MR. LINCOLN predicted a bloody conflict in Kansas as the immediate
effect of the repeal of the Missouri restriction. He had not long to
wait for the fulfilment of his prophecy: it began, in fact, before he
spoke; and if blood had not actually flowed on the plains of Kansas,
occurrences were taking place on the Missouri border which could
not avoid that result. The South invited the struggle by repealing a
time-honored compromise, in such a manner as to convince the North that
she no longer felt herself bound by any Congressional restrictions upon
the institution of slavery; and that she intended, as far as her power
would permit, to push its existence into all the Territories of the
Union. The Northern States accepted the challenge promptly. The people
of the Free States knew how to colonize and settle new Territories. The
march of their westward settlements had for years assumed a steady
tread as the population of these States augmented, and the facility for
emigrating increased. When, therefore, the South threw down the barriers
which had for thirty years consecrated all the Territories north of 36°
30' to free labor, and announced her intention of competing therein for
the establishment of her "peculiar institution," the North responded
by using the legitimate means at her command to throw into the exposed
regions settlers who would organize the Territories in the interest of
free labor. The "irrepressible conflict" was therefore opened in the
Territories, with the people of the two sections of the country arrayed
against each other as participants in, as well as spectators of, the
contest. As participants, each section aided its representatives. The
struggle opened in Kansas, and in favor of the South. During the passage
of the bill organizing the Territory, preparations had been extensively
made along the Missouri border, by "Blue Lodges" and "Social Bands," for
the purpose of getting control of its Territorial government. The whole
eastern border of the Territory was open to these marauders; and they
were not slow to embrace the opportunity of meeting their enemies with
so man y advantages in their favor. Public meetings were held in many
of the frontier counties of Missouri, in which the people were not only
advised to go over and take early possession of the Territory, but to
hold themselves in readiness to remove all emigrants who should go there
under the auspices of the Northern Aid Societies. It was with these
"Border Ruffians," and some volunteers from Alabama and South Carolina,
with a few vagabond "colonels" and "generals" from the Slave States
generally, that the South began the struggle. Of course, the North did
not look with complacency upon such a state of things. If the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise startled the people of the Free States from
their sense of security, the manner of applying "popular sovereignty,"
as indicated at its first introduction, was sufficient to arouse public
sentiment to an unwonted degree. Kansas became at once a subject of
universal interest. Societies were formed for throwing into her borders,
with the utmost expedition, settlers who could be relied upon to mould
her government in the interest of freedom. At the same time there was
set in train all the political machinery that could be used to agitate
the question, until the cry of "Bleeding Kansas" was heard throughout
the land.
It is not necessary in this connection to set down, in order, the raids,
assassinations, burnings, robberies, and election frauds which followed.
Enough if their origin and character be understood. For this present
purpose, a brief summary only will be given of what occurred during
the long struggle to make Kansas a Slave State; for upon the practical
issues which arose during the contest followed the discussions between
Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, upon the merits of which the former was
carried into the Presidential office.
The first Territorial governor appointed under the provisions of
the Kansas-Nebraska Act was Andrew H. Reeder of Pennsylvania. He was
appointed by President Pierce. He reached Kansas in the autumn of 1854,
and proceeded to establish a Territorial Government. The first election
was for a delegate to Congress. By the aid of the people of Missouri,
it resulted in favor of the Democrats. The governor then ordered an
election for a first Territorial Legislature, to be held on the 31st of
March, 1855. To this election the Missourians came in greater force than
before; and succeeded in electing proslavery men to both Houses of the
Legislature, with a single exception in each house. The governor,
a proslavery man, set aside the returns in six districts, as being
fraudulent; whereupon new elections were held, which, with one
exception, resulted in favor of the Free-State men. These parties,
however, were refused their seats in the Legislature; while the persons
chosen at the previous election were accepted.
The Legislature thus organized proceeded to enact the most hostile
measures against the Free-State men. Many of these acts were promptly
vetoed by the governor. The Legislature then petitioned the President
for his removal. Their wishes were complied with; and Wilson G. Shannon
of Ohio was appointed in his stead. In the mean time, the Free-State
men entirely repudiated the Legislature, and refused to be bound by its
enactments.
Such was the situation in Kansas when Mr. Lincoln addressed to Mr. Speed
the following letter:--
Springfield, Aug. 24, 1855.
Dear Speed,--You know what a poor correspondent I am. Ever since I
received your very agreeable letter of the 22d of May, I have been
intending to write you an answer to it. You suggest that in political
action now you and I would differ. I suppose we would; not quite as
much, however, as you may think. You know I dislike slavery; and you
fully admit the abstract wrong of it. So far there is no cause of
difference. But you say, that, sooner than yield your legal right to
the slave,--especially at the bidding of those who are not themselves
interested,--you would see the Union dissolved. I am not aware that _any
one_ is bidding you yield that right: very certainly I am not. I leave
that matter entirely to yourself. I also acknowledge your rights and my
obligations under the Constitution in regard to your slaves. I confess I
hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught and carried
back to their stripes and unrequited toils; but I bite my lip, and keep
quiet. In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip on a
steamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do,
that, from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were on board
ten or a dozen slaves shackled together with irons. That sight was a
continued torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch
the Ohio, or any other slave border. It is not fair for you to assume
that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises,
the power of making me miserable. You ought rather to appreciate how
much the great body of the Northern people do crucify their feelings, in
order to maintain their loyalty to the Constitution and the Union. I
do oppose the extension of slavery because my judgment and feeling so
prompt me; and I am under no obligations to the contrary. If for this
you and I must differ, differ we must. You say, if you were President,
you would send an army, and hang the leaders of the Missouri outrages
upon the Kansas elections; still, if Kansas fairly votes herself a Slave
State, she must be admitted, or the Union must be dissolved. But how if
she votes herself a Slave State _unfairly_,--that is, by the very means
for which you say you would hang men? Must she still be admitted, or the
Union dissolved? That will be the phase of the question when it first
becomes a practical one. In your assumption that there may be a fair
decision of the slavery question in Kansas, I plainly see you and I
would differ about the Nebraska law. I look upon that enactment, _not as
a law, but a violence_ from the beginning. It was conceived in violence,
is maintained in violence, and is being executed in violence. I say
it was conceived in violence, because the destruction of the Missouri
Compromise, under the circumstances, was nothing less than violence. It
was passed in violence, because it could not have passed at all but
for the votes of many members in violence of the known will of their
constituents. It is maintained in violence, because the elections since
clearly demand its repeal; and the demand is openly disregarded.
You say men ought to be hung for the way they are executing that law;
and I say the way it is being executed is quite as good as any of its
antecedents. It is being executed in the precise way which was intended
from the first; else why does no Nebraska man express astonishment or
condemnation? Poor Reeder is the only public man who has been silly
enough to believe that any thing like fairness was ever intended; and he
has been bravely undeceived.
That Kansas will form a slave constitution, and with it will ask to be
admitted into the Union, I take to be already a settled question, and so
settled by the very means you so pointedly condemn. By every principle
of law ever held by any court, North or South, every negro taken to
Kansas is free; yet, in utter disregard of this,--in the spirit of
violence merely,--that beautiful Legislature gravely passes a law to
hang any man who shall venture to inform a negro of his legal rights.
This is the substance and real object of the law. If, like Haman, they
should hang upon the gallows of their own building, I shall not be among
the mourners for their fate. In my humble sphere, I shall advocate
the restoration of the Missouri Compromise so long as Kansas remains a
Territory; and when, by all these foul means, it seeks to come into the
Union as a Slave State, I shall oppose it. I am very loath, in any case,
to withhold my assent to the enjoyment of property acquired or located
in good faith; but I do not admit that good faith in taking a negro to
Kansas to be held in slavery is a probability with any man. Any man who
has sense enough to be the controller of his own property has too much
sense to misunderstand the outrageous character of the whole Nebraska
business. But I digress. In my opposition to the admission of Kansas, I
shall have some company; but we may be beaten. If we are, I shall not,
on that account, attempt to dissolve the Union. I think it probable,
however, we shall be beaten. Standing as a unit among yourselves, you
can, directly and indirectly, bribe enough of our men to carry the day,
as you could on the open proposition to establish a monarchy. Get hold
of some man in the North whose position and ability is such that he can
make the support of your measure, whatever it may be, a Democratic party
necessity, and the thing is done. Apropos of this, let me tell you an
anecdote. Douglas introduced the Nebraska Bill in January. In February
afterwards, there was a called session of the Illinois Legislature. Of
the one hundred members composing the two branches of that body,
about seventy were Democrats. These latter held a caucus, in which the
Nebraska Bill was talked of, if not formally discussed. It was thereby
discovered that just three, and no more, were in favor of the measure.
In a day or two Douglas's orders came on to have resolutions passed
approving the bill; and they were passed by large majorities!!! The
truth of this is vouched for by a bolting Democratic member. The masses,
too, Democratic as well as Whig, were even nearer unanimous against it;
but, as soon as the party necessity of supporting it became apparent,
the way the Democracy began to see the wisdom and justice of it was
perfectly astonishing.
You say, that, if Kansas fairly votes herself a Free State, as a
Christian you will rather rejoice at it. All decent slaveholders talk
that way; and I do not doubt their candor. But they never vote that way.
Although in a private letter, or conversation, you will express your
preference that Kansas shall be free, you would vote for no man for
Congress who would say the same thing publicly. No such man could be
elected from any district in a Slave State. You think Stringfellow & Co.
ought to be hung; and yet, at the next Presidential election, you
will vote for the exact type and representative of Stringfellow. The
slave-breeders and slave-traders are a small, odious, and detested class
among you; and yet in politics they dictate the course of all of you,
and are as completely your masters as you are the master of your own
negroes. You inquire where I now stand. That is a disputed point. I
think I am a Whig; but others say there are no Whigs, and that I am an
Abolitionist. When I was at Washington, I voted for the Wilmot Proviso
as good as forty times; and I never heard of any one attempting to un
whig me for that. I now do no more than oppose the extension of slavery.
I am not a Know-Nothing: that is certain. How could I be? How can
any one who abhors the oppression of negroes be in favor of degrading
classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to
be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that"_all men are
created equal._" We now practically read it "all men are created equal,
except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all
men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics."
When it comes to this, I should prefer emigrating to some country where
they make no pretence of loving liberty,--to Russia, for instance, where
despotism can be taken pure, and without the base, alloy of hypocrisy.
Mary will probably pass a day or two in Louisville in October. My
kindest regards to Mrs. Speed. On the leading subject of this letter, I
have more of her sympathy than I have of yours; and yet let me say I am
Your friend forever,
A. Lincoln.
Gov. Shannon arrived in the Territory Sept. 1,1855. On his way thither,
he declared himself in favor of making Kansas a Slave State. He found
affairs in a turbulent condition, which his policy by no means tended
to mitigate or assuage. The Free-State party held a mass-meeting at Big
Springs in the early part of September, at which they distinctly and
earnestly repudiated the legislative government, which claimed to
have been elected in March, as well as all laws passed by it; and they
decided not to participate in an election for a delegate to Congress,
which the Legislature had appointed to be held on the 1st of October
following. They also held a Delegate Convention at Topeka, on the 19th
of September, and appointed an Executive Committee for the Territory;
and also an election for a Delegate to Congress, to be held on the
second Tuesday in October. These two rival elections for a congressional
delegate took place on different days; at the former of which,
Whitfield, representing the proslavery party, was elected; while at the
other, Gov. Reeder, representing the Free-State party, was chosen.
On the 28d of October, the Free-State party held a constitutional
Convention at Topeka, and formed a State constitution in their interest,
under the provisions of which they subsequently acted, and also asked
for admission into the Union.
While we are upon this phase of the Kansas question, it may not be amiss
to postpone the relation of some intermediate events, in order to give
the reader the benefit of an expression of Mr. Lincoln's views, which
thus far has found place in no printed record.
Sometime in 1856 an association of Abolitionists was formed in Illinois
to go to Kansas and aid the Free-State men in opposing the Government.
The object of those engaged in this work was, in their opinion, a very
laudable one,--no other than the defence of freedom, which they thought
foully menaced in that far-off region. Among these gentlemen, and one
of the most courageous and disinterested, was William H. Herndon. He
says,--
"Mr. Lincoln was informed of our intents by some means. Probably the
idea of resistance was more known than I now remember. He took the first
opportunity he could to dissuade us from our partially-formed purpose.
We spoke of liberty, justice, and God's higher law, and invoked the
spirit of these as our holiest inspiration. In 1856 he addressed us on
this very subject, substantially in these words:--
"'Friends, I agree with you in Providence; but I believe in the
providence of the most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon.
You are in the minority,--in a sad minority; and you can't hope to
succeed, reasoning from all human experience. You would rebel against
the Government, and redden your hands in the blood of your countrymen.
If you are in the minority, as you are, you can't succeed. I say again
and again, against the Government, with a great majority of its best
citizens backing it, and when they have the most men, the longest purse,
and the biggest cannon, you can't succeed.
"'If you have the majority, as some of you say you have, you can succeed
with the ballot, throwing away the bullet. You can peaceably, then,
redeem the Government, and preserve the liberties of mankind, through
your votes and voice and moral influence. Let there be peace. In a
democracy, where the majority rule by the ballot through the forms of
law, these physical rebellions and bloody resistances are radically
wrong, unconstitutional, and are treason. Better bear the ills you have
than fly to those you know not of. Our own Declaration of Independence
says, that governments long established, for trivial causes should
not be resisted. Revolutionize through the ballot-box, and restore the
Government once more to the affections and hearts of men, by making it
express, as it was intended to do, the highest spirit of justice and
liberty. Your attempt, if there be such, to resist the laws of Kansas
by force, is criminal and wicked; and all your feeble attempts will be
follies, and end in bringing sorrow on your heads, and ruin the cause
you would freely die to preserve!'
"This little speech," continues Mr. Herndon, "is not in print. It is a
part of a much longer one, likewise not in print. This speech squelched
the ideas of physical resistance, and directed our energies through
other more effective channels, which his wisdom and coolness pointed
out to us. This little speech, so timely and well made, saved many of
us from great follies, if not our necks from the halter. The man who
uttered it is no more; but this little speech, I hope, shall not soon be
forgotten. Mr. Lincoln himself, after this speech, subscribed money to
the people of Kansas _under conditions_, which I will relate in other
ways. He was not alone in his gifts: I signed the same paper, I think,
for the same amount, most cheerfully; and would do it again, only
doubling the sum, adding no conditions, only the good people's wise
discretion."
Early in 1856 it became painfully apparent to Mr. Lincoln that he
must take a decisive stand upon the questions of the day, and become
a Know-Nothing, a Democrat, a Republican, or an Abolitionist. Mere
"Anti-Nebraska" would answer no longer: the members of that ephemeral
coalition were seeking more permanent organizations. If interrogated
concerning his position, he would probably have answered still, "I think
I am a Whig." With the Abolition or Liberty party, he had thus far
shown not a particle of sympathy. In 1840, 1844, 1848, and 1852, the
Abolitionists, Liberty-men, or Free-Soilers, ran candidates of their own
for the Presidency, and made no little noise and stir in the politics of
the country; but they were as yet too insignificant in number to claim
the adhesion of a practical man like Mr. Lincoln. In fact, his partner,
one of the most earnest of them all, had not up to this time desired his
fellowship. But now Mr. Herndon thought the hour had arrived when his
hero should declare himself in unmistakable terms. He found, however,
one little difficulty in the way: he was not precisely certain of his
hero. Mr. Lincoln might go that way, and he might go the other way: his
mind was not altogether made up; and there was no telling on which side
the decision would fall. "He was button-holed by three ideas, and by men
belonging to each class: first, he was urged to remain a Whig; secondly,
he was urged to become a Know-Nothing, Say-Nothing, Do-Nothing;
and, thirdly, he was urged to be baptized in Abolitionism: and in my
imagination I can see Lincoln strung out three ways. At last two cords
were snapped, he flying to Freedom."
And this is the way the cords were snapped: Mr. Herndon drew up a
paper to be signed by men of his class in politics, calling a county
convention to elect delegates to the State convention at Bloomington.
"Mr. Lincoln was then backward," says Mr. Herndon, "dodge-y,--so" and
so. I was determined to make him take a stand, if he would not do
it willingly, which he might have done, as he was naturally inclined
Abolitionward. Lincoln was absent when the call was signed, and
circulated here. I signed Mr. Lincoln's name without authority; had
it published in "The Journal." John T. Stuart was keeping his eye on
Lincoln, with the view of keeping him on his side,--the totally-dead
conservative side. Mr. Stuart saw the published call, and grew mad;
rushed into my office, seemed mad, horrified, and said to me, 'Sir, did
Mr. Lincoln sign that Abolition call which is published this morning?' I
answered, 4 Mr. Lincoln did not sign that call.'--'Did Lincoln authorize
you to sign it?' said Mr. Stuart. 'No: he never authorized me to sign
it.'--'Then do you know that you have ruined Mr. Lincoln?'--'I did not
know that I had ruined Mr. Lincoln; did not intend to do so; thought
he was a made man by it; that the time had come when conservatism was a
crime and a blunder.'--'You, then, take the responsibility of your acts;
do you?'--'I do, most emphatically.'
"However, I instantly sat down and wrote to Mr. Lincoln, who was then
in Pekin or Tremont,--possibly at court. He received my letter, and
instantly replied, either by letter or telegraph,--most likely by
letter,--that he adopted _in toto_ what I had done, and promised to meet
the radicals--Lovejoy, and suchlike men--among us."
At Bloomington Lincoln was the great figure. Beside him all the
rest--even the oldest in the faith and the strongest in the work--were
small. Yet he was universally regarded as a recent convert, although the
most important one that could be made in the State of Illinois. "We
met at Bloomington; and it was there," says Mr. Herndon in one of his
lectures, "that Mr. Lincoln was baptized, and joined our church. He made
a speech to us. I have heard or read all Mr. Lincoln's great speeches;
and I give it as my opinion, on my best judgment, that the Bloomington
speech was the grand effort of his life. Heretofore, and up to this
moment, he had simply argued the slavery question on grounds of
policy,--on what are called the statesman's grounds,--never reaching the
question of the radical and the eternal right. Now he was newly baptized
and freshly born: he had the fervor of a new convert; the smothered
flame broke out; enthusiasm unusual to him blazed up; his eyes were
aglow with an inspiration; he felt justice; his heart was alive to the
right; his sympathies, remarkably deep for him, burst forth, and he
stood before the throne of the eternal Right, in presence of his God,
and then and there unburdened his penitential and fired soul. This
speech was fresh, new, genuine, odd, original; filled with fervor not
unmixed with a divine enthusiasm; his head breathing out through his
tender heart its truths, its sense of right, and its feeling of the good
and for the good. This speech was full of fire and energy and force:
it was logic; it was pathos; it was enthusiasm; it was justice, equity,
truth, right, and the good, set ablaze by the divine fires of a soul
maddened by the wrong; it was hard, heavy, knotty, gnarly, edged, and
heated. I attempted for about fifteen minutes, as was usual with me
then, to take notes; but at the end of that time I threw pen and paper
to the dogs, and lived only in the inspiration of the hour. If Mr.
Lincoln was six feet four inches high usually, _at Bloomington_ he was
seven feet, and inspired at that. From that day to the day of his death,
he stood firm on the right. He felt his great cross, had his great
idea, nursed it, kept it, taught it to others, and in his fidelity bore
witness of it to his death, and finally sealed it with his precious
blood."
[Illustration: William Herndon 418]
If any thing in the foregoing description by Mr. Herndon seems
extravagant to the reader, something must be pardoned to the spirit of a
patient friend and an impatient teacher, who saw in this scene the
first fruits of his careful husbandry, and the end of his long vigil. He
appears to have participated even then in the belief which Mr. Lincoln
himself avowed,--that the latter was designed by the Dispenser of all
things to occupy a great place in the world's history; and he felt
that that day's doings had fixed his political character forever. The
Bloomington Convention was called "Republican," and the Republican party
of Illinois was there formed: but the most noted Abolitionists were in
it, the spirit of the Lovejoys was present; and Mr. Herndon had a right
to say, that, if Mr. Lincoln was not an Abolitionist, he was tending
"Abolition-ward" so surely that no doubt could be entertained of his
ultimate destination. But, after all, the resolutions of the convention
were very "moderate." They merely denounced the administration for
its course regarding Kansas, stigmatized the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise as an act of bad faith, and opposed "the extension of slavery
into Territories heretofore free." It was surely not because Mr. Lincoln
was present, and aiding at the passage of such resolutions, that Mr.
Herndon and others thereafter regarded him as a "newborn" Abolitionist.
It must have been the general warmth of his speech against the
South,--his manifest detestation of slaveholders and slaveholding, as
exhibited in his words,--which led them to believe that his feelings at
least, if not his opinions, were similar to theirs. But the reader will
see, nevertheless, as we get along in our history, that the Bloomington
resolutions were the actual standard of Mr. Lincoln's views; that he
continued to express his determination to maintain the rights of the
Slave States under the Constitution, and to make conspicuously plain his
abhorrence of negro suffrage and negro equality. He certainly disliked
the Southern politicians very much; but even that sentiment, growing
daily more fierce and ominous in the masses of the new party, was in his
case counterbalanced by his prejudices or his caution, and he never saw
the day when he would willingly have clothed the negroes with political
privileges.
Notwithstanding the conservative character of the resolutions, the
proceedings of the Bloomington Convention were alarming to a portion of
the community, and seem to have found little favor with the people of
Springfield. About five days after its adjournment, Herndon and Lincoln
bethought them of holding a ratification meeting. Mr. Herndon got out
huge posters, announcing the event, and employed a band of musicians to
parade the streets and "drum up a crowd." As the hour of meeting drew
near, he "lit up the Court House with many blazes," rung the bells, and
blew a horn. At seven o'clock the meeting should have been called to
order, but it turned out to be extremely slim. There was nobody present,
with all those brilliant lights, but A. Lincoln, W. H. Herndon, and John
Pain. "When Lincoln came into the courtroom," says the bill-poster and
horn-blower of this great demonstration, "he came with a sadness and a
sense of the ludicrous on his face. He walked to the stand, mounted
it in a kind of mockery,--mirth and sadness all combined,--and said,
'Gentlemen, this meeting is larger than I _knew_ it would be. I knew
that Herndon and myself would come, but I did not know that any one else
would be here; and yet another has come,--you, John Pain. These are sad
times, and seem out of joint. All seems dead, dead, dead: but the age
is not yet dead; it liveth as sure as our Maker liveth. Under all this
seeming want of life and motion, the world does move nevertheless. Be
hopeful. And now let us adjourn, and appeal to the people.'
"This speech is in substance just as he delivered it, and substantially
in the same sad but determined spirit; and so we did adjourn, did go
out, and did witness the fact that 'the world was not dead.'"
The Bloomington Convention sent delegates to the general Republican
Convention, which was to be held at Philadelphia in June. That body was
to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, and high
hopes were entertained of their success. But much remained to be done
before such a revolution in sentiment could be expected. The American
or Know-Nothing party--corrupt, hideous, and delusive, but still
powerful--had adopted the old Whig platform on the several slavery
questions, and planted itself decisively against the agitations of the
Anti-Nebraska men and the Republicans. A "National Council" had taken
this position for it the year previous, in terms beside which
the resolutions of the Whigs and Democrats in 1852 were mild and
inexpressive. Something, therefore, must be done to get this great
organization out of the way, or to put its machinery under "Republican"
control. We have seen a party of gentlemen from Chicago proposing to
go into the lodges, and "rule them for freedom." Mr. Herndon and Mr.
Lincoln rejected the plot with lofty indignation; but a section of the
Free-Soil politicians were by no means so fastidious. They were for
the most part bad, insincere, trading men, with whom the profession of
principles of any kind was merely a convenient disguise, and who could
be attached to no party, except from motives of self-interest. As yet,
they were not quite certain whether it were possible to raise more
hatred in the Northern mind against foreigners and Catholics than
against slaveholders; and they prudently determined to be in a situation
to try either. Accordingly, they went into the lodges, took the oaths,
swore to stand by the platform of the "National Council" of 1855, and
were perfectly ready to do that, or to betray the organization to the
Republicans, as the prospect seemed good or bad. Believing the latter
scheme to be the best, upon deliberation, they carried it out as far as
in them lay, and then told the old, grim, honest, antislavery men,
with whom they again sought association, that they had joined the
Know-Nothings, and sworn irrevocable oaths to proscribe foreigners and
Catholics, solely that they might rule the order "for freedom;" and,
the Republicans standing in much need of aid just then, the excuse was
considered very good. But it was too shameless a business for Lincoln
and Herndon; and they most righteously despised it.
In February, 1856, the Republicans held what Mr. Greeley styles their
"first National. Convention," at Pittsburg; but they made no nominations
there. At the same time, a Know-Nothing American "National Council" was
sitting at Philadelphia (to be followed by a nominating convention); and
the Republicans at Pittsburg had not adjourned before they got news
by telegraph, that the patriots who had entered the lodges on false
pretences were achieving a great success: the American party was
disintegrating, and a great section of it falling away to the
Republicans. A most wonderful political feat had been performed, and
the way was now apparently clear for a union of the all-formidable
anti-Democratic elements in the Presidential canvass.
On the 17th of June the National Republican Convention met at
Philadelphia, and nominated John C. Fremont for President, and William
L. Dayton for Vice-President. Mr. Williams, Chairman of the Illinois
Delegation, presented to the convention the name of Abraham Lincoln for
the latter office; and it was received with great enthusiasm by some of
the Western delegates. He received, however, but 110 votes, against
259 for Mr. Dayton, and 180 scattered; and Mr. Dayton was immediately
thereafter unanimously declared the nominee.
While this convention was sitting, Mr. Lincoln was attending court at
Urbana, in Champaign County. When the news reached that place that Mr.
Dayton had been nominated, and "Lincoln had received 110 votes," some
of the lawyers insisted that the latter must have been "our [their]
Lincoln;" but he said, "No, it could not be: it must have been the
_great_ Lincoln from Massachusetts." He utterly refused to believe in
the reality of this unexpected distinction until he saw the proceedings
in full. He was just then in one of his melancholy moods, his spirits
depressed, and his heart suffering the miseries of a morbid mind.
With an indorsement of the "self-evident truths" and "inalienable
rights" of the Declaration of Independence, the Republican Convention
adopted the following as the practical and essential features of its
platform:--
"Resolved,... That we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial
Legislature, of any individual, or association of individuals, to give
legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States while
the present Constitution shall be maintained.
"Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power
over the Territories of the United States for their government; and
that, in the exercise of this power, it is both the right and the
duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of
barbarism,--polygamy and slavery."
The National Democratic Convention had already placed in nomination
Buchanan and Breckenridge. Their platform denounced as sectional the
principles and purposes of their opponents; re-affirmed "the principles
contained in the organic laws establishing the Territories of Kansas and
Nebraska, as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the slavery
question," and declared further,--
"That by the uniform application of Democratic principles to the
organization of Territories and the admission of new States, with or
without slavery as they may elect, the equal rights of all the States
will be preserved intact, the original compacts of the Constitution
maintained inviolate, and the perpetuity and expansion of the Union
insured to its utmost capacity of embracing, in peace and harmony,
every future American State that may be constituted or annexed with a
republican form of government."
Mr. Lincoln was again a candidate for the office of Presidential
elector, and made a thorough and energetic canvass. Some of his speeches
were very striking; and probably no man in the country discussed
the main questions in that campaign--Kansas, and slavery in the
Territories--in a manner more original and persuasive. From first to
last, he scouted the intimation that the election of Fremont would
justify a dissolution of the Union, or that it could possibly become
even the occasion of a dissolution. In his eyes, the apprehensions of
disunion were a "humbug;" the threat of it mere bluster, and the fear of
it silly timidity.
In the heat of the canvass, Mr. Lincoln wrote the following perfectly
characteristic letter,--marked "Confidential:"--
Springfield, Sept. 8, 1856.
Harrison Maltby, Esq.
Dear Sir,--I understand you are a Fillmore man. Let me prove to you that
every vote withheld from Fremont and given to Fillmore in this State
actually lessens Fillmore's chance of being President.
Suppose Buchanan gets all the Slave States and Pennsylvania, and any
other one State besides; then he is elected, no matter who gets all the
rest.
But suppose Fillmore gets the two Slave States of Maryland and
Kentucky; then Buchanan is not elected: Fillmore goes into the House of
Representatives, and may be made President by a compromise.
But suppose, again, Fillmore's friends throw away a few thousand votes
on him in Indiana and Illinois: it will inevitably give these States to
Buchanan, which will more than compensate him for the loss of Maryland
and Kentucky; will elect him, and leave Fillmore no chance in the H. R.,
or out of it.
This is as plain as adding up the weights of three small hogs. As Mr.
Fillmore has no possible chance to carry Illinois for himself, it is
plainly to his interest to let Fremont take it, and thus keep it out of
the hands of Buchanan. Be not deceived. Buchanan is the hard horse to
beat in this race. Let him have Illinois, and nothing can beat him;
and he will get Illinois if men persist in throwing away votes upon
Mr. Fillmore. Does some one persuade you that Mr. Fillmore can carry
Illinois? Nonsense! There are over seventy newspapers in Illinois
opposing Buchanan, only three or four of which support Mr. Fillmore, all
the rest going for Fremont. Are not these newspapers a fair index of the
proportion of the votes? If not, tell me why.
Again, of these three or four Fillmore newspapers, two, at least, are
supported in part by the Buchanan men, as I understand. Do not they know
where the shoe pinches? They know the Fillmore movement helps them, and
therefore they help it.
Do think these things over, and then act according to your judgment.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
(Confidential.)
This letter was discovered by the Buchanan men, printed in their
newspapers, and pronounced, as its author anticipated, "a mean trick."
It was a dangerous document to them, and was calculated to undermine the
very citadel of their strength.
Mr. Lincoln was still in imperfect fellowship--if, indeed, in any
fellowship at all--with the extreme Abolitionists. He had met
with Lovejoy and his followers at Bloomington, and was apparently
co-operating with them for the same party purposes; but the intensity of
his opposition to their radical views is intimated very strongly in this
letter to Mr. Whitney:--
SprinGfield, July 9, 1856.
Dear Whitney,--I now expect to go to Chicago on the 15th, and I probably
shall remain there or thereabout for about two weeks.
It turned me blind when I first heard Swett was beaten and Lovejoy
nominated; but, after much anxious reflection, I really believe it is
best to let it stand. This, of course, I wish to be confidential.
Lamon did get your deeds. I went with him to the office, got them, and
put them in his hands myself.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
In June, 1857, Judge Douglas made a speech at Springfield, in which he
attempted to vindicate the wisdom and fairness of the law under which
the people of Kansas were about to choose delegates to a convention to
be held at Lecompton to frame a State constitution. He declared
with emphasis, that, if the Free-State party refused to vote at this
election, they alone would be blamable for the proslavery constitution
which might be formed. The Free-State men professed to have a vast
majority,--"three-fourths," "four-fifths," "nine-tenths," of the voters
of Kansas. If these wilfully staid away from the polls, and allowed the
minority to choose the delegates and make the constitution, Mr. Douglas
thought they ought to abide the result, and not oppose the constitution
adopted. Mr. Douglas's speech indicated clearly that he himself would
countenance no opposition to the forthcoming Lecompton Convention, and
that he would hold the Republican politicians responsible if the result
failed to be satisfactory to them.
Judge Douglas seldom spoke in that region without provoking a reply from
his constant and vigilant antagonist. Mr. Lincoln heard this speech
with a critical ear, and then, waiting only for a printed report of it,
prepared a reply to be delivered a few weeks later. The speeches were
neither of them of much consequence, except for the fact that Judge
Douglas seemed to have plainly committed himself in advance to the
support of the Lecompton Constitution. Mr. Lincoln took that much for
granted; and, arguing from sundry indications that the election would
be fraudulently conducted, he insisted that Mr. Douglas himself, as
the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and the inventor of "popular
sovereignty," had made this "outrage" possible. He did not believe
there were any "Free-State Democrats" in Kansas to make it a Free State
without the aid of the Republicans, whom he held to be a vast majority
of the population. The latter, he contended, were not all registered;
and, because all were not registered, he thought none ought to vote.
But Mr. Lincoln advised no bloodshed, no civil war, no roadside
assassinations. Even if an incomplete registry might justify a majority
of the people in an obstinate refusal to participate in the regulation
of their own affairs, it certainly would not justify them in taking up
arms to oppose all government in the Territory; and Mr. Lincoln did not
say so. We have seen already how, in the "little speech" reported by Mr.
Herndon, he deprecated "all physical rebellions" in this country, and
applied his views to this case.
Mr. Lincoln also discussed the Dred-Scott Decision at some length; and,
while doing so, disclosed his firm belief, that, in some respects, such
as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the negroes were made
by the Declaration of Independence the equals of white men. But it
did not follow from this that he was in favor of political or social
equality with them. "There is," said he, "a natural disgust in the
minds of nearly all the white people to the idea of an indiscriminate
amalgamation of the white and black races; and Judge Douglas evidently
is basing his chief hope upon the chances of his being able to
appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. If he can, by
much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium of that idea upon his
adversaries, he thinks he can struggle through the storm. He therefore
clings to his hope, as a drowning man to the last plank. He makes
an occasion for lugging it in from the opposition to the Dred-Scott
Decision. He finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of
Independence includes all men,--black as well as white; and forthwith
he boldly denies that it includes negroes at all, and proceeds to argue
gravely, that all who contend it does, do so only because they want to
vote, eat, sleep, and marry with negroes. Now, I protest against the
counterfeit logic which concludes, that, because I do not want a black
woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not
have her for either. I can just leave her alone. In some respects, she
certainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread she
earns with her own hands, without asking leave of any one else, she is
my equal, and the equal of all others."
These speeches were delivered, the one early and the other late, in
the month of June: they present strongly, yet guardedly, the important
issues which were to engage Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas in the famous
campaign of 1858, and leave us no choice but to look into Kansas, and
observe what had taken place and what was happening there.
Violence still (June, 1857) prevailed throughout the Territory. The
administration of President Pierce committed itself at the first in
support of the proslavery party. It acknowledged the Legislature as the
only legal government in the Territory, and gave it military assistance
to enforce its enactments. Gov. Shannon, having by his course only
served to increase the hostility between the parties, was recalled, and
John W. Geary of Pennsylvania was appointed his successor. Gov. Geary,
while adopting the policy of the administration, so far as recognizing
the Legislative party as the only legally organized government, was yet
disposed to see, that, so far as the two parties could be got to act
together, each should be fairly protected. This policy, however, soon
brought him into collision with some of the proslavery leaders in the
Territory; and, not being sustained by Mr. Buchanan's administration,
which had in the mean time succeeded the administration of President
Pierce, he resigned his office. Hon. Robert J. Walker of Mississippi
was appointed his successor, with Hon. F. P. Stanton of Tennessee as
secretary. Both were strong Democrats; and both were earnest advocates
of the policy of the administration, as expressed in the recent
presidential canvass, and in Mr. Buchanan's inaugural Message,--the
absolute freedom of the people of the Territories to form such
governments as they saw fit, subject to the provisions of the
Constitution. Gov. Walker and his secretary earnestly set themselves to
work to carry out this policy. The governor, in various addresses to the
people of the Territory, assured all parties that he would protect
them in the free expression of their wishes in the election for a new
Territorial legislature; and he besought the Free-State men to give up
their separate Territorial organization, under which they had already
applied for admission into the Union, and by virtue of which they
claimed still to have an equitable legal existence. The governor was so
earnest in his policy, and so fair-minded in his purposes, that he
soon drew upon himself the opposition of the proslavery party of the
Territory, now in a small minority, as well as the enmity of that party
in the States. He assured the people they should have a fair election
for the new Legislature to be chosen in October (1857), and which would
come into power in January following. The people took him at his word;
and he kept it. Enormous frauds were discovered in two districts,
which were promptly set aside. The triumph of the Free-State party was
complete: they elected a legislature in their interest by a handsome
majority. And now began another phase of the struggle. The policy of
the Governor and the Secretary was repudiated at Washington: the former
resigned, and the latter was removed. Meanwhile, a convention held under
the auspices of the old Legislature had formed a new constitution, known
as the Lecompton Constitution, which the old Legislature proposed to
submit to the people for ratification on the 21st of December. The
manner of submitting it was singular, to say the least. The people
were required to vote either for the constitution with slavery, or the
constitution without slavery. As without slavery the constitution was
in some of its provisions as objectionable as if it upheld slavery, the
Free-State men refused to participate in its ratification. The vote
on its submission, therefore, stood 4,206 for the constitution with
slavery, and 567 without slavery; and it was this constitution, thus
submitted and thus adopted, that Mr. Buchanan submitted to Congress on
the 2d of February, 1858, as the free expression of the wishes of the
people of Kansas; and its support was at once made an administration
measure. Meantime the new Legislature elected by the people of the
Territory in October submitted this same Lecompton Constitution to the
people again, and in this manner: votes to be given for the constitution
with slavery and without slavery, and also against the constitution
entirely. The latter manner prevailed; the vote against the constitution
in any form being over ten thousand. Thus the proslavery party in the
Territory was overthrown. Under the auspices of the new Free-State
Legislature, a constitutional convention was held at Wyandotte, in
March, 1859. A Free-State constitution was adopted, under which Kansas
was subsequently admitted into the Union.
Before leaving this Kansas question, there is one phase of the closing
part of the struggle which it is worth while to note, particularly as it
has a direct bearing upon the fortunes of Judge Douglas, and indirectly
to the success of Mr. Lincoln. Douglas always insisted that his plan of
"popular sovereignty" would give to the people of the Territories the
utmost freedom in the formation of their local governments. When Mr.
Buchanan attempted to uphold the Lecompton Constitution as being the
free choice of the people of Kansas, Judge Douglas at once took issue
with the administration on this question, and the Democratic party
was split in twain. Up to the time of the vote of the people of the
Territory on the constitution, Douglas had been an unswerving supporter
of the administration policy in Kansas. His speech at Springfield,
in the June previous, could not be misunderstood. He held all the
proceedings which led to the Lecompton issue to be in strict accordance,
not only with the letter, but the spirit, of the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
and with the faith of the Democratic party as expounded by himself. But
a few weeks later it became manifest that his opinions had undergone
a change. Ominous rumors of a breach with the administration began to
circulate among his friends. It was alleged at length that Mr. Douglas's
delicate sense of justice had been shocked by the unfairness of certain
elections in Kansas: it was even intimated that he, too, considered the
Lecompton affair an "outrage" upon the sovereign people of Kansas, and
that he would speedily join the Republicans--the special objects of
his indignation in the June speech--in denouncing and defeating it. The
Kansas-Nebraska Bill had borne its appropriate fruits,--the fruits all
along predicted by Mr. Lincoln,--and Mr. Douglas commended them to
anybody's eating but his own. His desertion was sudden and astonishing;
but there was method in it, and a reason for it. The next year Illinois
was to choose a senator to fill the vacancy created by the expiration of
his own term; and the choice lay between the author of the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill and its most conspicuous opponent in that State.
The newspapers were not yet done publishing Mr. Lincoln's speech, in
which occurred the following paragraph:--
"Three years and a half ago Judge Douglas brought forward his famous
Nebraska Bill. The country was at once in a blaze. He scorned all
opposition, and carried it through Congress. Since then he has seen
himself superseded in a Presidential nomination by one indorsing the
general doctrine of his measure, but at the same time standing clear of
the odium of its untimely agitation and its gross' breach of national
faith; and he has seen the successful rival constitutionally elected,
not by the strength of friends, but by the division of his adversaries,
being in a popular minority of nearly four hundred thousand votes.
He has seen his chief aids in his own State, Shields and Richardson,
politically speaking, successively tried, convicted, and executed for
an offence not their own, but his. And now he sees his own case standing
next on the docket for trial."