Chapter 5 of A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Rob Powell. A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln. By John G. Nicolay. Chapter 5 Springfield Society. Miss Mary Todd. Lincoln's engagement. His deep despondency. Visit to Kentucky. Letters to speed. The Shield's Duel. Marriage. Law partnership with Logan. Hardin nominated for Congress, 1843. Baker nominated for Congress, 1844. Lincoln nominated and elected, 1846. The deep impression which the Mary Owens affair made upon Lincoln is further shown by one of the concluding phrases of his letter to Mrs. Browning. I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying. But it was not long before reactions set in from this pessimistic mood. The actual transfer of the seat of government from Vandalia to Springfield in 1839 gave the new capital fresh animation. Business revived, public improvements were begun. Politics ran high. Already, there was a spirit in the air that in the following year culminated in the extraordinary enthusiasm and fervor of the Harrison presidential campaign of 1840. That rollicking and uproarious party carnival of humor and satire, of song and jollification, of hard cider and log cabins. While the state of Illinois was strongly democratic, Sangamon County was just a distinctly wig, and the local party disputes were hot and aggressive. The wig delegation of Sangamon in the legislature popularly called the Long Nine because the sum of the statue of its members was 54 feet, became noted for its influence in legislation in a body where the majority was against them. And of these, Mr. Lincoln was the tallest, both in person and ability, as was recognized by his wife receiving the minority vote for a speaker of the house. Society also began organizing itself upon metropolitan rather than provincial assumptions. As yet, however, society was liberal. Men of either wealth or position were still too few to fill its ranks. Energy, ambition, talent were necessarily the standard of admission, and Lincoln, though poor as a church mouse, was as welcome as those who could wear ruffled shirts and carry gold watches. The meetings of the legislature at Springfield then first brought together that splendid group of young men of genius whose phenomenal careers and distinguished services have given Illinois fame in the history of the nation. It is a marked peculiarity of the American character that the bitterest foes in party warfare generally meet each other on terms of perfect social courtesy in the drawing rooms of society. And future presidential candidates, cabinet members, senators, congressmen, jurists, orators, and battle heroes lent the little social reunions of Springfield a zest and exultation never found, perhaps impossible, amid the heavy oppressive surroundings of conventional ceremony, gorgeous upholstery, and magnificent decorations. It was at this period also that Lincoln began to feel and exercise his expanding influence and powers as a writer and speaker. Already two years earlier, he had written and delivered the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield an address upon the perpetuation of our political institutions, strongly enforcing the doctrine of rigid obedience to law. In December 1839, Douglas, in a heated conversation, challenged the Young Wigs to present a political discussion. The challenge was immediately taken up, and the public of Springfield listened with eager interest to several nights of sharp debate between Wig and Democratic champions, in which Lincoln bore a prominent and successful share. In the following summer, Lincoln's name was placed upon the Harrison Electrical Ticket for Illinois, and he lent all his zeal and eloquence to swell the general popular enthusiasm for Tipa Canoe and Tyler Too. In the midst of this political and social awakening of the new capital, and the quickened interest and high hopes of leading citizens gathered there from all parts of the state, there came into the Springfield circles Miss Mary Todd of Kentucky. Twenty-one years old, handsome, accomplished, vivacious, witty, a dashing and fascinating figure in dress and conversation, gracious and imperious by turns. She easily singled out and secured the admiration of such of the Springfield bow as most pleased her somewhat capricious fancy. She was the sister of Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards, whose husband was one of the long nine. This circumstance made Lincoln a frequent visitor at the Edwards House, and being thus much thrown in her company, he found himself almost before he knew it, entangled in a new love affair, and in the course of a twelve-month-engaged to marry her. Much to the surprise of Springfield society, however, the courtship took a sudden turn, whether it was caprice or jealousy, a new attachment, a mature reflection will always remain a mystery. Every such case is a law unto itself, and neither science nor poetry is ever able to analyze and explain its causes and effects. The conflicting stories, then current, and the varying traditions that yet exist, either fail to agree or to fit the sparse facts which came to light. There remains no dispute, however, that the occurrence, whatever shape it took, threw Mr. Lincoln into a deeper despondency than any he had yet experienced, for on January 23, 1841, he wrote to his law partner, John D. Stewart. For not giving you a general summary of news, you must pardon me. It is not in my power to do so. I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forbode, I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better. Apparently his engagement to Ms. Todd was broken off, but whether that was the result or the cause of his period of gloom seems still a matter of conjecture. His mind was so perturbed that he felt unable to attend the sessions of the legislature of which he was a member, and, after its close, his intimate friend, Joshua F. Speed, carried him off for a visit to Kentucky. The change of scene and surroundings proved a great benefit. He returned home about mid-summer, very much improved, but not yet completely restored to a natural mental equipoise. While on their visit to Kentucky, Speed had likewise fallen in love, and in the following winter had become afflicted with doubts and perplexities akin to those from which Lincoln had suffered. It now became his turn to give sympathy and counsel to his friend, and he did this with a warmth and delicacy born of his own spiritual trials, not yet over-mastered. He wrote letter after letter to Speed to convince him that his doubts about not truly loving the woman of his choice were all nonsense. Why Speed? If you did not love her, although you might not wish her death, you would most certainly be resigned to it.  If so, you must pardon me. You know the hell I have suffered on that point, and how tender I am upon it. I am now fully convinced that you love her as ardently as you are capable of loving. It is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of Elysium, far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. When Lincoln heard that Speed was finally married, he wrote him, It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say that you are far happier than you ever expected to be. That much I know is enough. I know you too well as opposed to your expectations were not, at least, sometimes extravagant. And if reality exceeds them all, I say, Enough, dear lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you that the short space it took me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal first of January, 1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but for the never absent idea that there is still one unhappy whom I have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is otherwise. It is quite possible that a series of incidents that occurred during the summer, in which the above was written, had something to do with bringing such a frame of mind to a happier conclusion. James Shields, afterward a general in two wars and a senator from two states, was at that time auditor of Illinois, with his office at Springfield. Shields was an Irishman by birth and, for an active politician of the Democratic Party, had the misfortune to be both sensitive and irascible in party warfare. Shields, together with the Democratic governor and treasurer, issued a circular order forbidding the payment of taxes in the depreciated paper of the Illinois state banks, and the wigs were endeavoring to make capital by charging that the order was issued for the purpose of bringing enough silver into the treasury to pay the salaries of these officials. Using this as a basis of argument, a couple of clever Springfield society girls wrote and printed in the Sangamo Journal a series of humorous letters in the country dialect purporting to come from the lost townships and signed by Aunt Rebecca, who called herself a farmer's widow. It is hardly necessary to say that Mary Todd was one of the culprits. The young ladies originated the scheme more to poke fun at the personal weaknesses of Shields than for the sake of party effect. And they embellished their simulated plaint about taxes with an embroidery of fictitious social happenings and personal allusions to the auditor that put the town on a grin and Shields into fury. The fair and mischievous writers found it necessary to consult Lincoln about how they should frame the political features of their attack, and he set them a pattern by writing the first letter of the series himself. Shields sent a friend to the editor of the journal and demanded the name of the real Rebecca. The editor, as in duty bound, asked Lincoln what he should do and was instructed to give Lincoln's name and not to mention the ladies. Then followed a letter from Shields to Lincoln demanding retraction and apology. He replied that he declined to answer under Menace and a challenge from Shields. Thereupon, Lincoln instructed his friend as follows. If former offensive correspondents were withdrawn and a polite and gentlemanly inquiry made, he was willing to explain that. I did write the lost township's letter which appeared in the journal of the second instant, but had no participation in any form in any other article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect. I had no intention of injuring your personal or private character or standing as a man or a gentleman. And I did not then think and do not now think that that article could produce or has produced that effect against you. And had I anticipated such an effect, I would have foreborn to write it, and I will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always been gentlemanly and that I had no personal peak against you and no cause for any. If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of the fight are to be First, weapons. Cavalry broadswords of the largest size precisely equal in all respects and such is now used by the Cavalry company at Jacksonville. Second, position. A plank ten feet long and from nine to twelve inches broad to be firmly fixed on edge on the ground as the line between us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life. Next, a line drawn on the ground parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet additional from the plank and the passing of his own such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest. The two seconds met and with great unction pledged our honor to each other that we would endeavor to settle the matter amicably, but persistently haggled over points till publicity and arrests seemed imminent. Procuring the necessary broadswords, all parties then hurried away to an island near opposite Alton, where, long before the planks were set on edge or the swords drawn, mutual friends took the case out of the hands of the seconds and declared an adjustment. The terms of the fight as written by Mr. Lincoln show plainly enough that in his judgment it was retreated as a farce and would never proceed beyond preliminaries. There, of course, ensued the very bellicose after discussion in the newspapers with additional challenges between the seconds about the proper etiquette of such farces, all resulting only in the shedding of much ink and furnishing Springfield with topics of lively conversation for a month. These occurrences, naturally enough, again drew Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Todd together in friendly interviews, and Lincoln's letter to speed detailing the news of the duels contains this significant paragraph. But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to say something on that subject, which you know to be of such infinite solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the 1st of September to the middle of February, you never tried to conceal from me and I well understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight months that you are happier now than the day you married her I well know, for without you could not be living. But I have your word for it too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your letters. But I wanted to ask a close question. Are you now in feeling as well as judgment lad that you are married as you are? From anybody but me this would be an impudent question not to be tolerated, but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer it quickly as I am patient to know. The answer was evidently satisfactory, for on November 4th 1842 the Reverend Charles dresser united Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd in the Holy Bonds of Matrimony. His marriage to Miss Todd ended all those mental perplexities and periods of despondency from which he had suffered more or less during his several love affairs extending over nearly a decade. Out of the keen anguish he had endured he finally gained that perfect mastery over his own spirit which Scripture declares to denote a greatness superior to that of him who takes a city. Few men have ever attained that complete domination of the will over the emotions, of reason over passion, by which he was able in the years to come to meet and solve the tremendous questions Destiny had in store for him. His wedding once over he took up with resolute patience the hard practical routine of daily life in which he had already been so severely schooled. Even his sentimental correspondence with his friend's speed lapsed into neglect. He was so poor that he and his bride could not make the contemplated visit to Kentucky they would have both so much enjoyed. His national debt of the New Salem days was not yet fully paid off. We are not keeping house but boarding at the globe tavern he writes. Our room and boarding only cost us four dollars a week. His law partnership with Stuart had lasted four years but was dissolved by reason of Stuart's election to Congress and a new one was formed with Judge Stephen T. Logan who had recently resigned from the circuit bench where he had learned both the quality and promise of Lincoln's talents. It was an opportune and important change. Stuart had devoted himself mainly to politics while with Logan law was the primary object. Under Logan's guidance and encouragement he took up both the study and practical work of the profession in a more serious spirit. Lincoln's interest in politics however was in no way diminished and in truth his limited practice at that date easily afforded him the time necessary for both. Since 1840 he had declined a re-election to the legislature and his ambition had doubtless contributed much to this decision. His late law partner Stuart had been three times a candidate for Congress. He was defeated in 1836 but successfully gained his election in 1838 in 1840. His service of two terms extending from December 2nd 1839 to March 3rd 1843. For some reason the next election had been postponed from the year 1842 through 1843. It was but natural that Stuart's success should excite a similar desire in Lincoln who had reached equal party prominence and rendered even more conspicuous party service. Lincoln had profited greatly by the companionship and friendly emulation of many talented young politicians of Springfield but the same condition also increased competition and stimulated rivalry not only himself but both Hardin and Baker desired the nomination which, as the district then stood was equivalent to an election. When the leading wigs of Sangamon County met Lincoln was under the impression that it was Baker and not Hardin who was his most dangerous rival as it appears in a letter to Speed of March 24th 1843. We had a meeting of the wigs of the county here on last Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention and Baker beat me and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my attempt to decline it appointed me one of the delegates so that in getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow who has made groomsmen that has cut him out and is marrying his own dear gal. The causes that led to his disappointment are set forth more in detail in a letter two days later to a friend in the new county of Menard which now included his old home New Salem whose powerful assistance was therefore lost from the party councils of Sangamon. The letter also dwells more particularly on the complicated influences which the practical politician has to reckon with that even his marriage had been used to turn popular opinion against him. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that while the people of Sangamon have cast me off my old friends of Menard who have known me longest and best stick to me, it would astonish if not amuse, the older citizens to learn that I, a stranger, friendless, uneducated penniless boy working on a flat boat at $10 per month have been put down here as the candidate for pride, wealth, and heuristic cratic family distinction yet so chiefly it was. There was, too, the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker is a cambolite and therefore, as I suppose with few exceptions got all that church. My wife had some relations in the Presbyterian churches and some of the Episcopal churches and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down as either the one or the other was everywhere contended that no Christian ought to go for me because I belonged to no church was suspected of being a deist and had talked about fighting a dual with all these things Baker, of course, had nothing to do nor do I complain of them as to his own church going for him I think that was right enough and as to the influence that I've spoken of in the other though they were very strong it would be grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body or were very near so I only mean that those influences levied a tax of considerable percent upon my strength through the religious community in the same letter we have a striking illustration of Lincoln's intelligence and skill in the intricate details of political management together with the high sense of honor and manliness which directed his action in such manners speaking of the influences of Menard County he wrote if she and Mason act circumspectly they will in the convention be able so far to enforce their rights as to decide absolutely which one of the candidates shall be successful let me show the reason of this Hardin or some other Morgan candidate will get Putnam, Marshall Woodford, Tayswell and Logan Counties making sixteen then you and Mason having three can give the victory to either side you say you shall instruct your delegates for me unless I object I certainly shall not object that would be too pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the dust and besides if anything should happen which however is not probable by which Baker should be thrown out of the fight I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it I do however feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from getting the nomination I should despise myself where I to attempt it I think then it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three delegates and to instruct them to go for someone as a first choice someone else is a second and perhaps someone is a third and if in those instructions I were named as the first choice it would gratify me very much if you wish to hold the balance of power it is important for you to attend and secure the vote of Mason also if few weeks again change the situation of which he informs speed in a letter dated May 18th in relation to our congress matter here you are right in supposing I would support the nominee neither Baker nor I however is the man but Hardin so far as I can judge from present appearances we shall have no split or trouble about the matter all will be harmony in the following year 1844 Lincoln was once more compelled to exercise his patience the campelite friends of Baker must again have been very active in behalf of their church favorite for their influence added to his dashing politics an eloquent oratory appears to have secured him the nomination without serious contention while Lincoln found a partial recompense in being nominated a candidate for presidential elector which furnished him opportunity for all his party energy and zeal during the spirited but unsuccessful presidential campaign for Henry Clay he not only made an extensive canvas in Illinois but also made a number of speeches in the joining state of Indiana it was probably during that year that a tacit agreement was reached with the leaders in Sangamon County that each would be satisfied with one term in Congress and would not seek a second nomination but Hardin was the aspirant from the neighboring county of Morgan and apparently therefore not included in this arrangement already in the fall of 1845 Lincoln industriously began his appeals and instructions to his friends in the district to secure the secession thus he wrote on November 17th the paper at Peckin has nominated Hardin for governor and commenting on this the Alton paper indirectly nominated him for Congress it would give Hardin a great start and perhaps use me up if the big papers of the district should nominate him for Congress if your feelings towards me are the same as when I saw you which I have no reason to doubt I wish you would let nothing appear in your paper which may operate against me you understand matter stand just as they did when I saw you Baker is certainly off the track and I fear Hardin intends to be on it but again as before the spirit of absolute fairness covered all his movements and he took special pains to guard against it being suspected that I was attempting to juggle Hardin out of a nomination for Congress by juggling him into one for governor I should be pleased he wrote again in January if I could concur with you in the hope that my name would be the only one presented to the convention Hardin is a man of desperate energy and perseverance and one that never backs out and I fear to think otherwise is to be deceived in the character of our adversary I would rejoice to be spared the labor of a contest but being in I shall go it thoroughly and to the bottom he then goes on to recount in much detail the chances for and against him in the several counties of the district and in later letters discusses the system of selecting candidates whether convention ought to be held how the delegate should be chosen the instructions they should receive and how the places of absent delegates should be filled he watched his field of operations planned his strategy and handled his forces almost with the vigilance of a military commander as a result he won both his nomination in May and his election to the 30th congress in August 1846 in that same year the Mexican war broke out Hardin became colonel of one of the three regiments of Illinois volunteers called for by president Polk while Baker raised a fourth regiment which was also accepted Colonel Hardin was killed in the battle of Buena Vista and Colonel Baker won great distinction in the fighting near the city of Mexico like Abraham Lincoln Douglas was also elected to congress in 1846 where he had already served the two preceding terms but these redoubtable Illinois champions were not to have a personal tilt in the House of Representatives before congress met the Illinois legislature elected Douglas to the United States Senate for six years from March 4th 1847 End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of a short life of Abraham Lincoln this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Rob Powell A short life of Abraham Lincoln by John G. Nicolay Chapter 6 First session of the 30th congress Mexican War Wilmo Proviso Campaign of 1848 Letters to Herndon about young men in politics Speech in Congress on the Mexican War Second session of the 30th congress Bill to prohibit slavery in the District of Columbia Lincoln's recommendations of office seekers Letters to Speed Commissioner of the General Land Office Declines governorship of Oregon Very few men are fortunate enough to gain distinction during the first term in congress the reason is obvious legally, a term extends over two years practically a session of five or six months during the first and three months during the second year ordinarily reduce their opportunities more than one half In those two sessions even if we presuppose some knowledge of parliamentary law they must learn the daily routine of business make the acquaintance of their fellow members who already in the 30th congress numbered something over 200 studied the past and prospective legislation on the multitude of minor national questions entirely new to the new members and performed the drudgery of haunting the departments in the character of unpaid agent and attorney to attend to the private interests of constituents a physical task of no small proportion in Lincoln's day when there were neither streetcar nor omnibus in the city of magnificent distances as Washington was nicknamed add to this that the principal work of preparing legislation is done by the various committees in their committee rooms of which the public hears nothing as that members cannot choose their own time for making speeches still further that the management of debate on prepared legislation must necessarily be entrusted to members of long experience as well as talent and it will be seen that the novice need not expect immediate fame it is therefore not to be wondered at that Lincoln's single term in the House of Representatives at Washington added practically nothing to his reputation he did not attempt to shine forth in debate by either a stinging retort or a witty epigram or by a sudden burst of inspired eloquence on the contrary he took up his task as a quiet but earnest and patient apprentice at a great workshop of national legislation and performed his share of duty with industry and intelligence as well as with a modest and appreciative respect for the ability and experience of his seniors as to speech making he wrote by way of getting the hang of the house I made a little speech two or three days ago on a post office question of no general interest I find speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing I was about as badly scared and no worse as I am when I speak in court I expect to make one within a week or two in which I hope to succeed well enough to wish you to see it and again some weeks later I just take my pen to say that Mr. Stevens of Georgia a little slim pale faced consumptive man with a voice like Logan's has just concluded the very best speech of an hour's length I have ever heard bold withered dry eyes are full of tears yet he was appointed the junior Wig member of the committee on post offices and post roads and shared its prosaic but eminently useful labors both in the committee room and the house debates his name appears on only one other committee that on expenditures of the war department and he seems to have interested himself in certain amendments of the law relating to bounty lands for soldiers and such minor military topics he looked carefully after the interest of Illinois in certain grants of land of that state for railroads but expressed his desire that the government price of the reserve sections should not be increased to actual settlers during the first session of the 30th congress he delivered three set speeches in the house all of them carefully prepared and fully written out the first of these in 1842 1848 was an elaborate defense of the Wig doctrine summarized in a house resolution passed a week or ten days before that the Mexican-American war had been unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the president James K. Polk the speech is not a mere party diatribe but a terse historical and legal examination of the origin of the Mexican war in the after light of our own times which shines upon these transactions we may readily admit that Mr. Lincoln and the Wigs had the best of the argument but it must be quite as readily conceited that they were far behind the president and his defenders in political and party strategy the former were clearly wasting their time discussing an abstract question of international law upon conditions existing 20 months before during those 20 months the American arms had won victory after victory and planted the American flag on the halls of the Montezuma's could even successful argument undo those victories or call back to life the brave American soldiers who had shed their blood to win them it may be assumed as an axiom that Providence has never gifted any political party with all of political wisdom or blinded it with all of political folly upon the foregoing point of controversy the Wigs were sadly thrown on the defensive and labored heavily under their already discounted declamation but instinct rather than sagacity led them to turn their eyes to the future and successfully upon other points to retrieve their mistake within six weeks after Lincoln's speech President Polk sent at the Senate a treaty of peace under which Mexico ceded to the United States an extent of territory equal in area to Germany, France and Spain combined and thereafter the origin of the war was an obsolete question what should be done with the new territory was now the issue this issue embraced the already exciting slavery question and Mr. Lincoln was doubtless gratified that the Wigs had taken a position upon it so consonant with his own convictions already in the previous Congress the body of the Wig members had joined a small group of anti-slavery Democrats in fastening upon an appropriation bill the famous Wilmo Proviso slavery should never exist in territory acquired from Mexico and the Wigs of the 30th Contrast steadily followed the policy of voting for the same restriction in regard to every piece of legislation where it was applicable Mr. Lincoln often said he had voted 40 or 50 times for the Wilmo Proviso in various forms during a single term upon another point he and the other Wigs were equally wise repelling the Democratic charge that they were unpatriotic in denouncing the war they voted in favor of every measure to sustain supply and encourage the soldiers in the field but their most adroit piece of strategy now that the war was ended was in their movement to make General Taylor president in this movement Mr. Lincoln took a leading and active part no living American statesman has ever been idolized by his party adherents as was Henry Clay for a whole generation and Mr. Lincoln fully shared this hero worship but his practical campaigning as a candidate for presidential elector in the Harrison campaign of 1840 and the Clay campaign of 1844 in Illinois and the adjoining states afforded him a basis for sound judgment and convinced him that the day when Clay could have been elected president was forever past Mr. Clay's chance for an election is just no chance at all he wrote on April 30th he might get New York and that would have elected in 1844 but it will not now at the least lose Tennessee which he had then and in addition the 15 new votes of Florida, Texas, Iowa and Wisconsin in my judgment we can elect nobody but General Taylor and we cannot elect him without a nomination therefore don't fail to send a delegate and again on the same day Mr. Clay's letter has not advanced his interests any here several who were against Taylor but he particularly before are since taking ground some for Scott and some for McLean who will be nominated neither I nor anyone else can tell now let me pray to you in turn my prayer is that you let nothing discourage or baffle you but that in spite of every difficulty you send us a good Taylor delegate from your circuit make Baker who is now with you I suppose help about it please in due time Mr. Lincoln's sagacity and earnestness were both justified for on June 12th he was able to write an Illinois friend on my return from Philadelphia where I had been attending the nomination of Old Rough I found your letter in a mass of others which had accumulated in my absence by many and often it has been said they would not abide the nomination of Taylor but since the deed has been done they are fast falling in and in my opinion we shall have the most overwhelming glorious triumph one unmistakable sign is that all the odds and ends are with us barn burners, Native Americans Tyler men disappointed office-seeking loco-focos and the Lord knows what this is important if in nothing else in showing which way the wind blows some of the sanguine men have set down all the states as certain for Taylor but Illinois and it is as doubtful cannot something be done even in Illinois? Taylor's nomination takes the loco's on the blind side it turns the war thunder against them the war is now to them the gallows of Heyman which they built for us and which they are doomed to be hanged themselves nobody understood better than Mr. Lincoln the obvious truth that in politics it does not suffice merely to nominate candidates something must also be done to elect them the letters which he at this time wrote home to his young law partner William H. Herndon are especially worth quoting in part not alone to show his zeal in industry but also as a perennial instruction and encouragement to young men who have an ambition to make a name and a place for themselves in American politics last night I was attending a sort of caucus of the Whig members held in relation to the coming presidential election the whole field of the nation was scanned and all is high hope and confidence now as to the young men you must not wait to be brought forward by the older men for instance do you suppose that I should have ever got into notice if I waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men you young men get together and form a rough and ready club and have regular meetings and speeches let everyone play the part he can play best some speak some sing and all holler your meetings will be of evenings the older men and the women will go to hear you so that it will not only contribute to the election of old Zach but will be an interesting pastime and improving to the intellectual faculties of all engaged and in another letter answering one from Herndon in which that young aspirant complains of having been neglected he says the subject of that letter is exceedingly painful to me and I cannot but think that there is some mistake in your impression of the motives of the old men I suppose I am now one of the old men and I declare on my veracity which I think is good with you that nothing could afford me more satisfaction than to learn that you and others of my young friends at home are doing battle in the contest and endearing themselves to the people and taking a stand far above any I have been able to reach in their admiration I cannot conceive that other old men feel differently of course I cannot demonstrate what I say but I was young once and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back I hardly know what to say the way for young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation there may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down and they will succeed too if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury cast about and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it Mr. Lincoln's interest in this presidential campaign did not expend itself merely an advice to others we have his own written record that he also took an active part for the election of General Taylor after his nomination speaking a few times in Maryland near Washington several times in Massachusetts and canvassing quite fully his own district in Illinois before the session of Congress ended he also delivered two speeches in the House one on the general subject of internal improvements and the other the usual political campaign speech which members of Congress are in the habit and the other the usual political campaign speech which members of Congress are in the habit of making to be printed for home circulation made up mainly of humorous and satirical criticism favoring the election of General Taylor opposing the election of General Kass the Democratic candidate even this production, however is lighted up by a passage of impressive earnestness and eloquence in which he explains and defends the attitude of the Whigs in the denouncing the origin of the Mexican war if to say the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the president be opposing the war then the Whigs have very generally opposed it wherever they have spoken at all they have said this and they have said it on what has appeared good reason to them the marching an army into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement frightening the inhabitants away leaving their growing crops another property to destruction to you may appear a perfectly amiable, peaceful unprovoking procedure but it does not appear so to us so to call such an act to us appears no other than a naked, impudent absurdity and we speak of it accordingly but if when the war had begun and had become the cause of the country the giving of our money and our blood in common with yours with support of the war then it is not true that we have always opposed the war with few individual exceptions you have constantly had our votes here for all the necessary supplies and more than this you have had the services the blood and the lives of our political brethren and on every field the beardless boy and the mature man the humble and the distinguished you have had them through suffering and death by disease and in battle they have endured and fought and fell with you clay and webster each gave a son never to be returned from the state of my own residence besides other worthy but less known wignames we sent Marshal, Morrison, Baker they all fought and one fell and in the fall of that one we lost our best wig man nor were the wigs few a number or laggard in in the day of danger in that fearful bloody breathless struggle at Buena Vista where each man's hard task was to beat back five foes or die himself of the five high officers who perished four were wigs in speaking of this I mean no odious comparison between the line-hearted wigs and democrats who fought there on other occasions and among the lower officers in privates on that occasion I doubt not the proportion was different I wish to do justice to all I think of all those brave men as Americans in whose proud fame as an American I too have a share many of them wigs and democrats are my constituents and personal friends and I thank them more than thank them one and all for the high imperishable honor they've conferred on our common state during the second session of the 30th congress Mr. Lincoln made no long speeches but in addition to the usual routine work devolved on him by the committee of which he was a member he busied himself preparing a special measure which because it's a relation to the great events of his later life needs to be particularly mentioned slavery existed in Maryland and Virginia when those states ceded the territory out of which the District of Columbia was formed since by that session this land passed under the exclusive control of the federal government the institution within this 10 mile square could no longer be defended by the plea of state sovereignty an anti-slavery sentiment naturally demanded that it should cease pro-slavery statesmen on the other hand has persistently opposed its removal partly as a matter of pride and political consistency partly because it was a convenience to southern senators and members of the congress when they came to Washington to bring their family servants where the local laws afforded them the same security over their black chattels which existed at their homes Mr. Lincoln in his Peoria speech of 1854 emphasized the sectional dispute with his vivid touch of local color the south clamored for more efficient fugitive slave law the north clamored for the abolition of a peculiar species of slave trade in the District of Columbia in connection with which in view from the windows of the capital the sort of Negro livery stable where droves of Negroes were collected temporarily kept and finally taken to southern markets precisely like droves of horses had been openly maintained for 50 years thus the question remained a minor but never ending bone of contention and point of irritation and excited debate arose in the 30th congress over a house resolution that the committee on the judiciary be instructed to report a bill which in turn is practicable prohibiting the slave trade in the District of Columbia in this situation of affairs Mr. Lincoln conceived the fond hope that he might be able to present a plan of compromise he already entertained the idea which in later years during his presidency he urged upon both congress and the border slave states that the just and generous mode of getting rid of the barbarous institution of slavery was by system of compensated emancipation giving freedom to the slave and a money indemnity to the owner he therefore carefully framed a bill providing for the abolishment of slavery in the district upon the following principal conditions first, that the law should be adopted by a popular vote in the district second, a temporary system of apprenticeship and gradual emancipation for children born of slave mothers after January 1st, 1850 third, the government to pay full cash value for slaves voluntarily manumitted by their owners fourth, prohibiting bringing slaves into the district or selling them out of it fifth, providing that government officers citizens of slave states might bring with them and take them away again their slave house servants sixth, leaving the existing fugitive slave law in force when Mr. Lincoln presented this amendment to the house he said that he was authorized to state that of about 15 of the leading citizens of the District of Columbia to whom the proposition had been submitted there was not one who did not approve the adoption of such a proposition he did not wish to be misunderstood he did not know whether or not they would vote for this bill on the first Monday in April but he repeated that out of the 15 persons to whom it had been submitted he had authority to say that every one of them desired that some proposition like this should pass while Mr. Lincoln did not so state to the house it was well understood in intimate circles that the bill had the approval on the one hand of Mr. Seton the conservative mayor of Washington and on the other hand of Mr. Giddings the radical anti-slavery member of the House of Representatives notwithstanding the singular merit of the bill and reconciling such extremes of opposing factions in its support the temper of Congress had already become too hot to accept such a rational and practical solution and Mr. Lincoln's wise proposition was not allowed to come to a vote the triumph of the election of general presidency in November 1848 very soon devolved upon Mr. Lincoln the delicate and difficult duty of making recommendations to the incoming administration of persons suitable to be appointed to fill the various federal offices in Illinois as Colonel E.D. Baker and himself were the only wigs elected to Congress from that state in performing this duty one of his leading characteristics impartial honesty and absolute fairness to political friends and folks alike stands out with noteworthy clearness his term ended with General Taylor's inauguration and he appears to have remained in Washington but a few days thereafter before leaving he wrote to the new secretary of the Treasury Colonel E.D. Baker and myself are the only wig members of Congress from Illinois I of the 30th and he of the 31st we have reason to think the wigs 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 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 on the following day March 10th 1849 he addressed to the secretary of state his first formal recommendation it is remarkable from the fact that between the two wig applicants whose papers are transmitted he says rather less in favor of his own choice than of the opposing claimant sir there are several applicants for the office of United States Marshall for the district of Illinois among the most prominent of whom are Benjamin Bond Esquire of Carlisle and Thomas Esquire 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 median servant A. Lincoln endorsed on Mr. Bond's papers in this in the accompanying envelope are the recommendations of about 200 good citizens of all parts of Illinois that Benjamin Bond be appointed Marshall for that district they include the names of nearly all our wigs who now are or have ever been members of the state legislature besides 46 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 office and qualified to fill it holding the individual opinion that the appointment of a different gentleman would be better I ask a special attention and consideration for his claims and for the opinions expressed in his favor by those over whom I can claim no superiority there were about three other prominent federal appointments to be made in Mr. Lincoln's congressional district and he waited until after his return home so that he might be better informed of the local opinion concerning them before making his recommendations it was nearly a month after he left Washington before he sent his decision to the several departments at Washington the letter quoted below relating to one of those appointments is in substance almost identical with the others and particularly refrains from expressing any opinion of political removals he also expressly explains that Colonel Baker the other Whig representative claims no voice in the appointment Dear sir I recommend that Walter Davis be appointed receiver of the land office at this place wherever there shall be a vacancy I cannot say that Mr. Herndon the president 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 if Mr. Lincoln's presence in Washington during two sessions in Congress did not add materially to either his local or national fame it was of incalculable benefit in other respects it afforded him a close inspection of the complex machinery of the federal government and its relations to that of the states and enabled him to notice both the easy routine and the occasional friction of their movements it brought him into contact and to some degree intimate companionship with political leaders from all parts of the union and gave him the opportunity of joining in the caucus and the national convention that nominated General Taylor for president it brought in immensely the horizon of his observation and the sharp rivalries he noted at the center of the nation opened to him new lessons in the study of human nature his quick intelligence acquired knowledge quite as or even more rapidly by the process of logical intuition than by mere dry laboratory of study and it was the inestimable experience of the single term in the congress United States which prepared him for his coming yet undreamed of responsibilities as fully as it would have done the ordinary man in a dozen Mr. Lincoln had frankly acknowledged to his friend speed after his election in 1864 that being elected to congress though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it it has not pleased me as much as I expected it has already been said that an agreement had been reached among several spring field aspirants that they would limit their ambition to a single term and take turns in securing and enjoying the coveted distinction and Mr. Lincoln remain faithful to this agreement when the time to prepare for the election of the 48 approach he wrote to his law partner it is very pleasant to learn from you that there are some who would desire that I should be re-elected I most heartily thank them for their kind partiality and I can say as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of Texas that personally I would not object to a re-election although I thought at the time and still think it would be quite as well for me to return to the law at the end of a single term I made the declaration that I would not be a candidate again more from a wish to deal fairly with others to keep peace among our friends and to keep the district from going to the enemy than for any cause personal to myself so that if it should so happen that nobody else wishes to be elected I could not refuse the people the right of sending me again but to enter myself as a competitor of others or to authorize anyone else so to enter me is what my word and honor forbid Judge Stephen T. Logan his late law partner was nominated for the place and heartily supported not only by Mr. Lincoln but also by the wigs of the district by this time however the politics of the district had undergone a change by reason of the heavy immigration to Illinois at that period and Judge Logan was defeated Mr. Lincoln's strict and sensitive adherence to his promises now brought him a disappointment which was one of those blessings in disguise so commonly deplored for the time being by the wisest and the best however of the western members of congress had joined in a recommendation to President elect Taylor to give Colonel Ed Baker a place in his cabinet a reward he really deserved for his talents his party service and the military honor he had won in the Mexican war when this application born out of fruit the wigs of Illinois expressing at least some encouragement from the new administration laid claim to a bureau appointment that of commissioner of the general land office in the new department of the interior recently established I believe that so far as the wigs in congress are concerned wrote Lincoln to speed 12 days before Taylor's inauguration I could have the general land office almost by common consent but then sweet and Don Morrison and Browning and Cyrus Edwards all wanted and what is worse while I think I could easily take it myself I fear I shall have trouble to get it for any other man in Illinois unselfishly yielding his own chances he tried to induce the four Illinois candidates to come to a mutual agreement in favor of one of their own number they were so tardy in settling their differences as to excited some patients and he wrote to a Washington friend I learned from Washington that a man by the name of Butterfield will probably be appointed commissioner of the general land office this ought not to be some kind friends think I ought to be an applicant but I am for Mr. Edwards try to defeat Butterfield and in doing so use Mr. Edwards and L.D. Morrison or myself whichever you can do best advantage as the situation grew persistently worse Mr. Lincoln at length about the first of June himself became a formal applicant but the delay resulting from his devotion to his friends had dissipated his chances Butterfield received the appointment and the defeat was aggravated when a few months later his unrelenting spirit of justice and fairness impelled him to write a letter defending Butterfield a story of the interior from an attack by one of Lincoln's more impersonal but indiscreet friends in the Illinois legislature it was however a fortunate escape in the four succeeding years Mr. Lincoln qualified himself for better things than the monotonous drudgery of an administrative bureau at Washington it is probable that this defeat also enabled him more easily to pass by another temptation the Taylor administration realizing its ingratitude in September offered him the governorship of the recently organized territory of Oregon but he replied on as much reflection as if I had time to give the subject I cannot consent to accept it end of chapter 6 chapter number 7 of a short life of Abraham Lincoln this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Ernst Schnell a short life of Abraham Lincoln by John G. Nicolay chapter number 7 repeal of the Missouri compromise state fair debate Peoria debate Trumbull elected letter to Robinson the known nothings Decatur meeting Bloomington convention Philadelphia convention Lincoln's vote for vice president Fremont and Dayton Lincoln's campaign speeches Chicago banquet speech after the exploration of his term in congress Mr. Lincoln applied himself with unremitting assiduity to the practice of law which the growth of the state in population and the widening of his acquaintance ship no less than his own and his own growth in experience and legal acumen rendered evermore important and absorbing in 1854 he writes his profession had almost superseded the thought of politics in his mind when the repeal of the Missouri compromise aroused him as he had never been before not alone Mr. Lincoln but indeed the whole nation was so aroused the democratic party and nearly the entire south to force the passage of that repeal through congress and an alarmed majority including even a considerable minority of the democratic party in the north to resist its passage Mr. Lincoln of course shared the general indignation of north and sentiment that the whole of the remaining Louisiana territory out of which six states and the greater part of two more have since been organized and admitted to the union should be open to the possible extension of slavery but two points served specially to enlist his energy in the controversy one was personal in that senator Douglas of Illinois by whom the repeal was championed and whose influence as a free state senator and powerful democratic leader alone made the repeal possible had been his personal antagonist in Illinois politics for almost 20 years the other was moral in that the new question involved the elemental principles of the American government the fundamental maxim of the declaration of independence that all men are created equal his intuitive logic needed no demonstration that bank, tariff, internal improvements the Mexican war and the related incidents were questions of passing expediency but that this sudden reaction needlessly grafted upon the routine statute to organize a new territory was the unmistakable herald of a coming struggle which might transform republican institutions it was in January 1854 that the accidents of a senate debate threw into congress and upon the country the firebrand of the repeal of the Missouri compromise the repeal was not consummated till the month of May and from May until the autumn elections the flame of acrimonious discussion ran over the whole country like a wildfire there is no record that mr. Lincoln took any public part in the discussion until the month of September but it is very clear that he not only carefully watched its progress but that he studied its phases of development its historical origins and its legal bearings with close industry and gathered from party literature and legislative documents a harvest of substantial facts and data rather than the wordy campaign phrases and explosive epithets more impulsive students and speakers were content to produce their oratorical effects here we may again quote mr. Lincoln exact written statement of the manner in which he resumed his political activity in the autumn of that year 1854 he took the stump with no broader practical aim or object than to secure if possible the re-election of the honorable Richard Gates to congress his speeches at once attracted a more marked attention than they had ever before done as the canvas proceeded he was drawn to different parts of the state outside of mr. Gates district he did not abandon the law but gave his attention by turns to that and politics the state agricultural fair was at springfield that year and Douglas was announced to speak there the new question had created great excitement and uncertainty in Illinois politics and there were abundant signs that it was beginning to break up the organization of both the WIG and the democratic parties this feeling brought together at the state fair an unusual number of local leaders from widely scattered counties and almost spontaneously a sort of political tournament of speechmaking broke out in this senator Douglas doubly conspicuous by his leadership of the Nebraska bill in the congress was expected to play the leading part while the opposition by a common impulse called upon Lincoln to answer him Lincoln performed the task with such aptness and force with such freshness of argument illustrations from history and citations from authorities and secured him a decided or rhetorical triumph and lifted him at a single bound to the leadership of the opposition to Douglas's propagandism two weeks later Douglas and Lincoln met at Peoria in a similar debate and on his return to Springfield Lincoln wrote out and printed his speech in full the reader who carefully examines the speech will at once be impressed with the genius which immediately made Mr. Lincoln a power in American politics his grasp of the subject is so comprehensive his statement so clear his reasoning so convincing his language so strong and eloquent by turns the wonderful power he manifested in the discussions and debates of the six succeeding years does not surpass but only amplifies this his first examination of the whole brood of questions relating to slavery precipitated upon the country by Douglas's repeal after a searching history of the Missouri compromise he attacks the demoralizing effects and pretentious consequences of its repeal this declared in difference he says but as I must think covert real zeal for the spread of slavery I cannot but hate I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity and especially because it forces so many good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty criticizing the declaration of independence and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature opposition to it in his love of justice these principles are an internal antagonism and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them shocks and throws and convulsions must ceaselessly follow repeal the Missouri compromise repeal all compromises repeal the declaration of independence repeal all past history you still cannot repeal human nature it still will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery extension is wrong and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth will continue to speak with argument as impetuous and logic as inexorable he disposes of Douglas's plea of popular sovereignty here or at Washington I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws of Virginia or the cranberry laws of Indiana the doctrine of self-government is right absolutely and eternally right but it has no just application as you're attempted or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such application upon whether a Negro is not or is a man if he is not a man in that case he who is a man may as a matter of self-government do just what he pleases with him but if the Negro is a man is it not to that extent a total destruction of self-government to say that he too shall not govern himself when the white man governs himself that is self-government but when he governs himself and governs another man that is more than self-government that is despotism I particularly object to the new position which the evowed principle of this Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic I object to it because it assumes that there can be moral rights in the enslaving of one man by another I object to it as a dangerous delians for a free people a sad evidence that feeling is right that liberty as a principle we have ceased to revere little by little but steadily as man's march to the grave we have been giving up the old for the new faith near 80 years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration that for some men to enslave others is a sacred right of self-government principles cannot stand together they are as opposite as God and Mammon if one compares the serious tone of this speech with the hard cider and coon-skinned buncombe of the Harrison campaign of 1840 and its lofty philosophical thought with the humorous declamation of the Taylor campaign of 1848 the speakers advance in mental development at once becomes apparent in this single effort Mr. Lincoln had risen from the class of the politician to the rank of the statesman there is a well founded tradition that Douglass, disconcerted and troubled by Lincoln's unexpected manifestation of power in the Springfield and Peoria debates, sought a friendly interview with his opponent and obtained from him an agreement that neither one of them would make any further speeches before the election the local interest in the campaign was greatly heightened by the fact that the term of Douglass' democratic colleague in the United States was about to expire and that the state legislator to be elected would have the choosing of his successor it is not probable that Lincoln built much hope upon this coming political chance as the democratic party had been throughout the whole history of the state in decided political control it turned out, nevertheless that in the election held on November 7th an opposition majority of the members of the legislature was chosen and Lincoln became to outward appearances the most available opposition candidate but party disintegration had been only partial Lincoln and his party friends still called themselves wigs though they could muster only a minority of the total membership of the legislature the so called anti-Nebraska democrats opposing Douglass and his followers were still too full of traditional party prejudice to help elect a pronounced wig to the United States Senate though as strongly anti-Nebraska as themselves five of them brought forward and stubbornly voted for Lyman Trumbull an anti-Nebraska democrat of ability who had been chosen representative in congress from the 8th Illinois district in the recent election on the 9th ballot it became evident to Lincoln that there was danger of a new democratic candidate neutral on the nebraska question being chosen in this contingency he manifested a personal generosity and political sagacity far above the comprehension of the ordinary smart politician he advised and prevailed upon his wig supporters to vote for Trumbull and thus secure a vote in the United States Senate against slavery extension he had rightly interpreted both statesmanship and human nature his personal sacrifice on this occasion contributed essentially to the coming political regeneration of his state and the five anti-Nebraska democrats who then wrought his defeat became his most devoted personal followers and efficient allies in his own later political triumph which adverse currents, however were still to delay to a tantalizing degree the circumstances of his defeat at that critical stage of his career must have seemed especially irritating yet he preserved the most remarkable equanimity of temper by defeat moderately he wrote to a sympathizing friend but I'm not nervous about it we may fairly infer that while Mr Lincoln was not nervous he was nevertheless deeply impressed by the circumstance as an illustration of the grave nature of the pending political controversy a letter written by him about half a year later to a friend in Kentucky is full of such serious reflection as to show that the existing political conditions that its states had engaged his most profound thought and investigation that spirit he wrote which desired the peaceful extinction of slavery has itself become extinct with the occasion and the men of the revolution under the impulse of that occasion nearly half the states adopted systems of emancipation at once and it is a significant fact that not a single state has done the like since so far as peaceful voluntary emancipation is concerned the condition of the negro slave in America scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free mind is now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better as that of the lost souls of the finally impenitent the autocrat of all rushes will resign his crown and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves our political problem now is can we as a nation continue together permanently forever half slave and half free the problem is too mighty for me may god in his mercy superintend the solution not quite three years later Mr. Lincoln made the concluding problem of this letter the text of a famous speech on the day before his first inauguration as president of the united states the autocrat of all rushes alexander the second by imperial decree emancipated his serves while six weeks after the inauguration the American masters headed by jefferson davis began the greatest war of modern times to perpetuate and spread the institution of slavery the excitement produced by the repeal of the missouri compromise in 1854 by the election forays of the missouri border ruffians into Kansas in 1855 and by the succeeding civil strife in 1856 in that territory wrought an effective transformation of political parties in the union in preparation for the presidential election of that year this transformation though not seriously checked was very considerably complicated by an entirely new faction or rather by the sudden revival of an old one which in the past had called itself native americanism and now assume the name of the american party though it was more popularly known by the nickname of no nothings because of its secret organization it professed a certain hostility to foreign born voters and to the catholic religion and demanded a change in the naturalization laws from five years to 21 years preliminary residence this faction had gained some sporadic successes in eastern cities but when its national convention met in february 1856 to nominate candidates for president and vice president the pending slavery question that it had hitherto studiously ignored caused a disruption of its organization and though the adhering delegates nominated millard filmore for president and aj donelson for vice president who remained in the field and were voted for to some extent in the presidential election the organization was present only as a crippled and disturbing factor and disappeared totally from politics in the following years both north and south party lines adjusted themselves defiantly upon the single issue for or against men and measures representing the extension or restriction of slavery the democratic party the radically changing its constituent elements retained the party name and became the party of slavery extension having forced the repeal and supported the resulting measures while the weak party entirely disappeared its members in the northern states joining the anti-nebraska democrats in the formation of the new republican party southern wigs either went boldly into the democratic camp or followed for a while the delusive prospects of the know nothings this party change went on somewhat slowly in the state of illinois because that state extended in territorial length from the latitude of massachusetts to that of virginia and its population contained an equally diverse local sentiment the northern counties had at once become strongly anti-nebraska the conservative weak counties of the center inclined to the know nothings while the kontakians and carolinians who had settled the southern end had strong antipathies to what they called abolitionism and applauded douglas and the repeal the agitation however swept on and further hesitation became impossible early in 1856 Mr. Lincoln began to take an active part in organizing the republican party he attended a small gathering of anti-nebraska editors in february at decatur who issued a call for a mass convention which met at bloomington in may at which the republican party of illinois was formally constituted by an enthusiastic gathering of local leaders who had formally been bitter antagonists but who now joined their efforts to resist slavery extension they formulated an empathic but not radical platform and through a committee selected a composite ticket of candidates for state offices which the convention approved by acclamation the occasion remains memorable because of the closing address made by Mr. Lincoln in one of his most impressive oratorical moves so completely where his auditors carried away by the force of his denunciation of existing political evils by the eloquence of his appeal for harmony and union to redress them that neither a verbatim report nor even an authentic abstract was made during its delivery but the lifting inspiration of its periods will never fade from the memory of those who heard it about three weeks later the first national convention of the republican party met in philadelphia and nominated john c fremont of california for president there was a certain fitness in this selection from the fact that he had been elected to the united states senate when california applied for admission as a free state and that the resistance of the south to her admission had been the entering wedge of the slavery agitation of 1850 this however was in reality a minor consideration it was rather his romantic fame as a daring rocky mountain explorer appealing strongly to popular imagination and sympathy which gave him prestige as a presidential candidate it was at this point that the career of abraham linkel had a narrow and fortunate escape from a premature and fatal prominence the illinois bloomington convention had sent him as a delegate to the philadelphia convention and no doubt very unexpectedly to himself on the first ballot for a candidate for vice president he received 110 votes against 259 votes for villiam el datan of new jersey upon which the choice of mr datan was at once made anonymous but the incident proves that mr linkel was already gaining a national fame among the advanced leaders of political thought happily a mysterious providence reserved him for larger nobler uses the nominations thus made at philadelphia completed the array for the presidential battle of 1856 the democratic national convention had met at cincinetti on june 2 and nominated james bocannon for president and john c brackenridge for vice president its work presented two points of noteworthy interest namely that the south in an arrogant pro-slavery dictatorship relentlessly cast aside the claims of douglas and pierce who had effected the repeal of the missouri compromise and nominated bocannon in apparently sure confidence of that super serviceable zeal in behalf of slavery which he so obediently rendered also that in a platform of intolerable length there was such a cunning ambiguity of words and concealment of sense such a double dealing of phrase and meaning as to render it possible that the pro-slavery democrats of the south and some anti-slavery democrats of the north might join for the last time to elect a northern man with southern principles again in this campaign as in several former presidential elections mr. lincoln was placed upon the electoral ticket of illinois and he made over 50 speeches in his own and adjoining states in behalf of fremont and daton not one of these speeches was reported in full but the few fragments which have been preserved show that he occupied no doubtful ground on the pending issues already the democrats were raising the potent alarm cry that the republican party was sectional and his success would dissolve the union mr. lincoln did not then dream that he would ever have to deal practically with such a contingency but his mind was very clear as to the method of meeting it speaking for the republican party he said but the union in any event will not be dissolved we don't want to dissolve it and if you attempt it we won't let you with the purse and sword the army and navy and treasury in our hands and at our command you could not do it this government would be very weak indeed if a majority with a disciplined army and navy and a well-filled treasury could not preserve itself when attacked by an unarmed, undisciplined, unorganized minority all this talk about the dissolution of the union is humbug? nothing but folly we do not want to dissolve the union you shall not while the republican party was much cast down by the election of Buchanan in November the democrats found significant cause for apprehension in the unexpected strength with which the Fremont ticket had been supported in the free states especially was this true in Illinois where the adherents of Fremont and Fillmore had formed a fusion and thereby elected a republican governor and state officers one of the strong elements of Mr. Lincoln's leadership was the cheerful hope that he was always able to inspire in his followers in the correct political instincts of popular majorities this trade was happily exemplified in a speech he made at the republican banquet in Chicago about a month after the presidential election recalling the pregnant fact that though Buchanan gained a majority of the electoral vote he was in a minority by about 400,000 of the popular vote for president Mr. Lincoln thus summed up the chances of republican success in the future our government rests in public opinion whoever can change public opinion can change the government practically just so much public opinion on any subject always has a central idea from which all its minor thoughts radiate that central idea in our political public opinion at the beginning was and until recently has continued to be the equality of man and although it has always submitted patiently to whatever of inequality there seemed to be a matter of actual necessity its constant working has been a steady progress towards the practical equality of all men the late presidential election was a struggle by one party to discard that central idea and to substitute for it the opposite idea that slavery is right in the abstract the workings of which as a central idea may be the perpetuity of human slavery and its extension to all countries and colors all of us who did not vote for Mr Buchanan taken together are a majority of 400,000 but in the late contest we were divided between Vermont and Fillmore can we not come together for the future let everyone who really believes and is resolved that free society is not and shall not be a failure and who can conscientiously declare that in the past contest he has done only what he thought best that every such one have charity to believe that every other one can say as much thus let bygones be bygones let past differences as nothing be and with steady eye on the real issue let us re inaugurate the good old central ideas of the republic we can do it the human heart is with us God is with us we shall again be able not to declare that all states as states are equal nor yet all citizens as citizens are equal but to renew the broader better declaration including both these and much more that all men are created equal end of chapter 7 recording by Ernst Schnell in Aberdeen short life of Abraham Lincoln by John George Nicolay chapter 8 Buchanan elected president the Dred Scott decision Douglass's Springfield speech 1857 Lincoln's answering speech criticism of Dred Scott decision Kansas civil war Buchanan appoints Walker Walker's letter on Kansas the L'Compton Constitution revolt of Douglass the election of 1856 once more the Democratic Party to full political control in national affairs James Buchanan was elected president to succeed Pierce the Senate continued as before to have a decided Democratic majority and a clear Democratic majority of 25 was chosen to the House of Representatives to succeed the heavy opposition majority of the previous Congress though the new House did not organize till a year after it was elected the certainty of its coming action was sufficient not only to restore but greatly to accelerate the pro-slavery reaction begun by the repeal of the Missouri compromise this impending drift of national policy now received a powerful impetus by an act of the third coordinate branch the judicial department of the government very unexpectedly to the public at large the Supreme Court of the United States a few days after Buchanan's inauguration announced its judgment in what quickly became famous as the Dred Scott decision Dred Scott the Negro slave in Missouri sued for his freedom on the ground that his master had taken him to reside in the state of Illinois and the territory of Wisconsin where slavery was prohibited by law the question had been twice decided by Missouri courts once for and then against Dred Scott's claim and now the Supreme Court of the United States after hearing the case twice elaborately argued by imminent counsel finally decided that Dred Scott being a Negro could not become a citizen and therefore was not entitled to bring suit this branch under ordinary precedent simply through the case out of court but in addition the decision proceeding with what lawyers call obiter dictum went on to declare that under the Constitution of the United States neither Congress nor a territorial legislature possessed power to prohibit slavery in federal territories the whole country immediately flared up with the agitation of the slavery question in this new form the south defended the decision with heat the north protested against it with indignation and the controversy was greatly intensified by a phrase in the opinion of Chief Justice Taney that at the time of the Declaration of Independence Negroes were considered by general public opinion to be so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect this decision of the Supreme Court placed Senator Douglas in a curious dilemma while it served to endorse and fortify his course in repealing the Missouri compromise it on the other hand totally negative his theory by which he had sought to make the repeal palatable that the people of the territory by the exercise of his great principle of popular sovereignty could decide the slavery question for themselves but being a subtle sophist he sought to maintain a show of consistency by an ingenious evasion in the month of June following the decision he made a speech at Springfield Illinois in which he tentatively announced what in the next year became widely celebrated as his Freeport doctrine and was immediately denounced by his political confrairs of the south as serious party heterodoxy first lauding the Supreme Court as the highest judicial tribunal on earth and declaring that violent resistance to its decrees must be put down by the strong arm of the government he went on thus to define a master's right to his slave in Kansas while the right continues in full force under the guarantees of the constitution and cannot be divested or alienated by an act of Congress it necessarily remains a barren and a worthless right unless sustained protected and enforced by appropriate police regulations and local legislation prescribing adequate remedies for its violation these regulations and remedies must necessarily depend entirely upon the will and wishes of the people of the territory as they can only be prescribed by the local legislatures hence the great principle of popular sovereignty and self-government is sustained and firmly established by the authority of this decision both the legal and political aspects of the new question immediately engaged the earnest attention of Mr. Lincoln and his splendid power of analysis set its ominous portent in a strong light he made a speech in reply to Douglas about two weeks after subjecting the Dred Scott decision to a searching and eloquent criticism he said that decision declares two propositions first that a negro cannot sue in the United States courts and secondly that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the territories it was made by a divided court dividing differently on the different points Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits of the decision and in that respect I shall follow his example believing I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis and he could on Taney we think the Dred Scott decision was erroneous we know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this we offer no resistance to it if this important decision had been made by the unanimous concurrence of the judges and without any apparent partisan bias and in accordance with legal public expectation and with the steady practice of the departments throughout our history and had been in no part based on assumed historical facts which are not really true or if wanting in some of these it had been before the court more than once and had there been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years it then might be, perhaps would be factious, nay, even revolutionary not to acquiesce in it as a precedent but when, as is true we find it wanting in all these claims to the public confidence it is not resistance, it is not factious it is not even disrespectful to treat it as not having yet quite established a settled doctrine for the country the chief justice does not directly assert but plainly assumes, as a fact that the public estimate of the black man is more favorable now than it was in the days of the revolution this assumption is a mistake in some trifling particulars the condition of that race has been ameliorated but as a whole in this country the change between then and now is decidedly the other way the ultimate destiny has never appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four years in two of the five states New Jersey and North Carolina that then gave the free Negro the right of voting the right has since been taken away and in the third, New York it has been greatly abridged while it has not been extended so far as I know to a single additional state though the number of the states has more than doubled in those days, as I understand masters could, at their own pleasure, emancipate their slaves but since then such legal restraints have been made upon emancipation as to amount almost to prohibition in those days legislatures held the unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their respective states but now it is becoming quite fashionable for state constitutions to withhold that power from the legislatures in those days, by common consent the spread of the black man's bondage to the new countries was prohibited but now Congress decides that it will not continue the prohibition and the Supreme Court decides that it could not if it would in those days our declaration of independence was held sacred by all and thought to include all but now, to aid in making the bondage of the Negro universal and eternal it is assailed and sneered at and construed and hawked at and torn till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it all the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him Mammon is after him ambition follows philosophy follows and the theology of the day is fast joining the cry they have him in his prison house they have searched his person and left no prying instrument with him one after another they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him and now they have him, as it were bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys which can never be unlocked without the concurrence of every key the keys in the hands of a hundred different men are scattered to a hundred different and distant places and they stand musing as to what invention and all the dominions of mind and matter can be produced to make the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is there is not room to quote the many other equally forcible points in Mr. Lincoln's speech, our narrative must proceed to other significant events in the great pro-slavery reaction thus far the Kansas experiment had produced nothing but agitation of strife and bloodshed first the storm in Congress over repeal then a mad rush of immigration to occupy the territory this was followed by the border ruffian invasions in which Missouri voters elected a bogus territorial legislature and the bogus legislature enacted a code of bogus laws in turn the more rapid immigration from free states filled the territory with a majority of free state voters who quickly organized a compact free state party that a free state constitution known as the Topeka Constitution to Congress and applied for admission this movement proved barren because the two houses of Congress were divided in sentiment meanwhile President Pierce recognized the bogus laws and issued proclamations declaring the free state movement illegal and insurrectionary and the free state party had in its turn baffled the enforcement of the bogus laws partly by concerted action of non-conformity and neglect partly by open defiance the whole finally culminated in a chronic border war between Missouri raiders on one hand and free state gorillas on the other and it became necessary to send federal troops to check the disorder these were instructed by Jefferson Davis then secretary of war that rebellion must be crushed the future confederate president little suspected the tremendous prophetic import of his order the most significant illustration of the underlying spirit of the struggle was that president Pierce had successfully appointed three democratic governors for the territory who starting with pro-slavery bias all became free state partisans and were successfully insulted and driven from the territory by the pro-slavery faction when in manly protest they refused to carry out the behests of the Missouri conspiracy after a three years struggle neither faction had been successful neither party was satisfied and the administration of Pierce bequeathed to its successor the same old question embittered by ranker and defeat president Buchanan began his administration with a boldly announced pro-slavery policy in his inaugural address he invoked the popular acceptance of the Dred Scott decision which he already knew was coming and a few months later declared in a public letter that slavery exists in Kansas under the constitution of the United States how it ever could have been seriously doubted as a mystery he chose for the governorship of Kansas Robert J. Walker a citizen of Mississippi of national fame and of pronounced pro-slavery views who accepted his dangerous mission only upon condition that a new constitution to be formed for that state must be honestly submitted to the real voters of Kansas for adoption or rejection president Buchanan and his advisors as well as senator Douglas accepted this condition repeatedly emphatically but when the new governor went to the territory he soon became convinced and reported to his chief that to make a slave state of Kansas was a delusive hope indeed he wrote it is universally admitted here that the only real question is this whether Kansas shall be a conservative, constitutional democratic and ultimately free state or whether it shall be a republican and abolition state as a compensation for the disappointment however I will note later direct to the president but we must have a slave state out of the southwestern Indian territory and then a column will follow Cuba be acquired with the acquiescence of the north and your administration having in reality settled the slavery question be regarded in all time to come as a re-signing and re-ceiling of the constitution I shall be pleased soon to hear from you Cuba, Cuba in Puerto Rico if possible should be the countersign of your full clothes in a blaze of glory and the governor was doubtless much gratified to receive the president's unqualified endorsement in reply on the question of submitting the constitution to the bona fide resident settlers of Kansas I am willing to stand or fall the sequel to this heroic posturing of the chief magistrate is one of the most humiliating chapters in American politics attendant circumstances leave little doubt that a portion of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet in secret league in correspondence with the pro-slavery Missouri Kansas cabal aided and abetted the framing and adoption of what is known to history as the Lacompton constitution an organic instrument of a radical pro-slavery type that it's pretended submission to popular vote was under phraseology and in combination with such gigantic electoral frauds and dictatorial procedure as to render the whole transaction a mockery of popular government that president Buchanan himself proving too weak in insight and will to detect the intrigue or resist the influence of his malign counselors abandoned his solemn pledges to governor Walker adopted the Lacompton constitution as an administration measure and recommended it to congress in a special message announcing dogmatically Kansas is therefore at this moment as much a slave state as Georgia or South Carolina the radical pro-slavery attitude thus assumed by president Buchanan and southern leaders through the democratic party of the free states into serious disarray while upon senator Douglas the blow fell with the force of party treachery almost of personal indignity the dread scott decision had rudely brushed aside his theory of popular sovereignty and now the Lacompton constitution proceedings brutally trampled it down in practice the disaster overtook him too at a critical moment his senatorial term was about to expire the next Illinois legislature would elect his successor the prospect was none too bright for him for at the late presidential election Illinois had chosen Republican state officers he was compelled either to break his pledges to the democratic voters of Illinois or to leader revolt against president Buchanan and the democratic leaders in congress party disgrace at Washington or popular disgrace in Illinois were the alternatives before him to lose his reelection to the senate would almost certainly end his public career when therefore congress met in December 1857 Douglas boldly attacked and denounced the Lacompton constitution even before the president had recommended it in his special message stand by the doctrine he said that leaves the people perfectly free to form and regulate their institutions for themselves in their own way and your party will be united and irresistible in power if the princess wants the slave state constitution she has a right to it if she wants a free state constitution she has a right to it it is none of my business which way the slavery clause is decided I care not whether it is voted down or voted up do you suppose after the pledges of my honor that I would go for that principle and leave the people to vote as they choose that I would now degrade myself by voting one way if the slavery cause be voted down I care not how that vote may stand ignore Lacompton ignore Topeka treat both those party movements as irregular and void pass a fair bill the one that we framed ourselves when we were acting as a unit have a fair election and you will have peace in the democratic party and peace throughout the country in 90 days the people want a fair vote they will never be satisfied without it but if this constitution is to be forced down our throats in violation of the fundamental principle of free government under a mode of submission that is a mockery and insult I will resist it to the last Walker the fourth democratic governor who had now been sacrificed to the interests of the Kansas pro-slavery cabal also wrote a sharp letter of resignation denouncing the Lacompton fraud and policy as such was the indignation aroused in the free states that although the senate passed the Lacompton bill 22 northern democrats joining their vote for republicans the measure was defeated in the house of representatives the president and his southern partisans bitterly resented this defeat and the schism between them on the one hand and Douglas and his adherents on the other