The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Complete

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"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."

Judge Douglas makes use of the above quotation, and finds a great deal of
fault with it. He deals unfairly with me, and tries to make the people of
this State believe that I advocated dangerous doctrines in my Springfield
speech. Let us see if that portion of my Springfield speech of which
Judge Douglas complains so bitterly, is as objectionable to others as it
is to him. We are, certainly, far into the fifth year since a policy was
initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end
to slavery agitation. On the fourth day of January, 1854, Judge Douglas
introduced the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He initiated a new policy, and that
policy, so he says, was to put an end to the agitation of the slavery
question. Whether that was his object or not I will not stop to discuss,
but at all events some kind of a policy was initiated; and what has been
the result? Instead of the quiet and good feeling which were promised us
by the self-styled author of Popular Sovereignty, we have had nothing but
ill-feeling and agitation. According to Judge Douglas, the passage of the
Nebraska bill would tranquilize the whole country--there would be no more
slavery agitation in or out of Congress, and the vexed question would be
left entirely to the people of the Territories. Such was the opinion of
Judge Douglas, and such were the opinions of the leading men of the
Democratic Party. Even as late as the spring of 1856 Mr. Buchanan said, a
short time subsequent to his nomination by the Cincinnati convention,
that the territory of Kansas would be tranquil in less than six weeks.
Perhaps he thought so, but Kansas has not been and is not tranquil, and
it may be a long time before she may be so.

We all know how fierce the agitation was in Congress last winter, and
what a narrow escape Kansas had from being admitted into the Union with a
constitution that was detested by ninety-nine hundredths of her citizens.
Did the angry debates which took place at Washington during the last
season of Congress lead you to suppose that the slavery agitation was
settled?

An election was held in Kansas in the month of August, and the
constitution which was submitted to the people was voted down by a large
majority. So Kansas is still out of the Union, and there is a probability
that she will remain out for some time. But Judge Douglas says the
slavery question is settled. He says the bill he introduced into the
Senate of the United States on the 4th day of January, 1854, settled the
slavery question forever! Perhaps he can tell us how that bill settled
the slavery question, for if he is able to settle a question of such
great magnitude he ought to be able to explain the manner in which he
does it. He knows and you know that the question is not settled, and that
his ill-timed experiment to settle it has made it worse than it ever was
before.

And now let me say a few words in regard to Douglas's great hobby of
negro equality. He thinks--he says at least--that the Republican party is
in favor of allowing whites and blacks to intermarry, and that a man
can't be a good Republican unless he is willing to elevate black men to
office and to associate with them on terms of perfect equality. He knows
that we advocate no such doctrines as these, but he cares not how much he
misrepresents us if he can gain a few votes by so doing. To show you what
my opinion of negro equality was in times past, and to prove to you that
I stand on that question where I always stood, I will read you a few
extracts from a speech that was made by me in Peoria in 1854. It was made
in reply to one of Judge Douglas's speeches.

(Mr. Lincoln then read a number of extracts which had the ring of the
true metal. We have rarely heard anything with which we have been more
pleased. And the audience after hearing the extracts read, and comparing
their conservative sentiments with those now advocated by Mr. Lincoln,
testified their approval by loud applause. How any reasonable man can
hear one of Mr. Lincoln's speeches without being converted to
Republicanism is something that we can't account for. Ed.)

Slavery, continued Mr. Lincoln, is not a matter of little importance, it
overshadows every other question in which we are interested. It has
divided the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, and has sown discord in
the American Tract Society. The churches have split and the society will
follow their example before long. So it will be seen that slavery is
agitated in the religious as well as in the political world. Judge
Douglas is very much afraid in the triumph that the Republican party will
lead to a general mixture of the white and black races. Perhaps I am
wrong in saying that he is afraid, so I will correct myself by saying
that he pretends to fear that the success of our party will result in the
amalgamation of the blacks and whites. I think I can show plainly, from
documents now before me, that Judge Douglas's fears are groundless. The
census of 1800 tells us that in that year there were over four hundred
thousand mulattoes in the United States. Now let us take what is called
an Abolition State--the Republican, slavery-hating State of New
Hampshire--and see how many mulattoes we can find within her borders. The
number amounts to just one hundred and eighty-four. In the Old
Dominion--in the Democratic and aristocratic State of Virginia--there
were a few more mulattoes than the Census-takers found in New Hampshire.
How many do you suppose there were? Seventy-nine thousand, seven hundred
and seventy-five--twenty-three thousand more than there were in all the
free States! In the slave States there were in 1800, three hundred and
forty-eight thousand mulattoes all of home production; and in the free
States there were less than sixty thousand mulattoes--and a large number
of them were imported from the South.




FRAGMENT OF SPEECH AT EDWARDSVILLE, ILL.,

SEPT. 13, 1858.

I have been requested to give a concise statement of the difference, as I
understand it, between the Democratic and Republican parties, on the
leading issues of the campaign. This question has been put to me by a
gentleman whom I do not know. I do not even know whether he is a friend
of mine or a supporter of Judge Douglas in this contest, nor does that
make any difference. His question is a proper one. Lest I should forget
it, I will give you my answer before proceeding with the line of argument
I have marked out for this discussion.

The difference between the Republican and the Democratic parties on the
leading issues of this contest, as I understand it, is that the former
consider slavery a moral, social and political wrong, while the latter do
not consider it either a moral, a social or a political wrong; and the
action of each, as respects the growth of the country and the expansion
of our population, is squared to meet these views. I will not affirm that
the Democratic party consider slavery morally, socially and politically
right, though their tendency to that view has, in my opinion, been
constant and unmistakable for the past five years. I prefer to take, as
the accepted maxim of the party, the idea put forth by Judge Douglas,
that he "don't care whether slavery is voted down or voted up." I am quite
willing to believe that many Democrats would prefer that slavery should
be always voted down, and I know that some prefer that it be always voted
up; but I have a right to insist that their action, especially if it be
their constant action, shall determine their ideas and preferences on
this subject. Every measure of the Democratic party of late years,
bearing directly or indirectly on the slavery question, has corresponded
with this notion of utter indifference whether slavery or freedom shall
outrun in the race of empire across to the Pacific--every measure, I say,
up to the Dred Scott decision, where, it seems to me, the idea is boldly
suggested that slavery is better than freedom. The Republican party, on
the contrary, hold that this government was instituted to secure the
blessings of freedom, and that slavery is an unqualified evil to the
negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State. Regarding it as
an evil, they will not molest it in the States where it exists, they will
not overlook the constitutional guards which our fathers placed around
it; they will do nothing that can give proper offence to those who hold
slaves by legal sanction; but they will use every constitutional method
to prevent the evil from becoming larger and involving more negroes, more
white men, more soil, and more States in its deplorable consequences.
They will, if possible, place it where the public mind shall rest in the
belief that it is in course of ultimate peaceable extinction in God's own
good time. And to this end they will, if possible, restore the government
to the policy of the fathers, the policy of preserving the new
Territories from the baneful influence of human bondage, as the
Northwestern Territories were sought to be preserved by the Ordinance of
1787, and the Compromise Act of 1820. They will oppose, in all its length
and breadth, the modern Democratic idea, that slavery is as good as
freedom, and ought to have room for expansion all over the continent, if
people can be found to carry it. All, or nearly all, of Judge Douglas's
arguments are logical, if you admit that slavery is as good and as right
as freedom, and not one of them is worth a rush if you deny it. This is
the difference, as I understand it, between the Republican and Democratic
parties.

My friends, I have endeavored to show you the logical consequences of the
Dred Scott decision, which holds that the people of a Territory cannot
prevent the establishment of slavery in their midst. I have stated what
cannot be gainsaid, that the grounds upon which this decision is made are
equally applicable to the free States as to the free Territories, and
that the peculiar reasons put forth by Judge Douglas for indorsing this
decision commit him, in advance, to the next decision and to all other
decisions corning from the same source. And when, by all these means, you
have succeeded in dehumanizing the negro; when you have put him down and
made it impossible for him to be but as the beasts of the field; when you
have extinguished his soul in this world and placed him where the ray of
hope is blown out as in the darkness of the damned, are you quite sure
that the demon you have roused will not turn and rend you? What
constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not
our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, our army and our
navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny All of those may be
turned against us without making us weaker for the struggle. Our reliance
is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in
the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands
everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of
despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of
bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to
trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own
independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who
rises among you. And let me tell you, that all these things are prepared
for you by the teachings of history, if the elections shall promise that
the next Dred Scott decision and all future decisions will be quietly
acquiesced in by the people.




VERSE TO "LINNIE"

September 30,? 1858.

TO "LINNIE":

A sweet plaintive song did I hear And I fancied that she was the singer.
May emotions as pure as that song set astir Be the wont that the future
shall bring her.




NEGROES ARE MEN

TO J. U. BROWN.

SPRINGFIELD, OCT 18, 1858

HON. J. U. BROWN.

MY DEAR SIR:--I do not perceive how I can express myself more plainly
than I have in the fore-going extracts. In four of them I have expressly
disclaimed all intention to bring about social and political equality
between the white and black races and in all the rest I have done the
same thing by clear implication.

I have made it equally plain that I think the negro is included in the
word "men" used in the Declaration of Independence.

I believe the declaration that "all men are created equal" is the great
fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest; that negro
slavery is violative of that principle; but that, by our frame of
government, that principle has not been made one of legal obligation;
that by our frame of government, States which have slavery are to retain
it, or surrender it at their own pleasure; and that all
others--individuals, free States and national Government--are
constitutionally bound to leave them alone about it.

I believe our Government was thus framed because of the necessity
springing from the actual presence of slavery, when it was framed.

That such necessity does not exist in the Territories when slavery is not
present.

In his Mendenhall speech Mr. Clay says: "Now as an abstract principle
there is no doubt of the truth of that declaration (all men created
equal), and it is desirable, in the original construction of society, to
keep it in view as a great fundamental principle."

Again, in the same speech Mr. Clay says: "If a state of nature existed
and we were about to lay the foundations of society, no man would be more
strongly opposed than I should to incorporate the institution of slavery
among its elements."

Exactly so. In our new free Territories, a state of nature does exist. In
them Congress lays the foundations of society; and in laying those
foundations, I say, with Mr. Clay, it is desirable that the declaration
of the equality of all men shall be kept in view as a great fundamental
principle, and that Congress, which lays the foundations of society,
should, like Mr. Clay, be strongly opposed to the incorporation of
slavery and its elements.

But it does not follow that social and political equality between whites
and blacks must be incorporated because slavery must not. The declaration
does not so require.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN

[Newspaper cuttings of Lincoln's speeches at Peoria, in 1854, at
Springfield, Ottawa, Chicago, and Charleston, in 1858. They were pasted
in a little book in which the above letter was also written.]




TO A. SYMPSON.

BLANDINSVILLE, Oct 26, 1858

A. SYMPSON, Esq.

DEAR SIR:--Since parting with you this morning I heard some things which
make me believe that Edmunds and Morrill will spend this week among the
National Democrats, trying to induce them to content themselves by voting
for Jake Davis, and then to vote for the Douglas candidates for senator
and representative. Have this headed off, if you can. Call Wagley's
attention to it and have him and the National Democrat for Rep. to
counteract it as far as they can.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.




SENATORIAL ELECTION LOST AND OUT OF MONEY

TO N. B. JUDD.

SPRINGFIELD, NOVEMBER 16, 1858

HON. N. B. JUDD

DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 15th is just received. I wrote you the same day.
As to the pecuniary matter, I am willing to pay according to my ability;
but I am the poorest hand living to get others to pay. I have been on
expenses so long without earning anything that I am absolutely without
money now for even household purposes. Still, if you can put in two
hundred and fifty dollars for me toward discharging the debt of the
committee, I will allow it when you and I settle the private matter
between us. This, with what I have already paid, and with an outstanding
note of mine, will exceed my subscription of five hundred dollars. This,
too, is exclusive of my ordinary expenses during the campaign, all of
which, being added to my loss of time and business, bears pretty heavily
upon one no better off in [this] world's goods than I; but as I had the
post of honor, it is not for me to be over nice. You are feeling
badly,--"And this too shall pass away," never fear.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.




THE FIGHT MUST GO ON

TO H. ASBURY.

SPRINGFIELD, November 19, 1858.

HENRY ASBURY, Esq.

DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 13th was received some days ago. The fight must
go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of
one or even one hundred defeats. Douglas had the ingenuity to be
supported in the late contest both as the best means to break down and to
uphold the slave interest. No ingenuity can keep these antagonistic
elements in harmony long. Another explosion will soon come.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.




REALIZATION THAT DEBATES MUST BE SAVED

TO C. H. RAY.

SPRINGFIELD, Nov.20, 1858

DR. C. H. RAY

MY DEAR SIR:--I wish to preserve a set of the late debates (if they may
be called so), between Douglas and myself. To enable me to do so, please
get two copies of each number of your paper containing the whole, and
send them to me by express; and I will pay you for the papers and for
your trouble. I wish the two sets in order to lay one away in the
[undecipherable word] and to put the other in a scrapbook. Remember, if
part of any debate is on both sides of the sheet it will take two sets to
make one scrap-book.

I believe, according to a letter of yours to Hatch, you are "feeling like
h-ll yet." Quit that--you will soon feel better. Another "blow up" is
coming; and we shall have fun again. Douglas managed to be supported both
as the best instrument to down and to uphold the slave power; but no
ingenuity can long keep the antagonism in harmony.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN




TO H. C. WHITNEY.

SPRINGFIELD, November 30, 1858

H. C. WHITNEY, ESQ.

MY DEAR SIR:--Being desirous of preserving in some permanent form the
late joint discussion between Douglas and myself, ten days ago I wrote to
Dr. Ray, requesting him to forward to me by express two sets of the
numbers of the Tribune which contain the reports of those discussions. Up
to date I have no word from him on the subject. Will you, if in your
power, procure them and forward them to me by express? If you will, I
will pay all charges, and be greatly obliged, to boot. Hoping to visit
you before long, I remain

As ever your friend,

A. LINCOLN.




TO H. D. SHARPE.

SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 8, 1858.

H. D. SHARPE, Esq.

DEAR SIR:--Your very kind letter of Nov. 9th was duly received. I do not
know that you expected or desired an answer; but glancing over the
contents of yours again, I am prompted to say that, while I desired the
result of the late canvass to have been different, I still regard it as
an exceeding small matter. I think we have fairly entered upon a durable
struggle as to whether this nation is to ultimately become all slave or
all free, and though I fall early in the contest, it is nothing if I
shall have contributed, in the least degree, to the final rightful
result.

Respectfully yours,

A. LINCOLN.




TO A. SYMPSON.

SPRINGFIELD, Dec.12, 1858.

ALEXANDER SYMPSON, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR:--I expect the result of the election went hard with you. So
it did with me, too, perhaps not quite so hard as you may have supposed.
I have an abiding faith that we shall beat them in the long run. Step by
step the objects of the leaders will become too plain for the people to
stand them. I write merely to let you know that I am neither dead nor
dying. Please give my respects to your good family, and all inquiring
friends.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.




ON BANKRUPTCY


NOTES OF AN ARGUMENT.

December [?], 1858.

Legislation and adjudication must follow and conform to the progress of
society.

The progress of society now begins to produce cases of the transfer for
debts of the entire property of railroad corporations; and to enable
transferees to use and enjoy the transferred property, legislation and
adjudication begin to be necessary.

Shall this class of legislation just now beginning with us be general or
special?




Section Ten of our Constitution requires that it should be general,

if possible. (Read the section.)

Special legislation always trenches upon the judicial department; and in
so far violates Section Two of the Constitution. (Read it.)

Just reasoning--policy--is in favor of general legislation--else the
Legislature will be loaded down with the investigation of smaller
cases--a work which the courts ought to perform, and can perform much
more perfectly. How can the Legislature rightly decide the facts between
P. & B. and S.C.

It is said that under a general law, whenever a R. R. Co. gets tired of
its debts, it may transfer fraudulently to get rid of them. So they
may--so may individuals; and which--the Legislature or the courts--is
best suited to try the question of fraud in either case?

It is said, if a purchaser have acquired legal rights, let him not be
robbed of them, but if he needs legislation let him submit to just terms
to obtain it.

Let him, say we, have general law in advance (guarded in every possible
way against fraud), so that, when he acquires a legal right, he will have
no occasion to wait for additional legislation; and if he has practiced
fraud let the courts so decide.




A LEGAL OPINION BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

The 11th Section of the Act of Congress, approved Feb. 11, 1805,
prescribing rules for the subdivision of sections of land within the
United States system of surveys, standing unrepealed, in my opinion, is
binding on the respective purchasers of different parts of the same
section, and furnishes the true rule for surveyors in establishing lines
between them. That law, being in force at the time each became a
purchaser, becomes a condition of the purchase.

And, by that law, I think the true rule for dividing into quarters any
interior section or sections, which is not fractional, is to run straight
lines through the section from the opposite quarter section corners,
fixing the point where such straight lines cross, or intersect each
other, as the middle or centre of the section.

Nearly, perhaps quite, all the original surveys are to some extent
erroneous, and in some of the sections, greatly so. In each of the
latter, it is obvious that a more equitable mode of division than the
above might be adopted; but as error is infinitely various perhaps no
better single rules can be prescribed.

At all events I think the above has been prescribed by the competent
authority.

SPRINGFIELD, Jany. 6, 1859.

A. LINCOLN.




TO M. W. DELAHAY.

SPRINGFIELD, March 4, 1859.

M. W. DELAHAY, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR: Your second letter in relation to my being with you at your
Republican convention was duly received. It is not at hand just now, but
I have the impression from it that the convention was to be at
Leavenworth; but day before yesterday a friend handed me a letter from
Judge M. F. Caraway, in which he also expresses a wish for me to come,
and he fixes the place at Ossawatomie. This I believe is off of the
river, and will require more time and labor to get to it. It will push me
hard to get there without injury to my own business; but I shall try to
do it, though I am not yet quite certain I shall succeed.

I should like to know before coming, that while some of you wish me to
come, there may not be others who would quite as lief I would stay away.
Write me again.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.




TO W. M. MORRIS.

SPRINGFIELD, March 28, 1859.

W. M. MORRIS, Esq.

DEAR SIR:--Your kind note inviting me to deliver a lecture at Galesburg
is received. I regret to say I cannot do so now; I must stick to the
courts awhile. I read a sort of lecture to three different audiences
during the last month and this; but I did so under circumstances which
made it a waste of no time whatever.

Yours very truly,




TO H. L. PIERCE AND OTHERS.

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 6, 1859.

GENTLEMEN:--Your kind note inviting me to attend a festival in Boston, on
the 28th instant, in honor of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, was duly
received. My engagements are such that I cannot attend.

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.