Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1907-03-14
Lincoln's
Love Affairs
And His Eardy Expsri-
ences as a Lawmaker
BY WARD HILL LAMON
Lfncoln's Friend and Bodyt,1ard
CHAPTER VIII.
Beginning Of MIR. Linooh's Ann}avay
Lincoln's Friend and Bodxt,1ard

Nj LA LIN VII.
Beginning Of MIR. Lincoln. Anai1avey
Record.
T was at this session OF the le,gis-
lature, March 8, 1887, that Mr..
Lincoln began that antfslavery
record upon which his fame
through all time must chiefly rest. It
was very mild beginning, but even
that required uncommon courage and
candor in the day and generation in
which it was done.
The whole country was excited con.
eerning the doctrines and the practices
Of the abolltonists. These agitators
were as yet but few In numbers, but in
New England they comprised some of
the best citizens, and the leaders were
persons Of high character, Of culture
and social influence, while in the mid
die states they were for the most part
confined to the Society Of Friends, or
Quakers. All were earnest, active and
uncompromising in the propagation Of
their opinions, and, believing slavery
to be the "sum Of all villainies," with
the utmost pertinaclty they claimed
the unrestricted right to disseminate
their convictions In any manner they
saw fit, regardless Of all consequences.
They paid not the slightest heed to the
wishes or the opinions of their oppo-
nents. They denounced all compro-
misses with an unsparing tongue and
would allow no law Of man to stand in
their eyes above the law Of God.
George Thompson, identified with
emancipation in the British West In
dies, had come and gone. For more
than year he addressed public meet
and Ohio and contributed not a little
to the growing excitement by his fierce
denunciations Of the slaveholdlng class
in language with which his long agita-
ton In England had made him famil-
lar. He was denounced, lnsulted and
mobbed, and even in Boston he was
once posted as an infamous foreign
scoundrel," and an offer was made Of
500 to "snake him OUT Of a public
meeting. In fact, Boston was not at
all behind other cities and towns in it's
condemnation Of the abolitionlsts. A
great meeting in Faneuil hall, called
by eighteen hundred leading citizens,
Wings and Democrats, condemned
their proceedings in language as strong
and significant as Richard Fletcher,
Peleg Sprague and Harrison Gray Otis
could write it. But Garrison still con-
tinued to publish the Liberator, filling
1t with all the uncompromising aggres-
slveness of his sect and distributing 1t
throughout the southern states. It ex-
cited great alarm in the slaveholding
communities, where it's secret circula-
ton, in the minds Of the shareholders,
tended to incite the slaves to insurrec-
lions, assassinations and running away,
but In the place where 1t was publish
ed it was looked upon with general
contempt and disgust. When the
mayor Of Baltimore wrote to the mayor
Of Boston to have it suppressed, the
latter (the eloquent Otis) replied that
his officers had ferreted out the paper
and its editor, whose Office was an OBJ
scure hole, his only visible auxiliary a
negro boy, his supporters a few insig-
nlf1cant persons Of all colors."
At the close Of the year 1885 Presi-
dent Jackson had called the attention
of congress to the doings Of these peo-
pie in language corresponding to the
natural wrath with which he viewed
the character Of their proceedings. II
must Also" said he, "invite your at
tention to- the painful excitements In
the south by attempts to circulate
through the mails infammatory ap-
peals addressed to the passions Of
slaves in prints and various sorts Of
publications calculated to stimulate
them to insurrection and to produce all
the horrors Of civil war. It is fortu-
nate for the country that the good
sense, the generous feeling and deep
rooted attachment Of the people Of the
nonslaveholding states to the Union
and their fellow citizens Of the same
blood in the south have given so strong
and impressive a tone to the senti-
ments entertained against the proceed
ings Of the misguided persons who
have engaged in these unconstitutional
and wicked attempts and especially
against the emissaries from foreign
parts who have dared to interfere in
this matter as to authorize the hope
that these attempts will no longer be
persisted in. would therefore
call the special attention Of congress
to the subject and respectfully suggest
the proprtety Of passing such law as
will prohibit under severe penalties
the circulation In the southern states
through the mail Of incendiary publ
cations intended to instigate the slaves
to insurrection."
Henry Clay on Abolidonists.
Mr.. Clay said the sole purpose Of the
abolit1onists was to array one portion
Of the Union against the other. with
that in view, in all their leading prints
and publications the alleged horrors of
slavery are depleted In the most glow
ing and exaggerated colors to excite