NOMINATION OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS FOR THE PRESIDENCY
1859 and 1860
Returning to the period preceding the Civil War, we observe that
the whole nation was stirred by the conduct of a man whom most people
believed to be crazy, but who in my judgment was not. He was an
enthusiast, fired by an abnormal zeal, perhaps; but he filled a
most important place in the development leading to the Civil War.
I refer to old John Brown.
With a score of followers he seized the arsenal at Harpers Ferry
in October, 1859. The nation was then on the very verge of civil
war. There was tremendous excitement even in far-off Springfield
when the news came over the wires that John Brown had opened war
almost single-handed and alone. Under orders from General-in-Chief
Winfield Scott, Colonel Robert E. Lee with a battalion of soldiers
marched on Harpers Ferry, and, after a series of siege operations,
summoned John Brown to surrender, the demand being borne to the
besieged by J. E. B. Stuart, a young lieutenant, afterwards
distinguished as the foremost cavalry leader of the Confederacy.
The story of John Brown is too familiar to be repeated here; but
how strange that in so short a time his captor, Robert E. Lee,
should become famous as one of the greatest leaders of force in
rebellion against the government he then served.
John Brown was captured and hanged. He had but few sympathizers
in the North, but his attempt to incite the slaves to rebellion
greatly stirred up the entire South, and hastened secession.
Very soon the second National Republican Convention was held at
Chicago. At this convention, which nominated Lincoln for the
Presidency, the resolutions declared for "the maintenance inviolate
of the right of each State to order and control its own domestic
institutions according to its own judgment exclusively," and
condemned the attempt to enforce the extreme pretensions of a purely
local interest (meaning the slave interest), through the intervention
of Congress and the courts, by the Democratic administration. They
derided the new dogma that the Constitution of its own force carried
slavery into the Territories, and denied the authority of Congress,
or of a Territorial Legislature, or of any individual to give leave
of existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States.
After the failure of the efforts to make of Kansas a Slave State,
it had become plain that the South could not hope to keep its
equality of representation in the Senate without reversing what
appeared to be settled popular opinion concerning the status of
the Northern Territories. Resolutions to this general effect were
moved by Jefferson Davis early in February, 1860, and passed by
the Senate. It was in effect the ultimatum presented to the
Democratic party at its National Convention when it assembled,
April 23, at Charleston, S. C. The warring factions failed to come
to an agreement, and the convention adjourned to meet at Baltimore
on the eighteenth of June. There Douglas was at last nominated.
The delegates who had seceded at Charleston were joined by other
seceders at Baltimore, and nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky
for President. A month later, May 19, a third faction, calling
itself the "Constitutional Union Party," assembled in convention
at the same city, Baltimore, and nominated John Bell of Tennessee
and Edward Everett of Massachusetts, on a platform whose distinguishing
battle-cry was "The Constitution, the Union of the States, and the
enforcement of the laws." Three days before this, May sixteenth,
the Republican Convention had met at Chicago, and had nominated
Lincoln and Hamlin on a platform which rang true on great principles
and with high resolve.
In many particulars this platform was a contrast to, rather than
a growth from, that of 1856. It asserted that the normal condition
of all the territory of the United States was that of freedom; it
denounced the outrages in Kansas, and demanded her immediate
admission into the Union, with her Constitution, as a Free State;
it branded the re-opening of the African slave-trade as a crime;
and in expressing the abhorrence of the Republican party to all
schemes of disunion, the Democratic party was arraigned for its
silence in the presence of threats of secession made by its own
members. The doctrine of encouragement to domestic industry was
announced; the sale of the public lands was condemned; the coming
measure of securing homesteads for the landless was approved; and
a pledge of protection was given to all citizens, whether native
or naturalized, and whether at home or abroad. The party was again
pledged to the construction of a railway to the Pacific Ocean, and
to the improvement of the rivers and harbors of the country.
During the four years preceding, the home State of Lincoln and
Douglas had decreased its public debt $3,104,374. She had become
the fourth State of the Union in population and wealth, having
during the decade then closing outstripped Virginia, Massachusetts,
North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Indiana. In production of
wheat and corn she now surpassed all other States and occupied the
foremost position. She had in successful operation two thousand,
nine hundred miles of railways, being surpassed in this respect by
Ohio only. Chicago, her marvellous lake mart, had grown from a
population of 29,963 to 109,206, an increase of nearly three
hundred per cent. From nine Congressmen in 1850, she was entitled
in 1860 to thirteen; and so, on every hand, might the recital of
her growth be continued indefinitely.
For the first time in twenty years, during the progress of a
political campaign in Illinois, the voice of Lincoln was not heard.
But the record of his former speeches, printed by an enterprising
Ohio publishing firm, in a volume which sold in enormous numbers,
afforded the text from which the Republican stump-orators in every
Free State gathered at once their logic and their inspiration.
Though the orator himself remained silent, the potent echo of his
eloquence resounded in countless voices from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.
The political contest that followed the various nominations was a
memorable one. Douglas made his last effort for the Presidency
with wonderful vigor and spirit. He canvassed the whole country,
and great throngs were greatly moved by his eloquent and energetic
oratory. Jefferson Davis and other Southern orators canvassed
portions of the Northern States in support of the nominee of the
Southern wing of the Democratic party. In some parts of the North
fusions were attempted among the opponents of the Republican
candidate. In the South the interest in the contest was even more
intense than in the North. Douglas had a good following in many
portions of the South, but a majority of the ruling class there,
whether they had formerly been Democrats or Whigs, were now disposed
to bring the long sectional controversy to an issue. Therefore,
besides the debate over the Presidential issue, there was a serious
discussion also of what course the South should take in the event
of Mr. Lincoln's election. In all the Cotton States the sentiment
for secession was now very strong. The Alabama Legislature, early
in 1860, had instructed her Governor to call a convention in case
a "Black Republican" should be elected President in November.
South Carolina had long been ready to join in such a movement, or
to lead in it.
At last, election day came, and the results, immediate as well as
ulterior, are deserving of some remark. The aggregate popular vote
exceeded four million, six hundred and eighty thousand; and of the
total, one million, eight hundred and sixty-six thousand votes were
given for Mr. Lincoln; and of the three hundred and three electoral
votes, he received one hundred and eighty. Mr. Breckinridge, the
candidate of the South, received eight hundred and forty-seven
thousand votes, and seventy-two votes in the Electoral College;
while Mr. Douglas received only twelve electoral votes, although
his popular vote reached a million, three hundred and seventy-five
thousand. Bell received thirty-nine electoral votes on a popular
vote of less than six hundred thousand. Thus the popular vote for
Mr. Lincoln was nearly a half-million less than a majority; but
his predecessor, Mr. Buchanan, was also a minority President, so
that this fact as a pretext for secession was wholly without point.
Eleven States voted for Mr. Breckinridge, including Delaware and
Maryland; and eleven States became members of the Confederacy,
including Virginia and Tennessee, which had voted for Mr. Bell.
It all went to show that the Democratic party as represented by
Breckinridge was in fact a secession party first of all. The
division of the Democratic party decided the election in favor of
Mr. Lincoln.
Had that party supported Mr. Douglas in good faith, his election
would probably have been secured; but the South would have been
left without excuse had it persisted in the scheme of secession.
Therefore it came to pass that the Democratic party was disorganized
by its own leaders of the South as a step preliminary to the election
of Mr. Lincoln, and the making of that election a pretext for
disunion. This part of the conspiracy was managed with consummate
skill and eminent success; but the conspirators were perfectly well
aware that ultimate success depended largely on prompt, effective,
and decisive steps which must be taken while their efficient friend
in the Executive Mansion still remained in office.
This allowed them four months of precious time between the election
of Mr. Lincoln and his inauguration as President. The vigilance
and effectiveness of their work is an interesting and familiar
story, but I shall not attempt here a narration of it. This work
eventuated in war, and with the opening of war, Mr. Douglas was
quickly found in the attitude of a leader in the cause of the Union
--the closing and the noblest episode of his whole remarkable
career.
I knew Senator Douglas quite well. Of course, he was considerably
older than I, and was one of the great men of the Nation, when I
was just starting in public life. I knew him before the Civil War.
He was a wonderful man with the people. I do not think there was
ever a man in public life who was more thoroughly loved by the
party to which he belonged than Senator Douglas. His adherents
were devoted to him at all times and under all circumstances. When
he came through the State, the whole Democratic party was alive
and ready to rally to his support. I heard him deliver addresses
on two occasions before the War. I heard one of the Lincoln-Douglas
debates at Ottawa. I heard Lincoln deliver the famous Springfield
address, in which he uttered the immortal sentiment, "A house
divided against itself cannot stand." To this address Douglas
afterwards replied. When Lincoln was inaugurated, Douglas was
present on the platform and held Lincoln's hat while he delivered
his inaugural address; the tremendous significance of which trivial
act can be appreciated only in the light of later years.
But Douglas did not hesitate for a moment after Fort Sumter was
fired upon, April 12, 1861. He voluntarily called upon President
Lincoln and tendered his support to the cause of the Union, and
immediately gave out to the Associated Press a statement, calling
upon the people of the North, regardless of party, to rally to its
defence.
I believe it was Mr. Lincoln who asked him to visit Illinois, where,
especially in the southern part of the State, there was considerable
disunion sentiment. There was a great effort to induce the region
where the Democracy predominated, the people being loyal followers
of Douglas, to go with the South instead of the North. Douglas
alone could save it. He came to Illinois, as he told me, partly on
that account; to rally the State to the support of the Union,
earnestly desiring that the country should understand where he
stood.
He visited Springfield while the Legislature was in session.
Senator Douglas was invited to address a joint session of that
body, which he did on the evening of April 25, 1861. Being Speaker
of the House, I presided. In addition to the members of the
Legislature, there was a great crowd present.
I have a vivid recollection of the evening. Prior to that time I
had not believed in Senator Douglas; which was only natural, I
having been a Whig and an enthusiastic adherent of Lincoln. The
duty of introducing Senator Douglas to the joint Assembly devolved
upon myself; I cannot at this late day recall the words I used,
but I am sure that I presented him in as complimentary a manner as
my prejudices allowed.
As he continued speaking, however, I, as thousands--nay, millions
--of others had done, succumbed to the magic of his eloquence and
the irresistible logic of his brilliant mind; and I must here
confess that never before or since have I heard a more masterful,
a more inspired, plea for the integrity of the Union and the
indivisibility of the Nation than Senator Douglas delivered upon
that occasion.
It seemed to me, as he hurled the thunders of his eloquence broadcast,
that the very rafters rang in harmony, that the air vibrated in
accord with his denunciations of rebellion.
The address was not a long one. As it was printed by order of the
General Assembly, I shall take the liberty of presenting it in full:
"Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:
I am not insensible to the patriotic motives which have prompted
you to do me the honor to invite me to address you on the momentous
issues now presented in the condition of our country. With a heart
filled with sadness and grief, I proceed to comply with your
request.
"For the first time since the adoption of the Federal Constitution,
a widespread conspiracy exists to destroy the best government the
sun of heaven ever shed its rays upon. Hostile armies are now
marching upon the Federal Capitol, with a view of planting a
revolutionary flag upon its dome; seizing the National archives;
taking captive the President elected by the votes of the people,
and holding him in the hands of secessionists and disunionists.
A war of aggression and of extermination is being waged against
the Government established by our fathers. The boast has gone
forth by the authorities of this revolutionary Government that on
the first day of May the revolutionary flag shall float from the
walls of the Capitol at Washington, and that on the fourth day of
July the Rebel army shall hold possession of the Hall of Independence
in Philadelphia.
"The simple question presented to us is, whether we will wait for
the enemy to carry out his boast of making war upon our soil; or
whether we will rush as one man to the defence of the Government
and its capital, and defend it from the hands of all assailants
who have threatened to destroy it. Already the piratical flag has
been unfurled against the commerce of the United States. Letters
of marque have been issued, appealing to the pirates of the world
to assemble under that revolutionary flag and commit depredations
on the commerce carried on under the Stars and Stripes. The
navigation of our great river into the Gulf of Mexico is obstructed.
Hostile batteries have been planted upon its banks; custom houses
have already been established; and we are now required to pay
tribute and taxes, without having a voice in making the laws imposing
them, or having a share in the proceeds after they have been
collected. The question is, whether this war of aggression shall
proceed, and we remain with folded arms, inattentive spectators;
or whether we shall meet the aggressors at the threshold and turn
back the tide of revolution and usurpation.
"So long as there was a hope of peaceful solution, I prayed and
implored for compromise. I can appeal to my countrymen with
confidence that I have spared no effort, omitted no opportunity,
to secure a peaceful solution of all these troubles, and thus
restore peace, happiness, and fraternity to the country. When all
propositions of peace fail, and a war of aggression is proclaimed,
there is but one course left for the patriot, and that is to rally
under that flag which has waved over the capitol from the days of
Washington, and around the Government established by Washington,
Madison, Hamilton, and their compeers.
"What is the alleged cause for this invasion of the rights and
authority of the Government of the United States? The cause alleged
is that the institutions of the Southern States are not safe under
the Federal Government. What evidence has been presented that they
are insecure? I appeal to every man within the sound of my voice
to tell me at what period from the time that Washington was
inaugurated down to this hour, have the rights of the Southern
States--the rights of the slave-holders--been more secure than they
are at this moment? When in the whole history of this Government
have they stood on so firm a basis? For the first time in the
history of this republic, there is no restriction by act of Congress
upon the institution of slavery, anywhere within the limits of the
United States. Then it cannot be the Territorial question that
has given them cause for rebellion. When was the Fugitive Slave
Law executed with more fidelity than since the inauguration of the
present incumbent of the Presidential office? Let the people of
Chicago speak and tell us when were the laws of the land executed
with as much firmness and fidelity, so far as the fugitive slaves
are concerned, as they are now. Can any man tell me of any one
act of aggression that has been committed or attempted since the
last Presidential election, that justifies this violent disruption
of the Federal Union?
"I ask you to reflect, and then point out any one act that has been
done--any one duty that has been omitted to be done--of which any
one of these disunionists can justly complain. Yet we are told,
simply because a certain political party has succeed in a Presidential
election, they choose to consider that their liberties are not
safe, and therefore they are justified in breaking up the
Government.
"I had supposed that it was a cardinal and fundamental principle
of our system of government that the decision of the people at the
ballot box, without fraud, according to the forms of the Constitution,
was to command the implicit obedience of every good citizen. If
defeat at a Presidential election is to justify the minority, or
any portion of the minority, in raising the traitorous hand of
rebellion against the constituted authorities, you will find the
future history of the United States written in the history of
Mexico. According to my reading of Mexican history, there has
never been one presidential term, from the time of the Revolution
of 1820 down to this day, when the candidate elected by the people
ever served his four years. In every instance, either the defeated
candidate has seized upon the Presidential chair by use of the
bayonet, or he has turned out the duly elected President before
his term expired. Are we to inaugurate this Mexican system in the
United States of America? Suppose the case to be reversed. Suppose
the disunion candidate had been elected by any means--I care not
what, if by any means in accordance with the forms of the Constitution
--at the last Presidential election; then, suppose the Republicans
had raised a rebellion against his authority--in that case you would have
found me tendering my best efforts and energies to John C. Breckinridge
to put down the Republican rebels. And if you had attempted such
a rebellion I would have justified him in calling forth all the
power and energies of this country to have crushed you out.
"The first duty of an American citizen, or of a citizen of any
constitutional Government, is obedience to the Constitution and
laws of his country. I have no apprehension that any man in
Illinois, or beyond the limits of our own beloved State, will
misconstrue or misunderstand my motive. So far as any of the
partisan questions are concerned, I stand in equal, irreconcilable,
and undying opposition both to the Republicans and the secessionists.
You all know that I am a very good partisan fighter in partisan
times, and I trust you will find me equally as good a patriot when
the country is in danger.
"Now permit me to say to the assembled Representatives and Senators
of our beloved States, composed of men of both political parties,
in my opinion it is your duty to lay aside, for the time being,
your party creeds and party platforms; to dispense with your party
organizations and partisan appeals; to forget that you were ever
divided, until you have rescued the Government and the country from
their assailants. When this paramount duty shall have been performed,
it will be proper for each of us to resume our respective political
positions according to our convictions of public duty. Give me a
country first, that my children may live in peace; then we will
have a theatre for our party organizations to operate upon.
"Are we to be called upon to fold our arms, allow the national
capital to be seized by a military force under a foreign revolutionary
flag; to see the archives of the Government in the hands of a people
who affect to despise the flag and Government of the United States?
I am not willing to be expelled by military force, nor to fly from
the Federal capitol. It has been my daily avocation six months in
the year, for eighteen years, to walk into that marble building,
and from its portico to survey a prosperous, happy, and united
country on both sides of the Potomac. I believe I may with confidence
appeal to the people of every section of the country to bear
testimony that I have been as thoroughly national in my political
opinions and actions as any man that has lived in my day. And I
believe if I should make an appeal to the people of the State of
Illinois, or of the Northern States, for their impartial verdict,
they would say that whatever errors I have committed have been in
leaning too far to the Southern section of the Union against my
own. I think I can appeal to friend and foe--I use the term in a
political sense, and I trust I use the word _foe_ in a past sense
--I can appeal to them with confidence, that I have never pandered
to the prejudice or passion of my section against the minority
section of this Union; and I will say to you now, with all frankness
and in all sincerity, that I will never sanction nor acquiesce in
any warfare whatever upon the constitutional rights or domestic
institutions of the people of the Southern States. On the contrary,
if there was an attempt to invade these rights--to stir up servile
insurrection among their people--I would rush to their rescue, and
interpose with whatever of strength I might possess to defend them
from such a calamity. While I will never invade them--while I will
never fail to defend and protect their rights to the full extent
that a fair and liberal construction of the Constitution can give
them--they must distinctly understand that I will never acquiesce
in their invasion of our constitutional rights.
"It is a crime against the inalienable and indefeasible rights of
every American citizen to attempt to destroy the Government under
which we were born. It is a crime against constitutional freedom
and the hopes of the friends of freedom throughout the wide world
to attempt to blot out the United States from the map of Christendom.
Yet this attempt is now being made. The Government of our fathers
is to be overthrown and destroyed. The capital that bears the name
of the Father of his Country is to be bombarded and levelled with
the earth among the rubbish and the dust of things that are past.
The records of your Government are to be scattered to the four
winds of heaven. The constituted authorities, placed there by the
same high authority that placed Washington and Jefferson and Madison
and Jackson in the chair, are to be captured and carried off, to
become a byword and a scorn to the nations of the world.
"You may think that I am drawing a picture that is overwrought.
No man who has spent the last week in the city of Washington will
believe that I have done justice to it. You have all the elements
of the French Revolution surrounding the capital now, and threatening
it with its terrors. Not only is our constitutional Government to
be stricken down; not only is our flag to be blotted out; but the
very foundations of social order are to be undermined and destroyed;
the demon of destruction is to be let loose over the face of the
land, a reign of terror and mob law is to prevail in each section
of the Union, and the man who dares to plead for the cause of
justice and moderation in either section is to be marked down as
a traitor to his section. If this state of things is allowed to
go on, how long before you will have the guillotine in active
operation?
"I appeal to you, my countrymen--men of all parties--not to allow
your passions to get the better of your judgment. Do not allow
your vengeance upon the authors of this great iniquity to lead you
into rash, and cruel, and desperate acts upon loyal citizens who
may differ with you in opinion. Let the spirit of moderation and
of justice prevail. You cannot expect, within so few weeks after
an excited political canvass, that every man can rise to the high
and patriotic level of forgetting his partisan prejudices and
sacrifice everything upon the altar of his country; but allow me
to say to you, whom I have opposed and warred against with an energy
you will respect--allow me to say to you, you will not be true to
your country if you ever attempt to manufacture partisan capital
out of the misfortunes of your country. When calling upon Democrats
to rally to the tented field, leaving wife, child, father, and
mother behind them to rush to the rescue of the President that you
elected, do not make war upon them and try to manufacture partisan
capital at their expense out of a struggle in which they are engaged
from the holiest and purest of motives.
"Then I appeal to you, my own Democratic friends--those men that
have never failed to rally under the glorious banner of the country
whenever an enemy at home or abroad has dared to assail it--to you
with whom it has always been my pride to act--do not allow the
mortification, growing out of a defeat in a partisan struggle, and
the elevation of a party to power that we firmly believe to be
dangerous to the country--do not let that convert you from patriots
into traitors to your native land. Whenever our Government is
assailed, when hostile armies are marching under new and odious
banners against the Government of our country, the shortest way to
peace is the most stupendous and unanimous preparations for war.
The greater unanimity, the less blood will be shed. The more prompt
and energetic the movement, and the more imposing in numbers, the
shorter will be the struggle.
"Every friend of freedom--every champion and advocate of constitutional
liberty throughout the land--must feel that this cause is his own.
There is and should be nothing disagreeable or humiliating to men
who have differed in times of peace on every question that could
divide fellow men, to rally in concert in defence of the country
and against all assailants. While all the States of this Union,
and every citizen of every State has a priceless legacy dependent
upon the success of our efforts to maintain this Government, we in
the great valley of the Mississippi have peculiar interests and
inducements to the struggle. What is the attempt now being made?
Seven States of the Union chose to declare that they will no longer
obey the Constitution of the United States; that they will withdraw
from the Government established by our fathers; that they will
dissolve without our consent the bonds that have united us together.
But, not content with that, they proceed to invade and obstruct
our dearest and most inalienable rights, secured by the Constitution.
One of their first acts is to establish a battery of cannon upon
the banks of the Mississippi, on the dividing line between the
States of Mississippi and Tennessee, and require every steamer that
passes down the river to come to under their guns to receive a
custom-house officer on board, to prescribe where the boat may land
and upon what terms it may put out a barrel of flour or a cask of
bacon.
"We are called upon to sanction this policy. Before consenting to
their right to commit such acts, I implore you to consider that
the same principle which will allow the cotton States to exclude
us from the ports of the gulf, would authorize the New England
States and New York and Pennsylvania to exclude us from the Atlantic,
and the Pacific States to exclude us from the ports of that ocean.
Whenever you sanction this doctrine of secession, you authorize
the States bordering upon the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to withdraw
from us, form alliance among themselves, and exclude us from the
markets of the world and from communication with all the rest of
Christendom. Not only this, but there follows a tariff on imports,
levying taxes upon every pound of tea and coffee and sugar and
every yard of cloth that we may import for our consumption; the
levying too of an export duty upon every bushel of corn and every
pound of meat we may choose to send to the markets of the world to
pay for our imports.
"Bear in mind that these very cotton States, who in former times
have been so boisterous in their demands for free trade, have,
among their first acts, established an export duty on cotton for
the first time in American history.
"It is an historical fact, well known to every man who has read
the debates of the convention which framed the Constitution, that
the Southern States refused to become parties to the Constitution
unless there was an express provision in the Constitution prohibiting
Congress to levy an export duty on any product of the country. No
sooner have these cotton States seceded than an export duty is
levied, and if they will levy it on their own cotton do you not
think they will levy it on our pork and our beef and our corn and
our wheat and our manufactured articles, and all we have to sell?
Then what is the proposition? It is to enable the tier of States
bordering on the Atlantic and the Pacific and on the Gulf, surrounding
us on all sides, to withdraw from our Union, form alliances among
themselves, and then levy taxes on us without our consent, and
collect revenues without giving us any just proportion or any
portion of the amount collected. Can we submit to taxation without
representation? Can we permit nations foreign to us to collect
revenues off our products, the fruits of our industry? I ask the
citizens of Illinois--I ask every citizen in the great basin between
the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghenies, in the valley of the Ohio,
Mississippi, and Missouri to tell me whether he is willing to
sanction a line of policy that may isolate us from the markets of
the world and make us dependent provinces upon powers that thus
choose to surround and hem us in?
"I warn you, my countrymen, whenever you permit this to be done in
the Southern States, New York will very soon follow their example.
New York--that great port where two-thirds of all our revenue is
collected, and whence two-thirds of our products are exported, will
not long be able to resist the temptation of taxing fifteen millions
of people in the great West, when she can monopolize the resources
and release her own people thereby from any taxation whatsoever.
Hence I say to you, my countrymen, from the best consideration I
have been able to give to this subject, after the most mature
reflection and thorough investigation, I have arrived at the
conclusion that, come what may,--war if it must be, although I
deplore it as a great calamity,--yet, come what may, the people of
the Mississippi Valley can never consent to be excluded from free
access to the ports of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Gulf of
Mexico.
"Hence, I repeat, that while I am not prepared to take up arms or
to sanction war upon the rights of the Southern States, upon their
domestic institutions, upon their rights of person or property,
but, on the contrary, would rush to their defence and protect them
from assault, I will never cease to urge my countrymen to take up
arms and to fight to the death in defence of our indefeasible
rights.
"Hence, if a war does come, it will be a war of self-defence on
our part. It will be a war in defence of our own just rights; in
defence of the Government which we have inherited as a priceless
legacy from our patriotic fathers; in defence of those great rights
of the freedom of trade, commerce, transit, and intercourse from
the centre to the circumference of our great continent. These are
rights we can never surrender.
"I have struggled almost against hope to avert the calamities of
war and to effect a reunion and reconciliation with our brethren
of the South. I yet hope it may be done, but I am not able to
point out to you how it may be effected. Nothing short of Providence
can reveal to us the issue of this great struggle. Bloody--calamitous
--I fear it will be. May we so conduct it if a collision must
come, that we will stand justified in the eyes of Him who knows
our hearts and who will judge our every act. We must not yield to
resentments, nor to the spirit of vengeance, much less to the desire
for conquest or ambition.
"I see no path of ambition open in a bloody struggle for triumph
over my own countrymen. There is no path for ambition open for me
in a divided country, after having so long served a united and
glorious country. Hence, whatever we may do must be the result of
conviction, of patriotic duty--the duty that we owe to ourselves,
to our posterity, and to the friends of constitutional liberty and
self-government throughout the world.
"My friends, I can say no more. To discuss these topics is the
most painful duty of my life. It is with a sad heart--with a grief
that I have never before experienced, that I have to contemplate
this fearful struggle; but I believe in my conscience that it is
a duty we owe ourselves and our children and our God, to protect
this Government and that flag from every assailant, be he who he
may."
Of all the members of that joint assembly who listened to the
eloquence of Senator Douglas that evening, forty-nine years ago,
aside from Dr. William Jayne of Springfield, and myself, I do not
know of a single one now living.
After he concluded his address, the joint session of the Legislature
dissolved. He and I remained together in conversation, and I
accompanied him to his hotel. During that talk he expressed to me
the great anxiety which he felt for the safety of the country and
the preservation of the Union. I am satisfied that it was his
ambition to enter the army and possibly lead it in suppressing the
Rebellion. What would have been the result in that case, no one
can tell; but I am inclined to think that he would have made a very
great general.
Senator Douglas's Springfield speech had a tremendous effect on
public opinion. It brought his followers, and they were legion in
all parts of the country, to the support of the Government and the
North.
Senator Douglas went from Springfield to Chicago, where he delivered
another eloquent address, along the same lines as the one delivered
at Springfield, to tens of thousands of people. Very soon thereafter
he was taken ill with pneumonia and passed away.
He was a man of extraordinary intellect. He did his full part, at
one of the most critical periods of our history, in saving the
Nation. His speeches in and out of Congress are among the most
able and eloquent delivered by any American statesman.