Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1860-07-06
Letter from ADraham Lincoln.


The Republicans of Boston celebrated Thos
JefEersons Birthday on the 18th of April,
1858. Among those invited to be present
was the Hon. Abraham Lincoln, who respond
ed in letter Of great power and of remarka-
BILE felicity of expression. We thought at the
time that of all the political letters we had
ever read, it was the most pointed and most
forcible, and our great surprise is that up to
this time, so far as we have observed, it has
not boen republished. After diligent search
among some old clippings" we have succeed
ed in finding it and with peculiar pleasure lay
it before our readers. 1t is platform in it.
self, worthy of the Endorsement of all who be-
lieve in the fundamental doctrines of Free
Government as taught by Thomas Jefferson.
Here is the letter:
SPRINGFIELD. ILL.,, April 6, 1858.
Gentlemen Your kind note, inviting me
to attend festival in Boston, on the 18th
inst, in honor of the birthday of Thomas JET
ferson. was duly received. My engagements
are such that cannot attend.
Bearing in mind that about seventy years
ago two great political parties were first FORM
ed in this country; that Thomas Jefferson
was the head of one of them, and Boston the
headquarters of the other, it is both curious
and interesting that those supposed to descend
politically from the party opposed to Jefferson
should now be celebrating his birthday in
their own original seat of empire, while those
claiming political descent from him have near
ly ceased to breathe his name everywhere.
Remembering that the Jefferson party was
formed upon its supposed superior devotion to
the personal rights of men, holding the rights oil
property to be secondary only, aud greatly in
ferior and then assuming that the so-caed
Democracy of to-day are the Jefferson, and
the anti-J eerson parties, it will be equally in
teresting to note how completely the two have
changed ground as to the principle upon
which they were originally supposed to be di-
vided
The Democracy of to-day hold the Hbert ~
of one man to be absolutely nothing. when in
conflict with another mans right of property.
Republicans, on the contrary, are for both the
man and the dollar but in case of conflict
the man before the dollar.
/ remember once being much amused at
seeing two partially intoxicated men engaged
i'll fight, with their greatcoats on, which
fight, after long and rather harmless con-
test, ended in each having fought himself out
of his own coat and into that of the other
If the two leading parties of this day are re-
ally identical with the two in the Gays of JEFF
ferSon and Adams, they have performed the
same feat as the two drunken men.
Bat, soberly, it is now no childs play to
save the principles of Jefferson from total
overthrow in this nation.
One would state with great confidence that
he could conuince any sane child that the sim
per propositions of Euclid are true /; but nev-
ertheless, he would fail, with one who should
deny the definitions and axioms of free society.
Aud yet they are denied and evaded, with no
small show of success. One dashingly calls
them "glittering generalities." Another styles
them "self-evident lies" And others iusidi-
ously argues that they apply only TO superior
races
These expressions. differing in form, arc
identical in object and efftct-the supplanting
the principles of free government, and restor-
ing those Of classification, caste, AMI le5itina-
cy They would delight a convocation of
crowned heads plotting against the people
They are the vanguard, the sappers and mi
ners, of returning despotism. We must re-
pulse them, or they will subjugate us.
This is a world of compensations and he
who would be ITO slave must consent to have
no slave. Those who deny freedom to others
deserve it not for themselves; and, under IL
just God, cannot long retain il.
All honor to Jeifcrson-to the man who. in
the concrete pressure of q struggle for nation
al independence by a single people, had the
coolness, forecast and capacity to introduce in
to n merely revolutionary document an alb
stract truth, applicable to all men and all
times. and SO to cmbalm it there that to-day
and in all coming days it shall be u rebuke
and stumbling block to the harbingcrs of
reappearing tyranny and oppression.
Your obedient servant,
a. LINCOLN.
Messrs II. L. Pierce, and others. &c,