ery in all the United States Territories.,
7th. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisi-
tion of territory; and, in any given case, I would or
would not oppose such acquisition, accordingly as I might
think such acquisition would, or would not, aggravate the
slaveiy question among ourselves
HUGH M'CULLOCH. 117
JUST a. the moment when the people were rejoicing
over the fall of Richmond and the surrender of the
Confederate armies, the Chief Magistrate of the Na-
tion, the most beloved and most trusted of men, fell by the
hand of an assassin. For a moment the nation was struck
dumb by the atrocity of the act, and the magnitude of the
loss that had been sustained. As the report flashed over
the wires that the beloved Chief Magistrate of the Nation,
in the midst of rejoicing over our victories and the pros-
pect of returning peace, had been slain, what heart was
there throughout this broad land which was not filled
with anguish and apprehension ? what thinking man did
not put to himself the questions, Can the Republic
stand this unexpected calamity ? Can our popular insti-
tutions bear this new trial ? The anguish remained and
still remains, but the apprehension existed but for a
moment. Scarcely had the announcement been made that
Lincoln had fallen, before it was followed by the report
that the Vice-President had taken the oath of President,
and that the functions of government were being per-
formed as regularly and quietly as though nothing had
happened. And what followed ? The body of the beloved
President was taken from Washington to Illinois through
crowded cities, among a grief-stricken and deeply excited
people, mourning as no people ever mourned, and moved
as no people were ever moved ; and yet there was no
popular violence, no outbreak of popular passion ; borne
a thousand miles to its last resting-place, hundreds of
thousands doing such honor to the remains as were never
n8 HUGH M'CULLOCH.
paid to those *,f king or conqueror, and the public peace
notwithstanding intense indignation was mixed with
intense sorrow, was in no instance disturbed. Hereafter
there will be no skepticism among us in regard to the
wisdom, the excellence and the power of republican insti-
tutions. There is no country upon earth that could have
passed through the trials to which the United States have
been subjected during the four years of civil war with
out being broken into fragments.
The more I saw of Mr. Lincoln the higher became my
admiration of his ability and his character. Before I went
to Washington, and for a short period after, I doubted both
his nerve and his statesmanship ; but a closer observation
relieved me of these doubts, and before his death I had
come to the conclusion that he was a man of will, of
energy, of well-balanced mind, and wonderful sagacity.
His practice of story-telling when the government seemed
to be in imminent peril, and the sublimest events were
transpiring, surprised, if it did not sometimes disgust, those
who did not know him well ; but it indicated on his part
no want of a proper appreciation of the terrible responsi-
bility which rested upon him as the Chief Magistrate of a
great nation engaged in the suppression of a desperate
rebellion which threatened its overthrow. Story-telling
with him was something more than a habit. He was so
accustomed to it in social life and in the practice of his
profession, that it became a part of his nature, and so
accurate was his recollection, and so great a fund had he
at command, that he had always anecdotes and stories to
illustrate his arguments and delight those whose tastes
were similar to his own ; but those who judged from this
HUGH M'CULLOCH.
119
trait that he lacked deep feeling or sound judgment, or a
proper sense of the responsibility of his position, had no
just appreciation of his character. He possessed all
these qualities in an eminent degree. It was true of him,
as is true of all really noble and good men, that those who
knew him best had the highest admiration of him. He
was not a man of genius, but he possessed, in a large
degree, what is far more valuable in a public man,
excellent common sense. He did not undertake to direct
public opinion, but no man understood better the leadings
of the popular will or the beatings of the popular heart.
He did not seem to gain this knowledge from reading or
from observation, for he read very few of our public jour-
nals, and was little inclined to call out the opinions of
others. He was a representative of the people, and he un-
derstood what the people desired rather by a study of him-
self than of them. Granting that, although constitution-
ally honest himself, he did not put a very high valuation
upon honesty in others, and that he sometimes permitted his
partiality for his friends to influence his action in a manner
that was hardly consistent with an upright administration
of his great office, few men have held high position whose
conduct would so well bear the severest criticism as
Mr. Lincoln's. The people have already passed judg-
ment in favor of the nobleness and uprightness of his
character and the wisdom of his administration, and the
pen of impartial history will confirm the judgment.
NEW YORK, 1882.
120 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH.
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH
AT GALES BURG, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 7, 1858.
I have all the while maintained, that in so far as it
should be insisted that there was an equality between the
white and black races that should produce a perfect so-
cial and political equality, it w r as an impossibility. This,
you have seen in my printed speeches ; and with it, I
have said, that in their right to " life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness," as proclaimed in that old Declaration,
the inferior races are our equals. And these declarations
I have constantly made in reference to the abstract
moral question, to contemplate and consider when we
are legislating about any new country, which is not
already cursed with the actual presence of the evil
slavery. I have never manifested any impatience with
the necessities that spring from the actual presence of
black people among us, and the actual existence of slav-
ery among us, where it does already exist; but I have
isisted that, in legislating for new countries, where it does
not exist, there is no just rule, other than that of
moral and abstract right ! With reference to those
new countries, those maxims as to the right of a
people to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness," were the just rules to be constantly referred to.
There is no misunderstanding this, except by men inter-
ested to misunderstand it. I take it that I have to
address an intelligent and reading community, who will
pursue what I say, weigh it, and then judge whether I
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 121
%
advance improper or unsound views, or whether I
advance hypocritical, and deceptive, and contrary views
in different portions of the country. I believe myself to
be guilty of no such thing as the latter, though, of course,
I cannot claim that I am entirely free from all error in
the opinions I advance.
I have said once before, and I will repeat it now, that
Mr. Clay, when he was once answering an objection to
the Colonization Society, that it had a tendency to the
ultimate emancipation of the slaves, said that " those who
would repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate
emancipation, must do more than put down the benevo-
lent efforts of the Colonization Society they must go
back to the era of our liberty and independence, and
muzzle the cannon that thunders its annual joyous return
they must .blot out the moral lights around us they
must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of
reason, and the love of liberty," and I do think I repeat,
though I said it on a former occasion, that Judge
Douglas, and whoever, like him, teaches that the negro
has no share, humble though it may be, in the Declara-
tion of Independence, is going back to the era of our
liberty and independence, and so far as in him lies,
muzzling the cannon that thunders its annual joyous
return ; that he is blowing out the moral lights around us,
when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right
to hold them : that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his
power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason
and the love of liberty, when he is in every possible way
preparing the public m'nd, by his vast influence, for
making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.
122 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH.
And now, it only remains for me to say that it is a
very grave question for the people of this Union to
consider whether, in view of the fact that this slavery
question has been the only one that has ever endangered
,our Republican institutions the only one that has ever
threatened or menaced a dissolution of the Union that
has ever disturbed us in such a way as to make us fear
for the perpetuity of our liberty in view of these facts,
I think it is an exceedingly interesting, and important
question for this people to consider whether we shall
engage in the policy of acquiring additional territory,
discarding altogether from our consideration, while
obtaining new territory, the question how it may affect
us in regard to this, the only endangering element to our
liberties and national greatness. The Judge's view has
been expressed. I, in my answers to his question,
have expressed mine. I think it will become an impor-
tant and practical question. Our views are before the
public. I am willing and anxious that they should con-
sider them fully that they should turn it about,
and consider the importance of the question, and arrive
at a just conclusion as to whether it is, or is not, wise
in the people of this Union, in the acquisition of new
territory, to consider whether it will add to the disturb-
ance that is existing among us whether it will add to
the one only danger that has ever threatened the perpe-
tuity of the Union, or of our own liberties.
I think it is extremely important that they shall
decide, and rightly decide, that question before entering
upon that policy.
B. AFFLECK. 123
I LOVE Abraham Lincoln so ardently, that I scarcely
dare write my opinion of him. His obscure parent-
age, his humble birth, his lack of childhood's joys, his
exalted attainments, his peculiar talents, his natural gifts,
his sympathy for the oppressed, his patriotism for his
country, his loyalty to truth, his pure life, and his having
had all these excellencies crowned with a martyr's death,
renders him beyond doubt, one of the most illustrious
men that ever labored to make goodness triumphant, and
brotherly charity universal.
SPRINGFIELD, 1881.
124 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH.
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH
AT QUINCY, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 13, 1858.
I was aware, when it was first agreed that Judge
Douglas and I were to have these seven joint discussions,
that they were the successive acts of a drama perhaps I
should say, to be enacted not mearly in the face of audi-
ences like this, but in the face of the nation, and to some
extent, by my relation to him, and not from anything in
myself, in the face of the world and I am anxious that
they should be conducted with dignity and in good
temper, which would be befitting the vast audiences
before which it was conducted.
I was not entirely sure that I should be able to
hold my own with him, but I at least had the purpose
made to do as well as I could upon him ; and now I say
that I will not be the first to cry " hold." I think it orig-
inated with the Judge, and when he quits, I probably
will. But I shall not ask any favors at all. He asks me,
or he asks the audiences, if I wish to push this matter to
the point of personal difficulty? I tell him, No. He
did not make a mistake, in one of his early speeches,
when he called me an amiable man, though perhaps he did
when he called me an "intelligent" man. It really hurts
me very much to suppose that I have wronged anybody
on earth. I again tell him No ! I very much prefer, when
this canvass shall be over, however it may result, that we
at least part without any bitter recollections of personal
difficulties.
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 125
We have in this nation this element of domestic
slavery It is a matter of absolute certainty that it is a
disturbing element. It is the opinion of all the great
men who have expressed an opinion upon it, that it is
a dangerous element. We keep up a controversy in
regard to it. That controversy necessarily springs from
difference of opinion, and if we can learn exactly can
reduce to the lowest elements what that difference of
opinion is, we perhaps shall be better prepared for discuss-
ing the different system of policy that we would propose
in regard to that disturbing element. I suggest that the
difference of opinion, reduced to its lowest terms, is no
other than the difference between the men who think
slavery a wrong and those who do not think it wrong.
We think it is a wrong not confining itself merely to the
persons or the States where it exists, but that it is a wrong
in its tendency, to say the least, that extends itself to the ex-
istence of the whole nation. Because we think it wrong
we propose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a
wrong. We deal with it as with any other wrong, in so
far as we can prevent its growing any larger, and so deal
with it that in the run of time there may be some promise
of an end to it. We have a due regard to the actual
presence of it among us and the difficulties of getting rid
of it in any satisfactory way, and all the constitutional
obligations thrown about it. I suppose that in reference
both to its actual existence in the nation, and to our con-
stitutional obligations, we have no right at all to disturb
it in the States where it exists, and we profess that we
have no more inclination to disturb it than we have the
right to do it. We go farther than that ; we don't pro-
126 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH.
pose to disturb it where, in one instance, we think the
Constitution would permit us. We think the constitution
would permit us to disturb it in the District of Columbia.
Still, we do not propose to do that, unless it should be in
terms which I don't suppose the nations is very likely soon
to agree to the terms of making the emancipation gradual
and compensating the unwilling owners. Where we
suppose we have the constitutional right, we restrain our-
selves in reference to the actual existence of the institu-
tion and the difficulties thrown about it. We also oppose
it as an evil so far as it seeks to spread itself. We in-
sist on the policy that shall restrict it to its present limits.
We don't suppose that in doing this we violate anything
due to the actual presence of the institution, or anything
due to the constitutional guaranties thrown around it
W. MERRITT. 127
THERE is not, to my mind, outside of Divine Writ,
so convincing an evidence of the immortality of the
soul, as is furnished by the growth and development of
the mind and character of this greatest of American Pres-
idents to meet the exigencies of the direction and control
of a great revolution, on the successful issue of which
depended the happiness of one-fifth of the world. From
a poor country boy, uneducated and untrained, we find
him advancing through the grades of a commonplace
law practice, to the government of a great nation in one
of the most perplexing political epochs that history
records, controlling and directing events to a successful
issue to the most successful issue possible, as retrospec-
tion after a lapse of years proves. History furnishes
scarcely a parallel to the character of this greatest of
reformers. The love of power has produced wise
despots, who have endured a life of earnest labor, full of
privations, for the sake of innovation and improvement ;
Icabots have lived miserable lives, or suffered infamous
deaths for an idea involving improvement, but the
motive in both cases is rather personal than general.
The rule with mankind as practical in politics or religion,
is conservation. In the face of opposition and struggle,
we shrink from responsibilities, and content ourselves
with contracting the sphere of intended reforms, to our
immediate surroundings.
128 IV. MERRITT.
As his career differed from that of the other heroes of
history, in that he lived and strove for reforms that
would benefit mankind, though his own life should be
the price, in so far is Abraham Lincoln the greatest of
Reformers the noblest of Patriots the ablest of men.
U. S. ARMY, 1882.
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 129
A BRAHAM LINCOLN was the genius of common
xV sense. In his daily life he was a representative of
the American people, and probably the best leader we
could have had in the crisis of our national life. He
was a great leader, because to his common sense was
added the gift of imagination.
HARTFORD, 1880.
9
j 3 o SPEECH AT ALTON,
SPEECH AT ALTON, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER
15, 1858.
On this subject of treating slavery as a wrong, and
limiting its spread, let me say a word. Has anything
ever threatened the existence of this Union save and ex-
cept this very institution of slavery ? What is it that we
hold most dear among us ? Our own liberty and pros-
perity. What has ever threatened our liberty and
prosperity, save and except this institution of slavery ?
If this is true, how do you propose to improve the con-
dition of things by enlarging slavery? by spreading it
out, and making it bigger? You may have a wen or
cancer upon your person, and not be able to cut it out
lest you bleed to death : but surely, it is no way to cure
it, to ingraft it and spread it over your whole body that
is no proper way of treating what you regard a wrong.
You see, this peaceful way of dealing with it as a wrong
restricting the spread of it, and not allowing it to go
into new countries where it has not already existed
that is the peaceful way, the old-fashioned way, the
way in which the fathers themselves set us the example.
" Is slavery wrong?"
That is the real issue. That is the issue that will
continue in this country, when these poor tongues of
Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the
eternal struggle between these two principles right and
wrong throughout the world. They are two principles
SPEECH AT ALTON. 131
that have stood face to face from the beginning of time ;
and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the com-
mon right of humanity, and the other, the divine right of
kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it
develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You
work, and toil, and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No
matter in what shapes it comes, whether from the mouth
of a king, who seeks to bestride the people of his own
nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one
race of men as an apology for enslaving another race,
it is the same tyrannical principle.
I do not claim, gentlemen, to be unselfish ; I do not
pretend that I would not like to go to the United States
Senate ; I make no such hypocritical pretense ; but I do
say to you, that in this mighty issue it is nothing to the
mass of the people of the nation, whether or not Judge
Douglas or myself shall ever be heard of after this night ;
it may be a trifle to either of us, but in connection with
this mighty question, upon which hangs the destinies of
the nation, perhaps, it is absolutely nothing.
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH.
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH
AT COLUMBUS, OHIO, SEPTEMBER, 1859.
Public opinion in this country is everything. In a
nation like ours this popular sovereignty and squatter
Sovereignty have already wrought a change in the public
mind to the extent I have stated. There is no man in
this crowd who can contradict it. Now, if you are op-
posed to slavery honestly, as much as anybody, I ask you
to note that fact, and the like of which is to follow, to be
plastered on, layer after layer, until very soon you are
prepared to deal with the negro everywhere as with the
brute. If public sentiment has not been debauched al-
ready to 'this point, a new turn of the screw in that direc-
tion is all that is wanting ; and this is constantly being
done by the teachers of this insidious popular sovereignty.
You need but one or two turns further until your minds,
now ripening under these teachings, will be ready for all
these things, and you will receive and support or submit
to, the slave trade, revived with all its horrors, a slave
code enforced in our territories, and a new Dred Scott
decision to bring slavery up into the very heart of the
free North. This, I must say, is but carrying out those
words prophetically spoken by Mr. Clay, many, many
years ago I believe more than thirty years when he
told his audience that if they would repress all tenden-
cies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, they must go
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 133
back to the era of our independence and muzzle the cannon
which thundered its annual joyous return on the Fourth
of July ; they must blow out the moral lights around us ,
they must penetrate the human soul and eradicate the
love of liberty ; but until they did these things, and others
eloquently enumerated by him, they could not repress all
tendencies to ultimate emancipation. I ask attention to
the fact that in a pre-eminent degree these popular sov-
ereigns 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 reptile ;
that man with body and soul, is a matter of dollars and
cents.
134 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH.
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH
AT CINCINNATI, OHIO, SEPTEMBER, 1859.
It has occurred to me here, to-night, that if I ever
do shoot over the line, at the people on the other side of
the line, into a slave State, and purpose to do so, keeping
my skin safe, that I have now about the best chance I
shall ever have. I should not wonder that there are
some Kentuckians about this audience ; we are close to
Kentucky ; and whether that be so or not, we are on ele-
vated ground, and by speaking distinctly, I should not
wonder if some of the Kentuckians would hear me on the
other side of the river. For that reason, I propose to
address a portion of what I have to say, to the Kentuck-
ians.
I say, then, in the first place, to the Kentuckians,
that I am what they call, as I understand it, a " Black
Republican." I think slavery is wrong, morally and
politically. I desire that it should be no further spread
in these United States, and I should not object, if it
should gradually terminate in the whole Union. While
I say this for myse 1 ^ I say to you, Kentuckians, that I
understand you differ radically with me upon this propo-
sition ; that you believe slavery is a good thing ; that
slavery is right ; that it ought to be extended and perpet-
uated in this Union. Now, there being this broad differ-
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 135
ence between us, I do not pretend, in addressing myself
to you, Kentuckians, to attempt proselyting you ; that
would be a vain effort. I do not enter upon it. I
will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the
opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean to
treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Washington,
Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave
you alone, and in no way to interfere with your institu-
tion ; to abide by all and every compromise of the
Constitution, and, in a word, coming back to the original
proposition, to treat you, so far as degenerated men (if
we have degenerated) may, according to the examples of
those noble fathers Washington, Jefferson, and Madi-
son. We mean to remember that you are as good as we ;
that there is no difference between us, other than the
difference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and
bear in mind always, 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.
I have told you what we mean to do. I want to
know, now, when that thing takes place, what you mean
to do. I often hear it intimated that you mean to divide
the Union whenever a Republican, or anything like it,