which the Whigs and Democrats united, has now become the lead-
ing issue between the National Democracy on the one side, and the
Republican or Abolition party on the other.

Just recollect for a moment the memorable contest of 1850; when
this country was agitated from its center to its circumference by the
slavery agitation. All eyes in this nation were then turned to the
three great lights that survived the days of the Revolution. They
looked to Clay, then in retirement at Ashland, and to Webster and
Cass in the United States Senate. Clay had retired to Ashland,
having, as he supposed, performed his mission on earth, and was pre-
paring himself for a better sphere of existence in another world. In



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 399

that retirement he heard the discordant, harsh, and grating sounds
of sectional strife and disunion; and he aroused and came forth and
resumed his seat in the Senate, that great theater of his great deeds.
From the moment that Clay arrived among us he became the leader
of all the Union men, whether Whigs or Democrats. For nine months
we each assembled, each day, in the council-chamber, Clay in the
chair, with Cass upon his right hand and Webster upon his left, and
the Democrats and Whigs gathered around, forgetting differences,
and only animated by one common patriotic sentiment, to devise
means and measures by which we could defeat the mad and revolu-
tionary scheme of the Northern Abolitionists and Southern disunion-
ists. We did devise those means. Clay brought them forward, Cass
advocated them, the Union Democrats and Union Whigs voted for
them, Fillmore signed them, and they gave peace and quiet to the
country. Those compromise measures of 1850 were founded upon
the great fundamental principle that the people of each State and
each Territory ought to be left free to form and regulate their own
domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Federal
Constitution.

I will ask every old-line Democrat and every old-line Whig within
the hearing of my voice, if I have not truly stated the issues as they
then presented themselves to the country. You recollect that the
Abolitionists raised a howl of indignation, and cried for vengeance
and the destruction of Democrats and Whigs both who supported
those compromise measures of 1850. When I returned home to
Chicago, I found the citizens inflamed and infuriated against the
authors of those great measures. Being the only man in that city
who was held responsible for affirmative votes on all those measures,
I came forward and addressed the assembled inhabitants, defended
each and every one of Clay's compromise measures as they passed
the Senate and the House and were approved by President Fillmore.
Previous to that time, the city council had passed resolutions nullify-
ing the act of Congress, and instructing the police to withhold all
assistance from its execution ; but the people of Chicago listened to
my defense, and like candid, frank, conscientious men, when they
became convinced that they had done an injustice to Clay, Webster,
Cass, and all of us who had supported those measures, they repealed
their nullifying resolutions and declared that the laws should be
executed and the supremacy of the Constitution maintained. Let it
always be recorded in history, to the immortal honor of the people
of Chicago, that they returned to their duty when they found that
they were wrong, and did justice to those whom they had blamed
and abused unjustly. When the legislature of this State assembled
that year, they proceeded to pass resolutions approving the com-
promise measures of 1850. When the Whig party assembled in
1852 at Baltimore in national convention for the last time, to nom-
inate Scott for the presidency, they adopted as a part of their plat-
form the compromise measures of 1850 as the cardinal plank upon
which every Whig would stand and by which he would regulate his
future conduct. When the Democratic party assembled at the same
place, one month after, to nominate General Pierce, we adopted the



400 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

same platform so far as those compromise measures were concerned,
agreeing that we would stand by those Glorious measures as a car-
<linal article in the Democratic faith. Thus you sec that in 1852 all
the Old Whigs and all the old Democrats stood on a common plank
so far as this slavery question was concerned, differing on other
questions.

Now, let me ask, how is it that since that time so many of you
Whigs have wandered from the true path marked out by ('lay and
carried out broad and wide by the great Webster ? How is it that
so many old-line Democrats have abandoned the old faith of their
party, and joined with Abolitionism and Free-soilism to overturn the
platform of the old Democrats, and the platform of the Old Whigs f
You cannot deny that since 18o4 there has been a great revolution
on this one question. How has it been brought about? I answer
that no sooner was the sod grown green over the grave of the im-
mortal Clay, no sooner was the rose planted on the tomb of the god-
like Webster, than many of the leaders of the Whig party, such as
Seward, of New York, and his followers. Led off and attempted to
Abolitionize the Whig party, and transfer all your Old Whigs, bound
hand and foot, into the Abolition camp. Seizing hold of the tem-
porary excitement produced in this country by the introduction of
the Nebraska bill, the disappointed politicians in the Democratic
party united with the disappointed politicians in the Whig party,
and endeavored to form a new party composed of all the Aboli-
tionists, of Abolitionized Democrats and Abolitionized Whigs,
banded together in an Abolition platform.

And who led that crusade against national principles in this State?
I answer, Abraham Lincoln on behalf of the Whigs, and Lyman
Trumbull on behalf of the Democrats, formed a scheme by which
they woidd Abolitionize the two great parties in this State on condi-
tion that Lincoln should be sent to the United States Senate in place
of General Shields, and that Trumbull should go to Congress from
the Belleville district, until I would be accommodating enough either
to die or resign for Ids benefit, and then he was to go to the Senate
in my place. You all remember that during the year 1854 these t m »
worthy gentlemen, Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Trumbull, one an old-line
Whig and the other an old-line Democrat, were hunting in partner-
ship to elect a legislature against the Democratic party. I can-
vassed the State that year from the time I returned home until the
election came off, and spoke in every county that I could reach during
that period. In the northern part of the State I found Lincoln's ally,
in the person of Fred Douglass, the negro, preaching Abolition doc-
trines, while Lincoln was discussing the same principles down here,
and Trumbull, a little further down, was advocating the election of
members to the legislature who would act in concert with Lincoln's
and Fred Douglass's friends. I witnessed an effort made at Chicago
by Lincoln's then associates, and now supporters, to put Fred
Douglass, the negro, on the stand at a Democratic meeting, to reply
to the illustrious General Cass when he was addressing the people
there. They had the same negro hunting me down, and they now
have a negro traversing the northern counties of the State, and



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 401

speaking in behalf of Lincoln. Lincoln knows that when we were
at Freeport in joint discussion, there was a distinguished colored
friend of his there then who was on the stump for him, and who
made a speech there the night before we spoke, and another the
night after, a short distance from Freeport, in favor of Lincoln ; and
in order to show how much intei'est the colored brethren felt in the
success of their brother Abe, I have with me here, and would read
it if it would not occupy too much of my time, a speech made by
Fred Douglass in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., a short time since, to a large
convention, in which he conjures all the friends of negro equality
and negro citizenship to rally as one man around Abraham Lincoln,
the perfect embodiment of their principles, and by all means to defeat
Stephen A. Douglas. Thus you find that this Republican party in the
northern part of the State had colored gentlemen for their advocates
in 1854, in company with Lincoln and Trumbull, as they have now.
"When, in October, 1854, I went down to Springfield to attend the
State fair, I found the leaders of this party all assembled together
under the title of an anti-Nebraska meeting. It was Black Republi-
can up north, and anti-Nebraska at Springfield. I found Love-
joy, a high priest of Abolitionism, and Lincoln, one of the leaders
who was towing the old-line Whigs into the Abolition camp, and
Trumbull, Sidney Breese, and Governor Reynolds, all making
speeches against the Democratic party and myself, at the same
place and in the same cause.

The same men who are now fighting the Democratic party and the
regular Democratic nominees in this State were fighting us then.
They did not then acknowledge that they had become Abolitionists,
and many of them deny it now. Breese, Dougherty, and Reynolds
were then fighting the Democracy under the title of anti-Nebraska
men, and now they are fighting the Democracy under the pretense
that they are simon-pure Democrats, saying that they are authorized
to have every office-holder in Illinois beheaded who prefers the elec-
tion of Douglas to that of Lincoln, or the success of the Democratic
ticket in preference to the Abolition ticket for members of Congress,
State officers, members of the legislature, or any office in the State.
They canvassed the State against us in 1854, as they are doing now,
owning different names and different principles in different locali-
ties, but having a common object in view, viz. : the defeat of all men
holding national principles in opposition to this sectional Abolition
party. They carried the legislature in 1854, and when it assembled
in Springfield they proceeded to elect a United States senator, all
voting for Lincoln with one or two exceptions, which exceptions
prevented them from quite electing him. And why should they not
elect him? Had not Trumbull agreed that Lincoln should have
Shields's place ! Had not the Abolitionists agreed to it 1 Was it
not the solemn compact, the condition on which Lincoln agreed to
Abolitionize the Old Whigs, that he should be senator ? Still, Trum-
bull, having control of afewAbolitionized Democrats, would not allow
them all to vote for Lincoln on any one ballot, and thus kept him
for some time within one or two votes of an election, until he worried
out Lincoln's friends, and compelled them to drop him and elect
Vol. I.— 26.



402 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Trumbull is violation of the bargain. I desire to read you a piece
of testimony in confirmation of the notoriously public facts which I
have stated to you. Colonel James H. Matheny, <>f Springfield, is,
and for twenty years has been, the confidential personal and politi-
cal friend and manager of Mr. Lincoln. Matheny is this very day
the candidate of the Republican or Abolition party for Congress
against the gallant Major Thomas L. Harris, in the Springfield dis-
trict, and is making speeches for Lincoln and against me. I will
read you the testimony of Matheny about this bargain between Lin-
coln and Trumbull when they undertook to Abolitionize Whigs and
Democrats only four years ago. Matheny, being mad at Trumbull for
having played a Yankee trick on Lincoln, exposed the bargain in a
public speech two years ago, and I will read the published report of
that speech, the correctness of which Mr. Lincoln will not deny:

The Whigs, Abolitionists, Know-nothings, and renegade Democrats
made a solemn compact for the purpose of carrying this State against the
Democracy on this plan: First, that they would all combine and elect Mr.
Trumbull to Congress, and thereby carry his district for the legislature,
in order to throw all the strength that could be obtained into that body
against the Democrats. Second, that when the legislature should meet, the
officers of that body, such as speaker, clerks, doorkeepers, etc., would he
given to the Abolitionists; and, third, that the Whigs were to have the
United States senator. That, accordingly, in good faith Trumbull was
elected to Congress, and his district carried for the legislature, and when it
convened the Abolitionists got all the officers of that body, and thus far the
" bond" was fairly executed. The Whigs, on their part, demanded the elec-
tion of Abraham Lincoln to the United States Senate, that the bond might
be fulfilled, the other parties to the contract having already secured to them-
Belves all that was called for. But, in the most perfidious manner, they re-
fused to elect Mr. Lincoln: and the mean, low-lived, sneaking Trumbull
succeeded, by pledging all that was required by any party, in thrusting Lin-
coln aside and foisting himself, an excrescence from the rotten bowels of
the Democracy, into the United States Senate ; and thus it has ever been,
that an honest man makes a bad bargain when he conspires or contracts
with rogues.

Lincoln's confidential friend, Matheny, thought that Lincoln made
a bad bargain when he conspired with such rogues-as Trumbull and the
Abolitionists. I would like to know whether Lincoln had as high an
opinion of Trumbull's veracity when the latter agreed to support him
for the Senate, and then cheated him, as he has now, when Trumbull
comes forward and makes charges against me. You could not then
prove Trumbull an honest man either by Lincoln, by Matheny, or by
any of Lincoln's friends. They charged everywhere that Trumbull
had cheated them out of the bargain, and Lincoln found, sure enough,
that it was a bad bargain to contract and conspire with rogues.

And now I will explain to you what has been a mystery all over
the State and Union, the reason why Lincoln was nominated for the
United States Senate by the Black Republican convention. You
know it has never been usual for any party, or any convention, to
nominate a candidate for United States senator. Probably this was
the first time that such a thing was ever done. The Black Republi-
can convention had not been called for that purpose, but to nominate



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 403

a State ticket, and every man was surprised and many disgusted
when Lincoln was nominated. Archie Williams thought he was en-
titled to it, Browning knew that he deserved it, Wentworth was cer-
tain that he would get it, Peck had hopes, Judd felt sure that he was
the man, and Palmer had claims and had made arrangements to
secure it ; but, to their utter amazement, Lincoln was nominated by
the convention, and not only that, but he received the nomination
unanimously, by a resolution declaring that Abraham Lincoln was
f the first, last, and only choice " of the Republican party. How did
this occur "? Why, because they could not get Lincoln's friends to
make another bargain with " rogues," unless the whole party would
come up as one man and pledge their honor that they would stand
by Lincoln first, last, and all the time, and that he should not be
cheated by Lovejoy this time, as he was by Trumbull before. Thus,
bypassing this resolution, the Abolitionists are all for him, Lovejoy
and Farnsworth are canvassing for him, Giddings is ready to come
here in his behalf, and the negro speakers are already on the stump
for him, and he is sure not to be cheated this time. He would not go
into the arrangement until he got their bond for it, and Trumbull is
compelled now to take the stump, get up false charges against me,
and travel all over the State to try and elect Lincoln, in order to keep
Lincoln's friends quiet about the bargain in which Trumbull cheated
them four years ago. You see now why it is that Lincoln and
Trumbull are so mighty fond of each other. They have entered into
a conspiracy to break me down by these assaults on my public char-
acter, in order to draw my attention from a fair exposure of the mode
in which they attempted to Abolitionize the Old Whig and the old
Democratic parties and lead them captive into the Abolition camp.
Do you not all remember that Lincoln went around here four years
ago making speeches to you, and telling that you should all go for
the Abolition ticket, and swearing that he was as good a Whig as he
ever was; and that Trumbull went all over the State making pledges
to the old Democrats, and trying to coax them into the Abolition
camp, swearing by his Maker, with the uplifted hand, that he was
still a Democrat, always intended to be, and that never woidd he de-
sert the Democratic party. He got your votes to elect an Abolition
legislature, which passed Abolition resolutions, attempted to pass
Abolition laws, and sustained Abolitionists for office, State and na-
tional. Now, the same game is attempted to be played over again.
Then Lincoln and Trumbull made captives of the Old Whigs and old
Democrats and carried them into the Abolition camp, where Father
Giddings, the high priest of Abolitionism, received and christened
them in the dark cause just as fast as they were brought in. Gid-
dings found the converts so numerous that he had to have assistance,
and he sent for John P. Hale, N. P. Banks, Chase, and other Aboli-
tionists, and they came on, and with Lovejoy and Fred Douglass,
the negro, helped to baptize these new converts as Lincoln, Trumbull,
Breese, Reynolds, aud Dougherty could capture them and bring them
within the Abolition clutch. Gentlemen, they are now around
making the same kind of speeches. Trumbull was down in Monroe
County the other day assailing me, and making a speech in favor of



404 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Lincoln, and I will show you under what notice his meeting was
called. You see these people are Black Republicans or Abolitionists
up north, while at Springfield to-day they dare not call their conven-
tion " Republican," but are obliged to say "a convention of all men
opposed to the Democratic party," and in Monroe County and lower
Egypt Trumbull advertises their meetings as follows:

A meeting of the Free Democracy will take place at Waterloo, on Mon-
day, September 12th inst., whereat Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Hon. Jehu
Baker, and others, will address the people upon the different political topics
of the day. Members of all parties are cordially invited to be present, and
hear and determine for themselves.

September 9, 1858. The Free Democracy.

Did you ever before hear of this new party called the "Free
Democracy"?

What object have these Black Republicans in changing their
name in every county ? They have one name in the north, another
in the center, and another in the south. When I used to practise
law before my distinguished judicial friend whom I recognize in the
crowd before me, if a man was charged with horse-stealing, and the
proof showed that he went by one name in Stephenson County,
another in Sangamon, a third in Monroe, and a fourth in Randolph,
we thought that the fact of his changing his name so often to avoid
detection was pretty strong evidence of his guilt. I would like to
know why it is that this great Free-soil Abolition party is not willing
to avow the same name in all parts of the State? If this party
believes that its course is just, why does it not avow the same prin-
ciples in the north and in the south, in the east and in the west,
wherever the American flag waves over American soil? [A voice:
"The party does not call itself Black Republican in the north."]
Sir, if you will get a copy of the paper published at W T aukegau,
fifty miles from Chicago, which advocates the election of Mr. Lin-
coln, and has his name flying at its masthead, you will find that it
declares that " this paper is devoted to the cause " of Black Repub-
licanism. I had a copy of it, and intended to bring it down here into
Egypt to let you see what name the party rallied under up in the
northern part of the State, and to convince you that their principles
are as different in the two sections of the State as is their name. I
am sorry I have mislaid it and have not got it here. Their princi-
ples in the north are jet-black, in the center they are in color a decent
mulatto, and in lower Egypt they are almost white. Why, I ad-
mired many of the white sentiments contained in Lincoln's speech
at Jonesboro, and could not help but contrast them with the speeches
of the same distinguished orator made in the northern part of the
State. Down here he denies that the Black Republican party is
opposed to the admission of any more slave States, under any cir-
cumstances, and says that they are willing to allow the people of each
State, when it wants to come into the Union, to do just as it pleases
on the question of slavery. In the north you find Lovejoy, their
candidate for Congress iu the Bloomington district ; Farnsworth,
their candidate iu the Chicago district ; and Washburne, their candi-



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 405

date in the Galena district, all declaring that never will they consent
under any circumstances to admit another slave State, even if the
people want it. Thus, while they avow one set of principles up there,
they avow another and entirely different set down here. And here
let me recall to Mr. Lincoln the scriptural quotation which he has
applied to the Federal Government, that a house divided against
itself cannot stand, and ask him how does he expect this Abolition
party to stand when in one half of the State it advocates a "set of
principles which it has repudiated in the other half ?

I am told that I have but eight minutes more. I would like to
talk to you an hour and a half longer, but I will make the best use
I can of the remaining eight minutes. Mr. Lincoln said in his first
remarks that he was not in favor of the social and political equality
of the negro with the white man. Everywhere up north he has de-
clared that he was not in favor of the social and political equality
of the negro, but he would not say whether or not he was opposed
to negroes voting and negro citizenship. I want to know whether he
is for or against negro citizenship ? He declared his utter opposition
to the Dred Scott decision, and advanced as a reason that the court
had decided that it was not possible for a negro to be a citizen under
the Constitution of the United States. If he is opposed to the Dred
Scott decision for that reason, he must be in favor of conferring the
right and privilege of citizenship upon the negro. I have been try-
ing to get an answer from him on that point, but have never yet
obtained one, and I will show you why. In every speech he made in
the north he quoted the Declaration of Independence to prove that
all men were created equal, and insisted that the phrase "all men"
included the negro as well as the white man, and that the equality
rested upon divine law. Here is what he said on that point :

I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence,
which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and making excep-
tions to it, where will it stop ? If one man says it does not mean a negro,
why may not another say it does not mean some other man? If that
Declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute-book in which we find it
and tear it out.

Lincoln maintains there that the Declaration of Independence as-
serts that the negro is equal to the white man, and that under divine
law; and if he believes so it was rational for him to advocate negro
citizenship, which, when allowed, puts the negro on an equality under
the law. I say to you in all frankness, gentlemen, that in my opinion
a negro is not a citizen, cannot be, and ought not to be, under the
Constitution of the United States. I will not even qualify my opin-
ion to meet the declaration of one of the judges of the Supreme Court
in the Dred Scott case, " that a negro descended from African pa-
rents, who was imported into this country as a slave, is not a citizen,
and cannot be." I say that this government was established on the
white basis. It was made by white men, for the benefit of white men
and their posterity forever, and never should be administered by any
except white men. I declare that a negro ought not to be a citizen,
whether his parents were imported into this country as slaves or not,



406 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

or whether or not he was born here. It does not depend upon the