“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.”
Title: The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln — Volume 3: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Author: Abraham Lincoln
Editor: Arthur Brooks Lapsley
Release date: September 30, 2004 [eBook #2655]
Most recently updated: July 5, 2009
Language: English
Credits: Produced by David Widger
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN — VOLUME 3: THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES ***
Produced by David Widger
THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
VOLUME THREE
CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION
By Abraham Lincoln
Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES I
POLITICAL SPEECHES & DEBATES of LINCOLN WITH DOUGLAS In the Senatorial
Campaign of 1858 in Illinois SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 17, 1858
[The following speech was delivered at Springfield, Ill., at the close of
the Republican State Convention held at that time and place, and by which
Convention Mr. LINCOLN had been named as their candidate for United States
Senator. Mr. DOUGLAS was not present.]
Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION:--If we could first know
where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to
do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy
was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting
an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that
agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my
opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and
passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this
government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not
expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but
I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing,
or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further
spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief
that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will
push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old
as well as new, North as well as South.
Have we no tendency to the latter condition?
“The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise high with the occasion”
I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a paper addressed to
the Congress of the nation by the chief magistrate of the nation, nor do
I forget that some of you are my seniors, nor that many of you have more
experience than I in the conduct of public affairs. Yet I trust that in
view of the great responsibility resting upon me you will perceive no want
of respect to yourselves in any undue earnestness I may seem to display.
Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten
the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is
it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national
prosperity and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we
here--Congress and executive--can secure its adoption? Will not the good
people respond to a united and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they,
by any other means so certainly or so speedily assure these vital objects?
We can succeed only by concert. It is not "Can any of us imagine better?"
but "Can we all do better?" Object whatsoever is possible, still the
question recurs, "Can we do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past
are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with
difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we
must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we
shall save our country.
Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this
administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal
significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery
trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the
latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget
that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we
do know how to save it. We, even we here, hold the power 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 fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a way
which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever
bless.
“It is better only sometimes to be right than at all times wrong”
For my part, I desire to see the time when education--and by its means,
morality, sobriety, enterprise, and industry--shall become much more
general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power
to contribute something to the advancement of any measure which might
have a tendency to accelerate that happy period.
With regard to existing laws, some alterations are thought to be
necessary. Many respectable men have suggested that our estray laws, the
law respecting the issuing of executions, the road law, and some others,
are deficient in their present form, and require alterations. But,
considering the great probability that the framers of those laws were
wiser than myself, I should prefer not meddling with them, unless they
were first attacked by others; in which case I should feel it both a
privilege and a duty to take that stand which, in my view, might tend
most to the advancement of justice.
But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the great degree of
modesty which should always attend youth, it is probable I have already
been more presuming than becomes me. However, upon the subjects of
which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in
regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is
better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon
as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce
them.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or
not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being
truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their
esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be
developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have
ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy
or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown
exclusively upon the independent voters of the county; and, if
elected, they will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be
unremitting in my labors to compensate. But, if the good people in
their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too
familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined.
Your friend and fellow-citizen, A. LINCOLN.
New Salem, March 9, 1832.
“The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society”
The Democracy of to-day hold the
liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with another
man's right of property; Republicans, on the contrary, are for both the
man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.
I remember being once much amused at seeing two partially intoxicated men
engaged in a fight with their great-coats on, which fight, after a long
and rather harmless contest, ended in each having fought himself out of
his own coat and into that of the other. If the two leading parties of
this day are really identical with the two in the days of Jefferson and
Adams, they have performed the same feat as the two drunken men.
But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson
from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great confidence
that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of
Euclid are true; but nevertheless he would fail, utterly, with one who
should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are
the definitions and axioms of free society. And yet they are denied
and evaded, with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them
"glittering generalities." Another bluntly calls them "self-evident lies."
And others insidiously argue that they apply to "superior races." These
expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and effect--the
supplanting the principles of free government, and restoring those of
classification, caste, and legitimacy. They would delight a convocation
of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are the vanguard, the
miners and sappers, of returning despotism. We must repulse them, or they
will subjugate us. This is a world of compensation; and he who would be
no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others
deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain
it. All honor to Jefferson to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a
struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness,
forecast, and capacity to introduce into a mere revolutionary document an
abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm
it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and
a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and
oppression.
“It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him”
You ought to do something to help those who are not so fortunate as
yourselves. There is an unwillingness on the part of our people, harsh
as it may be, for you free colored people to remain with us. Now, if you
could give a start to the white people, you would open a wide door for
many to be made free. If we deal with those who are not free at the
beginning, and whose intellects are clouded by slavery, we have very poor
material to start with. If intelligent colored men, such as are before me,
would move in this matter, much might be accomplished.
It is exceedingly important that we have men at the beginning capable
of thinking as white men, and not those who have been systematically
oppressed. There is much to encourage you. For the sake of your race you
should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of
being as grand in that respect as the white people. It is a cheering
thought throughout life that something can be done to ameliorate the
condition of those who have been subject to the hard usages of the world.
It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of
himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him. In the American
Revolutionary war sacrifices were made by men engaged in it, but they were
cheered by the future. General WASHINGTON himself endured greater physical
hardships than if he had remained a British subject, yet he was a happy
man because he had engaged in benefiting his race, in doing something for
the children of his neighbors, having none of his own.
The colony of Liberia has been in existence a long time. In a certain
sense it is a success. The old President of Liberia, Roberts, has just
been with me--the first time I ever saw him. He says they have within the
bounds of that colony between three and four hundred thousand people, or
more than in some of our old States, such as Rhode Island or Delaware,
or in some of our newer States, and less than in some of our larger ones.
They are not all American colonists or their descendants. Something less
than 12,000 have been sent thither from this country. Many of the original
settlers have died; yet, like people else-where, their offspring outnumber
those deceased.
“If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what you will, is the great high-road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause.”
When the
dram-seller and drinker were incessantly told not in accents of entreaty
and persuasion, diffidently addressed by erring man to an erring
brother, but in the thundering tones of anathema and denunciation with
which the lordly judge often groups together all the crimes of the
felon's life, and thrusts them in his face just ere he passes sentence
of death upon him that they were the authors of all the vice and misery
and crime in the land; that they were the manufacturers and material of
all the thieves and robbers and murderers that infest the earth; that
their houses were the workshops of the devil; and that their persons
should be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as moral pestilences--I
say, when they were told all this, and in this way, it is not wonderful
that they were slow to acknowledge the truth of such denunciations,
and to join the ranks of their denouncers in a hue and cry against
themselves.
To have expected them to do otherwise than they did to have expected
them not to meet denunciation with denunciation, crimination with
crimination, and anathema with anathema--was to expect a reversal of
human nature, which is God's decree and can never be reversed.
When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind,
unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true
maxim that "a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall."
So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him
that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches
his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his
reason; and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble
in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that
cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his
judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned
and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues
to his head and his heart; and though your cause be naked truth itself,
transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper than
steel can be made, and though you throw it with more than herculean
force and precision, you shall be no more able to pierce him than to
penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man,
and so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his
own best interests.
On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance advocates
of former times. Those whom they desire to convince and persuade are
their old friends and companions. They know they are not demons, nor
even the worst of men; they know that generally they are kind, generous,
and charitable even beyond the example of their more staid and sober
neighbors.
“Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict [slavery] might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just Gods assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other mens faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has”
While the inaugural address was being delivered from this
place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent
agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war seeking to
dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties
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 was colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These
slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this
interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and
extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend
the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more
than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected
for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained.
Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or
even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier
triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the
same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the
other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces,
but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not
be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His
own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs
be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If
we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which,
in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to
both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom
the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine
attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war
may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the
wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand
years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in”
The days of the Confederacy
were evidently numbered. Only the last blow remained to be struck. Then
Lincoln's second inauguration came, and with it his second inaugural
address. Lincoln's famous "Gettysburg speech" has been much and justly
admired. But far greater, as well as far more characteristic, was that
inaugural in which he poured out the whole devotion and tenderness of
his great soul. It had all the solemnity of a father's last admonition
and blessing to his children before he lay down to die. These were
its closing words: "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 up 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 said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, `The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' With malice
toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God
gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in;
to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the
battle, and for his widow and his orphan; to do all which may achieve
and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all
nations."
This was like a sacred poem. No American President had ever spoken words
like these to the American people. America never had a President who
found such words in the depth of his heart.
Now followed the closing scenes of the war. The Southern armies fought
bravely to the last, but all in vain. Richmond fell. Lincoln himself
entered the city on foot, accompanied only by a few officers and a
squad of sailors who had rowed him ashore from the flotilla in the James
River, a negro picked up on the way serving as a guide. Never had the
world seen a more modest conqueror and a more characteristic triumphal
procession, no army with banners and drums, only a throng of those who
had been slaves, hastily run together, escorting the victorious chief
into the capital of the vanquished foe.
“I hope it will not be irreverent in me to say, that if it be 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”
45 PM
MAJOR-GENERAL McCLELLAN:
Governor Curtin telegraphs me:
"I have advices that Jackson is crossing the Potomac at Williamsport, and
probably the whole rebel army will be down from Maryland."
Receiving nothing from Harper's Ferry or Martinsburg to-day, and positive
information from Wheeling that the line is cut, corroborates the idea that
the enemy is crossing the Potomac. Please do not let him get off without
being hurt.
A. LINCOLN.
[But he did! D.W.]
REPLY TO REQUEST THE PRESIDENT ISSUE A PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION.
A COMMITTEE FROM THE RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS OF CHICAGO,
September 13,1862.
The 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 approached 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 mistaken in that belief, and perhaps in some
respects both. I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if
it is probable that God would reveal his will to others, on a point so
connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly
to me; for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my
earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter. And if I
can learn what it is I will do it! 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 facts of the case,
ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise and right.
The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree. For instance, the
other day, four gentlemen of standing and intelligence from New York
called as a delegation on business connected with the war; but
before leaving two of them earnestly besought me to proclaim general
emancipation, upon which the other two at once attacked them. You
know also that the last session of Congress had a decided majority of
antislavery men, yet they could not unite on this policy. And the same is
true of the religious people. Why, the rebel soldiers are praying with a
great deal more earnestness, I fear, than our own troops, and expecting
God to favor their side: for one of our soldiers who had been taken
prisoner told Senator Wilson a few days since that he met nothing so
discouraging as the evident sincerity of those he was among in their
prayers.
“When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.”
_TWENTY-THIRD_
Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets.
_TWENTY-FOURTH_
I never thought he had more than average ability when we were young
men together. But, then, I suppose he thought just the same about me.
_TWENTY-FIFTH_
Moral cowardice is something which I think I never had.
_TWENTY-SIXTH_
The patriotic instinct of plain people.
_TWENTY-SEVENTH_
The face of an old friend is like a ray of sunshine through dark and
gloomy clouds.
_TWENTY-EIGHTH_
Will anybody do your work for you?
_TWENTY-NINTH_
My rightful masters, the American people.
_THIRTIETH_
Should any one in any case be content that his oath shall go unkept on
a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?
_THIRTY-FIRST_
The value of life is to improve one's condition.
_FEBRUARY_
_Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed._
_FIRST_
Labor is like any other commodity in the market--increase the demand
for it and you increase the price of it.
_SECOND_
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting
bees.
_THIRD_
I say "try," for if we never try, we never succeed.
_FOURTH_
The pioneer in any movement is not generally the best man to bring
that movement to a successful issue.
_FIFTH_
Defeat and failure make everything seem wrong.
_SIXTH_
This nation cannot live on injustice.
_SEVENTH_
Something had to be done, and, as there does not appear to be any one
else to do it, I did it.
_EIGHTH_
Poor parsons seem always to have large families.
_NINTH_
If it be true that the Lord has appointed me to do the work you have
indicated, is it not probable that he would have communicated
knowledge of the fact to me as well as to you?
_TENTH_
I trust I shall be willing to do my duty, though it costs my life.
_ELEVENTH_
I hope peace will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be
worth the keeping in all future time.
_TWELFTH_
What there is of me is self-made.
_THIRTEENTH_
I was young once, and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back.
“Having thus chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.”
No compromise by public servants could, in this case, be a cure; not that
compromises are not often proper, but that no popular government can long
survive a marked precedent that those who carry an election can only save
the government from immediate destruction by giving up the main point upon
which the people gave the election. The people themselves, and not their
servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.
As a private citizen the executive could not have consented that these
institutions shall perish; much less could he in betrayal of so vast and
so sacred a trust as these free people had confided to him. He felt that
he had no moral right to shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own
life, in what might follow. In full view of his great responsibility he
has, so far, done what he has deemed his duty. You will now, according to
your own judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes that your views and
your action may so accord with his as to assure all faithful citizens who
have been disturbed in their rights of a certain and speedy restoration to
them, under the Constitution and the laws.
And having thus chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose,
let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly
hearts.
A. LINCOLN,
July 4, 1861
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 6, 1861.
HON. SEC. OF INTERIOR.
MY DEAR SIR:--Please ask the Comr. of Indian Affairs, and of the Gen'l
Land Office to come with you, and see me at once. I want the assistance of
all of you in overhauling the list of appointments a little before I send
them to the Senate.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 9th
instant, requesting a copy of correspondence upon the subject of the
incorporation of the Dominican republic with the Spanish monarchy, I
transmit a report from the Secretary of State; to whom the resolution was
referred.
WASHINGTON, July 11, 1861.
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
I transmit to Congress a copy of correspondence between the Secretary
of State and her Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary accredited to this government, relative to the exhibition
of the products of industry of all nations, which is to take place at
London in the course of next year.
“Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar”
Bearing in mind that about seventy years ago two great political parties
were first formed in this country, that Thomas Jefferson was the head of
one of them and Boston the headquarters of the other, it is both curious
and interesting that those supposed to descend politically from the party
opposed to Jefferson should now be celebrating his birthday in their own
original seat of empire, while those claiming political descent from him
have nearly ceased to breathe his name everywhere.
Remembering, too, that the Jefferson party was formed upon its supposed
superior devotion to the personal rights of men, holding the rights of
property to be secondary only, and greatly inferior, and assuming that the
so-called Democracy of to-day are the Jefferson, and their opponents
the anti-Jefferson, party, it will be equally interesting to note how
completely the two have changed hands as to the principle upon which they
were originally supposed to be divided. The Democracy of to-day hold the
liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with another
man's right of property; Republicans, on the contrary, are for both the
man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.
I remember being once much amused at seeing two partially intoxicated men
engaged in a fight with their great-coats on, which fight, after a long
and rather harmless contest, ended in each having fought himself out of
his own coat and into that of the other. If the two leading parties of
this day are really identical with the two in the days of Jefferson and
Adams, they have performed the same feat as the two drunken men.
But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson
from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great confidence
that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of
Euclid are true; but nevertheless he would fail, utterly, with one who
should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are
the definitions and axioms of free society. And yet they are denied
and evaded, with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them
"glittering generalities." Another bluntly calls them "self-evident lies.
“If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me wont amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, then ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”
One day when the
boat was plunging and wallowing along the boiling current, and Jack's
utmost vigilance was being exercised to keep her in the narrow channel,
a boy pulled his coat-tail, and hailed him with: "Say, Mister Captain! I
wish you would just stop your boat a minute--I've lost my apple
overboard!"
THE PRESIDENT'S SILENCE OVER CRITICISMS
The President was once speaking about an attack made on him by the
Committee on the Conduct of the War for a certain alleged blunder, or
something worse, in the Southwest--the matter involved being one which
had fallen directly under the observation of the officer to whom he was
talking, who possessed official evidence completely upsetting all the
conclusions of the Committee.
"Might it not be well for me," queried the officer, "to set this matter
right in a letter to some paper, stating the facts as they actually
transpired?"
"Oh, no," replied the President, "at least, not now. If I were to try to
read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as
well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know
how--the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If
the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to
anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was
right would make no difference."
"GLAD OF IT"
On the occasion when the telegram from Cumberland Gap reached Mr.
Lincoln that "firing was heard in the direction of Knoxville," he
remarked that he was "glad of it." Some person present, who had the
perils of Burnside's position uppermost in his mind, could, not see
_why_ Mr. Lincoln should be _glad_ of it, and so expressed himself.
"Why, you see," responded the President, "it reminds me of Mistress
Sallie Ward, a neighbour of mine, who had a very large family.
Occasionally one of her numerous progeny would be heard crying in some
out-of-the-way place, upon which Mrs. Ward would exclaim, 'There's one
of my children that isn't dead yet!'"
HIS DEMOCRATIC BEARING
The evening before I left Washington an incident occurred, illustrating
very perfectly the character of the man. For two days my large painting
had been on exhibition, upon its completion, in the East Room, which had
been thronged with visitors. Late in the afternoon of the second day,
the "black-horse cavalry" escort drew up as usual in front of the
portico, preparatory to the President's leaving for the "Soldiers'
Home," where he spent the midsummer nights.
“If you do not like him, let him alone. If God gave him little, that little let him enjoy.”
He is satisfied with anything which does not endanger the
nationalizing of negro slavery. It may draw white men down, but it must
not lift negroes up.
Who shall say, "I am the superior, and you are the inferior"?
My declarations upon this subject of negro slavery may be misrepresented,
but cannot be misunderstood. I have said that I do not understand the
Declaration to mean that all men were created equal in all respects. They
are not our equal in color; but I suppose that it does mean to declare
that all men are equal in some respects; they are equal in their right to
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Certainly the negro is
not our equal in color, perhaps not in many other respects; still, in the
right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, he
is the equal of every other man, white or black. In pointing out that
more has been given you, you cannot be justified in taking away the little
which has been given him. All I ask for the negro is that if you do not
like him, let him alone. If God gave him but little, that little let him
enjoy.
When our government was established we had the institution of slavery
among us. We were in a certain sense compelled to tolerate its existence.
It was a sort of necessity. We had gone through our struggle and
secured our own independence. The framers of the Constitution found the
institution of slavery amongst their own institutions at the time. They
found that by an effort to eradicate it they might lose much of what they
had already gained. They were obliged to bow to the necessity. They gave
power to Congress to abolish the slave trade at the end of twenty years.
They also prohibited it in the Territories where it did not exist. They
did what they could, and yielded to the necessity for the rest. I also
yield to all which follows from that necessity. What I would most desire
would be the separation of the white and black races.
One more point on this Springfield speech which Judge Douglas says he has
read so carefully. I expressed my belief in the existence of a conspiracy
to perpetuate and nationalize slavery.
“Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.”
Let them beware of surrendering a political power they
already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close
the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities
and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost."
The views then expressed remain unchanged, nor have I much to add. None
are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the working
people. Let them beware of prejudices, working division and hostility
among themselves. The most notable feature of a disturbance in your
city last summer was the hanging of some working people by other working
people. It should never be so. The strongest bond of human sympathy,
outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all working people,
of all nations, and tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war
upon property, or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor;
property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some
should be rich shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just
encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless
pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build
one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from
violence when built.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 22, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.:
Hon. W. R. Morrison says he has requested you by letter to effect a
special exchange of Lieut. Col. A. F. Rogers, of Eightieth Illinois
Volunteers, now in Libby Prison, and I shall be glad if you can effect it.
A. LINCOLN.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH GENERAL C. SCHURZ.
( Private.)
WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL SCHURZ.
MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of February 29 reached me only four days ago; but the
delay was of little consequence, because I found, on feeling around, I
could not invite you here without a difficulty which at least would be
unpleasant, and perhaps would be detrimental to the public service. Allow
me to suggest that if you wish to remain in the military service, it
is very dangerous for you to get temporarily out of it; because, with a
major-general once out, it is next to impossible for even the President
to get him in again.
“In times like these men should utter nothing for which they would not be willingly responsible through time and in eternity.”
As to the second article, I think it would be impracticable to return
to bondage the class of persons therein contemplated. Some of them,
doubtless, in the property sense belong to loyal owners, and hence
Provision is made in this article for compensating such.
The third article relates to the future of the freed people. It does not
oblige, but merely authorizes Congress to aid in colonizing such as may
consent. This ought nut to be regarded as objectionable on the one hand or
on the other, insomuch as it comes to nothing unless by the mutual
consent of the people to be deported and the American voters through their
representatives in Congress.
I cannot make it better known than it already is that I strongly favor
colonization; and yet I wish to say there is an objection urged against
free colored persons remaining in the country which is largely imaginary,
if not sometimes malicious.
It is insisted that their presence would injure and displace white labor
and white laborers. If there ever could be a proper time for mere catch
arguments that time surely is not now. In times like the present men
should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible
through time and in eternity. Is it true, then, that colored people can
displace any more white labor by being free than by remaining 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. Logically,
there is neither more nor less of it. Emancipation, even without
deportation, would probably enhance the wages of white labor, and very
surely would not reduce them. Thus the customary amount of labor would
still have to be performed. The freed people would surely not do more than
their old proportion of it, and very probably for a time would do less,
leaving an increased part to white laborers, bringing their labor
into greater demand, and consequently enhancing the wages of it. 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.
“I can not deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it, I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause that we believe to be just; it shall not deter me.”
Lamborn refers to the late
elections in the States, and from their results confidently predicts
that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next
Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards and to knaves;
with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if
it must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours
may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was
the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great
volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that
reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a
current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity
over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave
unscathed no green spot or living thing; while on its bosom are riding,
like demons on the waves of hell, the imps of that evil spirit, and
fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course with
the hopelessness of their effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that
all may be swept away. Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never
will. The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to
deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not
deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those
dimensions not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I
contemplate the cause of my country deserted by all the world beside,
and I standing up boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her
victorious oppressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, before
high heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to
the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and
my love. And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath
that I take? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed.
But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so. We still shall have the
proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed
shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment,
and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death,
we never faltered in defending.
TO JOHN T. STUART.
SPRINGFIELD, December 23, 1839.
The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them.
_NINETEENTH_
The wild lands of the country should be distributed so that every man
should have the means and opportunity of benefiting his condition.
_TWENTIETH_
I shall try to correct errors, when shown to be errors; and I shall
adopt new views, so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
_TWENTY-FIRST_
There is nothing like getting used to things.
_TWENTY-SECOND_
When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when
he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than
self-government--that is despotism.
_TWENTY-THIRD_
If they kill me, the next will be just as bad for them.
_TWENTY-FOURTH_
With Shakespeare the thought suffices.
_TWENTY-FIFTH_
As to the crazy folks--why, I must take my chances.
_TWENTY-SIXTH_
I think it more rare, if not more wise, for a public man to abstain
from much speaking.
_TWENTY-SEVENTH_
At any rate, I will keep my part of the bargain.
_TWENTY-EIGHTH_
The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of
them.
_TWENTY-NINTH_
When the time comes, I shall take the ground I think is right.
_THIRTIETH_
Let the thing be pressed.
_MAY_
_Two principles have stood face to face from the beginning of time and
will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of
humanity; the other is the divine right of kings._
_FIRST_
Revolutionize through the ballot box.
_SECOND_
Repeal all past history,--you still can not repeal human nature.
_THIRD_
Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as other
rights.
_FOURTH_
Teach men that what they can not take by an election, neither can they
take by war.
_FIFTH_
I authorize no bargains, and will be bound by none.
_SIXTH_
When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives
satisfactory evidence of the same, he can safely be pardoned.
_SEVENTH_
If destruction be our lot, it must spring up among ourselves.
_EIGHTH_
In a democracy, where the majority rule by the ballot through
the forms of law, physical rebellions are radically wrong,
unconstitutional, and are treason.
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
He led public opinion, but did not march so far in advance of
it as to fail of its effective support in every great emergency. He
knew the heart and thought of the people, as no man not in constant and
absolute sympathy with them could have known it, and so holding their
confidence, he triumphed through and with them. Not only was there this
steady growth of intellect, but the infinite delicacy of his nature and
its capacity for refinement developed also, as exhibited in the
purity and perfection of his language and style of speech. The rough
backwoodsman, who had never seen the inside of a university, became in
the end, by self-training and the exercise of his own powers of mind,
heart, and soul, a master of style, and some of his utterances will rank
with the best, the most perfectly adapted to the occasion which produced
them.
Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech at Gettysburg, at the
dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery? His whole soul was in it:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a
great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final
resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But
in a larger sense we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot
hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here
have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The
world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here but it can
never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to
be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to
the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we
take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full
measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain--that this nation under God shall have a new birth
of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, and for
the people shall not perish from the earth.
Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.
Bearing in mind that about seventy years ago two great political parties
were first formed in this country, that Thomas Jefferson was the head of
one of them and Boston the headquarters of the other, it is both curious
and interesting that those supposed to descend politically from the party
opposed to Jefferson should now be celebrating his birthday in their own
original seat of empire, while those claiming political descent from him
have nearly ceased to breathe his name everywhere.
Remembering, too, that the Jefferson party was formed upon its supposed
superior devotion to the personal rights of men, holding the rights of
property to be secondary only, and greatly inferior, and assuming that the
so-called Democracy of to-day are the Jefferson, and their opponents
the anti-Jefferson, party, it will be equally interesting to note how
completely the two have changed hands as to the principle upon which they
were originally supposed to be divided. The Democracy of to-day hold the
liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with another
man's right of property; Republicans, on the contrary, are for both the
man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.
I remember being once much amused at seeing two partially intoxicated men
engaged in a fight with their great-coats on, which fight, after a long
and rather harmless contest, ended in each having fought himself out of
his own coat and into that of the other. If the two leading parties of
this day are really identical with the two in the days of Jefferson and
Adams, they have performed the same feat as the two drunken men.
But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson
from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great confidence
that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of
Euclid are true; but nevertheless he would fail, utterly, with one who
should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are
the definitions and axioms of free society. And yet they are denied
and evaded, with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them
"glittering generalities." Another bluntly calls them "self-evident lies.
