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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6812.txt b/6812.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c71de53 --- /dev/null +++ b/6812.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12851 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 +by John G. Nicolay and John Hay + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 + +Author: John G. Nicolay and John Hay + +Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6812] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 27, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A HISTORY V1 *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Nield, Tom Allen, David Moynihan, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A HISTORY +BY JOHN G. NICOLAY AND JOHN HAY + +VOLUME ONE + + + + +TO THE HONORABLE ROBERT TODD LINCOLN + + THIS WORK IS DEDICATED + IN TOKEN OF + A LIFE-LONG FRIENDSHIP + AND ESTEEM + + + + +AUTHORS' PREFACE + + +A generation born since Abraham Lincoln died has already reached +manhood and womanhood. Yet there are millions still living who +sympathized with him in his noble aspirations, who labored with him in +his toilsome life, and whose hearts were saddened by his tragic death. +It is the almost unbroken testimony of his contemporaries that by +virtue of certain high traits of character, in certain momentous lines +of purpose and achievement, he was incomparably the greatest man of +his time. The deliberate judgment of those who knew him has hardened +into tradition; for although but twenty-five years have passed since +he fell by the bullet of the assassin, the tradition is already +complete. The voice of hostile faction is silent, or unheeded; even +criticism is gentle and timid. If history had said its last word, if +no more were to be known of him than is already written, his fame, +however lacking in definite outline, however distorted by fable, would +survive undiminished to the latest generations. The blessings of an +enfranchised race would forever hail him as their liberator; the +nation would acknowledge him as the mighty counselor whose patient +courage and wisdom saved the life of the republic in its darkest hour; +and illuminating his proud eminence as orator, statesman, and ruler, +there would forever shine around his memory the halo of that tender +humanity and Christian charity in which he walked among his fellow- +countrymen as their familiar companion and friend. + +It is not, therefore, with any thought of adding materially to his +already accomplished renown that we have written the work which we now +offer to our fellow-citizens. But each age owes to its successors the +truth in regard to its own annals. The young men who have been born +since Sumter was fired on have a right to all their elders know of the +important events they came too late to share in. The life and fame of +Lincoln will not have their legitimate effect of instruction and +example unless the circumstances among which he lived and found his +opportunities are placed in their true light before the men who never +saw him. + +To write the life of this great American in such a way as to show his +relations to the times in which he moved, the stupendous issues he +controlled, the remarkable men by whom he was surrounded, has been the +purpose which the authors have diligently pursued for many years. We +can say nothing of the result of our labor; only those who have been +similarly employed can appreciate the sense of inadequate performance +with which we regard what we have accomplished. We claim for our work +that we have devoted to it twenty years of almost unremitting +assiduity; that we have neglected no means in our power to ascertain +the truth; that we have rejected no authentic facts essential to a +candid story; that we have had no theory to establish, no personal +grudge to gratify, no unavowed objects to subserve. We have aimed to +write a sufficiently full and absolutely honest history of a great man +and a great time; and although we take it for granted that we have +made mistakes, that we have fallen into such errors and inaccuracies +as are unavoidable in so large a work, we claim there is not a line in +all these volumes dictated by malice or unfairness. + +Our desire to have this work placed under the eyes of the greatest +possible number of readers induced us to accept the generous offer of +"The Century Magazine" to print it first in that periodical. In this +way it received, as we expected, the intelligent criticism of a very +large number of readers, thoroughly informed in regard to the events +narrated, and we have derived the greatest advantage from the +suggestions and corrections which have been elicited during the serial +publication, which began in November, 1886, and closed early in 1890. +We beg, here, to make our sincere acknowledgments to the hundreds of +friendly critics who have furnished us with valuable information. + +As "The Century" had already given, during several years, a +considerable portion of its pages to the elucidation and discussion of +the battles and campaigns of the civil war, it was the opinion of its +editor, in which we coincided, that it was not advisable to print in +the magazine the full narrative sketch of the war which we had +prepared. We omitted also a large number of chapters which, although +essential to a history of the time, and directly connected with the +life of Mr. Lincoln, were still episodical in their nature, and were +perhaps not indispensable to a comprehension of the principal events +of his administration. These are all included in the present volumes; +they comprise additional chapters almost equal in extent and fully +equal in interest to those which have already been printed in "The +Century." Interspersed throughout the work in their proper connection +and sequence, and containing some of the most important of Mr. +Lincoln's letters, they lend breadth and unity to the historical +drama. + +We trust it will not be regarded as presumptuous if we say a word in +relation to the facilities we have enjoyed and the methods we have +used in the preparation of this work. We knew Mr. Lincoln intimately +before his election to the Presidency. We came from Illinois to +Washington with him, and remained at his side and in his service-- +separately or together--until the day of his death. We were the daily +and nightly witnesses of the incidents, the anxieties, the fears, and +the hopes which pervaded the Executive Mansion and the National +Capital. The President's correspondence, both official and private, +passed through our hands; he gave us his full confidence. We had +personal acquaintance and daily official intercourse with Cabinet +Officers, Members of Congress, Governors, and Military and Naval +Officers of all grades, whose affairs brought them to the White House. +It was during these years of the war that we formed the design of +writing this history and began to prepare for it. President Lincoln +gave it his sanction and promised his cordial cooperation. After +several years' residence in Europe, we returned to this country and +began the execution of our long-cherished plan. Mr. Robert T. Lincoln +gave into our keeping all the official and private papers and +manuscripts in his possession, to which we have added all the material +we could acquire by industry or by purchase. It is with the advantage, +therefore, of a wide personal acquaintance with all the leading +participants of the war, and of perfect familiarity with the +manuscript material, and also with the assistance of the vast bulk of +printed records and treatises which have accumulated since 1865, that +we have prosecuted this work to its close. + +If we gained nothing else by our long association with Mr. Lincoln we +hope at least that we acquired from him the habit of judging men and +events with candor and impartiality. The material placed in our hands +was unexampled in value and fullness; we have felt the obligation of +using it with perfect fairness. We have striven to be equally just to +friends and to adversaries; where the facts favor our enemies we have +recorded them ungrudgingly; where they bear severely upon statesmen +and generals whom we have loved and honored we have not scrupled to +set them forth, at the risk of being accused of coldness and +ingratitude to those with whom we have lived on terms of intimate +friendship. The recollection of these friendships will always be to us +a source of pride and joy; but in this book we have known no +allegiance but to the truth. We have in no case relied upon our own +memory of the events narrated, though they may have passed under our +own eyes; we have seen too often the danger of such a reliance in the +reminiscences of others. We have trusted only our diaries and +memoranda of the moment; and in the documents and reports we have +cited we have used incessant care to secure authenticity. So far as +possible, every story has been traced to its source, and every +document read in the official record or the original manuscript. + +We are aware of the prejudice which exists against a book written by +two persons, but we feel that in our case the disadvantages of +collaboration are reduced to the minimum. Our experiences, our +observations, our material, have been for twenty years not merely +homogeneous--they have been identical. Our plans were made with +thorough concert; our studies of the subject were carried on together; +we were able to work simultaneously without danger of repetition or +conflict. The apportionment of our separate tasks has been dictated +purely by convenience; the division of topics between us has been +sometimes for long periods, sometimes almost for alternate chapters. +Each has written an equal portion of the work; while consultation and +joint revision have been continuous, the text of each remains +substantially unaltered. It is in the fullest sense, and in every +part, a joint work. We each assume responsibility, not only for the +whole, but for all the details, and whatever credit or blame the +public may award our labors is equally due to both. + +We commend the result of so many years of research and diligence to +all our countrymen, North and South, in the hope that it may do +something to secure a truthful history of the great struggle which +displayed on both sides the highest qualities of American manhood, and +may contribute in some measure to the growth and maintenance +throughout all our borders of that spirit of freedom and nationality +for which Abraham Lincoln lived and died. + +John G. Nicolay +John Hay +[signatures] + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOL. I + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN From a photograph taken about 1860 by Hesler, of +Chicago; from the original negative owned by George B. Ayres, +Philadelphia. + +LAND WARRANT, ISSUED TO ABRAHAM LINKHORN (LINCOLN) + +FAC-SIMILE FROM THE FIELD-BOOK OF DANIEL BOONE + +SURVEYOR'S CERTIFICATE FOR ABRAHAM LINKHORN (LINCOLN) + +HOUSE IN WHICH THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS WERE MARRIED + +FAC-SIMILE OF THE MARRIAGE BOND OF THOMAS LINCOLN + +CERTIFICATE, OR MARRIAGE LIST, CONTAINING THE NAMES OF THOMAS LINCOLN +AND NANCY HANKS + +SARAH BUSH LINCOLN AT THE AGE OF 76 From a photograph in possession of +William H. Herndon. + +CABIN ON GOOSE-NEST PRAIRIE, ILL., IN WHICH THOMAS LINCOLN LIVED AND +DIED + +MODEL OF LINCOLN'S INVENTION FOR BUOYING VESSELS + +FAC-SIMILE OF DRAWINGS IN THE PATENT OFFICE + +LEAF FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S EXERCISE BOOK + +SOLDIER'S DISCHARGE FROM THE BLACK HAWK WAR, SIGNED BY A. LINCOLN, +CAPTAIN + +BLACK HAWK. From a portrait by Charles B. King, from McKenny & Hall's +"Indian Tribes of North America." + +STEPHEN T. LOGAN From the portrait in possession of his daughter, Mrs. +L. H. Coleman. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS, SADDLE BAG, ETC + +PLAN OF ROADS SURVEYED BY A. LINCOLN AND OTHERS + +FAC-SIMILE OF LINCOLN'S REPORT OF THE ROAD SURVEY + +O. H. BROWNING From a photograph by Waide. + +MARTIN VAN BUREN From a photograph by Brady. + +COL. E. D. BAKER From a photograph by Brady, about 1861. + +LINCOLN AND STUART'S LAW-OFFICE, SPRINGFIELD + +LINCOLN'S BOOKCASE AND INKSTAND From the Keyes Lincoln Memorial +Collection, Chicago. + +GLOBE TAVERN, SPRINGFIELD Where Lincoln lived after his marriage. + +WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON From a painting, in 1841, by Henry Inman, owned +by Benjamin Harrison. + +FAC-SIMILE OF MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +JOSHUA SPEED AND WIFE From a painting by Healy, about 1864. + +HOUSE IN WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS MARRIED + +GEN. JAMES SHIELDS From a photograph owned by David Delany. + +HENRY CLAY After a photograph by Rockwood, from the daguerreotype +owned by Alfred Hassack. + +ZACHARY TAYLOR From the painting by Vanderlyn in the Corcoran Gallery. + +JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS From a photograph by Brady. + +DAVID DAVIS From a photograph by Brady. + +JAMES K. POLK From a photograph by Brady. + +FRANKLIN PIERCE From a photograph by Brady. + +LYMAN TRUMBULL Prom a photograph by Brady. + +OWEN LOVEJOY From a photograph. + +DAVID E. ATCHISON From a daguerreotype. + +ANDREW H. REEDER From a photograph by R. Knecht. + +JAMES H. LANE By permission of the Strowbridge Lithographing Co. MAPS + +MAP SHOWING LOCALITIES CONNECTED WITH EARLY EVENTS IN THE LINCOLN +FAMILY + +MAP OF NEW SALEM, ILL., AND VICINITY + +MAP OF THE BOUNDARIES OF TEXAS + +HISTORICAL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1854 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + +VOL. I + + +CHAPTER I. LINEAGE The Lincolns in America. Intimacy with the Boones. +Kentucky in 1780. Death of Abraham Lincoln the Pioneer. Marriage of +Thomas Lincoln. Birth and Childhood of Abraham + +CHAPTER II. INDIANA Thomas Lincoln leaves Kentucky. Settles at +Gentryville. Death of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Sarah Bush Johnston. +Pioneer Life in Indiana. Sports and Superstitions of the Early +Settlers. The Youth of Abraham. His Great Physical Strength. His +Voyage to New Orleans. Removal to Illinois + +CHAPTER III. ILLINOIS IN 1830 The Winter of the Deep Snow. The Sudden +Change. Pioneer Life. Religion and Society. French and Indians. +Formation of the Political System. The Courts. Lawyers and +Politicians. Early Superannuation + +CHAPTER IV. NEW SALEM Denton Offutt. Lincoln's Second Trip to New +Orleans. His Care of His Family. Death of Thomas Lincoln. Offutt's +Store in New Salem. Lincoln's Initiation by the "Clary's Grove Boys." +The Voyage of the _Talisman_ + +CHAPTER V. LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR Black Hawk. The Call for +Volunteers. Lincoln Elected Captain. Stillman's Run. Lincoln +Reenlists. The Spy Battalion. Black Hawk's Defeat. Disbandment of the +Volunteers + +CHAPTER VI. SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE Lincoln's Candidacy for the +Legislature. Runs as a Whig. Defeated. Berry and Lincoln Merchants. +Lincoln Begins the Study of Law. Postmaster. Surveyor. His Popularity. +Elected to the Legislature, 1834 + +CHAPTER VII. LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE Lincoln's First Session in the +Legislature. Douglas and Peek. Lincoln Reelected. Bedlam Legislation. +Schemes of Railroad Building. Removal of the Capital to Springfield + +CHAPTER VIII. THE LINCOLN-STONE PROTEST The Pro-Slavery Sentiment in +Illinois. Attempt to Open the State to Slavery. Victory of the Free- +State Party. Reaction. Death of Lovejoy. Pro-Slavery Resolutions. The +Protest + +CHAPTER IX. COLLAPSE OF "THE SYSTEM" Lincoln in Springfield. The +Failure of the Railroad System. Fall of the Banks. First Collision +with Douglas. Tampering with the Judiciary + +CHAPTER X. EARLY LAW PRACTICE Early Legal Customs. Lincoln's +Popularity in Law and Politics. A Speech in 1840. The Harrison +Campaign. Correspondence with Stuart. Harrison Elected. Melancholia + +CHAPTER XI. MARRIAGE Courtship and Engagement, The Pioneer +Temperament. Lincoln's Love Affairs. Joshua F. Speed. Lincoln's Visit +to Kentucky. Correspondence with Speed. Marriage + +CHAPTER XII. THE SHIELDS DUEL A Political Satire. James Shields. +Lincoln Challenged. A Fight Arranged and Prevented. Subsequent +Wranglings. The Whole Matter Forgotten. An Admonition + +CHAPTER XIII. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 Partnership with Stephen T. Logan. +Lincoln Becomes a Lawyer. Temperance Movement. Baker and Lincoln +Candidates for the Whig Nomination to Congress. Baker Successful. Clay +Nominated for President. The Texas Question. Clay Defeated + +CHAPTER XIV. LINCOLN'S CAMPAIGN FOR CONGRESS Schemes of Annexation. +Opposition at the North. Outbreak of War. Lincoln Nominated for +Congress. His Opponent Peter Cartwright. Lincoln Elected. The Whigs in +the War. E. D. Baker in Washington and Mexico + +CHAPTER XV. THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS Robert C. Winthrop Chosen Speaker. +Debates on the War. Advantage of the Whigs. Acquisition of Territory. +The Wilmot Proviso. Lincoln's Resolutions. Nomination of Taylor for +President. Cass the Democratic Candidate. Lincoln's Speech, July 27, +1848. Taylor Elected + +CHAPTER XVI. A FORTUNATE ESCAPE Independent Action of Northern +Democrats. Lincoln's Plan for Emancipation in the District of +Columbia. His Bill Fails to Receive Consideration. A Similar Bill +Signed by Him Fifteen Years Later. Logan Nominated for Congress and +Defeated. Lincoln an Applicant for Office. The Fascination of +Washington + +CHAPTER XVII. THE CIRCUIT LAWYER The Growth and Change of Legal +Habits. Lincoln on the Circuit. His Power and Value as a Lawyer. +Opinion of David Davis. Of Judge Drummond. Incidents of the Courts. +Lincoln's Wit and Eloquence. His Life at Home + +CHAPTER XVIII. THE BALANCE OF POWER Origin of the Slavery Struggle. +The Ordinance of 1787. The Compromises of the Constitution. The +Missouri Compromise. Cotton and the Cotton-Gin. The Race between Free +and Slave States. The Admission of Texas. The Wilmot Proviso. New +Mexico and California. The Compromise Measures of 1850. Finality + +CHAPTER XIX. REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE Stephen A. Douglas. Old +Fogies and Young America. The Nomination of Pierce. The California +Gold Discovery. The National Platforms on the Slavery Issue. +Organization of Western Territories. The Three Nebraska Bills. The +Caucus Agreement of the Senate Committee. Dixon's Repealing Amendment. +Douglas Adopts Dixon's Proposition. Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act + +CHAPTER XX. THE DRIFT OF POLITICS The Storm of Agitation. The Free +Soil Party. The American Party. The Anti-Nebraska Party. Dissolution +of the Whig Party. The Congressional Elections. Democratic Defeat. +Banks Elected Speaker + +CHAPTER XXI. LINCOLN AND TRUMBULL The Nebraska Question in Illinois. +Douglas's Chicago Speech. Lincoln Reappears in Politics. Political +Speeches at the State Fair. A Debate between Lincoln and Douglas. +Lincoln's Peoria Speech. An Anti-Nebraska Legislature Elected. +Lincoln's Candidacy for the Senate. Shields and Matteson. Trumbull +Elected Senator. Lincoln's Letter to Robertson + +CHAPTER XXII. THE BORDER RUFFIANS The Opening of Kansas Territory. +Andrew H, Reeder Appointed Governor. Atchison's Propaganda. The +Missouri Blue Lodges. The Emigrant Aid Company. The Town of Lawrence +Founded. Governor Reeder's Independent Action. The First Border +Ruffian Invasion. The Election of Whitfield + +CHAPTER XXIII. THE BOGUS LAWS Governor Reeder's Census. The Second +Border Ruffian Invasion. Missouri Voters Elect the Kansas Legislature. +Westport and Shawnee Mission. The Governor Convenes the Legislature at +Pawnee. The Legislature Returns to Shawnee Mission. Governor Reeder's +Vetoes. The Governor's Removal. Enactment of the Bogus Laws. Despotic +Statutes. Lecompton Founded + +CHAPTER XXIV. THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION The Bogus Legislature Defines +Kansas Politics. The Big Springs Convention. Ex-Governor Reeder's +Resolutions. Formation of the Free-State Party. A Constitutional +Convention at Topeka. The Topeka Constitution. President Pierce +Proclaims the Topeka Movement Revolutionary. Refusal to Recognize the +Bogus Laws. Chief-Justice Lecompte's Doctrine of Constructive Treason, +Arrests and Indictment of the Free-State Leaders. Colonel Sumner +Disperses the Topeka Legislature + +CHAPTER XXV. CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS Wilson Shannon Appointed Governor. +The Law and Order Party Formed at Leavenworth. Sheriff Jones. The +Branson Rescue. The Wakarusa War. Sharps Rifles. Governor Shannon's +Treaty. Guerrilla Leaders and Civil War. The Investigating Committee +of Congress. The Flight of Ex-Governor Reeder. The Border Ruffians +March on Lawrence. Burning of the Free-State Hotel + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +LINEAGE + + +[Sidenote: 1780.] + +In the year 1780, Abraham Lincoln, a member of a respectable and well- +to-do family in Rockingham County, Virginia, started westward to +establish himself in the newly-explored country of Kentucky. He +entered several large tracts of fertile land, and returning to +Virginia disposed of his property there, and with his wife and five +children went back to Kentucky and settled in Jefferson County. Little +is known of this pioneer Lincoln or of his father. Most of the records +belonging to that branch of the family were destroyed in the civil +war. Their early orphanage, the wild and illiterate life they led on +the frontier, severed their connection with their kindred in the East. +This, often happened; there are hundreds of families in the West +bearing historic names and probably descended from well-known houses +in the older States or in England, which, by passing through one or +two generations of ancestors who could not read or write, have lost +their continuity with the past as effectually as if a deluge had +intervened between the last century and this. Even the patronymic has +been frequently distorted beyond recognition by slovenly pronunciation +during the years when letters were a lost art, and by the phonetic +spelling of the first boy in the family who learned the use of the +pen. There are Lincolns in Kentucky and Tennessee belonging to the +same stock with the President, whose names are spelled "Linkhorn" and +"Linkhern." All that was known of the emigrant, Abraham Lincoln, by +his immediate descendants was that his progenitors, who were Quakers, +came from Berks County, Pennsylvania, into Virginia, and there throve +and prospered. [Footnote: We desire to express our obligations to +Edwin Salter, Samuel L. Smedley, Samuel Shackford, Samuel W. +Pennypacker, Howard M. Jenkins, and John T. Harris, Jr., for +information and suggestions which have been of use to us in this +chapter.] But we now know, with sufficient clearness, through the +wide-spread and searching luster which surrounds the name, the history +of the migrations of the family since its arrival on this continent, +and the circumstances under which the Virginia pioneer started for +Kentucky. + +The first ancestor of the line of whom we have knowledge was Samuel +Lincoln, of Norwich, England, who came to Hingham, Massachusetts, in +1638, and died there. He left a son, Mordecai, whose son, of the same +name,--and it is a name which persists in every branch of the family, +[Footnote: The Lincolns, in naming their children, followed so strict +a tradition that great confusion has arisen in the attempt to trace +their genealogy. For instance, Abraham Lincoln, of Chester County, son +of one Mordecai and brother of another, the President's ancestors, +left a fair estate, by will, to his children, whose names were John, +Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mordecai, Rebecca, and Sarah--precisely the +same names we find in three collateral families.]--removed to +Monmouth, New Jersey, and thence to Amity township, now a part of now +a part of Berks County, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1735, fifty +years old. From a copy of his will, recorded in the office of the +Register in Philadelphia, we gather that he was a man of considerable +property. In the inventory of his effects, made after his death, he is +styled by the appraisers, "Mordecai Lincoln, Gentleman." His son John +received by his father's will "a certain piece of land lying in the +Jerseys, containing three hundred acres," the other sons and daughters +having been liberally provided for from the Pennsylvania property. +This John Lincoln left New Jersey some years later, and about 1750 +established himself in Rockingham County, Virginia. He had five sons, +to whom he gave the names which were traditional in the family:-- +Abraham, the pioneer first mentioned,--Isaac, Jacob, Thomas, and John. +Jacob and John remained in Virginia; the former was a soldier in the +War of the Revolution, and took part as lieutenant in a Virginia +regiment at the siege of Yorktown. Isaac went to a place on the +Holston River in Tennessee; Thomas followed his brother to Kentucky, +lived and died there, and his children then emigrated to Tennessee +[Footnote: It is an interesting coincidence for the knowledge of which +we are indebted to Colonel John B. Brownlow, that a minister named +Mordecai Lincoln a relative of the President, performed, on the 17th +of May, 1837, the marriage ceremony of Andrew Johnson, Mr. Lincoln's +succesor, in the Presidency.] With the one memorable exception the +family seem to have been modest, thrifty, unambitious people. Even the +great fame and conspicuousness of the President did not tempt them out +of their retirement. Robert Lincoln, of Hancock County, Illinois, a +cousin--German, became a captain and commissary of volunteers; none of +the others, so far as we know, ever made their existence known to +their powerful kinsman during the years of his glory. [Transcriber's +Note: Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end.] + +It was many years after the death of the President that his son +learned the probable circumstances under which the pioneer Lincoln +removed to the West, and the intimate relations which subsisted +between his family and the most celebrated man in early Western +annals. There is little doubt that it was on account of his +association with the, famous Daniel Boone that Abraham Lincoln went to +Kentucky. The families had for a century been closely allied. There +were frequent intermarriages [Footnote: A letter from David J. +Lincoln, of Birdsboro, Berks County, Pennsylvania, to the writers, +says, "My grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, was married to Anna Boone, a +first cousin of Daniel Boone, July 10, 1760." He was half-brother of +John Lincoln, and afterwards became a man of some prominence in +Pennsylvania, serving in the Constitutional Convention in 1789-90.] +among them--both being of Quaker lineage. By the will of Mordecai +Lincoln, to which reference has been made, his "loving friend and +neighbor" George Boone was made a trustee to assist his widow in the +care of the property. Squire Boone, the father of Daniel, was one of +the appraisers who made the inventory of Mordecai Lincoln's estate. +The intercourse between the families was kept up after the Boones had +removed to North Carolina and John Lincoln had gone to Virginia. +Abraham Lincoln, son of John, and grandfather of the President, was +married to Miss Mary Shipley [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote +relocated to chapter end.] in North Carolina. The inducement which led +him to leave Virginia, where his standing and his fortune were +assured, was, in all probability, his intimate family relations with +the great explorer, the hero of the new country of Kentucky, the land +of fabulous richness and unlimited adventure. At a time when the +Eastern States were ringing with the fame of the mighty hunter who was +then in the prime of his manhood, and in the midst of those +achievements which will forever render him one of the most picturesque +heroes in all our annals, it is not to be wondered at that his own +circle of friends should have caught the general enthusiasm and felt +the desire to emulate his career. + +Boone's exploration of Kentucky had begun some ten years before +Lincoln set out to follow his trail. In 1769 he made his memorable +journey to that virgin wilderness of whose beauty he always loved to +speak even to his latest breath. During all that year he hunted, +finding everywhere abundance of game. "The buffalo," Boone says, "were +more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browsing on +the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on these extensive +plains, fearless because ignorant of the violence of man. Sometimes we +saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were +amazing." In the course of the winter, however, he was captured by the +Indians while hunting with a comrade, and when they had contrived to +escape they never found again any trace of the rest of their party. +But a few days later they saw two men approaching and hailed them with +the hunter's caution, "Hullo, strangers; who are you?" They replied, +"White men and friends." They proved to be Squire Boone and another +adventurer from North Carolina. The younger Boone had made that long +pilgrimage through the trackless woods, led by an instinct of doglike +affection, to find his elder brother and share his sylvan pleasures +and dangers. Their two companions were soon waylaid and killed, and +the Boones spent their long winter in that mighty solitude +undisturbed. In the spring their ammunition, which was to them the +only necessary of life, ran low, and one of them must return to the +settlements to replenish the stock. It need not be said which assumed +this duty; the cadet went uncomplaining on his way, and Daniel spent +three months in absolute loneliness, as he himself expressed it, "by +myself, without bread, salt, or sugar, without company of my fellow- +creatures, or even a horse or dog." He was not insensible to the +dangers of his situation. He never approached his camp without the +utmost precaution, and always slept in the cane-brakes if the signs +were unfavorable. But he makes in his memoirs this curious reflection, +which would seem like affectation in one less perfectly and simply +heroic: "How unhappy such a situation for a man tormented with fear, +which is vain if no danger comes, and if it does, only augments the +pain. It was my happiness to be destitute of this afflicting passion, +with which I had the greatest reason to be afflicted." After his +brother's return, for a year longer they hunted in those lovely wilds, +and then returned to the Yadkin to bring their families to the new +domain. They made the long journey back, five hundred miles, in peace +and safety. + +For some time after this Boone took no conspicuous part in the +settlement of Kentucky. The expedition with which he left the Yadkin +in 1773 met with a terrible disaster near Cumberland Gap, in which his +eldest son and five more young men were killed by Indians, and the +whole party, discouraged by the blow, retired to the safer region of +Clinch River. In the mean time the dauntless speculator Richard +Henderson had begun his occupation with all the pomp of viceroyalty. +Harrodsburg had been founded, and corn planted, and a flourishing +colony established at the Falls of the Ohio. In 1774 Boone was called +upon by the Governor of Virginia to escort a party of surveyors +through Kentucky, and on his return was given the command of three +garrisons; and for several years thereafter the history of the State +is the record of his feats of arms. No one ever equaled him in his +knowledge of Indian character, and his influence with the savages was +a mystery to him and to themselves. Three times he fell into their +hands and they did not harm him. Twice they adopted him into their +tribes while they were still on the war-path. Once they took him to +Detroit, [Footnote: Silas Farmer, historiographer of Detroit, informs +us that Daniel Boone was brought there on the 10th of March, 1778, and +that he remained there a month.] to show the Long-Knife chieftains of +King Greorge that they also could exhibit trophies of memorable +prowess, but they refused to give him up even to their British allies. +In no quality of wise woodcraft was he wanting. He could outrun a dog +or a deer; he could thread the woods without food day and night; he +could find his way as easily as the panther could. Although a great +athlete and a tireless warrior, he hated fighting and only fought for +peace. In council and in war he was equally valuable. His advice was +never rejected without disaster, nor followed but with advantage; and +when the fighting once began there was not a rifle in Kentucky which +could rival his. At the nine days' siege of Boonesboro' he took +deliberate aim and killed a negro renegade who was harassing the +garrison from a tree five hundred and twenty-five feet away, and whose +head only was visible from the fort. The mildest and the quietest of +men, he had killed dozens of enemies with his own hand, and all this +without malice and, strangest of all, without incurring the hatred of +his adversaries. He had self-respect enough, but not a spark of +vanity. After the fatal battle of the Blue Licks,--where the only +point of light in the day's terrible work was the wisdom and valor +with which he had partly retrieved a disaster he foresaw but was +powerless to prevent,--when it became his duty, as senior surviving +officer of the forces, to report the affair to Governor Harrison, his +dry and naked narrative gives not a single hint of what he had done +himself, nor mentions the gallant son lying dead on the field, nor the +wounded brother whose gallantry might justly have claimed some notice. +He was thinking solely of the public good, saying, "I have encouraged +the people in this country all that I could, but I can no longer +justify them or myself to risk our lives here under such extraordinary +hazards." He therefore begged his Excellency to take immediate +measures for relief. During the short existence of Henderson's +legislature he was a member of it, and not the least useful one. Among +his measures was one for the protection of game. + +[Illustration: LAND WARRANT ISSUED TO ABRAHAM LINKHORN (LINCOLN). The +original, of which this is a reduced fac-simile, is in the possession +of Colonel R. T, Durrett, Louisville, Ky.] + +[Sidenote: Jefferson County Records.] + +Everything we know of the emigrant Abraham Lincoln goes to show that +it was under the auspices of this most famous of our pioneers that he +set out from Rockingham County to make a home for himself and his +young family in that wild region which Boone was wresting from its +savage holders. He was not without means of his own. He took with him +funds enough to enter an amount of land which would have made his +family rich if they had retained it. The county records show him to +have been the possessor of a domain of some seventeen hundred acres. +There is still in existence [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote +relocated to chapter end.] the original warrant, dated March 4, 1780, +for four hundred acres of land, for which the pioneer had paid "into +the publick Treasury one hundred and sixty pounds current money," and +a copy of the surveyor's certificate, giving the metes and bounds of +the property on Floyd's Fork, which remained for many years in the +hands of Mordecai Lincoln, the pioneer's eldest son and heir. The name +was misspelled "Linkhorn" by a blunder of the clerk in the +land-office, and the error was perpetuated in the subsequent record. + +Kentucky had been for many years the country of romance and fable for +Virginians. Twenty years before Governor Spotswood had crossed the +Alleghanies and returned to establish in a Williamsburg tavern that +fantastic order of nobility which he called the Knights of The Golden +Horseshoe, [Footnote: Their motto was _Sic jurat transcendere +montes_.] and, with a worldly wisdom which was scarcely consistent +with these medieval affectations, to press upon the attention of the +British Government the building of a line of frontier forts to guard +the Ohio River from the French. Many years after him the greatest of +all Virginians crossed the mountains again, and became heavily +interested in those schemes of emigration which filled the minds of +many of the leading men in America until they were driven out by +graver cares and more imperative duties. Washington had acquired +claims and patents to the amount of thirty or forty thousand acres of +land in the West; Benjamin Franklin and the Lees were also large +owners of these speculative titles. They formed, it is true, rather an +airy and unsubstantial sort of possession, the same ground being often +claimed by a dozen different persons or companies under various grants +from the crown or from legislatures, or through purchase by +adventurers from Indian councils. But about the time of which we are +speaking the spirit of emigration had reached the lower strata of +colonial society, and a steady stream of pioneers began pouring over +the passes of the mountains into the green and fertile valleys of +Kentucky and Tennessee. They selected their homes in the most eligible +spots to which chance or the report of earlier explorers directed +them, with little knowledge or care as to the rightful ownership of +the land, and too often cleared their corner of the wilderness for the +benefit of others. Even Boone, to whose courage, forest lore, and +singular intuitions of savage character the State of Kentucky owed +more than to any other man, was deprived in his old age of his hard- +earned homestead through his ignorance of legal forms, and removed to +Missouri to repeat in that new territory his labors and his +misfortunes. + +[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE FROM THE FIELD BOOK OF DANIEL BOONE. This +record of the Lincoln Claim on Licking River is from the original in +posession of Lyman C. Draper, Madison, Wis.] + +[Sidenote: 1780.] + +The period at which Lincoln came West was one of note in the history +of Kentucky. The labors of Henderson and the Transylvania Company had +begun to bear fruit in extensive plantations and a connected system of +forts. The land laws of Kentucky had reduced to something like order +the chaos of conflicting claims arising from the various grants and +the different preemption customs under which settlers occupied their +property. The victory of Boone at Boonesboro' against the Shawnees, +and the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes by the brilliant audacity +of George Rogers Clark, had brought the region prominently to the +attention of the Atlantic States, and had turned in that direction the +restless and roving spirits which are always found in communities at +periods when great emigrations are a need of civilization. Up to this +time few persons had crossed the mountains except hunters, trappers, +and explorers--men who came merely to kill game, and possibly Indians, +or to spy out the fertility of the land for the purpose of +speculation. But in 1780 and 1781 a large number of families took up +their line of march, and in the latter year a considerable contingent +of women joined the little army of pioneers, impelled by an instinct +which they themselves probably but half comprehended. The country was +to be peopled, and there was no other way of peopling it but by the +sacrifice of many lives and fortunes; and the history of every country +shows that these are never lacking when they are wanted. The number of +those who came at about the same time with the pioneer Lincoln was +sufficient to lay the basis of a sort of social order. Early in the +year 1780 three hundred "large family boats" arrived at the Falls of +the Ohio, where the land had been surveyed by Captain Bullitt seven +years before, and in May the Legislature of Virginia passed a law for +the incorporation of the town of Louisville, then containing some six +hundred inhabitants. At the same session a law was passed confiscating +the property of certain British subjects for the endowment of an +institution of learning in Kentucky, "it being the interest of this +commonwealth," to quote the language of the philosophic Legislature, +"always to encourage and promote every design which may tend to the +improvement of the mind and the diffusion of useful knowledge even +among its remote citizens, whose situation in a barbarous neighborhood +and a savage intercourse might otherwise render them unfriendly to +science." This was the origin of the Transylvania University of +Lexington, which rose and flourished for many years on the utmost +verge of civilization. + +[Illustration: SURVEYOR'S CERTIFICATE (SLIGHTLY REDUCED), TAKEN FROM +RECORD BOOK "B," PAGE 60, IN THE OFFICE OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, +KENTUCKY.] + +The "barbarous neighborhood" and the "savage intercourse" undoubtedly +had their effect upon the manners and morals of the settlers; but we +should fall into error if we took it for granted that the pioneers +were all of one piece. The ruling motive which led most of them to the +wilds was that Anglo-Saxon lust of land which seems inseparable from +the race. The prospect of possessing a four-hundred-acre farm by +merely occupying it, and the privilege of exchanging a basketful of +almost worthless continental currency for an unlimited estate at the +nominal value of forty cents per acre, were irresistible to thousands +of land-loving Virginians and Carolinians whose ambition of +proprietorship was larger than their means. Accompanying this flood of +emigrants of good faith was the usual froth and scum of shiftless +idlers and adventurers, who were either drifting with a current they +were too worthless to withstand, or in pursuit of dishonest gains in +fresher and simpler regions. The vices and virtues of the pioneers +were such as proceeded from their environment. They were careless of +human life because life was worth comparatively little in that hard +struggle for existence; but they had a remarkably clear idea of the +value of property, and visited theft not only with condign punishment, +but also with the severest social proscription. Stealing a horse was +punished more swiftly and with more feeling than homicide. A man might +be replaced more easily than the other animal. Sloth was the worst of +weaknesses. An habitual drunkard was more welcome at "raisings" and +"logrollings" than a known faineant. The man who did not do a man's +share where work was to be done was christened "Lazy Lawrence," and +that was the end of him socially. Cowardice was punished by inexorable +disgrace. The point of honor was as strictly observed as it ever has +been in the idlest and most artificial society. If a man accused +another of falsehood, the ordeal by fisticuffs was instantly resorted +to. Weapons were rarely employed in these chivalrous encounters, being +kept for more serious use with Indians and wild beasts; nevertheless +fists, teeth, and the gouging thumb were often employed with fatal +effect. Yet among this rude and uncouth people there was a genuine and +remarkable respect for law. They seemed to recognize it as an absolute +necessity of their existence. In the territory of Kentucky, and +afterwards in that of Illinois, it occurred at several periods in the +transition from counties to territories and states, that the country +was without any organized authority. But the people were a law unto +themselves. Their improvised courts and councils administered law and +equity; contracts were enforced, debts were collected, and a sort of +order was maintained. It may be said, generally, that the character of +this people was far above their circumstances. In all the accessories +of life, by which we are accustomed to rate communities and races in +the scale of civilization, they were little removed from primitive +barbarism. They dressed in the skins of wild beasts killed by +themselves, and in linen stuffs woven by themselves. They hardly knew +the use of iron except in their firearms and knives. Their food +consisted almost exclusively of game, fish, and roughly ground corn- +meal. Their exchanges were made by barter; many a child grew up +without ever seeing a piece of money. Their habitations were hardly +superior to those of the savages with whom they waged constant war. +Large families lived in log huts, put together without iron, and far +more open to the inclemencies of the skies than the pig-styes of the +careful farmer of to-day. An early schoolmaster says that the first +place where he went to board was the house of one Lucas, consisting of +a single room, sixteen feet square, and tenanted by Mr. and Mrs. +Lucas, ten children, three dogs, two cats, and himself. There were +many who lived in hovels so cold that they had to sleep on their shoes +to keep them from freezing too stiff to be put on. The children grew +inured to misery like this, and played barefoot in the snow. It is an +error to suppose that all this could be undergone with impunity. They +suffered terribly from malarial and rheumatic complaints, and the +instances of vigorous and painless age were rare among them. The lack +of moral and mental sustenance was still more marked. They were +inclined to be a religious people, but a sermon was an unusual luxury, +only to be enjoyed at long intervals and by great expense of time. +There were few books or none, and there was little opportunity for the +exchange of opinion. Any variation in the dreary course of events was +welcome. A murder was not without its advantages as a stimulus to +conversation; a criminal trial was a kind of holiday to a county. It +was this poverty of life, this famine of social gratification, from +which sprang their fondness for the grosser forms of excitement, and +their tendency to rough and brutal practical joking. In a life like +theirs a laugh seemed worth having at any expense. + +[Illustration: HOUSE NEAR BEECHLAND, KENTUCKY, IN WHICH THOMAS LINCOLN +AND NANCY HANKS WERE MARRIED.] + +But near as they were to barbarism in all the circumstances of their +daily existence, they were far from it politically. They were the +children of a race which had been trained in government for centuries +in the best school the world has ever seen, and wherever they went +they formed the town, the county, the court, and the legislative power +with the ease and certainty of nature evolving its results. And this +they accomplished in the face of a savage foe surrounding their feeble +settlements, always alert and hostile, invisible and dreadful as the +visionary powers of the air. Until the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, +closed the long and sanguinary history of the old Indian wars, there +was no day in which the pioneer could leave his cabin with the +certainty of not finding it in ashes when he returned, and his little +flock murdered on his threshold, or carried into a captivity worse +than death. Whenever nightfall came with the man of the house away +from home, the anxiety and care of the women and children were none +the less bitter because so common. + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING VARIOUS LOCALITIES CONNECTED WITH EARLY +EVENTS IN THE LINCOLN FAMILY.] + +The life of the pioneer Abraham Lincoln soon came to a disastrous +close. He had settled in Jefferson County, on the land he had bought +from the Government, and cleared a small farm in the forest. +[Footnote: Lyman C. Draper, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, has +kindly furnished us with a MS account of a Kentucky tradition +according to which the pioneer Abraham Lincoln was captured by the +Indians, near Crow's Station, in August, 1782, carried into captivity, +and forced to run the gauntlet. The story rests on the statement of a +single person, Mrs. Sarah Graham.] One morning in the year 1784, he +started with his three sons, Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas, to the edge +of the clearing, and began the day's work. A shot from the brush +killed the father; Mordecai, the eldest son, ran instinctively to the +house, Josiah to the neighboring fort, for assistance, and Thomas, the +youngest, a child of six, was left with the corpse of his father. +Mordecai, reaching the cabin, seized the rifle, and saw through the +loophole an Indian in his war-paint stooping to raise the child from +the ground. He took deliberate aim at a white ornament on the breast +of the savage and brought him down. The little boy, thus released, ran +to the cabin, and Mordecai, from the loft, renewed his fire upon the +savages, who began to show themselves from the thicket, until Josiah +returned with assistance from the stockade, and the assailants fled. +This tragedy made an indelible impression on the mind of Mordecai. +Either a spirit of revenge for his murdered father, or a sportsmanlike +pleasure in his successful shot, made him a determined Indian-stalker, +and he rarely stopped to inquire whether the red man who came within +range of his rifle was friendly or hostile. [Footnote: Late in life +Mordecai Lincoln removed to Hancock County, Illinois, where his +descendants still live.] + +[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF THE MARRIAGE BOND OF THOMAS LINCOLN.] + +The head of the family being gone, the widow Lincoln soon removed to a +more thickly settled neighborhood in Washington County. There her +children grew up. Mordecai and Josiah became reputable citizens; the +two daughters married two men named Crume and Brumfield. Thomas, to +whom were reserved the honors of an illustrious paternity, learned the +trade of a carpenter. He was an easy-going man, entirely without +ambition, but not without self-respect. Though the friendliest and +most jovial of gossips, he was not insensible to affronts; and when +his slow anger was roused he was a formidable adversary. Several +border bullies, at different times, crowded him indiscreetly, and were +promptly and thoroughly whipped. He was strong, well-knit, and sinewy; +but little over the medium height, though in other respects he seems +to have resembled his son in appearance. + +On the 12th of June, 1806, [Footnote: All previous accounts give the +date of this marriage as September 23d. This error arose from a +clerical blunder in the county record of marriages. The minister, the +Rev. Jesse Head, in making his report, wrote the date before the +names; the clerk, copying it, lost the proper sequence of the entries, +and gave to the Lincolns the date belonging to the next couple on the +list.] while learning his trade in the carpenter shop of Joseph Hanks, +in Elizabethtown, he married Nancy Hanks, a niece of his employer, +near Beechland, in Washington County. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy +footnote (1) relocated to chapter end.] She was one of a large family +who had emigrated from Virginia with the Lincolns and with another +family called Sparrow. They had endured together the trials of pioneer +life; their close relations continued for many years after, and were +cemented by frequent intermarriage. + +Mrs. Lincoln's mother was named Lucy Hanks; her sisters were Betty, +Polly, and Nancy who married Thomas Sparrow, Jesse Friend, and Levi +Hall. The childhood of Nancy was passed with the Sparrows, and she was +oftener called by their name than by her own. The whole family +connection was composed of people so little given to letters that it +is hard to determine the proper names and relationships of the younger +members amid the tangle of traditional cousinships. [Footnote: The +Hanks family seem to have gone from Pennsylvania and thence to +Kentucky about the same time with the Lincolns. They also belonged to +the Communion of Friends.--"Historical Collections of Gwynnedd," by H. +M. Jenkins.] Those who went to Indiana with Thomas Lincoln, and grew +up with his children, are the only ones that need demand our +attention. + +There was no hint of future glory in the wedding or the bringing home +of Nancy Lincoln. All accounts represent her as a handsome young woman +of twenty-three, of appearance and intellect superior to her lowly +fortunes. She could read and write,--a remarkable accomplishment in +her circle,--and even taught her husband to form the letters of his +name. He had no such valuable wedding gift to bestow upon her; he +brought her to a little house in Elizabethtown, where he and she and +want dwelt together in fourteen feet square. The next year a daughter +was born to them; and the next the young carpenter, not finding his +work remunerative enough for his growing needs, removed to a little +farm which he had bought on the easy terms then prevalent in Kentucky. +It was on the Big South Fork of Nolin Creek, in what was then Hardin +and is now La Rue County, three miles from Hodgensville. The ground +had nothing attractive about it but its cheapness. It was hardly more +grateful than the rocky hill slopes of New England. It required full +as earnest and intelligent industry to persuade a living out of those +barren hillocks and weedy hollows, covered with stunted and scrubby +underbrush, as it would amid the rocks and sands of the northern +coast. + +Thomas Lincoln settled down in this dismal solitude to a deeper +poverty than any of his name had ever known; and there, in the midst +of the most unpromising circumstances that ever witnessed the advent +of a hero into this world, Abraham Lincoln was born on the 12th day of +February, 1809. + +Four years later, Thomas Lincoln purchased a fine farm of 238 acres on +Knob Creek, near where it flows into the Rolling Fork, and succeeded +in getting a portion of it into cultivation. The title, however, +remained in him only a little while, and after his property had passed +out of his control he looked about for another place to establish +himself. + +[Illustration: This Certificate, or Marriage List (here shown in +reduced fac-simile), written by the Rev. Jesse Head, was lost sight of +for many years, and about 1886 was discovered through the efforts of +W. F. Booker, Clerk of Washington County, Kentucky.] + +Of all these years of Abraham Lincoln's early childhood we know almost +nothing. He lived a solitary life in the woods, returning from his +lonesome little games to his cheerless home. He never talked of these +days to his most intimate friends. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy +footnote (2) relocated to chapter end.] Once, when asked what he +remembered about the war with Great Britain, he replied: "Nothing but +this. I had been fishing one day and caught a little fish which I was +taking home. I met a soldier in the road, and, having been always told +at home that we must be good to the soldiers, I gave him my fish." +This is only a faint glimpse, but what it shows is rather +pleasant--the generous child and the patriotic household. But there is +no question that these first years of his life had their lasting +effect upon the temperament of this great mirthful and melancholy man. +He had little schooling. He accompanied his sister Sarah [Footnote: +This daughter of Thomas Lincoln is sometimes called Nancy and +sometimes Sarah. She seems to have borne the former name during her +mother's life-time, and to have taken her stepmother's name after Mr. +Lincoln's second marriage.] to the only schools that existed in their +neighborhood, one kept by Zachariah Riney, another by Caleb Hazel, +where he learned his alphabet and a little more. But of all those +advantages for the cultivation of a young mind and spirit which every +home now offers to its children, the books, toys, ingenious games, and +daily devotion of parental love, he knew absolutely nothing. + +[Relocated Footnote: Soon after Mr. Lincoln arrived in Washington in +1861, he received the following letter from one of his Virginia +kinsmen, the last communication which ever came from them. It was +written on paper adorned with a portrait of Jefferson Davis, and was +inclosed in an envelope emblazoned with the Confederate flag: + +"To ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Esq., _President of the Northern Confederacy_. + +"SIR: Having just returned from a trip through Virginia, North +Carolina, and Tennessee, permit me to inform you that you will get +whipped out of your boots. To-day I met a gentleman from Anna, +Illinois, and although he voted for you he says that the moment your +troops leave Cairo they will get the spots knocked out of them. My +dear sir, these are facts which time will prove to be correct. + +"I am, sir, with every consideration, yours respectfully, + +"MINOR LINCOLN, + +"Of the Staunton stock of Lincolns." + +There was a young Abraham Lincoln on the Confederate side in the +Shenandoah distinguished for his courage and ferocity. He lay in wait +and shot a Drunkard preacher, whom he suspected of furnishing +information to the Union army. (Letter from Samuel W. Pennypacker.)] + +[Relocated Footnote: In giving to the wife of the pioneer Lincoln the +name of Mary Shipley we follow the tradition in his family. The Hon. +J. L. Nall, of Missouri, grandson of Nancy (Lincoln) Brumfield, +Abraham Lincoln's youngest child, has given us so clear a statement of +the case that we cannot hesitate to accept it, although it conflicts +with equally positive statements from other sources. The late Gideon +Welles, Secretary of the Navy, who gave much intelligent effort to +genealogical researches, was convinced that the Abraham Lincoln who +married Miss Hannah Winters, a daughter of Ann Boone, sister of the +famous Daniel, was the President's grandfather. Waddell's "Annals of +Augusta County" says he married Elizabeth Winter, a cousin of Daniel +Boone. The Boone and Lincoln families were large and there were +frequent intermarriages among them, and the patriarchal name of +Abraham was a favorite one. There was still another Lincoln, Hannaniah +by name, who was also intimately associated with the Boones. His +signature appears on the surveyor's certificate for Abraham Lincoln's +land in Jefferson County, and he joined Daniel Boone in 1798 in the +purchase of the tract of land on the Missouri River where Boone died. +(Letter from Richard V. B. Lincoln, printed in the "Williamsport +[Pa.] Banner," Feb. 25, 1881.)] + +[Relocated Footnote: In the possession of Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, +of Louisville, a gentleman who has made the early history of his State +a subject of careful study, and to whom we are greatly indebted for +information in regard to the settlement of the Lincolns in Kentucky. +He gives the following list of lands in that State owned by Abraham +Lincoln: + +1. Four hundred acres on Long Run, a branch of Floyd's Fork, in +Jefferson County, entered May 29, 1780, and surveyed May 7, 1785. We +have in our possession the original patent issued by Governor Garrard, +of Kentucky, to Abraham Lincoln for this property. It was found by +Col. A. C. Matthews, of the 99th Illinois, in 1863, at an abandoned +residence near Indianola, Texas. + +2. Eight hundred acres on Green River, near Green River Lick, entered +June 7, 1780, and surveyed October 12, 1784. + +3. Five hundred acres in Campbell County, date of entry not known, but +surveyed September 27, 1798, and patented June 30, 1799--the survey +and patent evidently following his entry after his death. It is +possible that this was the five-hundred-acre tract found in Boone's +field-book, in the possession of Lyman C. Draper, Esq., Secretary of +the Wisconsin Historical Society, and erroneously supposed by some to +have been in Mercer County. Boone was a deputy of Colonel Thomas +Marshall, Surveyor of Fayette County.] + +[Relocated Footnote (1): The following is a copy of the marriage bond: + +"Know all men by these presents, that we, Thomas Lincoln and Richard +Berry, are held and firmly bound unto his Excellency, the Governor of +Kentucky, in the just and full sum of fifty pounds current money to the +payment of which well and truly to be made to the said Governor and his +successors, we bind ourselves, our heirs, etc., jointly and severally, +firmly by these presents, sealed with our seals and dated this 10th day +of June, 1806. The condition of the above obligation is such that +whereas there is a marriage shortly intended between the above bound +Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, for which a license has issued, now if +there be no lawful cause to obstruct the said marriage, then this +obligation to be void, else to remain in full force and virtue in law. + + "THOMAS LINCOLN [Seal]. + "RICHARD BERRY [Seal]. + "_Witness_, JOHN H. PARROTT, Guardian." + +Richard Berry was a connection of Lincoln; his wife was a Shipley.] + +[Relocated Footnote (2): There is still living (1886) near Knob Creek +in Kentucky, at the age of eighty, a man who claims to have known +Abraham Lincoln in his childhood--Austin Gollaher. He says he used to +play with Abe Lincoln in the shavings of his father's carpenter shop. +He tells a story which, if accurate, entitles him to the civic crown +which the Romans used to give to one who saved the life of a citizen. +When Gollaher was eleven and Lincoln eight the two boys were in the +woods in pursuit of partridges; in trying to "coon" across Knob Creek +on a log, Lincoln fell in and Gollaher fished him out with a sycamore +branch--a service to the Republic, the value of which it would be +difficult to compute.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +INDIANA + + +[Sidenote: 1818.] + +By the time the boy Abraham had attained his seventh year, the social +condition of Kentucky had changed considerably from the early pioneer +days. Life had assumed a more settled and orderly course. The old +barbarous equality of the earlier time was gone; a difference of +classes began to be seen. Those who held slaves assumed a distinct +social superiority over those who did not. Thomas Lincoln, concluding +that Kentucky was no country for a poor man, determined to seek his +fortune in Indiana. He had heard of rich and unoccupied lands in Perry +County in that State, and thither he determined to go. He built a rude +raft, loaded it with his kit of tools and four hundred gallons of +whisky, and trusted his fortunes to the winding water-courses. He met +with only one accident on his way: his raft capsized in the Ohio +River, but he fished up his kit of tools and most of the ardent +spirits, and arrived safely at the place of a settler named Posey, +with whom he left his odd invoice of household goods for the +wilderness, while he started on foot to look for a home in the dense +forest. He selected a spot which pleased him in his first day's +journey. He then walked back to Knob Creek and brought his family on +to their new home. No humbler cavalcade ever invaded the Indiana +timber. Besides his wife and two children, his earthly possessions +were of the slightest, for the backs of two borrowed horses sufficed +for the load. Insufficient bedding and clothing, a few pans and +kettles, were their sole movable wealth. They relied on Lincoln's kit +of tools for their furniture, and on his rifle for their food. At +Posey's they hired a wagon and literally hewed a path through the +wilderness to their new habitation near Little Pigeon Creek, a mile +and a half east of Gentryville, in a rich and fertile forest country. + +Thomas Lincoln, with the assistance of his wife and children, built a +temporary shelter of the sort called in the frontier language "a half- +faced camp"; merely a shed of poles, which defended the inmates on +three sides from foul weather, but left them open to its inclemency in +front. For a whole year his family lived in this wretched fold, while +he was clearing a little patch of ground for planting corn, and +building a rough cabin for a permanent residence. They moved into the +latter before it was half completed; for by this time the Sparrows had +followed the Lincolns from Kentucky, and the half-faced camp was given +up to them. But the rude cabin seemed so spacious and comfortable +after the squalor of "the camp," that Thomas Lincoln did no further +work on it for a long time. He left it for a year or two without +doors, or windows, or floor. The battle for existence allowed him no +time for such superfluities. He raised enough corn to support life; +the dense forest around him abounded in every form of feathered game; +a little way from his cabin an open glade was full of deer-licks, and +an hour or two of idle waiting was generally rewarded by a shot at a +fine deer, which would furnish meat for a week, and material for +breeches and shoes. His cabin was like that of other pioneers. A few +three-legged stools; a bedstead made of poles stuck between the logs +in the angle of the cabin, the outside corner supported by a crotched +stick driven into the ground; the table, a huge hewed log standing on +four legs; a pot, kettle, and skillet, and a few tin and pewter dishes +were all the furniture. The boy Abraham climbed at night to his bed of +leaves in the loft, by a ladder of wooden pins driven into the logs. + +This life has been vaunted by poets and romancers as a happy and +healthful one. Even Dennis Hanks, speaking of his youthful days when +his only home was the half-faced camp, says, "I tell you, Billy, I +enjoyed myself better then than I ever have since." But we may +distrust the reminiscences of old settlers, who see their youth in the +flattering light of distance. The life was neither enjoyable nor +wholesome. The rank woods were full of malaria, and singular epidemics +from time to time ravaged the settlements. In the autumn of 1818 the +little community of Pigeon Creek was almost exterminated by a +frightful pestilence called the milk-sickness, or, in the dialect of +the country, "the milk-sick." It is a mysterious disease which has +been the theme of endless wrangling among Western physicians, and the +difficulty of ascertaining anything about it has been greatly +increased by the local sensitiveness which forbids any one to admit +that any well-defined case has ever been seen in his neighborhood, +"although just over the creek (or in the next county) they have had it +bad." It seems to have been a malignant form of fever--attributed +variously to malaria and to the eating of poisonous herbs by the +cattle--attacking cattle as well as human beings, attended with +violent retching and a burning sensation in the stomach, often +terminating fatally on the third day. In many cases those who +apparently recovered lingered for years with health seriously +impaired. Among the Pioneers of Pigeon Creek, so ill-fed, ill-housed, +and uncared for, there was little prospect of recovery from such a +grave disorder. The Sparrows, husband and wife, died early in October, +and Nancy Hanks Lincoln followed them after an interval of a few days. +Thomas Lincoln made the coffins for his dead "out of green lumber cut +with a whipsaw," and they were all buried, with scant ceremony, in a +little clearing of the forest. It is related of young Abraham, that he +sorrowed most of all that his mother should have been laid away with +such maimed rites, and that he contrived several months later to have +a wandering preacher named David Elkin brought to the settlement, to +deliver a funeral sermon over her grave, already white with the early +winter snows. [Footnote: A stone has been placed over the site of the +grave "by P. E. Studebaker, of South Bend, Indiana." The stone bears +the following inscription: "Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of President +Lincoln, died October 5th, A. D. 1818, aged 35 years. Erected by a +friend of her martyred son, 1879."] + +This was the dreariest winter of his life, for before the next +December came his father had brought from Kentucky a new wife, who was +to change the lot of all the desolate little family very much for the +better. Sarah Bush had been an acquaintance of Thomas Lincoln before +his first marriage; she had, it is said, rejected him to marry one +Johnston, the jailer at Elizabethtown, who had died, leaving her with +three children, a boy and two girls. When Lincoln's widowhood had +lasted a year, he went down to Elizabethtown to begin again the wooing +broken off so many years before. He wasted no time in preliminaries, +but promptly made his wishes known, and the next morning they were +married. It was growing late in the autumn, and the pioneer probably +dreaded another lonely winter on Pigeon Creek. Mrs. Johnston was not +altogether portionless. She had a store of household goods which +filled a four-horse wagon borrowed of Ralph Grume, Thomas Lincoln's +brother-in-law, to transport the bride to Indiana. It took little time +for this energetic and honest Christian woman to make her influence +felt, even in those discouraging surroundings, and Thomas Lincoln and +the children were the better for her coming all the rest of their +lives. The lack of doors and floors was at once corrected. Her honest +pride inspired her husband to greater thrift and industry. The goods +she brought with her compelled some effort at harmony in the other +fittings of the house. She dressed the children in warmer clothing and +put them to sleep in comfortable beds. With this slight addition to +their resources the family were much improved in appearance, behavior, +and self-respect. + +[Illustration: SARAH BUSH LINCOLN AT THE AGE OF SEVENTY-SIX.] + +Thomas Lincoln joined the Baptist church at Little Pigeon in 1823; his +oldest child, Sarah, followed his example three years later. They were +known as active and consistent members of that communion. Lincoln was +himself a good carpenter when he chose to work at his trade; a walnut +table made by him is still preserved as part of the furniture of the +church to which he belonged. + +[Sidenote: MS. letter from the Rev. T.V. Robertson, pastor of the +Little Pigeon Baptist church.] + +Such a woman as Sarah Bush could not be careless of so important a +matter as the education of her children, and they made the best use of +the scanty opportunities the neighborhood afforded. "It was a wild +region," writes Mr. Lincoln, in one of those rare bits of +autobiography which he left behind him, "with many bears and other +wild animals still in the woods. There were some schools so-called, +but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond 'readin', +writin', and cipherin' to the Rule of Three.' If a straggler supposed +to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was +looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite +ambition for education." But in the case of this ungainly boy there +was no necessity of any external incentive. A thirst for knowledge as +a means of rising in the world was innate in him. It had nothing to do +with that love of science for its own sake which has been so often +seen in lowly savants, who have sacrificed their lives to the pure +desire of knowing the works of God. All the little learning he ever +acquired he seized as a tool to better his condition. He learned his +letters that he might read books and see how men in the great world +outside of his woods had borne themselves in the fight for which he +longed. He learned to write, first, that he might have an +accomplishment his playmates had not; then that he might help his +elders by writing their letters, and enjoy the feeling of usefulness +which this gave him; and finally that he might copy what struck him in +his reading and thus make it his own for future use. He learned to +cipher certainly from no love of mathematics, but because it might +come in play in some more congenial business than the farm-work which +bounded the horizon of his contemporaries. Had it not been for that +interior spur which kept his clear spirit at its task, his schools +could have done little for him; for, counting his attendance under +Riney and Hazel in Kentucky, and under Dorsey, Crawford, and Swaney in +Indiana, it amounted to less than a year in all. The schools were much +alike. They were held in deserted cabins of round logs, with earthen +floors, and small holes for windows, sometimes illuminated by as much +light as could penetrate through panes of paper greased with lard. The +teachers were usually in keeping with their primitive surroundings. +The profession offered no rewards sufficient to attract men of +education or capacity. After a few months of desultory instruction +young Abraham knew all that these vagrant literati could teach him. +His last school-days were passed with one Swaney in 1826, who taught +at a distance of four and a half miles from the Lincoln cabin. The +nine miles of walking doubtless seemed to Thomas Lincoln a waste of +time, and the lad was put at steady work and saw no more of school. + +But it is questionable whether he lost anything by being deprived of +the ministrations of the backwoods dominies. When his tasks ended, his +studies became the chief pleasure of his life. In all the intervals of +his work--in which he never took delight, knowing well enough that he +was born for something better than that--he read, wrote, and ciphered +incessantly. His reading was naturally limited by his opportunities, +for books were among the rarest of luxuries in that region and time. +But he read everything he could lay his hands upon, and he was +certainly fortunate in the few books of which he became the possessor. +It would hardly be possible to select a better handful of classics for +a youth in his circumstances than the few volumes he turned with a +nightly and daily hand--the Bible, "Aesop's Fables," "Robinson Crusoe," +"The Pilgrim's Progress," a history of the United States, and Weem's +"Life of Washington." These were the best, and these he read over and +over till he knew them almost by heart. But his voracity for anything +printed was insatiable. He would sit in the twilight and read a +dictionary as long as he could see. He used to go to David Turnham's, +the town constable, and devour the "Revised Statutes of Indiana," as +boys in our day do the "Three Guardsmen." Of the books he did not own +he took voluminous notes, filling his copy-book with choice extracts, +and poring over them until they were fixed in his memory. He could not +afford to waste paper upon his original compositions. He would sit by +the fire at night and cover the wooden shovel with essays and +arithmetical exercises, which he would shave off and then begin again. +It is touching to think of this great-spirited child, battling year +after year against his evil star, wasting his ingenuity upon devices +and makeshifts, his high intelligence starving for want of the simple +appliances of education that are now offered gratis to the poorest and +most indifferent. He did a man's work from the time he left school; +his strength and stature were already far beyond those of ordinary +men. He wrought his appointed tasks ungrudgingly, though without +enthusiasm; but when his employer's day was over, his own began. John +Hanks says: "When Abe and I returned to the house from work he would +go to the cupboard, snatch a piece of corn-bread, take down a book, +sit down, cock his legs up as high as his head, and read." The picture +may be lacking in grace, but its truthfulness is beyond question. The +habit remained with him always. Some of his greatest work in later +years was done in this grotesque Western fashion,--"sitting on his +shoulder-blades." + +[Sidenote: W. H. Lamou "Life of Lincoln," p. 37.] + +[Sidenote: Damon, p. 80.] + +Otherwise his life at this time differed little from that of ordinary +farm-hands. His great strength and intelligence made him a valuable +laborer, and his unfailing good temper and flow of rude rustic wit +rendered him the most agreeable of comrades. He was always ready with +some kindly act or word for others. Once he saved the life of the town +drunkard, whom he found freezing by the roadside, by carrying him in +his strong arms to the tavern, and working over him until he revived. +It is a curious fact that this act of common humanity was regarded as +something remarkable in the neighborhood; the grateful sot himself +always said "it was mighty clever of Abe to tote me so far that cold +night." It was also considered an eccentricity that he hated and +preached against cruelty to animals. Some of his comrades remember +still his bursts of righteous wrath, when a boy, against the wanton +murder of turtles and other creatures. He was evidently of better and +finer clay than his fellows, even in those wild and ignorant days. At +home he was the life of the singularly assorted household, which +consisted, besides his parents and himself, of his own sister, Mrs. +Lincoln's two girls and boy, Dennis Hanks, the legacy of the dying +Sparrow family, and John Hanks (son of the carpenter Joseph with whom +Thomas Lincoln learned his trade), who came from Kentucky several +years after the others. It was probably as much the inexhaustible good +nature and kindly helpfulness of young Abraham which kept the peace +among all these heterogeneous elements, effervescing with youth and +confined in a one-roomed cabin, as it was the Christian sweetness and +firmness of the woman of the house. It was a happy and united +household: brothers and sisters and cousins living peacefully under +the gentle rule of the good stepmother, but all acknowledging from a +very early period the supremacy in goodness and cleverness of their +big brother Abraham. Mrs. Lincoln, not long before her death, gave +striking testimony of his winning and loyal character. She said to Mr. +Herndon: "I can say, what scarcely one mother in a thousand can say, +Abe never gave me a cross word or look, and never refused in fact or +appearance to do anything I asked him. His mind and mine--what little +I had--seemed to run together.... I had a son John, who was raised +with Abe. Both were good boys, but I must say, both now being dead, +that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or expect to see." Such were the +beginnings of this remarkable career, sacred as we see from childhood, +to duty and to human kindliness. + +"We are making no claim of early saintship for him. He was merely a +good boy, with sufficient wickedness to prove his humanity. One of his +employers, undazzled by recent history, faithfully remembers that +young Abe liked his dinner and his pay better than his work: there is +surely nothing alien to ordinary mortality in this. It is also +reported that he sometimes impeded the celerity of harvest operations +by making burlesque speeches, or worse than that, comic sermons, from +the top of some tempting stump, to the delight of the hired hands and +the exasperation of the farmer. His budding talents as a writer were +not always used discreetly. He was too much given to scribbling coarse +satires and chronicles, in prose, and in something which had to him +and his friends the air of verse. From this arose occasional heart- +burnings and feuds, in which Abraham bore his part according to the +custom of the country. Despite his Quaker ancestry and his natural +love of peace, he was no non-resistant, and when he once entered upon +a quarrel the opponent usually had the worst of it. But he was +generous and placable, and some of his best friends were those with +whom he had had differences, and had settled them in the way then +prevalent,--in a ring of serious spectators, calmly and judicially +ruminant, under the shade of some spreading oak, at the edge of the +timber. Before we close our sketch of this period of Lincoln's life, +it may not be amiss to glance for a moment at the state of society +among the people with whom his lot was cast in these important years. + +In most respects there had been little moral or material improvement +since the early settlement of the country. Their houses were usually +of one room, built of round logs with the bark on. We have known a man +to gain the sobriquet of "Split-log Mitchell" by indulging in the +luxury of building a cabin of square-hewn timbers. Their dress was +still mostly of tanned deer-hide, a material to the last degree +uncomfortable when the wearer was caught in a shower. Their shoes were +of the same, and a good Western authority calls a wet moccasin "a +decent way of going barefoot." About the time, however, when Lincoln +grew to manhood, garments of wool and of tow began to be worn, dyed +with the juice of the butternut or white walnut, and the hides of +neat-cattle began to be tanned. But for a good while it was only the +women who indulged in these novelties. There was little public +worship. Occasionally an itinerant preacher visited a county, and the +settlers for miles around would go nearly in mass to the meeting. If a +man was possessed of a wagon, the family rode luxuriously; but as a +rule the men walked and the women went on horseback with the little +children in their arms. It was considered no violation of the +sanctities of the occasion to carry a rifle and take advantage of any +game which might be stirring during the long walk. Arriving at the +place of meeting, which was some log cabin if the weather was foul, or +the shade of a tree if it was fair, the assembled worshipers threw +their provisions into a common store and picnicked in neighborly +companionship. The preacher would then take off his coat, and go at +his work with an energy unknown to our days. + +There were few other social meetings. Men came together for +"raisings," where a house was built in a day; for "log-rollings," +where tons of excellent timber were piled together and wastefully +burned; for wolf-hunts, where a tall pole was erected in the midst of +a prairie or clearing, and a great circle of hunters formed around it, +sometimes of miles in diameter, which, gradually contracting with +shouts and yells, drove all the game in the woods together at the pole +for slaughter; and for horse-races, which bore little resemblance to +those magnificent exhibitions which are the boast of Kentucky at this +time. In these affairs the women naturally took no part; but weddings, +which were entertainments scarcely less rude and boisterous, were +their own peculiar province. These festivities lasted rarely less than +twenty-four hours. The guests assembled in the morning. There was a +race for the whisky bottle; a midday dinner; an afternoon of rough +games and outrageous practical jokes; a supper and dance at night, +interrupted by the successive withdrawals of the bride and of the +groom, attended with ceremonies and jests of more than Rabelaisian +crudeness; and a noisy dispersal next day. + +[Sidenote: O. H. Smith, "Early Indiana Trials," p. 285.] + +The one point at which they instinctively clung to civilization was +their regard for law and reverence for courts of justice. Yet these +were of the simplest character and totally devoid of any adventitious +accessories. An early jurist of the country writes: "I was Circuit +Prosecuting Attorney at the time of the trials at the falls of Fall +Creek, where Pendleton now stands. Four of the prisoners were +convicted of murder, and three of them hung, for killing Indians. The +court was held in a double log cabin, the grand jury sat upon a log in +the woods, and the foreman signed the bills of indictment, which I had +prepared, upon his knee; there was not a petit juror that had shoes +on; all wore moccasins, and were belted around the waist, and carried +side-knives used by the hunters." Yet amidst all this apparent +savagery we see justice was done, and the law vindicated even against +the bitterest prejudices of these pioneer jurymen. + +[Sidenote: Lamon, p. 44.] + +They were full of strange superstitions. The belief in witchcraft had +long ago passed away with the smoke of the fagots from old and New +England, but it survived far into this century in Kentucky and the +lower halves of Indiana and Illinois--touched with a peculiar tinge of +African magic. The pioneers believed in it for good and evil. Their +veterinary practice was mostly by charms and incantations; and when a +person believed himself bewitched, a shot at the image of the witch +with a bullet melted out of a half-dollar was the favorite curative +agency. Luck was an active divinity in their apprehension, powerful +for blessing or bane, announced by homely signs, to be placated by +quaint ceremonies. A dog crossing the hunter's path spoiled his day, +unless he instantly hooked his little fingers together, and pulled +till the animal disappeared. They were familiar with the ever- +recurring mystification of the witch-hazel, or divining-rod; and the +"cure by faith" was as well known to them as it has since become in a +more sophisticated state of society. The commonest occurrences were +heralds of death and doom. A bird lighting in a window, a dog baying +at certain hours, the cough of a horse in the direction of a child, +the sight, or worse still, the touch of a dead snake, heralded +domestic woe. A wagon driving past the house with a load of baskets +was a warning of atmospheric disturbance. A vague and ignorant +astronomy governed their plantings and sowings, the breeding of their +cattle, and all farm-work. They must fell trees for fence-rails before +noon, and in the waxing of the moon. Fences built when there was no +moon would give way; but that was the proper season for planting +potatoes and other vegetables whose fruit grows underground; those +which bore their product in the air must be planted when the moon +shone. The magical power of the moon was wide in its influence; it +extended to the most minute details of life. + +[Sidenote: Lamon, p. 52.] + +Among these people, and in all essential respects one of them, Abraham +Lincoln passed his childhood and youth. He was not remarkably +precocious. His mind was slow in acquisition, and his powers of +reasoning and rhetoric improved constantly to the end of his life, at +a rate of progress marvelously regular and sustained. But there was +that about him, even at the age of nineteen years, which might well +justify his admiring friends in presaging for him an unusual career. +He had read every book he could find, and could "spell down" the whole +county at their orthographical contests. By dint of constant practice +he had acquired an admirably clear and serviceable handwriting. He +occasionally astounded his companions by such glimpses of occult +science as that the world is round and that the sun is relatively +stationary. He wrote, for his own amusement and edification, essays on +politics, of which gentlemen of standing who had been favored with a +perusal said with authority, at the cross-roads grocery, "The world +can't beat it." One or two of these compositions got into print and +vastly increased the author's local fame. He was also a magnanimous +boy, with a larger and kindlier spirit than common. His generosity, +courage, and capability of discerning two sides to a dispute, were +remarkable even then, and won him the admiration of those to whom such +qualities were unknown. But perhaps, after all, the thing which gained +and fixed his mastery over his fellows was to a great degree his +gigantic stature and strength. He attained his full growth, six feet +and four inches, two years before he came of age. He rarely met with a +man he could not easily handle. His strength is still a tradition in +Spencer County. One aged man says that he has seen him pick up and +carry away a chicken-house weighing six hundred pounds. At another +time, seeing some men preparing a contrivance for lifting some large +posts, Abe quickly shouldered the posts and took them where they were +needed. One of his employers says, "He could sink an axe deeper into +wood than any man I ever saw." With strength like this and a brain to +direct it, a man was a born leader in that country and at that time. +There are, of course, foolish stories extant that Abraham used to +boast, and that others used to predict, that he would be President +some day. The same thing is daily said of thousands of boys who will +never be constables. But there is evidence that he felt too large for +the life of a farmhand on Pigeon Creek, and his thoughts naturally +turned, after the manner of restless boys in the West, to the river, +as the avenue of escape from the narrow life of the woods. He once +asked an old friend to give him a recommendation to some steamboat on +the Ohio, but desisted from his purpose on being reminded that his +father had the right to dispose of his time for a year or so more. But +in 1828 an opportunity offered for a little glimpse of the world +outside, and the boy gladly embraced it. He was hired by Mr. Gentry, +the proprietor of the neighboring village of Gentryville, to accompany +his son with a flat-boat of produce to New Orleans and intermediate +landings. The voyage was made successfully, and Abraham gained great +credit for his management and sale of the cargo. The only important +incident of the trip occurred at the plantation of Madame Duchesne, a +few miles below Baton Rouge. The young merchants had tied up for the +night and were asleep in the cabin, when they were aroused by +shuffling footsteps, which proved to be a gang of marauding negroes, +coming to rob the boat. Abraham instantly attacked them with a club, +knocked several overboard and put the rest to flight; flushed with +battle, he and Allen Gentry carried the war into the enemy's country, +and pursued the retreating Africans some distance in the darkness. +They then returned to the boat, bleeding but victorious, and hastily +swung into the stream and floated down the river till daylight. +Lincoln's exertion in later years for the welfare of the African race +showed that this nocturnal battle had not led him to any hasty and +hostile generalizations. + +The next autumn, John Hanks, the steadiest and most trustworthy of his +family, went to Illinois. Though an illiterate and rather dull man, he +had a good deal of solidity of character and consequently some +influence and consideration in the household. He settled in Macon +County, and was so well pleased with the country, and especially with +its admirable distribution into prairie and timber, that he sent +repeated messages to his friends in Indiana to come out and join him. +Thomas Lincoln was always ready to move. He had probably by this time +despaired of ever owning any unencumbered real estate in Indiana, and +the younger members of the family had little to bind them to the place +where they saw nothing in the future but hard work and poor living. +Thomas Lincoln handed over his farm to Mr. Gentry, sold his crop of +corn and hogs, packed his household goods and those of his children +and sons-in-law into a single wagon, drawn by two yoke of oxen, the +combined wealth of himself and Dennis Hanks, and started for the new +State. His daughter Sarah or Nancy, for she was called by both names, +who married Aaron Grigsby a few years before, had died in childbirth. +The emigrating family consisted of the Lincolns, John Johnston, Mrs. +Lincoln's son, and her daughters, Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Hanks, with their +husbands. + +Two weeks of weary tramping over forest roads and muddy prairie, and +the dangerous fording of streams swollen by the February thaws, +brought the party to John Hanks's place near Decatur. He met them with +a frank and energetic welcome. He had already selected a piece of +ground for them a few miles from his own, and had the logs ready for +their house. They numbered men enough to build without calling in +their neighbors, and immediately put up a cabin on the north fork of +the Sangamon River. The family thus housed and sheltered, one more bit +of filial work remained for Abraham before assuming his virile +independence. With the assistance of John Hanks he plowed fifteen +acres, and split, from the tall walnut-trees of the primeval forest, +enough rails to surround them with a fence. Little did either dream, +while engaged in this work, that the day would come when the +appearance of John Hanks in a public meeting, with two of these rails +on his shoulder, would electrify a State convention, and kindle +throughout the country a contagious and passionate enthusiasm, whose +results would reach to endless generations. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ILLINOIS IN 1830 + + +[Sidenote: Roy. J. M. Sturtevant, "Address to Old Settlers of Morgan +County."] + +[Sidenote: Thomas Buckles, of McLean County.] + +[Sidenote: J.C. Power, "Early Settlers of Sangamon County," p. 62.] + +[Sidenote: "Old Times in McLean County," p. 414.] + +[Illustration: GOOSE-NEST PRAIRIE, NEAR FARMINGTON ILLINOIS, WHERE +THOMAS LINCOLN LIVED AND DIED.] + +The Lincolns arrived in Illinois just in time to entitle themselves to +be called pioneers. When, in after years, associations of "Old +Settlers" began to be formed in Central Illinois, the qualification +for membership agreed upon by common consent was a residence in the +country before "the winter of the deep snow." This was in 1830-31, a +season of such extraordinary severity that it has formed for half a +century a recognized date in the middle counties of Illinois, among +those to whom in those days diaries and journals were unknown. The +snowfall began in the Christmas holidays and continued until the snow +was three feet deep on level ground. Then came a cold rain, freezing +as it fell, until a thick crust of ice gathered over the snow. The +weather became intensely cold, the mercury sinking to twelve degrees +below zero, Fahrenheit, and remaining there for two weeks. The storm +came on with such suddenness that all who were abroad had great +trouble in reaching their homes, and many perished. One man relates +that he and a friend or two were out in a hunting party with an ox- +team. They had collected a wagon-load of game and were on their way +home when the storm struck them. After they had gone four miles they +were compelled to abandon their wagon; the snow fell in heavy masses +"as if thrown from a scoop-shovel"; arriving within two miles of their +habitation, they were forced to trust to the instinct of their +animals, and reached home hanging to the tails of their steers. Not +all were so fortunate. Some were found weeks afterwards in the snow- +drifts, their flesh gnawed by famished wolves; and the fate of others +was unknown until the late spring sunshine revealed their resting- +places. To those who escaped, the winter was tedious and terrible. It +is hard for us to understand the isolation to which such weather +condemned the pioneer. For weeks they remained in their cabins hoping +for some mitigation of the frost. When at last they were driven out by +the fear of famine, the labor of establishing communications was +enormous. They finally made roads by "wallowing through the snow," as +an Illinois historian expresses it, and going patiently over the same +track until the snow was trampled hard and rounded like a turnpike. +These roads lasted far into the spring, when the snow had melted from +the plains, and wound for miles like threads of silver over the rich +black loam of the prairies. After that winter game was never again so +plentiful in the State. Much still remained, of course, but it never +recovered entirely from the rigors of that season and the stupid +enterprise of the pioneer hunters, who, when they came out of their +snow-beleaguered cabins, began chasing and killing the starved deer by +herds. It was easy work; the crust of the snow was strong enough to +bear the weight of men and dogs, but the slender hoofs of the deer +would after a few bounds pierce the treacherous surface. This +destructive slaughter went on until the game grew too lean to be worth +the killing. All sorts of wild animals grew scarce from that winter. +Old settlers say that the slow cowardly breed of prairie wolves, which +used to be caught and killed as readily as sheep, disappeared about +that time and none but the fleeter and stronger survived. + +Only once since then has nature shown such extravagant severity in +Illinois, and that was on a day in the winter of 1836, known to +Illinoisans as "the sudden change." At noon on the 20th of December, +after a warm and rainy morning, the ground being covered with mud and +slush, the temperature fell instantly forty degrees. A man riding into +Springfield for a marriage license says a roaring and crackling wind +came upon him and the rain-drops dripping from his bridle-reins and +beard changed in a second into jingling icicles. He rode hastily into +the town and arrived in a few minutes at his destination; but his +clothes were frozen like sheet iron, and man and saddle had to be +taken into the house together to be thawed apart. Geese and chickens +were caught by the feet and wings and frozen to the wet ground. A +drove of a thousand hogs, which were being driven to St. Louis, rushed +together for warmth, and became piled in a great heap. Those inside +smothered and those outside froze, and the ghastly pyramid remained +there on the prairie for weeks: the drovers barely escaped with their +lives. Men killed their horses, disemboweled them, and crept into the +cavity of their bodies to escape the murderous wind. [Footnote: +Although the old settlers of Sangamon County are acquainted with these +facts, and we have often heard them and many others like them from the +lips of eye-witnesses, we have preferred to cite only these incidents +of the sudden change which are given in the careful and conscientious +compilation entitled "The Early Settlers of Sangamon County," by John +Carroll Power.] + +The pioneer period of Illinois was ending as Thomas Lincoln and his +tall boy drove their ox-team over the Indiana line. The population of +the State had grown to 157,447. It still clung to the wooded borders +of the water-courses; scattered settlements were to be found all along +the Mississippi and its affluents, from where Cairo struggled for life +in the swamps of the Ohio to the bustling and busy mining camps which +the recent discovery of lead had brought to Galena. A line of villages +from Alton to Peoria dotted the woodland which the Illinois River had +stretched, like a green baldric, diagonally across the bosom of the +State. Then there were long reaches of wilderness before you came to +Fort Dearborn, where there was nothing as yet to give promise of that +miraculous growth which was soon to make Chicago a proverb to the +world. There were a few settlements in the fertile region called the +Military Tract; the southern part of the State was getting itself +settled here and there. People were coming in freely to the Sangamon +country. But a grassy solitude stretched from Galena to Chicago, and +the upper half of the State was generally a wilderness. The earlier +emigrants, principally of the poorer class of Southern farmers, +shunned the prairies with something of a superstitious dread. They +preferred to pass the first years of their occupation in the wasteful +and laborious work of clearing a patch of timber for corn, rather than +enter upon those rich savannas which were ready to break into +fertility at the slightest provocation of culture. Even so late as +1835, writes J. F. Speed, "no one dreamed the prairies would ever be +occupied." It was thought they would be used perpetually as grazing- +fields for stock. For years the long processions of "movers" wound, +over those fertile and neglected plains, taking no hint of the wealth +suggested by the rank luxuriance of vegetable growth around them, the +carpet of brilliant flowers spread over the verdant knolls, the +strong, succulent grass that waved in the breeze, full of warm and +vital odor, as high as the waist of a man. In after years, when the +emigration from the Northern and Eastern States began to pour in, the +prairies were rapidly taken up, and the relative growth and importance +of the two sections of the State were immediately reversed. Governor +Ford, writing about 1847, attributes this result to the fact that the +best class of Southern people were slow to emigrate to a State where +they could not take their slaves; while the settlers from the North, +not being debarred by the State Constitution from bringing their +property with them, were of a different class. "The northern part of +the State was settled in the first instance by wealthy farmers, +enterprising merchants, millers, and manufacturers. They made farms, +built mills, churches, school-houses, towns, and cities, and +constructed roads and bridges as if by magic; so that although the +settlements in the southern part of the State are from twenty to fifty +years in advance on the score of age, yet are they ten years behind in +point of wealth and all the appliances of a higher civilization." + +[Sidenote: Thomas Ford, "History of Illinois," p. 280.] + +At the time which we are specially considering, however, the few +inhabitants of the south and the center were principally from what +came afterwards to be called the border slave States. They were mostly +a simple, neighborly, unambitious people, contented with their +condition, living upon plain fare, and knowing not much of anything +better. Luxury was, of course, unknown; even wealth, if it existed, +could procure few of the comforts of refined life. There was little or +no money in circulation. Exchanges were effected by the most primitive +forms of barter, and each family had to rely chiefly upon itself for +the means of living. The neighbors would lend a hand in building a +cabin for a new-comer; after that he must in most cases shift for +himself. Many a man arriving from an old community, and imperfectly +appreciating the necessities of pioneer life, has found suddenly, on +the approach of winter, that he must learn to make shoes or go +barefoot. The furniture of their houses was made with an axe from the +trees of the forest. Their clothing was all made at home. The buckskin +days were over to a great extent, though an occasional hunting-shirt +and pair of moccasins were still seen. But flax and hemp had begun to +be cultivated, and as the wolves were killed off the sheep-folds +increased, and garments resembling those of civilization were spun and +woven, and cut and sewed, by the women of the family. When a man had a +suit of jeans colored with butternut-dye, and his wife a dress of +linsey, they could appear with the best at a wedding or a quilting +frolic. The superfluous could not have been said to exist in a +community where men made their own buttons, where women dug roots in +the woods to make their tea with, where many children never saw a +stick of candy until after they were grown. The only sweetmeats known +were those a skillful cook could compose from the honey plundered from +the hollow oaks where the wild bees had stored it. Yet there was +withal a kind of rude plenty; the woods swarmed with game, and after +swine began to be raised, there was the bacon and hoe-cake which any +south-western farmer will say is good enough for a king. The greatest +privation was the lack of steel implements. His axe was as precious to +the pioneer as his sword to the knight errant. Governor John Reynolds +speaks of the panic felt in his father's family when the axe was +dropped into a stream. A battered piece of tin was carefully saved and +smoothed, and made into a grater for green corn. + +[Sidenote: William H. Herndon's speech at Old Settlers' Meeting, +Menard County.] + +[Sidenote: "Old Times in McLean County," p. 194.] + +They had their own amusements, of course; no form of society is +without them, from the anthropoid apes to the Jockey Club. As to the +grosser and ruder shapes taken by the diversions of the pioneers, we +will let Mr. Herndon speak--their contemporary annalist and ardent +panegyrist: "These men could shave a horse's mane and tail, paint, +disfigure, and offer it for sale to the owner. They could hoop up in a +hogshead a drunken man, they themselves being drunk, put in and nail +fast the head, and roll the man down hill a hundred feet or more. They +could run down a lean and hungry wild pig, catch it, heat a ten-plate +stove furnace hot, and putting in the pig, could cook it, they dancing +the while a merry jig." Wild oats of this kind seem hardly compatible +with a harvest of civilization, but it is contended that such of these +roysterers as survived their stormy beginnings became decent and +serious citizens. Indeed, Mr. Herndon insists than even in their hot +youth they showed the promise of goodness and piety. "They attended +church, heard the sermon, wept and prayed, shouted, got up and fought +an hour, and then went back to prayer, just as the spirit moved them." +The camp-meeting may be said, with no irreverent intention, to have +been their principal means of intellectual excitement. The circuit +preachers were for a long time the only circulating medium of thought +and emotion that kept the isolated settlements from utter spiritual +stagnation. They were men of great physical and moral endurance, +absolutely devoted to their work, which they pursued in the face of +every hardship and discouragement. Their circuits were frequently so +great in extent that they were forced to be constantly on the route; +what reading they did was done in the saddle. They received perhaps +fifty dollars from the missionary fund and half as much more from +their congregations, paid for the most part in necessaries of life. +Their oratory was suited to their longitude, and was principally +addressed to the emotions of their hearers. It was often very +effective, producing shouts and groans and genuflections among the +audience at large, and terrible convulsions among the more nervous and +excitable. We hear sometimes of a whole congregation prostrated as by +a hurricane, flinging their limbs about in furious contortions, with +wild outcries. To this day some of the survivors of that period insist +that it was the spirit of the Almighty, and nothing less, that thus +manifested itself. The minister, however, did not always share in the +delirium of his hearers. Governor Reynolds tells us of a preacher in +Sangamon County, who, before his sermon, had set a wolf-trap in view +from his pulpit. In the midst of his exhortations his keen eyes saw +the distant trap collapse, and he continued in the same intonation +with which he had been preaching, "Mind the text, brethren, till I go +kill that wolf!" With all the failings and eccentricities of this +singular class of men, they did a great deal of good, and are entitled +to especial credit among those who conquered the wilderness. The +emotions they excited did not all die away in the shouts and +contortions of the meeting. Not a few of the cabins in the clearings +were the abode of a fervent religion and an austere morality. Many a +traveler, approaching a rude hut in the woods in the gathering +twilight, distrusting the gaunt and silent family who gave him an +unsmiling welcome, the bare interior, the rifles and knives +conspicuously displayed, has felt his fears vanish when he sat down to +supper, and the master of the house, in a few fervent words, invoked +the blessing of heaven on the meal. + +There was very little social intercourse; a visit was a serious +matter, involving the expenditure of days of travel. It was the custom +among families, when the longing for the sight of kindred faces was +too strong to withstand, to move in a body to the distant settlement +where their relatives lived and remain with them for months at a time. +The claims of consanguinity were more regarded than now. Almost the +only festivities were those that accompanied weddings, and these were, +of course, of a primitive kind. The perils and adventures through +which the young pioneers went to obtain their brides furnish forth +thousands of tales by Western firesides. Instead of taking the rosy +daughter of a neighbor, the enterprising bachelor would often go back +to Kentucky, and pass through as many adventures in bringing his wife +home as a returning crusader would meet between Beirut and Vienna. If +she was a young woman who respected herself, the household gear she +would insist on bringing would entail an Iliad of embarrassments. An +old farmer of Sangamon County still talks of a featherbed weighing +fifty-four pounds with which his wife made him swim six rivers under +penalty of desertion. + +It was not always easy to find a competent authority to perform the +ceremony. A justice in McLean County lived by the bank of a river, and +his services were sometimes required by impatient lovers on the other +bank when the waters were too torrential to cross. In such cases, +being a conscientious man, he always insisted that they should ride +into the stream far enough for him to discern their features, holding +torches to their faces by night and by storm. The wooing of those days +was prompt and practical. There was no time for the gradual approaches +of an idler and more conventional age. It is related of one Stout, one +of the legendary Nimrods of Illinois, who was well and frequently +married, that he had one unfailing formula of courtship. He always +promised the ladies whose hearts he was besieging that "they should +live in the timber where they could pick up their own firewood." + +Theft was almost unknown; property, being so hard to get, was +jealously guarded, as we have already noticed in speaking of the +settlement of Kentucky. The pioneers of Illinois brought with them the +same rigid notions of honesty which their environment maintained. A +man in Macoupin County left his wagon, loaded with corn, stuck in the +prairie mud for two weeks near a frequented road. When he returned he +found some of his corn gone, but there was money enough tied in the +sacks to pay for what was taken. Men carrying bags of silver from the +towns of Illinois to St. Louis rather made a display of it, as it +enhanced their own importance, and there was no fear of robbery. There +were of course no locks on the cabin doors, and the early merchants +sometimes left their stores unprotected for days together when they +went to the nearest city to replenish their stock. Of course there +were rare exceptions to this rule, but a single theft alarmed and +excited a whole neighborhood. When a crime was traced home, the family +of the criminal were generally obliged to remove. + +[Sidenote: N.W. Edwards, "Life and Times of Ninian Edwards," p. 163.] + +There were still, even so late as the time to which we are referring, +two alien elements in the population of the State--the French and the +Indians. The French settlements about Kaskaskia retained much of their +national character, and the pioneers from the South who visited them +or settled among them never ceased to wonder at their gayety, their +peaceable industry and enterprise, and their domestic affection, which +they did not care to dissemble and conceal like their shy and reticent +neighbors. It was a daily spectacle, which never lost its strangeness +for the Tennesseeans and Kentuckians, to see the Frenchman returning +from his work greeted by his wife and children with embraces of +welcome "at the gate of his door-yard, and in view of all the +villagers." The natural and kindly fraternization of the Frenchmen +with the Indians was also a cause of wonder to the Americans. The +friendly intercourse between them, and their occasional +intermarriages, seemed little short of monstrous to the ferocious +exclusiveness of the Anglo-Saxon. [Footnote: Michelet notices this +exclusiveness of the English, and inveighs against it in his most +lyric style. "Crime contre la nature! Crime contre l'humanite! Il sera +expie par la sterilite de l'esprit."] The Indians in the central part +of Illinois cut very little figure in the reminiscences of the +pioneers; they occupied much the same relation to them as the tramp to +the housewife of to-day. The Winnebago war in 1827 and the Black Hawk +war in 1831 disturbed only the northern portion of the State. A few +scattered and vagrant lodges of Pottawatomies and Kickapoos were all +the pioneers of Sangamon and the neighboring counties ever met. They +were spared the heroic struggle of the advance-guard of civilization +in other States. A woman was sometimes alarmed by a visit from a +drunken savage; poultry and pigs occasionally disappeared when they +were in the neighborhood; but life was not darkened by the constant +menace of massacre. A few years earlier, indeed, the relations of the +two races had been more strained, as may be inferred from an act +passed by the territorial Legislature in 1814, offering a reward of +fifty dollars to any citizen or ranger who should kill or take any +depredating Indian. As only two dollars was paid for killing a wolf, +it is easy to see how the pioneers regarded the forest folk in point +of relative noxiousness. But ten years later a handful only of the +Kickapoos remained in Sangamon County, the specter of the vanished +people. A chief named Machina came one day to a family who were +clearing a piece of timber, and issued an order of eviction in these +words: "Too much come white man. T'other side Sangamon." He threw a +handful of dried leaves in the air to show how he would scatter the +pale faces, but he never fulfilled his threats further than to come in +occasionally and ask for a drink of whisky. That such trivial details +are still related, only shows how barren of incident was the life of +these obscure founders of a great empire. Any subject of conversation, +any cause of sensation, was a godsend. When Vannoy murdered his wife +in Springfield, whole families put on their best clothes and drove +fifty miles through bottomless mud and swollen rivers to see him +hanged. + +[Sidenote: Power, "Early Settlers of Sangamon County," p. 88.] + +It is curious to see how naturally in such a state of things the +fabric of political society developed itself from its germ. The county +of Sangamon was called by an act of the Legislature in 1821 out of a +verdant solitude of more than a million acres, inhabited by a few +families. An election for county commissioners was ordered; three men +were chosen; they came together at the cabin of John Kelly, at Spring +Creek. He was a roving bachelor from North Carolina, devoted to the +chase, who had built this hut three years before on the margin of a +green-bordered rivulet, where the deer passed by in hundreds, going in +the morning from the shady banks of the Sangamon to feed on the rich +green grass of the prairie, and returning in the twilight. He was so +delighted with this hunters' paradise that he sent for his brothers to +join him. They came and brought their friends, so it happened that in +this immense county, several thousand square miles in extent, the +settlement of John Kelly at Spring Creek was the only place where +there was shelter for the commissioners; thus it became the temporary +county-seat, duly described in the official report of the +commissioners as "a certain point in the prairie near John Kelly's +field, on the waters of Spring Creek, at a stake marked Z and D (the +initials of the commissioners), to be the temporary seat of justice +for said county; and we do further agree that the said county-seat be +called and known by the name of Springfield." In this manner the +future capital received that hackneyed title, when the distinctive and +musical name of Sangamon was ready to their hands. The same day they +agreed with John Kelly to build them a court-house, for which they +paid him forty-two dollars and fifty cents. In twenty-four days the +house was built--one room of rough logs, the jury retiring to any +sequestered glade they fancied for their deliberation. They next +ordered the building of a jail, which cost just twice as much money as +the court-house. Constables and overseers of the poor were appointed, +and all the machinery of government prepared for the population which +was hourly expected. It was taken for granted that malefactors would +come and the constables have employment; and the poor they would have +always with them, when once they began to arrive. This was only a +temporary arrangement, but when, a year or two later, the time came to +fix upon a permanent seat of justice for the county, the resources of +the Spring Creek men were equal to the emergency. When the +commissioners came to decide on the relative merits of Springfield and +another site a few miles away, they led them through brake, through +brier, by mud knee-deep and by water-courses so exasperating that the +wearied and baffled officials declared they would seek no further, and +Springfield became the county-seat for all time; and greater destinies +were in store for it through means not wholly dissimilar. Nature had +made it merely a pleasant hunting-ground; the craft and the industry +of its first settlers made it a capital. + +[Sidenote: "History Of Sangamon County," p. 83.] + +[Sidenote: "Old Times in McLean County," p. 235.] + +[Sidenote: Ford, "History of Illinois," p. 53.] + +The courts which were held in these log huts were as rude as might be +expected; yet there is evidence that although there was no superfluity +of law or of learning, justice was substantially administered. The +lawyers came mostly from Kentucky, though an occasional New Englander +confronted and lived down the general prejudice against his region and +obtained preferment. The profits of the profession were inconceivably +small. One early State's Attorney describes his first circuit as a +tour of shifts and privations not unlike the wanderings of a mendicant +friar. In his first county he received a fee of five dollars for +prosecuting the parties to a sanguinary affray. In the next he was +equally successful, but barely escaped drowning in Spoon River. In the +third there were but two families at the county-seat, and no cases on +the docket. Thence he journeyed across a trackless prairie sixty +miles, and at Quincy had one case and gained five dollars. In Pike +County our much-enduring jurist took no cash, but found a generous +sheriff who entertained him without charge. "He was one of nature's +noblemen, from Massachusetts," writes the grateful prosecutor. The +lawyers in what was called good practice earned less than a street- +sweeper to-day. It is related that the famous Stephen A. Douglas once +traveled from Springfield to Bloomington and made an extravagant +speech, and having gained his case received a fee of five dollars. In +such a state of things it was not to be wondered at that the +technicalities of law were held in somewhat less veneration than what +the pioneer regarded as the essential claims of justice. The +infirmities of the jury system gave them less annoyance than they give +us. Governor Ford mentions a case where a gang of horse-thieves +succeeded in placing one of their confederates upon a jury which was +to try them; but he was soon brought to reason by his eleven +colleagues making preparations to hang him to the rafters of the jury +room. The judges were less hampered by the limitations of their legal +lore than by their fears of a loss of popularity as a result of too +definite charges in civil suits, or too great severity in criminal +cases. They grew very dexterous in avoiding any commitment as to the +legal or moral bearings of the questions brought before them. They +generally refused to sum up, or to comment upon evidence; when asked +by the counsel to give instructions they would say, "Why, gentlemen, +the jury understand this case as well as you or I. They will do +justice between the parties." One famous judge, who was afterwards +governor, when sentencing a murderer, impressed it upon his mind, and +wished him to inform his friends, that it was the jury and not the +judge who had found him guilty, and then asked him on what day he +would like to be hanged. It is needless to say that the bench and bar +were not all of this class. There were even at that early day lawyers, +and not a few, who had already won reputation in the older States, and +whose names are still honored in the profession. Cook, McLean, +Edwards, Kane, Thomas, Reynolds, and others, the earliest lawyers of +the State, have hardly been since surpassed for learning and ability. + +[Sidenote: Ford, "History of Illinois," p. 31.] + +[Sidenote: Ford, p. 81.] + +In a community where the principal men were lawyers, where there was +as yet little commerce, and industrial enterprise was unknown, it was +natural that one of the chief interests of life should be the pursuit +of politics. The young State swarmed with politicians; they could be +found chewing and whittling at every cross-roads inn; they were busy +at every horse-race, arranging their plans and extending their +acquaintance; around the burgoo-pot of the hunting party they +discussed measures and candidates; they even invaded the camp-meeting +and did not disdain the pulpit as a tribune. Of course there was no +such thing as organization in the pioneer days. Men were voted for to +a great extent independently of partisan questions affecting the +nation at large, and in this way the higher offices of the State were +filled for many years by men whose personal character compelled the +respect and esteem of the citizens. The year 1826 is generally taken +as the date which witnessed the change from personal to partisan +politics, though several years more elapsed before the rule of +conventions came in, which put an end to individual candidacy. In that +year, Daniel Pope Cook, who had long represented the State in Congress +with singular ability and purity, was defeated by Governor Joseph +Duncan, the candidate of the Jackson men, on account of the vote given +by Cook which elected John Quincy Adams to the Presidency. The bitter +intolerance of the Jackson party naturally caused their opponents to +organize against them, and there were two parties in the State from +that time forward. The change in political methods was inevitable, and +it is idle to deplore it; but the former system gave the better men in +the new State a power and prominence which they have never since +enjoyed. Such men as Governor Ninian Edwards, who came with the +prestige of a distinguished family connection, a large fortune, a good +education, and a distinction of manners and of dress--ruffles, gold +buttons, and fair-topped boots--which would hardly have been pardoned +a few years later; and Governor Edward Coles, who had been private +secretary to Madison, and was familiar with the courts of Europe, a +man as notable for his gentleness of manners as for his nobility of +nature, could never have come so readily and easily to the head of the +government after the machine of the caucus had been perfected. Real +ability then imposed itself with more authority upon the ignorant and +unpretending politicians from the back timber; so that it is remarked +by those who study the early statutes of Illinois that they are far +better drawn up, and better edited, than those of a later period, when +illiterate tricksters, conscious of the party strength behind them, +insisted on shaping legislation according to their own fancy. The men +of cultivation wielded an influence in the Legislature entirely out of +proportion to their numbers, as the ruder sort of pioneers were +naturally in a large majority. The type of a not uncommon class in +Illinois tradition was a member from the South who could neither read +nor write, and whose apparently ironical patronymic was Grammar. When +first elected he had never worn anything except leather; but regarding +his tattered buckskin as unfit for the garb of a lawgiver, he and his +sons gathered hazelnuts enough to barter at the nearest store for a +few yards of blue strouding such as the Indians used for breech- +clouts. When he came home with his purchase and had called together +the women of the settlement to make his clothes, it was found that +there was only material enough for a very short coat and a long pair +of leggins, and thus attired he went to Kaskaskia, the territorial +capital. Uncouth as was his appearance, he had in him the raw material +of a politician. He invented a system--which was afterwards adopted by +many whose breeches were more fashionably cut--of voting against every +measure which was proposed. If it failed, the responsibility was +broadly shared; if it passed and was popular, no one would care who +voted against it; if it passed and did not meet the favor of the +people, John Grammar could vaunt his foresight. Between the men like +Coles and the men like Grammar there was a wide interval, and the +average was about what the people of the State deserved and could +appreciate. A legislator was as likely to suffer for doing right as +for doing wrong. Governor Ford, in his admirable sketch of the early +history of the State, mentions two acts of the Legislature, both of +them proper and beneficial, as unequaled in their destructive +influence upon the great folks of the State. One was a bill for a loan +to meet the honest obligations of the commonwealth, commonly called +"the Wiggins loan"; and the other was a law to prevent bulls of +inferior size and breed from running at large. This latter set loose +all the winds of popular fury: it was cruel, it was aristocratic; it +was in the interest of rich men and pampered foreign bulls; and it +ended the career of many an aspiring politician in a blast of +democratic indignation and scorn. The politician who relied upon +immediate and constant contact with the people certainly earned all +the emoluments of office he received. His successes were hardly +purchased by laborious affability. "A friend of mine," says Ford, +"once informed me that he intended to be a candidate for the +Legislature, but would not declare himself until just before the +election, and assigned as a reason that it was so very hard to be +clever for a long time at once." Before the caucus had eliminated the +individual initiative, there was much more of personal feeling in +elections. A vote against a man had something of offense in it, and +sometimes stirred up a defeated candidate to heroic vengeance. In 1827 +the Legislature elected a State treasurer after an exciting contest, +and before the members had left the house the unsuccessful aspirant +came in and soundly thrashed, one after the other, four of the +representatives who had voted against him. Such energy was sure to +meet its reward, and he was soon after made clerk of the Circuit +Court. It is related by old citizens of Menard County, as a +circumstance greatly to the credit of Abraham Lincoln, that when he +was a candidate for the Legislature a man who wanted his vote for +another place walked to the polls with him and ostentatiously voted +for him, hoping to receive his vote in return. Lincoln voted against +him, and the act was much admired by those who saw it. + +One noticeable fact is observed in relation to the politicians of the +day--their careers were generally brief. Superannuation came early. In +the latter part of the last century and the first half of this, men +were called old whom we should regard as in the prime of life. When +the friends of Washington were first pressing the Presidency upon him +in 1788, he urged his "advanced age" as an imperative reason for +declining it: he was fifty-six years old. When Ninian Edwards was a +candidate for Governor of Illinois in 1826, he was only fifty-one, and +yet he considered it necessary in his published addresses to refer to +the charge that he was too old for the place, and, while admitting the +fact that he was no longer young, to urge in extenuation that there +are some old things,--like old whisky, old bacon, and old friends,-- +which are not without their merits. Even so late as 1848, we find a +remarkable letter from Mr. Lincoln, who was then in Congress, bearing +upon the same point. His partner, William H. Herndon, had written him +a letter, complaining that the old men in Sangamon County were +unwilling to let the young ones have any opportunity to distinguish +themselves. To this Lincoln answered in his usual tone of grave +kindness: "The subject of your letter is exceedingly painful to me; +and I cannot but think there is some mistake in your impression of the +motives of the old men. I suppose I am now one of the old men, and I +declare on my veracity, which I think is good with you, that nothing +could afford me more satisfaction than to learn that you and others of +my young friends at home were doing battle in the contest and +endearing themselves to the people and taking a stand far above any I +have ever been able to reach in their admiration. I cannot conceive +that other old men feel differently. Of course, I cannot demonstrate +what I say; but I was young once, and I am sure I was never +ungenerously thrust back." The man who thus counseled petulant youth +with the experienced calmness of age was thirty-nine years old. A +state of society where one could at that age call himself or be called +by others an old man, is proved by that fact alone to be one of +wearing hardships and early decay of the vital powers. The survivors +of the pioneers stoutly insist upon the contrary view. "It was a +glorious life," says one old patriarch; "men would fight for the love +of it, and then shake hands and be friends; there is nothing like it +now." Another says, "I never enjoy my breakfast now as I used to, when +I got up and ran down a deer before I could have anything to eat." But +they see the past through a rosy mist of memory, transfigured by the +eternal magic of youth. The sober fact is that the life was a hard +one, with few rational pleasures, few wholesome appliances. The strong +ones lived, and some even attained great length of years; but to the +many age came early and was full of infirmity and pain. If we could go +back to what our fore-fathers endured in clearing the Western +wilderness, we could then better appreciate our obligations to them. +It is detracting from the honor which is their due to say that their +lives had much of happiness or comfort, or were in any respect +preferable to our own. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NEW SALEM + + +During the latter part of "the winter of the deep snow," Lincoln +became acquainted with one Denton Offutt, an adventurous and +discursive sort of merchant, with more irons in the fire than he could +well manage. He wanted to take a flat-boat and cargo to New Orleans, +and having heard that Hanks and Lincoln had some experience of the +river, he insisted on their joining him. John Johnston was afterwards +added to the party, probably at the request of his foster-brother, to +share in the golden profits of the enterprise; for fifty cents a day, +and a contingent dividend of twenty dollars apiece, seemed like a +promise of immediate opulence to the boys. In the spring, when the +rivers broke up and the melting snows began to pour in torrents down +every ravine and gully, the three young men paddled down the Sangamon +in a canoe to the point where Jamestown now stands; whence they walked +five miles to Springfield, where Offutt had given them rendezvous. +They met him at Elliott's tavern and far from happy. Amid the +multiplicity of his engagements he had failed to procure a flat-boat, +and the first work his new hands must do was to build one. They cut +the timber, with frontier innocence, from "Congress land," and soon +had a serviceable craft afloat, with which they descended the current +of the Sangamon to New Salem, a little village which seems to have +been born for the occasion, as it came into existence just before the +arrival of Lincoln, nourished for seven years while he remained one of +its citizens, and died soon after he went away. His introduction to +his fellow-citizens was effected in a peculiar and somewhat striking +manner. Offutt's boat had come to serious embarrassment on Rutledge's +mill-dam, and the unwonted incident brought the entire population to +the water's edge. They spent a good part of the day watching the +hapless flat-boat, resting midships on the dam, the forward end in the +air and the stern taking in the turbid Sangamon water. Nobody knew +what to do with the disaster except "the bow-oar," who is described as +a gigantic youth "with his trousers rolled up some five feet," who was +wading about the boat and rigging up some undescribed contrivance by +which the cargo was unloaded, the boat tilted and the water let out by +boring a hole through the bottom, and everything brought safely to +moorings below the dam. This exploit gained for young Lincoln the +enthusiastic admiration of his employer, and turned his own mind in +the direction of an invention which he afterwards patented "for +lifting vessels over shoals." The model on which he obtained this +patent--a little boat whittled by his own hand in 1849, after he had +become prominent as a lawyer and politician--is still shown to +visitors at the Department of the Interior. We have never learned that +it has served any other purpose. + +[Illustration: MODEL OF LINCOLN'S INVENTION, IN THE PATENT OFFICE, +WASHINGTON.] + +[Illustration: REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF DRAWINGS IN THE PATENT OFFICE.] + +[Sidenote: Lamon, p. 83.] + +They made a quick trip down the Sangamon, the Illinois, and the +Mississippi rivers. Although it was but a repetition in great part of +the trip young Lincoln had made with Gentry, it evidently created a +far deeper impression on his mind than the former one. The simple and +honest words of John Hanks leave no doubt of this. At New Orleans, he +said, they saw for the first time "negroes chained, maltreated, +whipped, and scourged. Lincoln saw it; his heart bled; said nothing +much, was silent, looked bad. I can say, knowing it, that it was on +this trip that he formed his opinion of slavery. It run its iron in +him then and there, May, 1831. I have heard him say so often." The +sight of men in chains was intolerable to him. Ten years after this he +made another journey by water with his friend Joshua Speed, of +Kentucky. Writing to Speed about it after the lapse of fourteen years, +he says: "In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip on a +steamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well +do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were on board +ten or a dozen slaves shackled together with irons. That sight was a +continual torment to me, and I see something like it every time I +touch the Ohio or any other slave border. It is not fair for you to +assume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually +exercises, the power of making me miserable." + +There have been several ingenious attempts to show the origin and +occasion of Mr. Lincoln's antislavery convictions. They seem to us an +idle waste of labor. These sentiments came with the first awakening of +his mind and conscience, and were roused into active life and energy +by the sight of fellow-creatures in chains on an Ohio River steamboat, +and on the wharf at New Orleans. + +The party went up the river in the early summer and separated in St. +Louis. Abraham walked in company with John Johnston from St. Louis to +Coles County, and spent a few weeks there with his father, who had +made another migration the year before. His final move was to Goose +Nest Prairie, where he died in 1851, [Footnote: His grave, a mile and +a half west of the town of Farmington, Illinois, is surmounted by an +appropriate monument erected by his grandson, the Hon. Robert T. +Lincoln.] at the age of seventy-three years, after a life which, +though not successful in any material or worldly point of view, was +probably far happier than that of his illustrious son, being unvexed +by enterprise or ambition. Abraham never lost sight of his parents. He +continued to aid and befriend them in every way, even when he could +ill afford it, and when his benefactions were imprudently used. He not +only comforted their declining years with every aid his affection +could suggest, but he did everything in his power to assist his +stepbrother Johnston--a hopeless task enough. The following rigidly +truthful and yet kindly letters will show how mentor-like and +masterful, as well as generous, were the relations that Mr. Lincoln +held to these friends and companions of his childhood: + +DEAR JOHNSTON: Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it best +to comply with now. At the various times when I have helped you a +little, you have said to me, "We can get along very well now," but in +a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this +can only happen by some defect in your conduct. + +What that defect is I think I know. You are not _lazy_, and still +you are an _idler_. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you have +done a good whole day's work in any one day. You do not very much +dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it +does not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of +uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty, and it is vastly +important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should +break the habit. It is more important to them because they have longer +to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it +easier than they can get out after they are in. + +You are now in need of some money; and what I propose is that you +shall go to work "tooth and nail" for somebody who will give you money +for it. Let father and your boys take charge of things at home, +prepare for a crop, and make the crop; and you go to work for the best +money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get; +and to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you that +for every dollar you will, between this and the first of next May, get +for your own labor, either in money or as discharging your own +indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you +hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, +making twenty dollars a month for your work. In this I do not mean you +should go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines in +California; but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can +get close to home, in Coles County. Now, if you will do this you will +soon be out of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit that +will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear +you out of debt, next year you would be just as deep in as ever. You +say you would almost give your place in heaven for seventy or eighty +dollars. Then you value your place in heaven very cheap, for I am sure +you can with the offer I make get the seventy or eighty dollars for +four or five months' work. You say if I will furnish you the money you +will deed me the land, and if you don't pay the money back you will +deliver possession. Nonsense. If you can't now live with the land, how +will you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I +do not mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but +follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eighty times eighty +dollars to you. + +Here is a later epistle, still more graphic and terse in statement, +which has the unusual merit of painting both confessor and penitent to +the life: + + SHELBYVILLE, Nov. 4, 1851. + +DEAR BROTHER: When I came into Charleston, day before yesterday, I +learned that you were anxious to sell the land where you live and move +to Missouri. I have been thinking of this ever since, and cannot but +think such a notion is utterly foolish. What can you do in Missouri +better than here? Is the land any richer? Can you there, any more than +here, raise corn and wheat and oats without work? Will anybody there, +any more than here, do your work for you? If you intend to go to work, +there is no better place than right where you are; if you do not +intend to go to work, you cannot get along anywhere. Squirming and +crawling about from place to place can do no good. You have raised no +crop this year, and what you really want is to sell the land, get the +money, and spend it. Part with the land you have, and, my life upon +it, you will never after own a spot big enough to bury you in. Half +you will get for the land you will spend in moving to Missouri, and +the other half you will eat and drink and wear out, and no foot of +land will be bought. Now, I feel it is my duty to have no hand in such +a piece of foolery. I feel that it is so even on your own account, and +particularly on mother's account. The eastern forty acres I intend to +keep for mother while she lives; if you will not cultivate it, it will +rent for enough to support her; at least, it will rent for something. +Her dower in the other two forties she can let you have, and no thanks +to me. Now do not misunderstand this letter. I do not write it in any +unkindness. I write it in order, if possible, to get you to face the +truth, which truth is, you are destitute because you have idled away +all your time. Your thousand pretenses deceive nobody but yourself. Go +to work is the only cure for your case. + +A volume of disquisition could not put more clearly before the reader +the difference between Abraham Lincoln and the common run of Southern +and Western rural laborers. He had the same disadvantages that they +had. He grew up in the midst of poverty and ignorance; he was poisoned +with the enervating malaria of the Western woods, as all his fellows +were, and the consequences of it were seen in his character and +conduct to the close of his life. But he had, what very few of them +possessed any glimmering notion of, a fixed and inflexible will to +succeed. He did not love work, probably, any better than John +Johnston; but he had an innate self-respect, and a consciousness that +his self was worthy of respect, that kept him from idleness as it kept +him from all other vices, and made him a better man every year that he +lived. + +We have anticipated a score of years in speaking of Mr. Lincoln's +relations to his family. It was in August of the year 1831 that he +finally left his father's roof, and swung out for himself into the +current of the world to make his fortune in his own way. He went down +to New Salem again to assist Offutt in the business that lively +speculator thought of establishing there. He was more punctual than +either his employer or the merchandise, and met with the usual reward +of punctuality in being forced to waste his time in waiting for the +tardy ones. He seemed to the New Salem people to be "loafing"; several +of them have given that description of him. He did one day's work +acting as clerk of a local election, a lettered loafer being pretty +sure of employment on such an occasion. [Footnote: Mrs. Lizzie H. Bell +writes of this incident: "My father, Menton Graham, was on that day, +as usual, appointed to be a clerk, and Mr. McNamee, who was to be the +other, was sick and failed to come. They were looking around for a man +to fill his place when my father noticed Mr. Lincoln and asked if he +could write. He answered that 'he could make a few rabbit tracks.'"] +He also piloted a boat down the Sangamon for one Dr. Nelson, who had +had enough of New Salem and wanted to go to Texas. This was probably a +task not requiring much pilot-craft, as the river was much swollen, +and navigators had in most places two or three miles of channel to +count upon. But Offutt and his goods arrived at last, and Lincoln and +he got them immediately into position, and opened their doors to what +commerce could be found in New Salem. There was clearly not enough to +satisfy the volatile mind of Mr. Offutt, for he soon bought Cameron's +mill at the historic dam, and made Abraham superintendent also of that +branch of the business. + +It is to be surmised that Offutt never inspired his neighbors and +customers with any deep regard for his solidity of character. One of +them says of him with injurious pleonasm, that he "talked too much +with his mouth." A natural consequence of his excessive fluency was +soon to be made disagreeably evident to his clerk. He admired Abraham +beyond measure, and praised him beyond prudence. He said that Abe knew +more than any man in the United States; and he was certainly not +warranted in making such an assertion, as his own knowledge of the +actual state of science in America could not have been exhaustive. He +also said that Abe could beat any man in the county running, jumping, +or "wrastling." This proposition, being less abstract in its nature, +was more readily grasped by the local mind, and was not likely to pass +unchallenged. + +[Illustration: MAP OF NEW SALEM AND VICINITY] + +Public opinion at New Salem was formed by a crowd of ruffianly young +fellows who were called the "Clary's Grove Boys." Once or twice a week +they descended upon the village and passed the day in drinking, +fighting, and brutal horse-play. If a stranger appeared in the place, +he was likely to suffer a rude initiation into the social life of New +Salem at the hands of these jovial savages. Sometimes he was nailed up +in a hogshead and rolled down hill; sometimes he was insulted into a +fight and then mauled black and blue; for despite their pretensions to +chivalry they had no scruples about fair play or any such +superstitions of civilization. At first they did not seem inclined to +molest young Lincoln. His appearance did not invite insolence; his +reputation for strength and activity was a greater protection to him +than his inoffensive good-nature. But the loud admiration of Offutt +gave them umbrage. It led to dispute, contradictions, and finally to a +formal banter to a wrestling-match. Lincoln was greatly averse to all +this "wooling and pulling," as he called it. But Offutt's indiscretion +had made it necessary for him to show his mettle. Jack Armstrong, the +leading bully of the gang, was selected to throw him, and expected an +easy victory. But he soon found himself in different hands from any he +had heretofore engaged with. Seeing he could not manage the tall +stranger, his friends swarmed in, and by kicking and tripping nearly +succeeded in getting Lincoln down. At this, as has been said of +another hero, "the spirit of Odin entered into him," and putting forth +his whole strength, he held the pride of Clary's Grove in his arms +like a child, and almost choked the exuberant life out of him. For a +moment a general fight seemed inevitable; but Lincoln, standing +undismayed with his back to the wall, looked so formidable in his +defiance that an, honest admiration took the place of momentary fury, +and his initiation was over. As to Armstrong, he was Lincoln's friend +and sworn brother as soon as he recovered the use of his larynx, and +the bond thus strangely created lasted through life. Lincoln had no +further occasion to fight his own battles while Armstrong was there to +act as his champion. The two friends, although so widely different, +were helpful to each other afterwards in many ways, and Lincoln made +ample amends for the liberty his hands had taken with Jack's throat, +by saving, in a memorable trial, his son's neck from the halter. + +This incident, trivial and vulgar as it may seem, was of great +importance in Lincoln's life. His behavior in this ignoble scuffle did +the work of years for him, in giving him the position he required in +the community where his lot was cast. He became from that moment, in a +certain sense, a personage, with a name and standing of his own. The +verdict of Clary's Grove was unanimous that he was "the cleverest +fellow that had ever broke into the settlement." He did not have to be +constantly scuffling to guard his self-respect, and at the same time +he gained the good-will of the better sort by his evident +peaceableness and integrity. + +[Illustration: LEAF FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S EXERCISE BOOK. The page +here shown in reduced fac-simile is from the Exercise Book presented +by William H. Herndon to the Keyes-Lincoln Memorial Collection. When +the book was written Lincoln was about seventeen.] + +He made on the whole a satisfactory clerk for Mr. Offutt, though his +downright honesty must have seemed occasionally as eccentric in that +position as afterwards it did to his associates at the bar. Dr. +Holland has preserved one or two incidents of this kind, which have +their value. Once, after he had sold a woman a little bill of goods +and received the money, he found on looking over the account again +that she had given him six and a quarter cents too much. The money +burned in his hands until he locked the shop and started on a walk of +several miles in the night to make restitution before he slept. On +another occasion, after weighing and delivering a pound of tea, he +found a small weight on the scales. He immediately weighed out the +quantity of tea of which he had innocently defrauded his customer and +went in search of her, his sensitive conscience not permitting any +delay. To show that the young merchant was not too good for this +world, the same writer gives an incident of his shop-keeping +experience of a different character. A rural bully having made himself +especially offensive one day, when women were present, by loud +profanity, Lincoln requested him to be silent. This was of course a +cause of war, and the young clerk was forced to follow the incensed +ruffian into the street, where the combat was of short duration. +Lincoln threw him at once to the ground, and gathering a handful of +the dog fennel with which the roadside was plentifully bordered, he +rubbed the ruffian's face and eyes with it until he howled for mercy. +He did not howl in vain, for the placable giant, when his discipline +was finished, brought water to bathe the culprit's smarting face, and +doubtless improved the occasion with quaint admonition. + +A few passages at arms of this sort gave Abraham a redoubtable +reputation in the neighborhood. But the principal use he made of his +strength and his prestige was in the capacity of peacemaker, an office +which soon devolved upon him by general consent. Whenever old feuds +blossomed into fights by Offutt's door, or the chivalry of Clary's +Grove attempted in its energetic way to take the conceit out of some +stranger, or a canine duel spread contagion of battle among the +masters of the beasts, Lincoln usually appeared upon the scene, and +with a judicious mixture of force and reason and invincible good- +nature restored peace. + +While working with Offutt his mind was turned in the direction of +English grammar. From what he had heard of it he thought it a matter +within his grasp, if he could once fall in with the requisite +machinery. Consulting with Menton [Footnote: This name has always been +written in Illinois "Minter," but a letter from Mr. Graham's daughter, +Mrs. Bell, says that her father's name is as given in the text.] +Graham, the schoolmaster, in regard to it, and learning the +whereabouts of a vagrant "Kirkham's Grammar," he set off at once and +soon returned from a walk of a dozen miles with the coveted prize. He +devoted himself to the new study with that peculiar intensity of +application which always remained his most valuable faculty, and soon +knew all that can be known about it from rules. He seemed surprised, +as others have been, at the meager dimensions of the science he had +acquired and the ease with which it yielded all there was of it to the +student. But it seemed no slight achievement to the New Salemites, and +contributed not a little to the prevalent impression of his learning. + +His name is prominently connected with an event which just at this +time caused an excitement and interest in Salem and the neighboring +towns entirely out of proportion to its importance. It was one of the +articles of faith of most of the settlers on the banks of the Sangamon +River that it was a navigable stream, and the local politicians found +that they could in no way more easily hit the fancy of their hearers +than by discussing this assumed fact, and the logical corollary +derived from it, that it was the duty of the State or the nation to +clear out the snags and give free course to the commerce which was +waiting for an opportunity to pour along this natural highway. At last +one Captain Vincent Bogue, of Springfield, determined to show that the +thing could be done by doing it. The first promise of the great +enterprise appears in the "Sangsmo Journal" of January 26, 1832, in a +letter from the Captain, at Cincinnati, saying he would ascend the +Sangamon by steam on the breaking up of the ice. He asked that he +might be met at the mouth of the river by ten or twelve men, having +axes with long handles, to cut away the overhanging branches of the +trees on the banks. From this moment there was great excitement,-- +public meetings, appointment of committees, appeals for subscriptions, +and a scattering fire of advertisements of goods and freight to be +bargained for,--which sustained the prevailing interest. It was a day +of hope and promise when the advertisement reached Springfield from +Cincinnati that "the splendid upper-cabin steamer Talisman" would +positively start for the Sangamon on a given day. As the paper +containing this joyous intelligence also complained that no mail had +reached Springfield from the east for three weeks, it is easy to +understand the desire for more rapid and regular communications. From +week to week the progress of the _Talisman_, impeded by bad weather +and floating ice, was faithfully recorded, until at last the party +with long-handled axes went down to Beardstown to welcome her. It is +needless to state that Lincoln was one of the party. His standing as a +scientific citizen of New Salem would have been enough to insure his +selection even if he had not been known as a bold navigator. He +piloted the _Talisman_ safely through the windings of the Sangamon, +and Springfield gave itself up to extravagant gayety on the event that +proved she "could no longer be considered an inland town." Captain +Bogue announced "fresh and seasonable goods just received per +steamboat _Talisman_," and the local poets illuminated the columns of +the "Journal" with odes on her advent. The joy was short-lived. The +_Talisman_ met the natural fate of steamboats a few months later, +being burned at the St. Louis wharf. Neither State nor nation has ever +removed the snags from the Sangamon, and no subsequent navigator of +its waters has been found to eclipse the fame of the earliest one. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR + + +[Sidenote: 1832.] + +A new period in the life of Lincoln begins with the summer of 1832. He +then obtained his first public recognition, and entered upon the +course of life which was to lead him to a position of prominence and +great usefulness. + +The business of Offutt had gone to pieces, and his clerk was out of +employment, when Governor Reynolds issued his call for volunteers to +move the tribe of Black Hawk across the Mississippi. For several years +the raids of the old Sac chieftain upon that portion of his patrimony +which he had ceded to the United States had kept the settlers in the +neighborhood of Rock Island in terror, and menaced the peace of the +frontier. In the spring of 1831 he came over to the east side of the +river with a considerable band of warriors, having been encouraged by +secret promises of cooperation from several other tribes. These failed +him, however, when the time of trial arrived, and an improvised force +of State volunteers, assisted by General E. P. Gaines and his +detachment, had little difficulty in compelling the Indians to re- +cross the Mississippi, and to enter into a solemn treaty on the 30th +of June by which the former treaties were ratified and Black Hawk +and his leading warriors bound themselves never again to set foot on +the east side of the river, without express permission from the +President or the Governor of Illinois. + +[Sidenote: Reynolds, "Life and Times," p. 325.] + +[Sidenote: Ford, "History of Illinois," p. 110.] + +But Black Hawk was too old a savage to learn respect for treaties or +resignation under fancied wrongs. He was already approaching the +allotted term of life. He had been a chief of his nation for more than +forty years. He had scalped his first enemy when scarcely more than a +child, having painted on his blanket the blood-red hand which marked +his nobility at fifteen years of age. Peace under any circumstances +would doubtless have been irksome to him, but a peace which forbade +him free access to his own hunting-grounds and to the graves of his +fathers was more than he could now school himself to endure. He had +come to believe that he had been foully wronged by the treaty which +was his own act; he had even convinced himself that "land cannot be +sold," a proposition in political economy which our modern socialists +would be puzzled to accept or confute. Besides this, the tenderest +feelings of his heart were outraged by this exclusion from his former +domain. He had never passed a year since the death of his daughter +without making a pilgrimage to her grave at Oquawka and spending hours +in mystic ceremonies and contemplation. He was himself prophet as well +as warrior, and had doubtless his share of mania, which is the +strength of prophets. The promptings of his own broken heart readily +seemed to him the whisperings of attendant spirits; and day by day +these unseen incitements increased around him, until they could not be +resisted even if death stood in the way. + +He made his combinations during the winter, and had it not been for +the loyal attitude of Keokuk, he could have brought the entire nation +of the Sacs and Foxes to the war-path. As it was, the flower of the +young men came with him when, with the opening spring, he crossed the +river once more. He came this time, he said, "to plant corn," but as a +preliminary to this peaceful occupation of the land he marched up the +Rock River, expecting to be joined by the Winnebagoes and +Pottawatomies. But the time was passed for honorable alliances among +the Indians. His oath-bound confederates gave him little assistance, +and soon cast in their lot with the stronger party. + +This movement excited general alarm in the State. General Henry +Atkinson, commanding the United States troops, sent a formal summons +to Black Hawk to return; but the old chief was already well on his way +to the lodge of his friend, the prophet Wabokishick, at Prophetstown, +and treated the summons with contemptuous defiance. The Governor +immediately called for volunteers, and was himself astonished at the +alacrity with which the call was answered. Among those who enlisted at +the first tap of the drum was Abraham Lincoln, and equally to his +surprise and delight he was elected captain of his company. The +volunteer organizations of those days were conducted on purely +democratic principles. The company assembled on the green, an election +was suggested, and three-fourths of the men walked over to where +Lincoln was standing; most of the small remainder joined themselves to +one Kirkpatrick, a man of some substance and standing from Spring +Creek. We have the word of Mr. Lincoln for it, that no subsequent +success ever gave him such unmixed pleasure as this earliest +distinction. It was a sincere, unsought tribute of his equals to those +physical and moral qualities which made him the best man of his +hundred, and as such was accepted and prized. + +[Sidenote: Reynolds, "Life and Times," p. 363.] + +At the Beardstown rendezvous, Captain Lincoln's company was attached +to Colonel Samuel Thompson's regiment, the Fourth Illinois, which was +organized at Richland, Sangamon County, on the 21st of April, and +moved on the 27th, with the rest of the command under General Samuel +Whitesides, for Yellow Banks, where the boats with provisions had been +ordered to meet them. It was arduous marching. There were no roads and +no bridges, and the day's task included a great deal of labor. The +third day out they came to the Henderson River, a stream some fifty +yards wide, swift and swollen with the spring thaws, with high and +steep banks. To most armies this would have seemed a serious obstacle, +but these backwoodsmen swarmed to the work like beavers, and in less +than three hours the river was crossed with the loss of only one or +two horses and wagons. When they came to Yellow Banks, on the +Mississippi, the provision-boats had not arrived, and for three days +they waited there literally without food; very uncomfortable days for +Governor Reynolds, who accompanied the expedition, and was forced to +hear the outspoken comments of two thousand hungry men on his supposed +inefficiency. But on the 6th of May the _William Wallace_ arrived, and +"this sight," says the Governor with characteristic sincerity, "was, I +presume, the most interesting I ever beheld." From there they marched +to the mouth of Rock River, and thence General Whitesides proceeded +with his volunteers up the river some ninety miles to Dixon, where +they halted to await the arrival of General Atkinson with the regular +troops and provisions. There they found two battalions of fresh +horsemen under Majors Stillman and Bailey, who had as yet seen no +service and were eager for the fray. Whitesides's men were tired with +their forced march, and besides, in their ardor to get forward, they +had thrown away a good part of their provisions and left their baggage +behind. It pleased the Governor, therefore, to listen to the prayers +of Stillman's braves, and he gave them orders to proceed to the head +of Old Man's Creek, where it was supposed there were some hostile +Indians, and coerce them into submission. "I thought," says the +Governor in his memoirs, "they might discover the enemy." + +[Illustration: A SOLDIER'S DISCHARGE FROM THE BLACK HAWK WAR, SIGNED +BY A. LINCOLN, CAPTAIN. IN THE POSSESSION OF O. H. OLDROTD, +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.] + +The supposition was certainly well founded. They rode merrily away, +came to Old Man's Creek, thereafter to be called Stillman's Run, and +encamped for the night. By the failing light a small party of Indians +was discovered on the summit of a hill a mile away, and a few +courageous gentlemen hurriedly saddled their horses, and, without +orders, rode after them. The Indians retreated, but were soon +overtaken, and two or three of them killed. The volunteers were now +strung along a half mile of hill and valley, with no more order or +care than if they had been chasing rabbits. Black Hawk, who had been +at supper when the running fight began, hastily gathered a handful of +warriors and attacked the scattered whites. The onset of the savages +acted like an icy bath on the red-hot valor of the volunteers; they +turned and ran for their lives, stampeding the camp as they fled. +There was very little resistance--so little that Black Hawk, fearing a +ruse, tried to recall his warriors from the pursuit, but in the +darkness and confusion could not enforce his orders. The Indians +killed all they caught up with; but the volunteers had the fleeter +horses, and only eleven were overtaken. The rest reached Dixon by twos +and threes, rested all night, and took courage. General Whitesides +marched out to the scene of the disaster the next morning, but the +Indians were gone. They had broken up into small parties, and for +several days they reaped the bloody fruit of their victory in the +massacre of peaceful settlements in the adjacent districts. + +The time of enlistment of the volunteers had now come to an end, and +the men, seeing no prospect of glory or profit, and weary of the work +and the hunger which were the only certain incidents of the campaign, +refused in great part to continue in service. But it is hardly +necessary to say that Captain Lincoln was not one of these homesick +soldiers. Not even the trammels of rank, which are usually so strong +among the trailers of the saber, could restrain him from what he +considered his simple duty. As soon as he was mustered out of his +captaincy, he re-enlisted on the same day, May 27, as a private +soldier. Several other officers did the same, among them General +Whitesides and Major John T. Stuart. Lincoln became a member of +Captain Elijah Iles's company of mounted volunteers, sometimes called +the "Independent Spy Battalion," an organization unique of its kind, +if we may judge from the account given by one of its troopers. It was +not, says Mr. George M. Harrison, "under the control of any regiment +or brigade, but received orders directly from the Commander-in-Chief, +and always, when with the army, camped within the lines, and had many +other privileges, such as having no camp duties to perform and drawing +rations as much and as often as we pleased," which would seem to liken +this battalion as nearly as possible to the fabled "regiment of +brigadiers." With this _elite_ corps Lincoln served through his +second enlistment, though it was not his fortune to take part in +either of the two engagements in which General James D. Henry, at the +Wisconsin Bluffs and the Bad Axe, broke and destroyed forever the +power of Black Hawk and the British band of Sacs and Foxes. + +After Lincoln was relieved of the weight of dignity involved in his +captaincy, the war became a sort of holiday, and the tall private from +New Salem enjoyed it as much as any one. He entered with great zest +into the athletic sports with which soldiers love to beguile the +tedium of camp. He was admitted to be the strongest man in the army, +and, with one exception, the best wrestler. Indeed, his friends never +admitted the exception, and severely blamed Lincoln for confessing +himself defeated on the occasion when he met the redoubtable Thompson, +and the two fell together on the turf. His popularity increased from +the beginning to the end of the campaign, and those of his comrades +who still survive always speak with hearty and affectionate praise of +his character and conduct in those rough yet pleasantly remembered +days. + +[Sidenote: MS. Letters from Thomas, Gregg and others.] + +The Spy Battalion formed no part of General Henry's forces when, by a +disobedience of orders as prudent as it was audacious, he started with +his slender force on the fresh trail which he was sure would lead him +to Black Hawk's camp. He found and struck the enemy at bay on the +bluffs of the Wisconsin River on the 21st of July, and inflicted upon +them a signal defeat. The broken remnant of Black Hawk's power then +fled for the Mississippi River, the whole army following in close +pursuit--General Atkinson in front and General Henry bringing up the +rear. Fortune favored the latter once more, for while Black Hawk with +a handful of men was engaging and drawing away the force under +Atkinson, General Henry struck the main trail, and brought on the +battle of the Bad Axe, if that could be called a battle which was an +easy slaughter of the weary and discouraged savages, fighting without +heart or hope, an army in front and the great river behind. Black Hawk +escaped the fate of his followers, to be captured a few days later +through the treachery of his allies. He was carried in triumph to +Washington and presented to President Jackson, to whom he made this +stern and defiant speech, showing how little age or disaster could do +to tame his indomitable spirit: "I am a man and you are another. I did +not expect to conquer the white people. I took up the hatchet to +avenge injuries which could no longer be borne. [Footnote: It is a +noteworthy coincidence that President Lincoln's proclamation at the +opening of the war calls for troops "to redress wrongs already long +enough endured."] Had I borne them longer my people would have said: +'Black Hawk is a squaw; he is too old to be a chief; he is no Sac.' +This caused me to raise the war-whoop. I say no more of it; all is +known to you." He returned to Iowa, and died on the 3d of October, +1838, at his camp on the river Des Moines. He was buried in gala +dress, with cocked hat and sword, and the medals presented him by two +governments. He was not allowed to rest even in his grave. His bones +were exhumed by some greedy wretch and sold from hand to hand till +they came at last to the Burlington Museum, where they were destroyed +by fire. + +[Illustration: BLACK HAWK] + +It was on the 16th of June, a month before the slaughter of the Bad +Axe, that the battalion to which Lincoln belonged was at last mustered +out, at Whitewater, Wisconsin. His final release from the service was +signed by a young lieutenant of artillery, Robert Anderson, who, +twenty-nine years later, in one of the most awful crises in our +annals, was to sustain to Lincoln relations of prodigious importance, +on a scene illuminated by the flash of the opening guns of the civil +war. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end.] +The men started home the next day in high spirits, school-boys for +their holidays. Lincoln had need, like Horatio, of his good spirits, +for they were his only outfit for the long journey to New Salem, he +and his mess-mate Harrison [Footnote: George M. Harrison, who gives an +account of his personal experiences in Lamon, p. 116.] having had +their horses stolen the day before by some patriot over-anxious to +reach home. But, as Harrison says, "I laughed at our fate, and he +joked at it, and we all started off merrily. The generous men of our +company walked and rode by turns with us, and we fared about equal +with the rest. But for this generosity our legs would have had to do +the better work; for in that day this dreary route furnished no horses +to buy or to steal; and, whether on horse or afoot, we always had +company, for many of the horses' backs were too sore for riding." It +is not hard to imagine with what quips and quirks of native fancy +Lincoln and his friends beguiled the way through forest and prairie. +With youth, good health, and a clear conscience, and even then the +dawn of a young and undefiled ambition in his heart, nothing was +wanting to give zest and spice to this long, sociable walk of a +hundred leagues. One joke is preserved, and this one is at the expense +of Lincoln. One chilly morning he complained of being cold. "No +wonder," said some facetious cavalier, "there is so much of you on the +ground." [Footnote: Dr. Holland gives this homely joke (Life of +Lincoln, p. 71), but transfers it to a time four years later, when +Lincoln had permanently assumed shoes and had a horse of his own.] We +hope Lincoln's contributions to the fun were better than this, but of +course the prosperity of these jests lay rather in the liberal ears +that heard them than in the good-natured tongues that uttered them. + +Lincoln and Harrison could not have been altogether penniless, for at +Peoria they bought a canoe and paddled down to Pekin. Here the +ingenious Lincoln employed his hereditary talent for carpentry by +making an oar for the frail vessel while Harrison was providing the +commissary stores. The latter goes on to say: "The river, being very +low, was without current, so that we had to pull hard to make half the +speed of legs on land; in fact, we let her float all night, and on the +next morning always found the objects still visible that were beside +us the previous evening. The water was remarkably clear for this river +of plants, and the fish appeared to be sporting with us as we moved +over or near them. On the next day after we left Pekin we overhauled a +raft of saw-logs, with two men afloat on it to urge it on with poles +and to guide it in the channel. We immediately pulled up to them and +went on the raft, where we were made welcome by various +demonstrations, especially by an invitation to a feast on fish, corn- +bread, eggs, butter, and coffee, just prepared for our benefit. Of +these good things we ate almost immoderately, for it was the only warm +meal we had made for several days. While preparing it, and after +dinner, Lincoln entertained them, and they entertained us for a couple +of hours very amusingly." Kindly human companionship was a luxury in +that green wilderness, and was readily appreciated and paid for. + +The returning warriors dropped down the river to the village of +Havana--from Pekin to Havana in a canoe! The country is full of these +geographical nightmares, the necessary result of freedom of +nomenclature bestowed by circumstances upon minds equally destitute of +taste or education. There they sold their boat,--no difficult task, +for a canoe was a staple article in any river-town,--and again set out +"the old way, over the sand-ridges, for Petersburg. As we drew near +home, the impulse became stronger and urged us on amazingly. The long +strides of Lincoln, often slipping back in the loose sand six inches +every step, were just right for me; and he was greatly diverted when +he noticed me behind him stepping along in his tracks to keep from +slipping." Thus the two comrades came back from their soldierings to +their humble homes, from which Lincoln was soon to start on the way +marked out for him by Providence, with strides which no comrade, with +whatever goodwill, might hope to follow. + +He never took his campaigning seriously. The politician's habit of +glorifying the petty incidents of a candidate's life always seemed +absurd to him, and in his speech, made in 1848, ridiculing the effort +on the part of General Cass's friends to draw some political advantage +from that gentleman's respectable but obscure services on the frontier +in the war with Great Britain, he stopped any future eulogist from +painting his own military achievements in too lively colors. "Did you +know, Mr. Speaker," he said, "I am a military hero! In the days of the +Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and came away. I was not at Stillman's +defeat, but I was about as near it as General Cass was to Hull's +surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is +quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I +bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. If General Cass went in +advance of me picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in +charges on the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it +was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the +mosquitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can +truly say I was often very hungry. If ever I should conclude to doff +whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade +Federalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their +candidate for the Presidency, I protest that they shall not make fun +of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a +military hero." + +[Relocated Footnote: A story to the effect that Lincoln was mustered +into service by Jefferson Davis has for a long time been current, but +the strictest search in the records fails to confirm it. We are +indebted to General R. C. Drum, Adjutant-General of the Army, for an +interesting letter giving all the known facts in relation to this +story. General Drum says: "The company of the Fourth Regiment Illinois +Mounted Volunteers, commanded by Mr. Lincoln, was, with others, called +out by Governor Reynolds, and was organized at Richland, Sangamon +County, Illinois, April 21, 1832. The muster-in roll is not on file, +but the records show that the company was mustered out at the mouth of +Fox River, May 27, 1832, by Nathaniel Buckmaster, Brigade-Major to +General Samuel Whitesides's Illinois Volunteers. On the muster-roll of +Captain Elijah Iles's company, Illinois Mounted Volunteers, A. Lincoln +(Sangamon County) appears as a private from May 27, 1832, to June 16, +1832, when the company was mustered out of service by Lieutenant +Robert Anderson, Third United States Artillery and Colonel (Assistant +Inspector-General) Illinois Volunteers. Brigadier-General Henry +Atkinson, in his report of May 30, 1832, stated that the Illinois +Volunteers were called out by the Governor of that State, but in haste +and for no definite period of service. On their arrival at Ottawa they +became clamorous for their discharge, which the Governor granted, +retaining--of those who were discharged and volunteered for a further +period of twenty days--a sufficient number of men to form six +companies, which General Atkinson found at Ottawa on his arrival there +from Rock River. General Atkinson further reports that these companies +and some three hundred regular troops, remaining in position at Rock +River, were all the force left him to keep the enemy in check until +the assemblage of the three thousand additional Illinois militia +called out by the Governor upon his (General A.'s) requisition, to +rendezvous at Ottawa, June 12-15, 1832, + +"There can be no doubt that Captain Iles's company, mentioned above, +was one of the six which served until June 16, 1832, while the fact is +fully established that the company of which Mr. Lincoln was a member +was mustered out by Lieutenant Robert Anderson, who, in April, 1861, +was in command of Fort Sumter. There is no evidence to show that it +was mustered in by Lieutenant Jefferson Davis. Mr. Davis's company (B, +First United States Infantry) was stationed at Fort Crawford, +Wisconsin, during the months of January and February, 1832, and he is +borne on the rolls as 'absent on detached service at the Dubuque mines +by order of Colonel Morgan.' From March 26 to August 18, 1832, the +muster-rolls of his company report him as absent on furlough."] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE + + +[Sidenote: 1832.] + +The discharged volunteer arrived in New Salem only ten days before the +August election, in which he had a deep personal interest. Before +starting for the wars he had announced himself, according to the +custom of the time, by a handbill circular, as a candidate for the +Legislature from Sangamon County. [Footnote: We are aware that all +former biographers have stated that Lincoln's candidacy for the +Legislature was subsequent to his return from the war, and a +consequence of his service. But his circular is dated March 9, 1832, +and the "Sangamo Journal" mentions his name among the July, and +apologizes candidates in for having accidentally omitted it in May.] +He had done this in accordance with his own natural bent for public +life and desire for usefulness and distinction, and not without strong +encouragement from friends whose opinion he valued. He had even then +considerable experience in speaking and thinking on his feet. He had +begun his practice in that direction before leaving Indiana, and +continued it everywhere he had gone. Mr. William Butler tells us that +on one occasion, when Lincoln was a farmhand at Island Grove, the +famous circuit-rider, Peter Cartwright, came by, electioneering for +the Legislature, and Lincoln at once engaged in a discussion with him +in the cornfield, in which the great Methodist was equally astonished +at the close reasoning and the uncouth figure of Mr. Brown's +extraordinary hired man. At another time, after one Posey, a +politician in search of office, had made a speech in Macon, John +Hanks, whose admiration of his cousin's oratory was unbounded, said +that "Abe could beat it." He turned a keg on end, and the tall boy +mounted it and made his speech. "The subject was the navigation of the +Sangamon, and Abe beat him to death," says the loyal Hanks. So it was +not with the tremor of a complete novice that the young man took the +stump during the few days left him between his return and the +election. + +[Sidenote: Reynolds, "My Own Times," p. 291.] + +He ran as a Whig. As this has been denied on authority which is +generally trustworthy, it is well enough to insist upon the fact. We +have a memorandum in Mr. Lincoln's own handwriting in which he says he +ran as "an avowed Clay man." In one of the few speeches of his, which, +made at this time, have been remembered and reported, he said: "I am +in favor of a national bank; I am in favor of the internal improvement +system, and of a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments and +political principles." Nothing could be more unqualified or outspoken +than this announcement of his adhesion to what was then and for years +afterwards called "the American System" of Henry Clay. Other testimony +is not wanting to the same effect. Both Major Stuart and Judge Logan +[Footnote: The Democrats of New Salem worked for Lincoln out of their +personal regard for him. That was the general understanding of the +matter here at the time. In this he made no concession of principle +whatever. He was as stiff as a man could be in his Whig doctrines. +They did this for him simply because he was popular--because he was +Lincoln. STEPHEN T. LOGAN. July 6, 1875.] say that Lincoln ran in 1832 +as a Whig, and that his speeches were unevasively in defense of the +principles of that party. Without discussing the merits of the party +or its purposes, we may insist that his adopting them thus openly at +the outset of his career was an extremely characteristic act, and +marks thus early the scrupulous conscientiousness which shaped every +action of his life. The State of Illinois was by a large majority +Democratic, hopelessly attached to the person and policy of Jackson. +Nowhere had that despotic leader more violent and unscrupulous +partisans than there. They were proud of their very servility, and +preferred the name of "whole-hog Jackson men" to that of Democrats. +The Whigs embraced in their scanty ranks the leading men of the State, +those who have since been most distinguished in its history, such as +S. T. Logan, Stuart, Browning, Dubois, Hardin, Breese, and many +others. But they were utterly unable to do anything except by dividing +the Jackson men, whose very numbers made their party unwieldy, and by +throwing their votes with the more decent and conservative portion of +them. In this way, in the late election, they had secured the success +of Governor Reynolds--the Old Ranger--against Governor Kinney, who +represented the vehement and proscriptive spirit which Jackson had +just breathed into the party. He had visited the General in +Washington, and had come back giving out threatenings and slaughter +against the Whigs in the true Tennessee style, declaring that "all +Whigs should be whipped out of office like dogs out of a meat-house"; +the force of south-western simile could no further go. But the great +popularity of Reynolds and the adroit management of the Whigs carried +him through successfully. A single fact will show on which side the +people who could read were enlisted. The "whole-hog" party had one +newspaper, the opposition five. Of course it would have been +impossible for Reynolds to poll a respectable vote if his loyalty to +Jackson had been seriously doubted. As it was, he lost many votes +through a report that he had been guilty of saying that "he was as +strong for Jackson as any reasonable man should be." The Governor +himself, in his naive account of the canvass, acknowledges the +damaging nature of this accusation, and comforts himself with quoting +an indiscretion of Kinney's, who opposed a projected canal on the +ground that "it would flood the country with Yankees." + +It showed some moral courage, and certainly an absence of the +shuffling politician's fair-weather policy, that Lincoln, in his +obscure and penniless youth, at the very beginning of his career, when +he was not embarrassed by antecedents or family connections, and when, +in fact, what little social influence he knew would have led him the +other way, chose to oppose a furiously intolerant majority, and to +take his stand with the party which was doomed to long-continued +defeat in Illinois. The motives which led him to take this decisive +course are not difficult to imagine. The better sort of people in +Sangamon County were Whigs, though the majority were Democrats, and he +preferred through life the better sort to the majority. The papers he +read were the Louisville "Journal" and the "Sangamo Journal," both +Whig. Reading the speeches and debates of the day, he sided with +Webster against Calhoun, and with Clay against anybody. Though his +notions of politics, like those of any ill-educated young man of +twenty-two, must have been rather crude, and not at all sufficient to +live and to die by, he had adopted them honestly and sincerely, with +no selfish regard to his own interests; and though he ardently desired +success, he never abated one jot or tittle of his convictions for any +possible personal gain, then or thereafter. + +In the circular in which he announced his candidacy he made no +reference to national politics, but confined himself mainly to a +discussion of the practicability of improving the navigation of the +Sangamon, the favorite hobby of the place and time. He had no monopoly +of this "issue." It formed the burden of nearly every candidate's +appeal to the people in that year. The excitement occasioned by the +trip of the _Talisman_ had not yet died away, although the little +steamer was now dust and ashes, and her bold commander had left the +State to avoid an awkward meeting with the sheriff. The hope of seeing +Springfield an emporium of commerce was still lively among the +citizens of Sangamon County, and in no one of the handbills of the +political aspirants of the season was that hope more judiciously +encouraged than in the one signed by Abraham Lincoln. It was a well- +written circular, remarkable for its soberness and, reserve when we +consider the age and the limited advantages of the writer. It +concluded in these words: "Upon the subjects of which I have treated, +I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or +all of them; but holding it a sound maxim that it is better only +sometimes to be right than at all times wrong, so soon as I discover +my opinions to be erroneous I shall be ready to renounce them.... +Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or +not, I can say for one, that I have no other so great as that of being +truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their +esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to +be developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born and +have ever remained in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy +or powerful relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown +exclusively upon the independent voters of the county; and, if +elected, they will have conferred a favor upon me, for which I shall +be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people in +their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been +too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined." + +This is almost precisely the style of his later years. The errors of +grammar and construction which spring invariably from an effort to +avoid redundancy of expression remained with him through life. He +seemed to grudge the space required for necessary parts of speech. But +his language was at twenty-two, as it was thirty years later, the +simple and manly attire of his thought, with little attempt at +ornament and none at disguise. There was an intermediate time when he +sinned in the direction of fine writing; but this ebullition soon +passed away, and left that marvelously strong and transparent style in +which his two inaugurals were written. + +Of course, in the ten days left him after his return from the field, a +canvass of the county, which was then--before its division--several +thousand square miles in extent, was out of the question. He made a +few speeches in the neighborhood of New Salem, and at least one in +Springfield. He was wholly unknown there except by his few comrades in +arms. We find him mentioned in the county paper only once during the +summer, in an editorial note adding the name of Captain Lincoln to +those candidates for the Legislature who were periling their lives on +the frontier and had left their reputations in charge of their +generous fellow-citizens at home. On the occasion of his speaking at +Springfield, most of the candidates had come together to address a +meeting there to give their electors some idea of their quality. These +were severe ordeals for the rash aspirants for popular favor. Besides +those citizens who came to listen and judge, there were many whose +only object was the free whisky provided for the occasion, and who, +after potations pottle-deep, became not only highly unparliamentary +but even dangerous to life and limb. This wild chivalry of Lick Creek +was, however, less redoubtable to Lincoln than it might be to an urban +statesman unacquainted with the frolic brutality of Clary's Grove. +Their gambols never caused him to lose his self-possession. It is +related that once, while he was speaking, he saw a ruffian attack a +friend of his in the crowd, and the rencontre not resulting according +to the orator's sympathies, he descended from the stand, seized the +objectionable fighting man by the neck, "threw him some ten feet," +then calmly mounted to his place and finished his speech, the course +of his logic undisturbed by this athletic parenthesis. Judge Logan saw +Lincoln for the first time on the day when he came up to Springfield +on his canvass this summer. He thus speaks of his future partner: "He +was a very tall, gawky, and rough-looking fellow then; his pantaloons +didn't meet his shoes by six inches. But after he began speaking I +became very much interested in him. He made a very sensible speech. +His manner was very much the same as in after life; that is, the same +peculiar characteristics were apparent then, though of course in after +years he evinced more knowledge and experience. But he had then the +same novelty and the same peculiarity in presenting his ideas. He had +the same individuality that he kept through all his life." + +There were two or three men at the meeting whose good opinion was +worth more than all the votes of Lick Creek to one beginning life: +Stephen T. Logan, a young lawyer who had recently come from Kentucky +with the best equipment for a _nisi prius_ practitioner ever +brought into the State; Major Stuart, whom we have met in the Black +Hawk war, once commanding a battalion and then marching as a private; +and William Butler, afterwards prominent in State politics, at that +time a young man of the purest Western breed in body and character, +clear-headed and courageous, and ready for any emergency where a +friend was to be defended or an enemy punished. We do not know whether +Lincoln gained any votes that day, but he gained what was far more +valuable, the active friendship of these able and honorable men, all +Whigs and all Kentuckians like himself. + +The acquaintances he made in his canvass, the practice he gained in +speaking, and the added confidence which this experience of measuring +his abilities with those of others gave, were all the advantages which +Lincoln derived from this attempt. He was defeated, for the only time +in his life, in a contest before the people. The fortunate candidates +were E. D. Taylor, J. T. Stuart, Achilles Morris, and Peter +Cartwright, the first of whom received 1127 votes and the last 815. +Lincoln's position among the eight defeated candidates was a very +respectable one. He had 657 votes, and there were five who fared +worse, among them his old adversary Kirkpatrick. What must have been +especially gratifying to him was the fact that he received the almost +unanimous vote of his own neighborhood, the precinct of New Salem, 277 +votes against 3, a result which showed more strongly than any words +could do the extent of the attachment and the confidence which his +genial and upright character had inspired among those who knew him +best. + +Having been, even in so slight a degree, a soldier and a politician, +he was unfitted for a day laborer; but being entirely without means of +subsistence, he was forced to look about for some suitable occupation. +We know he thought seriously at this time of learning the trade of a +blacksmith, and using in that honest way the sinew and brawn which +nature had given him. But an opening for another kind of business +occurred, which prevented his entering upon any merely mechanical +occupation. Two of his most intimate friends were the brothers +Herndon, called, according to the fashion of the time, which held it +unfriendly to give a man his proper name, and arrogant for him to +claim it, "Row" and "Jim." They kept one of those grocery stores in +which everything salable on the frontier was sold, and which seem to +have changed their occupants as rapidly as sentry-boxes. "Jim" sold +his share to an idle and dissolute man named Berry, and "Row" soon +transferred his interest to Lincoln. It was easy enough to buy, as +nothing was ever given in payment but a promissory note. A short time +afterwards, one Reuben Radford, who kept another shop of the same +kind, happened one evening to attract the dangerous attention of the +Clary's Grove boys, who, with their usual prompt and practical +facetiousness, without a touch of malice in it, broke his windows and +wrecked his store. The next morning, while Radford was ruefully +contemplating the ruin, and doubtless concluding that he had had +enough of a country where the local idea of neighborly humor found +such eccentric expression, he hailed a passer-by named Greene, and +challenged him to buy his establishment for four hundred dollars. This +sort of trade was always irresistible to these Western speculators, +and Greene at once gave his note for the amount. It next occurred to +him to try to find out what the property was worth, and doubting his +own skill, he engaged Lincoln to make an invoice of it. The young +merchant, whose appetite for speculation had just been whetted by his +own investment, undertook the task, and, finding the stock of goods +rather tempting, offered Greene $250 for his bargain, which was at +once accepted. Not a cent of money changed hands in all these +transactions. By virtue of half a dozen signatures, Berry and Lincoln +became proprietors of the only mercantile establishment in the +village, and the apparent wealth of the community was increased by a +liberal distribution of their notes among the Herndons, Radford, +Greene, and a Mr. Rutledge, whose business they had also bought. + +Fortunately for Lincoln and for the world, the enterprise was not +successful. It was entered into without sufficient reflection, and +from the very nature of things was destined to fail. To Berry the +business was merely the refuge of idleness. He spent his time in +gossip and drank up his share of the profits, and it is probable that +Lincoln was far more interested in politics and general reading than +in the petty traffic of his shop. In the spring of the next year, +finding that their merchandise was gaining them little or nothing, +they concluded to keep a tavern in addition to their other business, +and the records of the County Court of Sangamon County show that Berry +took out a license for that purpose on the 6th of March, 1833. +[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to chapter end.] +But it was even then too late for any expedients to save the moribund +partnership. The tavern was never opened, for about this time Lincoln +and Berry were challenged to sell out to a pair of vagrant brothers +named Trent, who, as they had no idea of paying, were willing to give +their notes to any amount. They soon ran away, and Berry expired, +extinguished in rum. Lincoln was thus left loaded with debts, and with +no assets except worthless notes of Berry and the Trents. It is +greatly to his credit that he never thought of doing by others as +others had done by him. The morality of the frontier was deplorably +loose in such matters, and most of these people would have concluded +that the failure of the business expunged its liabilities. But Lincoln +made no effort even to compromise the claims against him. He promised +to pay when he could, and it took the labor of years to do it; but he +paid at last every farthing of the debt, which seemed to him and his +friends so large that it was called among them "the national debt." + +[Illustration: JUDGE STEPHEN T. LOGAN.] + +He had already begun to read elementary books of law, borrowed from +Major Stuart and other kindly acquaintances. Indeed, it is quite +possible that Berry and Lincoln might have succeeded better in +business if the junior member of the firm had not spent so much of his +time reading Blackstone and Chitty in the shade of a great oak just +outside the door, while the senior quietly fuddled himself within. +Eye-witnesses still speak of the grotesque youth, habited in homespun +tow, lying on his back with his feet on the trunk of the tree, and +poring over his book by the hour, "grinding around with the shade," as +it shifted from north to east. After his store, to use his own +expression, had "winked out," he applied himself with more continuous +energy to his reading, doing merely what odd jobs came to his hand to +pay his current expenses, which were of course very slight. He +sometimes helped his friend Ellis in his store; sometimes went into +the field and renewed his exploits as a farm-hand, which had gained +him a traditional fame in Indiana; sometimes employed his clerkly hand +in straightening up a neglected ledger. It is probable that he worked +for his board oftener than for any other compensation, and his hearty +friendliness and vivacity, as well as his industry in the field, made +him a welcome guest in any farmhouse in the county. His strong arm was +always at the disposal of the poor and needy; it is said of him, with +a graphic variation of a well-known text, "that he visited the +fatherless and the widow and chopped their wood." + +In the spring of this year, 1833, he was appointed Postmaster of New +Salem, and held the office for three years. Its emoluments were +slender and its duties light, but there was in all probability no +citizen of the village who could have made so much of it as he. The +mails were so scanty that he was said to carry them in his hat, and he +is also reported to have read every newspaper that arrived; it is +altogether likely that this formed the leading inducement to his +taking the office. His incumbency lasted until New Salem ceased to be +populous enough for a post-station and the mail went by to Petersburg. +Dr. J. G. Holland relates a sequel to this official experience which +illustrates the quaint honesty of the man. Several years later, when +he was a practicing lawyer, an agent of the Post-office Department +called upon him, and asked for a balance due from the New Salem +office, some seventeen dollars. Lincoln rose, and opening a little +trunk which lay in a corner of the room, took from it a cotton rag in +which was tied up the exact sum required. "I never use any man's money +but my own," he quietly remarked. When we consider the pinching +poverty in which these years had been passed, we may appreciate the +self-denial denial which had kept him from making even a temporary use +of this little sum of government money. + +[Illustration: A. LINCOLN'S SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS AND SADDLE-BAG. IN +THE POSSESSION OF THE LINCOLN MONUMENT COLLECTION.] + +John Calhoun, the Surveyor of Sangamon County, was at this time +overburdened with work. The principal local industry was speculation +in land. Every settler of course wanted his farm surveyed and marked +out for him, and every community had its syndicate of leading citizens +who cherished a scheme of laying out a city somewhere. In many cases +the city was plotted, the sites of the principal buildings, including +a courthouse and a university, were determined, and a sonorous name +was selected out of Plutarch, before its location was even considered. +For this latter office the intervention of an official surveyor was +necessary, and therefore Mr. Calhoun had more business than he could +attend to without assistance. Looking about for a young man of good +character, intelligent enough to learn surveying at short notice, his +attention was soon attracted to Lincoln. He offered young Abraham a +book containing the elements of the art, and told him when he had +mastered it he should have employment. The offer was a flattering one, +and Lincoln, with that steady self-reliance of his, accepted it, and +armed with his book went out to the schoolmaster's (Menton Graham's), +and in six weeks' close application made himself a surveyor. +[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to chapter end.] + +[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH PLAN OF ROAD SURVEYED BY A. LINCOLN AND +OTHERS. The lower half is the right-hand side of the plan which, in +the original, is in one piece.] + +[Illustration: Fac-simile of Lincoln's Report of the road survey.] + +It will be remembered that Washington in his youth adopted the same +profession, but there were few points of similarity in the lives of +the two great Presidents, in youth or later manhood. The Virginian had +every social advantage in his favor, and was by nature a man of more +thrift and greater sagacity in money matters. He used the knowledge +gained in the practice of his profession so wisely that he became +rather early in life a large land-holder, and continually increased +his possessions until his death. Lincoln, with almost unbounded +opportunities for the selection and purchase of valuable tracts, made +no use whatever of them. He employed his skill and knowledge merely as +a bread-winner, and made so little provision for the future that when +Mr. Van Bergen, who had purchased the Radford note, sued and got +judgment on it, his horse and his surveying instruments were taken to +pay the debt, and only by the generous intervention of a friend was he +able to redeem these invaluable means of living. He was, nevertheless, +an excellent surveyor. His portion of the public work executed under +the directions of Mr. Calhoun and his successor, T. M. Neale, was well +performed, and he soon found his time pretty well employed with +private business which came to him from Sangamon and the adjoining +counties. Early in the year 1834 we find him appointed one of three +"viewers" to locate a road from Salt Creek to the county line in the +direction of Jacksonville. The board seems to have consisted mainly of +its chairman, as Lincoln made the deposit of money required by law, +surveyed the route, plotted the road, and wrote the report. +[Transcriber's Note: (3) Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end.] + +Though it is evident that the post-office and the surveyor's compass +were not making a rich man of him, they were sufficient to enable him +to live decently, and during the year he greatly increased his +acquaintance and his influence in the county. The one followed the +other naturally; every acquaintance he made became his friend, and +even before the end of his unsuccessful canvass in 1832 it had become +evident to the observant politicians of the district that he was a man +whom it would not do to leave out of their calculations. There seemed +to be no limit to his popularity nor to his aptitudes, in the opinion +of his admirers. He was continually called on to serve in the most +incongruous capacities. Old residents say he was the best judge at a +horse-race the county afforded; he was occasionally second in a duel +of fisticuffs, though he usually contrived to reconcile the +adversaries on the turf before any damage was done; he was the arbiter +on all controverted points of literature, science, or woodcraft among +the disputatious denizens of Clary's Grove, and his decisions were +never appealed from. His native tact and humor were invaluable in his +work as a peacemaker, and his enormous physical strength, which he +always used with a magnanimity rare among giants, placed his off-hand +decrees beyond the reach of contemptuous question. He composed +differences among friends and equals with good-natured raillery, but +he was as rough as need be when his wrath was roused by meanness and +cruelty. We hardly know whether to credit some of the stories, +apparently well-attested by living witnesses, of his prodigious +muscular powers. He is said to have lifted, at Rutledge's mill, a box +of stones weighing over half a ton! It is also related that he could +raise a barrel of whisky from the ground and drink from the bung--but +the narrator adds that he never swallowed the whisky. Whether these +traditions are strictly true or not, they are evidently founded on the +current reputation he enjoyed among his fellows for extraordinary +strength, and this was an important element in his influence. He was +known to be capable of handling almost any man he met, yet he never +sought a quarrel. He was everybody's friend and yet used no liquor or +tobacco. He was poor and had scarcely ever been at school, yet he was +the best-informed young man in the village. He had grown up on the +frontier, the utmost fringe of civilization, yet he was gentle and +clean of speech, innocent of blasphemy or scandal. His good qualities +might have excited resentment if displayed by a well-dressed stranger +from an Eastern State, but the most uncouth ruffians of New Salem took +a sort of proprietary interest and pride in the decency and the +cleverness and the learning of their friend and comrade, Abe Lincoln. + +It was regarded, therefore, almost as a matter of course that Lincoln +should be a candidate for the Legislature at the next election, which +took place in August, 1834. He was sure of the united support of the +Whigs, and so many of the Democrats also wanted to vote for him that +some of the leading members of that party came to him and proposed +they should give him an organized support. He was too loyal a partisan +to accept their overtures without taking counsel from the Whig +candidates. He laid the matter before Major Stuart, who at once +advised him to make the canvass. It was a generous and chivalrous +action, for by thus encouraging the candidacy of Lincoln he was +endangering his own election. But his success two years before, in the +face of a vindictive opposition led by the strongest Jackson men in +the district, had made him somewhat confident, and he perhaps thought +he was risking little by giving a helping hand to his comrade in the +Spy Battalion. Before the election Lincoln's popularity developed +itself in rather a portentous manner, and it required some exertion to +save the seat of his generous friend. At the close of the poll, the +four successful candidates held the following relative positions: +Lincoln, 1376; Dawson, 1370; Carpenter, 1170; and Stuart, at that time +probably the most prominent young man in the district, and the one +marked out by the public voice for an early election to Congress, +1164. + +[Relocated Footnote (1): The following is an extract from the court +record: "March 6, 1833. Ordered that William F. Berry, in the name of +Berry and Lincoln, have license to keep a tavern in New Salem, to +continue twelve months from this date, and that they pay one dollar in +addition to six dollars heretofore prepaid as per Treasurer's receipt, +and that they be allowed the following rates, viz.: French brandy, per +pint, 25; Peach, 183/4; Apple, 12; Holland Gin, 183/4; Domestic, +121/2; Wine, 25; Rum, 183/4; Whisky, 121/2; Breakfast, dinner, or +supper, 25; Lodging for night, 121/2; Horse for night, 25; Single +feed, 121/2; Breakfast, dinner, or supper, for stage passengers, +371/2. Who gave bond as required by law."] + +[Relocated Footnote (2): There has been some discussion as to whether +Lincoln served as deputy under Calhoun or Neale. The truth is that he +served under both of them. Calhoun was surveyor in 1833, when Lincoln +first learned the business. Neale was elected in 1835, and immediately +appointed Lincoln and Calhoun as his deputies. The "Sangamo Journal" +of Sept, 12, 1835, contains the following official advertisement: + +"SURVEYOR'S NOTICE.--I have appointed John B. Watson, Abram Lincoln, +and John Calhoun deputy surveyors for Sangamon County. In my absence +from town, any persons wishing their land surveyed will do well to +call at the Recorder's office and enter his or their names in a book +left for that purpose, stating township and range in which they +respectively live, and their business shall be promptly attended to. + +"T. M. NEALE." + +An article by Colonel G. A. Pierce, printed April 21, 1881, in the +Chicago "Inter-Ocean," describes an interview held in that month with +W.G. Green, of Menard County, in which this matter is referred to. But +Mr. Green relies more on the document in his possession than on his +recollection of what took place in 1833. "'Where did Lincoln learn +his surveying?' I asked. 'Took it up himself,' replied Mr. Green, 'as +he did a hundred things, and mastered it too. When he acted as +surveyor here he was deputy of T. M. Neale, and not of Calhoun, as has +often been said. There was a dispute about this, and many sketches of +his life gave Calhoun (Candle-box Calhoun, as he was afterwards known +during the Kansas troubles and election frauds) as the surveyor, but +it was Neale.' Mr. Green turned to his desk and drew out an old +certificate, in the handwriting of Lincoln, giving the boundaries of +certain lands, and signed, 'T. M. Neale, Surveyor, by A. Lincoln, +Deputy,' thus settling the question. Mr. Green was a Democrat, and has +leaned towards that party all his life, but what he thought and thinks +of Lincoln can be seen by an endorsement on the back of the +certificate named, which is as follows:" + +(Preserve this, as it is the noblest of God's creation--A. Lincoln, +the 2d preserver of his country. May 3, 1865.--Penned by W. G. Green, +who taught Lincoln the English grammar in 1831.)] + +[Relocated Footnote (3): As this is probably the earliest public document +extant written and signed by Lincoln, we give it in full: + +"March 3, 1834. Reuben Harrison presented the following petition: We, +the undersigned, respectfully request your honorable body to appoint +viewers to view and locate a road from Musick's ferry on Salt Creek, +via New Salem, to the county line in the direction of Jacksonville. + +"And Abram Lincoln deposited with the clerk $10, as the law directs. +Ordered, that Michael Killion, Hugh Armstrong, and Abram Lincoln be +appointed to view said road, and said Lincoln to act as surveyor. + +"To the County Commissioners' Court for the county of Sangamon, at its +June term, 1834. We, the undersigned, being appointed to view and +locate a "Whole length of road, 26 road, beginning at Musick's ferry +on Salt Creek, via New Salem, to the county line in the direction to +Jacksonville, respectfully report that we have performed the duties of +said view and location, as required by law, and that we have made the +location on good ground, and believe the establishment of the same to +be necessary and proper. + +"The inclosed map gives the courses and distances as required by law. +Michael Killion, Hugh Armstrong, A. Lincoln." + +(Indorsement in pencil, also in Lincoln's handwriting:) + +"A. Lincoln, 5 days at $3.00, $15.00. John A. Kelsoe, chain-bearer, for +5 days at 75 cents, $3.75. Robert Lloyd, at 75 cents, $3.75. Hugh +Armstrong, for services as axeman, 5 days at 75 cents, $3.75. A. +Lincoln, for making plot and report, $2.50." + +(On Map.) "Whole length of road, 26 miles and 70 chains. Scale, 2 +inches to the mile."] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE + + +The election of Mr. Lincoln to the Legislature may be said to have +closed the pioneer portion of his life. He was done with the wild +carelessness of the woods, with the jolly ruffianism of Clary's Grove, +with the petty chaffering of grocery stores, with odd jobs for daily +bread, with all the uncouth squalor of the frontier poverty. It was +not that his pecuniary circumstances were materially improved. He was +still, and for years continued to be, a very poor man, harassed by +debts which he was always working to pay, and sometimes in distress +for the means of decent subsistence. But from this time forward his +associations were with a better class of men than he had ever known +before, and a new feeling of self-respect must naturally have grown up +in his mind from his constant intercourse with them--a feeling which +extended to the minor morals of civilized life. A sophisticated reader +may smile at the mention of anything like social ethics in Vandalia in +1834; but, compared with Gentryville and New Salem, the society which +assembled in the winter at that little capital was polished and +elegant. The State then contained nearly 250,000 inhabitants, and the +members of the Legislature, elected purely on personal grounds, +nominated by themselves or their neighbors without the intervention of +party machinery, were necessarily the leading men, in one way or +another, in their several districts. Among the colleagues of Lincoln +at Vandalia were young men with destinies only less brilliant than his +own. They were to become governors, senators, and judges; they were to +organize the Whig party of Illinois, and afterwards the Republican; +they were to lead brigades and divisions in two great wars. Among the +first persons he met there--not in the Legislature proper, but in the +lobby, where he was trying to appropriate an office then filled by +Colonel John J. Hardin--was his future antagonist, Stephen A. Douglas. +Neither seemed to have any presentiment of the future greatness of the +other. Douglas thought little of the raw youth from the Sangamon +timber, and Lincoln said the dwarfish Vermonter was "the least man he +had ever seen." To all appearance, Vandalia was full of better men +than either of them--clever lawyers, men of wit and standing, some of +them the sons of provident early settlers, but more who had come from +older States to seek their fortunes in these fresh fields. + +During his first session Lincoln occupied no especially conspicuous +position. He held his own respectably among the best. One of his +colleagues tells us he was not distinguished by any external +eccentricity; that he wore, according to the custom of the time, a +decent suit of blue jeans; that he was known simply as a rather quiet +young man, good-natured and sensible. Before the session ended he had +made the acquaintance of most of the members, and had evidently come +to be looked upon as possessing more than ordinary capacity. His +unusual common-sense began to be recognized. His name does not often +appear in the records of the year. He introduced a resolution in favor +of securing to the State a part of the proceeds of the sales of public +lands within its limits; he took part in the organization of the +ephemeral "White" party, which was designed to unite all the anti- +Jackson elements under the leadership of Hugh L. White, of Tennessee; +he voted with the minority in favor of Young against Robinson for +senator, and with the majority that passed the Bank and Canal bills, +which were received with great enthusiasm throughout Illinois, and +which were only the precursors of those gigantic and ill-advised +schemes that came to maturity two years later, and inflicted +incalculable injury upon the State. + +Lincoln returned to New Salem, after this winter's experience of men +and things at the little capital, much firmer on his feet than ever +before. He had had the opportunity of measuring himself with the +leading men of the community, and had found no difficulty whatever in +keeping pace with them. He continued his studies of the law and +surveying together, and became quite indispensable in the latter +capacity--so much so that General Neale, announcing in September, +1835, the names of the deputy surveyors of Sangarnon County, placed +the name of Lincoln before that of his old master in the science, John +Calhoun. He returned to the Legislature in the winter of 1835-6, and +one of the first important incidents of the session was the election +of a senator to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Elias Kent +Kane. There was no lack of candidates. A journal of the time says: +"This intelligence reached Vandalia on the evening of the 26th of +December, and in the morning nine candidates appeared in that place, +and it was anticipated that a number more would soon be in, among them +'the lion of the North,' who, it is thought, will claim the office by +preemption." [Footnote: "Sangamo Journal," January 2.] It is not +known who was the roaring celebrity here referred to, but the +successful candidate was General William L. D. Ewing, who was elected +by a majority of one vote. Lincoln and the other Whigs voted for him, +not because he was a "White" man, as they frankly stated, but because +"he had been proscribed by the Van Buren party." Mr. Semple, the +candidate for the regular Democratic caucus, was beaten simply on +account of his political orthodoxy. + +A minority is always strongly in favor of independent action and +bitterly opposed to caucuses, and therefore we need not be surprised +at finding Mr. Lincoln, a few days later in the session, joining in +hearty denunciation of the convention system, which had already become +popular in the East, and which General Jackson was then urging upon +his faithful followers. The missionaries of this new system in +Illinois were Stephen A. Douglas, recently from Vermont, the shifty +young lawyer from Morgan County, who had just succeeded in having +himself made circuit attorney in place of Colonel Hardin, and a man +who was then regarded in Vandalia as a far more important and +dangerous person than Douglas, Ebenezer Peck, of Chicago. Peck was +looked upon with distrust and suspicion for several reasons, all of +which seemed valid to the rural legislators assembled there. He came +from Canada, where he had been a member of the provincial parliament; +it was therefore imagined that he was permeated with secret hostility +to republican institutions; his garb, his furs, were of the fashion of +Quebec; and he passed his time indoctrinating the Jackson men with the +theory and practice of party organization, teachings which they +eagerly absorbed, and which seemed sinister and ominous to the Whigs. +He was showing them, in fact, the way in which elections were to be +won; and though the Whigs denounced his system as subversive of +individual freedom and private judgment, it was not long before they +were also forced to adopt it, or be left alone with their virtue. The +organization of political parties in Illinois really takes its rise +from this time, and in great measure from the work of Mr. Peck with +the Vandalia Legislature. There was no man more dreaded and disliked +than he was by the stalwart young Whigs against whom he was organizing +that solid and disciplined opposition. But a quarter of a century +brings wonderful changes. Twenty-five years later Mr. Peck stood +shoulder to shoulder with these very men who then reviled him as a +Canadian emissary of tyranny and corruption,--with S. T. Logan, 0. H. +Browning, and J. K. Dubois,--organizing a new party for victory under +the name of Abraham Lincoln. + +[Illustration: O. H. Browning.] + +The Legislature adjourned on the 18th of January, having made a +beginning, it is true, in the work of improving the State by statute, +though its modest work, incorporating canal and bridge companies and +providing for public roads, bore no relation to the ambitious essays +of its successor. Among the bills passed at this session was an +Apportionment act, by which Sangamon County became entitled to seven +representatives and two senators, and early in the spring eight +"White" statesmen of the county were ready for the field--the ninth, +Mr. Herndon, holding over as State Senator. It seems singular to us of +a later day that just eight prominent men, on a side, should have +offered themselves for these places, without the intervention of any +primary meetings. Such a thing, if we mistake not, was never known +again in Illinois. The convention system was afterwards seen to be an +absolute necessity to prevent the disorganization of parties through +the restless vanity of obscure and insubordinate aspirants. But the +eight who "took the stump" in Sangamon in the summer of 1836 were +supported as loyally and as energetically as if they had been +nominated with all the solemnity of modern days. They became famous in +the history of the State, partly for their stature and partly for +their influence in legislation. They were called, with Herndon, the +"Long Nine;" their average height was over six feet, and their +aggregate altitude was said to be fifty-five feet. Their names were +Abraham Lincoln, John Dawson, Dan Stone, Ninian W. Edwards, William F. +Elkin, R. L. Wilson, and Andrew McCormick, candidates for the House of +Representatives, and Job Fletcher for the Senate, of Illinois. + +Mr. Lincoln began his canvass with the following circular: + + + NEW SALEM/June 13, 1836. + To the Editor of the "Journal." + +In your paper of last Saturday I see a communication over the +signature "Many Voters" in which the candidates who are announced in +the "Journal" are called upon to "show their hands." Agreed. Here's +mine. + +I go for all sharing the privileges of the Government who assist in +bearing its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to the +right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding +females). + +If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my +constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. + +While acting as their representative I shall be governed by their will +on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will +is, and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment teaches me +will best advance their interests. Whether elected or not, I go for +distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public lands to the +several States, to enable our State, in common with others, to dig +canals and construct railroads without borrowing money and paying +interest on it. + +If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. +White for President. [Footnote: This phrase seems to have been adopted +as a formula by the anti-Jackson party. The "cards" of several +candidates contain it.] + + Very respectfully, + A. LINCOLN. + + +It would be hard to imagine a more audacious and unqualified +declaration of principles and intentions. But it was the fashion of +the hour to promise exact obedience to the will of the people, and the +two practical questions touched by this circular were the only ones +then much talked about. The question of suffrage for aliens was a +living problem in the State, and Mr. Lincoln naturally took liberal +ground on it; and he was also in favor of getting from the sale of +public lands a portion of the money he was ready to vote for internal +improvements. This was good Whig doctrine at that time, and the young +politician did not fancy he could go wrong in following in such a +matter the lead of his idol, Henry Clay. + +He made an active canvass, and spoke frequently during the summer. He +must have made some part of the campaign on foot, for we find in the +county paper an advertisement of a horse which had strayed or been +stolen from him while on a visit to Springfield. It was not an +imposing animal, to judge from the description; it was "plainly marked +with harness," and was "believed to have lost some of his shoes"; but +it was a large horse, as suited a cavalier of such stature, and +"trotted and paced" in a serviceable manner. In July a rather +remarkable discussion took place at the county-seat, in which many of +the leading men on both sides took part. Ninian Edwards, son of the +late Governor, is said to have opened the debate with much effect. Mr. +Early, who followed him, was so roused by his energetic attack that he +felt his only resource was a flat contradiction, which in those days +meant mischief. In the midst of great and increasing excitement Dan +Stone and John Calhoun made speeches which did not tend to pour oil on +the waters of contention, and then came Mr. Lincoln's turn. An article +in the "Journal" states that he seemed embarrassed in his opening, for +this was the most important contest in which he had ever been engaged. +But he soon felt the easy mastery of his powers come back to him, and +he finally made what was universally regarded as the strongest speech +of the day. One of his colleagues says that on this occasion he used +in his excitement for the first time that singularly effective clear +tenor tone of voice which afterwards became so widely known in the +political battles of the West. The canvass was an energetic one +throughout, and excited more interest, in the district than even the +presidential election, which occurred some months later. Mr. Lincoln +was elected at the head of the poll by a majority greatly in excess of +the average majority of his friends, which shows conclusively how his +influence and popularity had increased. The Whigs in this election +effected a revolution in the politics of the county. By force of their +ability and standing they had before managed to divide the suffrages +of the people, even while they were unquestionably in the minority; +but this year they completely defeated their opponents and gained that +control of the county which they never lost as long as the party +endured. + +If Mr. Lincoln had no other claims to be remembered than his services +in the Legislature of 1836-7, there would be little to say in his +favor. Its history is one of disaster to the State. Its legislation +was almost wholly unwise and hurtful. The most we can say for Mr. +Lincoln is that he obeyed the will of his constituents, as he promised +to do, and labored with singular skill and ability to accomplish the +objects desired by the people who gave him their votes. The especial +work intrusted to him was the subdivision of the county, and the +project for the removal of the capital of the State to Springfield. +[Footnote: "Lincoln was at the head of the project to remove the seat +of government to Springfield; it was entirely intrusted to him to +manage. The members were all elected on one ticket, but they all +looked to Lincoln as the head" STEPHEN T, LOGAN.] In both of these he +was successful. In the account of errors and follies committed by the +Legislature to the lasting injury of the State, he is entitled to no +praise or blame beyond the rest. He shared in that sanguine epidemic +of financial and industrial quackery which devastated the entire +community, and voted with the best men of the country in favor of +schemes which appeared then like a promise of an immediate millennium, +and seem now like midsummer madness. + +[Sidenote: Ford, p. 102.] + +[Footnote: Reynolds, "Life and Times."] + +He entered political life in one of those eras of delusive prosperity +which so often precede great financial convulsions. The population of +the State was increasing at the enormous rate of two hundred percent +in ten years. It had extended northward along the lines of the wooded +valleys of creeks and rivers in the center to Peoria; on the west by +the banks of the Mississippi to Galena; on the east with wide +intervals of wilderness to Chicago. The edge of the timber was +everywhere pretty well occupied, though the immigrants from the forest +States of Kentucky and Tennessee had as yet avoided the prairies. The +rich soil and equable climate were now attracting an excellent class +of settlers from the older States, and the long-neglected northern +counties were receiving the attention they deserved. The war of Black +Hawk had brought the country into notice; the utter defeat of his +nation had given the guarantee of a permanent peace; the last lodges +of the Pottawatomies had disappeared from the country in 1833. The +money spent by the general Government during the war, and paid to the +volunteers at its close, added to the common prosperity. There was a +brisk trade in real estate, and there was even a beginning in Chicago +of that passion for speculation in town lots which afterwards became a +frenzy. + +It was too much to expect of the Illinois Legislature that it should +understand that the best thing it could do to forward this prosperous +tendency of things was to do nothing; for this is a lesson which has +not yet been learned by any legislature in the world. For several +years they had been tinkering, at first modestly and tentatively, at a +scheme of internal improvements which should not cost too much money. +In 1835 they began to grant charters for railroads, which remained in +embryo, as the stock was never taken. Surveys for other railroads were +also proposed, to cross the State in different directions; and the +project of uniting Lake Michigan with the Illinois River by a canal +was of too evident utility to be overlooked. In fact, the route had +been surveyed, and estimates of cost made, companies incorporated, and +all preliminaries completed many years before, though nothing further +had been done, as no funds had been offered from any source. But at +the special session of 1835 a law was passed authorizing a loan of +half a million dollars for this purpose; the loan was effected by +Governor Duncan the following year, and in June, aboard of canal +commissioners having been appointed, a beginning was actually made +with pick and shovel. + +[Sidenote: Ford, p. 181.] + +A restless feeling of hazardous speculation seemed to be taking +possession of the State. "It commenced," says Governor Ford, in his +admirable chronicle, "at Chicago, and was the means of building up +that place in a year or two from a village of a few houses to be a +city of several thousand inhabitants. The story of the sudden fortunes +made there excited at first wonder and amazement; next, a gambling +spirit of adventure; and lastly, an all-absorbing desire for sudden +and splendid wealth. Chicago had been for some time only one great +town-market. The plots of towns for a hundred miles around were +carried there to be disposed of at auction. The Eastern people had +caught the mania. Every vessel coming west was loaded with them, their +money and means, bound for Chicago, the great fairy-land of fortunes. +But as enough did not come to satisfy the insatiable greediness of the +Chicago sharpers and speculators, they frequently consigned their +wares to Eastern markets. In fact, lands and town lots were the staple +of the country, and were the only article of export." The contagion +spread so rapidly, towns and cities were laid out so profusely, that +it was a standing joke that before long there would be no land left in +the State for farming purposes. + +The future of the State for many years to come was thus discounted by +the fervid imaginations of its inhabitants. "We have every requisite +of a great empire," they said, "except enterprise and inhabitants," +and they thought that a little enterprise would bring the inhabitants. +Through the spring and summer of 1836 the talk of internal +improvements grew more general and more clamorous. The candidates for +office spoke about little else, and the only point of emulation among +the parties was which should be the more reckless and grandiose in its +promises. When the time arrived for the assembling of the Legislature, +the members were not left to their own zeal and the recollection of +their campaign pledges, but meetings and conventions were everywhere +held to spur them up to the fulfillment of their mandate. The +resolutions passed by the principal body of delegates who came +together in December directed the Legislature to vote a system of +internal improvements "commensurate with the wants of the people," a +phrase which is never lacking in the mouth of the charlatan or the +demagogue. + +[Sidenote: "Ford's History," p. 184.] + +These demands were pressed upon a not reluctant Legislature. They +addressed themselves at once to the work required of them, and soon +devised, with reckless and unreasoning haste, a scheme of railroads +covering the vast uninhabited prairies as with a gridiron. There was +to be a rail-road from Galena to the mouth of the Ohio River; from +Alton to Shawneetown; from Alton to Mount Carmel; from Alton to the +eastern State boundary--by virtue of which lines Alton was to take the +life of St. Louis without further notice; from Quincy to the Wabash +River; from Bloomington to Pekin; from Peoria to Warsaw;--in all, 1350 +miles of railway. Some of these terminal cities were not in existence +except upon neatly designed surveyor's maps. The scheme provided also +for the improvement of every stream in the State on which a child's +shingle-boat could sail; and to the end that all objections should be +stifled on the part of those neighborhoods which had neither railroads +nor rivers, a gift of two hundred thousand dollars was voted to them, +and with this sop they were fain to be content and not trouble the +general joy. To accomplish this stupendous scheme, the Legislature +voted eight million dollars, to be raised by loan. Four millions were +also voted to complete the canal. These sums, monstrous as they were, +were still ridiculously inadequate to the purpose in view. But while +the frenzy lasted there was no consideration of cost or of +possibilities. These vast works were voted without estimates, without +surveys, without any rational consideration of their necessity. The +voice of reason seemed to be silent in the Assembly; only the +utterances of fervid prophecy found listeners. Governor Ford speaks of +one orator who insisted, amid enthusiastic plaudits, that the State +could well afford to borrow one hundred millions for internal +improvements. The process of reasoning, or rather predicting, was easy +and natural. The roads would raise the price of land; the State could +enter large tracts and sell them at a profit; foreign capital would be +invested in land, and could be heavily taxed to pay bonded interest; +and the roads, as fast as they were built, could be operated at a +great profit to pay for their own construction. The climax of the +whole folly was reached by the provision of law directing that work +should be begun at once at the termini of all the roads and the +crossings of all rivers. + +It is futile and disingenuous to attempt, as some have done, to fasten +upon one or the other of the political parties of the State the +responsibility of this bedlam legislation. The Governor and a majority +of the Legislature were elected as Jackson Democrats, but the Whigs +were as earnest in passing these measures as their opponents; and +after they were adopted, the superior wealth, education, and business +capacity of the Whigs had their legitimate influence, and they filled +the principal positions upon the boards and commissions which came +into existence under the acts. The bills were passed,--not without +opposition, it is true, but by sufficient majorities,--and the news +was received by the people of the State with the most extravagant +demonstrations of delight. The villages were illuminated; bells were +rung in the rare steeples of the churches; "fire-balls,"--bundles of +candle-wick soaked in turpentine,--were thrown by night all over the +country. The day of payment was far away, and those who trusted the +assurances of the sanguine politicians thought that in some mysterious +way the scheme would pay for itself. + +Mr. Lincoln is continually found voting with his friends in favor of +this legislation, and there is nothing to show that he saw any danger +in it. He was a Whig, and as such in favor of internal improvements in +general and a liberal construction of constitutional law in such +matters. As a boy, he had interested himself in the details of local +improvements of rivers and roads, and he doubtless went with the +current in Vandalia in favor of this enormous system. He took, +however, no prominent part in the work by which these railroad bills +were passed. He considered himself as specially commissioned to +procure the removal of the State capital from Vandalia to Springfield, +and he applied all his energies to the accomplishment of this work. +The enterprise was hedged round with difficulties; for although it was +everywhere agreed, except at Vandalia, that the capital ought to be +moved, every city in the State, and several which existed only on +paper, demanded to be made the seat of government. The question had +been submitted to a popular vote in 1834, and the result showed about +as many cities desirous of opening their gates to the Legislature as +claimed the honor of being the birthplace of Homer. Of these +Springfield was only third in popular estimation, and it was evident +that Mr. Lincoln had need of all his wits if he were to fulfill the +trust confided to him. It is said by Governor Ford that the "Long +Nine" were not averse to using the hopes and fears of other members in +relation to their special railroads to gain their adherence to the +Springfield programme, but this is by no means clear. We are rather +inclined to trust the direct testimony of Jesse K. Dubois, that the +success of the Sangamon County delegation in obtaining the capital was +due to the adroit management of Mr. Lincoln--first in inducing all the +rival claimants to unite in a vote to move the capital from Vandalia, +and then in carrying a direct vote for Springfield through the joint +convention by the assistance of the southern counties. His personal +authority accomplished this in great part. Mr. Dubois says: "He made +Webb and me vote for the removal, though we belonged to the southern +end of the State. We defended our vote before our constituents by +saying that necessity would ultimately force the seat of government to +a central position. But in reality we gave the vote to Lincoln because +we liked him, because we wanted to oblige our friend, and because we +recognized him as our leader." To do this, they were obliged to +quarrel with their most intimate associates, who had bought a piece of +waste land at the exact geographical center of the State and were +striving to have the capital established there in the interest of +their own pockets and territorial symmetry. + +The bill was passed only a short time before the Legislature +adjourned, and the "Long Nine" came back to their constituents wearing +their well-won laurels. They were complimented in the newspapers, at +public meetings, and even at subscription dinners. We read of one at +Springfield, at the "Rural Hotel," to which sixty guests sat down, +where there were speeches by Browning, Lincoln, Douglas (who had +resigned his seat in the Legislature to become Register of the Land +Office at the new capital), S. T. Logan, Baker, and others, whose wit +and wisdom were lost to history through the absence of reporters. +Another dinner was given them at Athens a few weeks later. Among the +toasts on these occasions were two which we may transcribe: "Abraham +Lincoln: He has fulfilled the expectations of his friends, and +disappointed the hopes of his enemies"; and "A. Lincoln: One of +Nature's noblemen." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE LINCOLN-STONE PROTEST + + +[Sidenote: 1837.] + +On the 3rd of March, the day before the Legislature adjourned, Mr. +Lincoln caused to be entered upon its records a paper which excited +but little interest at the time, but which will probably be remembered +long after the good and evil actions of the Vandalia Assembly have +faded away from the minds of men. It was the authentic record of the +beginning of a great and momentous career. The following protest was +presented to the House, which was read and ordered to be spread on the +journals, to wit: + + + Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having + passed both branches of the General Assembly at its + present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the + passage of the same. + + They believe that the institution of slavery is founded + on both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation + of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than + abate its evils. + + They believe that the Congress of the United States + has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the + institution of slavery in the different States. + + They believe that the Congress of the United States + has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery + in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not + to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the + District. + + The difference between these opinions and those contained + in the above resolutions is their reason for entering + this protest. + + (Signed) + DAN STONE, + A. LINCOLN, + Representatives from the county of Sangamon. + + +It may seem strange to those who shall read these pages that a protest +so mild and cautious as this should ever have been considered either +necessary or remarkable. We have gone so far away from the habits of +thought and feeling prevalent at that time that it is difficult to +appreciate such acts at their true value. But if we look a little +carefully into the state of politics and public opinion in Illinois in +the first half of this century, we shall see how much of inflexible +conscience and reason there was in this simple protest. + +[Sidenote: Edwards, "History of Illinois," p. 179.] + +[Sidenote: Edwards, p. 180.] + +The whole of the North-west territory had, it is true, been dedicated +to freedom by the ordinance of 1787, but in spite of that famous +prohibition, slavery existed in a modified form throughout that vast +territory wherever there was any considerable population. An act +legalizing a sort of slavery by indenture was passed by the Indiana +territorial Legislature in 1807, and this remained in force in the +Illinois country after its separation. Another act providing for the +hiring of slaves from Southern States was passed in 1814, for the +ostensible reason that "mills could not be successfully operated in +the territory for want of laborers, and that the manufacture of salt +could not be successfully carried on by white laborers." Yet, as an +unconscious satire upon such pretenses, from time to time the most +savage acts were passed to prohibit the immigration of free negroes +into the territory which was represented as pining for black labor. +Those who held slaves under the French domination, and their heirs, +continued to hold them and their descendants in servitude, after +Illinois had become nominally a free territory and a free State, on +the ground that their vested rights of property could not have been +abrogated by the ordinance, and that under the rule of the civil law +_partus sequitur ventrem_. + +But this quasi-toleration of the institution was not enough for the +advocates of slavery. Soon after the adoption of the State +Constitution, which prohibited slavery "hereafter," it was evident +that there was a strong under-current of desire for its introduction +into the State. Some of the leading politicians, exaggerating the +extent of this desire, imagined they saw in it a means of personal +advancement, and began to agitate the question of a convention to +amend the Constitution. At that time there was a considerable +emigration setting through the State from Kentucky and Tennessee to +Missouri. Day by day the teams of the movers passed through the +Illinois settlements, and wherever they halted for rest and +refreshment they would affect to deplore the short-sighted policy +which, by prohibiting slavery, had prevented their settling in that +beautiful country. When young bachelors came from Kentucky on trips of +business or pleasure, they dazzled the eyes of the women and excited +the envy of their male rivals with their black retainers. The early +Illinoisans were perplexed with a secret and singular sense of +inferiority to even so new and raw a community as Missouri, because of +its possession of slavery. Governor Edwards, complaining so late as +1829 of the superior mail facilities afforded to Missouri, says: "I +can conceive of no reason for this preference, unless it be supposed +that because the people of Missouri have negroes to work for them they +are to be considered as gentlefolks entitled to higher consideration +than us plain 'free-State' folks who have to work for ourselves." + +The attempt was at last seriously made to open the State to slavery by +the Legislature of 1822-3. The Governor, Edward Coles, of Virginia, a +strong antislavery man, had been elected by a division of the pro- +slavery party, but came in with a Legislature largely against him. The +Senate had the requisite pro-slavery majority of two-thirds for a +convention. In the House of Representatives there was a contest for a +seat upon the result of which the two-thirds majority depended. The +seat was claimed by John Shaw and Nicholas Hansen, of Pike County. The +way in which the contest was decided affords a curious illustration of +the moral sense of the advocates of slavery. They wanted at this +session to elect a senator and provide for the convention. Hansen +would vote for their senator and not for the convention. Shaw would +vote for the convention, but not for Thomas, their candidate for +senator. In such a dilemma they determined not to choose, but +impartially to use both. They gave the seat to Hansen, and with his +vote elected Thomas; they then turned him out, gave the place to Shaw, +and with his vote carried the act for submitting the convention +question to a popular vote. They were not more magnanimous in their +victory than scrupulous in the means by which they had gained it. The +night after the vote was taken they formed in a wild and drunken +procession, and visited the residences of the Governor and the other +free-State leaders, with loud and indecent demonstrations of triumph. + +They considered their success already assured; but they left out of +view the value of the moral forces called into being by their insolent +challenge. The better class of people in the State, those heretofore +unknown in politics, the schoolmasters, the ministers, immediately +prepared for the contest, which became one of the severest the State +has ever known. They established three newspapers, and sustained them +with money and contributions. The Governor gave his entire salary for +four years to the expenses of this contest, in which he had no +personal interest whatever. The antislavery members of the Legislature +made up a purse of a thousand dollars. They spent their money mostly +in printer's ink and in the payment of active and zealous colporteurs. +The result was a decisive defeat for the slave party. The convention +was beaten by 1800 majority, in a total vote of 11612, and the State +saved forever from slavery. + +[Illustration: MARTIN VAN BUREN.] + +But these supreme efforts of the advocates of public morals, +uninfluenced by considerations of personal advantage, are of rare +occurrence, and necessarily do not survive the exigencies that call +them forth. The apologists of slavery, beaten in the canvass, were +more successful in the field of social opinion. In the reaction which +succeeded the triumph of the antislavery party, it seemed as if there +had never been any antislavery sentiment in the State. They had voted, +it is true, against the importation of slaves from the South, but they +were content to live under a code of Draconian ferocity, inspired by +the very spirit of slavery, visiting the immigration of free negroes +with penalties of the most savage description. Even Governor Coles, +the public-spirited and popular politician, was indicted and severely +fined for having brought his own freedmen into the State and having +assisted them in establishing themselves around him upon farms of +their own. The Legislature remitted the fine, but the Circuit Court +declared it had no constitutional power to do so, though the Supreme +Court afterwards overruled this decision. Any mention of the subject +of slavery was thought in the worst possible taste, and no one could +avow himself opposed to it without the risk of social ostracism. Every +town had its one or two abolitionists, who were regarded as harmless +or dangerous lunatics, according to the energy with which they made +their views known. + +From this arose a singular prejudice against New England people. It +was attributable partly to the natural feeling of distrust of +strangers which is common to ignorance and provincialism, but still +more to a general suspicion that all Eastern men were abolitionists. +Mr. Cook, who so long represented the State in Congress, used to +relate with much amusement how he once spent the night in a farmer's +cabin, and listened to the honest man's denunciations of "that---- +Yankee Cook." Cook was a Kentuckian, but his enemies could think of no +more dreadful stigma to apply to him than that of calling him a +Yankee. Senator James A. McDougall once told us that although he made +no pretense of concealing his Eastern nativity, he never could keep +his ardent friends in Pike County from denying the fact and fighting +any one who asserted it. The great preacher, Peter Cartwright, used to +denounce Eastern men roundly in his sermons, calling them "imps who +lived on oysters" instead of honest corn-bread and bacon. The taint of +slavery, the contagion of a plague they had not quite escaped, was on +the people of Illinois. They were strong enough to rise once in their +might and say they would not have slavery among them. But in the petty +details of every day, in their ordinary talk, and in their routine +legislation, their sympathies were still with the slave-holders. They +would not enlist with them, but they would fight their battles in +their own way. + +Their readiness to do what came to be called later, in a famous +speech, the "dirty work" of the South was seen in the tragic death of +Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, in this very year of 1837. He had for some +years been publishing a religious newspaper in St. Louis, but finding +the atmosphere of that city becoming dangerous to him on account of +the freedom of his comments upon Southern institutions, he moved to +Alton, in Illinois, twenty-five miles further up the river. His +arrival excited an immediate tumult in that place; a mob gathered +there on the day he came--it was Sunday, and the good people were at +leisure--and threw his press into the Mississippi. Having thus +expressed their determination to vindicate the law, they held a +meeting, and cited him before it to declare his intentions. He said +they were altogether peaceful and legal; that he intended to publish a +religious newspaper and not to meddle with politics. This seemed +satisfactory to the people, and he was allowed to fish out his press, +buy new types, and set up his paper. But Mr. Lovejoy was a predestined +martyr. He felt there was a "woe" upon him if he held his peace +against the wickedness across the river. He wrote and published what +was in his heart to say, and Alton was again vehemently moved. A +committee appointed itself to wait upon him; for this sort of outrage +is usually accomplished with a curious formality which makes it seem +to the participants legal and orderly. The preacher met them with an +undaunted front and told them he must do his duty as it appeared to +him; that he was amenable to law, but nothing else; he even spoke in +condemnation of mobs. Such language "from a minister of the gospel" +shocked and infuriated the committee and those whom they represented. +"The people assembled," says Governor Ford, "and quietly took the +press and types and threw them into the river." We venture to say that +the word "quietly" never before found itself in such company. It is +not worth while to give the details of the bloody drama that now +rapidly ran to its close. There was a fruitless effort at compromise, +which to Lovejoy meant merely surrender, and which he firmly rejected. +The threats of the mob were answered by defiance; from the little band +that surrounded the abolitionist. A new press was ordered, and +arrived, and was stored in a warehouse, where Lovejoy and his friends +shut themselves up, determined to defend it with their lives. They +were there besieged by the infuriated crowd, and after a short +interchange of shots Lovejoy was killed, his friends dispersed, and +the press once more--and this time finally--thrown into the turbid +flood. + +These events took place in the autumn of 1837, but they indicate +sufficiently the temper of the people of the State in the earlier part +of the year. + +[Sidenote: Law approved Dec. 26, 1831.] + +The vehemence with which the early antislavery apostles were +conducting their agitation in the East naturally roused a +corresponding violence of expression in every other part of the +country. William Lloyd Garrison, the boldest and most aggressive non- +resistant that ever lived, had, since 1831, been pouring forth once a +week in the "Liberator" his earnest and eloquent denunciations of +slavery, taking no account of the expedient or the possible, but +demanding with all the fervor of an ancient prophet the immediate +removal of the cause of offense. Oliver Johnson attacked the national +sin and wrong, in the "Standard," with zeal and energy equally hot and +untiring. Their words stung the slave-holding States to something like +frenzy. The Georgia Legislature offered a reward of five thousand +dollars to any one who should kidnap Garrison, or who should bring to +conviction any one circulating the "Liberator" in the State. Yet so +little known in their own neighborhoods were these early workers in +this great reform that when the Mayor of Boston received remonstrances +from certain Southern States against such an incendiary publication as +the "Liberator," he was able to say that no member of the city +government and no person of his acquaintance had ever heard of the +paper or its editor; that on search being made it was found that "his +office was an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro boy, +and his supporters a very few insignificant persons of all colors." +But the leaven worked continually, and by the time of which we are +writing the antislavery societies of the North-east had attained a +considerable vitality, and the echoes of their work came back from the +South in furious resolutions of legislatures and other bodies, which, +in their exasperation, could not refrain from this injudicious +advertising of their enemies. Petitions to Congress, which were met by +gag-laws, constantly increasing in severity, brought the dreaded +discussion more and more before the public. But there was as yet +little or no antislavery agitation in Illinois. + +[Sidenote: Jan 25, 1837.] + +There was no sympathy with nor even toleration for any public +expression of hostility to slavery. The zeal of the followers of +Jackson, although he had ceased to be President, had been whetted by +his public denunciations of the antislavery propaganda; little more +than a year before he had called upon Congress to take measures to +"prohibit under severe penalties" the further progress of such +incendiary proceedings as were "calculated to stimulate the slaves to +insurrection and to produce all the horrors of civil war." But in +spite of all this, people with uneasy consciences continued to write +and talk and petition Congress against slavery, and most of the State +legislatures began to pass resolutions denouncing them. In the last +days of 1836 Governor Duncan sent to the Illinois Legislature the +reports and resolutions of several States in relation to this subject. +They were referred to a committee, who in due time reported a set of +resolves "highly disapproving abolition societies"; holding that "the +right of property in slaves is secured to the slave-holding States by +the Federal Constitution"; that the general Government cannot abolish +slavery in the District of Columbia against the consent of the +citizens of said District, without a manifest breach of good faith; +and requesting the Governor to transmit to the States which had sent +their resolutions to him a copy of those tranquilizing expressions. A +long and dragging debate ensued of which no record has been preserved; +the resolutions, after numberless amendments had been voted upon, were +finally passed, in the Senate, unanimously, in the House with none but +Lincoln and five others in the negative. [Footnote: We are under +obligations to John M. Adair for transcripts of the State records +bearing on this matter.] No report remains of the many speeches which +prolonged the debate; they have gone the way of all buncombe; the +sound and fury of them have passed away into silence; but they woke an +echo in one sincere heart which history will be glad to perpetuate. + +There was no reason that Abraham Lincoln should take especial notice +of these resolutions, more than another. He had done his work at this +session in effecting the removal of the capital. He had only to shrug +his shoulders at the violence and untruthfulness of the majority, vote +against them, and go back to his admiring constituents, to his dinners +and his toasts. But his conscience and his reason forbade him to be +silent; he felt a word must be said on the other side to redress the +distorted balance. He wrote his protest, saying not one word he was +not ready to stand by then and thereafter, wasting not a syllable in +rhetoric or feeling, keeping close to law and truth and justice. When +he had finished it he showed it to some of his colleagues for their +adhesion; but one and all refused, except Dan Stone, who was not a +candidate for reelection, having retired from politics to a seat on +the bench. The risk was too great for the rest to run. Lincoln was +twenty-eight years old; after a youth, of singular privations and +struggles he had arrived at an enviable position in the politics and +the society of the State. His intimate friends, those whom he loved +and honored, were Browning, Butler, Logan, and Stuart--Kentuckians +all, and strongly averse to any discussion of the question of slavery. +The public opinion of his county, which was then little less than the +breath of his life, was all the same way. But all these considerations +could not withhold him from performing a simple duty--a duty which no +one could have blamed him for leaving undone. The crowning grace of +the whole act is in the closing sentence: "The difference between +these opinions and those contained in the said resolutions is their +reason for entering this protest." Reason enough for the Lincolns and +Luthers. + +He had many years of growth and development before him. There was a +long distance to be traversed between the guarded utterances of this +protest and the heroic audacity which launched the proclamation of +emancipation. But the young man who dared declare, in the prosperous +beginning of his political life, in the midst of a community imbued +with slave-State superstitions, that "he believed the institution of +slavery was founded both on injustice and bad policy,"--attacking thus +its moral and material supports, while at the same time recognizing +all the constitutional guarantees which protected it,--had in him the +making of a statesman and, if need be, a martyr. His whole career was +to run in the lines marked out by these words, written in the hurry of +a closing session, and he was to accomplish few acts, in that great +history which God reserved for him, wiser and nobler than this. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +COLLAPSE OF THE SYSTEM + + +Mr. Lincoln had made thus far very little money--nothing more, in +fact, than a subsistence of the most modest character. But he had made +some warm friends, and this meant much among the early Illinoisans. He +had become intimately acquainted, at Vandalia, with William Butler, +who was greatly interested in the removal of the capital to +Springfield, and who urged the young legislator to take up his +residence at the new seat of government. Lincoln readily fell in with +this suggestion, and accompanied his friend home when the Legislature +adjourned, sharing the lodging of Joshua F. Speed, a young Kentucky +merchant, and taking his meals at the house of Mr. Butler for several +years. + +[Sidenote: "Sangamon Journal," November 7, 1835.] + +[Sidenote: Reynolds, "Life and Times" p. 237.] + +In this way began Mr. Lincoln's residence in Springfield, where he was +to remain until called to one of the highest of destinies intrusted to +men, and where his ashes were to rest forever in monumental marble. It +would have seemed a dreary village to any one accustomed to the world, +but in a letter written about this time, Lincoln speaks of it as a +place where there was a "good deal of flourishing about in carriages" +--a town of some pretentious to elegance. It had a population of 1500. +The county contained nearly 18,000 souls, of whom 78 were free +negroes, 20 registered indentured servants, and six slaves. Scarcely a +perceptible trace of color, one would say, yet we find in the +Springfield paper a leading article beginning with the startling +announcement, "Our State is threatened to be overrun with free +negroes." The county was one of the richest in Illinois, possessed of +a soil of inexhaustible fertility, and divided to the best advantage +between prairie and forest. It was settled early in the history of the +State, and the country was held in high esteem by the aborigines. The +name of Sangamon is said to mean in the Pottawatomie language "land of +plenty." Its citizens were of an excellent class of people, a large +majority of them from Kentucky, though representatives were not +wanting from the Eastern States, men of education and character. + +There had been very little of what might be called pioneer life in +Springfield. Civilization came in with a reasonably full equipment at +the beginning. The Edwardses, in fair-top boots and ruffled shirts; +the Ridgelys brought their banking business from Maryland; the Logans +and Conklings were good lawyers before they arrived; another family +came from Kentucky, with a cotton manufactory which proved its +aristocratic character by never doing any work. With a population like +this, the town had, from the beginning, a more settled and orderly +type than was usual in the South and West. A glance at the advertising +columns of the newspaper will show how much attention to dress was +paid in the new capital. "Cloths, cassinetts, cassimeres, velvet, +silk, satin, and Marseilles vestings, fine calf boots, seal and +morocco pumps, for gentlemen," and for the sex which in barbarism +dresses less and in civilization dresses more than the male, "silks, +bareges, crepe lisse, lace veils, thread lace, Thibet shawls, lace +handkerchiefs, fine prunella shoes, etc." It is evident that the young +politician was confronting a social world more formidably correct than +anything he had as yet seen. + +[Sidenote: Ford's "History," p. 94.] + +Governor Ford began some years before this to remark with pleasure the +change in the dress of the people of Illinois: the gradual +disappearance of leather and, linsey-woolsey, the hunting-knife and +tomahawk, from the garb of men; the deerskin moccasin supplanted by +the leather boot and shoe; the leather breeches tied around the ankle +replaced by the modern pantaloons; and the still greater improvement +in the adornment of women, the former bare feet decently shod, and +homespun frocks giving way to gowns of calico and silk, and the heads +tied up in red cotton turbans disappearing in favor of those +surmounted by pretty bonnets of silk or straw. We admit that these +changes were not unattended with the grumbling ill-will of the pioneer +patriarchs; they predicted nothing but ruin to a country that thus +forsook the old ways "which were good enough for their fathers." But +with the change in dress came other alterations which were all for the +better--a growing self-respect among the young; an industry and thrift +by which they could buy good clothes; a habit of attending religious +service, where they could show them; a progress in sociability, +civility, trade, and morals. + +The taste for civilization had sometimes a whimsical manifestation. +Mr. Stuart said the members of the Legislature bitterly complained of +the amount of game--venison and grouse of the most delicious quality-- +which was served them at the taverns in Vandalia; they clamored for +bacon--they were starving, they said, "for something civilized." There +was plenty of civilized nourishment in Springfield. Wheat was fifty +cents a bushel, rye thirty-three; corn and oats were twenty-five, +potatoes twenty-five; butter was eight cents a pound, and eggs were +eight cents a dozen; pork was two and a half cents a pound. + +The town was built on the edge of the woods, the north side touching +the timber, the south encroaching on the prairie. The richness of the +soil was seen in the mud of the streets, black as ink, and of an +unfathomable depth in time of thaw. There were, of course, no +pavements or sidewalks; an attempt at crossings was made by laying +down large chunks of wood. The houses were almost all wooden, and were +disposed in rectangular blocks. A large square had been left in the +middle of the town, in anticipation of future greatness, and there, +when Lincoln began his residence, the work of clearing the ground for +the new State-house was already going forward. In one of the largest +houses looking on the square, at the north-west corner, the county +court had its offices, and other rooms in the building were let to +lawyers. One of these was occupied by Stuart and Lincoln, for the +friendship formed in the Black Hawk war and strengthened at Vandalia +induced "Major" Stuart to offer a partnership to "Captain" Lincoln. +[Footnote: It is not unworthy of notice that in a country where +military titles were conferred with ludicrous profusion, and borne +with absurd complacency, Abraham Lincoln, who had actually been +commissioned, and had served as captain, never used the designation +after he laid down his command.] + +Lincoln did not gain any immediate eminence at the bar. His +preliminary studies had been cursory and slight, and Stuart was then +too much engrossed in politics to pay the unremitting attention to the +law which that jealous mistress requires. He had been a candidate for +Congress the year before, and had been defeated by W. L. May. He was a +candidate again in 1838, and was elected over so agile an adversary as +Stephen Arnold Douglas. His paramount interest in these canvasses +necessarily prevented him from setting to his junior partner the +example which Lincoln so greatly needed, of close and steady devotion +to their profession. It was several years later that Lincoln found +with Judge Logan the companionship and inspiration which he required, +and began to be really a lawyer. During the first year or two he is +principally remembered in Springfield as an excellent talker, the life +and soul of the little gatherings about the county offices, a story- +teller of the first rank, a good-natured, friendly fellow whom +everybody liked and trusted. He relied more upon his influence with a +jury than upon his knowledge of law in the few cases he conducted in +court, his acquaintance with human nature being far more extensive +than his legal lore. + +Lincoln was not yet done with Vandalia, its dinners of game, and its +political intrigue. The archives of the State were not removed to +Springfield until 1839, and Lincoln remained a member of the +Legislature by successive reelections from 1834 to 1842. His campaigns +were carried on almost entirely without expense. Joshua Speed told the +writers that on one occasion some of the Whigs contributed a purse of +two hundred dollars which Speed handed to Lincoln to pay his personal +expenses in the canvass. After the election was over, the successful +candidate handed Speed $199.25, with the request that he return it to +the subscribers. "I did not need the money," he said. "I made the +canvass on my own horse; my entertainment, being at the houses of +friends, cost me nothing; and my only outlay was seventy-five cents +for a barrel of cider, which some farm-hands insisted I should treat +them to." He was called down to Vandalia in the summer of 1837, by a +special session of the Legislature. The magnificent schemes of the +foregoing winter required some repairing. The banks throughout the +United States had suspended specie payments in the spring, and as the +State banks in Illinois were the fiscal agents of the railroads and +canals, the Governor called upon the law-makers to revise their own +work, to legalize the suspension, and bring their improvement system +within possible bounds. They acted as might have been expected: +complied with the former suggestion, but flatly refused to touch their +masterpiece. They had been glorifying their work too energetically to +destroy it in its infancy. It was said you could recognize a +legislator that year in any crowd by his automatic repetition of the +phrase, "Thirteen hundred--fellow-citiztens!--and fifty miles of +railroad!" There was nothing to be done but to go on with the +stupendous folly. Loans were effected with surprising and fatal +facility, and, "before the end of the year, work had begun at many +points on the railroads. The whole State was excited to the highest +pitch of frenzy and expectation. Money was as plenty as dirt. +Industry, instead of being stimulated, actually languished. We +exported nothing," says Governor Ford, "and everything from abroad was +paid for by the borrowed money expended among us." Not only upon the +railroads, but on the canal as well, the work was begun on a +magnificent scale. Nine millions of dollars were thought to be a mere +trifle in view of the colossal sum expected to be realized from the +sale of canal lands, three hundred thousand acres of which had been +given by the general Government. There were rumors of coming trouble, +and of an unhealthy condition of the banks; but it was considered +disloyal to look too curiously into such matters. One frank patriot, +who had been sent as one of a committee to examine the bank at +Shawneetown, when asked what he found there, replied with winning +candor, "Plenty of good whisky and sugar to sweeten it." + +[Sidenote: Ford, "History," p. 197.] + +But a year of baleful experience destroyed a great many illusions, and +in the election of 1838 the subject of internal improvements was +treated with much more reserve by candidates. The debt of the State, +issued at a continually increasing discount, had already attained +enormous proportions; the delirium of the last few years was ending, +and sensible people began to be greatly disquieted. Nevertheless, Mr. +Cyrus Edwards boldly made his canvass for Governor as a supporter of +the system of internal improvements, and his opponent, Thomas Carlin, +was careful not to commit himself strongly on the other side. Carlin +was elected, and finding that a majority of the Legislature was still +opposed to any steps backward, he made no demonstration against the +system at the first session. Lincoln was a member of this body, and, +being by that time the unquestioned leader of the Whig minority, was +nominated for Speaker, and came within one vote of an election. The +Legislature was still stiff-necked and perverse in regard to the +system. It refused to modify it in the least, and voted, as if in +bravado, another eight hundred thousand dollars to extend it. + +But this was the last paroxysm of a fever that was burnt out. The +market was glutted with Illinois bonds; one banker and one broker +after another, to whose hands they had been recklessly confided in New +York and London, failed, or made away with the proceeds of sales. The +system had utterly failed; there was nothing to do but repeal it, stop +work upon the visionary roads, and endeavor to invent some means of +paying the enormous debt. This work taxed the energies of the +Legislature in 1839, and for some years after. It was a dismal and +disheartening task. Blue Monday had come after these years of +intoxication, and a crushing debt rested upon a people who had been +deceiving themselves with the fallacy that it would somehow pay itself +by acts of the Legislature. + +[Illustration: "COLONEL E. D. BAKER."] + +Many were the schemes devised for meeting these oppressive obligations +without unduly taxing the voters; one of them, not especially wiser +than the rest, was contributed by Mr. Lincoln. It provided for the +issue of bonds for the payment of the interest due by the State, and +for the appropriation of a special portion of State taxes to meet the +obligations thus incurred. He supported his bill in a perfectly +characteristic speech, making no effort to evade his share of the +responsibility for the crisis, and submitting his views with +diffidence to the approval of the Assembly. His plan was not adopted; +it was too simple and straightforward, even if it had any other +merits, to meet the approval of an assembly intent only upon getting +out of immediate embarrassment by means which might save them future +trouble on the stump. There was even an undercurrent of sentiment in +favor of repudiation. But the payment of the interest for that year +was provided for by an ingenious expedient which shifted upon the Fund +Commissioners the responsibility of deciding what portion of the debt +was legal, and how much interest was therefore to be paid. Bonds were +sold for this purpose at a heavy loss. + +This session of the Legislature was enlivened by a singular contest +between the Whigs and Democrats in relation to the State banks. Their +suspension of specie payments had been legalized up to "the +adjournment of the next session of the Legislature." They were not now +able to resume, and it was held by the Democrats that if the special +session adjourned _sine die_ the charter of the banks would be +forfeited, a purpose the party was eager to accomplish. The Whigs, who +were defending the banks, wished to prevent the adjournment of the +special session until the regular session should begin, during the +course of which they expected to renew the lease of life now held +under sufferance by the banks--in which, it may be here said, they +were finally successful. But on one occasion, being in the minority, +and having exhausted every other parliamentary means of opposition and +delay, and seeing the vote they dreaded imminent, they tried to defeat +it by leaving the house in a body, and, the doors being locked, a +number of them, among whom Mr. Lincoln's tall figure was prominent, +jumped from the windows of the church where the Legislature was then +holding its sessions. "I think," says Mr. Joseph Gillespie, who was +one of those who performed this feat of acrobatic politics, "Mr. +Lincoln always regretted it, as he deprecated everything that savored +of the revolutionary." + +Two years later the persecuted banks, harried by the demagogues and +swindled by the State, fell with a great ruin, and the financial +misery of the State was complete. Nothing was left of the brilliant +schemes of the historic Legislature of 1836 but a load of debt which +crippled for many years the energies of the people, a few miles of +embankments which the grass hastened to cover, and a few abutments +which stood for years by the sides of leafy rivers, waiting for their +long delaying bridges and trains. + +During the winter of 1840-1 occurred the first clash of opinion and +principle between Mr. Lincoln and his life-long adversary, Mr. +Douglas. There are those who can see only envy and jealousy in that +strong dislike and disapproval with which Mr. Lincoln always regarded +his famous rival. But we think that few men have ever lived who were +more free from those degrading passions than Abraham Lincoln, and the +personal reprobation with which he always visited the public acts of +Douglas arose from his sincere conviction that, able as Douglas was, +and in many respects admirable in character, he was essentially +without fixed political morals. They had met for the first time in +1834 at Vandalia, where Douglas was busy in getting the circuit +attorneyship away from John J. Hardin. He held it only long enough to +secure a nomination to the Legislature in 1836. He went there to +endeavor to have the capital moved to Jacksonville, where he lived, +but he gave up the fight for the purpose of having himself appointed +Register of the Land Office at Springfield. He held this place as a +means of being nominated for Congress the next year; he was nominated +and defeated. In 1840 he was engaged in another scheme to which we +will give a moment's attention, as it resulted in giving him a seat on +the Supreme Bench of the State, which he used merely as a perch from +which to get into Congress. + +There had been a difference of opinion in Illinois for some years as +to whether the Constitution, which made voters of all white male +inhabitants of six months' residence, meant to include aliens in that +category. As the aliens were nearly all Democrats, that party insisted +on their voting, and the Whigs objected. The best lawyers in the State +were Whigs, and so it happened that most of the judges were of that +complexion. A case was made up for decision and decided adversely to +the aliens, who appealed it to the Supreme Court. This case was to +come on at the June term in 1840, and the Democratic counsel, chief +among whom was Mr. Douglas, were in some anxiety, as an unfavorable +decision would lose them about ten thousand alien votes in the +Presidential election in November. In this conjuncture one Judge +Smith, of the Supreme Court, an ardent Democrat, willing to enhance +his value in his party, communicated to Mr. Douglas two important +facts: first, that a majority of the court would certainly decide +against the aliens; and, secondly that there was a slight imperfection +in the record by which counsel might throw the case over to the +December term, and save the alien vote for Van Buren and the +Democratic ticket. This was done, and when the Legislature came +together with its large Democratic majority, Mr. Douglas handed in a +bill "reforming" the Judiciary--for they had learned that serviceable +word already. The circuit judges were turned out of office, and five +new judges were added to the Supreme Court, who were to perform +circuit duty also. It is needless to say that Judge Douglas was one of +these, and he had contrived also in the course of the discussion to +disgrace his friend Smith so thoroughly by quoting his treacherous +communication of matters which took place within the court, that Smith +was no longer a possible rival for political honors. + +It was useless for the Whigs to try to prevent this degradation of the +bench. There was no resource but a protest, and here again Lincoln +uttered the voice of the conscience of the party. He was joined on +this occasion by Edward D. Baker [Footnote: Afterwards senator from +Oregon, and as colonel of the 71st Pennsylvania (called the 1st +California) killed at Ball's Bluff.] and some others, who protested +against the act because + +1st. It violates the principles of free government by subjecting the +Judiciary to the Legislature. + +2d. It is a fatal blow at the independence of the judges and the +constitutional term of their offices. + +3d. It is a measure not asked for or wished for by the people. + +4th. It will greatly increase the expense of our courts or else +greatly diminish their utility. + +5th. It will give our courts a political and partisan character, +thereby impairing public confidence in their decisions. + +6th. It will impair our standing with other States and the world. + +7th. It is a party measure for party purposes from which no practical +good to the people can possibly arise, but which may be the source of +immeasurable evils. + +The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be altogether +unavailing with the majority of this body. The blow has already fallen; +and we are compelled to stand by, the mournful spectators of the +ruin it will cause. + +[Sidenote: Ford's "History," p. 221.] + +It will be easy to ridicule this indignant protest as the angry outcry +of beaten partisans; but fortunately we have evidence which cannot be +gainsaid of the justice of its sentiments and the wisdom of its +predictions. Governor Ford, himself a Democratic leader as able as he +was honest, writing seven years after these proceedings, condemns them +as wrong and impolitic, and adds, "Ever since this reforming measure +the Judiciary has been unpopular with the Democratic majorities. Many +and most of the judges have had great personal popularity--so much so +as to create complaint of so many of them being elected or appointed +to other offices. But the Bench itself has been the subject of bitter +attacks by every Legislature since." It had been soiled by unclean +contact and could not be respected as before. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +EARLY LAW PRACTICE + + +During all the years of his service in the Legislature, Lincoln was +practicing law in Springfield in the dingy little office at the corner +of the square. A youth named Milton Hay, who afterwards became one of +the foremost lawyers of the State, had made the acquaintance of +Lincoln at the County Clerk's office and proposed to study law with +him. He was at once accepted as a pupil, and his days being otherwise +employed he gave his nights to reading, and as his vigils were apt to +be prolonged he furnished a bedroom adjoining the office, where +Lincoln often passed the night with him. Mr. Hay gives this account of +the practice of the law in those days: + +"In forming our ideas of Lincoln's growth and development as a lawyer, +we must remember that in those early days litigation was very simple +as compared with that of modern times. Population was sparse and +society scarcely organized, land was plentiful and employment +abundant. There was an utter absence of the abstruse questions and +complications which now beset the law. There was no need of that close +and searching study into principles and precedents which keeps the +modern law-student buried in his office. On the contrary, the very +character of this simple litigation drew the lawyer into the street +and neighborhood, and into close and active intercourse with all +classes of his fellow-men. The suits consisted of actions of tort and +assumpsit. If a man had a debt not collectible, the current phrase +was, 'I'll take it out of his hide.' + +[Illustration: LINCOLN AND STUART'S LAW-OFFICE, SPRINGFIELD.] + +"This would bring on an action for assault and battery. The free +comments of the neighbors on the fracas or the character of the +parties would be productive of slander suits. A man would for his +convenience lay down an irascible neighbor's fence, and indolently +forget to put it up again, and an action of trespass would grow out of +it. The suit would lead to a free fight, and sometimes furnish the +bloody incidents for a murder trial. Occupied with this class of +business, the half-legal, half-political lawyers were never found +plodding in their offices. In that case they would have waited long +for the recognition of their talents or a demand for their services. +Out of this characteristic of the times also grew the street +discussions I have adverted to. There was scarcely a day or hour when +a knot of men might not have been seen near the door of some prominent +store, or about the steps of the court-house eagerly discussing a +current political topic--not as a question of news, for news was not +then received quickly or frequently, as it is now, but rather for the +sake of debate; and the men from the country, the pioneers and +farmers, always gathered eagerly about these groups and listened with +open-mouthed interest, and frequently manifested their approval or +dissent in strong words, and carried away to their neighborhoods a +report of the debaters' wit and skill. It was in these street talks +that the rising and aspiring young lawyer found his daily and hourly +forum. Often by good luck or prudence he had the field entirely to +himself, and so escaped the dangers and discouragements of a decisive +conflict with a trained antagonist." + +[Illustration: LINCOLN'S BOOKCASE AND INKSTAND. ] + +Mr. Stuart was either in Congress or actively engaged in canvassing +his district a great part of the time that his partnership with +Lincoln continued, so that the young lawyer was thrown a good deal on +his own resources for occupation. There was not enough business to +fill up all his hours, and he was not at that time a close student, so +that he soon became as famous for his racy talk and good-fellowship at +all the usual lounging-places in Springfield as he had ever been in +New Salem. Mr. Hay says, speaking of the youths who made the County +Clerk's office their place of rendezvous, "It was always a great treat +when Lincoln got amongst us. We were sure to have some of those +stories for which he already had a reputation, and there was this +peculiarity about them, that they were not only entertaining in +themselves, but always singularly illustrative of some point he wanted +to make." After Mr. Hay entered his office, and was busily engaged +with his briefs and declarations, the course of their labors was often +broken by the older man's wise and witty digressions. Once an +interruption occurred which affords an odd illustration of the +character of discussion then prevalent. We will give it in Mr. Hay's +words: "The custom of public political debate, while it was sharp and +acrimonious, also engendered a spirit of equality and fairness. Every +political meeting was a free fight open to every one who had talent +and spirit, no matter to which party the speaker belonged. These +discussions used often to be held in the court-room, just under our +office, and through a trap-door, made there when the building was used +for a store-house, we could hear everything that was said in the hall +below. One night there was a discussion in which E. D. Baker took +part. He was a fiery fellow, and when his impulsiveness was let loose +among the rough element that composed his audience there was a fair +prospect of trouble at any moment. Lincoln was lying on the bed, +apparently paying no attention to what was going on. Lamborn was +talking, and we suddenly heard Baker interrupting him with a sharp +remark, then a rustling and uproar. Lincoln jumped from the bed and +down the trap, lighting on the platform between Baker and the +audience, and quieted the tumult as much by the surprise of his sudden +apparition as by his good-natured and reasonable words." + +[Lamon p. 396.] + +He was often unfaithful to his Quaker traditions in those days of his +youth. Those who witnessed his wonderful forbearance and self- +restraint in later manhood would find it difficult to believe how +promptly and with what pleasure he used to resort to measures of +repression against a bully or brawler. On the day of election in 1840, +word came to him that one Radford, a Democratic contractor, had taken +possession of one of the polling-places with his workmen, and was +preventing the Whigs from voting. Lincoln started off at a gait which +showed his interest in the matter in hand. He went up to Radford and +persuaded him to leave the polls without a moment's delay. One of his +candid remarks is remembered and recorded: "Radford! you'll spoil and +blow, if you live much longer." Radford's prudence prevented an actual +collision, which, it must be confessed, Lincoln regretted. He told his +friend Speed he wanted Radford to show fight so that he might "knock +him down and leave him kicking." + +Early in the year 1840 it seemed possible that the Whigs might elect +General Harrison to the Presidency, and this hope lent added energy to +the party even in the States where the majority was so strongly +against them as in Illinois. Lincoln was nominated for Presidential +Elector and threw himself with ardor into the canvass, traversing a +great part of the State and speaking with remarkable effect. Only one +of the speeches he made during the year has been preserved entire: +this was an address delivered in Springfield as one of a series--a +sort of oratorical tournament participated in by Douglas, Calhoun, +Lamborn, and Thomas on the part of the Democrats, and Logan, Baker, +Browning, and Lincoln on the part of the Whigs. The discussion began +with great enthusiasm and with crowded houses, but by the time it came +to Lincoln's duty to close the debate the fickle public had tired of +the intellectual jousts, and he spoke to a comparatively thin house. +But his speech was considered the best of the series, and there was +such a demand for it that he wrote it out, and it was printed and +circulated in the spring as a campaign document. + +[Illustration: GLOBE TAVERN, SPRINGFIELD, WHERE LINCOLN LIVED AFTER +HIS MARRIAGE.] + +It was a remarkable speech in many respects--and in none more than in +this, that it represented the highest expression of what might be +called his "first manner." It was the most important and the last +speech of its class which he ever delivered--not destitute of sound +and close reasoning, yet filled with boisterous fun and florid +rhetoric. It was, in short, a rattling stump speech of the kind then +universally popular in the West, and which is still considered a very +high grade of eloquence in the South. But it is of no kindred with his +inaugural addresses, and resembles the Gettysburg speech no more than +"The Comedy of Errors" resembles "Hamlet." One or two extracts will +give some idea of its humorous satire and its lurid fervor. Attacking +the corruptions and defalcations of the Administration party he said: +"Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van Buren party +and the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in practice +they are always correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in +principle; and the better to impress this proposition he uses a +figurative expression in these words, 'The Democrats are vulnerable in +the heel, but they are sound in the heart and head.' The first branch +of the figure--that is, the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel--I +admit is not merely figuratively but literally true. Who that looks +but for a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, +and their hundreds of others scampering away with the public money to +Texas, to Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a villain may +hope to find refuge from justice, can at all doubt that they are most +distressingly affected in their heels with a species of running itch? +It seems that this malady of their heels operates on the sound-headed +and honest-hearted creatures, very much as the cork leg in the comic +song did on its owner, which, when he once got started on it, the more +he tried to stop it the more it would run away. At the hazard of +wearing this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote which seems +to be too strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier who +was always boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but who +invariably retreated without orders at the first charge of the +engagement, being asked by his captain why he did so, replied, +'Captain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had, but +somehow or other whenever danger approaches, my cowardly legs will run +away with it.' So with Mr. Lamborn's party--they take the public money +into their hands for the most laudable purpose that wise heads and +honest hearts can dictate; but before they can possibly get it out +again, their rascally vulnerable heels will run away with them." + +[Illustration: WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.] + +The speech concludes with these swelling words: "Mr. Lamborn refers to +the late elections in the States, and from their results confidently +predicts every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the +next Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards and +slaves: with the free and the brave it will affect nothing. It may be +true; if it must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, +and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not +that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know +that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil +spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political +corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with +frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, +bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing; while +on its bosom are riding, like demons on the wave of Hell, the imps of +the Evil Spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those who dare to resist +its destroying course with the hopelessness of their efforts; and +knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it +I, too, may be; bow to it, I never will. The probability that we may +fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause +we believe to be just. It shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul +within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy +of its almighty architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my +country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly +alone, hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without +contemplating consequences, before Heaven, and in face of the world, I +swear eternal fealty to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of +my life, my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will not +fearlessly adopt that oath that I take? Let none falter who thinks he +is right, and we may succeed. But if after all we should fail, be it +so. We still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our +consciences, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that +the cause approved of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, in +disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in +defending." + +These perfervid and musical metaphors of devotion and defiance have +often been quoted as Mr. Lincoln's heroic challenge to the slave +power, and Bishop Simpson gave them that lofty significance in his +funeral oration. But they were simply the utterances of a young and +ardent Whig, earnestly advocating the election of "old Tippecanoe" and +not unwilling, while doing this, to show the people of the capital a +specimen of his eloquence. The whole campaign was carried on in a tone +somewhat shrill. The Whigs were recovering from the numbness into +which they had fallen during the time of Jackson's imperious +predominance, and in the new prospect of success they felt all the +excitement of prosperous rebels. The taunts of the party in power, +when Harrison's nomination was first mentioned, their sneers at "hard +cider" and "log-cabins," had been dexterously adopted as the slogan of +the opposition, and gave rise to the distinguishing features of that +extraordinary campaign. Log-cabins were built in every Western county, +tuns of hard cider were filled and emptied at all the Whig mass +meetings; and as the canvass gained momentum and vehemence a curious +kind of music added its inspiration to the cause; and after the Maine +election was over, with its augury of triumph, every Whig who was able +to sing, or even to make a joyful noise, was roaring the inquiry, "Oh, +have you heard how old Maine went?" and the profane but powerfully +accented response, "She went, hell-bent, for Governor Kent, and +Tippecanoe, and Tyler too." + +It was one of the busiest and most enjoyable seasons of Lincoln's +life. He had grown by this time thoroughly at home in political +controversy, and he had the pleasure of frequently meeting Mr. Douglas +in rough-and-tumble debate in various towns of the State as they +followed Judge Treat on his circuit. If we may trust the willing +testimony of his old associates, Lincoln had no difficulty in holding +his own against his adroit antagonist, and it was even thought that +the recollection of his ill success in these encounters was not +without its influence in inducing Douglas and his followers, defeated +in the nation, though victorious in the State, to wreak their +vengeance on the Illinois Supreme Court. + +[Sidenote: Copied from the MS. in Major Stuart's possession.] + +[Sidenote: Noah W. Matheny, County Clerk.] + +In Lincoln's letters to Major Stuart, then in Washington, we see how +strongly the subject of politics overshadows all others in his mind. +Under date of November 14, 1839, he wrote: "I have been to the +Secretary's office within the last hour, and find things precisely as +you left them; no new arrivals of returns on either side. Douglas has +not been here since you left. A report is in circulation here now that +he has abandoned, the idea of going to Washington; but the report does +not come in very authentic form so far as I can learn. Though, +speaking of authenticity, you know that if we had heard Douglas say +that he had abandoned the contest, it would not be very authentic. +There is no news here. Noah, I still think, will be elected very +easily. I am afraid of our race for representative. Dr. Knapp has +become a candidate; and I fear the few votes he will get will be taken +from us. Also some one has been tampering with old squire Wyckoff, and +induced him to send in his name to be announced as a candidate. +Francis refused to announce him without seeing him, and now I suppose +there is to be a fuss about it. I have been so busy that I have not +seen Mrs. Stuart since you left, though I understand she wrote you by +to-day's mail, which will inform you more about her than I could. The +very moment a speaker is elected, write me who he is. Your friend, as +ever." + +Again he wrote, on New Year's Day, 1840, a letter curiously destitute +of any festal suggestions: "There is a considerable disposition on the +part of both parties in the Legislature to reinstate the law bringing +on the Congressional elections next summer. What motive for this the +Locos have, I cannot tell. The Whigs say that the canal and other +public works will stop, and consequently we shall then be clear of the +foreign votes, whereas by another year they may be brought in again. +The Whigs of our district say that everything is in favor of holding +the election next summer, except the fact of your absence; and several +of them have requested me to ask your opinion on the matter. Write me +immediately what you think of it. + +"On the other side of this sheet I send you a copy of my Land +Resolutions, which passed both branches of our Legislature last +winter. Will you show them to Mr. Calhoun, informing him of the fact +of their passage through our Legislature! Mr. Calhoun suggested a +similar proposition last winter; and perhaps if he finds himself +backed by one of the States he may be induced to take it up again." + +After the session opened, January 20, he wrote to Mr. Stuart, +accurately outlining the work of the winter: "The following is my +guess as to what will be done. The Internal Improvement System will be +put down in a lump without benefit of clergy. The Bank will be +resuscitated with some trifling modifications." + +State affairs have evidently lost their interest, however, and his +soul is in arms for the wider fray. "Be sure to send me as many copies +of the Life of Harrison as you can spare. Be very sure to send me the +Senate Journal of New York for September, 1814,"--he had seen in a +newspaper a charge of disloyalty made against Mr. Van Buren during the +war with Great Britain, but, as usual, wanted to be sure of his +facts,--"and in general," he adds, "send me everything you think will +be a good war-club, The nomination of Harrison takes first-rate. You +know I am never sanguine; but I believe we will carry the State. The +chance for doing so appears to me twenty-five per cent, better than it +did for you to beat Douglas. A great many of the grocery sort of Van +Buren men are out for Harrison. Our Irish blacksmith Gregory is for +Harrison.... You have heard that the Whigs and Locos had a political +discussion shortly after the meeting of the Legislature. Well, I made +a big speech which is in progress of printing in pamphlet form. To +enlighten you and the rest of the world, I shall send you a copy when +it is finished." The "big speech" was the one from which we have just +quoted. + +The sanguine mood continued in his next letter, March 1: "I have never +seen the prospects of our party so bright in these parts as they are +now. We shall carry this county by a larger majority than we did in +1836 when you ran against May. I do not think my prospects +individually are very flattering, for I think it probable I shall not +be permitted to be a candidate; but the party ticket will succeed +triumphantly. Subscriptions to the 'Old Soldier' pour in without +abatement. This morning I took from the post-office a letter from +Dubois, inclosing the names of sixty subscribers, and on carrying it +to Francis [Simeon Francis, editor of the 'Sangamo Journal'] I found +he had received one hundred and forty more from other quarters by the +same day's mail.... Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider +himself insulted by something in the 'Journal,' undertook to cane +Francis in the street. Francis caught him by the hair and jammed him +back against a market-cart, where the matter ended by Francis being +pulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous that Francis +and everybody else, Douglas excepted, have been laughing about it ever +since." + +Douglas seems to have had a great propensity to such rencontres, of +which the issue was ordinarily his complete discomfiture, as he had +the untoward habit of attacking much bigger and stronger men than +himself. He weighed at that time little, if anything, over a hundred +pounds, yet his heart was so valiant that he made nothing of +assaulting men of ponderous flesh like Francis, or of great height and +strength like Stuart. He sought a quarrel with the latter, during +their canvass in 1838, in a grocery, with the usual result. A +bystander who remembers the incident says that Stuart "jest mopped the +floor with him." In the same letter Mr. Lincoln gives a long list of +names to which he wants documents to be sent. It shows a remarkable +personal acquaintance with the minutest needs of the canvass: this one +is a doubtful Whig; that one is an inquiring Democrat; that other a +zealous young fellow who would be pleased by the attention; three +brothers are mentioned who "fell out with us about Early and are +doubtful now"; and finally he tells Stuart that Joe Smith is an +admirer of his, and that a few documents had better be mailed to the +Mormons; and he must be sure, the next time he writes, to send Evan +Butler his compliments. + +It would be strange, indeed, if such a politician as this were +slighted by his constituents, and in his next letter we find how +groundless were his forebodings in that direction. The convention had +been held; the rural delegates took all the nominations away from +Springfield except two, Baker for the Senate, and Lincoln for the +House of Representatives. "Ninian," he says, meaning Ninian W. +Edwards, "was very much hurt at not being nominated, but he has become +tolerably well reconciled. I was much, very much, wounded myself, at +his being left out. The fact is, the country delegates made the +nominations as they pleased, and they _pleased_ to make them all +from the country, except Baker and me, whom they supposed necessary to +make stump speeches. Old Colonel Elkin is nominated for Sheriff-- +that's right." + +Harrison was elected in November, and the great preoccupation of most +of the Whigs was, of course, the distribution of the offices which +they felt belonged to them as the spoils of battle. This demoralizing +doctrine had been promulgated by Jackson, and acted upon for so many +years that it was too much to expect of human nature that the Whigs +should not adopt it, partially at least, when their turn came, But we +are left in no doubt as to the way in which Lincoln regarded the +unseemly scramble. It is probable that he was asked to express his +preference among applicants, and he wrote under date of December 17: +"This affair of appointments to office is very annoying--more so to +you than to me doubtless. I am, as you know, opposed to removals to +make places for our friends. Bearing this in mind, I express my +preference in a few cases, as follows: for Marshal, first, John +Dawson, second, B. F. Edwards; for postmaster here, Dr. Henry; at +Carlinville, Joseph C. Howell." + +The mention of this last post-office rouses his righteous indignation, +and he calls for justice upon a wrong-doer. "There is no question of +the propriety of removing the postmaster at Carlinville, I have been +told by so many different persons as to preclude all doubt of its +truth, that he boldly refused to deliver from his office during the +canvass all documents franked by Whig members of Congress." + +Once more, on the 23d of January, 1841, he addresses a letter to Mr. +Stuart, which closes the correspondence, and which affords a glimpse +of that strange condition of melancholia into whose dark shadow he was +then entering, and which lasted, with only occasional intervals of +healthy cheerfulness, to the time of his marriage. We give this +remarkable letter entire, from the manuscript submitted to us by the +late John T. Stuart: + +DEAR STUART: Yours of the 3d instant is received, and I proceed to +answer it as well as I can, though from the deplorable state of my +mind at this time I fear I shall give you but little satisfaction. +About the matter of the Congressional election, I can only tell you +that there is a bill now before the Senate adopting the general ticket +system; but whether the party have fully determined on its adoption is +yet uncertain. There is no sign of opposition to you among our +friends, and none that I can learn among our enemies; though of course +there will be if the general ticket be adopted. The Chicago +"American," Peoria "Register," and Sangamo "Journal" have already +hoisted your flag upon their own responsibility; and the other Whig +papers of the district are expected to follow immediately. On last +evening there was a meeting of our friends at Butler's, and I +submitted the question to them and found them unanimously in favor of +having you announced as a candidate. A few of us this morning, +however, concluded that as you were already being announced in the +papers we would delay announcing you, as by your authority, for a week +or two. We thought that to appear too keen about it might spur our +opponents on about their general ticket project. Upon the whole I +think I may say with certainty that your reelection is sure, if it be +in the power of the Whigs to make it so. + +For not giving you a general summary of news, you _must_ pardon +me; it is not in my power to do so. I am now the most miserable man +living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human +family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall +ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To +remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to +me. The matter you speak of on my account you may attend to as you +say, unless you shall hear of my condition forbidding it. I say this +because I fear I shall be unable to attend to any business here, and a +change of scene might help me. If I could be myself, I would rather +remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no more. Your friend as +ever. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MARRIAGE + + +The foregoing letter brings us to the consideration of a remarkable +passage in Lincoln's life. It has been the cause of much profane and +idle discussion among those who were constitutionally incapacitated +from appreciating ideal sufferings, and we would be tempted to refrain +from adding a word to what has already been said if it were possible +to omit all reference to an experience so important in the development +of his character. + +In the year 1840 he became engaged to be married to Miss Mary Todd, of +Lexington, Kentucky, a young lady of good education and excellent +connections, who was visiting her sister, Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards, at +Springfield. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote relocated to +chapter end.] The engagement was not in all respects a happy one, as +both parties doubted their compatibility, and a heart so affectionate +and a conscience so sensitive as Lincoln's found material for +exquisite self-torment in these conditions. His affection for his +betrothed, which he thought was not strong enough to make happiness +with her secure; his doubts, which yet were not convincing enough to +induce him to break off all relations with her; his sense of honor, +which was wounded in his own eyes by his own act; his sense of duty, +which condemned him in one course and did not sustain him in the +opposite one--all combined to make him profoundly and passionately +miserable. To his friends and acquaintances, who were unused to such +finely wrought and even fantastic sorrows, his trouble seemed so +exaggerated that they could only account for it on the ground of +insanity. But there is no necessity of accepting this crude +hypothesis; the coolest and most judicious of his friends deny that +his depression ever went to such an extremity. Orville H. Browning, +who was constantly in his company, says that his worst attack lasted +only about a week; that during this time he was incoherent and +distraught; but that in the course of a few days it all passed off, +leaving no trace whatever. "I think," says Mr. Browning, "it was only +an intensification of his constitutional melancholy; his trials and +embarrassments pressed him down to a lower point than usual." + +[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE OF ABRAHAM +LINCOLN. From the original in the Keyes Lincoln Memorial Collection, +Chicago.] + +[Sidenote: "Western Characters," p. 134.] + +This taint of constitutional sadness was not peculiar to Lincoln; it +may be said to have been endemic among the early settlers of the West. +It had its origin partly in the circumstances of their lives, the +severe and dismal loneliness in which their struggle for existence for +the most part went on. Their summers were passed in the solitude of +the woods; in the winter they were often snowed up for months in the +more desolate isolation of their own poor cabins. Their subjects of +conversation were limited, their range of thoughts and ideas narrow +and barren. There was as little cheerfulness in their manners as there +was incentive to it in their lives. They occasionally burst out into +wild frolic, which easily assumed the form of comic outrage, but of +the sustained cheerfulness of social civilized life they knew very +little. One of the few pioneers who have written their observations of +their own people, John L. McConnell, says, "They are at the best not a +cheerful race; though they sometimes join in festivities, it is but +seldom, and the wildness of their dissipation is too often in +proportion to its infrequency. There is none of that serene +contentment which distinguishes the tillers of the ground in other +lands.... Acquainted with the character [of the pioneer], you do not +expect him to smile much, but now and then he laughs." + +Besides this generic tendency to melancholy, very many of the pioneers +were subject in early life to malarial influences, the effect of which +remained with them all their days. Hewing out their plantations in the +primeval woods amid the undisturbed shadow of centuries, breaking a +soil thick with ages of vegetable decomposition, sleeping in half- +faced camps, where the heavy air of the rank woods was in their lungs +all night, or in the fouler atmosphere of overcrowded cabins, they +were especially subject to miasmatic fevers. Many died, and of those +who survived, a great number, after they had outgrown the more +immediate manifestations of disease, retained in nervous disorders of +all kinds the distressing traces of the maladies which afflicted their +childhood. In the early life of Lincoln these unwholesome physical +conditions were especially prevalent. The country about Pigeon Creek +was literally devastated by the terrible malady called "milk- +sickness," which carried away his mother and half her family. His +father left his home in Macon County, also, on account of the +frequency and severity of the attacks of fever and ague which were +suffered there; and, in general, Abraham was exposed through all the +earlier part of his life to those malarial influences which made, +during the first half of this century, the various preparations of +Peruvian bark a part of the daily food of the people of Indiana and +Illinois. In many instances this miasmatic poison did not destroy the +strength or materially shorten the lives of those who absorbed it in +their youth; but the effects remained in periodical attacks of gloom +and depression of spirits which would seem incomprehensible to +thoroughly healthy organizations, and which gradually lessened in +middle life, often to disappear entirely in old age. + +[Sidenote: "Western Characters" p. 126.] + +Upon a temperament thus predisposed to look at things in their darker +aspect, it might naturally be expected that a love-affair which was +not perfectly happy would be productive of great misery. But Lincoln +seemed especially chosen to the keenest suffering in such a +conjuncture. The pioneer, as a rule, was comparatively free from any +troubles of the imagination. To quote Mr. McConnell again: "There was +no romance in his [the pioneer's] composition. He had no dreaminess; +meditation was no part of his mental habit; a poetical fancy would, in +him, have been an indication of insanity. If he reclined at the foot +of a tree, on a still summer day, it was to sleep; if he gazed out +over the waving prairie, it was to search for the column of smoke +which told of his enemies' approach; if he turned his eyes towards the +blue heaven, it was to prognosticate tomorrow's rain or sunshine. If +he bent his gaze towards the green earth, it was to look for 'Indian +sign' or buffalo trail. His wife was only a helpmate; he never thought +of making a divinity of her." But Lincoln could never have claimed +this happy immunity from ideal trials. His published speeches show how +much the poet in him was constantly kept in check; and at this time of +his life his imagination was sufficiently alert to inflict upon him +the sharpest anguish. His reverence for women was so deep and tender +that he thought an injury to one of them was a sin too heinous to be +expiated. No Hamlet, dreaming amid the turrets of Elsinore, no Sidney +creating a chivalrous Arcadia, was fuller of mystic and shadowy +fancies of the worth and dignity of woman than this backwoods +politician. Few men ever lived more sensitively and delicately tender +towards the sex. + +Besides his step-mother, who was a plain, God-fearing woman, he had +not known many others until he came to live in New Salem. There he had +made the acquaintance of the best people the settlement contained, and +among them had become much attached to a young girl named Ann +Rutledge, the daughter of one of the proprietors of the place. She +died in her girlhood, and though there does not seem to have been any +engagement between them, he was profoundly affected by her death. But +the next year a young woman from Kentucky appeared in the village, to +whom he paid such attentions as in his opinion fully committed him as +a suitor for her hand. He admired her, and she seems to have merited +the admiration of all the manhood there was in New Salem. She was +handsome and intelligent and of an admirable temper and disposition. +While they were together he was constant in his attentions, and when +he was at Vandalia or at Springfield he continued his assiduities in +some of the most singular love-letters ever written. They are filled +mostly with remarks about current politics, and with arguments going +to show that she had better not marry him! At the same time he clearly +intimates that he is at her disposition if she is so inclined. At +last, feeling that his honor and duty were involved, he made a direct +proposal to her, and received an equally direct, kind, and courteous +refusal. Not knowing but that this indicated merely a magnanimous +desire to give him a chance for escape, he persisted in his offer, and +she in her refusal. When the matter had ended in this perfectly +satisfactory manner to both of them, he sat down and wrote, by way of +epilogue to the play, a grotesquely comic account of the whole affair +to Mrs. O. H. Browning, one of his intimate Vandalia acquaintances. + +[Illustration: JOSHUA SPEED AND WIFE.] + +This letter has been published and severely criticised as showing a +lack of gentlemanlike feeling. But those who take this view forget +that he was writing to an intimate friend of a matter which had +greatly occupied his own mind for a year; that he mentioned no names, +and that he threw such an air of humorous unreality about the whole +story that the person who received it never dreamed that it recorded +an actual occurrence until twenty-five years afterwards, when, having +been asked to furnish it to a biographer, she was warned against doing +so by the President himself, who said there was too much truth in it +for print. The only significance the episode possesses is in showing +this almost abnormal development of conscience in the young man who +was perfectly ready to enter into a marriage which he dreaded simply +because he thought he had given a young woman reason to think that he +had such intentions. While we admit that this would have been an +irremediable error, we cannot but wonder at the nobleness of the +character to which it was possible. + +In this vastly more serious matter, which was, we may say at once, the +crucial ordeal of his life, the same invincible truthfulness, the same +innate goodness, the same horror of doing a wrong, are combined with +an exquisite sensibility and a capacity for suffering which mark him +as a man "picked out among ten thousand." His habit of relentless +self-searching reveals to him a state of feeling which strikes him +with dismay; his simple and inflexible veracity communicates his +trouble and his misery to the woman whom he loves; his freedom, when +he has gained it, yields him nothing but an agony of remorse and +humiliation. He could not shake off his pain, like men of cooler heads +and shallower hearts. It took fast hold of him and dragged him into +awful depths of darkness and torture. The letter to Stuart, which we +have given, shows him emerging from the blackest period of that time +of gloom. Immediately after this, he accompanied his close friend and +confidant, Joshua F. Speed, to Kentucky, where, in a way so singular +that no writer of fiction would dare to employ the incident, he became +almost cured of his melancholy, and came back to Illinois and his work +again. + +Mr. Speed was a Kentuckian, carrying on a general mercantile business +in Springfield--a brother of the distinguished lawyer, James Speed, of +Louisville, who afterwards became Attorney-General of the United +States. He was one of those men who seem to have to a greater extent +than others the genius of friendship, the Pythias, the Pylades, the +Horatios of the world. It is hardly too much to say that he was the +only--as he was certainly the last--intimate friend that Lincoln ever +had. He was his closest companion in Springfield, and in the evil days +when the letter to Stuart was written he took him with brotherly love +and authority under his special care. He closed up his affairs in +Springfield, and went with Lincoln to Kentucky, and, introducing him +to his own cordial and hospitable family circle, strove to soothe his +perturbed spirit by every means which unaffected friendliness could +suggest. That Lincoln found much comfort and edification in that +genial companionship is shown by the fact that after he became +President he sent to Mr. Speed's mother a photograph of himself, +inscribed, "For Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, from whose pious hand I accepted +the present of an Oxford Bible twenty years ago." + +But the principal means by which the current of his thoughts was +changed was never dreamed of by himself or by his friend when they +left Illinois. During this visit Speed himself fell in love, and +became engaged to be married; and either by a singular chance or +because the maladies of the soul may be propagated by constant +association, the feeling of despairing melancholy, which he had found +so morbid and so distressing an affliction in another, took possession +of himself, and threw him into the same slough of despondency from +which he had been laboring to rescue Lincoln. Between friends so +intimate there were no concealments, and from the moment Lincoln found +his services as nurse and consoler needed, the violence of his own +trouble seemed to diminish. The two young men were in Springfield +together in the autumn, and Lincoln seems by that time to have laid +aside his own peculiar besetments, in order to minister to his friend. +They knew the inmost thoughts of each other's hearts and each relied +upon the honesty and loyalty of the other to an extent rare among men. +When Speed returned to Kentucky, to a happiness which awaited him +there, so bright that it dazzled and blinded his moral vision, Lincoln +continued his counsels and encouragements in letters which are +remarkable for their tenderness and delicacy of thought and +expression. Like another poet, he looked into his own heart and wrote. +His own deeper nature had suffered from these same fantastic sorrows +and terrors; of his own grief he made a medicine for his comrade. + +While Speed was still with him, he wrote a long letter, which he put +into his hands at parting, full of wise and affectionate reasonings, +to be read when he should feel the need of it. He predicts for him a +period of nervous depression--first, because he will be "exposed to +bad weather on his journey, and, secondly, because of the absence of +all business and conversation of friends which might divert his mind +and give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which will +sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare, and turn it to the +bitterness of death." The third cause, he says, "is the rapid and near +approach of that crisis on which all your thoughts and feelings +concentrate." If in spite of all these circumstances he should escape +without a "twinge of the soul," his friend will be most happily +deceived; but, he continues, "if you shall, as I expect you will at +some time, be agonized and distressed, let me, who have some reason to +speak with judgment on the subject, beseech you to ascribe it to the +causes I have mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous suggestion +of the devil." This forms the prelude to an ingenious and affectionate +argument in which he labors to convince Speed of the loveliness of his +betrothed and of the integrity of his own heart; a strange task, one +would say, to undertake in behalf of a young and ardent lover. But the +two men understood each other, and the service thus rendered was +gratefully received and remembered by Speed all his life. + +Lincoln wrote again on the 3d of February, 1842, congratulating Speed +upon a recent severe illness of his destined bride, for the reason +that "your present distress and anxiety about her health must forever +banish those horrid doubts which you feel as to the truth of your +affection for her." As the period of Speed's marriage drew near, +Lincoln's letters betray the most intense anxiety. He cannot wait to +hear the news from his friend, but writes to him about the time of the +wedding, admitting that he is writing in the dark, that words from a +bachelor may be worthless to a Benedick, but still unable to keep +silence. He hopes he is happy with his wife, "but should I be mistaken +in this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied with a painful +counterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I have ever done, to +remember in the depth and even agony of despondency, that very shortly +you are to feel well again." Further on he says: "If you went through +the ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient composure not to excite +alarm in any present, you are safe beyond question," seeking by every +device of subtle affection to lift up the heart of his friend. + +With a solicitude apparently greater than that of the nervous +bridegroom, he awaited the announcement of the marriage, and when it +came he wrote (February 25): "I opened the letter with intense anxiety +and trepidation; so much that, although it turned out better than I +expected, I have hardly yet, at the distance of ten hours, become calm. +I tell you, Speed, our forebodings, for which you and I are peculiar, +are all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied from the time I received +your letter of Saturday that the one of "Wednesday was never to come," +and yet it did come, and, what is more, it is perfectly clear, both +from its tone and handwriting, that ... you had obviously improved at +the very time I had so much fancied you would have grown worse. You say +that something indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. +You will not say that three months from now, I will venture." The +letter goes on in the same train of sympathetic cheer, but there is one +phrase which strikes the keynote of all lives whose ideals are too high +for fulfillment: "It is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to +dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can +realize." + +But before long a letter came from Speed, who had settled with his +black-eyed Kentucky wife upon a well-stocked plantation, disclaiming +any further fellowship of misery and announcing the beginnings of that +life of uneventful happiness which he led ever after. His peace of +mind has become a matter of course; he dismisses the subject in a +line, but dilates, with a new planter's rapture, upon the beauties and +attractions of his farm. Lincoln frankly answers that he cares nothing +about his farm. "I can only say that I am glad _you_ are satisfied +and pleased with it. But on that other subject, to me of the most +intense interest whether in joy or sorrow, I never had the power to +withhold my sympathy from you. It cannot be told how it now thrills me +with joy to hear you say you are 'far happier than you ever expected to +be.'.. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you that the short +space it took me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure than +the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st of January, +1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but +for the never-absent idea that there is _one_ still unhappy whom I +have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot but +reproach myself for even wishing myself to be happy while she is +otherwise." + +During the summer of 1842 the letters of the friends still discuss, +with waning intensity, however, their respective affairs of the heart. +Speed, in the ease and happiness of his home, thanks Lincoln for his +important part in his welfare, and gives him sage counsel for himself. +Lincoln replies (July 4, 1842): "I could not have done less than I +did. I always was superstitious; I believe God made me one of the +instruments of bringing your Fanny and you together, which union I +have no doubt he foreordained. Whatever he designs, he will do for me +yet." A better name than "superstition" might properly be applied to +this frame of mind. He acknowledges Speed's kindly advice, but says: +"Before I resolve to do the one thing or the other, I must gain my +confidence in my own ability to keep my resolves when they are made. +In that ability you know I once prided myself, as the only or chief +gem of my character; that gem I lost, how and where you know too well. +I have not yet regained it; and until I do I cannot trust myself in +any matter of much importance. I believe now, that had you understood +my case at the time as well as I understood yours afterwards, by the +aid you would have given me I should have sailed through clear; but +that does not afford me confidence to begin that, or the like of that, +again." Still, he was nearing the end of his doubts and self-torturing +sophistry. A last glimpse of his imperious curiosity, kept alive by +saucy hopes and fears, is seen in his letter to Speed of the 5th of +October. He ventures, with a genuine timidity, to ask a question which +we may believe has not often been asked by one civilized man of +another, with the hope of a candid answer, since marriages were +celebrated with ring and book. "I want to ask you a close question-- +Are you now, in _feeling_ as well as _judgment,_ glad you are +married as you are? From anybody but me this would be an impudent +question, not to be tolerated; but I know you will pardon it in me. +Please answer it quickly, as I am impatient to know." It is probable +that Mr. Speed replied promptly in the way in which such questions +must almost of necessity be answered. On the 4th of November, 1842, a +marriage license was issued to Lincoln, and on the same day he was +married to Miss Mary Todd, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. +Charles Dresser. Four sons were the issue of this marriage: Robert +Todd, born August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846; William +Wallace, December 21, 1850; Thomas, April 4, 1853. Of these only the +eldest lived to maturity. + +In this way Abraham Lincoln met and passed through one of the most +important crises of his life. There was so much of idiosyncrasy in it +that it has been, and will continue to be for years to come, the +occasion of endless gossip in Sangamon County and elsewhere. Because +it was not precisely like the experience of other people, who are +married and given in marriage every day without any ado, a dozen +conflicting stories have grown up, more or less false and injurious to +both contracting parties. But it may not be fanciful to suppose that +characters like that of Lincoln, elected for great conflicts and +trials, are fashioned by different processes from those of ordinary +men, and pass their stated ordeals in a different way. By +circumstances which seem commonplace enough to commonplace people, he +was thrown for more than a year into a sea of perplexities and +sufferings beyond the reach of the common run of souls. + +It is as useless as it would be indelicate to seek to penetrate in +detail the incidents and special causes which produced in his mind +this darkness as of the valley of the shadow of death. There was +probably nothing worth recording in them; we are only concerned with +their effect upon a character which was to be hereafter for all time +one of the possessions of the nation. It is enough for us to know that +a great trouble came upon him, and that he bore it nobly after his +kind. That the manner in which he confronted this crisis was strangely +different from that of most men in similar circumstances need surely +occasion no surprise. Neither in this nor in other matters was he +shaped in the average mold of his contemporaries. In many respects he +was doomed to a certain loneliness of excellence. There are few men +that have had his stern and tyrannous sense of duty, his womanly +tenderness of heart, his wakeful and inflexible conscience, which was +so easy towards others and so merciless towards himself. Therefore +when the time came for all of these qualities at once to be put to the +most strenuous proof, the whole course of his development and the +tendency of his nature made it inevitable that his suffering should be +of the keenest and his final triumph over himself should be of the +most complete and signal character. In that struggle his youth of +reveries and day-dreams passed away. Such furnace-blasts of proof, +such pangs of transformation, seem necessary for exceptional natures. +The bread eaten in tears, of which Goethe speaks, the sleepless nights +of sorrow, are required for a clear vision of the celestial powers. +Fortunately the same qualities that occasion the conflict insure the +victory also. From days of gloom and depression, such as we have been +considering, no doubt came precious results in the way of sympathy, +self-restraint, and that sober reliance on the final triumph of good +over evil peculiar to those who have been greatly tried but not +destroyed. The late but splendid maturity of Lincoln's mind and +character dates from this time, and, although he grew in strength and +knowledge to the end, from this year we observe a steadiness and +sobriety of thought and purpose, as discernible in his life as in his +style. He was like a blade forged in fire and tempered in the ice- +brook, ready for battle whenever the battle might come. + +[Relocated Footnote: Mrs. Lincoln was the daughter of the Hon. Robert +S. Todd of Kentucky. Her great-uncle John Todd, and her grandfather +Levi Todd, accompanied General George Rogers Clark to Illinois, and +were present at the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. In December, +1778, John Todd was appointed by Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, +to be lieutenant of the county of Illinois, then a part of Virginia. +He was killed at the battle of the Blue Licks, in 1782. His brother +Levi was also at that battle and was one of the few survivors of it. + +Colonel John Todd was one of the original proprietors of the town of +Lexington, Ky. While encamped on the site of the present city, he +heard of the opening battle of the Revolution and named his infant +settlement in its honor.--Arnold's "Life of Lincoln," p. 68.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SHIELDS DUEL + + +An incident which occurred during the summer preceding Mr. Lincoln's +marriage, and which in the opinion of many had its influence in +hastening that event, deserves some attention, if only from its +incongruity with the rest of his history. This was the farce--which +aspired at one time to be a tragedy--of his first and last duel. Among +the officers of the State Government was a young Irishman named James +Shields, who owed his post as Auditor, in great measure, to that alien +vote to gain which the Democrats had overturned the Supreme Court. The +finances of the State were in a deplorable condition: the treasury was +empty; auditor's warrants were selling at half their nominal value; no +more money was to be borrowed, and taxation was dreaded by both +political parties more than disgrace. The currency of the State banks +was well-nigh worthless, but it constituted nearly the only +circulating medium in the State. + +In the middle of August the Governor, Auditor, and Treasurer issued a +circular forbidding the payment of State taxes in this depreciated +paper. This order was naturally taken by the Whigs as indicating on +the part of these officers a keener interest in the integrity of their +salaries than in the public welfare, and it was therefore severely +attacked in all the opposition newspapers of the State. + +The sharpest assault it had to endure, however, was in a +communication, dated August 27, and printed in the "Sangamo Journal" +of September 2, not only dissecting the administration circular with +the most savage satire, but covering the Auditor with merciless +personal ridicule. It was written in the dialect of the country, dated +from the "Lost Townships," and signed "Rebecca," and purported to come +from a farmer widow of the county, who expressed in this fashion her +discontent with the evil course of affairs. + +Shields was a man of inordinate vanity and a corresponding +irascibility. He was for that reason an irresistible mark for satire. +Through a long life of somewhat conspicuous public service, he never +lost a certain tone of absurdity which can only be accounted for by +the qualities we have mentioned. Even his honorable wounds in battle, +while they were productive of great public applause and political +success, gained him scarcely less ridicule than praise. He never could +refrain from talking of them himself, having none of Coriolanus's +repugnance in that respect, and for that reason was a constant target +for newspaper wits. + +After Shields returned from the Mexican war, with his laurels still +green, and at the close of the canvass which had made him Senator, he +wrote an incredible letter to Judge Breese, his principal competitor, +in which he committed the gratuitous folly of informing him that "he +had sworn in his heart [if Breese had been elected] that he should +never have profited by his success; and depend upon it," he added, in +the amazing impudence of triumph, "I would have kept that vow, +regardless of consequences. That, however, is now past, and the vow is +canceled by your defeat." He then went on, with threats equally +indecent, to make certain demands which were altogether inadmissible, +and which Judge Breese only noticed by sending this preposterous +letter to the press. + +[Sidenote: "National Intelligencer," Feb. 28, 1849.] + +It may easily be imagined that a man who, after being elected a +Senator of the United States, was capable of the insane insolence of +signing his name to a letter informing his defeated competitor that he +would have killed him if the result had been different, would not have +been likely, when seven years younger, to bear newspaper ridicule with +equanimity. His fury against the unknown author of the satire was the +subject of much merriment in Springfield, and the next week another +letter appeared, from a different hand, but adopting the machinery of +the first, in which the widow offered to make up the quarrel by +marrying the Auditor, and this, in time, was followed by an +epithalamium, in which this happy compromise was celebrated in very +bad verses. In the change of hands all the humor of the thing had +evaporated, and nothing was left but feminine mischief on one side and +the exasperation of wounded vanity on the other. + +Shields, however, had talked so much about the matter that he now felt +imperatively called upon to act, and he therefore sent General +Whitesides to demand from the "Journal" the name of its contributor. +Mr. Francis, the editor, was in a quandary. Lincoln had written the +first letter, and the antic fury of Shields had induced two young +ladies who took a lively interest in Illinois politics--and with good +reason, for one was to be the wife of a Senator and the other of a +President--to follow up the game with attacks in prose and verse +which, however deficient in wit and meter, were not wanting in +pungency. In his dilemma he applied to Lincoln, who, as he was +starting to attend court at Tremont, told him to give his name and +withhold the names of the ladies. As soon as Whitesides received this +information, he and his fiery principal set out for Tremont, and as +Shields did nothing in silence, the news came to Lincoln's friends, +two of whom, William Butler and Dr. Merryman, one of those combative +medical men who have almost disappeared from American society, went +off in a buggy in pursuit. They soon came in sight of the others, but +loitered in the rear until evening, and then drove rapidly to Tremont, +arriving there some time in advance of Shields; so that in the ensuing +negotiations Abraham Lincoln had the assistance of friends whose +fidelity and whose nerve were equally beyond question. + +It would be useless to recount all the tedious preliminaries of the +affair. Shields opened the correspondence, as might have been +expected, with blustering and with threats; his nature had no other +way of expressing itself. His first letter was taken as a bar to any +explanation or understanding, and he afterwards wrote a second, a +little less offensive in tone, but without withdrawing the first. At +every interview of the seconds General Whitesides deplored the +bloodthirsty disposition of his principal, and urged that Mr. Lincoln +should make the concessions which alone would prevent lamentable +results. These representations seemed to avail nothing, however, and +the parties, after endless talk, went to Alton and crossed the river +to the Missouri shore. It seemed for a moment that the fight must take +place. The terms had been left by the code, as then understood in the +West, to Lincoln, and he certainly made no grudging use of his +privilege. The weapons chosen were "cavalry broadswords of the largest +size"; and the combatants were to stand on either side of a board +placed on the ground, each to fight in a limit of six feet on his own +side of the board. It was evident that Lincoln did not desire the +death of his adversary, and did not intend to be materially injured +himself. The advantage morally was altogether against him. He felt +intensely the stupidity of the whole affair, but thought he could not +avoid the fight without degradation; while to Shields such a fracas +was a delight. The duel came to its natural end by the intervention of +the usual "gods out of a machine," the gods being John J. Hardin and +one Dr. English, and the machine a canoe in which they had hastily +paddled across the Mississippi. Shields suffered himself to be +persuaded to withdraw his offensive challenge. Lincoln then made the +explanation he had been ready to make from the beginning; avowing the +one letter he had written, and saying that it had been printed solely +for political effect, and without any intention of injuring Shields +personally. + +One would think that, after a week passed in such unprofitable +trifling, the parties, principal and secondary, would have been +willing to drop the matter forever. We are sure that Lincoln would +have been glad to banish it, even from his memory; but to men like +Shields and Whitesides, the peculiar relish and enjoyment of such an +affair is its publicity. On the 3d of October, therefore, eleven days +after the meeting, as public attention seemed to be flagging, +Whitesides wrote an account of it to the "Sangamo Journal," for which +he did not forget to say, "I hold myself responsible!" Of course he +seized the occasion to paint a heroic portrait of himself and his +principal. It was an excellent story until the next week, when Dr. +Merryman, who seems to have wielded a pen like a scalpel, gave a much +fuller history of the matter, which he substantiated by printing all +the documents, and, not content with that, gave little details of the +negotiations which show, either that Whitesides was one of the most +grotesque braggarts of the time, or that Merryman was an admirable +writer of comic fiction. Among the most amusing facts he brought +forward was that Whitesides, being a Fund Commissioner of the State, +ran the risk of losing his office by engaging in a duel; and his +anxiety to appear reckless and dangerous, and yet keep within the +statute and save his salary, was depicted by Merryman with a droll +fidelity. He concluded by charging Whitesides plainly with +"inefficiency and want of knowledge of those laws which govern +gentlemen in matters of this kind," and with "trying to wipe out his +fault by doing an act of injustice to Mr. Lincoln." + +[Illustration: HOUSE IN WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS MARRIED, THEN OWNED +BY NINIAN W. EDWARDS, NOW OCCUPIED AS ST. AGATHA'S SCHOOL.] + +The town was greatly diverted by these pungent echoes of the bloodless +fight, and Shields and Whitesides felt that their honor was still out +of repair. A rapid series of challenges succeeded among the parties, +principals and seconds changing places as deftly as dancers in a +quadrille. The Auditor challenged Mr. Butler, who had been very +outspoken in his contemptuous comments on the affair. Butler at once +accepted, and with a grim sincerity announced his conditions--"to +fight next morning at sunrising in Bob Allen's meadow, one hundred +yards' distance, with rifles." This was instantly declined, with a +sort of horror, by Shields and Whitesides, as such a proceeding would +have proved fatal to their official positions and their means of +livelihood. They probably cared less for the chances of harm from +Butler's Kentucky rifle than for the certainty of the Illinois law +which cut off all duelists from holding office in the State. + +But, on the other hand,--so unreasonable is human nature as displayed +among politicians,--General Whitesides felt that if he bore patiently +the winged words of Merryman, his availability as a candidate was +greatly damaged; and he therefore sent to the witty doctor what Mr. +Lincoln called "a quasi-challenge," hurling at him a modified +defiance, which should be enough to lure him to the field of honor, +and yet not sufficiently explicit to lose Whitesides the dignity and +perquisites of Fund Commissioner. Merryman, not being an office-holder +and having no salary to risk, responded with brutal directness, which +was highly unsatisfactory to Whitesides, who was determined not to +fight unless he could do so lawfully; and Lincoln, who now acted as +second to the doctor in his turn, records the cessation of the +correspondence amid the agonized explanations of Whitesides and the +scornful hootings of Merryman, "while the town was in a ferment and a +street fight somewhat anticipated." In respect to the last diversion +the town was disappointed. + +Shields lost nothing by the hilarity which this burlesque incident +created. He was reserved for a career of singular luck and glory +mingled with signal misfortunes. On account of his political +availability he continued throughout a long lifetime to be selected at +intervals for high positions. After he ceased to be Auditor he was +elected a judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois; while still holding +that position he applied for the place of Commissioner of the General +Land Office, and his application was successful. When the Mexican war +broke out he asked for a commission as brigadier-general, although he +still held his civil appointment, and, to the amazement of the whole +army, he was given that important command before he had ever seen a +day's service. At the battle of Cerro Glordo he was shot through the +lungs, and this wound made him a United States Senator as soon as he +returned from the war. After he had served one term in the Senate, he +removed from Illinois, and was soon sent back to the same body from +Minnesota. In the war of the rebellion he was again appointed a +brigadier-general by his old adversary, and was again wounded in a +battle in which his troops defeated the redoubtable Stonewall Jackson; +and many years after Lincoln was laid to sleep beneath a mountain of +marble at Springfield, Shields was made the shuttlecock of contending +demagogues in Congress, each striving to make a point by voting him +money--until in the impulse of that transient controversy, the State +of Missouri, finding the gray-headed soldier in her borders, for the +third time sent him to the Senate of the United States for a few +weeks--a history unparalleled even in America. + +We have reason to think that the affair of the duel was excessively +distasteful to Lincoln. He did not even enjoy the ludicrousness of it, +as might have been expected. He never--so far as we can learn--alluded +to it afterwards, and the recollection of it died away so completely +from the minds of people in the State, that during the heated canvass +of 1860 there was no mention of this disagreeable episode in the +opposition papers of Illinois. It had been absolutely forgotten. + +This was Mr. Lincoln's last personal quarrel. [Transcriber's Note: +Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end.] Although the rest of his +life was passed in hot and earnest debate, he never again descended to +the level of his adversaries, who would gladly enough have resorted to +unseemly wrangling. In later years it became his duty to give an +official reprimand to a young officer who had been court-martialed for +a quarrel with one of his associates. The reprimand is probably the +gentlest recorded in the annals of penal discourses, and it shows in +few words the principles which ruled the conduct of this great and +peaceable man. It has never before been published, and it deserves to +be written in letters of gold on the walls of every gymnasium and +college: + +The advice of a father to his son, "Beware of entrance to a quarrel, +but being in, bear it that the opposed may beware of thee!" is good, +but not the best. Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most +of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he +afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his +temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you +can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones though +clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him +in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the +bite. + +[Relocated Footnote: Lincoln's life was unusually free from personal +disputes. We know of only one other hostile letter addressed to him. +This was from W. G. Anderson, who being worsted in a verbal encounter +with Lincoln at Lawrenceville, the county-seat of Lawrence County, +Ill., wrote him a note demanding an explanation of his words and of +his "present feelings." Lincoln's reply shows that his habitual +peaceableness involved no lack of dignity; he said. "Your note of +yesterday is received. In the difficulty between us of which you +speak, you say you think I was the aggressor. I do not think I was. +You say my words 'imported insult.' I meant them as a fair set-off to +your own statements, and not otherwise; and in that light alone I now +wish you to understand them. You ask for my 'present feelings on the +subject.' I entertain no unkind feeling to you, and none of any sort +upon the subject, except a sincere regret that I permitted myself to +get into any such altercation." This seems to have ended the +matter--although the apology was made rather to himself than to Mr. +Anderson. (See the letter of William C. Wilkinson in "The Century +Magazine" for January, 1889.)] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 + + +In the letter to Stuart which we have quoted, Lincoln announced his +intention to form a partnership with Judge Logan, which was soon +carried out. His connection with Stuart was formally dissolved in +April, 1841, and one with Logan formed which continued for four years. +It may almost be said that Lincoln's practice as a lawyer begins from +this time. Stuart, though even then giving promise of the distinction +at which he arrived in his profession later in life, was at that +period so entirely devoted to politics that the business of the office +was altogether a secondary matter to him; and Lincoln, although no +longer in his first youth, being then thirty-two years of age, had not +yet formed those habits of close application which are indispensable +to permanent success at the bar. He was not behind the greater part of +his contemporaries in this respect. Among all the lawyers of the +circuit who were then, or who afterwards became, eminent +practitioners, [Footnote: They were Dan Stone, Jesse B. Thomas, Cyrus +Walker, Schuyler Strong, Albert T. Bledsoe, George Forquer, Samuel H. +Treat, Ninian W. Edwards, Josiah Lamborn, John J. Hardin, Edward D. +Baker, and others.] there were few indeed who in those days applied +themselves with any degree of persistency to the close study of legal +principles. One of these few was Stephen T. Logan. He was more or less +a politician, as were all his compeers at the bar, but he was always +more a lawyer than anything else. He had that love for his profession +which it jealously exacts as a condition of succeeding. He possessed +few books, and it used to be said of him long afterwards that he +carried his library in his hat. But the books which he had he never +ceased to read and ponder, and we heard him say when he was sixty +years old, that once every year since he came of age he had read +"Blackstone's Commentaries" through. He had that old-fashioned, +lawyer-like morality which was keenly intolerant of any laxity or +slovenliness of mind or character. His former partner had been Edward +D. Baker, but this brilliant and mercurial spirit was not congenial to +Logan; Baker's carelessness in money matters was Intolerable to him, +and he was glad to escape from an associate so gifted and so +exasperating. [Footnote: Logan's office was, in fact, a nursery of +statesmen. Three of his partners, William L. May, Baker, and Lincoln, +left him in rapid succession to go to Congress, and finally the +contagion gained the head of the firm, and the judge was himself the +candidate of his party, when it was no longer able to elect one. After +he had retired from practice, the office, under his son-in-law and +successor, Milton Hay, retained its prestige for cradling public men. +John M. Palmer and Shelby M. Cullom left it to be Governors of the +State, and the latter to be a Congressman and Senator.] + +Needing some one, however, to assist him in his practice, which was +then considerable, he invited Lincoln into partnership. He had, as we +have seen, formed a favorable opinion of the young Kentuckian the +first time they had met. In his subsequent acquaintance with him he +had come to recognize and respect his abilities, his unpretending +common sense, and his innate integrity. The partnership continued +about four years, but the benefit Lincoln derived from it lasted all +his life. The example of Judge Logan's thrift, order, and severity of +morals; his straightforward devotion to his profession; his close and +careful study of his cases, together with the larger and more +important range of practice to which Lincoln was introduced by this +new association, confirmed all those salutary tendencies by which he +had been led into the profession, and corrected those less desirable +ones which he shared with most of the lawyers about him. He began for +the first time to study his cases with energy and patience; to resist +the tendency, almost universal at that day, to supply with florid +rhetoric the attorney's deficiency in law; in short, to educate, +discipline, and train the enormous faculty, hitherto latent in him, +for close and severe intellectual labor. Logan, who had expected that +Lincoln's chief value to him would be as a talking advocate before +juries, was surprised and pleased to find his new partner rapidly +becoming a lawyer. "He would study out his case and make about as much +of it as anybody," said Logan, many years afterwards. "His ambition as +a lawyer increased; he grew constantly. By close study of each case, +as it came up, he got to be quite a formidable lawyer." The character +of the man is in these words. He had vast concerns intrusted to him in +the course of his life, and disposed of them one at a time as they +were presented. At the end of four years the partnership was +dissolved. Judge Logan took his son David--afterwards a well-known +politician and lawyer of Oregon--into his office, and Lincoln opened +one of his own, into which he soon invited a young, bright, and +enthusiastic man named William Henry Herndon, who remained his partner +as long as Lincoln lived. + +The old partners continued close and intimate friends. They practiced +at the same bar for twenty years, often as associates, and often as +adversaries, but always with relations of mutual confidence and +regard. They had the unusual honor, while they were still +comparatively young men, of seeing their names indissolubly associated +in the map of their State as a memorial to future ages of their +friendship and their fame, in the county of Logan, of which the city +of Lincoln is the county-seat. + +They both prospered, each in his way. Logan rapidly gained a great +reputation and accumulated an ample fortune. Lincoln, while he did not +become rich, always earned a respectable livelihood, and never knew +the care of poverty or debt from that time forward, His wife and he +suited their style of living to their means, and were equally removed +from luxury and privation. They went to live, immediately after their +marriage, at a boarding-house [Footnote: This house is still standing, +opposite St, Paul's church.] called "The Globe," which was "very well +kept by a widow lady of the name of Beck," and there their first child +was born, who was one day to be Secretary of War and Minister to +England, and for whom was reserved the strange experience of standing +by the death-bed of two assassinated Presidents. Lincoln afterwards +built a comfortable house of wood on the corner of Eighth and Jackson +streets, where he lived until he removed to the White House. + +Neither his marriage nor his new professional interests, however, put +an end to his participation in politics. Even that period of gloom and +depression of which we have spoken, and which has been so much +exaggerated by the chroniclers and the gossip of Springfield, could +not have interrupted for any length of time his activity as a member +of the Legislature. Only for a few days was he absent from his place +in the House. On the 19th of January, 1841, John J. Hardin apologized +for the delay in some committee business, alleging Mr. Lincoln's +indisposition as an excuse. On the 23d the letter to Stuart was +written; but on the 26th Lincoln had so far recovered his self- +possession as to resume his place in the House and the leadership of +his party. The journals of the next month show his constant activity +and prominence in the routine business of the Legislature until it +adjourned. In August, Stuart was reflected to Congress. Lincoln made +his visit to Kentucky with speed, and returned to find himself +generally talked of for Governor of the State. This idea did not +commend itself to the judgment of himself or his friends, and +accordingly we find in the "Sangamo Journal" one of those semi- +official announcements so much in vogue in early Western politics, +which, while disclaiming any direct inspiration from Mr. Lincoln, +expressed the gratitude of his friends for the movement in his favor, +but declined the nomination. "His talents and services endear him to +the Whig party; but we do not believe he desires the nomination. He +has already made great sacrifices in maintaining his party principles, +and before his political friends ask him to make additional +sacrifices, the subject should be well considered. The office of +Governor, which would of necessity interfere with the practice of his +profession, would poorly compensate him for the loss of four of the +best years of his life." + +He served this year as a member of the Whig Central Committee, and +bore a prominent part in the movement set on foot at that time to +check intemperance in the use of spirits. It was a movement in the +name and memory of "Washington," and the orators of the cause made +effective rhetorical use of its august associations. A passage from +the close of a speech made by Lincoln on February 22, 1842, shows the +fervor and feeling of the hour: "Washington is the mightiest name of +earth--long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty; still +mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is expected. It +cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of +Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe +pronounce the name, and in its naked, deathless splendor leave it +shining on." + +A mass meeting of the Whigs of the district was held at Springfield on +the 1st of March, 1843, for the purpose of organizing the party for +the elections of the year. On this occasion Lincoln was the most +prominent figure. He called the meeting to order, stated its object, +and drew up the platform of principles, which embraced the orthodox +Whig tenets of a protective tariff, national bank, the distribution of +the proceeds of the public lands, and, finally, the tardy conversion +of the party to the convention system, which had been forced upon them +by the example of the Democrats, who had shown them that victory could +not be organized without it. Lincoln was also chairman of the +committee which was charged with the address to the people, and a +paragraph from this document is worth quoting, as showing the use +which he made at that early day of a pregnant text which was hereafter +to figure in a far more momentous connection, and exercise a powerful +influence upon his career. Exhorting the Whigs to harmony, he says: +"That union is strength is a truth that has been known, illustrated, +and declared in various ways and forms in all ages of the world. That +great fabulist and philosopher, Aesop, illustrated it by his fable of +the bundle of sticks; and He whose wisdom surpasses that of all +philosophers has declared that 'a house divided against itself cannot +stand.'" He calls to mind the victory of 1840, the overwhelming +majority gained by the Whigs that year, their ill success since, and +the necessity of unity and concord that the party may make its entire +strength felt. + +Lincoln was at this time a candidate for the Whig nomination to +Congress; but he was confronted by formidable competition. The +adjoining county of Morgan was warmly devoted to one of its own +citizens, John J. Hardin, a man of an unusually gallant and chivalrous +strain of character; and several other counties, for reasons not worth +considering, were pledged to support any one whom Morgan County +presented. If Lincoln had carried Sangamon County, his strength was so +great in Menard and Mason, where he was personally known, that he +could have been easily nominated. But Edward D. Baker had long coveted +a seat in Congress, and went into the contest against Lincoln with +many points in his favor. He was of about the same age, but had +resided longer in the district, had a larger personal acquaintance, +and was a much readier and more pleasing speaker. In fact, there are +few men who have ever lived in this country with more of the peculiar +temperament of the orator than Edward Dickinson Baker, It is related +of him that on one occasion when the circumstances called for a policy +of reserve, he was urged by his friends to go out upon a balcony and +address an impromptu audience, which was calling for him. "No," he +replied, mistrusting his own fluency; "if I go out there, I will make +a better speech than I want to." He was hardly capable of the severe +study and care by which great parliamentary speakers are trained; but +before a popular audience, and on all occasions where brilliant and +effective improvisation was called for, he was almost unequaled. His +funeral oration over the dead body of Senator Broderick in California, +his thrilling and inspiriting appeal in Union Square, New York, at the +great meeting of April, 1861, and his reply to Breckinridge in the +Senate delivered upon the impulse of the moment, conceived as he +listened to the Kentuckian's peroration, leaning against the doorway +of the Chamber in full uniform, booted and spurred, as he had ridden +into Washington from the camp, are among the most remarkable specimens +of absolutely unstudied and thrilling eloquence which our annals +contain. He was also a man of extremely prepossessing appearance. Born +in England of poor yet educated parents, and brought as a child to +this country, his good looks and brightness had early attracted the +attention of prominent gentlemen in Illinois, especially of Governor +Edwards, who had made much of him and assisted him to a good +education. He had met with considerable success as a lawyer, though he +always relied rather upon his eloquence than his law, and there were +few juries which could resist the force and fury of his speech, and +not many lawyers could keep their equanimity in the face of his witty +persiflage and savage sarcasm. When to all this is added a genuine +love of every species of combat, physical and moral, we may understand +the name Charles Sumner--paraphrasing a well-known epigram--applied to +him in the Senate, after his heroic death at Ball's Bluff, "the Prince +Rupert of battle and debate." + +If Baker had relied upon his own unquestionable merits he would have +been reasonably sure of succeeding in a community so well acquainted +with him as Sangamon County. But to make assurance doubly sure his +friends resorted to tactics which Lincoln, the most magnanimous and +placable of men, thought rather unfair. Baker and his wife belonged to +that numerous and powerful sect which has several times played an +important part in Western politics--the Disciples. They all supported +him energetically, and used as arguments against Lincoln that his wife +was a Presbyterian, that most of her family were Episcopalians, that +Lincoln himself belonged to no church, and that he had been suspected +of deism, and, finally, that he was the candidate of the aristocracy. +This last charge so amazed Lincoln that he was unable to frame any +satisfactory answer to it. The memory of his flat-boating days, of his +illiterate youth, even of his deer-skin breeches shrunken by rain and +exposure, appeared to have no power against this unexpected and +baleful charge. When the county convention met, the delegates to the +district convention were instructed to cast the vote of Sangamon for +Baker. It showed the confidence of the convention in the imperturbable +good-nature of the defeated candidate that they elected him a delegate +to the Congressional convention charged with the cause of his +successful rival. In a letter to Speed, he humorously refers to his +situation as that of a rejected suitor who is asked to act as +groomsman at the wedding of his sweetheart. + +It soon became evident that Baker could not get strength enough +outside of the county to nominate him. Lincoln in a letter to Speed, +written in May, said: "In relation to our Congress matter here, you +were right in supposing I would support the nominee. Neither Baker nor +I, however, is the man, but Hardin, so far as I can judge from present +appearances. We shall have no split or trouble about the matter; all +will be harmony." A few days later this prediction was realized. The +convention met at Pekin, and nominated Hardin with all the customary +symptoms of spontaneous enthusiasm. He was elected in August, +[Footnote: The opposing candidate was James A. McDougall, who was +afterwards, as Senator from California, one of the most remarkable and +eccentric figures in Washington life.] after a short but active +canvass, in which Lincoln bore his part as usual. Hardin took his seat +in December. The next year the time of holding elections was changed, +and always afterwards the candidates were elected the year before +vacancies were to occur. In May, 1844, therefore, Baker attained the +desire of his heart by being nominated, and in August he was elected, +defeating John Calhoun, while Lincoln had the laborious and honorable +post of Presidential Elector. + +[Illustration: BRIG.-GEN. JAMES SHIELDS.] + +It was not the first nor the last time that he acted in this capacity. +The place had become his by a sort of prescription. His persuasive and +convincing oratory was thought so useful to his party that every four +years he was sent, in the character of electoral canvasser, to the +remotest regions of the State to talk to the people in their own +dialect, with their own habits of thought and feeling, in favor of the +Whig candidate. The office had its especial charm for him; if beaten, +as generally happened, the defeat had no personal significance; if +elected, the functions of the place were discharged in one day, and +the office passed from existence. But there was something more than +the orator and the partisan concerned in this campaign of 1844. The +whole heart of the man was enlisted in it--for the candidate was the +beloved and idolized leader of the Whigs, Henry Clay. It is probable +that we shall never see again in this country another such instance of +the personal devotion of a party to its chieftain as that which was +shown by the long and wonderful career of Mr. Clay. He became +prominent in the politics of Kentucky near the close of the last +century at twenty-three years of age. He was elected first to the +Senate at twenty-nine. He died a Senator at seventy-five, and for the +greater part of that long interval he was the most considerable +personal influence in American politics. As Senator, Representative, +Speaker of the House, and diplomatist, he filled the public eye for +half a century, and although he twice peremptorily retired from +office, and although he was the mark of the most furious partisan +hatred all his days, neither his own weariness nor the malice of his +enemies could ever keep him for any length of time from that +commanding position for which his temperament and his nature designed +him. He was beloved, respected, and served by his adherents with a +single-hearted allegiance which seems impossible to the more complex +life of a later generation. In 1844, it is true, he was no longer +young, and his power may be said to have been on the decline. But +there were circumstances connected with this his last candidacy which +excited his faithful followers to a peculiar intensity of devotion. He +had been, as many thought, unjustly passed over in 1840, and General +Harrison, a man of greatly inferior capacity, had been preferred to +him on the grounds of prudence and expediency, after three days of +balloting had shown that the eloquent Kentuckian had more friends and +more enemies than any other man in the republic. He had seemed to +regain all his popularity by the prompt and frank support which he +gave to the candidacy of Harrison; and after the President's death and +the treachery of Tyler had turned the victory of the Whigs into dust +and ashes, the entire party came back to Clay with passionate +affection and confidence, to lead them in the desperate battle which +perhaps no man could have won. The Whigs, however, were far from +appreciating this. There is evident in all their utterances of the +spring and early summer of 1844, an ardent and almost furious +conviction, not only of the necessity but the certainty of success. +Mr. Clay was nominated long before the convention met in Baltimore. +The convention of the 1st of May only ratified the popular will; no +other name was mentioned. Mr. Watkins Leigh had the honor of +presenting his name, "a word," he said "that expressed more +enthusiasm, that had in it more eloquence, than the names of Chatham, +Burke, Patrick Henry, and," he continued, rising to the requirements +of the occasion, "to us more than any other and all other names +together." Nothing was left to be said, and Clay was nominated without +a ballot; Mr. Lumpkin, of Georgia, then nominated Theodore +Frelinghuysen for Vice-President, not hesitating to avow, in the +warmth and expansion of the hour, that he believed that the baptismal +name of the New Jersey gentleman had a mystical appropriateness to the +occasion. + +In the Democratic convention Mr. Van Buren had a majority of delegates +pledged to support him; but it had already been resolved in the inner +councils of the party that he should be defeated. The Southern leaders +had determined upon the immediate and unconditional annexation of +Texas, and Mr. Van Buren's views upon this vital question were too +moderate and conservative to suit the adventurous spirits who most +closely surrounded President Tyler. During the whole of the preceding +year a steady and earnest propaganda of annexation had been on foot, +starting from the immediate _entourage_ of the President and embracing +a large number of Southern Congressmen. A letter had been elicited +from General Jackson, declaring with his usual vehemence in favor of +the project, and urging it upon the ground that Texas was absolutely +necessary to us, as the most easily defensible frontier against Great +Britain. Using the favorite argument of the Southerners of his school, +he said: "Great Britain has already made treaties with Texas; and we +know that far-seeing nation never omits a circumstance in her +extensive intercourse with the world which can be turned to account in +increasing her military resources. May she not enter into an alliance +with Texas? And, reserving, as she doubtless will, the North-western +boundary question as the cause of war with us whenever she chooses to +declare it--let us suppose that, as an ally with Texas, we are to +fight her. Preparatory to such a movement she sends her 20,000 or +30,000 men to Texas; organizes them on the Sabine, where supplies and +arms can be concentrated before we have even notice of her intentions; +makes a lodgment on the Mississippi; excites the negroes to +insurrection; the lower country falls, with it New Orleans; and a +servile war rages through the whole South and West." [Footnote: This +letter was dated at the Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee, Feb. 13, +1843, and was printed a year later in the "National Intelligencer," +with the date altered to 1844. ] + +[Sidenote: T. H. Benton, "Thirty Years View."] + +These fanciful prophecies of evil were privately circulated for a year +among those whom they would be most likely to influence, and the +entire letter was printed in 1844, with a result never intended by the +writer. It contributed greatly, in the opinion of many, to defeat Van +Buren, whom Jackson held in great esteem and regard, and served the +purposes of the Tyler faction, whom he detested. The argument based on +imaginary British intrigues was the one most relied upon by Mr. +Tyler's successive secretaries of state. John C. Calhoun, in his +dispatch of the 12th of August, 1844, instructed our minister in Paris +to impress upon the Government of France the nefarious character of +the English diplomacy, which was seeking, by defeating the annexation +of Texas, to accomplish the abolition of slavery first in that region, +and afterwards throughout the United States, "a blow calamitous to +this continent beyond description." No denials on the part of the +British Government had any effect; it was a fixed idea of Calhoun and +his followers that the designs of Great Britain against American +slavery could only be baffled by the annexation of Texas. Van Buren +was not in principle opposed to the admission of Texas into the Union +at the proper time and with the proper conditions, but the more ardent +Democrats of the South were unwilling to listen to any conditions or +any suggestion of delay. They succeeded in inducing the convention to +adopt the two-thirds rule, after a whole day of stormy debate, and the +defeat of Van Buren was secured. The nomination of Mr. Polk was +received without enthusiasm, and the exultant hopes of the Whigs were +correspondingly increased. + +Contemporary observers differ as to the causes which gradually, as the +summer advanced, changed the course of public opinion to such an +extent as to bring defeat in November upon a party which was so sure +of victory in June. It has been the habit of the antislavery Whigs who +have written upon the subject to ascribe the disaster to an +indiscretion of the candidate himself. At the outset of the campaign +Mr. Clay's avowed opinion as to the annexation of Texas was that of +the vast majority of his party, especially in the North. While not +opposing an increase of territory under all circumstances, he said,-- +in a letter written from Raleigh, N.C., two weeks before his +nomination,--"I consider the annexation of Texas, at this time, +without the consent of Mexico, as a measure compromising the national +character, involving us certainly in war with Mexico, probably with +other foreign powers, dangerous to the integrity of the Union, +inexpedient in the present financial condition of the country, and not +called for by any expression of public opinion." He supported these +views with temperate and judicious reasons which were received with +much gratification throughout the country. + +Of course they were not satisfactory to every one, and Mr. Clay became +so disquieted by letters of inquiry and of criticism from the South, +that he was at last moved, in an unfortunate hour, to write another +letter to a friend in Alabama, which was regarded as seriously +modifying the views he had expressed in the letter from Raleigh. He +now said: "I have no hesitation in saying that, far from having any +personal objections to the annexation of Texas, I should be glad to +see it--without dishonor, without war, with the common consent of the +Union, and upon just and fair terms ... I do not think the subject of +slavery ought to affect the question one way or the other, whether +Texas be independent or incorporated in the United States. I do not +believe it will prolong or shorten the duration of that institution. +It is destined to become extinct, at some distant day, in my opinion, +by the operation of the inevitable laws of population. It would be +unwise to refuse a permanent acquisition, which will exist as long as +the globe remains, on account of a temporary institution." Mr. Clay +does not in this letter disclaim or disavow any sentiments previously +expressed. He says, as any one might say, that provided certain +impossible conditions were complied with, he would be glad to see +Texas in the Union, and that he was so sure of the ultimate extinction +of slavery that he would not let any consideration of that transitory +system interfere with a great national advantage. It might naturally +have been expected that such an expression would have given less +offense to the opponents than to the friends of slavery. But the +contrary effect resulted, and it soon became evident that a grave +error of judgment had been committed in writing the letter. + +[Sidenote: "American Conflict," p. 167.] + +The principal opposition to annexation in the North had been made +expressly upon the ground that it would increase the area of slavery, +and the comparative indifferences with which Mr. Clay treated that +view of the subject cost him heavily in the canvass. Horace Greeley, +who should be regarded as an impartial witness in such a case, says, +"The 'Liberty Party,' so-called, pushed this view of the matter beyond +all justice and reason, insisting that Mr. Clay's antagonism to +annexation, not being founded in antislavery conviction, was of no +account whatever, and that his election should, on that ground, be +opposed." It availed nothing that Mr. Clay, alarmed at the defection +in the North, wrote a third and final letter, reiterating his +unaltered objections to any such annexation as was at that time +possible. The damage was irretrievable. It is not probable that his +letters gained or saved him a vote in the South among the advocates of +annexation. They cared for nothing short of their own unconditional +scheme of immediate action. They forgot the services rendered by Mr. +Clay in bringing about the recognition of Texan independence a few +years before. + +They saw that Mr. Polk was ready to risk everything--war, +international complications, even the dishonor of broken obligations-- +to accomplish their purpose, and nothing the Whig candidate could say +would weigh anything in the balance against this blind and reckless +readiness. On the other hand, Mr. Clay's cautious and moderate +position did him irreparable harm among the ardent opponents of +slavery. They were not willing to listen to counsels of caution and +moderation. More than a year before, thirteen of the Whig antislavery +Congressmen, headed by the illustrious John Quincy Adams, had issued a +fervid address to the people of the free States, declaiming in +language of passionate force against the scheme of annexation as fatal +to the country, calling it, in fact, "identical with dissolution," and +saying that "it would be a violation of our national compact, its +objects, designs, and the great elementary principles which entered +into its formation of a character so deep and fundamental, and would +be an attempt to eternize an institution and a power of nature so +unjust in themselves, so injurious to the interests and abhorrent to +the feelings of the people of the free States, as in our opinion, not +only inevitably to result in a dissolution of the Union, but fully to +justify it; and we not only assert that the people of the free States +ought not to submit to it, but we say with confidence they would not +submit to it." To men in a temper like that indicated by these words, +no arguments drawn from consideration of political expediency could be +expected to have any weight, and it was of no use to say to them that +in voting for a third candidate they were voting to elect Mr. Polk, +the avowed and eager advocate of annexation. If all the votes cast for +James G. Birney, the "Liberty" candidate, had been cast for Clay, he +would have been elected, and even as it was the contest was close and +doubtful to the last. Birney received 62,263 votes, and the popular +majority of Polk over Clay was only 38,792. + +There are certain temptations that no government yet instituted has +been able to resist. When an object is ardently desired by the +majority, when it is practicable, when it is expedient for the +material welfare of the country, and when the cost of it will fall +upon other people, it may be taken for granted that--in the present +condition of international ethics--the partisans of the project will +never lack means of defending its morality. The annexation of Texas +was one of these cases. Moralists called it an inexcusable national +crime, conceived by Southern statesmen for the benefit of slavery, +[Footnote: This purpose was avowed by John C. Calhoun in the Senate, +May 23, 1836; see also his speech of February 24, 1847.] carried on +during a term of years with unexampled energy, truculence and +treachery; in both houses of Congress, in the cabinets of two +Presidents, in diplomatic dealings with foreign powers, every step of +its progress marked by false professions, by broken pledges, by a +steady degradation of moral fiber among all those engaged in the +scheme. The opposition to it--as usually happens--consisted partly in +the natural effort of partisans to baffle their opponents, and partly +in an honorable protest of heart and conscience against a great wrong +committed in the interest of a national sin. But looking back upon the +whole transaction--even over so short a distance as now separates us +from it--one cannot but perceive that the attitude of the two parties +was in some sort inevitable and that the result was also sure, +whatever the subordinate events or incidents which may have led to it. +It was impossible to defeat or greatly to delay the annexation of +Texas, and although those who opposed it but obeyed the dictates of +common morality, they were fighting a battle beyond ordinary human +powers. + +Here was a great empire offering itself to us--a State which had +gained its independence, and built itself into a certain measure of +order and thrift through American valor and enterprise. She offered us +a magnificent estate of 376,000 square miles of territory, all of it +valuable, and much of it of unsurpassed richness and fertility. Even +those portions of it once condemned as desert now contribute to the +markets of the world vast stores of wool and cotton, herds of cattle +and flocks of sheep. Not only were these material advantages of great +attractiveness to the public mind, but many powerful sentimental +considerations reinforced the claim of Texas. The Texans were not an +alien people. The few inhabitants of that vast realm were mostly +Americans, who had occupied and subdued a vacant wilderness. The +heroic defense of the Alamo had been made by Travis, Bowie, and David +Crockett, whose exploits and death form one of the most brilliant +pages of our border history. Fannin and his men, four hundred strong, +when they laid down their lives at Goliad [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy +footnote relocated to chapter end.] had carried mourning into every +South-western State; and when, a few days later, Samuel Houston and +his eight hundred raw levies defeated and destroyed the Mexican army +at San Jacinto, captured Santa Anna, the Mexican president, and with +American thrift, instead of giving him the death he merited for his +cruel murder of unarmed prisoners, saved him to make a treaty with, +the whole people recognized something of kinship in the unaffected +valor with which these borderers died and the humorous shrewdness with +which they bargained, and felt as if the victory over the Mexicans +were their own. + +The schemes of the Southern statesmen who were working for the +extension of slavery were not defensible, and we have no disposition +to defend them; but it may be doubted whether there is a government on +the face of the earth which, under similar circumstances, would not +have yielded to the same temptation. + +Under these conditions, the annexation, sooner or later, was +inevitable. No man and no party could oppose it except at serious +cost. It is not true that schemes of annexation are always popular. +Several administrations have lost heavily by proposing them. Grant +failed with Santo Domingo; Seward with St. Thomas; and it required all +his skill and influence to accomplish the ratification of the Alaska +purchase. There is no general desire among Americans for acquiring +outlying territory, however intrinsically valuable it may be; their +land-hunger is confined within the limits of that of a Western farmer +once quoted by Mr. Lincoln, who used to say, "I am not greedy about +land; I only want what jines mine." Whenever a region contiguous to +the United States becomes filled with Americans, it is absolutely +certain to come under the American flag. Texas was as sure to be +incorporated into the Union as are two drops of water touching each +other to become one; and this consummation would not have been +prevented for any length of time if Clay or Van Buren had been elected +in 1844. The honorable scruples of the Whigs, the sensitive +consciences of the "Liberty" men, could never have prevailed +permanently against a tendency so natural and so irresistible. +Everything that year seemed to work against the Whigs. At a most +unfortunate time for them, there was an outbreak of that "native" +fanaticism which reappears from time to time in our politics with the +periodicity of malarial fevers, and always to the profit of the party +against which its efforts are aimed. It led to great disturbances in +several cities, and to riot and bloodshed in Philadelphia. The Clay +party were, of course, free from any complicity with these outrages, +but the foreigners, in their alarm, huddled together almost as one man +on the side where the majority of them always voted, and this +occasioned a heavy loss to the Whigs in several States. The first +appearance of Lincoln in the canvass was in a judicious attempt to +check this unreasonable panic. At a meeting held in Springfield, June +12, he introduced and supported resolutions, declaring that "the +guarantee of the rights of conscience as found in our Constitution is +most sacred and inviolable, and one that belongs no less to the +Catholic than the Protestant, and that all attempts to abridge or +interfere with these rights either of Catholic or Protestant, directly +or indirectly, have our decided disapprobation, and shall have our +most effective opposition." Several times afterwards in his life +Lincoln was forced to confront this same proscriptive spirit among the +men with whom he was more or less affiliated politically, and he never +failed to denounce it as it deserved, whatever might be the risk of +loss involved. + +Beginning with this manly protest against intolerance and disorder, he +went into the work of the campaign and continued in it with unabated +ardor to the end. The defeat of Clay affected him, as it did thousands +of others, as a great public calamity and a keen personal sorrow. It +is impossible to mistake the accent of sincere mourning which we find +in the journals of the time. The addresses which were sent to Mr. Clay +from every part of the country indicate a depth of affectionate +devotion which rarely falls to the lot of a political chieftain. An +extract from the one sent by the Clay Clubs of New York will show the +earnest attachment and pride with which the young men of that day +still declared their loyalty to their beloved leader, even in the +midst of irreparable disaster. "We will remember you, Henry Clay, +while the memory of the glorious or the sense of the good remains in +us, with a grateful and admiring affection which shall strengthen with +our strength and shall not decay with our decline. We will remember +you in all our future trials and reverses as him whose name honored +defeat and gave it a glory which victory could not have brought. We +will remember you when patriotic hope rallies again to successful +contest with the agencies of corruption and ruin; for we will never +know a triumph which you do not share in life, whose glory does not +accrue to you in death." + +[Relocated Footnote: This massacre inspired one of the most remarkable +poems of Walt Whitman, "Now I tell you what I knew of Texas in my +early youth," in which occurs his description of the rangers: + + "They were the glory of the race of rangers, + Matchless with horse, rifle, song, supper, courtship, + Large, turbulent, generous, handsome, proud, and affectionate, + Bearded, sunburnt, drest in the free costume of hunters, + Not a single one over thirty years of age."] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CAMPAIGN FOR CONGRESS + + +In the months that remained of his term, after the election of his +successor, President Tyler pursued with much vigor his purpose of +accomplishing the annexation of Texas, regarding it as the measure +which was specially to illustrate his administration and to preserve +it from oblivion. The state of affairs, when Congress came together in +December, 1844, was propitious to the project. Dr. Anson Jones had +been elected as President of Texas; the republic was in a more +thriving condition than ever before. Its population was rapidly +increasing under the stimulus of its probable change of flag; its +budget presented a less unwholesome balance; its relations with +Mexico, while they were no more friendly, had ceased to excite alarm. +The Tyler government, having been baffled in the spring by the +rejection of the treaty for annexation which they had submitted to the +Senate, chose to proceed this winter in a different way. Early in the +session a joint resolution providing for annexation was introduced in +the House of Representatives, which, after considerable discussion and +attempted amendment by the anti-slavery members, passed the House by a +majority of twenty-two votes. + +In the Senate it encountered more opposition, as might have been +expected in a chamber which had overwhelmingly rejected the same +scheme only a few months before. It was at last amended by inserting a +section called the Walker amendment, providing that the President, if +it were in his judgment advisable, should proceed by way of +negotiation, instead of submitting the resolutions as an overture on +the part of the United States to Texas. This amendment eased the +conscience of a few shy supporters of the Administration who had +committed themselves very strongly against the scheme, and saved them +from the shame of open tergiversation. The President, however, treated +this subterfuge with the contempt which it deserved, by utterly +disregarding the Walker amendment, and by dispatching a messenger to +Texas to bring about annexation on the basis of the resolutions, the +moment he had signed them, when only a few hours of his official +existence remained. The measures initiated by Tyler were, of course, +carried out by Polk. The work was pushed forward with equal zeal at +Washington and at Austin. A convention of Texans was called for the +4th of July to consider the American propositions; they were promptly +accepted and ratified, and in the last days of 1845 Texas was formally +admitted into the Union as a State. + +Besides the general objections which the anti-slavery men of the North +had to the project itself, there was something especially offensive to +them in the pretense of fairness and compromise held out by the +resolutions committing the Government to annexation. The third section +provided that four new States might hereafter be formed out of the +Territory of Texas; that such States as were formed out of the portion +lying south of 36 degrees 30', the Missouri Compromise line, might be +admitted with or without slavery, as the people might desire; and that +slavery should be prohibited in such States as might be formed out of +the portion lying north of that line. The opponents of slavery +regarded this provision, with good reason, as derisive. Slavery +already existed in the entire territory by the act of the early +settlers from the South who had brought their slaves with them, and +the State of Texas had no valid claim to an inch of ground north of +the line of 36 degrees 30' nor anywhere near it; so that this clause, if it +had any force whatever, would have authorized the establishment of +slavery in a portion of New Mexico, where it did not exist, and where +it had been expressly prohibited by the Mexican law. Another serious +objection was that the resolutions were taken as committing the United +States to the adoption and maintenance of the Rio Grande del Norte as +the western boundary of Texas. All mention of this was avoided in the +instrument, and it was expressly stated that the State was to be +formed "subject to the adjustment by this Government of all questions +of boundary that may arise with other governments," but the moment the +resolutions were passed the Government assumed, as a matter beyond +dispute, that all of the territory east of the Rio Grande was the +rightful property of Texas, to be defended by the military power of +the United States. + +Even if Mexico had been inclined to submit to the annexation of Texas, +it was nevertheless certain that the occupation of the left bank of +the Rio Grande, without an attempt at an understanding, would bring +about a collision. The country lying between the Nueces and the Rio +Grande was then entirely uninhabited, and was thought uninhabitable, +though subsequent years have shown the fallacy of that belief. The +occupation of the country extended no farther than the Nueces, and the +Mexican farmers cultivated their corn and cotton in peace in the +fertile fields opposite Matamoras. + +It is true that Texas claimed the eastern bank of the Rio Grande from +its source to its mouth; and while the Texans held Santa Anna +prisoner, under duress of arms and the stronger pressure of his own +conscience, which assured him that he deserved death as a murderer, +"he solemnly sanctioned, acknowledged, and ratified" their +independence with whatever boundaries they chose to claim; but the +Bustamente administration lost no time in repudiating this treaty, and +at once renewed the war, which had been carried on in a fitful way +ever since. + +[Illustration: HENRY CLAY.] + +[Sidenote: August 23, 1843.] + +But leaving out of view this special subject of admitted dispute, the +Mexican Government had warned our own in sufficiently formal terms +that annexation could not be peacefully effected. When A. P. Upshur +first began his negotiations with Texas, the Mexican Minister of +Foreign Affairs, at his earliest rumors of what was afoot, addressed a +note to Waddy Thompson, our Minister in Mexico, referring to the +reported intention of Texas to seek admission, to the Union, and +formally protesting against it as "an aggression unprecedented in the +annals of the world," and adding "if it be indispensable for the +Mexican nation to seek security for its rights at the expense of the +disasters of war, it will call upon God, and rely on its own efforts +for the defense of its just cause." A little while later General +Almonte renewed this notification at Washington, saying in so many +words that the annexation of Texas would terminate his mission, and +that Mexico would declare war as soon as it received intimation of +such an act. In June, 1845, Mr. Donelson, in charge of the American +Legation in Mexico, assured the Secretary of State that war was +inevitable, though he adopted the fiction of Mr. Calhoun, that it was +the result of the abolitionist intrigues of Great Britain, which he +credited with the intention "of depriving both Texas and the United +States of all claim to the country between the Nueces and the Rio +Grande." + +No one, therefore, doubted that war would follow, and it soon came. +General Zachary Taylor had been sent during the summer to Corpus +Christi, where a considerable portion of the small army of the United +States was placed under his command. It was generally understood to be +the desire of the Administration that hostilities should begin without +orders, by a species of spontaneous combustion; but the coolness and +prudence of General Taylor made futile any such hopes, if they were +entertained, and it required a positive order to induce him, in March, +1846, to advance towards the Rio Grande and to cross the disputed +territory. He arrived at a point opposite Matamoras on the 28th of +March, and immediately fortified himself, disregarding the summons of +the Mexican commander, who warned him that such action would be +considered as a declaration of war. In May, General Arista crossed the +river and attacked General Taylor on the field of Palo Alto, where +Taylor won the first of that remarkable series of victories, embracing +Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and Buena Vista, all gained over +superior forces of the enemy, which made the American commander for +the brief day that was left him the idol alike of soldiers and voters. + +After Baker's election in 1844, it was generally taken as a matter of +course in the district that Lincoln was to be the next candidate of +the Whig party for Congress. It was charged at the time, and some +recent writers have repeated the charge, that there was a bargain made +in 1840 between Hardin, Baker, Lincoln, and Logan to succeed each +other in the order named. This sort of fiction is the commonest known +to American politics. Something like it is told, and more or less +believed, in half the districts in the country at every election. It +arises naturally from the fact that there are always more candidates +than places, that any one who is a candidate twice is felt to be +defrauding his neighbors, and that all candidates are too ready to +assure their constituents that they only want one term, and too ready +to forget these assurances when their terms are ending. There is not +only no evidence of any such bargain among the men we have mentioned, +but there is the clearest proof of the contrary. Two or more of them +were candidates for the nomination at every election from the time +when Stuart retired until the Whigs lost the district. + +At the same time it is not to be denied that there was a tacit +understanding among the Whigs of the district that whoever should, at +each election, gain the honor of representing the one Whig +constituency of the State, should hold himself satisfied with the +privilege, and not be a candidate for reelection. The retiring member +was not always convinced of the propriety of this arrangement. In the +early part of January, 1846, Hardin was the only one whose name was +mentioned in opposition to Lincoln. He was reasonably sure of his own +county, and he tried to induce Lincoln to consent to an arrangement +that all candidates should confine themselves to their own counties in +the canvass; but Lincoln, who was very strong in the outlying counties +of the district, declined the proposition, alleging, as a reason for +refusing, that Hardin was so much better known than he, by reason of +his service in Congress, that such a stipulation would give him a +great advantage. There was fully as much courtesy as candor in this +plea, and Lincoln's entire letter was extremely politic and civil. "I +have always been in the habit," he says, "of acceding to almost any +proposal that a friend would make, and I am truly sorry that I cannot +to this." A month later Hardin saw that his candidacy was useless, and +he published a card withdrawing from the contest, which was printed +and commended in the kindest terms by papers friendly to Lincoln, and +the two men remained on terms of cordial friendship. + +[Sidenote: Lincoln to James, Nov. 24, 1845. Unpublished MS.] + +[Sidenote: Lincoln to James, Jan. 14, 1846. Unpublished MS.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid.] + +It is not to be said that Lincoln relied entirely upon his own merits +and the sentiment of the constituents to procure him this nomination. +Like other politicians of the time, he used all proper means to attain +his object. A package of letters, written during the preliminary +canvass, which have recently come into our hands, show how intelligent +and how straightforward he was in the ways of politics. He had no fear +of Baker; all his efforts were directed to making so strong a show of +force as to warn Hardin off the field. He countenanced no attack upon +his competitor; he approved a movement--not entirely disinterested-- +looking to his nomination for Grovernor. He kept up an extensive +correspondence with the captains of tens throughout the district; he +suggested and revised the utterances of country editors; he kept his +friends aware of his wishes as to conventions and delegates. He was +never overconfident; so late as the middle of January, he did not +share the belief of his supporters that he was to be nominated without +a contest. "Hardin," he wrote, "is a man of desperate energy and +perseverance, and one that never backs out; and, I fear, to think +otherwise is to be deceived.... I would rejoice to be spared the labor +of a contest, 'but being in' I shall go it thoroughly...." His +knowledge of the district was curiously minute, though he +underestimated his own popularity. He wrote: "As to my being able to +make a break in the lower counties, ... I can possibly get Cass, but I +do not think I will. Morgan and Scott are beyond my reach, Menard is +safe to me; Mason, neck and neck; Logan is mine. To make the matter +sure your entire senatorial district must be secured. Of this I +suppose Tazewell is safe, and I have much done in both the other +counties. In Woodford I have Davenport, Simms, Willard, Braken, Perry, +Travis, Dr. Hazzard, and the Clarks, and some others, all specially +committed. At Lacon, in Marshall, the very most active friend I have +in the district (if I except yourself) is at work. Through him I have +procured the names and written to three or four of the most active +Whigs in each precinct of the county. Still, I wish you all in +Tazewell to keep your eyes continually on Woodford and Marshall. Let +no opportunity of making a mark escape. When they shall be safe, all +will be safe--I think." His constitutional caution suggests those +final words. He did not relax his vigilance for a moment until after +Hardin withdrew. He warned his correspondents day by day of every move +on the board; advised his supporters at every point, and kept every +wire in perfect working order. + +The convention was held at Petersburg on the 1st of May. Judge Logan +placed the name of Lincoln before it, and he was nominated +unanimously. The Springfield "Journal," giving the news the week +after, said: "This nomination was of course anticipated, there being +no other candidate in the field. Mr. Lincoln, we all know, is a good +Whig, a good man, an able speaker, and richly deserves, as he enjoys, +the confidence of the Whigs of this district and of the State." + +The Democrats gave Mr. Lincoln a singular competitor--the famous +Methodist preacher, Peter Cartwright. It was not the first time they +had met in the field of politics. When Lincoln ran for the Legislature +on his return from the. Black Hawk war, in 1832, one of the successful +candidates of that year was this indefatigable circuit-rider. He was +now over sixty years of age, in the height of his popularity, and in +all respects an adversary not to be despised. His career as a preacher +began at the beginning of the century and continued for seventy years. +He was the son of one of the pioneers of the West, and grew up in the +rudest regions of the border land between Tennessee and Kentucky. He +represents himself, with the usual inverted pride of a class-leader, +as having been a wild, vicious youth; but the catalogue of his crimes +embraces nothing less venial than card-playing, horse-racing, and +dancing, and it is hard to see what different amusements could have +been found in southern Kentucky in 1801. + +This course of dissipation did not continue long, as he was "converted +and united with the Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church" in June of +that year, when only sixteen years old, and immediately developed such +zeal and power in exhortation that less than a year later he was +licensed to "exercise his gifts as an exhorter so long as his practice +is agreeable to the gospel." He became a deacon at twenty-one, an +elder at twenty-three, a presiding elder at twenty-seven, and from +that time his life is the history of his church in the West for sixty +years. He died in 1872, eighty-seven years of age, having baptized +twelve thousand persons and preached fifteen thousand sermons. He was, +and will always remain, the type of the backwoods preacher. Even in +his lifetime the simple story of his life became so overgrown with a +net-work of fable that there is little resemblance between the simple, +courageous, prejudiced itinerant of his "Autobiography" and the +fighting, brawling, half-civilized, Protestant Friar Tuck of bar-room +newspaper legend. + +It is true that he did not always discard the weapons of the flesh in +his combats with the ungodly, and he felt more than once compelled to +leave the pulpit to do carnal execution upon the disturbers of the +peace of the sanctuary; but two or three incidents of this sort in +three-quarters of a century do not turn a parson into a pugilist. He +was a fluent, self-confident speaker, who, after the habit of his +time, addressed his discourses more to the emotions than to the reason +of his hearers. His system of future rewards and punishments was of +the most simple and concrete character, and formed the staple of his +sermons. He had no patience with the refinements and reticences of +modern theology, and in his later years observed with scorn and sorrow +the progress of education and scholarly training in his own communion. +After listening one day to a prayer from a young minister which shone +more by its correctness than its unction, he could not refrain from +saying, "Brother--, three prayers like that would freeze hell over!"-- +a consummation which did not commend itself to him as desirable. He +often visited the cities of the Atlantic coast, but saw little in them +to admire. His chief pleasure on his return was to sit in a circle of +his friends and pour out the phials of his sarcasm upon all the +refinements of life that he had witnessed in New York or Philadelphia, +which he believed, or affected to believe, were tenanted by a species +of beings altogether inferior to the manhood that filled the cabins of +Kentucky and Illinois. An apocryphal story of one of these visits was +often told of him, which pleased him so that he never contradicted it: +that becoming bewildered in the vastness of a New York hotel, he +procured a hatchet, and in pioneer fashion "blazed" his way along the +mahogany staircases and painted corridors from the office to his room. +With all his eccentricities, he was a devout man, conscientious and +brave. He lived in domestic peace and honor all his days, and dying, +he and his wife, whom he had married almost in childhood, left a +posterity of 129 direct descendants to mourn them. [Transcriber's +Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to chapter end.] + +With all his devotion to the cause of his church, Peter Cartwright was +an ardent Jackson politician, with probably a larger acquaintance +throughout the district than any other man in it, and with a personal +following which, beginning with his own children and grandchildren and +extending through every precinct, made it no holiday task to defeat +him in a popular contest. But Lincoln and his friends went +energetically into the canvass, and before it closed he was able to +foresee a certain victory. + +An incident is related to show how accurately Lincoln could calculate +political results in advance--a faculty which remained with him all +his life. A friend, who was a Democrat, had come to him early in the +canvass and had told him he wanted to see him elected, but did not +like to vote against his party; still he would vote for him, if the +contest was to be so close that every vote was needed. A short time +before the election Lincoln said to him: "I have got the preacher, and +I don't want your vote." + +The election was held in August, and the Whig candidate's majority was +very large--1511 in the district, where Clay's majority had been only +914, and where Taylor's, two years later, with all the glamour of +victory about him, was ten less. Lincoln's majority in Sangamon County +was 690, which, in view of the standing of his competitor, was the +most remarkable proof which could be given of his personal popularity; +[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to chapter end.] +it was the highest majority ever given to any candidate in the county +during the entire period of Whig ascendancy until Yates's triumphant +campaign of 1852. + +This large vote was all the more noteworthy because the Whigs were +this year upon the unpopular side. The annexation of Texas was +generally approved throughout the West, and those who opposed it were +regarded as rather lacking in patriotism, even before actual +hostilities began. But when General Taylor and General Ampudia +confronted each other with hostile guns across the Rio Grande, and +still more after the brilliant feat of arms by which the Americans +opened the war on the plain of Palo Alto, it required a good deal of +moral courage on the part of the candidates and voters alike to +continue their attitude of disapproval of the policy of the +Government, at the same time that they were shouting paeans over the +exploits of our soldiers. They were assisted, it is true, by the fact +that the leading Whigs of the State volunteered with the utmost +alacrity and promptitude in the military service. On the 11th of May, +Congress authorized the raising of fifty thousand volunteers, and as +soon as the intelligence reached Illinois the daring and restless +spirit of Hardin leaped forward to the fate which was awaiting him, +and he instantly issued a call to his brigade of militia, in which he +said: "The general has already enrolled himself as the first volunteer +from Illinois under the requisition. He is going whenever ordered. Who +will go with him? He confidently expects to be accompanied by many of +his brigade." The quota assigned to Illinois was three regiments; +these were quickly raised, [Footnote: The colonels were Hardin, +Bissell, and Forman.] and an additional regiment offered by Baker was +then accepted. The sons of the prominent Whigs enlisted as private +soldiers; David Logan was a sergeant in Baker's regiment. A public +meeting was held in Springfield on the 29th of May, at which Mr. +Lincoln delivered what was considered a thrilling and effective speech +on the condition of affairs, and the duty of citizens to stand by the +flag of the nation until an honorable peace was secured. + +It was thought probable, and would Have been altogether fitting, that +either Colonel Hardin, Colonel Baker, or Colonel Bissell, all of them +men of intelligence and distinction, should be appointed general of +the Illinois Brigade, but the Polk Administration was not inclined to +waste so important a place upon men who might thereafter have views of +their own in public affairs. The coveted appointment was given to a +man already loaded to a grotesque degree with political employment-- +Mr. Lincoln's old adversary, James Shields, He had left the position +of Auditor of State to assume a seat on the Bench; retiring from this, +he had just been appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office. He +had no military experience, and so far as then known no capacity for +the service; but his fervid partisanship commended him to Mr. Polk as +a safe servant, and he received the commission, to the surprise and +derision of the State. His bravery in action and his honorable wounds +at Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec saved him from contempt and made his +political fortune. He had received the recommendation of the Illinois +Democrats in Congress, and it is altogether probable that he owed his +appointment in great measure to the influence of Douglas, who desired +to have as few Democratic statesmen as possible in Springfield that +winter. A Senator was to be elected, and Shields had acquired such a +habit of taking all the offices that fell vacant that it was only +prudent to remove him as far as convenient from such a temptation. The +election was held in December, and Douglas was promoted from the House +of Representatives to that seat in the Senate which he held with such +ability and distinction the rest of his life. + +[Sidenote: December 28, 1841.] + +The session of 1846-7 opened with the Sangamon district of Illinois +unrepresented in Congress. Baker had gone with his regiment to Mexico, +It did not have the good fortune to participate in any of the earlier +actions of the campaign, and his fiery spirit chafed in the enforced +idleness of camp and garrison. He seized an occasion which was offered +him to go to Washington as bearer of dispatches, and while there he +made one of those sudden and dramatic appearances in the Capitol which +were so much in harmony with his tastes and his character. He went to +his place on the floor, and there delivered a bright, interesting +speech in his most attractive vein, calling attention to the needs of +the army, disavowing on the part of the Whigs any responsibility for +the war or its conduct, and adroitly claiming for them a full share of +the credit for its prosecution. + +He began by thanking the House for its kindness in allowing him the +floor, protesting at the same time that he had done nothing to deserve +such courtesy. "I could wish," he said, "that it had been the fortune +of the gallant Davis [Footnote: Jefferson Davis, who was with the army +in Mexico.] to now stand where I do and to receive from gentlemen on +all sides the congratulations so justly due to him, and to listen to +the praises of his brave compeers. For myself, I have, unfortunately, +been left far in the rear of the war, and if now I venture to say a +word in behalf of those who have endured the severest hardships of the +struggle, whether in the blood-stained streets of Monterey, or in a +yet sterner form on the banks of the Rio Grande, I beg you to believe +that while I feel this a most pleasant duty, it is in other respects a +duty full of pain; for I stand here, after six months' service as a +volunteer, having seen no actual warfare in the field;" + +Yet even this disadvantage he turned with great dexterity to his +service. He reproached Congress for its apathy and inaction in not +providing for the wants of the army by reinforcements and supplies; he +flattered the troops in the field, and paid a touching tribute to +those who had died of disease and exposure, without ever enjoying the +sight of a battle-field, and, rising to lyric enthusiasm, he repeated +a poem of his own, which he had written in camp to the memory of the +dead of the Fourth Illinois. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (3) +relocated to chapter end.] He could not refrain from giving his own +party all the credit which could be claimed for it, and it is not +difficult to imagine how exasperating it must have been to the +majority to hear so calm an assumption of superior patriotism on the +part of the opposition as the following: "As a Whig I still occupy a +place on this floor; nor do I think it worth while to reply to such a +charge as that the Whigs are not friends of their country because many +of them doubt the justice or expediency of the present war. Surely +there was all the more evidence of the patriotism of the man who, +doubting the expediency and even the entire justice of the war, +nevertheless supported it, because it was the war of his country. In +the one it might be mere enthusiasm and an impetuous temperament; in +the other it was true patriotism, a sense of duty. Homer represents +Hector as strongly doubting the expediency of the war against Greece. +He gave his advice against it; he had no sympathy with Paris, whom he +bitterly reproached, much less with Helen; yet, when the war came, and +the Grecian forces were marshaled on the plain, and their crooked +keels were seen cutting the sands of the Trojan coast, Hector was a +flaming fire, his beaming helmet was seen in the thickest of the +fight. + + They did not die in eager strife + Upon a well-fought field; + Nor from the red wound poured their life + Where cowering foemen yield. + Death's ghastly shade was slowly cast + Upon each manly brow, + But calm and fearless to the last, + They sleep securely now. + + Yet shall a grateful country give + Her honors to their name; + In kindred hearts their memory live, + And history guard their fame. + Not unremembered do they sleep + Upon a foreign strand, + Though near their graves thy wild waves sweep, + O rushing Rio Grande! + +There are in the American army many who have the spirit of Hector; who +strongly doubt the propriety of the war, and especially the manner of +its commencement; who yet are ready to pour out their hearts' best +blood like water, and their lives with it, on a foreign shore, in +defense of the American flag and American glory." + +Immediately after making this speech, Baker increased the favorable +impression created by it by resigning his seat in Congress and +hurrying as fast as steam could carry him to New Orleans, to embark +there for Mexico. He had heard of the advance of Santa Anna upon +Saltillo, and did not wish to lose any opportunity of fighting which +might fall in the way of his regiment. He arrived to find his troops +transferred to the department of General Scott; and although he missed +Buena Vista, he took part in the capture of Vera Cruz, and greatly +distinguished himself at Cerro Gordo. When Shields was wounded, Baker +took command of his brigade, and by a gallant charge on the Mexican +guns gained possession of the Jalapa road, an act by which a great +portion of the fruits of that victory were harvested. + +His resignation left a vacancy in Congress, and a contest, +characteristic of the politics of the time, at once sprang up over it. +The rational course would have been to elect Lincoln, but, with his +usual overstrained delicacy, he declined to run, thinking it fair to +give other aspirants a chance for the term of two months. The Whigs +nominated a respectable man named Brown, but a short while before the +election John Henry, a member of the State Senate, announced himself +as a candidate, and appealed for votes on the sole ground that he was +a poor man and wanted the place for the mileage. Brown, either +recognizing the force of this plea, or smitten with a sudden disgust +for a service in which such pleas were possible, withdrew from the +canvass, and Henry got his election and his mileage. + +[Illustration: THE BOUNDARIES OF TEXAS. This map gives the boundary +between Mexico and the United States as defined by the treaty of 1828; +the westerly bank of the Sabine River from its mouth to the 32d degree +of longitude west from Greenwich; thence due north to the Arkansas +River, and running along its south bank to its source in the Rocky +Mountains, near the place where Leadville now stands; thence due north +to the 42d parallel of latitude, which it follows to the Pacific +Ocean. On the west will be seen the boundaries claimed by Mexico and +the United States after the annexation of Texas. The Mexican +authorities considered the western boundary of Texas to be the Nueces +River, from mouth to source; thence by an indefinite line to the Rio +Pecos, and through the elevated and barren Llano Estacado to the +source of the main branch of the Red River, and along that river to +the 100th meridian. The United States adopted the Texan claim of the +Rio Grande del Norte as their western limit. By the treaty of peace of +1848, the Mexicans relinquished to the United States the territory +between the Nueces and the Rio Grande del Norte; also the territory +lying between the last-named river and the Pacific Ocean, and north of +the Gila River and the southern boundary of New Mexico, which was a +short distance above the town of El Paso.] + +[Illustration: ZACHARY TAYLOR.] + +[Relocated Footnote (1): The impressive manner of Mrs. Cartwright's +death, who survived her husband a few years, is remembered in the +churches of Sangamon County. She was attending a religious meeting at +Bethel Chapel, a mile from her house. She was called upon "to give her +testimony," which she did with much feeling, concluding with the +words, "the past three weeks have been the happiest of all my life; I +am waiting for the chariot." + +When the meeting broke up, she did not rise with the rest. The +minister solemnly said, "The chariot has arrived."--"Early Settlers of +Sangamon County," by John Carroll Power.] + +[Relocated Footnote (2): + + Stuart's maj. over May in 1836 in Sangamon Co. was 543 + " " " Douglas " 1838 " " " " 295 + " " " Ralston " 1840 " " " " 575 + Hardin's " " McDougall " 1843 " " " " 504 + Baker's " " Calhoun " 1844 " " " " 373 + Lincoln's " " Cartwright " 1846 " " " " 690 + Logan's " " Harris " 1848 " " " " 263 + Yates's " " Harris " 1850 " " " " 336 ] + +[Relocated Footnote (3): We give a copy of these lines, not on account +of their intrinsic merit, but as illustrating the versatility of the +lawyer, orator, and soldier who wrote them. + + Where rolls the rushing Rio Grande, + How peacefully they sleep! + Far from their native Northern land, + Far from the friends who weep. + No rolling drums disturb their rest + Beneath the sandy sod; + The mold lies heavy on each breast, + The spirit is with God. + + They heard their country's call, and came + To battle for the right; + Each bosom filled with martial flame, + And kindling for the fight. + Light was their measured footsteps when + They moved to seek the foe; + Alas that hearts so fiery then + Should soon be cold and low!] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS + + +The Thirtieth Congress organized on the 6th of December, 1847. Its +roll contained the names of many eminent men, few of whom were less +known than his which was destined to a fame more wide and enduring +than all the rest together. It was Mr. Lincoln's sole distinction that +he was the only Whig member from Illinois. He entered upon the larger +field of work which now lay before him without any special diffidence, +but equally without elation. Writing to his friend Speed soon after +his election he said: "Being elected to Congress, though I am very +grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much +as I expected,"--an experience not unknown to most public men, but +probably intensified in Lincoln's case by his constitutional +melancholy. He went about his work with little gladness, but with a +dogged sincerity and an inflexible conscience. + +It soon became apparent that the Whigs were to derive at least a +temporary advantage from the war which the Democrats had brought upon +the country, although it was destined in its later consequences to +sweep the former party out of existence and exile the other from power +for many years. The House was so closely divided that Lincoln, writing +on the 5th, expressed some doubt whether the Whigs could elect all +their caucus nominees, and Mr. Robert C. Winthrop was chosen Speaker +the next day by a majority of one vote. The President showed in his +message that he was doubtful of the verdict of Congress and the +country upon the year's operations, and he argued with more solicitude +than force in defense of the proceedings of the Administration in +regard to the war with Mexico. His anxiety was at once shown to be +well founded. The first attempt made by his friends to indorse the +conduct of the Government was met by a stern rebuke from the House of +Representatives, which passed an amendment proposed by George Ashmun +that "the war had been unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced +by the President." This severe declaration was provoked and justified +by the persistent and disingenuous assertions of the President that +the preceding Congress had "with virtual unanimity" declared that "war +existed by the act of Mexico"--the truth being that a strong minority +had voted to strike out those words from the preamble of the supply +bill, but being outvoted in this, they were compelled either to vote +for preamble and bill together, or else refuse supplies to the army. + +It was not surprising that the Whigs and other opponents of the war +should take the first opportunity to give the President their opinion +of such a misrepresentation. The standing of the opposition had been +greatly strengthened by the very victories upon which Mr. Polk had +confidently relied for his vindication. Both our armies in Mexico were +under the command of Whig generals, and among the subordinate officers +who had distinguished themselves in the field, a full share were +Whigs, who, to an extent unusual in wars of political significance, +retained their attitude of hostility to the Administration under whose +orders they were serving. Some of them had returned to their places on +the floor of Congress brandishing their laurels with great effect in +the faces of their opponents who had talked while they fought. +[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to chapter end.] +When we number the names which leaped into sudden fame in that short +but sanguinary war, it is surprising to find how few of them +sympathized with the party who brought it on, or with the purposes for +which it was waged. The earnest opposition of Taylor to the scheme of +the annexationists did not hamper his movements or paralyze his arm, +when with his little band of regulars he beat the army of Arista on +the plain of Palo Alto, and again in the precipitous Resaca de la +Palma; took by storm the fortified city of Monterey, defended by a +greatly superior force; and finally, with a few regiments of raw +levies, posted among the rocky spurs and gorges about the farm of +Buena Vista, met and defeated the best-led and the best-fought army +the Mexicans ever brought into the field, outnumbering him more than +four to one. It was only natural that the Whigs should profit by the +glory gained by Whig valor, no matter in what cause. The attitude of +the opposition--sure of their advantage and exulting in it--was never +perhaps more clearly and strongly set forth than in a speech made by +Mr. Lincoln near the close of this session. He said: + +As General Taylor is _par excellence_ the hero of the Mexican war, and +as you Democrats say we Whigs have always opposed the war, you think +it must be very awkward and embarrassing for us to go for General +Taylor. The declaration that we have always opposed the war is true or +false accordingly as one may understand the term "opposing the war." +If to say "the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced +by the President" be opposing the war, then the Whigs have very +generally opposed it. Whenever they have spoken at all they have said +this; and they have said it on what has appeared good reason to them; +the marching of an army into the midst of a peaceful Mexican +settlement, frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growing +crops and other property to destruction, to _you_ may appear a +perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does not +appear so to _us_. So to call such an act, to us appears no other than +a naked, impudent absurdity, and we speak of it accordingly. But if +when the war had begun, and had become the cause of the country, the +giving of our money and our blood, in common with yours, was support +of the war, then it is not true that we have always opposed the war. +With few individual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here +for all the necessary supplies. And, more than this, you have had the +services, the blood, and the lives of our political brethren in every +trial, and on every field. The beardless boy and the mature man, the +humble and the distinguished,--you have had them. Through suffering +and death, by disease and in battle, they have endured and fought and +fallen with you. Clay and Webster each gave a son, never to be +returned. From the State of my own residence, besides other worthy but +less-known Whig names, we sent Marshall, Morrison, Baker, and Hardin; +they all fought, and one fell, and in the fall of that one we lost our +best Whig man. Nor were the Whigs few in number or laggard in the day +of danger. In that fearful, bloody, breathless struggle at Buena +Vista, where each man's hard task was to beat back five foes or die +himself, of the five high officers who perished, four were Whigs. + +There was no refuge for the Democrats after the Whigs had adopted +Taylor as their especial hero, since Scott was also a Whig and an +original opponent of the war. His victories, on account of the +apparent ease with which they were gained, have never received the +credit justly due them. The student of military history will rarely +meet with narratives of battles in any age where the actual operations +coincide so exactly with the orders issued upon the eve of conflict, +as in the official reports of the wonderfully energetic and successful +campaign in which General Scott with a handful of men renewed the +memory of the conquest of Cortes, in his triumphant march from Vera +Cruz to the capital. The plan of the battle of Cerro Gordo was so +fully carried out in action that the official report is hardly more +than the general orders translated from the future tense to the past. +The story of Chapultepec has the same element of the marvelous in it. +On one day the general commanded apparent impossibilities in the +closest detail, and the next day reported that they had been +accomplished. These successes were not cheaply attained. The Mexicans, +though deficient in science and in military intelligence, fought with +bravery and sometimes with desperation. The enormous percentage of +loss in his army proves that Scott was engaged in no light work. He +marched from Pueblo with about 10,000 men, and his losses in the basin +of Mexico were 2703, of whom 383 were officers. But neither he nor +Taylor was a favorite of the Administration, and their brilliant +success brought no gain of popularity to Mr. Polk and his Cabinet. + +During the early part of the session little was talked about except +the Mexican war, its causes, its prosecution, and its probable +results. In these wordy engagements the Whigs, partly for the reasons +we have mentioned, partly through their unquestionable superiority in +debate, and partly by virtue of their stronger cause, usually had the +advantage. There was no distinct line of demarcation, however, between +the two parties. There was hardly a vote, after the election of Mr. +Winthrop as Speaker, where the two sides divided according to their +partisan nomenclature. The question of slavery, even where its +presence was not avowed, had its secret influence upon every trial of +strength in Congress, and Southern Whigs were continually found +sustaining the President, and New England Democrats voting against his +most cherished plans. Not even all the Democrats of the South could be +relied on by the Administration. The most powerful leader of them all +denounced with bitter earnestness the conduct of the war, for which he +was greatly responsible. Mr. Calhoun, in an attack upon the +President's policy, January 4, 1848, said: "I opposed the war, not +only because it might have been easily avoided; not only because the +President had no authority to order a part of the disputed territory +in possession of the Mexicans to be occupied by our troops; not only +because I believed the allegations upon which Congress sanctioned the +war untrue, but from high considerations of policy; because I believed +it would lead to many and serious evils to the country and greatly +endanger its free institutions." + +[Sidenote: January 13, 1848.] + +It was probably not so much the free institutions of the country that +the South Carolina Senator was disturbed about as some others. He +perhaps felt that the friends of slavery had set in motion a train of +events whose result was beyond their ken. Mr. Palfrey, of +Massachusetts, a few days later said with as much sagacity as wit that +"Mr. Calhoun thought that he could set fire to a barrel of gunpowder +and extinguish it when half consumed." In his anxiety that the war +should be brought to an end, Calhoun proposed that the United States +army should evacuate the Mexican capital, establish a defensive line, +and hold it as the only indemnity possible to us. He had no confidence +in treaties, and believed that no Mexican government was capable of +carrying one into effect. A few days later, in a running debate, Mr. +Calhoun made an important statement, which still further strengthened +the contention of the Whigs. He said that in making the treaty of +annexation he did not assume that the Rio del Norte was the western +boundary of Texas; on the contrary, he assumed that the boundary was +an unsettled one between Mexico and Texas; and that he had intimated +to our _charge d'affaires_ that we were prepared to settle the +boundary on the most liberal terms! This was perfectly in accordance +with the position held by most Democrats before the Rio Grande +boundary was made an article of faith by the President. C. J. +Ingersoll, one of the leading men upon that side in Congress, in a +speech three years before had said: "The stupendous deserts between +the Nueces and the Bravo rivers are the natural boundaries between the +Anglo-Saxon and the Mauritanian races"; a statement which, however +faulty from the point of view of ethnology and physical geography, +shows clearly enough the view then held of the boundary question. + +The discipline of both parties was more or less relaxed under the +influence of the slavery question. It was singular to see Mr. McLane, +of Baltimore, rebuking Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina, for mentioning +that forbidden subject on the floor of the House; Reverdy Johnson, a +Whig from Maryland, administering correction to John P. Hale, an +insubordinate Democrat from New Hampshire, for the same offense, and +at the time screaming that the "blood of our glorious battle-fields in +Mexico rested on the hands of the President"; Mr. Clingman challenging +the House with the broad statement that "it is a misnomer to speak of +our institution at the South as peculiar; ours is the general system +of the world, and the _free_ system is the peculiar one," and Mr. +Palfrey dryly responding that slavery was natural just as barbarism +was, just as fig-leaves and bare skins were a natural dress. When the +time arrived, however, for leaving off grimacing and posturing, and +the House went to voting, the advocates of slavery usually carried the +day, as the South, Whigs and Democrats together, voted solidly, and +the North was divided. Especially was this the case after the arrival +of the treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico, which was +signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo on the 2d of February and was in the hands +of the Senate only twenty days later. It was ratified by that body on +the 10th of March, with a series of amendments which were at once +accepted by Mexico, and the treaty of peace was officially promulgated +on the national festival of the Fourth of July. + +From the hour when the treaty was received in Washington, however, the +discussion as to the conduct of the war naturally languished; the +ablest speeches of the day before became obsolete in the presence of +accomplished facts; and the interest of Congress promptly turned to +the more important subject of the disposition to be made of the vast +domain which our arms had conquered and the treaty confirmed to us. No +one in America then realized the magnitude of this acquisition; its +stupendous physical features were as little appreciated as the vast +moral and political results which were to flow from its absorption +into our commonwealth. It was only known, in general terms, that our +new possessions covered ten degrees of latitude and fifteen of +longitude; that we had acquired, in short, six hundred and thirty +thousand square miles of desert, mountain, and wilderness. There was +no dream, then, of that portentous discovery which, even while the +Senate was wrangling over the treaty, had converted Captain Sutter's +mill at Coloma into a mining camp, for his ruin and the sudden up- +building of many colossal fortunes. The name of California, which +conveys to-day such opulent suggestions, then meant nothing but +barrenness, and Nevada was a name as yet unknown; some future +Congressman, innocent of taste and of Spanish, was to hit upon the +absurdity of calling that land of silver and cactus, of the orange and +the sage-hen, the land of snow. But imperfect as was the appreciation, +at that day, of the possibilities which lay hidden in those sunset +regions, there was still enough of instinctive greed in the minds of +politicians to make the new realm a subject of lively interest and +intrigue. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to +chapter end.] At the first showing of hands, the South was successful. +In the Twenty-ninth Congress this contest had begun over the spoils of +a victory not yet achieved. President Polk, foreseeing the probability +of an acquisition of territory by treaty, had asked Congress to make +an appropriation for that purpose. A bill was at once reported in that +sense, appropriating $30,000 for the expenses of the negotiation and +$2,000,000 to be used in the President's discretion. But before it +passed, a number of Northern Democrats [Footnote: Some of the more +conspicuous York; Wilmot, of Pennsylvania; among them were Hamlin, of +Brinckerhoff, of Ohio, and McClel-Maine; Preston King, of New land, of +Michigan.] had become alarmed as to the disposition that might be made +of the territory thus acquired, which was now free soil by Mexican +law. After a hasty consultation they agreed upon a proviso to the +bill, which was presented by David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania. He was a +man of respectable abilities, who then, and long afterwards, held a +somewhat prominent position among the public men of his State; but his +chief claim to a place in history rests upon these few lines which he +moved to add to the first section of the bill under discussion: + +Provided, That as an express and fundamental condition to the +acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United +States, by virtue of any treaty that may be negotiated between them, +and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, +neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in any part of +said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be +duly convicted. + +This condition seemed so fair, when first presented to the Northern +conscience, that only three members from the free States voted "no" in +committee. The amendment was adopted--eighty to sixty-four--and the +bill reported to the House. A desperate effort was then made by the +pro-slavery members to kill the bill for the purpose of destroying the +amendment with it. This failed, [Footnote: In this important and +significant vote all the Whigs but one and almost all the Democrats, +from the free States, together with Wm. P. Thomasson and Henry Grider, +Whigs from Kentucky, voted against killing the amended bill, in all +ninety-three. On the other side were all the members from slave- +holding States, except Thomasson and Grider, and the following from +free States, Douglas and John A. McClernand from Illinois, Petit from +Indiana, and Schenek, a Whig, from Ohio, in all seventy-nine.-- +Greeley's "American Conflict," I. p. 189.] and the bill, as amended, +passed the House; but going to the Senate a few hours before the close +of the session, it lapsed without a vote. + +As soon as the war was ended and the treaty of peace was sent to the +Senate, this subject assumed a new interest and importance, and a +resolution embodying the principle of the Wilmot proviso was brought +before the House by Mr. Harvey Putnam, of New York, but no longer with +the same success. The South was now solid against it, and such a +disintegration of conscience among Northern Democrats had set in, that +whereas only three of them in the last Congress had seen fit to +approve the introduction of slavery into free territory, twenty-five +now voted with the South against maintaining the existing conditions +there. The fight was kept up during the session in various places; if +now and then a temporary advantage seemed gained in the House, it was +lost in the Senate, and no permanent progress was made. + +What we have said in regard to the general discussion provoked by the +Mexican war, appeared necessary to explain the part taken by Mr. +Lincoln on the floor. He came to his place unheralded and without any +special personal pretensions. His first participation in debate can +best be described in his own quaint and simple words: "As to speech- +making, by way of getting the hang of the House, I made a little +speech two or three days ago on a post-office question of no general +interest. I find speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. I +was about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am when I speak in +court. I expect to make one within a week or two in which I hope to +succeed well enough to wish you to see it." He evidently had the +orator's temperament--the mixture of dread and eagerness which all +good speakers feel before facing an audience, which made Cicero +tremble and turn pale when rising in the Forum. The speech he was +pondering was made only four days later, on the 12th of January, and +few better maiden speeches--for it was his first formal discourse in +Congress--have ever been made in that House. He preceded it, and +prepared for it, by the introduction, on the 22d of December, of a +series of resolutions referring to the President's persistent +assertions that the war had been begun by Mexico, "by invading our +territory and shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil," and +calling upon him to give the House more specific information upon +these points. As these resolutions became somewhat famous afterwards, +and were relied upon to sustain the charge of a lack of patriotism +made by Mr. Douglas against their author, it may be as well to give +them here, especially as they are the first production of Mr. +Lincoln's pen after his entry upon the field of national politics. We +omit the preamble, which consists of quotations from the President's +message. + +_Resolved by the House of Representatives,_ That the President of +the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House: + +_First._ Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was +shed, as in his messages declared, was or was not within the territory +of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican +revolution. + +_Second._ Whether that spot is or is not within the territory +which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary government of +Mexico. + +_Third._ Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of +people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas +revolution and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the +United States army. + +_Fourth._ Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any +and all other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande on the south +and west, and by wide uninhabited regions in the north and east. + +_Fifth._ Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of +them, or any of them, have ever submitted themselves to the government +or laws of Texas or of the United States, by consent or by compulsion, +either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying tax, or +serving on juries, or having process served upon them, or in any other +way. + +_Sixth._ Whether the people of that settlement did or did not +flee from the approach of the United States army, leaving unprotected +their homes and their growing crops, _before_ the blood was shed, +as in the messages stated; and whether the first blood so shed was or +was not shed within the inclosure of one of the people who had thus +fled from it. + +_Seventh._ Whether our citizens whose blood was shed, as in his +messages declared, were or were not at that time armed officers and +soldiers, sent into that settlement by the military order of the +President, through the Secretary of War. + +_Eighth._ Whether the military force of the United States was or +was not so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had more +than once intimated to the War Department that in his opinion no such +movement was necessary to the defense or protection of Texas. + +It would have been impossible for the President to answer these +questions, one by one, according to the evidence in his possession, +without surrendering every position he had taken in his messages for +the last two years. An answer was probably not expected; the +resolutions were never acted upon by the House, the vote on the Ashmun +proposition having sufficiently indicated the view which the majority +held of the President's precipitate and unconstitutional proceeding. +But they served as a text for the speech which Lincoln made in +Committee of the Whole, which deserves the attentive reading of any +one who imagines that there was anything accidental in the ascendency +which he held for twenty years among the public men of Illinois. The +winter was mostly devoted to speeches upon the same subject from men +of eminence and experience, but it is within bounds to say there was +not a speech made in the House, that year, superior to this in +clearness of statement, severity of criticism combined with soberness +of style, or, what is most surprising, finish and correctness. In its +close, clear argument, its felicity of illustration, its restrained +yet burning earnestness, it belongs to precisely the same class of +addresses as those which he made a dozen years later. The ordinary +Congressman can never conclude inside the limits assigned him; he must +beg for unanimous consent for an extension of time to complete his +sprawling peroration. But this masterly speech covered the whole +ground of the controversy, and so intent was Lincoln on not exceeding +his hour that he finished his task, to his own surprise, in forty-five +minutes. It is an admirable discourse, and the oblivion which overtook +it, along with the volumes of other speeches made at the same time, +can be accounted for only by remembering that the Guadalupe Treaty +came suddenly in upon the debate, with its immense consequences +sweeping forever out of view all consideration of the causes and the +processes which led to the momentous result. + +Lincoln's speech and his resolutions were alike inspired with one +purpose: to correct what he considered an error and a wrong; to +rectify a misrepresentation which he could not, in his very nature, +permit to go uncontradicted. It gratified his offended moral sense to +protest against the false pretenses which he saw so clearly, and it +pleased his fancy as a lawyer to bring a truth to light which +somebody, as he thought, was trying to conceal. He certainly got no +other reward for his trouble. His speech was not particularly well +received in Illinois. His own partner, Mr. Herndon, a young and ardent +man, with more heart than learning, more feeling for the flag than for +international justice, could not, or would not, understand Mr. +Lincoln's position, and gave him great pain by his letters. Again and +again Lincoln explained to him the difference between approving the +war and voting supplies to the soldiers, but Herndon was obstinately +obtuse, and there were many of his mind. + +Lincoln's convictions were so positive in regard to the matter that +any laxity of opinion among his friends caused him real suffering. In +a letter to the Rev. J. M. Peck, who had written a defense of the +Administration in reference to the origin of the war, he writes: this +"disappoints me, because it is the first effort of the kind I have +known, made by one appearing to me to be intelligent, right-minded, +and impartial." He then reviews some of the statements of Mr. Peck, +proving their incorrectness, and goes on to show that our army had +marched under orders across the desert of the Nueces into a peaceful +Mexican settlement, frightening away the inhabitants; that Fort Brown +was built in a Mexican cotton-field, where a young crop was growing; +that Captain Thornton and his men were captured in another cultivated +field. He then asks, how under any law, human or divine, this can be +considered "no aggression," and closes by asking his clerical +correspondent if the precept, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do +to you, do you even so to them," is obsolete, of no force, of no +application? This is not the anxiety of a politician troubled about +his record. He is not a candidate for reelection, and the discussion +has passed by; but he must stop and vindicate the truth whenever +assailed. He perhaps does not see, certainly does not care, that this +stubborn devotion to mere justice will do him no good at an hour when +the air is full of the fumes of gunpowder; when the returned +volunteers are running for constable in every county; when so good a +Whig as Mr. Winthrop gives, as a sentiment, at a public meeting in +Boston, "Our country, however bounded," and the majority of his party +are preparing--unmindful of Mr. Polk and all his works--to reap the +fruits of the Mexican war by making its popular hero President. + +It was fortunate for Mr. Lincoln and for Whigs like him, with +consciences, that General Taylor had occupied so unequivocal an +attitude in regard to the war. He had not been in favor of the march +to the Rio Grande, and had resisted every suggestion to that effect +until his peremptory orders came. In regard to other political +questions, his position was so undefined, and his silence generally so +discreet, that few of the Whigs, however exacting, could find any +difficulty in supporting him. Mr. Lincoln did more than tolerate his +candidacy. He supported it with energy and cordiality. He was at last +convinced that the election of Mr. Clay was impossible, and he thought +he could see that the one opportunity of the Whigs was in the +nomination of Taylor. So early as April he wrote to a friend: "Mr. +Clay's chance for an election is just no chance at all. He might get +New York, and that would have elected in 1844, but it will not now +because he must now, at the least, lose Tennessee, which he had then, +and in addition the fifteen new votes of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and +Wisconsin." Later he wrote to the same friend that the nomination took +the Democrats "on the blind side. It turns the war thunder against +them. The war is now to them the gallows of Haman, which they built +for us, and on which they are doomed to be hanged themselves." + +[Sidenote: J.G. Holland, "Life of Lincoln," p. 118.] + +At the same time he bated no jot of his opposition to the war, and +urged the same course upon his friends. To Linder, of Illinois, he +wrote: "In law, it is good policy to never plead what you need not, +lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot." He then counseled +him to go for Taylor, but to avoid approving Polk and the war, as in +the former case he would gain Democratic votes and in the latter he +would lose with the Whigs. Linder answered him, wanting to know if it +would not be as easy to elect Taylor without opposing the war, which +drew from Lincoln the angry response that silence was impossible; the +Whigs must speak, "and their only option is whether they will, when +they speak, tell the truth or tell a foul and villainous falsehood." + +[Sidenote: June 7, 1848.] + +When the Whig Convention came together in Philadelphia, the +differences of opinion on points of principle and policy were almost +as numerous as the delegates. The unconditional Clay men rallied once +more and gave their aged leader 97 votes to 111 which Taylor received +on the first ballot. Scott and Webster had each a few votes; but on +the fourth ballot the soldier of Buena Vista was nominated, and +Millard Fillmore placed in the line of succession to him. It was +impossible for a body so heterogeneous to put forward a distinctive +platform of principles. An attempt was made to force an expression in +regard to the Wilmot proviso, but it was never permitted to come to a +vote. The convention was determined that "Old Rough and Ready," as he +was now universally nicknamed, should run upon his battle-flags and +his name of Whig--although he cautiously called himself "not an ultra +Whig." The nomination was received with great and noisy demonstrations +of adhesion from every quarter. Lincoln, writing a day or two after +his return from the convention, said: "Many had said they would not +abide the nomination of Taylor; but since the deed has been done they +are fast falling in, and in my opinion we shall have a most +overwhelming, glorious triumph. One unmistakable sign is that all the +odds and ends are with us,--Barnburners, native Americans, Tyler men, +disappointed office-seeking Loco-focos, and the Lord knows what. This +is important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind +blows." + +General Taylor's chances for election had been greatly increased by +what had taken place at the Democratic Convention, a fortnight before. +General Cass had been nominated for the Presidency, but his militia +title had no glamour of carnage about it, and the secession of the New +York Anti-slavery "Barnburners" from the convention was a presage of +disaster which was fulfilled in the following August by the assembling +of the recusant delegates at Buffalo, where they were joined by a +large number of discontented Democrats and "Liberty" men, and the +Free-soil party was organized for its short but effective mission. +Martin Van Buren was nominated for President, and Charles Francis +Adams was associated with him on the ticket. The great superiority of +caliber shown in the nominations of the mutineers over the regular +Democrats was also apparent in the roll of those who made and +sustained the revolt. When Salmon P. Chase, Preston King, the Van +Burens, John P. Hale, William Cullen Bryant, David Wilmot, and their +like went out of their party, they left a vacancy which was never to +be filled. + +It was perhaps an instinct rather than any clear spirit of prophecy +which drove the antislavery Democrats away from their affiliations and +kept the Whigs, for the moment, substantially together. So far as the +authorized utterances of their conventions were concerned, there was +little to choose between them. They had both evaded any profession of +faith in regard to slavery. The Democrats had rejected the resolution +offered by Yancey committing them to the doctrine of "non-interference +with the rights of property in the territories," and the Whigs had +never allowed the Wilmot proviso to be voted upon. But nevertheless +those Democrats who felt that the time had come to put a stop to the +aggression of slavery, generally threw off their partisan allegiance, +and the most ardent of the antislavery Whigs,--with some exceptions it +is true, especially in Ohio and in Massachusetts, where the strength +of the "Conscience Whigs," led by Sumner, the Adamses, and Henry +Wilson, was important,--thought best to remain with their party. +General Taylor was a Southerner and a slaveholder. In regard to all +questions bearing upon slavery, he observed a discretion in the +canvass which was almost ludicrous. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy +footnote (3) relocated to chapter end.] Yet there was a well-nigh +universal impression among the antislavery Whigs that his +administration would be under influences favorable to the restriction +of slavery. Clay, Webster, and Seward, all of whom were agreed at that +time against any extension of the area of that institution, supported +him with more or less cordiality. Webster insisted upon it that the +Whigs were themselves the best "Free-soilers," and for them to join +the party called by that distinctive name would be merely putting Mr. +Van Buren at the head of the Whig party. Mr. Seward, speaking for +Taylor at Cleveland, took still stronger ground, declaring that +slavery "must be abolished;" that "freedom and slavery are two +antagonistic elements of society in America;" that "the party of +freedom seeks complete and universal emancipation." No one then seems +to have foreseen that the Whig party--then on the eve of a great +victory--was so near its dissolution, and that the bolting Democrats +and the faithful Whigs were alike engaged in laying the foundations of +a party which was to glorify the latter half of the century with +achievements of such colossal and enduring importance. + +There was certainly no doubt or misgiving in the mind of Lincoln as to +that future, which, if he could have foreseen it, would have presented +so much of terrible fascination. He went into the campaign with +exultant alacrity. He could not even wait for the adjournment of +Congress to begin his stump-speaking. Following the bad example of the +rest of his colleagues, he obtained the floor on the 27th of July, and +made a long, brilliant, and humorous speech upon the merits of the two +candidates before the people. As it is the only one of Lincoln's +popular speeches of that period which has been preserved entire, it +should be read by those who desire to understand the manner and spirit +of the politics of 1848. Whatever faults of taste or of method may be +found in it, considering it as a speech delivered in the House of +Representatives, with no more propriety or pertinence than hundreds of +others which have been made under like circumstances, it is an +extremely able speech, and it is by itself enough to show how +remarkably effective he must have been as a canvasser in the remoter +districts of his State where means of intellectual excitement were +rare and a political meeting was the best-known form of public +entertainment. + +He begins by making a clear, brief, and dignified defense of the +position of Taylor upon the question of the proper use of the veto; he +then avows with characteristic candor that he does not know what +General Taylor will do as to slavery; he is himself "a Northern man, +or rather a Western free-State man, with a constituency I believe to +be, and with personal feelings I know to be, against the extension of +slavery" (a definition in which his caution and his honesty are +equally displayed), and he hopes General Taylor would not, if elected, +do anything against its restriction; but he would vote for him in any +case, as offering better guarantees than Mr. Cass. He then enters upon +an analysis of the position of Cass and his party which is full of +keen observation and political intelligence, and his speech goes on to +its rollicking close with a constant succession of bright, witty, and +striking passages in which the orator's own conviction and enjoyment +of an assured success is not the least remarkable feature. A few weeks +later Congress adjourned, and Lincoln, without returning home, entered +upon the canvass in New England, [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote +(4) relocated to chapter end.] and then going to Illinois, spoke night +and day until the election. When the votes were counted, the extent of +the defection among the Northern Whigs and Democrats who voted for Van +Buren and among the Southern Democrats who had been beguiled by the +epaulets of Taylor, was plainly seen. The bolting "Barnburners" had +given New York to Taylor; the Free-Soil vote in Ohio, on the other +hand, had thrown that State to Cass. Van Buren carried no electors, +but his popular vote was larger in New York and Massachusetts than +that of Cass. The entire popular vote (exclusive of South Carolina, +which chose its electors by the Legislature) was for Taylor 1,360,752; +for Cass 1,219,962; for Van Buren 291,342. Of the electors, Taylor had +163 and Cass 137. + +[Relocated Footnote (1): The following extract from a letter of +Lincoln to his partner, Mr. Herndon, who had criticized his anti-war +votes, gives the names of some of the Whig soldiers who persisted in +their faith throughout the war: "As to the Whig men who have +participated in the war, so far as they have spoken to my hearing, +they do is not hesitate to denounce as unjust the President's conduct +the beginning of the war. They do not suppose that such denunciation +is directed by undying hatred to them, as 'the Register' would have it +believed, There are two such Whigs on this floor (Colonel Haskell and +Major James). The former fought as a colonel by the side of Colonel +Baker, at Cerro Gordo, and stands side by side with me in the vote +that you seem dissatisfied with. The latter, the history of whose +capture with Cassius Clay you well know, had not arrived here when +that vote was given; but, as I understand, he stands ready to give +just such a vote whenever an occasion shall present. Baker, too, who +is now here, says the truth is undoubtedly that way; and whenever he +shall speak out, he will say so. Colonel Doniphan, too, the favorite +Whig of Missouri and who overran all northern Mexico, on his return +home, in a public speech at St. Louis, condemned the Administration in +relation to the war, if I remember. G. T. M. Davis, who has been +through almost the whole war, declares in favor of Mr. Clay;" etc.] + +[Relocated Footnote (2): To show how crude and vague were the ideas of +even the most intelligent men in relation to this great empire, we +give a few lines from the closing page of Edward D, Mansfield's +"History of the Mexican War," published in 1849: "But will the greater +part of this vast space ever be inhabited by any but the restless +hunter and the wandering trapper? Two hundred thousand square miles of +this territory, in New California, has been trod by the foot of no +civilized being. No spy or pioneer or vagrant trapper has ever +returned to report the character and scenery of that waste and lonely +wilderness. Two hundred thousand square miles more are occupied with +broken mountains and dreary wilds. But little remains then for +civilization."] + +[Relocated Footnote (3): It is a tradition that a planter once wrote +to him: "I have worked hard and been frugal all my life, and the +results of my industry have mainly taken the form of slaves, of whom I +own about a hundred. Before I vote for President I want to be sure +that the candidate I support will not so act as to divest me of my +property." To which the general, with a dexterity that would have done +credit to a diplomatist, and would have proved exceedingly useful to +Mr. Clay, responded, "Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I too +have been all my life industrious and frugal, and that the fruits +thereof are mainly invested in slaves, of whom I own _three_ +hundred. Yours, etc."--Horace Greeley, "American Conflict," Volume I., +p. 193.] + +[Relocated Footnote (4): Thurlow Weed says in his Autobiography, Vol. +I., p. 603: "I had supposed, until we now met, that I had never seen +Mr. Lincoln, having forgotten that in the fall of 1848, when he took +the stump in New England, he called upon me at Albany, and that we +went to see Mr. Fillmore, who was then the Whig candidate for +Vice-President." The New York "Tribune," September 14, 1848, mentions +Mr. Lincoln as addressing a great Whig meeting in Boston, September +12. The Boston "Atlas" refers to speeches made by him at Dorchester, +September 16; at Chelsea September 17; by Lincoln and Seward at +Boston, September 22, on which occasion the report says: "Mr. Lincoln, +of Illinois, next came forward, and was received with great applause. +He spoke about an hour and made a powerful and convincing speech which +was cheered to the echo." + +Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., in his recent memoir of the Hon. David +Sears, says, the most brilliant of Mr. Lincoln's speeches in this +campaign "was delivered at Worcester, September 13, 1848, when, after +taking for his text Mr. Webster's remark that the nomination of Martin +Van Buren for the Presidency by a professed antislavery party could +fitly be regarded only as a trick or a joke, Mr. Lincoln proceeded to +declare that of the three parties then asking the confidence of the +country, the new one had less of principle than any other, adding, +amid shouts of laughter, that the recently constructed elastic +Free-Soil platform reminded him of nothing so much as the pair of +trousers offered for sale by a Yankee peddler which were 'large enough +for any man and small enough for any boy.'" + +It is evident that he considered Van Buren, in Massachusetts at least, +a candidate more to be feared than Cass, the regular Democratic +nominee.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A FORTUNATE ESCAPE + + +When Congress came together again in December, there was such a change +in the temper of its members that no one would have imagined, on +seeing the House divided, that it was the same body which had +assembled there a year before. The election was over; the Whigs were +to control the Executive Department of the Government for four years +to come; the members themselves were either reflected or defeated; and +there was nothing to prevent the gratification of such private +feelings as they might have been suppressing during the canvass in the +interest of their party. It was not long before some of the Northern +Democrats began to avail themselves of this new liberty. They had +returned burdened with a sense of wrong. They had seen their party put +in deadly peril by reason of its fidelity to the South, and they had +seen how little their Southern brethren cared for their labors and +sacrifices, in the enormous gains which Taylor had made in the South, +carrying eight out of fifteen slave States. They were in the humor to +avenge themselves by a display of independence on their own account, +at the first opportunity. The occasion was not long in presenting +itself. A few days after Congress opened, Mr. Root, of Ohio, +introduced a resolution instructing the Committee on Territories to +bring in a bill "with as little delay as practicable" to provide +territorial governments for California and New Mexico, which should +"exclude slavery there-from." This resolution would have thrown the +same House into a panic twelve months before, but now it passed by a +vote of 108 to 80--in the former number were all the "Whigs from the +North and all the Democrats but eight," and in the latter the entire +South and the eight referred to. + +The Senate, however, was not so susceptible to popular impressions, +and the bill, prepared in obedience to the mandate of the House, never +got farther than the desk of the Senate Chamber. The pro-slavery +majority in that body held firmly together till near the close of the +session, when they attempted to bring in the new territories without +any restriction as to slavery, by attaching what is called "a rider" +to that effect to the Civil Appropriation Bill. The House resisted, +and returned the bill to the Senate with the rider unhorsed. A +committee of conference failed to agree. Mr. McClernand, a Democrat +from Illinois, then moved that the House recede from its disagreement, +which was carried by a few Whig votes, to the dismay of those who were +not in the secret, when Richard W. Thompson (who was thirty years +afterwards Secretary of the Navy) instantly moved that the House do +concur with the Senate, with this amendment, that the existing laws of +those territories be for the present and until Congress should amend +them, retained. This would secure them to freedom, as slavery had long +ago been abolished by Mexico. This amendment passed, and the Senate +had to face the many-pronged dilemma, either to defeat the +Appropriation Bill, or to consent that the territories should be +organized as free communities, or to swallow their protestations that +the territories were in sore need of government and adjourn, leaving +them in the anarchy they had so feelingly depicted. They chose the +last as the least dangerous course, and passed the Appropriation Bill +in its original form. + +Mr. Lincoln took little part in the discussions incident to these +proceedings; he was constantly in his seat, however, and voted +generally with his party, and always with those opposed to the +extension of slavery. He used to say that he had voted for the Wilmot +proviso, in its various phases, forty-two times. He left to others, +however, the active work on the floor. His chief preoccupation during +this second session was a scheme which links itself characteristically +with his first protest against the proscriptive spirit of slavery ten +years before in the Illinois Legislature and his immortal act fifteen +years afterwards in consequence of which American slavery ceased to +exist. He had long felt in common with many others that the traffic in +human beings under the very shadow of the Capitol was a national +scandal and reproach. He thought that Congress had the power under the +Constitution to regulate or prohibit slavery in all regions under its +exclusive jurisdiction, and he thought it proper to exercise that +power with due regard to vested rights and the general welfare. He +therefore resolved to test the question whether it were possible to +remove from the seat of government this stain and offense. + +[Sidenote: Gidding's diary, January 8, 9, and 11, 1849: published in +the "Cleveland Post," March 31, 1878.] + +He proceeded carefully and cautiously about it, after his habit. When +he had drawn up his plan, he took counsel with some of the leading +citizens of Washington and some of the more prominent members of +Congress before bringing it forward. His bill obtained the cordial +approval of Colonel Seaton, the Mayor of Washington, whom Mr. Lincoln +had consulted as the representative of the intelligent slave-holding +citizens of the District, and of Joshua R. Giddings, whom he regarded +as the leading abolitionist in Congress, a fact which sufficiently +proves the practical wisdom with which he had reconciled the demands +of right and expediency. In the meantime, however, Mr. Gott, a member +from New York, had introduced a resolution with a rhetorical preamble +directing the proper committee to bring in a bill prohibiting the +slave-trade in the District. This occasioned great excitement, much +caucusing and threatening on the part of the Southern members, but +nothing else. In the opinion of the leading antislavery men, Mr. +Lincoln's bill, being at the same time more radical and more +reasonable, was far better calculated to effect its purpose. Giddings +says in his diary: "This evening (January 11), our whole mess remained +in the dining-room after tea, and conversed upon the subject of Mr. +Lincoln's bill to abolish slavery. It was approved by all; I believe +it as good a bill as we could get at this time, and am willing to pay +for slaves in order to save them from the Southern market, as I +suppose every man in the District would sell his slaves if he saw that +slavery was to be abolished." Mr. Lincoln therefore moved, on the 16th +of January, as an amendment to Gott's proposition, that the committee +report a bill for the total abolition of slavery in the District of +Columbia, the terms of which he gave in full. They were in substance +the following: + +The first two sections prohibit the bringing of slaves into the +district or selling them out of it, provided, however, that officers +of the Government, being citizens of slave-holding States, may bring +their household servants with them for a reasonable time and take them +away again. The third provides a temporary system of apprenticeship +and eventual emancipation for children born of slavemothers after +January 1, 1850. The fourth provides for the manumission of slaves by +the Government on application of the owners, the latter to receive +their full cash value. The fifth provides for the return of fugitive +slaves from Washington and Georgetown. The sixth submits this bill +itself to a popular vote in the District as a condition of its +promulgation as law. + +These are the essential points of the measure and the success of Mr. +Lincoln in gaining the adhesion of the abolitionists in the House is +more remarkable than that he should have induced the Washington +Conservatives to approve it. But the usual result followed as soon as +it was formally introduced to the notice of Congress, It was met by +that violent and excited opposition which greeted any measure, however +intrinsically moderate and reasonable, which was founded on the +assumption that slavery was not in itself a good and desirable thing. +The social influences of Washington were brought to bear against a +proposition which the Southerners contended would vulgarize society, +and the genial and liberal mayor was forced to withdraw his approval +as gracefully or as awkwardly as he might. The prospects of the bill +were seen to be hopeless, as the session was to end on the 4th of +March, and no further effort was made to carry it through. Fifteen +years afterwards, in the stress and tempest of a terrible war, it was +Mr. Lincoln's strange fortune to sign a bill sent him by Congress for +the abolition of slavery in Washington; and perhaps the most +remarkable thing about the whole transaction, was that while we were +looking politically upon a new heaven and a new earth,--for the vast +change in our moral and economic condition might justify so audacious +a phrase,--when there was scarcely a man on the continent who had not +greatly shifted his point of view in a dozen years, there was so +little change in Mr. Lincoln. The same hatred of slavery, the same +sympathy with the slave, the same consideration for the slaveholder as +the victim of a system he had inherited, the same sense of divided +responsibility between the South and the North, the same desire to +effect great reforms with as little individual damage and injury, as +little disturbance of social conditions as possible, were equally +evident when the raw pioneer signed the protest with Dan Stone at +Vandalia, when the mature man moved the resolution of 1849 in the +Capitol, and when the President gave the sanction of his bold +signature to the act which swept away the slave-shambles from the city +of Washington. + +[Illustration: JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS.] + +His term in Congress ended on the 4th of March, 1849, and he was not a +candidate for reflection. A year before he had contemplated the +possibility of entering the field again. He then wrote to his friend +and partner Herndon: "It is very pleasant for me to learn from yon +that there are some who desire that I should be reelected. I most +heartily thank them for their kind partiality; and I can say, as Mr. +Clay said of the annexation of Texas, that 'personally I would not +object' to a reelection, although I thought at the time [of his +nomination], and still think, it would be quite as well for me to +return to the law at the end of a single term. I made the declaration +that I would not be a candidate again, more from a wish to deal fairly +with others, to keep peace among our friends, and keep the district +from going to the enemy, than for any cause personal to myself, so +that, if it should so happen that nobody else wishes to be elected, I +could not refuse the people the right of sending me again. But to +enter myself as a competitor of others, or to authorize any one so to +enter me, is what my word and honor forbid." + +But before his first session ended he gave up all idea of going back, +and heartily concurred in the nomination of Judge Logan to succeed +him. The Sangamon district was the one which the Whigs of Illinois had +apparently the best prospect of carrying, and it was full of able and +ambitious men, who were nominated successively for the only place +which gave them the opportunity of playing a part in the national +theater at Washington. They all served with more or less distinction, +but for eight years no one was ever twice a candidate. A sort of +tradition had grown up, through which a perverted notion of honor and +propriety held it discreditable in a member to ask for reelection. +This state of things was not peculiar to that district, and it +survives with more or less vigor throughout the country to this day, +to the serious detriment of Congress. This consideration, coupled with +what is called the claim of locality, must in time still further +deteriorate the representatives of the States at Washington. To ask in +a nominating convention who is best qualified for service in Congress +is always regarded as an impertinence; but the question "what county +in the district has had the Congressman oftenest" is always considered +in order. For such reasons as these Mr. Lincoln refused to allow his +name to go before the voters again, and the next year he again +refused, writing an emphatic letter for publication, in which he said +that there were many Whigs who could do as much as he "to bring the +district right side up." + +Colonel Baker had come back from the wars with all the glitter of +Cerro Gordo about him, but did not find the prospect of political +preferment flattering in Sangamon County, and therefore, with that +versatility and sagacity which was more than once to render him signal +service, he removed to the Galena district, in the extreme north- +western corner of the State, and almost immediately on his arrival +there received a nomination to Congress. He was doubly fortunate in +this move, as the nomination he was unable to take away from Logan +proved useless to the latter, who was defeated after a hot contest. +Baker therefore took the place of Lincoln as the only Whig member from +Illinois, and their names occur frequently together in the +arrangements for the distribution of "Federal patronage" at the close +of the Administration of Polk and the beginning of that of Taylor. + +[Sidenote: MS letter from Lincoln to Schooler. Feb. 2, 1869.] + +During the period while the President-elect was considering the +appointment of his Cabinet, Lincoln used all the influence he could +bring to bear, which was probably not very much, in favor of Baker for +a place in the Government. The Whig members of the Legislatures of +Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin joined in this effort, which came to +nothing. The recommendations to office which Lincoln made after the +inauguration of General Taylor are probably unique of their kind. Here +is a specimen which is short enough to give entire. It is addressed to +the Secretary of the Interior: "I recommend that William Butler be +appointed Pension Agent for the Illinois agency when the place shall +be vacant. Mr. Hurst, the present incumbent, I believe has performed +the duties very well. He is a decided partisan, and I believe expects +to be removed. Whether he shall be, I submit to the Department. This +office is not confined to my district, but pertains to the whole +State; so that Colonel Baker has an equal right with myself to be +heard concerning it. However, the office is located here (at +Springfield); and I think it is not probable any one would desire to +remove from a distance to take it." + +We have examined a large number of his recommendations--for with a +complete change of administration there would naturally be great +activity among the office-seekers--and they are all in precisely the +same vein. He nowhere asks for the removal of an incumbent; he never +claims a place as subject to his disposition; in fact, he makes no +personal claim whatever; he simply advises the Government, in case a +vacancy occurs, who, in his opinion, is the best man to fill it. When +there are two applicants, he indicates which is on the whole the +better man, and sometimes adds that the weight of recommendations is +in favor of the other! In one instance he sends forward the +recommendations of the man whom he does not prefer, with an +indorsement emphasizing the importance of them, and adding: "From +personal knowledge I consider Mr. Bond every way worthy of the office +and qualified to fill it. Holding the individual opinion that the +appointment of a different gentleman would be better, I ask especial +attention and consideration for his claims, and for the opinions +expressed in his favor by those over whom I can claim no superiority." +The candor, the fairness and moderation, together with the respect for +the public service which these recommendations display, are all the +more remarkable when we reflect that there was as yet no sign of a +public conscience upon the subject. The patronage of the Government +was scrambled for, as a matter of course, in the mire into which +Jackson had flung it. + +For a few weeks in the spring of 1849 Mr. Lincoln appears in a +character which is entirely out of keeping with all his former and +subsequent career. He became, for the first and only time in his life, +an applicant for an appointment at the hands of the President. His +bearing in this attitude was marked by his usual individuality. In the +opinion of many Illinoisans it was important that the place of +Commissioner of the General Land Office should be given to a citizen +of their State, one thoroughly acquainted with the land law in the +West and the special needs of that region. A letter to Lincoln was +drawn up and signed by some half-dozen of the leading Whigs of the +State asking him to become an applicant for that position. + +He promptly answered, saying that if the position could be secured for +a citizen of Illinois only by his accepting it, he would consent; but +he went on to say that he had promised his best efforts to Cyrus +Edwards for that place, and had afterwards stipulated with Colonel +Baker that if J. L. D. Morrison, another Mexican hero, and Edwards +could come to an understanding with each other as to which should +withdraw, he would join in recommending the other; that he could not +take the place, therefore, unless it became clearly impossible for +either of the others to get it. Some weeks later, the impossibility +referred to having become apparent, Mr. Lincoln applied for the place; +but a suitor for office so laggard and so scrupulous as he, stood very +little chance of success in contests like those which periodically +raged at Washington during the first weeks of every new +administration. The place came, indeed, to Illinois, but to neither of +the three we have mentioned. The fortunate applicant was Justin +Butterfield, of Chicago, a man well and favorably known among the +early members of the Illinois bar, [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy +footnote relocated to chapter end.] who, however, devoted less +assiduous attention to the law than to the business of office-seeking, +which he practiced with fair success all his days. + +It was in this way that Abraham Lincoln met and escaped one of the +greatest dangers of his life. In after days he recognized the error he +had committed, and congratulated himself upon the happy deliverance he +had obtained through no merit of his own. The loss of at least four +years of the active pursuit of his profession would have been +irreparable, leaving out of view the strong probability that the +singular charm of Washington life to men who have a passion for +politics might have kept him there forever. It has been said that a +residence in Washington leaves no man precisely as it found him. This +is an axiom which may be applied to most cities in a certain sense, +but it is true in a peculiar degree of our capital. + +To the men who go there from small rural communities in the South and +the West, the bustle and stir, the intellectual movement, such as it +is, the ordinary subjects of conversation, of such vastly greater +importance than anything they have previously known, the daily, even +hourly combats on the floor of both houses, the intrigue and the +struggle of office-hunting, which engage vast numbers besides the +office-seekers, the superior piquancy and interest of the scandal +which is talked at a Congressional boarding-house over that which +seasons the dull days at village-taverns--all this gives a savor to +life in Washington the memory of which doubles the tedium of the +sequestered vale to which the beaten legislator returns when his brief +hour of glory is over. It is this which brings to the State +Department, after every general election, that crowd of specters, with +their bales of recommendations from pitying colleagues who have been +reelected, whose diminishing prayers run down the whole gamut of +supplication from St. James to St. Paul of Loando, and of whom at the +last it must be said, as Mr. Evarts once said after an unusually heavy +day, "Many called, but few chosen." Of those who do not achieve the +ruinous success of going abroad to consulates that will not pay their +board, or missions where they avoid daily shame only by hiding their +penury and their ignorance away from observation, a great portion +yield to their fate and join that fleet of wrecks which floats forever +on the pavements of Washington. + +It is needless to say that Mr. Lincoln received no damage from his +term of service in Washington, but we know of nothing which shows so +strongly the perilous fascination of the place as the fact that a man +of his extraordinary moral and mental qualities could ever have +thought for a moment of accepting a position so insignificant and +incongruous as that which he was more than willing to assume when he +left Congress. He would have filled the place with honor and credit-- +but at a monstrous expense. We do not so much refer to his exceptional +career and his great figure in history; these momentous contingencies +could not have suggested themselves to him. But the place he was +reasonably sure of filling in the battle of life should have made a +subordinate office in Washington a thing out of the question. He was +already a lawyer of skill and reputation; an orator upon whom his +party relied to speak for them to the people. An innate love of combat +was in his heart; he loved discussion like a medieval schoolman. The +air was already tremulous with faint bugle-notes that heralded a +conflict of giants on a field of moral significance to which he was +fully alive and awake, where he was certain to lead at least his +hundreds and his thousands. Yet if Justin Butterfield had not been a +more supple, more adroit, and less scrupulous suitor for office than +himself, Abraham Lincoln would have sat for four inestimable years at +a bureau-desk in the Interior Department, and when the hour of action +sounded in Illinois, who would have filled the place which he took as +if he had been born for it? Who could have done the duty which he bore +as lightly as if he had been fashioned for it from the beginning of +time? + +His temptation did not end even with Butterfield's success. The +Administration of General Taylor, apparently feeling that some +compensation was due to one so earnestly recommended by the leading +Whigs of the State, offered Mr. Lincoln the governorship of Oregon. +This was a place more suited to him than the other, and his acceptance +of it was urged by some of his most judicious friends [Footnote: Among +others John T. Stuart, who is our authority for this statement.] on +the ground that the new Territory would soon be a State, and that he +could come back as a senator. This view of the matter commended itself +favorably to Lincoln himself, who, however, gave it up on account of +the natural unwillingness of his wife to remove to a country so wild +and so remote. + +This was all as it should be. The best place for him was Illinois, and +he went about his work there until his time should come. + +[Relocated Footnote: Butterfield had a great reputation for ready wit +and was suspected of deep learning. Some of his jests are still +repeated by old lawyers in Illinois, and show at least a well-marked +humorous intention. On one occasion he appeared before Judge Pope to +ask the discharge of the famous Mormon Prophet, Joe Smith, who was in +custody surrounded by his church dignitaries. Bowing profoundly to the +court and the ladies who thronged the hall, he said: "I appear before +you under solemn and peculiar circumstances. I am to address the Pope, +surrounded by angels, in the presence of the holy apostles, in behalf +of the Prophet of the Lord." We once heard Lincoln say of Butterfield +that he was one of the few Whigs in Illinois who approved the Mexican +war. His reason, frankly given, was that he had lost an office in New +York by opposing the war of 1812. "Henceforth," he said with cynical +vehemence, "I am for war, pestilence, and famine." He was once +defending the Shawneetown Bank and advocating the extension of its +charter; an opposing lawyer contended that this would be creating a +new bank. Butterfield brought a smile from the court and a laugh from +the bar by asking "whether when the Lord lengthened the life of +Hezekiah he made a new man, or whether it was the same old Hezekiah?"] + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CIRCUIT LAWYER + + +In that briefest of all autobiographies, which Mr. Lincoln wrote for +Jesse Fell upon three pages of note-paper, he sketched in these words +the period at which we have arrived: "From 1849 to 1854, both +inclusive, I practiced law more assiduously than ever before ... I was +losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise +aroused me again." His service in Congress had made him more generally +known than formerly, and had increased his practical value as a member +of any law firm. He was offered a partnership on favorable terms by a +lawyer in good practice in Chicago; but he declined it on the ground +that his health would not endure the close confinement necessary in a +city office. He went back to Springfield, and resumed at once his +practice there and in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, where his +occupations and his associates were the most congenial that he could +anywhere find. For five years he devoted himself to his work with more +energy and more success than ever before. + +It was at this time that he gave a notable proof of his unusual powers +of mental discipline. His wider knowledge of men and things, acquired +by contact with the great world, had shown him a certain lack in +himself of the power of close and sustained reasoning. To remedy this +defect, he applied himself, after his return from Congress, to such +works upon logic and mathematics as he fancied would be serviceable. +Devoting himself with dogged energy to the task in hand, he soon +learned by heart six books of the propositions of Euclid, and he +retained through life a thorough knowledge of the principles they +contain. + +[Sidenote: I.N. Arnold in the "History of Sangamon County."] + +The outward form and fashion of every institution change rapidly in +growing communities like our Western States, and the practice of the +law had already assumed a very different degree of dignity and +formality from that which it presented only twenty years before. The +lawyers in hunting-shirts and mocassins had long since passed away; so +had the judges who apologized to the criminals that they sentenced, +and charged them "to let their friends on Bear Creek understand it was +the law and the jury who were responsible." Even the easy familiarity +of a later date would no longer be tolerated. No successor of Judge +Douglas had been known to follow his example by coming down from the +bench, taking a seat in the lap of a friend, throwing an arm around +his neck, and in that intimate attitude discussing, _coram publico_, +whatever interested him, David Davis--afterwards of the Supreme Court +and of the Senate--was for many years the presiding judge of this +circuit, and neither under him nor his predecessor, S. H. Treat, was +any lapse of dignity or of propriety possible. Still there was much +less of form and ceremony insisted upon than is considered proper and +necessary in older communities. + +The bar in great measure was composed of the same men who used to +follow the circuit on horseback, over roads impassable to wheels, with +their scanty wardrobes, their law-books, and their documents crowding +each other in their saddle-bags. The improvement of roads which made +carriages a possibility had effected a great change, and the coming of +the railway had completed the sudden development of the manners and +customs of the modernized community. But they could not all at once +take from the bar of the Eighth Circuit its raciness and its +individuality. The men who had lived in log-cabins, who had hunted +their way through untrodden woods and prairies, who had thought as +much about the chances of swimming over swollen fords as of their +cases, who had passed their nights--a half-dozen together--on the +floors of wayside hostelries, could never be precisely the same sort +of practitioners as the smug barristers of a more conventional age and +place. But they were not deficient in ability, in learning, or in that +most valuable faculty which enables really intelligent men to get +their bearings and sustain themselves in every sphere of life to which +they may be called. Some of these very colleagues of Lincoln at the +Springfield bar have sat in Cabinets, have held their own on the floor +of the Senate, have led armies in the field, have governed States, and +all with a quiet self-reliance which was as far as possible removed +from either undue arrogance or undue modesty. [Footnote: A few of the +lawyers who practiced with Lincoln, and have held the highest official +positions, are Douglas, Shields, Logan, Stuart, Baker, Samuel H. +Treat, Bledsoe, O. H. Browning, Hardin, Lyman Trumbull, and Stephen T. +McClernand.] + +Among these able and energetic men Lincoln assumed and held the first +rank. This is a statement which ought not to be made without authority, +and rather than give the common repute of the circuit, we prefer to +cite the opinion of those lawyers of Illinois who are entitled to speak +as to this matter, both by the weight of their personal and +professional character and by their eminent official standing among the +jurists of our time. We shall quote rather fully from addresses +delivered by Justice David Davis, of the Supreme Court of the United +States, and by Judge Drummond, the United States District Judge for +Illinois. Judge Davis says: + +I enjoyed for over twenty years the personal friendship of Mr. +Lincoln. We were admitted to the bar about the same time and traveled +for many years what is known in Illinois as the Eighth Judicial Court. +In 1848, when I first went on the bench, the circuit embraced fourteen +counties, and Mr. Lincoln went with the Court to every county. +Railroads were not then in use, and our mode of travel was either on +horseback or in buggies. + +This simple life he loved, preferring it to the practice of the law in +a city, where, although the remuneration would be greater, the +opportunity would be less for mixing with the great body of the +people, who loved him, and whom he loved. Mr. Lincoln was transferred +from the bar of that circuit to the office of the President of the +United States, having been without official position since he left +Congress in 1849. In all the elements that constitute the great lawyer +he had few equals. He was great both at _nisi prius_ and before an +appellate tribunal. He seized the strong points of a cause, and +presented them with clearness and great compactness. His mind was +logical and direct, and he did not indulge in extraneous discussion. +Generalities and platitudes had no charms for him. An unfailing vein +of humor never deserted him; and he was able to claim the attention of +court and jury, when the cause was the most uninteresting, by the +appropriateness of his anecdotes. [Footnote: C. P. Linder once said to +an Eastern lawyer who expressed the opinion that Lincoln was wasting +his time in telling stories to the jury, "Don't lay that flattering +unction to your soul. Lincoln is like Tansey's horse, he 'breaks to +win.'"--T. W. S. Kidd, in the Lincoln Memorial Album.] + +His power of comparison was large, and he rarely failed in a legal +discussion to use that mode of reasoning. The framework of his mental +and moral being was honesty, and a wrong cause was poorly defended by +him. The ability which some eminent lawyers possess, of explaining +away the bad points of a cause by ingenious sophistry, was denied him. +In order to bring into full activity his great powers, it was +necessary that he should be convinced of the right and justice of the +matter which he advocated. When so convinced, whether the cause was +great or small, he was usually successful. He read law-books but +little, except when the cause in hand made it necessary; yet he was +usually self-reliant, depending on his own resources, and rarely +consulting his brother lawyers, either on the management of his case +or on the legal questions involved. + +Mr. Lincoln was the fairest and most accommodating of practitioners, +granting all favors which were consistent with his duty to his client, +and rarely availing himself of an unwary oversight of his adversary. + +He hated wrong and oppression everywhere, and many a man whose +fraudulent conduct was undergoing review in a court of justice has +writhed under his terrific indignation and rebukes. He was the most +simple and unostentatious of men in his habits, having few wants, and +those easily supplied. To his honor be it said that he never took from +a client, even when his cause was gained, more than he thought the +services were worth and the client could reasonably afford to pay. The +people where he practiced law were not rich, and his charges were +always small. When he was elected President, I question whether there +was a lawyer in the circuit, who had been at the bar so long a time, +whose means were not larger. It did not seem to be one of the purposes +of his life to accumulate a fortune. In fact, outside of his +profession, he had no knowledge of the way to make money, and he never +even attempted it. + +Mr. Lincoln was loved by his brethren of the bar, and no body of men +will grieve more at his death, or pay more sincere tributes to his +memory. His presence on the circuit was watched for with interest and +never failed to produce joy or hilarity. When casually absent, the +spirits of both bar and people were depressed. He was not fond of +litigation, and would compromise a lawsuit whenever practicable. + +No clearer or more authoritative statement of Lincoln's rank as a +lawyer can ever be made than is found in these brief sentences, in +which the warmth of personal affection is not permitted to disturb the +measured appreciation, the habitual reserve of the eminent jurist. +But, as it may be objected that the friendship which united Davis and +Lincoln rendered the one incapable of a just judgment upon the merits +of the other, we will also give an extract from the address delivered +in Chicago by one of the ablest and most impartial lawyers who have +ever honored the bar and the bench in the West. Judge Drummond says: + +With a probity of character known to all, with an intuitive insight +into the human heart, with a clearness of statement which was in +itself an argument, with uncommon power and felicity of illustration, +--often, it is true, of a plain and homely kind,--and with that +sincerity and earnestness of manner which carried conviction, he was +perhaps one of the most successful jury lawyers we ever had in the +State. He always tried a case fairly and honestly. He never +intentionally misrepresented the evidence of a witness nor the +argument of an opponent. He met both squarely, and if he could not +explain the one or answer the other, substantially admitted it. He +never misstated the law, according to his own intelligent view of it. +Such was the transparent candor and integrity of his nature, that he +could not well or strongly argue a side or a cause that he thought +wrong. Of course he felt it his duty to say what could be said, and to +leave the decision to others; but there could be seen in such cases +the inward struggle of his own mind. In trying a case he might +occasionally dwell too long upon, or give too much importance to, an +inconsiderable point; but this was the exception, and generally he +went straight to the citadel of the cause or question, and struck home +there, knowing if that were won the outworks would necessarily fall. +He could hardly be called very learned in his profession, and yet he +rarely tried a cause without fully understanding the law applicable to +it; and I have no hesitation in saying he was one of the ablest +lawyers I have ever known. If he was forcible before a jury, he was +equally so with the Court. He detected with unerring sagacity the weak +points of an opponent's argument, and pressed his own views with +overwhelming strength. His efforts were quite unequal, and it might +happen that he would not, on some occasions, strike one as at all +remarkable. But let him be thoroughly roused, let him feel that he was +right, and some principle was involved in his cause, and he would come +out with an earnestness of conviction, a power of argument, a wealth +of illustration, that I have never seen surpassed. + +[Illustration: DAVID DAVIS.] + +[Sidenote: Lamon, p. 317.] + +This is nothing less than the portrait of a great lawyer, drawn by +competent hands, with the lifelong habit of conscientious accuracy. If +we chose to continue we could fill this volume with the tributes of +his professional associates, ranging all the way from the commonplaces +of condolence to the most extravagant eulogy. But enough has been +quoted to justify the tradition which Lincoln left behind him at the +bar of Illinois. His weak as well as his strong qualities have been +indicated. He never learned the technicalities, what some would call +the tricks, of the profession. The sleight of plea and demurrer, the +legerdemain by which justice is balked and a weak case is made to gain +an unfair advantage, was too subtle and shifty for his strong and +straightforward intelligence. He met these manoeuvres sufficiently +well, when practiced by others, but he never could get in the way of +handling them for himself. On the wrong side he was always weak. He +knew this himself, and avoided such cases when he could consistently +with the rules of his profession. He would often persuade a fair- +minded litigant of the injustice of his case and induce him to give it +up. His partner, Mr. Herndon, relates a speech in point which Lincoln +once made to a man who offered him an objectionable case: "Yes, there +is no reasonable doubt but that I can gain your case for you. I can +set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads; I can distress a widowed +mother and her six fatherless children, and thereby get for you six +hundred dollars, which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much +to them as it does to you. I shall not take your case, but I will give +a little advice for nothing. You seem a sprightly, energetic man. I +would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars in +some other way." Sometimes, after he had entered upon a criminal case, +the conviction that his client was guilty would affect him with a sort +of panic. On one occasion he turned suddenly to his associate and +said: "Swett, the man is guilty; you defend him, I can't," and so gave +up his share of a large fee. The same thing happened at another time +when he was engaged with Judge S. C. Parks in defending a man accused +of larceny. He said: "If you can say anything for the man, do it, I +can't; if I attempt it, the jury will see I think he is guilty, and +convict him." Once he was prosecuting a civil suit, in the course of +which evidence was introduced showing that his client was attempting a +fraud. Lincoln rose and went to his hotel in deep disgust. The judge +sent for him; he refused to come. "Tell the judge," he said, "my hands +are dirty; I came over to wash them." We are aware that these stories +detract something from the character of the lawyer; but this +inflexible, inconvenient, and fastidious morality was to be of vast +service afterwards to his country and the world. + +The Nemesis which waits upon men of extraordinary wit or humor has not +neglected Mr. Lincoln, and the young lawyers of Illinois, who never +knew him, have an endless store of jokes and pleasantries in his name; +some of them as old as Howleglass or Rabelais. [Footnote: As a +specimen of these stories we give the following, well vouched for, as +apocrypha generally are: Lincoln met one day on the courthouse steps a +young lawyer who had lost a case--his only one--and looked very +disconsolate. "What has become of your case?" Lincoln asked. "Gone to +h---," was the gloomy response. "Well, don't give it up," Lincoln +rejoined cheerfully; "you can try it again there"--a quip which has +been attributed to many wits in many ages, and will doubtless make the +reputation of jesters yet to be.] But the fact is that with all his +stories and jests, his frank companionable humor, his gift of easy +accessibility and welcome, he was, even while he traveled the Eighth +Circuit, a man of grave and serious temper and of an unusual innate +dignity and reserve. He had few or no special intimates, and there was +a line beyond which no one ever thought of passing. Besides, he was +too strong a man in the court-room to be regarded with anything but +respect in a community in which legal ability was the only especial +mark of distinction. + +Few of his forensic speeches have been preserved, but his +contemporaries all agree as to their singular ability and power. He +seemed absolutely at home in a court-room; his great stature did not +encumber him there; it seemed like a natural symbol of superiority. +His bearing and gesticulation had no awkwardness about them; they were +simply striking and original. He assumed at the start a frank and +friendly relation with the jury which was extremely effective. He +usually began, as the phrase ran, by "giving away his case"; by +allowing to the opposite side every possible advantage that they could +honestly and justly claim. Then he would present his own side of the +case, with a clearness, a candor, an adroitness of statement which at +once flattered and convinced the jury, and made even the bystanders +his partisans. Sometimes he disturbed the court with laughter by his +humorous or apt illustrations; sometimes he excited the audience by +that florid and exuberant rhetoric which he knew well enough how and +when to indulge in; but his more usual and more successful manner was +to rely upon a clear, strong, lucid statement, keeping details in +proper subordination and bringing forward, in a way which fastened the +attention of court and jury alike, the essential point on which he +claimed a decision. "Indeed," says one of his colleagues, "his +statement often rendered argument unnecessary, and often the court +would stop him and say, 'If that is the case, we will hear the other +side.'" + +[Sidenote: Raymond "Life of Lincoln." p. 32.] + +[Sidenote: I.N. Arnold, speech before the State Bar Association, Jan. +7, 1881.] + +Whatever doubts might be entertained as to whether he was the ablest +lawyer on the circuit, there was never any dissent from the opinion +that he was the one most cordially and universally liked. If he did +not himself enjoy his full share of the happiness of life, he +certainly diffused more of it among his fellows than is in the power +of most men. His arrival was a little festival in the county-seats +where his pursuits led him to pass so much of his time. Several eye- +witnesses have described these scenes in terms which would seem +exaggerated if they were not so fully confirmed. The bench and bar +would gather at the tavern where he was expected, to give him a +cordial welcome; says one writer, "He brought light with him." This is +not hard to understand. Whatever his cares, he never inflicted them +upon others. He talked singularly well, but never about himself. He +was full of wit which never wounded, of humor which mellowed the +harshness of that new and raw life of the prairies. He never asked for +help, but was always ready to give it. He received everybody's +confidence, and rarely gave his own in return. He took no mean +advantages in court or in conversation, and, satisfied with the +respect and kindliness which he everywhere met, he sought no quarrels +and seldom had to decline them. He did not accumulate wealth; as Judge +Davis said, "He seemed never to care for it." He had a good income +from his profession, though the fees he received would bring a smile +to the well-paid lips of the great attorneys of to-day. The largest +fee he ever got was one of five thousand dollars from the Illinois +Central Railway, and he had to bring suit to compel them to pay it. He +spent what he received in the education of his children, in the care +of his family, and in a plain and generous way of living. One who +often visited him writes, referring to "the old-fashioned hospitality +of Springfield," "Among others I recall with a sad pleasure, the +dinners and evening parties given by Mrs. Lincoln. In her modest and +simple home, where everything was so orderly and refined, there was +always on the part of both host and hostess a cordial and hearty +Western welcome which put every guest perfectly at ease. Their table +was famed for the excellence of many rare Kentucky dishes, and for the +venison, wild turkeys, and other game, then so abundant. Yet it was +her genial manner and ever-kind welcome, and Mr. Lincoln's wit and +humor, anecdote and unrivaled conversation, which formed the chief +attraction." + +Here we leave him for a while, in this peaceful and laborious period +of his life; engaged in useful and congenial toil; surrounded by the +love and respect of the entire community; in the fullness of his years +and strength; the struggles of his youth, which were so easy to his +active brain and his mighty muscles, all behind him, and the titanic +labors of his manhood yet to come. We shall now try to sketch the +beginnings of that tremendous controversy which he was in a few years +to take up, to guide and direct to its wonderful and tragical close. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE BALANCE OF POWER + + +We shall see in the course of the present work how the life of Abraham +Lincoln divides itself into three principal periods, with +corresponding stages of intellectual development: the first, of about +forty years, ending with his term in Congress; the second, of about +ten years, concluding with his final campaign of political speech- +making in New York and in New England, shortly before the Presidential +nominations of 1860; and the last, of about five years, terminating at +his death. We have thus far traced his career through the first period +of forty years. In the several stages of frontier experience through +which he had passed, and which in the main but repeated the trials and +vicissitudes of thousands of other boys and youths in the West, only +so much individuality had been developed in him as brought him into +the leading class of his contemporaries. He had risen from laborer to +student, from clerk to lawyer, from politician to legislator. That he +had lifted himself by healthy ambition and unaided industry out of the +station of a farm-hand, whose routine life begins and ends in a +backwoods log-cabin, to that representative character and authority +which seated him in the national Capitol to aid in framing laws for +his country, was already an achievement that may well be held to crown +honorably a career of forty years. + +Such achievement and such distinction, however, were not so uncommon +as to appear phenomenal. Hundreds of other boys born in log-cabins had +won similar elevation in the manly, practical school of Western public +life. Even in ordinary times there still remained within the reach of +average intellects several higher grades of public service. It is +quite probable that the talents of Lincoln would have made him +Governor of Illinois or given him a place in the United States Senate. +But the story of his life would not have commanded, as it now does, +the unflagging attention of the world, had there not fallen upon his +generation the unusual conditions and opportunities brought about by a +series of remarkable convulsions in national politics. If we would +correctly understand how Lincoln became, first a conspicuous actor, +and then a chosen leader, in a great strife of national parties for +supremacy and power, we must briefly study the origin and development +of the great slavery controversy in American legislation which found +its highest activity and decisive culmination in the single decade +from 1850 to 1860. But we should greatly err if we attributed the new +events in Lincoln's career to the caprice of fortune. The conditions +and opportunities of which we speak were broadly national, and open to +all without restriction of rank or locality. Many of his +contemporaries had seemingly overshadowing advantages, by prominence +and training, to seize and appropriate them to their own advancement. +It is precisely this careful study of the times which shows us by what +inevitable process of selection honors and labors of which he did not +dream fell upon him; how, indeed, it was not the individual who gained +the prize, but the paramount duty which claimed the man. + +It is now universally understood, if not conceded, that the Rebellion +of 1861 was begun for the sole purpose of defending and preserving to +the seceding States the institution of African slavery and making them +the nucleus of a great slave empire, which in their ambitious dreams +they hoped would include Mexico, Central America, and the West India +Islands, and perhaps even the tropical States of South America. Both a +real and a pretended fear that slavery was in danger lay at the bottom +of this design. The real fear arose from the palpable fact, impossible +to conceal, that the slave system was a reactionary obstacle in the +pathway of modern civilization, and its political, material, +philosophical, and religious development. The pretended danger was the +permanent loss of political power by the slave States of the Union, as +shown in the election of Lincoln to the presidency, which they averred +would necessarily throw all the forces of the national life against +the "peculiar institution," and crush it under forms of law. It was by +magnifying this danger from remote into immediate consequence that +they excited the population of the cotton States to resistance and +rebellion. Seizing this opportunity, it was their present purpose to +establish a slave Confederacy, consisting of the cotton States, which +should in due time draw to itself, by an irresistible gravitation of +sympathy and interest, first, the border slave States, and, in the +further progress of events, the tropical countries towards the +equator. + +The popular agitation, or war of words between the North and the South +on the subject of slavery, which led to the armed insurrection was +threefold: First, the economic efforts to prevent the destruction of +the monetary value of four millions of human beings held in bondage, +who were bought and sold as chattels, and whose aggregate valuation, +under circumstances existing at the outbreak of the civil war, was +variously computed at $400,000,000 to $1,600,000,000; [Footnote: The +Convention of Mississippi, which passed the secession ordinance, in +its Declaration of Causes placed the total value of their property in +slaves at "four billions of money," This was at the rate of a thousand +dollars for each slave, an average absurdly excessive, and showing +their exaggerated estimate of the monetary value of the institution of +slavery.] second, a moral debate as to the abstract righteousness or +iniquity of the system; and, third, a political struggle for the +balance of power in government and public policy, by which the +security and perpetuity of the institution might be guaranteed. + +This sectional controversy over the institution of slavery in its +threefold aspect had begun with the very birth of the nation, had +continued with its growth, and become intensified with its strength. +The year before the _Mayflower_ brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth Bock, +a Dutch ship landed a cargo of African slaves at Jamestown, in +Virginia. During the long colonial period the English Government +fostered and forced the importation of slaves to America equally with +English goods. In the original draft of the Declaration of +Independence, Thomas Jefferson invoked the reprobation of mankind upon +the British King for his share in this inhuman traffic. On reflection, +however, this was discovered to be but another case of Satan rebuking +sin. The blood money which reddened the hands of English royalty +stained equally those of many an American rebel. The public opinion of +the colonies was already too much debauched to sit in unanimous moral +judgment on this crime against humanity. The objections of South +Carolina and Georgia sufficed to cause the erasure and suppression of +the obnoxious paragraph. Nor were the Northern States guiltless: +Newport was yet a great slave-mart, and the commerce of New England +drew more advantage from the traffic than did the agriculture of the +South. + +[Sidenote: J. C. Hurd, "Law of Freedom and Bondage," Vol. I. pp. 228- +311.] + +All the elements of the later controversy already existed. Slave codes +and fugitive-slave laws, abolition societies and emancipation bills, +are older than our Constitution; and negro troops fought in the +Revolutionary war for American independence. Liberal men could be +found in South Carolina who hated slavery, and narrow men in +Massachusetts who defended it. But these individual instances of +prejudice or liberality were submerged and lost in the current of +popular opinion springing from prevailing interests in the respective +localities, and institutions molded principles, until in turn +principles should become strong enough to reform institutions. In +short, slavery was one of the many "relics of barbarism"--like the +divine right of kings, religious persecution, torture of the accused, +imprisonment and enslavement for debt, witch-burning, and kindred +"institutions"--which were transmitted to that generation from former +ages as so many burdens of humanity, for help in the removal of which +the new nation was in the providence of God perhaps called into +existence. The whole matter in its broader aspects is part of that +persistent struggle of the centuries between despotism and individual +freedom; between arbitrary wrong, consecrated by tradition and law, +and the unfolding recognition of private rights; between the thraldom +of public opinion and liberty of conscience; between the greed of gain +and the Golden Rule of Christ. Whoever, therefore, chooses to trace +the remote origin of the American Rebellion will find the germ of the +Union armies of 1861-5 in the cabin of the _Mayflower_, and the +inception of the Secession forces between the decks of that Dutch +slaver which planted the fruits of her avarice and piracy in the James +River colonies in 1619. + +So elaborate and searching a study, however, is not necessary to the +purposes of this work. A very brief mention of the principal landmarks +of the long contest will serve to show the historical relation, and +explain the phraseology, of its final issues. + +The first of these great landmarks was the Ordinance of 1787. All the +States tolerated slavery and permitted the slave-trade during the +Revolution. But in most of them the morality of the system was +strongly drawn in question, especially by the abolition societies, +which embraced many of the most prominent patriots. A public opinion, +not indeed unanimous, but largely in the majority, demanded that the +"necessary evil" should cease. When the Continental Congress came to +the practical work of providing a government for the "Western lands," +which the financial pressure and the absolute need of union compelled +New York and Virginia to cede to the general Government, Thomas +Jefferson proposed, among other features in his plan and draft of +1784, to add a clause prohibiting slavery in all the North-west +territory after the year 1800. A North Carolina member moved to strike +out this clause. The form of the question put by the chairman was, +"Shall the clause stand?" Sixteen members voted aye and seven members +voted no; but under the clumsy legislative machinery of the +Confederation these seven noes carried the question, since a majority +of States had failed to vote in the affirmative. + +Three years later, July 13, 1787, this first ordinance was repealed by +a second, establishing our more modern form of territorial government. +It is justly famed for many of its provisions; but its chief value is +conceded to have been its sixth article, ordaining the immediate and +perpetual prohibition of slavery. Upon this all the States present in +Congress--three Northern and five Southern--voted in the affirmative; +five States were absent, four Northern and one Southern. This piece of +legislation is remarkable in that it was an entirely new bill, +substituted for a former and altogether different scheme containing no +prohibition whatever, and that it was passed through all the forms and +stages of enactment in the short space of four days. History sheds +little light on the official transaction, but contemporary evidence +points to the influence of a powerful lobby. + +Several plausible reasons are assigned why the three slave States of +Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina voted for this prohibition. +First, the West was competing with the Territory of Maine for +settlers; second, the whole scheme was in the interest of the "Ohio +Company," a newly formed Massachusetts emigrant aid society which +immediately made a large purchase of lands; third, the unsettled +regions south of the Ohio River had not yet been ceded to the general +Government, and were therefore open to slavery from the contiguous +Southern States; fourth, little was known of the extent or character +of the great West; and, therefore, fifth, the Ohio River was doubtless +thought to be a fair and equitable dividing line. The ordinance itself +provided for the formation of not less than three nor more than five +States, and under its shielding provisions Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, +Michigan, and Wisconsin were added to the Union with free +constitutions. + +[Sidenote: "Ellior's Debates," Vol. V., p. 395.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid., p. 392.] + +It does not appear that sectional motives operated for or against the +foregoing enactment; they were probably held in abeyance by other +considerations. But it must not be inferred therefrom that the slavery +question was absent or dormant in the country. There was already a +North and a South. At that very time the constitutional convention was +in session in Philadelphia. George Washington and his fellow delegates +were grappling with the novel problems of government which the happy +issue of the Revolution and the lamentable failure of the +Confederation forced upon the country. One of these problems was the +presence of over half a million of slaves, nearly all in five Southern +States. Should they be taxed? Should they be represented? Should the +power to regulate commerce be allowed to control or terminate their +importation? Vital questions these, which went not merely to the +incidents but the fundamental powers of government. The slavery +question seemed for months an element of irreconcilable discord in the +convention. The slave-trade not only, but the domestic institution +itself, was characterized in language which Southern politicians of +later times would have denounced as "fanatical" and "incendiary." +Pinckney wished the slaves to be represented equally with the whites, +since they were the Southern peasantry. Gouverneur Morris declared +that as they were only property they ought not to be represented at +all. Both the present and the future balance of power in national +legislation, as resulting from slaves already in, and hereafter to be +imported into, old and new States, were debated under various +possibilities and probabilities. + +Out of these divergent views grew the compromises of the Constitution. +1. The slaves were to be included in the enumeration for +representation, _five_ blacks to be counted as _three_ whites. +2. Congress should have the right to prohibit the slave-trade, but not +till the lapse of twenty years. 3. Fugitive slaves should be delivered +to their owners. Each State, large or small, was allowed two senators; +and the apportionment of representatives gave to the North thirty-five +members and fourteen senators, to the South thirty members and twelve +senators. But since the North was not yet free from slavery, but only +in process of becoming so, and as Virginia was the leading State of the +Union, the real balance of power remained in the hands of the South. + +The newly formed Constitution went into successful operation. Under +legal provisions already made and the strong current of abolition +sentiment then existing, all the Eastern and Middle States down to +Delaware became free. This gain, however, was perhaps more than +numerically counterbalanced by the active importation of captured +Africans, especially into South Carolina and Georgia, up to the time +the traffic ceased by law in 1808. Jefferson had meanwhile purchased +of France the immense country west of the Mississippi known as the +Louisiana Territory. The free navigation of that great river was +assured, and the importance of the West immeasurably increased. The +old French colonies at New Orleans and Kaskaskia were already strong +outposts of civilization and the nuclei of spreading settlements. +Attracted by the superior fertility of the soil, by the limitless +opportunities for speculation, by the enticing spirit of adventure, +and pushed by the restless energy inherent in the Anglo-Saxon +character, the older States now began to pour a rising stream of +emigration into the West and the South-west. + +In this race the free States, by reason of their greater population, +wealth, and commercial enterprise, would have outstripped the South +but for the introduction of a new and powerful influence which +operated exclusively in favor of the latter. This was the discovery of +the peculiar adaptation of the soil and climate of portions of the +Southern States, combined with cheap slave-labor, to the cultivation +of cotton. Half a century of experiment and invention in England had +brought about the concurrent improvement of machinery for spinning and +weaving, and of the high-pressure engine to furnish motive power. The +Revolutionary war was scarcely ended when there came from the mother- +country a demand for the raw fiber, which promised to be almost +without limit. A few trials sufficed to show Southern planters that +with their soil and their slaves they could supply this demand with a +quality of cotton which would defy competition, and at a profit to +themselves far exceeding that of any other product of agriculture. But +an insurmountable obstacle yet seemed to interpose itself between them +and their golden harvest. The tedious work of cleaning the fiber from +the seed apparently made impossible its cheap preparation for export +in large quantities. A negro woman working the whole day could clean +only a single pound. + +[Illustration: JAMES K. POLK.] + +[Sidenote: Memoir of Eli Whitney, "American Journal of Science," +1832.] + +It so happened that at this juncture, November, 1792, an ingenious +Yankee student from Massachusetts was boarding in the house of friends +in Savannah, Georgia, occupying his leisure in reading law. A party of +Georgia gentlemen from the interior, making a visit to this family, +fell into conversation on the prospects and difficulties of cotton- +culture and the imperative need of a rapidly working cleaning-machine. +Their hostess, an intelligent and quick-witted woman, at once +suggested an expedient. "Gentlemen," said Mrs. Greene, "apply to my +young friend, Mr. Eli Whitney; he can make anything." The Yankee +student was sought, introduced, and had the mechanical problem laid +before him. He modestly disclaimed his hostess's extravagant praises, +and told his visitors that he had never seen either cotton or cotton- +seed in his life. Nevertheless, he went to work with such earnestness +and success, that in a few months Mrs. Greene had the satisfaction of +being able to invite a gathering of gentlemen from different parts of +the State to behold with their own eyes the working of the newly +invented cotton-gin, with which a negro man turning a crank could +clean fifty pounds of cotton per day. + +[Sidenote: 1808.] + +[Sidenote: Compendium, Eighth Census, p. 13.] + +This solution of the last problem in cheap cotton-culture made it at +once the leading crop of the South. That favored region quickly drove +all competitors out of the market; and the rise of English imports of +raw cotton, from thirty million pounds, in 1790 to over one thousand +million pounds in 1860, shows the development and increase of this +special industry, with all its related interests. [Footnote: The +Virginia price of a male "field hand" in 1790 was $250; in 1860 his +value in the domestic market had risen to $1600.--SHERRARD CLEMENS, +speech in H. E. Appendix "Congressional Globe," 1860-1, pp. 104-5.] It +was not till fifteen years after the invention of the cotton-gin that +the African slave-trade ceased by limitation of law. "Within that +period many thousands of negro captives had been added to the +population of the South by direct importation, and nearly thirty +thousand slave inhabitants added by the acquisition of Louisiana, +hastening the formation of new slave States south of the Ohio River in +due proportion." [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to +chapter end.] + +It is a curious historical fact, that under the very remarkable +material growth of the United States which now took place, the +political influence remained so evenly balanced between the North and +the South for more than a generation. Other grave issues indeed +absorbed the public attention, but the abeyance of the slavery +question is due rather to the fact that no considerable advantage as +yet fell to either side. Eight new States were organized, four north +and four south of the Ohio River, and admitted in nearly alternate +order: Vermont in 1791, _free_; Kentucky in 1792, _slave_; Tennessee +in 1796, _slave_; Ohio in 1802, _free_; Louisiana in 1812, _slave_; +Indiana in 1816, _free_; Mississippi in 1817, _slave_; Illinois in +1818, _free_. Alabama was already authorized to be admitted with +slavery, and this would make the number of free and slave States equal, +giving eleven States to the North and eleven to the South. + +The Territory of Missouri, containing the old French colonies at and +near St. Louis, had attained a population of 60,000, and was eager to +be admitted as a State. She had made application in 1817, and now in +1819 it was proposed to authorize her to form a constitution. Arkansas +was also being nursed as an applicant, and the prospective loss by the +North and gain by the South of the balance of power caused the slavery +question suddenly to flare up as a national issue. There were hot +debates in Congress, emphatic resolutions by State legislatures, deep +agitation among the whole people, and open threats by the South to +dissolve the Union. Extreme Northern men insisted upon a restriction +of slavery to be applied to both Missouri and Arkansas; radical +Southern members contended that Congress had no power to impose any +conditions on new States. The North had control of the House, the +South of the Senate. A middle party thereupon sprang up, proposing to +divide the Louisiana purchase between freedom and slavery by the line +of 36 degrees 30', and authorizing the admission of Missouri with +slavery out of the northern half. Fastening this proposition upon the +bill to admit Maine as a free State, the measure was, after a struggle, +carried through Congress (in a separate act approved March 6, 1820), +and became the famous Missouri Compromise. Maine and Missouri were +both admitted. Each section thereby not only gained two votes in the +Senate, but also asserted its right to spread its peculiar polity +without question or hindrance within the prescribed limits; and the +motto, "No extension of slavery," was postponed forty years, to the +Republican campaign of 1860. + +From this time forward, the maintenance of this balance of power,--the +numerical equality of the slave States with the free,--though not +announced in platforms as a party doctrine, was nevertheless steadily +followed as a policy by the representatives of the South. In pursuance +of this system, Michigan and Arkansas, the former a _free_ and +the latter a _slave_ State, were, on the same day, June 15, 1836, +authorized to be admitted. These tactics were again repeated in the +year 1845, when, on the 3d of March, Iowa, a _free_ State, and +Florida, a _slave_ State, were authorized to be admitted by one +act of Congress, its approval being the last official act of President +Tyler. This tacit compromise, however, was accompanied by another very +important victory of the same policy. The Southern politicians saw +clearly enough that with the admission of Florida the slave territory +was exhausted, while an immense untouched portion of the Louisiana +purchase still stretched away to the north-west towards the Pacific +above the Missouri Compromise line, which consecrated it to freedom. +The North, therefore, still had an imperial area from which to +organize future free States, while the South had not a foot more +territory from which to create slave States. + +Sagaciously anticipating this contingency, the Southern States had +been largely instrumental in setting up the independent State of +Texas, and were now urgent in their demand for her annexation to the +Union. Two days before the signing of the Iowa and Florida bill, +Congress passed, and President Tyler signed, a joint resolution, +authorizing the acquisition, annexation, and admission of Texas. But +even this was not all. The joint resolution contained a guarantee that +"new States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in +addition to the said State of Texas," and to be formed out of her +territory, should hereafter be entitled to admission--the Missouri +Compromise line to govern the slavery question in them. The State of +Texas was, by a later resolution, formally admitted to the Union, +December 29, 1845. At this date, therefore, the slave States gained an +actual majority of one, there being fourteen free States and fifteen +slave States, with at least equal territorial prospects through future +annexation. + +If the North was alarmed at being thus placed in a minority, there was +ample reason for still further disquietude. The annexation of Texas +had provoked the Mexican war, and President Polk, in anticipation of +further important acquisition of territory to the South and West, +asked of Congress an appropriation of two millions to be used in +negotiations to that end. An attempt to impose a condition to these +negotiations that slavery should never exist in any territory to be +thus acquired was the famous Wilmot Proviso. This particular measure +failed, but the war ended, and New Mexico and California were added to +the Union as unorganized Territories. Meanwhile the admission of +Wisconsin in 1848 had once more restored the equilibrium between the +free and the slave States, there being now fifteen of each. + +It must not be supposed that the important political measures and +results thus far summarized were accomplished by quiet and harmonious +legislation. Rising steadily after 1820, the controversy over slavery +became deep and bitter, both in Congress and the country. Involving +not merely a policy of government, but a question of abstract morals, +statesmen, philanthropists, divines, the press, societies, churches, +and legislative bodies joined in the discussion. Slavery was assailed +and defended in behalf of the welfare of the state, and in the name of +religion. In Congress especially it had now been a subject of angry +contention for a whole generation. It obtruded itself into all manner +of questions, and clung obstinately to numberless resolutions and +bills. Time and again it had brought members into excited discussion, +and to the very verge of personal conflict in the legislative halls. +It had occasioned numerous threats to dissolve the Union, and in one +or more instances caused members actually to retire from the House of +Representatives. It had given rise to resolutions of censure, to +resignations, and had been the occasion of some of the greatest +legislative debates of the nation. It had virtually created and +annexed the largest State in the Union. In several States it had +instigated abuse, intolerance, persecutions, trials, mobs, murders, +destruction of property, imprisonment of freemen, retaliatory +legislation, and one well-defined and formidable attempt at +revolution. It originated party factions, political schools, and +constitutional doctrines, and made and marred the fame of great +statesmen. + +New Mexico, when acquired, contained one of the oldest towns on the +continent, and a considerable population of Spanish origin. +California, almost simultaneously with her acquisition, was peopled in +the course of a few months by the world-renowned gold discoveries. +Very unexpectedly, therefore, to politicians of all grades and +opinions, the slavery question was once more before the nation in the +year 1850, over the proposition to admit both to the Union as States. +As the result of the long conflict of opinion hitherto maintained, the +beliefs and desires of the contending sections had by this time become +formulated in distinct political doctrines. The North contended that +Congress might and should prohibit slavery in all the territories of +the Union, as had been done in the Northern half by the Ordinance of +1787 and by the Missouri Compromise. The South declared that any such +exclusion would not only be unjust and impolitic, but absolutely +unconstitutional, because property in slaves might enter and must be +protected in the territories in common with all other property. To the +theoretical dispute was added a practical contest. By the existing +Mexican laws slavery was already prohibited in New Mexico, and +California promptly formed a free State constitution. Under these +circumstances the North sought to organize the former as a Territory, +and admit the latter as a State, while the South resisted and +endeavored to extend the Missouri Compromise line, which would place +New Mexico and the southern half of California under the tutelage and +influence of slavery. + +These were the principal points of difference which caused the great +slavery agitation of 1850. The whole country was convulsed in +discussion; and again more open threats and more ominous movements +towards disunion came from the South. The most popular statesman of +that day, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, a slaveholder opposed to the +extension of slavery, now, however, assumed the leadership of a party +of compromise, and the quarrel was adjusted and quieted by a combined +series of Congressional acts. 1. California was admitted as a free +State. 2. The Territories of New Mexico and Utah were organized, +leaving the Mexican prohibition of slavery in force. 3. The domestic +slave-trade in the District of Columbia was abolished. 4. A more +stringent fugitive-slave law was passed. 5. For the adjustment of her +State boundaries Texas received ten millions of dollars. + +[Sidenote: Greeley, "American Conflict," Vol. I., p. 208.] + +These were the famous compromise measures of 1850. It has been gravely +asserted that this indemnity of ten millions, suddenly trebling the +value of the Texas debt, and thereby affording an unprecedented +opportunity for speculation in the bonds of that State, was "the +propelling force whereby these acts were pushed through Congress in +defiance of the original convictions of a majority of its members." +But it must also be admitted that the popular desire for tranquillity, +concord, and union in all sections never exerted so much influence +upon Congress as then. This compromise was not at first heartily +accepted by the people; Southern opinion being offended by the +abandonment of the "property" doctrine, and Northern sentiment +irritated by certain harsh features of the fugitive-slave law. But the +rising Union feeling quickly swept away all ebullitions of discontent, +and during two or three years people and politicians fondly dreamed +they had, in current phraseology, reached a "finality" [Transcriber's +Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to chapter end.] on this vexed +quarrel. The nation settled itself for a period of quiet to repair the +waste and utilize the conquests of the Mexican war. It became absorbed +in the expansion of its commerce, the development of its manufactures, +and the growth of its emigration, all quickened by the riches of its +marvelous gold-fields; until unexpectedly and suddenly it found itself +plunged once again into political controversies more distracting and +more ominous than the worst it had yet experienced. + +[Relocated Footnote (1): No word of the authors could add to the force +and eloquence of the following from a recent letter of the son of the +inventor of the cotton-gin (to the Art Superintendent of "The +Century"), stating the claims of his father's memory to the gratitude +of the South, hitherto apparently unfelt, and certainly unrecognized: + +"NEW HAVEN, CONN.," Dec. 4, 1886. "... I send you a photograph taken +from a portrait of my father, painted about the year 1821, by King, of +Washington, when my father, the inventor of the cotton-gin, was fifty- +five years old. He died January 25, 1825. The cotton-gin was invented +in 1793; and though it has been in use for nearly one hundred years, +it is virtually unimproved.... Hence the great merit of the South, +financially and commercially. It has made England rich, and changed +the commerce of the world. Lord Macaulay said of Eli Whitney: 'What +Peter the Great did to make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's invention +of the cotton-gin has more than equaled in its relation to the power +and progress of the United States.' He has been the greatest +benefactor of the South, but it never has, to my knowledge, +acknowledged his benefaction in a public manner to the extent it +deserves--no monument has been erected to his memory, no town or city +named after him, though the force of his genius has original +invention. It has made caused many towns and cities to rise and +flourish in the South.... + +"Yours very truly, E. W. WHITNEY."] + +[Relocated Footnote (2): Grave doubts, however, found occasional +expression, and none perhaps more forcibly than in the following +newspaper epigram--describing "Finality": + + To kill twice dead a rattlesnake, + And off his scaly skin to take, + And through his head to drive a stake, + And every bone within him break, + And of his flesh mincemeat to make, + To burn, to sear, to boil, and bake, + Then in a heap the whole to rake, + And over it the besom shake, + And sink it fathoms in the lake-- + Whence after all, quite wide awake, + Comes back that very same old snake!] + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE + + +The long contest in Congress over the compromise measures of 1850, and +the reluctance of a minority, alike in the North and the South, to +accept them, had in reality seriously demoralized both the great +political parties of the country. The Democrats especially, defeated +by the fresh military laurels of General Taylor in 1848, were much +exercised to discover their most available candidate as the +presidential election of 1852 approached. The leading names, Cass, +Buchanan, and Marcy, having been long before the public, were becoming +a little stale. In this contingency, a considerable following grouped +itself about an entirely new man, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. +Emigrating from Vermont to the West, Douglas had run a career +remarkable for political success. Only in his thirty-ninth year, he +had served as member of the legislature, as State's Attorney, as +Secretary of State, and as judge of the Supreme Court in Illinois, and +had since been three times elected to Congress and once to the Senate +of the United States. Nor did he owe his political fortunes entirely +to accident. Among his many qualities of leadership were strong +physical endurance, untiring industry, a persistent boldness, a ready +facility in public speaking, unfailing political shrewdness, an +unusual power in running debate, with liberal instincts and +progressive purposes. It was therefore not surprising that he should +attract the admiration and support of the young, the ardent, and +especially the restless and ambitious members of his party. His career +in Congress was sufficiently conspicuous. As Chairman of the Committee +on Territories in the Senate, he had borne a prominent part in the +enactment of the compromise measures of 1850, and had just met and +overcome a threatened party schism in his own State, which that +legislation had there produced. + +In their eagerness to push his claims to the presidency, the partisans +of Douglas committed a great error. Rightly appreciating the growing +power of the press, they obtained control of the "Democratic Review," +a monthly magazine then prominent as a party organ, and published in +it a series of articles attacking the rival Democratic candidates in +very flashy rhetoric. These were stigmatized as "old fogies," who must +give ground to a nominee of "Young America." They were reminded that +the party expects a "new man." "Age is to be honored, but senility is +pitiable"; "statesmen of a previous generation must get out of the +way"; the Democratic party was owned by a set of "old clothes-horses"; +"they couldn't pay their political promises in four Democratic +administrations"; and the names of Cass and Marcy, Buchanan and +Butler, were freely mixed in with such epithets as "pretenders," +"hucksters," "intruders," and "vile charlatans." + +Such characterization of such men soon created a flagrant scandal in +the Democratic party, which was duly aired both in the newspapers and +in Congress. It definitely fixed the phrases "old fogy" and "Young +America" in our slang literature. The personal friends of Douglas +hastened to explain and assert his innocence of any complicity with +this political raid, but they were not more than half believed; and +the war of factions, begun in January, raged with increasing +bitterness till the Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore in +June, and undoubtedly exerted a decisive influence over the +deliberations of that body. + +The only serious competitors for the nomination were the "old fogies" +Cass, Marcy, and Buchanan on the one hand, and Douglas, the pet of +"Young America," on the other. It soon became evident that opinion was +so divided among these four that a nomination could only be reached +through long and tedious ballotings. Beginning with some 20 votes, +Douglas steadily gained adherents till on the 30th ballot he received +92. From this point, however, his strength fell away. Unable himself +to succeed, he was nevertheless sufficiently powerful to defeat his +adversaries. The exasperation had been too great to permit a +concentration or compromise on any of the "seniors." Cass reached only +131 votes; Marcy, 98; Buchanan, 104; and finally, on the 49th ballot, +occurred the memorable nearly unanimous selection of Franklin Pierce-- +not because of any merit of his own, but to break the insurmountable +dead-lock of factional hatred. Young America gained a nominal triumph, +old fogydom a real revenge, and the South a serviceable Northern ally. +Douglas and his friends were discomfited but not dismayed. Their +management had been exceedingly maladroit, as a more modest +championship would without doubt have secured him the coveted +nomination. Yet sagacious politicians foresaw that on the whole he was +strengthened by his defeat. From that time forward he was a recognized +presidential aspirant and competitor, young enough patiently to bide +his time, and of sufficient prestige to make his flag the rallying +point of all the free-lances in the Democratic party. + +It is to this presidential aspiration of Mr. Douglas that we must look +as the explanation of his agency in bringing about the repeal of the +Missouri Compromise. As already said, after some factious opposition +the measures of 1850 had been accepted by the people as a finality of +the slavery question. Around this alleged settlement, distasteful as +it was to many, public opinion gradually crystallized. Both the +National Conventions of 1852 solemnly resolved that they would +discountenance and resist, in Congress or out of it, whenever, +wherever, or however, or under whatever color or shape, any further +renewal of the slavery agitation. This determination was echoed and +reechoed, affirmed and reaffirmed, by the recognized organs of the +public voice--from the village newspaper to the presidential message, +from the country debating school to the measured utterances of +senatorial discussion. + +[Sidenote: Appendix "Congressional Globe" 1851-2, p. 63.] + +[Sidenote: Douglas, Senate speech 1850. Appendix, 1849-50 pp. 369 to +372.] + +[Sidenote: Douglas, Springfield speech, Oct. 28, 1849. Illinois +"Register."] + +In support of this alleged "finality" no one had taken a more decided +stand than Senator Douglas himself. Said he: "In taking leave of this +subject I wish, to state that I have determined never to make another +speech upon the slavery question; and I will now add the hope that the +necessity for it will never exist.... So long as our opponents do not +agitate for repeal or modification, why should we agitate for any +purpose! We claim that the compromise [of 1850] is a final settlement. +Is a final settlement open to discussion and agitation and controversy +by its friends? What manner of settlement is that which does not +settle the difficulty and quiet the dispute? Are not the friends of +the compromise becoming the agitators, and will not the country hold +us responsible for that which we condemn and denounce in the +abolitionists and Free-soldiers? These are matters worthy of our +consideration. Those who preach peace should not be the first to +commence and reopen an old quarrel." In his Senate speeches, during +the compromise debates of 1850, while generally advocating his theory +of "non-intervention," he had sounded the whole gamut of the slavery +discussion, defending the various measures of adjustment against the +attacks of the Southern extremists, and specifically defending the +Missouri Compromise. More than this; he had declared in distinct words +that the principle of territorial prohibition was no violation of +Southern rights; and denounced the proposition of Calhoun to put a +"balance of power" clause into the Constitution as "a retrograde +movement in an age of progress that would astonish the world." These +repeated affirmations, taken in connection with his famous description +of the Missouri Compromise in 1849, in which he declared it to have +had "an origin akin to the Constitution," and to have become +"canonized in the hearts of the American people as a sacred thing +which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb," all +seemed, in the public mind, to fix his position definitely; no one +imagined that Douglas would so soon become the subject of his own +anathemas. + +The full personal details of this event are lost to history. We have +only a faint and shadowy outline of isolated movements of a few chief +actors, a few vague suggestions and fragmentary steps in the formation +and unfolding of the ill-omened plot. + +As the avowed representative of the restless and ambitious elements of +the country, as the champion of "Young America," Douglas had so far as +possible in his Congressional career made himself the apostle of +modern "progress." He was a believer in "manifest destiny" and a +zealous advocate of the Monroe doctrine. He desired--so the newspapers +averred--that the Caribbean Sea should be declared an American lake, +and nothing so delighted him as to pull the beard of the British lion. +These topics, while they furnished themes for campaign speeches, for +the present led to no practical legislation. In his position as +chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, however, he had +control of kindred measures of present and vital interest to the +people of the West; namely, the opening of new routes of travel and +emigration, and of new territories for settlement. An era of wonder +had just dawned, connecting itself directly with these subjects. The +acquisition of California and the discovery of gold had turned the +eyes of the whole civilized world to the Pacific coast. Plains and +mountains were swarming with adventurers and emigrants. Oregon, Utah, +New Mexico, and Minnesota had just been organized, and were in a +feeble way contesting the sudden fame of the Golden State. The Western +border was astir, and wild visions of lands and cities and mines and +wealth and power were disturbing the dreams of the pioneer in his +frontier cabin, and hurrying him off on the long, romantic quest +across the continent. + +Hitherto, stringent Federal laws had kept settlers and unlicensed +traders out of the Indian territory, which lay beyond the western +boundaries of Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, and which the policy of +our early Presidents fixed upon as the final asylum of the red men +retreating before the advance of white settlements. But now the +uncontrollable stream of emigration had broken into and through this +reservation, creating in a few years well-defined routes of travel to +New Mexico, Utah, California, and Oregon. Though from the long march +there came constant cries of danger and distress, of starvation and +Indian massacre, there was neither halting nor delay. The courageous +pioneers pressed forward all the more earnestly, and to such purpose +that in less than twenty-five years the Pacific Railroad followed +Fremont's first exploration through the South Pass. + +[Illustration: FRANKLIN PIERCE.] + +Douglas, himself a migratory child of fortune, was in thorough +sympathy with this somewhat premature Western longing of the people; +and as chairman of the Committee on Territories was the recipient of +all the letters, petitions, and personal solicitations from the +various interests which were seeking their advantage in this exodus +toward the setting sun. He was the natural center for all the embryo +mail contractors, office-holders, Indian traders, land-sharks, and +railroad visionaries whose coveted opportunities lay in the Western +territories. It is but just to his fame, however, to say that he +comprehended equally well the true philosophical and political +necessities which now demanded the opening of Kansas and Nebraska as a +secure highway and protecting bridge to the Rocky Mountains and our +new-found El Dorado, no less than as a bond of union between the older +States and the improvised "Young America" on the Pacific coast. The +subject was not yet ripe for action during the stormy politics of +1850-1, and had again to be postponed for the presidential campaign of +1852. But after Pierce was triumphantly elected, with a Democratic +Congress to sustain him, the legislative calm which both parties had +adjured in their platforms seemed favorable for pushing measures of +local interest. The control of legislation for the territories was for +the moment completely in the hands of Douglas. He was himself chairman +of the Committee of the Senate; and his special personal friend and +political lieutenant in his own State, William A. Richardson, of +Illinois, was chairman of the Territorial Committee of the House, He +could therefore choose his own time and mode of introducing measures +of this character in either house of Congress, under the majority +control of his party--a fact to be constantly borne in mind when we +consider the origin and progress of "the three Nebraska bills." + +[Sidenote: "Globe," Feb. 2, 1853, p. 474.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid., Feb. 8, p. 542-544.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid., Feb. 10, p. 566.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid., Feb. 10, p. 559.] + +The journal discloses that Richardson, of Illinois, chairman of the +Committee on Territories of the House of Representatives, on February +2, 1853, introduced into the House "A bill to organize the Territory +of Nebraska." After due reference, and some desultory debate on the +8th, it was taken up and passed by the House on the 10th. From the +discussion we learn that the boundaries were the Missouri River on the +east, the Rocky Mountains on the west, the line of 36 degrees 30' or +southern line of Missouri on the south, and the line of 43 degrees, or +near the northern line of Iowa, on the north. Several members opposed +it, because the Indian title to the lands was not yet extinguished, +and because it embraced reservations pledged to Indian occupancy in +perpetuity; also on the general ground that it contained but few white +inhabitants, and its organization was therefore a useless expense. +Howard, of Texas, made the most strenuous opposition, urging that +since it contained but about six hundred souls, its southern boundary +should be fixed at 39 degrees 30', not to trench upon the Indian +reservations. Hall, of Missouri, replied in support of the bill: "We +want the organization of the Territory of Nebraska not merely for the +protection of the few people who reside there, but also for the +protection of Oregon and California in time of war, and the protection +of our commerce and the fifty or sixty thousand emigrants who annually +cross the plains." He added that its limits were purposely made large +to embrace the great lines of travel to Oregon, New Mexico, and +California; since the South Pass was in 42 degrees 30', the Territory +had to extend to 43 degrees north. + +[Sidenote: "Globe," Feb. 8, 1858, p. 543.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid., Feb. 10, 1853, p. 565.] + +The incident, however, of special historical significance had occurred +in the debate of the 8th, when a member rose and said: "I wish to +inquire of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Giddings], who, I believe, is +a member of the Committee on Territories, why the Ordinance of 1787 is +not incorporated in this bill? I should like to know whether he or the +committee were intimidated on account of the platforms of 1852?" To +which Mr. Giddings replied that the south line of the territory was 36 +degrees 30', and was already covered by the Missouri Compromise +prohibition. "This law stands perpetually, and I do not think that +this act would receive any increased validity by a reenactment. There +I leave the matter. It is very clear that the territory included in +this treaty [ceding Louisiana] must be forever free unless the law be +repealed." With this explicit understanding from a member of the +committee, apparently accepted as conclusive by the whole House, and +certainly not objected to by the chairman, Mr. Richardson, who was +carefully watching the current of debate, the bill passed on the 10th, +ninety-eight yeas to forty-three nays. Led by a few members from that +region, in the main the West voted for it and the South against it; +while the greater number, absorbed in other schemes, were wholly +indifferent, and probably cast their votes upon personal solicitation. + +On the following day the bill was hurried over to the Senate, referred +to Mr. Douglas's committee, and by him reported back without +amendment, on February 17th; but the session was almost ended before +he was able to gain the attention of the Senate for its discussion. +Finally, on the night before the inauguration of President Pierce, in +the midst of a fierce and protracted struggle over the appropriation +bills, while the Senate was without a quorum and impatiently awaiting +the reports of a number of conference committees, Douglas seized the +opportunity of the lull to call up his Nebraska bill. Here again, as +in the House, Texas stubbornly opposed it. Houston undertook to talk +it to death in a long speech; Bell protested against robbing the +Indians of their guaranteed rights. The bill seemed to have no friend +but its author when, perhaps to his surprise, Senator D. R. Atchison, +of Missouri, threw himself into the breach. + +[Sidenote: "Globe," March 3, 1853, p. 1113.] + +Prefacing his remarks with the statement that he had formerly been +opposed to the measure, he continued: "I had two objections to it. One +was that the Indian title in that territory had not been extinguished, +or at least a very small portion of it had been. Another was the +Missouri Compromise, or, as it is commonly called, the Slavery +Restriction. It was my opinion at that time--and I am not now very +clear on that subject--that the law of Congress, when the State of +Missouri was admitted into the Union, excluding slavery from the +territory of Louisiana north of 36 degrees 30', would be enforced in +that territory unless it was specially rescinded; and whether that law +was in accordance with the Constitution of the United States or not, +it would do its work, and that work would be to preclude slaveholders +from going into that territory. But when I came to look into that +question, I found that there was no prospect, no hope, of a repeal of +the Missouri Compromise excluding slavery from that territory.... I +have always been of opinion that the first great error committed in +the political history of this country was the Ordinance of 1787, +rendering the North-west Territory free territory. The next great +error was the Missouri Compromise. But they are both irremediable.... +We must submit to them. I am prepared to do it. It is evident that the +Missouri Compromise cannot be repealed. So far as that question is +concerned, we might as well agree to the admission of this territory +now as next year, or five or ten years hence." + +[Sidenote: "Globe," March 3, 1853, p. 1117.] + +Mr. Douglas closed the debate, advocating the passage of the bill for +general reasons, and by his silence accepting Atchison's conclusions; +but as the morning of the 4th of March was breaking, an unwilling +Senate laid the bill on the table by a vote of twenty-three to +seventeen, here, as in the House, the West being for and the South +against the measure. It is not probable, however, that in this course +the South acted with any mental reservation or sinister motive. The +great breach of faith was not yet even meditated. Only a few hours +afterwards, in a dignified and stately national ceremonial, in the +midst of foreign ministers, judges, senators, and representatives, the +new President of the United States delivered to the people his +inaugural address. High and low were alike intent to discern the +opening political currents of the new Administration, but none touched +or approached this particular subject. The aspirations of "Young +America" were not towards a conquest of the North, but the enlargement +of the South. A freshening breeze filled the sails of "annexation" and +"manifest destiny." In bold words the President said: "The policy of +my Administration will not be controlled by any timid forebodings of +evil from expansion. Indeed, it is not to be disguised that our +attitude as a nation and our position on the globe render the +acquisition of certain possessions not within our jurisdiction +eminently important for our protection, if not in the future essential +for the preservation of the rights of commerce and the peace of the +world." Reaching the slavery question, he expressed unbounded devotion +to the Union, and declared slavery recognized by the Constitution, and +his purpose to enforce the compromise measures of 1850, adding, "I +fervently trust that the question is at rest, and that no sectional or +ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of +our institutions, or obscure the light of our prosperity." + +[Sidebar: Senate Report, No. 15, 1st Session, 33d Congress.] + +When Congress met again in the following December (1853), the annual +message of President Pierce was, upon this subject, but an echo of his +inaugural, as his inaugural had been but an echo of the two party +platforms of 1852. Affirming that the compromise measures of 1850 had +given repose to the country, he declared, "That this repose is to +suffer no shock during my official term, if I have the power to avert +it, those who placed me here may be assured." In this spirit, +undoubtedly, the Democratic party and the South began the session of +1853-4; but unfortunately it was very soon abandoned. The people of +the Missouri and Iowa border were becoming every day more impatient to +enter upon an authorized occupancy of the new lands which lay a day's +journey to the west. Handfuls of squatters here and there had elected +two territorial delegates, who hastened to Washington with embryo +credentials. The subject of organizing the West was again broached; an +Iowa Senator introduced a territorial bill. Under the ordinary routine +it was referred to the Committee on Territories, and on the 4th +day of January Douglas reported back his second Nebraska bill, +still without any repeal of the Missouri Compromise. His elaborate +report accompanying this second bill, shows that the subject had +been most carefully examined in committee. The discussion was +evidently exhaustive, going over the whole history, policy, and +constitutionality of prohibitory legislation. Two or three sentences +are quite sufficient to present the substance of the long and wordy +report. First, that there were differences and doubts; second, that +these had been finally settled by the compromise measures of 1850; +and, therefore, third, the committee had adhered not only to the +spirit but to the very phraseology of that adjustment, and refused +either to affirm or repeal the Missouri Compromise. + +[Sidenote: Senator Benjamin Senate Debate, May 8, 1860. "Globe," p. +1966.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid.] + +[Sidenote: Douglas, pamphlet in reply to Judge Black, October, 1859, +p. 6.] + +This was the public and legislative agreement announced to the +country. Subsequent revelations show the secret and factional bargain +which that agreement covered. Not only was this territorial bill +searchingly considered in committee, but repeated caucuses were held +by the Democratic leaders to discuss the party results likely to grow +out of it. The Southern Democrats maintained that the Constitution of +the United States recognized their right and guaranteed them +protection to their slave property, if they chose to carry it into +Federal Territories. Douglas and other Northern Democrats contended +that slavery was subject to local law, and that the people of a +Territory, like those of a State, could establish or prohibit it. This +radical difference, if carried into party action, would lose them the +political ascendency they had so long maintained, and were then +enjoying. To avert a public rupture of the party, it was agreed "that +the Territories should be organized with a delegation by Congress of +all the power of Congress in the Territories, and that the extent of +the power of Congress should be determined by the courts." If the +courts should decide against the South, the Southern Democrats would +accept the Northern theory; if the courts should decide in favor of +the South, the Northern Democrats would defend the Southern view. Thus +harmony would be preserved, and party power prolonged. Here we have +the shadow of the coming Dred Scott decision already projected into +political history, though the speaker protests that "none of us knew +of the existence of a controversy then pending in the Federal courts +that would lead almost immediately to the decision of that question." +This was probably true; for a "peculiar provision" was expressly +inserted in the committee's bill, allowing appeals to the Supreme +Court of the United States in all questions involving title to slaves, +without reference to the usual limitations in respect to the value of +the property, thereby paving the way to an early adjudication by the +Supreme Court. + +[Sidenote: "Globe," Jan. 15, 1854, p. 175.] + +Thus the matter rested till the 16th of January, when Senator Dixon, +of Kentucky, apparently acting for himself alone, offered an amendment +in effect repealing the Missouri Compromise. Upon this provocation, +Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, the next day offered another +amendment affirming that it was not repealed by the bill. Commenting +on these propositions two days later, the Administration organ, the +"Washington Union," declared they were both "false lights," to be +avoided by all good Democrats. By this time, however, the subject of +"repeal" had become bruited about the Capitol corridors, the hotels, +and the caucus rooms of Washington, and newspaper correspondents were +on the _qui vive_ to obtain the latest developments concerning +the intrigue. The secrets of the Territorial Committee leaked out, and +consultations multiplied. Could a repeal be carried? Who would offer +it and lead it? What divisions or schisms would it carry into the +ranks of the Democratic party, especially in the pending contest +between the "Hards" and "Softs" in New York? What effect would it have +upon the presidential election of 1856? Already the "Union" suggested +that it was whispered that Cass was willing to propose and favor such +a "repeal." It was given out in the "Baltimore Sun" that Cass intended +to "separate the sheep from the goats." Both statements were untrue; +but they perhaps had their intended effect, to arouse the jealousy and +eagerness of Douglas. The political air of Washington was heavy with +clouds and mutterings, and clans were gathering for and against the +ominous proposition. + +So far as history has been allowed a glimpse into these secret +communings, three principal personages were at this time planning a +movement of vast portent. These were Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of +the Senate Committee on Territories; Archibald Dixon, Whig Senator +from Kentucky; and David R. Atchison, of Missouri, then president +_pro tempore_ of the Senate, and acting Vice-President of the +United States. "'For myself,' said the latter in explaining the +transaction, 'I am entirely devoted to the interest of the South, and +I would sacrifice everything but my hope of heaven to advance her +welfare.' He thought the Missouri Compromise ought to be repealed; he +had pledged himself in his public addresses to vote for no territorial +organization that would not virtually annul it; and with this feeling +in his heart he desired to be the chairman of the Senate Committee on +Territories when a bill was introduced. With this object in view, he +had a private interview with Mr. Douglas, and informed him of what he +desired--the introduction of a bill for Nebraska like what +[_sic_] he had promised to vote for, and that he would like to be +the chairman of the Committee on Territories in order to introduce +such a measure; and, if he could get that position, he would +immediately resign as president of the Senate. Judge Douglas requested +twenty-four hours to consider the matter, and if at the expiration of +that time he could not introduce such a bill as he (Mr. Atchison) +proposed, he would resign as chairman of the Territorial Committee in +Democratic caucus, and exert his influence to get him (Atchison) +appointed. At the expiration of the given time, Senator Douglas +signified his intention to introduce such a bill as had been spoken +of." [Footnote: Speech at Atchison City, September, 1854, reported in +the "Parkville Luminary."] + +Senator Dixon is no less explicit in his description of these +political negotiations. "My amendment seemed to take the Senate by +surprise, and no one appeared more startled than Judge Douglas +himself. He immediately came to my seat and courteously remonstrated +against my amendment, suggesting that the bill which he had introduced +was almost in the words of the territorial acts for the organization +of Utah and. New Mexico; that they being a part of the compromise +measures of 1850 he had hoped that I, a known and zealous friend of +the wise and patriotic adjustment which had then taken place, would +not be inclined to do anything to call that adjustment in question or +weaken it before the country. + +"I replied that it was precisely because I had been and was a firm and +zealous friend of the Compromise of 1850 that I felt bound to persist +in the movement which I had originated; that I was well satisfied that +the Missouri Restriction, if not expressly repealed, would continue to +operate in the territory to which it had been applied, thus negativing +the great and salutary principle of _non-intervention_ which +constituted the most prominent and essential feature of the plan of +settlement of 1850. We talked for some time amicably, and separated. +Some days afterwards Judge Douglas came to my lodgings, whilst I was +confined by physical indisposition, and urged me to get up and take a +ride with him in his carriage. I accepted his invitation, and rode out +with him. During our short excursion we talked on the subject of my +proposed amendment, and Judge Douglas, to my high gratification, +proposed to me that I should allow him to take charge of the amendment +and ingraft it on his territorial bill. I acceded to the proposition +at once, whereupon a most interesting interchange occurred between us. + +"On this occasion Judge Douglas spoke to me in substance thus: 'I have +become perfectly satisfied that it is my duty, as a fair-minded +national statesman, to cooperate with you as proposed, in securing the +repeal of the Missouri Compromise restriction. It is due to the South; +it is due to the Constitution, heretofore palpably infracted; it is +due to that character for consistency which I have heretofore labored +to maintain. The repeal, if we can effect it, will produce much stir +and commotion in the free States of the Union for a season. I shall be +assailed by demagogues and fanatics there without stint or moderation. +Every opprobrious epithet will be applied to me. I shall be probably +hung in effigy in many places. It is more than probable that I may +become permanently odious among those whose friendship and esteem I +have heretofore possessed. This proceeding may end my political +career. But, acting under the sense of the duty which animates me, I +am prepared to make the sacrifice. I will do it.' + +"He spoke in the most earnest and touching manner, and I confess that +I was deeply affected. I said to him in reply: 'Sir, I once recognized +you as a demagogue, a mere party manager, selfish and intriguing. I +now find you a warm-hearted and sterling patriot. Go forward in the +pathway of duty as you propose, and though all the world desert you, I +never will.'" [Footnote: Archibald Dixon to H. S. Foote, October 1, +1858. "Louisville Democrat" of October 3, 1858.] + +[Sidenote: "Globe," Feb. 15, 1864, p. 421.] + +Such is the circumstantial record of this remarkable political +transaction left by two prominent and principal instigators, and never +denied nor repudiated by the third. Gradually, as the plot was +developed, the agreement embraced the leading elements of the +Democratic party in Congress, reenforced by a majority of the Whig +leaders from the slave States. A day or two before the final +introduction of the repeal, Douglas and others held an interview with +President Pierce, [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated +to chapter end.] and obtained from him in writing an agreement to adopt +the movement as an Administration measure. Fortified with this +important adhesion, Douglas took the fatal plunge, and on January 23 +introduced his third Nebraska bill, organizing two territories instead +of one, and declaring the Missouri Compromise "inoperative." But the +amendment--monstrous Caliban of legislation as it was--needed to be +still further licked into shape to satisfy the designs of the South and +appease the alarmed conscience of the North. Two weeks later, after the +first outburst of debate, the following phraseology was substituted: +"Which being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by +Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by +the legislation of 1850 (commonly called the Compromise measures), is +hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and +meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or +State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof +perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in +their own way, subject only to the Constitution"--a change which Benton +truthfully characterized as "a stump speech injected into the belly of +the Nebraska bill." [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated +to chapter end.] + +The storm of agitation which this measure aroused dwarfed all former +ones in depth and intensity. The South was nearly united in its +behalf, the North sadly divided in opposition. Against protest and +appeal, under legislative whip and spur, with the tempting smiles and +patronage of the Administration, after nearly a four months' +parliamentary struggle, the plighted faith of a generation was +violated, and the repealing act passed--mainly by the great influence +and example of Douglas, who had only five years before so fittingly +described the Missouri Compromise as being "akin to the Constitution," +and "canonized in the hearts of the American people as a sacred thing +which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb." + +[Relocated Footnote (1): Jefferson Davis, who was a member of +President Pierce's Cabinet (Secretary of War), thus relates the +incident: "On Sunday morning, the 22d of January, 1854, gentlemen of +each committee {House and Senate Committees on Territories} called at +my house, and Mr. Douglas, chairman of the Senate Committee, fully +explained the proposed bill, and stated their purpose to them through +my aid, to obtain an interview on that day with the President, to +ascertain whether the bill would meet his approbation. The President +was known to be rigidly opposed to the reception of visits on Sunday +for the discussion of any political subject; but in this case it was +urged as necessary, in order to enable the committee to make their +report the next day. I went with them to the Executive Mansion, and, +leaving them in the reception-room, sought the President in his +private apartments, and explained to him the occasion of the visit. He +thereupon met the gentlemen, patiently listened to the reading of the +bill and their explanations of it, decided that it rested upon sound +constitutional principles, and recognized in it only a return to that +rule which had been infringed by the Compromise of 1820, and the +restoration of which had been foreshadowed by the legislation of 1850. +This bill was not, therefore, as has been improperly asserted, a +measure inspired by Mr. Pierce or any of his Cabinet."--Davis, "Rise +and Fall of the Confederate Government," Vol. I., p. 28.] + +[Relocated Footnote (2): We have the authority of ex-Vice-President +Hannibal Hamlin for stating that Mr. Douglas (who was on specially +intimate terms with him) told him that the language of the final +amendment to the Kansas-Nebraska bill repealing the Missouri +Compromise was written by President Franklin Pierce. Douglas was +apprehensive that the President would withdraw or withhold from him a +full and undivided Administration support, and told Mr. Hamlin that he +intended to get from him something in black and white which would hold +him. A day or two afterwards Douglas, in a confidential conversation, +showed Mr. Hamlin the draft of the amendment in Mr. Pierce's own +handwriting.] + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE DRIFT OF POLITICS + + +The repeal of the Missouri Compromise made the slavery question +paramount in every State of the Union. The boasted finality was a +broken reed; the life-boat of compromise a hopeless wreck. If the +agreement of a generation could be thus annulled in a breath, was +there any safety even in the Constitution itself? This feeling +communicated itself to the Northern States at the very first note of +warning, and every man's party fealty was at once decided by his +toleration of or opposition to slavery. While the fate of the Nebraska +bill hung in a doubtful balance in the House, the feeling found +expression in letters, speeches, meetings, petitions, and +remonstrances. Men were for or against the bill--every other political +subject was left in abeyance. The measure once passed, and the +Compromise repealed, the first natural impulse was to combine, +organize, and agitate for its restoration. This was the ready-made, +common ground of cooperation. + +It is probable that this merely defensive energy would have been +overcome and dissipated, had it not at this juncture been inspirited +and led by the faction known as the Free-soil party of the country, +composed mainly of men of independent anti-slavery views, who had +during four presidential campaigns been organized as a distinct +political body, with no near hope of success, but animated mainly by +the desire to give expression to their deep personal convictions. If +there were demagogues here and there among them, seeking merely to +create a balance of power for bargain and sale, they were unimportant +in number, and only of local influence, and soon became deserters. +There was no mistaking the earnestness of the body of this faction. A +few fanatical men, who had made it the vehicle of violent expressions, +had kept it under the ban of popular prejudice. It had long been held +up to public odium as a revolutionary band of "abolitionists." Most of +the abolitionists were doubtless in this party, but the party was not +all composed of abolitionists. Despite objurgation and contempt, it +had become since 1840 a constant and growing factor in politics. It +had operated as a negative balance of power in the last three +presidential elections, causing by its diversion of votes, and more +especially by its relaxing influence upon parties, the success of the +Democratic candidate, James K. Polk, in 1844, the Whig candidate, +General Taylor, in 1848, and the Democratic nominee, Franklin Pierce, +in 1852. + +This small party of antislavery veterans, over 158,000 voters in the +aggregate, and distributed in detachments of from 3000 to 30,000 in +twelve of the free States, now came to the front, and with its +newspapers and speakers trained in the discussion of the subject, and +its committees and affiliations already in action and correspondence, +bore the brunt of the fight against the repeal. Hitherto its aims had +appeared Utopian, and its resolves had been denunciatory and +exasperating. Now, combining wisdom with opportunity, it became +conciliatory, and, abating something of its abstractions, made itself +the exponent of a demand for a present and practical reform--a simple +return to the ancient faith and landmarks. It labored specially to +bring about the dissolution of the old party organizations and the +formation of a new one, based upon the general policy of resisting the +extension of slavery. Since, however, the repeal had shaken but not +obliterated old party lines, this effort succeeded only in favorable +localities. + +[Illustration: HISTORICAL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1854 SHOWING THE +VARIOUS ACCESSIONS OF TERRITORY ETC. + +NOTE. _The number under the name of a State indicates the date of +its admission into the Union_ _The Boundary between the United +States and Mexico previous to 1845 & 1848 is indicated thus_ + + +] + +For the present, party disintegration was slow; men were reluctant to +abandon their old-time principles and associations. The united efforts +of Douglas and the Administration held the body of the Northern +Democrats to his fatal policy, though protests and defections became +alarmingly frequent. On the other hand, the great mass of Northern +Whigs promptly opposed the repeal, and formed the bulk of the +opposition, nevertheless losing perhaps as many pro-slavery Whigs as +they gained antislavery Democrats. The real and effective gain, +therefore, was the more or less thorough alliance of the Whig party +and the Free-soil party of the Northern States: wherever that was +successful it gave immediate and available majorities to the +opposition, which made their influence felt even in the very opening +of the popular contest following the Congressional repeal. + +It happened that this was a year for electing Congressmen. The +Nebraska bill did not pass till the end of May, and the political +excitement was at once transferred from Washington to every district +of the whole country. It may be said with truth that the year 1854 +formed one continuous and solid political campaign from January to +November, rising in interest and earnestness from first to last, and +engaging in the discussion more fully than had ever occurred in +previous American history all the constituent elements of our +population. + +In the Southern States the great majority of people welcomed, +supported, and defended the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, it +being consonant with their pro-slavery feelings, and apparently +favorable to their pro-slavery interests. The Democratic party in the +South, controlling a majority of slave States, was of course a unit in +its favor. The Whig party, however, having carried two slave States +for Scott in 1852, and holding a strong minority in the remainder, was +not so unanimous. Seven Southern Representatives and two Southern +Senators had voted against the Nebraska bill, and many individual +voters condemned it as an act of bad faith--as the abandonment of the +accepted "finality," and as the provocation of a dangerous antislavery +reaction. But public opinion in that part of the Union was fearfully +tyrannical and intolerant; and opposition dared only to manifest +itself to Democratic party organization--not to these Democratic party +measures. The Whigs of the South were therefore driven precipitately +to division. Those of extreme pro-slavery views, like Dixon, of +Kentucky,--who, when he introduced his amendment, declared, "Upon the +question of slavery I know no Whiggery and no Democracy,"--went boldly +and at once over into the Democratic camp, while those who retained +their traditional party name and flag were sundered from their ancient +allies in the Northern States by the impossibility of taking up the +latter's antislavery war-cry. + +At this juncture the political situation was further complicated by +the sudden rise of an additional factor in politics, the American +party, popularly called the "Know-Nothings." Essentially, it was a +revival of the extinct "Native-American" faction, based upon a +jealousy of and discrimination against foreign-born voters, desiring +an extension of their period of naturalization, and their exclusion +from office; also based upon a certain hostility to the Roman Catholic +religion. It had been reorganized as a secret order in the year 1853; +and seizing upon the political disappointments following General +Scott's overwhelming defeat for the presidency in 1852, and profiting +by the disintegration caused by the Nebraska bill, it rapidly gained +recruits both North and South. Operating in entire secrecy, the +country was startled by the sudden appearance in one locality after +another, on election day, of a potent and unsuspected political power, +which in many instances pushed both the old organizations not only to +disastrous but even to ridiculous defeat. Both North and South its +forces were recruited mainly from the Whig party, though malcontents +from all quarters rushed to group themselves upon its narrow platform, +and to participate in the exciting but delusive triumphs of its +temporary and local ascendency. + +When, in the opening of the anti-Nebraska contest, the Free-soil +leaders undertook the formation of a new party to supersede the old, +they had, because of their generally democratic antecedents, with +great unanimity proposed that it be called the "Republican" party, +thus reviving the distinctive appellation by which the followers of +Jefferson were known in the early days of the republic. Considering +the fact that Jefferson had originated the policy of slavery +restriction in his draft of the ordinance of 1784, the name became +singularly appropriate, and wherever the Free-soilers succeeded in +forming a coalition it was adopted without question. But the refusal +of the Whigs in many States to surrender their name and organization, +and more especially the abrupt appearance of the Know-Nothings on the +field of parties, retarded the general coalition between the Whigs and +the Free-soilers which so many influences favored. As it turned out, a +great variety of party names were retained or adopted in the +Congressional and State campaigns of 1854, the designation of "anti- +Nebraska" being perhaps the most common, and certainly for the moment +the most serviceable, since denunciation of the Nebraska bill was the +one all-pervading bond of sympathy and agreement among men who +differed very widely on almost all other political topics. This +affiliation, however, was confined exclusively to the free States. In +the slave States, the opposition to the Administration dared not raise +the anti-Nebraska banner, nor could it have found followers; and it +was not only inclined but forced to make its battle either under the +old name of Whigs, or, as became more popular, under the new +appellation of "Americans," which grew into a more dignified synonym +for Know-Nothings. + +Thus confronted, the Nebraska and anti-Nebraska factions, or, more +philosophically speaking, the pro-slavery and antislavery sentiment of +the several American States, battled for political supremacy with a +zeal and determination only manifested on occasions of deep and vital +concern to the welfare of the republic. However languidly certain +elements of American society may perform what they deem the drudgery +of politics, they do not shrink from it when they hear warning of real +danger. The alarm of the nation on the repeal of the Missouri +Compromise was serious and startling. All ranks and occupations +therefore joined with a new energy in the contest it provoked. +Particularly was the religious sentiment of the North profoundly moved +by the moral question involved. Perhaps for the first time in our +modern politics, the pulpit vied with the press, and the Church with +the campaign club, in the work of debate and propagandism. + +The very inception of the struggle had provoked bitter words. Before +the third Nebraska bill had yet been introduced into the Senate, the +then little band of "Free-Soilers" in Congress--Chase, Sumner, +Giddings, and three others--had issued a newspaper address calling the +repeal "a gross violation of a sacred pledge"; "a criminal betrayal of +precious rights"; "an atrocious plot," "designed to cover up from +public reprehension meditated bad faith," etc. Douglas, seizing only +too gladly the pretext to use denunciation instead of argument, +replied in his opening speech, in turn stigmatizing them as "abolition +confederates" "assembled in secret conclave" "on the holy Sabbath +while other Senators were engaged in divine worship"--"plotting," "in +the name of the holy religion"; "perverting," and "calumniating the +committee"; "appealing with a smiling face to his courtesy to get time +to circulate their document before its infamy could be exposed," etc. + +[Sidenote: "Globe" March 14, 1854, p. 617.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid., p. 618.] + +The key-notes of the discussion thus given were well sustained on both +sides, and crimination and recrimination increased with the heat and +intensity of the campaign. The gradual disruption of parties, and the +new and radical attitudes assumed by men of independent thought, gave +ample occasion to indulge in such epithets as "apostates," +"renegades," and "traitors." Unusual acrimony grew out of the zeal of +the Church and its ministers. The clergymen of the Northern States not +only spoke against the repeal from their pulpits, but forwarded +energetic petitions against it to Congress, 3050 clergymen of New +England of different denominations joining their signatures in one +protest. "We protest against it," they said, "as a great moral wrong, +as a breach of faith eminently unjust to the moral principles of the +community, and subversive of all confidence in national engagements; +as a measure full of danger to the peace and even the existence of our +beloved Union, and exposing us to the righteous judgment of the +Almighty." In return, Douglas made a most virulent onslaught on their +political action. "Here we find," he retorted, "that a large body of +preachers, perhaps three thousand, following the lead of a circular +which was issued by the abolition confederates in this body, +calculated to deceive and mislead the public, have here come forward +with an atrocious falsehood, and an atrocious calumny against this +Senate, desecrated the pulpit, and prostituted the sacred desk to the +miserable and corrupting influence of party politics." All his +newspapers and partisans throughout the country caught the style and +spirit of his warfare, and boldly denied the moral right of the clergy +to take part in politics otherwise than by a silent vote. But they, on +the other hand, persisted all the more earnestly in justifying their +interference in moral questions wherever they appeared, and were +clearly sustained by the public opinion of the North. + +Though the repeal was forced through Congress under party pressure, +and by the sheer weight of a large Democratic majority in both +branches, it met from the first a decided and unmistakable popular +condemnation in the free States. While the measure was yet under +discussion in the House in March, New Hampshire led off by an election +completely obliterating the eighty-nine Democratic majority in her +Legislature. Connecticut followed in her footsteps early in April. +Long before November it was evident that the political revolution +among the people of the North was thorough, and that election day was +anxiously awaited merely to record the popular verdict already +decided. + +The influence of this result upon parties, old and new, is perhaps +best illustrated in the organization of the Thirty-fourth Congress, +chosen at these elections during the year 1854, which witnessed the +repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Each Congress, in ordinary course, +meets for the first time about one year after its members are elected +by the people, and the influence of politics during the interim needs +always to be taken into account. In this particular instance this +effect had, if anything, been slightly reactionary, and the great +contest for the Speakership during the winter of 1855-6 may therefore +be taken as a fair manifestation of the spirit of politics in 1854. + +The strength of the preceding House of Representatives, which met in +December, 1853, had been: Whigs, 71; Free-soilers, 4; Democrats, 159-- +a clear Democratic majority of 84. In the new Congress there were in +the House, as nearly as the classification could be made, about 108 +anti-Nebraska members, nearly 40 Know-Nothings, and about 75 +Democrats; the remaining members were undecided. The proud Democratic +majority of the Pierce election was annihilated. + +But as yet the new party was merely inchoate, its elements +distrustful, jealous, and discordant; the feuds and battles of a +quarter of a century were not easily forgotten or buried. The +Democratic members, boldly nominating Mr. Richardson, the House leader +on the Nebraska bill, as their candidate for Speaker, made a long and +determined push for success. But his highest range of votes was about +74 to 76; while through 121 ballotings, continuing from December 3 to +January 23, the opposition remained divided, Mr. Banks, the anti- +Nebraska favorite, running at one time up to 106--within seven votes +of an election. At this point, Richardson, finding it a hopeless +struggle, withdrew his name as a candidate, and the Democratic +strength was transferred to another, but with no better prospects. +Finally, seeing no chance of otherwise terminating the contest, the +House yielded to the inevitable domination of the slavery question, +and resolved, on February 2, by a vote of 113 to 104, to elect under +the plurality rule after the next three ballotings. Under this rule, +notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts to rescind it, Nathaniel P. +Banks, of Massachusetts, was chosen Speaker by 103 votes, against 100 +votes for William Aiken, of South Carolina, with thirty scattering. +The "ruthless" repeal of the Missouri Compromise had effectually +broken the legislative power of the Democratic party. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +LINCOLN AND TRUMBULL + + +[Sidenote: 1854.] + +To follow closely the chain of events, growing out of the repeal of +the Missouri Compromise at Douglas's instigation, we must now examine +its effect upon the political fortunes of that powerful leader in his +own State. + +The extreme length of Illinois from north to south is 385 miles; in +geographical situation it extends from the latitude of Massachusetts +and New York to that of Virginia and Kentucky. The great westward +stream of emigration in the United States had generally followed the +parallels of latitude. The pioneers planted their new homes as nearly +as might be in a climate like the one they had left. In process of +time, therefore, northern Illinois became peopled with settlers from +Northern or free States, bringing their antislavery traditions and +feelings; southern Illinois, with those from Southern or slave States, +who were as naturally pro-slavery. The Virginians and Kentuckians +readily became converts to the thrift and order of free society; but +as a class they never gave up or conquered their intense hatred of +antislavery convictions based on merely moral grounds, which they +indiscriminately stigmatized as "abolitionism." Impelled by this +hatred the lawless element of the community was often guilty of +persecution and violence in minor forms, and in 1837, as already +related, it prompted the murder of Lovejoy in the city of Alton by a +mob, for persisting in his right to publish his antislavery opinions. +This was its gravest crime. But a narrow spirit of intolerance +extending even down to the rebellion kept on the statute books a +series of acts prohibiting the settlement of free blacks in the State. + +It was upon this field of radically diverse sentiment that in the year +1854 Douglas's sudden project of repeal fell like a thunderbolt out of +a clear sky. A Democratic Governor had been chosen two years before; a +Democratic Legislature, called together to consider merely local and +economic questions, was sitting in extra session at Springfield. There +was doubt and consternation over the new issue. The Governor and other +prudent partisans avoided a public committal. But the silence could +not be long maintained. Douglas was a despotic party leader, and +President Pierce had made the Nebraska bill an Administration +question. Above all, in Illinois, as elsewhere, the people at once +took up the discussion, and reluctant politicians were compelled to +avow themselves. The Nebraska bill with its repealing clause had been +before the country some three weeks and was yet pending in Congress +when a member of the Illinois Legislature introduced resolutions +indorsing it. Three Democratic State Senators, two from northern and +one from central Illinois, had the courage to rise and oppose the +resolutions in vigorous and startling speeches. They were N. B. Judd, +of Chicago, B. C. Cook, of La Salle, and John M. Palmer, of Macoupin. +This was an unusual party phenomenon and had its share in hastening +the general agitation throughout the State. Only two or three other +members took part in the discussion; the Democrats avoided the issue; +the Whigs hoped to profit by the dissension. There was the usual rush +of amendments and of parliamentary strategy, and the indorsing +resolutions, which finally passed in both Houses in ambiguous language +and by a diminished vote were shorn of much of their political +significance. + +Party organization was strong in Illinois, and for the greater part, +as the popular discussion proceeded, the Democrats sustained and the +Whigs opposed the new measure. In the northern counties, where the +antislavery sentiment was general, there were a few successful efforts +to disband the old parties and create a combined opposition under the +new name of Republicans. This, it was soon apparent, would make +serious inroads on the existing Democratic majority. But an alarming +counter-movement in the central counties, which formed the Whig +stronghold, soon began to show itself. Douglas's violent denunciation +of "abolitionists" and "abolitionismn" appealed with singular power to +Whigs from slave States. The party was without a national leader; Clay +had died two years before, and Douglas made skillful quotations from +the great statesman's speeches to bolster up his new propagandism. In +Congress only a little handful of Southern Whigs opposed the repeal, +and even these did not dare place their opposition on antislavery +grounds. And especially the familiar voice and example of the +neighboring Missouri Whigs were given unhesitatingly to the support of +the Douglas scheme. Under these combined influences one or two erratic +but rather prominent Whigs in central Illinois declared their +adherence to Nebraskaism, and raised the hope that the Democrats would +regain in the center and south all they might lose in the northern +half of the State. + +[Illustration: LYMAN TRUMBULL] + +One additional circumstance had its effect on public opinion. As has +been stated, in the opposition to Douglas's repeal the few avowed +abolitionists and the many pronounced Free-soilers, displaying +unwonted activity, came suddenly into the foreground to rouse and +organize public opinion, making it seem for the moment that they had +really assumed leadership and control in politics. This class of men +had long been held up to public odium. Some of them had, indeed, on +previous occasions used intemperate and offensive language; but more +generally they were denounced upon a gross misrepresentation of their +utterance and purpose. It so happened that they were mostly of +Democratic antecedents, which gave them great influence among +antislavery Democrats, but made their advice and arguments exceedingly +distasteful in strong Whig counties and communities. The fact that +they now became more prudent, conciliatory, and practical in their +speeches and platforms did not immediately remove existing prejudices +against them. A few of these appeared in Illinois. Cassius M. Clay +published a letter in which he advocated the fusion of anti-Nebraska +voters upon "Benton, Seward, Hale, or any other good citizen," and +afterwards made a series of speeches in Illinois. When he came to +Springfield, the Democratic officers in charge refused him the use of +the rotunda of the House, a circumstance, however, which only served +to draw him a larger audience in a neighboring grove. Later in the +summer Joshua B. Giddings and Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, made a +political tour through the State, and at Springfield the future +Secretary and Chief-Justice addressed an unsympathetic audience of a +few hundreds in the dingy little court-house, almost unheralded, save +by the epithets of the Democratic newspapers. A few local speakers of +this class, of superior address and force, now also began to signalize +themselves by a new-born zeal and an attractive eloquence. Conspicuous +among these was Owen Lovejoy, of northern Illinois, brother of the man +who, for opinion's sake, had been murdered at Alton. + +While thus in the northern half of Illinois the public condemnation of +Douglas's repeal was immediate and sweeping, the formation of +opposition to it was tentative and slow in the central and southern +counties, where, among Whigs of Southern birth, it proceeded rather +upon party feeling than upon moral conviction. The new question struck +through party lines in such a manner as to confuse and perplex the +masses. But the issue would not be postponed. The Congressional +elections were to be held in the autumn, and the succession of events +rather than the leadership of politicians gradually shaped the +campaign. + +After a most exciting parliamentary struggle the repeal was carried +through Congress in May. Encouraged by this successful domination over +Representatives and Senators, Douglas prepared to force its acceptance +by the people. "I hear men now say," said he, "that they are willing +to acquiesce in it.... It is not sufficient that they shall not seek to +disturb Nebraska and Kansas, but they must acquiesce also in the +principle." [Footnote: Douglas's speech before the Union Democratic +Club of New York, June 3, 1854. New York "Herald," June 5, 1854.] In +the slave States this was an easy task. The most prominent Democrat +who had voted against the Nebraska bill was Thomas H. Benton. The +election in Missouri was held in August, and Benton was easily beaten +by a Whig who was as fierce for repeal as Douglas himself. In the free +States the case was altogether different. In Illinois the Democrats +gradually, but at last with a degree of boldness, shouldered the +dangerous dogma. The main body of the party rallied under Douglas, +excepting a serious defection in the north; on the other hand, the +Whigs in a body declared against him, but were weakened by a +scattering desertion in the center and south. Meanwhile both retained +their distinctive party names and organizations. + +Congress adjourned early in August, but Douglas delayed his return to +Illinois. The 1st of September had come, when it was announced he +would return to his home in Chicago. This was an anti-slavery city, +and the current of popular condemnation and exasperation was running +strongly against him. Public meetings of his own former party friends +had denounced him. Street rowdies had burned him in effigy. The +opposition papers charged him with skulking and being afraid to meet +his constituents. On the afternoon of his coming many flags in the +city and on the shipping in the river and harbor were hung at half- +mast. At sunset sundry city bells were tolled for an hour to signify +the public mourning at his downfall. When he mounted the platform at +night to address a crowd of some five thousand listeners he was +surrounded by a little knot of personal friends, but the audience +before him was evidently cold if not actively hostile. + +He began his speech, defending his course as well as he could. He +claimed that the slavery question was forever settled by his great +principle of "popular sovereignty," which took it out of Congress and +gave it to the people of the territories to decide as they pleased. +The crowd heard him in sullen silence for three-quarters of an hour, +when their patience gave out, and they began to ply him with +questions. He endured their fire of interrogatory for a little while +till he lost his own temper. Excited outcry followed angry repartee. +Thrust and rejoinder were mingled with cheers and hisses. The mayor, +who presided, tried to calm the assemblage, but the passions of the +crowd would brook no control. Douglas, of short, sturdy build and +imperious and controversial nature, stood his ground courageously, +with flushed and lowering countenance hurling defiance at his +interrupters, calling them a mob, and shaking his fist in their faces; +in reply the crowd groaned, hooted, yelled, and made the din of +Pandemonium. The tumultuous proceeding continued until half-past ten +o'clock at night, when the baffled orator was finally but very +reluctantly persuaded by his friends to give up the contest and leave +the stand. It was trumpeted abroad by the Democratic newspapers that +"in the order-loving, law-abiding, abolition-ridden city of Chicago, +Illinois's great statesman and representative in the United States +Senate was cried down and refused the privilege of speaking"; and as +usual the intolerance produced its natural reaction. + +Since Abraham Lincoln's return to Springfield from his single term of +service in Congress, 1847 to 1849, though by no means entirely +withdrawn from politics, his campaigning had been greatly diminished. +The period following had for him been years of work, study, and +reflection. His profession of law had become a deeper science and a +higher responsibility. His practice, receiving his undivided +attention, brought him more important and more remunerative cases. +Losing nothing of his genial humor, his character took on the dignity +of a graver manhood. He was still the center of interest of every +social group he encountered, whether on the street or in the parlor. +Serene and buoyant of temper, cordial and winning of language, +charitable and tolerant of opinion, his very presence diffused a glow +of confidence and kindness. Wherever he went he left an ever-widening +ripple of smiles, jests, and laughter. His radiant good-fellowship was +beloved and sought alike by political opponents and partisan friends. +His sturdy and delicate integrity, recognized far and wide, had long +since won him the blunt but hearty sobriquet of "Honest Old Abe." But +it became noticeable that he was less among the crowd and more in the +solitude of his office or his study, and that he seemed ever in haste +to leave the eager circle he was entertaining. + +It is in the midsummer of 1854 that we find him reappearing upon the +stump in central Illinois. The rural population always welcomed his +oratory, and he never lacked invitations to address the public. His +first speeches on the new and all-absorbing topic were made in the +neighboring towns, and in the counties adjoining his own. Towards the +end of August the candidates for Congress in that district were, in +Western phrase, "on the track." Richard Yates, afterwards one of the +famous "war governors," sought a reelection as a Whig. Thomas L. +Harris as a Douglas-Democrat strove to supplant him. Local politics +became active, and Lincoln was sent for from all directions to address +the people. When he went, however, he distinctly announced that he did +not purpose to take up his time with this personal and congressional +controversy. His intention was to discuss the principles of the +Nebraska Bill. + +Once launched upon this theme, men were surprised to find him imbued +with an unwonted seriousness. They heard from his lips fewer anecdotes +and more history. Careless listeners who came to laugh at his jokes +were held by the strong current of his reasoning and the flashes of +his earnest eloquence, and were lifted up by the range and tenor of +his argument into a fresher and purer political atmosphere. The new +discussion was fraught with deeper questions than the improvement of +the Sangamon, protective tariffs, or the origin of the Mexican war. +Down through incidents of, legislation, through history of government, +even underlying cardinal maxims of political philosophy, it touched +the very bedrock of primary human rights. Such a subject furnished +material for the inborn gifts of the speaker, his intuitive logic, his +impulsive patriotism, his pure and poetical conception of legal and +moral justice. + +Douglas, since his public rebuff at Chicago on September 1, had begun, +after a few days of delay and rest, a tour of speech-making southward +through the State. At these meetings he had at least a respectful +hearing, and as he neared central Illinois the reception accorded him +became more enthusiastic. The chief interest of the campaign finally +centered in a sort of political tournament which took place at the +capital, Springfield, during the first week of October; the State +Agricultural Fair having called together great crowds, and among them +the principal politicians of Illinois. This was Lincoln's home, in a +strong Whig county, and in a section of the State where that party had +hitherto found its most compact and trustworthy forces. As yet Lincoln +had made but a single speech there on the Nebraska question. Of the +Federal appointments under the Nebraska bill, Douglas secured two for +Illinois, one of which, the office of surveyor-general of Kansas, was +given to John Calhoun, the same man who, in the pioneer days twenty +years before, was county surveyor in Sangamon and had employed Abraham +Lincoln as his deputy. He was also the same who three years later +received the sobriquet of "John Candlebox Calhoun," having acquired +unenviable notoriety from his reputed connection with the "Cincinnati +Directory" and "Candlebox" election frauds in Kansas, and with the +famous Lecompton Constitution. Calhoun was still in Illinois doing +campaign work in propagating the Nebraska faith. He was recognized as +a man of considerable professional and political talent, and had made +a speech in Springfield to which Lincoln had replied. It was, however, +merely a casual and local affair and was not described or reported by +the newspapers. + +The meetings at the State Fair were of a different character. The +audiences were composed of leading men from nearly all the counties of +the State. Though the discussion of party questions had been going on +all summer with more or less briskness, yet such was the general +confusion in politics that many honest and intelligent voters and even +leaders were still undecided in their opinions. The fair continued +nearly a week. Douglas made a speech on the first day, Tuesday, +October 3. Lincoln replied to him on the following day, October 4. +Douglas made a rejoinder, and on that night and the succeeding day and +night a running fire of debate ensued, in which John Calhoun, Judge +Trumbull, Judge Sidney Breese, Colonel E. D. Taylor, and perhaps +others, took part. + +Douglas's speech was doubtless intended by him and expected by his +friends to be the principal and the conclusive argument of the +occasion. But by this time the Whig party of the central counties, +though shaken by the disturbing features of the Nebraska question, had +nevertheless reformed its lines, and assumed the offensive to which +its preponderant numbers entitled it, and resolved not to surrender +either its name or organization. In Sangamon County, its strongest +men, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen T. Logan, were made candidates for +the Legislature. The term of Douglas's colleague in the United States +Senate, General James Shields, was about to expire, and the new +Legislature would choose his successor. To the war of party principles +was therefore added the incentive of a brilliant official prize. The +Whigs were keenly alive to this chance and its influence upon their +possible ascendency in the State. + +Lincoln's Whig friends had therefore seen his reappearance in active +discussion with unfeigned pleasure. Of old they knew his peculiar hold +and influence upon the people and his party. His few speeches in the +adjoining counties had shown them his maturing intellect, his +expanding power in debate. Acting upon himself, this renewed practice +on the stump crystallized his thought and brought method to his +argument. The opposition newspapers had accused him of "mousing about +the libraries in the State House." The charge was true. Where others +were content to take statements at second hand, he preferred to verify +citations as well as to find new ones. His treatment of his theme was +therefore not only bold but original. + +By a sort of common consent his party looked to him to answer +Douglas's speech. This was no light task, and no one knew it better +than Lincoln. Douglas's real ability was, and remains, unquestioned. +In many qualities of intellect he was truly the "Little Giant" which +popular fancy nicknamed him. It was no mere chance that raised the +Vermont cabinet-maker's apprentice from a penniless stranger in +Illinois in 1833 to a formidable competitor for supreme leadership in +the great Democratic party of the nation in 1852. When after the lapse +of a quarter of a century we measure him with the veteran chiefs whom +he aspired to supplant, we see the substantial basis of his confidence +and ambition. His great error of statesmanship aside, he stands forth +more than the peer of associates who underrated his power and looked +askance at his pretensions. In the six years of perilous party +conflict which followed, every conspicuous party rival disappeared in +obscurity, disgrace, or rebellion. Battling while others feasted, +sowing where others reaped, abandoned by his allies and persecuted by +his friends, Douglas alone emerged from the fight with loyal faith and +unshaken courage, bringing with him through treachery, defeat, and +disaster the unflinching allegiance and enthusiastic admiration of +nearly three-fifths of the rank and file of the once victorious army +of Democratic voters at the north. He had not only proved himself +their most gallant chief, but as a final crown of merit he led his +still powerful contingent of followers to a patriotic defense of the +Constitution and government which some of his compeers put into such +mortal jeopardy. + +We find him here at the beginning of this severe conflict in the full +flush of hope and ambition. He was winning in personal manner, +brilliant in debate, aggressive in party strategy. To this he added an +adroitness in evasion and false logic perhaps never equaled, and in +his defense of the Nebraska measure this questionable but convenient +gift was ever his main reliance. Besides, his long official career +gave to his utterances the stamp and glitter of oracular +statesmanship. But while Lincoln knew all Douglas's strong points he +was no less familiar with his weak ones. They had come to central +Illinois about the same time, and had in a measure grown up together. +Socially they were on friendly terms; politically they had been +opponents for twenty years. At the bar, in the Legislature, and on the +stump they had often met and measured strength. Each therefore knew +the temper of the other's steel no less than every joint in his armor. + +It was a peculiarity of the early West--perhaps it pertains to all +primitive communities--that the people retained a certain fragment of +the chivalric sentiment, a remnant of the instinct of hero-worship. As +the ruder athletic sports faded out, as shooting-matches, wrestling- +matches, horse-races, and kindred games fell into disuse, political +debate became, in a certain degree, their substitute. But the +principle of championship, while it yielded high honor and +consideration to the victor, imposed upon him the corresponding +obligation to recognize every opponent and accept every challenge. To +refuse any contest, to plead any privilege, would be instant loss of +prestige. This supreme moment in Lincoln's career, this fateful +turning of the political tide, found him fully prepared for the new +battle, equipped by reflection and research to permit himself to be +pitted against the champion of Democracy--against the very author of +the raging storm of parties; and it displays his rare self-confidence +and consciousness of high ability, to venture to attack such an +antagonist. + +[Sidenote: Correspondence of the "Missouri Republican," October 6, +1854.] + +Douglas made his speech, according to notice, on the first day of the +fair, Tuesday, October 3. "I will mention," said he, in his opening +remarks, "that it is understood by some gentlemen that Mr. Lincoln, of +this city, is expected to answer me. If this is the understanding, I +wish that Mr. Lincoln would step forward and let us arrange some plan +upon which to carry out this discussion." Mr. Lincoln was not there at +the moment, and the arrangement could not then be made. Unpropitious +weather had brought the meeting to the Representatives' Hall in the +State House, which was densely packed. The next day found the same +hall filled as before to hear Mr. Lincoln. Douglas occupied a seat +just in front of him, and in his rejoinder he explained that "my +friend Mr. Lincoln expressly invited me to stay and hear him speak to- +day, as he heard me yesterday, and to answer and defend myself as best +I could. I here thank him for his courteous offer." The occasion +greatly equalized the relative standing of the champions. The familiar +surroundings, the presence and hearty encouragement of his friends, +put Lincoln in his best vein. His bubbling humor, his perfect temper, +and above all the overwhelming current of his historical arraignment +extorted the admiration of even his political enemies. "His speech was +four hours in length" wrote one of these, "and was conceived and +expressed in a most happy and pleasant style, and was received with +abundant applause. At times he made statements which brought Senator +Douglas to his feet, and then good-humored passages of wit created +much interest and enthusiasm." All reports plainly indicate that +Douglas was astonished and disconcerted at this unexpected strength of +argument, and that he struggled vainly through a two hours' rejoinder +to break the force of Lincoln's victory in the debate. Lincoln had +hitherto been the foremost man in his district. That single effort +made him the leader on the new question in his State. + +The fame of this success brought Lincoln urgent calls from all the +places where Douglas was expected to speak. Accordingly, twelve days +afterwards, October 16, they once more met in debate, at Peoria. +Lincoln, as before, gave Douglas the opening and closing speeches, +explaining that he was willing to yield this advantage in order to +secure a hearing from the Democratic portion of his listeners. The +audience was a large one, but not so representative in its character +as that at Springfield. The occasion was made memorable, however, by +the fact that when Lincoln returned home he wrote out and published +his speech. We have therefore the revised text of his argument, and +are able to estimate its character and value. Marking as it does with +unmistakable precision a step in the second period of his intellectual +development, it deserves the careful attention of the student of his +life. + +After the lapse of more than a quarter of a century the critical +reader still finds it a model of brevity, directness, terse diction, +exact and lucid historical statement, and full of logical propositions +so short and so strong as to resemble mathematical axioms. Above all +it is pervaded by an elevation of thought and aim that lifts it out of +the commonplace of mere party controversy. Comparing it with his later +speeches, we find it to contain not only the argument of the hour, but +the premonition of the broader issues into which the new struggle was +destined soon to expand. + +The main, broad current of his reasoning was to vindicate and restore +the policy of the fathers of the country in the restriction of +slavery; but running through this like a thread of gold was the +demonstration of the essential injustice and immorality of the system. +He said: + +This declared indifference but, as I must think, covert zeal for the +spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the +monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives +our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the +enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as +hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; +and especially because it forces so many really good men among +ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of +civil liberty, criticizing the Declaration of Independence and +insisting that there is no right principle of action but self- +interest. + + * * * * * + +The doctrine of self-government is right,--absolutely and eternally +right,--but it has no just application as here attempted. Or perhaps I +should rather say that whether it has such just application, depends +upon whether a negro is not, or is, a man. If he is not a man, in that +case he who is a man may as a matter of self-government do just what +he pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to that +extent a total destruction of self-government to say that he too shall +not govern himself? When the white man governs himself, that is self- +government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, +that is more than self-government--that is despotism. + + * * * * * + +What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man +without that other's consent. + + * * * * * + +The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but he +governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he +prescribes for himself. Allow all the governed an equal voice in the +government; that, and that only, is self-government. + + * * * * * + +Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature--opposition to +it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal +antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery +extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must +ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise--repeal all +compromise--repeal the Declaration of Independence--repeal all past +history--still you cannot repeal human nature. + + * * * * * + +I particularly object to the new position which the avowed principle +of this Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to +it because it assumes that there can be moral right in the enslaving +of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a +free people,--a sad evidence that feeling prosperity, we forget +right,--that liberty as a principle we have ceased to revere. + + * * * * * + +Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have +been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago we +began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that +beginning we have run down to the other declaration that for some men +to enslave others is a "sacred right of self-government." These +principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and +mammon. + + * * * * * + +Our Republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify +it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit if not the blood of +the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of "moral right" +back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of "necessity." +Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it +rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence, and the +practices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South--let +all Americans--let all lovers of liberty everywhere--join in the great +and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, +but we shall have so saved it, as to make and to keep it forever +worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it that the succeeding +millions of free, happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call +us blessed to the latest generations. + + +[Sidenote: 1864.] + +The election which, occurred on November 7 resulted disastrously for +Douglas. It was soon found that the Legislature on joint ballot would +probably give a majority for Senator against Shields, the incumbent, +or any other Democrat who had supported the Nebraska bill. Who might +become his successor was more problematical. The opposition majority +was made up of anti-Nebraska Democrats, of what were then called +"abolitionists" (Lovejoy had been elected among these), and finally of +Whigs, who numbered by far the largest portion. But these elements, +except on one single issue, were somewhat irreconcilable. In this +condition of uncertainty a host of candidates sprung up. There was +scarcely a member of Congress from Illinois--indeed, scarcely a +prominent man in the State of any party--who did not conceive the +flattering dream that he himself might become the lucky medium of +compromise and harmony. + +Among the Whigs, though there were other aspirants, Lincoln, whose +speeches had contributed so much to win the election, was the natural +and most prominent candidate. According to Western custom, he +addressed a short note to most of the Whig members elect and to other +influential members of the party asking their support. Generally the +replies were not only affirmative but cordial and even enthusiastic. +But a dilemma now arose. Lincoln had been chosen one of the members +from Sangamon County by some 650 majority. The Constitution of +Illinois contained a clause disqualifying members of the Legislature +and certain other designated officials from being elected to the +Senate. Good lawyers generally believed this provision repugnant to +the Constitution of the United States, and that the qualifications of +Senators and Representatives therein prescribed could be neither +increased nor diminished by a State. But the opposition had only a +majority of one or two. If Lincoln resigned his membership in the +Legislature this might destroy the majority. If he refused to resign, +such refusal might carry some member to the Democrats. + +[Illustration: OWEN LOVEJOY.] + +At last, upon full deliberation, Lincoln resigned his seat, relying +upon the six or seven hundred majority in Sangamon County to elect +another Whig. It was a delusive trust. A reaction in the Whig ranks +against "abolitionism" suddenly set in. A listless apathy succeeded +the intense excitement and strain of the summer's canvass. Local +rivalries forced the selection of an unpopular candidate. Shrewdly +noting all these signs the Democrats of Sangamon organized what is +known in Western politics as a "still-hunt." They made a feint of +allowing the special election to go by default. They made no +nomination. They permitted an independent Democrat, known under the +sobriquet of "Steamboat Smith," to parade his own name. Up to the very +day of election they gave no public sign, although they had in the +utmost secrecy instructed and drilled their precinct squads. On the +morning of election the working Democrats appeared at every poll, +distributing tickets bearing the name of a single candidate not before +mentioned by any one. They were busy all day long spurring up the +lagging and indifferent, and bringing the aged, the infirm, and the +distant voters in vehicles. Their ruse succeeded. The Whigs were taken +completely by surprise, and in a remarkably small total vote, +McDaniels, Democrat, was chosen by about sixty majority. The Whigs in +other parts of the State were furious at the unlooked-for result, and +the incident served greatly to complicate the senatorial canvass. + +Nevertheless it turned out that even after this loss the opposition to +Douglas would have a majority on joint ballot. But how unite this +opposition made up of Whigs, of Democrats, and of so-called +abolitionists? It was just at that moment in the impending revolution +of parties when everything was doubt, distrust, uncertainty. Only the +abolitionists, ever aggressive on all slavery issues, were ready to +lead off in new combinations, but nobody was willing to encounter the +odium of acting with them. They, too, were present at the State Fair, +and heard Lincoln reply to Douglas. At the close of that reply, and +just before Douglas's rejoinder, Lovejoy had announced to the audience +that a Republican State Convention would be immediately held in the +Senate Chamber, extending an invitation to delegates to join in it. +But the appeal fell upon unwilling ears. Scarcely a corporal's guard +left the discussion. The Senate Chamber presented a discouraging array +of empty benches. Only some twenty-six delegates were there to +represent the whole State of Illinois. Nothing daunted, they made +their speeches and read their platform to each other. [Transcriber's +Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to chapter end.] Particularly in +their addresses they praised Lincoln's great speech which they had +just heard, notwithstanding his declarations differed so essentially +from their new-made creed. "Ichabod raved," said the Democratic organ +in derision, "and Lovejoy swelled, and all indorsed the sentiments of +that speech." Not content with this, without consent or consultation, +they placed Lincoln's name in the list of their State Central +Committee. + +[Sidenote: Lincoln to Codding, Nov. 27, 1854. MS.] + +Matters remained in this attitude until their chairman called a +meeting and notified Lincoln to attend. In reply he sent the following +letter of inquiry: "While I have pen in hand allow me to say that I +have been perplexed to understand why my name was placed on that +committee. I was not consulted on the subject, nor was I apprised of +the appointment until I discovered it by accident two or three weeks +afterwards. I suppose my opposition to the principle of slavery is as +strong as that of any member of the Republican party; but I had also +supposed that the extent to which I feel authorized to carry that +opposition practically was not at all satisfactory to that party. The +leading men who organized, that party were present on the 4th of +October at the discussion between Douglas and myself at Springfield +and had full opportunity to not misunderstand my position. Do I +misunderstand them?" + +Whether this letter was ever replied to is uncertain, though +improbable. No doubt it led to conferences during the meeting of the +Legislature, early in the year 1855, when the senatorial question came +on for decision. It has been suggested that Lincoln made dishonorable +concessions of principle to get the votes of Lovejoy and his friends. +The statement is too absurd to merit serious contradiction. The real +fact is that Mr. Giddings, then in Congress, wrote to Lovejoy and +others to support Lincoln. Various causes delayed the event, but +finally, on February 8, 1855, the Legislature went into joint ballot. +A number of candidates were put in nomination, but the contest +narrowed itself down to three. Abraham Lincoln was supported by the +Whigs and Free-soilers; James Shields by the Douglas-Democrats. As +between these two, Lincoln would easily have succeeded, had not five +anti-Nebraska Democrats refused under any circumstances to vote for +him or any other Whig, [Footnote: "All that remained of the anti- +Nebraska force, excepting Judd, Cook, Palmer, Baker, and Allen, of +Madison, and two or three of the secret Matteson men, would go into +caucus, and I could get the nomination of that caucus. But the three +Senators and one of the two Representatives above named 'could never +vote for a Whig,' and this incensed some twenty Whigs to 'think' they +would never vote for the man of the five."--Lincoln to the Hon. E. B. +Washburne, February 9, 1855. MS.] and steadily voted during six +ballots for Lyman Trumbull. The first vote stood: Lincoln, 45; +Shields, 41; Trumbull, 5; scattering, 8. Two or three Whigs had thrown +away their votes on this first ballot, and though they now returned +and adhered to him, the demoralizing example was imitated by various +members of the coalition. On the sixth ballot the vote stood: Lincoln, +36; Shields, 41; Trumbull, 8; scattering, 13. + +At this stage of the proceedings the Douglas-Democrats executed a +change of front, and, dropping Shields, threw nearly their full +strength, 44 votes, for Governor Joel A. Matteson. The maneuver was +not unexpected, for though the Governor and the party newspapers had +hitherto vehemently asserted he was not a candidate, the political +signs plainly contradicted such statement. Matteson had assumed a +quasi-independent position; kept himself non-commital on Nebraska, and +opposed Douglas's scheme of tonnage duties to improve Western rivers +and harbors. Like the majority of Western men he had risen from humble +beginnings, and from being an emigrant, farmer, merchant, and +manufacturer, had become Governor. In office he had devoted himself +specially to the economical and material questions affecting Illinois, +and in this role had a wide popularity with all classes and parties. + +The substitution of his name was a promising device. The ninth ballot +gave him 47 votes. The opposition under the excitement of non-partisan +appeals began to break up. Of the remaining votes Lincoln received 15, +Trumbull 35, scattering, 1. In this critical moment Lincoln exhibited +a generosity and a sagacity above the range of the mere politician's +vision. He urged upon his Whig friends and supporters to drop his own +name and join without hesitation or conditions in the election of +Trumbull. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to +chapter end.] This was putting their fidelity to a bitter trial. Upon +every issue but the Nebraska bill Trumbull still avowed himself an +uncompromising Democrat. The faction of five had been stubborn to +defiance and disaster. They would compel the mountain to go to +Mahomet. It seemed an unconditional surrender of the Whig party. But +such was Lincoln's influence upon his adherents that at his request +they made the sweeping sacrifice, though with lingering sorrow. The +proceedings had wasted away a long afternoon of most tedious suspense. +Evening had come; the gas was lighted in the hall, the galleries were +filled with eager women, the lobbies were packed with restless and +anxious men. All had forgotten the lapse of hours, their fatigue and +their hunger, in the absorption of the fluctuating contest. The +roll-call of the tenth ballot still showed 15 votes for Lincoln, 36 +for Trumbull, 47 for Matteson. Amid an excitement which was becoming +painful, and in a silence where spectators scarcely breathed, Judge +Stephen T. Logan, Lincoln's nearest and warmest friend, arose and +announced the purpose of the remaining Whigs to decide the contest, +whereupon the entire fifteen changed their votes to Trumbull. This +gave him the necessary number of fifty-one, and elected him a Senator +of the United States. + +At that early day an election to the United States Senate must have +seemed to Lincoln a most brilliant political prize, the highest, +perhaps, to which he then had any hopes of ever attaining. To school +himself to its loss with becoming resignation, to wait hopefully +during four years for another opportunity, to engage in the dangerous +and difficult task of persuading his friends to leave their old and +join a new political party only yet dimly foreshadowed, to watch the +chances of maintaining his party leadership, furnished sufficient +occupation for the leisure afforded by the necessities of his law +practice. It is interesting to know that he did more; that amid the +consideration of mere personal interests he was vigilantly pursuing +the study of the higher phases of the great moral and political +struggle on which the nation was just entering, little dreaming, +however, of the part he was destined to act in it. A letter of his +written to a friend in Kentucky in the following year shows us that he +had nearly reached a maturity of conviction on the nature of the +slavery conflict--his belief that the nation could not permanently +endure half slave and half free--which he did not publicly express +until the beginning of his famous senatorial campaign of 1858: + +[Sidenote: MS.] + + + SPRINGFIELD, ILLS., August 15, 1855 + Hon. GEO. ROBERTSON, Lexington, Ky. + +MY DEAR SIR: The volume you left for me has been received. I am really +grateful for the honor of your kind remembrance, as well as for the +book. The partial reading I have already given it has afforded me much +of both pleasure and instruction. It was new to me that the exact +question which led to the Missouri Compromise had arisen before it +arose in regard to Missouri, and that you had taken so prominent a +part in it. Your short but able and patriotic speech on that occasion +has not been improved upon since by those holding the same views; and, +with all the lights you then had, the views you took appear to me as +very reasonable. + +You are not a friend of slavery in the abstract. In that speech you +spoke of "the peaceful extinction of slavery" and used other +expressions indicating your belief that the thing was, at some time, +to have an end. Since then we have had thirty-six years of experience; +and this experience has demonstrated, I think, that there is no +peaceful extinction of slavery in prospect for us. The signal failure +of Henry Clay and other good and great men, in 1849, to effect +anything in favor of gradual emancipation in Kentucky, together with a +thousand other signs, extinguishes that hope utterly. On the question +of liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been. When we were +the political slaves of King George, and wanted to be free, we called +the maxim that "all men are created equal" a self-evident truth; but +now when we have grown fat, and have lost all dread of being slaves +ourselves, we have become so greedy to be _masters_ that we call +the same maxim "a self-evident lie." The Fourth of July has not quite +dwindled away; it is still a great day for burning fire-crackers! + +That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of slavery has +itself become extinct with the occasion and the _men_ of the +Revolution. Under the impulse of that occasion, nearly half the States +adopted systems of emancipation at once; and it is a significant fact +that not a single State has done the like since. So far as peaceful, +voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the negro slave +in America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free +mind, is now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better as that of +the lost souls of the finally impenitent. The Autocrat of all the +Russias will resign his crown and proclaim his subjects free +republicans, sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up +their slaves. + +Our political problem now is, "Can we as a nation continue together +_permanently_--_forever_--half slave, and half free?" The +problem is too mighty for me. May God in his mercy superintend the +solution. Your much obliged friend, and humble servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + +The reader has doubtless already noted in his mind the curious +historical coincidence which so soon followed the foregoing +speculative affirmation. On the day before Lincoln's first +inauguration as President of the United States, the "Autocrat of all +the Russias," Alexander II., by imperial decree emancipated his serfs; +while six weeks after the inauguration, the "American masters," headed +by Jefferson Davis, began the greatest war of modern times, to +perpetuate and spread the institution of slavery. + +[Relocated Footnote (1): Their resolutions were radical for that day, +but not so extreme as was generally feared. On the slavery question +they declared their purpose: + +To restore Kansas and Nebraska to the position of free territories; +that as the Constitution of the United States vests in the States and +not in Congress the power to legislate for the rendition of fugitives +from labor, to repeal and entirely abrogate the fugitive slave law; to +restrict slavery to those States in which it exists; to prohibit the +admission of any more slave States; to abolish slavery in the District +of Columbia; to exclude slavery from all territories over which the +general Government has exclusive jurisdiction, and finally to resist +the acquirement of any more territories unless slavery shall have been +therein forever prohibited.] + +[Relocated Footnote (2): "In the meantime our friends, with a view of +detaining our expected bolters, had been turning from me to Trumbull +till he had risen to 35 and I had been reduced to 15. These would +never desert me except by my direction; but I became satisfied that if +we could prevent Matteson's election one or two ballots more, we could +not possibly do so a single ballot after my friends should begin to +return to me from Trumbull. So I determined to strike at once; and +accordingly advised my remaining friends to go for him, which they +did, and elected him on that, the tenth ballot. Such is the way the +thing was done. I think you would have done the same under the +circumstances, though Judge Davis, who came down this morning, +declares he never would have consented to the 47 [opposition] men +being controlled by the five. I regret my defeat moderately, but am +not nervous about it."--Lincoln to Washburne, February 9, 1855. MS.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE BORDER RUFFIANS + + +[Sidenote: May 30, 1854.] + +The passage of the Nebraska bill and the hurried extinction of the +Indian title opened nearly fifteen million acres of public lands to +settlement and purchase. The whole of this vast area was yet +practically tenantless. In all of Kansas there were only three +military posts, eight or ten missions or schools attached to Indian +reservations, and some scores of roving hunters and traders or +squatters in the vicinity of a few well-known camping stations on the +two principal emigrant and trading routes, one leading southward to +New Mexico, the other northward towards Oregon. But such had been the +interest created by the political excitement, and so favorable were +the newspaper reports of the location, soil, and climate of the new +country, that a few months sufficed to change Kansas from a closed and +prohibited Indian reserve to the emigrant's land of promise. + +Douglas's oracular "stump speech" in the Nebraska bill transferred the +struggle for slavery extension from Congress to the newly organized +territories. "Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave States," said +Seward in a Senate discussion; "since there is no escaping your +challenge, I accept it in behalf of Freedom. We will engage in +competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to +the side that is stronger in numbers as it is in right." With fifteen +millions in the North against ten millions in the South, the result +could not be in doubt. + +[Sidenote: 1854.] + +Feeling secure in this evident advantage, the North, in general, +trusted to the ordinary and natural movement of emigration. To the +rule, however, there were a few exceptions. Some members of Congress, +incensed at the tactics of the Nebraska leaders, formed a Kansas Aid +Society in Washington City and contributed money to assist emigrants. +[Footnote: Testimony of the Hon. Daniel Mace, page 829, House Report +No. 200, 1st Session, 34th Congress. "Howard Report."] Beyond this +initiatory step they do not seem to have had any personal +participation in it, and its office and working operations were soon +transferred to New York. Sundry similar organizations were also formed +by private individuals. The most notable of these was a Boston company +chartered in April, named "The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company." +The charter was soon abandoned, and the company reorganized June 13th, +under private articles of association; [Footnote: E. E. Hale, "Kansas +and Nebraska," p. 229. It was once more incorporated February 21, 1855, +under the name of "The New England Emigrant Aid Company."] and in this +condition it became virtually the working agency of philanthropic +citizens of New England, headed by Eli Thayer. There were several +auxiliary societies and a few independent associations. But from what +then and afterwards came to light, it appears that Mr. Thayer's +society was the only one whose operations reached any degree of +success deserving historical notice. + +This company gave publicity, through newspaper advertisements and +pamphlets, of its willingness to organize emigrants into companies, to +send them to Kansas in charge of trustworthy agents, and to obtain +transportation for them at reduced rates. It also sent machinery for a +few saw-mills, the types and presses for two or three newspapers, and +erected a hotel or boarding-house to accommodate newcomers. It +purchased and held only the land necessary to locate these business +enterprises. It engaged in no speculation, paid no fare of any +emigrants, and expressly disavowed the requirement of any oath or +pledge of political sentiment or conduct. All these transactions were +open, honest, and lawful, carefully avoiding even the implication of +moral or political wrong. + +Under the auspices of this society a pioneer company of about thirty +persons arrived in Kansas in July, 1854, and founded the town of +Lawrence. Other parties followed from time to time, sending out off- +shoots, but mainly increasing the parent settlement, until next to +Fort Leavenworth, the principal military post, Lawrence became the +leading town of the Territory. The erection of the society hotel, the +society saw-mills, and the establishment of a newspaper also gave it +leadership in business and politics as well as population. This humane +and praiseworthy enterprise has been gravely charged with the origin +and responsibility of the political disorders which folio wed in +Kansas. Nothing could be further from the truth. Before it had +assisted five hundred persons to their new homes, the Territory had by +regular and individual immigration, mainly from the Western States, +acquired a population of 8601 souls, as disclosed by the official +census taken after the first summer's arrivals, and before those of +the second had begun. It needs only this statement to refute the +political slander so industriously repeated in high places against the +Lawrence immigrants. + +Deeper causes than the philanthropy or zeal of a few Boston +enthusiasts were actively at work. The balance of power between the +free and slave States had been destroyed by the admission of +California. To restore that balance the South had consummated the +repeal of the Missouri Compromise as a first and indispensable step. +The second equally indispensable step was to seize the political +control of the new Territory. + +Kansas lay directly west of the State of Missouri. For a frontier +State, the pro-slavery sentiment of Missouri was very pronounced, +especially along the Kansas border. The establishment of slavery in +this new region had formed the subject of public and local discussion +before the Nebraska bill, and Senator Atchison had promised his +western Missouri constituents to labor for such a result. From the +time the unlooked-for course of Senator Douglas made it a practical +possibility, Atchison was all zeal and devotion to this object, which +he declared was almost as dear to him as his hope of heaven. When it +finally became a question to be decided perhaps by a single frontier +election, his zeal and work in that behalf were many times multiplied. + +Current reports and subsequent developments leave no doubt that this +Senator, being then acting Vice-President of the United States, +[Footnote: By virtue of his office as President _pro tempore_ of +the United States Senate. The Vice-Presidency was vacant; William R. +King, chosen with President Pierce, had died.] immediately after the +August adjournment of Congress hurried away to his home in Platte +County, Missouri, and from that favorable situation personally +organized a vast conspiracy, running through nearly all the counties +of his State adjoining the Kansas border, to decide the slavery +question for Kansas by Missouri votes. Secret societies under various +names, such as "Blue Lodges," "Friends' Society," "Social Band," "Sons +of the South," were organized and affiliated, with all the necessary +machinery of oaths, grips, signs, passwords, and badges. The plan and +object of the movement were in general kept well concealed. Such +publicity as could not be avoided served rather to fan the excitement, +strengthen the hesitating, and frown down all dissent and opposition. +Long before the time for action arrived, the idea that Kansas must be +a slave State had grown into a fixed and determined public sentiment. + +The fact is not singular if we remember the peculiar situation of that +locality. It was before the great expansion of railroads, and western +Missouri could only be conveniently approached by the single +commercial link of steamboat travel on the turbid and dangerous +Missouri River. Covering the rich, alluvial lands along the majestic +but erratic stream lay the heavy slave counties of the State, wealthy +from the valuable slave products of hemp and tobacco. Slave tenure and +slavery traditions in Missouri dated back a full century, to the +remote days when the American Bottom opposite St. Louis was one of the +chief bread and meat producing settlements of New France, sending +supplies northward to Mackinaw, southward to New Orleans, and eastward +to Fort Duquesne. When in 1763 "the Illinois" country passed by treaty +under the British flag, the old French colonists, with their slaves, +almost in a body crossed the Mississippi into then Spanish territory, +and with fresh additions from New Orleans founded St. Louis and its +outlying settlements; and these, growing with a steady thrift, +extended themselves up the Missouri River. + +Slavery was thus identified with the whole history and also with the +apparent prosperity of the State; and it had in recent times made many +of these Western counties rich. The free State of Iowa lay a hundred +miles to the north, and the free State of Illinois two hundred to the +east; a wall of Indian tribes guarded the west. Should all this +security be swept away, and their runaways find a free route to Canada +by simply crossing the county line? Should the price of their personal +"chattels" fall one-half for want of a new market? With nearly fifteen +million acres of fresh land to choose from for the present outlay of a +trifling preemption fee, should not the poor white compel his single +"black boy" to follow him a few miles west, and hoe his tobacco for +him on the new fat bottom-lands of the Kaw River? + +[Speech in Platte County. Wm. Phillips, "Conquest of Kansas," p. 48] + +Even such off-hand reasoning was probably confined to the more +intelligent. For the greater part these ignorant but stubborn and +strong-willed frontiersmen were moved by a bitter hatred of +"abolitionism," because the word had now been used for half a century +by partisans high and low--Governors, Senators, Presidents--as a term +of opprobrium and a synonym of crime. With these as fathers of the +faith and the Vice-President of the United States as an apostle to +preach a new crusade, is it astonishing that there was no lack of +listeners, converts, and volunteers? Senator Atchison spoke in no +ambiguous words. "When you reside in one day's journey of the +Territory," said he, "and when your peace, your quiet, and your +property depend upon your action, you can without an exertion send +five hundred of your young men who will vote in favor of your +institutions. Should each county in the State of Missouri only do its +duty, the question will be decided quietly and peaceably at the +ballot-box. If we are defeated, then Missouri and the other Southern +States will have shown themselves recreant to their interests and will +deserve their fate." + +Western water transportation found its natural terminus where the Kaw +or Kansas River empties into the Missouri. From this circumstance that +locality had for years been the starting-point for the overland +caravans or wagon-trains. Fort Leavenworth was the point of rendezvous +for those going to California and Oregon; Independence the place of +outfit for those destined to Santa Fe. Grouped about these two points +were half a dozen heavy slaveholding counties of Missouri,--Platte, +Clay, Bay, Jackson, Lafayette, Saline, and others. Platte County, the +home of Senator Atchison, was their Western outpost, and lay like an +outspread fan in the great bend of the Missouri, commanding from +thirty to fifty miles of river front. Nearly all of Kansas attainable +by the usual water transportation and travel lay immediately opposite. +A glance at the map will show how easily local sentiment could +influence or dominate commerce and travel on the Missouri River. In +this connection the character of the population must be taken into +account. The spirit of intolerance which once pervaded all +slaveholding communities, in whatever State of the Union, was here +rampant to an unusual degree. The rural inhabitants were marked by the +strong characteristics of the frontier,--fondness of adventure, +recklessness of exposure or danger to life, a boastful assertion of +personal right, privilege, or prowess, a daily and hourly familiarity +with the use of fire-arms. These again were heightened by two special +influences--the presence of Indian tribes whose reservations lay just +across the border, and the advent and preparation of each summer's +emigration across the great plains. The "Argonauts of '49" were not +all gamblers and cut-throats of border song and story. Generally, +however, they were men of decision and will, all mere drift-wood in +the great current of gold-seekers being soon washed ashore and left +behind. Until they finished their last dinner at the Planter's House +in St. Louis, the fledgelings of cities, the lawyers, doctors, +merchants, and speculators, were in or of civilization. Perhaps they +even resisted the contamination of cards and drink, profanity and +revolver salutations, while the gilded and tinseled Missouri River +steamboat bore them for three days against its muddy current and +boiling eddies to meet their company and their outfit. + +[Illustration: DAVID R. ATCHISON.] + +But once landed at Independence or Leavenworth, they were of the +frontier, of the wilderness, of the desert. Here they donned their +garments of red flannel and coarse cloth or buckskin, thrust the legs +of their trousers inside the tops of their heavy boots, and wore their +bowie-knife or revolver in their outside belt. From this departure all +were subject to the inexorable equality of the camp. Eating, sleeping, +standing guard, tugging at the wheel or defending life and property,-- +there was no rank between captain and cook, employer and employed, +savant and ignoramus, but the distribution of duty and the assignment +of responsibility. Toil and exposure, hunger and thirst, wind and +storm, danger in camp quarrel or Indian ambush, were the familiar and +ordinary vicissitudes of a three months' journey in a caravan of the +plains. + +All this movement created business for these Missouri River towns. +Their few inhabitants drove a brisk trade in shirts and blankets, guns +and powder, hard bread and bacon, wagons and live stock. Petty +commerce busies itself with the art of gain rather than with the labor +of reform. Indian and emigrant traders did not too closely scan their +sources of profit. The precepts of the divine and the penalties of the +human law sat lightly upon them. As yet many of these frontier towns +were small hamlets, without even a pretext of police regulations. +Passion, therefore, ran comparatively a free course, and the personal +redress of private wrongs was only held in check by the broad and +acknowledged right of self-defense. Since 1849 and 1850, when the gold +fever was at its height, emigration across the plains had slackened, +and the eagerness for a revival of this local traffic undoubtedly +exerted its influence in procuring the opening of the territories in +1854. The noise and excitement created by the passage of the Kansas- +Nebraska Act awakened the hope of frontier traders and speculators, +who now greedily watched all the budding chances of gain. Under such +circumstances these opportunities to the shrewd, to the bold, and +especially to the unscrupulous, are many. Cheap lands, unlimited town +lots, eligible trading sites, the multitude of franchises and +privileges within the control of a territorial legislature, the +offices to be distributed under party favoritism, offer an abundant +lure to enterprise and far more to craft. + +It was to such a population and under such a condition of things that +Senator Atchison went to his home in Platte County in the summer of +1854 to preach his pro-slavery crusade against Kansas. His personal +convictions, his party faith, his senatorial reflection, and his +financial fortunes, were all involved in the scheme. With the help of +the Stringfellows and other zealous co-workers, the town of Atchison +was founded and named in his honor, and the "Squatter Sovereign" +newspaper established, which displayed his name as a candidate for the +presidency. The good-will of the Administration was manifested by +making one of the editors postmaster at the new town. + +President Pierce appointed as Governor of Kansas Territory Andrew H. +Keeder, a member of his own party, from the free State of +Pennsylvania. He had neither prominent reputation nor conspicuous +ability, though under trying circumstances he afterwards showed +diligence, judgment, integrity, and more than ordinary firmness and +independence. It is to be presumed that his fitness in a partisan +light had been thoroughly scrutinized by both President and Senate. +Upon the vital point the investigation was deemed conclusive. "He was +appointed," the "Washington Union" naively stated when the matter was +first called in question, "under the strongest assurance that he was +strictly and honestly a national man. We are able to state further, on +very reliable authority, that whilst Governor Reeder was in +Washington, at the time of his appointment, he conversed with Southern +gentlemen on the subject of slavery, and assured them that he had no +more scruples in buying a slave than a horse, and regretted that he +had not money to purchase a number to carry with him to Kansas." With +him were appointed three Federal judges, a secretary, a marshal, and +an attorney for the Territory, all doubtless considered equally +trustworthy on the slavery question. The organic act invested the +governor with very comprehensive powers to initiate the organization +of the new Territory. Until the first legislature should be duly +constituted, he had authority to fix election days, define election +districts, direct the mode of returns, take a census, locate the +temporary seat of government, declare vacancies, order new elections +to fill them, besides the usual and permanent powers of an executive. + +[Sidenote: Ex-Governor Reeder's Testimony, "Howard Report," pp. 933-985.] + +Arriving at Leavenworth in October, 1854, Governor Reeder was not long +in discovering the designs of the Missourians. He was urged to order +the immediate election of a territorial legislature. The conspirators +had already spent some months in organizing their "Blue Lodges," and +now desired at once to control the political power of the Territory. +But the Governor had too much manliness to become the mere pliant tool +they wished to make him. He resented their dictation; he made a tour +of inspection through the new settlements; and, acting on his own +judgment, on his return issued a proclamation for a simple election of +a delegate to Congress. At the appearance of this proclamation Platte +County took alarm, and held a meeting on the Kansas side of the river, +to intimidate him with violent speeches and a significant memorial. +The Governor retorted in a letter that the meeting was composed of +Missourians, and that he should resist outside interference from +friend, foe, or faction. [Footnote: Governor Reeder to Gwiner and +others, Nov. 21, 1854; copied into "National Era," Jan. 4, 1855.] +Pocketing this rebuff as best they might, Senator Atchison and his +"Blue Lodges" nevertheless held fast to their purpose. Paper +proclamations and lectures on abstract rights counted little against +the practical measures they had matured. November 29th, the day of +election for delegate, finally arrived, and with it a formidable +invasion of Missouri voters at more than half the polling places +appointed in the Governor's proclamation. + +In frontier life it was an every-day experience to make excursions for +business or pleasure, singly or in parties, requiring two or three +consecutive days, perhaps a night or two of camping out, for which +saddle-horses and farm-wagons furnished ready transportation; and +nothing was more common than concerted neighborhood efforts for +improvement, protection, or amusement. On such occasions neighborly +sentiment and comity required every man to drop his axe, or unhitch +from the plow in the furrow, to further the real or imaginary weal of +the community. In urgent instances non-compliance was fatal to the +peace and comfort and sometimes to the personal safety of the settler. +The movement described above had been in active preparation for weeks, +controlled by strong and secret combinations, and many unwilling +participants were doubtless swept into it by an excited public opinion +they dared not resist. + +A day or two before the election the whole Missouri border was astir. +Horses were saddled, teams harnessed, wagons loaded with tents, +forage, and provisions, bowie-knives buckled on, revolvers and rifles +loaded, and flags and inscriptions flung to the breeze by the more +demonstrative and daring. Crossing the river-ferries from the upper +counties, and passing unobstructed over the State line by the prairie- +roads and trails from the lower, many of them camped that night at the +nearest polls, while others pushed on fifty or a hundred miles to the +sparsely settled election districts of the interior. As they passed +along, the more scrupulous went through the empty form of an imaginary +settlement, by nailing a card to a tree, driving a stake into the +ground, or inscribing their names in a claim register, prepared in +haste by the invading party. The indifferent satisfied themselves with +mere mental resolves to become settlers. The utterly reckless silenced +all scruples in profanity and drunkenness. + +[Sidenote: Nov. 29, 1854.] + +On election morning the few real squatters of Kansas, endowed with +Douglas's delusive boon of "popular sovereignty," witnessed with mixed +indignation and terror acts of summary usurpation. Judges of election +were dispossessed and set aside by intimidation or stratagem, and pro- +slavery judges substituted without the slightest regard to regularity +or law; judges' and voters' oaths were declared unnecessary, or +explained away upon newly-invented phrases and absurd subtleties. +"Where there's a will, there's a way," in wrong and crime, as well as +in honest purpose and deed; and by more dishonest devices than we can +stop fully to record the ballot-boxes were filled, through invasion, +false swearing, riot, and usurpation, with ballots for Whitfield, the +pro-slavery candidate for delegate to Congress, at nine out of the +seventeen polling places--showing, upon a careful scrutiny afterwards +made by a committee of Congress, an aggregate of 1729 illegal votes, +and only 1114 legal ones. + +This mockery of an election completed, the valiant Knights of the Blue +Lodge, the fraternal members of the Social Band, the philanthropic +groups of the Friends' Society, and the chivalric Sons of the South +returned to their axe and plow, society lodge and bar-room haunt, to +exult in a victory for Missouri and slavery over the "Abolition hordes +and nigger thieves of the Emigrant Aid Society." The "Border Ruffians" +of Missouri had written their preliminary chapter in the annals of +Kansas. The published statements of the Emigrant Aid Society show that +up to the date of election it had sent only a few hundred men, women, +and children to the Territory. Why such a prodigious effort was deemed +necessary to overcome the votes and influence of this paltry handful +of "paupers who had sold themselves to Eli Thayer and Co." was never +explained. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE BOGUS LAWS + + +As the event proved, the invasion of border ruffians to decide the +first election in Kansas had been entirely unnecessary. Even without +counting the illegal votes, the pro-slavery candidate for delegate was +chosen by a plurality. He had held the office of Indian Agent, and his +acquaintance, experience, and the principal fact that he was the +favorite of the conspirators gave him an easy victory. Governor Reeder +issued his certificate of election without delay, and Whitfield +hurried away to Washington to enjoy his new honors, taking his seat in +the House of Representatives within three weeks after his election. +Atchison, however, did not follow his example. Congress met on the +first Monday of December, and the services of the Acting Vice- +President were needed in the Senate Chamber. But of such importance +did he deem the success of the conspiracy in which he was the leader, +that a few weeks before the session he wrote a short letter to the +Senate, giving notice of his probable absence and advising the +appointment of a new presiding officer. + +[Sidenote: Reeder Testimony, Howard Report, p. 934.] + +[Sidenote: Howard Report, p. 9.] + +As a necessary preliminary to organizing the government of the +Territory, Governor Reeder, under the authority of the organic act, +proceeded to take a census of its inhabitants. This work, carried on +and completed in the months of January and February, 1855, disclosed a +total population of 8601 souls, of whom 2905 were voters. With this +enumeration as a definite guide, the Governor made an apportionment, +established election districts, and, appointing the necessary officers +to conduct it, fixed upon the 30th of March, 1855, as the day for +electing the territorial legislature. Governor Reeder had come to +Kansas an ardent Democrat, a firm friend of the Pierce Administration, +and an enthusiastic disciple of the new Democratic dogma of "Popular +Sovereignty." But his short experience with Atchison's Border Ruffians +had already rudely shaken his partisanship. The events of the November +election exposed the designs of the pro-slavery conspiracy, and no +course was left him but to become either its ally or its enemy. + +[Sidenote: Reeder instructions, Howard Report, pp. 107, 935.] + +In behalf of justice, as well as to preserve what he still fondly +cherished as a vital party principle, he determined by every means in +his power to secure a fair election. In his appointment of election +officers, census-takers, justices of the peace, and constables, he was +careful to make his selections from both factions as fairly as +possible, excepting that, as a greater and necessary safeguard against +another invasion, he designated in the several election districts +along the Missouri border two "free-State" men and one pro-slavery man +to act as judges at each poll. He prescribed distinct and rigid rules +for the conduct of the election; ordering among other things that the +judges should be sworn, that constables should attend and preserve +order, and that voters must be actual residents to the exclusion of +any other home. + +All his precautions came to nought. This election of a territorial +legislature, which, as then popularly believed, might determine by the +enactment of laws whether Kansas should become a free or a slave +State, was precisely the coveted opportunity for which the Border +Ruffian conspiracy had been organized. Its interference in the +November election served as a practical experiment to demonstrate its +efficiency and to perfect its plans. The alleged doings of the +Emigrant Aid Societies furnished a convenient and plausible pretext; +extravagant rumors were now circulated as to the plans and numbers of +the Eastern emigrants; it was industriously reported that they were +coming twenty thousand strong to control the election; and by these +misrepresentations the whole border was wrought up into the fervor of +a pro-slavery crusade. + +[Sidenote: 1855.] + +[Sidenote: Howard Report, pp. 9 to 44.] + +[Sidenote: Howard Report, p. 30.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid., p. 34.] + +When the 30th of March, election day, finally arrived, the conspiracy +had once more mustered its organized army of invasion, and five +thousand Missouri Border Ruffians, in different camps, bands, and +squads, held practical possession of nearly every election district in +the Territory. Riot, violence, intimidation, destruction of +ballot-boxes, expulsion and substitution of judges, neglect or refusal +to administer the prescribed oaths, _viva voce_ voting, repeated +voting on one side, and obstruction and dispersion of voters on the +other, were common incidents; no one dared to resist the acts of the +invaders, since they were armed and commanded in frontier if not in +military fashion, in many cases by men whose names then or after-wards +were prominent or notorious. Of the votes cast, 1410 were upon a +subsequent examination found to have been legal, while 4908 were +illegal. Of the total number, 5427 votes were given to the pro-slavery +and only 791 to the free-State candidates. Upon a careful collation of +evidence the investigating committee of Congress was of the opinion +that the vote would have returned a free-State legislature if the +election had been confined to the actual settlers; as conducted, +however, it showed a nominal majority for every pro-slavery candidate +but one. + +Governor Reeder had feared a repetition of the November frauds; but it +is evident that he had no conception of so extensive an invasion. It +is probable, too, that information of its full enormity did not +immediately reach him. Meanwhile the five days prescribed in his +proclamation for receiving notices of contest elapsed. The Governor +had removed his executive office to Shawnee Mission. At this place, +and at the neighboring town of Westport, Missouri, only four miles +distant, a majority of the persons claiming to have been elected now +assembled and became clamorous for their certificates. [Footnote: +Testimony of Ex-Governor Reeder, Howard Report, pp. 935-9; also +Stringfellow's testimony, p. 855.] A committee of their number +presented a formal written demand for the same; they strenuously +denied his right to question the legality of the election, and threats +against the Governor's life in case of his refusal to issue them +became alarmingly frequent. Their regular consultations, their open +denunciations, and their hints at violence, while they did not +entirely overawe the Governor, so far produced their intended effect +upon him that he assembled a band of his personal friends for his own +protection. On the 6th of April, one week after election, the Governor +announced his decision upon the returns. On one side of the room were +himself and his armed adherents; on the other side the would-be +members in superior numbers, with their pistols and bowie-knives. +Under this virtual duress the Governor issued certificates of election +to all but about one-third of the claimants; and the returns in these +cases he rejected, not because of alleged force or fraud, but on +account of palpable defects in the papers. [Transcriber's Note: +Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end.] + +The issue of certificates was a fatal error in Governor Reeder's +action. It endowed the notoriously illegal Legislature with a +technical authority, and a few weeks later, when he went to Washington +city to invoke the help of the Pierce Administration against the +usurpation, it enabled Attorney-General Cushing (if current report was +true) to taunt him with the reply: "You state that this Legislature is +the creature of force and fraud; which shall we believe--your official +certificate under seal, or your subsequent declarations to us in +private conversation?" + +[Sidenote: April 16, 1855.] + +The question of the certificates disposed of, the next point of +interest was to determine at what place the Legislature should +assemble. Under the organic act the Governor had authority to appoint +the first meeting, and it soon became known that his mind was fixed +upon the embryo town of Pawnee, adjoining the military post of Fort +Riley, situated on the Kansas River, 110 miles from the Missouri line. +Against this exile, however, Stringfellow and his Border Ruffian +lawmakers protested in an energetic memorial, asking to be called +together at the Shawnee Mission, supplemented by the private threat +that even if they convened at Pawnee, they would adjourn and come back +the day after. If the Governor harbored any remaining doubt that this +bogus Legislature intended to assume and maintain the mastery, it +speedily vanished. Their hostility grew open and defiant; they classed +him as a free-State man, an "abolitionist," and it became only too +evident that he would gradually be shorn of power and degraded from +the position of Territorial Executive to that of a mere puppet. Having +nothing to gain by further concession, he adhered to his original +plan, issued his proclamation convening the Legislature at Pawnee on +the first Monday in July, and immediately started for Washington to +make a direct appeal to President Pierce. + +[Sidenote: "Squatter Sovereign," June 5, 1855.] + +How Governor Reeder failed in this last hope of redress and support, +how he found the Kansas conspiracy as strong at Washington as on the +Missouri border, will appear further along. On the 2d of July the +Governor and the Legislature met at the town of Pawnee, where he had +convoked them--a magnificent prairie site, but containing as yet only +three buildings, one to hold sessions in, and two to furnish food and +lodging. The Governor's friends declared the accommodations ample; the +Missourians on the contrary made affidavit that they were compelled to +camp out and cook their own rations. The actual facts had little to do +with the predetermination of the members. Stringfellow had written in +his paper, the "Squatter Sovereign," three weeks before: "We hope no +one will be silly enough to suppose the Governor has power to compel +us to stay at Pawnee during the entire session. We will, of course, +have to 'trot' out at the bidding of his Excellency,--but we will trot +him back next day at our bidding." + +[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory," 1855, p. 12.] + +[Sidenote: "Journal of Council, Kansas Territory," p. 12.] + +[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory," 1855, p. 29.] + +The prediction was literally fulfilled. Both branches organized +without delay, the House choosing John H. Stringfellow for Speaker. +Before the Governor's message was delivered on the following day, the +House had already passed, under suspended rules, "An act to remove the +seat of government temporarily to the Shawnee Manual Labor School," +which act the Council as promptly concurred in. The Governor vetoed +the bill, but it was at once passed over his veto. By the end of the +week the Legislature had departed from the budding capital to return +no more. + +[Sidenote: Ibid., p. 30.] + +The Governor was perforce obliged to follow his migratory Solons, who +adhered to their purpose despite his public or private protests, and +who reassembled at Shawnee Mission, or more correctly the Shawnee +Manual Labor School, on the 16th of July. Shawnee Mission was one of +our many national experiments in civilizing Indian tribes. This +philanthropic institution, nourished by the Federal treasury, was +presided over by the Rev. Thomas Johnson. The town of Westport, which +could boast of a post office, lay only four miles to the eastward, on +the Missouri side of the State line, and was a noted pro-slavery +stronghold. There were several large brick buildings at the Mission +capable of accommodating the Legislature with halls and lodging-rooms; +its nearness to an established post office, and its contiguity to +Missouri pro-slavery sentiment were elements probably not lost sight +of. Mr. Johnson, who had formerly been a Missouri slaveholder, was at +the March election chosen a member of the Territorial Council, which +in due time made him its presiding officer; and the bogus Legislature +at Shawnee Mission was therefore in a certain sense under its own +"vine and fig-tree." + +[Illustration: ANDREW H. REEDER.] + +[Sidenote: "Squatter Sovereign," July 17, 1855.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid., June 19, 1855.] + +[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory," 1856, p. 12.] + +The two branches of the Legislature, the Council with the Rev. Thomas +Johnson as President, and the House with Stringfellow of the "Squatter +Sovereign" as Speaker, now turned their attention seriously to the +pro-slavery work before them. The conspirators were shrewd enough to +realize their victory. "To have intimated one year ago," said the +Speaker in his address of thanks, "that such a result would be wrought +out, one would have been thought a visionary; to have predicted that +to-day a legislature would assemble, almost unanimously pro-slavery, +and with myself for Speaker, I would have been thought mad." The +programme had already been announced in the "Squatter Sovereign" some +weeks before. "The South must and will prevail. If the Southern people +but half do their duty, in less than nine months from this day Kansas +will have formed a constitution and be knocking at the door for +admission.... In the session of the United States Senate in 1856, two +Senators from the slave-holding State of Kansas will take their seats, +and abolitionism will be forever driven from our halls of +legislation." Against this triumphant attitude Governor Reeder was +despondent and powerless. The language of his message plainly betrayed +the political dilemma in which he found himself. He strove as best he +might to couple together the prevailing cant of office-holders against +"the destructive spirit of abolitionism" and a comparatively mild +rebuke of the Missouri usurpation. [Footnote: Its phraseology was +adroit enough to call forth a sneering compliment from Speaker +Stringfellow, who wrote to the "Squatter Sovereign": "On Tuesday the +Governor sent in his message, which you will find is very well +calculated to have its effect with the Pennsylvania Democracy. If he +was trustworthy I would" be disposed to compliment the most of it, +"but knowing how corrupt the author is, and that it is only designed +for political effect in Pennsylvania, he not expecting to remain long +with us, I will pass it by."--"Squatter Sovereign," July 17, 1855.] + +[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory," 1855. Appendix, p. 10.] + +Nevertheless, the Governor stood reasonably firm. He persisted in +declaring that the Legislature could pass no valid laws at any other +place than Pawnee, and returned the first bill sent him with a veto +message to that effect. To this the Legislature replied by passing the +bill over his veto, and in addition formally raising a joint committee +"to draw up a memorial to the President of the United States +respectfully demanding the removal of A. H. Reeder from the office of +governor"; and, as if this indignity were not enough, holding a joint +session for publicly signing it. The memorial was promptly dispatched +to Washington by special messenger; but on the way this envoy read the +news of the Governor's dismissal by the President. + +This event appeared definitely to sweep away the last obstacle in the +path of the conspirators. The office of acting governor now devolved +upon the secretary of the Territory, Daniel Woodson, a man who shared +their views and was allied to their schemes. With him to approve their +enactments, the parliamentary machinery of the "bogus" Legislature was +complete and effective. They had at the very beginning summarily +ousted the free-State members chosen at the supplementary election on +May 22, and seated the pro-slavery claimants of March 30; and the only +two remaining free-State members resigned in utter disgust to avoid +giving countenance to the flagrant usurpation by their presence. No +one was left even to enter a protest. + +[Sidenote: Report Judiciary Com., "House Journal Kansas Territory," +1855. Appendix, p. 14.] + +This, then, was the perfect flower of Douglas's vaunted experiment of +"popular sovereignty"--a result they professed fully to appreciate. +"Hitherto," said the Judiciary Committee of the House in a long and +grandiloquent report, "Congress have retained to themselves the power +to mold and shape all the territorial governments according to their +own peculiar notions, and to restrict within very limited and +contracted bounds both the natural as well as the political rights of +the bold and daring pioneer and the noble, hard-fisted squatter." But +by this course, the argument of the committee continued, "the pillars +which uphold this glorious union of States were shaken until the whole +world was threatened with a political earthquake," and, "the principle +that the people are capable of self-government would have been forever +swallowed up by anarchy and confusion," had not the Kansas-Nebraska +bill "delegated to the people of these territories the right to frame +and establish their own form of government." + +[Sidenote: Report Judiciary Com., "House Journal Kansas Territory," +1855. Appendix, p. 18.] + +[Sidenote: Ibid., p. 18.] + +What might not be expected of lawmakers who begin with so ambitious an +exordium, and who lay the cornerstone of their edifice upon the solid +rock of political principle? The anti-climax of performance which +followed would be laughably absurd, were it not marked by the cunning +of a well-matured political plot. Their first step was to recommend +the repeal of "all laws whatsoever, which may have been considered to +have been in force" in the Territory on the 1st day of July, 1855, +thus forever quieting any doubt "as to what is and what is not law in +this Territory"; secondly, to substitute a code about which there +should be no question, by the equally ingenious expedient of copying +and adopting the Revised Statutes of Missouri. + +[Sidenote: Ibid., p. 14.] + +These enactments were made in due form; but the bogus Legislature did +not seem content to let its fame rest on this single monument of self- +government. Casting their eyes once more upon the broad expanse of +American politics, the Judiciary Committee reported: "The question of +slavery is one that convulses the whole country, from the boisterous +Atlantic to the shores of the mild Pacific. This state of things has +been brought about by the fanaticism of the North and East, while up +to this time the people of the South, and those of the North who +desire the perpetuation of this Union and are devoted to the laws, +have been entirely conservative. But the time is coming--yea, it has +already arrived--for the latter to take a bold and decided stand that +the Union and law may not be trampled in the dust," etc., etc. + +[Sidenote: "Statutes Territory of Kansas," 1855, p. 715.] + +The "Revised Statutes of Missouri," recommended in bulk, and adopted +with hasty clerical modifications, [Footnote: To guard more +effectually against clerical errors, the Legislature enacted: "Sec. +1. Wherever the word 'State' occurs in any act of the present +legislative assembly, or any law of this Territory, in such +construction as to indicate the locality of the operation of such act +or laws, the same shall in every instance be taken and understood to +mean 'Territory,' and shall apply to the Territory of Kansas."-- +"Statutes of Kansas," 1855, p. 718.] already contained the usual +slave-code peculiar to Southern States. But in the plans and hopes of +the conspirators, this of itself was insufficient. In order to "take a +bold stand that the Union and law might not be trampled in the dust," +they with great painstaking devised and passed "an act to punish +offenses against slave property." + +It prescribed the penalty of death, not merely for the grave crime of +inciting or aiding an insurrection of slaves, free negroes, or +mulattoes, or circulating printed matter for such an object, but also +the same extreme punishment for the comparatively mild offense of +enticing or decoying away a slave or assisting him to escape; for +harboring or concealing a fugitive slave, ten years' imprisonment; for +resisting an officer arresting a fugitive slave, two years' +imprisonment. + +If such inflictions as the foregoing might perhaps be tolerated upon +the plea that a barbarous institution required barbarous safeguards, +what ought to be said of the last three sections of the act which, in +contempt of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of +the United States, annulled the freedom of speech and the freedom of +the press, and invaded even the right of individual conscience? + +[Sidenote: "Statutes Territory of Kansas," 1855, p. 516.] + +To write, print, or circulate "any statements, arguments, opinions, +sentiment, doctrine, advice, or innuendo, calculated to produce a +disorderly, dangerous, or rebellious disaffection among the slaves of +the Territory, or to induce such slaves to escape from the service of +their masters, or to resist their authority," was pronounced a felony +punishable by five years' imprisonment. To deny the right of holding +slaves in the Territory, by speaking, writing, printing, or +circulating books, or papers, was likewise made a felony, punishable +by two years' imprisonment. Finally it was enacted that "no person who +is conscientiously opposed to holding slaves, or who does not admit +the right to hold slaves in this Territory, shall sit as a juror on +the trial of any prosecution for any violation of any of the sections +of this act." Also, all officers were, in addition to their usual +oath, required to swear to support and sustain the Kansas-Nebraska Act +and the Fugitive-Slave Law. + +[Sidenote: "Journal of Council Kansas Territory," 1855 p. 248.] + +The spirit which produced these despotic laws also governed the +methods devised to enforce them. The Legislature proceeded to elect +the principal officers of each county, who in turn were empowered by +the laws to appoint the subordinate officials. All administration, +therefore, emanated from that body, reflected its will, and followed +its behest. Finally, the usual skeleton organization of a territorial +militia was devised, whose general officers were in due time appointed +by the acting Governor from prominent and serviceable pro-slavery +members of the Legislature. + +[Sidenote: "Statutes Territory of Kansas," 1855, p. 332.] + +Having secured their present domination, they sought to perpetuate +their political ascendency in the Territory. They ingeniously +prolonged the tenure of their various appointees, and to render their +success at future elections easy and certain they provided that +candidates to be eligible, and judges of election, and voters when +challenged, must swear to support the Fugitive-Slave Law. This they +knew would virtually disfranchise many conscientious antislavery men; +while, on the other hand, they enacted that each inhabitant who had +paid his territorial tax should be a qualified voter for all elective +officers. Under so lax a provision Missouri invaders could in the +future, as they had in the past, easily give an apparent majority at +the ballot-box for all their necessary agents and ulterior schemes. + +In a technical sense the establishment of slavery in Kansas was +complete. There were by the census of the previous February already +some two hundred slaves in the Territory. Under the sanction of these +laws, and before they could by any possibility be repealed, some +thousands might be expected, especially by such an organized and +united effort as the South could make to maintain the vantage ground +already gained. Once there, the aggressiveness of the institution +might be relied on to protect itself, since all experience had shown +that under similar conditions it was almost ineradicable. + +[Sidenote: Colfax, Speech in H.R., June 21, 1856.] + +After so much patriotic endeavor on the part of these Border Ruffian +legislators "that the Union and law may not be trampled in the dust," +it cannot perhaps be wondered at that they began to look around for +their personal rewards. These they easily found in the rich harvest of +local monopolies and franchises which lay scattered in profusion on +this virgin field of legislation, ready to be seized and appropriated +without dispute by the first occupants. There were charters for +railroads, insurance companies, toll-bridges, ferries, coal-mines, +plank roads, and numberless privileges and honors of present or +prospective value out of which, together with the county, district, +and military offices, the ambitious members might give and take with +generous liberality. One-sixth of the printed laws of the first +session attest their modest attention to this incidental squatters' +dowry. One of the many favorable opportunities in this category was +the establishment of the permanent territorial capital, authorized by +the organic act, where the liberal Federal appropriation for public +buildings should be expended. For this purpose, competition from the +older towns yielding gracefully after the first ballot, an entirely +new site on the open prairie overlooking the Kansas River some twelve +miles west of Lawrence was agreed upon. The proceedings do not show +any unseemly scramble over the selection, and no tangible record +remains of the whispered distribution of corner lots and contracts. It +is only the name which rises into historical notice. + +[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory," 1855. Appendix, p. 3.] + +One of the actors in the political drama of Kansas was Samuel Dexter +Lecompte, Chief-Justice of the Territory. He had been appointed from +the border State of Maryland, and is represented to have been a +diligent student, a respectable lawyer, a prominent Democratic +politician, and possessed of the personal instincts and demeanor of a +gentleman. Moved by a pro-slavery sympathy that was sincere, Judge +Lecompte lent his high authority to the interests of the conspiracy +against Kansas. He had already rendered the bogus Legislature the +important service of publishing an extra-judicial opinion, sustaining +their adjournment from Pawnee to Shawnee Mission. Probably because +they valued his official championship and recognized in him a powerful +ally in politics, they made him a member of several of their private +corporations, and gave him the honor of naming their newly founded +capital Lecompton. But the intended distinction was transitory. Before +the lapse of a single decade, the town for which he stood sponsor was +no longer the capital of Kansas. + +[Relocated Footnote: Namely, because of a _viva voce_ vote certified +instead of a ballot, and because the prescribed oath and the words +"lawful resident voters" had been openly erased from the printed +forms. In six districts the Governor ordered a supplementary election, +which was duly held on the 22d of May following. When that day +arrived, the Border Ruffians, proclaiming the election to be illegal, +by their default allowed free-State men to be chosen in all the +districts except that of Leavenworth, where the invasion and tactics +of the March election were repeated now for the third time and the +same candidates voted for.--Howard Report, pp. 35-36. Indeed, the +Border Ruffian habit of voting in Kansas had become chronic, and did +not cease for some years, and sometimes developed the grimmest humors. +In the autumn of that same year an election for county-seat took place +in Leavenworth County by the accidental failure of the Legislature to +designate one. Leavenworth city aspired to this honor and polled six +hundred votes; but it had an enterprising rival in Kickapoo city, ten +miles up the river, and another, Delaware city, eight miles down +stream. Both were paper towns--"cottonwood towns," in border slang--of +great expectations; and both having more unscrupulous enterprise than +voters, appealed to Platte County to "come over." This was an appeal +Platte County could never resist, and accordingly a chartered +ferry-boat brought voters all election day from the Missouri side, +until the Kickapoo tally-lists scored 850. Delaware city, however, was +not to be thus easily crushed. She, too, not only had her chartered +ferry-boat, but kept her polls open for three days in succession, and +not until her boxes contained nine hundred ballots (of which probably +only fifty were legal) did the steam whistle scream victory! When the +"returning board" had sufficiently weighed this complicated electoral +contest, it gravely decided that keeping the polls open for three days +was "an unheard of irregularity." (J. N. Holloway, "History of +Kansas," pp. 192-4.) This was exquisite irony; but a local court on +appeal seriously giving a final verdict for Delaware, the transaction +became a perennial burlesque on "Squatter Sovereignty."] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION + + +[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory," 1855. p. 30; "Council +Journal," 1855, p. 253.] + +The bogus Legislature adjourned late on the night of the 30th of +August, 1855. They had elaborately built up their legal despotism, +commissioned trusty adherents to administer it, and provided their +principal and undoubted partisans with military authority to see that +it was duly executed. Going still a step further, they proposed so to +mold and control public opinion as to prevent the organization of any +party or faction to oppose their plans. In view of the coming +presidential campaign, it was the fashion in the States for Democrats +to style themselves "National Democrats"; and a few newspapers and +speakers in Kansas had adopted the prevailing political name. To +stifle any such movement, both houses of the Legislature on the last +night of their session adopted a concurrent resolution declaring that +the proposition to organize a National Democratic party, having +already misled some of their friends, would divide pro-slavery Whigs +from Democrats and weaken their party one-half; that it was the duty +of the pro-slavery, Union-loving men of Kansas "to know but one issue, +slavery; and that any party making or attempting to make any other is +and should be held as an ally of abolitionism and disunion." + +Had the conspiracy been content to prosecute its designs through +moderate measures, it would inevitably have fastened slavery upon +Kansas. The organization of the invasion in western Missouri, carried +on under pre-acknowledged leadership, in populous counties, among +established homes, amid well-matured confidence growing out of long +personal and political relationship, would have been easy even without +the powerful bond of secret association. On the other hand, the union +of the actual inhabitants of Kansas, scattered in sparse settlements, +personal strangers to each other, coming from widely separated States, +and comprising radically different manners, sentiments, and +traditions, and burdened with the prime and unyielding necessity of +protecting themselves and their families against cold and hunger, was +in the very nature of the case slow and difficult. But the course of +the Border Ruffians created, in less than six weeks, a powerful and +determined opposition, which became united in support of what is known +as the Topeka Constitution. + +It is noteworthy that this free-State movement originated in +Democratic circles, under Democratic auspices. The Republican party +did not yet exist. The opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act were +distributed among Whigs, Know-Nothings, and Free-soilers in the +States, and had no national affiliation, although they had won +overwhelming triumphs in a majority of the Congressional districts in +the fall elections of 1854. Nearly if not quite all the free-State +leaders originally went to Kansas as friends of President Pierce, and +as believers in the dogma of "Popular Sovereignty." + +Now that this usurping Legislature had met, contemptuously expelled +the free-State members, defied the Governor's veto, set up its +ingeniously contrived legal despotism, and commissioned its partisan +followers to execute and administer it, the situation became +sufficiently grave to demand defensive action. The real settlers were +Democrats, it was true; they had voted for Pierce, shouted for the +platform of '52, applauded the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and emigrated to +the Territory to enjoy the new political gospel of popular +sovereignty. But the practical Democratic beatitudes of Kansas were +not calculated to strengthen the saints or confirm them in the faith. +A Democratic invasion had elected a Democratic Legislature, which +enacted laws, under whose arbitrary "non-intervention" a Democratic +court might fasten a ball and chain to their ankles if they should +happen to read the Declaration of Independence to a negro, or carry +Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia" in their carpet-bags. + +The official resolution which the bogus Legislature proclaimed as a +final political test left no middle ground between those who were for +slavery and those who were against slavery--those who were for the +bogus laws in all their enormity, and those who were against them--and +all who were not willing to become active co-workers with the +conspiracy were forced to combine in self-defense. + +It was in the town of Lawrence that the free-State movement naturally +found its beginning. The settlers of the Emigrant Aid Society were +comparatively few in number; but, supported by money, saw-mills, +printing-presses, boarding-houses, they became from the very first a +compact, self-reliant governing force. A few preliminary meetings, +instigated by the disfranchised free-State members of the Legislature, +brought together a large mass convention. The result of its two days' +deliberations was a regularly chosen delegate convention held at Big +Springs, a few miles west of Lawrence, on the 5th of September, 1855. +More important than all, perhaps, was the presence and active +participation of ex-Governor Reeder himself, who wrote the +resolutions, addressed the convention in a stirring and defiant +speech, and received by acclamation their nomination for territorial +delegate. + +The platform adopted repudiated in strong terms the bogus Legislature +and its tyrannical enactments, and declared "that we will endure and +submit to these laws no longer than the best interests of the +Territory require, as the least of two evils, and will resist them to +a bloody issue as soon as we ascertain that peaceable remedies shall +fail." It also recommended the formation of volunteer companies and +the procurement of arms. The progressive and radical spirit of the +convention is illustrated in its endorsement of the free-State +movement, against the report of its own committee. + +[Sidenote: Howard Report, pp. 48-58.] + +The strongest point, however, made by the convention was a +determination, strictly adhered to for more than two years, to take no +part in any election under the bogus territorial laws. As a result +Whitfield received, without competition, the combined pro-slavery and +Border Ruffian vote for delegate on the first of October, a total of +2721 ballots. Measures had meanwhile been perfected by the free-State +men to elect delegates to a constitutional convention. On the 9th of +October, at a separate election, held by the free-State party alone, +under self-prescribed formalities and regulations, these were duly +chosen by an aggregate vote of 2710, ex-Governor Reeder receiving at +the same polls 2849 votes for delegate. + +[Sidenote: "Globe," March 24, 1856, p. 698.] + +By this series of political movements, carried out in quiet and +orderly proceedings, the free-State party was not only fully +constituted and organized, but was demonstrated to possess a decided +majority in the Territory. Still following out the policy agreed upon, +the delegates chosen met at Topeka on the 23d of October, and with +proper deliberation and decorum framed a State constitution, which was +in turn submitted to a vote of the people. Although this election was +held near midwinter (Dec. 15, 1855), and in the midst of serious +disturbances of the peace arising from other causes, it received an +affirmative vote of 1731, showing a hearty popular endorsement of it. +Of the document itself no extended criticism is necessary. It +prohibited slavery, but made reasonable provision for existing +property-rights in slaves actually in the Territory. In no sense a +radical, subversive, or "abolition" production, the Topeka +Constitution was remarkable only as being the indignant protest of the +people of the Territory against the Missouri usurpation. [Footnote: +Still another election was January 15, 1856, to choose held by the +free-State party on State officers to act under the new organization, +at which Charles Robinson received 1296 votes for governor, out of a +total of 1706, and Mark W. Delahay for Representative in Congress, +1828. A legislature elected at the same time, met, according to the +terms of the newly framed constitution, on the 4th of March, +organized, and elected Andrew H. Reeder and James H. Lane United +States Senators.] The new constitution was transmitted to Congress and +was formally presented as a petition to the Senate by General Cass, on +March 24, 1856, [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to +chapter end.] and to the House some days later. + +[Sidenote: February 22, 1856.] + +The Republican Senators in Congress (the Republican party had been +definitely organized a few weeks before at Pittsburg) now urged the +immediate reception of the Topeka Constitution and the admission of +Kansas as a free State, citing the cases of Michigan, Arkansas, +Florida, and California as justifying precedents. [Footnote: They +based their appeal more especially upon the opinion of the Attorney- +General in the case of Arkansas, that citizens of Territories possess +the constitutional right to assemble and petition Congress for the +redress of grievances; that the form of the petition is immaterial; +and that, "as the power of Congress over the whole subject is plenary, +they may accept any constitution, however framed, which in their +judgment meets the sense of the people to be affected by it."] For the +present, however, there was no hope of admission to the Union with the +Topeka Constitution. The Pierce Administration, under the domination +of the Southern States, had deposed Governor Reeder. Both in his +annual message and again in a special message, the President denounced +the Topeka movement as insurrectionary. + +[Sidenote: Senate Report No. 34, 1st Session, 34th Congress, p. 32.] + +In the Senate, too, the application was already prejudged; the +Committee on Territories through Douglas himself as chairman, in a +long partisan report, dismissed it with the assertion "that it was the +movement of a political party instead of the whole body of the people +of Kansas, conducted without the sanction of law, and in defiance of +the constituted authorities, for the avowed purpose of overthrowing +the territorial government established by Congress." In the mouth of a +consistent advocate of "Popular Sovereignty," this argument might have +had some force; but it came with a bad grace from Douglas, who in the +same report indorsed the bogus Legislature and sustained the bogus +laws upon purely technical assumptions. Congress was irreconcilably +divided in politics. The Democrats had an overwhelming majority in the +Senate; the opposition, through the election of Speaker Banks, +possessed a working control of the House. Some months later, after +prolonged debate, the House passed a bill for the admission of Kansas +under the Topeka Constitution; but as the Senate had already rejected +it, the movement remained without practical result. [Transcriber's +Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to chapter end.] + +The staple argument against the Topeka free-State movement, that it +was a rebellion against constitutional authority, though perhaps +correct as a mere theory was utterly refuted by the practical facts of +the case. The Big Springs resolutions, indeed, counseled resistance to +a "bloody issue"; but this was only to be made after "peaceable +remedies shall fail." The free-State leaders deserve credit for +pursuing their peaceable remedies and forbearing to exercise their +asserted right to resistance with a patience unexampled in American +annals. The bogus territorial laws were defied by the newspapers and +treated as a dead letter by the mass of the free-State men; as much as +possible they stood aloof from the civil officers appointed by and +through the bogus Legislature, recorded no title papers, began no +lawsuits, abstained from elections, and denied themselves privileges +which required any open recognition of the alien Missouri statutes. +Lane and others refused the test oath, and were excluded from practice +as attorneys in the courts; free-State newspapers were thrown out of +the mails as incendiary publications; sundry petty persecutions were +evaded or submitted to as special circumstances dictated. But +throughout their long and persistent non-conformity, for more than two +years, they constantly and cheerfully acknowledged the authority of +the organic act, and of the laws of Congress, and even counseled and +endured every forced submission to the bogus laws. Though they had +defiant and turbulent spirits in their own ranks, who often accused +them of imbecility and cowardice, they maintained a steady policy of +non-resistance, and, under every show of Federal authority in support +of the bogus laws, they submitted to obnoxious searches and seizures, +to capricious arrest and painful imprisonment, rather than by +resistance to place themselves in the attitude of deliberate outlaws. +[Footnote: See Governor Robinson's message to the free-State +Legislature, March 4, 1856. Mrs. S. T. L. Robinson, "Kansas," pp. 352, +364.] + +[Illustration: James H. Lane.] + +[Sidenote: February 11, 1856. "Statutes at Large," Vol. XI., p. 791.] + +They were destined to have no lack of provocation. Since the removal +of Reeder, all the Federal officials of the Territory were affiliated +with the pro-slavery Missouri cabal. Both to secure the permanent +establishment of slavery in Kansas, and to gratify the personal pride +of their triumph, they were determined to make these recusant free- +State voters "bow down to the cap of Gessler." Despotism is never more +arrogant than in resenting all slights to its personal vanity. As a +first and necessary step, the cabal had procured, through its powerful +influence at Washington, a proclamation from the President commanding +"all persons engaged in unlawful combinations against the constituted +authority of the Territory of Kansas or of the United States to +disperse," etc. The language of the proclamation was sufficiently +comprehensive to include Border Ruffians and emigrant aid societies, +as well as the Topeka movement, and thus presented a show of +impartiality; but under dominant political influences the latter was +its evident and certain object. + +With this proclamation as a sort of official fulcrum, Chief-Justice +Lecompte delivered at the May term of his court a most extraordinary +charge to the grand jury. He instructed them that the bogus +Legislature, being an instrument of Congress, and having passed laws, +"these laws are of United States authority and making." Persons +resisting these laws must be indicted for high treason. If no +resistance has been made, but combinations formed for the purpose of +resisting them, "then must you still find bills for constructive +treason, as the courts have decided that the blow need not be struck, +but only the intention be made evident." [Footnote: J. H. Gihon, +"Governor Geary's Administration," p. 77; also compare two copies of +the indictments, printed at full length in Phillips, "Conquest of +Kansas," pp. 351-4.] Indictments, writs, and the arrest of many +prominent free-State leaders followed as a matter of course. All these +proceedings, too, seemed to have been a part of the conspiracy. Before +the indictments were found, and in anticipation of the writs, +Robinson, the free-State Governor-elect, then on his way to the East, +was arrested while traveling on a Missouri River steamboat, at +Lexington in that State, detained, and finally sent back to Kansas +under the Governor's requisition. Upon this frivolous charge of +constructive treason he and others were held in military custody +nearly four months, and finally, at the end of that period, discharged +upon bail, the farce of longer imprisonment having become useless +through other events. + +Apprehending fully that the Topeka movement was the only really +serious obstacle to their success, the pro-slavery cabal, watching its +opportunity, matured a still more formidable demonstration to suppress +and destroy it. The provisional free-State Legislature had, after +organizing on the 4th of March, adjourned, to reassemble on the 4th of +July, 1856, in order to await in the meantime the result of their +application to Congress. As the national holiday approached, it was +determined to call together a mass meeting at the same time and place, +to give both moral support and personal protection to the members. +Civil war, of which further mention will be made in the next chapter, +had now been raging for months, and had in its general results gone +against the free-State men. Their leaders were imprisoned or +scattered, their presses destroyed, their adherents dispirited with +defeat. Nevertheless, as the day of meeting approached, the remnant of +the provisional Legislature and some six to eight hundred citizens +gathered at Topeka, though without any definite purpose or pre- +arranged plan. + +Governor Shannon, the second of the Kansas executives, had by this +time resigned his office, and Secretary Woodson was again acting +Governor. Here was a chance to put the free-State movement pointedly +under the ban of Federal authority which the cabal determined not to +neglect. Reciting the President's proclamation of February, Secretary +Woodson now issued his own proclamation forbidding all persons +claiming legislative power and authority as aforesaid from assembling, +organizing, or acting in any legislative capacity whatever. At the +hour of noon on the 4th of July several companies of United States +dragoons, which were brought into camp near town in anticipation of +the event, entered Topeka in military array, under command of Colonel +E. V. Sumner. A line of battle was formed in the street, cannon were +planted, and the machinery of war prepared for instant action. Colonel +Sumner, a most careful and conscientious officer and a free-State man +at heart, with due formality, with decision and firmness, but at the +same time openly expressing the painful nature of his duty, commanded +the provisional Legislature, then about to assemble, to disperse. The +members, not yet organized, immediately obeyed the order, having +neither the will nor the means to resist it. There was no tumult, no +violence, but little protest even in words; but the despotic purpose, +clothed in forms of law, made a none the less profound impression upon +the assembled citizens, and later, when the newspapers spread the +report of the act, upon the indignant public of the Northern States. +From this time onward, other events of paramount historical importance +supervene to crowd the Topeka Constitution out of view. In a feeble +way the organization still held together for a considerable length of +time. About a year later the provisional Legislature again went +through the forms of assembling, and although Governor Walker was +present in Topeka, there were no proclamations, no dragoons, no +cannon, because the cabal was for the moment defeated and disconcerted +and bent upon other and still more desperate schemes. The Topeka +Constitution was never received nor legalized; its officers never +became clothed with official authority; its scrip was never redeemed; +yet in the fate of Kansas and in the annals of the Union at large it +was a vital and pivotal transaction, without which the great conflict +between freedom and slavery, though perhaps neither avoided nor +delayed, might have assumed altogether different phases of +development. + +[Relocated Footnote (1): Later, on April 7, General Cass presented to +the Senate another petition, purporting to be the Topeka Constitution, +which had been handed him by J. H. Lane, president of the convention +which framed it and Senator-elect under it ("Cong. Globe," 1856; April +7, p. 826). This paper proved to be a clerk's copy, with erasures and +interlineations and signatures in one handwriting, which being +questioned as probably spurious, Lane afterwards supplied the original +draft prepared by the committee and adopted by the convention, though +without signatures; also adding his explanatory affidavit ("Cong. +Globe," App. 1856, pp. 378-9), to the effect that, the committee had +devolved upon him the preparation of the formal copy, but that the +original signatures had been mislaid. The official action of the +Senate appears to have concerned itself exclusively with the copy +presented by General Cass on March 24. Lane's copies served only as +text for angry debate. As the Topeka Constitution had no legal origin +or quality, technical defeats were of little consequence, especially +in view of the action by the free-State voters of Kansas at their +voluntary elections for delegates on October 9, and to ratify it on +December 15, 1856.] + +[Relocated Footnote (2): Nevertheless, the efforts of the free-State +party tinder this combination were not wholly barren. The contest +between Whitfield and Reeder for a seat in the House as territorial +delegate not only provoked searching discussion, but furnished the +occasion for sending an investigating committee to Kansas, attended by +the contestants in person. This committee with a fearless diligence +collected in the Territory, as well as from the border counties of +Missouri, a mass of sworn testimony amounting to some 1200 printed +pages, and which exposed the Border Ruffian invasions and the Missouri +usurpation in all their monstrous iniquity, and officially revealed to +the astounded North, for the first time and nearly two years after its +beginning, the full proportions of the conspiracy which held sway in +Kansas.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS + + +Out of the antagonistic and contending factions mentioned in the last +two chapters, the bogus Legislature and its Border-Ruffian adherents +on the one hand, and the framers and supporters of the Topeka +Constitution on the other, grew the civil war in Kansas. The bogus +Legislature numbered thirty-six members. These had only received, all +told, 619 legal bond fide Kansas votes; but, what answered their +purposes just as well, 4408 Missourians had cast their ballots for +them, making their total constituency (if by discarding the idea of a +State line we use the word in a somewhat strained sense) 5427. This +was at the March election, 1855. Of the remaining 2286 actual Kansas +voters disclosed by Seeder's census, only 791 cast their ballots. That +summer's emigration, however, being mainly from the free States, +greatly changed the relative strength of the two parties. At the +election of October 1, 1855, in which the free-State men took no part, +Whitfield, for delegate, received 2721 votes, Border Ruffians +included. At the election for members of the Topeka Constitutional +Convention, a week later, from which the pro-slavery men abstained, +the free-State men cast 2710 votes, while Reeder, their nominee for +delegate, received 2849. For general service, therefore, requiring no +special effort, the numerical strength of the factions was about +equal; while on extraordinary occasions the two thousand Border- +Ruffian reserve lying a little farther back from the State line could +at any time easily turn the scale. The free-State men had only their +convictions, their intelligence, their courage, and the moral support +of the North; the conspiracy had its secret combination, the +territorial officials, the Legislature, the bogus laws, the courts, +the militia officers, the President, and the army. This was a +formidable array of advantages; slavery was playing with loaded dice. + +With such a radical opposition of sentiment, both factions were on the +alert to seize every available vantage ground. The bogus laws having +been enacted, and the free-State men having, at the Big Springs +Convention, resolved on the failure of peaceable remedies to resist +them to a "bloody issue," the conspiracy was not slow to cover itself +and its projects with the sacred mantle of authority. Opportunely for +them, about this time Governor Shannon, appointed to succeed Reeder, +arrived in the Territory. Coming by way of the Missouri River towns, +he fell first among Border-Ruffian companionship and influences; and +perhaps having his inclinations already molded by his Washington +instructions, his early impressions were decidedly adverse to the +free-State cause. His reception speech at Westport, in which he +maintained the legality of the Legislature, and his determination to +enforce their laws, delighted his pro-slavery auditors. To further +enlist his zeal in their behalf, a few weeks later they formally +organized a "law-and-order party" by a large public meeting held at +Leavenworth. All the territorial dignitaries were present; Governor +Shannon presided; John Calhoun, the Surveyor-General, made the +principal speech, a denunciation of the "abolitionists" supporting the +Topeka movement; Chief-Justice Lecompte dignified the occasion with +approving remarks. With public opinion propitiated in advance, and the +Governor of the Territory thus publicly committed to their party, the +conspirators felt themselves ready to enter upon the active campaign +to crush out opposition, for which they had made such elaborate +preparations. + +Faithful to their legislative declaration they knew but one issue, +slavery. All dissent, all non-compliance, all hesitation, all mere +silence even, were in their stronghold towns, like Leavenworth, +branded as "abolitionism," declared to be hostility to the public +welfare, and punished with proscription, personal violence, expulsion, +and frequently death. Of the lynchings, the mobs, and the murders, it +would be impossible, except in a very extended work, to note the +frequent and atrocious details. The present chapters can only touch +upon the more salient movements of the civil war in Kansas, which +happily were not sanguinary; if, however, the individual and more +isolated cases of bloodshed could be described, they would show a +startling aggregate of barbarity and loss of life for opinion's sake. +Some of these revolting crimes, though comparatively few in number, +were committed, generally in a spirit of lawless retaliation, by free- +State men. + +Among other instrumentalities for executing the bogus laws, the bogus +Legislature had appointed one Samuel J. Jones sheriff of Douglas +County, Kansas Territory, although that individual was at the time of +his appointment, and long afterwards, United States postmaster of the +town of Westport, Missouri. Why this Missouri citizen and Federal +official should in addition be clothed with a foreign territorial +shrievalty of a county lying forty or fifty miles from his home is a +mystery which was never explained outside a Missouri Blue Lodge. + +[Sidenote: Wm. Phillips, "Conquest of Kansas," p. 152, _et seq._] + +A few days after the "law-and-order" meeting in Leavenworth, there +occurred a murder in a small settlement thirteen miles west of the +town of Lawrence. The murderer, a pro-slavery man, first fled, to +Missouri, but returned to Shawnee Mission and sought the official +protection of Sheriff Jones; no warrant, no examination, no commitment +followed, and the criminal remained at large. Out of this incident, +the officious sheriff managed most ingeniously to create an +embroilment with the town of Lawrence, Buckley, who was alleged to +have been accessory to the crime, obtained a peace-warrant against +Branson, a neighbor of the victim. With this peace-warrant in his +pocket, but without showing or reading it to his prisoner, Sheriff +Jones and a posse of twenty-five Border Ruffians proceeded to +Branson's house at midnight and arrested him. Alarm being given, +Branson's free-State neighbors, already exasperated at the murder, +rose under the sudden instinct of self-protection and rescued Branson +from the sheriff and his posse that same night, though without other +violence than harsh words. + +[Sidenote: Shannon, proclamation, November 29, 1855. Senate Ex. Doc., +3d Sess. 34th Cong., Vol. II., p. 56.] + +[Sidenote: Phillips, p. 168.] + +Burning with the thirst of personal revenge, Sheriff Jones now accused +the town of Lawrence of the violation of law involved in this rescue, +though the people of Lawrence immediately and earnestly disavowed the +act. But for Sheriff Jones and his superiors the pretext was all- +sufficient. A Border-Ruffian foray against the town was hastily +organized. The murder occurred November 21; the rescue November 26. +November 27, upon the brief report of Sheriff Jones, demanding a force +of three thousand men "to carry out the laws," Governor Shannon issued +his order to the two major-generals of the skeleton militia, "to +collect together as large a force as you can in your division, and +repair without delay to Lecompton, and report yourself to S. J. Jones, +sheriff of Douglas County." [Footnote: Governor Shannon, order to +Richardson, November 27, 1855. Same order to Strickler, same date. +Senate Executive Documents, 3d Sess. 34th Cong., Vol. II., p. 53.] The +Kansas militia was a myth; but the Border Ruffians, with their +backwoods rifles and shotguns, were a ready resource. To these an +urgent appeal for help was made; and the leaders of the conspiracy in +prompt obedience placarded the frontier with inflammatory handbills, +and collected and equipped companies, and hurried them forward to the +rendezvous without a moment's delay. The United States Arsenal at +Liberty, Missouri, was broken into and stripped of its contents to +supply cannon, small arms, and ammunition. In two days after notice a +company of fifty Missourians made the first camp on Wakarusa Creek, +near Franklin, four miles from Lawrence. In three or four days more an +irregular army of fifteen hundred men, claiming to be the sheriff's +posse, was within striking distance of the town. Three or four hundred +of these were nominal residents of the Territory; [Footnote: Shannon, +dispatch, December 11, 1855, to President Pierce. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d +Sess. 34th Cong., Vol. II., p. 63.] all the remainder were citizens of +Missouri. They were not only well armed and supplied, but wrought up +to the highest pitch of partisan excitement. While the Governor's +proclamation spoke of serving writs, the notices of the conspirators +sounded the note of the real contest. "Now is the time to show game, +and if we are defeated this time, the Territory is lost to the South," +said the leaders. There was no doubt of the earnestness of their +purpose. Ex-Vice-President Atchison came in person, leading a +battalion of two hundred Platte County riflemen. + +News of this proceeding reached the people of Lawrence little by +little, and finally, becoming alarmed, they began to improvise means +of defense. Two abortive imitations of the Missouri Blue Lodges, set +on foot during the summer by the free-State men, provoked by the +election invasion in March, furnished them a starting-point for +military organization. A committee of safety, hurriedly instituted, +sent a call for help from Lawrence to other points in the Territory, +"for the purpose of defending it from threatened invasion by armed men +now quartered in its vicinity." Several hundred free-State men +promptly responded to the summons. The Free-State Hotel served as +barracks. Governor Robinson and Colonel Lane were appointed to +command. Four or five small redoubts, connected by rifle-pits, were +hastily thrown up; and by a clever artifice they succeeded in bringing +a twelve-pound brass howitzer from its storage at Kansas City. +Meantime the committee of safety, earnestly denying any wrongful act +or purpose, sent an urgent appeal for protection to the commander of +the United States forces at Fort Leavenworth, another to Congress, and +a third to President Pierce. + +Amid all this warlike preparation to keep the peace, no very strict +military discipline could be immediately enforced. The people of +Lawrence, without any great difficulty, obtained daily information +concerning the hostile camps. They, on the other hand, professing no +purpose but that of defense and self-protection, were obliged to +permit free and constant ingress to their beleaguered town. Sheriff +Jones made several visits unmolested on their part, and without any +display of writs or demand for the surrender of alleged offenders on +his own. One of the rescuers even accosted him, conversed with him, +and invited him to dinner. These free visits had the good effect to +restrain imprudence and impulsiveness on both sides. They could see +that a conflict meant serious results. With the advantage of its +defensive position, Lawrence was as strong as the sheriff's mob. On +one point especially the Border Ruffians had a wholesome dread. Yankee +ingenuity had invented a new kind of breech-loading gun called "Sharps +rifle." It was, in fact, the best weapon of its day. The free-State +volunteers had some months before obtained a partial supply of them +from the East, and their range, rapidity, and effectiveness had been +not only duly set forth but highly exaggerated by many marvelous +stories throughout the Territory and along the border. The Missouri +backwoods-men manifested an almost incredible interest in this +wonderful gun. They might be deaf to the "equalities" proclaimed in +the Declaration of Independence or blind to the moral sin of slavery, +but they comprehended a rifle which could be fired ten times a minute +and kill a man at a thousand yards. + +The arrivals from Missouri finally slackened and ceased. The irregular +Border-Ruffian squads were hastily incorporated into the skeleton +"Kansas militia." The "posse" became some two thousand strong, and the +defenders of Lawrence perhaps one thousand. + +[Sidenote: Richardson to Shannon, December 3, 1855; Phillips, p. 186.] + +[Sidenote: Anderson to Richardson; Phillips, p. 210.] + +Meanwhile a sober second thought had come to Governor Shannon. To +retrieve somewhat the precipitancy of his militia orders and +proclamations, he wrote to Sheriff Jones, December 2, to make no +arrests or movements unless by his direction. The firm defensive +attitude of the people of Lawrence had produced its effect. The +leaders of the conspiracy became distrustful of their power to crush +the town. One of his militia generals suggested that the Governor +should require the "outlaws at Lawrence and elsewhere" to surrender +the Sharps rifles; another wrote asking him to call out the Government +troops at Fort Leavenworth. The Governor, on his part, becoming +doubtful of the legality of employing Missouri militia to enforce +Kansas laws, was also eager to secure the help of Federal troops. +Sheriff Jones began to grow importunate. In the Missouri camp while +the leaders became alarmed the men grew insubordinate. "I have reason +to believe," wrote one of their prominent men, "that before to-morrow +morning the black flag will be hoisted, when nine out of ten will +rally round it, and march without orders upon Lawrence. The forces of +the Lecompton camp fully understand the plot and will fight under the +same banner." + +[Sidenote: Sumner to Shannon. December 1, 1855; Phillips, p. 184.] + +After careful deliberation Colonel Sumner, commanding the United +States troops at Fort Leavenworth, declined to interfere without +explicit orders from the War Department. These failing to arrive in +time, the Governor was obliged to face his own dilemma. He hastened to +Lawrence, which now invoked his protection. He directed his militia +generals to repress disorder and check any attack on the town. +Interviews were held with the free-State commanders, and the situation +was fully discussed. A compromise was agreed upon, and a formal treaty +written out and signed. The affair was pronounced to be a +"misunderstanding"; the Lawrence party disavowed the Branson rescue, +denied any previous, present, or prospective organization for +resistance, and under sundry provisos agreed to aid in the execution +of "the laws" when called upon by "proper authority." Like all +compromises, the agreement was half necessity, half trick. Neither +party was willing to yield honestly nor ready to fight manfully. The +free-State men shrank from forcible resistance to even bogus laws. The +Missouri cabal, on the other hand, having three of their best men +constantly at the Governor's side, were compelled to recognize their +lack of justification. They did not dare to ignore upon what a +ridiculously shadowy pretext the Branson peace-warrant had grown into +an army of two thousand men, and how, under the manipulation of +Sheriff Jones, a questionable affidavit of a pro-slavery criminal had +been expanded into the _casus belli_ of a free-State town. They +consented to a compromise "to cover a retreat." + +[Sidenote: Shannon to President Pierce, December 11, 1855, Senate Ex. +Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., pp. 63-5.] + +When Governor Shannon announced that the difficulties were settled, +the people of Lawrence were suspicious of their leaders, and John +Brown manifested his readiness to head a revolt. But his attempted +speech was hushed down, and the assurance of Robinson and Lane that +they had made no dishonorable concession finally quieted their +followers. There were similar murmurs in the pro-slavery camps. The +Governor was denounced as a traitor, and Sheriff Jones declared that +"he would have wiped out Lawrence." Atchison, on the contrary, +sustained the bargain, explaining that to attack Lawrence under the +circumstances would ruin the Democratic cause. "But," he added with a +significant oath, "boys, we will fight some time!" Thirteen of the +captains in the Wakarusa camp were called together, and the situation +was duly explained. The treaty was accepted, though the Governor +confessed "there was a silent dissatisfaction" at the result. He +ordered the forces to disband; prisoners were liberated, and with the +opportune aid of a furious rain-storm the Border-Ruffian army +gradually melted away. Nevertheless the "Wakarusa war" left one bitter +sting to rankle in the hearts of the defenders of Lawrence, a free- +State man having been killed by a pro-slavery scouting party. + +The truce patched up by this Lawrence treaty was of comparatively +short duration. The excitement which had reigned in Kansas during the +whole summer of 1855, first about the enactments of the bogus +Legislature, and then in regard to the formation of the Topeka +Constitution, was now extended to the American Congress, where it +raged for two long months over the election of Speaker Banks. In +Kansas during the same period the vote of the free-State men upon the +Topeka Constitution and the election for free-State officers under it, +kept the Territory in a ferment. During and after the contest over the +speakership at Washington, each State Legislature became a forum of +Kansas debate. The general public interest in the controversy was +shown by discussions carried on by press, pulpit, and in the daily +conversation and comment of the people of the Union in every town, +hamlet, and neighborhood. No sooner did the spring weather of 1856 +permit, than men, money, arms, and supplies were poured into the +Territory of Kansas from the North. + +[Sidenote: J.N. Holloway, "History of Kansas," pp. 275, 276.] + +In the Southern States also this propagandism was active, and a number +of guerrilla leaders with followers recruited in the South, and armed +and sustained by Southern contributions and appropriations, found +their way to Kansas in response to urgent appeals of the Border +chiefs. Buford, of Alabama; Titus, of Florida; Wilkes, of Virginia; +Hampton, of Kentucky; Treadwell, of South Carolina, and others, +brought not only enthusiastic leadership, but substantial assistance. +Both the factions which had come so near to actual battle in the +"Wakarusa war," though nominally disbanded, in reality continued their +military organizations,--the free-State men through apprehension of +danger, the Border Ruffians because of their purpose to crush out +opposition. Strengthened on both sides with men, money, arms, and +supplies, the contest was gradually resumed with the opening spring. + +The vague and double-meaning phrases of the Lawrence agreement +furnished the earliest causes of a renewal of the quarrel. "Did you +not pledge yourselves to assist me as sheriff in the arrest of any +person against whom I might have a writ?" asked Sheriff Jones of +Robinson and Lane in a curt note. "We may have said that we would +assist any proper officer in the service of any legal process," they +replied, standing upon their interpretation. This was, of course, the +original controversy--slavery burning to enforce her usurpation, +freedom determined to defend her birthright. Sheriff Jones had his +pockets always full of writs issued in the spirit of persecution, but +was often baffled by the sharp wits and ready resources of the free- +State people, and sometimes defied outright. Little by little, +however, the latter became hemmed and bound in the meshes of the +various devices and proceedings which the territorial officials +evolved from the bogus laws. President Pierce, in his special message +of January 24, declared what had been done by the Topeka movement to +be "of a revolutionary character" which would "become treasonable +insurrection if it reach the length of organized resistance." + +Following this came his proclamation of February 11, leveled against +"combinations formed to resist the execution of the territorial laws." +Early in May, Chief-Justice Lecompte held a term of his court, during +which he delivered to the grand jury his famous instructions on +constructive treason. Indictments were found, writs issued, and the +principal free-State leaders arrested or forced to flee from the +Territory. Governor Robinson was arrested without warrant on the +Missouri River, and brought back to be held in military custody till +September. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter +end.] Lane went East and recruited additional help for the contest. +Meanwhile Sheriff Jones, sitting in his tent at night, in the town of +Lawrence, had been wounded by a rifle or pistol in the attempt of some +unknown person to assassinate him. The people of Lawrence denounced +the deed; but the sheriff hoarded up the score for future revenge. One +additional incident served to precipitate the crisis. The House of +Representatives at Washington, presided over by Speaker Banks, and +under control of the opposition, sent an investigating committee to +Kansas, consisting of Wm. A. Howard, of Michigan, John Sherman, +[Footnote: Owing to the illness of Mr. Howard, chairman of the +committee, the long and elaborate majority report of this committee +was written by John Sherman. Its methodical analysis and powerful +presentation of evidence made it one of the most popular and +convincing documents ever issued.] of Ohio, and Mordecai Oliver, of +Missouri, which, by the examination of numerous witnesses, was probing +the Border-Ruffian invasions, the illegality of the bogus Legislature, +and the enormity of the bogus laws to the bottom. + +[Sidenote: Howard Report, p. 66.] + +Ex-Governor Reeder was in attendance on this committee, supplying +data, pointing out from personal knowledge sources of information, +cross-examining witnesses to elicit the hidden truth. To embarrass +this damaging exposure, Judge Lecompte issued a writ against the ex- +Governor on a frivolous charge of contempt. Claiming but not receiving +exemption from the committee, Beeder on his personal responsibility +refused to permit the deputy marshal to arrest him. The incident was +not violent, nor even dramatic. No posse was summoned, no further +effort made, and Reeder, fearing personal violence, soon fled in +disguise. But the affair was magnified as a crowning proof that the +free-State men were insurrectionists and outlaws. + +It must be noted in passing that by this time the Territory had by +insensible degrees drifted into the condition of civil war. Both +parties were zealous, vigilant, and denunciatory. In nearly every +settlement suspicion led to combination for defense, combination to +some form of oppression or insult, and so on by easy transition to +arrest and concealment, attack and reprisal, expulsion, theft, house- +burning, capture, and murder. From these, again, sprang barricaded and +fortified dwellings, camps and scouting parties, finally culminating +in roving guerrilla bands, half partisan, half predatory. Their +distinctive characters, however, display one broad and unfailing +difference. The free-State men clung to their prairie towns and +prairie ravines with all the obstinacy and courage of true defenders +of their homes and firesides. The pro-slavery parties, unmistakable +aliens and invaders, always came from, or retired across, the Missouri +line. Organized and sustained in the beginning by voluntary +contributions from that and distant States, they ended by levying +forced contributions, by "pressing" horses, food, or arms from any +neighborhood they chanced to visit. Their assumed character changed +with their changing opportunities or necessities. They were squads of +Kansas militia, companies of "peaceful emigrants," or gangs of +irresponsible outlaws, to suit the chance, the whim, or the need of +the moment. + +[Sidenote: Memorial, Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., p. +74.] + +[Sidenote: Phillips, pp. 289-90.] + +[Sidenote: Memorial, Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., p. +75.] + +Since the unsatisfactory termination of the "Wakarusa war," certain +leaders of the conspiracy had never given up their project of +punishing the town of Lawrence. A propitious moment for carrying it +out seemed now to have arrived. The free-State officers and leaders +were, thanks to Judge Lecompte's doctrine of constructive treason, +under indictment, arrest, or in flight; the settlers were busy with +their spring crops; while the pro-slavery guerrillas, freshly arrived +and full of zeal, were eager for service and distinction. The former +campaign against the town had failed for want of justification; they +now sought a pretext which would not shame their assumed character as +defenders of law and order. In the shooting of Sheriff Jones in +Lawrence, and in the refusal of ex-Governor Beeder to allow the +deputy-marshal to arrest him, they discovered grave offenses against +the territorial and United States laws. Determined also no longer to +trust Governor Shannon, lest he might again make peace, United States +Marshal Donaldson issued a proclamation on his own responsibility, on +May 11, 1856, commanding "law-abiding citizens of the Territory" "to +be and appear at Lecompton, as soon as practicable and in numbers +sufficient for the proper execution of the law." Moving with the +promptness and celerity of preconcerted plans, ex-Vice-President +Atchison, with his Platte County Rifles and two brass cannon, the +Kickapoo Rangers from Leavenworth and Weston, Wilkes, Titus, Buford, +and all the rest of the free lances in the Territory, began to +concentrate against Lawrence, giving the marshal in a very few days a +"posse" of from 500 to 800 men, armed for the greater part with United +States muskets, some stolen from the Liberty arsenal on their former +raid, others distributed to them as Kansas militia by the territorial +officers. The Governor refused to interfere to protect the threatened +town, though an urgent appeal to do so was made to him by its +citizens, who after stormy and divided councils resolved on a policy +of non-resistance. + +[Sidenote: Memorial, Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., p. +77.] + +They next made application to the marshal, who tauntingly replied that +he could not rely on their pledges, and must take the liberty to +execute his process in his own time and manner. The help of Colonel +Sumner, commanding the United States troops, was finally invoked, but +his instructions only permitted him to act at the call of the Governor +or marshal. [Footnote: Sumner to Shannon, May 12, 1856. Senate Ex. +Doc., No. 10, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. V., p. 7.] Private persons who +had leased the Free-State Hotel vainly besought the various +authorities to prevent the destruction of their property. Ten days +were consumed in these negotiations; but the spirit of vengeance +refused to yield. When the citizens of Lawrence rose on the 21st of +May they beheld their town invested by a formidable military force. + +During the forenoon the deputy-marshal rode leisurely into the town +attended by less than a dozen men, being neither molested nor opposed. +He summoned half a dozen citizens to join his posse, who followed, +obeyed, and assisted him. He continued his pretended search and, to +give color to his errand, made two arrests. The Free-State Hotel, a +stone building in dimensions fifty by seventy feet, three stories high +and handsomely furnished, previously occupied only for lodging-rooms, +on that day for the first time opened its table accommodations to the +public, and provided a free dinner in honor of the occasion. The +marshal and his posse, including Sheriff Jones, went among other +invited guests and enjoyed the proffered hospitality. As he had +promised to protect the hotel, the reassured citizens began to laugh +at their own fears. To their sorrow they were soon undeceived. The +military force, partly rabble, partly organized, had meanwhile moved +into the town. + +To save his official skirts from stain, the deputy-marshal now went +through the farce of dismissing his entire posse of citizens and +Border Ruffians, at which juncture Sheriff Jones made his appearance, +claiming the "posse" as his own. He planted a company before the +hotel, and demanded a surrender of the arms belonging to the free- +State military companies. Refusal or resistance being out of the +question, half a dozen small cannon were solemnly dug up from their +concealment and, together with a few Sharps rifles, formally +delivered. Half an hour later, turning a deaf ear to all remonstrance, +he gave the proprietors until 5 o'clock to remove their families and +personal property from the Free-State Hotel. Atchison, who had been +haranguing the mob, planted his two guns before the building and +trained them upon it. The inmates being removed, at the appointed hour +a few cannon balls were fired through the stone walls. This mode of +destruction being slow and undramatic, and an attempt to blow it up +with gunpowder having proved equally unsatisfactory, the torch was +applied, and the structure given to the flames. [Footnote: Memorial, +Senate Executive Document, 3d Session 34th Congress. Volume II, pp. +73-85.] Other squads had during the same time been sent to the several +printing-offices, where they broke the presses, scattered the type, +and demolished the furniture. The house of Governor Robinson was also +robbed and burned. Very soon the mob was beyond all control, and +spreading itself over the town engaged in pillage till the darkness of +night arrested it. Meanwhile the chiefs sat on their horses and viewed +the work of destruction. + +[Sidenote: House Reports, 2d Sess., 36th Cong., Vol. III, part 1, p. +39.] + +[Sidenote: Holloway, p. 351.] + +[Sidenote: Memorial to the President.] + +If we would believe the chief actors, this was the "law and order +party," executing the mandates of justice. Part and parcel of the +affair was the pretense that this exploit of prairie buccaneering had +been authorized by Judge Leeompte's court, the officials citing in +their defense a presentment of his grand jury, declaring the +free-State newspapers seditious publications, and the Free-State Hotel +a rebellious fortification, and recommending their _abatement_ as +nuisances. The travesty of American government involved in the +transaction is too serious for ridicule. In this incident, contrasting +the creative and the destructive spirit of the factions, the Emigrant +Aid Society of Massachusetts finds its most honorable and triumphant +vindication. The whole proceeding was so childish, the miserable plot +so transparent, the outrage so gross, as to bring disgust to the +better class of Border Ruffians who were witnesses and accessories. +The free-State men have recorded the honorable conduct of Colonel +Zadock Jackson, of Georgia, and Colonel Jefferson Buford, of Alabama, +as well as of the prosecuting attorney of the county, each of whom +denounced the proceedings on the spot. + +[Relocated Footnote: Governor Robinson being on his way East, the +steamboat on which he was traveling stopped at Lexington, Missouri. An +unauthorized mob induced the Governor, with that persuasiveness in +which the Border Ruffians had become adepts, to leave the boat, +detaining him at Lexington on the accusation that he was fleeing from +an indictment. In a few days an officer came with a requisition from +Governor Shannon, and took the prisoner by land to Westport, and +afterwards from there to Kansas City and Leavenworth. Here he was +placed in the custody of Captain Martin, of the Kickapoo Rangers, who +proved a kind jailer, and materially assisted in protecting him from +the dangerous intentions of the mob which at that time held +Leavenworth under a reign of terror. + +Mrs. Robinson, who has kindly sent us a sketch of the incident, +writes: "On the night of the 28th [of May] for greater security +General Richardson of the militia slept in the same bed with the +prisoner, while Judge Lecompte and Marshal Donaldson slept just +outside of the door of the prisoner's room. Captain Martin said: 'I +shall give you a pistol to help protect yourself if worse comes to +worst!' In the early morning of the next day, May 29, a company of +dragoons with one empty saddle came down from the fort, and while the +pro-slavery men still slept, the prisoner and his escort were on their +way across the prairies to Lecompton in the charge of officers of the +United States Army. The Governor and other prisoners were kept on the +prairie near Lecompton until the 10th of September, 1856, when all +were released."] + + + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 +by John G. Nicolay and John Hay + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A HISTORY V1 *** + +This file should be named 6812.txt or 6812.zip + +Produced by Robert Nield, Tom Allen, David Moynihan, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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