THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 C. G. Roberts 
 
THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
THE 
 
 PRESIDENT S WORDS: 
 
 Selection of 
 
 FROM THK 
 
 SPEECHES, ADDRESSES, AND LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 ABEAHAM LI^TCOL^T. 
 
 " All goes well with ua. Every thing seems quiet now." 
 
 A. LINCOLN: Telegram, April 2. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WALKER, FULLER, AND COMPANY, 
 
 245, WASHINGTON STRICT. 
 1865. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 
 
 WALKER, FULLER, AND COMPANY, 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 THIRD THOUSAND. 
 
 GIFT 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 
 No. lo, Water Street. 
 
Hit,. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE funeral service of the i9th of April, 1865, was 
 the most impressive religious service ever held in 
 this country. By one impulse, the people of the 
 land thronged the churches, which, at the hour of 
 the funeral of the President, were everywhere open. 
 At that hour, more people in this land united in the 
 public worship of God, than ever united in such 
 service on any day before. In Massachusetts, the 
 day has been historical for nearly two centuries. It 
 is now marked by one more association, which will 
 remain in memory till the young children of this 
 generation have grown old and passed away. 
 
 This little book, which we call " The President s 
 Words," had its origin in the funeral services of 
 that day. The ministers of different churches, who 
 had to conduct those services, felt, of course, the 
 impossibility of saying any thing which could give 
 any additional precision to the lesson which the 
 hour itself proclaimed. It certainly seemed to me 
 
 439 rv! 
 
 1 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 most fit to read from the President s own words, of 
 trust in the people, and faith in God, some of the 
 expressions in which for years he had been the 
 providential teacher of this nation. It was, of 
 course, impossible, on such an occasion, to read 
 more than a few of these. 
 
 These selections attracted the attention of the pub 
 lishers of this volume, who proposed at once to 
 publish a collection of the President s more memo 
 rable sayings, and asked me to prepare it for the 
 press. I was very glad to contribute to it such 
 epigrams and aphorisms as I remembered, and had 
 collected, from the addresses by which Mr. Lincoln 
 instructed this country in the principles of its own 
 institutions. 
 
 We knew, however, that it was desirable to make 
 as full a collection as possible ; and my friend, Mr. 
 John Williams, to whose advice and assistance I am 
 every day indebted, undertook the careful reading 
 of every speech and letter of Mr. Lincoln s, which 
 has been published, with a view to the diligent selec 
 tion from them all, which he has made and arranged 
 for this volume. To the skill with which he has 
 done this work, the reader is indebted for its close 
 condensation of the most striking thoughts which 
 the President has uttered in his public life. 
 
INTRODUCTION. VII 
 
 We have arranged them under five general heads, 
 which will facilitate reference. Within those sub 
 divisions, they are, in general, in the order of time. 
 Evepy one knows that Mr. Lincoln was taught by 
 experience. " I claim not to have controlled 
 events," he said ; "I confess plainly that events 
 have controlled me." It has seemed most fair, 
 therefore, to show, as far as might be, the process 
 of the gradual formation of his opinions. In gene 
 ral, we have printed only brief memorabilia, sepa 
 rated even from their immediate connection. The 
 last Inaugural, however, his last long speech, 
 and one or two letters, are printed in full. 
 
 It has been matter of regret to us, that we could 
 not with propriety put in print the conversational 
 sayings which are so widely accredited to him. 
 But it will be readily admitted, that such a collec 
 tion, at this time, should not be attempted. 
 
 On the day of the funeral, in an address at Con 
 cord, Mr. R. W. Emerson thus characterized these 
 brief utterances : 
 
 " He is the author of a multitude of good say 
 ings, so disguised as pleasantries that it is certain 
 they had no reputation at first but as jests ; and 
 only later, by the very acceptance and adoption they 
 find in the mouths of millions, turn out to be the 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 wisdom of the hour. I am sure, if this man had 
 ruled in a period of less facility of printing, he 
 would have become mythological in a very few 
 years, like ./Esop or Pilpay, or one of the Seven 
 Wise Masters, by his fables and proverbs. 
 
 " But the weight and penetration of many 
 passages in his letters, messages, and speeches, 
 hidden now by the very closeness of their applica 
 tion to the moment, are destined hereafter to a wide 
 fame. What pregnant definitions ! what unerring 
 common sense ! what foresight ! and, on great occa 
 sions, what lofty, and, more than national, what 
 humane tone ! His brief speech at Gettysburg will 
 not easily be surpassed by words on any recorded 
 occasion. This, and one other American speech, 
 that of John Brown to the court that tried him, and 
 a part of Kossuth s speech at Birmingham, can only 
 be compared with each other, and with no fourth." 
 
 To such authoritative criticism on the President s 
 words I can add nothing. 
 
 EDWARD E. HALE. 
 BOSTON, May 18, 1865. 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 
 
THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 
 
 THE PEOPLE, THE CONSTITUTION, AND THE LAWS. 
 
 FREE LABOR. 
 
 R Government was not established that one 
 man might do with himself as he pleases, and 
 with another man too. ... I say, that, whereas 
 God Almighty has given every man one mouth to 
 be fed, and one pair of hands adapted to furnish 
 food for that mouth, if any thing can be proved to 
 be the will of Heaven, it is proved by this fact, that 
 that mouth is to be fed by those hands, without 
 being interfered with by any other man, who has 
 also his mouth to feed, and his hands to labor with. 
 I hold, if the Almighty had ever made a set of men 
 that should do all the eating and none of the work, 
 he would have made them with mouths only, and 
 no hands ; and if he had ever made another class, 
 that he had intended should do all the work and 
 none of the eating, he would have made them with 
 out mouths and with all hands. September, 1859. 
 
12 THE PRESIDENTS WORDS. 
 
 HIRED LABOR. 
 
 "IV /TY understanding of the hired laborer is this : 
 A young man finds himself of an age to be dis 
 missed from parental control ; he has for his capital 
 nothing, save two strong hands that God has given 
 him, a heart willing to labor, and a freedom to 
 choose the mode of his work and the manner of his 
 employer ; he has got no soil nor shop, and he 
 avails himself of the opportunity of hiring himself 
 to some man who has capital to pay him a fair 
 day s wages for a fair day s work. lie is benefited 
 by availing himself of that privilege. He works 
 industriously ; he behaves soberly ; and the result 
 of a year or two s labor is a surplus of capital. 
 Now he buys land on his own hook ; he settles, 
 marries, begets sons and daughters ; and, in course 
 of time, he too has enough capital to hire some new 
 beginner. September, 1859. 
 
 GOOD TEMPER. 
 
 T SHALL endeavor to take the ground I deem most 
 * just to the North, the South, the East, the West, 
 and the whole country. I take it, I hope, in good 
 temper, certainly with no malice towards any sec- 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 13 
 
 tion. 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. None would do more to pre 
 serve it ; but it may be necessary to put the foot 
 down firmly. February, 1862. 
 
 NA TURALIZA TION. 
 
 A S I understand the spirit of our institutions, it 
 is designed to promote the elevation of men. 
 I am therefore hostile to any thing that tends to their 
 debasement. It is well known that I deplore the 
 oppressed condition of the blacks ; and it would 
 therefore be very inconsistent for me to look with 
 approval upon any measure that infringes upon the 
 inalienable rights of white men, whether or not 
 they are born in another land, or speak a different 
 language from our own. May, 1859. 
 
 SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY 
 
 T ADMIT that the emigrant to Kansas and Ne- 
 * braska is competent to govern himself; but I 
 deny his right to govern any other person, with 
 out that person s consent. 
 
14 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 SENATOR OR PRESIDENT. 
 
 IV /TR. LINCOLN was urged by some of his 
 -* friends not to corner Douglas on the point of 
 unfriendly legislation," because he would surely 
 stand by his doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty, in 
 defiance of the Dred-Scott decision ; " and that," 
 said they, " will make him Senator." " That may 
 be," said Mr. Lincoln ; " but, if he takes that shoot, 
 he never can be President." June, 18.58. 
 
 IN INDEPENDENCE HALL. 
 
 the country be saved upon the basis of 
 liberty and equality, as set forth in the Decla 
 ration of Independence? 
 
 If it can, I will consider myself one of the hap 
 piest men in the world, if I can help to save it. If 
 it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be 
 truly awful. But, if this country cannot be saved 
 without giving up that principle, I was about to 
 say, I would rather be assassinated on this spot 
 than surrender it. ... I have said nothing but what 
 I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of 
 Almighty God, die by. February, 1861. 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 15 
 
 UTA H. 
 
 TT is very plain, the Judge evades the only ques- 
 tion the Republicans have ever pressed upon the 
 Democracy in regard to Utah. That question the 
 Judge well knew to be this : "If the people of 
 Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution, tol 
 erating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them 
 into the Union ? " 
 
 There is nothing in the United-States Constitu 
 tion or law against polygamy ; and why is it not a 
 part of the Judge s "sacred right of self-govern 
 ment " for the people to have it, or rather to keep 
 it, if they choose? These questions, so far as I 
 know, the Judge never answers. It might involve 
 the Democracy to answer them either way, and 
 they go unanswered. June, 1857. 
 
 THE DECLARATION A WRECK. 
 
 T ET us hear Judge Douglas s view of that part 
 *- - of the Declaration of Independence, which 
 declares that " all men are created equal." Here it 
 is : " No man can vindicate the character, motives, 
 and conduct of the signers of the Declaration of In- 
 
1 6 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 dependence, except upon the hypothesis that they 
 referred to the white race alone, and not to the 
 African, when they declared all men to have been 
 created equal ; that they were speaking of British 
 subjects on this continent, being equal to British 
 subjects born and residing in Great Britain." . . . 
 My good friends, read that carefully over, some 
 leisure hour, and ponder well upon it : see what a 
 mere wreck, mangled ruin, it makes of our once- 
 glorious Declaration of Independence. ... I had 
 thought the Declaration promised something better 
 than the condition of British subjects ; but, no : it 
 only meant that we should be equal to them in their 
 own oppressed and unequal condition. According 
 to that, it gave no promise, that, having kicked oft 
 the king and lords of Great Britain, we should not 
 at once be saddled with a king and lords of our 
 own. ... I understand, you are preparing to cele 
 brate the "Fourth" to-morrow week. . . . Suppose, 
 after you read the Declaration once, in the old-fash 
 ioned way, you read it once more, with Judge 
 Douglas s version. It will run thus : " We hold 
 these truths to be self-evident, that all British sub 
 jects who were on this continent eighty-one years 
 ago were created equal to all British subjects born 
 and then residing in Great Britain. June, 1857. 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 
 
 PA T I E NT. 
 
 THHERE is one other thing I will say to you, in 
 -* this relation. It is but my opinion : I give it 
 to you without a fee. It is my opinion, that it is 
 for you to take him, or be defeated ; and that, if 
 you do take him, you may be defeated. You will 
 merely be beaten if you do not take him. We, the 
 Republicans, and others forming the opposition of 
 the country, intend to " stand by our guns," to be 
 patient and firm, and, in the long-run, to beat you, 
 whether you take him. or not. We know, that, be 
 fore we fairly beat you, we have to beat you both 
 together. We know that you are " all of a fea 
 ther," and that we have to beat you all together ; 
 and we expect to do it. We don t intend to be very 
 impatient about it. We mean to be as deliberate 
 and calm about it as it is possible to be, but as 
 firm and resolved as it is possible for men to be. 
 August, 1858. 
 
 HOW DID THE FATHERS ACT? 
 
 T SEE, in the Judge s speech here, a short sen- 
 
 tence in these words : " Our fathers, when they 
 
 formed this government under which we live, un~ 
 
i8 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 dcrstood this question just as well, and better, than 
 we do now." That is true ; I stick to that. I will 
 stand by Judge Douglas in that to the bitter end. 
 
 And now, Judge Douglas, come and stand by me, 
 and truthfully show how they afted, understanding 
 it better than we do. All I ask of you, Judge 
 Douglas, is to stick to the proposition, that the men 
 of the Revolution understood this subject better than 
 we do now ; and, ivith that better understanding, 
 they adcd better than you are trying to acl now. 
 September, 1859. 
 
 BONE OF CONTENTION. 
 
 TT is proposed, and carried, to blot out the old 
 dividing line of thirty-four years standing, and 
 to open the whole of that country to the introduc 
 tion of slavery. Now this, to my mind, is manifestly 
 unjust. After an angry and dangerous controversy, 
 the parties made friends by dividing the bone of 
 contention. The one party first appropriates her 
 own share, beyond all power to be disturbed in the 
 possession of it, and then seizes the share of the 
 other party. It is as if two starving men had 
 divided their only loaf; the one had hastily swal 
 lowed his half, and then grabbed the other s half 
 just as he was putting it to his mouth. Oclobcr, 
 1854. 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 
 
 NO MAN IS GOOD ENOUGH TO GOVERN 
 ANOTHER MAN, WITHOUT THAT MAN S 
 CONSENT. 
 
 "OUT one argument in the support of the repeal 
 of the Missouri Compromise is still to come. 
 That argument is " the sacred right of self-govern 
 ment." It seems our distinguished Senator has 
 found great difficulty in getting his antagonists, even 
 in the Senate, to meet him fairly on this argument. 
 Some poet has said, " Fools rush in where angels 
 fear to tread." 
 
 At the hazard of being thought one of the fools 
 of this quotation, I meet that argument, I rush in, 
 I take that bull by the horns. ... I say that, 
 that no man is good enough to govern another man 
 without that other s consent. I say, this is the lead 
 ing principle, the sheet-anchor of American Repub 
 licanism. Our Declaration of Independence says : 
 "That, to secure these rights, governments are insti 
 tuted among men, DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS 
 
 FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED." Now, 
 
 the relation of master and slave is, pro tanto, a total 
 violation of their principle. The master not only 
 governs the slave without his consent, but he gov 
 erns him by a set of rules altogether different from 
 
20 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 those which he prescribes for himself. Allow ALL 
 the governed an equal voice in the government ; and 
 that, and that only, is self-government. ... If it is 
 a sacred right for the people of Nebraska to take 
 and hold slaves there, it is equally their sacred right 
 to buy them where they can buy them cheapest ; 
 and that, undoubtedly, will be on the coast of 
 Africa, provided you will consent not to hang them 
 for going there to buy them. . . . He (the African 
 slave-dealer) honestly buys them at the rate of 
 about a red cotton handkerchief a head. This is 
 very cheap ; and it is a great abridgment of the 
 " sacred right of self-government" to hang men 
 for engaging in this profitable trade. Ottober, 
 1854. 
 
 MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 , sir, for the purpose of obtaining the very 
 best evidence as to whether Texas had actually 
 carried her revolution to the place where the hostili 
 ties of the present war commenced, let the Presi 
 dent answer the interrogatories I proposed. Let 
 him answer fully, fairly, and candidly. Let him 
 answer withj^^, not arguments. Let him remem 
 ber he sits where Washington sat ; and, so remem- 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 21 
 
 bering, let him answer as Washington would answer. 
 As a nation should not, and the Almighty will not, 
 be evaded, so let him attempt no evasion, no equivo 
 cation. . . . But, if he can not or will not do this ; 
 if, on any pretence or no pretence, he shall refuse or 
 omit it, then I shall he fully convinced of what I 
 more than suspect already, that he is deeply con 
 scious of being in the wrong ; that he feels the blood 
 of this war, like the blood of Abel, is crying to 
 heaven against him ; that he ordered General Tay 
 lor into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement 
 purposely to bring on a war ; . . . and, trusting to 
 escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the 
 exceeding brightness of military glory, that attrac 
 tive rainbow that rises in showers of blood ; that 
 serpent s eye, that charms to destroy, he plunged 
 into it, and has swept on and on, till, disappointed 
 in his calculation of the ease with which Mexico 
 might be subdued, he now finds himself, he knows 
 not where. 
 
 MR. FOLK S FEVER-DREAM. 
 
 T TOW like the half-insane mumbling of a fever- 
 
 dream is the whole war-part of the late 
 
 message ! at one time, telling us that Mexico has 
 
 nothing whatever that we can get but territory ; at 
 
22 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 another, showing us how we can support the war by 
 levying contributions on Mexico. ... As I have 
 before said, he knows not where he is. 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 ! 
 
 JOHN BROWN. 
 
 JOHN BROWN S effort was peculiar. It was 
 an attempt by white men to get up a revolt 
 among slaves, in which the slaves refused to partici 
 pate. In fact, it was so absurd, that the slaves, with 
 all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could 
 not succeed. . . . An enthusiast broods over the 
 oppression of a people till he fancies himself com 
 missioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures 
 the attempt, which ends in little else than in his own 
 execution. Orsini s attempt on Louis Napoleon, 
 and John Brown s attempt at Harper s Ferry, were, 
 in their philosophy, precisely the same. The eager 
 ness to cast blame on Old England in the one case, 
 and on New England in the other, does not dis 
 prove the sameness of the two things. Febru 
 ary, 1860. 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 23 
 
 COOL! 
 
 ~D UT you will not abide the election of a Repub- 
 ~^"^ lican President. In that supposed event, you 
 say, you will destroy the Union ; and then, you say, 
 the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon 
 us. 
 
 That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to 
 my ear, and mutters through his teeth, " Stand and 
 deliver, or I shall kill you ; and then you will be a 
 murderer ! " To be sure, what the robber demanded 
 of me my money was my own, and I had a 
 clear right to keep it : but it was no more my own 
 than my vote is my own ; and the threat of death to 
 me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruc 
 tion to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be 
 distinguished in principle. February, 1860. 
 
 WHAT WILL SATISFT THEM? 
 
 TT is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this 
 great confederacy shall be at peace, and in har 
 mony one with another. Let us Republicans do 
 our part to have it so. Even though much pro 
 voked, let us do nothing through passion and ill- 
 
24 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 temper. Even though the Southern people will not 
 so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their 
 demands, and yield to them, if, in our deliberate 
 view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all 
 they say and do, and by the subject and nature of 
 their controversy with us, let us determine, if we 
 can, what will satisfy them. February, 1860. 
 
 INSURRECTIONS. 
 
 "VT OU charge that we stir up insurrections among 
 your slaves. We deny it ; and what is your 
 proof ? Harper s Ferry ! John Brown ! John 
 Brown was no Republican ; and you have failed to 
 implicate a single Republican in his Harper s Ferry 
 enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty 
 in that matter, you know it, or you do not know it. 
 If you do know it, you are inexcusable to not desig 
 nate the man, and prove the fact. If you do not 
 (know it, you are inexcusable to assert it, and espe 
 cially to persist in the assertion after you have tried 
 and failed to make the proof. You need not be 
 told, that persisting in a charge which one does not 
 know to be true, is simply malicious slander. 
 February, 1860. 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 2$ 
 
 THE CRISIS WAS ARTIFICIAL. 
 
 WHAT, then, is the matter with them (the 
 South)? Why all this excitement? Why 
 all these complaints ? As I said before, this crisis 
 is all artificial. It has no foundation in fact. It 
 was not " argued up," as the saying is, and cannot 
 therefore be argued down. Let it alone, and it 
 will go down of iteelf. February, iS)i. 
 
 POLICT OF THE FATHERS. 
 
 "\7"OU say we have made the slavery question 
 more prominent than it formerly was. We 
 deny it. We admit that it is more prominent ; but 
 we deny that we made it so. It was not we, but 
 you, who discarded the old policy of the fathers. 
 We resisted, and still resist, your innovation ; and 
 thence comes the greater prominence of the ques 
 tion. Would you have that question reduced to its 
 former proportions? Go back to that old policy. 
 What has been will be again, under the same con 
 ditions. If you would have the peace of the old 
 times, re-adopt the precepts and policy of the old 
 times. February, 1860. 
 
26 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 U N I O N". 
 
 IpHYSICALLY speaking, we cannot separate. 
 We cannot remove our respective sections 
 from each other, and build an impassable wall be 
 tween them. A husband and wife may be divorced, 
 and go out of the presence and beyond the reach 
 of each other ; but the different parts of our country 
 cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to 
 face ; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, 
 must continue between them. March, 1861. 
 
 CONTRACTS. 
 
 TF the United States be not a Government proper, 
 A but an association of States in the nature of 
 contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably 
 unmade by less than all the parties who made it? 
 One party to a contract may violate it, break it, so 
 to speak ; but does it not require all to lawfully 
 rescind it? March, 1861. 
 
 TWO HEADS OR ONE. 
 
 TT has been said that one bad general is better 
 
 than two good ones ; and the saying is true, if 
 
 taken to mean no more than that an army is better 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 
 
 directed by a single mind, though inferior, than by 
 two superior ones at variance and cross-purposes 
 with each other. December, 1861. 
 
 KEEP COOL. 
 
 "JV/TY countrymen, and all, think calmly and well 
 upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable 
 can be lost by taking time. If there be an object 
 to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which 
 you would never take deliberately, that object will 
 be frustrated by taking time ; but no good object 
 can be frustrated by it. March, 1861. 
 
 NOT FOR US IS AGAINST US. 
 
 r T~^HE good old maxims of the Bible are appli- 
 cable, and truly applicable, to human affairs ; 
 and in this, as in many other things, we may say 
 here, that " he who is not for us is against us." 
 " He who gathereth not with us, scattereth." 
 
 I should be glad to have some of the many good 
 and able and noble men of the South, to place 
 themselves where we can confer upon them . the 
 high honor of an election, upon one or other end of 
 our ticket. It would do my soul good to do that 
 
28 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 thing. It would enable us to teach them, that, inas 
 much as we select one of their own number to carry 
 out their principles, we are free from the charge, 
 that we mean more than we say. September, 
 
 THE ISSUE IS WITH THE SOUTH. 
 
 TN your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
 and not in mine, is the momentous issue of 
 civil war. The Government will not assail you. 
 You can have no conflict, without being yourselves 
 the aggressors. Tou have no oath, registered in 
 heaven, to destroy the Government ; while I shall 
 have the most solemn one to " preserve, protect, 
 and defend it." March, 1861. 
 
 COERCION AND INVASION. 
 
 "OUT 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 are 
 habitually violated, would any, or all these things, 
 be " invasion " or " coercion " ? Do our professed 
 lovers of the Union, but who spitefully resolve that 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 2 
 
 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 ideas of means to preserve the object of 
 their affections would seem exceedingly thin and 
 airy. If sick, the little pills of the homoeopathists 
 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 a sort of " free- 
 love" arrangement, to be maintained only on "pas 
 sional attraction." February, 1861. 
 
 THE RULE OF THE MINORITY IS AN ARCH T 
 
 OR DESPOTISM. 
 
 |_)L AINLY the central idea of secession is the 
 essence of anarchy. A majority, held in re 
 straint by constitutional checks and limitations, and 
 always changing easily with deliberate changes of 
 popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true 
 sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, 
 does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. 
 Unanimity is impossible ; the rule of a minority, as 
 a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible ; 
 so that, rejecting the majority s principle, anarchy 
 and despotism, in some form, is all that is left. 
 March 4, 1861. 
 
30 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 THE OBLIGATION. 
 
 A LL members of Congress swear their support 
 to the whole Constitution, to this provision 
 as well as any other. To this proposition, then, 
 that slaves, whose cases come within the terms of 
 this clause, " shall be delivered up," their oaths are 
 unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort, 
 in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal 
 unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of 
 which to kccpg-ood that unanimous oath? March, 
 1861. 
 
 HOW SHOULD IT BE KEPT? 
 
 * I "HERE is some difference of opinion, whether 
 this clause should be enforced by National or 
 by State authority ; but, surely, that difference is not 
 a very material one. If the slave is to be surren 
 dered, it can be of but little consequence to him, 
 or to others, by which authority it is done. And 
 should any one, in any case, be content that his 
 oath shall go imkept, on a merely unsubstantial 
 controversy as to hoiv it shall be kept? Afarch, 
 rS6i. 
 
A 
 
 POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 3! 
 
 LIBERT TS SAVING CLAUSE. 
 
 GAIN, in any law upon this subject, ought not 
 all the safeguards of liberty, known in civil 
 ized and human jurisprudence, to be introduced, so 
 that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as 
 a slave f And might it not be well, at the same 
 time, to provide by law for the enforcement of that 
 clause in the Constitution which guarantees, that 
 " the citizens of each State shall be entitled to 
 all the privileges and immunities of citizens in 
 the several States" March, 1861. 
 
 TO THE LAWS AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 T TAKE the official oath, to-day, with no mental 
 reservations, and with no purpose to construe 
 the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules. 
 And, while I do not choose now to specify partic 
 ular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, 
 I do suggest, that it will be much safer for all, both 
 in official and private stations, to conform to and 
 abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, 
 than to violate any of them, trusting to find impu 
 nity in having them held to be unconstitutional. 
 March, 1861. 
 
32 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 ARE THE DECISIONS IN THE SUPREME 
 COURT IRREVOCABLE? 
 
 "XT 7HILE it is obviously possible that a decision 
 in the Supreme Court may be erroneous in 
 any given case, still the evil effect following it, 
 being limited to that particular case, with the chance 
 that it may be overruled, and never become a pre 
 cedent for other cases, can better be borne than 
 could the evils of a different practice. At the same 
 time, the candid citizen must confess, that, if the 
 policy of the Government upon vital questions af 
 fecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed 
 by decisions of the SUPREME COURT, the instant 
 they are made in ordinary litigation between parties 
 in personal actions, the people will have ceased to 
 be their own rulers ; having, to that extent, practi 
 cally resigned their government into the hands of 
 that eminent tribunal. March, 1861. 
 
 NO COMPROMISE. 
 
 T WILL suffer death before I will consent, or ad 
 vise my friends to consent, to any concession or 
 compromise which looks like buying the privilege 
 of taking possession of the Government, to which 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 33 
 
 we have a constitutional right ; because, whatever I 
 might think of the merit of the various propositions 
 before Congress, I should regard any concession, in 
 the face of menace, as the destruction of the Gov 
 ernment itself, and a consent, on all hands, that our 
 system shall be brought down to a level with the 
 existing disorganized state of affairs in Mexico. 
 But this thing will hereafter be, as it is now, in the 
 hands of the people ; and if they desire to call a 
 convention to remove any grievances complained 
 of, or to give new guarantees for the permanence of 
 vested rights, it is not mine to oppose. January, 
 1861. ^ 
 
 FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 
 
 F AM loath to close. We are not enemies, but 
 
 friends. We must not be enemies. Though 
 
 passion may have strained, it must not break our 
 
 bonds of affection. THE MYSTIC CHORDS OF 
 
 MEMORY. STRETCHING FROM EVERY BATTLE-FIELD 
 AND PATRIOT GRAVE TO EVERY LIVING HEART 
 AND HEARTH-STONE ALL OVER THIS BROAD LAND, 
 WILL YET SWELL THE CHORUS OF THE UNION, 
 WHEN AGAIN TOUCHED, AS SURELY THEY WILL 
 BE, BY THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE. 
 
 March, 1861. 
 
 2* C 
 
34 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 READ FOR THEMSELVES. 
 
 TVTOT having as yet seen occasion to change, it 
 is now my purpose to pursue the course 
 marked out in the Inaugural Address. I commend 
 a careful consideration of the whole document, as 
 the best expression I can give of my purposes. 
 As I then and therein said, I now repeat. April, 
 1861. 
 
 STANTON AND McCLELLAN. 
 
 T^ELI^OW-CITIZENS, I believe there is no 
 precedent for my appearing before you on this 
 occasion ; but it is also true, that there is no prece 
 dent for your being here yourselves ; and I offer, in 
 justification of myself and of you, that, upon exam 
 ination, I have found nothing in the Constitution 
 against it. . . . General McClellan s attitude is such 
 that, in the very selfishness of his nature, he cannot 
 but wish to be successful, and I hope he will; 
 and the Secretary of War is in precisely the same 
 situation. . . . General McClellan has sometimes 
 asked for things that the Secretary of War did not 
 give him. General McClellan is not to blame for 
 asking what he wanted and needed ; and the See- 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 35 
 
 retary of War is not to blame for not giving when 
 he had none to give. August, 1862. 
 
 GOD S REVELATIONS. 
 
 r I " HE subject presented in the memorial is one 
 upon which I have thought much for weeks 
 past, and I may even say for months. I am ap 
 proached with the most opposite opinions and 
 advice, and that by religious men, who are equally 
 certain that they represent the divine will. I am 
 sure that either the one or .the other class is mis 
 taken in that belief, and perhaps, in some respect, 
 both. I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say, 
 that if it is probable that God would reveal his will 
 to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it 
 might be supposed he would reveal it directly to 
 me ; for, unless I am more deceived in myself than 
 I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will 
 of Providence in this matter. And, if I can learn 
 ivhat it is, I will do it. These are not, however, 
 the days of miracles ; and I suppose it will be 
 granted, that I am not to expect a direct revelation. 
 I must study the plain, physical fa d l s of the case, 
 ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears 
 to be wise and right. Sept. 13, 1862. 
 
HOW WILL THE BORDER STATES FEEL 
 ABOUT THE PROCLAMATION OF EMAN 
 CIPATION ? 
 
 T WILL mention another thing, though it meet 
 only your scorn and contempt. There are fifty 
 thousand bayonets in the Union army from the Bor 
 der Slave States. It would be a serious matter, if, 
 in consequence of a proclamation such as you de 
 sire, they should go over to the rebels. I do not 
 think they all would, not so many as a year ago, 
 or as six months ago, not so many to-day as yes 
 terday. Every day increases their Union feeling. 
 They are also getting their pride enlisted, and want 
 to beat the rebels. Let me say one thing more : I 
 think you should admit that we have already an im 
 portant principle, to rally and unite the people on, 
 in the fact that Constitutional government is at 
 stake. This is a fundamental idea, going down as 
 deep as any thing. September, 1862. 
 
 IFS AND BUTS. 
 
 r I "HE man who stands by and says nothing, when 
 the peril of his Government is discussed, can 
 not be misunderstood. If not hindered, he is sure to 
 

 POLITICAL SYSTEMyf. 37 
 
 help the enemy ; much more j if lie talks ambiguous 
 ly, talks for his country with Jfbuts " and " ifs " and 
 " ands." . . . Those now occupying the very highest 
 places in the rebel war service were all within the 
 power of the Government since the rebellion began, 
 and were nearly as well kjiown to be traitors then 
 as now. Unquestionably, if we had seized and 
 held them, the insurgent cause would be much 
 weaker. But no one of them had then committed 
 any crime defined in the law. Every one of them, 
 if arrested, would have been discharged on habeas 
 corpus, were the writ allowed to operate. In view 
 of these and similar cases, I think the time not un 
 likely to come when I shall be blamed for having 
 made too few arrests, rather than too many. June, 
 1863. ^ 
 
 VALLANDIGHAM. 
 
 experience has shown, that armies cannot 
 be maintained unless desertions shall be pun 
 ished by the severe penalty of death. The case re 
 quires, and the Law and the Constitution sanction, 
 this punishment. Must I shoot a simple-minded 
 soldier-boy who deserts, while I must not touch a 
 hair of the wily agitator who induces him to 
 desert? July, 1862. 
 
38 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 MILITARY ELECTIONS. 
 EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 1862. 
 T^VEAR SIR, Dr. Kennedy, bearer of this, has 
 "^^^ some apprehension that Federal officers, not 
 citizens of Louisiana, may be set up as candidates 
 for Congress in that State. In my view, there could 
 be no possible object in such an election. . . . To 
 send a parcel of Northern men here as representa 
 tives, elected, as would be understood (and perhaps 
 really so), at the point of the bayonet, would be 
 disgraceful and outrageous ; and, were I a member 
 of Congress here, I would vote against admitting 
 any such man to a seat. 
 
 Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN. 
 
 Hon. G. F. SHEPLEY. 
 
 MISSOURI RADICALS. 
 
 TTT ROM time to time, I have done and said what 
 appeared to me proper to do and say. The 
 public knows it well. It obliges nobody to follow 
 me ; and, I trust, it obliges me to follow nobody. 
 The Radicals and Conservatives each agree with me 
 in some things, and disagree in others. I could 
 wish both to agree with me in all things ; for then 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 39 
 
 they would agree with each other, and would be 
 too strong for any foe from any quarter. They, 
 however, choose to do otherwise ; and I do not 
 question their right. I, too, shall do what seems to 
 be my duty. ... It is my duty to hear all ; but at 
 last I must, within my sphere, judge what to do 
 and what to forbear. Ottober, 1863. 
 
 HABEAS CORPUS. 
 
 THHE public safety renders it necessary that the 
 grounds of these arrests should at present be 
 withheld ; but at the proper time they will be made 
 public. ... In no case has an arrest been made on 
 mere suspicion, or through personal or partisan 
 animosities ; but, in all cases, the Government is in 
 possession of tangible and unmistakable evidence, 
 which will, when made public, be satisfactory to 
 every loyal citizen. 
 
 THE FOUR SIDES. 
 
 / THHE dissensions between Union men in Mis- 
 
 souri are due solely to a factious spirit which 
 
 is exceedingly reprehensible. The two parties 
 
 ought to have their heads knocked together. Either 
 
4-O THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 would rather see the defeat of their adversary than 
 that of Jefferson Davis. 
 
 We are in civil war. In such cases there al 
 ways is a main question ; but, in this case, that 
 question is a perplexing compound, Union and 
 slavery. It becomes a question, not of two sides 
 merely, but of at least four sides, even among 
 those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those 
 who are against it. Thus, those who are for the 
 Union with, but not without, slavery ; those for it 
 without, but not with ; those for it with or without, 
 but prefer it with; and those for it with or with 
 out, but prefer it without. May, 1863. 
 
 FREMONT, BUTLER, AND SIGEL. 
 
 TN reply to a delegation, the President said, that it 
 may be a misfortune for the nation that he was 
 elected President. But, having been elected by the 
 people, he meant to be President, and perform his 
 duty according to his best understanding, if he had 
 to die for it. ... It was a mistake to suppose, 
 that Generals Fremont, Butler, and Sigel were 
 " systematically kept out of command : " on the con 
 trary, he fully appreciated their merits. By their 
 own aclions they had placed themselves in the posi- 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 4! 
 
 tions they occupied. He was not only willing, but 
 anxious, to place them again in command, as soon 
 as he could find spheres of action for them without 
 doing injustice to others ; but that, at present, he 
 "had more pegs than holes to put them in." 
 1863. ^ 
 
 REMOVAL OF GENERAL CURTIS. 
 
 "X/ OUR despatch of to-day is just received. It 
 is very painful to me that you, in Missouri, 
 cannot, or will not, settle your factional quarrel 
 among yourselves. I have been tormented with it 
 beyond endurance, for months, by both sides. 
 Neither side pays the least respect to my appeals 
 to your reason. I am now compelled to take hold 
 of the case. March, 1863. 
 
 THREE WATS TO MAKE PEACE. 
 
 THO those who are dissatisfied with me, I would 
 say, You desired peace, and you blame me 
 that we do not have it. But how can we attain it? 
 There are but three conceivable ways : First, to 
 suppress the rebellion by force of arms. This I 
 am trying to do. Are you for it? If you are, so far 
 
42 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 we are agreed. If you are not for it, a second way 
 is to give up the Union. I am against this. Are 
 you for it ? If you are, you should say so plainly. 
 If you are not for force, nor yet for dissolution, 
 there only remains some imaginable compromise. 
 August, 1863. 
 
 TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. 
 
 ET your military measures be strong enough to 
 ~ L - repel the invaders and keep the peace, and 
 not so strong as to unnecessarily harass and perse 
 cute the people. It is a difficult role ; and so much 
 greater will be the honor, if you perform it well. 
 If both factions, or neither, shall abuse you, you 
 will probably be about right. Beware of being 
 assailed by one, and praised by the other. May, 
 
 1863. 
 
 Allow no part of the military under your com 
 mand to be engaged in either returning fugitive 
 slaves, or in forcing or enticing slaves from their 
 homes ; and, so far as is practicable, enforce the 
 same forbearance upon the people. 
 
 Allow no one to enlist colored troops, except 
 upon orders from you, or from here through you. 
 
 Allow no one to assume the functions of confis- 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 43 
 
 eating property, under the law of Congress, or 
 otherwise, except upon orders from here. 
 
 At elections, see that those, and only those, are 
 allowed to vote, who are entitled to do so by the 
 laws of Missouri. O&obcr, 1863. 
 
 DR. McPIIEETERS. 
 
 T HAVE never interfered, nor thought of inter- 
 fering, as to who shall or shall not preach in 
 any church ; nor have I knowingly or believingly 
 tolerated any one else to interfere by my authority. 
 ... If, after all, what is now sought is to have me 
 put Dr. Me. back over the heads of a majority of 
 his own congregation, that too will be declined. I 
 will not have control of any church or any side. 
 December, 1863. 
 
 COMPROMISE. 
 
 T DO not believe that any compromise, embracing 
 the maintenance of the Union, is now possible. 
 All that I learn tends to a directly opposite belief. 
 The strength of the rebellion is its military, its 
 army. In any compromise, we should waste time, 
 which the enemy would improve to our disadvan 
 tage ; and that would be all. August, 1863. 
 
44 
 
 FOURTH OF JULT, 1863. 
 
 pELLOW-CITIZENS, I am very glad in- 
 deed to see you to-night, and yet I will not 
 say I thank you for this call ; but I do most sincerely 
 thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you 
 have called. How long ago is it? Eighty-odd years 
 since, on the Fourth of July, for the first time in the 
 history of the world, a nation by its representatives 
 assembled, and declared as a self-evident truth 
 " that all men are created equal." That was the 
 birthday of the United States of America. Since 
 then, the Fourth of July has had several very pecu 
 liar recognitions. The two men most distinguished 
 in the framing and support of the Declaration were 
 Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the one hav 
 ing penned it, and the other sustained it most forci 
 bly in debate, the only two of the fifty-five who 
 signed it, and were elected Presidents of the United 
 States. Precisely fifty years after they put their 
 hands to the paper, it pleased Almighty God to 
 tal:e both from this stage of action. This was in 
 deed an extraordinary and remarkable event in our 
 history. 
 
 Another President, five years later, was. called 
 from this stage of existence, on the same day and 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 45 
 
 month of the year ; and now, on this last Fourth 
 of July, just passed, when we have a gigantic rebel 
 lion, at the bottom of which is an effort to over 
 throw the principle that all men were created equal, 
 we have the surrender of a most powerful position 
 and army on that very day. And not only so, but 
 in a succession of battles in Pennsylvania, near to 
 us, through three days, so rapidly fought that they 
 might be called one great battle, on the first, second, 
 and third of the month of July ; and, on the fourth, 
 the cohorts of those who opposed the Declaration 
 that " all men are created equal," turned tail and 
 ran. July, 1863. 
 
 THE WAR PO WER THE ONL T RECON- 
 S TR UC TIONIS T. 
 
 TN the midst of other cases, however important, 
 we must not lose sight of the fact, that the war 
 power is still our main reliance. To that power 
 alone we can look, yet for a time, to give confidence 
 to the people, in the contested regions, that the in 
 surgent power will not again overrun them. Until 
 that confidence shall be established, little can be 
 done anywhere for what is called reconstrziftion. 
 
46 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 Hence our chiefest care must still be directed to the 
 army and navy, who have, thus far, borne their 
 harder part so nobly and well. And it may be 
 esteemed fortunate, that, in giving the greatest effi 
 ciency to these indispensable arms, we do also 
 honorably recognize the gallant men, from com 
 mander to sentinel, who compose them, and to 
 whom, more than to others, the world must stand 
 indebted for the home of freedom, disenthralled, 
 regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated. Decem 
 ber, 1863. 
 
 w 
 
 RIGHT. 
 
 HEN the time comes, I shall take the ground 
 that I think is right, right for the North, 
 for the South, for the East, for the West, for the 
 whole country. And, in doing so, I hope to feel no 
 necessity pressing upon me to say any thing in con 
 flict with the Constitution ; in conflict with the 
 Union of these States ; in conflict with the perpetu 
 ation of the liberties of this people, or any thing 
 in conflict with any thing whatever that I have ever 
 given you reason to expect from me. And now, 
 my friends, have I said enough? (Cries of "No, 
 no," and " Three cheers for Lincoln.") Now, my 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 47 
 
 friends, there appears to be a difference of opinion 
 between you and me ; and I really feel called upon 
 to decide the question myself. February, 1863. 
 
 THE DRAFT. 
 
 ~\\ 7E are contending with an enemy, who, as I 
 understand, drives every able-bodied man he 
 can reach into his ranks, very much as a butcher 
 drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. No time is 
 wasted, no argument is used. ... I do not object to 
 abide a decision of the United-States Supreme 
 Court, or of the judges thereof, on the constitution 
 ality of the draft-law. In fact, I should be willing 
 to facilitate the obtaining of it. But I cannot con 
 sent to lose the time while it is being obtained. 
 August, 1863. 
 
 RE-NOMINA TION. 
 Don t Swap Horses while Crossing the River. 
 
 T AM not insensible at all to the personal compli 
 ment there is in this ; and yet I do not allow 
 
 myself to believe, that any but a small portion of it 
 
 is to be appropriated as a personal compliment. . . . 
 
 The part I am entitled to appropriate as a compli- 
 
48 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 ment is only that part which I may lay hold of as 
 being the opinion of the Convention and the 
 League, that I am not entirely unworthy to be in 
 trusted with the place which I have occupied for 
 the last three years. But I do not allow myself to 
 suppose, that either the Convention or the League 
 have concluded to decide that I am either the great 
 est or best man in America ; but rather they have 
 concluded, that it is not best to swap horses while 
 crossing the river ; and have further concluded, 
 that I am not so poor a horse, that they might 
 not make a botch of it in trying to swap. June, 
 1864. 
 
 TO WHOM IT MAT CONCERN. 
 
 A NY proposition which embraces the restora- 
 tion of peace, the integrity of the whole 
 Union, and the abandonment of Slavery, and which 
 comes by and with an authority that can control the 
 armies now at war against the United States, will 
 be received and considered by the Executive Gov 
 ernment of the United States, and will be met by 
 liberal terms on other substantial and collateral 
 points ; and the bearer or bearers thereof shall have 
 safe conduct both ways. July, 1864. 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 49 
 
 SUCCESS OF GRANT BETTER THAN BAL 
 TIMORE CONVENTIONS. 
 
 / "T^HE hardest of all speeches I have to answer 
 is a serenade. I never know what to say on 
 such occasions. I suppose you have done me this 
 kindness in connection with the action of the Balti 
 more Convention, which has recently taken place, 
 and with which, of course, I am very well satisfied. 
 What we want, still more than Baltimore Conven 
 tions or Presidential elections, is success under 
 General Grant. I propose that you constantly bear 
 in mind, that the support you owe to the brave offi 
 cers and soldiers in the field is of the very first im 
 portance ; and we should, therefore, bend all our 
 energies to that point. Now, without detaining 
 you any longer, I propose that you help me to close 
 up what I am now saying with three rousing 
 cheers for General Grant and the officers and sol 
 diers under his command. June, 1864. 
 
 WHICH LINE HE FIGHTS ON. 
 
 TT is a pertinent question, often asked in the mind 
 A privately, and from one to the other, When is 
 the war to end? Surely I feel as deep an interest 
 3 D 
 
50 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 in this question as any other can ; but I do not wish 
 to name a day, a month, or a year, when it is to 
 end. . . . We accepted this war for an object, a 
 worthy object ; and the war will end when that 
 object is attained. Under God, I hope it never will 
 end until that time. Speaking of the present cam 
 paign, General Grant is reported to have said, " I 
 am going through on this line, if it takes all sum 
 mer." This war has taken three years ; it was be 
 gun, or accepted, upon the line of restoring the 
 national authority over the whole national domain ; 
 and for the American people, as far as my knowl 
 edge enables me to speak, I say, we are going 
 through on this line, if it takes three years more. 
 June, 1864. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 TT 7AS it possible to lose the nation, and yet pre- 
 * serve the Constitution ? By general law, 
 life and limb must be protected ; yet often a limb 
 must be amputated to save a life: but a life is 
 never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that mea 
 sures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become 
 lawful by becoming indispensable to the preserva 
 tion of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this 
 
POLITICAL SYSTEMS. 51 
 
 ground, and now avow it. I could not feel, that, to 
 the best of my ability, I had ever tried to preserve 
 the Constitution, if, to save slavery, or any minor 
 matter, I should permit the wreck of Government, 
 Country, and Constitution, altogether. April, 
 1864. 
 
 TAKE YOUR TIME. 
 
 ENTLEMEN, The general aspeft of your 
 movement I cordially approve. In regard to 
 particulars, I must ask time to deliberate, as the 
 work of amending the Constitution should not be 
 clone hastily. I will carefully examine your paper, 
 in order more fully to comprehend its contents than 
 is possible from merely hearing it read, and will 
 take such a6tion upon it as my responsibility to our 
 Maker and our country demands. January, 1864. 
 
 I 
 
 STRENGTH OF REPUBLICS. 
 
 S 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 ? 
 
 1861. 
 
 I 
 
52 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 OFFICIAL OATIL 
 
 A RE all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and 
 the Government itself go to pieces, but that 
 one be violated? Even in such a case, would not 
 the official oath be broken, if the Government 
 should be overthrown, when it was believed that 
 disregarding that single law would tend to preserve 
 it? July, 1861. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 
 
 KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. DRED-SCOTT DECISION. 
 
 THE REBELLION. 
 
 THE NEGRO. 
 
 r I " HERE will be some black men who can re- 
 member, that, with silent tongue and clenched 
 teeth and steady eye and well-poised bayonet, they 
 have helped mankind on to this great consumma 
 tion ; while, I fear, there will be some white ones 
 unable to forget, that, with malignant heart and 
 deceitful speech, they have striven to hinder it. 
 August, 1863. 
 
 NEBRASKA BILL. 
 
 r I ""HE Nebraska bill finds no model in any law, 
 from Adam till to-day. As Phillips says of 
 Napoleon, the Nebraska act is grand, gloomy, and 
 peculiar ; wrapped in the solitude of its own origi 
 nality, without a model, and without a shadow 
 upon the earth. Oftober, 1854. 
 
 [55] 
 
56 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 SLA VER T. 
 
 * I ^HE shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep s 
 throat, for which the sheep thanks the shep 
 herd as a liberator; while the wolf denounces him, 
 for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty, espe 
 cially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly, the 
 sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon the word 
 "liberty;" and precisely the same difference pre 
 vails to-day among us human creatures, even in the 
 North, and all professing to love liberty. April, 
 1864. 
 
 WHAT IS AND WHAT MAY BE. 
 
 \ S this subject is no other than part and parcel 
 * ^ of the larger question of domestic slavery, I 
 wish to make and to keep the distinction between 
 the existing institution, and the extension of it, so 
 broad and so clear that no honest man can misun 
 derstand me, and no dishonest one successfully mis 
 represent me. ... I have no prejudice against the 
 Southern people. They are just what we would 
 be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist 
 among them, they would not introduce it. If it did 
 now exist among us, we should not instantly give it 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 57 
 
 r.p. 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 existence. We know that some 
 Southern men do free their slaves, go North, and 
 become tip-top abolitionists ; while some Northern 
 men go South, and become most cruel slave-mas 
 ters. Ottobcr, 1854. 
 
 POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY 
 
 TF any man can show how the people of Kansas 
 have a better right to slaves because they want 
 them, than the people of Georgia have to buy them 
 in Africa, I want him to do it. I think it cannot be 
 done. If it is " Popular Sovereignty" for the peo 
 ple to have slaves because they want them, it is 
 " Popular Sovereignty " for them to buy them in 
 Africa because they desire to do so. September, 
 1859. t 
 
 FREE-STATE DEMOCRAT. 
 
 \ LLOW me to barely whisper my suspicion, 
 that there were no such things in Kansas as 
 u Free - State Democrats ; " that they were alto- 
 3* 
 
58 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 gether mythical, good only to figure in newspapers 
 and speeches in the Free States. If there should 
 prove to be one real, living Free-State Democrat in 
 Kansas, I suggest that it might be well to catch 
 him, and stuff and preserve his skin, as an interest 
 ing specimen of that soon-to-be-extincl: variety of 
 the genus Democrat. Jime, 1857. 
 
 HUNTER S PR O CLAMA TION. 
 
 T T 7HETHER it be competent for me, as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the army and navy, to 
 declare the slaves of any State or States free ; and 
 whether, at any time or in any case, it shall have 
 become a necessity indispensable to the mainten 
 ance of the government to exercise such supposed 
 power, are questions which, under my responsi 
 bility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel 
 justified in leaving to the decision of commanders 
 in the field. June, 1862. 
 
 EQUAL RIGHTS. 
 
 T AGREE with Judge Douglas, the negro is not 
 
 my equal in many respects, certainly not in 
 
 color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endow- 
 
SLAVERY AND AXTISLAVERY. 59 
 
 ments. But in the right to eat the bread, without 
 leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, 
 he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, 
 and the equal of every living man. Any thing 
 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 chestmit-horse. 
 September, 1859. 
 
 SACRED RIGHT OF SL AVERT. 
 
 HT^HE plain, unmistakable spirit of the fathers 
 of the Republic towards slavery was hostility 
 to the PRINCIPLE, and toleration ONLY BY NECES 
 SITY. 
 
 But now it is to be transformed into a " SACRJED 
 RIGHT." Nebraska brings it forth, places it on the 
 high road to extension and perpetuity ; and, with a 
 pat on its back, says to it, " Go, and God speed 
 you." Henceforth it is to be the chief jewel of the 
 nation, the very figure-head of the ship of State. 
 Little by little, but steadily as man s march to the 
 grave, we have been giving up the OLD for the NEW 
 faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declar 
 ing that " all men are created equal ; " but now, from 
 
60 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 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 cannot stand together. They are as 
 opposite as GOD and MAMMON ; and whoever holds 
 to the one, must despise the other. Ottober, 1854. 
 
 THE TREE OF GOOD AND EVIL. 
 
 TN the course of my main argument, Judge Doug- 
 las interrupted me to say, that the principle of 
 the Nebraska bill was very old ; that it originated 
 when God made man, and placed good and evil 
 before him, allowing him to choose for himself, 
 being responsible for the choice he should make. 
 At the time, I thought this was merely playful ; 
 and I answered it accordingly. But, in his reply to 
 me, he renewed it as a serious argument. In seri 
 ousness, then, the facts of this proposition are not 
 true, as stated. God did not place good and evil 
 before man, telling him to make his choice. On 
 the contrary, he did tell him there was one tree 
 of the fruit of which he should not eat, upon pain 
 of certain death. I should scarcely wish so strong 
 a prohibition against shivery in Nebraska. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 6 1 
 
 But this argument strikes me as not a little 
 remarkable in another particular, in its strong 
 resemblance to the old argument for the " divine 
 right of kings." By the latter, the king is to do 
 just as he pleases with his white subjects, being 
 responsible to God alone ; by the former, the white 
 man is to do just as he pleases with his black 
 slaves, being responsible to God alone. The two 
 things are precisely alike ; and it is but natural that 
 they should find similar arguments to sustain them. 
 O&ober, 1854. 
 
 SLA VE-DEALER. 
 
 "\/ OU have among you a sneaking individual 
 of the class of native tyrants known as the 
 SLAVE-DEALER. He watches your necessities, and 
 crawls up to buy your slave at a speculating price. 
 If you cannot help it, you sell to him ; but, if you 
 can help it, you drive him from your door. You 
 despise him utterly. You do not recognize him as 
 a friend, or even as an honest man. Your children 
 must not play with his ; they may rollic freely 
 with the little negroes, but not with the "slave- 
 dealer s " children. If you are obliged to deal with 
 him, you try to get through the job without so 
 
62 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 much as touching him. It is common with you to 
 join hands with the men you meet ; but with the 
 "slave-dealer" you avoid the ceremony, instinct 
 ively shrink from the snaky contact. If he grows 
 rich, and retires from business, you still remember 
 him, and still keep up the bar of non-intercourse 
 upon him and his family. Now, why is this ? You 
 do not so treat the man who deals in corn, cattle, 
 or tobacco. Odobcr, 1854. 
 
 HOGS AND NEGROES. 
 
 I^QUAL justice to the South, it is said, requires 
 ^-^ us to consent to the extension of slavery to 
 new countries. That is to say, inasmuch as you do 
 not object to my taking my hog to Nebraska, there 
 fore I must not object to your taking your slave. 
 Now, I admit this is perfectly logical, if there is no 
 difference between hogs and negroes. But, while 
 you thus require me to deny the humanity of the 
 negro, I wish to ask whether you of the South, 
 yourselves, have ever been willing to do as much? 
 ... In 1820 you joined the North, almost unani 
 mously, in declaring the African slave-trade piracy, 
 and in annexing to it the punishment of death. 
 Why did you do this? If you did not feel that it 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 63 
 
 was wrong, why did you join in providing that 
 men should be hung for it? The practice was no 
 more than bringing wild negroes from Africa to 
 sell to such as would buy them. But you never 
 thought of hanging men for catching and selling 
 wild horses, wild buffaloes, or wild bears. O&o- 
 bcr, 1854. 
 
 SELFISHNESS AND SL AVERT. 
 
 A RGUE as you will, and as long as you will, 
 ^*- this is the naked FRONT and ASPECT of the 
 measure ; and in this aspect it could not but pro 
 duce agitation. Slavery is founded in the selfish 
 ness of man s nature ; opposition to it, in his love 
 of justice. These principles are an eternal antagon 
 ism ; and when brought into collision, so fiercely as 
 slavery extension brings them, shocks, throes, and 
 convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the 
 Missouri Compromise ; repeal all compromise ; re 
 peal the Declaration of Independence ; repeal all 
 past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. 
 It still will be the abundance of man s heart, that 
 slavery extension is wrong ; and, out of the abun 
 dance of his heart, his mouth will continue to 
 speak. Ottober, 1854. 
 
64 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 LIBERTY OF ALL MEN. 
 
 T^ELLOW-COUNTRYMEN, Americans, South 
 as well as North, shall we make no effort to 
 arrest this [the extension of slavery] ? Already the 
 liberal party throughout the world express the ap 
 prehension, "that the one retrograde institution in 
 America is undermining the principles of progress, 
 and fatally violating the noblest political system the 
 world ever saw." This is not the taunt of enemies, 
 but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to dis 
 regard it, to despise it? Is there no danger to 
 liberty itself in discarding the earliest practice and 
 first precept of our ancient faith? In our greedy 
 chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware lest 
 "we cancel and tear to pieces" even the white 
 man s charter of freedom. Ottobcr, 1854. 
 
 BOWIE-KNIVES AND BALLOT-BOXES. 
 
 Yankees in the East are sending emi- 
 grants to Nebraska, 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 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 65 
 
 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 Mis 
 souri, 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. O&ober, 
 1854. 
 
 MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 
 
 OOME men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the re- 
 ^ peal of the Missouri Compromise, nevertheless 
 hesitate to go for its restoration, lest they be thrown 
 in company with the Abolitionists. Will they allow 
 me as an old Whig to tell them, good-humoredly, 
 that I think this is very silly? Stand with anybody 
 that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is 
 right, and PART with him when he goes WRONG^ 
 Stand WITH the Abolitionists in restoring the Mis 
 souri Compromise, and stand AGAINST him when 
 he attempts to repeal the fugitive-slave law. In the 
 latter case, you stand with the Southern disunionist. 
 What of that? You are still RIGHT. In both cases 
 
66 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 you are RIGHT. In both cases you oppose the dan 
 gerous extremes. In both you stand on middle 
 ground, and hold the ship level and steady. In 
 both you are national, and nothing less than national. 
 This is the good old WHIG ground. To desert such 
 ground because of ANY company is to be less than 
 a WHIG, less than a MAN, less than an AMERI 
 CAN. Oftober, 1854. 
 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 "\T THEN Mr. Pettit, in connection with his sup 
 port of the Nebraska bill, called the Declar 
 ation of Independence " a self-evident lie," he only 
 did what consistency and candor require all other 
 Nebraska men to do. Of the forty-odd Nebraska 
 senators wlio sat present and heard him, no one 
 rebuked him. ... If this had been said among 
 Marion s men, Southerners though they were, what 
 would have become of the man who said it? If 
 this had been said to the men who captured Andre", 
 the man who said it would probably have been 
 hung sooner than Andre was. If it had been said 
 in old Independence Hall, seventy-eight years ago, 
 the very doorkeeper would have throttled the man, 
 and thrust him into the street. O&ober, 1854. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 67 
 
 RIGHT AND NECESSITY. 
 
 republican robe is soiled, trailed in the 
 dust. Let us re-purify it. Let us turn and 
 wash it white, in the spirit, if not the blood, of the 
 Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of 
 "moral right" back upon its existing legal rights 
 and its arguments of " necessity." Let us return 
 it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it 
 rest in peace. Let us re-adopt the Declaration of 
 Independence, and with it the practices and policy 
 which harmonize with it. Let North and South, 
 let all Americans, Jet all lovers of liberty every 
 where, 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 and to keep 
 it for ever 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 generations. O8ober, 1854. 
 
 POOR WHITES. 
 
 "\ T 7HETHER slavery shall go into Nebraska or 
 
 other new Territories, is not a matter of 
 
 exclusive concern to the people who may go there. 
 
68 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 The whole nation is interested that the best use shall 
 be made of these Territories. We want them for 
 homes of free white people. This they cannot be, 
 if slavery shall be planted within them. Slave 
 States are places for poor white people to move 
 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. 
 
 . . . There are constitutional relations between the 
 Slave and the Free States which are degrading to 
 the latter. We are under legal obligations to catch 
 and return their runaway slaves to them, a sort 
 of dirty, disagreeable job, which, I believe, as a 
 general rule, the slaveholders will not perform for 
 one another. Odober, 1854. 
 
 THREE-FIFTHS VOTE. 
 
 A FTER showing that each white man in South 
 Carolina is more than the double of any man 
 in Maine, " Yet," he says . . . " I do not mention 
 this to complain of it. . . It is in the Constitution. . . 
 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 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 69 
 
 brought into the firm on the same degrading terms 
 against me, I respectfully demur. I insist that, 
 whether I shall be a whole man or only the half of 
 one, in comparison with others, is a question in 
 which I am somewhat concerned, and one which 
 no other man can have a * sacred right of deciding 
 for me. If I am wrong in this, if it really be 
 a sacred right of self-government in the man who 
 shall go to Nebraska to decide whether he will be 
 the EQUAL of me or the DOUBLE of me, then, after 
 he shall have exercised that right, and thereby shall 
 have reduced me to a still smaller fraction of a 
 man than I already am, I should like for some gen 
 tleman, deeply skilled in 4 sacred rights, to provide 
 himself with a microscope, and peep about and find 
 out, if he can, w r hat has become of my sacred 
 rights ! They will surely be too small for detec 
 tion with the naked eye." Odober, 1854. 
 
 NEW LIGHTS. 
 
 , with the author of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, did the policy of prohibiting slavery 
 in the Territories originate. . . . But now new light 
 breaks upon us. Now Congress declares this ought 
 never to have been, and the like of it must never be 
 
70 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 again. "The sacred right of self-government" is 
 grossly violated by it. We even find some men, 
 who drew their first breath and every other breath 
 of their lives under this very restriction, 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, they never thought of them 
 selves a year ago. How fortunate for them they 
 did not sooner become sensible of their great mis 
 ery ! Odober, 1854. 
 
 SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 TTiNALLY, I insist, that, if there is ANY THING 
 -*- 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 lib 
 erties 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 re 
 creant to themselves if they submit the question, 
 and with it the fate of their country, to a mere 
 handful of men, bent only on temporary self- 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 71 
 
 interest ! If this question of slavery extension 
 were an insignificant one, one having no power 
 to do harm, it might be shuffled aside in this 
 way ; but being, as it is, the great Behemoth of 
 danger, shall the strong grip of the nation be 
 loosened upon him, to intrust him to the hands 
 of such feeble keepers? 
 
 I have done with this mighty argument of " self- 
 government." 
 
 Go, SACRED THING ! Go in peace. Ottober, 
 1854. 
 
 EXTENSION OF SL AVERT. 
 
 T) UT Nebraska is urged as a great 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 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 one thing which 
 ever endangers the Union. ... It could not but be 
 
72 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 expected of its author, that it would be looked 
 upon as a measure for the extension of slavery, 
 aggravated by a gross breach of faith. 
 
 I object to it because the fathers of the republic 
 eschewed and rejected it. ... They found the insti 
 tution existing among us, which they could not 
 help, and they cast blame on the British king for 
 having permitted its introduction. BEFORE the 
 Constitution, they prohibited its introduction into 
 the North-western Territory, the only country we 
 owned then free from it. At the framing and 
 adoption of the Constitution, they forbore to so 
 much as mention the word " slave," or " slavery," 
 in the whole instrument. In the provision for the 
 recovery of fugitives, the slave is spoken of as a 
 
 " PERSON HELD TO SERVICE OR LABOR." . . . Thus 
 
 the thing is hid away in the Constitution, just as an 
 afflicted man hides away a wen or cancer, which 
 he dares not cut out at once lest he bleed to death ; 
 with the promise, nevertheless, that the cutting 
 may begin at the end of a certain time. LESS than 
 this our fathers COULD not do ; and MORE they 
 WOULD not do. . . . They hedged and hemmed it 
 in to the narrowest limits of necessity. October, 
 1854. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 73 
 
 GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. 
 
 TF all earthly power were given me, I should not 
 know what to do as to the existing institution. 
 My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, 
 and send them to Liberia, to their own native 
 land. . . . But, if they were all landed there in a 
 day, they would all perish in the next ten days; 
 and there are not surplus shipping and surplus 
 money enough to carry them there in many times 
 ten days. What then? Free them all, and keep 
 them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain 
 that this betters their condition? I think I would 
 not hold one in slavery at any rate ; yet the point 
 is not clear enough for me to denounce people 
 upon. What next? Free them, and make them 
 politically and socially our equals? My own feel 
 ings will not admit of this ; and, if mine would, we 
 well know that those of the great mass of white 
 people will not. A universal feeling, whether 
 well or ill founded, cannot be safely disregarded. 
 We cannot then make them equals. It does seem 
 to me that systems of gradual emancipation might 
 be adopted ; but, for their tardiness in this, I will 
 not undertake to judge our brethren of the South. 
 Odober, 1854. 
 
 4 
 
74 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. 
 
 TN answer to Douglas s assumption, that they had 
 uo connection with one another, and that Illi 
 nois came in as a Slave State, &c. : If we do not 
 know these things, we do not know that we ever 
 had a Revolutionary War, or such a chief as Wash 
 ington. To deny these things is to deny our 
 national axioms, or dogmas at least ; and puts an 
 end to all argument. If a man will stand up and 
 assert, and repeat and re-assert, that two and two 
 do not make four, I know nothing in the power of 
 argument that can stop him. I think I can answer 
 the Judge, so long as he sticks to the premises ; but, 
 when he flies from them, I cannot work an argu 
 ment into the consistency of a maternal gag, and 
 actually close his mouth with it. In such a case, I 
 can only commend him to the seventy thousand 
 answers just in from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and In 
 diana. Odobcr, 1854. 
 
 RUSHING TO ARMS. 
 
 Senator objects, that those who oppose 
 him in this measure do not entirely agree 
 with one another. He reminds me, that, in my 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 75 
 
 firm adherence to the constitutional rights of the 
 Slave States, I differ widely from others who are 
 co-operating with me in opposing the Nebraska 
 bill. . . . He should remember, that he took us by 
 surprise astounded us by this measure. We 
 were thunder-struck and stunned ; and we reeled 
 and fell in utter confusion. But we rose ; each 
 fighting ; grasping whatever he could first reach, 
 a scythe, a pitchfork, a chopping-axe, or 
 a butcher s cleaver. We struck in the direction of 
 the sound ; and we are rapidly closing in upon 
 him. He must not think to divert us from our 
 purpose, by showing us that our drill, our dress, 
 and our weapons, are not entirely perfect and uni 
 form. When the storm shall be past, he shall find 
 us still AMERICANS ; no less devoted to the con 
 tinued union and prosperity of the country than 
 heretofore. Odober, 1854. 
 
 NEGRO A MAN. 
 
 r I ^HE Republicans inculcate, with whatever of 
 ability they. can, that the negro is a man; 
 that his bondage is cruelly wrong, and that the field 
 of his oppression might not be enlarged. The 
 Democrats deny his manhood ; deny, or dwarf to 
 
76 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 insignificance, the wrong of his bondage ; so far as 
 possible, crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate 
 and excite hatred and disgust against him ; compli 
 ment themselves as Union-savers for doing so, and 
 call the indefinite outspreading of his bondage " a 
 sacred right of self-government." The plainest 
 print cannot 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 in 
 stance, and sell him for fifteen hundred dollars, 
 and the rise. June, 1857. 
 
 SLAVEHOLDERS AND AMALGAMATION. 
 / THHE very Dred-Scott case affords a strong test 
 as to which party most favors amalgamation, 
 the Republicans or the dear Union-saving Democ 
 racy. Dred Scott, his wife, and two daughters, 
 were all involved in the suit. We desired the 
 Court to have held that they were citizens, so far at 
 least as to entitle them to a hearing as to whether 
 they were free or not ; and then, also, that they were, 
 in fact and in law, really free. Could we have had 
 our way, the chances of these black girls ever mix 
 ing their blood with that of white people, would 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 77 
 
 have been diminished, at least to the extent that it 
 could not have been without their consent. But 
 Judge Douglas is delighted to have them decided to 
 be slaves, and not human enough to have a hearing, 
 even if they were free, and thus left subject to the 
 forced concubinage of their masters, and liable to 
 become the mothers of mulattoes, in spite of them 
 selves ; the very state of case that produces nine- 
 tenths of all the mulattoes, all the mixing of blood, 
 in the nation. June, 1857. 
 
 THE STONE OF STUMBLING. 
 
 *T*HE assertion that " all men are created equal " 
 was of no practical use in effecting our sepa 
 ration from Great Britain ; and it was placed in the 
 Declaration, not for that, but for future use. Its 
 authors mean 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. They knew 
 the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants ; and 
 they meant, when such should re-appear in this fair 
 land and commence their vocation, they should find 
 left for them one hard nut to crack. June, 1857. 
 
78 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 EQUAL IN RIGHTS. 
 
 T TE (Douglas) finds the Republicans insisting 
 that the Declaration of Independence in- 
 eludes ALL men, black as well as white, and forth 
 with boldly denies that it includes negroes at all, 
 and proceeds to argue gravely, that all who contend 
 it does do so only because they want to vote and eat 
 and sleep and marry with negroes ! . . . Now, I 
 protest against the counterfeit logic which concludes 
 that, because I do not want a black woman for a 
 slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife. I 
 need not have her for either. I can just leave her 
 alone. In some respects she certainly is not my 
 equal ; but in her natural right to eat the bread she 
 earns with her own hands, without asking leave of 
 any one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all 
 others. June, 1857. 
 
 DRED-SCOTT DECISION. 
 
 TTTTIAT is the Dred-Scott decision? Judge 
 Douglas labors to show that it is one thing, 
 while I think it is altogether different. It is a long 
 opinion ; but it is all embodied in this short state 
 ment: "The Constitution of the United States 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 79 
 
 forbids Congress to deprive a man of his property 
 without due process of law. The right of prop 
 erty in slaves is distinctly and expressly affirmed 
 in that Constitution : therefore, if Congress shall 
 undertake to say that a man s slave is no longer his 
 slave when he crosses a certain line into a Terri 
 tory, that is depriving him of his property, without 
 due process of law. September, 1859. 
 
 CHIEF-JUSTICE TANEY. 
 /^HIEF-JUSTICE TANEY, after quoting from 
 
 the Declaration of Independence, 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 under 
 stood." 
 
 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 in the 
 days of the Revolution. This assumption is a mis 
 take. ... 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 bond 
 age of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, 
 
8o THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 sneered at, and construed, and hawked at and torn, 
 till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they 
 could not at all recognize it. June, 1857. 
 
 HOW SHALL WE TREAT THE SOUTH f 
 
 ~VT 7*HEN we do, as we say, beat you, you per 
 haps want to know what we mean to do 
 with you. 
 
 We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, 
 as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. 
 We mean to leave you alone, and in no way inter 
 fere with your institution. . . . We mean to remem 
 ber that you are as good as we ; that you have as 
 good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as 
 we claim to have, and treat you accordingly. We 
 mean to marry your girls when we have a chance, 
 the white ones I mean ; and I have the honor to 
 inform you that I once did have a chance in that 
 way. September, 1859. 
 
 BLACK AND WHITE. 
 
 T HAVE never seen, to my knowledge, a man, 
 
 woman, or child, who was in favor of producing 
 
 perfect equality, social and political, between ne- 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. Si 
 
 groes and white men. I recollect of but one 
 distinguished instance that I ever heard of so fre 
 quently as to be satisfied of its correctness ; and that 
 is the case of Judge Douglas s old friend, Colo 
 nel Richard M. Johnson. ... I have never had the 
 least apprehension that I or my friends would 
 marry negroes, if there was no law to keep them 
 from it; but as Judge Douglas and his friends 
 seem to be in great apprehension that they might, 
 if there were no law to keep them from it, I jive 
 him the most solemn pledge, that I will, to the 
 very last, stand by the law of the State which for 
 bids the marrying of white people with negroes. 
 September, 1859. 
 
 LOCKED AND BOLTED IN. 
 
 A LL the powers of earth seem rapidly combin.- 
 
 ing against him (the negro). Mammon is 
 
 after him ; ambition follows, philosophy follows ; 
 
 and the theology of the day is fast joining the cry. 
 
 They have him in his prison-house ; they have 
 
 searched his person, and left no prying-instrument 
 
 with him. One after another they have closed the 
 
 heavy iron doors upon him ; and now they have 
 
 him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred 
 
 4* F 
 
82 
 
 keys, which can never be unlocked without the con 
 currence of every key ; the keys in the hands of a 
 hundred different men, and they scattered to a hun 
 dred different and distant places ; and they stand 
 musing as to what invention, in all the dominions 
 of mind and matter, can be produced to make the 
 impossibility of his escape more complete than it 
 is. June, 1857. 
 
 SLAVER T AND CLIMATE. 
 
 T^\OUGLAS will tell you, men of Ohio, that, if 
 ^^^ you choose to have laws against slavery, it is 
 because your climate is not suited to slave-labor, 
 and therefore you have constitutions and laws 
 against it. Let us attend to that argument for a 
 while, and see if it be sound. You do not raise 
 sugar-cane (except the new-fashioned sugar-cane, 
 and you won t raise that long) ; but they do raise it 
 in Louisiana. You don t raise it in Ohio because 
 you can t raise it profitably, because the climate 
 don t suit it. They do raise it in Louisiana because 
 there it is profitable. Now, Douglas will tell you 
 that is precisely the slavery question. If that is so, 
 then it leads to dealing with the one precisely as 
 with the other. Is there any thing in the Constitu- 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 83 
 
 tion or laws of Ohio against raising sugar-cane? 
 Surely not ! No man desires to raise sugar-cane in 
 Ohio ; but, if any man did desire to do so, you would 
 say it was a tyrannical law that forbids his doing 
 so ; and whenever you shall agree with Douglas, 
 whenever your minds are brought to adopt his 
 argument, as surely w r ill you have reached the con 
 clusion, that, although slavery is not profitable in 
 Ohio, if any man wants it, it is wrong not to let 
 him have it. September, 1859. 
 
 EQUAL RIGHTS. 
 
 " TN debating with Senator Douglas, during the 
 * memorable contest of last fall, Mr. Lincoln 
 declared in favor of negro suffrage, and attempted 
 to defend that vile conception against the Little 
 Giant." Extraa from Ohio " Statesman." " What 
 I did say was in substance as follows : 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 quali 
 fying them to hold office, or intermarry with white 
 people ; and I will say, in addition to this, that 
 
84 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 there is a physical difference between the white 
 and black races, which, I believe, will for ever for 
 bid the two races living together on terms of social 
 and political equality. " September, 1859 
 
 STAND BY DUTT. 
 
 TF slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and con- 
 *" stitutions against it are themselves wrong, and 
 should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, 
 we cannot justly object to its nationality, its univer 
 sality ; if it is wrong, they cannot justly insist upon 
 its extension, its enlargement. All they ask, we 
 could readily grant, if we thought slavery right. . . . 
 If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand 
 by our duty fearlessly and effectively. . . . Let us 
 have faith that right makes might ; and, in that 
 faith, let us to the end dare to do our duty as we 
 understand it. February, 1860. 
 
 MASON AND DIXON. 
 
 TN answer to Douglas s assertion, that there was 
 " a line drawn by the Almighty across this con 
 tinent, on the one side of which the soil must 
 always be cultivated by slaves." I want to ask 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 85 
 
 your attention to that proposition again : that there 
 is one portion of this continent where the Almighty 
 has designed the soil shall always be cultivated by 
 slaves ; that its being cultivated by slaves at that 
 place is right ; that it has the direct sympathy and 
 authority of the Almighty. Whenever you can get 
 these Northern audiences to adopt the opinion, that 
 slavery is right on the other side of the Ohio, . . . 
 they will very readily make the other argument, 
 which is perfectly logical, that that which is right 
 on that side of the Ohio cannot be wrong on this ; 
 and that, if you have that property on that side of 
 the Ohio, under the seal and stamp of the Almighty, 
 when by any means it escapes over here, it is wrong 
 to have constitutions and laws to devil you about it. 
 September, 1859. 
 
 WHAT WILL SATISFY THE SOUTH? 
 
 r I ^HIS, and this only: Cease to call slavery 
 wrong, and join them in calling it right. 
 And this must be done thoroughly, done in a&s 
 as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated. 
 We must place ourselves avow r edly with them. 
 Douglas s new sedition law must be enacted and 
 enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery *s 
 
86 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pul 
 pits, or in private. We must arrest and return 
 their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We 
 must pull down our Free-State Constitutions. The 
 whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all 
 taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease 
 to believe that all their troubles proceed from us. 
 February, 1860. 
 
 NEGROES AND CROCODILES. 
 
 T ANSWER to Douglas s declaration, that, " in all 
 A contests between the negro and the white man, 
 he was for the white man ; but, in all questions be 
 tween the negro and the crocodile, he was for the 
 negro." He says, If there was a necessary con 
 flict between the white man and the negro, I should 
 be for the white man as much as Douglas ; but I 
 say there is no such necessary conflict. I say that 
 there is room for us all to be free ; and that it not 
 only does not wrong the white man that the negro 
 should be free, but it positively wrongs the mass of 
 the white men that the negro should be enslaved ; 
 that the mass of white men are really injured by the 
 effects of slave-labor in the vicinity of the fields of 
 their own labor. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 87 
 
 The other branch of it is, that, in a struggle be 
 tween the negro and the crocodile, he is for the 
 negro. Well, I don t know that there is any strug 
 gle between the negro and the crocodile either. I 
 suppose, that, if a crocodile (or, as we old Ohio- 
 river boatmen used to call them, alligators) should 
 come across a white man, he would kill him, if he 
 could ; and so he would, a negro. But what, at last, 
 is this proposition ? I believe it is a sort of propo 
 sition in proportion, which may be stated thus: 
 " As the negro is to the white man, so is the croco 
 dile to the negro ; and as the negro may rightfully 
 treat the crocodile as a beast or reptile, so the white 
 man may rightfully treat the negro as a beast or 
 reptile." Now, my brother Kentuckians who be 
 lieve in this, you ought to thank Judge Douglas 
 for having put that in a much more taking way 
 than any of yourselves have done. September, 
 1859. 
 
 JEFFERSON. 
 
 TN speaking of the question of slavery as being 
 
 something trivial and local, this is an idea, I 
 
 suppose, which has arisen in Judge Douglas s 
 
 mind from his peculiar structure. I suppose the 
 
88 
 
 institution of slavery looks small to him. He is 
 so put up by nature, that a lash upon his back 
 would hurt him ; but a lash upon anybody else s 
 back does not hurt him. That is the build of 
 the man, and consequently he looks upon the 
 matter of slavery in this unimportant light. ... . He 
 ought to remember that there was once in this 
 country a man by the name of Thomas Jefferson, 
 supposed to be a Democrat : . . . that man did not 
 take exactly this view of the insignificance of the 
 element of slavery, which our friend Judge Douglas 
 does. In contemplation of this thing, we all know 
 he was led to exclaim, " I tremble for my country, 
 when I remember that God is just.". . . There was 
 danger to this country danger of the avenging 
 justice of God in that little, unimportant popular 
 sovereignty question of Judge Douglas. HE sup 
 posed there was a question of GOD S ETERNAL JUS 
 TICE, wrapped up in the enslaving of any race of 
 men, or any man ; and that those who did so, braved 
 the arm of JEHOVAH ; that, when a nation thus 
 dared the Almighty, every friend of that nation 
 had cause to dread his wrath. Choose ye, between 
 JEFFERSON and DOUGLAS, as to what is the true 
 view of this element among us. September, 
 1859. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 09 
 
 IS SLAVER T UNIMPORTANT? 
 
 THvOUGLAS assumes (though without proving > 
 -*-^ it), that slavery is one of those little, unim 
 portant, trivial matters, which are of just about as 
 much consequence as the question would be to me, 
 whether my neighbor should raise horned cattle, 
 or plant tobacco ; that there is no moral question 
 about it, but that it is all a matter of dollars and 
 cents ; that, when a new Territory is opened for 
 settlement, the first man who goes into it may plant 
 there a thing, which, like the Canada thistle, or 
 some other of those pests of the soil, cannot be dug 
 out by the millions of men who will come thereafter. 
 . . . He ignores the very well-known fact, that we 
 never had a serious menace to our political exist 
 ence, except it sprang from this thing, which he 
 chooses to regard as only upon a par with onions 
 and potatoes. September, 1859. 
 
 SAVE TOUR MONET. 
 
 TF the war continues long, as it must, if the ob- 
 
 jec~l be not sooner attained, the institution in 
 
 your States will be extinguished by mere friction 
 
 and abrasion, by the mere incidents of the war. 
 
90 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 It will be gone, and you will have nothing valuable 
 in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. 
 How much better for you, and for your people, to 
 take the step which at once shortens the war, and 
 secures substantial compensation for that which is 
 sure to be wholly lost in any other event ! How 
 much better to thus save the money, which else we 
 sink for ever in this war ! How much better to do 
 it while we can, lest the war, ere long, render us 
 pecuniarily unable to do it ! How much better, for 
 you as seller and the nation as buyer, to sell out 
 and buy out that without which the war could never 
 have been, than to sink both the thing to be sold 
 and the price of it in cutting one another s throats I 
 July, 1862. 
 
 EMANCIPA TION. 
 
 TN a certain sense, the liberation of slaves is the 
 destruction of property, property acquired by 
 descent or by purchase, the same as any other prop 
 erty. It is no less true for having been often said, 
 that the people of the South are not more responsi 
 ble for the original introduction of this property 
 than are the people of the North ; and when it is re 
 membered how unhesitatingly we all use cotton and 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 9! 
 
 sugar, and share the profits of dealing in them, it 
 may not be quite safe to say that the South has been 
 more responsible than the North for its continuance. 
 If, then, for a common object, this property is to be 
 sacrificed, is it not just that it be done at a common 
 charge ? December, 1862. 
 
 EMANCIPATION WILL NOT REDUCE THE 
 WAGES OF WHITE LABOR. 
 
 TS it true that colored people can displace any 
 more white labor by being free, than by re 
 maining slaves ? If they stay in their old places, 
 they jostle no white laborers ; if they leave their 
 old places, they leave them open to white laborers. 
 . . . Emancipation, even without deportation, would 
 probably enhance the wages of white labor ; and, 
 very surely, would not reduce them. . . . With 
 deportation, even to a limited extent, enhanced 
 wages to white labor is mathematically certain. 
 Labor is like any other commodity in the market : 
 increase the demand for it, and you increase the 
 price of it. Reduce the supply of black labor, by 
 colonizing the black laborer out of the country, and 
 by precisely so much you increase the demand for 
 and wages of white labor. December, 1862. 
 
92 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 A LETTER FROM HIM HITHERTO 
 UNPUBLISHED. 
 
 GUTBERTH BULLITT, Esq., New Orleans, La. 
 OIR, The copy of a letter addressed to your 
 self, by Mr. Thomas J. Durant, has been shown 
 to me. The writer appears to be an able, a dispas 
 sionate, and an entirely sincere man. The first part 
 of the letter is devoted to an effort to show, that the 
 secession ordinance of Louisiana was adopted 
 against the will of a majority of the people. This 
 is probably true ; and in that fact may be found 
 some instruction. Why did they allow the ordi- 
 dinance to go into effect? Why did they not exert 
 themselves? Why stand passive, and allow them 
 selves to be trodden down by a minority ? Why did 
 they not hold popular meetings, and have a conven 
 tion of their own, to express and enforce the true 
 sentiments of the State? If pre-organization was 
 against them then, why not do this now that the 
 United- States army is present to protect them ? 
 The paralyzer, the dead palsy, of the Government 
 in the whole struggle is, that this class of men will 
 do nothing for the Government, nothing for them 
 selves, except that the Government shall not strike 
 its enemies lest they should be struck by accident. 
 
SLAVERY AXD ANTISLAVERY. 93 
 
 Mr. Durant complains, that, in various ways, 
 the relation of master and slave is disturbed by the 
 presence of our army ; and he considers it particu 
 larly vexatious, that this in part is done under cover 
 of an Ac~l of Congress, while Constitutional guar 
 antees are superadded on the plea of military neces 
 sity. The truth is, that what is done and omitted 
 about slaves is done and omitted on the same mili 
 tary necessity. It is a military necessity to have 
 men and money ; and we cannot get either in suffi 
 cient numbers or amounts, if we keep from or drive 
 from our lines slaves coming to them. 
 
 Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in 
 this direction, nor of my efforts to hold it within 
 bounds, till he, and such as he, shall have time to 
 help themselves. 
 
 I am not posted to speak understandingly on the 
 public regulations of which Mr. Durant complains. 
 If experience shows any of them to be wrong, let 
 them be set right. I think I can perceive, in the 
 freedom of trade which Mr. Durant urges, that he 
 would relieve both friends and enemies from the 
 pressure of the blockade. By this, he would serve 
 the enemy more effectively than the enemy is able 
 to serve himself. 
 
 I do not say or believe that to serve the enemy is 
 
94 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 the purpose of Mr. Durant, or that he is conscious 
 of any purposes other than national and patriotic 
 ones. Still, if there were a class of men, who, 
 having no choice of sides in the contest, were 
 anxious only to have quiet and comfort for them 
 selves while it rages, and to fall in with the victori 
 ous side at the end of it, without loss to themselves, 
 their advice as to the mode of conducting the con 
 test would be precisely such as his. 
 
 He speaks of no duty, apparently thinks of none, 
 resting upon Union men. He even thinks it injuri 
 ous to the Union cause that they should be restrained 
 in trade and passage without taking sides. They 
 are to touch neither a sail nor a pump, live merely 
 passengers ("dead-heads" at that), to be carried 
 throughout the storm, and safely landed right side 
 up. Nay, more : even a mutineer is to go un 
 touched lest these sacred passengers receive an acci 
 dental wound. 
 
 Of course, the rebellion will never be suppressed 
 in Louisiana, if the professed Union men there will 
 neither help to do it, nor permit the Government to 
 do it without their help. 
 
 Now, I think the true remedy is very different 
 from what is suggested by Mr. Durant. It does not 
 lie in rounding the rough angles of the war, but in 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 95 
 
 removing the necessity for the war. The people of 
 Louisiana, who wish protection to person and prop 
 erty, have but to reach forth their hands and take 
 it. Let them in good faith re-inaugurate the na 
 tional authority, and set up a State government 
 conforming thereto under the Constitution. They 
 know how to do it, and can have the protection 
 of the army while doing it. The army will be 
 withdrawn so soon as such government can dis 
 pense with its presence ; and the people of the 
 State can then, upon the old terms, govern them 
 selves to their own liking. This is very simple and 
 easy. 
 
 If they will not do this, if they prefer to hazard 
 all for the sake of destroying the Government, it is 
 for them to consider whether it is probable I will 
 surrender the Government to save them from losing 
 all. If they decline what I suggest, you scarcely 
 need to ask what I will do. 
 
 What would you do in my position ? 
 
 Would you drop the war where it is? or would 
 you prosecute it in future with elder-stalk squirts 
 charged with rose-water? Would you deal lighter 
 blows rather then heavier ones ? Would you give 
 up the contest, leaving every available means un 
 applied? 
 
96 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more 
 than I can, but shall do all I can to save the Gov 
 ernment, which is my sworn duty, as well as my 
 personal inclination. - I shall do nothing in malice. 
 What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 A. LINCOLN. 
 WASHINGTON, D.C., July 28, 1862. 
 
 PROTECTION TO COLORED SOLDIERS. 
 
 A T the commencement of the war, it was doubt- 
 ful whether black men would be used as sol 
 diers or not. The matter was examined into very 
 carefully ; and, after mature deliberation, the whole 
 matter resting as it were with himself, he, in his 
 judgment, decided that they should. He was re 
 sponsible for the ac~l to the American people, to a 
 Christian nation, to the future historian ; and, above 
 all, to his God, to whom he would have one day to 
 render an account of his stewardship. He would 
 now say, that, in his opinion, the black soldier 
 should have the same protection as the white sol 
 dier ; and he would have it. ... When the Gov 
 ernment knows the facts from official sources, and 
 they prove to substantiate the reports, retribution 
 will be surely given. April, 1864. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 97 
 
 IT IS SIMPLY A WAR-MEASURE. 
 
 T TNDERSTAND, I raise no objeftions against 
 ^^ it on legal or constitutional grounds ; for, as 
 Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, in time 
 of war I suppose I have a right to take any mea 
 sures which may best subdue the enemy : nor do I 
 urge objections of a moral nature, in view of possi 
 ble consequences of insurrection and massacre at 
 the South. I view this matter as a practical war- 
 measure, to be decided on according to the advan 
 tages or disadvantages it may offer to the suppres 
 sion of the rebellion. 
 
 GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. 
 
 T AM pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned ; 
 one which threatens division among those who, 
 united, are none too strong. An instance of it is 
 known to you. General Hunter is an honest man. 
 He was, and I hope still is, my friend. I valued 
 him none the less for his agreeing with me in the 
 general wish, that all men everywhere could be 
 free. He proclaimed all men free within certain 
 States, and I repudiated the proclamation. He ex 
 pected more good and less harm from the measure 
 5 G 
 
98 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 than I could believe would follow. Yet, in repu 
 diating it, I gave dissatisfaction, if not offence, to 
 many whose support the country cannot afford to 
 lose. 
 
 The traitor against the general Government for 
 feits his slave at least as justly as he does any other 
 property ; and he forfeits both to the Government 
 against which he offends. July, 1862. 
 
 I 
 
 PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 How ivill it operate just notv ? 
 
 F, now, the pressure of war should call off our 
 forces from New Orleans, to defend some other 
 point, what is to prevent the masters from reducing 
 the blacks to slavery again? for I am told that 
 whenever the rebels take any black prisoners, free 
 or slave, they immediately auction them off! They 
 did so with those they took from a boat, in the Ten 
 nessee River, a few days ago. And then I am very 
 ungenerously attacked for it ! For instance : when, 
 after the late battles at and near Bull Run, an expe 
 dition went out from Washington, under a flag of 
 truce, to bury the dead and bring in the wounded ; 
 and the rebels seized the blacks who went along to 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 99 
 
 help, and sent them into slavery, Horace Greeley 
 said in his paper that the Government would proba 
 bly do nothing about it. 
 
 What could I do ? September, 1862. 
 
 BLESSED ARE THE PEACE-MAKERS. 
 
 "D UT restore the Missouri Compromise, and what 
 "^^ then? We thereby restore the national faith, 
 the national confidence, the national feeling of 
 brotherhood. We thereby reinstate the spirit of. 
 concession and compromise, that spirit which has 
 never failed us in past perils, and which may be 
 safely trusted for all the future. The South ought 
 to join in doing this. The peace of the nation is as 
 dear to them as to us. In memories of the past and 
 hopes of the future, they share as largely as we. 
 It would be, on their part, a great act, great in 
 its spirit, and great in its effect. It would be worth 
 to the nation a hundred years purchase of peace 
 and prosperity. And what of sacrifice would they 
 make? They only surrender to us what they gave 
 us for a consideration long, long ago ; what they 
 have not now asked for, struggled, or cared for ; 
 what has been thrust upon them, not less to their 
 own astonishment than to ours. O&obcr, 1854. 
 
ioo THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 UNION OR SLA VERT. 
 
 TF there be those who would not save the Union 
 * unless they could at the same time save slavery, 
 I do not agree with them. . . . 
 
 My paramount object is to save the Union, and 
 not either to save or destroy slavery. 
 
 If I could save the Union without freeing any 
 slave, I would do it ; and, if I could do it by free 
 ing some and leaving others alone, I would also 
 do that. 
 
 What I do about slavery and the colored race, I 
 do because I believe it helps to save the Union; 
 and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not be 
 lieve it would help to save the Union. 
 
 I do not want to issue a document that the whole 
 world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like 
 the Pope s bull against the comet. September, 
 1862. _^ 
 
 FROM WHENCE COME MURDERS? 
 
 TT?ACH party WITHIN, having numerous and de- 
 ^-^ termined backers WITHOUT, is it not probable 
 that the contest will come to blows and bloodshed ? 
 Could there be a more apt invention to bring about 
 collision and violence, on the slavery question, than 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. IOI 
 
 this Nebraska project is? I do not charge, or be 
 lieve, that such was intended by Congress ; but if 
 they had literally formed a ring, and placed cham 
 pions within it to fight out the controversy, 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? 
 Odober, 1854. 
 
 APPEAL TO THEIR OWN SENSE OF JUST 
 ICE AND HUMAN STMPATHT. 
 
 are in the United States and Terri 
 tories, including the District of Columbia, 
 433,643 free blacks. At five hundred dollars per 
 head, they are worth over two hundred millions of 
 dollars. How comes this vast amount of property 
 to be running about, without owners ? We do not 
 see free horses or free cattle running at large. 
 How is this? All these free blacks are the descend 
 ants of slaves, or have been slaves themselves ; and 
 they would be slaves now, but for SOMETHING 
 which has operated on their white owners, inducing 
 them, at vast pecuniary sacrifices, to liberate them. 
 What is that SOMETHING ? Is there any mistaking 
 
102 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 it? In all these cases, it is your sense of justice 
 and human sympathy, continually telling you that 
 the poor negro has some natural right to himself; 
 that those who deny it, and make mere merchan 
 dise of him, deserve kickings, contempt, and death. 
 And, now, why will you ask us to deny the hu 
 manity of the slave, and estimate him as only the 
 equal of the hog? Why ask us to do what you will 
 not do yourselves ? Why ask us to do for nothing 
 what two hundred millions of dollars could not in 
 duce you to do? Ottober, 1854. 
 
 LET THE FATHERS ANSWER. 
 
 TN support of his application of the doctrine of 
 ^ self-government, Senator Douglas has sought to 
 bring to his aid the opinions and examples of our 
 Revolutionary fathers. I am glad he has done this. 
 I love the sentiments of those old-timed men, and 
 shall be most happy to abide by their opinions. 
 He shows us, that, when it was in contemplation 
 for the colonies to break off from Great Britain, and 
 set up a new government for themselves, several of 
 the States instructed their delegates to go for the 
 measure, PROVIDED EACH STATE SHOULD BE AL 
 LOWED TO REGULATE ITS DOMESTIC CONCERNS IN 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 103 
 
 ITS OWN WAY. I do not quote ; but this in sub 
 stance. This was right. I see nothing objection 
 able in it. I also think it probable that it had some 
 reference to the existence of slavery among them. 
 I will not deny that it had. But had it any refer 
 ence to the carrying of slavery into NEW COUN 
 TRIES ? That is the question, and we will let the 
 fathers themselves answer it. Odober, 1854. 
 
 THE STAKE PLATED FOR. 
 
 T)UT it is said, there now is no law in Nebraska 
 ^"^ on the subject of slavery, and that, in such 
 case, taking a slave there operates his freedom. 
 That is good book-law, but is not the rule of actual 
 practice. Wherever slavery is, it has been first in 
 troduced without law. The oldest laws we find 
 concerning it are not laws introducing it, but regu 
 lating it as an already existing thing. A white 
 man takes his slave to Nebraska now. Who will 
 inform the negro that he is free ? Who will take 
 him before court to test the question of his freedom ? 
 In ignorance of his legal emancipation, he is kept 
 chopping, splitting, and ploughing. Others are 
 brought, and move on in the same track. At last, 
 if ever the time for voting comes on the question of 
 
J04 TIIE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 slavery, the institution already, in fact, exists in the 
 country, and cannot well be removed. The fact of 
 its presence, and the difficulty of its removal, will 
 carry the vote in its favor. Keep it out until a vote 
 is taken, and a vote in favor of it cannot be got in 
 any population of forty thousand on earth, who 
 have been drawn together by the ordinary motives 
 of emigration and settlement. To get slaves into 
 the Territory simultaneously with the whites, in the 
 incipient stages of settlement, is the precise stake 
 played for, and won, in this Nebraska measure. 
 , 1854. 
 
 HOW DO WE ACCOUNT FOR THE INCREASE 
 OF THE COLORED POPULATION? 
 
 \ NOTHER lullaby argument is, that taking 
 slaves to new countries does not increase 
 their number, does not make any one slave who 
 otherwise would be free. There is some truth in 
 this, and I am glad of it ; but it is not wholly true. 
 The African slave-trade is not yet effectually sup 
 pressed ; and if we make a reasonable deduction for 
 the white people among us who are foreigners, and 
 the descendants of foreigners, arriving here since 
 1808, we shall find the increase of the black popu- 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 1 05 
 
 lation outrunning that of the white, to an extent 
 unaccountable, except by supposing that some of 
 them, too, have been coming from Africa. If this 
 be so, the opening of new countries to the institu 
 tion increases the demand for, and augments the 
 price of slaves, and so does, in fact, make slaves of 
 freemen, by causing them to be brought from Africa 
 and sold into bondage. Ottober, 1854. 
 
 CALIFORNIA AND SL AVERT. 
 
 TN the fall of 1848, the gold mines were discov- 
 ered in California. This attracted people to it 
 with unprecedented rapidity ; so that on or soon 
 after the meeting of the new Congress in December, 
 1849, she already had a population of nearly a hun 
 dred thousand ; had called a convention ; formed 
 a State Constitution, excluding slavery ; and was 
 knocking for admission into the Union. The Pro 
 viso men, of course, were for letting her in ; but the 
 nate, always true to the other side, would not 
 consent to her admission. And there California 
 stood, kept out of the Union, because she would not 
 let slavery into her borders. Under all the circum 
 stances, perhaps this was not wrong. There were 
 other points of dispute connected with the general 
 5* 
 
io6 
 
 question of slavery, which equally needed adjust 
 ment. The South clamored for a more efficient 
 fugitive-slave law. The North clamored for the 
 abolition of a peculiar species of slave-trade in the 
 District of Columbia ; in connection with which, in 
 view from the windows of the Capitol, a sort of 
 negro livery-stable, where droves of negroes were 
 collected, temporarily kept, and finally taken to 
 Southern markets, precisely like droves of horses, 
 had been openly maintained for fifty years. 
 Odober, 1854. 
 
 UTAH AND NEW MEXICO, AND THE 
 SL AVERT QUESTION. 
 
 T TTAH and New Mexico needed territorial gov- 
 ^^ ernments ; and whether slavery should or 
 should not be prohibited within them was another 
 question. The indefinite western boundary of 
 Texas was to be settled. She was a Slave State ; 
 and consequently the farther west the slavery men 
 could push her boundary, the more slave country 
 they secured ; and the farther east the slavery oppo 
 nents could thrust the boundary back, the less slave 
 ground was secured. Thus this was just as clearly 
 a slavery question as any of the others. Oftobcr^ 
 1854. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 107 
 
 RIGHT FIRST, ENFORCEMENT AFTER. 
 
 T THINK the authors of that notable instrument 
 (the Declaration of Independence) intended 
 to include all men ; but they did not intend to 
 declare all men equal in all respeds. They did 
 not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intel 
 lect, moral developments, or social capacity. * They 
 defined, with tolerable distinctness, in what respects 
 they did consider all men created equal, equal 
 with " certain inalienable rights, among which are 
 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This 
 they said, and this they meant. They did not mean 
 to assert the obvious untruth, that all were then 
 actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they 
 were about to confer it immediately upon them. 
 In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. 
 They meant simply to declare the right, so that the 
 enforcement of it might follow as fast as circum 
 stances should permit. 
 
 They meant to set up a standard maxim for free 
 soc ety, which should be familiar to all, and revered 
 by all ; constantly looked to, constantly labored 
 for ; and, even though never perfectly attained, 
 constantly approximated, and thereby constantly 
 
io8 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 spreading and deepening its influence, and aug 
 menting the happiness and value of life to all 
 people of all colors everywhere. 
 
 NO FEAR OF AMALGAMATION IN A FREE 
 STATE. 
 
 TT) UT Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the 
 *-^ thought of the mixing blood by the white and 
 black races. Agreed for once a thousand times 
 agreed. There are white men enough to marry all 
 the white women, and black men enough to marry 
 all the black women ; and so let them be married. 
 On this point we fully agree with the Judge ; and 
 when he shall show that his policy is better adapted 
 to prevent amalgamation than ours, we shall drop 
 ours, and adopt this. Let us see. In 1850 there 
 were in the United States 405,751 mulattoes. Very 
 few of these are the offspring of whites and free 
 blacks ; nearly all have sprung from black slaves 
 and white masters. A separation of the races is the 
 only perfect preventive of amalgamation ; but, as an 
 immediate separation is impossible, the next best 
 thing is to keep them apart where they are not 
 already together. If white and black people never 
 get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 109 
 
 in Kansas. That is at least one self-evident truth. 
 A few free colored persons may get into the Free 
 States in any event; but their number is too 
 insignificant to amount to much in the way of mix 
 ing blood. 
 
 SLA VERT THE SOURCE OF AMALGAMA 
 TION. 
 
 TN 1850, there were in the Free States 56,649 
 * mulattoes ; but for the most part they were not 
 born there, they came from the Slave States, 
 ready made up. In the same year, the Slave 
 States had 348,874 mulattoes, all of home produc 
 tion. The proportion of free mulattoes to free 
 blacks the only colored classes in the Free States 
 is much greater in the Slave than in the Free 
 States. It is worthy of note, too, that among the 
 Free States those which make the colored man 
 the nearest equal to the white, have proportiona- 
 bly the fewest mulattoes, the least of amalgama 
 tion. In New Hampshire, the State which goes 
 farthest toward equality between the races, there 
 are just one hundred and eighty-four mulattoes ; 
 while there are in Virginia, how many do you 
 think? 79,775? being 23,126 more than in all the 
 Free States together. 
 
110 THE PRESIDENTS WORDS. 
 
 These statistics show that slavery is the greatest 
 source of amalgamation ; and, next to it, not the 
 elevation, but the degradation, of free blacks. Yet 
 Judge Douglas dreads the slightest restraints on 
 the spread of slavery, and the slightest human 
 recognition of the negro, as tending horribly to 
 amalgamation. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE MASS OF MANKIND 
 IS AGAINST IT. 
 
 OENATOR DOUGLAS remarked, in substance, 
 ^ that he had always considered this Government 
 was made for the white people, and not for the 
 negroes. Why, in point of mere fact, I think so too. 
 But in this remark of the Judge there is a signifi 
 cance, which I think is the key to the great mistake 
 (if there is any such mistake) which he has made in 
 this Nebraska measure. It shows that the Judge 
 has no very vivid impression that the negro is a 
 human; and consequently has no idea that there 
 can be any moral question in legislating about him. 
 In his view, the question of whether a new country 
 shall be slave or free is a matter of as utter indif 
 ference, as it is whether his neighbor shall plant his 
 farm with tobacco, or stock it with horned cattle. 
 Now, whether this view is right or wrong, it is very 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. HI 
 
 certain that the great mass of mankind take a totally 
 different view. They consider slavery a great moral 
 wrong ; and their feeling against it is not evanescent, 
 but eternal. It lies at the very foundation of their 
 sense of justice, and it cannot be trifled with. It is 
 a great and durable element of popular action, and 
 I think no statesman can safely disregard it. 
 
 "PRECEDENTS" AND "AUTHORITIES." 
 
 "JUDICIAL decisions have two uses : First, To 
 ** absolutely determine the case decided ; and, 
 Secondly, To indicate to the public how other sim 
 ilar cases will be decided when they arise. For the 
 latter use, they are called " precedents " and " au 
 thorities." 
 
 We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps 
 more) in obedience to, and respect for, the judicial 
 department of government. We think its decisions 
 on Constitutional questions, when fully settled, 
 should control, not only the particular cases decided, 
 but the general policy of the country, subject to be 
 disturbed only by amendments of the Constitution as 
 provided in that instrument itself. More than this 
 would be revolution. But we think the Dred-Scott 
 
H2 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 decision is erroneous. We know the court that 
 made it has often overruled its own decisions, and 
 we shall do what we can to have it overrule this. 
 We offer no resistance to it. 
 
 SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAT IS THE 
 EVIL THEREOF. 
 
 T MEANT not to resist the admission of Utah and 
 New Mexico, even should they ask to come in 
 as Slave States. I meant nothing about additional 
 territories, because, as I understood, we then had 
 no territory whose character as to slavery was not 
 already settled. As to Nebraska, I regarded its 
 character as being fixed, by the Missouri Compro 
 mise, for thirty years ; as unalterably fixed as that 
 of my own home in Illinois. As to new acquisi 
 tions, I said, " Sufficient unto the day is the evil 
 thereof." When we make new acquisitions, we 
 will, as heretofore, try to manage them somehow. 
 That is my answer ; that is what I meant and said ; 
 and I appeal to the people to say, each for himself, 
 whether that was not also the universal meaning 
 of the Free States. October, 1854. 
 
SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY. 113 
 
 "POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY" RETROGRADE. 
 
 T ASK attention to the fact, that, in a pre-eminent 
 degree, these popular sovereigns are at this 
 work ; blowing out the moral lights around us ; 
 teaching that the negro is no longer a man, but a 
 brute ; that the Declaration has nothing to do with 
 him ; that he ranks with the crocodile and the rep 
 tile ; that man, with body and soul, is a matter of 
 dollars and cents. I suggest to this portion of the 
 Ohio Republicans, or Democrats, if there be any 
 present, the serious consideration of this fact, that 
 there is now going on among you a steady process 
 of debauching public opinion on this subject. 
 September, 1859. 
 
 CLA Y AND WEBSTER. 
 
 I^INALLY, the Judge invokes against me the 
 memory of Clay and of Webster. They were 
 great men, and men of great deeds. But where 
 have I assailed them? For what is it that their 
 life-long enemy shall now make profit by assuming 
 to defend them against me, their life-long friend? 
 I go against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise : 
 did they ever go for it ? They went for the Com- 
 
ii4 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 promises of 1850: did I ever go against them? 
 They were greatly devoted to the Union : to the 
 small measure of my ability, was I ever less so? 
 Clay and Webster were dead before this question 
 arose : by what authority shall our senator say they 
 \vould espouse his side of it, if alive? Mr. Clay 
 was the leading spirit in making the Missouri 
 Compromise : is it very credible, that, if now alive, 
 he would take the lead in the breaking of it? The 
 truth is, that some support from Whigs is now a 
 necessity with the Judge ; and for this it is that the 
 names of Clay and Webster are now invoked. His 
 old friends have deserted him in such numbers as 
 to leave too few to live by. He came to his own, 
 and his own received him not ; and, lo ! he turns 
 unto the Gentiles. 
 
FAITH. 
 
FAITH. 
 
 FAITH IN GOD. FAITH IN THE PEOPLE. 
 
 HOPE. 
 
 T AM leaving you on an errand of national im- 
 portance, attended, as you are aware, with con 
 siderable difficulties. Let us believe, as some poet 
 has expressed it, " Behind the cloud the sun is still 
 shining." 
 
 JUSTICE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 "\ T 7HY should there not be a patient confidence 
 in the ultimate justice of the people? Is 
 there any better or equal hope in the world ? In 
 our present differences, is either party without faith 
 of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of 
 nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on 
 your side of the North, or on yours of the South, 
 that truth and justice will surely prevail by the 
 judgment of this great tribunal of the American 
 people. March, 1861 . 
 
 [117] 
 
n8 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 GOD S WILL. 
 
 not misunderstand me. ... I have not de- 
 cided against a proclamation of liberty to the 
 slaves, but hold the matter under advisement. And 
 I can assure you that the subject is on my mind, by 
 day and night, more than any other. Whatever 
 shall appear to be God s will, I will do. 
 
 FAITH IN OUR FUTURE. 
 
 "T^HERE are already among us those, who, if the 
 Union be preserved, will live to see it contain 
 two hundred and fifty millions of population. The 
 straggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day : it is 
 for a vast future also. 
 
 FAITH IN GOD. 
 
 TF we have patience, if we restrain ourselves, if 
 we allow ourselves not to run off in a passion, 
 I still have confidence that the Almighty, the Maker 
 of the universe, will, through the instrumentality of 
 this great and intelligent people, bring us through 
 this as he has through all the other difficulties of 
 Our country. February, 1861. 
 
FAITH. 
 
 TOILING UP. 
 
 "VTO men living are more worthy to be trusted 
 than those who toil up from poverty ; none 
 less inclined to take or touch aught which they have 
 not honestly earned. December, 1861. 
 
 GOD S SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 TT is a consoling circumstance, that, when we look 
 out, there is nothing that really hurts anybody. 
 . . . And from it we may conclude, that all we want 
 is time, patience, and a reliance on that God who 
 has never forsaken this people. Idem. 
 
 THE PEOPLE IN MASS. 
 
 ~\ T 7HILE I do not expect, upon this occasion, or 
 until I get to Washington, to attempt any 
 lengthy speech, I will only say, to the salvation of 
 the Union there needs but one single thing, the 
 hearts of a people like yours. The people when 
 they rise in mass in behalf of the Union and the 
 liberties of their country, truly may it be said, 
 
 " THE GATES OF HELL CANNOT PREVAIL AGAINST 
 
 THEM." February, 1861. 
 
I2O THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 I 
 
 GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 CANNOT 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 rest even upon the Father of 
 his Country ; and, so feeling, I cannot but turn and 
 look for that support without which it will be im 
 possible to perform that great task. I turn, then, 
 and look to the great American people, and to that 
 God who has never forsaken them. February, 
 1861. 
 
 GETTYSBURG. 
 
 .^OURSCORE and seven years ago, our fathers 
 brought forth upon this continent a new nation, 
 conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposi 
 tion that all men are created equal. Now we are 
 engaged in a great civil war,- testing whether that 
 nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, 
 can long endure. We are met on a great battle 
 field of that war. We are met to dedicate a por 
 tion of it as the final resting-place of those who here 
 gave their lives that that nation might live. It is 
 altogether fitting and proper that we should do 
 this. 
 
FAITH. 121 
 
 But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we 
 cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. 
 The brave men, living and dead, who struggled 
 here, have consecrated it far above our power to 
 add or detract. The world will little note, nor 
 long remember, what we say here ; but it can 
 never forget what they did here. It is for us, the 
 living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished 
 work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. 
 It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great 
 task remaining before us, that from these honored 
 dead we take increased devotion to the cause for 
 which they here gave the last full measure of devo 
 tion ; that we here highly resolve that the dead 
 shall not have died in vain ; that the nation shall, 
 under God, have a new birth of freedom ; and that 
 the government of the people, by the people, and 
 for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 
 November, 1863. 
 
 THE MAJOR ITT RULES. 
 
 r I ^HE only dispute on both sides is, " What are 
 
 *- their rights?" If the majority should not 
 
 rule, who should be the judge? Where is such a 
 
 judge to be found ? We should all be bound by the 
 
 6 
 
122 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 majority of the American people : if not, then the 
 minority must control. Would that be right? 
 Would it be just or generous? Assuredly not. I 
 reiterate that the majority should rule. If I adopt 
 a wrong policy, the opportunity for condemnation 
 will occur in four years time. Then I can be 
 turned out, and a better man, with better views, put 
 in my place. February, 1861. 
 
 THE WOMEN. 
 
 T AM not accustomed to the use of language of 
 eulogy ; I have never studied the art of paying 
 compliments to women ; but I must say, that, if all 
 that has been said by orators and poets since the 
 creation of the world in praise of women were 
 applied to the women of America, it would not do 
 them justice for their conduct during this war. I 
 will close by saying, God bless the women of 
 America ! March, 1864. 
 
 THE PEOPLE THE ONLT MASTERS. 
 
 T 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 
 
FAITH. 123 
 
 Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that 
 the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all 
 the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple 
 duty on my part ; and I shall perform it, so far as 
 practicable, unless my rightful masters, the Ameri 
 can people, shall withhold the requisite means, or, 
 in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary. 
 March, 1861. 
 
 I 
 
 SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 DO not say, that, in the recent election, the peo 
 ple did the wisest thing that could have been 
 done ; indeed, I do not think they did : but I do say, 
 that, in accepting the great trust committed to me, I 
 must rely upon you, upon the people of the whole 
 country for their support ; and, with their sustaining 
 aid, even I, humble as I am, cannot fail to carry 
 the ship of State safely through the storm. Feb 
 ruary, 1 86 1. 
 
 STAND BY THE HELM. 
 
 r I ^HERE is nothing that could ever bring me to 
 
 willingly consent to the destruction of this 
 
 Union, under which, not only the great commercial 
 
 city of New York, but the whole country, acquired 
 
I2 4 
 
 its greatness, except it be the purpose for which the 
 Union itself was formed. I understand 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 
 it fails the possibility of its preservation, and shall 
 cease to exist, except at the risk of throwing over 
 board both freight and passengers. So long, then, 
 as it is possible that the prosperity and the liberties 
 of the people be preserved in this Union, it shall be 
 my purpose, at all times, to use all my powers to 
 aid in its perpetuation. 
 
 HIS OATH WAS PARAMOUNT. 
 
 T AM naturally antislavery. If slavery is not 
 wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember 
 when I did not see, think, and feel, that it was 
 wrong ; and yet I have never understood that the 
 Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted 
 right to ac~l officially upon this judgment and feel 
 ing. It was in the oath I took, that I would, to the 
 best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the 
 Constitution of the United States. I could not take 
 the office without taking the oath ; nor was it my 
 
FAITH. 125 
 
 view that I might take an oath to get power, and 
 break the oath in using the power. I understood, 
 too, that, in ordinary civil administration, this oath 
 even forbade me to practically indulge my primary 
 abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. 
 I had publicly declared this many times, and in 
 many ways ; and I aver, that, to this day, I have 
 done no official act in mere deference to my abstract 
 judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, 
 however, that my oath, to preserve the Constitution 
 to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty 
 of preserving, by every indispensable means, that 
 Government, that nation, of which that Constitution 
 was the organic law. 
 
 OUR FATHER WILL DECIDE. 
 
 T CAN only say in this case, as in so many oth- 
 ers, that I am profoundly grateful for the re 
 spect, given in every variety of form which it can 
 be given, from the religious bodies of the country. 
 I saw, upon taking my position here, I was going 
 to have an administration, if an administration at 
 all, of extraordinary difficulty. 
 
 It was, without exception, a time of the great 
 est difficulty this country ever saw. I was early 
 
126 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 brought to a lively reflection, that nothing would 
 succeed, without direct assistance of the Almighty. 
 I have often wished that I was a more devout man 
 than I am : nevertheless, amid the greatest diffi 
 culties of my administration, when I could not see 
 any other resort, I would place my whole reliance 
 in God, knowing all would go well, and that he 
 would decide for the right. 
 
 I thank you, gentlemen, in the name of the 
 religious bodies which you represent, and in the 
 name of our common Father, for this expression of 
 respect. I cannot say more. 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 OBNOXIOUS INEQUALITr. 
 
 00 far as they involve "obnoxious inequality," 
 ^ this Capitol is built at the public expense, for 
 the public benefit ; but does any one doubt, that it 
 is of some peculiar advantage to the property-hold 
 ers and business people of Washington? Shall we 
 remove it for this reason? And, if so, where shall 
 we set it down, and be free from the difficulty? 
 To make sure of our object, shall we locate it no 
 where? and have Congress hereafter to hold its 
 sessions, as the loafer lodged, " in spots about" ? 
 June, 1848. 
 
 TONNAGE DUTIES. 
 
 " 1 .^NOUGH may be done by means of tonnage 
 
 duties." Now, I suppose, this manner of 
 
 tonnage duties is well enough in its own sphere. . . . 
 
 1 know very little, or nothing at all, of the practical 
 matter of levying and collecting tonnage duties; 
 but, I suppose, one of its principles must be to lay 
 
 6* i [129] 
 
130 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 a duty, for the improvement of any particular har 
 bor, upon the tonnage coming into that harbor. 
 To do otherwise, to colledl money in one harbor 
 to be expended on improvements in another, 
 would be an extremely aggravated form of that 
 44 inequality " which the President so much depre 
 cates. If I be right in this, how could we make 
 any entirely new improvements by means of ton 
 nage duties? How make a road, a canal, or clear 
 a greatly obstructed river ? The idea that we could, 
 involves the same absurdity of the Irish bull about 
 the new boots : " I shall niver get cm on," says 
 Patrick, u till I wear em a day or two, and stretch 
 em a little." June, 1848. 
 
 MR. FOLK S FIVE PROPOSITIONS. 
 
 r I ^IIE prevailing Democratic errors ori the sub- 
 
 ject, Mr. Lincoln stated as follows : 
 That internal improvements ought not to be 
 made by the General Government, 
 
 1. Because they would overwhelm the Treasury. 
 
 2. Because, while their burdens would be gen 
 eral, their benefits would be local and partial^ 
 involving an obnoxious inequality ; and, 
 
 3. Because they would be unconstitutional. 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 131 
 
 4. Because the States may do enough by the levy 
 and collection of tonnage duties ; or, if not, 
 
 5. That the Constitution may be amended. 
 
 The sum of these positions is, Do nothing at all, 
 lest you do something -wrong. June, 1848. 
 
 AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 A S a general rule, I think we would do much 
 T^ better to let it alone. No slight occasion 
 should tempt us to touch it. Better not take the 
 first step which may lead to a habit of altering it. 
 Better habituate ourselves to think of it as unalter 
 able. It can scarcely be made better than it is. ... 
 No, sir: let it stand as it is. New hands have 
 never touched it. The men who made it have done 
 their work, and have passed away. Who shall im 
 prove on what they did? June, 1848. 
 
 ABSTRACTIONS. 
 
 T MAKE no special allusion to the present Presi- 
 dent when I say, there are few stronger cases in 
 the world of " burden to the many and benefit to 
 the few," of " inequality," than the Presidency itself 
 is thought by some to be. An honest laborer digs 
 
132 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 coal at about seventy cents a day, while the Presi 
 dent digs abstractions at about seventy dollars a 
 day. The coal is clearly worth more than the ab 
 stractions, and yet what a monstrous inequality in 
 the prices ! Does the President, for this reason, 
 propose to abolish the Presidency? He does not, 
 and he ought not. June, 1848. 
 
 HE THAT OBSERVETH THE WIND SHALL 
 NOT SOW. 
 
 man is offended because a road passes over 
 his land, and another is offended because it 
 does not pass over his. One is dissatisfied because 
 the bridge, for which he is taxed, crosses the river 
 on a different road from that which leads from his 
 house to town ; another cannot bear that the county 
 should get in debt for these same roads and bridges ; 
 while not a few struggle hard to have roads located 
 over their lands, and then stoutly refuse to let them 
 be opened, until they are first paid the damages. 
 Even between the different wards and streets of 
 towns and cities, we find this same wrangling and 
 difficulty. Now, these are no other than the very 
 difficulties against which, and out of which, the 
 President constructs his objections of " inequality," 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 133 
 
 " speculation," and " crushing the treasury." There 
 is but a single alternative about them : they are suf- 
 jicicnt, or they are not. If sufficient, they are 
 sufficient out of Congress as well as in it ; and there 
 is the end. We must reject them as insufficient, or 
 lie down and do nothing by any authority. Then, 
 difficulty though there be, let us meet and over 
 come it. 
 
 "Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; 
 Nothing so hard but search will find it out." 
 
 June, 1848. 
 
 HIS MITE. 
 
 THVETERMINE that the thing can and shall be 
 done, and then we shall find the way. The 
 tendency to undue expansion is unquestionably the 
 chief difficulty. How to do something^ and still 
 not to do too much, is the desideratum. Let each 
 contribute his mite in the way of suggestion. The 
 late Silas Wright, in a letter to the Chicago Con 
 vention, contributed his, which was worth some 
 thing ; and I now contribute mine, which may be 
 worth nothing. At all events, it will mislead 
 nobody, and therefore will do no harm. June, 
 1848. 
 
134 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 LOCAL IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE GENERAL 
 GOOD. 
 
 TF the nation refuse to make improvements of the 
 more general kind, because their benefits may 
 be somewhat local, a State may, for the same rea 
 son, refuse to make an improvement of a local kind, 
 because its benefits may be somewhat general. A 
 State may well say to the nation, " If you will do 
 nothing for me, I will do nothing for you." Thus 
 it is seen, that, if this argument of " inequality" is 
 sufficient anywhere, it is sufficient everywhere, and 
 puts an end to improvements altogether. June, 
 1848. 
 
 ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL. 
 
 "T^TOTHING is so local as not to be of some gen 
 eral benefit. Take, for instance, the Illinois 
 and Michigan Canal. Considered apart from its 
 effects, it is perfectly local. Every inch of it is 
 within the State of Illinois. That canal was first 
 opened for business last April. In a very few days 
 we were all gratified to learn, among other things, 
 that sugar had been carried from New Orleans, 
 through the canal, to Buffalo in New York. This 
 sugar took this route, doubtless, because it was 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 13^ 
 
 cheaper than the old route. Supposing the benefit 
 in the reduction of the cost of carriage to be shared 
 between seller and buyer, the result is, that the 
 New-Orleans merchant sold his sugar a little 
 dearer, and the people of Buffalo sweetened their 
 coffee a little cheaper, than before ; a benefit re 
 sulting from the canal, not to Illinois, where the 
 canal /y, but to Louisiana and New York, where it 
 is not. In other transactions Illinois will, of course, 
 have her share, and perhaps the larger share too, in 
 the benefits of the canal ; but the instance of the 
 sugar clearly shows, that the benefits of an improve 
 ment are by no means confined to the particular 
 locality of the improvement itself. June, 1848. 
 
 FEW THINGS WHOLLY EVIL. 
 r I ^HE true rule, in determining to embrace or 
 rejec"l any thing, is not whether it have any 
 evil in it, but whether it have more of evil than of 
 good. There are few things wholly evil or wholly 
 good. Almost every thing, especially of govern 
 mental policy, is an inseparable compound of the 
 two ; so that our best judgment of the preponder 
 ance between them is continually demanded. On 
 this principle, the President, his friends, and the 
 
136 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 world generally, act on most subjects. Why not 
 apply it, then, upon this question? Why, as to im 
 provements, magnify the evil, and stoutly refuse to 
 see 2cs\y good in them? June, 1848. 
 
 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "APPLIED 
 FOR" AND " GRANTED: 
 
 r I ^HE President tells us, that, at a certain point 
 of our history, more than two hundred mil 
 lions of dollars had been applied for, to make 
 improvements ; and this he does to prove that the 
 Treasury would be overwhelmed by such a system. 
 Why did he not tell us how much was granted? 
 Would not that have been better evidence? Let us 
 turn to it, and see what it proves. In the message, 
 the President tells us that " during the four succeed 
 ing years, embraced by the administration of Presi 
 dent Adams, the power, not only to appropriate 
 money, but to apply it, under the direction and 
 authority of the General Government, as well to 
 the construction of roads as to the improvement of 
 harbors and rivers, was fully asserted and exer 
 cised." 
 
 This, then, was the period of greatest enormity. 
 These, if any, must have been the days of the two 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 137 
 
 hundred millions. And how much do you suppose 
 was really expended for improvements during that 
 four years? Two hundred millions? One hundred? 
 Fifty? Ten? Five? No, sir: less than two mil 
 lions. As shown by authentic documents, the ex 
 penditures on improvements, during 1825, 1826, 
 1827, and 1828, amounted to $1,879,627.01. These 
 four years were the period of Mr. Adams s adminis 
 tration, nearly and substantially. This fact shows, 
 that, when the power to make improvements " was 
 fully asserted and exercised," the Congress did 
 keep within reasonable limits ; and what has been 
 done, it seems to me, can be done again. Jtine, 
 1848. ^ 
 
 ALL IMPROVEMENTS LIABLE TO IN 
 EQUALITY TO SOME ONE. 
 
 "VTEITHER the President, nor any one, can pos 
 sibly specify an improvement which shall not 
 be clearly liable to one or another of the objections 
 he has urged on the score of expediency. I have 
 shown, and might show again, that no work no 
 object can be so general as to dispense its benefits 
 with precise equality ; and this inequality is chief 
 among the " portentous consequences " for which 
 he declares that improvements should be arrested. 
 
I3& THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 No, sir : when the President intimates that some 
 thing in the way of improvements may properly be 
 done by the General Government, he is shrinking 
 from the conclusions to which his own arguments 
 would force him. He feels that the improvements 
 of this broad and goodly land are a mighty interest ; 
 and he is unwilling to confess to the people, or per 
 haps to himself, that he has built an argument, 
 which, when pressed to its conclusion, entirely an 
 nihilates this interest. 
 
 MR. POLK AND CHANCELLOR KENT. 
 
 TT is no disparagement to Mr. Polk, nor, indeed, 
 to any one who devotes much time to politics, 
 to be placed far behind Chancellor Kent as a law 
 yer. His attitude was most favorable to correct 
 conclusions. He wrote coolly, and in retirement. 
 He was struggling to rear a durable monument of 
 fame ; and he well knew that truth and thoroughly 
 sound reasoning were the only sure foundations. 
 Can the party opinion of a party President, on a 
 law-question, as this purely is, be at all compared 
 or set in opposition to that of such a man, in such 
 an attitude, as Chancellor Kent? 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 139 
 
 WORK TOGETHER. 
 
 T ET the nation take hold of the larger works, 
 "^^ and the States the smaller ones; and thus, 
 working in a meeting direction, discreetly, but 
 steadily and firmly, what is made unequal in one 
 place may be equalized in another, extravagance 
 avoided, and the whole country put on that career 
 of prosperity which shall correspond with its ex 
 tent of territory, its natural resources, and the intel 
 ligence and enterprise of its people. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 TN the preparation of this volume, we have been 
 obliged to resist the temptations constantly be 
 fore us, to enter upon the biography of President 
 Lincoln. We have held ourselves to our leading 
 object, a^id refrained as far as possible from narra- 
 
 tyfe. 
 
 The record of the President s life, as made by 
 himself for Mr. Charles Lanman s " Dictionary of 
 Congress," is in the following words : 
 
 Born, Feb. 12, 1809, * n Hardin County, Ken 
 tucky. 
 
 Education defective. 
 
 Profession, a lawyer. Have been a captain of 
 volunteers in the Black-Hawk war. 
 
 Postmaster at a very small office. Four times 
 a member of the Illinois Legislature. And was a 
 member of the lower house of Congress. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 A. LINCOLN. 
 
 [H3] 
 
144 TIIE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 It may be convenient to add to these dates the 
 following : 
 
 In 1849, he left Congress. In 1856, he received 
 one hundred and two votes, in the Republican Con 
 vention, as a candidate for Vice-President, to run 
 with Mr. Fremont. The Republicans of Illinois 
 named him at the head of their electoral ticket, 
 which did not succeed. In 1858, when a senator 
 was to be elected, he and Mr. Douglas canvassed 
 the State together, in that discussion, which gained 
 a national celebrity, from which we have made so 
 many extracts. 
 
 On the 1 6th May, 1860, in the last year of Mr. 
 James Buchanan s career, the Republican National 
 Convention met at Chicago. On the third ballot, 
 Mr. Lincoln was named its candidate for the Presi 
 dency. The following incident is preserved of the 
 announcement of the news to him. Such incidents 
 go far towards illustrating the traits of character 
 which endeared him so truly where he was best 
 known. 
 
 The superintendent of the Telegraph Company 
 wrote on a scrap of paper, " Mr. Lincoln : You 
 are nominated on the third ballot ; " and a boy ran 
 with tlu message to Mr. Lincoln. He looked at it 
 in silence, amid the shouts of those around him ; 
 
CONCLUSION. 145 
 
 then, rising and putting it in his pocket, he said 
 quietly, " There s a little woman down at our house 
 would like to hear this. I ll go down, and tell her." 
 On the 6th of November, 1860, he was elected 
 President. The popular vote gave 
 
 LINCOLN 1,866,452 
 
 DOUGLAS i>375>t57 
 
 BELL 590,631 
 
 BRECKINRIDGE 847,953 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, and Mr. Hamlin, the Vice-President, 
 received 180 electoral votes. Mr. Bell received 
 39; Mr. Douglas received 12; Mr. Breckinridge 
 received 72. 
 
 On his journey to Washington, in February, 1861, 
 he was received everywhere with enthusiasm. The 
 rebellion had already broken out, and the country 
 had no hope but in him. It is in this journey that 
 the following anecdotes find place : 
 
 At Northeast Station, he took occasion to say, that, 
 during the campaign, he had received a letter from 
 a young girl of the place, in which he was kindlv 
 admonished to do certain things ; and, among others, 
 to lot his whiskers grow ; and, as he had acted upon 
 that piece of advice, he would now be glad to wel 
 come his fair correspondent, if she was among the 
 crowd. In response to the call, a lassie made her 
 7 J 
 
146 
 
 way through the crowd, was helped on to the plat 
 form, and was kissed by the President. 
 
 At Utica he said, u I appear before you that I 
 may see you, and that you may see me ; and I am 
 willing to admit, that, so far as the ladies are con 
 cerned, I have the best of the bargain ; though I 
 wish it to be understood, that I do not make the 
 same acknowledgment concerning the men." 
 
 At Hudson he said, "I see you have provided a 
 platform ; but I shall have to decline standing on it. 
 I had to decline standing on some very handsome 
 platforms prepared for me yesterday. But I say to 
 you, as I said to them, you must not on this account 
 draw the inference, that I have any intention to 
 desert any platform I have a legitimate right to 
 stand on. 
 
 At Philadelphia, information was received which 
 made it certain that even then a plot was laid 
 against his life. This caution probably had reached 
 him, when, at a flag-raising on Independence Hall, 
 Philadelphia, he used these remarkable words : 
 
 " I have often inquired of myself, what great 
 principle or idea it was that kept this confederacy 
 so long together. It was something in the Declara 
 tion of Independence, giving liberty, not only to the 
 people of this country, but hope to the world for all 
 
CONCLUSION. 147 
 
 future time. It was that which gave promise, that, 
 in due time, the weights should be lifted from the 
 shoulders of all men, and that all should have an 
 equal chance. . . . Now, my friends, can this coun 
 try be saved upon this basis? If it can, I will con 
 sider myself one of the happiest men in the world, 
 if I can help to save it. But, if this country cannot 
 be saved without giving up that principle, I was 
 about to say, I would rather be assassinated upon 
 the spot than to surrender it." 
 
 Since his inauguration, his life belongs to the his 
 tory of the world. In the preceding chapters of 
 .this book, we have copied, as largely as our limits 
 allow, from the speeches, letters, messages, and 
 other public documents, which belong to it. 
 
 Some more personal traits appear in the follow 
 ing passages : 
 
 TAKES HIS OWN TIME AND HIS OWN 
 METHODS. 
 
 T SHALL do less, whenever I shall believe what 
 I am doing hurts the cause ; and I shall do 
 more, whenever I believe doing more will help the 
 cause. 
 
I shall try to corre6l errors, when shown to be 
 errors ; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they 
 shall appear to be true views. 
 
 I have here stated my purpose, according to my 
 views of official duty ; and I intend no modification 
 of my oft-expresSed personal wish, that all men 
 everywhere could be free. August, 1862. 
 
 PARAMOUNT OBJECT. 
 
 \ S to the policy I " seem to be pursuing," as 
 **- you say, I have not meant to leave any one 
 in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save 
 it in the shortest way under the Constitution. 
 
 The sooner the national authority can be re 
 stored, the nearer the Union will be, the Union 
 as it was. 
 
 If there be those who would not save the Union, 
 unless they could, at the same time, save slavery, I 
 do not agree with them. 
 
 If there be those who would not save the Union, 
 unless they could, at the same time, destroy slavery, 
 I do not agree with them. 
 
 My paramount object is to save the Union, and 
 not either to save or destroy slavery. August, 
 1862. 
 
CONCLUSION. 149 
 
 FROM THE PRESIDENT TO HORACE 
 GREELET. 
 
 (Ext rag.} 
 
 TF there be perceptible in it (your letter) an im 
 patient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in defer 
 ence to an old friend, whose heart I have always 
 supposed to be right. 
 
 He is the first President of the United States who 
 has completely abandoned the methods and tradi 
 tions of diplomacy in addressing himself to the 
 people. He seems to have preferred to explain 
 his policy himself to those whom he recognized as 
 the sovereign power of the nation, in exactly the 
 familiar, even conversational way, in which it 
 would eventually be discussed at men s firesides. 
 From this method of his, and from his profound 
 common sense, it resulted, that almost every address 
 of his, or published letter, really enlightened the 
 public, and gave new courage to the nation. It 
 was often said, that he was the only President who 
 did not injure himself by writing letters. The re 
 mark might go much farther. He did not speak 
 often, or write often. He always spoke with free 
 dom, yet never revealed any thing which he meant 
 
150 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 to keep secret/ or which needed to be kept secret. 
 And when he did speak, he almost invariably re 
 conciled, encouraged, or animated the people, who, 
 through the whole country, listened. 
 
 From his messages, we have made large extracts. 
 The close of the Message of December i, 1862, 
 illustrates the same responsibility which is evident 
 in all of them. 
 
 WE BELONG TO HIS TORT. 
 
 pELLOW-CITIZENS, We cannot escape 
 history. We, of this Congress and this Ad 
 ministration, will be remembered in spite of our 
 selves. . . . We say, that we are for the Union. 
 The world will not forget that we say this. We 
 know how to save the Union. The world knows 
 we know how to save it. We even we here 
 hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In 
 giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to 
 the free, honorable alike in what we give and 
 what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly 
 lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may 
 succeed : this could not, cannot fail. The way is 
 plain, peaceful, generous, just; a way which, if 
 followed, the world will for ever applaud, and God 
 must for ever bless. 
 
CONCLUSION. 151 
 
 THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 This sense of an unbounded responsibility, im 
 posed on the nation and its officers by the living 
 God, is the theme of the Inaugural of the 4th of 
 March, 1865. 
 
 "pELLOW-COUNTRYMEN, At this second 
 appearing to take the oath of the Presidential 
 office, there is less occasion for an extended address 
 than there was at the first. Then a statement some 
 what in detail of a course to be pursued seemed 
 very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of 
 four years, during which public declarations have 
 constantly been called forth on every point and 
 phase of the great contest which still absorbs the 
 attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, 
 little that is new could be presented. 
 
 The progress of our arms, upon which all else 
 chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as 
 to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory 
 and encouraging to all. With high hope for the 
 future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 
 On the occasion corresponding to this, four years 
 ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an im 
 pending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to 
 
152 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 avoid it. While the inaugural address was being 
 delivered from this place, devoted altogether to sav 
 ing the Union without war, insurgent agents were 
 in the city, seeking to destroy it without war, 
 seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects 
 by negotiation. 
 
 Both parties deprecated war ; but one of them 
 would make war rather than let the nation survive, 
 and the other would accept war rather than let it 
 perish : and the war came. 
 
 One-eighth of the whole population were colored 
 slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but 
 located in the southern part of it. These slaves 
 constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All 
 knew that this interest was somehow the cause of 
 the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend 
 this interest was the object for which the insurgents 
 would rend the Union by war, while Government 
 claimed no right to do more than to restrict the ter 
 ritorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected 
 the magnitude or the duration which it has already 
 attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the 
 conflict might cease, even before the conflict itself 
 should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, 
 and a result less fundamental and astounding. 
 Both read the same Bible and pray to the same 
 
CONCLUSION. 153 
 
 God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It 
 may seem strange that any man should dare to ask 
 a just God s assistance in wringing his bread from 
 the sweat of other men s faces. But let us judge 
 not, that we be not judged. The prayer of both 
 should not be answered. That of neither has been 
 answered fully. The Almighty has his own pur 
 poses. " Woe unto the world because of offences, 
 for it must needs be that offences come ; but woe to 
 that man by whom the offence cometh." If we 
 shall suppose that American slavery is one of these 
 offences, which, in the providence of God, must 
 needs come, but which, having continued through 
 his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and 
 that he gives to both North and South this terrible 
 war as the woe due to those by whom the offence 
 came, shall we discern therein any departure from 
 those divine attributes which the believers in a liv 
 ing God always ascribe to him? 
 
 Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that 
 this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. 
 Yet if God wills that it continue until all the 
 wealth piled by the bondman s two hundred and 
 fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until 
 every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be 
 paid by another drawn with the sword, as was 
 7* 
 
154 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 said three thousand years ago ; so still it must be 
 said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and 
 righteous altogether. 
 
 With malice towards none, with charity for all, 
 with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see 
 the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are 
 in ; to bind up the nation s wound ; to care for him 
 who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow 
 and his orphans ; to do all which may achieve and 
 cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves, 
 and with all nations. 
 
 The victories of March and April gave some 
 relief to the tremendous strain of responsibility 
 which had weighed on the President so long. In 
 March he visited the camp before Petersburg and 
 Richmond ; and, with his easy and constant desire to 
 maintain personal relations with the people, he sent 
 himself the daily bulletins of victory, from one of 
 which we have quoted the sad prophecy which is 
 the motto of this book. 
 
 He had returned to Washington before Lee s sur 
 render. On the night when that news was received, 
 he was called out by an eager throng, who sere 
 naded him, to address them. He made his last 
 long speech. His face, so often sad and careworn, 
 
CONCLUSION. 155 
 
 " beamed with a patriotic joy." These are the 
 words of a sensative bystander. The President 
 said, 
 
 " We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in 
 gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg 
 and Richmond, and surrender of the principal 
 insurgent army, give hopes of a righteous and 
 speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be 
 restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from 
 whom all blessings flow* must not be forgotten. 
 A call for a National Thanksgiving is being pre 
 pared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must 
 those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoic 
 ing be overlooked ; their honors must not be par 
 celled out with others. I myself was near the front, 
 and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of 
 the good news to you ; but no part of the honor 
 for the plan or execution is mine. To General 
 Grant, his skilful officers and brave men, it all 
 belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was 
 not in reach to take an active part. 
 
 "Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that 
 we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to 
 the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction. 
 
 " By these recent successes the re-inauguration of 
 the national authority, the reconstruction of which 
 
i S 6 
 
 has had a large share of thought from the first, is 
 pressed much more closely upon our attention. It 
 is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike a case of 
 war between independent nations, there is no au 
 thorized organ for us to treat with ; no one man has 
 authority to give up the rebellion for any other 
 man. We simply must begin with and mould from 
 disorganized and discordant elements. 
 
 " As a general rule, I abstain from reading the 
 reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be 
 provoked by that to which I cannot properlv return 
 an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, 
 it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured 
 for some supposed agency in setting up and seeking 
 to sustain the new State government of Louisiana. 
 In this I have done just so much and no more than 
 the public knows. In the annual message of 
 December, 1863, and accompanying proclamation, 
 I presented a plan of reconstruction, as the phrase 
 goes, which I promised, if adopted by any State, 
 would be acceptable to and sustained by the Execu 
 tive Government of the nation. I distinctly stated 
 that this was not the only plan which might possi 
 bly be accepted, and I also distinctly protested that 
 the Executive claimed no right to say when or 
 whether members should be entitled to seats in 
 
CONCLUSION. 157 
 
 Congress from such States. This plan was in ad 
 vance submitted to the then Cabinet, and approved 
 by every member of it. One of them suggested that 
 I should then and in that connection apply the 
 emancipation proclamation to the excepted parts 
 of Virginia and Louisiana ; that I should drop the 
 suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, 
 and that I should omit the protest against my own 
 power in regard to the admission of members of 
 Congress ; but even he approved every part and 
 parcel of the plan which has since been employed 
 or touched by the action of Louisiana. The new 
 Constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation 
 for the whole State, practically applies the procla 
 mation to the part previously excepted ; it does not 
 adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and is silent, 
 as it could not well be otherwise, about the admis 
 sion of members to Congress. So that, as it 
 applied to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet 
 fully approved the plan. The message went to 
 Congress, and I received many commendations t of 
 the plan, written and verbal ; and not a single objec 
 tion to it from any professed emancipationist came 
 to my knowledge until after the news reached 
 Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun 
 to move in accordance with it. From about July, 
 
158 
 
 1862, I had corresponded with different persons 
 supposed to be interested in the reconstruction of a 
 State government for Louisiana. When the mes 
 sage of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, 
 reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote me 
 that he was confident the people, with his military 
 co-operation, would reconstruct substantially on 
 that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to 
 try it. They tried it, and the result is known. 
 Such has been my only agency in getting up the 
 Louisiana government. As to sustaining it, my 
 promise is out, as before stated ; but, as bad prom 
 ises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as 
 a bad promise, and break it whenever I shall be 
 convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public 
 interest : but I have not yet been so convinced. I 
 have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed 
 to be an able one, in which the writer expresses 
 regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely 
 fixed on the question, whether the seceded States, 
 so<called, are in the Union or out of it. It would, 
 perhaps, add astonishment to his regret, were he to 
 learn, that, since I have found professed Union men 
 endeavoring to answer that question, I have pur 
 posely forborne any public expression upon it. As 
 it appears to me, that question has not been, nor is 
 
CONCLUSION. 159 
 
 yet, a practically material one ; and thus any dis 
 cussion of it, while it thus remains practically 
 immaterial, could have no effect other than the 
 mischievous one of dividing our friends ; yet, what 
 ever it may become, that question is bad as a basis 
 of controversy, and good for nothing at all. 
 
 " We all agree, that the seceded States, so called, 
 are out of their proper practical relation with the 
 Union ; and that the sole object of the Government, 
 civil and military, in regard to these States, is to 
 again get them into that proper practical relation. 
 I believe it is not only possible, but in fact easier, 
 to do this, without deciding, or even considering, 
 whether those States have ever been out of the 
 Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at 
 home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they 
 had been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts 
 necessary to restore the proper practical relations 
 between these States and the Union ; and each for 
 ever after innocently indulge his own opinion, 
 whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States 
 from without into the Union, or only gave them 
 proper assistance, they never having been out 
 of it. 
 
 " The amount of constituency, so to speak, on 
 which the Louisiana government rests, would be 
 
160 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 more satisfactory to all, if it contained fifty thousand 
 or thirty thousand, or even twenty thousand, instead 
 of twelve thousand, as it does. It is also unsatis 
 factory to some, that the elective franchise is not 
 given to the colored man. I would myself prefer 
 that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, 
 and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. 
 Still the question is not, whether the Louisiana 
 government, as it stands, is quite all that is desira 
 ble. The question is, Will it be wiser to take it 
 as it is, and help to improve it, or to reject it ? Can 
 Louisiana be brought into the proper practical 
 relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or 
 discarding her new State government ? Some 
 twelve thousand voters, in the heretofore Slave State 
 of Louisiana, have sworn allegiance to the Union, 
 assumed to be the rightful political power of the 
 State, held elections, organized a State government, 
 adopted a Free-State Constitution, giving the bene 
 fit of the public schools equally to white and black, 
 and empowering the Legislature to confer the elec 
 tive franchise upon the colored man. This Legis 
 lature has already voted to ratify the Constitutional 
 amendment, recently passed by Congress, abolish 
 ing slavery throughout the nation. 
 
 " These twelve thousand persons are thus fully 
 
CONCLUSION. l6l 
 
 committed to the Union, and to perpetuate freedom 
 in the State, committed to the very things and 
 nearly all the things the nation wants ; and they ask 
 the nation s recognition and its assistance to make 
 good this committal. Now, if we reject and spurn 
 them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse 
 them. We, in fact, say to the white man, You are 
 worthless, or worse : w r e will neither help you, nor 
 be helped by you/ To the blacks we say, This 
 cup of liberty, which these your old masters hold to 
 your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to 
 the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered 
 contents in some vague and undefined manner, 
 when, where, or how we cannot tell. If this 
 course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and 
 black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into 
 proper practical relations with the Union, I have so 
 far been unable to perceive it. 
 
 " If, on the contrary, we recognize and sustain the 
 new government of Louisiana, the converse of all 
 this is true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the 
 arms of twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and 
 argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it ;. 
 and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete 
 success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united 
 for him, is inspired with vigilance and energy and 
 
162 
 
 daring to the same end. Grant that he desires the 
 elective franchise, will he not obtain it sooner by 
 saving the already advanced steps towards it than 
 by falling backwards over them ? 
 
 " Concede that the new government of Louisiana 
 is only to what it should be as the egg is to the 
 fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the 
 egg than by smashing it. 
 
 " Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject 
 her vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the 
 national Constitution. To meet this proposition, it 
 has been argued that no more than three-fourths of 
 those States which have not attempted secession, 
 are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I 
 do not commit myself against this further than to 
 say, that such a ratification would be questionable, 
 and sure to be persistently questioned, while its rati 
 fication by three-fourths of all the States would be 
 unquestioned and unquestionable. 
 
 " I repeat the question, Can Louisiana be 
 brought into proper practical relations with the 
 Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her 
 new State government? 
 
 " What has been said of Louisiana will apply to 
 other States ; and yet so great peculiarities pertain 
 to each State, and such important and sudden 
 
CONCLUSION. 163 
 
 changes occur in the same State, and withal so new 
 and unprecedented is the whole case, that no ex 
 clusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed 
 as to details and collaterals. Such an exclusive 
 and inflexible plan would surely become a new en 
 tanglement. Important principles may and must 
 be inflexible. In the present situation, as the phrase 
 goes, it may be my duty to make some new an 
 nouncement to the people of the South. I am con 
 sidering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that 
 action will be proper." 
 
 INTEMPERANCE IN THE ARMT. 
 
 TN answer to a delegation of the Sons of Temper- 
 ance on this subject, the President replied in 
 substance : When he was a young man, long ago, 
 before the Sons of Temperance, as an organization, 
 had an existence, he, in a humble way, made tem 
 perance speeches ; and he thought he might say, 
 that, to this day, he had never, by his example, 
 belied what he then said. As to the suggestions for 
 the purpose of the advancement of the cause of 
 ten perance in the army, he could not respond" td 
 them. To prevent intemperance in the army is the 
 aim of a great part of the rules and articles of war. 
 
164 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 It is part of the law of the land, and was so, he 
 presumed, long ago, to dismiss officers for drunken 
 ness. He was not sure, that, consistently with the 
 public service, more could be done than has been 
 done. All, therefore, he could promise, was to have 
 a copy of the address submitted to the principal 
 departments, and have it considered whether it con 
 tains any suggestions which will improve the cause 
 of temperance and repress drunkenness in the army 
 any better than is already done. He thought the 
 reasonable men of the world have long since agreed, 
 that drunkenness is one of the greatest, if not the 
 very greatest, of all evils among mankind. That is 
 not a matter of dispute. All men agree that intem 
 perance is a great curse, but differ about the cure. 
 The suggestion that it existed to a great extent in 
 the army was true ; but, whether that was the cause 
 of defeats, he knew not : but he did know that there 
 was a great deal of it on the other side ; therefore 
 they had no right to beat us on that ground. 
 
 *T^HE following incident, as related by the Wash- 
 "* ington correspondent of the " Chicago Trib 
 une," is a touching instance of his genuine goodness 
 
CONCLUSION. 165 
 
 of heart, combined with the native simplicity of a 
 country gentleman : 
 
 " I dropped in upon Mr. Lincoln on Monday last, 
 and found him busily engaged in counting green 
 backs. l This, sir, said he, is something out of my 
 usual line ; but a President of the United States has 
 a multiplicity of duties not specified in the Consti 
 tution, or Ads of Congress : this is one of them. 
 This money belongs to a poor negro, who is a por 
 ter in one of the departments (the Treasury), and 
 who is at present very sick with the small-pox. He 
 is now in the hospital, and could not draw his pay, 
 because he could not sign his name. k I have been 
 at considerable trouble to overcome the difficulty, 
 and get it for him ; and have at length succeeded 
 in cutting red tape, as you newspaper-men say. I 
 am now dividing the money, and putting by a por 
 tion, labelled in an envelope with my own hands, 
 according to his wish/" 
 
 HONOR TO WHOM HONOR. 
 
 T ADIES and gentlemen, I appear to say but a 
 word. This extraordinary war, in which we 
 are engaged, falls heavily upon all classes of peo 
 ple, but the most heavily upon the soldier. For, it 
 
1 66 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 has been said, " all that a man hath will he give for 
 his life ; " and, while all contribute of their sub 
 stance, the soldier puts his life at stake, and often 
 yields it up in his country s cause. The highest 
 merit, then, is due to the soldier. 
 
 HIS LAST WRITING. 
 
 r I ^HE last words written by Mr. Lincoln were 
 addressed to Hon. George Ashmun of Massa 
 chusetts. They were written by him after he got 
 into the carriage to go to the theatre, on a card 
 upon his knee, and were as follows : " Allow Mr. 
 Ashmun and friend to come to me at nine, A.M., 
 to-morrow. A. LINCOLN." 
 
 the I4th of April, the United-States flag was 
 raised on Fort Sumter, where it had been 
 struck four years before. In the observance of that 
 holiday, the President and General Grant were in 
 vited to Ford s theatre, at Washington. General 
 Grant was not able to go. Mr. Lincoln went, 
 though unwilling. " I should be sorry," he said, 
 " to have people disappointed." These are, per 
 haps, the last words of the President, which may 
 rightly be published to the world. 
 
CONCLUSION. 167 
 
 HIS LAST SPEECH IN PUBLIC. 
 
 T TIS last speech in public was in response to a 
 A serenade, Wednesday night, the night follow 
 ing the passage of the Amendment of the Constitu 
 tion. President Lincoln said he supposed the 
 passage through Congress of the Constitutional 
 Amendment, for abolishing slavery throughout the 
 United States, was the occasion to which he was 
 indebted for the honor of this call. The occa 
 sion was one of congratulation to the country 
 and to the w r hole world. But there is a task yet 
 before us, to go forward and consummate by the 
 votes of the States that which Congress so nobly 
 began yesterday. [Applause, and cries, " They 
 will do it."] He had the honor to inform those 
 present that Illinois had already, to-day, done the 
 work. Maryland was about half through ; but he 
 felt proud that Illinois was a little ahead. He 
 thought this measure was a very fitting one, if not 
 an indispensable one, adjunct to the winding-up of 
 the great difficult) . 
 
 He wished the Union of all the States perfected, 
 and so effected as to remove all causes of disturb 
 ance in the future ; and, to obtain this end, it was 
 
1 68 
 
 necessary that the original disturbing cause should, 
 if possible, be rooted out. 
 
 He thought all would bear him witness, that he 
 had never shrunk from doing all that he could to 
 eradicate slavery, by issuing an emancipation pro 
 clamation ; but that proclamation falls far short of 
 what the amendment will be when fully consum 
 mated. 
 
 A question might be raised, whether the procla 
 mation, was legally valid. It might be added, that 
 it only aided those who came into our lines ; and 
 that it was inoperative as to those who did not give 
 themselves up, or that it would have no effect upon 
 children of slaves born hereafter. In fact, it would 
 be urged that it did not meet the evil ; but this 
 amendment is a king s cure for all evils. It winds 
 the whole thing up. He would repeat, that it was 
 the fitting, if not indispensable, adjunct to the con 
 summation of the great game we are playing. He 
 could not but congratulate all present, the country, 
 the whole world, and himself, upon this great moral 
 victory. 
 
 77/5 LAST INTERVIEW WITH HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 I 
 
 N the afternoon of the fatal Friday, the President 
 had a long and pleasant interview with General 
 
CONCLUSION. 169 
 
 Oglesby, Senator Yates, and other leading citizens 
 of his State. In the evening, Mr. Colfax called 
 again at his request ; and Mr. Ashmun of Massa 
 chusetts, who presided over the Chicago Convention 
 of 1860, was present. To them he spoke of his 
 visit to Richmond ; and when they stated that there 
 was much uneasiness at the North while he was at 
 the rebel capital, for fear that some traitor might 
 shoot him, he replied, jocularly, that he would have 
 been alarmed himself if any other person had been 
 President, and gone there ; but that he did not feel 
 that he was in any danger whatever. 
 
 Conversing on a matter of business with Mr. 
 Ashmun, he made a remark that he saw Mr. Ash 
 mun was surprised at ; and immediately, with his 
 well-known kindness of heart, said, " You did not 
 understand me, Ashmun ; I did not mean what you 
 inferred, and I will take it all back and apologize 
 for it." He afterwards gave Mr. Ashmun a card to 
 admit himself and friend early next morning, to con 
 verse further about it. 
 
 Turning to Mr. Colfax, he said, " You are going 
 with me and Mrs. Lincoln to the theatre, I hope." 
 But Mr. Colfax had other engagements, expecting 
 to leave the city the next morning. He then said to 
 Mr. Colfax, "Mr. Sumner has the gavel of the 
 8 
 
170 THE PRESIDENT S WORDS. 
 
 Confederate Congress, which he got at Richmond to 
 hand to the Secretary of War ; but I insisted then 
 that he must give it to you : tell him for me to hand 
 it over." Mr. Ashmun alluded to the gavel, which 
 he still had, and which he had used at the Chicago 
 Convention ; and the President, and Mrs. Lincoln, 
 who was also in the parlor, rose to go to the theatre. 
 It was half an hour after the time they had intended 
 to start, and they spoke about waiting half an hour 
 longer ; for the President started with much reluc 
 tance, as General Grant had gone North, and he did 
 not wish the people to be disappointed, as they had 
 both been advertised to be there. At the door he 
 stopped and said, " Colfax, do not forget to tell the 
 people in the mining regions, as you pass through 
 them, what I told you this morning about the devel 
 opment when peace comes ; and I will telegraph 
 you at San Francisco." He shook hands with both 
 gentlemen, with a pleasant " good-by," and left the 
 Executive Mansion, never to return to it alive. 
 
INDEX. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Abolitionists shall be hung 65 
 
 Absolute Suffocation 70 
 
 African Slave-trade Piracy 62 
 
 All of a Feather 17 
 
 All that a Man hath 166 
 
 All would go\vell 126 
 
 Almighty has his own Purposes 153 
 
 Amending the Constitution 131 
 
 An Old Friend 149 
 
 Apologize for it 169 
 
 Appeal to Justice and Human Sympathy 101 
 
 Applied for and Granted 136 
 
 Apprenticeship for Freedmen 157 
 
 Are Republicans radical ? 14 
 
 Are the Decisions in Supreme Court irrevocable ? . . 32 
 
 Argued up 25 
 
 As Commander-in-Chief 97 
 
 Ashmun, Hon. George 166, 169 
 
 Attempt the End, &c 133 
 
 A Whole Man, or only Half 69 
 
 Bad Promise, Treat this as a 158 
 
 Banks, General 158 
 
 Beamed with a Patriotic Joy 155 
 
 Behind the Cloud, &c 117 
 
 Belongs to History 150 
 
 Better Angels of our Nature 33 
 
 [173] 
 
1 74 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Bind up the Nation s Wound 154 
 
 Black and White 80 
 
 Blessed are the Peacemakers 99 
 
 Blood of Abel 21 
 
 Bone of Contention . . . , 18 
 
 Border States and the Proclamation 36 
 
 Both read the same Bible 152 
 
 Bowie-knives and Ballot-boxes 64 
 
 Bull by the Horns 19 
 
 Bull Run 98 
 
 Buy them in Africa 57 
 
 California and Slavery 105 
 
 Canada Thistle 89 
 
 Can never Forget what they did 121 
 
 Cannot consent to lose the Time 47 
 
 Cease to call Slavery Wrong 85 
 
 " Chicago Tribune " 164 
 
 Chief-Justice Taney 79 
 
 Clay and Webster 114 
 
 Coal and Abstractions 132 
 
 Coercion and Invasion 28 
 
 Commander to Sentinel 46 
 
 Common Charge 91 
 
 Common Father 126 
 
 Compromise 43 
 
 Compromises of 1850 74 
 
 Conclusion < . 143 
 
 Contracts 26 
 
 Cool 23 
 
 Corredl Errors 148 
 
 Crawls up to buy your Slave 61 
 
 Crisis artificial 25 
 
 Cup of Liberty 161 
 
 Cutting one another s Throats 90 
 
 Dead-heads 94 
 
INDEX. 175 
 
 TAGS. 
 
 Decisions of Supreme Court 32 
 
 Declaration of Independence 66 
 
 Despise him utterly . . . 61 
 
 Difficult Role 42 
 
 Diplomacy abandoned 149 
 
 Dirty, Disagreeable Job 68 
 
 Discordant Elernents 156 
 
 Dismiss Officers for Drunkenness 164 
 
 Divine Right of Kings 61 
 
 Divorce 26 
 
 Do nothing at all 131 
 
 Don t swap Horses, &c 48 
 
 Douglas s Dread no 
 
 Douglas for the Negro 86 
 
 Douglas s Version 15 
 
 Dred-Scott Decision 78 
 
 Dred-Scott Decision erroneous 112 
 
 Dred Scott, his Wife, and two Daughters 76 
 
 Dr. Kennedy 38 
 
 Dr. McPheeters 43 
 
 Duties of the President 165 
 
 Egg to the Fowl 162 
 
 Elder-stalk Squirts and Rosewater 95 
 
 Elective Franchise to Colored Men 160 
 
 Elevation of Men 13 
 
 Emancipation 90 
 
 Emancipation will not reduce the Wages of White Labor 91 
 
 Enlisting Colored Troops 42 
 
 Equal in Rights 78 
 
 Equal of the Hog 102 
 
 Equal Rights 58, 83 
 
 Extension of Slavery 71 
 
 Facts, not Arguments 20 
 
 Faith 117 
 
 Faith, Hope, and Love 33 
 
176 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Faith in God 118 
 
 Faith in our Future nS 
 
 Father of his Country 120 
 
 Few Things wholly Evil 135 
 
 Flag-raising 146 
 
 Fools rush in, &c 19 
 
 Four Sides 39 
 
 Fourth of July, 1863 44 
 
 Free Blacks 101 
 
 Free Labor 1 1 
 
 Free-love Arrangement 29 
 
 Fremont, Butler, and Sigel 40 
 
 Free-State Democrat 57 
 
 From whence come Murders ? 100 
 
 Fundamental Idea 36 
 
 Gates of Hell, &c 119 
 
 General Curtis 41 
 
 General Grant, It all belongs to 155 
 
 General Hunter 97 
 
 General Schofield 42 
 
 Genus Democrat 58 
 
 Gettysburg 120 
 
 Go, and God speed you 59 
 
 Go back to that Old Policy 25 
 
 God and Mammon 60 
 
 God and the People 120 
 
 God must for ever bless 150 
 
 God never forsakes his People 119 
 
 God s Eternal Justice 88 
 
 God s Revelations 35 
 
 God s Support 119 
 
 God s Will 118 
 
 God would reveal his Will 35 
 
 Good Book-law 103 
 
 Good-bye 170 
 
INDEX. 177 
 
 PACK. 
 
 Good Temper 12 
 
 Go, Sacred Thing 71 
 
 Gradual Emancipation 73, 97 
 
 Great Behemoth 71 
 
 Great Moral Wrong in 
 
 Gutberth Bullitt -92 
 
 Habeas Corpus 39 
 
 Half-insane Mumbling 21 
 
 Hard Nut to crack 77 
 
 Harper s Ferry 22 
 
 Hath no Relish of Salvation 71 
 
 Hawked at and Torn So 
 
 Hedged and Hemmed it in 72 
 
 He from whom all Blessings flow ^ . 155 
 
 He that observeth, &c 132 
 
 He who gathereth not, scattereth 27 
 
 Highest Merit due the Soldier 166 
 
 Hired Labor 12 
 
 His Biography 143 
 
 His Mite 133 
 
 His Whiskers 145 
 
 Hogs and Negroes 62 
 
 Homoeopathic Pills 29 
 
 Honor to whom Honor 165 
 
 Hope 117 
 
 Horace Greeley 99, 149 
 
 How did the Fathers acl? 17 
 
 How shall we Treat the South So 
 
 How should it be Kept? 30 
 
 Hudson 146 
 
 Hunter s Proclamation 53 
 
 Ifs and Buts 36 
 
 Illinois a little Ahead 167 
 
 Illinois and Michigan Canal 134 
 
 Inaugural Address 151 
 
 8* L 
 
1 78 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Increase of Colored Population 104 
 
 Independence Hall 14, 146 
 
 Insurrections 24 
 
 Intemperance in the Army 163 
 
 Internal Improvements 129 
 
 Irrevocably fixed 32 
 
 I shall do Nothing in Malice 96 
 
 Is Slavery Unimportant 89 
 
 Issue with the South 28 
 
 It is in the Constitution 68 
 
 It is simply a War-measure 97 
 
 I will suffer Death 32 
 
 Jefferson 87 
 
 Jefferson and Adams 44 
 
 Jefferson and Douglas . 88 
 
 Jefferson never thought of 70 
 
 Judgments of the Lord are True 154 
 
 Judge not, that we be not Judged 153 
 
 Judicial Decisions in 
 
 Justice of the People ....117 
 
 Keep Cool 27 
 
 Keep them among us as Underlings? 73 
 
 Kept out of the Union 105 
 
 Key to the Mistake no 
 
 Kicking off King and Lords 16 
 
 Know how to save the Union . 150 
 
 Knows not where he is 22 
 
 Ladies 146 
 
 Last Interview with his Friends 168 
 
 Last Speech in Public 167 
 
 Last Words 166 
 
 Last Writing 166 
 
 Less could not More would not 72 
 
 Less than an American 66 
 
 Less than Two Millions 137 
 
INDEX. 179 
 
 TACK. 
 
 Let it Stand as it is 131 
 
 Letter hitherto Unpublished 92 
 
 Let the Fathers answer 102 
 
 Level with Mexico 33 
 
 Liberia 73 
 
 Liberty of all Men 64 
 
 Liberty s Saving-clause 31 
 
 Life and Limb 50 
 
 Little Woman 145 
 
 Live or Die by 14 
 
 Local and Partial 130 
 
 Local Improvements 134 
 
 Locate nowhere 129 
 
 Locked and Bolted in Si 
 
 Louisiana 156 
 
 Lullaby Argument 104 
 
 Majority rules 121 
 
 Make Profit of the Negro 64 
 
 Mammon is after him 81 
 
 Mankind against it no 
 
 Marion s Men 66 
 
 Marry your Girls So 
 
 Maryland half through 167 
 
 Mason and Dixon 84 
 
 Maternal Gag 74 
 
 Matter of Dollars and Cents 113 
 
 McClcllan not to blame 34 
 
 Mexican War 20 
 
 Military Elections 38 
 
 Military Necessity to have Men and Money .... 93 
 
 Misleads Nobody 133 
 
 Missouri Compromise 65 
 
 Missouri Radicals 38 
 
 More Devout . . 126 
 
 More Pegs than Holes 41 
 
ISO INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Mouth to be Fed " 
 
 Mr. Petitt 
 
 Mr. Polk and Chancellor Kent *& 
 
 My Equal, and the Equal of Judge Douglas .... 59 
 
 My Sacred Rights 
 
 Mystic Chords of Memory 33 
 
 National or State Authority 3 
 
 Naturalization 
 
 Naturally Antislavery 
 
 Nebraska Bill 
 
 Negro a Man ^ 
 
 Negro and his Money 
 
 Negroes and Crocodiles 
 
 Negro is not my Equal 
 
 Negro Livery-stable 
 
 Negro Suffrage 
 
 Negro : White man : : Crocodile : Negro *>7 
 
 New Birth of Freedom 
 
 New Entanglement . . . 
 
 New Hampshire and Virginia J 9 
 
 New Lights . 
 
 New Orleans and Buffalo 
 
 Nine-tenths of all the Mulattoes 77 
 
 No Compromise 
 
 No Fear of Amalgamation 
 
 No Man good enough, &c 
 
 No Mental Reservations 
 
 No Precedent 
 
 North, South, East, West 
 
 North-east Station 
 
 No Slight Occasion 
 
 Not Enemies, but Friends 
 
 Not for us is against us 
 
 Nothing for me, Nothing for you X 34 
 
 Not suited to Slave-labor 
 
INDEX. iSl 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Oath paramount 124 
 
 Obnoxious Inequality 129 
 
 Official Oath 52 
 
 Oglesby, General 169 
 
 " Ohio Statesman " 83 
 
 One Self-evident Truth 109 
 
 Onions and Potatoes 89 
 
 Only Loaf 18 
 
 Opportunity for Condemnation 122 
 
 Orsini 22 
 
 Our Father will decide 125 
 
 Out of the Abundance of his Heart, &c 63 
 
 Overwhelm the Treasury 130 
 
 Paramount Object 148 
 
 Passional Attraction 29 
 
 Patient 17 
 
 Patrick s New Boots 130 
 
 People in Mass 119 
 
 People the only Masters 122 
 
 Perfect Liberty 70 
 
 Personal Traits 147 
 
 Phillips and Napoleon 55 
 
 Physical Facts of the Case 35 
 
 Platforms 146 
 
 Policy of the Fathers 25 
 
 Folk s Fever-dream 21 
 
 Folk s Five Propositions 130 
 
 Polygamy 15 
 
 Poor Whites 67 
 
 Pope s Bull against the Comet 100 
 
 Popular Sovereignty 57 
 
 Popular Sovereignty retrograde 113 
 
 Popular Vote 145 
 
 Portentous Consequences 137 
 
 Precedents and Authorities . in 
 
1 83 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Proclamation legally Valid 168 
 
 Proclamation of Emancipation 98 
 
 Professed Union Men 94 
 
 Protection to Colored Soldiers 96 
 
 Rather be Assassinated 147 
 
 Read for themselves 34 
 
 Real Knell of the Union 101 
 
 Reconstruction 45 
 
 Red Cotton Handkerchief a Head 20 
 
 Renomination 47 
 
 Republican National Convention 144 
 
 Rebublican Robe is soiled 67 
 
 Responsibility to our Maker 51 
 
 Restore the Missouri Compromise 99 
 
 Retribution will be surely given 96 
 
 Returning Fugitive Slaves 42 
 
 Return their Fugitive Slaves 86 
 
 Richard M. Johnson 81 
 
 Right 46 
 
 Right and Necessity 67 
 
 Right first, Enforcement after 107 
 
 Rightful Masters 123 
 
 Right makes Might 84 
 
 Rise up, and call us Blessed 67 
 
 Rough Angles of the War 94 
 
 Rule of the Minority 29 
 
 Rushing to Arms 74 
 
 Sacred Right of Slavery 59 
 
 Save the Union 100 
 
 Save your Money 89 
 
 Seal and Stamp of the Almighty 85 
 
 Sell out and Buy out 90 
 
 Selfishness and Slavery 63 
 
 Senator or President 14 
 
 Separation of the Races 108 
 
INDEX. 183 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Serpent s Eye 21 
 
 Sheep and Wolf 56 
 
 Sheet-anchor ...... 19 
 
 Ship of State 123 
 
 Shrinking from Conclusions 138 
 
 Silas Wright 133 
 
 Silent Tongue and Clenched Teeth 55 
 
 Simple-minded Soldier-boy 37 
 
 Slave-dealer 61 
 
 Slaveholders and Amalgamation 76 
 
 Slavery 56 
 
 Slavery and Climate 82 
 
 Slavery in the Territories 70 
 
 Slavery not wrong, Nothing wrong 124 
 
 Slavery the Source of Amalgamation 109 
 
 Snaky Contact 62 
 
 Spots about 129 
 
 Squatter Sovereignty 13 
 
 Stake played for 103 
 
 Stand and deliver 23 
 
 Standard Maxim 107 
 
 Stand by Duty 84 
 
 Stand by our Guns 17 
 
 Stand by the Helm 123 
 
 Stand with Anybody that stands Right 65 
 
 Stanton and McClellan 34 
 
 Stick to the Proposition 18 
 
 Still Americans 75 
 
 Stone of Stumbling 77 
 
 Strength of Republics 51 
 
 Stuff and Preserve his Skin 58 
 
 Success of Grant 49 
 
 Sufficient unto the Day, &c. 112 
 
 Sumner and the Gavel 169 
 
 Sumter, Fort 166 
 
184 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Support of the People 123 
 
 Takes his own Time 147 
 
 Take jour Time 51 
 
 Telegram . . 144 
 
 Tennessee River 98 
 
 Texas 106 
 
 That Shoot . . . 14 
 
 The Constitution 50 
 
 The Dead Palsy 92 
 
 The Declaration a Wreck 15 
 
 The Draft 47 
 
 The Liberal Party 64 
 
 Their Life-long Friend 113 
 
 The Negro 55 
 
 The Obligation 30 
 
 The plainest Print cannot be read through a gold Eagle 76 
 
 The Shepherd as a Liberator 56 
 
 The War Power 45 
 
 Thomas J. Durant 92 
 
 Three-fifths Vote 68 
 
 Throttled the Man 66 
 
 Thunder-struck and Stunned 75 
 
 Tobacco, or horned Cattle no 
 
 To Move from, not to Remove to 68 
 
 To the Laws and Constitution 31 
 
 Too few Arrests 37 
 
 Toiling up 119 
 
 Tonnage Duties 129 
 
 Touch neither Sail nor Pump 94 
 
 To whom it may Concern 48 
 
 Three Cheers for General Grant 49 
 
 Three Ways to make Peace 41 
 
 Three Years more 50 
 
 Traitor forfeits his Slave 98 
 
 Tree of Good and Evil 60 
 
INDEX. 185 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Tremble for my Country 88 
 
 Turned Tail, and ran 45 
 
 Turns unto the Gentiles , . . 114 
 
 Two and Two do not make Four 74 
 
 Two Heads or one ? 26 
 
 Two hundred and fifty Years of Unrequited Toil . . 153 
 
 Two Strong Hands 12 
 
 Unfriendly Legislation 14 
 
 Union 26 
 
 Union or Slavery 100 
 
 Union-savers 76 
 
 Utah 15 
 
 Utah and New Mexico 106 
 
 Utica 146 
 
 Vallandigham 37 
 
 Vice-President 144 
 
 Victories of March and April 154 
 
 Washington, Jefferson, and Madison 80 
 
 Wash it White 67 
 
 Waste of Time 43 
 
 What could I do? 99 
 
 What is, and What may be 56 
 
 What is your Proof ? . . . . 24 
 
 What will satisfy them? 23 
 
 What will Satisfy the South 85 
 
 Which Line he Fights on 49 
 
 White Man s Charter of Freedom 64 
 
 Who shall Improve ? 131 
 
 Will not undertake to Judge 73 
 
 Wild Horses, Buffaloes, and Bears 63 
 
 Wily Agitator f . . . 37 
 
 With, but not without 40 
 
 Without a Name 120 
 
 Woe unto the World, &c 153 
 
 Women . 122 
 
l86 INDEX. 
 
 TACK. 
 
 \Vork together 139 
 
 Worthless or Worse . . . . 161 
 
 Wrong not to let him have it 83 
 
 Yates, Senator 169 
 
 You have no Oath 28 
 
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