Year: 1864

1t is apparent to those who have marked the
course of Abraham Lincoln as President of the
United States, that be is no -hedged deyotee
to :he great fundamental doctrine of Liberty
upon which the structure of our Republic rests
His whole course has been dictated by the
purest patriotism-the most unselfish and unal-
loyed love for the Union-a love which has
grown with his growth and strengthened with
bis strength, until be stands forth one OF the
noblest patriots known in the world history.
When We contemplate what might have been
the result had the infamous Administration of
Buchanan been succeeded by one of an equally
plant and yielding character, and President
whom the secessionists could have made their
tool as they did Buchanan, we discover the
abyss OF national destruction which We escaped
through the election of Lincoln. The following
is an extract from speech delivered by Mr..
Lincoln in lS39-twenty five years ago-in a
discussion with Messrs. Douglas and Sanborn
ID the Illinois House of Representatives, and
published in the illinois State Journal of that





year. 1t will be remembered that that was the
commencement of the enthusiastic campaign
of lS40, which resulted in the defeat of Martin
Van Buren, for the Presidency, and the election
of Gen. Harrison. This eloquent outburst of
patriotism and devotion to principle is worthy
of place by the side of the noblest utterauces
OF our greatest statesmen. In the concluding
part of his speech, Mr.. Lincoln said


Many free countries have lost their liberty.
and ours may lose hers but If she shall let it
be my proudest plume, not that was the last
TO desert, but that never deserted her. know
that the great volcano at Washington, aroused
and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there,
Is belching forth the lava Of political corruption
in current broad and deep, which is sweeping
with frightful velocity over the whole length
and breadth of the land. bidding fair to leave
unscathed no green spot or living thing, while
on its bosom are riding, like demons on the
waves of hell, the imps of the evil spirits, and
hendishly torturiDg and taunting all those who
dare resist its destroying course with the hope
lessness of their effort and, knowing this.
cannot deny that all may be swept away
Broken by it. |, too, may be; bow to it, |
never will. The probability that we may fall
in the struggle ought not to deter Us from the
support of a cause which we deem to be Just
it shall not deter me. If ever | feel the soul
within me elevate and expand TO those dimen-
sions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty
Architect it is when contemplate the cause
of my country, deserted by all the world be.
sides, and | standing up boldly and alone,
hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors
And here, without contemplating consequences
before High Heaven, and in the face of the
whole world, swear eternal fidelity to the Just
cause, as deem it, Of the land of my life, my
liberty, and my love. And who that thinks
with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath that
| take? Let none falter who thinks be is right,
and we may succeed. But if, after all, we
shall fall, be it so. We shall have the proud
consolation of saying to our conscience, and to
the departed shade of our country's freedom
that the course approved BY our judgments
and adored by our hearts IN disaster, in chains
in torture, and in death, we never ialtered iu
defending.