Abraham Lincoln Autobiography

7/30/2019 Abraham Lincoln Autobiography

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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHYOFABRAHAM LINCOLN


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LINCOLN ROOMUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

LIBRARY

MEMORIALthe Class of 1901

founded byHARLAN HOYT HORNERand

HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER


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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHYOF

ABRAHAM LINCOLN


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ABRAHAM LINCOLNWood engraving by Timothy Cole from an ambrotype taken

for Marcus L. Ward in Springfield, 111., May 20,i860, two days after Lincoln's nom-

ination for President.


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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHYifABRAHAM LINCOLN

New YorkFrancis D. Tandy Company


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Selected from Complete Works of AbrahamLincoln. Copyright, 1894, by John

G. Nicolay and John Hay

Copyright, 1905, byFRANCIS D. TANDY


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iCONTENTS

Autobiography, June, i860 .Memorandum Given to Hicks

s Sketch Written for FellSpeech at Springfield .Lincoln's Writings

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AUTOBIOGRAPHIES


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A Short Autobiography,written in June, i860, atthe Request of a Friendto use in preparing a pop-ULAR Campaign Biographyin the Election of thatYear.Abraham Lincoln was born

February 12, 1809, then inHardin, now in the more recent-ly formed county of La Rue,Kentucky. His father, Thomas,and grandfather, Abraham,were born in RockinghamCounty, Virginia, whither theirancestors had come from BerksCounty, Pennsylvania. His line-age has been traced no fartherback than this. The familywere originally Quakers, though


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4 ABRAHAM LINCOLNin later times they have fallenaway from the peculiar habitsof that people. The grand-father, Abraham, had fourbrothers Isaac, Jacob, John,and Thomas. So far as known,the descendants of Jacob andJohn are still in Virginia. Isaacwent to a place near where Vir-ginia, North Carolina, and Ten-nessee join; and his descendantsare in that region. Thomascame to Kentucky, and aftermany years died there, whencehis descendants went to Mis-souri. Abraham, grandfather ofthe subject of this sketch, cameto Kentucky, and was killed byIndians about the year 1784.He left a widow, three sons, andtwo daughters. The eldest son,Mordecai, remained in Ken-tucky till late in life, when heremoved to Hancock County,


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 5Illinois, where soon after hedied, and where several of hisdescendants still remain. Thesecond son, Josiah, removed atan early day to a place on BlueRiver, now within HancockCounty, Indiana, but no recentinformation of him or his familyhas been obtained. The eldestsister, Mary, married RalphCrume, and some of her de-scendants are now known to bein Breckinridge County, Ken-tucky. The second sister,Nancy, married William Brum-field, and her family are notknown to have left Kentucky,but there is no recent informa-tion from them. Thomas, theyoungest son, and father of thepresent subject, by the earlydeath of his father and verynarrow circumstances of hismother, even in childhood was


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6 ABRAHAM LINCOLNa wandering laboring-boy andgrew up literally without educa-tion. He never did more in theway of writing than to bungling-ly write his own name. Beforehe was grown he passed oneyear as a hired hand with hisuncle Isaac on Watauga, abranch of the Holston River.Getting back into Kentucky, andhaving reached his twenty-eighth year, he married NancyHanks mother of the presentsubjectin the year 1806. Shealso was born in Virginia; andrelatives of hers of the name ofHanks, and of other names, nowreside in Coles, in Macon, andin Adams counties, Illinois, andalso in Iowa. The present sub-ject has no brother or sister ofthe whole or half blood. Hehad a sister, older than himself,who was grown and married,


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY Jbut died many years ago, leav-ing no child; also a brother,younger than himself, who diedin infancy. Before leaving Ken-tucky, he and his sister weresent, for short periods, to A BC schools, the first kept by Za-chariah Riney, and the second byCaleb Hazel.

At this time his father re-sided on Knob Creek, on theroad from Bardstown, Ken-tucky, to Nashville, Tennessee,at a point three or three and ahalf miles south or southwest ofAtherton's Ferry, on the RollingFork. From this place he re-moved to what is now SpencerCounty, Indiana, in the autumnof 1816, Abraham then being inhis eighth year. This removalwas partly on account of slavery,but chiefly on account of the dif-ficulty in land titles in Kentucky.


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8 ABRAHAM LINCOLNHe settled in an unbroken forest,and the clearing away of surpluswood was the great task ahead.Abraham, though very young,was large for his age, and hadan ax put into his hands at once;and from that till within histwenty-third year he was almostconstantly handling that mostuseful instrument less, ofcourse, in plowing and harvest-ing seasons. At this place Abra-ham took an early start as ahunter, which was never muchimproved afterwards. A fewdays before the completion of hiseighth year, in the absence of hisfather, a flock of wild turkeysapproached the new log cabin,and Abraham with a rifle-gun,standing inside, shot through acrack and killed one of them.He has never since pulled a trig-ger on any larger game. In the


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 9autumn of 1 8 1 8 his mother diedand a year afterwards his fathermarried Mrs. Sally Johnston,at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, awidow with three children ofher first marriage. She proveda good and kind mother to Abra-ham, and is still living in ColesCounty, Illinois. There wereno children of this second mar-riage. His father's residencecontinued at the same place inIndiana till 1830. While hereAbraham went to A B C schoolsby littles, kept successively byAndrew Crawford, Swee-ney, and Azel W. Dorsey. Hedoes not remember any other.The family of Mr. Dorsey nowresides in Schuyler County, Illi-nois. Abraham now thinks thatthe aggregate of all his school-ing did not amount to one year.He was never in a college or


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IO ABRAHAM LINCOLNacademy as a student, and neverinside of a college or acad-emy building till since he hada law license. What he hasin the way of education he haspicked up. After he was twenty-three and had separated fromhis father, he studied Eng-lish grammar imperfectly, ofcourse, but so as to speak andwrite as well as he now does.He studied and nearly masteredthe six books of Euclid since hewas a member of Congress. Heregrets his want of education,and does what he can to supplythe want. In his tenth year hewas kicked by a horse, and ap-parently killed for a time.When he was nineteen, still re-siding in Indiana, he made hisfirst trip upon a flatboat to NewOrleans. He was a hired handmerely, and he and a son of the


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY IIowner, without other assistance,made the trip. The nature ofpart of the cargo-load, as itwas called, made it necessary forthem to linger and trade alongthe sugar-coast; and one nightthey were attacked by sevennegroes with intent to kill androb them. They were hurt somein the melee, but succeeded indriving the negroes from theboat, and then u cut cable,weighed anchor, and left.March i, 1830, Abraham

having just completed his twen-ty-first year, his father andfamily, with the families of thetwo daughters and sons-in-lawof his stepmother, left the oldhomestead in Indiana and cameto Illinois. Their mode of con-veyance was wagons drawn byox-teams, and Abraham droveone of the teams. They reached


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12 ABRAHAM LINCOLNthe county of Macon, andstopped there some time withinthe same month of March. Hisfather and family settled a newplace on the north side of theSangamon River, at the junctionof the timber-land and prairie,about ten miles westerly fromDecatur. Here they built a logcabin, into which they removed,and made sufficient of rails tofence ten acres of ground, fencedand broke the ground, and raiseda crop of sown corn upon it thesame year. These are, or aresupposed to be, the rails aboutwhich so much is being said justnow, though these are far frombeing the first or only rails evermade by Abraham.The sons-in-law were tempo-rarily settled in other places in thecounty. In the autumn all handswere greatly afflicted with ague


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 13and fever, to which they had notbeen used, and by which theywere greatly discouraged, somuch so that they determined onleaving the county. They re-mained, however, through thesucceeding winter, which was thewinter of the very celebrated deep snow of Illinois. Dur-ing that winter Abraham, to-gether with his stepmother's son,John D. Johnston, and JohnHanks, yet residing in MaconCounty, hired themselves toDenton Offutt to take a flatboatfrom Beardstown, Illinois, toNew Orleans ; and for that pur-pose were to join himOffuttat Springfield, Illinois, so soonas the snow should go off. Whenit did go off, which was aboutthe first of March, 1831, thecounty was so flooded as to maketraveling by land impracticable;


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14 ABRAHAM LINCOLNto obviate which difficulty theypurchased a large canoe, andcame down the Sangamon Riverin it. This is the time and themanner of Abraham's first en-trance into Sangamon County.They found Offutt at Spring-field, but learned from him thathe had failed in getting a boatat Beardstown. This led to theirhiring themselves to him fortwelve dollars per month each,and getting the timber out of thetrees and building a boat at OldSangamon town on the Sanga-mon River, seven miles north-west of Springfield, which boatthey took to New Orleans, sub-stantially upon the old contract.

During this boat-enterpriseacquaintance with Offutt, whowas previously an entire stran-ger, he conceived a liking forAbraham, and believing he


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1could turn him to account, hecontracted with him to act asclerk for him, on his return fromNew Orleans, in charge of astore and mill at New Salem,then in Sangamon, now in Me-nard County. Hanks had notgone to New Orleans, but hav-ing a family, and being likely tobe detained from home longerthan at first expected, hadturned back from St. Louis. Heis the same John Hanks who nowengineers the rail enterprise 'at Decatur, and is a first cousinto Abraham's mother. Abra-ham's father, with his own fam-ily and others mentioned, had, inpursuance of their intention, re-moved from Macon to ColesCounty. John D. Johnston, thestepmother's son, went to them,and Abraham stopped indefinite-ly and for the first time, as it


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1 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLNwere, by himself at New Salem,before mentioned. This was inJuly, 1 83 1. Here he rapidlymade acquaintances and friends.In less than a year Offutt's busi-ness was failinghad almostfailedwhen the Black Hawkwar of 1832 broke out. Abra-ham joined a volunteer com-pany, and, to his own surprise,was elected captain of it. Hesays he has not since had anysuccess in life which gave him somuch satisfaction. He went tothe campaign, served near threemonths, met the ordinary hard-ships of such an expedition, butwas in no battle. He now owns,in Iowa, the land upon whichhis own warrants for the servicewere located. Returning fromthe campaign, and encouragedby his great popularity amonghis immediate neighbors, he the


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1same year ran for the legisla-ture, and was beatenhis ownprecinct, however, casting itsvotes 277 for and 7 against himand that, too, while he was anavowed Clay man, and the pre-cinct the autumn afterwards giv-ing a majority of 1 15 to GeneralJackson over Mr. Clay. Thiswas the only time Abraham wasever beaten on a direct vote ofthe people. He was now with-out means and out of business,but was anxious to remain withhis friends who had treated himwith so much generosity, espe-cially as he had nothing else-where to go to. He studiedwhat he should dothought oflearning the blacksmith tradethought of trying to study lawrather thought he could not suc-ceed at that without a bettereducation. Before long, strange-


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1vote cast for any candidate.Major John T. Stuart, then infull practice of the law, was alsoelected. During the canvass, ina private conversation he encour-aged Abraham [to] study law.After the election he borrowedbooks of Stuart, took them homewith him, and went at it in goodearnest. He studied with no-body. He still mixed in thesurveying to pay board andclothing bills. When the legis-lature met, the law-books weredropped, but were taken upagain at the end of the session.He was reelected in 1836, 1838,and 1840. In the autumn of1836 he obtained a law license,and on April 15, 1837, removedto Springfield, and commencedthe practicehis old friendStuart taking him into partner-ship. March 3, 1837, by a pro-


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20 ABRAHAM LINCOLNtest entered upon the IllinoisHouse Journal of that date, atpages 817 and 818, Abraham,with Dan Stone, another repre-sentative of Sangamon, brieflydefined his position on the slav-ery question; and so far as itgoes, it was then the same thatit is now. The protest is asfollows

Resolutions upon the subjectof domestic slavery havingpassed both branches of the Gen-eral Assembly at its present ses-sion, the undersigned herebyprotest against the passage ofthe same.

They believe that the insti-tution of slavery is founded onboth injustice and bad policy, butthat the promulgation of Aboli-tion doctrines tends rather to in-crease than abate its evils.


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 21 They believe that the Con-

gress of the United States has nopower under the Constitution tointerfere with the institution ofslavery in the different States.

They believe that the Con-gress of the United States has thepower, under the Constitution,to abolish slavery in the Dis-trict of Columbia, but that thepower ought not to be exercisedunless at the request of the peo-ple of the District.

The difference between theseopinions and those contained inthe above resolutions is theirreason for entering this protest.

Dan Stone, A. Lincoln, Representatives from the

County of Sangamon.In 1838 and 1840, Mr. Lin-

coln's party voted for him as


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22 ABRAHAM LINCOLNSpeaker, but being in the minor-ity he was not elected. After1840 he declined a reelection tothe legislature. He was on theHarrison electoral ticket in 1840,and on that of Clay in 1844, andspent much time and labor inboth those canvasses. In No-vember, 1842, he was married toMary, daughter of Robert S.Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky.They have three living children,all sons, one born in 1843, onein 1850, and one in 1853. Theylost one, who was born in 1846.

In 1846 he was elected to thelower House of Congress, andserved one term only, commenc-ing in December, 1847, and end-ing with the inauguration ofGeneral Taylor, in March, 1849.All the battles of the Mexicanwar had been fought before Mr.Lincoln took his seat in Con-


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 23gress, but the American armywas still in Mexico, and thetreaty of peace was not fully andformally ratified till the Juneafterwards. Much has been saidof his course in Congress in re-gard to this war. A careful ex-amination of the Journal and Congressional Globe showsthat he voted for all the supplymeasures that came up, and forall the measures in any way fa-vorable to the officers, soldiers,and their families, who con-ducted the war through : with theexception that some of thesemeasures passed without yeasand nays, leaving no record asto how particular men voted.The Journal and Globe also show him voting that thewar was unnecessarily and un-constitutionally begun by thePresident of the United States.


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24 ABRAHAM LINCOLNThis is the language of Mr.Ashmun's amendment, for whichMr. Lincoln and nearly or quiteall other Whigs of the House ofRepresentatives voted.

Mr. Lincoln's reasons for theopinion expressed by this votewere briefly that the Presidenthad sent General Taylor into aninhabited part of the countrybelonging to Mexico, and not tothe United States, and therebyhad provoked the first act ofhostility, in fact the commence-ment of the war; that the place,being the country bordering onthe east bank of the Rio Grande,was inhabited by native Mexi-cans born there under the Mexi-can Government, and had neversubmitted to, nor been con-quered by, Texas or the UnitedStates, nor transferred to eitherby treaty; that although Texas


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2claimed the Rio Grande as herboundary, Mexico had never rec-ognized it, and neither Texasnor the United States had everenforced it; that there was abroad desert between that andthe country over which Texashad actual control; that the coun-try where hostilities commenced,having once belonged to Mexico,,must remain so until it wassomehow legally transferred,which had never been done.

Mr. Lincoln thought the actof sending an armed forceamong the Mexicans was unnec-essary, inasmuch as Mexico wasin no way molesting or menacingthe United States or the peoplethereof; and that it was uncon-stitutional, because the power oflevying war is vested in Con-gress, and not in the President.He thought the principal motive


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2Jchusetts, and canvassing quitefully his own district in Illinois,which was followed by a major-ity in the district of over fifteenhundred for General Taylor.Upon his return from Con-gress he went to the practice ofthe law with greater earnestnessthan ever before. In 1852 hewas upon the Scott electoral tic-ket, and did something in theway of canvassing, but owing tothe hopelessness of the cause inIllinois he did less than in pre-vious presidential canvasses.

In 1854 his profession had al-most superseded the thought ofpolitics in his mind, when therepeal of the Missouri Com-promise aroused him as he hadnever been before.

In the autumn of that year hetook the stump with no broaderpractical aim or object than to


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28 ABRAHAM LINCOLNsecure, if possible, the reelectionof Hon. Richard Yates to Con-gress. His speeches at once at-tracted a more marked attentionthan thev had ever before done.As the canvass proceeded he wasdrawn to different parts of theState outside of Mr. Yates's dis-trict. He did not abandon thelaw, but gave his attention byturns to that and politics. TheState agricultural fair was atSpringfield that year, and Doug-las was announced to speakthere.

In the canvass of 1856 Mr.Lincoln made over fifty speeches,no one of which, so far as heremembers, was put in print.One of them was made at Ga-lena, but Mr. Lincoln has no rec-ollection of any part of it beingprinted; nor does he rememberwhether in that speech he said


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 29anything about a Supreme Courtdecision. He may have spokenupon that subject, and some ofthe newspapers may have re-ported him as saying what isnow ascribed to him; but hethinks he could not have ex-pressed himself as represented.


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Autobiographical SketchWritten for Jesse W.Fell, December 20, 1859.Springfield, Dec. 20, 1859.

J. W. Fell, Esq.My dear Sir: Herewith is alittle sketch, as you requested.There is not much of it, for thereason, I suppose, that there isnot much of me. If anythingbe made out of it, I wish it tobe modest, and not to go beyondthe material. If it were thoughtnecessary to incorporate anythingfrom any of my speeches, I sup-pose there would be no objec-tion. Of course it must not ap-pear to have been written bymyself.

Yours very truly,A. Lincoln.

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32 ABRAHAM LINCOLNI was born February 12,

1809, in Hardin County, Ken-tucky. My parents were bothborn in Virginia, of undistin-guished familiessecond fami-lies, perhaps I should say. Mymother, who died in my tenthyear, was of a family of thename of Hanks, some of whomnow reside in Adams, and othersin Macon County, Illinois. Mypaternal grandfather, AbrahamLincoln, emigrated from Rock-ingham County, Virginia, toKentucky about 1781 or 1782,where a year or two later he waskilled by the Indians, not in bat-tle, but by stealth, when he waslaboring to open a farm in theforest. His ancestors, who wereQuakers, went to Virginia fromBerks County, Pennsylvania.An effort to identify them withthe New England family of the


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY ^3same name ended in nothingmore definite than a similarity ofChristian names in both families,such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai,Solomon; Abraham, and thelike.My father, at the death of hisfather, was but six years of age,and he grew up literally withouteducation. He removed fromKentucky to what is now Spen-cer County, Indiana, in myeighth year. We reached ournew home about the time theState came into the Union. Itwas a wild region, with manybears and other wild animalsstill in the woods. There I grewup. There were some schools,so called, but no qualificationwas ever required of a teacherbeyond readin', writin', andcipherin' to the rule of three.If a straggler supposed to un-


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34 ABRAHAM LINCOLNderstand Latin happened to so-journ in the neighborhood, hewas looked upon as a wizard.There was absolutely nothing toexcite ambition for education.Of course, when I came of ageI did not know much. Still,somehow, I could read, write,and cipher to the rule of three,but that was all. I have notbeen to school since. The littleadvance I now have upon thisstore of education, I have pickedup from time to time under thepressure of necessity.

I was raised to farm work,which I continued till I wastwenty-two. At twenty-one Icame to Illinois, Macon County.Then I got to New Salem, atthat time in Sangamon, now inMenard County, where I re-mained a year as a sort of clerkin a store. Then came the


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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2SBlack Hawk war; and I waselected a captain of volunteers, asuccess which gave me morepleasure than any I have hadsince. I went the campaign,was elated, ran for the legisla-ture the same year (1832), andwas beatenthe only time I everhave been beaten by the people.The next and three succeedingbiennial elections I was electedto the legislature. I was not acandidate afterwards. Duringthis legislative period I hadstudied law, and removed toSpringfield to practice it. In1846 I was once elected to thelower House of Congress. Wasnot a candidate for reelection.From 1849 t0 I ^54> DOtn inclu-sive, practiced law more assidu-ously than ever before. Alwaysa Whig in politics; and gener-ally on the Whig electoral


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36 ABRAHAM LINCOLNtickets, making active canvasses.I was losing interest in politicswhen the repeal of the MissouriCompromise aroused me again.What I have done since then ispretty well known.

If any personal description ofme is thought desirable, it maybe said I am, in height, six feetfour inches, nearly ; lean in flesh,weighing on an average one hun-dred and eighty pounds; darkcomplexion, with coarse blackhair and gray eyes. No othermarks or brands recollected.

Yours truly,A. Lincoln.Hon. J. W. Fell.


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SPEECH ATSPRINGFIELD


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The House DividedAgainst Itself Speech, 1at Springfield, June 16,1858.

Mr. President and Gentlemenof the Convention: If we couldfirst know where we are, andwhither we are tending, we couldbetter judge what to do, and howto do it. We are now far intothe fifth year since a policy wasinitiated with the avowed objectand confident promise of puttingan end to slavery agitation.Under the operation of that pol-

1 The above speech was delivered at Springfield,111. , at the close of the Republican State Conven-tion held at that time and place, and by which Con-vention Mr. Lincoln had been named as their can-didate for United States Senator. Mr. Douglaswas not present.

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40 ABRAHAM LINCOLNicy, that agitation has not onlynot ceased, but has constantlyaugmented. In my opinion, itwill not cease until a crisis shallhave been reached and passed. A house divided against itselfcannot stand. I believe thisGovernment cannot endure per-manently half slave and halffree. I do not expect the Unionto be dissolved; I do not expectthe house to fall ; but I do expectit will cease to be divided. Itwill become all one thing, or allthe other. Either the oppo-nents of slavery will arrest thefurther spread of it, and place itwhere the public mind shall restin the belief that it is the courseof ultimate extinction; or its ad-vocates will push it forward tillit shall become alike lawful inall the States, old as well as new,North as well as South.


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SPEECH 41Have we no tendency to the

latter condition?Let anyone who doubts care-fully contemplate that now al-most complete legal combina-tionpiece of machinery, so tospeakcompounded of the Ne-braska doctrine and the DredScott decision. Let him con-sider, not only what work themachinery is adapted to do, andhow well adapted; but also lethim study the history of its con-struction, and trace if he can, orrather fail, if he can, to tracethe evidences of design and con-cert of action among its chiefarchitects from the beginning.

The new year of 1854 foundslavery excluded from more thanhalf the States by State consti-tutions, and from most of thenational territory by congres-sional prohibition. Four days


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42 ABRAHAM LINCOLNlater commenced the strugglewhich ended in repealing thatcongressional prohibition. Thisopened all the national territoryto slavery, and was the firstpoint gained.

But, so far, Congress onlyhad acted; and an indorsementby the people, real or apparent,was indispensable, to save thepoint already gained and givechance for more.

This necessity had not beenoverlooked, but had been pro-vided for, as well as might be,in the notable argument of squatter sovereignty, other-wise called sacred right ofself-government, which latterphrase, through expressive ofthe only rightful basis of anygovernment, was so pervertedin this attempted use of it as toamount to just this : That if any


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SPEECH 43one man choose to enslaveanother, no third man shall beallowed to object. That argu-ment was incorporated into theNebraska bill itself, in the lan-guage which follows

( It being the true intent and meaningof this Act not to legislate slavery into anyTerritory or State, nor to exclude it there-from, but to leave the people thereof per-fectly free to form and regulate theirdomestic institutions in their own way, sub-ject only to the Constitution of the UnitedStates.

Then opened the roar of loosedeclamation in favor of squat-ter sovereignty, and sacredright of self-government.But, said opposition mem-bers, let us amend the bill so

as to expressly declare that thepeople of the Territory mayexclude slavery. Not we,said the friends of the measure,


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44 ABRAHAM LINCOLNand down they voted the amend-ment.While the Nebraska bill waspassing through Congress, a lawcase, involving the question of anegro's freedom, by reason ofhis owner having voluntarilytaken him first into a free State,and then into a Territory cov-ered by the congressional pro-hibition, and held him as a slavefor a long time in each, was pass-ing through the United StatesCircuit Court for the District ofMissouri; and both Nebraskabill and lawsuit were brought toa decision in the same month ofMay, 1854. The negro's namewas Dred Scott, which namenow designates the decisionfinally made in the case. Beforethe then next Presidential elec-tion, the law case came to, andwas argued in, the Supreme


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SPEECH 45Court of the United States; butthe decision of it was deferreduntil after the election. Still,before the election, SenatorTrumbull, on the floor of theSenate, requested the leading ad-vocate of the Nebraska bill tostate his opinion whether thepeople of a Territory can con-stitutionally exclude slaveryfrom their limits; and the latteranswered: That is a questionfor the Supreme Court.The election came. Mr.

Buchanan was elected, and theindorsement, such as it was, se-cured. That was the secondpoint gained. The indorse-ment, however, fell short of aclear popular majority by nearlyfour hundred thousand votes,and so, perhaps, was not over-whelmingly reliable and satisfac-tory. The outgoing President,


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46 ABRAHAM LINCOLNin his last annual message, asimpressively as possible echoedback upon the people the weightand authority of the indorse-ment. The Supreme Court metagain; did not announce theirdecision, but ordered a re-argument. The presidential in-auguration came, and still nodecision of the court; but theincoming President, in his inau-gural address, fervently ex-horted the people to abide by theforthcoming decision, whateverit might be. Then, in a fewdays, came the decision.The reputed author of theNebraska bill finds an early occa-sion to make a speech at thiscapital indorsing the Dred Scottdecision, and vehemently de-nouncing all opposition to it.The new President, too, seizesthe early occasion of the Silli-


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SPEECH 47man letter to indorse andstrongly construe that decision,and to express his astonishmentthat any different view had everbeen entertained

At length a squabble springsup between the President andthe author of the Nebraska billon the mere question of fact,whether the Lecompton consti-tution was or was not in any justsense made by the people of Kan-sas; and in that quarrel the lat-ter declares that all he wants isa fair vote for the people, andthat he cares not whether slaverybe voted down or voted np. Ido not understand his declara-tion, that he cares not whetherslavery be voted down or votedup, to be intended by him otherthan as an apt definition of thepolicy he would impress uponthe public mindthe principle


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48 ABRAHAM LINCOLNfor which he declares he has suf-fered so much, and is ready tosuffer to the end. And well mayhe cling to that principle Ifhe has any parental feeling, wellmay he cling to it. That prin-ciple is the only shred left ofhis original Nebraska doctrine.Under the Dred Scott decision11 squatter sovereignty squattedout of existence, tumbled downlike temporary scaffolding; likethe mold at the foundry, servedthrough one blast, and fell backinto loose sand; helped to carryan election, and then was kickedto the winds. His late jointstruggle with the Republicans,against the Lecompton consti-tution, involves nothing of theoriginal Nebraska doctrine.That struggle was made on apointthe right of a people tomake their own constitution


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SPEECH 49upon which he and the Repub-licans have never differed.The several points of the DredScott decision, in connectionwith Senator Douglas's care-not policy, constitute the pieceof machinery, in its present stateof advancement. This was thethird point gained. The work-ing points of that machineryare:

First, That no negro slave,imported as such from Africa,and no descendant of such slave,can ever be a citizen of any State,in the sense of that term as usedin the Constitution of the UnitedStates. This point is made inorder to deprive the negro, inevery possible event, of the bene-fit of that provision of theUnited States Constitutionwhich declares that The citi-zens of each State shall be en-


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50 ABRAHAM LINCOLNtitled to all the privileges andimmunities of citizens in theseveral States.

Secondly, That, subject tothe Constitution of the UnitedStates, neither Congress nor aTerritorial Legislature can ex-clude slavery from any UnitedStates Territory. This point ismade in order that individualmen may fill up the Territorieswith slaves, without danger oflosing them as property, andthus enhance the chances ofpermanency to the institutionthrough all the future.

Thirdly, That whether theholding a negro in actual slaveryin a free State, makes him free,as against the holder, the UnitedStates courts will not decide, butwill leave to be decided by thecourts of any slave State thenegro may be forced into by the


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SPEECH 51master. This point is made,not to be pressed immediately;but, if acquiesced in for a while,and apparently indorsed by thepeople at an election, then to sus-tain the logical conclusion thatwhat Dred Scott's master mightlawfully do with Dred Scott inthe free State of Illinois, everyother master might lawfully dowith any other one, or one thou-sand slaves, in Illinois, or in anyother free State.

Auxiliary to all this, andworking hand-in-hand with it,the Nebraska doctrine, or whatis left of it, is to educate andmold public opinion, at leastNorthern public opinion, not tocare whether slavery is voteddown or voted up. This showsexactly where we now are; andpartially, also, whither we aretending.


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52 ABRAHAM LINCOLNIt will throw additional light

on the latter to go back and runthe mind over the string ofhistorical facts already stated.Several things will now appearless dark and mysterious thanthey did when they were trans-piring. The people were to beleft perfectly free, subjectonly to the Constitution. Whatthe Constitution had to do withit, outsiders could not then see.Plainly enough now, it was anexactly fitted niche, for the DredScott decision to afterwards comein, and declare the perfect free-dom of the people to be just nofreedom at all. Why was theamendment, expressly declaringthe right of the people, voteddown? Plainly enough now,the adoption of it would havespoiled the niche for the DredScott decision. Why was the


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SPEECH $3court decision held up? Why-even a senator's individual opin-ion withheld till after the presi-dential election ? Plainly enoughnow, the speaking out thenwould have damaged the per-fectly free argument uponwhich the election was to be car-ried. Why the outgoing Presi-dent's felicitation on the indorse-ment? Why the delay of a re-argument? Why the incomingPresident's advance exhortationin favor of the decision? Thesethings look like the cautious pat-ting and petting of a spiritedhorse preparatory to mountinghim, when it is dreaded that hemay give the rider a fall. Andwhy the hasty after-indorsementof the decision by the Presidentand others?We cannot absolutely knowthat all these exact adaptations


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54 ABRAHAM LINCOLNare the result of preconcert.But when we see a lot of framedtimbers, different portions ofwhich we know have been gottenout at different times and placesand by different workmenStephen, Franklin, Roger, andJames, for instance,and whenwe see these timbers joinedtogether, and see they exactlymake the frame of a house or amill, all the tenons and mortisesexactly fitting, and all the lengthsand proportions of the differentpieces exactly adapted to theirrespective places, and not apiece too many or too few, notomitting even scaffoldingor,if a single piece be lacking, wesee the place in the frame exactlyfitted and prepared yet to bringsuch piece inin such case, wefind it impossible not to believethat Stephen and Franklin and


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$6 ABRAHAM LINCOLNsame? While the opinion ofthe court by Chief JusticeTaney, in the Dred Scott case,and the separate opinions of allconcurring judges, expressly de-clare that the Constitution of theUnited States neither permitsCongress nor a territorial Leg-islature to exclude slavery fromany United States Territory,they all omit to declare whetheror not the same Constitution per-mits a State, or the people of aState, to exclude it. Possibly,this is a mere omission; but whocan be quite sure, if McLean orCurtis had sought to get into theopinion a declaration of unlim-ited power in the people of aState to exclude slavery fromtheir limits, just as Chase andMace sought to get such decla-ration, in behalf of the people ofa Territory, into the Nebraska


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SPEECH 57billI ask, who can be quitesure that it would not have beenvoted down in one case as it hadbeen in the other?The nearest approach to thepoint of declaring the power ofa State over slavery is made byJudge Nelson. He approachesit more than once, using the pre-cise idea, and almost the lan-guage, too, of the Nebraska act.On one occasion, his exact lan-guage is : Except in cases wherethe power is restrained by theConstitution of the UnitedStates, the law of the State issupreme over the subject of slav-ery within its jurisdiction. Inwhat cases the power of theStates is so restrained by theUnited States Constitution isleft an open question, preciselyas the same question, as to therestraint on the power of the


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58 ABRAHAM LINCOLNTerritories, was left open in theNebraska act. Put this andthat together, and we haveanother nice little niche, whichwe may, ere long, see filled withanother Supreme Court decision,declaring that the Constitutionof the United States does notpermit a State to exclude slav-ery from its limits. And thismay especially be expected if thedoctrine of care not whetherslavery be voted down or votedup shall gain upon the publicmind sufficiently to give promisethat such a decision can be main-tained when made.

Such a decision is all that slav-ery now lacks of being alike law-ful in all the States. Welcome,or unwelcome, such decision isprobably coming, and will soonbe upon us, unless the power ofthe present political dynasty shall


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SPEECH 59be met and overthrown. Weshall lie down pleasantly dream-ing that the people of Missouriare on the verge of making theirState free, and we shall awaketo the reality instead that theSupreme Court has made Illinoisa slave State. To meet andoverthrow the power of thatdynasty is the work now beforeall those who would prevent thatconsummation. That is whatwe have to do. How can webest do it?

There are those who denounceus openly to their own friends,and yet whisper us softly thatSenator Douglas is the aptest in-strument there is with which toeffect that object. They wishus to infer all, from the fact thathe now has a little quarrel withthe present head of the dynasty,and that he has regularly voted


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60 ABRAHAM LINCOLNwith us on a single point, uponwhich he and we have never dif-fered. They remind us that heis a great man, and that the larg-est of us are very small ones.Let this be granted. But aliving dog is better than a deadlion. Judge Douglas, if not adead lion, for this work is atleast a caged and toothless one.How can he oppose the advancesof slavery? He don't care any-thing about it. His avowedmission is impressing the pub-lic heart to care nothing aboutit. A leading Douglas Demo-cratic newspaper thinks Doug-las's superior talent will beneeded to resist the revival ofthe African slave-trade. DoesDouglas believe an effort to re-vive that trade is approaching?He has not said so. Does hereally think so? But if it is,


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SPEECH 6lhow can he resist it? For yearshe has labored to prove it a sa-cred right of white men to takenegro slaves into the new Ter-ritories. Can he possibly showthat it is less a sacred right tobuy them where they can bebought cheapest? And unques-tionably they can be boughtcheaper in Africa than in Vir-ginia. He has done all in hispower to reduce the whole ques-tion of slavery to one of a mereright of property; and, as such,how can he oppose the foreignslave-trade? How can he re-fuse that trade in that prop-erty shall be perfectly free/'unless he does it as a protectionto the home production? Andas the home producers will prob-ably not ask the protection, hewill be wholly without a groundof opposition.


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SPEECH 63to behe does not promise everto be.Our cause, then, must be en-trusted to, and conducted by, itsown undoubted friendsthosewhose hands are free, whosehearts are in the work, who docare for the result. Two yearsago the Republicans of the na-tion mustered over thirteen hun-dred thousand strong. We didthis under the single impulse ofresistance to a common danger,with every external circumstanceagainst us. Of strange, discord-ant, and even hostile elements, wegathered from the four winds,and formed and fought the battlethrough, under the constant hotfire of a disciplined, proud, andpampered enemy. Did webrave all then, to falter nownow, when that same enemy iswavering, dissevered, and bellig-


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64 ABRAHAM LINCOLNerent? The result is not doubt-ful. We shall not failif westand firm, we shall not fail.Wise counsels may accelerate, ormistakes delay it; but, sooner orlater, the victory is sure to come.


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A Word About the Writ-ings of Abraham Lincoln.The contents of this little vol-

ume are selected from TheComplete Writings of AbrahamLincoln, edited by his privatesecretaries, John G. Nicolay andJohn Hay, a new and enlargededition of which is now beingissued by the publishers of thisvolume.

For nearly thirty years theeditors were engaged in collect-ing and arranging the materialfor this work. President Lin-coln encouraged and assistedthem, giving them many of hismost precious manuscripts withhis own hands. The work wasfinally published at the special

6s


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66 ABRAHAM LINCOLNrequest of Col. Robert T. Lin-coln, and must ever remain theonly authorized and standardcollection of Lincoln's writings.The new and enlarged editioncontains nearly twice as muchmaterial as did the first editionpublished some eleven years ago.This added material compriseseverything of any historical orbiographical value from the penof Lincoln which has come tolight during the last decade,also numerous biographical andexplanatory notes, and specialintroductions to the various vol-umes. It will also contain acomplete bibliography and acomprehensive index.

It will be artistically printedon a fine grade of paper, durablybound, and illustrated with up-ward of one hundred portraitsof Lincoln, his generals, cabinet


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WRITINGS 67officers, and facsimiles of hismore celebrated letters and docu-ments. In short, nothing hasbeen omitted which could in anyway add to its value from a lit-erary or mechanical standpoint.The aim has been to presentthis definitive edition of Lin-

coln's writings in a style that willmake it a fitting monument toits illustrious author and scarcelyless illustrious editors.

Francis D. Tandy Company,38 E. 2 1st St., New York.


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I AutobiographyBy Lincoln in

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V timp m Sangaynqn.Salem, at that tin* here X re-new in Menard County.


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Abraham Lincoln Autobiography

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