. 
 
 As to the indorsement of the Compromise of 1850 
 by the Whigs as a finality, he said: 
 
 I understand the Judge to be altogether right about that ; 
 I understand that part of the history of the country as stated 
 by him to be correct. I recollect that I, as a member of 
 that party, acquiesced in that Compromise. I recollect in 
 the Presidential election which followed, when we had Gen 
 eral Scott up for the Presidency, Judge Douglas was around 
 berating us Whigs as Abolitionists, precisely as he does to 
 day not a bit of difference. I have often heard him. We 
 could do nothing when the old Whig party was alive that 
 was not Abolitionism ; but it has got an extremely good name 
 since it has passed away. ... I have the report that 
 Judge Douglas first brought into Congress at the time of 
 the introduction of the Nebraska bill, which in its original 
 form did not repeal the Missouri Compromise, and he there 
 expressly stated that he had foreborne to do so because it 
 had not been done by the Compromise of 1850. I close this 
 part of the discussion on my part by asking him the ques 
 tion again, " Why, when we had peace under the Missouri 
 Compromise, could you not have let it alone?" 
 
 He then replied briefly to the onslaught on his i6th 
 of June speech, and proceeded to notice his opponent s 
 continual hammering at a set of extreme anti-slavery 
 resolutions with which neither Lincoln nor the Repub 
 lican party as such had anything to do. As a fair 
 set-off to what was in itself so unfair, he produced the 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 185 
 
 equally radical commitments of two regular Democratic 
 Congressional candidates in Northern Illinois, even in 
 1850 both these candidates being personal friends of 
 Douglas, both later helped by him to Federal offices, 
 and both to-day supporting him. He also cited " a set 
 of resolutions passed by a Democratic State Convention 
 in Judge Douglas s own good old State of Vermont, 
 that," said Lincoln, " I think ought to be good for him, 
 too " resolutions declaring that " liberty is a right 
 inherent and inalienable in man, and that herein all men 
 are equal"; that slavery should be prohibited in the 
 Territories and abolished in the District of Columbia; 
 " that no more slave States should be admitted into the 
 Federal Union," and " that the Government ought to 
 return to its ancient policy, not to extend, nationalize, 
 or encourage, but to limit, localize, and discourage 
 slavery." 
 
 He also gave considerable time to exposing the 
 inconsistencies to which Douglas had committed him 
 self by his answer to the second Freeport question, and 
 subsequently added a fifth question touching a vital 
 point: 
 
 Question 5. If the slave-holding citizens of a United 
 States Territory should need and demand Congressional leg 
 islation for the protection of their slave property in such Ter 
 ritory, would you, as a member of Congress, vote for or 
 against such legislation? 
 
 Noticing some bantering remarks of Douglas at 
 Joliet, after the Freeport meeting, Lincoln continued: 
 
 There is another thing . .. . that alarmed me very 
 greatly as he states it that he was going to " trot me 
 down to Egypt." Thereby he would have you to infer that 
 
i86 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 I would not come to Egypt unless he forced me that I 
 could not be got there, unless he, giant-like, had hauled me 
 down there. That statement he makes, too, in the teeth of 
 the knowledge that I had made the stipulation to come 
 down here, and that he himself had been very reluctant 
 to enter into the stipulation. . . . Why, I know this peo 
 ple better than he does. I was raised just a little east of 
 here. I am a part of this people. But the Judge was raised 
 further north, and perhaps he has some horrid idea of what 
 this people might be induced to do. But really I have 
 talked about this matter perhaps longer than I ought, for 
 it is no great thing, and yet the smallest are often the most 
 difficult things to deal with. 
 
 The most interesting part of the closing speech of 
 Douglas at Jonesboro was the reply to Lincoln s fifth 
 question with its preceding bit of autobiography: 
 
 Mr. Lincoln attempts to cover up and get over his Aboli 
 tionism by telling you that he was raised a little east of you, 
 beyond the Wabash in Indiana, and he thinks that makes a 
 mighty sound and good man of him on all these questions. 
 I do not know that the place where a man is born or raised 
 has much to do with his political principles. The worst 
 Abolitionists I have ever known in Illinois have been men 
 who have sold their slaves in Alabama and Kentucky, and 
 have come here and turned Abolitionists whilst spending 
 the money they got for the negroes they sold, and I do 
 not know that an Abolitionist from Indiana or Kentucky 
 ought to have any more credit because he was born and 
 raised among the slave-holders. . . . True, I was not born 
 out West here. I was born away down in Yankee land, I 
 was born in a valley in Vermont, with the high mountains 
 around me. I love the old green mountains and valleys of 
 Vermont, where I was born, and where I played in my child 
 hood. I went up to visit them some seven or eight years 
 ago for the first time for twenty-odd years. When I got 
 there they treated me very kindly. They invited me to the 
 Commencement of their college, placed me on the seats with 
 their distinguished guests, and conferred upon me the degree 
 of LL.D. in Latin (Doctor of Laws) the same as thev did 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 187 
 
 old Hickory, at Cambridge, many years ago, and I give you 
 my word and honor I understood just as much of the Latin 
 as he did. When they got through conferring the honorary 
 degree, they called upon me for a speech, and I got up with 
 my heart full and swelling with gratitude for their kindness, 
 and I said to them : " My friends, Vermont is the most 
 glorious spot on the face of this globe for a man to be born 
 in, provided he emigrates when he is very young." I emi 
 grated when I was very young. I came out here when I 
 was a boy, and I found my mind liberalized, and my opinions 
 enlarged when I got on these broad prairies, with only the 
 heavens to bound my vision, instead of having them circum 
 scribed by the little narrow ridges that surrounded the valley 
 where I was born. But I discard all flings of the land where 
 a man was born. I wish to be judged by my principles, by 
 those great public measures and constitutional principles 
 upon which the peace, the happiness and the perpetuity of 
 this Republic now rest. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln has framed another question, propounded 
 it to me, and desired my answer. . . . It is as follows: 
 " If the slave-holding citizens of a United States Territory 
 should need and demand Congressional legislation for the 
 protection of their slave property in such Territory, would 
 you, as a member of Congress, vote for or against such 
 legislation?" I answer him that it is a fundamental article 
 in the Democratic creed that there should be non-interference 
 and non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States 
 or Territories. Mr. Lincoln could have found an answer 
 to his question in the Cincinnati platform, if he had desired 
 it. The Democratic party have always stood by that great 
 principle of non-interference and non-intervention by Con 
 gress with slavery in the States and Territories alike, and 
 I stand on that platform now. 
 
 The matter was to be heard from further in a certain 
 convention, ere long to assemble at Charleston, South 
 Carolina. The Senator s answer, like that to Lin 
 coln s second question at Freeport, found record in the 
 Southern note-book. 
 
 The champions had their fourth encounter three 
 
188 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 days later at Charleston, in Coles County. The audi 
 ence was a very large one, and after requesting that " as 
 profound silence be observed as possible," Lincoln said: 
 
 While I was at the hotel to-day an elderly gentleman 
 called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of 
 producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white 
 people. While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion 
 to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked 
 me I thought I will occupy perhaps five minutes in saying 
 something in regard to it. I will say then that I am not, 
 nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way 
 the social and political equality of the white and black races 
 that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making 
 voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold 
 office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say 
 in addition to this that there is a physical difference between 
 the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid 
 the two races living together on terms of social and political 
 equality. And inasmuch as they can not so live, while they 
 do remain together there must be the 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 everything. I do not understand that because I 
 do not want a negro woman for a slave, I must necessarily 
 want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just 
 let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly 
 never have had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. 
 So it seems to me quite possible for us to get along without 
 either making slaves or wives of negroes. I will add to 
 this that I have never seen, to my knowledge, a man, woman 
 or child who was in favor of producing a perfect equality, 
 social and political, between negroes and white men. . . . 
 
 The remainder of the speech must have been rather 
 a surprise, inasmuch as Lincoln, having the opening, 
 devoted his time chiefly to a question that had arisen 
 between Senators Trumbull and Douglas during this 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 189 
 
 canvass, concerning the latter s action in regard to 
 certain Kansas-Nebraska legislation, and about mat 
 ters growing out of this controversy. It had become 
 an angry wrangle, in which harsh words had been used, 
 and Lincoln came to the support of Trumbull with doc 
 umentary evidence. Douglas, disconcerted and angry, 
 made a reply that was evidently not very satisfactory 
 to himself, and presently turned to his story of the 
 two parties " prior to 1854." Nor is there in Lincoln s 
 rejoinder any new matter that is specially memorable. 
 The fifth discussion was at Galesburg, in a more 
 northern latitude, on the 7th of October. Douglas had 
 the opening, and plied his flail with the usual vigor to 
 the oft-beaten straw. He was aggressive and adroit, 
 making one of his ablest speeches to an audience more 
 largely in sympathy with his opponent than he had 
 faced at the last two meetings. Lincoln began by say 
 ing: "A very large portion of the speech which Judge 
 Douglas has addressed to you has previously been 
 delivered and put in print." The audience laughed and 
 cheered, but he continued: " I do not mean that for a 
 hit upon the Judge at all. If I had not been inter 
 rupted, I was going to say that such an answer as I was 
 able to make to a very large portion of it had already 
 been more than once made and published." 
 
 I make these remarks [he continued] for the purpose of 
 excusing myself for not passing over the entire ground that 
 the Judge has traversed. ... I believe the entire records 
 of the world, from the date of the Declaration of Indepen 
 dence up to within three years ago, may be searched in 
 vain for one single affirmation, from one single man, that 
 the negro was not included in the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence; I think I may defy Judge Douglas to show that 
 
190 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 he ever said so, that Washington ever said so, that any Pres 
 ident ever said so, that any member of Congress ever said 
 so, or that any living man upon the whole earth ever said 
 so, until the necessities of the present policy of the Dem 
 ocratic party, in regard to slavery, had to invent that affirma 
 tion. And I will remind Judge Douglas and this audience 
 that while Mr. Jefferson was the owner of slaves, as un 
 doubtedly he was, in speaking upon this very subject, he 
 used the strong language that " he trembled for his country 
 when he remembered that God was just;" and I will offer 
 the highest premium in my power to Judge Douglas if he 
 will show that he, in all his life, ever uttered a sentiment 
 at all akin to that of Jefferson. . . . 
 
 We have a Republican State platform, laid down in 
 Springfield in June last, stating our position all the way 
 through the questions before the country. We are now 
 far advanced in this canvass. Judge Douglas and I have 
 made perhaps forty speeches apiece, and we have now for the 
 fifth time met face to face in debate, and up to this day I 
 have not found either Judge Douglas or any friend of his 
 taking hold of the Republican platform or laying his finger 
 upon anything in it that is wrong. I ask you all to recollect 
 that. 
 
 Coming immediately after this are the following 
 quite suggestive and even singularly prophetic words: 
 
 Judge Douglas turns away from the platform of prin 
 ciples to the fact that he can find people somewhere who 
 will not allow us to announce those principles. If he had 
 great confidence that our principles were wrong, he would 
 take hold of them and demonstrate them to be wrong. But 
 he does not do so. The only evidence he has of their being 
 wrong is in the fact that there are people who won t allow 
 us to preach them. I ask again, Is that the way to test 
 the soundness of a doctrine? I ask his attention also to the 
 fact that by the rule of nationality he is himself fast becom 
 ing sectional. I ask his attention to the fact that his 
 speeches would not go as current now south of the Ohio 
 River as they have formerly gone there. I ask his atten 
 tion to the fact that he felicitates himself to-day that all the 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 191 
 
 Democrats of the free States are agreeing with him, while 
 he omits to tell us that the Democrats of any slave State 
 agree with him. If he has not thought of this, I commend 
 to his consideration the evidence in his own declaration, on 
 this day, of his becoming sectional too. I see it rapidly ap 
 proaching. Whatever may be the result of this ephemeral 
 contest between Judge Douglas and myself, I see the day 
 rapidly approaching when his pill of sectionalism, which he 
 has been thrusting down the throats of Republicans for 
 years past, will be crowded down his own throat. 
 
 At Quincy, October I3th, Lincoln went over the 
 chief points of controversy with a calm strength, pre 
 cision, and force, unsurpassed in any previous effort. 
 The fundamental differences between the respective atti 
 tudes of the two combatants were never brought out by 
 him more pointedly, in few words, than in the following 
 passages: 
 
 We have in this nation this element of domestic slavery. 
 It is a matter of absolute certainty that it is a disturbing ele 
 ment. It is the opinion of all great men who have expressed 
 an opinion upon it that it is a dangerous element. We keep 
 up a controversy in regard to it. That controversy neces 
 sarily 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, reduced to its lowest terms, is no 
 other than the difference between the men who think slavery 
 wrong and those who do not think it wrong. The Repub 
 lican party think it wrong we think it a moral, a social 
 and a political wrong. We think it a wrong not confining 
 itself merely to the persons or the States where it exists, but 
 that it is wrong in its tendency, to say the least, that extends 
 itself to the existence of the whole nation. Because we think 
 it wrong, we propose a course of policy that shall deal with 
 
1 92 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 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 to all the constitutional 
 obligations thrown about it. ... Where we suppose we 
 have the constitutional right, we restrain ourselves in ref 
 erence to the actual existence of the institution and the diffi 
 culties thrown about it. We also oppose it as an evil so far 
 as it seeks to spread itself. We insist on the policy that shall 
 restrict it to its present limits. We don t suppose that in 
 doing this we violate anything due to the actual presence of 
 the institution, or anything due to the constitutional guar 
 antees thrown around it. 
 
 We oppose the Dred Scott decision in a certain way, 
 upon which I ought perhaps to address you a few words. 
 We do not propose that when Dred Scott has been decided 
 to be a slave by the Court, we, as a mob, will decide him to 
 be free. We do not propose that, when any other one, or 
 one thousand, shall be decided by that Court to be slaves, we 
 will in any violent way disturb the rights of property thus 
 settled; but we nevertheless do oppose that decision as a 
 political rule, which shall be binding on the voter to vote 
 for nobody who thinks it wrong which shall be binding on 
 the members of Congress or the President to favor no meas 
 ure that does not actually concur with the principles of that 
 decision. We do not propose to be bound by it as a polit 
 ical rule in that way, because we think it lays the foundation 
 not merely of enlarging and spreading out what we con 
 sider an evil, but it lays the foundation for spreading that 
 evil into the States themselves. We propose so resisting it 
 as to have it reversed if we can, and a new judicial rule 
 established upon this subject. . . . 
 
 I will say now that there is a sentiment in the country 
 contrary to me a sentiment which holds that slavery is 
 not wrong, and therefore it goes for the policy that does 
 not propose dealing with it as a wrong. . . . The leading 
 man I think I may do my friend Judge Douglas the honor 
 of calling him such advocating the present Democratic 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 193 
 
 policy, never himself says it is wrong. He has the high dis 
 tinction, 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. . . . When Judge 
 Douglas says that whoever or whatever community wants 
 slaves, they have a right to have them, he is perfectly logical 
 if there is nothing wrong in the institution ; but if you admit 
 that it is wrong, he can not logically say that anybody has a 
 right to do wrong. 
 
 Only two days later, October I5th, they met at 
 Alton. Douglas began with his customary treatment 
 of Lincoln s " house-divided speech," without going 
 back " prior to 1854." He made much, as usual, of 
 his great principle of " popular sovereignty " and of 
 his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution, which 
 the people of Kansas had voted down some time after 
 this canvass opened. " I will never violate or abandon 
 that doctrine," said Douglas heroically, " if I have to 
 stand alone. I have resisted the blandishments and 
 threats of power on the one side, and seduction on 
 the other, and have stood immovably for that prin 
 ciple, fighting for it when assaulted by x Northern mobs 
 or threatened by Southern hostility." 
 
 He took special pains to win the support, of " old- 
 line Whigs," and sought to turn to the best account the 
 opposition of Lincoln to Henry Clay s nomination in 
 1848. General Singleton, a supporter of Clay in the 
 Philadelphia Convention of that year, was now actively 
 opposing Lincoln. Said Douglas: 
 
 Have you read General Singleton s speech at Jackson 
 ville? You know that General Singleton was for twenty- 
 five years the confidential friend of Henry Clay in Illinois, 
 
 13 
 
194 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 and he testified that in 1847, when the Constitutional Conven 
 tion of this State was in session, the Whig members were 
 invited to a Whig caucus at the house of Mr. Lincoln s 
 brother-in-law, where Mr. Lincoln proposed to throw Henry 
 Clay overboard and take up General Taylor in his place, giv 
 ing as his reason that if the Whigs did not take up General 
 Taylor, the Democrats would. Singleton testifies that Lin 
 coln, in that speech, urged as another reason for throwing 
 Henry Clay overboard that the Whigs had fought long 
 enough for principle and ought to begin to fight for success. 
 . . . Now, Mr. Lincoln tells you that he is an old-time Clay 
 Whig! 
 
 While there was still no lack of belligerent audacity 
 on the part of Douglas, one can almost certainly detect 
 symptoms of an undercurrent of despondent dread in 
 his mind at this moment. He had already heard South 
 ern responses to avowals drawn from him by the second 
 question of Lincoln s Freeport catechism and by the 
 supplementary fifth question at Jonesboro. Though, 
 with the advantages secured by an unequal apportion 
 ment and by the number of Democratic Senators hold 
 ing over, he might feel reasonably secure of retaining 
 his present place, he could not but have seriously laid 
 to heart the monition his opponent had given him at 
 Galesburg. 
 
 Notably enough, in his impressive speech at Alton 
 Lincoln used these words: " Whenever the issue can be 
 distinctly made, and all extraneous matter thrown out, 
 so that men can fairly see the real difference between the 
 parties, this controversy will soon be settled, and it will 
 be done peaceably, too. There will be no war, no vio 
 lence. It will be placed again where the wisest and best 
 men of the world placed it." 
 
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 195 
 
 The debate closed at the place where, a few months 
 after Lincoln s anti-slavery protest was entered on the 
 Assembly journal at Vandalia, Elijah P. Lovejoy came 
 to a violent death for his hatred of slavery. When the 
 two competitors stepped down from the stand and went 
 their ways, two weeks remained before the decisive vote. 
 Douglas received a small but sufficient majority of the 
 Legislature and a re-election. Lincoln had in the entire 
 popular vote a majority of about four thousand. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 1859 - 1860. 
 
 On the Verge of a New Epoch Letters and Addresses 
 Incidents and Portents John Brown at Har 
 per s Ferry Chaos in Congress. 
 
 We know little of what was passing through Lin 
 coln s mind during the autumn and winter following 
 the great Senatorial contest. Now as ever his reserve 
 had depths which none of his friends could sound, but 
 of matters at the surface he spoke with frankness and 
 freedom. To Mr. Judd he wrote on the I5th of Novem 
 ber: " Doubtless you have suspected for some time that 
 I had entertained a personal wish for a term in the 
 United States Senate, and had the suspicion taken the 
 shape of a direct charge, I think I could not have truth 
 fully denied it. But let the past as nothing be! For 
 the future, my view is that the fight must go on. . . . 
 We have now one hundred and twenty-four thousand 
 clean Republican votes. That pile is worth keeping 
 together. It will elect a State ticket two years hence. 
 In that day I shall fight in the ranks, and shall be in no 
 one s way for any of the places." 
 
 Lincoln was again busy in the courts. He had 
 law cases in the year 1859 in Missouri, Wisconsin and 
 Indiana, besides the many in his own State. There may 
 have been to his mind a touch of humor a certain 
 pathos also in the fact that, besides professional calls, 
 
 ( 196 ) 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 197 
 
 he had a number of invitations to lecture. He actually 
 prepared a discourse on " Discoveries and Inventions," 
 with which he filled three appointments in February and 
 March. Aiming at a more lively and " rattling " style 
 than he was accustomed to in his political speeches, he 
 was less natural and less successful on the platform than 
 on the stump. 
 
 The city election in Chicago, on the ist of March, 
 was carried by the Republicans. Lincoln was there, 
 and spoke briefly after the result was known, the same 
 night. " I am exceedingly happy," he said, " to meet 
 you under such cheering auspices on this occasion 
 the first on which I have appeared before an audience 
 since the campaign last year." He returned thanks for 
 the gallant support that the Republicans of Chicago 
 and of the State had given to the common cause in 
 the late "momentous struggle in Illinois." Continuing, 
 he said: 
 
 I remember in that canvass but one instance of dissatis 
 faction with my course, and I allude to that now not for 
 the purpose of producing any unpleasant feeling, but in 
 order to help get rid of the point upon which that matter 
 of disagreement or dissatisfaction arose. I understand that 
 in some speeches I made I said something, or was supposed 
 to have said something, that some very good people, as I 
 really believe them to be, commented upon unfavorably, and 
 said that rather than support one holding such sentiments 
 as I had expressed, the real friends of liberty could afford 
 to wait a while. I don t want to say anything that shall 
 excite unkind feeling, and I mention this simply to say that 
 I am afraid of the effect of that sort of argument. I do not 
 doubt that it comes from good men, but I am afraid of the 
 result upon organized action when great results are in view, 
 if any of us allow ourselves to seek out minor points; on 
 which there may be a difference of views as to policy . 
 
198 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 right, and let them keep us from uniting in action upon a 
 great principle in a cause on which we all agree. 
 
 Immediately after the November election there had 
 been in the press of Illinois, and in private correspond 
 ence, suggestions of his nomination for the Presidency. 
 This possibility was seen by many thinking men more 
 clearly than the managers of political conventions were 
 generally aware. The fact is discernible, though not 
 directly suggested, in the invitation he received to 
 attend a commemoration of Jefferson s birthday at 
 Boston. He replied (April 6, 1859): 
 
 Your kind note, inviting me to attend a festival in Boston 
 on the 1 3th inst., in honor of the birthday of Thomas Jeffer 
 son, was duly received. My engagements are such that I 
 can not attend. , 
 
 Bearing in mind that about seventy years ago two great 
 political parties were first formed in this country; that 
 Thomas Jefferson was the head of one of them and Boston 
 the headquarters of the other, it is both curious and interest 
 ing that those supposed to descend politically from the party 
 opposed to Jefferson should now be celebrating his birthday 
 in their own original seat of empire, while those claiming 
 political descent from him have nearly ceased to breathe his 
 name everywhere. 
 
 Remembering, too, that the Jefferson party was formed 
 upon its supposed superior devotion to the personal rights of 
 men, holding the rights of property to be secondary only, 
 and greatly inferior, and then assuming that the so-called 
 Democracy of to-day are the Jefferson, and their opponents 
 the anti- Jefferson parties, it will be equally interesting to 
 note how completely the two have changed hands as to the 
 principles upon which they were originally supposed to be 
 divided. 
 
 The Democracy of to-day hold the liberty of one man to 
 be absolutely nothing when in conflict with another man s 
 right of property. Republicans, on the contrary, are for the 
 man and the dollar, but, in case of conflict, the man before 
 the dollar. 
 
 I remember being once much amused at seeing two 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 199 
 
 partially intoxicated men engage in a fight with their great 
 coats on, which fight, after a long and rather harmless con 
 test, ended in each having fought himself out of his own 
 coat and into that of the other. If the two leading parties of 
 this day are really identical with the two in the days of Jef 
 ferson and Adams, they have performed the same feat as the 
 two drunken men. 
 
 But, soberly, it is now no child s play to save the prin 
 ciples of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. 
 
 One would state with great confidence that he could con 
 vince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid 
 are true ; but, nevertheless, he would fail, utterly, with one 
 who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles 
 of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. 
 And yet they are denied and evaded, with no small show of 
 success. One dashingly calls them " glittering generalities ;" 
 another bluntly calls them " self-evident lies ;" and others 
 insidiously argue that they apply only to " superior races." 
 
 These expressions, differing in form, are identical in 
 object and effect, the supplanting the principles of free 
 government, and restoring those of classification, caste and 
 legitimacy. They would delight a convocation of crowned 
 heads plotting against the people. They are the vanguard 
 the miners and sappers of returning despotism. We 
 must repulse them or they will subjugate us. 
 
 This is a world of compensations, and he who would be 
 no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny 
 freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under 
 a just God, can not long retain it. 
 
 All honor to Jefferson to the men who, in the concrete 
 pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single 
 people, had the coolness, forecast and capacity to introduce 
 into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, ap 
 plicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there 
 that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and 
 a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing 
 tyranny and oppression.* 
 
 *For an authoritative copy of this letter (published by the 
 Boston press at the time) the writer was indebted to the late Hon. 
 Henry L,. Pierce, Chairman of the committee addressed at one 
 time Mayor of Boston and Member of Congress. 
 
200 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 A large number of German-born citizens, who were 
 heartily in accord with the main purposes of the Repub 
 lican party, found it hard to unite with the "Americans," 
 who had in a day crushed the old Whig party of Massa 
 chusetts, and brought to the front such men as Henry 
 Wilson, N. P. Banks, and Anson Burlingame. Later, 
 a coalition of the new party with Free-Soil Democrats 
 had made George S. Boutwell Governor, and Charles 
 Sumner Senator. Early in 1859 the Legislature had 
 taken action in favor of so amending the Massachusetts 
 Constitution as to require of foreigners a residence of 
 two years after being naturalized to entitle them to 
 vote. This procedure was a source of exasperation to 
 German Republicans in Illinois. One of the most 
 prominent of these living at Springfield, Dr. Theo 
 dore Canisius, afterward United States Consul at 
 Vienna, in order to allay the excitement on this sub 
 ject, obtained from Lincoln the following letter (dated 
 May 17, 1859): 
 
 Your note, asking in behalf of yourself and other Ger 
 man citizens whether I am for or against the constitutional 
 provision in regard to naturalized citizens lately adopted by 
 Massachusetts, and whether I am for or against a fusion 
 of the Republicans and other opposition elements for the 
 canvass of 1860, is received. 
 
 Massachusetts is a sovereign and independent State, and 
 it is no privilege of mine to scold her for what she does. 
 Still, if from what she has done an inference is sought to 
 be drawn as to what I would do, I may without impropriety 
 speak out. 1 say, then, that as I understand the Massachu 
 setts provision I am against its adoption in Illinois, or in 
 any other place where I have a right to oppose it. Under 
 standing the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation 
 of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them. 
 I have some little notoriety for commiserating the oppressed 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 201 
 
 condition of the negro, and I should be strangely inconsistent 
 if I could favor any project for curtailing the existing rights 
 of white men, even though born in different lands and 
 speaking different languages from myself. 
 
 As to the matter of fusion, I am for it, if it can be had 
 on Republican ground ; and I am not for it on any other 
 terms. A fusion on any other terms would be as foolish 
 as unprincipled. It would lose the whole North, while the 
 common enemy would still carry the whole South. The 
 question of men is a different one. There are good patriotic 
 men and able statesmen in the South whom I would cheer 
 fully support if they would now place themselves on Repub 
 lican ground. But I am against letting down the Repub 
 lican standard a hair s breadth. 
 
 I have written this hastily, but I believe it answers your 
 questions substantially. 
 
 There was in this response nothing of the shyness of 
 a conscious and cautious candidate, yet we may doubt 
 the strict accuracy of the Doctor s opinion, that it was 
 written at a time when Lincoln " had not the most 
 distant idea of being nominated for the Presidency." 
 
 In a private letter to Hon. Schuyler Colfax* (whom 
 he had then never met), he urged careful efforts "to 
 hedge against divisions in the Republican ranks gener 
 ally, and particularly for the contest of 1860." In this 
 communication, making no allusion to Presidential can 
 didates, or to the temporary inclination of Mr. Colfax 
 early in the previous year to favor the re-election of 
 Douglas to the Senate, Lincoln wrote: 
 
 The point of danger is the temptation in different local 
 ities to " platform " for something which will be popular just 
 there, but which, nevertheless, will be a firebrand elsewhere, 
 and especially in a national convention. As instances, the 
 
 *July 6, 1859. The letter is given entire in " Complete Works," 
 (N. & H.), I., 535. 
 
202 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 movement against foreigners in Massachusetts; in New 
 Hampshire, to make obedience to the fugitive slave law 
 punishable as a crime; in Ohio, to repeal the fugitive slave 
 law; and squatter sovereignty in Kansas. In these things 
 there is explosive matter enough to blow up half a dozen 
 national conventions, if it gets into them, and what gets very 
 rife outside of conventions is very likely to find its way into 
 them. 
 
 Among the letters he received during the summer, 
 expressing a desire that he should be a candidate for 
 the Presidential nomination, was one from a conserva 
 tive Republican of Ohio, Hon. Samuel Galloway, pre 
 viously a Whig member of Congress, who was averse 
 to the candidacy of Governor Chase. This letter was 
 written soon after the meeting of the Ohio Republican 
 State Convention, which had refused to renominate 
 Judge Joseph Swan, of the Supreme Court, a man of 
 high standing as a jurist, and personally much esteemed, 
 whose defeat in convention was attributed to a recent 
 decision of the court, of which he prepared the opinion, 
 in one of the noted cases arising under the fugitive slave 
 law of 1850. 
 
 An alleged fugitive slave, captured not far from 
 Oberlin, in a community strongly anti-slavery, had been 
 promptly rescued from the arresting officer. A number 
 of prominent citizens were prosecuted for taking part in 
 the rescue and put in jail; whereupon they applied to 
 the Supreme Court of the State for relief under a writ 
 of habeas corpus. There was great excitement in North 
 ern Ohio, and at an indignation mass meeting in Cleve 
 land, Governor Chase himself was one of the speakers. 
 Some of the most respected citizens of the State, he 
 said, had done what they believed to be right, and what 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 203 
 
 not one man in a thousand could look up into the blue 
 sky with his right hand on his heart and say was not 
 right. " If a process for the release of any prisoner 
 should issue from the courts of the State/ (so he was 
 reported,) " he was free to say that, so long as Ohio was 
 a sovereign State,* that process should be executed." 
 Not long after this meeting the court gave its decision, 
 refusing to interfere and remanding the prisoners. The 
 circumstances thus briefly given wall explain the first 
 part of Lincoln s reply to his before-named corre 
 spondent, dated July 28, 1859:! 
 
 Two things done by the Ohio Republican Convention, 
 namely, the repudiation of Judge Swan and the " plank " 
 for the repeal of the fugitive slave law, I very much re 
 gretted. These two things are of a piece, and they are 
 viewed by many good men, sincerely opposed to slavery, 
 as a struggle against and in disregard of the Constitution 
 itself ; and it is the very thing that will greatly endanger our 
 cause if it be not kept out of our National Convention. 
 
 There is another thing our friends are doing which gives 
 me some uneasiness. It is their leaning toward " popular 
 sovereignty." There are three substantial objections to this: 
 First, no party can command respect which sustains this year 
 what it opposed last. Secondly, Douglas (who is the most 
 dangerous enemy of liberty, because the most insidious one) 
 would have but little support in the North, and, by conse 
 quence, no capital to trade on in the South, if it were not 
 for our friends thus magnifying him and his humbug. But 
 lastly, and chiefly, Douglas s popular sovereignty, accepted 
 by the public mind as a great principle, nationalizes slavery 
 and revives the African slave trade inevitably. Taking 
 
 *Note how readily the phrase " sovereign State " drops from 
 the pen of Chase, and of Lincoln also (in the Canisius letter just 
 given) later more current at the South than at the North. 
 
 fFirst given to the press after Governor Chase became Chief 
 Justice. 
 
204 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 slaves into new Territories and buying slaves in Africa are 
 identical things identical rights or identical wrongs 
 and the argument which establishes one will establish the 
 other. Try a thousand years for a sound reason why Con 
 gress shall not hinder the people of Kansas from having 
 slaves, and when you have found it, it will be an equally 
 good one why Congress should not hinder the people of 
 Georgia from importing slaves from Africa. 
 
 As for Governor Chase, I have a kind side for him. He 
 was one of the few distinguished men of the nation who 
 gave us their sympathy last year. I never saw him sup 
 pose him to be able and right-minded, but still he may not 
 be the most suitable as a candidate for the Presidency. 
 
 I must say, I do not think myself fit for the Presidency. 
 As you propose a correspondence with me, I shall look for 
 your letters anxiously. 
 
 There was a lively canvass this year in Ohio, where 
 Mr. Chase, near the close of his second term as Gov 
 ernor, was the general choice of the Republicans to suc 
 ceed Senator George E. Pugh, of whom he had been 
 the immediate predecessor. The Governor had been 
 re-elected two years before by a plurality of little more 
 than one thousand. Ohio was clearly debatable ground, 
 and there was an anxious state of mind on both sides. 
 Among the orators called in from abroad were the 
 two Illinois champions, whose contest had become of 
 national interest the previous year. Douglas spoke at 
 Columbus and Cincinnati, and was followed in each 
 place, after a brief interval, by Lincoln. The main sub 
 ject of the latter s Columbus speech (on the i6th of Sep 
 tember) was a magazine article by Douglas, expounding 
 his " popular sovereignty " doctrine supposed to be 
 " the most maturely considered of his long series of 
 explanations." 
 
 On the 1 7th Lincoln addressed a very large audience 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 205 
 
 in Cincinnati, on the same general topics, but without 
 self-repetition. There were also incidental passages of 
 his speech of special interest and detachable from its 
 main course. For example, recalling the remark of 
 Douglas on a former occasion about " shooting over 
 the line," while disclaiming any purpose to interfere 
 with slavery in the States, he said: 
 
 It has occurred to me here to-night that if ever I do 
 shoot at the people on the other side of the line in a slave 
 State, and purpose to do so, keeping my skin safe, I have 
 now about the best chance I shall ever have. I should not 
 wonder if there are some Kentuckians about this audience ; 
 we are close to Kentucky, and whether that be so or not, 
 we are on elevated ground, and by speaking distinctly, I 
 should not wonder if some of the Kentuckians should hear 
 me on the other side of the river. For that reason, I propose 
 to address a portion of what I have to say to the Ken 
 tuckians. 
 
 I say, then, in the first place, to the Kentuckians, that 
 I am what they call, as I understand it, a " Black Repub 
 lican." I think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and 
 politically. I desire that it should be no farther spread in 
 these United States, and I should not object if it should 
 gradually terminate in the whole Union. While I say this 
 for myself, I say to you, Kentuckians, that I understand 
 that you differ radically with me upon this proposition ; that 
 you believe slavery is a good thing ; that slavery is right ; 
 that it ought to be extended and perpetuated in this Union. 
 Now, there being this broad difference between us, I do 
 not pretend in addressing myself to you, Kentuckians, to 
 attempt proselyting you at all ; that would be. a vain effort. 
 I do not enter upon it. I only propose to try to show you 
 that you ought to nominate for the next Presidency, at 
 Charleston, my distinguished friend, Judge Douglas. In 
 whatever there is a difference between you and him, I under 
 stand he is sincerely for you, and more wisely for you than 
 you are for yourselves. . . . 
 
 I lay down the proposition that Judge Douglas is not 
 only the man that promises you in advance a hold upon the 
 
206 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 North, and support in the North, but that in every possible 
 way he can he constantly moulds the public opinion of the 
 North to your ends ; and if there are a few things in which 
 he seems to be against you a few things which he says 
 that appear to be against you, and a few that he forbears to 
 say which you would like to hear him say you ought to 
 remember that the saying of the one, or the forbearing to 
 say the other, would lose his hold upon the North, and, by 
 consequence, would lose his capacity to serve you. 
 
 Of the results of an anticipated success of the Repub 
 lican party in the next national canvass he said: 
 
 I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the 
 Opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat 
 you as nearly 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, and, in a word, 
 coming back to the original proposition, to treat you, so 
 far as degenerated men (if we have degenerated) may, ac 
 cording to the example of those noble fathers Washington, 
 Jefferson and Madison. 
 
 He had the satisfaction of hearing from Ohio, in 
 October, that the Republicans had elected William 
 Dennison Governor, and a majority of the Legisla 
 ture, which insured the choice of Governor Chase as 
 successor of Mr. Pugh in the United States Senate. 
 
 A few days later came the ominous news of John 
 Brown s raid. In subsequent speeches of this year, 
 Lincoln spoke in plain terms of abhorrence of the 
 attempt to incite a slave insurrection. John Brown 
 was promptly tried and convicted at Charlestown; was 
 sentenced on the ist of November; on the 2d of 
 December was hanged. Lincoln, in his simplicity of 
 character, could not adore as a saint one whom he 
 
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 O-^(J^ o_L^ <H-_ GrJC5 
 
 fa*- <-<**_ ^- * 
 
 <^C^c-^^ ^ t5^- 
 
 
 o^ 
 
 <^w 
 
 ^^- 
 
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 fCfc*-* 
 
 ^ 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 207 
 
 pitied as a criminal. Such a canonization was possibly 
 beyond his comprehension. On the other hand, Gov 
 ernor Chase solved the enigma, in so far as soluble, 
 when he privately wrote* (October 29, 1859): 
 
 Poor old man ! How sadly misled by his own imagina 
 tion ! How rash, how mad, how criminal, thus to stir up 
 insurrection, which, if successful, would deluge the land with 
 blood and make void the fairest hopes of mankind ! And 
 yet how hard to condemn him, when we remember the prov 
 ocation, the unselfish desire to set free the oppressed, the 
 bravery, the humanity towards his prisoners, which defeated 
 his purposes! This is a tragedy which will supply themes 
 for novelists and poets for centuries. Men will condemn his 
 act and pity his fate forever. But while pity and condemna 
 tion mingle for him, how stern will be the reprobation which 
 must fall upon the guiltiness of forcing slavery upon Kansas, 
 which began it all, and upon slavery itself, which underlies 
 it all! 
 
 Lincoln found time to prepare an address, which 
 he delivered at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Fair, 
 in Milwaukee, on the last day of September. He rec 
 ommended to farmers the policy of " thorough culti 
 vation"; discussed the relations of capital and labor; 
 offered practical suggestions in regard to the steam 
 plow, then occupying attention; and introduced other 
 topics of special interest to his auditors, interspersing 
 shrewd hints or maxims in his own way. His closing 
 words, addressed to those who were contesting for pre 
 miums, are particularly noteworthy for their flavor of 
 reminiscence and personal experience: " Some of you 
 will be successful, and such will need but little philos 
 ophy to take them home in cheerful spirits; others will 
 be disappointed, and will be in a less happy mood. To 
 
 *In a letter (hitherto unpublished) to the present writer. See 
 fac-simile. 
 
208 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 such let it be said, Lay it not too much to heart. Let 
 them adopt the maxim, * Better luck next time, and 
 then by renewed exertion make that better luck for 
 themselves. And by the successful and unsuccessful let 
 it be remembered that, while occasions like the present 
 bring their sober and durable benefits, the exultations 
 and mortifications of them are but temporary; that 
 the victor will soon be vanquished if he relax in his 
 exertions, and that the vanquished this year may be 
 victor next, in spite of all competition." 
 
 In his law office at home, a year from the day on 
 which the case between Douglas and himself was de 
 cided at the polls, Lincoln wrote the following letter 
 (never before printed), which has specially interested 
 lawyers who have read it: 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, November 2, 1859. 
 Win. Dungy, Esq.: 
 
 DEAR SIR: Yours of October 27 is received. When a 
 mortgage is given to secure two notes, and one of the notes 
 is sold and assigned, if the mortgaged premises are only 
 sufficient to pay one note, the one assigned will take it all. 
 Also, an execution, from a judgment on the assigned note, 
 may take it all; it being the same thing in substance. 
 There is redemption on execution sales from the United 
 States Court just as from any other Court. 
 
 You did not mention the name of the plaintiff or de 
 fendant in the suit, and so I can tell nothing about it as to 
 sales, bids, etc. Write again. Yours, etc., 
 
 A. LINCOLN. 
 
 In December he received a letter from the Repub 
 lican Executive Committee of Ohio, inclosing another 
 signed by Mr. Dennison and many other prominent 
 Republicans, returning thanks for his aid in the late 
 canvass, and asking for publication authentic copies of 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 209 
 
 the speeches on both sides in his debate with Senator 
 Douglas, as well as of the two speeches lately delivered 
 by himself in Ohio. He complied with this request, 
 and the volume containing these speeches, speedily 
 published at Columbus, had a wide circulation and 
 influence. 
 
 The popular branch of the new Congress bore evi 
 dence of the shocks that had rent asunder the old par 
 ties in collisions of North and South of Union and 
 Disunion. On the 5th of December began a memo 
 rable struggle for the choice of a Speaker of the House 
 of Representatives. The Republicans at the start divided 
 their votes, giving John Sherman, of Ohio, sixty-six, 
 and Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, forty-three 
 thereafter concentrating for weeks upon Mr. Sherman. 
 There were eighty-six votes for Mr. Bocock, of Vir 
 ginia, and thirty-five were variously distributed between 
 American, Anti-Lecompton and other members. With 
 no business in order save the choice of a Speaker, under 
 the chairmanship of the Clerk, a debate and wrangle 
 sprang up over a Certain " Helper book," the produc 
 tion of an anti-slavery North Carolinian, and extended 
 into the kindred inflammatory topics of the time. For 
 nearly two months the angry strife went on, personal 
 violence, if not general bloodshed, being repeatedly 
 endangered civil war seeming on the point of begin 
 ning on the floor of the House. During these days the 
 galleries were thronged; spectators shared the feelings 
 of the combatants below; the country looked on with 
 anxious emotion or belligerent sympathy; and no one 
 could predict the end. During this battle of words a 
 14 
 
210 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 little dialogue occurred one day between John Hick- 
 man (Anti-Lecompton Democrat), of Pennsylvania, and 
 Lucius J. Qartrell, a Georgia Secessionist, so typical of 
 the spirit of the hour as to deserve historic record, and 
 so significant as never to be forgotten by those who 
 personally witnessed the effect of Hickman s prophetic 
 retort. If dissolution of the Union meant only the 
 establishment of a " dividing line of sentiment," Mr. 
 Hickman said it had already come. He continued: 
 
 But if dissolution means that there is to be a division 
 of territory, I say no ; that will never be. I express my 
 opinion and that opinion may go before the country, 
 whether false or true when I say no ; the North will 
 never tolerate a division of the territory. (Applause from 
 the Republican benches.) 
 
 Mr. Gartrell: I should like to know how you are to pre 
 vent it. 
 
 Mr. Hickman: I will tell you how it will be prevented. 
 I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet ; but I ex 
 press my belief that there is as much true courage in the 
 North, though it may not be known by the name of chivalry 
 [sensation], as there is in the South. I do not use the word 
 contemptuously, for I admire chivalry everywhere. There 
 is as much true courage at the North as there is at the South. 
 I always believed it ; therefore I will express it ; and I be 
 lieve, sir, that with all the appliances of art to assist, eighteen 
 millions of men reared in industry, with habits of the right 
 kind, will always be able to cope successfully, if it need be, 
 with eight millions of men without these auxiliaries. [Great 
 sensation, some applause from the Republican benches and 
 the galleries, and hisses in parts of the hall.] * 
 
 The bracketed words of the report give no adequate 
 representation of the scene as permanently pictured on 
 the mind of at least one listener, to whom Mr. Hick- 
 
 *Globe report for December 12, 1859. 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 211 
 
 man s manner, if not his words, said: " The result will 
 not be doubtful." 
 
 The turmoil over the Speakership ended in the elec 
 tion (by Republican and American votes) of ex-Gov 
 ernor William Pennington, of New Jersey, on the first 
 day of February (1860). John W. Forney, an Anti- 
 Lecompton Democrat, Clerk of the previous House, 
 was re-elected as the Opposition candidate. 
 
 It was in December, while this strife was at its 
 height in Washington, that Lincoln proceeded to fill 
 an engagement, made some weeks before, to address 
 the people of Kansas, in Leavenworth, Atchison, Doni- 
 phan, and other towns. He received a very cordial wel 
 come as one of their foremost champions. His remarks, 
 in the main, were like in tenor to his speeches elsewhere 
 this year. At Leavenworth, " shooting over the line " 
 into Missouri, he was reported as using some words 
 hardly compatible with his habitual tone of modera 
 tion, though not inconsistent in principle with his fixed 
 views of which this is a notable example: 
 
 But you Democrats are for the Union ; and you greatly 
 fear the success of the Republicans would destroy the Union. 
 Why? Do the Republicans declare against the Union? 
 Nothing like it. Your own statement of it is that if the 
 Black Republicans elect a President, you " won t stand it." 
 You will break up the Union. If we shall constitutionally 
 elect a President, it will be our duty to see that you submit. 
 Old John Brown has been executed for treason against a 
 State. We can not object, even though he agreed with us 
 in thinking slavery wrong. That can not excuse violence, 
 bloodshed and treason. It could avail him nothing that he 
 might think himself right. So, if we constitutionally elect a 
 President, and therefore you undertake to destroy the Union, 
 it will be our duty to deal with you as old John Brown has 
 been dealt with. We shall try to do our duty. We hope 
 
212 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 and believe that in no section will a majority so act as to 
 render such extreme measures necessary.* 
 
 In the Democratic Senate there were signs as por 
 tentous as in the Opposition House, though less mani 
 fest in their purport. 
 
 Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, (February 2, 1860,) offered 
 a series of political resolutions, after the manner of Cal- 
 houn, the vital points of which were (first) the denial of 
 any power in Congress or a Territorial Legislature " to 
 annul or impair the constitutional right of any citizen 
 of the United States to take his slave property into the 
 common Territories;" and (second) the affirmation that 
 " it is the duty of the Federal Government there to 
 afford for that, as for other species of property, the 
 needful protection; and if experience should at any time 
 prove that the judiciary does not possess power to 
 insure adequate protection, it will then become the 
 duty of Congress to supply such deficiency/ The res 
 olutions did not omit, of course, the usual denunciation 
 of the doctrines of the Republican party. In a body so 
 strongly Democratic as the Senate was at this time, such 
 expression was easily obtainable without prolonged dis 
 cussion. But the main purpose of Mr. Davis was disci 
 pline within the Democratic party. His objective point 
 was Douglas. 
 
 In October, Lincoln had been invited to deliver a 
 lecture in Rev. Henry Ward Beecher s church, in 
 Brooklyn, and consented, with the condition that he 
 should speak on a political theme. It was quite satis 
 factory to him that the lecture committee ultimately 
 
 *Not in " Complete Works " (N. & H.), but published by the 
 press at the time. 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 213 
 
 chose the Cooper Institute Hall as the place for his 
 appearance. On the evening of the 2/th of February 
 the appointed hour found him in the presence of an 
 audience notable in character and numbers. William 
 Cullen Bryant presided, and many distinguished men 
 sat on the platform. 
 
 The subject of Lincoln s address was thus stated: 
 " In his speech last autumn, at Columbus, 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 agreed start 
 ing point for a discussion between Republicans and that 
 wing of the Democracy headed by Senator Douglas. It 
 simply leaves the inquiry: What was the understanding 
 those fathers had of the question mentioned?" 
 
 He proceeded to show from the historic record how 
 the thirty-nine signers of the Constitution, framed in 
 1787, individually, so far as ascertainable from their 
 subsequent acts, regarded the question at issue, namely, 
 " Does the proper division of local from Federal author 
 ity, or anything in the Constitution, forbid our Federal 
 Government to control as to slavery in our Federal Ter 
 ritories?" Twenty-one of the thirty-nine, as he points 
 out in detail, sustained by their recorded acts the posi 
 tion taken by the Republican party in regard to the 
 exclusion of slavery from the Territories, and only two 
 voted against such exclusion by Congress. He then 
 considers the position of the seventy-six members of 
 Congress who framed the twelve amendments soon 
 
214 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 after adopted. This was the First Congress, which 
 also framed the ordinance excluding slavery from the 
 Northwestern Territory. No possible escape is left 
 from the conclusion that the Republicans, and not 
 their opponents, were true to the doctrine of the 
 fathers as to the power of Congress on this subject. 
 The remainder of the speech is a calm appeal to " the 
 Southern people," setting forth the aims and purposes 
 of the Republicans should they come into power. This 
 famous speech may be fitly regarded either as the finale 
 of a closing period of his life, or as the prelude to that 
 on which he was unconsciously entering. Its publica 
 tion in the New York papers and general circulation at 
 the East had an influence on coming events. 
 
 From New York he was asked to extend his tour 
 still eastward, taking part in the political canvass in 
 New Hampshire, where a State election was to occur 
 in March, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island, whose 
 elections were in April. With this request he complied, 
 after tarrying a few days in New York and Brook 
 lyn, receiving attentions from friends and forming new 
 acquaintances. 
 
 In New England he spoke at Hartford on the 5th 
 of March, and next day at New Haven; later at Men- 
 den, Norwich and Bridgeport, and at one or two places 
 in Rhode Island. He then went into New Hampshire, 
 where he delivered speeches at Concord and Manches 
 ter, and visited his son Robert, a student at Phillips 
 Academy in Exeter, preparing for admission to Har 
 vard University, which he entered the ensuing sum 
 mer. Everywhere agreeable demonstrations and hearty 
 applause greeted Lincoln s public appearance. He was 
 already personally known in New England, and now he 
 
ON THE VERGE OF A NEW EPOCH. 215 
 
 socially met, for the first time, many who were impressed 
 by his intellectual powers, and whose hearts he gained. 
 He returned home from this tour on the I4th of 
 March, and was soon after busy with an important 
 suit at Chicago, the last in which he was to be actively 
 engaged as counsel. This was a case which may be 
 classed among the celebrated, involving the title to 
 certain valuable real estate land which the waves of 
 Lake Michigan had gradually extended in one quarter 
 by removal of soil from another, without the interven 
 tion of the one party or the consent of the other. The 
 suit, that of Jones against Johnson, was tried before 
 Judge Drummond, of the United States District Court. 
 The plaintiff, who retained Lincoln in addition to other 
 counsel, after once losing the case, now had the satis 
 faction of obtaining a decision in his favor. 
 
 Lincoln was at home with his family three days 
 before the meeting of the Republican National Con 
 vention at Chicago, where its delegates were already 
 gathering. It was a quiet Sunday, the like of which, 
 to him, would never return. Said Mrs. Lincoln a week 
 or two later, speaking of this occasion: " We had before 
 us a New York illustrated weekly, in which a number of 
 Presidential candidates were represented in a double- 
 page group, Mr. Seward s portrait being conspicuous 
 over all, as that of the coming man. Mr. Lincoln s pic 
 ture was there, such as it was, and couldn t well have 
 been made more dismal. Half seriously I said to him: 
 A look at that face is enough to put an end to hope/ 
 
 But a bad wood-cut mattered little now, and the 
 suspense would soon be over. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 1860. 
 
 The Chicago Convention Lincoln Nominated for the 
 Presidency. 
 
 Before 1860 no national convention of any party had 
 been held in Chicago. That place the Republican com 
 mittee had now selected, not accidentally, though with 
 out contest over what was treated as of little concern. 
 Citizens of Chicago erected a temporary building, called 
 the Wigwam, to accommodate the Convention and many 
 thousand spectators. Hospitable and judicious atten 
 tion was given to the city s guests. The two Repub 
 lican morning newspaper offices had among their deco 
 rations the banner, "For President, Abraham Lincoln" ; 
 and the flag of the one Republican evening paper, edited 
 by a personal friend of the New York candidate, bore 
 the legend: "For President, William H. Seward; for 
 Vice-President, Abraham Lincoln." Illinois, less than 
 a week before the Convention met, had chosen dele 
 gates united and active in support of Lincoln. New 
 York asked and expected the nomination of Seward. 
 On Wednesday morning (May i6th) Governor Morgan 
 called the Convention to order, and David Wilmot, of 
 Pennsylvania, was made temporary chairman. The per 
 manent presiding officer was George Ashmun, of Mas 
 sachusetts. The platform, reported and adopted the 
 next day, affirmed " the maintenance of the principles 
 
 (216) 
 
NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. 217 
 
 promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and 
 embodied in the Federal Constitution " to be " essen 
 tial to the preservation of our Republican institu 
 tions." * It declared that " the Federal Constitution, 
 the rights of the States and the Union of the States 
 must and shall be preserved " with other less solid 
 generalities. The chief distinctive principles of the 
 party were set forth in these terms: 
 
 " That the new dogma, that the Constitution of its 
 own force carries slavery into any or all of the Terri 
 tories of the United States, is a dangerous political 
 heresy. . . . 
 
 " That the normal condition of all the territory of 
 the United States is that of freedom; . . . and we 
 deny the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legis 
 lature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to 
 slavery in any Territory of the United States." 
 
 There were also expressions in favor of (practically) 
 incidental protection; of river and harbor improvements, 
 and of " immediate and efficient aid from the Govern 
 ment for the construction of a railroad to the Pacific." 
 
 Bright skies, a warm sun, gentle breezes from the 
 lake, saluted members of the Convention as they moved 
 toward the Wigwam on Friday morning. There was 
 music by the band which had come from New York; 
 and from the same city there were throngs of men of 
 
 * The quoted words were in the resolution as it came from 
 the committee. Some writers have given undue prominence to a 
 little episode in which Mr. Giddings and Mr. G. W. Curtis took 
 part. The only change they effected in the platform was the 
 special indorsement of a passage of the Declaration, by insertion 
 in a resolution which already indorsed the whole. 
 
218 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 hardy visage and healthy lungs ready to swell the 
 Sevvard chorus within the walls of the Wigwam. Nor 
 was there lacking a multitude of stalwart men with fog 
 horn voices who came from places less remote to do 
 their part for Abraham Lincoln. When the names of 
 candidates were formally presented, all were vocally 
 honored only two, however, beyond the usual cour 
 tesy. At the name of Sew r ard, to which the fine orator 
 ical periods of Mr. Evarts led up, there was a Niagara of 
 cheering that seemed irrepressible. The noise was sur 
 passed by the lake-storm evoked when Mr. Judd pro 
 nounced the name of Lincoln. Both demonstrations 
 had been well prepared Illinois having the advantage 
 in opportunity; and had both come together, it might 
 well have been doubted how long the house could stand. 
 
 Other candidates proposed were Judge Edward 
 Bates, of Missouri; ex-Governor Salmon P. Chase, of 
 Ohio, which State, out of its abundance, also had 
 Justice John McLean and Senator B. F. Wade, for 
 both of whom votes were cast, and Senator Simon 
 Cameron, of Pennsylvania. New Jersey at first voted 
 for William L. Dayton, and Vermont for Senator Jacob 
 Collamer. 
 
 The first ballot resulted in 173 votes for Mr. Seward, 
 1 02 for Mr. Lincoln, 50 for Mr. Cameron, 49 for Mr. 
 Chase, 48 for Mr. Bates, 14 for Mr. Dayton, 12 for Mr. 
 McLean, 10 for Mr. Collamer, 3 for Mr. Wade, and i 
 each for John C. Fremont, Charles Sumner, and John 
 M. Reed. The second ballot, which immediately fol 
 lowed, gave Seward 184, Lincoln 181, Chase 42, Bates 
 35, Dayton 10, McLean 8, Cassius M. Clay 2. When 
 the roll-call was through for the third time it was quickly 
 
NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. 219 f 
 
 discovered that a change of two votes in favor of Lin 
 coln would secure him the nomination, and the change 
 was promptly made. The result was at once known not 
 only in the great hall, but by the waiting multitude out 
 side; and the telegraph told the tale through the land 
 before the formal announcement could be made to the 
 tumultuous Convention. 
 
 The news reached Mr. Seward at his home in 
 Auburn, whither he had retired temporarily from his 
 seat in the Senate. To his kind neighbors, who had 
 made preparations for a joyful celebration of his nomi 
 nation, it was a sudden and chilling reverse. So was 
 it to the New York delegation in their places at the 
 Convention; yet, at the earliest practicable moment, 
 Mr. Evarts, pale with emotion yet unfaltering in voice, 
 spoke harmonious words of consent to the choice of 
 the majority. 
 
 In the afternoon Senator Hannibal Hamlin, of 
 Maine, was nominated for Vice President, and the 
 great hall was vacated by final adjournment. Before 
 putting the last motion, however, Mr. Ashmun, in the 
 course of some parting remarks, spoke of his service in 
 Congress with Abraham Lincoln, and of his own high 
 estimate of the man; and in his mention of Mr. Hamlin 
 said: " He was a firm Democrat of the old school, while 
 Mr. Lincoln was as firmly, and perhaps too much so, a 
 Whig of the Webster school." 
 
 The unexpected is not always inexplicable. There 
 has been no lack of attempted solutions of the mystery 
 of this nomination. Was it, after all. very mysterious? 
 
 Mr. Seward s supporters, in spite of the opposition 
 
220 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 manifested in many quarters, during the preceding year 
 especially, were confident of winning without a severe 
 contest. After the delegates to the Convention had 
 been chosen there might naturally have been misgiv 
 ings, as one would suppose at this distance, but the 
 friends of the New York statesman were still sanguine. 
 They miscalculated his strength in a manner that occa 
 sioned them several surprises. From neither Vermont 
 nor Ohio did he receive a single vote on any balloting; 
 yet the delegates from the former State were counted 
 as unanimous in his favor; and half of the Ohio dele 
 gation, after a compliment for Governor Chase, were 
 relied upon to wheel in the same direction. Connecti 
 cut and Rhode Island were refractory, if not as disap 
 pointing; only one vote was cast on that side from New 
 Hampshire; barely two from Iowa; not one from Dela 
 ware, Indiana, Missouri, or Illinois. At the first, Mr. 
 Seward had no vote from New Jersey or Oregon, and 
 but a minority afterward; while from Pennsylvania he 
 received but two or three votes out of fifty-four. The 
 only States that solidly supported him were New York, 
 Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California. Little 
 more than one-third of the Convention declared for him 
 as a first choice including the ten votes from the Ter 
 ritories of Kansas and Nebraska and from the District 
 of Columbia, which represented no electoral strength. 
 The components of the Republican party were not 
 quite free from conflict; at least they were not homo 
 geneous. It had been made up of the old Free-Soil 
 party, of Anti-Slavery Whigs, of conservative Whigs, 
 of Wilmot Proviso Democrats, Anti-Nebraska Demo 
 crats, Anti-Lecompton Democrats (results of three dis- 
 
NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. 221 
 
 tinct and successive schisms), and of Anti-Slavery Amer 
 icans. It had also recruits in fact and in expectancy 
 from the conservative Americans and the old-line 
 Whigs. To consolidate these groups, not yet used to 
 working together, and to gain further accessions, Mr. 
 Seward did not seem to a majority of the delegates to 
 be the most promising candidate that could be found. 
 He had been long a public man, writing and speak 
 ing much, from the days of his epistolary controversy 
 with the Governor of Virginia onward, and had placed 
 himself among the foremost of those called radicals. 
 Old prejudices thus engendered had been persistently 
 nursed, and were not to be at once overcome. "Ameri 
 cans" complained that he was on too cordial terms 
 with Archbishop Hughes, and alleged that he had 
 made unallowable submissions to foreign and Roman 
 Catholic influences. His course on other questions 
 Anti-Masonry and Anti-rentism in particular as well 
 as his ultra position in regard to slavery, had alienated 
 from him a portion of his late party in his own State. 
 The division into Seward Whigs and Fillmore Whigs, 
 with the consequent prolonged altercations, had left 
 antagonisms somewhat allayed, but not extinguished. 
 There were objections, also, to certain New York polit 
 ical methods, and to what was deemed an unseemly 
 lobbyism at Albany, assumed by some (however un 
 justly) to be in danger of fin ding shelter or toleration 
 at Washington, should Mr. Seward become President. 
 Certain States that must be carried in order to suc 
 ceed in November were declared by men entitled to be 
 heard as almost sure to be lost with Mr. Seward as the 
 candidate. This was especially true of Pennsylvania and 
 
222 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Indiana, whose State officers were to be chosen in Octo-^ 
 ber, and each of which had gone Democratic in that 
 month in 1856, with fatal effect. Pennsylvania intended 
 to give Mr. Cameron merely a complimentary vote, a 
 large majority of the delegates looking elsewhere than 
 to Mr. Seward for their real choice. New Jersey, 
 another of the doubtful States, named Mr. Dayton 
 under like circumstances; while Indiana, at one time 
 counted upon for Judge Bates, had early decided to 
 support Lincoln from the first. This happened quite 
 naturally. In Indiana Lincoln was not only well known 
 to members of the bar and largely to the people, but he 
 had served in Congress with Caleb B. Smith, a leading 
 delegate from that State, and was personally on quite 
 friendly terms with him. Mr. Smith had been origi 
 nally in favor of Lincoln s nomination, though not 
 openly committed before going to Chicago. Indiana 
 was only less zealous in that behalf than Illinois. This 
 fact had its influence with Pennsylvania. In the east 
 ern part of that State, especially in Philadelphia, there 
 was a preference for Judge McLean. There the Amer 
 ican and Conservative influences, which it was a spe 
 cial object to unite on Andrew G. Curtin, already nom 
 inated for Governor, were strongly opposed to Mr. 
 Seward. The pressure from this quarter Mr. Curtin 
 himself being present at Chicago and very active was 
 a potent one in constraining other States. Western 
 Pennsylvania was more inclined to Mr. Seward or 
 Mr. Wade, in sympathy with Northern Ohio. The 
 eastern delegates nearly carried their point of naming 
 Judge Bates, at a private consultation, as Pennsylvania s 
 
NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. 223 
 
 second choice; but the western members of the delega 
 tion concentrated on Lincoln, who had a small majority 
 over Judge Bates. It came to be understood in good 
 time that there were delegates from Massachusetts, 
 Maine and Vermont, who, not unfriendly to Seward, 
 would humor the Pennsylvanians by going over to Lin 
 coln, but not to McLean or Bates. 
 
 When, on the second roll-call of States in conven 
 tion, the chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation re 
 sponded for his State, " Pennsylvania casts fifty-four 
 votes for Abraham Lincoln of Illinois," the effect was 
 electric. A new outburst of noisy demonstration fol 
 lowed. Other States fell in line, more or less unitedly, 
 until at the close Lincoln had only three or four votes 
 less than Seward. The way of concentrating opposi 
 tion to the latter had been found. 
 
 One other circumstance is not to be forgotten. As 
 against Douglas, the canvass of 1858 had shown that 
 Lincoln could carry Illinois, strongly Democratic of old 
 and now a close State at best; but whether another 
 candidate could do so in the present canvass was doubt 
 ful. The doubt was not diminished by what had hap 
 pened three weeks before at the Charleston Democratic 
 National Convention. No one carefully considering 
 the matter can fail to discern that during the past six 
 years, in his speeches, in his debates with Douglas, and 
 by his personal efforts, Lincoln had done more effective 
 work towards bringing what remained of the old Whig 
 party and all the other elements of opposition into the 
 Republican organization, and in concentrating its pur 
 poses on what was fundamental in its origin, than any 
 
224 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 or all of his competitors at the Chicago Convention. 
 He was naturally and rightfully its choice. His nom 
 ination consolidated and saved the Republican party. 
 
 To Lincoln himself, quietly waiting at Springfield, 
 the event was not altogether a surprise. The first vote 
 confirmed his previous impression that the choice lay 
 between Mr. Seward and himself The second ballot 
 he construed as pretty surely indicating what the third 
 speedily settled. Pending the latter, he had stepped 
 into the Journal office, where many were now anxiously 
 expecting the next words from the Convention. A 
 friend brought him, in a few moments, a written mes 
 sage, and called for three cheers for the next President. 
 With manifest emotion he stood silent for a brief time, 
 then withdrew through the midst of cheering crowds 
 to take the news, he said, to " a little woman down at 
 the house." It was the loyal impulse of a loving heart. 
 
 The town grew more and more exultant as the news 
 rapidly spread. A hundred guns were fired with zeal 
 ous promptitude. A ratification mass meeting, with 
 bonfires and illuminations, was extemporized in the 
 evening, and the multitude on its adjournment moved 
 to the house of the nominee, who there spoke a few 
 words in response to congratulations and cheers, and 
 invited in all who could find room. Coming and going 
 until after midnight, all found an opportunity to press 
 the hand which was ever after to be so busy and often 
 sorely weary. 
 
 On Saturday a committee of one from each State, 
 on behalf of the Convention, and accompanied by its 
 presiding officer, met Lincoln in the same house, where 
 nil had been so quiet when this week began, to give 
 

 NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. 225 
 
 him formal notice of his nomination. He replied to 
 Mr. Ashmun s brief address in tones of voice more than 
 yesterday of the minor, melancholy kind peculiar to 
 his darker moods. 
 
 Deeply and even painfully sensible of the great responsi 
 bility which I could almost wish had fallen upon some one 
 of the far more eminent and experienced statesmen whose 
 distinguished names were before the Convention, I shall, by 
 your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the Con 
 vention, denominated the platform, and, without unnecessary 
 delay, respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubt 
 ing that the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nom 
 ination gratefully accepted. And now I will not longer defer 
 the pleasure of taking you, and each of you, by the hand. 
 
 His letter of acceptance had a brevity which has 
 gone out of fashion with nominees in these latter days: 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILL., May 23, 1860. 
 Hon. Geo. Ashmun, President of the Republican National 
 
 Convention : 
 
 SIR I accept the nomination tendered me by the Conven 
 tion over which you presided, and of which I am formally 
 apprised in the letter of yourself and others, acting as a com 
 mittee of the Convention for that purpose. 
 
 The declaration of principles and sentiments which ac 
 companies your letter meets my approval, and it shall be my 
 care not to violate or disregard it in any part. 
 
 Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with 
 due regard to the views and feelings of all who were repre 
 sented in the Convention ; to the rights of all the States and 
 Territories and the people of the nation ; to the inviolability 
 of the Constitution, and to the perpetual union, harmony 
 and prosperity of all, I am most happy to co-operate for the 
 practical success of the principles declared by the Conven 
 tion. 
 
 Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 15 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 1860. 
 The Presidential Canvass. 
 
 Mr. Douglas had been, next to Mr. Buchanan, the 
 leading candidate for the Democratic nomination at the 
 Cincinnati National Convention in 1856. When his 
 competitor had received a majority of votes, though 
 less than the required two-thirds, Douglas ended the 
 contest by withdrawing his name. There was then 
 little reason to doubt that the retiring rival, strong with 
 his party both North and South, would be its leading 
 candidate for the nomination four years later; and 
 would he not be fairly entitled to the benefit of his own 
 precedent in treating a majority vote as sufficient? 
 Before adjourning, the Cincinnati Convention took the 
 unusual course of naming the place where the next 
 Presidential Convention should be held. Not less sin 
 gular, that place was Charleston, S. C. In spite of all 
 intermediate dangers for the Governors of South 
 Carolina and other States in the same year plotted 
 secession in case of Fremont s election Charleston in 
 April, 1860, was not so "foreign" as it claimed to be in 
 December. Douglas had a majority in the Convention 
 clearly; but before a ballot was taken, nearly all the 
 delegates from the Cotton States had withdrawn, after 
 a fierce wrangle about the platform; and even then the 
 
 (226) 
 
A QUADRILATERAL CONTEST. 227 
 
 fatal two-thirds rule, which required the same number 
 to nominate as before, remained unchanged. 
 
 The time had already come a year and a half 
 after the serious warning given him by Lincoln near 
 the close of the Senatorial debate when Douglas 
 himself was too " sectional " for the South. His party 
 split on the identical issues pressed home to him by 
 Lincoln at Freeport and Jonesboro. 
 
 The Charleston Convention dispersed thirteen days 
 before the Republican Convention met at Chicago; and 
 it was a month after that event when the reassembling 
 with vacancies filled occurred at Baltimore. The 
 seceding delegates organized at Charleston, and ad 
 journed to meet at Richmond near the same date. The 
 Baltimore Convention was abbreviated by a fresh seces 
 sion, which included members from Virginia, Maryland, 
 Delaware, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and 
 California. Caleb Cushing, too, who had presided at 
 Charleston, and at Baltimore until now, resigned the 
 chair, and with B. F. Butler and others from Massa 
 chusetts went over to the second gathering of bolters. 
 Douglas having received (June 23d) two-thirds of the 
 votes cast, though not of a full convention, was declared 
 the Democratic nominee for President. A Southern 
 running mate was found in the person of Herschel V. 
 Johnson, of Georgia. The combined seceders nomi 
 nated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and Joseph 
 Lane, of Oregon, for President and Vice President, on 
 the Southern platform rejected at Charleston. 
 
 Before the final consummation of the Democratic 
 schism, still another National Convention met at Bal 
 timore (May iQth), and nominated John Bell, of Ten- 
 
228 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 nessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massa 
 chusetts, for Vice President. The party was christened 
 " Constitutional Union," and resolved " to recognize 
 no political principle other than the Constitution of the 
 country, the union of the States, and the enforcement 
 of the laws." The Convention was not numerically 
 large. Its constituents were mainly " old line Whigs " 
 and "Americans " hostile to the Democracy but un 
 reconciled to the Republican party. Its candidates 
 were destined to receive more votes than was generally 
 anticipated at the time of their nomination. 
 
 Thus before the end of June the work had been laid 
 out for an unprecedented quadrilateral contest. 
 
 To animate quite as much as to enlighten the voter 
 seemed to be each party s purpose in the ensuing cam 
 paign. Vote-winning, if not a fine art, is a complex 
 one. The press is alert and ardent; the stump orator 
 abounds; there are mass meetings and clubs; banquets, 
 barbecues, processions; the sound of fife and drum, of 
 horn and cannon. There must be outward symbols of 
 faith appealing to sense and sentiment: " hickory poles," 
 " log cabins," " rails," and whatever else will best touch 
 the sympathies of the million. It is idle to quarrel with 
 these things. There is enough else that is more re 
 pulsive and lamentable in every important canvass, 
 wherever there are liberal suffrage and large constitu 
 encies. 
 
 One novelty of the campaign of 1860 was an organ 
 ization called the " Wide-A wakes," in which many 
 thousands of young Republicans took part, with parades 
 and torchlight marchings, enlivening their own zeal, 
 swelling the ranks with new voters, and arousing an 
 
A QUADRILATERAL CONTEST. 229 
 
 efficient spirit wherever its work was visible, as it speed 
 ily came to be all over the land. Was it not, too, a pre 
 liminary training, as yet quite unconsciously, for keep 
 ing step in sterner phalanx and battalion on a coming 
 day? Never was there a party, in any canvass, more 
 thoroughly in earnest than the Republicans in 1860. 
 
 Again and again Lincoln had given time, talent and 
 travel to urging the claims of the Presidential candidates 
 of his own faith. Now he was to have a respite from 
 these labors, but by no means to remain in quiet and 
 solitude. He did not, like Douglas, see fit to take the 
 stump in his own behalf as a candidate for the great 
 office. But from the very beginning he kept close 
 watch upon the course of events, North and South. He 
 had few hours of idleness during all those summer and 
 autumn months; not a day passed without its visitors 
 coming single or in throngs. His modest dwelling, a 
 few squares away from the chief State and county build 
 ings, soon ceased to be the place in which he commun 
 icated in person with the public. He had a room for 
 this purpose in the State House; yet Mrs. Lincoln had 
 her calls, too, from far and near, in the little parlor at 
 home, and heartily did her part in a social way. Her 
 guests were affably entertained, and with each of them 
 such an occasion was sure to re-live as a pleasant 
 memory. 
 
 Usually, the voter had been practically left to choose 
 between two Presidential candidates. Though it was 
 otherwise now, there were really but two controlling 
 subjects on which opinion was divided: the Union and 
 Slavery. As to the first of these, neither the Douglas 
 nor the Breckinridge platform had anything to say 
 
230 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 beyond a general reaffirmation (alike) of the Democratic 
 platform of 1856, which declared " that all efforts of 
 Abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to 
 interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient 
 steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the 
 most alarming and dangerous consequences; and that 
 all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish 
 the happiness of the people and endanger the stability 
 and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be 
 countenanced by any friend of our political institu 
 tions." The same platform affirmed: " That the Dem 
 ocratic party will faithfully abide by and uphold the 
 principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia res 
 olutions of 1798 and in the report of Mr. Madison to 
 the Virginia Legislature in 1799; that it adopts those 
 principles as constituting one of the main foundations 
 of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them out 
 in their obvious meaning and import." 
 
 While both wings of the Democratic party were 
 pledged in these terms, it is to be noted that Jefferson 
 Davis and the supporters of Mr. Breckinridge in gen 
 eral openly construed the " Resolutions of 1798 " as an 
 explicit declaration of extreme State-rights doctrines, 
 including the right of a State to secede from the Union. 
 
 The Republicans had expressly affirmed at Chicago 
 " that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, 
 and the Union of the States, must and shall be pre 
 served." They also denounced the threats of disunion 
 made in Congress by Democrats " in case of a popular 
 overthrow of their ascendency, as denying the vital 
 principles of a free government, and as an avowal of 
 contemplated treason." How the supporters of Lincoln, 
 
A QUADRILATERAL CONTEST. 231 
 
 Douglas and Breckinridge respectively stood on the 
 other of the two questions (slavery) needs no further 
 indication here. The Bell party made the Union its 
 specialty, leaving slavery unmentioned in its platform. 
 
 There were to be some State elections at the South 
 in July and August, and at the North in September 
 and October. So far as the Republicans were directly 
 concerned, it mattered little how North Carolina or 
 Kentucky should vote; yet the posture of those States 
 on the Union question, to be judged from those elec 
 tions, was of general interest. In Vermont and Maine, 
 which held elections in September, there was no doubt 
 of large Republican majorities, yet their relative mag 
 nitude in comparison with those of previous years might 
 show the direction of the popular tide. The October 
 elections in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana would be 
 of great significance. There was thus something to 
 look forward to, from month to month, to relieve the 
 monotony of waiting for the final event in November. 
 
 Kentucky and North Carolina, conservative Union 
 States as they were, in their elections confirmed very 
 conclusively that the South in general would give no 
 substantial support to Douglas. His friends had not 
 been able to control the Democratic organization in 
 any slave-holding State but Missouri. Bell and Breck 
 inridge were the competitors between whom the South 
 ern vote would be chiefly divided, and the summer 
 elections favored Bell. 
 
 Maine and Vermont, early in September, elected 
 Republican Governors by majorities which showed a 
 marked increase of party strength. In Ohio, a month 
 after, there were Republican gains. But the most 
 
232 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 convincing signs were the election of Mr. Curtin as 
 Governor of Pennsylvania, by more than 32,000 ma 
 jority, and of Colonel Henry S. Lane as Governor of 
 Indiana by nearly 10,000; while in both these States the 
 entire opposition was united against the Republican 
 candidates. 
 
 As to New York there was anxiety. In previous 
 years disaster had sometimes rather unexpectedly over 
 taken Whig or Republican candidates in that State who 
 had been nominated against the wishes of Thurlow 
 Weed. That gentleman had been almost heart-broken 
 over Seward s defeat, and left Chicago in a gloomy 
 mood, seemingly inconsolable, but was prevailed upon 
 to visit Springfield before returning East. An inter 
 view with Lincoln so favorably impressed the sagacious 
 visitor that he soon entered heartily into his support. 
 Before the canvass ended, Seward himself actively 
 joined in the work, making several speeches and rally 
 ing his friends. 
 
 But all danger was not over in New York the 
 State on whose vote so many Presidential elections 
 have turned, and whose aid seemed now indispensable. 
 The commercial metropolis was growing nervous about 
 the result and the future. The Democratic leaders 
 there were putting forth every possible exertion to 
 divert the electoral vote of the State from Lincoln. 
 Finally, a fusion ticket was made up, on the plea of 
 averting imminent peril to the Union, the electoral can 
 didates being distributed, on agreed terms, between the 
 three other Presidential candidates. Would not this 
 combination obtain a clear majority in the State? 
 
 Other like fusions were made. The three opposing 
 
A QUADRILATERAL CONTEST. 233 
 
 parties in New Jersey formed a common electoral ticket; 
 and in Rhode Island there was a combination between 
 the partisans of Douglas and Breckinridge. Even in 
 Pennsylvania the latter experiment was tried, despite 
 the defeat of a fusion State ticket in October. 
 
 Mr. Seward, in a speech at his home in Auburn, 
 November 5th the eve of the Presidential election 
 told his auditors that " amid the jargon of these dis 
 cordant members of the Fusion party " they would have 
 but one argument; " and that argument is, that so sure 
 as you are so perverse as to cast your vote singly, law 
 fully, honestly, as you ought to do, for one candidate 
 for the Presidency, instead of scattering it among three 
 candidates, so that no President may be elected, this 
 Union shall come down over your heads, involving you 
 and us in a common ruin! . . . But I tell them 
 . . . that, when to-morrow s sun shall have set, and 
 the next morning s sun shall have risen on the Amer 
 ican people, rejoicing in the election of Abraham Lin 
 coln to the Presidency, these men who to-day sympa 
 thize with, uphold, support and excuse the disunionists, 
 will have to make a sudden choice, and choose whether, 
 in the language of the Senator from Georgia, they will 
 go for treason, and so make it respectable, or whether 
 they will go with us for Freedom, for the Constitution, 
 and for the eternal Union." 
 
 On the night of the 6th of November, as the tele 
 graph reported at Springfield the vote of State after 
 State, amid the cheers and congratulations of his friends, 
 Lincoln waited at the Republican headquarters, hope 
 ful but not quite secure, until a late hour, unwilling to 
 go home without something fully conclusive from New 
 
234 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 York. At last it came from a source that could be 
 implicitly trusted. Fusion was beaten in the great 
 State beyond a doubt: a majority of the electoral votes 
 of the nation was sure for Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Every free State save New Jersey had chosen Repub 
 lican electors; and even in New Jersey (where the mixed 
 electoral ticket had three candidates for Douglas, two 
 for Breckinridge, and two for Bell), the combination 
 had not been perfect, only the Douglas electors being 
 chosen, leaving the other four to Lincoln. In Illinois 
 he had nearly 12,000 over Douglas on the popular vote, 
 and a clear majority of all, Bell having but 4,913, and 
 Breckinridge, 2,404; in Pennsylvania a clear majority 
 of over 66,000; and in New York more than 50,000 over 
 the united opposition. In the border States of Del 
 aware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, the 
 Republican vote numbered altogether but 26,430; and 
 there was no Republican electoral ticket put in nomina 
 tion in any other slave-holding State. In the free 
 States Lincoln s total vote was 1,831,180; in all, 1,857,- 
 610. Breckinridge had in the North, including esti 
 mates of his share of the Fusion votes, an aggregate 
 of 279,211; and Douglas had in the whole South, 
 163,525 of which more than one-third were cast in 
 Missouri, where his friends had secured the regular 
 Democratic organization. Bell carried Virginia, Ken 
 tucky and Tennessee distinctly on the Union issue. 
 Lincoln and Bell each carried his own State, and Doug 
 las and Breckinridge were both beaten in theirs. In 
 the whole South, Breckinridge had but 54,898 more 
 votes than Bell, and was, on the whole vote of the slave- 
 holding States, in an actual minority of over 135,000. 
 
A QUADRILATERAL CONTEST. 235 
 
 The whole number of electoral votes at the time 
 was 303; of which the aggregate carried for Lincoln 
 was 1 80; for Breckinridge, 72; for Bell, 39, and for 
 Douglas, 12. 
 
 The Chicago Convention had not counted too care 
 fully on the importance of Pennsylvania, Indiana and 
 New Jersey. Did the opponents of Seward s nomina 
 tion count as justly as Lincoln subsequently did on the 
 hazard of offending New York? Without that State 
 he would not have had a majority of the electoral vote, 
 but barely 145, while the number required for a choice 
 was 152. Without the 27 votes of Pennsylvania and 
 the 4 received from New Jersey, he would have had 
 
 carrying New York and every other free State 
 but 149. With the loss of Pennsylvania and Indiana 
 
 to say nothing of the effect of their adverse verdict 
 in October upon other States he would have had 
 but 140. 
 
 In any of these contingencies the election of Pres 
 ident would have devolved upon the House of Repre 
 sentatives with what result, as parties were then 
 shaped, is not at all certain, and it is useless to con 
 jecture. The choice of Vice President would have been 
 made by the Democratic Senate, which had so lately 
 declared for Federal protection to slavery in the Ter 
 ritories. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 1860-1861. 
 
 South Carolina Revolts Secession Tumult in the Gulf 
 States The President-Elect Bides His Time. 
 
 A Republican President could not have greatly 
 harmed the Southern people so long as their representa 
 tives kept their seats in Congress. There was in fact 
 no apprehension of such danger. But separation from 
 the North and the establishment of an empire exclu 
 sively their own had long been a cherished dream of 
 extremists in the Cotton States; they had through 
 secret organizations and otherwise prepared for its 
 realization; and they chose not to wait for any better 
 opportunity to revolt. 
 
 It was fitting that South Carolina should take the 
 lead. Governor Gist called its Legislature to meet in 
 special session on the 5th of November, the day before 
 the Presidential election a normal proceeding, because 
 that body was to choose electors. In his proclamation, 
 however, after specifying the legitimate object, the Gov 
 ernor named another one nearer his heart. He wished 
 immediate secession. An act was passed by the State 
 Senate on the Qth, and concurred in by the House of 
 Representatives three days after, providing for a State 
 convention to take formal action on that question. 
 
 Either there was a great deal of misemployed ora 
 tory or these people thought they were initiating civil 
 
 (236) 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA LEADS A REVOLT. 237 
 
 war. The presiding officer of the Senate said on first 
 taking the chair: " I do not seek to lift the veil that 
 hides the future from our sight, but we have all an 
 instinctive feeling that we are on the eve of great events. 
 ... In our unity will be our strength, physical and 
 moral. No human power can withstand or break down 
 a united people, standing upon their own soil and de 
 fending their homes and firesides." Mr. Chesnut, who 
 had just withdrawn from the United States Senate, in 
 a serenade speech in the evening of the same day, spoke 
 in a more excited vein: " For himself, he would unfurl 
 the Palmetto flag, fling it to the breeze, and, with the 
 spirit of a brave man, determine tc live and die as 
 became our glorious ancestors, and ring the clarion 
 notes of defiance in the ears of an insolent foe!" 
 
 Congressman Boyce said, the next evening at Col 
 umbia: " In my opinion, the South ought not to sub 
 mit. If you intend to resist, the way to resist in earnest 
 is to act; the way to enact revolution is to stare it in 
 the face. I think the only policy for us is to arm as 
 soon as we receive authentic intelligence of the election 
 of Lincoln." 
 
 Many other speeches, as well as the message of the 
 Governor, were of similar warlike tone. Already mil 
 itary companies had been formed and were actively drill 
 ing, to prepare for the contemplated emergency. 
 
 In Georgia a " military convention " was held at 
 Milledgeville (then the State Capital) on the I2th of 
 November. Governor Brown, who was one of the 
 speakers, said it was the duty of other Southern States 
 to sustain South Carolina: " He would like to see the 
 Federal troops dare attempt the coercion of a seceding 
 
238 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Southern State! For every Georgian who fell in con 
 flict thus incited, the lives of two Federal soldiers should 
 expiate the outrage on State sovereignty." Of course, 
 the " military " gentlemen there assembled voted for 
 the resolution offered in favor of secession. Disunion 
 orators did not anticipate bloodless revolution. They 
 looked forward to civil war without a shudder. They 
 seemed, indeed, to enjoy the prospect and its promise 
 of a harvest of glory. 
 
 On the day after the election, Judge Magrath, of 
 the United States District Court in South Carolina, re 
 signed; as did also the District Attorney, and the Col 
 lector of the Port at Charleston. Mr. Hammond, fol 
 lowing his colleague, resigned his seat in the United 
 States Senate directly after the passage of the act pro 
 viding for the Secession State Convention. The South 
 Carolina representatives were hardly more tardy. So 
 far as possible, every relation of the State to the Union 
 was to be terminated at once. 
 
 In the other Cotton States the work of secession 
 was aggressively pushed, but South Carolina alone had 
 taken the fatal step before the close of December. 
 
 Still a private citizen at Springfield, Lincoln was 
 not a dull spectator of passing events. From his youth 
 he had been a constant and eager reader of newspapers, 
 both Northern and Southern, and kept himself well in 
 formed on public matters from day to day. There were 
 certainly few who, at this time, formed as accurate 
 judgments on current affairs and their future bearings 
 as he. Would the secession dragon be strangled at its 
 birth, or allowed in the remaining months of the exist 
 ing administration to get firmly on its feet and to grow 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA LEADS A REVOLT. 239 
 
 strong? Whatever he may have replied in his own 
 thought, he surely could not intermeddle at this stage. 
 Even in his private words he was discreetly reserved. 
 From the moment his election was assured, how 
 ever, his mind was turned not only to the organization 
 of his administration, but also contingently to its policy. 
 Many visitations were made to him, some by invitation 
 and more without, for consultation on both these sub 
 jects. On the night of the November election, wake- 
 fully meditating on the task before him, he completed 
 in his own mind, so he stated to Mr. Welles, a cast of 
 the Cabinet substantially as ultimately constituted. One 
 leading purpose in choosing its members was to con 
 solidate the Republican party. He certainly thought 
 of Mr. Seward as first of the list at a still earlier day. 
 In fact, it might be plausibly argued that he was com 
 mitted to this more than to any other appointment be 
 fore the canvass really opened. Thurlow Weed, who 
 had visited Lincoln in May, returned home to enter 
 actively into the campaign with apparently as confident 
 an expectation of Seward s appointment as if it had 
 been promised. Mr. Raymond, of the New York 
 Times, indeed, writing to that paper from Auburn a 
 day or two after the nomination, positively asserted 
 that Seward would take no office under Lincoln, and 
 this probably accorded with the feeling of the Senator 
 and his interviewer at the time. The whole spirit of 
 Mr. Raymond s letter was that of a discontent sug 
 gestive of mutiny. But this humor did not last. There 
 is an interesting gleam of revelation from Mr. Weed 
 himself in a letter to the London Times a year or two 
 later, referring to Seward s alleged insult to the Duke 
 
240 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 of Newcastle at a dinner to the Prince of Wales in New 
 York, about the middle of October, The idea was pre 
 posterous, Mr. Weed argued, especially because Mr. 
 Seward had then " reason to expect to be Secretary of 
 State in the new administration." On the I5th of 
 November Lincoln said to the writer: " It is due to 
 Mr. Seward that he should be tendered the office of 
 Secretary of State. I think he is just the man to be 
 Minister to England." The tender was made to him 
 soon after the meeting of the electoral colleges (in De 
 cember) made in perfect good faith, with the wish 
 as well as the expectation that the place would be 
 accepted. It does not follow, however, that under 
 other conditions the most important foreign mission 
 might not have been offered him in preference. 
 
 Governor Chase, \vho had been elected the previous 
 winter to a full term in the United States Senate, to 
 begin on the 4th of March, 1861, aspired to be Secre 
 tary of State. In the conversation already mentioned, 
 on the 1 5th of November, Lincoln said, as occasion was 
 presented: " I think Governor Chase would make an 
 excellent Secretary of the Treasury." This expression 
 was given in such a way as to leave no doubt of a 
 serious purpose to make this appointment. There was 
 an embarrassment, however, not then hinted, in the 
 circumstance that Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania, who 
 was intended for a position in the Cabinet, was net. 
 content to have anything less than the Treasury De 
 partment. Cameron was invited to Springfield before 
 the close of December, and on his return home certain 
 of his confidential friends were assured that he had the 
 promise of either that or the War Department. On 
 
BIDING HIS TIME TROUBLED DAYS. 241 
 
 invitation, Mr. Chase visited Springfield on the 3d of 
 January to confer with the President-elect, who asked 
 him whether he would be willing to accept the office 
 of Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Chase requested 
 time to consult his friends before definitely replying. 
 If, strictly speaking, the place was not then offered him, 
 as Mr. Chase afterward stated, Lincoln s consent to this 
 request was a practical committal. No message of 
 declination was ever received, and an acceptance was 
 evidently expected. 
 
 As to the War Department, it is certain that Lincoln 
 at one time manifested a disposition to place Cassius 
 M. Clay at its head. This was clearly indicated to the 
 writer in November. General Clay himself regarded 
 the place as practically promised him at an earlier date. 
 If this view is correct, there was a double reason for the 
 fact that the alternative promise to Mr. Cameron was 
 recalled just before the invited interview with Mr. Chase 
 in January. From that time onward until near the 
 4th of March, Cameron was apparently, if not actually, 
 left in doubt as to whether he would be called to the 
 Cabinet at all. Clay could not become Secretary of 
 War, under the existing complication, without setting 
 aside either Chase or Cameron, if not both, and was 
 ultimately tendered a foreign mission instead. 
 
 Early in December, at an interview asked by the 
 President-elect, Judge Bates was offered the place of 
 Attorney-General, which he agreed to accept. Three 
 rival candidates for the Presidential nomination had 
 been chosen as heads of important departments. Was 
 it not natural that Lincoln should wish to have in his 
 council at least one of the active supporters of his own 
 16 
 
242 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 candidacy? Norman B. Judd, of Chicago, had been 
 an efficient organizer and worker in that behalf, and 
 was a personal friend deemed worthy of such a position. 
 Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, had also rendered valuable 
 service in this way; had been Lincoln s associate at the 
 bar for many years, and had been a distinguished Con 
 gressman, holding during Lincoln s term the chair 
 manship of the Committee on Territories. Influential 
 friends of Mr. Smith visited Springfield to press his 
 appointment as Secretary of the Interior, but received 
 no positive assurance on the subject. Some attempts 
 were made to have a Cabinet place tendered to a South 
 ern Unionist like John Bell, James Guthrie, or John A. 
 Gilmer; but Lincoln foresaw, without refusing permis 
 sion to Mr. Speed and Mr. Weed to satisfy themselves 
 in their own way as proposed, that no such appointment 
 would be accepted on any possible terms. 
 
 On the 22d of November, Mr. Hamlin met the Pres 
 ident-elect by appointment at Chicago. This was their 
 first meeting since their names had been associated 
 together as candidates, and probably the first since they 
 served together in Congress, the former being then a 
 Democratic Senator, yet as pronounced as Lincoln in 
 regard to slavery. At this conference there was an 
 interchange of views on national affairs, and Mr. Ham 
 lin stated privately to political friends in Northern Ohio, 
 where he stopped on his way homeward, that there 
 would be " no lowering of the Republican standard " 
 on the part of the incoming President. This was a 
 point on which there had already been solicitude in 
 the minds of some stout Republicans like Senator 
 
BIDING HIS TIME TROUBLED DAYS. 243 
 
 Wade, who welcomed this assurance at a moment when 
 so many supports of the party seemed to be giving way. 
 
 For, on the one hand, there had begun to be talk 
 of " peaceable separation " to which Mr. Chase was 
 inclined to listen; on the other, of a surrender of 
 Republican principles and even of the party name, to 
 organize a broad Conservative Union party on a basis 
 acceptable to the Southern opponents of secession. 
 Horace Greeley, in the New York Tribune, as early as 
 the Qth of November, took ground for unresisted Dis 
 union; and Thurlow Weed, in the Albany Evening Jour 
 nal, simultaneously pronounced for a substantial surren 
 der in order to conciliate the South. The Republican 
 party was not more strongly bound to redeem its pledge 
 against the extension of slavery than its promise that 
 " the Union must and shall be preserved." Would the 
 President-elect be faithful to his own and his party s 
 promises in both these particulars? This was the ques 
 tion answered by Mr. Hamlifo. 
 
 That his answer was correct was proved three weeks 
 later after Congress had assembled and various 
 " pacification " measures had been introduced by a 
 confidential letter (December I3th) to Representative 
 E. B. Washburne, of Illinois, in which Lincoln said: 
 " Prevent, as far as possible, any of our friends from 
 demoralizing themselves and our cause by entertaining 
 propositions for compromise of any sort on slavery ex 
 tension. There is no possible compromise upon it but 
 which puts us under again, and leaves us all our work 
 to do over again. . . . On that point hold firm as 
 with a chain of steel." 
 
244 UNCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Congress met three days before the election of del 
 egates to the South Carolina Convention. President 
 Buchanan in his annual message dwelt sympathetically 
 on the grievances of the South, but argued against 
 secession as a lawful remedy, or as any remedy at all. 
 In place of the conclusion naturally following, there was 
 a confession of inability on the part of the Government 
 to hinder the threatened revolt. The practice of the 
 administration but too well accorded with its theory 
 The days of Jackson and Livingston were gone by. 
 
 Buchanan asked no legislation to strengthen his 
 arm for the emergency. Congress volunteered none, 
 but gave itself to the consideration of measures to pacify 
 the discontented South. Most prominent of the propo 
 sitions of this character was that offered by Mr. Crit- 
 tenden, then Senator from Kentucky to be suc 
 ceeded by Vice President Breckinridge on the 4th of 
 March, and to have a seat in the House of Representa 
 tives. That part of the President s message relating to 
 the perils of the nation was referred in the Senate to 
 a special committee of thirteen, and in the House to 
 a committee of thirty-three one from each State 
 and to these committees were respectively sent the 
 various resolutions and projects on the subject intro 
 duced in either body. The Senate committee, ap 
 pointed by Breckinridge, was composed of seven Dem 
 ocrats Messrs. Powell, of Kentucky; Hunter, of Vir 
 ginia; Toombs, of Georgia; Douglas, of Illinois; Davis, 
 of Mississippi; Bigler, of Pennsylvania, and Rice, of 
 Minnesota; one Conservative Unionist Mr. Critten- 
 den, of Kentucky; and five Republicans Messrs. Sew- 
 ard, of New York; Collamer, of Vermont; Wade, of 
 
BIDING HIS TIME TROUBLED DAYS. 245 
 
 Ohio; Doolittle, of Wisconsin, and Grimes, of Iowa. 
 To the House committee of thirty-three, Speaker Pen- 
 nington gave as conservative a cast as was practicable, 
 Mr. Corwin, of Ohio, being its chairman. 
 
 The " Crittenden compromise " included six articles 
 of amendment to the Constitution, making concessions 
 to the South or seeking to allay Southern apprehen 
 sions, and four joint resolutions, three of which were 
 designed to strengthen the fugitive slave law, while 
 the fourth favored a more effectual suppression of 
 the African slave-trade. The proposed constitutional 
 amendments provided: 
 
 (i) That in all territory south of the line of 36 30 
 north latitude slavery should be authorized and protected, 
 and north of that line prohibited; (2) that Congress should 
 have no power to abolish slavery in places under its ex 
 clusive jurisdiction within the limits of slave-holding States ; 
 
 (3) or to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, so long 
 as existent in Virginia and Maryland, or either of them ; 
 
 (4) or to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from 
 one State to another; (5) that Congress should have power 
 to provide payment for fugitive slaves escaping after arrest ; 
 and (6) that no future amendment should affect the five 
 preceding articles, or Paragraph 3 of Section 2 of Article I. 
 (relating to the basis of representation and taxation), or 
 Paragraph 3 of Section 2 of Article IV. (relating to fugi 
 tive slaves) ; nor should any amendment be made giving 
 Congress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery in 
 any of the States by whose laws it is, or may be, allowed 
 or permitted. 
 
 These proposals involved too positive a Republi 
 can surrender to find favor on that side in the Senate 
 committee of thirteen. Messrs. Davis, Toombs and 
 Hunter pleaded the lack of such support as a sufficient 
 reason for withholding their votes, which, if cast with 
 
246 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 those of Messrs. Crittenden, Powell, Douglas, Bigler 
 and Rice, would have secured a report for the measure. 
 No other proposition had better success, and before the 
 holidays were over this committee had definitely aban 
 doned its hopeless task. The " Crittenden compro 
 mise," however, remained before the Senate as an indi 
 vidual measure of its mover; was in its substance con 
 sidered and rejected by the House committee of thirty- 
 three, and otherwise maintained an apparent though 
 shadowy existence during the remainder of the session. 
 
 The South Carolina Convention passed an " ordi 
 nance of secession " on the 2Oth of December. At 
 Charleston, whither the Convention had removed from 
 the State capital, the populace went wild with delight, 
 lighting up the city and parading with noisy demon 
 strations. There were rejoicings through all the Cot 
 ton country, with congratulations to the bold Caro 
 linians; nor were like expressions wanting nearer the 
 border. Other Gulf States had already taken formal 
 steps toward a like consummation. " Minute men " 
 from Georgia were tendering military service to Gov 
 ernor Pickens, of South Carolina, who was putting on 
 the front of active war. With a grim humor highly 
 appreciated at home, the Charleston press had its " For 
 eign " columns for news from the other States. Special 
 encouragement, too, was given to the secession cause 
 by the open sympathy of a number of Democratic jour 
 nals and politicians at the North a kind of help esti 
 mated at higher value than a cooler judgment would 
 have justified. 
 
 Sensitive capitalists and traders in the large cities 
 began to shake with foreboding; there was clamor for 
 
BIDING HIS TIME TROUBLED DAYS. 247 
 
 peace, for compromise; facile politicians, to stimulate 
 reaction, excitedly declaimed to Northern city audi 
 ences on the calamities impending- over every business 
 interest, to be averted only by conciliating the South. 
 Opponents of Republican opinions were neither tardy 
 nor sparing in their endeavors to turn the state of 
 affairs to partisan account. 
 
 Douglas, who had taken the lead in annulling the 
 Missouri line, was now a champion of its restoration 
 through the Crittenden compromise. Senator Pugh, 
 of Ohio, his close political friend, who at Charleston 
 only a few months before had spoken boldly against 
 the demand for the protection of slavery in the Terri 
 tories, followed his leader in consenting to such protec 
 tion south of the line of 36 30 , with all the possibilities 
 of future acquisition. On the last day of December, 
 Mr. Pugh at home for the holidays addressed a 
 public meeting at Cincinnati in advocacy of this com 
 promise. After expressing the sanguine hopes he had 
 indulged of pacification thereby, he continued: 
 
 But I am sorry to say that within the last week before I 
 left Washington all this has changed. I must be permitted 
 to say that the immediate cause of this change was the dec 
 laration in the New York Tribune purporting to be made 
 on the authority of the President-elect, that he would not 
 yield a single hair s breadth of the position which, as he 
 understood, his party had taken in the last canvass. . . . 
 But it is remarkable that, although Mr. Lincoln has declared 
 it beneath his dignity to give any assurance that would quiet 
 the alarm of the people of the Southern States since his elec 
 tion, he has not thought it beneath his dignity to authorize 
 a declaration to be made which brings to bear on the more 
 moderate men of his party in Congress the whole power and 
 influence of his incoming- administration. I think it was 
 an error. 
 
248 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 The Senator was not sufficiently candid either in 
 his statement or in his criticism. The demand for a 
 public manifesto from Lincoln, often heard in hostile 
 quarters at this time, was not a reasonable one. While 
 another held the chief executive office, it was not fit 
 ting for the elected successor thus to assume any of 
 its duties by anticipation. Nor could there be any 
 " assurance " that had not already been repeatedly and 
 plainly given in the proper way the same which had 
 been privately uttered to Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, a 
 few days before this speech of Mr. Pugh. On the I 4 th 
 of November, Mr. Stephens spoke at Milledgeville, 
 where the Legislature was sitting, using even more than 
 his wonted vigor and eloquence in opposition to seces 
 sion. His speech was much applauded at the North, 
 where his sincerity was not doubted, and where some 
 had faith that his stability would be heroic. Of Lin 
 coln s election to the Presidency, Stephens was reported 
 as saying: 
 
 In my judgment, the election of no man constitutionally 
 chosen to that office is sufficient cause for any State to sep 
 arate from the Union. . . . We went into the election with 
 this people; the result was different from what we wished; 
 but the election has been constitutionally held. Were we 
 to make a point of resistance to the Government, and go out 
 of the Union on that account, the record would be made up 
 hereafter against us. But, it is said, Mr. Lincoln s policy 
 and principles are against the Constitution, and that, if he 
 carries them out, it will be destruction of our rights. Let 
 us not anticipate a threatened evil. ... I do not anticipate 
 that Mr. Lincoln will do anything to jeopardize our safety or 
 security, whatever may be his spirit to do it ; for he is bound 
 by the constitutional checks which are thrown around him, 
 which, at this time, render him powerless to do any mischief. 
 
BIDING HIS TIME TROUBLED DAYS. 249 
 
 Seeing a newspaper report of this speech, rebuking 
 the attempt to " break up the best government upon 
 earth," Lincoln wrote his old friend a brief note on 
 the 3Oth of November, asking an authentic copy of the 
 speech, but making no comment. When Stephens 
 replied he was already overborne, if he had not actually 
 drifted far to sea " with his State." On the 22d of 
 December, Lincoln prefixing to his response, " For 
 your own eye only" wrote in turn: 
 
 I fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, and 
 the weight of responsibility on me. 
 
 Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a 
 Republican administration would directly, or indirectly, in 
 terfere with the slaves, or bother them about their slaves? 
 If they do, I wish to assure you as once a friend, and still, 
 I hope, not any [wise] an enemy, that there is no cause for 
 such fears. 
 
 The South would be in no worse danger in this respect 
 than it was in the days of Washington. I suppose, however, 
 this does not meet the case. You think slavery is right, and 
 ought to be extended, while we think it is wrong, and ought 
 to be restricted. That, I suppose, is the rub. It certainly 
 is the only substantial difference between us.* 
 
 Their next communication was in person, four years 
 later, on a steamer in Hampton Roads. 
 
 * Published by Mr. Stephens after the war. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 1860-1861. 
 
 Embarrassments of President Buchanan Major Robert 
 
 Anderson "Saves the Country" Fort Sumter 
 
 Plans for Pacification <c Confederate States" 
 
 Before the close of the year there were significant 
 events in Charleston harbor. 
 
 President Buchanan in his recent message, following 
 the opinion given by Attorney-General Black, to the 
 effect that he was powerless to put down an insurrection 
 involving the people of an entire State, though he might 
 suppress a smaller outbreak, hardly meant, after all, to 
 proclaim such an utter helplessness in the pending dis 
 turbances as was generally inferred. Even the very 
 conservative Attorney-General found it necessary to 
 draw the line somewhere, and considerably inside of so 
 extreme a limit, for he had said in the legal opinion 
 already mentioned: "The right of the Government to 
 preserve itself in its whole constitutional vigor, by 
 repelling a direct and positive aggression upon its 
 property or its officers, can not be denied." 
 
 Military works had been erected in Charleston har 
 bor as part of the system of national coast defenses. In 
 one of these, Fort Moultrie, there was a small garrison, 
 numbering less than one hundred men, under the com- 
 
 (250) 
 
PRESIDENT BUCHANAN S TROUBLES. 251 
 
 mand of Major Robert Anderson. Another, Fort Sum- 
 ter, was a costly structure, of much greater strength and 
 importance, erected in the midst of the waters, and only 
 lately brought to such a degree of completion as to 
 make its occupation by a garrison practicable. It was 
 well known that the authorities of South Carolina meant 
 to insist on possession of these and the minor works 
 " within its jurisdiction," as they alleged, though in fact 
 exclusive jurisdiction over their site had been ceded by 
 South Carolina to the United States. While eagerly 
 pushing forward the work of arming the State, and mus 
 tering into its service volunteer companies from other 
 States, the new Governor, Mr. Pickens, proposed to 
 enter into negotiations with President Buchanan, as the 
 Federal " agent " of the other States, for a pacific sur 
 render of the forts to the Palmetto principality. The 
 Governor s commissioners, Messrs. Barnwell, Orr, and 
 Adams, reached Washington on this errand a day or 
 two after Christmas. 
 
 While they were on their way, Major Anderson, 
 whom they had left quietly holding Fort Moultrie, 
 startled the insurgent authorities and electrified the 
 country by a nocturnal transfer of his little military 
 force to Fort Sumter, then supposed to be impreg 
 nable. The demonstrations of public feeling at the 
 North when this news was received left no doubt as 
 to the sentiments of the people about the whole busi 
 ness of secession. After that there was little talk of 
 " peaceable " disunion. 
 
 The South Carolina commissioners sent to the Pres 
 ident a communication, in which, after serving on him 
 a copy of the ordinance of secession, and without wait- 
 
252 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 ing to learn what reception would be given to their cre 
 dentials, they proceeded to accuse the Administration of 
 violating its pledges in the matter of Major Anderson s 
 dismantling Fort Moultrie and occupying Fort Sumter. 
 They asked an explanation from Mr. Buchanan, who 
 at first timid, but braced up by Mr. Black replied to 
 these gentlemen as citizens merely, distinctly repudi 
 ating their assumption of an official character, and re 
 pelling their allegations of bad faith as to the forts. 
 Neither did he make any disclaimer of Major Ander 
 son s acts. This brought a rejoinder so wanting in 
 courtesy that the President declined to receive it, and 
 the commissioners departed. 
 
 There had already been a "crisis" in Mr. Buchanan s 
 administration. On the loth of December Howell Cobb 
 had resigned his place as Secretary of the Treasury, 
 alleging as a reason " his duty to his State " ; and on 
 the 1 4th Lewis Cass had retired from the State Depart 
 ment, because the garrison in Charleston harbor was 
 not strengthened. Mr. Cobb s place had been filled 
 by the appointment of Philip F. Thomas, of Maryland; 
 and Edwin M. Stanton became Attorney-General, on 
 the promotion of Mr. Black to the office of Secretary 
 of State. The affair with the South Carolina commis 
 sioners was not over, when Secretary Floyd, of the War 
 Department, was found to be implicated in the robbery 
 of an Indian trust fund, and Mr. Floyd s resignation, 
 distinctly on that account, was demanded by the Presi 
 dent. This was tendered on the 2Qth of December, in 
 a letter which implied for the public eye that the War 
 Secretary had voluntarily retired because faith had not 
 been kept in regard to the Charleston forts. Joseph 
 
PRESIDENT BUCHANAN S TROUBLES. 253 
 
 Holt, of Kentucky, Postmaster-General, was thereupon 
 transferred to the Secretaryship of War, and Horatio 
 King, Assistant Postmaster-General, succeeded Mr. 
 Holt. On the 3Oth of December the President ordered 
 reinforcements to be sent to Major Anderson a meas 
 ure agreed upon in Cabinet, with the approval of all 
 except Secretaries Thomas and Thompson, both of 
 whom soon after resigned. General John A. Dix, of 
 New York, succeeded Thomas in the Treasury Depart 
 ment, and Thompson s chief clerk, Moses Kelly, was 
 Acting Secretary of the Interior for the remainder of 
 the term. Buchanan s Cabinet henceforward was more 
 harmonious, but its efficiency chiefly negative. 
 
 Secretary Black said very plainly in his official advice 
 to the President: 
 
 The forts in Charleston harbor belong to this Govern 
 ment are its own and can not be given up. It is true 
 they might be surrendered to a superior force, whether that 
 force be in the service of a seceding State or a foreign na 
 tion. But Fort Sumter is impregnable and can not be taken 
 if defended as it should be. It is a thing of the last impor 
 tance that it should be maintained if all the power of this 
 nation can do it; for the command of the harbor and the 
 President s ability to execute the revenue laws may depend 
 on it. ... The power to defend the public property, to 
 resist an assailing force which unlawfully attempts to drive 
 out troops of the United States from one of the fortifications, 
 and to use military and naval forces for the purpose of aiding 
 the proper officers of the United States in the execution of 
 the laws this, as far as it goes, is coercion, and may very 
 well be called " coercing a State by force of arms to remain 
 in the Union." The President has always asserted his right 
 of coercion to that extent. He merely denies the right of 
 Congress to make offensive war upon a State of the Union 
 as such might be made upon a foreign government. 
 
254 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 The following words of Mr. Black, from the same 
 document, especially deserve attention: 
 
 The remotest expression of a doubt about Major Ander 
 son s perfect propriety of behavior should be carefully 
 avoided. He is not merely a gallant and meritorious officer 
 who is entitled to a fair hearing before he is condemned. 
 He has saved the country, I solemnly believe, when its day 
 was darkest, and its perils most extreme. He has done 
 everything that mortal man could do to repair the fatal error 
 which the administration has committed in not sending down 
 troops enough to hold all the forts. He has kept the strong 
 est one. He still commands the harbor. We may still exe 
 cute the laws if we try. 
 
 He concludes by entreating the President to " order 
 the Brooklyn and the Macedonian to Charleston without 
 the least delay, and in the meantime to send a trusty 
 messenger to Major Anderson, to let him know that 
 his government will not desert him. The reinforce 
 ment of troops should follow immediately. If this be 
 done at once, all may yet be not well, but comparatively 
 safe. If not, I can see nothing but disaster and ruin to 
 the country." 
 
 The President ordered the reinforcements, but there 
 was a mortifying failure, for which Mr. Black chiefly 
 blamed General Scott. Others thought the responsi 
 bility should be borne in part by Mr. Seward, who, as 
 prospective Secretary of State, was becoming promi 
 nent in the councils and schemes of the time. What 
 ever the influence of either Scott or Seward, the chief 
 burden rested on Buchanan. Weeks before the elec 
 tion the General had warned the President of the dan 
 gers from an inadequate manning of the Southern forts, 
 specifying Jackson and St. Philip, below New Orleans, 
 
PRESIDENT BUCHANAN S TROUBLES. 255 
 
 then without any garrison; McRea and Pickens, in Pen- 
 sacola harbor, insufficiently garrisoned; Pulaski, near 
 Savannah, without a garrison; Moultrie and Sumter, in 
 Charleston harbor, the former with only eighty men, the 
 latter unoccupied; and Fortress Monroe, at Old Point 
 Comfort, insufficiently garrisoned. His recommenda 
 tion that prompt measures be taken for the security 
 of these important national works was neglected 
 " fatally " neglected, as Secretary Black told the Presi 
 dent in December. 
 
 With little delay after the executive order was given, 
 an unarmed steamer, the Star of the West, not the two 
 war steamers which the Secretary of State had pro 
 posed started from New York with reinforcements 
 for Major Anderson. To the public, Charleston har 
 bor was now the chief point of interest; for what 
 availed peace meetings or compromise projects if the 
 insurgents already in arms were bent on fighting? Did 
 South Carolina actually mean to inaugurate civil war? 
 That question was answered when, on the Qth of Jan 
 uary, her guns fired on the Star of the West as, with the 
 United States flag at her mast, she entered the harbor 
 at Charleston. Meeting this reception, she wheeled 
 about and returned to New York. So slight an effort 
 had certainly not exhausted the energy of the admin 
 istration; and Mr. Buchanan promptly sent a special 
 message to Congress so improved in tone as to raise 
 expectations of a more positive treatment of the case 
 thereafter; but during the remaining eight weeks of his 
 term nothing was done to satisfy the hope. 
 
 On the day before this humiliating spectacle in 
 Charleston harbor, Senator Jefferson Davis wrote (Jan- 
 
256 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 uary 8, 1861) to a close personal and political friend, 
 then abroad, Edwin De Leon, Consul at Alexandria: 
 
 We are advancing rapidly to the end of " the Union." 
 The Cotton States may now be regarded as having decided 
 for secession. South Carolina is in a quasi war, and the 
 probabilities are that events will hasten her and her associates 
 into general conflict with the forces of the Federal Govern 
 ment. The Black Republicans, exultant over their recent 
 success, are not disposed to concede anything ; and the stern 
 necessity of resistance is forcing itself upon the judgment of 
 all the slave-holding States. The Virginia Legislature met 
 yesterday, and took promptly and boldly the Southern 
 ground. Mississippi is now in convention. I may leave 
 here in a few days ; though it is also possible the State may 
 choose to continue its Senators here for the purpose of de 
 fense against hostile legislation. The confidence heretofore 
 felt in Mr. Buchanan has diminished steadily, and is now 
 nearly extinct. His weakness has done as much harm as 
 wickedness would have achieved. Though I can no longer 
 respect or confer with him, and feel injured by his conduct, 
 yet I pity and would extenuate the offenses not prompted by 
 bad design or malignant intent. 
 
 All the Cotton States were indeed rapidly falling 
 into line with the State already " in a quasi war," with 
 the recognized probabilities of a " general conflict with 
 the forces of the Federal Government." Some of these 
 States did not wait for even the formality of a Secession 
 ordinance before beginning to appropriate Federal 
 property forts, arsenals, arms, munitions of war, pub 
 lic buildings, mints, and money. Mr. Davis s own 
 State passed its ordinance of secession on the day after 
 he had written as above the day which Governor 
 Pickens celebrated by firing" on the Star of the West. 
 He had previously taken possession of all Federal prop 
 erty at Charleston, and of all the Federal defenses of 
 
CONFEDERACY OF "SIX NATIONS." 257 
 
 its harbor, save only Fort Sumter. Two days later, 
 Alabama and Florida followed suit; and before the close 
 of the month, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Without 
 resistance, every coast fortification within the limits of 
 the seceding seven States, save the works at Key West, 
 Fort Pickens and Fort Sumter, were wrested from the 
 Government s possession. 
 
 The Legislature of Virginia provided for a State 
 convention to act on the question of secession, and 
 resolved (January iQth) that all the other States be 
 invited to send commissioners to meet representatives 
 of like sort from Virginia at Washington on the 4th 
 of February, for " an earnest effort to adjust the present 
 unhappy controversies." The basis indicated for such 
 settlement was the " Crittenden Compromise." An 
 other resolution designated Ex-President John Tyler 
 as a " commissioner to the President of the United 
 States," and Judge John Robertson as a commissioner 
 to South Carolina and " the other States that have 
 seceded or shall secede," with instructions respectfully 
 to request the President and the authorities of such 
 States " to abstain," while the action proposed for the 
 Peace Conference was pending, " from any and all acts 
 calculated to produce a collision of arms between the 
 States and the Government of the United States." 
 
 In the Peace Conference thus initiated which 
 was in session at Washington from the 4th to the 27th 
 of February there were delegates, including many 
 eminent men, from all the New England States, New 
 York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and several 
 States further west, as well as from nearly all the South 
 ern States except those engaged, at the same date, in 
 17 
 
258 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 confederating at Montgomery. This gathering of 
 notables at Washington, however, did not answer the 
 expectations of those if any there really were who 
 looked to it for a settlement of " the present unhappy 
 controversies." 
 
 Mr. Buchanan, hardly needing the pacific persua 
 sions of his predecessor, " Commissioner " Tyler, soon 
 settled down to the policy of leaving matters to take 
 their course until dealt with by the incoming admin 
 istration. This gratified the Virginia pacificators, and 
 at least satisfied Mr. Seward. On the I2th of January, 
 Seward had delivered a speech in the Senate, moderate 
 and yielding in tone proposing " to meet exaction 
 with conciliation, and violence with peace;" consenting 
 to an amendment of the Constitution forever prohibit 
 ing Congress from any interference with slavery in 
 the States; and favoring a national convention to con 
 sider further changes in that instrument. He expressly 
 repudiated the " irrepressible conflict " doctrine as it 
 had been attributed to him, and favored the plan lately 
 proposed by Mr. Charles Francis Adams in the House 
 to organize the remaining Territories without mention 
 of slavery. Before the end of January the Territories 
 of Colorado, Nevada and Dakota were thus organized, 
 and Kansas was admitted into the Union as a free State. 
 For a time the secession frenzy seemed to have reached 
 a limit. Although the Legislature of Virginia had 
 called a State convention, a majority of Union del 
 egates was chosen. In North Carolina, Kentucky, 
 Tennessee, Missouri, and even in the Cotton State of 
 Arkansas, the people voted down secession. In Mary 
 land and Delaware, disunion emissaries met a chilling 
 
CONFEDERACY OF "SIX NATIONS." 259 
 
 reception, and neither State was disturbed by a direct 
 popular vote on the question. 
 
 A Congress of representatives of the six States first 
 launched into the fatal current the Texas ordinance 
 not being yet in operation was organized at Mont 
 gomery, Ala., on the 4th of February, and agreed on a 
 provisional constitution for a Southern confederacy. A 
 provisional government was decreed, with Jefferson 
 Davis as President, and Alexander H. Stephens as Vice 
 President. Some facetious State-rightists styled Davis 
 " Chief of the Six Nations/ His inauguration took 
 place on the i8th of February. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 On the Way to the White House. 
 
 On Monday morning, February nth, the last day 
 of his fifty-second year, Abraham Lincoln began his 
 journey to Washington. The air was chilly and the 
 sky dark with clouds as his neighbors gathered at the 
 railway station to bid him and his family farewell. His 
 few parting words were spoken with visible emotion: 
 
 My Friends: One who has never been placed in a like 
 position can not understand my feelings at this hour, nor 
 the oppressive sadness I feel at this parting. For more than 
 twenty-five years I have lived among you, and during all that 
 time I have received nothing but kindness at your hands. 
 Here the most cherished ties of earth were assumed. Here 
 my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. 
 To you, my friends, I owe all that I have all that I am. 
 All the strange checkered past seems to crowd upon my 
 mind. To-day I leave you. I go to assume a task more 
 difficult than that which devolved upon General Washington. 
 Unless the great God who assisted him shall be with and aid 
 me I can not prevail; but if the same almighty arm that 
 directed and protected him shall guide and support me I 
 shall not fail ; I shall succeed. Let us pray that the God of 
 our fathers may not forsake us now. To Him I commend 
 you all. Permit me to ask that with equal sincerity and 
 faith you will all invoke His wisdom and goodness for me. 
 
 With these words I must leave you ; for how long I know 
 not. Friends, one and all, I must now wish you an affec 
 tionate farewell. 
 
 This was his exact language as taken down at the 
 moment and telegraphed through the land. No at- 
 
 (260) 
 
ON THE WAY TO WASHINGTON. 261 
 
 tempted rhetorical improvements have added to the 
 force of its simple eloquence.* 
 
 The President-elect was accompanied by his wife 
 and their three sons; Dr. Wallace, his brother-in-law; 
 Governor Yates, Judge David Davis, Mr. Judd, Mr. 
 Browning; Colonel Edwin V. Sumner and Major David 
 Hunter, of the regular army; Colonel Ward H. Lamon, 
 of the Governor s staff, and several others. His itin 
 erary included the cities of Indianapolis, Cincinnati, 
 Columbus, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, New 
 York, Trenton, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, occupy 
 ing twelve days. His first regular speech on the jour 
 ney was made at Indianapolis, where he said on the 
 evening of the nth: 
 
 Fellow Citizens of the State of Indiana: I am here to 
 thank you for this magnificent welcome, and still more for 
 the very generous support given by your State to that polit 
 ical cause, which, I think, is the true and just cause of the 
 whole country, and the whole world. Solomon says, " There 
 is a time to keep silence ;" and when men wrangle by the 
 mouth, with no certainty that they mean the same thing while 
 using the same words, it perhaps were as well if they would 
 keep silence. 
 
 The words " coercion " and " invasion " are much used 
 in these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. 
 Let us make sure, if we can, that we do not misunderstand 
 
 * There have been not less than a score of variant versions of 
 this brief speech, with which unreasonable liberties were taken. 
 Undoubtedly some of its phrases would have been different had 
 he spoken less extemporaneously; but he would certainly not have 
 omitted the name of God, used twice in the verbatim report, or 
 the following sentence: "Here the most cherished ties of earth 
 were assumed." Yet these two omissions occur in some other 
 versions including that " written down immediately after the train 
 started," by Private Secretary Nicolay. 
 
262 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 the meaning of those who use them. Let us get the exact: 
 definitions of these words, not from dictionaries, but from 
 the men themselves, who certainly deprecate the things they 
 would represent by the use of the words. 
 
 What, then, is coercion? What is invasion? Would 
 the marching or an army into South Carolina, without the 
 consent of her people, and with hostile intent toward them, 
 be invasion? I certainly think it would, and it would be 
 coercion also, if the South Carolinians were forced to sub 
 mit. But if the United States should merely hold and retake 
 its own forts and other property, and collect the duties on 
 foreign importations, or even withhold the mails from places 
 where they were habitually violated, would any or all of 
 these things be invasion or coercion? Do our professed 
 lovers of the Union, who spitefully resolve that they will 
 resist coercion and invasion, understand that such things 
 as these, on the part of the United States, would be coercion 
 or invasion of a State? If so, their idea of means to pre 
 serve the object of their great affection would seem to be 
 exceedingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the 
 homeopathist would be much too large for it to swallow. 
 In their view, the Union, as a family relation, would seem 
 to be no regular marriage, but rather a sort of " free-love " 
 arrangement, to be maintained on passional attraction. 
 
 By the way, in what consists the special sacredness of 
 a State? I speak not of the position assigned to a State 
 in the Union by the Constitution, for that is a bond we all 
 recognize. That position, however, a State can not carry 
 out of the Union with it. I speak of that assumed primary 
 right of a State to rule all which is less than itself, and to 
 ruin all which is larger than itself. If a State and a county, 
 in a given case, should be equal in number of inhabitants, 
 in what, as a matter of principle, is the State better than 
 the county? Would an exchange of name be an exchange 
 of rights? Upon what principle, upon what rightful prin 
 ciple, may a State, being no more than one-fiftieth part of 
 the nation in soil and population, break up the nation, and 
 then coerce a proportionally large subdivision of itself in the 
 most arbitrary way? What mysterious right to play tyrant 
 is conferred on a district of country with its people, by 
 merely calling it a State? Fellow-citizens, I am not assert- 
 
ON THE WAY TO WASHINGTON. 263 
 
 ing anything. I am merely asking questions for you to 
 consider. And now allow me to bid you farewell. 
 
 These words, carefully prepared because anxiously 
 awaited by the country in some quarters captiously 
 contain nearly all that need now be recalled of his 
 several addresses before reaching the city of New York. 
 Everywhere, by the proper civic authorities and by the 
 people of every party, he was received with all the 
 honors and more than the usual demonstrations ac 
 corded to a Presidential guest. Arriving at the railway 
 station in Cincinnati before dark, he said: " I thought 
 in Indianapolis I had never seen so large a crowd in 
 winter weather. I am no longer able to say that." He 
 was in a melancholy mood when he said later in his 
 main speech (on his birthday) : " In a few short years 
 I and every other individual man who is now living 
 will pass away. I hope that our national difficulties 
 will also pass away, and I hope that in the streets of 
 Cincinnati good old Cincinnati for centuries to 
 come the people will give such a reception to the con 
 stitutionally elected President of the whole United 
 States." The next day, at Columbus in the extreme 
 modesty that came with his melancholy he said of 
 " the very great responsibility " of which he had been 
 reminded: " I am deeply sensible of that weighty re 
 sponsibility. I can not but know, what you all know, 
 that without a name, perhaps without a reason why I 
 should have a name, there has fallen upon me a task 
 such as did not fall upon the Father of his Country." 
 Then, speaking of the existing national troubles, he 
 remarked: "It is a consoling circumstance that when 
 we look out there is nothing that really hurts anybody. 
 
264 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 We entertain different views upon political questions, 
 but nobody is suffering anything. This is a most con 
 soling circumstance, and from it I judge that all we 
 want is time and patience, and a reliance upon that God 
 who has never forsaken this people." 
 
 These last soothing words led some inconsiderate 
 people in the commercial cities to the hasty conclusion 
 that the President-elect had no proper understanding 
 of the great crisis. 
 
 At Steubenville and at Pittsburg he improved his 
 opportunity to " speak across the river " to Virginians 
 in the same conciliatory spirit as he had done at Cin 
 cinnati to Kentuckians. He was also drawn out on the 
 Tariff question at Pittsburg, speaking with moderation 
 in favor of Protection. The Pennsylvanians were spe 
 cially interested just then in the Morrill tariff bill, which 
 directly after became a law with the approval of Presi 
 dent Buchanan, and substantially placed the subject 
 without the pale of party politics for a number of years. 
 The Presidential train reached Cleveland on the i5th. 
 The weather was of the worst, yet seemed to have no 
 effect on the numbers or the enthusiasm of the multi 
 tude who escorted their guest in procession to the 
 hotel. Here he spoke at length, among other things 
 saying: 
 
 In a country like this, where every man bears on his face 
 the marks of intelligence, where every man s clothing, if I 
 may so speak, shows signs of comfort, and every dwelling 
 signs of happiness and contentment, where schools and 
 churches abound on every side, the Union can never be in 
 danger. I would, if I could, instill some degree of patriotism 
 and confidence into the political mind in relation to this 
 matter. ... I think that there is no occasion for any 
 excitement. I think the crisis, as it is called, is altogether 
 
ON THE WAY TO WASHINGTON. 265 
 
 an artificial one. It has no foundation in fact. It can t be 
 argued up, and it can t be argued down. L,et it alone, and 
 it will go down of itself. 
 
 Arriving in Buffalo on Saturday evening, the i6th, 
 the President-elect was met at the station by a large 
 concourse of people, with ex-President Fillmore at their 
 head, and later there was an address of welcome by the 
 Mayor, to which there was a response, enjoining com 
 posure, adherence to " sober convictions of right," and 
 fidelity to constitutional obligations; the clouds would 
 then be dispelled, and there would be a bright and glo 
 rious future. He remained over the Sunday at Buffalo, 
 and continued his journey on Monday, arriving at 
 Albany in the evening. Two speeches were made here, 
 one in reply to Governor Morgan and one at the hall 
 of the Assembly. Here, too, he said: " If we have pa 
 tience, if we maintain our equanimity, though some may 
 allow themselves to run off in a burst of passion, I 
 still have confidence that the Almighty Ruler of the 
 Universe, through the instrumentality of this great and 
 intelligent people, can and will bring us through this 
 difficulty." 
 
 At Albany he was met by a delegation from the 
 municipal authorities of New York, who escorted him 
 to that city on the iQth. There he was received with 
 demonstrations unequaled during all this prolonged 
 ovation. Places of business were closed, and the streets 
 were thronged with people as perhaps never before. 
 Mayor Fernando Wood, on behalf of the civic author 
 ities, made the welcoming address, in the course of 
 which he spoke of a " dismembered government to re 
 construct, and a disconnected and hostile people to 
 
266 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 reconcile," and said it would " require a high patriotism 
 and an elevated comprehension of the whole country 
 and its varied interests, opinions and prejudices," to 
 bring it " back again to its former harmonious, consol 
 idated and prosperous condition;" that "the present 
 political divisions have sorely afflicted " the people of 
 New York City " all her material interests are par 
 alyzed," and " her commercial greatness is endan 
 gered." " We fear," he added, " if the Union dies, the 
 present supremacy of New York may perish with it;" 
 and suggested the use of " peaceful and conciliatory 
 means " as the only practicable way to restore " fra 
 ternal relations between the States." The address was 
 courteous in tone, and well represented the feelings of 
 the commercial classes, no doubt, in the larger cities 
 in general. Lincoln responded: 
 
 Mr. Mayor: It is with feelings of deep gratitude that 
 I make my acknowledgments for the reception given me in 
 the great commercial city of New York. I can not but 
 remember that this is done by a people who do not, by a 
 majority, agree with me in political sentiment. It is the 
 more grateful because in this I see that for the great prin 
 ciples of our Government the people are almost unanimous. 
 In regard to the difficulties that confront us at this time, and 
 of which your Honor has thought fit to speak so becomingly, 
 and so justly, as I suppose, I can only say that I agree in 
 the sentiments expressed. In my devotion to the Union, 
 I hope I am behind no man in the nation. In the wisdom 
 with which to conduct the affairs tending to the preservation 
 of the Union, I fear that too great confidence may have been 
 reposed in me ; but I am sure I bring a heart devoted to the 
 work. There is nothing that would ever bring me to will 
 ingly consent to the destruction of this Union, under which 
 not only the great commercial city of New York, but the 
 whole country, acquired its greatness, except it be the pur 
 pose for which the Union itself was formed. I understand 
 
ON THE WAY TO WASHINGTON. 267 
 
 the ship to be made for the carrying and the preservation 
 of the cargo, and so long as the ship can be saved with the 
 cargo, it should never be abandoned, unless the possibility of 
 its preservation shall cease to exist except at the risk of 
 throwing overboard both freight and passengers. So long, 
 then, as it is possible that the prosperity and the liberty of 
 the people shall be preserved in this Union, it shall be my 
 purpose at all times to use all my power to aid in its 
 preservation. Again thanking you for the reception given 
 me, allow me to come to a close. 
 
 In the evening he met, socially, a large deputation 
 from the various Republican associations of the city 
 which had taken part in the last canvass; and he even 
 found opportunity to sit for a time at the opera. He 
 did not appear quite at ease this evening, and he was 
 too much preoccupied with serious thoughts, forbidden 
 his tongue, to exert his acknowledged power of enter 
 taining by conversation, or to be heartily in sympathy 
 with the scenes of either banquet-hall or stage. On the 
 next day (Wednesday, the 2Oth) he left for Philadelphia, 
 stopping over for a few hours at Trenton, where, in the 
 course of an address in the Senate Chamber, he said: 
 
 I can not but remember the place that New Jersey holds 
 in our early history. . . . May I be pardoned if, upon 
 this occasion, I mention that away back in my childhood, 
 the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of 
 a small book, such a one as few of the younger members have 
 seen Weems s " Life of Washington." I remember all 
 the accounts there given of the battlefields and struggles 
 for the liberties of the country, and none fixed themselves 
 upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at 
 Trenton, New Jersey. The crossing of the river; the con 
 test with the Hessians ; the great hardships endured at that 
 time all fixed themselves on my memory more than any 
 other single Revolutionary event ; and you all know, for you 
 have all been boys, how these early impressions last longer 
 than any others. I recollect thinking then, boy even though 
 
268 LINCOLN AND HTS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 I was, that there must have been something more than com 
 mon that those men struggled for. I am exceedingly anx 
 ious that that thing which they struggled for, that some 
 thing even more than national independence, that something 
 that held out a great promise to all the people of the world 
 for all time to come I am exceedingly anxious that this 
 Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall 
 be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which 
 that struggle was made. I shall be most happy indeed if 
 I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, 
 and of His almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object 
 of that great struggle. 
 
 And afterward in the Assembly Chamber: 
 
 I shall endeavor to take the ground I deem most just to 
 the North, the East, the West, the South, and the whole 
 country. I shall take it, I hope, in good temper certainly 
 with no malice toward any section. I shall do all that may 
 be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement of all our 
 difficulties. The man does not live who is more devoted to 
 peace than I am ; there is no one who would do more to 
 preserve it; but it may be necessary to put the foot down 
 firmly. 
 
 This was received with " long-continued applause. * 
 There were many in the nation who had been closely 
 watching the expressions given from day to day on 
 this journey, and some whose emotional natures craved 
 more " Jacksonian " words than the President-elect had 
 hitherto indulged in. To such persons this noted little 
 speech was like a removal from Moultrie to Sumter. 
 He would then, possibly, " put the foot down " just as 
 firmly, should the time come, as if he had been more 
 violent in declamation. 
 
 His reception at Philadelphia, in the evening, was 
 among the most enthusiastic of all. In replying to 
 the Mayor s address, he said he deemed it a happy cir- 
 
ON THE WAY TO WASHINGTON. 269 
 
 cumstance that the dissatisfied ones did not point to 
 anything in which they were being injured, or were 
 about to be injured; for which reason he had felt all 
 the while justified in concluding that the crisis, the 
 panic, the anxiety of the country at this time are arti 
 ficial. Alluding to " the consecrated walls wherein the 
 Constitution of the United States and the Declaration 
 of Independence were originally framed and adopted," 
 he said: "All my political warfare has been in favor of 
 the teachings that come from these sacred walls. May 
 my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave 
 to the roof of my mouth, if ever I prove false to these 
 teachings." 
 
 Responding to an address in Independence Hall, 
 next morning, he used these words some of them 
 specially significant: 
 
 I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing 
 in this place, where were collected the wisdom, the patriot 
 ism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the in 
 stitutions under which we live. ... I have never had 
 a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments 
 embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often 
 pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men 
 who assembled here, and framed and adopted that Declara 
 tion. I have pondered over the toils that were endured 
 by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that 
 independence. I have often inquired of myself what great 
 principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long 
 together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of 
 the colonies from the mother-land, but that sentiment in the 
 Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone 
 to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world for 
 all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due 
 time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all 
 men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of 
 Independence. 
 
270 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Now, my friends, can the country be saved on this basis ? 
 If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men 
 in the world in helping to save it. ... But if this coun 
 try can not be saved without giving up that principle I 
 was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this 
 spot than surrender it. 
 
 Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there 
 need be no bloodshed or war. There is no necessity for it. 
 I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance 
 that there will be no bloodshed unless it be forced upon the 
 Government, and then it will be compelled to act in self- 
 defense. . . . 
 
 I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, 
 and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by. 
 
 He left for Harrisburg the same morning. He was 
 there welcomed by Governor Curtin, and was received 
 at the State House by the Legislature. A large body 
 of the militia was in line on the occasion suggestive 
 of measures that had already been taken by the State 
 authorities for promptly embodying a military force 
 should there be occasion. In replying to the Governor, 
 Lincoln alluded to this feature of the reception as fol 
 lows: 
 
 I hope no one of the Friends who originally settled here, 
 or who lived here since that time, or who lives here now, has 
 been or is a more devoted lover of peace, harmony and con 
 cord than my humble self. While I have been proud to 
 see to-day the finest military array, I think, that I have ever 
 seen, allow me to say, in regard to those men, that they give 
 hope of what may be done when war is inevitable. But, at 
 the same time, allow me to express the hope that in the 
 shedding of blood their services may never be needed, espe 
 cially in the shedding of fraternal blood. It shall be my 
 endeavor to preserve the peace of the country so far as it 
 can possibly be done consistently with the maintenance of 
 the institutions of the country. 
 
ON THE WAY TO WASHINGTON. 271 
 
 In presence of the Legislature, after returning 
 thanks for his reception, he said: 
 
 Allusion has been made to the fact the interesting 
 fact, perhaps I should say that I for the first time appear 
 at the capital of the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
 upon the birthday of the Father of his Country that be 
 loved anniversary connected with the history of this country. 
 I have already gone through with one exceedingly interesting 
 scene this morning in the ceremonies at Philadelphia. . . . 
 Our friends there had provided a magnificent flag of the 
 country. They had arranged it so that I was given the 
 honor of raising it to the head of its staff. And when it 
 went up I was pleased that it went to its place by the strength 
 of my own feeble arm. ... In the whole transaction 
 I was in the hands of the people who had arranged it ; and 
 if I can have the same generous co-operation of the people 
 of the nation, I think the flag of our country may yet be 
 kept flaunting gloriously. 
 
 This was his last public appearance during the jour 
 ney, which ended differently from the original intention, 
 and in a manner that gave surprise to the country. 
 
 The Electoral count (on the I3th of February) was 
 unobstructed by any material dispute or question. For 
 months past, nevertheless, there had been threats and 
 predictions akin to threats, that Lincoln would never 
 be inaugurated as President. It was not generally 
 known as it was to a few who were in close relations 
 with him that he had received many malicious letters, 
 both before and after the election, foreshadowing his 
 assassination. It was no secret that special precaution 
 and care were taken for the safety of his person while 
 on his way to Washington. Save one or two dubious 
 incidents exciting momentary suspicion, all was pro 
 pitious until the evening of the arrival at Philadelphia. 
 
272 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 At this point there came warning, on the responsible 
 authority of Mr. Seward and the Lieutenant-General, 
 of a plot for Lincoln s assassination in Baltimore. 
 
 General Scott was thought by some to be unduly 
 anxious about the inauguration. In the Peace Con 
 ference, on the i8th the day on which a "Chief of 
 the Six Nations " assumed power at Montgomery 
 Mr. Guthrie, of Kentucky, must have surprised many 
 of his fellow-members by saying: 
 
 I have had full and free communication with people of 
 all portions of the South before, during and since the elec 
 tion of the 6th of November, and I state here, that I have 
 never dreamed that there was the slightest objection any 
 where to the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. To-day is the 
 first time I have heard the question raised, and yet I do not 
 believe that any such objection now exists. 
 
 There had been no lack of such talk, however, not 
 only among men with whom Mr. Guthrie had no per 
 sonal association, but also in newspapers which he did 
 not read. That General Scott had sufficient reasons for 
 the precautions taken is shown by his testimony (Jan 
 uary 3 ist and February 7th) before a special committee 
 of the House (known as the Howard Committee) ap 
 pointed to inquire into " alleged hostile organizations 
 against the Government in the District of Columbia." 
 Nor was he by any means alone in scenting the par 
 ticular danger of which he now gave warning. The 
 managers of the railway from Philadelphia to Baltimore 
 had arrived at the conclusion from evidence furnished 
 by their own detectives that there was a plot for the 
 assassination of Lincoln when he reached Baltimore. 
 Mr. Seward, through detectives acting quite indepen 
 dently of those just mentioned, had information that 
 
ON THE WAY TO WASHINGTON. 273 
 
 seemed to him so convincing as to require prompt 
 action. He dispatched his son, Frederick W. Seward, 
 to Philadelphia, to communicate the information to 
 Lincoln and to urge him to anticipate the expected time 
 of passing through Baltimore. Instead of going at 
 once, as urged, he determined to keep his engagement 
 at Harrisburg on the next day. The ceremonies there 
 being over, he returned the same evening to Philadel 
 phia, where, with friends accompanying him, including 
 railway officials who were in the secret, he took the 
 regular express train for Washington, about midnight, 
 arriving there early in the morning (the 23d). 
 
 The sudden conclusion of the journey was known 
 far and near before the train from Harrisburg, on which 
 he had been expected, ran into Baltimore, where the 
 day passed without disturbance. Mrs. Lincoln and the 
 party with her were courteously treated in the city, 
 receiving attentions from some of the municipal offi 
 cers, though politically hostile, and the transit through 
 the city, soon effected, was made as agreeable as pos 
 sible. The President-elect, however, had been tendered 
 no hospitalities such as were offered by every other 
 prominent city on his route. He was under no obli 
 gation to make his entry or departure a public affair. 
 The " Conservative Union " newspaper, the Baltimore 
 American, said next day that the " prevailing feeling 
 excited by Mr. Lincoln s quiet passage through Balti 
 more was one of relief and of gratification, though ex 
 pressions of disappointed curiosity were frequently 
 heard;" and that his action "was a simple and prac 
 tical avoidance of ~vhat might have been an occasion 
 
 18 
 
274 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 of disorder and mortification to all interested in the 
 preservation of the good name of our city." 
 
 James Buchanan had yet eight days to remain 
 in office when Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by Mr. 
 Seward, called at the White House. Mr. Buchanan, 
 wearied and worn, faint if not sick at heart, dubious, as 
 he sometimes pathetically enough expressed himself, 
 about the ultimate verdict of history on his administra 
 tion, and anxious to lay down his burden, was not 
 merely politely complacent to his sucessor, but heartily 
 glad to see him safely arrived. From thence Lincoln 
 and Seward went to call upon the veteran head of the 
 army. With stately deference, as to one who would 
 soon be his superior in office, General Scott also wel 
 comed the man from the prairies, and hinted of the 
 military preparations which were to give security to 
 the coming ceremonies and unhindered possession of 
 the executive departments thereafter. 
 
 To the country in general, undeniably, this seemed 
 an inauspicious advent. Inimical jeers were not en 
 tirely warded off by friendly explanations. Many of the 
 warmest supporters of the new President were cha 
 grined when they learned, on that chill February day, 
 that his " progress " had terminated in an entry so 
 private. This was aggravated by the invention, soon 
 exposed, that he had traveled from Philadelphia to 
 Washington in disguise. There came reassurance in 
 the belief that the night journey had been taken on 
 the advice of well-informed friends who had a right to 
 be heard, and in the certainty that it had avoided a 
 positive peril. In crossing Mason and Dixon s line, 
 Lincoln had now come within territory which the seces- 
 
ON THE WAY TO WASHINGTON. 275 
 
 sion leaders coveted, claimed, labored incessantly to pos 
 sess as part and parcel of their confederacy. He had 
 not only traversed the largest city of the South, but 
 had come to be inaugurated as President in a commu 
 nity holding slaves and surrounded by a slave-holding 
 country. Abhorring the man who had thus suddenly 
 come among them, few of the dominant class willingly 
 endured the thought that he had come to stay. 
 
 In the brief time remaining, the President-elect gave 
 his last revision to the inaugural address which he had 
 written before leaving Springfield. Few changes were 
 made, and none seriously affecting the policy an 
 nounced, unless it be what is said of the so-called " Cor- 
 win amendment." No one except Mr. Seward appears 
 to have been consulted in the matter, and his sugges 
 tions related chiefly to forms of expression and to the 
 sentimental appeal with which the address closes. For 
 the last two months many politicians had looked upon 
 the New York Senator as the real power on whom 
 nearly everything at this crisis was to depend. There 
 was little resistance to his appointment as Secretary of 
 State, but opposition to Mr. Chase for Secretary of the 
 Treasury was kept up with some vigor to the last 
 especially by the friends of Mr. Seward and of Mr. Cam 
 eron. In regard to these three prospective members 
 of the Cabinet, the purpose of Lincoln was unchanged 
 by any controversy after he reached Washington, and 
 the same may be said as to most of their associates. 
 
 The Peace Conference adjourned on the 27th of 
 February, and thereupon a salute was fired by Ma- 
 gruder s battery on Judiciary Square presumably in 
 honor of the propositions recommended by a small 
 
276 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 majority for the consideration of Congress, from which 
 the Senators and Representatives of the Cotton States 
 had long since retired. In the Senate there was some 
 apparent relenting at last in favor of the Crittenden 
 Compromise, though on coming to a vote it was lost 
 (yeas, 19; nays, 20). The Corwin amendment (reported 
 by the House Committee of thirty-three) to prevent 
 any future amendment giving Congress power to abol 
 ish slavery in the States was agreed to by the re 
 quired two-thirds vote in both Houses. Such was the 
 sum and the end of Congressional attempts at con 
 ciliation. 
 
CHAPTER XXL 
 
 1861. 
 Inauguration Cabinet and Diplomatic Appointments. 
 
 No unpropitious signs were visible on the morning" 
 of the 4th of March. A few regular soldiers and some 
 volunteer military companies were seasonably forming 
 to take part in the customary procession. Magruder s 
 battery took its appointed station on Capitol Hill, out 
 of sight of the main crowd beginning to gather. There 
 were, too, armed sentinels on house-tops at several 
 points along Pennsylvania Avenue before the proces 
 sion began to move. From first to last, neither martial 
 guard nor armed police seemed to be of use beyond 
 their share in a pacific parade. The coming man, 
 seated in open carriage with his predecessor, was 
 greeted by many thousands of voices as he moved 
 along the broad avenue and ascended to the capitol. 
 Entering on the Senate side, he advanced from within 
 to the rude stand from which he was to speak, on the 
 eastern portico. 
 
 Near by in the surrounding assembly of notables 
 stood Senator Douglas. On the pedestal of a column, 
 slight Senator Wigfall, stick in hand, wriggled uneasily; 
 while here and there other Southern representatives 
 were less conspicuously looking on Secessionists who 
 still lingered unmolested and at present unmolesting. 
 
 (277) 
 
278 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Qeneral Scott was away, anxiously superintending his 
 military arrangements. Whether his right-hand man, 
 Adjutant-General Samuel Cooper, and his foremost and 
 favored subordinate of the line, Colonel Robert E. Lee, 
 were nearer listeners and observers of the proceedings 
 on the portico, or accompanied their chief, can not 
 be distinctly recorded. Captain John B. Magruder was 
 altogether missing, not having yet returned from an 
 absence abroad on leave,, so that his important artillery 
 company had not at this moment the benefit of his per 
 sonal control. Commander Buchanan, in whose charge 
 was the Washington navy-yard, with all its great in 
 terests, was probably within eye-shot of restless Wigfall. 
 Justice Campbell, of Alabama, was present with the 
 other Judges of the Supreme Court. Chief-Justice 
 Taney, now far advanced beyond the usual limit of 
 human life and looking debilitated and withered, had 
 expressed in a positive manner his determination to ad 
 minister to Abraham Lincoln the oath which he had 
 administered to every President since Andrew Jackson. 
 The grounds in front were covered with myriads of 
 people, compact and quietly disposed; and many shade- 
 trees, now leafless, were darkened with clinging spec 
 tators. /When Lincoln rose to speak he was introduced 
 by his friend, Senator Edward D. Baker, and had such 
 greeting as only a great sympathetic throng of men 
 can give. The table on which he laid his manuscript 
 before him was small and had no available place for his 
 hat, which Senator Douglas politely took and held in 
 hand. The atmosphere was clear, cool, but not un 
 pleasantly chilly; there was sometimes sunshine and 
 sometimes shadow, as with earnest but deliberate and 
 
INAUGURATION APPOINTMENTS. 279 
 
 well modulated voice, the President-elect proceeded. 
 There was a fresh wind abroad, and presently he placed 
 his gold-headed cane across the fluttering pages, keep 
 ing them in place as one after another was turned over. 
 But he spoke without hesitation, from memory. 
 
 The inaugural had but one general theme. Some 
 points of it are detachable as indicating the purposes 
 and policy which the new President had in mind at 
 the beginning; while as a whole it is one of his most 
 impressive papers. Apprehension seems to exist 
 among the people of the Southern States/ he said, 
 " that, by the accession of a Republican administration 
 their property and their peace and personal security 
 are to be endangered. There has never been any rea 
 sonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most 
 ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed 
 and been open to 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. He cited also 
 a resolution of the convention which nominated him, as 
 "clear and emphatic" on this matter, and continued: 
 
 I now reiterate these sentiments ; and in doing so I only 
 press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence 
 of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace and 
 security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by 
 the now incoming administration. 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. 
 
2 8o LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 A comprehensive pledge, when closely considered. 
 
 At greater length he spoke of the rendition of fugi 
 tive slaves, in terms that would seem to be sufficient 
 to satisfy reasonable men of the South, yet not more 
 explicit that he had repeatedly used on the stump in 
 Illinois. He further said in this connection: " I take 
 the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and 
 with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws 
 by any hypercritical rules." He then took up the mat 
 ter of Disunion, arguing in his most forcible manner 
 against the right of a State to secede concluding on 
 this point: 
 
 I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and 
 the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my 
 ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly 
 enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faith 
 fully 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 au 
 thoritative matter 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 constitu 
 tionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this there 
 need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none 
 unless it is 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 Gov 
 ernment, 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 any 
 where. . . . The course here indicated will be followed, 
 unless current events and experience shall show a modifica 
 tion or change to be proper ; and in every case and exigency 
 my best discretion will be exercised according to circum 
 stances actually existing, and with a view and a hope of a 
 
INAUGURATION APPOINTMENTS. 281 
 
 peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restora 
 tion of fraternal sympathies and affections. 
 
 Argument, persuasion, entreaty followed: 
 
 Physically speaking, we can not separate ; we can not 
 remove our respective sections from each other, nor build 
 an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife 
 may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond 
 the reach of each other, but the different parts of our coun 
 try can not do this. They can not but remain face to face ; 
 and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue 
 between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse 
 more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation 
 than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends 
 can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced 
 between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you 
 go to war, you can not fight always ; and when, after much 
 loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, 
 the identical question as to terms of intercourse are again 
 upon you. . . . 
 
 If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold 
 the right side in the dispute, there is still no single 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 difficulties. 
 
 In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and 
 not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Gov 
 ernment will not assail you. You can have no conflict with 
 out 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. 
 
 I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. 
 We must not be enemies. Though passion may have 
 strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The 
 mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield 
 and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all 
 over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union 
 
282 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better 
 angels of our nature. 
 
 After bowing response to the applause of his audi 
 tors, he turned to Chief Justice Taney, at his side, and 
 repeated from his lips the required official oath. Then 
 followed a salute from the cannons of the battery near 
 at hand, while the procession re-formed and began its 
 return march to the White House. At its door, James 
 Buchanan took courteous leave, with benedictions on 
 his successor, and Abraham Lincoln entered as its 
 master. 
 
 At all times, a change of administration implies a 
 general change of civil officers having direct relations 
 with the President or with the heads of departments. 
 Now there were extraordinary reasons for a thorough 
 reorganization. The matter of appointments received 
 immediate and laborious attention from the new Pres 
 ident; some there were who thought his time too much 
 occupied in this way at such a juncture; but the event 
 showed that the work was not overdone. The Cabinet 
 officers, already settled in his own mind before the 
 inauguration, were nominated to the Senate the next 
 day and promptly confirmed namely: Secretary of 
 State, William H. Seward, of New York; of the Treas 
 ury, Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio; of War, Simon Cam 
 eron, of Pennsylvania; of the Navy, Gideon Welles, of 
 Connecticut; of the Interior, Caleb B. Smith, of In 
 diana; Attorney-General, Edward Bates, of Missouri; 
 Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair, of Maryland. 
 
 Next in importance was the diplomatic service, 
 largely filled with Southern men or with others as hos- 
 
INAUGURATIONAPPOINTMENTS. 283 
 
 tile to the Republican policy: men, too, who were in 
 some instances exerting themselves in opposition to 
 the Union and the Government which accredited them. 
 Among the new foreign appointments were: Charles 
 Francis Adams, of Massachusetts the personal choice 
 of Secretary Seward as Minister to England; William 
 L. Dayton, of New Jersey, Minister to France; Norman 
 B. Judd, of Illinois, to Prussia; Cassius M. Clay, of Ken 
 tucky, to Russia; John L. Motley, of Massachusetts, 
 to Austria; Carl Schurz, of Wisconsin, to Spain; James 
 W. Webb, of New York, to Turkey afterward trans- 
 fered to Brazil; Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, to Mexico; 
 Anson Burlingame, of Massachusetts, to China the 
 third mission given to the " ancestral " State; and other 
 Republicans to the minor courts of the Old World and 
 the New. Consular officers, a numerous body, were 
 also mostly changed. 
 
 It took no long time to ascertain that Disunionists 
 in the late Cabinet had willingly left the new admin 
 istration as destitute as possible of everything it would 
 need even for self-defense. The treasury was unsup- 
 plied except through temporary expedients adopted at 
 the eleventh hour, after loyal John A. Dix had suc 
 ceeded Howell Cobb as Secretary. For under the 
 latter s financiering, the Government had been reduced 
 to the strait and the humiliation of being unable to 
 effect a necessary loan, small in amount, except on 
 terms which the usurer might accept from a profligate. 
 The army was insignificant in numbers at the best, and 
 nearly all of it that was left after Twiggs surrendered 
 to the Texas secessionists in February was out of im- 
 
284 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 mediate reach. The navy had few vessels which were 
 not cruising or idling far away in foreign waters. With 
 two or three exceptions, every fort on the Southern 
 coast beyond Old Point Comfort, whether in the con 
 federated seceding States or not, and the navy-yards 
 beyond Norfolk, as well as the arsenals, mints, sub- 
 treasuries and Federal property in general in the Cot 
 ton States, had been tamely permitted to pass into the 
 hands of the Confederates. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 First Forty Days The Fort Sumter Problem. 
 
 The new President still hoped for some adjustment 
 of the national troubles; though hope is not iden 
 tical with faith. He was certainly less sanguine than 
 Mr. Seward, who had been laboring in his own way for 
 months past to establish an effective Union party in 
 the South. In his inaugural, Lincoln had spoken favor 
 ably of calling a national convention, as provided for 
 in the Constitution a measure which Calhoun him 
 self had once thought preferable to rash secession; had 
 promised a continuance of the mail service to the re 
 cusant States, unless repelled, and had expressed his 
 desire to maintain such pacific conditions as would give 
 opportunity for calm consideration. 
 
 There was encouragement in the fact that eight of 
 the slave-holding States, having a decided majority of 
 the Southern population,* had resisted secession and 
 appeared to be still devoted to the Union an encour 
 agement quite substantial, provided only that the Union 
 sentiment was earnest and increasing, not faint and fail 
 ing. To retain Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, 
 
 * Excluding slaves, these eight States had (in 1860) a popula 
 tion of 5,632,993; and the seven Secession States only 2,661,879. Of 
 slaves the former States had an aggregate of 1,636,159; the latter, 
 2,307,262. 
 
 (285) 
 
286 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri and Arkansas 
 in their present attitude, and to leave the seven refrac 
 tory States to grow weary of their experiment which 
 might soon collapse through reactionary or servile in 
 surrection yet without recognizing their assumed 
 secession or coming into collision with any of them 
 singly or all conjointly, seemed practicable to the Sec 
 retary of State, and its accomplishment a master stroke 
 of statesmanship. 
 
 Nor did Mr. Seward see anything fatal to this 
 scheme in the inaugural address, though it was more 
 positive on some points than he would have wished. 
 The address is to be read in its proper light as indi 
 cating the course the Administration would pursue in 
 the absence of armed violence, coupled with the assur 
 ance that peace would continue unless the malcontents 
 should themselves begin war. With those who were 
 " dissatisfied " would rest the choice. 
 
 Instead of receiving the inaugural address in the 
 conciliatory and pacific spirit in which it was written, 
 the authors of secession pronounced it a declaration 
 of war. On the 9th of March the Montgomery Con 
 gress passed an act to provide for a Confederate army, 
 pursuant to the recommendation of their " chief," Jef 
 ferson Davis. This was their response. The President 
 never imagined, of course, that these persons were at 
 present to be persuaded or restrained by anything he 
 could say. His arguments and appeals were not made 
 for their ears alone. Not only were eight slave States 
 refusing to follow their lead, but in the Confederate 
 seven it was believed there were large numbers of people 
 whose hearts were not in the secession cause. Nothing 
 
FIRST FORTY DAYS FORT SUMTER. 287 
 
 would satisfy its leaders, he well knew, short of absolute 
 severance from the Union; but was it too late for the 
 South, by repudiating these men altogether, to escape 
 the abyss toward which they were guiding her? 
 
 Three days after the passage of the act to raise a 
 Confederate army, Mr. Forsyth, of Alabama, and Mr. 
 Crawford, of Georgia, presented themselves at the State 
 Department in Washington in the attitude of commis 
 sioners representing " an independent nation de facto 
 and de jure, 1 and asking the negotiation of a treaty. 
 The President declined all recognition of them; and 
 with Mr. Seward s " memorandum " to this effect was 
 inclosed a copy of the inaugural address, to which these 
 gentlemen were referred for the views of the Govern 
 ment in the case. Representations, however, were 
 made to them by Justice Campbell, who was in com 
 munication with Mr. Seward, which they construed as 
 an assurance of the speedy evacuation of Fort Sumter. 
 
 Forts Sumter and Pickens were in those days ob 
 jects of engrossing solicitude. On the morning after 
 the inauguration the President s attention was called 
 to a letter received the day before by the Secretary of 
 War (Mr. Holt) from Major Anderson, indicating that 
 unless he was sustained by a force about twenty thou 
 sand strong, it would be better to make no farther 
 efforts to hold Fort Sumter. The Secretary was sur 
 prised so different was this from the reports before 
 received from Major Anderson. It was not less a sur 
 prise to the President. He conferred with Mr. Seward, 
 who favored the proposed surrender of the fort. 
 
 The Senate, in extra session for executive business, 
 sat until the i8th of March. Many Representatives- 
 
288 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 elect, as well as many unreturned members whose terms 
 had just expired, lingered in Washington, not only in 
 teresting themselves in the distribution of Government 
 offices, but growing concerned over the prolonged in 
 action and reticence of the Administration touching 
 affairs at Charleston. Senators in their places fell to 
 discussing the subject. Among the Democrats who 
 seemed very solicitous for an authentic avowal of the 
 President s intention was Mr. Douglas, who sought to 
 extort some explicit expression from the Republican 
 side, but without much satisfaction. 
 
 The President, determined at all events to retain 
 possession of Fort Pickens unless it was assailed and 
 captured by force, which he would guard against by 
 sending reinforcements and supplies, was meanwhile 
 considering whether a like course was now practicable 
 and expedient in regard to Fort Sumter. He learned 
 that a former officer of the Navy, Captain Gustavus V. 
 Fox, now in private life after eighteen years of cred 
 itable service, had proposed a plan for supplying and 
 reinforcing the fort, directly after the failure of the Star 
 of the West, and that his plan found favor with the War 
 Department and would have been tried had not Mr. 
 Buchanan finally withheld his consent. Captain Fox 
 was a son-in-law of Levi Woodbury, of New Hamp 
 shire, formerly Secretary of the Treasury, to whom 
 Postmaster-General Blair sustained the same relation. 
 Through the medium of Mr. Blair, the President in 
 vited an interview with Fox on the I2th of March, 
 which was had in conjunction with General Scott, at 
 the latter s office. The General, who had approved this 
 project in February, gave his opinion that it was not 
 
FIRST FORTY DAYS FORT SUMTER. 289 
 
 now feasible, on account of the batteries since erected 
 at the entrance of the harbor. With the consent of the 
 President, Fox soon visited Charleston and Fort Sum- 
 ter. Major Anderson authorized him to report that, 
 with his present supplies, he would not be able to hold 
 out beyond the I5th of April, and could not be relieved 
 except by landing a large force on Morris Island. Cap 
 tain Fox did not mention to him the plan under con 
 sideration, though himself convinced that the circum 
 stances did not preclude its trial. 
 
 On the 1 5th of March, Lincoln sent this note to 
 Secretary Cameron and the other Cabinet officers: 
 
 Assuming it to be possible to now provision Fort Sumter, 
 tinder all the circumstances is it wise to attempt it? Please 
 give me your opinion in writing on this question. 
 
 Mr. Cameron thought it would be " unwise " con 
 curring with the known views of Secretary Seward. 
 All the other members of the Cabinet, with but two 
 exceptions, replied to the same effect. Mr. Blair was 
 positive and earnest in the affirmative; and Secretary 
 Chase inclined, though less decidedly, to the same side. 
 Two weeks later, some days after Captain Fox s re 
 turn, followed by further consultations, the President 
 gave this order (March 29th) to the Secretary of War: 
 
 I desire that an expedition, to move by sea, be got ready 
 to sail as early as the 6th of April next, the whole according 
 to the memorandum attached, and that you co-operate with 
 the Secretary of the Navy for that object. 
 
 The details of the " memorandum " were in accord 
 with the project of Captain Fox, which, in his own 
 language, " simply involved passing batteries with 
 19 
 
290 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 steamers or boats at night, at right angles to their line 
 of fire, and one thousand three hundred yards distant, 
 a feat of which the Crimean war furnished many safe 
 examples." It may be added that there were many 
 similar examples at home during the next four years. 
 The steamship Baltic, of the Collins line, was chartered 
 for the main work of transportation and was to be sus 
 tained by three vessels of the Navy the Powhatan, 
 the Pawnee and the Pocahontas the revenue cutter 
 Harriet Lane, and three steam tugs. A number of 
 armed launches, with sailors to man them, were on 
 board the Powhatan for making the intended transfers 
 from the Baltic to the fort. The expedition was under 
 the command of Fox, who did not receive the Presi 
 dent s decisive order for its departure until the 4th of 
 April, when the preparations were still uncompleted. 
 
 The officers of the Navy received sealed orders 
 through Secretary Welles Captain Mercer, of the 
 Powhatan to have chief command of the naval con 
 tingent. In the further attempts at secrecy, there 
 were some irregularities, Secretary Seward preparing 
 certain orders for signature by the President of which 
 Mr. Welles had no knowledge at the time. Among 
 these were two, dated April ist, "recommended" by 
 the Secretary of State, and signed with others coming 
 from the State Department, giving Lieutenant David 
 D. Porter command of the Powhatan and changing 
 its destination to Pensacola harbor. These orders de 
 prived Captain Fox of his chief naval support, as well 
 as of the launches on which he relied, which were on 
 {board of that vessel. Secretary Welles became aware 
 of this change as the Powhatan was about leaving New 
 
FIRST FORTY DAYS FORT SUMTER. 291 
 
 York harbor, on the 6th, and by the President s au 
 thority attempted to restore the original plan, but it 
 was now too late. That frigate was not needed at Pen- 
 sacola, and rendered no substantial assistance there. 
 An adequate naval force was already concerned in sup 
 plying and reinforcing Fort Pickens, which was suc 
 cessfully accomplished without Porter s help. 
 
 The absence of the Powhatan destroyed whatever 
 chance of success the Fox expedition had. Its com 
 mander went to sea on the Baltic, and arrived off 
 Charleston harbor in entire ignorance of the with 
 drawal of the Powhatan afterwards explained to him 
 by the President as an " accident." There was, how 
 ever, a deliberate design in the preparation of the orders 
 in question, which Secretary Welles did not hesitate to 
 connect with the following dispatch sent by Mr. Seward 
 on the 7th to Judge Campbell now gone South: 
 " Faith as to Sumter fully kept. Wait and see." 
 
 The date of the "accident" which detached the 
 Powhatan from Fox s fleet, April ist, also belongs to 
 another event which should be noticed in this connec 
 tion. Hitherto Mr. Seward appears to have regarded 
 his official position as akin to that of Prime Minister 
 practically the head of the Administration; or at least 
 he aspired to that power. He now directly proposed 
 an Administration " policy " assuming that as yet 
 there was none and that the President should give 
 untrammeled authority to one of his executive officers 
 who should be responsible for its execution.* The pol 
 icy was in substance: (i) Non-resistance to the Con- 
 
 * See Nicolay and Hay, " Complete Works," II., 29-30, for this 
 communication and Lincoln s reply in full. 
 
292 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 federates, and abandonment of the slavery issues; and 
 (2) a belligerent attitude toward certain foreign powers 
 - particularly France and Spain, the latter having just 
 invaded San Domingo. Would not a foreign war, with 
 Cuba in prospective, recall the " erring sisters " and 
 secure a speedy restoration of the Union? That Mr. 
 Seward had any other motive for desiring a war with 
 Spain is hardly conceivable. However, he soon found 
 that he had ventured too far, and received a response 
 which definitely and finally settled all question as to his 
 official relation to the President. What another chief 
 executive might have deemed an unpardonable affront, 
 was met with serene dignity, the superior informing his 
 subordinate, in substance, that a " policy " had been 
 duly announced in his inaugural, and that the duties 
 to which the President had been called would not be 
 devolved upon another. 
 
 It is not to be asserted that the President ever cast 
 any blame upon Mr. Seward for his part in the Pow- 
 hatan matter; nor is it worth while to recall the free 
 comments of Mr. Blair and Mr. Welles, at a later date, 
 on what they probably never ceased to consider an 
 improper expedient of the Secretary of State to evade 
 a charge of bad faith in giving assurances unauthorized 
 by the President. 
 
 Notice was given to the insurgent authorities at 
 Charleston of the dispatch of supplies for Major Ander 
 son in a pacific manner if not resisted by force. The 
 only " aggression " visible, the only " coercion " threat 
 ened, was the beleaguering of two Federal forts by 
 armed men under orders from Montgomery. 
 
 On the nth of April the day on which the Fox 
 
FIRST FORTY DAYS FORT SUMTER. 293 
 
 expedition was expected to reach its destination Gen 
 eral Beauregard, under instructions from the Confeder 
 ate Secretary of War, demanded of Major Anderson the 
 surrender of Fort Sumter. He replied that, unless sup 
 plied with provisions within three days, or restrained by 
 further instructions from the Government, he would at 
 the end of that time retire. At half-past 4 o clock on 
 the following morning fire was opened upon the fort. 
 Thirty large guns and seventeen mortars threw shot 
 and shell. 
 
 Anderson, dividing his slender garrison into relief 
 parties and waiting until they had breakfasted at their 
 usual hour, began his response at 7 o clock, using only 
 the lower tier of guns. Wooden barracks left standing 
 were exposed to the hostile shells, which burst in every 
 direction inside the walls. Before sunset the fire of the 
 fort ceased, but at 7 o clock next morning was renewed. 
 Beauregard s batteries, partially active through the 
 night, had been in full play again for more than an 
 hour. Soon a shell set fire to the officers quarters, and 
 the men left their guns to put it out, and in another hour 
 smothering masses of smoke were pouring out from the 
 burning barracks, which had before been repeatedly in 
 flames less serious. The men had worked from the first 
 with enthusiasm, and continued working until farther 
 exertion was a torture. At length, the smoke becom 
 ing thicker and thicker and the endangered magazine 
 having been emptied into the water, the gunners left 
 their places for good. Not long after noon the flag-staff 
 was cut by a missile, and while the flag was momen 
 tarily down, agile ex-Senator Wigfall shot out in a boat 
 from Morris Island, bearing a white signal; was admit- 
 
294 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 ted by a port-hole of the fort, and through his unauthor 
 ized intervention terms of surrender were agreed upon, 
 which Beauregard approved on the evening of Saturday. 
 The Baltic and some other vessels of the Fox expe 
 dition, delayed by a severe storm, had arrived within 
 hearing of Beauregard s guns on Friday morning, too 
 late for the original purpose, and unable to render any 
 service except after the surrender. On Sunday after 
 noon, the I4th, Fort Sumter was evacuated, after a 
 salute to its flag a flag carefully preserved for another 
 occasion. Except from the explosion of a gun in firing 
 this salute (by which one man was killed and three 
 wounded), there occurred from first to last, on either 
 side, no recorded loss of life or serious personal injury. 
 The fire from Fort Sumter, however, was certainly not 
 ineffectual upon the hostile works. Outside the harbor, 
 on Monday, the officers and men were taken on board 
 the Baltic, which departed next day for New York. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 1861. 
 
 Loyal Uprising President Lincoln Calls for Seventy-five 
 
 Thousand Soldiers Four More States 
 
 Revolt The Capital Isolated. 
 
 In the North, men of all classes and all parties were 
 united in their patriotic ardor to avenge the fall of Fort 
 Sumter and to maintain the national authority. New 
 York, Philadelphia and the other great cities, whose 
 interests had made so many people sensitively conserva 
 tive, were at once decorated all over with national flags 
 in token of the universal spirit. In every lesser city, in 
 village, hamlet, factory or shop, on farms and waters, 
 with or without symbols, the spirit was the same. 
 
 Immediately after Anderson s forced surrender was 
 known at the White House, President Lincoln prepared 
 his proclamation, issued on April I5th, declaring that, 
 in seven States named, there were unlawful " combina 
 tions too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary 
 course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested 
 in the marshals by law" ; and calling out the militia to 
 the number of seventy-five thousand men, " in order to 
 suppress said combinations and to cause the law to be 
 duly executed." He appealed to all loyal citizens " to 
 favor, facilitate and aid this effort to maintain the honor, 
 the integrity, and the existence of our national Union, 
 
 (295) 
 
296 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 and the perpetuity of our popular government, and to 
 redress wrongs already long enough endured." 
 
 In the same document he called an extra session of 
 Congress, to begin on the 4th of July. 
 
 Of the eight Southern States asked to send their 
 respective quotas under the militia call, nearly all had 
 Governors in sympathy with South Carolina and Seces 
 sion; and these returned defiant answers to the demand. 
 " The militia of Virginia," wrote Governor Letcher, 
 " will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for 
 any such use or purpose as they have in view." " Ken 
 tucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of 
 subduing her sister Southern States," said Governor 
 Magoffin. Governor Harris, of Tennessee, was inso 
 lently explicit; Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, more 
 politely but hardly less emphatically, and the Governors 
 of Missouri and Arkansas, all made known their pur 
 pose not to heed the call. The Governors of Maryland 
 and Delaware did not in words refuse; and there were 
 more than enough volunteers speedily offered from 
 either State to fill its quota. Nor is it anticipating very 
 much to say that from the other six Southern States, 
 Avhose Governors were thus recusant, there were added 
 to the Union armies several times the number of sol 
 diers thus asked, and ultimately (exclusive of colored 
 men) a large multiple. All through the free States the 
 response to the call for troops was hearty and more 
 than ample. 
 
 On the evening of the I4th, in the first excitement 
 over the news from Charleston, Senator Douglas made 
 an ever-memorable call at the White House. He came 
 voluntarily to promise the President a cordial support in 
 
DOUGLAS SUSTAINS LINCOLN. 297 
 
 the Secession war now begun. He read with approval 
 the proclamation already prepared, questioning only as 
 to the number of men called for, which he thought 
 would better have been at least four hundred thousand. 
 He knew the South, he added, and that the war was to 
 be war in earnest a war of magnitude. The substance 
 of this interview, as disclosed by Douglas himself, was 
 telegraphed to the country next morning, with com 
 manding effect on his partisan supporters. 
 
 This is the last incident to be recorded in the long 
 personal intercourse and in the constantly recurring 
 relations between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. 
 Douglas. The Senator s proffer of service warmly 
 appreciated and gratefully recognized by the President 
 was followed up manfully in speeches and letters from 
 this day onward. One of the most eloquent of all was 
 his speech at the capital of Illinois. Douglas had then 
 not many weeks to live. He presently returned to Chi 
 cago, where he was prostrated with fever, and passed 
 away on the 3d day of June. 
 
 The crisis, which gave unity and strength in the 
 North, brought no advantage to the Union side in 
 the eight Southern States that had hitherto stood out 
 against secession. The Virginia convention had voted 
 nearly two to one against the proposed " ordinance " 
 on the 4th of April; but the convention tarried; adverse 
 influences were plainly taking effect; the Union major 
 ity was crumbling. At length, after it was known in 
 Richmond that the Confederate executive had deter 
 mined to " reduce " Fort Sumter without further delay, 
 a committee was sent by the convention to interrogate 
 President Lincolmas to the policy he meant to pursue 
 
298 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 towards the Confederate States. The committee had an 
 interview with the President on Saturday, April I3th 
 cannon at the moment thundering in Charleston harbor, 
 or not yet cooled after Anderson s capitulation. He 
 gave a written answer, adhering to the positions of his 
 inaugural, from which he quoted decisively, and the 
 committee returned home still "dissatisfied." 
 
 Wild tumult prevailed at Richmond on news of the 
 capture of Fort Sumter. The convention wrapped itself 
 in darkness, holding secret sessions, and on the i/th 
 passed an ordinance of secession, nominally subject to 
 a popular vote on the 23d of May. Regardless of a 
 condition now so unimportant, there were hurried 
 movements to seize the Government works and armory 
 at Harper s Ferry, and the navy-yard, stores, guns, and 
 vessels at and near Norfolk, before the action of the 
 convention should become publicly known. 
 
 On the 25th of April, Governor Letcher proclaimed 
 the adhesion of Virginia to the Southern Confederacy, 
 under a compact which ignored any further voting the 
 people might trouble themselves to do later. Tennessee 
 and Arkansas were in like manner provisionally annexed 
 by their disunionist Governors on the 6th of May; and 
 North Carolina adopted a secession ordinance on the 
 2Oth. Despite the madness of the hour, a cordon of 
 slaveholding States stretching across the country Del 
 aware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, with loyal West 
 Virginia, soon made a separate State still remained 
 on the Union side. 
 
 Addressing a joyfully excited crowd at Montgomery 
 on the evening of April I2th, the Confederate Secretary 
 of War said: 
 
A BELEAGUERED CAPITAL. 299 
 
 No man can tell when the war commenced this day will 
 end ; but I will prophecy that the flag which now flaunts the 
 breeze here will float over the dome of the old capitol at 
 Washington before the 1st of May. 
 
 How Lincoln regarded his own relation to this 
 beginning appears with sufficient clearness from a letter 
 of approbation and confidence addressed by him (May 
 ist) to Captain Fox, saying: 
 
 I sincerely regret that the failure of the late attempt to 
 provision Fort Sumter should be the source of any annoy 
 ance to you. The practicability of your plan was not, in 
 fact, brought to test. By reason of a gale well known in 
 advance to be possible, and not improbable, the tugs, an 
 essential part of the plan, never reached the ground, while, 
 by an accident for which you were in no wise responsible 
 and possibly I, to some extent, was, you were deprived of a 
 war vessel, with her men, which you deemed of great impor 
 tance to the enterprise. . . . You and I both anticipated 
 that the cause of the country would be advanced by making 
 the attempt to provision Fort Sumter, even if it should fail ; 
 and it is no small consolation now to feel that our anticipation 
 is justified by the event. 
 
 In a few hours after he received the call for troops, 
 Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, had one regiment 
 of militia, the Sixth, at its rendezvous, ready for depart 
 ure South. Pennsylvania, being nearer, first had a 
 militia battalion at the national capital. From New 
 York the well disciplined Seventh Regiment was about 
 the same time on its way. Every Northern State re 
 sponded with promptness and energy. In the loyal 
 " War Governors " President Lincoln ever found a 
 quick help and a strong stay. 
 
 The spirit already roused was intensified by the 
 attacks of a Baltimore mob on the Sixth Massachusetts 
 
300 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Regiment while passing through the city. Here the 
 first blood of Union soldiers was shed on the memorable 
 anniversary of Lexington and Concord, April I9th. A 
 Pennsylvania regiment that was following, on reach 
 ing the outer railway station, turned back under orders 
 toward Philadelphia, the mob now having possession of 
 Baltimore. The Massachusetts Sixth had meanwhile 
 fought its way through the city, going on by rail to 
 Washington. 
 
 These were but incidents in a week full of stirring 
 events, which disclosed a fixed purpose and concerted 
 action to surround and isolate the capital; to gain pos 
 session of all the Federal property in Virginia, Mary 
 land, and the District of Columbia; to disperse the Gov 
 ernment; and to carry the rebellion quite to the north 
 ern limit of slavery. On the eve of the outbreak in 
 Baltimore, secessionist forces were on their way to seize 
 Norfolk and Harper s Ferry. Trains bearing Union sol 
 diers destined for Washington were stopped by disabled 
 tracks and destroyed bridges on every railway directly 
 connecting the North with Baltimore, from which point 
 alone, save by the branch from Annapolis the west 
 ern line by way of the intermediate Relay House being 
 broken was there any communication by rail with 
 Washington. Intrenchments were thrown up on the 
 banks of the Potomac River, below the city, and 
 mounted with guns, to cut off communication by water. 
 Virginia militia were pushed forward to break the west 
 ern connections by the Baltimore and Ohio railway be 
 yond Harper s Ferry. Save the military companies of 
 the District (some non-residents temporarily there, also 
 organizing as volunteers) and the small force of regu- 
 
A BELEAGUERED CAPITAL. 301 
 
 lars and marines, the only troops in Washington during 
 this anxious and critical week were: the Pennsylvania 
 companies, which arrived on Tuesday evening; another 
 battalion, with a battery, from the same State, which 
 came on the i8th, passing through Baltimore that 
 day; and the Massachusetts Sixth, which forced its way 
 through on the iQth. From that day until the 25th 
 communication with the outer world was almost wholly 
 cut off. 
 
 Directly after the secret vote for secession in the 
 convention at Richmond, a committee of Virginians de 
 manded of the authorities of the Baltimore and Ohio 
 railway a pledge that no Federal soldiers should be 
 transported over their main line, or any of the muni 
 tions of war from Harper s Ferry, threatening, if this 
 were refused, to blow up their Potomac bridge at that 
 place. Lieutenant Jones, in charge of the armory and 
 arsenal there, with a command of only forty-five men, 
 was apprised of the near approach of Virginia militia, 
 about twenty-five hundred strong, on Thursday evening 
 (the 1 8th), and, after prompt measures to burn the Gov 
 ernment works and to destroy the property stored there, 
 including fifteen thousand Springfield muskets (which 
 were not rendered completely useless to their captors), 
 he started with his little force at TO o clock that night, 
 by the shortest route, to Chambersburg, in Pennsylvania. 
 He reached Hagerstown next morning, having traveled 
 thirty miles; and news of the taking of Harper s Ferry 
 fanned the excitement in Baltimore, where, for a week 
 following, the mob, swelled by large numbers of des 
 perate men from other places, swayed the city Seces 
 sionists cowing Union men, and finally coercing Gov- 
 
302 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 ernor Hicks into protesting against the passage of Fed 
 eral troops through the city, or even through Maryland 
 at all, to the national capital, surrounded though it was 
 on every side by either Maryland or Virginia. He also 
 yielded to the demand for an extra session of the Legis 
 lature which he had hitherto resolutely refused to 
 call fixing the 26th of May for its assembling. 
 
 Matters were to be hurried at the utmost speed; the 
 ardor was at its height, the hour auspicious; not a 
 moment must be lost. The Confederate chief dreamed 
 that his Maryland and Virginia braves were already 
 leaping in wild death dance around the fast-bound and 
 doomed victim. 
 
 On the day after the Massachusetts soldiers were 
 attacked in Baltimore, a committee visited the Presi 
 dent on behalf of Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown, 
 with representations sufficiently indicated in the fol 
 lowing response, addressed to those officials: 
 
 Gentlemen: Your letter by Messrs. Bond, Dobbin and 
 Brune is received. I tender you both my sincere thanks for 
 your efforts to keep the peace in the trying situation in which 
 you are placed. For the future, troops must be brought 
 here, but I make no point of bringing them through Balti 
 more^ Without any military knowledge myself, of course 
 I must leave details to General Scott. He nastily said this 
 morning, in the presence of these gentlemen, " March them 
 around Baltimore, and not through it." I sincerely hope 
 the General, on further reflection, will consider this prac 
 ticable and proper, and that you will not object to it.\ By 
 this a collision of the people of Baltimore with the troops 
 will be avoided, unless they go out of the way to seek it. 
 I hope you will exert your influence to prevent this.) Now 
 and ever, I shall do all in my power for peace, consistently 
 with the maintenance of the Government. 
 
A BELEAGUERED CAPITAL. 303 
 
 On the night of the 2Oth the President telegraphed 
 to Governor Hicks: 
 
 I desire to consult with you and the Mayor of Baltimore 
 relative to preserving the peace in Maryland. Please come 
 immediately by special train, which you can take at Balti 
 more, or, if necessary, one can be sent from hence. Answer 
 forthwith. 
 
 Both the Governor and the Mayor had issued proc 
 lamations two days before the former counseling 
 against any " rash step," calling on the people " to obey 
 the laws and to aid the constituted authorities in their 
 endeavors to preserve the fair fame of our State untar 
 nished," and assuring them " that no troops will be 
 sent from Maryland unless it be for the defense of the 
 national capital." On the very next day (the iQth) 
 came the outbreak deprecated by these manifestoes. 
 All seemed to be changed as in a moment; even the 
 Governor and the Mayor were at least getting uncer 
 tain. The Governor not being in the city on the morn 
 ing of the 2 ist, when the above dispatch was received, 
 the Mayor went without him, and had a protracted in 
 terview with the President, at which the Cabinet and the 
 Lieutenant-General were present. Mr. Brown, as re 
 ported by himself immediately after, told the President 
 that "the excitement was great" in Baltimore; that 
 " the people of all classes were fully aroused, and it was 
 impossible for any one to answer for the consequences 
 of the presence of Northern troops anywhere within our 
 borders." The President " frankly acknowledged this 
 difficulty, and said that the Government would only ask 
 the city authorities to use their best efforts with respect 
 to those under their jurisdiction. The interview ter- 
 
304 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 initiated with the distinct assurance on the part of the 
 President that no more troops would be sent through 
 Baltimore unless obstructed in their transit in other 
 directions, and with the understanding that the city 
 authorities should do their best to restrain their own 
 people." 
 
 This, it is to be remembered, is the version of Mr. 
 Brown, and the alleged promise of the President mani 
 festly could have related only to the existing emergency. 
 But the Mayor had not yet left Washington when news 
 came of such an excitement in Baltimore over the ap 
 proach of troops by the Northern Central Railway (from 
 the Harrisburg direction), which were intended to be 
 marched from Cockeysville across the country to the 
 Relay House, that for the time they were ordered back 
 to Harrisburg. Even " in other directions/ any transit 
 through Maryland, it appeared, was to be " obstructed." 
 
 Although during all this dark week the President 
 had with him but a few hundred soldiers, entirely inad 
 equate even for the protection of Washington, to say 
 nothing of subjugating rebellious Baltimore and open 
 ing communications northward and westward, there 
 began to be mutterings of discontent in New York and 
 elsewhere because all these things had not been done at 
 once by the Government. There came to be talk, too, 
 with distortions and misconceptions enough, as to the 
 interview with Mayor Brown, about "negotiations" be 
 tween the Government and "Maryland traitors." How 
 restive many people were becoming in the later of these 
 dubious days is well illustrated by the letter of a loyal 
 New York millionaire then prominent (George Law), 
 written to the President on the 25th: 
 
A BELEAGUERED CAPITAL. 305 
 
 The people of the free States [said Mr. Law] have now 
 been for some time cut off from communication with the 
 capital of their country by a mob in the city of Baltimore. 
 . . . All facilities by mail and telegraph have been cut 
 off by the same unlawful assemblage in Baltimore and other 
 points of Maryland, at a time when free communication is 
 so much required between the free States and Washington. 
 The public mind is already excited to the highest point that 
 this state of things has been so long tolerated; . . . it is 
 demanded of the Government that they at once take meas 
 ures to open and establish those lines of communication, and 
 that they protect and preserve them from any further in 
 terruption. Unless this is done, the people will be com 
 pelled to take it into their own hands, let the consequences 
 be what they may, and let them fall where they will. 
 
 The great commercial city was not alone in feeling 
 
 that something must be speedily done. Elsewhere, and 
 
 not least in the West, it was a common sentiment: 
 
 The troops must go through Baltimore, even if they 
 
 have to march over the ashes of the city." 
 
 While the people of New York City were astir, and 
 the veteran General Wool had come down from his post 
 at Troy to do anything needed of him, even without 
 orders, the authorities at Washington had been using 
 effective methods to relieve the situation. Secretary 
 Cameron had managed to get a trusted agent through 
 to New York, clothed with some extraordinary powers, 
 which he did not fail to use (for which the Secretary 
 was censured afterward by Congress), and General Scott 
 was contriving to open up a way from the North to the 
 capital. In fact, the very day Mr. Law was writing so 
 vigorously, communication was successfully restored, 
 and new troops were arriving in Washington. 
 
 The Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts militia, ac 
 companied by General B. F. Butler, and the New York 
 
 20 
 
306 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Seventh had reached Perryville, on the Susquehanna, 
 some days before. Finding further transit by rail im 
 practicable, Butler had availed himself of the railway 
 company s ferry-boat there, and taken his men thereon 
 by the river and the bay to Annapolis, where he rjps- 
 sessed himself of the old ship Constitution, then in use 
 at the Naval Academy; later went into camp on shore, 
 regardless of the personal protest of Governor Hicks; 
 sent the ferry-boat back for more troops and for sup 
 plies, and began to advance along the line of the Annap 
 olis Branch railway, of which the track had been torn 
 up and the locomotives disabled. Both the rails and 
 the engines were put in order as rapidly as his soldiers, 
 including many skilled machinists, could do the work, 
 and soon trains were running to the Junction and to 
 Washington, bearing their freight of Northern legions, 
 and letting in full daylight on the darkness of the capital 
 city. The Seventh Regiment of New York was the first 
 to arrive there, marching in its beautiful way down 
 Pennsylvania Avenue, to the delight of a multitude of 
 welcoming beholders. Other soldiers came with little 
 delay, and henceforward at will. 
 
 The severest calamity that had actually befallen the 
 Government during this time was in the losses it had 
 suffered at Norfolk and Gosport. Among the vessels 
 there were the steam frigate Merrimac, forty guns 
 scuttled by the commandant, but afterwards raised and 
 made into a formidable iron-clad by the Confederates; 
 the Cumberland, in which the officers of the post made 
 their escape; the Plymouth, Raritan, Germantown, Co 
 lumbia, Dauphin, the old three-decked Pennsylvania, 
 the Delaware, and the Columbus the last two being 
 
A BELEAGUERED CAPITAL. 307 
 
 dismantled seventy-fours. There were also two or three 
 thousand cannon, as estimated, munitions, stores, tim 
 ber, and other valuable property, either destroyed or 
 captured. In general, the destruction aimed at was far 
 from effectual. The actual aggregate cost of all these 
 classes of property, in time of peace, was reckoned as 
 high as ten million dollars. Great as was the pecuniary 
 sacrifice here in comparison with which that at Har 
 per s Ferry was but slight the losses in both cases 
 were enhanced by the fact that these war materials were 
 pressingly needed and could not be readily replaced. 
 
 As to Norfolk and Gpsport there were, very natu 
 rally, complaints of culpable neglect or mismanagement. 
 The officer in command there, Captain McCauley, was 
 well advanced in years, and without judicial inquiry was 
 directly after placed on the retired list. Captain Pauld- 
 ing had been dispatched from Washington with the 
 steam frigate Pawnee to that post on the I9th, with 
 orders to supersede McCauley. Arriving at Old Point 
 Comfort next day, he took four hundred and fifty Mas 
 sachusetts soldiers on board, and reached Gosport in 
 the evening. Paulding had discretionary powers, but 
 was instructed to take care, at all events, that the Gov 
 ernment property in that quarter should not fall into 
 the hands of the insurgents. He found that McCauley 
 had already begun the work of destruction, and tried 
 to make it complete. Without awaiting attack, he 
 departed at midnight, his retreating course being illu 
 minated by the flames of ships and boats, marine bar 
 racks, storehouses, and other combustible materials of 
 the abandoned post, of which the enemy took prompt 
 possession. 
 
308 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Harper s Ferry was occupied by Virginia militia 
 soon after the retirement of Lieutenant Jones. There, 
 as at Norfolk, the insurgents saved much valuable prop 
 erty. The important bridge of the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Railway at that point was destroyed by them, and this 
 great western thoroughfare closed. 
 
 Fortress Monroe, fortunately secured in time, was 
 presently further reinforced by the arrival of the First 
 Vermont Regiment, under Colonel J. W. Phelps. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 1861. 
 Taking Up the Burden of War. 
 
 On the very day, as it happened, that Washington 
 was isolated by the Baltimore outbreak, the President 
 proclaimed a blockade of the insurgent ports. Whether 
 blockade or embargo were better was discussed in Cabi 
 net. Did not declaring a blockade under the war power 
 of the Government involve a concession of belligerent 
 rights to the Confederates? Secretary Welles, whose 
 department was charged with executing the great un 
 dertaking, favored an embargo. Secretary Seward, to 
 whom the matter belonged in its foreign relations, 
 believed a blockade would involve fewer complications, 
 and that British construction would deny the right of 
 a government to close any port not in its actual pos 
 session. To maintain a blockade of the extent pro 
 claimed would require a large and effective naval force; 
 but in this respect the embargo, which avoided some 
 seeming inconsistencies, would have little advantage, 
 and to gain and keep actual possession of all the South 
 ern ports was at present out of the question. The 
 President appears to have agreed with Mr. Seward from 
 the first. 
 
 At the beginning of the War of 1812, Jefferson wrote 
 privately (June 28th) to President Madison : " Upon 
 
 (309) 
 
3 io LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 the whole, I have known no war declared under more 
 favorable circumstances." He confidently expected the 
 prompt conquest of Canada and an early peace. On 
 the 6th of February following, after disasters and mor 
 tifications, he wrote to Madison of the events of the war: 
 
 Our first entrance on them has been peculiarly inauspi 
 cious. Our men were good, but force without conduct is 
 easily baffled. The Creator has not thought proper to mark 
 those on the forehead who are of stuff to make good Gen 
 erals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and 
 then let them learn the trade at the expense of losses 
 
 President Lincoln, at the beginning of a great war,1 
 had at his side a veteran commander famous in both 
 hemispheres. Secretary Chase justly declared that Gen 
 eral Winfield Scott was " venerated " by the Ameri 
 can people. The South would have deemed it victory 
 itself to gain the grand old Virginian as their leader in 
 arms. But the Lieutenant-General was as unhesitating 
 and as faithful now as when, thirty years earlier, he 
 aided in putting down the first outbreak of disunion, in 
 South Carolina. The very name of Winfield Scott was 
 assuring. 
 
 Aside from the blockade, which was deemed of prime 
 moment, two objects required immediate care. First, 
 to hold the national capital, confidently claimed by the 
 Confederate press and orating leaders as a speedy prey; 
 and, secondly, to re-possess Federal forts and property 
 already captured by the seceding authorities. Military 
 and naval preparations for these ends were pushed with 
 such rapidity as the conditions permitted. The late 
 Adjutant-General Cooper and Brigadier-General Lee 
 in whom Scott had specially confided had at the last 
 
TAKING UP THE BURDEN. 311 
 
 moment gone over to the Confederate side, carrying 
 with them all the knowledge of affairs implied by their 
 late positions. Other defections, less conspicuous, from 
 the surrender of General Twiggs downward, had thinned 
 the army service and made many new appointments 
 and assignments necessary. Commander Buchanan, in 
 charge of the navy-yard, like Captain J. B. Magruder, 
 of the army, whose battery was in evidence on inaugura 
 tion day, both joined the Confederates. So did many 
 naval officers of rank, though they surrendered no ves 
 sels or property confided to them. The departments of 
 Washington, under General Joseph K. F. Mansfield; of 
 Annapolis, under General B. F. Butler (headquarters at 
 Bladensburg), and of Pennsylvania (including that State 
 and Delaware), under General Robert Patterson, were 
 announced on the 27th of April. A fourth department 
 was added on the loth of May, consisting of the States 
 of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, under General George B. 
 McClellan, with headquarters at Cincinnati. 
 
 In his message to the Confederate Congress, which 
 met at Montgomery on the 2Qth of April, Mr. Davis 
 announced his purpose of issuing letters of marque and 
 reprisal, and predicted that before many weeks " the 
 whole of the slaveholding States of the late Union will 
 respond to the call of honor and affection, and, by 
 uniting their fortunes with ours, promote our common 
 interests and secure our common safety." He gives 
 the number of Confederate troops " now in the field 
 at Charleston, Pensacola, Forts Morgan, Jackson, St. 
 Philip, and Pulaski " as nineteen thousand; " while there 
 are sixteen thousand more now en route for Virginia;" 
 states his purpose to organize " an army of one him- 
 
3 i2 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 dred thousand men/ and adds that volunteers " are 
 constantly tendering their services far in excess of our 
 wants." He had, in fact, issued a call for one hundred 
 thousand men two days after Lincoln s inauguration. 
 In this message occur the familiar words, so applicable 
 to many troublous situations: "All we ask is, to be let 
 alone." 
 
 On the 3d of May, President Lincoln called for 
 forty-two thousand soldiers to serve for three years, if 
 required, and for eighteen thousand men for the navy; 
 and invited enlistments to fill up eight regiments of 
 infantry, one of cavalry, and one of artillery, for the reg 
 ular army. More than the specified number responded 
 to this second call, which Congress was trusted to 
 sustain and legalize. 
 
 The storm which had for many days so furiously 
 raged in Baltimore, and which seemed on a sudden to 
 have swept over all Maryland, leaving scarcely any vis 
 ible traces of Unionism, began to lull after a way for 
 Government troops was opened through the State, and 
 regiment after regiment continued to pour into Wash 
 ington. Governor Hicks, in his message of April 27th 
 to the Legislature (convened at Frederick), pointed out 
 the deplorable condition of Maryland if made the seat 
 of war, and counseled " neutrality." A reaction was 
 beginning to set in; the Union men were regaining their 
 self-possession; and even in Baltimore a large Union 
 meeting was held on the night of the 4th of May. On 
 the day following. General Butler advanced two regi 
 ments from Annapolis Junction which he had firmly 
 held for the last ten days to the Relay House. On 
 the same day a committee of the Maryland Legislature 
 
TAKING UP THE BURDEN. 313 
 
 waited on the President, asking that Baltimore be spared 
 the evils of military occupation, and deprecating chas 
 tisement for the late offenses. In reply he gave no 
 other assurance than that the public interests, and not 
 any spirit of revenge, would determine his measures. 
 Four days later a body of troops about three thousand 
 strong, transported by steamers from Perryville, landed 
 at Locust Point, in Baltimore; the railway from the city 
 to the Relay House was promptly reopened; the rail and 
 wire communications with Washington, Harrisburg and 
 Philadelphia were restored; and the city of Baltimore 
 (on the 1 3th) was securely occupied. On the next 
 day Governor Hicks issued a call for four regiments of 
 volunteers for the Federal service. 
 
 General Robert E. Lee was put in command of the 
 " forces of the Confederate States in Virginia " on the 
 loth of May. General George B. McClellan was at the 
 same date commissioned by President Lincoln as a 
 Major-General of the regular army, Both these com 
 manders, soon to find a field in West Virginia, were 
 graduates of West Point, and had served in Mexico. 
 Lee resided on the Custis estate, "Arlington Heights," 
 across the Potomac, opposite Washington. The Presi 
 dent, highly estimating Lee s capacity, was ready to pro 
 mote him to be virtual head of the army in the field; but, 
 much to the disappointment of Scott, his favorite chose 
 to fight on the other side, " following his State." Gen 
 eral McClellan, a native of Philadelphia, son of a distin 
 guished surgeon, had, after graduation at West Point, 
 served as an engineer officer under Scott in Mexico; and 
 under the Pierce administration had been sent abroad 
 on "holiday service" to observe the armies and opera- 
 
.314 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 tions of the Crimean War. Soon after returning from 
 Europe and completing his report, he resigned his com 
 mission as captain, and became a railroad superintend 
 ent. As such he was living in Cincinnati when appointed 
 Major-General. 
 
 On the same loth of May, Nathaniel Lyon a 
 native of Connecticut, a graduate of West Point, and 
 a captain in the regular army struck a signal blow 
 in St. Louis. Though the people of Missouri had 
 voted down secession, their Governor, Claiborne F. 
 Jackson, like the Governors of North Carolina and Ten 
 nessee, tried to swing his State into the Confederate cur 
 rent. He was prevented from seizing the Government 
 arsenal and its large supply of arms by the prompt action 
 of Lyon, co-operating with F. P. Blair, Jr., and other 
 Union leaders, in removing the arms to the Illinois side 
 of the river, and in breaking up a secession camp then 
 forming in St. Louis. Next day the veteran General 
 Harney, commander of the department, returned, after 
 an absence from his post, and one of his first acts was 
 to enter into an agreement with General Sterling Price, 
 the Governor s militia chief, by which the latter was to 
 have the whole responsibility of maintaining order, while 
 Harney was to make no military movement and to 
 avoid every act tending to produce jealousy and excite 
 ment. This compact was overruled at Washington, and 
 Harney was superseded by Lyon, under whom a force 
 was organized for active work. The will of the Presi 
 dent was manifested in these proceedings rather than 
 that of the Lieutenant-General, who was thought by his 
 critics to have preferred the easy moderation of Harney 
 to the impulsive zeal of Lyon. 
 
TAKING UP THE BURDEN. 315 
 
 On the 24th of May the day after the ceremony 
 of ratifying secession had been performed in Virginia 
 part of General Mansfield s force was sent across the 
 Potomac to occupy Arlington Heights and Alexandria. 
 Before this date the country immediately south of these 
 points was little known to the military authorities in 
 Washington. For weeks a Confederate flag flying 
 from a housetop in Alexandria had been visible from 
 the White House. There had been little restriction on 
 intercourse with the South in general, except on that 
 side, where there was no real security to Union men, 
 either Northern or native. The debts due from South 
 ern to Northern business men many millions in total 
 amount had been expressly repudiated; trade between 
 the two sections had been suspended; the lower Missis 
 sippi River was no longer free; and the old relations of 
 superficial amity were at an end. Yet for disunionists 
 coming north there was hitherto no danger or difficulty. 
 The special employment of spies by the Confederates 
 would have been quite superfluous. Of course this 
 leniency, not to say laxness, must not last always. 
 Lines were now to be drawn. 
 
 The movement across the Potomac was executed 
 without resistance. The only casualty of note attend 
 ing it was occasioned by the ardor of Colonel Ellsworth, 
 whose regiment of Zouaves, enlisted in New York City, 
 was among the first of the troops to land at Alexan 
 dria. With his own hand Ellsworth pulled down the 
 flag which had so long defiantly floated above the Mar 
 shall House; whereupon, as he descended from the roof, 
 he was shot dead on the stairway by the hotel proprie 
 tor, who was himself at once killed by a sergeant accom- 
 
316 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 panying Ellsworth. The loss of this officer, one of the 
 party accompanying Lincoln from Illinois, and the first 
 of his rank to fall in this war, profoundly affected the 
 President, who, with Mrs. Lincoln, met the lifeless sol 
 dier at the navy-yard, brought there on the vessel which 
 carried him with his men to Alexandria in the morn 
 ing. The body was taken to the Executive mansion, 
 and, after funeral honors, was sent to his early home 
 near Troy, New York, for burial. The President said 
 in a letter to Ellsworth s parents (May 25th): " In the 
 untimely loss of your noble son, our affliction here is 
 scarcely less than your own. ... In size, in years, 
 and in youthful appearance a boy only, his power to 
 command men was surpassingly great. This power, 
 combined with a fine intellect, an indomitable energy, 
 and a taste altogether military, constituted in him the 
 best natural talent in that department I ever knew." 
 
 Two days after the occupation of the south bank of 
 the Potomac the postal service was suspended in the 
 seceding States, except in Tennessee and West Virginia. 
 To support the Unionists in the latter quarter, a force 
 had been gathering under General McClellan, who, from 
 his headquarters in Cincinnati, on the day of the Alex 
 andria movement, issued his order for an advance into 
 Virginia from the west. Colonel B. F. Kelley set for 
 ward with his regiment, the First Virginia, from Bel- 
 laire, and Colonel J. B. Steedman, with the Fourteenth 
 Ohio, from Parkersburg, along the two branches of the 
 Baltimore and Ohio Railway respectively, towards their 
 junction at Grafton. Other regiments followed, all con 
 centrating at that point unopposed. On the 2d of June 
 a detachment led by Colonel Dumont, of Indiana, stir- 
 
TAKING UP THE BURDEN. 317 
 
 prised and broke up a hostile camp several miles south 
 ward, at Philippi. A proclamation issued from head 
 quarters at Grafton called upon the people to arm for 
 their protection and for the support of the constitutional 
 government; and a convention of loyal Virginians at 
 Wheeling, on the I7th of June, formally repudiated the 
 Richmond Secession ordinance. The convention also 
 declared vacant all offices the incumbents of which had 
 sustained the action of Governor L,etcher and the Seces 
 sion authorities, whether such officers were executive, 
 legislative, or judicial. A provisional State government 
 was at once organized, with Francis H. Pierpont for 
 Governor. As soon as practicable, a State Legislature 
 was chosen by the Union people, and United States Sen 
 ators were chosen to fill the seats vacated by Messrs. 
 Hunter and Mason. Elections were also held for Rep 
 resentatives in Congress in all the Virginia districts in 
 which Union men had opportunity to vote. The gov 
 ernment thus organized the earliest precedent in "re 
 construction " was in due time recognized by the 
 President and by Congress as the legitimate State 
 government of Virginia. 
 
 On the first advance of his troops into Western Vir 
 ginia, General McClellan had issued a proclamation, in 
 which he said: " Notwithstanding all that has been said 
 by the traitors to induce you to believe that our advent 
 among you will be signalized by interference with your 
 slaves, understand one thing clearly not only will we 
 abstain from all such interference, but we will, on the 
 contrary, with an iron hand, crush any attempt at insur 
 rection on their part." On taking the field in person, 
 he said in another manifesto, dated June 23d, that his 
 
318 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 command, " headed by Virginia troops," was " rapidly 
 occupying all Western Virginia," and added: "Your 
 houses, families, property, and all your rights will be 
 religiously respected. . . . We have come to save, 
 not to upturn." 
 
 In pushing back towards the mountains the forces 
 that had been gathering in his front, McClellan came 
 into collision with the enemy at Laurel Hill on the loth 
 of July, and again at Rich Mountain on the I2th. The 
 numbers in the field on either side were not very con 
 siderable, and the nature of the ground was unfavor 
 able for fighting on a large scale. The insurgents were 
 beaten; many of them, with their immediate commander, 
 Colonel Pegram, were captured. Those who escaped 
 were pursued as far as Carrick s Ford, where, attempt 
 ing to make a stand, their chief commander, General 
 Garnett, and a number of his men were killed, and the 
 rout was complete. The victorious General sent to the 
 War Department this inspiriting bulletin: 
 
 General Garnett and his forces have been routed, and 
 his baggage and one gun taken. His army is completely de 
 moralized. General Garnett was killed while attempting to 
 rally his forces at Carrick s Ford, near St. George. 
 
 We have completely annihilated the enemy in Western 
 Virginia. 
 
 Our loss is but thirteen killed and not more than forty 
 wounded, while the enemy s loss is not far from two hun 
 dred killed, and the number of prisoners we have taken will 
 amount to at least one thousand. We have captured seven 
 of the enemy s guns in all. . . . 
 
 Our success is complete, and I firmly believe that seces 
 sion is killed in this section of the country. 
 
 There were, meanwhile, active movements under 
 General Lyon in Missouri. On the I2th of June, Gov- 
 
TAKING UP THE BURDEN. 319 
 
 ernor Jackson had called for fifty thousand miiltia to 
 repel " invasion." After the breaking up of his camp at 
 St. Louis (May loth), he had begun to organize an army 
 at the State Capital, Jefferson City. Lyon approaching 
 him with such small force as was now at his disposal, 
 Jackson withdrew on the I4th, and Lyon occupied the 
 town. Learning that General Sterling Price, whom the 
 Governor had joined, was preparing to make a stand at 
 Booneville, Lyon advanced, engaged the enemy there, 
 and routed him. The Unionists immediately set about 
 reorganizing the State government, through a State 
 convention, and the close of July found Hamilton R. 
 Gamble installed as Governor. 
 
 East of the Alleghany Mountains events had been 
 less lively. Mansfield s command south of the Potomac 
 had at once begun fortifying the approaches to the cap 
 ital by the Aqueduct bridge at Georgetown and by the 
 Long bridge at Washington, while earthworks were 
 thrown up for the protection of Alexandria. On the 
 27th of May, General Irvin McDowell was put in com 
 mand of the new Department of Northwestern Vir 
 ginia, with headquarters at Arlington Heights. Mans 
 field retaining command in the District of Columbia. 
 
 Fresh regiments, as they continued to arrive, were 
 sent into camps of instruction near by, on either side 
 of the river. All through the month of June and well 
 on into July the Union lines had been but slightly 
 extended into Virginia scarcely more, in fact, than 
 was necessary to find convenient camping-ground. A 
 Confederate force under General Beauregard had early 
 taken possession of Manassas Junction, less than thirty 
 
320 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 miles distant, threatening Washington, either directly 
 or through an invasion of Maryland. At Manassas the 
 enemy was nearer both to Harper s Ferry and to Acquia 
 Creek than was the army at Washington; and his posi 
 tion had the further advantage of commanding the rail 
 way communications with the Shenandoah Valley, a 
 region rich in agricultural productions and live stock, 
 and opening across the Potomac into Maryland and 
 Pennsylvania. In this valley, too, the Confederates had 
 a force under General Joseph E. Johnston so placed as 
 to be either in the advance, sustained by Beauregard, in 
 a movement into Maryland across the Potomac above, 
 or to be a support for the latter should he move directly 
 on Washington by Centreville, or through Maryland by 
 the lower Potomac, where there was a smaller force 
 under General Holmes at Acquia Creek. This double 
 or triple menace kept the Union forces divided, under 
 McDowell and Patterson, who were in much less 
 ready communication with each other than were their 
 adversaries. 
 
 General Patterson took up his headquarters at 
 Chambersburg, on the Pennsylvania side, and on the 
 3d of June issued an address to his soldiers, in which 
 he said they would " soon meet the insurgents," and 
 must bear in mind that while it was their duty to punish 
 sedition, they " must protect the loyal, and, should the 
 occasion offer, at once suppress servile insurrection." 
 Little was heard of this army, however, for weeks, 
 except news of a skirmish at Falling Waters (July 2d), 
 while on the move from Chambersburg southward to 
 cross by Williamsport to Harper s Ferry. 
 
PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. 321 
 
 General B. F. Butler was appointed a Major-General 
 of volunteers on the i6th of May, and assigned to the 
 command of a new military department, which included 
 parts of Southeastern Virginia and the States of North 
 and South Carolina. Transferring his command at Bal 
 timore to General N. P. Banks, recently raised to the 
 same rank, Butler reached his new headquarters at Fort 
 ress Monroe on the 22d. In this quarter, on the Con 
 federate side, there were forces under General John B. 
 Magruder and General Benjamin Huger both lately 
 of the. regular army occupying Yorktown and Nor 
 folk. A small force sent toward Yorktown from Fort 
 ress Monroe in the night-time (June loth) met with a 
 bloody repulse at Big Bethel an affair of little mili 
 tary consequence, but much deplored for brave lives 
 needlessly sacrificed. 
 
 The special elections in Maryland and Kentucky 
 late in June resulted in the choice of a nearly unani 
 mous Union delegation to Congress from each five 
 to one in the former and nine to one in the latter. The 
 popular vote in Kentucky aggregated over ninety-two 
 thousand for the Union against less than thirty-seven 
 thousand for secession. 
 
 Congress met on the 4th of July, pursuant to the 
 President s call. Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, was 
 chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives, and 
 ex-Representative Emerson Etheridge, of Tennessee, 
 Clerk. 
 
 In his message Lincoln concisely stated the condi 
 tion of national affairs at the beginning of his official 
 service and since; reviewed the whole question of seces 
 sion, and placed the responsibility for the war, in its 
 
 21 
 
322 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 actual inception, upon the insurgents, whom he had not 
 assailed by force or menace, or given any pretext for 
 resorting to arms against the Government. The policy 
 he chose "looked to the exhaustion of all peaceful meas 
 ures before a resort to any stronger ones." The assault 
 upon Fort Sumter was in no sense a matter of self- 
 defense, for the assailants well knew that " the garrison 
 in the fort could by no possibility commit aggression 
 upon them," and that the Government desired " merely 
 to maintain visible possession, and thus to preserve the 
 Union from actual and immediate dissolution," trusting 
 to " time, discussion, and the ballot-box for final adjust 
 ment; and they assailed and reduced the fort for pre 
 cisely the reverse object, to drive out the visible author 
 ity of the Federal Union, thus forcing it to immediate 
 dissolution. The issue thus forced upon the country 
 immediate dissolution or blood embraces more than 
 the fate.of these United States: 
 
 It presents to the whole family of man the question 
 whether a Constitutional Republic or Democracy, a gov 
 ernment of the people by the same people, can or can not 
 maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic 
 foes. It presents the question whether discontented indi 
 viduals, too few in numbers to control the administration 
 according to the organic law in any case, can always, upon 
 the pretenses made in this case, or any other pretenses, or 
 arbitrarily without any pretense, break up their Government, 
 and thus practically put an end to free government upon 
 the earth. It forces us to ask, " Is there in all Republics 
 this inherent and fatal weakness?" Must a government of 
 necessity be too strong for the liberties of its own people, 
 or too weak to maintain its own existence ? So viewing the 
 issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power of 
 the Government, and so to resist the force employed for 
 its destruction by force for its preservation. The call was 
 
PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. 323 
 
 made, and the response of the country was most gratifying, 
 surpassing in unanimity and spirit the most sanguine ex 
 pectations. Yet none of the States commonly called slave 
 States, except Delaware, gave a regiment through regular 
 organization. . . . 
 
 The border States, so-called, were not uniform in their 
 action, some of them being almost for the Union, while in 
 others, as in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Ar 
 kansas, the Union sentiment was nearly repressed and 
 silenced. The course taken in Virginia was the most re 
 markable, perhaps the most important. A convention, 
 elected by the people of that State to consider this very ques 
 tion of disrupting the Federal Union, was in session at the 
 capital of Virginia when Fort Sumter fell. To this body 
 the people had chosen a large majority of professed Union 
 men. Almost immediately after the fall of Sumter many 
 members of that majority went over to the original dis 
 union minority, and with them adopted an ordinance for 
 withdrawing the State from the Union. Whether this 
 change was wrought by their great approval of the assault 
 upon Sumter, or their great resentment at the Government s 
 resistance to that assault, is not definitely known. . . . 
 They formally entered into a treaty of temporary alliance 
 with the so-called Confederate States, and sent members to 
 their Congress at Montgomery, and finally they permitted the 
 insurrectionary government to be transferred to the capitol 
 at Richmond. The people of Virginia have thus allowed 
 this giant insurrection to make its nest within her borders, 
 and this Government has no choice left but to deal with it 
 where it finds it, and it has the less to regret as the loyal 
 citizens have, in due form, claimed its protection. Those 
 loyal citizens this Government is bound to recognize and 
 protect as being Virginia. . . . 
 
 It is now recommended that you give the legal means 
 for making this contest a short and decisive one ; that you 
 place at the control of the Government for the work at least 
 400,000 men and $400,000,000. . . . One of the greatest 
 perplexities of the Government is to avoid receiving troops 
 faster than it can provide for them ; in a word, the people 
 will save their Government if the Government will do its 
 part only indifferently well. . . . 
 
324 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 It might seem at first thought to be of little difference 
 whether the present movement at the South be called seces 
 sion or rebellion. The movers, however, well understand 
 the difference. . . . The sophism itself is that any State 
 of the Union may, consistently with the Nation s Constitu 
 tion, and therefore lawfully and peacefully, withdraw from 
 the Union without the consent of the Union or of any other 
 State. . . . With rebellion thus sugar-coated, they have 
 been drugging the public mind of their section for more 
 than thirty years, and until at length they have brought many 
 good men to a willingness to take up arms against the Gov 
 ernment the day after some assemblage of men have enacted 
 the farcical pretense of taking their State out of the Union, 
 who could have been brought to no such thing the day be 
 fore. . . . This is essentially a people s contest. On the 
 side of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the 
 world that form and substance of government whose lead 
 ing object it is to elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial 
 weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable 
 pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair 
 chance in the race of life. Yielding to partial and temporary 
 departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the 
 Government for whose existence we contend. I am most 
 happy to believe that the plain people understand and appre 
 ciate this. It is worthy of note that while in this, the Gov 
 ernment s hour of trial, large numbers of those in the army 
 and navy who have been favored with the offices, have re 
 signed and proved false to the hand which had pampered 
 them, not one common soldier or common sailor is known 
 to have deserted his flag. . . . This is the patriotic instinct 
 of plain people. They understand without an argument that 
 destroying the Government which was made by Washington 
 means no good to them. . . . 
 
 It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found 
 the duty of employing the war power in defense of the Gov 
 ernment. Forced upon him, he could but perform this duty 
 or surrender the existence of the Government. ... As a 
 private citizen the Executive could not have consented that 
 these institutions shall perish, much less could he, in betrayal 
 of so vast and so sacred a trust as these free people had con 
 fided to him. He felt that he had no moral right to shrink, 
 
PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. 325 
 
 nor even to count the chances of his own life in what might 
 follow. 
 
 In full view of his great responsibility, he has so far 
 done what he has deemed his duty. You will now, acording 
 to your own judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes 
 that your views and your actions may so accord with his as 
 to assure all faithful citizens who have been disturbed in 
 their rights, of a certain and speedy restoration to them, 
 under the Constitution and laws, and having thus chosen our 
 cause without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our 
 trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly 
 hearts. 
 
 Congress authorized the President to call for five 
 hundred thousand volunteers, instead of the four hun 
 dred thousand asked, and made the needed appropria 
 tions. A joint resolution was introduced in the Senate 
 on the 6th, by Mr. Wilson, to legalize and confirm the 
 action of the President in calling for troops on the I5th 
 of April; in declaring a blockade; in authorizing sus 
 pension of the writ of habeas corpus at any point on or 
 near the military line between Philadelphia and Wash 
 ington (April 27th) and on the coast of Florida (May 
 loth), and in increasing the army and navy forces by 
 his proclamation of May 3d. 
 
 Mr. Breckinridge (July i6th) made an elaborate 
 speech on this resolution, declaring that the acts speci 
 fied were " usurpations on the part of the Executive," 
 and that " this high officer should be rebuked by both 
 houses of Congress." 
 
 The President [he said] has just established blockades. 
 Where is the clause in the Constitution which authorizes it? 
 . . . The Constitution declares that Congress alone has 
 power to declare war, yet the President has made war. . . . 
 The resolution proceeds to approve the act of the President 
 enlisting men for three and five years. By what authority 
 
3 26 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 of the Constitution and law has he done this? The power 
 is not in the Constitution, nor granted by law. . . . The 
 resolution goes on to recite that the President has suspended 
 the writ of habeas corpus, and proposes to ratify and make 
 that valid. 
 
 This latter power Mr. Breckinridge affirmed to be 
 long solely to Congress, and cited authorities support 
 ing this view, including a recent decision of Chief Jus 
 tice Taney in the case of one Merrvman, arrested for 
 raising rebel recruits in Maryland and confined in Fort 
 McHenry. Application being made to Judge Taney 
 for a writ of habeas corpus in the case, he ordered Gen 
 eral Cadwallader, commanding in that quarter, to bring 
 Merryman into court. This was refused until after the 
 General had consulted his superiors at Washington, and 
 thereupon the Judge ordered Cadwallader s arrest for 
 contempt. The Marshal sent to serve the writ of attach 
 ment against the General was refused admission to Fort 
 McHenry. On receiving this return from his officer, 
 Judge Taney declared that the President had no author 
 ity to " suspend the privileges of the writ of habeas cor 
 pus" and that " a military officer has no right to arrest 
 and detain a person, nor to subject him to the Rules and 
 Articles of War, for an offense against the laws of the 
 United States, except in aid of the judicial authority"; 
 but to proceed with posse comitatus against a " noto 
 riously superior force " was impossible, and the Marshal 
 had done all in his power to discharge his duty. 
 
 On the first point authorities differ, but the con 
 cluding opinion is indisputable. When war rules, the 
 man on the bench has no chance with the man on 
 horseback. 
 
PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. 327 
 
 There were other acts against which the ex-Vice- 
 President protested in the name of the Constitution and 
 of the people he represented: 
 
 You have martial law all over the land. . . . Indi 
 viduals are seized without legal warrant and imprisoned. 
 The other day, since Congress met, a military officer in 
 Baltimore was appointed a marshal of that city. Will any 
 one defend the act? . . . Has not the President of the 
 United States, by one broad, sweeping act, laid his hands 
 upon the private correspondence of the whole country?* 
 . . . We may have this joint resolution to approve these 
 acts and make them valid, but we can not make them valid 
 in fact. 
 
 And upon this " usurping " Abraham Lincoln, duly 
 elected President of the thirty-four States of the Union, 
 Mr. Breckinridge having set the tune for Vallandig- 
 ham and other successors in opposition went a few 
 days later to acknowledge and fight for Jefferson Davis 
 as President of eleven of those States, who had not even 
 a claim of being elected to that office by their people. 
 Nor had Breckinridge even the excuse of " going with 
 his own State." 
 
 Mr. Kennedy, of Maryland, during the debate, ex 
 pressed his belief that the Union could not be recon 
 structed by war; and coming more directly to the reso 
 lution, he asked Mr. Wilson if he was " apprised of any 
 necessity for, or any reasons that require or justify, the 
 suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland/ 
 As might have been expected, the Massachusetts Sen 
 ator, thus invited, found no lack of material for his 
 
 * This referred to the seizure (May 20th) of dispatches accumu 
 lated at certain telegraph offices during the year preceding. 
 
328 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 response, concluding: " If there ever was in any por 
 tion of the republic any spot of earth, or any time, where 
 and when the writ of habeas corpus ought to be sus 
 pended, the city of Baltimore was the spot, and the last 
 few weeks the time, for its suspension." 
 
 The main purposes of the resolution, which did not 
 come to a final vote, were accomplished in another form, 
 with but few opposing voices in either house. An act 
 was passed authorizing the President to call out the 
 militia to suppress rebellion, and another giving him 
 power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus obviating 
 objections from those who differed from the majority as 
 to the executive power in the premises. 
 
 Secretary Cameron s report showed that the total 
 force mustered into the military service for three months 
 under the call of April i5th was " not less than eighty 
 thousand"; and under the call of May 3d for "volun 
 teers to serve during the war," two hundred and eight 
 regiments had been accepted all being mustered in 
 except fifty-five regiments, which would be " in the 
 field in twenty days." Adding the regular army, includ 
 ing the new regiments, twenty-five thousand strong, he 
 gives the aggregate of troops "now at command of the 
 Government" as three hundred and ten thousand, and 
 " after the discharge of the three months men, two 
 hundred and thirty thousand." On the 2d of July (the 
 day after the date of Mr. Cameron s report) the Presi 
 dent issued a proclamation calling for three hundred 
 thousand additional volunteers. 
 
 No financial suggestions were made by the Presi 
 dent in his message, that subject being left to the report 
 of Secretary Chase, required by law to be made directly 
 
PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. 329 
 
 to Congress. Mr. Chase had no inspired utterance to 
 make on the methods of raising a revenue to meet the 
 extraordinary demands on the treasury, which he had 
 found in so disheartening a condition. He stated the 
 plain facts of the case, with well considered estimates of 
 receipts to be expected under existing laws. His main 
 reliance for funds, of course, was on Congressional au 
 thority to borrow that being further dependent on 
 the confidence of capitalists and on his own skill in bar 
 gaining. On the loth of July the House passed a bill, 
 reported from the Committee of Ways and Means by its 
 chairman, Thaddeus Stevens, which as finally mod 
 ified, concurred in by the Senate, and approved by the 
 President on the I7th authorized the Secretary of the 
 Treasury to borrow r , within one year from the date of 
 the act, a sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty 
 million dollars, either on bonds bearing not exceed 
 ing seven per cent, interest, payable semi-annually, and 
 redeemable in twenty years, or at any time after five 
 years at the pleasure of the Government; or on Treasury 
 notes of not less than fifty dollars, payable three years 
 after date, with interest at seven and three-tenths per 
 cent. For the faithful and punctual payment of the 
 interest, in both cases, the import duties on tea, coffee, 
 sugar, spices, wines and liquors were specially pledged, 
 as well as such excises and other internal taxes as should 
 be received into the treasury. The only Representa 
 tives voting against this bill on its passage were Messrs. 
 Burnett, Norton, Reid, Vallandigham, and Benjamin 
 Wood. Mr. Vallandigham preceded his vote with a 
 violent speech in opposition to the Administration and 
 the war. Mr. Burnett (of Kentucky) soon after, like Mr. 
 
330 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Breckinridge, joined the Confederate army. Messrs. 
 Norton and Reid were from Missouri, and took a like 
 course. The remaining two, one from Ohio, the other 
 from New York, continued according to this beginning, 
 in Congress or out of it, until the war ended. 
 
 By an act approved on the 5th of August, the list of 
 dutiable articles of import was enlarged, and an act was 
 passed levying a direct tax of $20,000,000, apportioned 
 among the States, including those in insurrection, to 
 which fell a share amounting to $8,000,000. 
 
 The Secession Congress met on the 2oth of July 
 at Richmond, to which place the executive offices had 
 been transferred from Montgomery on the 2ist of May. 
 There was now but one more step as the Confeder 
 ates seem to have supposed and that a short one, for 
 the new government on its way to the city of Wash 
 ington. The State of Virginia, at the time of Davis s 
 arrival there, before the end of May, had already thirty 
 thousand troops either in camps of instruction or on 
 duty, some at Norfolk, some on the Peninsula, and 
 others at different points farther north., under the 
 chief command of General Robert E. Lee. He and 
 his second in command, General J. B. Magruder, were 
 classmates of Jefferson Davis at West Point, and under 
 the auspices of the three the work of organizing the 
 Confederate army was rapidly pushed forward. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 1861. 
 
 A Battle Outlook at Home and Abroad. 
 
 Instead of a Confederate force at Manassas Junction 
 early in May, there were sanguine people at Washing 
 ton who thought there should have been a Union army 
 at Gordonsville. The example of Lyon and Blair in Mis 
 souri seemed to encourage like boldness and prompti 
 tude in Virginia. Holding Manassas, the enemy cov 
 ered all the railway communications with the Shenan- 
 doah Valley; holding Gordonsville, the Government 
 would have controlled not these alone, but also the rail 
 way by Lynchburg into Eastern Tennessee. Secretary 
 Chase, for one, believed the occupation of Gordonsville 
 practicable, and urged it as the first military duty. The 
 Lieutenant-General was not of this mind. Gordonsville, 
 ninety miles from Alexandria by rail, was seventy miles 
 from Richmond and well to the westward; the Rappa- 
 hannock River was a formidable barrier to be encoun 
 tered early on the way, and the work altogether was 
 not to be done off-hand without preparation. After 
 securing Fortress Monroe on the Peninsula, Scott chose 
 to wait until the form of a popular vote on the ordinance 
 of Secession had been gone through with before send 
 ing into Virginia, either Eastern or Western, so much as 
 a company of soldiers. Meanwhile, Confederate armies 
 
 (33i) 
 
332 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 had advanced far north and east of Gordonsville; across 
 the Rapidan; across the Rappahannock; even within 
 menacing distance of the national capital. 
 
 G.eneral Beauregard took command at Manassas 
 Junction twenty-seven miles from Washington on 
 the 2(1 of June; General Joseph E. Johnston, with a 
 smaller force, held Harper s Ferry; and there was a 
 brigade under General Holmes at Acquia Creek, on 
 the Potomac below, in near communication with Fred- 
 ericksburg. Beauregard advanced his outposts to Fair 
 fax Courthouse, midway between Manassas and Wash 
 ington, and eastward to Leesburg, near the Potomac 
 above. For weeks there were only some slight col 
 lisions in this quarter; Patterson, sent with a force to 
 oppose Johnston, tardily crossed the Potomac, and early 
 in July occupied Martinsburg and Bunker Hill, ten miles 
 from Winchester, to which Johnston retired. 
 
 In and around Washington an army of fifty-three 
 thousand men, of whom three thousand were regulars, 
 had been gathering since the i8th of April. The city 
 had a decidedly military aspect. For weeks it was an 
 evening pastime of visitors and residents of both sexes 
 to drive to the camps at the hour of dress parade. When 
 at length the troops on the Washington side began in 
 July to cross the river, it was understood that serious 
 work was at hand. To see a battle an opportunity 
 that might not occur again in a lifetime was naturally 
 an object of desire to many civilians, though the passes 
 required were but sparingly given. There was no such 
 general rush of people into Virginia as exaggerated 
 accounts of the time would imply. 
 
 McDowell s army consisted of five divisions: First, 
 
BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 333 
 
 D. Tyler s brigades of Keyes, Schenck, W. T. Sher 
 man and Richardson; second, D. Hunter s brigades 
 of Andrew Porter and Burnside; third, Heintzelman s 
 brigades of Franklin, Wilcox and O, O. Howard; fourth, 
 Runyon s seven regiments of New Jersey troops, not 
 brigaded for the field, but used in guarding communi 
 cations; fifth, D. S. Miles s brigades of Blenker and 
 Davies. To the first division were attached Carlisle s, 
 Ayer s, and Varian s batteries, and a company of the 
 Second U. S. Cavalry; to the second, a Rhode Island 
 battery, one company of the Fifth U. S. Artillery, and 
 two companies of the Third U. S. Cavalry; to the third, 
 two companies of the Second U. S. Artillery and one of 
 the Second U. S. Cavalry; and to the fifth, a company 
 of the Third U. S. Artillery. McDowell had submitted 
 to the General-in-Chief a plan of operations, and an 
 advance had been ordered to begin on the 8th of July; 
 but that day found the army still unready; and even 
 when the marching actually began, on Tuesday, the 
 1 6th, disorder and delay in the movement of trains and 
 otherwise lost further time. The advance stopped for 
 the night at Fairfax Courthouse, only reaching Centre- 
 ville on the I7th. McDowell had disposed his forces 
 with a view to capture the Confederate detachments at 
 Fairfax Courthouse and Centreville, which seemed pos 
 sible with prompt execution of his orders, but before 
 morning both places were evacuated. 
 
 Soon came the report to Washington, in various 
 forms and from different sources, that Richardson s 
 brigade had been repulsed with severe loss at Black 
 burn s Ford, four miles beyond Centreville. Coming 
 within a mile or two of Bull Run at that ford, a recon- 
 
334 LINCOLN AND HJS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 noitering party learned that the enemy had a battery on 
 the hither side of the stream, and so placed as to enfilade 
 the road, while skirmishers occupied woods and houses 
 in front. Tyler ordered forward the entire brigade, 
 followed by Sherman as a reserve. The advance soon 
 came under a heavy fire of musketry and artillery from 
 Longstreet s command, and Richardson s men were not 
 extricated without serious losses and disorder. 
 
 For the next three days McDowell s forces were 
 encamped at and near Centreville The enemy was in 
 position along the south bank of Bull Run, guarding 
 the fords from Union Mills to the Stone bridge a 
 distance of seven or eight miles. The three principal 
 roads from Centreville crossing the stream were: that 
 taken by Richardson on the i8th, leading due south to 
 Manassas Junction; another bearing to the right to the 
 Stone bridge, three or four miles above, and known as 
 the Warrenton pike; and the third, to the left, cross 
 ing by a ford at Union Mills about the same distance 
 below. From Bull Run the country ascends by a grad 
 ual rise towards Centreville, about four miles north a 
 straggling village overlooking the plains, which extend 
 to Manassas Junction, near the same distance beyond 
 the Run. 
 
 On the morning of the 2ist, Swell s brigade held 
 the Confederate right near Union Mills, supported by 
 Holmes brigade, which had been withdrawn from 
 Acquia Creek; and the commands of D. R. Jones, 
 Longstreet, Bonham, and Cooke, with other forces, 
 extended the line to nearly a mile beyond the Stone 
 bridge, Evans being on the extreme left. Early s brig 
 ade was held in reserve within supporting distance of 
 
BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 335 
 
 Jones and Ewell. The bulk of the Confederate force 
 was on its right, without material change, during the 
 last three days, of the positions taken, with the expecta 
 tion that McDowell as he in fact originally intended 
 after a demonstration at Blackburn s Ford would seek 
 to turn the right of Beauregard s line. On this Sunday 
 morning, however, both the opposing commanders were 
 proceeding to execute newly formed plans, each having 
 issued orders for an offensive movement. 
 
 Reporting to General Scott on Friday, after a " per 
 sonal reconnoissance of the roads," McDowell desig 
 nated the Manassas Gap Railway as his present objec 
 tive point, his aim being: "To destroy the railroad at 
 or near Gainesville, and thus to break up the communi 
 cation between the enemy s forces at Manassas and 
 those in the valley of Virginia before Winchester." 
 Beauregard, having massed his troops on the right - 
 a large portion of Johnston s army having already ar 
 rived had given orders for an advance from Union 
 Mills with a view to outflank McDowell and move upon 
 the capital, and was getting impatient at Swell s unex 
 pected delay in starting, when the sound of Union guns 
 far away to his left caused an abrupt change of front. 
 Instead of the march on Washington, there were now 
 hurry and bustle to prepare for defense. 
 
 McDowell s plan required possession of the Stone 
 bridge and the Warrenton pike, extending in a straight 
 line from Centreville to Gainesville. Tyler and Hunter 
 were to start in the early morning the former taking 
 up a position near the bridge, while Hunter should 
 make a flanking detour, crossing above, near Sudley 
 
336 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Springs, and descending the opposite bank. Heintzel- 
 man was to follow Hunter as far as the defended ford, 
 a mile above the bridge, and there await his arrival on 
 the other side; both Tyler and Heintzelman to co-op 
 erate with Hunter. Miles s division and Richardson s 
 brigade of Tyler s were ordered to " threaten the Black 
 burn Ford, and remain in reserve at Centreville." 
 
 The head of Hunter s column, having crossed unop 
 posed, took the road toward Manassas. For the first 
 mile thick woods were on his left quite to the Run, and 
 on his right woods alternating with fields; then came 
 a more open country, rolling and cultivated, down to 
 the Warrenton road. Soon after Burnside s advance 
 reached this cleared space the enemy opened fire, the 
 Rhode Island and New Hampshire men sustaining the 
 attack until Porter s regulars and a regiment sent across 
 the stream by Heintzelman came up, when, after a sharp 
 engagement, their assailants were driven south of the 
 Warrenton road and across Young s Branch, running 
 at the foot of a hill, over which the Sudley Springs 
 road continued. The brigades of Sherman and Keyes 
 were now at hand, with the remainder of Heintzelman s 
 division; the Stone bridge and the pike were freed, and 
 under close pursuit the enemy retired up the slopes and 
 into the woods. A large part of his force was still miles 
 away. The fighting had begun at half-past 10 o clock. 
 Noting well the position now gained, but little after 
 noon, and bearing in mind McDowell s objective point, 
 what remained but to move rapidly on Gainesville? 
 Instead, there was a pause. Beauregard, hurrying his 
 distant troops hither, made good use of the time. 
 
BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 337 
 
 Forming his lines, he recovered by a gallant charge the 
 ground lost south of the Warrenton pike, not far from 
 Groveton, and occupied heights on his left, overlooking 
 the road farther west. Assailed and driven back, he 
 again advanced; and thus long and hotly the conflict 
 raged. Here was the vital point of battle. In three suc 
 cessive charges the Confederates were repulsed. Pre 
 viously their front ranks had been "driven nearly a mile 
 and a half" ; it was now after 3 o clock, and "it was sup 
 posed by us all," wrote McDowell, "that the [third] 
 repulse was final." The enemy, "was driven entirely 
 from the hill, and so far beyond it as not to be in sight, 
 and all were certain the day was ours." 
 
 But the enemy had had full time to gather his forces, 
 including the last installment from Winchester John 
 ston himself and most of his army having arrived before 
 the fight began. To destroy the Manassas railway 
 " near Gainesville " matters little now, were it possible. 
 Patterson lamentably failed to detain his adversary as 
 expected; Patterson and his men count for nothing 
 to-day. McDowell s crowning opportunity was lost. 
 While his men refreshed themselves, the enemy stole 
 quietly through the woods and beyond his right, then 
 suddenly, with deadly volleys and terrific yells, assailed 
 his flank. In confusion and panic the broken phalanxes 
 fled down the slope and along the pike by which they 
 came. McDowell tried to rally them far to the rear, 
 using his reserves to guard the fugitives from annihi 
 lating pursuit. A defensive line was formed along the 
 Centreville ridge. Toward this barrier the tidal wave 
 swept resistlessly on. Despite the barrier, all night a 
 
 22 
 
LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 throng was on its way to the old camping-ground, or 
 beyond. * 
 
 Next day, " Blue Monday," in a pouring rain, with 
 little respite from dawn to dark, blue-bloused men were 
 continually arriving, dazed and weary, in Washington. 
 "Rally the army and save the capital!" had been the 
 last message of a favorite staff officer to the Lieutenant- 
 General at midnight. At noon Congress gathered in 
 dismal session. On motion of Mr. Crittenden, the 
 House, with but two ("radical") dissenting votes, 
 resolved: 
 
 That the present deplorable civil war has been forced 
 upon the country by the Disunionists of the Southern States 
 now in revolt against the Constitutional Government, and 
 in arms around the Capital ; that in this National emergency 
 Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resent 
 ment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country ; that 
 this war is not waged on our part in any spirit of oppres 
 sion, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor 
 purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or 
 established institutions of the States, but to defend and main 
 tain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the 
 Union, with all the dignities, equality and rights of the sev- 
 ,eral States unimpaired ; and that as soon as these objects 
 are accomplished the war ought to cease. 
 
 To such a culminating epoch had four months of 
 Lincoln s administration come. 
 
 During these months we have seen the President 
 busily occupied with changes in the civil service; with 
 the complications at Charleston and Pensacola, and with 
 
 * The numbers actually engaged on each side in the Battle of 
 Bull Run (or Manassas) were nearly the same about 18,000. The 
 Union losses were: 481 killed, 1,411 wounded, 1,216 prisoners, and 
 28 guns; Confederate losses: 387 killed, 1,582 wounded. 
 
OUTLOOK AT CLOSE OF JULY. 339 
 
 the organization and equipment of military and naval 
 forces. He was also anxious about the attitude of for 
 eign governments, and gave careful attention to the dip 
 lomatic instructions sent out by the Secretary of State. 
 The burdensome daily pressure for personal interviews 
 had continued with little abatement, and to callers of 
 whatever condition he was amiably indulgent always. 
 Society also had claims, which were not neglected 
 by the lady of the White House, though in local circles 
 at the outset there was scant complacency toward the 
 " Republican court." There was no lack of sneers, in 
 fact, or of disparaging inventions. The foreign lega 
 tions were mostly in sympathy with the prevailing tone. 
 To Mr. Russell, of the London Times, who had dined at 
 the White House early in April, some of the lady resi 
 dents used great freedom of speech. He noted in his 
 diary, when just starting for the South, April I2th: 
 
 Some ladies said to me that when I came back I would 
 find some nice people in Washington, and that the rail- 
 splitter and his wife, the Sewards, and all the rest of them, 
 would be driven to the place where they ought to be : " Var- 
 ina Davis is a lady, at all events, not like the other. We 
 can t put up with such people as these." 
 
 The same correspondent and diarist, after returning 
 from the South, had ridden out towards Manassas to 
 get a glimpse of the battle he was to describe, but was 
 so late that he met only retreating soldiers miles from 
 the field. Shut up in his room on Monday, writing his 
 impressions of the Union disaster for the information of 
 Europe, he made this entry in his diary (July 22d) : 
 
 Why Beauregard does not come I know not, nor can 
 I well guess. I have been expecting every hour since noon 
 to hear his cannon. Here is a golden opportunity. If the 
 
340 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Confederates do not grasp that which will never come again 
 on such terms, it stamps them with mediocrity. 
 
 The repulse and rout of McDowell s army became 
 definitely known throughout the land on Monday. 
 Everywhere the next news was dreaded, lest it should 
 be that the capital was taken and the Government dis 
 persed. But hour after hour^ day after day, wore on 
 without a further move of the enemy than resuming his 
 outposts at Centreville and other points occupied before 
 the battle. On the Union side consternation, exaspera 
 tion, determination, quickly followed each other in the 
 popular mind. Causes of the failure were discussed; 
 there were grumblings about the soldiers, their officers, 
 and the Government; yet there is no lack of examples 
 as bad on the part of the best soldiers, even veterans, 
 the most capable Generals, the most skillful and trust 
 worthy rulers. Experience was educating both soldiers 
 and commanders. A year or two later such tardiness 
 of preparation and movement as preceded this battle, 
 such halts and delays as there were at the very turn 
 ing point and moment, would have been deemed inex 
 cusable. The President, believing McDowell unfortu 
 nate rather than incapable, remanded him to a less re 
 sponsible position, with consoling assurances of con 
 tinued confidence. Patterson was less easily forgiven 
 by the people. His successor in the department was 
 Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks, whose place at Bal 
 timore was assigned to Major-General John A. Dix 
 that Secretary of the Treasury who, during the late win 
 ter of discontent, had telegraphed to an officer of his 
 department at the South: " If any man attempts to haul 
 <lown the flag, shoot him on the spot!" 
 
OUTLOOK AT CLOSE OF JULY. 341 
 
 General McClellan was promptly summoned to 
 Washington from West Virginia, and placed at the 
 head of the Army of the Potomac, as it was thereafter 
 called. He was credited with a "celerity of movement * 
 in his late operations quite in contrast with the motions 
 thus far exemplified in this army save in its retreat 
 from Bull Run. He had sent inspiriting bulletins an 
 nouncing victories, which now more than ever seemed 
 a commendable thing to do. He was everywhere hailed 
 by the press and the people as a rescuing chief, and to 
 excited imaginations was radiant with reflected glories 
 of the future. 
 
 To Major-General John C. Fremont, who had been 
 given this rank in the regular army in May, had already 
 been assigned the Department of the West, with head 
 quarters at St. Louis. His department, created on the 
 6th of July, included the States of Illinois, as well as 
 the States and Territories west of the Mississippi River 
 and east of the Rocky Mountains. Fremont and Banks 
 assumed their respective commands on the 25th of July. 
 General McClellan, given his new command on the same 
 day, arrived in Washington on the 26th. 
 
 Confederate success in the first real battle, fought 
 almost within hearing of the Federal capital, gave the 
 victors abundant prestige abroad. This was the more 
 effective from the fact that Mr. Seward, in his diplo 
 matic communications not without regard to influ 
 ence upon Conservatives and Southern Unionists at 
 home had eliminated the slavery question altogether 
 from the issues of the war. Before setting out on his 
 mission Mr. Adams was instructed (April loth): 
 
342 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 You will make no admission of weakness in our Constitu 
 tion, or of apprehension on the part of the Government. 
 . . . You will in no case listen to any suggestions of com 
 promise by this Government with its discontented citizens. 
 If, as the President does not at all apprehend, you shall 
 unhappily find Her Majesty s government tolerating the 
 application of the so-called seceding States, or wavering 
 about it, you will not leave them to suppose for a moment 
 that they can grant that application and remain the friends 
 of the United States. You may even assure them promptly 
 in that case that if they determine to recognize, they may 
 at the same time prepare to enter into alliance with, the 
 enemies of this Republic. You alone will represent the 
 whole of it there. When you are asked to divide that duty 
 with others, diplomatic relations between the Government 
 of Great Britain and this Government will be suspended, and 
 will remain so until it shall be seen which of the two is 
 most strongly intrenched in the confidence of their respective 
 nations and of mankind. 
 
 In his letter of April 22d to Minister Dayton in 
 disregard of those who, like Mr. Sumner, had been 
 urgent that the Administration, from the first, should 
 be "pronounced on the side of freedom" Mr. Seward 
 said of the relations of slavery to the war: 
 
 Moral and physical causes have determined inflexibly the 
 character of each one of the Territories over which the 
 dispute has arisen ;* and both parties after the election har 
 moniously agreed on all the Federal laws required for their 
 organization. The Territories will remain in all respects 
 the same, whether the revolution shall succeed or shall fail. 
 
 * This recalls the words of Daniel Webster, in his conservative 
 speech of March 7, 1850. California and New Mexico, he said, 
 were " destined to be free . . . free by the arrangement of things 
 ordained by the Power above us " adding : " I would not take 
 pains uselessly to reaffirm an ordinance of nature, nor to re-enact j 
 the will of God." 
 
OUTLOOK AT CLOSE OF JULY. 343 
 
 The condition of slavery in the several States will remain 
 just the same, whether it succeed or fail. 
 
 These words, written while the city of Washington 
 was isolated by the insurgents in April, were substan 
 tially indorsed by Congress in July, after a battle gained 
 by disunionists "in arms around the capital." It is easy 
 to see how such assurances from Mr. Seward might tend 
 to build up a Union party to which Mr. Crittenden and 
 other Southern leaders might belong; but for combat 
 ing the influence of the Confederates in Europe, where 
 the odium of slavery was their chief hindrance, the skill 
 of such diplomacy is not obvious. 
 
 The Secretary had early undertaken to remedy the 
 refusal of a previous Administration to concur in the 
 declarations of the Paris Congress in 1856, which in 
 cluded the abolition of privateering; but all his attempts 
 to have the case reopened were unavailing. He also 
 labored hard, and quite uselessly, to secure a reversal 
 of what was deemed the premature action of the British 
 Government in conceding belligerent rights to the Con 
 federates. England and France, it was known, had 
 agreed to act in concert as to affairs pertaining to the 
 Southern Confederacy; and Mr. Seward wrote to Min 
 ister Adams on the 3d of June that " the principal dan 
 ger " apprehended by the President was that of " for 
 eign intervention, aid, or sympathy on the part of Great 
 Britain." What, then, might be the prospect abroad 
 in the last days of July? 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 1861. 
 
 Congress War-making and Slavery Affairs in the West 
 Army and Navy Operations on the Coast. 
 
 Congress remained in session until the 6th of 
 August. The act providing for the levy of half a mil 
 lion men was uninfluenced by McDowell s defeat, hav 
 ing passed both houses before that event, though signed 
 by the President the day after. The only legislation 
 directly affecting the relations of master and slave 
 in the fourth section of the Confiscation act was no 
 more radical in principle than the President s instruc 
 tions previously given to commanders in the field. 
 
 The war, winding its long line across the country 
 over slave soil, was perpetually colliding with slavery 
 itself. Our wars with Great Britain gave the South 
 memorable lessons on this point. Tens of thousands of 
 slaves came within the British lines, voluntarily or other 
 wise, during the Revolutionary War. never to be recov 
 ered. Thousands carried away by the same power in 
 the War of 1812, first into the British provinces on the 
 north, and afterwards colonized in Africa, were long a 
 subject of negotiation between the two countries, but 
 the slaves never returned. Thomas Jefferson, who him 
 self had severe losses of this kind, came in his later days 
 to have a dread of servile insurrection in case of war 
 
 (344) 
 
WAR-MAKING ON SLAVE SOIL. 345 
 
 with a foreign power and invasion of Southern terri 
 tory; and Andrew Jackson in 1843, arguing for the 
 annexation of Texas, presented this peril in strong 
 colors. The uprising of slaves in Southeastern Vir 
 ginia in 1831, and a similar trouble in Louisiana, com 
 bining with the horrors of the San Domingo insurrec 
 tion, excited apprehensions which fervid imaginations 
 dwelt upon, picturing the possibilities of a servile out 
 break in this country on such a scale, and with such 
 opportunities, as could nowhere else be paralleled. 
 
 The military proclamations of McClellan, Patterson, 
 and Butler, on taking the field, reveal a consciousness 
 of this dread, and a wish to allay it. Were not men who 
 eschewed all race and caste distinctions, like Lloyd Gar 
 rison, consistent in denouncing these Northern Generals 
 for offering under any circumstances to turn against 
 their fellow-men seeking to be free? On military prin 
 ciples, it was argued that a servile insurrection ought to 
 be viewed as a welcome reinforcement. On the other 
 hand, men at the South, no longer affecting to deny the 
 danger, used these military proclamations to increase 
 exasperation against the North as inciting servile insur 
 rection, and to intimidate their slaves with the pretense 
 that they were to be massacred.* 
 
 One thing was certain the inextricable compli 
 cation of slavery with war-making on Southern soil. 
 
 * A respectable newspaper, the Mobile Register, said (May 
 25th) : " Servile insurrection is a part of their program, and the 
 slaves are to be indiscriminately slaughtered; and when the last 
 one is butchered, then it is thought the institution will cease to 
 exist. . . . The Syrian massacres of the Christians and all the 
 crimes of its bloody participants pale before the proposed atroci 
 ties of the Black Republicans." 
 
346 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Daily experience illustrated this. Fugitive slaves were 
 continually coming into the Union camps. Masters 
 would come through the lines to reclaim their property. 
 If all such claimants did not actually render the service 
 of spies to the Confederates, if masters did not even send 
 in their slaves and follow after for this express purpose, 
 no thanks were due to the amiable Union commanders 
 who gave the opportunity. 
 
 Butler, a Breckinridge Democrat in the Presidential 
 canvass, found grave embarrassments as to the treat 
 ment of slavery thrust upon him soon after taking com 
 mand at Fortress Monroe. Slaves escaping from actual 
 service in Confederate batteries, and from other compul 
 sory labor in aid of the rebellion, sought refuge within 
 his lines. As a military officer, he saw clearly that such 
 persons, at least, ought not to be sent back to help the 
 enemy. He had the distinction of being the first com 
 mander to act upon the theory that such property was 
 " contraband of war." This was thought a bright idea, 
 and found great popular favor as well as approval by 
 the Government. " Contrabands " were set at work on 
 the side they preferred. 
 
 But the matter speedily assumed a wider bearing. 
 Butler wrote to General Scott on the 27th of May: 
 
 The inhabitants of Virginia are using their negroes in 
 the batteries, and are preparing to send their women and 
 children south. The escapes from them are very numerous, 
 and a squad has come in this morning, and my pickets are 
 bringing their women and children. Of course, these can 
 not be dealt with upon the theory on which I designed to 
 treat the services of able-bodied men and women who might 
 come within my lines, and of which I gave you a detailed 
 account in my last dispatch. ... I have, therefore, deter 
 mined to employ, as I can do very profitably, the able-bodied 
 
WAR-MAKING ON SLAVE SOIL. 347 
 
 persons in the party, issuing proper food for the support of 
 all, and charging against their services the expense of care 
 and sustenance of the non-laborers. . . . Twelve of these 
 negroes, I am informed, have escaped from the erection of 
 the batteries on Sewall s Point, which fired upon my expe 
 dition as it passed by out of range. As a means of offense, 
 therefore, in the enemy s hands, these negroes, when able- 
 bodied, are of great importance. Without them the bat 
 teries could not have been erected, at least for many weeks. 
 As a military question it would seem to be a measure of 
 necessity, and deprives their masters of their services. 
 
 Secretary Cameron replied (May 3Oth), approving 
 the General s action, and instructing him, while permit 
 ting no " interference " by persons under his command 
 " with the relations of persons held to service under the 
 laws of any State/ to refrain from surrendering to 
 alleged masters any persons coming within his lines. 
 "The question of their final disposition" was " reserved 
 for future determination." 
 
 Similar instructions \vere given to other department 
 commanders. There was nothing more comprehensive 
 or thorough in the action of Congress down to the close 
 of the extra session over two weeks after the unfor 
 tunate battle. In neither house was there a more zeal 
 ous Abolitionist than Owen Love joy, who proposed 
 nothing stronger than the following an expression of 
 opinion merely: 
 
 "Resolved, That in the judgment of this House it is no 
 part of the duty of the soldiers of the United States to cap 
 ture and return fugitive slaves." 
 
 This was adopted, yeas ninety-two, nays fifty-five 
 six Republicans voting against the resolution and no 
 Democrat in its favor. 
 
348 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 The fourth section of the "act to confiscate property 
 used for insurrectionary purposes," approved August 
 6th, simply provides when relieved of luxuriant legal 
 verbiage that the owner of an escaping slave who 
 had, with such owner s consent, been put to hostile 
 service of any sort against the Government, should for 
 feit all right to reclaim such slave by judicial remedy. 
 The act does not guarantee freedom to the fugitive; it 
 promises him nothing. Whatever its practical purpose 
 or effect, anything bearing the color of emancipation in 
 terms would seem to have been studiously avoided. It 
 does not go so far, in fact, as General Butler had gone, 
 with the President s distinct approval, in making pro 
 vision for the family of an able-bodied " contraband " 
 employed within the Union lines, and also in refusing 
 to surrender to a disloyal master any escaped slave, 
 whether known to have been previously doing service 
 in direct aid of the rebellion or not. 
 
 The Congressional high-water mark of abolitionism 
 at the extra session had only this very moderate altitude. 
 
 In Missouri, after General Lyon s occupation of 
 Booneville (June i8th), Jackson and Price retired to 
 the southwest corner of the State, crossing the Osage 
 River, and concentrating all available forces in Cedar 
 County, early in July. With hardly four thousand men 
 in all, Jackson set forward to meet Ben McCulloch, who 
 was coming with reinforcements across the Arkansas 
 boundary. On his way Jackson had a brush with Gen 
 eral Franz Sigel, who hurried on to Springfield, where 
 General Lyon joined him on the loth with the main 
 part of his command from Booneville. Lyon, greatly 
 
FREMONT IN MISSOURI. 349 
 
 outnumbered by the approaching enemy, asked for re 
 inforcements, meanwhile strengthening his position at 
 Springfield in expectation of an attack. The situation 
 was substantially unchanged when Fremont arrived at 
 St. Louis (July 25th) and took command of the depart 
 ment. Some days earlier, General John Pope had been 
 assigned to the district of North Missouri, with the 
 duty of protecting the railway from Hannibal across the 
 State, and of safeguarding Union citizens and repressing 
 guerrilla bands. 
 
 General Leonidas Polk a West Point graduate, 
 who left the army for the church, becoming in due time 
 Bishop of Louisiana, and now turning back from altar 
 to camp had assumed the chief Confederate com 
 mand in the West, with special concern for the salva 
 tion of Missouri and Kentucky. By his order, Price 
 and McCulloch, three weeks after the Manassas battle, 
 advanced against Springfield. 
 
 Five days after arriving at St. Louis, Fremont pri 
 vately wrote to the President that nearly every county 
 in Missouri was in an insurrectionary condition; that the 
 enemy was advancing in force on the southern frontier; 
 that " within a circle of fifty miles around General Pren- 
 tiss " (at Cairo) there were above twelve thousand Con 
 federate soldiers; and that five thousand Tennessee and 
 Arkansas riflemen were advancing upon Ironton. He 
 (Fremont) was "sorely pressed for arms"; the soldiers 
 had not been paid; and some regiments were "in a state 
 of mutiny." He was in great want of money, and helped 
 himself, as thus reported: "The Treasurer of the United 
 States has here $300,000 entirely unappropriated. I 
 applied to him yesterday for $100,000 for my paymas- 
 
350 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 ter, General Andrews, but was refused. We have not 
 an hour for delay. . . . This morning I will order the 
 Treasurer to deliver the money in his possession to Gen 
 eral Andrews, and will send a force to the treasury to 
 take the money, and will direct such payments as the 
 exigency requires." 
 
 It was eleven days yet to the encounter between 
 Lyon and the enemy in the southwest. Fremont was 
 not indifferent to the expected event, but only ordered 
 two additional regiments to be sent to Springfield. 
 Unhappily, Lyon was neither adequately supported nor 
 withdrawn from his perilous situation. A man of bold 
 courage, alert and aggressive as from the first, on learn 
 ing that the enemy, about twenty thousand strong, was 
 encamped at Wilson s Creek, nine miles away, he would 
 neither retreat nor await the onset. On the afternoon 
 of August Qth preparation was made for attacking Price 
 and McCulloch at daybreak the next morning, one col 
 umn under Sigel making a detour by the Fayetteville 
 road to the Confederate rear, while Lyon, with the 
 remainder of his forces, was to strike the adversary s 
 advance camp. The movement began at 5 o clock that 
 evening. Lyon drove in the enemy s pickets very early 
 on the morning of the loth. The enemy was soon astir, 
 and the fight went on with alternating onset and repulse 
 until, before a terrific charge of the enemy, about 9 
 o clock, the slender Union force seemed to waver. 
 Lyon, whose horse had been shot under him, and who 
 had himself been three times wounded during the morn 
 ing, again mounted, put himself at the head of an Iowa 
 regiment whose Colonel had been killed, and ordered a 
 bayonet charge. Almost at the moment his breast was 
 
FREMONT IN MISSOURI. 351 
 
 pierced by a rifle ball, and he fell lifeless from the saddle. 
 The charge was successful, and the action continued yet 
 for more than two hours. 
 
 Meanwhile, two miles away, Sigel had struck the 
 enemy s right with effect at an early hour. McCulloch 
 moved in that direction in person and ordered up heavy 
 reinforcements. Finally, Sigel was compelled to retreat, 
 losing five guns, and with the rest of the army Major 
 Sturgis, of the regulars succeeding Lyon in command 
 fell back the next day to Rolla, in railway communica 
 tion with St. Louis. The losses in the battle of Wil 
 son s Creek, as shown by the war records, were: Union, 
 238 killed, 761 wounded; Confederate, 279 killed, 951 
 wounded. 
 
 Near the end of August, Price, from whom McCul 
 loch and his men had withdrawn, set out on his march 
 northward from Springfield. By the Missouri River 
 Fremont had easy communication across the State, if 
 properly secured by garrisoned forts above Jefferson 
 City. It was not until after the ist of September that 
 Price was thought to be getting dangerously near, or 
 that forces were sent up for the defense of Lexington. 
 Yet Fremont, who, in the excitement following the 
 death of General Lyon and the retreat of his army, had 
 proclaimed martial law in St. Louis, now two weeks 
 later extended that extreme measure over the whole 
 State, saying in an order dated August 3<Dth: 
 
 Circumstances in my judgment are of sufficient urgency 
 to render it necessary that the commanding General of this 
 department should assume the administrative powers of the 
 State. ... I do hereby extend and declare established 
 martial law throughout the State of Missouri. . . . All 
 persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within 
 
352 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and, if found 
 guilty, will be shot. Real and personal property of those 
 who shall take up arms against the United States, or who 
 shall be directly proven to have taken an active part with 
 their enemies in the field, is declared confiscated to public 
 use, and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared 
 free men. 
 
 All persons who shall be proven to have destroyed, after 
 the publication of this order, railroad tracks, bridges, or tele 
 graph lines, shall suffer the extreme penalty of the law. . . . 
 
 At once, on reading this order, the President wrote 
 privately to Fremont (September 2d): 
 
 Two points in your proclamation of August 3Oth give me 
 some anxiety. First Should you shoot a man, according 
 to the proclamation, the Confederates would very certainly 
 shoot our best men in their hands, in retaliation; and so 
 man for man indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that you 
 allow no man to be shot, under the proclamation, without 
 first having my approbation and consent. Second I think 
 there is a great danger that the closing paragraph in relation 
 to the confiscation of property, and the liberating of slaves 
 of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends, 
 and turn them against us perhaps ruin our rather fair 
 prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to ask that 
 you will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph so 
 as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act of 
 Congress entitled "An act to confiscate property used for 
 insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6th, 1861 -*- a 
 copy of which act I herewith send you. This letter is writ 
 ten in a spirit of caution, and not of censure. I send it by 
 special messenger in order that it may certainly and speedily 
 reach you. 
 
 The General, who had actually begun to issue deeds 
 of manumission to slaves, replied on the 8th, declining 
 to recede except under a positive order, whereupon the 
 President wrote him on the nth: 
 
 Assured that you, upon the ground, could better judge 
 of the necessities of your position than I could at this dis- 
 
FREMONT IN MISSOURI. 353 
 
 tance, on seeing your proclamation of August 30, I per 
 ceived no general objection to it; the particular clause, how 
 ever, in relation to the confiscation of property and the lib 
 eration of slaves appeared to me to be objectionable in its 
 nonconformity to the act of Congress, passed the 6th of last 
 August, upon the same subject, and hence I wrote you, ex 
 pressing my wish that that clause should be modified accord 
 ingly. Your answer, just received, expresses the preference 
 on your part that I should make an open order for the modi 
 fication, which I very cheerfully do. It is, therefore, ordered 
 that the said clause of the said proclamation be so modified, 
 held, and construed as to conform with and not to transcend 
 the provisions on the same subject contained in the act of 
 Congress entitled "An act to confiscate property used for 
 insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6, 1861, and 
 that said act be published at length with this order. 
 
 For thus restraining Fremont within the limits 
 which Congress deemed proper in regard to slavery, the 
 President did not escape criticism. Undue prominence 
 was given to the incident for a time by many ardent per 
 sons, who thought something important in principle had 
 been sacrificed to conciliate Kentucky and conservative 
 Unionists. The wisdom of the President in annulling 
 a subordinate s unauthorized order conflicting with the 
 military policy which the Government had adopted 
 must, however, have been generally conceded, even in 
 the excitement of the period. 
 
 General Polk was pushing forward, early in Septem 
 ber, regardless of Kentucky " neutrality," to occupy 
 Columbus and Paducah; and Fremont wished his de 
 partment extended so as to include Kentucky, Tennes 
 see and Indiana proposing a grand plan of operations 
 in the West. Whatever Lincoln thought of these sug 
 gestions, he did not adopt them. Fremont had already 
 23 
 
354 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 fallen into disfavor with some of the more radical men 
 in Missouri, while conservatives like Attorney-General 
 Bates and Provisional-Governor Gamble gave him no 
 confidence after his manumission order. There were 
 complaints, amounting to serious charges, in regard to 
 contracts and the men who surrounded him, to the 
 exclusion of others from a share in his councils; his 
 ostentatious body-guard, and in general his assumption 
 of the airs of a dictator. To many of his earliest friends 
 the Blair family included he seemed wanting in 
 tact, if not absolutely in administrative skill. 
 
 Fremont s ideas about the importance of the Cairo 
 district and the organization of a gunboat service for 
 co-operation in opening the river below were good, and 
 his action in that direction was judicious. Credit is due 
 him for the early and earnest attention he gave to the 
 creation of the fleet of which Flag-officer Andrew H. 
 Foote was put in command on the 26th of August. A 
 former captain of the regular army, who had been com 
 missioned as Colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment of 
 Illinois volunteers in June, and as a Brigadier-General 
 in August Ulysses S. Grant was given command 
 of the district of Southeastern Missouri, including Cape 
 Girardeau and Bird s Point, as well as Cairo and its 
 immediate surroundings. By a timely movement in 
 anticipation of the enemy already at Hickman and 
 Columbus, Grant occupied Paducah, at the mouth of 
 the Tennessee River, on the 6th of September. 
 
 Up the Missouri River, Price with his increasing 
 army moved near the same time to get possession of 
 Lexington, Missouri, an important post, quite insuf 
 ficiently guarded, which Colonel Mulligan, of the Chi- 
 
FREMONT IN MISSOURI. 355 
 
 cago brigade, was now hastily dispatched from Jefferson 
 City, with a total force of less than three thousand men, 
 to occupy and fortify. Price arrived there on the I2th 
 with a largely superior force. The garrison bravely 
 repulsed Price s assaults, and it was only after close 
 siege and the exhaustion of all resources that the place 
 and its defenders were surrendered on the 2Oth. The 
 commanding General, having full control of the river up 
 to that point, was naturally blamed, not only for leav 
 ing Lexington so exposed, but especially for getting no 
 effective relief to Mulligan during the eight days of his 
 heroic defense. 
 
 Fremont, with the largest force available, presently 
 took the field in person against Price, who, before the 
 close of September, was again on his way southward. 
 On the 8th of October Fremont paused at Tipton, on 
 the Pacific Railway. Here he was visited by Secretary 
 Cameron, accompanied by Adjutant-General Thomas 
 and others, for conference with the General and for 
 inspection of his army of thirty thousand men in camp. 
 Cameron had the President s order relieving Fremont, 
 to be used or not, at discretion, and decided to withhold 
 it for the present. Before the General reached Spring 
 field, his removal was positively determined, and he 
 there received an order from the War Department to 
 turn over his command to General Hunter. At that 
 date, November 2d, Price and his main force were fifty 
 miles away, at Pinesville. 
 
 In Kentucky a new Legislature w r as chosen at the 
 August election. About three-fourths of the members 
 of either branch were Unionists; and at the September 
 session resolutions were passed which, after stating that 
 
356 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Kentucky had been invaded and the rights of her citi 
 zens grossly infringed " by the so-called Confederate 
 forces," demanded that the Governor call out the militia 
 to expel the invaders, and asked the Government of the 
 United States for the aid guaranteed in such cases by 
 the Constitution. It was also requested that General 
 Robert Anderson, who had been prospectively assigned 
 to the command in that military district, but was seek 
 ing much needed rest and recuperation, should imme 
 diately enter upon the active discharge of his duties. 
 Governor Magoffin vetoed the resolutions, which were 
 carried over his veto. 
 
 At an earlier date the Union leaders, lightly regard 
 ing the Governor s "neutrality," had taken measures for 
 the enlistment of loyal soldiers, and for organizing two 
 encampments: Camp Holt, near Louisville, under Gen 
 eral Lovell H. Rousseau, and Camp Dick Robinson, in 
 Garrard County, under General William Nelson. The 
 Department of the Cumberland was created on the 6th 
 of August, under the command of General Anderson, 
 with Generals W. T. Sherman and George H. Thomas 
 as subordinates next in rank. Anderson s name was of 
 great value to the Union cause in his native State, yet 
 he felt his health to be inadequate for assuming active 
 command, and was presently relieved at his own request. 
 Sherman succeeded him temporarily, but declined the 
 permanent command, and was absent for some time on 
 sick leave. The chief command of the department was 
 then given to General Don Carlos Buell. 
 
 Hunter s assignment to succeed Fremont was not 
 meant to be permanent. The real successor was called 
 from California General Henry W. Halleck, a West 
 
FREMONT IN MISSOURI. 35; 
 
 Point graduate, who had resigned his army commis 
 sion several years before, and was in lucrative practice 
 as a lawyer. Both Halleck and Buell were assigned to 
 their respective department commands on the loth of 
 November, and very soon entered on duty. 
 
 While Fremont was preparing to cross the Osage, a 
 movement intended to restrain Polk from reinforcing 
 Price was ordered to be made by Grant, with the aid 
 of transports and two of Foote s gunboats, against Bel- 
 mont, where there was a Confederate camp across the 
 river from Columbus. Disembarking at Hunter s Point, 
 two or three miles above Belmont, on the morning of 
 the 7th, Grant s force rapidly advanced with little resist 
 ance until quite up to the outer works of the enemy. 
 The place was soon carried, the tents and equipage 
 burned, and the guns taken. While the men were 
 resting and refreshing themselves, their way back to 
 Hunter s Point was obstructed by superior numbers 
 sent across the river above, and by the fire of Folk s bat 
 teries on the heights of Columbus. Grant, with thirty- 
 five hundred men, contended for several hours with 
 three regments under Pillow, as many under Cheatham, 
 and a reinforcement of two regiments more brought 
 over by Polk in person. The bayonet was used again 
 and again; it was an engagement at seemingly hopeless 
 odds; yet Grant fought his way through, bringing off 
 not only his own guns, but two of those captured at 
 Belmont. Material assistance was rendered by the gun 
 boats an arm of the naval service that was to prove 
 formidable henceforward on the Western rivers. While 
 the Confederates were fairly entitled to add Belmont to 
 their list of victories, there was yet something in the 
 
358 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 conduct of Grant and his men in this engagement which 
 relieved the result from the color of disaster. 
 
 In Western Virginia, General Rosecrans succeeded 
 McClellan, with headquarters at Clarksburg during the 
 month of August. General J. D. Cox had advanced 
 from Guyandotte up the Kanawha Valley, when McClel 
 lan moved on Beverly. Cox occupied Charleston on 
 the 25th of July, and Qauley Bridge on the 29th, ex- 
 Governor Wise s command retreating into Greenbrier 
 County. Here reinforcements reached him early in 
 August ex-Secretary Floyd included, who outranked 
 Wise and was zealous for aggressive action. Rosecrans 
 moved rapidly to the support of Cox at Carnifex Ferry, 
 and after a sharp collision (September loth), Floyd and 
 Wise retired to Sewell s Mountain. General Robert E. 
 Lee here joined them, assuming chief command, and, 
 though he had superior numbers, waited to be attacked. 
 Rosecrans finally withdrew (October i6th) without 
 being pursued, and went into camp on New River. 
 Lee returned to Richmond, with his reputation for the 
 moment in a haze. 
 
 Preparations to enforce the blockade were pushed 
 with vigor from the moment it was decided upon. 
 Many steamers were bought or chartered and speedily 
 made ready for naval service. Including water-craft of 
 all sorts then used in naval operations, there were hun 
 dreds of new constructions. Captain Fox, as Assistant 
 Secretary of the Navy, had a full share of credit for the 
 efficiency of the department in this work. The large 
 demand for volunteer seamen was so promptly met that 
 the newly equipped vessels were adequately manned as 
 fast as they were ready generally by men inured to 
 
HATTERAS PORT ROYAL, WILKES. 359 
 
 marine life. Two blockading squadrons were organ 
 ized: the Atlantic, under Flag-officer Silas H. String- 
 ham, and the Gulf, under Flag-officer William Mervine. 
 By the ist of July, Stringham had twenty-two vessels, 
 with a total of 296 guns and 3,300 men; and Mervine, 
 twenty-one vessels, 282 guns, and 3,500 men. 
 
 A combined military and naval expedition under 
 General Butler and Commodore Stringham left Hamp 
 ton Roads on the 26th of August, and next day arrived 
 off Hatteras Inlet, the entrance to Pamlico Sound. The 
 place was defended by two forts, garrisoned by a force 
 of seven hundred men, under the command of Commo 
 dore S. Barren, a seceder from the United States Navy. 
 Fire was opened on the enemy s works on the morning 
 of the 28th, and on the 29th the place was surrendered, 
 with its garrison, guns, and stores. Here was one of 
 the favorite haunts of blockade-runners, a number of 
 which vessels, unaware of the change of command in 
 the harbor, ran in and were welcomed as prizes. The 
 prompt success of this expedition gave great satisfaction 
 at the North, as the first severe return blow after the 
 day at Manassas. 
 
 Another like enterprise, under General Thomas W. 
 Sherman and Commodore S. F. Dupont, destined for 
 Port Royal harbor, encountered a severe storm, soon 
 after starting on the 29th of October, causing some 
 losses and delay. The harbor was defended by works 
 at Hilton Head and Phillips Island, opposite. Dupont 
 began his attack on the forts in the morning of Novem 
 ber 7th, and after five hours fighting, the enemy took to 
 flight. Permanent possession of this important harbor 
 was now secure. Had the army pressed forward at 
 
360 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 once, it was maintained at the time, and this is fully 
 confirmed by the opinion of General R. E. Lee, pub 
 lished after the war, Charleston and Savannah were 
 at the mercy of Sherman. Either his orders were at 
 fault, or this was not the right Sherman. He paused, 
 and only occupied Beaufort, on Port Royal Island, on 
 the 8th of December a month after Dupont had cap 
 tured the two forts on Tybee Island, below Savannah, 
 insuring the speedy " repossession " of Fort Pulaski, 
 which was within shelling distance. 
 
 The Sea Islands, famous for their cotton, were at 
 once brought under Government control. The plan 
 tations on fifteen islands, large and small, numbered two 
 hundred, and there were about eight thousand negroes 
 left behind by the whites in their flight. Several thou 
 sand colored fugitives came into the camp at Hilton 
 Head, who were taken care of under instructions similar 
 to those given to General Butler the previous summer. 
 
 Two other military-naval expeditions had also been 
 for some time in preparation, with concealed destina 
 tion, one, in fact, to Roanoke Island, the other to 
 New Orleans, which did not get under way until after 
 the close of the year. 
 
 The most exciting naval incident of the season was 
 the arrest of ex-Senators Mason and Slidell on their way 
 to Europe as Confederate ambassadors. Embarking at 
 Charleston on the Theodora, a blockade-runner, they 
 had safely reached Havana, where they took passage on 
 the British mail-steamer Trent. Captain (later Rear- 
 Admiral) Charles Wilkes, of the San Jacinto, cruising in 
 Cuban waters, stopped the Trent while proceeding on 
 her voyage, and forcibly transferred the two emissaries 
 
HATTERAS PORT ROYAL WILKES. 361 
 
 and their secretaries to his own vessel, to the great indig 
 nation of the English captain and his captured passen 
 gers. This happened on the 8th of November, but was 
 unknown in Washington or London for several days. 
 Wilkes reported full details to Secretary Welles, who 
 promptly responded in a complimentary letter on the 
 last day of November. Wilkes brought his prisoners 
 to New York, from whence they were sent to Fort 
 Warren, in Boston harbor. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 1861. 
 
 Army of the Potomac Ball s Bluff McClellan Succeeds 
 Scott as General-in-Chief Congress Mes 
 sage The Trent Trouble. 
 
 During these summer and autumn months the army 
 at Washington was absorbing the main share of men and 
 means. Recruits came in rapidly; even by the ist day of 
 August the enemy was undoubtedly outnumbered, and 
 time was precious, as Treasury ledgers proved. Sep 
 tember found this army doubled in strength and still in 
 camp. The enemy had advanced in force to Centre- 
 ville; to Fairfax Courthouse: had, indeed, an outpost 
 at Munson s Hill, in sight of the capitol dome. Above 
 the city he held Leesburg and the right bank of the 
 Potomac, and he blockaded the river below. The 
 only direct railway communication with the West was 
 broken at Harper s Ferry. An invasion of Maryland 
 was menaced both by the upper and the lower Potomac. 
 
 Six days after McDowell s defeat, McClellan found 
 in camp about fifty thousand men. Scott believed the 
 capital in no danger, and McClellan at the time esti 
 mated that twenty thousand men would suffice for its 
 security. When, six months later, he wrote, " The city 
 was almost in a condition to have been taken by a dash 
 of a regiment of cavalry," his language was misleading, 
 
 (362) 
 
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 363 
 
 unless understood as extravagantly expressing an engi 
 neer s estimate of the weakness of the city s defensive 
 works. The fortifications begun under the direction 
 of Chief Engineer Barnard before McClellan came to 
 Washington were so rapidly pushed that thirty-two 
 forts were completed before the end of September. 
 Two months later there were forty-eight, and early in 
 January the whole number designed on both sides of 
 the river in all fifty-two. 
 
 Two interesting incidents of the first few days after 
 McClellan s arrival, and before he was invested with the 
 command of all the forces reorganized as the Army of 
 the Potomac, namely, his all-embracing plan submit 
 ted to the President, and his collision with his superior 
 officer, the Lieutenant-General, were little known to 
 the public at the time, and have received slight attention 
 since. Lincoln was anxious to learn the views of his 
 new General concerning the business intrusted to him, 
 and early made inquiry to that end, probably expecting 
 no elaborate plans, and least of all a survey of the field 
 at large. In response, however, McClellan on the 4th 
 of August presented a " memorandum " of generous 
 dimensions, and so broad in scope as to include a treaty 
 with Mexico, authorizing troops from our Pacific States 
 to land at the port of Guaymas and march across Mexi 
 can territory to Texas and New Mexico. This would 
 not only help to defeat the rebel designs in that region, 
 but also to protect and develop " the latent Union and 
 free-State sentiment well known to predominate in 
 Western Texas, and which, like a similar sentiment in 
 West Virginia, will, if protected, ultimately organize 
 that section into a free State." He noted the impor- 
 
364 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 tance of reopening the Mississippi River and its "tend 
 ency upon all questions connected with cotton/ urging 
 that it had "become necessary to crush a population suf 
 ficiently numerous, intelligent and warlike to constitute 
 a nation," and continued: 
 
 The authority of the Government must be supported by 
 overwhelming physical force. Our foreign relations and 
 financial credit also imperatively demand that the military 
 action of the Government should be prompt and irresistible. 
 The rebels have chosen Virginia as their battlefield, and it 
 seems proper for us to make the first great struggle there. 
 But while thus directing our main efforts, it is necessary to 
 diminish the resistance there offered us, by movements on 
 other points both by land and water. 
 
 He advises "that a strong movement be made on 
 the Mississippi, and that the rebels be driven out of Mis 
 souri," and suggests the seizure of " the railroads lead 
 ing from Memphis to the East" by a movement into 
 Eastern Tennessee, sustaining the Union people there 
 and receiving their co-operation. Getting nearer to his 
 own field, he thinks that " at as early a day as prac 
 ticable, it would be well to protect and reopen the Bal 
 timore and Ohio Railroad," and that sufficient garrisons 
 should occupy Baltimore and Fortress Monroe. Cal 
 culating in advance of experience, he judges. that 
 
 The importance of Harper s Ferry and the line of the 
 Potomac in the direction of Leesburg will be very materially 
 diminished so soon as our force in this vicinity becomes 
 organized, strong, and efficient, because no capable General 
 will cross the river north of this city, when we have a strong 
 army here to cut off his retreat. 
 
 To " crush the rebellion at one blow " to " ter 
 minate the war in one campaign " his estimates call 
 
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 365 
 
 for two hundred and seventy-three thousand soldiers (at 
 the East) for " the main army of operations/ and in 
 addition, ten thousand to protect the Baltimore and 
 Ohio Railway; while " five thousand will garrison Bal 
 timore, three thousand Fort Monroe, and not more than 
 twenty thousand will be necessary at the utmost for the 
 defense of Washington." * 
 
 As to the West, he thinks that few more troops will 
 be needed in Missouri; that if Kentucky "assume the 
 right position, not more than twenty thousand will be 
 needed, together with those that can be raised in that 
 State and Eastern Tennessee, to secure the latter region 
 and its railroads, as well as ultimately to occupy Nash 
 ville" ; and that the troops already in Western Virginia, 
 " with not more than five to ten thousand from Ohio 
 and Indiana, should, under proper management, suffice 
 for its protection." He then tells what he would do 
 with "the main army of operations": 
 
 I propose, with the force which I have requested, not 
 only to drive the enemy out of Richmond, but to occupy 
 Charleston, Savannah, Montgomery, Pensacola, Mobile, and 
 New Orleans ; in other words, to move into the heart of the 
 enemy s country and crush the rebellion in its very heart. 
 
 To lighten the burdens of the Treasury, he sug 
 gests " only partial payments to our troops when in 
 the enemy s country," and giving " the obligations of 
 the United States for such supplies as may be there 
 obtained." 
 
 This comprehensive and very interesting " memo- 
 
 * After the completion of the fortifications around Washington, 
 a few months later, he estimated that to man the fifty-two forts 
 would require 35,000. 
 
366 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 randum " conveys no impression of the slightest con 
 cern on McClellan s part about the present security of 
 Washington. Yet only four days after this review of 
 the whole field of army operations in itself unavoid 
 ably an occasion of offense to the General-in-chief, if 
 known to him McClellan wrote to Scott directly 
 (August 8th), unsolicited, another review of the mili 
 tary situation, assuming that the capital is in " immi 
 nent danger," and urging "with the utmost earnestness" 
 the measures which he thinks needful for the occasion. 
 Next day the Lieutenant-General wrote to Secretary 
 Cameron (the " only reply " he intended for this com 
 munication) : 
 
 Had Major-General McClellan presented the same views 
 in person, they would have been freely entertained and dis 
 cussed. All my military views and opinions had been so 
 presented to him without eliciting any remark, in our few 
 meetings, which I have in vain sought to multiply. He 
 has stood on his guard, and now places himself on record. 
 Let him make the most of his advantage. Major-General 
 McClellan has propagated, in high quarters, the idea ex 
 pressed in the letter before me, that Washington was not 
 only " insecure," but in " imminent danger." Relying on 
 our numbers, our forts, and the Potomac River, I am con 
 fident in the opposite opinion ; and considering the stream of 
 new regiments that is pouring in upon us (before this alarm 
 could have reached their homes), I have not the slightest 
 apprehension for the safety of the Government here. 
 
 Having now been long unable to mount a horse, or to 
 walk more than a few paces at a time, and, consequently, 
 being unable to review troops much less to direct them 
 in battle in short, being broken down by many particular 
 hurts, besides the general infirmities of age I feel that I 
 have become an incumbrance to the army as well as to 
 myself, and that I ought to give way to a younger com 
 mander to seek the palliations of physical pain and ex 
 haustion. Accordingly, I must beg the President, at the 
 
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 367 
 
 earliest moment, to allow me to be placed on the officers 
 retired list, and then quietly to lay myself up probably for 
 ever somewhere in or about New York. But wherever I 
 may spend my little remainder of life, my frequent and latest 
 prayer will be : God save the Union !" 
 
 The President anxiously endeavored to dissuade the 
 Lieutenant-General from a step so unwelcome, and to 
 restore better relations between the two officers. The 
 immediate effect appears in the following autograph 
 letter (copied by the writer, with Secretary Stanton s 
 consent, in 1864, but not published): 
 
 HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, 
 
 WASHINGTON, August 12, 1861. 
 The Honorable, the Secretary of War: 
 
 SIR : On the loth instant I was kindly requested by the 
 President to withdraw my letter to you, of the Qth, in reply 
 to one I had received from Major-General McClellan, of the 
 day before the President, at the same time, showing me 
 a letter to him from General McClellan, in which, at the 
 instance of the President, he offered to withdraw the original 
 letter on which I had animadverted. 
 
 While the President was yet with me, on that occasion, 
 a servant handed me a letter, which proved to be an unau- 
 thenticated copy, under a blank cover, of the same letter from 
 General McC. to the President. This slight was not without 
 its influence on my mind. 
 
 The President s visit, however, was from the patriotic 
 purpose of healing differences, and so much did I honor his 
 motive that I deemed it due to him to hold his proposition 
 under consideration for some little time. I deeply regret 
 that, notwithstanding my high respect for the opinions and 
 wishes of the President, I can not withdraw the letter in 
 question, for these reasons: 
 
 i. The original offense given to me by Major-General 
 McClellan (see his letter of the 8th instant) seems to have 
 been the result of deliberation between him and some of the 
 members of the Cabinet, by whom all the greater war ques 
 tions are to be settled without resort to, or consultation with, 
 
368 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 me, the nominal General-in-chief of the army. In further 
 proof of this neglect although it is unofficially known that, 
 in the last week (or six days), many regiments have arrived, 
 and others have changed their positions some to a consid 
 erable distance not one of these movements has been re 
 ported to me (or anything else) by Major-General McClel- 
 lan ; while it is believed, and, I may add, known, that he 
 is in frequent communication with portions of the Cabinet, 
 and on matters appertaining to me. That freedom of access 
 and consultation have, very naturally, deluded the junior 
 General into a feeling of indifference toward* his senior. 
 
 2. With such supports on his part, it would be as idle 
 for me, as it would be against the dignity of my years, to 
 be riling daily complaints against an ambitious junior, who, 
 independent of the extensive advantages alluded to, has, 
 unquestionably, very high qualifications for military com 
 mand. I trust they may achieve crowning victories in behalf 
 of the Union. 
 
 3. I have, in my letter to you of the 9th instant, already 
 said enough on to others the disgusting subject, my 
 many physical infirmities. I will here only add that, borne 
 down as I am by them, I should, unavoidably, be in the 
 way at headquarters, even if my abilities for war were now 
 greater than when I was young. 
 
 I have the honor to be, sir, with high respect, your most 
 obedient servant, WINFIEU> SCOTT. 
 
 Eventually, however, the Lieutenant-General con 
 sented for the present to remain at his post. 
 
 On the 1 7th of August the troops of the hitherto 
 separate departments of Washington and Northeastern 
 Virginia, together with those serving in the Shenan- 
 doah Valley, on the Upper Potomac, and in Maryland 
 and Delaware, were consolidated tinder the name of 
 the Army of the Potomac, with headquarters at Wash 
 ington, to be under the command of Major-General 
 
 * The words " superiority over " had been erased, and " indif 
 ference toward " written above. 
 
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 369 
 
 McClellan. Before the close of August sanguine peo 
 ple were expecting a speedy and victorious advance of 
 the reorganized army. What were the numbers and 
 condition of the force under Johnston? McClellan had 
 an elaborate spy system, which ought to have given him 
 exact information. But the Comte de Paris says the 
 General singularly overrated the strength and disci 
 pline of the opposing army, giving Johnston a total of 
 150,000, "whereas in reality on the 3ist of October it 
 only numbered 66,243 m a ^> f whom only 44,131 were 
 present in the field " ; and was " equally mistaken in 
 regard to the discipline of his adversaries." Jefferson 
 Davis (as he says in his Rise and Fall of the Confederacy) 
 visited Johnston at Fairfax Courthouse on the 1st of 
 October, and found that, in spite of the frequent rein 
 forcements sent him, he had still a force not much 
 larger than on the 2ist of July. We learn elsewhere 
 that desertions were numerous. In fact, the difference 
 in effective men was more than three to one in favor of 
 McClellan s army. 
 
 On the loth of September, the President, the Sec 
 retary of War, and the Governor of Pennsylvania vis 
 ited certain regiments from that State in their camp. 
 General McClellan was present, and shook hands with 
 officers and men. A soldier ventured to say to him: 
 " General, we are anxious to wipe out Bull Run; hope 
 you will allow us to do it soon?" The prompt reply 
 was: " Very soon, if the enemy does not run." 
 
 September passed away; October was passing; and 
 all the while his army was increasing. There were daily 
 regimental parades; less frequent but repeated brigade 
 reviews; reviews of infantry, artillery, cavalry. Magnifi- 
 
3/0 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 cent was the pageant of seventy thousand men arrayed 
 on the slopes and meadows of Virginia on an October 
 day, closing, as the onlooking multitude swarmed back 
 towards the capital, with the music of heavy Confed 
 erate guns at Fairfax Courthouse just a short march 
 away. Was not this a final display preluding earnest 
 battle? An authoritative intimation of such import was 
 received by Dr. Russell, whose account of the disaster 
 three months before had given such offense, and who 
 was waiting to do justice to the return blow. 
 
 On the 20th reconnoissances were made all along 
 the line. Johnston s left, extending to Leesburg, had 
 been occupying Falls Church, with pickets well ad 
 vanced toward the Chain Bridge, but in all that quar 
 ter up to and beyond Dranesville, to which McCall s 
 division was sent, no enemy was now discernible. 
 Smith, whose division camped near the Chain Bridge, 
 accompanied by McClellan, Fitzjohn Porter, and Han 
 cock, reconnoitered to within two or three miles of 
 Fairfax Courthouse, where the enemy seemed to be 
 in some force, the only Confederates seen on this wide 
 excursion. Heintzelman at the same time sent out a 
 reconnoitering party from his post below Alexandria, 
 with like result. From General Banks, at the other 
 extreme, on the Upper Potomac, came the simultaneous 
 report that the enemy had moved away from Leesburg. 
 Stone, at Poolesville, on the immediate left of Banks, 
 was informed by McClellan cf the presence of McCall 
 at Dranesville, and ordered to keep a good lookout on 
 Leesburg to see if this movement had the effect to drive 
 the enemy away. " Perhaps a slight demonstration on 
 your part," it was added, "would have the effect to move 
 
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 371 
 
 them." Stone reported in the evening that he had 
 made a feint of crossing, and started a reconnoitering 
 party towards Leesburg from Harrison s Island (in the 
 Potomac River, between Poolesville and Leesburg); 
 and that the party returned without meeting any enemy, 
 but had come in sight of what they thought to be a 
 small encampment. Colonel Devens was dispatched 
 with three hundred men at midnight to surprise this 
 supposed camp which proved to be only an orchard 
 or a twilight illusion. Devens was ordered to continue 
 his observation in that quarter, if he found himself 
 secure, and Colonel Raymond Lee was sent with part 
 of his regiment to Ball s Bluff, on the Virginia side, to 
 cover the return of Devens. 
 
 About ii o clock in the morning Stone reported 
 to McClellan: " The enemy have been engaged opposite 
 Harrison s Island; our men behaving admirably." 
 Their unexpected assailants were the advance of Evans 
 brigade, four thousand strong, of the Confederate 
 left, which had retired from Leesburg. Stone ordered 
 Colonel E. D. Baker across from Harrison s Island, 
 with reinforcements, to support Devens and to assume 
 command the combined forces numbering nearly two 
 thousand. McClellan and Stone were in close com 
 munication all the time that Baker and his slender force 
 were fighting gallantly and desperately, unaided, on the 
 verge of a steep bluff, with no adequate provision for 
 recrossing the wide river below. Baker fell. His men 
 were scattered and pursued with slaughter many 
 driven down the bluff, shot at its foot, or drowned. 
 Nearly three hundred lost their lives here or on the 
 field above, and many more were wounded or captured. 
 
372 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 The Ball s Bluff calamity was keenly felt. Intensity 
 was added to the feeling by the loss of Senator Baker 
 not an inexperienced "political general," but one 
 who had served with credit as commander of a regiment 
 in the Mexican War a popular orator, and one of the 
 earliest Springfield friends of President Lincoln, whose 
 grief was uncontrollable when news first came of this 
 great personal loss. " I was much criticised and 
 blamed for this unfortunate affair/ wrote McClellan, 
 twenty-five years after, " while I was in no sense re 
 sponsible for it."* In effect, the official responsibility 
 was made to rest on General Stone, who was soon after 
 arrested, under an order of Secretary Stanton, and 
 finally released, after many months, without the trial 
 for which he asked, or being informed as to the exact 
 cause of this disfavor. 
 
 On the 22d, McClellan visited the camp at Pooles- 
 ville, and after personal investigation of the situation, 
 decided to withdraw from the Virginia side altogether, 
 in that quarter, and the old positions were promptly 
 resumed. The French Prince, Comte de Paris, who 
 was later of McClellan s military household, said in 
 his elaborate and faithful history of the war: 
 
 The check at Ball s Bluff cut short all the projects for the 
 campaign which the organization of the army, the season, 
 and the condition of the ground seemed to impose on Gen- 
 era! McClellan. That incident confirmed his mind in the 
 false estimate he had formed of the strength of his adver 
 sary; notwithstanding the reports of all the reconnoitering- 
 parties he had sent out on the 2Oth, who had not seen the 
 enemy in force anywhere, he did not dare to put his army 
 in motion, and thus lost the best opportunity he ever had of 
 beginning a successful and decisive campaign. 
 
 * McClellan s t: Own Story.." p. 190. 
 
SCOTT RETIRES McCLELLAN CHIEF. 373 
 
 At this juncture, Lieutenant-General Scott, in a 
 letter to the Secretary of War (October 3ist), claimed 
 his legal right to be placed on the retired list. He 
 regretted to withdraw from the orders of a President 
 who, he said, had always treated him with distinguished 
 kindness and courtesy, and whom he knew, upon much 
 personal intercourse, to be " patriotic without sectional 
 partialities or prejudices, to be highly conscientious in 
 the performance of every duty, and of unrivalled activity 
 and perseverance." 
 
 The Cabinet unanimously approved the President s 
 selection of General McClellan as Scott s successor. 
 With complimentary formalities and addresses the 
 President and Cabinet calling on the veteran Lieu- 
 tenant-General at his residence for the purpose on the 
 ist of November his retirement was consummated. 
 In apology for the inaction of the main army hitherto, 
 it was alleged by particular friends of McClellan, and 
 credited by Secretary Chase, that he had been ham 
 pered and obstructed by the Lieutenant-General. The 
 President had shown a generous confidence in the 
 young General, and hoped for speedy action. Yet the 
 entire month of November, with constantly auspicious 
 weather and roads, passed with the army of nearly two 
 hundred thousand still in camp. 
 
 Adjourning in August, after providing the Execu 
 tive with ample war resources, Congress little expected 
 that, on returning in December, it would find the in 
 surgent army still menacing the Capital. The Pres 
 ident was blamed. It is as inconceivable that he should 
 not have been as that he himself should have been fully 
 satisfied with the conduct of his chief General. This 
 
374 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 source of discontent and certain incidents of the dis 
 aster at Ball s Bluff led to the creation (in December) 
 of a joint Congressional Committee on the Conduct of 
 the War, consisting of Senators Wade, Chandler and 
 Andrew Johnson (the latter being soon succeeded by 
 Senator Wright, of Indiana), and Representatives 
 D. W. Gooch, J. Covode, G. W. Julian and M. F. OdelL 
 It was not another Aulic Council, or in any sense its 
 parallel. Attempting no control of military move 
 ments, it gave searching investigation to accomplished 
 events. The testimony thus gathered, valuable to the 
 historian, was from time to time submitted to the Pres 
 ident. 
 
 Popular impatience with army inaction had found 
 some relief in glorifying the activity of Commodore 
 Wilkes in arresting Mason and Slidell; yet in his mes 
 sage the President says nothing of this naval exploit, 
 or of its embarrassing sequel. After paying a high 
 tribute to the retired Lieutenant-General, he continues; 
 
 With the retirement of General Scott came the Execu 
 tive duty of appointing, in his stead, a General-in-chief of 
 the army. It is a fortunate circumstance that neither in 
 council nor country was there, so far as I know, any differ 
 ence of opinion as to the proper person to be selected. The 
 retiring chief repeatedly expressed his judgment in favor of 
 General MClellan for the position, and in this the nation 
 seemed to give a unanimous concurrence. 
 
 The Fremont trouble is not mentioned, or more 
 nearly alluded to than (just after speaking of the block 
 ade) in these words, among which " slavery " is not 
 one: 
 
 So, also, obeying the dictates of prudence, as well as the 
 obligations of law, instead of transcending, I have adhered 
 
PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. 375 
 
 to the act of Congress to confiscate property used for insur 
 rectionary purposes. If a new law upon the same subject 
 shall be proposed, its propriety will be duly considered. The 
 Union must be preserved ; and hence all indispensable means 
 must be employed. We should not be in haste to determine 
 that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the 
 loyal as well as the disloyal, are indispensable. 
 
 He speaks more at length in an earlier part of the 
 message of some provision for colored persons affected 
 by this first confiscation act, and urges the policy cf 
 providing for the colonization, not only of the newly 
 enfranchised, but of all their race in this country who 
 might choose to join them. What he said of the rela 
 tions of labor and capital was notable and especially 
 suggestive in regard to that anomaly in economics, 
 labor " owned " by capital. 
 
 One passage in Secretary Cameron s report as orig 
 inally presented was quite summarily effaced by the 
 President namely: 
 
 If it should be found that the men who have been held 
 by the rebels as slaves are capable of bearing arms and per 
 forming efficient military service, it is the right, and may 
 become the duty, of this Government to arm and equip them, 
 and employ their services against the rebels, under proper 
 military regulations, discipline, and command. 
 
 Arming the blacks was a troublesome matter, to 
 be for the present postponed. As to the war, the Pres 
 ident said in his message that he had " thought it proper 
 to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as the 
 primary object of the contest on our part, leaving all 
 questions which are not of vital military importance 
 to the more deliberate action of the Legislature." 
 Events were tending " plainly in the right direction." 
 
376 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 " South of the line, noble little Delaware led off right 
 from the first. Maryland was made to seem against 
 the Union. Our soldiers were assaulted, bridges were 
 burned, and railroads torn up within her limits, and 
 we were many days, at one time, without the ability to 
 bring a single regiment over her soil to the Capital. 
 Now her bridges and railroads are repaired and open 
 to the Government; she already gives seven regiments 
 to the cause of the Union and none to the enemy; 
 and her people, at a regular election, have sustained 
 the Union by a larger majority and a larger aggregate 
 vote than they ever before gave to any candidate or 
 any question. Kentucky, too, for some time in doubt, 
 is now decidedly, and I think unchangeably, ranged on 
 the side of the Union. Missouri is comparatively quiet, 
 and I believe can not again be overrun by the insurrec 
 tionists. . . . After a some\vhat bloody struggle o 
 months, winter closes on the Union people of West 
 ern Virginia, leaving them masters of their own coun 
 try." A footing had been obtained on the southern 
 coast at Hatteras, Port Royal, Tybee Island, near 
 Savannah, and Ship Island; and there were some gen 
 eral accounts of popular movements, in behalf of the 
 Union, in North Carolina and Tennessee. " These 
 things demonstrate that the cause of the Union is 
 advancing steadily and certainly southward." 
 
 A marked change in the tone and temper of Con 
 gress in regard to the vexed question since the close 
 of the special session was at once manifest. In advance 
 of the message Senator Trumbull gave notice of a bill 
 which he introduced on the 5th " for the confis 
 cation of the property of the rebels, and giving freedom 
 
THE TRENT TROUBLE. 377 
 
 to the persons they held in slavery." Representative 
 Elliot, of Massachusetts, also, on the first day of the 
 session, offered resolutions aimed at the latter object, 
 which the House, by 56 ayes and 70 noes, refused to 
 lay on the table. Messrs Stevens and Campbell, of 
 Pennsylvania, each presented similar resolutions at the 
 same sitting. On the other hand, a resolution reaffirm 
 ing the conservative Crittenden resolution, which 
 passed the House with only two dissenting votes in 
 July, was laid on the table (December 3d) on motion 
 of Thaddeus Stevens, 71 to 65. On the i6th, a bill 
 to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia was 
 introduced by Senator Wilson. These and several later 
 demonstrations against the Confederate corner-stone 
 occupied much of the attention of both Houses through 
 out the session. 
 
 Commodore Wilkes had been thanked in a personal 
 letter by Secretary Welles, and applauded in his official 
 report, for the arrest of the Confederate Ambassadors, 
 Mason and Slidell. With great haste and abundant 
 zeal the House of Representatives by resolution unani 
 mously commended the act. The press and the people 
 had found no hero deemed so worthy of their worship 
 since Anderson exchanged Moultrie for Sumter. The 
 President could share the popular feeling without for 
 getting his official responsibility. When he had thought 
 for a moment on first hearing news of the exploit, he 
 said: "These men must be given up. We have no 
 right to stop a British mail-ship to search for contra 
 band passengers, whatever was formerly done by Britain 
 herself." 
 
 The British were indignant when they heard the 
 
378 LINCOLN AND HIS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 tale told by the Trent s captain, and there was a gen 
 eral outcry for war. British regiments were promptly 
 dispatched to Canada and more British warships were 
 ordered to our Atlantic coast. Restitution and apol 
 ogy were demanded with all possible haste. Happily 
 so it seems there was no submarine cable to speed 
 irrevocable words. Weeks instead of hours measured 
 the period of negotiation, giving leisure, as the corre 
 spondence went on, to calculate the proportion, in case 
 of war, between cause and consequence. 
 
 The international crisis gave exultant hope to the 
 Confederates and their friends. The Opposition mem 
 bers of Congress assumed the part of champions of 
 Wilkes, and scorned any thought of yielding to English 
 insolence and menace. They were delighted to believe 
 the Administration was in a dilemma of which either 
 horn would be its fate. There were leading Republican 
 members, too, who willing to take up the burden 
 of another war if that were necessary were for the 
 moment intent upon sustaining the action of the gallant 
 Commodore. 
 
 The decision was communicated to Congress on the 
 3Oth of December. Secretary Seward s final letter in 
 the case, under date of the 26th, conceding that the 
 detention of the Trent was technically wrong, disclaimed 
 the act as unauthorized by the Government, and agreed 
 to surrender the prisoners into British custody. No 
 other reparation or apology was offered, and this was 
 promptly accepted as an amicable conclusion of the 
 whole matter. " This concession of the Federal Gov 
 ernment," says Alfriend in his Life of Jefferson Davis, 
 " was the first of numerous disappointments in store 
 
THE TRENT TROUBLE. 379 
 
 for the Southern people in the hope, so universally in 
 dulged, of foreign intervention." 
 
 In his Diary, the exiled Polish Count, Gurowski. 
 then employed in the State Department as a trans 
 lator, a man much given to extravagant and cynical 
 utterances, yet trustworthy as to the direct statement 
 of facts within his own knowledge, wrote in Decem 
 ber, 1861: 
 
 The Trent affair finished. We are a little humbled, but it 
 was expedient to terminate it so. ... Europe will applaud 
 us, and the relation with England will become clarified. Per 
 haps England would not have been so stiff in this Trent 
 affair but for the fixed idea . . . that Seward wishes to 
 pick a quarrel with England. The first weeks of Seward s 
 premiership point that way. 
 
 Mr. Seward has the honors of the Trent affair. It is 
 well as it is ; the argument is smart, but a little too long, and 
 not in a genuine diplomatic style. But Lincoln ought to 
 have a little credit for it, as from the start he was for giving 
 the traitors up. 
 
 Mr. Seward s review of the case was so skillfully 
 done as to soothe the public mind and relieve its dissat 
 isfaction. While making the concession seem to turn 
 on the point that Wilkes had not brought the Trent 
 to port for judicial action, he courteously hinted to 
 Lord John Russell that the American Government was 
 more consistent in granting, than the British Govern 
 ment in making, the present demand. 
 
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