The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Complete

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Mr. Speaker, let our Democratic friends be comforted with the assurance
that we are content with our position, content with our company, and
content with our candidate; and that although they, in their generous
sympathy, think we ought to be miserable, we really are not, and that
they may dismiss the great anxiety they have on our account.

Mr. Speaker, I see I have but three minutes left, and this forces me to
throw out one whole branch of my subject. A single word on still another.
The Democrats are keen enough to frequently remind us that we have some
dissensions in our ranks. Our good friend from Baltimore immediately
before me [Mr. McLane] expressed some doubt the other day as to which
branch of our party General Taylor would ultimately fall into the hands
of. That was a new idea to me. I knew we had dissenters, but I did not
know they were trying to get our candidate away from us. I would like to
say a word to our dissenters, but I have not the time. Some such we
certainly have; have you none, gentlemen Democrats? Is it all union and
harmony in your ranks? no bickerings? no divisions? If there be doubt as
to which of our divisions will get our candidate, is there no doubt as to
which of your candidates will get your party? I have heard some things
from New York; and if they are true, one might well say of your party
there, as a drunken fellow once said when he heard the reading of an
indictment for hog-stealing. The clerk read on till he got to and through
the words, "did steal, take, and carry away ten boars, ten sows, ten
shoats, and ten pigs," at which he exclaimed, "Well, by golly, that is
the most equally divided gang of hogs I ever did hear of!" If there is
any other gang of hogs more equally divided than the Democrats of New
York are about this time, I have not heard of it.




SPEECH DELIVERED AT WORCESTER, MASS., ON
SEPT. 12, 1848.

(From the Boston Advertiser.)

Mr. Kellogg then introduced to the meeting the Hon. Abram Lincoln, Whig
member of Congress from Illinois, a representative of free soil.

Mr. Lincoln has a very tall and thin figure, with an intellectual face,
showing a searching mind, and a cool judgment. He spoke in a clear and
cool and very eloquent manner, for an hour and a half, carrying the
audience with him in his able arguments and brilliant illustrations--only
interrupted by warm and frequent applause. He began by expressing a real
feeling of modesty in addressing an audience "this side of the
mountains," a part of the country where, in the opinion of the people of
his section, everybody was supposed to be instructed and wise. But he had
devoted his attention to the question of the coming Presidential
election, and was not unwilling to exchange with all whom he might the
ideas to which he had arrived. He then began to show the fallacy of some
of the arguments against Gen. Taylor, making his chief theme the
fashionable statement of all those who oppose him ("the old Locofocos as
well as the new") that he has no principles, and that the Whig party have
abandoned their principles by adopting him as their candidate. He
maintained that Gen. Taylor occupied a high and unexceptionable Whig
ground, and took for his first instance and proof of this the statement
in the Allison letter--with regard to the bank, tariff, rivers and
harbors, etc.--that the will of the people should produce its own
results, without executive influence. The principle that the people
should do what--under the Constitution--as they please, is a Whig
principle. All that Gen. Taylor is not only to consent to, but appeal to
the people to judge and act for themselves. And this was no new doctrine
for Whigs. It was the "platform" on which they had fought all their
battles, the resistance of executive influence, and the principle of
enabling the people to frame the government according to their will. Gen.
Taylor consents to be the candidate, and to assist the people to do what
they think to be their duty, and think to be best in their national
affairs, but because he don't want to tell what we ought to do, he is
accused of having no principles. The Whigs here maintained for years that
neither the influence, the duress, or the prohibition of the executive
should control the legitimately expressed will of the people; and now
that, on that very ground, Gen. Taylor says that he should use the power
given him by the people to do, to the best of his judgment, the will of
the people, he is accused of want of principle, and of inconsistency in
position.

Mr. Lincoln proceeded to examine the absurdity of an attempt to make a
platform or creed for a national party, to all parts of which all must
consent and agree, when it was clearly the intention and the true
philosophy of our government, that in Congress all opinions and
principles should be represented, and that when the wisdom of all had
been compared and united, the will of the majority should be carried out.
On this ground he conceived (and the audience seemed to go with him) that
Gen. Taylor held correct, sound republican principles.

Mr. Lincoln then passed to the subject of slavery in the States, saying
that the people of Illinois agreed entirely with the people of
Massachusetts on this subject, except perhaps that they did not keep so
constantly thinking about it. All agreed that slavery was an evil, but
that we were not responsible for it and cannot affect it in States of
this Union where we do not live. But the question of the extension of
slavery to new territories of this country is a part of our
responsibility and care, and is under our control. In opposition to this
Mr. L. believed that the self-named "Free Soil" party was far behind the
Whigs. Both parties opposed the extension. As he understood it the new
party had no principle except this opposition. If their platform held any
other, it was in such a general way that it was like the pair of
pantaloons the Yankee pedlar offered for sale, "large enough for any man,
small enough for any boy." They therefore had taken a position calculated
to break down their single important declared object. They were working
for the election of either Gen. Cass or Gen. Taylor. The speaker then
went on to show, clearly and eloquently, the danger of extension of
slavery, likely to result from the election of Gen. Cass. To unite with
those who annexed the new territory to prevent the extension of slavery
in that territory seemed to him to be in the highest degree absurd and
ridiculous. Suppose these gentlemen succeed in electing Mr. Van Buren,
they had no specific means to prevent the extension of slavery to New
Mexico and California, and Gen. Taylor, he confidently believed, would
not encourage it, and would not prohibit its restriction. But if Gen.
Cass was elected, he felt certain that the plans of farther extension of
territory would be encouraged, and those of the extension of slavery
would meet no check. The "Free Soil" mart in claiming that name
indirectly attempts a deception, by implying that Whigs were not Free
Soil men. Declaring that they would "do their duty and leave the
consequences to God" merely gave an excuse for taking a course they were
not able to maintain by a fair and full argument. To make this
declaration did not show what their duty was. If it did we should have no
use for judgment, we might as well be made without intellect; and when
divine or human law does not clearly point out what is our duty, we have
no means of finding out what it is but by using our most intelligent
judgment of the consequences. If there were divine law or human law for
voting for Martin Van Buren, or if a fair examination of the
consequences and just reasoning would show that voting for him would
bring about the ends they pretended to wish--then he would give up the
argument. But since there was no fixed law on the subject, and since the
whole probable result of their action would be an assistance in electing
Gen. Cass, he must say that they were behind the Whigs in their advocacy
of the freedom of the soil.

Mr. Lincoln proceeded to rally the Buffalo convention for forbearing to
say anything--after all the previous declarations of those members who
were formerly Whigs--on the subject of the Mexican War, because the Van
Burens had been known to have supported it. He declared that of all the
parties asking the confidence of the country, this new one had less of
principle than any other.

He wondered whether it was still the opinion of these Free Soil
gentlemen, as declared in the "whereas" at Buffalo, that the Whig and
Democratic parties were both entirely dissolved and absorbed into their
own body. Had the Vermont election given them any light? They had
calculated on making as great an impression in that State as in any part
of the Union, and there their attempts had been wholly ineffectual. Their
failure was a greater success than they would find in any other part of
the Union.

Mr. Lincoln went on to say that he honestly believed that all those who
wished to keep up the character of the Union; who did not believe in
enlarging our field, but in keeping our fences where they are and
cultivating our present possessions, making it a garden, improving the
morals and education of the people, devoting the administrations to this
purpose; all real Whigs, friends of good honest government--the race was
ours. He had opportunities of hearing from almost every part of the Union
from reliable sources and had not heard of a county in which we had not
received accessions from other parties. If the true Whigs come forward
and join these new friends, they need not have a doubt. We had a
candidate whose personal character and principles he had already
described, whom he could not eulogize if he would. Gen. Taylor had been
constantly, perseveringly, quietly standing up, doing his duty and asking
no praise or reward for it. He was and must be just the man to whom the
interests, principles, and prosperity of the country might be safely
intrusted. He had never failed in anything he had undertaken, although
many of his duties had been considered almost impossible.

Mr. Lincoln then went into a terse though rapid review of the origin of
the Mexican War and the connection of the administration and General
Taylor with it, from which he deduced a strong appeal to the Whigs
present to do their duty in the support of General Taylor, and closed
with the warmest aspirations for and confidence in a deserved success.

At the close of his truly masterly and convincing speech, the audience
gave three enthusiastic cheers for Illinois, and three more for the
eloquent Whig member from the State.




HIS FATHER'S REQUEST FOR MONEY

TO THOMAS LINCOLN

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24, 1848.

MY DEAR FATHER:--Your letter of the 7th was received night before last. I
very cheerfully send you the twenty dollars, which sum you say is
necessary to save your land from sale. It is singular that you should
have forgotten a judgment against you; and it is more singular that the
plaintiff should have let you forget it so long; particularly as I
suppose you always had property enough to satisfy a judgment of that
amount. Before you pay it, it would be well to be sure you have not paid,
or at least, that you cannot prove you have paid it.

Give my love to mother and all the connections. Affectionately your son,
A. LINCOLN.




1849

BILL TO ABOLISH SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Resolved, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be instructed to
report a bill in substance as follows:

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States, in Congress assembled, That no person not now within the
District of Columbia, nor now owned by any person or persons now resident
within it, nor hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in slavery
within said District.

Sec. 2. That no person now within said District, or now owned by any
person or persons now resident within the same, or hereafter born within
it, shall ever be held in slavery without the limits of said District:
Provided, That officers of the Government of the United States, being
citizens of the slaveholding States, coming into said District on public
business, and remaining only so long as may be reasonably necessary for
that object, may be attended into and out of said District, and while
there, by the necessary servants of themselves and their families,
without their right to hold such servants in service being thereby
impaired.

Sec. 3. That all children born of slave mothers within said District, on
or after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord eighteen
hundred and fifty, shall be free; but shall be reasonably supported and
educated by the respective owners of their mothers, or by their heirs or
representatives, and shall owe reasonable service as apprentices to such
owners, heirs, or representatives, until they respectively arrive at the
age of __ years, when they shall be entirely free; and the municipal
authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective
jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to make all
suitable and necessary provision for enforcing obedience to this section,
on the part of both masters and apprentices.

Sec. 4. That all persons now within this District, lawfully held as
slaves, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within said
District, shall remain such at the will of their respective owners, their
heirs, and legal representatives: Provided, That such owner, or his legal
representative, may at any time receive from the Treasury of the United
States the full value of his or her slave, of the class in this section
mentioned, upon which such slave shall be forthwith and forever free: And
provided further, That the President of the United States, the Secretary
of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall be a board for
determining the value of such slaves as their owners may desire to
emancipate under this section, and whose duty it shall be to hold a
session for the purpose on the first Monday of each calendar month, to
receive all applications, and, on satisfactory evidence in each case that
the person presented for valuation is a slave, and of the class in this
section mentioned, and is owned by the applicant, shall value such slave
at his or her full cash value, and give to the applicant an order on the
Treasury for the amount, and also to such slave a certificate of freedom.

Sec. 5. That the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown,
within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and
required to provide active and efficient means to arrest and deliver up
to their owners all fugitive slaves escaping into said District.

Sec. 6. That the election officers within said District of Columbia are
hereby empowered and required to open polls, at all the usual places of
holding elections, on the first Monday of April next, and receive the
vote of every free white male citizen above the age of twenty-one years,
having resided within said District for the period of one year or more
next preceding the time of such voting for or against this act, to
proceed in taking said votes, in all respects not herein specified, as at
elections under the municipal laws, and with as little delay as possible
to transmit correct statements of the votes so cast to the President of
the United States; and it shall be the duty of the President to canvass
said votes immediately, and if a majority of them be found to be for this
act, to forthwith issue his proclamation giving notice of the fact; and
this act shall only be in full force and effect on and after the day of
such proclamation.

Sec. 7. That involuntary servitude for the punishment of crime, whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall in no wise be prohibited
by this act.

Sec. 8. That for all the purposes of this act, the jurisdictional limits
of Washington are extended to all parts of the District of Columbia not
now included within the present limits of Georgetown.




BILL GRANTING LANDS TO THE STATES TO MAKE RAILWAYS AND CANALS

REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 13, 1849.

Mr. Lincoln said he had not risen for the purpose of making a speech, but
only for the purpose of meeting some of the objections to the bill. If he
understood those objections, the first was that if the bill were to
become a law, it would be used to lock large portions of the public lands
from sale, without at last effecting the ostensible object of the
bill--the construction of railroads in the new States; and secondly, that
Congress would be forced to the abandonment of large portions of the
public lands to the States for which they might be reserved, without
their paying for them. This he understood to be the substance of the
objections of the gentleman from Ohio to the passage of the bill.

If he could get the attention of the House for a few minutes, he would
ask gentlemen to tell us what motive could induce any State Legislature,
or individual, or company of individuals, of the new States, to expend
money in surveying roads which they might know they could not make.

(A voice: They are not required to make the road.)

Mr. Lincoln continued: That was not the case he was making. What motive
would tempt any set of men to go into an extensive survey of a railroad
which they did not intend to make? What good would it do? Did men act
without motive? Did business men commonly go into an expenditure of money
which could be of no account to them? He generally found that men who
have money were disposed to hold on to it, unless they could see
something to be made by its investment. He could not see what motive of
advantage to the new States could be subserved by merely keeping the
public lands out of market, and preventing their settlement. As far as he
could see, the new States were wholly without any motive to do such a
thing. This, then, he took to be a good answer to the first objection.

In relation to the fact assumed, that after a while, the new States
having got hold of the public lands to a certain extent, they would turn
round and compel Congress to relinquish all claim to them, he had a word
to say, by way of recurring to the history of the past. When was the time
to come (he asked) when the States in which the public lands were
situated would compose a majority of the representation in Congress, or
anything like it? A majority of Representatives would very soon reside
west of the mountains, he admitted; but would they all come from States
in which the public lands were situated? They certainly would not; for,
as these Western States grew strong in Congress, the public lands passed
away from them, and they got on the other side of the question; and the
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Vinton] was an example attesting that fact.

Mr. Vinton interrupted here to say that he had stood on this question
just where he was now, for five and twenty years.

Mr. Lincoln was not making an argument for the purpose of convicting the
gentleman of any impropriety at all. He was speaking of a fact in
history, of which his State was an example. He was referring to a plain
principle in the nature of things. The State of Ohio had now grown to be
a giant. She had a large delegation on that floor; but was she now in
favor of granting lands to the new States, as she used to be? The New
England States, New York, and the Old Thirteen were all rather quiet upon
the subject; and it was seen just now that a member from one of the new
States was the first man to rise up in opposition. And such would be with
the history of this question for the future. There never would come a
time when the people residing in the States embracing the public lands
would have the entire control of this subject; and so it was a matter of
certainty that Congress would never do more in this respect than what
would be dictated by a just liberality. The apprehension, therefore, that
the public lands were in danger of being wrested from the General
Government by the strength of the delegation in Congress from the new
States, was utterly futile. There never could be such a thing. If we take
these lands (said he) it will not be without your consent. We can never
outnumber you. The result is that all fear of the new States turning
against the right of Congress to the public domain must be effectually
quelled, as those who are opposed to that interest must always hold a
vast majority here, and they will never surrender the whole or any part
of the public lands unless they themselves choose to do so. That was all
he desired to say.




ON FEDERAL POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

WASHINGTON, March 9, 1849.
HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

DEAR SIR: Colonel R. D. Baker and myself are the only Whig members of
Congress from Illinois of the Thirtieth, and he of the Thirty-first. We
have reason to think the Whigs of that State hold us responsible, to some
extent, for the appointments which may be made of our citizens. We do not
know you personally, and our efforts to you have so far been unavailing.
I therefore hope I am not obtrusive in saying in this way, for him and
myself, that when a citizen of Illinois is to be appointed in your
department, to an office either in or out of the State, we most
respectfully ask to be heard.

Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.




MORE POLITICAL PATRONAGE REQUESTS

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

WASHINGTON, March 10, 1849.
HON. SECRETARY OF STATE.

SIR:--There are several applicants for the office of United States
Marshal for the District of Illinois. Among the most prominent of them
are Benjamin Bond, Esq., of Carlyle, and Thomas, Esq., of Galena. Mr.
Bond I know to be personally every way worthy of the office; and he is
very numerously and most respectably recommended. His papers I send to
you; and I solicit for his claims a full and fair consideration.

Having said this much, I add that in my individual judgment the
appointment of Mr. Thomas would be the better.

Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.

(Indorsed on Mr. Bond's papers.)

In this and the accompanying envelope are the recommendations of about
two hundred good citizens of all parts of Illinois, that Benjamin Bond be
appointed marshal for that district. They include the names of nearly all
our Whigs who now are, or have ever been, members of the State
Legislature, besides forty-six of the Democratic members of the present
Legislature, and many other good citizens. I add that from personal
knowledge I consider Mr. Bond every way worthy of the office, and
qualified to fill it. Holding the individual opinion that the appointment
of a different gentleman would be better, I ask especial attention and
consideration for his claims, and for the opinions expressed in his favor
by those over whom I can claim no superiority.

A. LINCOLN.




TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849
HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT.

DEAR SIR:--I recommend that Walter Davis be appointed receiver of the
land-office at this place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. I cannot
say that Mr. Herndon, the present incumbent, has failed in the proper
discharge of any of the duties of the office. He is a very warm partisan,
and openly and actively opposed to the election of General Taylor. I also
understand that since General Taylor's election he has received a
reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old commission not having expired.
Whether this is true the records of the department will show. I may add
that the Whigs here almost universally desire his removal.

I give no opinion of my own, but state the facts, and express the hope
that the department will act in this as in all other cases on some proper
general rule.

Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.

P. S.--The land district to which this office belongs is very nearly if
not entirely within my district; so that Colonel Baker, the other Whig
representative, claims no voice in the appointment. A. L.




TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849.
HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT.

DEAR SIR:--I recommend that Turner R. King, now of Pekin, Illinois, be
appointed register of the land-office at this place whenever there shall
be a vacancy.

I do not know that Mr. Barret, the present incumbent, has failed in the
proper discharge of any of his duties in the office. He is a decided
partisan, and openly and actively opposed the election of General Taylor.
I understand, too, that since the election of General Taylor, Mr. Barret
has received a reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old commission not having
expired. Whether this be true, the records of the department will show.

Whether he should be removed I give no opinion, but merely express the
wish that the department may act upon some proper general rule, and that
Mr. Barret's case may not be made an exception to it.

Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.

P. S.-The land district to which this office belongs is very nearly if
not entirely within my district; so that Colonel Baker, the other Whig
representative, claims no voice in the appointment. A. L.