IN 1860 the Republic reached a crisis. The conflict between liberty and
slavery could no longer be delayed. For three-quarters of a century the
forces had been gathering for the battle.
After the Revolution, principle was sacrificed for the sake of gain. The
Constitution contradicted the Declaration. Liberty as a principle was
held in contempt. Slavery took possession of the Government. Slavery
made the laws, corrupted courts, dominated Presidents and demoralized
the people.
I do not hold the South responsible for slavery any more than I do the
North. The fact is, that individuals and nations act as they must. There
is no chance. Back of every event--of every hope, prejudice, fancy and
dream--of every opinion and belief--of every vice and virtue--of every
smile and curse, is the efficient cause. The present moment is the
child, and the necessary child, of all the past.
Northern politicians wanted office, and so they defended slavery;
Northern merchants wanted to sell their goods to the South, and so they
were the enemies of freedom. The preacher wished to please the people
who paid his salary, and so he denounced the slave for not being
satisfied with the position in which the good God had placed him.
The respectable, the rich, the prosperous, the holders of and the
seekers for office, held liberty in contempt. They regarded the
Constitution as far more sacred than the rights of men. Candidates
for the presidency were applauded because they had tried to make slave
States of free territory, and the highest court solemnly and ignorantly
decided that colored men and women had no rights. Men who insisted
that freedom was better than slavery, and that mothers should not be
robbed of their babes, were hated, despised and mobbed. Mr. Douglas
voiced the feelings of millions when he declared that he did not care
whether slavery was voted up or down. Upon this question the people,
a majority of them, were almost savages. Honor, manhood, conscience,
principle--all sacrificed for the sake of gain or office.
From the heights of philosophy--standing above the contending hosts,
above the prejudices, the sentimentalities of the day--Lincoln was great
enough and brave enough and wise enough to utter these prophetic words:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government
cannot permanently endure half slave and half free. I do not expect
the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all the one thing
or the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further
spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the
belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates
will push it further until it becomes alike lawful in all the States,
old as well as new, North as well as South."
This declaration was the standard around which gathered the grandest
political party the world has ever seen, and this declaration made
Lincoln the leader of that vast host.
In this, the first great crisis, Lincoln uttered the victorious truth
that made him the foremost man in the Republic.
The Republican party nominated him for the presidency and the people
decided at the polls that a house divided against itself could not
stand, and that slavery had cursed soul and soil enough.
It is not a common thing to elect a really great man to fill the highest
official position. I do not say that the great Presidents have been
chosen by accident. Probably it would be better to say that they were
the favorites of a happy chance.
The average man is afraid of genius. He feels as an awkward man feels
in the presence of a sleight-of-hand performer. He admires and suspects.
Genius appears to carry too much sail--to lack prudence, has too much
courage. The ballast of dullness inspires confidence.
By a happy chance Lincoln was nominated and elected in spite of his
fitness--and the patient, gentle, just and loving man was called upon to
bear as great a burden as man has ever borne.