3«* 
THE   LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES. 
.  read  in  Illinois,  is,  and  will  continue  to  be, 
o  us.    1  have  also  thought  that  Governor 
feels  a     tut  as  Greeley  does;  but  not  be- 
aewspaper  editor,  bis  feeling  in  this  respect  is 
inch  manifested.    1  have  no  idea  that  he  is,  by 
v  letter,  urging  Illinois    Republicans 
••  A.s  to  myself,  let  me  pledge  you  my  word  that 
v  friend,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  been 
inst  Governor  Seward.    No  combina- 
tion has  been  made  with  me.  or  proposed  to  me,  in 
a  to  the  next  presidential  candidate.    The  same 
thing  is  true  in  regard  to  the  next  governor  of  our 
I  am  not  directly  or  indirectly  committed  to  any 
v  one  made  any  advance  to  me  upon 
the  subject.    I  have  had  many  free  conversations  with 
John  Wentworth;    but  he  never    dropped   a  remark 
that  led  me  to  suspect  that  he  wishes  to  be  governor. 
I  it  is  due  to  truth  to  say  that  while  he  has  uni- 
formly expressed  himself  for  me,  he  has  never  hinted 
v  condition.    The  signs  are  that  we  shall  have  a 
■tion  on  the  1 6th,  and  I  think  our  prospects 
are   improving  some  every  day.    I  believe 
we  need  nothing  so  much  as  to  get  rid  of  unjust  sus- 
as  of  one  another."  * 
While  many  alleged  defections  were  soon 
disproved  by  the  ready  and  loyal  avowals  of 
his  friends  in  Illinois  and  elsewhere, there  came 
to  him  a  serious  disappointment  from  a  quar- 
ter whence  he  little  expected  it.    Early  in  the 
canvass  Lincoln  began  to  hear  that  Crittenden 
of  Kentucky  favored  the  reelection  of  Doug- 
nd  had  promised  so  to  advise  the  Whigs 
of  Illinois  by  a  public  letter.   Deeming  it  well- 
nigh  incredible    that  a  Kentucky  Whig  like 
■nden  could  take  such  a  part  against  an 
Illinois  Whig  of  his  own  standing  and  service, 
to  help  a  life-long  opponent  of  Clay  and  his 
cheri.-hed  plans,  Lincoln  addressed  him  a  pri- 
vate letter  making  the  direct  inquiry.    "  I  do 
not  believe  the  story,"  he  wrote,  "  but  still  it 
gives  me  some  uneasiness.     If  such  was  your 
tation,  I  do  not  believe  you  would  so  ex- 
\  yourself.   It  is  not  in  character  with  you 
have  always  estimated  you."t  Crittenden's 
reply,    however,    confirmed    his    worst  fears. 
he  and  Douglas  had  acted  together 
to  oppose  Lecompton.     For  this  Douglas  had 
been  assailed,  and  he  thought  his   reelection 
was   necessary   to  rebuke  the  Buchanan  ad- 
ministration.!   In    addition     Crittenden   also 
•■•-rot ■;  the  expected  letter  for  publication, 
in   which     phraseology   of  apparent    fairness 
n    urgent   appeal  in    Douglas's  be- 
In  the  evenly  balanced  and  sensitive  con- 
dition of  Illinois  politics  this  ungracious  out- 
■•lterference  may  be  said  to  have  insured 
oln's  defeat.  While  it  gave  him  pain  to  be 
thus  wounded  in  the  house  of  his  friends,  he 
yet   more    deeply    deplored    the    inexcusable 
■  Lincoln  to  Wilson,  June  1st,  1858.  MS. 
t  Lincoln  to  Crittenden,  July  7th,  1858.  Mrs.  Cole- 
man, "  Life  of  Crittenden,"  Vol.  II.,  p.   162. 
X  Crittenden  to  Lincoln,  July  29th,  1858.  Ibid., p.  163. 
blunder  of  weak  and  blind  leaders  whose  mis- 
placed sympathy  put  in  jeopardy  the  success 
of  a  vital  political  principle.  In  his  convention 
speech  he  had  forcibly  stated  the  error  and 
danger  of  such  a  step. 
"  How  can  he  [Douglas]  oppose  the  advances  of 
slavery  ?  He  don't  care  anything  about  it.  His  avowed 
mission  is  impressing  the  'public  heart'  to  care  nothing 
about  it.  .  .  .  For  years  he  has  labored  to  prove  it 
a  sacred  right  of  white  men  to  take  negro  slaves  into 
the  new  Territories.  Can  he  possibly  show  that  it  is 
less  a  sacred  right  to  buy  them  where  they  can  be 
bought  cheapest  ?  And  unquestionably  they  can  be 
bought  cheaper  in  Africa  than  in  Virginia.  He  has 
done  all  in  his  power  to  reduce  the  whole  question  of 
slavery  to  one  of  a  mere  right  of  property.  .  .  .  Now 
as  ever,  I  wish  not  to  misrepresent  Judge  Douglas's 
position,  question  his  motives,  or  do  aught  that  can  be 
personally  offensive  to  him.  Whenever,  if  ever,  he  and 
we  can  come  together  on  principle  so  that  our  great 
cause  may  have  assistance  from  his  great  ability,  I 
hope  to  have  interposed  no  adventitious  obstacle.  But 
clearly  he  is  not  now  with  us  —  he  does  not  pretend 
to  be  —  he  does  not  promise  ever  to  be."  || 
Lincoln  in  no  wise  underrated  the  severity 
of  the  political  contest  in  which  he  was  about 
to  engage.  He  knew  his  opponent's  strong 
points  as  well  as  his  weak  ones —  his  energy, 
his  adroitness,  the  blind  devotion  of  his  follow- 
ers, his  greater  political  fame. 
"  Senator  Douglas  is  of  world-wide  renown,"  he 
said.  "  All  the  anxious  politicians  of  his  party,  or 
who  have  been  of  his  party  for  years  past,  have  been 
looking  upon  him  as  certainly  at  no  distant  day  to  be 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  They  have  seen 
in  his  round,  jolly,  fruitful  face  post-offices,  land-offices, 
marshalships,  and  cabinet  appointments,  charge-ships 
and  foreign  missions,  bursting  and  sprouting  out  in 
wonderful  exuberance  ready  to  be  laid  hold  of  by  their 
greedy  hands.  And  as  they  have  been  gazing  upon 
this  attractive  picture  so  long,  they  cannot,  in  the  little 
distraction  that  has  taken  place  in  the  party,  bring  them- 
selves to  give  up  the  charming  hope  ;  but  with  greedier 
anxiety  they  rush  about  him,  sustain  him,  and  give 
him  marches,  triumphal  entries,  and  receptions,  beyond 
what  even  in  the  days  of  his  highest  prosperity  they 
could  have  brought  about  in  his  favor.  On  the  con- 
trary, nobody  has  ever  expected  me  to  be  President. 
In  my  poor,  lean,  lank  face,  nobody  has  ever  seen  that 
any  cabbages  were  sprouting  out.  These  are  disad- 
vantages all  taken  together,  that  the  Republicans  labor 
under.  We  have  to  fight  this  battle  upon  principle, 
and  upon  principle  alone. "If 
Douglas  and  his  friends  had  indeed  entered 
upon  the  canvass  with  an  unusual  flourish  of 
trumpets.  Music,  banners,  salutes,  fireworks, 
addresses,  ovation,  and  jubilation  with  enthu- 
siasm genuine  and  simulated,  came  and  went 
in  almost  uninterrupted  sequence;  so  much  of 
the  noise  and  pomp  of  electioneering  had  not 
been  seen  since  the  famous  hard-cider  campaign 
of  Harrison.  The  "  Little  Giant,"  as  he  was 
proudly  nicknamed  by  his  adherents,  arrived 
§  Crittenden  to  Dickey,  Aug.  1st,  1858.   Ibid.,  p.  164. 
||  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  4. 
If  Lincoln,  Springfield  Speech,  July  17th,  1858.    De- 
bates, p.  55.
THE   LINCOLN-DOUGLAS   DEIiATHS. 
3*9 
n  Illinois  near  midsummer,  after  elaborate 
preparation  and  heralding,  and  made  speeches 
successively  at  Chicago,  Bloomington,  and 
Springfield  on  the  9th,  16th,  and  17th  of  July. 
Hie  Republicans  and  their  candidate  were 
equally  alert  to  contest  every  inch  of  ground. 
Mr.  Lincoln  made  speeches  in  reply  at  Chi- 
;ago  on  the  10th  and  at  Springfield  on  the 
evening  of  Douglas's  day  address;  and  in  both 
nstances  with  such  force  and  success  as  fore- 
ihadowed  a  fluctuating  and  long-continued 
struggle. 
For  the  moment  the  personal  presence  of 
Douglas  not  only  gave  spirit  and  fresh  indus- 
ry  to  his  followers,  but  the  novelty  impressed 
;he  indifferent  and  the  wavering.  The  rush  of 
he  campaign  was  substituting  excitement  for 
nquiry,  blare  of  brass  bands  and  smoke  of  gun- 
)owder  for  intelligent  criticism.  The  fame  and 
prestige  of  the  "  Little  Giant "  was  beginning 
:o  incline  the  vibrating  scale.  Lincoln  and  his 
ntimate  and  political  advisers  were  not  slow 
;o  note  the  sign  of  danger;  and  the  remedy 
levised  threw  upon  him  the  burden  of  a  new 
■esponsibility.  It  was  decided  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  Republican  leaders  that  Lincoln 
ihould  challenge  Douglas  to  joint  public  de- 
)ate. 
There  is  no  need  to  reproduce  here  the  chal- 
enge  sent  by  Lincoln  on  July  24th  and  the  cor- 
respondence in  which  Douglas  proposed  that 
hey  should  meet  at  the  towns  of  Ottawa,  Free- 
)ort,  Jonesborough,  Charleston,  Galesburg, 
^.uincy,  and  Alton,  each  speaker  alternately  to 
>pen  and  close  the  discussion ;  Douglas  to  speak 
>ne  hour  at  Ottawa,  Lincoln  to  reply  for  an 
lour  and  a  half,  and  Douglas  to  make  a  half 
lour's  rejoinder.  In  like  manner  Lincoln  should 
)pen  and  close  at  Freeport,  and  so  on  alter- 
lately.  Lincoln's  note  of  July  31st  accepts  the 
proposal  as  made.  "Although  by  the  terms," 
le  writes,  '-'as  you  propose,  you  take  four 
)penings  and  closes  to  my  three,  I  accede 
md  thus  close  the  arrangement."  Meanwhile 
iach  of  the  speakers  made  independent  ap- 
pointments for  other  days  and  places  than 
:hese  seven ;  and  in  the  heat  and  dust  of  mid- 
;ummer  traveled  and  addressed  the  people  for 
1  period  of  about  one  hundred  days,  frequently 
naking  the  necessary  journeys  by  night,  and 
)ften  making  two  and  sometimes  even  three 
ipeeches  in  a  single  day.  To  the  combat  of 
ntellectual  skill  was  thus  added  an  ordeal  of 
physical  endurance.* 
Lincoln  entered  upon  the  task  which  his 
Darty  friends  had  devised  with  neither  bra- 
vado nor  misgiving.  He  had  not  sought  these 
public  discussions ;  neither  did  he  shrink  from 
hem.    Throughout  his  whole  life  he  appears 
*"  Last  year  in  the  Illinois  canvass  I  made  just  130 
ipeeches."— [Douglas,  Wooster  (O.)  Speech.]   This 
to  have  been  singularly  correct  in  his  esti- 
mate of  difficulties  to  be  encountered  and 
of  his  own  powers  for  undertaking  them. 
Each  of  these  seven  meetings,  comprising 
both  the  Republican  and  Democratic  voters 
of  the  neighboring  counties,  formed  a  vast, 
eager,  and  attentive  assemblage.  It  needed 
only  the  first  day's  experience  to  show  the 
wisdom  of  the  Republican  leaders  in  forcing 
a  joint  discussion  upon  Douglas.  Face  to 
face  with  his  competitor,  he  could  no  longer 
successfully  assume  airs  of  superiority,  or 
wrap  himself  in  his  Senatorial  dignity  and 
prestige.  They  were  equal  spokesmen,  of 
equal  parties,  on  an  equal  platform,  while 
applause  and  encouragement  on  one  side 
balanced  applause  and  encouragement  on 
the  other. 
In  a  merely  forensic  sense,  it  was  indeed 
a  battle  of  giants.  In  the  whole  field  of  Amer- 
ican politics  no  man  has  equaled  Douglas  in 
the  expedients  and  strategy  of  debate.  Lack- 
ing originality  and  constructive  logic,  he  had 
great  facility  in  appropriating  by  ingenious 
restatement  the  thoughts  and  formulas  of 
others.  He  was  tireless,  ubiquitous,  unseiza- 
ble.  It  would  have  been  as  easy  to  hold  a 
globule  of  mercury  under  the  finger's  tip  as 
to  fasten  him  to  a  point  he  desired  to  evade. 
He  could  almost  invert  a  proposition  by  a 
plausible  paraphrase.  He  delighted  in  enlarg- 
ing an  opponent's  assertion  to  a  forced  infer- 
ence ridiculous  in  form  and  monstrous  in 
dimensions.  In  spirit  he  was  alert,  combat- 
ive, aggressive;  in  manner,  patronizing  and 
arrogant  by  turns. 
Lincoln's  mental  equipment  was  of  an  en- 
tirely different  order.  His  principal  weapon 
was  direct,  unswerving  logic.  His  fairness  of 
statement  and  generosity  of  admission  had  long 
been  proverbial.  For  these  intellectual  duels 
with  Douglas,  he  possessed  a  power  of  analysis 
that  easily  outran  and  circumvented  the  "Little 
Giant's  "  most  extraordinary  gymnastics  of  ar- 
gument. But,  disdaining  mere  quibbles,  he  pur- 
sued lines  of  concise  reasoning  to  maxims  of 
constitutional  law  and  political  morals.  If  we 
may  borrow  a  comparison  from  the  combats 
of  the  Roman  arena,  Douglas  was  a  gladiator 
who  fought  with  the  net  and  trident  of  party 
catchwords,  while  Lincoln  carried  the  helmet, 
sword,  and  buckler  of  logic  and  principle. 
Both  speakers  used  plain  words  and  pithy  sen- 
tences. Platitude  and  declamation  could  not 
have  held  the  crowds  that  listened  to  them 
hour  after  hour  in  sun  and  rain.  Douglas  was 
always  forcible  in  statement  and  bold  in  asser- 
tion; but  Lincoln  was  his  superior  in  quaint 
originality,  aptness  of  phrase,  and  subtlety  of 
was  between  July  9th  and  November  2d,  iS5S,just  one 
hundred  days,  exclusive  of  Sundays.
39° 
THE    LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES. 
definition ;  and  oftentimes  Lincoln's  philo- 
sophic vision  and  poetical  fervor  raised  him  to 
flights  of  eloquence  which  were  not  possible 
to  the  fiber  and  temper  of  his  opponent 
It  is,  of  course,  out  of  the  question  to  abridge 
the  various  Lincoln- Douglas  discussions  of 
which  the  text  tills  a  good-sized  volume. 
Only  a  few  points  o\  controversy  may  be 
stated.  Lincoln's  convention  speech,  it  will 
be  remembered,  declared  that  in  his  belief  the 
Union  could  not  endure  permanently  half 
slave  and  half  free,  but  must  become  all  one 
thing  or  all  the  other.  Douglas  in  his  first 
speech  ot  the  campaign  attacked  this  as  an 
invitation  to  a  war  of  sections,  declaring  that 
uniformity  would  lead  to  consolidation  and 
despotism.  He  charged  the  Republicans  with 
intent  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States;  said 
their  opposition  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
was  a  desire  for  negro  equality  and  amalga- 
mation ;  and  prescribed  his  principle  of  pop- 
ular sovereignty  as  a  panacea  for  all  the  ills 
growing  out  of  the  slavery  agitation. 
To  all  this  Lincoln  replied  that  Republi- 
cans did  not  aim  at  abolition  in  the  slave 
States,  but  only  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from 
free  Territories  ;  they  did  not  oppose  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  in  so  far  as  it  concerned  the 
freedom  of  Dred  Scott,  but  they  refused  to 
accept  its  dicta  as  rules  of  political  action. 
He  repelled  the  accusation  that  the  Republi- 
cans desired  negro  equality  or  amalgamation, 
saying : 
"There  is  a  physical  difference  between  the  two, 
which,  in  my  judgment,  will  probably  forever  forbid 
their  living  together  upon  the  footing  of  perfect  equal- 
ity ;  and  inasmuch  as  it  becomes  a  necessity  that  there 
must  be  a  difference,  I,  as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  am 
in  favor  of  the  race  to  which  I  belong  having  the 
superior  position.  I  have  never  said  anything  to  the 
contrary,  but  I  hold  that  notwithstanding  all  this  there 
is  no  reason  in  the  world  why  the  negro  is  not  entitled 
to  all  the  natural  rights  enumerated  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence, —  the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness.  I  hold  that  he  is  as  much  entitled 
to  these  as  the  white  man.  I  agree  with  Judge  Doug- 
la.-,  he  is  not  my  equal  in  many  respects  —  certainly 
not  in  color,  perhaps  not  in  moral  or  intellectual  en- 
dowment; but  in  the  right  to  eat  the  bread  without 
the  leave  of  anybody  else,  which  his  own  hand  earns, 
he  is  my  equal,  and  the  equal  of  Judge  Douglas  and 
the  equal  of  every  living  man."  * 
In  return  he  pressed  upon  Douglas  his 
charge  of  a  political  conspiracy  to  nationalize 
slavery,  alleging  that  his  "don't  care"  policy 
was  but  the  convenient  stalking-horse  under 
■r  of  which  a  new  Dred  Scott  decision 
would  make  slavery  lawful  everywhere. 
"  It  is  merely  for  the  Supreme  Court  to  decide  that 
no  State  under  the  Constitution  can  exclude  it,  just  as 
they  have  already  decided  that  under  the  Constitution 
"Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  75. 
t  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  82. 
$  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  pp.  233-4. 
neither  Congress  nor  the  territorial  legislature  can  do 
it.  When  that  is  decided  and  acquiesced  in,  the  whole 
thing  is  done.  This  being  true,  and  this  being  the 
way,  as  I  think,  that  slavery  is  to  be  made  national, 
let  us  consider  what  Judge  Douglas  is  doing  every  day 
to  that  end.  In  the  first  place,  let  us  see  what  influence 
he  is  exerting  on  public  sentiment.  In  this  and  like 
communities  public  sentiment  is  everything.  With 
public  sentiment,  nothing  can  fail;  without  it  nothing 
can  succeed.  Consequently,  he  who  molds  public  sen- 
timent goes  deeper  than  he  who  enacts  statutes  or  pro- 
nounces decisions.  He  makes  statutes  and  decisions 
possible  or  impossible  to  be  executed."  t 
"  The  Democratic  policy  in  regard  to  that  institution 
will  not  tolerate  the  merest  breath,  the  slightest  hint, 
of  the  least  degree  of  wrong  about  it.  Try  it  by  some 
of  Judge  Douglas's  arguments.  He  says  he  '  don't 
care  whether  it  is  voted  up  or  voted  down  '  in  the  Ter- 
ritories. I  do  not  care  myself,  in  dealing  with  that  ex- 
pression, whether  it  is  intended  to  be  expressive  of  his 
individual  sentiments  on  the  subject,  or  only  of  the 
national  policy  he  desires  to  have  established.  It  is 
alike  valuable  for  my  purpose.  Any  man  can  say  that 
who  does  not  see  anything  wrong  in  slavery,  but  no 
man  can  logically  say  it  who  does  see  a  wrong  in  it ; 
because  no  man  can  logically  say  he  don't  care  whether 
a  wrong  is  voted  up  or  voted  down.  He  may  say  he 
don't  care  whether  an  indifferent  thing  is  voted  up  or 
down,  but  he  must  logically  have  a  choice  between  a 
right  thing  and  a  wrong  thing.  He  contends  that 
whatever  community  wants  slaves  has  a  right  to  have 
them.  So  they  have  if  it  is  not  a  wrong.  But  if  it  is  a 
wrong,  he  cannot  say  people  have  a  right  to  do  wrong. 
He  says  that  upon  the  score  of  equality  slaves  should 
be  allowed  to  go  into  a  new  Territory,  like  other  prop- 
erty. This  is  strictly  logical  if  there  is  no  difference 
between  it  and  other  property.  If  it  and  other  prop- 
erty are  equal,  his  argument  is  entirely  logical.  But 
if  you  insist  that  one  is  wrong  and  the  other  right, 
there  is  no  use  to  institute  a  comparison  between  right 
and  wrong.  You  may  turn  over  everything  in  the 
Democratic  policy  from  beginning  to  end,  whether  in 
the  shape  it  takes  on  the  statute  book,  in  the  shape  it 
takes  in  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  in  the  shape  it  takes 
in  conversation,  or  the  shape  it  takes  in  short  maxim- 
like arguments  —  it  everywhere  carefully  excludes  the 
idea  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in  it. 
"  That  is  the  real  issue.  That  is  the  issue  that  will 
continue  in  this  country  when  these  poor  tongues  of 
Judge  Douglas  and  myself  shall  be  silent.  It  is  the 
eternal  struggle  between  these  two  principles  —  right 
and  wrong  —  throughout  the  world.  They  are  the  two 
principles  that  have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  begin- 
ning of  time  ;  and  will  ever  continue  to  struggle.  The 
one  is  the  common  right  of  humanity  and  the  other 
the  divine  right  of  kings.  It  is  the  same  principle,  in 
whatever  shape  it  develops  itself.  It  is  the  same  spirit 
that  says,  '  You  work  and  toil  and  earn  bread,  and  I'll 
eat  it.'  No  matter  in  what  shape  it  comes,  whether 
from  the  mouth  of  a  king  who  seeks  to  bestride  the 
people  of  his  own  nation  and  live  by  the  fruit  of 
their  labor,  or  from  one  race  of  men  as  an  apology 
for  enslaving  another  race,  it  is  the  same  tyrannical 
principle."  t 
As  to  the  vaunted  popular  sovereignty  prin- 
ciple, Lincoln  declared  it 
"  the  most  arrant  quixotism  that  was  ever  enacted 
before  a  community.  .  .  .  Does  he  mean  to  say  that 
he  has  been  devoting  his  life  to  securing  to  the  people 
of  the  Territories  the  right  to  exclude  slavery  from 
the  Territories?  If  he  means  so  to  say,  he  means  to 
deceive;  because  he  and  every  one  knows  that  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  he  approves  and 
makes  especial  ground  of  attack  upon  me  for  disap-
THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES. 
391 
proving,  forbids  the  people  of  a  Territory  to  exclude 
slavery.  This  covers  the  whole  ground  from  the 
settlement  of  a  Territory  till  it  reaches  the  degree  of 
maturity  entitling  it  to  form  a  State  constitution.  So 
far  as  all  that  ground  is  concerned,  the  Judge  is  not 
sustaining  popular  sovereignty,  but  absolutely  oppos- 
ing it.  He  sustains  the  decision  which  declares  that 
the  popular  will  of  the  Territories  has  no  constitutional 
power  to  exclude  slavery  during  their  territorial  ex- 
istence." * 
By  no  means  the  least  interesting  of  the 
many  points  touched  in  these  debates  is  Lin- 
coln's own  estimate  of  the  probable  duration 
of  slavery,  or  rather  of  the  least  possible  pe- 
riod in  which  "  ultimate  extinction  "  could  be 
effected,  even  under  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances. 
"  Now  at  this  day  in  the  history  of  the  world,"  said 
he,  in  the  Charleston  debate,  "we  can  no  more  fore- 
tell where  the  end  of  this  slavery  agitation  will  be 
than  we  can  see  the  end  of  the  world  itself.  The 
Nebraska- Kansas  bill  was  introduced  four  years 
and  a  half  ago,  and  if  the  agitation  is  ever  to  come 
to  an  end,  we  may  say  we  are  four  years  and  a  half 
nearer  the  end.  So  too  we  can  say  we  are  four  years 
and  a  half  nearer  the  end  of  the  world ;  and  we  can 
just  as  clearly  see  the  end  of  the  world  as  we  can 
see  the  end  of  this  agitation.  The  Kansas  settlement 
did  not  conclude  it.  If  Kansas  should  sink  to-day,  and 
leave  a  great  vacant  space  in  the  earth's  surface,  this 
vexed  question  would  still  be  among  us.  I  say  then 
there  is  no  way  of  putting  an  end  to  the  slavery  agita- 
tion amongst  us,  but  to  put  it  back  upon  the  basis 
where  our  fathers  placed  it,  no  way  but  to  keep  it  out 
of  our  new  Territories  —  to  restrict  it  forever  to  the  old 
States  where  it  now  exists.  Then  the  public  mind  will 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  ex- 
tinction. That  is  one  way  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
slavery  agitation. 
"The  other  way  is  for  us  to  surrender  and  let  Judge 
Douglas  and  his  friends  have  their  way  and  plant 
slavery  over  all  the  States  ;  cease  speaking  of  it  as  in 
any  way  a  wrong;  regard  slavery  as  one  of  the  com- 
mon matters  of  property  and  speak  of  negroes  as  we 
do  of  our  horses  and  cattle.  But  while  it  drives  on  in 
its  state  of  progress  as  it  is  now  driving,  and  as  it  has 
driven  for  the  last  five  years,  I  have  ventured  the 
opinion,  and  I  say  to-day,  that  we  will  have  no  end 
to  the  slavery  agitation  until  it  takes  one  turn  or  the 
other.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  when  it  takes  a  turn 
toward  ultimate  extinction  it  will  be  in  a  day,  nor  in  a 
year,  nor  in  two  years.  I  do  not  suppose  that  in  the 
most  peaceful  way  ultimate  extinction  would  occur  in 
less  than  a  hundred  years  at  least ;  but  that  it  will  oc- 
cur in  the  best  way  for  both  races,  in  God's  own  good 
time,  I  have  no  doubt,  "t 
But  the  one  dominating  characteristic  of 
Lincoln's  speeches  is  their  constant  recurrence 
to  broad  and  enduring  principles,  their  unre- 
mitting effort  to  lead  public  opinion  to  loftier 
and  nobler  conceptions  of  political  duty ;  and 
nothing  in  his  career  stamps  him  so  distinct- 
ively an  American  —  "  the  first  American," 
as  Lowell  has  so  happily  named  him  —  as  his 
constant  eulogy  and  defense  of  the  philo- 
sophical precepts  of  the   Declaration  of  In- 
*  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  56. 
t  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  157. 
X  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  225. 
dependence.  The  following  is  one  of  his  in- 
dictments of  his  political  opponents  on  this 
point: 
"At  Galcsburg  the  other  day,  I  said,  in  answer  to 
Judge  Douglas,  that  three  years  ago  there  never  had 
been  a  man,  so  far  as  1  knew  or  believed,  in  the  /.hole 
world,  who  had  said  that  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence did  not  include  negroes  in  the  term  £ali  men.' 
I  re-assert  it  to-day.  T  assert  that  Judge  Douglas  and 
all  his  friends  may  search  the  whole  record-,  of  the 
country,  and  it  will  be  a  matter  of  great  astonishment 
to  me  if  they  shall  be  able  to  find  that  one  human  being 
three  years  ago  had  ever  uttered  the  astounding  senti- 
ment that  the  term  '  all  men '  in  the  Declaration  did  not 
include  the  negro.  Do  not  let  me  be  misunderstood.  I 
know  that  more  than  three  years  ago  there  were  men 
who,  finding  this  assertion  constantly  in  the  way  of 
their  schemes  to  bring  about  the  ascendency  and  per- 
petuation of  slavery,  denied  the  truth  of  it.  I  know 
that  Mr.  Calhoun  and  all  the  politicians  of  his  school 
denied  the  truth  of  the  Declaration.  I  know  that  it  ran 
along  in  the  mouth  of  some  Southern  men  for  a  period 
of  years,  ending  at  last  in  that  shameful  (hough  rather 
forcible  declaration  of  Pettit  of  Indiana,  upon  the 
floor  of  the  United  States  Senate,  that  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  was  in  that  respect '  a  self-evident  lie  ' 
rather  than  a  self-evident  truth.  But  I  say,  with  a  per- 
fect knowledge  of  all  this  hawking  at  the  Declaration 
without  directly  attacking  it,  that  three  years  ago  there 
never  had  lived  a  man  who  had  ventured  to  assail  it  in 
the  sneaking  way  of  pretending  to  believe  it  and  then 
asserting  it  did  not  include  the  negro.  I  believe  the 
first  man  who  ever  said  it  was  Chief-Justice  Taney  in 
the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  the  next  to  him  was  our  friend, 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  And  now  it  has  become  the 
catch-word  of  the  entire  party.  I  would  like  to  call 
upon  his  friends  everywhere  to  consider  how  they  have 
come  in  so  short  a  time  to  view  this  matter  in  a  way 
so  entirely  different  from  their  former  belief !  to  ask 
whether  they  are  not  being  borne  along  by  an  irresist- 
ible current,  whither  they  know  not?"  % 
In  the  joint  debates,  however,  argument 
and  oratory  were  both  necessarily  hampered 
by  the  inexorable  limit  of  time.  For  the  full 
development  of  his  thought,  the  speeches 
Lincoln  made  separately  at  other  places  af- 
forded him  a  freer  opportunity.  A  quotation 
from  his  language  on  one  of  these  occasions 
is  therefore  here  added,  as  a  better  illustra- 
tion of  his  style  and  logic,  where  his  sublime 
theme  carried  him  into  one  of  his  more  im- 
passioned moods  : 
"  The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  formed  by 
the  representatives  of  American  liberty  from  thirteen 
States  of  the  Confederacy,  twelve  of  which  were  slave- 
holding  communities.  We  need  not  discuss  the  way  or 
the  reason  of  their  becoming  slave-holding  communi- 
ties. It  is  sufficient  for  our  purpose  that  all  of  them 
greatly  deplored  the  evil  and  that  they  placed  a  pro- 
vision in  the  Constitution  which  they  supposed  would 
gradually  remove  the  disease  by  cutting  off  its  source. 
This  was  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade.  So  general 
was  the  conviction,  the  public  determination,  to  abolish 
the  African  slave  trade,  that  the  provision  which  I  have 
referred  to  as  being  placed  in  the  Constitution  declared 
that  it  should  not  be  abolished  prior  to  the  year  1S0S. 
A  constitutional  provision  was  necessary  to  prevent 
the  people,  through  Congress,  from  putting  a  stop  to 
the  traffic  immediately  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Now 
if  slavery  had  been  a  good  thing,  would  the  Fathers
392 
THE   LJXCOLX-DOUGLAS  DEBATES. 
o\  the  Republic  have  taken  a  step  calculated  to  dimin- 
ish its  beneficent  influences  among  themselves,  and 
snatch  the  boon  wholly  from  their  posterity  ?  These 
communities,  by  their  representatives  in  old  Independ- 
ence Hal!,  said  to  the  whole  world  of  men  :  '  We  hold 
these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  that  all  men  are  created 
equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with 
certain  inalienable  rights  ;  that  among  these  are  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.'  This  was  their 
majestic  interpretation  of  the  economy  of  the  Universe. 
This  was  their  lofty,  and  wise,  and  noble  understand- 
ing of  the  justice  ol  the  Creator  to  his  creatures.  Yes, 
gentlemen,  to  all  his  creatures,  to  the  whole  great  fam- 
Qyof  man.  In  their  enlightened  belief,  nothing  stamped 
with  the  Divine  image  and  likeness  was  sent  into  the 
world  to  be  trodden  on  and  degraded,  and  imbruted 
by  its  fellows.  They  grasped  not  only  the  whole  race 
of  man  then  living,  but  they  reached  forward  and  seized 
upon  the  farthest  posterity.  They  erected  a  beacon  to 
guide  their  children,  and  their  children's  children,  and 
the  countless  myriads  who  should  inhabit  the  earth  in 
other  ages.  Wise  statesmen  as  they  were,  they  knew 
the  tendency  of  prosperity  to  breed  tyrants,  and  so 
they  established  these  great  self-evident  truths,  that 
when  in  the  distant  future  some  man,  some  faction, 
some  interest,  should  set  up  the  doctrine  that  none  but 
rich  men,  or  none  but  white  men,  or  none  but  Anglo- 
Saxon  white  men,  were  entitled  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness,  their  posterity  might  look  up  again 
to  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  take  courage 
to  renew  the  battle  which  their  fathers  began,  so  that 
trutii  and  justice  and  mercy  and  all  the  humane  and 
Christian  virtues  might  not  be  extinguished  from 
the  land  ;  so  that  no  man  would  hereafter  dare  to  limit 
and  circumscribe  the  great  principles  on  which  the  tem- 
ple of  liberty  was  being  built. 
'•  Now,  my  countrymen,  if  you  have  been  taught 
doctrines  conflicting  with  the  great  landmarks  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  ;  if  you  have  listened  to 
suggestions  which  would  take  away  from  its  grandeur 
and  mutilate  the  fair  symmetry  of  its  proportions  ;  if 
you  have  been  inclined  to  believe  that  all  men  are  not 
created  equal  in  those  inalienable  rights  enumerated 
by  our  chart  of  liberty,  let  me  entreat  you  to  come 
back.  Return  to  the  fountain  whose  waters  spring 
close  by  the  blood  of  the  Revolution.  Think  nothing 
of  me  —  take  no  thought  for  the  political  fate  of  any 
man  whomsoever  —  but  come  back  to  the  truths  that 
are  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  You  may  do 
anything  with  me  you  choose,  if  you  will  but  heed 
these  sacred  principles.  You  may  not  only  defeat  me 
for  the  Senate,  but  you  may  take  me  and  put  me  to 
death.  While  pretending  no  indifference  to  earthly 
honors,  I  do  claim  to  be  actuated  in  this  contest  by 
something  higher  than  an  anxiety  for  office.  I  charge 
you  to  drop  every  paltry  and  insignificant  thought  for 
*  Lincoln's  Lewiston  Speech,  August  17th,  1858. 
Chicago  "  Press  and  Tribune." 
tSee  questions  and  answers  below. 
:  A  local  nickname  by  which  the  southern  or  pro- 
slavery  portion  of  Illinois  was  familiarly  known. 
$  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  68. 
||  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  87. 
tL»0'  ESTIONS    AND    LINCOLN'S    ANSWERS. 
"  Question  /.  '  I  desire  to  know  whether  Lincoln  to- 
day stands,  as  he  did  in  1854,  in  favor  of  the  uncon- 
ditional repeal  of  the  fugitive-slave  law.' 
Answer.  I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  stand  in  favor 
of  the  unconditional  repeal  of  the  fugitive-slave  law. 
Q.  2.  'I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  stands 
pledged  to-day,  as  he  did  in  1854,  against  the  admis- 
sion of  any  more  slave  States  into  the  Union  even  if 
the  people  want  them.' 
any  man's  success.  It  is  nothing ;  I  am  nothing ; 
Judge  Douglas  is  nothing.  But  do  not  destroy  that 
immortal  emblem  of  Humanity  —  the  Declaration  of 
American  Independence."  * 
THE    FREEPORT    DOCTRINE. 
What  has  been  thus  far  quoted  has  been 
less  to  illustrate  the  leading  lines  of  discussion, 
than  to  explain  more  fully  the  main  historical 
incident  of  the  debates.  In  the  first  joint  dis- 
cussion at  Ottawa,  in  the  northern  or  anti- 
slavery  part  of  Illinois,  Douglas  read  a  series 
of  strong  antislavery  resolutions  which  he  er- 
roneously alleged  Lincoln  had  taken  part  in 
framing  and  passing.    He  said  : 
"  My  object  in  reading  these  resolutions  was  to  put 
the  question  to  Abraham  Lincoln  this  day  whether  he 
now  stands  and  will  stand  by  each  article  in  that  creed 
and  carry  it  out.  ...  I  ask  Abraham  Lincoln  these 
questions  t  in  order  that  when  I  trot  him  down  to 
lower  Egypt  +  I  may  put  the  same  questions  to  him."§ 
In  preparing  a  powerful  appeal  to  local  prej- 
udice, Douglas  doubtless  knew  he  was  han- 
dling a  two-edged  sword ;  but  we  shall  see 
that  he  little  appreciated  the  skill  with  which 
his  antagonist  would  wield  the  weapon  he 
was  placing  in  his  hands. 
At  their  second  joint  meeting  at  Freeport, 
also  in  northern  Illinois,  Lincoln,  who  now 
had  the  opening  speech,  said,  referring  to  Doug- 
las's speech  at  Ottawa : 
"  I  do  him  no  injustice  in  saying  that  he  occupied 
at  least  half  of  his  reply  in  dealing  with  me  as  though 
I  had  refused  to  answer  his  interrogatories.  I  now 
propose  that  I  will  answer  any  of  the  interrogatories, 
upon  condition  that  he  will  answer  questions  from  me 
not  exceeding  the  same  number.  I  give  him  an  oppor- 
tunity to  respond.  The  judge  remains  silent.  I  now 
say  that  I  will  answer  his  interrogatories,  whether  he 
answers  mine  or  not ;  and  that  after  I  have  done  so, 
I  shall  propound  mine  to  him."  || 
Lincoln  then  read  his  answers  to  the  seven 
questions  which  had  been  asked  him,  and 
proposed  four  in  return,  the  second  one  of 
A.  I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  stand  pledged 
against  the  admission  of  any  more  slave  States  into 
the  Union. 
Q.  3.  'I  want  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged 
against  the  admission  of  a  new  State  into  the  Union 
with  such  a  constitution  as  the  people  of  that  State 
may  see  fit  to  make.' 
A.  I  do  not  stand  pledged  against  the  admission 
of  a  new  State  into  the  Union  with  such  a  constitu- 
tion as  the  people  of  that  State  may  see  fit  to  make. 
Q.  4.  'I  want  to  know  whether  he  stands  to-day 
pledged  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.' 
A.  I  do  not  stand  to-day  pledged  to  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
Q.  3.  'I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  stands 
pledged  to  the  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  between 
the  different  States.'
THE   LINCOLN-DOUGLAS   DEBATES. 
393 
which  ran  as  follows :  "  Can  the  people  of 
a  United  States  Territory,  in  any  lawful  way, 
against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits,  prior  to 
the  formation  of  a  State  constitution  ?  "* 
To  comprehend  the  full  force  of  this  inter- 
rogatory, the  reader  must  recall  the  fact  that 
the  "  popular  sovereignty  "  of  the  Nebraska 
bill  was  couched  in  vague  language,  and 
qualified  with  the  proviso  that  it  was  "  sub- 
ject to  the  Constitution."  The  caucus  which 
framed  this  phraseology  agreed,  as  a  compro- 
mise between  Northern  and  Southern  Demo- 
crats, that  the  courts  should  interpret  and 
define  the  constitutional  limitations,  by  which 
all  should  abide.  The  Dred  Scott  decision 
declared  in  terms  that  Congress  could  not 
prohibit  slavery  in  Territories  nor  authorize  a 
territorial  legislature  to  do  so.  The  Dred  Scott 
decision  had  thus  annihilated  "  popular  sover- 
eignty." Would  Douglas  admit  his  blunder  in 
law,  and  his  error  in  statesmanship  ? 
He  had  already  faced  and  partly  evaded 
this  dilemma  in  his  Springfield  speech  of  1857, 
but  that  was  a  local  declaration  and  occurred 
before  his  Lecompton  revolt,  and  the  ingeni- 
ous sophism  then  put  forth  had  attracted  little 
notice.  Since  that  time  things  had  materially 
changed.  He  had  opposed  Lecompton,  be- 
come a  party  recusant,  and  been  declared  a 
party  apostate.  His  Senatorial  term  was  clos- 
ing, and  he  had  to  look  to  an  evenly  balanced 
if  not  a  hostile  constituency  for  reelection. 
The  Buchanan  administration  was  putting 
forth  what  feeble  strength  it  had  in  Illinois  to 
insure  his  defeat.  His  Democratic  rivals  were 
scrutinizing  every  word  he  uttered.  He  stood 
before  the  people  to  whom  he  had  pledged  his 
word  that  the  voters  of  Kansas  might  regulate 
their  own  domestic  concerns.  They  would  tol- 
erate no  juggling  nor  evasion.  There  remained 
no  resource  but  to  answer  Yes,  and  he  could 
conjure  up  no  justification  of  such  an  answer 
except  the  hollow  subterfuge  he  had  invented 
the  year  before. 
A.  1  do  not  stand  pledged  to  the  prohibition  of 
the  slave  trade  between  the  different  States. 
Q.  6.  'I  desire  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged 
to  prohibit  slavery  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United 
States,  north  as  well  as  south  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise line.' 
A.  I  am  impliedly  if  not  expressly  pledged  to  a 
belief  in  the  right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit 
slavery  in  all  the  United  States  Territories. 
Q.  7.  'I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  is  op- 
posed to  the  acquisition  of  any  new  territory  unless 
slavery  is  first  prohibited  therein.' 
A.  I  am  not  generally  opposed  to  honest  acquisi- 
tion of  territory ;  and,  in  any  given  case,  I  would  or 
would  not  oppose  such  acquisition  accordingly  as  I 
might  think  such  acquisition  would  or  would  not  ag- 
gravate the  slavery  question  among  ourselves." — 
[Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  88.] 
Vol.  XXXIV.— 54. 
Lincoln  clearly  enough  comprehended  the 
dilemma  and  predicted  the  expedient  of  his 
antagonist.  He  had  framed  his  questions  and 
submitted  them  to  a  consultation  of  shrewd 
party  friends.  This  one  especially  was  the  sub- 
ject of  anxious  deliberation  and  serious  disa  § 
ment.  Nearly  a  month  before,  Lincoln  in  a 
private  letter  accurately  foreshadowed  Doug- 
las's course  on  this  question.  "  You  shall  have 
hard  work  to  get  him  directly  to  the  point 
whether  a  territorial  legislature  has  or  has  not 
the  power  to  exclude  slavery.  But  if  you  suc- 
ceed in  bringing  him  to  it  —  though  he  will  be 
compelled  to  say  it  possesses  no  such  power — 
he  will  instantly  take  ground  that  slavery  can- 
not actually  exist  in  the  Territories  unless  the 
people  desire  it,  and  so  give  it  protection  by 
territorial  legislation.  If  this  offends  the  South, 
he  will  let  it  offend  them,  as  at  all  events  he 
means  to  hold  on  to  his  chances  in  Illinois." 
There  is  a  tradition  that  on  the  night  preceding 
this  Freeport  debate  Lincoln  was  catching  a 
few  hours'  rest,  at  a  little  railroad  center  named 
Mendota,to  which  place  the  converging  trains 
brought  after  midnight  a  number  of  excited 
Republican  leaders,  on  their  way  to  attend 
the  great  meeting  at  the  neighboring  town  of 
Freeport.  Notwithstanding  the  late  hour,  Mr. 
Lincoln's  bedroom  was  soon  invaded  by  an 
improvised  caucus,  and  the  ominous  question 
was  once  more  brought  under  consideration. 
The  whole  drift  of  advice  ran  against  putting 
the  interrogatory  to  Douglas ;  but  Lincoln 
persisted  in  his  determination  to  force  him 
to  answer  it.  Finally  his  friends  in  a  chorus 
cried  out,  "  If  you  do,  you  can  never  be  Sena- 
tor." "  Gentlemen,"  replied  Lincoln,  "  I  am 
killing  larger  game;  if  Douglas  answers,  he 
can  never  be  President,  and  the  battle  of  i860 
is  worth  a  hundred  of  this." 
When  Lincoln  had  finished  his  opening 
speech  in  the  Freeport  debate,  and  Douglas 
in  his  reply  came  to  interrogatory  number 
two,  which  Lincoln  had  propounded,  he  an- 
swered as  follows : 
*  Lincoln's  questions. 
"  Question  1.  If  the  people  of  Kansas  shall,  by 
means  entirely  unobjectionable  in  all  other  respects, 
adopt  a  State  constitution,  and  ask  admission  into  the 
Union  under  it,  before  they  have  the  requisite  number 
of  inhabitants  according  to  the  English  bill, —  some 
93,000, —  will  you  vote  to  admit  them  ? 
Q.  2.  Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory, 
in  any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits, 
prior  to  the  formation  of  a  State  constitution  ? 
Q.  3.  If  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  shall 
decide  that  States  cannot  exclude  slavery  from  their  lim- 
its, are  you  in  favor  of  acquiescing  in,  adopting,  and 
following  such  decision  as  a  rule  of  political  action  ? 
Q.  4.  Are  you  in  favor  of  acquiring  additional  ter- 
ritory, in  disregard  of  how  such  acquisition  may  affect 
the  nation  on  the  slavery  question  ?  " — [Lincoln-Doug- 
las Debates,  p.  90.]
394 
THE   LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES. 
••  The  next  question  propounded  to  me  by  Mr.  Lin- 
coln is.  Can  the  people  oi  a  Territory  in  any  lawful 
ist  the  wish  o\  any  citizen  ot  the  United 
States,  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  prior  to  the 
formation  of  a  State  constitution?  I  answer  emphati- 
cally, as  Mr.  Lincoln  has  heard  me  answer  a  hundred 
times  from  (.very  stump  in  Illinois,  that  in  my  opinion 
the  people  of  a  Territory  can,  by  lawful  means,  exclude 
slaverv  from  their  limits,  prior  to  the  formation  of  a 
constitution.  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  that  1  had  an- 
swered that  question  over  and  over  again.  He  heard 
me  argue  the  Nebraska  bill  on  that  principle  all  over 
the  State  in  1854,  in  1S55,  and  in  1S50,  and  he  has  no 
»e  for  pretending  to  be  in  doubt  as  to  my  position 
on  that  question.  It  matters  not  what  way  the  Supreme 
.  may  hereafter  decide  as  to  the  abstract  question 
whether  slavery  may  or  may  not  go  into  a  Territory  un- 
der the  Constitution,  the  people  have  the  lawful  means 
to  introduce  it  or  exclude  it,  as  they  please,  for  the  rea- 
son that  slavery  cannot  exist  a  day  or  an  hour  anywhere, 
unless  it  is  supported  by  local  police  regulations.  Those 
police  regulations  can  only  be  established  by  the  local 
legislature,  and  if  the  people  are  opposed  to  slavery 
they  will  elect  representatives  to  that  body  who  will  by 
unfriendly  legislation  effectually  prevent  the  introduc- 
tion oi  it  into  their  midst.  If,  on  the  contrary,  they  are 
for  it,  their  legislation  will  favor  its  extension.  Hence, 
no  matter  what  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  may 
be  on  that  abstract  question,  still  the  right  of  the  peo- 
ple to  make  a  slave  Territory  or  a  free  Territory  is  per- 
fect and  complete  under  the  Nebraska  bill.  I  hope  Mr. 
Lincoln  deems  my  answer  satisfactory  on  that  point."  * 
The  remarkable  theory  here  proposed  was 
immediately  taken  up  and  exhaustively  dis- 
cussed by  the  leading  newspapers  of  all  parts 
of  the  Union,  and  thereby  became  definitely 
known  under  the  terms  "  unfriendly  legislation" 
and  "  Freeport  doctrine."  Mr.  Lincoln  effect- 
ually disposed  of  it  in  the  following  fashion  in 
the  joint  debate  at  Alton: 
"  I  understand  I  have  ten  minutes  yet.  I  will  employ 
it  in  saying  something  about  this  argument  Judge  Doug- 
las uses,  while  he  sustains  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  that 
the  people  of  the  Territories  can  still  somehow  exclude 
slavery.  The  first  thing  I  ask  attention  to  is  the  fact 
that  Judge  Douglas  constantly  said,  before  the  decision, 
that  whether  they  could  or  not,  was  a  question  for  the 
Supreme  Court.  But  after  the  court  has  made  the  de- 
ci>ion  he  virtually  says  it  is  not  a  question  for  the  Su- 
preme Court,  but  for  the  people.  And  how  is  it  he  tells 
us  they  can  exclude  it?  He  said  it  needs  'police  regu- 
lations,' and  that  admits  of  'unfriendly  legislation.' 
Although  it  is  a  right  established  by  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  to  take  a  slave  into  a  Territory  of 
the  United  States  and  hold  him  as  property,  yet  unless 
rritorial  legislature  will  give  friendly  legislation, 
and,  more  especially,  if  they  adopt  unfriendly  legisla- 
tion, they  can  practically  exclude  him.  Now,  without 
meeting  this  proposition  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  pass  to 
consider  the  real  constitutional  obligation.  Let  me  take 
the  gentleman  who  looks  me  in  the  face  before  me, 
and  let  us  suppose  that  he  is  a  member  of  the  territo- 
rial legislature.  The  first  thing  he  will  do  will  be  to 
swear  that  he  will  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
State-.  His  neighbor  by  his  side  in  the  Territory  has 
slaves  and  needs  territorial  legislation  to  enable  him  to 
enjoy  that  constitutional  right  Can  he  withhold  the  leg- 
islation which  his  neighbor  needs  for  the  enjoyment 
of  a  right  which  is  fixed  in  his  favor  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  which  he  has  sworn  to  support? 
Can  he  withhold  it  without  violating  his  oath  ?  and  more 
"  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  95. 
especially,  can  he  pass  unfriendly  legislation  to  violate  his 
oath  ?  Why  this  is  a  monstrous  sort  of  talk  about  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  !  There  has  never  been 
so  outlandish  or  lawless  a  doctrine  from  the  mouth  of  any 
respectable  man  on  earth.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  a  consti- 
tutional right  to  hold  slaves  in  a  Territory  of  the  United 
States.  I  believe  the  decision  was  improperly  made,  and 
I  go  for  reversing  it.  Judge  Douglas  is  furious  against 
those  who  go  for  reversing  a  decision.  But  he  is  for 
legislating  it  out  of  all  force  while  the  law  itself  stands. 
I  repeat  that  there  has  never  been  so  monstrous  a  doc- 
trine uttered  from  the  mouth  of  a  respectable  man." 
The  announcement  and  subsequent  defense 
by  Douglas  of  his  "  Freeport  doctrine"  proved, 
as  Lincoln  had  predicted,  something  more  im- 
portant than  a  mere  campaign  incident.  It  was 
the  turning-point  in  Douglas's  political  fortunes. 
With  the  whole  South,  and  with  a  few  promi- 
nent politicians  of  the  North,  it  served  to  put 
him  outside  the  pale  of  party  fellowship.  Com- 
pared with  this  his  Lecompton  revolt  had  been 
a  venial  offense.  In  that  case  he  had  merely 
contended  for  the  machinery  of  a  fair  popular 
vote.  This  was  the  avowal  of  a  principle  as 
obnoxious  to  the  slavery  propaganda  as  the 
unqualified  abolitionism  of  Giddings  or  Love- 
joy.  Henceforth  all  hope  of  reconciliation, 
atonement,  or  chance  of  Presidential  nomina- 
tion by  the  united  Democratic  party  was  out 
of  the  question.  Before  this,  newspaper  zealots 
had  indeed  denounced  him  for  his  Lecompton 
recusancy  as  a  traitor  and  renegade,  and  the 
Administration  had  endeavored  to  secure  his 
defeat;  now,  however,  in  addition,  the  party 
high-priests  put  him  under  solemn  ban  of  ex- 
communication. How  they  felt  and  from  what 
motives  they  acted  is  stated  with  singular  force 
and  frankness  in  a  Senate  speech,  soon  after 
the  Charleston  convention,  by  Senator  J.  P. 
Benjamin  of  Louisiana,  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  persistent  of  the  conspirators  to  national- 
ize slavery,  and  who,  not  long  after,  was  one 
of  the  principal  conspirators  and  actors  in  the 
great  Rebellion : 
"  Up  to  the  years  1857  and  1858  no  man  in  this  na- 
tion had  a  higher  or  more  exalted  opinion  of  the  char- 
acter, the  services,  and  the  political  integrity  of  the 
senator  from  Illinois  [Douglas]  than  I  had.  .  .  . 
Sir,  it  has  been  with  reluctance  and  sorrow  that  I  have 
been  obliged  to  pluck  down  my  idol  from  his  place  on 
high,  and  to  refuse  to  him  any  more  support  or  confi- 
dence as  a  member  of  the  party.  I  have  done  so,  I 
trust,  upon  no  light  or  unworthy  ground.  I  have  not 
done  so  alone.  The  causes  that  have  operated  on  me 
have  operated  on  the  Democratic  party  of  the  United 
States,  and  have  operated  an  effect  which  the  whole 
future  life  of  the  Senator  will  be  utterly  unable  to  ob- 
literate. It  is  impossible  that  confidence  thus  lost  can 
be  restored.  On  what  ground  has  that  confidence  been 
forfeited,  and  why  is  it  that  we  now  refuse  him  our 
support  and  fellowship  ?  I  have  stated  our  reason 
to  day.  I  have  appealed  to  the  record.  I  have  not  fol- 
lowed him  back  in  the  false  issue  or  the  feigned  trav- 
erse that  he  makes  in  relation  to  matters  that  are  not 
now  in  contest  between  him  and  the  Democratic  party. 
t  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  p.  234.
THE   LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES. 
395 
The  question  is  not  what  we  all  said  or  believed  in 
1840  or  in  1856.  How  idle  was  it  to  search  ancient 
precedents  and  accumulate  old  quotations  from  what 
Senators  may  have  at  different  times  said  in  relation 
to  their  principles  and  views.  The  precise  point,  the 
direct  arraignment,  the  plain  and  explicit  allegation 
made  against  the  Senator  from  Illinois  is  not  touched 
by  him  in  all  of  his  speech. 
"  We  accuse  him  for  this,  to  wit :  that  having  bar- 
gained with  us  upon  a  point  upon  which  we  were  at 
issue,  that  it  should  be  considered  a  judicial  point; 
that  he  would  abide  the  decision ;  that  he  would  act 
under  the  decision,  and  consider  it  a  doctrine  of  the 
party  ;  that  having  said  that  to  us  here  in  the  Senate, 
he  went  home,  and  under  the  stress  of  a  local  election, 
his  knees  gave  way ;  his  whole  person  trembled.  His 
adversary  stood  upon  principle  and  was  beaten  ;  and 
lo  !  he  is  the  candidate  of  a  mighty  party  for  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  United  States.  The  Senator  from  Illinois 
faltered.  He  got  the  prize  for  which  he  faltered;  but 
lo  !  the  grand  prize  of  his  ambition  to-day  slips  from 
his  grasp  because  of  his  faltering  in  his  former  con- 
test, and  his  success  in  the  canvass  for  the  Senate, 
purchased  for  an  ignoble  price,  has  cost  him  the  loss 
of  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States."  * 
The  Senatorial  canvass  in  Illinois  came  to 
a  close  with  the  election  on  the  2d  of  No- 
vember and  resulted  in  a  victory  for  Douglas. 
The  Republicans,  on  their  State  ticket,  polled 
125,430  votes;  the  Douglas  Democrats,  121,- 
609 ;  the  Buchanan  Democrats,  5071.  By  this 
plurality  the  Republican  State  officers  were 
chosen.  But  in  respect  to  members  of  the  leg- 
islature the  case  stood  differently,  and  when  in 
the  following  January  the  Senatorial  election 
took  place  in  joint  session  of  the  two  Houses, 
Douglas  received  the  vote  of  every  Democrat, 
54  members,  and  Lincoln  the  vote  of  every 
Republican,  46  members,  whereupon  Douglas 
was  declared  elected  Senator  of  the  United 
States  for  6  years  from  the  4th  of  March,  1859. 
The  main  cause  of  Lincoln's  defeat  was 
the  unfairness  of  the  existing  apportionment, 
which  was  based  upon  the  census  of  1850.  A 
fair  apportionment,  based  on  the  changes  of 
population  which  had  occurred,  would  have 
given  northern  Illinois  a  larger  representation; 
and  it  was  there  the  Republicans  had  recruited 
their  principal  strength  in  the  recent  transfor- 
mation of  parties.  The  Republicans  estimated 
that  this  circumstance  caused  them  a  loss  of 
6  to  10  members. 
But  the  unusual  political  combinations  also 
had  a  large  influence  in  the  result.  Lincoln, 
in  an  Ohio  speech  made  in  the  following  year, 
addressing  himself  to  Kentuckians,  thus  sum- 
marized the  political  forces  that  contributed 
to  his  defeat : 
"  Douglas  had  three  or  four  very  distinguished  men  of 
the  most  extreme  antislavery  views  of  any  men  in  the  Re- 
publican party  expressing  their  desire  for  his  reelection 
to  the  Senate  last  year.    That  would  of  itself  have 
*  Benjamin,  Senate  Speech,  May  22d,  i860, 
t  Lincoln,  Cincinnati  Speech,  Sept.  17th,  1859.    De- 
bates, p.  263. 
%  Lincoln  to  Judd,  Nov.  15th,  1858. 
seemed  to  be  a  little  wonderful,  but  that  wonder  is 
heightened  when  we  see  that  Wise  of  Virginia,  a  man 
exactly  opposed  to  them,  a  man  who  believes  in  the 
divine  right  of  slavery,  was  also  expressing  his  desire 
that  Douglas  should  be  reelected ;  that  another  man 
that  may  be  said  to  be  kindred  to  Wise,  Mr.  Breckin- 
ridge, the  Vice-President,  and  of  your  own  State, 
was  also  agreeing  with  the  antislavery  men  in  the 
North,  that  Douglas  ought  to  be  reelected.  Still  to 
heighten  the  wonder,  a  Senator  from  Kentucky,  whom 
I  have  always  loved  with  an  affection  as  tender  and 
endearing  as  I  have  ever  loved  any  man,  who  was  op- 
posed to  the  antislavery  men  for  reasons  which  seemed 
sufficient  to  him  and  equally  opposed  to  Wise  and 
Breckinridge,  was  writing  letters  to  Illinois  to  secure 
the  reelection  of  Douglas.  Now  that  all  these  conflict- 
ing elements  should  be  brought,  while  at  daggers' 
points  with  one  another,  to  support  him,  is  a  feat  that 
is  worthy  for  you  to  note  and  consider.  It  is  quite 
probable  that  each  of  these  classes  of  men  thought,  by 
the  reelection  of  Douglas,  their  peculiar  views  would 
gain  something;  it  is  probable  that  the  antislavery 
men  thought  their  views  would  gain  something;  that 
Wise  and  Breckinridge  thought  so  too,  as  regards 
their  opinions  ;  that  Mr.  Crittenden  thought  that  his 
views  would  gain  something  although  he  was  opposed 
to  both  these  other  men.  It  is  probable  that  each  and 
all  of  them  thought  they  were  using  Douglas,  and  it 
is  yet  an  unsolved  .problem  whether  he  was  not  using 
them  all." t 
After  a  hundred  consecutive  days  of  excite- 
ment, of  intense  mental  strain,  and  of  unremit- 
ting bodily  exertion,  after  speech- making  and 
parades,  music  and  bonfires,  it  must  be  some- 
thing of  a  trial  to  face  at  once  the  mortifi- 
cation of  defeat,  the  weariness  of  intellectual 
and  physical  reaction,  and  the  dull  common- 
place of  daily  routine.  Letters  written  at  this 
period  show  that  under  these  conditions  Mr. 
Lincoln  remained  composed, patient,and  hope- 
ful. Two  weeks  after  election  he  wrote  thus  to 
Mr.  Judd,  a  member  of  the  legislature  and 
chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Central 
Committee  : 
"  I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  you  that  I  am  con- 
valescent and  hoping  these  lines  may  find  you  in 
the  same  improving  state  of  health.  Doubtless  you 
have  suspected  for  some  time  that  I  entertain  a  personal 
wish  for  a  term  in  the  United  States  Senate ;  and  had 
the  suspicion  taken  the  shape  of  a  direct  charge  I  think  I 
could  not  have  truthfully  denied  it.  But  let  the  past  as 
nothing  be.  For  the  future  my  view  is  that  the  fight 
must  go  on.  The  returns  here  are  not  yet  completed, 
but  it  is  believed  that  Dougherty's  vote  will  be  slightly 
greater  than  Miller's  majority  over  Tracy.  We  have 
some  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  clear  Republican 
votes.  That  pile  is  worth  keeping  together.  It  will 
elect  a  State  Treasurer  two  years  hence. 
"  In  that  day  I  shall  fight  in  the  ranks,  but  I  shall  be 
in  no  one's  way  for  any  of  the  places.  I  am  especially 
for  Trumbull's  reelection  ;  and,  by  the  way.  this  brings 
me  to  the  principal  object  of  this  letter.  Can  you  not 
take  your  draft  of  an  apportionment  law  and  carefully 
revise  it  till  it  shall  be  strictly  and  obviously  just  in  all 
particulars,  and  then  by  an  early  and  persistent  effort 
get  enough  of  the  enemies'  men  to  enable  you  to  pass 
it  ?  I  believe  if  you  and  Peck  make  a  job  of  it,  begin 
early  and  work  earnestly  and  quietly,  you  can  succeed 
in  it.  Unless  something  be  done,  Trumbull  is  inevita- 
bly beaten  two  years  hence.  Take  this  into  serious 
consideration."  \
39^ 
LOSS  AND    GAIN. 
On  the  following  day  he  received  from  Mr. 
Judd  a  letter  informing  him  that  the  funds  sub- 
scribed for  the  State  Central  Committee  did 
not  suffice  to  pay  all  the  election  bills,  and 
asking  his  help  to  raise  additional  contribu- 
tions.   To  this  appeal  Lincoln  replied  : 
••  Yours  of  the  15th  is  just  received.  I  wrote  you 
the  same  day.  As  to  the  pecuniary  matter,  I  am  will- 
ing to  pay  according  to  my  ability,  but  I  am  the 
Eoorest  hand  living  to  get  others  to  pay.  I  have 
een  on  expenses  so  long  without  earning  anything 
that  I  am  absolutely  without  money  now  for  even 
household  expenses.  Still,  if  you  can  put  in  $250 
for  me  towards  discharging  the  debt  of  the  com- 
mittee, I  will  allow  it  when  you  and  I  settle  the  pri- 
vate matter  between  us.  This,  with  what  I  have  al- 
paid,  and  with  an  outstanding  note  of  mine,  will 
exceed  my  subscription  of  $500.  This,  too,  is  exclu- 
sive of  my  ordinary  expenses  during  the  campaign, 
all  which  being  added  to  my  loss  of  time  and  business, 
bears  pretty  heavily  upon  one  no  better  off  in  world's 
goods  than  I :  but  as  I  had  the  post  of  honor,  it  is 
not  for  me  to  be  over-nice.  You  are  feeling  badly  — 
'  And  this  too  shall  pass  away.'    '  Never  fear.' "  * 
The  sting  of  personal  defeat  is  painful  to 
most  men,  and  it  was  doubtless  so  to  Lincoln. 
Yet  he  regarded  the  passing  struggle  as  some- 
thing more  than  a  mere  scramble  for  office, 
and  drew  from  it  the  consolation  which  all 
earnest  workers  feel  in  the  consciousness  of  a 
task  well  done.  Thus  he  wrote  to  a  friend  on 
November  19th  as  follows: 
"  You  doubtless  have  seen  ere  this  the  result  of  the 
election  here.  Of  course  I  wished,  but  I  did  not  much 
expect,  a  better  result.  ...  I  am  glad  I  made  the 
late  race.  It  gave  me  a  hearing  on  the  great  and  dura- 
ble question  of  the  age,  which  I  could  have  had  in  no 
other  way  ;  and  though  I  now  sink  out  of  view,  and  shall 
be  forgotten,  I  believe  I  have  made  some  marks  which 
will  tell  for  the  cause  of  liberty,  long  after  I  am  gone."t 
*  Lincoln  to  Judd,  Nov.  16th,  1858. 
t  Lincoln  to  Dr.  Henry,  Nov.  19th,  1858.   MS. 
t  Lincoln  to  Asbury,  Nov.  19th,  1858. 
To  these  one  other  letter  may  be  added, 
showing  his  never-failing  faith  in  the  political 
future.  To  a  personal  friend  in  Quincy,  Illi- 
nois, who  had  wratched  the  campaign  with  un- 
usual attention,  Lincoln  wrote  that  same  day: 
"Yours  of  the  13th  was  received  some  days  ago. 
The  fight  must  go  on.  The  cause  of  civil  liberty 
must  not  be  surrendered  at  the  end  of  one  or  even  one 
hundred  defeats.  Douglas  had  the  ingenuity  to  be  sup- 
ported in  the  late  contest,  both  as  the  best  means 
to  break  down  and  to  uphold  the  slave  interest. 
No  ingenuity  can  keep  these  antagonistic  elements  in 
harmony  long.    Another  explosion  will  soon  come."}; 
Douglas  was  also  greatly  exhausted  by  the 
wearing  labors  of  the  campaign;  but  he  had 
the  notable  triumph  of  an  assured  reelection 
to  the  Senate  and  the  congratulations  of  his 
enthusiastic  friends  to  sustain  and  refresh 
him.  Being  an  indefatigable  worker,  he  was 
already  organizing  a  new  and  more  ambi- 
tious effort.  Three  weeks  after  election  he 
started  on  a  brief  tour  to  the  Southern  States, 
making  speeches  at  Memphis  and  New  Or- 
leans, of  which  further  mention  will  be  made 
in  the  next  chapter.  Perhaps  he  deemed  it 
wise  not  to  proceed  immediately  to  Wash- 
ington, where  Congress  convened  on  the  first 
Monday  of  December,  and  thus  to  avoid  a 
direct  continuance  of  his  battle  with  the 
Buchanan  Administration.  If  so,  the  device 
proved  ineffectual.  The  President  and  his 
partisans  were  determined  to  put  the  author 
of  the  "  Freeport  doctrine  "  under  public  ban, 
and  to  that  end,  when  Congress  organized, 
one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Senate  majority 
was  to  depose  Douglas  from  his  place  as 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories, 
which  he  had  held  in  that  body  for  eleven 
years. 
N>>te. —  In  the  next  number  will  be  given  an  account  of  Lincoln's  Ohio  speeches,  his  Cooper  Institute 
speech,  etc. 
LOSS  AND  GAIN. 
/W 
If  the  June  rose  could  guess 
Before  the  sunbeam  wooed  her  from  the  bud, 
And  reddened  into  life  her  faint  young  blood, 
What  blight  should  fall  upon  her  loveliness, 
What  darkness  ofdecay,  what  shroud  of  snow — 
Would  the  rose  ever  blow  ? 
If  the  wild  lark  could  feel 
When  first  between  two  worlds  he  caroled  clear, 
Voicing  the  ecstasy  of  either  sphere, 
What  apathy  of  song  should  o'er  him  steal, 
What  broken  accents  and  what  faltering  wing — 
Would  the  lark  ever  sing  ? 
Alas,  and  yet  alas, 
For  glory  of  existence  that  shall  pass! 
For  pride  of  beauty  and  for  strength  of  song  ! 
Yet  were  the  untried  life  a  deeper  wrong. 
Better  a  single  throb  of  being  win, 
Than  never  to  have  been ! 
Kate  Putnam  Osgood.
\  IS  EG  UN    IN    THE    NOVEMBER    NUMBER] 
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH, 
AND   OTHER  POLITICAL   EVENTS  Of  1859-60. 
ABRAHAM     LINCOLN:     A     HISTORY.* 
BY   JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND   JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
LINCOLN  S     OHIO     SPEECHES. 
When  Lincoln,  in  opening  the  senatorial 
campaign  of  Illinois,  declared  that  the  Repub- 
lican cause  must  be  intrusted  to  its  own 
undoubted  friends  who  do  care  for  the  result, 
he  displayed  a  much  better  understanding  of 
the  character  and  aims  of  his  opponent  than 
those  who,  not  so  well  informed,  desired  the 
adoption  of  a  different  course.  Had  the  wishes 
of  Greeley  and  others  prevailed,  had  Douglas 
been  adopted  by  the  Illinois  Republicans,  the 
party  would  now  have  found  itself  in  a  fatal 
dilemma.  No  sooner  was  the  campaign  ended 
than  Douglas  started  on  a  tour  to  the  South, 
and  began  making  speeches  apparently  de- 
signed to  pave  his  way  to  a  nomination  for 
President  by  the  next  Democratic  National 
Convention.  Realizing  that  he  had  lost  ground 
by  his  anti-Lecomptonism,  and  especially  by 
his  Freeport  doctrine,  and  having  already  felt 
in  the  late  campaign  the  hostility  of  the  Bu- 
chanan Administration,  he  now  sought  to  re- 
cover prestige  by  publishing  more  advanced 
opinions  indirectly  sustaining  and  defending 
slavery. 
Hitherto  he  had  declared  he  did  not  care 
whether  slavery  was  voted  down  or  voted  up. 
He  had  said  he  would  not  argue  the  question 
whether  slavery  is  right  or  wrong.  He  had 
adopted  Taney's  assertion  that  the  negro  had 
no  share  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
He  had  asserted  that  uniformity  was  impos- 
sible, but  that  freedom  and  slavery  might 
abide  together  forever.  But  now  that  the  elec- 
tion was  over,  and  a  new  term  in  the  Senate 
secure,  he  was  ready  to  conciliate  pro-slavery 
opinion  with  stronger  expressions.  Hence,  in  a 
speech  at  Memphis,  he  cunningly  linked  togeth- 
er in  argument  unfriendly  legislation,  slavery, 
and  annexation.    He  said  : 
"  Whenever  a  territory  has  a  climate,  soil,  and  pro- 
duction making  it  the  interest  of  the  inhabitants  to 
encourage  slave  property,  they  will  pass  a  slave 
code." 
Wherever  these  preclude  the  possibility  of 
slavery  being  profitable,  they  will  not  permit 
it.  On  the  sugar  plantations  of  Louisiana  it 
was  not  a  question  between  the  white  man  and 
the  negro,  but  between  the  negro  and  the  croc- 
odile. He  would  say  that  between  the  negro 
*  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  18S6-7.    All  rights  reserved 
and  the  crocodile,  he  took  the  side  of  the  ne- 
gro; but  between  the  negro  and  the  white  man, 
he  would  go  for  the  white  man.  The  Almighty 
has  drawn  the  line  on  this  continent,  on  the  one- 
side  of  which  the  soil  must  be  cultivated  by 
slave  labor;  on  the  other  by  white  labor. 
That  line  did  not  run  on  36°  and  30'  [the 
Missouri  Compromise  line],  for  36°  and  30' 
runs  over  mountains  and  through  valleys.  But 
this  slave  line,  he  said,  meanders  in  the  sugar 
fields  and  plantations  of  the  South,  and  the 
people  living  in  their  different  localities  and  in 
the  territories  must  determine  for  themselves 
whether  their  "  middle  bed"  is  best  adapted  to 
slavery  or  free  labor. 
Referring  to  annexation,  he  said  our  des- 
tiny had  forced  us  to  acquire  Florida,  Louisi- 
ana, Texas,  New  Mexico,  and  California. 
"We  have  now  territory  enough,  but  how 
long  will  it  be  enough  ?  One  hive  is  enough 
for  one  swarm  of  bees,  but  a  new  swarm 
comes  next  year  and  a  new  hive  is  wanted." 
Men  may  say  we  shall  never  want  anything 
more  of  Mexico,  but  the  time  would  come 
when  we  would  be  compelled  to  take  more. 
Central  America  was  half-way  to  California 
and  on  the  direct  road.  The  time  will  come 
when  our  destiny,  our  institutions,  our  safety 
will  compel  us  to  have  it.  "  So  it  is,"  con- 
cluded he,  "  with  the  island  of  Cuba.  .  .  . 
It  is  a  matter  of  no  consequence  whether  we 
want  it  or  not ;  we  are  compelled  to  take  it, 
and  we  can't  help  it."  f 
When  Douglas  reached  Newr  Orleans  on  his 
trip  he,  in  another  long  speech,  substantially 
repeated  these  declarations  and,  as  if  he  had 
not  yet  placed  himself  in  entire  harmony  with 
Southern  opinion, he  added  a  sentiment  almost 
as  remarkable  as  the  "  mud-sill "  theory  of 
Hammond,  or  the  later  "  corner-stone  "  doc- 
trine of  Stephens: 
"  It  is  a  law  of  humanity,"  said  he,  "  a  law  of  civili- 
zation, that  whenever  a  man  or  a  race  of  men  show 
themselves  incapable  of  managing  their  own  affairs,  thev 
must  consent  to  be  governed  by  those  who  are  capable 
of  performing  the  duty.  It  is  on  this  principle  that  vou 
establish  those  institutions  of  charity  for  the  support 
of  the  blind,  or  the  deaf  and  dumb,  or  the  insane.  In 
accordance  with  this  principle,  I  assert  that  the  negro 
t  Douglas,  Memphis  speech,  Nov.  29th,  1S5S.  Mem- 
phis "  Eagle  and  Enquirer."
510 
ITVCOIX'S    COOPER  INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
race,  under  all  circumstances,  at  all  times,  and  in  all 
countries,  has  shown  itself  incapable  of  self-govern- 
ment." * 
Once  more,  in  a  speech  at  Baltimore,  Doug- 
las repeated  in  substance  t  what  he  had  said 
at  Memphis  and  New  Orleans,  and  then  in  the 
beginning  of  January,  1859,  he  reached  Wash- 
ington and  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate.  Here 
he  now  began  to  comprehend  the  action  of 
the  Democratic  caucus  in  deposing  him  from 
the  chairmanship  of  the  Committee  on  Terri- 
tories. His  personal  influence  and  prestige 
among  the  Southern  leaders  were  gone.  Neither 
his  revived  zeal  for  annexation,  nor  his  ad- 
vanced views  on  the  necessity  for  slave  labor 
restored  his  good-fellowship  with  the  extremists. 
Although,  pursuant  to  a  recommendation  in 
the  annual  message,  a  measure  was  then  pend- 
ing in  the  Senate  to  place  thirty  millions  in  the 
hands  of  President  Buchanan  with  which  to 
negotiate  for  Cuba,  the  attitude  of  the  pro- 
slavery  faction  was  not  one  of  conciliation,  but 
of  unrelenting  opposition  to  him. 
Toward  the  close  of  the  short  session  this 
feeling  broke  out  in  open  demonstration.  On 
February  23d,  while  an  item  of  the  appro- 
priation bill  was  under  debate,  Senator  Brown, 
of  Mississippi,  said  he  wanted  the  success  of 
the  Democratic  party  in  i860  to  be  a  success 
of  principles  and  not  of  men.  He  neither 
wanted  to  cheat  nor  be  cheated.  Under  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  the  South  would 
demand  protection  for  slavery  in  the  Territories. 
If  he  understood  the  senator  from  Illinois, 
Mr.  Douglas,he  thought  a  Territorial  legislature 
might  by  non-action  or  by  unfriendly  action 
rightfully  exclude  slavery.  He  dissented  from 
him,  and  now  he  would  like  to  know  from  other 
senators  from  the  North  what  they  would  do  : 
"If  the  Territorial  legislature  refuses  to  act,  will  you 
act  ?  If  it  pass  unfriendly  acts,  will  you  pass  friendly  ? 
If  it  pass  laws  hostile  to  slavery,  will  you  annul  them 
and  substitute  laws  favoring  slavery  in  their  stead  ? 
...  I  would  rather,"  concluded  he,  "see  the  Democratic 
party  sunk,  never  to  be  resurrected,  than  to  see  it  suc- 
cessful only  that  one  portion  of  it  might  practice  a  fraud 
on  another,  "t 
Douglas  met  the  issue,  and  defended  his 
Freeport  doctrine  without  flinching.  The 
Democracy  of  the  North  hold,  said  he,  that 
if  you  repudiate  the  doctrine  of  non-interven- 
tion, and  form  a  slave  code  by  act  of  Con- 
gress, where  the  people  of  a  Territory  refuse  it, 
you  must  step  off  the  Democratic  platform. 
"  I  tell  you,  gentlemen  of  the  South,  in  all  candor,  I 
do  not  believe  a  Democratic  candidate  can  ever  carry 
*  Douglas,  New  Orleans  speech,  Dec.  6th,  1858. 
Pamphlet. 
t  Douglas,  Baltimore  speech,  Jan.  5th,  1859.  Pam- 
phlet. 
X  Brown,  Senate  speech,  Feb.  23d,  1859.  Globe, 
p.  1 24 1,  el  seq. 
any  one  Democratic  State  of  the  North  on  the  platform 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Government  to  force 
the  people  of  a  Territory  to  have  slavery  when  they  do 
not  want  it."§ 
The  discussion  extended  itself  to  other 
Senators;  Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi, 
Clay,  of  Alabama,  Mason,  of  Virginia,  and 
Gwin,  of  California,  seconded  the  demands  and 
arguments  of  Brown;  while  Pugh,  of  Ohio, 
Broderick,  of  California,  and  Stuart,  of  Michi- 
gan, came  to  the  help  and  defense  of  Doug- 
las and  non-intervention.  Several  Republicans 
drifted  into  the  debate  on  behalf  of  the  posi- 
tion and  principles  of  their  party,  which  of 
course  differed  from  those  of  both  Brown  and 
Douglas.  The  discussion  was  continued  to  a 
late  hour,  and  finally  came  to  an  end  through 
mere  lapse  of  time,  but  not  until  an  irrepar- 
able schism  in  the  Democratic  party  had  been 
opened. 
Silence  upon  so  vital  an  issue  could  not  long 
be  maintained.  In  the  following  June,  an  Iowa 
friend  wrote  to  Douglas  to  inquire  whether  he 
would  be  a  candidate  for  the  presidential  nom- 
ination at  the  coming  Charleston  convention. 
Douglas  replied  that  party  issues  must  first  be 
defined.  If  the  Democracy  adhered  to  their 
former  principles,  his  friends  would  be  at  lib- 
erty to  present  his  name. 
"  If,  on  the  contrary,"  continued  he,  "  it  shall  be- 
come the  policy  of  the  Democratic  party,  which  I  can- 
not anticipate,  to  repudiate  these  their  time-honored 
principles,  on  which  we  have  achieved  so  many  patri- 
otic triumphs,  and  in  lieu  of  them  the  convention  shall 
interpolate  into  the  creed  of  the  party  such  new  issues 
as  the  revival  of  the  African  slave-trade,  or  a  Con- 
gressional slave-code  for  the  Territories,  or  the  doc- 
trine that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  either 
establishes  or  prohibits  slavery  in  the  Territories  be- 
yond the  power  of  the  people  legally  to  control  it,  as 
other  property  —  it  is  due  to  candor  to  say  that,  in  such 
an  event,  I  could  not  accept  the  nomination  if  tendered 
to  me."  || 
We  must  leave  the  career  of  Douglas  for  a 
while  to  follow  up  the  personal  history  of  Lin- 
coln. The  peculiar  attitude  of  national  politics 
had  in  the  previous  year  drawn  the  attention 
of  the  whole  country  to  Illinois  in  a  remarka- 
ble degree.  The  senatorial  campaign  was 
hardly  opened  when  a  Chicago  editor,  whose 
daily  examination  of  a  large  list  of  newspaper 
exchanges  brought  the  fact  vividly  under  his 
observation,  wrote  to  Lincoln : 
"  You  are  like  Byron,  who  woke  up  one  morning  and 
found  himself  famous.  People  wish  to  know  about 
you.  You  have  sprung  at  once  from  the  position  of  a 
capital  fellow,  and  a  leading  lawyer  in  Illinois,  to  a 
national  reputation.  '"H 
§  Douglas,  Senate  speech,  Feb.  23d,  1859.  Globe, 
p.  1247.' 
||  Douglas  to  Dorr,  June22d,  1859.  Baltimore  "Sun," 
June  24th,  1859. 
IT  Ray  to  Lincoln,  July  27th,  1858.   MS.
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
5" 
The  compliment  was  fully  warranted;  the 
personal  interest  in  Lincoln  increased  daily 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  great  de- 
bates. The  Freeport  doctrine  and  its  effect 
upon  the  Democratic  party  gave  these  discus- 
sions both  present  significance  and  a  growing 
interest  for  the  future.  Another  friend  wrote 
him,  a  few  days  after  election : 
"  You  have  made  a  noble  canvass,  which,  if  unavail- 
ing in  this  State,  has  earned  you  a  national  reputation, 
and  made  you  friends  everywhere."  * 
That  this  was  not  the  mere  flattery  of  par- 
tial friends  became  manifest  to  him  by  other 
indications ;  by  an  increased  correspondence 
filled  with  general  commendation,  a,nd  par- 
ticularly by  numerous  invitations  to  deliver 
speeches  in  other  States.  The  Republican 
Central  Committee  of  New  Hampshire  wrote 
him  that  if  Douglas  came,  as  was  expected,  to 
that  State,  they  desired  Lincoln  to  come  and 
answer  him.  The  Central  Committee  of  Min- 
nesota wished  him  to  come  there  and  assist  in 
their  canvass.  There  was  an  incessant  com- 
motion in  politics  throughout  the  whole  North, 
and  as  the  season  progressed,  calls  came  from 
all  quarters.  Kansas  wanted  him  •  t  Buffalo 
wanted  him ;  %  Des  Moines  wanted  him ;  § 
Pittsburg  wanted  him;  ||  Thurlow  Weed  tel- 
egraphed :  "  Send  Abraham  Lincoln  to  Albany 
immediately."  ff  Not  only  his  presence,  but 
his  arguments,  ideas,  and  counsel  were  in  de- 
mand. Dennison,  making  the  canvass  for  gov- 
ernor of  Ohio,  asked  for  a  report  of  his  debates 
for  campaign  "  material."** 
That  men  in  all  parts  of  the  Union  were 
thus  turning  to  him  for  help  and  counsel  was 
due,  not  alone  to  the  publicity  and  credit  he 
had  gained  in  his  debates  with  Douglas  in  the 
previous  year;  it  grew  quite  as  much  out  of 
the  fact  that  by  his  sagacity  and  courage  he 
had  made  himself  the  safest,  as  well  as  the 
most  available,  rallying-point  of  the  Republi- 
can party  and  exponent  of  Republican 
doctrine.  The  Lecompton  quarrel  in  the 
Democratic  party  had  led  many  prominent 
Republicans  on  a  false  trail.  In  Douglas's 
new  attitude,  developed  by  his  Southern 
speeches  and  his  claim  to  re-admission  into 
regular  Democratic  fellowship,  these  leaders 
found  themselves  at  fault,  discredited  by  their 
own  course.  Lincoln,  on  the  contrary,  not 
only  held  aloft  the  most  aggressive  Republi- 
can banner  but  stood  nearest  the  common 
party  enemy,  and  was  able  to  offer  advice  to 
all  the  elements  of  the  Republican  party,  free 
from  any  suspicion  of  intrigue  with  foe  or  fac- 
*  David  Davis  to  Lincoln,  Nov.  7th,  1858.   MS. 
tDelahay  to  Lincoln,  March  15th,  1859.  MS. 
X  Dorsheimer  to  Chase,  Sept.  12th,  1859.   MS. 
%  Kasson  to  Lincoln,  Sept.  13th,  1859.   MS. 
||  Kirkpatrick  to  Lincoln,  Sept.  15th,  1859.   MS. 
tion.  The  causes  of  his  senatorial  defeat  thus 
gave  him  a  certain  party  authority  and  lead- 
ership, which  was  felt  if  not  openly  acknowl- 
edged. On  his  part,  while  never  officious  or 
obtrusive,  he  was  always  ready  with  season- 
able and  judicious  suggestions  generous  in 
spirit  and  comprehensive  in  scope,  and  which 
looked  beyond  mere  local  success.  Thus  he 
wrote  from  Springfield  to  Hon.  Schuyler  Col- 
fax, July  6th,  1859: 
"  I  much  regret  not  seeing  you  while  you  were  here 
among  us.  Before  learning  that  you  were  to  be  at 
Jacksonville  on  the  4th,  I  had  given  my  word  to  be  at 
another  place.  Besides  a  strong  desire  to  make  your 
personal  acquaintance,  I  was  anxious  to  speak  with 
you  on  politics  a  little  more  fully  than  I  can  well  do 
in  a  letter.  My  main  object  in  such  conversation 
would  be  to  hedge  against  divisions'  in  the  Republican 
ranks  generally,  and  particularly  for  the  contest  of 
i860.  The  point  of  danger  is  the  temptation  in  differ- 
ent localities  to  '  platform  '  for  something  which  will 
be  popular  just  there,  but  which,  nevertheless,  will  be 
a  firebrand  elsewhere,  and  especially  in  a  national  con- 
vention. As  instances,  the  movement  against  foreign- 
ers in  Massachusetts  ;  in  New  Hampshire,  to  make 
obedience  to  the  fugitive  slave  lav/  punishable  as  a 
crime  ;  in  Ohio  '  to  repeal  the  fugitive  slave  law;  and 
'squatter  sovereignty,'  in  Kansas.  In  these  things  there 
is  explosive  matter  enough  to  blow  up  half  a  dozen 
national  conventions,  if  it  gets  into  them;  and  what 
gets  very  rife  outside  of  conventions  is  very  likely  to 
find  its  way  into  them.  What  is  desirable,  if  possible, 
is  that  in  every  local  convocation  of  Republicans  a 
point  should  be  made  to  avoid  everything  which  will 
disturb  Republicans  elsewhere.  Massachusetts  Re- 
publicans should  have  looked  beyond  their  noses,  and 
then  they  could  not  have  failed  to  see  that  tilting 
against  foreigners  would  ruin  us  in  the  whole  North- 
west. New  Hampshire  and  Ohio  should  forbear  tilt- 
ing against  the  fugitive  slave  law  in  such  way  as  to 
utterly  overwhelm  us  in  Illinois  with  the  charge  of 
enmity  to  the  Constitution  itself.  Kansas,  in  her  con- 
fidence that  she  can  be  saved  to  freedom  on  '  squat- 
ter sovereignty,'  ought  not  to  forget  that  to  prevent 
the  spread  and  naturalization  of  slavery  is  a  national 
concern,  and  must  be  attended  to  by  the  nation.  In  a 
word,  in  every  locality  we  should  look  beyond  our 
noses  ;  and  at  least  say  nothing  on  points  where  it  is 
probable  we  shall  disagree.  I  write  this  for  your  eye 
only;  hoping,  however,  if  you  see  danger  as  I  think 
I  do,  you  will  do  what  you  can  to  avert  it.  Could  not 
suggestions  be  made  to  leading  men  in  the  State  and 
Congressional  conventions,  and  so  avoid,  to  some  ex- 
tent at  least,  these  apples  of  discord?  " 
By  this  time  Colfax  was  cured  of  his  late 
coquetting  with  Douglas,  and  he  replied : 
"  The  suggestions  you  make  have  occurred  to  me. 
.  .  .  Nothing  is  more  evident  than  that  there  is  an  am- 
ple number  of  voters  in  the  Northern  States,  opposed 
to  the  extension  and  aggressions  of  slavery  and  to 
Democratic  misrule,  to  triumphantly  elect  a  President 
of  the  United  States.  But  it  is  equally  evident  that 
making  up  this  majority  are  men  of  all  shades  and 
gradations  of  opinion,  from  the  conservative  who  will 
scarcely  defend  his  principles  for  fear  of  imperiling 
peace,  to  the  bold  radical  who  strikes  stalwart  blows 
1[  Weed  to  Judd,  Oct.  21st,  1S59.  MS. 
**  Dennison  to  Trumbull,  July  21st,  1S59.   MS. 
*  Partly  printed  in  HolhVter,  "  Life  of  Colfax,'*  p. 
146.  We  are  indebted  to  Mrs.  Colfax  for  the  full 
manuscript  text  of  this  and  other  letters.
512 
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
iless  of  policy  or  popularity.  How  this  mass  of 
mind  shall  be  consolidated  into  a  victorious  phalanx 
in  i860  is  the  groat  problem,  1  think,  of  our  eventful 
times.  And  he  who  could  accomplish  it  is  worthier 
of  fame  than  Napoleon  or  Victor  Emanuel.  ...  In 
this  work,  to  achieve  success,  and  to  achieve  it  with- 
out sacrifice  oi  essential  principle,  you  can  do  far  more 
than  one  like  myself,  so  much  younger.  Your  counsel 
carries  great  weight  with  it;  for,  to  be  plain,  there  is 
no  political  letter  that  falls  from  your  pen  which  is  not 
copied  throughout  the  Union."* 
This  allusion  was  called  out  by  two  letters 
which  Lincoln  had  written  during  the  year; 
one  declaring  his  opposition  to  the  waning 
fallacy  of  know-nothingism,  and  in  which  he 
also  defined  his  position  on  "  fusion."  Refer- 
ing  to  a  provision  lately  adopted  by  Massa- 
chusetts to  restrict  naturalization,  he  wrote : 
"  Massachusetts  is  a  sovereign  and  independent 
State ;  and  it  is  no  privilege  of  mine  to  scold  her  for 
what  she  does.  Still,  if  from  what  she  has  done,  an 
inference  is  sought  to  be  drawn  as  to  what  I  would 
do,  I  may,  without  impropriety,  speak  out.  I  say  then, 
that,  as  I  understand  the  Massachusetts  provision,  I 
am  against  its  adoption  in  Illinois,  or  in  any  other 
place  where  I  have  a  right  to  oppose  it.  Understand- 
ing the  spirit  of  our  institutions  to  aim  at  the  elevation 
of  men,  I  am  opposed  to  whatever  tends  to  degrade 
them.  I  have  some  little  notoriety  for  commiserating 
the  oppressed  condition  of  the  negro ;  and  I  should 
be  strangely  inconsistent  if  I  could  favor  any  project 
for  curtailing  the  existing  rights  of  white  men,  even 
though  born  in  different  lands,  and  speaking  different 
languages  from  myself.  As  to  the  matter  of  fusion,  I 
am  for  it,  if  it  can  be  had  on  Republican  grounds  ;  and 
I  am  not  for  it  on  any  other  terms.  A  fusion  on  any 
other  terms  would  be  as  foolish  as  unprincipled.  It 
would  lose  the  whole  North,  while  the  common  enemy 
would  still  carry  the  whole  South.  The  question  of 
men  is  a  different  one.  There  are  good  patriotic  men 
and  able  statesmen  in  the  South  whom  I  would  cheer- 
fully support,  if  they  would  now  place  themselves  on 
Republican  ground,  but  I  am  against  letting  down  the 
Republican  standard  a  hair's  breadth."  t 
The  other  was  a  somewhat  longer  letter,  to 
a  Boston  committee  which  had  invited  him 
to  a  festival  in  honor  of  Jefferson's  birthday. 
"Bearing  in  mind  that  about  seventy  years  ago  two 
great  political  parties  were  first  formed  in  this  coun- 
try; that  Thomas  Jefferson  was  the  head  of  one  of 
them,  and  Boston  the  headquarters  of  the  other,  it 
is  both  curious  and  interesting  that  those  supposed 
to  descend  politically  from  the  party  opposed  to  Jeffer- 
son,  should  now  be  celebrating  his  birthday,  in  their 
original  seat  of  empire,  while  those  claiming  po- 
litical descent  from  him  have  nearly  ceased  to  breathe 
his  name  everywhere.    .    .    . 
"  But,  soberly,  it  is  now  no  child's  play  to  save  the 
principles  of  Jefferson  from  total  overthrow  in  this 
nation.  One  would  state  with  great  confidence  that  he 
could  convince  any  sane  child  that  the  simpler  propo- 
sitions of  Euclid  are  true;  but  nevertheless  he  would 
fail,  utterly,  with  one  who  should  deny  the  definitions 
and  axioms.  The  principles  of  Jefferson  are  the  defin- 
itions and  axioms  of  free  society.  And  yet  they  are 
denied  and  evaded,  with  no  small  show  of  success. 
One  dashingly  calls  them  'glittering  generalities.' 
Another  bluntly  calls    them  'self-evident   lies.'    And 
*  Colfax  to  Lincoln,  July  14th,  1859.   MS. 
t  Lincoln  to  Canisius,  May  17th,  1859. 
others  insidiously  argue  that  they  apply  only  to 
'superior  races.'  These  expressions,  differing  in  form, 
are  identical  in  object  and  effect, —  the  supplanting  the 
principles  of  free  government,  and  restoring  those  of 
classification,  caste,  and  legitimacy.  They  would  delight 
a  convocation  of  crowned  heads  plotting  against  the 
people.  They  are  the  van-guard  —  the  miners  and 
sappers  of  returning  despotism.  We  must  repulse 
them,  or  they  will  subjugate  us.  This  is  a  world  of 
compensation  ;  and  he  who  would  be  no  slave  must 
consent  to  have  no  slave.  Those  who  deny  freedom 
to  others  deserve  it  not  for  themselves ;  and,  under  a 
just  God,  cannot  long  retain  it.  All  honor  to  Jeffer- 
son—  to  the  man  who,  in  the  concrete  pressure  of  a 
struggle  for  national  independence  by  a  single  people, 
had  the  coolness,  forecast,  and  capacity  to  introduce 
into  a  merely  revolutionary  document  an  abstract 
truth,  applicable  to  all  men  and  all  times,  and  so  to 
embalm  it  there  that  to-day  and  in  all  coming  days  it 
shall  be  a  rebuke  and  a  stumbling-block  to  the  very 
harbingers  of  re-appearing  tyranny  and  oppression."! 
Lincoln's  more  important  political  work  of 
the  year  1859  was  the  part  he  took  in  the 
canvass  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  where  a  governor 
was  to  be  chosen  at  the  October  election,  and 
where  the  result  would  decide  not  merely  the 
present  and  local  strength  of  the  rival  candi- 
dates, but  also  to  some  extent  indicate  the 
prospects  and  probabilities  of  the  presidential 
campaign  of  i860.  The  Ohio  Democrats  had 
called  Douglas  into  their  canvass,  and  the 
Republicans,  as  soon  as  they  learned  the 
fact,  arranged  that  Lincoln  should  come  and 
answer  him.  There  was  a  fitness  in  this,  not 
merely  because  Lincoln's  joint  debates  with 
him  in  Illinois  in  the  previous  summer  were 
so  successful,  but  also  because  Douglas  in 
nearly  every  speech  made  since  then,  both  in 
his  Southern  tour  and  elsewhere,  alluded  to 
the  Illinois  campaign,  and  to  Lincoln  by 
name,  especially  to  what  he  characterized  as 
his  political  heresies.  By  thus  everywhere 
making  Lincoln  and  Lincoln's  utterances  a 
public  target,  Douglas  himself,  in  effect,  pro- 
longed and  extended  the  joint  debates  over 
the  whole  Union.  Another  circumstance  added 
to  the  momentary  interest  of  the  general  dis- 
cussion. Douglas  was  by  nature  aggressive. 
Determined  to  hold  his  Northern  followers  in 
the  new  issues  which  had  grown  out  of  his 
Freeport  doctrine,  and  the  new  antagonisms 
which  the  recent  slave  code  debate  in  the 
Senate  revealed,  he  wrote  and  published  in 
"Harper's  Magazine"  for  September,  1859, 
a  long  political  article  beginning  with  the  as- 
sertion that  "  under  our  complex  system  of 
government  it  is  the  first  duty  of  American 
statesmen  to  mark  distinctly  the  dividing-line 
between  Federal  and  Local  authority."  Quot- 
ing both  the  paragraph  of  Lincoln's  Spring- 
field speech  declaring  that  "  a  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand,"  and  the  paragraph 
from  Seward's  Rochester  speech,  announcing 
X  Lincoln  to  Pierce  and  others,  April  6th,  1859.
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE    SPEECH 
51.3 
HOUSE  IN  WHICH  JOHN  BROWN  WAS  BORN,  TORRINGTON,  CONNECTICUT.     (REDRAWN  FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  LENT  BY  F.   B.   SANBORN,  ESQ.) 
the  "  irrepressible  conflict,"  Douglas  made  a 
long  historical  examination  of  his  own  theory 
of  "  non-intervention  "  and  "  popular  sover- 
eignty," and  built  up  an  elaborate  argument 
to  sustain  his  own  course.  The  novelty  of  this 
appeal  to  the  public  occasioned  general  inter- 
est and  varied  comment,  and  the  expedient 
seemed  so  ingenious  as  to  excite  the  envy  of 
Administration  Democrats.  Accordingly,  At- 
torney-General Black,  of  President  Buchan- 
an's Cabinet,  at  "  the  request  of  friends," 
wrote,  printed,  and  circulated  an  anonymous 
pamphlet  in  answer,  in  which  he  admitted  that 
Douglas  was  "  not  the  man  to  be  treated  with 
a  disdainful  silence,"  but  characterized  the 
"  Harper  "  essay  as  "  an  unsuccessful  effort  at 
legal  precision ;  like  the  writing  of  a  judge  who 
is  trying  in  vain  to  give  good  reasons  for  a 
wrong  decision  on  a  question  of  law  which 
he  has  not  quite  mastered."  Douglas,  in  a 
speech  at  Wooster,  Ohio,  criticised  this  per- 
formance of  Black's.  Reply  and  rejoinder  on 
both  sides  followed  in  due  time;  and  this  war 
of  pamphlets  was  one  of  the  prominent  polit- 
ical incidents  of  the  year. 
Thus  Lincoln's  advent  in  the  Ohio  cam- 
paign attracted  much  more  than  usual  notice. 
He  made  but  two  speeches,  one  at  Columbus, 
and  one  at  Cincinnati,  at  each  of  which  places 
Douglas  had  recently  preceded  him.  Lincoln's 
addresses  not  only  brought  him  large  and 
appreciative  audiences,  but  they  obtained  an 
unprecedented  circulation  in  print.  In  the  main, 
they  reproduced  and  tersely  re-applied  the  ideas 
and  arguments  developed  in  the  senatorial  cam- 
Vol.  XXXIV.—  70. 
paign  in  Illinois,  adding,  however,  searching 
comments  on  the  newer  positions  and  points 
to  which  Douglas  had  since  advanced.  There 
is  only  space  to  insert  a  few  disconnected  quo- 
tations : 
"Now,  what  is  Judge  Douglas's  popular  sovereignty  ? 
It  is  as  a  principle  no  other  than  that,  if  one  man  chooses 
to  make  a  slave  of  another  man,  neither  that  other  man 
nor  any  body  else  has  a  right  to  object.    .    .    . 
"  If  you  will  read  the  copyright  essay,  you  will  dis- 
cover that  Judge  Douglas  himself  says,  a  controversy 
between  the  American  Colonies  and  the  Government 
of  Great  Britain  began  on  the  slavery  question  in  1699, 
and  continued  from  that  time  until  the  revolution  ;  and, 
while  he  did  not  say  so,  we  all  know  that  it  has 
continued  with  more  or  less  violence  ever  since  the 
revolution.    .    .    . 
"  Take  these  two  things  and  consider  them  together ; 
present  the  question  of  planting  a  State  with  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery  by  the  side  of  a  question  of  who  shall 
be  governor  of  Kansas  for  a  year  or  two,  and  is  there 
a  man  here,  is  there  a  man  on  earth,  who  would  not  say 
the  governor  question  is  the  little  one,  and  the  slavery 
question  is  the  great  one  ?  I  ask  any  honest  Democrat 
if  the  small,  the  local,  the  trivial  and  temporary  ques- 
tion is  not,  Who  shall  be  governor  ?  while  the  durable, 
the  important,  and  the  mischievous  one  is,  Shall  this  soil 
be  planted  with  slavery  ?  This  is  an  idea,  I  suppose, 
which  has  arisen  in  Judge  Douglas's  mind  from  his  pe- 
culiar structure.  I  suppose  the  institution  of  slavery 
really  looks  small  to  him.  He  is  so  put  up  by  nature 
that  a  lash  upon  his  back  would  hurt  him,  but  a 
lash  upon  anybody  else's  back  does  not  hurt  him.    .  . 
"  The  Dred  Scott  decision  expressly  gives  every  citi- 
zen of  the  United  States  a  right  to  carry  his  slaves  into 
the  United  States  Territories.  And  now  there  was  some 
inconsistency  in  saying  that  the  decision  was  right,  and 
saying  too,  that  the  people  of  the  Territory  could  law- 
fully drive  slavery  out  again.  "When  all  the  trash,  the 
words,  the  collateral  matter  was  cleared  away  from  it, 
all  the  chaff  was  fanned  out  of  it,  it  was  a  bare  absurd-
5^4 
LINCOLN'S   COOPER  INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
:.'^.:. 
nm  •  • 
BLACK    &   CO.) 
ity  ;   no  less  than  that  a  thing  may  be  lawfully  driven 
away  from  where  it  has  a  lawful  right  to  be.    .    .    . 
"The  Judge  says  the  people  of  the  Territories 
have  the  right,  by  his  principle,  to  have  slaves  if  they 
want  them.  Then  I  say  that  the  people  in  Georgia 
have  the  right  to  buy  slaves  in  Africa  if  they  want 
them,  and  I  defy  any  man  on  earth  to  show  any  dis- 
tinction between  the  two  things  —  to  show  that  the 
one  is  either  more  wicked  or  more  unlawful ;  to  show 
on  original  principles,  that  the  one  is  better  or  worse 
than  the  other;  or  to  show  by  the  Constitution,  that 
one  differs  a  whit  from  the  other.  He  will  tell  me, 
doubtless,  that  there  is  no  Constitutional  provision 
against  people  taking  slaves  into  the  new  Territories, 
and  I  tell  him  that  there  is  equally  no  constitutional 
provision  against  buying  slaves  in  Africa.   .    .    . 
"  Then  I  say,  if  this  principle  is  established,  that 
there  is  no  wrong  in  slavery,  and  whoever  wants  it  has 
a  right  to  have  it;  that  it  is  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents  ; 
a  sort  of  question  how  they  shall  deal  with  brutes ; 
that  between  us  and  the  nesro  here  there  is  no  sort
LINCOLN'S   COOPER  INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
of  question,  but  that  at  the  South  the  question  is  be- 
tween the  negro  and  the  crocodile ;  that  it  is  a  mere 
matter  of  policy;  that  there  is  a  perfect  right  accord- 
ing to  interest  to  do  just  as  you  please  — when  this  is 
done,  where  this  doctrine  prevails,  the  miners  and 
sappers  will  have  formed  public  opinion  for  the  slave- 
trade.    .    .    . 
"  Public  opinion  in  this  country  is  everything.  In  a 
nation  like  ours  this  popular  sovereignty  and  squatter 
sovereignty  have  already  wrought  a  change  in  the 
public  mind  to  the  extent  I  have  stated.  There  is  no 
man  in  this  crowd  who  can  contradict  it.  Now,  if  you 
are  opposed  to  slavery  honestly,  as  much  as  anybody, 
I  ask  you  to  note  that  fact,  and  the  like  of  which  is  to 
follow,  to  be  plastered  on  layer  after  layer,  until  very 
soon  you  are  prepared  to  deal  with  the  negro  every- 
where as  with  the  brute.  If  public  sentiment  has  not 
been  debauched  already  to  this  point,  a  new  turn  of  the 
screw  in  that  direction  is  all  that  is  wanting;  and  this 
is  constantly  being  done  by  the  teachers  of  this  insid- 
ious popular  sovereignty.  You  need  but  one  or  two 
turns  further  until  your  minds,  now  ripening  under 
these  teachings,  will  be  ready  for  all  these  things  ;  and 
you  will  receive  and  support,  or  submit  to,  the  slave- 
trade  revived  with  all  its  horrors,  a  slave-code  en- 
forced in  our  Territories,  and  a  new  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision to  bring  slavery  up  into  the  very  heart  of  the 
free  North."* 
"  This  Government  is  expressly  charged  with  the 
duty  of  providing  for  the  general  welfare.  We  believe 
that  the  spreading  out  and  perpetuity  of  the  institution 
of  slavery  impairs  the  general  welfare.  We  believe  — 
nay,  we  know,  that  this  is  the  only  thing  that  has  ever 
threatened  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  itself.    .    .    . 
"  I  say  we  must  not  interfere  with  the  institution  of 
slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists,  because  the  Consti- 
tution forbids  it,  and  the  general  welfare  does  not  re- 
quire us  to  do  so.  We  must  not  withhold  an  efficient 
fugitive  slave  law, because  the  Constitution  requires  us, 
as  I  understand  it,  not  to  withhold  such  a  law.  But  we 
must  prevent  the  outspreading  of  the  institution,  be- 
cause neither  the  Constitution  nor  the  general  welfare 
requires  us  to  extend  it.  We  must  prevent  the  revival 
of  the  African  slave-trade,  and  the  enacting  by  Con- 
gress of  a  Territorial  slave-code.  We  must  prevent 
each  of  these  things  being  done  by  either  congresses 
or  courts.  The  people  of  these  United  States  are  the 
rightful  masters  of  both  congresses  and  courts,  not  to 
overthrow  the  Constitution,  but  to  overthrow  the  men 
who  pervert  the  Constitution."  t 
The  Ohio  Republicans  gained  a  decided  suc- 
cess at  the  October  election.  Ascribing  this 
result  in  a  large  measure  to  the  influence  of 
*  Lincoln,  Columbus  speech,  Sept.  16th,  1859.  De- 
bates, pp.  243-254. 
t  Lincoln,  Cincinnati  speech,  Sept.  17th,  1859.  De- 
bates pp.  267  -  268. 
\  Parsons  and  others  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  7th,  1859.  De- 
bates, preface. 
§  Lincoln  to  Parsons  and  others,  Dec.  19th,  1859. 
Debates,  preface. 
||  The  preface  to  this  third  edition  contains  a  letter 
from  Douglas,  alleging  that  injustice  had  been  done 
him  because,  "  the  original  reports  as  published  in  the 
'Chicago  Times,'  although  intended  to  be  fair  and  just, 
were  necessarily  imperfect,  and  in  some  respects  er- 
roneous ;  "   charging  at  the  same  time  that  Lincoln's 
JOHN  brown's  cap.     (original  in  possesion  of  the  k 
HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.) 
Lincoln's  speeches,  the  State  Executive  Com- 
mittee resolved  to  publish  in  cheap  book  form 
the  full  Illinois  Joint  Debates  and  the  two  Ohio 
addresses,  to  serve  as  campaign  material  for 
the  ensuing  year. 
"  We  regard  them,"  wrote  the  committee  to  Lincoln, 
"  as  luminous  and  triumphant  expositions  of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Republican  party,  successfully  vindicated 
from  the  aspersions  of  its  foes,  and  calculated  to  make 
a  document  of  great  practical  service  to  the  Republican 
party  in  the  approaching  Presidential  contest."  \ 
Lincoln,  thanking  them  for  the  flattering 
terms  of  their  request,  explained  in  his  reply : 
"  The  copies  I  send  you,  are  as  reported  and  printed 
by  the  respective  friends  of  Senator  Douglas  and  my- 
self at  the  time  —  that  is,  his  by  his  friends,  and  mine 
by  mine.  It  would  be  an  unwarrantable  liberty  for  us 
to  change  a  word  or  a  letter  in  his,  and  the  changes  I 
have  made  in  mine,  you  perceive,  are  verbal  only,  and 
very  few  in  number.  I  wish  the  reprint  to  be  precisely 
as  the  copies  I  send,  without  any  comment  whatever."  § 
The  enterprise  proved  a  success  beyond  the 
most  sanguine  expectations.  A  Columbus  firm 
undertook  the  publication,  itself  assuming  all 
pecuniary  risk.  Three  large  editions  were  sold 
directly  to  the  public,  without  any  aid  from  or 
any  purchase  by  the  committee, —  the  third  edi- 
tion containing  the  announcement  that  up  to 
that  date,  June  16th,  i860,  thirty  thousand 
copies  had  already  been  circulated.  || 
speeches  had  been  revised,  corrected,  and  improved.* 
To  this  the  publishers  replied  :  "  The  speeches  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  were  never  'revised,  corrected,  or  improved' 
in  the  sense  you  use  those  words.  Remarks  by  the 
crowd  which  were  not  responded  to,  and  the  reporters' 
insertions  of  '  cheers,'  '  great  applause,'  and  so  forth, 
which  received  no  answer  or  comment  from  the  speaker, 
were  by  our  direction  omitted,  as  well  from  Mr.  Lincoln's 
speeches  as  yours,  as  we  thought  their  perpetuation  in 
book  form  would  be  in  bad  taste,  and  were  in  no  man- 
ner pertinent  to,  or  a  part  of,  the  speech."  t 
*  Douglas  to  Follet,  Foster  &  Co.,  June  9th,  i860.  Debates, 
third  edition,  preface. 
t  Ibid.,  Follet,  Foster  &  Co.  to  Douglas,  June  16th,  1S60. 
ONE    OF    JOHN     BROWN'S     PIKES.       (ORIGINAL     IN     POSSESSION     OF    THE     KANSAS     HISTORICAL     SOCIETY.)
5*6 
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE    SPEECH. 
HARPER  S     FERRYj 
JOHN 
and    lincoln 
brown's  raid. 
VIEW     OF 
A.ND  now  there  occurred  another  strange 
event  which,  if  it  had  been  specially  designed 
as  a  climax  for  the  great  series  of  political 
sensations  since  1852,  could  scarcely  have  been 
more  dramatic.  This  was  John  Brown's  inva- 
sion of  Harper's  Ferry  in  order  to  create  a 
slave  insurrection.  We  can  only  understand 
the  transaction  as  far  as  we  can  understand 
the  man.  and  both  remain  somewhat  enig- 
matical. 
Oi  Puritan  descent,  John  Brown  was  born 
in  Connecticut  in  the  year  1800.    When  he 
:**  ■  ~:: 
!  ap^joi^  Bra': 
Who  Diecf 
j/eaor  at  ."Isff  we;: 
tons Executed  <t1  Chalifalf 
ttonya  Dec  ,a>  i&59 
was  five  years  old,  the  family  moved  to  Ohio, 
at  that  time  yet  a  comparative  wilderness. 
Here  he  grew  up  a  strong,  vigorous  boy  of 
the  woods.  His  father  taught  him  the  tanner's 
trade ;  but  a  restless  disposition  drove  him  to 
frequent  changes  of  scene  and  effort  when  he 
grew  to  manhood.  He  attempted  surveying. 
He  became  a  divinity  student.  He  tried  farm- 
ing and  tanning  in  Pennsylvania,  and  tanning 
and  speculating  in  real  estate  in  Ohio.  Cattle- 
dealing  was  his  next  venture;  from  this  to 
sheep-raising;  and  by  a  natural  transition  to 
the  business  of  a  wool-factor  in  Massachusetts. 
This  not  succeeding,  he  made  a  trip  to  Europe. 
Returning,  he  accepted  from  Gerrit  Smith  a 
tract  of  mountain  land  in  the  Adirondacks, 
where  he  proposed  to  found  and  foster  col- 
onies of  free  negroes.  This  undertaking 
proved  abortive,  like  all  his  others,  and  he 
once  more  went  back  to  the  wool  business 
in  Ohio. 
Twice  married,  nineteen  children  had 
been  born  to  him,  of  whom  eleven  were  living 
when,  in  1854,  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill 
plunged  the  country  into  the  heat  of  politi- 
cal strife.  Four  of  his  sons  moved  away 
to  the  new  Territory  in  the  first  rush  of  em- 
igrants; several  others  went  later.  When  the 
Border  Ruffian  hostilities  broke  out,  John 
Brown  followed,  with  money  and  arms  con- 
tributed in  the  North.  With  his  sons  as  a 
nucleus,  he  gathered  a  little  band  of  fifteen 
to  twenty  adventurers,  and  soon  made  his 
name  a  terror  in  the  lawless  guerilla  war- 
,kAVE     OF    JOHN     BROWN,    NORTH     ELBA,    N.    Y.       (REDRAWN     FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH     LENT    BY    GEORGE    BALDWIN,  ESQ.)
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
5X7 
fare  of  the  day.  His  fighting  was  of  the 
prevailing  type,  justifiable,  if  at  all,  only 
on  the  score  of  defensive  retaliation,  and 
some  of  his  acts  were  as  criminal  and  atro- 
cious as  the  worst  of  those  committed  by  the 
Border  Ruffians.*  His  losses,  one  son  mur- 
dered, another  wounded  to  the  death,  and 
a  third  rendered  insane  from  cruel  treatment, 
are  scarcely  compensated  by  the  transitory 
notoriety  he  gathered  in  a  few  fool-hardy 
skirmishes. 
These  varied  experiences  give  us  some- 
thing of  a  clew  to  his  character :  a  strong  will ; 
great  physical  energy;  sanguine,  fanatical  tem- 
perament ;  unbounded  courage,  and  little  wis- 
dom ;  crude,  visionary  ideality ;  the  inspiration 
of  biblical  precepts  and  Old  Testament  hero- 
worship  ;  and  ambition  curbed  to  irritation  by 
the  hard  fetters  of  labor,  privation,  and  en- 
forced endurance.  In  association,  habit,  lan- 
guage, and  conduct  he  was  clean,  but  coarse ; 
honest,  but  rude.  In  disposition  he  min- 
gled the  sacrificing  tenderness  with  the  sac- 
rificial sternness  of  his  prototypes  in  Jewish 
history.  He  could  lay  his  own  child  on 
the  altar  without  a  pang.  The  strongest 
element  of  his  character  was  religious  fan- 
aticism. Taught  from  earliest  childhood  to 
"  fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments," 
he  believed  firmly  in  the  divine  authen- 
ticity of  the  Bible,  and  memorized  much 
of  its  contents.  His  favorite  texts  became 
literal  and  imperative  mandates;  nay,  more, 
he  came  to  feel  that  he  bore  the  commission 
and  enjoyed  the  protection  of  the  Almighty. 
In  his  Kansas  camps  he  prayed  and  saw  vis- 
ions ;  believed  he  wielded  the  sword  of  the 
Lord  and  of  Gideon ;  had  faith  that  the  an- 
gels encompassed  him.f  He  desired  no  other 
safeguard  than  his  own  ideas  of  justice  and 
his  own  convictions  of  duty.  These  ideas  and 
convictions,  however,  refused  obedience  to  ac- 
cepted laws  and  morals,  and  were  mere  fantas- 
tic and  pernicious  outgrowths  of  his  religious 
fanaticism.  His  courage  partook  of  the  reck- 
lessness of  insanity.  He  did  not  count  odds. 
"What  are  five  to  one?"  he  asked;  and  at 
another  time  he  said,  "  One  man  in  the  right, 
ready  to  die,  will  chase  a  thousand."  Perhaps 
he  even  believed  he  held  a  charmed  life,  for  he 
boasted  that  he  had  been  fired  at  thirty  times 
and  only  his  hair  had  been  touched.     In  per- 
*  On  the  night  of  May  24-25,  1856,  five  pro-slavery 
men  living  on  Pottawatomie  Creek,  in  Kansas,  were 
mysteriously  and  brutally  assassinated.  The  relatives 
and  friends  of  the  deceased  charged  John  Brown  and 
his  band  with  these  murders,  which  the  relatives  and 
friends  of  Brown  persistently  denied.  His  latest  biog- 
rapher, however,  unreservedly  admits  his  guilt:  "  For 
some  reason  he  [John  Brown]  chose  not  to  strike  a 
blow  himself;  and  this  is  what  Salmon  Brown  meant 
when  he  declared  that  his  father  'was  not  a  participa- 
Vol.  XXXIV.— 71. 
sonal  appearance  he  was  tall,  slender,  with 
rather  a  military  bearing,  in  garb  half  deacon, 
half  soldier.!  He  had  an  impressive,  half-per- 
suasive, half-commanding  manner.  lie  was 
always  very  secretive,  affected  much  mystery 
in  his  movements,  came  and  went  abruptly, 
was  direct  and  dogmatic  to  bluntness  in  his 
conversation.  His  education  was  scant,  his 
reading  limited;  he  wrote  strong  phrases  in 
bad  orthography.  If  we  may  believe  the  inti- 
mations from  himself  and  those  who  knew  him 
best,  he  had  not  only  acquired  a  passionate 
hatred  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  but  had  for 
twenty  years  nursed  the  longing  to  become 
a  liberator  of  slaves  in  the  Southern  States. 
To  this  end  he  read  various  stories  of  insur- 
rections, and  meditated  on  the  vicissitudes, 
chances,  and  strategy  of  partisan  warfare. 
A  year's  border  fighting  in  Kansas  not  only 
suddenly  put  thought  into  action,  but  his 
personal  and  family  sacrifices  intensified  his 
visionary  ambition  into  a  stern  and  inflexible 
purpose. 
It  is  impossible  to  trace  exactly  how  and 
when  the  Harper's  Ferry  invasion  first  took 
practical  shape  in  John  Brown's  mind,  but 
the  indications  are  that  it  grew  little  by  little 
out  of  his  Kansas  experience.  His  earliest 
collisions  with  the  Border  Ruffians  occurred  in 
the  spring  and  summer  of  1856.  In  the  au- 
tumn of  that  year  the  United  States  troops 
dispersed  his  band,  and  generally  suppressed 
the  civil  war.  In  January,  1857,  we  find  him 
in  the  Eastern  States,  appealing  for  arms  and 
supplies  to  various  committees  and  in  various 
places,  alleging  that  he  desired  to  organize 
and  equip  a  company  of  one  hundred  minute- 
men,  who  were  "  mixed  up  with  the  people  of 
Kansas,"  but  who  should  be  ready  on  call  to 
rush  to  the  defense  of  freedom.  This  appeal 
only  partly  succeeded.  From  one  commit- 
tee he  obtained  authority  as  agent  over  certain 
arms  stored  in  Iowa,  the  custody  and  control 
of  which  had  been  in  dispute.  From  another 
committee  he  obtained  a  portion  of  the 
clothing  he  desired.  From  still  other  sources 
he  received  certain  moneys,  but  not  sufficient 
for  his  requirements.  Two  circumstances,  how- 
ever, indicate  that  he  was  practicing  a  decep- 
tion upon  the  committees  and  public.  He 
entered  into  a  contract  with  a  blacksmith,  in 
Collinsville,  Connecticut,  to  manufacture  him 
tor  in  the  deed.'  It  was  a  very  narrow  interpretation 
of  the  word  '  participator  '  which  would  permit  such 
a  denial ;  but  it  was  no  doubt  honestly  made,  although 
for  the  purpose  of  disguising  what  John  Brown's  real 
agency  in  the  matter  was.  He  was,  in  fact,  the  originator 
and  performer  of  these  executions,  although  the  hands 
that  dealt  the  wounds  were  those  of  others.'' — F.  B. 
Sanborn,  "  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Brown,"  pp.  263-4. 
t  Redpath,  "  Life  of  John  Brown,"  p.  48. 
I  Sanborn,  in  "  Atlantic,"  April,  1872.
5«« 
LINCOLN'S   COOPER  INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
iooo  pikes  of  a  certain  pattern,*  to  be  com- 
pleted in  90  days,  and  paid  $550  on  the  con- 
tract. There  is  no  record  that  he  mentioned  this 
matter  to  any  committee.  His  proposed  Kan- 
s  -  iinute-men  were  only  to  be  one  hundred  in 
number,  and  the  pikes  could  not  be  for  them; 
his  explanation  to  the  blacksmith,  that  they 
would  be  a  good  weapon  of  defense  for  Kan- 
sas settlers,  was  clearly  a  subterfuge.  These 
pikes,  ordered  about  March  23d,  1857,  were 
without  doubt  intended  for  his  Virginia  inva- 
sion ;  and  in  fact  the  identical  lot,  finished 
after  long  delay,  under  the  same  contract, 
were  shipped  to  him  in  September,  1859,  and 
were  actually  used  in  his  Harper's  Ferry  at- 
tempt. The  other  circumstance  is  that,  about 
the  time  of  his  contract  for  the  pikes,  he  also, 
without  the  knowledge  of  committees  or  friends, 
engaged  a  worthless  adventurer,  named  Forbes, 
to  go  West  and  give  military  instruction  to  his 
company, —  a  measure  neither  useful  nor  prac- 
ticable for  Kansas  defense.  These  two  acts 
may  be  taken  as  the  first  preparation  for  Harp- 
er's Ferry. 
But  merely  to  conceive  great  enterprises  is 
not  to  perform  them,  and  every  after-step 
of  John  Brown  reveals  his  lamentable  weak- 
ness and  utter  inadequacy  for  the  heroic  role 
to  which  he  fancied  himself  called.  His  first 
blunder  was  in  divulging  all  his  plans  to 
Forbes,  an  utter  stranger,  while  he  was  so 
careful  in  concealing  them  from  others.  Forbes, 
as  ambitious  and  reckless  as  himself,  of  course 
soon  quarreled  with  him,  and  left  him,  and 
endeavored  first  to  supplant  and  then  betray 
him. 
Meanwhile,  little  by  little,  Brown  gathered 
one  colored  and  six  white  confederates  from 
among  his  former  followers  in  Kansas,  and 
assembled  them  for  drill  and  training  in 
Iowa;  t  four  others  joined  him  there.!  These, 
together  with  his  son  Owen,  counted,  all  told,  a 
band  of  twelve  persons  engaged  for,  and  partly 
informed  of,  his  purpose.  He  left  them  there 
for  instruction  during  the  first  three  months 
of  the  year  1858,  while  he  himself  went  East 
to  procure  means. 
At  the  beginning  of  February,  1858,  John 
Brown  became,  and  remained  for  about  a 
month,   a   guest   at  the   house  of    Frederick 
Douglass,  in  Rochester,  New-York.  Immedi- 
ately on  his  arrival  there  he  wrote  to  a  prom- 
inent Boston  abolitionist,  T.  W.  Higginson : 
"  I  now  want  to  get,  for  the  perfecting  of  by  far  the 
most  important  undertaking  of  my  whole  life,  from 
$500  to  $800  within  the  next  sixty  days.  I  have  written 
Rev.  Theodore  Parker,  George  L.  Stearns,  and  F.  B. 
Sanborn,  Enquires,  on  the  subject."  § 
Correspondence  and  mutual  requests  for  a 
conference  ensued,  and  finally  these  Boston 
friends  sent  Sanborn  to  the  house  of  Gerrit 
Smith,  in  Peterboro,  New-York,  where  a 
meeting  had  been  arranged.  ||  Sanborn  was  a 
young  man  of  twenty- six,  just  graduated  from 
college,  who,  as  secretary  of  various  Massachu- 
setts committees,  had  been  the  active  agent  for 
sending  contributions  to  Kansas.  He  arrived 
on  the  evening  of  Washington's  birthday, 
February  22d,  1858,  and  took  part  in  a  coun- 
cil of  conspiracy,  of  which  John  Brown  was 
the  moving  will  and  chief  actor.^j 
Brown  began  by  reading  to  the  council  a 
long  document  which  he  had  drafted  since  his 
stay  in  Rochester.**  It  called  itself  a  "  Pro- 
visional Constitution  and  Ordinances  for  the 
People  of  the  United  States,"  which,  as  it  ex- 
plained, looked  to  no  overthrow  of  States  or 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  but  simply  to 
"  amendment  and  repeal."  It  was  not  in  any 
sense  a  reasonable  project  of  government,  but 
simply  an  ill-jointed  outline  of  rules  for  a  pro- 
posed slave  insurrection.  The  scheme,  so  far 
as  any  comprehension  of  it  may  be  gleaned 
from  the  various  reports  which  remain,  was 
something  as  follows : 
Somewhere  in  the  Virginia  mountains  he 
would  raise  the  standard  of  revolt  and  liber- 
ation. Enthusiasts  would  join  him  from  the 
free  States,  and  escaped  blacks  come  to  his 
help  from  Canada.  From  Virginia  and  the 
contiguous  and  neighboring  slave  States  of 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Tennessee,  and  Kentucky,  fugitive  slaves, 
with  their  families,  would  flock  to  his  camps. 
He  would  take  his  supplies,  provisions,  and 
horses  by  force  from  the  neighboring  planta- 
tions. Money,  plate,  watches,  and  jewelry 
would  "  constitute  a  liberal  safety  or  intelli- 
gence fund."  ff  For  arms,  he  had  200  Sharps, 
rifles,  and  200  revolvers,  with  which  he  would 
*  "  He  was  exhibiting  to  a  number  of  gentlemen,  who 
happened  to  be  collected  together  in  a  druggist's 
store,  some  weapons  which  he  claimed  to  have  taken 
from  Captain  Pate  in  Kansas.  Among  them  was  a 
two-edged  dirk,  with  a  hlade  about  eight  inches  long, 
and  he  remarked  that  if  he  had  a  lot  of  those  things 
to  attach  to  poles  about  six  feet  long,  they  would  be 
a  capital  weapon  of  defense  for  the  settlers  of  Kansas. 
.  .  .  When  he  came  to  make  the  contract,  he  wrote 
it  to  have  malleable  ferrules,  cast  solid,  and  a  guard  to 
be  of  malleable  iron.  .  .  .  After  seeing  the  sample 
he  made  a  slight  alteration.    One  was,  to  have  a  screw 
put  in,  as  the  one  here  has,  so  that  they  could  be  un- 
shipped in  case  of  necessity." — Blair,  Testimony  be- 
fore Investigating  Committee,  pp.  12 1-2. 
t  Realf  Testimony,  p.  91.  Mason  Report,  36th  Cong. 
1st  Sess.    Senate  Reports,  Vol.  II. 
J  Ibid.,  pp.  91-94. 
§  "Atlantic,"  July,  1872,  p.  51. 
II  Sanborn,  "  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Brown,'* 
p.  438. 
"ff  "  Atlantic,"  July,  1872,  p.  52. 
**  Sanborn  in  "Atlantic,"  March,  1875,  p.  329. 
tt  Mason  Report,  Appendix,  p.  55.
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
5*9 
arm  his  best  marksmen.  His  ruder  followers, 
and  even  the  women  and  children,  he  would 
arm  with  pikes  to  defend  fortifications.  He 
would  construct  defenses  of  palisades  and 
earthworks.  He  would  use  natural  strong- 
holds ;  find  secret  mountain-passes  to  connect 
one  with  another;  retreat  from  and  evade  at- 
tacks he  could  not  overcome.  He  would  main- 
tain and  indefinitely  prolong  a  guerilla  war,  of 
which  the  Seminole  Indians  in  Florida  and 
the  negroes  in  Hayti  afforded  examples.  With 
success,  he  would  enlarge  the  area  of  his  occu- 
pation so  as  to  include  arable  valleys  and  low- 
lands bordering  the  Alleghany  range  in  the 
slave  States ;  and  here  he  would  colonize,  gov- 
ern, and  educate  the  blacks  he  had  freed,  and 
maintain  their  liberty.  He  would  make  cap- 
tures and  reprisals,  confiscate  property,  take, 
hold,  and  exchange  prisoners,  and  especially 
secure  white  hostages  and  exchange  them  for 
slaves  to  liberate.  He  would  recognize  neutrals, 
make  treaties,  exercise  humanity,  prevent 
crime,  repress  immorality,  and  observe  all  es- 
tablished laws  of  war.  Success  would  render 
his  revolt  permanent,  and  in  the  end,  through 
"  amendment  and  repeal,"  abolish  slavery.  If, 
at  the  worst,  he  were  driven  from  the  moun- 
tains he  would  retreat  with  his  followers  through 
the  free  States  to  Canada.  He  had  12  recruits 
drilling  in  Iowa,  and  a  half-executed  contract 
for  1000  pikes  in  Connecticut;*  furnish  him 
$800  in  money  and  he  would  begin  operations 
in  May. 
This,  if  we  supply  continuity  and  arrange- 
ment to  his  vagaries,  must  have  been  approx- 
imately what  he  felt  or  dreamily  saw,  and 
outlined  in  vigorous  words  to  his  auditors. 
His  listening  friends  were  dumfounded  at  the 
audacity  as  well  as  heart-sick  at  the  hopeless- 
ness of  such  an  attempt.  They  pointed  out 
the  almost  certainty  of  failure  and  destruc- 
tion, and  attempted  to  dissuade  him  from 
the  mad  scheme ;  but  to  no  purpose. f  They 
saw  they  were  dealing  with  a  foregone  con- 
clusion ;  he  had  convoked  them,  not  to  ad- 
vise as  to  methods,  but  to  furnish  the  means. 
All  reasonable  argument  he  met  with  his  rigid 
dogmatic  formulas,  his  selected  proverbs,  his 
favorite  texts  of  Scripture.  The  following, 
preserved  by  various  witnesses  as  samples  of 
his  sayings  at  other  times,  indicate  his  reason- 
ing on  this  occasion  : 
"Give  a  slave  a  pike  and  you  make  him  a  man.  I 
would  not  give  Sharps  rifles  to  more  than  ten  men  in 
a  hundred,  and  then  only  when  they  have  learned  to 
use  them.  A  ravine  is  better  than  a  plain.  Woods  and 
mountain-sides  can  he  held  by  resolute  men  against 
ten  times  their  force.  Nat  Turner,  with  fifty  men,  held 
Virginia  five  weeks;  the  same  number,  well  organizer! 
and  armed,  can  shake  the  system  out  of  the  State. ':  t 
"A  few  men  in  the  right,  and  knowing  they  are  right, 
can  overturn  a  king.  Twenty  men  in  the  Alleghanies 
could  break  slavery  to  pieces  in  two  years."  "  U  God 
be  for  us  who  can  be  against  us  ?  Except  the  Lord 
keep  the  city,  the  watchman  woketh  but  in  vain."  $ 
One  of  the  participants  relates,  that  — 
"  When  the  agitated  party  broke  up  their 
council  for  the  night,  it  was  perfectly  plain 
that  Brown  could  not  he  held  back  from  his 
purpose."  ||  The  discussion  of  the  friends  on 
the  second  day  (February  23d)  was  therefore 
only  whether  they  should  aid  him,  or  oppose 
him,  or  remain  indifferent.  Against  every  ad- 
monition of  reason,  mere  personal  sympathy 
seems  to  have  carried  a  decision  in  favor  of  the 
first  of  these  alternatives.  "  You  see  how  it  is," 
said  the  chief  counsellor,  Gerrit  Smith  ;  "  our 
dear  old  friend  has  made  up  his  mind  to  this 
course  and  cannot  be  turned  from  it.  We 
cannot  give  him  up  to  die  alone;  we  must 
support  him."ff  Brown  has  left  an  exact 
statement  of  his  own  motive  and  expectation, 
in  a  letter  to  Sanborn  on  the  following  day. 
"  I  have  only  had  this  one  opportunity  in  a  life  of 
nearly  sixty  years.  .  .  .  God  has  honored  but  com- 
paratively a  very  small  part  of  mankind  with  any 
possible  chance  for  such  mighty  and  soul-satisfying 
rewards.  ...  I  expect  nothing  but  to  endure  hard- 
ness, but  I  expect  to  effect  a  mighty  conquest,  even 
though  it  be  like  the  last  victory  of  Samson."  ** 
Nine  days  later  Brown  went  to  Boston, 
where  the  conspiracy  was  enlarged  and 
strengthened  by  the  promises  and  encourage- 
ments of  a  little  coterie  of  radical  abolitionists.! t 
Within  the  next  two  months  the  funds  he  de- 
sired were  contributed  and  sent  him.  Mean- 
while Brown  returned  West,  and  moved  his 
company  of  recruits  from  Iowa,  by  way  of 
Chicago  and  Detroit,  to  the  town  of  Chatham* 
in  Canada  West,  arriving  there  about  the  1st 
of  May.  By  written  invitations,  Brown  here- 
called  together  what  is  described  as  "  a  quiet 
convention  of  the  friends  of  freedom,"  to  per- 
fect his  organization.  On  the  8th  of  May,  1858. 
they  held  a  meeting  with  closed  doors,  there 
being  present  the  original  company  of  ten  or 
*  Blair  Testimony,  Mason  Report,  pp.  12 1-5. 
t  Sanborn  in  "  Atlantic,"  March,  1875,  P-329- 
%  Redpath,  "  Life  of  John  Brown,"  p.  206. 
§  Sanborn  in  "  Atlantic,"  July,  1872,  p  52. 
||  Sanborn  in  "Atlantic,"  March,  1875,  p.  329. 
IF  Sanborn, "  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Brown,"  p.  439. 
**  Sanborn,  "Atlantic,"  July,  1872,  p.  53. 
tt  "  Meantime  I  had  communicated  his  plans  at  his 
request  to  Theodore  Parker,  Wentworth  Higginson, 
and  Dr.  Howe,  and  had  given  Mr.  Stearns  some  gen- 
eral conception  of  them.  .  .  .  Xo  other  person  in 
New  England  except  these  four  was  informed  by  me 
of  the  affair,  though  there  were  many  who  knew  or 
suspected  Brown's  general  purposes.  .  .  .  Brown's 
first  request,  in  1858,  was  for  a  fund  of  $1000  only; 
with  this  in  hand  he  promised  to  take  the  field  either 
in  April  or  May.  Mr.  Stearns  acted  as  treasurer  of 
this  fund,  and  before  the  first  of  May  nearly  the  whole 
amount  had  been  paid  in  or  subscribed."  —  Sanborn, 
"  Atlantic,"  April,  1875,  pp.  456-7.
520 
LIXCOLX'S   COOPER  INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
eleven  white  members  and  one  colored,  whom 
Brown  had  brought  with  him,  and  a  some- 
what miscellaneous  gathering  of  negroes  res- 
idents of  Canada.  Some  sort  of  promise 
of  secrecy  was  mutually  made  ;  then  John 
Brown,  in  a  speech,  laid  his  plan  before  the 
meeting.  One  Delaney,  a  colored  doctor, 
in  a  response,  promised  the  assistance  of  all 
the  colored  people  in  Canada.*  The  provis- 
ional constitution  drafted  by  Brown  at  Roch- 
ester was  read  and  adopted  by  articles,  and 
about  forty-five  persons  signed  their  names  to 
the  "  Constitution,"  for  the  "  proscribed  and 
oppressed  races  of  the  United  States."  Two 
days  afterward,  the  meeting  again  convened 
for  the  election  of  officers,  John  Brown  was 
elected  Commander-in-chief  by  acclamation; 
other  members  were  by  the  same  summary 
method  appointed  Secretary  of  War,  Secretary 
of  State,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  two  of 
them  members  of  Congress.  The  election  of  a 
President  was  prudently  postponed. 
This  Chatham  convention  cannot  claim  con- 
sideration as  a  serious  deliberative  proceeding. 
John  Brown  was  its  sole  life  and  voice.  The  col- 
ored Canadians  were  nothing  but  spectators. 
The  ten  white  recruits  were  mere  Kansas  adven- 
turers, mostly  boys  in  years  and  waifs  in  so- 
ciety, perhaps  depending  largely  for  livelihood 
on  the  employment  or  bounty,  precarious  as  it 
was,  of  their  leader.  Upon  this  reckless,  drift- 
ing material  the  strong  despotic  will,  emotional 
enthusiasm,  and  mysterious  rhapsodical  talk 
of  John  Brown  exercised  an  irresistible  fasci- 
nation ;  he  drew  them  by  easy  gradations  into 
his  confidence  and  conspiracy.  The  remain- 
ing element,  John  Brown's  son  in  the  Chat- 
ham meeting,  and  other  sons  and  relatives  in 
the  Harper's  Ferry  attack,  are  of  course  but  the 
long  educated  instruments  of  the  father's 
thought  and  purpose. 
With  funds  provided,  with  his  plan  of  gov- 
ernment accepted,  and  himself  formally  ap- 
pointed commander-in-chief,  Brown  doubtless 
thought  his  campaign  about  to  begin  ;  it  was 
however  destined  to  an  unexpected  interrup- 
tion. The  discarded  and  disappointed  adven- 
turer Forbes  had  informed  several  prominent 
Republicans  in  Washington  City  that  Brown 
was  meditating  an  unlawful  enterprise;  and 
the  Boston  committee,  warned  that  certain 
arms  in  Brown's  custody,  which  had  been  con- 
tributed for  Kansas  defense,  were  about  to  be 
flagrantly  misused,  dared  not  incur  the  pub- 
lic odium  of  complicity  in  such  a  deception 
and  breach  of  faith.  The  Chatham  organiza- 
tion was  scarcely  completed  when  Brown 
received  word   from   the    Boston   committee 
*  Realf  Testimony,  Mason  Report,  p.  99. 
t  Stearns  to  Brown,  May  14th,  1858;   Howe,  Testi- 
mony, Mason  Report,  p.  177. 
that  he  must  not  use  the  arms  (the  200 
Sharps  rifles  and  200  revolvers)  which  had 
been  intrusted  to  him,  for  any  other  purpose 
than  for  the  defense  of  Kansas.t  Brown  hur- 
ried to  Boston  ;  but  oral  consultation  with  his 
friends  confirmed  the  necessity  for  postpone- 
ment; and  it  was  arranged  that,  to  lull  sus- 
picion, he  should  return  to  Kansas  and  await 
a  more  favorable  opportunity.  He  yielded 
assent,  and  that  fall  and  winter  performed  the 
exploit  of  leading  an  armed  foray  into  Mis- 
souri, and  carrying  away  eleven  slaves  to  Can- 
ada—  an  achievement  which,  while  to  a  certain 
degree  it  placed  him  in  the  attitude  of  a  pub- 
lic outlaw,  nevertheless  greatly  increased  his 
own  and  his  followers'  confidence  in  the  suc- 
cess of  his  grand  plan.  Gradually  the  various 
obstacles  melted  away.  Kansas  became  paci- 
fied. The  adventurer  Forbes  faded  out  of  sight 
and  importance.  The  disputed  Sharps  rifles 
and  revolvers  were  transferred  from  commit- 
tee to  committee,  and  finally  turned  over  to  a 
private  individual  to  satisfy  a  debt.  He  in 
turn  delivered  them  to  Brown  without  any 
hampering  conditions.  The  Connecticut  black- 
smith finished  and  shipped  the  thousand  pikes. 
The  contributions  from  the  Boston  committee 
swelled  from  one  to  several  thousands  of  dol- 
lars. The  recruits,  with  a  few  changes,  though 
scattered  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  were 
generally  held  to  their  organization  and  prom- 
ise, and  slightly  increased  in  number.  The 
provisional  Constitution  and  sundry  blank 
commissions  were  surreptitiously  printed,  and 
captains  and  lieutenants  appointed  by  the  sig- 
nature of  John  Brown  "  Commander-in-chief," 
countersigned  by  the  "  Secretary  of  War." 
Gradually,  also,  the  Commander-in-chief  re- 
solved on  an  important  modification  of  his 
plan;  that,  instead  of  plunging  at  once  into 
the  Virginia  mountains,  he  would  begin  by  the 
capture  of  the  United  States  armory  and 
arsenal  at  Harper's  Ferry.  Two  advantages 
seem  to  have  vaguely  suggested  themselves 
to  his  mind  as  likely  to  arise  from  this  course: 
the  possession  of  a  large  quantity  of  govern- 
ment arms,  and  the  wide-spread  panic  and 
moral  influence  of  so  bold  an  attempt.  But  it 
nowhere  appears  that  he  had  any  conception 
of  the  increased  risk  and  danger  it  involved, 
or  that  he  adopted  the  slightest  precaution  to 
meet  them. 
Harper's  Ferry  was  a  town  of  five  thousand 
inhabitants,  lying  between  the  slave  States  of 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Potomac  and  the  Shenandoah  rivers,  and 
where  the  united  streams  flow  through  a  pic- 
turesque gap  in  the  single  mountain-range 
called  the  Blue  Ridge.  The  situation  possesses 
none  of  the  elements  which  would  make  it  a 
defensible  fastness  for  protracted  guerilla  war-
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
52' 
fare,  such  as  was  contemplated  in  Brown's 
plan.  The  mountains  are  everywhere  ap- 
proachable without  difficulty;  are  pierced 
by  roads  and  farms  in  all  directions ;  contain 
few  natural  resources  for  sustenance,  defense, 
or  concealment  ;  are  easily  observed  or  con- 
trolled from  the  plain  by  superior  forces.  The 
town  is  irregular,  compact,  and  hilly ;  a  bridge 
across  each  stream  connects  it  with  the  oppo- 
site shores,  and  the  Government  factory  and 
buildings,  which  utilized  the  water-power  of 
the  Potomac,  lay  in  the  lowest  part  of  the 
point  of  land  between  the  streams.  The  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  Railroad  crosses  the  Potomac 
bridge. 
On  the  4th  of  July,  1859,  John  Brown,  under 
an  assumed  name,  with  two  sons  and  another 
follower,  appeared  near  Harper  s  Ferry,  and 
soon  after  rented  the  Kennedy  Farm,  in  Mary- 
land, five  miles  from  the  town,  where  he  made 
a  pretense  of  cattle-dealing  and  mining;  but 
in  reality  collected  secretly  his  rifles,  revolvers, 
ammunition,  pikes,  blankets,  tents,  and  mis- 
cellaneous articles  for  a  campaign.  His  rather 
eccentric  actions,  and  the  irregular  coming 
and  going  of  occasional  strangers  at  his  cabin, 
created  no  suspicion  in  the  neighborhood. 
Cautiously  increasing  his  supplies,  and  gath- 
ering his  recruits,  he  appointed  the  attack  for 
the  24th  of  October;  but  for  some  unexplained 
reason  (fear  of  treachery,  it  is  vaguely  sug- 
gested,) he  precipitated  his  movement  in  ad- 
vance of  that  date.  From  this  point  the  oc- 
currences exhibit  no  foresight  or  completeness 
of  preparation,  no  diligent  pursuit  of  an  intelli- 
gent plan,  nor  skill  to  devise  momentary  ex- 
pedients ;  only  a  blind  impulse  to  act. 
On  Sunday  evening,  October  16th,  1859, 
Brown  gave  his  final  orders,  humanely  direct- 
ing his  men  to  take  no  life  where  they  could 
avoid  it.  Placing  a  few  pikes  and  other  im- 
plements in  his  one-horse  wagon,  he  started 
with  his  company  of  eighteen  followers  at  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  leaving  five  men  behind. 
They  cut  the  telegraph  wires  on  the  way,  and 
reached  Harper's  Ferry  about  eleven  o'clock. 
He  himself  broke  open  the  armory  gates,  took 
the  watchmen  prisoners,  and  made  that  place 
his  headquarters.  Separating  his  men  into  small 
detachments,  he  took  possession  of,  and  at- 
tempted to  hold,  the  two  bridges,  the  arsenal, 
and  the  rifle-factory.  Next  he  sent  six  of  his 
men  five  miles  into  the  country  to  bring  in 
several  prominent  slave-owners  and  their 
slaves.  This  was  accomplished  before  day- 
light, and  all  were  brought  as  prisoners  to 
Brown  at  the  armory.  With  them  they  also 
brought  a  large  four-horse  farm  wagon,  which 
he  now  sent  to  transfer  arms  from  his  Kennedy 
farm  to  a  school-house  on  the  Maryland  side  of 
the  Potomac,  about  one  mile  from  the  town. 
Meanwhile,  about  midnight  of  Sunday,  they 
detained  the  railroad  train  three  hours,  but 
finally  allowed  it  to  proceed.  A  negro  porter 
was  shot  on  the  bridge.  The  town  began  to  be 
alarmed.  Citizens  were  captured  at  various 
points,  and  brought  to  swell  the  number  of  pris- 
oners at  the  armory,  counting  forty  or  fifty 
by  morning.  Still,  not  until  daylight,  and  even 
until  the  usual  hour  of  rising  on  Monday 
morning,  did  the  town  comprehend  the  na- 
ture and  extent  of  the  trouble. 
What,  now,  did  Brown  intend  to  do  ?  What 
result  did  he  look  for  from  his  movement  thus 
far?  Amid  his  conflicting  acts  and  contradic- 
tory explanations,  the  indications  seem  clear 
only  on  two  or  three  points.  Both  he  and  his  men 
gave  everybody  to  understand  without  reserve 
that  they  had  come  not  to  kill  or  destroy,  but 
only  to  liberate  the  slaves.  Soon,  also,  he  placed 
pikes  in  the  hands  of  his  black  prisoners.  But 
that  ceremony  did  not  make  soldiers  of  them, 
as  his  favorite  maxim  taught.  They  held  them 
in  their  hands  with  listless  indifference,  remain- 
ing themselves,  as  before,  an  incumbrance  in- 
stead of  a  reenforcement.  He  gave  his  white 
prisoners  notice  that  he  would  hold  them  as 
hostages,  and  informed  one  or  two  that,  after 
daylight,  he  would  exchange  them  for  slaves. 
Before  the  general  fighting  began,  he  endeav- 
ored to  effect  an  armistice  or  compromise  with 
the  citizens,  to  stop  bloodshed,  on  condition 
that  he  be  permitted  to  hold  the  armory  and 
retain  the  liberated  negroes.  All  this  warrants 
the  inference  that  he  expected  to  hold  the  town, 
first,  by  the  effect  of  terror;  secondly,  by  the  dis- 
play of  leniency  and  kindness;  and  supposed 
that  he  could  remain  indefinitely,  and  dictate 
terms  at  his  leisure.  The  fallacy  of  this  scheme 
became  quickly  apparent. 
As  the  day  dawned  upon  the  town  and  the 
truth  upon  the  citizens,  his  situation  in  a  military 
point  of  view  was  already  hopeless, —  eighteen 
men  against  perhaps  1000  adults,  and  these 
eighteen  scattered  in  four  or  five  different 
squads,  without  means  of  mutual  support, 
communication,  or  even  contingent  orders ! 
Gradually,  as  the  startled  citizens  became 
certain  of  the  insignificant  numbers  of  the  as- 
sailants, an  irregular  street-firing  broke  out 
between  Brown's  sentinels  and  individuals 
with  firearms.  The  alarm  was  carried  to 
neighboring  towrns,  and  killed  and  wounded 
on  both  sides  augmented  the  excitement. 
Tradition  rather  than  definite  record  asserts 
that  some  of  Brown's  lieutenants  began  to 
comprehend  that  they  were  in  a  trap,  and 
advised  him  to  retreat.  Nearly  all  his  eulo- 
gists have  assumed  that  such  was  his  original 
plan,  and  his  own  subsequent  excuses  hint  at 
this  intention.  But  the  claim  is  clearly  unten- 
able. He  had  no  means  of  defensive  retreat, —
ZIXCOLX'S   COOPER  INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
no  provisions,  no  transportation  for  his  arms 
and  equipage,  no  supply  of  ammunition.  The 
suggestion  is  an  evident  afterthought. 
Whether  from  choice  or  necessity,  how- 
ever, he  remained  only  to  rind  himself  more 
and  more  closely  pressed.  By  Monday  noon 
the  squad  in  the  rifle-works,  distant  one  mile 
from  the  armory,  had  been  driven  out,  killed, 
and  captured.  The  other  squads,  not  so  far 
from  their  leader,  joined  him  at  the  armory, 
minus  their  losses.  Already  he  was  driven  to 
take  refuge  with  his  diminished  force  in  the 
engine-house,  a  low,  strong  brick  building  in 
the  armory  yard,  where  they  barricaded  the 
doors  and  improvised  loop-holes,  and  into 
which  they  took  with  them  ten  selected  prison- 
ers as  hostages.  But  the  expedient  was  one 
of  desperation.  By  this  movement  Brown  lit- 
erally shut  himself  up  in  his  own  prison,  from 
which  escape  was  impossible. 
A  desultory  fire  was  kept  up  through  doors 
and  loop-holes.  But  now  the  whole  country 
had  become  thoroughly  aroused,  and  sundry 
military  companies  from  neighboring  towns 
and  counties  poured  into  Harper's  Ferry. 
Brown  himself  at  length  realized  the  hopeless- 
ness of  his  position,  and  parleyed  for  leave  to 
retreat  across  the  river  on  condition  of  his  giv- 
ing up  his  prisoners ;  but  it  was  too  late.  Pres- 
ident Buchanan  also  took  prompt  measures; 
and  on  Monday  night  a  detachment  of  eighty 
marines  from  the  Washington  navy-yard,  un- 
der command  of  Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee,  of 
the  United  States  army,  the  same  who  after- 
ward became  the  principal  leader  of  the  Con- 
federate armies  in  the  Rebellion,  reached  the 
scene  of  action,  and  were  stationed  in  the  arm- 
ory yard  so  as  to  cut  off  the  insurgents  from 
all  retreat.  At  daylight  on  Tuesday  morning 
Brown  was  summoned  to  surrender  at  discre- 
tion, but  he  refused.  The  instant  the  officer 
left  the  engine-house  a  storming-party  of  ma- 
rines battered  in  the  doors ;  in  five  minutes  the 
(  onflict  was  over.  One  marine  was  shot  dead 
in  the  assault;  Brown  fell  under  severe  sword 
and  bayonet  wounds,  two  of  his  son's  lay  dead 
or  dying,  and  four  or  five  ofhis  men  were  made 
ners,  only  two  remaining  unhurt.  The  great 
scheme  of  liberation  built  up  through  nearly 
three  years  of  elaborate  conspiracy,  and  de- 
id  to  'he  executed  in  defiance  of  law,  by 
individual  enterprise  with  pikes,  rifles,  forts, 
guerilla  war,  prisoners,  hostages,  and  plunder, 
was,  after  an  experimental  campaign  of  thirty- 
six  hours,  in  utter  collapse.  Of  Brown's  total 
force  of  twenty-two  men,  ten  were  killed,  five 
escaped,  and  seven  were  captured,  tried,  and 
hanged.  Of  the  townspeople,  five  had  been 
killed  and  eight  wounded. 
While  John  Brown's  ability  for  military 
leadership  is  too  insignificant  even  for  ridicule, 
his  moral  and  personal  courage  compelled  the 
admiration  of  his  enemies.  Arraigned  before 
a  Virginia  court,  the  authorities  hurried  through 
his  trial  for  treason,  conspiracy,  and  murder? 
with  an  unseemly  precipitancy,  almost  calcu- 
lated to  make  him  seem  the  accuser,  and  the 
commonwealth  the  trembling  culprit.  He  ac- 
knowledged his  acts  with  frankness,  defended 
his  purpose  with  a  sincerity  that  betokened 
honest  conviction,  bore  his  wounds  and  met 
his  fate  with  a  manly  fortitude.  Eight  years 
before,  he  had  written,  in  a  document  organiz- 
ing a  band  of  colored  people  in  Springfield, 
Massachusetts,  to  resist  the  fugitive  slave  law: 
"  Nothing  so  charms  the  American  people  as 
personal  bravery.  The  trial  for  life  of  one  bold, 
and  to  some  extent  successful,  man,  for  defend- 
ing his  rights  in  good  earnest,  would  arouse 
more  sympathy  throughout  the  nation  than 
the  accumulated  wrongs  and  sufferings  of  more 
than  three  millions  of  our  submissive  colored 
population."  Even  now,  when  mere  Quixotic 
knight-errantry  and  his  own  positive  violation 
of  the  rights  of  individuals  and  society  had 
put  his  life  in  forfeit,  this  sympathy  for  his 
boldness  and  misfortune  came  to  him  in  large- 
measure.  Questioned  by  Governor  Wise,  Sen- 
ator Mason,  and  Representative  Vallandig- 
ham  about  his  accomplices,  he  refused  to  say 
anything  except  about  what  he  had  done,  and 
freely  took  upon  himself  the  whole  responsi- 
bility. He  was  so  warped  by  his  religious  train- 
ing as  to  have  become  a  fatalist  as  well  as  a 
fanatic.  "  All  our  actions,"  he  said  to  one  who< 
visited  him  in  prison,  "  even  all  the  follies  that 
led  to  this  disaster,  were  decreed  to  happen 
ages  before  the  world  was  made."*  The 
gloomy  philosophy  of  Calvin  is  the  key  which 
unlocks  the  mysteries  of  Brown's  life  and  deeds. 
He  was  convicted,  sentenced,  and  hanged 
on  the  2d  of  December.  Congress  met  a  few 
days  afterward,  and  the  Senate  appointed  an 
investigating  committee  to  inquire  into  the 
seizure  of  the  United  States  armory  and  ar- 
senal. The  long  and  searching  examination 
of  many  witnesses  brought  out  with  sufficient 
distinctness  the  varied  personal  plottings  of 
Brown,  but  failed  to  reveal  that  half  a  dozen 
radical  abolition  clergymen  of  Boston  were 
party  to  the  conspiracy ;  nor  did  they  then  or 
afterward  justify  their  own  conduct  by  showing 
that  Christ  ever  counseled  treason,  abetted 
conspiracy,  or  led  rebellion  against  established 
government.  From  beginning  to  end,  the 
whole  act  was  reprehensible,  and  fraught  with 
evil  result.  Modern  civilization  and  republican 
government  require  that  beyond  the  self-de- 
fense necessary  to  the  protection  of  life  and 
limb,  all  coercive  reform  shall  act  by  authority 
of  law  only. 
*  Sanborn  in  "Atlantic,"  Dec,  1875,  p.  718.
LINCOLN'S   COOPER  INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
523 
Upon  politics  the  main  effect  of  the  Harper's 
Ferry  incident  was  to  aggravate  the  temper  and 
increase  the  bitterness  of  all  parties.  Jefferson 
Davis,  of  Mississippi;  Mason,  of  Virginia;  and 
Fitch,  of  Indiana,  democratic  members  of  the 
Senate  investigating  committee,  sought  dili- 
gently but  unsuccessfully  to  find  grounds  to 
hold  the  Republican  party  at  large  responsible 
for  Brown's  raid.  They  felt  obliged  to  report 
that  they  could  not  recommend  any  legislation 
to  meet  similar  cases  in  the  future,  since  the 
"  invasion  "  of  Virginia  was  not  of  the  kind 
mentioned  in  the  Constitution,  but  was  "  sim- 
ply the  act  of  lawless  ruffians,  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  no  public  or  political  authority."  * 
Collamer,  of  Vermont,  and  Doolittle,  of  Wis- 
consin, Republican  members  of  the  committee, 
in  their  minority  report,  considered  the  affair 
an  outgrowth  of  the  pro-slavery  lawlessness 
in  Kansas.  Senator  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  how- 
ever, apparently  with  the  object  of  still  further 
setting  himself  right  with  the  South,  and  aton- 
ing for  his  Freeport  heresy,  made  a  long  speech 
in  advocacy  of  a  law  to  punish  conspiracies 
in  one  State  or  Territory  against  the  govern- 
ment, people,  or  property  of  another;  once 
more  quoting  Lincoln's  Springfield  speech, 
and  Seward's  Rochester  speech  as  containing 
revolutionary  doctrines. 
In  the  country  at  large,  as  in  Congress,  the 
John  Brown  raid  excited  bitter  discussion  and 
radically  diverse  comment, —  some  execrating 
him  as  a  deserved  felon,  while  others  exalted 
him  as  a  saint.  His  Boston  friends  particularly, 
who  had  encouraged  him  with  either  voice  or 
money,  were  extravagant  in  their  demonstra- 
tions of  approval  and  admiration.  On  the  day 
of  his  execution  religious  services  were  held, 
and  funeral  bells  were  tolled.  "  Some  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,"  said  Thoreau,  "  Christ 
was  crucified ;  this  morning,  perchance,  Cap- 
tain Brown  was  hung.  These  are  the  two  ends 
of  a  chain  which  is  not  without  its  links."  f 
"  The  road  to  heaven,"  said  Theodore  Parker, 
"is  as  short  from  the  gallows  as  from  a  throne; 
perhaps,  also,  as  easy."  Emerson,  using  a  yet 
stronger  figure,  had  already  called  him  "  a  new 
saint,  waiting  yet  his  martyrdom,  and  who,  if* 
he  shall  suffer,  will  make  the  gallows  glorious 
like  the  cross."  \ 
Amid  this  conflict  of  argument,  public 
opinion  in  the  free  States  gravitated  to  neither 
extreme.  It  accepted  neither  the  declara- 
tion of  the  great  orator  Wendell  Phillips, 
that  "  the  lesson  of  the  hour  is  insurrection,"§ 
nor  the  assertion  of  the  great  lawyer  Charles 
*  Mason  Report,  p.  18. 
t  Redpath,  "  Echoes  of  Harper's  Ferry,"  p.  41. 
%  Cooke's  Life  of  Emerson,  p.  140. 
$  Lecture  at  Brooklyn,  November  1st,  1859.  "Echoes 
of  Harper's  Ferry,"  p.  43. 
O'Conor,  that  slavery  "  is  in  its  own  nature, 
as  an  institution,  beneficial  to  both  races."  j| 
This  chapter  would  be  incomplete  if  we 
neglected  to  emote  Mr.  Lincoln's  opinion  of 
the  Harper's  Ferry  attempt.  His  quiet  and 
common-sense  criticism  of  the  affair,  pro 
nounced  a  few  months  after  its  occurs 
was  substantially  the  conclusion  to  which  the 
average  public  judgment  has  come  after  the 
lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  : 
"  Slave  insurrections  arc  no  more  common  now  than 
they  were  before  the  Republican  party  was  organized. 
What  induced  the  Southampton  insurrection,  twenty- 
eight  years  ago,  in  which  at  least  three  times  as 
many  lives  were  lost  as  at  Harper's  Ferry  ?  You  can 
scarcely  stretch  your  very  elastic  fancy  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  Southampton  was  '  got  up  by  Black  Repub- 
licanism.' In  the  present  state  of  things  in  the  United 
States,  I  do  not  think  a  general  or  even  a  very  extensive 
slave  insurrection  is  possible.  The  indispensable 
concert  of  action  cannot  be  attained.  The  slaves  have 
no  means  of  rapid  communication;  nor  can  incendiary 
freemen,  black  or  white,  supply  it.  The  explosive 
materials  are  everywhere  in  parcels ;  but  there  neither 
are  nor  can  be  supplied  the  indispensable  connecting 
trains. 
"  Much  is  said  by  Southern  people  about  the  affec- 
tion of  slaves  for  their  masters  and  mistresses  ;  and  a 
part  of  it,  at  least,  is  true.  A  plot  for  an  uprising 
could  scarcely  be  devised  and  communicated  to  twenty 
individuals  before  some  one  of  them,  to  save  the  life  o'f 
a  favorite  master  or  mistress,  would  divulge  it.  This 
is  the  rule ;  and  the  slave  revolution  in  Hayti  was  not 
an  exception  to  it,  but  a  case  occurring  under  peculiar 
circumstances.  The  gunpowder  plot  of  British  history, 
though  not  connected  with  slaves,  was  more  in  point. 
In  that  case,  only  about  twenty  were  admitted  to  the 
secret;  and  yet  one  of  them,  in  his  anxiety  to  save  a 
friend,  betrayed  the  plot  to  that  friend,  and,  by  conse- 
quence, averted  the  calamity.  Occasional  poisonings 
from  the  kitchen,  and  open  or  stealthy  assassinations 
in  the  field,  and  local  revolts  extending  to  a  score  or  so, 
will  continue  to  occur  as  the  natural  results  of  slavery  ; 
but  no  general  insurrection  of  slaves,  as  I  think,  can 
happen  in  this  country  for  a  long  time.  Whoever 
much  fears  or  much  hopes  for  such  an  event,  will  be 
alike  disappointed.    .    .    . 
"  John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a 
slave  insurrection.  It  was  an  attempt  by  white  men  to 
get  up  a  revolt  among  slaves,  in  which  the  slaves  re- 
fused to  participate.  In  fact,  it  was  so  absurd  that  the 
slaves,  with  all  their  ignorance,  saw  plainly  enough  it 
could  not  succeed.  That  affair,  in  its  philosophy,  cor- 
responds with  the  many  attempts  related  in  history,  at 
the  assassination  of  kings  and  emperors.  An  enthusi- 
ast broods  over  the  oppression  of  a  people  till  he 
fancies  himself  commissioned  by  Heaven  to  liberate 
them.  He  ventures  the  attempt,  which  ends  in  little 
else  than  his  own  execution.  Orsini's  attempt  on 
Louis  Napoleon,  and  John  Brown's  attempt  at  Har- 
per's Ferry  were,  in  their  philosophy,  precisely  the 
same.  The  eagerness  to  cast  blame  on  old  England  in 
the  one  case,  and  on  New  England  in  the  other,  does 
not  disprove  the  sameness  of  The  two  things."  7\ 
The  aggravation  of  partisan  temper  over  the 
Harper's  Ferry  incident  found  a  manifestation 
||  Letter  to  Committee  of  Merchants,  December  20th, 
1859.     "  Echoes  of  Harper's  Ferry,"  p.  290. 
•Jf  Lincoln,  Cooper  Institute  speech,  Feb.  27th,  1S60.
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
in  a  contest  over  the  Speakership  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  as  prolonged  and 
bitter  as  that  which  attended  the  election  of 
Banks.  In  the  Congressional  elections  of 
1858,  following  the  Lecompton  controversy, 
the  Democrats  had  once  more  lost  control  of 
the  House  of  Representatives;  there  having 
been  chosen  113  Republicans,  93  Administra- 
tion Democrats, 8  anti-Lecompton  Democrats, 
and  23  South  Americans,  as  they  were  called; 
that  is,  members,  mainly  from  the  slave  States, 
opposed  to  the  Administration.* 
This  XXXVIth  Congress  began  its  session 
three  days  after  the  execution  of  John  Brown, 
and  the  election  of  a  Speaker  was  the  first 
work  of  the  new  House  of  Representatives. 
The  Republicans,  not  having  a  majority,  made 
no  caucus  nomination;  but  John  Sherman, of 
Ohio,  had  the  largest  following  on  the  first 
ballot,  and  thereafter  received  their  united  ef- 
forts to  elect  him.  At  this  point  a  Missouri 
member  introduced  a  resolution  declaring : 
"  That  the  doctrines  and  sentiments  of  a  certain  book 
called  '  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South  —  How  to 
Meet  it,'  purporting  to  have  been  written  by  one  Hin- 
ton  R.  Helper  [of  North  Carolina],  are  insurrection- 
ary and  hostile  to  the  domestic  peace  and  tranquillity 
of  the  country,  and  that  no  member  of  this  House  who 
has  indorsed  and  recommended  it,  or  the  compend 
from  it,  is  fit  to  be  Speaker  of  this  House."  t 
This  resolution  was  aimed  at  Sherman, 
who  with  some  seventy  Republicans  of  the 
previous  Congress  had  signed  a  circular  in- 
dorsing and  recommending  the  book  upon  the 
general  statement  that  it  was  an  antislavery 
work,  written  by  a  Southerner.  The  book  ad- 
dressed itself  to  non-slaveholding  Southern 
whites,  and  was  mainly  made  up  of  statistics, 
but  contained  occasional  passages  of  intolerant 
and  vindictive  sentiment  against  slaveholders. 
Whether  it  could  be  considered  "  insurrection- 
ary "  depended  altogether  on  the  pro-slavery 
or  antislavery  bias  of  the  critic.  Besides,  the 
author  had  agreed  that  the  obnoxious  passages 
should  not  be  printed  in  the  compendium  which 
the  Republicans  recommended  in  their  circular. 
When  interrogated,  Mr.  Sherman  replied  that 
he  had  never  seen  the  book,  and  that  "  I  am 
opposed  to  any  interference  whatever  by  the 
people  of  the  free  States  with  the  relations  of 
master  and  slave  in  the  slave  States."  But  the 
disavowal  did  not  relieve  him  from  Southern 
enmity.  The  fire-eaters  seized  the  pretext  to 
charge  him  with  all  manner  of  "  abolition  " 
intentions,  and  by  violent  debate  and  the  ut- 
terance of  threats  of  disunion,  made  the 
House  a  parliamentary  and  almost  a  revolu- 
*  Tribune  Almanac,  i860. 
t  Globe,  December  5th,  1859,  p.  3. 
%  Lincoln    to     McNeill,   April    6th, 
"  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,"  p.  441. 
:86o.   Lamon, 
tionary  babel  for  nearly  two  months.  Certain 
appropriations  were  exhausted,  and  the  treas- 
ury was  in  sore  need  of  funds.  Efforts  were 
made  to  adopt  the  plurality  rule,  and  to  choose 
a  Speaker  for  a  limited  period  ;  but  every  such 
movement  was  resisted  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
feating Sherman,  or  rather,  through  his  defeat 
to  force  the  North  into  unconditional  submis- 
sion to  extreme  pro-slavery  sentiment.  The 
struggle,  nominally  over  an  incident,  was  in 
reality  over  a  policy. 
On  January  30th,  i860,  Mr.  Sherman  with- 
drew his  name,  and  the  solid  Republican  vote 
was  given  to  William  Pennington  of  New  Jer- 
sey, another  Republican,  who,  on  February 
1st,  was  elected  Speaker  by  1 1 7  votes,  4  oppos- 
ing members  having  come  to  his  support. 
The  South  gained  nothing  by  the  obstruction- 
ist policy  of  its  members.  During  the  long  con- 
test, extending  through  forty-four  ballots,  their 
votes  were  scattered  among  many  candidates 
of  different  factions,  while  the  Republicans 
maintained  an  almost  unbroken  steadiness  of 
party  discipline.  On  the  whole,  the  principal 
results  of  the  struggle  were  to  sectionalize 
parties,  more  completely  ripen  Southern  senti- 
ment toward  secession,  and  combine  waver- 
ing voters  in  the  free  States  in  support  of  Re- 
publican doctrines. 
Lincoln's  cooper  institute  speech. 
Among  the  many  invitations  to  deliver  ad- 
dresses which  Lincoln  received  in  the  fall  of 
1859,  was  one  from  a  committee  asking  him 
to  lecture  in  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  in  a 
course  then  in  progress  there,  designed  for 
popular  entertainment.  "  I  wrote,"  said  Lin- 
coln, "  that  I  could  do  it  in  February,  pro- 
vided they  would  take  a  political  speech,  if  I 
could  find  time  to  get  up  no  other."  %  "  Your 
letter  was  duly  received  and  handed  over  to 
the  committee,"  was  the  response,  "  and  they 
accept  your  compromise.  You  may  lecture  at 
the  time  you  mention,  and  they  will  pay  you 
$200.  I  think  they  will  arrange  for  a  lecture 
in  New  York  also,  and  pay  you  $200  for 
♦that."  § 
Financial  obstacles,  or  other  reasons,brought 
about  the  transfer  of  the  engagement  to  a  new 
committee,  ||  and  the  invitation  was  repeated 
in  a  new  form  : 
"The  Young  Men's  Central  Republican  Union  of  this 
city  (New  York)  very  earnestly  desire  that  you  should 
deliver  what  I  may  term  a  political  lecture  during  the 
ensuing  month.  The  peculiarities  of  the  case  are 
these:  A  series  of  lectures  has  been  determined  upon. 
The  first  was  delivered  by  Mr.  Blair,  of  St.  Louis,  a 
%  Jas.  A.  Briggs  to  Lincoln,  November  1st,  1S59. 
MS. 
||  Jas.  A.  Briggs  in  New  York  "  Evening  Post," 
August  16th,  1867.
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
52. 
short  time  ago ;  the  second  will  be  in  a  few  days,  by 
Mr.  Cassius  M.  Clay,  and  the  third  we  would  prefer 
to  have  from  you  rather  than  any  other  person.  Of 
the  audience  I  should  add  that  it  is  not  [that]  of  an 
ordinary  political  meeting.  These  lectures  have  been 
contrived  to  call  out  our  better,  but  busier,  citizens  who 
never  attend  political  meetings.  A  large  part  of  the 
audience  will  also  consist  of  ladies."  * 
Lincoln,  however,  remained  under  the  im- 
pression that  the  lecture  was  to  be  given  in 
Brooklyn,  and  only  learned  after  he  reached 
New  York  to  fulfill  his  engagement  that  he  was 
to  speak  in  the  Cooper  Instituted  When,  on 
the  evening  of  February  2  7th,  1 860,  he  stood  be- 
fore his  audience,  he  saw  not  only  a  well-filled 
house,  but  an  assemblage  of  listeners  in  which 
were  many  whom,  by  reason  of  his  own  modest 
estimate  of  himself,  he  would  have  been  rather 
inclined  to  ask  advice  from  than  to  offer  instruc- 
tion to.  William  Cullen  Bryant  presided  over 
the  meeting;  David  Dudley  Field  escorted  the 
speaker  to  the  platform;  ex-Governor  King, 
Horace  Greeley,  James  W.  Nye,  Cephas 
Brainerd,  Charles  C.  Nott,  Hiram  Barney,  and 
others  sat  among  the  invited  guests.  "  Since  the 
days  of  Clay  and  Webster,"  said  the  "  Tribune  " 
next  morning,  "  no  man  has  spoken  to  a  larger 
assemblage  of  the  intellect  and  mental  cul- 
ture of  our  city."  Of  course  the  presence  of 
such  a  gathering  was  no  mere  accident.  Not 
only  had  Lincoln's  name  for  nearly  two  years 
found  constant  mention  in  the  newspapers, 
but  both  friendly  and  hostile  comment  had 
coupled  it  with  the  two  ranking  political 
leaders  in  the  free  States  —  Seward  and  Doug- 
las. The  representative  men  of  New  York  were 
naturally  eager  to  see  and  hear  one  who,  by 
whatever  force  of  eloquence  or  argument,  had 
attracted  so  large  a  share  of  the  public  attention. 
We  may  also  fairly  infer  that,  on  his  part,  Lin- 
coln was  no  less  curious  to  test  the  effect  of 
his  words  on  an  audience  more  learned  and 
critical  than  those  collected  in  the  open-air 
meetings  of  his  Western  campaigns.  This  mu- 
tual interest  was  an  evident  advantage  to  both; 
it  secured  a  close  attention  from  the  house, 
and  insured  deliberation  and  emphasis  by  the 
speaker,  enabling  him  to  develop  his  argu- 
ment with  perfect  precision  and  unity,  reach- 
ing perhaps  the  happiest  general  effect  ever 
attained  in  any  one  of  his  long  addresses. 
He  took  as  his  text  a  phrase  uttered  by 
Senator  Douglas  in  the  late  Ohio  campaign, — 
"  Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  govern- 
ment under  which  we  live,  understood  this 
question  just  as  well,  and  even  better  than  we 
do  now."  Lincoln  defined  "  this  question," 
with"  a  lawyer's  exactness,  thus : 
*  C.  C.  Nott  to  Lincoln,  February  9th,  i860.    MS. 
t  Lincoln  to  McNeill,  April  6th,  i860.  Lamon,  "  Life 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,"  p.  441. 
Vol.  XXXIV.— 72. 
"  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal 
authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbid  Mir 
Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  our 
Federal  Territories  ?  Upon  this  Senator  Douglas  holds 
the  affirmative,  and  the  Republicans  the  negative. 
This  affirmation  and  denial  form  an  issue,  and  this 
issue  —  this  question  —  is  precisely  what  the  text  de- 
clares our  fathers  understood  'better  than  we.'  " 
From  this  "  precise  and  agreed  starting- 
point  "  Lincoln  next  traced  with  minute  his- 
torical analysis  the  action  of  "  our  fathers  "  in 
framing  "  the  government  under  which  we  live," 
by  their  votes  and  declarations  in  the  Con- 
gresses which  preceded  the  Constitution,  and  in 
the  Congresses  following  which  proposed  its 
twelve  amendments  and  enacted  various  Terri- 
torial prohibitions.  His  conclusions  were  irre- 
sistibly convincing. 
"The  sum  of  the  whole  is,"  said  he,  "that  of  our 
thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed  the  original  Constitu- 
tion, twenty-one  —  a  clear  majority  of  the  whole  — 
certainly  understood  that  no  proper  division  of  local 
from  Federal  authority,  nor  any  part  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to 
slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories;  while  all  the  rest 
probably  had  the  same  understanding.  Such  unques- 
tionably was  the  understanding  of  our  fathers  who 
framed  the  original  Constitution;  and  the  text  affirms 
that  they  understood  the  question  '  better  than  we.'  .  .  . 
It  is  surely  safe  to  assume  that  the  thirty-nine  framers 
of  the  original  Constitution  and  the  seventy-six  mem- 
bers of  the  Congress  which  framed  the  amendments 
thereto,  taken  together,  do  certainly  include  those  who 
may  be  fairly  called  '  our  fathers  who  framed  the 
government  under  which  we  live.'  And  so  assum- 
ing, I  defy  any  man  to  show  that  any  one  of  them 
ever,  in  his  whole  life,  declared  that  in  his  under- 
standing any  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal 
authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade 
the  Federal  government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the 
Federal  Territories.  I  go  a  step  further.  I  defy  any 
one  to  show  that  any  living  man  in  the  whole  world 
ever  did,  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  century 
(and  I  might  almost  say  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the 
last  half  of  the  present  century),  declare  that  in  his 
understanding  any  proper  division  of  local  from  Fed- 
eral authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the 
Federal  Territories.  To  those  who  now  so  declare,  I 
give,  not  only  '  our  fathers  who  framed  the  govern- 
ment under  which  we  live,'  but  with  them  all  other 
living  men  within  the  century  in  which  it  was  framed, 
among  whom  to  search,  and  they  shall  not  be  able  to 
find  the  evidence  of  a  single  man  agreeing  with  them. 
"  Now,  and  here,  let  me  guard  a  little  against  being 
misunderstood.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  we  are  bound 
to  follow  implicitly  in  whatever  our  fathers  did.  To 
do  so  would  be  to  discard  all  the  lights  of  current  ex- 
perience—  to  reject  all  progress,  all  improvement. 
What  I  do  say  is,  that  if  we  would  supplant  the  opin- 
ions and  policy  of  our  fathers  in  any  case,  we  should 
do  so  upon  evidence  so  conclusive,  and  argument  so 
clear,  that  even  their  great  authority,  fairly  considered 
and  weighed,  cannot  stand ;  and  most  surely  not  in  a 
case,  whereof  we  ourselves  declare  they  understood 
the  question  better  than  we." 
If  any  part  of  the  audience  came  with  the 
expectation  of  hearing  the  rhetorical  fireworks 
of  a  Western  stump-speaker  of  the  "  half-horse, 
half- alligator"  variety,  they  met  novelty  of  an 
unlocked  for  kind.  In  Lincoln's  entire  address
LINCOLN'S   COOPER  INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
he  neither  introduced  an  anecdote  nor  essayed 
a  witticism ;  and  the  first  half  of  it  does  not 
contain  even  an  illustrative  figure  or  a  poeti- 
cal fancy.  It  was  the  quiet,  searching  exposi- 
tion of  the  historian,  and  the  terse,  compact 
reasoning  of  the  statesman,  about  an  abstract 
principle  of  legislation,  in  language  well-nigh 
as  restrained  and  colorless  as  he  would  have 
employed  in  arguing  a  case  before  a  court. 
Vet  such  was  the  apt  choice  of  words,  the  easy 
precision  of  sentences,  the  simple  strength  of 
propositions,  the  fairness  of  every  point  he  as- 
sumed, and  the  force  of  every  conclusion  he 
drew,  that  his  listeners  followed  him  with  the 
interest  and  delight  a  child  feels  in  its  easy 
mastery  of  a  plain  sum  in  arithmetic. 
With  the  sympathy  and  confidence  of  his 
audience  thus  enlisted,  Lincoln  next  took  up 
the  more  prominent  topics  in  popular  thought, 
and  by  words  of  kindly  admonition  and  protest 
addressed  to  the  people  of  the  South,  showed 
how  impatiently,  unreasonably,  and  unjustly 
the\-  were  charging  the  Republican  party  with 
sectionalism,  with  radicalism,  with  revolution- 
ary purpose,  with  the  John  Brown  raid,  and 
kindred  political  offenses,  not  only  in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  acts  to  justify  such  charges,  but 
even  in  the  face  of  its  emphatic  and  constant 
denials  and  disavowals.  The  illustration  with 
which  he  concluded  this  branch  of  his  theme 
could  not  well  be  surpassed  in  ^argumentative 
force. 
"  But  you  will  not  abide  the  election  of  a  Republi- 
can President !  In  that  supposed  event,  you  say,  you  will 
destroy  the  Union  ;  and  then  you  say,  the  great  crime 
of  having  destroyed  it  will  be  upon  us  !  That  is  cool. 
A  highwayman  holds  a  pistol  to  my  ear,  and  mutters 
through  his  teeth, '  Stand  and  deliver,  or  I  shall  kill  you, 
and  then  you  will  be  a  murderer  !'  To  be  sure  what  the 
robber  demanded  of  me  —  my  money  —  was  my  own ; 
and  I  had  a  clear  right  to  keep  it ;  but  it  was  no  more 
my  own  than  my  vote  is  my  own ;  and  the  threat  of 
death  to  me  to  extort  my  money,  and  the  threat  of 
destruction  to  the  Union  to  extort  my  vote,  can 
scarcely  be  distinguished  in  principle." 
But  the  most  impressive,  as  well  as  the  most 
valuable,  feature  of  Lincoln's  address  was  its 
concluding  portion,  where,  in  advice  directed 
especially  to  Republicans,  he  pointed  out  in 
dis] passionate  but  earnest  language  that  the 
real,  underlying  conflict  was  in  the  difference 
of  moral  conviction  between  the  sections  as 
to  the  inherent  right  or  wrong  of  slavery,  and 
in  view  of  which  he  defined  the  proper  duty 
of  the  free  States. 
"A  few  ."'  said  he,  "to  Republicans.   Tt 
is  exceedingly  desirable  that  all  parts  of  this  great  Con- 
federacy shall  be  at  peace  and  in  harmony  one  with 
another.  Let  us  Republicans  do  our  part  to  have  it  so. 
Even  though  much  provoked,  let  us  do  nothing  through 
on  and  id  temper.  Even  though  the  Southern 
people  will  not  so  much  as  listen  to  us,  let  us  calmly 
consider  their  demands,  and  yield  to  them  if,  in  our 
deliberate  view  of  our  duty,  we  possibly  can.    Judging 
by  all  they  say  and  do,  and  by  the  subject  and  nature 
of  their  controversy  with  us,  let  us  determine,  if  we  can„ 
what  will  satisfy  them. 
"Will  they  be  satisfied  if  the  Territories  be  uncon- 
ditionally surrendered  to  them  ?  We  know  they  will  not. 
In  all  their  present  complaints  against  us  the  Territo- 
ries are  scarcely  mentioned.  Invasions  and  insurrec- 
tions are  the  rage  now.  Will  it  satisfy  them  if,  in  the 
future,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  invasions  and  insur- 
rections ?  We  know  it  will  not.  We  so  know,  because 
we  know  we  never  had  anything  to  do  with  invasions 
and  insurrections  ;  and  yet  this  total  abstaining  does 
not  exempt  us  from  the  charge  and  the  denunciation. 
"  The  question  recurs,  What  will  satisfy  them  ?  Simply 
this :  We  must'not  only  let  them  alone,  but  we  must,, 
somehow,  convince  them  that  we  do  let  them  alone. 
This,  we  know  by  experience,  is  no  easy  task.  We 
have  been  so  trying  to  convince  them  from  the  very 
beginning  of  our  organization,  but  with  no  success.  In 
all  our  platforms  and  speeches  we  have  constantly 
protested  our  purpose  to  let  them  alone ;  but  this  has 
had  no  tendency  to  convince  them.  Alike  unavailing 
to  convince  them  is  the  fact  that  they  have  never  de- 
tected a  man  of  us  in  any  attempt  to  disturb  them. 
"  These  natural  and  apparently  adequate  means  all 
failing,  what  will  convince  them  ?  This,  and  this  only  : 
cease  to  call  slavery  wrong,  and  join  them  in  calling  it 
right.  And  this  must  be  done  thoroughly  —  done  in 
acts  as  well  as  in  words.  Silence  will  not  be  tolerated; 
we  must  place  ourselves  avowedly  with  them.  Sen- 
ator Douglas's  new  sedition  law  must  be  enacted  and 
enforced,  suppressing  all  declarations  that  slavery  is 
wrong,  whether  made  in  politics,  in  presses,  in  pulpits, 
or  in  private.  We  must  arrest  and  return  their  fugitive 
slaves  with  greedy  pleasure.  We  must  pull  down  our 
free-State  constitutions.  The  whole  atmosphere  must 
be  disinfected  from  all  taint  of  opposition  to  slavery 
before  they  will  cease  to  believe  that  all  their  troubles 
proceed  from  us. 
"  I  am  quite  aware  they  do  not  state  their  case  pre- 
cisely in  this  way.  Most  of  them  would  probably  say 
to  us,  '  Let  us  alone,  do  nothing  to  us,  and  say  what 
you  please  about  slavery. '  But  we  do  let  them  alone  — 
have  never  disturbed  them  ;  so  that,  after  all,  it  is  what 
we  say  which  dissatisfies  them.  They  will  continue  to 
accuse  us  of  doing  until  we  cease  saying. 
"  I  am  also  aware  they  have  not,  as  yet,  in  terms, 
demanded  the  overthrow  of  our  free-State  constitutions. 
Yet  those  constitutions  declare  the  wrong  of  slavery, 
with  more  solemn  emphasis  than  do  all  other  sayings 
against  it,  and  when  all  these  other  sayings  shall  have 
been  silenced,  the  overthrow  of  these  constitutions  will 
be  demanded  and  nothing  be  left  to  resist  the  demand. 
It  is  nothing  to  the  contrary  that  they  do  not  demand 
the  whole  of  this  just  now.  Demanding  what  they  do, 
and  for  the  reason  they  do,  they  can  voluntarily  stop 
nowhere  short  of  this  consummation.  Holding,  as  they 
do,  that  slavery  is  morally  right,  and  socially  elevating, 
they  cannot  cease  to  demand  a  full  national  recognition 
of  it,  as  a  legal  right  and  a  social  blessing. 
"  Nor  can  we  justifiably  withhold  this  on  any  ground, 
save  our  conviction  that  slavery  is  wrong.  If  slavery 
is  right,  all  words,  acts,  laws,  and  constitutions  against 
it  are  themselves  wrong,  and  should  be  silenced  and 
swept  away.  If  it  is  right,  we  cannot  justly  object  to 
its  nationality  —  its  universality  !  if  it  is  wrong,  they 
cannot  justly  insist  upon  its  extension  —  its  enlarge- 
ment. All  they  ask  we  could  readily  grant,  if  we 
thought  slavery  right ;  all  we  ask  they  could  as  readily 
grant,  if  they  thought  it  wrong.  Their  thinking  it  right, 
and  our  thinkingit  wrong,  is  the  precise  fact  upon  which 
depends  the  whole  controversy.  Thinkingit  right,  as 
they  do,  they  are  not  to  blame  for  desiring  its  full  re- 
cognition, as  being  right ;  but  thinking  it  wrong  as  we 
do,  can  we  yield  to  them  ?  Can  we  cast  our  votes  with 
their  view  and  against  our  own  ?  In  view  of  our  moral,, 
social,  and  political  responsibilities,  can  we  do  this?
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
527 
"  Wrong  as  we  think  slavery  is,  we  can  yet  afford  to 
let  it  alone  where  it  is,  because  that  much  is  due  to  the 
necessity  arising  from  its  actual  presence  in  the  nation ; 
but  can  we,  while  our  votes  will  prevent  it,  allow  it  to 
spread  into  the  national  Territories,  and  to  overrun  us 
here  in  the  free-States  ?  If  our  sense  of  duty  forbids 
this,  then  let  us  stand  by  our  duty,  fearlessly  and  ef- 
fectively. Let  us  be  diverted  by  none  of  those  sophis- 
tical contrivances  wherewith  we  are  so  industriously 
plied  and  belabored,  contrivances  such  as  groping  for 
some  middle  ground  between  the  right  and  the  wrong, 
vain  as  the  search  for  a  man  who  should  be  neither  a 
living  man  nor  a  dead  man,  such  as  a  policy  of '  don't 
care,'  on  a  question  about  which  all  true  men  do  care, 
such  as  Union  appeals  beseeching  true  Union  men  to 
yield  to  Disunionists ;  reversing  the  divine  rule,  and 
calling,  not  the  sinners,  but  the  righteous  to  repentance; 
such  as  invocations  to  Washington,  imploring  men  to 
unsay  what  Washington  said,  and  undo  what  Washing- 
ton did. 
"Neither  let  us  be  slandered  from  our  duty  by  false 
accusations  against  us,  nor  frightened  from  it  by  men- 
aces of  destruction  to  the  Government  nor  of  dungeons 
to  ourselves.  Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes  might, 
and  in  that  faith, let  us,  to  the  end,  dare  to  do  our  duty 
as  we  understand  it." 
The  smiles,  the  laughter,  the  outbursts  of 
applause  which  greeted  and  emphasized  the 
speaker's  telling  points,  showed  Mr.  Lincoln 
that  his  arguments  met  ready  acceptance.  The 
next  morning  the  four  leading  New  York  dailies 
printed  the  speech  in  full,  and  bore  warm  tes- 
timony to  its  merit  and  effect. 
"  Mr.  Lincoln  is  one  of  nature's  orators,"  said  the 
"Tribune,"  "using  his  rare  powers  solely  to  elucidate 
and  convince,  though  their  inevitable  effect  is  to  delight 
and  electrify  as  well.  We  present  herewith  a  very  full 
and  accurate  report  of  this  speech ;  yet  the  tones,  the 
gestures,  the  kindling  eye,  and  the  mirth-provoking 
look  defy  the  reporter's  skill.  The  vast  assemblage  fre- 
quently rang  with  cheers  and  shouts  of  applause,  which 
were  prolonged  and  intensified  at  the  close.  No  man 
ever  before  made  such  an  impression  on  his  first  appeal 
to  a  New  York  audience."  * 
A  pamphlet  reprint  was  at  once  announced 
by  the  same  paper;  and  later,  in  the  Presiden- 
tial campaign,  a  more  careful  edition  was  pre- 
pared and  circulated,  to  which  were  added  co- 
pious notes  by  two  members  of  the  committee 
under  whose  auspices  the  address  was  deliv- 
ered. Their  comment, printed  in  the  preface,  is 
worth  quoting  as  showing  its  literary  value  un- 
der critical  analysis. 
"  No  one  who  has  not  actually  attempted  to  verify 
its  details  can  understand  the  patient  research  and  his- 
torical labor  which  it  embodies.  The  history  of  our 
earlier  politics  is  scattered  through  numerous  journals, 
statutes,  pamphlets,  and  letters ;  and  these  are  defect- 
ive in  completeness  and  accuracy  of  statement,  and  in 
indices  and  tables  of  contents.  Neither  can  any  one  who 
has  not  traveled  over  this  precise  ground  appreciate 
the  accuracy  of  every  trivial  detail,  or  the  self-denying 
impartiality  with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  has  turned  from 
the  testimony  of  '  the  fathers'  on  the  general  question 
of  slavery,  to  present  the  single  question  which  he 
discusses.  From  the  first  line  to  the  last,  from  his  prem- 
*  "  New  York  Tribune,"  February  28th,  i860, 
t  Pamphlet  edition  with  notes  and  preface  by  Charles 
G.  Nott  and  Cephas  Brainerd,  September,  i860. 
ises  to  his  conclusion,  lie  travels  with  a  swift,  unerring 
directness  which  no  logician  ever  excelled, ai 
complete  and  full,  without  the  affectation  of  learning, 
and  without  the  stiffness  which  usually  accomp; 
dates  and  details.  A  single,  easy,  simple  sentence  of 
plain  Anglo-Saxon  words  contains  a  chapter  of  history 
that,  in  some  instances,  has  taken  days  of  labor  to  verify, 
and  which  must  have  cost  the  author  months  of  inves- 
tigation to  acquire."  t 
From  New  York  Lincoln  went  to  fill  other 
engagements  to  speak  at  several  places  in 
New  England,  where  he  met  the  same  enthu- 
siastic popular  reception  and  left  the  same- 
marked  impression,  especially  upon  the  more 
critical  and  learned  hearers.  They  found  no 
little  surprise  in  the  fact  that  a  Western  poli- 
tician, springing  from  the  class  of  unlettered 
frontiersmen,  could  not  only  mold  plain  strong 
words  into  fresh  and  attractive  phraseology, 
but  maintain  a  clear,  sustained,  convincing  ar- 
gument, equal  in  force  and  style  to  the  best  ex- 
amples in  their  college  text-books.  More 
interesting,  however,  than  the  experiences  of 
those  who  listened  to  him  are  the  comments 
of  Lincoln  himself  on  the  methods  by  which 
he  acquired  his  powers  as  an  orator.  A  clergy- 
man who  was  among  his  auditors  on  one  of 
these  occasions  has  recorded  the  following  as 
among  his  statements  in  a  conversation  he 
held  with  him  in  a  railroad  car : 
"  '  Ah  !  that  reminds  me,'  he  said '  of  a  most  extra- 
ordinary circumstance,  which  occurred  in  New  Haven, 
the  other  day.  They  told  me  that  the  professor  of 
rhetoric  in  Yale  College — a  very  learned  man,  isn't 
he  ?  '  '  Yes,  sir,  and  a  very  fine  critic  too. '  '  Well,  I  sup- 
pose so;  he  ought  to  be  at  any  rate  —  they  told  me 
that  he  came  to  hear  me,  and  took  notes  of  my  speech, 
and  gave  a  lecture  on  it  to  his  class  the  next  day  ;  and, 
not  satisfied  with  that,  he  followed  me  up  to  Meriden 
the  next  evening,  and  heard  me  again  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. Now,  if  this  is  so,  it  is  to  my  mind  very  extra- 
ordinary. I  have  been  sufficiently  astonished  at  my 
success  in  the  West.  It  has  been  most  unexpected. 
But  I  had  no  thought  of  any  marked  success  at  the 
East,  and  least  of  all  that  I  should  draw  out  such  com- 
mendations from  literary  and  learned  men  !  '    .    .    . 
"  'That  suggests,  Mr.  Lincoln,  an  inquiry  which  has 
several  times  been  upon  my  lips  during  this  conversa- 
tion. I  want  very  much  to  know  how  you  got  this  unusual 
power  of  "  putting  things. "  It  must  have  been  a  matter 
of  education.  No  man  has  it  by  nature  alone.  What 
has  your  education  been  ?  ' 
"'Well,  as  to  education,  the  newspapers  are  correct 
—  I  never  went  to  school  more  than  six  months  in  my 
life.  But,  as  you  say,  this  must  be  a  product  of  culture 
in  some  form.  I  have  been  putting  the  question  you 
ask  me  to  myself  while  you  have  been  talking.  I  say 
this,  that  among  my  earliest  recollections,  I  remember 
how,  when  a  mere  child,  I  used  to  get  irritated  when 
anybody  talked  to  me  in  a  way  I  could  not  understand. 
I  don't  think  I  ever  got  angry  at  anything  else  in  my 
life.  But  that  always  disturbed  my  temper,  and  has  ever 
since.  I  can  remember  going  to  my  little  bedroom, 
after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an  evening  with  my 
father,  and  spending  no  small  part  of  the  night  walking 
up  and  down,  and  trying  to  make  out  what  was  the  ex- 
act meaning  of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark  sayings.  I 
could  not  sleep,  though  I  often  tried  to,  when  I  got  on 
such  a  hunt  after  an  idea,  until  I  had  caught  n;  and 
when  I  thought  I  had  got  it,  I  was  not  satisfied  until
S*8 
LINCOLN'S   COOPER  INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
I  had  repeated  it  over  and  over,  until  I  had  put  it  in 
language   plain  enough,  as   I  thought,  for  any  boy  I 
knew  to  comprehend.  This  was  a  kind  of  passion  with 
ind  it  has  stuck  by  me,  for  I  ani  never  easy  now, 
when  1  am  handling  a  thought,  till  I  have  bounded  it 
north  and  bounded  it  south  and  bounded  it  east  and 
bounded  it  west.  Perhaps  that  accounts  for  the  charac- 
teristic vou  observe  in  my  speeches,  though  I  never  put 
the  two  thing-  together  before.' 
"  '  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  thank  you  for  this.  It  is  the  most 
splendid  educational  fact  I  ever  happened  upon.  This 
is  genius,  with  all  its  impulsive,  inspiring,  dominating 
power  over  the  mind  of  its  possessor,  developed  by 
education  into  talent,  with  its  uniformity,  its  perma- 
nence, and  its  disciplined  strength,  always  ready,  always 
available,  never  capricious  —  the  highest  possession  of 
the  human  intellect.  But,  let  me  ask,  did  you  not  have 
a  law  e  lucation  ?  How  did  you  prepare  for  your  pro- 
fession ?  ' 
"  '  Oh,  yes  !  I  "  read  law,"  as  the  phrase  is  ;  that  is,  I 
became  a  lawyer's  clerk  in  Springfield,  and  copied  te- 
dious documents,  and  picked  up  what  I  could  of  law 
in  the  intervals  of  other  work.  But  your  question  re- 
minds me  of  a  bit  of  education  I  had,  which  I  am  bound 
in  honesty  to  mention.  In  the  course  of  my  law-reading 
I  constantly  came  upon  the  word  demonstrate.  I 
thought  at  first  that  I  understood  its  meaning,  but  soon 
became  satisfied  that  I  did  not.  I  said  to  myself,  "  What 
do  I  do  wdien  I  demonstrate  more  than  when  I  reason 
or  prove  ?  How  does  demonstration  differ  from  any 
other  proof?  "  I  consulted  Webster's  Dictionary.  That 
told  of  "  certain  proof"  "  proof  beyond  the  possibility 
of  doubt;  "  but  I  could  form  no  idea  of  what  sort  of 
proof  that  was.  I  thought  a  great  many  things  were 
proved  beyond  a  possibility  of  doubt,  without  recourse 
to  any  such  extraordinary  process  of  reasoning  as  I 
understood  "  demonstration  "  to  be.  I  consulted  all  the 
dictionaries  and  books  of  reference  I  could  find,  but 
with  no  better  results.  You  might  as  well  have  de- 
fined blue  to  a  blind  man.  At  last  I  said,  "Lincoln, 
you  can  never  make  a  lawyer  if  you  do  not  understand 
what  demonstrate  means  ;  "  and  I  left  my  situation  in 
Springfield,  went  home  to  my  father's  house,  and  staid 
there  till  I  could  give  any  proposition  in  the  six  books  of 
Euclid  at  sight.  I  then  found  out  what  "  demonstrate  " 
means,  and  went  back  to  my  law  studies.' 
"  I  could  not  refrain  from  saying,  in  my  admiration 
at  such  a  development  of  character  and  genius  com- 
bined, '  Mr.  Lincoln,  your  success  is  no  longer  a  mar- 
vel.   It  is  the  legitimate  result  of  adequate  causes.'  "  * 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  report 
of  the  foregoing  conversation  was  not  written 
until  more  than  four  years  after  it  took  place. 
While  the  main  facts  and  ideas  are  doubtless 
given  with  reasonable  fidelity,  anything  like 
verbal  accuracy  in  recording  Mr.  Lincoln's 
phraseology  is  not  to  be  presumed.  Those 
acquainted  with  his  style  can  see  that  the  lan- 
guage is  clearly  that  of  his  interviewer,  though 
the  latter  has  evidently  reproduced  the  main 
current  of  the  conversation.  We  have  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  own  handwriting  the  affirmance  of 
one  of  the  facts  mentioned  and  discussed.  In  a 
brief  sketch  of  his  early  life  which  he  wrote 
after  his  first  nomination,  to  serve  as  memo- 
randa for  a  campaign  biographer,  stands  this 
modest  sentence;  he  speaking  of  himself  in 
the  third  person  :  "  He    studied  and  nearly 
*  The  Rev.  J.  P.  Gulliver  in  N.  Y.  "Independent," 
Sept.  ist,  1864. 
mastered  the  six  books  of  Euclid  since  he  was 
a  member  of  Congress."  In  the  frank  explana- 
tion made  in  the  interview  quoted  from,  we 
are  let  more  into  the  motives  and  details  of 
this  and  other  of  his  educational  experiences, 
and,  despite  the  verbal  defects  of  the  report, 
we  discern  the  strong  qualities  and  diligent 
methods  by  aid  of  which  he  attained  such 
rare  excellence  in  argument  and  oratory. 
THE  CHARLESTON  CONVENTION. 
The  great  political  struggle  between  the 
North  and  the  South,  between  Freedom  and 
Slavery,  was  approaching  its  culmination. 
The  "  irrepressible  conflict "  had  shifted  uneas- 
ily from  caucus  to  Congress;  from  Congress 
to  Kansas ;  incidentally  to  the  Supreme  Court 
and  to  the  Congressional  elections  in  the  various 
States;  from  Kansas  it  had  come  back  with  re- 
newed intensity  to  Congress.  The  next  stage 
of  development  through  which  it  was  des- 
tined to  pass  was  the  Presidential  election  of 
i860,  where,  necessarily,  the  final  result  would 
depend  largely  upon  the  attitude  and  rela- 
tion of  parties,  platforms,  and  candidates  as 
selected  and  proclaimed  by  their  National 
conventions. 
The  first  of  these  National  conventions  was 
that  of  the  Democratic  party,  long  appointed 
to  meet  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  on  April 
23d,  i860.  The  fortunes  of  the  party  had  greatly 
fluctuated.  The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise had  brought  it  shipwreck  in  1854; 
it  had  regained  victory  in  the  election  of  Bu- 
chanan, and  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives in  1856;  then  the  Lecompton 
imbroglio  once  more  caused  its  defeat  in  the 
Congressional  elections  of  1858.  But  worse 
than  the  victory  of  its  opponents  was  the  irrec- 
oncilable schism  in  its  own  ranks  —  the  open 
war  between  President  Buchanan  and  Senator 
Douglas.  In  a  general  way  the  Southern  de- 
mocracy followed  Buchanan,  while  the  North- 
ern democracy  followed  Douglas.  Yet  there  was 
just  enough  local  exception  to  baffle  accurate 
calculation.  Could  the  Charleston  Convention 
heal  the  feud  of  leaders,  and  bridge  the  chasm 
in  policy  and  principle  ?  As  the  time  ap- 
proached, and  delegation  after  delegation  was 
chosen  by  the  States,  all  hope  of  accommoda- 
tion gradually  disappeared.  Each  faction  put 
forth  its  utmost  efforts,  rallied  its  strongest 
men.  Each  caucus  and  convention  only  ac- 
centuated and  deepened  existing  differences. 
When  the  convention  met,  its  members  brought 
not  the  ordinary  tricks  and  expedients  of  poli- 
ticians with  carte  blanche  authority,  but  the 
precise  formulated  terms  to  which  their  con- 
stituencies would  consent.  They  were  only 
messengers,  not  arbitrators.    The  Charleston
LINCOLN'S   COOPER   INSTITUTE   SPEECH. 
529 
Convention  was  the  very  opposite  of  its 
immediate  predecessor,  the  Cincinnati  Con- 
vention. At  Cincinnati,  concealment  and  am- 
biguity had  been  the  central  thought  and 
purpose.  Everybody  was  anxious  to  be  hood- 
winked. Delegates,  constituencies,  and  lead- 
ers had  willingly  joined  in  the  game  of 
"  cheat  and  be  cheated."  Availability,  har- 
mony, party  success,  were  the  paramount 
objects. 
No  similar  ambiguity,  concealment,  or  bar- 
gain was  possible  at  Charleston.  There  was 
indeed  a  whole  brood  of  collateral  issues  to 
be  left  in  convenient  obscurity,  but  the  central 
questions  must  not  be  shirked.  The  Lecomp- 
ton  quarrel,  the  Freeport  doctrine,  the  prop- 
erty theory,  the  "  slave-State  "  dogma,  the  Con- 
gressional slave  code  proposal,  must  be  boldly 
met  and  squarely  adjusted.  Even  if  the  dele- 
gates had  been  disposed  to  trifle  with  their 
constituents,  the  leaders  themselves  would  tol- 
erate no  evasion  on  certain  cardinal  points. 
Douglas,  in  his  Dorr  letter,  had  announced  that 
he  would  surfer  no  interpolation  of  new  issues 
into  the  Democratic  creed.  In  his  pamphlet 
reply  to  Judge  Black  he  repeated  his  deter- 
mination with  emphasis. 
"  Suppose  it  were  true  that  I  am  a  presidential'  as- 
pirant ;  does  that  fact  justify  a  combination  by  a  host 
of  other  presidential  aspirants,  each  of  whom  may  ima- 
gine that  his  success  depends  upon  my  destruction,  and 
the  preaching  a  crusade  against  me  for  boldly  avowing 
now  the  same  principles  to  which  they  and  I  were 
pledged  at  the  last  presidential  election  ?  Is  this  a 
sufficient  excuse  for  devising  a  new  test  of  political  or- 
thodoxy ?  .  .  .  I  prefer  the  position  of  Senator  or 
even  that  of  a  private  citizen,  where  I  would  be  at  lib- 
erty to  defend  and  maintain  the  well-defined  principles 
of  the  Democratic  party,  to  accepting  a  presidential 
nomination  upon  a  platform  incompatible  with  the 
principle  of  self-government  in  the  Territories,  or  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  States,  or  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Union  under  the  Constitution."  * 
This  declaration  very  clearly  defined  the 
issue  on  one  side.  On  the  other  side  it  was 
also  formulated  with  equal  distinctness.  Jef- 
ferson Davis,  already  recognized  as  the  ablest 
leader  of  the  Buchanan  wing  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Senators,  wrote  and  submitted  to  the 
United  State  Senate,  on  February  2d,  i860,  a 
series  of  resolutions  designed  to  constitute  the 
Administration  or  Southern  party  doctrines, 
which  were  afterward  revised  and  adopted  by 
a  caucus  of  Democratic  Senators.!  These 
resolutions  expressed  the  usual  party  tenets ; 
and  on  two  of  the  controverted  points  asserted 
dogmatically  exactly  that  which  Douglas  had 
stigmatized  as  an  intolerable  heresy.  The 
fourth  resolution  declared  — 
*  Douglas's  Reply  to  Black.    Pamphlet,  Oct.,  1S59. 
t  Jefferson  Davis,  Senate  speech,  Globe,  May  17th, 
i860,  p.  2155. 
X  Halstead,  Conventions  of  i860. 
"  That  neither  Congress  nor  a  Territorial  legislature, 
whether  by  direct  legislation  or  legislation  of  an  in- 
direct and  unfriendly  character,  possesses  power  to  i  a- 
nul  or  impair  the  Constitutional  right  of  any  citizen  of 
the  United  States  to  take  his  slave  property  into  the 
common  Territories,  and  there  hold  and  enjoy  the  same 
while  the  Territorial  condition  remain.-,." — Globe, 
March  1st,  i860,  p.  935. 
While  the  fifth  resolution  declared  — 
"  That  if  experience  should  at  any  time  prove  that 
the  judiciary  and  executive  authority  do  not  po 
means  to  insure  adequate  protection  to  constitutional 
rights  in  a  Territory,  and  if  the  Territorial  government 
shall  fail  or  refuse  to  provide  the  necessary  remedies 
for  that  purpose,  it  will  be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  sup- 
ply such  deficiency." 
Party  discipline  was  so  strong  among  the 
Democrats  that  public  expectation  looked 
somewhat  confidently  to  at  least  a  temporary 
agreement  or  combination  which  would  en- 
able the  factions,  by  a  joint  effort,  to  make  a 
hopeful  presidential  campaign.  But  no  prog- 
ress whatever  was  made  in  that  direction.  As 
the  clans  gathered  at  Charleston,  the  notable 
difference  developed  itself,  that  while  one 
wing  was  filled  with  unbounded  enthusiasm 
for  a  candidate,  the  other  was  animated  by  an 
earnest  and  stubborn  devotion  to  an  idea. 
"  Douglas  was  the  pivot  individual  of  the 
Charleston  Convention,"  wrote  an  observant 
journalist;  "every  delegate  was  for  or  against 
him;  every  motion  meant  to  nominate  or  not 
nominate  him ;  every  parliamentary  war  was 
pro  or  con  Douglas."  J  This  was  the  surface 
indication,  and,  indeed,  it  may  be  said  with 
truth,  it  was  the  actual  feeling  of  the  North- 
ern faction  of  the  Democratic  party.  Douglas 
was  a  genuinely  popular  leader.  He  had  the 
power  to  inspire  a  pure  personal  enthusiasm. 
He  had  aroused  such  hero-worship  as  may  be 
possible  in  modern  times  and  in  American 
politics.  Beyond  this,  however,  the  Lecompton 
controversy,  and  his  open  persecution  by  the 
Buchanan  Administration. made hisleadership 
and  his  candidacy  a  necessity  to  the  Northern 
Democrats. 
With  Southern  Democrats  the  feeling  went 
somewhat  deeper.  Forgetting  how  much  they 
owed  him  in  the  past,  and  how  much  they 
might  still  gain  through  him  in  the  future, 
they  saw  only  that  he  was  now  their  stumbling- 
block,  the  present  obstacle  to  their  full  and  fin- 
al success.  It  was  the  Douglas  doctrine,  squat- 
ter sovereignty,  and  "  unfriendly  legislation," 
rather  than  the  man  which  they  had  come  to 
oppose,  and  were  determined  to  put  down. 
Any  other  individual  holding  these  heresies 
would  have  been  equally  obnoxious.  They 
had  no  candidate  of  their  own  :  they  wor- 
shiped no  single  leader;  but  they  followed 
a  principle  with  unfaltering  devotion.  They 
clung  unswervingly  not  only  to  the  property