If it be urged that Mr. Lincoln's oft-quoted words uttered before his
nomination for the Presidency, that "The Government could not endure
half slave and half free," were at war with his assurances and that
Virginia was thus threatened in her "peculiar institution," yet it
must be remembered that Mr. Lincoln, time and again before his
election, disclaimed any such purpose and denied that his words were
susceptible of any such construction.
Morse, in his _Biography of Lincoln_, says: "Again and again Mr.
Lincoln called attention to the fact that he had expressed neither 'a
doctrine' nor an 'invitation'; nor any 'purpose,' nor 'policy'
whatsoever."[287]
To quote the language of Mr. Lincoln himself in meeting the charge in
his debate with Stephen A. Douglas:
"In the passage I indicated no wish or purpose of my own. I simply
expressed my expectations. Cannot the Judge perceive a distinction
between a purpose and an expectation? I have often expressed an
expectation to die, but I have never expressed a wish to die."[288]
Thomas Jefferson and other Virginia opponents of slavery had often
made similar predictions. Even as a prophecy of emancipation, it
involved no other suggestion than that slavery was an antiquated
institution at war with the genius of our government and the spirit of
the age and was doomed by forces world wide in their potency to
ultimate extinction.
-----
Footnote 275:
From Platform of National Republican Party, Chicago Convention, May,
1860.
Footnote 276:
From President Lincoln's Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.
Footnote 277:
_Causes of the Civil War_, Chadwick, p. 143.
Footnote 278:
_Lincoln and Slavery_, Arnold, p. 695.
Footnote 279:
_Idem_, p. 695.
Footnote 280:
_Story on the Constitution_, Story, Vol. II, p. 670, Note 2.
Footnote 281:
_Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_, Davis, Vol. I, p.
262.
Footnote 282:
Joint Resolutions adopted by Congress, July 22, 1861.
Footnote 283:
_Slavery and Abolition_, Hart, p. 175.
Footnote 284:
_Abraham Lincoln, Speeches, Letters and State Papers_, N. & H., Vol.
I., p. 463.
Footnote 285:
_Abraham Lincoln, Speeches, Letters and State Papers_, N. & H., Vol.
I., p. 607.
Footnote 286:
_Idem_, p. 609.
Footnote 287:
_Abraham Lincoln_, Morse, p. 123.
Footnote 288:
_Lincoln-Douglas Debates_, p. 59.