LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER ^^ ^ l5' /o|ni" ABRAHAM LINCOLN sss^ -.5s:^K^o^>%;N;^--SSS:^So%^¥y;?SS^¥SL5j¥;^^ §>s^^:5,s^s§$irs&?s^c?$;^^?s.N;j^*^5^$k^^^ ».^/Z^S2^^A>C4r^ ABRAHAM LINCOLN A HISTORY BY JOHN G. NICOLAY AND JOHN HAY VOLUME TWO *?»!s»**s>A^*«(i»8 NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1890 Copyright, 1886 and 1890, by John G. Nicolay and John Hay. BN5^ ILLUSTRATIONS Vol. II Abraham Lincoln Frontispiece From an ambrotype taken for Marcus L. Ward (afterwards Governor of New Jersey) in Springfield, 111., May 20, 1860, two days after Mr. Lincoln's nomination. PAGE General John W. Geary 16 From a photograph taken, in 1866, by Draper and Husted. Millard Fillmore 32 From a daguerreotype. Charles Sumner 48 From a daguerreotype. Roger B. Taney 64 From a daguerreotype. Samuel Nelson 80 From a photograph. Robert J. Walker 96 From a daguerreotype. Frederick P. Stanton 112 From a photograph by Brady. John Calhoun 128 From a painting by D. C. Fabronius, after a photograph by Brady. Anson Burlingame 144 From a photograph by William Shaw. Stephen A. Douglas 160 From a daguerreotype. V VI ILLUSTEATIONS David Colbketh Broderick 176 From a photograph by Brady. John Brown 192 Prom a photograph by J. W. Black & Co. House in which John Brown was Born, Torrington, Conn. 208 Prom a photograph lent by Prank B. Sanborn. Caleb Cushing 224 Prom a photograph by Brady. W. L. Yancey 240 Prom a photograph by Cook. General, John C. Breckinridge 256 Prom a daguerreotype taken about 1850, lent by Anson Maltby. Facsimile of Lincoln's Letter op Acceptance 276 John Bell 288 Prom a photograph by Brady. General Henry A. Wise 304 Prom a photograph by Brady. TheWigwam at Chicago in which Lincoln was Nominated, 320 General Egbert Anderson 336 Prom a photograph by Brady. James Buchanan 368 Prom a photograph by Brady. Lewis Cass 384 From a photograph by Brady. General Robert Toombs 400 From a photograph. Justin S. Morrill 416 Prom a photograph by Brady. TABLE OF CONTENTS Vol. II Chapter I. Jeffeeson Davis on Rebellion Civil War in Kansas. Guerrillas dispersed by Colonel Sumner. General P. F. Smith supersedes Sumner. Governor Shannon Removed. Missouri River Block- aded. Jefferson Davis's Instructions on Rebellion. Acting-Governor Woodson Proclaims the Temtory in Insurrection. Report of General Smith. John W. Geary Appointed Governor. Inaugural Address. His Military Proclamations and Measures. Colonel Cooke's " Cannon " Argument. Hickory Point Skirmish. Im- prisonment of Free State Men. End of Guen-illa War. Removal and Flight of Governor Geary 1 Chapter II. The Conventions of 1856 Formation of the Republican Party in Illinois. The Decatur Convention. Action of the " Know-Nothing" Party. Nomination of Fillmoi'e and Donelson. Demo- crats of Ilhnois Nominate William A. Richardson for Governor. The Davis-Bissell Challenge. The Bloom- ington Convention. Bissell Nominated for Governor. Lincoln's Speech at Bloomington. The Pittsbui-gh Con- vention. The Philadelphia Convention. Nomination of Fremont and Dayton. The Philadelphia Platform. Lincoln Proposed for Vice-President. The Cincinnati Convention. The Cincinnati Platform. Nomination of Buchanan and Breckinridge. Buchanan Elected President. BisseU Elected Governor. Lincoln's Cam- paign Speeches 23 vii vm TABLE OF CONTENTS Chaptek III. Congressional Ruffianism Sumner's Senate Speech on Kansas. Brooks's Assault on Sumner. Action of the Senate. Action of the House. Resignation and Reelection of Brooks. Wilson Challenged. Brooks Challenges Burlingame. Sum- ner's Malady. Reelection of Sumner. Death of Butler and Brooks. Sumner's Re-appearance in the Senate. 47 Chaptee IV. The Deed Scott Decision The Dred Scott Case. Its Origin. The Law of Slavery. Prehminai-y Decisions of the Case. Appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Case Twice Argued. Opinion of Justice Nelson. Political Conditions. Mr. Buchanan's Announcement. The Dred Scott Decision. Opinions by all the Judges. Opinion of the Court. Dred Scott Declared Not a Citizen. Slavery Prohibition Declared Unconstitutional. Language of Chief -Justice Taney. Dissenting Opinions 58 Chapter V. Douglas and Lincoln on Dred Scott PoUtical Effects of the Dred Scott Decision. Douglas's Springfield Speech on the Dred Scott Decision. He Indorses Chief-Justice Taney's Opinion. Freeport Doctrine Foreshadowed. Lincoln's Speech in Reply to Douglas. Uses of Judicial Decisions. Prospects of the Colored Race in the United States. Principles of the Declaration of Independence 81 Chapter VI. The Lecompton Constitution Constitutional Convention Called by the Legislature. Resignation and Flight of Governor Geary. Walker Appointed Governor. Promises of Buchanan and his Cabinet. Walker's Kansas Pohcy. Action of the Free-State Mass Meeting. Pro-slavery Convention at Lecompton. Election of Delegates. Governor Walker favors Submission of the Constitution to Popular Vote. Protests from Southern States. The Walker-Buchanan Correspondence. Lecompton Constitutional Conven- tion. The October Election. The Oxford and McGee TABLE OF CONTENTS IX Frauds. The Lecompton Constitution, Extra Session of the Legislature. Seei-etaiy Stanton's Eemoval. Governor Walker's Resignation 90 Chapter VII. The Revolt op Douglas Douglas's Quarrel with Buchanan. Buchanan's Silli- man Letter. His Annual Message. Douglas's Speech on Lecompton. Lecompton Constitution Declared Adopted. Buchanan's Special Message. The Pro- slavery Reaction. Buchanan's Views on Cuba. The Lecompton Constitution in Congress. The Crittenden- Montgomery Substitute. The English Bill. The Opposition of Douglas. The Administration Organ. 119 Chaptee VIII. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates Growing Republican Chances. Illinois Politics in 1858. Candidates for Senator. The Senatorial Campaign. Lincoln's "House Divided Against Itself" Speech. RepubUcan Sympathy for Douglas. Horace Greeley's Attitude. Lincoln on Greeley and Seward. Corre- spondence Between Lincoln and Crittenden. The Lincoln-Douelas Debates 135 *&^ Chapter IX. The Freeport Doctrine The Debate at Ottawa. The Debate at Freeport. The Freeport Doctrine. Benjamin's Speech on Douglas. The November Election. Douglas Reelected Senator. Cause of Lincoln's Defeat. Lincoln's Letters on the Result. Douglas Removed from the Chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Ten'itories 156 Chapter X. Lincoln's Ohio Speeches Douglas's Tour Through the South. His Advanced Views on Slavery. Senate Discussion Between Brown and Douglas. Douglas's Letter to Dorr. Lincoln's Growing Prominence. Lincoln's Correspondence with Schuyler Colfax. Letter to Canisius. Letter to Pierce and Others. Douglas's " Harper's Magazine " Article. Lincoln's Ohio Speeches. The Douglas-Black Con- troversy. Publication of the Lincola-Douglas Debates. 171 X TABLE OF CONTENTS Chaptee XI. Hakpek's Ferey John Brown. His Part in the Kansas Civil War. His Plan of Slave Liberation. Pikes and Recruits. The Peterboro Council. The Chatham Meeting. Change of Plan. Hai'per's FeiTy. Brown's Campaign, Colonel Lee, and the U. S. Marines. Capture of Brown. His Trial and Execution. The Senate Investigation. Pub- lic Opinion. Lincoln on John Brown. Speakership Contest. Election of WilUam Pennington .... 190 Chaptee XII. Lincoln's Coopee Institute Speech Lincoln Invited to Lecture in New York. The Meet- ing in Cooper Institute. Public Interest in the Speaker. Lincoha's Speech. His Definition of '' The Question." Historical Analysis. His Admonition to the South. The Right and Wrong of Slavery. The Duty of the ^ Free States. Criticisms of the Address. Speeches in New England 216 Chapter XIII. The Chaeleston Convention The Democratic Party. Its National Convention at Charleston. Sentiments of the Delegates. Differences North and South. Douglas as a Candidate. Tlie Jef- ferson Davis Senate Resolutions. Caleb Cashing made Chairman. The Platform Committee. Majority and Minority Reports. Speech of William L. Yancey. Speech of Senator Pugh. Speech of Senator Bigler. Second Majority and Minority Reports. Minority Report Adopted. Cotton State Delegates Secede. Yancey's Prophecy 227 Chaptee XIV. The Baltimoee Nominations Nomination of Douglas Impossible. Charleston Con- vention adjourned to Baltimore. Seceders' Convention in St. Andrew's Hall. Adjourns to meet at Richmond. Address of Southern Senators. The Davis-Douglas De- bate. Charleston Convention Reassembles at Baltimore. A Second Disruption. Nomination of Douglas. Nomi- nation of Breckinridge. The Constitutional Union Convention. Nomination of John Bell 243 TABLE OF CONTENTS Xl Chapter XV. The Chicago Convention The Republican Party. The Chicago Convention. Lincoln's Fairness to Rivals. Chances of the Cam- paign. The Pivotal States. The Wigwam. Organ- ization of the Convention. Chicago Platfox-m. Contrast between the Charleston and Chicago Conventions. The Balloting. Lincoln Nominated for President. HamUn Nominated for Vice-President 225 Chapter XVI. Lincoln Elected The Presidential Campaign. Parties, Candidates, and Platforms. Pledges to the Union. The Democi*atic Schism. Douglas's Campaign Tour. The " Illinois Rail-sphtter." The " Wide Awakes." Lincoln during the Canvass. Letters about " Know-Nothings." Fu- sion. The» Vote of Maine. The October States. The Election. The Electoral College. The Presidential Count. Lincoln Declared Elected 279 Chapter XVII. Beginnings of Rebellion Early Disunion Sentiment. Nullification. The Agita- tion of 1850. The Conspiracy of 1856. The '' Scarlet Letter." " The 1860 Association." Governor Gist's Letter to Southern Governors. Rephes to Governor Gist. Conspiracy at Washington 296 Chapter XVIII. The Cabinet Cabal Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet. Exti'acts from Floyd's Diary. Cabinet Conferences on Disunion. The Di-ayton-Gist Correspondence. Mr. Trescott's Letters. Floyd's Sale of Arms. Secretary Thompson's Mission. Jefferson Davis and the Governor of Mississippi. Jefferson Davis and President Buchanan's Message .... 315 Chapter XIX. From the Ballot to the Bullet Governor Gist's Proclamation. Caucus of South Caro- linians. Governor Gist's Message. The Disunion XU TABLE OF CONTENTS Cult. Presidential Electors Chosen. Effect of Lincoln's Election. Disunion Sentiment. Military- Appropriation. Convention Bill Passed. Charleston Mass-Meeting 328 Chapter XX. Major Anderson Buchanan and Secession. General Scott and NulU- fication. " Views " Addressed to the President. The President's Criticism. Scott's Rejoinder. The Charleston Forts. Foster's Requisition. Colonel Gard- ner asks for Reenforcements. Fitz-John Porter's In- spection Report. Gardner Reheved from Command. Anderson sent to Charleston 336 Chapter XXI. The Charleston Forts Anderson's Arrival at Charleston. His Tour of Inspec- tion. Report to the War Department. The Forts and the Harbor. Anderson asks reenforcements. Dis- couraging Reply from Washington. Insurrectionary Sentiment in Charleston. Floyd's Instructions to An- derson. Colonel Huger. Anderson's Visit to the Mayor of Charleston 349 Chapter XXII. The President's Message Mr. Buchanan's Opportunity. Cabinet Opinions on Disunion. Advice to the President in Preparing his Message. The Message. Arguments on Slavery. Recommends a National Convention. Arguments on Disunion. The Powers and Duties of Congress. Coer- cion Denied. Criticisms of the Message 358 Chapter XXIII. The Charleston Conspir- ators Debate on the Message. Adverse Criticisms. Buch- anan's Doctrines and Policy. Movements of Secession. South Carolina Legislation. MagTath's Comments. Non-Coercion and Coercion. Fort Moultrie. Intrigue for its Capture. Governor Gist's Letter. South Caro- lina's Complaints and Demands 372 TABLE OF CONTENTS XIU Chapter XXIV. Me. Buchanan's Truce Return of the Brooklyn. The President's Interview with the South Carohna Delegation. Mr. Buchanan's Truce. Major Buell's Visit to Anderson. The Buell Memorandum. Character of Instructions .... 382 Chapter XXV. The Retirement of Cass Failure of the Concession Policy. Movements towards Secession. Resignation of Secretary Cobb. Cobb's Secession Address. Resignation of Secretary Cass. The Buchanan-Floyd Incident. The Conspirators ad- vise Buchanan. Cass demands Reenforcements. The Cass-Buchanan Correspondence 390 Chapter XXVI. The Senate Committee of Thirteen Secession Debates in the Senate. Speeches of Cling- man, Brown, Iverson, WigfaU, Mason, Jefferson Davis, Hale, Crittenden, Pugh, Douglas. Powell's Motion for a Select Committee. Speeches of Bang, Collamer, Foster, Green, Wade. Senate Com- mittee of Thirteen Appointed 400 Chapter XXVII. The House Committee of Thirty-Three The President's Message in the House. Compromise Efforts. Motion to Appoint a Committee of Thirty- Three. Committee Appointed. Corwin made Chair- man. Sickles's Speech. Vallandigham's Speech. McClernand's Speech. Compromise Propositions. Jenkins's Plan. Noell's Plan. Andrew Johnson's Plan. Vallandigham's Plan 415 Chapter XXVIII. The Conspiracy Pro- claimed Hopes of Compromise. Party Pledges to the Union. President Buchanan's Advice. Nullification and Secession. Estrangement between North and South. Cabinet Treachery and Intrigue. The Congressional XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS Debates. Compromise Committees. The Conspirators' Strategy. Elements of Distm-bance. Hopes of Peace- able Secession. Dunn's Resolution. Mr. Buchanan's Proclamation. Secession Proclaimed 428 Chapter XXIX. The Foety Muskets Captain Foster. His AiTival in Charleston. Condi- tion of Fort Moultrie. Temporary Defenses. Foster Requests Forty Muskets. The Question of Ai'ming Workmen. Foster Receives Forty Muskets. Their Return Demanded. The Alleged Charleston Excite- ment. Floyd Orders the Muskets Returned. Foster's Comphance and Comment 439 ABRAHAM LINCOLN CHAPTER I JEFFERSON DAVIS ON REBELLION WHILE the town of Lawrence was under- chap. i. going burning and pillage, Governor Shan- non wrote to Colonel Sumner to sav that as the marshal and sheriff had finished making their arrests, and he presumed had by that time dis- ' ^ •' Shannon to missed the posse, he required a company of United ^iS™°|f' States troops to be stationed at Lawrence to secure ^ex.doc.!* "the safety of the citizens in both person and sScong. property," asking also a like company for Le- p.'ss. " compton and Topeka. The next day the citizens of Lawrence had the opportunity to smother their indignation when they saw the embers of the Free- State Hotel and the scattered fragments of their printing-presses patrolled and " protected " by the Federal dragoons whose presence they had vainly gunner to implored a few days before. It was time the MayTe!' Governor should move. The guerrilla bands with p. 37/ " their booty spread over the country, and the free- State men rose in a spirit of fierce retaliation. Assassinations, house-burnings, expulsions, and Vol. IL— 1 2 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. skirmislies broke out in all quarters. The sudden shower of lawlessness fell on the just and the un- just ; and, forced at last to deal out equal protec- 1856. tion, the Governor (June 4) issued his proclamation Shannon to ^ii'^^^i^S military organizations to disperse, " with- jimeTifs'e. ^^* regard to party names, or distinctions," ^ and j^x^bII, empowering Colonel Sumner to enforce the order. 34tiiSg. That careful and discreet officer, who had from pi 45. " the first counseled this policy, at once proceeded to execute the command with his characteristic energy. He disarmed and dispersed the free-State guerrillas, — John Brown's among the earliest, — liberated prisoners, drove the Missourians, includ- ing delegate Whitfield and General Coffee of the skeleton militia, back across their State line, and stationed five companies along the border to prevent their return. He was so fortunate as to accomplish all this without bloodshed. " I do not Sumner to ^^i^^)" ^^ wrotc, Juuc 23, " there is an armed body jimeTs ^^ either party now in the Territory, with the ex- ^^ p. 50!''^" ception perhaps of a few freebooters." The colonel found very soon that he was only too efficient and faithful. "My measures have necessarily borne hard against both parties," wrote Sumner to the , War Department, "for both have in many in- Sumner to -"^ ' _ *' Au-ust n, stances been more or less wi'ong. The Missouri- ^^^p.59!*^" ^iis were perfectly satisfied so long as the troops were employed exclusively against the free-State party; but when they found that I would be strictly impartial, that lawless mobs could no longer come from Missouri, and that their in- terference with the affairs of Kansas was brought 1 Shannon, proclamation, June 4, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. HI., p. 47. JEFFERSON DAVIS ON REBELLION c to an end, then they immediately raised a hue and chap. i. cry that they were oppressed by the United States troops." The complaint had its usual prompt effect at Washington. By orders dated June 27 the colonel was superseded in his command, and Brig- adier- Greneral P. F. Smith was sent to Leavenworth. Known to be pro-slavery in his opinions, great ad- vantage was doubtless expected by the conspiracy from this change. But Greneral Smith was an invalid, and incapable of active service, and so far as the official records show, the army officers and troops in Kansas continued to maintain a just im- partiality. The removal of Grovernor Shannon a few weeks after Colonel Sumner once more made Secretary Woodson, always a willing instrument of the con- spiracy, acting Governor. It was under this indi- vidual's promptings and proclamation, Shannon being absent from the Territory, that Colonel Sumner, before the arrival of the orders super- seding him, forcibly dispersed the free-State Leg- islature on the 4th of July, as narrated. For this isse. act the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, was not slow to send the colonel an implied censure, perhaps to justify his removal from command; but not a word of reproof went from President or Secretary of State to the acting Governor. It has already been stated that for a considerable length of time after the organization of Kansas Territory the Missouri River was its principal highway of approach from the States. To anti- slavery men who were unwilling to conceal their sentiments, this had from the very first been a route of difficulty and danger. Now that political h ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. strife Culminated in civil war, the Missourians established a complete practical blockade of the river against the Northern men and Northern goods. Recently, however, the Northern emigra- tion to Kansas had gi'adually found a new route through Iowa and Nebraska. It was about this time that great consternation was created in pro-slavery circles by the report that Lane had arrived at the Iowa border with a " Northern army," exaggerated into fabulous num- bers, intent upon fighting his way to Kansas. Parties headed by Lane and others and aggregating some hundreds had in fact so arrived, and were more or less provided with arms, though they had no open military organization. While spies and patrols were on the lookout for marching com- panies and regiments, they, concealing their arms, quietly slipped down in detached parties to Law- rence. Thus reenforced and inspirited, the free- State men took the aggressive, and by several bold movements broke up a number of pro-slavery camps and gatherings. Greatly exaggerated reports of these affairs were promptly sent to the neighboring Missouri counties, and the Border Ruffians rose for a third invasion of Kansas. Governor Shannon, not yet notified of his re- moval, reported to General Smith that Lecompton was threatened with an attack. General Smith, becoming alarmed, called together all his available force for the protection of the territorial capital, and reported the exigency to the War Department. All the hesitation which had hitherto characterized the instructions of Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War, in the use of troops otherwise than as an JEFFEKSON DAVIS ON REBELLION i officer's posse, instaiitly vanished. The whole chap. i. Kansas militia was placed under the orders of General Smith, and requisitions were issued for two regiments from Illinois and two from Ken- tucky. " The position of the insurgents," wrote the Secretary, " as shown by your letter and its in- closures, is that of open rebellion agaiDst the laws and constitutional authorities, with such manifes- tation of a purpose to spread devastation over the land as no longer justifies further hesitation or indulgence. To you, as to every soldier, whose habitual feeling is to protect the citizens of his own country, and only to use his arms against a public enemy, it cannot be otherwise than deeply painful to be brought into conflict with any por- tion of his fellow-countrymen. But patriotism and humanity alike require that rebellion should be promptly crushed, and the perpetration of the crimes which now disturb the peace and security of the good people of the Territory of Kansas should be effectually checked. You will therefore energetically employ all the means within your reach to restore the supremacy of the law, always endeavoring to carry out your present purpose to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood." ^ The Secretary had probably cast his eye upon the Platte County battle-call in the " Weston Argus Extra," which formed one of the general's inclosures : " So sudden and unexpected has been the attack of the abolitionists that the law-and- order party was unprepared to effectually resist them. To-day the bogus free-State government, ] Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, to General Smith, Sept. 3, 1856. Senate Ex. Doe., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 29. 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. Wooflson, proclarua- tion, Aug. 25, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. 34tli Cong. Vol. III., p. 80. we understand, is to assemble at Topeka. The issue is distinctly made up ; either the free-State or pro- slavery party is to have Kansas. . . Citizens of Platte County! the war is upon you, and at your very doors. Arouse yourselves to speedy venge- ance and rub out the bloody traitors."^ It was perhaps well that the pro-slavery zeal of General Smith was less ardent than that of Secre- tary Jefferson Davis, or the American civil war might have begun in Lawrence instead of Charleston. Upon fuller information and more mature reflection, the General found that he had no need of either the four regiments from Illinois and Kentucky, or Border-Ruffian mobs led by skeleton militia generals, neither of which he had asked for. Both the militia generals and the Mis- soui'ians were too eager even to wait for an official call. General Richardson ordered out his whole division on the strength of the "Argus Extra" and neighborhood reports,^ and the entire border was already in motion when acting Governor Woodson issued his proclamation declaring the Territory " to be in a state of open insurrection and rebellion." General Smith found it necessary to direct his first orders against the Border-Ruffian invaders them- selves. "It has been rumored for several days," he wrote to his second in command, " that large numbers of persons from the State of Missouri have entered Kansas, at various points, armed, with the intention of attacking the opposite party and driving them from the Territory, the latter 1 August 18, 1856. Senate Executive Documents, 3d Ses- sion 34th Congress. Vol. III., pp. 76-7. 2Eicliardson to General Smith, August 18, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. m., p. 75. JEFFEESON DAVIS ON KEBELLION 7 being also represented to be in considerable force, chap. i. If it should come to your knowledge that either side is moving upon the other with the view to attack, it will become your duty to observe their movements and prevent such hostile collisions."^ Lieutenant-Colonel P. St. George Cooke, upon whom this active field work devolved, because of the General's ill health, concentrated his little com- mand between Lawrence and Lecompton, where he could to some extent exert a salutary check upon the main bodies of both parties, and where he soon had occasion to send a remonstrance to the acting Governor that his "militia" was ransacking and burning houses.^ To the acting Governor's mind, such a remonstrance was not a proper way to suppress rebellion. He, therefore, sent Colonel woodsonto ... . Cooke, Cooke a requisition to invest the town of Topeka, jg^^P'^g^-^ disarm the insurrectionists, hold them as prisoners, Doc^sd level their fortifications, and intercept aggressive £1. vol invaders on "Lane's trail"; all of which demands ^11',' nf' the officer prudently and politely declined, replying ^^^^^ ^^ that he was there to assist in serving judicial pro- ^ggp'j^^'i^' cess, and not to make war on the town of Topeka. ^ pp. 9i,''9^;' If, as had been alleged. General Smith was at first inclined to regard the pro-slavery side with favor, its arrogance and excesses soon removed his prejudices, and he wrote an unsparing report of the situation to the War Department. " In ex- planation of the position of affairs, lately and now, I may remark that there are more than two oppos- ing parties in the Territory. The citizens of the 1 George Deas, Assistant Ad- Session 34th Congress. Vol. in., jutant-General to Lieut.-Colonel p. 85. Cooke, August 28, 1856. Sen- 2Cooke to Deas, August 31, ate Executive Documents, 3d 1856. Ibid., p. 89. 8 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. Territory who forraed the majority in the organiza- tion of the territorial government, and in the elec- tions for its Legislature and inferior officers, form one party. The persons who organized a State government, and attempted to put it in operation against the authority of that established by Con- gress, form another. A party, at the head of which is a former Senator from Missouri, and which is composed in a great part of citizens from that State, who have come into this Territory armed, under the excitement produced by reports exag- gerated in all cases, and in many absolutely false, form the third. There is a fourth, composed of idle men congi-egated from various parts, who assume to arrest, punish, exile, and even kill all those whom they assume to be bad citizens ; that is, those who will not join them or contribute to their maintenance. Every one of these has in his own peculiar way (except some few of the first party) thrown aside all regard to law, and even honesty, and the Territory under their sway is ravaged from one end to the other. . . Until the day before yesterday I was deficient in force to operate against all these at once ; and the acting Grovernor of the Territory did not seem to me to take a right view of affairs. If Mr. Atchison and his party had had the direction of affairs, they could not have ordered them more to suit his purpose." ^ All such truth and exposure of the conspiracy, however, was unpalatable at Washington ; and Secretary Jefferson Davis, while approving the con- 1 Smith to Cooper, September 10, 1856. Senate Executive Document, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. m., pp. 80, 81. JEFFEESON DAVIS ON REBELLION 9 duct of Colonel Cooke and expressing confidence chap. i. in General Smith, nevertheless curtly indorsed upon his report : " The only distinction of parties which in a military point of view it is necessary to note is that which distinguishes those who respect and maintain the laws and organized government from those who combine for revolutionary resist- ance to the constitutional authorities and laws of the land. The armed combinations of the latter class come within the denunciation of the Presi- dent's proclamation and are proper subjects upon which to employ the military force." ^ Such was the state of affairs when the third Governor of Kansas, newly appointed by President Pierce, arrived in the Territory. The Kansas pro- slavery cabal had upon the dismissal of Shannon fondly hoped that one of their own clique, either Secretary Woodson or Surveyor-General John Calhoun, would be made executive, and had set on foot active efforts in that direction. In principle and purpose they enjoyed the abundant sympathy of the Pierce Administration ; but as the presiden- tial election of 1856 was at hand, the success of the Democratic party could not at the moment be endangered by so open and defiant an act of par- tisanship. It was still essential to placate the wounded antislavery sensibilities of the Northern States, and to this end John W. Geary, of Penn- sylvania, was nominated by the President and unanimously confirmed by the Senate. He was a man of character and decision, had gone to the 1 Sec. War, indorsement, Sept. 10, 1856. Senate Executive 23, on letter of Gen. Smith to Documents, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Adjutant-General Cooper, Sept. Vol. III., p. 83. 10 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. Mexican war as a volunteer captain, and had been made a colonel and intrusted with an important command for merit. Afterwards he had served as postmaster, as alcalde, and as mayor of the city of San Francisco in the turbulent gold excitements touuniou^" of 1848-9, and was made a funding commissioner 1856. ' by the California Legislature. Both by nature and experience, therefore, he seemed well fitted to subdue the civil commotions of Kansas. But the pro-slavery leaders of the Territory were very far from relishing or desiring qualifications of this character. In one of their appeals calling upon the Missourians for " assistance in men, pro- visions, and munitions, that we may drive out the * Army of the North,' " they had given the Presi- dent and the public a piece of their mind about this appointment. " We have asked the appoint- ment of a successor," said they, "who was ac- quainted with our condition," with " the capacity to appreciate and the boldness and integrity requi- site faithfully to discharge his duty regardless of the possible effect it might have upon the election of some petty politician in a distant State. In his stead we have one appointed who is ignorant of our condition, a stranger to our people; who, we have too much cause to fear, will, if no worse, prove no more efficient to protect us than his pre- decessors. . . We cannot await the convenience in coming of our newly appointed Grovernor. We cannot hazard a second edition of imbecility or p. 130. corruption ! " Animated by such a spirit, they now bent all their energies upon concentrating a sufficient force in Kansas to crush the free-State men before the JEFFEKSON DAVIS ON REBELLION 11 new Governor could interfere. Acting Governor Woodson had by proclamation declared the Terri- tory in a state of "open insurrection and rebel- lion," ^ and the officers of the skeleton militia were hurriedly enrolling the Missourians, giving them arms, and planting them in convenient camps for a final and decisive campaign. It was on September 9, 1856, that Governor Geary and his party landed at Leavenworth. Even on his approach he had already been compelled to note and verify the evidences of civil war. He had met Governor Shannon fleeing from the Terri- tory, who drew for him a direful picture of the official inheritance to which he had come. While this interview took place, during the landing of the boat at Glasgow, a company of sixty Missouri Border Ruffians was embarking, with wagons, arms, and cannon, and with the open declaration that they were bound for Kansas to hunt and kill "abolitionists." Similar belligerent preparations were in progress at all the river towns they touched. At Kansas City the vigilance committee of the blockade boarded and searched the boat for concealed "abolitionists." Finally arrived at Leavenworth, the Governor saw a repetition of the same scenes — parades and military control in the streets, fugitives within the inclosure of the fort, and minor evidences of lawlessness and terror. Governor Geary went at once to the fort, where he spent the day in consultation with General Smith. That same evening he wrote to W. L. Marcy, Secretary of State, a report of the day's 1 Woodson, proclamation, August 25, 1856. Senate Executive Chap. I. Gihon, p. 104. Gihon, pp. 104-6. Documents, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. m., p. 80. 12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. Geary to Marcy, Sept. 9, 1856. SeD- ate Ex. Doc, 3d Sees. 34tli Cong. Vol. II., p. 88. impressions which was anything but reassuring — Leavenworth in the hands of armed men commit- ting outrages under the shadow of authority; theft and murder in the streets and on the high- ways ; farms plundered and deserted; agitation, ex- citement, and utter insecurity everywhere, and the number of troops insufficient to compel peace and order. All this was not the worst, however. Deep in the background stood the sinister apparition of the Atchison cabal. "I find," wrote he, "that I have not simply to contend against bands of armed ruffians and brigands whose sole aim and end is assassination and robbery — infatuated adherents and advocates of conflicting political sentiments and local institutions — and evil-disposed persons actuated by a desire to obtain elevated positions ; but worst of all, against the influence of men who have been placed in authority and have employed all the destructive agents around them to promote their own personal interests at the sacrifice of every just, honorable, and lawful consideration. . . . Such is the condition of Kansas faintly pic- tured. . . In making the foregoing statements I have endeavored to give the truth and nothing but the truth. I deem it important that you should be apprised of the actual state of the case; and whatever may be the effect of such revelations, they will be given from time to time without ex- tenuation." Discouraging as he found his new task of admin- istration. Governor Geary gi'appled with it in a spirit of justice and decision. The day following his interview with General Smith found him at Lecompton, the capital of the Territory, where the JEFFEKSON DAVIS ON REBELLION 13 other territorial officials, Woodson, Calhoun, Don- aldson, Sheriff Jones, Lecompte, Cato, and others, constituted the ever- vigilant working force of the Atchison cabal, precisely as had been so trutlif uUy represented to him by G-eneral Smith, and as he had so graphically described in his letter to Marcy of the day before. Paying little heed to their pro- fusely offered advice, he adhered to his determina- tion to judge for himself, and at once issued an inaugural address, declaring that in his official action he would do justice at all hazards, that he desired to know no party and no section, and im- ploring the people to bury their past strifes, and devote themselves to peace, industry, and the material development of the Territory.^ As an evi- dence of his earnestness he simultaneously issued two proclamations, one disbanding the volunteer or Missouri militia lately called into service by acting Grovernor Woodson, and the other com- manding the immediate enrollment of the true citizen militia of Kansas Territory, this step being taken by the advice of General Smith. He soon found that he could not govern Kansas with paper proclamations alojie. His sudden ar- rival at this particular juncture was evidently an unexpected contretemps. While he was preaching and printing his sage admonitions about peace and prosperity at Lecompton, and laboring to change the implements of civil war into plowshares and pruning-hooks, the Missouri raid against Lawrence, officially called into the field by Woodson's procla- mation, was about to deal out destruction to that 1 Geary, Inaugural Address, Sept. 11, 1856. Senate Executive Documents, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. IIG. Chap. I. Geary, proclama- tiou, Sept. 11, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., pp. 93-4. Geary to Marcy, Sept. 12, 1856. Ibid., p. 95. 14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. towD. A thousand Border Ruffians (at least two eye-witnesses say 2500), led by their recognized Missouri chiefs, were at that moment camped within striking distance of the hated " New Bos- ton." Their published address, which declared that "these traitors, assassins, and robbers must now be punished, must now be taught a lesson they will remember," that " Lane's armv and its allies must be expelled from the Territory," left no doubt of their errand. This news reached Governor Geary about mid- night of his second day in Lecompton. One of the brigadiers of the skeleton militia was apparently in command, and not yet having caught the cue of the Governor's intentions, reported the force for orders, " in the field, ready for duty, and impatient to act."^ At about the same hour the Governor received a message from the agent he had sent to Lawrence to distribute copies of his inaugural, that the people of that town were arming and preparing to receive and repel this contemplated attack of the Missourians. He was dumfounded at the infor- mation ; his promises and policy, upon which the ink was not yet dry, were akeady in jeopardy. Instead of bringing peace his advent was about to open war. In this contingency the Governor took his meas- ures with true military promptness. He imme- diately dispatched to the Missouri camp Secretary Woodson with copies of his inaugural, and the adjutant-general of the Territory with orders to dis- band and muster out of service the Missouri volun- 1 General Heiskell to Geary, Sept. 11 and 12, 1856. Senate Ex, Doc, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. n., p. 97. JEFFEKSON DAVIS ON REBELLION 15 teers/ while he himself, at the head of three hun- chap, l dred dragoons and a light battery, moved rapidly to Lawrence, a distance of twelve miles. Entering that town at sunrise, he found a few hundi'ed men hastily organized for defense in the improvised intrenchments and barricades about the place, ready enough to sell their lives, but vastly more willing to intrust their protection to the Grovernor's authority and the Federal troops.^ They listened to his speech and readily promised to obey his requirements. Since the Missourians had officially reported themselves to him as subject to his orders, the Governor supposed that his injunctions, conveyed to them in writing and print, and borne by the secretary and the adjutant-general of the Terri- tory, would suffice to send them back at once to their own borders, and he returned to Lecompton to take up his thorny duties of administration. Though forewarned by ex-Grovernor Shannon and by General Smith, Governor Geary did not yet realize the temper and purpose of either the cabal conspirators or the Border-Ruffian rank and file. He had just dispatched a military force in another direction to intercept and disarm a raid about to be made by a detachment of Lane's men, when news came to him that the Missourians were still moving upon Lawi'ence, in increased force, that his officers had not yet delivered his orders, and that skirmishing had begun between the outposts. Menaced thus with dishonor on one side and 1 Geary to Marey, Sept. 16, 2 Colonel Cook to Porter, A. A. 1856. Senate Ex. Doc, 3d Sess. G., Sept. 13, 1856. Ibid., Vol. 34"th Cong. Vol. II., p. 107. HL, pp. 113, 114. 16 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. Contempt on the other, he gathered all his avail- able Federal troops, and hurrying forward posted them between Lawi'ence and the invaders. Then he went to the Missouri camp, where the true con- dition of affairs began to dawn upon him. All the Border-Ruffian chiefs were there, headed by Atchi- j5^, son in person, who was evidently the controlling "Anniis'of Spirit, though a member of the Legislature of the ^^^^oT;'' State of Missouri, named Reid, exercised nominal p! isT.' command. He found his orders unheeded and on every hand mutterings of impatience and threats of defiance. These invading aliens had not the least disposition to receive commands as Kansas militia ; they invoked that name only as a cloak to shield them from the legal penalties due their real character as organized banditti. The Governor called the chiefs together and made them an earnest harangue. He explained to them his conciliatory policy, read his instruc- tions from Washington, affirmed his determination to keep peace, and appealed personally to Atchi- son to aid him in enforcing law and preserving order. That wily chief, seeing that refusal would put him in the attitude of a law-breaker, feigned a ready compliance, and he and Reid, his factotum commander, made eloquent speeches " calculated to produce submission to the legal demands made upon them." ^ Some of the lesser captains, how- ever, were mutinous, and treated the Governor to choice bits of Border-Ruffian rhetoric. Law and violence vibrated in uncertain balance, when Colo- nel Cooke, commanding the Federal troops, took ' Colonel Cooke to F. J, Porter, Sept. 16, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc, 3d Sess. 34tli Cong. Vol. HL, p. 121. GENERAL JOHN W. GEARY. JEFFEKSON DAVIS ON KEBELLION 17 the floor and cut the knot of discussion in a sum- chap. i. mary way. " I felt called upon to say some words myself," he writes naively, "appealing to these militia officers as an old resident of Kansas and friend to the Missourians to submit to the patriotic demand that they should retire, assuring them of my perfect confidence in the inflexible justice of the Governor, and that it would become my pain- ful duty to sustain him at the cannon's mouth." ^ This argument was decisive. The border chiefs felt willing enough to lead their awkward squads against the slight barricades of Lawrence, but quailed at the unlooked-for prospect of encounter- ing the carbines and sabers of half a regiment of regular dragoons and the grape-shot of a well- drilled light battery. They accepted the inevita- ble ; and swallowing their rage but still nursing their revenge, they consented perforce to retire and be "honorably" mustered out. But for this narrow contingency Lawrence would have been sacked a second time by the direct agency of the territorial cabal. Nothing could more forcibly demonstrate the unequal character of the contest between the slave- State and the free-State men in Kansas, even in these manoeuvres and conflicts of civil war, than the companion exploit to this third Lawrence raid. The day before Grovernor G-eary, seconded by the " cannon " argument of Colonel Cooke, was con- vincing the reluctant Missourians that it was better to accept, as a reward for their unfinished expedition, the pay, rations, and honorable dis- 1 Cooke to Porter, Sept. 16, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc, 3d Sess. S-ith Cong. Vol. III., p. 122. Vol. IL— 2 18 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. charge of a " muster out," rather than the fine, im- prisonment, or halter to which the full execution of their design would render them liable, another detachment of Federal dragoons was enforcing the bogus laws upon a company of free-State men who had just had a skirmish with a detachment of this same invading army of Border Euffians, at a place called Hickory Point. The encounter itself had all the usual characteristics of the dozens of similar affairs which occui-red during this prolonged j)eriod of border warfare — a neighborhood feud ; neigh- borhood violence ; the appearance of organized bands for retaliation ; the taking of forage, ani- mals, and property ; the fortifying of two or three log-houses by a pro-slavery company then on its way to join in the Lawrence attack, and finally the appearance of a more numerous free-State party to dislodge them. The besieging column, some 350 in number, had brought up a brass four- pounder, lately captured from the pro-slavery men, and with this and their rifles kept up a long- range fire for about six hours, when the garrison ti^u^™Jnate ^^ Bordcr Euffians capitulated on condition of be- ^d8^88." i^S allowed " honorably " to evacuate their strong- ^wihii.f' told and retire. The casualties were one man pp. 156-69. ]^j^jg(j ^j^^ several wounded. The rejoicing of the free-State men over this not too brilliant victory was short-lived. Returning home in separate squads, they were successively intercepted by the Federal dragoons acting as a posse to the Deputy United States Marshal,^ who arrested them on ci\dl writs obtained in haste by 1 Captain Wood to Colouel Cooke, September 16, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., pp. 123-6. JEFPEKSON DAVIS ON REBELLION 19 an active member of the territorial cabal, and to chap. i. the number of eighty-nine ^ were taken prisoners to Lecompton. So far the affair had been of such frequent occurrence as to have become common- place — a frontier " free fight," as they themselves described and regarded it. But now it took on a remarkable aspect. Sterling G. Cato, one of the pro-slavery territorial judges, had been found by Governor Geary in the Missouri camp drilling and doing duty as a soldier, ready and doubtless p? 15°' more than willing to take part in the projected sack of Lawrence. This Federal judge, as open a law-breaker as the Hickory Point prisoners (the two affairs really forming part of one and elaufiaa- the same enterprise), now seated himself on his ex'.W., 3d Sess judicial bench and committed the whole party 34th conk- for trial on charge of murder in the first degree ; pi*- ^^^'^'^ and at the October term of his court proceeded to try and condemn to penalties prescribed by the bogus laws some eighteen or twenty of these prisoners, for offenses in which in equity and good morals he was personally particeps criminis — some of the convicts being held in confinement until the following March, when they were pardoned by the Governor.^ Inter arma silent leges, say the pub- licists ; but in this particular instance the license of guerrilla war, the fraudulent statutes of the Ter- ritory, and the laws of Congress were combined and perverted with satanic ingenuity in further- ance of the conspiracy. The vigorous proceedings of Governor Geary, ^ Geary to Marcy, October 1, 2 Q-iiion, pp. 142-3. Geary, Ex- 1856. Senate Executive Docu- eeutive Minutes, Seiiate Ex. Doc, ments, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. No. 17, 1st Sess. 35th Cong. IL, p. 156. Vol. VL, p. 195. 20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. the forced retirement of the Missourians on the one hand, and the arrest and conviction of the free-State partisans on the other, had the effect to bring the guerrilla war to an abrupt termination. The retribution had fallen very unequally upon the two parties to the conflict,^ but this was due to the legal traps and pitfalls prepared with such artful 1 The Kansas Ten-itorial Leg- indemnity. The detailed figures islature, in the year 1859, by which time local passion had greatly subsided, by law empow- ered a non-partisan board of three commissioners to collect sworn testimony concerning the ravages of the civil war in Kan- sas, with a view of obtaining indemnity from the general Gov- ernment for the individual suf- ferers. These commissioners, after a careful examination, made an official report, from which may be gleaned an interesting sum- mary in numbers and values of the harvest of crime and destruc- tion which the Kansas contest produced, and which report can be relied upon, since eye-wit- nesses and participants of both parties freely contributed their testimony at the in\atation of the commissioners. The commissioners fixed the period of the war as beginning about November 1, 1855, and continuing until about December 1. 1856. They estimated that the entire loss and destruction of property, including the cost of fitting out the various expedi- tions, amounted to an aggregate of not less than $2,000,000. Fully one-half of this loss, they thought, was directly sustained by actual settlers of Kansas. They received petitions and took testimony in 463 cases. They reported 417 eases as entitled to and values of property destroyed are presented as follows : "Amount of crops destroyed, $37,.349.61 ; number of build- ings burned and destroyed, 78 ; horses taken or destroyed, 368 ; cattle taken or destroyed, 533. Amount of property owned bypro- slavery men, $77,198.99 ; prop- erty owned by free-State men, $335,779.04 ; property taken or destroyed by pro-slavery men, $318,718.63 ; property taken or destroyed by free-State men, $94,529.40." About the loss of life the com- missioners say : " Although not within our pro\'ince, we may be excused for stating that, from the most reliable information that we have been able to gather, by the secret warfare of the guerrilla system, and in well-known en- counters, the number of lives sacrificed in Kansas during the period mentioned probably ex- ceeded rather than fell short of two hundred. . . That the ex- citement in the Eastern and Southern States, in 1856, was instigated and kept up by garbled and exaggerated accounts of Kan- sas affairs, published in the East- ern and Southern newspapers, is true, most true; but the half of what was done by either party was never chronicled ! " — House Reports, 2d Sess. 36th Cong. Vol. m., Part 1, pp. 90 and 93. JEFFERSON DAVIS ON REBELLION 21 design by the Atchison conspiracy, and not to the chap. i. personal indifference or ill-will of the Governor. He strove sincerely to restore impartial adminis- tration; he completed the disbandment of the terri- torial militia, reenlisting into the Federal service one pro-slavery and one free-State company for police duty.^ By the end of September he was enabled to write to Washington that "peace now reigns in Kansas." Encouraged by this success in allaying guerrilla strife, he next endeavored to break up the existing political persecution and intrigues. It was not long, however, before Grovernor Geary became conscious, to his great surprise and mor- tification, that he had been nominated and sent to Kansas as a partisan manoeuvre, and not to insti- tute administrative reforms ; that his instructions, 1 We quote the following from a large force under the command the executive minutes of Gov- of Walker ; an offense which was ernor Geary to show that border subsequently retaliated by the strife had not entirely destroyed burning of the residence of the the kindlier human impulses, latter. These men were, per- which enabled him to turn a por- haps, the most determined ene- tion of the warring elements to mies in the Territory. Through the joint service of peace and the Governor's intervention, a • order: pacific meeting occurred, a bet- " September 24, 1856. For ter understanding took place, the purpose of obtaining infor- mutual concessions were made, mation which was considered of and pledges of friendship were great value to the Territory, the passed ; and, late in the after- Governor invited to Lecompton, noon. Walker left Lecompton in Captain [Samuel] Walker, of company with and under the Lawrence, one of the most cele- safeguard of Colonel Titus. Both brated and daring leaders of the these men have volunteered to anti-slavery party, promising enter the service of the United him a safe-conduct to Lecomp- States as leaders of companies ton and back again to Lawrence, of territorial militia." — Geary, During Walker's visit at the Ex- Executive Minutes. Senate Ex- ecutive Ofl&ce, Colonel [H. T.] ecutive Documents, 3d Session Titus entered, whose house was, 34th Congress, Vol. II., pp. a short time since, destroyed by 137-8. 22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. I. written during the presidential campaign, to tran- Marcy to qnillize Kansas by his " energy, impartiality, and Au^Jt 26. discretion," really meant that after Mr. Buchanan p. 272.*^"' was elected he should satisfy the Atchison cabal. In less than six months after he went to the Territory, clothed with the executive authority, speaking the President's voice, and representing the unlimited military power of the republic, he, the third Democratic Governor of Kansas, was, like his predecessors, in secret flight from the province he had so tnistfuUy gone to rule, execrated by his party associates, and abandoned by the Administration which had appointed him. Humiliating as was this local conspiracy to plant servitude in Kansas, a more aggressive political movement to nationalize slavery in all the Union was about to eclipse it. CHAPTER II THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 IN the state of Illinois, the spring of the year chap. ii. 1856 saw an almost spontaneous impulse to- ward the formation of a new party. As already described, it was a transition period in politics. The disorganization of the Whig party was materi- ally increased and hastened by the failure, two years before, to make Lincoln a Senator. On the other hand, the election of Trumbull served quite as effectively to consolidate the Democratic rebel- lion against Douglas in his determination to make the support of his Nebraska bill a test of party orthodoxy. Many of the Northern counties had formed " Republican " organizations in the two pre- vious years ; but the name was entirely local, while the opposition, not yet united, but fighting in fac- tions against the Nebraska bill, only acknowledged political affinity under the general term of the "Anti-Nebraska " party. In the absence of any existing party machinery, some fifteen editors of anti-Nebraska newspapers met for conference at Decatur on the 22d of Feb- i856. ruary and issued a call for a delegate State con- vention of the "Anti-Nebraska party," to meet at Bloomington on the 29th of May. Prominent 23 24 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. ii. leaders, as a rule, hesitated to commit themselves by their presence at Decatm\ Not so with Mr. Lincoln. He could not attend the deliberations as an editor; but he doubtless lent his suggestion and advice, for we find him among the distin- guished guests and speakers at the banquet which followed the business session, and toasts to his candidacy as "the next United States Senator" show that his leadership had suffered no abate- ment. The assembled editors purposely set the Bloomington Convention for a somewhat late day in the campaign, and before the time arrived the political situation in the State was akeady much more clearly defined. One factor which greatly baffled the calculations and forecast of politicians was the Know-Nothing or American party. It was apparent to all that this order or affiliation had during the past two years spread into Illinois, as into other States. But as its machinery and action were secret, and as no general election had occurred since 1854 to exhibit its numerical strength, its possible scope and influence could only be vaguely estimated. Still it was clearly present as a positive force. Its national council had in February at Philadelphia nominated Fillmore and Donelson as a presidential ticket; but the preponderating Southern member- ship forced an indorsement of the Kansas-Nebraska act into its platform, which destroyed the unity and power of the party, driving the Northern delegates to a bolt. Nevertheless many Northern voters, indifferent to the slavery issue, still sought to maintain its organization ; and thus in Illinois 1856. the State Council met early in May, ratified the THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 25 nomination of Fillmore for President, and nomi- nated candidates for Grovernor, and other State officers. The Democratic party, or rather so much of that party as did not openly repudiate the policy and princij)le of the Kansas-Nebraska act, made early preparations for a vigorous campaign. The great loss in prestige and numbers he had already sus- tained admonished Douglas that his political for- tunes hung in a doubtful balance. But he was a bold and aggressive leader, to whom controversy and party warfare were rather an inspiration than a discouragement. Under his guidance, the Demo- cratic State Convention nominated for Governor of Illinois William A. Richardson, late a member of the House of Representatives, in which body as chairman of the Committee on Territories he had been the leader to whom the success of the Ne- braska bill was specially intrusted, and where his parliamentary management had contributed ma- terially to the final passage of that measure. Thus the attitude of opposing factions and the unorganized unfolding of public opinion, rather than any mere promptings or combinations of leaders, developed the course of the anti-Nebraska men of Illinois. Out of this condition sprung directly one important element of future success. Richardson's candidacy, long foreshadowed, was seen to require an opposing nominee of unusual popularity. He was found in the person of Colo- nel William H. Bissell, late a Democratic repre- sentative in Congress, where he had denounced disunion in 1850, and opposed the Nebraska bill in 1854. He had led a regiment to the Mexican Chap. II. Davidson iiiul Stuve, " History of Illinois," p. 648. 26 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. II. war, and fought gallantly at the battle of Buena Vista. His military laurels easily carried him into Congress ; but the exposui'es of the Mexican cam- paign also burdened him with a disease which par- alyzed his lower limbs, and compelled retirement from active politics after his second term. He was now, however, recovering ; and having already ex- hibited civic talents of a high order, the popular voice made light of his physical infirmity, and his friends declared their readiness to match the brains of Bissell against the legs of his opponents. One piece of his history rendered him specially acceptable to young and spirited Western voters. His service in Congress began amid exciting de- bates over the compromise measures of 1850, when the Southern fire-eaters were already rampant. Seddon, of Virginia, in his eagerness to depreciate the North and glorify the South, affirmed in a speech that at the battle of Buena Vista, " at that most critical juncture when all seemed lost save honor," amid the discomfiture and rout of "the brave but unfortunate troops of the North through a mistaken order," " the noble regiment of Missis- 1850; ' sippians" had snatched victory from the jaws of "isi^M' ' ^^^^^1- Replying some days later to Seddon's in- p- ^^- nuendo, Bissell, competent by his presence on the battle-field to bear witness, retorted that when the 2d Indiana gave way, it was McKee's 2d Kentucky, Hardin's 1st Illinois, and Bissell's 2d Illinois which had retrieved the fortunes of the hour, and that the vaunted Mississippi regiment was not within a mile and a half of the scene of action. Properly this was an issue of veracity between Seddon and Bis- sell, of easy solution. But Jefferson Davis, who THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 27 commanded the Mississippi regiment in question, began an interchange of notes with Bissell which from the first smelt of gunpowder. Were his re- ported remarks correct 1 asked Davis in substance. Bissell answered, repeating the language of his speech and defining the spot and the time to which it applied, adding : " I deem it due, in justice alike to myself and the Mississippi regiment, to say that I made no charge against that regiment." Davis persisting, then asked, in substance, whether he meant to deny General Lane's official report that " the regiment of Mississippians came to the rescue at the proper time to save the fortunes of the day." Bissell rejoined : " My remarks had reference to a different time and place from those referred to by General Lane." At this point both parties might with great propriety have ended the correspondence. Suffi- cient inquiry had been met by generous explana- tion. But Davis, apparently determined to push Bissell to the wall, now sent his challenge. This time, however, he met his match in courage. Bis- sell named an officer of the army as his second, in- structing him to suggest as weapons "muskets, loaded with ball and buckshot." The terms of combat do not appear to have been formally pro- posed between the friends who met to arrange matters, but they were evidently understood ; the affair was hushed up, with the simple addition to Bissell's first reply that he was willing to award the Mississippi regiment "the credit due to their gallant and distinguished services in that battle." The Bloomington Convention came together ac- cording to call on the 29th of May. By this time Chap. II. Pamphlet, Priuted correspond- ence. 1856. 28 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. II. the active and observant politicians of the State had become convinced that the anti-Nebraska struggle was not a mere temporary and insignifi- cant " abolition " excitement, but a deep and abid- ing political issue, involving in the fate of slavery the fate of the nation. Minor and past differences were therefore generously postponed or waived in favor of a hearty coalition on the single dominant question. A most notable gathering of the clans was the result. About one-fourth of the counties sent regularly chosen delegates ; the rest were volunteers. In spirit and enthusiasm it was rather a mass-meeting than a convention ; but every man present was in some sort a leader in his own locality. The assemblage was much more representative than similar bodies gathered by the ordinary caucus machinery. It was an earnest and determined council of five or six hun- dred cool, sagacious, independent thinkers, called together by a great public exigency, led and di- rected by the first minds of the State. Not only did it show a brilliant array of eminent names, but a remarkable contrast of former antagonisms : Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-No things, Abolitionists ; Norman B. Judd, Eichard Yates, Ebenezer Peck, Leonard Swett, Lyman Trumbull, David Davis, Owen Lovejoy, Orville H. Browning, Ichabod Codding, Archibald Williams, and many more. Chief among these, as adviser and actor, was Abraham Lincoln. Rarely has a deliberative body met under cir- cumstances more exciting than did this one. The Congressional debates at Washington and the civil war in Kansas were each at a culmination of pas- THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 29 sion and incident. Within ten days Charles Sum- chaf. ii. ner had been struck down in the Senate Chamber, and the town of Lawrence sacked by the guerrilla posse of Atchison and Sheriff Jones. Ex-Governor Reeder, of that suffering Territory, addressed the citizens of Bloomington and the earliest-arriving delegates on the evening of the 28th, bringing into the convention the very atmosphere of the Kansas conflict. The convention met and conducted its work with earnestness and dignity. Bissell, already designated by unmistakable popular indications, was nominated for governor by acclamation. The candidate for lieutenant-governor was named in like manner. So little did the convention think or care about the mere distribution of political honors on the one hand, and so much, on the other, did it regard and provide for the success of the cause, that it did not even ballot for the remaining candi- dates on the State ticket, but deputed to a com- mittee the task of selecting and arranging them, and adopted its report as a whole and by acclama- tion. The more difficult task of drafting a platform was performed by another committee, with such prudence that it too received a unanimous accept- ance. It boldly adopted the Republican name, formulated the Republican creed, and the conven- tion further appointed delegates to the coming Republican National Convention. There were stirring speeches by eloquent lead- ers, eagerly listened to and vociferously applauded; but scarcely a man moved from his seat in the crowded hall until Mr. Lincoln had been heard. Every one felt the fitness of his making the closing 30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. II. argument and exhortation, and right nobly did he honor their demand. A silence full of emotion filled the assembly as for a moment before begin- ning his tall form stood in commanding attitude on the rostrum, the impressiveness of his theme and the significance of the occasion reflected in his thoughtful and earnest features. The spell of the houi' was visibly upon him ; and holding his audi- ence in rapt attention, he closed in a brilliant peroration with an appeal to the people to join the Republican standard, to Come as the winds come, when forests are rended ; Come as the waves come, when navies are stranded. The influence was irresistible ; the audience rose and acknowledged the speaker's power with cheer upon cheer. Unfortunately the speech was never reported ; but its effect lives vividly in the memory of all who heard it, and it crowned his right to popular leadership in his own State, which there- after was never disputed. The organization of the Republican party for the nation at large proceeded very much in the same manner as that in the State of Illinois. Pursuant to separate preliminary correspondence and calls from State committees, a general meeting of prom- inent Republicans and anti-Nebraskd) politicians from all parts of the North, and even from a few border slave States, came together at Pittsburgh 1856 on Washington's birthday, February 22. Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania sent the largest con- tingents; but around this great central nucleus were gathered small but earnest delegations aggregating between three and four hundred zealous leaders, THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 31 representing twenty-eight States and Territories, chap. ii. It was merely an informal mass convention; but many of the delegates were men of national char- acter, each of whose names was itself a sufficient credential. Above all, the members were cautious, moderate, conciliatory, and unambitious to act be- yond the requirements of the hour. They contented themselves with the usual parliamentary routine ; appointed a committee on national organization ; issued a call for a delegate convention ; and adopted and put forth a stirring address to the countr}^ Their resolutions were brief and formu- lated but four demands: the repeal of all laws which allow the introduction of slavery into Terri- tories once consecrated to freedom ; resistance by constitutional means to slavery in any United States Territory ; the immediate admission of Kansas as a free State, and the overthrow of the present national Administration. In response to the official call embodied in the Pittsburgh address, the first National Convention of the Republican party met at Philadelphia on the 17th of June, 1856. The character and dignity of the Pittsburgh proceedings assured the new party of immediate prestige and acceptance ; with so favorable a sponsorship it sprang full-armed into the political conflict. That conflict which opened the year with the long congressional con- test over the speakership, and which found its only solution in the choice of Banks by a plurality vote, had been fed by fierce congressional debates, by presidential messages and proclamations, by national conventions, by the Sumner assault, by the Kansas war ; the body politic throbbed with 32 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. ti. activity and excitement in every fiber. Every free State and several border States and Territories were represented in the Philadelphia Convention ; its regular and irregular delegates counted nearly a thousand local leaders, full of the zeal of new proselytes ; Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, was made its permanent chairman. The party was too young and its prospect of im- mediate success too slender to develop any serious rivalry for a presidential nomination. Because its strength lay evidently among the former adherents of the now dissolved and abandoned Whig party, William H. Seward of course took highest rank in leadership; after him stood Salmon P. Chase as the representative of the independent Democrats, who, bringing fewer voters, had nevertheless con- tributed the main share of the courageous pioneer work. It is a just tribute to their sagacity that both were wiUiug to wait for the maturer strength and riper opportunities of the new organization. Justice John McLean, of the Supreme Bench, an eminent jurist, a faithful Whig, whose character happily combined both the energy and the con- servatism of the great West, also had a large following; but as might have been expected, the convention found a more typical leader, young in years, daring in character, brilliant in exploit ; and after one informal baUot it nominated John C. Fremont, of California. The credit of the selec- tion and its successful management has been popularly awarded to Francis P. Blair, senior, famous as the talented and powerful newspaper lieutenant of President Jackson ; but it was rather an intuitive popular choice, which at the moment JUILLAKD FILLMORK. THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 33 seemed so appropriate as to preclude necessity for chap. ii. artful intrigue. There was a dash of romance in the personal history of Fremont which gave his nomination a high popular relish. Of French descent, born in Savannah, Georgia, orphaned at an early age, he acquired a scientific education largely by his own unaided efforts in private study ; a sea voyage as teacher of mathematics, and employment in a railroad survey through the wilderness of the Tennessee Mountains, developed the taste and the qualifications that made him useful as an assistant in Nicollet's scientific exploration of the great plateau where the Mississippi River finds its sources, and secured his appointment as second lieutenant of topographical engineers. These la- bors brought him to Washington, where the same Grallic restlessness which made the restraint of schools insupportable, brought about an attach- ment, elopement, and marriage with the daughter of Senator Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri. Reconciliation followed in good time; and the unexplored Great West being Benton's peculiar hobby, through his influence Fremont was sent with an exploring party to the Rocky Mountains. Under his command similar expeditions were repeated again and again to that mysterious wonderland; and never were the wildest fictions read with more avidity than his official reports of daily adventure, danger and discovery, of scal- ing unclimbed mountains, wrecking his canoes on the rapids of unvisited rivers, parleying and battling with hostile Indians, and facing starvation while hemmed in by trackless snows. One of these Vol. II._ 3 34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. II. jouTiieys bad led him to the Pacific coast when our war with Mexico let loose the spirit of revolution in the Mexican province of California. With his characteristic restless audacity Fremont joined his little company of explorers to a local insurrection- ary faction of American settlers, and raised a bat- talion of mounted volunteers. Though acting without Government orders, he cooperated with the United States naval forces sent to take possession of the California coast, and materially assisted in overturning the Mexican authority and putting the remnant of her military officials to flight. At the close of the conquest he was for a short time mili- tary governor ; and when, through the famous gold discoveries, California was organized as a State and admitted to the Union, Fremont became for a brief period one of her first United States Senators. So salient a record could not well be without strong contrasts, and of these unsparing criticism took advantage. Hostile journals delineated Fre- mont as a shallow, vainglorious, " woolly-horse," " mule-eating," " free-love," " nigger-embracing " black Republican ; an extravagant, insubordinate, reckless adventurer ; a financial spendthrift and political mountebank. As the reading public is not always skillful in winnowing truth from libel when artfully mixed in print, even the grossest calumnies were not without their effect in con- tributing to his defeat. But to the sanguine zeal of the new Republican party, the " Pathfinder " was a heroic and ideal leader ; for, upon the vital point at issue, his antislavery votes and clear declara- tions satisfied every doubt and inspired unlimited confidence. THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 35 However picturesquely Fremont for the moment loomed up as the standard-bearer of the Repub- lican party, historical interest centers upon the second act of the Philadelphia Convention. It shows us how strangely to human wisdom vibrate the delicately balanced scales of fate; or rather how inscrutable and yet how unerring are the far-reaching processes of divine providence. The principal candidate having been selected with- out contention or delay, the convention proceeded to a nomination for Vice-President. On the first informal ballot William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, received 259 votes and Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, 110 ; the remaining votes being scattered among thirteen other names.^ The dominating thought of the convention being the assertion of principle, and not the promotion of men, there was no fur- ther contest;^ and though Mr. Dayton had not received a majority support, his nomination was nevertheless at once made unanimous. Those who are familiar with the eccentricities of nominating conventions when in this listless and drifting mood know how easily an opportune speech from some eloquent delegate or a few adroitly arranged 1 For David Wilmot, of Penn- Giddings, of Ohio, 2. The vote sylvania, 43; Pi'eston King, of in detail for Lincoln was : Maine, New York, 9 ; Charles Sumner, 1 ; New Hampshire, 8 ; Massa- of Massachusetts, 36; Thomas chusetts, 7; Rhode Island, 2; H. Ford, of Ohio, 7 ; Cassius M. New York, 3 ; Pennsylvania, 11 ; Clay, of Kentucky, 3 ; Jacob Col- Ohio, 2; Indiana, 26; Illinois, lamer, of Vermont, 15; William 33; Michigan, 5 ; and California, F. Johnston, of Pennsylvania, 2 ; 12. Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massa- 2 Mr. T. S. Van Dyke, son of one chusetts, 46; Henry Wilson, of of the delegates, kindly writes us : Massachusetts, 7; William Pen- "Nothing that Mr. Lincoln has nington, of New Jersey, 1 ; ever written is more characteris- Carey, of New Jersey, 3 ; S. C. tie than the following note from Pomeroy, of Kansas, 8 ; J. R. him to my father just after the Chap. II. 36 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap, ir, delegation caucuses might have reversed this re- sult; and imagination may not easily construct the possible changes in history which a successful campaign of the ticket in that form might have wrought. What would have been the consequences to America and humanity had the Rebellion, even then being vaguely devised by Southern Hotspurs, burst upon the nation in the winter of 1856, with the nation's sword of commander-in-chief in the hand of the impulsive Fremont, and Lincoln, in- heriting the patient wariness and cool blood of three gdtierations of pioneers and Indian-fighters, wielding only the jDowerless gavel of Vice-Presi- dent ? But the hour of destiny had not yet struck. The platform devised by the Philadelphia Con- vention was unusually bold in its affirmations, and most happy in its phraseology. Not only did it " deny the authority of Congress, or of a territorial legislature, of any individual or association of in- diWduals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States " ; it further " Re- solved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exer- cise of this power it is both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those convention — not for publication, " When you meet Judge Day- "but merely as a private expres- ton present my respects, and sion of his feelings to an old tell Mm I think him a far better acquaintance : man than I for the position he is "Springfield, III., in^ and that I shall support both " June 27, 1856. ^^^ and Colonel Fremont most "Hon. John Van Dyke. cordially. Present my best re- "My Dear Sir: Allow me to spects to Mrs. V., and believe thank you for your kind notice ^^^j of me in the Philadelphia Con- " Yours truly, vention. " A. Lincoln." THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 37 twin relics of barbarism — polygamy and slavery." chap. ii. At Buchanan, recently nominated by the Demo- cratic National Convention in Cincinnati, it aimed a barbed shaft : " Resolved, That the highwayman's plea that 'might makes right,' embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any government or people that gave it their sanction." It demanded the main- tenance of the principles of the Declaration of Independence, of the Federal Constitution, of the rights of the States, and the union of the States. It favored a Pacific railroad, congressional appro- priations for national rivers and harbors; it af- firmed liberty of conscience and equality of rights ; it arraigned the policy of the Administration ; de- manded the immediate admission of Kansas as a State, and invited " the affiliation and cooperation of men of all parties, however differing from them in other respects, in support of the principles declared." The nominees and platform of the Philadelphia Convention were accepted by the opposition voters of the free States with an alacrity and an en- thusiasm beyond the calculation of even the most sanguine ; and in November a vote was recorded in their support which, though then unsuccessful, laid the secure foundation of an early victory, and permanently established a great party destined to carry the country through trials and vicissitudes equal in magnitude and results to any which the world had hitherto witnessed. In that year none of the presidential honors isse. were reserved for the State of Illinois. While 38 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. ir. Lincoln thus narrowly missed a nomination for the second place on the Republican ticket, his fel- low-citizen and competitor, Douglas, failed equally to obtain the nomination he so much coveted as the candidate of the Democratic party. The Democratic National Convention had met at Cin- cinnati on the 2d day of June, 1856. If Douglas flattered himself that such eminent services as he had rendered the South would find this re- ward, his disappointment must have been severe. While the benefits he had conferred were lightly estimated or totally forgotten, former injuries in- flicted in his name were keenly remembered and resented. But three prominent candidates, Buch- anan, Pierce, and Douglas, were urged upon the convention. The indiscreet crusade of Douglas's friends against " old fogies '' in 1852 had defeated Buchanan and nominated Pierce; now, by the turn of political fortune, Buchanan's friends were able to wipe out the double score by defeating both Pierce and Douglas. Most of the Southern delegates seem to have been guided by the mere thought of present utility ; they voted to renomi- nate Pierce because of his subservient Kansas policy, forgetting that Douglas had not only begun it, but was their strongest ally to continue it. When after a day of fruitless balloting they changed their votes to Douglas, Buchanan, the so-called "old fogy," just returned from the English mission, and therefore not handicapped by personal jealousies and heart-bui'niugs, had secured the firm adhesion of a decided majority mainly from the North.^ 1 On the sixteentli ballot Buch- which 121 were from the free anan received 168 votes, of States and 47 from the slave THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 39 The " two-thirds rule " was not yet fulfilled, but chap. n. at this juncture the friends of Pierce and Douglas yielded to the inevitable, and withdrew their favor- ites in the interest of "harmony." On the seven- teenth ballot, therefore, and the fifth day of the convention, James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, became the unanimous nominee of the Democratic party for President, and John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for Vice-President. The famous " Cincinnati platform " holds a con- spicuous place in party literature for length, for vigor of language, for variety of topics, for bold- ness of declaration ; and yet, strange to say, its chief merit and utility lay in the skillful conceal- ment of its central thought and purpose. About one-fourth of its great length is devoted to what to the eye looks like a somewhat elaborate exposition of the doctrines of the party on the slavery ques- tion. Eliminate the verbiage and there only re- mains an indorsement of the " principles contained in the organic laws establishing the Territory of Kansas and Nebraska " (non-interference by Con- gress with slavery in State and Territory, or in the District of Columbia) ; and the practical application of " the principles " is thus further defined : " Re- solved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Ne- braska, acting through the legally and fairly ex- pressed will of a majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a constitution with or without domestic states; Douglas received 122 from the free States ; Pierce had votes, of which 49 were from the been finally dropped on the pre- free States and 73fi-omthe slave vious ballot.— "Proceedings of States ; Cass received G votes, all the Cincinnati Convention," p. 45. 40 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. II. slavGiy, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States." We have akeady seen how deliberately the spirit and letter of "the principle" was violated by the Democratic National Administration of President Pierce, and by nearly all the Democratic Senators and Representatives in Congress ; and we shall see how the more explicit resolution was again even more flagrantly violated by the Democratic Na- tional Administration and party under President Buchanan. For the time, however, these well-rounded phrases were especially convenient : fii*st, to prevent any schism in the Cincinnati Convention itself, and, secondly, to furnish points for campaign speeches ; politicians not having any pressing desire, nor voters the requisite critical skill, to demonstrate how they left untouched the whole brood of per- tinent queries which the discussion had already raised, and which at its next national convention were destined to disrupt and defeat the Democratic party. For this occasion the studied ambiguity of the Cincinnati platform made possible a last coop- eration of North and South, in the face of carefully concealed mental reservations, to secure a presi- dential victory. It is not the province of this work to describe the incidents of the national canvass, but only to record its results. At the election of November, 1856, Buchanan was chosen President. The pop- ular vote in the nation at large stood : Buchanan, 1,838,169 ; Fremont, 1,341,264 ; Fillmore, 874,534. By States Buchanan received the votes of fourteen slave States and five free States, a total of 174 THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 41 electors ; Fremont the vote of eleven free States, chap. n. a total of 114 electors; and Fillmore the vote of one slave State, a total of eight electors.^ In the campaign which preceded Mr. Buchanan's election, Mr. Lincoln, at the head of the Fremont electoral ticket for Illinois, took a prominent part, traversing the State in every du-ection, and making about fifty speeches. Among the addresses which he thus delivered in the different counties, it is interesting to read a fragment of a speech he made at Galena, Illinois, discussing the charge of " sec- tionalism," the identical pretext upon which the South inaugui-ated its rebellion against his Admin- istration four years afterwards : You further charge us with being disunionists. If you mean that it is our aim to dissolve the Union, I for myself answer that it is untrue ; for those who act with me I answer that it is untrue. Have you heard us assert that as our aim ? Do you really believe that such is our aim ? Do you find it in our platform, our speeches, our conventions, or anywhere "? If not, withdraw the charge. But you may say that though it is not our aim, it will be the result, if we succeed, and that we are therefore disunionists in fact. This is a grave charge you make against us, and we certainly have a right to demand that you specify in what way we are to dissolve the Union. How are we to effect this 1 The only specification offered is volunteered by Mr. Fillmore in his Albany speech. His charge is that if we 1 The vote more in detail was diana, 1 3 ; New Jersey, 7 ; Penn- as follows: sylvania, 27. Total, 174, For Buchanan, slave States, For Fremont, free States, Con Alabama, 9 ; Arkansas, 4 ; Dela- necticut, 6 ; Iowa, 4 ; Maine, 8 ; ware, 3; Florida, 3; Georgia, Massachusetts, 13 ; Michigan, 6; 10; Kentucky, 12; Louisiana, New Hampshire, 5; New York, 6 ; Mississippi, 7 ; Missouri, 9 ; 35 ; Ohio, 23 ; Ehode Island, 4 ; North Carolina, 10; South Caro- Vermont, 5; Wisconsin, 5. To- lina, 8; Tennessee, 12; Texas, tal, 114. 4; Virginia, 15. Free States, For Fillmore, slave State, California, 4; Illinois, 11; In- Maryland, 8. 42 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. ti. elect a President and Vice-President both from the free States it will dissolve the Union. This is open folly. The Constitution provides that the President and Vice- President of the United States shall be of different States; but says nothing as to the latitude and longi- tude of those States. In 1828 Andrew Jackson, of Ten- nessee, and John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, were elected President and Vice-President, both from slave States ; but no one thought of dissolving the Union then on that account. In 1840 Harrison, of Ohio, and Tyler, of Virginia, were elected. In 1841 Harrison died and John Tyler succeeded to the presidency, and William R. King, of Alabama, was elected acting Vice-President by the Senate ; but no one supposed that the Union was in danger. In fact, at the very time Mr. Fillmore uttered this idle charge, the state of things in the United States disproved it. Mr. Pierce, of New Hampshire, and Mr. Bright, of Indiana, both from free States, are President and Vice-President, and the Union stands and will stand. You do not pretend that it ought to dissolve the Union, and the facts show that it won't; therefore the charge may be dismissed without further consideration. No other specification is made, and the only one that coidd be made is, that the restoration of the restriction of 1820 making the United States territory free terri- torv would dissolve the Union. Gentlemen, it will require a decided majority to pass such an act. We, the majority, being able constitutionally to do all that we purpose, would have no desire to dissolve the Union. Do you say that such restriction of slavery would be unconstitutional, and that some of the States would not submit to its enforcement ? I grant you that an unconstitutional act is not a law ; but I do not ask and will not take your construction of the Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States is the tribunal to decide such a question, and we will submit to its deci- sions; and if you do also, there will be an end of the matter. Will you ? If not, who are the disunionists, you or we? We, the majority, would not strive to dissolve the Union ; and if any attempt is made it must be by you, who so loudly stigmatize us as disunionists. But the Union, in any event, will not be dissolved. THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 43 We don't want to dissolve it, and if you attempt it we chap. ir. 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 in- deed if a majority with a disciplined army and navy and a well-filled treasury could not preserve itself, when at- .?Adt°r- tacked by an unarmed, undisciplined, unorganized minor- eopied^'into ity . All this talk about the dissolution of the Union is tiie iniuois humbug, nothing but folly. We do not want to dissolve Journal," the Union ; you shall not. "iIsg. ' With three presidential tickets in the field — with the Democrats seeking the election of Buch- anan and Breckinridge, the Americans, or Know- Nothings, asking votes for Fillmore and Donelson, and the Republicans making proselytes for Fre- mont and Dayton — the political campaign of 1856 was one of unabated activity and excitement. In the State of Illinois the contest resulted in a drawn battle. The American party held together with tolerable firmness in its vote for President, but was largely disintegrated in its vote on the ticket for State officers. The consequence was that Illi- nois gave a plurality of 9164 for Buchanan, the Democratic candidate for President, while at the same time it gave a plurality of 4729 for Bissell, the Republican candidate for Governor.^ Half victory as it was, it furnished the Illinois Republicans a substantial hope of the full triumph which they achieved four years later. About a month after this election, at a Republican banquet given in Chicago on the 10th of December, 1856, Abraham Lincoln spoke as follows, partly in criticism of the last annual message of President 1 For President, Buchanan ernor, Richardson (Democrat), (Democrat), 105,344 ; Fremont 106,043 ; Bissell (Republican), (Republican), 96,180; Fillmore 111,372; Morris (American), (American), 37,451. For Gov- 19,241. 44 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. II. Pierce, but more especially pointing out the rising star of promise : We have another annual presidential message. Like a rejected lover making merry at the wedding of his rival, the President felicitates himself hugely over the late presidential election. He considers the result a signal triumph of good principles and good men, and a very pointed rebuke of bad ones. He says the people did it. He forgets that the '' people," as he complacently calls only those who voted for Buchanan, are in a minority of the whole people by about four hundi-ed thousand votes — one full tenth of all the votes. Remembering this, he might perceive that the "rebuke "may not be quite as durable as he seems to think — that the majority may not choose to remain permanently rebuked by that minority. The President thinks the great body of us Fremonters, being ardently attached to Uberty, in the abstract, were duped by a few wicked and designing men. There is a shght difference of opinion on this. We think he, being ardently attached to the hope of a second term, in the concrete, was duped by men who had hberty every way. He is the cat's-paw. By much dragging of chestnuts from the fire for others to eat, his claws are burnt off to the gristle, and he is thrown aside as unfit for further use. As the fool said of King Lear, when his daughters had turned him out-of-doors, " He's a shelled peascod." [That's a sheal'd peascod.] So far as the President charges us " with a desire to change the domestic institutions of existing States," and of " doing everything in our power to deprive the Con- stitution and the laws of moral authority," for the whole party on belief, and for myself on knowledge, I pro- nounce the charge an unmixed and unmitigated false- hood. Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion can change the government prac- tically 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 pubhc opinion at the beginning was, and until recently THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 45 lias continued to be, " the equality of men." And al- though it has always submitted patiently to whatever of inequality there seemed to be as matter of actual neces- sity, its constant working has been a steady progress towards the practical equality of all men. The late pres- idential 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. Less than a year ago the Richmond '' Enquirer," an avowed advocate of slavery, regardless of color, in order to favor his views, invented the phrase '^ State equality," and now the President, in his message, adopts the " En- quirer's" catch-phrase, telling us the people "have asserted the constitutional equality of each and all of the States of the Union as States." The President flatters himself that the new central idea is completely inaugurated ; and so indeed it is, so far as the mere fact of a presidential election can inaugurate it. To us it is left to know that the majority of the people have not yet declared for it, and to hope that they never will. All of us who did not vote for Mr. Buchanan, taken together, are a majority of four hundred thousand. But in the late contest we were divided between Fremont and Fillmore. Can we not come together for the future ? Let every one 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, let every such one have charity to believe that every other one can say as much. Thus let bygones be by- gones; let past differences as nothing be; and with steady eye on the real issue, let us reinaugurate 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 that " 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." Thougli these fragments of addresses give ns only an imperfect reflection of the style of Mr. Chap. II. Illinois " State Journal," I)eceniber 16, 1856. 46 ABKAHAJVI LINCOLN Chap. II. Liiicolii's oratory during this period, tliey never- theless show its essential characteristics, a pervad- ing clearness of analysis, and that strong tendency to axiomatic definition which gives so many of his sentences their convincing force and durable value. They also show us the combination, not often found in such happy balance, of the politician's discernment of fact with the statesman's wisdom of theory — how present forces of national life are likely to be moved by future impulses of national will. The politician could see the four hundred thousand voters who would give victory to some party in the near future. It required the wisdom of the statesman to divine that the public opinion which would direct how these votes were to be cast, could most surely be created by an appeal to those generous " central ideas " of the human mind which favor equality against caste and freedom against slavery. Perhaps the most distinctively representative quality these addresses exhibit is the patriotic spirit and faith which led him to declare so dogmatically in this campaign of 1856, what the nation called upon him a few years later to execute by the stern powers of war, " We do not want to dissolve the Union ; you shall not." CHAPTER III CONGRESSIONAL RUFFIANISM THE official reports show that the proceedings chap. hi. of the American Congress, while in the main conducted with becoming propriety and decorum, have occasionally been dishonored by angry per- sonal altercations and scenes of ruffianly violence. These disorders increased as the great political struggle over the slavery question grew in inten- sity, and reached their culmination in a series of startling incidents. Charles Sumner, one of the Senators from the State of Massachusetts, had become conspicuous, in the prevailing political agitation, for his aggi'es- sive and radical antislavery speeches in the Senate and elsewhere. The slavery issue had brought him into politics; he had been elected to the United States Senate by the coahtion of a small number of Free-soilers with the Democrats in the Massa- chusetts Legislature. The slavery question, therefore, became the dominant principle and the keynote of his public career. He was a man of liberal culture, of con- siderable erudition in the law, of high literary ability, and he had attained an enviable social 47 48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. III. eminence. Of large plij^sical frame and strength, gifted with a fine presence and a sonorous voice, fearless and earnest in his opposition to slavery, Charles Sumner was one of the favorite orators of the early declamatory period of the Republican party. He joined unreservedly in the exciting Senate debates, provoked by the rival applications from Kansas for her admission as a State. On the 19th and 20th of May, 1856, he delivered an elaborate speech in the Senate, occupjdng two days. It was one of his greatest efforts, and had been prepared with his usual industrj^ In character it was a philippic rather than an argument, strong, direct, and aggressive, in which classical illustration and acrimonious accusation were blended with gi-eat effect. It described what he called " The Crime against Kansas"; and the excuses for the crime he denom- inated the apology tyrannical, the apology imbe- cile, the apology absurd, and the apology infamous. " Tyranny, imbecility, absurdity, and infamy," he continued, " all unite to dance, like the weird sis- ters, about this crime." In the course of his speech he alluded, among others, to A. P. Butler, of South Carolina, and in reply to some severe strictui-es by that Senator during preceding debates, indulged in caustic per- sonal criticism upon his course and utterance, as well as upon the State which he represented. With regi'et [said Sumner], I come again upon the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Butler], who, omni- present in this debate, overflowed with rage at the simple suggestion that Kansas had applied for admission as a CHAKLES SUMNER. CONGEESSIONAL EUFFIANISM 49 State ; and with incoherent phrases discharged the loose chap. hi. expectoration of his speech, now upon her representative and then upon her people. There was no extravagance of the ancient parliamentary debate which he did not repeat ; nor Avas there any possible deviation from truth which he did not make, with so much of passion, I am glad to add, as to save him from the suspicion of inten- tional aberration. But the Senator touches nothing which he does not disfigure — with error, sometimes of principle, sometimes of fact. He shows an incapacity of accuracy, whether in stating the Constitution or in stating the law, whether in details of statistics or the diversions of scholar- ship. He cannot open his mouth but out there flies a blunder. Butler was not present in the Senate on either day; what he might have said or done, had he been there, can only be conjectured. The immediate replies from Douglas and others were very bitter. Among pro-slavery members of both Houses there was an under-current of revengeful murmurs. It is possible that this hostile manifestation may have decided a young member of the House, Pres- ton S. Brooks, a nephew of Senator Butler, to undertake retaliation by violence. Acquainting Henry A. Edmundson, another member, with his design, he waited on two diiferent occasions at the western entrance to the Capitol grounds to en- counter Mr. Sumner, but without meeting him. On the 22d of May, two days after the speech, isse. Brooks entered the Senate Chamber on the same errand. The session had been short, and after adjournment Sumner remained at his desk, en- gaged in writing. The sessions were at that time held in the old Senate Chamber, now occupied by the Supreme Court. The seats were arranged in semicircles, with a railing to separate them from a Vol. n.— 4 50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. III. nari'ow lobby or open space next the wall ; a broad aisle ran from the main door to the desk of the presiding officer. 'Mr. Sumner's seat was in the outside row next to the railing, at the second desk to the right from the entrance and the main aisle. Occupied with his work, Mr. Sumner did not notice Mr. Brooks, sitting across the aisle to his left, and where in conversation with a friend he was man- ifesting his impatience that a lady seated near Mr. Sumner did not take her departure from the chamber. Almost at that moment she arose and went out ; quickly afterwards Brooks got up and advanced to the front of Sumner's desk. The act attracted the attention of Brooks's friend ; he was astonished, amid the bitterness of party feeling, to see a South Carolina Representative talk to a Massachusetts Senator. His astonishment was quickly corrected. Leaning upon the desk and addressing Sumner with a rapid sentence or two, to the effect that he had read his speech, that it was a libel upon his absent relative, and that he had come to punish him for it. Brooks began striking him on the head with a gutta-percha walking- cane, of the ordinary length and about an inch in diameter. Surprised, blinded and stunned by the blows, Sumner's first instinct was to grapple with his assailant. This effort, however, was futile; the desk was between them, and being by his sitting posture partially under it, Sumner was prevented from rising fully to his feet until he had by main strength, in his struggles, wrenched it from its fastenings on the floor. In his attempt to follow Brooks they became turned, and from between the CONGEESSIONAL KUFFIANISM 51 desks moved out into the main aisle. By this time, chap. m. through the repetition of the heavy blows and loss of blood, Sumner became unconscious. Brooks, seizing him by the coat-collar, continued his mur- derous attack till Sumner, reeling in utter helpless- ness, sank upon the floor beside the desk nearest the aisle, one row nearer the center of the chamber than his own. The witnesses variously estimated the number of blows given at from ten to thirty. Two principal wounds, two inches long and an inch deep, had been cut on the back of Sumner's head ; and near the end of the attack, Brooks's cane was shivered to splinters. There were perhaps ten or fifteen persons in the chamber, and after the first momentary pause of astonishment half a dozen started to interfere. Before they reached the spot, however, Lawrence M. Keitt, another South Carolina Representative, came rushing down the main aisle, brandishing his cane, and with imprecations warning lookers-on to " let them alone." Among those hastening to the rescue, Mr. Morgan arrived first, just in time to catch and sustain the Senator as he fell. Another bystander, who had run round outside the railing, seized Brooks by the arm about the same instant ; and the wounded man was borne to an adjoining room, where he was cared for by a hastily sum- moned physician. Among Mr. Sumner's friends the event created a certain degree of consternation. The language which provoked the assault, whatever might be thought of its offensive character, was strictly par- liamentary, uninterrupted either by the chair or by any member. The assault itself was so des- 52 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. III. perate and brutal that it implied a viudictiveness deeper than mere personal revenge. This spirit of bullying, this resort to violence, had recently become alarmingly frequent among members of Congress, especially as it all came from the pro- slavery party. Since the beginning of the current session, a pro-slavery member from Virginia had assaulted the editor of a Washington newspaper ; another pro-slavery member, from Arkansas, had violently attacked Horace Greeley on the street; a third pro-slavery member, from California, had shot an unoffending waiter at Willard's Hotel. Was this fourth instance the prelude of an inten- tion to curb or stifle free Congressional debate? It is probable that this question was seriously con- sidered at the little caucus of Republican Senators held that night at the house of Mr. Seward. The Republicans had only a slender minority in the Senate, and a plui'ality in the House ; they could do nothing but resolve on a course of parliament- ary inquiry, and agi'ee on an attitude of defense. Sumner's colleague, Henry Wilson, made a very brief announcement of the occurrence to the Sen- ate on the following day, and it at once became apparent that the transaction would assume an almost strictly party character. As no Democratic Senator proposed an inquiry, Mr. Seward moved for a committee of investigation ; upon which James M. Mason, of Virginia, proposed that the committee should be elected by ballot. The result was that no Republican was chosen upon it ; and the com- mittee reached the conclusion that it had no jDOwer in the premises, except to report the occurrence to the House. In the House the usual committee CONGBESSIONAL RUFFIANISM 53 from the three parties was raised, resulting in chap.iii. two reports. The minority, sustained by the vote of sixty members, pleaded a want of jurisdic- tion. The majority recommended the expulsion of Brooks, and expressed disapprobation by the House of the course of his colleague, Edmundson, in countenancing the assault, and of the act of Keitt in his personal interference. But the neces- sary two-thirds vote for the expulsion of Brooks could not be obtained ; a vote of censure was there- fore passed by a large majority. The discussion of the report and resolutions occupied the House several days, and whatever effort members made to disguise their motives, their actions, either of condemnation or of excuse, arose in the main clearly enough from their party relations. Under the forms of parliamentary debate, the South and the North were breathing mutual recrimination and defiance. The public of both sections took up the affair with equal party zeal. From the North came reso- lutions of legislatures, outbursts of indignation in meetings and addresses, and the denunciation of Brooks and his deed in the newspapers. In the South the exactly opposite sentiment predomi- nated. Brooks was defended and eulogized, and presented with canes and pitchers as testimonials to his valor. When the resolution of censure had been passed, he at once resigned his seat in the House, and going home to his constituents, was immediately reelected. Within three weeks he reappeared at the bar of the House, with a new commission from his Governor, and was sworn in and continued his service as before. The arrogant 54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. III. address which preceded his resignation contained the remarkable intimation that much more serious results might have grown out of the incident. " No act of mine," he said, "on my personal account, shall inaugurate revolution; but when you, Mr. Speaker, return to your own home, and hear the people of the great North — and they are a great people — speak of me as a bad man, you will do me the justice to say that a blow struck by me at this time would be followed by a revolution ; and this I know." Under the state of public sentiment then prevail- ing at the South, it would have been strange if the extraordinary event and the succeeding debate had not provoked other similar affairs. Mr. Sumner's colleague, Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts -(afterwards Vice-President of the United States), in his speech characterized the assault as " brutal, murderous, and cowardly." For this language Brooks sent him a challenge. Wilson wrote a reply declining the encounter, but in the same letter announcing that " I religiously believe in the right of self-defense, in its broadest sense." One of the sharpest denunciations of the assault was made by Anson Burlingame, a Massachusetts Representative (afterwards United States Minister to China, and still later Chinese Minister to the United States). " I denounce it," he said, " in the name of the Constitution it violates. I denounce it in the name of the sovereignty of Massachusetts, which was stricken down by the blow. I denounce it in the name of humanity. I denounce it in the name of civilization, which it outraged. I denounce it in the name of that fair-play which bullies and CONGRESSIONAL RUFFIANISM 55 prize-fighters respect." For this, after some efforts chap. m. had been made by friends to bring about an amicable understanding, Brooks sent him also a challenge. Mr. Burlingame accepted the challenge, and his second designated the Clifton House in Canada as the rendezvous and rifles as weapons. Burlingame at once started on the journey; but Brooks declined to go, on the excuse that his life would not be safe on such a trip through the North. Broadened into national significance by all these attendant circumstances, the Sumner assault be- came a leading event in the great slavery contest between the South and North. It might well rank as one of the episodes of the civil war then raging in Kansas, out of which it had in reality grown, and with which it was intertwined in motive, act, and comment. In result the incident was extremely damaging to the South, for it tended more than any single Border-Ruffian crime in Kansas to unite hesitating and wavering opinion in the North against the alarming flood of lawlessness and violence, which as a rule found its origin and its defense in the ranks of the pro-slavery party. Certainly no phase of the transaction was received by the North with such popular favor as some of the bolder avowals by Northern Representatives of their readiness to fight, and especially by Burlingame's actual acceptance of the challenge of Brooks. The shock of the attack, and the serious wounds received by Mr. Sumner, produced a spinal malady, from which he rallied with great difficulty, and only after severe medical treatment and years of enforced abstinence from work. As the constit- 56 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. ITT. uGiits of Brooks Sent him back to the House, so also the Legislature of Massachusetts, in January, 1857, with but few dissentiDg votes, reelected Sumner to a new senatorial term, beginning the 4th of March. He came to Washington and was sworn in, but within a few days sailed for Europe, and during the greater part of the long interim between that time and the succeeding Presidential campaign his seat in the Senate remained vacant. It was on the 4th of June, 1860, that he again raised his voice in debate. Some changes had occurred : both Butler and Brooks were dead ; ^ the Senate was assembled in its new hall in the north wing of the Capitol extension. But in the main the personnel and the spirit of the pro-slavery party still confronted him. " Time has passed," he said, " but the question remains." A little more than four years before, he had essayed to describe " The Crime against Kansas"; now, in an address free from offensive personalities but more unsparing in rhetoric and stronger in historical arraignment, he delineated what he named the " Barbarism of Slavery." Picturing to ourselves the orator, the circumstances, and the theme, we can comprehend the exaltation with which he exclaimed in his exordium : " Slavery must be resisted not only on political grounds, but on all other grounds, whether social, economical, or moral. Ours is no holiday contest ; nor is it any strife of rival factions — of White and Red Roses ; of theatric Neri and Bianchi; but it is a solemn battle between Right and Wrong, between Good and Evil. . . Grander debate has iPreston S.Brooks died in Washington, January 27, 1857; Andrew P. Butler died in South Carolina, May 25, 1857. CONGEESSIONAL RUFFIANISM 57 not occurred in our history, rarely in any history ; chap. hi. nor can this debate close or subside except with the triumph of Freedom." With this speech Sumner resumed his place as a conspicuous figure and an indefatigable energy in national politics and legislation, tireless in attacking and pursuing slavery until its final overthrow. CHAPTER IV THE DEED SCOTT DECISION Chap. IV. "THvEEP and widespread as hitherto had been the 1854. _3_J slavery agitation created by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and by the consequent civil war in Kansas, an event entirely unexpected to the public at large suddenly doubled its intensity. This was the announcement, two days after Buchanan's inauguration, of the decision of the 1857. ' Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott case. This celebrated case had arisen as follows ; Two or three years before the Nebraska bill was thought of, a suit was begun by a negro named Dred Scott, in a local court in St. Louis, Missouri, to recover the freedom of himself and his family from slavery. He alleged that his master, one Dr. Emerson, an army surgeon, living in Missouri, had taken him as his slave to the military post at Rock Island, in the State of Illinois, and afterwards to Fort Snelling, situated in what was originally Upper Louisiana, but was at that time part of Wisconsin Territory, and now forms part of Min- nesota. While at this latter post Dred Scott, with his master's consent, married a colored woman, also brought as a slave from Missouri, and of this mar- 68 THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 59 riage two children were born. All this happened chap. iv. between the years 1834 and 1838. Afterwards Dr. Emerson brought Dred Scott and his family back to Missouri. In this suit they now claimed free- dom, because during the time of residence with their master at these military posts slavery was there prohibited by positive law ; namely, at Rock Island by the ordinance of 1787, and later by the Constitution of Illinois ; at Fort SneUing by the Missouri Compromise acts of 1820, and other acts of Congress relating to Wisconsin Territory. The local court in St. Louis before which this action was brought appears to have made short work of the case. It had become settled legal doctrine by Lord Mansfield's decision in the Som- ersett case, rendered four years before our Decla- ration of Independence, that " the state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only positive law. . . It is so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law." The learned chief-justice therefore ordered that Somersett, being claimed as a Virginia slave brought by his master into England, when it was attempted to carry him away against his will, should be discharged from custody or restraint, because there was no positive law in England to support slavery. The doctrine was subsequently modified by another English chief-justice, Lord Stowell, in 1827, to the effect that absence of posi- tive law to support slavery in England only operates to suspend the master's authority, which is revived if the slave voluntarily returns into an English colony where slavery does exist by positive law. 60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. The States of the Union naturally inherited and retained the common law of England, and the principles and maxims of English jurisprudence not necessarily abrogated by the change of govern- ment, and among others this doctrine of Lord Mansfield. Unlike England, however, where there was no slavery and no law for or against it, some of the American States had positive laws establish- ing slavery, others positive laws prohibiting it. Lord Mansfield's doctrine, therefore, enlarged and strengthened by American statutes and decisions, had come to be substantially this : Slavery, being contrary to natural right, exists only by virtue of local law ; if the master takes his slave for per- manent residence into a jurisdiction where slavery is prohibited, the slave thereby acquu'es a right to his freedom everywhere. On the other hand, Lord Stowell's doctrine was similarly enlarged and strengthened so as to allow the master right of transit and temporary sojourn in free States and Territories without suspension or forfeiture of his authority over his slave. Under the complex American system of government, in which the Federal Union and the several States each claim sovereignty and independent action within certain limitations, it became the theory and practice that towards each other the several States occupied the attitude of foreign nations, which relation was governed by international law, and that the prin- ciple of comity alone controlled the recognition and enforcement by any State of the law of any other State. Under this theory, the courts of slave States had generally accorded freedom to slaves, even when acquired by the laws of a free State, THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 61 and reciprocally the courts of free States had eu- chap. iv. forced the master's right to his slave where that right depended on the laws of a slave State. In this spirit, and conforming to this established usage, the local court of Missouri declared Dred Scott and his family free. The claimant, loath to lose these four human " chattels," carried the case to the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, where at its March term, 1852, it was reversed, and a decree rendered that these negroes were not entitled to freedom. Three judges formed the court, and two of them joined in an opinion bearing internal evidence that it was prompted, not by considerations of law and justice, but by a spirit of retaliation growing out of the ineradicable antagonism of freedom and slavery. Every State [says the opinion] has the right of deter- mining how far, in a spirit of comity, it will respect the laws of other States. Those laws have no intrinsic right to be enforced beyond the limits of the State for which they were enacted. The respect allowed them will de- pend altogether on their conformity to the policy of our institutions. No State is bound to carry into effect en- actments conceived in a spirit hostile to that which per- vades her own laws. . . It is a humiliating spectacle to see the courts of a State confiscating the property of her own citizens by the command of a foreign law. . . Times now are not as they were when the former decisions on this subject were made. Since then not only individuals but States have been possessed with a dark and fell spirit in relation to slavery, whose gratification is sought in the pursuit of measures whose inevitable consequence must be the overthrow and destruction of our Govern- ment. Under such circumstances it does not behoove the State of Missouri to show the least countenance to any measure which might gratify this spirit. She is 62 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. willing to assume her full responsibility for the existence Scott, J., 15 of slavery within her limits, nor does she seek to share port's, pp. or divide it with others. 582-6. Gamble, J., 15 Mo. Re- ports, pp. 589-92. To this partisan bravado the third judge replied with a dignified rebuke ; in his dissenting opinion he said: As citizens of a slave-holding State, we have no right to complain of our neighbors of Illinois, because they introduce into their State Constitution a prohibition of slavery ; nor has any citizen of Missouri who removes with his slave to Illinois a right to complain that the fundamental law of the State to which he removes, and in which he makes his residence, dissolves the relation between him and his slave. It is as much his own vol- untary act as if he had executed a deed of emancipa- tion. . . There is with me nothing in the law relating to slavery which distinguishes it from the law on any other subject, or allows any more accommodation to the tem- porary public excitements which are gathered around it. . . In this State it has been recognized from the beginning of the government, as a correct position in law, that a master who takes his slave to reside in a State or Territory where slavery is prohibited thereby emanci- pates his slave. [Citing cases.] . . . But the Supreme Court of Missouri, so far from standing alone on this question, is supported by the decisions of other slave States, including those in which it may be supposed there was the least disposition to favor emancipation. [Citing cases.] . . . Times may have changed, public feeling may have changed, but principles have not and do not change ; and in my judgment there can be no safe basis for judicial decision but in those principles which are immutable. These utterances, it must be remembered, oc- curred in the year 1852, when all slavery agitation was supposed to have been forever settled. They show conclusively that- the calm was superficial and delusive, and that this deep-reaching contest was still, as before the adjustment of 1850, actually THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 63 transforming the various institutions of society, chap. iv. Grradually, and as yet unnoticed by the public, the motives disclosed in these opinions were beginning to control courts of justice, and popular discussion and excitement were not only shaping legislation, but changing the tenor of legal decisions through- out the country. Not long after the judgment by the Supreme Court of Missouri, Dred Scott and his family were sold to a man named Sandford, who was a citizen of New York. This circumstance afforded a ground for bringing a similar action in a Federal tribunal, and accordingly Dred Scott once more sued for freedom, in the United States Circuit Court at St. Louis.^ The case was tried in May, 1854, and a decree rendered that they "were negro slaves, the lawful property " of Sandford. As a final effort to obtain justice, they appealed by writ of error to the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial tribunal of the nation. Before this court of last resort the case was argued a first time in the spring of 1856. The country had been for two years in a blaze of political excitement. Civil war was raging in Kansas; Congress was in a turmoil of partisan discussion; a Presidential election was impending, and the whole people were anxiously noting the varying phases of party politics. Few persons knew there was such a thing as the Dred Scott 1 The declaration in the case November, 1853. The trespass of Dred Scott vs. John F. A. complained of is alleged to have Sandford was filed in the clerk's occurred on the first day of office of the Circuit Court of the January, 1853. — Manuscript United States for the district of Records of the Supreme Court Missouri on the second day of of the United States. 64 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. case on the docket of the Supreme Court; but those few appreciated the importance of the points it involved, and several distinguished lawyers vol- unteered to take part in the argument.^ Two ques- tions were presented to the court : First, Is Dred Scott a citizen entitled to sue ? Secondly, Did his residence at Rock Island and at Fort Snelling, under the various i:)rohibitions of slavery existing there, work his freedom ? The Supreme Court was composed of nine jus- tices; namely. Chief -Justice Taney and Associate Justices McLean, Wayne, Catron, Daniel, Nelson, Grier, Curtis, and Cami^bell. There was at once manifested among the judges not only a lively interest in the questions presented, but a wide difference of views as to the manner of treating them. Consultations of the Supreme Court are always shrouded in in\dolable secrecy, but the opinions afterwards published indicate that the political aspects of slavery, which were then con- vulsing the country, from the very first found a certain sjTnpathy and reflection in these gi-ave judicial deliberations. The discussions yet turned upon certain merely technical rules to be applied to the pleadings under review; and ostensibly to give time for further examination, the case was * postponed and a re-argument ordered for the next term. It may, however, be suspected that the nearness of the Presidential election had more to lAt the first hearing Mont- George Ticknor Curtis, of Boston, gomery Blair argued the case for argued the case on behalf of Dred Scott, and Senator Geyer, of Dred Scott, and Mr. Geyer and Missouri, and ex-Attomey-Gen- Mr. Johnson again made the eral Eeverdy Johnson, of Marj'- argument for the claimant. All land, for the claimant. At the of them performed the service second hearing Mr. Blair and without compensation. ROGER B. TANEY. THE DRED SCOTT DECISION 65 do with this postponement than did the exigencies chap. iv. of the law.^ The Presidential election came, and Mr. Buchanan was chosen. Soon after, the court met to be- gin its long winter term ; and about the middle of December, 1856, the Dred Scott case was once more elaborately argued. Again occupying the attention of the court for four successive days, as it had also done in the first hearing, the emi- nent counsel, after passing lightly over mere tech- nical subtleties, discussed very fully what was acknowledged to be the leading point in the con- troversy ; namely, whether Congress had power under the Constitution to prohibit slavery in the Federal Territories, as it had done by the Missouri Compromise act and various other laws. It was precisely the policy, or impolicy, of this and similar prohibitions which formed the subject of contention in party politics. The question of their constitu- tional validity was certain to take even a higher rank in public interest. When after the second argument the judges took up the case in conference for decision, the majority held that the judgment of the Missouri Federal tribunal should simply be affirmed on its merits. In conformity to this view. Justice Nelson was instructed to prepare an opinion to be read as the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United ^"The court will not decide bers is the Presidency ; and upon the question of the Missouri this everything done and omitted, Compromise line — a majority of except the most ordinary neces- the judges being of opinion that sitiesof the country, depends." — it is not necessary to do so. [Letter of Justice Curtis to Mr. (This is confidential.) The one Ticknor, April 8, 1856. G. T. engrossing subject in both Houses Curtis, "Life of B. R. Curtis," of Congress and with all the mem- Vol. I., p. ISO.] Vol. II.— 5 66 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. States. Such a paper was thereupon duly -written by him, of the following import: It was a question, he thought, whether a temporary residence in a free State or Territory could work the emancipa- tion of a slave. It was the exclusive province of each State, by its Legislature or courts of justice, to determine this question for itself. This deter- mined, the Federal courts were bound to follow the State's decision. The Supreme Court of Missouri had decided Dred Scott to be a slave. In two cases tried since, the same judgment had been given. Though former decisions had been otherwise, this must now be admitted as " the settled law of the State," which, he said, " is conclusive of the case in this court." This very narrow treatment of the points at issue, having to do with the mere lifeless machin- ery of the law, was strikingly criticised in the dissenting opinion afterwards read by Justice McLean, a part of which, by way of anticipation, may properly be quoted here. He denied that it was exclusively a Missouri question. It involves a right claimed under an act of Congi-ess and the Constitution of Ilhnois, and which cannot be decided without the consideration and construction of those laws. . . Rights sanctioned for twenty-eight years ought not and cannot be repudiated, with any sem- blance of justice, by one or two decisions, influenced, as declared, by a determination to counteract the excitement against slavery in the free States. . . Having the same rights of sovereignty as the State of Missouri in adopting a constitution, I can perceive no reason why the institu- tions of Illinois should not receive the same consideration as those of Missouri. . . The Missouri court disregards the express provisions of an act of Congress and the Con- stitution of a sovereign State, both of which laws for THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 67 twenty-eight years it had not only regarded, but carried chap. iv. into effect. If a State court may do this, on a question involving the liberty of a human being, what protection pp. 5*55-^4.' do the laws afford ? Had the majority of the judges carried out their original intention, and announced their decision toxyS in the form in which Justice Nelson, under their xyieiv^Life instruction, wrote it, the case of Dred Scott would, pp. '383-4. after a passing notice, have gone to a quiet sleep under the dust of the law libraries. A far different fate was in store for it. The nation was then being stirred to its very foundation by the slavery agita- tion. The party of pro-slavery reaction was for the moment in the ascendant; and as by an irresistible impulse, the Supreme Court of the United States was swept from its hitherto impartial judicial moorings into the dangerous seas of politics. Before Judge Nelson's opinion was submitted to the judges in conference for final adoption as the judgment of the court a movement seems to have taken place among the members, not only to change the ground of the decision, but also greatly to enlarge the field of inquiry. It is stated by one of the participants in that memorable trans- action (Justice CampbeU) that this occurred " upon a motion of Mr. Justice Wayne, who stated that the case had created public interest and expecta- tion, that it had been twice argued, and that au impression existed that the questions argued would be considered in the opinion of the court." He further says that " the apprehension had been ex- pressed by others of the court, that the court would not fulfill public expectation or discharge its duties by maintaining silence upon these questions; and 68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. my impressioii is, that several opinions had ah-eady been begun among the members of the com*t, in to Tyler, which a tull discussion 01 the case was made, Tyler, . p. 384.' before Justice "Wayne made this proposal." The exact time when this movement was begun cannot now be ascertained. The motives which prompted it can be inferred by recalling contem- poraneous political events. A great controversy divided public opinion, whether slavery might be extended or should be restricted. The Missouri Compromise had been repealed to make such an extension possible. The terms of that repeal were purposely couched in ambiguous language. Kan- sas and Nebraska were left "perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." Whether under the Constitution slavery could be excluded from the Federal Territories was affirmed by Northern and denied by Southern Democrats. Northern and Southern Democrats, acting together in the Cincinnati National Conven- tion, had ingeniously avoided any solution of this difference. A twofold interpretation had enabled that party to elect Mr. Buchanan, not by its own popular strength, but by the division of its opponents. Notwithstanding its momentary success, unless it could develop new sources of strength the party had only a precarious hold upon power. Its ma- jority in the Senate was waning. In Kansas free- State emigration was outstripping the South in numbers and checkmating her in border strife. According to the existing relative growth in sec- tional representation and sectional sentiment, the THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 69 balance of power was slowly but steadily passing chap. iv. to the North. Out of this doubt and difficulty there was one pathway that seemed easy and certain. All the individual utterances from the Democratic party agreed that the meaning of the words " subject to the Constitution " was a question for the courts. This was the original compact between Northern and Southern Democrats in caucus when Douglas consented to repeal. Douglas, shorn of his prestige by his defeat for the Presidential nomination, must accept conditions from his successful rival. The Dred Scott case afforded the occasion for a deci- sion. Of the nine judges on the Supreme Bench seven were Democrats, and of these five were ap- pointed from slave States. A better opportunity for the South to obtain a favorable dictum could never be expected to arise. A declaration by the Supreme Court of the United States that under the Constitution Congress possessed no power to prohibit slavery in the Federal Territories would by a single breath end the old and begin a new political era. Congress was in session and the political leaders were assembled at Washington. Political topics excluded all other conversation or thought. Politics reddened the plains of Kansas ; politics had recently desecrated the Senate chamber with a murderous personal assault ; politics con- tended greedily for the spoils of a new administra- tion ; politics nursed a tacit conspiracy to nation- alize slavery. The slavery sentiment ruled society, ruled the Senate, ruled the Executive Mansion. It is not surprising that this universal influence flowed in at the open door of the national hall of 70 ABKAHAM LINCOLN CHAp.rv. justice — that it filtered through the very walls which surrounded the consulting-room of the Supreme Court. The judges were, after all, but men. They dined, they talked, they exchanged daily personal and social coui'tesies with the political world. Curi- osity, friendship, patriotism, led them to the floors of Congress to listen to the great debates. Official ceremony called them into the presence of the President, of legislators, of diplomats. They were feasted, flattered, questioned, reminded of their great opportunity, tempted with the suggestion of their supreme authority.^ They could render their names illustrious. They could honor their States. They could do justice to the South. They could perpetuate their party. They could settle the slav- ery question. They could end sectional hatred, ex- ting-uish civil war, preserve the Union, save their country. Advanced age, physical feebleness, party bias, the political ardor of the youngest and the satiety of the eldest, all conspired to draw them under the insidious influence of such considera- tions. One of the judges in official language 1 A striking example may be carnate mind of the political found in the utterance of At- body of the nation. In the com- torney-General Caleb Gushing, of plex institutions of our country the retiring Pierce Administra- you are the pivot point upon tion, in a little parting address which the rights and liberties of to the Supreme Court, March 4, all, government and people alike, 1857 : turn ; or, rather, you are the "Yours is not the gauntleted central light of constitutional hand of the soldier, nor yours the wisdom around which they per- voiee which commands armies, petually revolve. Long may this rules cabinets, or leads senates ; court retain the confidence of our but though you are none of country as the great conservators, these, yet you are backed by not of the private peace only, but all of them. Theirs is the ex- of the sanctity and integi-ity of the ternal power which sustains your Constitution." — " National Intel- moral authority ; you are the in- ligencer,"March 5, 1857. THE DRED SCOTT DECISION 71 Wayne, J., Opinion iu tlie Dred Scott case, 19 Howard, pp. 454-5. frankly avowed the motive and object of the chap.iv. majority of the court. " The case," he wrote, " in- volves private rights of value, and constitutional principles of the highest importance, about which there had become such a difference of opinion that the peace and harmony of the country required the settlement of them by judicial decision." This language betrays the confusion of ideas and mis- conception of authority which tempted the judges beyond their proper duty. Required only to de- cide a question of private rights, they thrust them- selves forward to sit as umpires in a quarrel of parties and factions. In an evil hour they yielded to the demands of " public interest," and resolved to " fulfill public expectation." Justice Wayne " proposed that the Chief-Justice should write an opinion on all of the questions as the opinion of the court. This was assented to, some reserving to themselves to qualify their assent as the opinion might require. Others of the court proposed to have no question, save one, discussed." The extraordinary proceed- ing was calculated to touch the pride of Justice Nelson. He appears to have given it a kind of sullen acquiescence. " I was not present," he wrote, " when the majority decided to change the gi'ound of the decision, and assigned the preparation of the opinion to the Chief -Justice ; and when advised of the change I simply gave notice that I should read the opinion I had prepared as my own, and which is the one on file." From this time the pens of other judges were busy, and in the inner political circles of Washington the case of Dred Scott gradually became a shadowy and portentous cause celehre. Campbell to Tyler, Tyler, p. 384. Nelson to Tyler. Tyler, p. 385. 72 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. The first intimation which the public at large had of the coming new dictum was given in Mr. Buchanan's inaugural. The fact that he did not contemplate such an announcement until after his arrival in Washington^ leads to the inference that it was prompted from high quarters. In Congres- sional and popular discussions the question of the moment was at what period in the growth of a Territory its voters might exclude or establish slav- ery. Referring to this Mr. Buchanan said : "It is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their decision, in common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, whatever this may be." The popular acquiescence being thus invoked by the Presidential voice and example, the court an- nounced its decision two days afterwards — March 6, 1857. The essential character of the transaction impressed itself upon the very form of the judg- ment, if indeed it may be called at all by that name. Chief-Justice Taney read the opinion of the court. Justices Nelson, Wayne, Daniel, Grier, Catron, and Campbell each read a separate and individual opin- ion, agreeing with the Chief -Justice on some points, and omitting or disagreeing on others, or arriving 1 "Mr. Buchanan was also pre- question then pending in the Su- paring his inaugural address with preme Court, as one that would his usual care and painstaking, dispose of a vexed and dangerous and I copied his drafts and re- topic by the highest judicial au- eopied them until he had pre- thority of the land." — Statement pared it to his satisfaction. It of James Buchanan Henry (Pres- underwent no alteration after he' ident Buchanan's private seere- went to the National Hotel in tary) in the ''Life of James Bueh- Washington, except that he there anan," by George Ticknor Curtis, inserted a clause in regard to the Vol. H., p. 187. THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 73 at the same result by different reasoning, and in chap. iv. the same manner differing one from another. The two remaining associate justices, McLean and Cur- tis, read emphatic dissenting opinions. Thus the collective utterance of the bench resembled the speeches of a town meeting rather than the de- cision of a court, and employed 240 printed pages of learned legal disquisition to order the simple dismissal of a suit. The opinion read by Chief- Justice Taney was long and elaborate, and the fol- lowing were among its leading conclusions : That the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States do not include nor refer to negroes otherwise than as property; that they cannot become citizens of the United States nor sue in the Federal courts. That Dred Scott's claim to freedom by reason of his residence in Illinois was a Missouri question, which Missouri law had decided against him. That the Consti- tution of the United States recognizes slaves as property, and pledges the Federal Grovernment to protect it ; and that the Missouri Compromise act and like prohibitory laws are unconstitutional. That the Circuit Court of the United States had no jurisdiction in the case and could give no judg- ment in it, and must be directed to dismiss the suit. This remarkable decision challenged the atten- tion of the whole people to a degree never before excited by any act of their courts of law. Multi- plied editions were at once printed,^ scattered l"It may not be improper for sustained and understood in the me here to add that so great an Commonwealth of Kentucky, that interest did I take in that deei- I took the trouble at my own cost sion, and in its principles being to print or have printed a large 74 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. bi'oadcast over the land, read with the gi'eatest avidity, and earnestly criticised. The public sentiment regarding it immediately divided, generally on existing party lines — the South and the Democrats accepting and commend- ing, the North and the Eepublicans spurning and condemning it. The great antislavery public was not slow in making a practical application of its dogmas : that a sweeping and revolutionary expo- sition of the Constitution had been attempted when confessedly the case and question had no right to be in court ; that an evident partisan dictum of national judges had been built on an avowed partisan decision of State judges; that both the legislative and judicial authority of the nation had been trifled with; that the settler's " sovereignty " in Kansas consisted only of a Southern planter's right to bring his slaves there ; and that if under the " property " theory the Con- stitution carries slavery to the Territories, it would by the same inevitable logic carry it into free States. But much more offensive to the Northern mind than his conclusions of law were the language and historical assertions by which Chief -Justice Taney strove to justify them. In the opinion of the court [said he] the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had heen imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were edition of that decision to scatter Legislature who has not received it over the State ; and unless the a copy 'with my frank." — Vice- mails have miscarried, there is President Breckinridge, Frank- scareely a member elected to the fort Speech, December, 1859. THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 75 19 Howard, p. 407. then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended chap, iv to be included in the general words used in that memor- able instrument. It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate race which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted. But the public history of every European nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken. They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations ; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect ; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. Quoting the provisions of several early slave codes, he continued : They show that a perpetual and impassable barrier was intended to be erected between the white race and the one which they had reduced to slavery and governed as subjects with absolute and despotic power, and which they then looked upon as so far below them in the scale of created beings that intermarriages between white persons and negroes or mulattoes were regarded as un- natural and immoral, and punished as crimes, not only in the parties, but in the person who joined them in marriage. And no distinction in this respect was made ibid., p. 409. between the free negro or mulatto and the slave, but this stigma, of the deepest degradation, was fixed upon the whole race. Referring to the phrase in the Declaration of In- dependence, which asserts that all men are created equal, he remarked : The general words above quoted would seem to em- brace the whole human famUy, and if they were used in a similar instrument at this day would be so understood. 19 Howard, 76 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. But it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this decla- ration ; for if the language, as understood in that day, would embrace them, the conduct of the distinguished men who framed the Declaration of Independence would have been utterly and flagrantly inconsistent with the principles they asserted, and instead of the sympathy of p. 410. ' mankind, to which they so confidently appealed, they would have deserved and received universal rebuke and reprobation. He then applied the facts thus assumed as fol- lows: The only two provisions which point to them and include them treat them as property, and make it the duty of the Government to protect it ; no other power in relation to this race is to be found in the Constitution. . . . No one, we presume, supposes that any change in public opinion or feeling in relation to this unfortunate race, in the civilized nations of Europe or in this country, should induce the court to give to the words of the Con- stitution a more liberal construction in their favor than they were intended to bear when the instrument was framed and adopted. . . It is not only the same in words, but the same in meaning, and delegates the same powers to the Government, and reserves and secures the same rights and privileges to the citizen ; and as long as it continues to exist in its present form, it speaks not only in the same words but with the same meaning and pp. 425-6. intent with which it spoke when it came from the hands of its framers and was voted on and adopted by the people of the United States. This cold aud pitiless historical delineation of the bondage, ignorance, and degradation of the un- fortunate kidnaped Africans and their descend- ants in a by-gone century, as an immutable basis of constitutional interpretation, was met by loud and indignant protest from the North. The people and press of that section seized upon the salient Ibid. THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 77 phrase of the statement, and applying it in the chap. iv. present tense, accused the Chief-Justice with say- ing that " a negro has no rights which a white man is bound to respect." This was certainly a distor- tion of his exact words and meaning; yet the exaggeration was more than half excusable, in view of the literal and unbending rigor with which he proclaimed the constitutional disability of the entire African race in the United States, and denied their birthright in the Declaration of In- dependence. His unmerciful logic made the black before the law less than a slave ; it reduced him to the status of a horse or dog, a bale of diy-goods or a block of stone. Against such a debasement of any living image of the Divine Maker the resent- ment of the public conscience of the North was quick and unsparing. Had Chief -Justice Taney's delineation been his- torically correct, it would have been neverthe- less unwise and unchristian to embody it in the form of a disqualifying legal sentence and an indelible political brand. But its manifest untruth was clearly shown by Justice Curtis in his dis- senting opinion. He reminded the Chief-Justice that at the adoption of the Constitution : In five of the thirteen original States colored persons then possessed the elective franchise, and were among those by whom the Constitution was ordained and estab- lished. If so, it is not true in point of fact that the Con- stitution was made exclusively by the white race, and that it was made exclusively for the white race is in my opinion not only an assumption not warranted by any- thing in the Constitution, but contradicted by its open- ing declaration that it was ordained and established by the people of the United States for themselves and their 78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. 19 Howard, p. 582. Ibid., pp. 574-5. posterity ; and as free colored persons were then citizens of at least five States, and so in every sense part of the people of the United States, they were among those for whom and whose posterity the Constitution was ordained and established. Elsewhere in the same opinion he said : I shall not enter into an examination of the existing opinions of that period respecting the African race, nor into any discussion concerning the meaning of those who asserted in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. My own opinion is, that a calm comparison of these asser- tions of universal abstract truths, and of their own individual opinions and acts, would not leave these men under any reproach of inconsistency ; that the great truths they asserted on that solemn occasion they were ready and anxious to make effectual, wherever a neces- sary regard to circumstances, which no statesman can disregard without producing more evil than good, would allow ; and that it would not be just to them, nor true in itself, to allege that they intended to say that the Creator of all men had endowed the white race exclusively with the great natural rights which the Declaration of In- dependence asserts. Justice McLean, in his dissenting opinion, completed the outline of the true historical picture in accui'ate language : I prefer the lights of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, as a means of construing the Constitution in all its bearings, rather than to look behind that period into a traffic which is now declared to be piracy, and punished with death by Christian nations. I do not hke to draw the sources of our domestic relations from so dark a ground. Our inde- pendence was a great epoch in the history of freedom ; and while I admit the Grovernment was not made espe- cially for the colored race, yet many of them were citi- zens of the New England States, and exercised the rights THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 79 of suffrage when the Coustitution was adopted, and it was not doubted by any intelligent person that its ten- dencies would greatly ameliorate their condition. Many of the States on the adoption of the Consti- tution, or shortly afterwards, took measures to abolish slavery within their respective jurisdictions; and it is a well-known fact that a belief was cherished by the lead- ing men. South as well as North, that the institution of slavery would gradually decline until it would become extinct. The increased value of slave labor, in the culture of cotton and sugar, prevented the realization of this ex- pectation. Like all other communities and States, the South were influenced by what they considered to be their own interests. But if we are to turn our attention to the dark ages of the world, why confine our view to colored slavery ? On the same principles white men were made slaves. All slavery has its origin in power and is against right. To the constitutional theory advanced by tlie Chief-Justice, that Congress cannot exercise sov- ereign powers over Federal Territories, and hence cannot exclude slave property from them. Justices McLean and Curtis also opposed a vigorous and exhaustive argument, which the most eminent law- yers and statesmen of that day deemed conclusive. The historical precedents alone ought to have de- termined the issue. "The judicial mind of this country. State and Federal," said McLean, "has agreed on no subject within its legitimate action with equal unanimity as on the power of Congress to establish Territorial governments. No court, State or Federal, no judge or statesman, is known to have had any doubts on this question for nearly sixty years after the power was exercised." And Curtis added : " Here are eight distinct in- stances, beginning with the first Congress, and coming down to the year 1848, in which Congress Chap. IV. 19 Howard, pp. 537-8. 80 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IV. has Gxcluded slavery from the territory of the United States ; and six distinct instances in which Congress organized governments of Territories by which slavery was recognized and continued, be- ginning also with the first Congress, and coming down to the year 1822. These acts were severally signed by seven Presidents of the United States, beginning with General Washington, and coming regularly down as far as Mr. John Quincy Adams, thus including all who were in public life when the Constitution was adopted. If the practical con- struction of the Constitution, contemporaneously with its going into effect, by men intimately ac- quainted with its history from their personal par- ticipation in framing and adopting it, and continued by them through a long series of acts of the gravest importance, be entitled to weight in the judicial „ ^ mind on a question of construction, it would seem 19 Howard, ^ ' p. 619. to be difficult to resist the force of the acts above adverted to." '^>WV SAMUEL NELSON. CHAPTER Y DOUGLAS AND LENCOLlN ON DRED SCOTT MANIFESTLY, when the educated intellects chap. v. of the learned judges differed so radically concerning the principles of law and the facts of history applicable to the Dred Scott question, the public at large could hardly be expected to receive the new dogmas without similar divergence of opin- ion. So far from exercising a healing influence, the decision widened immensely the already seri- ous breach between the North and the South. The persons immediately involved in the litiga- tion were quickly lost sight of ; ^ but the constitu- tional principle affirmed by the court was defended by the South and denounced by the North with zeal and acrimony. The Republican party did not further question or propose to disturb the final judgment in the case; but it declared that the Dred Scott doctrines of the Supreme Court should not be made a rule of political action, and precisely 1 The ownership of Dred Scott Union," shows the action of the and his family passed by inherit- new owner: " St. Louis, May 26 ance to the family of a Massachu- [1857]. Dred Scott with his wife setts Republican member of Con- and two daughters were emanci- gress. The following telegi-am, patedto-daybyTaylor Blow, Esq. copied from the "Providence They had been conveyed to him Post" into the "Washington by Mr. Chaffee for that purpose." YOL. II.— 6 81 82 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. V. this the Soutb, together with the bulk of the Northern Democrats, insisted should be done. A single phase of the controversy will serve to illustrate the general drift of the discussion throughout the Union. Some three months after the delivery of the opinion of the court, Senator Douglas found himself again among his constitu- ents in Illinois, and although there was no polit- ical campaign in progress, current events and the roused state of public feeling seemed to require that he should define his views in a public speech. It marks his acuteness as a politician that he al- ready realized what a fatal stab the Dred Scott decision had given his vaunted principle of " Pop- ular Sovereignty," with which he justified his fa- mous repeal of the Missouri Compromise. He had ever since argued that Congressional prohibition of slavery was obsolete and useless, and that the choice of slavery or freedom ought to be confided to the local Territorial laws, just as it was confided to local State constitutions. But the Dred Scott decision announced that slaves were property which Congi'ess could not exclude from the Territories, adding also the inevitable conclusion that what Congress could not do a Territorial Legislature 19 Howard, i -i , pp. 450-1. could not. Difficult as this made his task of reconciling his favorite theory with the Dred Scott decision, such was his political boldness, and such had been his skill and success in sophistry, that he undertook even this hopeless effort. Douglas, therefore, made a speech at Springfield, Illinois, on the 12th of June, 1857, in which he broadly and fully indorsed and commended the opinion of Chief-Justice Taney DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN ON DEED SCOTT 83 and his concurring associates, declaring that "Their judicial decisions will stand in all future time, a proud monument to then* greatness, the admiration of the good and wise, and a rebuke to the partisans of faction and lawless violence. If unfortunately any considerable portion of the people of the United States shall so far forget their obligations to society as to allow the partisan leaders to array them in violent resistance to the final decision of the highest judicial tribunal on earth, it will become the duty of all the friends of order and constitutional government, without reference to past political differences, to organize themselves and marshal their forces under the glorious banner of the Union, in vindication of the Constitution and supremacy of the laws over the advocates of faction and the champions of violence." Proceeding then with a statement of the case, he continued: "The material and controlling points in the case, those which have been made the sub- ject of unmeasured abuse and denunciation, may be thus stated: 1st. The court decided that under the Constitution of the United States, a negro descended from slave parents is not and cannot be a citizen of the United States. 2d. That the act of March 6, 1820, commonly called the Missouri Compromise act, was unconstitutional and void before it was repealed by the Nebraska act, and consequently did not and could not have the legal effect of ex- tinguishing a master's right to his slave in that Territory, While the right continues in full force under the guarantees of the Constitution, and can- not be divested or alienated by an act of Congress, it necessarily remains a barren and a worthless Chap. Y. 84 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. V. right, uiiless 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 pre- scribed by the local legislatures. Hence the great principle of popular sovereignty and self-govern- ment is sustained and firmly established by the authority of this decision." It is scarcely possible that Douglas convinced himself by such a glaring non sequitur ; but he had no other alternative. It was a desperate ex- pedient to shield himself as well as he might from the damaging recoil of his own temporizing statesmanship. The declaration made thus early is worthy of historical notice as being the sub- stance and groundwork of the speaker's famous " Freeport doctrine," or theory of " unfriendly leg- islation," to which Lincoln's searching interroga- tories drove him in the great Lincoln-Douglas debates of the following year. Repeated and amplified at that time, it became in the eyes of the South the unpardonable political heresy which lost him the Presidential nomination and caused the rupture of the Democratic National Conven- tion at Charleston in the summer of 1860. For the moment, however, the sophism doubtless satisfied his many warm partisans. He did not dwell on the dangerous point, but trusted for oratorical effect rather to his renewed appeals to the popular prejudice against the blacks, so strong in central Illinois, indorsing and emphasizing Chief-Justice Taney's assertion that negroes were not included DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN ON DRED SCOTT 85 in the words of the Declaration of Independence, chap. v. and arguing that if the principle of equality were admitted and carried out to its logical results, it would necessarily lead not only to the abolition of slavery in the slave States, but to the general amalgamation of the two races. The Republican party of Illinois had been greatly encouraged and strengthened by its success in electing the State officers in the previous autumn; and as their recognized leader and champion, Lin- coln made a reply to this speech some two weeks later, June 26, 1857, also at Springfield. Though embracing other topics, the question of the horn-, the Dred Scott decision, was nevertheless its chief subject. The extracts here presented from it wiU give the reader some idea of its power of statement and eloquence : And now [said Mr. Lincoln] as to the Dred Scott deci- sion. 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 im- prove on McLean and Curtis, than he could on Taney. He denounces all who question the correctness of that decision, as offering violent resistance to it. But who resists it ? Who has, in spite of the decision, declared Dred Scott free, and resisted the authority of his master over him ? Judicial decisions have two uses — first, to absolutely determine the case decided, and, secondly, to indicate to the public how other similar cases will be decided when they arise. For the latter use they are called " precedents " and " authorities." We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in obedience to and respect for the judicial department of government. 86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. V. We think its decisions on constitutional questions, when fully settled, should control, not only the particular cases decided, but the general policy of the country, subject to be disturbed only by amendments of the Constitution as provided in that instrument itself. More than this would be revolution. But we think the Dred Scott decision is 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. Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as prec- edents according to circumstances. That this should be so, accords both with common sense and the customary understanding of the legal profession. 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 his- torical facts which are not really true 5 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 resist- ance, it is not factious, it is not even disrespectful, to treat it as not having yet quite established a settled doc- trine for the country. Rising above all questions of technical construc- tion to the broad and universal aspects of the issue, Mr. Lincoln continued : 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 ; and their ultimate destiny has never appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four years. In two of the five States DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN ON DEED SCOTT 87 — New Jersey and North Carolina — that then gave the chap. v. free negro the right of voting, the right has since been taken away; and in a 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 num- ber 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 re- straints have been made upon emancipation as to amount almost to prohibition. In those days, legislatures held the unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their re- spective 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 diiferent men, and they scattered to a hundred different and distant places ; and they stand musing as to what invention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to make the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is. . . There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people at the idea of an indiscriminate amalgama- tion of the white and black races ; and Judge Douglas evidently is basing his chief hope upon the chances of 88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. V. his being able to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. If he can by much drumming and repeating fasten the odium of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle through the storm. He therefore clings to this hope as a drowning man to the last plank. He makes an occasion for lugging it in, from the opposi- tion to the Dred Scott decision. He finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of Independence includes all men, black as well as white, and forthwith he boldly denies that it includes negroes at all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all who contend it does, do so only because they want to vote, and eat, and sleep, and marry with negroes. He will have it that they cannot be con- sistent else. Now I protest against the counterfeit logic which concludes that because I do not want a black woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal ; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands, without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal and the equal of all others. Chief-Justice Tane}^, in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, admits that the language of the Declaration is broad enough to include the whole human family ; but he and Judge Douglas argue that the authors of that instrument did not intend to include negroes, by the fact that they did not at once actually place them on an equality with the whites. Now this grave argument comes to just nothing at all by the other fact that they did not at once or ever afterwards actually place all white people on an equality with one another. And this is the staple argu- ment of both the Chief -Justice and the Senator, for doing this obvious violence to the plain, unmistakable language of the Declaration. I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men ; but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what respects they did consider all men created equal — equal with "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This they DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN ON DEED SCOTT 89 said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert chap. v. the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all ; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spread- ing and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere. The assertion that "all men are created equal " was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain ; and it was placed in the Declaration, not for that but for future use. Its authors meant it to be, as, thank God, it is now proving itseK, a stumbling- block to all those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant when such should reappear in this fair land and commence their vocation, they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack. CHAPTEE VI THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION Chap. VI. HpHE year 1857 brings us to a decided change in J- the affairs of Kansas, but with occuiTcnces no less remarkable. Active civil war gi'adually ceased in the preceding autumn — a result due to the vigorous and impartial administration of Governor Geary and the arrival of the inclement winter weather. On the evening of the day the Legislature met (January 12, 1857), the pro-slavery party held a large political convention, in which it was con- fessed that they were in a hopeless minority in the Territory, and the general conclusion was reached that it was no longer worth while to at- tempt to form a slave State in Kansas.^ Many of its hitherto active leaders immediately and defi- nitely abandoned the struggle. But the Missouri cabal, intrenched in the various territorial and Gearrto couuty officcs, held to their design, though their ^\l^lsi^''^^ labors now assumed a somewhat different char- DorNo^f?, acter. They denounced Governor Geary in their 35thco^ng. resolutions, and devised legislation to further their p.131."' intrigues. By the middle of February, under 1 January 12, 1857, Wilder, p. 113. Bell, Speech in Senate, March 18, 1858. Appendix "Globe," p. 137. 90 THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 91 their inspiration, a bill providing for a convention chap. vi. to frame a State constitution was perfected and enacted. The Governor immediately sent the Leg- islature his message, reminding them that the lead- ing idea of the organic act was to leave the actual bond fide inhabitants of the Territory "perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way," and vetoing the bill because " the y^^^^^g. Legislature has failed to make any provision to ^iffig^T."' submit the constitution when framed to the con- Docl^No^f?, sideration of the people for their ratification or 35th cong. rejection." The Governor's argument was wasted p. "le?."' on the predetermined legislators. They promptly passed the act over his veto. The cabal was in no mood to be thwarted, and under a show of outward toleration, if not respect, their deep hostility found such means of making itself felt that the Governor began to receive insult from street ruffians, and to become apprehensive for his personal safety. In such a contest he was single-handed against the whole pro-slavery town of Lecompton. The foundation of his authority was gradually sapped; and finding himself no longer sustained at Washington, where the private appeals and denunciations of the cabal were more influential than his official reports, he wrote his resignation on the day of Buchanan's inauguration, and a week later left the Territory in secrecy as a fugitive. Thus, in less than three years, three suc- cessive Democratic executives had been resisted, disgraced, and overthrown by the political con- spiracy which ruled the Territory; and Kansas had indeed become, in the phraseology of the day, " the graveyard of governors." 92 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. The Kansas imbroglio was a political scandal of such large proportions, and so clearly threatened a dangerous schism in the Democratic party, that the new President, Buchanan, and his new Cabinet, proceeded to its treatment with the utmost cau- tion. The subject was fraught with difficulties not of easy solution. The South, to retain her polit- ical supremacy, or even her equality, needed more slave States to fui'nish additional votes in the United States Senate. To make a slave State of Kansas, the Missouri Compromise had been re- pealed, and a bogus legislature elected and sup- ported by the successive Missouri invasions and the guerrilla war of 1856. All these devices had, however, confessedly failed of their object. North- ern emigration and antislavery sentiment were clearly in possession of Kansas, and a majority of voters stood ready upon fair occasion to place her in the column of free States. It had become a game on the chess-board of national politics. The moving pieces stood in Missouri and Kansas, but the players sat in Washington. In reality it was a double game. There was plot and under-plot. Beneath the struggle between the free States and the slave States were the intrigue and deception carried on between Northern Democrats and South- ern Democrats. The Kansas-Nebraska act was a double-tongued statute, and the Cincinnati plat- form a Janus-faced banner. Momentary victory was with the Southern Democrats, for they had secured the nomination and election of President Buchanan — "a Northern man with Southern principles." Determined to secure whatever prestige could THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 93 be derived from high qualification and party in- chap.vi. fluence, Buchanan tendered the vacant governor- ship of Kansas to his intimate jjersonal and political friend, Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, a man of great ability and national fame, who had been Senator and Secretary of the Treasury. Walker, realizing fully the responsibility and danger of the trust, after repeated refusals finally accepted upon two distinct conditions : first, that General Harney ^'??'*' -1"^^ ' •^ 15, 1857. should be " put in special command in Kansas with Do"c^N(f f; a large body of troops, and especially of di-agoons 35th cong- and a battery," and retained there subject to his v.k.'' military directions until the danger was over ; and second, that he "should advocate the submission of the constitution to the vote of the people for cle^Dec. ratification or rejection." ibid!,p!i22. This latter had now become a vital point in the political game. The recent action of the Terri- torial Legislature and Greary's already mentioned veto message were before the President and his Cabinet.^ But much more important than these moves in Kansas was the prior determination of prominent Washington players. During the Kansas civil war and the Presidential campaign of the pre- vious year, by way of offset to the Topeka Consti- ^lUe. ^' tution, both Senator Douglas and Senator Toombs '^'wse^.^' wrote and introduced in the Senate bills to enable Kansas to form a State constitution. The first by design, and the second by accident, contained a clause to submit such constitution, when formed, to a vote of the people. Both these bills were con- sidered not only by the Senate Committee on Terri- 1 Geary to Marey, Feb. 21, 1857, Senate Ex. Doc. No. 17, 1st Sess. 35th Cong. Vol. VI., p. 178. 94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. tories, of wMcli Douglas was chairman, but also by a caucus of Democratic Senators. Said Senator Bigler : " It was held, by those most intelligent on the subject, that in view of all the difficulties sur- rounding that Territory, [and] the danger of any experiment at that time of a popular vote, it would be better that there should be no such provision in the Toombs bill ; and it was my understanding, in all the intercourse I had, that that convention would make a constitution and send it here without sub- mitting it to the popular vote." ^ This Toombs bill was, after modification in other respects, adopted by Douglas, and duly passed by the Senate ; but the House with an opposition majority refused its assent. All these prelimi- naries were well known to the Buchanan Cabinet, and of course also to Douglas. It is fan' to assume that under such circumstances Walker's emphatic stipulation was deliberately and thoroughly dis- cussed. Indeed, extraordinary urging had been Douglas, necessary to induce him to reconsider his early Milwaukee i? i tv i n • • i • j.i t • Speech, reiusals. Douglas personally joined m the soliei- 1860. ' tation. Because of the determined opposition of his own family, Walker had promised his wife that he would not go to Kansas without her consent; and President Buchanan was so anxious on the point that he personally called on Mrs. Walker and persuaded her to waive her objections.'"^ Under influences like these Walker finally accepted the appointment, and the President and Cabinet ac- quiesced in his conditions without reserve. He 1 Bigler, Senate Speech, Dec. 2 Walker, Testimony before the 9,1857. "Globe," p. 21. See Covode Committee. Keports of also Bigler, Dec. 21, 1857. Committees H. R. 1st Sess. 36th "Globe," p. 113. Cong. Vol. V., pp. 105-6. THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 95 wrote his inaugural address iu Washington, using the following language : "I repeat then as my clear conviction that unless the convention submit the constitution to the vote of the actual resident set- tlers, and the election be fairly and justly con- ducted, the constitution will be and ought to be rejected by Congress." He submitted this draft of his inaugural to Presi- dent Buchanan, who read and approved the docu- ment and the promise. Secretary Cass wrote his official instructions in accordance with it. On Walker's journey West he stopped at Chicago and submitted his inaugural to Douglas, who also in- dorsed his policy. The new Governor fondly be- lieved he had removed every obstacle to success, and every possibility of misunderstanding or dis- approval by the Administration, such as had be- fallen his predecessors. But President Buchanan either deceived him at the beginning, or betrayed him in the end. With Grovernor Walker there was sent a new Territorial secretary. Woodson, who had so often abused his powers during his repeated service as acting Grovernor, was promoted to a more lucrative post to create the vacancy. Frederick P. Stanton, of Tennessee, formerly a representative in Con- gress, a man of talent and, as the event proved, also a man of courage, was made secretary. Both Walker and Stanton being from slave States, it may be presumed that the slavery question was considered safe in their hands. Walker, indeed, entertained sentiments more valuable to the South in this conjuncture. He believed in the balance of power; he preferred that the people of Kansas Chap. VI. Douglas, Milwaukee Speech, October 13, 1860. 96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. Walker. Testimony, Covocle Committee Report, p. 109. Walker to Buchanan, June 28, 1857. Ibid., p. 115. Walker, Testimony. Ibid., p. 107. should make it a slave State ; lie was " in favor of maintaining the equilibrium of the Government by giving the South a majority in the Senate, while the North would always necessarily have a ma- jority in the House of Representatives." Both also entered on their mission with the feelings en- tertained by the President and Democratic party ; namely, that the free-State men were a mischievous insurrectionary faction, willfully disturbing the peace and defying the laws. Gradually, however, their personal observation convinced them that this view was a profound error. Governor Walker arrived in the Territory late in May, and it required but short investigation to satisfy him that any idea of making Kansas a slave State was utterly preposterous. Had every- thing else been propitious, climate alone seemed to render it impossible. But popular sentiment was also overwhelmingly against it ; he estimated that the voters were for a free State more than two to one. All the efforts of the pro-slavery party to form a slave State seemed to be finally abandoned. If he could not make Kansas a slave State, his next desire was to make her a Democratic State. "And the only plan to accomplish this was to unite the free-State Democrats with the pro-slavery party, and all those whom I regarded as conserva- tive men, against the more violent portion of the Republicans." He, therefore, sought by fair words to induce the free-State men to take part in the election of delegates to the constitutional conven- tion. His inaugural address, quoting the Presi- dent's instructions, promised that such election should be free from fraud and violence ; that the illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllillllllliiHllliililliilliliillll^^ ROBERT J, WALKER. THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 97 delegates should be protected in their delibera- chap. vi. tions ; and that if unsatisfactory, " you may by a j^'j^lu^rai subsequent vote defeat the ratification of the con- iss^.'senate ±•1 !• fi Ex.Doc.No. StltutlOn." 8, 1st Sess. This same policy was a few weeks later urged at voi.i.,p°n. Topeka, where a mass meeting of the free-State men was called to support and instruct another sitting of the " insurrectionary" free-State Legisla- ture elected under the Topeka Constitution. The Grovernor found a large assemblage, and a very earnest discussion in progress, whether the "Legis- lature" should pursue only nominal action, such as would in substance amount to a petition for redress of grievances, or whether they should actually or- ganize their State government, and pass a complete code of laws. The moderate free-State men favored the former, the violent and radical the latter, course. When their mass meeting adjourned, they called on the Grovernor at his lodgings; he made a speech, in which he renewed the counsels and promises of his inaugural address. " The Leg- islature," said he, " has called a convention to assemble in September next. That constitution they will or they will not submit to the vote of a majority of the then actual resident settlers of Kansas. If they do not submit it, I will join you, fellow-citizens, in lawful opposition to their course, s^^^^h And I cannot doubt, gentlemen, that one much S^in higher than I, the Chief Magistrate of the Union, ton unVoif" will join you in that opposition." His invitation to ^ im. '' them to participate in the election of a convention produced no effect; they still adhered to their resolve to have nothing to do with any affirmative proceedings under the bogus laws or Territorial Vol. II.— 7 98 ABEAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. VI. Legislature. But the Governor's promise of a fair vote on the constitution was received with favor. "Although this mass convention," reports the Gov- ernor, " did not adopt fully my advice to abandon the whole Topeka movement, yet they did vote down by a large majority the resolutions prepared by the more violent of their own party in favor of a complete State organization and the adoption of a code of State laws." If the Governor was gratified at this result as indicative of probable success in his official admin- istration, he rejoiced yet more in its significance as a favorable symptom of party politics. " The result of the whole discussion at Topeka," he re- ported, " was regarded by the friends of law and order as highly favorable to their cause, and as the commencement of a great movement essential to success ; viz., the separation of the free-State Democrats from the Republicans, who had to some extent heretofore cooperated under the name of the free-State party." Another party symptom gave the Governor equal, if not greater, encourage- ment. On the 2d and 3d of July the " National Democratic " or pro-slavery party of the Territory met in convention at Lecompton. The leaders were out in full force. The hopelessness of mak- ing Kansas a slave State was once more acknowl- edged, the Governor's policy indorsed, and a reso- lution " against the submission of the constitution to a vote of the people was laid on the table as a Ibid., p. 29. test vote by forty-two to one." The Governor began already to look upon his counsels and influence as a turning-point in national destiny. " Indeed," he wrote, " it is universally admitted here Walker to Caes, July 15, 1857. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 8, 1st 8ess. 35th Cong. Vol. I., p. 27. THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 99 that the only real question is this : whether Kansas chap. vi. shall be a conservative, constitutional, Democratic, and ultimately free State, or whether it shall be a Republican and abolition State ; and that the course ^gg^ j"uiy pursued by me is the only one which will prevent senateEx. the last most calamitous result, which, in my ist'sees.^' opinion, would soon seal the fate of the republic." voi.i.,p.36. In his eagerness to reform the Democratic party of Kansas, and to strengthen the Democratic party of the nation against the assaults and dangers of " abolitionism," the Governor was not entirely frank; else he would at the same time have re- ported, what he was obliged later to explain, that the steps taken to form a constitution from which he hoped so much were already vitiated by such defects or frauds as to render them impossible of producing good fruit. The Territorial law appoint- ing the election of delegates provided for a census and a registry of voters, to be made by county officers appointed by the Territorial Legislature. These officers so neglected or failed to discharge stfuton's their duty, that in nearly half the organized coun- pMiadSi- ties of the interior no attempt whatever was made Febraary s, to obtain the census or registration; and in the PampMet. counties lying on the Missouri border, where the pro-slavery party was strong, the work of both was exceedingly imperfect, and in many instances with notorious discrimination against free-State voters. While the disfranchised counties had a compara- tively sparse population, the number of voters in them was too considerable to be justly denied their due representation.^ The apportionment of dele- 1" These fifteen counties in a much larger vote at the Octo- which there was no registry gave ber election, even with the six 100 ABEAHAM LINCOLN F. P. Stanton, Speech, Philadel- phia, Februarj' 8, 1858. Chap. VI. gates was based upon this defective registration and census, and this alone would have given the pro- slavery party a disproportionate power in the con- vention. But at the election of delegates on the 15th of June, the free-State men, following their de- liberate purpose and hitherto unvarying practice of non-conformity to the bogus laws, abstained en- tirely from voting. " The consequence was that out of the 9250 voters whose names had been registered . . . there were in all about 2200 votes cast, and of these the successful candidate received 1800." " The black Republicans," reported the Governor, "would not vote, and the free-State Democrats were kept from voting by the fear that the consti- tution would not be submitted by the convention, and that by voting they committed themselves to the proceeding of the convention. But for my inaugural, circulated by thousands, and various speeches all urging the people to vote, there would not have been one thousand votes polled in the Territory, and the convention would have been a disastrous failure." But this was not the only evil. The apportion- ment of the members of the Territorial Legislature to be chosen the ensuing autumn was also based upon this same defective registry and census. Here again disproportionate power accrued to the pro-slavery party, and the free-State men loudly charged that it was a new contrivance for the con- venience of Missouri voters. Governor Walker publicly deplored all these complications and de- months' qualification, than the last." — [Walker to Cass, Decem- whole vote given to the delegates ber 15, 1857. Senate Ex. Doc. who signed the Lecompton Con- No. 8, 1st Sess. 35th Cong. Vol. stitution on the 7th November L, p. 128.] Walker to Buchanan, Jime 28, 1857. Report Covode Committee, p. 118. THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 101 f ects ; but he counseled endurance, and constantly chap. vi. urged iu mitigation that in the end the people should have the privilege of a fair and direct vote upon their constitution. That promise he held aloft as a beacon-light of hope and redress. This attitude and policy, frequently reported to Wash- ington, was not disavowed or discouraged by the President and Cabinet. The Governor, however, soon found a storm brewing in another quarter. When the newspapers brought copies of his inaugural address, his To- peka speech, and the general report of his Kansas policy back to the Southern States, there arose an ominous chorus of protest and denunciation from the whole tribe of fire-eating editors and pohti- cians. What right had the Governor to intermed- dle 1 they indignantly demanded. What call to preach about climate, what business to urge sub- mission of the constitution to popular vote, or to promise his own help to defeat it if it were not sub- mitted ; what authority to pledge the President and Administration to such a course ? The conven- tion was sovereign, they claimed, could do what it pleased, and no thanks to the Governor for his impertinent advice. The Democratic State Con- vention of Georgia took the matter in hand, and by resolution denounced Walker's inaugural ad- di'ess, and asked his removal from office. The Democratic State Convention of Mississippi fol- lowed suit, and called the inaugural addi^ess an unjust discrimination against the rights of the South, and a dictatorial intermeddling with the high public duty intrusted to the convention. Walker wrote a private letter to Buchanan, de- 102 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. f ending his course, and adding: "Unless I am thoroughly and cordially sustained by the Admin- istration here, I cannot control the convention, and we shall have anarchy and civil war. With that cordial support the convention (a majority of whose delegates I have already seen) will do what is right. I shall travel over the whole Terri- tory, make speeches, rouse the people in favor of my plan, and see all the delegates. But your cor- dial support is indispensable, and I never would have come here, unless assured by you of the cor- dial cooperation of all the Federal officers. . . The extremists are trying your nerves and mine, but what can they say when the convention submits the constitution to the people and the vote is given by them I But we must have a slave State out of the south-western Indian Territory, and then a calm will follow; Cuba be acquired with the ac- quiescence 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-sealing of the constitution. . . I shall be pleased soon to hear from you. Cuba ! Cuba ! (and Porto Rico, if possible) should be the countersign of your Administration, and it will close in a blaze of glory." ^ The Governor had reason to be proud of the full and complete reendorsement which this appeal brought from his chief. Under date of July 12, 1857, the President wrote in reply : " On the ques- tion of submitting the constitution to the bond fide resident settlers of Kansas I am willing to stand 1 Walker to Buchanan, June 28, 1857. Report Covode Committee, pp. 117-19. THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 103 or fall. In sustaining such a principle we cannot chap. vi. fall. It is the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska bill ; the x^rinciple of popular sovereignty ; and the principle at the foundation of all popular govern- ment. The more it is discussed the stronger it will become. Should the convention of Kansas adopt this principle, all will be settled harmoniously, and with the blessing of Providence you will return triumphantly from your arduous, important, and responsible mission. The strictures of the G-eorgia and Mississippi Conventions will then pass away and be speedily forgotten. In regard to Georgia, our news from that State is becoming better every day ; we have not yet had time to hear much from Mississippi. Should you answer the resolution of the latter, I would advise you to make the great principle of the submission of the constitution to the bond fide residents of Kansas conspicuously prominent. On this you will be irresistible." ^ The delegates to the constitutional convention, chosen in June, met according to law at Lecomp- ton, September 7, and, having spent five days in organization, adjourned their session to October 19. The object of this recess was to await the issue of the general election of October 5, at which a full Territorial Legislature, a delegate to Con- gress, and various county officers were to be chosen. By the action of the free-State men this election was now made a turning-point in Kansas politics. Held together as a compact party by their peace- ful resistance to the bogus laws, emigration from the North had so strengthened their numbers that 1 Buchanan to Walker, July 12, 1857. Report Covode Committee, p. 112. 104 ABEAHA^I LINCOLN Chap. VI. WUder, p. 133. they clearly formed a majority of the people of the Territory. A self-constituted and self-regulated election held by them for sundry officials under their Topeka Constitution, revealed a numerical strength of more than seven thousand voters. Feeling that this advantage justified them in re- ceding from their attitude of non-conformity, they met in convention towards the end of August, and while protesting against the "wicked apportion- ment," resolved that "whereas Grovernor Walker has repeatedly pledged himself that the people of Kansas should have a full and fair vote, before impartial judges, at the election to be held on the first Monday in October, ... we the people of Kansas, in mass convention assembled, agree to participate in said election." , Governor Walker executed his public promises to the letter. A movement of United States troops to Utah was in progress, and about two thousand of these were detained by order until after election day. Stationed at ten or twelve different points in the Territory, they served by their mere pres- ence to overawe disorder, and for the fij'st time in the history of Kansas the two opposing parties Oct. 5, 1857. measured their strength at the ballot-box. The result was an overwhelming triumph for the free- State party. For delegate in Congress, Ransom, the Democratic candidate, received 3799 votes; Parrott, the Republican candidate, 7888 — a free- State majority of 4089. For the Legislature, even under the defective apportionment, the council stood 9 free- State members to 4 Democrats, and the House 24 free-State members to 15 Democrats. That the pro-slavery cabal would permit power THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 105 to slip from their gi-asp without some extraordinary effort was scarcely to be expected. When the offi- cial returns were brought from the various voting- places to the Governor's office, there came from Oxford, a single precinct in Johnson County, "a roll of paper, forty or fifty feet long, containing names as thickly as they could be written," and a large part of which were afterwards discovered to have been literally copied from an old Cincinnati directory. This paper purported to be a return of 1628 votes for the eleven pro-slavery candidates for the Legislature in that district, and if counted it would elect eight members of the House and three of the council by a trifling majority, and thereby change the political complexion and power of the Legislature. Inspection showed the document to be an attempt to commit a stupendous fraud ; and after visiting the locality ("a village with six houses, including stores, and without a tavern ") and satis- fying himself of the impossibility of such a vote from such a place, Governor Walker rejected the whole return from Oxford precinct for informality, and gave certificates of election to the free-State candidates elected as appeared by the other regular returns. A similar paper from McGee County with more than 1200 names was treated in like manner. Judge Cato issued his writ of mandamus to compel the Governor to give certificates to the pro-slavery candidates, but without success. The language of Governor Walker and Secretary Stanton in a proc- lamation announcing their action deserves remem- brance and imitation. " The consideration that our own party by this decision will lose the majority in the legislative assembly does not make our duty in Chap. VI. Stanton, Speech at Philadel- phia, February 8, 1858. Walker, Proclama- tion, Octo- ber 19, 1857. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 8, 1st Sess. 35th Cong. Vol. I., p. 103. Walker, Proclama- tion, Oct. 22, 1857. Ibid., pp. 104-6. 106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. Walker, Proclaiua- tioD, Octo- ber 19, 1857. Senate Ex. Doe. No. 8, 1st 8es8. 35tli Cong. Vol. I., p. 104. the premises less solemn and imperative. The elec- tive franchise would be utterly valueless, and free government itself would receive a deadly blow, if so great an outrage as this could be shielded under the cover of mere forms and technicalities. We cannot consent in any manner to give the sanction of our respective official positions to such a trans- action. Nor can we feel justified to relieve oui'- selves of the proper responsibility of our offices, in a case where there is no valid return, by submit- ting the question to the legislative assembly, and in that very act giving the parties that might claim to be chosen by this spurious vote the power to decide upon their own election." The decisive free-State victory, the Oxford and McGree frauds,^ and the Governor's fearless action in exposing and rejecting them, called forth uni- versal comment ; and under the new political con- ditions which they revealed, created intense interest in the further proceedings of the Lecompton Con- stitutional Convention. That body reassembled pile near Calhoun's " sui'veyor- general's office " at Lecompton. A forged list of 379 votes had been substituted for the original memorandum of only forty-three votes which had been cut from the certificate of the judges ; the votes on the forged list being in- tended for the pro-slavery candi- dates. During the investigation Calhoun was arrested, but liber- ated by Judge Cato on habeas corpus, after which he imme- diately went to Missouri, and from there to Washington. The details and testimony are found in House Com. Reports, 1st Sess. 35th Cong., Vol. HI., Report No. 377. 1 The ingenuity which evolved 1600 Kansas votes from an old Cincinnati directory and 1200 more from an uninhabited comity, was not exhausted by that pro- digious labor. The same influ- ences, and perhaps the same manipulators, produced a com- panion piece known by the name of the " candle-box fraud." At the election of January 4, 1858, for officers under the Lecompton Constitution, the returns from Delaware Agency underwent such suspicious handling that an in- vestigating commission of the Legislatui-e, by aid of a search- warrant, found them secreted in a candle-box buried under a wood- THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 107 according to adjournment on the 19tli of October, chat. vi. Elected in the preceding June without any partici- pation by free-State voters, the members were all of the pro-slavery party, and were presided over by John Calhoun, the same man who, as county surveyor of Sangamon County, Illinois, employed Abraham Lincoln as his deputy in 1832. At the June election, while he and his seven col- leagues from Douglas County were yet candidates for the convention, they had circulated a written pledge that they would submit the constitution to the people for ratification. This attitude was gen- erally maintained by them till the October election. But when by that vote they saw their faction over- whelmed with defeat, they and others undertook to maintain themselves in power by an unprecedented piece of political jugglery. Calhoun, who was sur- veyor-general of the Territory, employed a large number of subordinates, and was one of the most able and unscrupulous leaders in the pro-slavery cabal. A large majority of the convention favored the establishment of slavery ; only the question of a popular vote on ratification or rejection excited controversy. An analysis shows that the principle of delegated authority had become attenuated to a remarkable degi'ee. The defective registration excluded a con- siderable number (estimated at about one-sixth) of the legal voters. Of the 9250 registered, only about 2200 voted, all told. Of these 2200, only about 1800 votes were given for the successful candidates for delegate. Of the whole sixty delegates alleged to have been chosen, "but forty- three," says a Com- mittee Report, "participated in the work of the con- 108 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. vention. Sessions were held without a quorum, and the yeas and nays often show that but few above thirty were present. It is understood, and not denied, that but twenty-eight of these — less than half of a full house of sixty — decided the pro- slavery or free-State question ; and upon the ques- tion of submission of their work to the will of the people, the pro-slavery party carried the point by a majority of two votes only. It is quite in keep- ing with the character of this body and its officers to find the journal of its proceedings for the last days missing." -^ Their allotted task was completed in a short ses- sion of about three weeks; the convention adjourned November 7, forty-three of the fifty delegates pres- ent having been induced to sign the constitution. When the document was published the whole country was amazed to see what perversity and ingenuity had been employed to thwart the un- mistakable popular will. Essentially a slave- State constitution of the most pronounced type, contain- ing the declaration that the right of property in slaves is " before and higher than any constitu- tional sanction," it made the right to vote upon it depend on the one hand on a test oath to " support this constitution" in order to repel conscientious free- State voters, and on the other hand on mere 1 Minority Report, Select Com. ture underlying the whole trans- of Fifteen. Eeport No. 377, action. Many sections of the page 109, Vol. III., H. R. Re- completed constitution are not ports, 1st Sess. 35th Cong. even mentioned in the journal; This " missing link," no less it does not contain the submission than the remaining portion of clause of the schedule, and the the journal printed in the pro- authenticity of the document ceedings of the investigating rests upon the signature and the committee, is itself strong eir- certificate of John Calhoun with- cumstantial proof of the impos- out other verification. THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 109 inhabitancy on the day of election to attract no- chap. vi. madic Missourians; it postponed the right to amend or alter for a period of seven years ; it kept the then existing territorial laws in force until abrogated by State legislation ; it adopted the late Oxford fraud as a basis of apportionment; it gave to Calhoun, the presiding officer, power to designate the pre- cincts, the judges of election, and to decide finally upon the returns in the vote upon it, besides many other questionable or inadmissible provisions. Finally the form of submission to popular vote to be taken on the 21st of December was prescribed to be, " constitution with slavery " or " constitution with no slavery," thus compelling the adoption of the constitution in any event. There is a personal and political mystery under- lying this transaction which history will probably never solve. Only a few points of information have come to light, and they serve to embarrass rather than aid the solution. The first is that Cal- houn, although the friend and protege of Douglas, and also himself personally pledged to submis- sion, came to the Governor and urged him to join in the new programme as to slavery, — alleging that the Administration had changed its policy, and now favored this plan, — and tempted Walker with a prospect of the Presidency if he would con- cur. Walker declared such a change impossible, and indignantly spurned the proposal. The second "p.^iio.^^' is that one Martin, a department clerk, was, after confidential instructions from Secretary Thompson and Secretary Cobb, of Buchanan's Cabinet, sent to Kansas in October, ostensibly on department business ; that he spent his time in the lobby and Walker, Testimony, Report- Co vode 110 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. the SGcret caucuses of the convention. Martin tes- tifies that these Cabinet members favored submis- sion, but that Thompson wished it understood that Te^fimo^ny, h© was unwilHug to opposc the admission of Kansas co?ode " if a pro-slavery constitution should be made and ^v!f59.^^' sent directly to Congress by the convention." A wink was as good as a nod with that body, or rather with the cabal which controlled it ; and after a virtuous dumb-show of opposition, it made a pretense of yielding to the inevitable, and acted on the official suggestion. This theory is the more plausible because Martin testifies further that he himself drafted the slavery provision which was pp. 170-1. finally adopted. The third point is that the Presi- dent inexcusably abandoned his pledges to the Governor and adopted this Cobb-Tliompson-Cal- houn contrivance, instead of keeping his word and dismissing Calhoun, as honor dictated. This course becomes especially remarkable in view of the fact that the change did not occur until after Walker's rejection of the fraudulent Oxford returns, which action placed the legislative power of the Territory in the hands of the newly elected free-State Legis- lature, as already related. On the same day (Octo- ber 22, 1857) on which Walker and Stanton issued their proclamation rejecting the fraudulent returns. President Buchanan wrote another highly com- mendatory letter to Governor Walker. As it has never before been published, its full text will have special historical interest. Washington City, 22d October, 1857. My Dear Sir : I have received your favor of the tenth instant by Captain Pleasonton and am rejoiced to learn from you, what I had previously learned from other less THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 111 authentic sources, that the convention of Kansas will chap.vi. submit the constitution to the people. It is highly grati- fying that the late election passed off so peacefully; and I think we may now fairly anticipate a happy conclusion to all the difficulties in that Territory. Your application for a month's leave of absence has been granted to com- mence after the adjournment of the convention. During its session your presence will be too important to be dis- pensed with. I shall be glad to see you before you pub- lish anything. The whole affair is now gliding along smoothly. Indeed, the revulsion in the business of the country seems to have driven all thoughts of '^ bleeding Kansas" from the public mind. When and in what manner anything shall be published to revive the feeling, is a question of serious importance. I am persuaded that with every passing day the public are more and more disposed to do you justice. You certainly do injustice to Harris, the editor of the ''Union." In the beginning I paid some attention to the course of the paper in regard to yourself, and I think it was unexceptionable : I know he stood firm amidst a shower of abuse from the extrem- ists. I never saw nor did I ever hear of the communica- tion published in the " Union " to which you refer, and Harris has no recollection of it. I requested him to find me the number and send it to me ; but this he has not done. He is not responsible in any degree for the non- publication of the letters to which you refer.i I knew nothing of them until after the receipt of yours; and upon inquiry I found their publication had been pre- vented by Mr. Cobb under a firm conviction that they would injure both yourself and the Administration. 1 " Dr. Tebbs and General enemy and encouraging by its Whitfield a month since left very neutrality the fire-eaters not to strong letters for publication submit the constitution. Very with the editor of the 'Union' well, the facts are so clear that which he promised to publish. I can get along without the His breach of this promise is a ' Union,' but he had no right to gi'oss outrage. If not published suppress Dr. Tebbs's letter. I immediately our success in con- shall in due time expose that vention materially depends on transaction." — Extract from a my getting an immediate copy at letter of Robert J. Walker to Lecompton. My friends here all James Buchanan, dated October, regard now the 'Union' as an 1857. 112 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. Whether he judged wisely or not I cannot saj, for I never saw them. That he acted in fairness and friend- ship I have not a doubt. He was anxious that General Whitfield should publish a letter and prepared one for him, expecting he would sign it before he left. He sent this letter after him for his approval and signature ; but it has not been returned. I know not what are its con- tents. General W. doubtless has the letter in his posses- sion. Beyond all question, the motives of Mr. Cobb were proper. Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Bache have just left me after a half hour's very agreeable conversation. Mrs. Walker desires me to inform you the family are all well and sends her love. From your friend, very respectfully, Jajnies Buchanan. Hon. Robert J. Walker. ^ Report Covode Committee, p. 111. The question naturally occurs, for whom did Calhoun speak when he approached Governor Walker, offering him the bribe of the Presidency and assuring him that the Administration had changed its mind ? That was before, or certainly not long after, the probable receipt of this letter in Kansas, for the Governor left the Territory (No- vember 16) about one week after the adjourn- ment of the Lecompton Convention. The question becomes still more pressing owing to Governor Walker's testimony that when he reached Wash- ington, "the President himself distinctly and em- phatically assui'ed me that he had not authorized anybody to say that he had approved of that [Lecompton] programme." On whose authority, then, did Calhoun declare that the Administration had changed its mind ? 1 For this autograph letter and S. Walker, a son of the Governor, other interesting manuscripts, we now residing in Washington, are indebted to General Duncan D. C. FREDERICK P. STANTON. 2-e THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 113 This query brings us to another point in Presi- dent Buchanan's letter of October 22, in which he mentions that Secretary Cobb, of his Cabinet, had without his knowledge suppressed the publication of certain letters in the "Washington Union." These were, as we learn elsewhere, the letters in which some of the Kansas pro-slavery leaders re- peated their declaration of the hopelessness of any further contest to make Kansas a slave State. Why this secret suppression by Secretary Cobb ? There is but one plausible explanation of this whole chain of contradictions. The conclusion is almost forced upon us that a Cabinet intrigue, of which the President was kept in ignorance, was be- ing carried on, under the very eyes of Mr. Buchanan, by those whom he himself significantly calls " the extremists" — a plot to supersede his own inten- tions and make him falsify his own declarations. As in the case of similar intrigues by the same agents a few years later, he had neither the wit to perceive nor the will to resist. The protest of the people of the Territory against the extraordinary action of the Lecompton Conven- tion almost amounted to a popular revolt. This action opened a wide door to fraud, and invited Missouri over to an invasion of final and perma- nent conquest. Governor Walker had quitted the Territory on his leave of absence, and Secretary Stanton was acting Grovernor. "The people in great masses," he says, " and the Legislature that had been elected, with almost a unanimous voice called upon me to convene the Legislature, in order that they might take such steps as they could to counteract the misfortune which they conceived Vol. II.— 8 Chap. VI. Jolin Bell, Senate Speech, March 18, 1858. Stanton, Philadel- phia Speech, Feb. 8, 1858. 114 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. was about to befall them in the adoption of this constitution." As already stated, Stanton had come to Kansas with the cnrrent Democratic prej- udices against the free-State party. But his whole course had been frank, sincere, and studiously impartial, and the Oxford fraud had completely opened his eyes. "I now discovered for the first time to my entire satisfaction why it was that the stantoD, great mass of the people of the Territory had been phia*^ dissatisfied with their government, and were ready Feb. 8, 1858. to rcbcl aud throw it off." Having, like Walker, frequently and earnestly assured the people of their ultimate right to ratify or reject the work of the convention, he was per- sonally humiliated by the unfairness and trickery of which that body was guilty. Under the cir- cumstances he could not hesitate in his duty. By proclamation he convened the new Legislature in extra session. The members respected the private pledge they had given him to engage in no general legislation ; but provided by law for an investigation of the Oxford and McGee frauds, and for an election to be held on January 4, 1858 (the day fixed by the Lecompton Constitution for the election of State officers and a State legislature), at which the people might vote for the Lecompton Constitution or against it. Thus in the course of events two sepa- rate votes were taken on this notorious document. The first, provided for in the instrument itself, took place on the 21st of December, 1857. Detachments of troops were stationed at several points ; the free- State men abstained from voting ; the election was peaceable; and in due time Calhoun proclaimed THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 115 that 6143 ballots had been cast " for the constitu- chap. vi. tion with slavery," and 589 "for the constitution with no slavery." But the subsequent legislative in- vestigation disclosed a gross repetition of the Oxford fraud, and proved the actual majority, in a one- sided vote, to have been only 3423. The second election occurred on January 4, 1858, under au- thority of the legislative act. At this election the pro-slavery party voted for the State officers, but in its turn abstained from voting on the constitu- tion, the result being — against the Lecompton Constitution, 10,226 ; for the Lecompton Constitu- tion with slavery, 138 ; for the Lecompton Consti- tution without slavery, 24.^ This emphatic rejection of the Lecompton Con- stitution by a direct vote of the people of Kansas sealed its fate. We shall see further on what per- sistent but abortive efforts were made in Congress once more to galvanize it into life. The free-State party were jubilant; but the pro-slavery cabal, foiled and checked, was not yet dismayed or con- quered. For now there was developed, for the first time in its full proportions, the giant pro-slavery intrigue which proved that the local conspiracy of the Atchison-Missouri cabal was but the image and fraction of a national combination, finding its headquarters in the Administration, first of Pres- ident Pierce, and now of President Buchanan; working patiently and insidiously through succes- sive efforts to bring about a practical subversion 1 Under an Act of Congress August 2, 1858, with the follow- popularly known as the "Eng- ing result: for the proposition, lish Bill," this same Lecompton 1788 ; against it, 11,300. — Constitution was once more voted Wilder, "Annals of Kansas," pp. upon by the people of Kansas on 186-8. 116 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VI. Cass to Stanton, December 2, 1857. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 8, let Sess. 35th Cong. Vol. I., pp. 112-13. Cass to Stanton, December 8, 1857. Ibid., p. 113. of the whole theory and policy of the American Government. It linked the action of Border Ruf- fians, presidential aspirants, senates, courts, and cabinets into efficient cooperation ; leading up, step by step, from the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, through the Nebraska bill, border conquest, the Dred Scott decision, the suppression of the submission clause in the Toombs bill, and the extraordinary manipulation and machinery of the Lecompton Constitution, towards the final over- throw of the doctrine that "all men are created equal," and the substitution of the dogma of prop- erty in man ; towards the judicial construction that property rights in human beings are before and above constitutional sanction, and that slavery must find protection and perpetuity in States as well as in Territories. The first weather-sign came from Washington. On the day after Acting Governor Stanton con- vened the October Legislature in special session, and before news of the event reached him. Secre- tary Cass transmitted to him advance copies of the President's annual message, in which the Lecompton Constitution was indorsed in unqualified terms. A week later he was admonished to conform to the views of the President in his official conduct. At this point the State Department became informed of what had taken i)lace, and the acting Governor had short shrift. On December 11 Cass wrote to J. W. Denver, Esq.: "You have already been informed that Mr. Stanton has been removed from the office of Secretary of the Territory of Kansas and that you have been appointed in his place." Cass further explained that the President " was THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 117 siii'prised to learn that the secretary and acting chap. vi. Governor had, on the 1st of December, issued his proclamation for a special session of the Territorial Legislature on the 7th instant, only a few weeks in advance of its regular time of meeting, and only fourteen days before the decision was to be made on the question submitted by the convention. This course of Mr. Stanton, the President seriously be- lieves, has thrown a new element of discord among Denver, the excited people of Kansas, and is directly at nth, 1857. Senate Ex. war, therefore, with the peaceful policy of the doc.no. 8. Administration. For this reason he has felt it ^^^^^,1^^°^- his duty to remove him." p-^^"- Walker, already in Washington on leave of absence, could no longer remain silent. He was as pointedly abandoned and disgi'aced by the Administration as was his subordinate. In a dignified letter justifying his own course, which, he reminded them, had never been criticized or disavowed, he resigned the governorship. " From the events occurring in Kansas as well as here," he wrote, "it is evident that the question is passing from theories into practice; and that as governor of Kansas I should be compelled to carry out new instructions, differing on a vital question from those received at the date of my appointment. Such instructions I could not execute consistently with my views of the Federal Constitution, of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, or with my pledges to the people of Kansas." " The idea entertained by some that I should see the Federal Constitution and the Kansas-Nebraska bill overthrown and dis- regarded, and that, playing the part of a mute in a pantomime of ruin, I should acquiesce by my 118 ABRAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. VI. silence in siich a result, especially where such acquiescence involved, as an immediate conse- quence, a disastrous and sanguinary civil war, seems to me most preposterous."^ The conduct and the language of Walker and Stanton bear a remarkable significance when we remember that they had been citizens of slave States and zealous Democratic partisans, and that only hard practical experience and the testimony of their own eyes had forced them to join their predecessors in the political " graveyard." "The ghosts on the banks of the Styx," said Seward, " constitute a cloud scarcely more dense than the spirits of the departed Governors of Kansas, wan- dering in exile and sorrow for having certified the truth against falsehood in regard to the elections between Freedom and Slavery in Kansas." 1 Walker to Cass, Dee. 15, 1857. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 8, 1st Sess., 35th Cong. Vol. L, pp. 131, 130. CHAPTER VII THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS THE language of President Buchanan's annual chap. vii. message, the summary dismissal of Acting Grovernor Stanton, and the resignation of Grovernor Walker abruptly transferred the whol6 Lecompton question from Kansas to Washington; and even before the people of the Territory had practically decided it by the respective popular votes of De- cember 21, 1857, and January 4, 1858, it had become the dominant political igsue in the Thirty-fifth Congress, which convened on December 7, 1857. The attitude of Senator Douglas on the new ques- tion claimed universal attention. The Dred Scott decision, affirming constitutional sanction and in- violability for slave property in Territories, had rudely damaged his theory. But we have seen how in his Springfield speech he ingeniously sought to repair and rehabilitate " popular sover- eignty" by the sophism that a master's abstract constitutional right to slave property in a Terri- tory was a "barren and a worthless right unless sustained, protected, and enforced by appropriate police regulations," which could only be supplied by the local Territorial Legislatures ; and that the people of Kansas thus still possessed the power of indirect prohibition. 119 120 ABKAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. VII. To invent and utter this sophism for home eon- sumption among his distant constituents on the 1857. 12th of June (a few days before the Lecompton delegates were elected), and in so unobtrusive a manner as scarcely to attract a ripple of public notice, was a light task compared with that which confronted him as Senator, at the meeting of 1857. Congress in December, in the light of John Cal- houn's doings and powers, of the scandal of the Oxford fraud, and of the indignation of Northern Democrats against the betrayal of Walker and Stanton. One of his first experiences was a personal quarrel with Buchanan. When he reached Wash- ington, three days before the session, he went to the President to protest against his adopting the Lecompton Constitution and sending it to Congress for acceptance. Buchanan insisted that he must recommend it in his annual message. Douglas re- plied that he would denounce it as soon as it was read. The President, excited, told him " to remem- ber that no Democrat ever yet differed from an administration of his own choice without being crushed. Beware of the fate of Tallmadge and '^speeS^^ " ^^1'- President," retorted Douglas, " I wish you ^^mo.^ ^^' to remember that General Jackson is dead." In the election of Mr. Buchanan as President the South had secured a most important ally for the work of pro-slavery reaction. Trained in the belief that the South had hitherto been wronged, he was ready 5n every occasion to appear as her champion for redress; and Southern politicians were now eager to use his leadership to make their views of THE EEVOLT OF DOUGLAS 121 public policy and constitutional duty acceptable to chap. vii. the North. Respectable in capacity but feeble in will, he easily submitted to control and guidance from a few Southern leaders of superior intellect- ual force. In his inaugural, he sought to prepare public opinion for obedience to the Dred Scott de- cision, and since its publication he had undertaken to interpret its scope and effect. Replying to a me- morial from certain citizens of New England, he declared in a public letter, " Slavery existed at that period, and still exists in Kansas, under the Con- stitution of the United States. This point has at last been finally decided by the highest tribunal known to our laws. How it could ever have been seriously doubted is a mystery."^ In the same letter he affirmed the legality of the Lecompton Convention, though he yet clearly expressed his expectation that the constitution to be framed by it would be submitted to the popular vote for " approbation or rejection." But when that convention adjourned, and made known its cunningly devised work, the whole South instantly became clamorous to secure the sectional advantages which lay in its technical regularity, its strong affirmance of the " property " theory, and the extraordinary power it gave to John Calhoun to control the election and decide the returns. This powerful reactionary movement was not lost upon Mr. Buchanan. He reflected it as unerringly as the vane moves to the change of the wind. Long before the meeting of Congress, the Administration organ, the " Washington Union," 1 Buchanan to Silliman and others, Aug. 15, 1857. Senate Ex, Doe. No. 8, 1st Sess. 35th Cong. Vol. I., p. 74. 122 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VII. heralded and strongly supported the new depar- 1857. ture. When, on the 8th of December, the Pres- ident's annual message was transmitted and read, the Lecompton Constitution, as framed and sub- mitted, was therein warmly indorsed and its accept- ance indicated as the future Administration policy. The language of this message discloses with what subtle ingenuity words, phrases, definitions, ideas, and theories were being invented and plied to broaden and secui'e every conquest of the pro- slavery reaction. An elaborate argument was made to defend the enormities of the Lecompton Constitution. The doctrine of the Silliman letter, that " slavery exists in Kansas under the Constitu- tion of the United States," was assumed as a con- ceded theory. " In emerging from the condition of territorial dependence into that of a sovereign State," the people might vote " whether this im- portant domestic institution should or should not continue to exist." " Domestic institutions " was defined to mean slavery. " Free to form and reg- ulate theu' domestic institutions " — the phrase employed in the Kansas-Nebraska act — was con- strued to mean a vote to continue or discontinue slavery. And " if any portion of the inhabitants shall refuse to vote, a fair opportunity to do so ha%4ng been presented, . . . they alone will be resjjonsible for the consequences." " Should the constitution without slavery be adopted by the votes of the majority, the rights of property in slaves now in the Territory are reserved. . . These slaves were brought into the Territory under the Constitution of the United States and are now the property of their masters. This point has at length THE EEVOLT OF DOUGLAS 123 been finally decided by the highest judicial tri- chap. vn. bunal of the country." Buchanan, " , Annual However blind Buchanan might be to the fact ;D^cemler that this extreme interpretation shocked and ^'^^^'^• alarmed the sentiment of the North ; that if made before the late Presidential campaign it would have defeated his own election ; and that if rudely per- sisted in, it might destroy the Democratic ascend- ency in the future, the danger was obvious and immediately vital to Douglas. His senatorial term was about to expire. To secure a reelection he must carry the State of Illinois in 1858, which had on an issue less pronounced than this defeated his colleague Shields in 1854, and his lieutenant Richardson in 1856. But more than this, his own personal honor was as much involved in his pledges to the voters of Illinois as had been that of Gov- ernor Walker to the voters of Kansas. His double- dealing caucus bargain had thus placed him between two fires — party disgrace at Washington and popular disgrace in Illinois. In such a dilemma his choice could not be doubtful. At all risk he must endeavor to sustain himself at home. He met the encounter with his usual adroitness and boldness. Assuming that the President had made no express recommendation, he devoted his speech mainly to a strong argument of party ex- pediency, repelling without reserve and denounc- ing without stint the work of the Lecompton Convention. " Stand by the doctrine," said he, " 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 irre- sistible in power. Abandon that great principle 124 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VII. and the party is not worth saving, and cannot be saved after it shall be violated. I trust we are not to be rushed upon this question. Why shall it be done ? Who is to be benefited 1 Is the South to be the gainer? Is the North to be the gainer? Neither the North nor the South has the right to gain a sectional advantage by trickery or fraud. . . But I am told on all sides, ' Oh ! just wait ; the pro-slavery clause will be voted down.' That does not obviate any of my objections; it does not diminish any of them. You have no more right to force a free-State constitution on Kansas than a slave-State constitution. If Kansas wants a 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 clause be voted down, and another way if it be voted up ? I care not how that vote may stand. . . Ignore Lecompton ; 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 through- out the country, in ninety 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 sub- THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS 125 Douglas, Senate Speech, December 9, 1857. " Globe," p. 18. mission that is a mockery and insult, I will resist chap. vii. it to the last." President Buchanan and the strong pro-slavery faction which was directing his course paid no attention whatever to this proposal of a compro- mise. Shylock had come into court to demand his bond, and would heed no pleas of equity or appeals to grace. The elections of December 21 and Janu- ary 4 were held in due time, and with what result we have already seen. John Calhoun counted the votes on January 13 and declared the "Lecompton Constitution with slavery " adopted, prudently re- serving, however, any announcement concerning the State officers or Legislature under it. This much accomplished, he hurried away to Washing- ton, where he was received with open arms by the President and his advisers, who at once proceeded with a united and formidable effort to legalize the transparent farce by Congressional sanction. On the second day of February, 1858, President Buchanan transmitted to Congress the Lecompton Constitution, " received from J. Calhoun, Esq.," and " duly certified by himself ." The President's accom- panying special message argues that the organic law of the Territory conferred the essential rights of an enabling act ; that the free-State party stood in the attitude of willful and chronic revolu- tion ; that their various refusals to vote were a suf- ficient bar to complaint and objection; that the several steps in the creation and work of the Lecompton Convention were regular and legal. " The people of Kansas have, then, ' in their own way,' and in strict accordance with the organic act, framed a constitution and State government, have 126 ABEAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. VII. submitted the all-important question of slavery to the people, and have elected a governor, a member to represent them in Congress, members of the State Legislature, and other State officers. They now ask admission into the Union under this con- stitution, which is Republican in form. It is for Congress to decide whether they will admit or reject the State which has thus been created. For my own part I am decidedly in favor of its admis- sion and thus terminating the Kansas question." 1868. The vote of January 4 against the constitution he declared to be illegal because it was " held after the Territory had been prepared for admission into the Union as a sovereign State, and when no au- thority existed in the Territorial Legislature which could possibly destroy its existence or change its character." His own inconsistency was lightly glossed over. " For my own part, when I in- structed Grovernor Walker in general terms, in favor of submitting the constitution to the people, I had no object in view except the all-absorbing question of slavery. . . I then believed, and still believe, that under the organic act, the Kansas Convention were bound to submit this all-impor- tant question of slavery to the people. It was never, however, my opinion that independently of this act they would have been bound to submit any portion of the constitution to a popular vote, in order to give it validity." To the public at large, the central point of inter- est in this special message, however, was the fol- lowing dogmatic announcement by the President : " It has been solemnly adjudged by the highest judicial tribunal known to our laws that slavery THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS 127 exists in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of the chap. vii. United States. Kansas is, therefore, at this moment as much a slave State as Georgia or South Caro- lina. Without this, the equality of the sovereign States composing the Union would be violated, and the use and enjoyment of a territory acquired by the common treasure of all the States would be closed against the people and the property of nearly half the members of the Confederacy. Slavery can, therefore, never be prohibited in Kansas except by means of a constitutional provision, and in no other manner can this be obtained so promptly, if a ma- jority of the people desire it, as by admitting it into the Union under its present constitution." In the light of subsequent history this extreme pro-slavery programme was not only wrong in morals and statesmanship, but short-sighted and foolhardy as a party policy. But to the eyes of President Buchanan this latter view was not so plain. The country was apparently in the full tide of a pro-slavery reaction. He had not only been elected President, but the Democratic party had also recovered its control of Congress. The presiding officer of each branch was a Southerner. Out of 64 members of the Senate, 39 were Demo- crats, 20 Republicans, and five Americans or Know-Nothings. Of the 237 members of the House, 131 were Democrats, 92 Republicans, and 14 Americans. Here was a clear majority of fourteen in the upper and twenty-five in the lower House. This was indeed no longer the for- midable legislative power which repealed the Missouri Compromise, but it seemed perhaps a sufficient force to carry out the President's recom- 128 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VII. mendation. His error was in forgetting that this apparent popular indorsement was secured to him and his party by means of the double construction placed upon the Nebraska bill and the Cincinnati platform, by the caucus bargain between the leaders of the South and the leaders of the North. The moment had come when this unnatural alliance needed to be exposed and in part repudiated. The haste with which the Southern leaders ad- vanced step by step, forced every issue, and were now pushing theii* allies to the wall was, to say the least, bad management, but it gi-ew logically out of their situation. They were swimming against the stream. The leading forces of civilization, popula- tion, wealth, commerce, intelligence, were bearing them down. The balance of power was lost. Al- ready there were sixteen free States to fifteen slave States. Minnesota and Oregon, inevitably destined also to become free, were applying for admission to the Union. Still, the case of the South was not hopeless. Kansas was apparently within their grasp. Exist- ing law pro\dded for the formation and admission of four additional States to be carved out of Texas, which would certainlj' become slave States. Then there remained the possible division of California, and a race for the possession of New Mexico and Arizona. Behind all, or, more likely, before all ex- cept Kansas, in the order of desired events, was the darling ambition of President Buchanan, the annexation of Cuba. As United States Minister to England he had publicly declared that if Spain ostend refuscd to sell us that coveted island we should be Oct. g.^Tssi. justified in wresting it from her by force ; as Presi- JOHN' CALHOUN. THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS 129 dential candidate he tiad confidentially avowed, amid the first blushes of his new honor, " If I can be instrumental in settling the slavery question upon the terms I have mentioned, and then add Cuba to the Union, I shall, if President, be willing to give up the ghost, and let Breckinridge take the government." Thus, even excluding the more problematical chances which lay hidden in filibus- tering enterprises, there was a possibility, easily demonstrable to the sanguine, that a decade or two might change mere numerical preponderance from the free to the slave States. Nor could this pos- sibility be waved aside by any affectation of incre- dulity. Not alone Mr. Buchanan but the whole Democratic party was publicly pledged to annex- ation. "Resolved," said the Cincinnati platform, " that the Democratic party will expect of the next Administration that every proper effort be made to insure our ascendency in the Gulf of Mexico " ; while another resolution declaring sympathy with efforts to "regenerate" Central America was no less significant. But to accomplish such marvels, they must not sit with folded hands. The price of slavery was fearless aggression. They must build on a deeper foundation than Presidential elections, party ma- jorities, or even than votes in the Senate. The theory of the government must be reversed, the philosophy of the republic interpreted anew. In this subtler effort they had made notable progress. By the Kansas-Nebraska act they had paralyzed the legislation of half a century. By the Dred Scott decision they had changed the Constitution and blighted the Declaration of Independence. By Vol. IL— 9 Chap. VII. Senator Brovvu to Adams, June 18, 1856. Greeley, "Am. Con- flict," Vol. I., p. 278. Official proceed- ings. Pamphlet. 130 ABKAHAII LINCOLN Chap. VII. the Lecomptoii trick they would show that in con- flict with theu' dogmas the public will was vicious, and in conflict with their intrigues the majority powerless. They had the President, the Cabinet, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, and, by no means least in the immediate problem, John Calhoun with his technical investiture of far-reach- ing authority. The country had recovered from the shock of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and rewarded them with Buchanan. Would it not equally recover from the shock of the Lecompton Constitution I It was precisely at this point that the bent bow broke. The great bulk of the Democratic party followed the President and his Southern advisers, even in this extreme step ; but to a minority suffi- cient to turn the scale the Lecompton scandal had become too offensive for further tolerance. In the Senate, with its heavy Democratic major- ity, the Administration easily secured the passage of a bill to admit Kansas with the Lecompton Con- stitution. Out of eleven Democratic Senators from free States, only three — Douglas of Illinois, Brod- erick of California, and Stuart of Michigan — took courage to speak and vote against the measure. In the House of Representatives, however, with a narrower margin of pohtical power, the scheme, after an exciting discussion running through about two months, met a decisive defeat. A for- midable popular opposition to it had developed itself in the North, in which speeches and letters from Grovernor Walker and Secretary Stanton in denunciation of it were a leading feature and a powerful influence. The lower House of Congress THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS 131 always responds quickly to currents of public sen- chap.vii. timent ; but in this case it caught direction all the more promptly because its members were to be chosen anew in the ensuing autumn. However much they might have party subordination and success at heart, some of them felt that they could not defend before their antislavery constituencies the Oxford frauds, the Calhoun dictatorship, the theory that slave property is above constitutional sanction, and the dogma that " Kansas is therefore at this moment as much a slave State as Georgia or South Carolina." When the test vote was taken on April 1, out of the 53 Democratic representatives from the free States 31 voted for Lecompton ; but the remaining 22,^ joining their strength to the opposition, passed a substitute, originating with Mr. Crittenden of the Senate, which in substance directed a resubmission of the Lecompton Consti- tution to the people of Kansas ; — if adopted, the President to admit the new State by a simple proc- lamation ; if rejected, the people to call a conven- tion and frame a new instrument. As the October vote had been the turning-point in the local popular struggle in the Territory, this adoption of the Crittenden-Montgomery substitute, by a total vote of 120 to 112 in the House of Eep- resentatives, was the culmination of the National intrigue to secure Kansas for the South. It was a narrow victory for freedom; a change of 5 votes would have passed the Lecompton bill and admit- ted tlie State with slavery, and a constitutional 1 From California, 1 ; niinois, For Lecompton : California, 1 ; 5 ; Indiana, 3 ; New Jersey, 1 ; Connecticut, 2 ; Indiana, 3 ; New New York, 2; Ohio, 6; Penn- Jersey, 2 ; New York, 10; Ohio, sylvania, 4. 2 ; Pennsylvania, 11. 132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN cuAP. VII. prohibition against any change for seven years to come. With his authority to control election re- turns, there is every reason to suppose that Cal- houn would have set up a pro- slavery State Legislature, to choose two pro-slavery senators, whom in its turn the strong Lecompton majority in the United States Senate would have admitted to seats ; and thus the whole chain of fraud and usurpation back to the first Border-Ruffian inva- sion of Kansas would have become complete, legal, and irrevocable, on plea of mere formal and tech- nical regularity. Foiled in its main object, the Administration made another effort which served to break some- what the force and humiliation of its first and signal defeat. The two Houses of Congress having disagreed as stated, and each having once more voted to adhere to its own action, the President managed to make enough converts among the anti- Lecompton Democrats of the House to secure the appointment of a committee of conference. This committee devised what became popularly known as the " English bill," a measure which tendered a land grant to the new State, and provided that on the following August 3d the people of Kansas might vote " proposition accepted " or " proposition re- jected." Acceptance should work the admission of the State with the Lecompton Constitution, while rejection should postpone any admission until her population reached the ratio of representation required for a member of the House. "Hence it will be argued," exclaimed Douglas, " in one por- tion of the Union that this is a submission of the constitution, and in another portion that it is not." THE EEVOLT OF DOUGLAS 133 The Englisli bill became a law ; but the people of chap. vii. Kansas ouce more voted to reject the " proposi- tion " by nearly ten thousand majority. Douglas opposed the English bill as he had done the Lecompton bill, thus maintaining his attitude as the chief leader of the anti-Lecompton oppo- sition. In proportion as he received encourage- ment and commendation from Republican and American newspapers, he fell under the ban of the Administration journals. The "Washington Union " especially pursued him with denunciation. " It has read me out of the Democratic party every other day, at least, for two or three months," said he, " and keeps reading me out ; and, as if it had not succeeded, still continues to read me out, using such terms as ' traitor,' ' renegade,' ' deserter,' and other kind and polite epithets of that nature." He explained that this arose from his having voted in the Senate against its editor for the office of public printer ; but he also pointed out that he did so be- cause that journal had become pro-slavery to the point of declaring "that the emancipation acts of New York, of New England, of Pennsylvania, and of New Jersey were unconstitutional, were outrages upon the right of property, were violations of the Constitution of the United States." " The propo- sition is advanced," continued he, " that a Southern man has a right to move from South Carolina with his negroes into Illinois, to settle there and hold them there as slaves, anything in the constitution and laws of Illinois to the contrary notwithstand- ing." Douglas further intimated broadly that the President and Cabinet were inspiring these edi- torials of the Administration organ, as part and 134 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VH. Douglas, Senate Speeeli, March 22, 1858. App. "Globe," pp. 199, 200. parcel of tlie same system and object with which they were pushing the Lecompton Constitution with its odious " property " doctrine ; and declared, " if my protest against this interpolation into the policy of this country or the creed of the Demo- cratic party is to bring me under the ban, I am ready to meet the issue." He had not long to wait for the issue. The party rupture was radical, not superficial. It was, as he had himself pointed out, part of the contest for national supremacy between slavery and freedom. From time to time he still held out the olive-branch and pointed wistfully to the path of reconcilia- tion. But the reactionary faction which ruled Mr. Buchanan never forgave Douglas for his part in defeating Lecompton, and more especially for what they alleged to be his treachery to his caucus bar- gain, in refusing to accept and defend all the logical consequences of the Dred Scott decision. CHAPTER VIII THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES ^P^HE anti-Lecompton recusancy of Douglas baf- chap. viii. J- fled the plotting extremists of the South, and created additional dissension in the Democratic ranks; and this growing Democratic weakness and the increasing Republican ardor and strength presaged a possible Republican success in the com- ing Presidential election. While this condition of things gave national politics an unusual interest, the State of Illinois now became the field of a local contest which for the moment held the attention of the entire country in such a degree as to involve and even eclipse national issues. In this local contest in Illinois, the choice of can- didates on both sides was determined long before- hand by a popular feeling, stronger and more unerring than ordinary individual or caucus in- trigues. Douglas, as author of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, as a formidable Presidential aspirant, and now again as leader of the anti- Lecompton Democrats, could, of course, have no rival in his party for his own Senatorial seat. Lin- coln, who had in 1854 gracefully yielded his justly won Senatorial honors to Trumbull, and who alone bearded Douglas in his own State throughout the 135 136 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VIII. whole anti-Nebraska struggle, with anything Uke a show of equal political courage and intellectual strength, was as inevitably the leader and choice of the Republicans. Their State convention met in Springfield on the 16th of June, 1858, and, after its ordinary routine work, passed with acclamation a separate resolution, which declared " that Abraham Lincoln is the first and only choice of the Republi- cans of Illinois for the United States Senate as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas." The proceed- ings of the convention had consumed the afternoon, and an adjournment was taken. At 8 o'clock that same evening, the convention having reassembled in the State-house, Lincoln appeared before it, and made what was perhaps the most carefully prepared speech of his whole life. Every word of it was written, every sentence had been tested; but the speaker delivered it without manuscript or notes. It was not an ordinary oration, but, in the main, an argument, as sententious and axiomatic as if made to a bench of jurists. Its opening sentences con- tained a political prophecy which not only became the ground-work of the campaign, but heralded one of the world's great historical events. He said: " If we could fii'st know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. ' A house divided against itself cannot THE LINCOLN- DOUGLAS DEBATES 137 stand.' I believe this Government cannot endure chap. viir. permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new. North as well as Doug/as South." ""fT' Then followed his demonstration, through the incidents of the Nebraska legislation, the Dred Scott decision, and present political theories and issues, which would by and by find embodiment in new laws and future legal doctrines. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the language of the Nebraska bill, which declared slavery " subject to the Constitution," the Dred Scott decision, which declared that " subject to the Constitution " nei- ther Congress nor a Territorial Legislature could exclude slavery from a Territory — the argument presented point by point and step by step with legal precision the silent subversion of cher- ished principles of liberty. " Put this and that to- gether," said he, " and we have another nice little niche, which we may ere long see filled with another Supreme Coui't decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not per- mit a State to exclude slavery from its limits. . . Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States. . . We shall lie down," continued the orator, " pleasantly 138 ABEAHAM LINCOLN ciiAP. VIII. dreaming that the people of Missoim are on the verge of making their State free ; and we shall awake to the reality instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State." His peroration was a battle-call : " Our cause, then, must be intrusted to and conducted by its own undoubted friends, those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do care for the result. Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thou- sand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, w^th every ex- ternal circumstance against us. Of strange, dis- cordant, and even hostile elements we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle tlu'ough, under the constant hot fire of a dis- ciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then to falter now ? — now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belliger- ent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if we stand firm we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but sooner or later the victory is sure to come." Lincoln's declaration that the cause of slavery re- striction " must be intrusted to its own undoubted friends" had something more than a general mean- ing. We have seen that while Douglas avowed he did not care " whether slavery was voted down or voted up " in the Territories, he had opposed the Lecompton Constitution on the ground of its non- submission to popular vote, and that this opposi- tion caused the Buchanan Democrats to treat him as an apostate. Many earnest Republicans were moved to strong sympathy for Douglas in this i THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 139 attitude, partly for his help in defeating the Le- compton iniquity, partly because they believed his action in this particular a prelude to further political repentance, partly out of that chivalric generosity of human nature which sides with the weak against the strong. In the hour of his trial and danger many wishes for his successful reelec- tion came to him from Republicans of national prominence. Grreele y, in the New York " Tribune " as well as in private letters, made no concealment of such a desire. Burlingame, in a fervid speech in the House of Representatives, called upon the young men of the country to stand by the Douglas men. It was known that Colfax and other influen- tial members of the House were holding confiden- tial interviews with Douglas, the object of which it was not difficult to guess. There were even rumors that Seward intended to interfere in his behalf. This report was bruited about so industriously that he felt it necessary to permit a personal friend to write an emphatic denial, so that it might come to Lincoln's knowledge. On the other hand, newspapers ventured the suggestion that Lincoln might retaliate by a combination against Seward's Presidential aspirations. Rival politicians in Illinois were suspicious of each other, and did not hesitate to communicate their suspicions to Lincoln. Personal friends, of course, kept him well informed about these various political under-currents, and an interesting letter of his shows that he received and treated the mat- ter with liberal charity. "I have never said or thought more," wrote he, "as to the inclination of some of our Eastern Republican friends to favor Chaf. VIII. See O. J. Hollister, "Life of Colfax," pp. 119-22. J. Watson Webb to Bates, June 9, 1858. MS. Wentworth to Lincoln, April 19, 1858. MS. 140 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. viir. Douglas, than I expressed in your hearing on the evening of the 21st April, at the State Library in this place. I have believed — do believe now — that Grreeley, for instance, wonld be rather pleased to see Douglas reelected over me or any other Eepublican ; and yet I do not believe it is so because of any secret arrangement with Douglas — it is because he thinks Douglas's superior position, reputation, experience, and ability, if you please, would more than compensate for his lack of a pure Eepublican position, and, therefore, his reelection do the general cause of Republicanism more good than would the election of any one of our better undistinguished pui'e Republicans. I do not know how you estimate Greeley, but I consider him in- capable of corruption or falsehood. He denies that he directly is taking part in favor of Douglas, and I believe him.^ Still his feeling constantly mani- fests itself in his paper, which, being so extensively read in Illinois, is, and will continue to be, a drag upon us. I have also thought that Governor 1 It is interesting to compare with Lincoln's letter one from Greeley to a Chicago editor on the same subject: " New York, "July 24, 1858. " My Friend : You have taken your own course — don't try to throw the blame on others. You have repelled Douglas, who might have been conciliated and attached to our own side, what- ever he may now find it necessary to say, or do, and instead of helping us in other States, you have thrown a load upon us that may probably break us down. You knew what was the almost unanimous desire of the Repub- licans of other States ; and you spurned and insulted them. Now go ahead and fight it through. You are in for it, and it does no good to make up wry faces. What I have said in the ' Tri- bune ' since the fight was resolved on, has been in good faith, in- tended to help you tlirough. If Lincoln would fight up to the work also, you might get through — if he apologizes, and retreats, he is lost, and all others go down with him. His first Springfield speech (at the convention) was in the right key; his Chicago THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 141 Seward, too, feels about as Greeley does ; but not chap. vm. being a newspaper editor, his feeling in this respect is not much manifested. I have no idea that he is, by conversation or by letter, urging Illinois Eepub- licans to vote for Douglas. "As to myself, let me pledge you my word that neither I nor my friends, so far as I know, have been setting stake against Governor Seward. No com- bination has been made with me, or proposed to me, in relation to the next Presidential candidate. The same thing is true in regard to the next Gov- ernor of our State. I am not directly or indirectly committed to any one ; nor has any one made any advance to me upon the subject. I have had many free conversations with John Wentworth ; but ho never dropped a remark that led me to suspect that he wishes to be Governor. Indeed it is due to truth to say that while he has uniformly expressed himself for me, he has never hinted at any condi- tion. The signs are that we shall have a good con- vention on the 16th, and I think our prospects generally are improving some every day. I believe speech was bad ; and I fear the trouble, and when, having rushed new Springfield speech is worse, in in spite of me, I try to help If he dare not stand on broad you in the struggle you have xm- Eepublican ground, he cannot wisely provoked, I must keep stand at all. That, however, is neutral, so far as may be here- /( is business; he is nowise respon- after. Yours, sible for what I say. I shall (Signed) " Horace Greeley. stand on the broad antislavery "J. Medill, Esq., Chicago, ground, which I have occupied (very) 111. for years. I cannot change it to " What have I ever said in favor help your fight; and I should only of 'Negro equality' with reference damage you if I did. You have to your fight ? I recollect noth- got your Elephant — you would ing." have him — now shoulder him! The above is from a manuscript He is not so very heavy, after all. copy of Greeley's letter, but it As I seem to displease you equally bears internal evidence of gen- when I try to keep you out of uineness. 142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VIII. Lincoln to Wilson, June 1,1858. MS. Lincoln to Crittenden, July 7, 1858. Mrs. Coleman, " Life ot Critten- den, "Vol. II., p. 162. Crittenden to Lincoln, July 29, 1858. Ibid., p. 163. Crittenden to Dickey, August 1, 1858. Ibid., p. 164. we need nothing so much as to get rid of unjust suspicions of one another." While many alleged defections were soon dis- proved by the ready and loyal avowals of his friends in Illinois and elsewhere, there came to him a serious disappointment from a quarter whence he little expected it. Early in the canvass Lincoln began to hear that Crittenden, of Ken- tucky, favored the reelection of Douglas, and had promised so to advise the Whigs of Illinois by a public letter. Deeming it weU-nigh incredible that a Kentucky Whig like Crittenden could take such a part against an Illinois Whig of his own standing and service, to help a life-long opponent of Clay and his cherished plans, Lincoln addressed him a private letter making the direct inquiry. " I do not believe the story," he wrote, " but still it gives me some uneasiness. If such was your inclination, I do not believe you would so express yourself. It is not in character with you as I have always estimated you." Crittenden's reply, however, con- firmed his worst fears. He said he and Douglas had acted together to oppose Lecompton. For this Douglas had been assailed, and he thought his reelection was necessary to rebuke the Buchanan Administration. In addition Crittenden also soon wrote the expected letter for publication, in which phraseology of apparent fairness covered an urgent appeal in Douglas's behalf. In the evenly balanced and sensitive condition of Illinois politics this ungracious outside interfer- ence may be said to have insured Lincoln's defeat. While it gave him pain to be thus wounded in the house of his friends, he yet more deeply deplored THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 143 the inexcusable blunder of leaders whose misplaced chap. viii. sympathy put in jeopardy the success of a vital political principle. In his convention speech he had forcibly stated the error and danger of such a step. " How can he [Douglas] oppose the advances of slavery I He don't care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the 'public heart' to care nothing about it. . . For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into the new Territories. Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought cheapest? And unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa than in Vkginia. He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property. . . Now as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas's posi- tion, question his motives, or do aught that can be personally offensive to him. Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on principle so that our great cause may have assistance from his great ability, I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. But clearly he is not now with us — he does not pretend to be — he does not promise ever Do^ugias +n Vvd " Debates, LU ue. pp 4_5 Lincoln in nowise underrated the severity of the political contest in which he was about to engage. He knew his opponent's strong points as well as his weak ones — his energy, his adroitness, the blind devotion of his followers, his greater political fame. "Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown," he said. "All the anxious politicians of his party, or who have been of his party for years past, have been looking upon him as certainly at no distant 144 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VIII. day to be the President of the United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face post- oflSces, land-of&ces, niarshalships, and cabinet ap- pointments, charge-ships and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuber- ance ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands. And as they have been gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they cannot, in the little distraction that has taken place in the party, bring themselves to give up the charming hope ; but with greedier anxiety they rush about him, sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries, and receptions, beyond what even in the days of his highest prosperity they could have brought about in his favor. On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out. These are disadvantages all taken together, that the Republicans labor under. We have to fight this battle upon principle, and principle alone." Douglas and his friends had indeed entered upon the canvass with an unusual flourish of trumpets. Music, banners, salutes, fireworks, addresses, ova- tion, and jubilation with enthusiasm genuine and simulated, came and went in almost uninterrupted sequence ; so much of the noise and pomp of electioneering had not been seen since the famous hard-cider campaign of Harrison. The " Little Giant," as he was proudly nicknamed by his adher- ents, arrived in Illinois near midsummer, after elaborate preparation and heralding, and made speeches successively at Chicago, Bloomington, and Springfield on the 9th, 16th, and 17th of July. The Lincoln, Springfield Speech, July 17, 1858. Debates, p. 55. 1858. ANSON BURLINGAMK. THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 145 Republicans and their candidate were equally alert chap. viii. to contest every inch of gi'ound. Mr. Lincoln made speeches in reply at Chicago on the 10th and at Springfield on the evening of Douglas's day address ; and in both instances with such force and success as portended a fluctuating and long- continued struggle. For the moment the presence of Douglas not only gave spirit and fresh industry to his fol- lowers, but the novelty impressed the indiffer- ent and the wavering. The rush of the campaign was substituting excitement for inquiry, blare of brass bands and smoke of gunpowder for in- telligent criticism. The fame and prestige of the "Little Giant" was beginning to incline the vi- brating scale, Lincoln and his intimate political advisers were not slow to note the signs of danger ; and the remedy devised threw upon him the bur- den of a new responsibility. It was decided in the councils of the Republican leaders that Lincoln should challenge Douglas to joint public debate. The challenge was sent by Lincoln on July 24 ; Douglas proposed that they should meet at the towns of Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton, each speaker alter- nately to open and close the discussion ; Douglas to speak one hour at Ottawa, Lincoln to reply for an hour and a half, and Douglas to make a half hour's rejoinder. In like manner Lin- coln should open and close at Freeport, and so on alternately. Lincoln's note of July 31 accepted the proposal as made. "Although by the terms," he wrote, " as you propose, you take four openings and closes to my three, I accede and thus close the Vol. IL— 10 146 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VIII. arrangement." Meanwhile each, of the speakers made independent appointments for other days and places than these seven ; and in the heat and dust of midsummer traveled and addressed the people for a period of about one hundred days, frequently making the necessary journeys by night, and often speaking two and sometimes even three times in a single day. Thus to the combat of intellectual skill was added a severe ordeal of physical endurance.^ Lincoln entered upon the task which his party friends had devised with neither bravado nor misgi\ang. He had not sought these public discussions; neither did he shrink from them. Throughout his whole hfe he appears to have been singularh^ correct in his estimate of difiS.culties to be encountered and of his own powers for over- coming them. Each of these seven meetings, comprising both the Republican and Democratic voters of the neighboring counties, formed a vast, eager, and attentive assemblage. It needed only the first day's experience to show the wisdom of the Republican leaders in forcing a joint discus- sion upon Douglas. Face to face with his com- petitor, he could no longer successfully assume airs of superiority, or wrap himself in his Senatorial dignity and prestige. They were equal spokes- men, of equal parties, on an equal platform, while applause and encouragement on one side balanced applause and encouragement on the other. In a merely forensic sense, it was indeed a battle ^ "Last year in the Illinois can- Speech.] This was between July vass I made just 130 speech- 9 and November 2, 1858, just es." — [Douglas, Wooster (O.) 100 days, exclusive of Sundays. THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 147 of giants. In the whole field of American politics chap. viii. no man has equaled Douglas in the expedients and strategy of debate. Lacking originality and con- structive logic, he had great facility in appropri- ating by ingenious restatement the thoughts and formulas of others. He was tireless, ubiquitous, unseizable. It would have been as easy to hold a globule of mercury under the finger's tip as to fasten him to a point he desired to evade. He could almost invert a proposition by a plausible paraphrase. He delighted in enlarging an oppo- nent's assertion to a forced inference ridiculous in form and monstrous in dimensions. In spirit he was alert, combative, aggressive; in manner, patronizing and arrogant by turns. Lincoln's mental equipment was of an entirely different order. His principal weapon was direct, unswerving logic. His fairness of statement and generosity of admission had long been proverbial. For these intellectual duels with Douglas, he possessed a power of analysis that easily outran and circumvented the "Little Giant's" most ex- traordinary gymnastics of argument. But, dis- daining mere quibbles, he pursued lines of concise reasoning to maxims of constitutional law and political morals. Douglas was always forcible in statement and bold in assertion ; but Lincoln was his superior in quaint originality, aptness of phrase, and subtlety of definition ; and oftentimes Lincoln's philosophic vision and poetical fervor raised him to flights of eloquence which were not possible to the fiber and temper of his opponent. It is, of course, out of the question to abridge the various Lincoln-Douglas discussions of which the 148 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VIII. text fills a good-sizecl volume. Only a few points of controversy may be stated. Lincoln's convention speech, it will be remembered, declared that in his belief the Union could not endure permanently half slave and half free, but must become all one thing or all the other. Douglas in his first speech of the campaign attacked this as an invitation to a war of sections, declaring that uniformity would lead to consolidation and despotism. He charged the Re- publicans with intent to abolish slavery in the States; said theu* opposition to the Dred Scott decision was a desire for negro equality and amal- gamation; and prescribed his dogma of popular sovereignty as a panacea for all the ills growing out of the slavery agitation. To this Lincoln replied that Republicans did not aim at abolition in the slave States, but only the exclusion of slavery from free Territories ; they did not oppose the Dred Scott decision in so far as it concerned the freedom of Dred Scott, but they refused to accept its dicta as rules of political action. He repelled the accusation that the Republicans desired negro equality or amalgamation, saying: "There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever for- bid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality ; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwith- standing all this there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independ- THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 149 Lincoln- Douglas Debates, p. 75. euce — the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit chap, vm of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Doug- las he is not my equal in many respects — certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment ; but in the right to eat the bread with- out the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Doug- las and the equal of every living man." In return he pressed upon Douglas his charge of a political conspiracy to nationalize slavery, alleg- ing that his " don't care " policy was but the conven- ient stalking-horse under cover of which a new Dred Scott decision would make slavery lawful everywhere. It is merely for the Supreme Court to decide that no State under the Constitution can exclude it, just as they have already decided that under the Constitution neither Congress nor the Territorial Legislature can do it. When that is decided and acquiesced in, the whole thing is done. This being true, and this being the way, as I think, that slavery is to be made national, let us consider what Judge Douglas is doing every day to that end. In the fii'st place, let us see what influence he is exerting on public sentiment. In this and hke communities public senti- ment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail ; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes stat- utes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed. The Democratic policy in regard to that institution will not tolerate the merest breath, the slightest hint, of the least degree of wrong about it. Try it by some of Judge Douglas's arguments. He says he " don't care whether it is voted up or voted down " in the Territories. I do not care myself, in dealing with that expression, whether it is intended to be expressive of his individual sentiments on the subject, or only of the national policy he desires to Ibid., p. 82. 150 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VIII. have established. It is alike valuable for my pui-pose. Any man can say that who does not see anything wrong in slavery, but no man can logically say it who does see a wrong in it ; because no man can logically say he don't care whether a wrong is voted up or voted down. He may say he don't care whether an indifferent thing is voted up or down, but he must logically have a choice between a right thing and a wrong thing. He contends that whatever community wants slaves has a right to have them. So they have, if it is not a wrong. But if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right to do wrong. He says that upon the score of equality slaves should be allowed to go into a new Territory, like other property. This is strictly logical if there is no difference between it and other property. If it and other property are equal, his argument is entirely logical. But if you insist that one is wi'ong and the other right, there is no use to institute a comparison between right and wrong. You may turn over everything in the Democratic policy from beginning to end, whether in the shape it takes on the statute book, in the shape it takes in the Dred Scott decision, in the shape it takes in conversation, or the shape it takes in short maxira-like arguments — it everywhere carefuUy excludes the idea that there is anything wrong in it. That is the real issue. That is the issue that will con- tinue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time ; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the com- mon right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle, in whatever shape it de- velops itself. It is the same spirit that says, '' You work and toil and earn bread, and I '11 eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men Dmigias as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same ?p!^233^'. tyrannical principle. As to the vaunted popular sovereignty principle, THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 151 Lincoln declared it " the most arrant Quixotism chaf. viii. that was ever enacted before a community. . . Does he mean to say that he has been devoting his life to securing to the people of the Territories the right to exclude slavery from the Territories ? If he means so to say, he means to deceive ; because he and every one knows that the decision of the Supreme Court, which he approves and makes especial ground of attack upon me for disapprov- ing, forbids the people of a Territory to exclude slavery. This covers the whole ground from the settlement of a Territory till it reaches the degree of maturity entitling it to form a State constitution. So far as all that ground is concerned, the Judge is not sustaining popular sovereignty, but abso- lutely opposing it. He sustains the decision which declares that the popular will of the Territories has no constitutional power to exclude slavery during DougiaH their territorial existence." ^p^'U!'"' By no means the least interesting of the many points touched in these debates is Lincoln's own estimate of the probable duration of slavery, or rather of the least possible period in which " ulti- mate extinction " could be effected, even under the most favorable circumstances. Now, at this day in the history of the world [said he, in the Charleston debate], we can no more foretell where the end of this slavery agitation will be than we can see the end of the world itself. The Nebraska-Kansas bill was introduced four years and a half ago, and if the agi- tation is ever to come to an end, we may say we are four years and a half nearer the end. So too we can say we are four years and a half nearer the end of the world ; and we can just as clearly see the end of the world as we can see the end of this agitation. The Kansas settle- 152 ABRAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. VIII. ment did not conclude it. If Kansas should sink to-day, and leave a great vacant space in the earth's surface, this vexed question would still be among us. I say then there is no way of putting an end to the slaverj^ agita- tion amongst us, but to put it back upon the basis where our fathers placed it, no way but to keep it out of our new Territories — to restrict it forever to the old States where it now exists. Then the public mind will rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction. That is one way of putting an end to the slavery agitation. The other way is for us to surrender and let Judge Douglas and his friends have their way and plant slavery over all the States ; cease speaking of it as in any way a wrong ; regard slavery as one of the common matters of property and speak of negroes as we do of our horses and cattle. But while it drives on in its state of progress as it is now driving, and as it has driven for the last five years, I have ventured the opinion, and I say to-day that we will have no end to the slavery agitation until it takes one turn or the other. I do not mean to say that when it takes a turn towards ultimate extinction it will be in a day, nor in a year, nor in two years. I do not suppose that in the most peaceful way ultimate extinction would occur in less than a hundred years at least ; but that it will occur in the best way for both races, in God's own good time, I have no doubt. I,incolu- Douglas Debates, p. 157. But the one dominating characteristic of Lin- coln's speeches is their constant recurrence to broad and enduring principles, their unremitting effort to lead public opinion to loftier and nobler conceptions of political duty ; and nothing in his career stamps him so distinctively an American as his constant eulogy and defense of the philosoph- ical precepts of the Declaration of Independence. The following is one of his indictments of his political opponents on this point : At Galesburg the other day, I said, in answer to Judge Douglas, that three years ago there never had been a THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 153 man, so far as I knew or believed, in the whole world, chap. viii. who had said that the Declaration of Independence did not inclnde negroes in the term " all men." I re-assert it to-day. I assert that Judge Douglas and all his friends may search the whole records of the country, and it will be a matter of great astonishment to me if they shall be able to find that one human being three years ago had ever uttered the astounding sentiment that the term " all men " in the Declaration did not include the negro. Do not let me be misunderstood. I know that more than three years ago there were men who, finding this asser- tion constantly in the way of their schemes to bring about the ascendency and perpetuation of slavery, denied the truth of it. I know that Mr. Calhoun and all the politicians of his school denied the truth of the Declara- tion. I know that it ran along in the mouth of some Southern men for a period of years, ending at last in that shameful though rather forcible declaration of Pettit, of Indiana, upon the floor of the United States Senate, that the Declaration of Independence was in that respect '' a self-evident lie " rather than a self-evident truth. But I say, with a perfect knowledge of all this hawking at the Declaration without directly attacking it, that three years ago there never had lived a man who had ventured to ' assail it in the sneaking way of pretending to believe it and then asserting it did not include the negro. I believe the first man who ever said it was Chief -Justice Taney in the Dred Scott case, and the next to him was our friend, Stephen A. Douglas. And now it has become the catch- word of the entire party. I would like to call upon his friends everywhere to consider how they have come in so short a time to view this matter in a way so entirely different from their former belief; to ask whether they are not being borne along by an irresistible current, whither they know not 1 In the joint debates, however, argument ^nd oratory were both hampered by the inexorable limit of time. For the full development of his thought, the speeches Lincoln made separately at other places afforded him a freer opportunity. A Lincoln- Douglas Debates, p. 225. 154 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. VIII. quotatioii froiH his language on one of these occa- sions is therefore here added, as a better illustra- tion of his style and logic, where his sublime theme carried him into one of his more impassioned moods : The Declaration of Independence was formed by the representatives of American liberty from thirteen States of the Confederacy, twelve of which were slave-holding commnnities. We need not discuss the way or the reason of their becoming slave-holding communities. It is suffi- cient for our purpose that all of them greatly deplored the evil and that they placed a provision in the Constitu- tion which they supposed would gradually remove the disease by cutting off its source. This was the abolition of the slave trade. So general was the conviction, the public determination, to abolish the African slave trade, that the provision which I have referred to as being placed in the Constitution declared that it should not be abolished prior to the year 1808. A constitutional pro- vision was necessary to prevent the people, through Con- gress, from putting a stop to the traffic immediately at the close of the war. Now if slavery had been a good thing, would the fathers of the republic have taken a step calcidated to diminish its beneficent influences among themselves, and snatch the boon wholly from their posterity ? These comnninities, by their represent- atives in old Independence Hall, said to the whole world of men : '' We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Uni- verse. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble under- standing of the justice of the Creator to his creatures. Yes, gentlemen, to all his creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to he trodden on and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 155 the farthest posterity. They erected a beacon to guide chap-viii. their children, and their children's children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tend- ency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they estab- lished these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, or none but Anglo-Saxon white men, were entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began, so that truth and jus- tice aud mercy and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land ; so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was being built. Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence ; if you have listened to suggestions which would take away from its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions ; if you have been in- clined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the revolution. Think nothing of me — take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever — but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independ- ence. You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to l^e actuated in this contest by some- thing higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. Ifc is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that immortal emblem of Humanity — the Declaration of American Independence.! 1 Lincoln's Lewiston Speech, August 17, 1858. Chicago ''Press and Tribune." CHAPTER IX THE FREEPORT DOCTRINE Chap. IX. Lincoln- Douglas Debates, p. 68. WHAT has thus far been quoted has been less to illustrate the leading lines of discussion, than to explain more fully the main historical inci- dent of the debates. In the first joint discussion at Ottawa, in the northern or antislavery part of Illi- nois, Douglas read a series of strong antislavery resolutions which he erroneously alleged Lincoln had taken part in framing and passing. He said : " My object in reading these resolutions was to put the question to Abraham Lincoln this day whether he now stands and will stand by each article in that creed and carry it out. . . I ask Abraham Lincoln to answer these questions in order that when I trot him down to lower Egypt ^ I may put the same questions to him." ^ 1 A local nickname by which the southern or pro-slavery portion of Illinois was familiarly known. 2 DOUGLAS'S QUESTIONS AND LINCOLN'S ANSWERS. " Qu£stion 1. 'I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal of the fugi- tive-slave law ? ' Ansicer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the uncon- ditional repeal of the fugitive- slave law. Q. 2. * I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to- day, as he did in 1854, against the admission of any more slave States into the Union even if the people want them ? ' J. I do not now, nor ever did, stand pledged against the admis- sion of anymore slave States into the Union. Q. 3. 'I want to know whether he stands pledged against the 156 THE FEEEPORT DOCTRINE 157 In preparing a powerful appeal to local prejudice, chap. ix. Douglas doubtless knew lie was handling a two- edged sword ; but we shall see that he little appre- ciated the skill with which his antagonist would wield the weapon he was placing in his hands. At their second joint meeting, at Freeport, also in northern Illinois, Lincoln, who now had the open- ing speech, said, referring to Douglas's speech at Ottawa : " I do him no injustice in saying that he occupied at least half of his reply in dealing with me as though I had refused to answer his interrog- atories. I now propose that I will answer any of the interrogatories, upon condition that he will answer questions from me not exceeding the same number. I give him an opportunity to respond. The judge remains silent. I now say that I will answer his interrogatories, whether he answers admission of a new State into he stands pledged to prohibit the Union with such a constitu- slavery in all the Territories of tion as the people of that State the United States, north as well may see fit to make ? ' as south of the Missouri Oom- A. I do not stand pledged promise line?' against the admission of a new A. I am impliedly if not ex- State into the Union with such pressly pledged to a belief in the a constitution as the people of right and duty of Congress to that State may see fit to make, prohibit slavery in all the United Q. 4. 'I want to know whether States Territories. he stands to-day pledged to the Q. 7. 'I desire him to answer abolition of slavery in the Dis- whether he is opposed to the triet of Columbia ? ' acquisition of any new territory A. Ido not stand to-day pledged unless slavery is first prohibited to the abolition of slavery in the therein ? ' District of Columbia. A. I am not generally opposed Q. 5. *I desire him to answer to honest acquisition of territory; whether he stands pledged to and, in any given case, I would or the prohibition of the slave trade would not oppose such acquisition between the different States ? ' accordingly as I might think such ^. I do not stand pledged to acquisition would or would not the prohibition of the slave trade aggravate the slavery question between the different States. among ourselves." — Lincoln- Q. 6. ' I desire to know whether Douglas Debates, p. 88. 158 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IX. Lincoln- Douglas Debates, p. 87. mine or not ; and that after I have done so, I shall propound mine to him." Lincoln then read his answers to the seven ques- tions which had been asked him, and proposed four in return, the second one of which ran as follows : " Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits, prior to the formation of a State constitution?"^ To comprehend the full force of this interroga- tory, the reader must recall the fact that the "popular sovereignty" of the Nebraska bill was couched in vague language, and qualified with the proviso that it was " subject to the Constitution." The caucus which framed this phraseology agreed, as a compromise between Northern and Southern Democrats, that the courts should interpret and define the constitutional limitations, by which all should abide. The Dred Scott decision declared in terms that Congress could not prohibit slavery in Territories nor authorize a Territorial Legisla- ture to do so. The Dred Scott decision had thus annihilated " popular sovereignty." Would Doug- 1 Lincoln's questions. "Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall, by means entirely unobjectionable in all other re- spects, adopt a State constitution, and ask admission into the Union under it, before they have the requisite number of inhabitants according to the English bill, — some 93,000, — will you vote to admit them ? Q. 2, Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citi- zen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits, prior to the formation of a State consti- tution ? Q. 3. If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that States cannot exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing in, adopting, and following such decision as a rule of political action ? Q. 4. Are you in favor of ac- quiring additional territory, in disregard of how such acquisi- tion may affect the nation on the slavery question ? " — Lincoln- Douglas Debates, p. 90. THE FEEEPORT DOCTEINE 159 las admit his blunder in law, and his error in chap. ix. statesmanship ? He had already faced and partly evaded this dilemma in his Springfield speech of 1857, but that was a local declaration and occurred before his Lecompton revolt, and the ingenious sophism then put forth had attracted little notice. Since that time things had materially changed. He had op- posed Lecompton, become a party recusant, and been declared a party apostate. His Senatorial term was closing, and he had to look to an evenly balanced if not a hostile constituency for reelection. The Buchanan Administration was putting forth what feeble strength it had in Illinois to insure his defeat. His Democratic rivals were scrutinizing every word he uttered. He stood before the peo- ple to whom he had pledged his word that the voters of Kansas might regulate their own do- mestic concerns. They would tolerate no juggling nor evasion. There remained no resource but to answer Yes, and he could conjure up no justifica- tion of such an answer except the hollow subter- fuge he had invented the year before. Lincoln clearly enough comprehended the dilem- ma and predicted the expedient of his antagonist. He had framed his questions and submitted them to a consultation of shrewd party friends. This one especially was the subject of anxious delibera- tion and serious disagreement. Nearly a month before, Lincoln in a private letter accurately fore- shadowed Douglas's course on this question. "You shall have hard work to get him directly to the point whether a Territorial Legislature has or has not the power to exclude slavery. But if you 160 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IX. succeed in bringing him to it — though he will be compelled to say it possesses no such power — he will instantly take ground that slavery cannot actually exist in the Territories unless the people desire it, and so give it protection by Territorial legislation. If this offends the South, he will let it Asbury." offcud them, as at all events he means to hold on to 1858. ' his chances in Illinois." There is a tradition that on the night preceding this Freeport debate Lin- coln was catching a few hours' rest, at a railroad center named Mendota, to which place the con- verging trains brought after midnight a number of excited Republican leaders, on their way to attend the great meeting at the neighboring to^vn of Free- port. Notwithstanding the late hour, Mr. Lincoln's bedi'oom was invaded by an improvised caucus, and the ominous question was once more brought under consideration. The whole drift of advice ran against putting the interrogatory to Douglas ; but Lincoln persisted in his determination to force him to answer it. Finally his friends in a chorus cried out, "If you do, you can never be Senator." " Gentlemen," replied Lincoln, " I am killing larger game ; if Douglas answers, he can never be Presi- dent, and the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." When Lincoln had finished his opening speech in the Freeport debate, and Douglas in his reply came to interrogatory number two, which Lincoln had propounded, he answered as follows : The next question propounded to me by Mr. Lincoln is, Can the people of a Territory in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from their limits, prior to the formation STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. THE FREEPORT DOCTRINE 161 of a State constitution f I answer emphatically, as Mr. chap, ix Lincoln lias lieard rne answer a hundred times from every stump in Illinois, that in my opinion the people of a Ter- ritory can, by lawful means, exclude slavery from their limits, prior to the formation of a State constitution. Mr. Lincoln knew that I had answered that question over and over again. He heard me argue the Nebraska bill on that principle all over the State in 1854, in 1855, and in 1856, and he has no excuse for pretending to be in doubt as to my position on that question. It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a Territory under the Constitution, the people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it, as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be estab- lished by the local Legislature, and if the people are opposed to slavery they will elect representatives to that body who will by unfriendly legislation effectually pre- vent the introduction of it into their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and complete under the Nebraska bill. I hope Mr. Lincoln deems my answer satisfactory on that point. The remarkable theory here proposed was im- mediately taken up and exhaustively discussed by the leading newspapers in all parts of the Union, and thereby became definitely known under the terms " unfriendly leg;islation " and " Freeport doc- trine." Mr. Lincoln effectually disposed of it in the following fashion in the joint debate at Alton : I understand I have ten minutes yet. I will employ it in saying something about this argument Judge Douglas uses, while he sustains the Dred Scott decision, that the people of the Territories can still somehow exclude slavery. Vol. II.— 11 Lincoln- Douglas Debates, p. 95. 162 ABRAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. IX. The first thing I ask attention to is the fact that Judge Douglas constantly said, before the decision, that whether they could or not, was a question for the Supreme Court. But after the com*t has made the decision he virtually says it is not a question for the Supreme Court, but for the people. And how is it he tells us they can exclude it ? He said it needs " police regulations," and that admits of '' unfriendly legislation." Although it is a right established by the Constitution of the United States to take a slave into a Territory of the United States and hold him as property, yet unless the Territorial Legisla- ture will give friendly legislation, and, more especially, if they adopt unfriendly legislation, they can practically ex- clude him. Now, without meeting this proposition as a matter of fact, I pass to consider the real constitutional obligation. Let me take the gentleman who looks me in the face before me, and let us suppose that he is a member of the Territorial Legislature. The first thing he will do will be to swear that he will support the Constitution of the United States. His neighbor by his side in the Ter- ritory has slaves and needs Territorial legislation to enable him to enjoy that constitutional right. Can he withhold the legislation which his neighbor needs for the enjoy- ment of a right which is fixed in his favor in the Consti- tution of the United States, Avhich he has sworn to support? Can he withhold it without violating his oath ? and more especially, can he pass unfriendly legislation to violate his oath ? Why this is a monstrous sort of talk about the Constitution of the United States ! There has never been as outlandish or lawless a doctrine from the mouth of any respectable man on earth. I do not believe it is a consti- tutional right to hold slaves in a Territory of the United States. I believe the decision was improperly made, and I go for reversing it. Judge Douglas is furious against those who go for reversing a decision. But he is for Lincoiu- legislating it out of all force, while the law itself stands. Douglas I repeat that there has never been so monstrous a doc- pp. 234-5! trine uttered from the mouth of a respectable man. The aunouncement and subsequent defense by Douglas of liis "Freeport doctrine" proved, as Lin- THE FREEPORT DOCTRINE 1G3 coin had predicted, something more important than chap. ix. a mei-e campaign incident. It was the turning- point in Douglas's political fortunes. With the whole South, and with a few prominent politicians of the North, it served to put him outside the pale of party fellowship. Compared with this his Lecompton revolt had been a venial offense. In that case he had merely contended for the machin- ery of a fair popular vote. This was the avowal of a principle as obnoxious to the slavery propa- ganda as the unqualified abolitionism of Giddings and Lovejoy. Henceforth all hope of reconcili- ation, atonement, or chance of Presidential nomi- nation by the united Democratic party was out of the question. Before this, newspaper zealots had indeed denounced him for his Lecompton recu- sancy as a traitor and renegade, and the Admin- istration had endeavored to secure his defeat ; now, however, in addition, the party high-priests put him under solemn ban of excommunication. How they felt and from what motives they acted is stated with singular force and frankness in a Senate speech, soon after the Charleston Conven- tion, by Senator Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, one of the ablest and most persistent of the con- spirators to nationalize slavery, and who, not long after, was one of the principal actors in the great rebellion : Up to the years 1857 and 1858 no man in this nation had a higher or more exalted opinion of the character, the services, and the political integrity of the Senator from Illinois [Douglas] than I had. . . Sir, it has been with reluctance and sorrow that I have been obliged to pluck down my idol from his place on high, and to refuse to him any more support or confidence as a member of 164 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chaf. IX. Benjamin, Senate Speech, May 22, 1860. Pamphlet. 1868. the party. I have done so, 1 trust, upon no light or un- worthy ground. I have not done so alone. The causes that have operated on me have operated on the Demo- cratic party of the United States, and have operated an effect which the whole future life of the Senator will be utterly unable to obliterate. It is impossible that confi- dence thus lost can be restored. On what ground has that confidence been forfeited, and why is it that we now refuse him our support and fellowship ? I have stated our reasons to-day. I have appealed to the record. I have not followed him back in the false issue or the feigned traverse that he makes in relation to matters that are not now in contest between him and the Demo- cratic party. The question is not what we all said or believed in 1850 or in 1856. How idle was it to search ancient precedents and accumulate old quotations from what Senators may have at different times said in rela- tion to their principles and views. The precise point, the direct arraignment, the plain and explicit allegation made against the Senator from Illinois is not touched by him in all of his speech. We accuse him for this, to wit : that having bargained with us upon a point upon which we were at issue, that it should be considered a judicial point ; that he would abide the decision ; that he would act under the decision, and consider it a doctrine of the party ; that having said that to us here in the Senate, he went home, and under the stress of a local election, his knees gave way : his whole person trembled. His adversary stood upon prin- ciple and was beaten ; and lo ! he is the candidate of a mighty party for the Presidency of the United States. The Senator from Illinois faltered. He got the prize for which he faltered ; but lo ! the grand prize of his ambition to-day slips from his grasp because of his faltering in his former contest, and his success in the canvass for the Senate, purchased for an ignoble price, has cost him the loss of the Presidency of the United States. The Senatorial canvass in Illinois came to a close with the election on the 2d of November and resulted in a victory for Douglas. The Repub- THE FREEPOKT DOCTRINE 165 licans, on their State ticket, polled 125,430 votes ; chap. ix. the Douglas Democrats, 121,609; the Buchanau Democrats, 5071. By this plurality the Republican State officers were chosen. But in respect to mem- bers of the Legislature the case stood differently, and when in the following January the Senatorial election took place in joint session of the two Houses, Douglas received the vote of every Demo- crat, 54 members, and Lincoln the vote of every Republican, 46 members, whereupon Douglas Was declared elected Senator of the United States for six years from the 4th of March, 1859. The main cause of Lincoln's defeat was the un- fairness of the existing apportionment, which was based upon the census of 1850. A fair apportion- ment, based on the changes of population which had occurred, would have given northern Illinois a larger representation ; and it was there the Repub- licans had recruited their principal strength in the recent transformation of parties. The Republicans estimated that this circumstance caused them a loss of six to ten members. But the unusual political combinations also had a large influence on the result. Lincoln, in an Ohio speech made in the following year, address- ing himself to Kentuckians, thus summarized the political forces that contributed to his defeat: "Douglas had three or four very distinguished men of the most extreme antislavery views of any men in the Republican party expressing their desire for his reelection to the Senate last year. That would of itself have seemed to be a little wonderful, but that wonder is heightened when we see that Wise, of Vii'ginia, a man exactly opposed 166 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IX. Lincoln. Cincinnati Speech, Sept. 17, 1859. Debates, p. 263. to them, a man who believes in the divine right of slavery, was also expressing his desire that Doug- las should be reelected; that another man that may be said to be kindred to Wise, Mr. Breckin- ridge, the Vice-President, and of your own State, was also agi'eeing with the antislavery men in the North, that Douglas ought to be reelected. Still to heighten the wonder, a Senator from Kentucky, whom I have always loved with an affection as tender and endearing as I have ever loved any man, who was opposed to the antislavery men for reasons which seemed sufficient to him and equally opposed to Wise and Breckinridge, was wi'iting letters to Illinois to secure the reelection of Doug- las. Now that all these conflicting elements should be brought, while at daggers' points with one an- other, to support him, is a feat that is worthy for you to note and consider. It is quite probable that each of these classes of men thought, by the reelection of Douglas, their peculiar views would gain something ; it is probable that the antislavery men thought their views would gain something; that Wise and Breckinridge thought so too, as re- gards their opinions ; that Mr. Crittenden thought that his views would gain something although he was opposed to both these other men. It is prob- able that each and all of them thought they were using Douglas, and it is yet an unsolved problem whether he was not using them all." After a hundred consecutive days of excitement, of intense mental strain, and of unremitting bodily exertion, after speech-making and parades, music and bonfires, it must be something of a trial to face at once the mortification of defeat, the weari- THE FREEPORT DOCTRINE 167 ness of intellectual and physical reaction, and the chap. ix. dull commonplace of daily routine. Letters writ- ten at this period show that under these conditions Mr. Lincoln remained composed, patient, and hopeful. Two weeks after election he wrote thus to Mr. Judd, a member of the Legislature and Chairman of the Republican State Central Commit- tee : "I have the pleasure to inform you that I am convalescing and hoping these lines may find you in the same improving state of health. Doubt- less you have suspected for some time that I entertain a personal wish for a term in the United States Senate; and had the suspicion taken the shape of the dii-ect charge I think I could not have truthfully denied it. But let the past as nothing be. For the future my view is that the fight must go on. The returns here are not yet complete, but it is believed that Dougherty's vote will be slightly greater than Miller's majority over Fondey. We have some 120,000 clear Republican votes. That pile is worth keeping together. It will elect a State ticket two years hence. "In that day I shall fight in the ranks, but shall be in no one's way for any of the places. I am especially for Trumbull's reelection; and, by the way, this brings me to the principal object of this letter. Can you not take your draft of an apportionment bill and carefully revise it till it shall be strictly and obviously just in all particu- lars, and then by an early and persistent effort get enough of the enemies' men to enable you to pass it ? I believe if you and Peck make a job of it, begin early and work earnestly and quietly, you can suc- ceed in it. Unless something be done, Trumbull is 168 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IX. inevitably beateD two years hence. Take this into Lincoln to serious consideration." Judd, Nov. 15, 1858. On the following day he received from Mr. Judd a letter informing him that the funds subscribed for the State Central Committee did not suffice to pay all the election bills, and asking his help to raise additional contributions. To this appeal Lin- coln replied : " Yours of the 15th is just received. I wrote you the same day. As to the pecuniary matter, I am willing to pay according to my ability, but I am the poorest hand living to get others to pay. I have been on expenses so long without earning anything that I am absolutely without money now for even household purposes. Still, if you can put in $250 for me towards dis- charging the debt of the committee, I will allow it when you and I settle the private matter between us. This, with what I have already paid, and with an outstanding note of mine, will exceed my sub- scription of $500. This, too, is exclusive of my ordinary expenses during the campaign, all which being added to my loss of time and business, bears pretty heavily upon one no better off in world's goods than I ; but as I had the post of honor, it is not for me to be over-nice. You are feeling badly iVisss.^' — ' And this too shall pass away.' Never fear." The sting of personal defeat is painful to most men, and doubtless it was so to Lincoln. Yet he regarded the passing struggle as something more than a mere scramble for office, and drew from it the consolation which all earnest workers feel in the consciousness of a task well done. Thus he wrote to a friend on November 19 : " You doubt- less have seen ere this the result of the election THE FEEEPOET DOCTEINE 169 here. Of course I wished, but I did not much expect, a better result. . . I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable question of the age, which I could have had in no other way ; and though I now sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone." To these one other letter may be added, show- ing his never-failing faith in the political future. To a personal friend in Quincy, Illinois, who had watched the campaign with unusual attention, Lincoln wrote that same day : " Yours of the 13th was received some days ago. The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be sur- rendered at the end of one or even one hundred defeats. Douglas had the ingenuity to be sup- ported in the late contest, both as the best means to break down and to uphold the slave interest. No ingenuity can keep these antagonistic elements in harmony long. Another explosion will soon come." Douglas was also greatly exhausted by the wear- ing labors of the campaign ; but he had the notable triumph of an assured reelection to the Senate and the congratulations of his enthusiastic friends to sustain and refresh him. Being an indefatigable worker, he was already organizing a new and more ambitious effort. Three weeks after election he started on a brief tour to the Southern States, making speeches at Memphis and New Orleans, of which further mention will be made in the next chapter. Perhaps he deemed it wise not to proceed immediately to Washington, where Congi*ess con- C'HAP. IX. Lincoln to Dr. Henry, Nov. 19, 1858. M8. Lincoln to Asbury, November 19, 1858. 170 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. IX. vened on the first Monday of December, and thus 1858. to avoid a direct continuance of his battle with the Buchanan Administration. If so, the device proved ineffectual. The President and his partisans were determined to put the author of the " Freeport doctrine " under public ban, and to that end, when Congress organized, one of the first acts of the Senate majority was to depose Douglas from his place as chairman of the Committee on Territories, which he had held in that body for eleven years. CHAPTER X LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES WHEN Lincoln, in opening the Senatorial cam- chap. x. paign of Illinois, declared that the Repub- lican cause must be intrusted to its own undoubted friends " who do care for the result," he displayed a much better understanding of the character and aims of his opponent than those who, not so well informed, desired the adoption of a different course. Had the wishes of Greeley and others pre- vailed, had Douglas been adopted by the Illinois Republicans, the party would have found itself in a fatal dilemma. No sooner was the campaign closed than Douglas, having entered on his tour through the South, began making speeches, apparently de- signed to pave his way to a nomination for Presi- dent by the next Democratic National Convention. Realizing that he had lost ground by his anti- Lecomptonism, and especially by his Freeport doc- trine, and having felt in the late campaign the hostility of the Buchanan Administration, he now sought to recover prestige by publishing more advanced opinions indirectly sustaining and de- fending slavery. Hitherto he had declared he did not care whether ♦ slavery was voted down or voted up. He had said he would not argue the question whether slavery 171 172 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. X. was right or wrong. He had adopted Taney's asser- tion that the negro had no share in the Declaration of Independence. He had asserted that uniformity was impossible, but that freedom and slavery might abide together forever. But now that the election was over and a new term in the Senate secure, he was ready to conciliate pro-slavery opinion with stronger expressions. Hence, in a speech at Mem- phis, he cunningly linked together in argument unfriendly legislation, slavery, and annexation. He said: "Whenever a Territory has a climate, soil, and production making it the interest of the inhabitants to encourage slave property, they will pass a slave code." Wherever these preclude the possibility of slavery being profitable, they will not permit it. On the sugar plantations of Louisiana it was not a question between the white man and the negi'o, bu,t between the negro and the crocodile. He would say that between the negro and the croco- dile, he took the side of the negi^o; but between the negro and the white man, he would go for the white man. The Almighty has di-awn the line on this continent, on the one side of which the soil must be cultivated by slave labor; on the other by white labor. That line did not run on 36° and 30' [the Missouri Compromise line], for 36° and 30' runs over mountains and through valleys. But , this slave line, he said, meanders in the sugar-fields and plantations of the South, and the people living in their different localities and in the Territories must determine for themselves whether their "middle bed" is best adapted to slavery or free labor. LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES 173 Referring to aunexation, he said our destiny had chap. x. forced us to acquire Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and California. " We have now territory enough, but how long will it be enough 1 One hive is enough for one swarm of bees, but a new swarm comes next year and a new hive is wanted." Men may say we shall never want anything more of Mexico, but the time would come when we would be compelled to take more. Central America was half-way to California and on the direct road. The time will come when our destiny, our institutions, our safety will compel us to have it. " So it is," concluded he, " with the island of Cuba. . . It is a Douglas. ' _ Memphis matter of no consequence whether we want it or nov^*2^' not; we are compelled to take it, and we can't MSnie help it." ITSe^" When Douglas reached New Orleans he substan- tially repeated these declarations in another long speech, and, as if he had not yet placed himself in entire harmony with Southern opinion, he added a sentiment almost as remarkable as the "mud- sill" theory of Hammond, or the later "corner- stone" doctrine of Stephens: "It is a law of humanity," said he, "a law of civilization, that whenever a man or a race of men show themselves incapable of managing their own affairs, they must consent to be governed by those who are capable of performing the duty. It is on this principle that you establish those institutions of .charity for the support of the blind, or the deaf and dumb, or the insane. In accordance with this principle, I assert that the negro race, under all circumstances, ^Ne^i^"' at all times, and in all countries, has shown itself spllch^ incapable of self-government." pampwet' 174 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. X. OncG niore, ill a speech at Baltimore, Douglas B^immoi'e ^^P^^ted in substance what he had said at Memphis jau^'^sTissg ^^^ New Orleans, and then in the beginning of Pamphlet. January, 1859, he reached Washington and took his seat in the Senate. Here he began to compre- hend the action of the Democratic caucus in depos- ing him from the chairmanship of the Committee on Territories. His personal influence and prestige among the Southern leaders were gone. Neither his revived zeal for annexation, nor his advanced views on the necessity for slave labor, restored his good-fellowship with the extremists. Although, pursuant to a recommendation in the annual mes- sage, a measure was then pending in the Senate to place thirty millions in the hands of President Buchanan with which to negotiate for Cuba, the attitude of the pro-slavery faction was not one of conciliation, but of unrelenting opposition to him. Towards the close of the short session this feel- ing broke out in an open demonstration. On Feb- ruary 23, while an item of the appropriation bill was under debate. Senator Brown, of Mississippi, said he wanted the success of the Democratic party in 1860 to be a success of principles and not of men. He neither wanted to cheat nor be cheated. Under the decision of the Supreme Court the South would demand protection for slavery in the Territories. If he understood the Senator from Illinois, Mr. Douglas, he thought a Territorial Legislature might by non-action or by unfriendly action rightfully exclude slavery. He dissented from him, and now he would like to know from other Senators from the North what they would do : "If the Territorial Legislature refuses to act. LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES 175 will you act ? If it pass unfriendly acts, will you pass friendly ? If it pass laws hostile to slavery, will you annul them and substitute laws favoring slavery in their stead ? . . . I would rather," concluded he, " see the Democratic party sunk, never to be resur- rected, than to see it successful only that one por- tion of it might practice a fraud on another." Douglas met the issue, and defended his Free- port doctrine without flinching. The Democracy of the North hold, said he, that " if you repudiate the doctrine of non-intervention, and form a slave code by act of Congress, where the people of a Territory refuse it, you must step off the Demo- cratic platform, I tell you, gentlemen of the South, in all candor, I do not believe a Democratic candidate can ever carry any one Democratic State of the North on the platform that it is the duty of the Federal Government to force the people of a Territory to have slavery when they do not want it." The discussion extended itself to other Senators ; Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, Clay, of Alabama, Mason, of Virginia, and Grwin, of California, seconded the demands and arguments of Brown; while Pugh, of Ohio, Broderick, of California, and Stuart, of Michigan, came to the help and defense of Douglas and non-intervention. Several Repub- licans drifted into the debate on behalf of the position and principles of their party, which of course differed from those of both Brown and Douglas. The discussion was continued to a late hour, and finally came to an end through mere lapse of time, but not until an irreparable schism in the Democratic party had been opened. Chap. X. Browii, Senate Speecb, Feb. 23, 1859. " Globe," pp. 1241 et seq. Douglas, Senate Speecb, Feb. 23, 1859. "Globe," pp. 124G-7. 176 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. X. Silence upon so vital an issue could not long be maintained. In the following June, an Iowa friend wrote to Douglas to inquire whether he would be a candidate for the Presidential nomination at the coming Charleston Convention. Douglas replied that party issues must first be defined. If the Democracy adhered to their former principles, his friends would be at liberty to present his name. "If, on the contrar}^," continued he, "it shall be- come the policy of the Democratic party, which I cannot anticipate, to repudiate these their time- honored principles, on which we have achieved so many patriotic triumphs, and in lieu of them the convention shall interpolate into the creed of the party such new issues as the revival of the African slave-trade, or a Congressional slave-code for the Territories, or the doctrine that the Constitution of the United States either establishes or prohibits ^ , , slavery in the Territories beyond the power of the Douglas to -^ ./ i ^°"i859°^ people legally to control it, as other property — it is due to candor to say that, in such an event, I could not accept the nomination if tendered to me." We must leave the career of Douglas for a while, to follow up the personal history of Lincoln. The peculiar attitude of national politics had in the previous year drawn the attention of the whole country to Illinois in a remarkable degree. The Senatorial campaign was hardly opened when a Chicago editor, whose daily examination of a large list of newspaper exchanges brought the fact vividly under his observation, wrote to Lincoln : "You are like Byron, who woke up one morning and found himself famous. People wish to know about you. You have sprung at once from the 22, Baltimore "Sun," June 24, 1859. DAVID COLBKETII BRODERICK. LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES 177 position of a capital fellow, and a leading lawyer in Illinois, to a national reputation." The compliment was fully warranted ; the per- sonal interest in Lincoln increased daily from the beginning to the end of the great debates. The Freeport doctrine and its effect upon the Dem- ocratic party gave these discussions both present significance and a growing interest for the future. Another friend wrote him, a few days after elec- tion : " You have made a noble canvass, which, if unavailing in this State, has earned you a national reputation, and made you friends everywhere." That this was not the mere flattery of partial friends became manifest to him by other indica- tions ; by an increased correspondence filled with general commendation, and particularly by numer- ous invitations to deliver speeches in other States. The Republican Central Committee of New Hamp- shire wrote him that if Douglas came, as was ex- pected, to that State, they desired Lincoln to come and answer him. The Central Committee of Min- nesota wished him to come there and assist in their canvass. There was an incessant commotion in politics throughout the whole North, and as the season advanced calls came from all quarters. Kansas wanted him ; Buffalo, Des Moines, Pitts- buT'gh wanted him; Thurlow Weed telegraphed: " Send Abraham Lincoln to Albany immediately." Not only his presence, but his arguments, and ideas, were in demand. Dennison, making the can- vass for Governor of Ohio, asked for a report of his debates for campaign " material." That men in all parts of the Union were thus turning to him for help and counsel was due, not Vol. II.— 12 Chap. X. Ray to Lincoln, Julj^ 27, 1858. MS. David Davis to Lincoln, Nov. 7, 1858. MS. Delahay to Lincoln, March 15, 1859. MS. Dor.iheimer to Chase, Sept. 12, 1859. MS. Kasson to Lincoln, Sept. 13, 1859. MS. Kirk- patiick to Lincoln, Sept. 15, 1859. MS. Weed to Jndd, Oct. 21,1859. MS. Dennisonto Trumbull, .July 21, 1859. MS. 178 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. X. alone to the publicity and credit lie liad gained in his debates with Douglas in the previous year ; it grew quite as much out of the fact that by his sagacity and courage he had made himself the safest, as well as the most available, rally ing-point of the Republican party and exponent of Eepub- lican doctrine. The Lecompton quarrel in the Dem- ocratic party had led many prominent Republicans on a false trail. In Douglas's new attitude, devel- oped by his Southern speeches and his claim to re- admission into regular Democratic fellowship, these leaders found themselves at fault, discredited by their own course. Lincoln, on the contrary, not only held aloft the most aggressive Republican banner, but stood nearest the common party enemy, and was able to offer advice to all the elements of the Republican party, free from any suspicion of intrigue with foe or faction. The causes of his Senatorial defeat thus gave him a certain party authority and leadership, which were felt if not openly acknowledged. On his part, while never officious or obtrusive, he was always ready with seasonable and judicious suggestions, generous in spirit and comprehensive in scope, and which looked beyond mere local success. Thus he wrote from Springfield to Schuyler Col- fax (afterwards Vice-President of the United States), July 6, 1859 : " I much regi'et not seeing you while you were here among us. Before learning that you were to be at Jacksonville on the 4th, I had given my word to be at another place. Besides a strong desire to make your personal acquaintance, I was anxious to speak with you on politics a little more fully than I can well do in a letter. My main object LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES 179 in such conversation would be to hedge against chap. x. divisions in the Republican ranks generally, and particularly for the contest of 1860. The point of danger is the temptation in different localities to ' platform ' for something which will be popular just there, but which, nevertheless, will be a fire- brand elsewhere, and especially in a national con- vention. As instances, the movement against foreigners in Massachusetts ; in New Hampshire, to make obedience to the fugitive-slave law pun- ishable as a crime ; in Ohio, to repeal the fugitive- slave law; and, squatter sovereignty, in Kansas. In these things there is explosive matter enough to blow up half a dozen national conventions, if it gets into them ; and what gets very rife outside of conventions is very likely to find its way into them. What is desirable, if possible, is that in every local convocation of Republicans a point should be made to avoid everything which will disturb Republic- ans elsewhere. Massachusetts Republicans should have looked beyond their noses, and then they could not have failed to see that tilting against foreigners would ruin us in the whole North-west. New Hampshke and Ohio should forbear tilting against the fugitive-slave law in such way as to utterly overwhelm us in Illinois with the charge of enmity to the Constitution itself. Kansas, in her confidence that she can be saved to freedom on ' squatter sovereignty,' ought not to forget that to prevent the spread and nationalization of slavery is a national concern, and must be attended to by the nation. In a word, in every locality we should look beyond our noses ; and at least say nothing on points where it is probable we shall disagree. I 180 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. X. Colfax to Lincoln, July 14, 1859. MS. write this for your eye only ; hoping, however, if you see danger as I think I do, you will do what you can to avert it. Could not suggestions be made to leading men in the State and Congres- sional conventions, and so avoid, to some extent at least, these apples of discord." ^ By this time Colfax was cured of his late coquet- ting with Douglas, and he replied : " The sugges- tions you make have occurred to me. . . Nothing is more evident than that there is an ample number of voters in the Northern States, opposed to the extension and aggressions of slavery and to Dem- ocratic misrule, to triumphantly elect a President of the United States. But it is equally evident that making up this majority are men of all shades and gradations of opinion, from the conservative who will scarcely defend his principles for fear of imperiling peace, to the bold radical who strikes stalwart blows regardless of policy or popularity. How this mass of mind shall be consolidated into a victorious phalanx in 1860 is the great problem, I think, of our eventful times. And he who could accomplish it is worthier of fame than Napoleon or Victor Emmanuel. . . In this work, to achieve suc- cess, and to achieve it without sacrifice of essential principle, you can do far more than one like my- self, so much younger. Your counsel carries great weight with it ; for, to be plain, there is no political letter that falls from your pen which is not copied throughout the Union." This allusion was called out by two letters which 1 Partly printed in HoUister, the full manuscript text of this "Life of Colfax," p. 146. We and other valuable letters which are indebted to Mrs. Colfax for we have used. LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES 181 Lincoln had written during the year; one declaring his opposition to the waning fallacy of know-noth- ingism, in which he also defined his position on " fusion." Referring to a provision lately adopted by Massachusetts to restrict naturalization, he wrote: "Massachusetts is a sovereign and inde- pendent State; and it is no privilege of mine to scold her for what she does. Still, if from what she has done, an inference is sought to be drawn as to what I would do, I may, without impropriety, speak out. I say then, that, as I understand the Massachusetts provision, I am against its adoption in Illinois, or in any other place where I have a right to oppose it. Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degi'ade them. I have some little notoriety for commiserating the oppressed condition of the negro ; and I should be strangely inconsistent if I could favor any project for curtailing the existing rights of white men, even though born in different lands, and speaking different languages from myself. As to the matter of fusion, I am for it, if it can be had on Repub- lican grounds ; and I am not for it on any other terms. A fusion on any other terms would be as foolish as unprincipled. It would lose the whole North, while the common enemy would still carry the whole South. The question of men is a differ- ent one. There are good patriotic men and able statesmen in the South whom I would cheerfully support, if they would now place themselves on Republican ground, but I am against letting down the Republican standard a hair's breadth." The other was a somewhat longer letter, to a Chap. X. Lincoln to Canieius, May 17, 1859. 182 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. X. Boston Committee which had invited him to a fes- tival in honor of Jefferson's birthday. "Bearing in mind that about seventy years ago two gi*eat political parties were first formed in this country ; that Thomas Jefferson was the head of one of them, and Boston the headquarters of the other, it is both curious and interesting that those supposed to descend politically from the party opposed to Jefferson, should now be celebrating his birthday, in their own original seat of empire, while those claiming political descent from him have nearly ceased to breathe his name everywhere. . . "But, soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true ; but never- theless he would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. And yet they are denied and evaded, with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them ' glittering generalities.' Another bluntly calls them 'self-evident lies.' And others insidi- ously argue that they apply only to 'superior races.' These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and effect — the supplanting the principles of free government, and restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimac5\ They would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are the van-guard — the miners and sappers of returning despotism. We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world of compensation ; and he who LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES 183 Lincoln to Pierce and otbers, April 6, 1859. would be no slave must consent to have no slave, chap. x. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves ; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. All honor to Jefferson — to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and op- pression." Lincoln's more important political work of the year 1859 was the part he took in the canvass in the State of Ohio, where a governor was to be chosen at the October election, and where the result would decide not merely the present and local strength of the rival candidates, but also to some extent indicate the prospects and probabili- ties of the Presidential campaign of 1860. The Ohio Democrats had called Douglas into their can- vass, and the Republicans, as soon as they learned the fact, arranged that Lincoln should come and answer him. There was a fitness in this, not merely because Lincoln's joint debates with him in Illinois in the previous summer were so successful, but also because Douglas in nearly every speech made since then, both in his Southern tour and else- where, alluded to the Illinois campaign, and to Lincoln by name, especially to what he character- ized as his political heresies. By thus everywhere making Lincoln and Lincoln's utterances a public target, Douglas himself, in effect, prolonged and 184 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. X. extended the joint debates over the whole Union. Another circumstance added to the momentary interest of the general discussion. Douglas was by nature aggressive. Determined to hold his North- ern followers in the new issues which had grown out of his Freeport doctrine, and the new antagon- isms which the recent slave code debate in the Senate revealed, he wrote and published in " Har- per's Magazine" for September, 1859, a political article beginning with the assertion that " Under our complex system of government it is the first duty of American statesmen to mark distinctly the dividing-line between Federal and Local authority." Quoting both the paragraph of Lincoln's Spring- field speech declaring that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," and the paragraph from Sew- ard's Rochester speech, announcing the " irrepres- sible conflict," Douglas made a long historical examination of his own theory of "non-interven- tion " and " popular sovereignty," and built up an elaborate argument to sustain his course. The novelty of this appeal to the public occasioned general interest and varied comment, and the ex- pedient seemed so ingenious as to excite the envy of Administration Democrats. Accordingly, At- torney-General Black, of President Buchanan's Cabinet, at "the request of friends," wrote, printed, and circulated an anonymous pamphlet in answer, in which he admitted that Douglas was " not the man to be treated with a disdainful silence," but characterized the "Harper" essay as "an unsuc- cessful effort at legal precision ; like the writing of a judge who is trying in vain to give good reasons for a wrong decision on a question of law which Lincoln's ohio speeches 185 lie has not quite mastered." Douglas, in a speech chap. x. at Wooster, Ohio, criticized this performance of Black's. Reply and rejoinder on both sides fol- lowed in due time ; and this war of pamphlets was one of the prominent political incidents of the year. Thus Lincoln's advent in the Ohio campaign attracted much more than usual notice. He made but two speeches, one at Columbus, and one at Cincinnati, at each of which places Douglas had recently preceded him. Lincoln's addi'esses not only brought him large and appreciative audiences, but they obtained an unprecedented circulation in print. In the main, they reproduced and tersely re-applied the ideas and arguments developed in the Senatorial campaign in Illinois, adding, how- ever, searching comments on the newer positions and points to which Douglas had since advanced. There is only space to insert a few disconnected quotations : Now, what is Judge Douglas's popular sovereignty? It is as a principle no other than that, if one man chooses to make a slave of another man, neither that other man nor anybody else has a right to object. . . If you will read the copyright essay, you will discover that Judge Douglas himself says, a controversy between the American Colonies and the Government of Great Britain began on the slavery question in 1699, and con- tinued from that time until the Revolution ; and, while he did not say so, we all know that it has continued with more or less violence ever since the Revolution. . . Take these two things and consider" them together; present the question of planting a State with the institu- tion of slavery by the side of a question of who shall be Governor of Kansas for a year or two, and is there a man here, is there a man on earth, who would not say the 186 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. X. govemor question is the little one, and the slavery ques- tion is the great one ? I ask any honest Democrat if the small, the local, the trivial and temporary question is not, Who shall be governor! while the durable, the impor- tant, and the mischievous one is. Shall this soil be planted with slavery f This is an idea, I suppose, which has ai'isen in Judge Douglas's mind from his peculiar structure. I suppose the institution of slavery really looks small to him. He is so put up bj'' nature that a lash upon his back would hurt him, but a lash upon any- body else's back does not hm-t him. . . The Dred Scott decision expressly gives every citizen of the United States a right to carry his slaves into the United States Territories. And now there was some in- consistency in saying that the decision was right, and saying, too, that the people of the Territory could law- fully drive slavery out again. When all the trash, the words, the collateral matter was cleared away from it, all the chaff was fanned out of it, it was a bare absurdity ; no less than that a thing may be lawfully driven away from where it has a lawful right to be. . . The Judge says the people of the Territories have the right, by his principle, to have slaves if they want them. Then I say that the people in Georgia have the right to buy slaves in Africa if they want them, and I defy any man on earth to show any distinction between the two things — to show that the one is either more wicked or more unlawful ; to show on original principles, that one is better or worse than the other; or to show by the Constitution, that one differs a whit from the other. He will tell me, doubtless, that there is no constitutional provision against people taking slaves into the new Territories, and I tell him that there is equally no constitutional provision against buying slaves in Africa. . . Then I say, if this principle is established, that there is no wi'ong in slavery, and whoever wants it has a right to have it ; that it is a matter of dollars and cents ; a sort of question how they shall deal with brutes ; that be- tween us and the negro here there is no sort of question, LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES 187 but that at the South the question is between the negro and the crocodile ; that it is a mere matter of policy; that there is a perfect right according to interest to do just as you please — when this is done, where this doctrine pre- vails, th% miners and sappers will have formed public opinion for the slave trade. . . Public opinion in this country is everything. In a nation like ours this popular sovereignty and squatter sovereignty have already wrought a change in the pub- lic mind to the extent I have stated. There is no man in this crowd who can contradict it. Now, if you are opposed to slavery honestly, as much as anybody, I ask you to note that fact, and the like of which is to follow, to be plastered on layer after layer, until very soon you are prepared to deal with the negro everywhere as with the brute. If public sentiment has not been debauched already to this point, a new turn of the screw in that direction is all that is wanting; and this is constantly being done by the teachers of this insidious popular sovereignty. You need but one or two turns further until your minds, now ripening under these teachings, will be ready for all these things ; and you will receive and support, or submit to, the slave trade revived with all its horrors, a slave code enforced in our Territories, and a new Dred Scott decision to bring slavery up into the very heart of the free North. This Government is expressly charged with the duty of providing for the general welfare. We believe that the spreading out and perpetuity of the institution of slavery impairs the general welfare. We believe — nay, we know, that this is the only thing that has ever threatened the perpetuity of the Union itself. . . I say we must not interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists, because the Consti- tution forbids it, and the general welfare does not require us to do so. We must not withhold an efficient fugitive- slave law, because the Constitution requires us, as I understand it, not to withhold such a law. But we must prevent the outspreading of the institution, because neither the Constitution nor the general welfare requires Chap. X. Lincoln, Colnmbus Speech, Sept. 16, 1859. Debates, pp. 243-54. 188 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. X. Liucoln, Ciucinnati Speech, Sept. 17, 1859. Debates, pp. 267-8. Parsous and others to Lincolu, Dec. 7, 1859. Debates, preface. Lincoln to Parsons and others, Dec. 19, 1859. Ibid. US to extend it. We must prevent the revival of the African slave trade, and the enacting by Congress of a Territorial slave code. We must prevent each of these things being done by either congresses or courts. The people of these United States are the rightful 'masters of both congresses and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. The Ohio Republicans gained a decided success at the October election. Ascribing this result in a large measure to the influence of Lincoln's speeches, the State Executive Committee resolved to publish in cheap book form the full Illinois joint debates and the two Ohio addresses, to serve as campaign material for the ensuing year. " We regard them," wrote the committee to Lincoln, " as luminous and triumphant expositions of the doc- trines of the Republican party, successfully vindi- cated from the aspersions of its foes, and calculated to make a document of great practical service to the Republican party in the approaching Presiden- tial contest." Lincoln, thanking them for the flattering terms of their request, explained in his reply: "The copies I send you, are as reported and printed by the respective friends of Senator Douglas and my- self at the time — that is, his by his friends, and mine by mine. It would be an unwarrantable liberty for us to change a word or a letter in his, and the changes I have made in mine, you per- ceive, are verbal only, and very few in number. I wish the reprint to be precisely as the copies I send, without any comment whatever." The enterprise proved a success beyond the most sanguine expectations. A Columbus firm under- LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES 189 took the publication, itself assuming all pecuniary risk. Three large editions were sold directly to the public, without any aid from or any purchase by the committee — the thii*d edition containing the an- nouncement that up to that date, June 16, 1860, thirty thousand copies had already been circulated/ Chap. X. 1 The preface to this third edi- tion contains a letter from Doug- las, alleging that injustice had been done him because, "the original reports as published in the 'Chicago Times,' although intended to be fair and just, were necessarily imperfect, and in some respects erroneous " ; charging at the same time that Lincoln's speeches had been re- vised, corrected, and improved.* To this the publishers replied: "The speeches of Mr. Lincoln were never 'revised, corrected. or improved' in the sense you use those words. Remarks by the crowd which were not responded to, and the reporters' insertions of ' cheers,' ' great applause,' and so forth, which received no answer or comment from the speaker, were by our direction omitted, as well from Mr. Lincoln's speeches as yours, as we thought their per- petuation in book form would be in bad taste, and were in no man- ner pertinent to, or a part of, the speech." t And the publishers add a list of their corrections. * Douslas to Follet, Foster & Co., June 9, 1860. Debates, third edition, preface. t Follet, Fot^tcr r indeed, it may be said with truth, it was the actual feeling of the Northern faction of the Democratic party. Douglas was a genuinely popular leader. He had the power to inspire a pure personal enthu- siasm. He had aroused such hero-worship as may be possible in modern times and in American poli- tics. Beyond this, however, the Lecompton contro- versy, and his open persecution by the Buchanan Administration, made his leadership and his can- didacy a necessity to the Northern Democrats. With Southern Democrats the feeling went some- what deeper. Forgetting how much they owed him in the past, and how much they might still gain through him in the future, they saw only that he was now their stumbling-block, the present obstacle to their full and final success. It was the Douglas doctrine, squatter sovereignty, and "un- friendly legislation," rather than the man, which they had come to oppose, and were determined to put down. Any other individual holding these heresies would have been equally obnoxious. They had no candidate of their own ; they worshiped no single leader ; but they followed a principle with unfaltering devotion. They clung unswervingly not only to the property theory, but advanced boldly to its logical sequence — Congi-essional pro- tection to slavery in the Territories. Of the convention's preliminary work little is 232 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XIII. worth recording — there were the clamor and pro- test of contesting delegations and small fire of parliamentary skirmishes, by which factions feel and measure each other's strength. Caleb Gushing was made permanent chairman, for the triple rea- son that he was from Massachusetts, that he was the ablest presiding officer in the body, and was for the moment filled with blind devotion to Southern views. The actual temper of the convention was made manifest by the ready agreement of both ex- tremes to join battle in making the platform before proceeding to the nomination of candidates. The usual committee of one member from each State was appointed, and to it was referred the deluge of resolutions which had been showered upon the convention. Had an amicable solution of the slavery issue been possible, this platform committee would have found it, for it labored faithfully to accomplish the miracle. But after three days and nights of fruit- less suggestion and persuasion, the committee re- appeared in convention. Upon four points they had come to either entire or substantial agreement. In addition to re-affirming formally the Cincinnati platform of 1856, they advised the convention to favor, 1. The faithful execution of the fugitive- slave law. 2. The protection of naturalized citi- zens. 3. The construction of a Pacific railroad. 4. The acquisition of the Island of Cuba. But upon the principal topic, the question of slavery in the Territories, they felt compelled to report that even an approximate unanimity was im- possible. In undisguised sorrow they proceeded to present two radically different reports. The THE CHAELESTON CONVENTION 233 convention, not yet in the least realizing that the chap. xni. great Democratic party had suffered fatal ship- wreck in the secret committee-room, listened eagerly to the reports and explanatory speeches of the majority and minority of the committee. The majority report^ planted itself squarely upon the property theory and Congressional protection. Mr. Avery, of North Carolina, said it was presented in the name of 17 States with 127 electoral votes, every one of which would be cast for the nominee. He argued that in occupying new Territories Southern men could not compete with emigrant- aid societies at the North. These could send a voter to the Territories for the sum of $200, while it would cost a Southern man $1500. Secure political power by emigration, and permit the Territorial Legislatm-es to decide the slavery ques- tion, and the South would be excluded as effect- ually as by the Wilmot proviso. Cuba must be acquired, and the flag of this great country must float over Mexico and the Central American States. But if you apply this doctrine of popular sover- eignty, and establish a cordon of free States from the Pacific to the Atlantic, where in the futm-e are MAJORITY REPORT. Territory, nor to prohibit the in- ,,-r^ , , r«, , , ir. troduction of slaves therein, nor "Resolved, That the platform ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^j^^^ ^j^ adopted at Cincinnati be affirmed, therefrom, nor any power to de- wkh the following resolutions : ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^, ^^^ ^-^^^ ^^ ^^^.^p. " Resolved, That the Democ- erty in slaves by any legislation racy of the United States hold whatever. . . these cardinal principles on the " Resolved, That it is the duty subject of slavery in the Terri- of the Federal Government to tories : First. That Congress has protect, when necessary, the no power to abolish slavery in the rights of persons and property Territories. Second. That the on the high seas, in the Terri- Territorial Legislature has no tories, or wherever else its con- power to abolish slavery in any stitutional authority extends." 234 ABRAHAM LINCOLN chajp. XIII. the South to emigrate! They asked the equal right to emigrate with their property, and protec- tion from Congress during the Territorial condition. They would leave it to the people in convention assembled, when framing a State constitution, to determine the question of slavery for themselves. They had no purpose but to have a vexed question settled, and to put the Democratic party on a clear . unclouded platform, not a doubled-f aced one — one face to the North and one face to the South. Henry B. Payne, of Ohio, presented and de- fended the report of the minority.^ It asserted that all questions in regard to property in States or Territories were judicial in their character, and that the Democratic party would abide by past and future decisions of the Supreme Court concern- ing them. Mr. Payne explained that while the ma- jority report was supported by 15 slave and two free States,^ representing 127 electoral votes, the minority report was indorsed by 15 free States,^ 1 MINORITY REPORT. the United States are judicial in their character, and the Dem- "Eesolved, That we, the De- ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ jg pledged to abide mocracy of the Union, inconven- •^^y ^^^ faithfully carry out such tion assembled, hereby declare determination of these questions our affirmance of the resolutions ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^de by unanimously adopted and de- ^j^^ Supreme Court of the United clared as a platform of principles g^^tes " by the Democratic Convention at 2 Delaware, Maryland, Vir- Cincinnati in the year 1856, be- ^^^^^^ j^orth Carolina, South Caro- lieving that Democratic principles j^^^^ Georgia, Florida, Alabama, are unchangeable m their nature Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, when applied to the same subject- Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, matters ; and we recommend, as Kentucky, California, Oregon, the only further resolutions, the 3 ^^^^^^^ ;New Hampshire, Ver- followmg : jjjQj^^^ Rhode Island, Connecticut, "Resolved, That all questions New York, New Jersey, Penn- in regard to the rights of prop- sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, erty in States or Territories Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Min- arising uuder the Constitution of nesota, and Massachusetts. As THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION 235 representing 176 electoral votes. He argued that, chap. xiri. by the universal consent of the Democratic party, the Cincinnati platform referred this question of slavery to the people of the Territories, declar- ing that Congress should in no event intervene one way or the other, and that all controversies should be settled by the courts. Now the propo- sition of the majority report was to make a com- plete retraction of those two cardinal doctrines of the Cincinnati platform. The Northern mind had become thoroughly imbued with this great doc- trine of popular sovereignty. You could not tear it out of their hearts unless you tore out their heart-strings themselves. " I repeat, that upon this question of Congressional non-intervention we are committed by the acts of Congress, we are committed by the acts of National Democratic Con- ventions; we cannot recede without personal dis- honor, and, so help us God, we never will recede ! " Between these extremes of recommendation an- other member of the platform committee — Ben- jamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts — proposed a middle course. He advocated the simple reaffirm- ance of the Cincinnati platform. If it had suffered a double interpretation, so had the Bible and the Constitution of the United States. But beyond serving to consume time and amuse the conven- tion, Mr. Butler's speech made no impression. The real tournament of debate followed, between William L.Yancey, of Alabama, and Senator George E. Pugh, of Ohio. Mr. Butler, who represented Mas- have included her in his total of sachusetts on the platform com- free States, though he does appear mittee, had submitted a separate to have included her electoral vote report, Mr. Payne seems not to in his estimate. 236 ABEAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. XIII. Haletead, " Conven- tions of 1860," pp. 5, 48. It turned out iu the end that Mr. Yancey was the master-spirit of the Charleston Convention, though that body was far from entertaining any such suspicion at the beginning. In exterior ap- pearance he did not fill the portrait of the tra- ditional fire-eater. He is described as " a compact middle-sized man, straight-limbed, with a square- built head and face, and an eye full of expression " ; " a very mild and gentlemanly man, always wearing a genuinely good-humored smile, and looking as if nothing in the world could disturb the equanimity of his spirits." He had, besides, a marvelous gift of persuasive oratory. He was the Wendell Phillips of the South, for, like his Northern rival, he was a born agitator. Above all his colleagues, he was the brain and soul and irrepressible champion of the pro-slavery reaction throughout the Cotton States. He was tireless and ubiquitous ; traveling, talking, writing, lecturing, animating every intrigue, direct- ing every caucus, making speeches and drafting platforms at every convention. To defend, propa- gate, and perpetuate African slavery was his mis- sion. He was the ultra of the ultras, accepting the institution as morally right and divinely sanctioned, desiring its extension and inclined to favor, though not then himself advocating, the re-opening of the African slave-trade. He held that all Federal laws prohibiting such trade ought to be repealed so that each State might decide the question for itself. Still more, Mr. Yancey was not only an agitator and fire-eater, but for years an insidious, persever- ing conspirator to promote secession. Occupying such a position, he was naturally the champion of the Cotton States at Charleston. The defense of THE CHAELESTON CONVENTION 237 the ultra demands of the South was by common chap.xiii. consent devolved upon him,^ and it was under- stood long beforehand that he was prepared with the principal speech from that side. In full consciousness of the fact that he and his colleagues were then at Charleston with a pre- determination to force a programme of disruption expressly designed as a prelude to intended dis- union, Mr. Yancey stood up and with smiling face and silvery tones assured his hearers that he and his colleagues from Alabama were not disunionists per se. Then he proceeded with his speech. Only its key-note was new, but the novelty was of start- ling import to Northern delegates. The Northern Democrats, he stated, were losing ground and fall- ing before their victorious adversaries. Why! Because they had tampered with, and pandered to, the antislavery sentiment. They had admitted that slavery was wrong. This was surrendering the very citadel of their argument. They must re-form their lines and change their tactics. They must come up to the high requirements of the occasion and take a new departure. The re- mainder of his speech was an insinuating plea for the property doctrine and Congressional in- tervention, for which the galleries and convention rewarded him with long and earnest applause. Even if the great Southern agitator's speech had been wanting in point and eloquence, success was 1" The leadership at Charleston, his object for such a mission in in this attempt to divide and de- a higher degree than the gifted stroy the Democratic party, was Yancey." — Stephen A. Douglas, intrusted to appropriate hands. Senate Speech, May 16, 1860; No man possessed the ability, or Appendix to " Congressional the courage, or the sincerity in Globe," p. 313. 238 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XIII. Supplied by the unmistakable atmosphere and temper of this great Charleston audience. The more astute of the Douglas delegates were struck with the dismay of a new revelation. Their cause was lost — their party was gone. Senator Pugh, of Ohio, resented the dictation of the advo- cates of slavery in a warmth of just indignation. He thanked God that at last a bold and honest man had told the whole truth of the demands of the South. It was now before the country that the South did demand an advanced step from the Democratic party. He accurately traced the down- fall of the Northern Democracy to her changing and growing exactions. Taunted with their weak- ness, they were now told they must put their hands on their mouths and their mouths in the dust. " Gentlemen of the South," said Mr. Pugh, " you mistake us — we will not do it." Such language had never been heard in a Demo- cratic National Convention, and the hall was as still as a funeral. This was Friday night, the fifth day of the convention. " A crisis " had long been whispered of as the skeleton in the party closet. It seemed to be at hand, and in a parliamentary uproar the " question " was vehemently demanded, but the chairman skillfully managed at length to secure an adjournment. The "crisis" had in reality come on Thursday night, in the committee-room, in the hopeless first double report of its platform committee. The dis- solution of the convention did not take place till the Monday following. A gi'eat party, after a vigorous and successful life of thirty years, could not die easily. The speeches of Avery and Payne, THE CHAELESTON CONVENTION 239 of Yancey and Pugli, on Friday, were recognized chap. xm. as cries of defiance, but not yet accepted as moans of despair. On Saturday morning. Presi- dent Buchanan's lieutenant, William Bigler, of Penn- sylvania, essayed to ride the storm and steer to a Southern victory. But he only succeeded in secur- ing a recommittal of both platforms to the com- mittee. Nothing, however, was gained by the ma- noeuvre. Saturday afternoon the committee once more reported the same disagreement in slightly changed phraseology ; ^ two antagonistic platforms. 1 SECOND MAJORITY REPORT. " Eesolved, That the platform adopted by the Democratic party at Cincinnati be affirmed with the following explanatory resolu- tions : ' ' First. That the government of a Territory organized by an act of Congress is provisional and tem- porary, and, during its existence, all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their property in the Ter- ritory without their rights, either of person or property, being de- stroyed or impaired by Congres- sional or Territoi'ial legislation. " Second. That it is the duty of the Federal Government in all its de]}artments, to protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and property in the Territories, and wherever else its constitu- tional authority extends. " Third. That when the settlers in a Territory having an adequate population form a State consti- tution, the right of sovereignty commences, and, being consum- mated by admission into the Union, they stand on an equal footing with the people of other States, and the State thus organ- ized ought to be admitted into the Federal Union, whether its constitution prohibits or recog- nizes the institution of slavery." SECOND MINORITY REPORT. "1. Bcsolved, That we, the De- mocracy of the Union, in conven- tion assembled, hereby declare our affirmance of the resolu- tions unanimously adopted and declared as a platform of prin- ciples by the Democratic Con- vention at Cincinnati, in the year 1856, believing that democratic principles are unchangeable in their nature when applied to the same subject-matters ; and we recommend as the only further resolutions the following : "Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party as to the nature and extent of the powers of a Territorial Legislature and as to the powers and duties of Congress under the Constitution of the United States over the institution of slavery within the Territories : "2. Resolved, That the Demo- cratic party will abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on the ques- tions of constitutional law." 240 ABRAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. XIII. presenting the same sharp difference of princi- ple — one demanding Congressional intervention, the other declaring against it. Then the parlia- mentary storm was unloosed for the remainder of that day with such fmy that the chairman declared his physical inability to continue a con- test with six hundred gentlemen as to who should cry the loudest, and threatened to leave the chair. On Monday, April 30, the seventh day of the con- vention, a final decision was reached. The proposal of Butler's report simply to reaffirm the Cincinnati platform was supported by only 105 ayes to 198 noes. Then, by 165 to 138, the convention voted to substitute the minority report for that of the majority; in other words, to adopt the Douglas non-intervention platform. The explosion was near, but still delayed, and the delegates of the Cotton States sat sullenly through a tangle of routine voting. Finally, the question was renewed on Butler's proposition to adopt the Cincinnati platform i^ure and simple. This was the red flag to the mad bull. Mississippi declared that the Cincinnati platform was a great political swindle on one half the States of the Union ; and from that time on the Cotton States ceased to act as a part of the convention. As soon as a lull in the proceedings permitted, Mr. Yancey put in exe- cution his programme of demand, disruption, dis- union, and rebellion, labored for through long years, and announced by himself, with minute distinctness, nine months before.^ Led by the 1 " To obtain the aid of the that body Douglas's adherents Democracy in this contest, it is will press his doctrines to a necessary to make a contest in decision. If the States-Rights its Charleston Convention. In men keep out of that conven- W. I.. YANCEY. THE CHAELESTON CONVENTION 241 Alabama delegation, the Cotton States, — Alabama, chap. xm. Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, tion, that decision must inevita- bly be against the South, and that either in direct favor of the Douglas doctrine, or by the in- dorsement of the Cincinnati plat- form, under which Douglas claims shelter for his principles." " The States-Rights men should present in that convention their demands for a decision, and they will obtain an indorsement of their demands, or a denial of these demands. If indorsed, we shall have greater hope of triumph within the Union. If denied, in my opinion, the States-Eights wing should secede from the convention, and appeal to the whole people of the South, with- out distinction of parties, and organize another convention iipon the basis of their principles, and go into the election with a candi- date nominated by it, as a grand constitutional party. But in the Presidential contest a black Re- publican may be elected. K this dire event should happen, in my opinion the only hope of safety for the Soiith is in a withdrawal from the Union before he shall be inaugurated ; before the sword and treasury of the Federal Gov- ernment shall be placed in the keeping of that party. I would suggest that the several State legislatures should by law require the Governor, when it shall be made manifest that the black Republican candidate for the Presidency shall receive a major- ity of the electoral votes, to call a convention of the people of the State, to assemble in ample time to provide for their safety before the 4th of March, 1861.*If,how- VoL. II.— 16 ever, a black Republican should not be elected, then, in pursuance of the policy of making this eon- test within the Union, we should initiate measures in Congress which should lead to a repeal of all the unconstitutional acts against slavery. If we should fail to obtain so just a system of legislation, then the South should seek her independence out of the Union." — Speech of W. L. Yancey, delivered at Columbia, S. C, July 8, 1859. Copied in The New York "Tribune," July 20, 1859. The corroboration and fulfill- ment of the plot here indicated are found in the official proceed- ings of the Alabama Convention and the Alabama Legislature. The convention on January 13, 1860, expressly instructed its delegation at Charleston to secede in case the ultra-Southern doc- trines were not incorporated in the National Democratic plat- form, and sent Mr. Yancey as a delegate to execute their instruc- tions, which he did as the text states. The Alabama Legislature, on its part, passed a joint resolu- tion, which the Governor ap- proved, February 24, 1860, providing "that upon the elec- tion of a President advocating the principles and action of the party in the Northern States call- ing itself the Republican party," the Governor should forthwith call a convention of the State. This convention was duly called after the election of Mr. Lincoln, and passed the secession ordi- nance of Alabama. 242 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XIII. Texas, aiid Arkansas, — with protests and speeches, with all the formality and " solemnity " which the occasion allowed, seceded from the Charleston Con- vention, and withdrew from the deliberations in Institute Hall. That same Monday night the city of Charleston expressed its satisfaction by a grand jubilee. Mu- sic, bonfires, and extravagant declamation held an excited crowd in Court-house Square till a late hour; and in a high- wrought peroration Yancey prophesied, with all the confidence and exultation of a triumphant conspirator, that "perhaps even now the pen of the historian is nibbed to write the story of a new revolution." CHAPTER XIV THE BALTIMOKE NOMINATIONS. THOUGH the compact voting body of the South chap. xiv. had reth-ed from the Charleston Convention, her animating spirit yet remained in the numbers and determination of the anti-Douglas delegates. When on Tuesday morning, May 1, the eighth day, the convention once more met, the Douglas men, with a view to making the most of the di- lemma, resolved to force the nomination of their favorite. But there was a lion in the path. Usage and tradition had consecrated the two-thirds rule. Charles E. Stuart, of Michigan, tried vainly to obtain the liberal interpretation, that this meant "two-thirds of the votes given," but Chairman Cushing ruled remorselessly against him, and at the instance of John R. Howard, of Tennessee, the convention voted (141 to 112) that no person should be declared nominated who did not receive two- thirds of all the votes the full convention was en- titled to cast. This sealed the fate of Douglas. The Electoral College numbered 303; 202 votes therefore were necessary to a choice. Voting for candidates was begun, and continued throughout all the next day (Wednesday, May 2). Fifty-seven ballots were taken in all ; Douglas received 145J on the first, 243 244 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ciiAP. XIV. and on several subsequent ballots his strength rose to 152^. The other votes were scattered among eight different candidates with no near approach to agreement.^ The dead-lock having become unmistakable and irremediable, and the nomination of Douglas under existing conditions impossible, all parties finally- consented to an adjournment, especially as it was evident that unless this were done the ses- sions would come to an end by mere disintegra- tion. Therefore, on the tenth day (May 3), the Charleston Convention formally adjourned, having previously resolved to reassemble on the 18th of June, in the city of Baltimore, with a recommenda- tion that the several States make provision to fill the vacancies in their delegations. Mr. Yancey and his seceders had meanwhile organized another convention in St. Andi'ew's Hall. Their business was of course to report substan- tially the platform rejected by the Douglas men, and for the rejection of which they had retired. Mr. Yancey then explained to them that the adop- tion of this platform was all the action they pro- posed to take until the " rump democracy " should make their nomination, when, he said, " it may be our privilege to indorse the nominee, or our duty to proceed to make a nomination." Other seced- ers were more impatient, and desired that some- thing be done forthwith ; but as the sessions were iThefirst ballot stood: Stephen son, of Tennessee, 12; Joseph A. Douglas, of Illinois, 145J2; Lane, of Oregon, 6; Jefferson James Guthrie, of Kentucky, Davis, of Mississippi, lU^ ; Isaac 35J^ ; Daniel S. Dickinson, of Toucey, of Connecticut, 2^^ ; New York, 7 ; R. M. T. Hunter, Franklin Pierce, of New Hamp- of Virginia, 42 ; Andrew John- shire, 1. THE BALTIMOKE NOMINATIONS 245 continued to the second and third day, their over- chap.'xiv. flowing zeal found a safety-valve in their speeches. Mr. Yancey's programme prevailed, and they also adjourned to meet again in Richmond on the 11th of June. At the time of the disruption, rumors were cur- rent in Charleston that the movement, if not prompted, was at least encouraged and sustained by telegrams from leading Senators and Repre- sentatives then at their Congressional duties in Washington. As the day for reassembling in Baltimore di*ew near, the main fact was abun- dantly proved by the publication of an address, signed by Jefferson Davis, Toombs, Iverson, Sli- dell, Benjamin, Mason, and some fourteen others, in which they undertook to point out a path to union and harmony in the Democratic party. They recited the withdrawal of eight States at Charleston, and indorsed the step without quali- fication. "We cannot refrain," said the address, "from expressing oui" admiration and approval of this lofty manifestation of adherence to prin- ciple, rising superior to all considerations of expediency, to all trammels of party, and looking with an eye single to the defense of the constitu- tional rights of the States." They then alleged that the other Democratic States remained in the convention only to make a fui'ther effort to secure "some satisfactory recognition of sound prin- ciples," declaring, however, their determination also to withdraw if their just expectation should be disappointed. The address then urged that the seceders should defer their meeting at Richmond, but that they should come to Baltimore and en- 246 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap! XIV. deavor to effect "a reconciliation of differences on a basis of principle." If the Baltimore Con- vention should adopt "a satisfactory platform of principles," — and their votes might help secni-e it, — then cause of dissension would have ceased. "On the other hand," continued the address, "if the convention, on reassembling at Baltimore, shall disappoint the just expectations of the re- mainiog Democratic States, their delegations can- not fail to withdraw and unite with the eight States which have adjourned to Richmond." The address, in another paragraph, explained that the seventeen Democratic States which had voted at Charleston for the seceders' platform, " united with Pennsylvania alone, comprise a majority of the entu^e electoral vote of the United States, able to elect the Democratic nominees against the com- bined opposition of all the remaining States." This was a shrewd and crafty appeal. Under an apparent plea for harmony lurked an insidious in- vitation to Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania to join the seceders, reconstruct the Democratic party, cut off all the "popular sovereignty" recusants, and secui'e perpetual as- cendency in national politics through the consoli- dated South. The signers of this address, forgetting their own constant accusation of "sectionalism" against the Republicans, pretended to see no im- propriety in proposing this purely selfish and sectional alliance. If it succeeded, their triumph in the Union was irresistible and permanent ; if it failed, it served to unite the South for secession and a slave confederacy. THE BALTIMORE NOMINATIONS 247 If any Democrat harbored a doubt that the pro- chap. xrv. posed reconciliation meant simply a reunion on the Davis- Yancey platform, the doubt was soon re- moved. In the Senate of the United States, Jef- ferson Davis was pressing to a vote his caucus resolutions, submitted in February, to serve as a model for the Charleston platform; and this brought on a final discussion between himself and Douglas. Davis had begun the debate on the 7th of May by a savage onslaught on " Squatter Sovereignty " — a fallacy, he said, fraught with mischief more deadly than the fatal upas, because it spread its "oiobc," poison over the whole Union. Douglas took up the p. mo. gauntlet, and, replying on May 15 and 16, said he could not recognize the right of a caucus of the Senate or the House to prescribe new tests for the Democratic party. Senators were not chosen for the purpose of making platforms. That was the duty of the Charleston Convention, and it had decided in his favor, platform, organization, and least of all the individual, by giving him a ma- jority of fifty votes over all the other candidates combined. He reprobated the Yancey movement as leading to dissolution and a Southern con- federacy. The party I'ejected this caucus platform. ^?(?io°S,m' Should the majority, he asked, surrender to the ^\^(i^ {geof *^ minority ? Davis, replying on the 17th, contended and sie. ' that Douglas had, on the Kansas policy of the Ad- ministration, put himself outside the Democratic organization. He desired no divided flag for the party. He preferred that the Senator's banner should lie in its silken folds to feed the moth ; " but if it impatiently rustles to be unfurled in opposi- 248 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XIV. tion to ours, we will plant our own on every hill." "Globe" Douglas retorted, and again attacked the caucus May 17, '=' ^^ ' ^ 1860, p. 2151. dictation. "Why," he asked, "are all the great measures for the public good made to give place to the emergency of passing some abstract resolutions on the subject of politics to reverse the Democratic platform, under the supposition that the representa- tives of the people are men of weak nerve who are going to be frightened by the thunders of the Sen- p. 2153. ate Chamber ? " Da\^s rejoined, that they wanted a new article in the creed because they could not get an honest construction of the platform as it stood. "If you have been beaten on a rickety, double-construed platform, kick it to pieces, and lay one broad and strong, on which men can stand." " We want nothing more than a simple declaration that negro slaves are property, and we want the recognition of the obligation of the Federal Government to protect that property like all other." A somewhat restrained undertone of personal temper had been running through the debate, and Jefferson Davis could not resist an ex- pression of contempt for his opponent. " The fact is," said he, "I have a declining respect for plat- forms. I would sooner have an honest man on any sort of a rickety platform that you could construct, than to have a man I did not trust on the best p. 2155. platform which could be made." Douglas promptly called attention to the incon- sistency of Davis's method of forcing his resolutions with one breath and avowing his indifference to a platform with another, especially as Yancey and his own followers had seceded on the platform and not on the man ; but he did not press his adversary THE BALTIMOKE NOMINATIONS 249 to the wall, as he might have done, on the in sin- chap. xiv. cerity which Davis's sneer exposed. He was ham- pered by his own attitude as a candidate. Douglas, who had received 150 votes at Charleston, and who expected the whole at Baltimore, could not let his tongue wag as freely as Davis, who had received only one vote and a half- at Charleston, and could count on none at Baltimore ; else he might have denounced him on the score of patriotism. For Jefferson Davis, like Yancey, only not so con- stantly, and like so many others of that secession coterie, blew hot and cold about disunion as occa- sion demanded. This same debate of May 17 fur- nished an instructive example. In the beginning of the day's discussion Davis indulged in a repetition of the old alarm-cry : " And so, sir, when we declare our tenacious ad- herence to the Union, it is the Union of the Con- stitution. If the compact between the States is to be trampled into the dust ; if anarchy is to be sub- stituted for the usurpation which threatened the Government at an earlier period ; if the Union is to become powerless for the purposes for which it was established, and we are vainly to appeal to it for protection — then, sir, conscious of the recti- tude of our course, and self-reliant within ourselves, "Giobe," TVT'i V 1 7 we look beyond the confines of the Union for the isgo, p. 2151. maintenance of our rights." But after Douglas had made a damaging expo- sure of Yancey's disunion intrigues, which had come to light, and had charged their animus on the Charleston seceders, Davis changed his tone. He said there were not more than seventy-five men in the lodges of the Southern Leagues. He did not 250 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XIV. tliiuk the Union was in danger from them. " I have great confidence," said he, "in the strength of the Union. Every now and then I hear that it is about to tumble to pieces ; that somebody is going to introduce a new plank into the platform, and if he does, the Union must tumble down ; until at last I begin to think it is such a rickety old plat- form that it is impossible to prop it up. But then I bring my own judgment to bear, instead of rely- ing on witnesses, and I come to the conclusion that "mlTv!" ^^^® Union is strong and safe — strong in its power I860, p. 2156. ag ^^q\i g^g jjj ^j^g affections of the people." The debate made it very plain that it was not reconciliation but domination which the South wanted. So in due time (May 25) the Jefferson Davis resolutions, affirming the "property " theory and the "protection" doctrine, were passed by a large majority of the Democratic Senators. June 18, When the Charleston Convention proper re- assembled at Baltimore, it was seen that the pro- gramme laid out by Jefferson Davis and others in their published address had been adopted. The seceders had met at Richmond, taken a recess, and now appeared at Baltimore making applica- tion for readmission. But some of the States that withdrew at Charleston had sent contesting dele- gations, and it resolved itself into tangled rivalry and quarrel of platforms, candidates, and delega- tions all combined. For four days a furious de- bate raged in the convention during the day, while rival mass-meetings in the streets at night called each other " disorganizers," " bolters," " traitors," " disunionists," and " abolitionists." When Doug- las, before a test- vote was reached, sent a dispatch THE BALTIMORE NOMINATIONS 251 suggesting that the party and the country might chap. xiv. be saved by dropping his name and uniting upon some other candidate, his followers suppressed the dispatch. On the fifth day at Baltimore the Democratic National Convention underwent its second "crisis," and suffered its second disruption. This time the secession was somewhat broadened ; Chairman Cushing resigned his seat, and Virginia, North Car- olina, Tennessee, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and California withdrew wholly or in part to join the States which had gone out at Charleston. For the time the disunion extremists were keep- ing their scheme too well masked for us to estab- lish clearly its historical record. But the signs and footprints of their underplot are evident. Here at Baltimore, as at Charleston, and as on every critical occasion, Mr. Yancey was conspicuously present. Here, as elsewhere, he was no doubt persistently intriguing for disunion in secret while ostenta- tiously denying disunion purposes in public. But little remained to do after the disruption at Baltimore, and that little was quickly done. The fragments of the original convention continued their session in the Front-street Theater, where they had met, and on the first ballot nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President by an almost unanimous vote. The seceders organized, under the chair- manship of Caleb Cushing, in Maryland Institute Hall, and also by a nearly unanimous ballot nomi- nated as their candidate for President, John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. Then Mr. Yancey, who in a street mass-meeting had declared that he was neither for the Union per se nor for disunion per se, 252 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XIV. but for the Constitution, announced that the De- HaMead, mocracy, the Constitution, and, through them, the *i86o "* Union were yet safe. A month prior to the reassembhng of the Charles- ton "Rumps" above described, Baltimore had al- ready witnessed another Presidential convention and nomination, calling itself peculiarly " National," in contradistinction to the " sectional " character which it charged upon the Democratic and Repub- lican parties alike. This was a third party, made up mainly of former Whigs whose long-cherished party antagonisms kept them aloof from the Demo- crats in the South and the Republicans in the North. In the South, they had been men whose moderate antislavery feelings were outraged by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Le- compton trick. In the North, they were those whose traditions and affiliations revolted at the extreme utterances of avowed abolitionists. In both regions many of them had embraced Know- Nothingism, more as an alternative than from original choice. The Whig party was dissolved; Know-No thingism had utterly failed — their only resource was to form a new party. In the various States they had, since the defeat of Fillmore in 1856, held together a minority organ- ization under names differing in separate localities. All these various factions and fragments sent delegations to Baltimore, where they united them- selves under the designation of the Constitutional Union Party. They proposed to take a middle course between Democrats and Republicans, and to allay sectional strife by ignoring the slavery question. THE BALTIMOKE NOMINATIONS 253 Delegates of this party, regular and irregular, chap.xiv. from some tweuty-two States, convened at Balti- more on the 9th of May. John J. Crittenden, of isco. Kentucky, called the meeting to order, and Wash- ington Hunt, of New York, was made temporary and permanent chaii-man. On Thursday, May 10, they adopted as their platform a resolution declar- ing in substance that they would " recognize no other political principle than the Constitution of the country, the Union of the States, and the en- forcement of the laws." They had no reasonable hope of direct success at the polls in November ; but they had a clear possibility of defeating a popular choice, and throwing the election into the House of Representatives; and in that case their nominee might stand on high vantage- ground as a compromise candidate. This possi- bility gave some zest to the rivalry among their several aspirants. On their second ballot, a slight preponderance of votes indicated John Bell, of Tennessee, as the favorite, and the convention made his nomination unanimous. Mr. Bell had many qualities desii-able in a candidate for Presi- dent. He was a statesman of ripe experience, and of fair, if not brilliant, fame. Though from the South, his course on the slavery question had been so moderate as to make him reasonably acceptable to the North on his mere personal record. He had opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Lecompton outrage. But upon this platform of ignoring the political strife of six consecutive years, in which he had himself taken such vigorous part, he and his followers were . of course but as grain between the upper and 25J: ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XIV. netliei" millstones. Edward Everett, one of the most eminent statesmen and scholars of New Eng- land, was nominated for Vice-President. This party becomes historic, not through what it accomplished, but by reason of what a portion of it failed to perform. Within one year from these pledges to the Constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws, Mr. Bell and most of his Southern adherents in the seceding States were banded with others in open rebellion. On the other hand, Mr. Everett and most of the Northern members, together with many noble exceptions in the border slave States, like Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, kept the faith announced in their plat- form, and with patriotic devotion supported the Government in the war to maintain the Union. CHAPTER XV THE CHICAGO CONVENTION IN recognition of the growing power and im- chap. xv. portance of the great West, the Republican National Convention was called to meet in Chi- cago on the 16tli of May. The former Presidential iseo. canvass, though resulting in the defeat of Fremont, had nevertheless shown the remarkable popular strength of the Republican party in the country at large; since then, its double victory in Congress against Lecompton, and at the Congressional elec- tions over the Representatives who supported Le- compton, gave it confidence and aggressive activity. But now it received a new inspiration and impetus from the Charleston disruption. Former possibil- ity was suddenly changed to strong probability of success in the coming Presidential election. Dele- gates were not only quickened with a new zeal for their principles; the gi-owing chances spurred them to fresh efforts in behalf of their favorite candidates. Those who had been prominently named were diverse in antecedents and varied in locality, each however presenting some strong point of popular interest. Seward, of New York, a Whig of preeminent fame; Chase, of Ohio, a talented and zealous antislavery Democrat, an original founder of the new party ; Dayton, of New 255 256 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XV. Jei'sej, an old Whig high in personal worth and political service; Cameron, of Pennsylvania, a former Democrat, now the undisputed leader of an influential tariff State ; Bates, of Missouri, an able and popular antislavery Whig from a slave State ; and last, but by no means least in popular estima- tion, Lincoln, of Illinois. The idea of making Lincoln a Presidential can- didate had occurred to the minds of many during his growing fame. The principle of natural selec- tion plays no unimportant part in the politics of the United States. There are always hundreds of newspapers ready to " nail to the mast-head " the name of any individual which begins to appear frequently in dispatches and editorials. A few months after the close of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and long before the Ohio speeches and the Cooper Institute address, a warm personal friend, the editor of an Illinois newspaper, wi'ote him an invitation to lecture, and added in his letter : " I would like to have a talk with you on political matters, as to the policy of announcing your name for the Presidency, while you are in our city. My partner and myself are about addi'essing the Ee- publican editors of the State on the subject of a simultaneous announcement of your name for the Presidency." To this Lincoln replied : "As to the other matter you kindly mention, I must in candor say I do not think myself fit for the Presidency. I certainly am flattered and gratified that some partial friends think of me in that connection ; but I really think it best for our cause that no concerted effort, such as you suggest, should be made." Pickett to Lincoln, April 13, 1859. MS. Lincoln to Pickett, April IG, 1859. MS. GENERAL JOHN C. BUKCKINRIDGE. THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 257 A much more hopeful ambition filled his mind. chap. xv. Notwithstanding his recent defeat, he did not think that his personal contest with Douglas was yet finished. He had the faith and the patience to wait six years for a chance to repeat his political tournament with the "Little Griant." From his letter quoted in a previous chapter we know he had resolved to "fight in the ranks" in 1860. From another, we know how generously he kept faith with other Republican aspirants. "If Trumbull and I were candidates for the same office you would have a right to prefer him, and I should not blame you for it ; but all my acquaintance with you induces me to believe you would not pretend to be for me while really for him. But I do not understand Trumbull and myself to be rivals. You know I am pledged not to enter a struggle with him for the seat in the Senate now occupied by him ; and yet I would rather have a full term in Liueoin to the Senate than in the Presidency." 9"!T859'.^ms. This spirit of fairness in politics is also shown by the following letter, written apparently in response to a suggestion that Cameron and Lin- coln might form a popular Presidential ticket: " Yours of the 24th ult. was forwarded to me from Chicago. It certainly is important to secure Penn- sylvania for the Republicans in the next Pres- idential contest; and not unimportant to also secure Illinois. As to the ticket you name, I shall be heartily for it after it shall have been fairly nominated by a Republican National Convention ; and I cannot be committed to it before. For my single self, I have enlisted for the permanent success of the Republican cause ; and for this Vol. II.— 17 258 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XV. Lincoln to Frazer, Nov. 1, 1859. MS. object I shall labor faithfully in the ranks, unless, as I think not probable, the judgment of the party- shall assign me a different position. If the Re- publicans of the great State of Pennsylvania shall present Mr. Cameron as theii* candidate for the Presidency, such an indorsement of his fitness for the place could scarcely be deemed insufficient. Still, as I would not like the public to know, so I would not like myself to know, I had entered a combination with any man to the prejudice of all others whose friends respectively may consider them preferable." Not long after these letters, at some date near the middle of the winter 1859-60, the leaders of the Republican party of Illinois met at Springfield, the capital of the State, and in a more pressing and formal manner requested him to permit them to use his name as a Presidential candidate, more with the idea of seeming his nomination for Vice- President than with any further expectation. To this he now consented. His own characteristic language, however, plainly reveals that he believed this would be useful to him in his futm-e Senatorial aspirations solely, and that he built no hopes whatever on national preferment. A quarrel was going on among rival aspirants to the Illinois gov- ernorship, and Lincoln had written a letter to relieve a friend from the imputation of treachery to him in the recent Senatorial contest. This act of justice was now used to his disadvantage in the scramble for the Illinois Presidential delegates, and he wrote as follows : " I am not in a position where it would hurt much for me not to be nomi- nated on the national ticket; but I am where it THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 259 would hurt some for me not to get the Ilhnois chap. xv. delegates. What I expected when I wrote the letter to Messrs. Dole and others is now happening. Your discomfited assailants are most bitter against me ; and they will for revenge upon me, lay to the Bates egg in the South, and to the Seward egg in Lmcoin to the North, and go far towards squeezing me out in I'I^^q- ^^^_ the middle with nothing. Can you not help me a pouted little in this matter in your end of the vineyard 1 " pampwet. The extra vigilance of his friends thus invoked, it turned out that the Illinois Republicans sent a delegation to the Chicago Convention full of per- sonal devotion to Lincoln and composed of men of the highest standing, and of consummate political ability, and their enthusiastic efforts in his behalf among the delegations from other States contrib- uted largely to the final result. The political campaign had now so far taken shape that its elements and chances could be calcu- lated with more than usual accuracy. The Charles- ton Convention had been disrupted on the 30th of Apinl, and adjourned on May 3; the nomination of iseo. John Bell by the Constitutional Union party oc- curred on May 10. The Chicago Convention met on May 16 ; and while there was at that date great uncertainty as to whom the dissevered fragments of the Democratic party would finally nomi- nate, little doubt existed that both the Douglas and Buchanan wings would have candidates in the field. With their opponents thus divided, the plain policy of the Republicans was to find a candi- date on whom a thorough and hearty union of aU the elements of the opposition could be secured. The party was constituted of somewhat hetero- 260 ABEAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XV. geiieous material; a lingering antagonism remained between former Whigs and Democrats, protection- ists and free-traders, foreign-born citizens and Know-Nothiugs. Only on a single point were all thus far agreed — opposition to the extension of slavery. But little calculation was needed to show that at the November polls four doubtful States would decide the Presidential contest. Buchanan had been elected in 1856 by the vote of all the slave States (save Maryland), with the help of the free States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and California. Change the fii'st four or even the first three of these free States to the Eepublican side, and they, with the Fremont States of 1856, would elect the President against aU the others combined. The Congressional elec- tions of 1858 demonstrated that such a change was possible. But besides this, Pennsylvania and In- diana were, like Ohio, known as " October States," because they held elections for State officers in that month ; and they would at that early date give such an indication of sentiment as would forecast their November vote for President, and exert a powerful, perhaps a decisive, influence on the whole canvass. What candidate could most easily carry New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois, became therefore the vital question among the Chicago delegates, and especially among the delegates from the four pivotal States themselves. William H. Seward, of New York, was naturally » the leading candidate. He had been longest in public life, and was highest in official rank. He THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 261 had been Governor of the greatest State of the chap. xv. Union, and had nearly completed a second term of service in the United States Senate. Once a prominent Whig, his antecedents coincided with those of the bulk of the Republican party. His experience ran through two great agitations of the slavery question. He had taken important part in the Senate discussions which ended in the compromise measures of 1850, and in the new contest growing out of the Nebraska bill his voice had been heard in every debate. He was not only firm in his antislavery convictions, but decided in his utterances. Discussing the admis- sion of California, he proclaimed the " higher law " doctrine in 1850;^ reviewing Dred Scott and Le- compton, he announced the "irrepressible con- flict" in 1858.^ He had tact as well as talent; he was a consummate politician, as well as a pro- i"It is time indeed that the We are his stewards, and must so national domain is ours. It is discharge our trust as to secure true it was acquired by the valor in the highest attainable degree and with the wealth of the whole their happiness." — William H. nation. But we hold, ueverthe- Seward, Senate Speech, March less, no arbitrary power over it. 11, 1850. App. "Globe," p. We hold no arbitrary authority 265. over anything, whether acquired 2 " g^all I tell you what this lawfully or seized by usurpation, collision means? They who think The Constitution regulates our thatit is accidental, unnecessary, stewardship ; the Constitution de- the work of interested or fanatical votes the domain to union, to agitators, and therefore ephem- justice, to defense, to welfare, eral, mistake the case altogether, and to liberty. But there is a It is an irrepressible conflict be- higher law than the Constitution tween ojjposing and enduring which regulates our authority forces, and it means that the over the domain, and devotes it United States must and will, to the same noble purposes. The sooner or later, become either teiTitory is a part, no ineonsider- entirely a slave-holding nation, or able part, of the common heritage entirely a free-labor nation." — of mankind, bestowed upon them Seward, Rochester Speech, Octo- by the Creator of the universe, ber 25, 1858. 262 ABEAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. XV. found statesman. Such a leader could not fail of a strong following, and his supporters came to Chi- cago in such numbers, and of such prominence and character, as seemed to make his nomination a fore- gone conclusion. The delegation from New York, headed by William M. Evarts, worked and voted throughout as a unit for him, not merely to carry out their constituents' wishes, but vrith a personal zeal that omitted no exertion or sacrifice. They showed a want of tact, however, in carrying their street demonstrations for their favorite to excess ; they crowded together at the Richmond House, making that hotel the Seward headquarters ; with too much ostentation they marched every day to the convention with music and banners ; and when mention was made of doubtful States, their more headlong members talked altogether too much of the campaign funds they intended to raise. All this occasioned a reaction — a certain mental pro- test among both Eastern and Western delegates against what have come to be characterized as "machine" methods. The positive elements in Seward's character and career had developed, as always happens, strong antagonisms. One of the earliest symptoms among the delegates at Chicago was the existence of a strong undercurrent of opposition to his nomina- tion. This opposition was as yet latent, and scat- tered here and there among many State delegations, but very intense, silently watching its opportunity, and ready to combine upon any of the other candi- dates. The opposition soon made a discovery : that of all the names mentioned, Lincoln's was the only one offering any chance for such a combination. It THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 263 needed only the slightest comparison of notes to chap. xv. show that Dayton had no strength save the New- Jersey vote ; Chase little outside of the Ohio dele- gation; Cameron none but that of Pennsylvania, and that Bates had only his Missouri friends and a few in border slave States, which could cast no elec- toral vote for the Eepublicans. The policy of the anti-Seward delegates was therefore quickly devel- oped — to use Lincoln's popularity as a means to defeat Seward. The credit of the nomination is claimed by many men, and by several delegations, but every such claim is wholly fictitious. Lincoln was chosen not by personal intrigue, but through political neces- sity. The Republican party was a purely defensive organization ; the South had created the crisis which the new party was compelled to overcome. The ascendency of the free States, not the personal fortunes of Seward, hung in the balance. Political victory at the ballot-box or a transformation of the institutions of government was the immediate alter- native before the free States. Victory could be secured only by help of the electoral votes of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indi- ana, and Illinois. It was therefore a simple prob- lem : What candidate could carry these States I None could answer this question so well as their own delegates, and these, when interrogated, still further reduced the problem by the reply that Seward certainly could not. These four States lay on the border land next to the South and to slavery. Institutions inevitably mold public sentiment ; and a certain tenderness towards the "property" of neighbors and friends infected their people. They 264 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XV. shi'unk from the reproach of being " abolitionized." They would vote for a conservative Republican ; but Seward and radicalism and " higher law " would bring them inevitable defeat. Who, then, could carry these doubtful and piv- otal States ? This second branch of the question also found its ready answer. The contest in these States would be not against a Territorial slave code, but against " popular sovereignty " ; not with Buchanan's candidate, but with Douglas ; and for Douglas there was only a single antagonist, tried and true — Abraham Lincoln. Such, we may rea- sonably infer, was the substance of the discussion and argument which ran through the caucus-rooms of the delegates, day and night, during the 16th and 17th of May. Meanwhile the Seward men were not idle ; having the large New York dele- gation to begin with, and counting the many pos- itive committals from other States, their strength and organization seemed impregnable. The oppos- ing delegations, each still nui-sing the chances of its own candidate, hesitated to give any positive promises to each other. At midnight of May 17, Horace Greeley,^ one of Seward's strongest oppo- nents, and perhaps better informed than any other single delegate, telegraphed his conclusion " that the opposition to Governor Seward cannot con- " Tribune," ccutratc ou auy candidate, and that he will be 1860^^' nominated." Chicago was already a city of a hundred thou- sand souls. Thirty to forty thousand visitors, full of life, hope, ambition, most of them from the pro- gressive group of encircling North-western States, 1 Mr. Greeley sat in the convention as a delegate for Oregon. THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 265 aiid strung to the highest tension of political ex- chap. xv. citement, had come to attend the convention. Charleston had shown a great party in the ebb- tide of disintegration, tainted by the spirit of dis- union. Chicago exhibited a gi^eat party springing to life and power, every motive and force compel- ling cooperation and growth. The rush and spirit of the great city, and the enthusiasm and hope of its visitors, blended and reacted upon each other as if by laws of chemical affinity. Something of the freshness and sweep of the prairie winds exhila- rated the delegates and animated the convention. No building in the city of Chicago at that time contained a hall with sufficient room for the sit- tings of the gi'eat assemblage. A temporary frame structure, which the committee of arrangements christened " The Wigwam," was therefore designed and erected for this special use. It was said to be large enough to hold ten thousand persons, and whether or not that estimate was entirely accurate, a prodigious concourse certainly gathered each day within its walls. The first day's session (May 16) demonstrated the successful adaptation of the structure to its uses. Participants and spectators alike were de- lighted with the ease of ingress and egress, the comfortable division of space, the perfection of its acoustic qualities. Every celebrity could be seen, every speech could be heard. The routine of or- ganization, the choice of officers and committees, and the presentation of credentials were full of variety and zest. Governor Edwin D. Morgan, of New York, as Chairman of the National Republican Committee, called the convention to order; and 266 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XV. when he presented the historic name of David Wihnot, of Pennsylvania, for temporary chairman, the faith of the audience in the judgment of the managers was ah^eady won. The report of the committee on organization in the afternoon made George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, a most skillful parliamentarian ready in decision and felicitous in his phrases, the permanent presiding officer. One thing was immediately and specially manifest : an overflowing heartiness and deep feeling pervaded the whole house. No need of a claque, no room for sham demonstration here ! The galleries were as watchful and earnest as the platform. There was something genuine, elemental, uncontrollable in the moods and manifestations of the vast audience. Seats and standing-room were always packed in advance, and, as the delegates entered by their own separate doors, the crowd easily distinguished the chief actors. Blair, Giddings, Greeley, Evarts, Kelley, Wilmot, Schurz, and others were greeted with spontaneous applause, which, rising at some one point, grew and rolled from side to side and corner to corner of the immense building, brighten- ing the eyes and quickening the breath of every inmate.^ With the second day's proceedings the interest of delegates and spectators was visibly increased, first by some sharp-shooting speeches about credentials, and secondly by the main event of the day — the report from the platform committee. Much diffi- culty was expected on this score, but a little time 1 One of the authors of this his- witnessed the scenes in the Wig- tory was a spectator at all the warn which he has endeavored to sessions of the convention, and describe. THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 267 had smoothed the way with almost magical effect, chap. xv. The great outpouring of delegates and people, the self-evident success of the gathering, the harmonious, almost joyous, beginning of the delib- erations in the first day's session, were more con- vincing than logic in solidifying the party. These were the premonitions of success ; before such signs of victory all spirit of faction was fused into a generous glow of emulation. The eager convention would have accepted a weak or defective platform ; the committee, on the contrary, reported one framed with remarkable skill. It is only needful to recapitulate its chief points. It denounced disunion, Lecomptonism, the property theory, the dogma that the Constitution carries slavery to Territories, the reopening of the slave-trade, the popular sovereignty and non-inter- vention fallacies, and denied " the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or of any individuals to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States." It opposed any change in the naturalization laws. It rec- ommended an adjustment of import duties to encourage the industrial interests of the whole country. It advocated the immediate admission of Kansas, free homesteads to actual settlers, river and harbor improvements of a national character, and a railroad to the Pacific Ocean. Bold on points of common agreement, it was unusually successful in avoiding points of controversy among its follow- ers, or offering points for criticism to its enemies. It is not surprising that Charleston and Chicago should furnish many striking contrasts. At the Charleston Convention, the principal personal in- 268 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XV. cident was a long and frank speech from one Gaulden, a Savannah slave-trader, in advocacy of the reopening of the African slave-trade.^ In the Chicago Convention, the exact and extreme op- posite of such a theme created one of the most interesting of the debates. The platform had been read and received with tremendous cheers, when Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, who was everywhere eager to insist upon what he designated as the "primal truths " of the Declaration of Independence, moved to amend the first resolution by incorporating in it the phrase which announces the right of all men to " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The convention was impatient to adopt the plat- form without change; several delegates urged objections, one of them pertinently observing that there were also many other truths enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. " Mr. President," said he, " I believe in the ten commandments, but I do not want them in a political platform." Mr. Giddings's amendment was voted down, and the 1 1 tell you, fellow-Democrats, buy better negroes for $50 a- tbat the African slave-trader is piece. . . I advocate the repeal the true Union man [cheers and of the laws prohibiting the Afri- laughter]. I tell you that the can slave-trade, because I be- slave-trading of Virginia is more lieve it to be the true Union immoral, more unchristian in movement. I do not believe that every possible point of view, sections whose interests are so than that African slave-trade different as the Southern and which goes to Africa and brings Northern States can ever stand a heathen and worthless man the shocks of fanaticism unless here, christianizes him, and sends they be equally balanced. I be- him and his posterity down the lieve that by reopening this stream of time to enjoy the bless- trade, and gi%-ing us negroes to ings of civilization. . . It has populate the Territories, the been my fortiine to go into that equilibrium of the two sections noble old State to buy a few -n-ill be maintained."— Speech of darkies, and I have had to pay W. B. Gaulden, of Georgia, in the from $1000 to $2000 a head, Charleston Democratic National when I could go to Africa and Convention, May 1, 1860. THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 269 antislavery veteran, feeling himself wounded in his chap. xv. most cherished philosophy, rose and walked out of the convention. Personal friends, grieved that he should feel offended, and doubly sorry that the general har- mony should be marred by even a single dissent, followed Mr. Giddings, and sought to change his purpose. While thus persuading him, the discus- sion had passed to the second resolution, when Greorge William Curtis, of New York, seized the chance to renew substantially Mr. Giddings's amend- ment. There were new objections, but Mr. Curtis swept them away with a captivating burst of oratory. " I have to ask this convention," said he, " whether they are prepared to go upon the record before the country as voting down the words of the Declaration of Independence ? . . . I rise simply to ask gentlemen to think well before, upon the free prairies of the West, in the summer of 1860, they dare to wince and quail before the asser- tions of the men in Philadelj^hia, in 1776 — before they dare to shrink from repeating the words that Miirat these great men enunciated." " This was a strong Pconven- appeal, and took the convention by storm," wrote iseo/^p.'iss. a recording journalist. A new vote formally em- bodied this portion of the Declaration of Inde- pendence in the Republican platform; and Mr. Giddings, overjoyed at his triumph, had already returned to his seat when the platform as a whole was adopted with repeated and renewed shouts of applause that seemed to shake the wigwam. The third day of the convention (Friday, May 18) found the doors besieged by an excited mul- titude. The preliminary business was disposed 270 ABEAHAM LINCOLN CHAP. XV. of, — the platform was made, — and every one knew the balloting would begin. The New York dele- gation felt assured of Seward's triumph, and made an effort to have its march to the convention, with banners and music, unusually full and imposing. It proved a costly display; for while the New York " u'regulars " were parading the streets, the lUinoisans were filling the wigwam : when the Seward procession arrived, there was little room left except the reserved seats for the delegates. New York deceived itself in another respect : it counted on the full New England strength, whereas more than half of it had already resolved to cast its vote elsewhere. This defection in advance virtually insured Seward's defeat. New York and the extreme North-west were not sufficiently strong to nominate him, and in the nature of things he could not hope for much help from the con- servative middle and border States. But this cal- culation could not as yet be so accurately made. Caucusing was active up to the very hour when the convention met, and many delegations went to the wigwam with no definite programme beyond the first ballot. What pen shall adequately describe this vast audience of ten thousand souls f the low, wavelike roar of its ordinary conversation; the rolling cheers that greeted the entrance of popular favor- ites ; the solemn hush which fell upon it during the opening prayer 1 There was just enough of some unexpected preliminary wrangle and delay to arouse the full impatience of both convention and spectators ; but at length the names of candidates were announced. This ceremony was still in its THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 271 simplicity. The more recent custom of short chap, x v. dramatic speeches from conspicuous and popular orators to serve as electrifying preludes had not yet been invented. " I take the liberty," said Mr. Evarts, of New York, " to name as a candidate to be nominated by this convention for the office of President of the United States, William H. Seward." "I desire," followed Mr. Judd, "on behalf of the delegation from Illinois, to put in nomination as a candidate for President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois." Then came the usual succession of possible and alternative aspirants who were to be complimented by the first votes of their States — William L. Day- ton, Simon Cameron, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, Jacob Collamer, John McLean. The fifteen minutes required by this formality had already in- disputably marked out and set apart the real con- testants. The " complimentary " statesmen were lustily cheered by their respective State delega- tions ; but at the names of Seward and Lincoln the whole wigwam seemed to respond together. There is something irresistibly exciting in the united voice of a gi-eat crowd. For a moment the struggle appeared to resolve itself into a contest of throats and lungs. Indiana seconded the nomina- tion of Lincoln, and the applause was deafening. Michigan seconded the nomination of Seward ; the New York delegation rose en masse, waved their hats, and joined the galleries in a shout which doubled the volume of any yet given. Then a portion of the Ohio delegates once more seconded Lincoln, and his adherents, feeling themselves put upon their mettle, made an effort. " I thought the 272 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XV. Sewai'd yell could not be surpassed," wrote a spec- tator ; " but the Lincoln boys were clearly ahead, and, feeling their victory, as there was a lull in the storm, took deep breaths all round, and gave a concentrated shriek that was positively awful, and ?couven' accompanicd it with stamping that made every i86o?"p.u5. plank and pillar in the building quiver." The tumult gradually died away, and balloting began. Here we may note another contrast. The Charleston Convention was reactionary and exclu- sive ; it followed the two-thirds rule. The Chicago Convention was progressive and liberal ; it adopted majority rule. Liberal even beyond this, it ad- mitted the Territories and border slave States, con- taining only a minority or fraction of Republican sentiment, to seats and to votes. It was throwing a drag-net for success. Under different circum- stances, these sentimental delegations might have become powerful in intrigue; but dominated as they were by deeper political forces, they afforded no distinct advantage to either candidate.^ Though it was not expected to be decisive, the first ballot foreshadowed accurately the final result. The "complimentary" candidates received the tribute of admiration from their respective States. Vermont voted for Collamer, and New Jersey for Dayton, each solid.^ Peimsylvania's compliment 1 These sentimental delegations Missouri might be counted in were : Maryland, 1 1 ; Delaware, the same category ; but, as she 6 ; Virginia, 23 ; Kentucky, 23 ; voted steadily for Bates through Texas, 6 ; Kansas, 6 ; Nebraska, all the ballots, she did not in any 6 ; District of Columbia, 2. Total, wise influence the result. 83 votes. Of these the leading candidates received as follows: 2 Each State was entitled to , ^ , „ ^ „ J „ T . , „, east a vote equal to double Ist toallot... Seward, 30. ..Lmcoln, 21 ^, , c -t ■cy^ t. ^ n ^ 2(1 <> w 33 .i 30 the number of its Electoral Col- 3d "... '• 33... " 43 lege. THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 273 to Cameron was shorn of six votes, four of which chap. xv. went at once for Lincoln. Ohio divided her compli- ment, 34 for Chase, 4 for McLean, and at once gave Lincoln her 8 remaining votes. Missouri voted soHd for her candidate, Bates, who also received a scat- tering tribute from other delegations. But all these compliments were of little avail to their recipients, for far above each towered the aggregates of the leading candidates : Seward, 173^ ; Lincoln, 102.^ In the groundswell of suppressed excitement which pervaded the convention there was no time to analyze this vote ; nevertheless, delegates and spectators felt the full force of its premonition ; to all who desired the defeat of Seward it pointed out the winning man with unerring certainty. Another little wrangle over some disputed and protesting delegate made the audience almost fm-ious at the delay, and " Call the roll ! " sounded from a thousand throats. 1 FIRST BALLOT IN DETAIL. For Seward. — Maine 10, New Hampshire 1, Massachusetts 21, New York 70, Pennsylvania Ug, Maryland 3, Virginia 8, Kentucky 5, Michigan 12, Texas 4, Wisconsin 10, Iowa 2, California 8, Min- nesota 8, Kansas 6, Nebraska 2, District of Columbia 2. — Total for Seward, 173J^- For Lincoln. — Maine 6, New Hampshire 7, Massachusetts 4, Con- necticut 2, Pennsylvania 4, Virginia 14, Kentucky 6, Ohio 8, In- diana 26, Illinois 22, Iowa 2, Nebraska 1. — Total for Lincoln, 102. Scattering. — New Hampshire, Chase 1, Fr6mont 1; Vermont, Collamer 10; Rhode Island, Bates 1, McLean 5, Reed 1, Chase 1 ; Connecticut, Wade 1, Bates 7, Chase 2 ; New Jersey, Dayton 14 ; Pennsylvania, Cameron 47^2? McLean 1 ; Maryland, Bates 8 ; Dela- ware, Bates 6 ; Virginia, Cameron 1 ; Kentucky, Wade 2, McLean 1, Chase 8, Sumner 1; Ohio, McLean 4, Chase 34 ; Missouri, Bates 18; Texas, Bates 2; Iowa, Cameron 1, Bates 1, McLean 1, Chase 1; Oregon, Bates 5; Nebraska, Cameron 1, Chase 2. — Totals, for Bates, 48; for Cameron, oOi^ ; for McLean, 12; for Chase, 49 ; for Wade, 3; for Dayton, 14 ; for Reed, 1 ; for Colla- mer, 10 ; for Sumner, 1 ; for Fremont, 1. Vol. II.— 18 274 ABE AH AM LINCOLN Chap. XV. A sGCond ballot was begim at last, and, obeying a force as sui'e as the law of gravitation, the former complimentary votes came rushing to Lincoln. The whole 10 votes of Collamer, 44 from Cameron, 6 from Chase and McLean, were now cast for him, followed by a scatter of additions along the roll- call. In this ballot Lincoln gained 79 votes, Seward only 11. The faces of the New York dele- gation whitened as the balloting progressed and the torrent of Lincoln's popularity became a river. The result of the second ballot was : Seward, 184J ; Lincoln, 181 ; scattering, 99J.^ When the vote of Lincoln was announced, there was a tremendous burst of applause, which the chairman prudently but with difficulty controlled and silenced. The third ballot was begun amid a breathless suspense ; hundi'eds of pencils kept pace with the roll-call, and nervously marked the changes on their tally-sheets. The Lincoln figures steadily grew. Votes came to him from all the other can- didates — 4:^ from Seward, 2 from Cameron, 13 1 SECOND BALLOT IN DETAIL. For Seward. — Maine 10, New Hampshire 1, Massachusetts 22, New York 70, New Jersey 4, Pennsylvania 2^2, Maryland 3, Vir- ginia 8, Kentucky 7, Michigan 12, Texas 6, Wisconsin 10, Iowa 2, California 8, Minnesota 8, Kansas 6, Nebraska 3, District of Colum- bia 2.— Total for Seward, 1 84io. For Lincoln. — Maine 6, New Hampshire 9, Vermont 10, Massa- chusetts 4, Rhode Island 3, Connecticut 4, Pennsylvania 48, Dela- ware 6, Virginia 14, Kentucky 9, Ohio 14, Indiana 26, Illinois 22, Iowa 5, Nebraska 1. — Total for Lincoln, 181. Scattering. — Rhode Island, McLean 2, Chase 3 ; Connecticut, Bates 4, Chase 2, Clay 2; New Jersey, Dayton 10 ; Pennsylvania, Cameron 1, McLean 2% ; Maryland, Bates 8 ; Virginia, Cameron 1 ; Kentucky, Chase 6 ; Ohio, McLean 3, Chase 29 ; Missouri, Bates 18; Iowa, McLean %, Chase %; Oregon, Bates 5; Ne- braska, Chase 2.— Totals, for Bates, 35 ; for Cameron, 2 ; for Mc- Lean, 8 ; for Chase, 42J^ ; for Dayton, 10 ; for Clay, 2. THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 275 from Bates, 18 from Chase, 9 from Dayton, 3 chap. xv. from McLean, 1 from Clay. Lincoln bad gained 50J, Seward had lost 4^. Long before the official tellers footed up their columns, spectators and delegates rapidly made the reckoning and knew the result : Lincoln, 231^ ; Seward, 180.^ Count- ing the scattering votes, 465 ballots had been cast, and 233 were necessary to a choice ; only 1^ votes more were needed to make a nomination. A profound stillness suddenly fell upon the wig- wam; the men ceased to talk and the ladies to flutter their fans ; one could distinctly hear the scratching of pencils and the ticking of telegraph instruments on the reporters' tables. No an- nouncement had been made by the chair ; changes were in order, and it was only a question of seconds who should speak first. While every one was leaning forward in intense expectancy, David K. Cartter sprang upon his chair and re- ported a change of four Ohio votes from Chase to Lincoln. There was a moment's pause, — a teller 1 THIRD BALLOT IN DETAIL. For Seward. — Maine 10, New Hampshire 1, Massachusetts 18, Ehode Island 1, Connecticut 1, New York 70, New Jersey 5, Mary- land 2, Virginia 8, Kentucky 6, Michigan 12, Texas 6, Wisconsin 10, Iowa 2, CaUfomia 8, Minnesota 8, Oregon 1, Kansas 6, Ne- braska 3, District of Columbia 2. — Total for Seward, 180. For Lincoln. — Maine 6, New Hampshire 9, Vermont 10, Massa- chusetts 8, Rhode Island 5, Connecticut 4, New Jersey 8, Pennsyl- vania 52, Maryland 9, Delaware 6, Virginia 14, Kentucky 13, Ohio 29, Indiana 26, Illinois 22, Iowa 5%, Oregon 4, Nebraska 1. — Total for Lincoln, 231J^. Scattering. — Rhode Island, Chase 1, McLean 1; Connecticut, Bates 4, Chase 2, Clay 1 ; New Jersey, Dayton 1 ; Pennsylvania, McLean 2; Kentucky, Chase 4; Ohio, Chase 15, McLean 2 ; Mis- souri, Bates 18 ; Iowa, Chase ^o ! Nebraska, Chase 2. — Total, for Bates, 22 ; for Chase, 24^ ; for McLean, 5 ; for Dayton, 1 ; for Clay, 1. FAC-SIMILE OF LINCOLN'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. Ctyi-^^ 276 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 277 waved his tally-sheet towards the skylight and chap. xv. shouted a name, — and then the boom of a cannon on the roof of the wigwam announced the nomina- tion to the crowds in the streets, where shouts and salutes took up and spread the news. In the con- vention the Lincoln river now became an inunda- tion. Amid the wildest hurrahs, delegation after delegation changed its vote to the victor. A graceful custom prevails in orderly American conventions, that the chairman of the vanquished delegation is first to greet the nominee with a short address of party fealty and promise of party sup- port. Mr. Evarts, the spokesman for New York, essayed promptly to perform this courteous office, but was delayed a while by the enthusiasm and confusion. The din at length subsided, and the presiding officer announced that on the third ballot Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, received 364 votes, and "is selected as your candidate for President of the United States." Then Mr. Evarts, in a voice of unconcealed emotion, but with admirable dignity and touching eloquence, speaking for Seward and for New York, moved to make the nomination unanimous. The interest in a National Convention usually ceases with the announcement of the principal nom- ination. It was only afterwards that the delegates realized how fortunate a selection they made by adding Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, to the ticket as candidate for Vice-President. Mr. Hamlin was already distinguished in public service. He was born in 1809, and became a lawyer by profession. He served many years in the Maine Legislature and four years as a Representative in Congress. 278 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XV. In 1848 he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, and in 1851 was reelected for a full term. When in 1856 the Cincinnati Convention indorsed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which he had opposed, Mr. Ham- lin formally withdrew from the Democratic party. In November of that year the Republicans elected him Grovernor of Maine, and in January, 1857, re- elected him United States Senator. For the moment the chief self-congratulation of the convention was that by the nomination of Lin- coln it had secured the doubtful vote of the con- servative States. Or rather, perhaps, might it be said that it was hardly the work of the dele- gates — it was the concurrent product of popular wisdom. Political evolution had with scientific precision wrought "the survival of the fittest." The delegates leaving Chicago on the various homeward-bound railroad trains that night, saw that already the enthusiasm of the convention was transferred from the wigwam to the country. "At every station where there was a village, until after 2 o'clock, there were tar-barrels burning, drums beating, boys carrying rails, and guns great and smaU banging away. The weary passengers were allowed no rest, but plagued by the thundering of the cannon, the clamor of drums, the glare of bonfires, and the whooping of boys, who were delighted with the idea of a candidate for the Presidency who thirty years before split rails on the Sanga- '^convenl Hiou Rlvcr — classic stream now and for evermore i86o?'^p.°i54. — and whose neighbors named him ' honest.' " CHAPTEE XVI LINCOLN ELECTED THUS the Presidential canvass in the United chap.xvi. States for the year 1860 began with the very unusual condition of four considerable parties, and four different tickets for President and Vice- President. In the order of popular strength, as afterwards shown, they were : First. The Eepublican party, which at the Chi- cago Convention had nominated as its candidate for President, Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and for Vice-President, Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine. Its animating spirit was a belief and declaration that the institution of slavery was wrong in morals and detrimental to society ; its avowed policy was to restrict slavery to its present limits in the States where it existed by virtue of local constitutions and laws. Second. The Douglas wing of the Democratic party, which at Baltimore nominated Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, for President, and whose candidate for Vice-President was Herschel V. Johnson, of Greorgia.-^ It declared indifference as 1 Benjamin Fitzpatriek, of Ala- nomination, and the National bama, had been nominated at Committee substituted the name Baltimore, but he declined the of Herschel V. Johnson. 279 280 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XVI. to the moral right or wrong of slavery, and indif- ference to its restriction or extension. Its avowed policy was to permit the people of a Territory to decide whether they would prevent or establish slavery, and it further j^roposed to abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court on all questions of constitutional law growing out of it. Third. The Buchanan wing of the Democratic party, which at Baltimore nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Keutucts^, for President, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for A'^iee-President. Its animating spirit was a belief and declaration that slavery was moraUy right and politically beneficial ; its avowed policy was the extension of slavery into the Territories, and the creation of new slave States, whereby it might protect and perpetuate itself by a preponderance, or at least a constant equality, of j)olitical power, especially in the Senate of the United States. As one means to this end, it proposed the immediate acquisition of the island of Cuba. Fourth. The Constitutional Union party, which in its convention at Baltimore nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. It professed to ignore the question of slavery, and declared that it would recognize no political prin- ciple other than " the Constitution of the Country, the Union of the States, and the enforcement of the Laws." The first, most striking feature of the four-sided Presidential canvass which now began, was the personal pledge by every one of the candidates of devotion to the Union. Each of the factions was LINCOLN ELECTED 281 in some form charging disunion motives or tend- chap.xvl encies upon part or all of the others; but each indignantly denied the allegation as to itself. To leave no possible doubt, the written letters of ac- ceptance of each of the candidates emphasized the point. Lincoln invoked " the inviolability of the Constitution, and the perpetual union, harmony, and prosperity of all." Douglas made his pledge broad and full. " The Federal Union," wrote he, "must be preserved. The Constitution must be maintained inviolate in all its parts. Every right guaranteed by the Constitution must be protected by law in all cases where legislation is necessary to its enjoyment. The judicial authority, as pro- vided in the Constitution, must be sustained, and its decisions implicitly obeyed and faithfully ex- ecuted. The laws must be administered, and the constituted authorities upheld, • and all unlawful resistance to these things must be put down with firmness, impartiality, and fidelity." " The Con- stitution and the equality of the States," wrote Breckinridge, " these are symbols of everlasting union. Let these be the rallying cries of the people." Bell declared that, if elected, all his ability, strength of will, and official influence should be employed " for the maintenance of the Constitu- tion and the Union against all opposing influences and tendencies." Even President Buchanan, in a little campaign speech from the portico of the Ex- ecutive mansion, hastened to purge himself of the imputation of suspicion or fear on this point. He declared that neither of the Democratic conven- tions was " regular," and that therefore every Democrat was at liberty to vote as he thought 282 ABKAHAM LINCOLN Chap. XVI. proper. For himself, he preferred Breckinridge. The Democratic party, when divided for the moment, " has always closed up its ranks, and be- curtis come more powerful even from defeat. It will Buc'han* ^ever die whilst the Constitution and the Union iL,''p?294. survive. It will live to protect and defend both." No progress was made, however, towards a re- union of the Democratic party. The Buchanan faction everywhere waged unrelenting war on Douglas, both in public discussion and in the use of official patronage. The contest was made with equal obstinacy and bitterness in the Northern and the Southern States. Douglas, on his part, was not slow to retaliate. He immediately entered on an ex- tensive campaign tour, and made speeches at many of the principal cities of the Northern States, and a few in the slave States. Everywhere he stigmatized the Breckinridge wing of the Democracy as an ex- tremist and disunion faction,-^ charging that it was as obnoxious and dangerous as the Republicans. Whatever be his errors, it must be recorded to his lasting renown that he boldly declared for main- taining the Union by force. At Norfolk, Virginia, the question was put to him in writing. "I an- swer emphatically," replied Douglas, " that it is the duty of the President of the United States, and all others in authority under him, to enforce the laws of the United States passed by Congress, and as the courts expound them, and I, as in duty bound 1 "In my opinion there is a ma- Lincoln so as to have an excuse ttire plan throughout the South- for disunion. I do not believe em States to break up the Union, that every Breckinridge man is a I believe the election of a Repub- disunionist, but I do believe that lican is to be the signal for that every disunionist in America is a attempt, and that the leaders of Breckinridge man." — Douglas, the scheme desire the election of Baltimore Speech, Sept. 6, 1860. LINCOLN ELECTED 283 by my oath of fidelity to the Constitution, would chap.xvi. do all in my power to aid the Government of the United States in maintaining the supremacy of the laws against all resistance to them, come from what quarter it might. In other words, I think the Presi- dent, whoever he may be, should treat all attempts Douglas, to break up the Union by resistance to the laws, as speech, -,-.- J-