The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5

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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.

Remembering, too, that the Jefferson party was formed upon its supposed
superior devotion to the personal rights of men, holding the rights of
property to be secondary only, and greatly inferior, and assuming that
the so-called Democracy of to-day are the Jefferson, and their opponents
the anti-Jefferson, party, it will be equally interesting to note how
completely the two have changed hands as to the principle upon which they
were originally supposed to be divided. The Democracy of to-day hold the
liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with
another man's right of property; Republicans, on the contrary, are for
both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the
dollar.

I remember being once much amused at seeing two partially intoxicated men
engaged in a fight with their great-coats on, which fight, after a long
and rather harmless contest, ended in each having fought himself out of
his own coat and into that of the other. If the two leading parties of
this day are really identical with the two in the days of Jefferson and
Adams, they have performed the same feat as the two drunken men.

But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of
Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great
confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler
propositions of Euclid are true; but nevertheless he would fail, utterly,
with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of
Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. And yet they
are denied and evaded, with no small show of success. One dashingly calls
them "glittering generalities." Another bluntly calls them "self-evident
lies." And others insidiously argue that they apply to "superior races."
These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and
effect--the supplanting the principles of free government, and restoring
those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They would delight a
convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are the
vanguard, the miners and sappers, of returning despotism. We must repulse
them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world of compensation; and he
who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny
freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God,
cannot long retain it. All honor to Jefferson to the man who, in the
concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single
people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a mere
revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all
times, and so to embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days it
shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of
reappearing tyranny and oppression.

Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.




TO T. CANISIUS.

SPRINGFIELD, May 17, 1859.

DR. THEODORE CANISIUS.

DEAR SIR:--Your note asking, in behalf of yourself and other German
citizens, whether I am for or against the constitutional provision in
regard to naturalized citizens, lately adopted by Massachusetts, and
whether I am for or against a fusion of the Republicans and other
opposition elements for the canvass of 1860, is received.

Massachusetts is a sovereign and independent State; and it is no
privilege of mine to scold her for what she does. Still, if from what she
has done an inference is sought to be drawn as to what I would do, I may
without impropriety speak out. I say, then, that, as I understand the
Massachusetts provision, I am against its adoption in Illinois, or in any
other place where I have a right to oppose it. Understanding the spirit
of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to
whatever tends to degrade them. I have some little notoriety for
commiserating the oppressed negro; and I should be strangely inconsistent
if I could favor any project for curtailing the existing rights of white
men, even though born in different lands, and speaking different
languages from myself. As to the matter of fusion, I am for it if it can
be had on Republican grounds; and I am not for it on any other terms. A
fusion on any other terms would be as foolish as unprincipled. It would
lose the whole North, while the common enemy would still carry the whole
South. The question of men is a different one. There are good, patriotic
men and able statesmen in the South whom I would cheerfully support, if
they would now place themselves on Republican ground, but I am against
letting down the Republican standard a hairsbreadth.

I have written this hastily, but I believe it answers your questions
substantially.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.




TO THE GOVERNOR, AUDITOR, AND TREASURER OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.

GENTLEMEN:

In reply to your inquiry; requesting our written opinion as to what your
duty requires you to do in executing the latter clause of the Seventh
Section of "An Act in relation to the payment of the principal and
interest of the State debt," approved Feb'y 22, 1859, we reply that said
last clause of said section is certainly indefinite, general, and
ambiguous in its description of the bonds to be issued by you; giving no
time at which the bonds are to be made payable, no place at which either
principal or interest are to be paid, and no rate of interest which the
bonds are to bear; nor any other description except that they are to be
coupon bonds, which in commercial usage means interest-paying bonds with
obligations or orders attached to them for the payment of annual or
semiannual interest; there is we suppose no difficulty in ascertaining,
if this act stood alone, what ought to be the construction of the terms
"coupon bonds" and that it, would mean bonds bearing interest from the
time of issuing the same. And under this act considered by itself the
creditors would have a right to require such bonds. But your inquiry in
regard to a class of bonds on which no interest is to be paid or shall
begin to run until January 1, 1860, is whether the Act of February 18,
1857, would not authorize you to refuse to give bonds with any coupons
attached payable before the first day of July, 1860. We have very
maturely considered this question and have arrived at the conclusion that
you have a right to use such measures as will secure the State against
the loss of six months' interest on these bonds by the indefiniteness of
the Act of 1859. While it cannot be denied that the letter of the laws
favor the construction claimed by some of the creditors that
interest-bearing bonds were required to be issued to them, inasmuch as
the restriction that no interest is to run on said bonds until 1st
January, 1860, relates solely to the bonds issued under the Act of 1857.
And the Act of 1859 directing you to issue new bonds does not contain
this restriction, but directs you to issue coupon bonds. Nevertheless the
very indefiniteness and generality of the Act of 1859, giving no rate of
interest, no time due, no place of payment, no postponement of the time
when interest commences, necessarily implies that the Legislature
intended to invest you with a discretion to impose such terms and
restrictions as would protect the interest of the State; and we think you
have a right and that it is your duty to see that the State Bonds are so
issued that the State shall not lose six months' interest. Two plans
present themselves either of which will secure the State. 1st. If in
literal compliance with the law you issue bonds bearing interest from 1st
July, 1859, you may deduct from the bonds presented three thousand from
every $100,000 of bonds and issue $97,000 of coupon bonds; by this plan
$3000 out of $100,000 of principal would be extinguished in consideration
of paying $2910 interest on the first of January, 1860--and the interest
on the $3000 would forever cease; this would be no doubt most
advantageous to the State. But if the Auditor will not consent to this,
then, 2nd. Cut off of each bond all the coupons payable before 1st July,
1860.

One of these plans would undoubtedly have been prescribed by the
Legislature if its attention had been directed to this question.

May 28, 1859.




ON LINCOLN'S SCRAP BOOK

TO H. C. WHITNEY.

SPRINGFIELD, December 25, 1858.

H. C. WHITNEY, ESQ.

MY DEAR SIR:--I have just received yours of the 23rd inquiring whether I
received the newspapers you sent me by express. I did receive them, and
am very much obliged. There is some probability that my scrap-book will
be reprinted, and if it shall, I will save you a copy.

Your friend as ever,

A. LINCOLN.




1859
FIRST SUGGESTION OF A PRESIDENTIAL OFFER.
TO S. GALLOWAY.

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., July 28, 1859.

HON. SAMUEL GALLOWAY.

MY DEAR SIR:--Your very complimentary, not to say flattering, letter of
the 23d inst. is received. Dr. Reynolds had induced me to expect you
here; and I was disappointed not a little by your failure to come. And
yet I fear you have formed an estimate of me which can scarcely be
sustained on a personal acquaintance.

Two things done by the Ohio Republican convention--the repudiation of
Judge Swan, and the "plank" for a repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law--I
very much regretted. These two things are of a piece; and they are viewed
by many good men, sincerely opposed to slavery, as a struggle against,
and in disregard of, the Constitution itself. And it is the very thing
that will greatly endanger our cause, if it be not kept out of our
national convention. There is another thing our friends are doing which
gives me some uneasiness. It is their leaning toward "popular
sovereignty." There are three substantial objections to this: First, no
party can command respect which sustains this year what it opposed last.
Secondly, Douglas (who is the most dangerous enemy of liberty, because
the most insidious one) would have little support in the North, and by
consequence, no capital to trade on in the South, if it were not for his
friends thus magnifying him and his humbug. But lastly, and chiefly,
Douglas's popular sovereignty, accepted by the public mind as a just
principle, nationalizes slavery, and revives the African slave trade
inevitably.

Taking slaves into new Territories, and buying slaves in Africa, are
identical things, identical rights or identical wrongs, and the argument
which establishes one will establish the other. Try a thousand years for
a sound reason why Congress shall not hinder the people of Kansas from
having slaves, and, when you have found it, it will be an equally good
one why Congress should not hinder the people of Georgia from importing
slaves from Africa.

As to Governor Chase, I have a kind side for him. He was one of the few
distinguished men of the nation who gave us, in Illinois, their sympathy
last year. I never saw him, but suppose him to be able and right-minded;
but still he may not be the most suitable as a candidate for the
Presidency.

I must say I do not think myself fit for the Presidency. As you propose a
correspondence with me, I shall look for your letters anxiously.

I have not met Dr. Reynolds since receiving your letter; but when I
shall, I will present your respects as requested.

Yours very truly,

A. LINCOLN.




IT IS BAD TO BE POOR.

TO HAWKINS TAYLOR

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. Sept. 6, 1859.

HAWKINS TAYLOR, Esq.

DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 3d is just received. There is some mistake about
my expected attendance of the U.S. Court in your city on the 3d Tuesday
of this month. I have had no thought of being there.

It is bad to be poor. I shall go to the wall for bread and meat if I
neglect my business this year as well as last. It would please me much to
see the city and good people of Keokuk, but for this year it is little
less than an impossibility. I am constantly receiving invitations which I
am compelled to decline. I was pressingly urged to go to Minnesota; and I
now have two invitations to go to Ohio. These last are prompted by
Douglas going there; and I am really tempted to make a flying trip to
Columbus and Cincinnati.

I do hope you will have no serious trouble in Iowa. What thinks Grimes
about it? I have not known him to be mistaken about an election in Iowa.
Present my respects to Col. Carter, and any other friends, and believe me